that does it for this hour. have a great thanksgiving. mtp daily starts now. if it's wednesday, team trump continues a preholiday hiring spree, but there is a lot of work to do. how the president-elect's core issues have evolved over the past two weeks and what that means as he stocks his cabinet. plus congressman tim ryan joins us on his dark horse challenge to be the democrat's leader in

the house and what the turkey pardon tradition says about america. >> we're turn our attention from polls to poultry. >> mtp daily starts right now. good evening and happy thanksgiving eve and the trump transition team relocated to florida for the holiday, but he spent this final workweek day filling out a few cabinet positions. sprinkling out bits of information to keep us preoccupied. first things first. trump elected nikki haley to serve as ambassador to united nations. she doesn't have foreign policy experience, but she is a favorite to the gop

establishment and a number praised her. betsy devos is selected to be the education secretary, but she is not getting as warm of a reception. speaking out against her. dr. ben carson confirmed he was offered a cabinet position a few days after the former gop rival turned top supporter for the department of hud. trump's on the meeting yesterday with reporters and columnist at the "new york times." he softened on a number of hard line campaign promises including bringing back torture. >> i said what do you think of waterboarding? he said i was surprised and he said i never found it to be useful. he said i always found give me a pack of cigarettes and a couple of beers and i do better with

that than torture. >> it's unclear if this trump will be our president or his stance on many other issues can change again. on the trail, trump is a master at reading the room. sometimes flipping his position depending on who he was talking to. >> you are going to split up families? >> we are going keep the families together. >> they have to head out? >> they have to go. >> having a secure border is a sovereign right and mutually beneficial. >> number one. are you ready? are you ready? we will build a great wall along the southern border. and mexico will pay for the wall. believe me.

100%. >> in one particular incidence, he did stay on message and on brand when asked about conflicts of interest. trump was steadfast. >> i could run my business perfectly. and then run the country perfectly. and there was never a case like this where somebody had -- if you look at other people that didn't have this kind of asset and wealth. it's a different thing. i assumed that you would have to set up a type of trust or whatever. and i was surprised to see it. in theory i don't have to do anything. >> we will talk more about the legality of that and trump's other pending legal troubles in the hour, but first let's stick to all things transition. we are looking at all the angles in palm beach, florida.

julie was in that on the record meeting with trump yesterday. the statehouse reporter for the post and the courier paper. let me begin with my colleague and get me up to speed with this. why is she being so well received even though she doesn't have much in the way of foreign policy experience? >> you are right. she is being very well receive and is a rising star in the republican party and hits all the marks. she is 44 years old, the nation's youngest governor. her parents emigrated from india. she checks the diversity box as well. she is someone who was critical of donald trump during the primary process. she supported marco rubio and ted cruz and said she would vote for donald trump. her one challenge i think if there is in terms of having

broad support is that she does lack foreign policy experience. you had someone like tim kaine saying her executive experience will serve her well. she earned a lot of praise when she let the fight to lower the confederate flag in south carolina. she is sbhon is known for her record. respected for her record and there is concern about her experience. i was talking to an official who said donald trump feels as though he had good chemistry with her and feels as though she will be a good deal maker and that is very important to president-elect donald trump. he also tapped betsy devos. she supports having more vouchers and also opposed to common core. the reaction that we are getting from her is mixed. jeb bush saying betsy devos is an outstanding pick for

secretary of education, but take a listen to one of the largest teacher's unions. the trump administration demonstrated how out of touch it is with what works best for students, parents, educators and communities. that could be more of a fight. you have a republican-controlled senate. it seems as though both of these picks are headed towards confirmation and we are watching ben carson who has been tapped for hud secretary and he is mulling that decision. julie, let me go to you. lots of softening in the meeting. did you get a feeling he was playing to the room and saying about the environment and something he has been passionate

about? >> he was definitely playing to the room and this is something that you saw him do on the campaign trail a lot. he came in there with much more nonconfrontational and i am trying to build bridges. of all the policies, he did moderate his positions from the hard line stances he took on the campaign trail. the conflict of interest and selecting steve bannon as the strategist and he made the point that he is the president and he gets to decide what he may or may want to do in terms of conflict of interest. he was tempering some of what he said. on the stylistic side, not so much. >> talk about torture. >> he was asked about

