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good evening, topping this hour, breaking news on the trump transition, closer scrutiny on donald trump's two grown sons, the ones who were supposed to

take over the running of his business and leave the running of the government to their father. let's go to cnn's phil mattingly at trump tower. what are you learning tonight, phil? >> there has been a lot of talk about potential conflicts of interest but also the role of the family members in the president-elect's new administration. particularly jared kushner, his son-in-law, one of his closest advisers, a constant throughout the campaign by his side. what role would he play. we're learning from sources is he will have a specific role in the west wing and he's likely to have an office in the west wing. why does this matter? there are a lot of legal issues that that would entail, including anti-nepotism laws, including jared kushner's own holdings. he has been working with a legal team to figure out how to get rid of those. we don't know of a specific title. there may not actually be one. but we do know he will have a role. this is what people have been talking about, anderson in terms of conflicts of interest, conflicts of interest on display

in the meeting with tech leaders today. silicon valley making its pilgrimage to trump tower. >> i'm here to tell people to do well. you're doing well right now, and i am very honored by the bounce. they're all talking about the bounce. so right now everybody in this room has to like me at least a little bit. >> reporter: president-elect trump sitting down with the titans of tech, most of whom were sharply critical of him during the campaign. a meeting attended by trump's children, including sons donald jr. and eric, the two men trump has identified as in line to take over his business. this despite repeated concerns over potential conflicts of interest. the gathering just the latest in a series of face-to-face meetings between trump and his former opponents and critics. trump himself pointing out his once small stable of supporters, on his late egst stop of the th you tour. saying at least in the case of house speaker paul ryan, things

are headed in a better direction. >> speaker paul ryan. where is the speaker? where is he. i tell you, he has been terrific. honestly, he is like a fine wine. every day goes by, i get to appreciate his genius more and more. he is a great guy. >> reporter: at least for now. >> if he ever goes against me, i'm not going to say that. >> reporter: the ryan/trump relationship among the most critical on the hill for trump as the chief of staff lays out this ambitious agenda. >> i think we'll probably lead with obamacare repeal and then replace, then you will have tax -- some -- we'll have a small tax reform package and then a bigger tax reform package at the end of april. >> reporter: trump, also sharply defending his choice for secretary of state, exxonmobil ceo rex tillerson. who is facing a tough confirmation process due to his business dealings with russia and its president, vladimir putin. >> rex is friendly with many of

the leaders in the world that we don't get along with. some people don't like that. they don't want him to be friendly. that's why i am doing the deal with rex, because i like what this is all about. >> reporter: but it's the process for the tillerson selection and in trump's interior secretary choice, montana congressman ryan zinke that's raising, again, the very conflicts of interest questions trump was supposed to address this week. instead, postponing that until january. sources tell cnn donald trump jr. sat in on the meetings and interviews over the interior position and eric trump was involved throughout the state department process. this comes as trump prepares to turn the office of the first lady into the office of the first family. one where his daughter ivanka will have an office, sources tell cnn. >> his sons, his daughter and son-in-law have played an important role and will continue to provide counsel to him. ultimately he is always the decider. >> phil joins us now. what are you learning about the details of this tech meeting

today? >> reporter: the president-elect's team put out kind of a long list of things that were discussed. one source with direct knowledge of the meeting said there were three focuses. jobs, immigration and policy as it pertains to china. now, these are all issues that over the course of the general election campaign most tight inns of silicon valley and tech titans disagreed with donald trump on. some people who were in the meeting, said they're trying to figure out a way to bridge the gaps. in the wake of the meeting, one source says they agreed to do this quarterly. there is a recognition. both sides need one another even if they didn't always agree during the campaign. >> phil mattingly. thanks. the question of what president trump will know and when he'll know it. he has down played the idea that the president's daily intelligence brief will be a daily thing. he has been getting them weekly and recently bumped it up to three times a week. former heads of the cia think

that's a bad idea. and leon panetta issued a dire warning. joining us is secretary of homeland security, tom rich. >> governor, someone who has received briefings on a daily basis, intelligence briefings, how important is it for a president to get the briefings every single day? >> i think it's critical in his -- to take the opportunity, as he did, i am sure, as a businessman to learn more about his adversaries on the other side. except on this occasion as of january 20th he doesn't represent trump inc., he representatives the united states of america. i think he was a successful businessman because he understood the other side. in the most complicated and tension filled world we've had in modern times it's critical for him in order to do his job as president of the united states. the actors change. you'll see trends. the threats change on a 24-hour basis. i think it's very critical and i suspect that once he gets there on january 20th, understanding

