could a trump loyalist soon run the fbi? new cnn reporting on the push by right wing allies for trump to pick kash patel as fbi director, a maga fire brand who has threatened to go after trump's enemies. plus, it was the case that ignited a political fire storm, and now an undocumented migrant is in court charged with the murder of a georgia college student. prosecutors revealing new details, disturbing ones, in the case including how the victim, laken riley fought for her life for 17 minutes before her death. and a new study says obesity is at a crisis point throughout the united states, but could weight loss and diabetes drugs like ozempic and wegovy

change all of that. dr. sanjay gupta is going to join us to answer your questions about the drugs, that some have considered game changers. we're following these stories and more right here on "cnn news central. " one of the most controversial trump loyalists emerging as a pick for the key position in the president-elect 's incoming administration. sources telling cnn that trump is weighing a major change at the fbi, as allies lobby him to replace current fbi director chris wray with maga fire brand, kash patel, in troubling new detail about trump's defense secretary pick. officials in california confirming that former fox host pete hegseth was involved in a police investigation of a sexual assault allegation back in 2017. and trump's pick for attorney general also facing growing skepticism and doubts that he can get confirmed.

lawmakers in both parties demanding to see the findings of a house ethics investigation of matt gaetz for allegations of sexual misconduct and illegal drug use. the house speaker hopes the report is never released. >> i think it's a terrible breach of protocol, the rules of the house have always been, a form erp former member, i don't think that's relevant. that's not the way to do things in the house, and i think that would be a terrible precedent. >> cnn's kristen holmes is with us now in this story. let's start at the very beginning here. remind our viewers who kash patel is. >> yeah, and kash patel is a long time trump royalist, and he has really come under fire by everyone outside of trump's or bit for a number of things that he said in the past several years. just the tip of the iceberg is what we have on the slide,

which shows you that he said he would target journalists in the second term. he would find conspirators who rigged the 2020 election. kash patel is somebody who said he would and could find avenues to essentially dismantle what they call the deep state. the deep state referring to anyone in government who doesn't want to act the way that the president is directing them to act. we know it applies in large part to the fbi. it also applies to the department of justice, two organizations or agencies that donald trump has said he would complete gut and redo, if he were elected. if he does choose kash patel, there's a reason for that. it goes back to what we have been saying since donald trump won the election, in particular won the popular vote, which means donald trump has said he wants to dismantle these various agencies. he wants to redo the fbi, and he believes kash patel is somebody who would do that. kash has essentially said he could find as i noted, avenues in order to do this. when we look at the picture as

a whole, whether or not he chooses kash patel, this would just follow a long line of what we have seen are controversial cabinet picks who possibly wouldn't be able to get confirmed and that includes what we saw last night in rfk being named as hhs secretary. it also follows matt gaetz, tulsi gabbard, among others. what i am being told inside trump's orbit is that trump doesn't really care to have all of these conversations now about whether or not someone can get confirmed. there's an understanding among people who are close to donald trump that these people maybe might not all get confirmed. they are incredibly controversial figurings.es. donald trump is using this as an opportunity to put forward the people he believes can be effective messengers of the things he promised on the campaign trail. i cannot stress enough, one of the things he promised at every campaign rally before he won the election is he would put rfk in charge of health. of course yesterday we saw him do just that. again, there's no

disillusionment that everybody is going to have a smooth sailing time, getting themselves confirmed. donald trump himself hasn't minded the backlash. the people around him wasn't minding the backlash. they were watching everyone have a meltdown, and they knew it was coming. >> kristen holmes, live from west palm beach, florida, thank you. omar. for folks following the appointment process, you probably heard the term recess appointments a lot over the past few days. the question, of course, is what does it all mean? that's why i've got cnn's phil mattingly here to help explain that. so can you just walk us through the process here? i mean, who are we looking at? what is the reality of the situation. >> if there's a senate procedure bat signal, most normal people wouldn't want to see it. that's any driving force, animating feature. what are recess appointments, let's start with the process to your point. what the former president, president-elect is doing right now is what every president-elect does in this moment, decides he wants to be in his cabinet, announces

