Return to Transcripts main page

Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Election result protests turn chaotic on the West Coast; Transition underway today to begin Trump presidency; New names surfacing for possible White House Chief of Staff; Trump has closed- door meeting with Obama; Battle for DNC Chair begins; DOW jumps for Trump, Macy's doesn't; Israel welcomes Trump presidency, wants him to make good on promises; GrubHub CEO under fire for questionable email. Aired 10:30-11a

Aired November 11, 2016 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:47]

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Anti-Trump protesters get destructive at least one demonstration was declared a riot. Welcome back to Early Start, I'm Alison Kosik.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Berman, 30 minutes past the hour right now. It is Veteran's Day so our hats go off to the Veterans. A big thank you to the veterans across the country. We do want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and all around the world.

The breaking news this morning, this is Portland, Oregon within just the last hour we saw these confrontations between police and demonstrators there. Just a short time ago we heard from a police Sergeant at PIO, Sergeant Pete Wilson, who told us that what started as anti-Trump demonstrations, or people demonstrating against the results of the election, some 4,000 people, had ended up being about 100 or 200 violent protesters. People he described as anarchists. People who were throwing things at police officers, breaking windows, setting trash barrels on fire.

Police, he told us, were using non-lethal responses including pepper spray, paint guns, things of the like. And there were several arrests, he told us, as well. We get the sense, and we're checking in as much as we can with Portland, we get the sense that even those final 200 people who police described as rioters had begun to disperse and leave the scene.

Again, these pictures from just a short time ago. We're told the situation now, a bit more calm. Now Portland was one of more than a dozen cities from coast-to-coast, where thousands of people were protesting the results of the election. This is the second night in a row we've seen that. And for the first time, we got a response from Donald Trump, himself, about the protests.

What did he say? Well, he blamed the media. Overnight he tweeted this, he said: "Just had a very open and successful presidential election. Now professional protesters incited by the media are protesting. Very unfair." KOSIK: And anti-Trump protests in Oakland, California also becoming

heated overnight as police there tried to keep a lid on an agitated crowd. CNN's Dan Simon was right in the middle of it.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John and Alison, the temperature has risen on the streets of Oakland. We've seen the crowd become unruly. There's been vandalism, there was a group that actually blocked the freeway for a period of time. And some are taunting police officers.

It was a much different situation earlier where we saw a peaceful protest, a group of citizens that simply wanted to express their disgust over the election of Donald Trump and trying to figure out how to move forward. Unfortunately that anger has now turned into something resembling chaos. And police now are just trying to deal with it the best they can. John and Alison?

KOSIK: And that was Oakland, California. And most of the protests across the country overnight were peaceful. CNN's Ana Cabrera walked alongside thousands of demonstrators at one anti-Trump protest happening in Denver.

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John and Alison, hundreds of protesters, we've got thousands gathering in Denver, protesting against the election of Donald Trump. But they say this is not a march or a protest, necessarily, to hate Trump. In fact, it's a protest to reject hate, to reject bigotry, to reject racism, discrimination and oppression.

I want to talk with one of the protesters here, this is Lisa. Lisa, you came out here with your young daughter.

LISA, PROTESTER: Right.

CABRERA: What's the message you want to send?

LISA: I want my young daughter to understand first and foremost that love is the most important thing. And that we don't discriminate people based on their color, based on where they come from, or based on who they love. And she's a woman and that's really important to me, as well. And I want her to know, even at three, that she has a voice. And she has a voice in our democracy. And that no matter what the electoral college says, we still have a voice and say in what goes on.

CABRERA: Thank you so much, Lisa, for talking to us. We're hearing a lot of similar sentiments. There are people here of all races, of all ages, of all walks of life. And they say they want this to be a symbol of unity -- the rejection of division, John and Alison.

KOSIK: OK, Ana Cabrera, thank you. New information this morning on planning for the Trump transition, which officially gets underway today. A source tells CNN that the President Elect is going to be sitting down in New York for his first meeting with the Transition Planning Team. He will be briefed on where things stand so far.

We are also being told one top priority is filling about 800 administration jobs that require a security clearance. They'd better get busy, that takes a while, that clearance.

[04:35:28]

BERMAN: So officially, the first job to be filled is the White House Chief of Staff. And a new name has surfaced that is stirring some controversy. President Elect Trump is said to strongly be considering Steve Bannon, he is the Chairman of Breitbart News, who came on as (ph) the Trump campaign changed (ph) here at the end.

