. >> jnining me now, senator jeff merkley. i want to start with the images we're seeing out of the city you're in, portland, there are big street protests tonight. there are street protests all over the country. there were last night. is is s just the second day of the new world in whiche find ourselves. you're eingng? >> these protests are folks sending a message to the president-elect that his attacks on hispanics and blacks and veteransnd virtually everyone at different aspects of society are totally unacceptable and that, quite frankly, as he assumes the mantle of leadership, he needs to assume a maturity that he has not demonstrated in the campaign and eds to demonstrate that his campaign of divisiveness and denigration is done and he's ready to put together policies that will, in fact b focused on makingng america work for workin america. we know how mitch mcconnell and john boehner played their role in the early days of barack obama's presidency. they made s strategic political decision to offer no help to the president

all right, when we come back, we'll speak with senator jeff merkley, member of the senate banking committeeut president-elect trump's picks for treasury and commerce. merkley says mnunchin in particular is a bad choice. find out why, next. and later, trump says he's cutting ties with his company, but it's not all black and white when it comes to his business dealings. we'll break it down when "squawk alley" returns. >>> good morning once again, everybody. i'm sue herera. here's your "cnbc news update" at this hour. thousands of striking workers gathered in seoul, calling for south korean president park geun-hye to resign. the protests come after park offered her conditional resignation on tuesday. massive street rallies calling for her ouster because of corruption charges. >>> iraqi forces continuing their offensive towards mosul, advancing on nearby villages. it's all part of an operation to retake iraq's second largest city from isis militants. >>> a fire erupted last night when a gas pipeline ruptured north of kansas city, missouri. no one was injured, thankfully, and the fire was later

>> yes, it does. >> senator jeff merkley, thank you for your time this morning. >> you're welcome. thank you. >>> next, the woman in charge of obamacare talks about republican roadblocks on the path to repeal. plus, what's new behind the new wave of hate? and intolerance in post election america. i'll talk about that ahead. >>> the trump election has not stopped people from signing up for obamacare. enrollment began earlier this month. and americans are already signing up at a faster pace than last year. more than a million have picked plans, with nearly 250,000 new signups. repealing and replacing obamacare is going to be harder than many on the right thought. including apparently president elect trump. >> are you going to make sure that people with preconditions are still covered? >> yes, because it happens to be one of the strongest assets. >> you're going to keep that? >> also with the children living with their parents for an extended period. >> you're going to keep that? >> we're very much going to try to keep that. >> republicans in congress say repealing obamacare is their

i said this to jeff merkley on my show. said let's say the first two items are numbe one, an infrastructure bill that would provide macro economic stimulus, and democrats say we want to work with you on that. a victory on that builds political capitalor the new president trump. force. w you have, maybe help the economy but given political pital l to someone who is using that political capital to pursue one of the things that you hate and are going to fight against, of those in that senate caucus who are essentialally the last bulwark of democratic party at the federal level. >> and what are the mechanisms that they've got? whwhen sanders and warren talk you saw how fierce elizabeth warren was in expressing how hard she would fight and how uncompromising she would be. bernie sanders said we'll be their worse nightmare. jeff merkley soundedery muchch like the supreme court is somewhere where he will lay his body down in terms of doing the right thing bit supreme court. what are their options? >> a lot of it has to do with the

we want to bring in senator jeff merkley a democrat from oregon. good morning, senator. >> good morning. >> before we get to president-elect agenda and what democrats plan to do about it, just tell me what's happening in portland in your home state there with the protests, and the riots. who are these people? >> well, certainly there have been multiple nights now of thousands of people turning out to send a message to the president that they're very concerned about the type of ideas that he put forward during his campaign, his attack on hispanics, his attack on african-americans, his attack on the handicapped. the list goes on and on. even attack on veterans during his campaign of course today being veterans day. and so it's unfortunate last night that there were a few folks in what is otherwise been a very peaceful protest, who did disrupt it. >> these are not, to your mind, professional protesters, possibly sent by the dnc and reince priebus or donald trump has suggested? >> no. only inside trump's own mind. >> senator let's talk about where demo

senator jeff merkley, appreciate it. thank you. >> thank you. >>> still ahead, how donald trump's narrow victory and supposed blue-wall states came with the helof former obama voters and new evidence that james comey's fbi letter could very well be the reason there is a president-elect donald trump. one of millions of orders on this company's servers. accessible by thousands of suppliers and employees globally. but with cyber threats on the rise, mary's data could be under attack. with the help of at&t, and security that senses and mitigates cyber threats, their critical data is safer than ever. giving them the agility to be open & secure. because no one knows & like at&t. >>> i like donald trump and i just -- it was just time for me to have a change in my life. >> did you vote for barack obama? >> yep. i sure did. >> twice? >> twice. absolutely. >> i voted for obama twice and i didn't vote for him because he was a black man. i voted for him because he had a message of hope and change. i was a democrat until this year. >

