eck-up. now with one touch using the mycigna app you can find a doctor in your plan's network to save money. need to be thorough. this sunday, president-elect trump's administration begins to take shape. general mike flynn, senator jeff sessions, congressman mike pompeo. loyalists all as donald trump turns his campaign rhetoric into a governing reality. i will talk to his incoming chief of staff reince priebus. do democrats in congress work with trump? or fight him? >> on issues where our values are at stake, where he goes in a divisive direction, we will go against him with everything that

we've got. >> my interview with chuck schumer and senator bernie sanders. plus the middle class voters who went for obama and then trump. >> i believe hillary clinton was a criminal. >> i talk to voters who turned blue states red about what they expect now from the president they voted for. joining me for insight and analysis are tom friedman, columnist for "the new york times." kathleen packer, columnist for the washington post, and neera tanden, associated press columnist and robert costa. welcome to sunday, it's "meet the press." >> from nbc news in washington, this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. >> good sunday morning. president-elect trump spent the weekend at his bedminister, new jersey, club meeting with possible members of his administration including one-time rival and critic mitt romney who is reportedly being considered for secretary of

state as well as michelle rhee, a democrat who ran the school system in washington, d.c. she could be the next education secretary. but mr. trump has made one thing clear it's that he's not tacking to the middle as many conservatives perhaps had feared or liberals had hoped. mike flynn says militant islam posed a threat to the united states. for jeff sessions of alabama, tireless opponent of illegal immigration and has been accused of making racially insensitive remarks that derailed a previous confirmation hearing before the senate for a general judgeship in the '80s. and for cia chief, representative mike pompeo of kansas, critic of hillary clinton, he has gotten bipartisan praise for that pick. that's no team of rivals. so far, the choices represent security over civil liberties and loyalists over moderates. republican senators were supportive of the choices and democrats in the most part particularly in jeff sessions, sharply opposed. joining me now from donald trump's club in new jersey is the head of the republican national committee, is president-elect trump's new incoming chief of staff, reince priebus. congratulations on the new job.

>> good morning, chuck. i ap preesh wrat your having me on. >> is it fair to conclude -- i have talked to a few people close to your campaign. but we're talking to you. and that is simply that, it's rudy giuliani or mitt romney for secretary of state? is that fair to conclude? >> i think if you see the entire picture here, what i think americans should take from this is the fact that we have a president-elect trump that wants to bring all americans together. he started with the speech that he gave on wednesday morning, a very graciously saying no matter who you are, no matter your background, i will be here for you, making proud of our country. what you saw with mitt romney, people like obviously ted cruz coming in, is a continuation of this bridge building and this scene that all americans should take in that he wants to bring us all together. the meeting with mitt romney itself though i will tell you was a very good meeting. it was graciously and personable.

and it was very sincere. and it was productive. so i don't -- we don't know where it will lead right now. but i can tell you that it was a great first step. and people should be proud of the way things are going here in president-elect trump's operation. >> would it surprise you if president-elect trump selected mitt romney for secretary of state? >> you know, look, i'm not sure who he is going to select. but i do -- >> would that surprise you? >> he is talking to the right people. giuliani, general keen, kelly -- he has obviously talked to mitt r romney. we will see where it goes. it's a good sign for all americans. >> i want to talk about, obviously, donald trump ran especially on the end the phrase drain the swamp. there are moves this week that call that into question, perhaps some conflicts of interest, his daughter ivanka was seen pictured at the meeting with the japanese prime minister. there is some businessmen from

india who have deals with the president-elect's organization, they had a meeting with the president-elect, took pictures of it, creating this idea that maybe they will end up profiting off of the trump name now that he is president in india. how are you organizing a divestment or blind trust of donald trump and his businesses? >> that's being handled. there's nothing being discussed of any import. >> how do we know that? >> the meetings are cursory. >> you didn't bring the press in by the way. >> all of these things -- all of these rules are going to be followed. there's no -- there's going to be no violation of any rules, i can assure you of that. as we move forward, those matters are going to be more clearly spelled out. you will be aware of it. look, the one person i can tell you that makes these decisions is donald trump. families have been involved with their fathers in administrations. i can assure you though, what

