Trump to Reward Rubio with SecState Nod
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It's Tuesday, November 12th, right now on CNN This Morning. President Trump has not just transformed our party, he has inspired a movement.

Rewarding loyalty, Donald Trump looks to stack his White House with staunch defenders as he's expected to tap Senator Marco Rubio to be the nation's top diplomat. Bracing for retribution, DOJ employees prepare for the potential revenge Trump has promised for his political enemies. And... I want the Donald Trump agenda implemented. Jockeying for leadership, Republicans scramble for the top spot in the Senate. But who will the president-elect endorse?

And pushing back Donald Trump's new border czar's message to Democratic governors planning to reject their deportation plan. All right, just a few seconds before 6 a.m. here on the East Coast, a live look at a beautiful sunrise in New York City on this Tuesday morning. I believe we're now one week out from the election. Feels like longer. I don't know how you guys feel about it. But anyway, good morning, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.

The second Trump White House taking shape as Donald Trump picks more cabinet members and other high-ranking officials. The president-elect making these decisions with one key trait at top of mind. Loyal. We could use some more loyalty, I will tell you that. I love loyalty. People in politics can be very disloyal. I've never seen anything like it. Loyalty.

You know, some of these people have like a 10% loyalty, meaning if they sneeze in the wrong direction, they're gone. I would have wiped the floor with the guys that weren't loyal, which I will now do, which is great. You know, I love getting even. If given the opportunity, I will get even with some people that were disloyal to me. I mean, I had a group of people that were disloyal. But how do you define disloyalty? They didn't come to my aid.

Loyalty, a quality that Donald Trump has prized, you can see there, throughout his life, and one that seems to be the key to getting a job in the second Trump White House shortly after the election. Mike Davis, a conservative legal operative and possible contender for attorney general, posted this on Twitter, now X, quote, Dear Trump job seekers, before asking me for help, I am going to ask you to provide me specific and concrete evidence of your loyalty to Trump, end quote.

The headline this morning in the Wall Street Journal, quote, loyalty is common thread as Trump fills foreign policy immigration jobs.

And CNN's own Stephen Collinson writing this this morning, quote, each selection or anticipated pick so far has one thing in common, ultra loyalty to Trump, especially during his indictment-strewn post-presidency. Each person is known for paying the kind of exaggerated homage in television interviews that the president-elect adores, a sense of betrayal often burned in Trump's first term when members of government prioritized their oath to the Constitution over their fealty to him.

Overnight, CNN learned Trump is likely to pick Marco Rubio as his Secretary of State, according to two sources familiar with his thinking. He'll join Governor Kristi Noem, who is Trump's choice for the Secretary of Homeland Security, Representative Mike Waltz as National Security Advisor, Tom Homan, Border Czar, Stephen Miller, Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, and Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, Ambassador to the United Nations.

Each of them staunch Trump loyalists, and each messaging clearly and publicly that they are all in on Trump, ready to execute and not question his agenda.

The only way to make America wealthy and safe and strong again is to make Donald J. Trump our president again. I was a proud member of President Trump's impeachment defense team. He exhibits peace through strength. He destroys our enemies and swiftly without hesitation. He sat across the table from the bureaucrats and the generals and said, if you don't give our troops what they need,

You know what he told the generals? You're fired. These cartels are animals, and that's why President Trump's going to take them off the face of the earth. Are you going to surrender or are you going to follow the example of President Donald J. Trump and fight, fight, fight to the finish and save this nation, save this country, save this civilization and save this glorious republic?

There you have it. Joining us now to discuss Annie Linsky, White House reporter for The Wall Street Journal, Elliott Williams, CNN legal analyst, former federal prosecutor, Kate Bedingfield, CNN political commentator, former Biden White House communications director, and Doug High, Republican strategist, former communications director for the RNC. Welcome to all of you. Very nice to have you here. Elliott, so the biggest difference here, I mean, as we showed, Donald Trump has wanted people loyal to him for his entire life, right? This is not a new thing.

But there is a difference from the incoming, you know, the 2017 administration and now where the people who surround him are unquestioningly loyal to him. When you look at, he did this fascinating interview that I recommend with David Rubenstein about,

it was presidential history basically, and Rubenstein kept asking him, "What was your biggest mistake last time?" And Trump kept saying, "The wrong people. I put the wrong people in there." There were a lot of people who held up his impulses because they felt loyalty to something else.

