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Trump: Companies That Leave The U.S. Must Pay The Price; Obama Gives Final Major National Security Address Today; White Supremacist Speaks Tonight At Texas A&M

Aired December 06, 2016 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:02] TOME COLE, (R) OKLAHOMA: Look, we're all in favor of trying to make sure that we keep as many jobs in the Unites States as possible, and frankly, grow more. To me, the more productive route, and something that President-elect Trump is also pursuing is to lower taxes on American companies and that pursue real regulatory reform. I think tariffs as a punitive weapon, you know, have a place and the company is dumping in the United States, but it's very hard to impose a teraphonic company. Usually do it on a product and it's pretty cumbersome, but again, if you make the environment in the Unites States attractive, I think you'll have far fewer companies thinking about leaving.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Congressman Kevin McCarthy is worried about a trade war. He said I don't want get to into some kind of trade war. Is that a real concern for you?

COLE: You know, well, I would agree with that sentiment 100 percent. I don't think trade wars are particularly productive, you know, 95 percent of consumers in the world live outside ...

KEILAR: Is that what would happen, you know, Congressman if you're looking at a tariff, a 35 percent tariff, as Donald Trump is proposing?

COLE: You know. It's pretty hard to respond to a tweet without knowing the specifics of a proposal. So again, I think it probably would be a lot more complex than you can deal with in a short tweet, and to me the preferred approach, I think, the right way, is to lower the taxes on businesses that are here. Reward them to make the regulatory restraints of the idea with a lot looser. And to try and create an environment that actually attracts foreign companies to do business here. For instance, my district, I've got Michelin Tire, employs over 2,000 people. That's a french company creating 2,000 jobs in the Unites States.

I've got Hitachi. That creates another 1,000 plus jobs in Norman, Oklahoma. So, I'm not very interested in going to trade war with countries that are actually, that have companies investing here and employing American workers literally by the thousands.

KEILAR: Do you take the tweets, then, as bluster? Or as something that just raises a lot of questions for you? COLE: Well, look, first I want to applaud the President-elect for working hard to keep 1,000 jobs here from carrier. I think he's trying to make sure that American companies think twice, and he's signaled them in a very positive way. Look, we're all going to work and get you tax and regulatory relief from day one. So, again, I think, you know, we'll arrive at a more full understanding of this, but I think 35 percent tariff imposed on companies not products and particularly sometimes the companies create jobs overseas and then keep the better jobs here. So it's just -- it's a lot more complex, and I think you can sum up in a quick statement, and I'll wait and see what the president actually proposes. But in general, tariff barriers more up to cost you jobs and then keep jobs in your country.

KEILAR: What is it like as you were looking towards a new Congress here in January, to have a president-elect who is in your party, but even demonstrated by what we're talking about now, has very different views than what you would expect from a Republican, when it comes to economic proposals?

COLE: Well, first of all, I'm very excited to have him and I think most Republicans are. Look, we know we're going to get fundamental tax reform. We know we're going get some repeal of Obamacare. Frankly, we've been pretty heartened by the appointments he has made so far across the board. So I don't have any concern. I'm actually much more delighted. I'm going to be a lot less at odds with President Trump on almost any subject than I was in most of our conference was with President Obama. So I don't think we see this as a problem. We see it as an opportunity, we look forward to working with the president- elect.

KEILAR: All right. Congressman Cole, we do appreciate your time. Thank you so much for joining us from Capitol Hill.

COLE: Thank you.

[12:33:49] KEILAR: And coming up, President Obama heads to Florida today to deliver his final speech on his counterterrorism strategy. We'll have a preview and what this means for President-elect Trump ahead.

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KEILAR: At 4:00 p.m. eastern President Obama will deliver the final remarks of his presidency on his administration's counterterrorism strategy. He'll do this at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida. CNN will be carrying that live. And there's two key things that he'll push for closing the navel prison at Guantanamo Bay and maintaining a ban on torture.

Sean Naylor joins me now, he's a former senior writer for Army times and he is the author of "Relentless Strike: the secret history of joint special joint operations command". So Sean, the president going to Tampa is -- this seems very symbolic, that this is where he's militarily messaging and book-ending his presidency, right?

SEAN NAYLOR, AUTHOR, "RELENTLESS STRIKE": Yes. So MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa is the home to both U.S. Central Command which runs the wars in the Middle East and U.S. Special Operations Command, that has provided the forces upon whom President Obama has relied to lead those wars.

KEILAR: And there's been a shift under President Obama, and we've even recently seen reporting on an expansion of Special Forces in the command over Special Forces and their engagement in fighting terrorists overseas. What do you think he's going to say about that, in this speech? And what do you think he's passing on to president- elect Trump?

NAYLOR: I'm not sure that he's going to talk about the sort of incremental changes that are coming, you know, to the structure of special operation. He may not dive that deeply into the details. I obviously don't know.

