a key decision from the federal reserve. what a rate cut could mean for your wallet and president- elect trump's policy plans. what they mean for the central banks' future plans. plus, democrat blame game. president biden addressing the nation following donald trump's election victory. what biden is saying as democrats search for answers after their resounding loss. and transitioning to trump.

the president- elect preparing for his move back into the white house. we have new reporting on who may be going with him and what they're planning for day one. these major developing stories and many more coming your way right now on "cnn news central. " we do begin this hour with breaking news. the fed just making its latest decision on rate cuts. >> let's get straight cnn business anchor and correspondent julia chatterley. break it down for us. what's the decision? >> there's good news for borrowers. the federal reserve delivering a quarter of a percentage point rate cut. it was a unanimous decision, and of course, it adds to the half a percentage point rate cut that they did back in september. in many respects, that's the easy part of today. the harder part comes next. and that's the press conference that we've got in around 30 minutes' time. and it's a case of the dos and the don'ts for jay powell and the federal reserve. what they do want to

be talking about today is the fact that they've managed to engineer what we call a soft landing, they've hiked rates, they've avoided recession, at least for now. and they're very close to their inflation target. what they don't want to be talking about, quite frankly, is donald trump. good luck with that. so where that leaves us basically is a situation where we know what's clear now is that while they can cut rates today, the future path of interest rates now is more uncertain. and what that depends on is the policy decisions of the president- elect, his government, of course, and who wins the house. very important point to that, too. at worst, let's take the worst case. if he enacts mass immigration limits, mass global tariffs, it could slow growth. it could also raise inflation. economists generally agree, we could see one percentage point rise in inflation next year. that's going to slow the federal reserve down in their ability to cut rates, but of course, all we're doing is guessing at this stage. and that's the challenge for

jay powell today. but i will say, we are already seeing an impact for consumers, guys. i'm really closely following longer- term government borrowing costs. because these are very much tied to what we're seeing for mortgage rates in the united states. if you take a look at the 30- year mortgage rate chart, we're seeing mortgage rates rise right now. some parts of this is normal, when the federal reserve cuts rates, you see these borrowing costs rise. but it can also be tied to the prospect of more spending, it can also be tied to the prospect of more inflation. so that's something i think that jay powell will also address today, even as he does his best to avoid talking politics, avoid talking about donald trump, and avoid talking about the things that he doesn't know yet. we have to wait to see what the government do. >> julia chatterley, thank you so much for the update. let's discuss now with pair of analysts. we have mark zandi, chief economist for moody's, and doug

holtz- eakin, former council of adviser under george w. bush. thank you both for being with us. mark, first to you, your reaction to this rate cut. how exactly is this going to impact americans? >> well, much- anticipated, boris, the federal reserve has achieved its goals of full employment. the unemployment is around 4%. it's low for all demographic groups and across the country. so check, they've achieved that goal. and they now have achieved the goal of getting inflation back down to their target, which is a 2% inflation rate and they've done that. so they're now lowering interest rates to something that's more consistent with rates neither supporting or restraining economic wth. a scald equilibrium growth. they're on their way. that's good news. and good news for american households and consumers, particularly folks that took on credit card debt or consumer finance loans or home equity lines of credit back when inflation was high to supplement their income to

maintain their purchasing power. so this is good news. it should be helpful. it's going to take some time before this all translates through into lower credit card interest rates and consumer finance rates, but i think that will occur over the next few weeks to few months. >> and doug, what do you think? >> i think market character i'd it exactly correctly. the fed is moving towards something that's more neutral. it's been leaning against growth in the economy, trying to slow the pace at which we get inflation. it's been largely successful in doing that. so it is now moving back towards neutral. given what we know, i think it's exactly in the right place. the main part of the economic landscape, however, are the unknowns. what will the incoming trump administration do with tariffs, with taxes, with spending, and, you know, what will happen in the global economy? so they're constantly rebalancing as they find out more about the conditions in which they're operating.

