Return to Transcripts main page
Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Carrier: Trump Deal Includes "Incentives" To Save 1,000+ Jobs; Trump's DC Hotel: It's Complicated; Trump Vows to Leave His Business "In Total"; Secretary Of State Field Narrows; No Charges for Officer Who Killed NC Man; Inventor of the Big Mac Dies At 98. Aired 9-10p ET
Aired November 30, 2016 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[21:00:10] ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks for joining us for a second hour of "360."
Last night around this time ago, where the President-elect Trump and Carrier, the air conditioning and heating manufacture who reached a deal to keep about
a thousand jobs in the U.S., it was a promise that Trump made early in his campaign. Today, Carrier confirmed that he's going to continue to make gas furnaces in Indianapolis, a move it says will save more than a thousand jobs that would have been lost to Mexico.
Carrier released a statement saying and I quote, "Today's announcement is possible because of the incoming Trump-Pence administration has emphasized to us its commitment to support the business community and create an improve, more competitive U.S. business climate. The incentives offered by the state were an important consideration. Statement went on to say this agreement in no way diminishes our belief in the benefits of free trade and that the forces of globalization will continue to require solutions for the long-term competitiveness of the U.S. and American workers moving forward."
Now the details the deal are not yet known but for Carrier employees, there's no a question at Christmas has come early. Martin Savidge tonight reports.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Employee reaction to the Trump- Carrier deal ranges from celebration.
ROBERT PRICE, CARRIER WORKER: I'm ecstatic. You know, this is -- it just I double a smile on my face.
SAVIDGE: To surprise.
DENISE GIBBS, CARRIER WORKER: I was surprised, definitely a surprised.
SAVIDGE: To disbelief.
PATRICK LEATH, CARRIER WORKER: A part of me is happy. But a part of me is still saying, you know, is this really true, because we are business back in February that the company is leaving. I mean, they've made that known.
SAVIDGE: That they did. Here's Carrier last spring, breaking the news to its 1,400 employees saying it had reached a decision.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is to move production from our facility in Indianapolis to Monterey, Mexico.
SAVIDGE: Employees never saw it coming.
GIBBS: Yeah, definitely devastated, unexpected at my age, I was just wondering, what can I do?
SAVIDGE: Now nine months later, another bolt from the blue tweeted by Carrier. "We are pleased to have reached a deal with President-elect Trump and VP-elect Pence to keep close to 1,000 jobs in Indy." That was followed quickly by Trump saying, "We will keep our companies and jobs in the U.S. Thanks, Carrier.
They're not celebrating, they're not cheering, they're not ...
GIBBS: No because there's they're just not sure.
SAVIDGE: That's because other than saying there is a deal, hardly any information has being revealed about what is the deal. So what is that you still want to hear?
BRIAN TAYOR, CARRIER WORKER: Will we keep the same pay, one, two, how long will it stay?
SAVIDGE: The arrangement keeps close to a thousand jobs. But Carrier employs over 1400 in Indianapolis, begging the question, just whose job is saved and whose isn't?
So what have people have work on the assembly line saying?
GIBBS: I mean, some, some are confident. Some are, you know, some are really happy. Some are like me, kind of skeptical and unsure really, how it's going to really play out.
SAVIDGE: And that's not all. Just about a mile from the Carrier facility sits Rexnord another manufacturing plant. Last month, it announced it, too, was moving to Mexico, taking more than 300 jobs with it. The Carrier rescue brings mixed feelings.
The people of Rexnord they have got to be happy for their friends at Carrier but then they also say, what about my job?
CHUCK JONES, REXNORD UNION LEADER: Yeah, that's what they are saying. So, you know, there's some optimism there. You know, I mean, I don't think anybody is really overly excited but, you know, what Trump doing at he did at Carrier, maybe there's something can be done there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Martin joins us now. I mean Carrier and their statement, did give some indications about incentives from the state, but do we have any real indication about how the president-elect and vice president- elect were able to get Carrier to keep the jobs in the U.S.?
SAVIDGE: No, we really don't. And getting to those incentives coming from the state, remember back in February when Carrier announced it was leaving, Mike Pence who was the governor and not yet running then mate to Donald Trump tried very hard to keep Carrier in the state and would have offered very heavy state incentives. So what was different this time around, some say, no, it's got to be more than that. Maybe there were promises made by the Trump administration to reduce some federal regulations or maybe there is this talk of general overhaul of the corporate tax code that would benefit more than just Carrier.
The employees, their favorite rendition of this is that, remember, that there's a parent company to Carrier and that parent company United Technologies does a lot of defense contract work, billions of dollars worth of it every year. They believe that maybe the Trump administration insinuated that work could go away if Carrier went to Mexico. Anderson?
