this sunday, background check. >> i'm looking forward to a hearing. >> president-elect donald trump's cabinet picks are facing intense scrutiny after his first choice for attorney general matt gaetz withdraws his nomination

amid serious allegations of sexual misconduct. >> i was surprised by how abruptly it happened. >> he was controversial. he understood that. >> apparently he was aware of reality. >> will mr. trump's other controversial picks face more opposition from senate republicans? plus, the agenda. donald trump is planning to roll out a series of executive orders within hours of taking office for his second administration. >> will immediately sign executive orders, sealing the border shut, beginning the largest deportation operation in history. >> what are trump's priorities. and missile threat. as the war in ukraine passes the 1,000 day mark, tensions are rising in the region after the biden administration lifts restrictions on long range weapons and vladimir putin fires back, using a new hypersonic ballistic missile. my guest this morning, democratic senator-elect adam schiff of california, and

republican senator eric schmitt of missouri, joining me for insight and aanalysis are nbc news senior white house correspondent kelly o'donnell, former homeland security secretary jeh johnson, anna palmer, co-founder of punch bowl news, and steven yes, editor of "the dispatch." welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." >> announcer: from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history this is "meet the press" with kristen welker. >> good sunday morning. president-elect donald trump has finished rolling out a preholiday flurry of cabinet picks, remaking the justice department, pentagon, and the intelligence community with loyalists. on tuesday, as a growing number of republican senators demanded the release of a house ethics report into allegations that matt gaetz paid women for sex including a 17-year-old in 2017,

the president-elect denied he was reconsidering gaetz. >> mr. president, are you reconsidering the nomination of matt gaetz? >> no. >> but just two days later, gaetz withdrew from consideration, though he continues to deny wrongdoing. >> i was dealing with a politically motivated body. they have an axe to grind. so that was going to serve as at least enough of a basis to delay my confirmation as attorney general. >> did the decision surprise you? >> no. i was surprised the timing of it. i thought it would go longer than this. ultimately you can see the writing on the wall. >> hours after gaetz dropped out, president-elect trump named former two-term florida attorney general pam bondi who served on mr. trump's defense team during his first impeachment trial, instead. after mr. trump lost the 2020 election, bondi amplified his false claims of election fraud. >> as eric trump said, we are thrilled to have won pennsylvania.

>> we have won pennsylvania and are not going to take it away from us. >> bondi has been a vocal critic of the criminal cases against mr. trump as well as special counsel jack smith who charged him in two federal cases. >> the department of justice, the prosecutors will be prosecuted, the bad ones. the investigators will be investigated because the deep state, last term for president trump, they were hiding in the shadows. but now they have a spotlight on them, and they can all be investigated and the house needs to be cleaned out because now we know who most of them are. >> according to the "washington post," president-elect trump plans to fire the team that worked with the special counsel. the press secretary for mr. trump's transition team, the american people can expect he will deliver on that promise. a key question now that gaetz dropped out, will other trump

picks face more intense scrutiny including his pick to lead the pentagon, pete hegseth who faces questions about sexual assault allegations which he denies. and tulsi gabbard, who made two secret visits to syrian dictator bashar al assad in 2017 and amplified kremlin talking points, blaming the u.s. for russia's invasion of ukraine. ambassador nikki haley weighing in. >> this is not a place for a russian, iranian, syrian, chinese sympathizer. dni has to analyze real threats. are we comfortable with someone like that at the top of our national intelligence agencies? >> now, nbc news has learned that within hours of taking office, president-elect trump plans to roll out a series of executive actions aligned with his campaign promises, including setting in motion the large scale deportation of people living in the country illegally.

