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Who Will Be In Trump's Cabinet?; How Did The Media Predictions Get It Wrong?; What Happened To The Polls In 2016 Race?; Thousands Protest President-Elect Donald Trump. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired November 10, 2016 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:31:15] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Some headlines for you. The first one, a reminder of the gun violence in this country. Gunfire erupting in downtown Seattle. Crowds marching in anti-Trump protests nearby. Five people shot, two of them in critical condition. Police say an argument broke out outside a 7-Eleven. The gunman started to walk away from the group, then turned around and fired into the crowd. That man is still on the loose. Police say the shooting is unrelated to the rally.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: A deadly rail accident in the south of London to tell you about. Seven people killed, more than 50 others injured when this packed tram derailed and overturned. British police say the driver has been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter and may have fallen asleep at the controls. Investigators say the tram was traveling at a much higher rate of speed than allowed.
CUOMO: Scary situation. Two marine pilots survived after their jets collided in mid-air off the coast of San Diego Wednesday. One pilot ejected and was rescued from the Pacific Ocean. The other landed safely at a nearby naval air station. Military officials say the F/A 18 Hornets were taking part in a training mission and wound up colliding. Both pilots are said to be in stable condition.
CAMEROTA: OK, now we have some good news on the story that you've been following. An update for you on those conjoined twins separated in that risky 27-hour surgery. The lead neurosurgeon telling CNN that Jadon and Anias McDonald are progressing right on target, if not ahead of schedule. Both infants had their breathing tubes removed since the operation last month, and Jadon regained movement on his left side after, you might remember, he suffered some partial paralysis. Doctors are hoping to release the boys in the coming weeks so they can enter rehab.
CUOMO: Wow, they may be home for Christmas.
CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh, it's so wonderful. Again, the neonatal progress that modern medicine has made is just remarkable.
CUOMO: Good for those parents. They're so young, themselves.
CAMEROTA: True. CUOMO: All right. So, when it comes to the election it's over, but the job of governing is just beginning. Who's going to be in Trump's cabinet? You could say that these are the most important decisions that he's going to make early on. We have some tips ahead.
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[05:37:30] CUOMO: What a moment you're all going to get to see today. President Obama is going to meet with the man who has spent so much time trying to convince the country that he was illegitimate and is now president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump. But then a lot of that's going to be optics and pageantry -- this transition of power. It has to happen and this is the process. The question is, who are the people who are going to populate these power positions?
Let's look at some of the names being eyed with Ellis Henican, a political analyst and best-selling author. Good to see you, my friend.
ELLIS HENICAN, POLITICAL ANALYST AND BEST-SELLING AUTHOR: Hey, good morning.
CUOMO: All right. So, you know what, let's skip. We have the loyalists, OK? We have the loyalists.
HENICAN: Because loyalty counts here.
CUOMO: Loyalty counts, especially with Trump, and these guys are going to be asked to do different things. But I want to skip for a second --
HENICAN: OK.
CUOMO: -- to this man --
HENICAN: Ooh.
CUOMO: -- and here's why. Big name, right? Early guy to jump in. A lot of controversy. Chris Christie going to kiss the ring before anybody else did. But all this talk about him -- can he survive a vetting process?
HENICAN: Well, I -- you know what, maybe not. I mean, he's hugely unpopular at home, right? I mean, he's in the middle of this "Bridgegate" thing.
CUOMO: The "Bridgegate" thing would be it.
HENICAN: And you did notice, by the way, that the last three weeks, month, of the campaign he was pretty scarce, wasn't he? You wouldn't see a lot of Chris Christie in public.
CUOMO: Now, people will say well, the GOP's in control of the confirmation process so how bad can it be? But the question is, do they want, with their "drain the swamp" talk -- you know, who knows whether he follows through on it at all -- to have someone who is caught up in some swampy business.
HENICAN: I mean, is that alligator number one, if you want to drain the swamp?
CUOMO: So do you think that he winds up tapping him for a big post that requires confirmation?
HENICAN: You know what? I'd put him in the White House first. I think it's a lot easier to find some -- there are a lot of big jobs that don't require --
CUOMO: On the political side --
HENICAN: Yes.
CUOMO: -- that don't need the same vetting.
HENICAN: Well, I'm not saying chief of staff but, I mean, some other important political --
CUOMO: Does Chris Christie take that? Does he take a behind the scenes job?
HENICAN: I don't think he's got a lot of choice at this point. I mean, he's not going to run for another office and I think he wants to be relevant.
CUOMO: All right, so let's talk about these cats. These are the loyalists.
HENICAN: Yes.
CUOMO: First up, Rudy Giuliani. Everybody knows who he is.
HENICAN: Yes.
