call the number on your screen. >> call 1-800-845-4316. >> this is cnn, the world's news network it's thursday, december 5th, right now on cnn this morning every indication is that this was a premeditated pre-planned, targeted

>> remaining defiant donald trump's choice to lead the pentagon refusing to bow out of a tough confirmation fight amid mounting allegations of misconduct and we feel like we failed. >> it's it's tough. >> a tragic loss recovery efforts continue to find a pennsylvania grandmother believed to have fallen into this sinkhole. plus, transgender rights taking center stage at the supreme court. why justices may be leaning toward a ban on gender affirming care for minors in one state. all right, 6 a.m. here on the east coast, where it looks to be blizzarding in new york city. uh i did look down at my phone and saw, hey we're going to get snow in a few hours and

hey, here it is. good morning everyone. i'm kasie hunt. it's wonderful to have you with us. pete hegseth defiant in the face of an uncertain confirmation fight in the senate. >> so do you feel confident after your meeting today to be confirmed? >> great meetings on that. with all the senators today. >> i feel confident. >> we feel confident every day that confidence set to be tested again today as trump's pick to lead the pentagon returns to capitol hill later on. >> pete hegseth vowing to fight like hell as he tries to win over republican senators made skeptical by multiple reports alleging that he engaged in sexual misconduct financial mismanagement and abused alcohol. pete hegseth has denied all wrongdoing. yesterday mounted a public defense in an interview with fellow former fox host megyn kelly i've never had a drinking problem. >> i don't i'm never no one's ever approached me and said, oh, you, you should really look at getting help for a drink. never. i've never sought counseling, never sought help. >> last night, the washington

post reporting this quote at fox news, hegseth had a reputation as a heavy drinker. according to six former fox news employees who worked directly with hegseth and saw him drinking on the job or visibly drunk at work events, and who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation, end quote. through his lawyer, hegseth denied the reports when he was asked for comment by the washington post. but he is clearly aware of how central the issue of alcohol has become to his confirmation. here was the incoming chair of the senate armed services committee, roger wicker, telling cnn about a promise that hegseth made in their meeting yesterday the allegation was made about him being intoxicated at several times and so the the questions that every member will be asking him led to this statement. >> and he categorically said he would stop drinking altogether if he becomes secretary of defense as of last night, cnn's sources tell us there are

more than three republican senators who are uncertain how they'll vote on hegseth nomination. >> if more than three republicans join all democrats in voting no, that would sink him and democratic senator richard blumenthal also a member of the armed services committee, says that the number could be much higher. >> i think this nomination is doomed. i've talked to 5 to 10 republicans who have said to me, they're just waiting for the right moment to say no to. pete has said all right. >> our panel is here. stephen collinson, cnn politics senior reporter alex thompson, cnn political analyst, national political reporter for axios. kate bedingfield, cnn political commentator, former communications director for the biden white house and erin perrine, republican strategist at axiom strategies. welcome to all of you. thank you all for being here this morning. stephen collinson, let me start with you, big picture, because what we saw from hegseth, of course, yesterday was trying to show donald trump that he was willing to fight this, to push forward on this. and of course, he was going into these senate offices and apparently

promising him, promising them that he won't drink as defense secretary. what do you make of it all? >> he seems to be adopting the kavanaugh defense, trying to make this about something bigger than just his own qualifications, saying that he's the victim of partisan witch hunts, et cetera.. i think it's pretty clear that there are enough republicans who don't want to vote for him, and they don't even want a hearing, which could turn into a real circus. just before president-elect trump takes office next year. i think for hegseth, what he has to do is keep this going, try and push it into next year because then it becomes a direct decision by a republican senator to openly defy in a senate vote, the new president. and that's a much more difficult situation for them than they have now. it looks like several of them might might want it to actually just go away. >> go away entirely. i mean alex, one of the the audience, of course, for hegseth yesterday in that interview was largely trump. right. i mean going out and doing something like that is more likely to anger senators than it is to

