it's thursday, november 14th right now on "cnn this morning. " >> this is going about to red alert moment for american democracy. >> disbelief in washington. donald trump taps congressman matt gaetz to lead the justice department. and -- >> i was grateful and honored to accept president trump's offer to serve our country. >> a stunner. tem turns maga tulsi gabbard chosen for the top intelligence spot. >> excited to reclaim majority. >> a new era on the hill. electing john thune to lead them confirming trump's cabinet job ÷÷number one. and then -- >> donald, congratulations. >> appreciate it very much. a transition that's so

smooth. >> trump and biden face to face. the president welcomes the president- elect back to the white house. the courtesy trump didn't extend÷÷to biden four years ago. all right. 6:00 a.m. here on the east coast. a live look at the united states capitol, which is going to be the epicenter of so much of the action here in washington in trump's washington once again. good morning, everyone. i'm kasie hunt. wonder follow have you with us on this thursday morning. once facing possible prosecution for sex trafficking by the department of justice, now tamed as the country's top prosecutor. donald trump's selection of congressman matt gaetz to be attorney general sent shock waves through washington and the country yesterday. gaetz has earned notoriety for a variety of political stunts over the years. here he was on capitol hill, wearing a gas task during the cove ed pandemic. his sexual, not political

exploits, that landed him in trouble in recent years. >> he was accused of sleeping with an underaged girl. there's a reason why no one in the conference came to defend him because we'd all seen the videos on the house floor and all walked away of the girls he slept with and bragged about crush e.d. medicine and chase it with, with an energy drink so he could go all night. >> that was senator markwayne mullin last year. the department of justice ultimately declined to press charges against gaetz, but the house ethics probe is continuing. a report expected as soon as tomorrow, that is, until -- that ethics committee lost jurisdiction over gaetz when gaetz he resigned yesterday. >> matt gaetz and i, no question that we've had our differences. they've been very public about

it. i completely trust president trump's decision- making on this one, but at the same time he's going to come to congress and sell himself. to the senate and sell himself. a lot of questions are out there. he's got to answer the questions and hopefully able to answer the questions right, and if he can, then we'll go through the confirmation process. >> so what about that confirmation process? my colleague manu raju was all over that question on the hill yesterday. you may recall seems like the one that played out on the hill yesterday during the last trump administration. this all feels very familiar to me. >> what about matt gaetz? >> the confirmation process. >> i don't know yet. i'll think about that. >> reporter: concerns s about it? .

>> i don't know. we'll see. >> reporter: what do you think about matt gaetz as attorney general. >> happy thanksgiving. >> thanksgiving, merry christmas, happy holidays. joining us, chief national affairs correspondent, and senior legal analyst and director of message plans and senior political commentator. welcome to all of you. who would like to go first? >> next week. next week. yeah. >> look, scott jennings, is this guy possibly confirmable by the ÷÷united states senate after everything that has happened? >> the only person, calls on me first. >> don't take it personally. >> you know these guys! why i would ask you. >> i'll handicap for you. everything trump has done, he's the one who i believe actually starts below the bar of confirmation. i mean, we could probably all count at least four senators maybe five who are highly likely to never go along with this. gabbard i think actually has

a fighting chance. i think it's tough. the confirmation hearings will be interesting. she said some things about trump's foreign policy at odds. called the soleimani killing unconstitutional at one point and gaetz, gaetz right now is below the line nap raises the question whether this sets up a whole showdown with his own party, trump's own party over recess appointments and how you get the senate into recess long enough to make a recess appointment. to me it -- >> democrats have something to say about that, too. >> yes. that will be an interesting showdown. to me this signals one thing. donald trump is feeling his oats. he doesn't feel he has to negotiate with anybody over these cabinet picks. is fully confident in what he is doing and meant everything he said about not just shaking up washington, but blowing up washington, d.c. i think he feels like he was elected to do things like

this. like, if the washington people are happy with me, that's wrong. unhappy with me i must be doing something right. >> to me the gaetz nomination tells us something bigger about what donald trump's planning to do. start from this premise. tell me if you disagree. matt gaetz is woefully unqualified to be attorney general of the united states. everyone agree? >> i'm the objective reporter in the room. >> what makes you -- >> he's barely practiced law for a couple of years but never been a prosecutor for one day. >> i understand. the political question is if the president nominates you and senate confirms you, you're qualified. i get your point on the professional qualifications, but, you know, a lot of people wind up with jobs in government that people go -- >> consequences. elections, you get to try your person. on paper, prosecutorialy, not qualified. why are we nominating something not qualified?

