>> i never had those kind of views. >> what's the point of having nepotism laws if you can appoint your son-in-law senior adviser in the white house. >> look at where have we made progress? don't undo things just because i did them. the. >> within two days, we should have a bill. we should vote on it on the same day. >> this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota als. >> in hours, confirmation hearings will be begin for president-elect trump's cabinet picks. first up is a big one and it's going to be in the senate hot seat for sure. attorney general. alabama senator jeff sessions. you are also going to see the hearings for homeland security chief. that's going to be a different game, alisyn. >> also, it's mr. trump's choice for senior white house adviser, son-in-law jared kushner is raising questions. how will they get around a federal anti nepotism law among other things, all this as

president obama delivers his farewell address to the nation tonight. let's given with jason carroll who is live at trump tower in new york. what's the latest? >> the president-elect feeling confident about his cabinet choices and his son-in-law despite all that, they are expected to face tough opposition in the coming hours and coming days. the president-elect says he's confident in all eight of his cabinet nominees facing confirmation hearings this week. >> the confirmation is going great. i think they will all pass. i think every nomination will be -- they are at the highest level. >> trump's controversial pick for attorney general, alabama senator jeff sessions is first up, followed by retired marine corps general john kelly who is up for homeland security secretary. his move to appoint his son-in-law jared kushner that is

raising lots of questions. top democrats on the house judiciary committee calling for a review of the appointment, arguing the anti nepotism law leaves kushner inn eligible for the job but kushner's attorney maintains the anti nepotism statue excludes west wing posts. meantime, kushner is moving to resign from all executive positions at his companies and divest a significant number of asets, including all foreign investments to comply with government ethics rules. something the president-elect has yet to do. an official briefed on the transition says kushner will not take a salary at the white house and not all democrats are wary of kushner. >> i'm certainly pleased he will be in that role. i find him to be a lot more reasonable and a lot more moderate. >> it's not clear what role ivanka will have and whether the first daughter will have a west wing office. >> we'll talk about that on

wednesday. >> reporter: that's when trump will hold his first press conference in nearly six months where he is expected to be pressed about his conflicts of interest. >> it's very simple. very easy. >> whether he accepts the conclusions of intelligence agencies that russia meddle ds in the u.s. election. >> we'll talk to you about that at another time. >> and much of the focus is on the incoming president. tonight the focus will be on part of the outgoing president. president obama expected to give his farewell speech tonight in chicago. much of the speech will focus on thanking his supporters over the years. it's expected to be forward-looking and written from the heart. chris. >> jason, thank you very much. a busy week of senate confirmation hearings kick-off on capitol hill just hinled us in a few hours. history is going to be made at the hearing for attorney general because you got nominee jeff sessions and you got democratic senator cory booker who is going to take an unprecedented step of

testifying against his senate colleague. why? he says sessions civil rights record demands it. cnn sunland surfati has more. >> reporter: that's right. this has never happened before where you have a sitting senator testifying against another. cory booker saying he did not make this decision lightly but the immense powers of the attorney general combined with the deeply troubling views of this nominee is a call to conscience. the attorney general is responsible for insuring the fair administration of justice and based on his record, i lack the confidence that senator sessions can honor this duty and this is very unlikely to stand in the way of his confirmation but keep in mind there is some history here too. this is the same committee that rejected senator sessions back in the 80s when he was up for a federal judgeship. that derailed over some of senator sessions past statements, racially incentive statements in the past. questions that will very likely

come up again today. a statement just released by the trump transition team, sessions makes no mention of his controversial past but he does defend his civil rights record saying in his opening statement i deeply understand the history of civil rights and the horn do you say impact that relentless and systemic discrimination and denial of voting rights has had on our african-american brothers and sisters. i have witnessed it. i understand the demands for justice and fairness made by the lgbt community. also happening today will be the confirmation hearing of john kelly for homeland secretary. republicans, as you know, plan to repeal obamacare, but with no alternative on the horizon, they are looking at simply replacing some elements of the law. we have more on capitol hill.