That's not gonna be the case this time. You worked inside DOJ and all these other agencies. What does that mean? - Look, it remains to be seen. The former president, first time around, actually did have a number of competent people and professionals who shared his ideological vision in government, but they didn't last. His secretary of state, his chief of staff, simply did not make it.

from doing their jobs. And let's use the example today of Marco Rubio, who is somebody who by any metric is eminently qualified, spectacularly qualified to be Secretary of State having served on the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

But it'll be interesting to see how that plays out. If the excessive loyalty of the president is what wins over, or if the places where he has deviated from the president over the years, immigration, are you listening, might be sort of sticking points. Immigration being the really big one because it involves a secretary of state. Right. Well, so you mentioned immigration being the big one, but you may remember they ran against each other for president back in 2016. Let's take a little walk down memory lane. No pun intended on that word, little. Watch it.

Have you seen his hands? They're like this. And you know what they say about men with small hands? You can't trust them. Look at those hands. Are they small hands? And he referred to my hands. If they're small, something else must be small. I guarantee you there's no problem. I guarantee. So I looked at him. I said, Marco, those hands can hit a golf ball 285 yards.

I want to show the size of my hands how I could grab him. How I could grab him. So we didn't see him use, hey, little Marco, but that was the nickname. That's the thing, I feel like Trump, you know, he wants, you know, recent loyalty. I mean, if you look at Rubio, the clips you just showed, but also J.D. Vance, who he picked to be his vice president, certainly was no paradigm of loyalty, you know, just, you know, a decade ago. So Trump's

Trump does seem to show a significant, you know, um, ability for forgiveness, um, for disloyalty. And then I would say the other thing about Rubio is he also, um, broke with Trump on a key thing, which was the 2020 election. I mean, he did vote to certify, um,

Pennsylvania, Arizona. So that was another area where he, and he used the rationale for doing that, for breaking with Trump and certifying the election, was how the country looked to foreign governments. So I think Rubio has shown some independence, even if he's, of course, up there campaigning for the president. Well, so Doug, how do you come back from this kind of a thing with Trump? If you are Marco Rubio, how is it that he is in the inner circle considering these realities? Well, how did Kamala Harris come back?

for joe biden after she knifed him in the presidential debate look we saw a series of clips of people criticizing donald trump and people being loyal to donald trump yes there's a failte to donald trump but a lot of this is very normal you know i would get calls almost every week during the campaign from reporters about michael whatley the rnc chair because i'm from north carolina every article would say michael whatley comma a trump loyalist

Never one time did I see Jamie Harrison, comma, a Biden loyalist. Of course you're loyal to your boss. And if you're in a very difficult political crisis and you stay loyal to him, you're rewarded for that. Bill Clinton still talks about the people who were loyal to him in 1998 through his impeachment. Yes, does Donald Trump come with a higher standard and are at your risk of a button being pushed and the floor falling off of under you? Absolutely. Absolutely.

A lot of this is very normal. I get that, but what's the difference between Rubio and Pompeo, right? Pompeo actually served with Trump and has been booted. The difference is with Donald Trump, Donald Trump doesn't give points. He only takes them away one at a time. And Mike Pompeo lost his point. Nikki Haley, who was trying to come back on the campaign trail, Trump very shrewdly never acknowledged or never allowed her to. And we see that she's on the outside now, even though if he had, he might have been able to increase his margin a little bit.

Doug is right that there is a certain, you know, I'm always loathe to normalize Trump broadly because I think so much of what he does is abnormal and often dangerous, frankly. The hand stuff, yes. Well, yeah, and just, you know, takes our public discourse to just a really low and cheap and kind of gross place. But, I mean, yes, Doug is right, of course. It is true there is an element of loyalty that is baked into how presidents think about who they represent.

who they staff up. That is true for Democrats. That's true for Republicans. I mean, the difference with Trump is that he's often asking his loyalists to do things that are wildly, or at least what we saw in, in, you know, 2020, uh,

uh... that are wildly outside of the bounds of the constitution so it's it's a little different to say you know jamie harrison is like working to put you know money in the campaign work on the harris wants it well it versus you donald trump is asking uh... you know senators to not certified the election and fulfill their you know they're they're constitutional duty so it's it is absolutely true that loyalty is a is a component of politics of course it is that the question the fear the challenge

comes when the president is potentially asking these people to do things that run counter to the Constitution. If Kamala Harris had won, we wouldn't see a series of clips of these people who are backing Kamala Harris are now getting these cabinet appointments because we'd say this is business as usual. You're right. Donald Trump asked people to do things that morally they probably don't want to do. They somehow find a way to get there. Certainly that had ramifications for January 6th. But

Politicians hire people who are loyal. When you win a campaign, your team comes with you. That's true of a mayor's race, congressional race, presidential.

