Return to Transcripts main page

CNN NEWSROOM

Actor Reads Statement to Mike Pence during Broadway Play; Trump Team Continues to Work on Transition to Presidency; Mitt Romney to Meet with Donald Trump Possibly about Cabinet Appointment; Some Trump Administration Picks Criticized. Aired 10-11a ET

Aired November 19, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:00:11] ALISON KOSIK, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Alison Kosik in today for Christi Paul.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell. It is 10:00 here on the east coast, 7:00 on the west coast. This is CNN Newsroom.

It is a busy weekend for president-elect Donald Trump. He is spending today hoping to fill crucial cabinet positions in his administration. But this morning it appears that Trump's first concern was attacking the cast of the Broadway musical "Hamilton" on Twitter. Last night they had a message for vice president-elect Mike Pence who was in the audience. We'll talk about that in a moment.

KOSIK: Today Trump is set to meet with a full roster of prospective cabinet appointees. Those include Mitt Romney, the man who earlier this year called Trump a phony.

BLACKWELL: The president-elect is also taking to Twitter this morning to defend his decision to settle three lawsuits against Trump University for $25 million. We're going to start with CNN's Jessica Schneider. She's standing by in Bridgewater, New Jersey. That's near where president-elect Trump is holding the transition meetings today. Jessica, good morning to you.

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Victor. You know that meeting between Mitt Romney and president-elect Donald Trump, a highly anticipated meeting. It will happen later this afternoon at the Trump National Golf Club just a few miles from here in Bedminster, New Jersey.

Of course, these men have had quite a contentious relationship, their war of words really reaching a crescendo last march during the height of the primary season when Mitt Romney stood on a stage for 20 minutes and blasted Donald Trump as a fake and a phony. So all eyes will be on their meeting this afternoon.

On the docket this afternoon, could it be that they could work on mending fences or could it also be that they're discussing the secretary of state slot? Mitt Romney has expressed to close friends that if he would get back into the government that he would be interested in taking the position as secretary of state. But one close friend has expressed healthy skepticism that Mitt Romney would ever take a post in a Trump administration. Of course, their contentious words well known. How will it play out today? We'll be keeping an eye on it when they meet later this afternoon. Victor and Alison?

BLACKWELL: Jessica Schneider reporting for us near Bedminster, thanks very much.

They are the stars of the hottest ticket on Broadway. He was the star of the winning ticket of the 2016. We should say supporting role, because the star is the guy at the top of the ticket. Last night they collided.

KOSIK: Vice president-elect Mike Pence, that is who we are talking about. He was in the audience of "Hamilton" last night on Broadway. So as he entered the theater with his security team in tow, there were boos and there were cheers. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(BOOS)

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: OK, but then after the show, the stage -- it turned into a platform, a political platform for the show's cast and creators. One of the lead actors read this statement addressed to Pence who was listening in the hallway.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRANDON DIXON, ACTOR: You know, we had a guest in the audience, and vice president-elect Pence, I see you walking out but I hope you will hear us just a few more moment. There's nothing to boo for. We have a message for you, sir, and we hope that you will hear us out. And I encourage everybody to go home and tweet and post because this message needs to be spread far and wide, OK?

Vice president-elect Pence we welcome you and truly appreciate you joining us here at "Hamilton, an American Musical." We really do. We, sir, we are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our families --

`(APPLAUSE)

DIXON: -- children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir. But we truly hope this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us, all of us.

(APPLAUSE)

DIXON: Again, we truly thank you for sharing this show. This wonderful American story told by a diverse group of men and women of different colors, creeds, and orientations.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: All right, reading that statement was Brandon Dixon. He played the role of Aaron Burr.

So the reviews are already in this morning about that statement. We're hearing from the president-elect himself right on Twitter. Donald Trump tweeting this, "Our wonderful future VP, Mike Pence, was harassed last night at the theater by the cast of "Hamilton," cameras blazing. This should not happen. The theater must always be a safe and special place. The cast of "Hamilton" was very rude last night to a very good man, Mike Pence. Apologize!"