. >> in a press release today, senator jeff merkley of oregon called on the president-elect to rescind the bannon appointment. quote, donald trump just invited a white nationalist into the highest reaches of our government. joining me right now is senator merkley, thank you. thank you so much, senator from oregon. what do you think -- do you think there's a chance he could knock this guy off and get get rid of him after he just named him? what dupg he can get done here? >> i think it would be very hard for trump to reverse it immediately. but in this type of position, someone can certainly be sidelined. and as david was speaking of him as the muse, kind of as the spiritual leader to guide president trump, his scathis is stuff and a big mistake by the president. at the same time, he's saying he wants to unite america, pivot from the campaign. he's proceeding to put next -- in the chair next to him, an individual who is a major divider, a major driver of hate speech. and thousands of americans are protesting rht now in cities across america, because of that hate speech, the attacks on hi

oregon senator jeff merkley: >> we call on president-elect trump to exclude the propoants of discrimination and hatred from the ranks of his administration, and that includes immediately firing steve bannon as his chief strategist. >> reporter: but house speaker paul ryan said mr. trump has the right to choose his ownm repeatedly refused to criticize bannon. >> this is a person who helped him win an incredible victory in an incredible campaign. >> reporter: he and his g.o.p. colleagues are uniting around mr. trump, some even donned "make america great again" hats at their weekly meetings. louisiana's steve scalise. >> inside the tag you see, "made in the u.s.a." there are going to be a lot more things made in the u.s.a. when this new administration comes in. >> reporter: privately, some republicans expressing concerns but they are wary of getting cross-wise with the new president-elect, especially, scott, because this is just one of thousands of hires he's going to be making across the government. >> pelley: nancy cordes on capitol hill. nancy, thank you. well, another one of those hires is

earlier this year, bannon said he wanted breitbart to be the oregon senator jeff merkley: >> we call on president-elect trump to exclude the proponents of discrimination and hatred from the ranks of his administration, and that includes immediately firing steve bannon as his chief strategist. >> reporter: but house speaker paul ryan said mr. trump has the right to choose his own team and repeatedly refused to criticize bannon. >> this is a person who helped him win an incredible victory in an incredible campaign. >> reporter: he and his g.o.p. colleagues are uniting around mr. trump, some even donned "make america great again" hats at their weekly meetings. louisiana's steve scalise. >> inside the tag you see, "made in the u.s.a." there are going to be a lot more things made in the u.s.a. when this new administration comes in. >> reporter: privately, some republicans expressing concerns about bannon's high-level role, but they are wary of getting cross-wise with the new president-elect, especially, scott, because this is just one of thousands of hires he's going >> pelley: nancy cord

this is what jeff merkley said, the democrat from oregon, just a few moments ago. >> we called on president-elect trump to exclude the proponents of hatred from the ranks of his administration and that includes immediately firing steve bannon as his chief strategist it's time for president-elect trump to act boldly and powerfully to put the nation on a path of healing. >> pa>> reporter: part of this responding to the hurt that's out there. senate democrats don't believe donald trump will follow their advice in terms of who he hires or not but this is just the beginning volley of what is sure to be a long-running conversation between the democrats and who he puts in his cabinet. but interestingly how harry reid is differing from most other democrats, he's preparing to take his leave after being up here on capitol hill for so long, brooke. i'm told his speech won't hold back at all. >> i bet it won't and we'll take it live. jeff zeleny, thank you on the hill for us. >>> coming up, donald trump as compromiser in chief? my next guest, cnn's very own michael smerconish will explain why he thinks the n

>> i want to bring in democratic senator jeff merkley of oregon. senator, you are among a group of democratic senators who held a news conference yesterday calling on president-elect trump to drop steven bannon. why? >> oh, absolutely. to fire him. the faster the better. this individual shouldn't be within 100 miles of the oval office. his website, breitbart, has been a source of hatred and division, attacks on hispanics, african-americans, lgbt community, the list goes on and on. we all hope that the type of rhetoric and attacks that donald trump entertained in the campaign would be things that he would put behind him as he assumes the mantle of leadership, but to bring this white nationalist with a specialist in the trade of hate into the oval office is an enormous mistake and we all need to speak out and say it's unacceptable here when we celebrate opportunity and freedom for all. >> senator, i want to play devil's advocate for a minute. we've said many of those things throughout the campaign and donald trump won and he won with steven bannon by

senator warren, senator sanders, senator sherrod brown, jeff merkley. i think you also have the ability to hold hearings on things that matter to the american people. bernie sanders asked the department of justice to hold hearings on drug companies collusion. i think you have interesting new progressives in the house who will lead initiatives and in washington state, jamie rasken in maryland, and i think the court becomes vital. i know there's now obstructionism and the republicans vowing they will not permit a vote on a supreme court nominee. i think it's un-american, unconstitutional. trumpism isn't going away. the fact this election is so close forces us to do some soul searching and i think that the fact that -- i think hillary clinton and the democrats need to speak to the white working class in this country. they need to put forward proposals, debt-free higher education, new noncorporate trade policy. all kinds of things that would pull together the obama coalition, which i think will be a defining one, especially hispanics in this election cycle,