the battle for appointments to president-elect donald trump's cabinet being called a knife fight and buffoonery within his transition time. with traditional picks between west wing and key national security posts drawing sharp internal disagreements. >> i think you'll hear some additional appointments. >> today trump and vice president-elect mike pence are hunkering down reviewing a list of contenders. the positions to be possibly nailed down as early as today include secretaries of state, education, commerce and treasury. >> he's a nightmare and he's the chief advisor to the president of the united states now. >> reporter: this as the appointment of steve bannon as trump's chief strategist continues to draw sharp rebuke. critics citing his ties to the white nationalism and white semitism. >> the general of this campaign and frankly people should look at the full resume. i'm personally offended that you think i would manage a campaign

where that would be one of the going philosophies. it was not. >> reporter: and new concerns over conflict of interest are emerging with trump considering seeking top security clearance for his adult children and son-in-law according to a transition team source. >> we'll be in new york and we'll take care of the business. >> reporter: no paperwork has been filed, but the children could have access to secure communications technology, travel schedules and secret service procedures. meanwhile, trump and russian president vladimir putin speaking by phone. the two men discussing the need for joint efforts in the fight against common enemy number one, international terrorism and extremism. all this as deep domestic divisions remain. anti-trump demonstrators protesting across the country for the sixth straight day. >> and a trump transition advisor says it is possible that there could be some cabinet level appointments coming out today once they have made their picks, but it is very clear

today, chris, as trump is huddling with mike pence at trump tower that the final decisions haven't been made. >> it's very early, my friend. this is just getting started. so as his successor staffs up a new white house, president obama begins his final international trip as president of the united states. greece, germany, peru on the agenda. one of the things we hear the president's going to try to do is assuage allies. the president is expected to speak within the hour. if it comes on our clock, we will cover it. cnn's michelle kosinski will give us the heads up. she's traveling with the president in greece. good morning. >> reporter: hey, chris. remember the word rattled is what president obama used over the past year repeatedly to describe world leaders over the prospect of a donald trump presidency. well, now a much different horizon than he expected as he's making this final trip as his sun sets. he still feels like he needs to

reassure allies, it just now has to be in a much different way. president obama touches down on his final foreign trip in athens. first at home while the incoming trump team feverishly prepares to run america, the outgoing president addressed the press and world after what he didn't think could happen did. >> and that's why ensuring a smooth transition is so important. it's not something that the constitution explicitly requires but it is one of those norms that are vital to a functioning democracy. >> reporter: that sounded like both reassurance as well as a dig, almost a warning as he's asked point blank, are you concerned about a trump presidency? >> he is coming to this office with fewer set hard and fast policy prescriptions than a lot of other presidents might be arriving with. i don't think he is ideological.

i think ultimately he's pragmatic in that way and that can serve him well. do i have concerns? absolutely. of course i've got concerns. one of the things i advised him to do was to make sure that before he commits to certain courses of action he's really dug in and thought through how various issues play themselves out. >> reporter: he said in his meeting with the president-elect last week, donald trump did express a commitment to nato despite his rhetoric on the trail and is now rethinking what parts of obamacare he might preserve. >> i think it's important for us to let him make his decisions and i think the american people will judge. >> reporter: wanting to put some optimism there, even as a still shell shocked party picks up the pieces. the president saying reflection will be healthy for democrats and for donald trump. >> there are going to be certain

elements of his temperament that will not serve him well unless he recognizes them and corrects them. and if things get worse, then the american people will figure that out pretty quick. and if things get better, then more power to him and i'll be the first to congratulate him. >> reporter: so the president wants to walk a line here. he said once again getting his points across saying things like campaigning is not governing. sound bites are not policies. he did say he believes donald trump is sincere in wanting to make america better, but he said he needs to reach out to certain groups, like minorities and women. alisyn. >> michelle, you've given us a lot to talk about so let's bring in our panel be. we have a lot to talk about so let's bring in our panel be. we have cnn senior legal analyst jeffrey toobin, cnn political analyst carl bernstein and jeffrey lord. gentlemen, great to have you all here. >> good morning, ali.