Now we're told that the idea of Bannon running the White House is not actually sitting well, even with some inside the Trump Camp. They don't think that he is the best fit for the position. As we said he's -- as the Chair of Breitbart News -- Breitbart very, very controversial publishing things that a lot of people think are -- have racist sentiment or anti-Semitic sentiment as well. But Bannon did help turn around the Trump campaign and win the election for Donald Trump.

KOSIK: And there's another name being tossed about. The other emerging front-runner for Chief of Staff is RNC Chairman, Reince Priebus. Priebus became a trusted confidant for Trump during the down days of the campaign. And here's what the Chairman told CNN's Jake Tapper about possibly filling the position.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REINCE PRIEBUS, CHAIRMAN, RNC: It's really not an issue, I mean it really doesn't -- honestly, it just isn't. I mean, right now -- I mean, basically most of us have had two hours of sleep in four days. I think people are taking a breath, getting some of the details figured out. There's just -- these transition teams, as you know, have been working for months, and months, and months. And so slowly but surely, I think those details will come out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: Insiders tell CNN that Priebus and Trump have already discussed the Chief of Staff job.

BERMAN: President Elect Trump and his new administration say they plan to hit the ground running after meeting with House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Trump was asked to list his top three priorities for the first day he gets to The White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have a lot of priorities. A lot of really great priorities. People will be very, very happy.

REPORTER: What are the top three?

TRUMP: We have a lot. We're going to look very strongly at immigration. We're going to look at the border, very important. We're going to look very strongly at health care. And we're looking at jobs. Big league jobs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: OK, I want to look at this. President Elect Trump and President Obama shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries. I tell you what, we wouldn't have believed this would have happened if we were thinking about it a week ago. This is a photo op for the ages. After all the nastiness and all the name calling throughout the campaign, Trump emerged from Thursday's 90-minute White House meeting with high praise for the President, even calling him "a good man."

Hours later, Trump tweeted this: "A fantastic day in D.C. Met with President Obama for the first time. Really good meeting, great chemistry. Melania liked Mrs. O a lot." Listen to the two men addressing the media minutes after their closed-door session.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES: Most of all I want to emphasize to you, this President Elect, that we now are going to want to do everything we can to help you succeed. Because if you succeed, then the country succeeds.

TRUMP: I very much look forward to dealing with the President in the future, including counsel. He's, he explained some of the difficulties, some of the high-flying assets, and some of the, some of the really great things that have been achieved. So, Mr. President, it was a great honor being with you and I look forward to being with you many, many more times in the future.

OBAMA: Thank you, thank you ...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: By high-flying acts, I think he means Air Force One.

KOSIK: I think that ...

BERMAN: Which he will have to use. People are saying, "oh, will he use his own airplane?" He's going to use Air Force One because Air Force One is this technical marvel. And it's also secure, and there are intelligence reasons for it. And plus, you know, every President to ever ride in it says it's the best thing ever, so ...

KOSIK: I can only imagine.

BERMAN: All right, the fight for control of the Democratic Party has started in the wake of Hillary Clinton's loss. The former Democratic Party Chair, Howard Dean, says he wants to be the future Democratic Party Chair. He led the Party from 2005 to 2009, this is after he ran for President. It was seen as sort of an insurgent campaign that he ultimately lost. Dean though, as DNC Chair, set up what he called the 50-state strategy that some people thought did help during Barack Obama's first election in 2008.

Now, Senator Bernie Sanders, who's got a lot to say on this subject, is touting Minnesota Congressmen Keith Ellerson for Chair of the Democratic Party. Ellison is one of only two Muslims in the House and the Co-Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Now Ellison's office refused to comment, but he has said he will announce his intentions on Monday.

KOSIK: Time for an early start on your money. It was day two of the so-called "Trump Bounce." Wall Street continuing to give President Elect Donald Trump a warm welcome. The DOW jumping 218 points, that's up 1.1 percent, the DOW closing at an all-time high. That (ph) upbeat mood was due, in part, to Trump's victory speech and Trump's raising hopes that he will help the economy and scrap some of the more (ph) extreme campaign positions that he talked about on the trail.

Oh, but US features are pulling back from earlier today and enthusiasm is waning for the President Elect. Wall Street wants Trump to address the social unrest in the country he's about to take over, The US.

