Return to Transcripts main page
Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Trump Appoints Reince Priebus as Chief of Staff and Steve Bannon as Chief Strategist; New Protests Against Trump; President Obama to Hold News Conference Today; Carl Icahn Supports Business Friendly Plans. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired November 14, 2016 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump's first big move as President-Elect, hiring a Washington insider and a controversial outsider to run his White House.
Welcome back to EARLY START this morning. I'm Christine Romans.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell, in for John Berman today with top of the hour now.
And new this morning, one of Donald Trump's first picks for the top White House positions is getting some furious condemnation. Trump has chosen GOP Chairman Reince Priebus as Chief of Staff, but campaign CEO Steve Bannon as Chief Strategist who is getting the pushback.
It's the selection of Bannon that has critics (inaudible) and because of Bannon's other job and take up both the white website, Breitbart news. Now, al this comes as we're hearing from Trump on a variety of topics, including the protests against him in his first sit-down T.V. interview since election day. For the latest on the (inaudible), who will be running the Trump White House, let's bring in CNN's Chris Frates from Washington. Chris?
CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPODENT: Hey, good morning, Christine and Victor. President-Elect Trump has named Reince Priebus as his Chief of Staff and Steve Bannon as his Chief Strategist an Senior Counselor.
Now, by naming Priebus as Chief of Staff, Trump puts the head of the republican national committee in one of the most powerful positions in Washington. But Priebus' insider is balanced out by Bannon's anti- establishment world view.
In a statement about the duo, Trump said this, "Bannon and Priebus will continue the effective leadership team they formed during the campaign, Working as equal partners to transform the federal government, and making it more efficient, effective and productive."
Now, Priebus is no way inside the beltway and has good working relationships with republicans on Capitol Hill. People like Senator Mitch McConnell who is the head of Majority Leader and House Speaker Paul Ryan whose been a long-time friend of Priebus. And those relationships, and Priebus' knowledge of exactly how Washington works, could be key in helping Trump pass his legislative agenda through Congress.
Now, Bannon, who is the Trump campaign CEO, also ran Breitbart news, and that news site has been accused of catering to racists, sexists and anti-Semitic audiences. And that has also been critical of the GOP establishment. Now, both men will advise the next president, President-Elect Donald Trump. Victor, Christine, back to you.
ROMANS: All right. Christ Frates for us this morning in Washington. Thanks, Chris.
Hate watchdog groups are slamming President-Elect Trump's choice of Breitbart boss Steve Bannon as Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor. The anti-defamation league released a statement saying this, "It is a sad day when the man who presided over the premiere website of the alt-right, a loose-knit group of white nationalists and unabashed anti-Semites, racists is slated to be a senior staff member in the people's house.
BLACKWELL: The Southern Poverty Law Center (inaudible) to President- Elect for the higher the tweet. Here it is, "Trump should rescind this hire. In his victory speech, Trump said he intended to be president for all Americans. Bannon should go."
ROMANS: And retiring Sensate Democratic Leader Harry Reid escalated his criticism of the incoming president with his new statement, President-Elect Trump's choice of Steve Bannon as his top aide signals that white supremacists will be represented at the highest levels in Trump's White House.
BLACKWELL: Well the fear of racist's harassment following trump's selection appears to have become reality in some communities. One of several incidents reported across the country happened at an Episcopal Church in a heavy Latino neighborhood just outside Washington. Graffiti reading, "Trump nation, whites only" discovered Sunday morning on a wall and on the sign advertising Spanish language services. Washington's Episcopal bishop Mariann Budde called on Donald Trump to speak out against the vandalism.
ROMANS: And that is pretty much what President-Elect Trump did on Sunday in his first television interview since becoming president- elect. Now, speaking at the "60 Minutes", Trump directly addressed acts of violence, harassment, vandalism that his supporters have reportedly committed in his name.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT: I would say don't do it. That's terrible. Because I'm going to bring this country together.
LESLEY STAHL, JOURNALIST, CBS NEWS: They're harassing Latinos, Muslims.
TRUMP: I am so saddened to hear that. And I say stop it. If it -- if it helps, I will say this, and I'll say right to the cameras. Stop it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Donald Trump is also slamming the demonstrations against him that have broken out across the country calling them horrible. Trump also saying that some people may be afraid of him because, "It's only because they don't know me." Watch this one.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[04:35:00] TRUMP: I think in some cases you have professional protesters, and we had it, if you look at WikiLeaks, we ...
(CROSSTALK)
STAHL: You think those people don't know?
TRUMP: Well, yeah, I think some of them will be professionals. Don't be afraid. We are going to bring our country back. But certainly, don't be afraid. You know, we just had an election, and sort of like you have to be given a little time.
