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President Biden Hosts Donald Trump at White House. Aired 11- 11:30a ET

Aired November 13, 2024 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:03]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Kaitlan?

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

What is happening, what you're about to see when Trump arrives here in a few moments is President Biden affording president-elect Trump what he did not afford him for years ago. This is actually Trump's first time here at the White House since he departed four years ago from the South Lawn, when he skipped Joe Biden's inauguration.

And I should note, Pam, as I was walking in the White House -- and there you can see Trump's motorcade headed here to the White House. As I was walking in, they're preparing for Trump's inauguration now. They have got the stands built outside the White House, just a sign of how this is about to be a historic change in power shortly.

BROWN: Yes, I mean, just to think, Kaitlan, he left the White House in 2021 as a pariah, right? And now he is returning as president-elect in such different circumstances now, as we know, having the popular vote, right, winning all seven battleground states. He is in such a different position now as he sits down with President Biden.

And the two men, they will meet in the Oval Office and likely discuss many topics, including the crises unfolding around the world. We know, of course, that President Biden wants to bring up Ukraine with him as well. The question is, will Trump actually listen, Kaitlan?

COLLINS: Yes, I mean, they have such different views on this. Biden's national security team is working and talking to Ukrainian officials as they're preparing for what that's going to look like when Trump actually does take power.

And I don't think anyone fully knows what Trump is going to do. We know what he said. We know what he's pledged to do, ending the war in 24 hours. I mean, obviously, Pam, it's a very difficult crisis that he's about to inherit.

The same with the war in Gaza. They have very different views on this. You just saw that with Trump's pick as his U.S. ambassador to Israel. I also have questions. This is what we're told they're going to talk about, foreign policy and views on that, when they're in there.

But, Pam, what really happens when they are actually face-to-face really does remain to be seen right now.

BROWN: It really does remain to be seen. And it is notable that, look, Biden and Trump have made their disdain for one another no secret, right? But, today, really, for President Biden is about showcasing to the American people the importance of a peaceful transfer of power, despite the fact, as you noted, he was not afforded the same courtesy by Trump back in -- after the 2020 election.

And today really is about American solidarity. I mean, that is really what it's all about. We should note, though, that Melania Trump is breaking with tradition, her office confirming she will not attend the customary meeting with the first lady. I know we had been reporting that. Now her office is confirming it on the record.

And also our reporting is that she's not expected to live in the White House full-time, Kaitlan.

COLLINS: Yes, it's going to look a lot different, I think, than the first time around.

And, Pam, just to note, I haven't been to the White House in a hot minute. Right now, there are a ton of camera crews and reporters that are standing outside the West Wing. We just showed the Marine who always stands outside the West Wing door when the president is there. And, obviously, President Biden is about to greet president-elect Trump and bring him into the Oval Office.

It just speaks to the moment of how everyone here on the White House campus understands just how historic this is and also just unprecedented, in the sense that, yes, when a president normally wins an election, he goes and meets with the current president. But given the fact that did not happen, and given the relationship that, to be generous, is described as acrimonious between Biden and Trump, that's the moment here.

But I think it just emphasizes how important this moment is to President Biden for there to be some normalcy and for there to be norms restored being -- kind of closing out his term with what he sought to do when he first came into office, which was to bring calm back to the White House, to bring normalcy back to the White House, to restore those norms.

I'm out here on the White House North Lawn, with CNN's M.J. Lee and Kristen Holmes both with me.

M.J., you have been talking to people in the West Wing. How are they feeling as president-elect Trump is about to enter the West Wing?

M.J. LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, first of all, the folks here at the White House now, they're describing what we are about to see as likely being polite and cordial, that that is sort of the goal. They want this to be sort of business as usual, as you said, President Biden upholding a tradition that has been in place for decades.

But you can imagine that this is a pretty emotional day for a lot of folks here. The people here obviously expected and wanted a different outcome last week. They were devastated when Kamala Harris lost.

What I'm hearing is that they are trying to take their cues from the president himself. He has been out there since day one, as soon as this race was called, basically saying, this was a free and fair election, and the country needs to accept that.

