some major concerns. one republican senator even calling it unnerving because of his close ties to russia and vladimir putin. just 38 days until president-elect trump is inaugurated. we have the transition covered from every angle this morning. let's begin with jason carroll outside of trump tower. good morning. >> reporter: poppy, good morning. a number of gop leaders have come forward in support of tillerson, paul ryan and newt gingrich. trump tweeting saying i have chosen one of the truly great business leaders of the world despite critics who say that tillerson does not have the type of foreign policy experience needed for the job and is just too close to the russian president. this morning president-elect donald trump picking exxonmobile ceo rex tillerson for secretary of state. sources say tillerson was recommended by former republican secretaries of state including james baker and con da lieas le

rice. he was chosen including an unlikely courtship with one-time rival mitt romney. sources say trump called the 2012 gop nominee personally last night to say it wasn't all a game. tillerson's nomination already generating controversy with no former foreign policy experience. the business titan forming close relationships with many world leaders by closing massive oil deals including russian president vladimir putin sparking criticism from both sides of the aisle. >> anybody who's a friend of vladimir putin must disregard the fact that vladimir putin is a murderer, a thug, a kgb agent. >> reporter: this as trump and his top advisors continue to attack the cia over their findings that russia medaled in the election. >> and it smells like politics, plain and simple. >> reporter: trump's camp offering no proof of their claims as a bipartisan group of senators calls for a congressional inquiry. >> i think we ought to approach all of these issues on the

assumption that the russians do not wish us well. >> reporter: president obama reiterating calls for a review to prevent russia from impacting future elections. >> this was not a secret running up to the election. the president-elect in some of his political events specifically said to the russians, hack hillary's e-mails. >> reporter: trump's team says he won't interfere with an investigation. >> he's the president of the united states. the legislature can do what it wants. >> reporter: for his part trump delays a news conference where he addresses how he'll deal with the conflicts of interest in his business. trump tweeting he will be leaving his businesses before january 20th and two of his three children, don and eric plus executives will run the companies, notably no mention of his daughter ivanka who is likely to step away from the businesses and serve as an advisor to her father. trump also promising no new

deals will be done during his terms in office. and, poppy, trump will be continuing with his thank you tour heading to wisconsin tonight and continuing to name new members to his administration, gary khan will now be director of the national economic council. you'll also have mcdaniel heading up the rnc. rick perry now seems to be the leading candidate for the department of energy, a department he said he would eliminate if he became president. poppy? >> jason carroll, thank you so much. rex tillerson's relationship that goes back a long time with russian president vladimir putin is likely going to make his confirmation hearings pretty tough. let's bring in manu raju live. this is not just democrats worried? >> reporter: that's right, poppy. could be donald trump's first big fight with senate republicans. just three defections could be enough to prevent tillerson from

getting this job. we're hearing push back already from at least four republicans including lindsey graham, john mccain and even a conservative senat senat senator james langford. if he does not win over those skeptical republican senators. first he will have to win approval from the senate foreign relations committee. republicans will hold a one seat advantage. so what does that mean? one republican defection could be enough to derail the nomination if democrats stay united and already marco rubio sits on that panel has been sharply critical of tillerson's ties to vladimir putin. >> manu raju, thank you very much. joining us is former new york city mayor and senior advisor rudy giuliani. >> how are you? >> always a pleasure. rex tillerson, donald trump had said i'm going to drain the

swamp, i'm not going to bring in the big pocket guys. i owe them nothing. russia has its head in our election. the intel community is always concerned. now comes rex till lerson, big rich guy, exxonmobile. friend of vladimir putin. >> you're just looking at one aspect of his career. i mean, he's been head of one of the largest companies in the world. he has relationships all over the world. wouldn't be unusual for a person in the energy business to have a relationship with russia. obviously that has to be looked at. i don't know that he's really a friend of putin's. i don't know mr. tillerson. i do know he received an award from the russian government but so did astronauts and other notable americans. so i think it's something you have to really take a look at. he certainly has the background and experience to understand the world and if you're going to get somebody in that position, you're probably going to get a very successful person. >> you're okay with the choice? >> i'm okay with the choice. i think donald trump has

