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Making a President: in Wax; Sean Spicer Holds Press Conference; Italian Rescuers Experience Weather Delays, Complications After Earthquake. 10:30a-11:00a ET

Aired January 19, 2017 - 10:00   ET

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

(SIMULCAST OF SEAN SPICER PRESS CONFERENCE)

[10:37:00] HANNAH VAUGHAN JONES, HOST: You have just been watching some live pictures, a live press conference there from Washington, Sean Spicer

take a good look -- or remember what he looks like, because you'll see a lot more of him in the months and years to come.

He is the incoming press secretary for Donald Trump.

Of course, we are just one day away from that inauguration for the 45th president.

Hello and welcome, you're watching Connect the World. I'm Hannah Vaughan Jones sitting in for Becky Anderson live in London.

Before Sean Spicer took to the podium there, we also go to hear from the incoming vice president, Mike Pence, he was praising the outgoing

administration of Barack Obama for their assistance in the transition. Mike Pence, of course, has been leading up the transition team. He

praised the transition team. He said that it's coming in under budget and ahead of time as well.

We've had a lot of nominations, new nominees to Donald Trump's cabinet announced just today. So, right at the very last minute. As Sean Spicer

was going through the rundown of what we can expect tomorrow talking about the schedule of events.

Donald Trump himself is expected to leave New York and head to Washington to the capital in the next couple of hours. He will, of course, be

preparing his inaugural speech, which we'll all be tuned in to tomorrow to come.

Interesting that Sean Spicer, his press secretary, said it will be less of an agenda and more of a philosophical vision. Interesting to see how that

goes down, particularly with many of Donald Trump's critics, especially as he's been keen to stress his whole administration to come has been keen to

stress that this is an agenda of real change that everyone in the Trump administration will be bringing in.

Let's talk more about what we can expect now on Trump's first day as president.

Joining me now from Washington, CNN political analyst Josh Rogin and CNN political commentator Mary Katherine Ham. Rogin writes columns for The

Washington Post and Mary Katherine Ham is a senior writer for the Federalist.

Welcome to you both. I've seen you both have been listening in to Sean Spicer there, his first on camera briefing.

Mary, if I can come to you first. I'm interested to know what your perspective is an the mood of the press in Washington hearing the tone and

the rhetoric there from Sean Spicer?

MARY KATHERINE HAM, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, at moments, of course, we have seen it has been contentious already, as you saw with CNN's

Jim Acosta getting into it with Trump at the first press conference. And I think that will be the tone a lot of the time, especially from the

principal, Trump, and that sort of trickles down to other people.

I'm not necessarily averse to that. He should push back on questions that he wants to push back on.

Sean Spicer here, I think, maybe sounding a little bit more encouraging to the press, just because this felt like a press conference that was like

normal business. It's not always going to be that way, but today it felt a little bit more like a normal exchange.

JONES: Josh, to you, Sean Spicer there saying about Donald Trump's inaugural speech that it's going to be less of an agenda, which is what he

said he's going to sort of -- you know, hit the ground running with getting things done when it comes to ISIS and repealing and replacing Obamacare,

but less of an agenda and more of a vision. How is that going to go down with the protesters, and of course, his supporters there in Washington?

ROSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think what you're going to see from the speech is a lot similar to what you heard from Sean Spicer today.

There's not a lot of detail, there's not a lot of meat on the bone, and that's because the Trump incoming administration is still working ons those

details. They don't have their agenda set. And they don't know exactly how it's going to play out so they can't broadcast it during the

inauguration.

I mean, what we're seeing is an administration that's coming basically in with a small staff, going through a vetting process that has not gone very

smoothly, and is really engaged in battles across all lines -- they're battling with Democrats, they're battling with overseers, they're battling

with lawyers, they're battling with the press. So they're in a defensive, combative crouch and that's the position that they're going to take as they

start.

