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Trump Adds K.T. McFarland To National Security Team; First U.S. Member Killed in Syria. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired November 25, 2016 - 13:00   ET

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


[13:00:05] BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Brianna Keilar. It is 1:00 p.m. here in Washington, 8:00 p.m. in Damascus, Syria, and 9:00 p.m. in Mosul, Iraq. Wherever you are watching from around the world, thank you so much for joining us.

Up first, who will be next to hear, "You're hired"? A spokesman for President-elect Donald Trump's transition team says two more staff announcements will be made today. No word who the choices are, what positions are involved.

Today's announcements follow two cabinet nominations by President- elect Trump this week. South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley for ambassador to the United Nations, and school choice activist Betsy DeVos for secretary of education.

Meantime, Republicans are split over two leading contenders for secretary of state, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani. Some key Trump allies warn against picking Romney, who once called Trump a fraud, and a phony. Critics of Giuliani point to his complex business ties as a potential source of trouble.

Let's go live to Palm Beach, Florida, where Trump will be staying through the weekend. CNN national correspondent Ryan Noble is joining us from the Mar-A-Lago resort with the latest on this transition.

Ryan, what are you hearing?

RYAN NOBLES, CNN NATIONAL CORERSPONDENT: Well, Brianna, we don't yet know who the two staff appoints will be, but Trump aides said this morning that they will likely not be the type of picks that require some sort of Senate approval, so we don't expect any major cabinet announcements today. But, of course, the Trump team never afraid to surprise us. So, we'll have to wait and see. Those announcements could come at any time.

Now, Trump's aides say this morning that this announcements will likely be the last for the weekend. And, of course, Trump and his family came here on Wednesday. They spent the Thanksgiving holiday at the Mar-A-Lago resort, and they are expected to leave here on Sunday.

So, what will be at least next weekend, earliest, before we hear about any of these major cabinet posts, and you mentioned the debate over secretary of state. That continues to be one of the fiercest debates inside Trump's inner circle. As you said, Trump met with Mitt Romney. Romney said that he is seriously considering that secretary of state role, but many of Trump's key allies, some of his most vocal, expressing concern about a potential Romney as secretary of state, including Trump's own campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, who sent out a series of tweets about her concerns about Romney and that potential post.

Now, Jason Miller, who is one of Trump's top spokesman, he told reporters today that this is just a lot of palace intrigue and that we as reporters shouldn't look that much into it. He said that Trump will continue to meet with a diverse group of candidates, someone that has the type of qualifications that also fall in line with Trump's foreign policy vision. And, of course, Brianna, "The New York Times" reporting that Trump may open up the field and look at some other potential candidates, including former CIA Director David Petraeus -- Brianna.

KEILAR: We shouldn't look much into it. It's really hard to do that when you have Kellyanne Conway, one of Donald Trump's top aides tweeting about the palace intrigue, I will say. But tell us, Ryan, because I know that Donald Trump has been working the phones.

Who has he been talking to?

NOBLES: Yes, Brianna. He spent the day on the phone today with several leaders from Europe, including the prime minister of Sweden and the prime minister of Hungary. He also spoke with leaders from South America including the heads of state in Panama. So, Trump is still very busy. Even though we haven't seen much of him, Brianna, he spent most of his time behind the walls of Mar-A-Lago. You see the coast guard going back and forth in front of his estate.

This is definitely a new reality for those who live in this part of Florida.

KEILAR: All right. Ryan Nobles for us outside of Mar-a-Lago, thank you for that report.

I want to get an inside view now on the Trump transition and this split among Republicans over the secretary of state job.

Anthony Scaramucci is a member of the presidential transition team executive committee. Thank you so much for being with us, Anthony, we really appreciate your time a day after the holiday here.

ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI, FOUNDER AND MANAGING PARTNER, SKYBRIDGE CAPITAL: Happy day after Thanksgiving, Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes. Happy day after Thanksgiving. And I think we're all recovering from the food coma.

