Transcripts For CNNW The Lead With Jake Tapper 20161213 : vi

Of of oops. The lead starts right now. Its official. The exxonmobil ceo with ties to putin is now Donald Trumps pick to be americas top diplomat. Could the Republicanled Senate end up saying nyet . President elect trump vowing Businessman Donald Trump will go into a hibernation for the next four years. Could we still see a crossover episode of the apprentice and the west wing. Breaking news. Ceasefire in syria to stop whats being called a complete melt down of humanity in aleppo. Syrian forces knocking down doors and slaughtering men, women and children. Will the innocents now have a way out . And is this a ceasefire or a surrender . Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the lead. Im jake tapper. Ending weeks of speculation over his secretary of state pick and kicking off weeks of more speculation about whether his pick will pass a Senate Confirmation hearing, president elect donald trump finally made his choice. Exxonmobil ceo Rex Tillerson, a successful businessman with significant experience doing deals with foreign entities. As when he negotiated a multibillion dollar deal with rosneft to drill in three key russian regions. The signing ceremony was attended by Vladimir Putin himself. U. S. Led sanctions against russia for invading and annexing crimea hurt exxonmobils bottom line so tillerson opposed the sanctions. Governor rick perry knows something about oil himself. He also made the Trump Administration cut. He will Senate Confirmation hearing coming up. Will run the department of energy. An agency that perry once vowed to eliminate. In the infamous oops clip, energy was the one governor that perry forgot. Cnn correspondent Phil Mattingly is live outside trump tower. Phil, one assumes that the president elect saw the comments from republican senators expressing concern about tillersons ties to putin. He must know this could be a tough confirmation battle. Reporter in talking to trump advisers, they know theyll have a fight on their hand. They believe if they make the case and they will they can smooth the way to eventual confirmation. This underscores something the president elect has said throughout. Hell pick who he wants to pick and hes willing to defend them, no matter their history. Today president elect trump sticking to his pledge to pick unorthodox, businessminded cabinet secretaries. Even if it sets up a bipartisan confirmation confrontation for his choice to be top diplomat. We just couldnt be more grateful that someone of Rex Tillersons proven leadership and accomplishments has been willing to step forward to serve our nation. Reporter Rex Tillerson, ceo of oil giant exxonmobil, now tapped to be trumps secretary of state. A man with no government experience, but decades of dealmaking and International Business ties. Those ties include extensive relations with russia. And most notably, Vladimir Putin, ties trump and his team see as a net positive. Whether well see with tillerson is someone who is a abou Business Leader on the world stage. He has said no to Vladimir Putin. Reporter allegations from russia was involved in meddling in the election to trumps advantage. An allegation the trump team rejects. Senators quickly firing out statements raising concerns and raising the possibility that tillersons nomination could be an uphill climb. Marco rubio saying, quote, i have serious concerns about the nomination. Tillerson, however, getting an immediate boost from former cabinet secretaries and gop Foreign Policy standardbearers, Condoleezza Rice and robert gates, both did work for tillersons firm and, behind the scenes, sources tell cnn both recommended and endorsed tillerson to trump. Rice calling him an excellent choice and gates touting his vast knowledge, experience and success in dealing with foreign leaders. This coming as sources tell cnn trump will select rick perry as his energy secretary. The former longserving governor of oilrich texas. It elevates a man who once proposed eliminating the department altogether. In trying to lay out this specifically had this epic oops moment. The third one i cant sorry. Oops. Reporter trump, also delaying his own announcement about his plans to separate himself from his business empire. Aides saying trumps focus has been on personnel and cabinet choices and that the final plan simply wasnt ready. Trump, still able to find time to meet with someone decidedly not in contention for a cabinet post today. Hiphop star kanye west. I just wanted to take a picture right now. Reporter jake, we have it on pretty Good Authority Kathryn Steinle kanye west is not in the running for a cabinet position. Rick perry is. At one point he called Donald Trumps candidacy a cancer on conservatism. Now he is in the fold. Weve seen this repeatedly over the last couple of weeks. Despite the bombastic statements and twitter attacks, there is a very real effort inside trump tower behind me to try and unify the party as the president elect prepares to become the president. Jake. Phil mattingly outside trump tower. Thank you so much. Next year tillerson could face a bruising confirmation process. First, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee meets to consider him. He needs a majority of those support to move forward. If senator marco rubio votes no, tillerson could be rejected. Or republicans could do maneuvering and get the tillerson recommendation to the full senate bypassing the committee. If they all vote no he needs all there but two to vote yes. At least four republicans have expressed concerns about the pick, which would theoretically sink his nomination unless some vulnerable democrats in energyrich states decide to back tillerson. Manu raju joins me now. The Trump Campaign will have to get organized to get this nominee through. No question about it, jake. Especially since democrats by and large are signaling theyll oppose this nomination, particularly the senator Democratic Senators on the Foreign Relations committee. That means that there is virtually no margin for error, particularly if you start to see significant defections within republican ranks. One good piece of news for the Trump Campaign, for those republican senators who have expressed concern is that theyre not saying theyll oppose the pick. They are willing to listen to what mr. Tillersons views are especially on the issue of russia. His views on russia. Whether or not he opposes or supports sanctions on russia and what his relationship really is like with Vladimir Putin. All the senators and sources that i have talked to, they say that they want to hear more about that before making up their minds, which means, jake, this is going to be a rather thorough and potentially bruising confirmation process. Manu, several highprofile conservatives praised the pick. Rice, baker, dick cheney. Does that matter . It does have an impact, i think. Trump critic. Arizona senator jeff flake, who sits on the Foreign Relations committee, he said that carries considerable weight in his view. He thought it was a very good sign. Potentially, if you can win over a jeff flake, potentially you can win others in the more skeptical position and push him through. So those are very significant statements that republicans are taking seriously, jake. All right, manu raju. Thank you so much. The Trump Transition Team has attempted to downplay the relationship between its nominee