unknown: buenos aires" tomorrow night on cnn. i'm poppy harlow in new york. thank you for being with me. a live picture out of bed minister, new jersey. holding meetings for trump's transition and talking possible cabinet picks and much more on that. look at him coming out live there. another one of his team meetings that said are non-stop all weekend long trying to fill a lot of key positions. much more live on all of this at 7:00 p.m. eastern but now stay tuned for "smerconish." >> i'm michael smerconish live. we welcome our viewers around the world and in the united states. the trump administration is taking shape like his candidacy with some inherent

contradictions. meeting with mitt romney despite repeatedly attacking each other throughout the campaign. is there room for romney? maybe as secretary of state. but his pick so far, pretty hard lined. for attorney general, not mayor giuliani but instead named senator jeff sessions whose views on race and crime are under fire. might he now be in a position to shape civil rights policy? and in what has to be a presidential first, trump agreed to pay $25 million to settle trump university lawsuits. and with so many potential con fli fli conflicts of interest looming, "wall street journal" said he should sell all. could his be the clinton foundation reductix? and is the functioning of the white house press pool now in

jeopardy? for the latest on the pow wow with romney and trump, cnn correspondent phil mattingly. >> it's a meeting we thought was unfathomable for certain. con man, con artist, back and forth, all throughout the campaign. well, now they're sitting down meeting. an hour and 20 minutes and all focused on foreign policy according to mitt romney and obviously, a lot of speculation about what might be meeting for and is there a potential cabinet position in the mix? trump advisors say it's something they're looking at right now, potentially maybe even secretary of state. as for where romney comes down on this, a lot of questions. would he want to serve in the trump administration and made clear about today and advisors around him made clear the last couple of days to try to help the president-elect going forward and not going to apologize but willing to try to move past it or as one advisor said for the good of the country. will that mean a role in the trump administration is th?

that's something we have to wait and see but it was a great meeting. michael? >> thank you for that report. now, about the administration appointments he's already made. last week i said although i didn't vote for him, i recognized donald trump as my president and i would evaluate him based on actions, not words as a candidate. i hope he'd govern not as an d ideologue and maybe see a compromiser in chief in the white house and on election night he said it's time to, quote, bind the wounds of division, unquote. after another week, the trump administration is taking shape and my glass is half empty. at the outset, it looked like the president-elect was trying to appease the different sometimes conflicting constituencies that had supported him. steve bannon, a media provocateur of house speaker paul ryan named senior advisor and at the same time, ryan's wisconsin neighbor, the more establishment republican, reince priebus, named white house chief of staff. balance is good.

and then three more picks. lieutenant general mike flynn as national security advisor, senator jeff sessions as attorney general, and congressman mike pom ppeo, headf the cia. he said it's not a religion. and a republican senate to turn aside judicial nomination on ronald reagan's watch. pompeo critic regarding benghazi and tweeted he looked forward to rolling back the nuclear agreement with iran. he's also called for the death penalty with nsa whistle blower edward snowden. it's a hard line bunch and racially diverse and these five are not. and mitt romney, not window dressing but an actual reach. not across the aisle, at least toward the center. the cabinet and staff picks in

combination with the president-elect's twitter attack on, quote, professional protesters, his unwillingness to divest himself and family from his businesses as even "the wall street journal" advises and keeping the american media at bay while having his first meeting with a foreign leader are all troublesome signs. come on, surround yourself with more balance in both perspective and experience, not to mention diversity. yes, you won. you're entitled to pick your team. but the selections you make now are going to have long range implications and you are the president of all of us, not just the 47% who voted for you. joining me now, allen d dershowitz. a guy for unaroused voters. oh my. and ned ryan. am i mistaken when i say i'm

looking for a president-elect to be more inclusionary? >> here's the deal. first of all, i think people are understanding that trump meant when he said when running for office and now he's won and going to put people in places to advance what he wants accomplished and i think you said something interesting. when i said, i give him for actions but not words and jeff sessions, for example, i think people will be pleasantly surprised if they start to look at jeff sessions' actions as a u.s. attorney and attorney general of alabama. he was pushing for desegregation of schools and the case of the son of the clans man that murdered a young black man but not only attorney but led to breaking the back of the kkk in alabama. he voted. he was one of the only republicans to vote for eric holder as attorney general. i mean, he was an advocate for rosa parks and voted for 30 year extension of the civil rights act. so i think jeff sessions' actions, i think people will be