that his cabinet secretaries will get similar briefings in order to lead and direct their action, i am pretty comfortable in saying as a successful business man he'll appreciate the value added that the briefings give him and give him the advantage as he deals with our advir saries. >> the former cia director leon panetta said donald trump risked being blamed for any potential attack if he refused to receive more briefings. he said if the president had information and did not want to listen to the information for whatever reason the responsibility for the attack would fall on the president. do you agree with that? >> that's a pretty accurate assessment. day in and day out, and we -- i can say this based on my own experience, some days we had a couple pages of threats, other days we had a couple dozen pages of threats. and that was just as it related to terrorism. he will lead us in a much more complicated world. and failure to understand the

nature of the enemy and what the enemy is doing and failure to heed any of the preliminary signs of confrontation, and that's what intelligence briefings are all about, the per ill and responsibility of that will fall squarely on his shoulders. >> when donald trump says as president-elect, he says he doesn't need to be told the same things over and over again, that they can call him quickly when something changes, you say there is a cumulative value in daily briefings. >> there is not only a cumulative value, anderson, threats can change overnight. so it's not like pick up the phone and call me when events differ or circumstances change. i think he'll find early on, as it relates to some of the nation-states we are confronting with or the threat of terrorism, that a 24-hour period there could be a dramatic shift in the nature of the threat and the nature of activities directed to america, our interests, and our allies as well. so there may be a little on-the-job training. but the thing he needs to

understand is they're driven to keep america safe and secure. he wants to make america great again. that's his mission. he is committed to it. but in order to make america great, you have got to keep it safe. at the heart of all that is accepting and understanding the intelligence that the men and women of the intelligence community provide to you every single day. >> you know, we have focused so much on the threat from hacking and cyber warfare. you have been focusing, though, on bioterrorism. there are huge concerns about this and it probably hasn't gotten the attention it deserves. what can donald trump do as the next president to better safeguard the united states against boioterrorism. >> it's probably the most grossly underestimated economic threat and security threat that we deal with. as i understand what preshg donald trump will do, it seems the vice president will have a lot of authority and certainly autonomy in certain areas. the three republicans and

democrats developed a blueprint to deal with the bioterrorism and the threats associated with it. we frankly would ask this president to put the vice president in charge. there is no comprehensive plan. there is no comprehensive budget. there are no budget priorities set. we can no longer plead surprise that the country may be hit with a pathojen that's contagious. you have zika. ebola, h1n1. if the president is looking to make america great, he also has to make it safe. that should be the other goal. putting the vice president -- giving him the authority to oversee this, direct funding, coordinate activities between the disparate agencies. they're all over the place, they're well intentioned but we grossly underestimate how ill prepared we are for the threat of infectious disease, whether mother nature throws it at us, whether the terrorists or a nation-state or whether unfortunately one of our lab fails to protect one of these

toxins and pathogens as they must. >> governor ridge, appreciate your time. thank you. >> thanks. bringing in additional perspective. former labor secretary robert reich. and jeffrey lord. jeff, you heard former homeland security secretary tom ridge agree that, if a terror attack happens and intelligence about the tack was in a briefing that the president trump didn't listen to or want to read thaen t -- then the responsibility for the attack would lie with trump. would you agree? >> i would agree. he is a smart guy. he is an executive. every president comes into office and figures out their way of doing this. i think president clinton read his reports. some presidents want someone sitting knee to knee with him. ronald reagan received some

briefings via videotape and film. donald trump will have his own style, but certainly he is going to take responsibility for the security and safety of the country. one of his mottos here was make america safe again. i have no doubt whatsoever that he'll find his own medium on this and do it the right way. >> is too much emphasis being put on the president's daily brief? >> well, i don't know that too much emphasis is being put on it, anderson, the point is that donald trump president-elect has said that he doesn't really feel it's necessary to have a daily briefing. now, that's before he is even president. that's even before he has had the daily briefing. that's before he knows what is in the daily briefing, which seems to me the height of either arrogance or a self-inflated ego here, because you have got to be president and at least have some experience as to how much and those briefings are -- how important they are, how much information is in them that you need. i would say, given that i have

been around or served four presidents, that those daily briefings are terribly important and that a president needs every bit of information a president can get. he is making decisions that are -- that affect millions, if not billions of people around the world. and you don't want to take any chances that you might miss something. you certainly don't want to pre-guess whether you need daily briefings before you even get to the white house. >> to the idea, though, that different presidents do it different ways and people absorb information in different ways, secretary reich, do you think there is validity to that? >> obviously. people have different brains and they absorb information in different ways. and i hope that donald trump finds a way that is best for him, but simply to scoff it all off and say, hey, like i am a really smart guy, doesn't really do justice to what is at stake here. several of the presidents i've worked with were very and are still very smart guys.

