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CNN NEWSROOM

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Aired November 10, 2016 - 14:30   ET

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


[14:30:00] BARACK OBAMA, PRSEIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And Lebron is tweeting. And, you know, this was all big news. But somehow Coach Tyronn Lue (ph) comes in and everything starts getting a little smoother. And they hit their stride in the playoffs. Everybody can sit down. I'll be here for a while. They started setting record after record for three-point shooting but obviously, what this all comes down to is a team that for the first-time NBA history comes back from being down n61 in the finals. The first team in history to dig themselves out of a hole like that.

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: And I should add that by knocking off the Warriors they 1996 bulls as the greatest team of all time.

(LAUGHTER)

So, your president thanks you for that. Now -- I know, it's funny, isn't it? Yes, it is. Everybody's happy when their team wins. The comeback was remarkable and you learn about people when they're down again a historically good Warriors team. The Cavs won games five and six by double digits. You had both Lebron James and becoming the first du duo ever to score 45 points in a finals game.

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: And then in game seven the Cavs fall behind on the road only to fight back and look up the title with an unbelievable two minutes. There was the block, what Lebron has said was the defining play of his career.

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: The shot by Kyrie, putting the Cavs up five, the stop by Kevin Love.

(CHEERING)

OBAMA: Boy. I mean, Kevin was moving. Like that perform but it wasn't just those outstanding players, not then and not throughout the year because this was always a team effort. Jr. Always seemed to hit those shots --no, no, don't shoot that, and then it goes in and man that was a great shot. You got Tristan Thompson who has great of a motor as anybody. And put in extra work to teach himself how to shoot free throws with the wrong hand. I should have tried that with some bill signings around here. You have Channing Frye who came in right over the training deadline and change had tone of the locker room. Richard Jefferson, Dante Jones giving us inspiration to the old do something. Iman Shumpert playing not only great defense and scoring but also delivered his wife's baby in the bathtub. (LAUGHTER) using a pair of head phones to tie off the umbilical cord. Now that's something right there. That was an all-star move. Got the McGuyver flat top which we miss. Lebron calls his favorite player of all time, James Jones. The two were a package deal, six straight finals appearances their names even go together -- James Jones.

(LAUGHTER)

OBAMA: But the truth is Lebron wouldn't be Lebron without his teammates, Kyrie, Kevin, Tristan. Michelle's brother, who was an excellent basketball player always says that you can learn a lot about somebody's character by the way they play basketball. And when you see Lebron James it is not just his power and his speed and his vertical, it is his unselfishness it is his insistence on making the right play, his determination all of which makes him one of the great players of all time and you saw in the last three games put up some of the most staggering statistics in finals history. He did it the year before despite injuries dragging his team along to make a very competitive series. You saw it when this kid from Akron broke down and fell to his knees when he realized he had finally fulfilled a promise he had made all those years ago and delivered that championship back to northeast Ohio.

(CHEERING)

(APPLAUSE)

[14:35:39] OBAMA: This is a player and a team that knows what this title means to Cleveland. This is a city that throughout sports history has been through a lot. The fumble, the drive, Jordan over Elow. But through it all Cleveland was always believed and that's why the Cavs he always given back to their fans and which t community that's been so loyal to them. Over the 24r5st 2 years they've given over $23 million to local charities.

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: And more than just the money players and coaches have made about 200 visits annually to school, hospitals, food kitchens and more including assisting educational programs that reach more than 100,000 kids in

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: And these Cavs exemplify a growing generation of athletes that are using their platforms to speak out. We've seen Kevin on combatting campus sexual assault. Lebron on issues of gun violence and working with Michelle to help more kids go to college. His foundation is doing something incredible, paying college tuition for 1,100 kids from Akron.

(CHEERING)

OBAMA: I should mention that as we were walking out Dan Gilbert has been unbelievable in the work he's been doing in Detroit, his hometown, in giving back.

