donald trump. he is saying that he would not regret supporting donald trump. so you are really not taking about yourself, your thinking about your children and the future of your children? >> yes, i want better for my children. >> reporter: cesar says, he feels guilty for bringing so much uncertainty to his family. >> what is it like to see your wife go through this, and the emotions that she is going through? >> i apologize to her a lot. when we fell in love, right away, and we got married almost right away, because when you know, you know. >> reporter: we asked velazquez and espinoza the same final question. do you have a plan in case you get deported? >> i respect the decision, i leave the country. >> there is a plan, we have talked about it openly with our family. >> reporter: turns out, these two hispanic families with two different takes on trump's

win, have the same plant when they get reported, they would go to mexico as a family. rosa flores cnn houston. president-elect sending shockwaves , again. his picks to run the department of justice and oversee the nation's intelligence service stunning to silence even his allies on capitol hill. plus, x might be looking at an exodus. users jumping ship and ditching elon musk's social media platform on a scale not seen his sense he bought twitter. some call the miracle drugs. what doctors are learning about weight loss medicines like ozempic . the long-term effects of them, whether they are right for you. dr. sanjay gupta just wrapped a year-long investigation on this and he joins us. this is "cnn news central."

this is just in, brand-new reporting from our kayla thompson from inside president-elect's donald trump inner circle, the latest controversial cabinet choices rock washington, d.c. one trump ally requesting anonymity to discuss private deliberations with the president-elect tells us that , people being in a state of shock was the goal. that is exactly what the maga game, as he puts it, once . they want people who are a total challenge to the system. that is what he is telling kayla, arguably the most controversial of those picks this morning is now former congressman matt gaetz, talk for attorney general . that means, trump once the senate to confirm payment that had been under a sex trafficking investigation to take over the very law enforcement agency that conducted that investigation, but never ended up charging him. let's go to

cnn political analyst mark preston, joining me this morning. the question of the morning, is whether gaetz could get confirmed , and the answer among republicans things to be very , we don't know, very mixed at this hour. reporter: o question. as you noted, he was staring down this ethics report that potentially we were going to see be released as early as the end of the week. could have been very damning for him. now that he has resigned yesterday, as he was nominated by donald trump, again, lukewarm support . this could be a play by donald trump to throw a stick of dynamite into the mix and tried to rally his base as he tries to push through all of his cabinet nominees. even if he does get some resistance within the senate, there could be a bit of a civil war. listen to what tommy tuberville, the senator from alabama had to say for those that don't get in line behind donald trump's

peaks. >> i have already seen where a couple of them say, i'm not voting for him . wait a minute, you are not the united states of america. you have one vote in the u.s. senate. who did not get elected president . both with president trump, this is the last chance we will have a say in this country. if you want to get in the way, find me we will try to get you out of the senate too if you try to do that. >> i've got to tell you, i just got off the phone with a senior trump advisor. he tells me, trump will bring in somebody to burn down the doj from the inside and matt will do that. conservatives believe that the doj is in chaos. he has to get their first . of course, as you noted, sarah, and as we have seen , there will be opposition to matt gaetz. >> i want to talk about these sort of leaks in loyalty part of donald trump, which is a big deal to him . there is some reporting on that too and the difference we are already seeing. what are you hearing? >> it really comes from the top

down. his chief of staff, susie wiles, incredibly disciplined for somebody donald trump respects, leads one for advice and listen to. she ran a very, very strong campaign, along with chris , one of his political advisors . she has been able to keep things basically in line. susie wiles was smart enough to let donald trump be donald trump donald trump is going to be donald trump. as we have seen so far we are looking at an administration now that has experience. this is not the donald trump of 2016, this is the donald trump of 2024. >> what are we expecting to happen next? what are the biggest roles still sitting out there that might be a shock in the campaign by trump? >> reporter: that is not fair, we did not think matt gaetz was going to be named yesterday, or tulsi gabbard was going to be named d and i director.

