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Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) is Interviewed about Trump's Picks; Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) is Interviewed about Trump's Picks; Thune Replaces McConnel as Senate GOP Leader; Trump and Biden Transition Meeting. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired November 14, 2024 - 06:30   ET

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

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[06:33:22]

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SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL): I'm not on Russia's side. But, unfortunately, the reality of it is, is that the way the war in Ukraine is going to end is with a negotiated settlement.

PETE HEGSETH: I'm straight up just saying, we should not have women in combat roles.

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: Do you think Assad is our enemy?

TULSI GABBARD: Assad is not the enemy of the United States because the United - Syria does not pose a direct threat to the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump's vision for his national security team is taking shape. The newest addition being - one of the newest additions being veteran and former Democratic congresswomen, turned Republican Fox News contributor, Tulsi Gabbard. Gabbard has been tapped to serve as the next Director of National Intelligence. She has no formal intelligence experience herself, and she has previously raised eyebrows for seeming to parrot Russian propaganda.

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TULSI GABBARD, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, FORMER CONGRESSWOMAN: They are s focused on, how do we punish Putin, that they don't care and are not focused on what is actually in the best interests of the American people.

But they're lying, Ukraine isn't actually a democracy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Trump's former U.N. ambassador, John Bolton, said this yesterday about both Gabbard and Trump's attorney general pick, Matt Gaetz.

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JOHN BOLTON, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED STATES: I don't think either she or Matt Gaetz ought to have a confirmation hearing until they have both had full-field FBI investigations.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why do you think -

BOLTON: Then I think the Chinese would say -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold on, FBI investigations into Gabbard?

BOLTON: Maybe - maybe they are serious.

I think so given the Russian propaganda that she has espoused over the past period of time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, joining us now to discuss, Democratic Congressman Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts. He's also a Marine veteran, serves on the China Select Committee.

Congressman, thanks very much for being here.

REP. JAKE AUCHINCLOSS (D-MA): Good morning.

[06:35:00]

HUNT: I'd like to just start with your reaction to, in particular, Tulsi Gabbard, what you saw there about the questions she raised about Ukraine, which I know is an issue that you have focused on.

AUCHINCLOSS: Indeed. In Trump's first term, his national security cabinet were men of character who put the Constitution and common sense ahead of their loyalty to him. And it's good that he's not trying to make that mistake again in his second administration. He wants people who have no qualifications for the roles that they are holding and are only going to parrot White House talking points and commands, which is why we really have to focus on preventing the politicization of the military and the intelligence services and not letting them be used against the American people, because that is what Donald Trump has promised to do on the campaign trail and there's every reason to believe that he will follow through on that threat.

HUNT: Do you think that Tulsi Gabbard would represent a - as DNI would represent a national security threat? Some argued that that might be the case.

AUCHINCLOSS: Yes, I do, given that she has parroted Syrian and Russian talking points. And the Senate needs to demand a full dossier on her activities and her potential liabilities in regards to foreign actors.

But again, most forcefully we have to recognize that neither the DNI nor the secretary of Defense is actually going to have any agency in this administration. This is entirely about the White House and Donald Trump. He is going to broach no dispute and he is going to command them to pursue his own agenda, which, as he has said on the campaign trail, is about setting up a military tribunal for Liz Cheney.

HUNT: Let me ask you about Pete Hegseth as well given your own military background. Many were surprised when that name came out. But, of course, that surprise seems to pale in comparison to some of the other picks that have come out since, including, of course, Matt Gaetz.

Do you think that Hegseth is qualified to lead the Department of Defense, and what are you most concerned about?

AUCHINCLOSS: No, I don't. He's never managed anything. And this is a $1 trillion bureaucracy. And he does not support the United States backing a fellow democracy in Ukraine, as we need to fight for freedom, as they are fighting on the front lines for it.

This underscores the imperative for Joe Biden to take the final two months he has as commander in chief and to lift the restrictions on U.S.'s use of U.S.-made weapons to strike inside of Russia, to strike their oil refineries, to strike their troop staging sites and their ballistic missile launching sites. We can change the facts on the ground in Ukraine's favor, but the clock is ticking, so that they are in a strong position at the bargaining table.

HUNT: So, just to be clear, you would support Ukraine using U.S. military-provided equipment, weaponry, funds to strike deep inside of Russia?

