. >> is mark preston there? >> reporter: no, mark rest seas preston is not here. >> i was talking to our producers. mark, when you and i did this in the primary, weren't there nine voters in dixville notch? did they lose a voter? >> you're testing me. i don't remember what happened 90 minutes ago in this campaign. >> reporter: they did lose a voter. >> rachel answered. >> reporter: one of them moved away. >> oh, no. it's dwindling. >> reporter: i know. numbers dwindling. they went from nine to seven. but luckily they got an eighth at the last minute. >> that's the panel here. that's my political panel who is laughing here. bakari sellers, cory ley lewandows lewandowski, margaret hoover, and hillary rosen is here, and they're laughing because he moved away, he or she. dixville notch just eight voters now. >> reporter: i have to point out that dixville notch is very remote. >> hold on. >> reporter: this is a very remote area. >> rachel, stand by. what were you saying hillary? >> i was saying this does feel like a m

flash forward to the news now just broken by mark preston.k preston jump in, because you have broken this news that that same person who called him a fake and phony will be meeting with him this weekend. >> he will, brooke, and mitt romney and donald trump will meet face to face, they've spoken over the phone, they had a cordial conversation after the election. mitt romney called to congratulate him. it is stunning when you have somebody who's been so critical of donald trump being brought in and potentially being discussed as a cabinet secretary. we expect that will be on the table. in the very least, we think trump and romney will talk about potentially being an outside advisor if he chooses not to accept an offer if one is a lot of people will be surprised by this. but it says the two men are putting aside their differences and that donald trump is opening up the circumstance that will's been very closed. we've seen nikki haley with mitt romney. these were enemies of donald trump and for mitt romney to go in and have this discussion with d

mark preston, you want to jump into the conversation.e news that mitt romney would be meeting with donald trump over the weekend. you heard senator sessions say it's good. he is quite capable of doing several jobs. what do you think, mark? >> brooke, i hung on that as well, which is interesting because they're talking about positions that are interesting that also jeff sessions could potentially do. jeff sessions himself has been mentioned potentially as a secretary of state candidate. we'll see if he is really in the mix for that. but it is this game of dominos. and they fall all in line. if mitt romney were to go into the secretary of state job, if that's what donald trump offers him or has a very serious discussion with him this weekend about, you have to wonder where does everybody else go? does jeff sessions go to the department of defense or he's been mentioned or potentially to the department of justice where he has a background in? what about rudy giuliani who seemed to be openly asking to become the secretary of state or be appo

first let's get to mark preston. tell us the latest. >> it's official now.we have been reporting this morning, the three appointments, three nominations have been made. it's been officially done. let me tell you what donald trump has said about these three gentlemen very quickly. on jeff sessions, he describes jeff, he says jeff has been a highly respected member of the u.s. senate for 20 years, he's a world class legal mind and considered a truly great attorney general and u.s. attorney in the state of alabama. jeff is greatly admired by legal scholars in virtually everyone who knows him. in regards to michael flynn, he said i'm pleased that lieutenant general michael flynn will be by my side as we work to defeat radical islamic terrorism, navigate geopolitical challenges and keep america safe. as for mike pompeo, he will be a brilliant unrelnting leader for our intelligence community to assure the safety of america and our allies. yesterday we were wondering when names would be put to paper and we are seeing that this morning. >> let's continue our discuss

let's get to dana bash and mark preston.d evening to you, this is it, dana, the superstars of the republican party, not to mention bruce springsteen out tonight for hillary clinton. let's listen to how they made the case for her presidency. ♪ this is a man whose vision is limited to little beyond himself ♪ ♪ who has the profound lack of decency that would allow him to prioritize his own interests ♪ and ego before american democracy itself. >> we're stronger together. and i have watched in this campaign as our candidate lived a campaign as she has lived her life, dedicated to making changes for other people. >> we are one day away from once again making history. tomorrow we have the chance to elect someone who is singularly qualified to be our president, our friend hillary clinton. >> you voted in great numbers to demonstrate conclusively once and for all that, yes, love trumps hate. let's get out and vote tomorrow philadelphia. let's make history together. thank you, and god bless you. >> i'm going to get to president barack

mark preston. mark, good evening to you. overall, what do early-voting numbers tell us?> don, you know, the

let's get to dana bash and mark preston.what message is she trying to send tonight to try to get out from under this e-mail problem? >> don't forget what really matters here, which is you're really choosing between not just me as one of my friends who used to work in politics for a long time used to say, none of the above is not on the ballot. it's a choice between her and donald trump, and in that choice, that she's telling voters it should be her and not donald trump. but you know showing florida, going back to what mark preston was showing with the early voting and issues the clinton campaign is having reforming, rebuilding that obama coalition, i've heard from democrats really all day today and yesterday as i've been doing some reporting they've very concerned about states like florida, because of that coalition falling short, particularly when it comes to the african-american vote. concern that democratic -- that clinton campaign rather has not done enough to reach out in the african-american communities the way they sh

