>> that really is the big question going forward paul manafort and roger stone.lynn, we first got word late last night and fox news confirmed it this morning that president trump was indeed to pardon to grant a full pardon for his former national security advisor who's been on the job four or five days. michael flynn, we are learning he was, indeed planning to do that. a few moments ago, president trump decided to make it official as he often does with a tweet. and the president wrote "it is my great honor to announce general michael flynn granted a full pardon. congratulations to general flynn and his wonderful family. i know you will now have a truly fantastic thanksgiving." president trump has made no secret he has been seriously considering granting michael flynn a pardon for quite some time. he really felt that special council team robert mueller often said that they had ruined michael flynn's life. he has been talking about this for several months now. michael flynn you may remember he pleaded guilty back in 2017 for lying in to the fbi about his contact, t

funding that was advertised feds' falsely for funding for the president's border wall and you have paul manafort and rick gates who were sentenced for other crimes and so there is a list of people who are in president trump's former inner

we hear he's talking about rick gates and paul manafort and george papadopoulos.you disentangle the idea that the president is considering pardons like all presidents on their way out of office do for people who are tied up in a conspiracy that the president himself wants you to believe doesn't exist? >> we need to absolutely reject the idea that any of these pardons are legitimate. trump may be able to issue them, and frankly they may never be tested because let's say that he were to pardon himself. that would only be tested in court if he was subsequently indicted down the road and offered the pardon as a barrier to prosecution. so we don't know whether we'll get there or not. but these pardons have no smack of legitimacy to them. this is a president putting himself above the law. and to go back to your opening point, ali, about whether or not the constitution permits a president to pardon himself, the founding fathers deliberately rejected the notion that we should have a king, someone who is above the law. they embraced the notion of a president and a constitu

he dangled a pardon for paul manafort while paul manafort was going through the prosecution by roberter. he initially said he would cooperate and then robert mueller said he was lying with iz had cooperatio his cooperation. he was withholding the truth from robert mueller. the president dangled the pardon the whole time. he already commuted the sentence of roger stone, somebody who hung tough for him. michael flynn is somebody who pled guilty and was prosecuted but the trump justice department tried to walk back that prosecution. judge sullivan is holding up that. the other option for michael flynn is to get a pardon, which could potentially serve to protect donald trump going forward once he's no longer president. >> and we should note michael flynn in recent days has been sharing some of the president's conspiracy theories as well about the election. john harwood at the white house, thank you very much. >> you bet. >>> the trump administration is now giving formal approval for president-elect biden to receive, as presidents do, the daily presidential briefing. >> it is about time. j

that was general flynn, it was roger stone and it was paul manafort.entence for 40 months has been commuted. paul manafort somehow is now serving his sentence at home as opposed to in a federal prison. i guarantee you he's next on deck. what we're watching now is essentially the last chapter in "the godfather" where the mob boss goes out and makes sure he's buttoned down the hatches and everybody is on board. he's making sure that all of these people are going to be loyal to him. they're not going to rat him out and not reveal what occurred between the campaign and the russian government. that's what's going on here. that's what this is part of. it's part of a much bigger scheme that's been going on since 2016. >> anne, the way nikolays it out, i wonder who is left to pardon? we know drum once turned on michael flynn when he fired him, saying he had to fire him because he lied. of course, it came out in a tweet. no surprise. he said he fired him because he had lied to the vice president and lied to the fbi, is what the president said. now we see how th

paul manafort did the same thing.manafort is someone also in line for a pardon, and so is roger stone, who held out, said he wasn't going to flip on president trump, got his sentence commuted. and today after flynn got his pardon, roger stone said, i want one too. because roger stone still has leverage over donald trump, you can bet donald trump will very seriously consider doing that. >> the idea of what about me. and of course you contrast that to the way in which donald trump spoke about his former fixer and attorney michael cohen, and he certainly did not have those words to say about unfairness when it came to him. i think he even called him a rat at one point. maybe the writing was clear. i want to go to you because the white house chief of staff mark meadows actually congratulated michael flynn on twitter, writing in part "what the left did to his family these last four years must never be allowed to happen again in america." the left, he says, not the guilty plea. it seems like this is all about trying, in man

