largely dismissing the issue, but a bipartisan group of senators calling for a broader investigation. there are just 32 days until the inauguration. we have it all covered this morning beginning with jessica schneider in lancing, michigan, where the electors will vote later today. what is the latest, jessica? >> alisyn, it was a narrow win for donald trump here in michigan. he beat out hillary clinton by just 10,000 votes. now have many people calling on electors to vote their conscious, something extremely unlikely since almost all electors are party loyalists. donald trump getting one step closer to officially becoming the next president of the united states today. all 538 members of the electoral college casting their ballots across the country. the typically ceremonial process in the spotlight since some are urging electors to go rogue and

block trump from the office. for that to happen, though, 37 republican electors must switch their votes. a scenario seen as highly unlikely. >> the question is whether there are 37 republican electors who think that either they're open questions or that donald trump, based on everything we know about him, is really unfit to be president of the united states. >> reporter: so far, only one elector, a republican from texas, said he will not cast his vote for trump. >> it is time to pull the brake. >> reporter: some electors gotten thousands of letters, even death threats voting for trump even outside pressure. >> i don't think if the roles were reversed most people would be okay with electors. >> reporter: trump fighting back tweeting, if my many supporters acted and threatened people like those who lost the election are doing, they would be scorned and called terrible names. after praising the electoral college over the weekend. >> the electoral vote. i never appreciated it until

now. how genius it was. >> reporter: meanwhile, the president-elect's top aides continue to question russia's interference in the u.s. election now asking for a unified presentation from u.s. intelligence agencies. >> if there is this conclusive opinion among all of these intelligence agencies, then they should issue a report or stand in front of a camera and make the case. >> reporter: president obama speaking out about the hack operation in a new interview. >> the issue now is not relitigating the election, the issue now is for us to learn lessons so that we don't have an ongoing situation in every election cycle where you have substantial foreign influence in our campaigns. >> reporter: team trump questioning the president's motivation. >> it seems like the president is under pressure from team hillary, who can't accept the election results. >> reporter: four bipartisan senators continue to press for a select committee to investigate russian interference in the

election. >> this is serious business. if they're able to harm the electoral process, then they destroy democracy. which is based on free and fair elections. >> reporter: and many are now pointing to the details of those russian hacks in the hopes that it will sway electors. in fact, michigan's own michael moore is pledging to actually pay the fines of any electors who vote their conscious. but despite that and the many protests expected all over the country, almost all electors are expected to pledge or to vote the way that they've been pledged. in fact in many states including right here in michigan, if those electors don't vote the way they're pledged, they will be replaced. alisyn and chris? >> thanks so much, jessica. let's bring in our political panel to talk about all this. cnn political analyst and campaign correspondent for "new york times" maggie haberman and political reporter for spectrum news errol louis and

counterterrorism official philip mudd. nice to see all of you. i don't remember a time, maggie, that we were ever conscious of when the electors were voting but now, of course, it's top of mind for so many people. any chang that something nutty happens today. in an election that has surprised us all along the way, what is going to happen today? >> we should never say never. but i think the chances of this election being overturned in terms of the electoral college result are slim. it would take 37 electors changing sides. an enormous amount of pressure on people. rumored reports from democrats. this one democrat in particular saying as many as 20 who are thinking of switching. no one else has been able to track down evidence of that. seeing a lot of democrats and liberals lasting their last hope as to stopping trump from getting sworn in. but it seems like it's a lot of frustration building ahead of steam and i don't think it will end up in their desired result and i don't know what happens if it doesn't succeed. >> you have jessica schneider

who was just pointing it to us a little bit. you have laws in place. you go fraour popular vote winner laws. michigan is one of them. if you had to challenge it, just on time alone t wouldn't happen. the bigger question is, should if happen? do you believe the electoral college should be used to overturn the result? >> no, no, no. it's the wrong way to do it. it's understood and sort of understandable that people might want to sort of make sure that the votes are counted in these states where less than 1%. it's understandable if people even want to sort start raising questions about why we have theelectoral college system and who are these electors and what do they do? it's educational and somewhat instructive. but the states are all different. i mean, they're such insiders. even the most anti-trump electors that we know here in new york, these democratic officials, they're not going -- they made public statements. they're not going to go in and provoke a constitutional crisis because that's what it would