selected somebody who knows the world and can advise him on the world. if you pick somebody like that, somewhere someplace they're going to have some issues that you're just going to have to deal with, whether it's george schultz, henry kissinger, any of the great ones, they all had certain issues. >> what about rudy giuliani? if they're picking this one, donald trump just said one of the things i liked best about tillerson is he knows how to deal with world leaders, he's been around, he's a big-time player. how is that not true for you? you go all over the country. some people know, some people don't that you have very vibrant international consulting and legal businesses. you don't just go to oil rich countries. you deal with lots of bad actors in terms of what's going on with security in the countries. what box does he check that you don't? >> the president has to feel the most comfortable person. i took myself out of it on november 28th? >> why? >> it seemed to me the president shouldn't have to go through that i've got to choose this one, this one, this one.

i think he has to have total 100% confidence. >> why wouldn't he have 100% confidence to you? what happened to loyalty? that's what you told us about trump? knew t newt, out. christie out. >> i am totally comfortable. i had to make a choice. i didn't want to be in the big sort of selection panel. >> but you made a sacrifice to get into the election in the first place. >> small one. >> you didn't need it. >> that's a small one. >> fighting battles, getting bruised up. you came out on the right side of the equation. it doesn't make sense to me. if he wants to reward loyalty, he wanted somebody he knows he can trust in such a key position who knows the world, why wasn't he hammering on you to make the commitment and help him? >> hammering on me never works. >> i've noticed. >> and i actually decided when i balanced my life, three or four people in the process, all of whom were very, very good, very

high, for example, john bolton, i thought john bolton would have been a great secretary of state, but all the people in the process, he had enough good people to choose from. i wasn't necessary. if i thought i was necessary, i would have stayed in, but i wasn't necessary. >> you think tillerson's better than you for secretary of state? >> i'm saying i'm not necessary. he'll do a good job. it's hard to say who will be better as secretary of state. you'll find that out three or four years from now. >> what does it mean that the people who fought hardest for donald trump are not going to be in his cabinet? >> some of them are. >> who? who fought -- who came in earlier than christie, fought harder than rudy, was a bigger voice of the so-called establishment than newt. >> steve mnuchin. >> he raised money. he's on the outside. he didn't take any punches for trump in the public eye. >> very active in the campaign. >> raising money. not on tv, not taking the punches. not going to the party in the same way that you and newt and christie did. >> it's a different kind of

thing. a lot of people are good for running, a lot of people are good for governing. he made very, very good choices. in my particular case as he's publicly stated, he offered me two very high positions in government which i turned down because i didn't want to do it. >> which ones? >> i don't like to mention it because the other person becomes the second choice but they were at the very high positions for government. >> was one of them secretary of state? >> it was not. two very high positions, cabinet level positions which he offered me and as far as i'm concerned, he fulfilled whatever loyalty that entails. i mean, it was my own decision not to do it. largely because of my personal life. >> do you believe that your international business and the relationships you had and the financial considerations you had made you a compromise in terms of ethics and the vetting process that would happen in the

nomination process and the confirmation process? >> no. i put myself through the vetting process before i dropped out because i wanted to make sure there was no question about that. i had them examine all of my contracts, all of my tax returns to make sure there was no single issue or -- >> you weren't a lobbyist? you weren't trying to help bad guys get good things from the american people? >> you've got it. here's what i do. i do security consulting. i do cyber security consulting. i come in and i take a look at your cyber system, see if it works. i do police consulting. i do urban development consulting. that's the kind of work that i do. i don't do relationships with governments and representing governments before an agency. >> gotcha. >> i don't understand yet but we'll leave it for today why donald trump wouldn't have found a way to get rudy giuliani in there to help him on a daily basis because you've been so important to him. i get your explanation, i take it. i want to use this time to get a couple other things i don't understand. >> sure. >> one is just a fact question.

this idea it's become way too political. with your understanding of the intel committee, what you hear and what you know, is there reason to believe that the rnc or e-mails of high placed and influential people within the gop might have been hacked by some of these russian actors? >> well, okay. the fbi says no. there are other people who suggest maybe yes but the fbi has gone through their system, i think twice, you'd have to ask priebus this, pretty certain twice, and has found no evidence of hacking of the -- >> you've heard nothing different? these people who say we think the rnc was -- >> here's what disturbs me greatly. we established this office of director of national intelligence, odni. >> right. >> supposed to bring all of these agencies together. >> right. >> it's his job to get the cia that says that there might have been interference, et cetera, et cetera, and the fbi that says there was no interference, to get them together.

