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Trump Rallies Republicans In Louisiana; President Obama Orders Review Of Russian Election-Related Hacking; U.N. Says Hundreds Disappear After Fleeing Aleppo; Russia in Aleppo; Secretary Kerry in Paris to Discuss Syria; Trump Says China Relationship Must Improve; South Korean President Impeached; Interview with Jihn Kirby. Aired 1- 1:30p ET

Aired December 9, 2016 - 13:00   ET

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


WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's noon in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 1:00 p.m. here in Washington, 8:00 p.m. in Aleppo, Syria. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

Up first, the president-elect of the United States rallies Republicans in Louisiana. Take a look at this. Live pictures from Baton Rouge right now, where we're waiting for the President-elect Donald Trump to take the stage. He's attending a get out the vote rally for Republican U.S. Senate candidate, John Kennedy, ahead of tomorrow's run-off election.

We're going to bring you Donald Trump's remarks live. Stand by. That's coming up soon.

Before heading to Louisiana, the president-elect met with the House speaker, Paul Ryan, over at Trump Tower in New York City. Ryan's leadership certainly will be crucial for the president-elect to turn his campaign promises into policies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PAUL RYAN (R), U.S. SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: A very exciting meeting. I really enjoyed coming up here and meeting with the president-elect. We had a great meeting. We talked about our transition. We're very excited about getting to work and hitting the ground running in 2017 to put this country back on track.

Thanks, guys.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Trump still has some major openings to fill in his cabinet. Among them, secretary of state, secretary of energy, director of national intelligence, secretary of agriculture and director of veterans' affairs -- or secretary of veterans' affairs, I should say.

Let's get a preview of what we expect to hear from the president- elect. Our National Correspondent Ryan Nobles is over in Baton Rouge getting ready. We're going to be hearing from Donald Trump fairly soon. Ryan, it is a bit unusual to see a Donald Trump campaigning now for someone else. Tell us the significance of this rally.

RYAN NOBLES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the significance is that it shows that the Trump administration is not taking any chances. They want as big a majority as they can possibly get in the U.S. Senate when they take office in January.

And if John Kennedy is successful tomorrow and polls show that it is heading in that direction, that will mean that Republicans have a four-seat majority.

And the president-elect has already talked about a pretty ambitious agenda, so he's going to need every vote possible to push that agenda through in Washington.

And, you know, Wolf, this also plays in pretty well with that thank you tour that the president-elect is on. He's going across the country and holding what are very much campaign rallies, thanking the people that came out and supported him.

And Louisiana was one of those states that voted for Donald Trump in a big way. And it's also a state he visited back in August while floods ravaged this area. He made the controversial decision to come here, even though leaders in this state thought it wasn't a good idea.

Of course, President Obama, at that time, deciding not to come. Today, many of the speakers here are already thanking Donald Trump for making that visit but also reminding him that there's still a lot of work to be done -- Wolf.

BLITZER: What next on the thank you tour after Louisiana, Ryan?

NOBLES: Well, he's going to head north to one of the most important states that handed the election to Donald Trump and that's Michigan. A rally taking place later tonight in Grand Rapids. And you expect him to, perhaps, roll out other appointments. People from Michigan that have been supportive of Trump's campaign.

But, again, just thank those supporters who pulled out this historic election upset. And Michigan, of all states that delivered the race to Donald Trump, perhaps one of the most important -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Thanks very much. Ryan Nobles in Baton Rouge.

Once again, we're standing by to hear from the president-elect and we'll have live coverage a that coming up.

We're also just learning now that President Obama is ordering a full review of Russian hacking activities related to the U.S. presidential election.

Let's go to our White House Correspondent Michelle Kosinski. Michelle, what else have we learned about this major development?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Wolf. Well, obviously, the White House wants to take a bigger and broader look at this issue than the FBI did before the election. And the information that came out now, it's very limited.

But we're expecting to hear from the White House any minute now, but we expect to hear from the White House any minute now during the daily briefing where we can ask for questions.

But what they describe this as is a full review. What does that mean? You know, going beyond what the FBI did, again, before the election when they released a statement through the intelligence community and through the Department of Homeland Security, saying that they believe that the Russian government was behind those hacks, including the DNC and the Clinton campaign. And they believe that Russia was trying to influence the election.

So, this review could encompass a broader period of time through basically now. It's expected to be turned around pretty quickly and on the president's desk before the inauguration of Donald Trump.

And listen to what we've been hearing from some members of Congress. I mean, some of them have already had classified briefings. They've been alluding to there being much more information. They've been asking the White House to release some of that publicly and to share more with members of Congress.

