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Trump Says He Has Secret Information Regarding Russian Hacking; ISIS Claims Responsibility for Istanbul Club Attack. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired January 02, 2017 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: I know a lot about hacking. Hacking is a hard thing to prove.

[05:58:40] REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D), CALIFORNIA: He needs to stop denigrating the community.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: When you attack a country, it's an act of war.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: President Obama will spent the next few weeks trying to frame his legacy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On day one, he's going to sign a series of executive orders. One is to repeal a lot of actions that have been taken by this administration.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got shot in the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) leg, man.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The man responsible for killing at least 39 people in Istanbul still on the loose.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They are scouring everything: cell phones, Security cameras captured the moment the gunman dashed into the nightclub.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ISIS has just claimed responsibility.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. You're watching NEW DAY. It is Monday, January 2, 6 a.m. here in New York. Chris is off this morning and John Berman joins me. Happy new year.

BERMAN: Happy new year to you, as well.

CAMEROTA: Great to see you.

BERMAN: New year on NEW DAY.

CAMEROTA: Wow. BERMAN: A lot of news.

CAMEROTA: Let's get this off to a good start. Up first, President- elect Donald Trump continuing to cast doubt on whether Russia hacked the U.S. election. Mr. Trump claims that he has inside information that others, quote, "don't know." He promises to reveal those details this week.

BERMAN: While all that's going on, Trump's transition team says he plans to repeal "a lot" -- that's in quotation marks -- of President Obama executive actions on day one. The outgoing commander in chief, President Obama, will spend his final days in office trying to protect his legacy.

We're now just 18 days to go until the inauguration of Donald Trump.

Let's begin our coverage with CNN's Sunlen Serfaty live in Washington. Good morning, Sunlen.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, John. The president-elect is back in New York after spending two weeks at his resort in Florida. And he heads into this intel -- intelligence briefing with officials this week skeptical of their conclusions that Russia was behind the hacks, insisting that he knows some secret information about this that many people don't.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SERFATY (voice-over): Donald Trump back in New York City this morning and gearing up for a busy week ahead. The president-elect meeting with intelligence officials for a briefing about Russian hacking just days after again expressing doubt about the intelligence community's conclusions about the Kremlin's interference in the U.S. election.

TRUMP: I just want them to be sure. Because it's a pretty serious charge, and I want them to be sure. And if you look at the weapons of mass destruction, that was a disaster, and they were wrong.

SERFATY: Trump referencing intelligence failures in the lead-up to the Iraq War to bolster his points and claiming to have inside information about the hacking that he says he will reveal this week.

TRUMP: I also know things that other people don't know, and so they cannot be sure of the situation.

SERFATY: Trump's defiance pitting him against the Obama administration and many of his fellow Republicans.

MCCAIN: When you attack a country, it's an act of war.

SCHIFF: If he's going to have any credibility as president, he needs to stop talking this way. He needs to stop denigrating the intelligence community.

SERFATY: While speaking to reporters outside of his New Year's Eve party at Mar-a-Lago, Trump, a long time skeptic of e-mail, offered this advice.

TRUMP: You know, if you have something really important, write it out and have it delivered by courier, the old-fashioned way, because I'll tell you what: no computer is safe.

SERFATY: Also on the president-elect's "to do" list this week: filling several open cabinet spots, including the secretaries of veterans affairs and agriculture, and giving a deposition related to his legal battle with Chef Jose Andres.

JOSE ANDRES, CHEF: Apologize to every Latino, to every Mexican.

SERFATY: Trump is suing Andres after he pulled the plug on a restaurant at Trump's new hotel in Washington after the president- elect repeatedly insulted Mexicans during the campaign.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SERFATY: And as the president-elect works to fill out his cabinet, all eyes turn to Capitol Hill for potential fights ahead on some of Trump's nominees. Already, three liberal groups are calling for a delay in Senator Jeff Sessions' confirmation hearing for attorney general, pointing to gaps, they say, in the information he submitted to the committee. That hearing, Alisyn, is supposed to start next week.

CAMEROTA: OK, Sunlen. Thanks so much for all of that. The White House announcing moments ago that President Obama will deliver a farewell address in Chicago next week. This as the outgoing president plans to meet with Democrats on the Hill to try to save Obamacare.

Let's get right to CNN senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns. He is live at the White House with more. Tell us what to expect, Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

President Obama is expected to give his farewell speech at his hometown of Chicago, Illinois, on January 10. That's a week from tomorrow on Tuesday, an opportunity for the president to say farewell to his supporters and thank them for, as he calls it, the journey of the last 8 years.

