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Dems Ask Justice Department to Review Kushner Pick; China's Alibaba Promises One Million U.S. Jobs; Western U.S. Pounded with Intense Flooding; Deadly Cold Snap Grips Much of Europe; The History of Hollywood & Politics. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired January 10, 2017 - 00:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:00:11] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles.

Ahead this hour:

The Trump family heads to the White House as the President-Elect names his son-in-law as a senior adviser.

With a wallop of snow and rain in northern California while a deadly freeze hits hard at Europe.

And after six months off the tour, Roger Federer's comeback begins at next week's Aussie Open. The tennis great will join us live later this hour.

Hello and welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm John Vause. Great to be back.

NEWSROOM L.A. starts right now.

In the coming hours, U.S. President Barack Obama will deliver his farewell speech to the nation. He'll make the address in Chicago on Tuesday night where his political career began.

A day after that, President-Elect Donald Trump will hold his first news conference in more than 160 days and his first since winning the November election.

And on Capitol Hill confirmation hearings begin within hours. First up on Tuesday Trump's pick for Attorney General, Jeff Sessions and General John Kelly, the nominee to head the Department of Homeland security.

At Trump Tower on Monday the President-Elect met with Alibaba executive chairman Jack Ma and said he is confident the hearings will proceed smoothly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), U.S. PRESIDENT-ELECT: They're going great. The confirmation's going great. (inaudible)

TRUMP: I think they will all pass. I think every nomination will be -- they are all at the highest level.

Jack was even saying I mean they are the absolute highest level. I think they're going to do very well.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is some concern about Jeff Sessions in particular.

TRUMP: No, I think he's going to do good -- high quality man.

Thank you -- Jack. It's good to --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you speak a little more, Mr. President about --

(CROSSTALK)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Joining me now Shawn Steel, a member of the California Republican National Committee and Ethan Bearman, a talk radio host here in California. Thanks for coming in.

So one appointee who will not need a confirmation hearing is Jared Kushner, the President-Elect's son-in-law. He's going to be the senior adviser in the White House.

Democrats have a lot of concerns with this in particular with anti- nepotism laws. This is what the law says. A public official may not appoint, employ, promote, advance or advocate for appointment, employment, promotion or advancement in or to a civilian position in the agency in which he is serving or over which he exercises jurisdiction or control any individual who is a relative of the public official."

It's complicated but basically it says he can't really do it. So Shawn, why do these laws not apply to the President?

SHAWN STEEL, CALIFORNIA REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: For one thing it's not -- not even the old fashioned term nepotism. He's not going to get paid for very much. He has to sign financial disclosure forms. He has to sign a federal conflict of interest form.

So there's a lot of scrutiny already. And if he's going to do anything that's going to be useful, the last thing he wants to do is get his father-in-law into trouble.

He also comes from a long family of Democrats. His father and his grandfather have been major donors in the Democrat Party nationally so for the Democrats to turn on one of their own is kind of ironic.

VAUSE: Ethan -- is there enough wiggle room here for Kushner to be appointed to this position? And when you answer this question, answer me this -- how is this different from when Hillary Clinton when she was first lady appointed by Bill Clinton to oversee health care reform.

ETHAN BEARMAN, TALK RADIO HOST: Well, the difference is first-off the first lady gets involved in numerous issues and has, all the way going back to Nancy Reagan for that matter in my lifetime. So it is different on that alone.

But Jared Kushner will be able to get the position by skirting the anti-nepotism laws because that really was more directed at cabinet positions.

Look, I'm not a fan of Jared Kushner in the first place. I think we don't need another real estate magnate in the White House who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. I don't know that he is the right person to provide another unique perspective in advising the President.

VAUSE: And Shawn you touched on he would divest himself of a lot of his business interests but there are still the questions of a conflict of interest. The "New York Times" reported over the weekend he held that meeting with a Chinese financial group with close ties to Beijing. So there are a lot of questions here for Kushner. And if he has to divest himself of all of his investments, why doesn't his father-in-law?

STEEL: Well, you know, we don't know how much they're going to divest or how much they're going to step aside. One thing we know for sure, they all understand the pressure, they all understand that the "New York Times'" solitary function is to attack Trump 24 hours a day. And they understand the scrutiny.

And I'm going to -- I'm going to suggest or think that they're going to be -- they are hyper sensitive about that and they're going to take extra steps to try to remove that appearance of conflict of interest.

