OUTFRONT-01
Presidential Daily Brief; Trump Gets First Top Secret Intel Briefing;
Sources: Trump Son-in-Law at Center of Transition "Infighting"; Trump
Eyes Conservative Radio Host Amid Transition Turmoil. Aired 7-8p ET - Part 1>
[19:00:10] ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: OUTFRONT next, breaking news. Transition turmoil. Trump's team rock by infighting and disarray. Who is bringing any order to the chaos.
Plus, President Obama overseas talking about Donald Trump, does he feel responsible for Trump's win and the man who is correctly predicted every president since 1984 including Donald Trump. Wait until you hear his new prediction for Trump's presidency, let's go OUTFRONT.
Good evening, I'm Erin Burnett. OUTFRONT tonight, the breaking news. Trump Tower turmoil in fighting among members of President-Elect Donald Trump's transition team and a question tonight of who is calling the shots. Mike Rogers, the former head of the intelligence committee, a CNN contributor, he spent months putting a national security team together for Trump, part of the transition. He was on the show just a few days ago talking about their progress and then abruptly told he's out and Mike Pence replacing Chris Christie as head of the transition team.
Also unorthodox. Meanwhile, calls growing louder tonight for Trump to cut ties with Steve Bannon, the former head of Breitbart News. Today the Senate's top Democrat Harry Reid tearing into Bannon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MINORITY LEADER: By placing a champion of White Supremacists a step away from the Oval Office. What message is Trump send to the young girl that woke up Wednesday morning in Rhode Island, afraid to be a woman of color in America? It's not a message of healing. If Trump is serious about seeking unity, the first thing he should do is resend his appointment Steve Bannon. Resend him, don't do it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Sara Murray begins our coverage OUTFRONT at Trump Tower in New York and a lot of fast moving developments tonight.
Sara, really sort of depends on the moment who is going to be in charge of what. That's what we're hearing, certainly a transition in turmoil this evening. SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Erin. I think what you're seeing is sort of a transition staff trying to regroup in addition to this change at the top from Chris Christie leading into Mike Pence. We've also seen some reshuffling, some outers when you look lower down with some of these agency levels which really means for some people the progress really gets stalled. I think that's why we saw Donald Trump and Mike Pence really huddling together for hours today in Trump Tower not only going over some of these cabinet picks but kind of trying to figure out what the way forward for this transition should be.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MURRAY (voice-over): Tonight, Donald Trump and his V.P. Mike Pence huddling at Trump Tower to bring some order to a transition team already facing signs of disarray. Sources involved in the transition telling CNN there are internal disagreements over some top level cabinet positions adding to the confusion, lingering questions about who is calling the shots as newly named chief strategist Steve Bannon, Reince Priebus and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner all weigh in on the transition process.
As Trump received his first presidential daily brief today, a national security round up of threats and intelligence developments, he'll have one less experienced hand to turn to. Former House Intelligence Committee Chairman and CNN contributor Mike Rogers who served as the national security advisor on Trump's transition team was ousted on Monday. The ouster of Mike Rogers, the second major shakeup for the transition team after New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was demoted on Friday.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT: I want to give a very special thanks to our former mayor, Rudy Giuliani who is unbelievable.
MURRAY: One area of contention, secretary of state. Sources say former New York mayor and close Trump confidant Rudy Giuliani is a leading candidate for the job but others are pushing for former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: John would be a very good choice. Is there anybody better?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maybe me, I don't know.
(LAUGHTER)
MURRAY: Giuliani partly keeping his ambitions hit it. But his international business ties like doing business with Qatar and lobbying sit go, a U.S. subsidiary of the Venezuelan oil conglomerate could complicate his confirmation hearing. Meanwhile, Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions is also under consideration for a high profile position such as Secretary of Defense or Attorney General.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, first of all, I won't be Attorney General.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You won't be Attorney General? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I won't have to decide that one.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank God!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You made that clear.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, I can escape that one.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I should ask Jeff Sessions that question, should I?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wouldn't be a bad idea. But I don't know who is going to be Attorney General.
MURRAY: He sat 13 years in the U.S. Army Reserves and was the first senator to endorse Trump for president.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At this time in American's history, we need to make America great again.
