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Trump Vs. Intelligence Community; Clemson Upsets Alabama for National Title; Feeling the Bern. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired January 10, 2017 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00] CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We'll have some snow across parts of the Upper Midwest into the Great Lakes for today. The weather gets better. It does. It warms up.

In fact, Atlanta will be 70 degrees by Friday. It gets better even for New York City. That chilly air moves out. The mild air moves in.

And finally, the cold -- this is our January thaw. This is our first January thaw for the year. There will be another one late January, but look at this. D.C., 63 by the end of the week.

Chris, now, stop complaining, OK?

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Look, I'm not complaining. I thought we were friends and friends when they are meteorologists, they usually tell you when a foot of snow is going to fall on your head. You, not so much. But that's all right. I'll take you at your word at this time.

MYERS: I'm on vacation.

CUOMO: President-elect Donald Trump still dismissing U.S. intelligence reports about Russia's hackings of the U.S. election. How is that being viewed on the world stage?

CNN's Christiane Amanpour joins us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: President-elect Trump still pushing back on the intelligence community's findings that Russia engaged in cyber attacks during the U.S. presidential election. How is the Trump-Putin relationship playing out on the world stage?

CNN's chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour joins us now.

Great to have you here in studio with me.

So, what does the international community think of Mr. Trump denigrating the U.S. intelligence agencies and this Putin relationship? CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Look,

it's sort of veers between panic and incredulity. I think much of the allies certainly, the U.S. allies abroad are completely dumbfounded as to why the president-elect has not satisfactorily answered the question of why he believes Russia, why is he persistent in favoring the Russia analysis, Julian Assange analysis over his own intelligence organization.

[06:35:13] CAMEROTA: Well, I mean, he says that the intelligence community got it wrong during the lead up to the Iraq war and the weapons of mass destruction.

AMANPOUR: Well, yes, he does say that and other people believe that that's an issue and so does the intelligence committee that sure, that is an issue.

However, if you listen to former acting CIA Director Mike Morell and others, they list categorically and very specifically how the CIA and intelligence agencies have instituted new bars, so that this mistake doesn't happen again. And what really happened during the Iraq war was that the U.S. had pretty much, Congress, by and large, had made up its mind, the administration to go to war before they even saw the CIA estimate.

And so, what Mike Morell is saying and others is that they've now introduced this thing call a high level of confidence. In other words, you have facts and analysts come up with facts, they cross- check amongst each other in the intelligence community, and then they ask themselves what level of confidence do we have that this is actually the case? That is what was missing through the WMD crisis and that is what they've instituted now.

CUOMO: Christiane, we all know that there are reasons that in the espionage business, you don't put out sources and methods the way you do when you're building a criminal case. But were people taken aback at all at how thin the declassified report was in terms of the amount of there, there proof of why the intel community believes that Russia motivated the hack?

AMANPOUR: Well, again, not really, because as you said, it's absolutely correct that the intelligence agencies will not put their sources, their precise methodology. They don't want to compromise it obviously and they don't want to give away more to people who are obviously very, very good at spying and hacking as the Russians are.

But what the allies have said, many of them, and indeed, again, what some of the former CIA officials have said, is that they were surprised by how detailed and what a, quote, "high level of confidence the U.S. intelligence agency have in their conclusion that Russia at the highest levels did hack and for a precise purpose. So they believe and you know the reports are that British intelligence had some role to play in directing or bolstering what U.S. intelligence was finding about the hacking.

And now, the question is, how do you deter, Chris and Alisyn, what is the response from the United States and this is where President-elect Donald Trump is going to face some pressure, both from his own administration, some members, as you know, some of the generals have a much more realistic line towards Russia, even though, yes, everybody wants to have a better relationship at Russia but not at any cost. So, they need much tougher deterrence and they say right now is what President Obama has done is not far enough and doesn't cause Putin enough pain.

CAMEROTA: Speaking of tough deterrents, let's talk about North Korea and the tension that is already mounting between North Korea and President-elect Trump. What's the international reaction to this?

