Fulfilling His Vow
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Fulfilling his vow, Donald Trump rolls out his day-one plan to slap tariffs on two U.S. allies and one longtime adversary. Plus, And have you ruled out a pardon for your son? Yes.

And then... A new era. The longest-serving Senate leader prepares to exit his post. But Mitch McConnell, still poised to be a thorn in Donald Trump's side.

All right, 6 a.m. here on the East Coast, a live look at a foggy New York City here on this Tuesday morning of this Thanksgiving holiday week. Good morning, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.

Let the trade wars begin. Donald Trump making good on a campaign promise to increase tariffs on America's biggest trading partners. In a Truth Social post, the president-elect announcing that on day one of his second administration, he plans to institute a 25% tax on all goods imported from Canada and Mexico.

The move, he said, is retaliation for the movement of drugs and undocumented immigrants across America's borders. Trump followed up that post with another, promising to raise existing tariffs on Chinese goods a further 10 percent, blaming China for their role in the fentanyl trade. In a statement to CNN, the Chinese embassy responded, saying, quote, no one will win a trade war or a tariff war.

Tariffs are effectively a tax on imported goods, and experts warn that they result in higher prices for goods that Americans buy every day. Shortly before the election, the CEOs of Columbia and AutoZone said this, quote, we'll just raise the prices. It's going to be very, very difficult to keep products affordable for Americans. And quote, if we get tariffs, we will pass those tariff costs back to the consumer. And this just last week from the CFO of America's largest retailer, Walmart.

We've actually lived in a tariff environment for the last seven years, so we're very familiar with that. Tariffs are going to be inflationary. There's no disputing that. And likely consumers are going to pay more for the items that these tariffs are applied to. But Trump, who instituted tariffs on some Chinese imports during his first term, has long touted them as a way to equalize trade deficits and promote American manufacturing.

Now, I say you put a 25% tax on everything that's made in China. Our government should have stopped China from devaluing. They can't. They never even bring them up. It's the number. Of course they can. How? You know how they can? Yeah, how? Very simply. Bill, it's so simple. They put a tariff on Chinese goods. We have to use the power of the tariff. We have to use the power of taxation. If I was Mr. Tariff, I would say, please get me a PR agent. I have to straighten out...

It's one of the most beautiful words in the whole world, the word tariff. It's more beautiful than love.

Welcome to all of you. Thank you so much for being here. So Brad Todd, this tariff situation with Trump, if you look at what Americans tell us when you ask them what they think about it,

would happen when there's a tariff on goods that they buy, 60% of them acknowledge that they think the prices would be higher. 23% say they think it wouldn't change. Then when you ask them, okay, what should Donald Trump's priorities be in office? The number one priority is lowering prices, 79%.

How do you square these things as we head toward what seem to be impending higher tariffs? Well, first off, I want to level set the intro piece. Donald Trump didn't say, "Oh, I'm going to certainly do this." He said, "I'm going to do this if Mexico and Canada don't get the border under control and stop the flow of illegal migrants and fentanyl."

He's putting them on notice. They have two months to reverse their lax policies. You know, interdictions of illegal migrants on the Canadian border are up nine times what their previous average was just this year. So he's putting Justin Trudeau in Canada, who, by the way, has a pretty big problem with decriminalization of our drugs. He's got a drug issue in Canada. He's putting him and he's putting Mexico on notice. You have you think this is just a threat?

I think this is a warning shot. It's a warning shot. It's an opening gambit. Do I think Donald Trump likes tariffs? Of course he does. CNN has footage from him from the 1980s saying that tariffs are an effective tool. They're better than love, Casey. So I think that you will see some tariff action. Beautiful word. But let's remember, Joe Biden...

renewed Donald Trump's tariffs on aluminum as one of his first actions last time. So tariffs are a tool both parties use. Well, I mean, I will say, Mark, and Jeff, you weigh in too, because I'm sure that you encountered this on the campaign trail. I mean, there is a belief among certainly Americans who live in some of these hollowed out towns in the Rust Belt of the U.S. that, you know what, protectionist trade policies would have helped make their lives better.

