these potential scenarios in the lead up to a chinese attack ? >> when the panic happened . the whole society would be in disorder. >> and it could happen very quickly , even before a single shot is fired and that is the point these producers of the show are trying to make them especially now with trump's return to the presidency in this potential shift in u.s. defense policy on taiwan . his comments on taiwan needing to pay the u.s. for protection . this is a transactional approach that they are keenly aware of here and raises doubts about whether the u.s. would intervene if china were to attack. >> all of this now, something we all live through and see how it goes. well, thank you. thanks so much to all of you as always. anderson starts now.

tonight on 360, trump talks with resident and elon musk . the question tonight, what was said and what was it about his prior promises to quickly end the war. details on what federal prosecutors say about the election and later after two years, more than three dozen felony indictments jack smith is winding down the government's cases against the president-elect. thanks for joining us as president-elect trump prepares today more people to his administration, perhaps even the names that will show you, there is no reporting tonight on some of the moves he is already making. as willis talks that some of the government are having about worst-case scenarios involving him as commander-in-chief . defense officials tell us that informal discussions are underway. the pentagon about how the department might respond if the new president ordered active-duty troops onto u.s. streets or fires large numbers of nonpolitical staffers. that is coming as we learned that when the president-elect spoke by phone with the president, elon musk joined the call. they rely on

musks starlink satellite and has been critical in the fight there . the wall street journal reported that muscat also been in regular contact with vladimir putin sent -- since the 2022. they have talked publicly about ukraine making concessions to end the war with mr. trump arguing recently that ukraine should have made a deal with moscow before russian troops invading. >> the worst deal would have been better than what we have right now. if they made a bad deal , it would have been much better and it didn't need to happen . those buildings are down, those as it is are gone. they are gone. we continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refuses to make a deal, zelensky. >> according to ask yours who broke the lead, he would support ukraine but didn't go into details about policy. according to sources, ukraine's president came away from the call quote, somewhat reassured by what he heard from

the president-elect. between that, the pentagon reporting , there is a lot to get to tonight with us. she is back from mar-a-lago. how much do you think you read into the fact that elon musk was on the phone call with zelensky? >> for people who have been covering trump in this campaign , it's not surprising because trump has become quite enamored with elon musk and often wants to keep him involved in the conversations and discussions. he was pretty heavily involved these last few weeks in the campaign. i think having him on the call with zelensky speaks to elon musk's influence and what that could look like in a second trump turn. he has stake in the game here since ukraine is using his starlike -- starlink satellite which i should note is a contract with the pentagon that expires at the end of next month. we will see what that looks like after that. obviously he has a lot of

stake in this game. for his presence to be on that call is notable because it is on with the world leader in the president-elect and the world's richest man who has major defense contracts . it speaks to how much influence elon musk has right now and trumps orbit. >> what is that jockeying for position like right now in this transitional period at mar-a-lago? >> it is remarkable because it is moving very quickly . that is what almost every single person i have spoken to about this, about what's the current state of that jockeying, changes sometimes by the hour, who is up and who is down as trump is viewing who to put in these positions. something he is taking seriously this time around. he says his staffing choices at his first term were some of his biggest mistakes he made. citing people like bill barr or the attorney general. he is taking it very seriously because of that people know that in order to influence trump you need to be right in front of him, either on the

phone or in front of him having these conversations. there is a lot of jockeying having behind the scenes. a lot of alliances are being formed between people who are trying to say , if we stick together we can kill this other person off for this job and so often , when trump makes these calls, it depends on the person was the biggest influence on him when it comes to that. >> are people literally at mar-a-lago hoping to get face time? >> they are all over palm beach. it's remarkable. i spent time there when he was president covering him and it's everywhere you go, you see potential trump cabinet members or west wing officials hanging out at certain hotels or coffee shops or restaurants. a lot of them booked flights after tuesday night's win because they knew how important it was to be down there. it's hard to get trump on the phone right now so a lot of them are showing up in trying to get in front of him. >> as we mentioned, pentagon officials have been holding informal discussions about how the defense department would respond if president trump issued orders to deploy troops domestically and are a large