AMANPOUR: Well, very, very concerned, because I think just like the U.S. intelligence agencies, they believe that a very real and clear and present danger is on the horizon from North Korea. I was speaking to the former U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry who is about as plugged in as anybody to the North Korean and the South Korean issue, particularly to the North Korean nuclear issue and he was saying that, look, we've tried all of these things and they haven't worked in the past and the North Koreans are simply barreling forward with the perfection of their nuclear arsenal and the perfection what it takes to make that a viable threat, that is an ICBM, a long range missile that can reach parts of the United States.

So, this, so far, diplomacy hasn't worked, and it needs to be bumped very, very strategically and very high because it's going to involve things that may be unpalatable like recognizing the Kim regime, like giving that international recognition, like pledging that they are not going to have regime change, like giving them economic aid in order to help their people. I know, it sounds crazy, but they are saying that now, we may have to take the sort of Iran playbook. Tough sanctions but diplomacy at the same time that doesn't involve regime change, and unfortunately acknowledges because of the failure to date, North Korea is a nuclear power or it has a nuclear arsenal. So, any idea of a preemptive strike which may have looked good ten years ago doesn't look viable today.

CAMEROTA: We have got 15 seconds left. Tell us about your interview with David Petraeus that you're going to be --

AMANPOUR: I'm about to be doing that this afternoon. I have an interview with General Petraeus, as you know, was a former top military commander but also former CIA director and also tomorrow with the former Acting Director Mike Morell.

And these are critical questions to ask. What about the level of confidence and intelligence? Will fact-based intelligence continue to be valued in an opinion zone that tends to be happening right now?

[06:40:00] So, those are the issues. And, of course, North Korea, Iraq, and all the other wars.

CAMEROTA: All right. We look forward to hearing about your interview afterwards. Come back and tell us more, Christiane. Great to have you here.

AMANPOUR: Thanks, Alisyn. Thanks, Chris. CAMEROTA: Thank you very much.

Chris?

CUOMO: All right. What a night last night. College football crowned a new champion, a game that was back and forth. You had number one versus number two. The same match-up as last year. Would Alabama win again? It looked like it, but then Clemson did something amazing.

The "Bleacher Report" has it for you, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: He shook up the world. The Clemson Tigers, wow, they upset number one Alabama Tide for the college national championship. Yes, they were number two. But I got to tell you, we had a town hall last night, but I was checking the score, 14-0, 14-7, all the way through the second half. It popped up, it looked like Alabama had it almost all the way until the end.

But, Coy Wire, take us through it.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Chris, four lead changes in the final quarter. Trick plays, the last four minutes of this game were the most exciting any four minutes of football I've ever seen. Bama was down with about two minutes to play. But Alabama quarterback Jalen Hurts just 18 years old took off and took the lead back from Clemson.

[06:45:05] It became 31-28 after this run. Bama was smelling another title but it would be Clemson's Deshaun Watson who says huh-uh. He's pitched apart Bama's defense and tosses this game winner to former walk-on Hunter Renfrow with about a second to go, and head coach Dabo Swinney leads Clemson to his first big national title in 35 years.

Clemson gets that big win, 35-31. And Alabama's 26-game win streak, well, that fell with the tide.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: You were playing out of your mind in the final drives. How were you feeling?

DESHAUN WATSON, CLEMSON QUARTERBACK: I felt great. Moments like is what I'm built for. So, I wanted to go out with a bang and do it with no regrets and that's what we did.

WIRE: What is does it say about the character of the men on this team to come back and give --

HUNTER RENFROW, CLEMSON WIDE RECEIVER: Yes, we were down basically the whole game and we lost last year. So, just the resiliency is unbelievable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Oh, getting the goose bumps thinking about that. It was a good one.

But we had another big stories overnight we want to catch you up on, and it's where is New York Knicks star Derrick Rose? He was absent at last night's loss to the Pelicans at Madison Square Garden for reasons still unknown. According to ESPN, the team had become concerned and Rose eventually told the Knicks that he had a family situation and he went home to Chicago.

But, still, a lot of questions about where he is exactly and why he was a no show to last night's game. We'll keep our eye on that for you as the morning continues. But, 97-0 were the Crimson Tide when leading by double digits going into the fourth quarter but the Clemson Tigers came back and got the job done, Alisyn. Some stuff.

CAMEROTA: What a comeback story. All right. Coy, thank you very much for all of that.