COOPER: But that's just what workers are telling you. There's no -- we don't know on that.
SAVIDGE: Correct. No. That is just their favorite speculation and maybe tomorrow, when the governor and when president-elect will be here, we may finally here.
[21:05:02] COOPER: All right.
SAVIDGE: Really motivated this deal.
COOPER: Martin Savidge thanks. A lot to talk about, back now with the panel.
Karine, do you give Donald Trump and Mike Pence credit?
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, CLINTON SUPPORTER: Yeah, look, if I would love to hear more of how this came to be but this it -- yeah absolutely, saving thousand job especially this time of year when holidays can be really tough for families, I think that's great.
I do believe that this is just to -- he can't just do this one company at a time. He has to really -- if he wants to be serious about it, he has to figure out how to do this more broadly. A lot of that is, you know, trying to figure out how do you stop out sourcing, how do you save workers' jobs. And I know there's a bill that Sanders is proposing it's called, I think Outsourcing Prevention Act. That would be a great thing to see Donald Trump say, hey, I support something like that.
So I think it's just a temporary answer and I think he needs to really work on it more broadly.
KIRSTEN POWERS, USA TODAY COLUMNIST: Yeah I think -- and so I've already give him credit for this, I think this was great. But the reality is, most of the manufacturing jobs are not being lost in and because of trade. They're being lost because of automation about 85 percent of them are actually lost because of automation. So he needs to really have a plan to deal with that because that's the big problem. And instead, trade has kind of become the boogieman and everybody is trying to blame it on that. But that's not really what the problem is unlike Karine is saying, he can't do this company by company. This would -- this was this wouldn't work.
COOPER: I think, Peter, you know, what Trump supporters are saying and, you know, the Carrier kind of intimated it is tax incentives, not just, you know, incentives in the state but a general climb in the U.S. that's more pro business.
PETER BEINART, CONTRIBUTOR THE ATLANTIC: Right. But let's be clear, this is I mean this is also what was called corporate welfare, right. I mean, you're basically paying these companies essentially to keep the jobs here out of taxpayer money. And it creates a kind of a moral hazard, right. Why -- what's to stop the next U.S. company from staying, you know, great, I'm going to threaten to go to Mexico and get the same sweetheart deal that Carrier did. I think that's the danger here.
ALICE STEWART, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Yeah, and what I think Anderson -- I think having worked in a governor's office before, there's a great deal governors can do in states and economic developments in each states can do to help attract business and to keep businesses there. Clearly, this was a case where they were able to keep things in Indiana and it needed help from an outside negotiator which in this case ended up being Donald Trump. And I think maybe there needs to be a partnership between state and federal to make this happen.
But to avoid what Peter's referring to, I think tomorrow they're roll out the details of this. This could be a consistent policy across the board so there's no inferences of picking winners and losers here and making sure that they show that, whether it's a stick with going overseas and giving them a horse taxes to bring that goods back or it's a carrot by providing that send of to keep them here. I think that's the key and it's a great success and it's good to be able to show that his policies are working and this is a clear example for that.
ALEX BURNS, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, NEW YORK TIMES: Well, and this is I mean what Alice is alluding to right, is that we've seen competition between states forever to give these kinds of handouts to companies. So, you know, please locate your plant here in Tennessee as opposed to and, you know, across the border in Ohio because of our labor laws or a minimum wage laws.
Traditionally, the view and, you know, the last -- I mean, has for presidency as far back as we can recalls, look, as a country, we just can't compete with, you know, Mexico or Vietnam for labor conditions and a lax regulation on the private sector. And if Trump now is everybody is been saying here right to Trump really does want to make it his chief priority to keep jobs in the U.S. and avoid them going overseas because of trade not even -- and before even if address the issue of automation. You do need some kind of blanket policy. And we've not really heard that from him yet and as with basically everything that he talked about during the campaign, he has set an exceptionally high bar for himself in terms of what his voters are going to expect him to be doing.
COOPER: And if results in higher prices for consumers, then how will, you know, consumers react to that?
KAYLEIGH MCENANY, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Well, and I think he does have a blanket policy. Namely, that Martin pointed out the fact that they were offered incentives before. They still pledged to move these jobs to Mexico. Well what's different now, what's different now is you have a president who says I'm going to lower what is the highest corporate tax rate really in the free world, I'm going to make the maximum tax rate a business pays 15 percent. That provide a lot of encouragement for this companies to keep jobs here because they see they'll be keeping more of their revenue in their buckets. That is a broad policy.
And I also think the carrot and sticks point, there are going to be some sticks. There might be some taxes on import, you might see if you build a car in Mexico, you're going to pay a heavy price for, that's the mixed of this ...
STEWART: Right.
MCENANY: ... but there -- to say there's no broad policy.