treasury secretary, not obviously not just for our economy, the world economy. we have got to see who will be picked for the treasury secretary, in addition, the hhs secretary, someone who can push back against the likes of robert f. kennedy, who has said, he will overhaul hhs as a health czar, and department of education is another one in a whole list of other ones that they have talked about eliminating your when you talk about these cabinet secretaries that have to be nominated , interior, agriculture, congress , a whole slew of them, not only going to see a change in policy, but they are talking about moving some of these-- we will call them organizations, outside washington, d.c., out into the heartland. i can be a big change to what has been a company town from day one. sarah. >> mark preston, there is so much going on, you are keeping up with it well, sir. i think it is very fair to answer this question because you always

have the answer. i appreciate you coming on this one. with us now, deputy assistant attorney john depree. thank you for being one. i want to read something from that deed of political reporters that talk about how they settled on the gaetz pic. quote, everyone else looked at agee as if they were applying for a judicial appointment. they talked about their legal theories and constitutional bs . we have a graphic of this. gaetz was the only one who said, yeah, i will go over there and start cutting effing heads, that is according to a trump advisor. again, that was from reporter mark caputo. so, cutting effing heads, what does that tell you about the kind of attorney matt gaetz will be? >> i think it tells you all you need to know. if trump is trying to send shockwaves through official washington, he has succeeded. gaetz was not on anybody's short list. from my perspective it should not be that surprising . trump's campaign on this platform, he was going to shake up the doj, turn it upside down, clean

house, et cetera, et cetera. from that perspective, matt gaetz is a very logical choice. i think he will be a difficult one to confirm, i think there are a lot of republicans who either publicly or privately have serious doubts about this nomination. >> that is what people are talking about, i think without hyperbole in this case, about a constitutional crisis because it will pit donald trump against the senate , possibly. three potentials to get matt gaetz as attorney general, number one, hold confirmation hearings. one of the problems with confirmation hearings with a guy like matt gaetz? >> the problem is, you can have a public repudiation of trump's nominee. my strong suspicion is the senate will find a way to pull a plug on this before the nomination gets to the floor. the other thing, from trump's perspective, i think you will also be very focused on who the deputy attorney general is . the deputy attorney general is the person who actually runs the justice department on a day to day basis. if everyone is paying attention to the gaetz

nomination as they should, we also should keep our eye on the ball of who trump is getting to fill in the second-tier positions in the justice department because they are the ones that will be implementing his agenda from day one. >> very publicly in front of the world about these allegations of sexual misconduct against him that were apparently a part of this house ethics report that was going to come out in a few days. he has denied those allegations, but imagine that being talked about in a hearing. there are two recess appointment possibilities. number one, that the senate votes to go into recess. now, it is possible. the problem here is that senators would know that they are voting to go into recess so that donald trump could appoint matt gaetz as attorney general . if they wanted to avoid that, it is hard to imagine they would do that willingly . then, this third possibility in the constitution, potentially. in the constitution, it says, the president make one extraordinary case is may convene both houses, or in either of them, in case of

agreement between them with respect to the time of adjournment . he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper. no president has ever done this, to a point a cabinet secretary. what if donald trump tries it, tom? >> look, this is what we saw during the first trump administration. constitutional lawyers were dusting off these old provisions of the constitution to figure out how they apply. my sense is that trump solved the mystery in part as to why he was so focused on preserving his power to make recess appointments. when he said it the other day, people were scratching their heads. they said, and what world would a republican-contro lled senate declined to confirm one of trump's nominees? we may now have the answer. my sense is that a recess appointment could be a possibility if you have the potential of republican senators cannot bring themselves to confirm matt gaetz as attorney general. they would take the low road, work in the shadows, recess the

senate and allowed trump to make that appointment. i see that happening, that strikes me as more of a break glass in case of emergency in the event that trump can't get the votes he needs for confirmation. >> what about the idea he could force an adjournment, unilaterally declare a senate adjournment to get a cabinet appointment? again, it does not seem impossible, based on what trump has said before him and said recently in terms of getting picks through. that seems an incredible, incredible use of power. >> it does . frankly, i am a little bit skeptical that the president could do that unilaterally. the only question i would have is if residents did have that constitutional authority to reset the senate over there objection, how, past presidents have not exercised that power ? in other words, we have seen many situations where presidents are frustrated because they can't get their people approved and what the senate to go into recess, but are stuck in deadlock. no one has exercised their power in that way before. if trump did go that route, there would be some serious court challenges

to it. >> dupree, always good to see you, thank you very much. reporting this morning, protecting the president-elect as he heads back to the white house, presenting some unprecedented security challenges this time around. trump's pick for director of national intelligence. no form experience, why some are warning tulsi gabbard could be a national security threat herself. a bear costume me a rolls-royce , and a kitchen shredder. yep, the wild scheme one group staged just to get an insurance payout.

