Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Trump to Campaign for LA Senate Candidate; Obama Orders Full Review of Election-Related Hacking; Dow Jones Near Milestone. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired December 09, 2016 - 12:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:00:25] BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there and welcome to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Brianna Keilar in Washington.

Just when you thought the elections of 2016 were behind us, well, guess what, there is a big one still ahead and that's what brings the president-elect to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, this hour for a rally in support of GOP Senate candidate John Kennedy. Louisiana's Senate runoff is tomorrow. The outcome will either pad the Republican Senate majority in the 115th Congress or reduce it.

And speaking of Congress, before he left New York this morning, Donald Trump huddled with the speaker of the House, Paul Ryan. Here's Ryan's ten-second readout on that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: A very exciting meeting. I really enjoyed coming up here and 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)

KEILAR: Tonight, Donald Trump holds his third so-called thank you rally of the week in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

But we want to begin in the bayou with CNN's Ryan Nobles.

Ryan, tell us why Donald Trump is heading down where you are for this event today?

RYAN NOBLES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, as you mentioned, this runoff election that's going to take place tomorrow here in Louisiana won't affect whether or not Republicans control the balance of power in Washington in the U.S. Senate, but it will matter whether or not they - how much seats they control that majority by. And if John Kennedy's able to hold on for a victory here on Saturday, and all the polls show that he is expected to do so, that will mean a four-seat majority for Donald Trump. And it's clear that his incoming administration doesn't want to take any chances as they push forward his ambitious agenda. But, you know, to a certain extent, Brianna, this fits in with this

thank you tour that Donald Trump is in, is going on across the country. This is a state that voted for Donald Trump in November. It's a state that clearly supports him. Big crowd is expected here today. A long line outside this airplane hangar in Baton Rouge.

And, also, this is a state that Donald Trump visited during the campaign in August while they were being ravaged with flooding. And this morning the local newspaper, "The Advocate," reminding Trump of that visit here in August and telling him that they still need a lot of help in the rebuilding process and to remember them when he takes office in January.

Brianna.

KEILAR: Ryan, I know you're getting word about some of the meetings that Donald Trump will have next week. Which ones jump out to you?

NOBLES: Well, when you about the balance of power, one of those meetings really clearly stands out, and that's with West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin. Manchin is a Democrat, but he is very much a blue dog Democrat. He represents a very much red state in West Virginia. Coal country. And he is being rumored to be considered perhaps as the next secretary of energy or even perhaps the next secretary of state. If Manchin were to leave and go to the Trump administration, that would make Democrats very vulnerable in West Virginia. They do have a Democratic governor, so initially the appointment would be a Democrat, but then it would mean a very difficult special election battle to replace that seat. One Republicans could easily pick up.

Another interesting name coming to Trump Tower on Monday is Carly Fiorina, the former presidential candidate. Someone that Trump battled with during the campaign. Of course, Trump made some comments about Fiorina's looks that she then took him to task in a debate. So Fiorina will also be coming to Trump Tower, as will former presidential candidate Rick Santorum. So Trump continues those busy visits at Trump Tower as he fills out his administration.

Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Ryan Nobles in Baton Rouge, thank you for that report.

And this just in, President Obama has ordered a full review of hacking activity related to the 2016 presidential election. U.S. intelligence officials have blamed Russia for the hacking. I want to bring in White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski.

This is just developing now. Michelle, tell us what you know.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Brianna.

Well, you're right, obviously the president wants something broader than what's been done already. I mean they're calling it a full review. And we're hearing this from the president's top adviser on homeland security around counter terrorism, Lisa Monaco. She talked about this during a breakfast this morning at which reporter were present. So she didn't give a lot of detail. But we expect to hear from the White House soon during the daily briefing. We'll get more information then.

But, remember, it was before the election happened that the Department of Homeland Security and the intelligence community put out a statement saying that according to the investigation that was done by the FBI, and, remember, this was pre-election, they determined that Russia and the government of Russia was behind the hacking that had been going on. And, remember, it was Hillary Clinton campaign, the DNC political e-mail systems were hacked. And the intelligence community felt that it was Russia trying to influence the election.