his intent to nominate them. we have a number of pickings. it's a little dangerous putting up the screen. you'll never know when another truth social is going to announce another pick. some of them as chris was noting, are controversial. all of them will have to go through the senate process, so what is that process? so the president-elect announces who he wants to nominate. we'll have to send the nominations up. then the senate committees that oversee the agents or departments where they're nominated will go through a vetting process, a senate committee, and the committee will have to vote to send those nominees to the floor. they can vote them down as well. that's usually the process. then the full senate will have an opportunity to vote. now it's worth noting, most of the time, presidents get deference. republicans have made clear the republicans will get deference here as well. not all the time, though. >> and there's a lot we're laying out here. how long does this typically take. >> speed is one of the issues the president- elect has talked about in terms of why he wants to consider recess appointments, but there is a

way to do this quickly. in fact, seven of the 15 picks confirmed of george h.w. push happened before assuming office. over the course of the last several administrations, the time lines have ranged from 60 days for president biden's entire cabinet to be confirmed to 90 and 100 days to be confirmed, for the former president, president-elect donald trump and barack obama. it can be a time consuming process. a lot of that has to do with your nominees, and how long it takes to vet them and get them through the process. >> it's a process where the nominees rarely fail. it happens. it happens where the nominees don't get the votes. how often and how prevalent is that? >> you make a great point in the sense that every administration in 40 years has had at least one nominee not make it through. how they don't make it through is what's been a little different from this moment. this is when former senator john tower, picked by george h.w. push picked to be the secretary of defense, being a former member of

the chamber, you assume that person is going to get through the process. he ended up failing. it was a shocking moment. the only nominee rejected by a senate vote in the last 50 years was the subject of an fbi investigation into drinking and sexual harassment. what happens generally, for all the other administrations, i think trump had six nominees, they were withdrawn. they see the writing on the wall, they understand where the votes are and they decide not to move forward. the administration pulls the nominee. we saw it once with the biden administration, with near tanden's nomination. >> all this is if there's a senate vote. where do recess appointments, senate votes for a nominee, where do recess appointments fall in this? >> literally in the constitution. it's important to note, what the former president-elect has put out on truth social is something many presidents have done in the past. in the constitution it states that the president gets to nominate his officers or cabinet officials and the senate has

to advise and consent on those picks. however, because it was the 18th century and was it was difficult to get to washington, the senate wasn't always in session, if they're out of session for a prolonged period of time, a recess, which they still take now, and for the purposes of continuity of the government the president needed his team in place, he could appoint somebody while the senate was out, automatically take the position, and that position could last up to two years. the question right now, what's also in the constitution and what has a lot of people unsettled at the moment is this. in times of extraordinary occasions, the president may adjourn the chambers of commerce. house and senate to such a time as he shall think proper. this provision we have highlighted here has never been used before. the former president, president-elect trump, have to get used to saying that. >> a majority vote to get to that threshold? >> i'll get to that in a sec. he threatened in 2020, the president says to both chambers of commerce, i'm adjourning you based on this authority,

therefore he could make recess appointments because they're out of session until he tells them to come back. never been done before. the president could tell the senate to go on stress. they would be able to do that with a simple majority vote. the real question right now is if they don't want some of these nominees, why all of a sudden would they all vote to adjourn congress so the president could go around them. the advise and consent piece of this is very important. senators are very very protective of their prerogative, at how that plays out over the coming weeks is critical to see if we get to this point. >> to get to this point, you would be giving up your advise and consent power in this dynamic. we have seen it used before, not this particular asset but recess appointments, how often does that happen? >> i think precedent here is really important, and that's that past presidents have used them on a regular basis. you saw ronald reagan, clinton, bush, all had more than 100 recess appointments. barack obama had 32. the process largely ground to a halt because of a supreme