KOSIK: Should he? Joining us now by phone, CNN political analyst Patrick Healy. He's also a political correspondent for "The New York Times," and he was in the theater at "Hamilton" last night covering Mike Pence. So Patrick, you caught wind that the vice president-elect was going to be there. You were sitting in the theater. Do you think that was harassment?

[10:05:17] PATRICK HEALY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It was really unusual for a cast of a Broadway show to make the kind of statement that they made from the stage. However, it was a very polite, deeply felt, appeal from the cast and the creators and the producers of "Hamilton" to vice president-elect Pence.

Now, this is not really unusual in a political context because "Hamilton" is the most successful and hottest and critically acclaimed Broadway show in many years, and it is a political show. President Obama and Hillary Clinton have both held fundraisers around the show. Vice President Dick Cheney, Republican, and his wife Lynne said that they loved the show. A lot of politicians have been there. The cast and creators are a very political group of people on Twitter. They have made their feelings known, many of them supported Hillary Clinton.

I have to say inside the theater, you know, the cast members on stage were polite, professional. They felt that they wanted to take this chance to say something directly to vice president Pence. There was nothing harassing in the language that they used on the tone. While the statement was unusual, it was a chance for people who wouldn't otherwise have a chance to say something to Mike Pence face to face.

KOSIK: OK, but this is a show that is celebrated for its diverse cast. Do you think that in this case Mike Pence was kind of walking into a hornet's nest, or is this a situation which, by the way, he went with his nephew and is daughter that he should just be able to go to a Broadway show and sit and enjoy it?

HEALY: Well, he's vice president-elect of the United States, so he's not an average ticket holder. The Secret Service was all around the theater. People knew that he was there. He was getting cheers as well as boos from audience members, so he was not a normal kind of guy.

And what was unusual was that the creators and cast decided to sort of seize the day and take this chance to say something. They said, look, this election was extraordinary for so many Americans who were horrified or were thrilled by Donald Trump being elected president, and they felt like they should take this chance.

Again, it's very unusual for this kind of statement to be made, but here's the thing. We're only about a week and a half away from an election that, you know, really has shaken a lot of Americans, a result that sort of stunned them, including these folks at "Hamilton." So I don't think, having known some of them and having talked to some of them, they saw this as a sign of disrespect. They didn't get up there and start saying, you know, cruel and nasty things to vice president-elect Pence.

And to his credit, you know, he was getting up and leaving the theater, as politicians usually do when the curtain call is under way so they can get out quickly and safely. But he stuck around in the wings and listened to the full statement, Brandon Victor Dixon told me, and then he left. He was photographed smiling and leaving the theater, so smiling as he left the theater.

KOSIK: All right, Patrick Healy, thanks so much for your perspective.

BLACKWELL: So this morning Donald Trump is standing by his decision to spend $25 million to settle the Trump University lawsuits and stay out of the courtroom. About an hour ago, Trump was on Twitter again. "I settled the Trump University lawsuit for a small fraction of the potential award because as president I have to focus on our country." He went on to then after tweeting about focusing, he tweeted "The only bad thing about winning the presidency is that I did not have time to go through a long but winning trial on Trump U. Too bad."

The settlement covers about 6,000 former students of Trump's now defunct real estate seminars. They say the courses promised to teach real estate investing techniques they could use to get rich, but instead the students say they were misled with deceptive claims.

Joining me now is CNN political analyst and reporter for RealClearPolitics.com Rebecca Berg. Rebecca, good morning.

REBECCA BERG, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning. Thanks for having me.

BLACKWELL: Is there some irony here in Donald Trump on such a busy day with these potential cabinet picks tweeting about how he doesn't have time to focus on Trump U, but he has all this time to tweet about it?

[10:10:00] BERG: Well, certainly a tweet takes a lot less time --

BLACKWELL: Certainly.

BERG: -- than a trial. So given the choice, I think Donald Trump, for him there was really no question that he needed to settle this case and just kind of explain that to Americans as opposed to going through the process of a full trial.