The issue is that when you have successful human beings and Trump's brought in a lot of successful human beings, that's going to always be an ever-present issue. But the question is do they use those powers to enrich themselves and in this age of transparency and this age of video recording it's going to be pretty hard to get away with a lot of that.

VAUSE: Ethan, Shawn is saying trust me -- in a low-trust world that we are in right now.

[00:04:59] BEARMAN: Exactly -- and here's the problem and Shawn knows this as well as anybody. You can layer corporations in ways that it's impossible. There is no transparency. You can absolutely hide transactions around the world.

And this ultimately is the biggest problem that we have with Donald Trump's promise that he hasn't held up which is to release his tax returns.

VAUSE: Ok. Well, Donald Trump had his own meeting with a Chinese billionaire, Jack Ma -- he's the founder of the e-commerce site Alibaba. This is what he said after the meeting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We had a great meeting. It's jobs. You just saw what happened with Fiat where they're going to build a massive plant in the United States in Michigan. And we're very happy. And Jack and I are going to do some great things -- small business, right.

JACK MA, ALIBABA FOUNDER: We'll focus on small business.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Let's bring in CNN Money's Asia-Pacific editor Andrew Stevens, live in Hong Kong. Andrew the big headline from this was a promise was to create a million jobs in the United States. What are the details?

ANDREW STEVENS, CN MONEY ASIA-PACIFIC EDITOR: Absolutely. Big things for small business -- John.

The details are few and far between to be honest. It's a big statement. It's a bold statement. It's also quite a vague statement. And it's something that we do know that Jack Ma, who founded Alibaba, has been focusing on for some time now.

In fact he wrote an op-ed for the "Wall Street Journal" about seven months ago saying that what he wants to do is connect small businesses in the West including the U.S., obviously, with this growing consumer class in the East in China -- the biggest, fastest growing consumer market of all.

So this is what he is saying to Donald Trump, I want to get my online platforms like Taobao, like T-Mall which are currently being used by Chinese to buy online. I want American products on those platforms that Chinese middle class consumers want to buy.

So how that creates jobs will, if more people buy more stuff, more stuff has to be made. That's pretty much the line. But where you get a million jobs from I have no idea.

What Jack Ma did say and this is slightly new, is that he wanted to produce from the Midwest of the U.S. So we are talking agricultural products.

And after that little sound they heard from Donald Trump and Jack Mama, Alibaba people were talking about organizing a conference for thousands of small businesses, for farmers, et cetera, et cetera to work out how they can take this forward. But as I say it's a little bit vague at the moment.

VAUSE: It was good for the share price. Alibaba went up a percent or so after that announcement. But it seems from what you're saying and from I've read, many of these jobs if they're there at all they are on the works many, many months ago. It seems like a bit of a stretch for Donald Trump to claim credit?

STEVENS: Well yes, John. If you go back to the meeting with Masayoshi Son, the boss of Softbank and Donald Trump talking about creating 50,000 jobs and investment in the U.S. that was also a work in progress before the election was known -- the election result was known.

So Donald Trump certainly is emphasizing these deals and they look like deals which as you say are in the pipeline and they are still vague. So you can't justify this.

I should add it is also a pretty photo opportunity for Jack Ma as well. As you point out, the share prices are up. And Jack Ma is a very savvy PR man. He was close to Barack Obama. He appeared with Obama on stage several times. And he wants to make sure that he stays close to the incoming administration.

It's good for Alibaba. I mean he -- Alibaba is facing scrutiny in the U.S. over the sheer number of counterfeits on its own platforms. In fact the U.S. trade representative slapped his -- slapped Taobao -- one of those platforms I was talking about on this list of notorious markets, notorious for operating fakes.

So Jack Ma wants to get close to the administration to make sure that they get their point across. But it is all, you know, it's all good PR on both sides at the moment.

VAUSE: Andrew -- I'm glad you brought up the issue of the counterfeit goods. It's a nice segue. But we'll say goodbye to you for now. Andrew Stevens, live in Hong Kong.

So with that in mind, Shawn -- I, you know, went online and I bought my Trump make America great again hat. This cost $25, it's the genuine article -- right.

STEEL: Are you sure it's genuine.

VAUSE: It's genuine, it's genuine.

STEEL: Not a knockoff.

VAUSE: Well, you mentioned the knockoff because then I went to the Alibaba Web site, Taobao. And what shall I find there but a counterfeit version. Make America great again -- I can get it for $2.60 U.S.