I mean, people are protesting. If Hillary had won and if my people went out and protested, everybody would say, oh, that's a terrible thing. And it would have been a much different attitude. There is a different attitude. You know, there's a double standard here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: There were dozens of new protests across the country against President-Elect Trump. In San Francisco, two demonstrations Sunday. One of them overnight, blocking traffic on busy market street. Protesters also taking the streets in New York with domestic (ph) denouncing Trump's immigration positions. CNN's Brynn Gingras was right in the middle of it.
BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Victor, thousands of people poured into New York City streets over this weekend protesting the President-Elect Donald Trump. And on Sunday night, very clear purpose to their messages. And that is against Donald Trump's anti-immigration reform. There are people here that are immigrants. There are people here who are scared for what this means, what the new president-elect means for their family and their loved ones. And we talked to many of those people about the message they intended to spread.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The main purpose is to tell Donald Trump that he can't just deport 11 million undocumented people, that they are here to stay and that we stand in solidarity with them. It's just unprecedented, this kind of -- I feel the hatred, the bigotry and that still hasn't been denounced by the president-elect is unprecedented, I think, and so that is what has got a lot of people angry.
GINGRAS: And that first woman you heard from is actually an immigration attorney. She says ever since this election on Tuesday, she had a number of new clients coming into her office, again, scared for themselves, scared for their families, anything these people say. What they want to hear from is the President-Elect. Christine and Victor?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: In the "60 Minutes" interview, Donald Trump seemed to back away from his pledge to deport all undocumented immigrants and he is stuck to the vow to build a wall along the Mexican border although he seemed to allow that might not be solid concrete the entire length of the border.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STAHL: Are you really going to build a wall?
TRUMP: Yes.
STAHL: They are talking about a fence in the republican congress. Would you accept a fence?
TRUMP: For certain areas, I would.
STAHL: What about the pledge to deport millions and millions of undocumented immigrants?
TRUMP: What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers. We have a lot of these people, probably 2 million, it could even be 3 million. We re getting them out of our country or we're going to incarcerate.
After the border is secured and after everything gets normalized, we are going to make a determination on the people that you are talking about who are terrific people. These terrific people who are going to make a determination at that point.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: On the subject of the Clintons and appointing a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton, Trump seemed to back off that campaign promise.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STAHL: You called her crooked Hillary. Said you wanted to get her to jail. Your people and your audiences kept saying "lock her up."
TRUMP: Yeah.
STAHL: Do you want to put ...
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: She did -- she did some bad things. I mean, she did some bad things.
(CROSSTALK)
STAHL: I know, but a special prosecutor? Do you think you might ...
TRUMP: I don't want to hurt them. I don't want to hurt them. They're good people. I don't want to hurt them. And I will give you a very, very good and definitive answer the next time we do "60 Minutes" together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Well, this afternoon, President Obama will hold his first news conference since Donald Trump was elected to succeed him. It comes just before the President embarks on his final foreign trip in office looking to reassure anxious allies about the stability of U.S. foreign policy despite Donald Trump's stated intent to undo some of the past Obama initiatives.
the President will travel to Greece, Germany and Peru.
ROMANS: Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is a supporter of Donald Trump, but he doesn't agree will all of his policies. In an interview with CNN's Poppy Harlow, Icahn says Trump's plans to repeal Wall Street regulations may not be the right answer.
But he does support Trump's proposal to deregulate other areas of business. Icahn thinks the Federal Reserve had no choice but to keep interest rates low, something Trump criticize as political. And when asked about Trump's temperament, Icahn said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARL ICAHN, BILLIONAIRE INVESTOR (via telephone): The issues this country must take is a different approach. The country must go in and be a friend to business. And for eight years, we have been anything but that. And now this is the hope that you have to do it. And if you don't do it, we will definitely lose our Germany (ph) and we're going to lose it fast.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[04:40:00] ROMANS: Icahn will not join the Trump administration, saying he's never worked for anyone else in his life, he's not going to start now at his age. He is 80, but he hopes Washington and Trump will listen to his advice.
It's interesting because Carl had been a long -- you know, a supporter of Donald Trump. They are both New Yorkers, both business men in New York. But the market has been rallying since Donald Trump was elected.
The markets agree with Carl Icahn here, a market investor said that a pro-business approach is the right way to go.
BLACKWELL: All right, we'll talk more about this. Let's talk about Donald Trump who had some -- he remembered some tough words for China during his run for the presidency. Well, he just spoke with the President of China. But his rhetoric on that poll (inaudible) during the campaign. Find out.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:45:00] ROMANS: President-Elect Donald Trump has a first conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping after months of tough talk about China on the campaign trail, the phone call proves to be the latest scoring for Trump to separate his campaign rhetoric from the likely policies of his administration.