And remember, this wasn't just one case. We had a case in New York, a case in San Diego that was set to come to trial later this month, and so by settling all of these Trump is able to really clear the decks and move forward with his transition, move forward with his presidency.

Certainly it doesn't look great for him because Donald Trump said in the past regarding this case in particular that he wouldn't settle, that he looked forward to fighting this, and now of course he's taking the opposite course of action. But Judge Curiel, the judge who famously Donald Trump insulted during the primary, during the general election, saying that he would not give him a fair trial because of his Mexican heritage, well, Judge Curiel even recommended that he settle this because of the presidency now hanging over his head.

BLACKWELL: Donald Trump said several times during the primary and the general that he doesn't settle. Well, now he has. But I wonder what this means for the dozens of other civil cases that Donald Trump is involved with. I'd imagine this would be just far too an expensive proposition to think he's going to settle these cases for potentially millions of dollars one after another.

BERG: That's true. And so this one was unique because he was going to need to appear in person, he was going to need to give his side of the story. Some of these, you know, you're able to go through depositions privately, as we saw with the restaurant lawsuit regarding his hotel here in Washington, D.C. He already gave that deposition, so even though that has not concluded, his role is finished. And so it will depend. If you have a situation where he's going to need to appear in court, certainly I would anticipate you don't want the president-elect or the president, once he's sworn in, to be taking that step. But if he's able to sort these out privately, certainly that's the best course of action for him at this point.

BLACKWELL: Rebecca Berg, thanks so much.

BERG: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Donald Trump, Mitt Romney, to men you wouldn't exactly call friends or confidants, but they are set to meet face to face this afternoon. They're going to discuss possibly working together in government. We speak to one man who knows Mitt Romney well.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:15:28] BLACKWELL: President-elect Donald Trump is set to meet with a full roster of prospective cabinet appointees, including Mitt Romney, the man who this year called Trump a phony. But the two are expected to discuss possible cabinet positions. Let's bring in someone who knows Mitt Romney well, Lahnee Chen, CNN political commentator and former Mitt Romney public policy director. Lanhee, good morning.

LANHEE CHEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Hey, Victor, good morning. I want to set aside the personal attacks between these two men that

we've talked about this morning and go to the heart of world -- foreign relations here. If Donald Trump offers the position of secretary of state to Mitt Romney, I want you to listen to what Mitt Romney said about Donald Trump on the world stage. Let's start in that context. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY, FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR: This is a very dangerous world and requires a person who is thoughtful, knowledgeable, curious intellectually, willing to listen to other people, to change their mind based upon the advice of other people. And I haven't seen those qualities to the extent I'd want to see them in a president in Mr. Trump to this point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: So why then if he's offered the position would Mitt Romney work for Donald Trump?

CHEN: Well, Victor, I think it's important that we step back for a minute. The two gentlemen, Mr. Trump and Governor Romney, they're getting together today because Governor Romney is going to provide Mr. Trump, the president-elect, with some perspective on a whole range of issues. So I think it's very difficult for us, first of all, to make presumptions about what might be offered or what he might do if he's asked to serve. I think that this point really this meeting is about getting the two people together. And I think the president-elect was good for to reach out to Governor Romney because he's got good perspective on the very issues Governor Romney expressed concern about.

BLACKWELL: Lanhee, let me jump in here, because what we just heard from Mitt Romney is that this is not a here who is, I'm quoting here, "thoughtful, knowledgeable, curious intellectually, willing to listen to other people, change their mind based upon the advice other people had." How is he going to offer a man who has those qualities advice?

CHEN: Well, I think the hope is, now that Mr. Trump has been elected and he's the president-elect, you know, he'll be open to taking perspective from people like Governor Romney who have a lot of perspective to offer. I mean, ultimately the ball I think is in the president-elect's court. He's the one who's got to be able and willing to accept now the thoughts and opinions and recommendations of Republicans and Democrats as he begins to govern.

BLACKWELL: Let's listen to what Donald Trump had to say about Governor Romney.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT-ELECT: Romney let us all down. He was a very poor campaigner. Mitt is a failed candidate, he failed.

