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Fourth Day of Anti-Trump Protests; One Year Since Paris Terror Attacks; Clinton's Loss "Bugs" Polling Expert. Aired 2-2:30a ET

Aired November 13, 2016 - 02:00   ET

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


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CYRIL VANIER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): The decision could be imminent. Donald Trump is on the verge of choosing a crucial member of his White House team, his chief of staff.

It's been one year since the deadly terror attacks in Paris. Now the Bataclan concert hall is open once again.

Plus: Colombia reaches another deal with the FARC rebels, begging the question, will this one hold?

Hello, I'm Cyril Vanier, thanks for watching. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

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VANIER: With just 10 weeks to go before he moves into the Oval Office, President-Elect Trump is busy, putting together his transition team. His spokeswoman on Saturday said a decision on the White House chief of staff was imminent. Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus, here on the right, and close adviser, Stephen Bannon, on the left, are both considered the top choices.

Trump is also busy mending fences with his former rivals within the Republican Party. CNN has learned that Trump has spoken recently with former Florida governor, Jeb Bush; former Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, as well as Ohio governor John Kasich, all of whom who have been extremely critical of Trump during the campaign. The phone calls were described as cordial.

Meanwhile, the protests are continuing across the U.S. For four consecutive days, demonstrators have been taking to the streets. In Los Angeles right here, they were beating a Trump pinata.

We're also keeping an eye on Portland, Oregon, which remains a potential flashpoint; of all the protests nationally, Portland has been the most volatile, with dozens of arrests and several had been made in the last few hours.

Let's look at policy now and what a Trump presidency might look like. The president-elect has set an ambitious agenda for himself. Tom Foreman takes a closer look. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Item one on President Trump's to-do list could well be the plan that launched his presidency.

TRUMP: We're going to build a wall, folks. We're going to build a wall.

FOREMAN: And he could continue work on sections of such a wall which has already been going on for years on the U.S.-Mexico border.

But expanding farther for a complete wall would require more money and congressional approval.

Item two, deportation.

TRUMP: Day one, my first hour in office, those people are gone.

FOREMAN: In recent months he suggested he's not going to deport all 11 million undocumented immigrants but only some two million whom he says have committed serious crimes. And yes, he can send them home without getting Congress involved if he can find them. Item three, trade.

TRUMP: At the center of my jobs plan will be fixing out terrible trade deals.

FOREMAN: His election and the Republican sweep of Congress has already killed hopes for the Trans-Pacific Partnership which President Obama wanted and Mr. Trump can pull the U.S. out of NAFTA, although it's not clear what the economic impact would be and legal challenges are sure to follow.

Item four --

TRUMP: The repeal and replace ObamaCare act. Fully repeal ObamaCare.

FOREMAN: This will be tricky at best. And he certainly can't do it alone. True Republicans hold 51 seats in the Senate but as the rule stand now that is well short of the 60 needed to overcome a Democratic filibuster.

He can chew away at key portions of the program by cutting funding but he said he'd also replace parts of ObamaCare, although he has not fully answered the question with what.

Item five --

TRUMP: We need a special prosecutor to look into Hillary Clinton.

FOREMAN: He can make such an appointments and his staff suggests the possibility remains on the table. It's just not clear if he will do it.

Item six: TRUMP: A hiring freeze on all federal employees to reduce federal work force through attrition.

FOREMAN: Again, the complete repercussions are unclear but he has the power if he wants to follow through.

And lastly, what about banning all Muslims from entering the United States?

Over the past few days that idea has disappeared and reappeared on the Trump website. But running mate Mike Pence says that that plan has pretty much been abandoned.

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VANIER: And that report there from CNN's Tom Foreman.

One of the leading Brexit campaigners in the U.K. sits down with the U.S. president-elect. Nigel Farage posted this photo with Mr. Trump Saturday after the two had what he calls a very productive meeting. Farage is the head of the U.K. Independence Party, UKIP, and is a longtime Trump supporter. He says he is confident that Trump will make a good president.

Sunday marks one year since the --

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VANIER: -- Paris terror attacks. More than 130 people were killed in coordinated gun and bomb strikes across the French capital. ISIS claimed responsibility for the massacre. The Bataclan concert hall, one of the sites targeted by the terrorists, reopened Saturday with a special performance by Sting.

