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First U.S. Member Killed in Syria; Democrats to Elect House Leader Next Week; Trump Names Don McGahn as White House Counsel. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired November 25, 2016 - 13:30   ET

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


[13:30:00] KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: So, could it be someone from any one of those units? We don't know.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: These blended coalition units.

DOZIER: These blended coalition units.

And there's a sort of 24 hour blackout that gives the Defense Department time to reach the family and make sure they've gotten the notification from a government official with a Chaplin before hearing it on the news.

KEILAR: All right. Bob, I know you heard about this obviously. What was your reaction to what happened and sort of what the signals for the conflict?

BOB BAER, CNN INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY ANALYST: Well, it's still very messy. Mosul has not fallen, of course. The Islamic State is putting resistance. They're putting a lot of car bombs out there. A couple days ago, they killed some Turkish forces, and these guys are crucial, especially for close air support, because what we don't want to be doing is bombing civilian targets. You have to lace up these targets on the battlefield. It keeps down, as I said, civilian casualties.

They're doing a great job. A lot of it is logistics and the intention of the White House is they no casualties at all. As we've seen, it's not possible.

KEILAR: This is one of the challenges the incoming Trump administration will face and we learned minutes ago that K.T. McFarland will be the deputy NSA national security adviser. I know that you have some familiarity with McFarland and also, you know, hearing from sources this is someone who has somewhat of a public affairs background. How steeped in policy is she?

BAER: She, I think she's a brilliant choice. I've had dealings with her over the years. She's experienced. She was in the Kissinger White House. She's well-tied into the Republican Party, of course. The traditionalists -- she's brilliant on China, Iran and the rest of it. I'm very encouraged by this appointment, and I'd like to see her have

a direct hand in conducting foreign policy and spending a lot of time with President Trump.

KEILAR: OK. So, Kimberly, this is just one of the conflicts. We're talking about Syria. We're talking about Iraq. But you have the White House saying. You need to keep an eye on North Korea. With that in mind and this team around President-elect Trump taking shape, what do you think about their experience level? You just heard Bob saying that K.T. McFarland is someone who certainly understands more than just the Middle East.

BAER: Well, you know from the intelligence community, U.S. intelligence community, has already predicted pretty much what we all expect. It's that right after a new administration takes office, they frequently get tested by bad actors on the world stage -- be that Iran, China, North Korea.

People will start to press the envelope and see how far they can press a new administration and it's a tough time, in that while each of these individuals might have some experience in the field, you have someone like, say, the new U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley -- now, she's proven to be grace under fire with some tough situations in her state, but she doesn't have a personal relationship yet with some of the ambassadors that she'll need to negotiate with in the middle of a crisis.

KEILAR: Yes. That will need to grow. Kimberly Dozier, Bob Baer, thank you so much.

And coming up, House Democrats are gearing up for a very big week when they need to vote on their future. Will Nancy Pelosi maintain her grip despite the party's sweeping loss this election? We'll discuss after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:37:42] KEILAR: House Democrats will hold leadership elections on Wednesday and this year, the party will have two choices. Either continue with Nancy Pelosi and her 14 years as her leader or try some new. Go with Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan.

I want to talk now about that with Michael Blake. He's a New York state Assemblyman and a former White House aide under President Obama.

And, Michael, you're also considering a vice chairmanship with the Democratic National Committee, which we will get to in just a moment. But, first I want to talk to you about this election in House leadership, because I think it's pretty clear that Tim Ryan has an uphill climb against Nancy Pelosi, but this is also about the direction of the party.

What are your concerns about the direction?

MICHAEL BLAKE (D), NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY, DISTRICT 79: Well, it's clear that we are focused on where do we go as a party after the presidential and local elections that happened just about two weeks ago and we recognize that we have to double down on what's working in terms of organizing to make sure we're empowering local candidacies, that whether we empower county party, state party, and national party, this is the reflection that we need to be focusing on this.