that is not the point. the point is you can't wing it. you can't wing foreign policy or wing being a president. you have to take it extremely seriously. you can't run businesses on the side. you've got to focus on being a president. >> it does seem, jeff, that -- i mean, one danger -- and it's a danger for any administration -- i am not singling out donald trump -- is that, if you are not receiving raw data, raw intelligence, if you're relying on other people around you, in your cabinet, your vice president, your national security adviser, whomever, to sift through the raw intelligence and give you what they think you need you're open to their viewpoints being given more weight than just the raw intelligence and your own reading of it. >> sure. but the raw intelligence reflects somebody's judgment. somebody at the cia or, you know, one of the national security agencies. it reflects -- these things

don't write themselves. they are written by human beings. so i -- >> the concern is politicalization of the intelligence. >> right. i think some of this is being overblown. frankly i think vice president pence is going to take a role here and be a -- like a mlot of vice presidents since walter mondale, most recently vice president biden and vice president-elect cheney. i think mike pence will follow in that step and he'll be very well briefed on this. the president will have his information. there is no question in my mind about that. >> we're going to take a quick -- >> anderson, what worries me a little bit about this is donald trump on the campaign trail and even now as president-elect has had a rather informal relationship to facts. in fact, some might say he lives in a fact-free universe. facts for donald trump are means to winning games. or winning contests. here, when he is going to be president, it's not a matter of

facts being relative. it's not a matter of kind of a carelessness about facts. when you are dealing with facts governing foreign policy, governing a kind of three-dimensional chess board that is america in the world today, and if you want to keep america safe, you have got to pay attention to the facts and the details. now, every president in modern history has had an intelligence briefing every day. that must stand for something when you decide whether you are going to have it or not. >> we're going to take a quick break. we'll pick this up when we come back. new reporting on what donald trump wanted from mitt romney in exchange for making him secretary of state. let's say that, in addition to the dinner they had, there was perhaps a helping of crow for dessert. or potentially. tonight on cnn four children and their dad speak out for the first time about the terror attack they barely survived and their mother did not. what the terror attack in brussels was like and how they've battled back since then.

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we're talking about the world donald trump is facing as he enters office. the fed today raised interest rates, a sign they believe of continuing growth. back with jeffrey lord and robert reich. mr. secretary, the economy seems to be doing well, well enough that the federal reserve raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point today. how does president trump finesse making changes while not making mistakes? >> anderson, he is going to obviously make some mistakes. presidents do make mistakes. presidents don't really run the economy. the economy runs itself. presidents either create conditions conducive to the economy doing better or not. and the real issue today is not so much overall growth, that is obviously important, but the

real issue is wages and jobs. most people over the last 35 years have not really seen their wages increase, adjusted for inflation. in fact, the bottom half of the american workforce has actually seen their wages drop, adjusted for inflation. and that really, to me, signals that there is an experiment that failed and that experiment is called trickle-down economics. give tax breaks to the rich and you hope that it trickles down to everybody else. well, donald trump has talked a lot about trickle-down economics. and frankly that worries me. >> jeffrey lord. >> what worries me is crony-nomics which is what the policy of the obama administration was, where they take taxes from everybody else out there and dole out the money to their cronies. that is a top-down system that won't work. the economy grows from the bottom up. by people opening businesses and having the ability to deal with less regulation and have more money in their pockets. that's the way it's always done.