sources tell cnn in a new report the challenges they face protecting president-elect trump as he prepares for his second term are almost impossible to fully prepare for. a reminder, china tried to hack the president's inner circle, iran has allegedly plotted to kill him, and let's not mention the two assassination attempts during the campaign. now, there are also new threats they must account for, especially as people are flocking to mar-a-lago to visit the president-elect during the transition. joining us now, former director of the fbi and senior cnn analyst andrew mccain. thanks for coming on. how different is the front landscape now than what he and his detail faced in his first term? what do you think? >> well, kate, based simply on what we know in open source reporting, what has been

revealed to us in the last couple of weeks, the threats that president-elect face seem to be much more active and intent now than they were in the first term. you have these competing streams of intelligence about chinese hacking , and efforts to penetrate the telephone networks used by the president-elect, vice president-elect, and other political figures . at the same time, you got multiple attempts by the government of iran to place assassins in the residence's presence . it is a really remarkably dangerous time to be serving as president or president-elect. it is a moment that the secret service and the rest of the intelligence community really need to be at the top of their game . >> absolutely. you worked at the department of justice for i think my math showed me more than two decades. you have seen the job of attorney general up close time and time again. you now have matt gaetz tapped to be the next attorney general of

the united states . about the job and maybe his goal and mission going in our market reston just spoke with a senior trump advisor. this is what a senior trump advisor just told mark preston today. trump is going to bring in somebody who is going to burn down the department of justice from the inside, and matt is going to do that . conservatives believe the doj is in chaos. if that is the marching orders , what is that going to do and what is that going to look like, eddie? >> i have no doubt that that is the marching orders . let's face the obvious fact here, matt gaetz is profoundly unqualified for this job in any of the traditional, normal kind of requirements sense of what the attorney general does day to day. this is the first step , likely, in trump's revenge tore against the department of justice, a department he bears

such animosity, and a grudge against that he believes he was mistreated by the multiple investigations targeting him over the last couple of years. matt gaetz sent into the department of justice to cause chaos, to fire people from critical positions , to leave positions empty , to vacate long-standing guidance and policy positions , and replace them with nothing , to unfunded programs that are, for whatever reason, disfavored by the president . you can imagine all of these things happening at a time when a department of 1 million people and multiple component agencies relies on the department to provide legal advice and direction and prosecutorial expertise on a daily basis. none of this should be surprising to the american people . this is exactly what donald trump has talked about for months during the campaign and matt gaetz

appears to be his chosen tool to go in and read that sort of panic. >> and i think it does present a question, i'm not entirely sure who can answer it is, is this what the american people voted for me or think they were voting for when they voted for donald trump this time? that does remain a question . let me add this into it, and you add tulsi gabbard as being tapped for director of national intelligence. trump's former national security advisor, john bolton just told me this about gabbert and gaetz. listen. >> so, now we are going to see whether the american tenant can stand up and recheck two people who are totally unqualified , unfit professionally , and really lacking in moral characteristics the character you need to hold these jobs. i think this boat should be 100-0 for both of them . >> to the question you are just kind of thinking of, andy . do

you think this is what americans voted for when they voted for donald trump this time? >> well, whether they knew that or not, it is exactly what they did vote for. the question is , does america understand? it is one thing as you are listening to donald trump stand behind a podium at a rally and rant and rave and make his jokes, rally up the crowd to laugh at what he says and cheer him on . it is one thing to shake your fist and say, yeah, let's tear it all down. nobody likes washington. the government is a pain in the neck. we don't feel like we are getting what we want out of them, we are not sure what it is, but we think we are not getting it, tear it all down. now, you are going to see what tear it all down means. now you will find out what it means to have a nonfunctioning department of justice, to see the system of justice at the federal level essentially collapsing around you. people who are caught in different aspects of criminal process that cannot get