you are seeing donald trump do right now is bring the best and the brightest together to make the best decisions for america, for all americans, no matter who you are. >> at the end of the day, how does he prove he is not planning to use the presidency to profit. there have been reports that the trump hotel in washington, d.c. that ambassadors were encouraged to bring visiting delegations and have them stay at the trump hotel in washington, d.c. is that true? >> no, it's not true at all, chuck. and i think what we have here is it's truly a unique situation where you have an international businessperson that has done incredibly well in life that is now going to work towards focusing 24/7 to be the president of the united states and setting up a system, a legal system to shield himself from any and all conflicts. that is what we are doing, and

people are going to be seeing, and in the coming days and weeks, people will see that. >> no member of the liberal media, the political damage to a new administration could be extensive. if mr. trump doesn't liquidate, he will be accused of a pecuniary motive any time he takes a policy position. they believe it's untenable for trump or his kids to have any control over the organization while he is president. does the president-elect share that view? >> look, we're looking at this right now as well. like i said before, we're going to make sure that no matter what decisions are made, they're run through counsel. as you know, there's a white house counsel's office that will be there, that will be issuing opinions. these matters will be dealt with accordingly. donald trump, our new president, is going to spend every hour, every minute of the day making america proud of where we're going and making america great again but also making the decisions that benefit everyone the most in this country. i think we're just getting ahead

of ourselves a little bit. i can assure you the work will continue. the best and brightest will be brought together, no matter the background, political affiliation and all the rest. >> let me ask you about the appointment of general mike flynn. to the national security ad advisers and essentially two corner offices in the white house. you will be in one, and he is going to be in the other. in february, flynn listed bombings perpetrated by muslims with the comment, fear of muslims is rational. can you equivocally rule out a registry for muslims? >> look, i'm not going to rule out anything. i wouldn't -- we're not going to have a registry based on a religion. what i think what we're trying to do is say there are some people -- certainly not all people, chuck. there are some people that are radicalized. and there are some people that have to be prevented from coming into this country.

president-elect trump's position is consistent with bills in the house and senate that say the following. if you come -- if you want to come from a place or an area around the world that harbors and trains terrorists, we have to suspend that operation until a better vetting system is put in place. when that happens, when the better vetting system is put in place, then the radical folks -- they will not be allowed in. but then others will be allowed in. but only until that is done. that's what general michael flynn believes. that's what president trump believes. >> does president-elect trump agree with general flynn that fear of muslims is rashle nal? >> he believes that no faith in and of itself should be judged as a whole. there are some people in countries abroad that need to be prevented from coming into this country. i think that's where 99% of americans are at.

>> reince priebus, appreciate the time. the next white house chief of staff. thank youer for coming on and sharing your views. >> you got it. thank you. on friday i traveled to michigan for a story on middle class voters who picked donald trump over hillary clinton. we will have that later in the hour. while i was there, i took a break to interview the new senate democratic leader chuck schumer. he began by telling me that senate democrats would give a very thorough vetting to jeff sessions. and that he had tough questions for mike flynn, though he doesn't need senate confirmation, who is mr. trump's choice for national security advisor. but then here, i want to begin with a question whether the democrats should oppose president trump or work with him when they can? >> well, my test is the specifics. we're not going to work with him for the sake of working with him. we're not going to oppose him just because he says -- it's

something that trump sponsors. let me give you a couple examples on both sides. surprisingly, on certain issues, candidate trump voiced very progressive and populist opinions. changing our trade laws dramatically. a large infrastructure bill. cleaning up the swamp in washington. these are things that democrats have always stood for and frankly republicans have always been against. we're going to challenge we will challenge president trump to work with us on that. if he doesn't, he will break his promise of blue collar workers, many of whom voted for him on those issues. on issues where our values are at stake, the president goes in a divisive direction, where his campaign did before, we will go against him and with everything we've got. we're not going to repeal or help him repeal obamacare. we are not going to roll back dodd-frank. they should forget about that. we have 60 votes to block them.

we're not going to help him build his wall. we have a comprehensive immigration bill that builds tougher border security. it had more bipartisan support than he called for. so we are not going to oppose him just because he is trump, but we are going to stick to our values and oppose him where he opposes those. i hope on the promises he made to blue collar america, on trade, on carried interest, on infrastructure, that he will stick with them and work with us even if it means breaking with the republicans who have always opposed these things. >> you know, you may have the longest relationship of any current u.s. senator with donald trump. i know you frequently speak with him. i'm curious how frequently have you spoken with him post election? >> well, look, number one, i didn't know him that well. we would see each other occasionally at events in new york. but i really didn't know him very well.