you can call it trickle-down economics or anything else, but having worked for jack kemp, we called it supply side economics. which was classical economics and it worked. >> people point to the stock market has gone up. donald trump calls it a trump bump since he won the election. is it -- should people be looking at that as reflecting something real? >> no. i mean, it's real to the extent that you are wealthy and you have a lot of stock. the richest 10% of americans own 80% of all the shares of stock in america. including retirement savings. what the stock increase means, why the shares of stock are going up is because a lot of companies anticipate there is going to be a big corporate tax cut, and that means more profits and more profits means higher share prices. this has nothing to do with average working americans. and the real issue here, and the issue that we need to be paying attention to, is donald trump was elected largely because a lot of people are insecure

economically, they're worried about their jobs and their wages. they've been working harder and harder and getting nowhere and donald trump has promised that those working people of america are going to do much better. well, i hope that they realize, when he does start cutting taxes on the wealthy and nothing trickles down, i hope they realize that they are not only in real terms worse off but they are also going to be relatively worse off. >> they voted for donald trump precisely because they felt they were worse off. the polls showed leading up to the election that 70% of the country thought the country was going in the wrong direction, and that included economics. so they want to turn away from this. this just didn't work. it never works. this is why, at its more extreme form, utter socialism doesn't work. >> wait a minute. jeffrey, what's the this that doesn't work? the republican congress basically stopped spending money and wanted to turn to deficit

reduction, felt that basically austerity economics was the way to go. and that republican congress controls the budget. we have had the results of austerity economics now for a number of years which is bas basically not enough stimulus to keep the economy going and to keep people employed. the percentage of the labor force employed today is almost at a record low. this is something donald trump talked about during the election, and he was actually right about this. this is a problem. >> as you would know, the labor participation rate is the worst it has been since the 1970s when jimmy carter was in office and did a version of the same thing. this is the eternal argument. i imagine we'll be arguing about this if we're living another 17 lives 150 years from now. it simply doesn't work. it hasn't worked. it didn't work for president obama. >> secretary reich, the final thought. >> look it, i certainly hope that what we see in the future is an increase in real wages and a lot of jobs. if donald trump can deliver

that, then i will salute his presidency. but he is not doing anything, anything at all, that suggests that that is going to be the direction he works in and moves in. in fact, his entire cabinet is full of billionaires and ceos of big companies. >> who know how to make money. >> they know how to reduce wages and create profits by shipping jobs abroad and squeezing wages and fighting unions. that is not helpful to working people. >> robert reich, jeffrey lord. thank you. to be continued. meetings at trump tower and dinner in a fancy restaurant notwithstanding mitt romney didn't get the secretary of state job. now we're looking the back story about what some folks around donald trump wanted him to do that he would not. that's next. [ sneezes ] i have a big meeting when we land, but i'm so stuffed up, i can't rest. nyquil cold and flu liquid gels don't unstuff your nose. they don't? alka-seltzer plus night liquid gels fights your worst cold symptoms. plus, unstuffs your nose. oh, what a relief it is.

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welcome back. the search for a secretary of state in president-elect trump's cabinet may be poeover but the behind the scenes drama is coming into focus. we're learning the back story in mitt romney being considered. sources close to romney says trump wanted him to publicly apologize and say he was wrong about donald trump during the campaign. jamie gangel has been looking into this. she joins me now. the apology that president-elect trump wanted from mitt romney, what are your sources telling you about that? >> when someone calls you a fake, a phony, a conman, put it out there, mitt romney was blistering during the campaign. and apparently, at the beginning, donald trump was willing to let bygones be bygones. you remember, anderson, around

thanksgiving kellyanne conway, steve bannon, other advisers came out publicly against mitt romney. and what we're told happened at that point was donald trump went to mitt romney and said, look, i need you to say you were wrong. i need you to apologize to help placate the people who are critics. we have also been told it wasn't just donald trump, that reince priebus asked him to do it. mike pence asked him to do it. these were two mitt romney allies who wanted him to get the job. but there is a book that mitt romney wrote, anderson, it is called "no apology," and mitt romney declined to say he was wrong. he was willing to be positive going forward, but he was not going to apologize, and if that cost him secretary of state, so be it. i would just add, there is an irony here.

donald trump is not known for apologizing. right? so it's just sort of an interesting point here, that this may have been one of the things that cost mitt romney the job. >> i guess that was my next question. do we know, was it just one of the things, or was it just about the apology? or was it also because of their obvious differences in ideology and expressed differences? >> right. i think there were a number of things. i think the no apology didn't help and that trump's advisers were really did not want romney and weighed in obviously heavily. but there is no question these two men had completely different world views, on nato, on syria, and what's most important, on russia. mitt romney is from the school of he doesn't trust russia, you can't trust vladimir putin, and, as we've seen time and time again, donald trump thinks he can make a deal with these guys.