I mean this is one of the big issues with Alibaba, you know. And this is one of the big issues for Donald Trump on the campaign trail -- intellectual property theft by the Chinese.

But today, on Monday rather, smiles and handshakes with Jack Ma and not a word of intellectual property theft being carried out by the Chinese.

STEEL: You know, one of the things I'm not worried about Donald Trump despite all the many wonderful contradictions and the excitement that he creates. I don't think he is going to be real soft on the Chinese on trading in the first place.

Now what really irritates me but I also find sparkling delicious is how the mainstream media is attacking Trump when he is talking about bringing jobs to America, maybe taking credit where credit is due. But he's creating a narrative. The point is he creates an attitude, a tone and an approach that more and more businesses are beginning to think maybe it is worthwhile to invest in this country. Maybe it's worthwhile actually creating jobs in the United States. Maybe it makes a lot of practical sense or economic sense.

[00:10:01] And he's doing it in his own way but he is actually beginning -- I think we're beginning to find a consumer confidence is up. Even liberal polling organizations are telling us that. The people are beginning to believe that the economy can start getting out of the doldrums.

And so, you know what, by creating that narrative he might actually help become true before passing a single legislation.

VAUSE: And Shawn (SIC) to that point, you know, we are seeing companies like Ford and Toyota and Chrysler, you know, saying that they will stay in the United States. They will invest in this country.

BEARMAN: You know, I think it's wonderful. Any time we can add jobs in the United States it's a great thing. But let's go back to this Alibaba deal for just a second. So how are we -- I'm from the Midwest. I want us to export farm goods from the Midwest or manufacture goods and sell business goods to China.

The Chinese government has to lift their tariffs and trade rules first. Alibaba has no control over what the Chinese government is prohibiting from coming into their country.

And on top of it all I find this interesting because there is a Chinese company called LeEco (ph) which actually bought the Yahoo property up in the Bay Area. And it has announced back in October 12,000 new jobs that they are hiring in the San Francisco Bay Area for computer programmers and software engineers. Why wasn't that touted by anybody?

VAUSE: Ok. We did hear from the President-Elect on another issue today. He did actually slam actress Meryl Streep after her acceptance speech at the Golden Globes. This is part of what Miss Streep said on Sunday night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MERYL STREEP, ACTRESS: It was that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter -- someone he outranked in privilege, power and the capacity to fight back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Ok, so on Twitter Donald Trump posted this, "Meryl Streep, one of the most overrated actresses in Hollywood, doesn't know me but attacked last night at the Golden Globes. She's a Hillary flunky who lost big. For the 100th time, I never mocked a disabled reporter. I would never do that but simply showed him groveling when he totally changed a 16-year-old story that he had written in order to make me look bad, just more dishonest media."

Jarrett Hill is the host of the "Back2Reality" podcast. He's a correspondent for the "Hollywood Reporter" and he is with us now.

So Jarrett -- liberals love the Streep takedown. Didn't do a lot for conservatives, did it?

JARRETT HILL, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: Well, the interesting thing that we have to point out is that in the "Hollywood Reporter" -- shameless plug -- in 2015, Donald Trump talked about Meryl Streep being one of his favorite actresses and how she was such a great person.

But the moment she says something that is taken as an attack because he likes to use that verb, then all of a sudden she is overrated, she's ridiculous. And you know, it's kind of the same thing that we see again and again from Donald Trump where he will say one thing and then say something that's completely different in "look over here this something shiny" kind of way.

And it's frustrating to watch because you know, it's completely contradictory to what he just said about Meryl Streep recently.

VAUSE: But when we have high profile, you know, actresses like Meryl Streep and others, you know, within Hollywood getting up and saying these kinds of things about the President-Elect doesn't it backfire in a way? Doesn't it just sort of solidify the support that Donald Trump has? Doesn't it do them a disservice in the long run?

HILL: It certainly has a galvanizing affect for some people on different sides of the aisle. But Meryl Streep didn't say anything in that was all that controversial really. The real question you have to ask is like what exactly did she say that we're arguing against? That we shouldn't mock people that are disabled? We should defend people that are coming from marginalized communities.

It's challenging for me to watch the Meryl Streep speech and then think oh yes, I can see why such and such could be controversial. It's incredibly frustrating.

And Megan McCain obviously jumping in with tweets talking about how this is how we're going to help Donald Trump get re-elected. What exactly are we railing against that Meryl Streep said? What exactly was indefensible? It's hard for me to process.