swaths of political staffers. what is your sense of how much he wants -- how likely any of that might be? >> i think it's very likely. i think when it comes to --. the way they talk about it is these career employees working at federal agencies. we talked to those people, they are not majorly political but they are people who worked for a long time. there are thousands of positions and they have said, frankly they don't know how certain facets of the pentagon are going to work if those people just disappear in two weeks from now. at the question of, how much of the hollowing out they actually do that trump and elon musk promised to do when it comes to the federal government. one thing i'm keeping an eye on is who trump is going to pick us as defense secretary because he was very frustrated with several of the ones he picked the last time he was in office. he took to the end of mark's term, he was calling him mark yes because he

says yes to everything. ridiculing him out right in public. he wants someone that he has more cohesion with as trump people would put it. someone who does more of what he wants and less pushing back at the pentagon. >> caitlin, we will see that the top of the 9:00 hour. john bolton joining us now. scott jennings and van jones and gretchen carlson . elon musk obviously critical in the campaign . what you make of him joining this call? >> that doesn't surprise me at all. of course donald trump can put anyone on the phone that he wants. i have seen a lot of these calls been congratulatory in nature. as furthermore policy driven calls take place, i would expect there to be other policy and administration officials designated officials on the calls, but in some juncture, trump won and he has got a cadre of advisers that

include elon musk. i don't think anybody should be surprised by this or alarmed by it either way. >> i think it's a little weird. elon musk seems to be everywhere at all times. is like secretary of everything and at the same time he's like first lady. the other day i saw this picture of him. it was a picture of trump with his entire family except milan you, but elon musk was there and now you hear about this. there is also conflicts of interest. this is somebody who has contracts with the department of defense. this is somebody who has starlink and it's in ukraine. i find it a little weird but as scott said, they won, he gets to do whatever he wants and if he wants elon everywhere, all the time, that's what's going to happen. >> it's unusual but not

surprising. >> i think elon musk will go down as the single most important and influential person in the trump administration. he is in charge of the information flow with x or misinformation sometimes. he is in charge of what is going on in ukraine. it is basically ifederal bureaucracy and tried to figure out what departments and people to cut he is basically going to be in charge and influencing every aspect of the government. i think that he will be the most influential adviser , nonpaid, that trump will have. >> again, there is people that have to go through confirmation. there is people who have to submit all of their background information . it seems like there is going to be a number of people with the port olio, an open portfolio. >> you are so old-fashioned.

vetting of people come to make sure they don't have conflict of interest or make sure they don't have foreign governments. that's old-fashioned. you win, you do what you want. that's the new way. reality is, we are in a new era. they will say, this is no big deal. this is all normal. this is not normal. this is totally weird. this is bizarre. certain parts of american life, including our space program has real upsides because elon musk has done an incredible job with his space program. the problem is, he also has a conflict of interest with having this many government contracts and ordinarily, you wouldn't want anybody with those conflict of interest helping to make policy. but we don't care anymore, apparently. there are downsides to this new way, and also, elon musk has a disproportionate amount of

power and leverage over ukraine anyway. ukraine wanted to go much more hard against russia and elon basically pulled the plug and said you cannot go hard against russia. you already have a private citizen dictating the terms of the war for a whole nation , sitting next to the president of the united states. it might work out great. but let's not pretend this is normal. this is all really weird stuff. >> the thing about the pentagon discussions , i don't know at what level this is. it seems like it is informal discussions. i guess it is understandable they would have this discussion. scott, is it ? >> i don't like this. what is donald trump supposed to think? he sitting out there and is president-elect and i've yet to read the newspaper tonight that the unelected bureaucracy of the federal government is having meetings at some level about how to thwart or counter the commander in chief. i don't care if it's at the pentagon or the hud or ag apartment. it doesn't matter. the unelected bureaucracy of

