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this is why starlight exists. to bring happiness to hospitalized children when they need it most. because happiness matters. >> announcer: "this week" with george stephanopoulos starts right now. >> martha: the retribution begins. >> we're going to clean out the corrupt, broken, and failing bureaucracies. >> martha: the president-elect sparking alarm with controversial cabinet nominees including a fire brand fought tv host to lead the department of defense. >> we should not have women in combat roles. >> reporter: vaccine skeptic robert f. kennedy jr. for health secretary. >> it's driven him wild over the last number of years. >> reporter: and ardent trump loyalist, now former congressman, matt gaetz, to run the justice department.

>> he's got a real steep hill to climb here. lots of votes, including mine. >> martha: democratic senator-elect elissa responds. and analysis from our powerhouse round table. plus -- >> we pay some of the highest wages for farm workers in the nation right here in california, and they won't come out. >> martha: we traveled to california farmland to see what trump's massive deportation plans could mean for farmers and the nation's food supply. texas republican tony gonzales joins us for reaction. good morning, and welcome to "this week." donald trump is wasting no time naming the team he wants around him in a second term. in rapid fire fashion, he announced a series of nominees this week to fill the white

house and lead key cabinet departments. many of them were right by trump's side last night to attend a ufc fight at madison square garden in new york. among them, controversial picks like the world's richest man, elon musk, and entrepreneur, vivek ramaswamy who will lead a new department of governmen efficiency, an amorphous role aimed at slashing government spending. while that raised a lot of intrigue, other picks have raised eyebrows to say the least and some outright opposition, including tulsi gabbard for director of national intelligence despite her critics claiming she has sympathetic views toward russia. fox news personality, pete hegseth to lead the department of defense despite him having no experience running an organization near the scale of the u.s. military, matt gaetz as attorney general prompting him to step down from congress, a move that ended an ethics probe

into alleged illicit drug use and whether he paid for sex with a minor, and robert f. kennedy jr. to lead health and human services, a massive role overseeing 13 major health agencies such as the cdc, nih, and fda by someone who has publicized disproven conspiracy theories about vaccines and covid-19 treatments. that pick drew rebukes from top health officials including former biden white house covid-19 response coordinator, dr. ashish jha who said, i worry a lot about going backwards just at a time when we have made so much progress medicine. dr. paul offit, a vaccine specialist at children's hospital of philadelphia, responding that the notion that a science denialist would head an agency that is built on science is a frightening prospect. and former acting cdc director, dr. richard besser saying,

point-blank, that i think it would be extremely dangerous to have rfk jr. as the secretary of health and human services. and dr. besser joins me now. it's good to see you, dr. besser, this morning. you have spent your career in medicine and science. 30 years as a pediatrician, 13 years with the cdc. i have to say i've never seen you so outraged. so tell us what kind of power and influence you think rfk jr. would have. >> you know, martha, i am outraged because lives are at stake here. the head of health and human services touches programs that affect every single life in our country. i have been focusing mainly on the public health impacts, you know, as you know i'm a pediatrician. i've practiced pediatrics for more than 30 years and there's nothing i've done for my patients that i know has more positive impact than getting them vaccinated fully and on

time, and to have someone leading hhs who is one of the biggest deniers of vaccines in our country, would undermine the confidence in that program and likely would cost lives. >> martha: you know, he said he does not intend to get rid of allvaccines, said he and all his children had been vaccinated before the covid vaccine which they did not take. so would he -- >> right. >> martha: -- get rid of them? do you think he's lying about that in. >> well, it's not a matter of getting rid of them. no vaccine is 100% protective. when you send your kid to school fully vaccinated, you don't want to have to worry that the child sitting next to them that their parents chose not to vaccinate their child because once the level of vaccination in a classroom drops below something like 95%, it's a setup for diseases like measles or whooping cough to spread. if there's a child in the

classroom who has an immune problem, that child is at risk. so it's not a matter of saying, oh, yes. you have access to your vaccines. it's pushing the idea that vaccines should be something that is totally up to the individual. we have a social contract in our country. there are things we do for our own health, but there are things we do that are good for ourselves, our families, and our communities, and vaccination falls into that category and having somebody who denies that in that role is extremely dangerous. >> martha: he has not only denied some things in that role, or potentially in that role, but he has said there is some sort of autism that is a result of these vaccines, totally not true. >> yeah, you know, this was a question that was asked and addressed decades ago, and to continue to lift that up is a cruel thing to do. we need to as a nation, address chronic diseases in children,

