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Trump Stumps in Louisiana; President Obama Orders Full Review of Election Hacking. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired December 09, 2016 - 3:00   ET

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

[15:00:02]

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, guys, thank you so much.

All right, we continue on, hour two. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you so much for being with me.

Let's get straight to the breaking news in what may be the hottest competition since Donald Trump actually won the election, who will become his secretary of state, a source tells CNN it will now not be former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and that it could be the CEO of ExxonMobil.

The source says Rex Tillerson is now getting a closer look for this post at State. Tillerson has ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who once awarded him the nation's order of friendship.

It is an interesting note, as CNN also learns today that the Obama administration has decided to order an entire review of looking into potential hacking from the 2016 presidential election.

Lots to discuss. We begin in Louisiana.

That's where president-elect Trump is about to make his return to the campaign trail stumping not for himself, but for the Republican in the last Senate race here in the nation. Tomorrow is the runoff election between John Kennedy, the Republican, and Democrat Foster Campbell.

So, Ryan Nobles is there in Baton Rouge, where we're waiting to hear from the next president of the United States.

But, before we do, let's roll back the layers of the State Department news and the fact that, do we know why Rudy Giuliani is now off the list?

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brooke, we really don't know the specifics behind that decision by president-elect Trump.

And, of course, we know that there were some concerns by members of Congress about Rudy Giuliani's potential business ties around the world and if perhaps that could be a conflict of interest. We also know that Rudy Giuliani was also being considered for attorney general and for the secretary of homeland security. Obviously, those two jobs have already been picked and been given to other potential candidates. It may, though, Brooke, come down to the fact that there's just a

plethora of candidates that Donald Trump seems to be very interested in. And you mentioned Rex Tillerson, who is the current CEO of ExxonMobil. He's going to be put into a forced retirement situation with that company in the coming years, so he's looking for a job.

This is a man that made more than $240 million last year, so he would add to that Cabinet of millionaires and billionaires that Donald Trump has already started to assemble. And you mentioned his connections to Russia. ExxonMobil just cut a deal with a major Russian oil company of which the Russian government is its number one investor.

So that also is going to raise questions about Trump's potential relationship with Russia. Obviously, he's been very kind to Russia in his public statements and its president, Vladimir Putin. So a lot of questions still to be asked about this secretary of state situation.

And it's also important to point out, Brooke, that we don't know definitively when this decision will be made, and it's also important to point out that the Trump team says the president-elect is still very much deliberating over this choice and that someone like Mitt Romney is still in the running.

Now, today, Trump just landed about 20 minutes ago, ready to speak to this very eager crowd, and as you mentioned stumping in this Louisiana Senate race which is going to take place tomorrow. This is a runoff race in Louisiana. The Election Day is an open primary and if you don't get over 50 percent, the top two candidates run in a runoff.

And this is about the balance of power in the Senate. Republicans will have the majority no matter what, but the winner will determine the difference between a four-seat majority and a three-seat majority. By coming here today, Brooke, it's clear that the president-elect wants as big a majority as possible -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: To pad the majority.

Ryan Nobles, thank you so much. Good to know he's landed. We will take him live as soon as we see him standing behind that podium.

Meantime, the other big headline, President Obama stepping in today on allegations that Moscow tried to sway the 2016 election. As I mentioned a moment ago, he's now calling for this full review into a series of cyber-attacks on Democrats, even as Trump says he's skeptical about the reports.

For that, we go to Michelle Kosinski, our CNN White House correspondent.

Tell me more about that review, Michelle.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Brooke.

Yes. So we know this is going to be different and separate than what the FBI already did before the election, when they announced they believed the Russian government was hacking into different entities, including the DNC and the Clinton campaign, with a view of influencing the election. That's kind of where that ended.

And that's all that was released publicly. Well, this new review that the White House has just ordered, the White House says is going to be a deep dive. It's going to be a much broader look. It's going to look at patterns of hacking, again focusing on elections. It's going to look at the state of defenses and what lessons have been learned, as well as what lessons need to be learned.

I think the most interesting thing too that we just found out from the White House is that this is going to go all the way back to the 2008 presidential election. It emerged years later from that that U.S. officials suspected China back in 2008 of hacking into both the Obama and McCain campaigns.

[15:05:10]

Now, that information wasn't released publicly. China denied it. But this investigation now is going to go where it leads. It could include other governments, other entities that are suspected of trying to do the same.

What this is not, the White House says, is an attempt to challenge the results of the election. It's not a direct response to all of those calls we have heard from members of Congress asking the White House for more information that they have regarding the Russian hacking. And it's not going to be necessarily a look at specific motivations.

