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The World Reacts to Trump's Victory; Trump Names Susie Wiles as White House Chief of Staff; Trump Making Plans for Mass Deportations of Illegal Migrants; U.S. House of Representative Still Up for Grabs. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired November 08, 2024 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:00]
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DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECT: Susie likes to stay sort of in the back, let me tell you. The ice thing, we call it the ice thing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday named his first White House position and potentially the most important one.
TRUMP: I really think that the biggest problem this country has is what they've allowed to happen to us on the border.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Trump allies and some in the private sector have been preparing for exactly that, essentially detaining and deporting migrants on a large scale.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He sold this as a return to American greatness. The rest of the world looks at it as a confirmation that America's in decline.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster and Christina Macfarlane.
MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us from around the world. I'm Max Foster. It's Friday, October the 8th.
That'll be November, I think, the 8th, 9 a.m. here in London. The rush is on for the top jobs in the incoming Trump administration. And according to CNN's Kaitlan Collins, some discussions have morphed into all-out battles at this Mar-a-Lago resort.
Sources and aides say winning the popular vote has Trump feeling emboldened. Believing he has now got a mandate from the American people to enact his policies. Amongst his top priorities, the mass detention and deportation of migrants. Officials at the Department of Homeland Security are said to be bracing for a seismic shift in immigration policy. Meanwhile, the once and future president has selected his campaign
manager, Susie Wiles, as his White House chief of staff. The president-elect thanked her during his victory speech early on Wednesday.
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TRUMP: Let me also express my tremendous appreciation for Susie and Chris, the job you did. Susie, come Susie, come here, come here Susie. Chris, come here Chris.
Susie likes to stay sort of in the back, let me tell you. The ice baby, we call her the ice baby.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Well, we've got more now from CNN's Kristen Holmes on that.
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KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday named his first White House position and potentially the most important one, naming Susie Wiles the chief of staff to the White House. She's actually going to be the first female chief of staff in the history of the country. She is somebody who has been loyal to him for years, somebody who served as his co-chair of his campaign, and somebody who was really there next to the former president.
And when he saw Republicans across the party try to distance themselves from the former president. Now, I do want to read you the statement that Donald Trump put out on his naming of Susie Wiles.
He said, Susie Wiles just helped me achieve one of the greatest political victories in American history, and it was an integral part of both my 2016 and 2020 successful campaigns.
President Trump said, Susie is tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected. Susie will continue to work tirelessly to make America great again. It is a well-deserved honor to have Susie as the first ever female chief of staff in United States history. I have no doubt that she will make our country proud.
The one thing to keep in mind about Susie Wiles is that we have learned from sources that she did have some stipulations in taking this job, essentially saying that she wasn't -- she wanted to make sure she had control of the clown car, that they wouldn't have access to the White House at all times. And that is something that we saw in the first administration, that these controversial outside figures who caused problems for Donald Trump had free reign at the White House.
And something Susie did during the campaign was essentially try and stop that kind of chaos around former President Donald Trump. She always said to sources that she knew she couldn't control candidate Trump. However, she felt she could control some of the people and circumstances around him. This really sets the tone for what the administration is going to look like. Susie is well respected across the political spectrum. We'll obviously see how the rest of these naming of appointments, of putting forward candidates goes in the next several days.
Kristen Holmes, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: President Joe Biden sharing a message of sober optimism in the wake of Donald Trump's win over Kamala Harris. Speaking at the White House on Thursday, Biden said his administration accepted the choice the country has made in picking Trump as its next leader. In his comments, Biden repurposed a message he's often used on the campaign trail to draw a contrast with Trump, who has still not conceded defeat in the 2020 election.
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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've said many times, you can't love your country only when you win. You can't love your neighbor only when you agree. Something I hope we can do, no matter who you voted for, is see each other not as adversaries, but as fellow Americans. Bring down the temperature.
The American experiment endures. We're going to be OK, but we need to stay engaged.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: While further contrasting himself with Trump, Mr. Biden said he plans to fulfill his oath with a peaceful transfer of power on January the 20th. And even as many Democrats are pointing fingers of blame over the electoral loss, the outgoing president celebrated the accomplishments of his administration and urging supporters to stay strong until the end.
