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Civilians Trapped As Aleppo Cease-fire Collapses; Trump Meeting With Tech Industry CEOs Next Hour; Trump's Cabinet Picks Reflect Plans; U.S. Claims Coalition Makes Strides in ISIS Fighting. Making Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired December 14, 2016 - 13:00   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington, 8:00 p.m. in Aleppo, Syria, 9:00 p.m. in Mosul, Iraq. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BLITZER: We're following two major stories this hour. Breaking news out of Syria first where artillery shells are raining down on Aleppo as regime forces are on the brink of taking the city.

Buses are waiting outside the evacuation point to carry civilians, men, women and children, to safety. But the cease-fire to allow them to be evacuated collapsed.

An estimated 50,000 people are believed to be trapped in one of the last rebel-held areas, where, according to the United Nations, regime forces are executing men, women and children.

The White House weighing in as well on the worst in a situation, the humanitarian crisis. Listen to what the White House press secretary said just moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The idea that you would target a playground and bomb kids hoping that you would then convince people to give up, because you would kill their kids? What kind of a sick mind comes up with a strategy like that?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Much more on the disaster in Aleppo coming up.

But there's other stories we're following including the Trump transition titans of the tech world will converge on Trump Tower. Next hour, the president-elect holds a roundtable with technology executives.

The focus is said to be bringing tech jobs back to the United States. But sources say trade, immigration, corporate tax reform are also likely topics. We'll preview that meeting, update the latest cabinet picks, coming up. But let's get back to Aleppo right now. The breaking news, 24 hours

ago, there was a window, a slight window of hope, for the civilians. They thought there would be a chance to escape the bombing and the bloodshed.

That window slammed shut with the crash of artillery shells. Our Nick Paton Walsh takes us inside Aleppo, giving us a glimpse of light inside the destruction with an eye towards the biggest challenges to any kind of peace.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The hearts of the agony, where barrel bombs randomly hit doctors or children, where food became a weapon, has fallen to its persecutors.

Eastern Aleppo in regime hands is a turning point for the war. Here are three ways how. First, the rebels lost an important home. They have two choices to run to. A Turkish backed enclave to the northeast, where rebels fight mostly ISIS, not the regime. Or the province of Idlib, where the Syrian affiliate of Al Qaeda play as dominant role.

This group formerly called the Nusra front are being bombed and blacklisted by the United States. It'll be hard for the west to give any help to any rebels so physically close to Al Qaeda.

A second big change happening, what's left now of those moderates who began this fight against Assad? The Russians and Damascus haven't and won't care either way.

This is exactly what they want. To label all rebels as terrorists. Moscow tried this in Chechnya to mixed success. Moderate separatists were targeted, radicals committed atrocities like the Beslan hostage crisis, allowing Moscow to pursue an only military solution against a movement they now call terrorists.

It didn't end the problem. The radicals came back nastier with ISIS now in southern Russia.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE.)

WALSH: In fact, Moscow must surely be concerned its savage role in Aleppo may make more jihadists target it in years to come.

All the same, with so many troops and so much firepower assembled now, why would the Russian and Syrian forces pack up and stop? The rebel stronghold of Idlib whose city center was seized only last year. It's just a half hour drive away.

The third point is that there isn't much of a reason to stop. The western alternative plan for Syria is in collapse. Trump's minimal comments on Syria have been focused on targeting ISIS. He seems to admire Putin, making a kremlin regular his secretary of state nominee.

Britain, France, the Gulf, all seem ruthless (ph) on Syria as Obama readies to leave office. And they look here for leadership on Syria, but it's new occupants may willingly inherent a fair complee (ph) in this torturous war handed to him from elsewhere.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And Nick Paton Walsh is joining us live from Beirut, Lebanon right now. Our Senior International Correspondent Clarissa Ward is joining us from London.

[13:05:03] Nick, the evacuations of civilians was supposed to start hours ago. Has anyone at all been bused out? What can you tell us about what's happening there in Aleppo right now?