I'm wondering if you can shed any light for us on these two staff announcements that are going to be made today?

SCARAMUCCI: Well, you know, I think it's super important not to steal the thunder here on the staff announcements. It's really not my role to do that, but what I would like to tell viewers about is the process and the discipline we're taking in terms of going through agency by agency and making sure that we've got a blend of business people and governmental people and academics.

And so, I think the American people are going to be very happy with the eventual staff positions. Not just the top 20 or 30 staff positions, Brianna, but the 4,700 staff positions we're working on right now. What we have found is that if you can bring in some business people, some academics and then people that have really good governmental experience, that blend will probably be the one that will intersect appropriately, that make the Trump agenda flourish in the first six months of the administration. So, that's what we're working on.

[13:05:01] Unfortunately, we have to wait for this staff, assignments, appointments, because the president-elect likes doing that himself, with a few of the people at the top of the food chain.

KEILAR: Sure.

SCARAMUCCI: So, got to let him do that.

KEILAR: OK, you said academics, that's pretty interesting. So, tell us a little more about that, because what we've seen so far in terms of the people announced and the people who seem to be in the lead for some of these positions is that they have been in government or they are in business.

But you're talking academics. What specifically are you looking for?

SCARAMUCCI: Yes. So, basically one of the things that Jared Kushner has done, brought in a couple former professors from Harvard that us on the transition team, the executive community level are interacting with to just make sure we've got the right organization structure around the president-elect in terms of the way he manages, what his management style is like. And then additionally, we want to make sure that if you look at the blends of past presidential administrations, you typically have a blend -- if you want to talk about Ronald Reagan as an example, you had sort of 55 percent business, 30-ish percent governmental people and the rest were academics.

I think if you look at the current administration, they've been more tilted towards the academic community, the legal community, and less so the business community. So again, I just want to make this, one of the resonating messages is that we're not only looking at business people. We're looking at people from all walks of life. Mr. Trump made it very clear. The president-elect, excuse me, made it very clear that we're going to pick the A-plus-plus players irrespective what their prior roles were, but just as long as they're with us.

I mean, one of the big things the president-elect said to us is we want people that are energetic, that can do more with less. If you just think about the way we ran the campaign, we're probably outspent 5-1. We had one sixth of staff, still won the general election.

I think it's a message from Mr. Trump that we can do more with less, if we find the right people. So, that's the goal of our executive transition team.

KEILAR: Overall, outspent 2-1. I will say that approximately. Maybe talking about --

SCARAMUCCI: I guess I was bringing in some of the PACs as well.

KEILAR: You did have less staff for sure. I will give you that.

OK, I want to talk to you about what we're seeing between Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney. And I know that maybe this isn't exactly your wheelhouse, but it kind of is spilling out into the public. So, I think you may have an opinion about this.

Kellyanne Conway, one of the president-elect top aides, actually tweeted out an article about what has really become palace intrigue, this in-fighting between supporters of Donald Trump's and people who think Romney would be good, because some of his criticism of the president-elect during the election was so scathing. She said, "Receiving deluge of social media and private comms re Romney." "Some Trump loyalists warn against Romney as secretary of state" is the article she links to, and then she also tweeted, "Kissinger and Shultz as secretaries of state flew around the world less, counseled POTUS close to home more and loyal, good checklist."

And were loyal, can you talk about that and how important that is in selection? Because I did just hear you say that one of the qualifications, as you try to cast a wide net is that you're looking for A-plus-plus people who are with you. Now, with you now? Or that have been with you all along?

SCARAMUCCI: Yes. When I say with us, I really mean the agenda. The president-elect's agenda, of what he wants to do for government.

