>> we are following breaking news. the justice department charging three people involved in a thwarted iranian plot to kill president-elect donald trump. and then a quiet battle in mar-a-lago amongst trump insiders and others hoping to

join his administration. the fight to get hired in the next administration. a fast-moving disaster, a wildfire on the outskirts of los angeles torching over 100 structures, damaging dozens more as thousands are under evacuation warnings. only a fraction of this fire is contained we are following these major developing stories coming right here on cnn news central. we start this hour with major breaking news. the department of justice has announced federal charges against three people in a iranian plot to kill president-elect donald trump before the presidential election. this is a newly discovered alleged plot and two of the people charged are u.s. citizens. one suspect is still at large, believed to be in iran. >> we have evan perez on the story and nic robertson joining

us to discuss these developments. i want to start with you. what more are you hearing? >> we know two of these people are under arrest in the u.s. and they were the two being recruited, essentially, to carry out these assassinations. one target the president-elect, but they begin with the plot against a dissident, someone who was a prominent critic of the iranian regime, farhad shakeri. he served time in the u.s. and apparently reached out to people he had known from his time in prison and the u.s. to try to recruit them to carry out these assassinations. in the case of one of them, this prominent dissident, they spend months doing surveillance of this person. they have photographs of the person's front door. you can see in the court documents filed in manhattan federal court, some of the firearms they have according to the fbi . obviously, they were very ready to carry out this

assassination. they follow this person when they were doing a speech at fairfield university in connecticut. it is a scary situation. in addition to this, according to the fbi, farhad shakeri also had -- on october 7th. he was tasked with trying to find ways to kill president-elect donald trump and there is also plots to kill two u.s. citizens, jewish u.s. citizens, in new york. they are being offered $500,000 to do either of those assassinations, as well as targeting israeli tourists in sri lanka. this is a wide-ranging attempt by the iranians to try to go after people that they believed were on their target list, not only people associated with president-elect donald trump, which we have known in previous plots, but also those in this administration who they also believed should be targeted as these court documents say. they are also looking to head, target people, overseas, israeli tourists in sri lanka.

>> now, london. the u.s. government has raised concerns that iran may try to retaliate for the u.s. drone strike in 2020 that killed a top general in iran's revolutionary guard . by trying to kill president-elect donald trump, who ordered that strike or some of his former advisers, what does it say to you that iran is trying to put this plan into motion? >> i think that is one question we need to ask right off the top. who in iran? it does -- he had that elite military force, the qods unit . with all their proxies that they have around the region. he was a very important figure. they will be behind why they are still

planning and trying to get revenge, but we know you had an example in the uk, just this year, a young iranian -- they have a channel that is not aligned with the iranian government and they were attacked and hospitalized in a similar storm of attempt, it appears, by the iranian government, or parts of it, to silence critics. i go back to that question . who is this? who is deciding this? is it the government? is it the supreme leader or is it a tiny click -- clique? you do not try to assassinate the u.s. president without there being consequences and, clearly, there will be consequences and this will be something very much on the president-elect's plate come january. who precisely will be targeted? that will be the target --

question here. the fact that iran will do this, absolutely, qasem soleimani and his assassination was huge and, today, it still has ramifications. >> bob, talk about upping the ante on this. what are you expecting from iran when it comes to targeting trump in his coming term and what is that going to mean when it comes to u.s. policy toward iran and the possibility for more conflict in the region? >> well, first of all, the iranians do have a lot of assets in this country, sleepers cells. most of them answer to hezbollah. we believe, they have had this for a long time. they have explosives. they have weapons. they have people who can fight gorilla warfare. we have traced them to detroit and, certainly, the secret service wants to take a close look at them. when

i worked at the u.n., we founded a center in new jersey, where they organized an assassination from new jersey. it was picked up by metadata, but the iranians at this point believe, this is generalization, that trumbull join israel in some sort of strike on the regime and they will be we better get trump first. that is very reductive, but there's a lot of truth in it. we do not know. they will appoint a lot of hawks to the -- if we go into iran and take their nuclear facilities out, it will need a u.s. ground element. now, whether this is going to happen or not, no one can predict what he will do. i for see tensions in the middle east, they will pick up and who knows where it will go from here. >> as the inauguration years, do we have a sense of the threat profile and how it may grow for trump and whether