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BIDEN: And it's truly historic. You know, we're leaving behind the strongest economy in the world. I know people are still hurting, but things are changing rapidly. Together, we've changed America for the better. Now we have 74 days to finish the term, our term. Let's make everyday count.
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FOSTER: Well, Ukraine's president said he had a productive conversation with Trump this week amid growing fears that the future U.S. president's administration will slash military aid. During a summit of European leaders, Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned against making any concessions to Russia, and he urged allies to exert more pressure.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: We are defending ourselves, not against Russian wars, but against Russian attacks. Therefore, we need sufficient weapons, not supporting talks. Hugs with Putin will not help.
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FOSTER: Meanwhile, the French president said he too had spoken with Trump, who will be defending the interests of Americans. Emmanuel Macron asked his counterparts, are we ready to defend the interests of Europeans?
Well, earlier, CNN spoke with political science professor Peter Feaver about what foreign policy may look like during the second Trump administration. This is what he had to say.
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PETER FEAVER, PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, DUKE UNIVERSITY: Trump 2.0 is the grey rhino that can't be avoided. Our allies are worried about American disengagement and isolationism. Particularly late in the campaign, Trump and the people around him were making pretty naked isolationist appeals to the electorate. And that didn't seem to hurt him, may have even helped him. And so our allies are afraid that that's what they're going to see.
President Trump likes to cut deals. Those deals tend to have sort of short-term benefits for the United States, at the cost of long-term benefits for our allies -- I mean, I'm sorry, for our adversaries. And so I could well imagine Xi Jinping and Putin putting together deals that would look good in the short run, but actually hurt American interests in the long run. And they'll see if Trump will go for it.
It is interesting that the rest of the world sees this election as a sign of American decline. That's the opposite of the message that President Trump emphasized on the campaign trail. He sold this as a return to American greatness. The rest of the world looks at it as a confirmation that America's in decline. And we'll soon find out which is right.
He's likely to be the same president in the next term that he was in his first term. But what has changed is the composition of people around him. And in the first term, he had quite a few people who would say to him, boss, are you sure you want to do that? If we do that, then this and this and this will happen. And that'll be adverse. And they talked the president out. They didn't block the president from doing it. But they warned him of consequences. And then he had second thoughts.
It's likely that in the second in his second term, he's not going to have those kind of truth tellers around him.
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FOSTER: We are following a developing story this morning out of the Netherlands. Authorities say Israeli football fans were attacked after a match in Amsterdam late on Thursday. Israeli officials say fans of the squad Maccabi Tel Aviv were, quote, ambushed and attacked overnight after a Europa League match against Dutch side Ajax.
This is social media video shared by the Israeli embassy to the U.S. We haven't actually verified it yet, but Israel's foreign minister says 10 nationals were injured. CNN's Nada Bashir joins me now. And the reaction to this in Jerusalem has been quite something. They want to evacuate citizens from a European country. This is a big deal.
NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely. It's being taken very seriously by Israeli officials. We've been hearing from officials both in Jerusalem and even from the Israeli embassy in the United States, expressing concern over what transpired overnight.
[04:10:03]
As you mentioned, we've seen videos of these attacks targeting supporters of this Tel Aviv based team, which had been playing a match in Amsterdam. At least 10 people injured, according to officials.
But Israeli authorities say they believe hundreds were targeted in what they've described as an ambush, particularly targeting this particular group. And, of course, this has been characterized already by officials as an anti-Semitic attack, certainly by the Dutch prime minister and, of course, his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu. The Dutch prime minister has said that he's been in touch with the Israeli prime minister.
And as you mentioned that concern is now leading to evacuation flights being organized to support those in Amsterdam. We've also heard from the Israeli prime minister calling for increased security for the Jewish community in the Netherlands.
Of course, there had been some tensions building before this match. We know there had been a pro-Palestine march scheduled in the city ahead of this match. According to police officials, the fans supporting in this game were actually able to leave the stadium without any sort of scuffles there between protesters, that this violence actually took place overnight as opposed to immediately in the aftermath of the match.
