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Harris Concedes Election, Committed to a Peaceful Transfer of Power; Trump Focused on Staff Picks, Second-Term Agenda; Future of Trump's Criminal and Civil Cases in Limbo; How Trump's Proposed Tariffs Could Impact the Economy. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired November 07, 2024 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM I'm Erica Hill in New York. Vice President Kamala Harris says she is committed to a peaceful transfer of power after conceding the election to Donald Trump. In her concession speech on Wednesday, Harris did something her opponent, of course, refused to do after the 2020 election.

She accepted the results. She said she had spoken with Donald Trump and congratulated him on his victory. The president-elect, meantime, celebrating his victory with supporters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENT ELECT: We overcame obstacles that nobody thought possible, and it is now clear that we've achieved the most incredible political thing. Look what happened. Is this crazy?

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: But it's a political victory that our country has never seen before. Nothing like this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Sources tell CNN Donald Trump is focused now on his second term agenda. He could announce staff picks, we're told, within days. We are also told that he has prepared a raft of executive orders and also efforts to reverse regulation for his first day in the White House.

Let's bring you more now on Vice President Kamala Harris' concession speech. Here's Jeff Zeleny.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Vice President Kamala Harris delivering a concession speech a day after losing a landslide election to former President Donald Trump. After a day of phone calls, including speaking with Mr. Trump and President Biden, she delivered a speech at Howard University addressing her supporters.

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.: While I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign.

(APPLAUSE, CHEERING)

HARRIS: The fight, the fight for freedom, for opportunity, for fairness, and the dignity of all people. A fight for the ideals at the heart of our nation, the ideals that reflect America at our best.

That is a fight I will never give up.

ZELENY: Harris saying it's a fight she will not give up, but the question is how she will proceed. She has 75 more days in the office of Vice President, so of course that gives her time to really focus on her day job as well as think about what is next.

For all the recriminations that Democrats will be doing pouring over these election results, too much focus on abortion rights, perhaps not enough focus on the actual economy, did President Biden stay in the race too long?

On Thursday, President Biden will address the nation in the Rose Garden, of course speaking to many of these, but it was Harris who talked to young supporters and others about what they should do going forward.

HARRIS: To the young people who are watching, it is OK to feel sad and disappointed, but please know it's going to be OK. On the campaign,

[04:35:00]

I would often say, when we fight, we win. But here's the thing, here's the thing, sometimes the fight takes a while. That doesn't mean we won't win. That doesn't mean we won't win.

ZELENY: Now, Harris did pledge to help President-elect Trump through his transition, saying that she and her supporters will ensure a peaceful transition of power. Of course, that did not happen four years ago. There is no doubt the Democratic Party is in a soul- searching period.

The question, what role does Harris have to play in that? Those answers will come in the future weeks.

Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: Well, Donald Trump has told supporters he plans to govern by a simple model, quote, motto, rather, quote, promises made, promises kept. So what are some of those promises made during the campaign? Let's take a look at some of them now, including ones dealing with ending the war in Ukraine, before he's even sworn in.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: That is a war that's dying to be settled. I will get it settled before I even become president. If I win, when I'm president-elect, and what I'll do is I'll speak to one, I'll speak to the other, I'll get them together. That war would have never happened.

TRUMP: On day one of my new administration, I will seal the border, stop the invasion of people pouring through our border, and send Joe Biden's illegal aliens back home where they belong.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now, The Washington Post is saying that you're talking about 60 percent tariffs on Chinese goods. Is that in the cards?

TRUMP: No, I would say maybe it's going to be more than that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: Among the other promises for his second term, Donald Trump has vowed to carry out mass deportations, impose across-the-board tariffs, assert presidential control over the U.S. Justice Department, purge federal employees he deems as being disloyal, and has also said he plans to reshape federal health agencies, cut climate regulations, as you heard, and the war in Ukraine. He's also said he will pardon the January 6th rioters and overhaul what's known as Title IX. It's a federal civil rights law that protects against discrimination based on sex and gender.

Brian Lands, a senior advisor for the Trump campaign, spoke earlier with my colleague Anderson Cooper, and they spoke about the status of the transition planning and also Donald Trump's agenda for his first days in office.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRYAN LANZA, SENIOR ADVISER, TRUMP 2024 CAMPAIGN: We're excited to have so many people, so many people excited to be part of this administration and unifying the country. So I think what you're going to see from this transition, you know, is going to be a unified front.

