president biden. now remember their comments on camera were very short last hour, and we've been playing that for you because this moment in history is huge. those two men have gotten together. we know there were expectations of a peaceful transfer. they both talked about that. a peaceful transition. this was the precursor to that. and they both acknowledged that's the goal, and they were, as trump put it, it's a nice day in the world today. we also know that the first lady jill biden handed a letter of purpose about peaceful transition. it's called a letter of readiness. and we have not learned exactly what's in that, so now trump has left the white house and america reports now. ♪ ♪ >> sandra: thank you, harris, and good to be with all of you. this fox news alert as we top a

new hour, south dakota republicans enter john thune will be the new senate majority leader. mitch mcconnell's top deputy bidding on challenges by john cornyn of texas and rick scott of florida. >> john: thune will speak shortly on-site senate public and leadership colleagues. we will bring you there when it begins. but first, the latest from a big day at the white house. ♪ ♪ >> the former president, donald, congratulations. >> thank you. >> looking forward to having, likely said, smooth transition. >> politics is tough. and its many cases not a very nice world, but it is a nice world today. >> sandra: all right. well, that was seen around the world, that handshake in the oval office as president biden and president-elect trump met their earlier today. both sides promising a peaceful transfer of power ahead of a closed-door meeting that has now concluded as the transition kicks into high gear peered hello and welcome, everyone.

i'm sandra smith in new york. what a big day this is, john. >> john: that was the roaring-est of roaring fires. i'm john roberts in washington and this is "america reports." we expect more from the meeting on the white house press secretary when she briefed reporters in the minutes ahead. part of a triumphant return to d.c. for president-elect trump, who met with house republicans in washington before making his way back to the white house. >> sandra: meanwhile the president-elect is powering forward to shape his cabinet, wasting no time, announcing several new additions in just the past 24 hours. >> john: now fox news team coverage, mark meredith has the latest on trump's transition process and larry kudlow is here to react. >> sandra: but we begin with peter doocy live outside the white house for us. so. a lot of activity there today. what exact we happened do we know so far behind closed doors in that meeting? >> we know that president trump was here a lot longer than his schedule showed us. nearly two hours on campus. we don't know how much of that

was in the oval office with president biden. and the huge group of reporters that was kind of forming a crescent moon shape outside of the west wing with hopes that donald trump would come and give us a readout himself of what happened is breaking up because he decided just to get in the motorcade, head back to trump force one. they are going to let the biden side have the first crack at writing this first draft of history of this historic meeting when karine jean-pierre and jake sullivan stepped to the podium any minute now. they told us they wouldn't start until donald trump left. he's gone. and the whole part of this meeting that they let cameras in for was short enough, we don't have to clip any of it. this is what happened. >> hello, mr. president-elect and former president. >> thank you. >> donald, congratulations. >> thank you. >> and looking forward to having, like we said, a smooth transition. we can make sure you are accommodated with what you need.

we are going to g get a chance o talk about some of that today. >> welcome. >> thank you very much. politics is tough. and it's in many cases not a very nice world, but it is a nice world today, and i appreciate very much a transition that is so smooth, it will be as smooth as it can get. i very much appreciate that, joe. >> you're welcome. thank you all. >> this is the first time the two of them have been in the same room since they were on the debate stage together. the debate that wound up forcing joe biden out of the race. they have spoken on the phone a few times, including after the assassination attempt on donald trump. and again, we don't know anything about how this went. all that we know is that the two of them were in there longer than we thought and we have the incoming chief of staff susie wiles with the outgoing chief of staff jeff zients sitting in. so we will get a lot more information about this. we believe during this hour of your show.

so stay tuned. john? >> sandra: great tees, peter doocy, we appreciate you for that. thank you very much. we will check back in with you soon. john? >> john: in the meantime president-elect trump is rapidly as and when his cabinet, and also a number of new nominees including pete hegseth as defense secretary and john ratcliffe as cia director. mark meredith live in west palm beach, florida, with more on all of this. mark? >> john, good afternoon to you. the president-elect is moving rapidly to fill some of the most coveted jobs in washington. as you mentioned, last night, trump stunned pretty much everybody in washington by announcing pete hegseth, an army veteran, somebody who has been fighting for veterans families, as well as a host right here on fox, to tap the position as the secretary of the department of defense. there are still strong indications trump is going to select florida senator marco rubio to be his secretary of state. rubio was asked about it today up on the hill and he said all questions and announcements need to come from the trump transition team, so essentially stay tuned.

