you are in the cnn news room. as the trump white house begins to take shape, a litany of legal questions top the agenda. what will the legal standing be? will jack smith resign or be fired? and what will happen to the cases against trump in new york and fulton county, georgia. will he tried to pardon january 6 convicts? and who will trump pick as his top cop? whoever is

nominated, do they have a responsibility to respect the traditional boundaries of the justice department? for all of this we go to jim schultz. thank you for being here. >> glad to be on. >> a lot of questions around doj, a lot of legal questions. we are waiting to see who he will appoint as attorney general. what do you think trump is looking for when he is looking for a pick in attorney general which he has indicated is his most important choice? >> you have already seen a couple names floating out there. eric smith, the senator from missouri and former attorney general, and you have heard mike lee, the senator from utah, he clerk for the supreme court justice alito and was general counsel to the governor. he was a former assistant united states attorney. and ken paxton, the

attorney general from texas who certainly, you know, advanced cases against democratic policies and against the biden administration and democratic administrations. these are all people that are serious lawyers, and folks that are under consideration and have real legal chops. they will not take the job lightly and they will not engage in the law-warfare that is going to take place. in the last administration not a single political enemy was prosecuted. the biden demonstration cannot say the same thing. >> you're saying despite his promises on the campaign trail, you don't think that is actually going to happen? >> no, you're going to be put in the hands of a real lawyer that is going to be charged there. and is going to make decisions and i believe they will clean out the justice department. right? i think

there will be a wholesale cleanout of the justice department, but i don't think you will see political prosecutions from the folks that you see that are being considered for those positions, not a chance. >> he has indicated that he does want a loyalist in that position. there has been a real effort by the doj to operate independently from the administration, to kind of the you know, independent in terms of its regard for the law and what it chooses to do. you see that changing? and this attorney general working more hand in hand with the president and the white house? >> reporter: is anyone going to say eric coelho ¿ eric holder was not a loyalist to obama ? that john kelly's brother, who is the attorney general , that was the attorney general, that robert kennedy, the brother of john f. kennedy was john f. kennedy's attorney general. there is a history of having loyalists in that position .2

say he wants a loyalist, there is nothing wrong with that. and the fact that merrick garland continued on with the hunter biden case that started long before that is a testament to his department of justice, but that does not mean he is not a loyalist, that means he followed the rule of law in that instance. >> i think that is what people are kind of trying to make -- that i think people want to focus on, and it sounds like you have confidence in these names, these people who are being floated as potentially being attorney general, that they will follow the law and that you don't expect to see kind of widespread prosecution of political enemies. >> that is absolutely right. no doubt about it. any of the folks on that list are real lawyers and serious people. >> i want to ask with regards to trumps legal standing, where do you see the current cases in new york, fulton county? how do you see that playing out as we move towards his inauguration. >> let's talk about jack smith. so jack smith hit a big

bump when judge cannon rightfully dismissed the case because she made -- the argument was made, rightfully so, that jack smith was not appropriately appointed to that position and did not have the powers to conduct that investigation and that prosecution because jack smith was never confirmed by the u.s. senate. he had all the powers of a presidentially confirmed attorney yet was appointed to a position never having been confirmed by the senate and having all of those powers, so she saw it that way, dismissed the case out of hand. the florida case is on appeal and then you move on to the january 6 case, that one took a big hit by the supreme court in terms of the immunity decision, and now you're at the point where you have donald trump, the next president elect , you know, going into the office in january, and those cases will be halted regardless. and i think jack smith is smart and i

think you will be putting a memo together that will explain why it would be inappropriate to continue on with these cases. i think they go away without a doubt, the question is, how much information will become public as it relates to the memo? how will they make that information public? a lot of it is subject to grand jury secrecy. >> i was just going to say, yeah. i just wanted to like ask you too, with fulton county, how might that be different than the federal cases? >> so those cases, obviously -- i believe those cases will be stayed to the extent that those cases also have their problems. those cases are up on appeal. the immunity doctrine that was set forth by the supreme court in that case puts a huge hole in both the new york case and the fulton county case, and look -- you know, we don't have to go through all the