take. >> you have laws that would but them from doing it anyway. at least initially. even if they got it to i 270. >> you're saying the is a chance. >> no, i'm not. i am saying there is a chance we keep talking about it. >> i have a panel coming up later of passionate hillary clinton supporters and they are holding out some glimmer of hope that something will happen today, but we tried to make clear that that is beyond a long shot. let's move on to russia, phil. and talk about the russian hacking. president obama addressed this on friday at his press conference and said that he told them to cut it out. so, listen to this moment. >> in early september when i saw president putin in china, i felt that the most effective way to ensure that that didn't happen was to talk to him directly. and tell him to cut it out and

there was going to be some serious consequences if he didn't. in fact, we did not see further tampering of the election process. >> that's not what donna brazille says. she says they were trying to hack the dnc, phil mudd, almost on a daily basis. what do you think about that as a strategy and whether or not it's been effective. >> i don't think it's been effective yet. this goes back to the 1990s and the dawn of the digital age. the chinese and the russians have been stealing american military secrets. forget about the secrets from the dnc for a long time. i think senator mccain and chuck schumer are right. there has to be a broader conversation in the congress outside individual committees about how we move forward to ensure we can protect ourselves during the election of 2020. this isn't about what's happened. this is a big issue. i don't think a presidential statement behind the scenes to putin makes much difference. we have to address this in a bigger way. >> there are bipartisan effort to try to address this.

john mccain is leading the charge. donald trump has resisted believing, maggie, that this is even happening. reince priebus yesterday talked about what it would take to get donald trump to believe it. so, listen to this. >> i think he would accept the conclusion if these intelligence professionals would get together, put out a report, show the american people that they're actually on the same page. if there is this conclusive opinion among all the intelligence agencies they should issue a report or stand in front of camera and make the case. >> i don't know if that's the status. you saw a joint statement that came out in october. >> october 7th. >> from two intelligence agencies saying this is what happened. you now have the cia joining and the fbi being pretty clear. there's not a whole lot of distinction between the agencies at this point on this topic and you saw some efforts to try to clean up any disparities this

last week. i suspect you will see an effort within trump's circle after you get through today. after you get through the electoral college vote. remember, part of the push that was being done by john podesta, hillary clinton's campaign chairman who was hacked and whose e-mails were at the center of this in october say this information ought to be declassified and they should be briefed on it before the vote. i had some people close to the trump transition say to me that there is some pressure in that circle to try to get him to say something different. even if it's just a partial accepting of what this means or, yes, we should look at it or an endorsement of the hearing. but a recognition that it's not going to hold. but some of thiz reluctance at the moment is digging in is related to the electoral college vote. >> he doesn't want to be denied what is rightfully his. >> yes. that having been said. you both interviewed him and you know him. errol knows him. he also believes this is generally being done on some level to undermine his presidency and his legitimacy and i'm not sure how you get him

past that. >> john mccain, do we have the sound of trump's -- i love silence. john mccain talking about trump's refusal. not just about the e-mail, but to talk about vladimir putin at all. >> i have not heard him criticize putin. i think reality is going to intercede at one point or another just because of the russian activities. and i hope that with people like general mattis and some other people around him that he will very quickly understand what the russians are all about. and that is, they are ahead of us in many respects and this whole issue of cyberwar fare. >> quickly, phil mudd from the intelligence community and your context there. does anybody share the forbearance for putin and the hi hijinx of the kremlin that donald trump seems to? >> no. i would take this a step

further. this is not complicated. trump tower you have intelligence briefings. if you want to know what the intelligence community thinks. come up here with the fbi and talk to me about what happened. that's what we call, let me give you a technical term, intelligence briefing. this is not that complicated. >> on that note. panel, stick around. thank you. thank you very much. we know the president-elect may be watching. so, call phil mudd. >> that's right. more than 40 days and 40 nights since the election. is the trump thank you tour working? the president-elect says he's got an boost of 20 points in the polls. we have the reality about how united the country is or is not next.

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the electoral college is set to sign, seal and deliver trump's victory today. then it will be over, right? nope. in the first week of january they'll have in congress read it and tabulate it and then it's ov over. wrong. we'll have our next president of the united states. >> then the next campaign starts. >> i think it started yesterday. so, the president-elect is doing his thank you tour. he says it's helping boost the spirits of america. is that true? he did start making a point, somewhat of an early christmas gift for the president-elect from michelle obama for this recent statement. >> now we're feeling what not having hope feels like. you know.