Whatever we see from this, it's likely to be more detailed. Again, we don't know how much of this will be released publicly. There's likely to be some, so we're likely to see more detail. And, remember, this is going to serve as a kind of warning to the next administration on how it handles these relationships and these issues, because this administration has big concerns about that, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Curious to see if Donald Trump address this is at all when he's there in Louisiana. We will listen in on that, Michelle. Thank you at the White House.

Let's talk about all these political threads today.

With me, CNN political commentator Ryan Lizza, Washington correspondent for "The New Yorker," CNN political analyst Kirsten Powers, who's also a "USA Today" columnist, and CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger.

Great to see all of you.

And, Gloria, let me just pick your brain off the top here. Let's go back to what Ryan Nobles was reporting about the State Department post. I feel like in one sense the list gets longer, but to me the headline is that Rudy Giuliani is out. What do you make of that?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I think, in a way, Brooke, given the fact that this has played out for so long, that if Rudy Giuliani were going to get it -- and he made no secret of the fact that he wanted the job, he campaigned publicly for it, he told people in the transition he wanted it. I'm presuming he told the president-elect he wanted it.

And the fact that he doesn't have it is -- because it's played out so long -- really makes an awful lot of sense that they finally told him no. I was told from a source close to the transition that Rudy Giuliani could have had a lot of other jobs, most notably the Department of Homeland Security, but he wasn't interested in it.

And I think he made it very year it's either this job or no job. And I think that the president-elect probably felt for some of the reasons that Ryan mentioned perhaps on the conflict of interest question that perhaps Rudy Giuliani was not the best choice.

All of this stirs the pot a little bit internally within the transition about whether Donald Trump is rewarding the people enough who were with him from day one.

BALDWIN: The loyalists.

BORGER: Already, you can see those tensions developing, Brooke.

BALDWIN: So, within the pot stirring, Kirsten, is this new name, Rex Tillerson. He's a CEO of Exxon. Tell me more about him and why might Trump be interested in him?

KIRSTEN POWERS, CNN COMMENTATOR: Well, I think Trump probably likes him because he's a very successful businessman.

And it's been very clear that that is something that he prizes almost above anything other than maybe being a general. So these are the two type of people that he seems to like. You know, I just don't know that we can read too much into the fact that he's talking to him, because we have seen him talk to so many different people, that it's hard to know whether it's just information gathering or he just feels like he has such a wide field of people to meet with that he just will continue to meet with as many people as possible.

He has said he still is considering Mitt Romney, who he hasn't met with in a while. But I think the Rudy Giuliani news is really fascinating, because it does suggest that he is not just going to reward people who were loyal to him, because Rudy Giuliani probably was one of the most loyal people. He's somebody who came out after the infamous tape came out of...

BALDWIN: He was really the only one that weekend.

(CROSSTALK)

POWERS: Right.

(CROSSTALK)

POWERS: Yes, and really, really went to bat for him.

And so I actually think it speaks well of Trump that he would consider more the qualifications of the person than loyalty. But other people might feel differently. Other people feel like it's more important to be loyal to the people who helped you get to where you are.

BALDWIN: And to your point about another billionaires and multimillionaires in the Cabinet, in one sense, one could say that would be so out of touch with these middle-class Americans who voted for Mr. Trump.

And at the same time, to his credit, last night -- I want to play this for everyone -- he said, hey, these affluent men and women who I'm choosing, they will make $1 a year. Here he was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT: One newspaper criticized me. Why can't they have people of modest means?

[15:10:01]

Because I want people that made a fortune, because now they're negotiating with you. OK? It's no different than a great baseball player or a great golfer.

We want the people that are going to bring -- and they're so proud to do it. These people have given up fortunes of income in order to make a dollar a year, and they're so proud to do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Ryan Lizza, what about the notion of corporate sensibility and successful business men and women? Couldn't that be a good thing?

RYAN LIZZA, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: It could.

Look, I don't think there's much of a correlation between how much money you have made in the private sector and whether you succeed running one of these agencies in Washington. We have seen both over the years, right?

It's often very common for CEOs who have almost absolute control over a private company come to Washington, run in against the bureaucracy of their own agency, of OMB, which controls their funding, of Congress, which also controls the purse strings, and trying to figure out the complicated diplomacy with the White House and how you actually get the president's ear.

So, a lot of cautionary tales out there of very wealthy individuals who came and were very happy and excited to run the Commerce Department or another agency, and realized that Washington was not the same as being a CEO of a company.

But that's the -- there's no doubt that Trump values two types of talent so far. It's people who rose through the ranks of the military and rose through corporate America. So, this is going to be a great test of those whether those kind of people can really shake up this government.

BALDWIN: What may actually be really more important than even all these Cabinet picks that we're chewing on each and everyday is policy, right, is policy. We know that Speaker of the House Paul Ryan actually met with Trump on policy today and of course those cameras were there and they caught Ryan on the way out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Very exciting meeting. I really enjoyed coming up here, meeting with the president-elect. We had a great meeting to talk about our transition. We're very excited about getting to work and hitting the ground running in 2017 to put this country back on track. Thanks, guys.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: And I'm done, and walk away.

