offline harassment and abuse. >> yes. it's not a big step, we've seen, you know, in the not-too- distant past to see how online rhetoric can translate into real- life, real problems. i mean, it is dumb, stupid, and idiotic on the most basic level. but it is also dangerous. and it's pervasive, mostly on twitter, now "x. " is there any -- has elon musk said anything about it? is there any chance in you know what that elon musk will be doing anything about it? >> the company hasn't said anything about this latest surge, but i think we have to look at the changes that he's made to the platform. he has rolled back moderation in other areas. we've seen increases in other kinds of hate speech, in conspiracy theories. some of those coming from elon musk himself. and the company's harassment policy only really regulates harassment against specific individuals. so this kind of broad abuse of women doesn't even violate the company's

policies. >> awesome. claire, thank you very much for your continued reporting on this. and you can hear much more from claire on her new podcast, you should check it out. it's called "terms of service. " it's out now and also now, a new hour of "cnn news central" begins. the 34 criminal convictions against donald trump or send the president-elect to sentencing. and this morning, donald trump's new right- hand billionaire, lusk, suggesting radical changes to who controls the country's money supply. i'm john berman with kate balduan and sara sidner. this is "cnn news central. "

the list of loyalists getting spots in the administration growing. now just over 24 hours from president- elect donald trump's first trip back to washington, he is moving quickly to fill his cabinet with some of his staunchest allies. new overnight, multiple sources now saying that trump in january will nominate florida senator marco rubio as his secretary of state, which means over the span of eight years, rubio has gone from little marco to trump in 2016 now staunch ally, and soon his top diplomat. also new this morning, trump will nominate north dakota governor kristi noem as homeland security secretary. this as trump advisers further dig into his day one deportation plans. let's bring in cnn's yna treene near mar-a-lago. what more can you share about some of these latest picks that we are expecting to see?

>> sara, i think you're absolutely right. because the one common theme you're seeing through all of his picks, and what i consistently hear in my conversations close to trump and in helping with this transition process is that he wants to stack his second administration with loyalists. he wants to surround himself with people who will be yes-men. who are like- minded in their agenda and are not going to hold him back. and remember, when donald trump left office in january of 2021, he said that his biggest regret was his hiring decisions. were the people who he surrounded himself with. so he is very focused this time. this is the number one priority for him, as he's having these conversations behind me at mar-a- lago, is to make sure that he is picking people who will carry out his agenda. now, marco rubio, the expected pick for secretary of state, i do want to caution that we do not know yet if he has actually offered the senator this role. but he has made up his mind, according to our conversations with those familiar with the discussion. and you're exactly right. i mean, remember the days of little marco. however, marco rubio has

since become a very strong ally of donald trump's. they have patched things up. remember, he was on donald trump's short list to become vp. and he was always going to be in the running, ever since donald trump started to seriously think about who he wanted in his cabinet. he was always a top name under consideration for secretary of state. another name he was thinking about was rick grinnell. and we're told, though, especially yesterday, throughout his conversations about who he wanted to choose for this role, many people had called up donald trump, had spoken with him in person. and really kind of ride to pitch him on rubio. and convinced him over the course of the day that he was the right choice. and remember, they are like- minded on a lot of things, from being tough on iran to being tough on china, to their stance on funding for ukraine. they are aligned in a lot of areas. and that's what this really comes down to. now, kristi noem, the governor, she is also a very interesting pick. definitely someone that donald trump wanted to be a loyalist at the top there at dhs. and really, she'll be working very closely with stephen

miller and tom homan on the white house's immigration plans. immigration plans, i should say, the agenda is likely going to be really controlled out of the white house, more so than the department of homeland security. now, we did actually hear from lara trump, the rnc co- chair, and also his daughter-in- law, about some of the thinking behind these picks. i want you to take a listen to what she said. >> the people he's putting alongside of him are people who are going to prioritize the american people's mandate, to secure our southern border, to roll back regulations that are stifling small businesses, to re- gain our standing on the world stage, as the superpower and the leader of the free world. that's what america voted on and that is what donald trump is prioritizing. prioritizing. >> so you heard it there herself, sara. and look, i mean, lara trump is someone who was with donald trump regularly at mar-a-lago. she knows exactly what donald trump is focused on right now. and loyalty really is what this comes down to.