encouraged and mike flynn, i think mike flynn, first of all, let's remember, mike flynn is a registered democrat. he was appointed by obama in 2012 to head the defense intelligence agency and what's great is he wakes up every morning going, how am i going to keep future generations safe and i don't think anybody can disagree with that. >> i have to say and i want to show a piece of footage and allow professor to respond. i worry he's a recruitment device for isis, roll the tape so we can comment on this. >> islam is a political ideology. it is a political ideology. 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. it's like cancer, and it's like

a malignant cancer in this case and has metastasized. >> professor, i don't shy away from using the words radical islam. i regard those as referring to a small but strident group who are acting in a perversion in the faith but he says something different. sounds like the crew sausadecru? >> i agree. it's a way overstatement to condemn every muslim in the world. what i'm afraid is i see a global phenomenon manifested right now in america of the right moving more right and the left hoffimoving more left and vital center being eliminated so the reaction of the anti-muslim statement, we see the appointment of keith ellison as the head of the democratic national committee and kind of a radical person of the left, strongly anti-israel who had close connections in the past. in the democrats think that's the way to win elections, they're making a terrible mistake and i think those of us

in the center, i'm a center liberal, there are center conservatives. we're the ones who are being squeezed out by the movement of the right to the alt right, the movement of the left to the extreme radical left and i think we need to see a coalition building to move us more to the center, the vibrant center which is what america has always been about. >> professor, you have defended steve bannon against charges of anti-semitism but you've not embraced his status, his appointment as a senior advisor. explain. >> i don't like people to be falsely charged with anti-semitism. that's a nuclear weapon and i looked at the evidence very closely and i came to the conclusion as did the anti-defamation league that the charge of anti-semitism was absolutely false. that doesn't mean that i condone what he said about women. what he has said and allowed to be published about muslims. i don't think it's a good appointment. nor do i think the keith ellison

appointment is a good appointment but i would also defend ellison against charges that he is anti-seanti-semitic. and bannon, a wonderful guy in person. jeff sessions, wonderful guy in person. the jewish community in minnesota said about keith ellison, he's a wonderful guy in person. so these are all politicians who are charming, who are very good to their constituents. everybody who knows them loves them and we have to judge by their complete record. america is a forgiving country and if keith ellison said things in the past and apologized, i'm prepared to forgive. if jeff sessions said things in the past, he's been a good senator and a good u.s. attorney, i'm prepared to forgive that. i think we have to look at the total picture but my distress is the movement of the extreme right, more right, the extreme left, more left and we are in the center left out. >> michael, if i could. >> ned, i don't concede his

point that represents a majority of the country because my, you know, all my work here frankly is predicated on the belief that there's a whole swath that is the majority who are somewhere between those polar extremes. let me ask you a different question. sit down with governor romney. window dressing or real prospect of reaching into a different part of the republican party? >> i think, first of all, there's a couple of things going on. one, a healing process, as you pointed out, an acrimonious relationship through the elections and i think it's a time to sit down and go, we're both republicans, we might have our disagreements but let's sit down. i honestly don't think, michael, if you were to say in that place that you think romney gets a cabinet position, i don't think he will. we'll find out. i think the thing about trump that he's having a little bit of fun with is that he's having people come in, kiss the ring, we saw this happen with ted cruz and announces jeff sessions, so i think there's some positive things taking place. and i think trump's having a bit of fun right now.

but i don't, i really don't envision romney getting a place in the cabinet. but we'll see what takes place. >> i have a different perspective on the secretary of state and i think what we see generally is a marginalization of the state department and foreign policy is not made in the state department. it's made in the white house. that's been true for several administrations. and i think the appointment of secretary of state if it's romney who's a great guy, i like him. he's a terrific governor. he's a wonderful man. i would love to see his appointment in the cabinet but if he's appointed secretary of state, it will mean even greater marginalization of the state department. giuliani on the other hand, so much like donald trump. he is tough. he's smart. he's trump's guy. if giuliani got in the state department, we'd see an increase in the influence of the state department and government. this is much about the role of the state department, vis-a-vis the national security apparatus in the white house as it is about particular personnel. >> i'm appreciative.

allen and ned ryan. tweet me your thoughts at smerconish and i'll read some during the program and in fact, already coming in. a leopard does not change its spots. what did you expect? colin pinto, i try to give the man a benefit of the doubt and look at actions, not his words of the candidate. jeff sessions a pick a controversial one due to track record on civil rights and immigration. is he the right choice? ♪ i want a hippopotamus for christmas ♪ ♪ only a hippopotamus will do at the united states postal service, we deliver more online purchases to homes than anyone else in the country. and more hippopotamuses, too. ♪ so whatever your holiday priority, our priority is you.

