Trump Considering Bannon for Chief of Staff
BERMAN: All right. Live pictures right now from Portland, Oregon. You can see there in the background those are police and a police line. The reason they're there is there has been -- well, what started as peaceful demonstrations, some 4,000 people on the streets of Portland upset about the results of the election, turned into what police are calling riots overnight. Several hundred people left causing some damage, lighting things on fire, breaking windows and cars and store front. We're told several arrests have been made. We just spoke to Sergeant Wilson from the Portland Police Department who told us that they were using measures like, you know, paint guns and pellet guns, none lethal methods, smoke grenades to try to disperse the crowd.</s>KOSIK: It's certainly looking a lot calmer than it did just a short time ago.</s>BERMAN: Yes.</s>KOSIK: Yes. We were seeing a lot of destruction happening. You know, dragging garbage cans across, lighting fires, certainly not seeing that now.</s>BERMAN: Yes. 20 minutes ago that was the scene. So we're going to keep our eye on that. As we keep our eye on Portland, we're also going to talk about the future, the future Trump administration. Donald Trump holds his first meeting with his transition team today. This amid the news that Steve Bannon of Breitbart who chaired Donald Trump's campaign at the end is being considered to be chief of staff. Really want to talk about that. Joining us now from Washington CNN political commentator, Symone Sanders, who was a former Bernie Sanders press secretary, Paris Dennard who has been supportive of Donald Trump throughout the campaign, CNN political analyst Josh Rogin, columnist for the "Washington Post," and here with us, CNN Politics reporter, Eugene Scott. Good morning to you one and all. Josh, I want you to remind our viewers who Steve Bannon is and why he is controversial.</s>JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. Well, you know, you really couldn't have two more different candidates here. On the one hand, you have Reince Priebus, the head of the RNC who just spent a year and a half trying to keep the party together. And it wasn't easy and he had mixed results. And then you have Steve Bannon, the executive chairman of Breitbart, an organization dedicated to destroying the Republican establishment. That's his stated public goal. OK. And that's been a lot of what's been going into the way that Trump ran his campaign. So you can't really have a much more -- and he's been, you know, running a site that promotes racism and anti-Semitism and all that other stuff, by the way. So you can't really have more of a stark choice here. And the White House chief the staff position is the most powerful position. Some ways more powerful than Cabinet level secretaries. And if Trump chooses Steve Bannon, that will be a clear sign that -- forget about reaching out to Democrats. That he's not even going to have a honeymoon with the Republicans in the Congress. Steve Bannon is a man dedicated to burning it all down and if he is able to do that from the Oval Office, that will be quite something to watch.</s>KOSIK: Paris Dennard, can you give us an idea of what is going on behind the scenes in the soon-to-be Trump administration as to how they're coming to this decision of who's going to be chief of staff?</s>PARIS DENNARD, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Absolutely. Look, by law, both campaigns had funds set up from the federal government to help with the transition process because after 9/11 -- because what happens is you need to have time to put together the administration and get it going so that you don't have this gap of time where there's no leadership.</s>KOSIK: Paris, I'm talking about the decision between Bannon and possibly Reince Priebus. What's going through their minds and let's say choosing just between those two.</s>DENNARD: Right. And so to that point, they take this very seriously. Because by law that they have to do this. Now what Bannon is, he is an effective leader. He has effectively led his organization Breitbart. He has effectively done a great job as it relates to the last few months of the campaign getting Mr. Trump to President-elect Trump. Reince Priebus, who's the chairman of the RNC, has been an effective leader this last year like previously stated in leading the RNC and getting Mr. Trump to be President-elect Trump. And so it's a very serious decision on who can help manage the White House, manage the messaging of the White House and the personnel of the White House. And as Andy Card, my former chief of staff when I worked for President George W. Bush for four years, he said make sure the president eats well, sleeps well and gets the information that he needs at the right time. And so whether it's Bannon, whether it's Reince Priebus or somebody else on the list that we don't know, it's going to be somebody who's going to be an effective leader because Mr. Trump now President-elect Trump has the expertise and experience as being a business leader and finding the best talent to do what needs to be done to keep the ball moving forward and to advance his agenda.</s>BERMAN: So, Paris, you know, I know Andy Card. And Steve Bannon could not be humanly more different than Andy Card. I mean, but, you know, Andy Card was the epitome of a Washington and political insider who worked in many, many administrations.</s>DENNARD: Right.</s>BERMAN: Knew how Washington work. Knew how to get things done. Which is something that some people say that Donald Trump needs. Now other people will say he won the campaign by being an outsider and a bomb thrower.</s>DENNARD: Absolutely.</s>BERMAN: You know, and so that's Steve Bannon. But, Symone Sanders, Steve Bannon, also because of his association with Breitbart, also because of the ads that he pushed at the end of the campaign that's been many people with anti-Semitic themes there, that also sends a message that people right now looking for signs of healing. Signs of reaching across the divide. Steve Bannon isn't reaching across that divide, Symone.</s>SYMONE SANDERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, and actually Steve Bannon has no interest in reaching across that divide. Look, I have friends that work at the Republican National Committee. People that came in post-Trump. People that came in after Trump had been elected as the Republican nominee. And they are definitely concerned. There were real tensions between the -- some of the campaign folks specifically the Bannon crew and people at the Republican National Committee. And clearly the folks at the Republican National Committee would want nothing more than Reince Priebus to jump in and serve. But there are real tensions and real concerns I think across the board. I mean, when you look at the Democratic side, folks like myself, other people in the party, Democratic leadership, we are looking and watching and waiting to see what Donald Trump will do. There are many people that have called again for healing. Said to give Donald Trump a chance. I need Donald Trump -- President-elect Trump to tell us, show us what exactly he's going to do and picking Steve Bannon is a clear signal, is the clearest sign we could have from him of what kind of White House -- administration he's going to run.</s>KOSIK: Eugene Scott, your quick thoughts on the possible choice of Steve Bannon as chief of staff?</s>EUGENE SCOTT, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Well, I mean, I think we have to remember that Donald Trump was elected by a broader group than we thought. We also -- we always thought he would just get mainly white working class voters but he got most white men and he got most white women. And many of these people are more centrist than Steve Bannon is so for him to go in the direction of Steve Bannon would please a part of his support base, but it won't please many people who are really truly hoping to work with people who are more left than people who backed Donald Trump.</s>LEMON: Also really the first --</s>DENNARD: Again, this is just rumor and speculation. That's the nature -- there is no guarantee. This is rumor and speculation.</s>BERMAN: It's more than rumor and speculation. I mean, you're right. He certainly hasn't made the hire and until he does, we don't know for sure. But it's more than rumors and speculation in the sense that these are sources from within the transition team telling us directly, making sure that we know that Steve Bannon is being considered there. This is something that they made a point of telling us and not just us, but other news organizations. Guys, stick around. A lot more to discuss coming up.</s>KOSIK: And ahead on EARLY START, the fight for Mosul. A senior ISIS commander killed in combat by a coalition airstrike. We are live on the ground in Iraq as the fighting intensifies.