>> republicans are moving very rapidly to repeal most of the law as early as a self-imposed january 27th deadline and they can do that under the rules of the senate that allows them to use the budget process to repeal that law without getting any democratic support. actually using a procedure to avoid a democratic filibuster. replacing the law will require democratic support and that's something republican leaders say could take some time. there is anxiety in the ranks among republicans that they need to have a replacement at the same time as they repeal the law, including from an influential senator bob corker of tennessee. >> i don't see any way you can intelligently have a replacement plan by january 27th when your hhs person isn't going into office until at the earliest january 20th. people who really want to see good things happen for our country, which there are many of those, are beginning to understand that it's

problematic. >> now, in order to alleviate some of those concerns, republican leaders are talking about moving up the time line to replace part of the law, including to add some of those replacement provisions in that initial repeal law. the question is whether or not they can do that under the rules and whether or not they can get enough support to do it. a lot of questions right now about how to move forward on this key issue. >> manu raju. a key grab with bob corker because he is one of the gop senators to talk about the timing of the obamacare repeal. lots to discussion. joining us is chris collins, a co-share of the house leadership committee. always a pleasure. >> welcome to d.c. >> good to have two new yorkers here in a foreign land. let's talk about jeff sessions. you got to know him in an unusually intimate way through what's going on with the trump transition. >> correct. >> what did you learn about him that you think should matter to

the people who start measuring him today? >> jeff sessions is a true gentleman. he is thoughtful. he cares about america. he cares about people. he's just a very soft-spoken southern gentleman, and to be tagging him with some of theage jektives that people are today it's just not the jeff sessions that i know or that i think that america got to know on the campaign trail. >> what is motivating, cory booker, the democratic senator from jersey seems to be mainl as a.g., sessions used his discretion to go after civil rights advocates that were going after people trying to register to vote. they believe that it speaks to his disrespect for that community and those rights. what do you see? >> cory booker is all about the latest stunt. if you remember what he did when he was mayor in new jersey, the first thing he does is he tries

to grab international headlines. what he's doing today every -- never before in the senate, it doesn't surprise at all. >> he did do the prosecution, he did celebrate openly when the supreme court turned down some of the supervisory roles over voting. >> what cory booker is doing is nothing but self-serving grabbing headlines. jeff sessions is going to answer those questions. jeff sessions as a senator in the last go around was the only senator in the united states that didn't even have an opponent. that's how much he is loved by the people of alabama and so the q & a is going to occur and i can assure you that jeff sessions is going toons the questions. he's a constitutionalist, he's a conservative. we can all agree to disagree on certain issues. the constitution is first and foremost with jeff sessions. that's what he's going to uphold and cory booker should be asking the questions like senators have done for decades.

not pulling a stunt like he's doing. he's just grabbing headlines. >> let's see how it goes when they start asking questions and hearing those answers. jared kushner. how do you give comfort to people? the congressman is a businessman and then went into politics. so you understand -- this is a different presidency than we've seen before. trump's business portfolio, kushner's business portfolio. the law will be a little bit of an issue here. it's unclear. let's say they get past that. you have the ethical considerations. jared kushner is a son-in-law. he's got big business interests. he's brought people in to meet the president-elect that he's done business with. >> he is already taking the steps to separate himself from kushner companies, which is the real estate company that he's been running since his mid 20s very successfully by the way. what should give the country

comfort, jared kushner has the ear of the president, he and his wife, ivanka, as well as his son don and eric. the team that was part of the campaign. that was the true inside. they are all going to be together as donald trump starts his presidency. these are the folks that donald trump trumps. we all know that jared has a different style. he's soft spoken, but he's very smart, very thoughtful, very focused individual who puts america first and also wants to make america great again. that's how donald trump will be making decisions, is getting input from other folks. he's surrounded himself with people he trusts. a president has to trust his advisers. >> they have to be trusted by the people who are around them as well. that's why these questions come up. >> correct. and jared kushner is taking the

steps to separate himself as are the other cabinet officials and very complicated. these are very successful people. we should be very thankful that we're getting the level of successful individuals into the president's cabinet who know how to get things done. they are no nonsense, they ask the right questions. they hold people accountable. these are ceos of major companies, real estate in the case of jared kushner who get results. i think america is going to see a presidency focused on results right out of the box. >> all right. now one of those results is getting pushed you now in terms of its timing, changing the aca, what's known as obamacare. repeal and replace. you have to give a nod to the idea that that's not normally what you would do. you come up with a plan of here's what we're going to do exactly and then let's get rid of there right now, you are getting senators congressman who are spaying we got to slow down.