And, you know, President Trump and Kamala Harris spoke a little bit earlier. It was a very gracious phone call that the vice president gave, and the president was very clear. She thought she ran a strong campaign, and she was very tenacious in the process. And, you know, she also mentioned she wanted to work with the president to unify the country.

So I think from the transition, who wants to display a unified front, and also from the relationship that he has with Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, we're looking to have a unified relationship with the country in January.

Let's be clear, Anderson, it's not a legal requirement for the campaign or the transition to sign anything with the government. We're working on cooperating in unison to make sure we cross the necessary thresholds so that our people can be briefed properly with national security background information and so that we can hit the ground running.

But let's be clear, it is not a legal requirement to sign a memorandum of understanding with the government for this transition. What we expect to see for the first 100 days is people focused on

affordability. The American people want to do something with respect to affordability. They've been wiped out. They've suffered tremendously through the policies of the previous administration. And we're going to focus on that.

We're also going to focus on securing the border. That's very common sense to the common people. Once we understand how step one moves forward, we'll understand we'll move to the next layer.

But let's be clear to the American people, we are going to deport illegal aliens who've broken our laws and who've been violent to our people.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: Well, when it comes to those key Senate races across the country, results are still coming in. CNN, though, can project Republicans will take the majority in the Senate with at least 52 seats. They've been locked out of majority since 2021.

That accomplishment isn't lost on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who says he always wanted to pass a majority on to his successor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): Candidate quality is essential. Absolutely essential. And I think we had the best candidates everywhere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: As for control of the House, that is still up in the air at this hour. Lawmakers, though, including the current House Speaker Mike Johnson, insist they do not believe they're in any danger and believe that they will hold on to the majority. Important to note, it could be days, possibly even weeks before those final results are known.

Donald Trump is now the first convicted felon to ever be elected president in the United States. And that's a tricky situation, not just for Trump himself, but also for the country. He's actually awaiting sentencing in his New York hush money case and also facing, of course, trial and charges in other state and federal cases.

So where do those stand? Will they just go away? Here's CNN's Paula Reid.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: I've learned that Trump's legal team is going to try to get his upcoming sentencing in New York canceled. Historically, they've just tried to delay proceedings, but now they want this entire thing to be nixed.

[04:40:00] They are going to argue to the judge that Trump, as president-elect, is entitled to the same protections as a sitting president and that he should be protected from any action by a state prosecutor. The judge in that case has given himself until November 12th to decide if the Supreme Court's immunity ruling from this summer should mean that this entire conviction is tossed. If he decides that it should be tossed, obviously the sentencing wouldn't happen.

But Trump's lawyers, again, they want to get that sentencing canceled. There's also good news for Trump's legal team on the federal front. The two federal cases their client is facing, we have learned that Jack Smith, the special counsel who brought both of those cases, is talking to leaders at the Justice Department, including the attorney general, about how to wind down those cases.

They're looking at internal Justice Department guidance about how sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted or indicted, trying to figure out how does that apply to a president-elect. It is expected these conversations will go on for several days, but at this point it does not appear that the president would need to fire Jack Smith or have his Justice Department fire Jack Smith. These cases will likely be resolved before he returns to the White House.

Paula Reid, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: Still ahead here, how Donald Trump's victory in Tuesday's election made billionaire Elon Musk billions richer.

Plus, Wall Street celebrating a quick and decisive outcome in the U.S. election, investors sending stocks to new record highs. A closer look at the economics of a second Trump era next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:45:10]

HILL: U.S. stocks soaring to record highs on Wednesday following Donald Trump's victory. The markets boosted mainly by the fact that the election was decided relatively quickly as investors, of course, were hoping for some certainty -- clarity there.

The Dow, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq all reaching new highs. The Dow, for its part, surged more than 1,500 points, more than 3.5 percent. The S&P up by 2.5 percent. And the tech-heavy Nasdaq closed in trading nearly 3 percent higher. That record day on Wall Street comes despite warnings from a number of economists that many of Donald Trump's policies could increase inflation and America's budget deficit.

So how could the economy change? What might it look like once Trump is, in fact, back in the White House? Well, let's think about what the things are that he has promised to do.