and clearly we saw -- we're seeing now, in his pick of rex tillerson, someone who also thinks he can make a deal with putin. so a much closer world view. there is one other thing that we heard, and that was that trump advisers kept saying to trump, you know what, i am not sure you can trust mitt romney to be a loyal team player because he is his own man. he has his own status. he has his own power base. and that, i am told, was also of concern to trump, that mitt romney didn't owe him anything, anderson. >> hmm. jamie, stay with us. i want to bring back the panel. david, what do you make of jamie's reporting? it's interesting, this idea of insisting upon an apology. >> right. i certainly don't think that alone was the deal-breaker. it was part of a larger thing. last night he mentioned paul ryan on stage and he gets booed. imagine what the trump crowd

would do if he introduced mitt romney on stage as his secretary of state. it wasn't that donald trump necessarily needed that apology, but mitt romney is somebody -- and i think this is what kellyanne conway was getting at and some of the other opponents inside, so anathema to the trump support network that it was a puzzle piece that just wasn't going to fit. >> you have rick perry, who was one of the first candidates, came out with a blistering speech -- >> called him cancer. >> cancer on conservativism, questioning his faith, his beliefs, whether he really had deep religious beliefs. clearly, perry, you know, he spoke at the convention, so he had clearly -- >> right. >> -- made amends before that. but i don't think he -- to my knowledge he hasn't made an apology for what he said. >> he sort of did back off more than mitt romney did. there are so many differences between these two people. as much as donald trump is an enigma and what is he thinking man.

he is a showman. mitt romney is a straightforward guy and we've seen, sometimes to his deficit, not a showman. i think he went into this thinking i'm being seriously considered. i'm going to go through this and he probably thought, am i wrong about trump? and he probably said no, i'm not wrong about trump and i'm not about to be richly humiliated in this process so i'm just going to leave it at that. >> kirsten, what do you think. >> mitt romney sort of made it his cause, right, to come out and really blast trump and try to stop trump. in a very high-profile way. so perhaps there is more bad feelings there. it does seem to mostly be coming more from the staff around trump than trump. trump seems like maybe he was able to move past it. >> and rick perry was an actual opponent. >> right. romney inserted himself. >> i would like to know more about how much of this was apology versus world view. if he was seriously considering him and it was just about the apology, then that would kind of

undermine the narrative that's emerged about trump looking for somebody who shared his world view on russia and that's why he's chosen rex tillerson. if in fact he was fine with romney and romney had a pretty different view it would undermine the idea that he was searching for a russia stooge. we don't know. maybe that was a factor. >> jamie, what have you heard about the idea that romney and trump actually liked each other, in these meetings? do we know how they actually got along? >> they apparently -- and maybe this is the biggest surprise. they really apparently did get along. one person said to me, you know, mitt made it hard on trump because he surprised him. and when they came out of that dinner that we saw, i am told that trump said to people, you know, i really like him. as if he was surprised. but everything else i have been told was that, when romney went into this, he knew, as someone said, that this was going to be a knife fight, it was not

guaranteed, but in his mind he was treated fairly, with respect, and that he was not being paraded because trump wanted to get him back for this, that he was in serious contention throughout. >> it was interesting, because when romney came out of that dinner at dinner out of trump hotel, the very public dinner that reince priebus was also at, he talked about what he liked what trump said on election night, he talked about the transition. almost as if it all had begun anew then as opposed to anything about what had been in the past. >> yeah. and i think that was the deal that mitt romney kind of made with himself and with trump is that, going forward, i'm going to be positive. but look, i do suspect that in the back of his head -- if and i was tad romney talking to my dad whom i love dearly and i think is a good and courageous man, there would be a part of me that

thinks maybe this is about humiliating my dad. maybe this is about getting my dad to grovel publicly before you give tillerson the job as secretary of state. the other thing that strikes me about this story as well is how donald trump was played by his advisers. clearly they calculated that, instead of having a private, personal meeting with him, we're going to go public. it worked. they influenced him in his decision. >> i want to thank everybody on the panel. jamie as well. thank you so much. just ahead, for the first time an american family talks about the isis attack that shattered their lives nine months ago in the brussels airport.

tonight a cnn exclusive. an american family talks for the first time about the terror attack that shattered their world nine months ago at the brussels airport in march when isis attackers struck. like the other victims they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. barbara starr tonight reports. >> i am pushing through it every day. it's difficult. to go through the pain. but you have to look forward. >> for 18-year-old kiani martinez and her brothers and sisters there is utter devastation beyond the pain of burnt shrapnel and broken bones. their mother, gayle was killed.

