president biden's decision to pardon his son is further splitting a party still reeling from election defeat and he had a good explanation. >> but i'm not going to try to explain to to y'all. >> more allegations. trump's choice to lead the pentagon facing more tough questions about his record and israel is the one. >> and you should let him go and let him finish the job. >> hell to pay. trump issuing a new threat over how his administration would handle the israel-hamas war and this ain't nothing you get used to this kind of weather. >> living here piling on some places have gotten more than five feet of lake effect snow, and it is not over just yet all

us. with just weeks until inauguration day, a tension in washington and around the world shifting rapidly away from joe biden and toward president elect donald trump, the president, as you saw there right now on one of his last trips abroad as president. the trip is designed to showcase american investment and aid to africa. but it's been overshadowed by biden's announcement of a sweeping pardon for his son, hunter. that decision, managing the rare feat of uniting democrats and republicans in condemnation of the president's reversal of his repeated claims that he would not issue the pardon he didn't need to tell the american public, i will not do this. >> and he did. and when you made a promise, you got to keep it. >> his decision further undermines the public's confidence in our judicial system. >> it just gives the american people a sense that there's one system for the rich and

powerful, and another system for everybody else. >> i was surprised. i was disappointed. i think it was it was out of bounds. we operate under the rule of law, and we hate to see precedents being set. >> don't lie to us. don't tell us you're not going to do it. and then do it. that's not what a president should be like president elect trump, in contrast, commands the unflinching loyalty of a republican party that is preparing to enact radical changes in america's policies, both here at home and abroad. >> as peter baker of the new york times writes quote, mr. biden is sliding toward the end of his presidency in lackluster fashion, he has largely ceded the stage to mr. trump, who is already conducting his own foreign policy withdrawing from the fray. mr. biden maintains a light public schedule and has not held a news conference or given an interview since the election. he was such a marginalized figure during a recent international summit in brazil that when he was late for a group photograph, other world leaders did not bother to wait

and went ahead without him. this emerging reality being made clear yesterday when we learned that it is the president elect and not the president, who's been invited to the reopening of the notre dame cathedral, set to be held in paris on saturday sources tell cnn the invitation came from the office of french president emmanuel macron, who was also the first world leader to congratulate trump on his victory last month. the trip will be trump's first since the election and will mark his grand reentrance on the global stage. shall we remember what that was like? >> we are not here to tell other people how to live, what to do all right. >> all right. thank you. press. >> thank you everybody. the entire civilized world

must unite to confront the north korean menace. we do have a very special relationship. in fact, i'll get that little piece of dandruff off that little piece. we have to make them perfect. he is perfect. president putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. >> stepping across that line was a great honor. a lot of progress has been made. a lot of friendships have been made and this has been in particular, a great friendship okay. >> our panel is here. jonah goldberg, cnn political commentator, editor in chief of the dispatch. mark preston cnn senior political analyst. kate bedingfield, cnn political commentator. former biden white house communications director. and matt gorman, former senior adviser to tim scott's presidential campaign. welcome to all of you. good morning. good morning jonah. man, that walk down memory lane of trump on the world stage. i mean, that's what we are heading back to as as biden steps off. >> yeah. time is a flat circle. uh, i think they're working on cloning donald trump right now. so he can be president through 2065. um, because it just feels

like this is just this is not going to end anytime soon. >> kate bedingfield, how do you see what the president did here with this pardon in terms of the big picture for his presidency here? i mean obviously he did this on a sunday night and then he flies off to africa right as donald trump, as we just outlined, is about to step back on to the world stage and his party here at home has not exactly been kind to him. yeah. >> look, i think the idea that that biden has somehow opened the door for trump to do things that he was not otherwise going to do is completely ludicrous. i mean it is trump who has completely thrown norms out the window here for the now, now almost last decade. in many ways, i think biden was responding to, you know what donald trump himself and his appointees like kash patel have said about how they intend to use the justice department. and i think, look, i think it's understandable that a father would make that decision. but i do think 11 years. well, i do, but i do think look, i wish