problems of the fulton county case and the conflict of interest issues with willis and the person she appointed to help prosecute the case. i think that was on thin ice to begin with. i don't think that is going anywhere, but i think it will be stayed as a result of him being president and might be dismissed before he even gets in their by way of the appellate courts in georgia. let's go to the new york cases, so same thing. a lot of the evidence that went into that new york case certainly is caught up in this immunity case that was decided by the supreme court. i don't see any appellate court judge turning around and saying -- i think they will say , you need a new trial on this. a lot of that evidence gets thrown out. when it gets thrown out on a case like that the case has to be remanded for new trial and there is no way they will proceed forward. that case will

be stayed as well because he is a sitting president. in short, all these cases are going nowhere. >> what you think about -- again, this is something that former president trump himself has said. he has said he is interested in pardoning january 6 convicts. you think that will happen? >> i don't know whether it will happen or not. there is a doj processing the attorney general will be involved in that. i don't think donald trump will wave a magic wand. i think that is a decision that will be made through the process where he goes through doj. i'm sure the oval office will be involved in it and they will make judgments as to what categories they might consider pardoning early on. it might be the folks just charged and convicted with trespass. i don't think there is any chance that they are going to pardon anyone who committed violent crimes that they and pled guilty to it or were convicted of it and are now in jail as a result of committing violent crimes. >> i guess what i'm hearing is

we are having this conversation, is that you really expect a more measured way of going about all of these campaign promises. you do not expect extreme versions of that . >> look, the biggest campaign promises dealt with the economy and immigration, right? and also the foreign policy as it relates to everything going on with israel and overseas. we already saw that qatar kick hamas out of its country already and he has only been elected for not even a week yet. so the issues that are front and center will be the real issues that he ran on, not just the campaign rhetoric, but the real issues, which will be economy and immigration on day one. >> thank you for your time, we appreciate it. still to come, republicans want control of the senate. we still do not have final results for the house races yet. plus, democrats playing a better blame game. nancy pelosi says

biden's late dropout was a drag on harris and bernie sanders is blaming the whole party, and later, the biden white house says it will allow american military contractors into ukraine. how that changes or how that could change its fight to push back against russia's invasion.

tonight, the race for the white house is over, but the battle to control congress is underway. republicans have secured the senate , but the house is up for grabs as the votes are counted. democrats have 200 for seats and republicans have 213. the magic number there, 218. you can see there are six pickups and democrats with five. there are 18 seats remaining. republicans now just five seats away from a unified government. but democrats still have a chance with the majority of the remaining races in california. taking a look at the senate, republicans will have at least a 52 seat majority with the vote counting still underway in two swing state races. in arizona they are neck and neck with more than 80% of the votes counted and in pennsylvania dave mccormick holds a slim lead over the democratic incumbent, bob casey. he is not yet conceded with 100,000 votes

still being counted. that sets the stage for us to now bring in our senior political commentator. it is good to see both of you. >> that is what you say. >> scott is happy, it is good to see scott, it is not good to see me. >> scott, i want to start with you, we kind of laid out what is at stake with the balance of power. we know they have a republican senate and we are waiting to hear about the house. if republicans take both chambers it is going to be much easier for the trump administration to enact its agenda. as van shakes his head yes. what you make of this and how prepared -- the thing i keep hearing from people close to trump is that he is ready for this more than 2016, they are more organized. would you agree with that? >> yes, i would agree with that. into start with the way the transition is unfolding, the pick of susie wiles was

highly organized and that tells me they are anxious to not waste any time at all , and if she brings the same kind of discipline from the campaign over to the white house, what does that mean? it means you will hire good people faster and you will get the government organized faster and you will have a working relationship with capitol hill that allows you to get your agenda moving faster. so if it turns out that trump and the republicans to control both the house and the senate, you have like a couple of years to get going, and you really want to do it as fast as you can. whether that is extending the 2017 tax cuts, working on the border, any of the things that you ran on, you want to hit the ground running, and federal judges, whatever vacancies come up, there is a lot of stuff to do. when you have everything in alignment , you want to be as organized as you can to use the alignment to your advantage. and that is