>> you did a walk on on "the apprentice." >> well, they asked me to do it. i really don't know him that well. i learned far more about him in the campaign. i was troubled by a whole lot of things in the campaign. the only thing i can say to my colleagues is, you know, president obama met with him and said the presidency is a sobering experience. so i hope that president trump will rise to the occasion. and when he does, we will try to be supportive. but when he doesn't, we will use everything we've got to oppose him. >> i'm interviewing you from the suburbs of detroit. we're doing a big focus on what happened, for instance, in a place where there were obama trump voters in ma koem kocomb . why do you believe you lost the democratic party and hillary clinton lost these voters that voted obama in '08 and '12 and

voted trump in '16, particularly in a place like michigan. >> when you lose an election like we did, we can't look away at it. you have to analyze what you did wrong. my preliminary reading is simple. we did not have the kind of strong, bold and pointed economic message that appealed to these people. a message that talked about how rigged the system was in washington. what i hope to do as our democratic leader is craft policies and platform and message that are bold on economic issues, that are strong on economic issues, that don't just nibble around the edges. and what that will do, i believe, is unite not only democrats in the senate. you have even in our leadership team this kind of message has gotten bernie sanders and elizabeth warren on our team as well as joe manchen. and mark warner, but much more importantly unite america. i don't think there should be a

choice. people say, should we go after the obama coalition or the blue collar workers? a bold, strong economic message will unite both of them, both groups. it will appeal to the worker, the factory worker, the college student, the single mom trying to get above minimum wage. >> let me finally ask you about the supreme court. obviously, you were not pleased with how senate republicans handled the garland nomination. i assume barring some miracle for your side, it is not going to be brought up during the lame duck. >> pray for that miracle. >> are you going to -- are you comfortable filibustering any pick that a president trump makes? and if that happened, do you fear the nuclear response essentially by the republicans? >> first, i hope president trump picks a mainstream candidate. a mainstream candidate is somebody who you may not agree with on every issue, but

believes in precedent and believes in following the law and the interesting thing -- >> what does that mean -- can he nominate somebody in your mind that is, say, ted cruz? is he too conservative for you? >> i'm not going to get into specific candidates. we hope it would be mainstream. if it is mainstream, you have to remember the last four nominees, two from president bush, two from president obama, got bipartisan support on the bench. if he doesn't nominate a mainstream candidate, we're going to go at him with everything we have or her. go at the candidate with everything we've got because this is so, so important. now, you know, senator mcconnell has said, let's not -- let's not use the filibuster. but they don't come with clean hands having delayed garland for a year. furthermore, i was the person when the rules were changed back

a few years ago when leader reid changed the rules, i said, let's not do the supreme court. we should have 60 votes, which we still do, because we should get bipartisan support. so i hope both president trump and leader mcconnell would recognize those facts. >> all right. senator chuck schumer, i have to leave it there. democrat from new york. the new senate democratic leader. thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> i did that on friday. as the interview was airing, donald trump tweeted the following about chuck schumer. i have always had a good relationship with chuck schumer. he is smarter than harry r, referring to harry reid, and has the ability to get things done. good news! there you go. a trump and schumer relationship anew. my trip to michigan, home of the democrats who voted first for president obama and then donald trump. and then we will talk to the man

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let's dig in with the panel. welcome back. let's dig in with the panel. kathleen parker and tom friedman. welcome to you all. robert, i want to start with you. romney, giuliani, how real is romney's secretary of state? you are quick with the trump scoops. what you got? >> my trump sources tell me romney is very much in the running for secretary of state. trump likes his look, he likes

his background. he wants to make an overture to the republican establishment. for trump, he knows his reputation not only at home but around the world. he wants to maybe have a different kind of face. >> there's no question that romney brings a different face because he is the epitome of goodness and would be, i think, a very smart move for trump to put him up front as the face to the rest of the world. as somebody joked, if you took an american flag and turned it into a human being, it would look like mitt romney. >> you have to have a good relationship though with the national security advisor. i bring this up, thomas, as somebody who covered plenty of white house and international affairs. mike flynn has been described -- this is by former colleagues, people that worked with him, they did it anonymously. hot head, shallow, impulsive, scary and does not understand the magnitude of the job.