don't go for the bang for the buck for the political score for the repeal. do you give a nod to the consideration? >> a promise was made by donald trump and by the republicans to repeal obamacare. we did it nine months ago. the senate and the house did it. we put it on obama's desk. now he vetoed it. >> you knew that was going to happen. you didn't have to think it through. it would not have captured all the people who need insurance right now and it wouldn't have changed the situation. >> i would say this to my fellow republicans in the senate and house that don't want to do it. that's basically saying to america i was pretty disingenuous nine months ago. i put a bill on the president's desk that was not going to get signed, that's why i passed it. i think that's a dangerous slope. we promised to repeal it. we should repeal it quickly. now, there's no coverage changes in obamacare for the next two years. >> why are you repealing it? >> we have to repeal it in order to get through the insurance issues, like right now 17 ploons are plans are set.

the 18 plans have to be out in the next 60 days. there's no way we could change coverage in the next two years just based on insurance requirements in different states. so individuals don't need to worry. with obama that they are going to have any coverage changes in the next two years, but then the replacements have to come out with the insurance companies designing new plans, many in conjunction with the companies they are going to be insuring. that process, you know, is a lead time. we make sure coverage doesn't change. we get the replacement out sometime this year. that gives the insurance companies time to get new plans out for 2019. so it is a two step process but the message to america is in many cases we're getting rid of the ownerous parts, the mandates, things of that sort. >> we know it's complicated. stay on the story. always a pleasure. alisyn over to you. after eight years in the white house, today, president

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i can tell you what i'm feeling right now is that i'm busier than i expected these last two weeks. a great deal of emotion around the people that i've worked with and the gratitude i feel for the sacrifices they have made on behalf of the american people but also on behalf of me personally. >> so president obama will return to chicago today where he says it all started and that's where he will deliver his farewell address to the nation tonight. so joining us from the white house with a preview is senior adviser to president obama valerie jarrett. good morning, valerie. >> good morning alisyn. >> we know the president has been hard at work on this speech and we've heard that he wants to end his time in office the way he started it, quote, with optimism and hope. now -- >> that's throout right. >> that sounds like it's going

to be a hard needle to thread given this climate, you know. all the stuff that has been said during the campaign, how toxic it became and with the president-elect that president obama did not support. >> well, you know, i think the president's optimism comes from the american people. he's had the privilege the last eight years traveling the country, meeting people who are doing extraordinary things committed to our country to making it better. he is enjoying high popularity among the american people. he's proud of his track record. if you think about when he took office, the fact that we were losing nearly 800,000 jobs a month and unemployment rate ticking up to 10%. now it's down to 4.7. high school graduation rates are up. college administration -- admission is up. poverty is down. typical family income is up. there's so much that's going on that is positive. his record-breaking announcements on climate change both here domestically and around the world.

bringing so many of our men and women home who have been serving our country. there's a lot to feel very positive about and he wants to reflect briefly on the progress that we've made but also looking forward. taking the long view about why he's optimistic about the future of our country. >> and yet, valerie, so many democrats would not describe what they are feeling today as hope, including the first lady, michelle obama, who sat down with oprah and said now we know what it feels like not to have hope. >> i wish you could have heard her speech last week when she spoke to young girls as we were honoring the best counsellors in the country. she said i have so much faith in you and we're counting on you and i want to lift you up. i think young people give the president and the first lady hope and we always take the long view. the progress of our country has always been messy. there are going to be zigs and zags along the way, but if you really focus on what makes our

country extraordinary, what makes it great, i think that there is reason to be optimistic and hopeful. >> as you stand there, still at the white house, ten days out from leaving, what do you think the future of obamacare is? >> well, i hope that the future of the affordable care act called obamacare is positive. there are 20 million people who never had health insurance before, many who never had it before who have it now. everyone is covered if they have a preexisting condition. young people can stay on their parents' plan until they are 26. senior citizens are getting help with prescription drugs. there is so much in it that's positive. i would hate to think of taking those important benefits away from american people. >> you know republicans say it is their first order of business to repeal it. >> i think as we saw yesterday they are finding it's a lot more complicated than they originally may have thought. the president tried to engage