okay, because that is what the american people ask for. it was an overwhelming victory for trump and he and the republicans deserve every chance to execute on the program they laid out for the people in this election. >> can somebody cut this dudes microphone? i am miserable enough as it is. >> why? what you want me to say? >> we will cut your taxes too, it will be fine. >> this is terrible, nobody thought -- nobody thought we would have undivided government. we thought if trump snuck in there we would at least have hakeem jeffries standing in the way and he may not even get there. this is just a horrible weekend and i'm here with scott jennings and he is happy i am miserable. what you have for me? it might make me burst into tears, this is horrible. >> we do not want anyone crying on this show, but i do wonder, from your perspective, what are the democrats -- you are right, they thought that maybe hakeem jeffries would be in there, and it is not trending in that direction. if you are the democrats, what are you going to do for the next two years?

>> therapy. we are all going to therapy. why are we here? if you are a democrat, all we can say is, we hope that she decides to take a vacation and they hire terrible people to make some mistakes to give us a chance. they have the supreme court, they have the electoral college, the house, they probably have the senate and the popular vote, and we are sitting here with a dunce cap on. last week we thought we were the smartest people in the world and we thought donald trump was an idiot and it turns out they were smarter than us and we don't have anything to say. i could pretend i know something, here's what i know, everybody i know is miserable, everybody is on these calls and they don't have any good ideas and it will take a while to figure this out. >> it is fair to say then that democrats are in the wilderness? and they want therapy right now? >> yes. hey, listen, i'm not good at coming here and faking and pretending, no, we got wept. and we did not understand

that -- we ran a campaign that would have been great in 1996. we had tv ads and doorknocking and these guys built and online infrastructure with the joe rogan's and everything else. we thought rush limbaugh gave us trouble in the 90s or fox news gave us trouble , they billed 2000 fox news's and 2000 rush limbaugh's throughout the internet and we did not even know they were doing it, and we've got egg on our face and we have a big job to look at ourselves in the mirror and figure out how we got beat this bad. >> scott, put another hat on for a second. if you're going to talk to democrats from your perspective , and go easy, but what would you pick out and advise them with where it went wrong? >> i think the democratic party in the eyes of working-class voters and in the eyes of a lot

of men who overwhelmingly turned out for trump in this election view the democratic party as the professional fainting society. we are offended by everything and we don't have our eye on the border or the economy. what we have our eye on is running around scolding everyone and being offended by everyone. that is no way to run a political party and then be surprised when average everyday working people turn out against you. if i was the democrats, it is time for soul-searching. i feel for brother van, a little. the republicans have been there too. but the reality is, you have to ask yourself a couple questions, who are we? and who do we stand for? what we represent? what are our actual values? i think if they answer them honestly, they would find out that the only people they really stand for are very wealthy people who are not as crushed by inflation, people who have college degrees who live in and around college campuses and in urban areas and that is pretty much it. that is

what they have been reduced to two. >> that is not true, listen. i think that republicans have done a brilliant job of framing us that way and i think we have helped them a lot because a lot of stuff that we say does fall into the pity party cranberries -- crybaby society stuff, but the tragedy to me is that joe biden and kamala harris did, it really was responding to working-class needs. a lot of the stuff in the inflation reduction act was trying to help ordinary people. they ran on a campaign to try to get $6000 to everyone having a new baby and $25,000 for people who want a house and to help small businesses. we did not do a good job of talking about it and the crybabies took up all the airspace and then they built a machine. don't forget, the republicans built a machine online to magnify our mistakes and mask their failures and we ran a bunch of crappy ads that everybody hated and spent $1

billion doing it. there is a war there that is good, but we have dropped the ball in the parking lot. we thought we were on the football field, we were not even on the football field, we were in the parking lot and we got to look in the mirror. >> i want you guys to stay with me. i want to talk about what nancy pelosi is saying about how president biden should have gotten out of the race earlier. >> i might not be here.