a clip, get rid of the dea. do we care about drug enforcement at the border? why would trump choose somebody over his head? >> in one respect, being loyal to the president. the first qualification in this new administration. he meets that qualification. >> the only one that matters. let's be clear. nothing accept matters except loyalty and do whatever trump says. >> i pulled up gaetz congressional bio. the attack dog. quotes he's proud. the trumpiest member of congress. all that's in it. that's the gist of it. >> to be clear here, from the perspective of what the previous standards would be for qualification for this job, there is -- no washington other than a trump- based washington i can see anyone with this level of qualifications nominated for this type of post. >> chuck grassley is likely to head the judiciary committee, lindsey graham a lot

to say about it but a test for some senate republicans. yes, they are, i think, recognizing the new trump mandate, but that does not mean that many of them are going to -- i think, scott, you're right. at least five maybe more than that, but let's see. trump could win either way here. this fight could help other nominees get through the process. while everyone is focused on matt gaetz what's happening with some other members? so we shall see, but i think that this is something that matt gaetz is unique in a sense that he inspires ire from both sides of the aisle, and some house republicans are going to be talking with their colleagues in the upper chamber here and i would be stunned if he gets through. that doesn't mean trump doesn't win by the outrage. >> scott, can you name anyone on capitol hill who likes matt gaetz besides matt gaetz? >> i'm sure there are some people. probably left good tips at waiters, various restaurants around the capitol. i don't know. it is a -- this is an

interesting choice, because it is, to me, just donald trump testing exactly how powerful he is. look, second- term presidents, he now is, we went through this with bush a little bit. ran into turbulence with some things we tried to do early in the second term after winning the national popular vote and it did not work out. sometimes second- term presidents do feel a little bit more powerful than maybe they are. the senate is just harder to control, particularly when you've got so many senators that probably don't have any strings on them from trump the way you would in the house. >> on that, these senators have to look to midterms and their own -- some of these people want to run for president in 2028. he doesn't have the political capital as the first term because this is his second term. some senators might not go along with the confirmations because of their own political -- >> it's a much trumpier senate, though, really, and across the board. this will be a test for john thune. no doubt. he's going to let the process

work. my guess is that the fbi background check on tulsi gabbard will be interesting but i think you're right. her standing probably improves a bit because of matt gaetz. >> how do you get the senate in to recess for more than three days? >> goodness. >> long constitutional questions whether the president can actually figure out a way to engineer a recess and that would really be pushing the limits, because there is a constitutional provision about the president being able to convene -- >> and this administration, extended that and basically ten days required. >> all i can tell you is this. what a recess appointment is yet in the green room. in the green room, i'm a u.s. senator. i'll explain. >> could have called me! >> that's actually true, and the bottom line is sounds like from him, a republican, thinks no possible feasible way it happens. i want to look at history a little to put matt gaetz' nomination in

perspective. did he work for the g.w. bush -- >> yes. >> and the ag's nominated john ashcroft michael mukasey all vastly qualified, and rock solid ags. none is perfect. i served under all three of them. those are traditional attorney general picks. all former prosecutors or judges or served in meaning iffal roles in congress. compare them to matt gaetz, not even close. >> and deep controversies but the ones that in washington typically were within the -- within the guard rails. >> this is not the second bush administration. it's the second trump administration. everything is different. i covered both. met scott way back in the day

in the west wing. so, yes. >> and doesn't exist, a punching bag, and i actually have a -- >> congrats to all. >> straight ahead here on "cnn ÷÷this morning" we are going to talk more about matt gaetz, who has abruptly resigned from congress. how that let's him side- step release of that ethics report we mentioned. plus, incoming and outgoing presidents joe biden and donald trump meet for nearly two hours in a surprisingly cordial ÷÷meeting. and john thune will soon step into mitch mcconnell's shoes as a new republican senate leader and we just discussed, he has got his work cut out for him. >> what we're going to do is make sure that we are processing his nominees in a way that gets them into those positions so they can implement his agenda. we expect a level of cooperation from the democrats. to work with us to get these folks installed.

