>> 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

alongside the u.s. military at the pentagon for years . one of the reasons it is the greatest and strongest military on earth is not just because of our raw power, it is because of the military's dedication to the rule of law and dedication to adhering to the rules. >> it will be politicized yes or no when it comes to this idea that donald trump wants to remove quote, unquote generals? >> i am not even sure what that means. i can only tell you, in the years i worked alongside three and four star generals at the pentagon, i did not know their politics, i did not care what their politics words i did not ask me they do not tell me. it was, here is the mission, how do we get it done? simple as that. >> do you think the litmus test is being put out by trump to politicize it? >> yes, i do. this signal, this so-called warrior board since to have outsiders event three and four star generals to me has the sound and the feel , and the smell of the litmus test, exactly.

i so appreciate you coming in and discussing this. a new hour of cnn central starts right now . totally unqualified, unfit professionally, lacking in moral character. that's how john bolton is reacting to donald trump's pic of matt gaetz as attorney general. new reporting about other big changes that could be coming to the white house. the president-elect set to allow maga aligned voices into the briefing room. premature births in the united states are at an

all-time high, with thousands of women facing inadequate prenatal care. i'm kate bolduan, this is cnn news central. >> loyalty or lunacy, this morning, new fallout as some republican lawmakers dance around their divisions over one of the newest members of president-elect trump's maga dream team. trump has tapped matt gaetz to be his attorney general which means, trump now wants the senate to confirm a man who was under investigation . evan perez is leading us off this hour, what are the latest reactions you are hearing coming in from this?

>> there's a lot of shock and a lot of concern about what exactly matt gaetz plans to do, is he going to do with the justice department with the fbi and all of the agencies under there, what he's done to the house of representatives. you remember he had the push to oust speaker mccarthy and there were days of chaos while they try to find a new speaker, that is the kind of thing that would lead to a lot of concern if that's the kind of leadership that you have at the head of the justice department. but let's hear from some of the people in congress when i first heard this, because shocking is definitely the word i heard a lot yesterday. listen. >> i'm very troubled. >> matt gaetz . i don't know

yet, i'll have to think about that one. >> any concerns? >> we will see. >> do you think he can be confirmed? >> we will find out, won't we? >> senator, what you think about matt gaetz as attorney general? >> happy thanksgiving. >> you see them trying to avoid discussing this nomination that the president-elect has now announced. but let's remind people why there is this reaction . the potential attorney general matt gaetz has been under investigation by the justice department as well as the house ethics committee. the justice department ended up not charging him but here are the allegations, he was being investigated for sexual misconduct, sex trafficking investigation, illicit drug use, accepting improper gifts, obstructing the investigation and once the justice department ended the investigation, the house ethics committee investigation has been investigating the report, sarah, was due to be released

perhaps as soon as later this week, tomorrow, perhaps, but the congressman has now resigned which means that that investigation is over and we don't know whether that report will ever see the light of day. i'll mention one last thing, which is, the background check that matt gaetz would undergo, under normal circumstances, it would require that as part of the confirmation process but senate republicans could decide otherwise, they can decide they don't want that and also, how does he get a security clearance? president trump could just order the clearance to be given to him, he's done this before with jared kushner, so the lanes are clear, if senate republicans and the incoming president want it to be. >> thanks for that reporting. we will see what happens. with us now, jim schultz, cnn legal commentator and elliott williams formal federal prosecutor and friends, i want to talk about the constitution because it's 9:06 a.m. and our viewers are demanding it. also because there are people legitimately sick, there could

be a constitutional crisis, i think small c or big c over this. in the constitution, article 2 section 2, clause 2 says, in order for a president to get appointments, he shall nominate and by and with the advice and consent of the sentence -- census should judges of the supreme court and all other officers of the united states. elliott, attorney general is an other officer of the united states. what has that meant for the last, oh, 200+ years of america being a country? >> it's no more important not just to the viewers of the show, but to the 100 senators, they regard this role as the most important, for instance mitch mcconnell won an award from the crystal institute this week and in his remarks, fired

a shot at president trump saying how important the advice and consent process is. look, there is a process whereby if the senate goes into recess, if it leaves, the president can just put his people in without getting them senate confirmation. i think that's what president trump is baiting the senate to do here. this was a shot across the bow, to the incoming senators in particular to senator john thune, this is a big problem, not just for the justice department but that the senators they have a big choice to make. >> recess appointments, now, there's one way of doing that that would require the senate deciding to go on recess, john thune will be the senate majority leader, just got picked yesterday. if he has senators to not be attorney