CUOMO: He's being talked about AG or Homeland Security. What do you think?
HENICAN: Yes. I think he would take it in a minute. The only question is, does he need any more money? He's making a lot of money right now but I think Rudy likes the spotlight.
CUOMO: You do?
HENICAN: Yes.
CUOMO: Because, you know, he's worked very hard to build his businesses.
HENICAN: I know.
CUOMO: He spends a lot of time traveling around. He loves his wife -- he loves to be with her. That job takes you out of pocket.
HENICAN: That is true but, listen, you've been around Rudy a long time. He likes the spotlight, Christopher.
[05:40:00] CUOMO: All right, Newt Gingrich. (Cuomo punching buttons on screen) I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hit you in the face that hard, Newt. I hit him so hard he won't even look at me now. Let's try it again.
HENICAN: There you go.
CUOMO: There we go. So, Secretary of State -- chief of staff, I think, is underselling Newt.
HENICAN: I don't -- I don't think so. I think he would take that in a minute. I don't -- to me, he feels more in the senior statesman category at this point. I don't -- it's been a long time since Newt's really been in it.
CUOMO: All right. Now, Ben Carson, education secretary. Is he in any way qualified for that job?
HENICAN: No, maybe surgeon general.
CUOMO: You think that? Well, they're having him as HHS. Do you think that Ben Carson makes the cut for someone who's going to have that kind of executive authority over the operations of government?
HENICAN: You know, I would doubt it on Ben. I'm not putting him -- he's a little bit of a loose cannon who knows where his views really align with Trump's.
CUOMO: All right, one more. From this group of political guys, right --
HENICAN: Yes.
CUOMO: -- Jeff Sessions.
HENICAN: Right.
CUOMO: I think, you know, he was with him early -- he's a senator. But this is a serious job, defense secretary. You've got to have the right person in there. He'd be picking a political worker to go in there as defense secretary. That could work.
HENICAN: It could. I would bet on that one. I mean, first of all, he's a serious enough guy. He actually cares about those issues. And loyalty -- again, it's all about the loyalty. And there aren't that many people, Chris, who were loyal as long and as thoroughly as someone like Jeff Sessions.
CUOMO: And it is a good education for those folks at home. In politics, you think well, they'll do this the same way they do any job interviews. Not true. Loyalty counts most. You have to know that this person will stay on message. They will not stick it in your back the first chance they have. They will defend you when you're weak. That's a small population.
All right, we've got 90 seconds left.
HENICAN: OK.
CUOMO: Let's jump to the private sector.
HENICAN: Yes.
CUOMO: This was part of the sell for Trump. All the best guys are my friends and will come for me. This is a pretty short list of big names.
HENICAN: I was going to say where are all the big --
CUOMO: Well, the bigshot is Carl Icahn.
HENICAN: That's right. He's a -- but, I -- he's not going to go into the administration.
CUOMO: Why not?
HENICAN: I don't think -- I mean, maybe in some ceremonial role. Head some kind of commission or something. But you really think he's going to be the treasury secretary or the --
CUOMO: Well, why wouldn't he do it? Would it be any of the vetting? Hey, we want to see a lot of information about you.
HENICAN: Well, you know --
CUOMO: Or is it just that you think it's beneath him in some way?
HENICAN: Well, and where he is in life. I didn't look up his age but, I mean, Carl Icahn's -- you know, he's up there.
CUOMO: All right. Well, I mean, he's pretty active, though. His business is killing it.
HENICAN: No, no.
CUOMO: You've got Lucas Oil, Forrest Lucas --
HENICAN: Yes.
CUOMO: -- Interior secretary. All right, now that's actually a more important post than people think, you know?
HENICAN: And a lot of complex regulatory stuff involved being in that. But, you know, out of the oil industry -- and that's a broader company, by the way, not just an --
CUOMO: Sure.
HENICAN: -- oil company. A lot of -- a lot of service-related stuff. So, I mean, I think that's a credible choice. He's a business guy who's been with him all along. He's got some credibility in the private sector. And then, listen, why be a businessman president unless you're going to put some titans in there?
CUOMO: Right, and that's where a minutia -- you know, it's interesting. He came in a very controversial bigshot at Goldman Sachs --
HENICAN: Goldman Sachs, right.
CUOMO: -- and a lot of the bankers didn't want to help Trump, so he's going to be rewarded if he wants that.
HENICAN: And to the extent that there was a fundraising operation there --
CUOMO: He was on it.
HENICAN: -- he was deeply involved in that.
CUOMO: Ellis Henican, thank you very much.
HENICAN: Great to see you, Chris. It's going to be really interesting.