The president also tweeting out about his accomplishments over his two terms in office, talking about, among other things, health care. The president also telling his supporters it's been the privilege of his life to serve as the president of the United States.

The latest in a series of legacy-building moves by President Obama as he leaves office. All of this, the importance of it, underscored by the fact that the incoming press secretary for the new president, President-elect Donald Trump, saying on television just yesterday that, as expected, Donald Trump will sign a number of executive actions, seeking to undo much of what President Obama has done.

Back to you. CAMEROTA: OK, Joe. Thank you very much for all that. Let's discuss

it now. We want to bring in CNN political analyst and "Washington Post" reporter Abbi Phillip; and CNN political analyst and Washington bureau chief for "The Daily Beast," Jackie Kucinich.

Happy new year, ladies.

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Happy new year.

ABBI PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Happy new year.

CAMEROTA: Great to see both of you. Abbi, let me start with you. So which executive actions of President Obama can and will Mr. Trump target first?

PHILLIP: Well, there are a lot of things that I think a lot of them are going to entail. Regulations that has to do with businesses, that has to do with the number of sort of impediments there are to...

CAMEROTA: You mean like environmental regulation?

PHILLIP: They can be environmental. They can be, in terms of regulatory, regulations. One of the things that I know the Republicans really want Donald Trump to accomplish is dealing with The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. A lot more oversight for the Consumer Financial protection Bureau. Something that Republicans want, that business leaders also want. It's also something Democrats really oppose.

[06:05:09] But the big fish is really Obama's -- one of Obama's signature priorities having to do with immigration: DACA and DAPA for undocumented minors and their parents. Those are executive actions that Trump could undo on day one. We don't know whether he's going to do that, because those are much more politically difficult for him.

BERMAN: That's the big one, right? And we don't know. And the Trump team, including Sean Spicer, have been asked about this, and they haven't been specific about exactly what actions will be repealed immediately.

But Jackie, one thing is clear. Right? It's not just what President- elect Trump or then-President Trump will do; it's also what the Republicans in Congress are going to do early and often. They've been working at this for years right now, preparing for this for years when they have complete power, which they will. And I imagine there's going to be a lot of change in a hurry.

KUCINICH: Absolutely. Particularly -- but one of the things that's going -- that's probably going to take longer than they would like is repealing and replacing Obamacare, because they can't just take it away and not replace it with anything. And what that will look like, what actually goes into its place will -- will take some time to put together, because you can't just, you know, get rid of it. It's going to be a really hard thing to unravel.

Another thing they're going to focus on is tax reform. It's something Paul Ryan has been dreaming about for as long as I've covered him. And I know. Everybody has their own dreams, right? But -- but it's something that they're going to need Democrats to help with; and it's something they actually might get Democrat buy-in on.

CAMEROTA: So President Obama is not relishing the idea of these things being all turned over, and you see him starting to, I think, try to craft his legacy and address something that he has admitted is one of his failures or at least shortcomings; and that is telling his own story. Telling his own message.

You know, he doesn't toot his horn of what he's accomplished as much as, say, President-elect Trump does. So you see this little Twitter blizzard of tweets coming out from President Obama trying to tell his story.

He says, "Facing the worst financial crisis in 80 years, you delivered the longest streak of job growth in our history." That was about what's happened over the past 8 years. You know, he went from the Great Recession to now the economy chugging along.

Next, "After decades of rising healthcare costs, today nearly every American now has access to the financial security of affordable health care."

Next, "We brought home more of our troops and strengthened U.S. leadership, leading with diplomacy and partnering with nations to meet global problems."

What do you hear in these tweets, Abbi?

PHILLIP: Well, it's a lot of frustration from Democrats. And this has been going on for quite some time. Even going into the 2016 election, they wanted to have a message of progress. That here are all the things that President Obama did. The economy is doing well. Unemployment is near -- statistically near zero, essentially. But they couldn't do that, because people didn't really believe them.

But what you're seeing now is Obama saying, "You know what? We're not going to let Donald Trump take credit for all these things that I accomplished under my administration." And he's going to sort of lay down that gauntlet giving Democrats a sort of blueprint to move forward and not -- not -- sort of encouraging them not to buy into this idea that things are on the wrong path and that Trump is...

