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Trump To NBC: "Let It Be An Arms Race"; Trump Tweet Sends Jet Contractor's Stock Tumbling; Trump Struggles To Get A-Listers For Inauguration; Thousands Plan March To Syria On "Refugee Route"; Officers Help Give Abandoned Sisters New Hope. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired December 23, 2016 - 15:30   ET

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

JILL DOUGHERTY, GLOBAL FELLOW, WOODROW WILSON CENTER: -- is it makes the other guy -- even if he's -- you know, Putin is smart, he knows what the game is, but there might be this idea that yes, Trump would continue to build up and build up. So it just is very destabilizing and dangerous and I don't think he can do nuclear policy in 140 words.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Daryl, if Trump truly wants a better relationship with Russia, what would be the best way to go about that do you think?

DARYL KIMBALL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ARMS CONTROL ASSOCIATION: Well, it's important as Donald Trump has said, to have a working relationship with Russia even if we have deep differences over human rights and many other issues. He has at least five big issues he has to sort out if the United States is going to have a better relationship with Russia.

Number one is Russia's infringement on the sovereignty of Ukraine and the sanctions that are in place, U.S. and European sanctions. That is a tough issue to resolve.

Another one is Russia's concern about U.S. missile interceptor capabilities that are really supposed to be to counter Iranian or North Korean missiles if they emerge, but the Russians are concerned this could counter their strategic nuclear retaliatory potential.

Putin just talked about that earlier in his press conference. Another issue is the question of the military-to-military flights NATO and Russian forces that could cause a serious and dangerous military incident over the Baltics and European airspace.

Then there is the issue of nuclear weapons and how and to what extent to reduce the enormous stockpiles the two sides have. Those are tough issues.

I think the wrong way to start out is with this nuclear saber- rattling, this bravado that does send different signals not just to Vladimir Putin but to our allies in Europe, to other countries that have nuclear weapons.

They're starting to wonder what kind of direction Mr. Trump might take the United States in. Is it a direction that's consistent with the past or is it radically different? BALDWIN: Well, I can tell you listening to Barbara Starr, our Pentagon correspondent, earlier today saying in all the high ranking DOD folks that she's been talking to, not a single one of them believes a word from Vladimir Putin. That said, Jill Dougherty, your final take away from all of this?

DOUGHERTY: I think that's shortsighted actually. I think we ought to be paying a lot of attention to exactly what President Putin is saying because he does not speak without having some type of thought most of the time and we should be understanding what he's saying.

And what he's saying is he's blaming a lot on President Obama. President Obama disappears from the scene and now it is the new guy and so Mr. Putin will be dealing with Trump and he is sending messages right now.

We're willing to deal, but we can give it back to you. He said they can overwhelm the missile defense of the United States that is in Europe so I think we ought to pay attention.

BALDWIN: Jill Dougherty, Daryl Kimball, appreciate you both. Thank you so much.

Coming up next, Boeing and the other company, Lockheed Martin. Lockheed Martin's stock taking a big hit after yet another tweet from President-elect Trump. Why he's going after this defense contractor coming up.

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[15:36:40]

BALDWIN: Shares of aviation giant, Lockheed Martin, took a tumble today down about 3.5 percent right now after this tweet from President-elect Trump. He writes, "Based on the tremendous cost and cost overruns of the Lockheed Martin F-35 I have asked Boeing to price out a comparable F-18 Super Hornet."

He's talking about these jets here and while Lockheed tumbled, shares of Boeing got a boost. Let's go to Richard Quest in his role as CNN aviation correspondent and CNN Money editor-at-large, and host of "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS."

Richard Quest, so here's what I want you to explain to me. We know that the CEOs of both Boeing and Lockheed Martin were down at Mar-a- Lago a couple of days ago speaking with Mr. Trump and this seems a day later he's almost setting off a bidding war between the two companies.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly what he's doing. Look, the F-35 for Lockheed Martin is a $400 billion or $500 billion project. Yes, it's years late and billions over budget, but this is super stealth technology and it's widely believed to be absolutely cutting edge state-of-the-art.