100%. I mean, look, just the mere fact that Donald Trump is making this threat right now, right? He's threatening to do it. And we're starting to see some reaction. Of course, we've seen some reaction from China. We've seen it from the leaders of Canada in Mexico as well. To Brad's point, I don't know if he will actually enact it, but I do think the American people, they'd like that. You know, they'd like that bellicose, you know, we're going to stick it to them, you know, and we're going to push back on China and Mexico and Canada.

That is what's appealing. What's not going to be appealing though is when you go to Walmart and you're not going to get something for like $3.99, it's going to be $13.99. Exactly. I mean, it's one thing to talk about what would have happened under NAFTA. You talked about some of those hollowed out towns. But now, I mean, that is just a new reality here. So I'm very interested to see what happens on day one. The list of things being promised is growing. But there's no doubt this is a threat.

But I remember in 2017, he made good on his threat for China, but not on Mexico. He was talked out of that by his advisors. I think it was in 2018 or 2019. So we'll see if that happens again this time. But the prices are going to be a big issue. But look, there is one thing that Donald Trump has been consistent on really above all else, and that is his favorite word,

of tariff. I mean, he's talked about it extensively. That and immigration, I'd say, are two of his most consistent things. He was elected on this. So this shouldn't really be a surprise. We'll see if he goes through with it or not. Well, and Kendra, I mean, Brad's point is correct that the Biden administration did keep some of these tariffs in place. And it's not a tool that they have entirely rejected, right? I mean, how do Democrats look at this?

Well, I mean, I think, look, at the end of the day, the thing is that Americans voted for Trump because they wanted their flat-screen TVs lowered, right? They don't want to pay for goods and services at a really high rate. And I think...

When Biden came in, we were in a very different place. COVID was still happening. There were prices that were starting to go up because of what was going on with COVID. And so I think they had to do things to stop what was going on around the world with the hemorrhage of this virus that was going on. So I think you're in a very different place than you were when Biden came into office.

I just wish we'd been this hawkish on price policies and inflationary policies when Joe Biden was using his first executive orders to drive up the cost of energy and to

pause moratorium, have a moratorium on drilling offshore. I mean, Joe Biden's policies from the very first day were inflationary. Yeah, but to be fair, that and I'm not defending him, but to be fair, they are trying to transition out of a fossil fuel economy into a new fuel economy. But the public is not for that if it drives up the prices and their choices with vehicles. I mean, it's the thing that the far left wanted that Joe Biden acquiesced to. I'm going to think

We're going to talk about it. We certainly talked about it with Ron Brownstein earlier in the show. We may touch on it later. All right, ahead here on CNN this morning, we're going to take you inside Russia to look at what people there are saying about some of the key players in Donald Trump's inner circle. Plus, with less than two months left in office, will President Biden intervene in the sentencing of his son Hunter? And will Donald Trump move on or retaliate now that federal criminal charges against him have been dropped?

It could certainly happen in reverse. What they've done is they've released the genie out of the box. They call it weaponization. And the people aren't going to stand for it.

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Save up to 50% site-wide, plus doorbusters and a free professional measure at the Blinds.com Black Friday sales event now. Rules and restrictions may apply. Adherence to the rule of law is a bedrock principle of the Department of Justice, and our nation's commitment to the rule of law sets an example for the world. We have one set of laws in this country, and they apply to everyone. They apply to everyone. That was special counsel Jack Smith last year announcing charges against Donald Trump.

Two separate cases, one involving classified documents and the other, election subversion, each marking the first time a former president had been indicted on federal criminal charges. But now, both cases have been dismissed with prejudice. In his final court submission, Smith writes this, quote, the department's position is that the Constitution requires this case to be dismissed before the defendant is inaugurated. This outcome is not based on the merits or strength of the case against the defendant.

