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Don Lemon Tonight
President Trump at the White House; Reviewing the Inaugural Speech; Fashions of the Day; President Trump and His Staff Ready To Work. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired January 21, 2017 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[00:00:50] DON LEMON, CNN HOST: Beautiful shot of Washington, the Capital there. It is midnight here in Washington. Day two for the Trump administration, that's right day two, it's past midnight. This is CNN Tonight, I'm Don Lemon. Thank you so much for joining us.
The 45th President and first lady, back at the White House tonight after an inauguration day full of pageantry and parades. Capped off by their first dance to Frank Sinatra's, what else, "My Way".
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Really, could there be any other choice for this president, for President Donald Trump? Pretty much everything has gone his way so far, but what happens as he really gets down to the tough business of governing? We're going to drill in on that. Let's get right now to Senior White House Correspondent Sara Murray. Sara, good evening or good morning to you depending on where you are in the country. Sara give us an update now on where the President is and the first lady.
SARA MURRAY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well it looks like they have finally wrapped up what I'm sure was a very long and obviously a momentous day for them. They just finished up their third Inaugural Ball and they have returned to the White House.
There were some speculations, some sources had heard, that Donald Trump was going to be stopping by the Trump International Hotel this evening here in Washington to greet friends, to greet family and it looks like they have axed that from their potential agenda.
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Instead capping it off with the three balls where he danced with Melania, as well as other members of his family. Now they are back in the White House for their first night there, Don.
LEMON: Sara, it's been quite a historic day. What's on the agenda for tomorrow? Take us forward.
MURRAY: Well tomorrow is going to be extremely busy for them as well. Donald Trump will kick off the day with a prayer service at the National Cathedral. Then we're going to see his staff begin to get settled in the White House and begin to set their agenda for next week.
We saw them put out a couple different executive orders, a couple other actions from Reince Priebus the chief of staff. I think what you're going to see is them start to line up exactly what they want to do in terms of additional needier executive orders on Monday.
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It is possible we could potentially get more of this over the weekend, but I think even Donald Trump's team is trying to figure out exactly where they want to go from here. Exactly what they want to put out over the weekend or if they just kind of want to take a second, get settled in the White House, take a breath and roll out some of these big things on Monday Don.
LEMON: Sara, so for you as you're watching this, and you've been covering this since this all began, what was the defining moment or image of the day for you?
MURRAY: I think we always think of Donald Trump of course as a very irreverent guy, he was an irreverent candidate. We saw him give an inaugural address that's very different from what we've seen from past presidents.
There were actually two moments, one was when I was talking to a friend of his right as Donald Trump was leaving the church service this morning.
This friend was telling me that Donald Trump was openly emotional, he was teary eyed as he was leaving that church service. This person told me that the reality, the magnitude of this moment was hitting him and I think we saw that for ourselves when we were waiting for Donald Trump to give his inaugural address, he was sitting out there on that dais.
You saw him fiddling with his hands, clenching his hands, rocking back and forth, visibly nervous, in a way we don't usually see from Donald Trump. I think that was sort of the best indication that while we don't expect this man to go to the White House to reinvent himself, I don't think that all of the sudden a pivot is coming.
It is clear that he began to understand the enormity of this day and the task that he's going to be faced with as the President.
LEMON: Sara Murray, thank you very much.
Now I want to bring in CNN's Kate Bennett and Nia-Malika Henderson. Also Kate Anderson Brower, author of "First Women: The Grace and Power of America's Modern First Ladies" and Emily Jane Fox, Mark Preston, Kirsten Powers, Rick Santorum and Kevin Madden.
So you can see we have a very small panel here.
(LAUGHTER) Mark, if anyone was wondering if views were going to change, Donald Trump had a message for them tonight at that Freedom Ball, right? Take a look at this.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Should I keep the Twitter going or not? Keep it going? I think so. You know the enemies keep saying, "Oh that's terrible", but you know it's the way of bypassing dishonest media, right?
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[00:05:06] LEMON: It's part of who he is, I mean it's -- Twitter should just pay him.
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MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I mean he's calling us "the enemies", you know? Listen, the bottom line is Donald Trump doesn't like to be criticized. He gets criticized by the media for some of the ridiculous statements that he makes and he's never going to like us now. When you do say nice things about him, he loves us right? You know when that happens, it just so happens he steps on himself often.
LEMON: There are reports tonight in the New York Times that he is resisting using the POTUS handle, his team wants him to use that handle. Who's going to win? Anybody want to wage any bets?
