tonight, reminder of a long-standing american tradition, president biden, who said he first decided to run for president because of donald trump, hosting his predecessor and successor in the oval office as a sign of the peaceful transition of power between admonitions. we are told the meeting lasted about two hours and that trump had detailed questions about domestic and foreign issues. but, just as a reminder, this meeting did not happen when biden was coming into office in 2020, and that is because trump insisted that he won the election, and he refused to hold it. thank you very much for watching newsnight. laura court laura coates life starts right now. what occurred to me tonight, we may be seeing the cabinet edition of donald trump

we've. starts off with traditional pics, people follow along and all of a sudden is a former veteran and fox news host for dod and the squinting begins. then we get to the attorney general and this one has members of his own party struggling to follow along. republican congressman matt gaetz tapped as his next attorney general. process that. we know that trump has promised retribution, hasn't he, and this pic certainly shows that he wants to deliver some aspect of it. gates is an maga loyalist through and through and he is no friend of the department he has been tapped to run the doj if you remember instigated him for three years over alleged sex crimes. it openly chose not to pursue charges against him , but that did not save him from an ethics probe in congress. that was ongoing until today , ending

when matt gaetz resigned to prepare for his ag confirmation battle, and it likely will be a battle, even though he has denied any wrongdoing on that front. it came as surprise to many, one which many could not suppress. doj, the job is intense. at the u.s. attorney's office in dc where i was a prosecutor, absolute disbelief. in the room were has to publicans are meeting for their leadership elections, there was an audible gasp. in the halls of the capitol, republic and senators totally blindsided. susan collins said she was shocked. here's the thing, the blindsided senators might want to revisit this once the initial shock wears off . because how big of a surprise is this, really. i mean, the

trump rubric, is he 100% loyal? check. does he hate the doj? check. is he good on tv? trump would say, check. does he sound like donald trump? check. see for yourself. >> we try to convince ourselves that the department of justice is different. that they are somehow exempt from the rules of washington saying help my friends and punish my enemies. they are not. they are probably the worst. january 6th, last year. was not an insurrection. no one has been charged with insurrection. no one has been charged with treason. but they may very well have been a fed insurrection. >> i think the fbi has morphed into a political opposition research organization and a political activism organization more than a law enforcement organization. i believe the donald trump won the 2020 election. >> our america is not for the

illegal aliens who leave our nation forward, dirtier, and less safe. they have made a mockery of our laws , and illegal aliens have destroyed some of the most critical monarch butterfly habitat in the world. these people are odious on the inside and out. 5'2" 350 pounds, and this is give me my abortions are they will march in protest and i'm thinking, march? you look like you have ankles weaker than the legal reasoning behind roe versus wade. >> feel free to pause, rewind and play that back again several times to really understand the weight of this nomination. is a fraction of what might, but his senate confirmation hearing. the new senate majority leader has promised the senate will that all of trump's nominees, except, there might be one little problem with that. he

also said he is willing to back trumps demand for recess appointment to bypass the confirmation process and if that happens, well, here is how democratic senator chris murphy put it. >> well, that would be the end of the united states. if the senate shows to end its power of advice and consent and just allow the president to choose without any input over the confirmation process or approval, i don't know why we would continue to show up for work, that is not a democracy at any point. >> joining me now, democratic woman jazz mccracken, she certainly here tonight, thank you for joining us. i have to exhale, as a former alum of doj and thinking about what my colleagues are thinking tonight. you don't think matt gaetz is qualified to be the attorney general. tell me why.

