NOW-WITH-01
Carrier Plant; Trump Companies Won't Leave U.S. Without Consequences;
Italian Voters to Decide on Major Reforms on Sunday; Trump Nominates
General Mattis for Cabinet Post; Hong Kong Students Race to End Human
Trafficking; Growing Indian Robotics Industry; Beaver Walks into a Dollar
Store in Maryland. Aired 3-4p ET - Part 1>
Dos Santos, Alexandra Fields, Andrew Stevens>
U.S. essentially supposed to go to Mexico. Italian voters will be deciding
whether to accept or reject Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's constitutional
reforms. Banks and investors are on the edge while waiting for Italian
referendum results. President-elect Trump nominates General James Mattis
as his Secretary of Defense. High school students in Hong Kong joins the
fight to end human trafficking by joining fundraising program, 24 Hour
Race. The program intends to raise funds and awareness about modern day
slavery with youth participation. Robotics market is on the rise in India,
but World Bank warns 70 percent of India's jobs are at risk because of
growing automation. Police officers in Maryland apprehends a beaver caught
inside a Maryland dollar store rooting through the shelves.>
Banking; Human Trafficking; Robotics; Technology; Animals>
GOVERNOR MIKE PENCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT-ELECT: -- to put American jobs and American workers first again. He made the case for America and Carrier decided to bet on a brighter future for the American people and we are grateful from the bottom of our hearts.
I'm very humble to be standing before you today, I truly am. My family and I are deeply moved by the opportunities the people of Indiana have given us, and now the American people have given us to serve.
But I'm especially humble as the holidays approach to have played some small role in this wonderful news. Not only here in Indiana, but all across this country.
But I think it's important to give credit where credit is due. First and foremost, I want to thank Greg Hays and his team at United Technologies, Bob McDonald, and the team at Carrier. Thank you for renewing your commitment to Indiana and renewing your commitment to the people of the United States of America.
I also want to thank the great Carrier team here in Indianapolis and the state of Indiana. Your hard work, your resilience, your work ethic even in disappointing times, I know for a fact gave this company the confidence to double down on the future of this company and the future of the people of this state.
And so I thank you, the Carrier team, for giving them the confidence to do just that. But lastly, on behalf of all of the people of Indiana, allow me to thank the man that we would not be here without for his efforts.
For picking up the phone, for keeping his word. His efforts to bring us to this day of renewed hope and promise. Not just here in Indiana, but really for people that know that the strength of this country comes in our ability to make things and to grow things.
It's a renewed day for manufacturing in America. You know, I remember when Donald Trump was running president we he said if he was elected president of the United States, America would start winning again. Today America won and we have Donald Trump to thank.
And I have a feeling working behind this extraordinary man, this is just the beginning of a lot more good news all across America. Without any more adieu, it is my high honor and privilege to introduce to you a man of action, a man of his word, and the president-elect of the United States of America, Donald Trump.
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT-ELECT: Thank you, thank you everybody. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I love that red hat. Thank you, everybody. I want to thank all of the dignitaries that are with us today. We have a whole host, the mayor, the governor-elect, great people. It's a big victory for the governor elect. He won very convincingly. We're very proud of him.
Mike has been such a wise decision for me. When people were saying, I don't know how good is he at decision making, but he picked Mike Pence, that's a good decision and everyone loves Mike, he has become something very special.
I want to thank Greg Hayes of United Technologies because when I called him, he was right there. I wish I could have made the call during the original decision, but it worked out just as well other than I would have liked to have had an answer a year and a half ago.
We have a tremendous love affair with the state of Indiana. Because if you remember during the primaries, this was going to be the firewall. This was where they were going to stop Trump, right? And that didn't work out too well.
[15:05:03]It was a fire -- for me it was a fire wall. We won by 16 points and the election we just won by 20 points, almost 20 points, and that was some victory. That's pretty -- that is pretty great. And I just love the people. Incredible people.
So I got involved because of the love affair I've had. It's been a very special state to us and I'll never forget about a week ago I was watching the nightly news, I won't say which one because I don't want to give them credit because I don't like them much, I'll be honest.
I don't like them, not even a little bit, but they were doing a story on Carrier. And I said wow, that's something. I want to see that. And they had a gentleman, a worker, a great guy, a handsome guy. He was on and it was like he didn't even know they were leaving.
He said something to the effect, no, we are not leaving because Donald Trump promised us that we're not leaving and I never thought I made that promise. Not with Carrier. I made it for everybody else. I didn't really make it for Carrier.