>> good morning. in terms of who we know will and does have president-elect trump's ear. so we have reince priebus of the establishment wing, we have steve bannon of the alt right white nationalist wing and we have jared kushner of the family wing. how are these power plays going to play out? >> you missed one person. we have barack obama also whose ear, indeed, donald trump is attuned to as well. and i think we saw that in the meeting. the people i've talked to say there's no question that the president had a real effect, a stunning effect on trump during that meeting in terms of imparting the seriousness and the weight of the presidency and what is expected of him in terms of being the president of all the people that is very different than the campaign. what we saw in the campaign and we're still going to see in this presidency are a different set of rules. trump rules. and that's what bannon represents.

bannon brought him to the table. bannon is very much like trump's old closest advisor. the really awful roy cohn. a liar, a slanderer, sbu someone who slashes and burns. we're going to see that in bannon, and yet we have the institutional presidency that obama has tried to convince trump has to be respected, but when you set up a situation with no blind trust for a financial empire like this, it is a prima facia case of insider trading and that's what we now see in front of us and is an immediate task, it seems to me, for those who oppose this kind of thing and hillary clinton would never have been permitted to do this with chelsea clinton even being head of the foundation. so it's inherent tensions. >> you lay it all out the right way, carl, however, it's not as simple as it would have been with chelsea clinton, right?

because, jeffrey, how would you put something like this in a blind -- >> you mean jeffrey toobin? >> law first and politics. i'll come to you second, jeffrey lord. >> a lot of jeffreys. >> a blind trust is very hard to do if you can't make it blind, which means if the kids are running the company, it's not a blind trust. that would mean you'd have to remove the kids from the company, and that would mean that you would remove the soul of the company. so is that the right way -- is that the only solution here that should satisfy? >> i don't think there is going to be -- i mean, just since you asked about the law, there is no law that says a president has to put his holdings in a blind trust. it has been the custom ever since blind trusts were -- >> like with the tax, it's a custom and we heard from trump's team that they probably won't do what presidents do right now which is show their taxes every year. >> exactly. i think donald trump is playing by his own rules. he got elected president by not releasing his taxes, by running

his business while he was running for president. i think the family is going to run the business and too bad. if you have complaints, vote for somebody else. >> jeffrey lord, how do you see it? >> first of all, i think we have people in the private sector that serve in various administrations on things like presidential intelligence advisory boards. to the best of my knowledge, they get security clearings, classifications, but they also continue on with their private sector work and nobody seems to blink about this, so i'm not really sure this is as big a problem as it's being made out to be. in terms of the company, this is the first time, let's be candid here, that we've had somebody go directly from the private sector into the white house. so we are going to have to figure out how this goes, and -- >> yeah. >> -- the last thing is with the arrangement here of steve bannon, reince priebus and jared

kushner, if that's what it turns out to be, this is very much like ronald regan's famous troika of jim baker, ed mease and michael defaver who was lik a son to the reagans. so i see a lot of similarities there. that worked extremely well for ronald regan and i think this could work well for donald trump. >> and could i just push back on carl's idea that barack obama is a big influence here. i'm a great believer that campaign promises are made to be kept and i think president trump is going to keep his campaign promises. i think we're going to see millions of deportations. i think we are going to see obamacare overturned. we are going to see a massive tax cut. i mean, this is, you know, why he ran for president. i'm sure he was affected by his meeting with president obama, but, you know, he is -- he was elected to do certain things and he's going to do them. >> i don't disagree with you.

i think, indeed, his general themes, but i think obama had an effect on him about the importance of the institutional presidency and certain things you do for all the people. is donald trump going to change his stripes where the president was right i think is about trump having a pragmatic aspect and not being an ideaologue. is he going to be a slash and burn president as we're seeing with steve bannon? absolutely. i think there also is a tug toward some traditional aspects and the seriousness and history of the presidency that trump was affected by. >> if i could. he ain't going to change his stripes, no. >> go ahead, jeffrey lord. >> if i could agree with carl on this. this is something i've been trying to say throughout the entire campaign. the trump organization, the

formal name of his business, could not possibly exist unless donald trump himself were a very good, very thoughtful executive. i think that's what we're beginning to see here in his role of president-elect. >> let me just say one thing. i'm very pleased that jeffrey agrees with me here except for one thing. the nature of his business is almost and often in many cases semi-criminal. that is what we know about the trump, semi. what we know from -- >> semi is a legal distinction. >> what we know about aspects of the trump business, paying back creditors 12, 14, 16% on the dollar, the lawsuits. he does not conduct business like a traditional businessman. he conducts business often like a con man and that is also something that may be brought to this presidency and not change his stripes. >> jeffrey, what -- >> i'll put you down as doubtful. >> so, jeffrey, but one of the questions that i think that carl