resolutions, because there aren't attorneys to work those cases. crime rates start to rise. this will be an inconvenient truth for the party that ran on this idea that crime is out of control, which it is clearly not right now and they were going to do something about that. as crime rates rise as more fentanyl comes into your community, as drug gangs for the parade because no one is there to arrest them , these are some of the things that will cause the american people to stay like, and i really sure of what i.here? but be there no mistake, this is what they voted for. now, we are all going to see how that works out. >> good to see you, andy. thanks for coming in. sarah. are we witnessing a mass exodus of x? the enormous drop we are seeing from users on elon musk's platform. able to make the ethics community public into matt gaetz, his alleged sexual misconduct expected by tomorrow . but now that he has quit

congress, will the public ever see that potentially damaging reports? those stories ahead.

this morning, twitter, or x , might be seeing a mass exodus of users . the largest single day drop since elon musk took over. cnn's claire duffy is here. there is some new ones here, but a lot of the users are just going away. aunt you, john. so, x had its best day, a spike in uses ship on election day and one day after, an estimated of 1.56 visits just on the mobile -- website, not including the mobile app. 100,000 users deactivated their account the day after election

day. that is the single largest drop we have seen since elon musk took over the company. it includes some really big names, uk newspaper, the guardian deactivated, don lemon, the "new york times" margate. a lot of these big hominid users left the site. >> all right it seems as if someone did not want that reported. the truth is out there. what we are reporting right there is a lot of users just deactivated their account, even though there had been a lot of traffic on x before, some of these other social media platforms are seeing a bump in user ship. dr. sanjay gupta just wrapped up a year-long investigation into what people are calling miracle drugs are the popular weight loss medicines like ozempic. what sanjay discovered about the long-term effects of it all. and the video was said to

be evidence of a bear attack on someone's car. now, the state of california says, it is actually evidence of blatant insurance fraud.

president-elect donald trump stand stunned capitol hill and the justice department when he tapped matt gaetz to be his attorney general, this, as the house ethics committee was about to vote on releasing it ethics probe on gaetz alleged sexual misconduct for which he

had denied. the doj also investigated gaetz for alleged sex trafficking, but never charged him. one justice department employee told cnn, the shock is intense. so, i want to make sure i have this straight, as the attorney general me could he actually have access to the investigation against him with names and everything in it? >> yes, sarah. as the attorney general , matt gaetz, if he is confirmed, he would be the person in control of investigative files that were so secretive, even the house ethics committee was unable to get them from the justice department. files that would have details from women who were ultimately testifying against him in that secret proceeding. it did not result in charges, but there were cooperating witnesses against gaetz, and this highlights how unusual this would be , unprecedented in many ways , to have someone like this coming into the justice department if

he is concerned. the other thing about gaetz, sarah, very little experience as a lawyer and certainly not as a prosecutor. ty cobb, who is a very prominent lawyer in washington, and someone who even had a very powerful role in donald trump's own white house as a lawyer in the previous time trump was in office, here is how he put it last night speaking with erin burnett. >> matt gaetz is just simply unqualified , both academically , professionally , ethically , morally , and experientially. he has no business being in the conversation. this is a choice that is contemptuous. i think anybody that has served in the justice department historically, and most of the people that are there today are deeply saddened by this , and it diminishes the pride in which they associate themselves with the department of justice.

>> reporter: so, gaetz is a person who has very publicly been opposed to the cases of donald trump, obviously the investigation that he faced . those he believed were political in nature, but much of the department's work isn't that. the attorney general is top law enforcement officer that has prosecutors across the country in more than 90 offices bringing cases in court on behalf of the united states, where judges are meeting to take them seriously. the top law enforcement officer of the united states. sarah. >> caitlin poland, thank you for your reporting there. political commentator , former spokesperson for north dakota governor doug burgum's 2024 presidential campaign . caitlin and sarah just talked about matt gaetz and questions over his qualifications, that is one thing. is now fully moves into the political sphere. this is a test for the new senate, which just named its new leadership yesterday in

