Winning Back the Working Class
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It's Monday, November 18th, right now on CNN This Morning. What I have said with regard to the report is that it should not come out. I think that would be a Pandora's box.

A Pandora's box? Why the House Ethics Report on Donald Trump's Attorney General pick Matt Gaetz could be buried. Plus... Americans have been living through an unprecedented surge in censorship. Clearing out the quote "censorship cartel," the top priority for Donald Trump's pick to lead the FCC. And this... We're going to focus like a laser beam on dealing with the issues related to working class Americans.

Winning the working class, Democratic Congressman Brendan Boyle will be here to discuss how his party moves forward and later. Missiles will speak for themselves for sure. Russia responds what the Kremlin now says about President Biden letting Ukraine use long-range American-made missiles inside Russia. All right, 6 a.m. here on the East Coast, a live look at Capitol Hill on this Monday morning. Good morning, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.

New scrutiny this morning for Donald Trump's cabinet picks as the president himself revels in the celebratory mood at his Mar-a-Lago club.

Over the weekend, new CNN reporting revealing Trump's pick for defense secretary, the Fox News host and Army veteran Pete Hegseth, paid a woman who accused him of sexual assault back in 2017 in a settlement agreement. Hegseth's attorney tells CNN the incident was a, quote, consensual sexual encounter. Now, one Senate Republican who's leaning toward voting yes wants to know more.

As of right now, I start with yes. But can I be moved off of that? I'm sure. Everybody starts at some point. Some people start at dead even. Some people start at a yes. Some people start at a no. But I start at a yes, and it's going to take some movement for me to move off of that.

And then there's Trump's choice for Attorney General Matt Gaetz, with some Senate Republicans now wanting to see that nearly completed health ethics report against the former congressman. The report allegedly details sexual misconduct allegations and drug use. The House Speaker Mike Johnson pushing to keep it secret.

I believe the Senate should have access to that. Now, should it be released to the public or not, that's, I guess that will be part of the negotiations. The Senate has a role, the advise and consent role, under the Constitution and they'll perform it. They'll have a rigorous review and vetting process in the Senate, but they don't need to rely upon a report or a draft report, a rough draft report, that was prepared by the Ethics Committee for its very limited purposes.

So one person who is reportedly not bothered by the uproar around the choices, at least at this moment, is President-elect Trump himself. Sources tell CNN that Trump is, quote, 100% looking forward to Gates getting confirmed, adding, quote, he is not going to back off. He is all in. Here was his son, Donald Trump Jr.

The reality this time is we actually know what we're doing. We actually know who the good guys and the bad guys are. We know who the guys are fake. And it's about surrounding my father with people who are both competent and loyal. They will deliver on his promises. They will deliver on his message. They are not people who think they know better as unelected bureaucrats. A lot of them are going to face pushback for the same reasons. Again, they are going to be actual disruptors. That's what the American people want. But Washington, D.C., doesn't want that.

And this, interestingly, was Democratic Senator John Fetterman suggesting that maybe for the reality TV star turned President Trump, the drama is the point.

And there's others that are just absolute trolls, just like Gates and those things. And that's why Democrats, like Trump, he gets the kind of thing that he wanted, like the freak out and all of those things. And he hasn't even been, it's still not even Thanksgiving yet. And if we're having meltdowns every tweet or every appointment or all those things, I mean, it's gonna be four years.

A long four years. Joining us now to discuss our panels here, Alex Thompson, CNN political analyst, Isaac DuVere, CNN senior reporter, Megan Hayes, former director of message planning at the Biden White House, and

and Doug High, Republican strategist. Welcome to all of you. Thank you for being here. Doug, I actually want to start with you. Thanks. Matt Gaetz, me. Monday, starting off the week right. But look, seriously, I'm interested to know what you think about the interplay between what's going on at Mar-a-Lago and what's happening on Capitol Hill. The New York Times, of course, reports...

reported about this and they were looking at Hegseth actually, and they had this line, Mr. Trump often dislikes when people connected to him get negative media coverage, which can be true, but we're also not picking up any indication right now that Trump is doing that. And this, of course, this is a Maggie Haberman byline who of course has known and covered Donald Trump for decades at this point.