And the agenda as I understand it and the people on our team understand it is that the president-elect wants us to be a problem- solving administration for the American people, and I think he's very magnanimous guy and he's casting a wide lead and he's sort of giving people --

KEILAR: And why is this becoming so public? I mean, we're talking about Mitt Romney here because I think there's a lot of -- there's a lot -- I've heard Republicans in the establishment who say, look, we know that this may be something that loyalists to Donald Trump don't adore, but Mitt Romney comes with a whole -- because he was the nominee, he comes with this attachment to a lot of resources, to a lot of advisors, to a lot of input, that Rudy Giuliani doesn't come with.

Why is this spilling out into the public?

SCARAMUCCI: Well, you know, I can't tell you why it's spilling out into the public. I love Kellyanne Conway and I'm sure she had a reason for putting out that tweet. What I can tell you is, I'm good friends with both of these people. I was on Governor Romney's national finance committee four years ago. Mayor Giuliani and I know each other, for 25 years, through the process of living in New York and the Italian-American community.

So, I have enormous respect for both of those people. They are obviously different people and, sure you know, I do admire the mayor for being in the trench with us throughout the entire fight.

[13:10:05] But I think what I was really just trying to say to your viewers is that the president-elect is a very magnanimous guy. He sort of feels we should be giving amnesty because of the fight prior to the election and we have to just look at the people clinically, and say, are these the best people to be in that job?

Now, one of the qualifications for the job is going to be loyalty, and whether or not the president-elect can trust that person when times get tough. I think Governor Romney fits that bill. I also think the mayor fits that bill.

And Brianna, one of best things you said about this segment, this is not really my bailiwick. I'm sort of in the economic wheelhouse, the regulatory wheelhouse. So, it would really outside of my bounds and my purview to really opine on who should be the secretary of state.

Here's what I will tell you, though -- when that announcement comes, that person will be somebody that will be the voice, at least diplomatically, for the president-elect, and you better believe it's a person he has a lot of faith and confidence in and I think the American people will be very happy as they should be about the decision-making that's going on right now.

Think of this process. He is building a bridge to everybody, and bringing the best people into his auspices to listen to about the future of country. So --

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: Anthony, I want to interrupt you because we have breaking news, pardon me.

We now know that the president-elect is going to name K.T. McFarland as his deputy security national adviser. And like Mr. Trump's other picks, McFarland has some pretty hard-line views when it comes to the fight against terrorism. So, perhaps not unexpected that she would fit into this area.

She's been very critical of President Obama's approach, Anthony, as you know. Retired General Michael Flynn, Trump's pick for national security adviser, who will be obviously her superior, just tweeted this, "So proud and honored to have K.T. McFarland as part of our national security team. She will help us make America great again."

And, Anthony, as you know, K.T. McFarland is no stranger in Washington. She served as a White House aide under Presidents Nixon, Ford and Reagan. She was a spokeswoman at the Pentagon under President Reagan.

So, again, we talked about, you're more the domestic side of things, but tell us about what you can about this appointment, and how this fits into, I guess the foreign policy world view of Donald Trump, as he considers his secretary of state?

SCARAMUCCI: Well, listen, I'm personally thrilled. I know K.T. very well. Full disclosure, we worked together at FOX News and Fox Business over the last several years. She's a brilliant person. And she is going to work super closely with General Flynn, and my guess that they overlap in a lot of ways, but they have a little different expertise in certain ways as well. And so, she's going to be a very big complement.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: How do you see the different expertise? So, where do you see that?

SCARAMUCCI: Well, I think that the general has an unbelievable understanding of our military intelligence, and is an unbelievable understanding of the troops on the ground and the various areas around the world. And I think K.T. probably has more of that diplomatic background in terms of just, you know, being able to work well inside the context of the State Department and the NSA.

I think where administrations get in trouble in years' past is where we've had stove types, Brianna, and there hasn't been enough interaction between the two communities. And I think one thing that K.T. is going to bring to this, because of her experience and all of her relationships, not only around the world but inside of Washington, I think she's going to be the type of person that knits this thing together.