you have covered general flynn back in the days of the first afghanistan surge. what do you know of him? >> i have seen general flynn in iraq, afghanistan, washington at the dia. i don't know the general flynn who has been tweeting. i had many encounters with him or several in his job as one of the most intelligent intelligent officers we have had. he and stan mccrystal together created the killing machine that took down al qaeda in iraq. they did it in an amazing way, leveraging big data. they would take down a terrorist leader, take his computer and cell phone and pour it into a computer, find links and do one raid and another and another. i don't know mike flynn but that mike flynn is a serious, intelligent guy. >> qualified? >> the old mike flynn, definitely. i don't know the new mike flynn. >> yeah. i would say the new mike flynn is deeply worrying. that's who we have seen for the last year. someone who has attacked muslims as a group, someone who has tweeted also from the alt-right and basically things that have

been seen as racist on their face. and also, in a more disturbing level, we found out that he is actually as a lobbyist been getting security briefings. he is a lobbyist for foreign entities, foreign companies that are linked to foreign governments and has been receiving briefings while he is doing that. i think in it the drain the swamp concern, there's something still there. >> one thing on flynn, we're talking about list world view and combative personality. but his association with trump, how close he is, it's revealing about this whole transition. he is there because he is loyal. he was one of the early people who would go up to the top of trump tower, brief trump on foreign affairs. flynn was in the running for vp because he was there early. >> what we should learn here? i'm talking about, a team of rivals or is it going to be loyalists? >> national security, you have to have a secretary of state, a secretary of defense that are able to work together and are

basically aligned on their priorities. >> they need to be aligned. >> they have to be basically aligned. >> romney and flynn doesn't feel like an a -- that feels -- it doesn't work. giuliani and flynn to me is more an alignment. kathleen? >> gosh, well if you want -- if you want to present a fierce presence to the rest of the world, those two combined would certainly put fear in the hearts of our allies and enemies as well. the other thing about mitt romney -- i think really today we should change his name to mike romney, since that seems -- >> if you are a mike you have a better chance. >> remember in the second debate with barack obama, romney was the person who said in our greatest geopolitical foe is russia, and he was practically laughed off of the stage, but he is prescient in that regard and so he is not a novice in foreign aafter a fairs and many of the things that he has said have

come true to be. >> i want to go back to the ethics thing. are the trump folks aware that this is something that could blow up? i thought it was interesting that reince priebus didn't dismiss. >> the question is, who is having this conversation with the president-elect in a confrontational way about his family, about his business? a lot of people around donald trump don't want to engage with him on that level on that topic. >> that's deeply concerning. the idea that a president would profit from the presidency is -- it is anathema of the promises that he made no the people that he would work for the people and not himself. when you look at the information we're getting about meetings with indian businessmen who want to do more business, the idea that the hotel he has is basically pushing foreign dignitaries to stay at his hotel, give the hotel money in order to curry favor with him. that is -- >> listen --

>> -- anathema to the promises that he has made. he does not seem to want to divest. >> i think he has to realize he has been benefitted from the cell phone revolution. >> he responded. >> a friend of mine says, the cell phones, five years ago they were a portable x-ray machine. now they're a portable mri machine. they can see everywhere. they can tell the world what they see without an editor, a libel lawyer or a filter, a and that can really work for you or against you. >> i'm going to end this. this is why everybody will buy his book. >> note to public officials, don't tweet. >> i don't know. i think it's good. we're learning about who people are. let's pause the conversation here. when we come back, we will hear from some of those white blue collar voters who abandoned hillary clinton for donald trump. what do they expect from their new president? plus, quite a few of them were bernie sanders voters. i will talk to senator sanders about how he thinks democrats should respond. stay with us.