What is your sense of how bad things are for these nominees on the Hill right now and whether that's getting picked up at Mar-a-Lago? Well, there's a difference between Matt Gaetz and everybody else, regardless of the drama and various headlines. By the way, the front page above the fold of the New York Times today said Donald Trump seeks to...

shake up the status quo. So there's a headline that Donald Trump wants. And that goes exactly to what Speaker Johnson was saying. But the devil will be in the details for some of these nominees. And when I say the devil, it's because for a lot of Republicans, a lot of those who were in the House who've now moved to the Senate, Mark Wayne Mullen being one of them, they view Matt Gaetz as a devil.

And very clearly, there are personal feelings there. There may be policy feelings there as well. He has the toughest road of any of these nominees. Then when you get down the line on some of the others, they're going to have their hearings. We're going to find out what happened, what didn't happen. And for Donald Trump, the main headline is that he's causing chaos and he's causing people, even John Fetterman, with whatever hair is left to pull that out. And he's enjoying that. Yeah. I mean, Alex Thompson, so the...

the the piece that is on the front page in its it's actually Trump swings wrecking ball at status quo is what's written at the top there and this is of course Peter Baker and he writes this mister Trump by contrast has bold pass the old red lines opting for nominees who are so provocative even fellow republicans wondered whether he is trolling them the message to Washington is simple according to Roger Stone the longtime Trump friend who relishes his own reputation as a political dirty trickster

"Things are going to be different," he said by text. So I guess the question is, are they? It certainly seems so. - I mean, if you're Trump, you feel invincible right now. You feel like the laws of political gravity do not apply to you. Think about all the things that he has overcome over the last two years in a political sense that would be death knells. He was convicted as a felon. He basically was also charged

with several other really serious crimes. He said at times crazy stuff on the campaign trail. And then he won not just the Electoral College, but he won the popular vote. So now it's not clear to me that everyone that voted for him was voting for this. They may have just also been voting for old Trump, pre-COVID nostalgia. One thing just on the Matt Gaetz point that I think one person who really walks through all of this

is Mitch McConnell because the Republicans only have 53 votes. So if you take Susan Collins,

and Lisa Murkowski in Alaska. So those are two that are not probably going to go for these MAGA people. If Mitch McConnell does not vote for these, then they have only one, then it's 50-50. They have no margin for error. And he's going to be a really critical vote. Yeah. Isaac, Democrats really, there's not a lot they can do about any of this, right? I mean, how do they, how are they viewing what is playing out right now with his picks? Because, I mean, honestly, to Alex's point, there is this question of whether, like,

The country we've often find is pretty, you know, center of the road. There's often a correction after an election like this if the incoming administration overplays their hand. A lot of people would argue the Biden administration overplayed their hand in the beginning, and that's part of why, you know, we've ended up here. What's your sense of how they view it? Well, they don't have much to do, right? They are in the minority in the Senate. They've got to watch these nominees come forward and—

but if they're against them hope the way the math that Alex laid out is there there are others who are opposed to Matt Gaetz, to Doug's point, right, that

the number of votes that Matt Gaetz is going to lose might be insurmountable for him. That could end up being the case for some of the other ones like Hegseth, depending on what we find out about him. But for them this is about trying to slow down the gears as much as they can, bring out as much as they can, make people in the country see that Donald Trump's presidency is not what he is talking about, but is about all these other things in their minds.

But it's also about the larger political calculation that they can hope, and maybe this ends up working against them, that Donald Trump is looking here clearly how far he can go.

He has not reached that point yet, and he is seeing that the Republicans are, so far, letting him go this far. We'll see how far it is. But I think that one thing here the Democrats can do is they can bring this into the public's attention, and they can keep bringing it to the media, and that will irritate Donald Trump, and it will aggravate him. They're not going to be able to do a lot. They can't stop these. They don't have the majority, but they can bring these things public and slow it down, and the more time they take in the hearings, the more time they take in the investigations, the more stuff that comes out for these people that are just a little bit absurd and not

competent so does better does Fetterman have a point that this is this is what Trump wants

Totally. But I think you get to a point, especially with like a Matt Gaetz or a Tulsi Gabbard, like if enough stuff comes out, he might withdraw their nominations. And I think that's what we'll get with Gaetz is he'll withdraw it. Matt Gaetz is the best thing that happened for everyone else who's going to be nominated. 100%. Because if you're McConnell or someone else and you vote against Matt Gaetz, you better get in line with everybody else. And that's, you know, OK, if McConnell's retiring or something, that's a different calculation. But he makes it much harder for Republicans to vote against any other nominees. There's one thing I wanted to add to Megan's point is the

these hearings especially the Matt Gaetz but all these other hearings you're gonna see every democrat that wants run for president really try to make this make up make a point in really grill these people I think that's also true for the republicans to like some of these people and then they're up for midterm elections they'll want to run for president to you so like they are all are all walking a fine line here to make sure that this is being held up and doing is I'm confirmation or possibly part of it for for the democrats and and I think we're public in on their ways that

We are seeing already that whatever the approach, the anti-Trump approach was in his first term will not be the anti-Trump approach in the second term. And that is that they are all trying to figure out what this is for the anti-Trump Republicans, for the Democrats. How do they oppose him? How do they clash with him without it just seeming knee jerk is the word that a lot of Democrats have been using dismissively. They don't want to be knee jerk opposed.