MURRAY: Another named Pence is looking to add the consideration for Defense Secretary, Arkansas Senator and U.S. Army combat veteran Tom Cotton. Today, Trump is also turning his eye to who should serve as Treasury Secretary. Trump campaign finance chair and former Goldman Sachs banker Steven Mnuchin, Texas Congressman Jeb Hensarling or perhaps JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Diamond.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[19:05:14] Now as Donald Trump begins his sketch out his White House, the visitors just keep coming to visit the President-Elect in his gilded tower. One of the latest ones who just left, Texas Senator Ted Cruz. Remember the two of them have had a rocky relationship but ultimately led to Ted Cruz endorsing Donald Trump's bid for the presidency. We'll see how the two of them work together when Trump heads to Washington.
Back to you, Erin.
All right. Thank you very much, Sara. And Jim Sciutto OUTFRONT in Washington. Jim, take for the first time, the President-Elect Donald Trump received the presidential daily briefing, that is the exact same now, there is nothing cut out, same daily intelligence briefing that President Obama receives.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: That's right, the most detailed and really the most secret. These briefings lift the veil on the entire capability the U.S. intelligence community getting into for instance what they call sources and methods, so information intelligence gain from covert operations intercepted communications. This is a degree of briefing they did not get when they were the nominees although they were getting intelligence briefings and I'll just give you an example, Erin. On Russia for instance, we know that the intelligence committee has said ion public they believe Russia is behind the election hacks, the hacks of the Democratic Party.
What you might see in a briefing like this would be, why they believe that to be the case, what digital fingerprints. What have they intercepted which may and keep in mind, this is Donald Trump who denied during the campaign that Russia was behind it or at least raise questions about it. You might then see in a briefing like this exactly why the U.S. intelligence community believes that to be the case. And this happens as Donald Trump had a phone call yesterday with the Russian president with both of them pledging to have a better relationship saying this is an important relationship to us.
BURNETT: Yes.
SCIUTTO: But Erin, you and I know well that the road to foreign policy hell is paved with attempts to improve the U.S. Russia relationship. George W. Bush tried it, Obama tried it with the reset. It's a difficult thing to do.
BURNETT: All right. Jim Sciutto, thank you very much.
And OUTFRONT now, Kayleigh McEnany, supported Donald Trump. Keith Boykin who supported Clinton. Jamie Gangel, special correspondent and Mark Preston, our executive editor for Politics.
Mark, you just heard the CNN reporting, disarray, turmoil, end fighting. This is not going smoothly.
MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Certainly not going as smoothly as Donald Trump would like. You know, we talk about how the demotion of Chris Christie was a really major moment in the Donald Trump transition time and it was until today when we saw what happened to Mike Rogers a very well respected former member of Congress. Somebody who understands the intelligence community and quite frankly, somebody who I thought was going to go into the Trump administration. This is somebody who is very well respected. For him to be leaving at this time, Erin, I think is troubling.
BURNETT: It is troubling. And a lot of people had a lot of respect for him. Jamie, you know, I've been talking to people involved in the Treasury Secretary discussions. Twenty four hours ago, a flurry of activity it was almost done. The decision was made. But yet, Trump seems to change his mind. Depending on who he speaks to last and one of the possible choices among the top few we know for treasury, one of the top candidates telling me he believes it's too risky. That going in this early for the Trump cabinet may be too risky of a thing. This is part of the issue too.
JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. So, do they want to come in on day one? Do they want to see what happen a year from now, two years from now? The other thing that I've been told that's going on is, there are no surprise two Donald Trumps out there. One is the fighting Donald Trump. Who does he really want? Which of the loyalists is he willing to spend political capital on and then there is the let's make a deal, right? The art of the deal Donald Trump.
BURNETT: Right. GANGEL: Where is he going to be willing to compromise and I'm told two things. One is, you cannot overstate the relationship between Donald Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner of this. They are working hand and glove. Jared is calling people, talking to people and the other thing is, they are getting and I think that's why we have reported this today that there's a pause going on and we're not expecting denouncements where they sort of sit back and think okay, who do we really fight for? Who can get confirmed?
(CROSSTALK)
BURNETT: Right.
GANGEL: And where do we want the overall cabinet to look like? So I think we've -- they -- we've had a little bit of a pause here while they are figuring it out and they are getting a lot of input from RNC and Congressional leaders saying, you know, you have to get these people through.