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Use "the President".
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You know he can determine what he wants his Twitter handle to be. Donald Trump is 70 years old, he is the oldest president.
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He is the oldest president ever elected in the history of this country. I think Ronald Reagan was 69. He's a grandpa, grandpas don't really change. I mean it's like that play "Waiting for Godot", Godot never shows up.
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He's also a billionaire. He's not used to changing and listening to people and it could end up being a problem.
You want people around you who feel like they can stand up to you and tell you no, you also want people that you can fire. He's got people like Jared Kushner around him that he can't exactly fire, there's some early signs in talking to Republicans who've worked in White Houses before.
Listen, so far so good in terms of what his personality and what his approach to politics has ended up and it ended up at the White House.
LEMON: Kate Bennett, here's more of the President's inaugural address.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: At the bedrock of our politics will be a total allegiance to the United States of America and through our loyalty to our country, we will rediscover our loyalty to each other. When you open your heart to patriotism there is no room for prejudice.
The bible tells us how good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity. We must speak our minds openly, debate our disagreements honestly, but always pursue solidarity.
When America is united, America is totally unstoppable. There should be no fear, we are protected and we will always be protected.
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LEMON: So Kate Bennett, he was criticized a great deal for being divisive on matters of race especially on the campaign trail, these remarks are going to heal anything?
KATE BENNETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: I mean I think today was overwhelming. Everyone's taking it in, you could hear the applause from the crowd.
It wasn't necessarily a fervent response. That might not be the word we're looking for, but you know it's divisive, it's still divisive.
I mean look around the city today. We still had some riots, pockets of it. There's still going to be some people opposing him, but he's got a long way to go. You know, day one.
LEMON: But actions will speak louder than words, especially him on this particular issue.
HENDERSON: Yes, I think that's right and it might be unreal to think that any president can be some healer. American's aren't going to get around a campfire and have s'mores or something.
It's something that I think people had expectations of Obama in terms of bridging the racial divide. Talking about our race, talking about racism, it's not something he necessarily felt comfortable doing all the time.
I don't think this is the kind of language that Donald Trump is comfortable with either. This whole idea of patriotism and prejudice. I think it was a literation, that's great, but it made no sense.
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LEMON: I kept wondering what patriotism had to do with prejudice.
KEVIN MADDEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well look, just remember first of all, Donald Trump himself and his team. They would vigorously dispute the charge that they're being divisive.
At the same time I don't believe that Donald Trump in his speech today, or overall sees himself as some "uniter in chief". I think he sees himself as a "doer in chief".
That is exactly why he has the exact appeal that he tried to offer today in his speech. Which is that don't ever let anybody ever tell you that it can't be done, I'm going to do it.
I think a lot of the frustration that you see around the country is largely because people believe that there's a canyon that has grown between Washington and people around the country, and that he's here to close that gap and actually get things done on behalf of them.
LEMON: But shouldn't he try to sort of unite the people on both sides of that canyon?
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It is called the United States of America, not the (inaudible) states of America.
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[00:10:56] RICK SANTORUM, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: What Donald Trump is going to do is go up here to Capitol Hill and he's going to get a bunch of deals done.
I mean he's not going to do what Barack Obama did, which was preach all this wonderful unity and hope and change and then really be a rather divisive force in the city where nothing got done.
Donald Trump doesn't have that, that's not his shtick to go out and preach all these things. But it is his shtick to go and get things accomplished.
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LEMON: This issue is not just about this city, when it comes to especially race and healing in America. This is sort of what the foundation of America is. It's part of the foundation and the fabric of America and as the person who heads this country, it should be at the top of his agenda to deal with that, to try to unite the people of this country.
It's not just about being the deal maker. It's also about being united, it's also about understanding all people and the history of this country.
SANTORUM: Understood. His policies are focused at people in this country as he said. You know you've talked about the carnage and everything, but what he said was many people in this country have been closing factories, left behind.
His policies, if you look at them, are specifically designed to try to help those people. Let's look, who are disproportionately are people who are not doing as well? Disproportionately minorities are not doing as well as the white majority, that's just the statistic approach.
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LEMON: Even when those factors were running, there were people who were African American and maybe Hispanic and women who could not even get jobs in those factories. So now all of the sudden the factory is closed and the people who were in those factories are hurting and they want to be heard now.
But the people who couldn't even get a job to go into those factories and were working for the people who owned those factories, could not get a job there, they weren't heard from.