Romney choked like a dog. He choked. He went -- He was begging for my endorsement. I could have said, "Mitt, drop to

your knees." He would have dropped to his knees.

Poor Mitt Romney is sad. He's going around oh, oh, he's a sad case.

I have a lot of friends -- by the way, Mitt Romney is not one of them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: You know, you've seen Mitt Romney's political opponents say he's a principled man. Would Mitt Romney, who has questions about Donald Trump's, quoting here again, "character integrity," why would he want to work for a man who had those things to say about him?

CHEN: Those were not nice things, there's no doubt about it. But look, I think, first of all, Governor Romney has thick skin. He's been through the political battles before and understands. But ultimately I think the one thing that defines Governor Romney perhaps more than anything else is that he is a patriot fundamentally. I know him well enough to know that it's not just talk, he truly is.

And I think the question now is going forward, what can he do to help the president-elect be successful? Because he has said publicly, Governor Romney has said several times he wants to help the president- elect be successful as he begins to govern. So I think the question now is what does the president-elect potentially want from Governor Romney? Governor Romney is ready to offer assistance because now he believes we need to move forward as a country together.

BLACKWELL: There is no offer on the table, according to the reporting, but potentially what they're discussing would be secretary of state. We also know that former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has dropped some not-so-subtle hints that that's a position that he wants. Is there, from your perspective, another role that Mitt Romney could play in a Trump cabinet?

CHEN: Oh, I don't know, Victor. Look, I voted for Governor Romney again this year even though he wasn't on the ballot. I think he would be tremendous in any presidential administration. He's got a variety of different policy areas where he knows a ton. He obviously knows a lot about the economy from his time in business and as a candidate.

[10:20:02] He also knows a lot about our foreign affairs and our military. So I think he would be great in any variety of different positions. We'll just have to see where that goes. But any administration would be fortunate to have him.

BLACKWELL: Lahnee Chen, thanks for the perspective.

CHEN: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Alison?

KOSIK: So how does a president-elect build his White House team? We're going to be talking with someone who's gone through this transition, and she's going to walk us through this massive process. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KOSIK: Donald Trump making moves to fill out his cabinet today. Trump tweeting earlier this week the transition is going really smoothly. But some reports say it's been chaotic with Trump aides scrambling to put together a government.

Let's bring in Anita McBride. She was the former chief of staff to first lady Laura Bush and is now with the American University Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies, my alma mater, yay, and David Eagles, director at the Center for Presidential Transition. Good morning to both of you. Anita, to you first because you've worked on four presidential transitions. Can you walk us through just a little bit on how it works and what kind of vibe you're getting about how the Trump transition is going?

ANITA MCBRIDE, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR CONGRESSIONAL AND PRESIDENTIAL STUDIES: Well, actually this transition now has the benefit of a lot of legislation and support and resources that previous transitions have not had to this level, as David Eagles will be able to tell you as well.

[10:25:00] Legislation that allows for the top candidates of both parties to get started much earlier than we ever had before. And certainly the transition of 2000 is the one example no one ever wants to have again because we lost so much time.

So I think despite reports of chaos, I think that they're moving along just as they should be. They have had people looking at agencies, looking at lists of candidate names to able to present to the president-elect when it became time. And you've seen the announcement of landing teams going into two of the most important agencies, defense and state, which signals to me, you know, that is the priority for the president to keep the country strong and safe. And that's what they're looking at now are those agencies.

BLACKWELL: David, you think about it, you look at {resident Obama in 2008, President Clinton, 1992, you didn't see these top positions being filled until December. So if we do look at how the Trump transition is going between Election Day and inauguration day, the Trump team, they have got to get their leadership in place. Do you think the Trump team will be completely ready by then? Trump is not a politician by nature. Do they know what they're doing? There's this perception that they don't know what they're doing.

DAVID EAGLES, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION: I'll say we've been working with the Trump team for several months. And take a step back too and look at the enormity of this task, right. They're inheriting a $4 trillion budget, hundreds of federal agencies, 4 million employees, and they have to make 4,000 political appointments, and they do all this in a span of less than 70 days.

