Retired Admiral Among Secretary of State Contenders; Trump to Meet with OSU Attack Victims; Trump Thank You Tour in Iowa; Trump Lashes out at Union Boss; Obama Advises Trump.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Brianna Keilar in Washington. And with his last few cabinet decisions supposedly in the pipeline and yet another Twitter spout under his belt, the president-elect is leaving Trump Tower this hour for Columbus, Ohio. Donald Trump is meeting with victims and first responders from last week's knife and car attack at Ohio State University. And then after that, it's off to Iowa for another of Trump's so-called thank you rallies. And then there's Indiana, a state that Trump is not visiting today but one very much on his radar. Last night, a man just 43 days from the presidency personally attacked the head of a local steelworkers union who called him a liar for overstating how many jobs would be retained at the Carrier plant in Indianapolis. Moments after Chuck Jones made his case on CNN, Donald Trump tweeted, "Chuck Jones, who is president of United Steelworkers 1999, has done a terrible job representing workers. No wonder companies flee the country." An hour later, this tweet, "if United Steelworkers 1999 was any good, they would have kept those jobs in Indiana. Spend more time working, less time talking, reduce dues." There is a lot more to get into here. I want to bring in CNN's Sunlen Serfaty, who is also here in Washington, and Ryan Nobles at Trump Tower for us. So, Sunlen, before we get back to this Trump versus Jones showdown, what can you tell us about the president-elect's meetings today?</s>SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, another busy morning, Brianna, for the president-elect today at Trump Tower before he does hit the road. Perhaps most notably this morning, someone who just went in to Trump Tower a few minutes ago and is set to sit down with the president-elect at some point soon is former NATO Commander James Stavridis. Notably, he is under possible consideration for secretary of state. And his name really seems to be one of the few that were added as Donald Trump, in the last week, has really expanded his search for a secretary of state, rather than narrowed it down. We do know from the president-elect himself that he is potentially nearing a decision on this very important role, the most high-profile of all the cabinet picks, potentially coming to a decision next week. After that, early this afternoon, Trump will travel, as you said, to Columbus, Ohio. He'll be meeting privately with victims and first responders of that OSU attack last week. And then he will be on to Des Moines, Iowa, where he'll be formally rolling out his pick to U.S. ambassador to China, Iowa Governor Terry Branstad. And, of course, that will be his next installation of the thank you tour. These campaign style rallies that we've seen him been doing. Brianna.</s>KEILAR: We've been hearing about hires, but the one that we're seeing the most uproar over is Donald Trump's pick for EPA. Tell us about that, Sunlen.</s>SERFATY: That's right, a lot of pushback for Scott Pruitt, which, of course, was announced formally this morning from the transition team. A lot of Democrats on Capitol Hill and progressive groups really vowing to fight this nomination in some form and bringing up his past comments over climate change. The fact that he is a climate change denier and just as early as last May -- or May of this year, he said the debate is far from settled over whether human activity has contributed to the warming of the earth. Notable comments from incoming Senate majority leader -- Minority Leader Chuck Schumer who said Pruitt will have to answer many tough questions and that nominating process certainly will be a very interesting hearing in January.</s>KEILAR: Yes, it certainly will be, Sunlen. OK, Ryan, tell us about this showdown that we're seeing between Donald Trump and this union boss. He's a union boss in Indiana. This has gotten pretty heated and it's taken a lot of attention away from other things.</s>RYAN NOBLES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and, Brianna, it shows that the president-elect doesn't take any fight lying down. That if someone's going to come after him, he's going to come right back at that person. And Chuck Jones is the leader of the United Steelworkers 1999, which is the labor union that represents those workers at Carrier. And when he called Donald Trump essentially a liar, that's when Trump went to Twitter and said that he's done a very terrible job running that union. And he blamed him and other union leaders for jobs leaving the United States. Well, Chuck Jones is a guy that's been in this game for a long time. He's probably never been in a public spat with the next leader of the free world, but he doesn't appear to be backing down in any way, shape or form. He said he can take Donald Trump's criticism. What he just wants from the president-elect is for him to be honest. Take a listen.