general, do you think you will go on recess? >> one thing the senate does is protect the senate power. the legislative branch tends to protect its own power against the executive branch at every turn they can, because the senate, that institution, those 100 senators, it's a club, they very much want to protect that club, and i don't see them going in and allowing this president to have recess appointments, for a candidate as controversial as matt gaetz. i just don't see it happening. >> so, you think john thune would try and keep that from happening, how do you think he feels this morning, it was like minutes, minutes, after he gets picked as the senate majority leader, donald trump says congratulations and here's this, here's matt gaetz. >> so, i think at this point,

it's for john thune, as someone said the other day, buckle up, and i think that is exactly right, he needs to buckle up because this is just the beginning. trump, what he's doing is, if you sit in his shoes which is hard to do, and try and think like he thinks, he's sitting here saying, what was the most pushback, where did you have the most problems, who came at him the most when he was president? the intelligence community, the justice department in his view, and the defense department, all in his view, that's where it is, so what is he going to do? he's going to flood it with people who he thinks are going to carry out his agenda and in this instance, without regard to what the senate perception of that is going to be. i think this is going to be one of those moments where the senate is going to stand up and say no, we have a job to do, we are

going to do it and they are going to take matt gaetz to task and for that matter, every other nominee that trump puts forward, they will be taken to task and historically, there's always a couple that don't make it through the process. >> that is very true. that was a good segue to this option three, which is article 2, section 3, the president, he may on extraordinary conversions , he may adjourn them to such a time as he shall think proper, this would be not just a break glass but rake constitution moment elliott, and it's never been tested with a cabinet appointment. the idea that a president could unilaterally force a recess to put his cabinet in place. >> let's go to a constitutional law classroom right now and the most important clause is, in case of a disagreement between the houses, what this would require is the senate and the house to in a sense, talk beforehand and agreed to have a disagreement about this vote, so this would

require for lack of a better word, collusion with john thune and mike johnson, to suspend order and then start putting his people in, john cut it if you know star wars, this is the emperor's staff, suspending the rules of the legislature, in order to push sort of an agenda through, and again, you know, folks can make the argument this is what the people voted for who voted for change, and that's fine, but i don't know if change is a guy that has been investigated for six crimes being attorney general of the united states. >> i will say that politico said that it was more star trek than star wars. thank you both very much. a quote, it's a travesty. that's the reaction to the new report out this hour on the

premature birthrate in this country right now. the american dream, becoming tougher to achieve. how much you need now in order to afford maintaining a home.

the nonprofit march of dimes has given the united states a d+, and this has to do with the premature death pardon me, premature birthrate in this country right now. this is the third year in a row that that rate has remained at an

all-time high. jaclyn, what are you learning? >> we know for sure that the numbers are high, about one in 10 babies born here in the united states are born too early. according to the march of dimes, the preterm birth rate was 10.4%, so 10.4% of births were preterm last year, and we know preterm birth is a leading cause of infant death. so this s is heartbreaking data we also know, when you look city by city there are regional differences, the top 100 us cities with the highest numbers of babies born, there is the three cities have the highest birthrate, detroit, cleveland and mobile, alabama, and the three cities with the lowest preterm birth rate were ramapo, new york, irvine, california and gilbert, arizona. so this is a complex issue but it's one that is ongoing and it's one that's heartbreaking to

watch. >> absolutely heartbreaking. who is most at risk? >> some of the risk factors for preterm birth include having certain medical conditions like high blood pressure, being older than 35 during your pregnancy, having twins or triplets, smoking, experiencing high stress, but we do know that there are steps that people can take to reduce the risk. number 1, advocate say we need to make sure that all mothers are getting adequate prenatal care during their pregnancies. we know working with a dula or a midwife can reduce that risk and for some pregnancies, taking a daily low-dose aspirin can help reduce risk. so this is something you want to talk with your provider about. >> this fold in to a discussion you and i have been having for quite some time which folds into, a lot of women do not

have adequate access to pre-and post natal care which fold in exactly to what we are talking about here. the united states i believe it is the worst on the list of industrialized nations at pre-and post natal care for women and babies. fold it all together, a huge crisis still, thank you. how does a bear outfit and insurance fraud go together? we shall explain that to you, ahead, and as donald trump rewrites the rules, new reporting this morning that also applies to press briefings. we will give you a look at what to expect, ahead.