>> to that point, doug, we have heard from mainstream economists, this concern over the potential for tariffs installed by the trump administration to be inflationary. and yet, the stock market seems to react positively to trump's election. what's going on there? >> well, i try hard not to try to explain the stock market. the stock market has two components. one, the earnings of those firms that are listed on the stock market. and if their future earnings look better, stocks go up. and two, the path of interest rates and other competitive vehicles for your savings. from the stock market to the bond market. so as people make different judgments about future interest rates and future earnings, you see the stock market move around. it can move a lot in a single day, and they can reconsider and it might pull back some. it's best to look at the stock market over a sustained period. i think if we get to june of 2025 and you still see it rising at those kinds of rates,

that would be an enormous success. but i don't expect anything that large. >> and mark -- >> boris, can i take a crack at that question? is that okay? >> in the stock market, in my view, it's because president trump has promised corporate taxtax cuts. so, you know, if you lower the corporate tax rate, that means the earnings, the after- tax earnings of businesses is higher. and that goes right to higher stock prices. he's also talked about less regulation in a lot of different industries. financial services, fossil fuel, the telecom and i.t. industries. so less regulation means more profits, means higher stock prices. he's also probably going to take less of a jaundiced view of mergers and acquisitions. and the biden administration has been pretty tough on m&a in an effort to improve competitive pressures and industries to get prices down. but i think the trump administration will be less likely to do that. that's all positive for the stock market. and that's why stock prices, i

think, are up to the degree that they are. >> and doug, what do you think about his tariff plan? what are your concerns there? what do you think he's actually going to proceed with and what he may not proceed with considering that he's proposed adding to between 10 and 20% tariffs on every import coming into the u.s., with up to 60% tariffs on goods from china? >> i certainly think that his track record shows that he'll do the specific tariffs on china and probably some other countries and goods. the wild card is the across-the- board 10 to 20% tariff. i have no secret insight into the pace at which it will happen. that is certainly the hardst on the federal reserve. right now, we have the tax code in place and there'll a big debate next year about extending or difying it. but that's current conditions. now they have to consider the thought of a 10 to 20% tariff, what do they do?

you can make the argumentargument you put the tariff in, it pushes up costs and prices, but if the tariff only goes in one, the fed should just look the other way and go back to its business of controlling the long- term inflation rate. i think mark and i would understand that, but i'm not sure the public that's very weary of inflation and very upset about high prices is going to think looking the other way is a sensible strategy. so do they then try to control it somewhat? then their only option is to push interest rates up, and lean against what has been a very successful effort at a soft landing. it's a real predicament to "a" figure out what will he do and "b," how will they respond? >> doug and mark, great insights. thank you so much to both of you. you gave us a lot to think about and to maybe worry about in some cases, too. thanks, guys. >> take care. so, today, president biden speaking publicly for the first time since president- elect

trump's historic victory, hoping to turn down the political temperature across the country. he pledged to work with the trump administration transition and promised a peaceful and orderly transition of power. in the meantime, we're learning new details about how democrats are increasingly pointing fingers at president biden for not exiting the race sooner. cnn's mj lee is live for us from the white house. mj, let's start with biden's remarks from the rose garden. walk us through what he said. >> yeah, you know, boris and brianna, there is a line that the president over the last few years has frequently used when talking about donald trump and that line is, you can't love your country only when you win. and that was always in reference to donald trump's refusal to accept his defeat in 2020, his questioning of the integrity of the american election system. but today, when the president said this line in the rose garden, the audience was not donald trump, it was actually the millions of americans that he understands is feeling very disappointed and is feeling frustrated by the idea

