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New Senate GOP Leader Election; Jack Smith Intends to Step Down; Musk and Ramaswamy to Lead New "Department of Government Efficiency"; Trump Picks Fox News Host for Defense Secretary; Trump and Biden to Meet at WH. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired November 13, 2024 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: All right. This is a live look up on Capitol Hill where Senate Republicans are voting to elect their new leader. Our Manu Raju is there. We'll be checking with him in just a moment as the Justice Department though winds down its prosecutions of President-Elect Donald Trump. We're learning that Special Counsel Jack Smith intends to step down and leave his post before Trump takes office and gets the chance to fire him. It's something that Trump promised to do in, quote, "two seconds."

Joining me now to talk about this defense attorney and former federal prosecutor Shan Wu, CNN legal commentator and former Trump attorney Tim Parlatore, and former Republican congressman and CNN legal commentator -- political commentator, I should say, Adam Kinzinger. Guys thanks very much for being with us this morning.

Shan, what do you think about Jack Smith stepping down now? What do you make of that?

SHAN WU, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR AND DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, there may be reasons for his team, in particular career folks like FBI agents or career DOJ people who he wouldn't want them to get fired. Federal employees are pretty well protected in terms of their benefits when they're fired, but there are some exceptions, for example, as hard to believe as it is, treason might be an example.

And from the rhetoric we've heard from the Trump team, not impossibly imagined accusations like that flying around. Smith himself, you know, no longer career he can move on to something else. From a legal standpoint, I think it's better if they just push on through until they're forced to stop. But there may be some other things that he's thinking of in terms of taking care of his staff.

[10:35:00]

ACOSTA: And Tim, I mean, the attorney general will have to approve Smith's final report and decide to release any part of it publicly. Doesn't the public have a right to see what the special counsel uncovered?

TIM PARLATORE, CNN LEGAL COMMENTATOR AND FORMER TRUMP ATTORNEY: I mean, I do think that much of what he's uncovered the public has already seen. You know, there have already been indictments. There's been, you know, the filings in the January 6th case with all of the -- you know, the appendix. I think a lot of it, the public has already seen.

And so, you know, yes, he is required by the statute to fill out a report and the A.G. will look at it and decide what part of that, if any, to release. But I very much doubt that there's going to be anything in that the American public is going to read and say, oh, my gosh, we didn't already know this.

ACOSTA: And, Adam, I mean, it's quite a turn of events. I mean, you served on the January 6th Committee and you heard during this campaign, Trump making promises throughout the campaign to pardon January 6th rioters. I mean, if these pardons happen, what does that say about the rule of law in this country?

ADAM KINZINGER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR AND FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE (R-IL): Well, look, I mean, first off, by the way the special counsel should release his report and you're going to amazingly see people that were all for transparency under the last administration all of a sudden be against transparency, surprisingly.

But look, the -- Donald Trump ran on this. I mean, the one thing you got to say is it's not like pardoning the January 6th folks was something that he kind of hid and he gave, no, he straight up said this at rallies and America elected him, that's America's right to choose.

So, yes, I think it's terrible for the rule of law. It basically says, if you break the law on behalf of somebody that's going to come to power or is in power, don't worry about the consequences. I think it's terrible for the rule of law, but the American people made this decision. He didn't hide this. You can't have gone and voted for him and said, gosh, I didn't know. America gets to make the decision in terms of what it looks like.

From the January 6th Committee perspective, and to an extent I'm proud because we will be the only basically official record on record to basically talk about what happened January 6th. So, I know that the history books, despite people's momentary anger or whatever, the history books will reflect accurately what happened on January 6th, and I'm proud to be part of that.

ACOSTA: All right. Well, on any other day, I would want to come back to you for -- all of you for more thoughts on all this. Time is tight. We're following a lot of moving parts this morning. In the meantime, Shan, Tim, and Adam, thanks very much for your time. We appreciate it.

KINZINGER: You bet.

WU: Jim.

ACOSTA: We'll get back to all of you real soon. All right. Still to come, a Fox News host is being tapped as Trump's next defense secretary, but his previous comments are raising serious concerns. Take a listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, FOX NEWS HOST: But we let in TikTok where they can trans our kids and they don't trans their kids.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:40:00]

ACOSTA: All right. We're continuing to follow two developing stories this morning. President-Elect Trump meeting with House GOP leaders and Senate Republicans voting to elect their new leader. You can see both of those things happening on the left and right side of your screen there.

