tv New Day CNN December 13, 2016 4:00am-5:01am PST
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live this morning for us. good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you, poppy. the president-elect tweeting about his secretary of state pick, saying, i've chosen one of the truly great business leaders of the world. trump finally deciding on rex tillerson after the two had a meeting over the weekend, a two-hour meeting on saturday. trump calling him a, quote, good fit. all this despite critics who say he has no foreign policy experience and he's just too close to the russian president. this morning, president-elect trump picking exxonmobil ceo rlgs frex tillerson for secretary of state. sources say tillerson was recommended by former republican secretaries of state, including james baker and condoleezza rice. tillerson chosen after trump's very public vetting of a string of high-profile candidates.
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sources say trump called the 2012 gop nominee mitt romney personally last night to say it wasn't all a game. tillerson's nomination already generating controversy with no formal foreign policy experience. the business titan instead forming many close relationships by forming massive oil deals, including with vladimir putin, sparking criticism from both sides of the aisle. >> anybody who's a friend of vladimir putin must disregard the fact that vladimir putin is a murderer, a thug, a kgb agent. >> reporter: this has trump and his top advisers continue to attack the cia over their findings that russia meddled in the election. >> it smells like politics, plain and simple. >> reporter: trump's camp offering no proof of their claims, as a bipartisan group of senators calls for a congressional inquiry. >> i think we ought to approach all of these issues on the assumption that the russians do not wish us well. >> reporter: president obama reiterating calls for a review
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to prevent russia from impacting future elections. >> this was not a secret running up to the election. the president-elect in some of his political events specifically said to the russians, hack hillary's e-mails. >> reporter: trump's team says he won't interfere with an investigation. >> he's the president of the united states. the legislature can do what it wants. >> reporter: for his part, trump delays a news conference where he promised he'd address how he'll handle the conflicts of interest with his business. trump tweeting late monday, he will be leaving his businesses before january 20th, and two of his three children, don and eric, plus executives will run the companies, notably no mention of his daughter ivanka, who is likely to step away from the businesses and serve as an adviser to her father. trump also promising no new deals will be done during my terms in office. and trump will be continuing his thank you tour, heading to
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wisconsin tonight, then off to pennsylvania on thursday, orlando on friday, and mobile, alabama, on saturday. also continuing to name names to his administration. we now have gary cohn, who will be the director of national economic council. we've got romney mcdaniel, who will be heading up the rnc. she's the niece of mitt romney and was instrumental in helping him secure the state of michigan. also reports now that former texas governor rick perry is now the top choice for the energy department. you'll remember back in 2011, poppy, he had that oops moment during the debate where he was trying to remember which of the departments he would eliminate if he became president. that department, by the way, he remembered, was the department of energy. poppy? >> we'll be watching. jason, thank you so much. we appreciate it. rex tillerson's ties to russia may make his confirmation as secretary of state a pretty tough sell. we already know that, even from how some republican senators are reacting. let's bring in cnn's senior political reporter manu raju
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live from washington. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, poppy. this could be donald trump's first big fight with his own party, with 52 republican seats, just three defections could be enough to prevent tillerson from getting the job. we're already hearing pushback from republicans about his ties to russia, from at least four republicans, including prominent voices like arizona senator john mccain. they want to hear more from tillerson first. but if he doesn't win over those skeptical gop senators, that means trump's pick may need support from senate democrats. and that's something harry reid, the outgoing democratic leader, told me yesterday may not happen. >> i don't know if he can get 50 votes or not. i think it might be hard for him to do that. >> did the reports that you're seeing about his russian connections concern you in any way? >> it's in keeping with trump. he's already stated he likes putin better than he likes obama, so it's obvious he likes
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russia. that's fairly concerning to the world and certainly concerning to americans. it's concerning to me. >> reporter: now, tillerson first will have to win approval from the senate foreign relations committee, where republicans have a one-seat advantage. just one republican defection could be enough to derail the nomination. if the democrats stay united. and already republican senator marco rubio, who sits on that panel, has sharply criticized tillerson's ties to vladimir putin. so chris, a lot of work ahead before tillerson gets the job. >> yeah, other side to the coin. you know, criticizing somebody is very different than voting against them. if the gop holds ranks, they can get any nominee through. very good to have the reporting. thank you, my friend. joining us now is jason miller, the communications director for trump's transition team. good to see you. >> chris, good morning. >> let's deal with the big bear in the room. obviously an analogy to russia. rex tillerson very well known until the business world, respected by the left and the right on different levels.