CAMEROTA: And already you see it happening, that Mr. Trump is taking some credit for -- look at what's happening with the economy. And President Obama, you get the sense, is like "Whoa!"

BERMAN: Exactly, exactly.

PHILLIP: Exactly. I mean, unemployment rate, consumer confidence. These are all indicators that had been rising. Even some of the job -- you know, he -- Donald Trump made some claims about jobs being created in the period between his election and now. And some of those jobs had been announced months before that.

So a lot of frustration from the president, from the Democrat about who's taking credit for what out there.

BERMAN: You know, it's fascinating, Jackie, to see President Obama going up to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to meet with Senate Democrats and House Democrats and, we think, to try to figure out some way to protect, if they can, some parts of Obamacare. And by the way, it will be hard.

I mean, what they will be able to accomplish will be very, very difficult. They have no power going forward, the Democrats in this country. They have no power.

And it's also interesting to think about what the president, President Obama, will do going forward. In his last tweet that Alisyn was just tweeting out, she left out the final one, where she [SIC] said, "I look forward to standing with you as a citizen. Happy New Year, everyone."

I wonder what that will look like? "I look forward to standing with you as a citizen." What will citizen Obama look like after January 20?

KUCINICH: You know, it will be really interesting to watch, because usually -- there's this great book, "The President's Club," where it details that presidents that recently left office usually don't weigh in on the person that follows them, and they don't criticize other presidents, because there's only a certain number of people that are still walking this planet that understands the unique pressures of that job.

[06:10:05] So if Obama chooses to continue to engage in politics, that will be a departure from what we've seen in the past, except I think Jimmy Carter is the only person I can remember who's actually weighed in and been critical. So that is going to be something that's going to be very interesting to watch, although I do wonder if he's going to get a little bit of pushback from Democrats who are very frustrated with how he's been as president in terms of a growing their party and -- outside of when he was running for office.

CAMEROTA: Well, just to put a finer point on what John was saying about Democrats having no power, let's look at this graphic. This is the amount of losses that they've suffered during President Obama's term. House Democrats down by 70. Senate Democrats down by 11. Governors across the country down by 10.

So Abbi, what can Democrats do? I mean, we've heard, you know, Chuck Schumer, Senator Chuck Schumer and people say that they're not going to sort of go gently; an they're going to put up resistance. So what's that going to look like, starting tomorrow?

PHILLIP: It's going to look like a lot of delay. I mean, that's probably the best that they can do, is particularly in the Senate. They can -- they can force things to take a lot more time than Republicans want them to.

You know, I think that you will see Republicans try to push back on that in different ways, using the rules of the chambers to prevent that from happening. But Democrats don't have the ability to block anyone, but only if Republicans remain unified. And the No. 1 strategy for Democrats is going to be to find out where those cracks are. Find out who they can pull on and bring them over or at least cause them to waiver.

Because as long as Republicans are able to -- to lose maybe two or three members in the Senate, that's a danger zone that allows Democrats to do a lot more than they might otherwise be able to.

BERMAN: Great point and we'll see a lot of that in the confirmation hearings going forward. I think that will give us a sense of what things might look like in the coming months.

Guys, stick around. A lot more to discuss.

In the meantime, we have breaking news out of Turkey. ISIS is claiming responsibility for the deadly New Year's attack at an Istanbul nightclub that killed 39 people and injured dozens. This as a manhunt for the gunman intensifies. There is new video emerging of the attacker opening fire at the club and fleeing the scene.

Our Sara Sidner live in Istanbul with the breaking details. Good morning, Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

You know, this is the first time that ISIS has claimed an attack here in Turkey. That's what makes this significant, hearing from them. The government has suspected them in other attacks, but this is really the first time, even after all the bombings that happened here over 2016. And so a lot of people here responding to that.

Also this video is so chilling. I want to show you the pictures of what came out and what the country is talking about, as well as the rest of the world. You can see the gunman looking like he is going very methodically as he comes up to the club. You see people sort of ducking out of the way, because they can hear the gunshots. And you could actually see the flashes from the muzzle as he's walking up on the surveillance camera.

And then one by one, those that were not able to get out of the way, he shoots them. This is before he enters the club and then shoots at least 39 people.

And John, we ended up at one of the funerals today of one of the 39 families. It was a very, as you might imagine, tearful and emotional day, watching as the casket of one of the security guards who was there to protect those and who had survived a previous attack here in Istanbul, watching as his mother and father broke down in tears having to bury him today -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh. So terrible, Sara. Thank you very much for the update from Istanbul.