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.

if you think about it, if there's anybody who should go to trial, i mean, gaetz is one who should be convicted in a trial. >> why? what do you say that? >> well, we all know. you can't sleep with underaged women and think you can get away with it. >> he denies that. >> well the women don't. so there's people in jail because of it and i think that's a place people should go court. i just don't think that as an individual should be a representative in congress. >> a several months' old

interview with manu raju and kevin mccarthy. this week, though, was supposed to be the week the house ethics committee vote on releasingal report on congressman matz gaetz, alleged sex trafficking of a 17-year- old girl. now that he's resigned from congress tapped by trump to head the justice department the investigation is effectively over, and it's not clear whether the report will ever be made public. of course, as we've been discussing this morning, one thing is clear. many republicans seem to have reservations about this pick. >> i don't know. i'll think about that one. >> reporter: are you concerned about it? >> we'll see. >> an interesting confirmation hearing as i think most members predictions. >> reporter: not an appropriate pick? >> not in any be top 5 or even 50 list. >> reporter: under investigation by the house ethics committee. under investigation. >> a lot of people are eager to see results of that

investigation. >> okay. our panel is back. scott, you raised this in terms of why, gaetz resigned effect live immediately. house loses jurisdiction, an effect of that resignation and questions whether he might come back in the next congress because he's been elected to the -- how do you understand what is really going on here? >> wondering last night. resigned from this congress but elected to the next one and not sworn in. obviously wouldn't be until january. i wonder what his future status is. his current status, not a member of the house but technically could show up in january if he felt like it and get sworn in again. i wonder because he resigned can the ethics committee choose to release the report anyway? i don't know about jurisdiction over him but if they have a piece of paper. can anybody answer that. >> the first question, a really interesting point and my instinct is he probably could make an argument that i've

been elected to the next congress and, therefore, i'm back. as to the point about the ethics investigation, first of all, can the house -- obviously, putting that aside, releasing it. the answer is yes. do what they want. an issue a couple years ago a house committee released donald trump's tax returns and i was criticing of the house. essentially ad- libbed that rule. we want to release it. take a vote and solidly released the tax returns, which was a convenient one-off. yeah, release it. the thing i don't get. if the idea is, well, let's nominate gaetz, strip the house of jurisdiction so the report can't come out. if he's up for ag all will be in play. when i was a lowly regular doj prosecutor they talked to my parents neighbor whether i ever smoked weed. they're going to get into the "weeds" of matt gaetz and those allegations against him related to underaged women. >> and let's not make a forest

here. big picture, donut wants -- donald trump wants matt gaetz. the committee can vote. 50/50 democrats and republicans. aye would be stunned if it would vote to release the report, because that would be a bit of a finger in the eye to the president-elect. also stunned if matt gaetz came back in january, because that wouldn't help him in his confirmation process, probably. but who knows? all sort of sterned by a lot of things. i think for all of this discussion about, about matt gaetz and protecting him, this is about the loyalty to the president. so i would be surprised if we saw that. >> elie honig, grateful to h have you. >> and john thune, his big brother. >> my neighbor to the north in south dakota, nebraska and

-- >> yes. >> i mean, it's a -- >> it's not the worst. >> thank you. appreciate it. heard here on "cnn this morning" a new senate majority leader, we just discussed. john thune, overcome as maga campaign to boost scott, first order of business. already very tough. plus a civil sit- down between two men who don't really like each other very much.

all right. welcome back. it's november but we have a new storm strengthening over the caribbean. get to our weather man derek van dam. what are you seeing? >> corning, kasie. monitoring the storm closely.