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.

one of the most powerful members of the democratic party is blaming president biden for the election loss of kamala harris. they said democrats may

have had a better shot if the president had stepped aside sooner. we're back with our panel. thanks for sticking around. van, especially you. i do want to know, i'm not sure how good it is for anybody looking back at this point, but i wonder what you make of the former house speaker's comments. >> i listened to the whole interview and she was doing everything she could to get out of answering the question. eventually you have to give an opinion and i don't think her opinion is wrong in hindsight. don't forget now, joe biden was doing better than he is now in after the midterm elections when he had to make the decision he was just coming off of an incredibly successful legislative session and we have done really well in the midterms and i think he started feeling like everybody keeps telling me i can't do this or that and i am winning and he just went a bridge too far. it don't think anybody can say they are glad he stayed in. so

i think people think she went on their to go after joe biden. she did not. she had to give an answer. >> yeah, exactly. you think biden was a key factor in trump's victory? >> of course. you know, he has had an under 40% approval rating since 2021. yes, democrats did better in the 2022 midterm, but i think it was in spite of biden, honestly and they did win the national popular vote. people keep forgetting that. we did have some senate races and i think they totally over read what happened in the mid term. but what i find troubling is that all these democrats who are now looking back on biden, he should not have run, these are the same people who are all too happy to go on television every day and tell us that joe biden was sharp as a tack and he was up and everything and we now know there is a huge amount of evidence that he wasn't, that

he really was diminished and not up to the job, and yet they were pushing that campaign forward anyway. they finally dumped him after the debate when they cannot hide it anymore. the reckoning is, when did everybody know he was diminished and why did they live for so long? and will we get a full accounting? i don't think democrats have anyone to blame but themselves. he will go down as a pretty terrible president, i believe, and on top of that, if you are a democrat and you think about how he ran his campaign the first time, i am running to restore the soul of the nation to rid us of trump and today trump is stronger and more popular and his agenda is ascendant in our politics, a complete and total political failure. >> that last part of what scott just said is true, i mean trump did win and despite january 6, despite all the stuff. >> did you think i did not hear what scott was saying? yes. what do you want me to do? can

i leave? listen -- >> help us understand, van. >> what you want me to do? >> we are going to have to charge him 500 bucks per hour. we have to get a couch in here for him. >> it is reverse therapy, it is not making me feel any better. >> look, there were some people, and i have to say our colleague, david axelrod got beat up and beat up because he kept saying this is not going to work and i'm concerned about his age and i mean he got beat up worse than i have ever seen a democrat get beat up. there were people who had the courage, but not enough of them. and scott jennings is right, there was something going on, and it was not going on in 2021 or 2022 but by the debate there was clearly something off about joe biden. he gave me opportunity when nobody else did, but there is a reality here. now look, it is

important to look back and learn these lessons. this is not a blame game. this is the part of the grieving process and also the reassessment process that any mature party should go through. it just hurts because this time last weekend we thought we were going to run this dude off the world stage and now we have to deal with him and all his friends and family members and everybody else on the stage and we are crying in our beer. it is a tough weekend now, but scott is not wrong. but i think that where scott is underestimating joe biden, i think history will be kinder to joe biden as the years go by. i think he did some things that were very important. trump talked about infrastructure and joe biden got it done. he had a real problem with our technology infrastructure being off short and with the chips act he brought some of that stuff back home and he did

stuff we can all be proud of as americans. as the years go by those things will shine through but right now people are looking at all of us and saying what the heck did you all do? i have a dunce cap on myself because i underestimated donald trump and his machine. >> i will say , republicans are thankful for biden and previously obama. it was obama that gave us trump the first time and joe biden that made trump stronger than ever. we just want to say thank you to obama and biden. >> can i leave? >> we are going to have american patriotism and economic opportunity and it goes right back to obama, so thank you, guys. >> you're going to overreach and we are going to get you, but right now it sure hurts. >> i want to ask, president biden and former president trump are going to meet on wednesday, which is kind of you know, a norm when we have a transition of power. what do you expect to see from that? >> i'm sure it will be like the last time they met when trump brought him over and sat