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. welcome back. one of the big surprises of the election was the welcome back. one of the big surprises of this election was the emergence of the obama trump voter. people who voted for obama in 2012 but abandoned the democrats this year. they were in middle class suburbs and rural areas. it gave trump a decisive electoral college victory. on friday, i traveled to macomb county, michigan. it's one of 225 obama to trump counties nationwide. small amount of counties. but many of them stretch across the upper midwest. look at them all. 12 in michigan, 22 in wisconsin and 32 of these obama trump counties in iowa. >> obama didn't necessarily disappoint me, i guess. he didn't fulfill everything that i wanted. michelangelo ivoni, one of

the group of voters i sat down with in warren voted obama in 2008 and 2012. >> we wanted change. we had to get out of the bush administration and what had been going on in there. we were told lies. >> this time, he picked trump. what made you vote for him? >> what made me vote for him is the fact that i believe that hillary clinton was a criminal. >> this man owns little joe's coney island, a diner. >> i hear people saying, well, he is a billionaire. he can't be bought. that's what people are saying. they can't control him. >> he came, right? >> he came three miles north of here. i think a lot of people feel like she took it for granted, like it was always been a blue state and she had it. >> it's car country. there are plants. between 2000 and 2010, half of the manufacturing jobs vanished. some have come back.

household income is down 25%. pensions are gone or disappearing. the cost of health care is up. >> if i'm elected, you won't lose one plant. >> voters expect trump to keep those promises. >> put us all to work. give us the opportunity to earn a living and take care of our families. that's it. it's that simple. >> job creation. not doing all our jobs offshore. >> macomb is diversifying quickly. >> you don't hear young people talk about how proud they are to be american anymore. they talk about how proud they are to be diverse. >> i see my children having a school with 30 different languages spoken. for me, it's been an exciting change. >> with it have come some cultural changes. >> i don't like the fact that now you can have a transgender person go into any bathroom. >> across the political spectrum, voters aren't sure trump will be able to unite the country. >> how he has talked about me,

my daughters and women, who he is appointing being all white men, to me reaching out is having women and women's issues in the forefront. >> my father is an albanian muslim from kosovo stop the rhetoric that's out there where people are being offended, attacked or whatever the case may be because they're minorities, they have a different look to them, a different name to them. they practice a different religion. he has the chance to unite us all. >> by the way, remember the 12 obama to trump counties in michigan? bernie sanders beat hillary clinton in nine of them in the primary. bernie sanders beat her in all 22 of the counties in wisconsin that went from obama to trump in the wisconsin democratic primary. joining me is bernie sanders out with a new book called "our revolution." welcome back to "meet the press." >> good to be with you. >> just those county stats alone in wisconsin and michigan, the

fact of the matter is, they're clearly -- i ran into them. there were people supporters of you. you were for some trump supporters the second choice. and for some of your supporters, clinton was not the second choice. they chose to stay home. do you think would you have had a better chance of carrying michigan and wisconsin if had you been the democratic nominee? >> chuck, i don't know that t does a lot of good to look back. we have to look forward. we have to hear what the workers were saying just a few moments ago and what they were saying is, they're sick and tired of seeing their standard of living go down. they are sick and tired of seeing jobs go to china and other low-wage countries, which means that we have to transform our trade policies and tell corporate america to start investing in this country and not in countries all over the world. we have to raise the minimum wage. we need pay equity for women workers. it means to say that we have to create jobs rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure. we have to make public colleges and universities tuition free. in other words, what all of that is about is the working class of

this country. for the last 40 years has been decimated. the rich are getting richer. people are tired of it. they want real change. i'm going to do everything that i can as part of the new leadership in the democratic party to bring about that change. >> one of the things that you hear about is job retraining for folks that are displaced by trade agreements. i want to play you a quote from the coo of a company, an auto parts manufacturer. he was talking about the problems with some of the retraining programs. take a listen. >> if you've been out on this floor doing skilled or semi skilled work, you do not want to go to do a computer-based job. you want to make things. >> essentially, the job retraining programs and some of the vo-tech programs, too computer based. he was complaining of a lack of skilled labor but physical skilled labor.

