Transcripts For KNXV This Week With George Stephanopoulos 20

KNXV This Week With George Stephanopoulos November 20, 2016

A new president about to take control. What can we expect on day one . From abc news, its this week. Here now, coanchor, martha radd raddatz. Good morning. Welcome to this week. The trump transition is shifting sea from the hustle and bustle of the big city to the Country Estate of the president elect where this weekend donald trump played the graciou parade of cabinet prospects. This is not your usual transition. Years passed all the work was done behind closed doors. The interviews private, off camera. But not this time. Theres the president elect welcoming mitt romney. Discussing world affairs. Letting bygones be bygones. Hes being talked about as secretary of state. All smiles and handshakes after the meeting. The marine corp. Legend being considered for secretary of defense making quite an impression. Just a brilliant wonderful man. What a career. Were going to see what happens. But he is the real deal. But before we get too swept away by act two, we need to press pause, rewind. Because this week we learned a lot about the next president , the bottom line, the man who is no stranger to controversy throughout the campaign will continue to court it. Three moves this week, in particular, enraging some liberals cheered by trumps base. Well dig into that with trumps new chief of staff reince priebus, former cia director and our own Pierre Thomas in a moment. First, what we learned this week. Youll be so proud of your president. Youll be so proud. First lesson, to the victor goes the spoils and for those who passed trumps loyalty test, jeff, come up. Wheres jeff. Get over here, jeff. Theres the early endorser senator Jeff Sessions. Welcome to my hometown, mobile, alabama. Sessions stuck with trump throughout the campaign. Through the highs and lows. Even after that access hollywood tape. Exaggerating a little bit. I dont know he said he did that against their will. Thats what im saying. His reward, the Justice Department. Trumps other picks so far, loyalists who share his world view. Reince priebus gets chief of staff. Steve bannon, trumps chief strategist. Mike flynn, National Security adviser and mike pompeo gets the cia. A second lesson for trump, its family first. This is the moment and donald trump is the person to make America Great again. While we dont know if they white house trumps family appears to be wielding enormous influence in the transition. Ivanka and her husband are the power couple to watch. Here he is strolling the white house grounds with obamas chief of staff. And ivanka right there this week for trumps first meeting with the head of state. A third lesson of the week, trump will be trump. So get used to it. We saw that friday night in new york at the broadway show hamilton where there was some boos for vice pence. And an unusual direct appeal from the cast. We are the diverse america who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us. So the president elect who made this promise during the campaign im go to be so president ial that you people will be so board. 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. And the fourth lesson, the election didnt settle the argument. In fact, we could be at the beginning of a long political and cultural war. Trumps headlines already taking heat. Flynn is under fire for calling islam a cancer and his tweet that fear of muslims is rational. Bannon defending himself against charges of antisemitism and racism and sessions who 30 years ago was rejected by the Senate Judiciary committee for a federal judgeship. I am not a racist, i am not insensitive to blacks. I supported civil rights activity in my state. Denying those charges to this day. The next Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer told me sessions will get some hard questions. These are troubling things. And the only fair thing to do is thorough questions and then make an opinion. And lets dig deeper on that controversial pick for attorney general. Senator Jeff Sessions. Were joined by our senior justice correspondent Pierre Thomas. Good morning pierre. Let me ask you how intense do you expect this confirmation process to be . Extremely. The battle lines have been drawn. We saw a level friday we havent seen for quite some time. You had the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus saying senator sessions civil rights record was appalling. Leaders from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus was equally harsh rhetoric. Supporters of sessions saying hes a good man. Hes got a long outstanding record they say. A person of high character. Senator cruz calling him a man who would protect the constitution and the rule of law. But the drama however intense it may be, will be short lived in the sense that the republicans do control the senate, he will the harshest allegations is hes racially insensitive and some critics say racist but he has passionately denied that but was rejected as a federal court judge back in 1986. A lot of the allegations of racism, and thats a really charged allegation by the way, stem from that particular confirmation process which he was rejected in. A black colleague said that sessions called him quote, boy and that he ought to be careful about white folks. He passionately denied that. If you look back at the hearing, it was dripping anger was dripping from his lips as he described his disgust, and people who support him point out the fact that he has prosecuted members of the kkk and supported efforts to honor rosa parks. Civil rights icon, rosa parks. So lets assume as you said that he is confirmed. What will we likely see at the i think youll see pretty dramatic change quickly. Number one, on the issue of immigration. He will be among those cheerleading trump