CUOMO: This is an in interesting parlor game and it also shows, Alisyn, inside the mind and thinking of who Trump wants means what type of personality he wants for his government, as well.
CAMEROTA: I like parlor games, keep them going. We'll play more on the program later, like this one. The media and the pollsters under fire for getting the presidential predictions wrong. How did this happen? We dig deeper with our panel, next.
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[05:47:40] CAMEROTA: Millions of people across the country were stunned Tuesday night when Donald Trump won because poll after poll predicted that that would not happen. This morning there is a circular firing squad in the media about who is to blame. A "New York Times" T.V. critic said this. "The press covered Hillary Clinton like the next president of the United States. The press covered Donald Trump like a future trivia question and a ratings cash cow."
Let's bring in our media experts, CNN senior media correspondent Brian Stelter and CNN media analyst Bill Carter. Guys --
BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Morning.
CAMEROTA: -- our consciences are clear this morning.
CUOMO: On this issue,I have a clear conscience.
CAMEROTA: On this issue -- and so do it.
STELTER: Talk to them.
CAMEROTA: Well, no. I know what Chris said, I know what I said. We always said, all along, from the beginning of the primary, yes, Donald Trump can win. He might likely win. He can be taken -- he should be taken seriously.
STELTER: Yes.
CAMEROTA: But, it doesn't -- I mean, first of all, not that many people ask for our opinion because we're journalists and we're not pundits. But, I just don't accept responsibility that the media got it wrong. I accept that pollsters got it wrong. Is there any idea why they got it so wrong?
STELTER: Well, on Tuesday, there was a clear series of failures -- leading up to Tuesday -- with regards to the data and this is partly because some Trump supporters did not want to share their preference with pollsters. And it's partly because some of the voters weren't reached by the pollsters. There were a series of problems with the polling data and, honestly, it's going to take months to unpack what when wrong in the polling community.
BILL CARTER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: On the state level, that's the case. On the national level, the projection was like three to four percent that she would win, and she might win by two percent.
(CROSSTALK)
CARTER: But it was not substantially wrong there.
CAMEROTA: And, by the way, we report polls. That's what we do.
CARTER: That's right.
CAMEROTA: We don't say that these are wrong -- we think they're wrong.
CARTER: Right.
CAMEROTA: I mean, that's how it works.
CUOMO: Well look, also part -- what's feeding this --
CARTER: Yes.
CUOMO: -- in part. One, the critic -- the media loves to attack itself and there is a little bit of space -- of pushback to say I'd like some of the people who are telling me I didn't do my job to say what they did during this race. But you know what? I don't really care about that. I don't care what the media says about me. I'm not a particular fan of it either. I get why people are angry at it.
CAMEROTA: He's not that way.
But, Donald Trump was saying that polls -- I know, but I don't -- there's a part of me that really hates it. Donald Trump says the polls were rigged.
CARTER: Yes.
CUOMO: Donald Trump was feeding this and that fed this collective paranoia about what was going on. When you look at it, it gets to be pretty simple. I did a talk with some smart people last night about this. She underperformed, he over-performed.
STELTER: Yes.
[05:50:00] CUOMO: And he over-performed with a base of people who don't always vote the way they did in this election.
CARTER: Overperforming is relative. He got fewer votes than Romney or McCain.
CUOMO: True, but as expected, is what I'm saying.
CARTER: Yes.
CUOMO: As expected.
CARTER: So his performance was not out of line with expectations as much as hers was out of line underperforming. I think, if you really look at the whole broad picture, she just didn't turn out her voters.
CUOMO: She did not turn -- they did not come out and vote and I was saying that to some of the protesters last night on the street here in the city. Never a smart thing to do, by the way.
CAMEROTA: Engage with the protesters in a debate.
CUOMO: But, I said look, where were you guys a couple of days ago? You know what I mean? Minorities did not come out and did not vote for her in the percentages that reflected why Obama --
CARTER: And women.
CUOMO: -- was able to use them to get to the White House.
CARTER: I think even more surprising --
CUOMO: Neither did women, neither did college-educated people.
CAMEROTA: And more minorities voted for Donald Trump than was expected. But --
CUOMO: Especially with the Latinos.
CAMEROTA: -- all of that said, OK, I'm open to soul searching today, Brian. What should the media soul searching be today in terms of how we dealt with the last 18 months?
STELTER: The bubble was real and the bubble was a huge problem. I mean, let's not mince words. This was one of the biggest media failures in many, many years and I'm not talking about the polling. I'm talking about going into Tuesday night believing that Clinton was almost sure -- almost guaranteed to win.