>> i think we have to move forward on all fronts. we have to do -- not everybody wants to go to college. that's fine. god knows, there are enormous amounts of work out there that don't require a college degree. we have to get people the training to do that. which is why we have to rebuild our inner cities. we have to rebuild our infrastructure. there's a need for affordable housing in this country. we can put millions of people to work rebuilding this country. and that is what we have to do. on the other hand, in a highly competitive global economy, we do need the best educated work force in the world. we have to make public colleges and universities tuition free. mr. trump and his billionaire friends are going to have to start paying their fair share of taxes. >> senator sanders, the progressive movement, democratic party is having a debate about whether to work with donald trump when there's agreement. i want to read for you something that eric sasson said about the new debate.

bottom line is this. it is up to trump to prove to us that he should lead and we should not make it easy for him, and the bottom line is essentially, do you not work with him until he shows some contrition on some of the social issues? >> look. let us be very clear, chuck. when donald trump helped lead the birther movement, that was nothing less than a racist effort to undermine the legitimacy of the first african-american president we ever had. that was racist. that was disgraceful. the african-american community and all of us deserve an apology. when he talks about latinos or mexicans as criminals and rapists, that is outrageous. when he says one of the largest religions in the world islam, people who are muslims cannot

visit the united states, enter the united states, that's an outrage. on those issues, let me be very clear, speaking only for myself. there is no compromise. we have come too far as a country to try to move forward in a non-discriminatory way to go backwards and see us divided by racism. or zenophobia, but on the other hand, the issues like raising the minimum wage, and donald trump has talked about how he is not going to cut social security, medicaid or medicare, and he is going to work to re-establish a glass/steagall ability to rebuild the infrastructure, i accept that. those are issues some of us have been working on for years. if he wants to work with us on those issues, i accept that. >> you don't accept the premise you shouldn't work with him under any circumstance? >> right.

he has said outrageous things. he needs to apologize to the american people. there are people all over this country who are really frightened. the other thing, chuck, is climate change. it is beyond comprehension that we have a president-elect who thinks the climate change is a hoax when the whole scientific community is telling us -- >> but i want to go back to this other point. what do you say to progressives that say, the republicans essentially united against president obama and guess what, it was good politically for the republican party. what you are describing is going to be perhaps good for those workers you are talking about but it may be bad for the democratic party. what do you say to those progressives? >> we need to protect workers. we need a good strategy to make sure that, in fact, we push our agenda. look, on the issues that i'm talking about, these are the things that i have been fighting for years. but there is no compromise on bigotry, on climate. the future of this planet is at stake, and we need a strategy, aly work on it, and to go to michigan and to go to wisconsin

and stand with the working people to demand that we reverse the decline of the american middle-class. >> senator sanders, that's all the time i have for today. thanks for coming on and sharing your views. congrats on the new book. >> thank you. before we go to break, this week we said good-bye too soon to our friend and colleague gwen ifill. she was a trailblazer in our field. from newspaper reporter to nbc anchor and the anchor of the pbs newshour. she broke a barrier everywhere she went. she was tough and fair. yet at the same time brought joy to her work. not to mention, she had a great bs detector, something plenty of politicians learned the hard way. i was honored to have her as a panelist on the show. me made everyone around this table, including myself, smarter. she made over 70 appearances on this program over the years. many times we were on the show together with someone we both called a mentor, tim russert. in her most rekrecent appearancn "meet the press" eight weeks

ago, she reflected on the opening of the new national museum of african-american history and culture. >> the emotion of the people in that audience, mostly blacks, singing full throatedly, reminded me of one of the things that are true in this country, which is that we want to, we aspire to, we hope to make it a better union. yet we see the clash, the hopefulness of the beautiful museum put up against what we have seen happen in the streets.

we are we are back. it's data download time. it's a rule of thumb, the winner of a popular vote also wins the popular vote in the swing states. but this year, that's not the case. our friend dave over at the political port has beenp keeping track of it as it continues to

be counted, particularly out west. hillary clinton leads by more than 1.6 million votes nationally. that's triple of what al gore led george w. bush by in 2000. among the 13 swing states, these are defined as states that flipped from 2012 or decided by five points or less, it's reversed. trump leads clinton by 863,000 votes. of course, the states are all called battleground states for a reason. they are extraordinarily come pettive. in fact, we looked at the vote in some key battleground states going back to the '92 presidential election. get this. in virginia, out of more than 20 million votes cast in the last seven elections combined, only 72,000 votes separate the republicans and the democrats. in ohio, 34 million presidential votes cast, only 68,000 separate the two major parties. but take a look at florida. out of nearly 50 million votes cast in a presidential race since '92, only 11,296 votes separate the democrats and republicans. that's .02%.