republicans as we went through congress the first time to get the best ideas to incorporate them into a bill that had bipartisan support and they opted not to participate and now the burden is on them and they are seeing it's challenging. it's a complicated piece of business and many pieces are interrelated. if you care about covering everybody with a preexisting condition, then you have to have a requirement that everyone buy health insurance. it's very difficult when you start to break apart the pieces. >> what do you think of the news that donald trump would like his son-in-law jared kushner to become his senior adviser, the role that you have played for the past eight years? >> you know what, alisyn, my first priority right now is set by the president is to help president-elect trump's team with the transition in every way possible so that it's smooth and orderly, the same way president bush helped us. so i'm not going to comment on every single appointment that the president-elect makes. what i can tell you, though, having co-chaired president obama's transition is that he said to his lawyers tell me where the lines are and i'm going to color well within the

lines. he did that with the appointments in the white house and he also did that with his cabinet. he wanted to make sure that our due diligence was done ahead of time. that we knew everything that was important to know about a nominee because that nominee was going to represent the president. >> what advice would you give to jared kushner? >> listen to the american people. make sure you stay in touch with them. make sure you have your pulse on them. washington can swallow you up whole and i think it's incumbent upon all of us to remember every single day who we're here to serve. we're here to serve you, the american people. >> valerie, what's next for president obama? what role will he play in the country and in the democratic party? >> well, he's looking forward to working on the obama center. just thrilled i am personally because i'm from chicago to see it located on the south side of chicago. his adopted hometown. where, the first lady was born and raised. he wants it to be more than just

a library reflecting on the past and his important time in office but really a beacon of hope for not just chicago but the world about the future, thinking of ways of creating a platform to be a force for good and he's going to spend a lot of time after a much-deserved rest focusing on that. >> valerie jarrett, we look forward to seeing what you do next after much-deserved rest. thank you for being on "new day." let's get to chris. the confirmation hearing for jeff sessions, he's a senator from alabama, he is the president-elect's choice to be our next attorney general. a big deal will be the past an allegations of racism, could they hurt him now? the senator's spokesperson joins us next. ! hey! we're doing the wave! taking off with me! for 42 minutes he's been trying to bring an entire stadium to its feet. you missed it, buddy. it's all good. and much like this hero, courtyard is all about the game. one, two, three... waaaaave!

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>> this is a big week and it starts today. in two hours, alabama senator jeff sessions, the president-elect's choice to be our next attorney general will be in the senate hot seat for his confirmation hearing. the same senate committee that denied him a judgeship back in 1986. he is well liked by colleagues

on capitol hill, but he's been down this road before and as i just said it didn't go well. cnn's dana bash has the story. >> i have a man who is respected by everybody here. >> reporter: jeff sessions, donald trump's nominee for attorney general, was the first u.s. senator to endorse him. >> this is a movement. look at what's happening. >> reporter: the alabama republican gave the new york reality tr star -- tv star credibility because jefferson bow reguard sessions iii is a rockridge alabama conservative. 30 years ago when ronald reagan nominated sessions to be a federal judge, democrats blocked him. something sessions rarely talked about but did with us in 2009. >> it was not a pleasant event. i got to tell you. it was really so heart breaking. >> reporter: he was accused of

racial insensitivity, calling a black lawyer boy and civil rights groups like the naacp unamerican. which he denied. >> i am not a racist, i'm not insensitive to blacks. >> he was pounded by democrats, including joe biden. >> they may have taken positions that i consider to be adverse to the security interests of the united states. >> does that make them unamerican? >> no, sir, it does not. >> does that make the positions unamerican? >> no. >> that was not fair. that was not accurate. those were false charges and distortions of anything that i did, and it really was not. i never had those kind of views, and i was karri ka toured in a way that was not me. >> now the son of civil rights activists who sessions prosecuted for voter fraud is coming to his defense. >> i don't think he's a racist. >> albert tar dif junior.

>> when i talked to senator sessions about historical black colleges and trying to get historical black colleges some assistance and funding. he listened. i can go on and on about the particular issues that jeff sessions and i have discussed. >> susan collins, a moderate republican was elected to the senate the same year as sessions. >> jorg with him on a lot of issues. >> we don't agree on a host of issues. >> still, she plans to introduce sessions at his confirmation hearing for attorney general. >> i don't know what happened more than 30 years ago, but i do know the jeff sessions that i have worked with in the past 20 years. i want a person of integrity and experience, and jeff sessions has all of those characteristics and qualities. >> reporter: sessions spent two decades in the senate fighting for conservative causes but did team up on a bill with this