Like, could he have said anything more?

Gloria, I was joking it's almost like he's like nothing to see here, move along, move along. But am I right that it is the policies that could prove to be much more important?

BORGER: I actually think that Ryan looked so excited and so happy. And he is, because the reason he's so excited and so happy is that he happens to have an agenda, a domestic agenda that has been sitting and waiting to go for years.

And now he has a Republican House, a Republican Senate and a Republican president. And Paul Ryan's really important, because he's going to be the one to say to Donald Trump, OK, we can repeal Obamacare, this is what we can do quickly, but here's what we have to do to replace it. Here's what we can do on corporate tax reform quickly.

I was told by somebody close to the transition that what this new president wants is a lot of wins up front. And I think that's what Paul Ryan is going to try and do for him at the beginning and then say to him, wait a minute, we can perhaps get something done on immigration, but not all of it. Here's what you can do with executive orders, here's what you can't do.

So in a lot of ways, I think Paul Ryan can hardly contain himself because he's going to be in the driver's seat.

BALDWIN: I wish I had more time, guys, 42 days until Election Day.

BORGER: We have plenty of time.

BALDWIN: We have plenty of time.

Ryan and Kirsten and Gloria, thank you so much, as always.

LIZZA: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Coming up next here, let's go down the road from the White House to Capitol Hill. A showdown is brewing over health insurance coverage for coal miners, and so some Democrats are threatening to shut down the government if it's not included in a critical spending bill. We will take you to the Hill for that.

Also, do you remember this moment from the campaign trail?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to get paid the same as a man and I think you understand that. So, if you become president, will a woman make the same as a man, and do I get to choose what I do with my body?

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: You know what? We will talk to that young woman live and we will have her explain what happened to her after she challenged then- candidate Trump and he fired back on Twitter. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:18:45]

BALDWIN: All right, let's go, Donald Trump speaking at Baton Rouge.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

TRUMP: And I said, I think I'm going to win this state. And I won this state easily, right?

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And then I checked on the delegates, and the delegates were -- I didn't have as many as people that I beat. And I said, this system is crooked.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: I come down, I do all that work. I came down. I use one of the biggest hangars, bigger -- I don't know, maybe this one. Was it this one? But it was a big hangar. Yes, bigger.

And we have a hell of a crowd today, but I will tell you, we had something. So, what happened, I win. And then a week later, I'm going over the count and it said Louisiana and it had names ahead of me for delegates. I said, wait a minute, so I won the state, I got more votes than anybody by far, it wasn't even close, and the system is rigged.

I said the system -- so you taught me. And after that, we started doing very well. We didn't let that happen anymore. We didn't let that happen. We cut it off. We cut it off at the pass.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: But I want to thank you. This is an amazing, an amazing state. And tomorrow we need you to go to the polls and send John Kennedy to the United States Senate. And that's why I'm down here.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

[15:20:01]

TRUMP: That's why I'm here. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a good guy, number one. He's a good person and somebody that I have known over the years. And he's somebody that's worked hard for you over the years.

And now the big thing, we have to get the people to go to the polls. And if you go to the polls, he's going to win. If you don't go to the polls, he's not going to win.

And if he doesn't win, I have got myself a problem in Washington, because you know we have -- it's pretty close. It's pretty close. We need John in Washington, not only for the vote. We need for leadership and everything else. But if you go there, we're going to win.

Kennedy is a proven leader who's balanced, which is amazing, 16 budgets, returned millions of dollars to taxpayers. He's a tax- cutter, and he will be a true fighter for Louisiana in Washington. He will be a fighter for you. So important.

We need John Kennedy in the Senate to help enact our agenda. And we have to do it, our agenda on behalf of the people of this state and for this country. That includes protecting the Second Amendment.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Repealing and replacing Obamacare.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Securing our southern border.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: We will build a wall. That's true. We're going to build a wall.

Well, if John's not there, maybe we can't build the wall, so now I know you're going to come out.

AUDIENCE: Build that wall! Build that wall!

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: We're going to build the wall.

AUDIENCE: Build that wall! Build that wall!

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: This is Louisiana. We don't need coats, right? We don't need the coat.

And, by the way, I don't need the hat either, right? Who wants a hat?

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: All right, nice-looking tall guy. Give it to that kid. Come on.

We're going to bring back our manufacturing jobs, reduce taxes big league. We're going to confirm our nominee to the United States Supreme Court.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Electing John Kennedy will help ensure that government stops listening to the special interests and starts delivering for the national interests for our country, for our people, the people that showed up to vote, the people that were forgotten people. You know what I'm talking about.