I said, what is he saying? He was such a believer. He was such a great guy. He said I've been with Donald Trump from the beginning and he made the statement that Carrier is not going anywhere. They are not leaving.
And then I played my statement, and I said Carrier will never leave, but that was a euphemism. I was talking about Carrier like all other companies from here on end because they made the decision a year and a half ago.
But he believed that that was -- and I could understand it. I actually said I did make it, but I didn't mean it quite that way, so now because of him, whoever that guy was -- is he in the room by any chance?
That's your son, stand up. You did a good job. You did a great job, right? That is fantastic, and I love your shirt. Wow. Oh, oh, put it on, cameras, go ahead, put it on. Your son is great, and he meant that, didn't he? He really meant it.
At first I thought I wonder if he is being sarcastic because this ship has sailed. I said -- it was 6:30 in the evening and I said, boy, the first thing I'm going to do is go there, do I call the head of Carrier, who is a great guy.
But I've always learned I have to call the top, I heard about Greg Hayes. He is a great executive. You know, I don't know if you know, United Technologies is one of the top 50 companies in the United States, and one of the top companies anywhere in the world. They make many other things other than airconditioners, believe me. Their list of companies is incredible.
So I called Greg Hayes. I heard of him, but I never have met him, and he picked up the phone, Mr. President-elect, sir, how are you. It's wonderful to win. Think if I lost, he wouldn't have returned my call. Where is Greg?
If I lost called you, I don't think you would have called. I would have tried, but I think it would have been tougher, but I called Greg and I said it's really important. We have to do something because you have a lot of people leaving.
You have to understand we can't allow this to happen anymore with our country. So many jobs are leaving and going to other countries. Not just Mexico but many, many countries, and China is making so much of our product that we're closing up a lot of plants.
I wrote down some numbers that are incredible, but the numbers of manufacturing jobs that were lost especially in the rust belt, and the rust belt is so incredible, but we're losing companies, it's unbelievable, one after another, just one after another.
So I said Greg, you have to help us out, we have to sit down and do something. I said because we just can't let it happen. Anyway, he was incredible. And he said, I understand and I said I wish I made this call a year and a half ago, it would have been an easier call. Only because of your son, believe me.
Your son, whoever he is, these people owe him a lot. I just went through. He's out in the factory, I thought they would be in this room, this room is not big enough. I don't know who arranged this one.
We just visited 1,000 people in the factory are going wild in the plant. But I will tell you that United Technologies and Carrier stepped it up, and now they're keeping -- the number is over 1,100 people, which is so great, which is so great.
[15:10:12]And I see the people, I shook hands with a lot of people behind us working. What is it, you're making so many airconditioners you didn't even want them to come off for a half hour. He is a ruthless boss. That's OK.
I did say one thing to the Carrier folks and the United Technologies folks, I said the good will you have engendered by doing this all over the world but within our country, you watch how fast you're going to make it up because so many people are going to be buying Carrier airconditioners.
You know, we've had such help here. Bobby Knight, nobody in Indiana ever heard of Bobby Knight, how great is Bobby Knight? Louis Holtz, we had such incredible support, but I'll never forget a friend of mine called up and said during the primaries, he said, you know, if you can get Coach Knight, and I said Coach Knight called me a year ago.
He said if you ever run, I'm supporting you. I said thanks, Coach, I just don't know if I'm going to be doing it. How good was Bobby Night as far as we're concerned in Indiana, is that right? We have Bobby Knight, 900 wins, two championships, right? Two or three championships, Olympic gold medal, Pan-Am games.
He was unbelievable. He wouldn't stop. He was just going all over. He was the greatest guy. We came into an arena. We had 16,000 people inside and outside. We had I think 10,000 outside.
And I left -- this was three weeks before the primary, I said how do we lose Indiana with this? I didn't think we were going to lose and we didn't. We won big. So I want to thank those folks, they really helped with Indiana and a lot of other places.
So United Technologies has stepped up and I have to say this -- they did it in such a nice and professional way. And they're going to spend so much money renovating this plant, and I said that number, you know, he said $16 million.
Well, the minimum number is 16, it's going to be in my opinion a lot more than that. He said I would rather say the lower number, so I would rather have them say the higher number, just a difference in philosophy. Do you agree? Both are OK.
But they're going to spend more than $16 million. They're going to spend a lot of money on the plant. And I said to some of the folks I said companies are not going to leave the United States any more without consequences. It's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. I can tell you that right now. We're losing so much.