that he had been i wish that he had conveyed differently, that he was thinking that he was considering doing this. i do think it is, you know, i think there are different ways to convey ambiguity when you have not made a decision. i think even after the election having his team say he wasn't going to do this. you know, i do think there is a cost that comes with that. and i wish that he had done that differently. i don't think the pearl clutching from from republicans about again, you know, we've somehow biden has somehow like blown the doors off uh, you know, using the justice system in an independent way. i don't think that carries a lot of water. i do understand why democrats are frustrated that biden was not more forthcoming about how he was thinking about this. >> look, i think democrats were the ones that lectured the republicans throughout the entire campaign that we were the ones that were saving democracy. we were the ones that were upholding the rule of law, in a way, can be conveying this superiority. and it's been laid bare that they weren't. i mean, i remember being on the show in june, and alex thomas and i were talking about the fact that, like, hey, he could

pardon, you know, like, i would not be surprised if this happened. and honestly, i would have respected it more if he just said, you know what bleep you people? i'm not letting my son rot in prison during my you know who knows. like in the last decade of life possibly i'm not letting that happen i don't care. i have the power to do it. instead i think to your point, like he concocted this self-righteous cloak where it was just a bunch of baloney and really, what it was about was i had the i had the ability to get this done. you wish you had it for your family? possibly, but i do. so i'm going to do it. and i think that is where it's just clearly clearly a lays bare the kind of there's two sides to the judicial system and i think tactically this makes it a lot easier for, say, someone like a kash patel to get through where it lay. it really does somewhat convey what he's been saying and has a lot more conveyance. >> now i do, i do think it would have been more effective to focus the statement more heavily on what trump and his

team have said about how they intend to use the justice department rather than giving some giving some credence giving some language to republicans that the justice department, that this process that has been undertaken with regard to hunter was in and of itself flawed. and i think that that piece of the of the way the president and his team framed this um, you know, i do think that was unfortunate. i think the pardon itself, i will say i think is totally defensible. and i think given the way that trump has talked about what he intends to do, i think it's defensible. i do wish that he had had framed it differently. >> let's take a moment to just watch what kash patel has said over the course of the past couple of years about hunter biden because we've learned that his appointment may have played some role in the president's decision to do this. let's watch. >> i've always said, and i still believe hunter biden is going to be indicted for criminal activity. hunter biden is guilty of violating the foreign agents registration act. they know what hunter biden's laptop contained. these laptops are the basis of

tremendous amounts of criminal activity. hunter biden will be charged no matter what. >> so, mark preston, how does that play into this? does it help you know, matters in terms of the criticism? that's been leveled at biden or does it not? >> well, i think a couple of things. one is, joe biden party abandoned him right. so basically everyone has abandoned joe biden. you know, here in washington. and you got to wonder if he's looking around saying, you know what what's good for donald trump now is going to be good for me. and in the end, the people who really rallied around and stuck with joe biden was his family. remember, we were the ones saying it was his family, the ones that were really making the political decisions about what he was going to do. i do think this you know, there are two things can be correct. first of all, the norms are gone, right? we absolutely know that. but at the same time, air cover has been given to republicans because joe biden has decided

to do this pardon? >> all right. no. go ahead joe. yeah. >> so just very quickly, i think kate's wrong that this is totally defensible. i think it's almost entirely indefensible. but if you wanted to square the circle in a more defensible way, what biden could have done is say is honored his commitment not to pardon hunter for the things he was convicted for by a jury and say, but for anything else that kash patel wants to go on a fishing expedition. i'm giving a blanket pardon for that, because i don't trust trump. that would be the messaging that would honor his promise wouldn't make him a huge liar and at the same time protect his kid from gratuitous persecution by the trump administration. >> so you basically are arguing, i mean because some people have looked at that ten year thing and said, well, that's more egregious than the pardon for these things that we've already said you would actually flip that. >> i would flip that. i think that's defensible, given what the things that kash patel said, given the things that trump has said, given the the open ended fishing expedition thing, and i would ground it not by throwing my own justice department under the bus and saying the system is rigged, that i'm in charge of. i would say, look, i'm a dad. to matt's point screw all you

people, right? i, you know i'm i'm sacrificing a big chunk of my kid's life to the system because i promised i would. but beyond that, i'm not letting him become a target for these these jackals. >> all right. very interesting. all right up next here on cnn this morning pete hegseth on the hill as new allegations of misconduct come to light, anthony scaramucci will be here to discuss trump's controversial pick to lead the pentagon and much more. plus hell to pay donald trump threatening hamas if the hostages are not released before he's returned to office and digging out homes, cars buried in over five feet of snow. another foot could come down today the snow being so deep and getting stuck, you're getting stuck everywhere you go. >> everybody getting stuck. so that's the worst part who should be the 2024 cnn hero of the year? >> it's your chance to weigh in. discover the life changing work this year's honorees are doing then cast up to ten votes a day, every day. visit cnn