But even with the case dismissed, there will be one final report, a requirement for any special counsel. The attorney general is expected to publicly release it before Inauguration Day, and then it will be up to Trump to take the next step. Will he turn the page, or will he go after those who brought the case?

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. He is a person who is trying and he works for Kamala and he works for Joe. This was a weaponization of government. We should throw Jack Smith out with them to mentally deranged people. Jack Smith should be considered mentally deranged and he should be thrown out of the country.

Thrown out of the country. That is also a question for the woman that Trump tapped to be his next attorney general, Pam Bondi, who said this about the Department of Justice last August. The prosecutors will be prosecuted, the bad ones. The investigators will be investigated because the deep state last term for President Trump, they were hiding in the shadows. But now they have a spotlight on them and they can all be investigated and the House needs to be cleaned out.

House needs to be cleaned out. Mark Preston, what does this mean for Jack Smith? It means that Jack Smith sees the political reality of where he's at right now. You know, a lot of folks have been talking about this over the past couple weeks about what did Democrats do right now? And we're seeing a lot of complaining, right, understandably, and they're upset at this point. But they've got to realize that they're in this new reality and they've got to play by this new set of rules on

Otherwise, they're just going to lose. I mean, and Jack Smith saw that. He knew that he had to step away from it, and he has done so gracefully. Kendra? Well, a couple things I would say on this. One, he did see the writing on the wall. Two, the voters made their decision. They saw the facts. They looked at it. They said, I don't care. We're going to vote him in anyways. And three, what I would say is on this whole weaponization piece of the DOJ, he

They went after Hunter Biden in the same way. So they did things that they followed the letter of the law and went after people that they thought committed crimes in their mind. Even if your name's not Donald Trump, you ought to be really concerned about what's happening at the

of Justice and you need to want things to be cleaned out. There is a nine year rot in that department. Does that mean prosecutions of people like Jack Smith? Well, I think that it means a serious investigation and then you can make the decision about prosecution. But let's do the inventory. The Department of Justice said parents who go to their school boards to complain might be domestic terrorists. The department said maybe Catholics who practice Latin mass might be recruited for terrorism.

Like, the department is out of control. They tapped Donald Trump's phone before he was even president at all. They tried to prevent him from becoming president. They tried to throw him out of office. I mean, no matter who you are, this is why American public's confidence in the Department of Justice is so low.

somebody does have to clean it out and that's Pam Bondi's job now. - When you say clean it out though, I guess like that's the question here. Like what is that going to look like? I mean, look, you said nine years, Jeff Sessions obviously was the attorney general during some of that. So that's what this gets back to the very beginning. I mean, this is the biggest regret from

the president's first time in office, said that he appointed Jeff Sessions. So Pam Bondi has a choice to make. Is she going to be looking forward or looking backward at the retribution? We'll see. But again, all these things are adding up on things he's gonna do in his first moments in office.

I assume that firing Jack Smith, if he's still around, is one of them. More interestingly, the report that he submits, is that going to be something for the record? Is that going to be something to add more to our knowledge of what happened on January 6th from his point of view? Or will it be just more a milquetoast? My guess is it's not going to be like the Mueller report. I mean, this is a different kind of situation here. And filing with prejudice, that means they can be filed again. That is never going to happen.

All right, coming up here on CNN this morning, Joe Biden's final days in office. Will the president use them to keep his son Hunter from ever being sentenced? Plus, you think American politics is crazy? A fistfight in Serbia's parliament. One of the five things you have to see this morning.

All right, 23 minutes past the hour. Five things you have to see this morning. Two people on board a small plane survived after this terrifying crash caught on camera in California. The plane slammed into a tree after the pilot told air traffic control he was having engine trouble. Yikes.

Officers arresting the suspect after he eventually pulled over.

In remote Alaska, where residents live off the grid, one woman has a creative solution to help people get their Thanksgiving dinner. She is air dropping frozen turkeys directly from her plane. She says the birds don't get bruised, they just bounce off the ground. That's very kind.