help. but for trump, this is the way he consumes things, obviously. but this is what the post said about where trump is on hegseth they write this quote, trump has stood by numerous aides and appointees accused of sexual assault or indiscretion, but he has long disdained the abuse of alcohol by those around him, dating back to the death of his brother, fred trump jr., who suffered from alcoholism and died from related diseases at the age of 42. trump has been troubled by the allegations about his excessive drinking, said two people familiar with his thinking trump does not drink alcohol. he frequently tells those around him so again, we started this conversation about hegseth with this allegation of sexual assault. but it may be the drinking that is the real problem for donald trump. and there's a sort of an internal contradiction with his answers here, which he's like, i've never had a problem, i've never reported a problem. >> but he's also saying, i'm not going to drink at all if i'm secretary. well, if you don't have a problem, why are you promising not to drink? and you know, i don't think you can underestimate the visceral experience. donald trump doesn't talk much about his

personal life. the experience with his brother is something he actually talks about very frequently on the trail, as something that was sort of a defining experience. and so take out the stuff that, you know, there that the allegations, the stuff that they're denying the fact that there are particular instances of him saying, hey, i came back from war. i was drinking, and that, you know, he has basically admitted that he was, you know tomcatting around for lack of a better term. i think both those things are troubling a lot of republicans. >> well, and to that point, erin the post story that starts out with something that he said on a podcast in august of 2021. so not even that long ago. and he said that his heavy drinking started after a brush with death when an rpg ricocheted off his vehicle. it didn't explode while he was serving in iraq with an army infantry unit and when he returned home to a manhattan apartment after the deployment ended in 2006, he said he was disconnected from the people that he served with from his wife. i look around at

10:00 and be like, what am i going to do today? how about i drink some beers so this is, you know he is recounting here and it's tragic, right? it's it's really difficult. but it also contradicts deeply what he said yesterday where he said, i never had a problem. this is a war fighter who came home and was clearly struggling as so many do, and acknowledging that first and foremost, i think is really the key thing here, because i have not served my country in capacity in war, i can only imagine how terrifying that is. and how hard it must be to come home and feel completely disconnected from the world around you. having seen that, he does admit that he drank a lot, but he seems to have he. he seems to think that he has this under control. and if you're being if you've never been through the confirmation process and sat in a meeting with a senator, even if you've interviewed them and you feel comfortable with them, if they say, will you tell me you won't drink, you'll take the answer and say even if you don't think you have a drinking problem, you know what? i won't drink what i really think we're seeing here from pete hegseth is part of what trump

wanted in these nominees was, can you fight the battle of the political opinion in the court of public opinion on media? that's what hegseth is doing here. we know that when trump was going through the selection process, he had tape of people defending him on camera. that was an important point. will this pay off with somebody like pete hegseth? i think this is a test case to that. about trump's selection and of course, kate, the real question is what are these senators going to do? and joni ernst in particular is someone who she did meet with him yesterday. let's watch the moment where she was not one of these people who came out. and, you know oftentimes supporters will put out a picture of the two of them because obviously, this is going to be a significant washington player in their view. that's not what happened here. instead, she was caught up, caught with reporters in the hallway. let's watch that moment it was a frank and thorough conversation, engaging constructive conversation. >> it's a tough road for him, but it is a 100% doable. >> i'm not 100% clear to me who he wants. the secretary of defense right now, so that was

a series of senators, obviously, but that joni ernst moment where she says they had a thorough conversation. >> what do you take away from that? >> so, so her feet never stop moving. and generally if you don't want to answer a question, i'll give you a i'll give you an insider's insider's communications. look at how you avoid answering a question you don't want to answer. you keep your feet moving. you keep walking. so i think her body language in addition to to what she said, suggests that she's not on board. there's a lot of space there. she needs to be persuaded. i think it's also interesting. it seems, telling that we really haven't heard from trump i mean, yesterday was such a critical day for hegseth, such a, you know, tipping point moment potentially for the nomination. and we didn't hear from trump at all, which also seems very telling. if he wanted to put his muscle behind fighting for hegseth, you would think he is not afraid of putting you would think we would have heard from him. but what's so exactly, exactly. but what's so interesting to me that trump and the trump team are so, you know, are so opposed to the vetting process when, you know, this is what a vetting process saves you from. i mean, this is what an intense dive into