CNN's Matt Rivers is in Beijing with more on what was said and what might be left for us of face to face, and Matt, you know this is probably the most important business relationship in the world, United States and China.
I mean, United States, 20 percent of everything it imports comes from China. A lot of very high-tech products the U.S. exports to China, and both of these economies depend on each other.
MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right. And that's why you can expect that even though Donald Trump had a lot of negative rhetoric about China throughout the campaign season, China knows that for its economy to continue to move forward, it needs to keep dealing with the United States.
So, in this phone call, though, we really did not hear anything of substance being said. This was an introductory phone call for between both men that you have seen in the same thing that the President-Elect has had with other leaders from around the world.
On the Chinese side, state media reported that President Xi Jinping told Donald Trump that it is proof that to cooperate is the only correct choice between China and the United States and from the U.S. side, from President-Elect Trump, you heard the statement -we received a statement where he said, he believes the two leaders will have one of the strongest relationships for both countries moving forward.
So really, just some pomp and circumstance here, nothing of substance. But the fact remains that Donald Trump said what he said about China and that could impact this relationship. It was at a campaign rally in May that he accused China of raping United States economically and said that what China has been doing to the United States is the greatest theft in the history of the world.
That is some seriously strong rhetoric that could very well cloud the diplomatic relationship between both sides. But as you mentioned, the economic interdependence of these two countries is incredibly huge.
Annually, the trade relationship over $650 billion worth of trade goes back and forth between both countries. You can expect they are going to try and work through the issues in exchange for keeping that economic relationship going. But there are lots of other things including cyber security, South China Sea, there's plenty of challenges that lie ahead up in the Trump administration when it comes to China.
ROMANS: And America's friends and allies in the region were concerned about a rising China and China's aggressive stance in the South China Sea, how will the U.S. react, will Trump continue the policies of this administration? We just don't know yet and it means it will be an important story in the months to come. Matt, thank you so much for that.
BLACKWELL: At least two deaths reported in New Zealand following the powerful earthquake and aftershocks. The first quake, a 7.8 magnitude just after midnight was followed hours later by a 6.2 magnitude aftershock that rattled the New Zealand South Island. the country's prime minister surveying the damage from the air, described it as "utter devastation." New Zealand lies on the Pacific Rim, seismically active ring of fire.
ROMANS: All right, there is no relief in sight for crews battling wildfires in the southeast here. Drought conditions still in the forecast. This video from Lake Lour North Carolina. I want to bring in meteorologist Pedram Javaheri for the very latest.
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Victor and Christine, we're seeing across portions of the southeast here via satellite image that really tell some of the story. We have at least 44 large fires across the Ohio Valley and on the southeast and you consider none at this hour across the Western United States.
Really incredible and of course the drought monitor shows you what we're dealing with, with extreme exceptional drought. Some of these areas have not seen rainfall in places such as Birmingham in almost two months' time. So certainly, the dry trend continues.
And there's a storm system out there. It's locked in across portions of the Carolinas as it pushes it way up the coast. Expect some showers from Wilmington out toward Raleigh this morning. It should be scattered in nature but, unfortunately, more dry air, more cool air filters in back behind this and should keep it blustery as well for some of these firefighting effort.
Now, we know it's fall. Leaves are beginning to fall across a lot of these areas. The firefighters actually saying they are laying down containment lines, but the leaves are being blown around and taking on fires elsewhere, so it makes it a challenging set-up for this region of the Southeastern United States right now.
But we will leave with you the forecast around New York City where the 60s, say goodbye to us and we drop it back down for the lower 50sby tomorrow afternoon. and there's some morning rain showers as well. Guys?
ROMANS: All right. Thank you, Pedram.
The stock market rallying since Donald Trump was elected. The bond market is giving us clues as to what the Trump economy will look like and it's going to affect your mortgage rates. Check on "CNN Money Stream" is next.
[04:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BLACKWELL: Seven minutes until the top of the hour now. In the battle for Mosul, a big victory for Iraqi Armed forces capturing the village of Nimrud, site of the ancient city overrun by ISIS in 2014.
Last year, the ancient ruins were destroyed by the terrorists. Nimrud is some 20 miles from Mosul and military officials say that fighting in the area continues. CNN's Phil Black is following developments, he is live in Erbil, Iraq. Phil, what are we seeing here this morning?
PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Victor, that site, Nimrud, has long been considered an incredibly rich and important archeological site, 3000 years old. The capital of the former Syrian Empire but the truth is we don't know what is left now because ISIS has previously boasted about bulldozing and destroying much of the key sites there because they consider the preservation of this for archeology to be the celebration of false idols.
But it also important in the context of the overall military operation that has been going on for about a month no to drive ISIS from Iraq, and in particular, the city of Mosul. As you mentioned, 20 miles from Mosul. What this shows is still incredibly intense fighting. After all this time, still in the towns, villages surrounding the city itself.