of donald trump coming back to the white house for another four years. the president said, you're hurting. i hear you and i see you, but what he insisted was that even though all of those feelings might be valid, the results of the election are what they are. and people around the country, even if they are disappointed, must accept those results. this is what he said. >> i've said many times, you can't love your country only when you win. you can't love your neighbor only when you agree. something i hope we can do no matter who you voted for is see each other not as adversaries, but as fellow americans. bring down the temperature. >> and among the president's most loyal supporters, there's a lot of sensitivity right now on how much blame is being placed on the president. a lot of folks that i've spoken to, essentially saying, we

wouldn't find ourselves in this position had the president decided not to seek a second term and stuck to that initial promise of being a bridge and a transition president. the idea being that had the democratic party had been able to go through the process of nominating season under the protocols that are typically used in our political system, having the full runway, basically, perhaps it would have been kamala harris that was nominated, perhaps not, but that we wouldn't have seen this unusual truncated kamala harris campaign that resulted in her loss. but there's also just a lot of anger that is being directed at president biden himself and also some of those advisers close to him for their refusal over the recent years to tolerate any kind of criticism about his health and certainly any suggestions nat should step aside. this is what one senior harris campaign official told me. they said, the lack of a competitive process for a replacement,

that he didn't allow for that to happen, people are still angry about the shunning that they took for speaking out earlier about him. so, boris and brianna, democrats are clearly starting down the process of this soul searching after the events of this week. and the president's role in all of this is clearly going to be a very big part of that. >> certainly is. mj lee, live for us from the white house. thank you. let's now talk now with cnn presidential historian, tim naftali. this speech of biden's, just because of the historic circumstances, it was an historic speech. what are your takeaways? >> president biden really had two audiences. in part, this is a pep talk. a pep talk to the members of the administration, apparently who were sitting right front of him and to democrats across the country. but this was also a way for the president to ensure stability, to make clear to every american that their vote not

only counted, but it counted for him. and that he would assure the country and did assure the country of a peaceful transition. he didn't have to say, unlike in 2020, 2021, but the point was, he wanted to make clear that he is not seeking revenge. it was a very successful speech, directed at two audiences. but he said one thing that i think had a double meaning. and ebs, setbacks are unavoidable. giving up is unforgivable. to many democrats, that might be a reminder of his decision to wait late in the election cycle not to run again. it's very biden. it's the essence of joe biden. someone who has had many setbacks over the course of his political career, but has always gotten up. and what many democrats of course are debating now is whether he should have decided, if you will, to give up the opportunity of a second term, just after the midterms. i want to say one thing about

that. soul searching doesn't imply simply finding one fault. historically, to just blame an election on a previous incumbent doesn't allow you to rethink the reason why in 2024, vice president harris could not keep the biden coalition, as we see, as we've worked through the numbers, what we're seeing is that she wasn't able to get the same number of votes that and percentage that biden had in many counties. i don't have the answer, but the answer isn't simply that biden stayed too long. we done know if inflation how far made it possible for biden, if he'd been healthy and vigorous to win. we also don't know whom the democrats would have chosen, if biden had decided to be thatthat to the next generation in 2023, rather than 2024. so there are a lot of unknowns.

it's very interesting for me as a historian to see that people are just trying to find one causal explanation for the dramatic reemergence of donald trump as a gnash leader, the greatest comeback -- perhaps the greatest comeback ever, certainly the greatest political comeback since richard nixon two nights ago. >> yeah, there may be multiple reasons and they don't necessarily exclude each other from being legitimate. tim, i wonder, and obviously, biden is still in office and there are still many parts of his efforts, legislatively, that americans are just starting to see the ects of, namely, changes in clean energy and infrastructure, et cetera, et cetera. if those make it through the early stages of the trump administration, i'm wondering what you think history -- how you think history will look back at joe biden's legacy? >> well, boris, i can't speak on behalf of my future