and one of the dangerous things about rfk jr. is there are bits of things he says that are true, and they're mixed in, and it makes it really hard to sort out what things you should -- you should follow because they're based on fact, and which things are not. we should address chronic diseases. autism is one of those, and spending money trying to understand what are the causes of autism, and how can you address that, but keep lifting up the idea that it has something to do with vaccination is really a cruel thing to do. >> martha: and he does push back on pharmaceuticals, and he's gotten praise for that. he does have interest in battling chronic childhood diseases, improving childhood nutrition. so do you believe something good could come out of it? >> well, this is my point. there are some things here that are worth working on, you know, if we're looking at the school lunch program in america, 30 million children get more than half of their calories from that program. it would be a wonderful thing to make that the best school lunch

program possible. give money to skoochools so tha they have kitchens and can make fresh food. get the corporations out of the discussion so they're not pushing processed food. that would be a terrific thing. getting big business out of the decisions of government health making, that would be -- that would be a great thing, but when you mix it in with solutions that are based on falsehoods or some are, and some aren't, it's very confusing and could have dire consequences. >> martha: okay. thanks for joining us this morning, dr. besser. trump's pick of matt gaetz may face the biggest uphill battle for confirmation, so let's bring in former federal prosecutor preet bharara. good morning to you. first of all, i want your reaction to the nomination. >> good morning. look. you begin with the premise that every president within reason, is entitled to the nominees of his choice, the team of his choice, the cabinet of his choice, but there are limits. particularly with the justice department which is an important role, the american public is also entitled to someone who has

the proper experience, background, seasoning, judgment, et cetera, and ideally, you would want someone at the ag level whose experience with the justice department goes beyond being investigated by the justice department. ideally you want somebody who has criminal law experience, who has litigation experience, who has an extensive amount of legal experience, and most importantly, you want to have somebody who can pass a basic background check, you know, matt gaetz has had a bipartisan investigation of him with respect to sex trafficking and other sexual misconduct going on in the house. that was his employer essentially, and if you resign two days before the report comes out, as we lawyers like to say, you can draw an adverse inference that the result of that investigation is not good. so i think it's a problematic nomination for a variety of reasons, and that's why you're hearing reports of such a bipartisan opposition. >> martha: and you heard house speaker mike johnson though

praise the choice in saying this ethics report should not be released. obviously there are things leaking out about that report already that you mentioned. >> look. the proof is in the fact that somebody who has a job, an important job, as a member of the house of representatives is leaving that job ostensibly for the purpose of prechbtding that report from coming out. it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand the results are probably very bad. whether that becomes public to everyone, that's up to the house, but at a minimum, i think the american people would want the senators who are in a position to advise and consent and determine the outcome of the nomination, to have the benefit of that report in deciding whether or not this person gets this incredibly important job. in no other context, whether it's a tv station or a law firm, or a university would somebody who has been investigated for something in the prior job and quits that job to prevent the release of damaging information, get the next job. you would never hear of it in any context ever, and it

probably shouldn't happen here. >> martha: and preet, jd vance has said this is the most important job after the president and vice president. let's listen to gaetz in his own words, how he would approach ththe job. >> i don't care if it takes every second of our time and every ounce of our energy. we either get this government back on our side or we defund and get rid of, abolish the fbi, cdc, hef, doj, every las them if they do not come to heel. >> martha: again, you talk about a president being able to choose whomever he wants. the voters chose donald trump. they know this is what he wants. so if he is confirmed, how much power would he have to do what he says? >> he would have -- he would have a tremendous amount of power, and he has the backing of a president who is a flame thrower himself, a bomb thrower himself, who is choosing a bomb

thrower for that job, and again, the president has a right to substantial deference, but not complete and total deference as the united states senate. they're accountable to the public as well and they have a role to advise and again, not ideal to have someone in that top job who has spoken in that bomb-throwing kind of way about the dismantlement about the central law enforcement agencies that are within the control of the justice department including the fbi. >> martha: and just finally, and quickly as you can, what are you hearing from career folks in the justice department? one justice department official told abc news there would be mass resignations if he gets sworn in. could that actually be the goal, to clean house? >> you know, they've talked about cleaning house. in some ways, it's ironic that donald trump and his allies have talked about the deep state, wanting to get rid of the deep state. it sounds like they want to get rid of one deep state and implement another, people who are aligned with them. it would be unfortunate if lots