they are father were among the americans critically wounded in the march isis suicide bomber attack on the brussels airport. lieutenant colonel martinez was just back from afghanistan. they had been waiting to check in for a flight to go on vacation. >> local media reporting an exchange of gunfire and they're reporting that this was a bomb blos. >> reporter: 35 people were killed, 300 wounded when isis attackers detonated bombs hidden in suitcases at the airport departure area. in their first interview ever, the family wants the world to know what isis took from them when gayle died that day. >> what do you want people to know about your mom? >> i live every day because of her. i live every day for her. to remember her. and to honor her. >> reporter: she says her mother

was everything to the family. this young teenager is unflinching. >> i think it's important for me to talk about this. at 18, when you're supposed to be going to college. becoming independent. having been prepared for everything by your parents and then trying to learn for yourself what the real world is like. the real world slapped me in the face on march 22nd. and i'm not going to forget that. >> reporter: kiani was supposed to be in college by now. >> when i heard news that i was awarded an air force rotc scholarship, the first person i told was momma. and she was so proud.

>> it's tough. >> reporter: lieutenant colonel martinez now raising four children on his own, grieving his wife and recovering from his own injuries. photos of happier times with gayle in europe while lieutenant colonel martinez held a nato job. >> i later learned i took most if not all of the shrapnel. my son took the secondary wave. he got the burn, the flame. i didn't lose consciousness. i was blasted forward. and i knew i was bleeding because i felt blood coming from my ear. >> reporter: martinez instantly feared the worst. >> my first instinct was to look for my children and for my wife. i couldn't find my son nor my two youngest. i heard screaming, and i found kiani. the fact that she was screaming, i knew that she was alive, she was coherent. and i went to look for her mom. i said, i'll be right back. i went to look for her mom.

i knew i was bleeding out, and my body was going into shock. so i closed my eyes and welcomed it. and figured i'd join my wife and my three kids. but as i was slipping away, i heard a little girl call out to me. daddy, don't you go. don't you leave me. and just when i thought, you know, i was enveloped by a darkness and ready to go to sleep, i heard her voice and decided to come back. >> reporter: then, the unimaginable, gayle, the love of his life, was gone. >> the story i got from one of the first responders regarding my baby, the youngest one, was that they found her in gayle's arms. when they got to her, they told her, we got the baby now. she is going to be okay.

and that's when they looked up -- she looked up to them, smiled and closed her eyes for the last time. >> reporter: lieutenant colonel martinez would not learn the rest of his family survived until he woke up in a belgian hospital. initially he could not be moved out of bed to even see them. military buddies came to the hospital to make sure the children were never alone. >> they did shifts around the clock, making sure that my children were taken care of and there was always a friendly face there. >> reporter: now, home is texas. the family is very slowly getting through its days. the two youngest, 7-year-old kilani and her 9-year-old sister nolani, recovering from their injuries, now tiny master chefs in the kitchen. >> and then we're waiting for the rice so we can put it on top. smush it down to straighten it.

and wrap the seaweed around it. >> reporter: at physical therapy, 13-year-old kimo loosens the burn tissue that covers his lower body so that he can play sports again. this american military family, grief-stricken, but honoring their mother, killed by terrorists, by recovering and regaining the lives they know she wanted for them. [ laughter ] >> i see her in the faces of my children. i see her in this house. i see her in the people that come to help us. i see her in all the things that are -- have been done for us to support us, to help us. all the good things that have happened. >> reporter: it's more than just physical therapy to climb this wall. for the martinez family, total determination to get to the mountaintop and ring that bell.

>> that's what i'm talking about. >> barbara starr joins us now. a 7-year-old, 9-year-old, 13-year-old, 18-year-old, all without their mom. what is next for them? >> it's so remarkable. it was such a remarkable family to meet. kiani is determined to get back into the rotc, get the scholarship and go to college but she just had more surgery last week. her father told me she is still in a lot of pain but still determined to get back. 13-year-old kimo, i asked him if he had a college plan and he said to me, i have had a college plan since i was 6 years old. he wants to go to m.i.t. and study mechanical engineering. he said, what are you going to do with that? he said he's going to design high-end sports cars. >> incredibly strong family. i wish them the best. >> they are. they are truly remarkable. >> shows you, these are news stories that we cover, and then

days' events take over and many people move on, but for families who have been in something like this -- >> this is forever. they had not wanted to talk until now, and they decided they wanted to talk because they wanted to talk about their mother. >> yeah. and an incredible job they did talking about their mom. barbara, thank you so much for that reporting. more news ahead. breaking news about the role ivanka trump's husband will likely play in the white house. we'll have more on that ahead. nexium 24hr is the #1 choice of doctors and pharmacists for their own frequent heartburn. for all day and all night protection... banish the burn... with nexium 24hr.

