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Trump Allies Jockeying for Spots in Administration; Biden to Address the Nation; Trump and Allies Prepare to Retake Power; China's Xi Jinping Congratulates Trump; World Leaders react to Trump's Return. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired November 07, 2024 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: But at the end of the day, these cleaner alternatives now are the cheapest in human history.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Right.

WEIR: So, Texas leads the nation in green energy right now. So, we'll see. But the immediate pain, that's what folks have to deal with, these immediate storms and wildfires.

SIDNER: Yes, and we're seeing them play out right now in California, a place where some insurers have pulled back because they can't keep affording to rebuild those houses.

WEIR: Exactly.

SIDNER: It is always a pleasure to see you, even though you bring us sometimes disappointing and sad -

WEIR: Knowledge is power.

SIDNER: It is. It is.

Bill Weir, it's always great to see you. Thank you.

WEIR: Thank you.

SIDNER: And over to you. The next - a new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: We've got new information about when we might hear about some of the to picks for the incoming Trump administration.

Winding down the federal cases against Donald Trump. Special counsel Jack Smith in talks with Justice Department leaders. What options does he really have left?

And a major decision coming today from the Federal Reserve on interest rates. Will we see another cut? What impact did the proposed Trump tariffs have on their decision?

I'm John Berman, with Kate Bolduan and Sara Sidner. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SIDNER: This morning, President-elect Donald Trump's transition backs to power already in full swing. And to stick with Trump's favorite pastime, a whole bunch of highly critical questions are right now teed up. Who will be in his ear in the Oval Office? Several names are being floated for his cabinet. And what will become of Trump's day one promises, his legal cases, and what about his party's power in Congress? Control of the House still up for grabs, but Republicans, this morning, seen more and more on track to keep control there after winning back the Senate.

Alayna Treene is leading us off from outside of Mar-a-Lago this morning.

Alayna, a lot going on near you. I know there's a lot of conversations happening. What can you share with us that you're hearing this morning?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: That's right there are. And look, Donald Trump's team has begun setting up offices and kind of making this the headquarters here in Palm Beach for Donald Trump's transition.

Now, we know that a lot of people over the past several days, but also more so in the past 24 hours, once it became clear that Donald Trump was going to be the president and win the election, have really ramped up their efforts and kind of that - that behind-the-scenes jockeying for some of these top roles. Rolls that, I should say, that Donald Trump really had no interest in seriously discussing prior to him winning. He is superstitious. He did not want to get really into the weeds of who he would be selecting for his cabinet and other key roles. But that has, of course, changed now and they are really, you know, in go mode trying to sort this out before Inauguration Day.

Now, some of the key positions that I know Donald Trump values most are the ones that are, of course, being the most heavily discussed behind-the-scenes. One of the big questions is who will be his chief of staff? Now, a lot of people have argued that Susie Wiles, his Trump campaign - Trump's campaign manager should be considered for chief of staff. She has been floated. However, I am also hearing from others that some people believe that she would be better in a role, like a counselor role or a senior adviser role, similar to what we saw Kellyanne Conway, his former 2016 campaign manager, do in that first administration.

Some other names, though, being floated for that are Russ Vought. He's someone who was - worked in the Trump administration - the first Trumpet administration, I should say, but also has remained very close to Donald Trump in his role as the head of a key conservative policy shop that has been working closely with Trump and its allies. We've also heard names like Brooke Rollins and Bob Lighthizer.

Now, another big role that I think is maybe the biggest role in Donald Trump's mind is the question of who will be his attorney general. Donald Trump has said in the past that he has regretted selecting people like Jeff Sessions and Bill Barr to run the Department of Justice. This is going to be a huge question for Donald Trump, particularly as we know he has kind of promised to seek retribution on political opponents and has told and said publicly to others in the past that he believes he is justified in seeing that type of retribution. Some names we've heard for that are Ken Paxton of Texas, who has also, like Trump, been impeached. We've also heard of Mike Lee, the senator from Utah. Another -- other names being floated for that, but I think that's going to be one of the key roles to keep your eye on given how much Donald Trump believes that that is a very important role that he wants to fill.

SIDNER: Yes, clearly does not want the guardrails that were put in place by those who he did not appreciate during his first administration.

Alayna Treene, thank you so much for all your reporting. I know it's been a long few days.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, this morning, President Biden is set to address the nation for the first time on camera - before camera since Donald Trump's election victory.

CNN's Arlette Saenz is at the White House for us tracking this.

