On this “Face the Nation” broadcast, moderated by Margaret Brennan:
- Sen. Bill Hagerty, Republican of Tennessee
- White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan
- Rep. Ro Khanna, Democrat of California
- Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari
- Karen Pierce, British ambassador to the U.S.
Click here to browse full transcripts of “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
MARGARET BRENNAN: I’m Margaret Brennan.
And this week on Face the Nation: What’s next for America after former President Trump’s decisive victory? With Donald Trump and his allies now focused on their agenda for Washington and the world, how and will he deliver on his campaign promises?
We will begin with Republican Senator Bill Hagerty. He served in Trump’s first term as ambassador to Japan. Will he return for a bigger role in the second?
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan will be here to discuss President Biden’s national security priorities, as the clock ticks down on the commander in chief.
Plus: After Democrats lost support from key voter groups, the party faces an identity crisis and the process of rebuilding. California Congressman Ro Khanna will weigh in on the challenges ahead.
British Ambassador to the U.S. Dame Karen Pierce will be here to talk about the European reaction to Trump’s return. And we will check in with Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari about the Fed’s interest rate cut and the incoming administration’s ambitious plans to reshape the economy.
It’s all just ahead on Face the Nation.
Good morning, and welcome to Face the Nation.
As we wrap up campaign 2024, the scope of Republican control in Washington over the next few years is coming into focus. Overnight, CBS projected Donald Trump the winner in Arizona, giving him a complete electoral vote sweep of the seven battleground states.
With a final tally of 312 electoral votes, Republicans scored their biggest White House win in 36 years. Republicans will also control the Senate with at least 52 seats, and there are two races that have not yet been called by CBS News. Control of the House is still to be determined with a few contests outstanding, but CBS News rates it as leaning Republican at this point.
We begin this morning with what we have learned about the incoming Trump administration, personnel, priorities, and more.
We turn now to Robert Costa.
Bob, good to have you here.
I know you have been speaking to your sources. What will the second term look like?
ROBERT COSTA: Great to be with you, Margaret.
In recent days, I have spoken to president-elect Trump, called him up on the phone, along with his top advisers and allies. And what’s notable about this transition is that, unlike in 2016, when he was elected as a Washington outsider, now he knows all the players in Washington.
And he alone, more than any other aid, is evaluating the personnel and possibilities around him. And he reflected in one of our conversations about how he sees his mandate, that he has a movement and a base and now a party that’s fully behind him. And he wants to make sure that anyone who comes on board has his same vision for that mandate and for his perceived level of support.
And you have seen in recent days people around Trump in the wider orbit are trying to recommend a lot of names, but it’s Trump himself who’s saying to his top aides like Susie Wiles, his incoming chief of staff, that he wants to make sure that this is not a chaotic process and it’s reflective of where he wants to go, more than any other kind of counsel.
And on foreign policy, for example, you see names like Senator Bill Hagerty, Senator Marco Rubio, former Ambassador Ric Grenell, all people who identify with Trump’s vision. But those who have had issues with Trump in the past about how he perceives foreign policy, like, for example, former Ambassador Nikki Haley or former Secretary Mike Pompeo, are now out of the process.
And it’s not because of any personal trouble with Trump, I’m told. It’s because, at the end of the day, Trump wants to make sure things are moving along smoothly on ideological and policy lines come January.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Do we know what it was with Mike Pompeo, who served him quite loyally for four years as CIA director and secretary of state? Was it his support, for example, of Ukraine?
ROBERT COSTA: It’s just a different orbit around Trump right now. The president-elect has people like Donald Trump Jr., Elon Musk. He has Steve Bannon on the outside advising him.
These are people who are noninterventionists. These are people who aren’t traditional Republican hawks. That’s not to say some hawks won’t end up in this administration or some Wall Street figures might end up in this administration as well.
I’m told by my sources that the president-elect is not ruling out mainstream Republicans or more centrist Republicans from joining his team. But, at this point, he’s moving quickly to make sure his base, his party, and his image is reflected in the personnel picks fully.
MARGARET BRENNAN: What are his priorities for the 1st 100 days? Or is that too traditional a way of thinking about it?
ROBERT COSTA: No, they have a real agenda this time. You remember, in 2017, it was somewhat sporadic in how they moved and navigated on health care and taxes.
They are moving quickly already behind the scenes to expand the Trump tax cuts, to institute sweeping tariffs across the board. They’re also going to try to, on foreign policy, begin negotiations with Ukraine and Russia sometime early next year. And you have mass deportations, more than anything, galvanizing the Trump people behind the scenes.
Of course, they know it’s going to be controversial. To remove undocumented migrants in a big way across the country could be logistically difficult and politically challenging, but they’re moving ahead.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Bob Costa, thank you.
And we turn now to Tennessee Republican Senator Bill Hagerty, who also served as U.S. ambassador to Japan.
SENATOR BILL HAGERTY (R-Tennessee): Yes, Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: … during the first Trump administration. It’s good to have you here.