Right. Again, I think hitting the nail on the head, right? When the loyalties collide, what are these people asked to do by their boss? And what are they expected to do in those situations? All right. Straight ahead here on CNN this morning in this place directly into the conversation we're having. It could be Donald Trump's most important cabinet pick. How the DOJ is bracing for his selection for attorney general. Plus, president-elect's new border czar delivers a warning to Democratic governors hoping to stand in the way of mass deportations.

And Senator Rick Scott tries to ride the MAGA momentum in his bid for Senate Majority Leader. Will it be enough to secure an endorsement from Trump himself? I'm very optimistic. I believe I'm going to win. Here's what I bring to the table. I clearly believe in the Trump agenda.

I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, host of the Chasing Life podcast. There are nearly 7 million Americans living with Alzheimer's disease. Any progress in the field has seemed incremental at best. But in the process of filming a recent documentary called The Last Alzheimer's Patient, I saw some incredible signs of hope. It wasn't always about new expensive or experimental drugs, but lifestyle changes instead. Listen to Chasing Life, streaming now, wherever you get your podcasts.

They've demeaned us, they've demonized us and censored us and de-platformed us and weaponized the power of our own government against us. They've gone after their political opponent, me. It's unbelievable. I call it coordinating with the Injustice Department. No, I thought it would have looked terrible to take Hillary Clinton. I could have locked her up. She did so many bad things. But wouldn't that be terrible?

As Donald Trump fills out his cabinet picks for a second term, who he wants to lead the Justice Department could be among, if not, could be the most consequential choice he makes. The department and special counsel Jack Smith opened two prosecutions against him under the Biden administration. Trump has vowed to end those cases as soon as he takes office. The day after you take the oath of office, or maybe even the day that you take the oath of office, you're either going to have to pardon yourself or you're going to have to fire Jack Smith. Which one will you do?

It's so easy. I would fire him within two seconds. Now CNN is reporting current Justice Department employees are bracing for possible political retribution in a second term, something Trump and his allies have talked about on the campaign trail. Using the DOJ to go after opponents is something Trump has long sought from his attorneys general going back to Bill Barr during his first term in office.

Unless Bill Barr indicts these people for crimes, the greatest political crime in the history of our country, then we're going to get little satisfaction unless I win and we'll just have to go because I won't forget it. But these people should be indicted. This was the greatest political crime in the history of our country. And that includes Obama and it includes Biden. These are people that spied in my campaign.

So, Elliot Williams, there are people inside the Justice Department who are worried about political retribution to the point that the attorney, Mark Zaid, is recommending that people take a vacation. Just watch this.

We're talking about people who have been specifically called out by the former president of the United States. And we're not rushing to it, I'm not saying sell your home, move overseas, never come back, become an expat. I'm telling certain clients, a small number, that you know what, take a vacation for inauguration and let's see what happens in the days or week or two afterwards.

- Remarkable, what do you expect? - Well, I would say the converse is probably better, which is that it is a nonpartisan, nonpolitical career class of employees that will save government. And it is in fact not a great idea to resign and step down and start taking vacations 'cause you're afraid of an incoming president. Look, I think a message that's lost in all this is, and frankly, I served in both Republican and Democratic administrations.

And there is a shift in policy from administration to administration. That's okay. And quite frankly, that's a good thing. You don't want the government just doing one thing in perpetuity. There are different ways to skin a cat. Responding to the voters. Responding to the voters. And that applies even at the Justice Department as well. When you start talking about, number one, specifically targeting individuals, retribution against opponents and so on, you start...

and firing employees simply because they disagree with you, that's where you start getting into a very, very dangerous place for the Justice Department or government generally. - Elliot, what do you think are the real differences among the candidates that Trump has said to be considering? I mean, are there choices that seem materially stronger in your view in terms of the rule of law versus others? - It's hard to say what's actually a serious choice. You hear about Mike Davis,

this sort of conservative provocateur who, frankly, probably would not make it through Senate confirmation and may end up somewhere else. The ideal candidate has at least served in the Justice Department in some capacity and recognizes that even in a government agency where not everybody's going to agree with you, you can still have a vision and a mission and still carry it out.