of people left the justice department and left it to political folks to fill the ran ranks with people who are aligned politically with them, when most of the work of the justice department is not political, or ideological. staffering decisions are not made on a political basis, and it's a vanishly small number of cases at the justice department that we talk about on television that involve political figures and you want that work to be done in a fair and neutral way. >> martha: okay. i thank you for your time this morning, preet. >> thanks, martha. >> martha: and for the bigger picture on trump's national security picks, i'm joined now in studio by democratic senator-elect elissa slotkin who pulled off a narrow win in michigan, a battleground state that helped elect donald trump. good morning to you. thanks for joining us. you have experience across the national security space including defense and the cia. so let's start with the nomination of pete hegseth for the head of department of

defense. this morning his lawyer acknowledging he paid off a woman who accused him of sexual assault in 2017, but he says he is an innocent victim although his lawyers say witnesses saw him visibly intoxicated at the time of this incident. what's your reaction to that, and to his nomination? >> i mean, i think in general, i'm a senator-elect and advice and consent from the senate is part of our constitutional process. so i'm going to try and meet with everybody, hear them out, but i also am a former cia officer and defense department official. i know just how important these jobs are not just for who gets what in washington, but for the actual security of people in the united states, and, you know, i was one of the first employees of the dni's office. i worked at the pentagon and so to me, you have to have the right character. you have to have the right qualifica qualifications. you have to go through an actual vetting process, and to me, that is the thing that is going to be critical in deciding who should be supported as these big, big cabinet level officials.

>> martha: he has also said, hegseth, in his book, and in public appearances, that he does not think women should be in combat roles. they are currently in combat roles. how much power, if he is confirmed, would he have to change that, and what do you think those statements -- right now, do to the morale of women in the pentagon? >> i can tell you because i was at the pentagon on thursday, and there is absolute, like, hallway constant chatter and conversation and concern from senior women officers, but also i've heard from folks who have recommended service academiacad young women just starting out their career saying, am i going to be able to accomplish what i want to accomplish here? i don't think it's an understatement to say there is real stress on the horse right now, but there is a lot of power. the secretary of defense is designed to be a very important job. so who we put in there is extremely, extremely critical. again, to our security and who we are as a nation.

so there is -- there is deep concern, but also a deep opportunity to sort of make sure we are putting only qualified people in these jobs. >> martha: hegseth has also said that any general that was involved in any of the dei woke crap has got to go. do you expect donald trump to fire top generals who he considers woke or those close to former chairman mark milley? >> i don't think you have to interpret -- i don't think you have to interpret anything. i think they have been very clear that they're putting together some sort of panel that's going to look at generals, people who have served their nation their entire lives, over multiple administrations, democrat and republican in combat. they are now openly talking about dismissing them like some sort of kangaroo court. you can imagine the stress in the pentagon about that, but also on the future of who we are as a military, right? our military and the role of the military is in the constitution for a reason, and i think we're really at risk of politicizing the him in a way that we can't

put the genie back in the bottle. >> martha: but there have been issues with recruiting of late, and hegseth talks about that. >> sure. i mean, there's issues with recruiting. i think you talked to any business leader, there's issues with recruiting as well. there's just a high demand signal, but i don't think that showing that you can be fired in the system is a way to increase recruiting and i will just take note -- >> martha: he said it would attract normal males. >> his idea of normal may be differe different -- we want a diverse force. the military is one of the most diverse institutions in the world. so the officer corps should reflect that diversity. that's not just me that's the supreme court of the united states. when they get gott rid of that they excluded our naval academies. >> martha: know what you said at the top, but from what you

already know, would you vote against his nomination? >> i'm not going to do that. i'm a senator-elect. i want to meet with people. i want to talk with people. some of these people i've served with in congress. i want the opportunity to have that conversation because it's written in the constitution. that's what we should be doing. >> martha: okay. let's talk about what we already know about tulsi gabbard. you served with her as well. is she qualified for that job from what ■you knowright ow? >> again -- >> martha: your own experience at the cia. >> i think that i was literally one of the first employees when we stood up to the director of national intelligence office, and i have real concerns. again, people have to be of a certain character and certain qualification. because if you have the wrong people in these jobs, it's, again, it's not just a parlor game. >> martha: what concerns you about her, and certainly there's been reporting about her past statements about russia, about ukraine. >> i just need to know that the people who are in these jobs are