somebody's background before you put them out on the public stage and then have to endure all of this questioning. this is what it protects you from. so it's interesting to me that they are so adamantly against the vetting process when, you know, they're now looking at their potentially their second nominee going down. >> i do think you make one point there that's interesting, which is that as of this point, we haven't seen trump spend political capital on any of these nominees. he's not making calls around. we're not hearing reporting that he's trying to push folks. he did a little bit early on matt gaetz we had heard there might have been some conversations and phone calls. you're not hearing that now. so trump saying, hey, you guys figure this out. i've put forward who i want. and if it changes, it changes. yeah erin, i do have to ask you about the fact that there's there's other names being floated out there, right, including ron desantis. here are a couple of senators talking about the possibility that ron desantis might be defense secretary yesterday. let's watch he's you know, served in the military. >> so i think he has what you

would look at on paper as the requisite kind of experience you would want in a secretary of defense. >> i'm considering voting yes on desantis. if he's finally admits that he has lifts in his boots, i'm sure he does. you know, maybe three inches. four inches at least. yeah so that aside, with fetterman there, i mean, mark kelly is a serious guy from a, you know, red state basically saying i might vote for ron desantis, but is trump serious about it there are other names being floated. >> and governor desantis does have a really compelling story. if he were to be put forward, he was a jag attorney he did cover a seal team and deploy with them into active combat. he has really seen a lot. he's been the chief executive of florida. we've seen what he can do politically. we've seen what he can do in the state but he does have a very strong military background that really could bode well for him. the fact that there are other names being floated and not smacked down immediately means trump's flirting with the idea a little bit. >> yeah, and those senators are

clearly trying to tempt him, right? yeah being like, oh, we'll bring this guy real fast. >> yeah, yeah all these problems don't go away. >> yeah all evaporate. all right. up ahead here on cnn this morning. man on the loose that manhunt is still underway for the gunman who shot down the ceo of america's largest health care company. plus transgender rights lands at the supreme court, where justices appear to stand for a tennessee ban for gender affirming care for minors and blanket pardons. could president biden issue preemptive pardons for some of trump's enemies jack smith's name is on my list liz cheney's name is on my list i think that they all should be preemptively pardoned cnn heroes on all star tribute meet and celebrate the honorees. >> then find out who will be hero of the year. plus a special tribute to michael j.

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law to stand. chief justice john roberts appeared to be reluctant to have courts second guessing state legislatures. justice brett kavanaugh also brought up the topic of women's sports encourage minors to appreciate their sex and ban treatments that might encourage minors to become disdainful of their sex. >> sounds to me like we want boys to be boys, and we want girls to be girls. if you prevail here on the standard of review, what would that mean for women's and girls sports in particular? >> would transgender athletes have a constitutional right, as you see it, to play in women's and girls sports? >> it seems to me that it is something where we are extraordinarily bereft of expertise the decision is expected by july. >> kate bedingfield how obviously this case is very sensitive for these families. it's very emotional for people involved, but it's also become a central part of our political debate. it was in the campaign

and it's clear and jeremy peters wrote about this in the new york times, that there are shifting opinions around this. he says this the public does not appear to be growing more empathetic to the transgender cause. fewer americans today than two years ago say they support some of the rights that lgbtq activists have pushed for, like allowing children to undergo gender transition treatment. according to the public religion research institute, multiple recent polls have found a considerable majority of americans believe advocacy for transgender rights has gone too far. how does that play into this debate? >> well theoretically it shouldn't, right? i mean, the supreme court is supposed to be removed in many ways from the back and forth of of politics. i you knknow, obviously the justices are human and they are, you know, they are very much plugged in to what's going on politically. but in theory, the case should be decided on the merits on this question of whether the ban is constitutional. obviously, um, you know, certainly i think

many, even many democrats who may be uncomfortable with some of the leading edge of advocacy on these transgender issues would, i think still argue that a ban that prevents medical care for young people who in some cases may need it? um, uh, you know, is not a good thing. so i think there are, um, you know, i think there are grades of nuance here, but, um, you know, in theory, the politics of the issue shouldn't sway the court. but of course, we know that's probably not the way the world works. >> well, i was going to say you can be supportive of transgender rights which president biden has been. but president biden, i mean, you remember this in 2020. he knew that there were political risks to being on the leading edge, which is why, you know, the aclu questionnaire that really caused kamala harris a lot of problems this last election about providing gender affirming care for, you know, detained migrants and stuff joe biden never filled out that questionnaire and that was an intentional decision during the campaign because they knew that it was a political risk that could be taken advantage of by the right. and they clearly are