>> the list is long. let me just say thank you for your service and when you sign up to do something like work at the doj, it really is just that. you guys aren't paid a ton of money but you can go out and make so much more money in private practice, and it is really about standing up for the united states. and so, the idea that you are going to have someone charged with going into court on behalf of the government, someone who has historically been trying to tear it apart from the inside, remember, this is the guy who made sure to kick out our first speaker, this is a guy, i don't know if he has ever really practiced law. i had to google to find out if he even had a law degree, because i'm like wait a minute, what are we doing? more important, this is someone who has been under litigation with the doj, this

is someone who decided that he was going to resign today because on friday, our ethics committee was going to vote to release this report and proceed just like they were proceeded against george santos. this is an instigation that has gone on since 2021, where they have subpoenaed so many documents, and they finally reach a culmination and for some reason he decided to get out right before that report came out. >> is that coming? do you think we will see that report ever? >> i don't know. right now because he is leaving congress, he resigned, the ethics committee has now jurisdiction over him. so, it is a matter of, you know, if he runs for the seat later this could absolutely come back. we don't know, because maybe he won't get confirmed, or maybe they will skip over the confirmation process. we are in uncharted territory but if anybody is surprised, then i say you have not been paying attention. the

reality is that we have someone that is not qualified, morally or otherwise, to be president of the united states. why would his appointments be qualified? these are people who have railed against diversity equity and inclusion, trying to say that divers candidates are somehow unqualified, but the reality is that what they want to do is more of this, put people that are not qualified in and say, you know, because he is my homeboy, he is qualified but that is not enough. that is what the good old boy has ever been about and we do not reach our maximum potential because we take all five people out of the running because they don't and the knee are because culturally their background is different. >> how do people view him in congress? you have mentioned what you have all seen . i think i know the answer. i remember house speaker mccarthy viewed him, we saw that , how

do you think he is viewed in light of his loyalty to trump and his frankly, his promises about what he wants to see happen to doj? >> in reality i think a lot of his colleagues are probably happy he is gone. >> really? >> absolutely. >> even a role like this? >> they are happy to be done with them, i am sure of that. there are certain people that have been thorns in the side of republicans, potentially even more than democrats, and gates is one of those people who didn't really care where he goes. for them it means that maybe they can go ahead and start to govern a little bit better. i don't really see it. i think they still have plenty other problems left. i don't think that this is a very serious post, though. i think that he will try to get someone else through the confirmation process, who is probably pretty bad but when you compare it to

matt gaetz your leg well, he is not that bad. now he will probably still try to stay with maga but i don't think matt gaetz is getting through.'s but we will have to see what happens. a very astute point, thank you for joining us is always. >> it's nice to see you. >> if gates is to be confirmed he would have to convince senator publicans and by the sound of it, that might be very hard. >> i was shocked that he has been nominated. if the nomination proceeds, i am sure that there will be an extensive background check. by the fbi. and public hearings . >> i'm very troubled. >> what about matt gaetz? >> and will have to think about that one. >> any concerns? >> we will see. >> do you think matt gaetz is confirmable? >> we will find out, won't we?

>> what you think of matt gaetz as attorney general? >> happy things giving. >> i completely trust president trump decision making on this one but at the same time he has got to get to congress and sell himself -- a lot of questions will be out there and he's had to answer these questions, and hopefully he is able to answer the questions correctly. >> i want to bring in former obama department estate . percent and cnn political commentator scott jennings as well as here, thank you for all of you being here, the reaction has been quite fierce and quick. even "the wall street journal" editorial board is saying, scott, this is a bad choice that would undermine confidence in the law, the attorney general has to make calls on countless difficult questions on who to indict, matt gaetz decisions would not be trusted. he wants to use the

law for political revenge and it won't end well. will and will in the senate? will they confirm him? >> of the things that we have seen come out i think he has the hardest vote. based on what i have heard tonight, he starts under the line. whereas, i think hegseth and even dulcy gebhard have a fighting chance along with everyone else who has artie gone up. no question he starts below the line and would have to fight to get it. that raises the question of whether he would try to do it through recess appointment, and i'm skeptical they are going to go along with that, too. i don't know, obviously. there's a lot of road between here and there. but trump is definitely laying down a marker here which is to say, he is feeling his oats, and i am the president-elect, i'm the biggest star in this party, and he is laying down a marker and he will make the best of these