not going to be guided by politics and what someone tells them they think they should be seeing in the intelligence or in the defense picture, but what is actually the truth on the ground, speaking truth to power is one of the most important things the intelligence community does, and if you have someone in there who feels more beholden to telling the president who he wants to hear, i've got a real problem with that. >> martha: marco rubio for secretary of state. that really seems like a very conventional pick. you know marco rubio. you've seen what he's done over the years on foreign affairs. what do you think a change might be there if he is confirmed? >> i mean, i think, again, the -- there is a -- he has been a very public person about his views on foreign affairs, and i think we heard from across the country that there's a lot of different views in this country right now about america's role in the world. do we think we should have that leadership role as we have had after world war ii and on or do

we want to isolate and say, now ewh what? we're fine with russian leadership or chinese leadership in the world. i know where i stand. we're not perfect abroad, but i would rather have american leadership over chinese or russian leadership any day of the week, and so i hope that despite the impulses maybe of president-elect trump, that we have marco rubio as a more traditional pick who's going to understand that american role, that leadership role is important. >> martha: thanks so much for joining us this morning. we appreciate your time. coming up, what will happen to the nation's food supply with trump's promise of a mass deportation? i traveled to california's farmland to find out. we're back in two minutes. >> announcer: "this week" is sponsored by parveg life. creating financial security for nearly 160 years. (♪) as you plan for your financial future, keep a steady eye on the best approach. for nearly 160 years, generations have put their trust

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illegal aliens that joe biden's released in our country, as violation of federal law, you better start packing now. >> martha: former i.c.e. acting director and president-elect donald trump's incoming border czar, tom homan, speaking at the republican convention this summer after record border crossings in the first three years of the biden administration. trump has promised mass deportations on day one, starting with those with criminal records, a process that could be long and costly, but fears of deportation have worried migrant workers across america as well as farmers who rely on their labor, and we saw that up close this week in the central valley of california. california's central valley is without question one of the most vital agricultural regions in america. 400 miles of rich farmland from redding to bakersfield, producing $17 billion worth of crops, 25% of the nation's food

supply. >> my farm here in central california grows melons like cantaloupes and watermelons. we also grow almonds. we grow tomatoes and cherries. >> martha: and to help grow and harvest those crops, many farmers here rely on undocumented workers. the department of agriculture estimates that about half of the hired crop workers do not have legal status. that is estimated to be more than 330,000 workers in the central valley alone. joe del bosk started his farm in 1985. >> we do have concerns because our labor is barely where we need to do. we can't afford a labor shortage. back in obama, we had a labor shortage, and there were a time where we actually lost some crop. we left melons in the field unharvested and we lost them. >> martha: i think people will look and say, but wait a minute. there are americans who are

unemployed. why can't you just hire them? >> they don't want to come out here and work in these extreme conditions. 100-plus-degree temperatures, dust, hard work. >> martha: what if you paid them more? >> it doesn't matter. you know, we pay some of the highest wages for farm workers in the nation right here in california, and they won't come out. in california, we grow about 50% of the fruits and vegetables and nuts for the country, and any -- any shortage of food like that is going to impact everybody in the nation because not only will food be left available, it'll more expensive. >> martha: manuel acuna jr. runs the farmers league a trade representation in the fresno area. he says trump's promise to deport all undocumented migrants would disrupt the entire country. >> if you took away my work force, you wouldn't eat.