We're not going to see a women's march like there was in 2017. We're not going to see those sorts of things, but yet to be substantive and attention-grabbing in that opposition. Yeah. All right.

Really interesting. Coming up here on CNN this morning, a major shift in policy with just two months left in office. President Biden authorizes Ukraine to use U.S.-made long-range weapons inside Russia. Plus, how to win back the working class. Democratic Congressman Brendan Boyle here to discuss. And has former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi overstayed her welcome? Reports of a growing rift behind closed doors.

I think Speaker Emerita Pelosi has been incredibly respectful of the entire leadership team.

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Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race. Kamala, I think, still would have won, but she may have been stronger, having taken her case to the public sooner.

Nancy Pelosi has been raising some eyebrows among her own party as she's making it clear who she thinks is at fault for Democrats losing the White House. Some House Democrats reportedly wish she would keep quiet. Axios reporting that one Democratic lawmaker says she needs to take a seat, adding that making scattershot comments is not just unhelpful, it's damaging.

Another member of the Congressional Black Caucus saying, Hakeem has been tremendously grateful and respectful of her, but I don't think she is being respectful of him. The lawmaker there, of course, referring to Hakeem Jeffries, the current Democratic leader who took over after Pelosi stepped aside. He responded to that Axios reporting yesterday.

Speaker Emerita Pelosi has been incredibly respectful of the entire leadership team. It's an honor to stand on the shoulders of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, an incredibly consequential public servant in the history of America, and to continue to work closely with Speaker Pelosi and of course Jim Clyburn and Steny Hoyer. Do you think she's undermining your leadership with her public pronouncements? No.

Pretty straightforward no there. But, I mean, Alex Thompson, she went on to say in that Times interview, Kamala may have, I think she would have done well. She'd been going strong going forward. We don't know that. That didn't happen. We live with what happened because the president endorsed Kamala Harris immediately. That really made it impossible to have a primary at that time if it had been much earlier than

it would have been different. What are you picking up in terms of reaction to this? Yeah, so there are two things going on. And this is from my great colleague Hans Nichols. It says reporting. But there are two things going on. One is people are still trying to blame or put blame on other people for what just happened.

And Pelosi was obviously very involved in replacing Joe Biden, or pushing Joe Biden off the ticket. And now that Harris lost, she's like, well, it wasn't totally my fault that Harris lost because Joe Biden endorsed Kamala Harris. And when he did that, he gave her a $100 million head start because she then inherited the Joe Biden campaign, effectively ended any sort of contest. Now, what House Democrats are saying is,

We're not interested in this blame game with you and Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. We want to move forward and try to chart the path forward. So please stop.

The other part of this is that Nancy Pelosi in 2022, this time two years ago when Joe Biden was deciding whether to run for re-election, was very publicly talking about how excited she was for him to run for re-election. So she's had a number of different versions of this story. And she also had issues with Kamala Harris that dates back to their days in San Francisco that were playing out behind the scenes. You can sort of see. But she...

the the pullback she has not been speaker for two years right there was a a question love how long she would remain in the house she is I think now she stays this full term gonna definitely set a record for former speaker staying in the house I was in San Francisco remember in the fall 2021 reporting that about people expecting that she was about to quit she's filed for reelection to run in 2026

She does not seem to be exiting the stage, even though in addition to being a former speaker, she is 84 years old. And there is a lot of pull both back in San Francisco and in Washington for new leadership.

Yeah, I mean, I think that no one was looking at a calendar when she keeps talking about this primary election. It's like there was not time to do that in the manner that we were in. And like you said, she was supportive of Joe Biden running, so she should go back and look at that. But she was an incredibly consequential speaker, but it is now time to move on and let new leadership take over. One other thing is in terms of her many stories, she also just a few months ago was like, there was an open process and Kamala Harris won. And now she's saying there wasn't an open process, Joe Biden's fault. Right.

