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Trump Holds Meetings in Transition Headquarters; Anti-Trump Union Boss Holds News Conference; Trump Continues "Thank You" Tour. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired December 09, 2016 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00] ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Of course not.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Even if Chris said something completely out --

COOPER: If I knew the names of my colleagues, perhaps.

CAMEROTA: Then -- got it. Got it. Well, here's one, Carol Costello. Does that ring a bell?

COOPER: Of course, Carol.

CAMEROTA: Everyone knows her.

COOPER: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Time for NEWSROOM with Carol Costello.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Who'll never be on "THE RIDICULIST."

COOPER: No.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, I know. Thanks, Stan, Alisyn, and Anderson. I appreciate it. Have a great weekend.

CUOMO: What'd she call me?

CAMEROTA: Stan!

COSTELLO: NEWSROOM starts now.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. Another busy day taking shape for President-elect Donald Trump. He is in meetings and under fire.

On the left side of your screen, Trump Tower's famed gold elevators whisking advisers and potential candidates up to the transition headquarters. On this morning's schedule, House Speaker Paul Ryan.

On the right hand side of your screen, we're awaiting the next shot fired in Trump's battle with a union boss. Chuck Jones is holding a news conference over the Carrier deal and the fallout after calling the President-elect a liar.

And this could be a decisive weekend for the Secretary of State pick. Aides to the President-elect say former critic Mitt Romney is still in the running, despite some of Trump's most trusted advisers publicly gunning him down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, SENIOR ADVISER TO PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: I just was reflecting what I saw on the grassroots. I had not seen blowback like that in quite a while about anything.

CAMEROTA: And I do want to ask you about that blowback.

CONWAY: I think that Governor Romney --

CAMEROTA: Just hold on one second, Kellyanne.

CONWAY: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Tell me about that. Are you still seeing blowback to the possibility of Mitt Romney being chosen?

CONWAY: Yes. And the reason is it has a lot to do with the disloyalty and what he said in those remarks. Obviously, Donald Trump has extended an olive branch, because that's how he is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: CNN's Sunlen Serfaty following all the developments from Washington. Good morning.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Carol. Even though his search for the Secretary of State has widened over the past week, it certainly does seem that the President-elect is inching towards making a decision sometime soon, Trump advisers saying that it's possible there could potentially be an announcement next week. But in the meantime, Donald Trump is hitting the road in full force, defending the people he's already chosen for his Cabinet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY (voice-over): Reveling in a crowd of thousands in Iowa --

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: You like it so far, everybody?

SERFATY (voice-over): -- President-elect Donald Trump defending his cabinet appointments.

TRUMP: I want people that made a fortune because now their negotiating with you.

SERFATY (voice-over): Touting the success of some of his wealthy picks.

TRUMP: It's no different than a great baseball player or a great golfer.

SERFATY (voice-over): Including Carl's Jr. and Hardee's executive Andy Puzder to head the Labor Department. Puzder is a staunch critic of paid mandatory sick leave, is against expanding overtime pay and increasing the minimum wage.

ANDY PUZDER, CEO, CKE RESTAURANTS: States have every right to decide what the minimum wage should be. I've been opposed to minimum wage increases that kill jobs.

SERFATY (voice-over): Trump saying in a statement that Puzder, quote, "Will save small businesses from the crushing burdens of unnecessary regulations." Meantime, scrutiny is growing over Trump's pick to head the EPA, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt.

SEN. TIM KAINE (D), FORMER VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's a climate science denier.

SERFATY (voice-over): At his third victory rally in Des Moines, Trump echoing Pruitt's call to roll back environmental regulations.

TRUMP: And we are going to end the EPA intrusion into your lives.

SERFATY (voice-over): And doubling down on campaign promises, including immigration.

TRUMP: I've used the expression "extreme vetting." Extreme. Oh, it's going to be extreme. But there's going to be doors on the wall, big, beautiful doors.

SERFATY (voice-over): Trump also calling for improving U.S. relations with China.

TRUMP: They haven't played by the rules, and I know it's time that they're going to start.

SERFATY (voice-over): As he formally rolled out his pick to be U.S. Ambassador to China, Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, a long-time friend of the Chinese president.