President-Elect Donald Trump is picking even more loyalists for top government roles. Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a so-called Department of Government Efficiency. The advisory board will be tasked with finding ways to slash the federal budget, but details on how it would actually operate are fuzzy.

Meanwhile, Fox News host and Army veteran Pete Hegseth has been tapped for Defense Secretary, and he has a lot of ideas when it comes to the military.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HEGSETH: The dumbest phrase on planet earth in the military is our diversity is our strength. Well, first of all, you got to fire -- you know, you got to fire the chairman of joint chiefs and you got to fire this. I mean, obviously going to bring in a new secretary of defense, but any general that was involved, general admiral, whatever that was involved in any of the DEI woke shit is got to go. And as far as recruiting, to hire the guy that, you know, did "Top Gun Maverick," and create some real ads that motivate people to want to serve.

We should not have women in combat roles. It hasn't made us more effective, hasn't made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated. So, there aren't enough lesbians in San Francisco to man the 82nd Airborne. And in trying to cater to that, they lost the boys from Tennessee and Kentucky and Oklahoma. The traditional dudes who did it because they wanted -- they loved their country or they wanted the adventure or they, you know, wanted to try tough things or they need an up and out of their community, whatever it is.

But we let in TikTok where they can trans our kids and they don't trans their kids.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: A lot to discuss with our next guests, CNN senior political commentators, Van Jones and David Urban. Van, to you first. We just heard from the man who's been nominated to run the Pentagon. What do you make of that, what do you just heard? VAN JONES, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR AND FORMER OBAMA ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, I think, look, I don't -- he looks great. I mean, but he sounds terrible. And I think that if it's not broke, don't fix it. There's this fiction that there's something wrong with America's military. What problem are you trying to solve? We have the most lethal, the most respected, the most feared military in the history of the world. There's not -- there is even -- there's not even a number two.

And so, the idea that our military, there's something wrong with it, our generals are terrible. This is a fiction. And so, when you start trying to solve non-existent problems with the best fighting force in the world, you actually create problems. And I don't think there's any evidence or any data that shows that having women involved in our military has made our military worse. Where is the evidence of this? This is all fiction, it's all ideology, and it's all quite frightening.

[10:45:00]

And -- you know, and I don't think anybody can defend this choice. This is not somebody who -- I mean, this is a Fox News host who used to be in the military. If that's the -- this data we're going to be going with, I think it's very alarming.

ACOSTA: David, is Pete Hegseth qualified to be the secretary of defense?

DAVID URBAN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR AND FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN ADVISER: Yes, listen. So, Jim, define, you know, what are the qualifications? Where's the job description? Look, Pete Hegseth is a smart guy. Princeton undergrad, you know, masters from Harvard, served a couple tours downrange combat. It's been a veteran's advocate for years. You know, I think Pete Hegseth is as qualified as the next guy.

Listen, the tape that you ran there, Jim, there's obviously some things in there I disagree with what he's saying. I agree with Van. The United States military is the best, most lethal fighting force in the world. They do incredible amounts of things right, but they do things wrong and there's room for improvement.

Listen, we all sat on this set when we watched the China spy balloon float, you know, fecklessly across the United States or float across the United States, and our military was kind of, you know, sitting there not knowing what to do. There are that --

ACOSTA: Is that because of a woke military, that there was a balloon flying over the country?

URBAN: Yes. No, it's because -- no, no, no. But -- no, no, Jim. But I'm just saying when Van says we can't -- you know, it's going great and best, there's things we can do better. We can improve, right? We can't meet our recruiting goals. We can't meet our retention goals. Something's going on in the military, right? There needs to be reform on acquisition. There -- we could do things much, much better. And there is an impression in America, across a large swath of America, that the military is too woke, that they're worried about, you know, Green New Deal, rather than fighting wars. That the main purpose of the U.S. is to close with --

ACOSTA: David, what is that -- I'm sorry. What does that mean? What does a Green New Deal have to do with the military?

URBAN: Hold on.

ACOSTA: No, you've been -- hold on? You've been talking for two minutes.