court case when barack obama made a recess appointment. he was sued in 2014 over it. that's when court cases actually dictated that ten days is what constitutes a recess. that's how long the senate would have to be out to do what the former president wants. >> there are up to 100 appointments, appointments well beyond a cabinet at this point. just for people watching. >> of course, it's not just cabinets. >> phil, always appreciate you being here. thanks for breaking that down. after a series of highly controversial cabinet picks this week, here is what republicans senators are saying about those recess appointments. >> well, what i said is we're at, and i think that all options are on the table, including recess appointments. hopefully it doesn't get to that. >> i don't think we should be circumventing the senate's responsibilities. but i think it's premature to be talking about recess appointments. >> quite frankly, the senate should be here, do its work. a recess has to be more than two weeks already.

that would say that congress is not here already doing its task. >> look, we have a process under the constitution where the senate provides advice and consent, and i trust that process. >> joining us now to discuss is jamal simmons, former communications director for the vice president kamala harris and lance trover, former spokesperson for north dakota governor doug burgum's 2024 presidential campaign. okay. lance, so you hear what republican senators are saying there. you hear john thune, he doesn't sound totally sold on recess appointments. a lot of them don't. when it really comes down to it, what's your read? >> i would say if you're a republican in the senate, cross donald trump at your own peril. 95% of the republican party is aligned behind donald trump and his movement and what he wants done, and so if you're a republican, and you don't want to vote for one of his nominees, you could be facing a primary in the next election. look, i think is donald trump breaking from china? yeah, is this a violent shock to the system here in washington, d.c. , yeah, of course it is.

the guy who almost got 76 million voters, a lot of voters would be scratching their head if he weren't doing some of what he's doing right now. the average american hates what's going on in washington, d.c. they think the elites here run everything and are working against them. 75% of this country thinks we're heading on the wrong track. >> that doesn't mean they all want matt gaetz to be clear. >> 100%. i'm saying, if you go to average america, and they see the outrage kicked up, that tells voters i made the right decision including donald trump because he's taking a sledge hammer to the system. >> jamal, i'm going to bring you in on that point. there are a lot of people upset with the status quo overall. again, maybe they weren't pulling for matt gaetz as ag nominee, but regardless, upset with the status quo. if you're a democrat and you're sort of assessing, to use lance's words, the outrage level that you're having here, and you see

the amount of picks that have come through, whether it is -- whether it is matt gaetz, whether it's rfk jr. , whoever it might be. where do you fall there, if you're a democrat right now who you might be opposed to this, but you don't necessarily want to maybe go too far. i mean, i don't know, press secretary -- break it down for me. >> you really have to, at this point, bet that donald trump gets most of his nominees for precisely the reasons lance was saying. the senate is watery. these guys aren't going to stand up to donald trump. and remember when they had the senate vote for leader, that was an anonymous vote. everybody's going to go, maga is going to know who votes against some of these nominees. i reject the idea that people in america voted for donald trump because they wanted matt gaetz to be in office. that's not really necessarily the case at doj. or tulsi gabbard as director of national intelligence. i don't think that that's really the case. what's going to happen, i believe, is that donald trump, i'm hearing may look at

some of this like the apprentice. let's see what happens. we put all of these candidates in, let's see who rises and falls, and they have to do that on their own weight. how much is he going to put his own political capital in jeopardy. remember he cares about how people think about him. is he going to put his political capital in jeopardy to get some of these people through. i don't know if that's necessarily the case either. >> along these lines, we learned today, speaker johnson is requesting the ethics committee not release the report on matt gaetz. is the speaker telegraphing to members of congress who aren't gaetz fans to keep a lid on this. if you're a republican senator, wouldn't you want to know what's in that report if you are potentially going to vote to confirm this nominee? >> i'm sure the senate wants to know everything. if they release this report or leak this report out there, they might as well just close up shop. they would be violating their own protocols. let's remember, this was created by nancy pelosi, and

