Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Hillary Clinton's First Public Appearance Post-Election; Trump and Transparency; Trump Transition. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired November 16, 2016 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:03]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Well, you don't form a federal government overnight.

And these are very serious issues, very serious appointments, very serious considerations.

From his perspective, he's been presented with any number of choices within each of the agencies and departments. And he's making those tough decisions. If anything, he has obviously more choices than one to fill in each position, so we have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to many of those different positions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: What is clear, the first eight days of Trump as president-elect have already seen a bit of a shakeup.

You have New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, he was replaced as the head of the Trump transition team. That happened quickly on Friday. Then as a result of that, you have the Christie allies all out and now there are conflicting reports as to whether or not Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is the instigator.

With more on that, let's go to Sara Murray, our CNN politics reporter.

Sara Murray, what's the scoop with Jared Kushner here?

SARA MURRAY, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, it's interesting, because it depends on who you talk to who is involved in this transition.

There are some people who think this is sort of Jared Kushner's retribution, that this is his way of getting back at Chris Christie for throwing his father in jail when Chris Christie was a prosecutor.

So that's one oft narratives going on. But the other narrative and one that we're hearing from people high up in the campaign like Jason Miller, the communications adviser, and Kellyanne Conway, is that this is simply an effort to get rid of lobbyists who were put in place and that Donald Trump didn't really engage in his transition while he was running his campaign. And they sort of looked at it and said, these are not the kind of people that we want representing us in the transition.

BALDWIN: OK, Sara, thank you.

Let's talk a little bit more with my panel.

Joining me now, I have John Avlon, CNN political analyst, editor in chief of The Daily Beast. Emily Jane Fox is back with us. She's a writer for "Vanity Fair" and just penned a piece called: "Are Ivanka and Jared Kushner concocting a House of Cards Style Game of Their Own?" That will interesting to talk about. Heidi Przybyla, senior politics reporter at "USA Today."

Great having you all on.

Heidi, let me just piggyback off of some of Sara's reporting and also Gloria Borger has been reporting here on CNN that the notion that Jared Kushner is this instigator and the bad blood with Governor Christie is a tad overblown. What are you hearing?

HEIDI PRZYBYLA, "USA TODAY": Right.

Well, the thing is, all of a sudden, here we are focusing on Jared Kushner, who if you look at the indications, has really been very effective question behind the lines all along. If you look back at Donald Trump's comments, for example, after winning the primary, he praised Jared Kushner.

The question here is whether Jared Kushner is really instigating this kind of knife-fighting atmosphere that we saw during the primaries or whether he is, like Mike Pence said, just trying to clean house from top to bottom to try and make good on Donald Trump's campaign pledge that they are going to purge all of these lobbyists from the rolls.

But I have to say, Brooke, the problem is and the concern is whether there really is this big pool of qualified applicants that they are choosing from when you do that, when you purge all of the lobbyists and when you try to impose what looks like a loyalty test, because let's look at the case of Mike Rogers.

Everyone in Washington agrees Mike Rogers is hugely qualified, former FBI, former head of the House Intel Committee. And if he was purged for no reason other than his ties to Chris Christie, that is not picking the most qualified person. That is taking a vindictive kind of approach to just purging loyalists to Chris Christie.

BALDWIN: Right. Right. And then there were questions, as we talked yesterday, about Rudy Giuliani, previous business ties, questions about General Flynn as well, could he get through the vetting process?

John Avlon, again, though, I go back to, and Sara said it perfectly, it depends on who you ask, because Kellyanne Conway says embarrassment of riches.

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: That's right. And I would take that to the bank.

BALDWIN: OK.

AVLON: No, I'm kidding. No, I mean, look...

BALDWIN: John Avlon.

AVLON: Of course she's going to spin and say everything is fine.

Of course the campaign will make that point. And the truth will be somewhere in the middle, but people who say everything is fine are never telling you the truth. We know the transition was not done in a way the previous transitions have been done. They didn't expect to win.