>> michelle obama said yesterday that there's no hope. but i assume she was talking about the past, not the future. >> let's bring back our panel. errol, maggie and philip mudd. when this came out last week i said she just gave them a gift because this was the second time from the beginning of the administration, michelle obama said i'm proud of my country and now here at the end she says this. what kind of fodder is this for trump? how does he use it and what does it mean? >> it depends if he means let's bring the country back together again. these tours for his supporters and ridiculing his opponents and so forth is not necessarily you try to bring things back together, again. michelle obama has sort of played right into that and saying, it is still a divided nation but i won. that is really what this thank you tour is about.

saying it is divided, but we won. it is kind of a moral boost for him and his supporters trying to shore up some of these poll numbers that are floating out there. the reality is, they've got to be a little bit concerned that they come into, they come into power with their approval ratings very, very low. historically. and in some cases, you know, sort of upside down on disapproval ratings, exceeding the approval ratings. makes it it very hard to get started on a high note. so, i think if he wants to continue to play backlash politics, you know, sort of divisive politics, that will work for him i suppose in any given arena. it won't change the numbers. it is not going to help him get his first budget passed. it is going to cause, in some ways, more problems than it is worth. >> isn't that exhibit a of what michelle obama said. she thinks now the country doesn't have hope where half the country voted for him feels extremely hopeful and excited that things are about to turn around in their direction. part of where they get that is from donald trump's rallies.

donald trump admitted this weekend that somebody in his staff is telling him to back off on the rallies, but he doesn't want to. here is mr. trump. >> this is the last time i'll be speaking at a rally for maybe a while, you know. they're saying as president, he shouldn't be doing rallies. but i think we should, right? >> we've done everything else the opposite. well, no, this is the way you get an honest word out. because you can't give it to them because they're so dishonest. >> oh, that was a twopher. >> just to the extent that he wants to apply truth to this. because this is politics, right? he's politicking. he didn't get half the vote, okay. he got about 46% of the vote and only half of the country voted. so, you wind up getting half of a half. so, he's got a long way to go. he could have rallies all he likes. >> the enthusiasm is on one side of the country. she can't say that people are hopeless across the country.

>> i think that his supporters feel hopeful and his retractors don't, which is not uncommon in an election, but i don't remember an election that was as v visceral and nasty as this one. it is a little different. i think errol is right. he's not coming in with a historic high in terms of approval rating. we have seen a change across the country. they come in with higher unfavorables because the tenor has gotten nastier and an enormous distrust among voters across the board of elected officials and politicians. but that means he has no real cushion if something goes wrong. the first time there is some kind of a controversy, he doesn't have an enormous will of good feeling to rely on it and give a lot of fodder to his opponents. that is something he has to be careful with. he said two things that were very, very specific to him there. one was about i have to speak to you directly because this is the only way to get a word out. this is an idea that consums his team is the idea that we need to

get around what they would call a filter. others would call it fact checking and making clear sort of when he says something that isn't true. he is also continuing to use we about his own supporters. it's really interesting. something that he started doing very early on in his rallies in 2015 it was very we versus them. he is still doing that as president. that's difficult. >> it worked then, but now he wants the consensus. i'm sure being approved of is not at the top of his list. he can't do it with the numbers he has right now. phil mudd something else he's doing that we hear from people in your community. by attacking the institutions of the democracy. you guys on the intelligence side, the government, the media that he is creating opportunity for enemies abroad. why could that be true? >> i think if you look at people like me who work in the cia, fbi, both organizations have been attacked by mr. trump. you go into this thinking not what happened but how do i serve the president moving forward. how do i walk into the oval office assuming he wants to see people from the bureau and from

the agency. how do i present a nonpartisan view on what's happening in terms of iranian cooperation or lack of cooperation on the nuclear program. on chinese activities in the south china sea. i think the question for someone who has to go and not only as president, but to manage the executive branch is when people walk into the oval office, are they going to be honest with me and look at how i attack him and say, i'm not going to give this guy the truth because he doesn't want to hear it. >> attorney general loretta lynch sat down with jake tapper for this weekend and for the first time we heard her express real regret for what happened on the tarmac with bill clinton. listen to this. >> i do regret sitting down and having a conversation with him because it did give people concern. and my great -- my greatest concern has always been making sure that the people understand that the department of justice works in a way that is independent and looks at everybody equally. when you do something that gives people a reason to think differently is a problem. it was a problem for me. it was painful for me. so, i felt it was important to