we shouldn't be having this battle. the government should be speaking with one voice on this and that's the job of mr. clapper -- >> right. >> -- who is the head of odni. >> that's the discrete issue of the rnc and gop influencers specifically. october 7th clapper came out and said, as to the question of russia's intentionality and its actions and procuring of actions to get involved in the election, it happened. do you accept that intelligence? >> i accept that -- i accept that. i also accept the fbi's saying that that isn't so. >> no, the fbi didn't say we don't think russia had anything to do with the hacks that happened here. you're talking about the disgreet issue of rnc. i'm putting that aside. >> no, the fbi says there is no evidence of any kind of -- of any kind of hacking. the fbi comes to a totally opposite conclusion than the cia does. and now it could be a different burden of proof.

the cia can use inferences, it can use the -- >> my understanding is the fbi won't go as far as the cia did in terms of motive. why did russia do what -- >> i see what you're saying. >> that's a key distinction. when the president-elect says this is ridiculous, the idea that -- hold on. the idea that russia was involved with the hacking that happened in this election is believed and accepted beyond a certainty by clapper as the coordinator of the intell agencies. that's why you had that memo that came out from the 16 plus agencies saying russia is behind what's going on here. the president-elect doesn't accept that, he says this is about delegitimizing his win. nobody's saying that that's credible in my estimation. why deny what the intel agency is saying that russia did? >> first of all, you have to see the report. you have to analyze the report. there are conflicting pieces of evidence as to all of this. and all of this is kind of

leaked with some people saying one thing, another people saying another thing. >> clapper was clear. he put out a memo saying it has all the signatures and the type of circumstantial belief of what russia does. >> inference, inference, inference. >> no, intell community doesn't give its sources. >> no physical proof. no physical evidence. this needs somebody to quietly sit them all down in one room, put it altogether and put out the information as owe pieced to -- >> why isn't that what clapper did? we've gone through it. this is what they've found. we believe russia is behind it. >> since then there have been three other reports. three other reports that come to different conclusions. we confuse interfering with the election, meaning the voting, with actual information that was taken like from podesta and people like that. those are two different things. there also is some evidence of internal extraction of information from within the

democratic national committee. i don't know how far that went. >> why would clapper have come out on october 7th and said, this is russia. what happened with wikileaks, what's going on with the dnc, that's russia. this is what they do. by the way, this isn't the first time they did it. it may have gone back two or three cycles. that's why obama wanted the investigation done. why deny that? it seemed like donald trump is giving the benefit of the doubt to russia in a way that he gives it to no one else. >> but it also is what china does. it's what iran does. it's what china did successfully with opm taking out 20 million identities from the united states government. so it is very, very hard to know who actually -- who actually did it. and rather than having this big political discussion about it, somebody should do a really nonpolitical investigation and determine what happened. >> what's going to happen now is it will be interesting to see what the president-elect does. >> it has to happen. it should happen within the intelligence community and the new director of national

intelligence should get them altogether and do it in an apolitical way. >> rudy giuliani, great to have you on the show. i hope as part of your private life you still come on and make the case for the policies as you see fit going forward. >> i would be very happy to do that. i always enjoy it. >> best to you and the family. >> merry christmas. we want to bring breaking news this morning out of aleppo, syria. the united nations say there are reports that pro government sources have killed 82 civilians including 11 women and 13 children. a spokesperson for the u.n.'s humanitarian office is calling the situation now, quote, a complete meltdown of humanity. this comes as much of eastern aleppo has been taken over by advancing syrian troops. the syrian government for its part not commenting yet on this report. an encouraging new study shows that teen drug use is actually going down. according to the latest monitoring of future survey 8th, 10th, 12th grader's use of

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donald trump has chosen rex tillerson as the secretary of state. this will probably lead to a rough, rowdy process. let's bring in democratic senator from the great state of minnesota, amy clobitar. i bet you're glad you're not there. it is freezing so says my mother. >> i am looking forward to going back. it is great being on with a fellow minnesotan.