WALSH (live): At this point, no. No evacuation appears to have occurred. In fact, we've had the two men who tried to broker the deal it seems, Turkish Presidents Erdogan and ring (ph) his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, and agree, according to Turkish state media, that the evacuation should still go ahead.

It was supposed to happen, sort of, 12, 15 hours ago, really. And it seems that some inconsistencies on how the Iranian militia, perhaps on the ground, maybe the Syrian regime, too, viewed this deal caused some shelling to begin. That spiraled to a pretty intense amount.

And now, in fact, I'm even hearing Syrian rebels talking about using car bombs to try and hold back the Syrian army advancing forces. That is not the pause in fighting required to get the people out who are trapped in that ever-decreasing area held by rebels.

We don't know the exact number. The U.N. put out a number 50,000 last night but then also qualified that saying they have no independent means of verifying it on the ground.

But, frankly, (INAUDIBLE) at this stage for those thousands now. We're hearing from medecins (ph) in France, an aid group on the ground, who are sleeping in the streets, without food, water, finding shelter in cars and mosques.

The most perilous moment indeed for people who've already for years often indiscriminate bombing of hospitals, doctors, children, you name it. They're now bound to a tiny area. And this big difference now is that their enemy who's been trying to exterminate them is literally blocks away from them.

Possibly the darkest moment yet we've seen in a war, that's often defy of the, Wolf. The next 24 hours ahead, crucial.

BLITZER: Critical indeed.

Clarissa, I want you to listen to the United States ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power. She delivered some scathing remarks to the Syrian regime and its allies, the Russians, the Iranians, Lebanese, Hezbollah if you will. Those are the forces supporting the Syrian regime of Bashar Al Assad.

Listen to what she said about this current humanitarian crisis. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAMANTHA POWER, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: Are you truly incapable of shame? Is there literally nothing that can shame you? Is there no act of barbarism against civilians? No execution of a child that gets under your skin that just creeps you out a little bit? Is there nothing you will not lie about or justify?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Clarissa, you and Nick, you spend a lot of time in Syria. Just walk us through the biggest concerns right now for the people in Syria, as this war dramatically changes. We know, what, maybe 400,000 people already killed over these past four or five years in this civil war. Those numbers are clearly going to increase.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think they are, Wolf, very sadly. And those are very powerful words that you heard from Ambassador Power. But the reality is that the U.S. has been unwilling to get involved. And the Russians have ceased upon that impotence. They have doubled down on the regime of Bashar Al Assad to a devastating effect, in terms of the effect on civilians.

I mean, you heard Nick outlining there. Whether thousands, whether it's 10s of thousands, frankly, it doesn't even really matter anymore. The reality is you have an egregious humanitarian crisis where people who are being bombed into the stone age where they have no access to basic medicine or food. It has been going on for months and months. The international community is paralyzed by it.

And beyond that, there's something of a myopic sense when we approach this as, oh, this is a Syrian civil war. It's a self-contained issue that we can't do anything about.

The reality is that what is happening in Syria is spilling across the region. What is happening in Aleppo is, perhaps, the most powerful and compelling rallying cry to would-be jihadists across the world.

And as long as these atrocities continue and as long as millions and millions of people are forced from their homes, many of them flooding into Europe, Syria will continue to be the major national security danger and question of our time -- Wolf.

BLITZER: It certainly will be. Clarissa, thanks very much. Nick Paton Walsh, thanks to you as well.

We'll have more on this breaking story. The developments coming up later in the hour.

But let's get to the Trump transition here in the United States. The president-elect meets next hour with executives from major technology companies. The meetings -- the meeting includes the CEOs from Tesla, Intel, Cisco, Oracle and IBM, among others.

Vice President-elect Mike Pence, he arrived over at Trump Tower in New York City just a few minutes ago, and he spoke about the progress with the transition team.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: Look forward to another productive day here at Trump Tower. I know the president- elect is looking forward to welcoming some of the -- some of the leading tech CEOs in America to Trump Tower to talk about how we can grow jobs in high-tech all across the country.

[13:10:12] Yesterday, had a great meeting with Bill Gates.