is touching on that we certainly have heard from everybody here is that if you'll recall during the long campaign, the critics and hillary clinton said the clintons play by their own rules. they flout the rules. they have their own rules and that's what so upset and incensed the other side. doesn't it sound like donald trump is going to be playing by his own rules if he's putting his kids and having these conflicts of interest and all of that stuff? >> ali, i think the criticism of the clintons was they did it to enrich themselves. donald trump is a billionaire ten times over. he doesn't need to do anything to enrich himself. >> you're dreaming if i could -- if i could interject. >> yeah. yeah. you're sort of -- i don't know what, assuming the conclusion. how did he get to be a billionaire? by paying people ten cents on the dollar that he owes. >> jeffrey, i guess the point is if hillary clinton had won and if she were saying i'm going to be looking right now for top secret security clearance for chelsea who's going to be

running the clinton foundation, you would be up in arms. >> ali, all i can say is we've had other presidents think of hillary clinton taking over health care as first lady. think of -- i mean -- >> and it bothered you. >> at this -- at this moment, ali, you can go down pennsylvania avenue to the department of justice and see a sign out front that names the building for robert f. kennedy who was appointed by his brother to be attorney general. >> right. right. so that's why we have nepotism laws or thought we did. >> well, that was linden johnson's revenge afterwards, after the fact. >> yeah. >> my point is is that presidents, and i'm not talking about legality here, i'm talking about they all bring their own style, they all bring in their own set of advisors and that's all you're going to see here. there's nothing new about it. >> there's nothing wrong with having your family as being close advisor. look at hillary clinton. let's get that off the table. look at hillary clinton. you know, go back to the kennedys. look at lady bird johnson. >> it's okay for his kids to have top security clearance.

>> eleanor roosevelt. >> exactly. that's a different question about the security clearances. if they're going to have the security clearances, it is absolutely essential there be a blind trust. suppose that ivanka trump -- >> i don't know how you do it. i don't know how you do a blind trust in his situation. legally, i don't know how you -- >> you somehow have a wall -- let's build a wall. let's build a wall -- >> but his kids run the business. how could they not talk with their father. >> what i'm suggesting is the kids can't run the business. let's build a wall. >> the business is the kids. it's the image of the trumps. >> then they can't do the other thing. suppose they want to open an ivanka boutique in riyadh and she has information from the cia that morning that's going to help her business selling chakis in riyadh, this is where you have to draw the line, build the wall. this is the wall that is necessary to separate trump -- >> what if that's already done.

>> -- kids from the presidency. >> it's not already done, that's the problem. we've never had a situation like this and we need to build a wall. >> gentlemen, we have to leave it there. >> okay. >> thank you, jeffrey. >> thank you men in boxes. >> president obama weighing in on the trump presidency, plus the future of his own party. this is going to be a big deal going forward. we're going to bring in a democratic congressman at the center of the re-design of the democratic party. what will that look like? on my long-term control medicine. i talked to my doctor and found a missing piece in my asthma treatment with breo. once-daily breo prevents asthma symptoms. breo is for adults with asthma not well controlled on a long-term asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. breo won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. breo opens up airways to help improve breathing for a full 24 hours. breo contains a type of medicine that increases the risk of death from asthma problems

and may increase the risk of hospitalization in children and adolescents. breo is not for people whose asthma is well controlled on a long-term asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. once your asthma is well controlled, your doctor will decide if you can stop breo and prescribe a different asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. do not take breo more than prescribed. see your doctor if your asthma does not improve or gets worse. ask your doctor if 24-hour breo could be a missing piece for you. see if you're eligible for 12 months free at mybreo.com. the market.redict but through good times and bad... ...at t. rowe price... ...we've helped our investors stay confident for over 75 years. call us or your advisor. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. and my brother ray and i started searching for answers. (vo) when it's time to navigate in-home care, follow that bright star. because brightstar care earns the same accreditation as the best hospitals.