trying to press that advantage. >> it was interesting that the chief justice was talking about perhaps we don't have the expertise to talk about this. in a way, the courts and the supreme court especially, is the place where these things really ought to be addressed, because they can be a very emotive issue can be debated in a way, in which it wasn't on the campaign trail. it was completely demagogued a lot of the talk about these surgeries and therapies was completely taken out of context, but this is an issue which everybody is wrestling with every day. people are seeing it in their lives, and that's why it's affecting the politics and we've got this situation where if legislators are in, states are responsible for sorting all this out, what other rights civil rights does that then bring in? does that open questions like interracial marriage, for example so this has massive reverberations far beyond just this issue. >> all right. still to come here on cnn this morning, a massive manhunt still underway

as police try to locate the suspect who shot and killed the unitedhealthcare ceo. plus, as if life on the road isn't hard enough, the rock band that was robbed at gunpoint cnn heroes, an all star tribute sunday at eight on cnn and harbor freight. >> we design and test our own tools and sell them directly to you. no middlemen, just quality tools you can trust at prices you'll love. whatever you do do it for less. at harbor freight this is my coffee shop we just moved into a bigger space brought on another employee and ordered new branded gear for the team. >> it was so easy. i just chose my products, added our logo and placed my order. bring your own team together with custom gear. get started today at customink.com. >> the virus that causes shingles is sleeping in 99% of

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not clear who they belong to or who is operating them. officials say that there is no known threat to public safety. very strange. and this we're going to try and find her and make sure that we get her to the family. >> it's been a rough go. you know, we feel like we failed. it's it's tough. >> the search for a woman who authorities believe fell into a sinkhole. now a recovery effort. crews say they have found no signs of life. the 64 year old disappeared while searching for her lost cat on monday you're watching cell phone video of the moment. popular british band sports team was robbed at gunpoint. it happened in california on the way to their first us performance. their laptops and passports swiped. luckily not their instruments. they did still make it in time for the show the iconic rockefeller center christmas tree lighting up the night in new york. the

74 foot tree features 50,000 multicolored lights. the star on the top get this made of 3 million swarovski crystals. very pretty. i'm going to watch that on replay. i can never stay up late enough to actually see it in prime time. all right. time now for weather. the eastern coast of the us feeling a big chill this morning. more snow falling on the great lakes region. let's go to our meteorologist. our weatherman, derek van dam. derek, we were just looking at this live camera we have of a. basically, it looks like there's a blizzard in new york city right now. i have no idea if that's true which is why you're here. what do you got? well great question, because we've got this clipper moving through and it's bringing the intense bursts of moderate to heavy snowfall. >> now the temperatures are really flirting with freezing there. so it's not going to really accumulate much on the roadways, but just outside of the new york city suburbs the boroughs there certainly could see some minor accumulation that could cause some localized travel concerns, especially away from the coastline. now here's a look at the 15 million americans impacted by winter weather alerts. this is

a mixture of winter storm warnings and lake effect snow warnings and by the way, we have a blizzard warning in effect through saturday morning for erie, pennsylvania. this area is just getting walloped with heavy snowfall as we speak. conditions will become quite difficult to drive near. whiteout conditions anticipated right along that i-90 corridor that we've been talking about that's accumulated so much lake enhanced snowfall lately. now we have had some wet snowflakes fall in boston. minor accumulations there. this is mainly rain near the coast, but again i-95 to the north could see a little bit of that accumulation on the ground. now this is the look at the temperatures as you step outside, well below freezing for places like indianapolis to chicago, it is all because of this clipper and the energy and the wind associated with it. it will be gusty today in new york and temperatures will continue to fall from today. so if you thought it was cold yesterday, wait till you step outside this morning and into this afternoon in the big apple. it is going to be chilly all right. >> derek van dam for us this morning. derek thank you i