clarify it as quickly and clearly and cleanly as possible. >> i wonder if when it was happening she knew what the ramifications would be. >> you know, i've known her for a while. she lived in my neighborhood in brooklyn. she's not a politician. you know. i took her at her word at the time and i think this even underscores it. she was blindsided by that. you know, i mean, whatever he had in mind, bill clinton had in mind playing this three dimensional chess, which is the way his political mind operates. she was in some ways almost like a duke in that. she's not somebody who is thinking four and five steps ahead and what the impression is going to be and how it is going to affect the election and what it is going to do to her reputation and legacy and so forth. i think she basically got corralled into a political move and i think that was her expression of regret that she allowed that to happen. >> panel, thank you very much. great to talk to you. so, let's talk about what's happening outside.

much of the country in a cold snap and storms on the way. how will they impact your holiday travel? that's next.

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police in jordan shooting and killing four gunmen who killed ten people and wounded 34 others during what officials call this cowardly terrorist attack. the attackers firing at police officers in two locations then moving to an ancient castle that's popular with tourists. police say they found automatic weapons and explosives, including suicide belts in the house that they raided there. remember, many thousands are still trapped in aleppo. the u.n. security council is expected to vote this morning to allow u.n. monitoring of evacuations in eastern aleppo. limited evacuations, we're told, have resumed. about 3,500 villagers getting out. buses meant to carry evacuees coming under attack earlier. part of it they are fighting with the rebels. one positive note, 7-year-old bana had become like a real focal point for her tweets showing the despair of life in

that war-torn city. she has gotten out safely. coordinators confirming that she and her family were evacuated aleppo earlier from aleppo earlier this morning. but there are many, many still there. well, hollywood mourning the unforgetting zsa zsa gabor. she immigrated to the u.s. from hungary in the 1940s and later went on to make more than 50 films including "moulin rouge." she also made several appearances, i mean scores of them on tv. she may have been most famous for her nine marriages, seven divorces and one annulment. gabor was 99 years old. i read in "the new york times" she was probably 99. i like that even now she's not revealing her true age. >> her charm was timeless, that's for sure. she had a million great lines. one of them was, why do you get married so many times?

men love me because i'm a great housekeeper. every time i get twors divorcedt the house. so, on the weather side, we don't have good news for you. much of the eastern half of the u.s. is still in the grips of bone chilling cold. once again, raising the risk of what comes along with dangerous, icy conditions. let's bring in cnn meteorologist jennifer grey for a look at the forecast over the weekend. huge numbers and accidents. 30 cars, 40 cars, 50 cars. >> a lot of accidents and very, very cold temperatures. look at these record lows from sunday. average in south dakota, 37 below zero. that's your actual temperature before you factor in the wind chill. bismarck set a record 31 below. sioux falls at 27. joplin, missouri, even 4 degrees below zero. we have wind chill values 35 below today. all of these areas shaded in blue that does include chicago. so a very cold start.

7:00 this morning, we are going to see those wind chill values right around 19 below in chicago. actual temperature 7 below. new york feeling like 16 this morning. and then as the afternoon moves on, we'll only feel like 23 in new york by this afternoon. chicago never feeling like temperatures will get above zero. and, so, we will continue to have this very frigid air in place for the next day or two. good news is, though, it does move out. temperatures should warm up quite a bit, alisyn by the middle part of the week. >> i don't like it to be this cold before it's technically winter. thank you very much. lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are calling for a special committee into the alleged hacking by russia. we look at that, next.

>> the sign of the possible unraveling of the world order that was established after world war ii, which made one of the most peaceful periods in the history of the world. senator john mccain calling on america to lead the world with a stronger hand. specifically his concerns over russia, its hacking during the election, the civil war and syria and this most recent international front, the chinese seizure of a u.s. underwater drone. so, what steps can the u.s. take to deal with these superpowers? let's discuss and cnn senior international correspondent c r clarissa ward. good to have both. let's talk about the plus minus of these hearings. bipartisan getting off on the right foot. good. what is the plus/minus when it