>> don't ya know. let's talk about russia and tillerson. look at his business skills. it's true. when he was tapped to be ceo in 2006, one of the reasons was because he knows the ins and outs so well. you say? >> i first start with what republican senators have been saying. that's the first place to go for some trouble here. marco rubio tweeting out that an attribute, being a friend of putin is not an attribute he looked for in a secretary of state. you have senator mccain and graham and langford voicing concerns. that's a big deal when an incoming president has put a name out there. i think that's a bipartisan concern. you can see a number of us have been calling for a thorough investigation of the potential here after our cia assessment that russia has been involved in hacking at the heart of our very democracy, and all of that is going on at the same time that

tillerson, who i would tell you, i'm sure he has excellent business credential, but donald trump has chosen to put someone in as a nominee who does not have foreign policy or diplomatic experience and has these ties to russia. i think that's the conflagration you see occurring right now. >> so, look, even some people who were not big supporters of donald trump at all during the election, like condolezza rice came out with a statement calling tillerson an excellent choice. it's not just her, it's bob gates, former defense secretary, it's james baker who has served in that post. why do you think they're all wrong? >> well, i think first of all, i, like many of my fellow senators, want him to have a fair hearing. i'm sure that senator corker and senator carden will give him that. i don't think anyone has said what their views are yet. that's where we are and that's what we should do as elected officials. i'm a former prosecutor. i always like to see what the

evidence is and listen to someone's views before you make a decision. i will say people like, you know, senator corker or even mitt romney would have most likely sailed through the process because of the fact that people know them, democrats know both of them, republicans know both of them and they have diplomatic experience or experience in government. >> what we've heard from the trump team is they had similar world views. trump was intrigued by them. and the thinking is that he will take a -- they argue a tough hand against vladimir putin. now obviously huge concerns, the fact that he received this order of friendship, they inked a half a trillion dollar deal i get that. you're supportive of this investigation when it comes to hacking and how this all -- the timing of this difficult obviously for the trump team and a confirmation because of the russian hacking. you're supportive of this bipartisan investigation.

what is the end goal there? is it to get all the intelligence agencies on the same page? is it to make the case of the american people? what do you want from it? >> we already in october 17 agencies director clapper came out and said, in fact, this is going on. russia has been hacking into our systems. they've been trying to influence the elections and that is what -- why we need to get this out and that's why you see a bipartisan cry for this. right now maybe it affected one candidate. the next time it could affect the candidate of the other party. you have security concerns here, poppy. ukraine hanging on with their democracy and the nominee for secretary of state has actually questions and sanctions against russia. yet this is a country that has illegally annexed crimea. violation of the minsk agreement. 10,000 people dead in ukraine because of their illegal activities. all of this is going on at the same time a man has been put forth that has called for a

lessening of those sanctions. >> it's an important point. did he it most recently in 2014 at an exxon shareholder meeting. we have to look carefully at who these sanctions help. that is your party's loss in this election and where you go from here. harry reid fascinating interview with cnn yesterday. manu raju gave this interview. here's one part that stood out to us about the outcome of the election and some of the reasons for it. let's listen. >> the dnc was hacked. we knew wikileaks was coming out drip by drip by drip. they wouldn't do it all at once. they were coordinating this obviously from the trump folks and the russians. >> trump had won this race if russia did not get involved. >> all i know is that russia helped a lot. >> do you agree with that? do you think russia helped donald trump win? >> again, that's why we want to have this bipartisan commission. i think there's a lot of factors that influenced this election. the letter as senator read

mentioned and i don't question director comey's motives, but the letter slowed the momentum at a time. you have the hacking. you have the fact that hillary clinton's campaign's decision to not focus as much on some of those midwestern states and -- >> she didn't go to our neighboring state wisconsin once. >> there you go. but our -- our -- the one thing that we can change moving forward from the perspective of the democratic party and really the perspective of our nation is to focus very -- in a laser like way on the economy and some of the things that affect people in their daily lives. you've been in our state. you know how people are doing up in northern minnesota. it's not easy. focusing on steel dumping from china. doing something about prescription drug prices. looking at our new economy where so many people live in this gate economy where they need a different kind of safety net. creating incentives so companies hold the money and try to invest it more in our own american

