Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Donald Trump Hires Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon to His Staff; Interview with Communications Director for Trump Transition Team Jason Miller. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired November 14, 2016 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good to have you with us.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Good to be here.

CUOMO: President-elect Trump making his first official hires. His top two advisers in place at least nominally. You've got Reince Priebus, the head of the RNC, who attacked -- who Trump attacked during the primaries. He's going to be the chief of staff. His chief strategist is a story. His name is Steve Bannon. He is a promoter of the alt-right. He is now a main person in the White House.

HARLOW: All this and Donald Trump sitting down for his first interview post-election talking to "60 Minutes" discussing his administration's top priority as well. Clearly softening on some of those big campaign promises that he made. Let's begin our coverage this morning with Phil Mattingly in Washington. Good morning, Phil.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Poppy. When you talk to Democrats and Republicans alike, they are clearly still trying to get their heads around what happened just less than a week ago. One of the ways they're trying to do that, take a look at who Donald Trump wants to bring onto his White House team. That, both parties say, basically will tell them more than anything else about the direction that he plans to head in a Trump administration.

Well, yesterday we got the first answer to two of the biggest positions. One of his hires, assuages some of the concerns particularly among Republicans about how Donald Trump will deal with Republicans on Capitol Hill. The other raising alarm bells in both parties.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: President-elect Donald Trump's administration starting to take shape. Trump naming RNC Chairman Reince Priebus as his chief of staff and campaign CEO Steve Bannon as his chief strategist and senior counselor, creating two dueling power centers and a potential rivalry between his two top aides. Priebus the ultimate Washington insider with deep connections to GOP leaders. Bannon, the polar opposite, a man who has operated on the Republican fringe as executive chairman of Breitbart.com, one with a known talent for riling up the grassroots while maintaining close ties to the alt-right movement within which anti-Semitism and racist tropes are pervasive. Bannon's appointment drawing sharp condemnation. The spokesman for

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid saying in a statement, quote, "It is easy to see why the KKK views Trump as their champion when Trump appoints one of the foremost peddlers of white supremacist themes and rhetoric as his top aide." The CEO of the Anti-Defamation League calling it a quote, "sad day." The executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations says the appointment of Bannon sends the disturbing message that the anti-Muslim conspiracy theories and white nationalist ideology will be welcome in the White House.

As thousands across the country protest against Trump for the fifth straight day, Trump addressing his supporters who have harassed minorities in his first TV interview post-election.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I say stop it. If it helps, I will say this, and I'll say it right to the cameras. Stop it.

MATTINGLY: Trump also appearing to tweet a central tenet of his immigration proposal.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're talking about a fence in the Republican Congress. Would you accept a fence?

TRUMP: For certain areas I would. But certain areas a wall is more appropriate. I'm very good at this, it called construction. It could be some fencing.

MATTINGLY: And discussing his Supreme Court appointees, calling same- sex marriage a settled issue taking a hard stance against national abortion rights.

TRUMP: Having to do with abortion, if it ever were overturned, it would go back to the states. So it would go back to the states.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So some women won't be able to get an abortion?

TRUMP: No, it will go back to the state.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: By state. Some --

TRUMP: Well, perhaps they'll have to go to another state.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: And Chris, starting to get some clear answers on personnel. Some flexibility on policy, but on one area at least no surefire answer yet. The idea that Donald Trump first laid out in August, and continued to repeat throughout the end of his campaign, appointing a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton. Last night he was asked about that on the "60 Minutes" interview. He said he didn't want to hurt the Clintons. He felt they were good people. He hadn't made up his mind yet. So keep an eye out for that. Chris?

CUOMO: All right, Phil, thank you very much.

Joining us now is the Communications Director for Donald Trump's transition team, Jason Miller, in person. Congratulations.

JASON MILLER, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, DONALD TRUMP TRANSITION TEAM: Chris good morning. Thank you for having me.

CUOMO: Good luck to you going forward.

MILLER: Thank you.

CUOMO: So, on the Clintons, a much sweeter, nicer tone. During the election he was very harsh, you know, lots of bad words for Hillary Clinton and why he wanted a special prosecutor. Now it seems like that's not going to happen. Is that a safe assumption?