JONES: Yeah. Well, of course Sean Spicer's view is very different to yours, Josh, saying that it's actually all gone swimmingly and that they've

managed to bring this in under budget and ahead of time as well.

Mary, I'm wondering about the scathing words that Sean Spicer had for many Democrats on Capitol Hill when it comes to these confirmation hearings and

the stalling tactics that he says they're employing at the moment.

HAM: Yeah, I mean, that's his role. He's going to go after them. Schumer can sort of, who is head of the Democrats on The Hill, can sort of slow

down this process, but because Democrats disarmed themselves by removing the filibuster and they only need 51 votes

now to get most of these guys through, there is not going to be a lot of opportunity to actually stop many of these nominees. And that's something

Democrats are dealing with.

Sean Spicer is asking that at least on these confirmation hearings for people who were sort of

agreed upon, like Nikki Haley who weren't terribly contentious, that they be able to move forward. I don't know if that's the case.

I want to slightly disagree with Josh on the fact that I think they're combative, but I don't think they're necessarily crouching. And I think

this is how you're going to see them do business is that they fight all the time, and they have their internal fights out in the open. And we should

get very used to seeing that and they consider it defensive, they consider it business as usual in the Trump organization.

JONES: Josh, many of the most influential people around trump majority of the cabinet

nominees have -- the majority of them all being picked now. I understand you have a slightly different view as to who are the most influential

people to Trump be it his team immediately around him.

ROGIN: Right, well there's been a lot of news this week about cabinet nominees, especially in the national security space openly and blatantly

disagreeing with what President-elect Trump has said on very important issues, including the danger of Rusia, whether war crimes are being

committed in Aleppo, these are some pretty big breaks.

But my reporting shows that right now at least, the people who are really holding the foreign policy and national security sway are those people who

are very close to the president, namely chief strategist Steve Bannon, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, and his son-in-law and senior

adviser Jared Kushner.

So as we head into this administration, because his transition team has been in place and advising him for so many months, the cabinet secretaries

are really fighting uphill and really competing for access and influence, and that's going to be the main tension as we move forward. It will be

between the White House and the campaign staff, which will then become the White House staff. And all of these other powerful senior individuals that

Trump has brought in who are just getting their boots on.

JONES: There are just so many unknowns, aren't there, about what will come with Donald Trump's administration.

My thanks to you both. Josh Rogin, Mary Katherine Ham, both in Washington. Thank you.

ROGIN: Thank you.

HAM: Thank you.

JONES: Now, when Donald Trump gets sworn in tomorrow, the eyes of the world will, of course, be on America's 45th president. Countries from Asia

to Africa are waiting to see what the United States commander-in-chief will do once he's formally in office.

Iran will certainly be paying attention as Mr. Trump has been critical, to say the least, of its nuclear deal with world powers.

For more on that, Fred Pleitgen reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORREPSONDENT: It was hailed by many as one of the many diplomatic achievements of the Obama administration: the

nuclear agreement between the U.S., Iran and several other nations to put curbs on Tehran's nuclear ambitious in return for sanctions relief.

But incoming president Donald Trump has questioned the deal. And in this popular Tehran cafe that rhetoric causes disbelief and anger.

UNIDENITIFIED FEMALE: I think he's a crazy man, I think.

UNIDENITIFIED MALE: And I think he's very aggressive. And he doesn't like our country. And he sees our country as a terrorists, you know, even our

nation, our people, and our people is very different than our government.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was getting better, since like Rouhani became the president, but right now, as Donald become the president of the United

States, I don't think it's going to go as well as it was.

PLEITGEN: So far the nuclear agreement has brought limited sanctions relief for Iran and limited improvements for the economy.

While the upswing after the nuclear agreement hasn't been as fast or as powerful as many people here would have hoped, at least they have a

positive economic outlook. And many here fear that those gains could be jeopardized by Donald Trump's presidency.