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alabama senator jeff sessions is president-elect trump's pick for attorney general. what that might mean for america? he was a u.s. attorney for alabama and nominated to a federal judgeship. four lawyers testified he made racist remarks. now he's been a senator for 20 years. one of the most conservative members. his selection is clearly designed to implement candidate trump's law and order promises. is he the right pick? joining me now, civil rights attorney areva martin and carol swain. i know you look favorably on this nomination. are you saying that his earlier

statements back in the era when he was a u.s. attorney are now irrelevant in light of his 20 year record as a member of the senate? >> i think that you have to judge people by their records and some of the allegations against him were hearsay and even if he did make racially insensitive jokes like many people have, i think we need to look at what people actually do. we all make mistakes. i have followed his record for many years. i respect him enormously. and i believe that he would bring back respect to the department of justice and that he is the right person at this time to have president-elect trump fulfill his campaign promises and i think he will be fair to all americans and he, again, will bring respect to the department of justice that's been lost over the past 8 years. >> has he conscientiously worked

to dispel the shadows that cost him the judgeship? i lifted those words from the lead editorial in today's "times," carol. they said he did nothing to make amends for the comments if in fact he uttered them. >> what would you expect him to do? the colleagues that know him intimately respect him. i believe that they will confirm him and that he should certainly be given the opportunity to answer any questions that are posed to him but i think he's well respected by the colleagues and he will get bipartisan support. we need to look at his record and i don't think it's fair to always go back 30, 20, 30 years in someone's past to try to dredge up allegations. every republican nominee will be dismissed as a racist because all the democrats do is throw

out epithets. >> let me go to areva. i was close to arlan specter who served with jeff sessions and in his book life among the canni l canniba cannibals, he's what he wrote. he was defeated for a judgeship for four department of judgeship lawyers attested he made racist remarks. voted 10-8 against sessions' with mathias and me joining the democrats and that was the senate's first rejection and win in 1996, ultimately succeed me as senior republican on the judiciary committee and i have since publicly acknowledged my opposition was a mistake. right sflaenator specter and

biggest regrets. he was not a bigot. we would go on to enjoy a cordial relationship before and after my party switch. if senator specter said i came to know the guy and i was wrong to oppose him as a judge, does that make a difference to you? >> it makes a difference to me, mike. and i agree with carol swain on this point, that people can change, and i don't think there nomination of jeff sessions has caused the concern in the civil rights community simply because of the racist comments he made in 1986. everyone knows about those statements. people are particularly concerned about them for just cause but more concerned about what jeff sessions has done in the senate in the last 20 years. he has been the most strident opponent of every immigration law that has been presented to the u.s. senate. he has even opposed legal immigrants getting a pathway to

citizenship and opposed gay marriages and criminal justice reform and he has been the biggest biggest opposer to laws that protect the civil rights of americans in this country and if president-elect trump as he said in his acceptance speech when he won the president's election said he was going to bring people together. he was going to be the president for the entire country. but to appoint as attorney someone whose job is to protect the rights of all americans, someone with such a troubling past on race relations as jeff sessions, that doesn't speak well for the president's statement about bringing us together. you have the naacp, the aclu, the largest groups that support the rights of immigrants and the lgbt community speaking out against jeff sessions because they're concerned about his record, not just his statements in 1986 but his actual record as a senator and that record is troubling. >> carol, go ahead and respond.

>> i would say that they have a right to be concerned by the fact that senator sessions will support the rule of law. he has a record of being pro family and when it comes to immigration, he has been strongly in support of the american worker and he opposes illegal immigration and he will look at some of the programs that we have against worker programs where we may bring in people we really don't need that are low skilled workers so i think it's very important for president-elect trump if he's going to accomplish what he has promised to have a person that he trusts in the department of justice, we need a strong leader there and i believe that strong leader is senator sessions. i believe he will be fair to all americans. and he respects the constitution and the rule of law. so that means he'll be fair to immigrants. he'll be fair to anyone that is