So those people are suffering and they want to be heard as well, where is the healer for them? Where is the deal maker for those people?
SANTORUM: I think you're asking a lot here to be honest with you. I think what Donald Trump has said is, and you hear this all the time from the other side, look we don't need a program, we need a job, I need a job.
Well now he's going to go out and provide the opportunity for the 74 percent of Americans in this country who don't have a college degree to be out there and get good paying jobs. That's what his focus is.
Now he may or may not be able to deliver that, but that's what his focus is and I think he'll get bipartisan support to do it.
LEMON: I'm just telling you there are a lot of people whose voices are not heard in this country. It's not just people who work and the rest don't. I don't want to be crude, it's not just white people who live and the rest don't.
It's also women who haven't been given opportunities for a long time. It's also Hispanics that haven't been given opportunities. It's also Muslims who are discriminated against. It's also African Americans who bear the burden of slavery and Jim Crow.
There are a lot of folks who need help in this country, who want to be heard.
Go ahead Kirsten.
KIRSTEN POWERS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think that's true, but I'm going to have to agree a little bit Senator Santorum here. You don't go to the hardware store for bagels, as the saying goes. You can't ask him to be something he's not. We can ask it, he's probably not going to become a person that he's not.
He doesn't view himself as elected to unite the country. He views himself as somebody who is supposed to save us from what he has described as almost a dystopian disaster.
Now I don't see this country as being the dystopia that he described, but there are a lot of people who do. There are a lot of people who feel that that is the America. It's what he thinks, that's what his supporters think and that's who he is talking to.
It would be great if he would come around to a point of wanting to be more of a uniter, but I also have to say I think Barack Obama really wanted to be a uniter.
He really wanted to see that for the country and look at the country? I don't know how many speeches you can give, frankly, that are better than what Barack Obama was doing and still look he leaves, and look how divided we are.
LEMON: Kate Anderson Brower, do you think his family may help in this aspect, especially Ivanka? Who appears to be a little bit more central, maybe even left?
KATE ANDERSEN BROWER, AUTHOR: Yes, I think she maybe humanizes him. I think when you see him with his grandchildren, there's something that is very human and real about that.
But listening to him today it reminded me a little bit of President Nixon. You know, speaking to the silent majority of people. Now that they're not disenfranchised anymore, I wonder what's going to happen.
Part of Trump's appeal is his populous message that he has. When you're no longer in the minority and when you're in charge, you lose some of that appeal, even with the people that voted for you.
Go on, and you think Ivanka can help him as far as family?
EMILY JANE FOX, CNN CONTIBUTOR: I think that's asking a lot of Ivanka and from all my sources close to Ivanka, they say that Ivanka disagrees with her father all the time and she voices that disagreement, but he doesn't necessarily always listen to it.
[00:15:08] There are a lot of other people who are also voicing their opinions to Donald Trump and at the end of the day he's President and she's first daughter. It's not her responsibility to save us from our President.
LEMON: Just to show you how flexible and diverse on this show, we're going to talk about fashion.
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Don't go anywhere.
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LEMON: And we are back.
All eyes on the new first family today in this country and around the world. So what did they wear?
Here to discuss now, Derek Blasberg, the host of CNN Style. Kate Betts, the author of "Everyday Icon: Michelle Obama and the Power of Style" and CNN contributor, Emily Jane Fox. So let's talk about this. The balls, they were glamorous and gorgeous. The inauguration, beautiful, so let's take a look at what everyone wore.
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President Trump and the first lady Melania in a white dress, then the Pence's came out, then all the kids. So what did you think?
KATE BETTS, AUTHOR: Well it was glamorous. I mean she wore white, which is always a symbol of new beginnings and fresh like a wedding or prom, so I think that was symbolic in that way. Michelle Obama also wore white at her first inaugural ball.
[00:20:46] I thought that Ivanka's dress was very beautifully romantic and in many ways, a first lady dress, which I thought was an interesting message to send. I thought the whole tableau kind of flecked with gold was an obvious theme for the evening.
LEMON: Yes, and Derek was it Herve, what is his name Herve--
DEREK BLASBERG, CNN STYLE HOST: Herve Pierre.
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LEMON: Yes. So he's been around? He's worked for Ralph Lauren, he's worked for Carolina Herrera.
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BLASBERG: We've known Herve Pierre for a few years. He worked for Carolina Herrera and Oscar de la Renta.