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VANIER: As survivors and families of those who died filled the Bataclan for that re-opening concert, a minute of silence was held to honor the victims. And some survivors have turned to writing to share their pain. CNN's Melissa Bell reports on that.

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MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was the most violent attack on French soil in more than 70 years: 130 people were killed, 89 in the Bataclan alone. Among them, 28-year-old Lola, whose father, still bereft, has found some comfort in words.

GEORGES SALINES, DAUGHTER DIED IN BATACLAN: It was not a way of putting to life because I know she is dead and she will not come back.

But it was a way of thinking about the fact that her life was maybe short, but it was a full life, full of happiness. I hope she didn't suffer or see or even she didn't maybe see her death coming. My book starts with the word absurd, because it's perfectly unjust. (Speaking French). BELL: This was the Bataclan moments before the attack. The picture

was taken by Denys Plaud. He was one of those lucky enough to walk out of the Bataclan alive.

DENYS PLAUD, BATACLAN SURVIVOR: The hardest point, it was when the emergency crew arrived after three hours of waiting. There were corpses and blood everywhere. There was no way but to look at death and its ugly, bloody side. The only way to recover was to fine into myself the inner strength and that's one of the reasons why I wrote this book. (Speaking French).

BELL: Words, say the survivors, have helped them to speak the unspeakable, but mostly, to share it with the only other people who can really understand those who lived firsthand the terrible events of one year ago -- Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.

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VANIER: Now commemorations will be taking place across Paris on Saturday and CNN will be covering that. We have our correspondents on the ground. So stay tuned for that. But for now, we're going to move on to a new study which is highlighting how coastal erosion is accelerating across parts of Britain.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: This is important for so many of us, considering that 40 percent of the world's population lives 100 kilometers from the coastline and with increasing severity of storms, you really want to pay attention to this.

We're going to bring to you southeastern Britain, near East Sussex, the chalk cliffs, the Dover cliffs, used in several movies. They're made of pure white limestone. On average, they recede about 2 to 6 centimeters per year.

But scientists have seen almost a tenfold increase in this thinning process between now 22 to 32 centimeters per year.

What is going on?

We'll try to break that down for you. Here's a picture of the Burling Gap (ph) and the chalk cliffs, East Sussex. We're having coastal erosions; as storms get stronger, waves get larger. We continue to erode and cut away at the shorelines.

It's not just southeast Britain that's experiencing this. It's a worldwide phenomenon. As sea levels rise, our temperatures rise, climate changes. This will continue to be a severe problem. Think about the livelihoods that this is impacting especially for some of the populated areas that call the coast home.

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VANIER: The electoral defeat of Hillary Clinton really bugged a lot of people in this country but perhaps one more than most. One polling expert, who said that Donald Trump would never get more than 240 electoral votes, in fact, Sam Wang had promised to eat a bug if that happened. It takes 270 electoral votes to win and Trump got 290. CNN's Michael Smerconish reminded Wang about his vow. So here's what happened before and especially after the election.

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SAM WANG, PROFESSOR, PRINCETON ELECTION CONSORTIUM: What I said in that tweet was that Trump was unlikely to break 240 electoral votes and I think that's pretty much the same. Honestly this race is the most stable statistically speaking since Eisenhower beat Stevenson.

Now, Mike, you really want me to do this?

Yes, you do. OK.

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN HOST: I kind of would. You know, let's like put it to bed once and for all.

WANG: Sure. OK. So like John the Baptist in the wilderness, he ate locusts and honey and so I regard myself as being in the wilderness a little bit because after all I was wrong.

A lot of people were wrong but nobody else made the promise I did and I'm hoping that we can get back to data and thinking thoughtfully about policy and issues and having said that and saying good morning to everyone out there on both sides, see this?

Here it goes. OK.

SMERCONISH: You're a man of your word, Dr. Wang.

I appreciate -- how was it, by the way?

WANG: Kind of mostly honeyish, a little nutty but, you know, if it's good enough for a snake...

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VANIER: Thanks for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Cyril Vanier. "MARKETPLACE AFRICA" is next. Stay with CNN.

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