And I really do believe the important role here is for the career attorneys, not the mid-level political managers or anything like that. It's the people who were here yesterday will be here today and will still be here tomorrow regardless of who's president. - Remember, this is also reality TV. This is Donald Trump we're talking about. So as we have these names,

coming out, the one that everybody is looking at the hardest is the Attorney General. Wouldn't surprise me if Trump keeps this going on, tune in next week, and that the AG is the one we find out about last. - Entirely possible. - There's also just a question for him of, as he looks at his kind of political landscape, what does he want to prioritize? Yes, he is gonna have a significant majority in the Senate,

likely gonna have the house he is was given a huge mandate in this election no question about it so Donald Trump has the opportunity to look at the the landscape here and say here the two or three things I want to prioritize coming out of the gate

Is that really going to be like trying to go after like career folks at the Justice Department? Or is he going to spend his political capital on some of the promises he made on immigration or some of the promises he made on the economy? I don't know the answer to that, obviously. But he has people around him who are politically shrewd, obviously, who are making these decisions. So, you know, I think we can't we've got to overlay the broader kind of political perspective.

landscape on this too. - I'd also say, you know, the last, I mean, Biden and also Trump in his first term were both investigated to some extent by their own DOJs. And I think, you know, if you want to look at a litmus test, I think you could probably be safe to assume that Trump is going to want a head of the Department of Justice

who is not going to appoint a special counsel. And I do wonder whether Joe Biden really wishes that Merrick Garland had not decided to allow a special counsel to go forward who searched his home. So I think, you know, I think that's a sort of a given that you can expect that that will be like a flat out litmus test. Yeah, fair enough. All right. Coming up here on CNN this morning, racking up endorsements, Senator Rick Scott getting support from Trump allies.

to lead Congress's upper chamber, while the president-elect still holding out. Plus, what do AOC and Donald Trump have in common? Apparently, Instagram has the answer. All right, at this hour, the United States is bookended by wildfires. In California, wind advisory is in place for parts of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, raising fears the mountain fire will keep spreading. This is, like, surreal. I mean, I know we live in a fire danger area, but this is not... It came out of nowhere. It was so fast.

Hundreds of structures in the area and agricultural officials estimate more than $6 million in damages to crucial farmland. On the East Coast, the Jennings Creek fire raging across parts of New York and New Jersey. And that's where we find CNN's Lee Waldman this morning. She joins us live with the latest there. Lee.

Casey, good morning. So the high winds that we're experiencing in dry air combined with the historic drought is making this really, really difficult. You can see law enforcement vehicles blocking an area of the roadway where there's active wildfire burning. On the other side of the road, we saw a few trees actually sparking this morning. There's not mandatory evacuations in place, but officials are telling some residents here it's time to go.

This was not on fire half hour ago. Thousands of acres near the New York and New Jersey border have been burned by the Jennings Creek wildfire since it sparked last week. We are asking for people to live on Cliff Road and we would like to voluntarily evacuate people in other areas be prepared to. Historic drought conditions are fueling the fire aided in part by wind and dry air. Chris Frenick with the New Jersey Forest Fire Service says the rugged terrain is also a challenge

for their response. Making access to go fight the fire hard, hard to get equipment in there because some areas is too steep for bulldozers to go to. Fire crews from New Jersey and New York are working together, attacking the fire from the ground and from the sky, working to contain it and keep it from threatening homes and other structures in the area. Some who live there are being encouraged to leave. Police knocked on our door like maybe an hour or two ago and just said,

If you guys want to get a bag ready and if you have somewhere to go, maybe you should go. Frenick says one volunteer firefighter was treated for smoke inhalation over the weekend. And 18-year-old Darielle Vasquez died Saturday while working as a volunteer New York State Forest Ranger. In a GoFundMe page, his family describes him as, quote, a true hero, someone who lived his life with purpose, who put others before himself. All right, that was Lee Waldman reporting for us in Hewitt, New Jersey. Thank you.

Alright, ahead on CNN this morning, three Republicans vying for the top job in the Senate. Why President-elect Trump might be hesitant to support the one that's backed by Elon Musk. Plus, why Trump's pick to head up the EPA is making environmentalists nervous. So day one and the first 100 days, we have the opportunity to roll back regulations that are forcing businesses to be able to struggle.

