his first staffing appointment which is already causing some controversy. president-elect donald trump offering lieutenant general michael flynn the role of national security adviser according to a transition official. >> we must regain our ability to truly crush our enemies. >> reporter: trump's choice is already making waves. flynn the former director of the defense intelligence agency has a long history of controversial remarks, accused of stoking islam phobia. >> we cannot win this war unless we are free to call our enemies by name, radical islamists and failed tyrants. >> reporter: he was fired in 2014 by the white house. flynn says it was payback for criticizing the administration. u.s. officials say it was his contentious management style. >> look for somebody that will tame the impulsive nature of the president-elect, someone who has

more steady and more objective and more thorough in their analysis. i'm not sure that's what you get with general flynn. >> reporter: flynn also accused of mishandling classified information which the u.s. military has scrutinized twice. in both cases he was never charged with wrongdoing and has defended his actions. flynn a registered democrat has been by trump's side for much of the campaign. >> general flynn, how great is he? >> reporter: acting as a top adviser and high-profile surrogate. >> the next president of the united states, right here. >> reporter: another trump loyalest, senator jeff sessions emerging as top candidate for attorney general. if picked he could face a tough senate confirmation fight over accusations of alleged racist remarks made 30 years ago. those remarks caused him to be rejected for a judgeship in 1986. >> i think if anybody had a rob

with his record they would have run against him and made that very clear. but senator sessions will be qualified for any number of positions. >> reporter: trump is also reaching out to a former adversary. >> donald trump is a phoney, a fraud. >> reporter: the president-elect meeting with 2012 republican nominee mitt romney this weekend. the two planning to talk about how to govern moving forward amid speck laying that they could discuss romney serving as secretary of state. >> i think if the two of them can get-together, mitt romney is an extremely smart guy. he brings a lot to the table and so i think looking at him as a candidate is the right thing to do. >> reporter: and the trump landing teams are starting to make progress making contact at some of the key agencies, defense, state and justice department as well as the national security council, really starting to coordinate now in terms of the transition and the hand over with the obama administration officials. donald trump is en route later this weekend, on saturday and

sunday he'll be spending the weekend at his golf resort in new jersey where he continues to work on staffing out his administration and notably this big meeting with mitt romney will happen. >> here to discuss donald trump's decision to offer general flynn the role of national security adviser and give us insight about what we might hear today chief strategist and communications director for the rnc who worked so closely with the trump campaign and now working closely with the transition. do we expect any announcements today? would it be surprising to see announcements today >> it would not be surprising to see something come out today but remember again, one of the things that you need to understand about president-elect trump is that until he says something it's not official. he has met with a ton of quality caliber people from general flynn to general keen, general maddus, other people. yesterday secretary kissinger. he don't geted a stock price the

best and brightest, national security, foreign policy, military affairs. so i wouldn't be surprised to see a couple of things here and there but he's going to put forth one of the strongest national security and defense related teams that this country has ever seen with people who have got the expertise and vision to make sure that our country is protected and that our military has everything it needs. just for example somebody talked about the landing teams. the landing teams for national security are hitting agencies today. department of defense, department of justice, those are people designated by president-elect trump to work with people designated by the white house to go into these departments and begin that transition process so that on january 20th, after he takes his hand off that bible that he's ready on day one to implement real change throughout the entire government. on monday we'll talk about the economic team and domestic policy team. these agencies and these landing teams will go all throughout government, departments,

agencies and make sure we have a plan in place to enact real change. >> cbs news is reporting that jeff sessions senator from alabama has been off terrified job as attorney general. can you confirm that? >> no, i can't. as i said earlier until donald trump says it, it's not official. that's how it works and will work. he's the ultimate decider. he'll be the president of the united states on january 20th. way he's run his business and his campaign until he says something it's not official. >> not official but maybe we'll hear something later today. let me ask you about general michael flynn. donald trump has not said it out loud. it's been reported general flynn has been offered the role as national security adviser. let me play you about what general flynn has said about islam. >> islam is a political ideology, a political ideology. it hides behind this notion of it being a religion. i don't see a lot of people