got a whole gang of bad guys here, as -- as you just heard charlie mention from steve bannon to paul manaforto rick gates who have been on tv -- he was on ari melber's show begging for a pardon openly. michael cohen who ain't gonna get one because he wrote a book and told the truth about trump. roger stone who has already been commuted. i mean, the kinds of things that these people have been up to, that they've done, the ways in which they've undermined american foreign policy and the fact that they could do all of that and walk away, that's much worse than what happened with nixon. so i wonder, what do we do? what's the point of having any laws at all if anybody around the president can just break them all and then they walk away with a pardon? >> yeah, and it doesn't seem right, joy, that the office of legal counsel at the department of justice says you cannot charge a sitting criminal president and then -- i'm with charlie -- if after donald trump and his criminal associates are out of power, if we decide to let bygones be bygones, turn the other cheek, put the long national nightmare behi

he dangled a pashd to paul manafort while manafort was being prosecuted by robert mueller.ueller feigned cooperation and then mueller said he was lying to investigators, he was withholding information to protect the president. roger stone said he was withholding information for the president, would not flip on him. and michael flynn may also know things that are legally dangerous for president trump. and so the trump justice department had tried to walk back the prosecution of michael flim, the judge is holding up that process, delaying that process. and now there's serious consideration beginning to just pardon michael flynn, which would serve to shield the president for potential legal exposure after he leaves the presidency on january 20th. >> and likely not the only person who will be getting a pardon on his way out the door. good to see you, jeff. thank you. >>> coming up, in the first sit-down interview since winning the election, president biden declares his administration will not be a third obama term. so what it be? the support we've had over the last few months h

the president's allies got swept up in these probes. >> including former trump campaign chair paul manafort who was convicted on eight counts of financial fraud. >> congratulations. look where you're going. >> and campaign adviser george papadopoulos who pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi. and the mueller team found evidence of at least ten potential instances of president trump himself obstructing justice. yet the special counsel could not find prosecutable evidence of conspiracy with russia. >> there's no obstruction, there's no collusion, there's no nothing. >> a false trump mantra. >>> coming up, another white house crisis. >> i'm the first person to ever get impeached and there's no crime. >> and the ripple effects of russia. >> yet this was no watergate. >> i was appalled. >> richard nixon tried to make his defense, i didn't participate in a coverup. that's what got him. there's no question about the illegal activity. donald trump tried to make this an issue of collusion. >> the president and attorney general bill barr hammered that in an attempt to unravel the mueller report, even th

will trump pardon paul manafort or his deputy, rick gates.be he'll pardon steve bannon or former fund-raiser elliott brody. this man to push the boundaries of the constitution and preemptively pardon himself, because while most pardons are granted to people who have been prosecuted and found guilty, they can also extend to criminal conduct yet yet uncovered but despite the president's ludicrous 2018 claim that he has the "absolute right" to pardon himself, legal experts say such an action would not stand. the legal vote unlikely avenue for such a thing would be to resign at the 11th hour, and demand mike pence pardon him just before joe biden's inauguration. but i have some advice for the president lackies, don't count your turkeys before they hatch. just like the turkey pardon for this week which will suffer a shortened lifespan due to pre-pardoned activity, the villains in the trump administration cannot be granted a total reprieve with the presidential pardon because the president of the united states can only pardon federal crimes. he has

there's also paul manafort who, of course, was sentenced to prison. was accused by robert mueller of having agreed to cooperate and lying to investigators. got additional prosecution. you could see a pardon for paul manafort as well as other people in the president's inner circle, those who might have legal exposure not to exclude the president himself. don't know that he has it. laura, you can speak to this whether he has the legal authority to pardon himself. if he concludes he does and he thinks he needs it, he would do it. >> well, of course, a long list of people to include in that, including maybe preemptive pardons. people who already have these convictions. what about those who might be investigated right now. also we've known a record number of americans are hospitalized with coronavirus tonight. you look at this graph on the screen. we get more than 2100 deaths were just reported today. president-elect biden has plans for joon anuary 20th. president trump is still in charge for another 57 days. what is his plan to do something about this? we