I'm CNN's John King. Join me for the podcast All Over the Map. The election, of course, is behind us now. And in some ways, it was a stunner of an outcome. So we're going to return today to the voices of the people we've gotten to know in the last year and a half. I think a lot of people that's hurting right now, especially women. People around me were in the closet about how they were going to vote. I have so much hope. Listen to All Over the Map wherever you get your podcasts.

Rick Scott. I was there at the beginning for Rick. He's doing a good job. It's not easy, I will tell you, and he's doing a hell of a job.

That was Donald Trump in 2011, praising Florida Senator Rick Scott, who is one of the three men now running to replace Mitch McConnell as the Senate Majority Leader. Although Trump and Scott's relationship precedes the president-elect's time in politics, Trump has yet to publicly endorse anyone for the role, even as Scott has earned the support of several high-profile Trump allies. Our next guest reports this, quote, one nagging question has held Trump back from endorsing the senator publicly. Can Rick win?

Winning is one of the most important things for Trump, but loyalty is not far behind, nor is the appetite for revenge against perceived adversaries. Scott checks those latter two boxes with bright MAGA red X's. Scott making his commitment to Trump clear ahead of tomorrow's secret ballot vote.

I want the Donald Trump agenda implemented. I want his nominees confirmed as quickly as we can get those nominees confirmed so we can get to work. I believe I'm going to win because I represent exactly what the Trump team wants and what Trump wants and what the American public wants. I am all on board.

Joining us now, national political reporter for The Bulwark, Mark Caputo. Mark, good morning. That, of course, was your reporting there about Rick Scott. I have to say, look, I've covered the Hill for a long time. Typically, this kind of outside pressure is not received terribly warmly by senators who like to do their own thing, don't like to be told what to do. And quite candidly, Rick Scott is not terribly well-liked with a lot of his colleagues. What else are you hearing?

That's about right. When you campaign, govern, act in a senatorial capacity as the anti-establishment outsider, well, the insiders don't like you. And that's probably the biggest problem that Rick Scott has sort of on a personal basis. And then sort of more broadly, to your point, senators don't like being told what to do. As one person whom I spoke with for the story told me, they basically all think they're a little president.

And there's a little bit of resistance to having Donald Trump be their sort of boss and everything and calling all of the shots. They probably want a little bit of independence. It is a secret ballot. So that makes it really difficult for Trump to be able to sort of single out senators and put pressure on them to get him to vote his way.

So, Mark, we saw what Rick Scott is out there saying now about where he stands, what he would do. I think to sort of underscore why Trump world seems to like him right now, as opposed to John Cornyn and John Thune, the other two top candidates, we can look back at some of the things that Cornyn and Thune had to say in the midst of the Republican primary campaign, the presidential primary in 2023. Watch this. You have to appeal to a broader segment of the population.

in a general election. And President Trump seems to have loyal support in the primary, but not so much in a general election. I think people in this country are ready for generational change and I think change in tone in our politics. There's an exhaustion factor, there's a fatigue factor with the American people and always a lot of drama around the former president.

So I think we can, of course, say sitting here today that both of those assessments were wrong. But it may be part of why the Trump team is nervous about these two, no? Right. They don't like the fact that these guys aren't MAGA. And MAGA is kind of a big ideological trend, or maybe I should say a big Republican tent. And there are a number of different people from different walks of life in it. And Rick Scott's one of them. He has been with Donald Trump almost since day one.

Rick Scott has had a no endorsement policy or used to have one in a Republican primary. And when he was governor in 2016, he basically broke it by issuing a non-endorsement endorsement of Donald Trump in January of 2016 in an op-ed in USA Today and made it pretty clear he was on

President Trump's or then candidate Trump's side. And he's been by his side the entire time. So yeah, what they want in Magaville, in Trump world, is someone who's really gonna sign off on President Trump's agenda. And these two other guys more than likely, if past is prologue and if their prior words mean anything, just aren't fully sold on it.

It is kind of striking that these two senators at that point, this late in the game, had still underestimated Donald Trump, because the reality is, is those who are truly with him thought he was going to win all along. Now, maybe they were just being hopeful, but it turned out that they were right. And in their view, there is a price for being wrong and they hope to exact that. But again, right now, it doesn't look like the numbers are there for Rick Scott anymore.