URBAN: Jim, here's what it does. Here's what it does. Yes, here's what it -- no, here's what it does, Jim. Here's what it does. When -- you know, the national security adviser --

ACOSTA: It's the most powerful military in the world.

URBAN: -- Mike Waltz is on. Right. Yes, but we don't -- we shouldn't be worried about -- we're talking about green tanks, getting green tanks and things. We should be focused on lethality. What makes the military the most lethal? That's what we should be focused on.

ACOSTA: Yes. Go ahead, Van.

JONES: Let me tell you. What's happened is, in trying to make sure that our military is more lethal, more efficient, they've integrated -- want to integrate some clean and green and solar and other technologies just to make us more flexible, just to deal with supply lines. If you don't have to worry about oil and you can bring in, you know, a different type of technology, integrating technology into our military is a smart thing.

But what's happened is that the right-wing media has taken that and makes it seem like our generals are sitting around like, you know, talking about environmental science. This is military science with new technology.

ACOSTA: Yes, and I do also want to say that, you know, Pete Hegseth, when he was at Fox, was praising some of the stop the steel protesters on January 6th. And I want to play some of that and get your reaction, David.

URBAN: Sure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HEGSETH: Reporting from Fox & friends yesterday morning on the ground, I said a couple of times, you know, this feels like a constitutional tinderbox. It had that feel to it, but it wasn't because Donald Trump gave a speech and then told people to do something at the Capitol. That's not what happened. This is the result of, you know, a frustration that a lot of people feel that I frankly wasn't surprised. I'm not saying it's OK. I'm not saying all those things, but the images didn't shock me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: David, I mean, you know, I'm just wondering what your reaction to that is. I mean, shouldn't the future defense secretary blast those rioters for the violence that we saw that day?

URBAN: He did.

ACOSTA: No, he didn't. No, he didn't.

URBAN: He did. Oh, Jim, he just said, listen, you want to roll the tape again? He said, it's not OK. I'm not saying it's OK. I'm not saying it's all right. Listen, I condemn that. Those images you showed, anybody that assaults a police officer should go to jail. Anybody who breaks the law like that, anyone who's assaulting a police officer should be punished, OK? There should be -- I have no -- you know, I have no sympathy for any of that.

Now, flip to the other side of the Capitol, and you know this, Jim, we used to watch the tapes. You're a smart guy. On the other side of the Capitol, on the Supreme Court side of the Capitol, there was a war waging on one side of the Capitol, which I am -- I applaud the Capitol Police for their restraint and they're heroism in that because those people were bad people.

ACOSTA: Yes. It sounds to me --

URBAN: On the other side -- Jim, hold on.

ACOSTA: David, I do want to continue the discussion on the other side of the break.

URBAN: On the other side of the Capitol --

ACOSTA: It does sound as though he is excusing it to a large extent and perhaps he'll be asked about it during his confirmation --

URBAN: Oh, he was -- Jim, he was condemned. Jim, he condemned it. He'll be asked.

ACOSTA: All right. All right. We'll stay tuned for that. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:50:00]

ACOSTA: All right. In just a few moments from now, President Biden and President-Elect Donald Trump will be beating at the Oval Office. You can see that on the left side of your screen. On the right side of your screen, he is still speaking with House Republicans up on Capitol Hill. He said he supports Congressman Mike Johnson to remain as speaker, saying he is with him. Trump will soon head over to the White House and then meet with President Biden, a tradition that Trump did not afford to President Biden. Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, who has been tapped to run something called the Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE, is also along for the ride with president-elect. We're going to be following all of these moments and stories that we might see the president-elect coming out of the door at the Hyatt in Washington in just a few moments from now. We're going to keep an eye on all of that. We're monitoring all of this and we'll bring it to you live.

Thank you very much for joining us this morning. I'm Jim Acosta. Our next hour of Newsroom with Pamela Brown starts after a short break. Have a good day.

[10:55:00]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. You are live in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Pamela Brown in Washington. And this is a live look at the White House.

Donald Trump heading there right now to meet with President Biden. It is a day of tradition and reassurance, the outgoing president and his successor showing the American people that there will be a peaceful transfer of power. And my colleague, Kaitlan Collins, who has been breaking a ton of news on Trump and what his new cabinet will look like, is there live for us, Caitlin?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, Pam. I mean, it's safe to say this is going to be a historic meeting. What is happening --

[11:00:00]