and brightstar care means an rn will customize a plan that evolves with mom's changing needs. (woman) because dad made us promise we'd keep mom at home. (vo) call 844-4-brightstar for your free home care planning guide. okay google, show me korean restaurants in boulder. google assistant: i found a few places. vo: the new pixel, phone by google. exclusively on verizon. the only next gen network that lets you get the most out of it. how is this possible? vo: because verizon lte advanced delivers 50% faster peak speeds in 450 cities, coast to coast. buy a pixel and get up to $400 back. and get 20 gigs of data with no surprise overages, and 4 lines for only $40 each. why settle when you can have it all on verizon? but there's so much more to it. here's how benefiber® works. inside us are trillions of good microflora that support digestive health. the prebiotic fiber in benefiber® nourishes them... and what helps them, helps you. clear, taste-free, benefiber®.

campaigning is different than governing. i think he recognizes that. i think he's sincere in wanting to be a successful president and wanting to move this country forward. i don't think any president ever comes in saying to themselves, i want to figure out how to make people angry or alienate half the country. >> president obama taking high ground calling for unity as donald trump prepares to serve the white house and calling trump more of a pragmatist than an ideologue. what is the path forward? let's bring in someone at the center of that struggle, new york democrat, chair of the house democratic policy and communications committee, representative steve israel. thank you for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> what do you take from the president's message?

are you ready to give the new president, the 45th president, donald trump, a chance? >> well, look, there are some things that we should work with him on if it makes sense for the country. i'll give you an example. infrastructure. one of the reasons that the middle class feels alienated, feels that their pay check it growth is anemic is we're not building enough in this country. i hope president trump and democrats can rally around a sensible infrastructure bill. if the president-elect appoints people like bannon, we're going to fight them. >> the push back is, well, every political administration has people from different stripes in it. this is no different. the left just doesn't like bannon because he represents the right. just like you have alt right, you have alt left. no big deal. what do you see here is such a big deal. >> chris, this is not a stripe. this is a fringe. he has presided over a media platform that uses words like renegade jew, that vilifies

women. this is not just somebody who has a diversity of opinion, this is somebody whose opinions are virulent. we're going to oppose those opinions and continue to stand up to them. >> all right. and then you have the problems in house. you have what you deal with trump, we talked about that. now we have to do with what you do with your own party. listen to what bernie sanders said. >> there needs to be a profound change in the way the democratic party does business. it is not good enough to have a liberal elite. i come from the white working class and i am deeply humiliated that the democratic party cannot talk to the people from where i came from. >> are you deeply humiliated? are you going to have your party get back to its roots? >> well, here's what we have to do. we need a middle class mind meld as democrats. we have to understand why it is that the party of the middle class lost so many middle class voters, and that means several things. number one, we've got to listen to middle class and working class voters who are buffeted by unique convergence of economic

and social pressures. number two, we've got to tap into those anxieties constructively or else republicans are going to do it destructively. number three, we have to do some research, we have to do some data. we've always looked at polls. my favorite saying in the poll in the military is take your eyes off the radar and look out the window. we've got to look out the window. we have to feel those pressures and come up with a blueprint for rebuilding the middle class and working class, if we do that we're going to have a very good cycle in 2018. the president's party loses seats in the next general election. i think we're positioned strongly, but we've got to tap into those anxieties and understand them and give voice to them. >> change comes from the top. who do you think should be the top of your party? >> more important than who is at the top of the party, who leads the party is where we're going. and quite bluntly, i think we need to have a family conversation. i think we need to sit around the table and not dwell on who's sitting at the head of the table but have a conversation on what are we going to do to tap into those middle class and working

class anxieties? what is our blueprint for middle class -- >> right, no, i heard you, congressman. with all due respect though, the message emanates from that figure at the head especially in your party. that's why it's a fundamental question. are you just not comfortable giving an answer to it? do you not know yet? >> first of all, every day someone else jumps into this race. just today jamie harrison from south carolina announced that he's running. i think we have an obligation to let everybody who wants to run express their priorities and their values, but i'm not hung up on who has the title of chairman of the dnc. i'm hung up on why did we lose middle class voters and working class voters? that should be our priority so we should take a pause, take a deep breath, do some deep thinking, figure out where this party is going, how to tap into those anxieties. >> one more thing, chris. >> please. >> we're so hung up on our failures. why don't we look at the successes. let's take a look at congressman rick nolan in a district in minnesota where trump won by double digits but democrat rick