then you also have paul manafort and rick gates who were separately sentenced for other crimes and sos a list of people who are in president trump's former inner circle that he has not yet chosen to pardon and we'll see whether he chooses to do so in the next few weeks. >> kayla, happy thanksgiving thank you. >>> a thanksgiving eve speech, president-elect joe biden imploring americans to limit the size of our family gatherings and keep up the fight against covid-19 >> i know the country has grown weary of the fight we need to remember we're at war with a virus, not with one another, not with each other this is the moment where we need to steel our spines, redouble our efforts and recommit ourselves to the fight we have to try to slow the growth of this virus we owe it to the doctors and the nurses and other front-line workers. >> the president-elect's team confirms now he'll get his first presidential daily intelligence briefing on monday now that the current administration has stopped blocking the transition. >>> committing crimes from behind bars. tonight, how some notorious inmates

it's paul manafort. it's any one of the half dozen people very close to the president who undoubtedly have stories to tell about the president's behavior being told stay quiet and we will fix this. >> yeah, it's interesting, you know. even bill barr in his testimony when he was nominated to his position as attorney general, who had written that infamous memo saying the whole mueller thing is a fishing expedition, ridiculous, he said yeah, the pardon power is constitutionally unchecked, but even though it's constitutionally unchecked, there is some legal thinking that it's not -- you couldn't, for instance, pardon yourself, or in barr's terms, offering a pardon to a co-conspirator as a reward would plainly be illegal. but we kind of know that's what the president's lawyer did. here is the voice mail back in november 2017 of john dowd leaving this for flynn's lawyer. take a listen. >> hey, rob, this is john again. uh, maybe -- i'm sympathetic. i understand your situation. let me see if i can't state it in

he is also believed to be pardon for paul manafort, potentially roger stone. congressman matt gaetz went so far as to say that he believes president trump should be pardoning everyone from himself all the way to joe exotic, the tiger king. that would truly be peak 2020. >> i'm all for joe exotic. what can i say. tiger king rules in my house. thank you for that update there from the white house. >> president trump's decision to pardon michael flynn is getting a thumbs up from "the wall street journal," "finally in and wait is grateful case of politicized prosecution. let's bring in former u.s. attorney guy lewis. happy thanksgiving. >> happy thanksgiving to you guys as well. >> the justice department had moved to dismiss this case, why did they do that. >> the attorney general had ordered a review of the case and during the course of that revi review, independent professionals at the justice department, it became apparent that he had been targeted. , a discovery that should have been turned over, it would send other kinds of information that would have been hel

think you could be looking for possible pardons or commutations of people like michael flynn and paul manafortrgeted by the molar investigation in the final weeks of the administration. emily: we are continuing to watch the tweets and the posts on facebook, many of them being flagged by twitter and facebook, as i know you are as well, jordan fabian. thank you so much for that update. that does it for this edition of bloomberg technology. bloomberg daybreak: asia is coming up next. i'm emily chang in san francisco. this is bloomberg. ♪ when you switch to xfinity mobile, you're choosing to get connected to the most reliable network nationwide, now with 5g included. discover how to save up to $400 a year with shared data starting at $15 a month, or get the lowest price for one line of unlimited. come into your local xfinity store to make the most of your mobile experience. you can shop the latest phones, bring your own device, or trade in for extra savings. that's simple, easy, awesome. visit your local xfinity store today to ask, shop, discover the latest on xfinity mobile. ♪ haidi: good morning

there's paul manafort, and michael flynn as well. cnn can report there are ongoing discussions about pardoning flynn in the white house. but how about pardoning one donald j. trump. kaitlan collins and jessica dean are here. questions are swirling about who president trump may pardon, potentially michael flynn. what are you learning? >> i think the calculus before the election, people weren't sure if the president won, how many people he would pardon. but now that the president has lost the election, we are told by multiple sources, there are discussions under way at the white house with the president about potentially pardoning mike flynn, his first national security adviser, who did not last long on the job. that would be notable, given that sidney powell is mike flynn's attorney. the woman who has at the press conference last week talking about the voting machines, making the baseless conspiracy theories about the governor of georgia. that's mike flynn's attorney. and the president is now considering pardoning flynn, but not just

trump is also considering partings for paul manafort and roger stone.e's expected to sign a handful of executive orders to try to submit his america first agenda in china and along the u.s. southern border. just last week his administration analyzed a role that will make it easier for the u.s. forest service to approve logging and fire mitigation projects without an environmental review. over the next few weeks the president must also sign a bill to prevent the government shutdown on december 11, and at almost the exact same time his administration will be overseeing the rollout of the first covid-19 vaccines. the head of the cdc said those first vaccines will likely begin going out at the end of the second week of december. something else president trump is planning to do, he just announce he will likely be going down to georgia on saturday to campaign for the two republicans in that runoff race that will determine control of the senate.>>> in a 5:4 brewing the spring court has sided with religious organizations in a dispute over rotavirus restrictions