[12:05:04] So what prompts this broader review now? Well, this could encompass a longer period of time. It could go through the election. It could be broader in the sense that it's looking at vulnerabilities as well. Maybe there's more information out there. Because we have been hearing from members of Congress, after they've gotten classified intelligence briefings, that there's more information out there.

So what's tantalizing about this is that we could hear much more detail as to what Russia was up to and how they were doing it. I mean I - as the intelligence community often says, they don't want to give away all of their sources and methods. But the White House did allude to possibly releasing some of this information publicly.

Also, a number of members of Congress have been clamoring for more information from the White House. This looks like this will help satisfy those requests. And we also know that this administration has concerns about how the next administration is going to handle the extremely complex, to say the least, relationship with Russia.

Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, certainly a big concern there. Michelle Kosinski at the White House, thank you so much.

And I am joined here now in D.C. by CNN political analyst and Washington bureau chief for "The Daily Beast," Jackie Kucinich, and CNN politics editor Juana Summers.

OK, so we just learned this, that President Obama has ordered this review of hackings that affected the election. Intel officials say it was Russia behind this. What do you make of this happening now, Jackie?

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: The latest - I mean it's taking it to the next level. You've had Senate Republicans saying that - like John McCain, saying they're going to have a review. You have Senate Democrats calling for the declassification of some of the information that intel has seen. So having President Obama take this to the next level, as Michelle said, there is some concern about how this will be handled in the future, and this helps to move that along.

KEILAR: And so in having some of that declassified, the idea of sort of exploring that this is a reality? Because we've heard Donald Trump want to doubt the veracity of it being Russia behind the hacks, right?

JUANA SUMMERS, CNN POLITICS EDITOR: We have. We've heard that. And if you listening through the course of the campaign and the way that Donald Trump has talked about Russia, he has also said in jest that Russian hackers should perhaps dig into the e-mails of Hillary Clinton and her allies. So it will be interesting to see if this review is, in fact, finished before President Obama leaves office, before the inauguration next year, what - how this kind of will be settled and what Donald Trump will say as he's thinking about our national security posture as it relates to Russia.

KUCINICH: But, either way, he is going to have to confront this if Senate Republicans decide to drive this - to keep on driving at this issue, which right now it seems like Lindsey Graham and John McCain in particular are.

KEILAR: Yes, they're not going to let it just sort of go away. OK, so our Jim Sciutto has been reporting something pretty fascinating. That on average Donald Trump is getting only one daily presidential briefing a week. It's far fewer than most recent president-elects. Way fewer than his vice president-elect. Is there concern that he's not going to be prepared when he goes into the White House?

SUMMERS: I think there's absolutely concern, and I think that concern isn't just among Democrats or those who did not support Donald Trump when he ran for president. This is really unprecedented. We have a president who has very limited national security experience and these briefings, we heard from those who have been involved in them in past administrations, are literally a deep dive into some of the most serious issues of the day. And I expect to hear - while his team has kind of brushed this off, said, you know, he's preparing adequately. He has appointed national security positions, made those among his first appointees. I think there is some real cause for concern and you're hearing that from Democrats, as well as some Republicans right now.

KUCINICH: It's kind of about having more than adequacy, right? You're the president of the United States. But it seems like Donald Trump -

KEILAR: You're the decider, as George W. Bush said.

KUCINICH: You're the decider. You're the decider. And it seems like he - this might be a window into how he's going to govern in that, you know, his surrogates, his -

KEILAR: Delegating? Is that what you think it's going to be?

KUCINICH: Delegating. That's what it sounds like right now. But we'll - obviously, we'll have to wait and see as we go forward.

KEILAR: And if that's sufficient, because a lot of people would say that that isn't sufficient. Someone that he's going to be working with, the House speaker, just - you heard that ten seconds where House Speaker Ryan talked to Donald Trump and he came out and said, you know, he's very excited. He said that twice in ten seconds about getting the work in 2017. Your read on that, Juana? What did you think?

