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Record Obamacare Enrollment as Trump Pledges to Repeal; Trump Floats Executive Action to Impose Tariffs; Report: Russian Military Intelligence Unit Tied to DNC Hack; Trump & Putin Both Call for Strengthening Nuclear Capability; Putin's History of Diplomacy Trump Picks Communication Team; Trump Teams Up with Netanyahu on Israeli Settlements; Syrian Army: Aleppo Free of Armed Groups. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired December 22, 2016 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00] PATTI SOLIS DOYLE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: And I, you know, as someone who did not vote for him, as a woman, and as an immigrant and as a Hispanic, I am still sort of very wary and very fearful of some of these appointments, like Jeff Sessions, Mnuchin, Secretary Tillerman, his ties to Russia after Russia basically tried to, you know, negate our election. So, yes, I'm a little fearful still.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: We will talk more about that.

Last question to you in this block -- because we have more time with you guys -- is to you, Doug. In places like Florida or in your North Carolina, Pennsylvania, despite there being a lot of support for Donald Trump, people, a lot of people there like their Obamacare. I mean, how do you deal with that where you have to satisfy as a Republican the base and yet part of your base is liking this product and they're going to be really mad if there's even a perceived repeal.

DOUG HEYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think for a lot of them, they're using the product. We don't know yet whether they like the product. It's certainly what they're depending on now. In North Carolina, you have pockets of the state that are doing very well. Charlotte, research triangle park for instance. You have a lot of pockets, former agricultural areas, that are still really hurting. Those are the people who are really I think surging the enrollment numbers. KEILAR: Doug, Patti, Ryan, stick around.

Up next, we're going to talk about the Trump transition team because they're floating the possibility of early executive action to impose tariffs on foreign imports. What does that mean for your bottom line? And what are our trade partners saying about it, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:34:52] KEILAR: Multiple sources tell CNN the Trump transition team is floating an idea of early executive action that would impose tariff on imports. The suggested tariff being discuss right now is said to be 5 percent.

My panel of CNN political commentators back now, Ryan Lizza, Patti Solis Doyle and Doug Heye.

The Trump team, Ryan, has pushed back a little, saying it's too early to go into specifics for this. What would this mean, a 5 percent tariff on foreign imports?

RYAN LIZZA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: The people hit immediately would be consumers in places like Walmart, Target, and the big-box retailers who rely on massive amounts of imports, cheap imports, from places like China and elsewhere.

KEILAR: Cheap everyday items, right?

LIZZA: Yeah.

KEILAR: Clothes, socks.

LIZZA: This was a bedrock view, of conservative economists, that you don't mess around with this, right? For years, conservative economists have been defending the great prices that American consumers get because we have these low tariffs and multiple free- trade agreements. Trump is really challenging Republican orthodoxy on this issue if he's going to go forward.

KEILAR: Some strange bedfellows on this between Trump and leaders of industrial states, like Debbie Dingell, in Michigan. Let's listen to her on "New Day" this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DEBBIE DINGELL, (D), MICHIGAN: The first thing I thought when I heard it is Donald Trump understands the working men and women of my state and he's delivering on what he talked about the entire election, and why I was one of those Democrats that said Donald Trump could win. For the working men and women of my state, who are tired of seeing their jobs shipped overseas and don't feel like they're playing on a level playing field, his just saying that, they're cheering, he's hearing us, our jobs, he understands, let's protect them. That's what I thought when I heard it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: She supported Hillary Clinton but her concerns are what's going on with Michigan was almost prophetic when Hillary Clinton was bested by Bernie Sanders in Michigan, and what we also saw, the final result of the general election.

When you hear someone like Debbie Dingell say that, what do you think?

SOLIS DOYLE: Look, think Donald Trump by quote/unquote floating this idea is sending a strong political signal to his supports, absolutely. But as Ryan said, when you dig deep into what this could mean, consumers pay a price. This could also lead into trade wars, you know, what's to stop China then from tariffing our goods, you know, taxing our goods that go there. You've had economists, you've had businesspeople sort of say this is the wrong thing to do. But politically, I mean, Donald Trump knows his politics. This is good for people who voted for him.

KEILAR: She echoed what Speaker Paul Ryan, what Kevin McCarthy have said, right?