sara? >> yna treene, thank you so much for your reporting there from outside of mar-a-lago. kate? >> joining us right now is democratic congressman from california, john garamendi. thanks for coming in. you and congressman mike waltz who served on the armed services committee together, you happy to see him as donald trump's national security adviser? >> well, mike and i have had a very, very good working relationship for four years. when i was chairman, we worked very closely together. he was the ranking member. he then became chairman in that same pattern continued. i think he's going to be a good choice. he understands the department of defense, he understands the security issues around the world. actually, i'm pleased with him having this position. i think it's going to work out well. >> and for context, if they need to know, you're not pleased with basically anything coming from president donald trump, malek donald trump and the policies he's pushing, so that is why i

ask, and that is quite a statement. so more broadly, while the house isn't involved in the confirmation process for cabinet nominees, what do you think of a possible marco rubio as secretary of state? if you had a say, do you think you would vote to confirm him? >> well, before i leave mike waltz, he'll be a very good and strong voice on national security. what i see in these other appointments is that trump is going to control things. these are people that are going to carry out his agenda, whatever that might be. we certainly know from his campaign that it's a rather radical agenda, at least in change. so we'll -- i don't expect to see the governor or the senator really driving policy. they're going to be carrying out whatever trump wants. and what we heard from the camp, his campaign is, oh, this is going to be really, really different and in many ways,

very troublesome. >> and governor, you're talking about governor kristi noem, who's expected to be -- who is expected to be picked as dhs secretary. former congressman lee zeldin, there's a lot of members of congress we're talking about today, former congressman lee zeldin, he is going to be heading up the epa. and what we've heard from zeldin is that he's promising to pull back, quote, left- wing regulation, and focusing on unleashing economic prosperity through the agency, is how he's put it. your state, california, really became the leader of democratic opposition during trump's first term, especially when you're talking about environmental protections. i think it was filing over 120 lawsuits against the trump administration. what do you think it's going to look like this time around? is california, do you think, going to lead the charge in democratic opposition to the trump agenda? >> well, it looks to me like democratic governors around the nation are rushing to be the first to file a lawsuit. they'll have to wait until

some time in january. but the reality is that the democratic governors, newsom included, are going to fight pack, particularly on the environmental issues, california way, way out ahead on dealing with the climate crisis, moving away from petroleum, as a source of energy. it raises a very interesting situation for me. i represent all five of northern california's oil refineries. and so we're looking at some 30,000 jobs. how do we transition those refineries away from petroleum into renewable. and frankly, we're making some good progress on that. so california is going to lead. other governors, democratic governors will also be very active in pushing back not just on the environmental issues, but on a whole host of issues that affect the citizens and the constituents in each of those states. so count on a pushback on many of the policies. we've obviously seen discussion about this, on the

rounding up all of the immigrants and deportation issues. there'll be a pushback, as there was in the first trump term. but i do think that governors will also say, if there's a criminal, if there's somebody charged with a crime, deportation is appropriate. and certainly, it is. >> let me ask you, democrats elected and more broadly are really in soul searching mode right now. kind of asking, what did democrats get wrong about where voters are, seeing the result from this election. bernie sanders told cnn that democrats lost because they have abandoned working class people. and he said that voters have a reason to be angry. do you agree? >> no. i think he's absolutely wrong. if you take a look at the legislation that was passed in the first two years of the biden administration, it was legislation that was specifically designed to build the working class in america. first of all, you start with

the american rescue plan, that kept families able to survive the shutdown of the pandemic. >> the n what do you prescribe as what went wrong, congressman? >> what went wrong is we moved on to the next issue and didn't really message the importance that there was in infrastructure bill. those are all working class jobs. building the infrastructure. you take a look at the chips act, those are very, very important jobs, and they're being in actually most red states. you go beyond that. the inflation reduction act deals with the climate crisis, but once again, those are working men and women jobs in the middle and lower- income brackets. we just didn't message it. we went from one major issue, starting with the american rescue plan, all the way to the chips act and then the inflation reduction act, and never went back and told the american public, particularly the middle class, the working men and