Yeah. Well, we're going to find out tomorrow. Mark, the Bulwark's Mark Caputo. Always enjoy your reporting, sir. Thank you so much for being here. Thanks, Casey. All right. Let's turn out of this. The former New York congressman Lee Zeldin is President Trump's pick to head up the EPA. Zeldin's first task expected to be overturning several Biden administration initiatives like tailpipe regulations for vehicles and pollution guidelines for power plants and oil and gas producers.

So day one and the first 100 days, we have the opportunity to roll back regulations that are forcing businesses to be able to struggle. At the COP 29 climate summit this week, there has been growing concern that President-elect Trump will once again pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreements after hearing this kind of rhetoric on the campaign trail.

I will end Kamala's war on Pennsylvania energy. And we will frack, frack, frack, and drill, baby, drill. We're going to drill, baby, drill. I will cut your energy prices, all of your energy, gasoline for the house, air conditioning, heating, everything.

All right. Our panel is back now. Doug, hi. Lee Zeldin for EPA. Why? What is the biggest difference that he could make? I mean, I'm thinking about the EV regulations that the Biden administration put into place that caused no small amount of consternation.

All of that aside, what was our previous conversation? Loyalty. Lee Zeldin has been a big Trump backer essentially since, if not day one, month one. And so people like that are going to be rewarded. Now, you know, we'll have to look at what is his real environmental background. Doesn't seem to be a whole deep history there other than, you know, any member of Congress has voted on every issue under the sun. But this comes down to he's a Trump backer. There you go. But, you know, it's a couple things. One, if

Because there is a strong sense among many people in the Republican Party that regulating the environment is really about business. The goal here was to put somebody in who's pro-business, not with an environmental background, right? And anybody would have been. I mean, I also think, you know, if you fundamentally disagree with the mission of the agency and also as the former president or the next president, right?

seems to sort of have a contempt for government. You can put anybody in, it's just a management role. And I don't say that dismissively. He's even said as much. As long as somebody's a good businessman, he can go and-- - Yeah, it's a managerial and a messaging role. - He's also somebody who, I mean, he did come within a couple of points of winning the governor's race in New York. Blue, blue New York.

for, you know, this is not somebody who's like really truly from the MAGA wing of the party. So I found that to be interesting. And also just, you know, kind of going back to New York, this is the second New Yorker that Donald Trump, a New Yorker, is putting into his cabinet, which I found to be, you know, at least a common, the common background

- Florida and New York are like the two poles for Donald Trump when it's coming to these picks. And you know, Zeldin's a former congressman, but one of the challenges that Trump has here, a lot of the people that he's picking are coming from the House of Representatives, current members. That could create problems as Republicans will have a majority, but a slim one. If we have vacancies, various tight votes could be problematic. - Yeah.

All right, still ahead here on CNN This Morning, Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, the key positions he's naming for his second term, how they might carry out promises of mass deportations. Plus, at first glance, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Donald Trump could not be more different, but they aligned more than you'd think in the minds of some voters.

They're both disruptors. And there's a massive appetite right now in our country to disrupt a political system that increasing numbers of Americans are really disgusted by. Who's going to stand up and say the cartels are gone, the criminal migrants are gone, the gangs are gone, America is for Americans and Americans only?

That's Stephen Miller, the man expected to be Donald Trump's choice for deputy chief of staff for policy in the new administration. Miller has long been a hawk on restricting immigration, dating back to his time as an aide and speechwriter in the first Trump administration. In his new role, Miller is planning to carry out Trump's calls for mass deportation starting on day one. When will the deportations begin? As President Trump said, they begin on Inauguration Day, as soon as he takes the oath of office.

Along with Miller, Trump also announcing on Truth Social that Tom Homan, the former acting director of ICE, will join his administration as the, quote, border czar. The president-elect also noting Homan will be in charge of, quote, all deportations of illegal aliens back to their country of origin. Homan is now warning Democratic governors about standing in the way of Trump's plans for a second term.

I've seen some of these Democratic governors say they're going to stand in the way, they're going to make it hard for us. Well, you know, a suggestion. If you're not going to help us, get the hell out of the way, because we're going to do it. The bottom line is, sanctuary cities are sanctuaries for criminals. If sanctuary cities don't want to help us, then get the hell out of the way, because we're coming.

All right. Elliot Williams, you worked with that man shown there. What can you tell us about him and how this is all going to play out? I don't know how it's all going to play out. And here's why. You can talk a big game about removing a million people from the country, but we should just talk through what that actually means. When I was there, so the four years I was working with Tom at ICE every day, we were removing about 400,000 people a year, which was unprecedented at that point. It's a lot.