him down, wait a minute -- this is actually not a norm, it is a norm that was blown out of the water when -- the last time trump was in office, he refused to even honor the man, and so it does show i think something important, that joe biden is not refusing to let the guy come in and refusing to speak with him. and kamala harris is not organizing an insurrection and nobody is going around saying the election was stolen. we have a mature party that respects democracy and i hope the republican party will become a mature party that respects democracy even when they lose. they respected when they win under donald trump. i hope that this is the end of that kind of nonsense and that people will follow joe biden's example in defeat and not donald trump's. >> thank you, both of you. we really do appreciate it.

>> even when it was painful. >> you need a massage and a cucumber water, buddy. >> and a key. >> all right guys, have a good saturday night. we will be right back.

the biden administration

has given the go-ahead for american military contractors to deploy into ukraine. this allows the pentagon to allow contracts to u.s. companies to operate their for the first time since the invasion. >> reporter: the administration has lifted its de facto ban on american military contractors working inside ukraine. that is a major decision. this had been under consideration for several months. we reported back in june that the pentagon was moving towards doing this along with the biden administration but then that process halted until just before the election when the biden administration as a whole decided to lift that the fact band, which would allow u.s. contractors to work specifically inside ukraine. why is this so important? because until now military weapons and advanced systems like the f-16s recently operating there and patriot systems, if they were damaged they would have to come out of ukraine in a difficult, lengthy and costly process to fix those and repair them. now they will

have u.s. contractors, or be able to have contractors inside ukraine handling the fixing of those systems, meaning they will get back into the war as quickly as possible, and that is good ¿ great news for ukraine. it may be temporary because it depends on how the future administration of donald trump decides to handle this. they could stop this altogether, or pursue a different policy completely as they try, as they have said, to end the war in ukraine. it will allow u.s. contractors to fix complex systems and get them back into the fight faster. that is something ukraine has been looking to do for quite some time. donald trump has made it clear he wants the war in ukraine to come to an immediate end, claiming he could end the war in 24 hours, suggesting the u.s. could pressure kyiv into an uneasy truce with russia. we

have the former majority staff director for the council official. thanks much for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> let's start first with ukraine and what trump has said about that. we know he has been critical of aid for ukraine and he wants to see this work come to an end. now that he has been elected, what impact do you foresee his presidency having on that war? >> i don't know that it is possible to argue that trump will continue the path of the past, which has been $60 billion in assistance, economic and military assistance. but i do think that trump knows that he will have to try to set the conditions for a cease-fire or some sort of resolution, maybe a temporary resolution to this. i think you will do it in two

different ways. he will tell the russians that he will, in a sense, give the ukrainians more weapons if they do not cooperate, and i think he is more or less doing the same with ukraine already. he is the art of the deal president. he wants to use his rhetoric to backup the leverage to try to get them to stop shooting at each other. so i don't know that this is a likely outcome in the short to medium-term, but it is something he will go for almost immediately. >> and to that end, ukrainian president zelenskyy called trump to congratulate him. elon musk was on that call, although they say no policy was discussed. but you cannot ignore the fact that elon musk in his relationship with putin, his relationship with star link, these things are all interconnected. what kind of a

role do you see him playing in whatever trump to mentally does when it comes to the ukraine war? >> here is what i hope happens. i hope that president zelenskyy was able to put it to elon musk directly, that they need to make sure that the star link terminals are not accidentally benefiting the russian military machine. this is something the ukrainians have insisted over and over is happening. i don't think the space x agrees with that, by the way, from what i have gathered, but i hope it was an opportunity for them to be able to say beware of unintended consequences of your technology. we are in a dogfight with the russians and you need to be careful about either hijacked signals or actual terminals that have gotten into the hands of the russian military. >> and zelenskyy says also there have been deadly clashes with north aryan troops. we