if that was the margin in a single florida election, we would see a recount, probably a lot of hand counts. florida, florida, florida. it is something that we say often at "meet the press" and for good reason. it is the microcosm of america. you have the old republican coalition and the new democratic coalition. florida is the ultimate battleground state. it is not going to be changing any time soon. when we come back, guess who thinks he should be the de facto leader of the democratic party going forward. it's barack obama. before we go to break, here is snl's take on trump meeting with potential cabinet picks. >> thank you for taking the time to meet with me. >> governor romney, so good of you to come. >> this isn't going to work, is it? >> i don't think so. for the people we love.

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back now with the panel. what do democrats do? i want to -- the question that i addressed to senator sanders and senator back now with the panel. what do democrats do? i want to -- the question that i addressed to senator sanders and senator schumer and they both essentially had the same position, they will work with him where they agree. there are democrats that think that's a mistake. where do you come down on this? >> look, i think people were willing to give the benefit of the doubt. but i think the reality is just this week when you see jeff sessions, mike flynn and steve bannon, you know, there's a view that the president has to reach out after a divisive race. we haven't seen much of that.

i think democrats are actually -- many democrats, many progressives are deeply worried that we're going to see a divisive presidency -- >> do you count the tweet about schumer this morning? say what you want, because this is outreach. >> i would love a tweet that said that people should stop hate crimes and people should stop swastikas. but there are people who are worried because they feel bullied. the president of the united states has yet to really use his twitter account to address that. >> i couldn't agree with that more. i've been advocating that donald trump needs to give a speech. he needs to address the nation and talk about, look, i'm a loose cannon, i say things that i don't mean, i don't feel. make it a serious and sincere -- it doesn't have to be an apology necessarily. look, this is not who i am. this is what i intend to do. he has to address it face on. it would change things.

>> you know him well. how likely is he to do something like that? >> most important relationship in washington is between schumer and trump. these are two brash new yorkers. you didn't schumer drawing a big line in the sand. what you have to watch is how does ryan handle it if trump starts working with democrats. most important interview was bannon to the hollywood reporter. he dangled out there a million dollars in infrastructure. you will see trump -- he is not driven by an ideological compass. >> i want to talk about who will run the party. i found this fascinating. president obama did an interview through the final days of the campaign and then after. tom, the president said this. if hillary clinton had won the election i would have turned over the key, but now i have a responsibility to offer my counsel about those who are going to be elected officials

about how to rebuild the dnc. in other words, he is saying, i will lead the party. when is the last time we had an ex-president do that? >> democrats could do a lot worse. but i think it's not just who leads, it's what they lead on. i think it's very important that democrats not just be about redistribution. they have to be about growing. they have to be about entrepreneurship. i watched the democratic convention. they had women, black, gay, transgender. they had a dwarf who was charming. he talked about his relationship with hillary clinton, and one thing they did not have is an entrepreneur who said i'm a risk-taker, and i'm here to grow the pie and not just to redistribute it. >> what about ryan in the house? >> i find it fascinating. he is challenging -- let me describe him and finish your point.

>> democratic congressman from youngstown, ohio. he wants to challenge nancy pelosi. he probably will lose. but he will probably make himself a very competent candidate for governor of ohio in 2018. this is a fight in the party what have to be. >> we're asking why is president obama prepared to be a leader? democratic leadership doesn't have the political capital because they haven't had opportunities to become leaders. this is a microcosm. can a person like ryan get a shot in this postpost obama era? >> look, i think -- i think that the party needs all voices. i think it's -- >> >> it need fresher voices than schumer and pelosi? >> look at the reality. senator sanders, he has been there a long time. he is giving an important voice in the leadership as well as an array of diverse voices. this is the time to have a debate about the future of the democratic party. nancy pelosi has been a person who has been able to hold democrats together. but it's an important debate for us to have. >> this race could end up being decided on what you just mentioned, identity politics in the house. if the democrats become too associated with identity politics. >> i think everybody recognizes that we need a stronger reform message.