When Melania first came out a lot of us thought it was a Carolina Herrera dress because the lines were so similar and a very similar silhouette that we associated with her.
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It's interesting I think, that on the heels of Michelle Obama who made such a clear affiliation with Jason Wu on the first inauguration dress, the second inauguration dress and today she wore Jason Wu, that Melania was trying to align herself a new name. He may not have been a fresh name to those of us in the industry.
Herve Pierre, his life will be different tomorrow. He's going to wake up with a whole bunch more e-mails in that in box.
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LEMON: She helped him design that dress, they worked together--
BLASBERG: It was a collaboration.
LEMON: Right. So what was that called, an applique or what is that? BLASBERG: It was vanilla silk jersey I think.
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That's what I was told.
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The good news is that it's Melania Trump, she is a former model. So I think she's going to look good in a lot of options. I do think there was a lot of speculation earlier that she was going to wear a non- American designer.
Now Herve Pierre is not necessarily an American designer, he's French. Ironically none of the designers included were born in the Continental United States. Oscar de la Renta is from the Dominican Republic, Carolina Herrera is Spanish and Venezuelan. So it's interesting that all these American designers are not actually American.
LEMON: Yes, but we're all Americans. We're a country of immigrants. There's no Bob Williams designs.
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Or Tim Johnson designing the gowns, it's Carolina Herrera and so on.
President Trump spoke at the first ball of the evening, the Liberty Ball. Let's listen to that.
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PRESIDENT TRUMP: You're going to see things happening over the next few weeks. Oh, you're going to be so happy because they're very elegant people tonight, but they're also very political people, right?
We want to see great things happen for our country. We want to make America great again and we will. And we will. So now it's a tremendous honor to have the first dance with Melania.
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LEMON: In a classic black tuxedo, that was classic Trump tonight wasn't it?
FOX: Absolutely. I think from start to finish tonight, you saw the Trump that his supporters know and love and the rest of us know.
I think that from top to bottom, from when you heard at the end of the night, him going to service members and asking them to congratulate him over and over again. Even with the 10 second delay, it really was just classic Trump. It's fitting, it was his day.
LEMON: Something I wanted to ask you about, Ivanka and Jared. Ivanka converted to Judaism, they're observant Jews, today is the Sabbath, but they're out and about today. How did that happen?
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FOX: I believe that they got special permission from their rabbi. They are observant Jews, Ivanka did convert before they got married. That means that you are not allowed to drive in a car on Shabbat from sundown on Friday afternoon until sundown on Saturday.
This is against what they do as a family every single week, but this is obviously an extenuating circumstance. They went to their rabbi and their rabbi gave them permission for security reasons to be able to take a car.
It wasn't safe for them to walk and this is also a matter of family. It's very important to the Jewish faith as well.
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I think the rabbi understood for security reasons and because this was something that was so important to their family that this was an OK exception.
LEMON: Let's see, President Obama and the first lady Michelle Obama went to a whopping ten balls, that was in 2009. George W. Bush attended eight balls, while the Trump's only went to three. Why is that?
BETTS: I guess it was a tightly edited evening.
LEMON: That's it. It's as simple as that?
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FOX: Trump is 70 years old.
LEMON: Yes.
FOX: He's a billionaire, I don't think people tell him what to do. I think he does what he wants to do and he wanted to go to three balls and that's the way the evening went.
LEMON: There were balls and events that have been happening all week. We saw most of the Liberty Ball tonight where there were big acts, but there were other balls. I was at one, the Armed Services ball and there were people performing. Tony Orlando was there and I got to tie a yellow ribbon around the old oak tree.
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[00:25:46] But it wasn't just what was happening, what the cameras saw. There were other things that were happening though out the week here.
BETTS: Yes. I think there's a lot of festivities, obviously a lot going on in the street, too. A lot of protests a lot of marching, but to answer the question about why they only went to three balls. They also were a big group travelling around, so maybe that slowed
them down a little bit. They didn't think they would be able to make it to nine or ten balls. They had the whole family, the Pence family and that might have been a logistical thing.
LEMON: What's interesting to me is that every once in a while I'll see you at a fashion show or get invited and I've noticed that everything has been so European, tightly coiffed and tailored.
I've been asking my friends who are in fashion, what happened to the classic American style, blue blazer, white shirt, you know that sort of thing? This family may bring that back into fashion even more so than --
BLASBERG: You think the Trumps are going to bring classic American style --
LEMON: Classic American style, you don't think?
