salute our actual magical magicians, phil mattingly, the legendary john king, who manned the wall throughout the election night, breaking down the race like only cnn can. >> you asked, anyplace is the biden presidency is over performing for joe biden, 2020? harris, over performing, 2020. holy smokes. let's go and see if there is anything there. literally, nothing? >> nothing. >> sean, you are a useful individual. you know the game in nevada. >> the game is right here. >> for me, it is crafts. different story. >> got to love them. thanks to our panel for being here is morning. thanks to all of you. don't go anywhere. "cnn news central" starts now.

major legal troubles over? spounl special counsel jack smith is in talks to wind down the cases. what the president-elect's victory means to all of his pending legal woes. and wall street on standby. a major decision on a rate cut from the federal reserve this morning. how proposed trump tariffs could impact their decision. i'm john berman with kate balduan and sara sidner. this is "cnn news central." happening now, quite a lot. a lot of phone calls, a lot of position and a lot of

speculation. president-elect trump is preparing to head pack to the white house and back into power. it is day two of president trump's transition and the political laundry list of things to do is right now quite long. this morning, new cabinet names are being floated with almost everyone in the world wondering what will become of donald trump's day one promises, his legal cases, and power in congress. balance of power in the house, still up for grabs, which will republicans officially win enough outstanding races today? will republicans maintain power in the house? or something else? will democrats eke it out? we will see. elena treene leads us off from outside of mar-a-lago. alayna, trump transition 2.0 now in full swing. you have a lot of new information coming out about what's being considered. what are you hearing? >> reporter: that's right, we do. and look, this is really ramped up in just the 24 hours or so since the race was called for donald trump. look, they have had discussions

about who could potentially serve in certain roles before, it is very normally, obviously, for a presidential candidate, particularly in the general election, to have these conversations, but i will say that prior to the election, donald trump has not really wanted to hear a lot of the names or make any decisions regarding a potentially transition and who he would fill in key cabinet roles in his white house and administration. that's because he was very superstitious. however, really since they saw that the race was going donald trump's race, even before it was called, you have heard many people, allies to donald trump, those who are currently working within his inner orbit, trying to pitch themselves for these key roles. now, i want to talk through the ones that we know that donald trump cares the most about. first of all wing chief of staff, obviously, who is he going to surround himself with? with really his top person next to him in the white house. a lot of people have really pushed susie wiles, his campaign manager, for that role. however, i'm also told that some

people have been telling trump and others close to him that maybe they think that she could serve better in a different role, similar to what we saw kellyanne conway, his former 2016 campaign manager do, in his first administration, which was take on some sort of counselor and senior adviser role. we've also heard people like rus vouch, someone who worked as president trump's former budget director, but also ran the massive, it was called the center for renewing america policy shop outside after the trump administration had ended. donald trump has remained very close with him. and a couple other names being floated like brooke rawlins, who runs the america's first policy. another big name and another big role that we know donald trump wants to fill, that is attorney general. donald trump has said before that one of the greatest regrets that he had in his first administration was not filling his attorney general positions as well as he did. remember, he had jeff sessions, he didn't make it. in the end, bill barr was someone that him and donald

trump really, you know, hit heads with, butted heads with, and now has criticized greatly. some names we're hearing for that, senator mike lee of utah. we're also hearing ken paxton, the texas attorney general, who liked trump has also been impeached. we also heard matt whitaker, he had served in an acting capacity in the attorney general. some other names floating around. and i need to be clear here, kate, that a lot of these names, this is very early on in the process. they're really having these informal discussions with donald trump, but also the people they know that will be helping make these decisions. >> and there are also other people that seem very clearly poised to be joining the administration at the same time, right? >> there are. there's definitely some sense within donald trump's inner circle and from trump himself, where he wants to reward the people who have been loyal to him, particularly over this last final stretch. the people who stayed with him and continued to support him, following his departure from the

white house and then in the lead up to his campaign. names i'm hearing like that are people like steve whitkauff, a major donor, but also a close friend. very unclear what kind of role he would serve, but i've been told that donald trump says he wants someone like whitkauff with a vast business experience to have some sort of a role. of course, we also know that donald trump has consistently touted wanting to have elon musk and rfk jr. serve in some role as well. elon musk has really committed himself to this government efficiency program. he's expected to do something like that, even though donald trump has admitted that he would like him for a certain secretary position, he has said that musk is not interested in that. rfk jr. for his part is probably going to have some sort of role in health care, but as of now, a lot of people don't think he'll actually be the pick for the secretary of health and human services. kate? >> yna treene, thanks. this morning, president biden will address the nation for the first time since trump's landslide win. let's bring in arlette saenz.