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time is now. >> all 30 teams had a chance to win this cup. i want to give them more when the time is now. >> your goal is to get to vegas that's money time. and i understand the assignment. the emirates nba cup continues tonight. watch on tnt and stream b r sports on max according to the whistleblower pete hegseth and other members of his management team sexually pursued the organization's female staffers whom they divided into two groups the party girls and the not party girls. >> eventually, both groups became known as the can we please work from home girls new reporting about alleged sexual impropriety and alcohol abuse by trump's choice for secretary of defense pete hegseth, adding to the swirl of controversy around trump's proposed cabinet. >> trump's controversial pick setting up what could be significant fights on capitol hill to get these key nominations approved. now some top republican senators say they are open to bypassing fbi background checks for trump's

picks. senator richard blumenthal, the democrat who currently leads the senate committee that will review pete hegseth nomination, telling cnn that that proposition speaks volumes no practical reason to avoid a background check, except maybe they have something to hide. >> just saying. common sense tells you when someone doesn't want that kind of vetting or check, which is done routinely. there's something to hide, and there are a lot of indications that pete hegseth has quite a bit to hide. >> all right joining us now, former trump white house communications director anthony scaramucci sir, always wonderful to see you. thank you so much for being here. let's start with this fbi background check point, because there does seem to be some indication that trump's team has been surprised by some of the things that have popped up. certainly around pete hegseth there was a lot of reporting around that first sexual assault allegation that surfaced about him. obviously, there's also a lot

of distrust in the fbi among trump's inner circle. is it in their interest to let these background checks go forward? so that they avoid some of this it is but obviously, the you know, the president wants to stretch the rules on this for some reason. >> i guess at some point, someone will ask him that, why is he doing that? but with in pete's case, it just doesn't feel like the whole story is out. i know i read jane mayer's uh, article, uh and so if i was in the senate, let's say i was a republican senator and obviously want to help the president. let's let's go on the side of that. they want the president to have his picks um, they'd have to be concerned and they would be concerned for the president. so i think one of the things they should be doing is calling the president and saying, hey, this is the tip of the iceberg. if this is what a journalist is finding the fbi has to dig deeper because there's probably more to this story. and we're here actually to protect you. president

trump. um, because if this unfolds inside the pentagon, this will be a disaster for the country, and it will reflect very badly on the administration. and so i think that's i think that's where the republican senators have to go on this case. >> interesting so you obviously i'm sure people remember had a whirlwind tenure inside the trump administration. you understand, you know, what it takes to get a job with donald trump and also what happens if he turns on you? what do you think the president, knowing what you know about president elect trump, how is he going to view the these kinds of allegations against pete hegseth, especially in terms of, i mean, he expects a lot of loyalty, you know, from from you to him. i'm not necessarily sure. i'm curious. your take on whether that loyalty runs in the other direction and also, i mean, trump himself, he he's known teetotaler. he dealt with alcoholism in his family. these

kinds of reports. i'm curious what you think he might make of the behavior that's being reported well, you know, in addition to those things getting hired and fired, liked and disliked by donald trump, i did work on the transition team in 2016. >> so eight years ago, i was part of that executive committee. you know, we reviewed all these applications at that point. the president was listening and abiding to all of the rules and protocols. he was going through the process with the fbi. we all got vetted and had background checks related to the fbi and so, i guess, again, the question is, why don't you want to do that this time? it's there to protect you. it's also there to protect the country but but what you're what you're getting at with pete. i think this is a big, important point for people. peacock casted into this role. he looks great. he speaks great. he says a lot of things about the pentagon that the president agrees with. and so the president casted him in this role. but like a cast on a

