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Trump Praises Protestors for Their Passion; Trump Win Stokes Fears Among Minorities. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired November 11, 2016 - 07:00   ET

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

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Jason.

[07:00:02] JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you. In front of Trump Tower where we've seen a number of protesters showing up over the past few nights.

You know, there was talk, as you, Alisyn, that during the last part of the campaign, Trump's advisors were trying to encourage him not to tweet so much. It's very clear that this is a man who likes Twitter, likes to tweet. He tweeted about the protests, first blaming it on the media. This morning, trying to strike a different tone.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL (voice-over): This morning, President-elect Donald Trump tweeting, "Love the fact that the small group of protesters last night have passion for our great country. We will all come together and be proud."

After calling the protests against his victory unfair, tweeting overnight that they are professional protesters incited by the media.

This as largely peaceful protesters across the country take to the streets for the second night in a row, the anger boiling over in Portland. Police classifying it as a riot.

A stark contrast to the pageantry at the White House earlier in the day. Trump speaking with President Obama for an hour and a half inside the Oval Office.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We talked about foreign policy. We talked about domestic policy. And, as I said last night, my No. 1 priority in the coming two months is to try to facilitate a transition that ensures our president-elect is successful.

CARROLL: The pair striking a conciliatory tone.

TRUMP: We discussed a lot of different situations, some wonderful and some difficulties. I very much look forward to dealing with the president in the future, including counsel.

Mr. President, it was a great honor being with you, and I look forward to being with you many, many more times.

CARROLL: Kind words shared after years of vitriol, Trump perpetuating the birther conspiracy throughout Obama's presidency and vowing to rip apart Obama's legacy while out on the campaign trail.

TRUMP: Immediately repealing and replacing Obamacare.

CARROLL: Obama, in turn, rebuking Trump's run.

OBAMA: He is temperamentally unfit to be commander in chief.

CARROLL: But Thursday it was all about respect. First lady Michelle Obama meeting over tea with Melania Trump in private. The president- elect ending his whirlwind tour, meeting with two men he had been at odds with, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell at the Capitol.

REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: We had a fantastic, productive meeting about getting to work, going to harsh (ph) meetings, and going to work for the American people. Donald Trump had one of the most impressive victories we've ever seen.

TRUMP: I think we're going to do some absolutely spectacular things for the American people. We look forward to starting. We can't get started fast enough. And we're going to lower taxes, as you know. We're going to fix health care and make it more affordable and better. We're going to do a real job for the public. And that's what we want to do and that's why we're excited.

RYAN: Pausing to take in the view from where he will be sworn in 70 days from now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: So, going forward, a source telling CNN that over the weekend Trump will meet with his advisors, and the focus will be in part transition planning, trying to focus in on those 800 or so positions that require security clearance.

As for those protests, Chris, more planned for this weekend.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Jason, thank you very much.

Let's bring in Republican Congressman Chris Collins of New York. He was the first member of Congress to endorse Donald Trump. Just had a big victory of his own.

So let's talk about the new normal. Congressman, thank you for being on NEW DAY. Two different tweets.

REP. CHRIS COLLINS (R), NEW YORK: Good to be with you, Chris.

CUOMO: Two different tweets, and I was a little surprised that the president-elect was tweeting at all, to be frank with -- to be honest with you. I thought that maybe that would end.

But the first tweet -- let's put them up for the audience. Both dealt with the protests. One, "Just had a very open and successful presidential election. Now professional protestors, incited by the media, are protesting, very unfair." Now another one. Maybe Donald Trump is watching the shows this

morning. "Love the fact that small groups of protesters last night have passion for our great country. We will all come together and be proud."

Which one of these two men is going to be our president, Congressman?

COLLINS: Oh, again, I'll say one thing I believe America wants. We still want to see the real human being of Donald Trump. And so I don't have any problem if he tweets out. And in fact, you know, freedom of speech and peacefully demonstrating is something that's protected by the Constitution. And then if it goes over the line and becomes, you know, what we can see violent, well then there's another situation.

So, you know, Donald Trump's expressing some opinions, and you could look at this in a couple different lights, from freedom of speech to, if it goes violent, then people are breaking the law. It is, you know, disappointing that America, even these few numbers, are not accepting that -- the results of this election, because the tenor, certainly, in Washington between the president, the first lady and the Trumps, as well as other people reaching out, from Nancy Pelosi. The tenor has been extraordinarily positive. It is just, frankly, unfortunate with these demonstrations.