So, when you think about the elections that are going to be happening on next week in Congress, obviously, members of Congress make that decision where to go on the Democratic side between Leader Pelosi and Congressman Ryan, both I have a lot of respect for, have known many -- both of them for many years.

This is about us saying we have to be much clearer in where we're going, to communicate to Americans that we have a working-class message, that we're bringing communities together and for us to not shy away from things that are working. It's very clear more people voted for the Democrats rather than Republicans across the country. So, we have to make sure that our direction and our leadership across the board is reflecting that localized strategy people are hearing us and that we're hearing them so we can make sure we reflect that in the Democratic Party.

KEILAR: But people in key places, the Rust Belt, clearly did not feel Democrats were speaking to them, the Democrats understood them. How -- I hear you talking about doubling down on what works, but in terms of having a working class message -- I mean, go beyond that for us. Talk specifics and how you -- not just communicate to people -- but keep people in the Rust Belt say, you know what? This is something where I feel better understood by Democrats, because clearly that's not how they felt.

BLAKE: Well, this is an opportunity for us to communicate across the country that the progressive wins that happened across the country happened because of the Democratic leadership. When you look at the fight for raising money minimum wage, we've been able to do here in New York, raising to $15 an hour. That happened under Democratic leadership and move forward on that way.

We're talking about gay marriage. We see, obviously, it happened under Democratic leadership. The components of ACA, especially young people under 26 be able to stay on their parents plans, or free colonoscopies, free mammograms. There are components that we have to make sure that we as Democrats are much clear about communicating, that these wins have happened under our leadership.

Now, it's our responsibility to not shy away from that, and to make sure again that we're amplifying what's happening on the ground. When you see that 20 percent of African-American decided not to vote for the Democratic candidate at the top of the ticket, we have to make sure we're communicating. Here's what's as stake in these elections, nationally and locally. I think when we do that, we'll see that continual progress that will happen in upcoming elections.

KEILAR: I want to ask you about the DNC real quick. You are considering a vice chairmanship. What direction does the DNC need to go and is Congressman Keith Ellison definitely farthest to the left for chairman considers going -- you're saying he shouldn't do it or should be a full-time job? He's obviously also a member of Congress.

Give us your reasoning there and what you want to see.

BLAKE: Well, first, I want to be clear, I'm not at all saying that the congressman shouldn't run. It's for his decision, if he wants to pursue in which I think many people do believe a full-time chairmanship should be considered. And that's for the members of the DNC to make that decision. I think as it relates to myself and others that are considering leadership, it's for us to underscore that we have to heal what's happening on the ground, and have a very aggressive approach of empowering our local organizations, empower our local story.

For ten years, this has been my vision, having a chance under President Obama and both campaigns, to be trained by him, to then run for office and be re-elected myself. But to underscore that we have to recruit candidates. We should never have a scenario where there's not a Democratic candidate for a position. We have to be clear about our messaging. We have to be very clear about successful wins.

And therefore the direction of the party, not shy away from the progress making but very direct, consistent and clear that there is a choice that happens in these elections. And so, you know, our approach as we're making this decision and considering this decision is to say now we need a collective new direction where we go and to be able to very clear, that the county party, state party and national party, all the work that we're seeing from Ray Buckley on the state level, county parties across the country, we have to be very clear about building organization, having a grassroots approach and making sure people are excited about voting for Democrats up and down the ballot.

This is our moment. When think about 2004, 2006 when we built, when we mobilized, in 2006, we regained the Senate. This is an opportunity to demonstrate have many successful win we can amplify and it's our responsibility to do so as Democrats.

KEILAR: All right. Assembly Member Blake, as you were saying, someone should just be wearing one hat. We hear that. We hear your message on that. Thank you so much for being with us.

BLAKE: Thank you, Brianna. Happy holidays, everyone.

KEILAR: Happy holidays to you as well.