So we've been working with them for the last six months in this governing process. Your seeing what I call normal settlement between the integration of the campaign and the transition apparatus that existed pre-election. So now, as Anita said, I think they're progressing nicely. But the next few weeks are critical. They've got to go through their next level of cabinet and even critical subcabinet and White House positions. We'll be watching closely. If they can get their top 100 leaders in place and prepared alongside the White House staff by inauguration, to me that's the measure of success.

KOSIK: And speaking of getting their top leaders in place, Anita, Trump is sitting down with some people like Mitt Romney who he's been at odds with before. Do you think these two people can really bury the hatchet and actually work together? Have you seen something like this in previous transitions where a president-elect brings in somebody on the team who they have really, really not agreed with?

MCBRIDE: Well, sure. Look at in 1980 Ronald Reagan selected George H.W. Bush as his vice president. He ran against him. That was a brutal campaign by those standards back then as well.

I think ultimately at the end of the day the solemn duty and responsibility that a president-elect has and feels after they have been elected to take on, you know, this task of leading, you know, the -- leading the free world, frankly, they need the benefit of other patriots like Mitt Romney and others that really have a perspective that they can offer and help and support, because at the end of the day, this was a divided election, we get that, we know that, we have to move on. I'm listening to people like President Obama and even Hillary Clinton herself saying we have to give -- he has won the election, we have to give him a chance and he deserves our support.

KOSIK: Anita McBride, David Eagles, thanks very much for your perspective. Very interesting.

MCBRIDE: You're welcome.

BLACKWELL: Donald Trump settles. The president-elect avoids having to testify in the Trump University case. We'll explain what this means for his other pending lawsuits.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:30:19] KOSIK: John Young has made history and broken a barrier. He's the first person with dwarfism to earn the title of Ironman. CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has his story in this "Fit Nation."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: John Young is hoping to become the first person with dwarfism to complete an Ironman triathlon.

JOHN YOUNG: Being a little person, we grow up with a lot of people telling us you can't do that, you're too small. You can't do that, you're too short. I want to show any other person they want to do something bad enough, they can do it.

GUPTA: And Ironman is no easy task. It's a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and a 26.2 mile run. Unfortunately for John on the day of the race, weather conditions were so bad, organizers were forced to cancel the swim.

YOUNG: I'm disappointed but not angry. What the heck. I'm a man, here I come.

I don't think my race is any harder, it's just my race. When I'm at my lowest and things are really hurting, I'm going to think about people who tried their best to ridicule me and make fun of me. Those people are going to motivate me to dig deep and keep going.

GUPTA: And John kept going for over 14 hours until he crossed the finish line.

YOUNG: I'm pretty proud of myself. It was an amazing, very special time. I'm feeling pretty good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: This morning a settlement by president-elect Donald Trump. He is agreeing to pay $25 million to settle three lawsuits against his now defunct for-profit business school, Trump University. But Trump did acknowledge -- or rather did not acknowledge any liability in the settlement.

KOSIK: Also today, Trump is set to meet with a full roster of prospective cabinet appointees, including Mitt Romney. You know him. He earlier this year called Trump a phony. But the two are expected to discuss possible cabinet positions, perhaps including secretary of state. And Steve Bannon, the ex-Breitbart exec turned Trump's chief strategist, is now blasting political attacks against him and Breitbart. Bannon telling "The Wall Street Journal" he has no interest on wasting time on the accusations, calling them "just nonsense."

Meantime Trump's picks for his national security team are under scrutiny.

BLACKWELL: Many are calling on the president-elect to reconsider his appointments, calling into question the lack of diversity of those picks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: When it comes to Washington, D.C., it is time to drain the damn swamp.

(APPLAUSE)

[10:35:02] BLACKWELL: It was a rally crowd favorite in the last days of the campaign, President-elect Donald Trump's promise to get rid of Washington insiders. But as he staffs his White House and top cabinet positions, many of the president-elect's picks are part of the so- called political establishment, and so far they're also all white men. And some of the choices are receiving major resistance.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is someone who ran a campaign on hatred and bigotry, who has since he has been elected chosen some of the most dangerous people possible to staff his White House with.