[09:05:02]

Arlette, what are you hearing about what President Biden's going to say?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, the nation will hear from President Biden for the first time since voters decided to send Donald Trump back to the White House next year. His speech is really expected to reflect on this election, as well as talk about the transition forward. Advisers to Biden have said that he is committed to ensuring that there is a peaceful transfer of power. That is something that Biden was not afforded by Trump back in the 2020 race.

And the president has already called President-elect Trump to congratulate him on his victory and inside him here to the White House. Sources say that is a meeting that could potentially happen as early as next week.

Now, the president, yesterday, released a statement relating to the election and only talked about Vice President Kamala Harris, saying that she ran an historic campaign under extraordinary circumstances. The president, last night, also had the chance to address the staff here at the White House by phone, where he talked about something that he could also mention in his speech today, saying, quote, "while I am sure you're all feeling a variety of emotion today, I hope there's one emotion you didn't lose sight of. That's pride, pride in everything we've accomplished." He then ran through a number of initiatives he thinks will have lasting impact in this county.

But one big question going into this speech is whether President Biden will address in any way what exactly went wrong for Democrats that caused - that prompted their loss against Trump in this election. There has been a lot of soul-searching and questioning about messaging and strategy over the last 48 hours.

And there's also been a lot of blame and finger-pointing directed at President Biden. There are many Democrats who believe that he really hampered their Democratic chances in this election by even deciding to run for a second term in the first place. And then by the time he had bowed out, there were just over 100 days left for any Democratic nominee to run this race. So, we'll see if he addresses that in any way. But he is now facing this new reality where his predecessor will be returning to the White House next year. And the White House says that he insists on ensuring there is a peaceful and smooth transition in the meantime.

BOLDUAN: Yes, and in the meantime, what is Biden planning to do with the remaining months in the White House?

SAENZ: Well, in that call with White House staff last night, the White House chief of staff, Jeff Zients, told them that there is still so much more work to do and they need to focus on that in these closing months. Now, there are a number of agenda items that staffers and aides are focused on as they're really trying to safeguard key parts about his legacy at a time went Trump has threatened to undo some of Biden's initiatives. One area that they're going to be focused on is trying to get more aid to Ukraine at a time where future U.S. support for Ukraine is in question.

They're also going to focus on implementing legislative - pieces of legislation like the infrastructure law, the Inflation Reduction Act, trying to get more money out the door for these types of projects. There's also a potential that they could focus on judicial nominations in these closing months as Democrats have control in the Senate.

But for President Biden, so much of his legacy will be tied up in this election. And so they will be trying to work to try to safeguard some of that in the months to come.

John.

BERMAN: All right, Arlette Saenz at the White House.

Arlette, thank you very much.

With us now, our senior political commentators, Scott Jennings, former special assistant to President George W. Bush, and Van Jones, former Obama administration official.

So really the focus is now on what's next. And I guess the first what's next in terms of the Trump transition is who he surrounds himself with. Who do you think he will? What will it tell us? What are your big concerns?

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I'm sure he's getting bombarded, you know, with people who want to come in. The trick of any transition is finding the best possible team. And people who were loyal to your agenda and who want to execute on that, but also stay within your leadership parameters. You know, that's the - that's how you build this thing. So, look, I think he's got some great people putting it together. I

think Linda McMahon and Howard Lutnick and some of the staff that are working on it, have been working for months diligently. I think they have a plan.

He's got a lot of people to review. I'm sure they've put together lists. You know, here are the top 10 people for each job. And he's got a lot of people to review, a lot of files to review, a lot of pros and cons list to go over. It's a lot. This is - this is when the decision- making of the presidency really hits -

BERMAN: Do you think he'll pick the best people or the most loyal?

JENNINGS: I think - yes. I mean, I'm not -

BERMAN: That's a non answer.

JENNINGS: I'm not - I'm not sure - I'm not sure they're mutually exclusive in a lot of cases. And I - and here's what I also think. I think a lot of people are going to want to go work for him. They're going to want to be part of it. And now, because you've got a full Republican government most likely in Washington, look what you can do for the next two years. It's a really valuable thing.

BERMAN: So, what he just said, Van, a full Republican government, look what you can do.

[09:10:03]

From the Democratic side then, again, looking forward, what can you do? What would you like to see Democrats do in positioning themselves?

VAN JONES, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Therapy. Prayer. Like, what can we do? We just got run over by a train at this point. I mean, look, two things to observe. This is not the same opportunity for Trump as last time. Last time it was - it felt like a fluke. He seemed like a clown. And, you know, people weren't sure what to do with this guy.