. >> 20 seconds left to go but do you see anyone next, paul manafort, roger stone granted clemency but does he get a full pardon? >> i suspect so but he prepared for a lot, general flynn, i share concerns, acting as a foreign agent for the radical islamic dictatorship of turkey. i get that but that is not the charge we are talking about and everyone needs to understand that. >> thank you for your insight and joining us, appreciate it. in a few hours the annual macy's thanksgiving day parade will get underway but the holiday tradition will look a lot different. >> there won't be thousands of people standing on new york city streets in the parade route will only span one part, giant balloons will still fly but won't have dozens of handlers on the ground. all participants are required to wear a facemask including performers. parts of the parade have already been pretaped to discourage crowds from forming but we still get up parade. turned to fox news after that. it is 10 minutes after the hour the president said fight wasn't over the pennsylvania judge agreed. what comes next? we are aski

into the trump campaign which was codenamed crossfire hurricane, another one of those people, paul manafortho has also talked about potentially receiving a pardon before the president leaves office and if so is roger stone who n was granted clemency but t a full pardon over the summer. while president trump was tweeting about this pardon, his legal s team has been in pennsylvania. the state certified the election results yesterday but today a judge issued an order ordering that certification -- the fulfillment of that a certification be delayed until another hearing on friday but pennsylvania democratic attorney general says it is a done deal and he putut out a statement tht reason today's order does not impact yesterday's appointment of electors for joe biden. >> mike: kristin fisher starting us off from the north lawn, many thanks. let's get more on the pardon of michael flynn and a reaction from the justice department, corresponded david's pond joins us this evening. >> good evening to you, the justice department all the way up to attorney general bill barr wanted the michael flynn case

another of those people, paul manafort who also talked about potentially receiving a pardon before theresident leaves office and roger stone who was granted clemency but not a full pardon over the summer. donald trump tweeted about this pardon, his legal team has been in pennsylvania. the state certify the election results just yesterday but today judge issued an order ordering that certification, fulfilled of the certification be laid until another hearing on friday pennsylvania's democratic attorney general says is a done deal and he put out a statement that reads in part, quote, today's order does not impact yesterday's appointment of electors for joe biden. griff: thanks. let's get more on the pardon of michael flynn and reaction from the justice department. >> reporter: the justice department all the way up to attorney general william barr wanted the michael flynn case dropped out, very unique in that instance. fox news just received a statement from a doj official, i want to read it in part, it is about this pardon and it is separated into three parts. it is first the department

the list also includes paul manafort, roger stone, george papadopoulos, and michael cullen.sa, i will come to you first. what i sometimes don't question and a lot of journalist from a white president trump supporters remain and president trump himself remained so firmly behind general flynn when we now know that flynn lied to vice president pence and light to the president himself about the contact with the russian ambassador during the transition. a very sensitive point in time for any president, incoming presidential administration. democrats say this man jeopardize national security. why is the president and supporters not more upset about that? >> kennedy: i think most of his supporters don't care about his accusations and don't care about a lot of people and don't look too heavily on many people in the media as well. but i would say this, look, michael flynn, never talked to michael flynn in the first place. his clothes with a former investor were fine. they are doing the same thing that ben rhodes said the biden transition team is doing right now, having call with fore

every possible energy to persecute them, a number of people i'm sure come to everyone's mind among paul manafort, roger stone who ran a foul of the deep state and they paid one hell of a price for it. >> i said dead people i erroneously said that i believe these are people that moved out of the state but went ahead and took a valid and voted in that state, nevertheless the term campaign in nevada has a lot of evidence that's where the fbi should be spending their time. lou: my favorite example is a man who was supposed to be 120 years old had voted but it turns out he had died some years ago, thereby not being able to achieve the record for longest lived american, the president talking about the suppression polls in the left-wing media going into this there is no question that the big corporate media comcast, nbc, at&t, cnn, walt disney, then you realize you're talking about abc news, their polling was outrageous, most of them had joe biden leading this president by ten percentage points. it turned a fraction of that. and to think that the president, i cannot call precisely how we put it but he