So one of the things we're doing to keep them is we are going to be lowering our business tax from 35 percent, hopefully down to 15 percent, which would take us from the highest tax nation virtually in the world, terrible for business, to one of the lower tax. Not the lowest yet, but one of the lower tax.
The other thing we are doing is regulations. The regulations are -- in fact, if I ask Greg and your folks, you would probably say regulations might be worse for you than even the high taxes, which is the biggest surprise of the whole political experience.
I thought taxes were going to be number one, regulations were up there some place. Believe me, these great leaders of industry, the small business people, who were just being crushed. If they had their choice, between lower taxes and a major massive cutting of regulations, they would take the regulations.
I don't know how you feel about that, Greg, but I just noticed, I said since about six years ago, 260 new federal regulations have passed, 53 of which affect this plant. Fifty three new regulations, massively expensive.
And none of them amount to anything in terms of (inaudible), the things that you'd have regulations for. Six of eight of the airconditioning companies right now are located in Mexico, six of eight, I mean, think of that.
And 80 percent of the supply chain for Mexico, 80 percent is located in Mexico. We're not going to have it any more. We like Mexico, we think it is wonderful, I was there three months ago with the president of Mexico. Terrific guys, but we have to have a fair shake. We're not getting anything.
We have NAFTA, which is a total and complete disaster, a total and complete disaster. It is a one-lane highway into Mexico. Nothing coming our way, everything going their way.
[15:15:00]And I don't have to mention who signed it any more, it's so nice. I don't have to mention who backed it any more, we don't have to mention that any more fortunately, but it's a one-way street and it will be changed.
We have to bring our jobs back and when they expand and one of the things that made me so happy is when Greg said that they have over 10,000 jobs that they will be going to be producing in the very near future and now he is looking to the United States instead of outside of the United States where almost all of the jobs would have gone.
So one of the reasons I wanted to do this particular conference is it's so great, so many people in the big beautiful plant behind us, that will be even more beautiful in about seven months from now. They're so happy, they're going to have a great Christmas.
That's most important, but also I want to let the other companies know that we're going to do great things for businesses. There is no reason for them to leave any more because your taxes will be at the very, very low end, and your unnecessary regulations will be gone.
We need regulations for safety, environment, and things. Most of the regulations are nonsense. It has become a major industry, the writing of regulations. These companies will not be leaving anymore. They will not be taking people's hearts out.
They're not going to be announcing like they did at Carrier. That they're closing up and moving to Mexico, over 1,100 jobs. And by the way, that number will go up very substantially as they expand this plant. So the 1,100 is a minimum number.
So I just want to thank everybody, and specifically I just have to thank the people that I met backstage, incredible people. They're all crying back there. It is taking us a little while, but think of this, I don't think we even announced we were running when this deal was originally announced.
In the end what happened is that makes it more difficult. It's hard to negotiate when the plant is built. You know what Greg said, but you know the plant is almost built, right? I said Greg, I don't care. It doesn't make any difference, don't worry about it.
What will we do with the plant? Rent it, sell it, knock it down, I don't care. They will do fine with their plant. I don't know if they can do it with an American company, but we'll figure that out. But where we're starting from is from a much easier place. It's hard a year and a half ago, they make the announcement, all of that work is done, which is why I have such a respect.
I always say great business people have flexibility. If you're a hard- lined, well, we are not going to move -- flexibility. That is why they have done so well over the years. That's why it's a great company because they have flexibility.
But we don't need so much flexibility for other companies because we're going to have a situation where they will know, number one, we're going to treat them well, and number two, there will be consequences meaning they will be taxed heavily at the border.
If they want to leave, make product in different companies and countries, and think they're going to sell that product over the border, which by the way, will be a very strong border, very strong border, believe me.
And I think companies, we're going to build a wall. People are saying do you think Trump will build a wall? Trust me, we are going to build a wall. And by the way, people will come through the wall, we'll have doors, but they're coming through legally, and they're coming through on worker permits to work at the fields.
A lot of people can come through, but it will be done through a legal process. One thing not coming through is drugs. The drugs will stop. I just want to thank all of the people at United Technologies most particularly you because you are fantastic, Greg.
I want to thank and I want you to tell me how many airconditioning units you sold in the last six months from today because I want to say I think it's going to be a number that even will surprise you because of the tremendous goodwill that you've created.