screaming jesus christ with hatchets or machetes are or rifles or axing families on a train. it's like a malignant cancer in this case. >> all right. he says islam is a political ideology that hides behind this notion of it being a religion. he will now being, we believe, the national security adviser d.o.t.. does president-elect donald trump believe that islam is a political ideology that hides behind the notion of acreligion. >> you heard on the campaign trail several times donald trump talk about threat that islamic terrorist poses. we have to be honest. >> general flynn says it's not a religion. >> at the end of the day donald trump is the president of the united states. it's his vision and his beliefs. he understands the threats this country is facing. he's compromising the best national security, foreign policy and military team that this country has ever seen

because he understands the threats that this country is facing and how to address them. so you look at not just general flynn but the entire team, the landing team going over those agencies i mentioned. the departments. you look at the other people he's considering. it's going to be an entire team. >> we're talking about the guy who will be the national security adviser which is the point person on international affairs, national security, military inside the white house. and that person said that islam is a political ideology that hides behind being a religion. there are 1 billion muslims in the world. i think that muslims in the united states and all around the world want to know if the president-elect believes that islam is not a religion. >> the president of the united states believes radical islamic terrorism needs addressed. that there are people within that religion whose entire goal is to come after the united states and we got to be honest. >> michael flynn said it's not a religion. >> i understand that.

president-elect of the united states who is the man that matters in this equation and he'll tell every single person in the administration from national security adviser to chief of steve, secretary of defense what his vision is and what he believes. it's what he believes that matters. >> let's move on to mitt romney. what he believes or believed during the campaign, he called donald trump a fraud. what does it say to you the two men will sit down together in new jersey. >> it shows you how magazinamin donald trump is. senator cruz had some reservations. donald trump has let all of that go. what he cares about now shot this what your partisanship is, not whether you support him or not, whether or not you can help him and enact real change. that's it. full stop. you look it a the actions he speaks since he took that stage at 2:00 a.m. on wednesday

morning and accepted the presidency from hillary clinton and thanked the american people for their support. he's done everything to show what a great president he's going and what a great team he's going. he's meeting with democrats, republicans, people who supported him, people who didn't. criteria is this do you have good ideas about making this country great. full stop. >> let me ask you also about donald trump taking credit for keeping a ford plant in the united states. one of the tweets he put out last night i worked hard to keep bill ford to keep the lincoln plant in the country. ford says this plant wasn't going anywhere. ford said they were going make a different kind of car. they were going make ford escapes than the lincoln mkc. >> he has been very clear about the need to keep jobs in america whether it's ford or other companies and we got to stop outsourcing our jobs and creating regulations and policies that encourage companies to move and i know he's been very vocal especially with the car manufacturing

sector. >> he didn't keep jobs in america he kept the model in america. >> the discussions that he's had with various people, business leaders and company executives is not something i'll share but i can tell you he's been very committed to this. not just publicly but privately with meetings he's had with ceos. >> will you work in the administration >> i'll do whatever i'm asked. >> have you been offered a job. >> you can't say know the president of the united states but been frankly an honor to be part of this process. it's unbelievably historic what's happened and i'm honored to have a small role in this. >> thanks so much being with us. nancy pelosi facing a rare challenge to her leadership of democrats in the house. ohio congressman tim ryan says it's time for a new direction, new leadership. himself. congressman ryan with us to talk about it next. tokyo-style ramen noodles.

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nancy pelosi has been the top democrat in the house since 2003.

now a challenge for that spot, the democrats had hoped to gain 20 or more seats in the house but only got six. few races are still being decided. so is it time for new democratic leadership? our next guest thinks so. let's bring in ohio congressman tim ryan. he's challenging nancy pelosi. thank for being here. how did you make a decision like this? how did you decide to throw your hat in the ring? >> i never had any ambition to run for house leadership. after what happened on tuesday and what happened in 2014 and going back to 2010, we keep lotion. we need to start winning races so that we can get in a position to implement our agenda. winners win and we're not winning right now and we have to start winning races. i'm very frustrated with where we are and i believe where i come from and who i am allows me, would allow notice connect with voters all around the country to pull them back into the democratic fold. >> because you're from

youngstown, ohio. so you have your finger on the pulse you think of working class voters more than other democrats? >> i believe so. i mean there are a lot of democrats that have the finger on the pulse. i believe i'm one of them. i grew up just outside of youngstown. my grandfather was a steel worker. my wife's dad worked in a steel mill. my buddies work in construction and factories. my whole family. this is like in our bones. so we kind of knew what was happening over the last few years. >> did you. did you see this happening? were you somebody who saw donald trump winning? >> you get in a campaign and you get hopeful and you push out a certain message. there was a disconnect. we were feeling it on the ground. and, you know, we need to do sboeg something about it. what i tell democrats is look we just elected donald trump president of the united states. we're doing something terribly wrong and i think we need to