SUMMERS: I - House Speaker Paul Ryan is someone who, during the campaign, certainly had his differences with Trump. I think that he is elated to see Republicans have not just control of the House, control - a Senate majority, having the White House. He's ready to move on, to get to the next level, to start talking about the policies. This is the guy - Paul Ryan is a policy wonk. I covered him in 2012 when he was Mitt Romney's presidential nominee.

KEILAR: We could say he's nerdy and I - he would not be - find that to be an insult at all.

SUMMERS: I think he would probably appreciate that.

KEILAR: Yes.

SUMMERS: I think he's ready to get into the weeds of being able to push forward the agenda that he's laid out for House Republicans, such as getting - repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act. Policies goals that House Republicans have had for years now but they haven't been able to do with a Democrat in the White House.

KEILAR: This is a president-elect who claimed during the campaign that he saw Muslims celebrating after the fall of the Twin Towers and he's picked a national security adviser who he claims - who claims that he's seen Arabic language signs in Mexico directing Islamists terrorists to the U.S. border. Take a listen to a bit of an interview that former - retired General Michael Flynn gave Breitbart radio back in August.

[12:10:20] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RET. LT. GEN. MICHAEL FLYNN (voice-over): I know from my - my friends in the border patrol, in CBP, that they - they - that there are - there are countries, so there's radical Islamist countries, state - state sponsored, that are cutting deals with - with Mexican drug cartels for some of what they call the lanes of entry into our country. And I have seen - I have personally seeing the photos of the - of the signage, OK, the signage along those paths that are in Arabic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: OK, so there are no reputable, no official sources that are corroborating this. When we've asked, we're not getting a response about this. As far as we understand, this is patently false. What's the concern with Michael Flynn being the president-elect's top national security adviser when this isn't even true?

KUCINICH: I mean - but this also isn't the first Islamophobic thing that Michael Flynn has said. He has a history of saying things like this. And so - and - but he doesn't have to go through a confirmation hearing. He doesn't have to go through some of the other cabinet - bars the other cabinets have to - members have to pass. So until you see Republicans and Republican senators start speak out against Michael Flynn, it's hard to say that there are any consequences for statements like this.

KEILAR: Michael Flynn's son, one of his top advisors, was axed from the transition because he tweeted about "pizzagate," another conspiracy theory, unfounded. I wonder if you think, Juana, that is a sign that some of this - these ridiculous, untrue conspiracy theories that there will be less tolerance for them going forward? What do you think?

SUMMERS: I would certainly hope that's the case, because the issues that we're talking about and the allegations that Michael Flynn has made and the allegations about so-called "pizzagate," they're really serious and I think that hopefully Donald Trump is surrounding himself, as president-elect, with people who understand the gravity of the issues that we're talking about and is able to kind of clear house of those kind of conspiracy theories. But by picking someone like Michael Flynn to serve at such a high post, who has peddled in conspiracy theories time and time again despite having a very respective intelligence career, I'm just not optimistic that that's what's actually going to happen here.

KEILAR: Yes.

All right, I want to ask you this before I let you go. Turns out Donald Trump is going to stay on as the executive producer of "Celebrity Apprentice." It seems pretty weird. I think a lot of people are saying that's potentially a huge conflict. But then on "New Day," Kellyanne Conway, one of his top advisors, essentially said, why not?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP TRANSITION ADVISER: He's a very transparent guy. Everyone can see what he's doing. And the fact is that he is conferring with all types of experts to tell him what he is allowed to do and not to do as the president of the United States. And if this is one of the approved activities, then perhaps he'll consider staying on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: I'm fascinated - I am fascinated by this, that he would be EP of "Celebrity Apprentice." It's funny and then it's also not funny.

KUCINICH: It's - no.

KEILAR: It's also very unfunny, right?

KUCINICH: But it's in-line with what he said with his businesses. Yes, I mean, we have the press conferences next week on December 15th, but he is having trouble stepping away from all of these things. And, no, he doesn't have to. Should he? Yes, he should.

SUMMERS: It's really funny, I never thought I'd be talking about a president with a part-time job. So we're going to seeing President- elect - or President Trump in the credits, I guess? The issue here, I think this is why so many reputable experts on both sides of the aisle have said that he needs to divest himself of his businesses, perhaps turn them over to a blind trust. The idea that the president will have - be receive a salary from a major broadcast organization is just really not the kind of conflict of interest we've seen the likes of in the White House before.