there are also growing questions about what role tulsi gabbard, the former democratic congresswoman from hawaii turned trump supporter may play and a second term. there are rollings that she is going to have a high-profile roe intelligence community but overt trump announced his pick for the cia, that would be john ratcliffe. he is now going to be the nominee for cia director after serving in congress, as well as director of national intelligence in the first trump administration. today, trump also announcing he has chosen four of the men who helped lead his campaign to have key positions within the white house. dance covino, stephen miller, james blair, taylor blood of it will all be deputies chief of staff, but have separate roles focusing on legislate of affairs. of course the other big headline, trump announcing two of his most popular and well-known supporters, that would be elon musk, as well as vivek ramaswamy, are going to lead the department of government efficiency, or doge. this is some thing that does not currently exist, a whole new idea that trump is unveiling in

his second term, and he said it is an effort to some of the government waste can be examined. it is still a bit murky how it is going to work out and democrats are already pointing fun at this, saying they think it is ridiculous that it would take to people to figure out which jobs need to be cut in washington peer john? >> john: yeah, well peered [laughs] we will see how that works out. all right, mark meredith for us, thanks peered sandra? >> sandra: thank you, john, and thanks to mark for that report. let's bring in larry kudlow, fox business host and trump's former director of the economic council. discussing these new cabinet announcements, i haven't heard much on the economy yet and who is leading there. i am sure you probably have some inside scoop there but let me put up on the screen the trump transition and what we know so far, okay? these have grabbed a lot of headlines, susie wiles, i know you have things to save on her, mike waltz, familiar face on the

fox news channel, lee zeldin the epa miss trader, stephen miller. i think it is a portent to go one by one, tom homan, border czar, elise stefanik pulled bite congress to be the u.s. ambassador to the u.n. marco rubio, secretary of state, kristi noem, pete hegseth come about who we just heard, defense secretary john ratcliffe it, and beyond. your thoughts? >> well, he is moving at warp speed, which is, i think, just terrific because he has so much momentum from his landslide victory. in the election a week ago, a little more than a week ago. i happen to think they are terrific appointments. some of them are truly inspired appointments. my friend and your friend pete hegseth. it's interesting he wanted to get the border out of the way fast and national security out of the way fast, it is

important. the economic stuff all come very soon, i think. i know a little bit about that but i'm not going to speculate about that. >> sandra: how important is it that senator thune has just been chosen as the majority leader in the senate? this is a guy who knows a lot about energy coming from south dakota, will this help with the energy transition? >> i think it will help, john is a good man, had a good victory, sat down with president trump not too long ago, i think you will be a great leader, a fine leader. i think he is going to run a more open senate, by the way, in terms of the majority and amendments and no big omnibus bills, so we will have to see how all of that plays out. i think there was a part of the news clip with respect to this elon musk and vivek ramaswamy, the doge, the department of government efficiency. i wouldn't lock that, okay?

i just want to put a flag down on that. we heard a lot about this in recent weeks. i myself have talked to vivek quite a bit on our show and off our show. it's not just the two of them that are going -- they are going to be recruiting a lot of men and women in business and formerly in government to help them out. one thing, vivek posted a tweet today on twitter/x, and he said, look, you have two things here, number one, the chevron deference issue, by the supreme court, which basically said the regulators do not have the whole say, and he also put in earlier, west virginia versus the epa, before running to chevron, the same idea. the supremes have given them a mandate to go through every single regulatory agency. and make sure that they have not

stepped over their boundaries. and by the way, i think you can generalize and say that in virtually every case, they have stepped over their boundaries, and that has to -- either you are going to get congressional legislation, or they will lose their authority to continue to make these regulations. furthermore, i happen to know, some of those regulatory agencies will be recommended to be off the charts completely, get rid of them, we don't need them anymore. you are going to try to modernize government. and on top of that, they are going to go through the federal budget with a fine-tooth comb, and again, they are going to use a lot of people power to get this done. you have, for example, at least a trillion dollars, at least a trillion dollars, in programs that were obligated and authorized but not spent. that is partly the misnamed inflation reduction act. >> sandra: you talk about it in these terms, these are huge