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BLASBERG: Ralph Lauren I think --
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BETTS: Well she was wearing Ralph Lauren today, wasn't she?
BLASBERG: Yes.
BETTS: That's classic American style.
BLASBERG: She was classic American style, but if you walked around outside today during the inauguration, there were some interesting style choices I think on the streets of Washington, D.C. that I wouldn't necessarily have heralded as a return to American style.
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LEMON: That's not what I mean, you know exactly what I mean.
BLASBERG: The good news is that Melania and Ivanka are both beautiful, elegant women. I do hope in the same in that Michelle Obama elevated American style, they will as well.
I don't know if Melania and Ivanka are going to hone in on young designers the same way Michelle did. She really plucked some names out of obscurity. Ralph Lauren, I mean he's the American Dream, he's not coming out of left field for the first lady to wear tonight.
LEMON: Right.
BETTS: Well historically many first ladies have chosen one designer to dress them. In fact Michelle Obama was really the first in a long line of first ladies to use many, many different designers.
(CROSSTALK) To do high and low yes, and more accessible fashion. So it will be interesting to see if Melania has all of her clothing designed by Herve Pierre, we don't know that yet.
LEMON: Do you remember the Reagan's, I mean Nancy Reagan wore really expensive --
BETTS: Yes, Galanos or Adolfo, that was it for her. Yes.
LEMON: Did she pull of the Jackie O that people were comparing her to? I didn't necessarily see it, but maybe you guys did.
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BETTS: I think it was kind of a modern version of Jackie O, yes. Especially with the gloves and the jacket in the double faced wool. I think she had a very "Jackie" look to her.
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LEMON: Thank you everyone. Thank you, I appreciate it.
Coming up President Donald Trump making history, but what do historians think of his first major speech? I'm going to talk to two of the best when we come right back.
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[00:32:02] LEMON: So now that inauguration day is over, how will history remember President Trump's first big speech? Let's discuss now with two of CNN's Presidential historians. Timothy Naftali is a former director of the Nixon Presidential Library and Douglas Brinkley, is the author of "Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America".
So how did he do? What did you think of his - how did he stack up against other inaugurations?
DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: I don't think it was a historic inauguration, if you're going to talk about the speech.
It was pretty much a boilerplate, it was very short. I think it was serviceable, but basically it was just the golden oldies from the campaign. It could have been delivered anywhere in 2016 by Donald Trump, except it had trimmed some of the ragged edges off.
Overall I think it was a missed opportunity for more civility. I think he needed to have addressed Hilary Clinton, try to heal the nation. I don't think this anybody, he made a little effort at unity that maybe bought him a day, but nothing more than that.
LEMON: He told you that he was going to write his own speech. When I heard it, I mean to me though --
(CROSSTALK) BRINKLEY: It sounded like Stephen Miller and Donald Trump, but I don't know how that all shook out in the end. It's not going to be remembered by people as memorable inauguration.
Trump's selection is memorable and what's about to happen with hundreds of thousands of protestors across America denouncing Donald Trump. We are still divided, but today was the day of transition and I think it worked.
LEMON: Timothy.
TIMOTHY NAFTALI, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: I want to build on this theme of missed opportunity because Donald Trump clearly has a very sensitive political antennae. He knows that his approval ratings are lower than any president-elect. He knew there would be some demonstrations today.
This was an opportunity for him to show the movement, the populous movement included people that didn't vote for him, included Bernie Sanders people. One of the things he made clear in this speech was it's not about party.
He was as critical about Republicans and leaders, as Democratic leaders. He didn't seem to try to show that his movement is the American movement. That's the first missed opportunity.
The second is that by focusing on America first, he left open those vague descriptions of the international system that has made so many people nervous. You could say that today's speech was a populous manifesto and it was also a Trump doctrine. A doctrine of a more selfish approach to international relations.
There was a time when America saw a real interest in collective security, he's now say if it doesn't immediately help us, we're not going to do it.
LEMON: I was wondering as I was listening to it, what our allies must be thinking. Everyone looks to America and it seems to me that we were turning inward and we're going to be myopic.
[00:35:46] But if you look at the one phrase that he used and if we can talk about tone here, American carnage. When he talked about the crime and gangs and drugs in the inner city. Do you think that was a dark tone or reality?
BRINKLEY: I thought it was dark and it should have been crossed out. I didn't like the American carnage.
I liked some of the sediments of saying we've got problems in the inner cities, drug problems, crime problems, but American carnage sounds like a bad B movie.