And, of course, we're all very enthusiastic that Governor Rick Perry has stepped forward to lead the Department of Energy.

And that momentum and the pace of this transition will continue forward all the way into the holidays as we assemble a team that'll make America great again, starting January 20th.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The meeting with the high-tech executives comes as the president-elect moves closer and closer to filling all of his major cabinet and staff positions. One major spot that hasn't been filled yet is director of National Intelligence.

Our Political Reporter Sara Murray is outside Trump Tower in New York City, joining us with more on the transition. Sara, what's on the agenda for the president-elect's meeting with these tech industry giants?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, it could be a very interesting atmosphere. I mean, Donald Trump wants to go into this talking about how there should be more tech jobs in America. That they should be creating these jobs here in the United States, rather than in countries abroad.

And, look, the folks in these meetings are not all going to be people who see eye to eye with Donald Trump. Some of them have been very critical of him in the past. And his transition officials have taken pains to highlight that, to point out that Donald Trump wants to get their view.

Not just of people who agree with him and agree with his vision and his policy, but also people who disagree with him. So, he wants to bring these different viewpoints to the table.

It'll be interesting to see how they all get along. But it does give you a sense of how Donald Trump does want to have an open line to the business community. He's made that clear, obviously, in some of this cabinet picks who have not come from government but rather big business. And I think that that is sort of the agenda he wants to set going into the White House -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Sara, thanks very much. We'll have much more on this coming up. Sara Murray reporting for us from New York. Also coming up, a federal agency says the president-elect must sell

his stake in his Washington, D.C. hotel, or he'll potentially face a conflict of interest the moment he's sworn into office. We have details.

And we'll also show you why the U.S. now says it's closer than ever to winning the war against ISIS.

[13:12:18]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:15:37] BLITZER: President-elect Donald Trump has almost filled his cabinet. He has chosen people for all but a handful of positions. So what does his staff and his cabinet picks say about the incoming Trump administration? Let's discuss this and more with our panel.

We have "Washington Post" reporter Abby Phillip, CNN political analyst David Gregory and our chief political analyst Gloria Borger.

Gloria, what has surprised you most about these cabinet selections?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, first of all, the cabinet selection that surprised me the most was the secretary of state, Rex Tillerson. I thought that he was going to go with someone more convention, either a committee chairman, or Mitt Romney, who is not somebody we would have thought of at first, but certainly qualified. And it surprised me because I think what Trump did was got some recommendations from people they respected, like Condi Rice or Jim Baker or Bob gates, and --

BLITZER: Dick Cheney, too.

BORGER: Dick Cheney -- came up with Rex Tillerson, met with him and then went with his gut, said, this is somebody I can do business with.

What I really want to watch is how the generals react to the CEOs in this administration because they have very different decision-making processes. I mean generals see people as friends and enemies, and business people see people as, can I do business with this guy or not? Can I negotiate with this guy or not? So around that table, it's not so much going to be team of rivals, but a team of people who approach life differently. And it's -- it's going to be fascinating to watch. It could work or it could be an utter failure. Who knows.

BLITZER: David, what does it say to you about the incoming Trump administration? What has surprised you, if anything?

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think it's the absence of surprise. That his choices reflect some aspect of his personality or his approach towards leadership. Having said that, I -- Steve Mnuchin surprised me as treasury secretary because he represents all those things that Trump campaigned around the country saying that he didn't like. You know, the global order, you know, Wall Street, you know, financial elites, all of those people, even his final ad with the whiff of anti-Semitism and a lot of people felt a lot more than that about a kind of global order taking over our economy, singled (ph) Lloyd Blankfein, who runs Goldman Sachs. And so Steve Mnuchin comes from Goldman. So I think that surprised me. But the fact that he was rewarding a loyalist was something that's in keeping with Trump.

And I think on the Rex Tillerson front, I think it's striking who he can do business with.

BORGER: Right.

GREGORY: Trump described it as somebody that I could make a deal with. That's how he's approaching these cabinet picks, to say nothing of how he approaches the kind of work that they'll do. They're going to have the difficulty of realizing that running the government is not like running a company.