And finally, earlier today the Cavs met with Attorney General Loretta Lynch and my senior advisor, Valerie Jarrett, to discuss steps they're taking to help build understanding between law enforcement and the Cleveland community, part of a league-wide effort to build stronger communities all across the country, including holding open conversations so we can begin to bridge divides and diffuse tensions and see each other as one American family. That's one of just -- a number of recent efforts to we've been proud to partner with the NBA during my time as president from the league's support of my brother's keeper initiative to mentoring initiatives to Michelle's let's move and joining forces efforts. It's been a model for positive change and the fact that it's not just a responsibility of government, it takes all of us -- businesses, nonprofits, athlete, role models working together to achieve the project we seek. So, I know that Cleveland could not be happier and prouder of having this trophy but this was already a championship group of guys even before last year and you should be very proud of them. Give it up for the world champs time.

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: You want to say anything?

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: We'll stay on the picture. You've listened to President Obama. It's been a big day at the White House, first president-elect Trump, now you have the Cleveland Cavaliers. I should add Cleveland couldn't eke it out in the world series, he did invite the Chicago Cubs to come to visit the White House before he's out of office.

But I've got David Chalian and Dana Bash sitting next to me as we've been listening to this and thinking about this day.

And you were sort of saying earlier, I mean you wonder if -- it was g morning for the president to say the least.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: A tough one.

BOLDUAN: And he was probably really looking forward to this afternoon.

BASH: Exactly. We were joking that this morning it was like he took his medicine and now he can eat his dessert.

BOLDUAN: Ate the vegetables earlier.

BASH: The tough part of the job, one of the toughest, that you have to put your politics aside and respect the office and the fun part that when you're in the Cavs and you get Lebron to come to the Rose Garden and hang out.

[14:40:02] DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Especially when you're a huge basketball fan like he is.

(CROSSTALK)

CHALIAN: He loves this part of the job.

BOLDUAN: Back, though, on the meetings we've been watching through the day whether it was the president or the president-elect in the Oval Office or the speaker of the House or Senate majority leader, something you noted was around the White House, President-elect Trump, who's been in many a board room, shaken hands of celebrities, but to be in that building for almost two hours this morning, do you think he appreciated the magic that is the White House?

CHALIAN: I think --

(CROSSGTALK)

BOLDUAN: The significance?

CHALIAN: Looking at him today, this is a humbling experience for Donald Trump. I think he wears his humility that shot in his body language, the way he's sitting there. He even said he had respect. He was for the king of the board room the guy that can run any meeting, those businesses -

BOLDUAN: Close deals.

CHALIAN: -- he is the decider across the board in his career to come into a place where it's not your home turf when Donald Trump mostly lives on his home turf is a humbling experience no doubt and that's clear and that lends itself to the pie repairing the breach from the campaign, that's part of it, too.

BOLDUAN: You were reporting, because I'm also wondering, 70 or so days until inauguration and they already are working through - they, being the Trump team, the transition team -- wanting to get their folks in place, especially the chief of staff. What are they working through and what do you think it will be Reince Priebus?

BASH: All signs are pointing to the chief of staff being Reince Priebus, the chair of the RNC who Donald Trump worked with extremely closely. Not just during the general election but obviously during the primary process when Donald Trump was new to the Republican Party, never mind politics. And so, they do have a close relationship and he is also -- he, Reince Priebus, is also somebody who not only understands Washington, most of the people in that building down there -- that way, I guess, the capitol, he helped get elected to the Republican majority so he has the relationships which, when you're chief of staff, you need so. I don't know 100 percent, and nobody does, if it might be him. It might not be. We might be surprised. But I'm told whomever is it that is a position they want to fast track, they want to do extremely soon. Obviously, the chief of staff doesn't need Senate confirmation, so it's something he can make happen -- he, meaning Donald Trump. Then the big five cabinet positions, State -

BOLDUAN: Defense.

BASH: Defense -- I'm having a Rick Perry moment.

BOLDUAN: Treasury.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: It's been a long week.

(CROSTALK)

CHALIAN: State, Defense, Treasury, Justice.

BOLDUAN: And Justice.

BASH: They want to do in the first two weeks.