workers and technology and innovation. we are now governing from opportunity be at this instead of crisis. that message got lost in the campaign. >> look, i wish we had more time. that's exactly what the vice president joe biden said in his interview this weekend with jake tapper. as you do the autopsy, that is a key part of it, speaking to middle america, the rust belt, saying there is opportunity for you ahead in this new economy. senator, nice to have you on. thank you so much. >> thank you, poppy. >> chris. so what does it take to get your top cabinet choices through senate confirmation? former senior advisor for president obama knows the answer to this question. we're going to get the bottom line with the axe next. o is for ordinarily i wouldn't. l is for layers of luxury. a is for alll the way back. r is for read my mind. and i... can't see a thing.

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he has selected rex tillerson. what does that tell us what we can expect from the administration and the confirmation. let's get the bottom line.

david the axe axlerod. what do you think of the team he's put together. >> well, he put together a very conservative team, we know that. in every single agency you see people who are quite conservative on the issues that they were chosen to lead. you've got an epa director who doesn't believe in climate change, an education secretary who is a strong proponent of school vouchers and it goes on and on. but that will probably -- that will not disturb a majority of republicans in the united states senate. the tillerson nomination may be a little more difficult for president-elect trump because of the issues that you've been talking about all morning. one thing that i would say, chris, though is watching the campaign, donald trump spoke, what, millions of words it seems like. i can't really recall in all of

those 18 months one unkind word about vladimir putin. everybody is acting like, my god, how could this be. this is one area in which he has been very consistent. he is not sparing and being unkind when he's unhappy with people or with countries or with entities. so the fact that he hasn't taken on russia is meaningful. >> so what do you think about that? this clumsiness even that we saw this morning. you know, jason miller, rudy giuliani, whether it was just kind of defaulting to this. any questions will russia means that you don't like that trump won or this inability or lack of desire to separate the issues with russia. did they involve themselves with the hacking? yes. separating that from why they did it. separating that from the rnc

hacking. there really seem to be struggling to justify the position. >> well, you know, i think in certain ways the release of this report or the reporting that was done that suggests that this was done on trump's behalf, that the objective was to elect donald trump has been kind of a gift to team trump because it's created a shiny object that they can point to to try and deflect the larger point which the entire intelligence community and fbi agrees on, and that is that russia hacked the dnc and was at the core of the release of this information. that alone should be pretty alarming because that was an incursion on our democratic processes. that was an incursion on our national sovereignty, and it is awkward to be in the position if you're the president of the united states to say, we're going to overlook that, whether it was done on his behalf or not. so i honestly think that has

provided a distraction, deflection for them. you saw it in use this morning. >> so, david, our phil mattingly is reporting that, you know, the trump team knows it's going to be a tough confirmation process. they have what they call a game plan to get him through. i'm thinking there's a two-prong strategy that could work well here. i wonder what you think. first, on tillerson's part he gets up there and speaks to the world because he's given very few media interviews if ever. he says you're all wrong that i'm friends with vladimir putin. that isn't the case. i did what was needed to be done to keep the jobs at exxon and to make a lot of money for my company and, therefore, for the american people. that's one part. the other thing that seems like it could be very helpful is if donald trump in the next few days or leading up to a confirmation hearing says -- tones down his rhetoric and says, we are going to -- i'm going to be very supportive of this bipartisan investigation into russian hacking, et cetera, et cetera, and drops it back and

forth about delegitimizing pry presidency. would both of those help him get the confirmation he needs? >> they might, poppy. in the first instance, he has to be careful because he has comments on the record about vladimir putin. >> right. >> he did receive the order of friendship award from vladimir putin formerly called the order of lennon award. you know, he can't -- he can't say what -- you know, he can't defy those facts. so he has to be careful, but he can say, look, i was representing exxonmobile, now i'm representing the united states. i have a new client and i'm going to approach these issues differently. that's what i expect that he will say. and, yes, i think trump can tone down his comments. so i think trump feels personally affronted by the fact that he might have had help from russia, that that -- somehow his win was illegitimate. i think this is emotional, not just strategic issue for him.