BURNS: If this was, purely a function or broad policy related to taxes in regulation, why aren't we seeing dozens of companies suddenly ask ...
MCENANY: I think he will. Look his 50 days from being ...
BURNS: I guess we'll find out.
MCENANY: ... his 50 days from being president of the United States and they've really good start that he's already creating a thousand new jobs here and ...
BURNS: No, and I mean saving jobs and that's not -- I'm not taking anything away from him. But the point is this is a sort of gubernatorial-level policy that he's executing here with Carrier and to do that on a national level it's extraordinary difficult.
[21:10:01] COOPER: Do you think the, I mean, the issues of, you know, some of the folks from the financial sector who he has been appointing -- I mean, from those who voted for him, do you think that matters for those, you know who wanted training this swamp ...
POWERS: No -- I've, yeah, well I think first of all he has a lot good well from the people who voted for him.
COOPER: Sure.
POWERS: But I think he's -- yeah, it's a little bit of leeway and it's true that people don't like Wall Street but tough distinguish between -- there was an article in the Harvard Business review about it was called what people don't get about the working class and they are really talking about the white working class. And if the fact of they really they admire the rich, especially the superrich in a very successful, like Donald Trump. And who they really resent our professionals, so lawyers, doctors, journalists, you know, teachers, people who they feel are sort of looking down on them. And so I do think when they look at some of these people they see highly successful people like Donald Trump who have made it.
And so the question is, how does that balance out with the fact that they don't like Wall Street and I think that remains to be seen.
COOPER: Did you -- do you -- I mean, do you think it matters?
BEINART: Look, I don't think the issue is not just whether some working Wall Street. Is Elizabeth Warren thing to what are the policies? So the tax policy, for instance, right the independent analyst, not just liberals but our center-right as well have said that, that you're going to get at 1 percent reduction in taxes for middle class people and a 10 or 15 percent reduction for rich people.
So think more ordinary Americans are not going to see on a benefit from that. Doesn't so much matter that if the person is doing it from Wall Street of that department. They're simply not going to benefit from those kind of tax policies.
COOPER: It's so fascinated that tomorrow that we're going to see Alex, you know, the president-elect and the vice president-elect going out on basically a victory tour. They're calling it a victory tour. I mean, I don't think we've ever seen that before.
BURNS: They're calling it thank you tour.
(CROSSTALK)
BURNS: No, I mean this is part of, you know, you heard almost immediately after the election, even before the election for folks in the Trump camp tour optimistic, this sense that he likes getting out there, he's going to want to keep doing this, you're going to have to let him do it. There are people talking about doing it that week. They've obviously waited a ways. But, you know, look its pretty normal, actually, for a president, once he takes office, to get out and around the country and make policy announcements, do your sort of factory tour level stuff. This part is unusual to sit -- have somebody out there even before the take off. There's easy a little deference to the sitting president to say, you know, I'm not in the job yet.
COOPER: But I mean, it does say a lot about Donald Trump and what he whether its what he needs or what he likes that getting out there, mixing it up whether it's on Twitter or in person. I mean I think going out on the campaign trail, I think he saw how much he liked that experience.
STEWART: I think really in us to thank you to. I think it's a great gesture to show appreciation for his supporters and those who really worked hard to -- and voted for him. But also there have been some in his campaign that have said, yes, he does like the rallies, he does likes interaction with people, he does like to get the feedback from them. So this is, you know, maybe it's a reward for him for all this hard work.
MCENANY: But it's also...
STEWART: I think it's a well gesture.
MCENANY: Yeah, exactly and he's taking this message directly to the American people. And he's always been about getting his message out there without filters and he does that via Twitter and via rallies and I think that's a really good thing.
COOPER: All right, a lot more to discuss over the rest to of the hour. Donald Trump is now vowing to cut ties with his business empire, I should say the business operations to avoid the perception of conflicts to the interest. One of the potential problems is new Washington, D.C., hotel, when e's obviously very proud of. Well some critics are now raising questions about the hotel coming up.
Also tonight, a "360" exclusive, Senator Elizabeth Warren blasting the Trump transition, plus, her take on the election results and more.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:17:06] COOPER: Today, president-elect Trump vowed to cut his ties with his business empire with the orbit -- the running of it on Twitter he wrote, quote "I will be holding a major news conference in New York City with my children on December 15th to discuss the fact that I'll be leaving my great business in total in order to fully focus on running the country in order to make America great again. While I'm not mandated to do this under law, I feel it's visually important as president, to a no way have a conflict of interest with my various businesses. Hence, legal documents are being crafted which take me completely out of business operations. The presidency is a far more important task."