I felt in some ways this was almost like a, not a first draft, that would be mean. But like a second of third draft, it needed a couple more drafts to achieve something.
He really wanted to keep it short, he achieved that. He's getting marginally --
LEMON: Well that's why for phrases like American carnage, to me that was the speech writers.
NAFTALI: Yes. It was the tone of the Cleveland speech, which is his most important speech up to now.
It was that negative tone about it and I thought to myself 'What is President Carter, what is President Clinton, what is President Bush thinking of what their successor saying that basically everything they did has been a failure'?
One more point that is really important, he never mentioned history. This is the first inaugural that I've read that doesn't refer to a single historical event, not a battle, not a president, not a principle. It was as if America's history began or will begin, on January 20, 2017. That's a very revolutionary approach. Normally --
LEMON: I think that was on purpose. Yes.
BRINKLEY: He put in a soldier at one point, what a soldier says about black, brown and white.
NAFTALI: But what do you think, what do you think he wanted to do?
LEMON: As I sat here with Rick Santorum and with Kevin Madden and the other political pundits, they said Donald Trump was elected so that he could make deals to help and not for unity.
I think part of his mission has to be to unify the country because I think we're divided. You have to look at the history of the country in order to do that. You have to accept it and to acknowledge it in order to do that.
NAFTALI: Exactly and he didn't.
BRINKLEY: There was one bright spot for Democrats today and they talk about infrastructure. Most of these are platitudes, most inaugurals have a lot of platitudes.
He did talk about infrastructure, building bridges, hospital roads. It will be interesting to see if he puts forward some kind of bipartisan bill coming up and he might get Democrats to do some of that infrastructure work and that would be a good thing.
LEMON: I want to play this real quick if we can. The idea of America first, I wonder if this suggests a definite foreign policy for this president? Listen.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs will be made to benefit American workers and American families.
We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries making our products, stealing our companies and destroying our jobs.
Protection will lead to great prosperity and strength.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Again, music to the ears of probably many Americans. Is it too myopic though in the broad scope of things?
BRINKLEY: I know we both agree on that. Too myopic, but there is an anti NAFTA movement in the country, that is what got him elected.
That kind of protection is talk, but it's very dangerous. It's actually going to hurt states like Ohio and Michigan if we start cutting off global trade and start doing this hyper protection, taxing imports also.
I'm nervous about it. Him going forward with that and also I really feel that today that our allies have to be just shell shocked, what is going on in the United States? Particularly NATO allies.
NAFTALI: I blame policy elites for not making the case for free trade the way it should be. It's the emotional case is to say to protect jobs, it's economics 101.
You start protecting jobs, then government has to pick winners and losers and the costs to society are enormous. Of course it's much easier to say to the steelworker, I'll make sure you never lose your job.
In the end, trade benefits the United States and other countries. Trump has made a case that's very emotional and we'll see if Republicans will believe in free trade. And democrats can make the other argument.
LEMON: Thank you Timothy. Thank you Douglas. I appreciate it.
[00:40:56] When we come right back, two of Donald Trump's nominees have been confirmed so far. How does that stack up against other presidents?
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LEMON: President Donald Trump says he is ready to get to work, but is the Trump team ready?
Let's discuss now. Political Commentators Andy Dean, Angela Rye, Matt Lewis, Kayleigh McEnany and Bakari Sellers.
Congratulations, you look very beautiful by the way.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: I can see you guys are celebrating, you went to the balls. Which one did you go to?
ANDY DEAN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: The Freedom Ball. KAYLEIGH McENANY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: The Liberty Ball.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: I went to the Armed Services Ball and I want to thank all the men and women who were there. They were so classy, their best of the best of America. Thank you for your service and the ball was fantastic.
So, how do you think today went?
McENANY: I thought it was fantastic from start to finish.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
To have someone stand up for Washington and say I'm here to change this and I'm not backtracking on my promises. It was a victory, it was a victory I think for the average everyday American who sits here and feels like Washington has left them behind.
LEMON: Andy Dean.
[00:45:03] ANDY DEAN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I loved the fact that he made everybody else in that rotunda uncomfortable, because I think the American people sent him to Washington to make Washington uncomfortable.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
To not be part of this chummy chummy club and that's exactly what his speech accomplished. Everybody around him was like "Wow, this guy is really mix it up", and you could feel it, it was good.
LEMON: That seems like the sentiment of all the pundits that were here, all the historians. I thought maybe it was insulting to the people that were there, but actually the people who were in the crowd and his supporters, that's what they want.