in america, respecting our constitution, and our way of life. >> areva, quick comment. >> i want to say. >> for our criminal justice system when you think about eric holder not being active as a prosecutor of non-violent low level drug offenders by way of one illustration or this dichotomy in marijuana laws with the feds and the states, jeff sessions is going to be the one to sort those out and it will have a profound impact on the prison population. >> jeff sessions opposed the bipartisan bill, a criminal justice reform bill that would have reduced sentencing, federal sentencing for those low level offenders and that's troubling. and we know under prior republican administrations the civil rights department for all practical purposes gutted. that's the concern here. eric and loretta have been a adamant about criminal justice

reform. what happens to that with sessions lefts to be seen and i think a democratic congressman from illinois put it best. if we are nostalgic about a time when blacks stay quiet, when gays were in the closet, immigrants were invisible and women stayed in the kitchen, then jeff sessions is your guy. but -- >> areva martin. >> more in respect to protection of civil rights, there's real questions about jeff sessions. >> areva martin, carol swain, i always enjoy having the two of you here. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> they'll come back i'm sure. another of your tweets. a lot of twitter activity. you speak as if there's something inherently wrong with trump's nominees merely because they're white. i'm saying it's a big diverse country with a lot of strife in the aftermath in this election. i'm sure, i have to believe he'll put people of color around him but i'm surprised the first five picks were white guys.

that's all i'm saying. still coming up, peter schweizer attacked clintons for availability to foreign leaders p p p procluded by law and what does he say? i'll ask and even though candidate trump attacked the media, many think the media helped his campaign but now as president-elect, he is shutting out the white house press corps even from meetings with heads of state. is presidential transparency in jeopardy? we'll talk about italy. . . . (my hero zero by lemonheads)

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donald trump campaigned on his strength as a businessman. perhaps he was surprised when the "wall street journal" page said the president-elect should

liquidate his stake in the family business. it said, one reason 60 million voters elected donald trump is because he promised to change washington's culture of self-dealing and if he wants to succeed, he'll have to make a sacrifice and lead by example. this is ironic given that except for the damn e-mails, the issue that most dogged candidate hillary clinton was concern over the ethics of the clinton foundation and whether foreign governments made donations in exchange for favorable treatment while secretary of state and heading what might be a trickier path unless he heeds the journal's advice. joining me now, the man who literally wrote the book on the clinton foundation, clinton cash, the untold story of how and why foreign governments and businesses help make bill and hillary rich. peter schweizer is a breitbart news editor and head of the government accountability institute. the premise of your book, clinton cash, was that the

clintons were able to skirt the legal prohibition against foreign involvement in american elections. do you see a parallel set of ser circumstances between the trump organization and the clinton foundation that could head him into trouble? >> yes, very perilous waters here. look, the bulk of the holdings that the trump organization has is in real estate. and particularly when you go overseas to places like bahrain, azerbaijan, inherently political and have government involvement and the big concern here is that they are either going to seek favorable deals from these governmental entities knowing that donald trump is president or that foreign governments are going to offer sweetheart deals for the trumps in hoping to curry favors so there's a lot of work that needs to be done to create as best we can a wall to make sure that doesn't happen.

>> in other words the concern you had in regard to the clinton foundation was that a foreign individual or a foreign power could curry favor with the foundation by writing a check or by hiring bill at an exorbitant fee to speak and then therefore ingratiate themselves and then you're saying, you could do business with the trump organization and as long as the kids are running it, maybe your star rises. >> yes. i mean, look, imagine this scenario, the government of russia wants better relations. or wants something favorable from the federal government in washington, dc and the washington government approaches trump and said we've got this prime piece of real estate in moscow and would love to give it to you for fire sale prices to build a major project here. that's a huge problem. so the hope is that safeguards being put in place, that the trump organization leadership is on guard for precisely this kind of scenario because i think

based on history, it's only a question of time when these kinds of offers are made. and if they take those offers, it's hugely problematic. it's not only a conditiflict of interest but appearance of the conflict of interest and major problems around u.s. policy towards that country. >> and apart from the foreign prospect, let's look domestically and to be fair to the president-elect, he said, well, i'm going to be completely out of it and the kids will run the business. i don't know whether he meets the definition of blind trust the way that he envisions it but you could also see domestic political entities, maybe it's a union. maybe it's big far ma. maybe it's somebody with legislation they'd like to see pass and now the convention, it's at doral or it's the washington hotel he just opened up on 1600 pennsylvania avenue and peter schweizer and others will be writing new books and saying, is there a conflict here? was there a quid pro quo?