waterboarding. he said flat out, torture works. when he asked him about it, we talked about the general who he is considering very, very seriously for secretary of defense and said he doesn't t believe torture works and he believes rewarding cooperation is better. someone who is known as mad dog mattis would not have the support for those techniques. he is softening his position on that certainly. >> talk to me about his conflicts of interest. he seemed to brush off the neegz he will have a problem with that by saying the law is on his side. >> he pointed out and this is true that there are few laws that wind the president of the united states when it comes to

conflict of interest in his position and business holdings. the tradition dating back is that presidents submit themselves to ethical standards so there is not even the appearance. he said i don't want the appearance of that. i top the do something. just to be clear, i don't have to do anything. >> let's go to gavin jackson. she was so outspoken during the campaign. why do you think he would turn around and tap her for the role? >> it was an interesting choice, no doubt. surprisingly when she met, they have been friends before this whole campaign season. they are still friends now. what she said about some of those comments you have seen her

come out against donald trump for, when i am uncomfortable, i say something. that's the attitude donald trump might like. she won't just tow the line and go about her way. she has been an outsider in south carolina. that's what attracted him to her and she first got into the statehouse in south carolina and unseated an incumbent to be an indian-american female in the statehouse. she was not the most popular person at the time, but worked her way up. in 2010, she got involved in the gubernatorial race. lo and behold, she almost won the three-way primary with 49.5% in june 2010. she went on to win that race. it shows she has these outsider quality that donald trump likes and sees potential in her.

>> if she is appoint and gets through confirmation, they will promote the lieutenant governor who was the first statewide politician to back donald trump's presidential bid. by tapping nikki haley, does that get a thorn out of trump's side and enable him to have somebody in the south carolina governor's role that has been a fan of his all along? >> she would have worked well regardless. they saw her at the association meeting where she was elected vice chairman and saying she was gid tow work with not only a republican president, but congress. she was not necessarily a thorn, but came around to is thing him. >> it took four times. he asked her four times and she finally did. >> back in february, she actually said regardless of who

the nominee is, she would support the nominee. obviously she was not overlow enthusiastic with donald trump become the nominee. she supported senator ted cruz, but she did get to the convention unlike a lot of other colleagues. >> eventually getting there. senior fellow bob har bert. thank you very much for joining me. donald trump is a master room reader. if he is softening, does the american public know who they elected president? >> to your point and he went back on hating the new york times to say it's an institution that should be valued in our country. i think we don't know where he stands and i don't know why we would believe this version versus the other version.

if he can flip once, he can flip again. and a lot of those he was grilled about whether or not he would prosecute hillary clinton and he said it's not a priority and i'm not interested in that. i don't want to hurt the clintons. he left it out for himself. >> we were just talking earlier, do people care or did voters like him, the powerful businessman and the guy who represents change, they like the personality on the issues. he hasn't made any decisions and we shall see. >> to the transition, i want to talk to you about not prosecuting hillary clinton.

brig breitbart said it's a broken promise. my impression is they could be throwing something out to see how it lands and see how supporters reacted to it and he would have to say the people are demanding it, we have to look into this again. right now he can look like a statesman. me if i'm wrong. >> i don't know if the causality works in that direction or not. the links are there. what i think is true is that breitbart will want to create a veneer of independence and this is a way of doing that. a lot of folks on the right i think will be disappointed by this decision. probably not as many as people on the left think. from my point of view, i think

it's a reasonable decision that he should have gone through. >> his supporters on the campaign would yell lock her up, lock her up and he was agreeing with them at one point and they wore masks and prison garb and t-shirts that said hillary for prison. even with all of that, they will be fine if he said no, it's just campaign talk? >> over the course of the campaign, the legal holding hillary clinton legally and politically accountable was collapsed. making sure she didn't reach the presidency was in a sense a national consensus on holding hillary clinton accountable. a lot of people who backed donald trump to do that and make sure there was not another clinton in the white house, we will be able to give him a pass if he doesn't go even further taking her down. >> talk to me about ben carson and the housing and urban development. they were thinking about him for health and human services.