MATT LEWIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think part of the problem is that politicians who go out on the hustings, who go out and campaign and talk about building factories or whatever, then they come to Washington and then they talk like politicians.
We applaud them for being uniters or for being above the fray, but the message to the American people is "well this is politics as usual", that didn't happen with Donald Trump.
Like him or not, one thing we can give him credit for saying the same things in Iowa and Pennsylvania and Michigan.
LEMON: Was this the right platform for the speech? What did you think of the speech?
ANGELA RYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean it sounded very much like campaign part 2. I think one of the more interesting moments is one that my former boss, Congressman Cleaver talked about and that was where he didn't name any names, but he talked about politicians being about "all talk and no action".
A lot of members of the CBC felt like it was another side swipe at John Lewis, so it's just not a good way to start. You don't have to unite with everyone, but you should try to extend an olive branch here or there.
Particularly when you have insulted so many people on the trail. I think that it makes it very difficult for him to do anything on some of his other major priorities, including Obamacare which he signed an executive order for today.
LEMON: Maybe everybody's not listening. Maybe he's saying I'm not here for you.
RYE: Well it's clear he's not here for me, that's why I have on funeral clothes today.
McENANY: We have to give him credit for saying to Hillary Clinton, stand up and he stood before a room that gave Hillary Clinton a standing ovation.
LEMON: Yes, and I agree. That was at the luncheon, but I'm talking about strictly the inaugural address.
(CROSSTALK)
BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: But that's also a very low bar. If we remember back in 2009, the night before Barack Obama got sworn in, he had an entire dinner and ball in honor of John McCain and in honor of people he ran against.
So to actually tell somebody just to stand up and give you a round of applause is kind of pittance compared to what we've seen.
(CROSSTALK)
I think that the address was a campaign speech that was enveloped in pageantry. I think that it wasn't meant for the entire country. I thought it was meant for his supporters which is fine and dandy. That's what got him here and that's the horse he rode in on and that's the horse he's going to ride.
However, I do think that there were two points that I want to talk about briefly. The first is that the ravages of other countries was a quote from Donald Trump's speech, in which he was talking about the immigrants that come into this country.
He eluded to them taking our jobs. It was the same way he talks about immigrants in his speeches, but to talk about them as ravages was disrespectful, one. And two, I thought that his point about the patriotism.
If we have patriotism in our heart, we'll have no prejudice. I just felt like that was absolute lunacy. The reason being is because people just have prejudice and many times they display prejudice based on their patriotism. LEMON: OK, so listen that was just a literation. That was like pride and prejudice.
(CROSSTALK)
SELLERS: Let me just explain. It's more than a literation when the FBI investigates and tells --
(CROSSTALK)
In patriotism there has been a lot of prejudice in this country.
McENANY: No, he was making a real point when he said white, brown, black, we all bleed the same color and that color is red.
There's a lot of American who feel like President Obama has divided us further. That for the first time it's police against the average citizen, and Donald Trump stood up there today and said we're one America and we bleed the same color.
(CROSSTALK)
SELLERS: I think that's very rich to say that the first African American president after slavery, after degradation, after oppression, after Jim Crow, it's all of the sudden the first African American president's fault that we have problems with race.
LEMON: It's Obama's fault.
SELLERS: I think that that is the height of hypocrisy and today I appreciate the sentiment. I appreciate the philosophical approach. It gives us something to chew on as Americans.
It gives us really something to think about and I don't think Donald Trump intended that. When I go out and I speak around the country or I'm speaking to Kayleigh tonight or anyone else, I think we have to understand there are many people who give off this vibe of prejudice in honor of patriotism.
I believe I'm a patriot, no doubt, but I do believe there are people who say that I don't belong in this country because of the way I look and that is their patriotism.
[00:50:06]McENANY: I just don't understand how we've gotten to a point where Donald Trump said let's all be patriotic and come together and eliminate prejudice and somehow that is a divider.
SELLERS: But it's not an isolation.
(CROSSTALK)
RYE: Bakari hold on. The challenge is, that's also not what he said. It ignores the fact that this country was built upon a system of oppression and racism. By thinking that the "others", just like the "other" Barack Obama
going into the 2012 campaign. Being "other" means that you're less than, being "other" than, means I can buy you for value, but your opinion, your vote, your body isn't as valuable as mine. I think that his continual ability to ignore that is the epitome of white privilege, frankly.