>> those people who say they're going to stop us from what we're doing, they will not. we have no problem finding a place to detain these people. it is going to cost money. so we got to have the money to do it, but president trump is going to do everything he can to make sure we have the funds to do this. >> mr. trump and allies disavowed the project 2025 during the campaign. >> i don't know what the hell it is. it is project 2025. he's involved in project -- and they read some of the things and they're extreme, they're seriously extreme. i have no idea what project 2025 is. i never read it. and i never will. >> but with the campaign over, trump's transition team is turning to project 2025 to help staff the next administration, picking its co-author russell vogt to lead the office of management and budget as he did in mr. trump's first term. top trump aides are praising the pick. >> russ vogt has been the guy for the last four years who has been developing the plan to take

down the deep state! that's russ. and he's going to be right there at omb to execute that plan. >> and joining me now is republican senator eric schmitt of missouri. senator schmitt, welcome to "meet the press." >> it is great to be with you. just two and a half weeks after president trump completed the greatest political comeback in american history, winning all battleground states, the popular vote, getting a mandate for the american people to shake things up in washington and look forward to helping him do that with our majority in the senate and with our friends in the house. >> well, it is great to have you here and to have your perspective. let's start right there, and this decision by former congressman matt gaetz to withdraw his name from consideration for attorney general. it comes as nbc news has learned that five republican senators were planning to vote against gaetz. do you believe it was a mistake by president-elect trump to pick gaetz in the first place, senator? >> well, i think matt gaetz made a decision and i respect that

decision. and we're moving on now to the nominee he's chosen, pam bondi, who i know very well. we come from state attorney general world. pam has taken on the tough fights. she took on drug trafficking. she took on human trafficking. she's smart. she's tough. it is a great pick. and the justice department is right for reform. i think president trump is picking reformers for these cabinet positions, he campaigned on that, and he's delivering on that promise. >> we are going to delve into that in a moment. just to stay on this issue of matt gaetz for a moment, given the severity of allegations he was facing, allegations of sexual misconduct, including he had sex with a minor at a party in 2017, which he denies, but do you think that he should have been picked in the first place? >> i think president trump deserves the ability with the mandate that he got from the american people to put people in positions who are going to do reform. some things we can do in congress, oversight and

legislation, but you really need reformers at the head of these different agencies. and i think you're seeing that as a common theme. i'm sure we'll talk about more of them. there really is a lot of reform that needs to happen in the administrative state and he's talked about it a lot on the campaign trail. and he's delivering on that. >> let's talk about pam bondi, who we were just talking about, the former florida attorney general. she vowed to investigate the investigators, prosecute the prosecutors. a different tone than you have struck. you said the doj should be going back to fighting crime and not settling political scores. how do you square those two different views? >> well, i will tell you that pam bondi has a track record, she's a very serious person. she's seen the weaponization, everyone has seen this weaponization of the justice department over the last four years. it really is a tragedy for a once respected agency that has gone after catholics, it has gone after parents who showed up to school board meetings under

the awe uspices of the patriot , and then weaponized that department, joy biden did, and merrick merrick garland to go after their chief republican opponent. joe biden said that there is no way president trump would ever be back in the white house. after that speech, the zombie cases were resurrected. the number three person from doj went to new york and had the alvin bragg case, the number two prosecutor in atlanta went to the white house and coordinated. you saw all these cases resurrected, they all fell apart under the weight of the law and so i do think there needs to be accountability. i think that getting it back to crime fighting is important. but there has to be accountability for these kinds of abuses. >> what specifically does accountability look like, senator? are you suggesting you want to see special counsel jack smith, attorney general merrick garland prosecuted? is that what you are implying? >> no, i think accountability means the people involved with this should be fired

immediately. and anybody part of this effort to keep president trump off the ballot and to throw him in jail for the rest of his life because they didn't like his politics and to continue to cast him as a quote, unquote threat to democracy was wrong. and so we'll see where that goes, but i don't think in this country, unless we want to be a banana republic, don't want to see that happen. you can't have the justice department abused in this way. pam bondi is a smart, capable, tough person who i think is going to restore respect in that department. >> she has your vote, senator? >> oh, absolutely. i intend to help pam bondi get the votes. i know her well. she's a friend. i have come to respect pam bondi. she was a great attorney general in florida. this is a home run by president trump. >> all right. well, let's talk about another potential nominee, more details about the sexual assault allegation against pete hegseth, mr. trump's ic for the defense secretary.