i guess the big question is could we be surprised, mark preston? polling all coming in, hillary clinton was on top in all of them. the one thing we've learned this year, the polls can be very wrong. >> they could be wrong. it's going to be a late night. it's not going to be an early night. donald trump has a very difficult path. not an insurmountable path to winning the presidency. >> i mean, the idea that he would win michigan would be such an amazing surprise. >> right. >> just not only because he hasn't spent a lot of time there, he has not invested in the ground game there, and you have president obama going out there over the last couple of days making sure that that african-american turnout, you know, comes out for hillary clinton. so i think that would be very surprising. >> what are you watching for? >> the debate tomorrow within the republican party will be fascinating to watch and completely conkerri walsh jennings -- consequential. particularly if donald trump loses. do the conservatives say we need to fight for our ideals or say we need

. >> i have with me mark preston, political commentator s.e. cupp, reid wilson is here and chief political analyst gloria borger. s.e, my twin in purple on this day after election, let me begin with you. steve bannon talked about he thinks it was people's desire for change. >> and specifically not the kind you hear on cable news. because in polite circles -- and i think that cable news is still somewhat a polite circle -- you don't openly court white nationalist voters. so in identifying the kind of change maybe other people were embarrassed to acknowledge, maybe a little bit in denial about, in putting that front and center and i think kirsten powers noted this in an earlier segment. a nostalgia factor who a certain group of people who want to restore what they had and think the people around them the reason they don't have it anymore. he's absolutely right that they were willing to have that conversation, they were willing to acknowledge that kind of change that people like us kind of refuse think could win him the election. >> but wasn't thi

mark preston, lynn sweet, susan page, thanks so much.till to come in the "newsroom" the democrats forced to confront an uncertain future after a bruising loss in the race for the white house. where does the party go from here? and who should lead the democratic party? [burke] at farmers, we've seen almost everything, so we know how to cover almost anything. even a rodent ride-along. [dad] alright, buddy, don't forget anything! [kid] i won't, dad... [captain rod] happy tuesday morning! captain rod here. it's pretty hairy out on the interstate.traffic is literally crawling, but there is some movement on the eastside overpass. getting word of another collision. [burke] it happened. december 14th, 2015. and we covered it. talk to farmers. we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ ...and the reason the toughimes times are easier. because she's your best friend... and your true love. presenting the ever us two-stone diamond collection... new rings, necklaces, earrings and bracelet

our cnn politics executive editor mark preston is here. our chief political correspondent dana bash. the renewed confidence that the president has that donald trump has a commitment to a smooth transition. both of these men are very upbeat, very positive. they've been saying all the right things since donald trump stunned all of us, stunned the world, by win beining the presidency. >> i think they're both grasping the moment in history this is. the fact that two men sit together who don't like each other is not new. i was communicating with mike duffy who is a friend of mine and co-author of the book "the president's club." and he was pointing out to me this is sort of the quintessential club moment here. because truman didn't like ike. help help he helped him anyway. ike eisenhower didn't like jfk, welcomed him into the white house. lbj didn't like richard nixon much and did the same thing. each of these men understands, once you've been a president, you're initiated into the club, that it is your time to help the next person who's going

telling our mark preston that the president-elect likes kelly's views on border security.e's the former base of u.s. southern command. if he ends up in the cabinet that would make three retired jens. james mato is the leading pick and mike flynn will be adviser. he does not require senate confirmation. >>> a tour will focus on key battleground states that helped propel trump to victory. vice president-elect pence expected to join him in ohio. >>> green party candidate jill stein has paid a $3.5 million fee for a recount in wisconsin. a judge has rejected her demand that all wisconsin counties do the recount by hand. the judge ruled there's not enough evidence of fraud or abuse. stein says she plans to raise $2.3 million because of excessive fee charged with wisconsin election officials. >> new details in the deadly plane crash in colombia. investigators say there was very little fire in the damage. that's why there were a few survivors. could it be the plane simply ran out of fuel? >>> all right. we've got breaking news for you out of alabama. you can see the pictures just

mark preston. mark, good evening to you. overall, what do early-voting numbers tell us? >> don, you know, the road to 270 electoral votes. 24.4 million people have voted in 38 states. if you look at this right here, 12.4 million of them in the 12 battleground states that cnn has identified. when we look at the specific state of north carolina, let's just zero in on that. 1.6 million people, a little bit more than that have already cast their ballots but let's look at the party break down. who's doing well, right there democrats are doing well. they clearly outpacing republicans when it comes to early vote and we have this sizeable independent vote down here, or folks who are with other political parties. look at where democrats were in 2012. they had a much-bigger lead if you look at that right now. they're about 291,000 votes back in 2012. they are downright now to about 220,000 votes in the state. so, obviously a state that's been heavily contested. hillary clinton wants to win, donald trump does, too. early vote is very important. >> break it down for us. what do you