TRUMP: He's a man who knows China and likes China. Better to like China if you're going to be over there, do we agree?

SERFATY (voice-over): All of this as all eyes are on two big announcements coming next week, potentially the President-elect's choice for Secretary of State and a news conference on Thursday to address potentially backing away from his family business.

But the incoming President is keeping his ties to "Celebrity Apprentice," the NBC reality show he launched nearly 15 years ago. Sources tell CNN Trump will stay on as executive producer of the show and continue being paid as he is in the Oval Office, raising even more questions about the growing list of conflicts between his business dealings and the presidency.

(END VIDEOTAPE) COSTELLO: All right, Sunlen Serfaty reporting. I want to take you now live to Indianapolis. This is Chuck Jones, the president of the United Steelworkers Local 1999. Let's listen to what he has to say.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHUCK JONES, PRESIDENT, UNITED STEELWORKERS LOCAL 1999: Thank you very much. The press that you gave us has been very positive, and it's helped out immensely getting the word out to what's happening to working people here in this state and through all the country. But that's not what I got you here today.

I wanted to tell you that I was not offered a job as Secretary of Labor.

(LAUGHTER)

[09:05:17] JONES: So that's off the table. I had a few key people trying to get it for me but they weren't successful, so I'm still going to be here for some four or five more months.

Today, I want to talk about various things, but I think this needs to be mentioned. The Rexnord facility on 7601 Rockville Road, that plant has been here in Indianapolis since the late 1950s. It was located in the 1920s over off West Mission Street, formerly known as Link Belt. Longtime employer here. We had Link Belt chain, and we had Link Belt bearing. 1976, 3,600 members between those two facilities.

Well, because of corporate greed and unfair trade, Rexnord has decided to move to Monterrey, Mexico. And we're still in bargaining to try to do everything we possibly can to save those 300 jobs of our members that work at that facility.

Is it going to be tough? Yes. But we're not giving up the fight at Rexnord for 300 of our members, and we're not giving up the fight for 550 of our members at Carrier here in Indianapolis. And we're still in the fight to work and see if anything can be done for our IBEW brothers and sisters that work at UTC in Huntington, Indiana. That's 700 people. They're losing their job, too.

And the whole thing revolves around the same thing I've been preaching all along, corporate greed and unfair trade. Now, I'm probably wearing this out, but we've lost quite a few plants over the years. If you lose them because you can't get something worked out on a quality product they manufacture or you can't get something worked out because they're not profitable, you don't like it but you can kind of sort of understand.

All the plants that I just listed, these have nothing to do with profitability or quality. What it is, is because they want to enhance their shareholders' profits. So what do they do? They take good people's jobs away and move them to Monterrey, Mexico, to exploit the Mexican workers paying them $3 an hour. The average wage in Huntington is $17 to $18. The average wage at Carrier is about $23. The average wage at Rexnord is about $25. That's a living wage. And all these facilities have benefits. Well, these companies come in and they strip the jobs away. They

don't give a rat's ass about what they're doing to the people or the community. Kelly's chuckling on that. But it's all about how much money they can make.

Let me introduce some folks. This is Kelly ray Hugunin. He's our business representative from Local 1999. Along with Jim Adcock, our staff rep, he does our bargaining and our negotiations.

This is Wayne Dale. Wayne is known as "Crash." That's what most people know him as. He is the sub-district director for the international union here in Indianapolis and the surrounding areas.

Everybody knows AFL-CIO President Brett Voorhies, my friend. I go back many years with Brett.

And Sean Chris. Sean's IBEW. Sean wears many hats. He is secretary treasurer for the AFL. He heads up the CLC. He's been very involved in a lot of different facets --

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: All right. We're going to jump out of this, but that was Chuck Jones, the president of United Steelworkers Local 1999. And as you heard, he was talking about another company located in Indianapolis that planned to move 300 jobs to Mexico. He says it's because of corporate greed.

So I'd like to introduce my next guest now. His name is Drew Greenblatt. He owns Marlin Steel in Baltimore, Maryland. He met with the Vice President-elect Mike Pence to talk about goods made in America. His company in Baltimore employs skilled workers who make, as you like to tell me, Drew, the best damned wire baskets in the world.

So good morning and thank you for being with me this morning.