>> no, exactly, michael. a couple of people called for donald trump to divest himself from the trump organization. i think that's a great idea. i don't know what would be all the legalities of it and i think for him to sell his ownership stake in the companies would be very wise. second of all, the trump organization should announce publicly they don't have to do it legally but i think they really should ethically announce that they are not going to have any government contracts. they're not going to bid for contracts. they're not going to seek contracts with a general sf services or anybody else in the federal government. that at least offers some assurance they're trying to create a bright line but it's very, very difficult when you're talking about large real estate deals. these aren't stock trades where they trade in and out of stocks to divest yourself from real estate holdings is not an easy thing but i think it would be a very powerful thing to do and would send a great signal to the american people who are clamoring for somebody to clean

up washington, dc. >> that's good advice. final question, what will you title the book? >> right now, i am working on a project. it's a look at widespread corruption in washington, dc involving both political parties and we'll just have to see how things shake out. i am cautiously optimistic, hopeful that trump who comes to the white house saying he wants to drain the swamp and i think he's going to have an ambitious agenda in that regard will hopefully pay special attention to these kinds of ethical issues. >> thank you, peter. >> thank you, michael. so what should trump do to alleviate concerns? joining me now is richard painter. he was chief white house ethics lawyer for president george w. bush and currently professor of corporate law at the university of minnesota. if president-elect donald trump were to call you and seek your counsel as to how to get his

business affairs in order before he's inaugurated, what would you say to him? >> well, i would recommend that taking a lot of these holdings and put them into companies that could go public with an initial public offering with the registration statement that takes a few months to prepare but that could be done and then the shares could be sold for cash, and he would have a lot of cash there if he's worth what he says he is and several billion dollars and then that cash could be invested in mutual funds and/or in treasury securities or put in a blind trust and invested by the trustee investment that he wouldn't know about when he's president so he could focus on his job. >> but he's going to say to you a couple of things. why should i be penalized now that i'm president? why shouldn't my kids be the beneficiaries of my hard work and probably also say that the value is tied to me and if i'm no longer associated, it's going

to be a greatly diminished product and i'm not going to be able to cash out. >> first, i think there's a lot of buildings worth a lot and the trump empire is worth quite a bit of money without his name attached to it and they could sell that, initial public offering. i think they'd realize quite a bit of cash there but he chose to run for president of the united states and his job over the next four years is to be president, not his name used at the market buildings in various real estate projects all over the world and i think that creates way too many avenues for actual or perceived corruption and that's going to very much undermine his ability to be a good president. >> what about the kids? what about the children? how might there be ethical issues related to their continued involvement in the trump organization if, say, they provide counsel to their father?

ivanka was present for the meeting with the prime minister, if she's simultaneously running the hotel division, is that problematic? >> the appearances can be problematic but the ethics rules aren't violated unless the family member becomes a government employee: but if the family member becomes a government employee including an unpaid employee on an advisory board, that family member is going to have to make sure they watch the conflicts of interest because the financial conflicts of interest rules, even if they don't apply, including part-time government employees so the family members need to think seriously about whether they want to cross that line into being company government employees and watch their financial conflicts of interest very seriously. >> the trump university settled for $25 million which reminds me he's not protected against liability as president which is one more reason to completely

divest himself of all ongoing business activities, right? >> well, absolutely. the lawyers are going to be itching at cases all over the country against trump business enterprises. many lawyers are affiliated with the democratic party and they'll be cheered on by the president's political opponents and the jones vs. clinton case said he could be sued in the personal capacity while he's president, could have deposition testimony and all that but we've been through that with president clinton and if he gets rid of the business empire and sells it, he's going to reduce the risk of frivolous litigation and serious litigation. both risks, substantially, while he's president. >> okay. an ipo. that's the advice from the man who schooled george w. bush on presidential ethics. richard painter, thank you so

much. >> thank you very much. >> everybody against the trial lawyers until they need one. show me another tweet. @smerconish, if you think he'll change, you should enroll in trump university. very funny. thank you, jeff. one thing if the president-elect wants to go out for a steak dinner and doesn't feel obligated but quite another when he meets with a foreign head of state. we'll talk trump's treatment of the fourth estate when we come back and keep the tweets coming. is the media complicit saying there is real fear out there. disappointed is not fear. words matter. i keep saying, conduct matters. but you know, he's now named five people. i think that's conduct and it's worthy of some discussion. back in a second. [vo] quickbooks introduces jeanette.