LEWIS: I think we're making too much out of this. This is one line of a - - this is a presidential inaugural - -
RYE: Matt, I love you to death.
LEWIS: Thank you, mutual.
RYE: But what you cannot do is tell me that I'm making too much out of something where I am searching for - -
(CROSSTALK)
That's fine, what I'm saying is you can't tell me that something where I'm trying to search for an opportunity for unity in this country, for him to finally be a bridge, for him to finally demonstrate leadership, you cannot tell me - -
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Let him get in there.
(CROSSTALK)
DEAN: We agree, but let's get some jobs, let's bring this economy back.
(CROSSTALK)
LEWIS: My only point was is that this is an inaugural event and an inaugural address. I think that this was a rough draft of his speech that could have made some of these points and been edited and smoothed out better.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: You're not the first person to say that.
LEWIS: But there was good stuff in there.
(LAUGHTER)
I'm giving Trump leeway. This is an inaugural address, I do not think he meant anything. I think was trying to be a - -
LEMON: I know you guys are partisans, right? I know it's hard for some people to believe, I'm not.
LEWIS: Yes, I am.
LEMON: So I'm not partisan. This is my fourth inauguration.
(CROSSTALK)
Here's the thing, Bush had more diversity at his inauguration. Barack Obama's first inauguration, there were people from all over the world, all different colors. The second one, the same thing, all over the world, all different colors.
As I walked out today at the parade ground and at the mall, I did see spots of people, but mostly it was a sea of white faces and I'm just being honest.
So if this president and his supporters don't believe that there has to be some sort of uniting of the country, then the people in the country are highly mistaken. You're kidding yourself if you don't believe that.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Hang on, give me two seconds to finish my point. If you don't believe that, then you're kidding yourself, you're deluding yourself.
He is the leader of this country and it has to start at the top. It does not start at the bottom and trickle up. It trickles down from him.
Go on.
DEAN: I would say to your point, can we always do better with race relations? Of course we can always do better, but Donald went to the African American communities, to the inner city.
He had a message and it resonated, that's why he got 13 percent of the African American male vote.
(CROSSTALK)
SELLERS: But he got 8 percent total.
DEAN: He got 8 percent total, which is much better - -
LEMON: I thought you said the polls were wrong? But go on.
(LAUGHTER)
DEAN: No these aren't polls. These are actual results.
LEMON: I'm just messing with you, go on.
DEAN: Hispanics who said they were going to go for Hillary, Hispanics are going to tip it in Hillary's favor. In actuality he did better than Mitt Romney.
So this idea that he doesn't speak to minority groups is factually incorrect. He did better with these groups and if you talk to people on the ground, they love Donald Trump's message of jobs. The working class loves his message.
SELLERS: I understand your point. Your point is well taken. I don't think it's totally accurate because I think if the Republicans are proud of having 8 percent of African Americans vote for their presidential nominee, then so be it.
DEAN: It's a start.
SELLERS: No, it's not a start because you know what? George Bush got higher. George W. Bush got higher and I think that there's such a thing called diversity.
Diversity is when you get invited to the dance. Then you have inclusion, which is when you get asked to dance at the dance. I think that Donald Trump has a hard time with this.
I think that one of the most amazing discussions that Angela and I are attempting to get across right now is that there are so many people that now he is the 45th President of the United States, we want a level of empathy so you understand the struggle that many people have gone through to give this Constitution breath.
[00:55:21] But even more importantly we want to be a part of this process. So there are many African Americans, friends of mine, Paris Dennard who has been on this show many times who support Donald Trump.
But the large amount of African Americans, the large amount of gay Americans, there's a large amount of Hispanic Americans, there's a large amount of people who were "otherized" in this campaign. Out of that 62 million people that are afraid, there are a large amount who are - -
LEMON: They are just turned off by his rhetoric.
(CROSSTALK)
McENANY: There are a large amount who want to see the president fail. You also have to want to hear a message of unity because about one fourth of his speech was devoted to saying messages of unity.
We're stronger together in America when we unite. To say all children in the inner city of Detroit and on plains of Montana wake up and look at the same stars and have the same dreams. If you wanted to hear a message of unity, you would have heard his message.
(CROSSTALK)
LEWIS: This is the inauguration day, why aren't we talking about all the people that voted for Trump?
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: That's it for us tonight. Thanks for watching.
I'll see you right back here at a special time later tonight at 10, on a Saturday. Stay with CNN for more live inaugural coverage with Poppy Harlow in
just a moment.
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