comes to having intelligence officials pushing forward and pushing them to substantiate their sourcing on the russian hacks? >> a lot of hacks. very good read in the "daily beast" that is out today. forancic analysis of hack if you look at one part of the middle east like zooming in on a finger, it looks like it can easily be replicated. when you look at the whole that it becomes clear what the pattern is. in this case, a lot of evidence that russia was involved in the hacks. you don't have to go to what's classified right now. multiple private security firms, law enforcement agencies, intelligence agencies have gone over the details and russia has been hacking so many different outlets that it's already clear from publicly available evidence. that being said, i support the hearings for a variety of reasons, including that i think it's important to have a bipartisan agreement that russia interfering with u.s. elections

actually matters. >> clarissa, you are in moscow. how does this tension about whether or not russia was involved and what should be done. how does this play over there as an opportunity? >> well, i think that the russians are on the surface of it, they're outraged by these allegations. they have been strenuously denying them for koppel of months now. that hasn't changed at all now. when you talk to people on the street whether they're avid putin supporters or elite liberals, they do view these allegations as being baseless and primarily based on circumstantial evidence. so, i don't think people here see this as a really meaningful topic. but at the same time, i think they're enjoying watching it play out, chris. because they're seeing what a disruptive effect all of this, whether it was russian hacking or not in their eyes, they're seeing how disruptive it has been to the democratic process. they're seeing u.s. intelligence agencies squabbling with each

other. they're seeing all of these implications. they're seeing democratic institutions clearly rattled. and they're also seeing, it's important for our viewers to understand, that russians view president obama, first of all, not very favorably. but, secondly, as being a weak president. in their eyes watching this play out is more evidence of the weakness of the obama administration and i also think, chris, they're kind of relishing the idea that they could pull off something quite as audacious as swinging an election in the u.s. in the interest of the candidate of their choosing. >> two quick more points. what is the impact of the 2014 sanctions in response to what russia did and, of course, denied in the eastern part of ukraine. how harsh are those sanctions on the people there? >> the sanctions are pretty harsh, but it's more the european sanctions that have had a real impact because, of course, europe is a much bigger trading partner with russia than the u.s. has. you see russians, obviously,

traveling less. you can't get cheese here, if you can believe that. because of all the imports that are no longer allowed here. it has definitely had a substantial effect on the price of living here, the cost of living and quality of life. what it has not had an effect on is russian aggression or russian behavior on the world stage as we have seen in crimea and syria. >> a stark difference in how our president-elect ignores russia, but has decided to emphasize what china has been doing. we'll put up the tweets just to remind our audience here. he has been silent about putin's reactions. there's been nothing there. but with china, we should tell china we don't want the drone they stole back. china steals navy drone and rips it out of the water and takes it to china. unprecedented act. what is the relative leverage in this situation in taking the china, the chinese on head on?

>> that's a good question because, look, china has so much of the u.s.'s debt right now. one of the interesting quotes is that if you owe someone, you know, a billion dollars. they own you. if you owe someone $5 billion, you own them. we actually have a lot of leverage over china. and part of trump's view with respect to china is that the u.s. has been getting a raw deal in terms of trade with china. he has a number of other grievances including chinese policy towards north korea and the like. it's going to be interest in how it shapes up. but, with trump, it's always a question of whether he has direct steps to getting to what his ultimate vision is. >> interesting little bit of intrigue you threw in there. is russia, is trump positioning russia to be an ally against china? we'll have to see if that's thinking or just convenience at this point. daveed, thank you very much.

clarissa, thank you very much. back here at home the election is over, of course. but the results very hard to accept for some hillary clinton supporters. i sat down with a group of them to talk about what they think went wrong. how many people think that russia swayed the outcome of this race. if it had not been for russia, hillary clinton would have won.

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big game sunday night. cowboys holding off the bucs. oh, boy. but the real winner might be the salvation army. how? coy wire will tell us in this morning's bleacher report. tell it. >> you got it, chris. at 12-2. dallas is tied with the pate

rets for the best record in the nfl thanks to ezekeil elliot. touchdown run and then he donates himself to the big red kettle. he got an unsportsman-like conduct penalty for this, but probably will be fine. he said after the game that he is going to match whatever fine the nfl gives him with a donation to the salvation army. dallas goes on for the win 26-20. now, chris, baby it's cold outside. fans in the nfl were freezing everywhere. like in kansas city where the kickoff temperature was 1 degree but the wind chill made it feel like 9 below. that is the coldest game ever played at arrowhead stadium. so cold before the game, guys, that tickets were going for 2 bucks. to make it even worse for chiefs fans, though. their team ended up losing to the titans. 19-7, brutally cold in chicago, as well. packers and bears. gametime temperature 11 with the