the police report filed at the time says, jane doe stated she got up and tried to leave the room, but hegseth locked the door with his body. jane doe remembered saying, no a lot. hegseth was not charged in this case. he denies any wrongdoing, but, senator, you have a long history of fighting for sexual assault victims as missouri's attorney general. does this incident raise concerns about his confirmation for you? >> well, i think that's why we have the confirmation process. senators are going to ask questions about it. they should. he has the right to answer. what he said so far is that he did no wrong, they're baseless and it is important to note the prosecutor didn't bring any charges. interesting to see if there is any other memorandum from that prosecutor, that would go along with that or's decision not to charge pete hegseth. i think this is a decision that president trump made to bring in another disruptor. and i think if you look at this election, it was disruptor

versus establishment, he ran on this, there needs to be reform in the pentagon, whether it is procurement, getting rid of divisive dei that is dividing our military, i think he's talked about eliminating that and make sure our focus is on our chief adversary, china. >> let me ask you big picture, senator. you're on the armed services committee and there is a known sexual assault problem in the military. do you believe that pete hegseth is the right person to lead the military, given all of that, at this very moment? >> he's not been charged with anything, kristen. that's important. you read from a police report. i've not seen the police report. i would like to -- there is probably more documentation around this that would be interesting to see. >> i hear you say you have questions. >> well, of course i'm going to have questions. but that police report and those charges being brought, again, i think answers itself. if there was something to be done here, i'm sure the

prosecutor would have pursued it. she didn't. the pentagon needs reform. i think pete hegseth is a guy that president trump trusts to go that kind of reform. eliminating dei, being more innovative in our pentagon, a lot of red tape, failed another ought audit. having someone who served on the front lines, who has the soldiers point of view on this would be really, really important. >> let's talk about the pick of tulsi gabbard for dni. here is what the former u.n. ambassador nikki haley had to say about tulsi gabbard, take a look. >> this is not a place for a russian, iranian, syrian, chinese sympathizer. dni has to analyze real threats. are we comfortable with someone like that at the top of our national intelligence agencies? >> senator what say you? are you comfortable? will you vote for tulsi gabbard? >> i think it is really interesting that anybody that

has a different political view now is being cast as a russian asset. it is totally ridiculous. tulsi gabbard has served in our military. she served as a congresswoman from hawaii, as a democrat, i might add, part of this unique coalition that president trump put together in one -- and got that mandate. i think it is insulting, a slur quite frankly. there is no evidence she's an asset of another country. she served this country honorably and cares deeply about our constitution and making sure people aren't targeted by these intelligence agencies. this is a reformer who can come in, maybe not part of the same washington cocktail party circuit that people in the intel committee are used to, but maybe that's what we need right now. president trump listened to the american people when they screamed about these issues, they want to be heard, they feel like washington is broken, and they think bringing somebody in like tulsi gabbard is welcome news. >> you're a yes on tulsi gabbard, senator, just to be clear? >> i'm a yes on pam bondi.

i'm a yes on pete hegseth, i'm a yes on tulsi gabbard, absolutely. >> there you have it. let me doom zoom out. the trump transition team so far bypassed traditional background checks for cabinet picks. are you comfortable that all plaintiff trump's picks will be fully and properly vetted before the confirmation process? >> i am. that's an important role of the united states senate. it is a uniquely american institution for a bunch of reasons. we have the role of advise and consent. as we go through, armed services or judiciary, any of the committees that are going to be vetting these candidates for these positions, absolutely it is going to be thorough, it should be. we should ask tough questions. that's part of the process. so i have full confidence that that's exactly what we're going to have moving forward. >> let's do a little bit of foreign policy now. we have seen the war in ukraine obviously escalate this week. i wonder, do you support the u.s. staying in nato and recommitting itself, the idea that an attack against one is an

attack against all? >> i don't think anybody is talking about it, not even me talking about exiting nato. i did think what president trump has brought to the table in his first four years and what he'll bring is it is time for a european ally to step up. i think the american taxpayers are tired of footing the bill all the time for the wars in europe. and specifically as it relates to ukraine. they need to step up. there has been no definition of what victory looks like. no definition of the accountability people have thwarted efforts to have independent audits of how the money is being spent. our european allies need to step up. president trump has an opportunity to usher in a new era of american realism. our core national interests are defined by what america's needs are, protecting the homeland, pivoting to china and make sure european allies play a meaningful role in the defense of that continent. >> would you object, would you

push back if president-elect trump were to say that he wanted to pull out of nato? do you think it is essential that the u.s. stays in? >> he's not talked about that at all. what he has talked about is them spending more money on their defense and they started to do that after a lot of whining initially. they started to do that. i don't think they met where they should go. i think that threshold should be higher than it is right now. again, the american taxpayers deserve a president who understands that they might be tired of subsidizing the social welfare programs in europe, and that message is going to be delivered. it is being delivered here today, four years ago under president trump. these are very important relationships for us and europe, but i do think it is time for european allies to step up more financially and for their own defense. >> all right, senator schmitt, first time being on the program, we appreciate your being here. thank you so much. >> anytime. when we come back, adam schiff joins me next.