high-ranking democratic. you worked with him on legislation? >> this was like a miracle. >> reporter: dick durbin was trying to work on the penalties for possession of crack cocaine. then they met in the gym. >> i said give me a number. what is it? it was 18. we agreed. >> reporter: durbin disagrees with sessions on most legal issues which makes it hard to support him for storing -- attorney general. other democrats that sessions got to know in the gym agree. >> i said to jeff sessions in the gym the other day, if you made you head of the trade representative, we would be working together very well. we can kibbutz in the gym. you keep these positions on voting rights. it's going to be very hard for

me to support you. >> now joining me is sarah easter fluoresce. thanks for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> dana laid out well everything that happened in the 1980s, people are becoming familiar if they -- know it already with how his desire to become a federal judge was tor pea doed by democrats, who felt he had done racially insensitive things. what's changed since then? >> we know that one of the main witnesses had to recant under oath. another had been discredited. arlen specter says he regrets voting against senator sessions. what you will hear is how false the allegations were at the time and why they remain false today. that's why tim scott endorsed him this morning and condoleezza rice, we'll have a number of leaders, african-american leaders who have worked with him over the years, both as a

prosecutor, state attorney general, 20 years in the senate, who will speak to his character and record. >> yet, you'll also have something unprecedented happening and that is two of his congressional colleagues, african-americans who will basically be testifying against him. you have congressman john lewis and you have senator cory booker who could not support his nomination or confirmation. let me play for you what senator booker has said about this. >> we've seen consistently jeff sessions as senator jeff sessions voting against everything from the matthew shepherd act, voting against or speaking out against key ideals of the voting rights acts. taking measures to block criminal justice reform. he has a posture and positioning that i think represent a real danger to our country and even nations. >> so there you heard, senator booker say he's a danger to the country because of some of his positions on gray rights -- gay rights, civil rights. what's your response, sarah? >> i think some of that is a

little bit of posturing. tim scott has endorsed him. we'll have african-american leaders who have worked with him for decades and understand his record. he's voted for the voting rights act. politics is politics but i feel very confident in what will present as senator sessions character and record in the next few days. >> do you believe he will be confirmed? >> i do. he i believe he will be confirmed with democrats who vote for him as well. senator joe manchin, the senator from west virginia will is vote for him. we will hear from people who know his record, his four-decade career in public service, up holding the rule of law. his priorities of the justice administration. african-american and civil rights leaders who have worked with him for decades. >> if he is confirmed and i think you are right, it certainly points to that he will

be, let's look at his views on current laws and some of the things that might present challenges if he were to be confirmed. for instance, same-sex marriage. senator sessions has said, i'll read you his quote. it's not disputable that adopting a same-sex marriage culture under mines and weakens marriage. that is disputable. number one. what does that mean now that same-sex marriage is the law of the land? where would he stand on any challenges? >> the role of a senator is very different from the role of an attorney general. i'm sure he will be discussing that today and i'm sure senators will ask. the role of a senator is policy making. the attorney general enforces the law. it's the law of the land. ellen force laws that he voted for and ellen -- -- he will enforce laws that he didn't vote for. >> he recognizes that gay marriage is the law of the land. he will allow that to stand.

as attorney general, he will not challenge that. >> he will up hold the laws of the land. not something we've seen from this administration. senator sessions will bring that back, mend relationships with law enforcement that have been damaged and make the department of justice an enforcement mechanism for the law. whether you agree with those laws or not. >> how about water boarding? since he has been on the record saying water boarding worked, i hate to see it, it worked. obviously, that's not the opinion of the fbi. that's not the opinion of general mattis, so where would he stand on that? >> well, again, our current law is that the army field manual holds. ellen force current law on that issue. >> so you think that he will -- despite his past positions -- what the law stands as he inherits it, that's what he will do as attorney general? >> i know it sounds surprising because for the last eight years we haven't had a department of justice who has actually just

enforced the laws as they are written, not how the department of justice wishes they were and as declined to defend laws that they didn't agree with, but that actually isn't the role of the department of justice and as attorney general jeff sessions will uphold the law, enforce the law, something he has done over his four decade career and something he understands well going into the role of attorney general. >> sarah isgur flores thank you for explaining it to us. our current president, president barack obama is set to pass the baton delivering a farewell speech to the nation tonight. up next, we'll be talking to elijah cummings about the obama legacy and what he needs to see happen right now to the russians, next. see me. see me. don't stare at me. see me. see me. see me to know that psoriasis is just something that i have. i'm not contagious. see me to know that... ...i won't stop until i find what works. discover cosentyx,