this government answers to the civilian and duly elected leadership that we just fit. if you were in his shoes and you just won the popular vote with a clear mandate and now you have to read that these unelected bureaucrats are applauding against you? if they have problems , they should not have meetings that then lead to the press. if they have ideas or things, they should call the president's office and say, hey, we would like to have some discussions for planning purposes, but secret meetings that leak, terrible way to get off to start. >> trump has set them up to be in the situation where they think that he is coming after them. >> he won. he is the president. >> we are discussing something we don't know details of. i just want to put that out. you are portraying it like it's a cabal of people plotting this. the ever -- other flipside, for planning purposes, they want to figure out okay, if active-duty

troops are called, what mechanisms are there? what happens if all of these people are fired? >> i have been part of a transition when jeb bush was elected governor. every department should be right now making plans on what the handover is going to look like. i think there is an added concern because of project 2025 and because of the things that donald trump has said about eliminating and going after even career folks. what does that mean when folks who had the institutional memory , all of a sudden are gotten rid of . what does that mean? >> this career folks is what steve called the deep state. >> i think you are making an important port. >> they went to college, got a degree in medical science and have been working for the government for 14 years and now

they are concerned that if they don't swear loyalty oath to donald trump they might get fired these are just regular people. maybe they voted for trump maybe they didn't. this is a new thing. people responding in ways that are different , it's because the president has said things that are different . when you're labeled a deep state just because you have a job working in some bureau, that is very scary for people. >> already today senator mike lee who is up for potential high post with the president, you have him saying that the executive branch should be able to take over the federal reserve. already you have the fed chair saying, over my dead body is that going to happen because it has to remain an independent. already on two days after the election, we are talking about that. >> the federal reserve said publicly he would not step down >> it's important because you don't want the president to be able to say, hey buddy point a bunch of money . you have to

really undermine the dollar on the world stage if the fed is just a puppet of the white house. these institutions that give us this great life, we don't know what they are. it's like having a house and you don't know how it was built. >> and ask you something? if he wants to do all of this stuff, get rid of some of these officials that are just regular people. if you must to do these things he has talked about doing, where is the check and balance? who is there and what is there to provide check and balance because there is no ethics czar. he has the senate and will have the house the supreme court has given him immunity . he won the popular vote. the real housewives would say, who is going to check me? >> the president is the unitary executive over the executive branch and he should have wide latitude to operate the executive branch the way he sees fit. there is a separate branch of government called congress and another one called

the court. they do check and balance each other and that's the way it's going to work. i think there is a lot of freaking out going on. we just had the election on tuesday. >> i was freaking out then, too. >> he needs to be allowed to build the government and democrats and the rest of bureaucracy and everybody else in washington is to understand, he may do things differently but that's no reason to try to thwart the duly elected president of the united states. >> this unitary executive theory is a theory and is not the one we have operated on since fdr, which is that you do not have the president of the united states asserting authority to fire everybody down to like the post office service people because those people got civil service protection. you know why? to prevent patronage and corruption and to prevent the present -- the president to be able to sell positions to people. >> he was given a mandate to do deportation first or handle immigration , tax cuts, i think

those things will happen first and i think the american people will be upset. they don't even understand the idea that he may be coming after federal employees nor do they care about it. >> thank you. stay with us. we will be looking closer at the present successful effort to win support from black voters. we are learning about the iranian plot on his life and how authorities broke the case.

the 2024 presidential campaign -- pick shots were fired in a minute the rally was killed. one of his golf courses in florida, an armed man was arrested. the justice department announced charges in another alleged plot. this one hatched in iran to candidate trump. alex has the latest. what do we know about this plot? >> bizarre murder for hire charges. they were issued against three men. these were orders from the iranian revolutionary guard tasking a man named farhad shekar he with assassinating former, now future president trump. the orders were given to shekar he who is an afghan national believed to be at large in iran. he spent time in the u.s.