republicans will lay on. this is the honey badger transition. honey badger doesn't give a f . and it is kind of interesting to see trump be so decisive and wheeled that influence and that power the way that he is. remember, the first transition was a little shaky, and the kinds of ways that he ended up accepting certain kinds of people, none of that exists now. this is a fully confident trump that he can pick these fights and win. >> people believed he would be emboldened in power because he has already been the president of the united states and he has but the system of the people who told him what ought to be in is taken a different course. what about the congress woman just told us just now, and the idea that well, maybe this is something about dangling the shiny object , or the idea to scott's point, that this is the hardest of them so maybe you have a compromise later and say okay not him but the other two, find. >> it could be a two for one,

right? he could be doing a solid to matt gaetz, who asked the speaker that drop was having personal challenges with and if gates does make it through this is somebody who would be deeply loyal, politically loyal, and using the law to trump's benefit but this would no longer be a department of justice that is about the rule of law, or about a series of case studies, and case law precedent, it would be about, what does donald trump want the law to say and to do, to protect him rather than the people. >> what about -- and again, i was here sitting at this desk, you may have been here with me, we saw the moment when mccarthy turns on a dime on the house floor try to get that gavel, here it is and confronts him. let's play what this looks like and what happened in that moment. >> i will give you the truth, i am a speaker because of one person, a member of congress wanted to stop an ethics complaint because he slept with

a 16-year-old, an ethics company that started before i ever became speaker and that's illegal but did he do it or not? i don't know, but there's people in jail because of it. >> saw the first part and then the aftermath talking about it, he's not in congress anymore, he lost that gavel, but when you look at that, matt gaetz is well known for his theatrics. is well known for his battle with people like mccarthy, he is not the most beloved member of that party. what will be the turnout of support for him given that he is trump's pick? >> he is trump's pick and to your point, especially what we have seen over the last part of the campaign, is donald trump seeing how far he could go , and the answer was as far as he wants to. he is president-elect , this is now the latest thing he is throwing out here, and to say to the senator publicans, are you going with it? there are a lot of senate

republicans, as scott said, enough who do not want to vote for matt gaetz to be confirmed as attorney general . will they go along, right? >> there different than house members , getting elected every two years, some of them exist in a plane where they make a living disagreeing with their own party sometimes but there are more than enough people in those boats that would drag him below the line. i personally think the president-elect deserves to build the government that he wants to build, and i think that these people deserve a chance to compete in confirmation hearings but that does not guarantee you anything, but if they see this through, he will go up and get a chance to make his case, just like anyone else what. my judgment based on what i have heard tonight is at the level of skepticism, meaning this particular nomination , is far higher than what you had even heard about gabbert or hegseth or anyone else. this one, i think, exist in a different category. >> it's matt gaetz fixed but

it's also the department of justice. let's talk about, mary garland is a potential spring court nominee. that is the type of understanding of the law and credibility within circuits of law. nobody from the legal community is coming out and saying matt gaetz is what i want but i remember when discount scandal was white house general counsel white george bush nominated and everyone was horrified by that but at least he was a practicing lawyer. >> remind us of the ethics complaint going away, he doesn't have jurisdiction but remind us of the accusations. >> these are accusations of partying and having sexual encounters with underage women, underage girls, i guess. what we don't know is whether this ethics report will somehow see the light of day anyway. it may, but if he comes up for a confirmation hearing, that material would be part of the

questioning , if no one else, than from democrats. >> i've been very supportive of most of these pics frankly but some of these are clear indications that donald trump is absorbing his mandate from the selection as one of i want to do exactly what the washington people don't want me to do because that is what my voters and my people are expecting. some of these things are like -- as washington, d.c. insiders, that's what hegseth is, that's what gates is and we might see more of those, and i think trump, probably correctly interpreting this, he got the turnout that he did from people who are sick and tired of the expected washington stuff but they want somebody to shake up, breakup, and rampage through washington, d.c. these kinds of pics. >> i hear the word mandate used all the time but was the mandate actually a universal truth we are talking about or is there room for disagreement

about what they were electing officials for because the economy was what i thought was in there, the economy and how your talking to people and connecting and meeting them where they are at and understanding their role in the world, all of that is a messaging think that i highly doubt anybody voted for trump because they are like yes, i need to have this cabinet pick. it is not the individuals. but a lot of them about it because they felt like the way washington was working. >> the most incited type of people are congressman facing sex scandals. nothing more dc than that. >> i think that the way trump is operating here is that he is interpreting the results as, i don't have to do it all the washington people will have me do. this will not be business as usual but this may upset washington people who want him to do business as usual, but obviously, he is saying to everybody appear, look, and beholden to my people, i don't have to run again, i am making the republic and party . >> is not as washington people