After the break here on CNN This Morning, throwing oil on the fire, why the Kremlin says President Biden is escalating the conflict with Ukraine, plus... The food that goes onto that airplane is like just poison. Big Mac and a Coke for the man who once called the food that goes onto Trump's airplane poison.

A major policy shift in the last few months of his presidency. President Biden now giving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky the go-ahead to use long-range American weapons inside Russia, according to officials familiar with the decision. According to one U.S. official, the weapons are intended to be used primarily in Kursk. It's a region in southern Russia where Ukraine launched a counteroffensive over the summer. Moscow has deployed nearly 50,000 troops to the region, including thousands of North Korean troops.

The plan to strengthen Ukraine is the victory plan I had presented to partners. Long-range possibilities for our army is one of its major points. Today, there is a lot of talk in the media about us receiving a permit for respective actions. Hits are not made with words. Such things don't need announcements. Missiles will speak for themselves, for sure.

All right, joining us now from Moscow, CNN international correspondent Fred Pleikin. Fred, good morning to you. We understand the Kremlin has just responded to this policy shift. What are we learning? Yeah.

Yeah, they certainly did. And I think one of the lines you already mentioned that does really go around the media here in Russia is the fact that they said that they think the Biden administration is, as they put it, pouring oil onto the fire before they leave office, obviously saying that they believe that the Biden administration essentially is escalating the conflict in Ukraine. One of the other things that the spokesman for the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, also said is he believes that this will escalate and deepen the West's involvement in the conflict in Ukraine, in the war in Ukraine.

Ukraine. And, you know, one of the things that the Russians keep talking about, the spokesman for the Kremlin, but also the spokesman for the foreign ministry, is that Vladimir Putin has already said what Russia's reaction will be. And that goes back to about three weeks ago, because one of the things we have to keep in mind, Casey, is that Vladimir Putin has been trying to dissuade publicly the Biden administration from making exactly the decision that it has now made. And essentially what Vladimir Putin said is that

He believes that these type of weapons, of course, specifically speaking about the Atacom surface-to-surface missiles, cannot be used, the targeting cannot happen unless with the help of specialists from the country where these weapons come from, obviously in this case meaning the United States. And I want to read to you one quick quote of what Vladimir Putin said back then, because I think it's quite telling. He said, this will mean that NATO countries, the United States and European countries are at

war with Russia, is what Vladimir Putin said back then. Now, they haven't gone that far yet, but one of the things, of course, that's also concerning is that the Russians have actually changed the nuclear doctrine of their country to specifically include a scenario exactly like that, saying that if Russia is attacked by a non-nuclear country using long-distance means, like, for instance, missiles,

supported by a nuclear country, obviously meaning countries like the United States, that this could cause a nuclear reaction from the Russians. So certainly right now, the Russians very much up in arms publicly and saying that right now for them, all options are on the table, Casey. All right. Fred Plankin, Forrest Live from Moscow. Fred, thanks very much for that report.

All right, coming up next here on CNN This Morning, Democrats who split tickets with Donald Trump. What can they teach the rest of the party? Congressman Brendan Boyle joins us live. Plus, Donald Trump picks a big tech critic to run the FCC. How Elon Musk might benefit. We have seen an unprecedented surge in regulatory harassment. The FAA, the DOJ, the Southern District of New York, even the FCC where I work, have taken regulatory action against Elon Musk.

I've heard Democrats complaining that too often Democrats think that they can say, oh, don't worry about your pain. Look at this chart. Yes, that's true. And do you think that that was something that... Absolutely. You can have all the graphs you want. If you open up your checking account and you see that you're making less and there's not enough coming in, it doesn't matter what the GDP growth is. Just being able to recognize that, hey, this is a problem and not just trying to gloss over it, I think was a big, big difference.

Democratic Senator-elect Ruben Gallego says connecting to the working class was key this election, helping him win his Arizona Senate seat, despite the fact that his state went red in the presidential race. Our next guest also belongs to an increasingly small club of Democrats from a state where Trump won. In fact, he has outperformed other Democrats in his district for years. So what's the secret? Perhaps it's because he's prioritized messaging like this since his first congressional campaign back in 2014.

My dad's a janitor for SEPTA. My wife's a public school teacher. We're not millionaires like every one of my opponents. Right now half the Congress are millionaires, but they pay lower taxes than firefighters and teachers. I think their priorities are screwed up. Congress refuses to raise the minimum wage and then cuts programs for the middle class? Over 20 different labor unions endorse me because defending working families is my priority.