growing up and then he spent years in new york state prisons and that is where the feds believe he met many of his accomplishments including two co-defenses. he allegedly had a meeting with an official a month ago on october 7th. he was told to come up with a plan to assassinate trump before the election. he was told you only have a week and if you don't do it within the next week we will wait until after the election because they assume he was going to lose the election and that it would be easier to kill him after the election. shekare says he didn't plan on coming up with that plot within that timeframe and we know that because he was actually speaking with the fbi not want them but five times, anderson, in the past few months. that's where they got a lot of this information, but this is not the first plot to try to kill trump and his allies . a pakistani man was charged back in august with plans to assassinate government

officials, including president trump eric >> what are authorities saying about other targets? >> that he was at the other target. the main target they say was mossy, a very prominent anti-regime human rights activist, a prominent journalist . she has been on cnn a bunch of times and shekare test his two accomplices , american nationalists with tracking her down. he followed her to fairfield university where she was doing a speech. they try to track her down in brooklyn where they thought she loved. he was going to pay them $100,000 for carrying this out. that attack never was carried out. there was two others, two american jewish businessmen, the irg wanted them to kill. there were going to offer $5000 to each one. another plot they wanted mounted in sri lanka to kill israeli tourists . i got to a point where last monday israeli and american governments issued warnings to their citizens. this raises all

kinds of questions about what future president trump will do in response as we know he went after the head of the force. killing him in a drone strike in 2020. former deputy director of diligence. andrew, try to put this in perspective for us. how extraordinary is it to a foreign government targeting a former president and now the president-elect? >> it's remarkable. it is certainly not the thing you see every day, but i have to say, we have seen the iranians trying to act out in similar ways, not targeting a president or presidential candidate but targeting other political figures in the united states . in 2011 we uncovered a plot put out there by the irg seat force to assassinate the saudi ambassador to the united dates here in d.c. as similar plot,

the use of a low-level criminal to a higher criminal associates and distance the plot from official irgc numbers. that is what you are seeing here, most of the complaints , a fascinating document focused on a plot to assassinate that dissonant in brooklyn new york. towards the end of the complaint the dark about the tasking that he gets in this fall toward october to shift his focus to then candidate trump, and it's not there what sort of action was undertaken to accomplish that. >> this is not the first time the government has tried to kill trump. do you think there are and more lots that we don't know about? >> absolutely. what stage they are in is unclear, but iran has been bent on taking retribution as alex said, for the killing of this irgc general, the most

important general in iran in charge original activities . all those proxy forces, killing him in 2020. they have been at this, and they have been active threats against a number of senior u.s. officials. those threats haven't gone away , and some of those officials are not really fully protected by the u.s. government the way that president trump is. iran is definitely emboldened and they are not going to give up. that is their m.o.. >> this seems like an extremely dangerous thing for iran to be doing. >> it is. if you look at these levels, the fbi joint terrorism task force in new york has worked all of these iranian plots that andy and beth were just talking about. the nypd intelligence bureau has done surveillance is there, arrested a guy with an ak-47. that

counterterrorism bureau, the license plate readers, the video. this has been a massive effort to protect but this is a dissonant , they are on their third or fourth plot. as you ask, elevating that to a former president , president-elect , a future president , you have to understand where iran's head is here. as beth will tell you in the intelligence analyst world, they talk about mirror imaging. you can't assume the adversary is going to think with the same logic that you think about the same things. iran is in a position where they vowed revenge from the missile . we have since [ music ] is really decimate hezbollah, their main arm on the israeli border assassinate the leader of hamas in the presidents

guesthouse into ron and none of these revenge plots have worked out. it's possible that they would do something so outsized, so foolish as to target someone like a president. >> they look weak in the region. >> they are losing face and becoming a paper tiger. as unreasonable as it sounds to us, knowing that the retaliation would be crushing, this is something that they keep going at. >> the president-elect is not the only target for this . does it surprise you how many people were originally targeted? >> is an incredible tail. it's worth reading the affidavit supporting the indictment, just to see this detail in there. they start out really focused on the dissonant , and then the next thing you know, if you believe the main defendant shekare who is relating this to