. >> mark preston and dana bash here. mark, new reporting tonight on donald trump delivering his campaign promises and also on what happened at trump tower. >> let's start indiana. first, donald trump made a big deal about keeping manufacturing jobs here in the united states. it's something that helped have him win. we saw it from united technologies today which is the parent company of carrier. they put out a tweet that said we are pleased to have reached with the president elect donald trump and mike pence to keep close to 1,000 jobs in indiana. there were 14 00 jobs on the block in indianapolis. another 700 in a town nearby. carrier, about a year ago said they were going to move the jobs and shut the plants down. but we're seeing right now that at least 1,000 of those jobs are going to stay. >> you said it's close to 1,000? >> i'm sorry. close to 1,000 j but there are 2100 jobs that were on the line. we still don't know what the deal is, and we don't know what's going to happen to those other jobs, but we do know that u

let's go to cnn political analyst, mark preston, and mark, first, early voting is taking place in 38 states. what's the take away? >> don, so far we're seeing 31 million people have actually cast ballots in those 38 states but there's two states we want to watch tonight, and certainly talk about given so much interest in them. let look at the state of florida, first of all. if you look at the party first of all to see who is ahead when it comes to return ballots. right now it's the republicans. they have a 16,000 ballot edge right now but what's significant about that is back in 2012, democrats were ahead at this same point. they had a 73,000 ballot edge, so republicans have turned that around. let's dig a little bit deeper and look at those who have proposed ballots early. let's specifically look at the african-american vote as well as hispanic voters. if you look at that right now, the fact of the matter is that you have african-american voters down as far as their participation right now in early voting. at the same time, hispanic voters is up. now, this is data that is accide bei

let's go to cnn political analyst, mark preston, and mark, first, early voting is taking place in 38t's the take away? >> don, so far we're seeing 31 million people have actually cast ballots in those 38 states but there's two states we want to watch tonight, and certainly talk about given so much interest in them. let look at the state of florida, first of all. if you look at th

washington bureau chief for the daily beach jackie susan itch and cnn politics executive editor mark preston. mark broke the news yesterday about trump's meeting with mitt romney. i've been watching you work your phone during the commercial break. what do you think of senator jeff sessions here? >> you know, not unexpected. jeff sessions has, you know, a long career here in washington. he also served as the attorney general out of alabama and most importantly, i think, he brings a lot of loyalty to the mix that donald trump seems to be looking at right now which we all know is very, very important. he's been with donald trump since the very beginning. the first senator to endorse him. but he also has a lot of experience when it comes to working on the senate judiciary committee. and, of course, his experience in state law, as well. so not a surprising pick at all, alisyn. >> guys, i should tell you just as we were doing this, reuters reported mike pompeo will be announced as the cia director this morning. or that donald trump has selected him, saying language we don't know if it was official

let's bring in cnn politics executive eder mark preston at the cnn decision desk. u're focusing in on two battleground states. florida and north carolina. what are you seeing in those states? >> wolf, as you said. six days to election day. more than 24 million people have actually voted across the country. but the two key states we want to really focus in on are states that are the key to the road to 270. look at north carolina right now. let's look at the breakdown here. you have democrats at this point have a 219,000 vote advantage over republicans in return ballots. sounds like it's good news. except when you look where they were in 2012. they had a 292,000 vote advantage at that time. so clearly a bit of a drop-off from four years ago. why is that? as you can see from these numbers right here, wolf. right here you have the african-american drop-off vote right here. as well as just a little bit of an uptick of the hispanic vote, but this is troublesome. barack obama will be in north carolina today to try to rally those voters. let us go to the state of florida ri

>> all right, mark preston, thank you so much. higher ♪ higher ♪ higher ♪ higher ♪ [ cheers and applause ] >> are you ready? are you ready? here we go. it doesn't need superstitious, your vote does matter. go out and hammer your business, all right? let's hit it. are you all ready? ♪ ♪ ♪ very superstitious ♪ writing's on the wall ♪ very superstitious ♪ about to fall ♪ ♪ ♪ if you believe in things that you don't understand ♪ >> mr. superstitious himself, mr. stevie wonder. he is just good, isn't he? ahead of the president of the united states in the important state of florida for hillary clinton. we'll dip into that and also donald trump. he will be on the stage moments away making a play in the blue state of minnesota. this is a huge, huge day. this is cnn's special live coverage. we'll be right back. our businesy when growth presents itself? american express open cards can help you take on a new job, or fill a big order or expand your office and take on whatever comes next. find out how american express cards and services can hel