CUOMO: Why isn't the unfortunate part, Congressman, the first tweet? You know, because it's not Donald Trump. It's the president-elect of the United States is saying these things now. Right? I mean it's very different. I'm sure even you think about, "Well, what am I going to say as Chris Collins when I'm in one context versus when I'm Congressman Chris Collins"?

The president-elect didn't say, "Hey, look, when protests go too far and they become criminal, they're riots, and that's not about First Amendment." He didn't say that. He said, "These protests are professional." We have no proof of that. I was out in the ones in New York a couple of nights ago. There were a bunch of kids, mostly, out there and people who were angry about this, which is not unusual. Donald Trump, as you may remember, in 2012 called for the exact same thing, a protest. A march on Washington to protest the travesty of Mitt Romney losing.

And then he blames the media saying we're inciting this. Is that what we need from the president-elect, in your opinion?

COLLINS: You know, I'm not going to really express an opinion here, Chris, because I don't know the circumstances. But, you know, I'll go back to the First Amendment. It gives us the right to gather in peaceful protests, actually to send the message. Violent protests, otherwise.

CUOMO: Yes, I agree with you. I agree with you. Violent, violent demonstrations are not a protest. They're crimes. And they should be dealt with that. You have no opinion on Donald Trump saying the media is making this happen and this is all wrong. These are professionals. This isn't a protest. You have no opinion on that at all. COLLINS: No. I don't really feel I should be commenting on that.

CUOMO: OK. So much for the fresh start.

Let's talk about something else you may want to comment on, which is chief of staff. Who he puts around him is going to be very important. You said that a couple of days on the show. Steve Bannon or Reince Priebus. What do you see as the plus, minus on those candidates?

COLLINS: Well, the plus on Reince Priebus, and I think he would be a very good choices -- first of all, we know very professional. He's run an extraordinarily large organization in the RNC. He's got to have a very good rapport. He has had President-elect Trump's back from the beginning. He also knows how Congress works. He knows all the members and so forth.

So he walks in with a lot of credibility with the members of Congress and the senate. And, you know, good professional.

On the other hand, Steve Bannon has pretty much, you know, decades of experience with Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump has to have someone in that position that he trusts implicitly. Certainly a longer tenure relationship. I think the trust factor would certainly be higher. I think the third person to throw in there is his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. He has all the traits.

But, clearly, it's a position that should be filled this weekend. And like everything else in life, Chris, there are pluses and minuses...

CUOMO: To each choice.

COLLINS: ... to each person, and we know that all these people will have roles within the administration. But chief of staff, I think, as we then start filling the other cabinet positions is about as key as it gets.

CUOMO: So you think it gets done this weekend. We'll wait and see.

In terms of not who, but what the president-elect goes for out of the box. Do you believe that repealing and replacing Obamacare should be the first move of President Trump?

COLLINS: Well, we can move things simultaneously. I think the first move is going to be signing and repealing or undoing many of the executive orders. That could be done extraordinarily quickly.

Repealing Obamacare, I believe, will be done in the first 100 days. You can repeal sections of it, not using reconciliation. I don't think the Democrats are going to allow us, if you will, to just repeal it. They would filibuster that.

But through reconciliation, the type of repeal we put on Obama's desk last year that he vetoed. The replacing piece. We have replacement ideas and we have to make sure that we run that through the administration. That's going to take longer and, let's face it. It will be a transition. A y and on Wednesday say, here's the new plan. Insurance companies have to put out their plans for 2018, in many cases by April.

So, we do have a timeline that we have to adhere to. And I think everyone realizes, for the year of 2007 we're not going to be pulling the rug out for anyone. It doesn't mean that we can't repeal the 40- hour workweek issue, 30 hours versus 40, quickly.

CUOMO: So, pieces, pieces versus the whole. You think that is a possibility. Because there is a question as to how you give people good quality care, at a low price without preexisting conditions being a factor if you don't have a mandate, which means you don't have that insistence that the healthy and the young get into the pool, as well.

So you see it being piecemeal, not wholesale change?

COLLINS: Well, it will be like the repeal we put on his desk. Medical device tax, health insurance tax, employer mandate, employee mandate, 40-hour workweek. We can do that through reconciliation. I believe the plans that people are now signing up for will be their insurance plans for 2017.

CUOMO: Right.

COLLINS: There's nothing we can do today that would impact that.

Now, pre-existing conditions, we have talked in the Republican conference about having, if you want to call it a high-risk pool that protects insurance companies and the other rate payers from some very large increase because of the unknowns surrounding pre-existing conditions. We recognize. We've got to deal with that.