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but his relationship with vladimir putin specifically is going to be in the cross hairs during this period of scrutiny, especially with the timing of the selection with all of this concern over russia's involvement in our election. so what is the word from the president-elect's team about why tillerson's relationship with vladimir putin should not be a concern. >> well, first what we're going to see with tillerson is someone who's been a business leader on the world stage, someone who's put together multilateral and bilateral direct deals. we're going to start seeing the world moving to that. not only has mr. tillerson put together deals with countries like russia, china, he's worked in the middle east. every theater you can imagine in the world, he has deep financial, institutional ties where he's worked with these different countries to go and develop deals. >> the ties are the concern though, right? that his relationships, other than a diplomatic background, his business background means
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that his pocket was tied to his participation, especially in russia. >> we have to be able to go in and talk to people and have a dialogue. that's the thing that we're going to have with tillerson. someone who can go in and understand what it's like to work with finance ministers, someone who can go in and understand what it's like to work with different leaders. a country doesn't necessarily have to be our best ally. that doesn't mean they have to be our enemy from day one. that's the type of relationship tillerson will bring. >> so why didn't you pick rudy giuliani? he travels all over the world, not doing it just for a big exxon. he does it consulting about security and things that are germane. why not him? >> someone like rex tillerson really has proven himself on the world stage. he's someone that when he sat down with the president-elect, he impressed him right off the top. he was someone that the president-elect said this guy is a world-class businessman. he's a world-class, absolute negotiator. and that's the thing, we have to get back to winning for americans. someone who can put together good, tough deals. rex tillerson has actually stood up and said no to vladimir putin. he's also someone who has the
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president of putin, where he can put together, find ways to work together on common fronts. we talk about isis and defeating radical islamic terrorism. this is an issue where tillerson has faced it in iraq, kurdistan, talking about the different things exxonmobil was dealing with, the safe it i and security of people. he's seen what the destabilization can do to these countries. >> so the concern is the reason he's done deals with putin is because he's close to him. he got awarded that order of friendship thing that he doesn't see vladimir putin as the malefactor that american government officials see him as. >> but we've had everyone from former nba coach to the former. of canada, bishops, different people have won this award. this isn't anything big. we're talking about in rex tillerson someone who people know. his word is his bond. when he goes in, he negotiates tough. he's known as one of the toughest negotiators in the entire planet. but when he goes in and gets that deal just the same way he's been fighting for shareholders, he now will start fighting for the american citizen to make sure that we're getting good
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deals. so he's someone who can put these deals together, who can sit down across the table and represent not just the administration but our country on the world stage. >> can he be tough on russia? he's fought against the sanctions. if these hearings go the way they may about russia's involvement in this country, the intel is pretty clear. if there are more sanctions that come, are we going to have a secretary of state who says, whoa, whoa, whoa, let's note put more sanctions on russia. >> he said these sanctions were ineffective and weren't being properly executed. that's one of the things mr. tillerson said. >> be careful who you hurt with your sanctions. >> he talked about how they're ineffective and he didn't think they were going to work. let's also talk about the common goals that we have here. we talk about defeating radical islamic terrorism. we talk about standing up to isis. what we have in rex tillerson is someone who on this -- >> when has he stood up to isis? he's trying to protect his oil fields and pipelines. >> he understands what destabilization will do to these countries. he's seen what it will do to
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people and how it will hurt people. he's seen the security risk. >> can he shift from profits to people seamlessly? that's what he's worried about now, his deals, not people. >> no, he's always been about people. you have to look out for the safety and security of your people. >> you're talking about your employees. he goes to places that have oil, not that have human crises. he's not a humanitarian. he's a businessman. that's what he is. >> people are people. you're going to stand up and look out for people wherever you are, talking about the safety and security, making sure people are okay. >> what can you cite in his record where he went to a place to help the human condition and not exxon's business condition? >> a growing economy in a stabilized geopolitical structure within a country is something that's ultimately going to help people. >> true. >> that's something where we're going to see everybody lifted up. let's talk about the breadth of experience rex tillerson has. you talk about putting multicountry deals together in africa, for example. or getting a pipeline through
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multiple countries. we talk about being a leader of exxonmobil, someone who's worked on pipelines going into places like china, malaysia, thailand. he's worked all over the entire world. the other thing, too, is let's talk about how good of a person he is. not only is he figuratively a boy scout, the guy is literally a boy scout. he led the national boy scouts of america for ten years, won rave reviews for that. he's someone who we can count on and we can depend on to fight for us on the international stage. >> yet, the main focus is going to say let's see how that performance and background came to bear in russia. right now, to take a line that you guys love, you got to call the enemy what it is. radical islam. you don't seem to be talking that talk about russia. you have the president-elect, who's denying without any basis of proof, the intelligence community's assessment that russia was involved with the hacking that took place during our elections.