tasks that they have promised to undertake. >> look, there is even more here. they are looking at, for example, federal assets that could be put into use, leased out for enormous revenues and royalties. i'm not going to go through these specific calculations but i could just say that federal assets that could be commercialized and leased out for royalties to the federal government are many times larger than the entire federal debt, which is 30, whatever it is, $34 trillion, about $27 trillion, they are going to mobilize all of these resources, deregulation, get rid of some of these agencies and commissions, get rid of funds that shouldn't be spent anymore, they are not spent -- >> sandra: can you do this in four years? >> pardon? >> sandra: can they do this in four years? >> i think they can do it -- i think you will get a rough outline of some of the most impactful things regarding the

budget, for example. you will get it this summer in time for the reconciliation act, that's the budget act that will have taxes and spending in it, which will be sometimes in september. this thing is going to hit hard. just remember, mr. trump is a businessman. he likes results, okay? elon musk is a hell of a businessman, he likes results. vivek ramaswamy, another businessman, he wants results. so i would take this very seriously. and these regulators and other people inside the federal government, they might want to dust off their resumes because they may be looking for different kinds of work. we might employ them in the private sector, you know, not unemployment, make room for them in the private sector. >> sandra: well, i look forward to talking you through the process. larry, it's going to be interested to watch. alina habba was talking about all of the energy around the picks and you certainly feel it, it is happening fast. >> warp speed. >> sandra: we will see you at 4:00.

john? >> john: white house press secretary karine jean-pierre set to take questions as president biden hosts president-elect trump in the oval office. not a lot of action in the briefing room yet, but what will she have to say about that high-stakes meeting? >> sandra: plus fema hi fired a staff to skip homes with trump signs. was it and i slated incident? mollie hemingway to react to that former employees bombshell claims. >> you know, this is par for the course, right? we keep having this messaging coming out of these agency, especially during the biden-harris administration, that there is nothing to see here, all of these allegations that were being partisan or that we are not doing our job.

♪ ♪ >> john: oh, a lot on the docket for this afternoon.

we are awaiting senator from south dakota john thune to come to the podium and talk as the incoming senate majority leader. he was just elected this morning over john cornyn and rick scott of florida so we look forward to that, as well. at some point this afternoon, karine jean-pierre at the white house to talk about the meeting between president biden and president-elect donald trump so stay with us because we've got a lot on the plate. sandra? >> sandra: we do. meanwhile, after a fema supervisor is fired for ordering her team to skip homes with trump signs. but that now former employee tells fox she was just following status quo. mollie hemingway will react in moments. but first madison scarpino is live from atlanta with more on this for us, madison, he spoke to the employee at the center of all of this, what did she have to say? >> sandra, the now-fired employee reach out to fox

through heard fema dhs email that was still activated. she wants to defend herself through all of this controversy. she said she wanted to keep her crew safe, that her supervisor was aware this message was sent, and that fema uses loose language while canvassing areas based on community trends. >> what we were trending our political, hostile encounters, and unfortunately they just so happened to the majority them to have trump campaign signage is. most of those homes do have other size that say they will shoot you on-site for trespassing. >> washington claims fema skips over homes all the time. she later told a podcast or that she is now fired from her civilian job, as well, because of all of this. sandra, we reached out to fema multiple times for an explanation of washington's claims, but have not received any answers. but the agency says it is investigating this and on saturday, fema's administrator said "this is a clear violation

of fema's core values and principles to help people regardless of their political affiliation. this was reprehensible." now this incident is parking a lot of outrage and investigations among state and federal leaders. >> won't get the answers at some point, but i want to know how high up these decisions went and every single person in that chain of command that was involved and/or responsible for directing people who work for fema to not give fema aid to trump supporters is absolutely atrocious. >> and the house oversight committee says fema's administrator will testify before congress on tuesday, and washington tells us that she welcomes that. sandra? >> sandra: all right, thank you very much. we will have more on that in a moment. john? >> john: all he hemenway, fox news contributor and "federalist" editor in chief joins me now. let's play more sound from arnie washington because i feel like she things she is being scapegoated, watch this.