johnstone john thune. how do you think they will handle this, given that so many republicans have questions about matt gaetz? >> this is probably going to be a recess appointment . they will handle it the same way they handle everything else, which is to duck and dodge and cower to donald trump. matt gaetz and tulsi gabbard have no business getting appointed to the positions they are in. i find it a great deal of irony in the fact that people voted for donald trump so that they could get the cost of eggs and milk to be lowered, not whatever this is. it is kind of obscene to actually think about matt gaetz being over the attorney general, over the department of justice , and being attorney general. for democrats, this is a lesson. i remember democrats, we pushed al franklin out of the united states senate because of a wayward picture he took and the outrage around that picture . somebody who was accused of sexual misconduct, republicans make him an attorney general. >> bukhari just mentioned , he

thinks republicans will, i think the word you used was cower to donald trump. okay, mark wayne mullen, senator from oklahoma , has , i think i think shifted his position on matt gaetz. a year ago, i want you to listen to what he said about gaetz, and listen to what he says yesterday to jake tapper after the announcement of the nomination. here it is. >> we had all seen the videos he was showing on the house floor that all of us had walked away, of the girls he had slept with. he bragged about how he would crush ed medicine, and chase it with an energy drink so he could go all night. >> i completely trust president trump's decision-making on this one. at the same time, you've got to come to congress and sell himself. if he can't, we will go through the

confirmation process. >> the ed medicine, just so everyone knows, he was talking about erectile dysfunction medicine that gaetz was bragging about on the house floor. how do you expand that transformation for mark mulder? >> anyone aligned with donald trump, it is the republican voters out there. a note of caution to any republican thinking about crossing him on some of these appointments. i would begin there. i don't take it is currently, i would understand that republicans are solid with donald trump. i know it is early, i will bring up a sore spot for bukhari, and that is last week's election. the voters spoke clearly last week that they want donald trump to come to town and take a sledgehammer to everything in washington, d.c. it was not just about eggs, yes, that was an issue, the cost of living out there, but it was about shaking up the system here in washington. the question for democrats is, are they going to continue this hair on fire, world is ending approach with everything one of donald trump's decisions for me or is

this president-elect going to be allowed to fill out his cabinet as every other president is allowed to do? there will be a process that will go through the senate and they will be able to on that. it seems to me based off last week's boat, the voters are looking for latitude with the resident elect. >> what happens if there is a confirmation hearing? do you think matt gaetz will be asked about this court decision that will be due out in two days, do you think he will withstand a senate confirmation hearing? >> that is what confirmation hearings are all about. of course he will get asked . he will get asked about every single issue that goes on out there from immigrants and republicans. that is the whole point of a confirmation hearing . that is the process i am talking about, and that is the issue here. >> lance, do you say, without a confirmation hearing, will you sit here and say, you would not support a matt gaetz nomination? >> it does not matter what i support . >> yeah, it does. as a republican activist, i want to know what your opinion is. do you think that without a senate confirmation , without a senate

confirmation that it would not be a where the or a valid nomination? >> that is a decision for the senate to make an a present decision for the president-elect to make. that is why we have a process in place and to understand . i'm going back to what the voters spoke to last week in terms of, they knew exactly what they were getting in donald trump. it was about the cost of living, about immigration, but also about changing the way washington works. i don't know much of talking heads and elitist here in washington, d.c. saying, he's not good, is going to sway it with others . i think they are expecting for the president to get a little latitude over the course of the next several weeks to put his cabinet together. and then it will go to the senate, and then confirmation hearing, and we will see how that process plays out. >> i don't know it will go to a senate hearing. a part of the way washington works, it is written in the constitution for advice in the way it works for confirmation . >> absolutely. >> because if it is a recess appointment, it may happen

without advice , correct, bacardi? >> look , republicans won the election . we are squarely in the f.o. part of the fo ao . i'm sitting back and watching with the part that people forgot came with donald trump. donald trump has this kind of amazing ability to have great in like lance have to come on tv and defend matt gaetz . i don't think lance would defend matt gaetz at a bar, but he has to defend him on international tv. that is the position donald trump with his friends and allies in. there is no way that the three of us honestly believe that someone who has accusations , going through a health ethics probe of sexual misconduct deserves to be attorney general of the united states . and we can't even say or articulate that there must be at least, at bare minimum, a confirmation hearing to put him in that position. but the thing