Macy's isn't too happy with a Donald Trump presidency. The retailer dropping the President Elect's clothing line last year after he called Mexican immigrants, "rapists and criminals," on the first day of his campaign. And the company has no plans to bring it back now. It's CEO saying this, "You wouldn't carry a political candidate, we're not a political company. But Ivanka Trump's line of clothing and accessories, yes, that is still being sold at Macy's."

[04:41:09]

BERMAN: All right, questions this morning about who will run The White House during the Trump presidency? Who will fill that key Chief of Staff job? The two men that you see there surrounding Donald Trump could not be more different. Which one is the front runner? We'll discuss that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:45:38]

BERMAN: All right, Donald Trump meets with his transition team this morning, getting a sense of what's going on and moving the ball forward. Joining us to talk about a lot of different subjects right now, CNN Political Commentator, Simone Sanders, who worked for the Bernie Sanders campaign. Paris Dennard who was supportive of Donald Trump during the campaign. CNN Political Analyst Josh Rogin, a columnist for The Washington Post, here with us. CNN Politics Reporter, Eugene Scott. Good morning one, and all.

Eugene, it's so interesting, Alison Kosik and her money report just said that Wall Street futures jittery right now, not good for the first time.

KOSIK: Well and I want to say that there's a caveat here. We've had two days of huge gain, so ...

BERMAN: Huge gains, but for the first time, you know weariness again to the Trump thing (ph) largely seen as a reaction perhaps, to his tweet about the protests where he blamed the media and said it's professional agitators. And also the floating of Steve Bannon as a possible White House Chief of Staff. Both of these things are seen by Wall Street -- you know, the great arbiter of what moves the country forward -- as perhaps the Donald Trump they thought might go away.

And in lieu of this new presidential Donald Trump that's popped up since the election.

EUGENE SCOTT, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Yeah, the reality is, a lot of people were advocating giving Donald Trump a chance. From multiple sides of the aisle and within parties, and within industries. But the reality is we really don't know for sure who he will be. Will he become more mainstream and move more to the center, even the center of the Republican Party, as some traditionalists are hoping? Or is he really going to bow into some of the demands of people like Bannon and some of the people who support Breitbart?

KOSIK: Paris Dennard, don't you think that that would be a better choice to go for a Chief of Staff who is more in the center?

PARIS DENNARD, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think it was humorous that he says -- thinks that Donald Trump bows down to anybody's demands. I mean one of the things about his candidacy was that he was his own person and he's a strong leader. I think what happens in political campaigns and in transition, things like this is that you float names out there to get a reaction, and you test the waters and you see how that person is responded to by the media, by the people, by the voters, and by the base (ph). And I believe that's what's happening right now.

I do believe that the White House Chief of Staff role is a very critical one, and is a very important one. And I know that Mr. Trump and the entire team is going to do a great job at picking the right person for it. I can see justification for a person like Bannon, but I can also see justification of a person like Chairman Priebus. But also there's a person like Kay Coles James, who has a lot of executive experience and government experience. So we never know what's going to happen, but it's going to be a good choice.

BERMAN: Got a couple minutes left here, Josh Rogin, care to weigh in on Donald Trump blaming the media, saying the protests we saw overnight the last two nights were incited by the media?

JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah, I mean let's call this what it is, it's a conspiracy theory, right? And it's a false one because there's no evidence of it. And so as we're talking about whether or not -- campaigning is different than governing. We can say that Donald Trump was in campaign mode, is he going to switch to government mode. And all this tells us is that he hasn't switched yet. And if he makes Steve Bannon the Chief of Staff, the man could literally build an empire based on conspiracy theories, spreading this information into the public's face.

That bodes poorly for those who hope that Donald Trump is going to at least agree that we should all live in a reality that we agree on that's based on a set of facts, that's based on evidence. Maybe not science, but at least evidence. And this is not encouraging. And I think when you see people on the streets calling for some sort of concession, or some sort of outreach whatsoever, I think they're going to be disappointed. So I think this is going to get worse before it gets better.

KOSIK: Simone Sanders, you were Campaign Press Secretary for Bernie Sanders. I'm curious, has the Trump campaign reached out to Bernie Sanders' camp about a possible meeting to try to incorporate some of what Bernie Sanders wanted or was talking about on the campaign trail?