CHALIAN: One of the old adages in this town about choosing a chief of staff is finding your best friend that you can trust with everything the real loyalist, that's the one piece Reince Priebus may not fit. Not that he wasn't loyal to Donald Trump throughout the negotiating constantly the de between the party where there was one between the establishment of the party and Donald Trump trying to keep all factions happy as opposed to just being a pure Trump loyalist --

BOLDUAN: By the way, you say loyalist, but that person needs to be able to say no.

(CROSSTALK)

CHALIAN: You have to speak truth to power, no doubt abo that. But I mean that you are a complete believer --

(CROSSTALK)

CHALIAN: Exactly. So, that's the one piece I question. There's no doubt that Reince Priebus proved himself quite a bit throughout this campaign. I just wonder if Donald Trump will dig into the --

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: It might be somebody else.

BOLDUAN: On all of that, though, we'll talk coming up here that the making of the President Trump cabinet. Will he reward Chris Christie or Rudy Giuliani? We'll talk to a group of Republicans and ask their advice.

Happening right now, students staging an anti-Trump protest in Los Angeles. We're watching this closely here. Live pictures out of L.A.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. We're live in Washington, D.C. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:48:45] BOLDUAN: Welcome back. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin in Washington, D.C.

Let's talk more about this transition of power with the Trump administration.

Bringing in my political panel, Matt Katz is with us, a reporter for WMYZ, in New Jersey, and the author of "American Governor, Chris Christie's Bridge to Redemption"; and Randy Evans, former counsel to House Speakers Newt Gingrich and Dennis Hastert and a member of the RNC; and Chris Wilson, the former research and analytics director for the Ted Cruz presidential campaign.

Gentlemen, awesome to have you all on.

Randy, let me ask you, first, since we've talked many times, rein with you. Does he want the job?

RANDY EVANS, MEMBER, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE & FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER COUNCIL: Brooke, I'll say Reince Priebus was on the star player on the Trump team. He was there as they made the move to pull off the Brexit strategy. The real question is, do you want a chief of staff that can reach across the aisle. If you've been the RNC chairman for six years and your job has been to hammer Democrats day in and day out it wouldn't seem to be the logical choice to be the person to have the hand reach out across the aisle, on the flip side, certainly a trusted confidante. Certainly, on the Republican side, there isn't a member in the Congress that doesn't owe something to Reince Priebus. So, I think it will be a real question for the president-elect about how important it is to reach out versus having a confidante you know will watch your back and protect you through the process.

[14:50:43] BOLDUAN: I feel like that was a yes or a no so it's a wait and see.

Chris, what about -- we've been hearing of people being floated out secretary of state or attorney general. Rudy Giuliani was on TV this morning and he was saying I know a lot about Justice, not that I'm vying for the job, maybe wink, wink. What do you think about names and the Trump inner council?

CHRIS WILSON, THE FORMER RESEARCH & ANALYTICS DIRECTOR, TED CRUZ PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: We'll know more about the Trump administration once we see the cabinet playing out. Different from the overheated rhetoric of the campaign or the liberal meltdown going on right now, most of the names we see are fairly normal Washington, D.C., style names. Giuliani, I don't think anybody would say he's unqualified. You have Chris Christie who headed up the transition process. Does he take the Dick Cheney-approach and say, "I couldn't find anybody else so it should be me." It's -- all the names that are coming out are standard. A few that are a little bit out of left field. They'll bring in somebody from Goldman Sachs, that isn't a revolution. So, from a typical Republican administration, I don't think you'd see -- if any of the 16 candidates had won, there's not a lot of difference in the names we're seeing right now.

And I agree that Reince Priebus played such a critical role that if he pick it would be a shame. What the RNC did in Pennsylvania and Washington is absolutely remarkable and why Donald Trump is president today.

BOLDUAN: President-elect.

WILSON: President-elect today. Thank you. Sorry.

BOLDUAN: Soon to be in that House. You mentioned Chris Christie.

And so, Matt, we've talked, you're the guy who's written the book New Jersey governor so let me ask you, talk about his remarkable political rebound, you have someone who has been the governor of New Jersey, wanted to be president, that didn't happen for him. We know everything that's happened with bridge gate, especially what's happened in deport recently and now voila, this is somebody who could be in the cabinet here.