What Trump is saying is well maybe we don't need all this even though the Pentagon has been buying more than 2,000 of them, up to $100 million each. What Trump is saying hang on, the F-18 Super Hornet, Boeing has spent many millions updating it.

It's doing a good job. There's a new version. We could have that one instead. The problem is he's negotiating in public and this is the result of what you see.

BALDWIN: Is there any advantage of that? I mean, there's a lot that's been happening whether talking about nuclear capabilities or the cost of a jet public. Could there be an advantage to that?

QUEST: I think no matter how much one wants to give Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt for doing things differently and doing everything differently -- D.I.D., do it different -- you have to say, Brooke, that this is untrammeled territory.

BALDWIN: Yes.

QUEST: We don't know. You see the market go down. Remember, he beats up on Boeing over Air Force One, but the CEO comes back and immediately says, "The bill won't be more than $4 billion." So yes you could chalk that as a victory for the president-elect

But when you're dealing with $400 billion or $500 billion worth of state-of-the-art aircraft that you're hoping to sell to the rest of the world as well, let's face it here, put in the context, Israel's just taken four of the F-35s.

If the U.S. doesn't buy them, well, everybody else is going to pull out as well and then Lockheed Martin has a really serious problem on its hands.

BALDWIN: Richard Quest, big decisions with those ramifications around the world. Thank you, sir, very much. That's just one of the storylines that's erupted from Donald Trump tweet in the last 24 hours.

The much bigger uproar coming from comments I mentioned a second ago, nuclear weapons. In a statement to NBC, Mr. Trump said, quote, "Let it be an arms race. We will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all." His newly named press secretary, Sean Spicer, was on "NEW DAY" this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN SPICER, PRESS SECRETARY, PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: He is going to do what it takes to protect this country. If another country or countries want to threaten our safety, our sovereignty, he's going to do what it takes.

[15:40:02]ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Sure, but he's not waiting until another country threatens us. He's making these --

SPICER: Right, but he's making it very clear that other countries and other companies, you have seen with Carrier, he's going to make it clear that he will be an active president that will get things done.

CAMEROTA: Meaning he will use nuclear weapons if need be? SPICER: He will not take anything off the table. What it means is he's not going to sit back and let another country act. He needs to send a clear and concise message which he's done that he is going to be a president that defends America's interests and defends the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's bring in CNN's chief political correspondent, Dana Bash. Dana Bash, good to see you. I want to begin big picture. You have Trump tweeting about expanding the country's nuclear capability. I was talking to Quest about tweeting about Boeing and this bidding war, right?

Then you have this Christmas letter from Putin to Trump and all the while he's golfing with Tiger Woods today. Unorthodox approach. Should we be surprised to all of the above?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Of course, it's unorthodox and absolutely not we should not be surprised. You know, anybody who paid attention for 5 minutes to Donald Trump on the campaign trail never mind watching his actions on the campaign trail just vis-a-vis how he took an approach to his campaign rivals, but also more importantly listening to his rhetoric, this is what he said he was going to do.

Now when I say "this" I'm talking as you said big picture change. I'm going to change everything. I'm going to do things differently. And so whether it is as you said getting allies, potential rivals at a very dangerous arena, which is the nuclear arena back on their heels unsure of what he's going to do.

Which obviously has potentially dangerous consequences or something that is different but potentially dangerous as Richard was just talking about economically on trying to get a bidding war going between two pretty big U.S. companies.

But to the benefit, he hopes, of the U.S. taxpayer because a lot of these companies do have, as he was saying, you know, hundreds of billions of dollars of government work and a lot of them are over cost and over time so all of this is his M.O.

The question that we don't know the answer to is how the reaction is going to be. It's one thing for Lockheed's stock to go down and they hope it will eventually go back up once this settles down.

It's another thing to be say, you know, "You want an arms race? Bring it on" when you're rolling back decades and decades of attempts to nuclear arms control.

BALDWIN: And on that, let it be an arms race, which is what we heard from a pajama clad anchor on another network --

BASH: We'll leave that alone.

