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Trump's Economic Boom for Black Americans; Trump Names Stephen Miller as Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy; Justice Sotomayor Not Planning to Step Down; Amsterdam Mayor Condemns "Hunting" Hews Messages. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired November 11, 2024 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: President-Elect Donald Trump has made a lot of promises for his second term, including major economic growth for African Americans. Here's what he told the Black Conservative Federation earlier this year.

You have that soundbite? All right. We don't have it. He's promised a lot. Let's discuss with our panel. Alvin Tillery is founder of the Alliance for Black Equality. Antjuan Seawright is a Democratic strategist. And Tara Setmayer is co-founder and CEO of the Seneca Project and was a Republican communications director up on Capitol Hill.

I want to dive into the reason why we brought you all here in just a moment. But, Tara, I want to talk to you first about some breaking news that we're just getting in. Here at CNN, President-Elect Trump is expected to announce in the coming days that Stephen Miller, his top immigration adviser, will serve as White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy.

Tara, and you know, Stephen Miller's politics and his policy ideas all too well. We should remind our viewers he was one of the architects of the family separation policy during the first Trump administration. That policy, for viewers who don't remember it, resulted in the separation of thousands of migrant families, basically taking children away from their mothers when they came across the border into this country unlawfully. Tara, your reaction to Stephen Miller being tapped for this kind of a role?

TARA SETMAYER, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, THE SENECA PROJECT AND FORMER GOP CONGRESSIONAL COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Well, that's what people voted for. I suggest lots of folks who voted for Donald Trump go back and watch a lot of interviews and media appearances by Stephen Miller and you see who he is. He's a despicable human being that is a racist and a xenophobe and his own family has disowned him.

And this is now who is -- who has proximity to power in the White House, basically number two next to Susie Wiles in the ear of the president of the United States. Well, I guess the upside is at least he won't be DHS secretary or attorney general. I mean, you know, I don't think --

ACOSTA: Do you think that's because they were probably worried that he couldn't get confirmed? Is that --

SETMAYER: Probably yes. But, you know, Trump -- that's why Trump is asking for recess appointments and they're trying to circumvent normal institutions and processes because you're going to find out that a lot of these people will -- would not be able to pass muster once they are really on public display.

I -- you know, I've often said that I do not think that the -- not the maddest, they know what they got. But a lot of people who felt that, well, it was the economy or it won't be so bad or, you know, they're not fully aware of what they have done and the people they have ushered in. You didn't just vote for Donald Trump, you voted for the people like Stephen Miller, the people who gave those speeches during the fascist rally there you had in Madison Square Garden. They voted for that too. So, we're about to see what these people are going to bring onto the American people in our government, and God help us.

ACOSTA: And I do want to bring in just very quickly Steve Contorno, our Trump campaign reporter. Steve, you've got more information on Stephen Miller being tapped as a deputy White House chief of staff for policy. I mean, that is a major role. And I guess one thing that we should note to our viewers is that two of the biggest announcements Donald Trump has made since winning the election about what's going to be happening with his new administration, two of the big announcements were -- are -- basically pertain to his plans for mass deportations in this country. Thomas Homan as borders czar and Stephen Miller as deputy White House chief of staff.

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Yes, that's right. And I guess it should come as no surprise given how much emphasis Donald Trump put on immigration in his campaign. Even when poll after poll after poll kept showing that the economy was the motivating factor for a lot of individuals, Donald Trump remained adamant that he believed that the top priority and the top concerns facing this country were immigration related, and the advancement of Stephen Miller into this role certainly aligns with that.

Now, Miller has been closely involved with Trump's presidential campaign, and he has stayed close to the president after he left office. He has been one of the people who has been working behind the scenes to put together policy plans, executive orders, all of that that could be help get the administration off and running from the moment Donald Trump is sworn in.

[10:35:00]

And Miller is interesting as well because he will be under Chief of Staff Susie Wiles who has -- is really well known for being a manager of Trump's orbit and of Trump himself and being a disciplined general, but she is not a policy wonk by any stretch. And Stephen Miller fancies himself as someone who is in the weeds and enjoys getting into these policy battles. And he has been a very much someone in the past who has written and been influential in shaping Donald Trump's policies, especially on immigration. And you can imagine that he will work closely with Tom Homan on any plans regarding this mass deportation that Trump has promised and is setting up -- setting the stage to deliver.

ACOSTA: All right. Steve Contorno, thank you very much. I want to go to Antjuan, who's with me and the rest of the panel. Antjuan, your reaction to this news that we're getting? Because, I mean, this really should not come as any surprise to Americans out there who are saying, OK, Stephen Miller's going to be in the White House?

ANTJUAN SEAWRIGHT, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, it's certainly no surprise. Miller and others who we will probably see in this White House have wrapped themselves and baked themselves in white nationalism, Christian white nationalism, white supremacy and so forth. And there's no education in the second kick of the mule, as we say in South Carolina.