BURNETT: And when you see something like Mike Rogers which as Mark points out is very troubling to some, Kayleigh. Look, this could come down to one of the two appointments that Trump has made so far. Steve Bannon is getting a lot of push back and it is not just from Democrats, it's from a lot of Republicans, as well but Harry Reid came down to the Senate and spoke about it today. Let me just quickly play for you what he said about Steve Bannon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REID: If Trump is serious about seeking unity, the first thing he should do is resend his appointment Steve Bannon. Resend him. Don't do it. As long as a champion of racial division is a step away from the Oval Office, it will be impossible to take Trump's efforts to heal the nation seriously.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[19:10:20] BURNETT: Is there any chance he listens to that? Obviously, he's not going to listen to Harry Reid. But as I said, this is not just coming from Harry Reid, there are people in Trump's inner circle who have some of these concerns about Steve Bannon.
KAYLEIGH MCENANY, SUPPORTED DONALD TRUMP: I would think not. I mean, Donald trump got here by not listening to the other side of the aisle, by not listening to the advice of Hillary Clinton's campaign. He wouldn't be President-Elect today if he did. And I think what we just saw from Harry Reid is a perfect example of what David Goldman and PJ Media called the existential rage of the defeated and humiliated elites. Donald Trump beat the elites, he beat the establishment and now you will see the establishment kicking and screaming that he is elevated someone like Steve Bannon who is a populist, someone who saw the rise of the people against their government. He's elevated him to a top position but also made a nod to the more traditional Washingtonian Republicans by putting Reince Priebus there. It's a perfect balance between two forces. BURNETT: He says, of course, Steve Bannon running the controversial Breitbart website which has been called misogynistic racist which of course is what, Harry Reid is referring to with the racial divide.
KEITH BOYKIN, FORMER CLINTON WHITE HOUSE AIDE: Yes, I don't think you can come into the White House and say, you want to build unity and start with Steve Bannon as a chief strategist for the president of the United States. I don't think you can talk about unity as Kayleigh was talking about this as a Democratic attack. There are Republicans who are concerned about Steve Bannon as well. There are people in Trump's inner circle that have problems with him and this whole idea of what's going on right now is chaos in the transition for Donald Trump.
I mean, you see that with the Jared Kushner announcement. Because we talked about this before, the anti-nativism (ph) law in 1967 prohibits him from taking the position and yet Trump today asked for a security clearance for Jared Kushner who's son-in-law to receive daily briefings, that's unheard of and unprecedented and we should not allow this but this is kind of what we're going to expect for the next four to eight years of did Donald Trump's administration.
BURNETT: Mark?
PRESTON: Well, just a couple of things. On that security clearance, it was actually a request that was made by somebody on the transition team to ask how you go about it. So, it wasn't actually a specific request by Donald Trump himself on it. But it goes to show that in fact, that Jared Kushner is going to play a major role in the Trump administration.
BURNETT: Yes.
PRESTON: I do think it is worth noting and Kayleigh brought this up about the yin and the yang, is that and I was speaking to somebody today very tight in the Trump campaign that Reince Priebus is really needed in that Oval Office with Donald Trump to try to balance out this Steve Bannon because at least Reince Priebus is respected by the Republican leaders on Capitol Hill and they can trust his words. So, it will be an interesting dynamic to see how Bannon and Priebus were able to balance each other out at the same time Jared Kushner trying to put his stamp on things.
BURNETT: All right. Thanks to all.
And next, President Obama on his last overseas trip flooded with questions about Trump's victory. Does he blame himself?
Plus, you say Ivanka Trump's favorite bracelet on "60 Minutes" or maybe you did. But if you didn't, see, you see it now, it can be yours for 10 grand. They told you they advertised that. Is that crossing a line?
And then this side by side image taking China by storm
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [19:16:34] BURNETT: Breaking news, President-Elect Trump getting the same presidential briefing today as President Obama outlining threats to the United States as Obama is traveling the world for his final international trip. But for the President, much of the focus is on the President-Elect.
Michelle Kosinski is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Obama in Athens where democracy was born. Here to talk about economic recovery but a usual, everyone wants to talk about Trump.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What happened on November 8th in the United States?
KOSINSKI: Obama asked directly about the surprise ending to the American election. Did his policies in some way contribute to it, which he didn't really answer and did he see that wave coming?
PRES. BARACK OBAMA (D), UNITED STATES: I still don't feel responsible for what the President elect says or does. Did I recognize that there was anger, frustration in the American population? Of course I did.