[11:05:01]

In other words, it doesn't matter for this president, he's at least trying to message, what the former president did four years ago by not extending this courtesy and breaking that tradition. I am going to make sure that the American people see that this administration, to the next one, there is going to be a peaceful transfer of power.

But, again, it's a tough day for some of the folks here who are having to manage the choreography and plan for all of the logistical challenges of hosting the former president here. It's a hard day.

COLLINS: And what do we know about what Vice President Harris is doing? I mean, she was back here on the campus for the first time since her loss last Tuesday yesterday. What are her plans as this is going on?

LEE: Yes, there was an interesting moment the other day, yesterday, when the vice president was coming back to the White House. She hadn't been here in a while. She was actually here, I think briefly on Monday, but not on a day when actually White House staff were fully here.

The steps of the EEOB Building were completely filled with White House staff, EEOB advisers, aides wanting to sort of give her a welcome. They cheered and they clapped as she got out of her motorcade, clearly sort of wanting to send the message, yes, you had a tough week. Yes, this was a tough week for Democrats in the party. But we welcome you back to the White House. We appreciate what you did.

There's not been a lot of talk, actually, in all of my conversations I have had with Democrats about what the future of Kamala Harris is. Quite frankly, I think that's not the headspace that a lot of folks are in. I think they are still in the headspace in the place of processing what happened on Election Day.

And, as we have reported, the anger that I am hearing from so many Democrats is not being directed at Vice President Harris. It is being directed at President Biden.

COLLINS: Yes, and that's the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next door. That's where the vice president's team and her staff sits. Obviously, she has an office in the West Wing.

Kristen, Trump has just come from Capitol Hill, where he was meeting with House Republicans. Elon Musk was with him. He was voicing confidence in House Speaker Mike Johnson and talking about what that dynamic is going to look like, obviously very different when he returns to Washington.

He's accompanied by his senior staff. But how is Trump viewing this meeting today?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I was told by a senior adviser that he's viewing this technically as the Trump show, that this is his debut in Washington.

And one thing to remember is that this looks very different from the last time that he won. Of course, the popular vote, that's in there as well, but even just the fact that Donald Trump was hoping to win this time and expecting to win, his advisers did have a working transition in place.

This is a very different Washington, D.C., that he is descending upon. And the other part of this is that, yes, back in 2016-2017, when Donald Trump came to Washington, Republicans did have control of the Senate. They did have control of the House. But it wasn't Donald Trump's party. He still had so many vocal critics in the Senate.

COLLINS: It was Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell.

(CROSSTALK)

HOLMES: It was that they won their own. They didn't win on the backs of Donald Trump or with his endorsement.

I mean, so many of the people in the Senate were handpicked by Donald Trump. So many of the people that we have seen in Washington have gone down to Mar-a-Lago and kissed the ring. This is a very different dynamic here. And I am told that he's been reveling in it, reveling in the win, reveling in what Washington is going to look like.

And he wants to come and show up here. And I think it's interesting that he didn't stop and try to talk when he was at JBA, which he could have. There is the press there. That's the airport, obviously, that he landed at. He's saving the moment for him appearing with House Republicans as a leader, and then saving the moment for him appearing here next to President Joe Biden, which says a lot about where his headspace is.

COLLINS: Yes, of course, eight years ago, Obama welcomed him into the Oval Office. And now Joe Biden is.

Pam, obviously, as you heard Kristen, Trump is reveling in this. It's safe to say that it's not the sense of the White House, but it's going to be a remarkable moment nonetheless.

BROWN: Yes, I spoke to one source who worked with Trump after the 2016 one. He said, look, this honeymoon is very different for Trump. He really is reveling in it. And it's just a completely different Washington he's returning to now as president-elect.

All right, let's turn to our CNN panel, chief political correspondent Dana Bash and chief national affairs correspondent Jeff Zeleny.

I mean, it really is -- this is tradition. We keep talking about that, but it's also extraordinary. There is so much significance with this meeting today between Trump and Biden. And you just look at, again, a few years ago, 2021, January, when he left in disgrace and now returning under completely different circumstances, Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Not just left in disgrace, but left effectively trying to symbolically torch the place as he walked out and really did have a big role in egging on what happened in the U.S. Capitol in order to prevent a peaceful transfer of power.