iran, seeing he will be the next president, perhaps to back away, fearing a broader conflict with the united states? it could have devastating consequences for tehran. >> that is a big part of the calculation for the fbi. they certainly know this person was tasked with doing something on october 7. that is for the u.s. election. the significance of that, we know the former president, because of two items on his life in the last few months, he was already getting additional protection . as bob points out, trying to strike at a sitting u.s. president changes the calculation tremendously. they know if you do that, it will result in, you know come the end of the regime perhaps in tehran. it is something that iranians are very mindful of. they do not necessarily want a direct conflict with the united states. perhaps that changes their calculus and perhaps they

will focus on some of the other people. they have other people on the target list that we have known about for a number of years. >> bob, we are learning iranian journalists -- they were also targeted by iran as part of this plot. she has been targeted before. she has escaped harm. narrowly. what does that tell you? what are you expecting? >> well, i expected more people will be hit. they are easy targets. we cannot protect them all. on the other hand, my opinion about the iranian regime and i have studied it for many years -- in order to go after these targets, you need a fatwa from the supreme leader. i have two on me. i do not think they were serious, but in order to kill an american, any foreigner, they need a fatwa . you know, it is

a fairly disciplined organization, the irgc. there are rogue elements, but it is very difficult to get inside that decision-making to see precisely who is ordering these assassinations and what they are planning next. >> bob baer and erin pereira's and -- erin perez and nic robertson, thank you. president-elect donald trump steam is working quickly to fill critical white house positions and announcements could come today. >> christian holmes is here near mar-a-lago, where the jockey for top spots in the administration is heating up. what is the latest? >> they are trying to get this done as quickly as possible. >> reporter: part of the goal is to pull out those white horse administration jobs. that is why you saw part of them are susie wiles in order to hit the

ground running, to make sure they can get the cabinet positions in place and also to help with the structure for building out policy. we know there have been listings that have been set up for the transition that include both the policy side and a personnel side. they need to get that moving through the transition team and that is going to be easier to do once they have those cabinet positions in place, once they have that white house staff in place. we are being told, give me one second, excuse me. i had something in my throat. we are being told this could come as early as today to start the process with those white house jobs and part of it was really starting with susie wiles. one of the things we know is that she kind of wanted to be the filter of the people coming through president-elect donald trump into this transition and into the administration. that is why she was enacted so quickly. >> kristen, we will let you get some water or some tea. >> we expect vice president kamala harris' running mate,

minnesota governor tim walz, to speak in minnesota, coming days after their campaign's defeat to president-elect donald trump. right now, as many democrats are still grappling with the question of what went wrong, some are making really eye-opening comments about what could have gone differently in this election and we want to talk about that with democratic congressman from south carolina, james clyburn. congressman, congratulations on your reelection. thank you for being with us. i want to start right away by asking you about comments that speaker emeritus nancy pelosi made to the new york times. she told that journalist, quote, had president joe biden gotten out sooner, there might have been other candidates in the race. the anticipation was that if the president were to step aside, there would be an open primary. she says kamala may have, i think she would have done well in that potential primary and been stronger going forward but we do not know that. we lived with what happened and because the president endorsed kamala

harris immediately, that made it almost impossible to have a primary at that time. if it had been much earlier, it would have been different. congressman -- what is your reaction to that? >> a lot of what if's. all of that may be true. we will never know. the fact still remains that president joe biden had a very successful run as president. he had a record. he announced for reelection and we all went through a process and it was not until that debate that a lot of people began to express concern. now, there were people talking about his age from the very beginning. you know, all of us age differently. just because president joe biden was 88 years old -- i'm about three years older than joe biden. so, while one can conduct themselves through the aging