They did. They have been scrambling. But to all of a sudden purge Chris Christie and everyone associated with him speaks to a culture that is not necessarily geared towards stability or seriousness. Look, if he hadn't promised to drain the swamp, lobbyists could have been part of it, but to sort of realize retroactively you have got a problem, that indicates a degree of disorganization.

The Mike Rogers thing is really a problem, because beyond Jared Kushner's bad blood with Chris Christie, also no secret rooted in Shakespearian drama with the family, if Mike Rogers gets caught in that collateral damage and insiders are using words like purge, that's never a good thing.

BALDWIN: I'm with you, though. When you're hearing this extreme and this extreme, the truth is right here.

AVLON: Somewhere.

BALDWIN: To you, because you have been writing so much about Jared Kushner also his wife, Ivanka.

But, first, just tell me about him more about the man who has his ear. He's 35 years of age, and his relationship with his father-in-law.

[15:05:05]

EMILY JANE FOX, "VANITY FAIR": I think, by all accounts, they're exceedingly close.

I think Donald is close with all of his children. He works with them. I think he's obviously very close with Ivanka and anyone who is close with Ivanka is going to by the very nature of their relationship be close with Donald as well.

I think by all accounts, Jared is very much an insider within the campaign, certainly has his ear. Look, it's interesting to me. Jared is very successful in his own right. He owns his run family real estate empire in New York.

He's married to a very successful woman in her own right. He's making the decision on his own to go down to Washington and to have influence. He doesn't need to do that. He's very happy in New York society, but for some reason he feels this compulsion to go down and help out in D.C.

BALDWIN: Here's the thing, though. Let me add to that. And this could be an indicator of what sort of role he could take on as we fast-forward, is that we're reporting he could end up with a national security clearance as a key adviser with the Trump administration. A source telling CNN that is likely, it hasn't happened yet, it's likely.

Heidi, is that unprecedented, an in-law of a president?

PRZYBYLA: Yes. That's why we had the 1967 nepotism law.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: It doesn't apply to in-laws.

PRZYBYLA: Right. Well, I guess there you go. But I think that is still going to raise some alarm bells, because we also don't see a lot of in-laws skirt what is kind of just like a superficial exception there.

And I think there are going to be people who are questioning how someone like Jared Kushner who, if he had extensive experience in government or extensive national security credentials, you could see how you would want to make that kind of exception. But in this case, I do think it's going to ruffle some feathers and we're all going to have to start just learning more about Jared Kushner and who he is, because he's been so quiet during this campaign.

Is he more of a moderating voice who is whispering in Donald Trump's ear or is he the guy who's kind of instigating this knife-fight atmosphere that we're seeing right now with the transition?

BALDWIN: What more do you know about him?

AVLON: Look, they obviously have been a very powerful couple in New York society. They seem to be popular, they're young. They have been successful in part because they inherited money, but they showed initiative with what they did with that money. This isn't exactly a self-made success story, but they showed initiative where some folks wouldn't have.

But what I think really is kind of fascinating is, have you ever heard of a more functional relationship between in-laws?

BALDWIN: Kudos to them.

AVLON: Kudos to them. It really is -- most folks have sort of strained relationships with their in-laws. Instead, Donald Trump seems to have decided his daughter's husband is someone whose advice he trusts deeply and implicitly.

(CROSSTALK) BALDWIN: Just think about that it's Ivanka Trump who said at the "60 Minutes" interview that perhaps she wouldn't take on an official capacity or role, but she obviously has issues she's passionate about, but then it would be her husband who's the son-in-law who would then potentially have the clearance and be an adviser of the father who is the president.

AVLON: That doesn't sound convoluted at all. That doesn't sound like some weird sort of...

FOX: What it sounds like is that they're the first couple. That's what it sounds like to me.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: You wrote about this. Tell me more.

FOX: I did.