When you have the kind of unbelievable avalanche victory you just had, he can get anybody. I mean that's the different thing. And so, watch who he picks because he could literally - when you're going in with the popular vote, the Electoral College, the Senate, the House, I mean, you know, he got a billion extra dollars yesterday just from waking up with the stock market. When you're riding that kind of high, you don't have to pick weirdos. You don't have to pick mean people. You don't have to pick people whose Twitter accounts are full of white nationalist garbage. You can pick literally the best. If he chooses not to, if he chooses people who would be objectionable to anybody's standard, then that lets you know something very, very scary about where he's going.

BERMAN: So, where do Democrats fight? You know, where do they choose to pick their battles and where do they choose to work with him?

JONES: Well, I - right now we still have - somebody hit us upside the head with a baseball bat and we're still literally just running around in circles. So, we're going to have to wait to see, what does he do? Who does he pick? If he picks some total weirdos or some scary people or people who we think are Russian operatives, we will - we will focus on that.

But here's the thing, we are now surrounded (ph) outnumbered. So, we - you know, it's - strategically, it's 10 against one. Technically it might be, you know, might go the other way, like pick this one, pick that one. But, right, we're still 48 hours into a different world. I mean anybody tells you they know what Democrat are going to do is lying.

JENNINGS: I'm interested - I'm interested to see how the Democrats play this because I think one of the things that people told us was, we need a moments peace.

JONES: Yes.

JENNINGS: The mandate was clear. And the last time Trump got in, there wasn't a moments peace. There was plotting to try to tie up his administration right out of the gate. And, you know, there's been some of that plotting already.

My advice to Dems would be, read the room. The American people responded to what he ran on. They want something to happen. It would be a folly, in my opinion, to not give him a chance to govern. He clearly has earned it.

BERMAN: Can I just say though, and I don't want to look backwards, but there is a double standard here, right, because already the Democrats have done two things that Donald Trump never did when he lost and hasn't done. Number one, say he lost, right? Kamala Harris came out and said she lost, conceded right there. Number two, the outgoing administration has reached out its hand and said, hey, let's have a transition here.

JONES: Yes.

BERMAN: Democrats have already done that. And Trump did. And it is worth marking that.

JONES: But I'm - look, I'm proud that we are not hypocrites.

BERMAN: Yes.

JONES: When we say you respect the will of the voters, we are respecting the will of the voters. And when we say peaceful transition of power, listen to Joe Biden today defend the democratic republic that we have in his words and his deeds.

BERMAN: I want - this is not politics and shouldn't be politics, stepping back, like way back here, just in terms of a society, how you guys think we can and should be staring this level of conversation.

"Wired" magazine did a piece this morning where they picked out some of the comments that have been made on social media. And I know social media, you know, it is - it is what it is here. But some of these people have been the most supportive of Donald Trump in the past. This is not Donald Trump speaking here. But, you know, Nick Fuentes updates.

JONES: Oh, God.

BERMAN: You know, "women lose again." "Your body, our choice."

JENNINGS: He didn't vote for Trump, by the way.

BERMAN: That seal - that's what I said, this is not - I'm moving. I'm taking this higher. "That ceiling is made out of brick." Another person, "big shout-out to men, especially white men who turned out in force to put women back in their place." Another one, you know, "Project 2025 is real. Women back in the kitchen. Abortions, illegal. Gays back in the closet." And it goes - it goes on.

There is this stuff out there.

JENNINGS: These are trolls.

JONES: Look, there are mean - there are mean people everywhere. And there are trolls who are trying to get attention everywhere.

JENNINGS: Yes.

JONES: But, look, I don't think that's where most people are at honestly.

JENNINGS: Right.

JONES: I think - I think most - I mean I - this - this - most of the people, I think, voted for the Trump agenda, were holding their nose on some of that stuff and they were just voting for change and out of economic pain. That's what I honestly believe.

Now, that doesn't mean we don't need to deal with the trolls. That's not the majority of Americans.

JENNINGS: These people are trying to get attention for their own purposes on Trump's back. This is not how Trump won. Trump won because people are unhappy with the economy, they were unhappy with the current administration. They want change. And now they want some action on the basic fundamental issues that they see are broken with the country.

This is garbage. This is not what Trump is going to do. I don't think this is what his people want being portrayed about how they intend to operate.