women of america, that this was for them. and those are the jobs that are there. there were 16 million jobs created in the biden administration. many of them were for the working class in america, whether it was the lower or the middle income. and so we just didn't message it. and we were up against a gentlemen -- excuse me, an individual -- who spent eight years with his messaging. trump took the four years in his administration and then the four years of the biden administration to message a very, very negative message that actually resounded in the american public. so, we made a messaging issue, but the policies that we put forward were specifically for the working men and women and designed to address the problems of access, the problems of dealing with communities left behind. all of that was there. we just didn't message it. >> congressman john garamendi, thank you for coming

in. sara? president- elect trump is scheduled to be sentenced in two weeks for his conviction in his new york hush money case. but that might never happen. we are awaiting a decision by the judge that could come any moment. and no word on who trump will pick to be his new attorney general just yet, but worry ramping up throughout the justice department over possible retribution against people who worked on cases against donald trump. and melania trump is apparently skipping the traditional white house meeting be first lady jill biden. what sources say and why she won't be there.

all right. any moment now, we expect a decision in president- elect donald trump's criminal conviction in that hush money case here in new york. new york supreme court judge juan marchon could order a new trial or he could dismiss the case altogether. cnn's kara scannell is with us now. a jury had a verdict in this case, but there are lots of issues because of the supreme court ruling on immunity. is there any sense of where he's going in this decision? >> no, i mean, this is unprecedented. and so everyone's -- all eyes are on the judge and how will he handle this? i mean, the issue here, of course, as you said is, the supreme court decision, which said that official acts by a president cannot be used in a criminal trial. and trump's lawyers are saying that official acts came into this case, even though it was about trump's cover- up of a hush money payment to stormy daniels before the 2016 election. and those official acts included testimony from his white house aides, hope hicks and madeleine westerhouse, as well as tweets trump issued while he was president.

prosecutors say that was just a sliver of the evidence, they had a tremendous amount of evidence, overwhelming evidence, and this conviction should stand. but the judge is in this unique position, having made this decision. he has set trump's sentencing two weeks from today. we know trump's lawyers are trying to stop that from happening. that has been a key thing that we have said, that led to the sentencing being delayed twice already. so they are going to -- we were expecting them to move to postpone the sentencing, in part because this is a state case, trump is the president- elect, and state cases don't proceed against presidents. so, a real kind of unknown terrain right here. and that's why this is a big decision today, and all eyes are on this judge. >> sometimes we've used the word "unprecedented." this, again, another rung in the unprecedented ladder. thank you so much, kara scannell, appreciate it. john? all right, breaking news. one of the world's most senior religious leaders just resigned over his handling of a child abuse case.

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it brings people together in meaningful ways. ♪ ♪ all right. breaking just moments ago. the archbishop of canterbury, the most senior leader in the church of england, has resigned over his own handling of child abuse allegations within the church. he wrote, quote, it is very clear that i must take personal and institutional responsibility for the long and re- traumatizing period between 2013 and 2024. i hope that decision makes clear how seriously the church of england understands the need

for change. so lawmakers are heading back to capitol hill today for the first time since donald trump's election victory. one of the first orders of business for the senate, republicans who need to decide who their new leader is going to be. kate balduan takes it from here. >> thank you, john berman. no, i was not late to the studio at all. cnn's lauren fox has been reporting on this one for us. lauren, help save me, please! what are you hearing? you have new reporting. tell us. >> reporter: yeah, just a couple of minutes ago, i actually ran into john cornyn. he is one of the three republicans who is vying to replace mcconnell as gop leader. and i got in a couple of questions before he was ushered off, obviously, this is a really important moment for him. he's really trying to keep his cards close to the vest. but he said that he has been in regular contact with incoming president donald trump, and has spoken to him as recently as two days ago. one of the key questions had