appreciate it. okay. all right. straight ahead here on cnn. this morning after pardoning his son, hunter could president biden be preparing to issue more pardons, preemptive pardons before he leaves office? plus, an assassin on the loose in new york. the clues left behind in the murder of the unitedhealthcare ceo. >> this does not appear to be a random act of violence. the full investigative efforts of the new york city police department are, well underway, and we will not rest until we identify and apprehend the shooter sore throat. >> got your tongue? >> mucinex institute. >> sore throat, medicated drops uniquely formulated for rapid relief that lasts and lasts. that's my baby. >> try our new sugar free cough drop. >> instant soothe. >> you didn't get where you are playing it safe. you seek opportunities others don't. you're growing. ambition needs a partner built for growth.

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morning. nearly 24 hours after a killer gunned down a health care ceo on the streets of new york city, the gunman is still on the loose. the wife of the victim, unitedhealthcare boss brian thompson, telling nbc news, quote there had been some threats basically i don't know, a lack of coverage. i don't know details. i just know that he said that there were some people that had been threatening him, and she suggested that those threats may have involved issues with insurance coverage. the 50 year old thompson was in manhattan for his firm's annual investors meeting. now i do want to warn you, we're going to show you some of the surveillance video of the moments leading up to the shooting. we're not showing the entire clip. it's just too hard to watch. thompson was walking to his meeting yesterday morning when you can see the gunman emerge from behind him and shoot him. moments later, the shooter is seen darting quickly across the street. he was then picked up by surveillance cameras, escaping on a bicycle into central park before the shooting. the

suspect stopped at a nearby starbucks providing police with the clearest images so far of his face and with potential dna evidence every indication is that this was a premeditated pre-planned targeted attack. >> we're reaching out to law enforcement in minnesota, and we're also interviewing his coworkers and family members to see if there have been any specific threats against him in the past as far as who was he in the hotel with? uh, we're doing a search warrant in his hotel room right now that might lead us. give us some more information. >> then there's this from abc news this morning. the words deny defend and depose were found on the shell casings discovered at the scene where thompson was shot. we're joined now by cnn's senior law enforcement analyst. former fbi deputy director andy mccabe. sir thank you so much for being here. let's start with what abc is reporting was found on these shell casings. what does that tell you about this sure

casey. >> good morning. it's. it's a tantalizing detail and could be significant in the long term. unfortunately, right now, it doesn't really give us much more of a bead on identifying who the shooter is but i would say that um, you know, to go through the almost ritual of writing words or some pieces of a message onto the bullets that you're going to use in an assassination, to me that that raises the strong prospect that this person had some sort of personal connection to this killing. so this is probably less likely to be someone who was hired to do this and more likely was committed by someone who is emotionally or specifically invested in the act. right there, it's a level of like personal kind of expression that you would never see from from a hired gun, as it were. so i know that

doesn't really tell us very much, but but every little scrap of evidence is something additional that the police have to work with at this point. it's also likely they're checking those bullets and those casings for for fingerprints and dna and things that could actually lead to identifying who he was. >> yeah, it's so interesting. you put it that way because we initially saw that the use of the silencer, there was all this speculation that this was perhaps professionally done or someone that knew what they were doing. when you watch that video, what do you see in it in terms of whether this person had training? because there is there are elements to it that show he is familiar with firearms on the one hand, but on the other hand, there there seem to be a series of things that that show sloppiness yeah. >> sloppy. or is it an intentional thing that's always kind of a bit of a challenge. but so in terms of the, you know, his his skills and his kind of mentality and

approaching this crime, there's a lot of indications that it's very highly planned, very high degree of organization. even his arrival at the site, 5 or 10 minutes before the target gets there indicates possibly some level of surveillance or intelligence that he was using to know to go to the exact right place at the exact right time. it's really extraordinary the way he steps out from the vehicle. he first he hides between the vehicles he allows the target to pass him rather than just jumping out in front of him and confronting him as as many people would do he allows him to pass him so he can emerge on the sidewalk behind him without drawing his attention. he very coolly and with with determination, takes his position to shoot his position indicates a level of training with firearms. he's got the right foot stance. he's got the right grip on the on the weapon. and then he fires in a very precise and cold and calculating way. all that indicates a high degree of organization and a level of