But I think the way to deal it set it, that's not set in concrete, would be something like a high-risk pool and there would be some government subsidy going into that pool to protect the other rate payers from, frankly, the unknown.

We're going to keep the 25 and younger on the family plan so people don't need to worry about that. There's a lot of details to work out.

CUOMO: Yes.

COLLINS: But the main thing is, they'll keep their insurance plans for this next year, 2017. And we may be able to, for instance, let the insurance companies put forth some new plans through the year for small business that would have a different set of benefits, because there's no question we're going to eliminate that minimum set of benefits and go back to design the plan you need with your insurance company for your employees. No more of these one-size-fits-all. You could always ease those in through the year, but there's no question, again, people don't need to worry that sometime in March or April they're going to lose their insurance plan.

CUOMO: Right. So, you have to protect those who need the help most. Coverage and costs will be the issues. Devil's in the details. We'll cover them when you give them to us.

COLLINS: You got that right. CUOMO: Congressman Collins, thank you very much for joining us.

Appreciate it, as always.

COLLINS: Good to be with you, Chris.

CUOMO: Always. Later this hour we're going to hear from billionaire Warren Buffett about the election results. He's spoken to Poppy Harlow. She's going to join us and take us through the conversation.

CAMEROTA: Donald Trump is calling for unity, but there are reports of several disturbing incidents already against minorities. This is just in the last two days. So we will look at the fears among minority groups in a Trump presidency. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Protests continue in the wake of Donald Trump's election. Many demonstrators say that they're worried about Trump's policies and that they'll have a dangerous effect on the minority community and that they will somehow fuel racial tensions.

And joining us now is Aymann Ismail. He's a journalist at "Slate Magazine." And Cristina Jimenez. She's a co-founder and managing director for United We Dream, an advocacy group for immigrants. It's great to have both o have both of you here this morning.

AYMANN ISMAIL, JOURNALIST, "SLATE MAGAZINE": Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Aymann, obviously, the election did not go the way you were hoping that it would. How have you processed these last couple of days?

ISMAIL: To be honest, I haven't really fully processed it yet. The news kind of came suddenly, but when it did, I immediately got all of these messages from friends and relatives saying, "Be careful. We've been here before. We know how to deal with this. And keep an eye out and don't be vulnerable."

CAMEROTA: And what does that mean, be careful? What were they trying to warn you about?

ISMAIL: Well, after 9/11 in New York City, there was a huge spike in Islamophobic attacks and bigoted attacks against minorities, not even just Muslims, people who might be even considered to look Muslim. And that's a real threat right now when we have someone in the White House now.

CAMEROTA: Have you seen more -- have people said more aggressive things to you or have you seen it, or do you just fear it?

ISMAIL: No. I mean, as soon as the news broke out, I went over to Trump Tower to talk to these people and confront them and try to understand their point of view. And immediately people were saying things like, "We need to peacefully separate ourselves from minority communities. We need our own country." One person told me that why can't we have our own country? Why can't America just be white? We need our own language. We need our own borders." And that is painful for someone who was born just a few miles away in New Jersey.

CAMEROTA: Yes. I think it's painful for all of us to hear that sort of sentiment. Cristina, what's -- how are you processing? What's happening in your life the past couple of days?

CRISTINA JIMENEZ, CO-FOUNDER & MANAGING DIRECTOR, UNITED WE DREAM: United We Dream is a network of undocumented families and -- families and refugees all across the country. We're in 26 states.

And what we have been seeing in the last two days is fear, a deep sense of fear about what would happen with undocumented youth that are protected by BACVA, which is a program that Donald Trump committed to end if he was to become president. And this program protects young people from deportation and deport people like my own parents, who are immigrants of this country, as well, and who are undocumented.

And what we're also hearing is kids in school who look Latino or who are immigrants that are getting bullied by their peers.

CAMEROTA: We have a couple of examples of this. There's just some cell-phone video that has come out. This -- the first one is York, Pennsylvania. This is Vocational Tech School. It's a high school. People -- kids there carrying a Trump sign, and I don't know if you can hear the audio. They're chanting, "White power. White power."

Here's another one. This is a middle school, a cafeteria it looks like. This is outside of Detroit. And you can see here the kids start chanting, "Build the wall. Build the wall. Build the wall."

CAMEROTA: Aymann, you say that you've already begun sort of acting differently out in public and on public transportation. What are you doing?

ISMAIL: Well, I'm just trying to be very visible, to be honest. We can't afford to become an invisible minority right now. I think Muslims really need to be present and need to be vocal about their concerns and try to communicate with other people and explain what makes a Muslim.