wind chill at minus 4. that's so cold that even the glue on the helmet decal. check this out. you've never seen anything like this. a huge hit knocks the sticker clean off his helmet. the packers go on for the win, 30-27 on the last play of the game. so cold everywhere yesterday, alisyn. today we have monday afternoon football and the miami beach bowl. central michigan versus tulsa at 2:30 eastern. >> that looks horrible, coy. that is horrible. >> brutal. >> no amount of money you could pay me to sit out there and -- >> do it for the love. nobody does it for the money. >> there's television. that's the beauty of television. >> six years in buffalo. we used to have chicken soup broth on the sidelines instead of gatorade. because the games were so cold. anything you could do to stay warm. >> thank you, coy. now he has my attention. >> money, no. soup, yes. the 2016 election finally

coming to an end with the electoral college vote today. what are hillary clinton supporters thinking and where does the democratic party and these voters, where do they go from here? >> those people who traditionally voted democratic were swayed somehow and it has to -- there's something emotional that rocked them. and hopefully -- >> how are you going to win them back? you're going to hear the answer to that from our panel of die-hard clinton supporters, next. fight heartburn fast. with tums chewy delights. the mouthwatering soft chew that goes to work in seconds to conquer heartburn fast. tum tum tum tum. chewy delights. only from tums.

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the electoral college is set to ratify president-elect donald trump as the next president today. this will mark the end of a long, painful chapter since election night. i sat down with a group of her die-hard supporters to talk about what they describe as their devastation and where they go from here. show of hands, how many people were shocked on election night? sally, let's start with you. >> it felt like a punch in the gut. a nightmare. i think by 10:15 i was upstairs with my head in the pillow crying. i really, i think i cried for the next couple of days. i couldn't go to work the next day. i was so sad. >> but as the weeks went by,

that deep sense of sadness and loss gave way to a tremendous, tremendous anger as we realized from all the news that's coming out that this election was stolen from the american people by russia. >> what evidence do you have that russia stole the election? >> there was information from the cia saying that russia was meddling in the election. >> but what evidence do you have that it swayed the outcome. >> the hack that the russian government did of the dnc e-mails. provided an endless supply of negative commentary in the news about hillary. >> how many people think that russia swayed the outcome of this race, had it not been for russia, hillary clinton would have won. you agree with that. >> i don't know. >> well, we don't know yet. >> but for months and months and months, all of the american voters were swayed by what they

heard and saw in the news. >> the other thing i thought was a big factor is the fake news on facebook. >> why? what fake news story cost her the election? >> i would say the fake news and russia stuff are very connected because a lot of the fake news came out of people's interpretation of the leaks. a lot of late deciding voters broke for trump and it seemed to line-up in terms of timing with the comey e-mail. >> what i don't hear you saying is putting any responsibility on her campaign. what percentage do you think was a result of her campaign and things she should have done differently? >> michigan and wisconsin. >> and i think that the republican party was at war. and they were fierce. and we were not, we were not dogged enough. we did not see this coming. >> yeah. go ahead. >> i do think that they didn't pay enough attention to michigan and wisconsin, which was a mistake from a campaign perspective. the hillary clinton campaign ran a very negative campaign towards

donald trump. it was very much about don't vote for him, vote for me. not vote for me. >> you think that cost her. >> absolutely. >> wasn't an economic message either. donald trump very clear whether it is going to work or not, he really listened and heard the people's anxiety around the economy. >> alisyn, in my opinion, i feel like donald thought he was going to lose and hillary kind of relaxed and said, i got this in the bag and that's what happened to it. >> the media had a tremendous love affair with the circus of donald trump. >> when you say love affair, explain what you mean by that. >> every time donald wanted to get any media attention, he could. he didn't have to come into a studio for an interview, he could call in. that's unprecedented for this kind of election. >> in our defense, so could she have. we would have taken that call any day. >> networks did not cover hillary near as much as they covered trump.

trump had a blank check for anything ridiculous that he said and he played a media in a way that was truly masterful. hillary clinton, she actually had a very strong economic message. the working class, in this country, is two genders. and it's multi-racial. and she spoke to all groups, including white people. so, to me, the whole idea that she didn't speak to the working class, she did not speak to the racist working class who hates what obama stands for. she did not speak to them. true. >> but are you saying that only racists, that it was racists that allowed donald trump to win? >> i think it was racism that allowed donald trump to win. i'm not saying that everybody that voted for donald trump is a racist. i don't believe that. but i believe that they allowed racism to move into the white house. let's say that racism reacted against an obama presidency and that racism won.