He's got a huge opportunity. He's not backing into the office. Clear mandate. Popular vote. A landslide. He's not backing in. He's pulling straight in with the wind at his back and a chance to do something amazing. And I actually think he's going to do it.

[09:15:00]

JONES: We'll see. And I think that for Democrats, we have to take a breath here. It's very easy to say it's race, it's gender. There's - it is. There is that element. But there are other elements too.

We did not build the kind of media communications infrastructure the same way that Trump caught us off guard by being on Twitter when we didn't understand Twitter. He did the same thing to us on podcasts. We're - we keep falling behind the Trump innovation team. They've got engineers on their team. They've got entrepreneurs on their team. They think differently about politics. We are too much - we're too homogenous, having a bunch of lawyers, having a bunch of people who have been in government trying to think this stuff through.

We got beat. That's what happened.

Now, Is there racism? Absolutely. Sexism? Absolutely. But if you focus on that, you miss the opportunity for innovation on our side and frankly for respect of the other side, what they achieve. They beat us. 've got to sit down. You've got to eat your Wheaties. You've got to learn and come back and deal with them in two years.

In the meantime, therapy. Therapy.

BERMAN: Van Jones. This segment brought to you by better health. Van Jones, Scott Jennings, thank you both very much.

New this morning, the leader of China sending his congratulations to President-elect Trump despite the promise of higher tariffs.

New science that says playing in your school band could help your brain stay young. So, I played trumpet, which explains why I have the brain of a 12-year-old. I'm not sure that came out like I meant it to.

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[09:20:13]

BOLDUAN: Coming in new overnight, Chinese Leader Xi Jinping offering his congratulations to President-elect Donald Trump, saying he hopes they can, quote, "get along in the new era." But hanging over that and left unsaid there is Donald Trump's threat to slap a 60 percent tariff on all Chinese imports.

CNN's Marc Stewart joins us now for more on this.

How is the Trump victory being received in China, Marc?

MARC STEWART, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kate, good morning.

Look, Beijing is trying to play things safe because it wasn't that long ago that leaders here in China would stay awake at night wondering what would happen next. And if we look at this message of congratulations from Xi Jinping, there's just a lot of safe, diplomatic speak in it, talking about win-win cooperation and mutual respect. This is a complicated relationship between these two world leaders. At

one time they bonded together in Mar-a-Lago over chocolate cake. But then things turned frosty when it came to China's response over Covid. And then, of course, these very difficult issues concerning free trade and tariffs. And the prospect of more tariffs is something that is weighing heavily on the Chinese public. We have looked at social media. There is certainly a lot of mention about this potential trade war perhaps in the works, when the Chinese economy is dealing with its own struggles.

Kate, when we look at Chinese foreign policy, at times it very much operates under this principle, if you hurt us, we're going to do something to hurt you back. You know, laying the groundwork for perhaps more trade tension.

BOLDUAN: And then there's the question of Taiwan. I mean what could happen if Trump dials back U.S. support for Taiwan?

STEWART: Right. Taiwan, really security of the whole region. I mean one thing which we have heard from Trump in the past is that he is very critical of alliances, such as NATO. You could argue that could work in China's favor, almost give it license to do what it wants with Taiwan, as well as the South China Sea.

One thing you have to remember, while Trump is certainly pushing this America first agenda, China is also trying to show its strength, very much, Kate, trying to establish itself as the leader of a new world order, an alternative to the west.

BOLDUAN: Marc Stewart, thank you.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, thank you so much, Kate.

World leaders are reacting, of course, to former President Trump returning to the White House and what that can mean for international relations.

Join me now to discuss, our CNN political and national security analyst David Sanger, as well as Josh Rogan, "Washington Post" columnist.

Thank you both for being here.

We heard Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying, look, they had a call. The call was excellent. But we've also heard from Donald Trump and what he plans to do to, quote, "end the war on day one." And we're seeing some new reporting from "The Wall Street Journal." I just kind of wanted to go through that because you wrote this really amazing piece in "The New York Times" as well kind of looking at what we could all be expecting. And it says that there's an idea proposed that would involve Kyiv promising not to join NATO for 20 years. And then, in exchange, the U.S. would continue to give Ukraine a full cache of weapons to deter a future Russian attack.