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>> national security is very much front and center. house democrats have introduced two new bills calling for an independent bipartisan commission to investigate russia's inference in the u.s. election. but president-elect trump and his team say democrats are just playing politics and no further investigation is needed. here to discuss this and president obama's farewell speech and what's going on with the aca is democratic congressman elijah cummings from maryland. always a pleasure. >> it's my pleasure. >> happy new year. so what else do you need to know? the ic report came out. you and others have access to classified information, if you wanted to request it. what else do we need to know? >> we've got to figure out -- we've got to take a look at the long view. we've got to look at exactly all

of this happening. there's still more to be looked at, chris. we've got to come up with recommendations as to how to deal with it. my concern is the reason why we have this independent bill, a bill for an independent commission, is because we want to take it out of politics. remember, i was the head of the benghazi committee for democrats. it got bogged down in politics. we wanted 9/11 commission to take a look at everything, equal number of democrats and republicans to present to the american people what we need to do. >> how about making it less political? won't you have democrats looking for reasons why this changed the election and republicans looking for reasons to say russia wasn't involved? >> what it is a commission like the 9/11 commission. if you remember, these were citizens of upstanding reputations that came in, looked at it, and so you are not going to have any senators, no

congressmen and they come back to us with that recommendation. i think -- [ no audio ] >> the report that came out was the no the most -- >> you got to check the sources. >> that's the contradiction with intel. >> a lot of people don't understand that. because there's a lot of classified information. [ no audio ] >> they don't trust. there's a lot of confidence that they know for sure that p russia was behind these hacks. you have complete confidence. >> i have complete confidence. when you got your 17 intelligence agencies saying it, and then they are in agreement, which is not always the case, then i believe it, and by the way, if we're going err, let's err on the side of the safety of the american people and protecting our democracy, by the way. >> why do you think donald trump is fighting the conclusion? >> i don't know. i think president-elect trump is

concerned, just listening to them, that he doesn't want anybody to get the impression that if the russians were involved, that it affected the outcome of the election. i would say to the president-elect with all due respect forget that part. let's just deal with what we know. that is that there was an attack on our election system, that putin is responsible for it, and that they are going to do it again. >> would you say that to democrats, stop playing with what the impact was on the election, let's focus on who do it? >> i think democrats have said that. lindsey graham has said he hasn't heard democrats talking about whether it actually affected the election. i think that's a distraction. and it distracts us from what we need to do and that is protecting the american people and protecting our democracy and, chris, i will go to my grave protecting this democracy. >> all right. two quick points on other issues. one, the aca. what is your disposition and understanding of other democrats and the house how you will approach working with or against

whapds when they, -- what happens when they repeal the aca? >> we all know there are improvements need to be made and i will work with respects to do that -- republicans to do that. i'm telling me you in my 20-some years in congress, the most important vote i ever took was the aca. i will fight with regard to that. and over democrats will too. they are talking about repealing and replacing. no, no, no, no. they have had seven years to tell us how they are going to replace. they still don't know how they are going to replace it. they are talking about delay. they still don't know what to do. they do not know how to deal with this issue of people with preexisting conditions being able to get insurance and the 26 years old saying on their parents plan. >> you got to keep the revenues up to keep the coverage. you can't cover the things if you don't have the money. >> now the republicans have no governor. they are sitting back throwing rocks now they have to govern. they will see how hard it is. >> where is your heart going to be tonight and what does your head tell you need to hear from president obama?

>> i want to hear what the president has talk about what he accomplished. i have seen respects torpedo every single thing he has done. they have stood in his way over and over from my perch as ranking member i see more that be most people see. i want him to say something that donald trump has said. that this is no time for political correctness. we're talking about the future of america and is so when he goes out i don't want him to sit back and lay back and say, okay, i'm going on vacation. i want to get a little vacation, get rest, but if he sees things going wrong that will affect children yet unborn, i want him to do that. >> what about the idea of the transition of power and the president once they leave office kind of being understated? >> i just said, if he sees things, that are going to affect the voting rights of people, he sees things that are going to hurt people, i would pray that he will say something because