move in another direction and i'm offering myself up to our caucus to say hey let's do something different. >> what did nancy pelosi do wrong? >> well, you know, i don't want to get into all that. >> i don't you don't want to engaging finger pointing. something went wrong. what has the leadership done wrong? >> we're losing that's the big story. part of it is our message isn't connecting with working class folks. black folks, brown folks, white folks, gay, straight, rich, poor, black. we have to have a message that connects with everybody. sometimes as democrats we kind of slice that pie up like this interest group, that interest group. look we're americans. we can come together around an economic message that provides opportunity for everybody and that message resonates with people. >> why weren't you speaking to working class voters?

>> donald trump came in with that economic message and that's why he's president right now. >> so you think nancy pelosi was focused on issues that don't resonate with people. >> yeah. we were not focused on economics. we were focused on other issues. and that piece sag clearly wasn't penetrating. could you say well it was a presidential election. i don't want to hang this around nancy pelosi's neck. i love her. she's great. she was a mentor. amazing speaker. we got to ask ourselves who can get us back in the majority. we need to win 30 who iv seats in different parts of the country, michigan, wisconsin but down south. when i first got in we had two or three more seats in indiana. we had more seats in louisiana, tennessee. those seats are all gone. we got to go back -- donald trump will cut taxes for the wealthy. they will privatize medicare. they are going to throw people off their health insurance. we need a leader that can go in

these districts in the southern part of our country out west an say hey, we're here for you. what he's doing is what we told you he would do. let's go. vote democrat. let's win this thing and get the country back to where it should be. >> our long shot? >> yeah. i think from now i am today. but we got two weeks. i'm telling you right now there are a lot of people in our caucus that change and they want to move the caucus in another direction. why i think i'll win this thing and get very close to winning it is because our caucus knows we need to go in another direction. it's not just about us in the house of representatives. there's no one at the dnc. the obamas are leaving. the clintons are gone. bidens are gone. harry reid are gone. 200 people in the house of representatives will decide which direction we go. >> tim kaine said he has no interests in running for president or vice president in 2020 next time around. who is the new democratic leader? >> i have no idea.

>> who do you think the leaders are if you can narrow it down to one? who are you looking at? >> guys like cory booker who i love. sherrod brown who is a good friends of mine in ohio. an amazing senator. clearly elizabeth warren is a great senator. so i think those are kind of the, you know, party people. we got to get new people into the democratic party. people talk about us not having a bench. part of the problem is there's a concentration in the house of representatives. you should see the talent we have in the house of representatives. young people. guys like jeffries and rice and so many talented people here in new york but across the country that really quite frankly if they don't start moving up they will do something else. >> what is your message today to demonstrate. what is your vision for future for the democratic party? >> what is america 2.0. what's it took like? i believe it's multi-cultural, it's progressive and innovative.

what is the democratic party 2.0 that can help us get to america 2.0? we've lost aspiration, i think in the country. so negative. it's about i'm not like this, i'm not like that. where are the hopes and dreams? where's the juice of politics. what are campaigns all about. it's not about hate and fear. it's about how are we going to put this beautiful tapestry of america. democrats should be front and center and as much as there was a lot of tragedy on tuesday for us, within those tragedies there's opportunity and i think great leaders and great institutions take advantage of those bad things that happen and, you know, make lemonade out of lemons. >> congressman ryan, thanks for coming in. great talking to you. donald trump and mitt romney not exactly -- there you are, john. >> i'm right here.

>> take it way. donald trump and mitt romney not exactly the best of friends like aus but donald trump and mitt romney will sit down and talk about future and maybe a possible job for mitt romney. we'll speak to some people who work very closely with the former massachusetts governor and hear what they have to say. stick around.