The president-elect has said he will impose a tariff on all goods coming into the U.S., as well as steeper tariffs on imports specifically from China and Mexico. Economists say measures like that, though, would likely raise prices for the average American as they are passed on. Here's CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Imagine everything you buy that comes from outside the U.S., like wine, cheese, and laptops, get more expensive. Well, that's what economists say would happen under former President Trump's tariff proposal. A tariff is basically a tax on products, and Trump wants to put them on everything that comes into the U.S. That's $3 trillion worth of goods a year. In order to cover the higher tariffs, companies will have to raise prices, and that cost ultimately gets passed down to you, the consumer.

So here's his plan. A 60 percent tariff on Chinese imports, and up to 20 percent on imports from other countries.

Trump says it will protect working class jobs and punish countries making goods with cheap labor in unsafe conditions. The self- proclaimed tariff man is hoping the tariffs will incentivize Americans to buy more made-in-America products, and the tariffs could, in theory, raise trillions of dollars to help fund tax cuts.

But economists at Goldman Sachs warn the tariffs could backfire, instead raising prices on American families, killing jobs, and setting off another trade war.

Countries could then retaliate, putting their own tariffs on U.S. goods that they buy. The cost to the average American family, by one estimate, more than $2,600 per year.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: And our thanks to Vanessa Yurkevich for that.

Joining us from Los Angeles, Ryan Patel, who's senior fellow at the Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University. Nice to see you this morning, Ryan.

So as we look at this, there's been a lot made about these tariffs, because this was such a big part of Donald Trump's push out there on the campaign trail. Walk us through. $2,600 a year, as we just heard from Vanessa. That's a lot, especially for many Americans who are already struggling with higher costs. What do you see happening?

RYAN PATEL, SENIOR FELLOW, DRUCKER SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT: Right. I think in the short, in the short term, it will help a little bit for the consumer. But at the long term, it's going to be the price, the price index that's going to be able to do it -- sorry, I got some feedback.

But, you know, I think one of the things when it comes to the tariffs that people don't see is that companies will pass down to the consumer, for sure. HILL: So in terms of passing that down to the consumer, we know that for the majority of voters, the economy was one of their top issues. That was consistent of what we heard over a span of months. The data may be pretty positive right now in the country, but we know that people don't feel it.

Donald Trump has also said he will lower prices. What could he do in his first 100 days in office to make that happen?

PATEL: Well, in the short term, he's got to be able to have that ability to have some quick wins. I mean, he must do that if his team, when it comes to the job market, being strong. But really with the tariffs and with what you're saying, the intention is to increase it, but the job creation may not keep up.

So the high U.S. labor on the production will discourage some companies from moving manufacturing plants to the U.S. and be able to do those good. So at the end of the day, he's not getting there quick enough for people to really feel the difference to be able to do that. And if you're doing tax cuts on top of that, there's going to be a deficit issue, which he has to have a balance.

So this is his plan and policy is something that could build on the economy, but it really needs to have a really strong balance.

HILL: So you bring up a great point about the push for some of these tariffs, right, is to bring manufacturing in some ways and products back into the U.S. But the reality is not only do you need those jobs, it's the infrastructure as well. How much of that infrastructure is actually in place at this point?

[04:50:00]

PATEL: It's just starting. I mean, you think of a couple of years ago, you know, they were pushing the semiconductors to build plants here in the U.S. Intel has a big one in Arizona, but just starting right where other places, other countries, China is an example where manufacturing has been there. And I think also that needs to be also paid the inflation aspect to it, too. And when you put these tariffs on other countries, say 20 percent in other places, other banks are now looking at the Fed going, well, what are you doing? Are we going to increase our you know, I expect the next this month we'll see a twenty five basis points from other banks and the Bank of England.

But in the next couple of months, they're going to see if the if the Fed doesn't do more decreases, we can see the dollar becoming more expensive for others to use.

HILL: Speaking of the Fed, we are expecting a decision, of course, today at 2 p.m. Eastern time here in the United States. The Fed is always supposed to remain neutral. Donald Trump has said he would actually like to have a little bit more involvement in decisions at the Fed as president.

What are you expecting today, though? The expectation was that we will see another rate cut. Do you think the election figures in here? PATEL: No, I hope not. It's supposed to be separate. I believe that there's going to be a decrease behind it.