proficiency with firearms. of course, clearing the jam from the firearm adds to that as well. the odd facts are that he goes to starbucks right before the murder, a place where he is guaranteed to be caught on video. and that's something, again, that a professional would never do this to me almost seems like, you know, it's a bit of a, you know, flash in the middle finger to who you know the investment in a on a photograph that, you know, the investigators will be looking at later. it also says to me he was not worried at all about being seen in these clothes because he probably had a preset plan to get rid of all those items. very quickly after the crime so he's probably got additional clothing in that backpack as soon as he's got a chance. maybe in the park behind some sort of cover. i'm sure he gets rid of the mask. he gets rid of the jacket. he has a totally different look on the top of his of his outfit there. and that's going to greatly help him blend into the crowd

and slip away and what do you make of the cell phone and the water bottle that were found at the scene? >> i mean, is there is there any reason? i mean, normally you would say oh, no, like i left my cell phone. that's going to identify me to everybody that even looks at it, but could there be another reason why you might do that intentionally you know, we don't know exactly where the police found it, whether they just found it on the street or they found it in in a trash receptacle or a garbage can. >> so if it's if it was recovered in a garbage can, then it's then it's an intentional act of trying to get rid of those things. he didn't want to be found in approached or questioned with those articles in his possession. if it was just found on the street, seemingly dropped. that's just a mistake and these things happen. oftentimes people are caught despite their best planning. they make one tragic mistake leave behind one piece of evidence that brings the police to their door. so i think for me, it would really depend on a little knowing, a little bit more about the detail of where those things

were found and how they were found but at this, at this point could have been intentional, or it could have been just the flaw that unravels this whole thing for him so very briefly, do you anticipate they're going to catch this guy, or do you think he might have gotten away? i do think they'll catch him eventually. they're very, very good at what they do. they have an enormous surveillance network of video cameras in new york. you also have the public very closely engaged in this, which can help a lot. so i do think that they'll find it. their hope now probably is that somebody who knows him and maybe has heard him, let's say, uttered those three words before or has seen him carrying that backpack or wearing that coat will step forward and help identify him. but they have, as you know, as time goes on, it gets harder and harder. but they also amass more information and people who can help them in the search. all right. >> andy mccabe for us this morning sir. thanks very much. i really appreciate it. >> thank you all right. >> let's turn now to the story president biden sparked a wave of bipartisan backlash this

week, announcing the sweeping pardon of his son hunter. but according to new politico reporting, it may not be the only pardon that biden grants. jonathan martin reports this president biden's senior vice president, joe biden's senior aides are conducting a vigorous internal debate over whether to issue preemptive pardons to a range of current and former public officials who could be targeted with president elect donald trump's return to the white house one house democrat already has some ideas about who should be on that list jack smith's name is on my list liz cheney's name is on my list i think that they all should be preemptively pardoned because i think that there are people who trump may bring into this government who will go after these people in a serious way, and it's no need to subject them to that the panel is back. kate bedingfield, how real do you think this is and how how

important does the white house see this? >> oh, i think it's real i think they are. i mean, look, you heard president biden and then vice president harris on the campaign trail. talk about what they believed. donald trump's abuses of power would mean. and i think that they're taking every opportunity here to explore the options they have left in the time that they have left in office to protect people who may be subject to that attack. so, yes, i think it's i think it is absolutely a serious process. they're undergoing. we'll see what the ultimate outcome is. but i would imagine that biden views this as an opportunity to ensure that people who don't deserve to be targeted in that way aren't people in the white house, and the biden campaign and the harris campaign had legitimate fears during the race of what would happen if trump won. >> really do fearing potential legal persecution and also like what the cost would do that being said, the context here matters and that this is coming right after a lot of democrats are very upset with how joe biden rolled out his his pardon

of his son hunter, doing it as a one off as being like, oh, i'm very, very concerned about political persecution. and i'm only doing my son. and they're like well, if you're so worried, then why not include this with lots of other people? and so you have to put it within the context of that. and i think that's part of the reason why some of these stories are coming out now. >> all right. still ahead here on cnn this morning after their sweeping election losses one month ago, democrats now trying to chart a path forward. up next, david hogg joins us live for his thoughts on why a new generation could lead the party. plus, a senate farewell once a leader in the republican party, once the leader of the republican party, mitt romney, bids farewell there are some today who would tear at our unity, who would replace love with hate, who deride our foundation of virtue, or who debase the values upon which the blessings of heaven depend