And so, many of the things we're going to see, many of the appointments and many of the things the American people will feel will be just left over or a continuation of the first Trump White House. The difference between now and then is there's no unchecked power. He will have four years to do whatever he wants to. And the American people, led by the MAGA extremists, have given him a license to do whatever he wants to do, appoint whoever he wants to appoint, and say whatever he wants to say.

ACOSTA: And, Alvin, I do want to get you to weigh in here, but also your thoughts on what your expectations are for the -- this next Trump administration that's coming in as it pertains to policies geared toward black Americans. I mean, Stephen Miller, it's just been announced he's going to be the new deputy White House chief of staff for policy. But Stephen Miller is very steeped in immigration issues. You know, and obviously, that's going to be a major focus of this incoming administration. Donald Trump is making that very clear right off the bat, picking Thomas Homan to be a border czar and Stephen Miller to be a deputy White House chief of staff.

ALVIN TILLERY, FOUNDER, ALLIANCE FOR BLACK EQUALITY AND CO-FOUNDER, 2040 STRATEGY GROUP: Yes. Well, I mean, I think it is a terrible day for people who are pro-immigration, but it's also a terrible day for black America. I mean, what you also need to realize is that Stephen Miller is a principal architect of the diversity, equity, and inclusion bans that have swept this country in the last two years. He is also in league with the folks at the Heritage Foundation who want to defund the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which is charged with protecting black Americans and other minority groups from racial discrimination. Black Americans are the group that experience the most racial discrimination in the U.S. economy. So, it is a terrible move if you're trying to support the black community.

ACOSTA: Yes. And, Antjuan, I mean, same question to you, your thoughts on all of this. I mean, one of the things that obviously is going to be asked is, you know, what is Trump's focus going to be on in this new administration? He already seems to be making it pretty clear he's sending signals to the MAGA crowd, that you're going to get what you want. These are the people that I want to put in place.

SEAWRIGHT: Well, he has to continue to feed the beast. He has to continue to give them right meat, toned down, radical, racial rhetoric in order to keep his base together, to keep his parties together, and to deliver on his promises. But when it comes to the economic bill of health of black Americans, first of all, the former president, as a candidate, did not introduce or give framework to any economic policy that would move up some margin lies to make the playing field level. And so, certainly, we should not expect that when he becomes president of the United States.

But what we should expect, Jim, is for him to take credit from a very strong, robust Biden-Harris economy that most economists who are reasonable would agree that has been well, has served the country well and served African Americans, well, he's going to benefit from that and where he doesn't make progress quickly, he will then blame the previous administration for whatever he cannot do in his first two years.

ACOSTA: And, Tara, final thought from you, and I guess one of the things I would like you to get out a final thought in on is, you know, some of the thoughts that have been out there that have been expressed that well, you know, Trump, it was just all talk out there on the campaign trail. This was just campaign rhetoric that he throws out there. And when he gets to be president again, he'll know that he has to behave in a certain way or else the wheels will come off. And he's got Susie Wiles there as his new chief of staff, and she managed to keep a tight lid on things from time to time.

[10:40:00]

I mean, there's a lot of this sort of -- it sort of feels like 2016 heading into 2017 where there was the same talk out there that the mantle of the presidency would rest upon Donald Trump's shoulders and transform him into the second coming of Ronald Reagan, and that just wasn't the case.

SETMAYER: Yes, I mean, people can delude themselves and rationalize whatever they want to try to explain away why they made the decision to put in a felon who incited a violent insurrection, to try to overthrow fear of a free and fair election, and demonized many groups in this country in the most awful and vile ways and surrounds himself with the ilk of people like Stephen Miller and others who believe in white supremacy and who think that we need to restore white men because they're going to be replaced. Like, these are the people that Donald Trump has surrounded himself with. He has not gotten any better.

And I think about today as Veterans Day and how we honor those who sacrificed and served in our military to uphold our constitution and our freedoms and the belief in democracy and what an affront a Donald Trump presidency is about to be to that oath that they have taken. And with this, all of their sacrifice and everything we have fought for as an American country and this is American democratic experiment cannot be in vain.

So, I hope that all those people that are thinking that, oh, it won't be that bad, and are right, I hope they're right. But my gut feeling and Donald Trump's own behavior and the people he has surrounded himself with says otherwise. So, we're about to find out and all we can do as those of us who still are pro-democracy, who still believe in equal rights, who still believe that women deserve to be equal citizens, and still believe that that minority rights in this country should be respected and our constitution should be respected, we have to continue to fight and make sure that these people are held accountable, or else our democracy is going to be lost.

ACOSTA: All right. Tara Setmayer, Antjuan Seawright, and Alvin Tillery, yes, indeed, all the early signals seem to be pointing towards MAGA, not moderation. Appreciate very much the time. We'll be right back.