BLACKWELL: The most recent pick, Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions. If confirmed, sessions will serve as attorney general. In 1986, the then U.S. attorney's nomination to a federal judgeship was defeated over claims he made racially charged remarks about blacks and referred to a white lawyer as a race traitor.

SEN. JEFF SESSIONS, (R) ALABAMA: I am not a racist. I am not insensitive to blacks. I supported civil rights activity in my state. I have done my job with integrity, equality and fairness for all.

BLACKWELL: The former prosecutor has opposed immigration reform as well as bipartisan proposals to cut mandatory minimum prison sentences. Sessions has been accused of calling civil rights groups un-American and communist inspired, criticizing the Voting Rights Act and its impact on southern states. Once said he was fine with the KKK until he found out they smoked pot. Sessions later dismissed that remark as a joke.

Kansas Representative Mike Pompeo has been tapped to be the next CIA director. He will also need Senate confirmation. Elected to Congress 2010, Pompeo was a Tea Party favorite and one of the lead Republicans investigating the 2012 Benghazi attack. He was a sharp critic of Hillary Clinton's leadership as secretary of state. The third-term congressman has been accused of being anti-Muslim. During his run for Congress in 2010, he personally apologized after his campaign tweeted a link to a blog that referred to his Indian-American rival as a "turban topper" and president Obama as an "evil Muslim communist usurper." Pompeo called the posting a mistake.

For this top adviser on national security, President-elect Trump has turned to retired army lieutenant general Michael Flynn. He's an outspoken critic of President Obama and was forced out of the Pentagon's top intelligence job in 2014 for his combative style. Flynn has tweeted a series of statements calling fear of Muslims rational, and in August he compared Islam to cancer.

LT. GEN. MICHAEL FLYNN, (RET) U.S. ARMY: Islam is a political ideology. It is a political ideology. It definitely hides behind this notion of it being a religion. I don't see a lot of people screaming "Jesus Christ" with hatchets or machetes or rifles shooting up clubs or hatcheting -- literally axing families on a train. So it's like cancer, and it's like a malignant cancer, though, in this case. It has metastasized.

BLACKWELL: And then there's Steve Bannon, Trump's chief strategist. He spent seven years in the U.S. Navy, was an investment banker for Goldman Sachs, and was one a Hollywood investor. Most recently he's made it his mission to take down the Republican Party establishment.

STEVE BANNON, DONALD TRUMP CAMPAIGN CEO: What we need is to -- slap the Republican party and get those guy heading to. And if we have to, we'll take it over.

BLACKWELL: Bannon is the former chairman of the conservative website "Breitbart News." The site has a history of inflammatory headlines like "Meltdown continues, wave of fake hate crimes sweeps social media and anti-democracy crybabies march by thousands nationwide." Another reads "Bill Kristol, Republican spoiler, renegade Jew." And this, "Birth control makes women unattractive and crazy."

And finally the chairman of the Republican national committee, Reince Priebus, who will be the president-elect's chief of staff. While he's a mainstream pick that many congressional Republicans find encouraging, one prominent Tea Party leader fears Priebus will make it more difficult, not less, for President Trump to achieve the change that people voted for.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: Trump's spokesperson is defending Senator Jeff Sessions and Lieutenant General Michael Flynn. He said Sessions filed a number of desegregation lawsuits in Alabama, voted in favor of the 30-year extension of the Civil Rights Act, voted to confirm President Obama's pick of Eric Holder as attorney general, and spearheaded the effort to award the congressional gold medal to Rosa Parks. Yesterday Democrat Senator Joe Manchin announced that he will support Jeff Sessions' nomination.