we heard from harris conceding the race and president biden did send out a statement, but we're going to hear from him today. what are we expecting? >> this speech will really give president biden the opportunity to reflect publicly for the first time on the results of this election, as voters decided to send former president donald trump back to the white house. the president is likely to talk about the need for the country to move forward, we heard from him yesterday in a statement, where he praised vice president kamala harris, saying that she ran an historic campaign, under extraordinary circumstances. but certainly, this will give biden the first opportunity to really present his thoughts to the american people. now, last night, i'm told that the president did speak by phone with his staff here at the white house, where he had a message that they should be proud of what they have accomplished. the president, i'm told, in this call, had said, quote, while i'm sure you're all feeling a variety of emotion today, i hope

there's one emotion you didn't lose sight of, that's pride. pride in everything we've accomplished. this could also be a chance for president biden to tick through some of the initiatives that he believes could have lasting impact in this country. but we're told that the president will also have a big focus in his speech about the tradition and the path forward. advisers have saided ed that t president is intent on ensuring there's a peaceful transfer of power, something that was not afforded to him back in 2020 when trump was in the white house. president biden has already spoken by phone with trump, to congratulate him, and has invited him here to the white house. the two sides are working on trying to set a date for that meeting. but another big question heading into the speech is whether president biden will acknowledge or try to address what exactly went wrong for democrats here. there's been a lot of soul searching, a lot of questions about strategy over the past 24 hours within the democratic party. and there's been a lot of blame heading towards president biden's way. there are some who believe that

he should not have sought a second term, to begin with. there are his own advisers who may feel otherwise. but certainly, this is something that biden will have to face going forward, at a time when he's facing this new reality that the man that he had once defeated is set to return for another four years here at the white house. >> what are the biden administration's plans, what are they prioritizing in the next couple of months? >> well, in that call with white house staff last night, i'm told that white house chief of staff jeff zions told the team that they still have a lot of work to do over the coming weeks. one thing that the administration will be focusing on is trying to safeguard some of those key biden legacy items. they want to get more aide to ukraine. they're also working to ensure that they have rules and implementations for some of the laws that have been passed, things relating to climate and the environment, as well as potentially trying to push through some additional judicial nominations. now, president biden next week is set to attend a pair of summits, the g-20 and the apex, which will put him right in

front of many of the world leaders, who are also grappling now with the future of a trump presidency. but the biden team has made clear that they believe that they have a lot of work to do in these closing weeks of his administration. >> arlette saenz from the white house, thank you so much. john? all right. while i concede this election, i do not concede the fight. the new message from vice president harris as questions swirl about what is next for her. and this morning, we have new details on a potential public health agenda under donald trump led by vaccine skeptic, rfk jr. and this morning, trump's team increasing preparations for the mass detention of immigrants once he takes office.

in an emotional concession speech, vice president harris called more a peaceful, orderly transition, but vowed to keep fighting. >> a fundamental principle of american democracy is that when we lose an election, we accept the results. while i concede this election, i do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign. >> harris went on to tell supporters that it is time to roll up our sleeves. cnn's eva mckend, who covers the

harris campaign is with us this morning. good morning, eva. >> hi, john. the vice president urging supporters to hold the values that drove her campaign, while bracing for the next trump administration. it was a forward-looking speech, where she saw to console her supporters about the direction of the country. but it was on the campaign trail where she often touted her love for gen "z" and she had a special message for the young people who championed and worked on her campaign. let's listen. >> to the young people who are watching, it is okay to feel sad and disappointed. but please know it's going to be okay. on the campaign, i would often say, when we fight, we win. but here's the thing. here's the thing. sometimes the fight takes a while. that doesn't mean we won't win. that doesn't mean we won't win. >> reporter: and now the work of the transition begins. december 17th is the electoral

college vote. january 3rd, the new congress will be seated with a republican-led senate, as the house continues to be counted. january 6th, the electoral college votes are counted. vice president harris will, in fact, preside over that process. and then, of course, january 20th is the inauguration. john? >> all right, eva mckend, thank you very much for that. kate? this morning, new reports special counsel jack smith is in talks with justice leadership over the legal cases against now president-elect donald trump, preparing to wind them down. and ray-gun, the viral olympic break dancer, calling it quits.