if you came into the valley, and you started doing what you're seeing, it's over. the country will stop. it'll literally stop because the food system won't move. >> martha: and like joe, he insists these undocumented farm workers are not taking jobs that would otherwise go to american citizens. >> i don't care what you pay them. i don't care if you pay them $26 an hour. it ain't going to happen. they're not going to get up at 4:00, 5:00 in the morning, drive to the field, and pick fruit. >> reporter: acuna wants the trump administration to give those who have been in the country, hard at work, a break. >> we need to figure out how we handle those folks versus the ones that are criminals, child molesters, whatever you may want to call them, coming across the border. they worked here for 30 years, and now you're going to throw them out of the country. >> martha: this woman came here 20 years ago to escape domestic abuse in mexico. an activist for immigration

reform, she provides for her family pruning crops, landscaping, and harvesting thanks to a work permit, but she's trying to obtain legal perm nnt status. she worries now not just about herself, but those workers without any legal status. i'm scared, she says, but we have to keep going. and yet deporting undocumented workers in california is complicated. the state enacted a measure in 2017 that prevents state resources from being used for federal immigration enforcement, and while that law varies by city and county, california is the sanctuary city capital of america, with dozens of cities and counties protecting undocume undocumented residents from arrest based solely on their immigration status. san jose, the third largest city is one of them. the mayor defends the

protections despite donald trump's vow to get rid of them. >> we have the vast majority of our residents here that are undocumented residents that are law-abiding. the data shows that undocumented residents are less likely to commit crime. they're more likely to be working. they're paying taxes. they have a stake in our society. >> martha: but the mayor fully realizes that because of the biden administration's record-breaking border crossings, the majority of americans now support mass deportation. 56% in an october abc/ipsos poll. >> i think it's hard to get people to support the notion of a pathway to citizenship when you haven't committed to securing the border. >> martha: our thanks to the mayor, and republican congressman tony gonzales represents a district with the longest stretch of border in texas, and he joins he now, and you've got a lot of farmland out there as well. it looks very much like the central valley. so let's start with what we just heard. farmers worried that they can't have their crops picked if all of these undocumented workers

are kicked out of the country. meanwhile, donald trump's pick for border czar, tom homan, is telling them to start packing their bags. >> yeah, gorod morning, martha, and thank you for having me. if we're going after the guy that's picking tomatoes or the nurse at the hospital and not the convictedle criminal, thenr government has failed us. our country was built on those fleeing persecution, and it would be -- it would be just absolutely terrible if we don't protect those that are doing it the right way. legal immigration should never be mixed with these hardened criminals. i did a lot of campaigning this season, went all over the country, and there's no doubt that hispanic americans overwhelmingly chose republicans to govern in the house. we have the majority in the house because we won seats like arizona, california, gabe evans in colorado, and so our message has to be one of positive if we want to hold onto these gains. if the message is we're hair to

deport your abuelita, that won't work well. >> martha: but that is the message from the trump administration. they are doing mass deportation. pack your bags. you heard tom homan say that. now they have said they will deport criminals first, but they've also said everyone else, there are 11 million to 13 million undocumented workers in this country. so how does this work? how do you convince them to complete let people who are picking fruit stay? >> i don't see it the exact same way. months ago, i reached out to i.c.e. and i asked for impeer kal dat to on how many convicted criminals are in our country. the number is hundreds of thousands. >> martha: more than 600,000. >> it's absolutely mind-boggling. >> martha: how do you round them up? how do you have the manpower to do that? >> that's where we need to focus. we need to focus on the convicted criminal aliens that keeps all americans safe. we need to put all our time, all our energy into that, and you do that by making sure that these task forces have the resources they need.

you pull local, state, and federal resources to go after these criminals. you find them. you deport them, and you also have to do some other things too, you know, yesterday there were 1,600 people that entered our country illegally. we're on pace for half a million people. something has to change. in san antonio, there was a police officer i met with, vivian rodriguez, that was shot in the line of duty because a venezuelan immigrant fired upon her. i mean, the man has -- it has to stop. so i think we start -- all our energy has to be towards these convicted really aliens and then go from there. >> martha: let's go back to what the trump administration or the future trump administration has been saying. tom homan has said that he would deport entire families together, even if there is a child that is a u.s. citizen. he played a key role in the first trump administration's family separation party -- policy. let's listen to what he said. >> i wake up every day pissed off because this administration destroyed the most secure border. i'm sick of hearing the family

separation. i'm still being sued about that. i don't give a [ bleep ]. all right? >> tom's a big boy and he doesn't need me defending him, but at the artheart of what his conversation is saying is we have to end the lawlessness. if you show your hand and say -- >> martha: no. he's much more specific in that. he's talking about family separation. yes, they've said lawlessness. they've said criminals. they're talking about deporting everyone. >> i think in his experience and in mine, what has happened is if you say, i'm only going to enforce these laws and not the others, what's going to happen is these criminal elements are going to exploit that, whether that's single adult males, whether it's children, or families. they will exploit our policies so i think what they're trying to do is say, we're going to treat everyone the same and we're going to start enforcing laws. i think that's a good start. we've got to surge immigration judges to the get cases heard in days, not years. >> martha: you've said that for a long time. that doesn't happen. >> that works.