dana bash and mark preston back with me now. pb barack oba president barack obama was campaigning hard for hillary clinton today. take a listen. >> keep in mind, north carolina, all the progress we've made for the last eight years, all the progress we hope to make over the next eight years, all of that goes out the window if we don't win this election. and we don't win this elect potentially, if we don't win north carolina. so i hate to put a little pressure on you, but the fate of the republic rests on your shoulders. the fate of the world is teetering and you, north carolina, are going to it about doing that not just on the stumps he made plainly clear of the fact the african-american vote in the key states like north carolina, florida, too, is down. now, is expected to be down, with barack obama not on the ticket, it was extraordinarily high when the african-american community was voting for at first the first black president and then to reelect him, that's understandable and the hillary clinton people argue that she has a di

mark preston, what do you think of this? >> well, if you're donald trump those are good numbers given the fact we thought his campaign was all but over a week ago then the e-mail scandal, the comey reopening of the investigation came to light. when you're donald trump and you are that close in arizona that is concerning but at least he is up five. in florida he is virtually tied. in north carolina right now, which we know that president barack obama is going to be there shortly as well as friday another must win state know know the african-american vote is not as high as it was in the early absentees four years ago and also down in florida, too, we're seeing a decrease of 3.2% of the african-american vote. in pennsylvania the fact is he's within four right now so donald trump still has a very tough road to get to 270 or cross the threshold but he's in a better position today than a week ago. >> that, thank you so much. i want to parse these numbers and have a bigger conversation with cnn political analyst gloria borger, ed o

now i want to turn to mark preston and david swerdlick, everybody in formation swearing pant suits. ns. mark, you first. this big concert, and beyonce, huge, and clinton will be campaigning with lebron james on sunday. do you think these megaevents translate into votes? >> yeah, certainly they do, not because people come to see beyonce, but because people get to see beyonce and they get cajoled by the hillary clinton staffers who are there who try to get you to the polls and ensure that you're voting either early or you're going to plan on being there on election day. they collect your names and your e-mail address, your telephone number. they try to do anything they can to try to get you to get to the polls. and you pointed out lebron james will be with her on sunday. but that's just not it. they are going all in. they have katy perry in philadelphia tomorrow with hillary clinton. tonight, stevie wonder was in philadelphia for get out the vote really. john bon jovi is in north carolina and florida this weekend. james taylor we saw earlier this week with president obama. we saw farre

cnn politics executive editor mark preston is with us from the cnn decision desk. we'll start with with mark before we go to my other voices. you have some new early voting numbers, mark. what do you have? >> brooke, the last time we talked it was about 24.4 million people voted early. look where we are now. new data that just came in in the last hour, 31 million people have cast ballots in 38 states. but i want to look at four different states right now. two in the midwest. two out west. let's look at iowa right now. almost 499,000, 500,000 people have cast their votes in iowa. let's dig deeper. we look at 2016 and right now documents have a 41,000-vote edge. but if you go back to 2012, they had a 60,000 ballot edge in return ballots so not necessarily good news for democrats in the state of iowa, public polling shows donald trump is leading in that state. let's stay in the midwest and go to ohio. 1.3 million people right now have cast early ballots in the state of ohio. let's go deeper. 2016 right now and if you look, 65, 800 ballot advantage for the republicans.

mark preston is cnn's politics executive editor. by phillip is a reporter for "the washington post." jeff zeleny is senior cnn washington correspondent. let's talk about the breaking news, mark, you just literally got this information, first on cnn. tell viewers. >> we've seen a lot people going inside and out trump tower with these meetings. we now have learned this weekend donald trump is going to sit down with mitt romney, have a discussion. they're going to talk about governing and how to govern in the new trump administration. i'm also told there could be a discussion about mitt romney potentially joining the trump cabinet. >> wow. >> yeah, which would be amazing given the fact -- >> given the history. >> certainly have not been close allies to say the least. they wouldn't specify what exactly the role could be beffo mitt romney. so we'll see how those discussions go. >> meetings will take place in new york or new jersey because i know trump is going to new jersey at some point. >> right, so the person i spoke with that knew of