- Is that under the Obama administration? - That's under the Obama administration. And if you were to get to a million people like they're talking about, number one, you very quickly get from guys in cartels to granny when you're talking about that number. They're just simply are not the volume of the dangerous folks.

that you're going to wish. So number one, as a practical matter, it's not going to happen. Number two, money, staffing, resources, bed space in jails and facilities simply do not exist. So somehow between now and Inauguration Day, you're going to have to spend literally tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars to construct new space, hire new people, bring new bodies on. Well, they can't do that between now and Inauguration Day. That's what I'm saying. They have to wait until Inauguration Day. It is a fiction that

that any of that can really happen in the time they're talking about. Now, I wanna be clear, and I said this earlier on the show, it is important to recognize that there's going to be a shift from administration to administration, including on the border, including on removals and deportations, that yes, you get a new president, they have a different vision and that's okay, but they're sort of using these,

thuggish bully talking points that aren't actually able to be put into practice. And also just to step back for a minute, I mean, Donald Trump won this election on two issues, immigration and inflation. The president of the United States really can't do that much about inflation, but he can on immigration. So it makes a lot of sense that he's going to come right out of the box and focus on the area that he does actually have

quite a bit of control over. Well, and we're seeing some Democratic governors, and that was kind of what he was focusing on, saying we're going to stand in the way of these plans

I mean, Kate, is that the right message for them to have received? I don't think so. I do not think so. Look, I think I have to imagine what the Trump administration is going to do. They're going to come out of the gate in the first week on day one with a number of executive orders that are going to have a lot of muscular language. I think Elliot's right. The reality of the cost, the logistics of doing truly mass deportation, I think they're going to run up a

against a wall here but there's no question they are going to message on this aggressively coming out the gate and no I think it is I'm I think for democratic governors to knee-jerk take a position love you know we're gonna fight this I is is not smart I do think democratic governors need to be responsive to what people said on Tuesday that does not mean they need to wholeheartedly embrace family separation and mass deportation but the democrats put forward a very aggressive border bill by the way in the last year

that any Democratic governor would be smart, I think, to embrace. And so I think, you know, I understand the, because of the most kind of callous and hateful language that the Stephen Millers of the world use, I understand why Democratic governors sort of feel, you know, on a moral level, that it's their obligation to oppose it. That I get.

But I think having just a knee-jerk reaction that we're going to be seen as the people who are standing in the way of taking more aggressive steps on immigration is not the place to be for the Democrats. Kate's right to bring up the executive orders. And if we look back at Donald Trump's presidency, one of the things that he did as a show that was very effective for him, he would sign language. And regardless of what the language said, he said, look at what I just did. Absolutely. So he signs executive orders on specific issues around the border, around immigration, and he holds up pictures.

we just removed this thug, we just removed this drug dealer, we just removed this murderer. And as he does that, some on the left may cry Willie Horton, but the American public are saying, it's a good thing that that person is gone. It's gonna be a brilliant tactical move by Trump. - All right, let's turn to this story now. In last week's election, some New Yorkers voted for two people who on the surface seem to have nothing in common. - Socialist Bernie Sanders, AOC, all these people.

Liberal lawmakers are pushing a government takeover. We know that Donald Trump would sell this country for a dollar if it meant lining his own pockets. Some voters in New York's 14th district splitting their tickets, voting for progressive Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and for Donald Trump. Curious how she outperformed Harris by a significant margin. Ocasio-Cortez took to Instagram yesterday to ask her constituents why.

If you voted for Donald Trump and me, or if you voted for Donald Trump and voted Democratic down ballot, I would really love to hear from you. I actually want to learn from you.

Fascinating. Among the answers she received, quote, "It's real simple. Trump and you are for the working class." Quote, "I feel like Trump and you are both real." And quote, "You signified change. Trump signified change."

really fascinating. Kate Bedingfield. Extremely fascinating. So smart of her to do this. I mean, just so, just such a smart use of, of her connection that she has with voters via social media. And yeah, I mean this, I think this, this common thread in a lot of these answers about how both she and Trump are real, uh, you know, it is very telling. I mean, people feel like most politicians are talking pointed to death. They're fake. They're, you know, they're not real. Uh,

And she and Trump can espouse wildly different policy positions, but still both give a sense to people that they're actual real people who are saying what they think. And that authenticity is extremely powerful. It's priceless. When I worked for Eric Cantor, the House Majority Leader, in 2012, we realized going through the election results, 8% of our voters also voted for Barack Obama. And Cantor was sort of viewed as an public enemy number one for the Obama administration. And we thought, who in the hell

the hell are those voters? This is really smart of her to try and figure that out. It may mean she has some opportunities, very narrow ones maybe, to work with the administration and really bolster her credentials. Well, and Donald Trump, I mean, I'm not sure if this is a game recognizes game moment or what, but this was what Donald Trump had to say about AOC over the summer. Watch. She's got a thing going. It's a good thing. She's a good thing for her.