process, it is different for everybody. now, i think kamala harris was a good candidate. a great candidate. i thought she put herself in very well as a candidate. now, we might look at what decisions were made throughout the campaign and whether or not they would the -- they were the right decisions. we will never know. i think finger-pointing, the blame, blame shifting, that will not do us any good. i just think we need to step back and start making plans for two years from now. >> congressman, you have a unique personal relationship with president joe biden. it could be argued he would not have won the presidency without your support in south carolina during the primary process. i wonder if you have spoken to him over the last few days, if he has expressed any regret to you about the way that this election and the lead up to it

turned out, about the way it was handled. >> well, you know, when president joe biden ran for president, there were 23 democrats running. 23. of course, he came out of that crowd as the nominee. every expert that i have spoken to, everything i have read about, says that he was the only one of the 23 who could have defeated donald trump and that was the first order of business. he won the election. he had a tremendous presidency. his record is great. the economy is humming. like no other economy in the world. so, everybody -- people did not see a lot. maybe they did not. the question is, why did they not? i do not know if joe biden is

responsible for people's feelings. he is responsible for putting together an administration, which he did, who were good at what they did. he did that as well. they had a very good cabinet. a very strong cabinet. they were very productive, however misinformation, disinformation, all kinds of things happened in this campaign, and it will be a part of our political process going forward. this is the first time it has been this pronounced, where we had that in 2016 and then in 2020. it is going on in 2024 and it will be here in four years from now. what we have to do is work on how to combat this kind of disinformation and misinformation in the future. >> i understand, congressman connie want to avoid finger-pointing and infighting and bickering about the loss, but when you talk about plans for moving forward, i do wonder

what you think could be done differently, aside from the misinformation and disinformation that both parties, frankly, should be combating. harris underperformed biden among black men. almost 15 points worse than hillary clinton in that demographic. when you look at plans moving forward, what lessons would you draw from this campaign and what would you do to reverse that trend? >> that is what i am talking about. quite a few. i can tell you there is all kinds of bad information. they were believing things they see on the internet. we did not do what we should have done to combat all of that and maybe -- at this point in time, they were too combative. hopefully, it will not be that way the next time around. there's not a single african-american that needed to be disappointed in

the biden administration. go through all the bills that were passed and all that comes out of this administration and there is not a single thing in this administration that was negative to the african-america n community. there she is, a woman of color, and she was a part of this administration. so, everything was positive and there are pluses, but maybe the country is not yet ready to elect a woman to be its leader. >> you consider congressman that misogyny and perhaps racism had a lot to do with her loss despite that hillary clinton received -- she won the

popular vote and barack obama obviously won not only the presidency, but reelection as well. >> absolutely. he was not subjected to the misinformation and disinformation that we have going on now. we all know that. the fact of the matter is as well as hillary did, she still did not win. i think kamala still suffers from that. you heard the rhetoric during the campaign. i certainly heard it. and then before the campaign, the references to women, from the former speaker of the house, nancy pelosi, with a b word. also, another reference with the c word. these were done openly, and broad open spaces with children in the audience. my real problem now is not democrats versus republicans. it is about this country and what we can expect from this country. i studied the history of this country all

of my life. i lived through jim crow and i know project 2025 is jim crow 2.0. i'm wondering whether or not we are coming out of this election the way the country came out of 1876, which led to the end of reconstruction and led to the beginning of jim crow. is that where we are today? i used to tell my sons anything that has happened before can happen again. and i can see us with these kind of supreme court decisions, saying it is all right -- they are racially biased. we have been running them anyway. that is what the supreme court just did. so, we are facing a court that could be a throwback to -- rather than brown v. board of

education. >> james clyburn, leading the conversation. we appreciate the time and perspective. thank you for joining us.? thank you for having me. still to come, a major decision on ukraine from the white house as president joe biden prepares to leave office. he is making a change to official u.s. policy when it comes to that conflict extract tens of thousands of californians forced to flee as devastating wildfires escorts 20,000 acres.