television set they probably didn't do a deep background check. he probably didn't want to do that. but you're asking a specific point about loyalty. presidents loyal to you until he isn't just really that simple so matt gaetz, you're going to be my attorney general. oh, you know what? you can't be the attorney general because there's 10 or 15 senators that say no no problem. pam bondi is my attorney general. so so pete's going to come up against this kavanaugh came up against this. justice kavanaugh, i'm loyal to you until i'm not loyal to you. if you can get through the senate confirmation hearing, i'll watch it. i'll be riveted to the set. you're drinking a lot of beer. somehow you survive that. you're the on the court great. make sure you rule in my favor every time you're on the court. i mean, that's the president. and so it's very clear he's been very upfront about it. i think his adversaries, i guess one of the things i don't understand about the president's adversaries, he's very upfront about everything that he's doing, and he's very, very

clear about what he's doing. and then these people act shocked and surprised when he does exactly what he says he's going to do. and so he'll be he'll be loyal to pete until it becomes impossible to be loyal to pete. and that'll be incumbent upon the republican senators. they'll have to say hey, this is not going to work for us. and so therefore find somebody else and the president will do that briefly sir, you mentioned the president's adversaries being surprised. >> i'm curious what you think his adversaries, how they should react and how they should treat him, how they should push back against him in a way that you think might be effective well, again, the again, i you know, i was up against this in the campaign with the harris team you needed to push back on things and you needed to explain to people a lot of the things that he's saying about the economic situation are unrealistic and do not work you'd be blown away at the number of people in the united states that think the country's pay the tariffs and

that the american citizens and the consumer do not pay the tariffs it's just another form of taxation. >> the fact that the democrats couldn't explain that to people, i think, was a was a big problem for them. so go through the list of things that he says and then say to yourself, he's getting away with that. there's a lot of people that are believing what he's saying you've got to be masterful in responding to that. so if pete hegseth is not qualified to run the pentagon, i think prima facia, i like pete. i worked with pete. i have nothing against pete hegseth, but what i put him, if you and i were on the board of directors of the pentagon, we're trying to hire a ceo. what? i put him in charge of a 3 million person organization that has roughly $1 trillion in its budget, which is the largest organization inside the 14 million person entity known as the u.s. government. and so my answer would be no, not that he's not a great guy not that he couldn't do other jobs, but that's not the right job. there's a procurement process. there's a consulting process. there's a morale process.

sure. there's a culture issue. if the president says there's a culture issue, find somebody that can help shift the culture. but remember, this is a several hundred year old organization. i just want to bring up this one point, because this happened on my watch. the president tweeted that he was revoking the, uh, the policies related to gays in the military. the transgender policies. he put that out by tweet. i walked into the oval office. he said, well, what do you think of this? and i looked at him. i said, well, did you talk to secretary mattis about this? is there a plan in place? he said, well no, this this is what i want to do. i said, well, mr. president, this started in the clinton administration 30 years ago they've been working on this for three decades. i don't think that that tweet is going to reverse three decades of cultural activity inside the pentagon. you got mad at me for saying that. but you know and i know nothing really changed as a result of that tweet. and i think pete hegseth is in that category. i'm not on the

president's team anymore. but if i was i would say this is like the tweet that you sent out in july of 2017. the tweet to nowhere to tweet to nowhere. >> all right, anthony scaramucci for us this morning, sir. very grateful to have you. it's been there's been other tweets that haven't been to nowhere like, you know, the ones where he calls me a major loser and stuff like that. >> those are those are not tweets. >> you're still here. >> you live to tell the tale. >> if i get deported, you have to beam me in from an undisclosed location. okay? >> you promise? >> i will be happy to have you from anywhere, anytime sir. thank you very much for being here. thank you. all right. still to come here on cnn this morning, snow totals measuring more than five feet in parts of the great lakes region meteorologist. our weatherman, derek van dam has more on when those folks might get a break from shoveling. plus, just moments ago president biden arriving at the presidential palace in angola. he's the first president to ever visit the sub-saharan african country. we'll be right back don't stop luther.