Where on to stay still, many are asking -- oh that's actually that within the tweets. But many though are still asking about, exactly how Donald Trump will go about this with his newest business venture and for instance, just down the street from the White House. Randi Kaye, tonight reports.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Trump International Hotel in the heart of Washington, D.C., luxury at its best, so its no surprise that the kingdom of Bahrain chose the hotel to celebrate its king in the launching next month. Trouble is the hotel is owned by president- elect Donald Trump. And the United States constitution banned officials from accepting payments from foreign powers without congressional approval.
RICHARD PAINTER, CHIEF ETHICS LAWYER FOR PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH: The government of Bahrain is going to be paying for this event at the Trump Hotel. This particular transaction could very well be in violation.
KAYE: It's all spelled out in Article I, Section XI, known is the Foreign Emoluments Clause. The clause is designed to prevent the U.S. government official from profiting from his officer employment. It bars the president and others from accepting anything from any king, prince or foreign state.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF UNITED STATES: This is the most coveted piece of real estate in Washington, D.C., the best location.
KAYE: Now Trump's D.C. hotel house in the historic post office pavilion is ratcheting up the conversation about Trump's business affairs and whether they will present a conflict of interest once, he's sworn in.
PAINTER: He needs to sell the assets, get the cash, a lot of couple billion dollars, which is a nice start in life for him and his kids and then he can become president of the United States.
KAYE: Another potential problem with this hotel is that Donald Trump is leasing the property from the federal government. So when he becomes president, he could end up being both landlord and tenant. That's tricky because federal contracting laws actually prohibit awarding a government contract to a federal employee.
The government services administration or GSA leased the federal property to the Trump organization for 60 years for $180 million. That lease also states that no elected official of the government of the United States shall be admitted to any share or part of this lease or to any benefit that may arise there from.
TRUMP: This was a GSA and that was one of the most heavily bid projects ever in the history of GSA.
KAYE: The GSA may have to breach the contract making it liable for tends of million in monetary damages to the president. President Trump or his family could also end up sewing the GSA, which the president oversees if lease is violated.
[21:20:08] PAINTER: He already has another place on Pennsylvania have to they ought to be all looking after for the next four years and that hotel ought to belong to someone else.
KAYE: A Trump spokeswoman told us that a top priority is the immediate transfer of management of the Trump Organization and its portfolio of businesses to Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric Trump, without offering specifics, the spokesman said Trump will comply with all applicable rules and regulations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: And the former White House ethics lawyer that I spoke with today for that story Anderson had a couple of scenarios that he suggested. He said that Donald needs to get rid of his businesses. Don't sell it to his children, don't give it to his children, get it out of the family.
He also suggested that Congress has some type of resolution and directly at Donald Trump insisting that he suggest (ph), that he get rid of his business and if he refuses to do so, that he has to provide proof that he's not violating any of the clauses in that constitution. So certainly a lot to be worked out Anderson before an operation, back to you.
COOPER: Randi, thanks very much.
A lot to discuss. Joining me is CNN chief political analyst, Gloria Borger, and back with us our political analyst, Alex Burns, and national political reporter for "The New York Times", and Kirsten Powers, the "USA Today" columnist.
Gloria, Bahrain hosting the event at Trump's Hotel, I mean regardless of whether or not they have any ulterior motive here, this is the kind of thing that certainly could raise questions going forward.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Sure, because it looks like a country, not just a person but a country is actually trying to curry favor with the president-elect to the United States and, as Randi Kaye points out in her piece, this is actually a constitutional issue once he becomes president. It's illegal to do that. And one other thing I ought to point out here, is that it wasn't that long ago when Donald Trump was complaining that Hillary Clinton was mixing personal gain with policy over at the State Department and the Clinton Foundation. So he understands very well that this could be a big problem for him. He made it into a big problem for Hillary Clinton it became one of his major talking points.
COOPER: Alex, I mean President-elect Trump saying look he's going to take himself out of business operations, he's going to have a press conference with more details on this later but that's not ownership and ownership is important.
BURNS: Ownership is really the whole ball game if Hillary Clinton wasn't involved in the operations of the Clinton Foundation when she was Secretary of State, but the web of financial connections raised some really serious questions that were major campaign issues. If you have a president of the United States, then I don't think anybody expects Donald Trump as president to be, you know, involved in little ribbon cuttings at new hotels around the world or imagine the operations of the Trump Hotel in Washington.
But when you have day to day a president making policy that involves countries, other spending money in his businesses that is a much, much more complicated preposition.
COOPER: And then of course, the others it was his children, if they're running the company, are they also advising him?
BURNS: Right? And he is then pretty open that his children are going to have a role, flexibles, sort of undefined role. And his administration that we've seen, Ivanka Trump seat on meeting with world leaders and a potential administration of point is already.
