[Trump:] You know, I I am who I am. It's me. I don't want to change. Everyone talks about oh, well, you're going to pivot, you're going to I don't want to pivot. I mean you have to be you.
[Tapper:] That was campaign trail Trump, but President-elect Trump also seems to be saying I've gotta be me. How will he change Washington's ways? Here with me, CNN's senior White House correspondent, Jim Acosta; Salena Zito, reporter for "The Washington Examiner" and a CNN contributor; Abby Phillip, "Washington Post" national reporter and a CNN contributor; and CNN's senior Washington correspondent, Jeff Zeleny. So you have traveled the country with Donald Trump.
[Jim Acosta, Cnn Senior White House Correspondent:] Yes.
[Tapper:] Do you think that there's going to be any pivoting at all or is campaign Trump going to be President Trump?
[Acosta:] I think campaign Trump will be President Trump. Every time we get asked about a pivot, the pivot doesn't happen. There is an illusion of a pivot, but then it usually doesn't happen. I think back to some of those Thank You rallies that he was having toward the end of the year, and you would ask the people who work for Donald Trump, well, is he going to stick to the script? Is he should we hear some other things that we're not expecting tonight? And they say, well, no, he he'll stick to the script, but you never know with Donald Trump. So even after winning the election and in this transition process, his folks still consider him to be unpredictable. And that's how he's going to be as president.
[Tapper:] And, in fact, Salena, one of the things Erik Wemple, who's a "Washington Post" media critic, noted that the new way of reporting on cabinet appointments is is along the lines of there's always a caveat that President-elect Trump has been known to change his mind at the last minute and this could all change.
[Salena Zito, The Washington Examiner," Cnn Contributor:] Right.
[Tapper:] That said, we think that so and so is going to be named to this agency.
[Zito:] Right. I mean that's his style. If anybody ever read his book, "Art of The Deal," I mean everything that he did in this entire election in 2016 was right from that playbook. He has no problem changing his mind. In fact, he feels very comfortable and feels like it's a it's his obligation to relook at things and, you know, do something different if if either he's given the information or if the whim takes him to go in another direction.
[Tapper:] But could that be dangerous, do you think?
[Jeff Zeleny, Cnn Senior Washington Correspondent:] Well, sure, because circumstances change. And, you know, the presidency changes everyone, regardless of that. But I think Jim's right. I mean he has not changed as president-elect. At some of those same Thank You rallies in Des Moines, Iowa, late last year. And the crowd was the same. He was the same. But they I think the thing I'm watching for is to see how his supporters react to him becoming president, because there are some things that have changed. He's no longer talking about building the wall. That is no longer at the top of the list. The chants of "Lock her up!" have long gone away. And some of his supporters wanted that. So the voters that I talk to, these Americans now who will be judging his presidency, will be wondering, is he going to be another old politician or is he going to be the same old Donald Trump? So I think the challenge for him is to to keep it real, obviously, but he's going to disappoint some people. And so far, up until now, running for president, the last year and a half, he's not disappointed anyone because he has all had all these promises. The minute you become president, you have a record. And that is his challenge, to, you know, to keep his record square with his base and to keep some of them excited.
[Tapper:] One thing he has not changed, obviously, is his use of Twitter. He has talked about we should let the Chinese keep that drone. He has sent some stocks into tailspins, going after Boeing, going after Lockheed Martin. I'm sure there are advisers around Donald Trump who want to change his password without his knowing. Obviously, Twitter can be an effective tool, but it also can be destructive.
[Abby Phillip, Cnn Political Analyst:] And I think there are actually some Trump supporters who would like to see him rein that in a little bit, because you know, talking to some votes in the last week, many of them recognize that his use of Twitter in the campaign served a particular purpose, but that it actually kind of is unbecoming of of someone in the presidential office. And they recognize that because they understand there are consequences to what you do when you're president. And this is the one thing that for Donald Trump, once he becomes president, will change, whether he likes it or not. When you're in that office, when you do something, there is a reaction to it. And he's going to have to deal with that, probably for the first time since he jumped into this fray. And that will change his decision-making. He will no longer have free rein to just throw things up against a wall because there are potentially global consequences, economic consequences to the things that you do and the things that you say when you're in that office.
[Tapper:] And he's obviously talking about doing things within the White House differently than they've been done before. Take a listen to Reince Priebus, the incoming White House chief of staff.
[Reince Priebus, Incoming White House Chief Of Staff:] The traditions, while some of them are great, I think it's time to revisit a lot of these things that have been done in the White House and I can assure you that change is going to happen.
[Tapper:] And Salena, one of the things that Reince Priebus pointed out might change is the daily White House briefing, that they might do away with that.
[Zito:] I don't think that's a very good idea. That's a very important part not only for for the voters, for the American people to to hear what's going on within the White House, but it's also a great way for the White House to communicate what they are doing, what they are working on, what they are thinking about things. I think it's a bad decision and I hope it's something that they change their mind about.
[Tapper:] I mean I always when I was the White House correspondent in the Obama White House, in the first term, I always thought it as a way that to hold them accountable...
[Unidentified Male:] Sure.
[Tapper:] for for on issues that they don't want to talk about, what about this incident that just happened? You know, what's your response?
[Acosta:] It absolutely is the way to keep the White House accountable, but I don't think Donald Trump wants to play by that rule book. And as we saw throughout the campaign, he referred to the news media as the disgusting news media, the dishonest news media, called us crooks and thieves and so on. And so why why would he want to throw a spokesman out there every day and and hold a briefing with these reporters that he holds in such low regard? I I think that it's possible we'll see fewer briefings. Sean Spicer and Reince Priebus have talked about having these Facebook live chats with people and sort of democratizing the briefing, going around the filter of the press. He didn't hold a news conference after being elected president the way that President Obama did, three days after he was elected. And so I think that Donald Trump has sent all the signals that we need, that this is not going to be the same kind of presidency.
[Tapper:] And he's gone after you by name, Jeff Zeleny, on Twitter. What was that experience like?
[Zeleny:] Sure. It's like he was talking about the fact that he would have won the popular vote but not for millions of fraudulent voters. And we simply were asking, you know, to show us those fraudulent voters. Look, it is something that that we are just going to do our jobs. That is the one thing that reporters can do. It's the one thing that's expected of us. Going after us, look, a lot of his supporters also went after us, went after me. I'm certainly not alone in this. It happens to everyone. Jim has experienced this firsthand, people yelling at him at rallies, and I have. But look, I think that that is sort of beside the point. But he does carry this, you know, people believe him and will walk to the end sort of of the Earth with him. But the question, again, is when he becomes president, will that will he be able to keep everyone like that happy? I'm not sure.
[Tapper:] My New Year's resolutions for you four, keep up the great work. Thank you so much for being here. Now hiring, leader of the Democratic Party who will take over next and what will it take to lead the party to victory?
[Sen. Bernie Sanders , Former Presidential Candidate:] I think it's time to take a reassessment of the purpose of where the Democratic Party is and where it wants to go.