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>> at uqora, we make uti relief products. we also make proactive urinary tract health products uqora is a life saver. try it today at uqora. com it's a gift to donald trump because he's going to come here and claim that he's just doing what joe biden did bypass his bipartisan anger over president biden's sweeping pardon of his son, hunter biden, prompting some democrats to warn about the precedent that it sets that despite trump previously suggesting he himself might be open to pardoning hunter will you pardon hunter biden i wouldn't take it off the books. >> see, unlike joe biden despite what they've done to me, where they've gone after me so viciously, despite what? and hunter's a bad boy, there's no question about it. he's been a bad boy. >> and of course, the president elect is no stranger to legal problems himself, while special counsel jack smith dropped trump's federal charges in the wake of his election victory,

they could, in theory, be brought back leading to questions about whether trump would accept a pardon on the off chance it was offered to him jason would donald trump accept a pardon from joe biden? >> well, at this point, i don't know what joe biden is going to poll. i think it's nonsense. if it's some aspect of some pr play, he might try to do it. but president trump did absolutely nothing wrong that's why everything is disappearing. that's why he's focused on actually serving for this second term here. and so the reason why he won with such a mandate the american public saw this as nonsense. >> when president trump say no to a pardon though. >> come on, i'm not going to go and put words in the president's mouth, but everyone sees exactly what's going on. this is a complete media manipulation by joe biden. >> all right. joining us now, senior adviser to donald trump, jason miller. jason, thanks very much for being here. it's nice to see you. >> good morning. >> so when the when the president elect saw this news about hunter biden's pardon, he

wrote this on his truthsocial quote. does the pardon given by joe to hunter include the six hostages who've now been imprisoned for years? such an abuse and miscarriage of justice on the subject of pardons i want i'm curious to know, does president-elect trump plan to pardon all of the people who are incarcerated because of their actions on january 6th? >> yeah. well, casey good morning. so let's go and unpack this a little bit. i think what we saw with joe biden and the hunter pardon really goes to the heart of this politicization of our justice system. what we've seen over the past four years with joe biden and that stance quite frankly, in stark contrast to what we saw under president trump, where president trump did not go after any of his political opponents. that's exactly what happened over this past four years. so let's go and just leave that there. the part of why president trump won by such a big margin. i believe, is because he has pledged to get politics out of government get politics out of the weaponization of our

justice system, and actually have justice be blind. now, with regard to your question regarding j. six hostages, there's a serious issue with the number of people that are being unfairly detained, and each of those cases will be looked at individually it's not my place to go and give some kind of blanket statement about what may or may not happen. that's going to be up to the doj and their review process, but people should have the rule of law be applied to them equally, regardless of their party affiliation or who they might support. >> so you're saying that the president might pardon some of the january sixth people who have been convicted of crimes around january 6th, but not necessarily all of them? >> well, hold on, i want to be careful here and make sure i'm being very direct with you president trump has said a number of times on the campaign trail that he's going to look at each of these cases individually full stop. that's what he said. there's never been a declaration of some something bigger or broader. and again, that's for something for the department of justice to go and

deal with. when president trump takes office. again, not for someone who's a spokesperson for the campaign or transition team, because, again, the whole point here is we have to get politics out of the justice system. justice should apply to everybody equally. >> so of course, our viewers saw coming in here what you had to say about the prospect of president-elect trump accepting a pardon for the things he has been accused, charged with under our justice system. you said then you didn't want to put words in the president's mouth. i suppose the next step of that and considering the technicalities around how jack smith ultimately dropped these charges in such a way that they could be brought back, would president elect trump consider pardoning himself? >> well, just like i said last night when i was speaking with laura ingraham, this entire notion that joe biden is putting out there, that some of the media might be trying to discuss, i think is really kind

of silly because president trump did nothing wrong. and so, again i worried about the precedent of what joe biden is setting here. again, we didn't see at the end of the trump term any of that. what we're seeing here with joe biden and his family members. i think does set a bad precedent. and again, when you take a look at this, i think that president trump is going to really govern and lead just as he promised with this reform agenda. and let's take a look at who he's putting in as the director of just the direct question is he considering would he consider pardoning himself? >> would president-elect trump consider pardoning himself? >> that would never be something that i would weigh in on. that would be something for the legal team to discuss and again, president trump has done nothing wrong behind the scenes. that's not something that i would have been a part of. and again, that's not something for myself to go and comment on because president trump didn't do anything wrong. i want to get back to the point here about who president trump is putting in to lead this reform agenda with the government to get politics out of justice pam bondi, i