i hope the incoming administration uses that advice and surges immigration judges to people get their day in court. >> martha: i want your reaction on stephan miller and that is trump's pick to be deputy security adviser. he said, america is for the americans and americans your reaction? >> my reaction is there is a lot of people that are upset, and this american first movement is very real because they feel as if -- lots of americans are doing all the things they're supposed to do, and somehow they're in the back of the line. things are turned upside down. this is where we have to get to keeping all americans safe, make it a country that all americans are prosperous. this division, i don't like the division. i don't like us saying we're picking the winners and losers. we got to get back to everybody rowing in the same direction. >> martha: i should just correct myself. stephan miller, deputy chief of staff, not national security adviser. president trump ahrennounced hes nominating matt gaetz to be attorney general. i want to play what you had to say about him back in april.

>> i served 20 years in the military. it's my absolute honor to be in congress, but i serve with some real scumbags. look. matt gaetz, he paid minors to have sex with them at drug parties. >> martha: matt gaetz has denied those charges, but your reaction to his nomination? >> there is not one person that i know of that hasn't met matt gaetz and has an opinion. so i wish him well. i hope he goes on and does good things for our country. >> martha: you would like to see him get that nomination? >> i would like to see him go do good things for our country. >> martha: but wait a minute. what you just said is he's a scumbag. you want him to be confirmed? >> i want him to do good things for our country. i want everyone to do good things and the more we can be united under this government, the better. his vote in congress is certainly going to be missed. we have a razor-thin margin in the house. we have real things to get done like the spending package, the farm bill is very important, the national defense authorization act. all those things need to happen.

>> martha: and just quickly on pete hegseth, he also -- nominated to be head of the pentagon. you are a veteran. he doesn't think women should be in combat. >> martha -- i believe women -- i've served with women in combat. they're some of the toughest warriors around. as you know, i'm the most senior enlisted service member to ever serve in congress. i take that serious. i served five years in iraq and afghanistan. i remember walking around with a 25-cent pogs, and i think many of us have lost faith in this administration, especially after 13 americans in afghanistan got killed, and the afghan women got sent back into the stone age. so nearly anyone will be in a better spot than what we currently have at the department of defense. >> martha: thank you for joining us this morning. we appreciate it. >> thank you, martha. >> martha: up next, could russia's war on ukraine end sooner because donald trump is heading back to the white house? ukraine's own president thinks so. the latest from abc's ian pannell in kharkiv after this break. wounded warrior project empowers post-9/11

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now get the war with ukraine and russia ended if i'm president-elect. i'll get it done before even becoming president. >> martha: donald trump during his debate with kamala harris, promising a quick end to the war. the battle continues to rage between russia and ukraine, but could trump's return to the white house help move both sides to a settlement? our chief foreign correspondent, ian pannell, is on the ground in kharkiv with the latest. good morning, ian. >> reporter: yeah. good morning, martha. russia launching one of its largest attacks against ukraine this morning. missiles targeting power plants and energy infrastructure across the country. in other words, it was an attack not on military sites, but an attack on civilians that are already facing a winter of shortages. in two days' time, we'll mark a

grim milestone. since the large scale invasion in february of '22, and the cost has been horrendous. hundreds of thousands killed, millions forced from their homes and although we may not hear about ukraine as often these days, the war is as violent and deadly as ever. ukraine is going to be one of the most immediate foreign policy challenges for the next trump administration, and although the president-elect has already spoken to president zelenskyy, he's yet to talk to putin according to the kremlin, but moscow's making positive noises saying it regards trump more favorably than biden and there are now growing voices who agree a peace deal may be possible. trump's promise to end the deal was an end to u.s. funding of ukraine's war efforts. even zelenskyy believes that ending the war faster is possible under trump, but on what terms? the fighting is raging in many years. putin's men with north korean soldiers, ammunition, and now artill artill artillery, are pushing hard in