>> mark preston? >> i agree.t that the democrats did -- were unable to speak or just did not speak to middle america. we've heard anyway from joe biden and bernie sanders. to his point he is glossing over the fact he has made some very controversial statements and aligned himself with very controversial focus and that is why there is so much opposition to steve bannon in such a high position in the white house. >> and challenge for the trump team at this point is that this narrative is really taking hold. that steve bannon is a white nationalist. that the trump campaign, the trump team believes these things. they need to push back and maybe show symbolically appoint someone to the cabinet. do something to change the narrative because i'm not seeing that right now. >> it is not just narrative. there are very significant personnel choices as we've been talk about a for the last couple hours with people who have a track record that give people reason to be concerned. >> stick around. don't goo tofr away. just had th

mark preston, thanks. with me to talk about this and more, rebecca berg, national political reporter for real clear politics, and lynn sweet, washington bureau chief of the chicago sun times. welcome to both of you. >> good morning. >> so the big jobs report came out this morning around 8:30. it's the last jobs report before the election. it said that 161,000 jobs were created. unemployment rate edged lower while wages ticked higher. our chief business correspondent christine romans says we are seeing solid jobs growth even as many americans say the country is on the wrong track and donald trump just put out a press release about this jobs report and he calls it disastrous. well, it's really not disastrous, lynn. >> it is not. >> it is not disastrous. the economy continues to grow, right? >> it does, and one of the big benchmarks of the 2012 campaign was on the first friday of every month in the mitt romney/barack obama campaign, you remember, was this jobs report. it was a big deal to get below 8%. today

let's discuss with our political experts, mark preston, first to you. a big win for donald trump because, throughout the campaign he said, trust me. if i become president of the united states, these jobs in indiana at carrier, they will stay put, they will not be moved to mexico or any place else. and he delivered already. >> he certainly has delivered. and i do think, for all the negative things we have said about the trump campaign or have focused in on their miscues, this is a victory for them. the question is, the carrier statement says it will be a little more than over 1,000 jobs saved. there were two plants in indiana that were going to be shut down. it's unclear what will happen to the other plant, and perhaps the other thousand or so workers, what's going to happen to those jobs. but the fact of the matter is, a thousand jobs were preserved. i think mike pence certainly had a lot to do with it. a lot of this had to do with state incentives in order to keep carrier there. at the end of the statement, though, wolf, carrier says themselves that th

mattea gold, and execive eder mark preston and senior reporter, nia-malika harrison, and alison kosik is standing by. first to you, alison. both candidates making hypothetical proposals on the affordable care act, obama care, but whose proposal looks like a better fit for the overall u.s. economy and for american consumers? >> what strikes me, wolf. en you listen to donald trump saying i'll hold a special session and we're going to repeal and replace obama care. yes. easier sthaend done. think about how the affordable care act was passed in the first place pap highly partisan, highly, you know, highly partisan law that passed. good luck getting it done again. you know, there's a recent report from the rand corporation, a non-partisan corporation, and it's actually trying to put numbers on the impact of each candidate's proposal. specifically how these proposals will impact the federal deficit. look at the deficit, rand says trump's plan would actually increase the deficit by almost $6 billion because it looks to provide a tax deduction and allows insurance carriers to sell across stat

here to break down each candidate's path to that goal is mark preston, executive editor for cnn politics, mark. >> good morning, carol. no doubt -- >> -- has the -- changed? >> a week leapt befoft before t election and they both have different paths. if you look at this map, donald trump has a difficult map right now, carol. not only does he have to win the eight battleground states we have identified, but he needs to go on and win also a blue state. so interesting to see that he is in pennsylvania today with mike pence doing an obamacare speech in the king of prussia, one of the suburbs of philadelphia. that would be one of the states donald trump has to win in order to get to that 270 threshold. >> i was talking to larry sabatto and he said the race has tightened up and it's because the fbi director. >> i think so, yeah. we're starting to see now, we'll have more data over the next day or so, carol, where we will actually likely see some tightening up. specifically in some battleground states where you had people on the edges. they weren't necessarily enamored by trump and they weren't

let's bring back our panel, mark preston, david gregory. this is new. this is not something that we see as common practice, but kind of an intriguing idea. it's always good to be able to circle back to the people who brought you there. >> look, this is a president-elect who has achieved and wants more of direct contact with his supporters. and he, obviously, likes all of the imagery around being at a big rally and having people yelling and screaming for him as a contrast to the kind of scrutiny he's going to get on the cable news and newspapers and else where. he can create it and this is what got him here. and i think it allows him to work his material, too. to work a populous, economic message and to campaign directly. it's kind of old-fashioned in that sense and the permanent campaign that trump tends to wage, as well. >> not only the imagery, david and mark, he does like the personal touch. he likes the roar of the crowd and he likes the one on one with people. what do you think his tone will be? marx, back to campaign donald trump or kinder, gentle

. >> david gregory, john berman in washington, mark preston and maeve reston. to have all of you. david, obviously, those are the issues that this hinged on. those are the defining issues. immigration, the promise of manufacturing again. i mean, has manufacturing completely dried up in the u.s.? in other words, is this one of these brexit moments where the people feel as though we need lots more manufacturing jobs, but it might not be possible for that to actually happen? >> well, but again, i think that this entire election cycle, going back to the primaries, was a lot more about idealism, it was not about pragmatism. when donald trump says let's make america great again. there are a lot of people who said, yeah, right on. i want to find my way back into the economy. all of these talk about republican can't win the white house on immigration reform, apparently, that's not true. some of his excess talk, just like politics promise nice things, people say i don't believe those politicians. i think there are a lot of people say i don't think this stuff is extreme.