VAUSE: Ok. Jarrett -- thank you for being with us. We'll catch up soon.

I want to stay with the Meryl Streep issue, Ethan, because -- just speak up on the last part of Trump's tweet where he claims he never mocked that disabled reporter who works for the "New York Times". Look at the moment when it actually happened. This is it. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Right after a couple of good paragraphs, and talking about northern New Jersey, draws the (inaudible) -- written by a nice reporter. Now the poor guy, you got to see this guy, I don't know what I said, I don't remember. He's going like -- I don't remember, maybe, that's what I said. This is 14 years ago. He still -- they didn't do a retraction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: You know, clearly he did mock the reporter. So why does Donald Trump feel the need to revisit these past controversies and deny what actually happened?

BEARMAN: Well, I'm not a psychotherapist but it's interesting because he suffers from an issue that many narcissists have which is the inability to admit that they have done something wrong. Just as I said the day after that video came out, I said just donate a million bucks to like a paralyzed Veterans for American group and apologize and move past it.

[00:15:02] And instead, he's the one who brings it back up and he makes it an issue again. Maybe it's to take attention away from some of the other problems that he --

VAUSE: Shawn you are squirming --

STEEL: I think it's such a fake story. He's used that particular caricature of using his arms like this, it's been recorded since 2005. He used it several times talking about himself. It's part of a self expression and he wasn't using anything to try to identify a person's particular disability.

This is just a typical mainstream media lie and the beauty is half of America doesn't believe it. You can keep saying it again and again but it's a lie.

VAUSE: Ok, if you want to split hairs here then, so he did not mock the reporter for being disabled but he did mock a disabled reporter.

STEEL: Oh, for God's sake. Let me tell you one thing about one of the most important reasons why Trump got elected. One of the most beautiful things that's happened in our society, he's destroyed the politically correct culture. We don't care. This PC thing of trying to be nice and proper and appropriate and sensitive -- that's a lot of crap. We don't buy it any more.

Meaning the majority of people that got him elected don't buy it any more. Liberals still do. Meryl Streep still does but nobody cares about Meryl Streep. That is -- my people don't care about her.

BEARMAN: So where does that end though if we say well, we don't care that it was a disabled reporter. We don't care that that happens, what about -- STEEL: It was a reporter that might have been disabled and we don't

care if anybody mocks him for the words and the tone and what he wrote. We don't care about his particular features, we don't care about his racial color. We only care about --

BEARMAN: And the Mexican judge and that Mexico sends us their rapists and on and on. There's my black guy over there. That is a tone that is set with this president -- soon to be president -- that is really --

STEEL: Well, you're cherry picking very nice stuff to try to --

BEARMAN: -- which leads to death threats on people like me because I dare speak out --

STEEL: I got a death threat last week from a progressive. So, you know, you're not immune.

VAUSE: Ok.

HILL: Shawn I want to say like this is what exactly what the Donald Trump campaign does all the time. We will look at something and then be told that is not what we just saw. We looked at this with plagiarism when I covered the story months ago with Melania Trump.

We can watch side by side video of something and then you come back and tell me that it's not what I saw. We just watched this video of Donald Trump imitate this man and say all these different things about him and then you turn it right around and say that's not what happened.

STEEL: You know it's not true.

HILL: Kellyanne Conway was on CNN this morning telling us that we shouldn't think about what is coming out of his mouth but we should think about what is in his heart. What does that even mean?

It's so frustrating to watch because you continue to see him do things and then tell us that it's not the same thing.

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE: Ok. Let's keep this going next hour. Sorry guys.

Jarrett -- thank you so much. Ethan and Shawn -- we appreciate your being with us. We'll continue this in a while.

And a programming note here, U.S. President Barack Obama will give that farewell address on Tuesday. It starts at 9:00 p.m. in New York, 2:00 a.m. Wednesday in London, that's 10:00 a.m. Wednesday Hong Kong. Don't forget, you can watch it right here on CNN.

And we'll take a short break. When we come back some heavy rain and snow pounding California, there's more on the way. And a bitter cold snap is gripping parts of Europe making life so much harder for thousands of refugees living in limbo. Also one of tennis's most successful players is back on the court

after months on the sideline. Roger Federer's plans for the 2017 season in just a moment.

[00:18:16] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Welcome back everybody.