the people who were targeted in the mueller investigation, michael flynn, george papadopoulos, paul manafort, allen weisselberg, the accountant, rudy giuliani, roger stone, and a name mentioned a lot is jared kushner's father, charlie kushner. as you said, pamela, the real question is will he in the end take a serious look at pardoning himself. there are a couple of things to keep in mind. he can only do that theoretically, it has never been tested, for federal crimes, not for state crimes. but i want to read to you what a former administration official told cnn, that trump has been asking about pardons since 2017 and here's a quote. once he learned about it, he was obsessed with the power of pardons and used to ask about it all the time. he loved the notion of having power and doing favors. some people have said to us of course he will, some administration officials have said he won't do it because it will make him look guilty. let's keep in mind that a lot of things we heard from donald trump over the last three years have to do with feeling like a victim, that he is the target of a witch

people like michael flynn, paul manafort, george papadopoulos, rudy giuliani.this effort to challenge the election results. you might have to think about whether he will try to pardon family members. the trump organization is under investigation. it only covers federal charges. it cannot stop a state level prosecution. the big question then, will president trump try to pardon himself on the way out. we simply do not know if this is lawful because it falls under the header of things that's never happened before. on the one hand, there's no specific limitation on the pardon power in the constitution. on the other hand, the framers deplored self-dealing. if trump does pardon himself, it will be first and a historical stain on his record. >> this is an unlikely scenario but a viewer wants to know could republicans have their own electors even if their state voted for president-elect biden? >> this theory is out there. i'm hearing it a lot. i want to make it clear. this is not going to happen. the constitution does give state legislatures to the manner to which they

during the russia probe by robert mueller he dangled the possibility of a pardon for paul manafort, his former campaign chairman. there's ever reason to think when we get closer to january 20th when he thinks of how he can come out ahead he'll use that power as he used every otherl other lever of the presidency to benefit himself. >> thank you both so much. >>> joining me david challion for more on all of this. back to where we began, is with what we're seeing from donald trump with regard to concession or not. do you think what we're seeing from the president in this moment is as close to a concession as we're going to get from this president? if's in a the case, what's the impact of that? >> he's made clear that he will not concede. those were his words in his tweet. this is as close as we are likely to see a concession, which is allowing the formal process of the transition to get under way and instructing his team to abide by those rules. you ask what the impact is of this. the impact is that donald trump is looking for every possibly avenue to hang onto political power inside the

the george papadopoulos, paul manafort kind of people, but alan dershowitz and other people in the president'st more before he leaves office. >> thank you. >>> the pardon of michael flynn will not be the only one issued by the president before his term officially ends. let me bring in alice stewart. happy thanksgiving. same to you, brooke. happy thanksgiving. >>> is this really how the president should be spenting the final weeks in office? >> i don't think so. if he truly believes what he plans to do in the future and if politics and elected office is in his wished, he needs to put the 2020 election in his rear-view mirror and needs to stop asking about the integrity of the election. in terms of the pardons, i expect michael flynn to be just opening the floodgates. i expect many more. hi can do that, it's in hi authority, he has the power, and if you remember, he always thought the russia probe was a hoax. remember he talked about it being a witch-hunt, so anyone with anyone connection to the russia probe that has faced consequences legally will get pardoned, and that included obviously micha

and this is where we have concerns about president trump, as part of a conspiracy, if the reason paul manaforteen silent for all these years of the trump presidency is because of a pardon angle, that would expose the president to criminal exposure. those kinds of limitations do come in, but the pardon power is very broad. >> does michael flynn figure into that analysis? >> he does. flynn has cultivated the favor of the president, the president has talked about his case, engaged in very dubious, terrible conduct in attacking the judge, attacking the jurors in that case. there is a wrinkle in the flynn story, chris, which is that the president has just broken, very publicly, with flynn's lawyer, sidney powell. but i don't think that will affect the ultimate calculus, flynn is at top of the list after the thanksgiving turkeys. >> now, the big question, the meg ill la, can a president self-pardon. it's not discussed in the constitution. what is the best reckoning? we have no precedent. >> the most fundamental rule of anglo-american jurisprudence going back centuries is can't be the arbiter of your