been, how much donald trump was going to impact this race. it's a secret ballot, which means that lawmakers can all vote for whoever they want, and it will never clear who voted for who. but one thing to keep in mind is the impact that elon musk, donald trump, maga world is all having. and you've seen in the last couple of days that rick scott has gotten a surge of maga world endorsements from republican senators to popular talk show hosts. and i asked cornyn, is he worried about that surge that rick scott is getting so late in this game from maga world. he said, he is not getting into the back and forth in the press. obviously, very aware that this is an inside game for republicans. he does not want this to play out in the press, of course, just 24 hours until that race takes place. kate? >> that is great reporting, and the way he answered your question, i think, offers the exact insight and context that you need. no matter what it is, they're keeping it within senate republicans and what his real

views, because it is an inside game at this point. but an important one with big impact on what the senate does going forward. it's great to see you, lauren. thank you for that. john? >> with us now is tricia mclaughlin, the former senior adviser and director of communications for vivek ramaswamy's campaign and a former trump administration official, and christy sweatzer, a former spokesperson for al gore's presidential campaign. i want to start what name that we haven't said yet today, and that's ruben gallegos, senator- elect ruben gallegos from the state of arizona. we have projected that he will win that senate race. he's going to win the senate race, that democrat will, by 72,000 votes, despite the fact that trump winning the state of arizona right now, by 182,000 votes. i want to play a little sound from senator- elect gallegos. >> well, certainly, first for the republicans, thank you so much. honestly, like, you know, they took a chance on me. and we're not going to agree all

the time. and i'm going to always seek the input, and we're going to, you know, find middle ground where we can. >> so, christi, my question is, why is it senator- elect gallegos this morning and not president- elect kamala harris? in other words, what did he do right that other democrats did not? >> that's right. so, actually, he's not alone, of course. there are a number of states that trump won where the democratic senator was either re-elected or in his case, newly elected. where voters split their votes. and what he did and what a lot of these senators like elissa slotkin and others, tammy baldwin did, is they explicit reached out, to in this case, trump/gallego voters. they talked to them as populists, they found common ground. and i think it's interesting, right, that we have such a number of voters in these swing states. it shows that campaigns

matter. it shows that not in never case did partisanship win out. and it actually shows that there is a pathway for democrats going forward with these leaders, too, and people who have been able to show that they can appeal across the board. >> so tricia, where do you see that pathway for democrats? >> so, i think, actually, this was a case of it being the opposite. i think kamala harris very much was personality versus trump was policy. and in case, it came down to gallego being -- he really the biden/harris administration on their immigration policy. 40% of arizonians are independent. he found real opportunity with them. i think it didn't help kari lake's gubernatorial campaign in the primary, her saying that she didn't want mccain voters' votes. that turned out to be a really big problem for her. overand over again on the airwaves, people were seeing that. and they reacted. i think it's a message to republicans. even if these people with handedly win a republican primary, we've got to have people who can win generals, too, and reach out to those independent voters or

disaffected republicans. >> candidates matter. >> candidates matter. >> all right, broadly speaking, we are in a situation now, as donald trump is putting together his cabinet, of the question being, how far will he go to push his agenda? and how far will democrats go or what can they do to try to stop it or in some way shape it. to the question of, how far will he go, tricia, first to you. do you think -- i mean, what are the signs right now, based on who he's picked? stephen miller, deputy chief of staff, who will apparently play a huge role in deportations. what does that tell you? >> yeah, picking homan, who was a former ice director, picking stephen miller, that's a signal to all americans that he is very serious about mass deportations. we know from polling that 54% of americans want mass deportations. and based on the election, this is a mound for donald trump. i think that there has been a great effort to demonize stephen miller, demonize tom homan, who's less familiar to the american people.