Fierce storms in the western U.S. have forced thousands of people from their homes. California and Nevada are dealing with heavy rain, snow, flooding and mudslides. The storms damaged homes and left hundreds of thousands without power.

High winds brought down the iconic pioneer cabin tree in northern California. The hollow giant sequoia was cut in the 1800s so tourists could pass through.

Then a cold snap is gripping much of Europe and it's hitting thousands of refugees especially hard. CNN's Amara Walker has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMARA WALKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: From the frozen streets of Warsaw all the way south to the islands of Greece, heavy snow and freezing temperatures are wreaking havoc across much of Europe.

With temperatures dropping below minus 30 degrees Celsius in some spots, the extreme cold has claimed the lives of more than 30 people over the weekend. Just in Poland 17 people died of hypothermia and according to government officials 65 have died of cold-related causes since November.

In Romania, heavy snow and high winds forced roads and railways to close. Dozens of villages are reported to be without power. At least four people have died there according to local media.

Snowstorms paralyzed Turkey's largest city of Istanbul where heavy snow forced hundreds of flights to be cancelled, leaving thousands of travelers stranded over the weekend.

In Greece, even the beaches are blanketed with snow. The arctic blast has hit refugees especially hard. Thousands are living in limbo, stranded in makeshift camps like this one in Lesbos while they seek asylum or await relocation.

In Serbia hundreds of migrants wrapped in blankets lined up for a hot meal. Many are living in an abandon warehouse with nighttime temperatures well below freezing. They have only a campfire to try to keep warm.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Actually the cold is too much and last night weren't asleep with all the people sitting around the fire.

WALKER: Dozens more refugees are camped out on Serbia's border waiting for a chance to try to enter neighboring Hungary, but aid workers warn these migrants are not equipped to deal with the extreme cold.

MILENA RADOSAVLJEVIC, DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS: Since it was minus 20 these few days it's really cold. People are suffering.

MOHAMMAD MASSOUD, MIGRANT COMMUNITY REPRESENTATIVE: It's a lot like freezing, completely freezing especially during the night. Nobody can stay here but we have to.

WALKER: For many there is nowhere else to go and only more cold expected in the coming days.

Amara Walker, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Meteorologist Allison Chinchar joins us now for more on this brutal cold snap -- Allison.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That's right.

Well, Amara mentioned it that they think (inaudible) is that it is going to linger for many of these locations.

[00:25:02] Take a look at some of the snow again coming out of Italy. You can see what look like these little white humps here. Those are actually cars that are just entirely buried under the snow.

We've had a series of systems kind of come through and we still have a couple of systems around the area that will be impacting the same places over and over again. So we are still looking at additional snow for portions of Italy. We're also talking Hungary. We're talking Bulgaria, Turkey, even into Greece. Again -- the areas that have already seen enormous amounts of snow already now getting even more.

We're talking additional accumulations in most (inaudible) about 10 to 15 centimeters. Again that's a decent storm but you have to remember, it's on top of what we've already had and again likely going to last the cold along with it for several more days.

Switching gears on the other side, we're talking a major storm system that has been impacting the West Coast and we're about to get our next system that will move through Tuesday into Wednesday of this week. A lot of this pulling moisture from what we call the atmospheric river where some of that moisture has originated as far away as Hawaii now bringing all of that moisture into California, Oregon and Washington.

This out of Truckee, California major interstate I-80, which is the big east-west connector was shut down after a mudslide and not to mention all your little tiny roads and highways around that that have also had some closures.

Already much of California and even Oregon has picked up about 100 millimeters of rain but now we're talking possibly an additional 100 millimeters on top of what they've already had. So obviously flooding and landslides still going to be a concern going forward. VAUSE: Ok. Allison -- thanks for the update.

A short break here. When we come back, Roger Federer getting court time after a six-month layoff. After the break, you'll hear what the Grand Slam champ has planned for the coming season.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:30:15] VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody.

Tennis superstar Roger Federer is making his big comeback after being sidelined for six months for a knee injury. Federer had surgery last February. He decided to take some time off after hurting his knee again at Wimbledon in July.

Last week, the 17-time Grand Slam champion was back on the court of the Hopman Cup in Perth, Australia. Now his sights are set on the Australian Open in Melbourne next week.

Roger Federer joins us now live from Melbourne.

Roger, thank you so much for being with us. You've had six months away. It's a long time --

(CROSSTALK)

ROGER FEDERER, TENNIS SUPERSTAR: My pleasure.