it was a message to the establishment and doing business the way it has always been done i think that people don't necessarily track the value of what the department of justice offers the rule of law and democracy in the country and we will find out. >> is the most washington thing to have a congressman who ducks out of congress just in time to dodge an ethics report against him to get an appointment? that's kind of what is going on here but it is certainly true that marco rubio as secretary of state, that is a pick that any republic and president would have made, matt gaetz as attorney general, only donald trump would do that. >> is a different in terms of letter was what the mandate was. thank you everyone. my next guest is someone might be that attorney general matt gaetz might go after. former fbi acting director andrew mccabe , right after this.

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only in theaters november 22nd. imagine, if you will, being inside the justice department today when your potential new bosses announced. you don't have to imagine it, source

telling cnn, the shock is intense, knowing there was an audible reaction is and is and is was heard. noticing there was, quote, absolute disbelief on the announcement. i want to bring in former fbi deputy director andrew mccabe, you remember he was terminated in 2018 by then attorney general jeff sessions, mccabe says he believes he was fired because he, quote, opened the case against the president of the united states. andrew mccabe, good to see you. i am dying to know your reaction to all of this, frankly. steve benenson on a podcast earlier this year that you should personally be worried, he said, if trump takes the white house. are you? >> well, i don't worry about steve bannon, that's for sure. but i will tell you, laura, today, i am worried about the department of justice. i'm not worried about me, i'm worried about the people who work there and i am worried deeply about

the work that they do . i am worried about what this pick means. and it is a very clear signal, in a way i think it answers a question that we have been debating throughout these many months months of the campaign, how half the country was concerned about the things that donald trump was saying that he wanted to do if he won back the white house, the revenge tour, politicizing the department of justice and turning it into a tool of his political revenge. this pick is a very clear signal, that is exactly what is going to do . and as always, we should take donald trump at his word . i think that this pick is a part of the execution of that plan. matt gaetz is a disruptor, he is someone who does not understand the department, he does not respect the work that they do, he does not respect the people who do the work there, he has made that very clear with negative statements about the department, so he is really, from my perspective, only going in for one reason which is to disrupt things. >> he has been exquisite about his views about the doj and

fbi. you didn't just serve under one attorney general you have served under several attorneys general. what was your initial reaction knowing that he would be the pick and what the department and fbi will believe based on his nomination alone? >> yeah, i served and interacted pretty closely with five attorneys general, all very different people, you know, some of them i agreed with on some policy issues or case or operational issues, some of whom i did not, but i have to say, each of them brought an incredible breadth of experience and skill and knowledge of the law to the job, and a deep respect for the mission and the people of the department. you cannot say any of that about this pick. matt gaetz is holy and qualified for this job. as you mentioned, he

is someone who has repeatedly attacked the department and the fbi, he has made statements that they should be obliterated, or at least defunded, he has been a recent subject of investigation, which should raise other questions about his fitness to serve. so, he is really the antithesis of anyone who should be considered for that role. and i'm not saying that because he is a hard right conservatives, or he is some other political strife, that is not a standard for who would or might be a good attorney general, but, a level of proficiency, of knowledge and decency and of character, those are the sorts of things we should be looking for, and none of those are present in this candidate. >> precisely what a confirmation hearing is supposed to evaluate and look at, matt gaetz is very loyal to trump, what is your prediction for how he would deal with who he believes are matt trump's

enemies? >> i think he would deal with them in exactly the way that trump tells him to deal with them but matt gaetz is there to execute , or will be if he is confirmed, to execute donald trump's wishes. not to ensure that the president understands and abides by the law, not to oversee the vast criminal interest to get a roll of the department , not to protect the national security of the united states, but rather, just to be there is donald trump's tool. you know, something i think worth mentioning here, laura, about the national security role as well, in considering whether or not you think matt gaetz is qualified for that role, put aside the exposure to all the information, the secrets, that the things that people think about, i think, for sand. for my perspective, for many hours in policy meetings in the white house, you see that the attorney