this morning, special counsel jack smith is in talks with justice department leadership about how to now wind down the federal cases that he's been leading against donald trump. now preparing to call it quits, really, after investigations that have stretched years. smith was first appointed as special counsel in november of 2022 to investigate trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and also, his

mishandling of classified documents. cnn's zach cohn is tracking this from washington. he's joining us now. what could happen now to these ongoing cases? >> yeah, kate, trump has previously said that he would have these two federal cases dismissed once he took office. but we're told that that might not be necessary. he might not have to fire jack smith once he's in the white house, as he previously claimed. smith and the justice department are in talks about winding these two cases down before donald trump is sworn in. this is something that we did see coming as this case, it's long been known that it would never go to trial, but now jack smith's with trump's ability to fire jack smith, he is preemptively going to take this case, back it up and go home. so this looks like the end of both of those federal cases for donald trump. >> and he has dates on calendar with the convictions he's facing in new york and georgia. what happens to those?

>> these are both state-level cases that donald trump does not have power over, but we're told that both of these cases, the future remains uncertain. in georgia, that state-level case revolves around the 2020 election and donald trump's alleged effort to overturn his previous election loss. that case has been on hold for months now, as an appeals court is considering whether or not to disqualify fulton county d.a. fani willis. there will be a hearing later this year on that issue. and whether or not fani willis is disqualified could impact the future of this case. if she is removed, it's unlikely another prosecutor will pick this up. and even if she's allowed to remain on the case, we're told that it's unclear in a judge will allow proceedings to continue while donald trump is president. so this case really does look like it's going to remain in limbo, at least while donald trump is in office. and in the hush money case, where donald trump was set to be sentenced later this month, donald trump's team is going to argue that that should not happen, basically saying that a president-elect cannot be sentenced. so all of these criminal case impacted by that strategy, by trump's team, the delay, delay, delay, clearly, that's been

successful. >> zach cohen, thank you. sara? all right, what a former trump aide who quit his first administration in protest is now urging republicans to do now that trump is the president-elect. and an interest rate cut by the fed could be imminent, but will new concerns about donald trump's economic proposals complicate their plans?

new this morning, people with credit card debt or those looking to buy a home, wells investors are standing by to see if the federal reserve issues another rate cut. during his campaign, donald trump repeatedly attacked the cost of living and promised to attack high prices and return inflation levels to where they were the last time he was in the white house, but experts say that some of those promises

could make inflation worse, depending on if he carries out some of his plans. cnn's matt egan is joining me now with reporting on this morning. matt, what can you tell us? >> well, sara, it looks like high inflation really played a central role in returning donald trump to the white house. voters made clear that they are fed up. fed up with high prices at the supermarket, with high rates for car insurance, everything else. a cnn exit poll found that about two-thirds of americans described the economy as not good or poor, just 31% said excellent or good, and among those who gave the economy poor marks, they broke heavily in favor of trump. now, we know that the rate of inflation is down. that's what economists and the fed look at. but the level of prices is not. and that's what consumers think about. each month, the typical u.s. household has to spend about $1,100 more than they did at the

start of the biden administration to buy the same basket of goods and services. wages are up, but not enough for far too many people. now, trump has promised to confront inflation head-on, by really shaking things up. he's called for cutting red tape, tax cuts, mass deportations, and massive tariffs. the problem is that a lot of mainstream economists, they warn that this trump agenda is inflationary, perhaps very inflationary. in particular, deporting millions of undocumented workers, that's something that could end up depriving e ing industries of workers, causing them to raise wages and prices, and yes, tariffs. tariffs are taxes are imports and often companies pass those costs along to consumers. the peterson institute has found that the typical u.s. household would face extra costs of at least $2,600 due to the trump tariffs. and that doesn't even include likely retaliation from other countries. now, it's too early to know how