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

this morning it's not clear if former congressman matt gaetz will get the 50 votes needed for senate confirmation again, it's a senate matter but you get a sense of doubt from republicans from the house side, ohio congressman, a republican, max miller told axios, gaetz has a better shot at having dinner with queen elizabeth then being confirmed by the senate. lauren, i don't want to be the bearer of bad news but queen elizabeth is no longer with us. so max miller is saying that gaetz has a 0% chance of getting confirmed . >> the other piece of bad news, for house republicans as they don't have a say in who gets confirmed in the senate but

there were a lot of republicans last night, who were also surprised, shocked, as well as concerned, about this nomination. senator lisa murkowski republican told our colleague that this was not a serious choice for this department, also, we heard yesterday from senator joni ernst who told me as she was walking onto the floor that matt gaetz is going to have to work really hard to actually get confirmed. here's some of the other reactions we saw. >> i don't know yet, i'll have to think about that one. >> i was shocked that he has been nominated , if the nomination proceeds, i'm sure there will be an extensive background check by the fbi and public hearings and a lot of questions asked. >> presidents are entitled to have the people that they want

>> do you think matt gaetz is confirmable? >> we will find out, won't we? >> john, republicans have a larger majority in the united states senate than they've had in a while but they still could only afford to lose a handful of votes on the floor, so there's going to be a lot of work ahead, that assumes that matt gaetz can make it out of the senate judiciary committee, he will be vetted and they will have to vote on whether or not to advance gaetz and his nomination. >> if there is a hearing, that could be explosive. thank you very much. >> joining me now are our political commentators. all right, we've got new reporting from a insider saying that people being in a state of shock was the goal and that's exactly what the maga gaining

once. is this a serious choice or do you see a major fight happening? >> i think the president-elect has to decide, sarah, if he wants to expense any political capital on this. and you can't afford to lose 4 to 5 votes, if this were to make it out of committee, so if he really wants gaetz , he has to begin the process of making calls to republicans on the committee so it can go before the entire senate, but i think, a bigger and fascinating component is what exactly is donald trump's eat those as it pertains to the doj and prosecutors writ large. and i think what the signals is the president-elect believes the prosecutors have too much power, too much influence and too much respiratory discretion, and he's attempting to send a signal to

prosecutors at the federal level and maybe even down, that he wants someone who's going to be a complete disruptor, a wrecking ball to the doj, to radically change and transform the place based on his experiences, so that within itself is fascinating for a litany of reasons. >> on that subject, you know, the gaetz nomination who did himself face a sex trafficking probe by the department, he would, if confirmed, lead, is this a big indication that retribution and revenge is a priority? >> it is, those charges were not followed through, the biden justice department said there wasn't enough evidence to pursue. i wish shermichael were right . i wish he was just concerned about prosecutorial, he doesn't want a department of justice, he was a department of vengeance, either he will force the republican senate to

confirm and they always bend to his will. if you do an mri, you will never find a spine. there utterly spineless, he will put a recess appointment in, and that will subvert the senate, by the way, you want a prediction? is going to subvert the fbi background process because people say mr. gaetz has sketchy things in his background, he won't have a background check. he will be submitted without a background check why? because of what the source told our reporter. he wants to insult the senate, it's caligula in the year 38, in rome, because he wanted to show contempt for the senate. >> i can't believe caligula has come up twice in two hours, but there we are. let's talk

about another controversial pick, tulsi gabbard, nominated to be director of national intelligence. she has spread russian propaganda and question the intelligence, you know, of whether or not chemical weapons were used in syria and visited on a secret trip to see the syrian president. why her? when you look at her background and what some of the things that she's said, there are serious worries that she could be a danger to the national security of this country, what do you think? >> she's a veteran, she will have to go through a background check is all nominees will have to go through, she will go through a committee hearing and if confirmed she will go to the entire senate. that's just the entire process. the president-elect gets to nominate whoever he wants,

sometimes you confirm folks and sometimes you don't. but i think more importantly, why he probably went with the former congressman, she's very antiwar, and trump has been someone, even when he was president before, very skeptical of the united states getting bogged down in these protracted, expensive and lengthy conflicts across the globe. so i think he's looking at her as more of someone who has a foreign-policy perspective that is similar to his in terms of how much engagement we should be in, in terms of some of these conflicts we are seeing, so i think it is more about that and less about some of the concerns that some folks on the left may raise about her background but she will go through a background check and if she passes, then she will be confirmed. >> i see you wagging your head there, paul, but let me quickly play this from john bolton who talked to kate bolduan about these pics, particularly tulsi