AUCHINCLOSS: I've been arguing for it for a year now that Russia's striking inside Ukraine, we're not letting Ukraine strike inside of Russia. And the Biden administration is calibrated to the wrong dimension of risk. They're worried that Russia will escalate to nuclear weapons. The true risk is that Russia is going to escalate by taking Kyiv and looking at Lithuania or Poland. And now we've got a NATO on Russia conflict on our hands.

HUNT: So, you are calling on the Biden administration to allow this in the last months of his presidency?

AUCHINCLOSS: I have been repeatedly calling on them to do it. And their delay and their dilatory tactics on this is putting Ukraine at risk. They need to act, and they have two months to do it.

HUNT: All right, Congressman Jake Auchincloss for us this morning.

Sir, very grateful for your time. Thanks for being here.

AUCHINCLOSS: You're welcome.

HUNT: All right, still to come here on CNN THIS MORNING, Senate Republicans elect a new leader. Donald Trump already has plenty of demands.

Plus, Trump allies in Congress warn their colleagues against blocking Trump's cabinet picks. Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna joins us live, next.

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SEN. TOMMY TUBERVILLE (R-AL): Vote with President Trump. This is the last chance we're going to have of saving this country. And if you want to get in the way, fine. But we're going to try to get you out of the Senate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know Matt Gaetz. And, by the way, his Republicans feel - his Republican colleagues feel the same way that I do, he is a gonzo agent of chaos.

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SEN. TOMMY TUBERVILLE (R-AL): President Trump was elected by an enormous vote, and he deserves a team around him that he wants. It's not us to determine that. I've already seen where a couple of them says, I'm not voting for him. Wait a minute, you are not the United States of America. You have one vote in U.S. Senate and you do not get elected president. Vote with President Trump. This is the last chance we're going to have of saving this country. And if you want to get in the way, fine, but we're going to try get to you out of the Senate, too, if you try to do that.

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HUNT: Get in line or get out of the way. That's the message from senator, Trump supporter, Tommy Tuberville, to any of his colleague who think to vote against confirming Donald Trump's new newly announced administration picks. Regardless, not all of Trump's appointments require Senate approval. For example, billionaire Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, they won't go through any sort of traditional confirmation process before they take the helm of the newly announced Department of Government Efficiency. Yes, that does abbreviate to DOGE for short.

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VIVEK RAMASWAMY (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Country. This is the equivalent of a modern Manhattan project to take on. I think the major problem holding our country back, it's the federal bureaucracy. Target that cost, save the money, restore self-governance.

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HUNT: All right, joining us now to discuss, Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna of California. He currently sits on the House Armed Services and Oversight Committees.

Congressman, thanks very much for being here this morning.

REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): Good morning. Thank you for having me. HUNT: Let's - let's start there because you, of course, do represent

Silicon Valley and I know that you have personal relationships with many of these tech leaders. Elon Musk in particular is someone who has played an enormous role in Donald Trump's campaign, given him an enormous sum of money.

And, you know, I saw that you had been on talking about how part of the reason for that is personal to the Democratic Party, part of the reason why there was that break.

[06:45:08]

What - can you explain that a little bit further? What exactly was personal about it that led us to this point? And what do you expect from Musk in this role?

KHANNA: Well, I think it's both personal and, to some extent now, ideological. I mean we didn't champion him as a founder of electric vehicles. There was a summit that President Biden had on electric vehicles. We didn't invite Elon Musk to that.

Now, I have called for Tesla to have labor neutrality with UAW. We should have invited UAW. But he should not have been snubbed.

And then there have been issues of not celebrating what SpaceX has been doing. There have been issues of not understanding what StarLink's value could be. And so this is why he had supported Hillary Clinton, and he had supported Barack Obama, but he has drifted in terms of supporting the Democratic Party.

But there's also an ideological difference. I mean he is for much less government spending for people. And it's unfortunate that he's taken a more conservative turn. We - we just disagree on that.

HUNT: Congressman, it's - it's interesting to me that you - that you frame it this way in terms of saying - you're basically lining up the ideological constituencies in the Democratic Party. You're talking about labor unions and how it would seem that Democrats might offend that group in their coalition were he to be invited. That is one piece of what seems to be a much bigger story about the election and Democrats broadly and how concern about various constituency groups and how they would react may have led to an environment that contributed to the loss across the board.