BALDWIN: We'll leave that to the side. You know, that has concerned some Americans. We just played a clip from a Republican congressman saying hey, he's coming from a position of strength, what's wrong with that? How do you think? I know everyone is on vacation but people in Washington, members of Congress, and even Republicans.

BASH: Well, you know, is he coming from a position of strength? You know, we don't know. His experience, his only experience which obviously he had been for the most part pretty successful as with some declarations of bankruptcy but we'll put that aside.

But his experience in business has been to keep his adversaries or the people sitting across the table in negotiations on their toes, keep them guessing so that he has leverage and so this seems to be his M.O.

Both again something as potentially dangerous as nuclear arms and something potentially dangerous to a lot of American jobs as threatening a huge American company, but you know what?

This is what voters wanted. They didn't want business as usual with politicians being worried about what their -- people are going to think and people are going to be fearful of. They wanted somebody to shake things up and that's what they got.

BALDWIN: He's shaken. Twenty seven days before he puts his hand on that Bible and speaking of that day, before I let you go, I wanted to ask about inauguration. I had Boris Epshteyn on yesterday, who is essentially the communications chair of the whole inauguration bit with Trump and beyond the significance, of course, of being inaugurated as the nation's next president, there's the pomp and circumstances and the performances, and he said yes.

You know, the big reveal was that the Rockettes would be performing for Trump's inauguration and so there's been some criticism that they haven't been able to book anyone like A-list. So this is what Trump tweeted.

[15:45:07]"The so-called A-list celebrities are all wanting tickets to the inauguration, but look watt what they did for Hillary, nothing. I want the people." What do you think inauguration will be like?

BASH: You know what? I think we just need to look at his convention. I mean, the Democratic convention did -- as he said, had A-list celebrities who at the end of the day were not successful in helping to elect their candidate.

He had people who are near and dear to our heart from our -- maybe growing up like Scott Baio, but not necessarily people who are on the front of "People" magazine every week. So I think it's going to be quite different and he's foreshadowing that in the tweet.

BALDWIN: OK, all right. Dana Bash, thank you so much.

BASH: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

Coming up next, she says she has already welcomed a Syrian refugee into her home and now this woman from Berlin is planning a 2,000 mile march, she says, to Aleppo, in solidarity with the people there. She'll join me live to discuss why she's doing this and, of course, also her reaction to the terror attack in her hometown.

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BALDWIN: Russian President Vladimir Putin called Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad today to congratulate him on retaking control of Aleppo. This as we have watched nearly 40,000 refugees, including many rebel fighters, evacuate that city.

For one woman living 2,000 miles away, it's all been just too much to watch so she is planning to go to Syria -- as in walk to Syria. She is Anna Alboth. She lives in Berlin.

She and her family have already welcomed a Syrian refugee into their own home and donated money and resources to the region. But Anna said she could no longer sit there and watch the war.

[15:50:06]So she is planning this 2000-mile march to Aleppo retracing in reverse the footsteps of the refugees who managed to get out. And she joins me now live from Berlin.

And so Anna, before I ask you just about this march, you're there at the Christmas market where we had 12 people killed earlier in the week. How does it feel to be walking around there? I understand you went to the market the next day.

ANNA ALBOTH, ORGANIZING "CIVIL MARCH TO ALEPPO" FROM BERLIN: Yes. I did. I think that's the best we can do. Not be afraid.

BALDWIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel, though, has been criticized for her refugee policy, open borders. Here you are. You took in a Syrian refuge from Aleppo. What is your response to people who look at that Berlin attacker, a Tunisian refugee, and say you shouldn't let them in?

ALBOTH: I took in a place who needed a place to sleep. I don't care if he's Syrian or not. He was sleeping on the street like 70,000 other people in Berlin at this time. And I had a free room. It was the most natural thing ever to give him place to sleep. What is my response?

I mean, I don't like putting people into boxes and saying those are refugees and those are not refugees. I have a feeling if we want to close Europe for somebody, maybe we should close it for all the men. Mainly men were terrorists last year. However, as stupid as it sounds.