unfortunately what is good for u.s. interests in this particular instance is bad for other interests. namely honduras, nicaragua, belize and the peninsula. how if the storm moved over that part of the world before entering the gulf of mexico it would disorganize the storm and mean a weaker storm for the southeastern u.s. that's in fact what we're seeing this morning as a little bit further west than what we originally forecast yesterday. this is bringing extremely heavy rainfall to this area, flash floods and mudslides, potentially with tropical depression 19 hovering near the coast of honduras through this weekend and then moves greatly inland across the yucatan peninsula. that means as it enters the bay of campeche southern gulf of mexico a much more disorganized storm versus splitting the difference between cuba and the yucatan peninsula and stay over open waters and forecast yesterday potentially impact florida as what was

a tropical storm or hurricane second half of xt week. shifting to the southeastern ÷÷u.s. for wednesday, thursday and friday of next week, should be a greatly weaker storm and should also just be more of a rain and gusty wind threat. moving on, a storm system moving into the northeast that hopefully would bring rainfall to the drought conditions and the wildfire areas across new england. unfortunately that's not the case. the storm system will slide south and bring no relief in terms of rain to places like new jersey and new york today. kasie? >> all right, derek van dam, thank you. still ahead here on "cnn this morning," trump already rattling capitol hill. talk to democratic congressman jake offenclause, plus an outgoing meeting with a successor used to be tradition. joe biden extended the courtesy ÷÷he never received from donald trump. >> trump said they had a

really good meeting. said biden was gracious and they really enjoyed seeing each other. last week joe biden was an evil force who weaponized the justice system to put trump in prison the rest of his life. today they had fun!

i'm not on russia's side but unfortunately the reality is the way the war in ukraine will end

is with a negotiated settlement. >> state up saying we should not have women in combat roles. >> assad is not the enemy of the united states because syria does not pose a direct threat to the ÷÷united states. >> donald trump's vision for his national security team is taking shape. the newest addition being, one of the newest, veteran and former democratic congresswoman turned republican fox contributor tulsi gabbard. tapped to serve as next director of national intelligence and has no formal national intelligence service herself and previously raised eyebrows for seeming to parrot russian propaganda. >> so focused on, how do we punish putin that they don't care and are not focused on what is actually in the best interests of the american people. >> but they're lying. ukraine isn't actually a democracy. >> trump's former u.n. ambassador john bolton said this yesterday about both bolton and tump's attorney general

pick matt gaetz. >> i don't think either she or matt gaetz ought to have a confirmation hearing until they have both had full- field fbi investigations. then i think the chinese would say -- >> fbi investigations -- >> i think given the russian propaganda she has espoused over the past period of time. >> joining us to discuss jake auchincloss and served on the china select committee. thanks for being here, congressman. >> good morning. >> i'd like to start with your reaction to a particular tulsi gabbard, what you saw there, about the questions she raised about ukraine which i know is an issue you have focused on. >> indeed. in trump's first term hi national security cabinet were men of character, put the constitution and common sense ahead of their loyalty to him, and it's good that he's not trying to make that mistake again in his second administration. he wants people who have no qualifications for the

roles they are holding and are only going to parrot white house talking points and commands. which is why we really have to focus on preventing the politicization of the military and intelligence services and not let them be used against the american people. that is what donald trump promised to do on the campaign trail and every reason to believe he will follow through on that threat. >> do you think that tulsi gabbard would represent a, as dni, would represent a national security threat? some argued that that might be the case. >> yes, i do. given she has parroted syrian and russian talking points and the senate needs to demand a full dossier on her activities and her potential liabilities in regards to foreign actors. but, again, most forcefully we have to recognize that neither the dni nor the secretary of defense is actually going to have any agency in this administration. this is entirely about the white house and donald trump. he's going to broach no dispute and is going to command them to pursue his own agenda,

which, as he said on the campaign trail, about setting a a military tribunal for liz cheney. >> and let me ask about, given your military background. many surprised when the name came out, that surprise pales in comparison to other picks that have come out since including matt gaetz, of course. do you think hegseth is qualified to lead the department of defense and what else are you concerned about? >> i don't. never managed anything and this is a $1 trillion bureaucracy and he does not sort port backing ukraine as we need to fight for freedom, as they are fighting on the front lines for it. this underscores the imperative to joe biden to take the final two moss he has as commander in chief and lift restrictions on u.s.- made weapons to strike russia, strike oil refineries, their troops sites and ballistic missile launching sites. change the facts on the ground in ukraine's favor but the