know as many as 11,000 have deployed to fight for russia from north korea. trump has repeatedly praised and highlighted his friendships with vladimir putin and the north korean leader. how do you think that could impact the war, and the overall relationship between all of these parties? >> well, to me, this is the most vivid illustration of what a lot of experts have been discussing over the last few years, which is the axis of a people, the russians, the ukrainians, the iranians and the north koreans working together. i do not necessarily think it is a hard-core alliance yet, but to send troops to another country to fight a european ally of the united states and of nato is a huge significant event and i hope that makes president trump conclude that these guys are not working and our best interest and i need to begin to

figure out what my policy is towards russia, and even towards china to induce china to weigh in with the north koreans to say back off. this is how bigger wars get started when other allies of our enemies start to get involved. so i think this has got to go and rocket to the top of the national security agenda for biden as he prepares to leave office but certainly for trump as he prepares for january 20. >> we will see how that all unfolds. thank you for your time. we appreciate it. when we come back authorities are working to find who sent racist text messages to black americans nationwide after the election.

we now know the fcc is joining the fbi to investigate racist text messages sent to people across the country including children. >> your hours are 6:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. he will be a full-time cotton picker . sounds good. >> some say the artificial intelligence block the text before being sent. they worry about the ethics and legality.

we are following the story. raffaella, people are receiving these messages and they say they don't believe the timing is a coincidence. >> many people are wondering why it is happening now the week after the election. and the messages appear to have been sent using mobile service providers. one of these providers told cnn friday the company believes this is a widespread cord needed attack . the hate filled text messages have been reported in 20 states from new york to california and the district of columbia. the students from at least three historically black colleges and universities have reported receiving messages and according to nevada's attorney general, the texts appear to be robo text messages. one of the biggest questions is, how is it possible to do something like this anonymously? the luisi -- louisiana attorney general said whether this is a single person or a group, they are using

anonymizing software to obscure their location, which makes it very difficult to is cause for great concern for those receiving the messages as well as parents and loved ones. >> it is truly disgusting and whoever is sending it out is vile. no one should think to send or receive that message. it make -- made me sick to my stomach. >> we do talk about politics. it is not something i hide from him because he is going to be a black man in america. i make sure that he understands what the landscape of his adulthood could look like. the fact it happened after election day, it really speaks to what i think is going on here. >> the naacp denounced the messages saying they represent an alarming increase in apartment rhetoric from racist groups across the country who now feel emboldened to spread hate and still the flames of

fear that many of us are feeling after tuesday's election results. we have also heard from trump's campaign. a spokesperson told cnn that trims presidential campaign has absolutely nothing to do with these text messages. cnn has learned that another text messaging service was apparently able to stop a new user from sending racist text messages. they say it was thanks to artificial intelligence that they immediately flagged the message and prevented it from being sent until they were able to conduct an internal review. the company says that they then block the message and banned the user from the platform and shared the information with not only local law enforcement but also with the fbi. when we come back, president-elect trump is already making history by tapping susie wiles as the first ever woman to act as white house chief of staff. but

first tonight, over the next three weeks more voting, this time it is for your favorite cnn hero of the year. one of them is the venezuelan violinist . when he went to sweden in 2015 he saw large crowds of refugees and he wanted to help, but now he gives them a chance to learn an instrument and connect with others. the class is open for anyone who wants to learn an instrument. especially those arriving to sweden. and it is an orchestra where the main language is music. we have more than 300 people , kids, parents, youth , more than 20 language and 25 nationalities and we all need to learn from each other.

this orchestra offers more than just notes. it offer something for your soul. music connects us. it is a dream come true. >> and you can vote for ron davis or any of your top five heroes at cnn heroes.com. you get 10 votes every day to choose the heroes who inspire you the most. we will be right back.