[09:09:54] DREW GREENBLATT, PRESIDENT, MARLIN STEEL WIRE PRODUCTS: Thank you very much, Carol. As you know, you've toured our factory and we make everything 100 percent in the USA and we export to 39 countries.

And yesterday, I had the privilege of meeting Vice President-elect Pence, and he talked about the explosion of great jobs that are going to be occurring soon in America, manufacturing jobs, and it was really exciting to listen to him. He described a manufacturing renaissance that's about to hit our country. It was really inspiring to listen to him.

He talked about strong job growth, big wage increases, and it's going to be really exciting. We've actually already seen a nice little Trump bump since the election. We've hired four people --

COSTELLO: Drew, I'm going to interrupt you for just a second because I want to take our viewers back to Indianapolis because Chuck Jones is now talking about President-elect Trump. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONES: -- hard but we got a little bit of thick skin, so I can take things with a grain of salt. And what he said, you know, I thought it was funny, to be quite honest. But what we'll do is, with the Steelworkers International and the help of the sub-district office, we are not giving up the fight. We've still got to fight to move on. We intend on doing it for our members at Carrier, Rexnord, and the UTC members in Huntington.

You know, what we're looking at, folks, and a lot of people for whatever reason and I won't get into a debate about that today, they might not like labor unions, OK. You know, if they don't, that's in a discussion for another time. But what people lose sight of a lot of times is the fact that the people losing their livelihood are people in the community that all they want was opportunity to work, provide for their families, and now because of what I said earlier, corporate greed and unfair trade, these are being stripped away.

Now, people in Indianapolis, you know, I don't want to be negative, but is there a lot of $23 to $25-an-hour jobs that these folks are going to be able to go to? Most certainly not. So their lives for the most part, and I don't want to use the word "ruined," but they're going to be drastically changed because they're used to a certain lifestyle. And now, due to no fault of their own, that's being ripped away from them.

Now, some of them, you know, with the TAA money and education, they'll be able to take advantage of that. Some of them will be able to retire. Some of them will be able to receive some training in order to get their skill sets up. Some of them very well, which should be very few, might end up in some manufacturing, but the manufacturing jobs that pay anything are far and few between.

So what's happened here is we believe that these jobs need to remain in this country. The only thing we're asking for is give us an opportunity to work. We're not asking for a handout or give back, any of that. But when you rip a person's livelihood away from them, there's not a whole lot more important things than people's lives, and quite naturally their health and their family and maybe their religion. But you take their jobs away, you'd see a big lifestyle change.

I've been through probably eight plant closures and they're horrible. I've seen what it's done to people over the years. People end up running out of unemployment. They can't pay their car payment. Pretty soon, their car payments get behind, they're repoed. Pretty soon, they can't make their house payments. Their house gets foreclosed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: All right. We're going to jump back out and I'm going to take you back to Baltimore and to Drew Greenblatt who owns a small business there, a manufacturing company. And you were extolling your conversation with Vice President-elect

Mike Pence, saying that, you know, there's going to be a huge creation of jobs. But it's just such a contrast to what Chuck Jones is saying.

GREENBLATT: Listen --

COSTELLO: He doesn't believe that, obviously.

GREENBLATT: Well, what we need to happen is for a whole new paradigm to occur, so we make it a no-brainer for companies to say, obviously, I'm going to build in America. Because the ecosystem is so great, we have to build here. It makes all the financial sense in the world. So that has to change so that guys like Chuck and his workers and my employees can thrive and prosper.

How's that going to happen? Well, that's what Governor Pence lined up. He described several plans that he's going to institute with President-elect Trump, which will make it so easy for factories to grow and thrive and prosper in America.

COSTELLO: Well, what --

GREENBLATT: Things like repealing --

COSTELLO: Uh-huh, go ahead.

[09:14:48] GREENBLATT: So for example, he mentioned three things. Repeal Obamacare. Number two, roll back regulations that add no value, that don't clean the environment, that don't improve the livelihoods of employees. And lastly, tax reform. Because if we have a new tax reform system, all of a sudden we'll be competitive. It makes no sense to move to Mexico. We've got to change it so that everybody says, of course, I'm going to make it in America, because if I make it in America, I'll save money.