They were forgotten. Folks, you're not forgotten anymore, believe me. Nobody's forgotten.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: I think the Democrats are going to change their game plan next time. What do you think?

The forgotten men and the forgotten women are not forgotten anymore. It's time to deliver for you, the American people. To help me do that, I also need you to elect Mike Johnson in the 4th District, another fighter for Louisiana.

Mike's father just passed away, just passed away. So, he's in our thoughts and he's in our prayers, very amazing. Horrible timing in a sense. Just passed away. And he loves his father. I will tell you that. And his father was a great guy. So get out there and vote for Johnson and vote for Kennedy. Get out and vote.

Working with these great Louisiana leaders, we're going to do amazing things for our country. Our plan begins with bold structural reform to create millions of really good-paying jobs. We have lost our great jobs. And there's going to be a big part, because you're in the energy business, more than most places.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And we're going to see refineries and we're going to see pipelines and we're going to see lots of things happening. So get out there and vote.

First, on taxes, we're going to undertake one of the great tax reforms and simplifications in American history. At the center of our plan is massive tax relief for the American middle class.

We're also -- this guy goes, all right. You better believe it, right? We're also going to lower our business tax rate from 35 percent all

the way down to 15 percent. We're going to start hiring again.

[15:25:03]

TRUMP: And we are going to make it not so easy when companies want to leave Louisiana and go to other states, go to other countries. Go to other states. You know what? if they do, I'm sorry, folks, you have got to fight for yourself. Right?

But they go out, they go to other countries. They make their product. They sell it back through a very weak border. We have a very weak border, probably the weakest border. Does it get any weaker in the world than this?

You know, we fight for other countries, so they can have a border, but we don't fight for our own borders. Isn't it incredible? It's incredible.

On regulations, we're going to eliminate every single wasteful regulation that undermines the ability of our workers and our companies to compete. On energy, you more than any other state almost, we will cancel the job-killing restrictions on the production of American energy, including shale, oil, natural gas and clean coal.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And, you know, we haven't had refineries built in decades. Right? We're going to have refineries built again, folks.

We use refineries from other countries. The whole thing is just crazy. It's crazy. On infrastructure, I will ask Congress to pass legislation that produces $1 trillion of new investments in America's crumbling infrastructure. And that's so true.

I have a friend. He's one of the biggest truckers in the world. And he buys these very expensive trucks. I won't give you the name, but the most expensive, most beautiful. He's so proud of it, the best.

And he calls me not so long ago. And he goes, you know, I travel from Texas to New York, I travel from Louisiana to someplace. He said, I come back and my trucks are all busted up because of the roads. I said, when did that happen before? He said never happened. He says, it's never been like this. They're all busted up. And he said he's going to buy cheap trucks from now on.

So I guess that's -- we want him to buy the better trucks. We want to fix up our infrastructure big league. That includes -- and who's better at that stuff than me, believe me? Hey, I don't need your vote anymore, but I'm telling you I'm very good at that.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: That's right. I don't need your vote. Can you imagine that? Four years, I will need your vote. But nobody's better at that. That's what I do. But it just made a big impression. When he told me this, it said,

yes. But I asked him, when did it used to be? He said never been like this, never.

New projects, we are going to do new projects for both rural communities and our inner cities. And that's been forgotten, too, if you think. The inner cities have been forgotten also. Not any longer. And we will put our people back to work in the process, our people.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: It's time to get help for the American people and we are going to get people off of welfare and they're going to want to work. We're going to get them into the labor market and they're going to do a great job and they're going to make good money, much more money than they ever made before.

And we're going to rebuild our country with American hands by American workers, OK?

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: My administration will follow two simple rules: Buy American and hire American. OK?

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Because from now on, it's going to be America first. America first.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Our trade deficit is now nearly $800 billion a year. Can you believe that? Who's doing this? Do you have any businesspeople in the audience? Do you think you might be able to negotiate a slightly better deal than that, $800 billion?

We make all these wonderful trade deals. I love trade and I love free trade, but right now we have foolish trade. We have -- OK, ready? We have stupid trade, stupid trade, stupid. It's dumb.

It's a chronic drag on growth and a destroyer of jobs and the wealth of our country. And you see what's happening. We owe $20 trillion and it's going up rapidly. That's why we will renegotiate our trade deals, stop the product dumping and the currency manipulation, which is a disaster for our country.

Every time we get going, China and others, they just knock the hell out of the value of their currency, and we have to go back and back, and it just doesn't work, folks. And defend -- we're going to defend every last American job.

You know, they did a big report: How come Trump won by so much? Remember? There was no way he gets to 270, right, the Electoral College, which -- which is amazing, because you have to go to all these states. And it was an amazing, amazing experience. But there's no way I get to 270.