clock is ticking. they're in a strong position at the bargains table. >> to be clear you would support ukraine using u.s. military- provided weaponry and funds to strike deep in russia? >> arguing for it for a year now that russia's striking inside ukraine, not letting ukraine strike inside of russia. the biden administration calibrated to the wrong dimension of risk worried russia will escalate to nuclear weapons but the true answer is russia will go on to other areas. repeatedly calling on them to do it and their delay and their dialer dialatory needs do it have two months. >> thank you for being here. still to come, senate republicans s elect new leaders and blocking trump's

cabinet picks, the senate. ro khanna joins us live, next. >> vote with president trump. the last chance we'll have saving this country, and if you want to get in the way, fine. we're going to try to get you out of the senate. >> i know matt gaetz. by the way, his republican colleagues feel the same i do. a gonzo agent of chaos.

president trump was elected by an enormous vote, and he deserves a team around him that he wants. it's not us to determine that. i've already seen a couple of them says i'm not voting for them. wait a minute. you are not the united states of america. you have one vote in u.s. senate and do not get elected president.

vote with president trump. this is the last chance we're going to have of saving this country and if you want to get in the way fine but we're going to try get to you out of the senate, too, if you try to do that get in line or get out of the way. the message from senator trump supporter tommy tuberville to any colleague whose think to vote against voting against president trump's new newly announced picks. regardless not all of trump's picks require senate approval. for example, billionaire elon musk and vivek ramaswamy before they take part in the department of efficiency. approve yates to "doge" for short. >> -- country. this is the equivalent of a modern manhattan project to take÷÷on. i think the major problem holding our country back, it's the federal bureaucracy. target that cost, save the money. restore self-governance. >> all right. joining us now to discuss democratic congressman ro khanna of california currently

sits on the house armed services and oversight committees. that's for being here. >> good morning. thanks for having me. >> start there. you, of course, represent silicon valley and have personal relationships with many of these tech leaders. elon musk in particular is someone who has played an enormous role in donald trump's campaign, given him an enormous sum of money, and you know, i saw that you had been on, talking about how part of the reason for that is personal to the democratic party, part of the reason why there was that break. can you explain that a little bit further? what exactly was personal about it that led us to this point and what do you expect from musk in this role? >> i think it's both personal and to some extent now, ideological. i mean, we didn't champion him as a founder of electric vehicles. there was a summit

that president biden had on electric vehicles. we didn't invite elon musk to that. now, i have called for tesla to have labor neutrality with uaw. should have invited them, but he shouldn't have been snubbed and issues not celebrating what spacex has been doing issues not understanding what starlink's value could be. so this is why he supported hillary clinton and supported barack obama but drifted in terms of supporting the democratic party. but there's also an ideological difference. he is for much less government spending for people, and it's unfortunate that he's taken a more conservative turn. we just disagree on that. >> congressman, it's interesting to me that you frame it this way in terms of saying, you're basically lining up the ideological constituencies in the democratic party talking about labor unions, how

it seems democrats my ffend their group were he invited. that's a much bigger story ash the election and democrats broadly and how concern about various constituency groups and how they would react may have led to an environment that contributed to the loss across the board. do you think that's the case? and how do you think the party should move forward on that front? >> okay. so i think two things that led to the loss. many factors, but two salient ones. one, we didn't speak enough to the millions of americans, vast, the majority of americans, struggling economically. we feel that the american dream is slipping away, they feel. whose kids aren't able to buy a house or a car. we've seen factories offshored and just didn't speak to their pain to their frustration. they didn't feel seen. we didn't have a compelling vision. we should have said like fdr who had a dollar a year men and

women, business leaders and technology leaders coming into government to build america. our vision should have been, enlist silicon business leaders to build new factories with union and not tear down government and should have contrasted our economic vision with theirs. made the case in michigan and pennsylvania that we're actually going to be more successful in getting new skilled plants up, new aluminum plants up, increasing wages given machinists and electricians stock in a company's performance and having equity. should have had a more robust economic agenda. the second thing is we need to listen to people more. be humble, even though we have our own convictions on issues. not cancel, shame people, but engage in good faith. >> when you say not cancel or shame people, i mean what do you say to voters who view the democratic party as the party of cancellation? >> that we're not.