A fistfight, if less kind, in Serbia's parliament over a roof collapse at a train station that killed 15 people in early November. The accident becoming a flashpoint for growing discontent with Serb-a's- Serbia's authoritarian rule. Yikes. Alright, not every day you see coaches hugging on the field. Also not every day you have two brothers coaching NFL teams against each other.

I love my brother and I'd lay down my life for my brother, but I would not let him win a football game and he wouldn't want it that way. John and Jim Harbaugh facing off Monday night. The Baltimore Ravens defeating the LA Chargers. John improving to 3-0 against his younger brother in head-to-head matchups.

All right, time now for weather. Probably the most important story of this holiday week morning. Rain impacting parts of the eastern U.S. today, while parts of the northern New England could see some light snow as holiday travelers prepare to hit the road ahead of Thanksgiving. Let's get straight to our meteorologist, our weatherman, Derek Van Dam, for the travel forecast. Derek, good morning.

You say the weather is the most important, but I think that bouncing turkey story you had was pretty good. Hey, if you're a recipient of one of the turkeys, absolutely. I'll be happy if I got a bouncing turkey on Thanksgiving morning. What a gift.

The weather not a gift for a lot of people this morning. Unfortunately, we're going to be contending with some delays. So heads up if you're heading out of LaGuardia, perhaps JFK, some potentially major to moderate delays because of the weather as a cold front is moving through bringing rainfall to the region and then a snow making storm system producing snow west of Denver International into the Salt Lake City area. Here's the cold front along the eastern seaboard. Zooming in the snowfall.

the frozen precipitation is north of the major metropolitan areas, but this could impact places like Burlington southward into Albany, the higher elevations of upstate New York. But this is all rain. So as this enters the equation, this could, of course, have a knock on effect for flights this morning. The I-95 corridor will certainly be wet into the nation's capital. Atlanta, your rain has just come to the

an end. So we do expect Hartsfield Jackson International Airport to dry out here in the coming hours. But this is the big weather maker that's going to disrupt things as we head into Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday actually could be your best day to travel if you do that early along the eastern seaboard. Notice Wednesday afternoon, no travel problems in terms of the weather. But look what happens 12 hours later, a major storm system on Thanksgiving morning. So this is the one you want to plan ahead. Maybe get comfortable at your

relatives house because this storm is going to usher in some of the coldest air of the season and kick in the lake effect snow machine behind it. Casey. All right. Good to know. Derek Van Dam for us this morning. Derek, thank you. See you tomorrow. All right. All right. Coming up here on CNN this morning, the Trump team investigates one of its own top aides after allegations of a pay to play scheme surface and what Donald Trump's return to the White House means for the future of U.S. Russia relations.

Tell us why you believe the United States might strike Russia out of the blue. How did you conclude that? Time to move? Skip the hassles of selling during the holiday season and sell your home directly to Opendoor. Request an all-cash offer in minutes, close, and get paid in days. You can even pick your close date so you can move after New Year's. Start your move at Opendoor.com or download the Opendoor app.

Opendoor is represented by Opendoor Brokerage Inc., licensed 0206-1130 in California, and Opendoor Brokerage LLC in its other markets. Terms and conditions apply. This week on The Assignment with me, Adi Cornish. Adam Jentleson, former staffer for Harry Reid, is taking a bunch of heat right now for an op-ed saying Democrats need to ditch the quote magical thinking and say no to the groups on its left front.

Those populations broke away from Democrats and voted for Trump in numbers we have not seen in decades. And I specifically mean Latinos and African-Americans. Listen to The Assignment with me, Audie Cornish, streaming now on your favorite podcast app.

As President Biden's time in the White House comes to a close, a big question looms. Will he help his son avoid prison before he leaves office? Hunter Biden is set to be sentenced in a few weeks. He could face years behind bars. The president has publicly ruled out pardoning his son or commuting his sentence. I haven't spoken to the president about this since a verdict came out. And as we all know, the sentencing hasn't even been scheduled yet.