there's a larger point on all of this. we're focused on the hacking as we should be. i was in eastern europe six weeks before the election. the level of concern about donald trump's relationship with russia was epic because they rely on the united states to be a counter weight against russian aggression. the fact that donald trump during the campaign would not identify the incursion in crimea, you know, as an act of aggression. the fact that he cast out on nato and our commitment to defend our nato allies under article five of the nato treaty was hugely frightening -- i should say unsettling to people in that part of the world and that's in the -- at the end of the day, that's as big an issue of the hacking in terms of geo politics. what has donald trump and rex

tillerson going to do to allay the concerns, the very real concerns that some of our allies have about whether the united states will meet its commitments. >> think about it, what other entity or person has donald trump given the slack that he's given vladimir putin. >> important point. no one. thank you guys. thank you, david. >> no. >> all right. also this. syrian pro government forces accused of horrific atrocities. reports of civilians executed as syrian troops push further and further into aleppo. we will bring you the latest in a live report. from around the globe.y in jared's commitment to quality and craftsmanship has helped bring my designs to life. each hand set ring in the vera wang love collection is my modern interpretation of timeless classics. like all the most beautiful cities around the world, the ring should take her breath away. the vera wang love collection.

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breaking news. united nations receiving reports that 82 civilians in aleppo including women and children have been shot and killed by pro government forces. let's get straight to our cnn senior international correspondent fred pleitgen live for us in beirut. you have the breaking details. what do we know as this push continues into aleppo? >> reporter: yeah. absolutely, poppy. these are information that the u.n. says they got from sources on the ground that they say have

been credible in the past. the u.n. also says they hope this information isn't correct but they do have grounds for grave concern that it could potentially be true, that there have been extra judicial killings as, of course, forces allied with syrian president bashar al assad have been sweeping large parts of those areas of aleppo that have been under rebel control in the past. the syrian government has not said anything about these reports yet but, again, there is huge concern there on the ground for the many civilians who right now, of course, are very much in harm's way as those pro government forces continue to make their push and the biggest concern, of course, poppy, is about the many children who are still trapped inside there. unicef put out an urgent statement today saying they believe there's as many as 100 unaccompanied children trapped inside a building inside the besieged areas subjected to some very heavy fire power as the last of the rebels continue to hold out. it's unclear how much longer they'll be able to do that,

whether they'll surrender or battle it out in the end. the government says it's very close to taking all of aleppo, chris. >> fred, we will stay on this because once the warring is over, that's when the real challenge will begin. thank you for being on the ground. stay safe. so we're going to take a break. when we come back, we have nba legend kareem abdul-jabbar is here. so much more than a ballplayer. wait until you hear what awards kareem just won and he's going to talk to us about an op ed he has about the future of our country that has many an eye brow raised. good to see you, big man.

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. a big honor for the big man. kareem abdul-jabbar honored by "sports illustrated" for his athletic success and years of leadership. receiving the "sports illustrated" muhammad ali legacy award last night. kareem has also been an outspoken critic on a lot of different issues, most recently of president-elect donald trump. he's joining us to discuss all of these happenings. you know him from basketball as the all-time leading scorer. so much more you've done in your life. congratulations, sir. >> thank you so much. good to see you. >> those of you who know what you did on the court matters to you but what you do as a citizen of the world matters just as much and more. to get the muhammad ali legacy award, what does it mean? >> for me it was really special

because he was a friend of mine and a mentor. i learned a lot about how to deal with people and how to deal with different circumstances. it's not always easy being in a position like we were in, and so we had that in common, very important issue in common. it was really helpful for me to see how he handled things and plot my own course. >> you said that he -- and you've written about this, that he was more than just a friend, that he was like a brother to you. we showed your new book, writings on the wall, and in it you talk about how tough being a black role model is right now and you wrote, being a black role model is a double edged sword for inspiration and frustration. >> right. >> this as you get also recently the presidential medal of freedom. >> yeah. well, you know, when you're pointed out as someone who is an exception to the rule and sometimes people use that to say

everyone who doesn't make it is lazy and doesn't work hard, that's not the case. it takes an extraordinary amount of good fortune to also, you know, make it this far. so you have to understand that. and, you know, give people some slack based on that issue. >> when you look at your life and got a lot left to do in your life, and i'm sure you feel that way, but what got you this far. one of your reps was talking to me before about a story that captures you. your 20th all sta-star game, und of. you are dribbling up and down the court. it's a metaphor for what makes you the person you are, not just the player. what was going on? why were you practicing so hard? >> i wanted to be at my best. my last all-star game, i played in 19 all-star games, so i didn't want to go out there and embarrass myself. but everybody else was all hung up with the ring stuff and being