there are many democrats like me who are classical liberals believe strongly in free speech. one of the things that i agreed on with elon. my email to twitter had leaked, my private email where i said you should not take down a "new york post" journalist said, on the biden laptop. i'm a huge believer in spree speech -- free speech and many in the democratic party believe that and we need to highlight that part of the party more and we may disagree but disagree were you humility. >> you have to look ahead to the mid- term election eventually presidential election in 2028. who should be the set of new faces for the democratic party and are you one of them? >> well, i think there's

going to be a lot of right people who can help lead our party. you have people who won swing districts, pat ryan, chris deluzio, and marie perez, we need to listen to in these communities, who have strong progressive voices like maxwell frost and delayia ramirez who understand the war was a big issue in losing young people. i'm excited we have a whole new generation. of course, i would like to be a part of the conversation on economic reindustrialization and what we need to do to bring economic prosperity to places that have been left out, but i'm excited about a whole new generation of leaders. >> are you considering running for president in the future? >> no. not right now. honestly -- we don't even have a majority in congress. we have a lot of rebuilding to do. what i think every democratic leader should do after this. spend six months outside the country, go to communities and

listen. really, build up a bottom- up agenda and our first priority to take back congress. really, that's going to be my effort and my focus in the next couple years. >> all right. congressman ro khanna for us this morning. congressman, thank you. i appreciate your time. >> thank you. appreciate it. >> all right. jeff zeleny can i ask you about his positioning inside the democratic party and what's next for them? be real. yes, it's early. know four years to the next election but not like they don't start thinking about it right away. >> we really don't have four years. it's much shorter than that. i think that the congressman is definitely in the mix in terms of leading the bernie sanders wing, i guess, of the party, if you will. he has traveled across the country throughout the election. earning a lot of relationships with democrats in battleground states and elsewhere. so i absolutely think he'll be in the mix. look, democrats are going to be -- it's not going to be at the forefront of

the conversation in washington but out in america it will be. we'll get our first look at that at who , the ranking finalists for the dnc chair nap will . that's coming up next month. >> turn to to this south dakota senator john thune replacing ÷÷mitch mcconnell as the new leader in the senate, the gop. and trifecta, won the white house. and thune responsible for ushering donald trump's agenda through congress. he wants the senate to bypass the traditional confirmation pass for cabinet picks. democrats quick to push back. >> i mean, that would be the end of the united states senate. if the senate chose to end its power of advice and consent and just allow the president to choose without any input, confirmation process, or approval of his cabinet.

i don't know why we would continue to show up for work. that's not a democracy anymore. >> thune saying yesterday he intends the process to move quickly. >> the senate has an advise and consent rule and the constitution and do everything we can to process hi noms quickly get them installed in their positions to implement his agenda. we expect a level of cooperation from the democrats to work with us to get these folks installed, and obviously we're going to look at, explore all options to make sure that they get moved and moved quickly. >> all right. our panel's back including cnn political analyst historian who joins us now. i like your big picture thoughts. you heard chris murphy characterize it there as -- his framing, why would we even show up for work would actually help donald trump. because if democrats don't show up by definition the senate would be allowed in recess, if that what's republicans do.÷÷setting

that aside, how do you look at the landscape facing republicans in washington right now? >> i think the actual, the election of thune to senate majority lead sir a really important point. i think less about thune going to, is he going to win this and did rick scott largely seen at the maga, trump person, losing the race. so part of what we're looking at is, are we seeing guardrails? going to see a senate run as essentially in lock- step with donald trump or a senate that sees itself as independent. says if we agree with trump on this we support him on this. if we don't agree with push back. i think donald trump has actually set this up in a lot of ways for a real test. right? all of these appointees including gaetz, with whom we've talked about all morning, coming forward, and thune's immediately going to have to jump in. do i sign off on this? do i say, you know, this is going to push the whole idea of recess appointments and