We'd also heard earlier in the week about Palestinian flags being torn down. We've seen videos circulating of some of the supporters of the Tel Aviv-based team chanting anti-Arab slogans. But, again, CNN hasn't been able to verify these videos. But we are still waiting to hear more details from police officials actually in Amsterdam as to what caused the violence and what happened afterwards, of course, and if there have been any arrests.
FOSTER: On what led up to this, Prime Minister Netanyahu is suggesting this was a planned attack. But I was also struck by what the foreign minister said of Israel. He called them, you know, these attacks barbaric and anti-Semitic and called them a blaring alarm call for Europe and the world. What did he mean by that?
BASHIR: Well, there's certainly a huge amount of concern across Europe around the spike in anti-Semitic attacks. Certainly, a lot of fear for Jewish communities across Europe around these sorts of attacks. That is certainly something that the officials in Israel have been very clear about for some time now.
But, again, there have been these mounting tensions as well across European cities when it comes to these pro-Palestine marches that we're seeing. It was important to make that distinction that many of these marches are, in fact, anti-war marches against Israel's military actions in Gaza, not necessarily anti-Semitic protests. But, again, there have been instances of anti-Semitic attacks on the fringe of these movements.
So that is certainly a point of concern and something that European leaders have been very firm on, particularly over the course of the last year.
FOSTER: OK, Nada, thank you.
After the break, the U.S. Federal Reserve issues another interest rate cut. Wallace's leader defends his position days after Trump's election. More on that next.
Plus, Donald Trump made border security the focal point of much of his campaign. Now his allies are quietly laying the groundwork for a mass deportation of illegal migrants.
Plus, praise from the Russian president. What Vladimir Putin had to say about Trump's return to power.
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FOSTER: In yet another blow to the Biden administration, a federal judge in Texas has struck down the so-called Parole in Place Immigration Plan. The policy gave legal status to certain undocumented immigrants married to U.S. citizens. It shielded them from deportation and allowed them to work legally while seeking citizenship. But the Trump-appointed judge behind the decision said that Congress had not given the executive branch authority to implement such a policy.
This case is just one of several ongoing legal challenges against the current administration, which the incoming Trump White House may refuse to defend.
Border security was one of Donald Trump's main campaign themes. He regularly made false claims like this during his bid for the White House.
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TRUMP: I really think that the biggest problem this country has is what they've allowed to happen to us on the border. They've allowed our country to be destroyed. They're allowing thousands of murderers and drug dealers and terrorists and people from mental institutions. They're emptying out their jails into our country. (END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Well, now President-elect Trump says he's ready to make good on his promise to carry out the largest deportation effort in U.S. history. As our Priscilla Alvarez reports, his allies are already starting to lay the groundwork.
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PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Donald Trump has been clear that his first order of business is mass deportation. And now we are learning that quietly, behind the scenes, Trump allies and some in the private sector have been preparing for exactly that, essentially detaining and deporting migrants on a large scale.
Now, a key component of that is detention space. Of course, if their federal authorities arrest someone, they would also have to detain them before repatriating them to their home country. And the private sector is involved because the federal government often relies on contractors to manage these detention spaces. And that is part of the quiet preparations that are happening behind the scenes. And they are expected to ramp up in the days and weeks to come.
But current and former officials I've spoken with say that the challenge here is also the money and the resources. That is why the federal government has not been able to do mass deportations in recent memory, in addition to other concerns, for example, the impact it would have on the economy.
But practically speaking, the amount that it costs to apprehend, detain, process and remove an undocumented immigrant, according to some analysis, is nearly $11,000. That's for one individual. Now, former official I spoke with to do something at a big scale the way that Donald Trump has said he wants to do would cost millions, if not billions of dollars, and therefore would be difficult to execute on in addition to the need, for example, for more personnel.