it's what we do in these moments, these moments right here, that will affect my grandchildren and great grandchildren and i tell my constituents that is not about me. this is about the future and so i would hope that the president would stand up and say whatever he's got to say and i know it's not going to be politically correct but it's not about that. >> for all what you call the torpedoing that you've seen one thing you can't take away is what he means to american history. how much pride do you take in president obama? >> he's elevated african-american people so much. michelle obama put the o in obama. i live in the inner city. you've been in my neighborhood. they are pressing their chests out a little bit more, their heads are up. their graduation rates are going up. they feel better about who they are. they now know -- they used to think that the only thing they can become was a basketball

player or football player. now they know they can become the president of the united states. priceless. >> we've spent a lot of time together and i know you said during the campaign, this is it, this is the time, this is the time did you think in your lifetime you would see barack obama becoming president of the united states? >> no. when he first called me in 2007, i said i want you to run my campaign in maryland, and i said president of what? he said back then, i'm going to win. but i never dreamed it. my 90-year-old mother, who suffered a stroke and she could be down and out and every time barack obama comes on the television she looks up. >> congressman, thank you very much. so what will president obama

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but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment change has come to america. >> president obama will return to chicago's grant park tonight to give his farewell address to the nation. the president paying homage to george washington, and president obama has done four drafts and they expect him to keep working on this throughout the day and into the evening. and here to give us a perspective on this, john avalon, the author of the new book out today, "washington's farewell:the founding father's warning to future generations." your book about washington's farewell comes out on the same

day of obama's farewell. who did you pay? yeah, it's a good day. george washington set the model by doing his farewell address and it was an important document, and it sets the two-term precedent, and leaves power voluntarily and unheard of at that time, and most importantly he decides to not just talk about what he accomplished, but to pivot forward and warn future generations about the forces he felt could destroy the future precedent, and it's a pressing document. >> oh, my gosh, is it ever. it's almost eerie, and here are some examples. this is about the danger of hyperpartisanship that george washington worried about.

it agitates the community with ill founded jealousies and kindles the animosity one part against the other, and i guess we have not earned much since then. >> that is ripped from the headline stuff. in the farewell address, washington, he writes it with alexander hamilton and james madison, and it's one of the key forces that destroys democratic republics, and washington warns about party's being divided by regional lines and that's red states and phrblue states, and n it becomes unfunctional, that opens the doors to demagogues. he warned and talked about how hyperpartisanship and media gave rise itself to fake news and that kind of confirmation bias

where people self segregate -- >> we're living it. >> that's what we are reaping right now. >> he also talked about immigration. citizens by birth or choice of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections, the name of america which belongs to you in your national capacity must exsalt -- we tend to think we invented the immigration argument and here's he talking about it. >> we're a nation of immigrants. washington was clear. enormously focused on the importance of national unity, and because even then there were states rights folks hostile to the constitution, that says we are virginiaens before americans, and he said, no, americans first. we need to look at what unites and not divides us. >> his fear of foreign influence

on the president. let me read what george washington said. observe good faith and justice towards all nations and cultivate peace and harmony with all and experience prove that foreign influence is the most baneful foes of republican government. >> washington was laying out a foreign paolicy, and throughout history and washington dealt with this when he was president, that foreign governments and foreign powers would try to subvert the sovereignty by influencing their domestic politics and that's what we are dealing with russia right now in the hacking schedule, and these are century-old -- >> there's some kind of comfort knowing that george washington

was dealing with this kind of stuff, and we have not learned anything but we survived for the next 200 years. >> it provides a guide, and this was a memo to future generations, to us. >> do you think president obama will issue a warning? >> i do. that's a standard part of farewell addresses, and that's a warning about the rise of the military industrial complex. that was a far-sided warning at the time and issues it in 1960, but building and inspired by washington's farewell, to point out something on the horizon, and we have putin laying out an alternative to liberal democracy and that's a pushback and i would not be surprised if he plants that flag. >> the book is great,

washington's fair werewelfarewe. we have a lot of news, so let's get to it. although conflict of interest doesn't apply to the president-elect, it applies to jared kushner. >> president obama's nominees met all the standards and trump's nominees have not. >> those are false charges and distoretions of anything that i did. >> i am terrified the republicans will repeal the affordable care act. >> the concentrated interactions and experience you have here, i don't expect can be duplicated anywhere else. >> this is "new day," with chris cuomo