COOPER: But, you know, just a point Alex -- Kristen, in the sense, this was already baked in to the election. I mean, Donald Trump talked about this before he won the election. Voters had a chance to assess whether or not they cared enough to not allow him to be the president. He said, you know, that he was going to figure out something to do. He didn't talk about, you know, selling all of his businesses. Voters made their choice.
POWERS: Well, I mean -- I don't know about that. I mean, I think that there was maybe it's an expectation that he would possibly put things into a blind trust or try to figure out some way to distance himself, and I don't think having the children run the business is really distancing himself considering how close he is to his children. And how, you know, it's not like they talk every now and then they talk all the time and there in official positions on transition team.
And so let's just imagine Chelsea Clinton, is on Hillary's transition team let's just stop right there because there would be hysteria, right. I mean, if Chelsea Clinton was working on the transitions team. And then out of the ...
COOPER: Sitting in a meeting with ...
POWERS: Yes, and sitting in a meeting, I'm sitting and on phone calls with leaders, right. And so you can then pretty quickly see where the problem is. And so the idea that Donald Trump thinks that this is OK, or actually, to be fair, we don't really know what he's going to do. So, we have to wait and see what he's going to do. But I think that anything less than putting it in a blind trust, which the "Wall Street Journal" has said what he needs to do is not really going to be enough.
COOPER: Does he seem to understand the scope of the potential conflicts of the problems because he seems to have moved somewhat, you know, into this position that he's in now, but taking himself out of the business operations.
BORGER: Well, I think he does understand it more and more every single day as he kind of comes to grips with what the coming president means. And I think he's beginning to understand that every foreign policy move he would make, every question about, say, gee, how did you reform the tax code and how does that benefit real estate? What's your policy on interest rates? How does that benefit real estate?
[21:25:12] I think he's beginning to get the sense of that and I have no idea whether they regret the fact that his daughter was sitting in on these meetings but I know for a fact that people raised it and said, gee, maybe -- maybe you shouldn't do that. So I think he sort of coming to terms with this. I mean, a lots of people think he go to just liquidate and sell off it's interest in the company to his kids. And some people are suggesting there's another way to get around this which is to actually appoint a mediator, somebody who would stand between you and your children and kind of make sure that every decision was ethically sound and that the president of the United State was not involved. You know, that might be a solution. But I think he's getting it.
COOPER: The other issue though is, I mean, it sort of raises questions again about his tax returns, because there's a lot -- that's not known really about the sort of the international dealings of his business and whether, I mean, I'm wondering if he says down the road. Well, look, I've taken myself out of the business operations or whatever it is, whatever, you know, situation he sets up, therefore, I don't really need to release my tax returns because it's done. I'm out of it.
POWERS: I mean, he could, but the problem is this, is this similar to the foundation and it gives other people ways to try to curry favor. Right? So that was the problem with the foundation. It was like, why are they giving money to the foundation? Are they giving it because they want to do good work, or they doing it because they want access to the secretary of state?
So that's the problem with these businesses even if the children are still running them. The question is, when people are dealing with the Trump organization, are they doing it to try to curry favor to the president of the United States? So this -- so we have these problems coming from every possible direction.
COOPER: Alex?
BURNS: And as complicated as all of this is now and as many are his trip wires as there are for Donald Trump right now. You know, talk to folks on Washington who deal with ethic issues sort of investigated ethic issues in the past. They see, you know, once he's actually making foreign policy decisions related to the military, the economy, trade, it's just almost impossible to imagine that you're not going to have at least the appearance that he is being nice to people who have done nice things to his company and we know from the campaign, Anderson, if you remember, to how many speeches did he have this sort of encyclopedic memory of who has been nice to him in the past. Do his on business within the past, who he saw at that great event, you know, at this point and in the past.
COOPER: It sound charter (ph) water, but it gets me fascinating, Alex Burns, Kirsten Powers, Gloria Borger, thanks.
POWERS: Sure.
COOPER: Just ahead tonight, my exclusive interview with Senator Elizabeth Warren about the Trump transition which she thinks Americans were expecting from the president-elect.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:31:34] COOPER: As we've said, the Trump transition team announced two more cabinet picks today, former Wall Street of banker Steven Mnuchin for treasury secretary and billionaire investor Wilbur Ross to head the Commerce Department.
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren has said obviously lots to say about the Trump transition. We have the cabinet shaping up. I spoke to her earlier. Here's some of our exclusive interview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Is there a chance for common ground between you and other Democrats in a Trump administration? I mean, things like infrastructure spending, opposition to TPP support for reviving Glass- Steagall which is in a law separating commercial investment banking. I mean, would you work for Donald Trump on these and any other issues?
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN, (D) MASSACHUSETTS: Look, I think the real question is how does Donald Trump want to run his administration? If he wants to run his administration on bigotry and on Wall Street insiders trickle down economic that helps a handful of people of the top and leaves everybody else behind, I can't be part of them and I don't think that's where Democrats are.
