[Vause:] Welcome back, everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause. We'll check the headlines now.
[John Vause, Cnn Anchor:] After a contentious relationship during the presidential campaign, Donald Trump wants to make nice with the top tech industry leaders. He welcomed executives from Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, other companies as well, to his gold-plated Trump Tower on Wednesday. The president-elect says he really wants to stay in touch.
[Donald Trump, President-elect Of The United States:] You'll call my people, you'll call me, if really doesn't make any difference. We have no formal chain of command around here.
[Vause:] Joining me now is Democratic strategist, Matt Littman, and CNN political commentator John Phillips, talk radio host and political columnist the "Orange County Register." Thanks for coming back. Matt, first to you. This meeting here after such a bitter campaign, most of the tech industry was siding with Hillary Clinton. During the campaign, they talked about net neutrality, a Muslim registry. They didn't raise a word about that during this meeting today with Trump.
[Matt Littman, Democratic Stragtegist:] So let me say, when you say most the tech industry was siding with Hillary Clinton, I would say it's 99 to one of the tech industry, not all the tech industry.
[Vause:] Right. That's the one.
[Littman:] All the money in the tech industry went to Hillary. I mean, it was really the tech companies, what they stand for, the types of employees may have, that is not Donald Trump's target audience. But on the other hand, if Donald Trump to bring these people what they want, which is tax repatriation, being able to bring their money overseas at a much lower rate, and if he can increase the number of rate of H1B visas for the tech companies, there may be a change of tune for these tech companies.
[Vause:] He could win them over.
[John Phillips, Cnn Political Commentator:] Maybe.
[Phillips:] He has made up with Mitt Romney
[Vause:] You think?
[Phillips:] He's made up of a Silicon Valley. What is next? Maybe Rosie O'Donnell. She could come to the White House for some Hot Pockets.
[Littman:] Mitt Romney. We saw Mitt Romney, he was interviewed for secretary of state. Trump demanded an apology from Mitt Romney in order for Mitt Romney to be secretary of state.
[Phillips:] so much better at making him secretary of the Veteran Affairs.
[Vause:] They should have listened to Phillips.
[Littman:] By the way, they should keep Bob McDonald.
[Vause:] Let's move on. What was interesting was the boss of Twitter didn't turn up. The speculation is because Twitter would not let the campaign do a Crooked Hillary" emoji.
[Phillips:] Who knows? You can never tell with these sorts of things. The executives that were in there gave money to his opponent. I am sure they said nasty things about them. The CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, came after him very publicly, multiple times. So, if you can make up with those people, you can certainly make up with Twitter.
[Vause:] What was interesting about this, not just the tech CEOs were in that room about 90 minutes, but also the Trump kids, Ivanka, Don Jr, Eric, were all there. These are the guys, especially Donald Jr and Eric who are meant to be running dad's business. This firewall, may be separating themselves out from the conflicts of interest, shouldn't they have started that by now?
[Phillips:] Lots of 70-year-olds have their kids in the room when they're talking tech. Look, he's still the president-elect. He is not the president. The kids will be running the company. He is going to be running the country. If there is a conflict of interest that comes up, we have divided government, we have separation of powers, Congress will investigate, the media will call him out. It is not like he works in some clandestine industry. He builds huge hotels and puts his name on the top of it. So, I think this is much ado about nothing.
[Littman:] So I don't.
[Phillips:] He has a very bad relationship with the Republican establishment in D.C., and sometimes were you stand depends on where you sit. And these guys sit in the U.S. Senate, they sit in the Congress, and they do not want him to steamroll them. And there are still plenty of Republicans left in the Senate, including Lindsey Graham, that has a real bee in his bonnet with Trump, Senator Sass from Nebraska and others who I believe would jump at the opportunity if they thought he
[Littman:] I only believe that while well, I don't agree with that. I believe they'd only jump at the opportunity if his popularity went down. I think if his popularity stays where it is in the Republican Party, they won't be jumping
[Vause:] It's been revealed that Donald Jr., big hunter, likes to go shooting elephants and lions and tigers and stuff. He had a hands-on role in selecting Ryan Zinke as the interior secretary. Just earlier this year, he said that, you know Donald Jr said he wanted the job of being the secretary for the interior. Listen to this.