nolan won. governor bullock in montana where trump did very well but a democratic governor did very well. let's not just dwell on where we fell short but what kind of democrats are doing well and how do we replicate that success. >> right. congressman, you have to look at what just happened. donald trump beat your candidate by tapping into middle class angst, working class angst. you used to own that. i was raised by a guy who couldn't talk about that enough. and the feeling from people like him, may he rest in peace, bernie sanders is in there now, is that you guys drifted too far to the outside and took on too many of the cultural battles and forgot about the economic struggles of the people in the heart of this country. do you agree with that? >> look, for me it's the middle class economy, number one. middle class economy number two. middle class economy number three. >> that's not where your party was. the culture wars more than the economic wars. >> and we need to -- look. if you are an african-american

whose paycheck growth is oo nieminee anemic and a white guy whose paycheck growth is anemic as well. the issue isn't what color you are, what background you're from. the issue is you have anemic paycheck growth. this party has always prospered by tapping into that, with constructive solutions so that paycheck growth. we've got to return to that. we've got to grow the middle class. when we tap into the middle class, when the middle class thinks we care about them and that we have solutions for them, we win elections, which is why i think we need that middle class mind meld. >> you have to figure out how you got there to figure out where you go from there. it will be interesting to see what revelations you all come up with. congressman, thank you very much. >> thank you, chris. what do you think? some of you out there must be democrats still. what do you think about your party, why it lost and what will happen going forward? come tweet us @newday. post your comment on facebook.com/newday. alisyn. >> we'll take a look back at

journalist again ifill. gain ifill. wagain ifill. eagain . . is it a force of nature? or a sales event? the season of audi sales event is here. audi will cover your first month's lease payment on select models during the season of audi sales event. (bing)

.

courage, fairness, integrity. those are some of the words being used to ren gwen ifill whose historic career stemmed decades. she quickly became a pioneer for women and african-americans shattering gender and racial barriers. >> i will be bringing you the news and analysis you've come to trust. >> ground breaking, history making, role model. gwen ifill was a journalist best known for co-anchoring pbs news hour. >> she was a super nova. >> remember career included stints at the washington post, "the new york times," nbc news and pbs. ifill a pioneer for women and african-americans in journalism. >> when we talk about race in this country, we always talk about african-americans, people of color. i want to talk to you about white people. >> becoming the first african-american woman to host a major political talk show as moderator of pbs's washington

week in review in 1999. >> i'm gwen ifill of the news hour and washington week on pbs. >> and in 2013 once again making history, co-anchoring news hour with judy woodruff. >> good evening. i'm jude bring woodruff. >> and i'm gwen ifill. >> the two women, the first to jointly lead a national nightly news broadcast. ifill taking on the challenge of moderating two vice presidential debates and a 2016 democratic primary debate. >> she not only informed today's citizens but she also inspired tomorrow's journal lists. >> while covering this year's presidential election she was diagnosed with endo meet tree al cancer but she chose to keep that diagnosis private. she was 61 years old. >> here to share their personal reflections on gwen ifill are dana bash, nia malika henderson and suzanne malveaux. it's great to have all of you

here to talk about gwen ifill. i want to start with you, nya malika. she is the person you wanted to be when you grew up and so much so you kept a little photo of her on your computer at all times. tell us about that. >> i did. i did. when i was a cub reporter at the "baltimore sun", of course, gwen ifill had worked at the "baltimore sun", she worked at the washington post, "the new york times." eventually had a tv career. i wanted to be her. i went to my computer and printed out a little black and white photo of her that i found on the web and i taped it to my computer because i literally wanted to look at her and aspire to be her and that was my daily vision, gwen ifill and her career and her success. i later told her about this. >> and what did she say? >> she said, dear, that's really sweet, but it's also a little creepy. and that is who gwen was. she was very funny, very warm and smart, but she also had this

sort of biting sense of humor that we all were sometimes on the other end of. >> yeah. dana, you know, sometimes if you believe that timing is a coincidence, sometimes you lose people at a time for a reason. leonard cohen, gwen ifill, very different people, very different areas of professional expertise, but also standards. >> yeah. >> in their own way. what is the reminder? for those of us in the business and those who watch that we lost gwen ifill? >> it's so well put, chris. the highest of standards. to the point where -- and also just an intuition. a journal lis stick intuition that i was always marvelling at. she would do things like i would see her and she would say something about a live shot that i did and note something that nobody else noted about how i phrased a sourcing quote or, you know, how somebody else who i worked with reacted to that.