>> how many people agree? >> there's some racism involved. >> yeah. >> if you've given up hope that anything could stop this before the inauguration, what's your plan? >> we have to use the unity that we can bring together from the lgbt groups, the millennials. the african-american groups, luti lutinas, women. all these groups have to unite against this tremendous assault on inclusion and diversity in the united states. >> don't you have to give them a chance first? he is not president yet. >> he has been given a chance and you can see it in his cabinet. >> you said don't we have to give him a chance. mitch mcconnell his number one priority was making sure that barack obama was a one-term president. >> are you comfortable emulating that? are you comfortable being the party of no and being the road block? >> absolutely. such concern about some of the changes that want to be made.

you have to be realistic. you can't be the party of yes. you have no power at the moment. all you can do is obstruct and slow down and the republicans have given us the exact model on how to do that. >> as democrats you don't control any house in congress. how are you going to stop? >> we're starting to look at who's up in the senate races. we have to organize right now. >> we've had two or three meetings since the election to, you know, organize people. meetings that were regularly scheduled anyway. but the number of people we had turn out has been far greater than anything we were seeing before. >> those people who traditionally voted democratic were swayed somehow. and it's -- there's something emotional that rocked them. and hopefully -- >> how are you going to win them back? >> we have to go out and talk to them now. we really do. >> okay. so, you heard the many stages of grief there from that night being despondent to now pulling themselves up and mobilizing,

they say. >> the similarities to what these people are saying, to what i heard coming out of the obama election. 2008, certainly 2012. that cycle is staggering. they said the exact same things and they came to the exact same conclusion. that's what the whole aftermath report was. the only one thing that bothers in there is democrats were so condemning of the obstructionism by the gop -- >> that's right. >> now they say we have to do the same thing. by the way, won't be the first time that one party -- >> i did ask them about that. you hated that mitch mcconnell dug in and that the republicans were the party of no and it does sound like now they're wanting to take a page from that book. they did go further and say we are also going to have to come up with our own positive message and get out there. one thing they all said is that they are reading j.d. vance's

book to try to understand the rust belt and people in the middle of the country because they know they're in their coastal bubble. we have j.d. vance on later to talk about how he has become this sort of encyclopedia for people who want to understand. >> the gop said the same thing. who wound up winning the election. not somebody who came with a message, but somebody who soaked up all the angers that are going on in the country. >> what is your take? tweet us at "new day" or post your comment at cnn.com/newday. >> not much happens in russia without vladimir putin. >> the president is under pressure from team hillary who can't accept the election results. >> that's the beauty of this electoral system. >> it's genius. i'm telling you, it's genius. >> the question is whether or not there are 37 republican electors who think that donald trump is really unfit to be president. >> the russians hacked our system with the intent of influencing the election.

>> we need a select committee. we need to get to the bottom of this. >> the democrats are doing everything they can to deleg delegitimize the outcome of the election. >> announcer: this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. the electoral college is set to ratify donald trump's presidential victory today. electors gathering in all 50 state capitals and washington, d.c. this vote is getting more attention than usual as clinton supporters hold out hope for an unlikely twist. the real drama is coming from the widely varying responses to russia's hacking to influence the election. trump and his team largely d dismissing the issue. you now have senators on both sides of the aisle who are saying this is a very big deal a threat to your security and they want a broader investigation. still, 32 days until the inauguration. let's begin this hour with cnn jessica schneider in lansing, michigan. every state meets in its own

state capital or state house. michigan will be an important one to watch. >> yeah, that's right, chris. michigan 16 electors will cast their votes at 2:00 today. it will be happening in state capitals all around the country like you said. something that happens every year, but this year we're expecting protesters and thousands of calls for electors to vote their conscious, an unlikely scenario, though. donald tromp getting one step closer to officially becoming the next president of the united states today. all 538 members of the electoral college casting their ballots across the country. the typically ceremonial process in the spotlight since some are urging electors to go rogue and block trump from the office. for that to happen, though, 37 electoral would have to switch their votes. highly unlikely. >> the question is whether there are 37 republican electors who think that