he said last week that basically he is not qualified to run a federal agency. why would they come back even though he had the comments last week? >> they are looking for a black guy in the administration. he nominated a couple of women now and there is not a lot of black guys willing to serve in the donald trump administration. there is ben carson. maybe he will change his mind. if he is not qualified to serve in the federal government, what makes him qualified to serve in this post? >> is there a concern he is putting people in that he likes that don't necessarily have qualifications? nikki haley can be someone accused of that. >> there is a concern across the board with donald trump. i think of the guy as a film flam man. you doesn't matter what he said.

he doesn't believe it himself or not. he will say blue today and red tomorrow. he is insisting that torture works and that will be part of his administration and he had a conversation with the general and said he said he could do better with a pack of cigarettes and a can of beer. that is an extreme difference. one has no idea what he believes in. >> president obama and the way he is talking about donald trump now is making a huge break from how he spoke during the campaign and what he is doing is the responsible thing to have a peaceful transition of power. also completely doing a 180 calling him temperamental and unfit to serve, it almost gives donald trump a pass. everybody said things it during

the campaign and says something completely different. >> if donald trump needs to be giving the support to run a successful presidency. presidency, not pregnancy. i want to talk to you about the article you wrote this week talking about harold ford, jr. >> he is hoping he will be considered for something. >> talking about having diversity in the administration and people want to have some democrats and harold ford for the people i spoke to, he hasn't sat down with donald trump. she good friends with ivanka and don jr. and he seeings him on "morning joe" all the time. he is making it clear that if

donald trump wants to call, he would love to talk to him. i think there are feelers put out both ways and he is leaving that wide open. stay with me. the campaign for the future of the democratic leadership is under way. i will talk with ohio congressman tim ryan about the challenge against nancy pelosi. stay tuned. ♪ see ya next year. this season, start a new tradition. experience the power of infiniti now, with leases starting at $319 a month. infiniti. empower the drive.

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seth and i amy will discuss the election year. you can catch us on this nbc station. we are back with more "mtp daily"

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the democrats are not done campaigning and they will vote on who will lead the house democrats. this is a generational battle and nancy pelosi against a younger challenger tim ryan. pelosi led since 2003 and said that two thirds of the caucus is behind her. congressman jim cooper and the boston globe reached out. and nancy pelosi all agreed on democrats in congress to be more inclusive of the voices. tim ryan said he is ready to be that voice and are the democrats ready to toss out their long time leader? tim ryan of ohio joins me now and thank you for joining us and happy thanksgiving first of all. >> hi. trump lost in mahoney county, but narrowed the margin from 2012. what can democrats learn from

your district? >> that needs to drive us from policies and rhetoric. we talk about an increase in the minimum wage which i'm for, but we need to talk about folks making more money and not just the minimum wage and we disconnected ourselves from the working class people. they left us in droves throughout the midwest and throughout the country. now here we are a coastal party and not a national party anymore. >> you outperformed hillary clinton in trumbull and mahoney. is there not more you could do to make sure she won ohio? >> i tried my best, but the message message and i had it all

the time. that's why you saw some significant difference between me. we will have to energize the base. we are talking about job and it is new economy and the conversations. i can go to any district in the united states. i can campaign hard in the districts, but if i was in charge with the democrats, we would have an economic message and that's the whole idea of this exercise to have this election. >> why do you think she has gotten that word?

why do you think you are going to be better for the than she is. >> well, first i love nancy pelosi. she has been a mentor of mine. she is a historic figure and the first woman speaker of the house. it's time for a change. we have to win 30 or 40 seats to take the house back. i just don't think at this point. this is the truth. most people in the caucus if we are being honest with ourselves recognize that 2018 will be a tough slog to begin with let

alone if we are playing the same players that we played when we lost in 10 and didn't do enough in 12 and lost in 14. only picked up a few seat this is year. >> let's talk about the dynamic in the house right now. >> the average age is 59 years old. for republicans, it's 55. the average age for democratic leadership is 72. for republicans it's 48. that's a massive difference. do you think there is a generational divide for the democrats that has gone unaddressed? >> i do think there are a lot of young members, younger than i am. i'm 43. they are younger than me and very energetic and getting disenchanted. there is not an opportunity for them to spread their wings and not an opportunity for them to grow. that's a problem and i offered