for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, and the president of russia. Noted Kellyanne Conway, quote, its not like hes pounding down vodka with Vladimir Putin. Fact check true. They did not drink vodka together. It was champagne. As we see them here celebrating an oil deal with a champagne toast. That was tillerson as ceo of an oil company representing stockholders, not the american people. Weve not heard from tillerson about how hed approach russia as secretary of state. That hasnt dampened the enthusiasm coming from moscow. Matthew chance joins me now from moscow. The russian government expressed support for tillerson even before he had been officially chosen. Reporter thats right. I dont think his senator confirmation hearing will be as quick to endorse Rex Tillerson as the russian government has been. Youre right. When his name was floated days ago as a potential choice for secretary of state russian officials then whether lavishing praise on Rex Tillerson. The head of the International Affairs Committee Said it was a sensation that Rex Tillerson had been nominated for secretary of state and that it showed the seriousness of donald trump to do a deal with russia, perhaps. The kremlin has made remarks saying that Rex Tillerson is a respectable and professional a person, about as high praise that you get from the kremlin these days. The foreign minister. Sergey lavrov who would be his counterpart here in russia. Lavished praised on the oil man from texas saying him along with trump are pragmatic people and they are not opponents to the development of relations between the two countries. So a resounding thumbs up all around from russian officials when it comes to this nomination of Rex Tillerson for secretary of state. All right, Matthew Chance in moscow. Thank you so much. He was on the trump short list for secretary of state. Now Senate Foreign relations chairman bob corker of tennessee is launches his own investigation into russias hacking. Hell join us next. Stay with us. [burke] at farmers, weve seen almost everything, so we know how to cover almost anything. Even a rodent ridealong. [dad] alright, buddy, dont forget anything [kid] i wont, dad. [captain rod] happy Tuesday Morning captain rod here. Its pretty hairy out on the interstate. Traffic is literally crawling, but there is some movement on the eastside overpass. Getting word of another collision. [burke] it happened. December 14th, 2015. And we covered it. Talk to farmers. We know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum vo its the holidays at verizon, and the best deals are on the best network. With no surprise overages, you can use your data worry free and even carry over the data you dont use. And right now get four lines and 20 gigs for only 40 per line. 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Senator corker was also under consideration to be trumps secretary of state. Thank you for joining us, senator. Marco rubio, your colleague, tweeted this before tillersons nomination, quote, being a friend of vladimir is not an attribute i am hoping for from a secretary of state. He has since gone on post nomination to say that he has serious concerns about tillersons moral clarity. About his potential conflicts of interest. Do you share those concerns . I have no reason to have concerns one way or another. Senator rubio called me over the weekend, and when he was hearing that this might be a possibility and shared those. But look, i dont know how any of us necessarily would have any knowledge about what his views are. So were going to have hearings. Look, as you look at somebody like him who is the ceo of exxon, a major Global Enterprise with 70,000 employees. The state department, by the way, has 75,000. This is somebody who comes to the job certainly with a working knowledge of the world. He has dealt with many of these leaders. And so just from the standpoint of vast experience, he has got it. I think president elect trump has done a great job going through this. I was honored to be on the short, short list relative to this, but look, i think he has chosen someone who has got an incredible background for this kind of thing. But what hearings are about, and what confirmation hearings do, is they give you the opportunity to understand those things. And obviously there has been some flirting, if you will, with russia thats been a little different than what were used to. I think folks are a little shaken by that, plus the hacking allegations. So, you know, obviously Rex Tillerson will come to these hearings with that knowledge, and i am sure will i hope will do everything he can to allay any fears that people have. Lets talk about one of the policies where you and senator rubio disagree with Rex Tillerson. You are a strong proponent of sanctions against russia for their seizing of land that is not theirs in ukraine, for crimea, et cetera. Right. Tillerson has been out there saying that he opposes the sanctions. Now, maybe he was saying that as ceo because it hurt exxonmobils bottom line to have those sanctions in place. If he says, well, i was just doing opposing it, using my power as ceo because it hurt my organization, my company financially, regardless of the humanitarian reasons you were in favor of sanctions, is that a good enough excuse . Well, look, i think people perform the roles theyre in in the best way that they can. He was a ceo of a company that had shareholders around the world. We actually had some conversations during that time, and look, i think hell express his views when he comes in relative to what they are as secretary of state. Look, i had lots of calls during that time from global ceos about our sanctions. I do believe that sanctions should be in place on russia relative to what theyre continuing to do in eastern ukraine, what they did in crimea, and i hope that, as a country, were going to hold together with european communities, who have also had some shakiness relative to future sanctions on russia. Look, this will be one of those things that comes up, and i think to prejudge before we have an opportunity to explore it is probably not appropriate. But well see. Well see when he comes forth. I know he knows these issues are going to be front and center. My guess is he is spending time looking at those. Youre planning to have the Foreign Relations committee conduct a review over these russian hacks. What do you think about president elect Donald Trumps response to what the Intelligence Community has said, which is definitively they feel confident that russia was behind the hacks, although the question about what russia was trying to do remains a subject for debate within the Intelligence Community, some say they were trying to sway the election for donald trump. Others say they were just trying to undermine confidence in the american electoral system. When president elect trump comes out and just says that he doesnt believe any of it, does that concern you at all . Well, i can only look, i have my own role as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. We each have our own roles. I have a lot of respect for the Intelligence Community. There are times when there is disagreement. And apparently between the office of director of National Intelligence and the cia there is a disagreement here. The fbi goes about things in a different a little bit different way. And so there has been some confusion. But i think anytime we have a co