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he says it's ridiculous. now you have a man who's going to be secretary of state who gets the order of friendship medal from vladimir putin, a man called a murderer and a bully by a u.s. senator. >> you loaded that one up. let's talk about -- >> call it what it is. radical islamic terror is the enemy. do you see vladimir putin as the enemy? >> you threw out like four or five they thinings. >> do you see vladimir putin as enemy? >> i don't think we have to look at him as the enemy immediately. >> immediately? he just helped hack u.s. elections. >> it would be insane to come in on day one before we've started sitting down, negotiating with people, looking for places where we can work together, and start taking people off the table and saying there's no way we can work with these people. >> what about on the basis of what he's done? he's not an unknown. he's very well known. >> this is where we talk about president-elect trump's america first foreign policy. we're going to look out for americans. we're going to look out for where we can actually work
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together -- >> he just tried to hack into and affect the u.s. elections. >> let's talk about the reuters report this morning where even dni hasn't embraced the cia report. >> clapper came out on october 7th and said this is what russia does. why would you deny this, jason? >> the attempts to delegitimize president-elect trump's win is just silly. >> what have i just said? listen, let me say it to you nice and straight, man to man. donald trump won the electoral college. he is the next president of the united states. >> huge, huge. biggest republican win since 1988. >> don't worry about your political cover. why won't you call this what it is? october 7, clapper comes out, the head of the dni, and says this is what russia does. it has all the signatures of it. they're trying to increase some types of influence in our election. you say it's ridiculous. why? >> the reason why donald trump won this election is because he
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had a -- >> who's talking about why he won it? >> you're trying to delegitimize the election. >> no, i'm not. i'm trying to get you to see russia for what it is. you have real blinders on about this. >> no, i'm talking about very simply donald trump won this election, now we're moving on. what we're talking about today is how we're going to re-establish america's place in the world on the international stage. that's what rex tillerson is going to do. >> why are you running away from a simple proposition? vladimir putin directs the actions of russian intelligence. you just had the u.s. intelligence say that russia tried to negatively influence our elections, and you say, we won, we won, we won. why are you defending russia's actions? that's what makes all this so suspicious. >> american intelligence agencies can't even agree. >> they have tons of on the ground intel. nobody is questioning why he won. nobody is questioning that. i'm telling you, this is going to the level of bizarre. he won. i just said it to you. nobody is questioning that. i'm saying why defend what
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russia did in our election? >> what i'm defending is the fact that president-elect trump is putting in a secretary of state who's going to stand up and represent us well on the international stage. rex tillerson is someone who's stood up and told vladimir putin no. he's also someone who has stood up and been able to find ways where he can work together on things. he's going to find where we can work with other countries to defeat radical islamic terrorism and isis. he's someone who understands the importance of a stable geopolitical environment to grow economies and look out for human safety. the other thing, too, the way he understands and has these relationships with finance ministers as we talk about all these difficult leaders. we talk about something that's almost better than knowing government officials around the world. in a lot of places you've had administrations or regimes who have gone and changed over the years. in many cases, the business leaders, the people who rex tillerson has been dealing with, have been the same. he has these relationships where he goes in and sits down, the trust has already been built there. when he fights for americans,
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we're going to have someone who's proven on the international stage. >> jason miller, appreciate you making the case for the president-elect's nominee for secretary of state, rex tillerson. always good to have the conversation with you. >> thanks, chris. >> poppy? >> good conversation, guys. thank you. president-elect donald trump says he doesn't need to have the daily intelligence briefings every day. we want to know what he said on those calls. what are they like? why are they daily? joining us, someone who used to give that briefing, next. your insurance company
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president-elect donald trump has been getting the daily intelligence briefing only about once a week. so president obama's offering advice to the president-elect. here it is. >> it doesn't matter how smart you are. you have to have the best information possible to make the best decisions possible. and my experience with our intelligence agencies is that they are not perfect. they'd be the first to acknowledge that. but they are full of extraordinarily hard working, patriotic, and knowledgeable experts. and if you're not getting their
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perspective, their detailed perspective, then you are flying blind. >> all right. let's bring in cnn counterterrorism analyst and former cia counterterrorism official philip mudd, and former intelligence officer and daily briefer at the cia, david prius. let's talk about this. you used to help prepare people to give those briefings to the president. are these just kind of here's the obvious headlines? how intense are these? how important are these briefings? >> the briefings can't be taken in isolation. it's a steady stream of intelligence information that's constantly updating stories around the world. so getting a briefing now and then or reading the daily book of secrets now and then doesn't give the president-elect a full picture of what intelligence can do for him. it's a steady stream that updates him on situations with new and different information.