KOSINSKI: Reassuring allies is one of President's goals for his final foreign trip. Before he left he tried to convey some optimism but the questions he now faces force him to delve deep into what gave rise to one of the ugliest, most unpredictable election seasons in memory and he was critical.
OBAMA: You seen some of the rhetoric among Republican elected officials and activists and media. Some of it pretty troubling and not necessarily connected to facts, but being used effectively to mobilize people. And obviously, President-Elect Trump tact into that particular strain within the Republican Party and then was able to broaden that enough and get enough votes.
KOSINSKI: The President defending his own policies based on his popularity in the polls in a way that some might see as somewhat dismissive of what many voters were feeling as just wanting change without thinking of the consequences.
OBAMA: People seem to think I did a pretty good job. And so there is this mismatch, I think, between frustration and anger and perhaps the view of the American people was is that just need to shake things up.
KOSINSKI: Almost warning that there is a lesson to be learned.
OBAMA: We are going to have to guard against a rise in a crude sort of nationalism or ethnic identity or tribalism that is built around us and of them.
(END VIDEOTAPE) KOSINSKI: This was not a particularly optimistic President Obama in that setting. This was him acknowledging the forces that have been at play but saying he did not see this coming and he called allowing those sentiments that lead to this election and outcome to divide America along certain lines dangerous -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Michelle, thank you very much live in Athens tonight.
And now Democratic strategists Maria Cardona joins us along with conservative commentator Ben Ferguson. Kayleigh and Keith are back with me. And Maria, let me start with you. President Obama spent this campaign telling the world that Donald Trump is not fit to be president and a lot of other words as well. Now he's spending his days reassuring world leaders overseas that things are going to be fine, that Donald Trump will lead and support NATO, sort of, being an ambassador on some sense as it feels like on Trump's behalf. How hard is this for him to do? Is it credible?
MARIA CARDONA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I'm sure it's incredibly hard Erin, specially knowing that, you know, what he really feels in the run up to this election. He left nothing on the table. He let everybody know what he thought. But I also think it's not difficult in that this is also his obligation as President of the United States until January 19th, 2017. And part of that obligation is to reassure our allies overseas that the Democratic process in the United States is the strongest in the world, that our Democratic institutions are solid and are durable and that they are stronger than just one person. I'm also sure that he will, that he has told these leaders what Trump has told him in terms of his commitment to NATO, which I think for these leaders was one of the most disconcerting things that they heard during this election cycle.
[19:21:04] BURNETT: So, Ben, President Obama was asked if he felt responsible for this at all. Now, look, in terms of raw days on the trail and fiery rhetoric, President Obama couldn't have done any more than he did to try to be Donald Trump. But yet, there are some who say he's to blame. He's a two-term president and by definition there is going to be a repudiation of that. When he was asked about it today, here is how he answered the question.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you feel any responsibility for the election of Donald Trump?
OBAMA: I think it's fair to say that I was surprised by the election results. And I've said so, I still don't feel responsible for what the President-Elect says or does but I do feel a responsibility as president of the United States to make sure that I facilitated good transition and I present to him, as well as the American people my best thinking, my best ideas about how you move the country forward.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: What do you say? Ben, I mean, do you buy that? BEN FERGUSON, RADIO HOST, "THE BEN FERGUSON SHOW": Yes.
BURNETT: He didn't answer the question. Right? The question was, was he responsible at all?
FERGUSON: Of course not.
BURNETT: That he did not answer here.
FERGUSON: Yes, he's protecting legacy and I understand that and I respect that. But you also have to look at this and say, did Donald Trump come out of many of the policies and the things that I was refusing to admit there could have been issues that could have been fixed. A great example of that is ObamaCare. If the President would have been honest about ObamaCare and said, hey, it's not working as well as I want it to be working and I need to make changes now.
There is a very good chance that Donald Trump may not be the President of the United States of America but part of this was the arrogance of this White House. They barely dealt with Democratic leaders on The Hill when it came to issues much less to Republicans. And when you do that for eight years, the way that he did, this was absolutely a reprimand of his policies and of his legacies --
BURNETT: Okay.
FERGUSON: So, whether he wants to admit it or not, he helped create Donald Trump.
BURNETT: He helped create Donald Trump.
(CROSSTALK)
CARDONA: That's not true.