it was uncanny, but after that she would always to nya's point say something hilarious and with a big, beautiful smile just light everybody up around her from the inside out. and that was what was so remarkable about her is that she was so -- so successful and yet so intuned with everybody else around her, especially women. i mean, she was the ultimate you go, girl, whether it was on twitter or in personal e-mails or just when you would bump into her. and it was -- it was kind of remarkable that she would lead by example but also by reaching out pretty regularly to people who she respected who are coming up. >> suzanne, i know that you've brought some photos of your friendship with her as well that we're going to put up. tell us what you remember most about her. >> well, i've known gwen for 30 years. we worked together at nbc 20 years ago and she really was somebody who was -- you could

confide in her and tell her about some of the things that, you know, in this business it can be a rough business and she was always very well-prepared and always willing to listen and had that warm, wonderful embrace, that hug that she would give you. i remember it was 2008, the vice presidential debate and gwen was getting a little bit of heat for her book and her role as moderator. she had fallen. she was in a cast and had crutches. i saw her from my live shot location and she was wheeling herself in this wheelchair and she was just surrounded by people. and i just went running to her and i neiled down and i gave her one of those warm, big hugs that she has always given to me because she was just that kind of person. she was always there. and to celebrate the good times as well. she has this new year's day party that she has given for like the last 30 years, and people have grown up, i mean, journalists, artists, people in her home, they just pack her home every year.

and it's like a reunion. and people bring their kids, their spouses, their dates, and they grow up going every year to this party. it was last year i brought my daughter who was 1 years old, brand-new, to become a part of that family, that circle. you've got 20, 30-year-olds who have been there as gwen's kids and they call themselves -- they're considered gwen's kids. i think it was such an honor that i could have my daughter be one of those. >> suzanne, on a personal level, her fight with cancer, this was a tough form of cancer. she had tough treatment. i was reading that. she went in for a battle, there was a complication which is often the case with chemo. she wound up coming out, interviewing the president like less than a month later. how strong was she in terms of her will to want to live and get through this? >> well, absolutely. i mean, she was -- she's a person of faith. she has very strong faith. she's very close to her family and to her community.

she has a sense of family, not only journalists and friends, but everybody who meets her. she welcomes them into the fold. my mom, perhaps, was her biggest -- her biggest fan because she represented such hope and what you can be generation after generation. she did not want to share her battle publicly. this was something that happened very quickly last week when she took a turn for the worse and ended up in hospice this past weekend. she wanted people to remember her resillens, style, hope. if you see it on any of those photos on her face, that is really the lasting impression that she wanted to leave. >> ladies, thank you so much for sharing your reflections and the photos. it's great to see all of those happier times as well as your daughter, suzanne. thanks so much for showing us all of that. >> person may be gone but the example lives on. that's the hope. all right. so the president is getting

ready to speak from greece in just a few minutes. what will his message be? we're going to bring you it live when it happens. we do know the president spoke out sharply against trump during the campaign, but now he has a different tone. what is the message abroad and how does he explain it to the world? next. akening. the whiteness wasn't there as much, my teeth didn't look as healthy as others. my dentist said that pronamel would help protect my teeth. pronamel is giving me the confidence to know that i'm doing the right thing so it's nice to know that it was as simple as that. ...we turn feelings... at jared... ...into jewelry. jewelry that tells her she's the best thing that's ever happened to you. in a way... ...that goes beyond words. it could be a piece jewelry designers created just for jared. or a piece we custom made... ...just for you. because we're more than a store that sells beautiful jewelry. we are jewelers. the one, unique gift... ...that tells her exactly how you feel. that's why he went to jared.

what is the message abroad and

energy is a complex challenge. people want power. and power plants account for more than a third of energy-related carbon emissions. the challenge is to capture the emissions before they're released into the atmosphere. exxonmobil is a leader in carbon capture. our team is working to make this technology better, more affordable so it can reduce emissions around the world. that's what we're working on right now. ♪ energy lives here.