colleagues, but -- >> sure, sure. i just mean in the context of what we saw on tuesday? >> when i listened to joe biden today, and i'm not sure he would be happy to hear, when he was talking about the infrastructure bill, and the fact that its benefits to all americans won't really be felt for perhaps ten years, it made me think of the rethinking of jimmy carter's time in office. jimmy carter set in motion the deregulation that liberated our economy. much of the credit for that goes to his successor, ronald reagan, but in fact, it's jimmy carter who began that process of deregulating the airlines and other transportation systems, all of which helped the u.s. economy in the 1980s. he doesn't get credit for it, although now historians and others are beginning to re- look at his time in office. that didn't help jimmy carter become a second- term president, just as the infrastructure bill

clearly didn't help the biden/harris team come and have a second term. but historically, presidents, while they have to worry about four- year cycles, are also the really good ones, are also investing in our future. and it takes a while for that future to be realized. . and therefore it takes a while for people to look back and realize, maybe i sold that particular president short. >> tim naftali, always great to get your perspective. thank you so much for being with us. >> thank you, boris. a pleasure. when we come back, supporters for donald trump are now jockeying for positions in the new white house. we'll talk about who could join his new administration. plus, what trump's second term could mean for the planet's future, as new data shows the devastating impact of the late action on climate change. and how democrats can win back support from latino men and can they after trump's historic gains with that voting bloc. and throughout the hour, we're bringing you voters' reactions to trump's

victory. here's what one man told cnn's nick valencia. >> i'm happy. i hope my portfolio goes back up 40%, gas goes down by half, and we start making a lot of money again.

right now, the big question, who will president- elect donald trump appoint to top positions in his new administration? >> sources tell cnn that trump allies are quickly jockeys for positions on the heels of his decisive victory. let's take you live to west palm beach with cnn's kristen holmes just outside of mar-a-lago. kristen, what are you hearing? >> well, boris and brianna, i just got off the phone with one adviser to donald trump. he's not with the campaign, but someone who has spoken to him on a number of occasions and has said that donald trump is really taking this responsible of filling in an administration and cabinet much more seriously than he ever did before. he has privately acknowledged that thinks he made mistakes when it came to his first term and he wants to fill those positions with people who are competent and very loyal. we know that loyalty is probably the number one issue to donald trump. just to talk about a few of the positions he's currently looking at, one will be chief of staff. this is a critical position in the white house. it's going to be his right hand and somebody that he needs to be able to rely on under any circumstances. and we are told that

the front- runner in that position, currently at this very moment, is susie wiles, who's ran his campaign, who was by his side, after he left washington in disgrace in 2021, after most republicans were trying to distance themselves from the former president after january 6th and hoping some of them, that he would not be coming back into power, usie remained by his side. she ran his campaign and likely better than anyone we've ever seen run a campaign enforcement president, getting him back into office, but alsoalso to control his worst instincts, which we know is very hard to do and she was not always successful at that. the other position i want to talk about here is attorney general. this is going to be critical in a trump administration, as it is any, but even more so because donald trump wants to make sure that he and the white house have complete control over the department of justice. he wants someone that is loyal to him in that sense. here's a list of people we're talking about. texas attorney general ken paxton, matt which is kerr,

he served as acting ag under donald trump when he fired jeff sessions, utah senator mike lee is in consideration. john ratcliffe, another person who we have not mentioned is on mark pay oletta, somebody who a lot of people would like to see inside of a white house. these are just the beginning, but we are told that donald trump might make some of these decisions within the cabinet in the next week. so we'll have our eyes open and we are talking to as many people as we can to hear who's in -- who's up and who's down. >> kristen holmes from west palm beach, thank you so much for the update. a huge part of donald trump's win can be acontributed to the latino community, particularly latino men. exit polls show that 55% in this demographic favored trump. that's up nearly 20 points from the last presidential election. >> and here's what we heard from two latino men in the