SENATOR BILL HAGERTY: It’s good to be with you.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So, Donald Trump has this sweeping mandate, as do Republicans. Do you see this as an unrestrained presidency?
SENATOR BILL HAGERTY: Oh, I think this is a presidency that has a mandate like we haven’t seen, as you mentioned, in 36 years. The American public has spoken loud and clear. And
I think if you go back to your interview with Bob, there are a number of places where Washington has been out of touch with the American people. You mentioned Ukraine. I think that’s a great example. The American people want sovereignty protected here in America before we spend our funds and resources protecting the sovereignty of another nation.
You think about it, we’ve sent $175 billion of U.S. aid to Ukraine. That’s more than three times the entire annual budget of the U.S. Marine Corps. I have been one of the few senators in the United States Senate who has voted and has opposed every cent of this Ukraine aid.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.
SENATOR BILL HAGERTY: I have been listening to the American people. We need to focus on our own issues first.
And I have taken a lot of heat over it from Mitch McConnell, from “The Wall Street Journal.”
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
SENATOR BILL HAGERTY: But this is what the American people spoke up and want us to do. We should never have been in Ukraine. It’s a result of failed policies, failed energy policies, the failure in Afghanistan.
MARGARET BRENNAN: There’s no U.S. presence in Ukraine. Are you talking about…
SENATOR BILL HAGERTY: No, but our funds. I’m talking about the vast amount of funds, again, $175 billion.
That’s a tremendous amount, as I said, more than three times the budget of the U.S. Marine Corps. The American people want to focus on fixing our problems here. And with the border’s collapse, with crime in the cities, we’ve got to pay attention to America.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So does that mean just cuts to U.S. military aid to all countries?
SENATOR BILL HAGERTY: What it means is that we need to take a very deliberate focus on America first.
But we need to be leading from a position of strength, Margaret. As I said, we would not be in this position. Now what we have is an administration that’s allowing Russia to sell at a $60-a-barrel cap. The argument they make, that reduces Russia’s profits.
What it does, actually, is it subsidizes China to compete again unfairly against us with an energy cost advantage.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.
SENATOR BILL HAGERTY: And we keep Vladimir Putin fully funding this war in Ukraine. We need to stop that. We need to go back to producing our own energy and take Russia out.
Interestingly, interestingly, I will call this the Trump effect. But just in the past 72 hours, what we’ve seen is the E.U. say, maybe we should replace Russian LNG with U.S. LNG. You’ve seen in New York City…
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, that – that’s been talked about for some time.
SENATOR BILL HAGERTY: … we’re not going to issue debit cards to illegal immigrants anymore. Migrant caravans are being broken up below the border and turned around.
The U.K. has said, we’re going to step our defense budget up to about 2.5 percent, all since President Trump was elected.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Some of that was – was in process already, but let me ask you specifically on Ukraine.
So Hungary’s Prime Minister has said that Donald Trump has told him he will cut off support to Ukraine. You are saying here, I think, in the new Congress, there will be no more aid to Ukraine.
SENATOR BILL HAGERTY: I have certainly not voted for any aid.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I know you haven’t, but is that – is that the mandate?
SENATOR BILL HAGERTY: And I think President Trump will find – President Trump will find a way to deal with this. I’m not going to get ahead of him. I’m certain that he’s going to find a way to navigate this that’s in the interest of the American people and will stop the carnage.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So, but…
SENATOR BILL HAGERTY: Look, what’s happened in Ukraine is terrible. People are dying.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
SENATOR BILL HAGERTY: They continue to die. But we need to stop this.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But – but here’s the thing, we also are seeing this alignment of like an axis of adversaries, right? You have Iranian equipment. You have Chinese equipment.
SENATOR BILL HAGERTY: Deeply concerning, yes.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right. You have North Korean personnel on the battlefield.
So this idea that Ukraine is somehow divorced from the rest of geopolitics doesn’t seem to be bearing out. It’s of deep concern to some of our Asian allies, Japan, South Korea. So how are you going to be able to do this without complicating the chessboard?
SENATOR BILL HAGERTY: Well, I think it’s become complicated because America has not been standing in a position of strength. The reason is that Russia has been fully funded because of the policies that allow them to sell energy.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, there are extensive sanctions on Russia, whether or not they’re…
SENATOR BILL HAGERTY: Iran, we had them shut down. Iran was broke. Now they’re able to fund terror all over the world. We had a maximum pressure campaign.
MARGARET BRENNAN: In part because they have all these other adversaries that they’re doing business with, right? China.
SENATOR BILL HAGERTY: They were not able to do that under the Trump administration. That’s why we saw peace breaking out in the Middle East. Without Iran being shut down, which is what we did under the maximum pressure campaign – President Trump led this.
We were able to move our embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Everybody said it couldn’t happen. It did.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
SENATOR BILL HAGERTY: The Abraham Accords. Peace was breaking out in the Middle East because Iran could not fund…
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