has been a witch hunt machine for members of both parties. nobody likes it over there in the house at all. one of the protocols that they live by is they don't release these reports. if they're going to go out and release it or leak it out there, then they might as well close up shop. they have zero credibility left at that point. >> jamal, thune has raised the specter of the report leaking. i hear what you're saying. his guest is, at some point, it gets out there. do you think that is a threat, do you think that is reality? and either way, you know, if you see that as a republican saying, hey, matt gaetz, this is going to come out. you really sure you want to go through with this, do you think they might just be underestimating his threshold for public humiliation? >> i think everyone has been underestimating donald trump and his kronnys for the last ten years, and they keep showing up. here's what i think, the

best option for everybody is for matt gaetz to withdraw. right? we know this stuff is going to come out. we know he's going to be drug through the mud and everybody's going to have to cosign somebody who may have been a sex trafficker and a drug user, like, as he's accused of. we don't have the evidence yet, but if that happens, every one of those senators is going to have to answer for that when they face the voters. for the senators up in the next two years, it might help in the primaries but a lot of those states, donald trump didn't win by that much. there's no telling what happens. and lastly, even if some of these people get across the finish line and put in office, you know, it could be grand opening, grand closing. people get in, as soon as they get ahold of the accuracy, gets ahold of them. rans priebus who was there for six ths or tom price didn't last long. some of those folks had to go. the story is not over. democrats, be patient, pick your spots, and take after the

ones you can get and let some of these guys and women go through. >> yeah, some of these republicans in the senate don't have a primary for six years. we should remember that. they aren't house members. jamal and lance, thank you so much to both of you. ahead this our on "cnn news central," are the kushners headed back to d.c. president- elect trump's son-in- law could play a role in his administration and sanjay gupta wrapped up a yearlong investigation into weight loss injections like ozempic. he's going to tell us what he's discovered about these revolutionary medications and their potential for long- term side effects. and disturbing revelations in the death of georgia nursing student laken riley, prosecutors reveal her smart watch captured a 17-minute fight for her life. that's next. "cnn news central" brought to you by ensure, nutrition for strength and energy.

play a key but outside role in president- elect trump's middle east effort, his son-in-law jared kushner. but diplomats and trump allies believe that kushner would hold no official administration job. his critics point out that kushner has significant financial interests in the region. >> they also note the deep ties he developed when he was the chief middle east negotiator during trump's first administration. kushner is credited for helping craft the abraham accords which normalized relations between israel and two arab nations. kiley atwood joins us now. what more do we know about what kushner might be doing here? >> look, it's because of those deep relationships he built during the first trump term that he is expected to play a pivotal role in the trump administration's second term middle east policy. when you talk to, you know, regional diplomats, they say that kushner has something that the incoming members of

trump's middle east team don't, and that's trust within the region, within these world leaders who he was able to connect with. we know the stories of him, you know, connecting with crown prince mohammed bin salmon of saudi arabia, staying up late into the night with him. one of the leaders he had a relationship with, and they say that trust is significant. we should also note there are likely to be complications this go around. jared kushner set up an investment fund in the last few years, and one of the investors to that fund is saudi arabia, $2 billion so there's some diplomats who i have talked to who said we have a concern about there being a prioritization of the u.s. /saudi relationship that could benefit kushner if he's involved here. another thing folks have pointed to when it comes to his role and how he would approach that are recent comments he made that were seen as very disconnected from the reality on the ground with regard to the war in gaza. he talked about there being

beach front property as an opportunity to develop. i want us to listen to the comments and then we can discuss them. >> in gaza's water front property, it can be very valuable if people would focus on kind of building up livelihoods, you think about the money that's gone into in tunnel network, and the munitions if that would have gone to education or innovation, what could have been done. i think that it's a little bit of aun unfortunate situation. i would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up. >> i talked to people about those comments, and they said they don't expect him to make comments like that going forward, not only because they irritate and make really depress the palestinian people but the arab nations in the region that stand by the gazans who have been through such horrifics last year. the other thing when it comes to kushner is how he interacts with the members of trump's incoming middle east team. i have been told by a source familiar with the situation, he's available to advise