[12:39:52] But I think that he'll be keen to make sure that the president-elect understands the vast array of resources at his disposal. Particularly in the special operations community and he'll be probably keen to make sure that the president-elect doesn't make any, in Obama's mind, rash decisions about pulling out or scaling back some of those operations.

KEILAR: What changes could then President Trump make from the direction of President Obama has taken the defense of the nation in?

NAYLOR: Well, Donald Trump has publicly indicated a skepticism about the covert, unconventional war that the CIA with special operations help is running against President Assad in Syria. Trump seems to prefer a simple focus on the Islamic state in that part of the world rather than sort of dividing efforts. He sees Assad and the Russians fighting the Islamic state and I think he has indicated, at least in very superficial comments, that he'd sort of would rather everybody be on the same side in that fight.

KEILAR: He has retired General Michael Flynn coming in, this is National Security Adviser. We know that retired General Mattis is going to be in charge of things over at the defense department. When you look at those picks, what does that signal to you about the direction that the president-elect wants to go?

NAYLOR: Well, as individuals, they bring different sort of skill sets to the table. Mike Flynn is probably the more controversial of the two picks, because he's been something of a fire brand since retiring. He was a highly respected, intelligence officer. He ran into trouble at the defense intelligence agency and was forced out by the Obama administration. And, you know, he seems to have carried that grudge into his retirement.

So he's -- he's the guy who's -- been the focus of most of the criticism from observers of these two appointments. General Mattis vastly respected, retired marine four-star general. He was the U.S. central command head. So he'll be familiar with the issues. And I suspect that you're going to see a slightly stronger line taken against Iran as a result of these appointments. Both individuals have, have, you know, publicly been quite critical of Iran. So that would be the most predictable thing, I think, we you could see.

KEILAR: All right. We will wait and see. This is -- it's all anticipation until we know exactly. Sean Naylor, thank you so much for being with us. Appreciate it.

A major college is bracing for protests as white Supremacist Richard Spencer brings his deeply disturbing message to Texas A&M University on campus tonight. We'll have that next.

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[12:46:55] KEILAR: Tonight at Texas A&M University a white supremacist will speak on campus much to the dismay of most students, teachers and university officials. Richard Spencer is president and director of the National Policy Institute. It's a harmless sounding organization but it has a hate-filled mission. Texas A&M did not invite him to speak but in a report that first aired on "A.C. 360" last night, Gary Tuchman introduces us to the man who did.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is the man who invited White nationalist Richard Spencer to speak at Texas A&M University. Preston Wiginton knows it will be controversial, he knows most people don't want this event to take place.

What do you think of Richard Spencer?

PRESTON WIGINTON, SPEECH ORGANIZER: I think he has a valid point.

RICHARD SPENCER, WHITE NATIONALIST: Hail Trump. Hail our people. Hail victory.

TUCHMAN: The Nazi era wording, the Nazi era imagery at this gathering in Washington, D.C. upsetting to so many. Wiginton, a political activist who lives in Texas says he doesn't agree with all of Spencer's views, but he certainly does some of them.

Do you this is a white nation?

WIGINTON: I think it was at one time and that the reaction of Trump being elected and the reaction that's going on with the alt-right being popular is reaction to it declining being a white nation.

TUCHMAN: Wiginton says he doesn't like to label himself but says he is sympathetic to the point of view of the so called alt-right a relatively new term for what in the past were simply called white supremacist.

WIGINTON: Why would I want to see America become less white, why would I want to be displaced and marginalized?

TUCHMAN: Here is the thing.

WIGINTON: Only people with a mental illness wanted to be displaced and marginalized. TUCHMAN: But here is the thing, you and people like you have this hang up above the color of people's skin. What's the difference, what color people's skin are? What matters is the kind of people they are. So why does it matter the pigment of their skin?

WIGINTON: It's not just pigment.

TUCHMAN: What is it?

WIGINTON: People's behavior, people's I.Q., people evolve over different times and different places.

TUCHMAN: OK, there are lots of white people with low IQs there are lots of black people with high IQs there are lots of red people with low IQs and high IQs. Everyone is different you're stereotyping. So my question is ...

WIGINTON: Better the devil I know than the devil I don't.

TUCHMAN: Texas A&M does not want this event to happen and it's officially rejected Richard Spencer's views. But says it cannot ban the event because this is a public university. The number of students who oppose Spencer's visit have organized what is expected to be a large demonstration. They pledged to keep it peaceful.

MICHOLAS MEINDI, TEXAS A&M GRADUATE STUDENT: We have a responsibility to take measured action to counter white nationalism, white supremacy.

WIGINTON: Yeah, I think there's going to be outside agitators, by all means.

TUCHMAN: Wiginton, who was a former A&M student has mentioned on the website of the southern poverty law center, a moment to repeat hate groups which says he has declared he wants to prevent the populations of white nations from becoming what he has termed a homogeneous muddle of sludge. Wiginton says he was misquoted but doesn't deny the point of the quote and says saying there is a way to make America no more white.