And I think we saw the Bank of England actually was signaling that, too. But let me be really clear. No president should be affecting the Fed.

The Fed has taken this long to get to this point to where I think that they're going to be decreasing this time next year. So I'm hoping that the numbers and the data continue to do what it's had. It's been a long road to get here for the economy to have interest rates to start to decrease. That's what the economy needs.

And so I hope there's no interaction next year or influence that needs to be had that gets into the way to decreasing these interest rates next year.

HILL: As I noted just before coming to you, Wednesday was a very strong day for the markets. A lot of excitement in the United States when they saw that. And a lot of that coming from almost as a sigh of relief, right, over the fact that there was a decisive and quick decision in this election.

What do you expect to see moving forward from the markets as this settles in?

PATEL: Well, I think you know the answer to it when you're asking me to do this. I mean, the markets like certainty. And that was one.

Now, with President-elect Trump going into, we've seen his first presidency, there's a lot of uncertainty when it comes to tensions between different countries. And I think companies and countries, the biggest question for me is, in the short term, the first 90 to 100 days, can President Trump be really clear about his policy and what he's doing with certain countries, with certain sectors? And companies can then plan and use their investment wisely.

I think to me, I think the market is not going to react well if it's not clear. And it becomes, you know, an every day of where we're at, where we stand. And I'm hoping he's got a little bit of a different strategy going into the second term of his.

HILL: Ryan, good to see you this morning. Thank you.

PATEL: Thank you.

HILL: Well, billionaire businessman Elon Musk donated more than $100 million to support Donald Trump's campaign. And that investment seems to be paying off for Musk. On Wednesday, the value of his shares in his electric vehicle company, Tesla, went up by more than $15 million.

Here's CNN's Demetrius Pipkin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEMETRIUS PIPKIN, CNN PRODUCER (voice-over): Elon Musk is $15 billion richer thanks to a presidential victory by Donald Trump.

TRUMP: I love Elon, by the way.

PIPKIN (voice-over): Musk, who contributed nearly $119 million in support of Trump's campaign, is now seeing big returns in the market.

ELON MUSK, CEO TESLA, X OWNER: Do you like winning? Yes, OK.

PIPKIN (voice-over): Shares of Tesla, the electric car company Musk co-founded, surged on Trump's win. And Musk owns $411 million of those shares. But how much is $15 billion? Well, for starters, Musk could give every person in the entire world a dollar and still have more money left over than NBA legend Michael Jordan's entire net worth.

Think Tesla's Cybertrucks are expensive? For $15 billion, Musk could buy around 182,000 Cybertrucks. And if Musk decided he wanted to make sports his next venture, he could buy the most valuable sports franchise, the Dallas Cowboys, which is estimated to be worth over $10 billion.

But what does this $15 billion really mean to the world's richest man? Well, in 2021, Musk said he paid more than $11 billion in taxes alone.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: And again, that was Demetrius Pipkin reporting.

Before we go, our affiliate in Hartford, Connecticut asked voters their thoughts on Donald Trump's staggering victory. Connecticut was won by Kamala Harris.

Here's some of what they told us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I believe he was really backing our country and really for our constitution. So I'm really, you know, hoping he can rein himself in a little bit and continue doing the work that he was doing.

[04:55:04]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am surprised that he won. And I certainly didn't expect it to be

such large margins. It's really shocking and a kind of disappointing in terms of how I feel about humanity as a whole now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm pretty sure that Trump has shown us and told us who he is. And I'm scared for what that means for us as women and also as a country.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've just been praying really hard and really believed that it was going to happen. And if it didn't, I was prepared to accept whatever was going to be. And I hope everybody else feels the same way. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm very, very proud, even in the city with West Hartford, it's predominantly Democratic, but that's OK. You know, they'll catch up someday.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just a sad state of affairs in our country right now, how divided we all are, how we can't seem to come together on anything, how we put our pocketbooks above people's lives, above women's rights, above the LGBTQ rights. It's just a sad state of affairs.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: Some thoughts from voters there in Connecticut.

Thanks to all of you for joining me on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Erica Hill in New York. Stay tuned to CNN "THIS MORNING" picks up after a quick break. You're watching CNN.

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