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the magazine we're in the business of preaching as opposed to listening. >> we're a party that's very arrogant. >> we weren't communicating the way that we needed to. >> we need a complete reboot. we need a complete reboot with the dnc. >> we need a complete rebranding. >> our brand is toxic in so many places in the months since their election loss, democrats have come up with a number of ideas about where they should go from here this february, they make their first big decision when they will elect a new chair of the democratic national committee. >> already, the field includes a former governor, a state senator and a state party chair. but as politico reported last month, quote, it's the generational divide that is emerging as a crucial factor in determining who will move the party forward. politico also reports this quote david hogg, the gen z gun, gun rights activist who now runs a pac that recruits young people to run for office, is a potential candidate for vice chair. he told us he is seriously

considering a run and joining us now is david hogg co-founder of leaders. we deserve a group that is dedicated to electing young progressive candidates for office, and he is also a co-chair of march for our lives and, of course, the parkland school shooting survivor. david, good morning. i'm so grateful to have you. >> good morning. happy to be here. >> so tell us a little bit about this. are you thinking about running for this leadership post and why? >> well, honestly, i'm considering it because i think that one, um, obviously, i think we need a new generation in the dnc if this election has taught us nothing else, i think we need an intergenerational coalition as a party but i've spent the past two years or so traveling around the country, working to elect young people and talking to everyday people, knocking on doors in every swing state that you can imagine and some very red states as well from starting out in alabama to places like texas and virginia and everywhere in between. and the thing that i've realized more than anything is that we have a number of problems in the party, but i think the main one overall is that we would rather live in a comfortable delusion than an uncomfortable reality. and i think what the party

needs to do is open its eyes and take its fingers out of its ears. >> basically, what is when you say delusion, what is the delusion? >> i think it's that we can just surround ourselves with people that agree with us a lot of the time, in terms of the party leadership and also within the party itself, and think that's just who we need to be talking to constantly instead of listening to people who don't agree with us. not that we inherently agree with them, but i think so much of the issue that we have as a party right now is a fund a kind of condescending tone that we have in a number of ways where we're seeing increasingly as elitist as, um, out of touch. and i think there are real conversations that we need to have, and we also need to have help more, not just young people, but people from normal backgrounds run for office. i think tim walz is actually a great example of this, of running as a teacher and gaining all the experience that he had to out massively outperform, even in a trump held district right? we need everyday people from teachers to doctors to everybody in between to start running for office and help changing the future of this party and the

face of this party as well. >> so you uh, on on x, the platform formerly known as twitter, as you were reflecting on these losses you talked about a meeting that you had with the president of the united states with president biden and you said that you regret not telling him not to run, saying it's a permanent nightmare and a lesson that you'll carry for the rest of your life. i mean, why didn't you tell him then? and how do you feel about it now? >> you know, i still agree with the statement that i made and i think the reality is that so many of us, as biden was president, didn't want to lose the momentum that we had. you know, he had done the largest climate spending in american history. he had passed the first federal gun safety law in 30 years. he established the office of gun violence prevention and did so many executive orders and actions on gun violence that we didn't want to stop that progress but at the same time, somebody who can govern very effectively, especially, frankly, at that age, may not be the best person to run for that position. and i think i was part of that. and i

think, frankly, the reason why i said that, too, was the hardest part of this time period since the election has been the general sense of a lack of accountability that i've heard, where it sounds like you know, in the lead up to the election, we heard people say over and over again, donald trump is the greatest threat to american democracy. he's a fascist. we need to stop him. we need to stop him. we need to stop him. and then after the election, when i'm hearing conversations with party leadership, when i'm hearing conversations on the news of all these different political leaders and consultants, it's like, oh, you know, we tried our best. that's ridiculous. that is absolutely ridiculous. and that's a loser's mentality. we need to have actual accountability. and that goes for myself too. in talking about what i could have done differently, even though who knows what effect that would have actually had obviously, at least i would have been able to tell the president what he needed to hear rather than what he wanted to hear. and i know that at least at this age, i have learned that now and i'm not going to make that mistake again in the future. >> wow, david hogg, i am fascinated to see where you go from here. i hope you'll come back on the show.