>> fema always preaches avoidance first and then de-escalation so this is not isolated, this is a colossal event of avoidance. their issue is with fema's infrastructure and how they implement duty. it does need to be revamped. it does need restructuring. and it does -- it's going to have to start with the truth. no matter who was in that office, there is a problem with fema. >> john: her suggestion is this isn't a one off, this was fema policy that may have been in place for years. >> when the story came out trump supporters are not getting help from fema because they were trump supporters fema wanted to say this is a one-off, one individual, not the culture, well, the woman who they fired is saying this is absolutely the culture. she's talking about -- you might want to remember the context. when these two hurricanes hit, they hit predominantly republican voting areas. not just florida, but north carolina and eastern tennessee. these are areas where people

were already concerned that fema might be slow walking the help or they might be not just as concerned about it as they would be if it were more democrat constituencies. that was labeled a conspiracy theory without any actual investigation into the claims by corporate media, who said that the worst thing in the world you could do is question how fema is doing things peered well, now, the story comes out that in fact people's fears were legitimate, and it's not just again this one person but an entire culture. and i just want to point out, too, this woman says we are told not to deals any confrontation. fema deals with disaster response. when people lose their homes, when they have their child ripped from their arms, when family members have died, as happened here, people are going to be stressed out, and government employees should be prepared for that type of tension and hostility that they might be receiving, not avoiding it. probably the people who are most tense are the ones who need the most help. >> john: we talked to obviously dozens and dozens of victims and here is what they told us about relief.

>> we need people coming to help. families are suffering, and it's time for whoever has the ability to bring in supplies, food, water, very little attention, i feel like, being paid force supporters coming in to be taking care of this. >> we feel like we are forgotten. hardly anyone has flood insurance. we haven't received any response from fema. >> we have not seen anybody other than the one person from fema on the ground. it's been local and state. >> john: remember that famous comment by deanne criswell, just because you don't see us doesn't mean we are not there, and brian kilmeade said, well, isn't that the principle of the holy ghost? you might not see me, but i'm there. >> it's worth pointing out, too, the biden administration is not the first administration to have problems with fema. pretty much since it was started under jimmy carter, you've seen

it be a place where there is a lot of corruption and graft and cronies are put in place. i think this speaks to what is happening with this transition, as well. the trump team seems to want to actually improve government programs. if there is a disaster response, they would like it to actually help with disasters and do it in a cost-efficient way. these kind of problems we saw with these hurricanes really might point to some of the reforms that people will be seeking. >> john: the florida attorney general is incensed about this, the house oversight committee is going to be looking into this, but let me just key in on what you said just there because the democrats are ridiculing this new d.o.g.e., the department of government efficiency. headed up by vivek ramaswamy and elon musk, saying oh, it takes two people to find government efficiency? i mean, i think if you are going to get to people to look into this, those are probably two of the very best people you could find. >> also we have decades of washington, d.c., where they have put tens of thousands of people working on the problem of government waste, fraud, and

abuse, and clearly that hasn't done the trick. having to people who are outside the beltway, outside that bubble, looking at things with a completely new approach might be what is needed. it is going to be very difficult to fix these decades of problem with the bureaucracy that is bloated, unaccountable, unresponsive, unelected, and yet things they get to run the country, but if you would put anyone on it, i think elon musk and vivek ramaswamy might be the two best. >> john: democrats, this is a guy who can catch rockets, think he can get waste fraud and ab abuse. sandra? >> sandra: thank you, john, and here's a fox news alert to to live events we are watching for right now. screen left, the white house press briefing room, jake sullivan expected to speak along with karine jean-pierre, as you can imagine, in this moment of transition, there is a lot of questions. we will be listening for that. capitol hill, the whip john thune is expected to speak after his election to majority