And President Biden is determined to show the country that this is how it should be done. I think it's probably fair to say that he, Joe Biden would probably rather eat glass than to be doing what he is doing right now. But it is important.

[11:10:09]

And I'm told that he is going to be not only symbolically welcoming him, but really trying to have a conversation about, in the words of one source, the state of affairs in the United States and also what President Biden is really seeing when it comes to the very, very tumultuous world landscape.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: And what's so extraordinary about it is, I mean, one of the reasons that Joe Biden came off the sidelines in the first place, he had taken his leave from the White House.

He was the vice president, was moving into the private sector. One of the central reasons he came back to run in the first place was to defeat Donald Trump. And that is what is so extraordinary here now, a one-term presidency of Joe Biden. Donald Trump is not just returning. He's returning in a far stronger fashion than he was before.

But there's no doubt that President Biden is a traditionalist. He has served in every corner of this capital. And this is something that he believes in his bones, that the Constitution and the office of the presidency is bigger than any one man. So he does want to show that.

But in terms of eating glass, yes, I think he would like to think -- but they're also meeting in the private dining room, as we all know, just steps off of the Oval Office. And this is a place where Donald Trump sat during the insurrection on January 6 in an angry fashion.

BASH: Yes.

ZELENY: We have learned so much about that.

So he will return to that really small room just right off the Oval and have a private conversation. And who knows what they're going to talk about? I would not be at all surprised if Donald Trump would mention the fact that he has publicly that Joe Biden was removed from the ticket sort of unceremoniously, because he has talked about that so often.

So this is a thing that it's a living, breathing version of a letter that they leave for one another. That's what's kind of playing out here today. BROWN: And you can you can look at history, right, when he met with

President Obama and how that went. I think it went longer, as I recall, than expected. And from our reporting, President Obama tried to warn Trump of all the national security risks that he was going to be taking on and cautioned him to really pick qualified White House security -- White House personnel.

This time around, we are getting a picture of what Trump wants his Cabinet to look like, right, Pete Hegseth as defense secretary. You have to wonder how that's sort of shaping the conversation today, particularly, as our reporting indicates, Biden wants to talk to Trump about issues like the war in Ukraine.

BASH: Yes.

I mean, if you go back to that example and that this fateful day eight years ago, when Barack Obama then president sat with president-elect Trump for the first time, not only did President Obama warn about the people he would pick. He also warned about North Korea and was saying you have to pay attention to North Korea, I believe, at the time, that that country is one of the biggest risks to the United States.

I don't think that has changed much. But just on the personnel, back then, Donald Trump picked Michael Flynn. This time around -- as national security adviser, who didn't last very long.

ZELENY: Twenty-two days.

BASH: Twenty-two days. Thank you. This time around, he picked Mike Waltz, who is a really well-respected member of Congress, retired Green Beret, somebody who really, truly has Donald Trump's ear, but also has respect across the aisle.

And it is a different world. Whether or not he's going to last is a different question. But if you kind of take that original Obama advice, particularly in the White House, on the national security front, it's a different kind of pick, for sure.

BROWN: And we just want to note that the meeting is now under way, I'm told, and that President Biden spoke first and talked about the smooth transition and the importance of that.

And we see now outside the EEOB, right?

(CROSSTALK)

ZELENY: That's extraordinary, because that's part of Joe Biden's administration.

BROWN: Yes, let's go back to that, if we could. There we go.

BASH: That's -- Jeff and I were sitting here as Kaitlan was on looking at that imagery and it's really stunning. Those are Biden staffers. They're in the EEOB.

Some of them are lower-level, some of them perhaps a little bit higher. But they're there to watch a history moment being made that nobody standing there wanted.

ZELENY: And just yesterday, Vice President Harris was in that -- virtually the same spot. She was receiving a welcome, a warm round of applause from staffers on those steps. Now they're waiting to see who the 47th president will be -- he will be taking office in just a couple of months.

But that is pretty extraordinary. And most of them, with the exception of some perhaps civil servants, will not have jobs on January 20-21. They will be replaced, which happens every four years.