And up next, the ISIS effect, even after some neighborhoods in Mosul become liberated, the pain and loss is still right outside civilians' doors. We'll have a report from on the ground, when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:47:03] KEILAR: We have another transition alert to report. CNN has confirmed that Don McGahn will be named White House counsel. McGahn served as President-elect Trump's campaign lawyer. He is currently advising the transition team. He is the counsel on the transition team and he's going to face the complex task of keeping Donald Trump's business dealings separate from his presidency.

In a statement, the president-elect said McGahn has, quote, "a brilliant legal mind and will play a critical role in the administration." We'll have more on that as we learn more.

And for the last six weeks, this is story we've followed. Iraqi forces have been fighting to drive is out of Mosul. While the offensive made significant gains, it's come with a heavy price.

CNN international correspondent Phil Black visited one neighborhood that was liberated from ISIS but residents are reminded daily militants are never far away. And we have to warn you, some of the scenes in the history are graphic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These people have just lived through the horror of urban warfare. They cowered in their homes for days, prayers and white flags their only protection as Iraqi forces fought their way through the neighborhoods of eastern Mosul against fierce ISIS resistance.

Now, there is little food, water, or medicine. No electricity. But there's much relief.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A dark thing on the chest.

BLACK (on camera): ISIS is like a dark thing on the chest.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

BLACK: And it's gone now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, Daesh, the dark thing is gone.

BLACK (voice-over): You could hear the fighting in the near distance.

(EXPLOSIONS)

BLACK: It's still dangerously close. ISIS is gone from the streets, but its ability to harm these people hasn't passed. Just 24 hours ago, we're told, a family was sitting here outside a home when a mortar struck a short distance away, and an 18-month-old girl was killed.

Her name was Amira Ali (ph). Her father, Omar, is overwhelmed with grief.

He cries, "What did she do wrong? She was just playing. She's gone from me, and she's my only one."

Every day this makeshift clinic inside Mosul sees the terrible consequences of mortars fired into civilian areas. It's a bloody production line. The wounded are delivered, patched up quickly, and loaded into ambulances to transport to hospital. At times, it seems endless, as one ambulance pulls away, another

military vehicle speeds in carrying more wounded civilians. They're unloaded with great care as the medics work to help the victims of yet another ISIS mortar attack. But they can't save everyone.

[13:50:02] This man's 21-year-old son was killed.

He says, "A mortar just fell in front of the door, we came, and he was just a piece of meat. Four or five of my neighbors were standing with him, and they're all dead."

(CRYING)

Here, another parent falls to the dusty ground before the body of her son.

These people endured two years of living under ISIS only to be killed by the group's desperate military tactics and its total indifference to the lives of the innocent.

Phil Black, CNN, Mosul, northern Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: Right, U.S.-backed Iraqi forces have completely surrounded the city, meaning that ISIS fighters are trapped inside. They can not escape, they can not call for backup and they can not get new supplies.

Let's discuss now with Colonel John Dorrian, spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve.

Colonel, thanks for being with us. As we hear this, that Iraqi forces say they don't expect an imminent victory, what is your assessment on the battle for Mosul?

COL. JOHN DORRIAN, SPOKESMAN, OPERATION INHERENT RESOLVE: We've reached the toughest part of the battle. ISIL is desperate, they're using brutal tactics, they're taking it out on the civilians that are around them. These are the tactics that just make these people the worst in the world.

The Iraqi security forces have conducted themselves in a manner that all Iraqis should be proud of. They fought very bravely and they are really working hard to protect civilian life. As you can see, though, very, very heart-wrenching situation, very difficult in Mosul right now.

KEILAR: And as we see, for instance, ISIS back on its feet in places like Mosul. We also saw this explosion, this bombing south of Baghdad that killed dozens of people yesterday so even as you see ISIS back on their feet, I think people wonder, "back on their feet" doesn't mean they aren't doing considerable damage, that aren't spurring on sectarian divides.