but they're carrying out, what is the president's agenda, i think on the foreign policy front, a lot of republicans who are moderates, but also on the further right, are optimistic about marco rubio. he's been able to work with both sides. but it's been very hawkish, especially on israel. it's not a good day to be a terrorist, that's for sure. >> so kristi, when we talk about immigration, where do you see democrats deciding to push back? would it be on the entire agenda or will it just be on parts of it? >> what i would say is that joe biden showed that you can have a sensible immigration policy where border crossings are -- it's really important to remember, border crossings were lower during the biden administration than they were during the trump administration. we just didn't put forth policies like family separation that were designed to be cruel. that is what donald trump is showing, not just by endorsing a policy of mass deportations, but by making stephen miller and tom homan some of the first

people that he actually announced. it was saying, we're going to lead with fear and cruelty rather than effectiveness. so, look, i think that you can find -- democrats can find common ground with republicans in terms of policies y ies that would actually crack down on illegal border crossings. but what they're not going to do is endorse policies that are only meant to sort of, to instill fear, to say, we're going to deport legal immigrants as well as illegal immigrants, if they're part of the same family. they're not going to play into that fearmongering. the second that it sort of gets to that, i think you'll see real democratic poepgs.opposition. >> i will say, the border crossings went down only at the end of the border administration, after he implemented the executive order, after the bipartisan plan failed, because bipartisan by and large spiked it. >> right. >> i think even the september border crossings were up 12 to 15%. we saw a recent i.c.e.

reporting data that's shown in the last decade, let's be fair, in the last decade, there have been 14,000 illegal immigrants who have come into this country who have committed and have been convicted of murder. 24,000 committed and convicted of sexual assault and rape. those are people who they're going to target first. those are people who are national security threats. i want to be very clear. no one is talking about deporting legal immigrants. that is absolutely not true. >> except for tom homan, who will actually be in charge of that policy. i'm sorry, lots of people are talking about that -- >> it's unconstitutional. >> -- because of that interview he gave with "60 minutes. " >> yes, it is unconstitutional. and that's exactly what they're supporting. i want to be clear about the fact that this is both fearmongering, but also the policy that the person who's going to be in charge of these supports and has actively talked about it. >> all right. this is the discussion that will be taking place the next 60- plus days during the transition and immediately during the new administration. christy setzer and tricia,

thank you so much for being here. when president- elect trump heads to the white house to meet with president biden, melania trump won't be with him. why she's skipping the traditional tea. and president is also heading to the white house, as aid groups says that israel has failed to improve conditions in gaza by a white house deadline.

right now, russian forces are ramping up their ground offensive to try to push ukrainian troops out of russia's kersk region. russia has deployed nearly 50,000 troops whenwhen launched their counteroffense i ive a few months ago. thank you so much. i do find very interesting something that you wrote in or were asked about in an article, where you talked about the difference between a biden/harris approach to ukraine and what you think trump will bring. and you said, we saw the u.s. being slow, reactive, not willing to give ukraine the weapons needed, not willing to give them the authorization to use those weapons, an excessively cautious approach, one that worried too much about escalation and not really

one designed to help ukraine win. what i think we have with trump now is the opportunity to compete, the opportunity to see whether we can get a stronger western position in support of ukraine that might actually be decisive. why do you think that? >> well, i think that there's a couple of things. first off on the biden side, we saw that pattern over years, really, of first saying "no" to weapons systems, like stingers or mar s or f-16s, only later to say "yes," but much later than was necessary. we had that famed counteroffensive that went nowhere, because we were so slow on getting them things prior to that. we are still that we are not allowing them to fire the weapons we gave them long- range into russia, even though russia is firing from those distant locations to attack ukraine. the ukrainians are very, very frustrated with this.