mark preston, and the important part, those battleground states. we're seeing the race tighten nationally in the poll of polls, has hillary clinton leading by five points but we also have some new information from here's what's important, some key battleground states. what do you see in those numbers, mark? >> a couple things. out west, nevada, up six, and up five in arizona, good numbers for him at this time, certainly as we see hillary clinton contesting arizona at this point, but donald trump seems to have a little bit of a cushion there and then if you look over at nevada right now, where they are battling for it, because we talked earlier in the past hour, we're going to see bill clinton tomorrow. if you come to the east now, hillary clinton only has a four-point lead in pennsylvania, that's going to be a little bit concerning at this point, and if you head down into florida it's basically tied. now one more thing about these polls, is that in the states specifically florida, nevada, donald trump voters are more enthusiastic about their candid

let's get right to cnn politics executive editor mark preston at our decision desk. while we don't have exact vote totals, what can we discern from the numbers about what's happening in these important battleground states such as florida or arizona or north carolina, where there is early voting? >> well, jake, in 38 states right now, as you said, 24.4 million people have already voted, as you can see. let's look exactly at the state of florida, which you brought up. more people have voted in florida than any other state so far this year. 3.6 million people have voted. let's dig into the numbers. if you look right here, republicans have a slight edge. normally this would not be good news for republicans, who tend to have a higher edge when it comes to absentee voting. however, let's look at these numbers compared to 2008. as you see right here, the edge right now is that democrats had a higher propensity of people coming out. so they're actually about three percentage points now behind where they were. they need to get that number up over the next few days. let's look

back with me now, dana bash and mark preston back with me now. president barack obama was campaigning hard for hillary clinton today. take a listen. >> keep in mind, north carolina, all the progress we've made for the last eight years, all the progress we hope to make over the next eight years, all of that goes out the window if we don't win this election. and we don't win this election potentially, if we don't win north carolina. so i hate to put a little pressure on you, but the fate of the republic rests on your shoulders. the fate of the world is teetering, and you, north carolina, are going to have to make sure that we push it in the right direction. >> so dana, the fate of the world is teetering on north carolina. i was watching going oh, that's no pressure for north carolinians. he knows his leggy is on the line here. >> not too much hyperbole. you are exactly right. it is about his legacy and he's making it extraordinarily personal. we saw him do it a few weeks back when he was speaking for the first time to the congressional black caucus

"outfront" david gergen, mark preston, dana bash. kayleigh mcenany. bakari sellers. paris stenar the and george cord anyway. thanks all for being with me. obviously at this point the electoral, that is over. but that is still a victory for her to be able to say she has new hampshire. >> right. >> for her supporters. i heard a yes -- >> she lost though. the bottom line is she's lost twice and she's got nowhere to go from this. to maria's point though they did pick up a senate seat in new hampshire which is critical. democrats are going to do have a lot of trouble in congress going into 2018 where the odds are stacked against them. no matter what happens in the trump presidency in the next couple of years, democrats have an uphill battle but the fact of the matter she wasn't able to excite her base in key states. so. >> and we're going to talk much more with a definitive electoral college win. the popular vote right now still indicating that she'll have that. that split we've only seen once this century with al gore. dow futures plunging last night. traders outside of

mark preston, many thanks. focus in on exactly why voter enthusiasm may be down among african-americans. with me now rebecca berg a national political reporter for realclear politics. jason johnson, and political science professor and sirius xm contributor and andy smith director of university of new hampshire survey center. welcome to call of you. >> good morning. >> good morning. >> so jason let's zero in on north carolina, shall we? the naacp in north carolina filed a lawsuit monday over black voter suppression. a federal appeals court accused republicans of an almost surgical assault on black turnout. according to "the new york times," black voters had only one polling place to cast a ballot in gill ford, county, north carolina. in 2012 there were 16 locations. so is mr. trump right, is the election rigged? >> yeah. donald trump is right. it's rigged in favor of republicans in certain states. you have a clearly racially targeted plan of voter suppression going on in north carolina. going on in ohio. and goi