battleground states of north carolina and pennsylvania. >> translator: it affects me because i'm latino. you know how the relationship between trump and latinos is. that's him against. the pro is that he's already been president. he already knows how to run a country. i'm fine, i agree, i'm not entirely against it. >> translator: we have to see how this man is going to come. if what he promises, the first thing he said is he's going to fulfill his promises of government. and as a latino, you feel a certain disdain for what his colleagues in puerto rico said and how he contemptuously speaks of latinos. the last minute he wanted to look for them, but this has surprised me a lot. >> joining me now, further communications director, christianian ramos, and national political reporter for "the washington post," sabrina rodriguez. sabrina, we should look at where the shifts are, because

they are broad across the board. cuban americans in miami- dade, puerto ricans in osceola county, mexican americans in the rio grande valley. trump made gains with all of them. >> he did, and i think after the 2020 election, we were having a similar conversation about trump making inroads with latino voters, but a lot of the narrative was then kind of written off to southsouth texas, it's just the americans in south texas, the cuban americans in miami, some venezuelans in miami. but this is undeniable. undeniable that a shift has happened. that a shift has happened toward donald trump, that he had a message that resonated with more latino voters than even the polling showed us it would. and there's always the added caveats. we might see some shift in some of the numbers from these states. but something did resonate, and that's a larger conversation to be had with the democratic party.

>> a conversation some of us have been having for years now, at least in part because you can see the trend sort of growing. you and i had discussions months ago talking about the messaging to latino men, and you to a degree were questioning some of the stuff that was coming out of the harris campaign. >> this is why we immediate to have some deep soul searching within the democratic party, with working class voters, writ large. the thing we have to figure out here is how do we talk about the economy in a way that resonates with them. what i mean by that, trump had no actual policies aimed at latinos that would help make their lives better on the economy. he did have a cultural argument, that was laced within the economy, which was very precise, saying tlooents, democrats care about this group more than they care about you. i will take care of you. kamala harris had politics that would help

latinos quite a bit over the past four years. they didn't feel that in the way that they did when donald trump was having these conversations in a way that was laced in cultural attacks. democrats care more about immigrants and this other group more than they care about you. i will take care of crow. that has to be addressed with working class voters, sooner rather than later, if we're ever going to get back to where we were with latino voters. >> okay, so how do they address that? sometimes in the past, i mean, i remember covering the obama administration and he said famously once, we didn't talk about it right or it was a messaging thing. wherever you say that, people say, it's not just about how you talk about it, it might actually be the thing. but you really feel it's a messaging issue. so is that what what you're saying. it's how they're echoing with this voting bloc. >> over the last four years, democrats have created millions of jobs in the construction

space. millions of jobs bringing manufacturing back, creating manufacturing hubs in places like phoenix. bringing dell back to phoenix. again, creating jobs for these people. latino men, they hear nothing about those things from democrats. they don't hear about the work that they've done to help createcreate jobs and to create more equity and opportunity for them. that's the opportunity going forward as we continue the conversations. republicans, again, have passed none of those laws. in fact, donald trump will make life much better for the megawealthy, but for actual workers, none of that stuff will work. >> sabrina, there's a sound bite i want to play for you. this is from a dj, victor martinez, from allentown, pennsylvania. let's listen to what he said. >> it was a latino man who decided that they were going to vote for donald trump. andly dare to say that it is the latino man who wouldn't

want a woman president. and that is unfortunate, but that's part of the latino culture, right? where the latino, the man is the one, the provider, and we are the boss, and we still unfortunately have a lot of latinos with that mentality, where the woman belongs in the kitchen. that is a reality of the latino male chauvinist culture, and i think that's exactly what happened. >> there are some data points that would contradict that, namely that a majority of liens voted for hillary clinton when she ran in 2016. i think like 6%. i'm curious to get your reaction to that. >> look, boris, i don't put sexism and racism past the united states. i think that for some people, that was a factor. i have been out for months talking to latino voters across the country and some people did say that. some people did mention outright to me, to me, a latina woman, that they would not vote for a woman, they didn't want to see

