Trump signals more firings on the way after midterm wipeout — Transcript

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1. 0:00Trump says tonight more firings could be coming as  he's publicly spinning his party's massive defeat.
2. 0:06President Trump just speaking at the Kennedy Space  Center, which is his first major speech since the
3. 0:11election. But as you're about to hear, Trump is  not taking the blame. Despite the $3 trillion
4. 0:19lost yesterday, you know, our country lost three  trillion all because of an election. I wonder
5. 0:25what that means. If we would have gained three  trillion, I probably would have been more unhappy.
6. 0:31But you know what that means? That means that they  thought somebody else did well in election. By the
7. 0:36way, I was not on the ballot, just in case you  had any questions cuz if we were on the ballot,
8. 0:41we would have won. But we weren't. So he said I  wasn't on the ballot. If we were on the ballot,
9. 0:48um referring to himself, uh that Republicans would  have won. But I just want to remind everybody in
10. 0:54the context of what he just said there, what  he said days before the election, you have
11. 1:01to do the one thing. Pretend I'm on the ballot.  Pretend I'm on the ballot. But in this election,
12. 1:06I'm asking you to pretend I'm on the ballot just  one more time. So what I really want you to do
13. 1:13is pretend, please, that I'm on the ballot. What?  Well, it of course seemed like the American public
14. 1:22uh did that. They did vote like he was on the  ballot and we are just getting in more results
15. 1:26from the historic midterms. Democrat Nancy Laor  flipping the seat that was once held by Nancy
16. 1:32Mace obviously. So that's going R to D. 99% of  the vote now in and Laour leads the Republican
17. 1:37Jenny Costa Honeyut by more than 3,000 votes.  Now, that gives Democrats 254 seats compared to
18. 1:44163 for Republicans and puts Democrats on the  path to their excuse me, largest gains since
19. 1:50Watergate. And at this hour, Democrats are still  leading in four districts currently being held by
20. 1:55Republicans. And today, with all of this fallout,  a major shakeup at the White House after the GOP
21. 2:01collapse. Trump elevating his controversial top  deputy Steven Miller to become his new chief of
22. 2:06staff. And it takes place right away. There's  no two weeks notice. Uh this is Monday. Steven
23. 2:10Miller's going to walk in and be the chief of  staff replacing Susie Wilds. As of tonight, that's
24. 2:14the highest ranking White House official to leave  Trump's White House in the wake of the colossal
25. 2:20Republican collapse. A wipeout that sources tell  CNN has left Trump fuming. And maybe you could
26. 2:25even see from that speech today, uncertain as to  how to deal with it. And despite saying he'd work
27. 2:31with Democrats after those losses by promoting  Miller, uh Trump is sending obviously the complete
28. 2:36opposite signal, calling Miller a great manager  and also saying that he gets it politically. But
29. 2:42voters overwhelmingly from uh across the United  States have rejected Trump's actions in office
30. 2:48and and Miller in charge right it's continuity and  it's continuity on some of the most controversial
31. 2:53policies showing that perhaps Trump is prepared  to veer even harder to the right. Miller is the
32. 2:58architect behind the aggressive ICE raids and  mass deportations. After all, to all ICE officers,
33. 3:05you have federal immunity in the conduct of  your duties. And anybody who lays a hand on
34. 3:10you or tries to stop you or tries to obstruct  you is committing a felony. You have immunity
35. 3:17to perform your duties. Either we all side and get  behind President Trump to remove these terrorists
36. 3:23from our communities or we let a rogue radical  left judiciary shut down the machinery of our
37. 3:29national security apparatus. Of course, he's also  one of Trump's biggest cheerleaders when it comes
38. 3:34to the rest of his agenda. Julia Benbrook begins  our coverage out front live. She's at the Kennedy
39. 3:38Space Center. That's where President Trump  just spoke. And and Julia, what else are you
40. 3:42learning about this? I mean, obviously it it gots  announced on a Friday. It takes place on a Monday,
41. 3:47right? This is abrupt to say the very least. What  are you learning about why Susie Wilds is out and
42. 3:52Steven Miller is in as chief of staff. It is going  to happen quickly and the one thing that is clear
43. 3:59is that Trump is frustrated and he has been  looking at strategy at things that went wrong
44. 4:05and Susie Wilds, the current chief of staff, is  taking at least part of the blame for that. Now,
45. 4:11I did want to note that here at this event, you  know, in Florida, Republicans did come out on top
46. 4:16in those big races. Ashley Moody in the Senate,  Byron Donald's in the governor's race. They were
47. 4:21both here, but even they won by less significant  margins than they had hoped. So, Republicans are
48. 4:27really questioning all the things that that took  place here. Susie Wilds will be replaced by Deputy
49. 4:34Chief of Staff Steven Miller. And as you pointed  out, he is one of the more polarizing figures in
50. 4:39this administration. He played a key role in ar  orchestrating Trump's hardline immigration agenda.
51. 4:46According to a source familiar with the matter,  Wilds turned in her resignation last night. She
52. 4:51will move to the political operation in Trump's  world, and that is all going to go into effect
53. 4:57on Monday. It seemed at first like Trump was  somewhat unfased by these sweeping losses.
54. 5:03He's just kept saying, you know, I wasn't on the  ballot. That's really what took place here. But we
55. 5:07are learning that he was frustrated even during  that viewing party in the East Room. And that
56. 5:12frustration has only grown as he has continued to  watch the negative media coverage. And when he was
57. 5:18on his way here today, he said that he thought  that he just needed a change. He praised Wilds,
58. 5:24but he said he thought he just needed a change and  that he believes Miller gets it. He's circling the
59. 5:30wagons. He's shrinking the circle and he's getting  ready for war. I think he any any idea that he's
60. 5:35going to moderate here is unrealistic. You know,  he's not going to compromise with the Democrats.