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welcome back. and joining me now is democratic senator-elect adam schiff of california. senator-elect schiff, welcome back to "meet the press." congratulations. >> thank you. nice to be with you. >> great to have you here. let's start off by talking about matt gaetz. you heard me talking with senator schmitt about this. he's obviously no longer in contention to be attorney general. but there is still this report swirling around him, the house investigation -- the house ethics committee launched this investigation, details of it started to leak out this week to some members on capitol hill. but do you think that report should be made public? >> i do think it should be made public. i don't think that when someone decides to avoid the public accountability they simply leave congress and make it all go away. the taxpayers paid for that analysis of that report, i think

they have a right to see it. >> do you think it will be made public? to do you have any indication? >> i don't know. it seems like republicans are saying no, the public has no right to see this, we don't want the public to see this, but it underscores to me why the president's lack of background checks for his nominees is flawed. he may have still decided to nominate matt gaetz, but if they did a thorough vetting, he may have decided not to. that vetting process, having the fbi review potential nominees is not only protect the public interests, it is to protect the president-elect's interests, to make sure he's not embarrassed by nominating someone like matt gaetz. it shows a flaw in the process he even got nominated. and perhaps with respect to hegseth as well had a thorough investigation been done, it might have influenced the president-elect's decision to nominate him in the first place. >> let me ask you big pictures. president-elect trump has now said he wants to pick pam bondi

to serve as his attorney general. he has swept the battleground states, won the popular vote, republicans have control of the house, and of the senate. do you think that the president-elect should have his picks confirmed? >> i think the president has a right to nominate anyone who is qualified, who has good judgment, good character. it doesn't mean he's guaranteed senate approval of whoever he nominates and some of these nominees are deeply problematic. i'll be interested in the confirmation process. will pam bondi continue to tell the big lie even under oath? is she going to continue to say that the justice department should be prosecuting prosecutors who brought valid evidence before a grand jury, grand jury found public cause to find donald trump committed crimes. that's not a basis to go after him. tulsi gabbard concerns me a great deal, echoed kremlin

talking points, someone who has common cause with someone like bashar al assad, who gases his own people, someone who has no experience whatsoever, not even on the intelligence committee in the congress, will be running those agencies. those are tough questions to answer. >> is there anyone on this list who at this very moment you think you could vote yes on? you could -- >> for example, i think marco rubio is enormously well qualified for the job for which he's been nominated. i want to ask questions. i'm not going to completely prejudge even him. some really stand out for the risk they would present to the american people. >> so right now senator rubio would have your vote as a yes? >> well, i'm strongly inclined that way. i don't want to prejudge completely. you never can tell what comes out in the vet process, but he's unquestionably qualified. >> let's talk about your former colleague who you just mentioned, tulsi gabbard, picked as director of national intelligence. debbie wasserman schultz said

gabbard was likely a russian asset. do you share those concerns or is that overstated? >> well, i wouldn't describe her that way. but what i would say this, she has certainly echoed talking points for the kremlin, she appeared to have taken putin's side when he invaded ukraine, and, you know, her fondness for bashar al assad, someone who is gassing his own people, called her judgment deeply into question. here is someone with very questionable judgment and no experience, that's not a great recipe for running the agencies. and the problem is, if four foreign allies don't trust the head of the intelligence agencies, they stop sharing information with us and that makes our country less safe. i have profound concerns about her. >> speaking of foreign allies and adversaries, i want to play something that president-elect trump said about you when he was a candidate, he called you, quote, more dangerous than foreign adversaries. take a listen reaction on the other side.