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♪ ♪ >> sandra: all right, fox news alert, half past the hour, to live events we are waiting on at this moment, screen left is the white house press briefing roomo brief reporters there any moment now following president biden and president-elect trump's meeting there earlier in the oval office. a handshake and a promise of a peaceful transition. we do expect she will take questions shortly. we will go to that when it begins. capitol hill, seeing some movement screen right, expecting the newly elected senate majority leader to speak along with g.o.p. senate leadership. that does appear to be the vice president-elect, did you see that there, john, entering

through that back door. that did look like j.d. vance there. we are seeing a lot of movement. it just hasn't been john thune, let's put it that way. >> john: well, he is going to be coming out at some point, speaking to him just a short time ago, and he is quite enthusiastic about the results of this vote. and, i'm sorry, what was that? oh, okay. we want to just depart this in washington, d.c., for just a moment. we will be coming to that very shortly. meantime, chicago's mayor alan to fight back against president-elect trump just one week after trump's decisive win, mayor brandon johnson blasted the future commander in chief as a threat. raymond lopez is standing by. but first, garrett tenney with the latest on this feud. >> yeah, john, chicago is still a very deep blue city, but last

week showed the political landscape here is changing ever so slightly. donald trump won more votes than any republican presidential candidate here in chicago since 1988, and 21%, which is nine points higher than he got in 2016. but a big reason a lot of lifelong democrats came out for trump is the border and the migrant crisis they feel mayor brandon johnson has encouraged and even enabled. but the progressive mayor still refuses to acknowledge any missteps in his handling of the migrants and is instead calling trump a tyrant and a threat to the windy city. >> we are going to defend the people of this city, let's very clear, his attack, the president-elect, former president trump, his threat is not just towards new arrivals. and undocumented families. his threats are also against black families. he has a vision to destroy

public education. >> black chicagoans who voted republicans for the first time in this election because of the migrant question disagree with the mayor and say the defiance that blue city and state leaders are showing suggests that democrats haven't learned any lessons from the past four ye years. >> people have to really be clear about is that a lot of people did not necessarily vote for trump, that they voted against the democratic party. they voted against our democratic mayor. and i think that the mayor, our governor, and all of our city officials have to understand and need to pay attention to the fact that chicago voters are not okay with this. >> and it's worth noting while president trump received 21% of the vote in chicago, mayor brandon johnson is extremely unpopular here. a year and a half into his first term, a recent paul mack had just percent of voters saying they viewed the progressive

mayor favorably. john? >> john: and yet they elected him. elections have consequences, i guess. garrett tenney for us, thank you. sandra? >> sandra: so the senate majority leader elect john thune is expected to seat any moment now. we are told about 2 minutes ago we were outside the two minute window, so anyway this is still a delay there, despite the chicago, that is capitol hill, and we are awaiting senator thune to speak shortly, and when he does, we will go to that. by the way, just confirmed with chad pergram come out of the corner of our eye, we did see what we thought was the vice president-elect j.d. vance departing through that door, he confirms that it was him, he was there meeting with lawmakers and just left a she few seconds ago. it is a busy day, to say the least, in washington on capitol hill and the white house. we will get to thune when he begins. chicago alderman is joining us right now. back to that report in chicago,

the mayor ramping up attacks on the president-elect, where do you stand on that and what are your thoughts in this moment? >> you know, i think, sandra, like so many americans, we need to a knowledge the election is over, donald trump has won, and he has been given a mandate from the people one coast to the next to proceed with issues that everyday chicagoans are most concerned about. one of which is immigration. we have seen time and time again where democratic politicians try to gaslight, pitted, and redirect the attention to what they want to talk about.s voters want to see action on immigration and what they see as a broken immigration system. and i don't think it's hard for many americans, particularly many chicagoans, to say when you have individuals who are here, whether they are undocumented or manipulated asylum to gain entry in this country and our here in the city of chicago, that if they break the law they should be removed from this country.

most people consider that a common sense solution, regardless of where you stand on how they got here, and i think that is what the president is going to articulate, and chicagoans overwhelmingly support that. >> sandra: you say regardless, regardless this is brandon johnson on his pledge to protect those undocumented immigrants in the city, listen. >> we are going to protect undocumented individuals, we are going to protect black folks, brown folks, asian folks. listen, the antisentiment that exists in this political space right now is unconscionable and it is dangerous, whether his anti-black -- >> sandra: the newly-elected majority leader of the senate is now speaking, john thune, let's listen. >> senator thune: rejected the failed policies of the biden-harris schumer agenda. this republican team is united. we are on one team, we are excited to reclaim the majority to get to work with our colleagues in the house to enact president trump's agenda. we have a mandate from the american people.