Remember, another big resonating thing from the president-elect is that he's really pushing the team and togetherness as opposed to the rivalry aspect of the words "team of rivals". His focus is on the word "team" and we're really trying to find people that will do that.

K.T. certainly fits that bill. She's a remarkable person, a personal friend of mine and I wish her congratulations and her new endeavor and am here to help way I possibly can.

KEILAR: Anthony, we do appreciate you being with us.

SCARAMUCCI: Thank you.

KEILAR: And it is really fascinating because she does bring some of that background from the Pentagon. You have General Flynn and in recent years, we've seen in the Obama administration, there's been a little bit of breakdown between the Pentagon and so much really siloing of national security at the White House. So, we'll see if that is a different path that Donald Trump --

SCARAMUCCI: We really do not want to happen. And I think this is a signal of that, Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, we will certainly see that.

All right. Anthony Scaramucci, really appreciate your time. Have a great holiday weekend. Thank you.

And much more right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:18:36] KEILAR: We have a transition of power alert. Donald Trump will name K.T. McFarland as his deputy national security adviser.

Let's talk more about this now. With me, we have Eugene Scott, CNN politics reporter, Kirsten Powers, CNN political analyst and columnist for "USA Today", and Warren Fox, political reporter for "Talking Points Memo".

So, it's interesting, guys. You're now looking at who Donald Trump has in his national security apparatus. We have General Michael Flynn, NSA, and then this would be, I think, clearly, his key deputy, right? K.T. McFarland, both obviously very hawkish. Flynn very military-minded. We know that former Marine Corps General Mattis is being at the top contender for secretary of state.

So, what does this tell you, Eugene, when you're looking at their world view, versus Donald Trump being a little more isolationist during the campaign?

EUGENE SCOTT, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: I think it's giving us an idea of how Trump may end up pivoting and what advisers he's going to listen to, to develop his world view in terms of national security issues. We just heard some surface-level ideas from Donald Trump. We didn't hear any details. But I think what we will hear within the next 100 days is what he wants to do more intensely in terms of responding to lot of these crises that we've been talking about throughout the election.

KEILAR: I think some people hear K.T. McFarland's name, I bet a lot of our viewers, this isn't someone they're familiar with. But this is someone with a lot of experience, a record.

[13:20:02] And also, this is a really important position.

KIRSTEN POWERS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. I mean, she's somebody who definitely sees the -- a very mainstream Republican foreign policy view, which Donald Trump does not. Let's face it, a lot of things said during the election were things Bernie Sanders could have said. I mean, he really is very far to the left in terms of being his attitude about the Iraq war, for example.

That said, a lot of the foreign policy establishment in the Republican Party has sort of came around I think in realizing and learning lessons from the Iraq war. So, the question is, you know, are these people who are -- they're going to have to follow Donald Trump's lead, right? So, how much are they going to be willing to just follow that, versus argue with him and try to convince him to move in a different direction?

LAUREN FOX, POLITICAL REPORTER, TALKING POINTS MEMO: I think this is a big development for the Trump campaign in a way, which is that during the campaign, you have to remember, national security advisors were deeply concerned about him. I mean, they were 50 of them who penned a letter saying "Donald Trump is not our candidate."

KEILAR: Republicans went for Hillary Clinton.

FOX: Yes.

KEILAR: She more of a Republican foreign policy than he was.

FOX: Exactly. And I think that that's -- this is a big, distinguishing point in terms of how he moves his team and how he builds them moving forward.

KEILAR: I am wowed by what we're hearing leak out about this Romney versus Rudy Giuliani contest for secretary of state. Because if you're talking about the characteristic Republican view, that's Mitt Romney.

SCOTT: Right.

KEILAR: Right? So, Jason Miller is saying, don't focus too much on the palace intrigue. How do we not focus on the palace intrigue when Donald Trump's top advisers tweeting about it?

SCOTT: Sure, sure. And on Thanksgiving Day, a day that you would think we'd be focused on something else --

KEILAR: Not a lot of news, he sort of filled it up, right?

