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In Moments, Trump Meeting With House Republicans; Soon, Trump and Biden to Meet at the White House; Trump Picks Army Veteran; Fox News Host for Defense Secretary. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired November 13, 2024 - 10:00   ET

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

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[10:00:00]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Moments from now, President Elect Trump will meet with Republicans on Capitol Hill. Then he'll head over to the White House to meet with President Biden.

Plus, a warrior board to purge generals, what we are learning about the draft executive order presented to the Trump transition team.

And later, from Fox News host to secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, FOX NEWS HOST: The dumbest phrase on planet Earth in the military is our diversity is our strength. We should not have women in combat roles. But we let in TikTok where they can trans our kids and they don't trans their kids.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Good morning. You were live in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.

A big day this morning here in Washington as Donald Trump is about to return to the White House for a visit with President Biden and Senate Republicans are gathering to elect their new leader.

Our Manu Raju, M.J. Lee, Phil Mattingly, David Chalian all join us now as well as Alayna Treene. We'll be seeing her in just a few moments from now.

And Trump is not only meeting with President Biden today, he also spoke -- is going to be speaking with House Republicans. And Trump has a certain wingman by his side.

Manu, let me start with you first. What can you tell us about the meetings that we're seeing up on Capitol Hill today?

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Trump is now arriving at this House Republican meeting. We do expect him to be, along with Elon Musk, who is expected to attend this Republican meeting, which will be a victory lap of sorts. This will be a raucous affair as he meets with House Republicans, who are in a very good mood after their strong showing last week.

And the House Republicans, we have not yet projected the House to be in the GOP hands, but it appears that it is going in that direction at this, today, this afternoon, we expect House Republicans to formally nominate Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House for the next Congress. That will be a formal vote on the House floor on January 3rd. They'll need to get 218 votes to do that. We'll see how that ultimately turns out.

And then a critical moment right here in the United States Senate. For the first time in 18 years, there will be a new Senate Republican leader. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, the longest serving Republican leader in history, has decided not to continue on as a Republican leader.

There are three candidates now vying for this position, Senators John Thune, Cornyn and Senator Rick Scott, a secret ballot election right now underway. Trump has decided to stay neutral at this moment. So, it's an open question about who may win this. But Cornyn and Thune are seen as the favorites. Jim?

ACOSTA: All right. Manu, thank you very much.

Let me go to M.J. Lee. I believe she's ever at the White House for us. Lots of follow this morning, M.J., including where you are in just a few moments. Trump is going to be heading to the White House. What are you learning about this meeting with the president?

M.J. LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Within the next hour or so, Jim, we expect President Biden to welcome former and incoming President Donald Trump here, as four years after the former president declined to extend that same courtesy to President-elect Joe Biden at the time, the choreography of exactly how we expect the next few hours to unfold.

We actually don't know a whole of a lot. We know that the two leaders will be meeting in the Oval Office. We should see some remarks ahead of their closed door meeting. We also know that they're likely to maybe spend a little bit of time in the dining room, but in terms of which senior aides might be joining the two parties, we actually don't know. We also don't know former President Trump, who is famously unpredictable whether he might take the opportunity to interact with the press, whether he'll take some time to roam the campus a little bit, a place where he had, of course, spent four years.

In terms of just the mood here at the White House, Jim, of course, just keep in mind a lot of the White House staff and aides here are still reeling from the election results of their saying that they want to take their cues from President Biden and treat today as a business as usual day, as hectic as it's going to be, as the president has made clear he wants to focus on a peaceful transfer of power. Jim?

ACOSTA: All right. M.J. Lee, thank you so much.

I want to go to CNN's Alayna Treene. She is outside the House Republican meeting. And, Alayna, are we still expecting to see Elon Musk with the president-elect at this meeting? I know that was reported earlier. What can you tell us?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: We are, Jim. I'm told that Donald Trump -- or, excuse me, Elon Musk traveled with Donald Trump to Washington on his plane and is expected to accompany him at this meeting this morning.

[10:05:09]

As for the White House meeting later with President Joe Biden, I spoke with two Trump advisers who said that, currently, he is not expected to join him at the White House, Elon Musk. But, of course, with Donald Trump, you never know that could change depending on how this first meeting goes.

But, look, when I talked to those close to Donald Trump about what his message will be for House Republicans today, they said, essentially, he wants to take a victory lap, but he also wants to remind them that he believes he has a mandate and because he won the popular vote. And he wants House Republicans and Republicans in Congress overall to really align with him in carrying out his agenda moving forward.

He also is expected to walk them through some of the decisions that he made regarding his recent cabinet picks and other top roles for his second administration. And so that's all expected to be discussed this morning. And I'm sure you'll hear a lot of questions as well about some of the recent hires in the last 24 hours, including Pete Hegseth for the secretary of defense, something that I know has surprised a lot of people. We're starting to hear some reactions now coming in from our Hill team on exactly what they think about that.