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not about how smart he is. it's about getting the information he needs to make those decisions. >> so beyond the information that is critical for the president to get and the president-elect to get, regardless of how often he wants to get it, what about what this does to the morale of these intelligence officers and the intelligence community in general? in the same week saying i don't need it as often as you deem the president needs it, and by the way, i don't believe your intelligence on russia hacking into the u.s. election. the two things coupled together, worrisome to you? >> they are. not looking backward but looking forward. look at the situations the president-elect is going to have to deal with in coming months and years. intelligence about whether iran is complying with the nuclear agreement that president-elect has been so critical of, determining russian complicity in attacks on civilians in syria. that's an issue that would be briefed this morning, i would say, if the president-elect were taking a briefing. there's an offensive in aleppo. what are the russians doing?
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going forward, what cia professionals are saying, in a city where information is powered, just as money is power in new york, information is power, we do not have access to the individual who makes decisions for the executive branch. this is huge, especially after 15 years of president obama and formerly president bush who gave great access to the cia. >> so look, you've been in the room. you've seen what happens when a president is receiving information and has to make a decision. this isn't something that's extra. this is something that can be fundamental. how so? >> this is not just about intelligence. by the way, president-elect trump talked about being a smart guy. he is a smart guy. this is about being an informed guy. different question. you walk in -- i remember circumstance going back after 9/11 when we had specific threat information from an informant that's a penetration into the al qaeda organization. he comes out, talks to a cia officer about what al qaeda is saying in attacking the united states. the cia director calls me on a
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sunday night. let's talk to president bush tomorrow morning in the oval office. we go in, i describe the threat. interesting, it wasn't just about the intelligence briefing. we have, what, six advisers around the table, national security adviser, vermont, cia director, and the president says, should i make a statement to the american people about what we're seeing in terms of this threat? it's a discussion about national security, not just an intelligence briefing. >> david, you have said that you think the president-elect is mistaken, frankly, by not getting these daily. we'll see if that changes when he becomes the sitting president. one of the points you make is you think he perhaps thinks that information is repetitive, perhaps if it's about the same country, iraq for example, but it's not repetitive. it's incredibly nuanced. >> the two remarks he made were both interesting. one is he's smart so he doesn't need the daily briefings. i've worked with some of the smartest people i've ever met at cia. no kidding, smart people, are the ones who know what they don't know. they know they need information to make better decisions.
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donald trump has had to make important decisions in his previous career. he knows the value of information. the other side on the repetition, maybe the briefers haven't teed up for him enough the differences between the pieces they're giving him. if he sees a piece once a week and it's on iraq, he may think that it's just the same old thing about iraq. they need to highlight what's new and different to show him the value of that information. eventually, perhaps when he's in office, he will come to the same position that all the former presidents and vice presidents that i spoke with for my book told me. they get the value of intelligence. they see that it helps inform them on these major decisions they have to make. and they wouldn't want to have made those decisions without the value of the intelligence analysis. >> can a little bit of this also be about what you don't know, you can ignore. so let's look at what's happening with russia meddling in the u.s. elections. and meddling is putting it nicely. the president-elect says that's a ridiculous notion. and it's just coming out now
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because i won. we know that's not true. we know clapper came out on october. -- october 7th. we know this is intel that's been out there for a long time. you're seeing it play out in realtime where by not getting the intelligence briefings are, maybe he creates an opportunity for himself to say something that doesn't square with what he's been told. >> look, i see this a couple ways. if you look at what happened during the election, what we term as fake news, the concern here looking at the statements about russian involvement before the election is we're going to start getting fake intenlligenc. regardless of the facts, do you take the wofrld as it is and simply say, i'm going to re-create that and say whatever i want? i would be concerned going forward in terms of what david is saying about repetition and making facts up and about the importance of being informed. you're telling me the world isn't changing enough to get a briefing? just over the weekend, military flights over the south china sea. i want to see if the transition in cuba is having any affect.
