Trump Vows To Bring Back "Beautiful Clean Coal"; Hundreds of Coal Workers Look to Trump Amid Job Cuts
HARLOW: Tonight, President Trump with arousing message to Coal Country, "Your jobs are coming back."</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're preparing bold action to lift the restrictions on American energy, including shale oil, natural gas and beautiful clean coal. And we're going to put our miners back to work.</s>HARLOW: But that promise is already being put to the test. Across America, a big number of coal plants shutting down. And tonight, we take you deep into Ohio, the heart of coal country where residents are now betting on President Trump to save not only their jobs but pretty much their entire towns before it's too late. Here's Martin Savidge with the story you will only see OUTFRONT.</s>MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Ohio, it's hard to find an area more remote or more red than Manchester, where two out of every three votes were for Donald Trump.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Donald Trump.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Trump.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trump.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trump.</s>SAVIDGE: The tiny town sits along the bucolic banks of the Ohio River.</s>JUNE WILSON, SMALL BUSINESS OWNER: It's something about the water here, you get it in your blood and you don't want to leave.</s>SAVIDGE: Folks can tell you when the town started, 1791, and when they believe it will die.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You say 2018.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: June of 2018 is the last I personally heard on.</s>SAVIDGE: That's when two large coal fired coal plants on either side of the town are projected to close. The news broke just after the election.</s>WILL RICHARDS, STUART POWER PLANT EMPLOYEE: It was definitely shock to myself, my friends, co-workers, family, people in the local community. I mean, I think some people are still in shock.</s>SAVIDGE: As it stands now, the union says about 700 jobs will be lost in a town of just 2,000 people. The coal supplier says it will cut an additional 1,500 jobs, tax revenues and property values will plummet. So, what about all those rallies?</s>TRUMP: I love in Ohio. You're not working Ohio.</s>SAVIDGE: All those problems of jobs and reenergizing coal.</s>TRUMP: Jobs, jobs, jobs.</s>SAVIDGE (on camera): So, if he is the energy coal president, why are coal plants still shutting down?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think it's all up to Trump. I mean, I think he's got a lot of say so in it. To me, it's poor business decisions.</s>SAVIDGE (voice-over): The mayor agrees, it's not Trump's fault. He blames plant owners and management.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Men in overalls built this country, the men in suits have destroyed it.</s>SAVIDGE (on camera): But he is a man in a suit.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But he's touched the working people. He's stood up for the working people.</s>SAVIDGE: Did you vote for Trump, hoping that he would save your job?</s>RICHARDS: That's not the only reason I voted for him. But I did vote for Trump because I just -- I like the way his views are on stuff and I like the way he doesn't try to be politically correct on everything.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was very positive towards coal, where others weren't.</s>SAVIDGE: You don't think that despite all this talk of coal, bring the jobs back, that somehow your coal-related job?</s>RICHARDS: No, at first, I don't feel let down. But I personally hope that he steps in on this part as well.</s>SAVIDGE (voice-over): Put some pressure on. You know, let's rework this coal industry around.</s>SAVIDGE (voice-over): These Trump voters are trying to convince now President Trump to keep his promises about jobs and coal. (on camera): If he can't, if he doesn't?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, you know, I don't know. I guess I see what future holds. But I don't necessarily hold it against him, but I guess more of a disappointment.</s>SAVIDGE: If they were just empty promises, then in Manchester and other towns with coal-fired power plants, futures once so bright will soon face a much darker days.</s>SAVIDGE: The company that owns that power plant says that no final decision has been made about closing them. But the union that represents the power plant workers says the company tells them the plants are going to close next year. It's possible they could be sold, but industry experts say not likely, because coal-fired power plants are not particularly popular these days, either to own or operate, or to buy -- Poppy.</s>HARLOW: Thank you so much. Marty Savidge reporting for us. Republican strategist Doug Heye is back with me. And, Doug, you know, there are a lot of reasons those coal jobs are going away. Of course, part of it is regulations, a lot of it is automation, a lot of it is the glut of cheap natural gas. I mean, is the president running the risk of making a promise that he simply cannot keep to these people? I mean, this is their livelihood, this is supporting their families.</s>DOUG HEYE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Potentially, absolutely so. But I also look at it in the context of -- I spent a lot of time in North Carolina, my home state, over the past couple of months, and I hear a lot of conversations from folks whose family used to work in, say, textiles that we heard from these people who dealt with coal. And the one thing that I have consistently heard Trump supporters, well, at least he's trying.</s>HARLOW: Yes.</s>HEYE: So, Trump, because of his rhetoric, which causes a lot of consternation in Washington and in New York, gets credit in places like North Carolina and Kentucky.</s>HARLOW: I understand that. Look, I spent a lot of time in Kentucky specifically and one of the women in Kentucky -- I'll never forget when she said this to me a few weeks ago. Poppy, the coal trucks are back out. And it was like that was everything to this town. The issue is, he didn't say I'm going to try, he said I'm going to do, I'm going to deliver.</s>HEYE: Uh-huh. That's where the risk is, Donald Trump has sold himself very successfully to the country as the most successful businessman we have had basically ever, right? So, where he's not able to deliver those successes, where he's not able to bring the plant back or some jobs back, like he did say with Carrier, whether he did or not is obviously a separate argument. That runs the risk of saying that he didn't deliver on those promises. But people are willing --</s>HARLOW: They are.</s>HEYE: -- communities to give him the benefit of the doubt.</s>HARLOW: But I know how these CEOs of these companies think. They think 10 years out, 15 years out. And if they're looking at a new president come in in four or eight years, who might slap on those regulations again, they're not going to reopen these plants. That's another road block he's facing.</s>HEYE: Absolutely. And again, it's not just regulation. Automation, as you mentioned, which is affecting that not just coal, but so many industries throughout the country, where the jobs may not be coming back at all. That's one of the risk that Trump faces, but again, I -- you go back to the core Trump supporters, those are the voters you showed.</s>HARLOW: Yes, totally. But you know what, Doug? In North Carolina, in Kentucky where I was, they're holding him to account. They want to see results because --</s>HEYE: No question about it. Absolutely.</s>HARLOW: Thank you. Have a good weekend.</s>HEYE: You too. OUTFRONT next for us, police say a chemical, a banned chemical weapon killed Kim Jong-un's brother. Is the Korean dictator behind this assassination? And on a much lighter note, since it is Friday evening. Jeanne Moos on how the president turns a friendly handshake into a bit of a tug of war.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He goes to pull me in, I step in, wrap in here, wrist lock.