>> some breaking news into cnn. since russia invaded ukraine, they will allow american military contractors into the country. >> the ban is being lifted so they can perform maintenance and repairs on u.s. supplied weapons. the tosha bertrand and -- let's start with you . the timing of this has a lot to do with the incoming administration, i imagine? >> officials told us this decision to lift this de facto ban on american military contractors working inside ukraine was actually made before the election, but, of course, it was tenuous and unpredictable who was going to win the race and i think this speaks to how much the administration is trying to give ukraine the upper hand in a war against the russians

which, for now, does not seem to be turning in ukrainian's favor. what this will do is it will allow american merchant contractors who have specialized expertise in maintaining and fixing very complex systems like the f-16 fighter jet and the patriot air defense system, to actually go into ukraine and fix them on the spot. officials have said these contractors are not going to be near the front lines or importantly fighting russian forces, but it will be a dramatic improvement from what had previously been the case, which is a lot of the systems had to be shipped out of ukraine to places like poland and romania to be repaired, which takes a lot of time. that really left the ukrainians on the back foot when it came to using these systems. the administration hoping it can -- with the remaining military funding that they have for the ukrainians come up through the

military before january, this is going to help the ukrainians make a difference in their fight against the russians. >> thank you, natosha. let's bring in david sanger. the timing is interesting. this was a policy that was approved earlier, which means before the election. the election was also earlier, so not long before it. what does it signal to you and what are the questions about what might happen when this transitions to the trump administration? >> two big questions come up out of it, brianna. the first is why the administration did not do this earlier. president joe biden was concerned about american casualties. there had been, essentially, none in the ukraine war that is the reason he told all american troops, including some pentagon units and cyber units and others to get out of ukraine before the invasion in february 2022, and that included the contractors. as natasha indicated, that made a very big difference to the ukrainians because it meant

they could not do repairs on site. so, there is some risk and there are risks you could have american casualties. what it really opens up though, brianna, is the question of the one other big hanging decision in front of president biden before he leaves, which is whether to allow the use of american long-range weapons to be fired into russian territory, not just over the border, but deeper into the territory. something has been asked by president volodymyr zelenskyy on repeated occasions. every time we ask u.s. officials about this, we hear right now, the policy is they cannot, but he has two months to change it. >> david, what about elon musk in all of this? we are learning that he joined president-elect trump on a call with ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy earlier this week. ukraine relies on busk for starlink technology that allows for

wi-fi to be accessed in the field and in the war against russia. but the defense department has contracts with elon musk. what about his influence? how do you see that shaping policy toward ukraine? >> so, this was fascinating. great reporting by axios, which i think broke the news. fascinating on a couple of levels. first, there is no question that musk saved the war for the ukrainians. he installed the medication system when they did not have one and no way to get their information in the cloud. he also stopped them at one point from being able to attack russian ships off of crimea by refusing to expand starlink footprint so they could do targeting there. in the biden administration, he

tried to act on the edges with some national security advising. the question this raises is during a trump administration, will he actually have a direct, decisive role and you want that role to be in the hands of somebody who is selling goods to the u.s. military, airlift , obviously, for satellites, the starlink system directly to the ukrainians? he has business with the pentagon and now the question is, will he be an influencer or a policymaker over military decisions? that is a really unusual role, boris. >> before we go, david, nato secretary-general notably credited trump for encouraging member states of nato to invest at least 2% of their gdp in defense. does that flattery will leave some anxiety? >> it does. he is obviously worried that when president-elect donald trump said she would let russian president vladimir putin do whatever he wants to countries that did not contribute as much, he clearly wants to get on his good side. i president

trump take some of the credit for getting europeans to contribute more. i think president joe biden gets some credit because it happened on his watch. i think russian president vladimir putin gets most of the credit because it was the invasion of ukraine that convinced them they had to do differently. the question now though is what was the 2% they discussed? it is not enough, especially if you believe china and russia are coming together. the problem for the europeans going forward is they may have to be looking at double that number. >> a really fascinating situation, one to keep muttering. david singer, thank you for the analysis. we are waiting on minnesota governor tim walz to speak in minneapolis after his and harris' loss in the election. will bring that to you live. stay with cnn.

it's our son, he is always up in our business. it's the verizon 5g home internet i got us. oh... he used to be a competitive gamer but with the higher lag, he can't keep up with his squad. so now we're his “squad”. what are kevin's plans for the fall? he's going to college. out of state, yeah. -yeah in the fall. change of plans, i've decided to stay local. oh excellent! oh that's great! why would i ever leave this? -aw! we will do anything to get him gaming again.