WIGINTON: A ban on immigration, if not, the strict curve on immigration. I don't think that you can bring Somalians into America and expect them to assimilate, it's completely different culture. Just didn't happen.

TUCHMAN: But some Somalians can, right?

[12:50:00] WIGINTON: Oh, I would be very selective on that. I think we just freely a lot to me of anybody into America

TUCHMAN: So that's what prejudice is though is that you're saying they should all not come. There are bad people absolutely, should not be in this country from all nationalities, all creeds and religions. But by saying that all Somalis shouldn't come here, isn't that being a bigot?

WIGINTON: Um -- sometimes maybe being a bigot is wise.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Gary Tuchman joining me from college station, Texas. A very candid interview you had with Preston Wiginton, Gary, and tell us how he knows Richard Spencer.

TUCHMAN: Brianna, Wiginton and Spencer have been acquaintances many years. They communicate with each other on the internet. What's interesting is they had never met in person before, before last night when Spencer arrived here in college station, and now they are kindred spirits together in person.

KEILAR: And this event, this counterevent that is scheduled, what are we expecting from that? I'm assuming a lot of students will be attending?

TUCHMAN: A lot of people and it's now not just one event. It's several different events, they're all supposed to be peaceful and thoughtful. The university is sponsoring one of the events and people not only students and not only people from this community, but people from throughout and the United States and many notable people are invited to attend including an 86-year-old man from Dallas who was a Holocaust survivor. But it is expected, the university is prepared or perhaps thousands to people demonstrating against this events.

KEILAR: All right, Gary Tuchman, Great report. Thank you so much. And I want to bring in now Texas A&M University President Michael Young. President Young, thank you for being with us today and I want to know about the moment when you found out that Richard Spencer would be coming to your campus, and there was nothing you could do about it. Tell us about that.

MICHALE YOUNG, PRESIDNET, TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY, Well, we want to be clear, and this is really an important point which became immediately apparent to me. We did not invite this speaker. No student organization, no faculty, no staff group invited this person to speak. This is simply a private citizen who rented a public space. And we do that all the time, but we had -- we did not do this and we have consistently said this does not reflect our values. It doesn't reflect any rational person's values. This is reprehensible speech and we simply don't endorse it.

KEILAR: OK. So and we are certainly we have that in our reporting for sure and do understand that and are stressing that, but when you found it -- when did you find this out, and I can imagine you were just shocked. Tell us about it.

YOUNG: Well, not entirely shocked. I mean, these groups appeared on campuses all over the country. There are free speech opportunities here in the Unites States, we cherish and value that. That right is steeped in the blood of the patriots as well. But this, I think has gotten more attention than they have in the past in part because some of the rhetoric during the election, and became a more visible issue, but I don't think this is an unusual occurrence on campuses around the Unites States.

KEILAR: What kind of crowd are you expecting? YOUNG: At their event? At this ...

KEILAR: No, no, no. You're having a counterevent. We now know that there are going to be other events to counter Richard Spencer's appearance. What are you expecting those to look like?

YOUNG: Well, we and the students groups are sponsoring an event called Aggies United. Aggies are our nickname, as a university. And we have invited faculty, staff, students, people from the community. Indeed from all over Texas and it's going to be live streamed on Facebook. So we're inviting all of America to join us, and we're going to celebrate our values. We're going to talk about diversity, inclusion, respect and integrity and service. That's what we stand for. That's what we represent, and that's the kind of narrative that we want people to understand about this university, and what this university means.

KEILAR: Are you concerned about security? Not even just at your Aggies United event, but at other events that are going to counter this appearance by a white supremacist to Texas A&M?

YOUNG: We're always concerned about security at anything, at any event and we want to make sure that everybody is safe. Certainly everybody has a right to say what they want in appropriate ways and appropriate spaces. But we do have security, as we always do when things occur here on this campus.

KEILAR: And you mentioned this happens at universities across the country. Have you ever dealt with something like this before?

YOUNG: I don't know exactly what you mean by "Dealt With" but I have been in public universities much of my career ...

[12:55:01] KEILAR: Have you been at a university where you have someone who is coming on and obviously is going to speak about something that is so incredibly unpopular to the point where you could have security concerns about the response to it?

YOUNG: Absolutely. Every university I've been at has had those kind of speakers.

KEILAR: OK. And so as you are trying to support some of your students, just real quickly before I let you go, what's your message to them?

YOUNG: Our message is that, I at least don't believe this even deserves the dignity of a response, this kind of rhetoric, but I do believe it's an opportunity for us to say what we stand for, what we believe, and what is important to this university and our community, and with Aggies United tonight, that's exactly what we intend sow say and invite everybody to come join us.

KEILAR: We will be watching. President Michael Young, thank you so much and thank you to all of you for watching "Newsroom." "Wolf" will start after a quick break.

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