many of trump's campaign promises will actually become a reality. perhaps he doesn't really plan to put tariffs on all $3 trillion of u.s. imports. but sara, how this plays out in the coming months will be crucial, because we know that inflation really haunted vice president harris and vice president biden, and it could cost trump, too, if he's not careful here. >> what are we expecting, though, from the fed? a lot of people watching that, looking at maybe if they can buy a house if it goes down, or maybe their credit card debt goes down a bit. what are you hearing? >> this might be the easiest fed decision for the next several months. the fed had long been signaling plans to cut interest rates today. and wall street is expecting the fed will do just that. the market is pricing in about a 99% chance, a 98% chance of a quarter of a point today. that would come after the fed cut rates in september by half a point. that supersized interest rate cut. interest rates are still high.

they're still close to two-decade highs, but they are starting to come down, which, yes, it is good news for people that are struggling to pay off credit card debt, people who have a home equity line of credit or they're thinking about getting one or financing the purchase of a car. but the big question really looming over the fed right now is how does this trump victory change things going forward? does the fed maybe dial back its plans to cut interest rates in the coming months, because they're concerned about inflation. how do they think about the fact that trump has proposed all of these tariffs and how inflationary that could be. and another big question is, how is fed chair jerome powell going to work with this next trump white house? because, remember, trump and powell have a controversial testy kind of relationship. trump nominated powell, but trump has been very critical of

some of hiz s moves. we should expect a lot of questions today to powell along all of these fronts, and exactly what changes for the fed now that trump is going to be the next president. sara? >> i know you will be watching all of the machinations, matt egan. thank you so much. appreciate it. >> matt's done a great job explaining all of these economic proposals that may soon be policy. new this morning, control of the house of representatives still undecided, but house speaker mike johnson is already making his pitch to keep his job in a letter to republican colleagues, johnson writes, quote, i'm humbly asking for your sport to continue leading this conference as your speaker. it has been the honor of my lifetime to serve with you thus far and i look forward to playing the biggest offense of our lives. we have a country to save and we will. with us now, cnn political commentator, republican strategist for michael singleton and michael blake, founder and ceo. shermichael, i am so curious now that the election is over, and we're looking toward the future,

republicans and the trump -- the income trump administration will claim it has a mandate. that's what you do when you win. the question is, a mandate to what? and how quickly? >> look, i think a mandate to do a couple of things. to address economic concerns, inflationary costs. i think, two, secure the border. that's still a big concern for a lot of americans out there. and i think foreign policy, while that doesn't really register as a high mark on most polling data that we have available, people are worried about it. they're worried, one, how much money are we going to send to countries like ukraine? i guess the ultimate question is, what is the end goal? what does success look like? how long does it take us to get there. and finally, do we avoid sending actual troops to a conflict over there, or potentially, if china decides to invade taiwan, what does that look like? those three things are principled concerns of most american people. if i'm trump, i'm trying to appoint people who are experience, who have trust, that signals to the american people that we are ready to resolve these solutions on day one. >> what do you think he wants to do most quickly and to use a

word he might use, most bigly? >> i think it's got to be inflation. we're wondering if the fed will lower interest rates even further. i think you need to address the housing issue. what does that look like in terms of increasing the number of available and affordable housing within the market, thus decreasing rates, so that younger people can afford to buy their first homes. those two things to me are big. and if the president can move the needle just a little bit within the first 90 days, that will signal success >> michael, where do you think democrats should work with the incoming trump administration and how do you think, exactly, they should try to check it and where? >> well, we should check it by actually telling the truth, unlike shermichael. let's be clear, the first thing that the trump team has stated is that they want a mass deportation on day one, which is not what americans actually want. and practically doing that would lead to jobs that people are not able to fill. i'm trying to understand how