recess appointments essentially saying no senate confirmation, no hearing no vetting. that kind of thing p just going through and rubber stamping this or do i open this up? i want to point out that you actually have to think about ÷÷donald trump as a lame duck president. right? we want to, are going to find out, is that the way thune thinks of him as well? if he does, this is a test of thune's actual power as leader of senate republicans. >> i don't think he's a lame duck in the traditional sense. yes, can't run again. make no mistake, donald trump is the most powerful republican in the country, has influence over every republican in the country. some senators will appose him on a couple of these nominations, but his political power is not draining and it will not drain in the same way you would expect a normal lame duck president. he's far nor powerful and influential than normal. i think lame duck term, that term we use. >> at least until midterms. no doubt. the next two years are

very, very important. for trump/thune, it's a test for him. some of his members, some of the members of the senate conference probably won't run again. i think on the individual members like the susan collins and lisa murkowski and others, know, they are not likely to change what they've done and their sort of record in view of the senate, because donald trump is president. >> right. >> majority's not huge. three seats is not -- >> certainly more than four that could buck him on it, but also most of these people will be confirmed easily. and most are terrific picks and the senate republicans will praise them and come to their aids. i think a couple of flashpoints shouldn't overshadow trump's assembled a pretty qualified group. >> if we could but matt gaetz a couple of flashpoints. he's going to -- department of justice. significant flashpoint. anyway, president biden is vowing a return to the u.s. tradition of peacefully transferring power.

he hosted president- elect trump at the white house wednesday. for at least 29 seconds while the media was in the oval office these two bitter political foes did strike a cordial tone with one another. >> politics is tough and it's, in many cases not a very nice world but it is a nice world today and i appreciate very much a transition that's so smooth. it will be as smooth as it can get, and i very much appreciate that, joe. >> well, mr. president- elect and former president and donald, congratulations. >> thank you. >> and looking forward having a, like we said a smooth transition. >> now, of course, we cannot show you a picture of these two men shaking hands when trump left office because biden was denied that courtesy by donald trump as donald trump claimed

the election was stolen from him.÷÷a different tune what we heard on the trail not so long ago. >> joe biden was the worst president in the history of our country. >> we're going to knock off the biden crime family. >> a man can't put two sentences together, a man doesn't know he's alive. >> the choice is clear. donald trump's campaign is about him. not america. not you. donald trump's campaign is obsessed with the past, not the future. he's willing to sacrifice our democracy. put himself in power. >> megan hayes, you know well what this moment, how, i mean -- how do you read it? hard on joe biden based how he feels about donald trump. on the other hand, he did it. >> he's a statesman and everyone knows that. likes tradition. loves being the president, but also joe biden is notorious not holding grudges and knows what you need to do. >> is he notorious for not holding grudges?

>> maybe in the staff but traditionally doesn't hold grudges against people. exactly what people who worked for him expect of him. he was a statesman, very gracious coming, having trump into the oval. >> shocked. ever think you'll see literal hitler in the oval office with the president of the united states? what i see in all this. democrats -- >> say that with -- >> underpinning of the democratic campaign that donald trump is a fascist and what i see in this, i'm glad it's happening. but what it tells me and ought to tell democrats is they didn't mean any of it. all campaign rhetoric and i think to me if you really meant, really meant any of it, this wouldn't -- glad it's happening. to me it totally blows up the way they ran the campaign end of the campaign. >> i don't think that's fair. >> donald trump did not afford joe biden the same courtesy. that affected the entire biden administration. affected all four years because his election was delegitimized in the eyes of

many people. look, joe biden ran for president first time to sort of expunge donald trump and he's back stronger than ever. a moment of history for joe biden. to your point, he's a statesman. it's who he has been and a good moment for the country. >> part of this older generation civility and dialogue are necessary. right? there is legendary stories about joe biden in congress and reaching across the aisle and working. not holding grudges but certain kinds of grudges with certain people, but largely being known for doing these kinds of things. but i do, you know -- this is, a moment where i do think there is something about seeing biden interact with, interact with trump that actually for the american public does in ways undermine, both undermine this argument that the democrats have been making for a very long time about fascism. right? do you sit down with fascism? also important to remember that