HEYE: I would, too. Politically, I would say from Donald Trump this is the textbook definition of a warning shot. We know there's a lot of talk about a 35 percent tariff. So, he's sending signals to China and other companies, you know, there's more to come if you don't play ball.

But politically, Debbie Dingell's right, this speaks to not just folks in Michigan but people in Ohio, where manufacturing jobs have been lost and communities have been devastated. Where the rubber meets the road is where do congressional Republicans go along on this, or do they try and block it or can you get to 218 votes on the Hill with some coalition of Rustbelt-state Republicans and Democrats?

KEILAR: They run the risk, obviously -- and is there any way around it to please both sides? Once people who are used to buying cheaper goods start seeing the receipt from their shopping trip, and they go, oh, my goodness, this is, wow, I can't even get all the things I needed for my kid to start school or whatnot. I mean, that is -- that's splitting of the baby, right, the Republicans are dealing with?

HEYE: Yeah, welcome to Washington. That's exactly. Because Donald Trump is not a traditional conservative predictable on some economic policies that typically are bedrock Republican issues. We don't really know where he's going to go. So, where Capitol Hill and Pennsylvania Avenue are always at odds, regardless of parties, the next three, six months are going to be very telling for what the next four years will be.

LIZZA: We'll have to see more than just this one thing about a 5 percent tariff. But ideally, he would have to have a larger plan, and his argument would be this will lead to some kind of renaissance in American manufacturing, in American-made goods. That's his goal, at the end of the day, to combine a tariff with other economic policies that, you know, add up to a "Made in America" or America first economic policy that he's talked about.

KEILAR: We'll have to see if it -- if that could transform soon enough for, let's say, a re-election campaign.

(LAUGHTER)

All right, guys, thank you so much, Ryan Lizza, Patti Solis Doyle, Doug Heye. I really appreciate it.

[13:59:33] Coming up, a cybersecurity firm says it has found proof that Russia tied to the hack on the Democratic National Committee. We'll have details, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: A cybersecurity firm has issued a report that says they found proof that a Russian military intelligence unit was behind this year's massive attack on the Democratic National Committee.

CNN Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, joins us.

Barbara, tell us what else this report found.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: This is a report by a company called Crowd Strike, that was basically hired to look into the Democratic hacks, and found some details that maybe are just another marker on the road that all these hacks lead back to Moscow.

What the company found is a pattern of activity that they'd already seen the Russians use at other times. And it really squares with what we are hearing from the U.S. intelligence community. The bottom line growing, that all of this hacking appears to go back to Moscow, to the highest levels of the Russian government, you know, not something that would happen unless Vladimir Putin knew about it and wanted it to happen.

And on the technical side, these are cyber-hacking tools that are used by the Russian military intelligence agencies, and are so sophisticated, as we've already reported, they're the equivalent of what the U.S. National Security Agency uses in its cyber activities.

So, another marker here that this was something that the U.S. Increasingly believes tied right back to Moscow, tied to Vladimir Putin -- Brianna?

KEILAR: Let's talk about another issue pertaining to Russia, starting with a tweet that President-elect Donald Trump put out. He said, "The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes." This morning, Vladimir Putin says that Russia needs to strengthen its strategic nuclear forces.

What do you make of this talk? And do you think that this was sort of a call and answer?

STARR: That's what we don't know. Did Mr. Putin speak first, Trump, President-elect Trump hear him, and specifically answer Mr. Putin? Is this moment the first nuclear standoff between the sitting Russian leader and the incoming United States president? We honestly don't know the answer to that question.

But this is something that is grabbing a lot of attention. Putin talking about nuclear weapons. He's talking about having a capability to go against missile defenses in Europe. Those are missile defenses backed by the United States. Russia sees that as a threat. The U.S. says it isn't.

[13:45:19] Mr. Trump had a briefing yesterday, not about necessarily increasing the size of the nuclear force. but about improving and modernizing what is there. The nuclear force is aging, the infrastructure, the basis, all of that. The Pentagon has long wanted to spend a lot of money to bring all of that up to modern standards. We know that Mr. Trump has talked about that part of the nuclear force in the past. But the unanswered question is exactly what you said, Brianna, are

these two men talking at each other today across the ocean? Are they talking about the possibility of both of them really increasing their nuclear arsenals? Right now, of course, nuclear weapons, heavily regulated, heavily limited by long-standing treaties that both countries have agreed to -- Brianna?