a mandate not only to clean up the mess left by the biden-harris-schumer agenda, but also to deliver on president trump's priorities. we will make sure that the president and his team have the tools and support they need to enforce border security laws and to remove the violent criminals were wreaking havoc in every one of our states. we will work to make america prosperous again by streamlining the bureaucratic machine and overturning costly biden-harris regulations. we will work to restore american energy dominance. not just our energy security, but energy dominance. which will lower costs and bolster our national security. i'm excited to get to work with this team right away, and i want to thank my colleagues who placed their faith in me to serve as leader and to those who are supporting another candidate, i promise to be a leader who serves the entire

republican conference. we will have an ambitious agenda that will take each and every republican working together to be successful. with that, i want to turn things over to senator john barrasso, the newly-elected republican whip. [applause] >> senator barrasso: than thank you. on election night, america saw the remaking of the republican republican party for the better. this election was about the answering to the question of are you better off now than you were four years ago? and the american people said no. only one in four americans thought that the country was heading in the right direction. and you've seen the republican party grow in terms of hardworking middle-class families, in terms of minorities, in terms of young people, in terms of families struggling to get by. in the last three weeks before the election, i was all over the country with president trump, with j.d. vance, as well as a number of our senate candidates. one of the stories that stuck

with me was a woman in michigan who talked about the fact that she was embarrassed to let her husband know that she had to go to the local food bank in order to get by. republicans listened to those stories. democrats were focused on president trump. republicans were focused on the needs of the american people. people who wanted to get prices down, wanted to secure the border, wanted us to unleash american energy, people who wanted to make america look and be strong once again around the world. that's what the republicans listened to. that's what we are responding to. and we are now working together to make sure we can put america back on track. >> senator thune: the newly-elected republican congress chair is senator tom cotton.

>> senator cotton: thank you to senator thune. i'm grateful for the confidence my peers placed in me. we all remember what it was like when president trump was in office and we had republicans in charge of the senate. we had low prices. we had high wages. we had a secure border. we had a strong military. we had a peaceful, stable world. starting on january 3rd, that is what we will all be working to build again with president trump, with mike johnson, and the rest of the house republicans on behalf of the american people. thank you all. >> senator thune: thanks, tom. the newly-elected republican policy chair is the senator from west virginia, senator. >> thank you, and congratulations to our new leader, john thune, he will be a strong voice as he has been in the past, as the whip, and i look forward to serving with him and with all of our leadership team. i want to thank the others that ran, we had a really strong healthy discussion, and we have all, united and friends. one of the people that was in our discussion is one of the

people, although he didn't say anything, his presence was very much felt, and that is the vice president-elect, j.d. vance. i think the fact he not only was a voting member of our conference, but also in there with us every step of the way to make sure that the direction that we are going to go as a united conference and with me leading the policy issues and all of us working together that we are going to have a united voice, and i'll say one thing about the election. i've said this on all my local stations. what i think the biggest issue was, and there are big ones, border and national security and others, it is literally the american family, the mom and the dead and the grandmother, whoever it is, going to the grocery store. we do it all the time, every week, and we can see, all of us could see the escalating costs of something so very basic to us, just the cost of food and hearing from the vice president

and her campaign, the economy is doing great, don't worry. and so we hear those voices. we hear them loud and clear. and those of the voices that we are going to respond to come along with president trump through the next several years. >> senator thune: thanks, shelley. the newly-elected senate republican conference vice chair is the senator from oklahoma, senator james lankford. >> congratulations to john thune, looking forward to his great leadership there. republicans were asked a very simple thing. can you get us back on track? over 70% of the country right now believes the country is on the wrong track. our task is going to be very, very simple: to defend our values, to be able to strengthen us as a nation, and to be able to bring prosperity to people that are really struggling right now. that's a primary issue for us, and all of those things are things that we are going to get onto immediately because the american people have spoken and said we do not like the direction that the country is going, so let's get us back on a better direction, so this leadership team, president trump, j.d. vance, we

are headed in a direction to be able to get the country back on the track that she is looking for. >> senator thune: thanks, james. and the newly-elected chairman of the senate national republican senatorial committee chair is the senator from south carolina, and he is already planning on expanding our majority in 2026, so senator tim scott. >> hey, brother. president trump set out to make sure that americans felt like this country and the american dream was alive and well and there for them. from the border to fixing the economy to solving the issue of crime and restoring confidence on the global stage, president trump has been very clear on his agenda. our goal with our leader john thune is to make sure that we achieve those objectives. my passion is making sure that we defend our current seats and