MILLER: I think it's safe to say exactly what the president-elect said last night in the interview. His first priority and his focus will be jobs, jobs, jobs. He also wants to make sure that we secure the border, that we address Obamacare day one. So the president-elect has made it very clear that he's going to get to work for the American people, and this is what the priority is.

CUOMO: The harshness of the campaign is what it is. But this is going to be different. That's what I keep hearing.

[08:05:01] Steve Bannon, as a hire, fights that notion that Trump will be a more benevolent Trump, he'll be a more unifying Trump, he'll be get it done not just advance an agenda, because Steve Bannon is not an ordinary placement in the White House. He is a promoter of the alt- right and a very controversial guy. How does that square with Trump being different than he was in the campaign?

MILLER: Well, Chris if you've seen the president-elect since the election he's taken a very measured tone. He's made it very clear that he's going to get to work for the American people right away and that he's moved past the election. And what I think is frustrating is when we see so much news coverage, particularly on this network, unfortunately, on the issues that divide us following the election. I think that's irresponsible to be quite frank with you.

I think we're seeing so many good things of people coming together. Let's talk about how well Mr. Trump did in the election, doing better with African-Americans and Hispanics in blue states that Republicans haven't done in the past. There is this unifying feeling coming out of this campaign, or was the campaign now moving into becoming President of the United States. And that's really where our focus is.

And so when you take Mr. Bannon, who will be the chief strategist and senior counselor to the President, teaming up, working hand in glove with Chairman Priebus who's coming on board as the Chief of Staff, this is going to be a good team that, number one, helped get Mr. Trump across the finish line. They put together the plan. They worked seamlessly together. And we've seen, both of these men have been involved in the campaign with Mr. Trump for a long time. And the entire time we were purely focused on his vision, and it helped him win.

CUOMO: The challenge is to unite, right? You have your numbers. There are numbers on the other side that reveal a very divided country. Popular vote by almost any math will not be in Donald Trump's favor. He won through the Electoral College. I'm not going to debate Electoral College/popular vote. The election is over. Donald Trump is President-Elect of the United States, period.

He did not get a mandate from African-Americans. He didn't get a mandate from any minorities. He got more than expected. Hillary Clinton underperformed. All true. But the challenge is to unite. Steve Bannon is not a statement of unity. This is a man whose wife said he didn't want his girls in a school because they had too many Jews there. Breitbart is what it is. Ted Cruz whom you worked for used to point to it as a poison affecting his own party. How is that a nod towards unity?

MILLER: Chris again I think that your focus on trying to divide people I think is --

CUOMO: Not fair, Jason. Not fair.

MILLER: Chris --

CUOMO: You put Bannon in position, not me. I don't put out the headlines on Breitbart. He does. He is seen as the architect of a very effective strategy that Donald Trump used during the election which you guys now say needs to be left behind. But you're bringing the architect of it with you. That's not on me.

MILLER: Chris, since Day One when Steve Bannon joined Mr. Trump's operation, now heading into the White House, his job has been to help Mr. Trump implement his vision. He has done exactly that. He has done a fantastic job. Chairman Priebus, his job was to run the RNC and to make sure that we got the entire machine moving. And he did it fantastically.

The two are going to work well together. One has a very good sense of Mr. Trump's voice, exactly what he wants to do, how he wants to, what issues he wants to take on. Chairman Priebus has fantastic relationships across the board not just on both sides of Capitol Hill but in all of Washington. He's a master tactician.

And I think one of things that we're getting a little bit off track, we're talking about President-Elect Donald Trump. It's going to be his vision. It's going to be his policies. That's where the focus is. He's the boss. That's where the buck stops. This is going to be his White House and he'll be running it to serve the American people --

CUOMO: But you are who you have around you. And the Jekyll and Hyde thing is of your own creation, not ours. I mean, Bannon reached out to Marine Le Pen. You know, I mean her grandfather founded the National Front political party. He was an anti-Semite. He was quoted as saying "The races are unequal." Bannon reaches out to someone like that to work with the administration? What kind of message does that send?