AND JOINING US NOW IS DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSMAN BRENDAN BOYLE OF PENNSYLVANIA, ALSO THE RANKING MEMBER OF THE HOUSE BUDGET COMMITTEE. YOU GOT A COUPLE MORE YEARS ON YOU NOW, SIR, THAN YOU DID THEN. BUT ENJOYED WATCHING THAT AD. THIS IS SOMETHING, THOUGH, THAT I THINK IS

pretty critical in general in terms of our leaders here in Washington. And you made the point there that you come from a place where, let's be real, a lot of your fellow members come from much more privileged backgrounds. They have a lot more money. And perhaps they're, and I'm curious kind of your view, perhaps they're more distanced from a lot of the people that they want to represent. How

How much of that do you think was on display in this latest election? And what should your party be doing about it? Well, it's nice to see you back when I had no gray hairs. Thanks for having me on. You know, I think you have to be true to who you are.

I've never forgotten where I come from. Congressman, I'm going to push pause on you for just a second. Our tech team is going to try to figure out if they can work out your sound, because I know that's probably not going to be something you all at home want to listen to. So we'll try to get the congressman back, but we'll talk about this in the meantime. President-elect Donald Trump filling another key position for his second term in office. He has selected Brendan Carr to chair the Federal Communications Commission. Carr is currently the senior Republican on the FCC. Carr's top

priority, going after big tech censorship and possibly punishing TV networks for what he calls political bias. Americans have been living through an unprecedented surge in censorship. The administrative state and the government, the Biden administration has been colluding to shut down free speech, open dialogue, diversity of opinions.

It could mean a big payday for the world's richest man. In the past several years, Carr and Elon Musk have formed a chummy relationship with Carr as a big proponent for Musk's company SpaceX. Politico reporting that quote, "SpaceX, which runs Starlink, is in line to collect hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars in federal subsidies if some key federal decisions go his way in the next administration."

Carr downplayed the idea. He's showing any favoritism toward Musk when he was asked about it by Politico. Our panel is back here. Alex, what's your sense of what this pick could mean kind of in the landscape here? This is obviously not someone who has a household name, right? Most people have probably not heard of Brendan Carr, but obviously they have in Trump world, and there's a reason for that.

Yeah, I mean, he may not be a household name yet, but he might be. I mean, it's not going to be the last time we hear about that 60 Minutes interview just two months ago, which goes to his point about not just tech bias, but he's going to, he's like, Trump has made very clear, like he made very clear while he was running that he was going to review the licenses for CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox,

not cable stations but some of those licenses, you're gonna see some of the biggest probably some the biggest disruptions of what the FCC has done in decades. This is a person who Donald Trump likes to put himself forward as someone who has no ties to anybody but this is somebody who obviously has a lot of business interests that are enmeshed in other things that are going on with Elon Musk. You see from Musk that part of what was going on perhaps was deep

commitment to the Trump ideology but there's also a big business interest here for Elon Musk and that seems to be paying off with this choice right Twitter X whatever you want to call it is a losing money proposition it's a lost leader essentially for Musk what Starlink and SpaceX and what those contracts could be could make the the couple million dollars that he spent on getting out the vote for Trump seemed like the best investment that he could that anybody has ever made pennies on the dollar so to speak all right I think

I think Congressman Boyle is back with us, hopefully with his sound fixed. Congressman, it's good to see you. For anyone who's just tuning in, we had been talking about your working class background, how that matters in terms of our politics and where we go from here. So continue. What were you saying?

Yeah, hopefully you can hear me okay. And, you know, one of the things that's always helped me is I'm authentic to who I am. I haven't forgotten where I come from, in part because I still live here. I still live in Northeast Philadelphia and represent where I was born and raised. I think that more and more as Democrats,

We do have to double down on the fact that we have always been the party ever since the time of Franklin Roosevelt, who represents ordinary working class Americans. But too often we have been effectively caricatured as coastal elitists. That is a real problem. It started out...

really among white working class voters departing us in big numbers. And now we've seen that among Latino, African-American and Asian-American working class voters as well in increasing numbers. So I think it is a real challenge as a party that we have to be serious about addressing

Otherwise, and rather than getting into recriminations about 2024, I'm much more concerned about 2026 and 2028 and fixing this problem. But the good news is we do have many examples of successful Democrats who are able to win the votes of working class Americans.