</s>CHUCK JONES, PRES., UNITED STEELWORKERS LOCAL 1999: You know, you hear all the time how -- how much of a skilled negotiator that he is. You know, he says about himself. So I've been in a lot of negotiations as a union representative. So I would have to assume that he sure as the world either knew the precise numbers or most certainly should have.</s>NOBLES: And Jones did say that he is thankful for the role that Trump played in keeping those jobs here in the United States. He just wants Trump to tell his union members and all of America the full story. Brianna.</s>KEILAR: All right, Ryan Nobles, Sunlen Serfaty, thanks to both of you. I'm joined now by Scott Hall. He is the president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing. Scott, thanks so much for being with us. And you work now, just to explain to our viewers, with this alliance between unions and manufacturers. You also, though, have worked for the AFL-CIA. What is your read on this fight between Donald Trump and the steel workers union boss in Indiana?</s>SCOTT PAUL, PRES., ALLIANCE FOR AMERICAN MANUFACTURING: Well, I know Chuck Jones. He's a man of deep integrity. He looks out for his members. He was elected by them. So he's not a boss, he's their leader. And I think it's foolish for Donald Trump to try to single out American citizens for criticism for a decision that he's going to make. It's going to be a long four years and he hasn't even taken the oath of office yet. He's going to have to realize that his policies, his deals are going to be subject to scrutiny. What I admire about Chuck and the steel workers in many of these companies is that they can have disagreements. They sit down across the bargaining table. They try to work out a deal that's good for everybody. They can shake hands and move on. And they will continue to have disagreements. But this got very personal and it's incredibly unfair. It certainly takes the spotlight I think from Trump's perspective off of what he's trying to achieve, which is boosting manufacturing jobs in the United States and appealing to working class voters. Attacking one of their own is probably not the best way to do that.</s>KEILAR: Yes, that's a really interesting point that you raise. And one of the things we heard Chuck Jones say was, look, he didn't keep 1,100 jobs. It was 800 jobs. Three hundred of those were administrative, among other types of jobs, that were never going to Mexico. But he also had said, look, this is good jobs are staying there. What do you think when you see Donald Trump brokering this Carrier deal? Does it make you hopeful? Or do you think that this is just a drop in the bucket and it doesn't have broad impact?</s>PAUL: Yes, I think, at an individual level, obviously it's a -- it's mostly PR and symbolism, although I'm happy, like Chuck is, for the 730 workers -- the steel workers who will have a job, who come next year face the prospects of unemployment and a much grimmer future. That's no way to run an economic policy, however. Trump's going to have to sit down and honestly he's going to have to sit down with the steel workers if he wants to make changes to trade policy because of a lot of his own leaders of the Republican Party, Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, stand in the way of changes like that. It doesn't make sense to drive a wedge in a potential partnership when you could make a lot of progress reaching out on issues like infrastructure investment, on reforming trade policy, and on rebuilding manufacturing, which I think is what a lot of Trump voters are seeking, or at least that's the signal they seem to send in states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin, which flipped from red to blue. Those are industrial heartland states. They want to see manufacturing resurgent in this country.</s>KEILAR: They do. All right, Scott Paul, thank you so much. Really appreciate you being with us. And we have a lot more to talk about. Time to get these guys on here. Ryan Lizza is Washington correspondent for "The New Yorker," and CNN political commentator. Juana Summers is CNN politics editor. So, Chuck Jones, as you know, said that the president-elect was lying his you know what off. He didn't say "you know what." He also gave Donald Trump some credit, though. Let's listen to that.</s>CHUCK JONES, PRES., UNITED STEELWORKERS LOCAL 1999: Any time I've talked to the media, one of the first things I've said is, I thank him very much for getting involved and help save the 800 jobs that were going and will remain here in Indianapolis. The people -- we are very grateful for what he did. So he's not listening to that.</s>KEILAR: Now, it's maybe for the average person not unusual to hear a scathing criticism loud and clear as well. But now we have Jones getting death threats, right? Do you think President-elect Donald Trump understands the impact that he has when he singles out an individual like this?