MILLER: Chris, the clear message coming from Mr. Trump since his election is that our country has over the past eight years become way too divided. I think you would agree on this, become way too politicized. We're going to have a unified White House. We're going to have a unified President. And we're going and get some real things done for the American people. And I think that's where the focus is. All of the behavior and the activity and the focus has all been on putting the people back in charge of this government. And he has been very clear on that.

CUOMO: So what do you think the administration will do with one of its unique challenges which is, we've never had a businessman of Trump's scale in here. We had a couple in the past but it was a long time ago. You know he's broken a lot of rules, made his own rules. I don't mean that as a pejorative. What does he do with his business? It's not like you know, you or me, where you were working at a bank or something. You put all your shares of Goldman in a blind trust and you do your new job. And technically you don't really know what's going on.

This is different. His name is on all of it. Having his kids run it, fine. God bless them and I hope they're successful. But it seems like it's almost impossible for him to separate as his business. How do you satisfy the concerns about conflict of interest?

[08:10:11] MILLER: Well, I think part of the reason why Mr. Trump won is because he is this successful business figure. He's done so well in so many different fields. And obviously the exact details, we'll leave that to the lawyers and the accountants for figuring how he can get everything prepared as we make the transition. But the fact that he's not a politician, the fact that he is someone who's been successful --

CUOMO: Very attractive to many voters.

MILLER: It's very true. I think so many voters look at Washington they say this is government that isn't responsive. There are too many people being left behind. And really this economy might in certain aspects look OK on paper but you go take to folks in Scranton and Johnston and Youngstown and other places across the country, they're not seeing any improvement in their economy. I think that's the aspect that people want. And quite frankly, they want someone from outside D.C. to come in and shake things up.

CUOMO: They got it.

MILLER: And they got it.

CUOMO: And they got it. One small example, every president in office has their taxes audited and they put them out. Every year it happens. Will he continue that tradition?

MILLER: Mr. Trump has, he's been very clear where he is on his taxes --

CUOMO: That won't change even as president, even though every president has had their taxes put under scrutiny and made available to the public? MILLER: The president-elect has been very clear and very consistent. His taxes are currently being audited. And so when that's completed then he'll go and put those forward. And nothing has changed with that answer.

CUOMO: Jason Miller, thank you very much.

MILLER: Thanks, Chris.

CUOMO: Good luck going forward.

MILLER: Thank you.

CUOMO: Poppy?

HARLOW: All right, thank you, guys.

Lots of names surfacing as Donald Trump gets his cabinet in place. Two of the big names dropping last night, of course, the former Oklahoma senator will join me with unique insight on key issues. We will speak with Tom Coburn, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

POPPY HARLOW, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: Welcome back. There are a lot of positions at play as President-elect Donald Trump begins to name members of his cabinet at the moment there's only one name it seems on the list for potential director of the Office of Management and Budget. It is my next guest. Would he take the job if offered? Former Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn joins me now. Thank you for being with me.

TOM COBURN (R), FORMER U.S. SENATOR: I'm glad to be with you.

HARLOW: We are going to get to that in a moment, but I want your take on the news of the day first. Look, before you backed Donald Trump in July you were very critical of him. I mean, you called his campaign a fabrication.

You said that it would take, you know -- that he would undo years of hard work by the Republican Party. You said that he's perpetuating a fraud. Yet you got behind him before he was elected.

So what is your reaction, sir, to the two choices he's made in terms of the top people around him, Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon, two men of the same party, sure, two men who could not be more different, though. Your thoughts.

COBURN: Well, you know, I'm, as a conservative, and a constitutional conservative, I have trouble with this term alt-right. When we have an alt-right but we don't have an alt-left. So I don't have any problem with who the president-elect puts in his cabinet.

If he has people that he trusts that have given him good advice, and have performed well for him, it's his obligation to put people around him that he trusts that he think will help him accomplish what he said he wanted to accomplish --

HARLOW: So as the names --

COBURN: -- I don't have any trouble with that.