you and kevin need to fix this internet situation. heard my name! i swear to god, kevin! -we told you to wait in the car. everyone in my old squad has xfinity. less lag, better gaming! i'm gonna need to charge you for three people. just days after the electoral loss in which vice president kamala harris and minnesota governor tim walz

lost the election to former president donald trump, democrats are doing some soul-searching and trying to figure out exactly what went wrong . a few moments ago, i spoke with democrat congressman jim clyburn of south carolina and he shared some perspective, his thoughts on the election. here is some of what you said. >> so, everything was positive and they are all pluses, but maybe the country is not yet ready to elect a woman to be its leader. >> you consider congressman that misogyny and perhaps racism had a lot to do with her loss despite that hillary clinton received -- she won the popular vote and barack obama, obviously, won >> absolutely. >> the former campaign manager for hillary clinton's 2016 run for president is with us now. robbie, i wonder what you think

about what congressman clyburn said and also noting harris did worse with women overall and democrats, worse with black and latino women, although she improved on democrats with white women with a college degree. >> well, look. this is a big picture challenge our party faces. clearly, coming out of the selection, we need a message that speaks to a broad cross-section of the electorate. we need to build a winning coalition and we need to speak louder and more clearly to more americans. i do not think it is about any one particular group. i think this is a big problem and we need to tackle it in a big and all-encompassing way and i think any of these postmortems, which always happen when they do not go the way we want, it is tempting to get in the weeds and make it about one or two tactical decisions, that sort of thing. this is much bigger

than that. we need to step back and retool and rethink and speak more clearly and loudly because i know on the substance, we are right. we have a much better deal for the american people, that way -- something is not breaking through when we need to figure that out. >> we are looking at live pictures in minneapolis, where we are expecting former vice president a candidate tim walz, the governor of minnesota, to speak. he is in st. paul. >> it just switched. it really is st. paul. >> as we await his remarks, i'm curious about something else that i have heard from democrats today. i asked congressman clyburn about it and his response to what nancy pelosi, speaker emeritus, told the new york times. he seemed to agree with her, that there should have been a primary process, that perhaps that could have made a difference, either in strengthening her as a candidate or in there being a

process of elimination by which perhaps even a stronger your perspective? >> you know, i could argue this either way. i honestly think that the short timeline for the campaign was a gift in a way. they got to move quickly. they got to move swiftly. i cannot tell you how exhausting these campaigns become when i did the clinton campaign. that was a two-year campaign with an entire primary process. we had to go to the general. i also completely understand how 98 or 100 days is not a lot of time to get a campaign organized. what i do know for sure, for the next presidential campaign for 2028, there will be a primary and the democratic primary electorate will have, i am sure, a full suite of

excellent candidates to choose from. so, we should get excited about that and that gives us four years, really, two years until the primary starts, to think about our messaging and how to better breakthrough. >> it should be robust, you would expect. i wonder what you thought about how reproductive rights and did up-playing and the selection versus how democrats thought it might in light of the 2022 midterms. >> yeah, it is an interesting question. i know you were talking about misinformation earlier in the program. there was a lot of misinformation on that issue. we have some evidence to believe some are going to the polls thinking somehow president-elect donald trump was the one who is going to defend a woman's right to choose and we know that is not the case. i think it remains an important issue. i think women through productive freedom is,

you know, bodily freedom, what could be more important than that? i think what we need to figure out is how to balance that with some other challenges that we know people are facing, like the rising cost of groceries, of housing, and many other things. so, definitely an important part of the postmortem, to figure out how we are heard on a variety of issues, not just that one. it is absolutely important, a driving issue. as soon as republicans in congress and trump, when he is in the white house, make moves to take away more rights inevitably , you know, we will need to speak out against that and i think that will motivate voters in the midterms. >> robbie, thank you so much. we appreciate it. >> thanks. >> while democrats are doing some soul-searching, president-elect donald trump and his party are gearing up for their return to power and they have actually been doing this in congress for months. let's discuss with republican congressman tim burton -- you