COOPER: So, even if there's more infrastructure spending, which is something you support in general, if it's not done in the way, you know, if it's done through -- it's lowering taxes or corporate taxes.
WARREN: If it's -- he trying to help, if it's done to try to help those at the top and it's not actually going to provide jobs and economic growth and opportunity for the rest of America, you know, you can't just put a slap and name on something and say, "Gee, would you automatically sign up for this?: What is really about are those core principles.
You know, we believe in dignity for everyone. That's what it is about. That's where you start. That's the stuff you don't negotiate over. And the rest of it, we really believe in building economic opportunity. We now have an economy that is working great. It's working great for those right at the top and everybody else in this economy is being left behind.
Isn't just about the poor. This is about working families, this is about middle class families, this is about upper middle class families. This is about people who worry that they can't afford to educate their children. This is about people who worry that they can't afford to retire. This is about people who see no economic future for themselves and others like themselves. We have to do better than that as a country. We once build an America that worked not just for those at the top. It worked across a full range. We weren't perfect, but we were bending it in the right direction.
And for 30 years now we have done trickle down economics and it has been an ugly mix of deregulation and just writing one law after another that helps those at the top. Tax cuts for the big guys, no spending for anybody else. We have to reverse that.
COOPER: When you look at that electoral map, here's my final question, when you look at that electoral map, I mean there's blue on both coasts, basically, and there's a lot of red in the entire rest of the country. Do you feel like you're out of touch? Because tshat's what the Republicans say about you, that you're out of touch.
WARREN: Out of touch when 2.3 million more people voted for the Democratic candidate than the Republican candidate? When the Democrats picked up seats in the Senate and the Republicans lost. When the Democrats picked up seats in the House of Representatives and the Republicans lost. You know, let's be clear, we are not the minority here. We are the party of opposition. [21:35:00] COOPER: But it sounds like you're saying you won but you didn't. So what went wrong?
WARREN: Well, look, what I'm saying is that more Americans agreed on with the Democratic candidate for president than agreed with the Republican for president. And not by a little bit, she won by a substantial margin indeed as the numbers keep coming in, that margin continues to grow.
COOPER: But your saying that an economic message that is not resonating with voters in Rust Belt States. Even that term Rust Belt is offensive in those states where people hurting, your message is not resonating.
WARREN: And that's what I was -- that's what I was just talking about. We're talking about an economy that for more than 30 years has been effectively a trickle-down economy. This economy has been full of deregulation so Wall Street could do better and what's happening, Donald Trump turning around and appointing the ultimate Wall Street insider, I think he's called Mr. Wall Street, to come in and have the keys to the treasury. We need an economy that works across the range that produces good jobs, produces a future.
COOPER: But it sounds like you're telling those workers ...
WARREN: ... produces opportunity all across the range.
COOPER: Sorry to interrupt. It sounds like you're telling those workers who are out of jobs who voted for Donald Trump in Ohio and other places that they just were mistaken, that they were sold a bill of goods that they -- or they just don't understand what's in their best interests.
WARREN: Well, I'm sorry, Anderson. I mean, did you just hear what we said about Donald Trump? He promised that he was going to run this government for the American people and not for Wall Street, what he's just done is he's just put a Wall Streeter in charge of the treasury and not just a random one, a guy who actually helped package all of those toxic mortgages, a guy who bought a bank, that made its fortune by squeezing people hard on foreclosure. That's the person who is going to be the chief economic officer of United States.
I mean, Donald Trump said one who said one thing during the campaign and now has reversed that by 180 degrees by what he is actually doing.
COOPER: Senator Elizabeth Warren, I appreciate your time. Thank you.
WARREN: You bet.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well coming up, these are widely believed to be the final four candidates close to becoming Secretary of State, Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, Retired General David Petraeus and Senator Bob Corker. Still a guessing game at this point but we'll look into it, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:41:21] COOPER: The field of potential Secretary of State candidates has narrows to four. Fareed Zakaria has a moment -- first Sunlen Serfaty joins me now with the latest. So, let's talk about the four contenders, what do we know?
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, really interesting today's transition officials for the first time really putting a name to two of the finalists as you said, four they said and no surprise here naming Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani as the top two contenders. Of course, the question, who are the other two? We know according to transition sources Tennessee Senator Bob Corker and also General David Petraeus also on that list, and certainly a lot of drama still including this high-profile cabinet position. A very public round of auditions and interviews going on, transition officials tell us so, not to expect any cabinet announcements this week, so it seems that is very public round of auditioning will continue for a at least a short time longer.
COOPER: Did they go into any details about what the president-elect's requirements are for a candidate?