that would address the inflation concerns. second, if we're actually talking about addressing cost of living and economic concerns, then the trump tariff plan would not do that. taxes went up on consumers in his first term. the non-partisan tax policy center said that there would be $1,800 less income for americans if his policies are enacted. . and so when we think about what's happening right now, it is the responsibility of focusing on the two issues that people said they wanted to focus on. the economy and democracy. and so what should we do as democrats? make it very clear how our proposals actually would help you as opposed to the trump lie. this is a trump white christian nationalist agenda that was focused on and continues to be focused on deporting black and brown people as immigrants, saying they want to defund public schools that teach black history and implementing a national ban on abortion. democrats must be the counsel on that at every possible level to make sure that our democracy

actually has a chance of thriving. >> so specifically, on two of those broader policies, tariffs and some parts of immigration, those are some areas where trump may be able to act, almost unilaterally, with executive action, on parts of it. on parts of it, michael. so how would you, propose, then, democrats make their case, or try to influence it? >> democrats, we have to be very clear of calling them out on who they is. donald trump is a white supremacist, who has a project 2025 agenda, and wants to implement that. and anyone who voted for those policies need to be clearly countered on that. very practically, john, to your question, the mass deportation of immigrants on mlk day, which is on inauguration day would be, would hurt our economy in damaging ways. make it very clear that our proposals are about the whitening of america, rather than the strengthening of america. second, when we talk about the economy, we actually laid out

policies that would help people create jobs. if you focus on what happened in terms of start-up businesses, if you actually focus on a minority development agency, that is how you can create jobs on the ground. so very practically, when you see what happens on tuesday, it was in particular, white men and white women, who unfortunately decided to not vote for the vice president. yes, they elected black women to the supreme court in michigan. yes, we had victories in ruben galagos, it was the first of a black and south asian woman that we have to speak about. and if we're not clear about race, gender, and class, we are ignoring the truth of what's happening in the country right now. >> shermichael, one of the things you just heard from michael is this idea of mass deportation. it's a promise from donald trump there. i have heard from some republicans who absolutely support, you know, severe action

on immigration, that they are concerned with how trump might implement that. in that it might be handled in a way that is unsettling to the greater population. how do you think they should go about that? or what do you think the parameters might be? >> i do, i guess, question what the systemic approach would be. this is an interesting topic to me. in 1998, vice president harris' father, who's an economy, renowned economist for a number of years, wrote a very interesting treatise, talking about immigration at the time, and how an influx of illegal immigration creates competition for lower-skilled americans. i thought that was fascinating. if that's the premise of the argument from the trump administration or the incoming administration, i certainly understand it. so the question for me becomes, if you're going to remove criminals, i think most americans would say, yeah, that makes perfect sense. in terms of people who are actively working in the country, what is the approach for them to

become legalized citizens. what does that look like? how much time does it take? is there a fear or fine associated with them coming into the country illegal and having staid for so much time? most americans would say, that seems logical, it makes a lot of sense, you're not harming people or ripping families apart. so that's how i would personal want to approach this, john. remove criminals in terms of other individuals that are contributing to our society, have a systemic approach to gain citizenship. >> what about the dreamers? i would put them in that -- i would also put dreamers in that same category. you need to allow people to have an approach to earn their citizenship. and again, people who came in legally but are contributing, there should be some type of a fine associated. president obama talked about it in the past, hillary clinton talked about it in the past. i think you could see bipartisanship agreement on that point. >> michael, we have 15 seconds left, because we have to go, but go ahead. >> the anti-blackness that just happened in shermichael's comments is very concerning.

the reference he just utilized is the vice president's father, when talking about a policy on illegal immigrants. let's be very clear. there is one entity that has been pushing this and that is donald trump. and that's why democrats have to counter that every step of the way. >> most americans are worried about immigration. i didn't use an anti-black policy. john asked my specific points on this. this is how i would address it. a lot of democrats -- >> find one sample from 1998 referencing the vice president -- >> i could list a litany of examples, michael. let's not call bs this morning. immigration is a problem. most americans find it to be a problem, including many democrats. >> friends, we've got to end this discussion here. we will have it over the next several months. and it very much seems the next several years. shermichael, thanks. and michael blake, appreciate you both being with me this morning. kate? so there are questions swirling about robert f kennedy jr. right now and what role he will play in the next