Ivanka Trump came out in that "60 Minutes" interview and said I don't want an official role, but here's my slate of issues that I care about. And I think she really does deeply care about these issues related to working women and child care and families.

BALDWIN: What was your point about "House of Cards"?

FOX: Well, what is their endgame here, right?

So, Ivanka has this slate of issues that's very traditional for a first lady. Jared Kushner very well may end up with a security clearance, some kind of major advising role here, so it seems like this is a very Claire Underwood-Frank Underwood situation, where they're amassing all of this power and what they're going to do with it, no one knows.

BALDWIN: Why are you smiling?

AVLON: I love a good pop culture metaphor, don't get me wrong. It's a way to get people interested in real politics.

But, first of all, as far as we know, he hasn't shoved anyone in front of a train. That's an important distinction. Second of all, this is all power by proxy. This is not actually people running for office and climbing up the ladder.

FOX: Isn't that worse? They haven't run for office.

AVLON: I don't know if it's worse or better, but they have hitched their wagon to a family member who pulled off an improbable campaign and now they seem to be executing a strategy to achieve real power. And they're pushing aside people who are demonstrated public servants in the process.

That doesn't necessarily balance out their father and father-in-law's profile. That's not necessarily the best way to serve someone who has never served in government in any capacity. BALDWIN: Let me move off of that and, Heidi, we move away from the

"House of Cards" references and just ask you also about a pretty interesting figure and a very important figure here in the city of New York, the mayor, Bill de Blasio.

He stopped by Trump Tower earlier today. The two could not be more different on sort of policy and politics. What do you hope came out of that meeting? What do you know?

PRZYBYLA: I think, like all Democrats, de Blasio is circling Donald Trump and the new Trump administration with great, deep skepticism, skepticism because of the appointments that we're seeing like Steve Bannon. That's a lot of concern that what has been a fringe movement is now going to be somehow accepted into the mainstream bloodstream of the Republican Party with this, but also intrigue in that many Democrats -- and you see this on Capitol Hill, too, Brooke -- many Democrats Republican remember that Donald Trump one time was a Democrat.

[15:10:25]

They remember some of the campaign pledges he's made, for example, on putting a big investment into infrastructure that they believe can help some of these working-class folks. They are feeling him out to see if despite some of these grave reservations that they have on the cultural racial issues that there aren't areas where they can work together on economic issues and also in terms of immigration.

Mayors are going to have a big role going forward, like de Blasio, in putting up their hands and warning Trump if he should go in a certain direction, they will try and throw up some roadblocks to prevent people who aren't criminals from being deported.

BALDWIN: Just talked to the Santa Fe, New Mexico, mayor, and he would be definitely be in that camp.

Final question, looking over you two, I also think this is interesting just from a press perspective, I know people at home may think why do you care if there's always sort of media following along with the president-elect? I remember being in Washington and the White House Correspondents Association was livid when the press wasn't part of that motorcade tot White House when the president-elect met with the president in the Oval Office.

But then you had last night not too far away from here at the 21 Club, this kind of fancy restaurant here in Midtown Manhattan. And Trump and his family just rolled in without the press. Is that how this is going to be?

AVLON: That has yet to be seen, but there's clearly not the institutional respect for the role of the press in balancing power.

This is the fourth estate. This is about holding power to account, and it's not about hassling people on the way to dinner. It's being sure there's transparency and accountability in our democracy. And there doesn't seem to be the fundamental respect for the press. Aside from a campaign which demonized the press, there doesn't seem to

be a respect for the institution and the way it balances the presidency. Expect more tension where that came from going forward.

FOX: I think organizationally, too, the Trump campaign and now the new administration hasn't figured out how to manage all of these different moving parts, and then you have on top of it Donald Trump's view of the press in general.

So I think the combination of the two has not yet worked.

BALDWIN: All right, Emily and John and Heidi, thank you all so much.