SERFATY: Yes, this is really interesting, transition officials today really talked about what's on Donald Trump's mind right now as he considers filling out this top post, clearly taking this decision very seriously, outlining three requirements that's really top on his mind right now. He wants to choose someone, according to transition officials, who shares his world view, who Trump namely thinks would do a good job representing the United States abroad and this was interesting, someone who has good chemistry with Donald Trump and that really struck my ear a little bit because that was the same exact language that they used coming out of that meeting last night with Mitt Romney here in New York. They said that Mitt Romney and Donald Trump shared good chemistry at that dinner last night.
COOPER: All right. It also seems though, by most accounts, that whatever happens, whoever chooses the dinner between Romney and Trump night was at least, according to them, a positive experience.
SERFATY: Absolutely. By all accounts it does seem like they went a long way in burying the hatchet. They seeing their second formal meeting since Donald Trump was chosen as president that he had a two- hour meeting last night. We know that after that meeting, you know, we really saw Mitt Romney lavish praise on Donald Trump and really commend his transition, the job he's doing and really giving him credit saying, look, he did something that I could never win. He won a general election, so certainly trying to smooth things over as he tries out for this job.
COOPER: All right, Sunlen Serfaty, Sunlen thanks.
Joining me now with more in the options, Donald Trump considering for Secretary of State, CNN World Affairs Analyst, Fareed Zakaria, host of CNN "Fareed Zakaria GPS".
You know, most people that Donald Trump is looking at for Secretary of State have a breath of experience, I mean they're all accomplished people. It's interesting on Mitt Romney, given what Mitt Romney had not only said about Donald Trump during the election but also even when he was running for president about Russia that Donald Trump would be considering him in such a public way.
FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST FAREED ZAKARIA GPS: So I think there are two possible interpretations, one which I have to confess is the dominant one, is that this is a very slow, public humiliation of Mitt Romney.
COOPER: Really?
ZAKARIA: Romney has now twice been required to publicly general reflect in front of Trump but if you look at every other appointment Trump has made, they have been hard core loyalists who have been with him from the start.
COOPER: And loyalty is something very important to Donald Trump.
ZAKARIA: Really, he prizes it. The alternative explanation, which I hope might be true is that this is a way of reaching out to the establishment and unifying the Republican Party because, in a sense, Mitt Romney was the leader of the Never Trump. And so by bringing him on board, it would be kind of -- the ultimate act of unifying the party. You know, we'll see which one it is.
COOPER: You know, I mean, among the people on the short list, you know, David Petraeus has been over to see Donald Trump, Bob Corker, obviously Rudy Giuliani. We talked about Mitt Romney. Who do you think has the most foreign policy experience?
[21:45:07] ZAKARIA: Oh, there's no question, David Petraeus is in the league of his own. David Petraeus is miles ahead of all these people and I don't mean that with any disrespect to the other people but Petraeus is one of the most accomplished generals in American history. What he did on the battlefield in Iraq and I've watched a little bit, you know, visited with him, he's a remarkable leader. He is remarkably strategic. He has deep knowledge and connections, not just in the Middle East. If you look at the work he's done after that, he is really a very profound understanding of the interdependent economics of North America, US/Mexico and US/Canada which is actually going to be will prove to be a fascinating subject for him were he to have to be part of renegotiating NAFTA.
So I think Petraeus is really would be an extraordinary choice. I certainly of all those names, I think he would be by far the most competent, talented person to do it. But they are all good people.
COOPER: There's a fascinating readout of a phone call that was released from -- between President-elect Trump and the Pakistan Prime Minister. And it reads -- it's very detailed readout of, according to the Pakistanis, what Donald Trump said, you know, that he was very complementary of the Prime Minister of Pakistan saying he's doing a fantastic job, that Pakistanis are one of the most intelligent people that he looks forward to, you know, to working with them. Were you surprised that, A, they released this in detail and the things that were talked about? ZAKARIA: I'm surprised at how accurate it sounds. It sounds, you know, people should read the transcript because it does sound so much like Donald Trump.
COOPER: I mean, he said that, you know, feel free to call me any time even before January 20th, he would love to come to a fantastic country, fantastic place of fantastic people.
ZAKARIA: Now, here's the part that I think maybe people have forgotten. This fantastic country full of fantastic people whom Donald Trump thinks are just fantastic would under any version of Trump's Muslim ban not be allowed to come to the United State.
(OFF-MIC)
ZAKARIA: Well, because it's countries that export terrorism, Muslim countries, countries of concern and any defamation, Pakistan would be part of the probably ...
COOPER: Top of the list.
ZAKARIA: Very much top of the list. It will also come as a great surprise I think to people in India because Trump has been talking about what a great place India is and how the Indians are wonderful and how he loves Hindus and of course India and Pakistan have these deep tensions.