BOYKIN: Can I make three points here quick first? Hillary Clinton won more votes than Donald Trump did. More than two million votes according to the latest projections, more than Donald Trump. That's not a repudiation of President Obama or Hillary Clinton. Secondly --
FERGUSON: Hillary lost. Swing states mattered. She lost.
BOYKIN: Let me finish Ben. Secondly, you have to remember that Barack Obama is still far more popular than Donald Trump. His approval rating is 58 percent in the latest Gallup poll. Donald Trump's numbers are in the tank still. And thirdly, Donald Trump --
FERGUSON: But surely --
BOYKIN: -- doesn't represent any issues. He represents white resentment. He doesn't represent any issues.
FERGUSON: Keep saying that and the American people are laughing at you because he won.
BOYKIN: And identify one specific policy position that Donald Trump believes in, then maybe you could make that argument. But there are no issues.
FERGUSON: This is what is amazing. You still don't understand what created Donald Trump.
(CROSSTALK)
Hold on, you still don't understand it.
(CROSSTALK)
This is the part that makes me laugh. Listen to this -- this is the part that makes me laugh. You still don't understand why Hillary Clinton lost which is shocking --
BOYKIN: Two million more votes --
FERGUSON: You do not have a moment of looking back into this. She's not the president. You should understand that. And the reason why Donald Trump won is because of people just like you who refuse to admit that there are actually educated voters that are smart that wanted new jobs, that were worried about National Security issues, that were worried about the rise of ISIS, that were worried about our jobs being deported to other countries and not having manufacturing here.
BURNETT: Let Kayleigh get in here.
FERGUSON: The swing states where Donald Trump won this thing. He won on those issues.
BURNETT: OK.
FERGUSON: And yet you still, you continue to insult those voters which is amazing to me.
MCENANY: And that's exactly right, Ben. They don't acknowledge that Donald Trump won on issues. But he did. The White working class turned out in droves because they have been failed by this president. And you know what, I just wished that the Democrats would take a cue from President Obama --
FERGUSON: Exactly.
MCENANY: -- who has been absolutely gracious in all of this and said --
BOYKIN: No, you like President Obama. No, you like President Obama.
MCENANY: It is time to unite the country --
BOYKIN: Oh, come on!
MCENANY: Unless Democrats would take a cue from their own president instead of engaging in demonizing the other side --
(TALKING OVER EACH OTHER) BURNETT: You guys are talking about whether it's anger or not. And I know Kayleigh and Ben, you're saying anger didn't drive this but here is what President George W. Bush said today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FMR. PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH (R), 43RD PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You got to understand anger and some people might have been angry when I was president.
(LAUGHTER)
But anger shouldn't drive policy. What needs to drive policy is what is best for the people who are angry.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Sounds like --
(CROSSTALK)
BOYKIN: I think George Bush made more sense than Donald Trump today. Today Donald Trump was on Twitter saying that the Electoral College is a genius thing and four years ago when Mitt Romney was elected, he said it was a disaster.
CARDONA: Right.
BOYKIN: This guy has no consistency. Don't tell me he believes in policy, he believes in White resentment.
BURNETT: All right. We're going to take a pause. You all are staying with me. By the way, on this popular vote issue, I do just want everyone to know the tally that we have right now is this final result comes in, Hillary Clinton leads by 800,000 votes nationwide in the popular vote. Donald Trump of course, resoundingly winning the Electoral College.
OUTFRONT next, Ivanka Trump's company promoting the $10,000 bracelet she wore during her father's first post-election interview. Smart marketing or completely crossing the line.
And conservative Laura Ingraham, a single mother with three adopted kids who once dated liberal icon Keith Olbermann, I mean, if that isn't going to across the aisle, then what the heck is, could she be Trump's press secretary?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:30:24] BURNETT: Breaking news, multiple sources telling CNN that Donald Trump's son in law Jared Kushner is at the center of the fighting inside the Trump transition team. It comes as his wife, Ivanka Trump, also finds her company under fire. The company sent out an email promoting a bracelet Ivanka wore as she sat with her father during his post-election interview. The company later blaming the e-mail on, quote, a well-intentioned marketing employee. But this comes amid growing concern about conflicts of interest involving the Trump children.
Phil Mattingly is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The bracelet Ivanka Trump wore during her father's post-election TV interview now a key selling point for her jewelry line and a clear cut example of the blurred lines presented by the president-elect's family.