general is the linchpin of some of the most monumental national security decisions. the role of the attorney general is to tell the rest of the cabinet members what is lawful, what is decent, what is moral, how to interpret the law, to understand the scope of the president's powers, what falls within those guidelines, and what may be outside of it and the idea that matt gaetz can fulfill that role is preposterous. this is a guy without even the most basic modicum of legal experience. nevermind the wisdom and experience that it takes to pull off that job. >> we will see if senators agree with you. andrew mccabe, thank you so much. >> thanks, laura. this may sound like the political version of the avengers. democratic governors assembling and uniting to push back against donald trump's expected agenda. the two leading the charge, governor jb pritzker and governor jared

polis, both interviewed next.

from trump 2.0, two resistance 2.0. tonight, democrats are playing at how they plan to challenge a second trump administration. states quickly took the first demonstration to court, starting to days after trump took office. democratic led estate sued him on the banner of people arriving from predominantly muslim countries but this time around, the governors of illinois and colorado are forming a new coalition. gsd. governors safeguarding democracy. their goal, quote, to fortify democratic institutions in the states and ensure the rule of law serves all people. joined me now, government democratic governor jared polis of colorado, and democratic governor jb pritzker of illinois. governors, thank you

for joining tonight. beginning with you governor pritzker, i have to get your initial take on this ag nomination, and the nominee of matt gaetz becoming the attorney general. what is your reaction? >> i have to say it is almost as graceful. this is somebody who has frankly publicly lied, he is somebody who people do not have faith in, remember, the job of an attorney general is to make judgment calls, and advise the president of what is legal . to have a guy who is frankly a politicized version of an attorney general would be terrible for preserving democracy, which is something that, as you know, jared and i are working very hard with other governors to do. >> governor polis, on that point, you two are teaming up to defend democratic institutions, and i wonder, when you look at these incoming

trump administration cabinet members, potentially, what do you identify as the biggest threat of his administrator more broadly? >> well, look, you can see a mixed bag. the good and the bad and the other. i was happy to see somebody of marco rubio's caliber elevated to secretary of state, the secretary of defense is one of those ones, and matt gaetz is in that other category . i knew matt gaetz personally, i got along with him, but with a bizarre pick. it undermines the importance of the governors and the states in protecting our democracy. we truly don't know what to expect from any penetration, but particularly this one, and to make sure that the american people are safe, elections are safe, and the separation of powers is safe, and that governors assert the powers that we have in the states to be sure that we can protect freedoms and that no federal government can get in the way of our constitutional rights. >> speaking of that, one big

concern for the election and still now has been the issue of immigration. both of your states have grappled with this issue. governor pritzker, trumps choice for border czar, tom hohmann says that he will go after illegal immigrants everywhere, sending i.c.e. agents to those states who will not cooperate and told democratic governors to, quote, get out of the way. what is your response? >> it looks like they are planning to do things that are frankly against federal law. you heard today, or yesterday, that they are thinking about using red state national guard to go into blue states, to raid restaurants and places of business, to try to take people away. the truth is, there is no chance that illegal . we are going to defend ourselves against that , it is something that governors across the country would agree with me about, and so, we have a lot to defend against, and this issue of immigration, look, we can

all have discussions about what conference of immigration reform should look like, what border security ought to look like, but what we should not be doing his threatening people, many people who have been here for decades, they have been paying taxes, working, and living peacefully, they are not committing crimes, we need to safeguard them, and obviously, when it comes to violent crime if there somebody who is undocumented and committing a violent crime, we ought to hold them accountable, and friendly, we ought to turn them over to the feds. >> governor polis, trump singled out aurora colorado, claiming it had been overrun by migrants, we spoke to the mayor who confirmed that was not indeed the case, how will your state respond to an influx of i.c.e. agents? >> well as governor pritzker said, depends on what they do when they get here. if they want to help our law enforcement arrest and deport