the fbi in a series of conversations that i can only describe as bizarre and the entirety of my career i have never seen a terrorism case. >> why is this guy getting this evidence to the fbi? >> that's a great question and it's not explainable from the affidavit . we know they talk five times. he isn't to ron and conducting these very revealing conversations directly with the fbi , calling the fbi. >> these guys are talking to the fbi on the phone? >> that's correct. these are telephonic interviews that took place over several weeks while he was in tehran . there is a lot of questions as to what would have been his motivation to engage directly with the fbi and reveal all these incriminating facts. it's also clear from the affidavit that the agent specifies on a number of acts he lighted them. he

lied about some things, try to correct things later. his credibility is definitely questionable. the statements he makes about targeting president-elect trump, the very end of the affidavit. it is two very brief paragraphs. there is no clear evidence that action was taken. you have to -- i'm not trying to minimize this. it is incredibly serious and if he is telling the truth, it indicates that iran has a persistent interest in trying to kill president trump. that is a terrible thing. but really, we need to drill down what the story is behind this source. >> thanks very much. we have breaking news. a key senate race, the president-elect also wants to question very harris was -- . that was republicans calling her a dei higher. a question might be among some voters, why did his -- more than double?

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will survive a challenge from sam brown. this leaves the balance of power the two republicans and 46 democrats with two races still outstanding. on the presidential side, one in five black men who voted for president-elect trump, in 2020. according to cnn exit polls, one of the many hard facts using democrats tuesdays election loss. >> have you noticed a shift among black men? >> definitely. when i was growing up people used to say the republicans were for businesses and the democrats were for regular and working-class. i don't think that's the same right now. i think maybe the roles have flipped a little bit. >> lynwood holland is a republican leader here in philadelphia. he says he has more republican voters in his community than he is used to. >> i have been in some places were guys say i kind of like what he's doing. they might talk >> too. it doesn't bother them . they like his macho image, i

guess. they just want to be like, i want to be part of some thing different pics but the overwhelming majority of black men in pennsylvania supported vice president kamala harris and supported resident joe biden in 2020. in 2020, based on cnn exit poll, 10% of black men in pennsylvania supported donald trump at this election, that number jumped to 26% in the state. that's the biggest increase of any of the swing states. the shift was much smaller going from 19% of black men in 2020 to 21% in 2024. have you noticed a shift within the black community just in conversations you have had over the last four days ? >> absolutely. from 2016 , there was quiet support , but it was groundbreaking to vote

another way. in 2020, it became more of a reality that there is an option here. in the next cycle, if that doesn't work, we do something else, but we can't be permanently buried in the morass of voting one way for the rest of our life. >> calvin tucker is a trump ally and chair of philadelphia black republican counsel. he believes it ranked above anything the former president has had. >> you may misinterpret something someone says or you may -- i'm not voting for your attitude. i work for people that have not been as favorable to my -- to me as an individual. but at the end of the day, i can get a check and feed my family. >> did anyone speak to other issues than the economy? or was

the economy front and center? >> it was really front and center but i asked one of them about the insurrection and , to him he said, it wasn't really an issue. i asked why. he said trump didn't explicitly call for violence, despite the violence we did see from his supporters who were there to see him. while those two voices and profiles weren't representative of the majority of black voters here in philadelphia or pennsylvania or black women more than 95% of black women supported vice president harris. it did give insight to some of what we saw from some black men this election cycle who as we see from some of the polling numbers this time, seem to up their support for another president-elect, trump. >> van jones , special adviser for obama and joe pinion. van, it's the numbers in pennsylvania in particular versus nationwide. .