We have the best workforce in the world. We have the smartest, most talented, dedicated employees. It's a no-brainer to build in America. That's -- we have to change it so that --

COSTELLO: Can I ask you this question? I would like to ask you this question. You had such a positive conversation with Mike Pence.

Donald Trump is fighting, you know, on Twitter, with Chuck Jones, and it seems like they both want the same thing, so, why do you think -- why don't you think Mr. Trump didn't have that positive conversation with Chuck Jones?

GREENBLATT: I think we need a wonderful system so that factories in America say, of course, I'm going to build in America. And that's going to happen because of the tax reform in the first hundred days. That's going to happen because of the rollback in regulations in the first hundred days.

And what's going to happen is companies will, all of a sudden say, wait a second, we have a different environment, it makes sense to build here. COSTELLO: But, Drew --

GREENBLATT: I think what's going to happen is guys like Chuck are going to have a lot more union workers have opportunities. And also, a lot more American factories are going to grow and they're not going to build overseas.

We want companies not to grow and build in Ireland or Europe or Mexico. We want them to always build in America. And I think that's what Governor Pence was talking with me about yesterday, face-to-face. He was describing his plan, so that we only build in the USA from now on.

COSTELLO: No, no, I gotcha. And that sounds great. It sounds great to many, many Americans.

I'm just saying that, for some, it's hard to believe, because, you know, you can build a factory in Mexico and you can pay your workers three bucks an hour and make a lot more money maybe with all of the -- even with all the reforms you're talking about, American workers are not going to work for three bucks an hour at a factory doing skilled labor.

GREENBLATT: You're absolutely right. In America, the average American manufacturing employee makes $77,000 a year. And if the company's exporting, they make $95,000 a year. That's on average. Some more, some less.

So, these are extraordinary jobs with great benefits, over 95 percent pay health insurance. So, these are jobs we've got to coddle and save. And that's why the commitment by Governor Pence and President- elect Trump is so exciting. The enthusiasm they have about growing manufacturing jobs in our country is wonderful.

I think unions --

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: But here's the other thing. Here's the other thing. Critics would say that the tax incentives that were offered to the carrier company, for example, didn't justify those 775 jobs that were saved. It gave the company too much.

So, is that part of the Trump/Pence plan? To provide all of these tax breaks and tax incentives for companies to stay?

GREENBLATT: So, Governor Pence actually talked with us about what happened with carrier. And he said, when he met them in the statehouse in Indianapolis, he described -- in Indiana, he described that the reason why Carrier decided to leave was because in the prior 24 months, they had 50 new regulations imposed upon them. And that's what broke the camel's back.

All of their competitors said, "To heck with America. I'm moving to Mexico." Carrier was the last company making these products in America. And we broke the camel's back with those 50 regulations. And that's why they threw in the towel.

And Governor Pence couldn't turn it around, because those 50 regulations were imposed on him.

What happened was, President Trump -- President-elect Trump picked up the phone and said, you know, I'm going to get rid of all of those regulations. I'm going to get rid of them on the first day. Oh, by the way, and I'm going to have the tax policy so different, it's a no- brainer for you to stay in America.

So, all of a sudden, everything changed. You know, this is what we're seeing. There's unbelievable enthusiasm and excitement in the manufacturing community and the owners of the manufacturing community, what's going to happen is they're going to have to hire people to handle all the new job growth and all the new opportunities that are going to be coming our way.

As a matter of fact, our companies have been surged with new orders. We've hired four new people and will be hiring three more next week to keep up with the demand. The stock market's going ballistic. People are thrilled about what's happening at the manufacturing community.

COSTELLO: OK, well, a lot of people are hoping you are absolutely right.

Drew Greenblatt, always a pleasure to have you on.

GREENBLATT: Thank you so much!

COSTELLO: You're welcome.

GREENBLATT: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, anticipation building over who Donald Trump picks for secretary of state and the number of candidates, and add yet another one to the list.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:24:06] COSTELLO: All right, then. In the last block, I talked to Drew Greenblatt. He owns a small business, a small manufacturing plant in the city of Baltimore. He met with the Vice President-elect Mike Pence and says he is excited about job creation because the Trump administration, the coming Trump administration is going to like can those regulations that are preventing companies from building plants in the United States.