with trump, what he has said is that he wants to end the war. he wants there to be peace and a fair peace. those are pretty much the only quotes that he has said, other than, of course, to have said that this would have never have happened if he was president, which is a poke at what he sees as weakness in the biden administration. now, in order to end the war, you have to convince putin to stop. the only reason there is a war is that he's attacked ukraine and he keeps attacking. and the only thing that will cause putin to stop is the clarity in putin's mind that there will be enough force ahead of him and it will take long enough and it will be so costly for russia that he needs to stop. and that's what we have to try to put together. a way of stopping putin, because he concludes that it's too costly, and then to try to turn that peace into a permanent peace, which i would say ideally is through nato membership for ukraine. >> i want to ask you about some of the things that donald trump has said. he has blamed the ukrainian president volodymyr

zelenskyy for helping start his nation's war with russia, which was started my russia, that invaded ukraine. and he's complained a lot about the money of going to ukraine and wants to know what ukraine is doing for the u.s. and just recently this week, his son, don jr. , reposted a meme ing zelenskyy, saying, you're 38 days from losing your allowance. doesn't this give us a clue about what to expect? >> i don't know that we know exactly what that means. when i look at that, i think of it as taxpayer money, that is u.s. assistance going to ukraine, which is what we've done for the past few years, as opposed to letting ukraine borrow the funds that they need and buy u.s. weaponry and use that to defend themselves, which is what we did for the uk during world war ii, the so- called lend/lease program. we had it on the books for two years in '22 and '23, and i think that would make

sense. that's a way to make sure it's not taxpayer money, but also a way to make sure that ukraine is not going to lose. and put enough capability on the table that putin would recognize that. >> kurt volcker, thank you so much for talking through those comments with me. i appreciate your time this morning. and now over to you, with kate. >> thank you very much. we also have some breaking news coming in. the supreme court has just rejected a request by donald trump's former white house chief of staff, mark meadows. this has to do with his ongoing effort to get his criminal case in georgia moved out of state court into federal court. cnn's paula reid has much more for us, as this is just coming in. paula, what are you learning? >> this is interesting. here the supreme court has rejected meadows' request to try to move his state- level criminal case in georgia to federal court, where he had hoped to make some arguments related to immunity, to try to insulate himself from any criminal consequences. now, the supreme court is rejecting this, so meadows' case will go back to georgia.

last year, he was charged on racketeering and other charges, tied to phone calls and meetings he had with president- elect trump, in trump's alleged efforts to subvert the 2020 election. of course, trump and 18 of his associates were charged in this sprawling rico case brought by district attorney fani willis. but the case is currently sort of in limbo as the judge overseeing this case contemplates whether fannie willis should be disqualified because of her improper relationship with the special prosecutor who brought this case, nathan wade. the judge will hear that case, the question of whether fani willis should be disqualified, on december 5th. and even if she is disqualified, it doesn't mean the case goes away, but it raises more questions about the viability of this prosecution, when it comes to trump's co-defendants. but when we're talking specifically about the president- elect, it is not expected that he will face trial in georgia, if this case survives while he is a sitting

president. it is really the only one of his cases that will survive. but it's unclear if he'll ever face trial in georgia. so mark meadows, as of now, his case is going back to georgia, and we'll wait to see what the judge decides. whether fani willis will continue to oversee this case or if she'll be disqualified. and the future of this case, for all of these defendants, really, the ones who have not already entered pleas, kate, still very uncertain. >> absolutely. but this is one step and one answer, at least, in this long process. it's good to see you, paula. thank you so much. john? all right. this morning, a white house snub. why melania trump, first lady-- lady- lady- elect, although we don't actually call it that, is turning down an invitation to the white house from dr. jill biden.

it's a tradition that presidential historians say is healthy for democracy. the traditional of the outgoing president to invite the incoming president to meet at the white house. and also a similar meet and greet between first ladies. this year, that tradition might be broken. melania trump is expected to turn down the white house invite from jill biden. those sources saying that mrs. trump has a scheduling conflict related to her newly released memoir. one source, though, adding that the decision has not yet been finalized. joining me right now is kate bennett. our former cnn white house correspondent. also the author of "free melania: the unauthorized biography. " it's great to see you, kate. let's start with this. >> good to see you, too.