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we had bombings over the weekend against our allies in egypt and turkey. what does that mean? we have an offensive in syria that's suggesting to me that at some point that civil war is going to come to a close. and there's not enough for a briefing. are you kidding me? i don't get it. >> thank you, gentlemen. we appreciate it. president-elect trump adding another name to the cabinet he's hoping to form. what can we expect from his administration based on these picks so far? we'll dive into that next. once i heard i was going to be a park ranger, i got really excited. gabe's obviously really sick. and there's a lot that he isn't able to do, and make-a-wish stepped in. we had to climb up the mountain to get the injured hiker. he fell from, like, a rock. he's been the one that has been rescued so many times. he said to me, "today, i got to be the hero." (avo) the subaru share the love event has helped grant the wishes of over twelve hundred kids so far. get a new subaru, and we'll donate two hundred and fifty dollars more to help those in need. ♪put a little love in your heart.♪
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team trump naming exxonmobil ceo rex tillerson as its choice for secretary of state. tillerson has spent decades in corporate america without ever holding a government job. is that a plus, a minus? who is he? what are the concerns being raised? we have a look at the man who may be the next secretary of state. here's cnn's sunlen serfaty. >> we are the largest american oil company. >> reporter: rex tillerson, a career oil man, on track to become the nation's chief diplomat. >> as someone who's spent his
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entire career in the energy industry -- >> reporter: tillerson, a 64-year-old conservative texan, has no government or foreign policy experience. he has only held one job in his adult life, working for the last 40 years at exxon. first hired as a civil engineer out of college, working his way up through the corporate ladder through the international division, and rietzi inrising t 2006. >> the belief in the promise of international engagement and in the potential for global approaches to meeting this nation's challenges. >> reporter: at the helm of exxonmobil, tillerson operated at a high level internationally, negotiating on behalf of exxon's interests with deep relationship in the gulf and middle east, asia, and russia. >> he's much more than a business executive. he's a world-class player. >> tillerson having deep dies, especially to russia and vladimir putin, and receiving the recorder of friendship in 2012, a high honor bestowed to him personally from putin.
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>> to me, a great advantage is he knows many of the players. and he knows them well. he does massive deals in russia. >> reporter: but that's seen as an asset to president-elect is a problem for some on capitol hill. >> i have obviously concerns of reports of his relationship with vladimir putin, who is a thug and a murderer. >> reporter: marco rubio tweeting, quote, being a friend of vladimir putin is not an attribute i'm hoping for from a secretary of state. meantime, tillerson's views on climate change in opposition to the president he's about to serve. >> withe will cancel this deal our companies can compete. >> reporter: tillerson supported the paris climate change agreement reached earlier this year and has declared climate change a problem, at odds with trump. >> where are you on the environment? >> i'm still open minded. nobody really knows. >> reporter: while exxon spent years denying that burning fossil fuels contributes to climate change, under tillerson's time, the company softened its stance. >> while there are a range of
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possible outcomes, the risk posed by rising greenhouse gas emissions could prove to be significant. >> reporter: outside of his work, tillerson, a father of four, has deep lineage in the boy scouts of america. an eagle scout himself, he served as national president in 2010 and had a big role in moving the organization forward and allowing the acceptance of gay scouts. sunlen serfaty, cnn, washington. >> sunlen, thank you very much. here to discuss, cnn political analyst david gregory and reporter for the what's post, abby phillips. good to have you both. abby, you think tillerson is a compromise pick. i wonder where the loyalty is. rudy giuliani, tons of international experience. security adviser in all of these different countries. chris made the point earlier, rex tillerson has a ton of experience in oil-rich countries, a ton of experience in russia, saudi arabia, et cetera. but he doesn't have any diplomatic experience and he
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doesn't have any experience in countries that don't have oil. >> that's true, but this is a president who also has no political experience and no diplomatic experience. >> you're making the case. then don't yoe need someone who does? >> he's looking for people who understand the world like he does in some sense. i think he views -- he and others in his camp and some of the folks who have beened advisg him, bob gates, condoleezza rice, they believe that tillerson has had enough experience engaging with world leaders on the world stage in the private sector and can take that experience into, you know, the state department. but in terms of trump's inner circle, there were folks who wanted anybody but romney. they did not believe that romney possessed the loyalty to do that job. tillerson is not quite a rudy giuliani. he's not the sort of long-time loyalist, but he doesn't raise a lot of the red flags in terms of temperament, in terms of stamina, and other concerns that
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had kind of bubbled up over the course of the last few weeks within his inner circle. the never-romney folks and the romney folks look at tillerson as someone who can satisfy both camps. they have a lot of similar attributes in terms of being global business leaders. trump believes they have the stature. they can stand up in a room with vladimir putin and look eye to eye with those folks. that's very important to him. >> the biggest problem for tillerson at this point, before we get digging into other things that are there, because this is new, is really a problem that trump is creating for him, which is the perspective that he's close to putin and that there's another layer of compromise with this odd/bizarre reluctance of trump and the people around him to call russia and vladimir putin for what it is. >> yeah, it's striking to me because it doesn't have to be about delegitimizing the result of trump being president, being elected president.