administration. we know that the president-elect has told rfk jr. to, quote/unquote go wild on america's health policies. he is a vaccine skeptic. he has been a dominant force in spreading conspiracy theories about vaccines for years, leaving people who work in health and public health worrying what about that means for the future of public health. here's what he said after trump's victory. >> i'm not going to take away anybody's vaccines. i've never been an anti-vaccine. i'm going to make sure scientific studies and efficacy studies are out there and people can make individual assessments about whether that product is going to be good for them. >> cnn's meg terrell is tracking this one. you're going to be tracking this one for quite some time, i think, meg. the scientific safety studies, aren't they already out there? >> reporter: yeah, kate, i mean, we saw this during covid. of course, it was a tremendously expedited process that we saw there. under the trump administration, one of its great achievements.

a lot of people in the public health world said. but this typically happens over many, many years. we see animal studies, then clinical trials that take many years to go through. once these vaccines have shown their skpaft ef-afety and effic large clinical trials, they go to the fda. the fda reviews it, often brings in outside advisers. they are public hearings, they last all day and are usually very boring. but they put all the data out there. the companies themselves publish pages and pages, hundreds of pages of data. the fda publishes its own review of that in case it disagrees with the way that the company is presenting the information. all of that is out there for the public to review itself as well. the advisers often take a vote or make a recommendation. the fda decides whether or not to approve a vaccine. if it approves the vaccine, then it goes to a panel of outside advisers to the cdc. we saw this during covid, as well. they have a public hearing. we get to watch all of that and see all of their slides and

data. they make a recommendation about whether vaccines should be added to vaccine schedules, how often people should get them, who should get these vaccines. the cdc director then decides whether to accept that recommendation and even after these get on the market, there are many systems in place to monitor vaccine safety as they are out there, kate. >> and all of this, all of the experts and the -- all of this happening with people who study and care deeply about public health and the health of children. i mean, it's not like anyone ice out there trying to rush this through for some personal gain when it comes to these hearings and this review. that's why it's in place. what are you hearing then from people in public health about rfk jr. taking on some kind of leadership role in public health? >> yeah, there's obviously a lot of concern, particularly around vaccines. these sort of conflicting statements that, you know, he says he's not anti-vaccine, but then he also tells folks like our own kasie hunt, that she pressed him in an interview, that he said there's no vaccine that's been proven safe and

effective. public health expert are very worried, not that he'll get in there and find any data that hassenn't been presented, but that he'll erode confidence even further. if you look at kindergarten vaccination rates, over the past four to five they have been steadily inching lower. they haven't been above that 95% threshold that the cdc wants to get since 2019, 2020. and that's a real problem and can lead to more spread of diseases like measles. >> absolutely. meg, thank you very much. john? all right, getting new details this morning on hold up donald trump plans to follow through with those mass deportations he talked about. and new video of the moment travelers and airline staff scrambled to catch a raccoon that fell from the ceiling at an airport. raccoon on the lam!

what if your mobile network wasn't just built to work out here... ...but was designed differently to also give you blazing fast wifi where you are most of the time? reliable 5g, plus wifi speeds up to a gig where you need it most. xfinity mobile. now xfinity internet customers can buy one line of unlimited and get one free for a year.

this morning, department of homeland security officials are bracing for a seismic shift on u.s. immigration policy. the mood among the agency has reported a mixed bag with many internally wondering if controversial trump-era policies struck down by president biden will be reimplemented. one official tells cnn that there's a sense of optimism at the dhs after years of intense criticism under biden. cnn's priscilla alvarez is with us now. priscilla, you have been at the forefront of covering immigration policy for years now. and you've got your work cut out for you, i think, the next several months and years, because it's about to get very interesting. >> well, it is, and homeland security officials are bracing for that. look, they are well aware that

there is often whiplash when it comes to immigration policies, and it's for that reason that there has been a mixed outlook in the department, with some just shell shocked by the election results and others welcoming it, because they want to see more border security under the incoming trump administration. now, of course, senior advisers to former president trump have said that they are going to reverse biden policies. they have also promised mass deportations. and i am now being told by multiple sources that trump allies and some in the private sector have been quietly preparing for a large-scale detain and deportation of immigrants. now, one of the people that could be leading that is tom holeman. he was a former actoring director of immigration and customs enforcement. and when he talked about this in the past, he has described it as a targeted operation. but a key element of any type of mass deportation plan is detention space. if you're going to arrest