expand the map and expand our majority so that president trump does not have two years with a republican majority in the senate. he has four years and control of making sure that america's agenda comes home to each and every household. >> senator thune: thanks, tim. a couple quick questions. >> reporter: do you have any concerns about president trump's cabinet picks so far, and what advice would you give him when he comes to choosing nominees who will pass senate confirmation? >> senator thune: well, as you know, the senate has and advise and consent role in the constitution so we will do everything we can. the process his knobs quickly, get them installed quickly and him him and his agenda. >> reporter: leader thune, you said recess appointments are on the table. >> senator thune: what we are going to do is make sure we are processing his nominees in a way

that gets them into those positions so they can implement his agenda. how that happens or means to be seen. obviously we want to make sure our committees have confirmation hearings like they typically do and these nominees reported on the floor, but i have said this, and i mean it, that we expect a level of cooperation from the democrats to work with us to get these folks installed, and obviously we are going to look at explore all options to make sure that they get movement and they can move quickly. reform act legislative filibuster remain unchanged under your tenure? >> senator thune: yes. >> reporter: how do you intend to balance maintaining independence of the senate with passing the president-elect agenda? >> senator thune: the senate, as you know, is by the founders design a place where the minority has a voice in our process, and we will do the job that the founders intended us to do in the united states senate, and that the american people intend us to do, and that right now, after this mandate election

coming out of the american people is to work with this president on an agenda that unwinds a lot of the damage of the biden-harris-schumer agenda and puts in place new policies that will move our country forward in a different dire direction. >> sandra: all right, so there you have it. the newly-elected majority leader in the senate john thune along with g.o.p. leadership there in the senate, really interesting at the top of his remarks there, he chose to focus on energy legislation, energy reform, saying that we will work to restore american energy dominance, not american energy, he said american energy dominance. goes to show where some of his priorities are as he begins his new job. >> john: it would seem as though his priorities are where the presence priorities are. he said at the top too he will make sure the trump team has all the tools it needs to implement his agenda. he also said the senate would

move quickly to confirm the president's nominees for his cabinet and anybody else who requires senate confirmation. the big question, though, is it looks like the house -- unless there is a split between conservatives in the house and more moderate republicans, as we have seen in the past, that the house will probably be in lockstep with the president, but the senate has always been considered to be the great cooling pond of congress, and will they readily approve everything that the president proposes? we will see in the days and weeks ahead. >> sandra: we will. >> john: all right, let's bring back in mollie hemingway for more on this. what did you think? >> well, what you just said is actually the important thing there. the house is a democratic body. it response to the passions of the people. the senate is not supposed to be that way. and so what you are seeing here with the selection of john thune is this idea, sort of continuing business as usual. he is viewed largely as one of mcconnell's most devoted disciples, so if you like, was

doing things, you would be happy with how thune is doing things, but he said a few things that were interesting for people who don't like the way mcconnell has been doing things. one of the things he said is regard list of how you voted, i'm going to be the leader for every member of this conference. that's a very different approach than what we saw from senator mcconnell, who was known for being able to keep a grudge going on decades if you didn't support him, he would punish you financially or by not giving committee assignments, so if thune is showing some softening there and keeping a happier, more united conference, that's one thing. the other thing is people talk about needing to be independent from trump or independent from the president. that's true and that's an important constitutional role for the senate. a lot of americans would like the senate to be independent from the swamp, from the d.c. establishment that keeps things going the same way and doesn't resolve actually large problems that are facing the country, so they are fine with the article one powers being independent from the president. they want the senate to actually get things done in a much more

effectively than they have recently. >> sandra: okay, and as far as some of the final words we heard from thune they're talking about a level of cooperation from democrats that he will be looking for, that will be interesting, as well. molly, if you could stand by with us, so much breaking news this hour, now the white house and karine jean-pierre is at the microphone. >> secretary jean-pierre: and exchange of views. they discuss important national secured interested policies issues facing the nation and the world. president biden also raised important items on congress' to-do list for the lame duck session. including funding the government and providing the disaster supplemental funding the president requested. finally, the president reiterated what he said to the president-elect the day after the election and to the american people in the rose garden just last week: we will have an orderly transition and a peaceful transition of power. with that, as you can see, the