Donald Trump has called the nuclear agreement a bad deal and says he wants to renegotiate it. Iran's President Hassan Rouhani says any talk of

renegotiation is just rhetoric and rejected the idea.

Mohammad Marandi (ph), dean of American studies at Tehran University says Iran's leadership is taking a wait and see approach.

[08:45:33] MOHAMMAD MARANDI, TEHRAN UNIVERSITY: They're not taking it very seriously now. If trump, though, when he becomes president is serious

about doing a deal with Iran, then I think behind the scenes things may happen.

But if he thinks that Iran is going to back down or give the United States concessions, he's

miscalculating.

PLEITGEN: While many Iranians expected more economic returns from the nuclear agreement, few would want the easing of tensions during the Obama

years to be reversed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JONES: Frederik Pleitgen reporting there from Tehran, the Iranian capital.

Do stay with us here on CNN Connect the World. We'll be right back after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JONES: You're watching CNN. And this is Connect the World with me Hannah Vaughan Jones, welcome back.

We go to Central Italy now where rescuers have been digging for hours to reach any survivors after an avalanche buried a hotel. It's part of a ski

resort based at the foot of a mountain, and at least one person is known to have died, only two people have been rescued so far, but 30 others are

thought to be buried inside after a wall of snow and debris smashed into the hotel.

Well, a serious of earthquakes hit central italy on Wednesday, several of them are measuring a magnitude 5.0 and above.

But for the very latest on the situation, CNN contributor Barbie Nadeau joins me on the phone. She is en route to the area where the avalanche

occurred. Barbie, we were talking yesterday when these quakes were first felt. And we were talking about the the tremors felt even in Rome, in the

capital as well.

What's the very latest on where this avalanche actually occurred and of course those 30-odd people who are trapped beneath it?

BARBIE NADEAU, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, rescue workers right now have been there for about 12 hours. It took them a very

long time to even reach this area, it's so remote on this mountainside, this snowy area. You know, it's been under blizzard conditions for a

couple of days, so people who were in this area were already concerned about being snowed in and being able to get out of there, that obviously

hampered the situation.

They're looking for a break in the weather tomorrow. That's not going to make the temperatures any better.

Like I said, those few rescuers, few earlier people that the rescue operation arrived on skis, that's how difficult it was to get in. Those

people, of course, wouldn't have had with them the type of heavy lifting equipment they need in order to dig out these people. They have been

working all day long today to try to open the road enough to get the heavy lifting

equipment that they need in to lift this structure up and find out if there's anyone still alive underneath the rubble of what's left of this

hotel.

We have seen some pictures from inside the hotel, there are parts of it still standing, but of course they're battling against cold conditions,

sub-zero temperatures, so people who may have survived the avalanche now could be subject to extreme cold and hyperthermia.

We have not had a lot of information in the last several hours about these survivors as they work to try to get that equipment, that vital equipment

into the area to be able to move the building, move the snow and find out if anyone has survived, Hannah.

JONES: Barbie, the weather is obviously hampering the rescue efforts somewhat. Is there also some concern about more quakes to come and

possible aftershocks as well from yesterday's quakes?

NADEAU: Oh, absolutely. I mean, this is a seismic, very busy seismic area right now. There have been small aftershocks about every half an hour for

the last 24 or 48 hours now since that first quake hit on Wednesday morning.

And, you know, all of that obviously compromises the situation in the sense rescue workers don't want to put themselves at risk as they're trying to

rescue someone. They need to make sure they're safe in order to do their jobs correctly. They have taken in dogs, cadaver dogs, dogs that are

looking for life in that area, but of course the cold conditions also hamper the ability of those dogs to sniff out life.

The priority, working against the seismic activity, working against the time with the cold, is to just get some bigger equipment in there right

now. That is the real (inaudible), just to open up those roads, keep them open, it's very windy, the snow is still falling, they're expecting the

snow to stop by tomorrow, then if the wind goes down, maybe they'll be able to, of course, keep the roads open and get more rescue vehicles, emergency

vehicles.