61. 5:40He's getting ready for a fight and he's put Hegth  into that circle. Uh I think he's he's going to be
62. 5:46more extreme. He's going to be more radical. He's  going to be more unpredictable. You know, it was a
63. 5:50blue wave, but it was powered by independent water  and that's really where he lost the country. He
64. 5:54lost independence almost 2 to1 to the Democrats  and they want to see moderation. and they want
65. 5:58to see him in check, but he's he's ready to go.  And I think it's really important to underscore
66. 6:02that in the next two months, he might be at his  most dangerous. A cornered animal is a dangerous
67. 6:06animal, especially when it comes to national  security. So, there's no limit to what he could
68. 6:10do with Iran, Cuba, here domestically. And I think  we're in for some very dangerous times after this
69. 6:14honeymoon period the Democrats have had. I mean, I  mean, Sarah, let me just remind people of some of
70. 6:18the things. I mean, I talked about Steven Miller  as the architect of ICE, right? Um, but he also
71. 6:23has gone along with Trump on all of um, some of  the lowest common denominator culture war comments
72. 6:29that he's made. Uh, talking about Robert Dairo,  we called him a sad, bitter, broken old man. Um,
73. 6:34he talked about James Terico, who just won in  Texas. Uh, when he goes in for a blood test,
74. 6:38blood doesn't come out. They say milk comes out.  He's clearly transitioning to a female. These are
75. 6:42all things Steven Miller said. And and I can go  on and on. Um, but this is who is now the chief
76. 6:48of staff. Yeah. And I worked with Steven Miller  in the first Trump administration and he is about
77. 6:54as extreme as they get. And one of the things that  I think has stuck out most to me during Trump 2.0
78. 7:01is in the aftermath of our government murdering  Alex Prey in cold blood in the street. What did
79. 7:07Steven Miller tweet out? That he was a domestic  terrorist. And that is the person that Trump
80. 7:13just appointed. And I have to say that I think  Steven Miller is a horrible human being to just
81. 7:18in general. and a racist, a bigot. I could keep  going, but I won't waste our our air time with
82. 7:22that. But what I have to say, too, is that this is  just poor political instincts on the president's
83. 7:26part because Stephen Miller is the chief person  responsible for blowing up his coalition, with
84. 7:32Latino voters, people who voted and sent him back  into the White House in 2024. That is what Steven
85. 7:38Miller is responsible for because he took one of  the GOP's best issues, border and immigration,
86. 7:43and made it one of the biggest liabilities with  his cruel and inhumane mass deportations. Yep. So,
87. 7:48so Trump just gave an interview after this to  60 Minutes or he might have done it just before,
88. 7:52but we just got the the sound afterwards where he  says that more he's going to be more people are
89. 7:56going to be fired, okay, from the administration.  Here's how he put it. In a previous lifetime,
90. 8:04you were rather famous for saying you're fired  quite often. After a big midterm defeat like this,
91. 8:09do you expect to fire anyone from your team? You  do a little bit. Little bit. I love my cabinet. I
92. 8:15think they're good, but I'll do be doing maybe  a few changes. I don't want to mention who.
93. 8:22Well, as tough as it was for Susie Wilds to lose  her job, she did better than Wright's previous in
94. 8:272017 when Donald Trump left him on the tarmac in  Long Island after he was fired unceremoniously.
95. 8:33Um, and so at least she didn't travel all the way  to the trip today and then have to find her way
96. 8:38home. Listen, Donald Trump has given America the  big middle finger. What he's decided is it doesn't
97. 8:43matter what you said on Tuesday. It doesn't matter  that you didn't you didn't you reject everything
98. 8:47that we've done over the last 20 22 months. I'm  still going to do whatever it is I want to do
99. 8:53and everybody's just going to have to take it.  And I think maybe it doesn't hurt him, but for
100. 8:58every Republican who's thinking about running  for president in 2028, they're going to have to
101. 9:02live with the hole Donald Trump is Donald Trump  is digging for Republicans. Well, Paul started
102. 9:06out by saying that that Trump's ready for war with  this and referring to war with with Democrats. His
103. 9:11initial comment rhyme was he's going to work with  them. But then you have uh Robert Garcia who's
104. 9:15expected to be the House oversight chairman in a  Democratic House uh who said that Miller should
105. 9:19quote unquote lawyer up. That was in all caps and  that was hours after the election. I don't know if
106. 9:24that's related to what happened here today, but  Trump going ahead and choosing Steven Miller as
107. 9:28his chief of staff. Um that you you can see the  fall the front lines of this war right there.
108. 9:35Yeah. And it actually does change the equation  for the Democrats going after Steven Miller,
109. 9:39trying to sell him to lawyer up. In other words,  that they're going to investigate him because as
110. 9:43chief of staff, he does come with potential legal  protections that he otherwise wouldn't have. And
111. 9:48it's based on long-standing Justice Department  theories that they say that there's absolute
112. 9:52immunity. The chief of staff is the president's  alter ego. And as his alter ego, he does not have
113. 9:58to appear before Congress. He cannot be subpoenaed  before Congress. The Democrats can litigate that.
114. 10:03There's some good case law for that, but that's  a clash in the courts. Do they really want to
115. 10:07do that? Do they want to give this to the US  Supreme Court, which has a maximalist view of
116. 10:11presidential authority and could easily side with  the White House? So, it does put in something else
117. 10:15into the equation when they think about Steven  Miller, who would otherwise be a great witness for