a woman in office, they didn't think that she could be strong enough as a president. however, i think it would shortsighted to just say that is the reason why this happened. this is years of donald trump's messaging. i mean, donald trump's campaign focused so heavily on targeting men, not just latino men, but men across the board. we had conversations leading up to the election about black men and we've seen so much is focused on going on joe rogen's podcast and going to talk to young white message on college campuses. but with latino men, there was this focus about, you know, the economy and how he's going to be better for you, how he's going to provide for your family, and how things were so much better four years ago when he was president. and objectively, anyone that goes to the grocery store knows that things are more expensive expensive, anyone who's paying rent knows it's more expensive. for a lot of people, that was a compelling argument, even if it wasn't necessarily backed up with him outlining policies. >> your reaction to that clip? >> we have a lot of work to

do to reach those voters. we've done a lot of incredible things to make that gentlemen's life better. does he realize it was democrats that do that? did we take that credit and a conversation that was culturally relevant to him? i don't know what we did. that's the opportunity coming ahead. >> christiane, sabrina, thank you so much. >> the duchess of hialeah. >> you have to get it in. >> fix this introduction. >> we've got to out put it in the chiron. thank you, duchess. still to come, why ukraine's president says hugs with putin won't help end the war with russia amid fears of what trump's second term will mean for ukraine's future. and more voter reaction to trump's election victory. here's what one paris harris supporter had to say. >> it definitely kind of hit really hard that people would choose a campaign basically run on hateful rhetoric over somebody with a level head on their shoulders. >> where do we go from here? >> what i can say is, buckle up, because it's going to be a bild four years.

some new international reaction to trump's white house win, the kremlin pushing back against donald trump's

claims that he could quickly solve the conflict in ukraine. they're calling those claims an overexaggeration. >> meantime, a spokesperson for iran's foreign ministry says the u.s. election provides opportunities to reconsider ill- suited approaches, and while we hear that from tehran, donald trump's former iran envoy says that he believes that donald trump will seek a policy to isolate iran diplomatically and weaken it economically. we're following the reaction with fred pleitgen. nick, you've been talking to sources within the trump camp about this iran strategy. >> yeah, this is something that is not new within the sort of orbit of the iran mideast experts who give advice to president-elect donald trump. this is something that they've been thinking about for some time. and they would character ize it this way. that donald trump believes that he can achieve his foreign policy goals, a lot through what we would see as economic

coercion. in this case, in the case of iran, is go back to maximum pressure, maximum sanctions, but this time, make sure the sanctions really stick. prevent iran from exporting oil as it does to china. these are sort of some of the things that iran could face. so i think when we hear from the iranian foreign ministry spokesperson saying that the elections provide an opportunity for the united states to change its sort of ill- suited agenda to iran, it seems like they're playing more to a domestic audience and the reality they might actually face. when president trump gets into the white house, it's unlikely that iran will face a challenge, even if it was kamala harris that made it to the white house. iran's actions in the middle east, with its proxies, have caused enough international concern that this is a serious issue, a serious issue here in europe for the germans, the

french, and the british to want to get together with whoever is in the white house to figure out how to tackle iran. and part of that agenda will be very much driven by how close iran is getting to being able to produce a nuclear weapon. this is going to be a big issue. and iran knows that coming up. so i think what they're -- what iran faces is political -- is exactly as brian hook has laid out, are those very strong economic sanctions that over time are really going to cripple it. and without intending regime change, there'll be many that hope that it will bring that. >> fred, i do want to ask you how ukraine's volodymyr zelenskyy is responding to the trump win in the election, but i also just want to note that he has just said or confirmed that north korean soldiers have taken part in hostilities against the ukrainian military and he says that there are losses.