first responders not just dodging air strikes in syria. civilian volunteers are working to rescue people trapped in the rubble of a crumbling aleppo. took two workers four hours to pull this boy to safety this week. my word. more than 100 people were killed. hundreds others were injured in the latest bombing offensive which began tuesday and showing no signs of winding down. volkswagen announcing it will shed 30,000 jobs in a move to return frostability by 2020. it's facing tens in millions of fines and compensation payments

after found to be cheating on emission tests. >> a federal appeals court blocking the release of brandon daisy. he and his uncle steve avery have been in prison since 2007. president-elect donald trump set to meet with former republican nominee for president and rival mitt romney. this weekend they will discuss we hear a potential role maybe secretary of state. it is surprising after all of their words for each other during the campaign. >> donald trump is a phoney, a fraud. >> mitt was a disaster as a candidate. >> he's playing the members of the american public for suckers. >> romney let us all down. avenues very poor campaigner. >> he gates free ride to the white house and all we get is a lousy hat. >> romney choked like a dog. he choked. >> his promises are as worthless as a degree from trump

university. >> i have a lot of friends. no. i have a lot of friends. by the way, mitt romney is not one of them. >> let's bring in our panel to discuss this. so you guys know mitt romney well. kevin, let me start with you. what is he thinking today as he prepares to meet with donald trump? >> well, look, i think one of the things that drives governor romney is a sense of duty. and i think that sense of duty is what's trying him to help president-elect trump in anyway he can as he puts together a government. and he starts thinking about some of the challenges that he'll face as a new president. and it is something that i think governor romney thought about

during his presidential race while you have to campaign in poetry you had to govern in prose and there are very serious issues. there are very serious decisions to make. and quite frankly leaning on people outside of your comfort zone is an important thing to do, to get perspective. that was something that not only did he do as a presidential candidate he also did as a, when he was governor of massachusetts. so i think he recognizes that there is that, that type of outreach potentially going on with president-elect trump's transition team. >> lonnie, to be clear, mitt romney met with president obama at the white house after he lost the race. mitt romney has shown his willingness to do this, to talk about the country and important issues going forward. but in addition to not seeming to like each other too much as that last video just showed they have substantive policy differences on big important

issues that the secretary of state, which is the job that's been sort of floated in the air over the last 24 hours or so would have to deal with. what ares to major differences? >> i think there are differences. kpla clearly expressed differences on russia and in particular vladimir putin. there are questions regarding differences potentially on trade although i do remind people in 2012 governor romney was pretty forward leaning in talking about our need to be more aggressive in our trading relationship with china. but, john, here's what i come back to at the end of the day. i think there's some similarity in a focus on american interest that mitt romney and donald trump expressed. if you look at the macro level there may be actually more there than meets the eye in terms of commonality in terms of donald trump has expressed and governor romney has expressed. >> anyway that donald trump offers mitt romney secretary of state which we hear mitt romney has an interest in.

>> it feels unlikely and off brand but it's 2016. here's the thing about understanding this transition, i think in context. anyone who thought it would be a normal transition, you're out of your mind. it will be chaotic, about new york grudge matches and relationships and we're going to have to intinterpret it as we g. there's a possibility he wants to keep his enemies close and might give them those jobs or a possibility that donald trump being the deal maker, gives you a romney and everybody goes that sounds nice. when would people have said romney sounded like a great option a couple of years ago. they wouldn't have. they thought avenues monster. this is how you make a deal. >> donald trump known to be something of a showman right now. the optics matter. these people of all stripes and of all opinions is what a president-elect should do. >> looks like a mature

professional relationship that they are looking for. there's the capacity to do that. >> a lot of this, john, if i may, a lot of this is signalling. there are a lot of policy professionals that look at what seems like a lot of chaos in the transition. it may keep them from serving. at the same time what the transition needs to get rid of the chaos is, you know, really good policy professionals to step up and be willing to serve. when they see somebody like mitt romney who is seen as a critic and a rival of president-elect trump be able to sit down, that does give people a little bit more license to consider doing the same and that, i think, will ultimately help the transition and that may be one of part of why this is happening. >> lonnie, there's more breaking news in terms of appointments. cbs is reporting, cnn has not been able to confirm this but they are reporting that jeff sessions senator has been offered the attorney general

position. what do you think of that? what does this mean for rudy giuliani, all of this talk of secretary of state and attorney general and where he would be. >> well, this is a period of time when we're bound to hear a lot of rumors. people have referred to sort of chaos in the transition. there's a natural element of sorting out that's happening. the appointment of jeff sessions if that in fact is what's happening reaffirms this notion donald trump is putting people in place who he's comfortable with, who were supportive and loyal during his campaign but shares his vision on policy. certainly with respect to immigration no one has been more forceful about talking about the need for border security over the years than jeff sessions. in many ways this appointment if true would make perfect sense. >> you look at jeff sessions, that's not a surprise given how close those two men were. nor was general flynn a surprise. nor reince preibus. steve bannon maybe a little bit of a surprise. right now you got four potential people being named all white