Meanwhile, 89-year-old Charles Brotman has been the voice of every presidential inauguration since Dwight Eisenhower but President-elect Donald Trump basically told him basically, "You're fired". CNN's Joe Johns has this story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHARLES BROTMAN, PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURAL PARADE ANNOUNCER SINCE 1957: The most memorable for me --

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Charlie Brotman has announced every inaugural parade since the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower, but not this year. President-elect Donald Trump is breaking from 11 presidents worth of tradition and replacing Brotman.

BROTMAN: I was floored. I was very unhappy, disappointed, hardly believed it. Like somebody had punched me in the stomach.

JOHNS: The announcer says he found out about team Trump's decision in an email.

BROTMAN: I was preparing and I got an email that basically said, Charlie, you like the monuments here in Washington, you are terrific, you are the best you ever was, but you're not going to be the announcer this time.

And I'm thinking, who could it possibly be? I've been doing this for 60 years.

JOHNS: In Brotman's place, team Trump has chosen Steve Ray, a 58- year-old Washington-based freelance announcer who has volunteered for the Trump campaign.

The Trump transition spokesman Boris Epshteyn said in a statement, "The Presidential Inaugural Committee will be proud to honor Charlie as announcer chairman emeritus on January 20th. We're thrilled for Steve Ray to be introducing a new generation of Americans to the grand traditions of the inaugural parade."

For this year, Brotman wishes Trump had included him to transition to a new presidential announcer.

BROTMAN: If I were the Trump people, what I would have done is a transition period in the best interests of the parade and everybody connected with it, it should have been both of us up there.

JOHNS: Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: All right. Feeling the Bern. At a CNN town hall, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders had strong words for the president-elect. We have two people who got to question Sanders, what their impressions were afterwards. They're going to join us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:52:24] CUOMO: Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont last night taking on the role of messenger for the Democratic Party and answering questions from Republicans, Democrats, independents last night at a CNN town hall.

Covered a lot of different issues as well as the idea about how they will deal with the president-elect. But a couple of the exchanges really hit home with people. Here's one.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JESSICA KARABIAN, ATTENDED BERNIE SANDERS TOWN HALL: My fear, I'm terrified that the Republicans will repeal the Affordable Care Act, and which would mean that insurance companies will once again be able to deny patients with preexisting conditions and that's me and that's a life or a death issue for me. I have a daughter and a husband, and my question to you, senator, is how will you steer the Republican Party into keeping the life-saving components of Obamacare?

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I), VERMONT: To answer your question, Jessica, I'm going to do everything that I can and I believe I speak for virtually every member of the Democratic caucus that we're going to do everything that we can to improve the Affordable Care Act. It has problems but we damn well are not going to see it repealed and have no replacement there at all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: That was a big moment. It really hit home and the woman who asked that question, Jessica Karabian, and Jim Jacobs who also had a good exchange with the senator about small businesses, join us this morning.

Thank you for getting up. I know it's not easy.

Jim, good to see you.

KARABIAN: Thank you for having us.

JIM JACOBS, ATTENDED BERNIE SANDERS TOWN HALL: Thank you. Good seeing you, Chris.

CUOMO: So, first, the one thing that I wanted to talk about last night that I couldn't because of the town hall is, how you are doing? We know this is a difficult road and I could see on your husband's face, there was pride for you being there and telling what you are seeing as the truth and there was pain for what you're dealing with. How are you?

KARABIAN: I'm doing well. My cancer is considered stable at the moment. In the metastatic world, you are never cured, but your cancer can remain stable for a certain amount of time until the drugs stop working and then you go on to another pipeline of drugs.

So, right now, I am stable and the drugs are working for me. For how long, we're not sure, and you are right, I have an amazing support system. My husband is beyond amazing and he supports me in everything that I do, and all my advocacy work that I do.

CUOMO: Well, God bless him. We hope that you stay strong.

KARABIAN: Thank you.

CUOMO: And you keep fighting. And we know part of that fight for you believe is this kind of health insurance.

[06:55:00] Now, people will say with a critical eye, even towards someone in your situation, well, it had to be better before. It's so expensive for people now and how many Jessicas can there be.