Here's Trump.

ACOSTA: Yes, Alayna Treene. Let's go to the president elect now,

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT-ELECT: A lot of good friends in this room. So you know we had like historic kind of numbers, especially for the president, but we won't get into that. But the House did very well. And I think we're responsible for 31, helping you with 31, meaning we could have lost by quite a bit. And we ended up -- I guess you'll be five up by you're looking at five or four? Five or four, right? It doesn't matter. We get used to one for a little while. When you can get used to one, you can get used to anything.

So, I just want to thank everybody. You've been incredible. We worked with a lot of you to get you in and you helped me and you helped me too. And my numbers were, so they say, the 129 years, the most important election in 129 years. That's pretty good. Well, I said, who is the 129 years? What was that, Doc Ronnie? What was -- who was 129 years ago? I'd never looked, because it started at being a hundred and then they upped it to that. But it's a great compliment. We won the majority by 7.1 million. We won, which is great because Republicans aren't supposed to be winning the majority, Marjorie, you know that, right? And we won that and we won it every way, all seven swing states, by a lot.

And Michigan was great, couldn't be better. I'll tell you, Michigan was great. And we had a couple of people, almost New Jersey is right, just a few points. It's got them very worried because they say, well, next time if we go up even a fraction of what we went up, we're going to win New York, we're going to win New Jersey, we're going to win places that weren't winnable, California too. I think without one speech, without campaigning at all in California, we were up -- we lost by nine points. I mean, nine points in California, and it's very doable.

It would be really doable if they change the election process and then --

ACOSTA: Guys -- all right, we're obviously having some issues with the pool footage coming out of Trump's meeting with House Republicans there. Obviously, David Chalian, he's in a very good mood right now, if I may go to you first. And he's claiming a popular vote victory that did not occur. I mean, I think we heard some of that in the beginning of that speech, but --

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: It did not occur to the size he said that he may very well have a popular vote victory --

ACOSTA: He said by 7.1 million. That's not the case.

CHALIAN: That will not be the case. And, obviously, there's still a million-plus, maybe 2 million votes to count out of California. I would imagine the national popular vote will continue to narrow in margin, though it looks like Donald Trump will indeed have this new victory that he did not have the last time around that he was elected president, which is not just in the Electoral College, but also claiming a national popular vote mandate.

And you're right. He noted the difference, I thought this was great out of the box, of his sweeping victory across the seven battleground states, doing better in blue states like New Jersey, getting real close, all of which is true, and he noted that in contrast to the very slim majority House Republicans are likely to have.

ACOSTA: Yes. Phil, I mean, as much as Donald Trump is enjoying this moment right now, the reality is that the majority in the House, and we're still sorting through this right now, might be very slim for Republicans. And that is certainly going to affect the order of business here in Washington.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: We've seen how difficult that makes things over the course of the last year where they've had a very slim majority. They're around the same number right now, depending on how the final couple races net out.

[10:10:00]

The interesting thing -- you could see Elise Stefanik right there. Donald Trump has been poaching people from that House Republican conference and from that very slim majority. Mike Walz, he's announced to be his national security adviser, Elise Stefanik will be his U.N. ambassador. So, it's going to be even narrower.

I think the biggest thing though, when you look at this, obviously, Trump saying one is fine, we'll be fine with one, and I don't think from a majority perspective, that's wrong. House Republicans are going to do whatever he says, particularly in the beginning. What's most fascinating to me, in terms of him talking to this House Republican conference, what's happening with the Senate Republican conference right now in terms of the leadership vote is just how different this moment is than in 2017. That conference is his conference. That Senate Republican conference is, by a large majority, his conference. Washington is his Washington now. The Republican Party is in his mold. That is so dramatically different than what it was in 2017, and it will shape everything that happens over the course of the coming months.

CHALIAN: And I couldn't agree more with what Phil is saying. That is true. This is a party reshaped in his image. However, I would just say, if it is a very narrow House majority, this ability to stick together fully as his throughout all the policy agenda that gets proposed will be something we cover. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if Elise Stefanik and Congressman Waltz, the two that he's poaching from the administration, don't resign their House seats until after Speaker Johnson's vote on January 3rd, just to make sure all the margins are there and then they're not dealing with fewer Republicans until they have to, because there is going to be a desire.

And, yes, this House Republican conference is in Donald Trump's image, but there are still some differences within the conference, and they feel unified now on the heels of Trump's victory. But his job and Mike Johnson's job will be to keep them unified all the way throughout.

ACOSTA: Yes. And this is just one of several meetings we're watching throughout the day, obviously. There's the meeting that's taking place right now to pick a new Senate Republican leader, and, of course, the big meeting of the day between the president and the president-elect. We'll be watching that in a few moments very much.