to overturn all the executive actions that president obama took in terms of immigration, on transgender issues. The Justice Department has been supportive of transgender children going to public bathrooms with the sex they identify with. Thats likely to change. And on the issue of race and policing. Will he be as full throated in support of africanamerican communities are overlooked and neglected and sometimes treated unfairly by the police remains to be seen. Just quickly, what about more investigations into Hillary Clinton or the Clinton Foundation . He has been very critical of the fbis investigation of the hillary emails and suggested that the Clinton Foundation needs far more investigation. So stay tuned. Thanks very much for joining us pierre. The president elect also has big this week with the auto industry. He also had to settle a major lawsuit against Trump University for 25 million. For more on that and his other legal challenges lets bring in our chief business and economics correspondent rebecca jarvis. Good morning, rebecca. Trump tweeted he settled the University Case to focus on his presidency. Do you think thats the reason and there are more cases out there with trumps name on them, so what does he do . Reporter martha, ive talked to a number of legal experts about this. There was little upside in letting this Trump University case go to trial. The new York Attorney general had called it a fraud from beginning to end. Donald trump and his lawyers thought they had a case here. But when you get into the trials of cases like these first off, it could have been a distraction and second of all, they bring up private and business dealings that can frequently be embarrassing. These are not the kind of things have out there or even want to deal with. He has more than a dozen other cases, donald trump, where he is personally named and you will likely see those cases go the same direction. And you know trump strategist steve bannon is pushing for a trillion dollar infrastructure program. What are they envisioning and who would be the big economic winners there . Reporter well, we know the size of it. A trillion dollars. Its something steve bannon talked about this week. It is a major issue th d trump campaigned on. This infrastructure plan. One key question is how it might be paid for on the campaign trail donald trump talked about for example, potentially borrowing money with Interest Rates as low as they are but now the details seem to be inclined towards tax cuts for private companies, tax credits for private companies to do infrastructure programs. For example, building out our roads, bridges, waterways. Companies might moneyize that. If youre a private company and building a bridge, you might want to put a toll on that bridge. That will be a question Going Forward and a question about how many jobs get resolved as a result of it. Because of what types of projects we actually see happen. And quickly, more on jobs. Was ford his first big win with the company saying they will not move some production to mexico or was his claim of victory a little misleading . Jobs werent at risk here. In fact, the mkc, the car in question that was supposed to be moved from the plant in kentucky to mexico was not going to cost any jobs. They were moving it to make more room for the ford escape, a popular car here in the United States. The mkc will stay in louisville, kentucky and not move to mexico to that preexisting plant. Thats a win in terms of keeping a car here in the United States but the issue was always going to be jobs neutral martha. And now lets bring in the president elects new chief of staff reince priebus. You see him yesterday joining in the transition meetings. Mr. Priebus joins us now. Lets start with the meetings that president elect trump had this weekend. What can you tell us about the meeting specifically with mitt romney, how likely is it he could be the next secretary of state . Well, first of all, this all started back on that wednesday morning when president elect trump said to all americans no matter who you are, your race, gender, background, look, i want to lead all of you, i want to make all of you proud of the work were doing and he wants to be a president for all people. Hes bringing america together. Thats part of what happened yesterday with governor romney coming in bringing people in that were once rivals saying lets lead together, lets talk about the future of our country. They did talk about opportunities for governor romney to potentially be coming together moment to say i need to lead everyone, i need you onboard and i will tell you it was a very substantive conversation ranging from all levels of National Security, domestic policy, foreign hot spots conversations that run the gamut and i will tell you it was a very, very good, cordial, personable, gracious meeting and nothing but positive. Howik could be secretary of state . Is that a possibility . Well, i think anything is possible. But were talking to a lot of people martha and certainly governor romney is a talented person and its possible but were also talking to a lot of others and youll see the list today. Folks coming in. Obviously Rudy Giuliani has come in and nikki haley. General kelly is coming in today and many others for all of these positions. So giuliani is still a possibility for secretary of sure, of course. I think what americans really need to see though is a president elect thats working 15 hours a day in meetings alone bringing in the most talented people in america to get advice, the counsel, the conversation, thats what i think people should take from these meetings and he ought to be commended for the work hes done in bringing our country together. Lets talk about retired general jim mattis, a marine corp. Legend. I can tell you right now the troops do love