>> the enemy from within in my opinion is more dangerous than china and russia and all these countries. if you have a smart president, he can handle them pretty easily. i got along great with all of them. i handled them. but the thing that is tougher to handle, these lunatics we have inside, like adam schiff, adam shifty schiff. >> senator-elect, when you hear that language, how concerned are you that you will be targeted by president-elect trump in the second administration? >> that's dictator talk. that's how autocrats talk. they want to make their political opposition an enemy, describe them in those terms. but, look, i'm not concerned about myself, i'm going to do my job, i'm not going to have thinks threats intimidate me from doing so. but anytime you have someone, particularly someone who is going to become president of the united states, fawning over dictators, emulating their language, attacking the press, undermining our institutions, yeah, we should be concerned about it. because at the end of the day,

it means that the american people will suffer. the american people i think voted on the basis of the economy, they wanted change to the economy, they weren't voting for dictatorship. i think he is going to misread his mandate if that's what he thinks voters chose him for. >> let me ask you, there is an effort under way to dismiss both the federal and the state cases that president-elect trump is facing. do you believe that is appropriate? now that he has won office, now that he's going to be in the white house again, the supreme court has obviously said he has immunity for all official acts once he's in office. do you think these cases should be dismissed? >> i don't. i think the sentencing and further proceedings in the new york case should be deferred until after he leaves office. and likewise, i think for the proceedings in the two federal cases should be deferred until he leaves off the, but not dismissed. a jury of donald trump's peers

found him fwlt.guilty. he's no less guilty because he won an election. two grand juries found probable cause to find that donald trump committed crimes. those shouldn't go away because he's elected. the presidency is not a get out of jail free card. they should be postponed until after he leaves office. >> i want to turn now to the results of the 2024 election and talk about that you think may have gone wrong. you joined this program a month before the election and you talked about vice president harris' chances of winning. take a look at this. >> by the standards of today, i think she can win overwhelmingly, given how divided the country is, overwhelming maybe winning by 100,000 votes or 80,000 votes in the key battleground states. i think that's within her capacity to do. i think we're well poised to win this thing, but it is still

scary close. >> why do you think that kamala harris didn't win and win overwhelmingly? >> i think joe biden's decision to step aside and pass the torch is the right decision. it gave us a chance to win, not a guarantee. i thought she could win. i thought she could win in all the battleground states. ultimately what we saw in this country and around the world was a strong antiincumbent wave that took out both progressives and conservatives and our party became associated with the status quo. and that was too much to overcome. i think the principle issue is the economy. and over years and decades it has gotten more and more difficult for people working full time to make a living. and until we resolve that challenge to the economy, we may find the presidency is easier to get than it is to keep. >> you talk about president biden's role in all this. pelosi said he should have stepped aside sooner, that could

have made a significant difference in the outcome of this election. do you agree with the speaker emerita? >> she has far better political instincts than i do. i think it is difficult because had we gone to a competitive primary, for example, what would the results of the primary have been, how ugly and divisive and chaotic would it have been? hard to tell in advance. but i do think the democratic party has to recognize the challenge we have, which is for too many millions of battleground voters, working people, they don't think we represent them and we have to make that case anew. >> senator-elect, do you believe that president biden bears some responsibility for staying in too long? >> look, i think the entire democratic party bears the responsibility. myself included. and the former president and launched an effective campaign.

you have to give her credit for that. the challenge we have is we need to put forward a bold vision of how we're going to move the economy forward, make the economy work for every american. to me, the existential question is you're working hard in america, can you still earn a good living and too many people doubt that's possible. >> before i let you go, i want to ask you about what happened on capitol hill this week. nancy mace introduced legislation to restrict transgender people from using bathrooms that align with their gender identity, saying the move was in response to congresswoman elect sarah mcbride who is set to become the first openly der member of congress. mcbride called this an effort to distract from the real issues. johnson has been supportive of nancy mace. where do you come down? how do you see this? >> i think it is a distraction. we have bigger challenges ahead of us, including most immediate, we don't want the government to shut down, we don't want to default on our debt, we should be focused on those problems. >> all right. senator-elect adam schiff, thank

you for being here in person. really appreciate it. good to see you. and when we come back, president-elect trump's experienced his first setback this week as he moves quickly to pick his cabinet. pick his cabinet. will mr. trump's other ♪♪ some people just know they can save hundreds on car insurance by checking allstate first. alrighty! who's ready for my famous charred duck? like you know to check the mascot first before bringing food to a tailgate. let's torch this baby! [ambience] yeah, checking first is smart. so check allstate first for a quote that could save you hundreds. [laughing] you're in good hands with allstate.