someone, you have to have somewhere where you're going to put them. and on that front, i am told that some in the private sector have been preparing for that. there were ongoing discussions, even before election night, to set up that detention space. and now they are planning for that to pick up over the next several days and weeks. now, when asked about this, brian hughes, he said president trump won a landslide because americans embraced his common sense policy to secure our border and implement mass deportation for illegal migrants. now, john, of course, anything like this is going to be costly. in fact, we know from previous studies that to apprehend, detain, process, and remove an undocumented immigrant, it can cost nearly $11,000. add on to that the cost of transporting them back to their home country. i have posed this question to multiple sources. and they said one way around that is to reprogram funds. the department of homeland security has done it before.

but this would be magnitude of change when it comes to an operation like this. but john, i can tell you from the multiple people that i've been talking to, there are preparations underway to do something like this. what it ultimately looks like and when it can be done is the question we'll keep asking. >> what gets done and how? huge questions, priscilla alvarez. i know you'll be on it. thanks so much. >> sara? >> now to a former senior trump administration official who quit the first administration, calling trump unstable and a danger to democracy, is now urging conservatives of conscience, as he puts it, to join the incoming trump administration, not run away from it. when miles taylor worked inside the first trump administration, he published an anonymous op-ed in the 2018 "new york times" article, decrying trump's leadership, or lack thereof. now in a new op-ed, he says, printable people must serve in the second. miles taylor are joining us now. why are you calling for republicans to join trump, when you quit really in disgust with what you had seen.

>> well, sara, look, i think there's a very, very clear reality that we saw on election night, which is that the never-trump movement failed. and it failed catastrophically to try to swing the party back to the sort of bush/reagan era. the trump era is in full effect. and it's evident that the party is not going to go back to where it was before. those of us that were pushing for a return to how the gop was need to acknowledge that if we want to shape a conservative agenda, then it's going to be having to shape the maga movement. it's going to be having to shape trump's orbit and making sure that there are people who actually adhere to conservative values going to work with him. people like me, sara, have been progenitors of the notion that there was a resistance in the last trump administration. that resistance was just people trying to prevent him from doing things unlawful. what we hope to see in a second term is people who do the same thing, but also at the same time, try to advance a reasonable conservative agenda. >> i'm curious why you think,

though, that republicans would be accepted, who have wanted to put guardrails in place when it doesn't seem that that's who trump is surrounding himself with, necessarily. >> that's a great question, sara. look, at the end of the day, people are policy. and that's something that took donald trump a long time to figure out. he hired a lot of people who he did not know in the first term. and folk s that ended up gettin very frustrated with his lack of understanding of government. but this is a different time. trump is coming in as a much more seasoned and experienced operative. he knows more about how government works. the good news, i think, is that there are quite a few people that did serve in the first term, especially national security positions, that could be steady hands on the wheel, that don't want the president to do unlawful things, but do align with traditional republican values. and that's what i'm hoping happens in the second trump administration, is that those people go in, even though they

saw the tumultuousness and the turbulence of the first term, that they are not dissuaded from going in and serving our country, and if they have to, that they say, "no," if something unlawful is proposed. >> i do want to ask you about some reporting we just heard from our priscilla alvarez, trump's allies, and some in the private sector are ramping up preparations to deal with what could be a huge mass deportation of migrants residing in the u.s. you were a senior official in the department of homeland security. how do you think this will go down? >> i think it's going to be dramatic. i think people should prepare on day one that donald trump is not going to do symbolic things as it relates to the border. there's a range of actions he could take. i'll describe them from mild to wild, including everything up to invoking the insurrection act to deploy the u.s. military to seal the outhern border. i think we should take very seriously that trump might go towards that wild end of the

