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Trump Continues Tweeting; Helping Veterans with PTSD; Celebrity Chefs Give Back. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired November 16, 2016 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00] DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think that would be better. But, listen, I think that we all ought to get our arms around the fact that Donald Trump got elected by essentially ignoring all the norms of campaigning. And I think that he's not going to stop now. He's going to continue to do what he wants to do, including this. And I - you know, he may find it relaxing. The danger is, when you're president - and I've said this many times with you and others - the things you say can send armies marching and markets tumbling. And, you know, you have to find another way to relax because the consequences of an ill-worded tweet are much more - are much more grave when you're president of the United States than when you're running for president of the United states.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: David, I think you bring up an interesting point because we thought we were seeing that in the early morning hours on Wednesday when he was named the next president, Dow futures were off 900 points. They bounced back right when the market opened the next morning. So, you know, we haven't seen those consequences play out. I wonder if you think that gave Donald Trump perhaps a little bit more confidence like, all right, nothing - you know, the markets didn't tank like everyone said they were going to, all these prognosticators were wrong.

AXELROD: I think the markets came back - I think the markets came back because there's a perception that Trump, with a Republican Congress, means tax cuts, means deregulation, and these are things that business wants. They may have taken some solace in the - some of the kind of more conventional things that Trump has said since Election Day. But, you know, I don't - I don't think attacking "The New York Times" is going to impact the world or the markets.

HARLOW: Right.

AXELROD: It may raise questions about his relationship with the media. But those questions, I think, are pretty - pretty clearly out there anyway. So I don't know. You know, I wouldn't look for market reaction to every tweet. But I know this, when he takes office, it will be - it's going to be very concerning if he does top of mind kind of tweets any time someone tweaks him or he says - or some - does something that he doesn't like.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: The transition. You guys went through one of these and I remember the story with yours in the first few weeks was, they're not nominating anybody yet, what's going on? Why are they so deliberate? But this is all about dysfunction. This is about chaos. This is about drama. Do you buy this as just the norm on display or do you think we're seeing some peculiarities?

AXELROD: I think within every transition there's some jockeying for position. This seems a little bit more pronounced. And I think it's a function of the fact that until about 8:30 on Tuesday night on November 8th, I don't think Donald Trump really expected to be president. I don't think he focused very much on transition until that moment. And so you see the sprint here.

And, you know, you've got a guy who's coming here with not - with no experience in government, not a really well formulated philosophy of governing, and so you see people trying to rush in and fill the vacuum, and there's jockeying between the sort of alt-right faction and the sort of regular Republican conservative faction that Pence leads. Obviously the children are playing a role.

I was relieved to see that he said that he wasn't asking for security clearance for his children. I thought this was going to be kind of the gift for the kids who have everything, right? The holiday gift for kids who have everything. Not a good idea. I'm glad he moved away from that.

But this is, you know, there is - it is fair to say that it - one should not expect all these positions to be filled immediately. And - and he has a point when he says it's unfair to suggest that he should have to. But underneath the surface, there clearly appears to be more turmoil than is normal for a transition, and it's a function of lack of preparedness for the fact that he was going to be elected.

HARLOW: Right.

Let's look ahead to your party because tonight Hillary Clinton will make her first appearance since - since losing the election. I'm not sure why she's not in the Bahamas. I was telling Chris, I would probably be on a long vacation. However, she will make her appearance tonight. And the question becomes, who is the future of the party? Who is the next state senator from Illinois who will take the stage and wow the American public?

AXELROD: You know, it's a really - it's a really good question. And I would only say that five years, you know, well, what would be in 2004, early in 2004, before he won the primary for the U.S. Senate in Illinois, no one would have identified Barack Obama as a guy who could be a candidate in 2008. In fact, even after he was elected, it - you know, that seemed like a remote thing.

So I don't think we know, honestly. We know there are some people who could emerge as candidates here. You know, Elizabeth Warren's name has been mentioned and other people's names have been mentioned. We don't know who the sleeper is out there who might emerge.

[08:35:11] I do think it's a challenge for the Democratic Party. There are some talented people. But when you get wiped out on governors, where - which is usually a well-spring for candidates, that's problematical. There's not a deep bench at that level. I think there are a lot of talented, young people in the party. Some people were elected to Congress in this election who I think are very promising. But whoever it is, Poppy, I think they need to review what just happened, and review what's going on in this country.