Do you think that's the case? And how do you think the party should move forward on that front?

KHANNA: Well, Kasie, I think there are two things that led to the loss. I mean many factors, but two salient ones. One, we didn't speak enough to the millions of American's, the vast - the majority of American's who are struggling economically, who feel that the American dream is slipping away, whose kids aren't able to buy a house or a car, who have seen factories offshored. And we just didn't speak to their pain, to their frustration. They didn't feel seen. And we didn't have a compelling vision. I mean what we should have said, like FDR, who had a dollar a year men

and women, business leaders and technology leaders coming into government to build America, that's what our vision should have been, that we were going to enlist people in - from Silicon Valley business leaders to build new factories and with union and not to tear down government. And we should have contrasted our economic vision with theirs and made the case in Michigan and Pennsylvania that we're actually going to be more successful in getting new steel plants up, new aluminum plants up, and increasing wages, giving machinists and electricians incentives to actually get stock in a company's performance and having equity. I mean we should have had a more robust economic agenda.

And the second thing is, we need to listen to people more. Be humble. Even though we have our own convictions on issues, not cancel or shame people, but engage in good faith.

HUNT: When you say not cancel or shame people, I mean what do you say to voters who view the Democratic Party as the party of cancellation?

KHANNA: That we're not. I mean there are many Democrats like me who are classical liberals, who believe strongly in free speech. It's one of the things that Elon and I agreed on. I mean my email to Twitter had leaked, my private email, where I said that you should not take down a "New York Post" journalist's post on Hunter Biden laptop story. I'm a huge believer in free speech.

Jake Auchincloss, your last guest, is a believer in free speech. There are many people in the Democratic Party who do believe that. And - and I would argue that we need to highlight that part of the party more and understand that we have our convictions, we may disagree, but we need to disagree with respect and humility.

HUNT: Yes. So, Congressman, as the Democratic Party rebuilds, you're going to have to look ahead to the midterm election, eventually a presidential election in 2028. Who are - who should be the set of new faces for the Democratic Party, and are you one of them?

KHANNA: Well, I think there's going to be a lot of great people who can help lead our party. You have people who have won swing districts, like Pat Ryan, Chris Deluzio, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, who we need to listen to in - in these communities. You have strong progressive voices like Maxwell Frost and Delia Ramirez, who understand how the war was a big issue in losing young people.

So, I just think that I'm excited we have a whole new generation. Of course, I would like to be part of the conversation on economic reindustrialization and what we need to do to bring economic prosperity to places that have been left out.

[06:50:07]

But I'm excited about a whole new generation of leaders.

HUNT: Are you considering running for president in the future?

KHANNA: No, not right now. Honestly, I - we - we don't even have a majority yet in Congress. We've got a lot of rebuilding to do.

Here's what I think every Democratic leader should do after this, spend six months outside the country, go to communities and listen. Really, let's build up a bottom-up agenda. And our first priority has to be to take back Congress. Really, that's going to be my effort and my focus in the next couple years.

HUNT: All right, Congressman Ro Khanna for us this morning.

Congressman, thank you. I appreciate your time.

KHANNA: Thank you. Appreciate it.

HUNT: All right, Jeff Zeleny, can I ask you about kind of his positioning inside the Democratic Party and what's next for them as - because let's be real, yes, it's early, OK, we've still got another four years until the next election, but it's not like these people don't start thinking about it right away.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Right. And we really don't have four years. It's actually much shorter than that. I mean I think that the congressman is definitely in the mix in terms of leading the - the Bernie Sanders wing, I guess, of the party, if you will. He has traveled across the country throughout the election, earning a lot of relationships with Democrats in battleground states and elsewhere. So, I absolutely think he'll be in the mix.

But look, Democrats are going to be - it's not going to be at the forefront of the conversation in Washington but out in America it will be. And we'll get our first look at that at who are the ranking finalists for the DNC chair. And that will be coming up next month.

HUNT: Yes. All right, let's turn now to this. South Dakota Senator John Thune will replace Senator Mitch McConnell as the new leader in the Senate GOP. Republicans will, of course, have a trifecta in Washington next year since they've won the White House and both chambers of Congress. Thune is going to be responsible for helping ushering Donald Trump's agenda and his cabinet through Congress. Trump has, of course, already made the controversial demand that he wants the Senate to bypass the traditional confirmation process for his cabinet picks. Democrats quick to push back.