>> yeah, he certainly did. he said all of that is taking place in the kirsch region. that ukrainians for several days now have been saying that north korean soldiers are present there. one of the interesting things that he also said today of volodymyr zelenskyy, this was at a conference in hungary, is that he claimed that north korea was essentially invading europe, was wage warg in ing war in europe, and if they don't stand up to russia, that all of this will only intensify. there is a lot of concern on the part of the ukrainians as to what this new administration can bring. one of the things that volodymyr zelenskyy also cautioned was not to play too nicely with the russians. i want to listen to some of what he had to say today at that conference. >> we need weapons, not support in talks, hugs with putin will not help. some of leaders have been hugging him for 20 years

and things are only getting worse. he thinks only about wars and will not change. only pressure can put limits on him. >> some pretty direct words there coming from the ukrainian president. of course, one of the things that president- elect trump has said during the election campaign and specifically after meeting with volodymyr zelenskyy on the sidelines of the u.n. general assembly is that he wants to end the war as quickly as possible, and that he believes that his good relations not just with zelenskyy, but with russian president vladimir putin will help do that. he has praised his relations with vladimir putin. vladimir putin has now essentially done the same thing, just as we were going on- air, i was in the on the sideline watching vladimir putin at an event in southern russia and he for the first time congratulated donald trump on winning the u.s. presidential election. i want to read that real quickly. he said, regardless of what he said about his desire to rebuild relations with russia, to facilitate an end to the war in the ukrainian crisis, i

think this deserves attention, at the very least, and i would like to take this opportunity to offer my congratulations to his election as president of the united states, guys. >> fred pleitgen and nic robertson, thank you so you both. still ahead, a destructive and rapidly growing wildfire in southern california. just the latest example of severe weather potentially fueled by the climate crisis as president-elect trump returns to the white house with promises to pull out of international agreements on fighting climate change.

we're following breaking news into cnn. the federal reserve cutting interest rates by a quarter point, marking the second cut of the year. it comes as democrats grapple with this week's stunning election losses, with millions of voters citing the economy as their top concern. let's discuss with pollster and communications strategist, frank lunz. great to be with you, as always. the wednesday morning headline, voters hand republicans a mandate. do you think that this outcome was inevitable given the truncated amount of time that kamala harris had to run a campaign, along with the economic headwinds. or is there more

that she could have done in those 100- ish days she could have done to get elected? >> there absolutely is more. and this is significant. because in the end, they're trying undercut trump's victory, which is significant. it wasn't a mandate, because it still only 3 or 4% victory, but it was significant. it was meaningful and measurable. first, she could have taught people exactly what she wanted toot in the first hour, the first day, the first week, the first month. second is that she could have explained much better why her positions have changed. the public doesn't like flip- flopping, but they do appreciate when you learn something. when you're not the same person now that you were 5, 10, or 20 years ago. and third, when she was positive that whole first half of her campaign, right up to the debate, when she was joyful and energetic and enthusiastic with the crowds, and she talked about what she wanted to achieve, that was significant. and you saw in the polling numbers, and you could feel the energy.

but when she turned against trump and attempted to redefine him, i heard the phrase from the campaign that they wanted to make sure that no america had trump amnesia. well, guess what? we know everything there is to know about donald trump, good and bad. we know who he is, where he is, we did not know her. i think that when all of this is said and done and the tears have been shed and the crying ends that she will look at her campaign as a horribly missed opportunity to have a genuine conversation with the american people. that's why she lost. >> frank, what about the fact that donald trump, for the first time that he's run, is on track to win the popular vote? i mean, you just said that a lot of americans, that americans know everything there is to know about donald trump. how is that the case given that he's more popular than ever, and yet he uses rhetoric that is

offensive? >> for some people, what's offensive to others -- and i'm not a supporter of his rhetoric, but for some people, what's offensive for other people is telling it straight. and i do have a problem with the language that he used. i think it's not appropriate. i would like our president to be a role model in addition to a political and economic leader. and obviously, the person that leads the army. i think that what a president says and what a president does absolutely matters. and that we should be trying to aspire to something greater. but that said, he was explicit, he focused on the things that mattered to him, particularly on immigration, and in the end, the public compared his immigration record and his proposals with vice president harris' records and her proposals and they found trump better than harris. make no mistake. if you asked a person who they liked better as a person, vice president harris won that comparison. but if you asked people who could better handle affordability, because