CARTER: Ninety percent guaranteed by a lot of -- STELTER: And that's journalists who believed it. It's also Trump and Clinton who believed it. It's the market that believed it. This is an elite failure on a number of levels, including on the media level. And part of that's wishful thinking. Probably, that's a corridor bias. A New York, D.C., Boston bias. Partly it's group think. Bottom line, it's a mass delusion.
CAMEROTA: But hold on one second. Again, I have to challenge you because even Trump's supporters -- some of my cousins are big Trump supporters. They said but he's not going to win.
CARTER: Right.
CAMEROTA: They felt, also, sort of bedraggled by the whole thing. We love him, but he's not going to win. So it was everybody.
CARTER: If you've got a reporter on the air, like Jim Acosta, saying that in Trump's headquarters they said we have no hope early in the voting.
STELTER: But that means this was a failure of imagination by journalists. We needed to keep the door open more than we did.
CAMEROTA: I agree with that.
(CROSSTALK)
CARTER: That's always the case. That's always the case. The polls drive too much of the coverage. And while that's going on you're not covering other things, and there was a whole lot of other things going on.
CUOMO: All right, so that's a different point.
CAMEROTA: I think that's --
CUOMO: I think that why we got it wrong has two parts, right, and the part that matters more to me is what do you think the media was supposed to do with Donald Trump that it wasn't doing? We had Carl Bernstein who said with both of them you didn't deep dive investigatively enough early on. OK, but what was so wrong that you saw in the media?
CARTER: To me, it was almost -- there was almost too much coverage of individual gaffes and mistakes by Trump which happened so often there was a volume of it and it never sustained. None of them sustained.
And there was one issue on Clinton and that was the one that always sustained. And so, there was a balance between -- he had -- you know, he had all the things that happened with Putin, and you had the comment about women, and you had his university. And it was almost like some of the print outlets were competing for the next thing they could break about Trump, and that last one just went away.
And I think the impact was muted in some fashion instead of being -- and it was a massive impact on her for the email thing. STELTER: I see it a bit differently. I think something is profoundly broken and it might be with regards to fact checking or with a fact- based society. Voters knew who these candidates were. They knew the good, the bad, and the ugly about Clinton and the good, the bad, and the ugly about Trump. They -- investigations were done, the reporting was done, the quotes were published, the rallies were broadcast.
Then the voters decided, and many of them -- about half of them rejected all of the journalism that was produced -- a lot of the facts that were put on the table. And that's just not a media failure, that's something broader about our society.
CAMEROTA: I don't know what we do about that.
CARTER: Yes, what do you do about the fact that people won't --
CAMEROTA: That's --
CARTER: If you tell the truth and they don't believe it, what do you do? Partly, it's that the candidate was impervious to the truth. Like he would just shrug it off. In the past, when a candidate made a mistake, he acknowledged it. He was shamed by it. He tried to get out from under it. Not this guy. He just pushed it aside and it didn't affect him the same way.
STELTER: I am a bad guest today because I don't have answers right now.
CUOMO: Because his base didn't --
STELTER: We're just beginning to figure it out.
CAMEROTA: I understand but we're going to have to figure it out within the next four years about what we want our role to be and what it should be, and what the public is looking at us for. So, we will have that conversation --
CARTER: Yes.
CAMEROTA: -- as well. Guys, thank you very much.
CARTER: Thanks.
CAMEROTA: Protests erupting in cities across the country as Donald Trump takes the first public steps towards the presidency. We have it all covered for you, next.
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[05:58:40] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PROTESTERS: Hey, hey, ho, ho, Donald Trump has got to go.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT: Now it's time for America to bind the wounds of division and unify our great country.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We must accept this result and, then, look to the future.
PROTESTERS: Not my president, not my president.
REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), HOUSE SPEAKER: This needs to be a time of redemption, not a time of recrimination.
TRUMP: I promise you that I will not let you down.
PROTESTERS: (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We who believe in freedom will not rest.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're not Democrats first, we're not Republicans first, we are Americans first.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
CUOMO: Good morning, welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Thursday, November 10th, 6:00 in the East.
And we do begin with breaking news. Protests have been on the streets across the country, mostly on Clinton turf, because of Donald Trump's victory. People are blocking freeways, some even setting fires in the middle of the street. Others chanting "not my president".
CAMEROTA: The country bitterly divided over the outcome. This, as Donald Trump heads to Washington this morning to meet with President Obama to begin the transition of power.
We have it all covered for you, so let's begin with Deborah Feyerick. She is live outside of Trump Tower in New York. How's it looking, Deb?
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now it's very, very quiet, Alisyn. But last night the speed at which these crowds seemed to grow -- the word of this protest spreading on social media, taking place all across the country. Here in New York, it started down in Union Square. Protesters marched against traffic up Fifth Avenue for more than two miles, chanting "Donald Trump is not my president".