There's a huge economic, you know, revolution going on and it has been for a couple of decades that is driven by technology, automation, obviously globalization is a piece of it. But a lot of people have been displaced in that. And we haven't really had a national strategy for how to deal with that. And we didn't address it. Hillary Clinton had 100 great ideas about what to do about it, but it was all trees and no forest and what was communicated to a lot of voters in this country is, you're not part of our coalition and therefore we're not folk using on you. And Donald Trump took advantage of that. Democrats need to speak to the entire country in order to win elections.

HARLOW: He did it in four words, "make America great again."

CUOMO: Right.

HARLOW: He did it in four words.

AXELROD: Yes.

CUOMO: And, you know, and that's the point is -

AXELROD: Yes.

CUOMO: That you don't have to worry about who you have. You have to worry about what you are. And that's where this party is stuck right now, the Democratic Party.

Let me ask you about the Electoral College. We hear about this whenever there's sour grapes and there's no question that we're the only developed democracy to have something like the Electoral College. But what's your guess as to whether or not it ever goes anywhere, which would require a constitutional amendment, maybe a federal law, probably not, or all of the different states - not all of them, but different states deciding to apportion their votes the way Nebraska and Maine do.

AXELROD: Well, I don't think the Electoral College is going away. You know, it's so interesting, you - we always kind of talked in the abstract about the genius of the founding fathers, but they've created some enduring institutions. That one was created to keep large states from overwhelming small states. And that's still the case. I - you know, and I don't see there being that kind of unanimity of opinion or near unanimity of opinion that's necessary to do away with the Electoral College. I noticed the other night Newt Gingrich said, you know, if - without California, Trump would have won by 2 million votes. Well, yes, but California's kind of a big part of this country. So - but for that reason, the small states will never accept large states having that kind of power.

CUOMO: Well, but what if California - we'll leave the audience with a question. Imagine if California passed, as a state law, that all of its delegates - its electoral votes went to whoever won the overall popular vote. Then you'd have a big swing right there all by itself.

David Axelrod, thank you very much, my friend. Appreciate it.

HARLOW: Thanks, David.

AXELROD: OK, Chris and Poppy.

CUOMO: All right, there is a lot of breaking news going on right now. We'll show you some pictures.

HARLOW: Wow.

CUOMO: A live picture. A derailment in Florida. Two different trains involved. What went wrong? We have new information, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:42:12] CUOMO: Time now for the "Five Things to Know from Your New Day."

Number one, not a single new cabinet appointment from President-elect Donald Trump yet, but four members of the team have been fired. Trump insisting things are progressing in a, quote, "very organized manner."

HARLOW: Outgoing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid calling on Donald Trump to rescind his appointment of chief strategist Steve Bannon. Reid says it will be impossible to take Trump's efforts to heal the nation seriously as long as, quote, "a champion of racial division is a step away from the Oval Office."

CUOMO: Hillary Clinton, what happened to her? She's about to make her first public appearance since conceding the presidential election. She's going to be honored tonight by the Children's Defense Fund in Washington.

HARLOW: Breaking news out of Florida this morning where two trains have collided in Citra, Florida. That's about 30 miles outside of Gainesville. More than 20 cars there overturned, 4,000 gallons of fuel leaking. Two rail employees, we know, suffered minor injuries.

CUOMO: Snapchat's parent company confidentially filing for an IPO. The wildly popular messaging app now a step closer to becoming the biggest stock debut since 2014. The company could go public as soon as March. The valuation? $20 billion to $25 billion.

HARLOW: And it all started with making those pictures disappear. It's pretty incredible.

All right, for more information, more on the "Five Things You Need to Know," go to newdaycnn.com for the latest.

CUOMO: All right, some celebrity chefs a wrapping up a special way of giving back this Thanksgiving. Wait until you see what they're planning to serve.

HARLOW: But first, Shar Duval watched her son suffer from PTSD after serving in Iraq, so she came up with an idea that is now helping veterans across this country. Here is this week's "Impact Your World."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHAR DUVAL, FOUNDER, K9S FOR WARRIORS: When my son went to Iraq on two tours, he just was not the same person at all. They teach them how to go to war, but they don't teach them how to come home.

BRETT SIMON, OPS. DIR., K9S FOR WARRIORS: Isolation was the very first thing that they saw. My diagnosis was post-traumatic stress disorder.

DUVAL: My son was broken. I just did what any other mother would do is help fix their son. I thought of the idea of service dogs for post- traumatic stress. When I approached Brett with the idea, that's when I saw a spark come back in his eyes.