KEILAR: Barbara Starr, at the Pentagon, thank you so much.

Today was the funeral for Russian ambassador Andrei Karlov, who was gunned down during an art gallery opening in Ankara, Turkey, on Monday. Russian President Vladimir Putin was there. He made no comments at the funeral, but we do expect to hear a lot from him tomorrow during his annual news conference.

And that's where he could talk further about wanting more nuclear missiles or the situation in Syria, perhaps his expectations for dealing with the incoming Trump administration.

CNN international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson, has a little more on Putin's history of diplomacy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): When the Soviet Union collapsed, the world thought Russia would be a different place. And for a decade, under President Yeltsin, it was.

(CHANTING)

BILL BROWDER, CEO, HERMITAGE CAPITAL MANAGEMENT: They had free press, democracy and civil society. The problem is they didn't have any laws and they didn't have any rules.

ROBERTSON: Bill Browder, an investment banker, was there in Russia making millions amidst the chaos. But then Putin came to power. A few years later, he clashed have Browder.

BROWDER: I pointed out that Putin and the people around him have stolen an enormous amount of money from the Russian people and have covered it up.

ROBERTSON: Browder's businesses were raided. One of his whistle blowing lawyers, Sergei Menitski was thrown in jail, brutalized and died there many months later.

Putin rejects every accusation Browder makes and has barred him from Russia for the past decade.

BROWDER: At this point, many people consider me to be Putin's number- one foreign enemy. And as such my life is at risk.

ROBERTSON: He is right to be worried. Putin's critics get silenced.

SIR ANDREW WOOD, FORMER BRITISH AMBASSADOR TO RUSSIA: Well, he has a proven record of murder for a start, either directly ordered or indirectly encouraged.

ROBERTSON: Sir Andrew Wood was Britain's ambassador to Russia at the same time Browder was making his millions. He dismisses Putin's denials of any influence in the deaths.

WOOD: When Putin came to power, his main theme was Russia should be a great power. He chose not economic reform and political progress but a lapse into what amounts to a form of narcissistic xenophobia.

ROBERTSON: In foreign policy, that's intervention in Ukraine and Syria, annexing Crimea, providing overnight popularity for Putin at the price of ruinous long-term economic sanctions.

Pretty soon, all this will be on President-elect Donald Trump's plate.

BROWDER: He wants to be seen as a great deal maker and as a winner. So, Putin has made his wish list very clear. He wants Ukraine. He wants sanctions lifted. He wants to be left alone in Syria.

ROBERTSON: Problem is, Putin's idea of deal-making not much of a deal.

WOOD: What he's offering I don't think is anything at all. Some nice words perhaps.

ROBERTSON: Even his words, warns Browder, aren't worth much.

BROWDER: Putin doesn't keep to his word. Putin always betrays deals. He takes what's offered and then tries to take some more in the future. And that probably won't play that well with Trump who will feel ripped off.

ROBERTSON (on camera): What are his options going to be?

BROWDER: To become probably much tougher than any other U.S. head of state before him towards Russia.

WOOD: I think at least for a period, it will be in Putin's interest to take things relatively calmly.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): The alternative could be deeply troubling, two men, two big egos.

BROWDER: Well, I can imagine we'll be in a position with where both these guys will be thumping their chests and staring each other down.

ROBERTSON: 25 years of post-Cold War diplomacy could be about to face their biggest test yet.

Nic Robertson, CNN, London.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

[11:50:22] KEILAR: Coming up, President-elect Trump publicly teams up with Israeli Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to denounce a U.N. vote that's been delayed before the U.S. decided how it was going to vote. We'll talk more about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: We have a transition-of-power alert, one of the final positions to be filled for Donald Trump in his White House. He's chosen his communications team heading forward. And Sean Spicer is going to be press secretary, as well as a special assistant to the president -- I should say assistant to the president -- is the proper title. He had been a chief strategist at the RNC, spokesman throughout the campaign. You certainly recognize him. He has been a key spokesman since Donald Trump's election victory.

And then Jason Miller and Hope Hicks had been mentioned as possible press secretaries. Miller is going to be the director of communications, Hicks is going to be the director of strategic communications. We also learned Dan Scavino is going to be the social media director.