They've been suggesting that the Russian government may have wanted the Trump campaign to win. So, all of this could be incorporated into this report. It will also be interesting to see how much of it is released publicly.

[13:05:05] And the White House did mention yesterday that once its finished, you know, that they've been looking at this issue, they could release some more to the public.

We are getting a response from the Russian foreign ministry and here is what they are saying. Quote, "We are also very interested in understanding what they accused Russia of. Many times the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the foreign minister, Lavrov, have asked Americans to provide full information but never had any response."

And, you know, when the FBI's assessment came out before the election -- Wolf, remember Russia called the allegations of hacking ridiculous. Obviously, the White House feels much, much differently about that. They named and shamed Russia already and now we expect that review to go even broader -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Thanks very much. Michelle Kosinski over at the White House.

Let's discuss this development. The investigation that's about to begin, it's Russian hacking activities, as far as the U.S. election is concerned. Lauren Fox is a political reporter with "Talking Points Memo." She's joining us as is our CNN Politics Executive Editor Mark Preston and our Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger.

This review, Gloria, is supposed to be done before January 20th, that's the inauguration of President-elect Trump. It could affect the new -- the incoming president, depending on the outcome this full- scale intelligence investigation.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, you have this unique situation where Donald Trump has said in a recent interview with "Time" magazine, and let me quote, "I don't believe they," referring to the Russians, "interfered."

And you have Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill, pledging to investigate this because they believe they did.

You have U.S. intelligence agencies saying that they believe there was Russian interference. And now, the president of the United States saying, I want a report on my desk before I leave town.

And the question, I think, that we all have is, how much of that is going to be declassified? How much of that will we actually get to learn about? And will that affect Donald Trump in his attitude towards Vladimir Putin, which we know has been a lot more positive that Barack Obama.

So, it's clear that the president wants this proof so that he can hand it over to his successor before he leaves office.

BLITZER: The director of national intelligence, General James Clapper, together with a statement from the homeland security secretary, Jeh Johnson, in early October, Mark, they did put out a statement saying that they were a high certitude. That Russians did, in fact, were responsible, for hacking the National Democratic Committee's e-mails, if you will. They were very convinced of that.

But they still have not issued a statement whether the Russians attempted to hack into actual election systems --

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Right.

BLITZER: -- in various states around the country. Presumably, they're going to look into that as well.

PRESTON: Yes, there's no doubt about it. You know, a couple things. One, is they wouldn't have issued that statement unless they weren't absolutely certain --

BORGER: Right.

PRESTON: -- that the Russians were involved in some way as well.

We haven't -- the interesting real part of that, too, as you point out, is we haven't heard anything along the lines of their certainty or anything being publicly said, that they've actually broken into these election systems around the country.

Imagine if that happened, I mean, that would throw off an entire election system into absolute chaos, because then have to wonder, does your vote count at all? I think no matter what the outcome of -- is of this report, it is going to affect Donald Trump's presidency. Because either he's going to use it as something to say, look, I was right or he's going to have a lot of people saying, look, you were wrong.

BORGER: It's also going to tell us about WikiLeaks and the DNC and John Podesta's --

PRESTON: Involvement.

BORGER: -- e-mails being hacked. And whether, in fact, WikiLeaks was in some way related to the Russians which has been the charge out there.

BLITZER: The -- I believe General Clapper basically made that point.

BORGER: Exactly, yes.

BLITZER: Officially, together with Jeh Johnson, --

BORGER: Yes, yes.

BLITZER: -- the secretary of homeland security.

It's interesting, though, that Donald Trump has been briefed. He gets, on average, according to our Chief National Security Correspondent Jim Sciutto, maybe one briefing a week, one of these daily presidential briefs. The Vice President-elect Mike Pence, he gets one every day.

But that's his desire. That's his inclination of the president-elect. He wants one -- let's say on average, one a week. We're in week five now since the election.

But that is sort of frustrating not only outsiders who want to make sure the president-elect is fully briefed, but even some of his own aides.

LAUREN FOX, POLITICAL REPORTER, "TALKING POINTS MEMO": Well, and I think one thing we have to remind viewers is that in -- up until Thanksgiving, he wasn't receiving the at all. That was something that Mike Pence was doing. And that was not, obviously, the president. That is not what former president-elects had done.

And so, I think, moving forward, I think everyone wants to make sure that Donald Trump, someone who doesn't have a lot of governing experience, is able to get up to speed on international security issues before he becomes the president.