men. at what point does that become an issue and diversity becomes a concern? >> i think there may be areas where he surprises like with a peter teal, openly gay appointment. there are ways donald trump -- he's a new yorker. he has experience with diverse people. and, again, 2016. i think sessions pick is definitely more on brand but all of these people you're hearing who definitely have spots or we'll see on sessions thing are people who were loyal to him throughout the campaign. throughout his career that's more of what you see than the critics coming in and giving him honest feedback. i would hope for some of the romney style criticism as well in his team. >> are you hopeful for a more diverse team than what we've seen so far? >> i don't think they put as much a premium on diversity and worrying about some of the gender balance. they didn't do as much of that during the campaign. and, you know, they weren't

punished for that. so i expect that they are going -- i think mary catherine is right. the premium they put on when they look at appointments is on who is loyal to donald trump. and does it fit sort of with the world view and some of the agenda that he's laid out that he got elected on. that's much more of at that priority for them right now. >> panel, thank you very much. great to get all of your perspectives. more than a week after the election still no word on who won the governor's race in north carolina. and now a bitter battle is emerging. we have a live report on this ahead. to worry about replacing your car because you'll get the full value back including depreciation. and if you have more than one liberty mutual policy, you qualify for a multi-policy discount, saving you money on your car and home coverage. call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance.

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election still no winner declared in north carolina's governor's race. ugly battle now brewing between the incumbents governor pat mccrory and the challenger roy cooper. we go live to raleigh, north carolina for the latest. >> reporter: good morning. breaking news overnight in the state house behind me, the question who will become north carolina's next governor got more complicated. republicans have now filed complaints or protests now against a dozen counties but 50 counties. that's half of the counties in this state. the current republican governor he says he has known instances of people casting ballots.

those ballots cast by dead people, felons and people who voted twice. democrats say he's just getting desperate. >> i love this country. >> reporter: north carolina delivered donald trump an easy victory over hillary clinton on election night. but left its republican governor pat mccrory in limbo. >> we're going to fight for every vote. >> reporter: his democratic opponent state attorney general roy cooper eked yet just .1%. the race was declared too close to call. the democrat cooper announced himself as the winner. >> because of your hard work we have won this race for governor of north carolina! >> reporter: republican officials accuse democrats of engaging in voter fraud. >> we have people who voted and registered on the same day and not gone through the verification process. >> reporter: democrats say

republicans purged legitimate vote frers the roles and suppressed voter turnout days before the election the naacp accused three counties of illegal voter purges, targeting african-americans. a federal judge agreed ordering to restore names to voter roles. mccrory support's expects his treebs an easy victory. after all in 2012 he won by double digits. and this time around trump easily carried the so-called battleground state. but many including his supporters blame his potential defeat on hb 2, a highly controversial bathroom bill which he support. requiring transgender individuals to use the public bathroom which corresponds to their gender at birth. >> hb 2 did bring him down. >> hb 2 had a negative impact on

our state. >> reporter: forbes estimates the state lost more than $600 million in business after a swift backlash from corporations and entertainers. recently the state lost hosting the ncaa championships, and nba all-star game and concerts by pearl jam, bruce springsteen and nick jonas. thursday as governor mccrory to go about the business of governing addressing the state's raging wildfires, state democratic officials accused him of sabotage, saying unfortunately as cooper's lead grows stronger the mccrory campaign is getting increasingly desperate and attempting to undermine the results of the election. an election that has to be resolved before january 1st. >> so what happens next there? >> reporter: well, john, in the last ten days they are countsing the provisional and absentee ballots. all results from all the

counties are due today. this could be delayed. first you talk about those challenges to 50 counties in the process in which they cast the ballots. if that's not resolved dedicate will being pushed back. if did you have that tally and less than 10,000 votes between two candidates the loser can call for a recount which would start this process all over again. very likely that we're not going find out the results of this race until probably well after thanksgiving, john. so stay tuned. >> that will be a nice vacation for you to stay down there in north carolina. bring us all the news. >> lovely this time of year. >> i want thanksgiving with my family. >> we understand. >> thank you very much for all of that. listen to this story. a police officer spots a teenager walking in the early hours of the morning but it's what happened next that the is the real story. >> first on this sunday's parts unknown, anthony bourdain