SIMON: We looked at using rescue animals out of shelters.

DUVAL: And if the dog does not make the program, we find them a good home. K9s for Warriors started out with a small house where we could house the warriors. I was cleaning the kennels, walking the dogs, making all their food and Brett was training the dogs and then, of course, it grew and grew and grew into an organization that's saving lives. Our mission is to get them back into civilian life with dignity and independence.

[08:44:58] We're a nationwide organization now. I never dreamt that would happen. But to see my own son now, who's helping other veterans, it's just amazing to watch.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Next week, families across the country will sit together and celebrate Thanksgiving. There is so much about food that connects us. This is something outside of politics. It brings us all together. And a new special, "Unichef," not UNICEF, "Unichef: Uniting Through Food" airs on TLC and Discovery Family tomorrow night and it's taking a look at how three celebrity chefs are using their skills to give back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It all starts with food. It's the way that, you know, we, as a family, got together. Got through our problems. Expressed love for each other. We do it through our food.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: We do it through our food. Joining us now, president and CEO of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, Caryl Stern, and author and U.S. Fund for UNICEF philanthropist Hilary Gumbel, are both with.

So nice to talk about something so wonderful, bringing people together this morning. First, tell me, Hilary, where the idea came from.

[08:49:57] HILARY GUMBEL, AUTHOR AND PHILANTHROPIST, U.S. FUND FOR UNICEF: Actually, it was on a field trip with Carol and I. We were just talking about this. We were in Senegal and the idea that food unites us in so many ways, it's how we heal, how we bring families together, communities together. And what - who knows more about that than these incredibly talented chefs. So the idea was to get a large group of them together with recipes, multi-ethnic, multicultural, and all the benefits from the book would go to UNICEF. So from that book, we wanted to go a little deeper and talk about these wonderful lives of these chefs and what motivates them and inspires them to also help others, while also providing plenty of wonderful recipes.

HARLOW: Right.

GUMBEL: And this show is actually focused on all the ways in which they - they get involved with a wonderful organizations giving back.

HARLOW: (INAUDIBLE).

GUMBEL: Yes.

HARLOW: One of the things that I read, Caryl, is that 100 percent of the proceeds will go. It's rare - you know, often times there's a lot of money taken for administrative costs.

CARYL STERN, PRESIDENT AND CEO, U.S. FUND FOR UNICEF: (INAUDIBLE). Right, but -

HARLOW: This is a big deal. This is 100 percent.

STERN: No, this is a really big deal, and it's thanks to, you know, a really amazing friend. You know, as Hilary said, we were sitting in a van in the middle of nowhere, Senegal -

GUMBEL: Literally, yes.

STERN: When the idea came up. But it's really a phenomenal thing because, you know, one - almost one in four children around the world is malnourished. And at the same time, we all use food as a means to express love, to bring us together. And so the marriage of this book with UNICEF is -

GUMBEL: It's a wonderful fit, yes.

HARLOW: And if people need a reminder that this hits us here at home, I mean I did a big series last year on, you know, Bridgeport, Connecticut, it's like an hour and a half from here, where you've got a fifth of the children in America are living on food stamps. In Bridgeport it's 40 percent of the children. This is an issue that hits home.

GUMBEL: It does hit home. And one of the other things that we do, which is Donatella Arpaia, which was one of our chefs you just saw there, she does a lovely work with City Harvest, which they essentially rescue food --

HARLOW: It's amazing (INAUDIBLE) -

STERN: It's fabulous.

HARLOW: Yes. That the restaurants are all throwing away.

GUMBEL: It's unbelievable.

STERN: Yes.

GUMBEL: And over a million New Yorkers are fed every year -

HARLOW: Because of it.

GUMBEL: Through the leftover food. And Ming Tsai, a lovely chef also who's featured in this special, works with Family Reach. They help families get through the debilitating costs of cancer, treatments for children. They help pay the bills while the family's going through it. So the fact that these chefs can galvanize support for these organizations is another reason why we want to do it.

HARLOW: It's a good thing to sit down - if you haven't let your children watch the election, it's a good thing to sit down and watch with your kids -

GUMBEL: Right.

STERN: It's a good thing to watch, right.

HARLOW: Airing tomorrow night.

Just, if you could both speak to that, first to you, Caryl, just in a time where America is divided, no matter which side of the political spectrum you're on, this is something that brings them together.

STERN: It definitely is. First of all, the diversity of the chefs on the show, the diversity of the chefs in the book.