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it's about a pattern of russia trying to interfere in american processes, in our elections, and by hacking and saying that shouldn't happen. there should be some kind of brush back pitch to russia. we're not seeing that. yet, the president-elect is not reluctant to call out china, for example, at his rallies and say they're not playing by his rules. so that is puzzling to me at the very least. rex tillerson is an impressive business leader, an impressive guy. he's told people about the need to be tough with putin and that's how you negotiate things. i think there's no question that president-elect trump looks at a guy like tillerson and sees somebody that's kind of in his image in terms of how he does things and they might have their own strategy for dealing with putin. i'm sure they're thinking, let's go out there and extract some real concession from putin. the danger is, we've seen administrations do this and then get manipulated by putin, so they've got to be very careful. it's not clear what they know
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that other administrations haven't known. but i do think some of the people vouching for tillerson who have worked with him, bob gates, james baker, and others, will be very strong. tillerson is an impressive guy who's going to talk about his knowledge of putin, his business dealings with putin, and talk about how doing deals for exxonmobil is different than doing deals for the united states. >> very different. let's go to a mock hearing. a senator says, sir, you said the sanctions were our bad idea. you said it was important to look at who the sanctions hurt and who they harm. so what are you going to do if the consensus is we need to impose more sanctions? by the way, jason miller said that order of friendship award is not a big deal. that doesn't just go to anyone. vladimir putin came to the big oil deal signing where rex tillerson was. these two men go back to 1999. can you really throw out all of that friendship and all of that past and say, fine, slap tougher sanctions on russia?
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>> yeah, i think that he's going to have to answer for all of that. beyond the order of friendship, whether it's a big deal or not, it's a pretty symbolic thing that i guarantee you no matter what happens, if he's confirmed, that will come up over and over and over again. >> and you have john mccain who's going to say, a man who i call a thug and a murderer calls you a friend. why should i be comfortable with you? >> it's a huge problem. this is going to be a litmus test for members of the senate who want to make russia an issue, who want to bring it to the table. they want to have this conversation. whether it's warranted or not, rex tillerson going up there as the recipient of the order of friendship from vladimir putin is going to have to answer for what is the policy. >> how do you answer that, david gregory? >> i think he would say, look, you have to establish some degree of trust with a leader like putin. i've got that. this is not friendship. we're not going on play dates. >> but a business deal that made them both richer. it's different when you're getting rich off deals and you're helping your business.
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>> yes, there's going to be those questions of conflict. nevertheless, i think he would say, i've got a working knowledge of putin. i've negotiated across the table from putin. i know what motivates him. because i've got that trust, i'm going to tell him where the lines are very clearly, and he's not going to cross that. i think that'll be the advocacy for tillerson. >> i think beyond russia, there are going to be a lot of other things coming up. exxon is a giant corporation. they've done business in countries all around the world with regimes that may or may not be good regimes. that stuff is going to come up and it's going to be a problem. >> profits or people. it's going to be a big discussion. coming up in our next hour, rudy giuliani. why isn't he in the cabinet? why didn't he get secretary of state? we're going to ask him what he thinks of tillerson and what he thinks the motivation is behind this reluctance to acknowledge what russia did in this election by trump and the people around him. >> also, for 20 years, her face and the mystery surrounding her death has haunted many people.
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now cnn has new information about the murder of jonbenet ramsey. our cnn special report is next. ♪ for millions of baby boomers there's a virus out there. a virus that's serious, like hiv, but it hasn't been talked about much. a virus that's been almost forgotten. it's hepatitis c. one in 30 boomers has hep c, yet most don't even know it. that's because hep c can hide in your body silently
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it has been 20 years, 20 years since 6-year-old jonbenet ramsey's death first captured the attention of the nation. in a new cnn special report airing tonight, cnn's jean casarez talks to those closest with the investigation. >> what's going on, ma'am? >> reporter: it is one of the greatest unsolved crimes in history.