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welcome back. the panel is here. nbc news senior white house correspondent kelly o'donnell, former secretary of homeland security jeh johnson, and anna palmer, founder of punch bowl news and steven hayes, editor of "the dispatch." thank you for being here. kelly o'donnell, let me start with you. huge week in terms of president-elect trump's picks. and the big news, of course, that matt gaetz withdrew his name for consideration to be attorney general because you had five republican senators saying they were going to vote no. do you think this is a one-off? in other words, do you think it is a sign of opposition potentially for senate republicans, or is this just something that happened with matt gaetz? >> i think what the president-elect did, and he may not have intended it, he created a stress test on the system of the constitutional power of

advise and consent. by doing that the shock and jolt of a gaetz nomination puts republican senators in a difficult place. they don't want to deny and defy donald trump's picks. and so the real question is, is this the outlier or has he set up conditions now where everyone else looks favorable by comparison? and that's what i think we don't know, and the republicans did a quiet mission against gaetz and that was important in the context of trying to remain loyal. >> it is such a great point. because publicly every republican said, look, we might have criticisms of matt gaetz, but we're not closing the door to him. no one said no publicly. how do you see this playing out? what are your sources telling you on capitol hill? >> this is the tight rope that senate republicans faced and they're walking when it comes to all these nominations, particularly some of the more controversial ones, because there is a lot of concern. you talk to members of congress and their staff behind the scenes, and if they're being

honest, there is a lot of nervous around pete hegseth, tulsi gabbard, the others. but they don't want to get into a twitter war with donald trump because they know they're going to lose. >> secretary johnson, you're familiar with these confirmation processes. >> intimately. >> take us inside based on your intimate knowledge. what do you make of what we witnessed so far? >> well, on the senate, i didn't exactly see a whole lot of profiles in courage. matt gaetz was a wild pitch, even with donald trump's strike zone. he was -- you cannot nominate credibly someone to be the head of the justice department who was just recently a subject of a justice department investigation. and so no one said outright out of the box, he's not qualified. i heard lindsey graham and others say that president is entitled to his nominees, that's

simply not true. the senate has a constitutional obligation to advise and consent. ivan with 've been through the three times. two, nominated by a democratic president, confirmed by a democratic senate and it was not a free pass. i can tell you that. i had to -- in the background investigation go back to the address of sears and roebuck where i worked as a college student and go through every single foreign trip i had ever taken since i was age 18. the senate has a job to do in this process. >> it really is instructive to hear the secretary talk about his own experience because you think about some of the picks now, particularly of pete hegseth and in my conversation with senator schmitt, he acknowledged, yeah, he has real questions for him, who do you think of the remaining cabinet picks, and now they have all been filled out, who do you think is going to be the toughest to be confirmed that the point? >> i think what you're seeing is

republican senators making the distinction between unconventional on the one hand and unqualified on the other. they can vote for an unconventional pick. most of the picks are unconventional in some way. what they don't want do is support unqualified candidates. i have a different view than the secretary. if you look at this first week, i would say republican senators got their back up and said we're not going to do this. tell kelley is right, there was a quiet effort to have matt gaetz removed. senator lindsey graham who has shown great deference in the past i think had a stern discussion with matt gaetz, laid out what the likely scenarios would be if he proceeded with the nomination, suggested there wouldn't have been votes. other senators back channelled with the administration, the incoming administration, about that. and i think also you heard senator schmidt today on your interview suggest that background checks would be important. whether fbi and then third, you've seen republican senators show skepticism publicly about

this recess appointment process. republican senators are saying, we want to be supportive of the president's picks, but there is a line here. >> yeah, you're absolutely right on the recess appointment. last week we were talking about recess appointments as if, wow, that's a real possibility. they sent a message that they're not necessarily yielding their advice and consent. president-elect trump is rolling out these picks with incredible speed. he's now basically filled all of the positions in his cabinet, including treasury secretary scott bessent, former hedge fund ceo. what do you make of the pace of this, and the fact that you have some senators saying, look, we want to start the confirmation process before the inauguration. >> which he this can do.they ca. this is a faster pace. the president-elect talked about this being a nice transition. he has not fully engaged in the transition. he has not signed the paper work