both about our politics and about our economy. i think the message of the election is that people are angry. they feel left out of the process. and democrats have to give a voice to that. >> technology and globalization are upsetting the two things that anchor people in the world. community and their workplace. it's happening at the same time. >> diversification. >> people go to the grocery store. they are being spoken to in a different language, dressed quickly. fairly quickly. they go into the bathroom and there's a person of another gender. they go to work and there's a robot next to them. all those things, fast and at once, have destabilized people. i understand that. >> tim ryan, his gifts would be better used if he could teach us to meditate. but on the issue that tom was addressing. one of the big elements here in this sort of sense of disenfranchisement is loss of identity. this is what's driving the

movements in europe as well as here. no one is actually really spoken to that. yes, we acknowledge there are languages, which i sort of love. >> i love it, too. >> the diversity of our population i find appealing. we enjoy that here in washington. the sense of loss of who we are, our national identity is what's not being discussed in terms that people can relate to. you have to identify it. you have to say it and democrats just don't do that. they just collect all the various identities that they can rather than talk about the one that unites us all. >> i will pause here. homeless in their own country. we will be back in end game. why did donald trump give in and decide to settle that trump university lawsuit for $25 million? "meet the press" end game and post game brought to you by >> coming up, "meet the press" end game and post game brought to you by boeing, building the future one century at a time. attention: are you eligible for medicare?

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>> back now with end game. "meet the press" end game is brought to you by boeing, building the future one century at a time. >> back now with end game. trump university lawsuit on this show, robert costa, he told me he would never settle because he said if you settle, it means you will get more lawsuits. well, he settled. he tweeted that it is not an admission of guilt, which it technically isn't. $25 million is not chump change. >> it's an example of how trump is trying to navigate becoming president of the united states. he has to get these things off his table. >> he would have to testify the monday after thanksgiving. >> yes, it was scheduled. >> he may not want to deal with the family issue and entanglements in business. when it comes to the legal entanglements, he is cutting some of them. >> i think we're losing sight of the fact that he said he was innocent and nothing wrong. it was a great university. he settled after he said he would never settle. multiple times saying when you settle it's an admission of guilt. he knows that he was basically accused of defrauding students.

he is giving them money for his defrauding them. it's the reality. >> we can't forget he ran a campaign that debased our culture, that hurt a lot of people and erased red lines we have never seen erased before. somehow if we forget that, if we think it was about the campaign and it's not going to happen again and we don't set up new red lines in a clear way, we are really going to regret this. >> who is listening? i mean, i have to say, who is listening? >> i don't know about the rest of you, any time i say anything that's slightly at least open minded towards trump, it's saying -- people are responding, you are normalizing him. there they go, they will start -- >> it's apocalyptic. the responses you get on social media. >> exactly. >> no matter what. >> this is a problem for a lot of progressives, which is he said terrible things about a lot of people. he succeeded. people are wondering -- he has erased the red lines. who will uphold the red lines, basic standards of what it is to

be an american when we had such a divisive race? we used to believe you couldn't pit people against each other and win. the lesson we have gotten is that you can. it can succeed. >> we have do it. but republicans have to do it, too. if they all just fold -- >> absolutely. >> they need to set the example. >> conservative and republicans don't play the role that you are -- >> the fact is the voters were willing to forgive that. >> yes. absolutely. >> because of their feelings towards clinton. >> talk to these voters. at the same time, investigate and report the administration. but understand what the voters are talking about. >> that was the goal of this show. you were great. thank you very much. that's all we have for today. we wish you a happy thanksgiving. i think it's the best holiday we have. i look forward to hearing the conversations between all the crazy uncles debating each other. we will be back next week because even on thangiving sunday, even if it's sunday, it's "meet the press."

♪ happy good sunday to you. i'm are richard lui and welcome to "pulse of america" right here on msnbc where your voice can be heard in realtime. these are the stories that we want your pulse on. another cabinet announcement could come today at any house as president-elect trump holds meetings, and do more cabinet choices signal that he can carry tout vision that he promised