some reforms to our caucus to allow these people to get 15 or 20 of them. let's get them on and raise their profile and turn them into rock stars and get them around the country. let the country see what the democratic party really looks like. let's get them into elected positions within the leadership so they feel vested into what we are doing. those are important things to engage them in with the seniority process and making sure that people have an opportunity to thrive and spread their wings. it's only going to increase the value of the democratic party. the energy of the democratic party. there are a lot of younger people who are frustrated and it's also geographical. we don't have anybody from the midwest. the republicans are very smart. paul ryan from wisconsin. reince priebus is from wisconsin and they just elected someone to run the campaign from columbus, ohio. they are planting seeds in the midwest and winning elections

here. it's not a coincidence. we have to get a new playbook. >> thank you so much and happy thanksgiving again. still ahead, google conflict of interest and the first news stories that come up include the name donald trump? we will try to untangle or understand the many possible conflicts of interest when we return. w to keep his wheels spinning. nice shorts dad... they don't make 'em in adult sizes? this is what the pros wear. look at the lines... uhhh... look at the other line... mm...mhh... that's why he starts his day with those two scoops... in deliciously heart healthy kellogg's raisin bran. ready to eat my dust? too bad i already filled up on raisins. by taking steps towards a healthy heart, jay knows he'll be ready for the turns ahead. hey don't forget to put up your kickstand. ring (bell) sighs. kellogg's raisin bran. and try kellogg's raisin bran crunch now with more crunchy clusters. i wanti did my ancestrydna and where i came from. and i couldn't wait to get my pie chart. the most shocking result was that i'm 26% native american.

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just moments ago, donald trump released a thanksgiving

message and the president-elect acknowledged that tensions don't he overnight. the thanksgiving holiday could be the start o healing the political divide. >> this historic campaign is now over. now begins a great national campaign to rebuild our country restore the full promise of america for all of our people. i ask you to join me in this effort. it's time to restore of bonds of trust between citizens. when america is unified, there is nothing beyond our reach. absolutely nothing. let us give thanks for all that we have and let us boldly face the exciting frontier that lie ahead. we will have more mtp daily and we have more on cnbc market wrap. >> great to see you and stocks ended mixed ahead of the thanksgiving holiday and for the dow that rose 59 points, it was another record. the s&p gains a point closing at

a record and the nasdaq drops five. minutes from the med's last meeting showed policy makers were confident they were strong enough to make a rate increase appropriate and orders for durable goods jumped for a fourth straight month, climbing in october thanks to demand for commercial aircraft. that's cnbc first in business worldwide.

president-elect donald trump shed light on his administration's legal entanglements in an interview with the new york times and there is a lot left that is still in darkness. story lines emerged and apparent changes on torture and climate change and new posturing, but the story that has everybody talking is trump said he has no plans to investigate hillary clinton, a stark change from candidate trump. >> if i win, i am going to instruct my attorney general to

get a special prosecutor to look into your situation. there has never been so many laws and so much deception and never been anything like it. we will have a special prosecutor. >> dropping that promise and led newspapers around the country today. legal experts say his position doesn't matter. a president trump would have no authority to personally direct investigations. that's one of the many legal questions surrounding the president-elect as he prepares to take office. a liable suit against the new york times and conflicts of interest with his personal business and questions surround his choice for national security adviser, retired general michael flynn. joining me now is columnist for the daily beast and let's start off with clinton and calling off the investigation; bright bart

is calling it a broken promise. is he going to have to account for it? >> he doesn't have the order to call for or call off an investigation. the attorney general is appointed by the president and the justice department for generations has been independent when it comes to deciding who investigated. >> you don't create an environment that sews the seed to start something like that? >> he backed off of this. that's a good thing. we won't face that question directly. we hope he will not thoroughly politicize the justice department. this didn't go well and didn't respond well to mix on trying to corrupt and politicize the fbi. he is making a smart move in trying to put all of that behind him. >> let's talk about general flynn. his group lobbied on behalf of the turkish government.