think, will be a fantastic attorney general. i think she's someone who's tough, fearless and is really going to make sure we root out some of the corruption kash patel who's been nominated to head up the fbi this is someone who not only was a lead hostage negotiator, he was the deputy director of national intelligence. he was the chief of staff over the department of defense. so he has been a prosecutor and a public defender kash patel is going to do a fantastic job as director of the fbi let me ask you about another one of the nominees on the table, and that's pete hegseth we learned more information about some instances in his past in the new yorker over the past couple of days. >> and there also was a letter in the new york times from his mother who had wrote, who had written in the course of his divorce questioning his character. and this is this is his mother who writes this. i have no respect for any man

that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around, uses women for his own power and ego. you are that man and have been for years and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that. but that is the sad sad truth was the trump transition aware of this information about pete hegseth? pete hegseth past, and are there any concerns inside the transition about it well, so when it comes to pete hegseth there aren't any concerns. >> and we feel very good about his positioning for being confirmed by the senate. now we have to take the process very seriously. this is one of the rare times where you're going to hear me say that the process, when it comes to this is very important, and that's because the senate takes it so serious to go and have the one on one meetings, to have these confirmation hearings to give senators the chance to kick the tires and get some of these questions answered on their own. now, with regard to pete, family conversations sometimes are very tough. and in the case with his mother, his mother did go and take that back and say that she was sorry for that and

i believe that pete hegseth is ultimately when he has a chance to present his case. it's going to come across very clearly that he's going to be a great person to lead the dod, and that he didn't do anything wrong. now, again the letter in the new yorker or the whatever they called it, the new yorker with their piece that they ran that was basically just innuendo and gossip. there wasn't anything. >> it was a report from the top of the concern veterans of america, the organization that he led that he was later shown the door of because of allegations of financial mismanagement in addition to some of the more personal allegations. >> but but need to be clear here again, when i say it was innuendo and gossip, it was written by a disgruntled former employee and so, again, this was not some some legal finding or something in the court of law this was a former employee who was very much it was extensive. >> it was an extensive actual report that it was used to remove him from his post. it was not a single allegation or anonymous employee who was upset. >> again, i would i would take issue with the characterization of that. i would say that this

again, was a disgruntled former employee, full of innuendo and gossip and pete hegseth again, let's talk about pete hex's bio for a moment. so in a two time bronze star recipient who served in combat, who's been in iraq and afghanistan, no one is exactly his service record. >> i'm not saying that it's the question is, is is he qualified to run the most lethal fighting force with, like a trillion plus dollar budget or not? and this report seems to suggest he might not be no and i would disagree with that. >> and again, this is why you've seen so many senators come out and say that they've been impressed by pete hegseth in his meetings. and they do think that he's the type of person to lead that mission under president trump. and i want to go to one other thing. pete hegseth is someone who has been shot at in combat. that's exactly the type of person that we want leading the dod before any commitment is made to put our troops in harm's way. >> all right. jason miller, for us this morning. grateful to have you on the show today. thanks very much for coming on. >> thank you. >> all right. coming up on cnn this morning. there will be hell to

pay donald trump's threat to hamas as he prepares to return for office, plus pardons on the mind after president biden's part of his own son. one key senator suggests the president should pardon his successor biden released a statement saying that the charges in hunter's case were politically motivated and his son was selectively and unfairly prosecuted. >> in other words, the biden presidency is now entered. the grandpa doesn't give a about what you think phase cnn news central next i told you, i don't need these anymore. >> i have sling this critical time calls for the critical news coverage that sling provides. >> okay, see you tomorrow. >> the most important news at the best price. sling lets you do that with your. >> i get to decide when i get paid. my pay lets me get up to $500 of my pay when i need it. there's no interest, no credit checks, no mandatory fees and