paul manafort, his former campaign chairman. the big question is what does he do about his family and himself. that's a big question. the president on twitter mused about this issue in 2018. he said that he believes he has the power to self-pardon. i'll tell you the justice department looked at this back in the richard nixon era in 2004 and said under the fundamental rule that no one can be a judge in his own case, the president cannot pardon himself. now, there's a lot of disagreement constitutionally as to whether this would be legal. there's another way for the president to take care of this. he could temporarily step down and mike pence could act as president and give him such a pardon before the president leaves office in january 20th. of course, brooke, the big thing for the president, even if he gets a federal pardon, this does not solve all of his problems, legal issues. >> new york state. >> new york state and other states could have investigations into his company, looking into big questions whether or not there was an

look for george papadopoulos, paul manafort, roger stone might get a pardon.er, jared kushner's father, of course. you're right, it is a sign he understands behind closed doors that his time is coming to an end. that's why he's making moves like this. >> all right. mj, so president trump is ignoring the pandemic now while president-elect biden is urging americans to recommit to fighting the virus. talk to me about biden's thanksgiving message, will you? >> yeah. you know, this was another incredibly vivid contrast between the sitting president and the president-elect. a sitting president who is not conceding and is continuing to sow doubt on the election, and the president-elect, who is giving this national address before the thanksgiving holiday, basically urging calm and a sense of national unity. this was an incredibly empathetic speech and ends what it is like to look around your dinner table and see that there is somebody missing at the table. he was obviously referring to so many americans who have lost loved ones through this coronavirus pandemic. and t

paul manafort, roger stone. george papadopoulos. family members. don junior. potentially ivanka.cted of federal equipment krooims a few years ago and the big question, will the president have the gall to try to pardon himself. >> what do you think? >> he has said by tweet, i have the right to pardon myself and the other day he retweeted something suggesting he could do that. if he does, we could end up with a major constitutional battle. we don't know the answer. no one has ever done it before. if he does it, he'll be the first. he would probably argue the constitution doesn't limit the pardon power. i can do whatever i want including give one to my myself. the framers hated this. the one thing the framers hated wads self-dealing. you can't be a judge in your own case. doj looked at this issue in 1974 rand ga and gave a opinion that a self-pardon would not be valid. we may find out if he tries it. >> while we wait for that to happen, i want to get you on some of the scotus news. the supreme court ruled in favor of religious groups who would argue they were unfairly singled out by

including a potential pardon for roger stone, paul manafort, all of the people you've seen in the newse after the election loss was michael flynn, his first national security adviser who we should remind people was only on the job 24 days before the president fired him, and of course we saw his legal drama play out the last several years, including earlier this year when the justice department took that surprising move of trying to drop their own case against him. now of course the president has ended it by granting this pardon. we haven't actually heard from the president in person on this yet. he granted it yesterday, announced it over twitter. the white house later issued this statement. you've seen this reaction from white house officials where they're not only talking about the pardon, boris, they're congratulating michael flynn on it, even though that's not the attitude toward flynn in early days of the administration when he had lied not only to the fbi but to the chief of staff at the time, and the press secretary as well. it was pretty obvious the president was going to make t

and you know, you can -- it's roger stone, it's paul manafort, it's any one of the half dozen people close to the president who undoubtedly have stories to tell about the president's behavior where being told stay quiet and we will fix this. >> yeah. it's interesting, you know, even bill barr in his testimony when he was nominated to his position as attorney general who had written that infamous memo saying the mueller was a fishing expedition, ridiculous, he said the power pardon is constitutionally unchecked but even so, there's some legal thinking that you couldn't pardon yourself or in barr's terms offering a bargain to a co-conspirator would clearly be illegal but we kind of know that's what the president's lawyer did. here's the voicemail of john dowd leaving it for flip's lawyer. take a listen. >> this is john again. maybe i had a similar -- let me see if i can't state it in starker terms. if you have -- it wouldn't surprise me if you've gone on to make a deal and -- with the government. if, on the other hand, there's information that implicates the president, then we've got a