it's really not the economy, it's about prices and costs, affordability and immigration, which is more about safety and security, they by ten points or more gave that edge to donald trump, and that's once again the reason that he won. >> there's a lot of finger pointing within the democratic party. moderates are blaming progressives, progressives are blaming moderates. what do you think the path forward is for the democratic party? >> so i'm eager to bring these focus groups. and y'all have used them frequently. because we talk to these voter groups and vice president harris did worse among men, particularly middle age men, particularly men who had voted for hillary clinton in 2016 and joe biden in 2020. and they felt like the democratic party has let them. this is no embrace, no bear hug of either trump or the republican party. but they felt like vice president harris only

cared about young women. and you saw it in the ads, you saw it in the rallies, you saw it in all the sound bites and the clips visually. that clearly she wanted to be a role model. and that's perfectly appropriate and in fact, it's courageous to give young women a role model. but you don't do it at the expense of men who have been voting democrat, working hard, playing by the rules, paying their taxes. and there are too many of these men who abandoned the democrats in 2024. and frankly, they'll have to focus on how you can still appeal to women, but not reject men or they will not be the majority part again. >> frank luntz, always appreciate your analysis. thanks so much for joining us. >> i appreciate it. thank you. there is a wildfire raging in southern california. a late- season hurricane tearing through cuba and threatening the u.s. gulf coast, and also record autumn heat across the country. these are now just some of the realities of climate change. the question is, how will the u.s. respond to it under

a second trump administration? >> yeah, there's a new report that finds 2024 is on track to be the warmest year ever. i know we're feeling that in washington, d.c. today for sure. and it may cross a red line that scientists are really worried about. cnn chief climate correspondent bill weir is here with more on this. bill, 2024 will be the first calendar year to exceed the paris agreement threshold. what does it mean for the planet? >> well, that line, that 1. 5 degrees celsius or 3 degrees fahrenheit was the idea that anything beyond that would just be so hard to adapt and to do it in time. once we hit 2%. if you think things are bad now, imagine the hell on earth that would be 3 degrees of global warming. well, donald trump is basically saying, go to hell. go to that hell. because he doesn't want to even acknowledge the existence of the problem. he won with a promise to supercharge the economy and fix the border and heal america, but climate change is the hole in every one of those

buckets, making it that much harder to deal with streams of mrgs coming from central america after storms or drouts down there, dealing with the economy in places like asheville, north carolina, completely devastated. we'll put up a map of the ocean temperatures hitting records around the globe, especially in the united states, around the atlantic and the gulf there. that makes hurricanes stronger faster. it moves water cycles in much less predictable ways. affects everything from insurance companies, there's a crisis on that, to supply chains. and the wildfire that you're talking about now in california. these warmer planet, it drys things out faster, makes a more flammable earth. so at the absolute time science is saying humanity must rally together, decarbonize as quick as humanely possible and brace for the pain that's built in, the united states has elected really the most notorious climate denier in the public eye these days.

next week at cop- 29 in azerbaijan, the world is supposed to meet to talk about finance for developing countries, helping them adapt and get green in time, but we're already hearing that diplomats may not be going because of the clues from the united states that the trump administration not interested in global climate diplomacy. for the countries that take this seriously, that's a major issue. but there may be enough built- in momentum with the clean energy projects, especially in republican districts, brianna and boris, that it will be hard to claw those back here in the united states. >> bill weir, thank you so much. it will certainly be something to watch here. ahead, as the country prepares for the return of trump to the white house, his transition is looking at who he might want to put in his cabinet. we'll talk to someone who could have a role and might put the election results in depth after a quick break

let the finger-pointing begin. frustrations are boiling over with in the democratic party over president biden's

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