[11:15:09]

BASH: Which is normal, yes.

ZELENY: It is normal, for sure, but that is certainly an interesting tableau.

BROWN: It is a sight. And to think all that they have -- the whiplash of, right, I mean, President Biden, running again, then stepping aside, then Kamala Harris taking over, and now president-elect Trump about to take over the White House.

It is an extraordinary moment. And it also -- as the two men meet, we have to remember the importance and the significance of what it means for the peaceful transfer of power that we did not see.

ZELENY: And one thing I'm struck by, this is so different than eight years ago, also is that Donald Trump is not coming directly from Trump Tower. I mean, he knows now how every side of the White House works from the residence. The residence staff remembers him, of course. He will be largely surrounded by entirely different people this time around.

And I think first and foremost is the person who has the best real estate aside from the Oval Office. That's the chief of staff. And Susie Wiles is someone who knows Washington well. She's not worked in Washington as much as she has in Florida. But that is one of the big differences here.

I'm asked all the time, what are the differences between when he first came in? One, he knows the job. And, two, he is surrounding himself, as of now, with different people, the toughest job in the city, if not the country or world, that position of chief of staff. So I'm told she's been talking to previous chiefs of staff, trying to get a sense of the institution and the history.

But Donald Trump, as we have seen, for all of the sort of normal Cabinet picks, still has many surprises up his sleeve, as we saw last night with the Defense Department choice.

BROWN: And there's still a question about Marco Rubio, right?

BASH: Yes, it's unclear why that hasn't been formally announced the way that we have heard about others on the national security team. We still haven't heard about the DNI, the director of national intelligence, and a few other key posts.

But it's perplexing why Marco Rubio hasn't been officially announced. I just want to also say that, eight years ago, Donald Trump didn't think that Donald Trump was going to win. I mean, he really didn't. I think that it's fair to say, especially now that we have done so much reporting on that time period, I have talked to lots of people in and around him who say that he was a bit shell-shocked that this sort of lark that he went on to get into politics succeeded.

And the transition was huge going from private citizen, and you were alluding to this, going from Trump Tower to leader of the free world.

BROWN: All right, let's go to this. They're meeting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Looking forward to having a, like we said, smooth transition. Do everything we can to make sure you're accommodated, what you need. And we're going to get a chance to talk about some of that today. So, welcome. Welcome back.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (R) AND CURRENT U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you very much. And thank you very much.

And politics is tough, and it's, in many cases, not a very nice world, but it is a nice world today. And I appreciate it very much, a transition that's so smooth. It'll be as smooth as it can get. And I very much appreciate that, Joe.

BIDEN: You're welcome.

Thank you all.

(CROSSTALK)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Wow, I mean, just even looking at the body language, right?

ZELENY: Well, sure.

One of the interesting things, President Trump deferring to President Biden there by not answering questions and other things.

BROWN: That took some restraint. You know it did.

ZELENY: For sure, because he's been in that position. We have all been in the Oval with him, and he often liked to answer questions.

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: I'm sorry.

Just the imagery, the fire burning, the bust of MLK on one side, JFK on the other, I mean, wow, that is a moment. And these two men have not seen each other, I don't think, since our debate.

BROWN: Oh, my gosh, June 27.

ZELENY: I think they might have on 9/11 just briefly.

BASH: Oh, on 9/11, that's right. That's right. That's right. But I'm not sure that they had a conversation.

ZELENY: But certainly not have had a moment to speak since the debate that you moderated, of course.

BASH: Yes. And they didn't really speak to each other that whole time.

ZELENY: Right.

BASH: But, again, I just want to say what Donald Trump just said. Politics is tough. Transition, we want the transition to be as smooth as it can get.

[11:20:05]

ZELENY: And he said, I very much appreciate it to Joe.

So these are -- in their quiet moments, it'll take a while for us to figure out exactly sort of what is going on here, but also President Biden is saying welcome back and committing to the transition. And politics is tough is about the understatement, but a perfect way to describe it.

BASH: So we cannot underscore enough the transition is smooth and him basically thanking Joe Biden for that, and what a difference in this moment versus how Donald Trump treated Joe Biden in Joe Biden's win, not to this moment ever admitting or conceding to Joe Biden for the 2020 election.