MATT KATZ, REPORTER, WMYZ, NEW JERSEY & AUTHOR: It's an amazing return to relevance. On Friday, two of his top aides are convicted in the Bridgegate scandal. A couple days after that a poll comes out with 19percent favorability rating, 1-9, in New Jersey. He goes to vote on Tuesday for the first time since he's been governor, doesn't tell the press when he's voting so cameras can be there.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: Under the cloak of darkness.

KATZ: Yes. Under the cloak of darkness at 6:00 a.m. He goes to vote. 20 hours later he's on stage with Donald Trump as Trump becomes our president-elect. Really remarkable turnaround. And now I'm told he's being in the mix for three or four positions. One of those would also be chief of staff as was mentioned and the other would be attorney general. I think attorney general would be his ideal job. He was a U.S. attorney in New Jersey. He worked for the Justice Department. On paper, he has the experience.

And he's got a lot of problems with Bridgegate. Some of his top aides are going to be going to prison. But with a Republican Senate, he should haven't to worry as much about the confirmation process. So, I think A.G. would be the gig he wants. I'm not sure if chief of staff necessarily fits his personality as much.

BOLDUAN: What about -- here's my question, the Trump family and maybe more specifically Jared Kushner.

Chris, let me turn to you.

Jared Kushner, Ivanka's husband, this is his son-in-law, he was here at the White House when they were meeting with -- he wasn't in the Oval Office but he was walking around the grounds. This is someone w played an instrumental role in the campaign. This is someone who also has zero political experience. Do you think he would want a role?

WILSON: For someone who has zero political experience he was probably the most politically apt person on their campaign. Watch what he did as Senator Cruz got out of that campaign and it was remarkable. I think he was probably the best of that group at building bridges and reaching out and so from that -- think that was? You had firsthand experience.

BOLDUAN: Why do you think that was?

WILSON: I'd like to say it had something to do with recognition of competency. I think it's a -- just his personality type. The family success they had in business in New Jersey and a tough market, he kind of grew up building relationships so from that he knew where to go to build the Trump coalition and help make decisions and he also -- the good thing about the excellent role he played is he recognized where they were weak and he found the people who were strong and wanted to bring them in quickly. The role -- his role in the White House would be absolutely integral from that because the one thing Donald Trump has coming in is no experience in political office. Some might say that's a benefit but there's a lot of knowing what you don't know and he seems to have a special acumen for that and I think that will be essential to this White House.

[14:55:41] BOLDUAN: Randy, you get the last question. When you think of these politicos we talked about, Chris Christies, Rudy Giulianis, you know, Jeff Sessions of the world, the folks who really took a risk. First it started out with, I don't know how many people during the primary cycle and, finally, landed to this one, but they took a risk going in with Team Trump, and the reward has paid off, has it not?

EVANS: It has and the name that I think the guy left out was Jeff Sessions. He clearly gets the pick of the litter. Here's a guy who is easily confirmed by his colleagues in the U.S. Senate. He was there, he was the first Senator to endorse President-elect Trump. He was there with him through "Access Hollywood," past that. I think former speaker Newt Gingrich, if he wanted something he would be the second one. Remember, he was the runner up in the vice presidential stakes. He was the one who stood there firm, day in and day out. He was one who occasionally would call Trump on the carpet whenever he thought president-elect Trump had crossed the line so I think those two kind of have the pick of the litter if they were interested. I just don't know whether they will be. I had breakfast with Speaker Gingrich this morning, I think he's leaning against going into the administration but you never know what happens when somebody sits across the table and says, Mr. Speaker, would you like to be the secretary of state?

BOLDUAN: When someone says would you like to be part of the administration I think that would be a tough something to turn down.

Chris and Matt and Randy, thank you very much on the transition here in Washington.

Coming up, Vice President-elect Mike Pence meeting with Vice President Joe Biden any moment now. That's at the White House.

Also, just a reminder, this. What I'm about to show you, this was three weeks ago. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The press always asks me don't I wish I were debating him. No, I wish we were in high school I could take him behind the gym. That's what I wish.

(CHEERING)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: Did you see where Biden wants to take me to the back of the barn? Me. He wants it. I'd love that. I'd love that. Some things in life you could really love doing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)