Now to international politics. A call for Israel to stop building settlements on Palestinian territory has been postponed after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President-elect Donald Trump both came out and denounced it. Trump put out a statement pushing for a veto, and he said, quote, "The United States has long maintained that peace between the Israelis and Palestinians will only come through direct negotiations between the parties and not through the imposition of terms by the United Nations. This puts Israel in a very poor negotiating position and is unfair to all Israelis."

CNN global affairs correspondent, Elise Labott, is joining me now from the State Department.

Elise, give us the back story, who was pushing for the vote and how did this fall apart?

[13:55:19] ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, it's a high stakes drama at the U.N. that doesn't usually happen. We understand the vote was supposed to take place this afternoon. The resolution was calling Israeli settlements illegal under international law, and the U.S. was expected to let it pass. For years, the U.S. has had this veto protection for Israel at the U.N., but we understand President Obama was prepared to abstain or vote yes. That was supposed to be followed by a speech by Secretary of State John Kerry kind of laying out his vision for Mideast peace. You know he led that failed bid for a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians. That was put on hold, we understand, because of pressure by Israel on Egyptian President al Sisi, whose country was the one that put forward the resolution in the beginning.

Now, we don't really know who the involvement of the Trump transition. We know, in the dead of night, there were a lot of treats going on. Netanyahu was tweeting for a U.S. veto. President-elect Trump followed suit. Then Egyptians walked it back.

But the U.S. says they've been working on this, U.S. officials working on this for a long time, well before what happened in the last few days with President-elect Trump -- Brianna? KEILAR: With Trump publicly backing Netanyahu, is there a sense he's

interfering with the current administration's options?

LABOTT: Well, I mean, look, you remember in 2008 when President Obama was running for in one election, he said there can only be one commander-in-chief at a time, and he was very careful not to impede upon what President Bush was doing at the time. But there is a sense that President-elect Trump has been weighing in on U.S. policy. That is the prerogative of any president-elect. But certainly, on something as controversial as this President-elect Trump is trying to let the Egyptians know that he feels very strongly about it. He's trying to set up a good relationship with President al Sisi in Egypt. He's letting Israel know that he backs Israel. And you've seen the controversial ambassador he appointed. You can see it will be a very different policy.

KEILAR: Certainly is.

Elise Labott, at the State Department, thank you.

In Syria, the state-run news outlet is reporting the army has declared Aleppo free of armed groups.

CNN's Muhammad Lila is joining us from Turkey's border with Syria.

Muhammad, tell us who brought the last groups out?

MUHAMMAD LILA, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, this is what could be a major turning point in this war, something people thought, four years ago, would not be possible, the announcement made a few moments ago on Syrian state television. They're broadcasting images of people celebrating in the streets and firing into the air. What it means, once it's confirmed by opposition groups, is that the city of Aleppo, which was the opposition base for so many years, will no longer be divided. The government of Bashar al Assad will control the entire city. And this also means that Bashar al Assad will likely outlast -- imagine that -- President Obama, something we thought wouldn't have been possible a few years ago.

But this has been possible because Red Cross teams on the ground have been supervising the last wave of these evacuations. Most civilians were evacuated and all that left were fighters and their families on the ground. Those evacuations taking place. The Red Cross gave us a statement where they described the process and they said, "During Wednesday and Thursday overnight, in one of the last stages of evacuation, more than 4,000 fighters were evacuated, by private cars, vans from eastern Aleppo to Western rural Aleppo as per the agreement reached between the parties."

Normally, Brianna the Red Cross didn't involve itself with transferring fighters, they focus on civilians, but it seems they were there to guarantee those fighters would be a taken to safety, because if you've been fighting the regime of Bashar al Assad for that long, you need guarantees you can exit that place safely without suffering major retribution from the Syrian army or one of the pro-Iran proxy groups on the ground. So, that was what tipped the balance and that's what allowed the

evacuations to take place, the fact that the Red Cross was on the ground monitoring this.

KEILAR: It is very significant, as you point out.

Muhammad Lila, thank you for that report.

That's it for me. I'll see you back at 5:00 eastern in "The Situation Room."

NEWSROOM starts right now.

[14:00:02] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, here we go. Top of the hour, I'm Brooke Baldwin. You're watching CNN. Thank you for being with me.

We begin with a hunt for a suspected terrorist. As we get breaking news this hour, it wasn't just German authorities who knew about -