would it go beyond michael flynn to other figures like paul manafort? the president has liked the power of the pardon in part because of its unique and sort of unassailable power. it can be politically detrimental. but his power can't be challenged in terms of his ability to use it. one question mark is would he include himself in that. he has spoken about the willingness to use the pardon power, believing he has that, for himself. but it would also imply that he was agreeing that there was something to be pardoned for. and of course it would only apply to federal matters, not anything at the state level, should those develop at some point down the line, andrea. >> indeed, kelly and ali vitali, thank you both so very much. president-elect biden told lester holt how important it is for people to wear masks and follow cdc guidance for those who might be traveling this holiday weekend. >> as we speak, people are ignoring advice to stay home. they're crowding airports around the country right now. you've called for a national mask mandate. how much power as

perhaps paul manafort. commuted the sentence already of roger stone.udy guiliani may be somebody as well. areas of preemptive pardons. preemptive pardons or those after convictions or guilty pleas. a combination he could actually use, because, of course, you can pardon anyone for contact that occurred, whether pardon himself for some reason, that's kind of uncharted territory. could be explored at the supreme court. most certainly could try to pardon people at the trump organization, his own family members and like jim acosta referenced, no one could have a single question about it. >> yeah. elie, our reporting shows he's expressed fascination about pardoning himself. about pardoning those around him who may potentially face scrutiny or have faced scrutiny but the conclusion of which is unclear. what about that? >> reporter: yeah, rebthe quest whether the president can pardon himself, file that under things we don't know for sure because nobody ever tried it in our history. the president said he tweeted before he believes he has an absolute right to pa

funding that was advertised feds' falsely for funding for the president's border wall and you have paul manafortgates who were sentenced for other crimes and so there is a list of people who are in president trump's former inner circle that he has not yet chosen to pardon we'll see the next few weeks >> happy thanksgiving. >>> president-elect biden's speech, imploring americans to limit the size of our family gathering and keep up the fight with covid-19. >> i noknow the country is grown weary of the fight, we need to remember we are at war with a virus and not with each other. this is a moment where we need to steal our strengths and double our effects and recommit ourselves in the fight we have to try to slow the growth of this virus we owe it to the doctors and nurses and other frontline workers. the president-elect team confirmed he'll get his briefing on monday now that the current administration has stopped blocking the transition. >>> committing crimes from behind bars. how some notorious inmates scammed the government out of millions and millions of your dollars and holiday shopping covi

trump russia investigation, michael flynn, you hear names like george papadopoulos, rick gates, paul manafort and so forth surrounding that as well as other people who just have connections to trump. elliott a big donor to his inauguration just got convicted in foreign lobbying scheme or steve bannon or perhaps jared kushner's father was famously prosecuted by chris christie some years ago. surrounding also are complicating that up until maybe right around now is that to talk to this president about how his grip on power is about to go away and so he ought to go out with a bang would be to concede he lost the election. i think people have been a little reluctant or on egg shells around him to raise a topic that only makes sense in the end game of a presidency that is almost over. your other question can he pardon himself? that's a great question. a question that constitutional scholars are turning over in their hands now and the answer is we don't know. no president has ever purported to pardon himself and then be prosecuted by justice department after that act. he's never even tried. therefo

look for people like george papadopoulos, paul manafort, roger stone who had his sentenced commuted, pardon. charlie kushner. jared kushner's father, of course. there are several people on the president's list that could happen over the next several weeks while he's still in office. and you're right. it is a sign he understands, behind closed doors, that his time is coming to an end because that's why he's making moves like this. >> all right. mj, so, president trump is ignoring the pandemic now. while president-elect biden is urging americans to recommit to fighting the virus. talk to me about biden's thanksgiving message, will ya? >> yeah. you know, this was another incredibly vivid contrast between the sitting president and the president-elect. sitting president, who is not conceding and continuing to sow doubt on the election. and the president-elect, who is giving this national address before the thanksgiving holiday, basically, urging calm and a sense of national unity. and this was an incredibly empathetic speech, right? he said that he understands what it is like to look arou

investigation, prosecution and guilty pleas of pnty of other folks around the president including paul manafortge papadopoulos if you follow that logic, there are probably other pardons. judy:n other words, watch this space. devlin barrett of "the washington post," thank you very much. devlin: thanks for having me. judy: as we know president-elect , biden made news earlier this week when he announced key members of his national security team. missing from that line-up -- his choice for sectary of defense. nick schifrin joins us now with the latest. hello, nick. on of the names that have been mentioned for secretary of defense was michelle flournoy. remind us who she is and what the thinking was about her potential to be named. nick: michelle flournoy is very much still be secretary of defense. --be the leading candidate t secretary of defense. sheie rd widespread praise especially for her men of young women. she was most recently number three in the pentagon under the obama administration. but there is criticismen in r days over policy by people on both sides of the aisle who believe1, since 9h