Congressman, I want to ask you about the former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was quoted recently in The New York Times as saying that she wished that Joe Biden had dropped out of the race earlier to give Kamala Harris more of a runway. And that has prompted some so far mostly anonymous protests.

criticism in Axios specifically of the role that she is playing here. I'm curious if you feel that the former House speaker is a productive voice at this point in helping Democrats figure out where to go from here. Well, Nancy Pelosi is a legendary speaker of the House.

probably the greatest in American history and continues to be an effective spokesperson for the people of her district in San Francisco. I have to say, I find, you know, I said the same thing after 2016 when a lot of people wanted to debate the Hillary-Bernie primary and what could have been. I really had no time for it then, and I don't have time for any sort of would have, could have about 2024 debate.

The reality is it's over. It was a one and a half point race. We lost. We really have to learn the lessons of why we lost so that way we can come back and win in '26 and '28 and beyond.

Sir, the other thing I'd like to ask you about as well is something that's going on in the Senate race, which there is obviously this ongoing recount between Bob Casey, the Democrat, Dave McCormick, the Republican. And there have been some officials in some of the major counties, elected Democratic officials in Philadelphia, Bucks Center and Montgomery counties.

who voted this week to defy, and this is the Washington Post editorial board writing, court decisions at the request of lawyers for Democratic Senator

Bob Casey. These Democrats' decisions will almost certainly be overturned on appeal, but the mere attempt to defy judicial rulings is corrosive to democracy and invites similar behavior in future elections. And again, this is a defiance of a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that provisional ballots must be signed in two places and mail-in votes must be dated. Do you think that what these Democratic officials are doing in these counties is the right thing to do?

Well, first, I mean, I can't say that I know exactly the specifics of what those boards did this past week. On the issue of so-called naked ballots, I think it's unfortunate that those are being counted or not counted in some areas because it's quite obvious.

They were mailed in before Election Day. Nonetheless, though, the ultimate authority here is going to be the state Supreme Court. I believe they are going to rule on this matter in the next week or two. And I am sure that all Democrats will abide by the law, whatever the state Supreme Court decides. All right. Congressman Brendan Boyle for us this morning. Congressman, very grateful to have you. Hope you'll come back soon.

All right, thank you. All right, see you soon. Straight ahead here on CNN This Morning, Donald Trump's mandate to govern. How far does it go? Mark McKinnon here with his thoughts. Plus, he's back. Alec Baldwin returns to SNL, but not as Donald Trump. All right, I gotta go. I got a dead dolphin in my car. I think I might saw it in half and dump it in Central Park.

What they've delivered with the mandate in this election is a demand that we shake up the status quo. This is a mandate. We've got a mandate. Carry out the mandate that's been delivered. The American people gave us that mandate.

The mandate. It has been Republicans' favorite word, one of them, since Donald Trump's decisive win. Congressional Republicans view the upcoming Republican trifecta as a sign that Americans want them to enact Trump's agenda in its entirety, starting with the confirmation of all of his cabinet appointments, no matter how controversial. CNN learning over the weekend, Trump is, quote, 100 percent, end quote, determined to see his most contentious pick, now former Congressman Matt Gaetz, be confirmed as attorney general, despite an unreleased House...

House Ethics Report investigating claims of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use by Gates.

This is what we're focusing on. Matt Gaetz is by any standard completely unqualified to be the Attorney General, and yet we're sort of focused on this, you know, cherry on the cupcake of the ethics report. You know, it sort of reminds me of Al Capone. In 1931, Al Capone is convicted of a couple of counts of tax evasion. Now, he was a killer and a rum runner and a mafioso, and yet he was convicted of tax evasion. This is what the conversation we're having about Matt Gaetz.

All right, joining us now is Mark McKinnon, the former advisor to George W. Bush and John McCain, also creator of Paramount's The Circus. Mark, good morning. Always wonderful to see you. So I'm not sure we've talked. Oh, it sounds like Mark can't hear us here either.

We're just having all the tech, all the tech gremlins are just attacking us today. We're going to push pause on Mark for a second while we try to figure out how to do a troubleshoot that. It is 48 minutes past the hour. We'll do your morning roundup. In a little over an hour, the murder trial of Lakin Riley's suspected killer resumes in Georgia.

Jose Ibarra is accused of killing the 22-year-old nursing student in February. This morning, prosecutors are expected to provide new details showing why they believe the undocumented Venezuelan migrant is responsible. Last week, prosecutors laid out Riley's final moments and how smartwatch data showed she fought for her life for about 20 minutes.