>> all those people are so lots. i'm joking. that's the problem. for too long democrats are trying to bully and shame people into voting for a party that we forgot , people are sitting on a white hot stove with not enough money in their pocket , a lot of problems that have not been resolved and people got tired. and one of the things the party is going to have to do is listen more and lecture less when it comes to african-american men. >> look, i think we talked about it outside the old founding ethos of the black caucus. black people have no permanent friends and enemies, only interest. the reality is, for the better part of the last 50 years, black people have made a permanent brand of the democratic party. finally, there are black men who realize the stove got too hot. the

outcomes they were looking for had not been achieved and when they decided to even raise their hand and say we are considering going another way, they were not greeted with concern , they were greeted with disdain. they were called everything but a child of god in the name of trying to preserve these values that the democrats claimed they want to uphold. yes, those numbers show two things. one the frustration of black men with failing schools, dealing with issues of the criminal justice system, but they also show the republican party, it turns out when you spend the money in pursuit of the black vote, in a diligent and earnest way, as he is on pennsylvania and wisconsin, that needle does move because as you saw, it moved a lot more in pennsylvania and wisconsin than it did nationally because that's where the money went. >> to the republican party spent a lot of money reaching out? >> absolutely. we woke up in a body bag. the online outreach to african-american men that targeted outreach, you begin to

see it in people's conversation. you started hearing african-american men who aren't even political saying the same thing because the republican party was spending money on ads on the streaming services. and the kamala harris campaign wound up spending a bunch of money on tv ads. the tv ads sucked. they did not appeal to anyone but it was dial tested and it was all supposed to -- the data dummies were telling us these were great at. people are now saying america is this racist, sexist, fascist of this outcome. had some like

one of donald trump's first decision was to make his campaign cochair susie was as his new white house chief of

staff, the first woman ever to hold the powerful role. >> the newly minted chief of staff for donald trump does not enjoy the spotlight like her boss, the veteran of republican politics refers to operate behind the scenes . >> she is the steady hand and the loyal foot soldier. >> under specialties on her linkedin page, she listed creating order from chaos, a skill that came in handy while running the presidential campaign for donald trump. >> candidates matter , what they stand for matters. >> that was her in 2020 speaking to a cnn affiliate after she delivered a victory for donald trump in florida as head of his campaign operation in the state. she rarely gives interviews. she persistently ran his florida campaign in 2016 and again in 2020. >> their traditional republican voter coalition cannot elect republicans any longer. beginning to bring into the tent a larger number of hispanic voters. >> reporter: she served as the

de facto chief of staff, then led his 2024 campaign . one of her goals was to keep a close watch on you and access to the former president. she has a string of political campaign success stories. in 2010, she helped rick scott become the governor of florida and in 2018 she was tapped to save ron desantis's campaign, and he won by 32,000 votes, the closest election in state history. amid tensions, she was ousted from the inner circle of ron desantis . she went back to work on the florida reelection campaign for donald trump was dismissed at the urging of ron desantis . in 2020, donald trump brought her back. he won florida by more than three points against joe biden. >> susie wiles is the political version of mohammed ali , she does not lose, she is a relentless fighter. >> that fighting spirit was

instilled early on, growing up with two brothers and the daughter of pat summerall. >> another way to live this life, i did not have all the answers. >> reporter: in his autobiography, he shares come in 1992, during an intervention about his alcoholism and she told him that she was ashamed they shared the same last name. pat summerall got treatment after that . before agreeing to her new role in the donald trump white house, cnn learned she insisted on certain conditions, top of the list was more control over who has access to the oval office. >> she wants to make sure the president's is falling apart and do not want distractions. she is laser focused. >> what is her overall style like that may benefit the donald trump white house ? >> reporter: when i spoke with a senator he told me she has a specific demeanor. she is very

calling but a great leader. that should play well in the next donald trump white house and will set the tone. if she has any say, as expected, in the hiring of others, she will make sure they have the same dna and try to keep the chaos out of the next white house. he said that donald trump like to surround himself with winners and not likely played into this because susie wiles is a winner with a stack of campaign victories in florida and the most recent presidential election. he likes that about her. keep in mind, donald trump in his first term went through four chief of staff's. although she is anti-chaos, we will see how it plays out. >> the news continues, i hope you have a great weekend , the source with kaitlan collins starts now. i will see you on monday. i have a new report