Now, the Department of Homeland Security has reprogrammed funds before, essentially moving funds around to try to bolster their immigration enforcement. But again, doing something as big as mass deportation is costly. All the same, though, preparations, sources say, are underway to try to execute on this part of the discussion, being to focus on those undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes in the U.S.
Another part of the discussion is whether to also include those undocumented immigrants who are brought to the United States as children known as DREAMers. Now, that segment of the undocumented population has typically had bipartisan support, and some are protected, temporarily protected, under an Obama-era program.
But certainly a lot of discussion underway as to how this first order of business would look like, one that Donald Trump has repeatedly talked about and has indicated that he intends on doing.
Priscila Alvarez, CNN, Washington. (END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Latinos embraced Donald Trump at the ballot box despite his anti-immigrant rhetoric and campaign promises on mass deportation. CNN's Ed Lavandera spoke with Latino and immigrant workers, or voters, rather, in Arizona about why they support President-elect Trump.
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ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In 2016, this happened at a Donald Trump rally in Arizona.
TRUMP: Look at that sign. Latinos support Trump. I love you. I love you.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Next thing Betty Rivas knew, she was on stage with the future president.
TRUMP: I love her. I fall in love, Melania. I've fallen in love with her.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Eight years later, Rivas remains fully enamored with the president-elect.
Betty Rivas told us she felt a connection with Trump on that stage when they looked into each other's eyes.
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Betty and her husband, Jorge, own Sammy's Mexican Grill near Tucson. In this temple to Trump, they serve tacos and enchiladas and the popular MAGA burger.
LAVANDERA: If someone were to come up to you and say, you're a Latino immigrant, how can you support Donald Trump?
JORGE RIVAS, TRUMP-THEMED RESTAURANT OWNER: I will tell him that the man loves this country.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): He says Trump speaks about the things he cares about, faith, family, and the economy.
RIVAS: I know he's not perfect. I know he's not like a Pope. We believe in, you know, teaching our kids about God, our Christian values, family values. And the Democratic Party is embracing all the woke, left-leaning ideas that doesn't go with our values.
LAVANDERA: I think there's going to be a lot of people who have a hard time hearing you say, I like Trump because of family values.
RIVAS: I don't go by his lifestyle. I don't go by what he has done.
LAVANDERA: Do you think it's the Democrats pushing Latinos to Trump? Or is it Trump bringing in Latinos?
RIVAS: I think more Democrats are pushing Latinos to Trump.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Tony Arias and Idelfonso Armenta are the hosts of a radio show called Los Chavorrucos, which loosely translates to Young Geezers, on La Campesina radio network, which airs in five states. They take dozens of calls a day on a radio station founded by the iconic labor organizer, Cesar Chavez, and they've sensed Trump winning over Latinos in the last few years.
Democrats did not impress people, said the caller. Donald Trump spoke well and stole their hearts.
Another caller said, I fought with my oldest son. He told me Trump is better than Kamala.
I said, I cannot accept that.
LAVANDERA: Are you seeing that it's a generational divide?
TONY ARIAS, RADIO HOST: I see a lot of young people voting for Trump because they're thinking about the economy.
RAQUEL TERAN, FORMER DEMOCRATIC LEADER IN THE ARIZONA SENATE: We need to do a better job of engaging our community.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Raquel Teran is a former Democratic legislator in Arizona. She recently ran for Congress and spent months knocking on doors trying to turn out Latino voters.
TERAN: What they're hearing from Trump is that there's going to be a better economy under his administration.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): The night after Donald Trump won reelection, Jorge Rivas told us about their path to becoming U.S. citizens. He was born in El Salvador, granted asylum in the U.S. at age 17.
Betty immigrated from Mexico. Now she thinks many migrants are lying and trying to take advantage of the asylum process. They want the immigration crisis fixed.
RIVAS: If they let in hundreds or thousands of people who already have criminal records, if deporting them creates a mass deportation, I vote for it.
LAVANDERA: But what if rounded up in all of that are people who work on a farm? If they're doing the jobs that Americans don't want to do, does that worry you?
RIVAS: That wouldn't be fair. Of course, you know, they need to make sure that they don't throw away, they don't kick out, they don't deport people that are family-oriented.