By the way, we will be talking to, speaking of that big dinner here in Manhattan, we will talk to someone who actually saw the president- elect dodging the press in person last night over dinner. We will talk to one of the journalists who was in the room at this swanky New York restaurant, Donald Trump with thumb's up, I'm here and I'm eating my dinner.

Also ahead, Trump won the election, but he is losing his name off of three big buildings in Manhattan. We will talk to one man who led the effort to scrub Trump's name off the side of this building. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:17:04]

BALDWIN: Welcome back. I'm Brooke Baldwin. This is CNN.

President-elect Donald Trump facing some backlash for ditching his press pool, slipping out of Trump Tower to dine at Manhattan's famous 21 Club, a pretty swanky restaurant in Midtown Manhattan.

Let me give you a quick explainer. The press pool, it's a small group of journalists designed to cover the president-elect's movements. Traditionally, as we were discussing a moment ago, a president-elect's team would notify the press pool if anyone is heading out, so journalists can tag along. Again, this is about transparency.

It's rarely a glamorous job, but reporters do it with support from the Secret Service because Americans have a right to know where the president or president-elect is and what he's doing, particularly in such a turbulent world.

So a journalist by the name of Kate Smith happened to be eating at this restaurant when the president-elect and his entourage walked in. She snapped this photo of the thumb's up. She is Bloomberg reporter Kate Smith.

Kate, nice to meet you.

KATE SMITH, BLOOMBERG: Thanks for having me, Brooke.

BALDWIN: So, set the scene for me. You're just enjoying some chicken and broccoli and in walks the president-elect.

SMITH: Exactly.

We were -- a team of mine, we have an annual dinner at 21 Club. A wonderful editor of mine, all the reporters that he hired, he likes to take us out once a year.

And we were al just chatting amongst ourselves. And then all of a sudden we kind of noticed that the mood in the room had shifted substantially. And we kind of looked around and there was president- elect Donald Trump walking in.

BALDWIN: So we're looking at pictures. It's not like he and his family went to go eat in some private dining room. They ate with the regular folks.

SMITH: They did.

You know, the 21 Club, they have a large dining room. And they were -- Donald Trump and his family were sitting directly next to us. They couldn't have been, gosh, more than four feet away from the people I was eating with.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: You could have passed your meat and potatoes on to the president-elect if he was looking extra hungry.

SMITH: Exactly.

BALDWIN: I think it's fascinating.

So what happened? Because there was all this confusion over where the press was, did he ditch the press? What's the story?

SMITH: Yes.

What had happened on our end was, we were as surprised as anyone to see Donald Trump walking into the restaurant. So, a colleague of mine,she snapped a photo him walking in. And, of course, we -- we're not part of the press corps. We're financial journalists.

So when he walked in, she took a photo of him walking in with no backstory that he was apparently not going out that night. And then all of a sudden her phone just starts going on and on and on, these notifications, the retweets on that tweet.

And that was when we started to understand that there was a nuance that he wasn't supposed to be, if you can say that, at 21 Club. He was supposed to be at Trump Tower. And that was kind of how the buzz got going, if you will.

BALDWIN: How was he received in the room?

SMITH: It wasn't exactly a standing ovation. I have to say that. I think people were initially just so surprised to see him there, just

unannounced, just right in the room like a normal patron. And there were a few people, maybe half-a-dozen, that kind of got up and clapped. But it was a muted clapping. It wasn't kind of an all-room excitement, so to speak.

[15:20:13]

BALDWIN: This is a man who literally a week prior had won the U.S. presidential election. Final 30 seconds, Kate, what was your biggest takeaway? What's the one story you have told all your friends today?

SMITH: The first one is that he apparently orders virgin Bloody Marys at dinner. I don't know about that one.

BALDWIN: We know he's not a drinker.

SMITH: We know he's not a drinker.

But also probably more interesting is that he was speaking about a potential press secretary using female pronouns. Kind of the word that he used was she would make a great press secretary. So, maybe a little bit of news on that.