SCOTT: Yes. But I think what's very interesting is the response that we're seeing from like Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, Giuliani, these people who have been really loyal to Trump very early and who took a lot of heat for getting behind him. I imagine, they're not excited to see someone who was so critical of Trump being considered for such a highly influential position.

FOX: It's kind of fascinating, but when we talked about Romney, I think a lot of people view him as sort of unifying character at this current moment with Republicans and Democrats still so far apart after this election, and I know so many Democrats who are thinking, you know, give me a lot of sort of comfort, if someone like Mitt Romney were secretary of state. I mean, that's pretty incredible at this point.

SCOTT: Sure.

FOX: But it really does sort of speak to where we are and sort of that division maybe within Trump Tower.

KEILAR: And a lot of Democrats and Republicans would be really worried if it were Rudy Giuliani, right?

POWERS: Yes. And I wonder how much of the Kellyanne tweeted she's getting a lot of pushback from a lot of grassroots kind of people, I wonder how much is grassroots versus the Newt Gingriches and the Rudy Giulianis, and the people who are the core of the campaign.

KEILAR: There was grassroots campaign folks, like they were really with him from the beginning. POWERS: Exactly. Versus those who voted for him. Let's face it,

this was not what they were voting about. They were voting about immigration. They were voting about jobs. This is not probably their primary concern, but it's got to be very upsetting for these people who've been out there laying it on the line for him, to watching those who were attacking him and denigrating him and putting him down.

KEILAR: So, what do you make of that when you see her tweeting that out? What is your read on what her message is? Because she says she was not sending a private message, she would say it in public. But it's like, come on.

POWERS: Well, I mean, the one thing, she did say she said it to him publicly. The first thing I thought was, is she not having contact with him? Why is she needed to do this publicly? But she said she had a contact with him. It just says to me, trying to do an all-out public campaign on him because they're afraid he's going to choose Romney.

KEILAR: So fascinating. Kirsten, Lauren, Eugene, thank you guys so much.

And next, an American service member killed in Syria marks the first combat death for U.S. Special Forces in the war-torn country, not in that theater, though. We will have details, after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:28:06] KEILAR: A U.S. service member has been killed in northern Syria. This happened yesterday on Thanksgiving Day after an IED blast. We're still trying to work out some of the details.

But defense officials say the service member was part of the multi- national force fighting ISIS in Syria. The service member's name has not been released but this is the first U.S. service member to be killed in Syria, though not in this Iraq-Syria theater.

This fight against ISIS in Syria is just one of the many international conflicts facing the new incoming Trump administration.

And to talk about it, I'm joined now by CNN global affairs analyst Kimberly Dozier, along with CNN intelligence and security analyst and former CIA operative, Bob Baer.

OK. To you first, Kimberly. There's a lot we don't know about this casualty we've seen in Syria and I think we feel it, too, because it happened on Thanksgiving. This isn't --

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: To his family.

KEILAR: That's right. And they're going through that process right now I think. We think about that.

But this is not the first death in Iraq and Syria, and this may not be the last. I think we can say that, because this is certainly an ongoing situation. But what do we know and what don't we know? DOZIER: We know that there are roughly 300 U.S. special operators and

also the people who support them, EOD, bomb technicians, forward air controllers.

KEILAR: This is just in Syria?

DOZIER: Just inside Syria, who go in and out from Iraq, but they're mostly based in that area. They're doing a couple missions, helping the Syrian defense forces. That includes the Kurdish forces that are really taking the brunt of the fight to ISIS in the outskirts of Raqqah. But they're also embedded with Turkish forces.

The idea is, since the Turks and the Kurds don't get along so well, you want to have Americans with each unit, so that there isn't a friendly fire situation. The Americans tell each other where they are, so that the two allies don't fire at each other.

So, could it be someone from any one of those units? We don't know.

KEILAR: 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 --