criminals , which includes criminals who are americans, or criminals who are foreign-born and need to be deported, we are excited to help. one of my goals is governors to make colorado one of the 10 safest states. we have invested in police and law enforcement to do that, we value our frederick federal partnerships with i.c.e. and the fbi. if what they do instead is going to schools, go after dreamers and hard-working coloradans, who are an important part of our agriculture and construction industry, then no, of course we're not going to help them in any way. hurting our economies, our neighbors and our people. >> when you look at this, we heard from kate bedingfield, a former biden white house communications commentator, she is warning democrats about reflexively fighting drum policies but listen to what she had to say. >> i think that for democratic governors do need to take a position of, you know, we are

going to fight this is not smart. i do think the democratic governors need to be responsive to what people said on tuesday, but does not mean that they need to wholeheartedly embrace family separation and mass deportation, but the democrats put forward a very aggressive border bill, by the way, in the last year. that any democratic governor would be smart, i think, to embrace. >> let me ask both of you to respond quickly to that, governor pritzker, do you agree with the idea that this might be knee-jerk or that it would not be smart to the voters? >> knee-jerk, i absolutely agree there shouldn't be but that's not what this is but this is about governors being able to talk to one another, you know, in an organization where we can share interesting and new ideas about how to push back on policies that we think may be coming. if they don't come, great. but we have already heard some very strange things out of the said minute ration. and we know that we are

going to have to -- you're going to dismantle public health. think about that, this is the president we know, who probably caused half 1 million deaths because of his inaction during the pandemic. what happens if something happens again and he is getting rid of all of the federal support related to that? we need to protect ourselves. so, ideas to each of us have that we can share with one another to protect our people and our states? that is really what this gst is all about. >> obviously both of you are here today, governor polis, is there a sense that there is widespread interest among other governors in this nation to join in this endeavor? >> oh we look forward to working with the initiation however we can. if there is a constructive policy to help us track down and deport aliens who commit crimes, we are on board. if there is ideas

regarding energy we are excited to work with the trumpet minute ration just like the biden demonstration. the same election in colorado were kamala harris won our state , colorado voters put the right to choose into our state constitution. they also eliminated the definition of marriage is between a man and a woman in our state constitution. when i took office i swore to defend the colorado constitution which means to protect a woman's right to choose, protect the right to marry who you love, against any threat, whether that comes from the federal government or anyone else because it is a part of our state constitution and what coloradans want. >> governor victor, i asked congress and dean phillips, who the leader of the democratic party is now and his answer was, we really don't know. do you see the governors known as the collective leaders? >> i do see many of the governors as people who are leading the party, and have

been, and look, i want to echo something that governor polis said . we also had an election were kamala harris won in our state . but interestingly, donald trump cut that margin in half as compared to hillary clinton and joe biden, and the result, though, down ballot, was not what you would expect. we actually elected more democrats all across the state of illinois. and i mentioned that, because , we want to work together with this white house. but we also need to respect that each of our states has different goals, ideas that they should be working with us on , economic growth, jobs, those are things that we have been pretty good at in the last year or two , revving up our economic growth, but, i think that we all need to focus on how we will get from here to there. it is the democratic

leaders in governors offices across the country that have really been putting forward really solid policies, that i think the broader democratic party should continue to follow, but we have great policy, designed to make this point. great policy. i think the messaging in his last election reflect how good the policies are. >> governor polis, last question. willie two of you still be friends and 2028, should you run against each other for some openoffice? >> you just had to ask that, laura. and jb for many years, have so many friends, i'm just focused on doing what i can hear, and friendly, governor circuiting democracy will enhance the ability of all the governors, and we welcome republican colleagues to join as well and make sure that

democracy is there and have a free and fair election in 2028, to have a free and fair election in the future but that is what is important, more than any other issue, to make sure that we continue to grow our democracy in the united states of america. >> governor pritzker, nodding along with your. governor polis, governor, thank you both. >> thanks, laura. of next, her supporters say she will be great as the director of national intelligence. her critics call her a national security risk. how to dulcy gabbard get here? that conversation is next.