HARLOW: OK, so let's begin with that a little bit. As the nation is divided and people are taking to the streets in a number of American cities protesting, as others are thrilled with the outcome of the election, as the president has said that he will be a unifier and bring all of America together, Steve Bannon is someone who is not that.

He is someone who has led Breitbart, which is not just another news site. This is -- this is a media site that has perpetuated the alt- right, even if you don't accept it, it does exist. It has had headlines that are anti-Semitic.

That have had racist headlines. He is someone whose ex-wife said in court papers that he said he does not like Jewish people. Do you have any concerns about him being in the president's inner circle at all?

COBURN: No, I think Donald Trump can filter any of that out, if, in fact, that exists or whether that's done -- you know --

HARLOW: But it does exist. These are facts.

COBURN: OK. That's fine. But, it's Donald Trump's call to put people he trusts to advise him. That doesn't mean he accepts their positions on these things. You know, I think Donald Trump sold a lot of people on the fact that he knew how to change and get this country going again, restore some liberty.

Balance the 1.6 million dollar -- million bureaucrats in Washington with some real freedoms restored to the American people, and lessening regulation. I don't think that his appointment has anything to do with that.

And I don't think the association with some former website diminishes President-elect Trump's ability to make good decisions for the country and accomplish what he wants to accomplish.

HARLOW: Before we move on, it's not some former website. It is a website that has very much been part of this, you know, what has been a divisive election in America, and Steve Bannon up until, you know, just before he -- when he joined the campaign was the one leading it and all those headlines --

COBURN: I just tell your listeners that are concerned about that, get over it and trust Donald Trump to make good decisions and he'll take advice that's good and he will reject advice that's bad.

HARLOW: All right, let's get to some of these other issues. Your name being floated as OMB director. You are someone who for years and years has talked about cutting the pork, cutting the pork. A, do you want the job? And B, how do you make all those cuts and actually make a difference when all of his tax plan that has been put forward makes it pretty hard to make the math work.

COBURN: It's not hard to do it. Look there's $400 billion to $500 billion of pure waste and fraud in the federal government right now. That's not hard. And if the American people would look at it, and see the GAO reports they'd agree.

The problem is how do you get Congress to grow a spine to get rid of the stupid stuff, and the duplication? And actually, most people won't miss this except the people who have grown to be dependent on a wasteful program.

HARLOW: Do you want -- do you want to then to execute on what you'd like to see. Do you want to be --

COBURN: I want somebody to execute --

HARLOW: -- to be OMB director, would you take it?

COBURN: I'm not answering that question. That hasn't been offered. Nobody's talked with me about that. The point is, is there are plenty of people in this country that can execute and there's plenty of waist in the federal government.

[08:20:08]And we can pay for the infrastructure plans of Donald Trump just with the waste, fraud and duplication. Plus another $100 billion in Medicare that's fraud every year, too. So, tough management could actually make a big difference in our country and get us a whole lot more value for what we're spending.

HARLOW: As you know, Donald Trump supporters love his refrain, drain the swamp, drain the swamp, but he hasn't exactly done that yet, at least when it comes to folks on his transition team. Listen to what he told Lesley Stahl.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LESLEY STAHL, "60 MINUTES": Your own transition team is filled with lobbyists.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT-ELECT: It's the only people you have down there.

STAHL: You have lobbyists from Verizon. Lobbyists from the oil and gas --

TRUMP: Everybody's a lobbyist down there. We're doing a lot of things to clean up the system. But everybody that works for government, they then leave government and they become a lobbyist essentially. I mean, the whole place is one big lobbyist.

STAHL: But you're basically saying you have to rely on them, even though you want to get rid of them.

TRUMP: I'm saying that they know the system right now, but we're going to phase that out. You have to phase it out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Is this Donald Trump, the president-elect not Donald Trump the -- the -- you know the candidate realizing the reality of what is in Washington?

COBURN: No. I think that's the pragmatic Donald Trump that's going to go where the information is. You know, lobbyists in and by themselves aren't inherently bad. The fact is, is why would you not expect people to lobby for their interests when the federal government is so overbearing, so overreaching that you're limiting people's liberty?