VAUSE: There is a lot of talk now that Hopman Cup, the knee and the legs are better than ever. How are you feeling ahead of the Aussie Open?

FEDERER: Yes, I'm very excited to be back. Six months was a long time especially the moment you have to take the decision. You look at a year and six months is a big time. But then if you look at it as in a 20-year career, six months all of a sudden appears like very little. And I'm happy I took that decision, because that knee needed healing. It needed time. It needed strengthening. And like you said, Hopman Cup went very well. I feel great and now obviously I'm super excited that I was able to come through those three matches and to have another week to get ready for Melbourne. It's good times again, which is nice for me.

VAUSE: Yes. You started taking extended period off essentially so that you could keep playing not just for the immediate future but for years to come.

FEDERER: Yes, that was the idea, really. I mean, health for my life, my knee and my body was going to be better off in the future rather than always, you know, sort of trying to fix something because the beginning of the six months in 2016 was all about just trying to play OK and feeling OK, and that's -- after a certain period of time is just not enough. You know, you don't get very happy if you play that way too long. And that's why it was a tough decision to make, but I really hope it's going to give me an extra few years on tour. I feel rejuvenated and like I have more energy. So that's exciting about what's to come now.

VAUSE: OK. You are seeded 17th to the Aussie Open. That's the lowest for you since 2002. How much will now depend on the draw and who you face in the early rounds?

FEDERER: Well, I hope it's not going to matter for me that I'm playing that well, that it almost doesn't matter who's going to come against me. Maybe it's even better to play the better guys earlier because I'll might be having more energy left in the tank, because that's one open question. Like how much energy do I have left in a best of five set match or after a lot of matches in a row.

So I hope that the other guys are going to follow this draw. It's like, oh, I hope the number 17 seed is not going to be in my section. Rather than me thinking, like I hope I'm not going to be in their section. As long as I'm healthy, I'm super happy that I'm in the draw alone because when you're in the draw, you can win it. When you are in the draw, you can do something. So I'm going to be following it regardless because I think it's exciting this time around and I hope the first round is not going to be brutal. That's the most important for me so I can find my way into the tournament.

VAUSE: I read there are a few dad jokes from some of the younger players in Perth when you hit the dance floor on New Year's Eve. And that raises the question on the court. They were actually there partying in Perth.

How much longer do you think you can stay competitive on the court against this next-generation of younger tennis players?

FEDERER: On the dance floor, I was pretty good. So I hope that on the match courts, too, I can be OK. Though joking aside, I mean, I hope I can still do it for another few years. And it was nice actually spending some cool moments with the, you know, the up and coming generation on the dance floor for New Year's Eve and I'm feeling live it's one big family out there.

That we actually, essentially, really get along super well. I hope that, you know, with just my -- all my professionalism, with my new racket, with my team, it was everything included I'm going to be really strong for years to come. Only time will tell. I will probably need three or four tournaments to really be able to tell how good I'm going to be in the future, but we'll see, we'll see.

VAUSE: Out of everything that you achieved, one thing you still don't have is an Olympic gold medal. You missed out on Rio last year because of the knee. Will we see you in Tokyo in 2020?

FEDERER: I mean, look, I hope so. But it's still such a long way away that I can't be thinking this far ahead. I could do it for the Rio Olympics, but for the Tokyo Olympics I can't, especially coming off injury right now. It's just too far ahead.

I did win the gold in Beijing in doubles with my friend Stan. So I do feel like I have a gold, but of course in the singles I don't. And it would be amazing to win that gold in Tokyo, but honestly it's too far away to make that kind of an announcement.

VAUSE: Fair enough. You've got this partnership now with Wilson sporting goods. Is that something which is sort of a retirement plan, if you like, something that can continue long after you put the racket down, whenever that might be?

[00:35:10] FEDERER: I mean, I hope so. I've had a wonderful relationship with Wilson for, God, ever since I'm a little boy. Since I was 10 years old, I maybe even thrown in that. I played with Wilson so my whole career and more. They do incredible grassroots work. And this is the first time I designed my own racket from beginning to end. It's been a wonderful partnership. This time we do with all matte Gray with elastic paint finish.

It was, you know, it was a beautiful paint with the glossy finish. And then also I created my own ball right now and I hope it's going to make people excited about tennis, about Wilson, the goods that they have and of course in the future, I always be supportive for juniors coming up and speaking to them. And with Wilson, we do a lot of grassroots. So I hope I can work with them also beyond my career.