</s>RYAN LIZZA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I don't think he does. I mean, I think what we've learned over time is, he doesn't take it seriously necessarily. But the impact is much, much scarier when you're on the receiving end and you're just a sort of civilian out there, a journalist, you know, a head of a union, just an American citizen who's a critic. And he kind of sees everyone as the same, a political opponent, the head of a corporation, someone on Twitter that criticizes him. He -- he -- you know, a lot of people at his level would have a rule that, you know, you don't punch down, you only punch up, especially when you're the president-elect. He doesn't play by that. So I think a lot of people -- I mean I -- we, in the media, have gotten used to this now. And we know that he, frankly, doesn't take these things so seriously, right, the fact that he can sit down with a Mitt Romney or a Ted Cruz or the people that he pummeled in the campaign and it's sort of all water under the bridge, or even the relationship he's developed with Barack Obama. I don't think he understands it's very different when it's someone like this who's just an average person out there whose life can be changed overnight --</s>KEILAR: Yes.</s>LIZZA: When 15 million Twitter followers see that kind of attack. And let's -- let's just fact check it for a second. Jones is right. Trump is wrong. Trump inflated the number of jobs by about 40 percent. Is that the biggest deal in the world? No. But this guy was right to point it out.</s>KEILAR: And so -- and the way he points it out, obviously, got under his skin there. Juana, he's blaming this union head for losing jobs overseas. It was interesting hearing Scott Paul make a point, and I wonder how much you think this is the case. There were a lot, I presume, union workers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, who supported Donald Trump. Does this sit right with them when a union leader is being criticized?</s>JUANA SUMMERS, CNN POLITICS EDITOR: Brianna, you're absolutely right. That's one of the biggest things that struck me as I was reading those tweets and watching some of the conversation over the last few hours. This really highlights the divide between union leader, like Chuck Jones, who have said -- not liked Donald Trump, the president-elect, and Mike Pence during the general election and they're rank and file in those industrial, in those rust belt states that you named, who came out and supported him in force and are responsible for elevating him to the presidency. There's a big divide there and I think many people take that for granted. The leadership and the rank and file just aren't on the same page here.</s>LIZZA: Yes.</s>KEILAR: Listen to what Robert Reich, Bill Clinton's labor secretary, had to say to -- directly to Donald Trump about this. Very interesting.</s>ROBERT REICH, PUBLIC POLICY PROFESSOR, UC-BERKELEY: What you, Mr. Trump, what you -- what you would like is for no one, not a CEO, nobody on television, no journalist, nobody, to criticize you. You take offense at that. Well, you are going to be president very shortly. You are going to have at your command not just Twitter but also the CIA, the IRS, the FBI. If you have this kind of thin skinned vindictiveness attitude toward anybody who criticizes you, we are in very deep trouble. And, sir, so are you.</s>KEILAR: So are you. That's what stuck out to me because even as you have at types Republicans who don't want to criticize Donald Trump, criticism isn't always bad. If you hear a lot of criticism, you might know you need to make a course correction, right?</s>LIZZA: Yes.</s>KEILAR: Is this a disservice to Donald Trump, that he's doing these things? And also then that he even has allies who don't want to criticize him?</s>LIZZA: Well, just to follow up on Juana's point, it's not -- his tweets are often untethered from his ideas and his strategies. I mean, look this is the first president-elect in decades who agrees with the industrial unions about trade policy. These guys could be his greatest allies on some of --</s>KEILAR: Sure could be.</s>LIZZA: On what he has said is a core -- part of his -- a core of his economic agenda. And so to shoot your mouth off on Twitter and alienate an important labor leader in the Midwest, who should be a natural ally, when you're going to be fighting Paul Ryan and some of the more free trade Republicans on this issue, just seems counterproductive.</s>KEILAR: Yes.</s>LIZZA: But, I don't know. I -- personally, I have become less and less outraged about the tweets over time because I don't think -- I don't think we --</s>KEILAR: You just stop hearing them, I guess.</s>LIZZA: You stop hearing them. Maybe they don't take them as seriously as they used to.</s>KEILAR: They're dull (ph). You're not taking them as seriously. All right.</s>LIZZA: You know, if Robert Reich's prediction comes true and Trump starts using the IRS and the CIA and whatever else to go after people and not just Twitter, then we have a different story on our hands.</s>KEILAR: Yes. All right, hang in with me because we have much more ahead, you two. They're going to stay with us. Up next, when Al Gore showed up for a meeting at Trump Tower, it appeared Donald Trump might be warming up to the idea of fighting climate change. Not so much anymore based on his controversial pick to run the EPA. We have a closer look at Scott Pruitt's record coming up.