and discuss the situation with them. we know he's had such a meeting with steve whit koff, the middle east envoy. >> we appreciate the report. let's turn to politics and foreign reporter at "axios," a cnn political and global affairs analyst, barack, talk to us a little bit about what the expectation is of the interaction with a trump term on how things shape in israel, how could trump winning impact the possible annexation of the west bank by israel, for instance, which far right members of the netanyahu's coalition are pushing for? >> reporter: well, i think one of the things i hear from a lot of people in the trump orbit is that all of those voices voices israel calling for annexation are getting way, way, way ahead of themselves, and don't really understand where trump really is these days, especially on the issue of the middle east.

in the first trump wanted to get an israeli/palestinian peace deal. i think this goal is still relevant for him today. he still wants to get it. this time he wants to get it as part of a broader regional deal with saudi arabia. this is where trump is aiming at, at least at the moment. so he's not aiming at annexation of anything. he's aiming the a peace deal, and in order to get that, he will need to get netanyahu to a totally different place where he is right now. and he will have to end the war in gaza. without that, he won't be able to get any promise. >> so that misunderstanding of where trump is, is that a bleach, barak, by people in netanyahu's coalition that they may have carte blanche to do what they want and that trump will enable that? >> well, i think, you know, they're miscalculating, and their miscalculating may be

based on things from the past or all sorts of misconceptions. at least at the moment, i do not get a sense from all the people i talked to that there's any intention by trump of his team to give a carte blanche or for netanyahu to annex to us back, and i'll tell you another thing, when i speak to people in the palestinian leadership, they tell me that they were, you know, very surprised by trump's positive tone and his conversation with palestinian president mahmoud abbas, and his emphasis on the fact that he wants to try and get a deal this time around. but the key will be the war in gaza, and as part of it, some sort of a hostage deal, and in two months, this will be trump's responsibility, and just to give you a sense tonight on one of his television channels, there was a poll that

showed that 69% of israelis want a hostage deal, and only 20% want the war to continue. ue netanyahu for now is with the 20%, and not with the 69%, and the question is where is donald trump going to be? >> yeah, you also have exclusive new reporting on israel's retaliatory strikes on iran in october, barak. tell us about what israel hit and why this is so notable. >> so i think the interesting thing is that israel hit a facility 30 kilometers, 20 miles southeast of teheran, and inside this facility that is called teleran 2, there was critical equipment that has to do with the plastic explosives that you need to create a nuclear explosion in a nuclear military device, in a nuclear bomb,

and the israelis took it out. and once they took it out, then any iranian attempt to move forward for a nuclear weapon will be much, much, much more difficult, and as a senior israeli official told me, this was the bottleneck, and without this bottleneck, the iranians are now stuck. >> it's really interesting. barak ravid, thank you very much. we appreciate your time. >> thank you. next, we are in georgia for the murder trial of laken riley, of the man who is suspected of killing her, a nursing student allegedly killed by an undocumented immigrant. prosecutors laying out their evidence piece by piece, including how riley's smart watch recorded the final minutes of her life.

drop everything and get some magic of your own during the xfinity black friday sale. xfinity internet customers, our best deals of the year are back! switch to xfinity mobile and get your choice of a free 5g phone,

plus your next unlimited line free for a year. get amazing savings and connect to wifi speeds up to a gig on the go with xfinity mobile. fly don't walk to get our best deals of the year. connect to the world of wicked this holiday, only in theaters november 22nd.