>> we don't know what is in melania trump's mind, or anyone's mind, of course. and what she's thinking in terms of going back to the white house. but when sources cite, after all of the reporting that you have done about her, which is more than really anyone, when sources say that there's a ing conflict related to her memoir that's keeping her from accepting this invite, what do you think? >> i mean, i think that's code for, no, thank you, a polite decline. you know, her memoir came out a few weeks ago. it's not as though she's on a book tour. melania trump and jill biden are very different women. and we all know how contentious this campaign was. but i do think, having covered melania, that she is strictly you'd to adhere to protocol. that was sort of her thing was tradition and sort of respecting the values of the role and all of its traditional aspects. it's fairly surprising that this is not a meeting she wants to do or is jumping at. and i covered jill biden too for a couple of years. i'm sure this was not an

easy invitation for her to extend. but as you said, this is tradition. now, typically, it's a former first lady showing the incoming first lady the ropes, and here's the east wing, and here's how the staff works, et cetera. and of course, melania trump has already done that and been there. there's not that need for it, if you will. but it is a sign to the rest of the country that things are healed, our democracy is moving forward. you know, if these two women can do it, so can anyone. so i think it's in really bad form if she doesn't show up to this invitation. >> and i think you're hitting on why this is getting so much focus. because she doesn't need a tour of the white house, but especially when we're talking about donald trump heading back to the white house, after how donald trump acted when he lost the election in 2020, and he was leaving the white house, which was breaking with all sorts of tradition. there is a hyperfocus on the

idea of the peaceful transfer of power, and ways you can show that. and you know, melania trump and those around her must be aware of that. is she sending a message here? >> yeah, i mean, i think, for sure. i mean, i think she's a lot more like her husband than people think, right? they think she's sort of reluctant or tapping sos on the window pane. but really, she's very aligned with him, and has a long memory, like jill biden, for those who have harmed him or said bad things about him. and i think this is her way of saying, sorry, this didn't turn out well, you don't -- you and i just don't become fast friends. at the same time, she should remember. michelle obama didn't have the greatest relationship with the trumps. she invited melania trump to the white house. melania went, they had their tea. last time, last election, melania trump didn't invite jill biden, because her husband was still contesting the actual presidential election, so she couldn't very well go around him and say, come on over and

see the east wing. but again, i think this is more melania than melania, you know, than most people would think. this is her personality. she is very protective of her husband. she wants to make sure that she's sending a message. unfortunately, what i think the message is, is that you know, when we should be healing and moving forward, this one is a little bit harsh not to go to a tea in the east wing. i think that's a little bit -- >> and let's talk about -- she's heading back to the east wing. she needs to be bringing in staff once again. and one thing we have seen in the four years since they have left is, some of her closest aides have really -- i mean, broken ranks is even the light way of saying it. stephanie grisham spoke at the dnc this summer. what are you saying about her process of who she could choose to come back to the east wing with her? >> well, she's had a couple of long- term staff members who went with her and followed her to palm beach, but like most

first ladies, she didn't establish a robust post-white house office of melania trump with continued policies and active full staff. she does have to staff up again. she has apparently been working with john rogers, who's an executive at gulf oldman sachs, who was an adviser during her first term, to help sort of vet some folks and think about what a second east wing term looks like for her. this is somebody who knows washington, who's involved with the white house historical association, which of course melania trump was very involved in, as she refurbished lots of items in the hite house during her time there. i think she'll have to figure out, who does she want around her? and this is a woman, as you mentioned stephanie grisham, is a little bit wary about trusting staffers, always kept a very close small circle because of that very reason. so it will be interesting to see who goes back inside the white house for her second go inside the east wing. >> for sure. it is great to see you, kate. thanks so much for being here. >> great to see you,

too. >> we should invite kate for tea. right? >> i mean, kate bennett for everything is a "yes. " >> never reject an invitation for tea. >> no. this morning, world leaders getting creative in preparation for the new trump administration. not necessarily briefing books or policy refreshers, south korea's president is taking up golf after an eight- year hiatus. why? well, because donald trump, he likes golf. trump visited more courses than any recent president during his first term in office. and you let him win. you don't just take up golf -- >> you don't need to take it up, just be bad at it and you're good. >> thank you for joining us. this is "cnn news central. " i'm sara sidner with john berman and kate balduan. ""cnn newsroom"" up next.