people like paul manafort, and roger stone and then you heard the president talk about pardons. he mentioned possibly pardoning edward snowden back in september and then a questioning over this about whether or not the president would consider a pardon for himself. >> many scholars are divided on this issue. charlie, let's unpack this more. what the significance of the pardon is and the significance of the pardoning of michael flynn as well. >> this is something that we see at the end of all presidencies, but president trump being unorthodox, this is going to be more of a wild ride even than we're used to. we understand that his -- all kinds of people are jostling to get before him or get before people like jared kushner around him for -- hoping for that last minute act of largess. something that president trump likes to do. not going through the justice department, not going through the normal process of applying and having law enforcement people vet their applications and talk to prosecutors and talk to victims and so forth and see whether to recommend that the white house do

investigation, prosecution and guilty pas of plenty of other folks around the esident including paul manafortorge papadopoulos. if you follow that logic, there are probably other pardons coming before he leaves offie. woodruff: in other words, watch this space. devlin barrett of "the washington post," thu very much. >> thanks for having me. rl woodruff: president-elect biden made news r this week when he announced key members of his national security team. missing from that line-up: his choice for secretary of defense. nick schifrin joins us now with the latest. so, hello, nick. one ofhe names that had been mentioned for secretary of defense for the defense secretary was michele flournoy. reminds who she is and what the thinking was about her potential to be named. >> yeah, michele flournoy, judy, is still very much the leading candidate to be secretary of defense. she would be the first female secretary of defense. she receives widespread praises special for mentoring of young women. she has extensive pentagon experience, number three under the obama adinistration. but there is criticism we'

donald trump is believed to be considering more pardons for people like paul manafort, former campaignanager and roger stone. in his final weeks of is the president does expect to sign a handful executive orders to try to cement his america first agenda. in china and along the us border. just last week his administration finalized is that will make it easier for the us for service to approve logging and wildfire mitigation projects without an environmental review. in the next few weeks the president must sign a bill to prevent government shutdown on december 11th and at the same time his administration will oversee the rollout of the first covid-19 vaccine. the head of the cdc said those first vaccines will likely begin going out at the end of the second week of december. the president is about to speak right now so back to you. >> let's go to the white house where we have a play out of the president speaking. >> in georgia and i want to show a signature, very simple, because we will find thousands, very close race, thousands and thousands of discrepancies, fraud, why they aren't wanti

discussions have also centered on paul manafort and george p papadopoulos. the usually garden variety of lies we heard and conspiracy theories and misinformation about the 2020 election. we heard a sitting president repeatedly say he wanted to overturn the results of the 2020 election three weeks after millions of americans went to the polls to exercise their right to vote after his court cases have been tossed out of one court after the next, we heard president trump repeatedly say, quote, we have to turn the election over. >> what a striking contrast to president-elect biden celebrating democracy in his speech the day before thanksgiving. thanks so much, jeremy diamond. we bresappreciate it. jackie, i'll start with you to talk about this and the president-elect talked about democracy and unity and prayer and love. he quoted scripture. he mentioned god. what was your takeaway? >> the speech seemed to have three very distinct parts, acknowledging the grief that americans arie infeeling, wheth they lost someone or away from someone in this holiday. in the mid

that was famously said by amy berman jackson, the judge who sentenced paul manafort, and i think you'rehere the president can say what he wants on twitter or rudy giuliani can say what he wants in a press conference, but in a court of law, whether their judge is appointed by democrats or republicans, even judges appointed by donald trump, they are proving that they are an effective guardrail. and it's really nice to see. i was in the justice department for 20 years. i've been a lawyer forever. and it's really nice to see that the courts are actually functioning the way they're supposed to, which is they demand from both sides proof. you can't just make allegations, you have to back it up with evidence. and i think the reason that you're seeing so many courts throw things out is that you have a lot of pontification going on on twitter, but you don't see that in a court of law where there is evidence being offered. >> as these courts said, and it's even stunning where we have to have a conversation like this where facts may be disputed and not matter. let me go to the president, who as yo