But there's a certain something she's got. She's got a spark. That's pretty amazing, actually. She's got a good spark. I give her credit. But she's got a lot of sizzle. Spark. Sizzle. I'm not going to touch that before we're talking about spark and sizzle. But the authenticity is huge that people see an authenticity in the two of them. And Doug, you know New York, too, with the background there. We talked about this on the show on Friday about corporations.

Queens in particular. And I think people see these urban areas as monoliths. Queen is as working class, an area, the most diverse county in the United States. She's got parts of the Bronx too. It does not surprise me in the least that on economic issues, at least, and some other political messaging is going to resonate across parties. And I think people take that

for granted seeing black and brown New York and thinking it's all just this Democratic struggle. She also did something here that every politician from both parties say that they do, and I have actually never seen it before, which is like, actually listen. Ask, she genuinely is asking, I'm confused by this. This is surprising to me. I'm not going to pretend like I know the answer.

I want to listen to you. And I've heard so many politicians say, oh, we're doing a listening tour. Well, you know what happens in those listening tours is they do a lot of talking. And she did. It's a listening tour to supporters, to people that were in the attention. Yeah, she's actually saying very earnestly, I want to know the answer here. And I just, I really, I think that's rare to see in politics. I don't know if you guys have seen it, but I don't see it often.

I mean, I think that's a wonderful point. I mean, I have covered listening tours and you are completely correct about how they typically go. I mean, Kate, what do you think? Okay, to be fair, she's also asking people to tell her why she's great. Right. I mean, she's not like going on and saying, tell me why you didn't vote for me. It's a beautiful Venn diagram. Why Conan's so great.

Why I'm amazing and why you're right in the middle. It's super smart and great, but let's be clear here. But I think my question here is that we have focused so much on how the distinction here is class-based and that the Republican Party has clearly moved in a more working class direction. I'm not trying to dispute that, but this does seem to suggest that

that's fuck that's changeable that it it that her you know that the place that she has to go on that may also be you know the Democrats could take up that space and I'm curious what you think about what message it sends on the cultural stuff in the Democratic Party yeah well I mean I think she's she's clearly signaling she's clearly saying you know tell me if there's a tell me if there's a different path here I think it I think it is very clear that Democrats have kind of lost

I think a lot of what people associate with the Democratic Party on the culture front feels out of touch with their day-to-day lives. I think the other smart thing about what she was doing here is saying, you know, "How can I learn from this? How can the Democratic Party learn from this?" I think there's absolutely space for Democrats to reclaim some of that. I think the Democratic agenda and the Democratic, you know, building blocks on policy are all part of the same thing.

all designed to help working people and middle class people. And so I think there's space for that. It is clear that the party has to have a reckoning on

where they are in the culture wars because they've lost touch with a lot of the country. Fascinating. All right, well, I don't want to lose this kicker, we sometimes call it, because we as a country could use some more moments of coming together. I'm going to leave you with this. The legendary musical duo mending a fractured relationship. Within the sound of silence

The silence has been broken between Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. They patched things up over lunch a few weeks back. And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson. Garfunkel telling the New York Times he was a fool for his role in their estrangement. Like I over traveled.

Simon and Garfunkel had a falling out in 1970 after the release of that smash hit, "Bridge Over Troubled Water." They reunited briefly several times over the years, but it never stuck. Art Garfunkel's son says his dad now realizes Simon and his family, they are in a wonderful place, and he's not ruling out a possible collaboration.

And like this song, it's a lesson a lot of Americans could perhaps heed at this point in time. Paul and Oates, figure it out. We need you back. Paul and Ringo. I personally am thrilled to see this from Simon and Garfunkel, one of my favorite bands, thanks to my parents who grew up in the 70s. Thanks to our panel. Thanks to you for joining us. I'm Casey Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now.