american progress and served as the policy director for hillary clinton's 2008 presidential campaign mark preston here as well, our executive editor for politics. all, thank you so much. mark, what is donald trump doing here? he won the election. reminder. >> yeah, the $64,000 question. you know a lot of republicans here in town are wondering that as well. you know, there had been a little bit of a bumpy start, kate, as we know to his transition or at least that's what the perception was in the media, and then you started to see some names that were rolling in that started -- republicans here, potentially james mattis as defense secretary, mitt romney potentially as secretary of state nkand of course has gotten a little bit bumpy in the last couple days. i'll tell you this, kate, hees pl he's playing from a position of weakness now, not of power. he's had all the leaders the past couple weeks calling him on the telephone to give him praise and congratulate him on his win. he even had the japanese prime minister alter his schedule and come to new york to see him then you see him tweeting about thi

mark preston joins us now with those numbers. now, four days away from the election, mark, millions of votes have already been cast. what do we know about how it breaks down? >> anderson, we know so far, right now, that more than 31 million people or nearly 31 million people have actually cast their ballots in 38 different states across the country. you were just talking about north carolina, from president obama is today. let's take a look at that state right now. a little more than 2 million people have cast ballots in that state since early balloting has started. but who has the lead right now? well, if you look at these numbers right here, democrats have a clear lead in the early ballot return, by about 243,000 ballots. that's not all good news, because if you go back to 2012, their lead at this same time, anderson, was 307,000 ballots returned. and as robby mook had just said right there, democrats really do rely on the early vote to help win elections. let's go into the racial demographics of who has returned ballot so far a

cnn's politics executive editor mark preston has been digesting the numbers for us this morning. he's here to show us mark. >> good morning, carol. this is where we began the night last night. hillary clinton you thought about 268 electoral votes going into the first poll closings at 6:00. donald trump only 204. he had a very, very, very narrow path to victory. so where did we end up? well, he got right through that path clearly. right now he stands at 289 electoral votes. so how does he do that? well, first of all, he won this battleground state right here, florida. he won the battleground state of north carolina. he won the battleground state of ohio. and in addition to that, he put a fracture in the blue wall right up in here in pennsylvania, and then up here in wisconsin, and as you can see right now, we are still waiting to see what happens here, and what happens here in minnesota, and in michigan. carol, at this point, they're still counting votes, trying to figure out who will win those states. as you talk about the popular vote, let's see where we stand right now. if you s

mark preston, maeve reston, nia-malika henderson, david gergen, kayleigh mcenany, dan pfeiffer, former advisor to president obama, jeffrey lord, donald trump supporter, angela rye, a clinton supporter. thanks to all. let's start with this issue david, of the states. you hear david talk about what he's looking at. michigan. colorado on there as a battleground state. >> and the tossup states, if you look at the cnn map, you give hillary the solid states and ones that lean democratic and give trump the ones that lean red and solid republican, she only has to win one of the tossup a states. he has to win all five. otherwise if he does not he has to pry away the michigan or the colorado and that becomes a tougher fight. >> and nia, he was on this morning on fox news talking about the state he is thought he could win. obviously he's going to be robust. >> yes, very generous to himself. here he is -- oops, sorry. [ laughter ] let's play what he had to say. >> i think we're going to win iowa and ohio and new hampshire. we're going to win a lot of states. i think one that's going to be interest

. >> it's unusual, mark preston, for something like this to come out a few days before an election. >is is an unusual campaign at best. we talk about the october surprise. there are multiple october surprises. when we look back at this election it will be hard to pinpoint the one that actually helped either candidate win. this is surprising in the timing and the clinton campaign has fired back, showing their surprise, saying that, if there isn't a deadline, why are you releasing it now? oh, and by the way, why aren't we seeing more requests being released about donald trump and specifically his father. there is a big discrimination case in the '70s about that. we'll leave it up to the voters to decide what they think about it but the timing is surprising. >> a little bit surprising indeed. >>> david axelrod, early voting certainly plays into all of this. now we're told more than 24 million americans have already voted. still a week to go. there will be more early voting. how important is early voting specifically to the democrats' campaign strategy? >> well, first, wolf, let me say to

mark preston, first you.t know the details, how donald trump intends to separate himself from the business and if he will as much as promised in the tweets. that does matter. this is something to an extent that has begun to hang over him during this transition period. >> and hung over him during the campaign. people brought this up, but it was brushed aside. the laws are vague anyway about what could actually be enforced if donald trump did try to continue to run his businesses. no matter what legal documents he signs, no matter what he pledges to do, the bottom line is he's going to be sitting at the dinner table with his kids, clearly having discussions about business. this has been their entire life. i don't know if it's a conflict they get beyond. you would hope donald trump would do his best to try to keep a clear line of demarcation between both of them. >> involves emoluments. >> doesn't it all? >> came up, we were sitting together. this came up. the other night. which is fascinating in and of itself.