that allows him to work with the sitting administration for really important things, not only access to office space and financial support to run the transition, but as we mentioned, the fbi background checks, that's a tool that could be used by the president-elect, but he's so wary, he's not affording himself some things that the government allows to make a new administration successful. he likes to break the china, but sometimes there are tools available to him and he doesn't want to use them. they haven't yet. >> secretary johnson, how significant is it that he's not using these tools? how significant is a background check? >> very. reports are his vetting team did not know about this settlement of this sexual allegation, which an fbi agent would have found in ten minutes. i think one reason we're seeing the cabinet nominees out rapid fire is because they're not doing the proper vetting of these people. >> do you think republicans are

concerned about that very fact that the is aren't being dotted, the ts aren't being crossed and do you think they will be with the newer picks that we learned about overnight like scott bessent? >> it is the flood the zone approach. i think matt gaetz for first couple of weeks took all the oxygen out of the room. everyone was focused there. now there is this drumbeat of meeting by the cabinet nominees. there is go to be vetting. and the senators take it seriously. even though they're supportive and will productly back his nominees. they're still going through that process. and they have questions that need to be answered. >> and to the secretary's point earlier, low level incoming intel analysts go through deep background checks. i had someone who worked for me at weekly standard, i spent 45 minutes on a call with somebody asking questions about their financial situations, whether they had contacts with

foreigners, foreigners from ed adversarial countries. the public should see their answers to these questions. >> fascinating to hear your insight. you've all been involved in this. thank you very much for that. stick around. we have a lot more to discuss. when we come back, the house ethics committee was in the spotlight this week. the ethics committee made history in 1997 when it punished the speaker of the house. your memory is an amazing thing, but sometimes it can start to slow down. but did you know prevagen can help keep your memory sharp? the secret is the powerful ingredient, apoaequorin, originally discovered in jellyfish and found only in prevagen. in a clinical study, prevagen was shown to improve memory in subgroups of individuals who were cognitively normal or mildly impaired. stay sharp and improve your memory with prevagen. prevagen. in stores everywhere without a prescription. the biggest companies deliver an exceptional customer experience. what makes it possible?

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welcome back. the house ethics committee couldn't agree to release its report on its investigation of matt gaetz, but the controversy prompted gaetz to abruptly withdraw his name for attorney general. back in 1997, newt gingrich was first house speaker ever to be punished for ethics violations for using a tax exempt organization for political purposes. in a "meet the press" interview, almost a decade later, gingrich downplayed the official sanction. >> on every ethics charge in the end i was exonerated. the one thing that happened is i signed a letter written by one of our lawyers that was

technically wrong. and i paid the cost of investigating that letter. the democrats were very mad after the '94 election. they had lost power. they for the first time in 40 years, knew this couldn't be their fault, so it must be mine. if you took -- if you were to take item by item what the charges were and what the results were, again and again and again they turned out to be false. now, i had a very long career and lots of things people can pick out from votes to attacking my wife to attacking the s stuff, but people have to decide, are the ideas good? >> and a quick note, former speaker gingrich was not exonerated since the committee does not render a little verdict. when when he come back, the day one agenda. what will donald

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swelling, wheezing or trouble breathing. tell your doctor of new or worsening eye problems like eye pain, vision changes, or blurred vision, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. don't change or stop asthma or other medicines without talking to your doctor. ask your doctor about dupixent. welcome back. the panel is still here. let's talk about the day one agenda, kelly. we have new reporting that president-elect trump, once he's sworn into office, on day one, plans to roll out a series of executive actions as one person is saying, quote, like nothing you've ever seen before. what are you hearing? >> that sounds like trump himself, right? i think that you could argue

that that first 24 hours will be the first day of either trump term in the experience of doonld trump. donald trump. it is the peak of his political comeback and it is where his skill set for marketing and branding comes into play, he can talk about his campaign promises with the presidential pen to sign something he likes to do, the visual demonstration, and to outline the initial steps. we believe there will be several that relate to immigration. and his mass deportation plan. expect him in the economic realm to talk about tariffs. expect him to do things that relate to the department of defense, to unwind some of what joe biden did with respect to service members being able to, for example, cross state lines for reproductive healthcare. there will be a flurry of them and they will all be big, bright, stamps of what he ran on. >> to pick up on that point, as kelly notes, immigration, the centerpiece, and he has this mass deportation plan, he'll

