cnn's zachary cohen is leading us off. zachary, forget about all of these÷÷ norms.t appears to be the only normal thing right now is well, i don't know what. what are you learning? >> -- conventional approach when it comes to how its investigate its top picks. that includes bypassing the traditional fbi background checks for some of these cabinet nominees. now, look, donald trump is no fan of the national security establishment here in washington, d.c. he's railed against the fbi and against the intelligence community since he was president the first time. but look, this is bucking a trend and bucking a protocol that's been in place since the aftermath of world war ii. it's intended to make sure that cabinet nominees and people for top administration jobs with access to sensitive information don't have any unknown foreign ties or other issues that could create national security problems, but look, donald trump's team, instead, opting to go with private researchers to vet their candidates and their cabinet picks so far. so this is definitely a shift from the norm, so

national security reporter zachary cohen. zachary, tell us more about this reporting on tulsi gabbard. >> yeah. pam government watch list earlier this year after her overseas travel pattern and some of her foreign connections triggered a government algorithm that is used to identify passengers that need to be flagged for additional screening before they get on flights. now, this is a program that is called the tsa quiet skies program. and again, it's a security protocol and one that has tried to that is preventative in nature. and tulsi gabbard did get flagged again because of these this foreign travel pattern and additional concerns about her foreign connections. now, this is something tulsi gabbard has alluded to publicly, including in recent months. but she has claimed falsely that she was added to a secret government terror watch list, which is not what our sources have described as this being. take a listen to what she said back in september about this issue. >> my own government has placed me on a secret terror watch lis

let's go to cnn's zachary cohen and zach gabbard is a former member of congress you report she was placed on the quiet skies list and then was subsequently removed. what is that list and how did she end up on it? yeah, jake, this is a government watch list and it identifies passengers who require additional security screening before they get on a flight. >> and it's based around an algorithm that uses certain criteria to identify these passengers that are then added to the list and this criteria includes things like foreign travel patterns and foreign connections. and those are both reasons why tulsi gabbard according to our sources, was placed on this list. again, it's a security additional security screening list for passengers who do ping multiple of these pieces of criteria and now, gabbard has claimed publicly that she was added to a quote, secret terror watch list that's not what this is. she has also claimed that the reason she was added to the list is because she publicly criticized then-president, presidential candidate kamala harris. again, our sources vehemently deny that there

zachary cohen, thanks so much. let's get some perspective now from former fbi deputy director andrew mccabe. carrie cordero. former counsel to the u.s. assistant attorney general for national security. and maggie haberman senior political correspondent for the new york times, author of confidence man the making of donald trump and the breaking of america. also jones and republican strategist joseph pinion. andrew, i do want to begin with you. her travel to syria, which we knew about that's a number of years ago she was put on this list only much more recently, since removed, which we should note can you understand? can you and again, we don't know what countries she went to or what foreign connections she had that triggered the algorithm. can you give us a sense of what kind of foreign travel, what kind of foreign connections would be necessary to meet the threshold to be put on this list that question while we fix andy mccabe's audio. there any sense of what she would have needed to have done to get on the list? >

cnn's zachary cohen joins us now with the very latest from washington. we know about these threats, this new round of threats? >> yeah erika, for house lawmakers, all democrats, all from connecticut saying that they were the targets of bomb threats while they were home with their families celebrating the thanksgiving holiday. and these lawmakers include representative joe courtney, representative jim himes, john thune jim himes john larson and jahana hayes and, as you mentioned, law enforcement responding to each of these threats and ultimately finding that there was no evidence of an actual bomb. but this is part of a pattern and an increasing pattern of these kind of threats, and particularly ones targeting members of congress. we've seen members of congress on both sides of the aisle receive bomb threats or these swatting incidents be the targets of these swatting incidents, which is where law enforcement is essentially called to respond to a certain location. it's sort of a hoax type of way. this is just the latest in a series of these kind of incide

cnn's zachary cohen is following this for us from washington. so, zachary, what else can you tell us about this round of threats? essentially yeah. senator chris murphy is now the fifth democrat from connecticut to say he was targeted with a bomb threat while home celebrating the thanksgiving holiday with his family. murphy's spokesperson says in a statement that it appears the senator was targeted in what appears to be, quote, a coordinated effort targeting members of congress and other public figures now, murphy's office has not has not pointed to anything specific as far as what they've been told. that suggests this was coordinated. but he does join four of his colleagues from connecticut in the house who were similarly targeted over the thanksgiving holiday. it includes representatives joe courtney, jim himes, john larson and jahana hayes. now, all all five of these lawmakers saying that they experienced a similar threat law enforcement was ultimately forced to respond to that threat, and in all five cases did not find any evidence of an act

. >> zachary cohen, thanks very much. keep us posted. we appreciate it.s the second trump administration prepares to move in corporate america's diversity equity and inclusion efforts appear to be in some peril. in the weeks after the november presidential election, many of the top retailers in this nation like walmart, are rolling back their dei initiatives, and cnn's brian todd has the details america's largest retailer and largest private employer takes a major step on a huge social issue. >> walmart says it's rolling back some of its diversity, equity and inclusion programs, also known as dei. the company says it's ending racial equity training programs for employees, reevaluating programs that assist minority owned suppliers, and is winding down its center for racial equity, a nonprofit walmart has set up to address racism in society. >> this is a big deal because corporations seem to be going in this direction. >> in addition to walmart, major american companies like lowe's, ford harley-davidson and john deere are scaling back their dei programs and

cnn's zachary cohen joins us now. zach what are we hearing about these lawmakers and what are they saying about all of this? >> yeah, jim, the latest is senator chris murphy, the fifth democrat from connecticut, to say that he was targeted with a bomb threat on thanksgiving while he was home celebrating the thanksgiving holiday with his family. and look, his spokesperson, murphy spokesperson, says that this quote appears to be part of a coordinated effort involving members of congress, multiple members of congress and public figures. now murphy's spokesperson didn't point to anything specific that would indicate that these are all connected, but at the same time did note that several of several other members of the connecticut delegation experienced something similar on thanksgiving morning. that includes four members of the that represent connecticut in the house of representatives that john people like joe courtney jim himes, john larson johanna hayes, all of them describing how law enforcement notified them of a bo