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SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): I mean, that - that would be, you know, the end of the United States Senate. If the Senate chose to end its power of advice and consent and just allow the president to choose without any input, confirmation process, or approval his cabinet, I don't know why we would continue to show up for work. That's not a democracy anymore.

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HUNT: Thune saying yesterday he intends the process to move quickly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD), MAJORITY LEADER-ELECT: The Senate has an advise and consent role under the Constitution. So, we will do everything we can to process his noms quickly, get them installed in their positions so they can begin to implement his agenda.

We expect a level of cooperation from the Democrats to work with us to get these folks installed. And, obviously, we're going to look at - explore all options to make sure that they get moved and that they get moved quickly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, our panel's back, including CNN political analyst, historian, Leah Wright Rigueur, who joins us now.

Leah, I'd like your big picture thoughts on kind of how - you heard Chris Murphy characterize it there as - I mean his framing, why - well, why would we even show up to work actually would probably help Donald Trump, because if Democrats don't show up, that by definition the Senate would be allowed to be in recess, if that what's Republicans do.

But setting that aside, I mean, how - how do you look at the landscape facing Republicans in Washington right now?

LEAH WRIGHT RIGUEUR, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST AND HISTORIAN: So, I think the actual - the election of Thune to, you know, to Senate majority leader is a really important point. It was less about - I think it's less about, you know, is Thune going to win this and did Rick Scott, who is largely seen at the - kind of the MAGA person, Trump person, losing the race. And so part of what we're looking at is, are we seeing guardrails? Are we going to see a Senate that is run, you know, as essentially in lock-step with Donald Trump, or are we going to see a Senate that sees itself as independent and says, you know, if we agree with Trump on this, we support him on this. If we don't agree with Trump on this we push back.

And I think Donald Trump has actually set this up in a lot of ways for a real test, right? He has all of these appointees, including Gaetz, with whom we've been talking about all morning, who are coming forward, and Thune's immediately going to have to jump in and say, you know, do I just kind of sign off on this? Do I say, you know, this is going to push through the idea of recess appointments and recess appointments, you know, essentially saying, no Senate confirmation, no hearing, no vetting, that kind of thing, just going through and rubber stamping it. Or do I actually open this up?

And I - one thing that I want to point out is that, you actually have to think about Donald Trump as a lame duck president, right? And we want to find out - we're going to find out, is that the way that Thune thinks of him as well? And if he does think of him as well, this is about a test of Thune's actual power as leader of Senate Republicans.

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I don't think he's a lame duck in the traditional sense. Yes, he can't run again. But make no mistake, Donald Trump is the most powerful Republican in the country.

[06:55:02]

He has influence over virtually every Republican in this country. There are some senators who are going to oppose him on a couple of these nominations.

But his power, his political power is not draining or - and it will not drain in the same way that you would expect a normal lame duck president. He's far more powerful and influential than normal I think lame duck term that we use.

HUNT: Well, and -

ZELENY: At least until the midterms.

RIGUEUR: Yes.

HUNT: Yes.

ZELENY: There's no doubt about that. The next two years are very, very important.

But for John Thune, I think this is a - it's certainly a test for him. But some of his members, some of the members of the Senate conference probably won't run again. So, I think, on the individual members, like the Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski and others, you know, they are not likely to change what they've done and their sort of record and view of the Senate because Donald Trump is president.

HUNT: Right. And the question is -

ZELENY: And the majority's not huge. I mean three seats is not -

JENNINGS: I mean there's certainly more than four that could buck him on it.

But also, most of these people are going to be confirmed easily.

ZELENY: For sure.

JENNINGS: And most of them are terrific picks. And the Senate Republicans are going to praise them and come to their aid. So, I think a couple of flashpoints shouldn't overshadow that Trump's assembled a pretty qualified group.

HUNT: If we could put - I mean we could put Matt Gaetz as a couple of flashpoints. He's going to - you know, Department of Justice. Significant flashpoint.

Anyway, OK, President Biden is vowing a return to the U.S. tradition of peacefully transferring power. He hosted President-elect Trump for a meeting at the White House on Wednesday. And for at least 29 seconds while the media was in the Oval Office, these two bitter political foes did strike a cordial tone with one another.