[13:10:00] BLITZER: This meeting today that he did have at Trump Tower before leaving for Baton Rouge -- and, once again, we're waiting for him to start speaking at that rally in Baton Rouge -- with the speaker of the House, Paul Ryan. That -- those first 100 days of this new congressional session, that's going to be critically important. And, presumably, Paul Ryan has told the president-elect, this is what we can do. This is what we can't do. BORGER: Right. And, you know, Donald Trump wouldn't like this, but

it's Paul Ryan's show in the Congress.

PRESTON: Yes.

BORGER: And he's got to walk the president through -- the president- elect through, this is what we're going to do with repealing Obamacare. We'll be able to repeal parts of it, but we can't replace parts of it right away. This is what we're going to be able to do with tax reform. We'll be able to do this, but we won't be able to do that. This is what we're going to be able to do with immigration.

You know, it's so important when you legislate to have priorities and to have an order of things. And we know that Obamacare is sort of number one. But I think they need to get on the same page about what they can do immediately.

And this is where, you know, Pence comes in. Because Pence is the Trump whisperer and the Ryan whisperer. And so, he can -- and he's got the congressional experience. So, he'll be able to kind of help the president-elect through that as well.

BLITZER: The president-elect is moving rapidly compared to predecessors filling out his cabinet, but we're waiting for the secretary of state.

PRESTON: Right.

BLITZER: That announcement could come maybe next week. I want you to listen because there are a lot of names out there. There -- the list keeps growing, apparently. Kellyanne Conway, who was the campaign manager, now adviser to the president-elect. Listen to what she said on CNN's "NEW DAY" earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, ADVISOR, PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: He's been broadening the search, an incredibly diverse group of individuals, by their background and their experience. The very (ph) Donald Trump to have a number of people in, not make it a cage match between two people played out on cable T.V., that would be ridiculous. It's the secretary of state position.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Your reaction? You're raising your hands.

PRESTON: (INAUDIBLE) cable television and it's also playing on broadcast television and it's playing on Twitter and on the Internet. In many ways, this is like an "Apprentice"-style transition because -- and I'm surprised. It's good for the media and, perhaps it's good for the voters as well, that these folks are going up in the elevator. We watch them go up. We watch them come down.

BORGER: It's very transparent.

PRESTON: It's very transparent. They seem to come to the cameras. They make a couple if comments and then they walk away.

But, to your point, it is expanding. I mean, you know, two, three weeks ago, we were sitting at the same table and we were talking about, whoa, we think it's going to be Mitt Romney and it's going to be and eminent. And then, it just grew and grew and grew.

And one of the most interesting names, and we'll see if it's for real, is Bob Gates. Is Bob Gates really, you know, in the mix for this? And would he even take it? Former defense secretary. Former head of the CIA. Somebody who had very strong words against Donald Trump. Somebody who bipartisanly served George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

So, who knows what Donald Trump is going to do.

BLITZER: Whatever Bob Gates said about Donald Trump during the campaign, nothing compared to what Mitt Romney said about Donald Trump during the campaign. And Mitt Romney, according to all indications, he's still high up on the list.

FOX: Certainly. And I think one of the most interesting parts about how this cabinet race has sort of played out, and I call it a race just because of all the coverage of it and how long it's sort of taken, is that there are members on the Hill that are up for these cabinet positions.

And they have reporters chasing after them asking them for details of the meetings. And, you know, they have to answer all of these questions. And there's so many questions about whether or not, you know, Mitt Romney is really still at the top or, you know, is there somebody who might jump ahead of him?

BORGER: This is Donald Trump's show. It's not as if people are going in for these interviews and getting pre-interviewed by Reince Priebus or whoever, or Steve Bannon, or whoever else it is.

This is Donald Trump in his office, interviewing people and casting his cabinet.

PRESTON: Right.

BORGER: And I think nobody knows what Donald Trump is going to do until Donald Trump announces it. I think he talks to an awful lot of people about his decision. And he questions people. What do you think I should do? What do you think I should do? What do you think I should do?

But in the end, he's going to decide whether Mitt Romney apologized enough to him, and -- or whether he'd like another businessman, --

PRESTON: Right.

BORGER: -- or whether he'd like to go back to somebody who's already served in government, in a cabinet position. These are things he's kind of taking in now, and we don't know how it's going to turn out.

BLITZER: We may know as early as next week. BORGER: Well, one would hope.

BLITZER: We're all anxious. Don't go too far away.

Coming up. Watch this. We have some live pictures, once again, coming in from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where the president-elect will be speaking very, very soon. Senator Vitter warming up the crowd over there right now. We're going to have live coverage of President-elect Trump once he starts speaking.