They're actually helicoptering in doctors and taking people twice anyway they can to try to save anyone they might be able to reach. But so far the

difficulty has been getting into the building, getting that rubble from what's left of the hotel cleared away so they can find survivors, Hannah.

JONES: OK, Barbie Nadeau, we appreciate your reporting. Barbie is there in central Italy on her way to the scene of this devastating avalanche.

Barbie, thank you.

Now, if we ask those people what politicians are made of, we probably would get some answers

we probably wouldn't be able to broadcast. But the people at one wax museum in London told CNN they know exactly what it takes to make Donald

Trump. The surprising details ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JONES: You're watching CNN and this is Connect the World with me, Hannah Vaughan JOnes, welcome back to you.

Now, as we've been talking about throughout this show, Friday, tomorrow is inauguration day in America. And the world is waiting to find out exactly

what the next U.S. president is made of. But as Isa Soares tells us, the staff at Madame Tussauds in London think they already know the answer. And

that is today's Parting Shots.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ISA SOARES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: His name is on everyone's lips, even if he doesn't like what he has to say. But if you can't guess

who it is, this may give it away. It's his most infamous feature, his golden coif.

This is President-elect Donald Trump as you have never seen him before, up close and personal, and made entirely of wax.

[08:55:06] DAVE GARDNER, PRINCIPAL SCULPTOR, MADAME TUSSAUDS: The sitting, when we would have met him, we can take measurements in the head, so I

could -- measuring the head like that, so we go around and we see his anchor points.

So, I would have used the measurements and started to create the head using all the reference images we had.

SOARES: From there, Donald Trump's face becomes a jigsaw.

GARDNER: And you see kind of the ear part here.

SOARES: And eventually becomes a mold to which wax is applied.

Did you enjoy the process, because he's not -- his face says so much.

GARNDER: Yes, it's almost like he made my job slightly easier, because of his character, it's almost as far as doing a caricature and then bringing

it back.

SOARES: Then the painstaking work of detailing his face begins. And for Kelly, that meant finding the right type of hair.

KELLY COX, HAIR STYLIST, MADAME TUSSAUDS: So, his hair has been quite challenging.

SOARES: Part of his came from an animal.

COX: His hair is a mixture of human hair and yak. We use yak hair for people with white hair because you can't buy white human hair.

SOARES: These eyebrows, talk to us. What about they made of -- are they synthetic or...

COX: And they're a mixture of hair in the eyebrows as well. So you've got a little bit synthetic hair in there, as the coarser ones are, you've got

natural human hair in there as well. You've got a li ttle bit of squirrel, so that's just for the soft ones...

SOARES: Hold on, squirrel hair?

COX: Yes.

SOARES: From the hair to the skin, coloring it seems has been the biggest challenge for this wax work.

I've used all of these colors on this pallet.

SOARES: A vibrant pallet to recreate a colorful character.

But what will Mr. Trump make of his new body double?

So, President-elect, do you like the way your look? Seems, for once, he has nothing to say.

Isa Soares, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JONES: And finally, just before we go, the real Donald Trump will be moving, of course, from the glitter and gold of Trump Tower in New York, to

the more stately surroundings of the White Hosue tomorrow. And even for a billionaire property mogul, it is prime real estate.

If the White House were for sale, which it obviously is not, the real estate Zillow estimates it would go on the market just shy of $400

million. Only a handful of luxury states around the world can boast a value that high.

And also just before we go as well, we can tell you that Donald Trump, the U.S. president-elect, is now on his way to the airport in New York. He

will be flying to Washington, D.C. ahead of his inauguration due to take place tomorrow. These are live pictures we can bring you from the runway

there in New York. And we will have live pictures, of course, as the president-elect takes to that plane.

In the meantime, I'm Hannah Vaughan Jones here in London, that was Connect the World. And this is CNN.

END