all right, everyone, this just in. as president- elect trump's staff takes shape, stephen chung is joining the white house as communications director. he rved as the spokesperson for donald trump's 2024 campaign, and during trump's first term he served as director of the strategic response. we're going to have more on this and trump's other cabinet picks at the top of the hour. we are following a lot of other news as well, including out of georgia where we're really following gruesome new details as the trial gets underway for the man accused of killing laken riley, the 22-year- old nursing student that was brutally attacked while jogging at the university of georgia back in february. prosecutors say the smart watch she was wearing captured her 17 minute struggle for her life

against her killer. >> the evidence will show that laken fought. she fought for her life. she fought for her dignity. and in that fight, she caused this defendant to leave forensic evidence behind. >> now, the suspect in this case is an undocumented migrant who waived his right to a jury trial, which means it's up to a judge to decide his fate in a case that's really become a lightning rod over climb and illegal immigration in the united states. rafael roman is outside the court in athens, georgia, what's the st right now? i know things are still underway. >> reporter: just before noon we witnessed what has been by far the most shocking and emotional moment of the trial

against the seoul suspect in the death of laken riley. the prosecution called sergeant maxwell with the university of georgia police department to the stand. he was the one who discovered laken riley's body, omar, the day of her murder, and body camera video he recorded was played in the courtroom. judge patrick haggard paused the proceedings to allow anyone who didn't want to see laken riley's body shown to have an opportunity to get out of the courtroom. we saw about half a dozen people leave, some of them in tears, as you can imagine, a very emotional moment. the video showed the moment sergeant maxwell found the body in a wooded area with the midsection and breast area partially exposed. this is what sergeant maxwell had to say in court about finding the body. >> it was more intentional, somebody had attempted to remove her top or maybe had used it to drag her. >> reporter: and omar, as the video was being played, we

could hear loud sobbing across the courtroom, in addition to the body camera video, the prosecution also revealed that they have the defendant's thumbprint on the victim's phone, another key piece of evidence for the prosecution is dna matching the suspect found under the victim's finger nails. investigators also found the victim's blood on the defendant's hat, as well as the victim's location, heart rate matching the time of the attack and video of ibarra disposing the evidence. omar, back to you. >> appreciate the reporting and this is just the beginning of the trial. we'll likely learn more details as this gets going. still ahead, they have been described as miracle drugs. you've probably heard of them at this point. cnn's dr. sanjay gupta finished a year- long investigation into the popular weight loss injeks rejectables like ozempic, wegovy, we'll hear what he learned next.

a new study predicts that almost 260 million people will be overweight or obese by 2050. that is sharply higher from about 209 million in 2021, and as america faces a growing obesity epidemic, there is a surge in popularity of so- called miracle drugs, glp-1 like medications including ozempic, wegovy, mounjaro, and there are questions about their long- term effects. cnn chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta who has just wrapped a yearlong investigation into these revolutionary medications, here's a look. >> what it did help me was not have a whole lot of thoughts about food. my cravings went away. >> 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 these new medications. glp-1 seems to act in a way that no other known hormone can. here's 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 in the brain to tell you that you are full or satiated. they also travel over here to the pancreas, to kick out more insulin to help absorb the energy you just consumed. and also over here to your gut, to slow down the emptying, allowing you to better digest your food. and in so many ways, it seems like the perfect hormone to help you stop eating as much. seemed perfect for rashida. in that first year, she st 100 pounds. it changed her life. >> dr. sanjay gupta is with us now on this story,

and sanjay, how have these drugs changed our understanding of obesity as a disease? >> you know, i think we are, with obesity, where we probably were with depression and maybe addiction a few decades ago. i think if someone had depression, pull yourself up by the boot straps, not really recognizing the impacts on the brain, the brain disease component of it. i think with obesity, as you just sort of heard there, this idea that there's a center in the brain that's responsible called the satiation center, it's responsible for you feeling full after you eat. okay. when you eat, those hormones send a signal to your brain, you've eaten, you don't need to eat anymore. some people just don't seem to generate that signal as well. as they're eating, they're thinking about their next meal. they develop anxiety if their pantry doesn't have enough food in it. that's, i think, where these medications are probably the most useful here, sending that signal to the brain that,