he wrote an oped on the day of the election expressing support and weeks earlier or months earlier he was expressing support for the folks that tried to do a coop on thegovernment. will his conflicts of interest in turkey matter? how much do they matter? >> we have to distinguish if they matter and whether they should matter. the answer to that question is absolutely. you cannot run a foreign policy if you have officials in violation of government rules. they disa bay the rules and series the boundaries and in the case of turkey in particular, one of the most important and sensitive relationships with

turkey. central to the mideast and the turkish government wants us to extradite a cleric they accuse of having plotted a coop against the turkish leader. this cleric is living in pennsylvania. they are putting the united states government under pressure to extradite this man. now, flynn works for the turkish government. he would want to go along with the demands we send this man to his death in turkey. if they bring him back, they put him on trial and execute him. the only problem is there is no evidence against him. what we are headed for now is a situation where because flynn is so conflicted with his relationship with the turkish government that we are on a path to sending a man from pennsylvania to his death in turkey. >> with the trump campaign and how they operated throughout the campaign and seemed to be operating with the transition is

when these big controversial questions arise, they wait him out and ride out the storm and something else happens and everybody moves on to that. this seems to be something that would haunt them for years to come if they keep flynn in the role. how does the focus stay on trying to resolve that question. trying to make sure that the interest we have in dealing with turkey are not conflicted. >> this is on us in the press. it's very easy to get us to move on. what we have to do is be willing to come back to these stories when there are future developments in turkey or other places. donald trump's family has business. the trump organization has business in 11 countries. that's 11 ticking time bombs of conflict of interest unless he sells his interest in his business or puts up other walls between himself and these businesses. these issues are going to come up again and again and again. over four years.

i don't think they will serve him well. >> why look into rudy jewel yabiany with other potential conflicts of interest to be secretary of state. >> he likes giuliani who was very, very loyal to him, but there is real indications from rand paul and other republican senators that rudy giuliani would not be confirmed as secretary of state. >> even with a republican majority? >> they only have a 52-48 majority. all it takes is two republicans and they have a problem. even if they are not abiding by the filibuster. they have a hard time getting rudy giuliani getting confirmed if they nominate him. >> thank you very much for joining us on this thanksgiving eve. >> happy thanksgiving. >> still ahead, the lid and why clinton supporters are counting for a recount of the closest contests and the unlikely ally they have in that fight. stay tuned.

♪ i want a hippopotamus for christmas ♪ ♪ only a hippopotamus will do at the united states postal service, we deliver more online purchases to homes than anyone else in the country. and more hippopotamuses, too. let's just get a sandwich or something. "or something"? you don't just graduate from medical school,

"or something." and we don't just pull smoked chicken, bake fresh foccacia and hand-slice avocado. there's nothing "or something" about it. the game of baseball has a handful of signature sounds. you hear the crack of the bat. you got the crowd singing in the seventh inning stretch. and you have the voice of vin scully. >> the voice of vin scully. that was president obama honoring hall of fame broadcaster vin scully. he was one of 21 freedom recipients and following the ceremony, chuck todd sat down to

discuss among other things whether anything could top receiving the nation's highest civilian honor. >> short of having a battle ship named after you, what's left? you had every award. which one grabs you that you can't believe? >> this one of course i really can't believe. i won a lot of awards in the business and you know they are there and you might think about i hope i win it and something like that. this one is outer space. this is the biggest and greatest honor the country can give to a civilian. you don't think about getting that at any time. you are right. there is nothing left. >> battle ship? you take that? >> i have a feeling it would not be a good one. >> i don't know. people would be scared of that. >> we are not in los angeles and i'm a fan of vin scully having