And on General Flynn, the spokesperson says Flynn is widely regarded as one of the most respected generals and intelligence officers, also saying he has a deeper understand of the military and intelligence apparatus than most people.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:41:29] KOSIK: You're heard of peer to peer car-sharing services like Uber and Lyft, but what about boats. It's being attempted by a San Francisco company, and you'll see them on "Wander Must." It's a new feature that shows you different ways to travel easier while saving money. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRYAN PETRO, COO, GET MY BOAT: Get my boat on the global marketplace that can be utilized in over 169 countries. We facilitate the communication between the renter and the owner so you can rent everything from a pontoon to a power boat, a catamaran, a yacht, down to a smaller sailing vessel. You can go out with a captain. You can take the boat out yourself. We have something for every budget you can think of.

Planning the yearly family trip has now been expanded to going somewhere, staying on a boat, and spending the whole vacation on water. As travelers, we're always looking at ways to save money. The boat has that. You can stay on a boat overnight instead of a hotel. We have created an app and a website that allows you to search the

destination you're looking to travel to. You can go through search results for boat type, type of experience, price, and your group size, whether it's just going out for an afternoon cruise, celebrating a birthday, having a family reunion. What we're doing is we're giving people the sense of exploration they desire while helping them to create unique memories that will last forever.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:45:03] Donald Trump has a long list of prospectives for his cabinet and those high level posts he's going to be meeting with today, but we know that the Trump team insiders tell "TIME" magazine that this transition is chaotic. I want to bring Philip Elliott, Washington correspondent for "TIME" magazine. Philip, good morning to you.

PHILIP ELLIOTT, "WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT," TIME MAGAZINE: Good morning, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Let me start here with an excerpt from your article here. You write that "Trump's aides, who themselves were just coming to grips with the enormity of the task they faced, nearly all implored their boss to focus on the decidedly unsexy task of putting together a government instead. In the end, Trump agreed, and in the process perhaps revealed the most important lesson of his first week as leader of the free world in waiting, only when he faces a united front will he reverse one of his decisions."

I want to get back to that claim of chaos, because we just had on David Eagles, who's working with the transition, Anita McBride is watching from afar. They say this idea that there's chaos is overblown. But what did you see?

ELLIOTT: I think any time you're setting up a brand new government, you have more than 4,000 positions you need to hire. Mr. Trump visited the White House and he didn't realize that even the receptionist didn't come with it. For him, he thought this was like buying a company, it's a merger and acquisition, where everyone except the top brass keeps their job and all of the support staff stays in place. That's simply not the case. The receptionist, the people who answer the phones in the press office, the policy team, everyone needs to be replaced from scratch. And Mr. Trump just didn't quite get that this was coming to his desk.

He wanted to do a fly-around victory tour. We now understand he's going to do that. But he wanted to be spending this weekend going around to places like the Florida panhandle thanking supporters for their backing of him.

BLACKWELL: Has Donald Trump, from what you've learned, from your reporting, fully committed to the work of this transition? Because when he woke up this morning, he started tweeting about Trump U and "Hamilton." And here you're writing that he agreed to focus on this task of putting together a government.

ELLIOTT: The problem that Mr. Trump's senior advisers tell us is that it's not enough for one person to be in his face, it's not enough for two. You need three, four, five people simultaneously telling him the same advice. They call themselves the foxhole, that there is just -- they need to constantly have a united front against him. And without a united front, it's very difficult to make Mr. Trump -- president- elect Trump, excuse me, focus on something that's really not fun. The business of putting together a government is not fun. It's a lot of hard work, a lot of vetting, a lot of resume, and a lot of positions that really don't sound sexy, but deputy assistant undersecretaries, they have great power in how Americans interact with their government.

BLACKWELL: And as they try to fill these position, you write that the Trump team is, I guess, getting a pretty difficult lesson in what the impact of what they have said over the past year and a half, what that is now having on their ability to hire people. Let's put up another excerpt here. You write here that "Trump's team realized that the rhetoric it had unleashed during its campaign was having consequences and not just in the abstract." What are some of those consequences?