But you saw the president do an interview just last week when he was in Normandy. You have his own words. I just don't have anything beyond that. What I'm saying is that the president, I have not spoken to the president about this. And what I'm saying is he was asked about a pardon. I don't have anything beyond what the president said.

A new piece in Politico magazine argues the president should rethink that. Former federal prosecutor, senior writer for Politico magazine Ankush Kordori writes this, quote, "There would be no real precedent for Biden to weigh, of course, but of course there's no real precedent for any of this.

And on Kush Cordori, the writer of that piece,

joins us now. Ankur, thank you so much for being here. I appreciate it. So in reading this piece, and obviously we know what the president has said. He did that interview with David Muir when he was over in Normandy. He said, I'm not going to do this. It was a little unclear if it was just the pardon or the commutation. Either way, you say that the things that happened to Hunter Biden only happened because

because Joe Biden was president of the United States. Can you explain why? Yeah, so there are two sets of charges, obviously, he's facing. One is he was convicted in this case for acquiring a gun while he was a drug user in Delaware. It is extremely rare for cases like that to be brought, particularly standalone cases, and virtually no precedent in Delaware for a case like that. The other set of charges concern tax evasion.

fraud issues, tax underpayment issues, the amount of money he has now admitted to not paying is relatively small compared to what the department usually charges in criminal cases. It's 1.4 million, right? So I think for people at home, that seems like a lot. Correct. Put it in context. I'll put it in context. During Trump's administration, there was a high-level executive who

resolved in a civil case, a tax case where he underpaid $200 million or hundreds of millions of dollars. A lot of this turns on intentionality and the context in which these underpayments are occurring, but it's very unusual for an underpayment case at that magnitude to be charged through a criminal case. They're usually resolved through civil payment, some sort of civil mechanism and fines. So the $200 million guy just had to pay a fine and not go to prison. He did not go to prison.

And then if we think back to last summer, obviously I'm sure you all remember, there was a deal in place, a plea deal in place in which Biden was going to resolve these charges without having to serve any prison time. And the judge presiding over the case in Delaware, a Trump appointee, balked, Republicans in Congress balked, and the deal unraveled as a result.

And now we face this situation, just to take a step back here, where Donald Trump may be returning, is returning to the White House, and Hunter Biden might be going to prison as a result of these cases. I find this to be extremely remarkable and a little unseemly under the circumstances. Really interesting. So Kendra Barkoff, you obviously worked closely with President Biden over many years. Can you...

Help us understand his thinking around this, because, you know, I certainly as a parent, it seems like there would be a lot of parents out there who might understand if he decided, hey, this is a power that I have. Obviously, Ankush has laid out this series of facts as he sees them. What does the president think?

I mean, I haven't talked to him, obviously, or his team about this. I will say that he has such great love for his son. He and his son are very, very close. Dr. Biden, the first lady, and Hunter are extremely, extremely close. So there's no question about his love and

and that he would do anything for his son. I do think at the end of the day, though, this is about Joe Biden's legacy. This is about his word as a Biden, as he likes to say. If he sets a marker down and says, I'm not going to do something like that, it is a very, very rare thing that he walks it back.

And I think at the end of the day, he on his Wikipedia page for his legacy, he's going to want that to focus on his years in the Senate, his time as vice president and all the good that he accomplished there and his presidency. And I just don't think he's going to want that to be in the top part of his Wikipedia page.

making decisions like this for Wikipedia pages. Well, you get my point. It's not about the Wikipedia page, but you get the legacy piece. He talked about it this summer to a David Muir, but that's when he was still running for president. So that's the last time we've heard him talk about this. That was in June. So a lot has changed, obviously. This is going to be a very difficult thing for him to weigh. I'm not sure if he decided to do it. It's going to be

be smirching his whole legacy. It will be one piece of it, certainly. But as history goes on, I think that might recede to the background. But there's no doubt. I'm wondering, is there going to be a split in the Biden family on this? Does Dr. Biden view this differently than President Biden? We shall see. But this certainly will be one of the things that weighs on him in the final days. Well, and Ankush, do you see a difference or how do you understand the difference between the full pardon option and just commuting the sentence? Thank you for asking that. This is a critical point. I'm not suggesting that he pardon Hunter