BLITZER: You talk about that ad, but Steve Mnuchin is Jewish.

GREGORY: Yes.

BLITZER: So how does that play from what you're saying. Just elaborate.

GREGORY: I'm not -- I'm not making -- I'm saying that I think there was the specter of anti-Semitism when you have and ad that targets a global order that's hurting American and hurting our economy. That was -- harkens back to how Hitler described the Jews and the global enterprises that was hurting Germany in the run-up to the third Reich. Steve Mnuchin is Jewish. I'm not saying that a little of a surprise. I'm saying that his kind of anti-corporate, populist message is something that's not in keeping with putting someone who's a senior executive of Goldman Sachs in that position, his Jewishness not being as much of a factor there. I'm just saying that the populist message for Trump, I think, was not consistent with putting some of these Goldman Sachs people (INAUDIBLE).

BLITZER: Yes, he's got another Goldman Sachs executive --

GREGORY: Yes.

BLITZER: Gary Cohn, president of Goldman Sachs, who's going to be the head of his national economic council at the White House.

Abby, what, if anything, surprised you?

ABBY PHILLIP, REPORTER, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Well, in keeping with what David just mentioned, this sort of team of rivals dynamic that's emerging within the Trump camp is something that I think we're going to be encounter a lot. He seems to like establishing different types of people in different groups within his inner circle, but there's also a dynamic among his most loyal supporters who went through the toughest parts of the campaign with him, who stood by him when he was basically abandoned by everyone else and they are very distrustful of people who are new to the circle.

[13:20:03] Trump has brought in a lot of new people, including Rex Tillerson and others who have very little history with Trump and are going to be among his closest advisors. That is a dynamic that I think is -- that Trump fosters. It's sort of "Apprentice" like in nature.

GREGORY: Right.

PHILLIP: But it's one that -- that is going to bubble to the surface, as it already has in this transition period.

GREGORY: And how these teams work together. That's what's interesting.

BORGER: Well, right.

GREGORY: You have a General Mattis. You have a Rex Tillerson. Again, this is not like running a company. This is different. Running a national security team, what the process is like, those are the things that can really strain a team, even if they have a lot of experience.

BORGER: Well, and these are all people who are used to being in charge.

GREGORY: Right.

BORGER: Including his chief of staff, Reince Priebus, who is no longer in charge. And there is going to be a big period of adjustment for these corporate leaders and for these military leaders to suddenly discover, guess what, they're not in charge.

Now, what Trump often does, and has done historically, is, he doesn't mind pitting people against each other because it's Darwinian to a great degree and we saw it play out on "The Apprentice," of course. And I'm wondering whether we're going to be seeing that as the cabinet dynamics sort of -- sort of take hold, particularly in the national security area.

GREGORY: But he does deserve some credit here.

BORGER: Yes.

GREGORY: I think it should be underlined, the fact that he is talking to very serious people, getting very serious advice about even what a lot of people would consider to be unconventional choices. And I think there's a level of rigor that he's applying to these. And it's surprising, too, that he's picked so many conservatives that are at odds with his views, you know, say about the minimum wage, to choose one example.

PHILLIP: I would say that one of the things that -- that didn't actually surprise me was the choice of a lot of business leaders for some traditionally political roles. That's -- Donald Trump sees things in a similar way to someone like a Rex Tillerson, people who are on Wall Street and in finance, and he wants to bring that sensibility to Washington. I was talking to some Trump voters at a recent focus group and they were asked, what does "drain the swamp" mean to you? And not a single person mentioned finance as being a problem for them in terms of the swamp.

GREGORY: Right.

PHILLIP: It's very important for them to oust political insiders from some of these top jobs --

GREGORY: I think that's a good point. That's important.

BORGER: And -- and these --

PHILLIP: And Trump understands that. He is focusing on bringing in a different sensibility from a different part of the country --

GREGORY: That's right.