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donald trump is the president-elect of the united states. as hard as donald trump is the president-elect of the united states. he did indeed win the most electoral votes in this month's election. some are pushing to take a closer look at the ballots in key states. a small group of scientists and activists are urging hillary clinton to call for a recount in michigan, pennsylvania and wisconsin. three states where the final margins were narrow and where the group says the results may have been hacked. clinton may not have to be the one that mounts the challenge. green party candidate jillstein announced she is raising more than $2 million to have a recount in those states. the deadline is 5:00 p.m. eastern on friday. the final day to call for a recount in wisconsin. the panel is back. thank you for joining me again. do you think that this is a

fruitless venture? >> yes, i do. in the first place, this election is not going to be overturned. so all the machination that's might go into trying to get recounts here and there and everywhere will amount to nothing in my view. >> we in the media and the people of this country, the hillary clinton campaign, we're also asking donald trump, are you going to accept the results and they said we'll accept them if they're clear and they talked at one point about not accepting them until the vote is validated. now cleanse is doing it. >> she's not doing it. now people supporting clinton are doing it. >> i'm really interested in the clinton position. they're not putting out a statement saying please don't do a recount. they're letting it sit out there and waiting to see where it goes. they're totally leaving the door open to talk about it. >> which is troubling. after everything the clinton supporters and the rest over the course of the campaign, as a hypothetical. the other part that is deeply

troubling to me, frustrating, is that now you have all these people coming out and saying, well, the main computer scientist who was featured in gabriel sherman's piece basically says his views were misrepresented. you have all these people coming out sayingering with should do a recount just to be sure. it goes from the premise that this is probably, there's probably something fishy here and we need to be extra sure. that's not the way elections work. >> we've had press denlts for this. nixon in 1960, there were questions. he accepted the result. gore, after the long hassle said let's not challenge it further. clinton should accept the results. >> is this the best use of the democrats' time? trying on get around this election? or do they need on find a way to find support within their own party and within the country, tim ryan wants to take pelosi's

case. >> democrats need new, younger, more compelling candidates and they need a better economic message, just like your guest ryan said. that's where they should be devoting their energy. >> why would they keep someone like pelosi in that role? >> her prowess would not be maxed on day two. >> but is it working considering they continue to lose seats? >> no. something needs on change. she's hinted that she's going to create more space for younger officials to have more say and have more leadership posts. but from the people i've talked to, tim ryan, it is very unlikely he will unseat nancy pelosi. he has about three public supporters. i don't think she's scared that this is going to unseat her. >> how do the democrats find a way to talk to the middle of the country? the rural areas of the country? >> it is very difficult. and i think your question about

generational divide is very unfortunate. this has become a coastal cosmopolitan party that is mainly operating on the premises of 1960s counter cultural liberalism. they're going to have to move past that. and there is a long tradition of working class industrial directed activism on the left. that they would do well to resurrect. and i think at that point you can begin to take the focus off some of these fringe cultural issues. put it back on getting people jobs and then maybe build a sustainable culture. >> i want to ask but your article. paul ryan and donald trump basically, this government waging a war on the poor. give to it me. break it down as quickly as you can. >> i think there are very difficult times coming for the poor. both trump and paul ryan hostile on medicaid, loit's hostile to food stamps, and insurance and

minimum wage. it is not looking good for the poor. >> thank you for joining me. happy thanksgiving. i do hope you'll all go start drinking after this. >> i think probably. >> after the break, pardoning the puns and the politics this thanksgiving. stay tuned.

finally tonight, in case you missed it. the annual turkey pardon ceremony got some laughs today at the white house.

president obama dove into thanksgiving dan jokes as he freed this year's chosen birds. tater and tot. >> we finally turned our attention from polls to poultry. no way i'm cutting this hasn't cold turkey. i want to interrogatory brave turkeys who were not so lucky, who didn't get on tried gravy train to freedom. that's worth gobbling about. >> and yes, it's silly but awkward. this silly but awkward tradition says something about our country. the first bird pardon on the record was in 1863 when abraham lincoln spared a christmas turkey his son had befriended. in 1963 jfk became the first president to make a show of a thanksgiving turkey pardon. the country was never as divided as those two eras and if talking turkey can bring moments of humanity and levity then, there's hope for this divided

nation now. as we all are just one minute away from the political grind. that's all for tonight. happen thanksgiving. with all due respect starts right now. >> with all due respect to president obama and his pun fest today -- >> for the past seven years i've established another tradition. embarrassing my daughters with a corny copeia of dad jokes about turkeys. >> we should all make sure we have something to eat exempt the turkeys. no way i'm cutting this habit cold turkey. >> i know. he is a lame duck. apparently also a lame turkey.