That would wipe the conviction, suggest potentially he's innocent, and allow him to forego any sort of collateral consequences that a conviction would entail, and there are significant ones. I'm suggesting that he commute any sentence of imprisonment that may be imposed as a result of these charges when the judge is sentenced.

him in a few weeks, which would eliminate his prison time, but still let the conviction stand. And I would just say, this is one thing, because I've heard this, the notion that Biden wouldn't want to go back on his word. He's a man of his word, this and that. He has gone back on his word in a very significant way this year when he stepped down as a Democratic nominee. And I think it is very important what Jeff said, which is the context in which he was making those statements was when he was still running. I'm not suggesting he should just go back on his word willy-nilly, but I do think we have to

try to put ourselves in his position now and think about how he would be approaching this issue given where we are today. Yeah, all right. Ankur Kordori, thank you very much for joining us. I hope you'll come back on the show. Thank you. All right. As the inauguration of Donald Trump nears, officials in Russia have been closely observing his Kremlin-friendly inner circle. People like, possibly, Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson. They're hoping that it leads to a desired outcome in their war with Ukraine. CNN's Fred Pleikin has more.

As Ukrainian forces grow ever more desperate trying to hold off advancing Russian troops, the Kremlin is growing ever more hopeful the incoming Trump administration will try to end the war on terms favorable for Moscow. The words peace or peace plan come from Trump supporters and those nominated for future positions in the upcoming administration, the Kremlin spokesman said today.

The Russians irate after the Biden administration allowed Ukraine to use longer distance U.S. and U.K. supplied missiles to strike deeper inside Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin in return firing a new powerful intermediate-range ballistic missile into central Ukraine that's never been used in war. President-elect Trump's pick for national security advisor confirming ending the Ukraine war will be an urgent priority. President Trump has been very clear about the need to end this conflict. And so what we're...

need to be discussing is who's at that table. And from Trump insiders and cabinet picks, proposals seemingly in line with Moscow's demands. Elon Musk posting his ideas on his ex-account in early October 2022, calling for UN-monitored referendums in areas of Ukraine occupied by Russia for Crimea to be recognized as Russian and for Ukraine to remain neutral.

Ukraine's president, who has said he does believe the war will end faster under Trump, also said last week in a radio interview that Ukraine cannot be forced into talks, Musk then trolling Zelensky once again. Despite Elon Musk giving crucial battlefield support to Ukraine by providing Starlink satellite internet to its troops,

Russians we spoke to in Moscow, unequivocal, they like him. He's an extraordinary personality, this man says, and since he fulfilled himself and his business, society will work with him well. I think Elon Musk is a good example of the future of our planet, she says. He's doing a lot to bring our planet forward, and it's a good development.

Others in Trump's orbit with clear pro-Kremlin views. Former Fox host Tucker Carlson traveled to Moscow in February where he praised Russian supermarkets. It's pretty non-sanctioned to me. Before sitting down with Vladimir Putin for an extended interview. Tell us why you believe the United States might strike Russia out of the blue. How did you conclude that? I didn't say that. Are we having a talk show or a serious conversation? What?

The Russian leader patient, saying he's willing to listen to the Trump administration's proposals. What was said concerning the desire to restore relations with Russia to help end the Ukrainian crisis, in my opinion, seems to me to be at least worthy of attention. Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Moscow. All right. Our thanks to Fred for that report. And Mark Preston, I mean,

Really striking to, of course, watch what Tucker Carlson did there again as we head towards Donald Trump, you know, going to the Oval Office. Go ahead. No, no. I mean, please. I mean, it does bring us back to the time when when Tucker Carlson went over there and we all kind of watched in just amazement that, you know, Tucker Carlson, this American journalist, I guess, American commentator goes over there and really bowed to Trump.