are on the house foreign affairs committee. i want to ask you about the breaking news, which is these arrests in this latest plot against president-elect trump's life by iran. what is your reaction to this and do you see this increasing chance of a conflict between the u.s. and its proxies with iran? >> yes, i do. i think you have seen it in the past, that with the president joe biden am i think it kind of gave them a pass , israel, when they said they would bomb their nuclear facilities, when they came back and told the world, these are not nuclear bombs but for nuclear energy, when we know they are sitting on the largest energy supplies in the world. they have no reason to give them nuclear energy. they are doing it for nuclear bombs. we will tell israel to take the gloves off and i think they will and i think you will see a regime change. >> you have been a vocal supporter of president-elect donald trump. would you welcome serving in his administration?

>> ma'am, love for the 35th most powerful member of congress. i have probably made more enemies and friends. -- dan france. so, i would doubt that. i appreciate that. i am sure you just heard that collective noise in the background is half of washington, d.c. laughing right now. i doubt that. i'm enjoying being a congressman. i would not want to spend any more time in washington than i have to. anyone who says he loves his job and loves being in washington, i would submit to you you need to get a new congressman. >> you love being in knoxville, which is a great place. former trumpet ministration official john bolton says that trump can close to pulling the u.s. out of nato in 2018. do you think that is a possibility in his second term?

>> i do. when you see other members of nato not pulling their weight, it is really a financial situation you are supposed to invest a certain amount in your national defense. a lot more than -- trump threatened them and i think that was -- you are exactly right. yes, what? >> also, putin waged a war that scared them. so, they are coughing up more money. >> some of them are, yes, but we are over $200 billion in that war with no end in sight as far as we can see currently. >> you are on the transportation committee. do you think that trump should give the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed under the biden administration in place? >> that is the reality of that bill. we passed the bill, which i voted against, but it might

have been decent. the final bill that was passed, if you remember, it went back into the speaker's office and they rewrote it with the help of some lobbyists and others and about 85% of that bill has nothing to do with the traditional infrastructure and if we were to pass all that money for traditional infrastructure, we would have fixed every road and bridge and -- >> should he get rid of it? >> i would suggest -- that would be a start. i know that is not going to happen because everybody has their fingers in it. let's just be honest. washington, d.c. is a corrupt town. both parties need to really hang their heads in shame and that is why i hope this bloodletting, if you will, that is going on right now, this cleansing might be a better terminology. i hope it does some good and i hope people start paying attention

more to what is going on in washington and not just what their leaders tell them. >> if we pay attention, tennessee has their fingers in it. it will receive $8 billion in funding through 2026 for highways, bridges repairs, water infrastructure improvement. knoxville is receiving over $40 million in grant money from d.o.t. this year. do you want to get rid of that? >> yes, ma'am. that is just a small portion of it, as i stated. only about 15% went to things like that, so you can imagine the enormous nature of it and things that have absolutely nothing to do with transportation. we need to go back to single issue spending bills. that is why all that pork, you cannot pass it because you have to defend every dad gum bit of it. that is why neither party wants that. the wink and a nod and all this is we are going to pass our style of pork under our administration and you will do it under yours and hopefully now the applecart has been turned over and everybody is seeing what is going on behind the curtain, so to speak. the

shenanigans will stop is what i am hoping. >> we are both -- we have been in washington long enough to know that it would be something to see though shenanigans stop. congressman, thank you for being with us. >> always a pleasure, ma'am. thank you so much for >> we are, as you are looking at the screen here, this is a picture comment was from st. paul, minnesota. we are waiting on remarks from minnesota governor tim walz after his and vice president kamala harris' loss in the presidential election. we are going to bring you his comments live. stay with cnn.