VAUSE: OK. We wish you the best of luck especial against Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray.

Thanks for being with us.

FEDERER: Appreciate it. Thank you very much. Thanks for the time.

VAUSE: OK. We'll take a short break. When we come back, there's been another thrilling college football championship. It's just wrapped up. We'll have an exciting finish. All the details between Clemson and Alabama in just a moment.

Also, more on Meryl Streep's acceptance speech. It stole the show at the Golden Globes, but it is not the first time celebrities have taken on politics.

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VAUSE: A suspect in the Florida airport shooting has been formally charged. Esteban Santiago made his first court appearance on Monday. He could face the death penalty.

Two months ago, Santiago told FBI officials in Alaska he was having terroristic thoughts. Authorities took away his gun, ordered a mental health check but they didn't find anything wrong and returned the weapon.

They now believe it's the same gun used in Friday's attack. We are about to show you video of that shooting.

Warning, it is disturbing.

You see the shooter with the blue shirt opening fire inside the baggage claim area. Authorities say Santiago told them he shot at the first people he saw. Five were killed. Six others were wounded. Staying in Florida, the search is on for a man suspected of killing a police officer in Orlando. Sergeant Debra Clayton is the first officer to be shot dead in the U.S. this year. Hundreds of officers searched door-to-door for the suspect, Markeith Loyd.

A sheriff's deputy looking for him died when his motorcycle collided with a car. A reward of up to $60,000 is now being offered for information leading to Loyd's arrest.

We have more now on the feud between the U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and actress Meryl Streep. But we should tell you, the battle between Hollywood and politics is nothing new.

Sara Sidner has details.

Sara?

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SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on-camera): John, nothing much got more attention at the Golden Globes than a political battle that started after Meryl Streep's speech.

(voice-over): Meryl Streep's lifetime achievement award paled in comparison to the attention she got for her speech at the Golden Globes. Streep's saying she was outrage by the antics of President- elect Donald Trump.

[00:40:10] MERYL STREEP, ACTRESS: It was that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter.

SIDNER: And as expected, the person she targeted responded like lightning. His tweet denying he made fun of the reporter's disability and ending with calling her an overrated Hillary flunky.

TED JOHNSON, SENIOR EDITOR, VARIETY: He says, I don't pick fights. I respond when people hit at me. It's my right to hit back at them.

SIDNER: Streep was a staunch supporter of Clinton and she's part of the long list of celebrities using popular platforms on state and online to make political protests.

San Francisco 49er Colin Kaepernick taking a knee to protests the treatment of black Americans by police spread across the country influencing whole high school teams to do the same. But it also inspired people to burn their Kaepernick jerseys in disgust calling his actions unpatriotic. None of this is new.

JOHNSON: This is actually nothing new about celebrities speaking out on a certain issue or even certain candidate. It goes back largely I would say to the Vietnam War era.

SIDNER: Most notably Jane Fonda. She protested the war during her career. She was praised for her stance by some and vilified by others, especially when she was photograph laughing and clapping while sitting with the North Vietnamese at a military site in Hanoi, the enemy. This as the war rage and American soldiers as well as the Vietnamese continued to be killed.

JANE FONDA, ACTRESS: I'm sorry that I was photographed sitting on an antiaircraft gun. Me, that that image made soldiers think that I was against American soldiers.

SIDNER: A year later, one of the most famous actors of all time took a stand against Hollywood's portrayal of Native Americans. In 1973, Marlon Brando won the academy award for "The Godfather," but America's bad boy boycotted The Oscars.

When his name was called, Sacheen Littlefeather took the stage for him saying "He very respectfully cannot accept this very generous award."

Some in the Hollywood crowd booed, others clapped but the protest got people talking.

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SIDNER: In the 21st century, we are seeing more of these political statements. That's partly because there is easier access to the world. All you need is your fingertips and a cell phone.

John?

VAUSE: Sara thank you for that>

The kings of college football have been dethroned. The University of Alabama falling to the Clemson Tigers in a thriller in the U.S. college football national championship. Clemson scored with a touchdown with just one second left to win 35-31. Alabama had won the four of the last seven national titles including a win over Clemson just last year. This is Clemson's first championship since 1981 and only their second ever title.

Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles, I'm John Vause. Stay with us. "World Sport" is up next and then I will be back with another hour of news from all around the world. You're watching CNN.

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