It's only in the east of Mosul, a very narrow section, but growing section in the east through the neighborhoods there where Iraqi forces have penetrated and they are coming up against incredibly tough resistance by ISIS fighters.
[04:55:00] They knew they were coming so they have been preparing, building tunnels, building car bombs and other explosive devices. There are well-placed snipers. They are incredibly motivated, suicide car bomb attacks outgoing against these Iraqi forces daily.
So, all of this is happening in an area that has built up, but has a population where people are still living and trying to endure the fighting as it goes on around rem. About 57,000 people or so (inaudible) driven from their homes. And the expectation is that that number will only get higher as the fighting goes on. Victor.
BLACKWELL: All right, Phil in Erbil for us. Phil, thank so much.
ROMANS: The suspected killer of a Central California Police officer is in custody this morning following a manhunt. The alleged shooter, David Machado, was captured Sunday driving a stolen car. Police say he carjacked someone after fatally shooting Officer Dennis Wallace. The Stanislaus County Sheriff's Deputy was shot twice in the head while investigating a report of a suspicious vehicle.
BLACKWELL: In South Carolina, former North Charleston police officer Michael Slager's murder trial now entering its third week with the defense announcing its case. Slager was accused of fatally shooting Walter Scotts who was running away from the officer is when he was shot last year.
Now, the defense claims Slager was provoked. They say Scott resisted being restrained by a stun gun which led to this physical altercation. Slager faces 30 years to life in prison if he's convicted.
ROMANS: Well let's go check on "CNN money stream" this morning. This Monday morning. Dow futures higher again as the stock market builds on the post-election bounce. Stock markets in Europe rising. Shares in Asia closing mixed overnight. Investors are dumping gold. Gold down 8 percent over the past few days. Gold is what you buy when things are uncertain. And now, and certainly not uncertain that the elections is over.
The stock market rallies have been impressive but a swift move in the bond market is telling us a lot more about what the Trump's economy might look like, a little bit higher inflation, faster economic growth, rising interest rates and more risk.
The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury Bond is now 2.23 percent. Look at that pop. On the day of the election it was 1.85percent. What does this mean? Investors are selling bonds in favor of stocks. When bond prices fall, yields rise. Mortgage rates are tied to this yield, so it signaled mortgage rates could increase as well. Going forward, the bond market as the most reliable indicator about the Trump policies of a trump presidency. we'll be watching it very closely.
Peter Thiel taking an official role walking with Donald Trump. Trump says Thiel will be more than one of the dozen members of the presidential transition team. Thiel co-founded PayPal, he is a Facebook board member, he shocked many in Silicon Valley by supporting Trump during the campaign, he spoke at the Republican National Convention.
He also donated more than a million bucks in the final weeks of the campaign. So how will he help Trump? The president-elect says, "The mission of our team will be clear, put together the most highly qualified group of successful leaders who will be able to implement our change agenda in Washington.
Also on that transition team, Donald Trump, Jr., Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump. (Inaudible) questions about Trump's transition issue, the trump businesses, Trump has placed (inaudible) for the control of his assets to his children while he is in the White House. But then he puts them on the inside of the transition team where they will be presumably helping shape policy and appointments. Interesting.
BLACKWELL: A lot of questions there. We will talk about that in the next hour of EARLY START, which begins right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: A storm of criticism for President-Elect Donald Trump's new right hand man. A controversial figure who have a lot of people concerned. Good morning this morning. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell, in for John Berman. It is Monday, November 14th, 5:00 a.m. here in the East.
And new this morning, the fierce push back against one of Donald Trump's first White House hires. The president-elect has named Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus as Chief of Staff and Trump campaign CEO Steve Bannon as his Chief Strategist. And it's the second appointment that has some product team in uproar, largely because of Bannon's other job, head of he Breitbart News website associated with alt-right.
Now, all of this comes as we are hearing from Trump on a variety of topics including the protests against him. This has been the first sit-down T.V. interview since election day. For latest on the man who will run the Trump White House, let's bring in CNN's Chris Frates from Washington. Chris, good morning.
FRATES: Good morning, Christine and Victor. President-Elect Trump has named Reince Priebus as his Chief of Staff and Steve Bannon as his Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor.
Now, by naming Priebus as Chief of Staff, Trump puts the head of the republican national committee in one of the most powerful positions in Washington. Priebus' insider is balanced out by Bannon's anti- establishment world view. IN a statement about the duo, Trump said this, "Bannon and Priebus will continue the effective leadership team they formed during the campaign, working as equal partners to transform the federal government and making it more efficient, effective and productive."
[05:00:00] Now, Priebus is known inside the beltway and has good working relationship with republicans on Capitol Hill.