okay, you can quiet the food chatter, literally quieting the noise inside your head. i think it's given us these medications have given us that insight about obesity. >> and what do we know about the long-term side effects of the drugs because i think that is the real thing that people question about these. >> yeah, we really dug deep into this. a few points, one is that, first of all the medications have been around a lot longer than people realize. they sort of really came on to the scene a few years ago, but i traveled in europe. i was in denmark, for example. they have been there for a couple of decades now. point being that there is some long- term data on these medications. obviously a lot more people taking it now so that data needs to be collected. what we don't know as much about is people who are taking this for medically not necessary reasons, so they're taking it off label, so to speak. there's not a lot of data in terms of long- term exact impact for

those folks. that's something to be aware of. the third thing that really jumped out from every researcher we talked to is you know, when you lose weight on these meds, you can lose fat but you can also lose muscle, and losing lean muscle mass, that's a real concern. especially for older patients. predisposes them to falls. predisposes them to a shorter life span. how do you make sure that people don't lose muscle at the same time they're taking these medications? that's one of the big concerns in terms of longer term side effects. >> very important, and you will delve into more of this. we cannot wait, sanjay, thank you so much for that preview. you can tune in on sunday for dr. sanjay gupta reports, is ozempic right for you. that will air sunday night at 8:00 right here on cnn. and coming up, the host country for a climate conference just threw a wrench into the already chaotic summit, all of this as leaders worry about what president- elect trump could mean for the fight against global warming. we'll have details ahead.

welcome back, everyone. the latest u.n. climate talks have turned into a bunch of boycotts, political tirades and open celebration of oil and gas. now, though, top diplomats and scientists are demanding change, saying countries aligned with fossil fuels should be banned from future talks and calling for a fundamental overhaul. cnn's chief climate correspondent bill weir is following all of this. what's the latest. >> a small petro state, like azerbaijan should be holding a conference. the president of didn't do

himself favors scolding the world, saying their guest reserves are a gift from the god and they shouldn't be told it's evil. minister from france cancelling a trip, tension with the netherlands and the host country as well. this has led to this open letter from a bunch of high profile activists who are earnestly trying to get countries to agree on action. they're calling for stricter rules for host countries, limiting fossil fuel influence, pointing out there 2,000 fossil fuel lobbyists to keep drilling as long as possible, shifting the folks to action over negotiation. i guess there's hope with these folks that they have a week and a half left of the conference and they can pull it together. it does not seem to be going well, and of course, omar, the trump specter of that presidency pulling out of the accords, undermining for many.

we saw the president of argentina pulling out dramatically on his way to mar-a-lago. >> and of course, you know, the united states election happens right before this conference has implications on how a lot of these countries shape their own policies. we're getting clues from what the next administration will look like, for example, the president-elect trump announcing that doug burgum, north dakota governor would be his pick for department of the interior, which has a purview of the nation's great green spaces and climate as well. what does that pick signal to those in the climate world signal to you as a correspondent? >> well, it's an interesting pick because unlike lee zeldin and his pick for epa, the governor admits climate change is real, in fact, has a big ambitious plan for carbon capture in his state to make north dakota carbon neutral by capturing it, bearing it underground, the heat trapping pollution, even using it in greenhouses to grow avocados and blueberries in northern

climates as well. and he's a big fan of wind energy, which president trump is not. so who influences who going forward here? but it is an interesting pick since he does address a lot of the concerns of environmentalists and climate folks, but also those from energy as well. >> bill, appreciate the updates. from here and the united states, but also abroad as well. thanks for being here as always. when we come back, we're going to tell you why right wing allies of president- elect trump are pushing him to fire fbi christopher wray and nominate former hill staffer kash patel as fbi director. another hour of "cnn news central" next.