Also, bombings continuing in Aleppo, Syria, as we speak, despite a so- called cease-fire agreement. This amid reports of hundreds of people who have disappeared while trying to flee the city. The State Department spokesman, there you see him, John Kirby, he's in Paris. He's standing by. We're going to discuss this and more right after a quick break.

[13:15:06]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Once again, President-elect Donald Trump, he'll be taking the stage in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, fairly soon we're told. His goal, rally Louisiana voters for the last Senate race of the year. We'll have a full report, live coverage. You'll see the president-elect's remarks live here on CNN. Stand by for that.

Other important news we're following right now, including some frightening new numbers coming out of Syria. The United Nations says there are now reports of hundreds of men missing after they crossed from rebel-held eastern Aleppo to government-controlled areas. They also believe there may currently be around 100,000 civilians trapped in areas under the control of armed opposition groups in and around Aleppo. The total number of displaced people from the fighting in eastern Aleppo, we're told right now, has already risen to 40,000. All of this happening during what is being called a pause in the fighting.

[13:20:23] This morning, Russia's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, talked about the latest shelling in Aleppo.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): After a humanitarian pause, the strikes have resumed and will continue to do so for as long as the bandits are still in eastern Aleppo.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Our senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen is in Aleppo for us, one of the few western reporters to be there.

Fred, you were there overnight. Was there any break at all that you could see in the shelling?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, not very much, Wolf. You know this announcement of this alleged humanitarian pause came very late last night. And maybe for an hour or two there was a little less shelling going on. There were still mortars being fired.

But then I can tell you, in the middle of the night into today, pretty much all hell broke loose over the eastern parts of Aleppo. There was relentless shelling going on. There was gun battles going on that we were hearing, mortar shelling, and now, especially in the evening hours, we are hearing more and more planes in the sky and also some very heavy munitions being dropped as well.

In fact, just a couple of minutes ago, a plane made a very low pass over our position here and then apparently bombed some sort of rebel position in - very, very close to us. So if there was a humanitarian pause, it certainly wasn't one that was very long.

And all of this, of course, happening, Wolf, as more and more people are still trying to leave those besieged areas, while that fighting is going on. As you mentioned, tens of thousands apparently have already tried to flee. We saw many of them yesterday when we were out in those areas, they are very weak. They're in very bad condition. But they say at this point in time they have no other choice.

Wolf.

BLITZER: Based on everything you're seeing, we know the Syrian military is advancing in eastern Aleppo, how much direct military assistance are they getting right now from the Russians in terms of bombing?

PLEITGEN: You know what, I - in terms of bombing, it's unclear. The Russians claim that they haven't been flying any missions over the city of Aleppo. That really is unclear because we are hearing some jets that really are dropping very heavy munitions. And it's really not clear whether or not the Syrian air force would be able to do that.

Also, one of the things that we have to take into account is that the Russians do have a much larger military presence here on the ground than many people know and, also, than the Russians, at least publicly, commit to. They - or what we've seen on the ground here have been sniper teams. We saw in - we've seen Russian soldiers inside buildings. We've seen Russian troops in adviser roles, but also very close to the front line as well. We've seen Russian helicopters in some areas here in and around Aleppo. So certainly the Russians do have a fairly large presence, a big adviser presence, but they are also very much part of the battle that's going on here, which really seems to be going into a final stage right now, Wolf.

BLITZER: In favor of the Syrian military. All right, thanks very much, Fred Pleitgen. Be careful over there. We'll stay in close touch with you.

The U.S. secretary of state, John Kerry, said this week he still hopes to convince Syria's warring factions and their backers to return to the negotiating table before the city of Aleppo is completely destroyed. He's meeting with foreign ministers in Paris tomorrow to try to achieve that goal.

Let's discuss the latest developments with the State Department spokesman, John Kirby, who's in Paris with the secretary of state.

John, thanks very much for joining us.

We know the secretary did already meet with the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov. They met in Hamburg yesterday. Did anything at all come of that meeting?

JOHN KIRBY, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: Well, it was - it was a follow-on, a continuation of discussions that they have had over now many weeks here about the situation in Aleppo. They also spoke again by phone. And what they've agreed to do, the outcome of the meeting yesterday in Hamburg and then the conversations that followed it over the phone once we arrived in Paris, is that, and the secretary talked about this tonight, we are going to send a team, a U.S. team, to Geneva, to commence technical talks with the Russians, to try to get at a cessation of hostilities in Aleppo that can stop this bombing, the bombing that Fred has reported on, allow for humanitarian aid to get in and then allow for the safe passage of all those thousands of people that are trying to get out. They are in harm's way right now. We're trying to see if we can put something in place, a framework, so that they can leave safely and security and not have to fear for their lives in terms of getting out.