Putin. It was just a strange... Well, and we, you know, since then have seen him campaign repeatedly with Donald Trump and Jeff. There's also, of course, Elon Musk has been on phone calls with President-elect Trump and the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. I mean, it's a really remarkable situation.

Remarkable and not surprising. Look, all of this was out in the open when Donald Trump was campaigning and the American people elected him. I think the big question here is what is Elon Musk's role going to be? And a bigger question is, we were talking earlier about all the things that the president will do on day one. I think Ukraine is probably chief among them. Look for something very...

expedient there right when he comes into office. So yes, this will be a conflict and Russia remains, looms large as always. - Okay, you wanna jump in? - Well, I wanna say, you also have to look at Marco Rubio. We can't evaluate this question. Donald Trump picked Marco Rubio to be his Secretary of State. Marco Rubio is the biggest Russia hawk in the US Senate. He authored sanctions 10 days before Trump came into office.

on Russia for what they're doing to Ukraine. So this is a little more complicated. - Yeah, good point. Glad you mentioned it. All right, ahead here on CNN this morning, new allegations about a member of Trump's inner circle getting rich on the transition. How those closest to the president-elect are responding to this report. Plus, Mitch McConnell may not be the Republican Senate leader next year, but could he be a bigger obstacle than ever for Donald Trump? - We do have to do something about Mitch McConnell. He's a disaster.

He's kind of a liberated person and he's one of this group of senators that I think is unthreatenable. You know, they're not susceptible to the normal political machinations of some of the rest of the people in the conference.

A liberated person. Senate Republicans heading into the next Congress with a new majority and they will have a new majority leader. Mitch McConnell is stepping down from his role as Republican leader after 16 years. That's the longest anyone has served in a role like that. But according to a new report in the New York Times, quote, in recent days, including a late night session of votes on the Senate floor last week, Mr. McConnell, 82, has told colleagues that his impending exit from leadership has left him feeling liberated.

And he has signaled skepticism about some of the president-elect's most divisive picks for his administration. Trump and McConnell's relationship has famously soured since Trump left office four years ago. President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. If Donald Trump wins the Republican nomination, would you support him? Look, let me just say again, there is simply no room

in the Republican Party for anti-Semitism or white supremacy. Mitch McConnell is a loser. We do have to do something about Mitch McConnell. He's a disaster. Mitch McConnell and his wife, Coco Chow. Coco. We got to get the McConnells of the world to do their job.

Brad Todd, what do you think? Is McConnell going to actually buck Trump on some of these nomination votes? I think he will. But the key is whether he can get a fourth person. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski are going to oppose some of these nominees. Mitch McConnell would be three. There are 53 Republicans. So the question is, can McConnell recruit one more Republican?

I don't know if he can on all of them, although it will depend on how the hearings go for a couple. I think that a lot of Republicans in the Senate would love to see Mitch McConnell liberated from Chuck Schumer, though. Their critique of him the last couple of years is he's done Schumer's bidding when it comes to spending deals and CRs at the end of it. So if Mitch McConnell feels liberated from Chuck Schumer, he can go back to being the old Mitch McConnell that jammed Supreme Court nominees through. Republicans will be happy with that.

See, and I remember the Mitch McConnell that is a full institutionalist of the Senate, who, as I think may throw his own bombs in the way that Mitch McConnell can. I mean, he worked together with Joe Biden on fiscal deals. He worked with him to stop the debt limit. I think these are things that he's going to go back to his roots. Fundamentally, he is an institutionalist at

He's not going to oppose, I don't believe, the Trump nominee just for the sake of opposing them. But one fine line that he really wants to hold is on Ukraine, is on being a hawk. He's deeply troubled by the foreign policy that has emerged in this era of the Trump Republican Party. So that, I think, is where he is going to lay down his marker on some of these. Yeah, this is why Tulsi Gabbard is really the person that I am watching. And the defense secretary, possibly, as well. Yeah, that, yeah.