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>> he is demanding that all hostages in gaza be released before his inauguration, or there will be, quote all hell to pay, end quote that is a shift in position from the cnn debate between president-elect trump and president biden in june, when trump advocated for turning israel loose you got to ask him as far as israel and and hamas, israel is the one that wants to go, he said. >> the only one that wants to keep going is hamas actually, israel is the one. and you should let them go and let them finish the job let them finish the job. >> our panel has returned. jonah goldberg i mean one of the things we've seen trump do over and over again is say things that are basically, you know, threats of policy, right? you saw justin trudeau from canada fly down to mar-a-lago in the wake of a tariff threat um, how do you look at this dynamic in the middle east between israel and hamas in terms of the incoming trump administration? i mean, lindsey graham is out there basically saying trump has said he wants this ended before he takes office. is that going to

actually impact things? >> well i kind of think this is, first of all, i think morally it's the right thing for the president of the united states or the president elect to say, release release our frickin hostages, right? i mean, i think there's been way too much sort of, uh muted rhetoric about on that point from the state department and the biden white house moreover, i think this is kind of a no brainer move for trump because by saying this, if for whatever reason hostages are released beforehand or there is some sort of deal, he will take credit for it and then it, once elected at least gives him leverage. he is so conditioned, his supporters and really, frankly, his opponents to think that you don't have to take him literally when he says things that people will just say that this is good, this is this is, you know, carry a big stick kind of diplomacy kind of thing. >> yeah look, i met with some of the hostages fans about about two weeks ago, and i think they're understandably very desperate for some answers

on this. and i think they were very curious to see how the trump team would handle this. and they were really trying to find ways in to convey their message to him. and it sounds like it's been received, i think, and i'm heartened to hear that because i think you're exactly right. jonah a if if they get released, it's almost like reagan 80 as he takes office take, take credit for it. and at the end of the day, who cares? like their home at that point? um, and i think it's it's heartening to see that, you know, what's interesting about trump, too, is that his his unpredictability in his, in his recklessness in many things. >> i think does give pause to these other world leaders. so if there is a plus of trump on the world stage other than him, obviously working with russia and the likes of north korea and what have you, his unpredictability and folks are scared of him. you're right. trudeau gets on an airplane, they come down here, macron has him over to france. you know, he he makes a statement about hamas i am sure hamas is more scared and concerned about

donald trump as president than joe biden. >> i think that's true. >> i think there may be some element of truth to that. i would push back on the idea that the biden white house has not been working relentlessly to try to get the hostages released. i don't think that's a fair assessment of where they've been. i think they have, you know, they have been working night and day to try to get that done uh, you know, i do think there's an element of muscularity to, you know, trump's willingness to just always kind of take the the sledgehammer to a problem rather than taking a, you know, a finer screwdriver sometimes foreign policy actually does require nuance. i mean, it's you can't conduct u.s. foreign policy entirely by soundbite. um, but you know, i agree broadly that there is no there's no downside for trump in saying this. and ultimately, if it helps get the hostages home, then that's a good thing. >> all right. coming up here on cnn, this morning, more on the pardon politics taking center stage and president biden's final days in office. will biden give his next pardon to his biggest rival, donald trump? there's at least one person in washington who thinks

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from new york to paris last week, is set to return to new york today. she will be accompanied by six u.s. marshals. the tsa is investigating how the woman slipped past facial recognition id scanners and got past gate agents at jfk without a ticket the supreme court weighing whether the food and drug administration followed the law when it reviewed applications for certain flavored e-cigarettes. the lawsuit follows a series of denials for vaping products that officials say are marketed toward minors with special flavors like pink lemonade and he's not going to stop. >> oh, man. oh, man holy hell. >> wow. yikes. a narrow escape for a milk delivery driver who got stuck on train tracks after a snowstorm in erie, pennsylvania. police say he was able to get out of his truck just before the train hit, and was not injured. more than five feet of snow fell on parts of the great lakes regions over