KEILAR: Or even if there's just some dramatic or something that happens one week on "Celebrity Apprentice," that then somehow that gets into presidential politics. It's sort of unfathomable.

Juana Summers, Jackie Kucinich, thank you to both of you. Have a great weekend.

And staying with politics, Andy Puzder, Donald Trump's pick for labor secretary, has been a harsh critic of raising the minimum wage. Next, what his nomination means for working class Americans.

And we're waiting for the president-elect to take the stage at a Louisiana GOP Senate rally. We're going to take you live to Baton Rouge when he gets going there. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:18:20] KEILAR: Keeping our eye on the markets right now. There you see, the Dow Jones trading. It's up about a little over 50 points there. And we're getting very close to a major milestone, the 20,000 mark. The Dow has rallied some 1,300 points since Donald Trump's victory.

And I want to bring in CNN Money's Alison Kosik to explain why that is.

Alison.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN MONEY: So the way the market see it, Brianna, is that a Donald Trump as president will be good for business, he'll be good for the economy because he's going to be ushering in lower regulation, lower taxes and he'll be a president in a time when you're seeing an uptrend for interest rates. Meaning interest rates are expected to be moving higher.

It's amazing when you look at where the Dow is now. Just four - less than 400 points shy of that 20,000 mark. How quickly it's gotten there if you look at the Dow over the past year, you'll see that a week before Election Day, the Dow was lower than 18,000. Earlier this year, when oil prices were crashing, it was less than 16,000. So it's really moved very quickly.

And also, if you are invested in the stock market, you may want to look at your portfolio. Since the day after Election Day, about three quarters of the stocks in the S&P 500 have been in the green.

Brianna.

KEILAR: OK, so talk to us now about Donald Trump's pick for labor secretary. Andrew Puzder, is the head of the chain that runs Carl's Jr. He's also getting better known now as someone who raising the minimum wage among other things, which not surprisingly is a departure from the Obama administration. What can you tell us about him?

KOSIK: Yes, the reason that this pick is so controversial is because a lot of the issues, where he stands on these issue, most likely will be crossing his desk at labor secretary. And you touched on one, minimum wage. He opposes a $15 minimum wage, but he is for a smaller increase from the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. He thinks that the $15 will hurt small businesses and wind up leading to job losses.

[12:20:15] He's also been an outspoken critic of Obamacare. In fact, he says those rising premiums cause a government mandated restaurant recession, meaning, because everybody was spending so much money on those premiums, they didn't have a lot of income to go ahead and spend money eating out. He's also criticized paid sick leave and he's blasted new overtime rules which would have expanded the number of people who get overtime.

Ironically, a judge actually suspended that rule, that President Obama had ushered in. A judge in Texas did this just a couple of weeks ago because this rule was supposed to go into effect December 1st, but the judge said he needed some time to look at the rule.

Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, very interesting. Alison Kosik, thank you so much.

KOSIK: Sure.

KEILAR: I want to talk more now about this nomination for labor secretary. Such an important job. And Rana Foroohar is the CNN global economic analyst with us and she's "Times" assistant managing editor as well, joining us from New York.

So, so, Rana, thank you so much for being with us.

And we're hearing this, right, the new labor secretary is opposed to a higher minimum wage. Maybe increasing - or I should say he's opposed to increasing it to $15. Maybe he's for it being a little - slightly higher, as you heard Alison explain. He is against these new overtime rules. He has voiced opposition to this mandatory paid sick leave. What does it mean for workers of America?

RANA FOROOHAR, CNN GLOBAL ECONOMIC ANALYST: Well, if I were a lower paid worker, in particular, I would be a bit worried. You know, there are two issues here. One is that this is someone who's run a company, a fast-food chain, Hardee's, Carl Jr.'s, that has had significant numbers of labor violations. You know, under the Obama administration, there was a study that found that about 60 percent of the Carl's and Hardee's that they looked at had violation of some form of labor laws. So you want a labor secretary that's going to enforce labor law. That's point number one.