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jared kushner will likely have a west wing office. his exact role not yet known. sources say ivanka trump will be using an office in the east wing usually known as the first lady's office. they're also house hunting in d.c. sunlen serfaty reports. >> reporter: with the incoming administration, the nation's capital is getting a boost of new glitzy, glamorous and megarich residents. each on the hunt for a premier washington address. ivanka trump and jared kushner are preparing to move to d.c. with their three young children. sources tell cnn this past sunday they were out house shopping in the ritzy northwest neighborhood of georgetown. >> i am incredibly proud to play a small role in debunking this caricature of what a working woman looks like. >> reporter: they could go the iconic route, snatching up one

of the hottest listings in d.c. jackie kennedy oy nas is's mansion. or something more in line with the manhattan apartment they live in now. this sprawling penthouse condo at the ritz carlston residences clocking in as the most expensive condo on the market in washington and nearly $12 million. d.c.'s new power couple are not the only well healed headed to washington in the market for a new home. >> we know that there are new cabinet members searching for real estate already, and they are out and about. >> reporter: since election day high-end luxury real estate agents say the top echelon of their business is booming at a level not seen during the previous changing of the guards between administrations. due to the striking amount of deep-pocketed future white house officials flooding washington. trump's cabinet picks forming a

long line of multi-millionaires and billionaires. all ready to fork over big bucks and putting a priority on opulence. >> the first people whom have arrived expressed strong preference for luxury properties in turnkey condition in excellent locations close in. >> reporter: among the posh neighborhoods fitting the bill, the northwest neighborhood of calarama where the obamas will be renting their post white house home. the storied hotel and the massachusetts heights neighborhood, boasting the most expensive home for sale right now in d.c., a lavish $20 million estate. sunlen serfaty, cnn, washington. coming up next, something we've not done for quite a while. ladies and gentlemen, i give you the return of the ridiculous, after the break. we live in a pick and choose world.

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australia, a kangaroo got the poor dog in a full-on deadlock. the guy rushes in to save his dog and it got real. the guy punched the kangaroo in the face. and the kangaroo is stunned. what you see next is one dazed and confused kangaroo. let's take another look at this. they square up against each other. look at the gang rue. he can't believe what happened. now, listen, please do not tweet at me. i know there are people who know it is very mean to punch a defenseless kangaroo. kangaroos are strong and could have kicked or clawed the dog's eyes out or even the guy's. how did you know the kangaroo didn't have a knife in its pouch? kidding, of course. that would be observe because it is, in fact, a male kangaroo and as such does not even have pouch. thus ends the complete list of everything i know about kangaroos. bottom line, the guy was protecting his dog. who among you would not protect your pet? i personally go for rocky balboa

on the cutest koalas. the whole thing reminded us of a ridiculist, a harrowing tale of man versus beast all while holding a tiny little chihuahua. >> i ain't running from nothing. i never have in my whole life and i ain't going to start now and you're not going to sacrifice my babies for some damn bear. >> that's right. now coming back to me, carl went toe to toe with a bear that came up on his pooch, or excuse me, on his porch, while his little dog -- actually did make that mistake -- while his little dog was out there. i cannot remember exactly how it turned out, though. >> i raised both hands in the air and i cussed at him. yeah, get out, [ bleep ], and he looked at me like go "f" yourself. >> carl landed a whirling haymaker, punching the bear right in the face. >> come up like this and he turned boom, i hit him hard.

the man or beast that i run from ain't been born and it's mama's already dead. >> i don't even though what that means. his mama's already dead? like i always say, the bear or kangaroo that ain't been born yet, messes with an owner, ends up on the losing end of a fist own the ridiculist. "cnn tonight with don lemon" starts now. family values. are the trumps the new kennedys? this is "cnn tonight." i'm don lemon. president-elect meets with the heads of facebook, apple, amazon and more today. you know who else was in the room? donald jr., ivanka and eric trump. we're learning the white house office for the first lady will become the office of the first lady under donald trump so just how involved will the trump