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[10:45:00]

ACOSTA: The Supreme Court's most senior progressive justice is making it clear she is not going anywhere. People close to Justice Sonia Sotomayor say she is planning to stay on the bench. That's despite some calls on the left for her to step aside so that President Biden could name a successor and safeguard that seat ahead of another Trump's term. CNN Chief Legal Affairs Correspondent Paula Reid joins me now.

Paula, I mean, we saw this bubbling up over the weekend, you know, lots of fears that Sonia Sotomayor might not make it through a Trump -- a second Trump term, that's a pretty dark and gloomy thing to think about. But people remember what happened with Ruth Bader Ginsburg. So, what do you think?

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Sure. The ghost of Ruth Bader Ginsburg looms large over this conversation, but calling for Sotomayor to step down now just doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. Even if you have a qualified replacement, it takes months to replace the Supreme Court justice. It does not appear that they actually have enough time.

And remember, the liberal bloc is only three justices right now. Sotomayor is 70 years old. She does have type one diabetes. She doesn't appear to be slowing down, but if she wants to preserve that liberal bloc, the best thing she can do is to stay in good health for at least four more years.

Now, what seems to make a little more sense are calls that are starting to bubble up for conservative justices to step down, because you have President-Elect Trump coming in. And it's not surprising that people would call for some of the older justices, Justices Thomas, Justice Alito to step down so that Trump can name a younger successor and secure that conservative bloc.

As you and I both covered the Trump White House, we know that one of Trump's indisputable legacies is stacking the federal judiciary with conservative justices and also creating that really conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court. But Supreme Court justices, they're not like other people. So, calling for them to step down can backfire. We saw this with Justice Breyer. Remember there were trucks driving around town. There were big signs calling for him to step down in the first year of the Biden administration. And he waited two years to do that. Now, interestingly, Leonard Leo, who's considered the architect of Trump's judiciary strategy, he has entered the chat and he has called these calls for Thomas and Alito to step down, quote, "crass". I'm sure he recognizes that sometimes justices don't respond well to this, but I don't think that's going to put an end to these calls to, again, solidify that supermajority with a younger generation of justices.

ACOSTA: Yes, but I mean, you know, there is the prospect in a second Trump administration that if one of the liberal justices were to go by the wayside one way or the other, I mean, to have an eight to two -- or excuse me, seven to two or eight to one majority on the Supreme Court, I mean, that would really cement in place, you know, a conservative majority on that Supreme Court -- supermajority in the Supreme Court for years.

REID: Yes. So, which is why right now, for liberals, it probably makes sense for them to call the justices to eat their vegetables, get their steps, make sure they're lifting heavy, but not too heavy. And try to stay healthy for at least another four years, not necessarily to step down right now because it's not clear that would be successful.

ACOSTA: All right. Paul Reid, thanks very much. Very important topic. We'll be right back.

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[10:50:00]

ACOSTA: We are getting new details about last week's disturbing anti- Semitic attacks in Amsterdam. We want to warn you the video of the attacks is disturbing. The mayor says messages calling for the, quote, "hunting" of Jews were circulated on Telegram, the social messaging app, beforehand. She condemned the messages and the violence as shocking outbursts of anti-Semitism. CNN's Melissa Bell is following this story for us. Melissa, what else is the mayor saying?

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the mayor giving more details as part of this investigation. We spoke about last week, Jim, together that was launched onto that night of extraordinary violence on Thursday in the Dutch capital. What we've seen over the course of the week is that by the Wednesday, even when the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans began arriving in Amsterdam, tearing down Palestinian flags, shouting anti-Arab slurs, that tension mounting extra policemen and women were put on the streets. But what we now understand is that these messaging apps allowed people to communicate, to organize themselves in order that Thursday, what we saw where there's hit and run targeted attacks on Tel Aviv football club supporters.

There were more than 60 people arrested and dozens were injured, even though now all the fans have gone home. That investigation will continue. But it is with Israeli authorities that the Dutch are now working to try and ensure that convictions are brought helped, of course, by these messaging apps which will help them to try and find out who is behind them and who will have acted upon what was inside them and may have been responsible for some of that violence.

[10:55:00]

Fears now about the match that's going to take place on Thursday here in Paris, France will take on Israel, French police not taking any chances after what we saw in Amsterdam, 4,000 policemen and women will be posted around the Stade of France searching, frisking people, checking bags to try and make sure that this match is more peaceful than what we saw last week in Holland and that they don't become lightning rods for these kinds of protests and the kind of violence that we saw, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. Melissa Bell, we know you'll be watching that for us. Thank you very much. And thanks for joining us this morning. I'm Jim Acosta. Our next hour of Newsroom with Pamela Brown starts after a short break. Have a good day.

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