GUMBEL: Yes.

STERN: And I think all of the various perspectives. And the thing that unites them all is that all of them care deeply about something other than their profession, and that they're all choosing to use their podium to help the world.

HARLOW: For good. What struck you most, Hilary, about these people?

GUMBEL: What struck me is their commitment and their passion to doing something beyond themselves. In other words, they're not - they're not self-serving at all. What they're doing - they have this enormous capacity to give, and to share, as their work shows you. They're preparing, they're doing something that is a way to show love and connection. And as human beings, I think we are wired. We need that, especially now, to find a way to bridge divides and to connect, and find common ground. Carve out some time - pardon the pun - to have a lovely Thanksgiving, for example. You don't need a moderator or a debate to enjoy that, just an appetite.

HARLOW: Who's cooking in your house for Thanksgiving? GUMBEL: Bryant Gumbel is cooking at my house.

STERN: I'm going to my niece. I've got a (INAUDIBLE).

HARLOW: I'm coming home - coming home to you, Minnesota. I'm going to make a turkey. I'm going to try to make a good turkey.

Guys, we're looking forward to seeing it. Thank you so much.

STERN: Thank you.

GUMBEL: Thank you, Poppy.

HARLOW: Coming - again, it's tomorrow night, it airs. So, gather around with your kids and watch.

All right, coming up, your late night laughs, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:57:33] CUOMO: Donald Trump's preparation efforts for becoming the 45th president are creating intrigue. Comics taking on the transition in late night laughs. Here's a sample.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY FALLON, "THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON": Donald Trump has reportedly asked for his adult children to get top level security clearance so that they can see classified documents and explain them to him. Which explains why today Vladimir Putin asked Trump to adopt him.

STEPHEN COLBERT, "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT": Instead of living in the White House, Trump would like to do what he's used to, which is spending time in New York so he can wake up in his own bed in Trump Tower.

CROWD: Boo!

COLBERT: This is - this is the first president who considers living in the White House slumming it.

CONAN O'BRIEN, "CONAN": Donald Trump has announced that as president he'll take a salary of $1 a year. Yes. And he promises he'll earn every penny.

President-elect Trump tweeted that he would have won the popular vote if he had campaigned more in New York, Florida, and California. Yes. Trump explained, I just got tired and ran out of terrible things to say. So -

JAMES CORDEN, "THE LATE SHOW WITH JAMES CORDEN": President Obama announced this week that after meeting with Donald Trump he plans to spend more time with his successor than presidents typically do in order to help ease the transition. When asked how long he thought the transition would take, President Obama said, about four years. (END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Who'd you like the best?

HARLOW: I like Fallon.

CUOMO: Yes.

HARLOW: But you know mean tweets?

CUOMO: Oh, yes. Yes, I do.

HARLOW: You know mean tweets. You get mean tweets. I get mean tweets.

So do you think we're going to see President Trump going out on those shows reading mean tweets? That would be kind of awesome.

CUOMO: I don't know. He had not shown that kind of tolerance for criticism. You have to be OK with what's being said in order to do it.

HARLOW: Maybe he will. Maybe he will surprise us.

CUOMO: Well, there's -

HARLOW: That would be legendary television.

CUOMO: It would be nice to be pleasantly surprised. That's for sure. You know people are talking about him not living in the White House and -

HARLOW: I don't buy - I don't buy it.

CUOMO: But, you know, look, he can do whatever he wants. But, you know, one of the reasons, if you live in New York City that you'll be like, oh, tell me about it, security. They can secure the White House. If he lived outside New York City -

HARLOW: It's a huge deal.

CUOMO: You can, you know, secure a home in a suburb. This city creates a huge security problem, even if he's in Trump Tower -

HARLOW: You're just mad about the traffic.

CUOMO: Snagging traffic. And you know who would hate it? Donald Trump.

HARLOW: True.

CUOMO: If that happened with somebody else, Trump would be all over it.

HARLOW: All right. He's going to live in the White House.

Time for "Newsroom" with Carol Costello.

CUOMO: Maybe not full time. [09:00:01] HARLOW: Hi, Carol.

CUOMO: What do you think, does he live in the White House full time?

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, hi, Poppy.

I don't know. I've got Jason Miller. I'm going to ask him in just a second. So our question will be answered, right, Jason.

CUOMO: Good segue. Good segue.

COSTELLO: Yes. Yes, exactly.

HARLOW: Thanks, Carol.

COSTELLO: NEWSROOM starts now.