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the press corps this week, the white house correspondent's association felt to issue a stern rebuke.

it is unacceptable to travel without a regular pool to record his movements and inform the public about his whereabouts. then trump met with japanese prime minister shinzo abe and the white house press was again, not invited but japanese press was allowed. what does this mean for the relationship moving forward and how will the public be kept informed about the whereabouts and actions of its elected leader? julie mason hosts the sirius press pool on the potus channel and white house for policec, politico and julie is he making rookie mistakes or do you think there's something more sinister taking place? >> michael, i think it's both. i think he's shown demonstrated contempt for the role that the press plays in the government and in covering him and also, he seems overwhelmed by this transition effort and has been overlooking some protocols that h have been in place for decades

important to democracy. >> some would say, the guy wants to eat a steak at the 21 club. give him a break. >> terrible things happen by surprise, michael. and the principle is more important than the event. bush was just going to read to little kids in florida. kennedy was just on a speech tour in dallas. the press needs to be there. we don't need to be at the table when he's having his steak. usually we sit out with no bathroom breaks for hours while the president plays golf or president-elect has dinner but there's rules in place. if something happens or if he comes under attack, you need independent journalists there to be the conduit of information o know, everyone needs to know that someone is in charge, that things are happening as they should. >> how unusual this episode earlier this week with the japanese prime minister that the american media would not have been granted access and were put in the position of having to decide, are we going to rely on the japanese media to cover

this? >> that's the thing. it was japanese government photos that were released. that doesn't meet our standards. that's not the standard for independent journalism and you noticed a lot aren't using the video or photos that came out because that's not how we do it. >> including cnn. >> right. we need independent journalist eyes on the president-elect when meeting with world leaders. that's very, very importantly. >> julie, fast forward to next spring. we all remember president obama doing his comedic routine. do you think trump will speak to the press corps? >> you know, that's a big question. you raise an interesting point. that dinner which was so maligned is a fundraiser for college scholarships. it would be a nice gesture.

>> i think the primer for him was the al smith dinner which he told a funny joke about melania in which he cribbed and then he deviated and became really unsettled in front of a funny audience. so it's going to be an interesting issue to see whether he's there at the big dinner. >> he really is not skilled at being self-deprecating and that's a skill that politicians have to have and that's what's on display at the dinner, being able to laugh at yourself and maybe he'll learn in the interim. >> jrue lulie mason, thank you. still to come, mike pence went to hamilton last night and was surprised by a cast member's speech at him during the curtain call and your best and worst tweets. let's see another. who are you kidding? mitt romney has been invited to

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with sleep number. this morning, donald trump tweeted about "hamilto"hamiltone last night mike pence attended and got a surprise message from the cast during the curtain call. >> vice president-elect pence, we welcome you and thank you for joining us here at "hamilton," we really do. we, sir, we are the diverse america what are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us. your plan, our children, our parents or defend us and uphold our rights. but we truly hope this show has

inspired you to uphold our american values and to work on behalf of all of us. all of us. >> you know, i have to say, i'm with trump and pence on this. can't the guy just have a night out and enjoy the theater? as my parents would say, time and a place, time and a place. that reminds me, i just saw that clip for the first time. it reminds me of the night i spent a lot of money to sit in the front row of madison square gardens and we were a mile or two from ground zero and i had to sit through a lecture on habeas corpus rights on guantanamo visitors. >> he's got a lot on his plate. i'm not denying the message of what i heard, i'm denying the

proprietary of when and how. i just ate up all the time for twitter. tweet me@@smerconish. see you back here in two weeks. we are off for thanksgiving. have a great holiday. what? is he gone?? finally, i thought he'd never leave... tv character: why are you texting my man at 2 a.m.? no... if you want someone to leave you alone, you pretend like you're sleeping. it's what you do. if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. it's what you do. tv character: taking selfies in the kitchen does not make you a model.

top of the hour, 7:00 p.m. eastern. i'm poppy harlow in new york. tonight, we are watching two major political stories unfolding. right now, donald trump meeting with key potential staff and cabinet members in new jersey. among them, mitt romney, who leveled harsh criticism at trump during the campaign. the two men have been meeting for 1:20 departing with kind words and a hachbd shake. he met with retired general james ma