BALDWIN: All right, Kate Smith, you never know who could show up at any moment in New York these days. Thank you so much for sharing. I appreciate it.

SMITH: Thanks for having me on.

BALDWIN: Donald Trump's name emblazoned in big gold letters scrubbed from three Manhattan luxury apartment buildings today.

Some people who live there, they started this petition to dump the Trump name before the election. Why? The petition cites "Trump's appalling treatment of women, his history of racism, his attacks on immigrants, his mockery of the disabled, his tax avoidance, his outright lying. All are antithetical to the values we and our families believe in" -- end quote.

Joining me now, Robert Tessler, petition co-founder.

Nice to see you, sir.

ROBERT TESSLER, ANTI-TRUMP PETITION CO-FOUNDER: Nice to see you.

BALDWIN: You literally stood in front of the building today and watched those guys take the gold letters down.

TESSLER: With great satisfaction, yes.

BALDWIN: Why?

TESSLER: Well, when we moved into the building about four years ago, I wasn't happy that the Trump name was there. I'm not a fan of his.

BALDWIN: Even then?

TESSLER: Even then. Right.

But in the past your-and-a-half, he showed himself to be far worse than I ever thought. He's racist, he's anti-feminist, he's anti- immigrant, he's anti-almost everything except for one person, and that's Donald Trump.

And that's why it was so important to us who live in the building to have his name removed.

BALDWIN: Half of the country would not agree with you, but it sounds like at least half of your building did.

When you started this petition, how quick and how resounding was the response?

TESSLER: It was pretty quick.

My wife and I were sitting around and we were talking doing it and then a neighbor who lived next door came in. And we thought, OK, we're going to draw up the petition. And then we began to distribute it, and we just left them outside the doors of the people in three buildings.

And by the time that we finished, we had over 600 signatures on the petition. And I think -- I mean, there were a few people who were not happy with it and were -- actually picked up the slips and tried to throw them away.

BALDWIN: Really?

TESSLER: Yes. But the overwhelming majority of the people felt that they didn't want to live in a building that had his name on it.

BALDWIN: What about what he's done the city? What about the story of the Wollman Rink in the park or about how he really did help revitalize the West Side of the city or even built the skyscraper on Fifth Avenue where he is now in the '80s when the city was struggling? Do you give him any credit for any of that?

TESSLER: Well, what I give him credit for is trying to make the most of his own name. I mean, that's -- I believe that's what motivates him. And I don't think there was any intent to do good for the city. I think it was to put Donald Trump's name on everything.

And that's exactly part of what we were talking about when getting his name off our building.

BALDWIN: He won. Now that the gold lettering Trump is gone, do you think your curb appeal has gone up or gone down?

TESSLER: Well, I think what attests to that is the fact that the owner of the building, who -- they were extremely sympathetic to this -- I mean, they are in a business. And the buildings that they own are all in Democratic centers. And I think they saw, from a practical point of view, it would be

better for them to take the name off.

BALDWIN: It would better to take the name down.

The question is, is this the beginning of the Trump name removal in other buildings as well?

Rob, thank you.

TESSLER: Thank you. Nice to be here.

BALDWIN: Thank you. Thank you.

Next, President Obama speaking today on his -- this is his final trip overseas making some not-so-veiled statements in the wake of Donald Trump's presidential election, President Obama noting that democracy can "correct for mistakes."

Plus, Hillary Clinton is scheduled to make her first public appearance since she lost the election.

[15:25:00]

My next guest says she has gone too easy on Donald Trump and his win.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: As the world has watched the election of Donald Trump and its divisive aftermath, President Obama delivering a message to Europe.

This is his final trip overseas. President Obama told a crowd in Athens, Greece, that after Trump takes office, that the United States would continue to work with its allies, and he said democracy is bigger than any one person. Here he was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The next American president and I could not be more different.

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: We are -- we have very different points of view.

But American democracy is bigger than any one person. And in a multiethnic, multiracial