How do you govern against that? Talk about that challenge. DORRIAN: Well, one of the most difficult things about this enemy is

they don't care anything about human life at all. So, what we expect to happen after their terrain that they've controlled for so long is taken away, they'll devolve back into a terrorist organization and conduct these types of spoiler attacks.

It's an effort to maintain relevance. The Iraqi security forces are working very hard to prevent these types of attacks, but it's going to be a very difficult situation and what we've done is we've prepared the Iraqis and trained them and we continue to train them so that they will be able to create wide area security forces, the police forces that control these areas and try to reduce the amount of damage that ISIL can do.

KEILAR: What can you tell us about the American service member killed in Syria? First American service member killed in Syria. Important to note it's not the first U.S. service member killed in the theater. We've seen some special forces members killed in Iraq as well.

We know there are about 300 Special Forces in Syria, a number of these are operators. A number of them are support staff.

Can you shed any light on the identity of the service member?

DORRIAN: Well, we're not going to do that yet because we need to make sure that this hero's family has been notified, and given the proper amount of time to deal with the enormity of the loss. Our hearts and minds are with this member's family. His friends and his teammates because it's very, very tough fighting, this person volunteered for our defense of our nation and for all of us around the world, and he made the ultimate sacrifice.

So, we're definitely going to honor that. It's very tough fighting. This happened in Syria and -- when the member's vehicle struck an improvised explosive device.

KEILAR: All right. We do appreciate that. As we were looking to confirm that as well, we know that it had something to do with an IED. We weren't sure if it was a vehicle and as you said, and we believe this, too, our hearts are certainly with the family as they've lost their loved one on Thanksgiving.

Colonel Dorrian, thank you so much for an update on this story. We'll be checking back with you in the days to come.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:57:27] KEILAR: Americans elected Donald Trump to be the 45th president of the United States, proving polls and pundits are not always accurate. This is the subject of a new book from CNN politics called "Unprecedented."

Author Thomas Lake joining us now to talk about this. This was the story, Thomas, of the election in the end. And it's --

you know, we think sometimes, you know, what it's going to be, we had no idea, right? We got to the end, completely surprise result, Donald Trump defied all odds and we didn't see the victory coming.

He didn't necessarily see the victory coming. People close to him didn't see the victory coming. How did everyone get it wrong?

THOMAS LAKE, CNN POLITICS WRITER: I think a few things. He sort of scrambled the math and did this from the beginning when he decided to run a campaign not taking large corporate donations. He basically set this idea that he was with the voter and everyone else was against them.

And once he managed to persuade a large swath of that, it was very hard to change their minds of that. Hillary Clinton's campaign slogan was "I'm with her." He said, "I'm with you, the voter".

And so, scandal after scandal, it didn't seem to matter because he brought across this idea that he was going to drain the swamp, it was him against the crooked establishment, the crooked media, and people believe him.

KEILAR: And I think back to a moment we shared on the campaign trail, Thomas, that the bus tour we were on that Hillary Clinton did after the convention through Pennsylvania through Ohio and I look back and I think those stops through Ohio in this area, the Rust Belt, where it really mattered in the end, that's where we saw so many protesters and she rolled into some of these stops. It was so pivotal, we were almost experiencing it without even knowing it.

LAKE: You're absolutely right. We came through on a rainy Saturday afternoon, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and what did we see rolling a town? A sign that said "Hillary killed coal." Trump would go on to win huge in Cambria County that help to provide the margin of victory in Pennsylvania.

KEILAR: Yes, it's stunning and all of these moments that I think stand out to us now and that are going to be -- that are in unprecedented which has a lot of surprises this book from CNN Politics, that has been really your baby, Thomas. Thank you so much, Thomas Lake, for sharing these things with us.

And, of course, you can check out that book as well. That is it for me.

LAKE: Thanks.

KEILAR: Yes, thank you for being on.

I'm going to be back at 5:00 Eastern. Join us then on SITUATION ROOM.

The news continues right now.