kur kursk, occupied by ukrainian forces, and they're making more gains in donbas, and here in the kharkiv region, and the bombing of the country increasingly civilian areas like this is incessant. many wary ukrainians except they're unlikely to take annexes like crimea, and putin is unlikely to settle without it, but ukraine is going to need meaningful security agreements that putin won't attack again like he has done before, and the nato membership is ruled out, what does that likook like? after so much blood has been a character stick to bring the two sides together. it's likely to find that ending the war as quickly as he wants and in a manner that's acceptable to all parties is going to be far harder than he thinks. martha? >> martha: eastern pannell in kharkiv, thank you. when we come back, the round table digs into all the nomination news and confirmation concerns for the second trump term. will any republican senators

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so congested! you need sinex saline from vicks. just sinex, breathe, ahhhh! what is — wow! sinex. breathe. ahhhhhh! >> martha: and we are back with the round table. alex burns, head of news for political politico, the national

politics reporter for the "new york times," rachael bade, and reince priebus, former rnc chair and former trump white house chief of staff, just back from mar-a-lago, and that's where i want to start. >> sure. >> martha: a lot of pushback on some of these nominees. how are they taking that, and how is this working down there? >> well, first of all, i was down there for a couple of days. the transition office is west palm beach, but all the decision-making is taking place in mar-a-lago. i mean, that is the center -- >> martha: no surprise there. >> -- of the political universe. it's extremely confident. the issues with the nominees are not really penetrating there. they're pushing forward. they feel like they've got a mandate. people are excited. they're also -- i would say, a gathering of the most loyal people to president trump, and so, you know, we can get into this later, but the nominees are the people who you saw a lot of

times at the rallies. i mean, they're at every rally. it should be no surprise to anybody. >> martha: madison square garden last night. >> they were all there, and yep. madison square garden. these are his people, and there's a lot going on, and the chief of staff is managing it all, and it was obviously very reminiscent for me of 2016. >> martha: and to that point, astead, these are the people who will uphold one would assume, donald trump's campaign promises. >> absolutely. i think the controversy of the selections can kind of complicate some of this, but i think we should see it as a candidate following through on a campaign promise. he promised a doj that was focused on retribution. that's how you get a matt gaetz pick. he made tulsi gabbard and robert f. kennedy jr. stars on the campaign trail, and that's who, you know, there's a lot of folks who voted for him for the purposes of having an rfk jr. disrupt big pharma at hhs, and i don't think that was the fullness of the result that we saw on tuesday, but they are taking a mandate and they have

campaigned over the last year and a half from the premise of their base and asking others to come along with them. i think that signals a difference in governing from 2017 until now. he's not focused on the guardrails or appeasing establishment or things like that. he feels like he's run a campaign to kind of govern in his most purest form, and the electoral expects that. >> martha: exactly, but now the pressure is on the republicans in the senate. we've got john thune. how will this all work? will he get those nominations through? >> yeah. it's a good question, and one everybody is asking, martha. look. i mean, the senate republican conference is one of the most elite sort of, you know, high-level and exclusive clubs here in the united states. they relish their independence, but this is donald trump's washington right now. i mean, he had a decisive victory on election night, and he's the reason that senate republicans have the majority in the first place because they rode, you know, his coat tails to this 53-seat majority that they now have. so they might not like these nominees, and let's be clear.

they do not. a lot of them may not sea it on the record, but they do not, but they're expected to really fall in line, and, you know, i think some people who are sort of critical of these nominees, they've taken heart that republicans have chosen john thune. he's more of a mitchell mcconnell acolyte. >> martha: and john thune is on board with everything donald trump has thrown at him? >> yeah, and i mean -- but the other thing is, you know, these senators when they voted for thune over rick scott who was very much the maga candidate who wanted to totally upend the chamber, they did it on secret ballot. i mean, this is not a vote that they're going to be accountable for. it's going to be very different when they go on the senate floor with the lights on them and actually vote against, you know, their party, and the party leader who wants these people in the cabinet. >> martha: and alex, do you see any overreach here on donald trump's part? especially some of those nominees of matt gaetz for instance? >> well, we're going to find out, and to reince's point about