I want to thank all of the workers at this plant, all of the Carrier workers, most importantly. I want to thank my great, great vice president elect, because I'll tell you what, one of the really good decisions, but I want to thank Mike and we are going to be doing this.
If I have to tell you, during speeches they say it's not presidential to call up these massive leaders of business, but I think it is very presidential.
[15:20:06]And if it's not presidential, that's OK because I actually like doing it, but we are going to have a lot of great people that can also do it and do it as well as I do it. But we are going to have a lot of phone calls made to companies when they say they are thinking about leaving this country because they're not living this country.
The workers are going to keep their jobs, and they can leave from state to state and they can negotiate good deals with the different states and all of that. But leaving the country will be very, very difficult.
So I want to thank everybody. We love you folks. I want to really, really thank the people of Indiana. We had two massive victories in a very, very short period of time. All of the workers have a great, great Christmas and a fantastic new year. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Thank you very much.
ZAIN ASHER, CNN INTERNATIONAL GUEST ANCHOR: Donald Trump giving a thumbs up to the crowd, feeling very good about himself, essentially patting himself on the back after keeping managing to save 1,000 Carrier jobs keeping them in the U.S. Those jobs were essentially supposed to go to Mexico.
He talks about a love affair with Indiana. This is his first major victory since made his campaign promise to keep more jobs in the United States. One thing he touched upon, he said that U.S. companies from now on have no reason to leave America. He will promise them lower corporate tax rates going from 35 percent to 15 percent. Fewer regulations as well.
I want to talk more about this with Josh Rogin, a CNN political analyst and columnist for the "Washington Post." We are also joined by David Gergen, CNN senior political analyst who has advised four U.S. presidents.
So Josh, let me start with you. He managed to get 1,000 jobs to stay in the United States, but isn't it going to be taxpayers that end up footing the bill?
JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: That's right although Donald Trump said that there would be consequences, what he actually did was basically create a bribe for Carrier to keep the jobs and that bribe is an incentive in tax cuts paid for by the taxpayers of Indiana.
And what Bernie Sanders pointed out today in "The Washington Post," which I agree with is that this creates a moral hazard and why wouldn't any company in the world just call up the White House and say I'm going to move my jobs to country x unless you give me a, b, or c. That's one thing.
The other thing is that, you know, there is a lot of concern in Washington and that you know, if this is something that Donald Trump plans to replicate over and over, it gets in the way of what we call the free market, right?
Jobs should be determined based on supply and demand. There should be a minimum of political interference, right. We elected a president not a factory boss.
ASHER: It goes against Republican values.
ROGIN: Exactly and this is the party that criticized the Obama administration for using the government to influence incorporate decisions when it came to GM and Solyndra (ph) and those were much bigger cases, but if this is any indication, what we will see is a more and more government interference in the free market and that has all sorts of second and third degree consequences.
And the last thing is if he really does increase trade tariffs, right, that has very serious risks of creating trade wars with other countries. Can you imagine if the German government called up BMW and told them to bring all of the workers back from South Carolina?
It is sort of like if you think through what he actually said, it is a huge change in U.S. trade policy that has implications. I don't think that anyone has really understood.
ASHER: David, let me get your take on that because Bernie Sanders actually wrote a piece saying that this pretty amounts to corporate welfare. He says that it's Carrier that comes out on top here. What do you think?
DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I respectfully disagree with almost everything has been said. First of all, I don't recall Bernie Sanders and a lot of Democrats complaining about moral hazard and everything else when President Obama stepped in and (inaudible) stepped in to save the automobile industry. It's one of his greatest accomplishments as you well know.
And so for Democrats to say this is really bad public policy, give me a break. Beyond that, this is not a bribe. Tax breaks for companies to move into expand have been standard fair in America for a long time. Governors, Bill Clinton got his start internationally by going out and trying to persuade companies to come to Arkansas, give them tax breaks.
It has done all of the time, and you know, frankly overtime a lot of the money, a small amount of money, $7 million tax break so far. That will be repaid in taxes from these families overtime. So it's not a big loss for the taxpayers.
I do agree, look, the number of jobs that have been saved here is tiny. We've lost five million manufacturing jobs in the United States since the year 2000 --
ASHER: It's not about that it's a small number of jobs. Also how do you keep other American companies not asking for the same thing?
[15:25:06]GERGEN: Well, all American companies will, but I think the Donald Trump answer, I think part of the answer, is appealing. I do agree that there is a real issue about putting huge tariffs if you move your plant to Mexico and you want to sell your goods back into the United States, I think huge tariffs are really going to be very problematic.