New this morning, Spirit Airlines files for bankruptcy. The budget airliner has struggled with mounting losses and increased competition. In recent years, two deals fell through to sell Spirit to other airlines. Former Donald Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani is heading back to a new courtroom. He's seeking to have a lawsuit thrown out that claims he owes his criminal defense lawyers legal fees in connection with a federal investigation in the Southern District of New York. The former New York City mayor representing himself.

All right, let's turn now to this. President Joe Biden was all smiles when he met President-elect Donald Trump at the White House last week. The meeting between the two rivals was, of course, plenty of fodder for Saturday Night Live. Instead of being rude and crazy like usual, I'm doing quiet and serene, which in many ways is a lot scarier. I'm going to sit here and smile while ignoring the giant fire right behind me.

Just like that meme. Can we put it up side by side? It didn't end there. A litany of controversial pics. SNL added cabinet cast members with one familiar face. Americans need someone to teach them

How to be healthy, someone like me, a 70-year-old man with movie star looks and a worm in his brain. Bobby, I love you. I can't wait to see what you do with this country in terms of health and with regard to measles outbreak. I care deeply about a woman's right to choose, to choose to give her child polio.

Okay, our panel is back. Doug, hi. We have not talked that much this morning about Robert F. Kennedy Jr., probably because, as you point out, Matt Gaetz has sort of trumped all the rest, no pun intended, in terms of controversy. What is your sort of read on whether Kennedy can get confirmed?

He can get confirmed, because Republicans know they probably have one card that they can use to vote no and show some independence. That's if Matt Gaetz obviously comes up to a vote or anyone else. We've seen accusations of fitness or unfitness for other people. But Kennedy is core to the Trump identity. And what we've seen with Republicans is when they've spoken out against Donald Trump, it's been on very specific issues. None of those that go to the core identity of Donald Trump. RFK is there.

You agree, Megan? Yeah, I don't think that he'll have trouble getting confirmed. I think that there are many other people who are more offensive. Again, Matt Gaetz, Tulsi Gabbard, or some others that I think will be more problematic trying to get through their hearings. Caroline Kennedy apparently told reporters that as an ambassador, she's not supposed to comment on politics. She was asked to comment on family, and she said...

Yes, I think Bobby Kennedy's views on vaccines are dangerous, but I don't think that most Americans share them, so we'll just have to wait and see what happens. And what happens when there is an outbreak of a disease or when it comes up for a Senate vote?

the the question here for a lot of these nominees is not at what their whether they're going to get confirmed because most of them well but what what they will do in office once they get there and how people react to whether they will be paying attention to whether they will approve what's being done with see it as part of Trump shake it Washington or see it as that's not what we voted for we're thinking about Donald Trump for thinking about this election

One thing that, of course, came out over the weekend that certainly rippled through my social media feeds was the photo of RFK on the Trump plane doing something that he previously seemed to suggest he would never do, which is eating a Big Mac. Or maybe that's a Big Mac. I don't know. It's a McDonald's burger.

The look on his face, I mean, it's worth noting. Let's play what RFK had previously had to say about the food that goes on to Donald Trump's plane. Let's watch. The stuff that he eats is really bad. Campaign food is always bad, but the food that goes onto that airplane is just poison.

- I can confirm that campaign food is always bad, but let's put his face back up there posing with that Big Mac, Alex Thompson, because this does not look like a man who's thrilled to be there. - It's a hostage video. - Is that what this is?

You know, I also think beyond it being hilarious and just like the grimace on his face as he's being forced to eat poison to please Donald Trump. I also think it gets to what our conversation was before. You know, there are some things that he could do at HHS that actually have a little bit of bipartisanship, bipartisan support, you know, sort of shaking up pharma, shaking up the FDA and like what, you know, stuff we eat. The thing that's going but there is not a bipartisan consensus on his views on vaccines or

on a lot of his more conspiratorial thoughts. And that's going to be the really interesting thing. If he does get confirmed, as Isaac was saying, what he actually does when he has this sort of power could have profound consequences. Yeah, I think it's a good point because there are some things that he's proposing. I mean, fluoride in water, for example, is one of the conversations that's been had in Western European countries, some of whom have removed it, right? And there is oftentimes, and we've talked about this on the show, a kind of...

health-related consensus where the right and the left come together, sometimes in conspiracy theory, but sometimes not. All right. I think Mark McKinnon is back with us now. Mark, can you hear me now? There he is. Good morning. It's wonderful to see you. Do you want to start here? We've been talking about RFK, that sort of photo that he was, Alex Thompson just called it a hostage video where he's eating this food on the plane with Donald Trump because, I mean,

I mean, look, it does seem to say a lot about how Donald Trump operates in the world and what he demands of you when you're gonna be one of his people. - Well, Casey, let me go big picture on the appointments 'cause that's sort of the discussion of the hour and the day and the week.