him. Mr. Trump seemed before impress bid him. Whats the likelihood he could be secretary of defense . I think its a very real possibility. But obviously, weve got more work to do martha. He is a hero of our country and for everyone in america. I think hes a figure that can bring america together. Someone you can point to no matter who you are and say this would respect and someone certainly more than capable of leading the department of defense at a time when we need to get serious about isis and our security around the globe, whether it be china, north korea, syria, libya, you know as well martha, youre an expert at these things, we need leadership and certainly general mattis is a leader and president elect trump loves leaders like general mattis. Lets talk about another retired general and that would be mike flynn who he has chosen as National Security adviser. He is highly admired for his work as an Intelligence Officer but has a history of controversial views about islam. He said in an interview in july and at a conference in august that islam is not a real religion but a political ideology masked behind a religion. Is he in line how President Trump views islam . I think so. Phrasing can be done differently. Clearly faith that are problematic and we know them. We have seen it. It certainly isnt a blanket for all people of that faith. But mike flynn is one of the most highly respected Intelligence Officers in america. Certainly no one can deny that. He is someone that has been at Donald Trumps side for now a very long time. Its someone who the president elect respects and trusts and hes an unbelievably gifted smart person that will lead that post with honor and dignity. Lets talk about immigration. Will president elect trump suspend all immigration from regions compromised by terror as he said and what countries does that include, saudi arabia, turkey, pakistan, france . Well i think what he said obviously that policy will be spelled out more clearly once his team gets put in place and leadership and the state department and the secretary of defense. Clearly this is something that has already been articulated both in the house and senate and by president elect trump which is we will pursue policies to temporarily suspend immigration from areas that harbor and train terrorists until better vetting is put together. Where that is, what countries those are, what areas were talking about, that will be articulated at a later time. Is there a possibility of france . Martha, look, like i said, were not going to get into all the details of where these hot spots are at. But that policy will be more closely articulated once the team is in place. Just so you understand, this is not some sort of out of left field policy. This is something that has been sitting many different times in the house and the senate that either couldnt get passed or the president wouldnt support. Candidate trump said he wanted to bring back water boarding and worse and picked cia director. Pompeo has been a proponent of that as well. Will he ask his republican control congress to pass a new law to get rid of the current law which bans water boarding . I think we have to take a deep breath and realize what people are seeing happening in this new administration which is the best and the brightest of all americans coming together. Even some rivals like ted cruz. We talked about mitt romney. The best and the brightest. Mike pompeo was number one at west point. At the top of his class at harvard law school. Editor of the harvard law review. Highly respected. Praised from all angles. These folks, these smart people along with president elect trump will formulate that strategy. They will confer with generals in the field. And they will do everything they can to protect and secure our country here and abroad every lets move to senator Jeff Sessions. As we said senator sessions has been accused in the past of making racially disparaging comments. Now his nomination is opposed by let me read the list. The naacp, the congressional black, hispanic, asian and american caucuses. The American Immigration council. Does all that opposition from minority groups give you any pause . This is something that happened 30 years ago. Mans life. Hes an unbelievably honest dignified man who started his career working against George Wallace who then spent 15 years in the department of justice and u. S. Attorney for 12, ag for 2 filing desegregation lawsuits all over alabama and voted for the civil rights act. Voted for eric holder. He worked his heart out to give this is a man who has spent his entire life fighting for a quality freedom and opportunity. Its an honor to have senator Jeff Sessions accept such a post. Hes an incredible man. Even the people 30 years ago that voted against him said they regretted it. And that he was a great man and this is something that i think is very political, very unfair. And i would hate to be judged and i think you would and everyone out there to be judged ov thing ive said. Look, hes a good man. He will be confirmed and he deserves it. Okay. One final question on senator sessions. Hes questioned the investigation of Hillary Clintons email server and said clinton violated the law with the Clinton Foundation and Lieutenant General flynn led chance of lock her up but the Republican National convention. Is there selection and indication that trump will order an investigation of Hillary Clinton . Their suggestions for nomination is an indication of Donald Trumps willingness to do everything he can to follow through on his Campaign Promises but also protect our country here and abroad. It should be a great sign for americans hes leading by bringing people together to make our country great again. Thanks very much for joining us mr. Priebus and co

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