Point number two is that, yes, even though too high of a minimum wage can certainly hurt small business and that's something that policymakers need to take into effect, most larger businesses, think about Walmart, Starbucks, are actually raising wages for workers, and that's because we live in an economy that is made up 70 percent of consumer spending. If you don't have people having more money in their pockets, the economy can't really grow. And particularly when most of the jobs being created right now are still low-level service jobs, that's a real problem for underlying economic growth. So I think that the math here may be a little short-sided. Sure, you create some more cheap jobs in the short term, but are you growing the pie in a bigger way longer term?

KEILAR: The - their argument, certainly Puzder and those who are allies of his philosophy, is that they are growing the pie with lower wages and fewer regulation. They say this is going to be fuel for the job creation machine. I know the disagreement here frequently falls on party lines, but what is the evidence about whether they are right or wrong here?

FOROOHAR: So most economic studies show that raising the minimum wage to over $10 an hour would have really a net neutral effect. It would not have an effect on job creation in this country. There are some states, particularly low-wage states, where if you raise it much higher than that, it might have an effect. But I would argue that the conversation we should be having around labor right now is not how to get a couple more dollars from low-level service jobs, but how to actually train up a 21st century workforce that can do higher wage jobs? Because bottom line, and Puzder himself has said this, is that technology, robots, A.I., software, are going to be taking a lot of those lower level jobs anyway if current trend lines occur. So we really need to be talking about how to create a smarter, more productive middle-class group of workers that can really push growth forward beyond what it is now.

KEILAR: OK. Here's what President-elect Donald Trump said last night in Des Moines. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT: Whether it's producing steel, building cars or curing disease, we want the next generation of innovation and production to happen right here in America. We will have two simple rules when it comes to rebuilding this country. Buy American and hire American.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: So the message there, Rana, is pretty clear, right? He saying, buy American, hire American. Is it that simple in a global economy?

FOROOHAR: It's not that simple, no. I mean economic growth is simple. Economic growth is based on the number of workers you have in a country and how productive they are. What concerns me is that demographics are actually being hurt by some of the Trump anti- immigration policies. You know, we need to be talking about how to get more skilled immigrants in, how to get more immigrants of all - of all ages and sizes into this country and also to raise the birth rate, which is harder. We need to be talking about how to make workers more productive, which means training. It means linking up the dots between educators and job creators. So these are tough things. It's not all about just cutting taxes and regulation. We've had about 20 years of evidence now that shows that that really doesn't bolster growth beyond the 2 percent that we have right now.

[12:25:18] KEILAR: He has promised to deliver, though. We'll see if he can and maybe if some of the philosophies of some of these folks are adjusted in this. We'll see.

All right, Rana Foroohar, thank you so much.

FOROOHAR: Thank you.

KEILAR: And we are still watching, we're waiting for Donald Trump. He is set to take the podium in Baton Rouge at a get out the vote rally for Louisiana Senate runoff. CNN is going to bring you those remarks live.

And a quick programming note. Tune in this Sunday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific for the tenth annual "CNN Heroes: All-Star Tribute." This is hosted by Anderson Cooper and Kelly Ripa. And here's a sneak peek.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are the kind and the caring. They are the strong and the brave. They are the ones who see a need, fill a void, make a difference.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm trying to give them all the opportunities that they deserve.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This has become my life. I don't ever want to do anything else.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They don't do it for themselves, they do it for all the rest of us. They are a reminder of what's good in this world and what it truly means to be a hero.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We give them the foundation from which they can thrive. It's a feeling of family.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have transformed the lives of thousands of children.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This Sunday night, CNN presents a very special live event. The tenth annual "CNN Heroes: All-Star Tribute."

ANDERSON COOPER, HOST: Tonight we're gathered to celebrate extraordinary men and women who highlight the best of what humanity has to offer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Join host Anderson Cooper and special co-host Kelly Ripa, as we honor ten extraordinary people. The tenth annual "CNN Heroes: All-Star Tribute, live Sunday night at 8:00 on CNN.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)