Thanks very much to my panel.

I want to move forward with something else that's breaking this morning. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Trump transition team is considering a so-called military warrior board, as it's being called, to fast-track the removal of some generals and admirals. If Donald Trump signs the executive order, the board could recommend the removal of top military personnel deemed by the administration to lack, quote, leadership qualities. But it's worth noting, candidate Trump has long vowed to remove what he calls woke generals.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You see these generals lately on television? They are woke.

You may have a few people on the top that are woke and we're going to get rid of them so damn fast.

You know we have the real generals and we have the fake woke generals.

We're getting a little tired of the woke generals.

The woke generals should be fired immediately.

We will fire the woke generals.

REPORTER: Are you going to fire those generals, the woke generals at the top?

TRUMP: Yes, I would get rid of them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Joining us now is CNN Military Analyst, retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling.

General Hertling, I guess, you know, this story made some shockwaves yesterday here in Washington. What's your reaction to this idea of a warrior board?

GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: You might -- what I'd say is I'm trying to figure out exactly what it will do. And the reason I say that, it's because most Americans don't understand how the military promotes within their officer corps from lieutenant or ensign all the way up to general or admiral. It is a very driven system to get the very best at the top.

They're promoted through selection boards at every rank. It's eventually approved by the service secretaries, which the president appoints, and then by the secretary of defense, which the president appoints, and then those promotions are confirmed by Congress, and they have the right, like Senator Tuberville has shown us in the past, to stop promotions, and then the president appoints them. So, these are things that I'm just not quite sure what another board would do, specifically when there's so many checks and balances in the process already.

So, the questions become, what specifically is he trying to fix? Does the constitutional roles assigned to Congress to build and maintain an Army, a Navy and an Armed Forces, would those change? How do the services affect this? Because Trump appoints all the service secretaries and -- or the president appoints all the service secretaries and the secretary of defense, who will make up this so called warrior board and what are they looking for in the officers? And then most importantly, Jim, how is this going to change or, in my view, perhaps damage the world's greatest military and our unique cultural dynamic of civil military relations?

ACOSTA: And I want to share a statement that the Trump transition team gave to CNN.

[10:15:01]

It says this. The American people reelected President Trump by a resounding margin, giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail he will deliver, end quote. Granted Trump did win, but is this what people voted for, a purge at the Pentagon?

HERTLING: Well, you know, we'll see the American people voted. And that's the uniqueness of the American military. Jim, we follow legal orders from the president. Some are unpopular. Some are very popular. But the fact of the matter is, in civil military relations, the military follows legal orders of the president. So, when you have the popular vote electing a new president, the military says, yes, sir, we are here to serve the American people at your request.

So, you know, those are the things that we have to point out in civil military relations, whether you like the individual who's in the Oval Office or not.

ACOSTA: And, General, President-elect Trump's pick for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, from Fox has also complained about a, quote, woke Pentagon, embracing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, and he apparently also opposes women in combat. He has made that clear in a podcast.

You served as the Army commanding general for Europe in the 7th Army. How do you view these comments and the possibility that he's going to be the next defense secretary?

HERTLING: Well, you know, one of the things again, Jim, this is not going to be satisfying to you, but the military doesn't comment on the credentials of the incoming secretary of defense. We haven't seen what he will do in an official role in some of these things he stated as an anchor on Fox News. The military supports who's nominated. Then there are the discussions about the policies.

I'm a firm believer in women in the military of women in combat arms. I'm a firm believer in diversity in the military. And I will say, even though Mr. Hegseth has said he doesn't believe this, diversity is our strength. I say that because I commanded basic training and saw all races, colors, creeds, very diverse population from every state in the union and some of our territories come together and become part of a bigger team and are better as teams than they are as individuals.

So, diversity has been proven in many research studies is actually a contributing factor to great organizations. So, if that means I'm woke, then I guess I'll take that title and wear it proudly. But I think the Department of Defense and the U.S. military is the finest in the world because of some of the policies we have in place right now. And I'm not sure what a woke general is.

ACOSTA: All right. Well, we thank all of them for their service. Retired General Mark Hertling, as always, thanks very much for your time. We appreciate it.

HERTLING: Thanks, Jim.

ACOSTA: Right now, President-elect Donald Trump is in Washington speaking with House GOP leaders before heading to the White House to meet with President Biden. Next, I'll be joined by Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware to get a sense of how he views the incoming administration. That's coming up. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:20:00]

ACOSTA: We are continuing to follow two developing stories. You can see right there moments ago on the left side of your screen, President-elect Donald Trump meeting with House Republican leaders and Senate Republicans on the right side of the screen voting to elect their new leader, all of that taking place here in Washington.

Moments from now, President Biden is set to welcome his predecessor turned successor back to the White House. Biden will meet in the Oval Office with President-elect Trump after vowing a smooth transition and emphasizing the importance of working with the incoming administration.