PHILLIP: From a different industry into Washington, and that's what you're seeing reflected in someone like Tillerson (ph).

BORGER: Well, and these are all people who believe that government is not the answer to our problems.

GREGORY: That's right.

BORGER: Some of the people he has appointed, most notably, of course, Rick Perry to run energy, he wanted to get rid of the Department of Energy. And so these are people, when he could remember what it was --

GREGORY: Right.

BORGER: But he -- these are people who want smaller government. And I think they're going to be in for a surprise because a lot of outsiders, when they come to Washington and then they get ready to leave, they will tell you that they were stunned at the difficulty of getting things done in Washington --

GREGORY: Right.

BORGER: And cutting through that bureaucratic red tape to get things done. And if they can do that, more power to them, because -- because it's been tried and tried again. And, again, these are CEOs who are used to saying, I want this done and on my desk tomorrow, and let's have it done, and it -- it doesn't always happen that way here.

GREGORY: These guys don't represent politics as usual. Certainly a Rex Tillerson doesn't represent Washington as usual.

BORGER: No.

GREGORY: That, I think, accomplishes the goal of draining the swamp in a large measure for a lot of Trump supporters.

BLITZER: Yes, he said during the campaign in almost every rally, I want the best negotiators --

GREGORY: Right.

BLITZER: People who can make deals.

GREGORY: That's it.

BLITZER: The traditional diplomats, they're terrible. They can't make a deal. The U.S. suffers all the time. And that's what -- what he's been trying to do, get some people who can --

BORGER: And here's the question --

BLITZER: Like Rex Tillerson, presumably --

GREGORY: Yes.

BLITZER: Can make the deal.

BORGER: Here's the question. You have a president-elect who's not reading the presidential daily brief every day. How much authority will he delegate? This is a question we don't really know the answer to. How many decisions will he say, OK, General Mattis, tell me what to do and I will do that? Or how much will -- you know, percolate up to his level and then he sits around a table with six people, or does he want to delegate more to his cabinet than we've seen recently? You know, we --

BLITZER: Well, we're going to be finding out very, very soon.

BORGER: Yes.

BLITZER: Guys, thanks very, very much.

Coming up, ISIS fighters retake territory in Syria, but why the U.S. now says they are closer than ever to ending the operation against them? We'll have an update.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:27:59] BLITZER: In both Iraq and Syria, the U.S.-led coalition is making some significant strides in the fight against ISIS. That according to President Obama's special envoy on this campaign to destroy ISIS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRETT MCGURK, U.S. ENVOY, GLOBAL COALITION TO COUNTER ISIL: We are having tremendous success against this enemy. It is accelerating. We're now putting pressure on its two so-called capitals of Mosul and Raqqa.

But this remains an unprecedented threat. The fight is not over. This war will remain a multi-year effort.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So what is this tremendous success, as he calls it, what does it look like? Here are some of the numbers cited by the State Department. Sixty-one percent of the territory in Iraq that had been controlled by ISIS has been reclaimed. At least 75 percent of ISIS fighters, they say, have been killed during this campaign of U.S.-led air strikes and they believe ISIS only has between 12,000 to 15,000, quote, "battle-ready fighters," adding that the terror group is no longer able to replenish its ranks. For more on this fight, let's bring in our senior international

correspondent Ben Wedeman. He's joining us from Erbil in Iraq right now.

Ben, you're not very far away from Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq that's been under ISIS control now since 2014. What are you hearing about the battle to try to liberate the city?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Certainly initially there were quite dramatic advances by the Iraqi army, but now that they are actually within the city limits of Mosul itself, on the eastern side, what -- it's proving to be quite a difficult battle, in fact. Today, ISIS taking advantage of the bad weather, the heavy rain that was going on for much of the day, counter attacked in three separate neighborhoods in eastern Mosul. And what we saw was intense clashes. And we -- in one area we saw -- we were just on the outskirts of Mosul, we saw about 600 people who had fled the areas of the city that the Iraqi army managed to retake, but they saw the fighting that happened this morning, some of them were injured in mortar attacks and they decided they had to leave.