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>> we have a kidnapping. there's a ransom note here. >> reporter: a little girl vanishes from home christmas night. >> it's just like you got hit in the stomach. where's my child? >> reporter: hours later, she's found strangled to death. >> i couldn't do anything but scream. >> keep your babies close to you. there's someone out there. >> reporter: surreal images of the pageant star transfixed the nation. >> were you a stage mother? >> probably. what's wrong with that? >> reporter: no charges have ever been filed. nobody ever convicted. the theories, secrets, and bombshells. >> hurry, hurry, hurry. >> patsy? patsy? >> wow. i don't know what else you'd watch tonight. that has me on the edge of my seat. jean casarez is with me. congratulations to you and your producer. i know how much work goes into
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these. i can't wait to see it. you had a long sit-down interview with her father, with john ramsey. what did he say? >> he lives a long ways away in a very remote area. he wants his privacy, but he allowed us to travel there to get to him. i spoke with him for hours. we heard things that i'd never heard before. what it's done to his life. he told me he's lost his privacy. he lost his money. he lost his reputation. and he truly says for the rest of his life he is trying to find who murdered his daughter. he talks about that he knows he was the prime suspect. he knows the grand jury indicted he and his wife, even though charges were never brought and what that did to his life. they had even signed custody of burke to someone else. >> their son. >> yes, because they believed they were going to be charged. >> because there are all of these incredibly confusing details, not to mention the ransom note, the three-page ransom note, the ransom they
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wanted, the exact amount, right, of his bonus. >> and so all of a sudden because this ransom note is too mr. ramsey, they're asking for the amount of his bonus, police hone in on him. his good friend comes to him, a former d.a., and says, look, they believe you murdered your daughter. get yourself a defense attorney, get it now, and make it the best one you can. >> we know they're still investigating. all of that is tonight in the special report. thank you so much. jean casarez. be sure to watch "the murder of jonbenet." that's tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern here on cnn. chris? >> boy, i spent a lot of time out there in colorado on that case. our thanks to jean. most of president-elect trump's cabinet members have won thing in common. a lot of cache. ho will that affect the choices they make in office? we're going to talk to a businessman extraordinary, steve forbes. is business good for government? next.
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mr. forps always a pleasure. >> what is trump bringing in lots of high profile big bank account business men into government and the other will be rex tillerson's specific issues with his relationship with russia. the push back that, hey, you were supposed to drain the swamp. you were supposed to be about the little guy. you keep bringing in goldman sachs. how is that good for the working class man? >> i think the bottom line is what do you get done? the three big things you see next year is the big tax cut. trump is very serious about that. on the regulatory side he'll do what reagan did when reagan took office, start serious deregulation. there are a lot of crazy regulations on the books. he's got a whole list of them.
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that's why you see the stocks of small cap companies doing well. and then a major overhaul of health care. done in a way where you get a more effective safety net instead of the hodgepodge system we have today. so the key thing, people don't look who's on your team as much as does the team score. >> to chris's point, let's just take one of those things. you put a lot out there. let's unpack tax reform. history is an indicator for us. as you well know, the last time we had a big corporate tax holiday 2004, it was a total failure in terms of job creation in terms of helping middle america. it led to mainly the rich getting richer which is not problematic if you're helping those you're intending to help. it was mainly companies buying back their shares. what would be different this time when he cuts the corporate tax rate to 15% which he'll get through the republican congress? >> the 2004 thing was a one shot. one shots are one shots. they don't lead to long term investing. this brought -- the 2004 thing
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brought back $18,000 to the treasury. >> carl icahn said to me, he said we should have restrictions on buying back these shares so companies actually have to hire people. >> well, let's get some things like the minimum wage. trying to force things that you want to have happen don't work. we should have learned that from the 1930s and the 1970s. the way we get investments what we did in the 1980s and '90s. he'll reduce individual rates and simplify, drain the swamp of the tax code. i was in indonesia a few days ago. the finance minister there said, are you serious about reducing this to 15%, the corporate rate? i said, yes, i think he is. oh, my god, all of us are going to have to do it. you'll see the pro business push. >> why would it work better than the current reality? sure, your notional rates are much higher but the practical rate the businesses play is