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DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENT-ELECT: Politics is tough. And it's, in many cases, not a very nice world. But it is a nice world today. And I appreciate it very much. A transition that's so smooth it will be as smooth as it can get. And I very much appreciate that, Joe.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, Mr. President-elect, and former president, and Donald, congratulations.

TRUMP: Thank you.

BIDEN: And looking forward to having a, like we said, a smooth transition.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Now, of course, we cannot show you a picture of these two men shaking hands when Trump left office because Biden was denied that courtesy by Donald Trump four years ago as Trump was falsely claiming that the election had been stolen from him.

Those nice words exchanged at the White House. A very different tone to what we heard on the trail not so long ago.

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DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENT-ELECT: Joe Biden was the worst president in the history of our country.

We're going to knock off the Biden crime family.

We have a man that can't put two sentences together. We have a man that doesn't know he's alive.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The choice is clear, Donald Trump's campaign is about him, not America, not you. Donald Trump's campaign is obsessed with the past, not the future. He's willing to sacrifice our democracy, put himself in power.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Meghan Hays, you know well what this moment, how - I mean how do you read it? I mean it had to have been hard for Joe Biden, based on how he feels about Donald Trump. But, on the other hand, he did it.

MEGHAN HAYS, FORMER BIDEN WHITE HOUSE DIRECTOR OF MESSAGE PLANNING: He's a statesman and everyone knows that. He likes the tradition. He likes this. He loves being the president. But also, Joe Biden is notorious for not holding grudges. And he knows what you need to do.

HUNT: Is he notorious for not holding grudges?

HAYS: Yes. It's -

(CROSS TALK) HAYS: It's a family that might hold some grudges and some staff, but Joe Biden traditionally does not hold grudges against people. This is - this is exactly what you would expect of him. This is exactly what I would think people who have worked for him expect of him. This is - he was a statesman. He was very gracious to him coming into the Oval. Clearly he came from the House.

JENNINGS: I'm shocked. I mean did you ever think you'd see literal Hitler in the Oval Office with the president of the United States?

HAYS: Come on, Scott.

JENNINGS: I mean, you know what I see in all this.

HUNT: I mean, Scott, that's not - I mean Biden didn't - didn't say that literally. Let's - like -

JENNINGS: Democrats - it was the underpinning of the Democratic campaign that we -

HAYS: But - but -

JENNINGS: That Donald Trump is a fascist. And what I see in this, I'm glad it's happening. But what it tells me, and what it ought to tell Democrats is, they didn't mean any of it. It was all campaign rhetoric.

And I think, to me, if you really meant - if you really meant any of it, this wouldn't be happening.

HAYS: But -

JENNINGS: So, I'm glad it's happening. But it, to me, it just -

HAYS: I don't think that's fair.

JENNINGS: It totally blows up the way they ran this campaign at the end of the campaign.

HAYS: But I don't think that's fair.

ZELENY: The bigger picture here is that Donald Trump did not afford Joe Biden the same courtesy. And that affected the entire Biden administration. That affected all four years because his - his election was delegitimized in the eyes of many people.

But look, Joe Biden ran for president for the first time to sort of expunge Donald Trump. And now that did not happen. And he's back stronger than ever.

So, a moment of history for Joe Biden. But to your point, he's a statesman. I mean that's who he has been. So, I thought it was a good moment for the country.

RIGUEUR: I also think - I mean he is part of this older generation where civility and dialogue are necessary, right? Like there's legend - there are stories about Joe Biden in Congress and reaching across the aisle and working, you know, not holding grudges, perhaps holding certain kinds of grudges with certain people, but largely being known for doing these kinds of things.

[07:00:06]

But I do - you know, this is - this is a moment where I do think there is something about seeing Biden interact with - interact with Trump that actually, for the American public, does, in some ways, undermine - both undermine this argument that Democrats have been making for a very long time about fascism, right?

HUNT: Yes.

RIGUEUR: Do you sit down with fascism. But it's also important to remember that they see this as a really important part of the transition for free and fair elections.

HUNT: Yes.

RIGUEUR: This is a really important part of democracy.

HUNT: All right, well, we, unfortunately, have hit 7:00, so we've got to leave it there.

Thanks to you guys for joining us. Thanks to all of you for being with us as well. I'm Kasie Hunt. Don't go anywhere. "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts right now.