Well, back here at home President-elect Donald Trump says he knows things others do not when it comes to Russia's alleged hacking of the U.S. The election, of course. What does he know? When will he share it? Our panel takes that up, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK

[06:17:28] BERMAN: President-elect Donald Trump claims to have inside information on Russia's meddling in the U.S. election. He is promising to reveal what he knows this week and insists that Russia may not be the culprit.

Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I know a lot about hacking. Hacking is a very hard thing to prove. So it could be somebody else. And I also know things that other people don't know, and so they cannot be sure of this situation.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you know that other people don't know?

TRUMP: You'll find out on Tuesday or Wednesday.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: "You'll find out on Tuesday or Wednesday." And what does he know that other people don't know?

Want to welcome back Abbi Phillip and Jackie Kucinich.

You know, Abbi, there are two things there that are interesting. He says he knows things that other people don't know. Well, what other people? Is he talking about the intelligence services who have been looking into this? Does he know things that they don't know? Or has he been told things by them that the public hasn't been told?

PHILLIP: You really do have to wonder. I mean, he has been getting intelligence briefings. These -- these conclusions about Russian hacking aren't just coming from one agency but from several intelligence and law enforcement agencies in the country.

And you would think that, if those -- that information had been distributed to Trump, they would also have been distributed to President Obama, for example, or others who have received these briefings.

But I put this in the category of things that Trump says where you have to basically just wait and see. You know, years ago he said he sent private investigators to Hawaii to check out Obama's birth certificate. We know that that didn't happen. He -- it's not uncommon for Trump to make comments like this that really have no basis in fact. And so we should just wait and see if, on Tuesday or Wednesday, he has something to say that we don't know.

CAMEROTA: But Jackie, maybe he doesn't mean that he, you know, has information from intelligence, his intel briefings. He does know, I'm sure, a lot of things that the rest of us don't know, because he is getting intel briefings. But maybe he means, like, from Rex Tillerson, or maybe he means from somebody with ties to Russia. Maybe that's where he's getting some of his information.

KUCINICH: Maybe. But I think Abbi's right. I think we do kind of have to wait and see what he says, because right now you saw a really interesting thing yesterday and throughout the week when it comes to Republicans who very much believe that Russia was involved and did this, and Donald Trump.

Yesterday you saw Tom Cotton talk about stronger sanctions toward Russia. There was no doubt in anything he said that Russia -- that Russia was responsible, where you saw Sean Spicer saying you had to wait and see.

So you do see us talking past each other, and because Congress is coming back in session, because Donald Trump has the ability to get rid of a lot of these executive orders that President Obama has put in, including the sanctions on Russia, it will be interesting to see how these two meet -- and how these two eventually meet, because they're going to have to. And they're going to have to have a discussion about this in the very near future.

BERMAN: Let's play what Sean Spicer has to say about this -- this weekend, about whether or not Donald Trump accepts that Russia was behind this hack into the U.S. election process. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does he accept that Russia was behind this?

SEAN SPICER, INCOMING WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, I think, like I said, he has to have the briefing from the intelligence community.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's still not there yet?

SPICER: It's not a question of not there yet, Jonathan. It's a question of getting the information. Everyone in the media wants to jump forward and make a conclusion, based off other sourced information, you know, anonymous sources that are coming out of the intelligence community. He's going to do this right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Now, Sean was saying everyone in the media wants to jump ahead, Abbi, but Jackie brings up a point. It's not just everyone in the media. This is Republican leaders, right, in Congress, including people like John McCain, Tom Cotton, people who want to hold hearings on this and look into it.

And it will be very interesting to see how far these Republican chairs are willing to push this. Do you have a sense that they're willing to push this beyond what the incoming White House will want to see?

PHILLIP: I do think they are. I mean, this is one of the few issues that Republican hawks and folks who have been really focused on the issue of Russian influence are not necessarily willing to give way to Trump on this. I think they feel like the role of Congress is to be a counterbalance to the executive branch on an issue like this, in particular.

I don't think Trump is going to be able to -- to ease into a more comfy relationship with Vladimir Putin quietly without Republicans having a say in that process.

CAMEROTA: You know, Jackie, one of the things that Trump and his team keep coming back to is, "Hey, the intelligence community got it wrong on weapons of mass destruction. They got it wrong to the lead-up to the Iraqi war with disastrous results."