mark preston reporting live from washington. thanks so much. all right. so we also know that trump has picked for the u.s. attorney general senator jeff sessions. we're going to get to evan perez in just -- evan perez is here to talk more about that. good morning, evan. >> good morning, carol. one of the picks that donald trump has made is for jeff sessions as attorney general. he's right now he's a senator from alabama. he's a former u.s. attorney so he does have a history inside the justice department. one of the more interesting things about picking sessions is that just a few months ago here on the air on cnn, he was calling for a more thorough investigation of the clinton foundation. so now he's going to be in a position, if he's confirmed as attorney general, he's going to be in a position, to do something about that. as you remember that was a big part of the campaign, certainly for donald trump, claiming that the clinton foundation was part of a corrupt system, part of the way hillary clinton was corrupting the state department. obviously that is

mark preston is "outfront" at the cnn decision desk. , major surge so far in terms of latinos voting. >> yeah new york dou, no doubt,. 30 million people in 39 states already cast their ballots before election day tomorrow. they've already put their two cents into the race. but let's look at the state of florida when we're talking about the all-important latino vote. right now, more than 6.4 million, nearly 6.5 million people cast their early ballots in florida. how did that break down? look right here, democrats have a 2% edge on the early vote. if you go back to 2008, erin, they had a 4% lead and of course that's a little bit troubling to democrats because as you said, the early vote could decide the election. specifically for democrats. but let's look at the racial demographics of who actually participated in the early vote. if you look at 2016 to 2008, you're seeing an increase right now of 1 million more white voters voting from 2008 to 2016. african-american voters, about 90,000 more people, but this is the number right here we're a

let's get the bottom line with cnn politics executive editor mark preston. is follows on the footsteps of at least half a dozen tweets that mr. trump sent out last evening about cnn and how frustrated he is with cnn, that we are not believing his false claims that there was vast illegality of voting during the election. so what's going on? >> reporter: well, you know, i wish that we had enough time in this segment to get to the bottom line of what donald trump is doing, what he's thinking about. i don't think we ever will. he has really been a conundrum to everyone, not only us in the media as you know, but to fellow republicans, democrats, just about everybody. they don't know why he keeps on trying to side track himself. you know, alisyn, in many ways he's playing from a position of weakness right now. he won the election. he's going to be the leader of the free world. the prime minister of japan altered his schedule to go to new york last week to meet with him. he has world leaders calling him daily congratulating him on his win. for him to engage in this

washington bureau chief for the daily beach jackie susan itch and cnn politics executive editor mark prestonke the news

telling our mark preston that president-elect likes kelly's views on border secure. general kelly is the head of the southern command. if he ends up being confirmed he would join james matos which is secretary of defense. three generals. >> three generals and three billionaires. let's go live to washington to bring in cnn politics reporter todd koppen. you've got elaine chao tapped as transportation secretary which i think is a play on getting an infrastructure built. also running the labor department. i think the longest serving labor secretary during the bush administration. we also know -- we now have a money team. contrarians, both of them, risk takers, both of them. what do you see shaping up here? >> yeah, and let's not forget that elaine chao is also the wife of senator mitch mcconnell that would be working on any plans that donald trump wants to push through that is not lost on washington. donald trump instead of turning to power brokers, you mentioned generals, billionaires, he's turned to names well-known around town. elaine chao. jeff session, tom price, m

i want to get to mark preston, and jim acosta. good evening to both of you gentlemen. we're going to start with you, jim. a lot of coming and going at trump tower, amid reports behind the reports. what's the latest on the transition? vice president elect mike pence was at trump tower all day today trying to get a handle on these important cabinet positions they need to fill over the coming days. we can tell you at this moment, trump, the president elect is pushing back on this talk. that this has been a disorganized process marked by infighting. he tweeted a few moments ago, very organized process taking place as i decide the cabinet and many other positions. i'm the only one who knows who the finalists are. he is saying he holds all the cards as he figures out who will be in the cab get as we engage in this parlor game. we have talked to several sources, close to the transition to w.h.o. describe infighting. there were folks who were working for chris christie when he was in charge of the transition. they have been booted out of the transition team. mike pence has com

mark preston is "outfront" in washington. states like nevada, north carolina, florida, some important changes in the early vote race tonight? >> erin, no doubt about that. so far nearly 37 million people have already cast ballots in 39 states across the country. as you said, we're going to look first at florida where we're seeing now more than 5.7 million people have already cast their votes before election day. but who's in the lead? right now, democrats have a 7,000 ballot return advantage over republicans. just two days ago, republicans had 16,000 ballot advantage returned over democrats. so good news for democrats except when you look at what happened in 2008, in 2008, they had 146,000 advantage ballots returned at this same point in the campaign. so certainly off pace from 2008 to where we are in 2016. let's look at the demographics of florida right now, who's participating. african-americans at 12.8% and hispanics at 14.4%. we compare that to 2008 and look at the dropoff amongst african-american participation as part of