in front of the cameras and, you know, that -- you need to do the work that i was doing before you go in front of the cameras. it really helps to have something to -- a reason to be there, you know? >> well, let's talk about how your voice has been used in the writing of your books, in your columns, for "time" obviously. you're vocal in your opposition to president-elect donald trump. you call in this latest washington post op ed for a new civil disobedience. you say along the lines of thomas payne or thoreau or dr. king. what does that disobedience look like? how do you think it's executed most effectively in an america that you know needs to be united in some way? >> well, i think that the values that have been promoted as american for over 200 years, i think that's what we should focus on.

diversity, inclusion, looking out for the little guy. i mean, that's what we should be about. and some of the choices that he's making, you know, very wealthy people who really have no history of having any contact with common people that they're supposed to be representing and acting in their best interests. it makes me curious. >> if you look at the nomination of gary cohen, he came from very, very humble, humble beginnings, self-made. >> that's one guy. >> okay. >> everybody -- >> not enough for you. >> everybody gets there somehow. you just said you've got to look at how somebody gets their own success, but what is the root of your concern? because part of it is the proposition in your op ed that you deal with the notion of whether or not the president-elect deserves a chance. i mean, the process would suggest he does. he won. he's going to be our president for four years. do you believe he deserves that chance that he won? >> well, they earned the

opportunity. >> right. >> and we have to give it to them. it's just that some of the things i've seen so far make me wonder how effective they can be at taking care of the little guys because all of the people seem to be very successful people who really haven't had any recent contact with life as just an average guy. >> it's an interesting point because that's who got him elected, the little guy whose jobs got him elected. he's been calling in democrats also to meet with him at trump tower. if he called you, kareem abdul-jabbar, said, i want your advice, come on down, would you meet with him? >> i'd have to get the call before i'd know i could answer that question. i'm -- i consider myself a patriotic american. i want to see everybody do well, everybody. so i would have to just take that as it was presented and see if it made any sense to me.

>> what's the next big challenge for you? >> the next big challenge for me? i'm moving. >> chris is going to help. chris is going to help. >> chris, i've got some boxes. >> i'll do anything i can for you. thanks for being with us. >> thank you. congratulations. >> my pleasure. >> kareem abdul-jabbar, please send any comments you have. we have more good stuff next. during the ford year end event. ford, the brand with the most 5-star ratings... the highest owner loyalty... and award-winning value from kelley blue book. giving drivers what matters most. that's how you become america's best-selling brand. shop now during the ford year end event. get a thousand dollars ford smart bonus cash on select models, on top of all other great offers. see your local ford dealer today. p is for privileges. o is for ordinarily i wouldn't.

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boy, do we need the good stuff. so, a bunch of people had their christmas gifts on lay away at this pennsylvania walmart. >> i love this. >> guess what, they left in shock. >> thankful that they can do that in their heart they want to do that. because some people can take that money and just spend it on their self. >> who's they? a secret santa shelled out close to 46 grand to help pay off customers' lay away items. it's a he. he apparently refused to give his name when he called the store. >> they have cried. they have thanked us. they have thanked the mysterious person. they tried to figure out who it is so they could thank them personally and pay it forward. >> lovely. >> what a beautiful thing. the gift of giving. >> the best thing you can do.

tell your kids no gifts? >> you tell them. >> kids -- >> cover your face after you say it. >> no gifts. go to church with dad. good to be with you. >> time for the "newsroom" with carol costello. carol's going to give them gifts. she's a softy. >> i've already bought them. they're in my office. >> yeah. >> got me one, too. >> sorry, poppy. >> thanks so much, guys. have a great day. "newsroom" starts right now. and good morning, i'm carol costello. thanks so much for joining me. donald trump announces his pick for secretary of state but diplomacy may be hard to find on capitol hill. where senators are voicing deep concerns. rex tillerson has no foreign policy experience but as the head of exxonmobile, he has developed close ties to russia and its president, vladimir putin. that has unsettled