time now forty-five things to know for your "new day." turmoil inside team trump. vice president-elect pence trying to finalize several key cabinet appointments. they describe the selection process as a knife fight. president obama arriving in athens, greece. the first stop on his final tour. he's going to germany and peru. dealing with a wide range of issues cast in a new light by donald trump's victory. the people of aleppo, syria, warned to flee or die in a terrifying mass text message. they're being told a high precision assault is coming within 24 hours. it is believed this text message was sent by the syrian government. a jury has convicted justin

ross harris of killing his 22-month-old son cooper. you remember this story. he was locked inside a hot car for seven hours. harris faces life in prison without parole when he is sentenced next month. his lawyers are saying they will appeal. google is cracking down on bogus news that is surfacing on the web. it is banning sites peddling fake news from its online advertising service. facebook also following suit saying it will not display ads or sites showing misleading or illegal content. >> good luck. they are nowhere close to having a handle on that. >> step in the right direction. for more on the five things to know you can go to newdaycnn.com. president-elect donald trump, the gift that keeps on giving for late night comics. >> what did i miss? >> here it is. >> according to a new poll, 75% of americans were surprised when donald trump was elected president. here's a photo of two of them. >> i'm going to throw out some

names. you tell me if they're being considered, okay? for labor secretary of meatloaf's less talented brother, casserole? >> yes. >> for energy secretary, a coffee can with googly eyes glued on it. >> i found him to be terrific. >> and for secretary of education, a pack of wild dogs. >> at the appropriate time i will release them. >> how many years do you see yourself as president four or eight. >> 15 max. >> he said that he will only take a dollar a year as president. all part of trump's unending commitment to never pay taxes. >> that was good stuff. >> i like that. >> i like the stephen colbert. can with googly eyes glued on it. who doesn't like that? the president is getting ready to speak from greece in a few minutes.

we'll bring that to you live when that happens. also -- >> donald trump tweeting again. what is he talking about? you'll want to know. it matters. next. are we gonna do? how about we pump more into promotions? ♪ nah. what else? what if we hire more sales reps? ♪ nah. what else? what if we digitize the whole supply chain? so people can customize their bike before they buy it. that worked better than expected. i'll dial it back. yeah, dial it back. just a little. live business, powered by sap. when you run live, you run simple. but there's so much more to it. here's how benefiber® works. inside us are trillions of good microflora that support digestive health. the prebiotic fiber in benefiber® nourishes them... and what helps them, helps you. clear, taste-free, benefiber®.

we are waiting for president obama to speak as he makes his final foreign trip as president. he is in athens, greece. as soon as that comes we will bring it to you. meanwhile, our next president is making waves this morning on twitter once again doing a

couple of different things that are worthy of note. two tweets in particular. the first one was about the popular vote. he obviously doesn't like people saying that hillary clinton won the popular vote which at last tally is her plus 800,000 votes over him. the tweet reads, quote, if the election were based on total popular vote i would have campaigned in new york, florida, and california and won even bigger and more easily. he continues in a different tweet talking about the electoral college. this one is maybe even more interesting because he says the electoral college is genius. it brings in all states including the smaller ones. campaigning is much different. here's the problem, he tweeted earlier about the electoral college saying that he hated it and that it should be about a simple vote, just a majority vote. the electoral college is a disaster for democracy. >> that was after mitt romney lost. he didn't like the electoral college. >> also when he told people to get out in the streets and march

on washington. let's bring in dana bash, also cnn political analyst david gregory. david gregory, the ineffable question of why do you care about these tweets? >> look, this debate about the electoral college is something that should probably go forward once we come down a little bit from the heat of this election. the truth is that democrats are quite exercised about this in 2000 after the supreme court ended the dispute and gave george w. bush the presidency. since 2000 where have they been? you know, i mean, there were plenty of opportunities to bring it up and try to force a constitutional amendment but that energy seemed to die when you had president bush win re-election with the electoral college and the popular vote and obama do it twice. the reality is, there's a chance to visit this. it looks like you're undermining the legitimacy of the election when you put it on the agenda right now. >> what does come out of this? >> first i think what is even

more sort of puzzling is that after mitt romney loss, donald trump said the electoral college is a disaster. on sunday "60 minutes" aired an interview where he said just because i won doesn't mean i'm going to change my opinion. the electoral college is still a disaster. today he's saying differently probably because i'm guessing he was seeing something about the democrats saying hillary clinton won the popular vote. i don't think it's going to change. look, the democrats went into this election cycle just like they did in the last couple with the upper hand in the electoral college. it was hillary clinton's to lose and she lost it. so, i mean, if they're going to complain about the electoral college now, perhaps they should have had a different campaign strategy in the rust belt states that have been blue for -- you know, since the '80s which she lost because her appeal to the working class voter went away and donald trump got it. >> i have a different type of question about these.