sign some executive action, but he's also going to then begin to roll out this plan. i interviewed him a couple of weeks ago after he was elected. i said, you know, do you have an actual plan? he said there is no price tag. you obviously have intimate knowledge of what happens at the border. how complicated would it be to actually roll out? >> so, first of all, somebody should pass a long banning executive orders on day one. because the reality is executive orders drafted by transition teams without the input of the affected agency before the cabinet secretary is even confirmed are not great ideas. travel ban, eight years ago, back to that, i'll even point fingers at myself. i was involved in the transition 16 years ago and guantanamo bay is still open. the idea of mass deportation,

that would be the equivalent, if you tried to deport everyone in the country undocumented, the population of two new york cities, which could not happen in my lifetime, an administration, whether it is trump or buysen or obama has to have enforcement priorities, start with the criminals, start with the national security threats, recent border crossers, tom homan knows that. i know he knows that. he used to work for me. and i would rather see them go after the criminals rather than someone who has been in the country 12 years, committed no crimes, has children who are u.s. citizens and that's the reality of enforcement. that will be the reality of enforcement even under a president trump. >> and anna, how do you see the hill reacting to a flurry of executive actions. if he's going to attempt to try this mass deportation plan, he's going to need more funds from congress. >> i think everybody is expecting the executive order

right away to go as fast as possible. where the money is, the power of the purse in congress hold that very tight. he will face skepticism by republicans on using the military going into different states. i think that is going to be something you heard from rand paul and others the libertarian part of the party say, hold up, we have some questions here. >> obviously republicans in control of the house, but it is a very narrow margin, which could make everything that we are talking about on his agenda tougher. >> it could be tenuous. that argues in president trump being aggressive. he ran on tariffs, ran on mass deportation. i expect him to go as far as he possibly can in those two areas. >> what about guantanamo bay? supposed to get done on day one and it is still open. >> i'm glad they failed, actually. i think there is a risk in overstating things, but let's just say donald trump is not

usually restrained by overstating things. he likes to overstate things. this is what he does. >> secretary johnson? >> there is a larger point about the cabinet picks. this president this term around seems to want pass-throughs. when i was general counsel of dod, it was bob gates and leon panetta who brought a lifetime of experience that is value added to any president. presidents need to hear things they don't want to hear from their cabinet. i'm worried these nominees will not be able to be in a position to do that. >> kelly, thinking about the system of potential checks, you go back to the senate and someone like current leader mcconnell who is not going to be the leader once the new congress is sworn in. >> he's untethered by the constraints of being in leadership, you have to set the tone. he's one of the most skillful tacticians of senate rules. so he has weight and

relationships. he will be an appropriator for defense this and will be a very important part of his role in trying to get his own sense of what needs to happen. and he will talk in ways to other members that could be some conflict with donald trump, from time to time. certainly he had the opportunity when he was in leadership to take a more dramatic position against donald trump. they had no relationships, back in a cooperative spirit. but he'll be someone to watch. the president-elect may not know the rules of the senate very carefully but machine ly but does. >> he was planning to vote no on matt gaetz. what are you waiting to see from mitch mcconnell? >> he's a man of few words and i

think he has no fear of donald trump, if he thinks that the president is -- the future president is doing things not appropriate, he will make his position known. >> do you think that's going to be really the only check? here again, republicans have control, very narrow control of the house, control of the senate, the supreme court, conservative-leaning right now. do you think those republican senators will be able to be a check on his power. >> the obvious institutional check. i think they want to get to yes on a lot of these nominations. on most of trump's policy priorities, but mitch mcconnell has a strong relationship with john thune, incoming senate majority leader. when i profiled him 15 years ago, mitch mcconnell, because there was a presidential primary and thune was thinking about running, he's fine of john thune, they get along very well? he'll be one to watch certainly as well. thank you so much. have a happy thanksgiving. thank you for watching. have a happy thanksgiving to all

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