What do you want people to know?

KARABIAN: There are millions of Jessicas and even people that aren't sick utilize Obamacare and it would be disastrous to see us go backwards and have people uninsured again and rely on immigration room care as their primary doctor. For people with chronic illnesses, it would literally mean a death sentence for us, for Obamacare to go away because we could never afford treatment that it's keeping us alive today.

CUOMO: So, preexisting conditions, caps, those things matter. They're more than just political policy points. So, we had that. There was a lot of points last night in that discussion.

Then you had your man, Jim Jacobs, last night who came to speak truth to power to Bernie Sanders. Here's an excerpt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACOBS: I'm a business owner and we keep getting kicked in the teeth by this administration.

This country was founded on entrepreneurship. Why is this administration so against a business owner? Please tell me.

SANDERS: I don't think this administration, the Obama administration you are referring to is to against the business owner. When you talk about tax increases --

JACOBS: Really?

SANDERS: Yes, he raised taxes on the top 1 or 2 percent. You know what, I would have gone further. I think the wealthiest people in this country are doing phenomenally well. I do believe billionaires and multimillionaires should be paying more in taxes.

JACOBS: I'm a business owner. I'm not a multimillionaire, I'm not a billionaire, OK? I mean, you haven't lived until you put a payroll on your credit card. I mean, this is the reality of the backbone of this country.

SANDERS: Well, the backbone of this country, I think we should support entrepreneurialship. I think we should support small business, but wait -- but, you know, I am not supportive of large multinational corporations that make billions a year in profit and don't pay a nickel in taxes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: First of all, I know how the headlines played this, but that was a good exchange. A lot of people like you who are trying to find a way to get ahead and the system that you feel is set up against you.

What were you taking from what Senator Sanders was telling you?

JACOBS: Well, he never answered my question. And the question is, he's comparing me with a billionaire. I read something this morning. If you converted that to seconds, it would take 12 days to be a millionaire. It would take 32 years to be a billionaire.

He just doesn't get it and this is what all -- you know, a lot of business owners, Republicans, this is what we understand. I mean, my son wanted to buy -- he said, Dad, I want this free app, free, OK? He wants a free app from the iPhone Store or whatever it is. I said, OK. Well, guess what, my credit card bounced because for a supplier, I had it maxed, paid off now. But that's literally a true story. I couldn't even buy my son a free app, right?

So, Bernie is talking about Nabisco. He's talking about these major, major companies and polluting land and polluting water, and that's just not the case. I mean, there's lots of people like me, you know, it's a personal guarantee, you know, you are getting your wife to sign, you know. You are up at night at 2:00, 3:00 in the morning.

CUOMO: You are basically getting through because the system is not set up to help you the way it does the big boys. What's the one thing, let's end on this, that you think President-elect Trump has promised you need to see to be made a reality?

JACOBS: Well, Donald Trump can do math, so he's already shown his ability to keep -- his commitment to keep jobs here and to help business people, to help incent people like us who want to create jobs and not constantly, you know, a regulation, a regulation. So, it's a breath of fresh air. CUOMO: Jim, I know this matters to you. I know you are going to

write about it. We'll stay in touch so we can make this issue real and we know that your advocacy goes all the way to your heart.

Thank you, Jessica, for being here.

KARABIAN: Thank you.

CUOMO: Jim, as well.

JACOBS: Thank you, Chris.

CUOMO: The guy is trying to break my hand.

Thanks to our international viewers for watching. "CNN NEWSROOM" begins for you in just moments.

For our U.S. viewers, NEW DAY continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT: Confirmation is going great. I think they will all pass.

SANDERS: We're dealing with a man who in many respects is a pathological liar.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MAJORITY LEADER: Everybody will be properly vetted as they had been in the past.

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D), NEW JERSEY: These are extraordinary times and they call for extraordinary measures.

SEN. JEFF SESSIONS (R), ALABAMA: I never had those kind of views and I was caricatured in a way that was not me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's the point of having nepotism laws if you can appoint your son-in-law senior adviser in the White House?

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Look at where have we made progress? Don't undo things just because I did them.

SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: Within two days, I will have a bill. We should vote on both the same day.

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.

(END VIDEOTAPE)