the feeling in florida that they have a mandate, every president who comes in with united control of congress, which has been every president in my lifetime except for one, feels that they have a mandate and then we see what happens when you try to put your people and your policies you have for a vote, right? joe biden felt he had a mandate to be the new fdr. we all know how that ended. george w. bush felt he had a mandate to reshape social security. we all know how that ended. i'm not making predictions about how this one is going to end, but i think we should see this selection of nominees as a decision to put that mandate to the test and to spend capital up front on personnel, and it is worth i think, just stepping back and taking stock. a president can only spend so much capital, can only have so many fights at one time. >> and we're going to see extremely explosive hearings at a time when donald trump is going to be wanting to advance, you know, tax cuts, put, you know, up new legislation potentially on the border, in

congress. he's going to be putting a lot of energy over these people on the finish line. you can imagine a situation where a lot of these women who have made these allegations against these candidates, you know, this woman who went to the house ethics committee and said that gaetz had sex with her when she was a minor, this conservative woman who said that pete hegseth assaulted her at a conference. you can imagine a scenario where democrats are pushing for them and wanting them to come to the hill, and this is going to make the brett kavanaugh hearings sort of look like child's play compared to what we're going to see. >> martha: reince, you told me you talked to donald trump just yesterday about some of these more controversial nominees. is he going to double down? is he backing off at all? >> no. i mean, i -- he made it very clear to me that the matt gaetz pick is not three-dimensional chess to help another nominee get through. that this was what he wanted to have happen, and when republicans voted impeachment against donald trump, he had a list of who those people were, and almost all of them in the

house are gone. a couple of quick things though, number one, you have to remember. donald trump spent the last couple of years going in and out of courtrooms, getting mar-a-lago raided. i mean, part of the reason why the first lady, melania trump, didn't go meet with jill biden, was, hey. you raided my bedroom. i mean, you came -- you want me to have tea with you? so he spent that -- he feels like he's gone to hell and back ten times. so this is also a big middle finger to the doj and the fbi, and the last thing, again, that -- the gaetz play and all these other nominees come after four years of being through the gauntlet. in 2016, that cabinet was universally praised when we walked in the door, but over time, donald trump learned and now he's -- >> martha: right, and astead i want to come to you on that. it's very different from then. he lost a lot of generals. he lost a lot of secretaries of

defense because they disagreed with him or because they were not loyal. these are loyalists. >> these are loyal and from the voter perspective, and i spent a lot of my time at his rallies and trump support ers feel his last agenda was blocked by a group of washington who were not in support of cabinet or congressional republicans. it's been their mantra over the last year and a half that if they were to come back, they're looking for a donald trump who kind of blocks out some of those guardrails. i think we should see those picks as reflective of that. also, you know, gabbard, rfk jr., matt gaetz, him bringing them to madison square garden, it was no accident. he's trying to make these people folksy heroes in that same image, and even if they are rejected, it comes at a -- for them, it play sboos s into that narrative of washington thumbing their nose at the newly elected president. i can see a universe where they're overreading kind of what the electorate says of them, but to reince's point, i don't know

if donald trump cares about that to be honest. it feels as if the more important thing he has learned if last administration to this one is to prioritize power, to prioritize reshaping government and the way that he most wants, and whether that has a political blowback or not in two years -- >> martha: it's almost like the more criticism the more he pushes forward? >> i think matt gaetz is clearly in a different category than the rest of the nominees, in terms of the political resonance and the political standing he has in washington. i totally agree with what you just said about the sort of different set of priorities than 2016. i don't think there's going to be a sort of rex tiller son, central casting 45 minutes, it turns out i hate him and distrust him. that's not the lineup you have right now. the criticism of gaetz is not coming just from democrats or just from the establishment. you have had vocal, maga aligned house republicans saying, this guy is beyond the pale. so i think it's very notable and very interesting that donald

trump is saying this is not 3d chess. this is the real thing. i think it's a heck of a test for him to put his own standing with the party to, we're in this moment where washington does assume that what donald trump's word is, is law, and we're going to see if that's really the case with this. >> martha: and we have ten seconds. so wrap this up. do they make it through? does gaetz make it through? >> i think the big question is going to be does donald trump try to force congress out to get these people in place if the senate republicans won't vote for him? including gaetz. that's going to be a huge test. it'll go to the supreme court. can he do that? i don't know. we'll see. >> martha: we'll see. thank you all. we'll be right back.

>> martha: that's all for us today. thanks for sharing part of your sunday with us. check out "world news tonight," and have a great day.

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