LAVANDERA: The question that persists is why Donald Trump's history of offensive comments hasn't fully turned off Latino voters. Some pointed out to us that younger Latino voters in particular don't know much about Trump, that they simply see him as a celebrity businessman. And others also pointed out that many Latino immigrants come from countries with truly dangerous and evil political leaders, and they view Trump as much more harmless.
Ed Lavandera, CNN, Phoenix.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Amid slowing inflation and a cooling job market, the U.S. economy is set to face a new direction and a new administration. The U.S. Federal Reserve is cutting interest rates by a quarter of 1 percent. The new rate is now between 4.5 and 4.75 percent. This is the second rate cut since the central bank began to ease loan costs in September, though the latest cut is smaller.
The Fed is now preparing to contend with another Trump economic agenda after a fraught history between the Federal Reserve Chair and the present elect. Fed Chair Jerome Powell says he will serve for the rest of his term, even if Trump has other plans.
However, a Trump senior advisor says the president-elect is likely to allow Powell to finish his stint, which expires in May 2026.
The advisor does caution that Trump could always change his mind. Trump and Powell clashed several times during his first term, with the president-elect threatening to fire the chair several times.
Whilst Republicans have won the White House and the Senate, results for the House of Representatives still hangs in the balance.
But it may go to the Republicans as well, as CNN's Manu Raju reports now from Washington.
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MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We still don't know which party will have control of the United States House for the next two years and the first two years of Donald Trump's second term in office. But at the moment, Republicans are favored to hold onto the House. They are confident that they, in fact, will keep their House majority.
[04:25:03]
There are still a number of states' races that are outstanding. In fact, the Republicans have picked up more seats than Democrats so far. And Republicans and Democrats each are leading in a handful of states, complicating the Democratic path to get to 218 seats.
I talked to people, members on both sides of the aisle. They expect the Republicans will, in fact, hold onto the House. By no means is it a done deal. Some Democrats, including the House Democratic leader, believes that there is still a path, a feasible path to the majority.
In fact, they had some message that they led, they gave to their members in a conference call earlier in the day on Thursday. But in talking to a lot of people on both sides of the aisle, they do acknowledge that it's more likely than not that it will be Republicans currently led by Speaker Mike Johnson, who would be in charge in that first two years. Now, again, this would be a narrow majority, a razor thin majority.
That's what Mike Johnson had to contend with during the last year or so than the Republicans have had over the last two years. Remember, the first speaker of this current Congress is Kevin McCarthy. He was ousted in an uprising caused by his own party.
Then Mike Johnson, the new speaker, came in, had a very difficult time legislating with this narrow majority because Republicans were infighting most of the time and they scuttled even basic things, trying to do basic things. He had to rely on Democratic votes on a lot of issues. This will be a different dynamic if the Republicans do keep the House because now they'll have a party in their Senate in their party's control, also a White House in their party's control.
It would be one party rule in Washington, which is why Democrats are hoping that they can salvage some of these races, that they can turn things around in California and in Arizona in particular. That's where a lot of vote is still incoming. California districts that are suburban districts that are currently held by Republicans that Joe Biden carried back in 2020, they are hoping they can flip them.
But in some of those districts, they are now trailing, which is making their path to the majority difficult. They're hoping things will change when more ballots get processed. But we may not know the majority until next week or maybe even later if these races continue to be tight.
Manu Raju, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Well, children and college students were amongst a number of people in various states who received racist text messages after the U.S. election. Here's an example of one of the vile messages sent from an anonymous phone number. They've shown up in Maryland, New Jersey, Alabama, Michigan, South Carolina and elsewhere.
The FBI said it's in contact with the Justice Department and other federal authorities about the matter. The attorney general's office in Washington, D.C. So anyone receiving such a message should contact its civil rights section. CNN has reached out to the Federal Communications Commission and officials in the states for further comment.
Ahead, congratulations for Donald Trump and talk of a new world order. The latest remarks from the Russian president.
Plus, Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz under pressure to call a new set of elections. What's behind the collapse of his coalition government?