the course of the past few days. glad that he is okay. all right. joe biden's decision to give a wide ranging pardon to his son, hunter, further dividing many in his own party on capitol hill. many democratic lawmakers or democratically aligned independents have been speaking out, criticizing the president for the move. but senator joe manchin, once a democrat now an independent, believes that there was a way for joe biden to pardon his son and give himself political cover. >> what i would have done differently and my recommendations to counsel would have been, why don't you go ahead and pardon donald trump for all his charges and make it, you know, it had been it had gone down a lot, a lot more balanced. if you will. >> all right. my panel is returned. jonah goldberg, what is joe manchin doing here? >> he's he's going full joe manchin, right this is what joe manchin does, is he tries to find this sort of thing. look, i think as a sort of an academic exercise, i was saying during the break earlier, you can make a case that there's an argument for biden to pardon trump insofar as it would

prevent the possibility of creating a precedent for presidents being able to self pardon themselves. it would be a very institutional move. it would make people on the left very annoyed. i'm trying to, i mean, apoplectic yes, i think might be the word you're looking for. i think there might be riots and certainly in the slack channels of the new york times. so like uh, at the same time, i think it's too cute by half. people would just say, you're using this pardoning trump so you can pardon your son, and it would off everybody. >> well, and i mean, kate, you know president biden, considering how he feels about what happened on january 6th and about the democracy, our democracy. can you imagine this as a realistic possibility? >> no, i can't. i can't see a world where he does that. i think he feels so strongly about what, you know, the threat that that donald trump's actions around january 6th, in particular and the just continued election denialism of 2020, you know, pose to our democracy, i can't imagine a

world where he would uh, he would say that there's any reason for there to be a pardon and i, i think even if the political calculation seemed like there was some sort of, you know, kind of silver lining element for him, i, i just it is too it is too fundamentally at odds with what he believes about donald trump. for me to ever see him doing that. >> let's talk for a second about this pardoning himself question around donald trump because just a little bit earlier in the show, i talked to jason miller about this, and he honestly, he didn't answer the question, but he didn't rule out this possibility. let's just watch that moment what president elect trump consider pardoning himself? >> that would never be something that i would weigh in on. that would be something for the legal team to discuss. and again, president trump has done nothing wrong behind the scenes. that's not something that i would have been a part of. and again, that's not something for myself to go and comment on because president trump didn't do anything wrong. >> matt gorman, do you think he's going to pardon himself? >> i don't think so, because i think we've talked a little bit

about this too. the cases have gone pretty cold and it's not like he's going to come out. you know, after four years and on day one going to be hauled in front of a courtroom. that doesn't that doesn't seem realistic. and i think also, you know, as i understand it, i'm not a lawyer, thank god. but like you do have to admit, some sort of guilt as part of the pardon. and jason was very very keen on saying that he did nothing wrong. and that's been their tack the whole time. so i don't see that shifting in that case either. >> look, when you, jason miller, you don't ever make declarative statements of what you think donald trump's going to do because you just don't know what donald trump is going to do. but i do think this past week it's worth saying, is that we we really did watch the final sentence of the final paragraph of the final chapter of the book that we're all so used to that told people how to run campaigns how to act in campaigns, and how to govern. there's a new book being written right now, and unless democrats get on board and try

to follow that, then they're going to lose. >> all right. so today i will leave you with this. if you are addicted to your phone, aren't we all addicted to our phones? like if you have one, is it impossible? is it possible to not have one and not be addicted? anyway you might. we all might be afflicted with what oxford university press has named the word of the year. it's really a phrase the phrase is brain rot. basically, it is a way of describing what's happening to your mind as you endlessly scroll through quote, trivial or unchallenging, end quote material online. the oxford university press says use of the term spiked 230% this year. if you're, i don't know, living under a rock and a bit unsure of what we're talking about here was snl's recent take on what brain rot might look like mr. president, yes. >> well, they tell me you're a tremendous success in terms of use and with regard to virgins

so it's a great honor work, work there's an evacuation order in place so this is part 55 of my beef with the chili's on jefferson avenue i've been to that chili's she's right. >> it's the worst. >> oh my gosh. all right, so the oxford university press also released their short list of other words that almost made the cut. >> so what are those? law romantic slop and demure oxford university clearly very mindful about their suggestions. and of course, everyone get that reference here at the table. >> okay, then we all have brains unfortunately, right? yeah that's basically the bottom line. >> okay okay. thank you guys for being here. a very good sports. thanks to all of you at home for joining us as well. i'm kasie hunt. don't go anywhere. cnn news central starts right now.