[Doanld Trump Jr, Son Of Donald Trump:] Our big inside over Thanksgiving and Christmas, now that this thing has become very real with the presidency, is, hey, Don, the only thing you would be doing in government is actually Interior, so I don't know if I'd be the head of it or just informing them but
[Vause:] OK, so kind of tongue in cheek. But, John, this is what Democrats and Republicans are kind of worried about.
[Phillips:] All of it's tongue in cheek. It was a joke.
[Vause:] Oh, come on.
[Phillips:] The kids it was well known.
[Vause:] But he does have a hands-on role in choosing
[Phillips:] Yeah, but sometimes the father does, sometimes the father doesn't. They didn't like the kids, him and Ivanka, didn't like Corey Lewandowski. Lewandowski was the campaign manager. The campaign hits rocky moments and then Corey was removed. And Corey came to work for us here at CNN. What is the first thing that happened after Donald Trump is elected president, Corey resigned and then went to go take some sort of job with the Trump administration. So, if the kids do not like him, and he is still back in the father's good graces, he certainly not listening to everything that they are saying.
[Littman:] One of the problems they have isn't just with the influence of Trump's kids. There seems to be nobody who is going to be working in this White House in a leadership position with any experience in politics or in a White House. Priebus, Bannon, these are people we're talking about an enormous organization. We're talking about the government. None of these people have any experience. That is a real concern.
[Vause:] To the other conservative Democrats, at least, when it comes to conflicts of interest, is this hotel in Washington, D.C., which the Trump Organization and Donald Trump leases from the federal government. Democratic leader, Elijah Cummings sees that as one of just many conflicts of interest, which is on the horizon. He is what he said.
[Sen. Elijah Cummings, , Maryland:] He look, and all you have to do is read the lease. It says basically, if you are an elected official, you can't be a part of the lease. Period. I mean it's no ands, ifs or buts. And so basically what they told us is that he would have to get out of that lease at some point. And it needs to be done sooner rather than later.
[Vause:] There are so many issues that are coming up with the business and the presidency. Matt, isn't this was the transition should have been doing for months and months and months before it came to this point?
[Littman:] Yes, but they did not think there were going to win, so that's why they didn't do it. Until that 9:00 on election night, they said, oh, my gosh, wait, what? And we're all going to be moving to Washington. So, it seems obvious that between the family members, Trump paying himself back all this money from the campaign, the hotel where foreign diplomats want to say when they come to town which, by the way, I have to say, the outside of the hotel looks very nice. I will not step foot in that hotel.
[Phillips:] It happens all the time at the state and local level. In the city of New York, Michael Bloomberg was elected mayor, where the financial sector is the economic engine of that city. What type of business did he come from? He gave from the financial sector. He owned a news agency that covered the financial industry. It all worked out. This will work out, too.
[Vause:] We'll hold you to that. One of two really bizarre twists in the campaign, the hacking of John Podesta's e-mails. It now appears that was the result of a typo. There was phishing email which Podesta received. A tech expert looked at it, in the campaign, an aide, and actually said, "This is a legitimate email, John needs to change his passwords immediately." What he meant to type was, "This is an illegitimate email." Is it possible, Matt, that that the entire election was actually decided by a typo?
[Littman:] Who could feel worse right now than John Podesta. I mean, really?
[Vause:] Well, the guy that sent the e-mail.
[Littman:] Right. This is just horrible. Yeah, it is possible. Listen the bigger story here is not John Podesta. It is the Russians hacking the e-mails. It is whether Congress is to really going to look into this. It is what what the Russians why did the Russians want Donald to be president? Those are the bigger issues here, not John Podesta.
[Phillips:] The only angrier person in the United States than John Podesta, is Hillary Clinton.
[Littman:] Right.
[Vause:] Right. And on that, thank you.
[Littman:] Thank you.
[Vause:] Appreciate it. The controversial Philippines president is making headlines for a shocking admission about his time as mayor. What he said. That's next on NEWSROOM L.A.