He's not going to get them without the help of Congress. I doubt he'll get them done anything like what he's been talking about, but what he is saying that I think has appeal is look, I'm going to make it more appealing for you to stay here as a company. I'm going to lower your tax rates.
First of all, America has one of the highest tax rates, corporate tax rates in the world. Everybody knows that. There are a lot of loopholes, of course, but it's a 35 percent tax rate. I doubt it he can get it down to 15, but he can it get it lower and that may make it better and cheaper to stay here.
But this regulatory regime is not an insignificant issue. There are a great number of small businesses in this country, which find themselves stifled and by the way, they also have a hard time getting a loan still from banks that has suppressed growth.
And Donald Trump is trying to unleash that. I have a lot of problems with Donald Trump, his behavior, his narcissism. But I think when he comes along with some ideas that are worth debating, it is time to really examine them to see whether it works. I would not call it bribes.
ASHER: Interesting point, Josh Rogin, just to follow up on something that David Gergen said, it would be hypocritical for Bernie Sanders to be against this because after all President Obama bailed out the auto industry. What do you make of that comment?
ROGIN: Right. No, I don't think I'm disagreeing. I guess, I'm saying that what Donald Trump -- he's put the Republicans on the other side of the issue, right. It is sort of hypocritical for Bernie Sanders to criticize these things because he has been for protectionism, for keeping manufacturing jobs in the United States.
That is not where the Republican Party has been through decades, OK, and that's the big change that I was trying to point out. You know, I do think that there is a big issue here with, you know, how much the government should really interfere in each of these deals.
Yes, this one case may not be -- a huge problem, but what if he does this 800 times. What kind of cottage industry does that create in terms of lobbyists and consultants trying to now jockey for political influence to get ahead of the line for these kinds of deals?
And we're talking about an expansion of this corporate welfare system on a massive scale that has implications that could be good, but it also could be bad. You know, as for the lower taxes, listen, that's going create a huge budget deficit, OK?
If we're going to slash corporate taxes, how are we going to make up for that, there's really only one way of two ways, you give the raise taxes for the people who are paying -- the laborers, the rest of the people or you can just cut programs, right?
And so if you starve the government of all these corporate taxes that has real policy implications and nobody has explained to us what those are. So yes, you can be for or against this particular deal.
But the broad policies that Donald Trump is proposing will have dramatic effects on the U.S. government's stance towards the free market, but also its ability to deliver basic goods and services for the rest of the people who are not party to him.
GERGEN: I would just point out that --
ASHER: Very quickly, I have to go.
GERGEN: Ronald Reagan cut taxes, yes, we had big budget deficits, but we had also had enormous growth. Bill Clinton came along and cut spending and also lowered taxes. We have very, very good growth. We have not had very good growth in recent years with the current policies.
ROGIN: Yes, I would just point out --
ASHER: OK, guys, I have to go. I have to go. Thank you so much for being with us. David Gergen, Josh Rogin, Appreciate that. We'll be right back with much more news after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:30:06] HANNAH VAUGHAN JONES, CNN ANCHOR: The official announcement isn't until Monday, but U.S. President-elect Donald Trump says he is tapping retired Marine General James Mattis for Defense Secretary. Mattis got the nickname, "Mad Dog," leading combat troops in the 1991 Gulf War.
Another twist in the abuse scandal rocking British football. A former footballer has accused Chelsea Football Club of buying his silence. Gary Johnson alleges he was paid more than $60,000 to keep quiet about the abuse he says he suffered. CNN has requested comment from Chelsea on the specific allegations made by Johnson but has yet to receive a reply. On Tuesday, Chelsea said it had started an investigation into allegations concerning an individual who worked at the club during the 1970s and is no longer alive.
Nico Rosberg won his first Formula 1 title just five days ago, but now he's retiring. The 31-year-old German first raced 10 years ago. He says it feels right to retire while at his peak. Rosberg clinched the Formula 1 crown after a thrilling final day race against Louis Hamilton last weekend.
So back to Italy now where voters will head to the polls on Sunday. They'll be deciding whether or not to accept or reject their Prime Minister's constitutional reforms. There is a lot more riding on this than just politics. A no vote to the reforms risks pushing Italy's fragile banking sector over the edge. CNN Money's Europe Editor Nina dos Santos breaks it all down for us.