mise

following breaking news into cnn, we are watching the first lady of minnesota, gwen walz, introducing her husband, the governor, tim walz, who was the vice presidential candidate. obviously, alongside vice president kamala harris, after their loss on tuesday. we have seen democrats do some soul-searching and there has

been finger-pointing behind the scenes, trying to figure out the cause of the loss and what could be done differently in future campaigns. we heard from the vice president and we have yet to hear directly from governor walz, her running mate and we are anticipating what his remarks might be. >> i think what is remarkable is we are watching his wife -- she looks like she is in pain. you can see in her face, she is fighting tears as she is speaking here and it is just a very interesting moment and certainly, of course, she wanted a very different outcome. vice president kamala harris would make a very good president according to her. i think this is obviously a difficult moment. let's listen in to what she is saying. >> this belief has been the driving force of tim's public service and mine, too. we have all worked so hard to build a minnesota that all of us can

call home, where everyone can live with safety and dignity and opportunity and, yes, freedom. so, now, more than ever, that important work continues because we have a responsibility to keep this haven, this special place, minnesota, safe and inclusive and strong. >> we are listening here to gwen walz, the first lady of minnesota, as she will be introducing her husband. what

is a very difficult speech, clearly, for her to give and you are just noting to us how involved she was on the trail. she was very invested for >> absolutely. gwen walz was campaigning everywhere since the moment that governor walz was selected. she would do probably more events than any of the other principles. she is someone else who is a school teacher. that is where she met governor walz when they were in nebraska and they moved her home state of minnesota. she has been very active on the campaign trail, talking about education and families. you can see what -- she was obviously expecting a different outcome. she was praising vice president kamala harris there, talking about her almost historic role. she has been a driving force in minnesota and is expected to be one as the second lady. >> you were there for vice president kamala harris' concession speech with a lot of folks very emotional, including governor walz as we await his

appearance on stage. i wonder how you contrast that and the reception that harris got there with some of the reporting behind the scenes. some of the debate about what happened and what could have been done differently and the call that was head behind the scenes with some campaign folks, in which they asked people to stop questioning their strategy during the campaign. >> look, this failure, obviously, has 1000 fathers pickers many reason why she was not successful, and the campaign they were handed, giving the decision to run again, 107 days, but there was a call to vice president kamala harris that she had with staff members to buff them up. on that conference call, some aides told people not to talk

about the shortcomings. we have covered a lot of failed campaigns. thinking back to 2016, when we covered the clinton campaign. there is enough soul-searching and finger-pointing to go around and there were mistakes. it is not that much of a surprise, but it will get out. the reality is that this was not just a seven battleground state collapse. it was a collapse of the democratic party's message across the country. look at those maps that show the entire republican swing in virtually every state. this was not just a decision to not travel to wisconsin or to not go to michigan. this was much bigger. >> i was watching you on election night at howard and it was so evocative of that campaign, which we covered together. what was different was the expectation. this was such a tight race going into

it. no one really knew who had it sewn up. nobody did. so, there seem to be a bit of a difference in that, and the outcome was a possibility compared to the giant surprise that happened in 2016. i wonder if that means a little less soul-searching within the campaign and more of a broad book overall at the party? >> i think it does. it was not simply the failure of a couple operatives or the candidate. it was a broader democratic brand issue. but you are correct. there was shock and dismay and disbelieve back when hillary clinton was learning that president-elect donald trump was winning. it was different this time. one other reason that actually made it sting a little bit harder is that people are more familiar with president-elect donald trump's record now and his convictions. back then, no one was sure which president-elect donald trump would be president. he -- it is very clear who will be

president. that was perhaps even more painful, that he was elected in spite of that. >> you have covered a lot of different administrations. you covered the campaign. we cover the white house. especially early on in the trump administration, there was a tremendous amount of chaos. let's pause for a moment because i believe minnesota governor tim walz is set to take the stage at any moment, being received warmly after hearing from his wife, the first lady of minnesota, and there is the governor. you can see him through the crowd. we anticipate his remarks will reiterate what we heard from kamala harris. >> and the small town anthem. you would arrive and he was indeed born in a small town in nebraska, but chosen as the running mate here. they have a very close relationship. we saw it on the convention in

campaign trail. this is an emotional time for the walz family. >> thank you. >> wow. you have been here. wow, wow. well, thank you, minnesota. thank you, thank you, thank you. i do not about you, but i have had a week. i know what you are up to. let me just start out by saying, it is great to be home. it is great to be home. and i do want to start a huge thank you and an i love you to minnesota's first lady, to gwen. thank you, gwen. and to our