i do have to say lance is absolutely correct about is that this is what the voters asked for. this is what america wanted. they wanted this level of chaos. and if they forgot what donald trump was about, these next 18 months are going to be a trend 27 of a reminder of what donald trump is about. now, you have been accused of sexual misconduct as attorney general, you have someone who is bashir al-assad and vladimir putin apologist over d& i and a fox news anchor as secretary of defense. this is what you wanted, this is what you get. >> you can continue to cast aspersions on these people, but i don't think that is what the voters are looking for right now. >> we will see. we will see if the senate exercises its constitutional prerogative. great to see you both. thank you. >> perfect summary, we will see and we will see, exactly right. a closer look at the medicines people are calling miracle drugs, glp-1 medications like ozempic,

wegovy, have helped millions get their weight under control. the question has been, what the long-term effects are and who should and should not use the meds. sanjay gupta just wrapped a year-long investigation on this. here is a preview. >> what it did help me was , not have a whole lot of thoughts about food. my cravings went away. >> reporter: those voices in her head that made her crave food, experts call it food chatter, they were silenced. and that is part of the magic of the new medications. glp-1 seems to act in a way not known ramon can. here is how it seems to work. every time you eat , all sorts of hormones are released like glp-1 . they are called post-nutrient hormones. they travel here to the hypothalamus and the brain to tell you that you are full , or satiated. they also traveled over here to the pancreas to kick out more insulin to help

absorb the energy you just consumed . also, over here, to your gut, to slow down the emptying , allowing you to better digest your food. in so many ways, it seems like the perfect hormone to help you stop eating as much . seemed perfect for rashida . in the first year, she lost 100 pounds. it changed her life . >> it changed her life and this man has changed mine. dr. sanjay gupta is here. you went deep on this. you spent months investigating this. how have drugs changed our, and your understanding of obesity disease? >> i think one of the biggest things was the idea of thinking of this as a brain disease. for some people, when they eat, they don't feel full, kate. they have this thing called food chatter constantly happening in their brain .

these hormones, as you just saw, tend to affect the part of the brain called the hypothalamus, your satiation center. after you eat, you should feel full. some people with obesity , they just don't have that. it is kind of remarkable. even as they are eating, they are already thinking about their next meal. if their pantry is empty, they start to get exciting and have to go to the grocery store. interesting spending a year with people who went through this. this is a disease that affects 40% of the country. the way we measure is still so basic bmi. you can take a look at sort of the way it is measured your weight and height basically divided. it is an easy measurement, but it is very fundamental. what i think a lot of doctors are starting to do is, can we at a basic screening test, just take a tape measure, measuring your waist around the lowest part, the smallest part of your waist, around the belly button and your hip and basically finding that ratio. if you have a high bmi and a waist to hip ratio that you can see on the screen that is too high, that

could be a concern as well. how we measure obesity, what exactly does to the body-- >> and how we try to fix it . when you think about the surgeries you could get when it comes to trying to attack obesity, that is doing nothing to what you are talking about, the desire and lack of satiation people get when they are eating is just darting you and making your stomach feel full. >> that is why we see, even with people that have these pretty invasive procedures, they have these recurrences , because the body does not sort of react. >> real quick me one question has been the long-term effects of using the meds, what you find? >> i will tell you two things, as much as we have heard about these medications the last two years, they have actually been around quite some time. we have long-term data on them, there were drugs approved more than a decade ago. i think one of the biggest concerns is, when you lose weight, you are losing not

just fat mass, but you are losing muscle mass as well. if you are not doing things to maintain your muscle mass, especially in older people, that could be a significant concern. lowering life expectancy. you have to change your lifestyle on these drugs. more than half the people who start these medications stop taking them within 12 weeks. people thought these were going to be lifelong drugs or the majority of people, not the case. side effects, other people may develop a tolerance to the medications, some just don't like the way they are making them feel, so they stopped taking them. >> fascinating . i cannot wait to see what you have found. really, really great. thank you so much for coming in. as if he needed more brains, he brings an extra one along. literally, stopped rubbing it in my face! please don't forget, dr. sanjay gupta will be back later this week to answer your questions about weight loss drugs. head to cnn.com and

submit your questions. >> always good to have an extra brain. a new inflation report just out, you are going to want to hear it, but you might not like it. brace yourselves, because this news might shake you to your core. scientists have discovered the world's largest coral . what should they call it?