gabbard but also gaetz. >> well, i thought it was the worst cabinet level appointment in history, until i heard about that matt gaetz appointment, now, we are going to see whether the american senate can stand up and reject to people who are totally unqualified, unfit professionally and really, lacking in the moral characteristics, the character that you need to hold these jobs. i think this vote should be 100 to nothing, against both of them. >> paul, do you see that happening? >> no. no. i'm not sure there's going to be a vote. if it looks like he doesn't have the votes and he will get it, he will put in a recess appointment, and i hope shermichael is right, there

always has been a background check in the fbi, i don't think there will be this time, why am i so sure? they've hinted at that from trump land, second, it's already been done, senator sheldon whitehouse released a six-year study of how the fbi followed up on tips of the allegations against rhett kavanagh when he was trump's nominee for the supreme court. and you ought to read the report. he says the tip line the fbi set up, all the tips they didn't go to the fbi, trump had them diverted to the white house of the white house was being tipped off about the accusers were and what the evidence was. he's going to politicize the fbi and he will take the senate out of the confirmation process and that's why some of his closest aides in his first term use the word fascist about him now. >> we will leave it there with your prediction, let a see what happens shermichael, but thank you both, kate? >> and effing nightmare, not talking about what we were talking about, i want to make this clear, i love what we do

all day long but it's an effing nightmare, that's what i'm reading, ridiculous, totally unqualified, that's coming from some of former officers about who trump wants to be in his cabinet.

the american dream of owning your own home seems to be getting further away for a heck of a lot of americans. a new report shows if you want to

buy a home now, you will need some serious cash or make some serious money. matt egan is with us now. how much are we talking about here? >> six figures, this new report finds that the household income needs to be $108,000 a year in order to afford a new, single-family home and pay for home insurance and taxes, look at this, this is double, almost double what it was before covid, of course the problem is that not only have home prices gone up but mortgage rates have, too, and home insurance, especially in some of the hard-hit hurricane areas, people are making more money but often not enough. one in three, 36% of households make enough money to afford to buy that new home and pay for the insurance and the taxes . that is down significantly from 59%

before covid, and this is why it feels like the american dream is out of reach for far too many people. when you look at the math, you can see the least affordable markets are some of the ones that you would suspect, l.a., san francisco, boston, new york. in all of these cities, you need household income above $200,000 a year to afford a home, led by san jose, where you need to make $460,000 a year. president-elect trump has talked about this issue on the campaign trail. he's laid out a number of ideas, tax incentives to build more homes, you talked about keeping mortgage rates low, of course that's not up to the president, it's up to the bond market and rates have been going up, one last point, he's talked about mass deportations to curb demand but we know that one in four construction workers are undocumented, so if we lose workers, you're going to either have to pay the existing ones more or you will be able to build as many homes. >> matt, thanks so much.

this just in, the satirical news website, the onion, has won the bankruptcy option to buy alex jones is infowars, it was backed by families of the victims of the sandy hook massacre. the group won a billion-dollar lawsuit against alex jones and his company in 2018, this was over him spreading baseless, horrible conspiracy theories about the sandy hook massacre, even saying the shooting never happened and that it was made up. according to reports coming in now, the onion plans to turn infowars potentially into a parody itself but there's a whole lot of questions of what this means now. let me bring in media analyst sara fisher, tell

me more about what you're hearing as we are learning, the onion, they won this bidding war for infowars, what could the onion do with it? >> the great thing is that the onion can do absolutely anything at once because it's independent, the onion was part of the bigger media company that was owned by a private equity firm and as such a lot of the investments really had to go through the parent company, now that it's independent, it can make acquisitions like this and do whatever it wants, when alex jones, today, talking to his listeners was talking about what's going on he said they seized my equipment, seized parts of my studio so the onion could theoretically take his equipment and start broadcasting however they like. of course you can imagine they're going to do a lot with rebranding and trying to make it the parody that fits its mold. >> he could jump over to

another site, potentially but can alex jones fight this? >> it would be really hard for him to fight it, remember, the bankruptcy judge is approving this process because he owes $1.5 billion to the families and the only thing he could have done prior to this would have been to get another ideologically aligned player to come up with the money to join the bidding process and try and get it sold to someone who was allied with him. that didn't happen. so i think alex jones is out of options, all he can do is complain about it, he can try and create a rival site, he has more of a platform since he is back on! it'll be really hard. he's built up this brand