What do you think is going to happen here with Trump at the helm with Ukraine and it's war with Russia?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: So, the critical issue with Ukraine has been, who gets to decide the borders of the country? In other words, does Donald Trump call Vladimir Putin and say, in one of his early conversations, so tell me what you need? And Putin comes back and says, I want the 20 percent of the country that we're currently occupying. At which point the speculation is, and it's pure speculation because President-elect Trump has not said what he would do, is that he then calls Zelenskyy and says, do I have a deal for just. For just 20 percent of your country, 20 percent you're not in right now an anyway, you get to get an ending of this. The alternative is, we cut off your funds and your military goods.

Now, the 20 years outside of NATO, there have been ideas floating around the Biden administration for a while. It gets to a fundamental decision you have to make, which is, ultimately, is Ukraine safer inside NATO or not? It commits the United States and others to defend them. But remember, Putin has not fired into any NATO country during these three years of war.

SIDNER: Right.

[09:25:00]

Josh, I want to ask you about another war that is ongoing, that between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, which has been a huge contention and may have had an impact on what the electorate did. If you are Netanyahu at this point in time, what are you thinking?

JOSH ROGIN, COLUMNIST, "WASHINGTON POST": Right. I think I agree with everything David said about Ukraine. I don't think the Trump administration foreign policy is set. I think it depends on who the personnel are. I think there are - there's going to be internal, factional battles and things could go back and forth.

When it comes to the Israel-Gaza issue, however, there's very little mystery about what's going to happen. The Trump administration is going to give Netanyahu carte blanche and - to do whatever he wants. And what Netanyahu wants to do is to downplay negotiations for a cease-fire and to persecute his wars in Lebanon and in Gaza with - without any objection or pressure from the United States. So, that's exactly what's going to happen.

So, I think we could see that for the next months at least that there will be less of a focus on negotiation and cease-fire and hostage deal and more of a full-throated support and a full-monied and weapons support for Israel's aims, as defined by Netanyahu, for better or worse.

SIDNER: All right, I do want to ask you about the thing that Americans have been talking about ad nauseam. Their number one issue is the economy. And Donald Trump had said some very interesting things when it comes to the economy. And you had written, David, about what you heard from him and whether or not this was going to be a free, right, trade. That this is probably over. What do you make of the idea of sanctions and whether or not you think he's going to go forward with that?

SANGER: So, the core of the American leadership in the post-World War II era has been a largely free-trade, not entirely free. Obviously there have been, you know, back and forths on this, and security umbrellas for our allies. And that's been the core of American power.

We've already discussed, and Josh just discussed before, how the U.S. may pull back on some of the security commitments. And that issue came up during the first Trump administration.

What Trump is now threatening is widescale tariffs, particularly on China. And the problem with tariffs is they run in both directions. And, of course, there will be a reaction to that. And if you get into an old scale tariff war, well, we saw what that looked like in the 1930s. And there are not many economists who think we want to go down that road again.

What worries me the most, Sara, is that in the discussion of China, during the campaign, and here I put the blame on both candidates, we have discussed it as if tariffs are the solution to our China challenge, when in fact they're a very narrow part of it. China poses the biggest military threat, the biggest technological threat, the biggest economic threat. And, of course, if it shrinks in size demographically and economically, that alone is going to be a challenge for us as well. And we have not heard any discussion of that or the coming together of Russia and China. And that's the biggest, new challenge.

SIDNER: Josh, what is your take on what Xi Jinping is thinking at this point, and it these tariffs go into effect how that's going to affect all of the people here in America, and potentially China as well?

ROGIN: Sure. In my conversations with many Chinese officials, they have all said exactly the same thing, that Trump's ascendancy, his return is a high risk-high reward. They don't know which way it's going to go. It could be very bad for them or it could be very good for them. The tariffs might come around, but they might not. Xi Jinping might be able to convince Trump to make a deal to hand over Tibet in exchange for a (INAUDIBLE) or maybe not. So, this is - these are the kinds of calculations that are going on in Beijing. They're preparing for either scenario. And basically the more that American politics is divided, the more that American politics is in chaos, the better that is for them. And to what David spoke to, the fact that American credibility and its alliances, both in Europe and Asia, will certainly be in question in the next administration. That redounds to China's benefit and to Putin's benefit. And they're very happy to pick up any of the allies that the Trump administration may soon abandon.

SIDNER: David Sanger, Josh Rogin, thank you both so much. I really appreciate you coming on and having this interesting discussion. We will see what happens from here.

John.

BERMAN: All right, standing by for the opening bell on Wall Street. It is just minutes away. Look at that, stock futures up again after the huge bump up yesterday.

And happening now, 27 million people under a life-threatening fire warning.

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