And I would also say that obviously we never wanted anybody to have to leave Aleppo because we didn't want the city to continue to be under siege the way it has been.

BLITZER: We know that the Syrian military is obviously going after all sorts of sites in Aleppo, around Aleppo. I'll ask you what I asked Fred Pleitgen, what is the Russian role, as far as you know, John, right now? How much of a military offensive are they - are they taking part in this assault?

[13:25:15] KIRBY: I think Fred's - Fred's reporting very much tracks with what we know and what information we have about Russia's role. Make no mistake, that whether or not Russian tackle aircraft are dropping bombs - and I know they claim they're not and that it's the Syrian regime - they are still and we are still holding them responsible for that because they have the influence over the Assad regime that they're obviously not willing to use to stop this bloodshed.

We also agree with Fred's assessment. We have the same information, that they do have military trainers and advisers on the ground. That they are there. They are helping. They are assisting in some of the targeting that the Syrian regime is using now to go after their own citizens and civilians, hospitals, schools and alike inside Aleppo. So they do have a role here to play. They do have a responsibility for what's going on in Aleppo. And we have been nothing but clear and candid with them, publically and privately, about that.

BLITZER: And what kind of military assistance is the Syrian regime, the Syrian military battling these rebels in Aleppo right now receiving from Iranian forces and Lebanese Hezbollah forces?

KIRBY: Well, like I said, we know certainly that Iran has an influence as well in what's going on there in Syria and with the Assad regime. They, too, have a presence inside Syria. And from what we can tell, certainly more of an advisory mission, if you will. But we know that they're having an influence in a not positive way certainly in what's going on in Syria rite large.

But, again, by and large, the responsibility falls on Russia's shoulders here. They have the largest influence over Assad and the regime, and have been unwilling to use that in a constructive, positive way. Rather, they have been backing and supporting Assad's brutality inside and around Aleppo.

BLITZER: Let's move to another serious issue right now, China. I want you to listen to what the president-elect, Donald Trump, said last night about China and then we'll get your reaction on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT: One of the most important relationships we must improve, and we have to improve, is our relationship with China. You have the massive theft of intellectual property putting unfair taxes on our companies, not helping with the menace of North Korea, like they should, and the at-will and massive devaluation of their currency and product dumping. Other than that, they've been wonderful, right?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, so let me get your - you're the spokesman for the State Department. Talk a little bit about what the president-elect just said, and it follows, of course, his receiving that congratulatory phone call from the president of Taiwan.

KIRBY: Right. Well, obviously, I'm not going to be engaging in a rhetorical debate with the president-elect. And I'd rather really not get into debating what he says, as he's preparing to take office. Our rule at the State Department is to make sure that he's ready and prepared for that - for those duties and we stand by, of course, to help him in any way we can.

What I can say, Wolf, is that we understand our relationship. Our bilateral relationship with China is extremely consequential. President Obama has called it perhaps the most consequential bilateral relationship that we have in the world. And Secretary Kerry believes the same thing.

It is a complicated relationship. There is no question that we still have major concerns with China when it comes to cyber space, and when it comes to certain matters of trade. Certainly, we have concerns with China over the tensions in the South China Sea and other issues in the east Asian-Pacific region.

But that said, we also look for ways, and there are ways when we have found common interest and common cause with China. On climate change, for instance. China was one of the first big countries to sign up to the Paris agreement. On the Iran deal, China was at the table when se secured that Iran deal to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons. So there are ways, and there are things that we can and we should continue to work kind of constructively with, with China on.

BLITZER: In the neighborhood - let's stay in the neighborhood for a moment, John. The Korean peninsula. We know the government in South Korea has fallen now. The impeachment has gone forward. North Korea seems to be taking some rather provocative steps, including reports of cyber warfare against various elements inside South Korea. Some U.S. officials have told me the situation there on the Korean peninsula is extraordinary, tense right now. Give your analysis.

[13:29:42] KIRBY: Yes. Well, we would agree. Obviously the situation on the peninsula is extremely tense and it's perilous. I mean this regime in Pyongyang continues to pursue nuclear weapons capabilities, they continue to conduct tests, they continue to launch missiles, all in direct contradiction to U.N. Security Council resolutions against that kind of activity. And you saw the U.N. act again on additional sanctions. The United States followed suit with some additional unilateral sanctions. And while I was talking about China, I forgot to mention, you know, that China also, as a member of the U.N. Security Council --