over so many years and i think it'll be torturous for him to watch the onion make a parody of it. >> but when you think about the torture that these families have suffered from his conspiracy theories, i mean remind folks, of just what alex jones has done and how he has utilized infowars to spread his conspiracy theories for so long? >> alex jones is one of the most prolific conspiracy theorists in the united states, period. he alleged the us government plotted 9/11. he made the lives of these families of sandy hook victims, absolute by spewing conspiracy theories for years, most tech platforms kicked him off because they thought he was too toxic to the environment and so when the judge says that he owes those families $1.5 billion, one thing i should note, they are going to use

some of those proceedings that would've gone to them to push the site against him and it gives you a sense of how much the sandy hook families want to make sure that he gets a taste of his own medicine. >> thank you so much, great new reporting on axios. everyone should look at it. john? this weekend, cnn has new back-to-back episodes of the series how it really happened, they follow the deaths of seven people who were poisoned by cyanide laced tylenol in 1982. the investigation that followed changed the way that medications and other goods are packaged. >> after a week of chaos and frenzied investigatory efforts, investigators got an interesting new lead . >> the author of the letters claimed to be the tylenol killer. >> he writes, he doesn't like president reagan's proposed tax laws and he writes a letter to president reagan saying you heard about those tylenol killings, well, i have lots of airline tickets and i can go other places and do this but i

won't do that, if you change the tax laws. >> and the letter to johnson and johnson demanded $1 million to stop the killings. >> how it really happened airs sunday night at 9:00 only on cnn.

in the 50 years i've 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. >> that was former homeland security secretary johnson speaking just last hour. who he's talking about, donald trump's picked to be the next attorney general of the united states, matt gaetz, other current and former military commanders are reacting the same way, one, calling trump's staffing choices right now a effing nightmare, jim, what are you hearing from your sources? >> alarm, and by the way, this is not personal, when i speak to these sources, they don't have personal issues with many of the candidates, it goes to what their intentions are and what their qualifications are, and i spoke to senior military commanders, both current and former who have served both biden and trump, served under both administrations and the most colorful, you mentioned,

one describing it as an effing nightmare and another one described these appointments to me particularly with the dod as ridiculous. but i want to highlight one that stood out to me. this is one that relates to all the appointments, and it's about loyalty, this, from a recently retired four-star general who said the common denominator with these appointments is clearly loyalty and while some loyalty is essential, slavish fuel teeth is dangerous, we could end up with one mind controlling many hands and i've never believed that one mind should do that. and the other point i would highlight is when you look at these appointments it's not just personality issues, the folks involved have a fundamentally different view, many of them, the very functioning of the agencies they've been selected to lead. and the intention to deliver on some of trump's more extreme positions, pete hegseth at

state, it's not only that he was a fox news hose, he oppose women in combat, he has identified one third of senior military commanders as being somehow to woke for the dod and deserving of removal, and is a public proponent of the america first agenda which would upend u.s. relationships with its allies and adversaries, tulsi gabbard is someone who blamed biden and nato for russia's invasion of ukraine , so the folks involved have quite different views and you would expect them to deliver on those views if they were to get these positions. >> and it altogether, jim, what are you hearing , just speak in the near-term, the impact on foreign policy? >> well let's look at foreign policy in ukraine, many folks i speak to serve in the previous trump administration they

believe that he will end u.s. terry systems to ukraine and forced their hand to accept more than it wants to, to get some sort of peace with russia that means land, giving up significant portions of the land, they don't believe that donald trump will do what president biden did which is to say that they will defend taiwan militarily , how does china read that, as a green light, potentially. that has real consequences and then the questions become, what does this mean for u.s. alliances abroad, you and i have talked about this, donald trump is often, he's expressed skeptical views of the u.s. in nato, and there are concerns that if he does not -- also other alliances, these have real consequences, they're not just theoretical things and he's putting people in these positions who, it seems, he can count on to deliver on these positions.

>> it's good to see you, thank you so much. >> you've waited a long time for this, authorities in los angeles arrested for people for taking a bear attack to get insurance money, the suspects gave video claiming to show a bear opening the door of a rolls-royce and damaging the vehicle but really, the company says the bear was someone dressed in a bear suit. authority say the suspects used the same scheme into other incidents naming -- netting $140,000. >> they had a rolls-royce but they needed money from the insurance company? i'm confused. >> that's a good point. >> maybe it's a very expensive bear suit. >> also a good point. >> was it, though? >> you guys are both right. everyone is right. thanks for joining us. we will leave you with this -- >> those are real claws.

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