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what started as a chance encounter beside a california freeway turned into a lifeline for one student. we are introduced to an officer who truly went beyond the call of duty. >> reporter: working the grave yard shift can be lonely for a cop but on a chilly september night, this police officer would have some company. >> he had a hoodie on. he's dressed all in black. i had seen some lights like flash at my back. >> reporter: 18-year-old jordan had just finished his old fwraef yard shift packing boxes. >> did you think this person was up to no good. >> reporter: since he was so close to the freeway i thought he broke down. >> reporter: jordan explained he was walking home. he tells me the exact path he takes through our city and literally uphill both ways. so i said, you know, if you don't mind hold on a >> so it took you two hours each way to get to work?

>> yes, my car had broke down, and so i figured i had no other way to work. >> reporter: he says he didn't want to burden others by asking for a ride so he walked seven miles each way, six days a week. >> most people use that distance as an excuse not to find a job. but this kid it wasn't an obstacle. >> on the ride home jordan shared his dream, to go to college and to become a police officers. corporal kemper was so struck by the chance encounter he knew he had to do something to make jordan's life a little easier. getting the car fixed was going to be too expensive. but corporal kemper had an idea. if four wheels wasn't an option, how about two? so for $500, the police department bought jourden a brand new bike. >> he was speechless. he kind of said, just, you know, all this was walking. but it's so much more than that. you're getting your job done.

i mean that's impressive. word can explain how flabbergasted i was. >> stay in the car. >> that was just the beginning. he and his colleagues have launched a fund to pay for jourden's college and maybe a new car, as well. in the meantime, the bike will do just fine. >> i just treasure the bike. it's never been dirty before. >> dan simon, cnn, venetia, california. president-elect donald trump offering to post his national security adviser to retired lieutenant general michael flynn. critics have accused flynn of stoking islamaphobia with tweets like this one, quote, fear of muslims is rational. please forward this to others. the truth fears no questions. our next guest, a muslim and new u.s. citizen, says that attitude is not helpful, especially in the fight against terror. dr. ahmed is the author of in the land of invisible women and she joins us now. great to see you here. so fear of muslims is rational.

let's start there. what do you think about that? >> honestly, it's rubbish. it's -- it's absolutely not helpful. are we now as americans our military leaders want to fear one quarter of humanity? that makes no sense. we're going to be afraid of 1.7 billion people. what it is -- i wouldn't even consider it fear. what we do need to be concerned about is islamism and that's what hoping trump's administration will be able to focus on. >> you have always drawn a deep distinction between islam, and islamism, which is the more radical strain of it. let me play for you something that general flynn said because he doesn't seem to be drawing that distinction. so let me play for you what he said at a conference this summer. >> islam is a political ideology. it is a political ideology. it -- it definitely hides behind this notion of it being a religion. i don't see a lot of people screaming jesus christ with hatchets or machetes or rifles,

shooting up clubs or hatcheting, you know, literally axing families on a train. so it's like cancer. and it's like -- it's like a malignant cancer in this case. it has metastasized. >> what's your response? >> first, the precept that he made is completely false. islamism is the political ideology. islam is a faith. and we need -- nobody needs to know that more -- more clearly than our military leaders. and that's a very important distinction. by not making the distinction we actually shelter islamism. remember that's a totalitarian ideology that speaks to a world order which masquerades as islam as countless countries will tell you. >> he's melding the two. i know you fear that for a military leader and certainly the national security adviser because there are so many muslims in our armed services. >> that's one. so many muslims in our armed

services. the second is, don't forget we have american special forces now in iraq, alongside muslim armies from iraq and iran, in fact, combatting isis. now how did they digest this? it's absolutely not useful. but it is a golden nugget if you are an islamist. if you are proposing and if you are supporting radical and violent islamism or radical institutional islamism, this is a gift from god. and that's the kind of opportunity, i'm not here to berate the new administration. my job as a citizen is to try and serve them to the best of my ability. muslims like me can explain the distinction and the values of making that distinction. >> how will you, enlighten president-elect trump and now his national security adviser about what they should be saying. >> what i would like to see is the president-elect trump to succeed where president obama failed. to separate the religion of islam from the political ideology, to engage with america's muslims. 3.3 million of us.