spectrum, and he feels vindicated in doing so, because it is one of the top issues that the american people voted him back into office for and people are very frustrated that there hasn't been action on this. now, what i would say, sara, is if the future president trump wants to solve the border for the long run, he cannot do it without congress. that's where biden failed. that's where trump failed the first time. it's where obama and bush failed. the only way to really fix the problem is you have to get congress to close the loophole. and if there was one thing trump could do to solve it, it would be a nixon goes to china moment and to collaborate across the aisle to try to get comprehensive immigration reform. if he doesn't do that, no matter what he does through executive orders, there will still be a crisis. >> and there was a bipartisan bill that was agreed upon, but he tanked that. we will see what happens, also, whether or not republicans take the house, they have already taken the senate. that would make a big change in how quickly that might pass. i want you to quickly take a look at some of the people that are being floated as potential officials in trump's second administration. you have people like elon musk, you have rfk jr., tulsi gabbard,

elise stefanick, senator tom cotton and the rest. what do you make of these folks here joining the administration? >> sara, i think it's better than it could have been. honestly, a lot of us were concerned that it would be campaign operatives that would come into senior positions, people who had no experience in government. just take an example. two people being considered for secretary of defense, tom cotton, as you mentioned, mike pompeo. pompeo. both have served for a long time in government, both have been trump loyalists, but both know the national security community extremely well and they're not the types you would consider to be unexperienced political operatives. i do think there is some cause for optimism there, and you mentioned elon musk. while a lot of folks may not like elon musk's politics, beyond elon, a lot of people in the technology sector that previously weren't politically active, are considering coming into the administration. folks that do have a lot of

experience in emerging tech, competition in emerging tech, and that's giving focus another silver lining of optimism. >> miles taylor, thank you so much for talking to us and bringing an interesting perspective to the table. to rudy giuliani has been ordered to appear in court today after two election workers now accuse him of hiding assets. the judge, you'll remember last month, ordered giuliani to turn over a lot of things, like his manhattan apartment and other valuable items to ruby freeman and shay moss, because he was found defamation and falsely accusing the two. that never happened and giuliani was ordered to pay them nearly $150 million. but where is all of that? lawyers for the two women say that giuliani has emptied out most of his apartment. giuliani's attorney says that the things were were that the

things that were in there are now in a storage facility in long island. >> someone get this [ bleep ]. oh, [ bleep ]! a new mascot for laguardia. no, just kidding! a wild moment for passengers who were waiting to check in at the spirit airlines counter. out of nowhere, that adorable raccoon falls from the ceil, does a high wire act, does not stick the landing, which leads to people running, obviously, clearly running away. and finally, someone trapping it. spirit airlines put out a statement they probably never thought they would have, talking about, they did locate and release the animal and are now addressing the matter with a professional wildlife control company. the australian break dancer known as ray gun that went viral during the olympics is retiring from competitive break dancing. she said it's all because of the backlash that she did face online over her olympic performance. the 37-year-old was mocked

online after losing all three of her round robin battles. rachel gun says that she will, though, continue to break dance, just not competitively. john? >> i want to go back to the raccoon. the issue is what? it didn't have priority boarding? >> i think it tried to budge the line. and you know what, that's unacceptable for those of us who paid for the priority seating. >> you've got to board with your zone. >> yeah. but you know what, a-plus credit for how he ride to budge the line. i've never considered actually swinging from the ceiling. now i know what to do. all right. happening now, world leaders bracing for the impacts of a new trump term. he has promised to slap china with huge tariffs and the wars in the middle east and ukraine. but how. cnn's nic robertson joins us this morning. nick, what are you hearing from around the world? >> john, looks, trmp, when he becomes president in a few months is going to face a different world than the one that he left behind when he last left the white house. there is an alliance between china, russia, iran, north korea that didn't exist before. we know that donald trump likes to deal with individual leaders,

break them out of alliances. of course, then he comes in and those two very significant wars going on, that he is vowing to end. but i think that's the sort of big picture challenge that comes in. >> and what do you think the most pressing issue to watch is? >> ukraine. right now, you have almost 50 european leaders meeting in budapest. top-line issue for them the ukraine. all of these leaders, east european leaders who are there are making the right noises. they have called president-elect donald trump already. they've issued sort of congratulatory messages over "x" and other places. so they're making the right noises. but the noise that they'll have to make is that europe is going to have to stand more alone, be ready to support ukraine more alone. they recognize that president-elect donald trump has said that he'll end the war in ukraine in the matter of a day and that concerns them, because i think the united states is going to withdraw some of