You know, I don't find that -- that's where the information is. He's smart. He's going to go get the information. That doesn't mean he's going to utilize these people in a position. What it means is he's going to get information with which to make good decisions.

And there's a lot of smart people that have been in the Reagan administration, there were some of these people that you're talking about that have great knowledge about the last time we were highly successful in reforming this country, getting it to grow, and raising everybody's standard of living.

HARLOW: Senator Coburn, quickly before I let you go, Obamacare. You put forth your own plan in 2014. He has run on repealing and replacing it. Now he seems to be sort of compromising. He's going to keep a few things. What do you want to see happen, if anything of Obamacare as we know it today?

COBURN: Well, number one, I don't -- I don't think your statement's accurate. He said during the campaign those few things he might look at and I think we can keep those two things. And I think it's wrong to deny somebody insurance if, in fact, they really have insurance if they have a pre-existing illness.

Spreading the risk is what insurance is all about. We've not done that before in this country and we don't have free markets when it comes to health care.

So, I'd love to see the Affordable Care Act replaced with a system that is based on transparency of both price and quality, with real competitive markets, with tax advantages to have your own IRA for health care.

One that actually works and with a limitation of federal government practice in medicine, which is what they're doing now, through the Affordable Care Act.

HARLOW: Senator Coburn, I have to leave it there. I appreciate your time this morning. Thank you.

COBURN: You bet. Good to talk with you.

HARLOW: Chris. CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. We are going to take a closer look at Donald Trump's stance on some key issues. We got gay marriage, got Roe versus Wade. He seemed to have very different ideas about where those two issues are with respect to the Supreme Court. We're going to discuss with experts, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Donald Trump last night revealing two key members of his administration. Two very important posts. The president-elect naming RNC Chair Reince Priebus as his chief of staff and former Breitbart CEO Steve Bannon as his chief strategist.

Bannon's appointment into Trump's inner circle raising more than just a few concerns. Serious concerns given his prior work leading Breitbart, and that website's connection with white nationalism. Our Sunlen Serfaty has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONENT (voice-over): Donald Trump elevating Steve Bannon to chief strategist and senior counselor in the White House. Already multiple hate watch groups are now rebuking the appointment, voicing their concerns about Bannon's ties to the alt- right.

Bannon was brought on as CEO of the Trump campaign in August. He came in as the head of the right wing website Breitbart News with the nationalist, populist reputation.

Known for controversial headlines like Bill Kristol, Republican spoiler, renegade Jew, and birth control makes women unattractive and crazy.

STEVE BANNON, CHIEF STRATEGIST AND SENIOR COUNSELOR, TRUMP ADMINISTRATION (via telephone): What we need to do is slap the Republican Party and get those guys and if we have to, we'll take it over.

SERFATY: Bannon's longtime mission to take down the establish wing of the Republican Party.

BANNON: If you're fighting to take this country back, you know, it's not going to be sunshine and patriots, it's going to be people who want to fight. Andrew Breitbart was all about the fight. In fact we call ourselves internally the fight club.

SERFATY: Bannon's target number one has been House Speaker Paul Ryan. E-mails obtained by "The Hill" newspaper show Bannon giving orders to his staff to try to take him down. Saying the long game is to have Ryan gone by spring.

Bannon, a former Navy officer and Goldman Sachs banker also surrounded by controversy in his private life. In 2007, his ex-wife accused him of domestic violence and making anti-Semitic remarks saying in court, he doesn't like Jews and that he doesn't like they raise their kids to be whiny brats and that he didn't want the girls going to school with Jews. But Bannon's camp said he never said it.

TRUMP: I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans.

SERFATY: Now with Bannon in the White House critics questioning Trump's inclusive vision. Sunlen Serfaty, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Our thanks to Sunlen. So Steve Bannon is now the president- elect's senior strategist. So what you could say. You know, they all have people around them. He promotes a lot of controversial and divisive notions through his website. Calling it alt-right may be a compliment.

Now this could matter if President Trump starts taking positions that deny rights and play to intolerance. So let's discuss the potential here with senior editor of "The Washington Post" --