BALDWIN: It's one thing, Anna, to take in a refugee. It is quite another to embark on this journey, 2,000 miles walking to Aleppo. Not to mention the dangers involved in that. Why do you want to do this? What is this about?

ALBOTH: You can say that I'm crazy, that it is a crazy idea. I have a feeling that it is more crazy to watch it and not do anything anymore. Me and many people who feel same, we just had enough of this watching. Just watching and sending money or going to the demonstrations.

We did all of this in the last months and it didn't work and there is something more we can do, which is walking. It is for everybody. Everybody can join us. And we decided to put together all this power of us and go and try to change something.

BALDWIN: How many people have reached out to you to join you?

ALBOTH: We are planning to start 3,000 people from Berlin. We're going to walk through many countries in Europe and we get information from our local coordinators that people will join us on the way. So I don't know what will be the number.

We also have confirmation from very different celebrities or VIP people who support our idea and I guess they will still bring more people. We want to show to the people who make decisions that we are not watching anymore, just sitting and watching.

BALDWIN: Anna, let's follow up with you as you're walking. I have a feeling that 3,000 numbers will grow. Anna Alboth in Berlin, thank you.

Coming up, back to the top story that we've been following. The FBI issuing a warning about possible threats from ISIS in the U.S., specifically regarding churches and holiday gatherings. The latest on that warning coming up.

Also ahead, police in Chicago make a heart breaking discovery. Three little girls, abandoned, living in deplorable conditions. It is what police did that truly made them heroes. That's next.

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[15:57:06]

BALDWIN: More than 100 passengers and crew onboard a Libyan airliner are free after being let go by two men and threatened to blow up the plane. The hijackers forced the plane to land in Malta where military negotiators refused their demands and got them to surrender.

One of the hijackers waved a green flag outside the aircraft suggesting loyalty to the late Libyan leader, Moammar Gadhafi. The Maltese prime minister saying their initial test showed the guns used in the hijacking were fake.

Love this. Thanks to some heroic Chicago police officers, three little girls found dirty and hungry and all alone have some new hope this holiday season. Ryan Young has their story in this week's "Beyond the Call of Duty."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Three young girls from Chicago are getting a fresh start at life. They're known as the Inglewood angels and the love they receive now is all thanks to one 911 call.

SGT. CHARLES ARTZ, CHICAGO POLICE: We have a situation where there are some children left alone inside this abandoned building.

YOUNG: Inside the home, Sgt. Charles Artz, says the girls, 7, 2 and 1 sat together with nothing but each other.

ARTZ: They were all huddled up together in a bedroom on a very dirty mattress that inside one of the bedrooms there. The whole house was very uninhabitable. There was no running water, no heat, and no electricity. Dirty garbage spread throughout the apartment.

YOUNG: The father was accused of striking his children and charged with eight counts of battery. He has pleaded not guilty. The mother's role in the children's lives is unclear. It is also not clear how long the girls had been abandoned. But officers found the girl's grandmother, Dolores Anderson, who hadn't seen her grand kids in years. Anderson said she quit her jobs to take full time care of the girls.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They were very small. They were dirty. They haven't been bathed in a while. They weren't used to real food at first.

YOUNG: Despite finding a loving home, officers wanted to help even more so they started stopping by the apartment to check on the children bringing furniture and other donated items. A "Go Fund Me" page they established raised over $100,000.

OFFICER MIMI BURGANN, CHICAGO POLICE: I have two daughters myself. It just, it was heartbreaking to see them and the conditions they were living in. So yes, we just knew that we needed to do something more for them.

ARTZ: We initially started bringing over some milk and some diapers.

YOUNG: The oldest child who is now 8 had never, ever attended school. The officers helped to get her enrolled. A Christmas blessing that doesn't know color or rank but just love and lots of caring.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are so many people in this world that care. For everybody to reach out, to donate what they can, food, money, clothing for the girls, and they try to help me (inaudible). My babies OK and I got a roof over here, I'm fine.

YOUNG: Ryan Young, CNN, Chicago --