the whole world is looking to see how america treats the muslims within her borders and that is a -- it's something you could start off by he's very good at rallies. he's very good at engaging the public. think about the forum where muhammad ali had -- had a funeral. the kind of diverse american community that came together. multireligious, but also diversity within islam. that's only possible in the united states. >> so you would like to see president-elect trump have one of those rallies in front of a muslim audience and talk directly -- >> i think you know where would be a great place? dearborn, michigan. home to one of the largest muslim communities in the united states. where, let's give him a chance. let's engage with him. let's hear he's our president, not just president for everyone in the nation except americans who are muslim or muslim migrants here. the other thing is, i'd like him to bring intellect to the table. there are real scholars in

islamism. i'd like him to empower intellectual exchange in universities, of political islamism with muslim scholars not funded by patrons of islamism like iran, turkey or saudi arabia. those are the kinds of things he could do. >> president-elect trump had talked about a ban on muslims. that would have banned you from coming to this country, practicing medicine, becoming a u.s. citizen, and yet you're still open to working with him. i mean, what does the ban mean to you? >> the ban was astonishing in many regards. but i feel he may not have been adequately informed. how do we ban muslims that make their homes here from 68 different nations, or 183 nationalities that are home to muslims, how do you do that? and to me, i feel, america's made such an incredible investment in my education, which i took to muslim countries and shared with muslim patients and physicians -- >> you went to saudi arabia to work after you were educated here then you came back. >> exactly. >> and now are working here.

>> but when you work in the muslim world you represent america and they were just so delighted to see a highly trained woman help their family member. that's a great asset. we haven't really engaged post-9/11 america's soft power. we've kind of forgotten that we have tremendous soft power intellectual exchange, academic exchange. building an intel jens yeah. we're not going to be able to defeat islamism with registries and isolationism, borders and camps. that's not going to do it. what that will do is ghettoize muslims in america and we know what happens because we can look to europe. >> if president-elect trump calls you are prepared to talk to him about all of this. >> it would be my honor to share my knowledge. >> dr. ahmed always great to see you. thanks so much for being here. we're following a lot of news this morning. let's get right to it. >> we are working briskly in the transition. >> general flynn does have the confidence of donald trump. >> i would be worried about an

impulsive president with an impulsive national security adviser. >> i know that mr. trump is very excited to meet with governor romney. >> if you were the best person for that job then he wants you as part of this team. >> the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again. >> house democrats must be un y unifi unified, strategic and unwavering. >> heart pounding video out of florida. >> i felt like something came and just pushed me forward. >> just a miracle. >> all of our lives continued. >> this is "new day," with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> we will talk to that little hero. that little baby saver coming up in the program. good morning, welcome to your new day friday november 18th 8:00 in the east chris is off this morning john berman is happy to be here. >> thrilled. >> we have breaking news for you. the transition of power an official close to the trump transition team tells cnn that president-elect trump has selected senator jeff sessions as attorney general. >> jeff sessions a key loyalist to donald trump, someone who was very close to donald trump all

through the campaign. and this comes hours after the president-elect offered the post of national security adviser to someone else who was very loyal and close to him during the campaign. retired general michael flynn. cnn has the transition covered from every angle this morning starting with sunlen serfaty live outside trump tower in manhattan. >> a lot of moves being made by the trump transition team. my colleague phil mattingly confirming that donald trump has indeed settled on alabama's jeff sessions, senator jeff sessions to be his pick for attorney general. sessions has been by his side from the start of his campaign at a time when many on capitol hill did not support donald trump. he wases very first senator to endorse donald trump and stuck by his side serving not only as a chief surrogate but an adviser at many times donald trump sought counsel from him most notably when he was moving to

pick mike pence for vice president. also a big meeting scheduled this weekend for donald trump as he moves to potentially consider other names for other top cabinet positions. he is meeting with former rival mitt romney who was very adamantly opposed to donald trump during the campaign. they'll be beating in bedmimster, new jersey. and we know a potential consideration for romney for a cabinet post potentially for secretary of state. also as you said, donald trump making his first formal appointment, that of lieutenant general michael flynn for national security adviser. this role does not need senate confirmation. but the other cabinet positions, of course, do. john and alisyn? >> sunlen thank you for all of that background. let's bring in cnn political analyst and washington bureau chief for the daily beach jackie susan itch and cnn politics executive editor mark preston. mark broke the news