SIMONE SANDERS, FORMER PRESS SECRETARY FOR BERNIE SANDERS: Not yet. It remains to be seen if the Trump folks are going to reach out to Senator Sanders. In his campaign post (ph), his organization, our evolution (ph) -- pardon me, not our evolution (ph), his Senate office. And Senator Sanders has noted he's willing to hear President Elect Trump out and see what happens.

I think what's really important here is to understand that we were in an unprecedented election and these are unprecedented transition times. The standard playbook here does not apply. So things that would usually go, i.e. floating a Chief of Staff name to get the polls, that's not what happened. This name was deliberately given to the media because Donald Trump watches television. He pays attention, he watches the cable news shows. And this will help inform and influence his decision. Because no one, very few people want Steve Bannon -- on the left and the right, right down in the middle -- to be the White House Chief of Staff.

[04:50:23]

BERMAN: We shall see. Thank you one and all. You know we didn't even talk about ...

KOSIK: Thanks so much.

BERMAN: ... We didn't even talk about Megyn Kelly saying that Fox News somehow leaked some of the debate questions for the first debate to Donald Trump. A discussion for a future time.

KOSIK: We'll table it for now.

BERMAN: Thanks so much, guys.

KOSIK: Wall Street still cheering Trump's victory but one big company taking a very different tone. What GrubHub's CEO emailed to his staff about President Elect Trump. We're going to get a check on CNN Money Stream next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Israel's right wing embracing President Elect Donald Trump based on his vow to veto any UN Security Council resolution that spells out terms for a Palestinian peace deal. Trump also pledged to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and move the US Embassy there. CNN's Oren Liebermann joins us live from Jerusalem. Oren, what do you hear?

[04:55:16]

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, it's really the last of those pledges, the pledge to move the embassy from where it is now in Tel Aviv, to Jerusalem, to recognize Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel. It has the right wing here celebrating. Immediately after Trump won the election and became President Elect, a number of those immediately called on him to fulfill his campaign promise to move the embassy, hoping that happens as soon as possible, as his advisors on Israel have promised.

Why is that so controversial? Because for decades, it has been US policy and the policy of the world, that the final status of Jerusalem is open to negotiations. To move that would be simply to unilaterally declare, by the US, that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. It would buck (ph) decades of US policy and would buck (ph) essentially the international policy that the final status of Jerusalem is open to negotiations.

The Palestinians, meanwhile, when they gave congratulations message it was short, it was formal, it was congratulations President Trump. We're willing to work with you. But that position that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel very much could worry them.

BERMAN: Oren Liebermann for us in Jerusalem. Although I will say off on that campaign promise which we've heard before in the past has changed once presidents of the US have taken office. Oren, great to see you, thanks so much.

LIEBERMANN: (INAUDIBLE)

KOSIK: OK let's get -- check on CNN Money Stream. It is day two of the so-called Trump bounce. Wall Street continuing to give Donald Trump a warm welcome. The DOW jumping 218 points, up 1.1 percent, that is a record all-time high for the DOW. The upbeat mood is in part due to Trump's victory speech and Trump raising hope that he'll help the US economy and scrap some of the more extreme campaign positions that he took on the trail.

Plus, the GOP retains control of Congress, and the thinking is that will help to get things done. But we are seeing some of that enthusiasm waning. DOW features are flat, the European markets are mixed. Americans signed up for Obamacare in droves right after Donald Trump was elected President. More than 10 -- more than 100,000 people signed up. It was the busiest day since open enrollment began in the beginning of the month.

Democrats say it's proof that people depend on Obamacare for health insurance. Trump vowed to dismantle the program as soon as he took office. But he hasn't provided many details on what he would do to replace it.

GrubHub CEO facing backlash for an email he sent to employees after the election. In it he writes this, "I absolutely reject the nationalist, anti-immigrant, and hateful politics of Donald Trump. If you do not agree with this statement then please reply to this email with your resignation because you have no place here." Many call for boycotting the company over the comments and the CEO quickly put out a statement kind of dialing this back, saying his comments were misconstrued and that the email was meant to advocate for inclusion and tolerance regardless of political affiliation.

Ouch, a little dramatic, I would say.

BERMAN: It did not give a message of tolerance.

KOSIK: No, I don't think so.

BERMAN: Sorry (ph).

KOSIK: That's it for Early Start. I'm Alison Kosik.

BERMAN: I'm John Berman. President Elect Donald Trump has something to say to protesters. Protests were out in force until just a short time ago. New Day starts right now.

[05:00:00]