We've had lawmakers on here who have told us a lot's changed since then. There used to be this siloing of information. We've really worked to have the intelligence community, you know, share things and do it better. But that's what he is hanging his hat on. And a lot of Americans think that that's a pretty legitimate thing to go with until you can see actual proof with your own eyes. Why just take it lock, stock and barrel from the intelligence community?

KUCINICH: I think that's why some of the investigations that are going to go on in Congress that are public are going to be very interesting and very important to watch. So that all the facts are out there and so we can see the overwhelming evidence that, you know, hopefully, we can see some of the overwhelming evidence that has made lawmakers make up their mind on this issue.

But you do have intelligence officials on the record saying this now. So just how Donald Trump handles this after he gets his briefing will be something that all of us will be watching.

BERMAN: It's a series of tests, right? It's a series of tests now that are in place. What will he say after he gets his briefing this week? What will he tell us, Abbi, if he tells us anything this week? And you're skeptical whether or not he will.

And what will he do after January 20 when it comes to Russia, when it comes to Vladimir Putin. Will he try to reverse some of these sanctions? The actions he takes or doesn't take will be crucial.

PHILLIP: Yes, and the real question is, is he going to be willing to use his political capital on this issue? I mean, it is not unlimited. As most presidents who come in know, you don't come in with an unlimited well of good will.

BERMAN: His favorability ratings are lower than we've ever seen...

PHILLIP: Exactly.

BERMAN: ... for a president in transition. So we talk about coming in with good will. He may have less than other new presidents.

PHILLIP: Right. There's -- I think there's a lot of talk right now from Trump about that sort of -- you know, it suggests that he might want to go in this direction. But the real test will be, will he push Congress on the sanctions issue? We know that's going to take convincing Republican colleagues, in addition to Democrats, who are likely to remain very much unified on this issue. And will he do more to -- to actually change the U.S. posture toward

Putin, even if it means alienating the intelligence community who has come to him, basically saying, you know, "We believe that these were basically nefarious actions on Putin's part."

And Donald Trump is basically saying he wants to wait and -- he doesn't believe the intelligence community. These are the people who are going to be guiding him throughout his presidency. That relationship is going to need to be managed from the moment that he takes the oath of office.

BERMAN: All right, guys. Thanks so much.

A stubborn cold forcing Queen Elizabeth to miss traditional Christmas and New Year's church services is going to raise concerns about her health. We're going to have a live report from Buckingham Palace, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:28:17] CAMEROTA: Time now for the "Five Things to Know" for your NEW DAY.

President-elect Donald Trump's incoming press secretary says Mr. Trump plans to repeal a lot of President Obama's executive actions on day one. The new Republican-controlled Congress is sworn in tomorrow.

BERMAN: President Obama is set to deliver a farewell address as commander in chief on January 10 in Chicago. The president will meet with Democrats on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to discuss how they can save Obamacare or try.

CAMEROTA: ISIS claiming responsibility for the deadly New Year's attack at a nightclub in Istanbul, Turkey. A massive manhunt continues for the gunman who killed 39 people and injured dozens more.

BERMAN: Heightened security for today's Rose Bowl parade in Pasadena, California. Officials have installed metal barricades at every intersection to prevent a possible truck attack or vehicle attack like the ones we've seen in Europe over the last several months.

CAMEROTA: And on a lighter note, a prankster gave Hollywood's iconic sign a make-over over New Year's Eve. Security cameras captured the unknown vandal using tarps to transform it to read "Hollyweed." That's awesome. No arrests have been made in this incident.

BERMAN: Nice.

CAMEROTA: Look for the guy eating the pepperoni pizza.

BERMAN: Yes, the Doritos wrappers everywhere.

CAMEROTA: Yes, follow those.

BERMAN: The ninth time I've made that joke.

CAMEROTA: For more on "The Five Things to Know," go to NEWDAYCNN.com for the latest.

BERMAN: All right. Queen Elizabeth delivering a video message to Canada for its 150th anniversary. This after cancelling another public appearance because of a heavy cold. This is the second holiday service that the 90-year-old has missed, fueling speculation about her health.

CNN's Phil Black live at Buckingham Palace with the latest. What are you hearing, Phil?

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, good morning.

You join me here at Buckingham Palace just as huge crowds are gathering to watch the changing of the guard. The palace wants them and, well, pretty much everyone to know they shouldn't be worrying about the queen. The palace says it is a cold, a nasty lingering one but she is recovering.

There was concern, as she missed these successive holiday church services because, well, that never happens.