what do these tweets reflect about donald trump that he's going to have to deal with his presidency? the first one goes about the popular vote and what he would have done to his intolerance of criticism. he does not like hearing that hillary clinton won. i don't even think they believe it. what dose that speak to the challenge going forward, his inability to let anything go. >> well, there's a couple of factors. yeah, i think this is something to be really watchful about as we watch president trump who has a short fuse and a quick temper and doesn't like to be criticized. how is that going to impact him? you know, it's one thing in a presidential campaign to get the criticism from the media, the scrutiny from the media on you because it's shared with your opponent and it can move off of you. when you're president, it's all on you and it's on you all the time so we're going to have to watch and see how he manages that. the other piece of twitter for him, for social media generally,

it's a way to get past the filter and go directly to the american people. guess what, every president that dana and i have covered would have used the same thing if it was available to them. president bush would have and barack obama did use it. president obama went around the media every way he could find it and he would have done more. >> did they also say that the media is a bunch of dogs and that anybody who criticizes them is terrible at their jobs? >> not publicly. >> not quite that way. andy carr talked about the press as a special interest group. this is a time-honored tradition that is bipartisan of disdain. the vocabulary may change but the sentiment does not. >> the question going forward when president-elect trump is in the white house after inauguration day, how he's going to and the people around him are going to manage his criticisms and the fact that he does get upsell the about criticism and manage that fact with expressing

it publicly. >> what's the answer to that? >> i don't know. >> well, during the campaign there was that sort of moratorium on twitter for a week or so. >> yeah. >> there was a feeling that maybe kellyanne conway had absconded with his iphone. >> and steve bannon did. >> you can get on twitter if you lose your device. >> what? >> do we expect that to happen again? >> honestly, that is one of the -- it sounds trivial, that that's one of the big questions of a trump presidency, but it's not for the reasons that we're talking about because he has used it so effectively and also has used it to the detriment of his own message many times. >> but we also have -- we just have to be very contemporary about this, okay? as much as we may view twitter and the way trump uses it, because it's certainly true, as a way of showing that he can clearly be off the reservation, this is an extension of his bully pulpit. he has an ability as any president does to try to influence public opinion through

all the means at his disposal. i do think twitter is going to be one for him. i think he has real needs to rein this in. he has talked about that. i don't know what he's capable of. >> he only needs to rein it in based on what he says and how he does it. i don't think there's any legit yat criticism of using the medium. what he says when he says something about the electoral college that is factually contradicted by something else that he said, that's what makes it a problem. >> all right. guys, we have to leave it there. dana, david, great to see you guys. thanks so much. president obama will speak any minute from greece. we have full coverage on cnn when "newsroom" with carol costello begins after this very short break. >> a live look at greece. ♪ ♪ one smart choice leads to the next. ♪ the new 2017 ford fusion is here. it's the beauty

of a well-made choice. ♪ listerine® total care strengthens teeth, after brushing, helps prevent cavities and restores tooth enamel. it's an easy way to give listerine® total care to the total family. listerine® total care. one bottle, six benefits. power to your mouth™. vo: introducing the new motoz droid with moto mods - exclusively on verizon. boom! vo: transform your phone in a snap. with the only next gen network that lets you get the most out of it, because verizon lte advanced delivers 50% faster peak speeds in 450 cities, coast to coast. buy a motoz droid and get another one free and $300 back. and get 20 gigs of data with no surprise overages, and 4 lines for only $40 each. why settle when you can have it all on verizon? being in love with an your best friend... is everything. ever us.

one diamond for your best friend... one for your true love. for the one woman, who's both. ever us. available at kay, jared and zales. come join us for the jared light up the holidays event. this exclusive event features our very best prices of the season and an amazing selection of exclusive pieces. november 16th-20th only. that's why he went to jared. whfight back fastts, with tums smoothies. it starts dissolving the instant it touches your tongue. and neutralizes stomach acid at the source. ♪ tum -tum -tum -tum smoothies! only from tums

and good morning. i'm carol costello. thank you so much for joining me. any moment now we're expecting president obama to hold a news conference in greece. the first stop of his final trip abroad as leader of the free world. ironically, much of president obama's mission is to serve as a liaison. he will likely address allies that president-elect trump will honor nato. we begin this hour in athens where cnn's michelle kosinski is traveling with the president. good morning, michelle. >> reporter: hi, carol. yeah, just think, over this past year as