So look I think the nice way you could put it, he was being diplomatic President Sharif of course does not have much power in Pakistan, Pakistan foreign policy in particular is pretty tightly under the control of the military. But I think it gives us a sense of, you know, Trump is a good salesman. He makes people feel at home.
COOPER: Yeah, it gives you a sense of how he makes deals.
ZAKARIA: Yeah.
COOPER: It's really interesting to read.
ZAKARIA: Everyone is fantastic.
COOPER: Yeah, well.
ZAKARIA: And you, Anderson, are fantastic.
COOPER: I don't think so, not right now but, you know, the rainbow comes and goes. Fareed Zakaria, thanks very much.
ZAKARIA: My pleasure.
COOPER: Up next, the police killing of Keith Lamont Scott set off mass of protests in Charlotte just two months ago. You may remember, well today, the DA announced that the police officer will face no charges. The latest from Charlotte, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [21:52:02] COOPER: The police officer who fatally shot a man in North Carolina two months ago setting off massive protest will not face any charges. That is the word today from the district attorney who said that the killing of Keith Lamont Scott was justified.
Now, we haven't seen wide spread protesting tonight, although, there was a scuffle between police and a handful of protesters a short time ago. Ryan Young has more tonight from Charlotte.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He has no weapon. He has no weapon.
RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: From the moment video surfaced in late September, police, Keith Lamont Scott's family and community members. All offers bearing accounts of the events that led up to the deadly encounter.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He doesn't have a gun. He has a TBI. He's not going to do anything to you guys. He just took his medicine.
YOUNG: The video shows a tense standoff in which Scott's wife, Rakeyia can be heard shouting at police that her husband has a TBI or Traumatic Brain Injury that he suffered from a near death motor cycle crushed last year that left him disabled.
Police maintain they were looking for someone else with an outstanding warrant at the apartment complex September 20th when they noticed Scott sitting in his SUV. The video shows Scott exiting his vehicle and ignoring officers' commands to drop his weapon.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The police just shot my daddy both times for being black.
YOUNG: In a Facebook live video that circulated widely after the shooting, Scott's daughter, Lyric Scott, who said she did not see the shooting, said her father was reading a book when he was shot and accused police of targeting him because of his race and of planting evidence.
Wednesday, the district attorney pointed at this photo. Investigators believe shows the gun poking from Scott's ankle at a gas station before the shooting.
Murray also told reporters, DNA was found on the grip of the weapon found at the scene.
ANDREW MURRAY, MECKLENBURG COUNTRY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Mr. Scott's gun, a colt 380 semiautomatic was recovered at the scene. It had one round in the chamber, the safety was off and the gun was cocked.
YOUNG: The officer who fired the fatal shot, Brentley Vinson is also black, but that did little to calm the furry as days of heated protest erupted in downtown, Charlotte. After the DA's announcement, Scott's family vowed not to stop fighting. CHARLES MONNETT, SCOTT FAMILY ATTORNYER: We still have real questions about the decisions that were made that day in terms of how they confronted Keith, how they reacted to the information that he had a brain injury and whether they used appropriate de-escalation techniques to end this situation in a way that didn't result in the loss of Keith Scott's life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Into this decision?
YOUNG: Well, Anderson, we want to let you know, some of the scuffles that happened here today was over that flag right there. Some of the protesters actually tried to take it down. Police officers stopped that.
And recently, the protesters started walking again. They started pushing up against the police officers or on bicycles trying to push them back. And at this point they started working toward the intersection again.
[21:55:10] We've seen police here a lot more aggressive today, making sure people stayed out of the streets. Right now, they're corralling them in this little area making sure that traffic still flows.
So, the interesting night we know about four arrests so far, but this group now are down to about 25 to 30 people.
COOPER: All right. Ryan Young. Ryan, appreciate it. Thanks very much.
We'll be right back to pay tribute to someone that we lost, the creator, one of my all-time favorite things.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Before we go, a quick with fund farewell to a man who's named and impact on countless lives. Mine included, probably, maybe even billions of lives, billions of serve. You've probably don't know the name, Jim Delligatti but believe me you know his works.
He invented one of my all time favorite creations, the "Big Mac". He invented it in 1967. It's the number one meal, in case you're not familiar with McDonald's. You don't have to say Big Mac anymore, you can just say the number one meal and you get the Big Mac and you get the fries and you get a coke or whatever soda you'd like.
Jim Delligatti was 98 years old. And we're very sad to hear today of his passing. And I'm going to have a Big Mac tonight in his honor. That does it for us. Thanks very much for watching.
"CNN TONIGHT" with Don Lemon starts now.
[22:00:04] DON LEMON, CNN HOST: Donald Trump asked to his billionaires club aka, cabinet.