in the head spinning day that is wednesday, one of donald trump's cabinet picks may have been overshadowed. tulsa gabbard, the democratic and republican is trump's choice to be the next director of national intelligence. as a democrat, she was elected to

represent hawaii in congress, back in 2012 but the first female combat veteran ever elected to the house. four years later, meeting with donald trump, spurring questions about her political future. running for the democratic presidential nomination in 2019, and today, five years later, she says she doesn't recognize today's democratic party and she joined the gop just last month. you have profiled her, talk about her evolution from democratic congresswoman and progressive candidate for president and now possibly serving in a trump administration . >> it has been a strange trip. when she got into congress, not only was she a new rising star as a democratic member of the house, but they made her vice chair of the dnc and then she grew into this presence and then she started going on fox chair fox news and criticizing the obama atomization. when she ran for president it was this really strange campaign in

terms of who she is reaching out to. a lot of people in the last year were feeling in touch with the rfk campaign but it was like bernie sanders types, some peaceniks, some conspiracy minded people, i would hear a lot of that sort of stuff at her events and she played into it with all of them , and would say that all she was concerned about was stopping the wars and getting peace, and all of that. but meanwhile, she had already gone to meet with bashar al-assad, and disavowed were cast out on syria's role in gassing their and citizen. it is a beaux-arts mix of things you get with tulsa gabbard. >> she grabbed a lot of attention in her piece about russia and foreign policy, her stances on foreign policy, and when russia actually invaded ukraine, i will remind people this, two years ago now, she posted on x , that war could have been prevented if biden

and naito acknowledged russia was, quote, legitimate security concerns, unquote, about ukraine joining the group. how will the intel community view those statements? >> it's not just that but she also tweeted about the bio lab surrounding ukraine, which is propaganda that started in moscow . right? so, this is someone who at least before she was buying into conspiracy theory theories and propaganda. >> does russia like this appointment? >> i would let russia speak for itself but it seems like throughout her last five or six years, there has been a real interest you can see among state media outlets, when she was running for president in 2019, there were articles about her candidacy. not a lot of people were paying attention to her candidacy but rt, the russia tv station and others were, i remember asking her campaign about it at the time,

saying i don't know what this is, i don't know why they are interested in us, but clearly, russia sees something in tulsa gabbard that they find interesting. >> what could it be? we will have to wait and see. invited to that profile, isaac, thank you so much. up next, in case you missed it, new testimony under oath that sounds straight out of the x-files.

♪ ♪ ♪ something has changed within me ♪ ♪ it's time to try defying gravity ♪ ♪ ♪

in case you missed it, peanut the squirrel might have died for nothing. if you're asking, what are you talking about? let me remind you . on october 30th, a pet squirrel who was also instagram famous was seizs seized from an upstat yorkers home after complaints were filed. it took on a whole political life of its own but now, during the seizure, the squirrel bit the hand of a wildlife biologist through two pairs of glove , an incident

which necessitated rabies testing which can only be done on a dead animal, so they euthanized him. today we got the results of the rabies test that he did not even have rabies. this is starting a whole different rabbit hole for people. also, today, kansas city chiefs star patrick mahomes, speaking out about the burglaries of both his and travis kelce's homes. here he is. >> it is obviously frustrating. disappointing, but i can't get into too many details because the investigation is still ongoing, but obviously it's something you don't want to happen really to anybody, but obviously yourself. >> authorities say $20,000 in cash was taken from one of their homes . travis kelce has not commented. thankfully, no injuries were reported. finally, a former department of defense official , luis elizondo, testifying under oath today before congress that, quote, we are not alone in the cosmos. they didn't stop there. he also said the u.s. and some adversaries are in possession

of unidentified potentially alien technology . listen to this. >> has the government conducted uap programs? >> yes. >> weather designed to identify and reverse engineer alien craft, yes or no? >> yes. >> he went on to say that some of those uap's you mentioned are, put, monitoring sensitive military installations around the globe. you are leaning in now, aren't you. thanks for watching. anderson cooper 360 is next . tonight on 360, the president elect names matt gates to be his attorney general. he is already known . what so many of the nominees have been common, namely