The biggest weapon that Donald Trump has right now is misinformation. We saw him stand on a platform and describe what he saw as thousands of Muslims cheering on September 11. And we need people to understand that Muslims are American, and Muslims were affected by terrorists.

CAMEROTA: And are you trying to be more conscious of your surroundings? I mean, are you feeling as though you need to sort of look around you more?

ISMAIL: Yes, absolutely. For example, some things that I'm doing is I'm not wearing headphones anymore in public. I like hip-hop a lot, and I like music but I can't afford to make myself vulnerable.

CAMEROTA: Cristina, there was a feeling, there was one way that this could go and it could still go. And that is that the people who were angry in this country, who voted for Donald Trump, who felt disenfranchised and felt as though they hadn't been heard, that they might feel empowered. It might have been healing on some level for them. But I know that your fear is that, no, they will feel emboldened.

Do you have evidence of that or is that just what you fear is going to happen?

JIMENEZ: We have evidence of that. You know, there is a conversation right now about whether Donald Trump would actually implement some of the policies and some of the things that he said on the campaign trail. And whether that will be true or not, right, like we can't predict right now.

But I think it is true that he normalized hate against Muslims, against immigrants, against Latinos in this country. And what we're seeing right after it became clear that he was elected president. You know, I was getting more hate mail in my e-mail. My Twitter it off the roof with comments saying, "Pack your bags, go home. You don't belong here."

CAMEROTA: I mean, you know what he would say, is that he wasn't saying that about Latinos. He was saying that about undocumented people whom he calls illegal immigrants, because he thinks that they should go home.

JIMENEZ: Well, what he was saying is actually even questioning a Mexican-American judge because he had Mexican heritage.

So we're not just talking about, you know, undocumented, documented. Ultimately, the vision of this country that he has shared is a country that is racially divided. He has normalized hate. And I think that what we need right now is for communities like ours -- Muslims, immigrants, Latinos and also whites -- to work together towards a vision of the country that is different from what Donald Trump has promoted and normalized.

CAMEROTA: So that's what you're calling for? That's your plan, is to have more unity among these communities. We thank you very much for coming in and sharing your thoughts with us. Obviously, we'll check back in with you throughout the coming days.

Let's get over to Chris.

CUOMO: All right. Thanks, Alisyn.

So President-elect Trump changing his tone after tweeting, quote, "Professional protesters are being, quote, incited by the media." He also ditched the press pool. So what are these signals that we're getting for how the president-elect wants to lead? We discuss next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:27:28] CUOMO: Mixed messages from the president-elect, who has decided to take to Twitter, once again. Praising protesters but then saying that this is a bad thing, blaming the media.

Here to discuss is CNN political analyst David Gregory. We were waiting to see how would Trump behave as president-elect. He had started off well but now these two inconsistent tweets.

The first one -- let's put it up -- about the protests saying that these are professional protesters. This is the second tweet. The first one he said they're professional. Here it is. "Had a great meeting, now professional protesters incited by the media are protesting. Very unfair."

Also unfair because untrue. No proof that they're professional. No proof, and it is odd, at the least, to say the media incited it.

Then this one: "Love the fact that small groups of protestors last night have passion for our great country. We will all come together and be proud."

Analysis.

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Mixed messages are going to be the norm. I don't know what to expect from President-elect Trump. But what I do rely on is that what got him to this position, he's going to continue with. He understands and has understood throughout this presidential campaign process that he has got a way to directly reach those who support him. And that he can grow that base of support, that he can influence opinion by reaching directly to them. So, grace notes. A professional demeanor meeting with the president of the United States.

But then working his crowd and saying, "Look, when you turn on television, and you see split screens with my advisors talking about the transition and then, you know, the media monitoring protests in the street," he wants to exploit that, blame the media. Create that schism of these two Americas.

I don't think that's going to stop, Chris and Alisyn. I think he's going to continue to do that. He's done it to great effect. There's a divisiveness that works for him and that is not also inconsistent with him then trying to work the political class and try to create some consensus.

CAMEROTA: Yes, well, David, Reince Priebus, head of the RNC, was just on a different morning show, and he had a different person to blame, entity to blame for the protests. Let me play this for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REINCE PRIEBUS, RNC CHAIR: It is very clear that, at least in the e- mails that were released that we had the DNC, the Hillary Clinton campaign or someone in between going to Donald Trump rallies and inciting violence. And so that happened. And, so there are such things as professional protests.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK. So, in other words, it's either the DNC's fault or it's the media's fault. I mean, why is it hard for them to accept that no, 50 percent, half of the country is not happy with the outcome of what happened on Tuesday?