You talk about Trump's mandate to govern. It's really a mandate for chaos and disruption. I'm struck by how different this feels than eight years ago. I was at the Hilton in New York election night, and I can tell you for sure that Donald Trump was the most surprised person in that room. He was sort of an accidental president in many ways and went into the administration that way. This is different this time. And it's really interesting to me the extent to which in MAGA world,

the point is to blow things up, right? And so a lot of these appointments, the chaos is the point. And the more chaos there is, the more that Trump's going to double down on all of them. And so what he wants from these people is disruption. He wants chaos. He wants controversy. And so that to him is fealty to him. And the more chaos, the better. And it's just it's going to be a very interesting time in government because

In pure MAGA world, and I spent a lot of time with Matt Gaetz, and I can tell you, when he went to Washington, he didn't go to the office, he didn't go to meetings, he just went on TV to blow things up, ask Kevin McCarthy about that.

And most of these agencies, those people are going in not to govern, but to really blow things up. And for example, the Department of Education to eliminate it entirely. So it's going to be interesting to see once these people get in place, and most of them will, their mandate is not to make things better, but to dismantle them. So it'll be interesting when and if, hope to God we don't have another COVID crisis, people turn to government and say, oh, wait, government's supposed to do something, and now it can't.

Yeah. Wait, so Mark, you say you spent a lot of time with Matt Gaetz. Can you illuminate, I mean, share some more about that. What do you know about him that you think we should know in this moment? Well, we had him on our show, The Circus, a bunch of times. And, you know, because he loved the camera, he loved being on TV. And I can just tell you that, you know, his whole life

His whole DNA is to just blow things up. I mean, he just wants to go in and create as much chaos as possible. And so, you know, that's one thing as a congressman to do that and to not go to the meetings and not do what you're supposed to do and to blow up the leadership. That's a little different. It's a little different responsibility when you go to the Department of Justice.

But it's clear that what he thinks his mandate is going to be a justice is to do Donald Trump's bidding, not to run the Department of Justice, but to go after Trump's enemies. And and clearly, you know, he feels like he's got some people have gone after him as well. So, you know, that's going to be his focus is going after what he thinks are enemies. And, you know, the enemies of the state are, you know, in this case, government itself.

Mark, I mean, one of the big questions I have, you know, having covered the entire first Trump administration from Capitol Hill and just watching how opposition to Trump would just collapse in the face of him going after, you know, senators or members of the House, et cetera, like people would start out maybe saying, oh, yeah, we don't like this. And then inevitably they would fold. The only thing that I've ever seen happening

actually change that dynamic is when there is some personal thing behind the scenes with, you know, that is more important to that member because of its longstanding reality, as opposed to, you know, political pressure, ideology, or any of these other things. Do you think that

Do you think that in the case of Matt Gaetz, the deep sort of personal feelings that a lot of members on the Hill have are going to make his confirmation a different experience than some of the other picks that, while maybe outside the mainstream, don't necessarily come with the same level of personal animosity?

Yeah, I do. And I think that that's kind of the point with Trump is like to make the ultimate loyalty test and just to pick the guy that pisses them off more than anybody else. The person has like the least character, the least qualifications to be an appointment and to test these people. But believe me, you know, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski are about to get flamethrowers at them. And we'll just see how strong they are to stand up against that when MAGA lights it up.

Yeah, and of course, another interesting face to watch. We talked about it briefly, but Mitch McConnell, no longer the majority leader. You know, I'd be surprised if he does any sort of blanket opposition, but Tulsi Gabbard might be a place to really watch what he does to see whether or not his national security convictions, right, stand up to that. Mark McKinnon, thank you. Always appreciate it. So glad to see you.

Thanks to our panel for joining us as well. And thanks to all of you for being with us on this Monday. I'm Casey Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now. It's the season to be jolly. Tis the season for the best baking bash of the year. And all kinds of joyous holiday celebrations. And a whole lot of dude.

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