Let's discuss more now with one of President Biden's longtime confidants, Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware. Senator, thank you so much for being here with us.

I did want to ask you, what do you make of this meeting between the two presidents? The president did extend this invite to Donald Trump after repeatedly calling him a threat to democracy. What does that say to the American people?

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): Well, what our President Joe Biden has always said is you can't love our nation only when you win. We have, as a Democratic Party, lost this election, and President Biden is keeping his word that he will make a peaceful, orderly transition, something he was not given in 2020. There wasn't an orderly or responsible transition. Former President Trump didn't appear at President Biden's inauguration, and, of course, there was January 6th.

President Biden believes it's important for us to respect our institutions and to show that there will be an orderly transfer of power. I support him in that. I look forward to participating here in the Senate in confirmation hearings for all the different folks who are being floated as potential members of Trump's cabinet. And I think it's important that we here in the Capitol are back to work, doing the business of the people, in my case and in my party, learning the lessons of this election, and being open to working across the aisle where that can be constructed.

ACOSTA: Yes, I do want to ask you about the Democratic Party and moving forward. I do want to ask you, though, Trump has been moving quickly to staff his cabinet last night. He announced that Fox News host Pete Hegseth is his choice to head the Defense Department. He's expected to pick one of your Republican colleagues, Senator Marco Rubio, to be secretary of state. You're on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. What do you make of these picks?

COONS: Well, I know Senator Rubio well. We've served together 14 years. We've legislated. We've traveled together. We've talked regularly, and I look forward to his confirmation hearing. The way we should approach any such confirmation is with an open mind, ask tough questions, lay out our values and priorities and see if there's alignment there.

[10:25:08]

Pete Hegseth, all I know about him is he's a combat veteran who advocated for those who have been convicted of war crimes to be grant clemency and is a Fox News host. I'm just beginning to dig into his record. There's lots of other positions that will be filled in the coming weeks and we'll be very busy in January and February with the confirmation process.

ACOSTA: And Trump has also announced that he's establishing a so- called Department of Government Efficiency, picking two wealthy people to lead it, the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, and Vivek Ramaswamy. Should the richest person in the world be deciding what stays and what goes in the government?

COONS: Well, that's an excellent question. And I'm struck that, according to press reports, Elon Musk is accompanying President Trump today as he's visiting here on the Hill and in Washington. And I think it's important for us to be clear-eyed about the potential of his insights based on his business experience but also the risks posed by someone with that amount of concentrated wealth and power, someone who's not in government, someone who's not been elected to anything, having really significant potential sway over decisions by the incoming administration.

ACOSTA: And, Senator, you did mention the Democrats, and I would be remiss if I didn't ask you about the election we just had in this country, but four years ago when he was running against Trump, President Biden called himself a bridge to the next generation of Democrats. Let's play some of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: I view myself as a bridge, not as anything else. There's an entire generation of leaders you saw stand behind me. They are the future of this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: As we saw, Senator, Biden stubbornly ran for reelection and he refused to step down after his debate performance until he was forced to. Does he bear some responsibility for Donald Trump returning to the White House?

COONS: Well, Jim, two things. First, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as president, vice president, accomplished a remarkable amount in their first two years and had a very strong midterm. I'm proud of the work that they did together with many of us here in Congress to invest in infrastructure and manufacturing to grow our economy to strengthen the middle class. He's been the most pro-union president history and at a time when many are saying that the message of this election is that Democrats need to be connected to and hear the concerns of the middle class. I think Joe Biden has a strong record of that.

I'll also mention, Jim, that around the world, other advanced economies and democracies like ours, Germany, the U.K., Japan, Korea, they are throwing out incumbent parties, whether they're right, center or left. And I think Vice President Harris faced some serious head winds because of the general unhappiness over the direction of the economy.

There are lessons for us to learn about turnout, about engagement, about how the good things that we got done didn't connect with middle Americans. And so we're beginning those conversations this week. I just came from one this morning. There'll be another one midday, and I look forward to hearing from folks in Delaware and around the country with their concerns about how we could do a better job in the future.

ACOSTA: Senator, I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't press you though a little bit. Do you think the president made a mistake and hanging in there too long and not giving the party a chance to have a nominating process find a candidate who might be able to beat Donald Trump?

COONS: Look, I don't think it would have mattered which Democratic candidate was running this fall. There were headwinds so serious, when you have two thirds to three quarters of the American people saying the country's on the wrong track, and they trust Donald Trump to handle the economy despite his proposals for a 20 percent tariff on all imported goods, despite his record of governance. I frankly think at the end of the day, rather than looking backwards as a party, we need to look forwards.

ACOSTA: All right. Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, thanks very much for your time.

COONS: Thank you, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right, we'll be right back.

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[10:30:00]