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: And never inviting Biden to the White House?

BASH: And never inviting and not going to his inauguration.

(CROSSTALK)

ZELENY: Which also had an effect on President Biden's approval rating and it got his presidency off to an entirely different start. There's no doubt about it.

BROWN: And I want to bring in our Kaitlan Collins, who is there at the White House.

And, Kaitlan, it is really a remarkable moment to see them sitting there together at the White House, exchanging pleasantries, very nice, very cordial, Trump himself talking about the smooth transition and the fact that they're meeting at a place just feet away from where Donald Trump himself watched on that TV the January 6 insurrection take place.

It is just a remarkable moment.

COLLINS: Yes, and, for that, Biden said that Trump was -- had held a dagger to the throat of democracy on that day in that historic speech that Biden gave on the anniversary of January 6 when he was in office.

And to look at that moment there where the two of them are shaking hands, it's important to keep in mind that, in 68 days from now, that will beat Trump's Oval Office. He will take the oath of office on the steps of the Capitol. And then at noon that day is when the power will be turned over and Joe Biden will leave the White House and Donald Trump will enter the White House for his second term.

And I think, M.J. and Kristen, looking at this and this moment, the pleasantries are being exchanged there. Certainly, it is a relationship that is broken down between the two of them where Trump obviously has said horrible things about Biden on the campaign trail, calling him diminished and talking about him at length until he was out of the race.

He's said much nicer things lately. But really to think about what this transition is going to look like, they're committing to a smooth one that was not obviously in place four years ago, but also the change of power is going to make the White House look a lot different when Trump takes office.

HOLMES: Yes, I mean, this is really the pinnacle moment of the transition. I mean, obviously, we're going to continue to see these Cabinet picks. We're going to continue to see this rollout of what the staff is going to look like.

But this marks the beginning of that peaceful transfer of power and how Donald Trump handles this and how Joe Biden handles it sets the tone for what it's going to look like. And I heard Jeff saying, and I thought it was interesting, the fact that Donald Trump was deferring to President Joe Biden when it came to answering questions, he was looking at him seeing what he was going to do.

Clearly, he is trying to set this tone and by saying it's going to be a smooth transition of power, kind of ignoring what happened last time and essentially pretending that they're starting fresh here. But he is trying to set a tone clearly with what he is saying. Obviously, we will see if he ends up contradicting that.

We know that that's often something we see with Donald Trump. But right now, it is clear what he's doing.

LEE: Well, yes, that scene was cordial. The brief pleasantries were pleasant, I guess polite, but I do think it is worth underscoring the reason that this scene and this image is so striking is because these two men have no relationship to speak of.

This is not President George W. Bush welcoming the Obamas to the White House. This is not Bill Clinton welcoming w. Bush to the White House. You look back on those images in the footage and there is some real warmth there.

There is no actual warmth, despite the fire, between those two men. We have talked about the many ways in which President Trump has talked in denigrating ways about President Biden. Biden, too, throughout the course of this campaign, referring to this person as a fascist, as a total threat to the country, and now on top of that, he is having to say the words "Welcome back" to a man who single-handedly actually could completely alter and probably already has altered his political legacy.

The fact that he believed that he needed to seek a second term and then was forced out of the race and then the vice president that he endorsed didn't end up winning, I mean, that is going to be sort of the lead sentence, probably, of anything that is ever written about President Biden.

And here they are now just sitting a couple of feet away from each other and he is having to say the words "Welcome back."

COLLINS: Yes, and those relationships were not always warm between the Clintons and the Bushes or the Bushes and the Obamas when that was happening in the moment. Certainly, their political views were not aligned.

[11:25:03]

But I think what this moment says, and talking about how cordial it is and how strange that is, given what we know they really think about each other, it's because it's a moment that people learn not to take for granted, because, four years ago, it did not happen.

We will continue watching all this closely. Right now, what we are hearing is that President Biden and president-elect Trump are still meeting in the Oval Office as of this moment. You just got a brief glimpse of it. We will be waiting to see what was said between the two of them.

We will be back in a quick moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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