You also heard from that union worker Chuck Jones saying, you know what, it's great, Mr. Trump, that you saved is 800 jobs at Carrier. Now it's time to sit down with union leaders, too so we can work together.

So, let's discuss all of this. With me now is Larry Sabato, director for the Center of Politics at the University of Virginia, and Heidi Przybyla, a senior politics reporter for "USA Today."

Welcome to both of you. So, Larry, so Drew Greenblatt, he met with the Vice President-elect

Mike Pence. He said what made Carrier decide to keep those jobs in the United States was that Mr. Trump got on the phone and said all of those regulations that have been nagging you will soon go away.

[09:25:08] Do you think that they will?

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR OF CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Well, you know, it's the interregnum, Carol, and during the transition, it's basically a field of dreams. And the incoming party, in this case, the Republicans and all of their supporters are portraying a world that may or may not come to be after January 20th.

There was a wonderful sentence uttered by Attorney General John Mitchell, who was an intimate of President Richard Nixon, shortly after Nixon took the presidency in 1969. And he said, watch what we do, not what we say.

And this is, I think, words of wisdom for the Trump administration. Watch what they do, not what Donald Trump or Mike Pence say in tweets or speeches or, you know, talking to a local businessman. Let's see what they can actually accomplish.

COSTELLO: Yes, and it's interesting that you cite that example because of Mr. Trump's pick for labor secretary, which could be Mr. Puzder. He owns a lot of fast food restaurants. He's a big-time CEO. This is what he told me about Mr. Trump back in July.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW PUZDER, CEO, CKE RESTAURANTS: Donald Trump comes in, he's very authentic. This is who I am. This is what I am. I'm a rich guy, but I understand what you want. I know what you're feeling. I know blue collar people, I know working class people. And you -- with Donald Trump, you never doubt that you're getting exactly what you see.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. So Mr. Trump says he feels the same way about Mr. Puzder, but Mr. Puzder is a billionaire. He's the CEO of Hardee's and Carl's Jr. He opposes the $15 minimum wage, he opposes overtime for full-time workers. And he has criticized paid sick leave.

So, Heidi, how -- I mean, all of all kinds of workers. So how does that mesh with being for the little guy and creating the kinds of jobs that provide for a nice middle class life?

HEIDI PRZYBYLA, SENIOR POLITICS REPORTER, USA TODAY: This is where Larry's advice about watching what they do is so important, Carol, because on the one hand, the Republicans on the Hill are being told, you now represent this new brand workers party. On the other hand, you have Donald Trump assembling what essentially looks like a corporate board room to oversee this new workers' party.

And a lot of that history, like with Mr. Puzder, you outlined it all. And that is up for the American people to decide whether these gentleman and women whose main mission in business has been to maximize profit are now going to take that expertise to translate into not just profit for corporations, but profit for workers.

And the premise seems to be that there should not be any of these traditional protections that we've seen build up over the past 30 years, which frankly, have been a response to deregulation, because we've had this deregulation push since the 1980s. And what we've seen is that even despite some of these protections that have been fought for, you've also seen a commensurate increase in income inequality.

So, this is going to be a grand test, assuming like Larry says, that they can even get a lot of their agenda accomplished, it will test whether that theory of pure deregulation and privatization really does also maximize profit for workers and not just companies.

COSTELLO: Larry, I think some people might think that as long as jobs are provided, it's okay and it doesn't matter how much the jobs necessarily pay or what the benefits are or whether the employer provides health insurance, for example, since Obamacare is going to be repealed and replaced with something down the line.

SABATO: Well, that may be true, except, I think Americans have high expectations. And one reason why Trump was able to win is because Americans, this new generation of Americans, for the first time, sees their life as being less prosperous than that of their parents and grandparents.

So, it's certainly a great goal for the Trump administration to create an American where prosperity are restored to younger generations. But you know, it's easy to say, it's tough to do. And abolishing all of the rules and regulations that Heidi was just talking about will generate an explosion, and not just among labor union members, but I think more broadly in the society.

COSTELLO: I have to leave it there. Heidi Przybyla, Larry Sabato, thanks to both of you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, extreme vetting. That's how Donald Trump says he'll fight terror, but what exit poll does "extreme vetting" mean?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)