ELLIOTT: Well, it's tough to ask someone who spent eight years working for George W. Bush, who loved President Bush, to set aside Donald Trump spending 18 months trashing your for boss. It's another -- I mean, there are loyalties that are developed inside presidential campaigns and inside White Houses. And if you've been a George W. Bush loyalist, you're not going to ignore that people called him a loser. If you were a senior staff member on John McCain's presidential campaign or worked for him in the Senate, you can't set aside very easily that Mitt Romney called him a loser and laughed that he got taken prisoner in Vietnam. You just can't -- you internalize a lot more, especially staffers internalize this more than the candidates or the bosses.

BLACKWELL: You brought up Mitt Romney there. We just learned that Mitt Romney and president-elect Trump will be meeting at 1:00 today, so in a little more than two hours. You talked about some of the consequences of the mud that was thrown. In this case both ways. But these two men will be sitting down at Bedminster, New Jersey, 1:00 p.m. today. We'll watch that. Philip Elliott, thanks so much for the reporting.

ELLIOTT: Thank you.

KOSIK: When we come back, a huge weekend for college football, and our Coy Wire is there in the middle of it all. Coy? He's back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:53:00] KOSIK: And in case you missed it, here's Jimmy Fallon's take on where things stand more than a week after the election. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JIMMY FALLON, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW": I heard that Donald Trump is now planning a victory tour where he's going to visit all the places that helped him get elected. So I guess that means Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Russia.

(LAUGHTER)

FALLON: A new poll found that Donald Trump's favorability rating is up eight points since being elected. And Hillary said, yes, I wouldn't trust the polls that much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

BLACKWELL: It might be too soon for the Hillary poll joke.

KOSIK: Never too soon for a joke.

BLACKWELL: Well, we've got four years.

So this is the day that college football fans wait all week for. It's game day.

KOSIK: Coy Wire joining us from one outside of one of the biggest stadiums in the nation at the University of Tennessee. Hello.

COY WIRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you. It's a great day, big game today all across the country, number 16 LSU versus number 21 Florida. But I'm here at the University of Tennessee, and they have a big game today. Such rich tradition here, guys.

My first stop was to the memorial for the late Pat Summitt, the iconic women's basketball coach, one of the winningest coaches in NCAA history. She won eight national titles over a 38-year coaching career. She inspired thousands of people over the years through coaching and writing books. And not just athletes, I left a note for her thanking her for being an inspiration. You see my dad, who travels around the country speaking to student athletes, met Coach Summitt about 10 years ago, and to this day his photo with her is the screensaver on his computer. Pat Summitt is a legendary difference maker.

Another thing that makes this place that makes this place special is ball Navy. This along of the Tennessee River, they don't just tailgate here, they sail-gate here. Neyland stadium is one of the biggest and baddest stadiums in the entire nation, over 102,000 people on game day going crazy. I want to introduce you to my new friends. Ben, I've never been in a stadium that big with that many people. How is it on game day?

[10:55:02] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is extremely loud. Something you have to experience, just go to a game and experience it. It is insane.

WIRE: And Sierra, real quick? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Just being in Neyland is a chilling

experience, from running the team onto the field to hearing all the fans scream. Rocky Top is amazing.

WIRE: Rocky Top of the world this morning. We are in the Rocky Top of the world this morning. Back to you. It is great.

BLACKWELL: Shout out to the drummers, Coy.

KOSIK: Let's hear it for sail-gate.

(LAUGHTER)

BLACKWELL: Thanks.

KOSIK: Thanks for watching.

BLACKWELL: There's much more ahead in the next hour of CNN Newsroom. We have Martin Savidge in for Fredricka this weekend. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To me America is a nation of refugees and a nation of immigrants. That's the history of this country and that's what makes it different and that's what makes it great and that's what makes it unique. I started a soccer team for refugees and it grew into so much more. Our name is the Fugees Family.

We're going headers. Go.

When you have a kid that has fled their country, has had a horrible experience, comes to this strange country, the one thing that they understand, that they get, is soccer.

Good morning.

A lot of the kids have had little to no formal education. So I started a school to take care of their academic needs and give them the opportunities they all deserve. When you see them, you can see how much they love this country and how appreciative they are to be here because they feel like they belong. They feel like they have a home here. When people have that, they integrate a lot better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)