national security advisor with me, jake sullivan, who is going to preview aipac and peru and g20 and brazil, the president is going to be leaving. jake, the floor is yours. >> thanks, karine, and hi, everybody. and going to make comments, about the trip tomorrow, but i know the issue you are most interested in hearing from karine is the meeting so i will not dally too long. i think it is important to lay out the president's trip over the next several days. tomorrow he travels to south america. his first stop will be peru, for the apex summit, the a's a push affect economic cooperation summit, and then he will go on to brazil the first ever presidential trip to the amazon and then the g20 summit in rio de janeiro. at aipac, the leading role in the indo-pacific. the last four years he has

markedly enhanced our strategic position in this vital region, from our treaty alliances to the historic trilateral in japan and korea, and with respect to that trilateral he will meet with president yoon of south korea and prime minister ishiba of japan to celebrate the historic cooperation between our three nations and discuss the importance of institutionalizing the process we have made so that it carries forward through the transition. while in lima... >> sandra: jake sullivan detailing president biden stripped there, he will continue to do so for what probably will be, john, a few minutes, but as he even said himself, probably what most folks are interested in right now is karine jean-pierre and any detail she is going to give about president biden's meeting with president-elect donald trump just a couple hours ago at the white house, so we will get back to that briefing as soon amino that they are talking about that. >> john: that should happen after jake finishes talking about the trip to south america,

so let's bring back in mollie. we were talking about whether the senate would move in lockstep with the president. john thune, i think he has a pretty good relationship with trump. he has never been known as a trump acolyte. but how do you think the senate will progress? >> thune has made pains to show he is a good trip with trump and recent he visited mar-a-lago, but i think what is also interesting is the other senators who were there. barrasso was one of the mcconnell acolytes who could've gone for the majority leader position. he decided not to, instead wanting to be whipped. he has been seen as of that group the one who is most friendly to the trump agenda. then you have tom cotton, who is extremely respected by all sorts of different groups within the senate and is very close to president trump and was under strong consideration for the defense secretary, for instance, so he will be a huge advocate for some of these large issues. if we are going to see the country make some impressive

changes in the way the voters seem to want it to, it is going to require a senate that is not an obstacle. again, does not mean they don't work as a deliberative body, but they need to be on board for some of the issues, whether it is the border, the economy, or foreign policy. >> sandra: so it leads you to wonder what the first, you know, the first few days, first few months of this presidency will look like and how quickly this all takes form and falls in line for the president's agenda. >> and you saw that also mentioned in the discussion of the nominations. there are going to be so many senate-confirmed positions and that was a big problem during the first trump administration were democrats had effectively slowed down the process and didn't have much progress getting the nominations filled. that is a major agenda item, and you saw there was discussion this week about allowing recess appointments to allow some of these positions to be filled more quickly, and thune seemed to be saying let us do our job, we are going to work with the democrats and get this done. if the senate is able to do t

that, we know there is a limited period of time where republicans will be in control of all the chambers and the presidency, so they want to make the most of that while they are there. >> john: so, mollie, i'm wondering what you might think about this, when i was on with harris earlier as we were watching trump with the g.o.p. conference and heading over to the white house, i said i think trump could actually be more effective in a nonconsecutive second term that he might have been if he had a consecutive second term because he has had e biden administration first of all lead the country through this massive inflation and price increases and massive problem with immigration, and he has been able to take that all in and formulate plans for what he would do to turn all of that back. plus, remember the first administration, he was beset by all of these problems, you know, allegations that the deep state was trained to trip him up at every turn and people working for him seemed to turn on him.

he has been very deft now in picking who he wants to have close around him, and i'm wondering if you th think you mt be more effective in this nonconsecutive second term that if he had just rolled right into a second term? >> his first term was unlike any other. usually get 100 days to get everything going, instead he had the russia collusion hoax and other problems, so he was already on track if he had won in 2022 have a more effective second term but as you note because of the biden years, people understand, the need to make major changes i think they are going to do it. >> sandra: mollie hemingway, thank you very much for standing by through the breaking news. president biden meanwhile and president-elect trump holding transition talks at the white house that happened here. that was the handshake earlier in the oval office. as the incoming administration moves at warp speed to get staff in place. ari fleischer and mark penn are here. that's all coming up.

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