the president-elect chose the now former republican congressman matt gaetz to be his attorney general, as the same week as a house ethics committee plan to meet and vote on a report looking into allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use against gaetz. gaetz has

repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in his resignation from the house effectively and probe. it is not clear if the report ever will become public. join me now is former general counsel of department of defense , j johnson. we are so happy to have you here. you have been through some of these congressional grilling's, if you will. when it comes to these positions you pat, i wanted to talk to you first about the conversations you have had with representative matt gaetz, now up for the job of attorney general. if confirmed to me what you see happening? >> first, i have to say , in the 50 years i have been observing american politics, this nominee is probably the least qualified i've ever seen for the position nominated. when i first saw the news , i thought it was a russian hoax, or a joke. to nominate for the position of chief law enforcement officer of the united states, someone who has

at one point himself been the subject or the target of a criminal investigation, who is the subject of an open house ethics investigation, has the appearance that our government is not devoted to the rule of law. and my sincere hope is that the u.s. senate takes seriously its constitutional duty to advise and consent on this presidential nomination . i know a number of senate republicans, who i respect , who i believe and hope they will take their constitutional duty to scrutinize this nomination carefully. put aside collins and murkowski , who i know is going to be skeptical of this. people like john hoven , people like john corbin, chuck grassley , my friend lindsey graham . i know that they understand what the advice of content process is all about. i know it myself, i have

been through it three times. they turn your life upside down, looking through everything. with respect to the nomination of matt gaetz and all of the other nominations by this vice president-elect, i hope that the senate takes its duty seriously, does not turn its back on its obligations by going into recess, and scrutinizes this nomination in particular very carefully. >> do you think that this points to potential retaliation? matt gaetz has, and we have some reporting that he is basically going to burn it all down from the inside out. >> to abolish the department of justice itself . it certainly has that feel . it has the feel of retribution, retaliation , and what is interesting to me, i have heard from a number of people now inside the department of justice. the first reaction with a nomination like this is to walk out. literally walk out. but i believe those in the department of justice , committed to the

rule of law, committed to law enforcement are going to double down in the face of this and rededicate themselves to their jobs, enforcing the law in this country. >> let me ask about another nomination, tulsi gabbard for the director of national intelligence committee. she oversees all of the intelligence agencies, i think 18 of them . she has spread russian propaganda, challenged the intelligence on whether president assad used chemical weapons, which the intelligence said, he had certainly done. now, she is in this position to potentially head the high intelligence agency, overall intelligence agencies. what does this mean to you? >> i am going to surprise you a little bit . i don't think that it is an absolute prerequisite that the director of national intelligence be someone of the intelligence community. i also believe that on occasion , it is a good thing to be skeptical of the

intelligence that we are provided. those of us who are in a position of making serious decisions, policymakers . i have received intelligence that i have been skeptical of and i have asked the hard questions. i have asked to speak to the briefers directly who wrote the report. being skeptical of what the intelligence community produces can be a good thing. and i am thinking of the intelligence leading up to the iraq war, for example. again, i believe that the senate has a constitutional obligation to advise and consent on this nomination and scrutinize it carefully. >> let me ask you about another controversial pick. fox news anchor pete hegseth. he did serve in the army national guard now he is up for secretary of defense. he said a few things. he has lobbied for people accused of war crimes in afghanistan. he recently said that women do not belong in combat roles . you have said that you give him the benefit

of the doubt, why? >> i give him the benefit of the doubt on at least the nomination, at this point . because here is somebody who is well educated, obviously intelligent , was in financial services, was in the wall street community for while, could have made a lot of money, chose to leave that, put on the uniform of our country and see combat. i give him the benefit of the doubt for that reason. being -- with all due respect, being a cable news host does not necessarily qualify you to be secretary of defense. >> it certainly does not. >> so, again, this is a nomination where the senate has a duty to scrutinize the things he has said, the positions he has taken, the positions he has taken with respect to those that have been found responsible for war crimes . one of the reasons our u.s. military, and i worked