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routinely put at well under 20%. >> it's about 22, 23. you get disparate results for all different kinds of industries. some can knock it down to zero, others take the full hit. why not declutter the code and bring the whole thing down so you don't have to have an army of tax -- >> the tactics are you're going to help who you are. if you're a goldman sachs guy, you're going to help the big banks, you're going to help the rich. that's what happened in history. trump said he would be different. he wouldn't cut deals with the same old cronies and the joke now is he's bringing in bigger al will he gators. >> the last campaign had the ominous image of goldman sachs. he has three big goldman guys in bannon, mnuchin and cohen. >> goldman has done its share of crony capitalism. >> gary cohen is the president. >> now he's going to run the national economic council. >> what are the policies? when franklin roosevelt got a
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lot of criticism when he brought in the first head of the securities and exchange commission. the plunger, guy who drove stocks down, kind of guy who would have normally gone to jail in the modern era. roosevelt figured he could get it done. i think what trump here is, how do you get these big things done? if you sharply reduce the tax code for individuals and for businesses, especially small businesses, that's a key part of it, he's going to have a fight with the house on this. getting small business taxes down, getting them deregulated, that's how you start to get the economy moving. >> can i ask, how would you advise when it comes to all of these companies. this week it's lockheed martin. then like just a few days before that it was boeing, all the air force ones. a few weeks before it's carrier. can you do that when you're a sitting president, just constantly -- is that the most effective way to change things? >> what he's underscoring, it shows he's not a tool of corporate america when each day he's whacking something he
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doesn't like out there. on the lockheed thing, this is very significant when mattis became secretary of defense. why is it that the weapons system programs for decades always take 15, 20 years, three, four, five times over budget. the procurement system of the defense department hasn't had a serious review i don't think -- >> because there are deep pocket rich guys that get the fat contracts. now we have a bunch of them in the cabinet. >> you know what drives up the costs? horrendously is the constant changes you make. when you remodel your house, if you start making change orders, the price starts to zoom up. they do this on a daily basis. >> sweetheart deals also. >> if you clean that out, you get a simplified -- i used to head up the oversight board for radio liberty. we didn't have to go by government contracting regulations so when we put in a new radio transmitter, we could do it at a fraction of the cost of the voice of america because we didn't have this pile of regulations. you start to remove that out of the way you're going to get
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serious savings. you have to have people who know what the problem is. that's what i think he's trying to do. >> let's see what the specifics are. what regulations. how the policies come back out. we'll have you back on. >> looking forward to it. >> always a pleasure. what do you think? do the players matter on the field or just as steve forbes says, is it about how many points they put up on the board. tweet us @newday. facebook us. there is a lot of news. there's a big announcement from the trump transition team. rudy giuliani will be on in a few minutes. let's get to it. he knows many of the players. he knows them well. >> trump announcing his nominee for secretary of state, rex tillerson. >> 50 votes. >> rex tillerson is an excellent choice. >> i don't see how anybody can be a friend of this old time kgb agent. >> i think it's ridiculous. >> didn't need a security clearance to figure out who
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benefitted from malicious cyber activity. >> smells like politics. >> i don't have to be told the same thing in the same words every single day. >> our intelligence agencies, if you're not getting their perspective, you are flying blind. this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> good morning to you. welcome to your "new day." it's tuesday, december 13th, 8:00 in the east. alisyn is off, poppy harlow joins me. >> good morning. >> we bring you breaking news. president-elect donald trump has chosen his secretary of state. the nominee is exxonmobile boss rex tillerson. bigger names. romney, rudy giuliani, what happened to them? rudy giuliani is going to have his reaction to this and the situation with russia in just a moment. >> going to be a great interview. before that, tillerson's confirmation could get heated, likely will, why? because you have senators on both sides of the aisle with some major concerns.
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one republican senator even calling it unnerving because of his close ties to russia and vladimir putin. just 38 days until president-elect trump is inaugurated. we have the transition covered from every angle this morning. let's begin with jason carroll outside of trump tower. good morning. >> reporter: poppy, good morning. a number of gop leaders have come forward in support of tillerson, paul ryan and newt gingrich. trump tweeting saying i have chosen one of the truly great business leaders of the world despite critics who say that tillerson does not have the type of foreign policy experience needed for the job and is just too close to the russian president. this morning president-elect donald trump picking exxonmobile ceo rex tillerson for secretary of state. sources say tillerson was recommended by former republican secretaries of state including james baker and con da lieas
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