>> absolutely. thank you so much for having me. >> all right it's 55 minutes past the hour. here's your morning roundup. mexican authorities announcing what they call the largest fentanyl bust in the country's history. over one ton of the synthetic opioids seized in two raids. mexico's president says the haul was worth nearly $400 million and is keeping more than 20 million doses off the streets the price of bitcoin surging to a new record high on wednesday the cryptocurrency hit $100,000. the spike coming just hours after president-elect trump picked a crypto friendly ally to take over as the head of the securities and exchange commission new guidelines for female golfers. the lpga and the usga announcing athletes must be assigned female at birth or have transitioned pre-puberty to compete in women's events. the policy there is set to take place next year donald trump, sitting down

for his first network interview post-election, he will be joining meet the press according to nbc. the interview is set to take place tomorrow and will air on sunday and on capitol hill. congress is bidding farewell to someone who's been a mainstay of american politics for decades. >> i will leave this chamber with a sense of achievement but in truth, i will also leave with the recognition that i did not achieve everything i had hoped. there are some today who would tear at our unity, who would replace love with hate, who deride our foundation of virtue, or who debase the values upon which the blessings of heaven depend. a country's character is a reflection not just of its elected officials, but also of its people that is, senator mitt romney bidding farewell. >> i have to say, you know, his

campaign was the first that i covered from beginning to end on the plane with him. so it's a bit of an end of an era for me as well but, you know, i have to say aaron, one of the things we didn't show there that i remember so clearly from that campaign was the moment where he and ann romney accepted donald trump's endorsement when he was the republican. he was running for the republican nomination in 2011 and 2012. you can see them there. the scene was about as awkward as it looks, right at the time. it was preceded by donald trump just absolutely mobbed by cameras. and of course, romney would often refuse to to talk to the press. and of course, we saw who won out here. i mean, this was donald trump's party. romney voted twice to convict him of things. he was impeached for. he was the only republican to do so. but it's it's he who is stepping off the stage. it is. there's been a real shift and change, not only in the totality of the republican party, but certainly in the

leadership of it. we've seen that. you go back through the boehner era in the house and now the end of mcconnell. and now you're seeing kind of this different old guard of the republican party move out and on. but those senate floor speeches, those farewell speeches, those really are trying to ultimately write the final chapter of your book in the senate. and they're usually very moving and very statesman forward. and as a senate institutionalist myself, i really enjoy them. yes, they are often moments that people plan for quite a bit, and you could really you could hear some of the things that um, you know, romney's faith very important to him. you can hear that underneath that speech as well. all right. i'll leave you with this because we're all talking about it, right? this year's spotify wrapped is here does that mean isa soares? spotify announcing sabrina carpenter's song espresso was the most streamed song globally, while the most streamed artist was, you guessed it, taylor swift. now, no surprise to any of you who watch on the regular. she was my top artist as well you need to calm down.

that's one of my favorites. i think i probably listened to that song a thousand times. however my top song was actually billie holiday's blue moon, which may tell you that i mostly am just spending my time trying to de-stress from doing this every day at home in my living room, but i will say not everyone is happy with this year's musical roundup. some outlets are reporting that some people are upset that this year's wrapped doesn't deliver some of the creative statistics that it has in the past. i have to admit i don't remember stephen, though. let's do a quick roundup. >> top artist r.e.m. never made it out of the 1980s. >> okay. well, yeah. you're showing the generation gap is showing alex green day. >> because i finally saw them. it was like, sort of a high school wish. >> i love green day, man. dookie is like my my favorite album. >> t-swift obviously. >> obviously aaron bean. mine was taylor swift and not surprisingly, one of the top songs is going to be my first dance song at my wedding. it made my top five list this year because apparently i can't stop