He believes in deferring to the president, though, both Democrat and Republican, and getting their nominees and forming their government. He and Lindsey Graham both do. So there's going to be some tension here. I think he is skeptical of some of Donald Trump's instincts, but he also believes the president has a right to build his cabinet. Fair enough. All right. 52 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup. Bird flu detected in a batch of raw milk sold in California. The state warning residents not to drink any of the affected product.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump's pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, has said in the past that he will end the FDA's, quote, war on raw, unpasteurized milk.

Two plane collisions at Boston's Logan Airport in one day. An American plane being towed, clipping a Frontier passenger plane's wing on Monday. No one was hurt. And a tug vehicle towing a jet-blue aircraft struck a Cape Air plane earlier. The FAA is investigating both incidents.

Walmart scaling back its diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Some of the programs being cut include specialized training for employees and a philanthropic commitment to racial equity. Walmart joins Harley-Davidson, Tractor Supply Co., John Deere and other companies that have scaled back or canceled their DEI programs.

Mark Press, what do you make of this? I mean, Walmart is just the latest in a long list of companies that are doing this. You know, I do. We talk about this sometimes. I do a lot of work behind the scenes for the network, including working on

Other news issues that people would find interesting, DEI, I will say, three years ago was hot. It was extremely hot and every company was doing it. They were putting a lot of money into it. Then came the next year where they kept talking about it and they actually had pulled their money out. So this isn't necessarily new. This is something that has been going on for a couple years slowly where companies talked about their DEI initiatives. However, they weren't necessarily funding them. It's very, it's interesting.

Corporate America has been whipsawed, right? The political winds shifted left and they immediately overcorrected and put a bunch of DEI stuff in their protocols. Now they've realized they've overdone it and they're moving back. But the Republican Party now is a populist party and is skeptical of corporate power and corporations weighing in on big political issues. You're going to see more of this. And we also didn't mention the influence of Robbie Starbuck, who is the activist that has been behind this campaign. And when he has turned his sights on a particular company, we often see the result we've seen here with Walmart.

All right, let's turn now to this. Lawyers for Donald Trump conducting an internal investigation into allegations that one of his top aides was involved in a pay-to-play scheme. Boris Epstein, one of Trump's most loyal advisors, accused of asking for money in exchange for promoting candidates to administration positions. In one instance, he allegedly asked for as much as $100,000 a month for his services. Epstein says the claims are fake.

Eric Trump, the president's son, weighed in on that with a caveat. I've known Boris for years and I've never known him to be anything but a good human being. So that said, I will tell you, my father has been incredibly clear. You do not, you do not do that under any circumstance. I certainly hope the reporting is false. And I can also tell you if it's true, you know, the person will probably no longer be around.

The person will probably no longer be around, Jeff. I mean, that's a warning shot. It absolutely is. I mean, look, this is, I mean, he's not even in office yet. This is the beginning of a reminder of what the first Trump administration was like. But there is a cardinal sin in Trump world to the eyes of the president-elect, and that's profiting off of him. Many people have, obviously, but he does not like it. He doesn't accept it. But this is interesting. The accusations are that

He was trying to get people's names in front of the president-elect. And Scott Besson, the Treasury secretary nominee, or who will be, refused to pay as the internal investigation

So this is not finished yet, but we will see if Boris returns to the White House. If this is true, he will not. Yeah, well, I mean, how this has come out is kind of interesting as well, because it was with a journalist that's known as being close to the Trump team, John Solomon, who had this originally, had an interview with Trump about it. I mean, clearly they think there's some bear there.

- Stephen Chung, the spokesman for the transition last night said there's a broad review underway. And there is a cottage industry of a few grifters who have ripped people off. I mean, Donald Trump makes his own decisions. I think the whole country is pretty clear on that. And people have conned people into paying them to not influence Trump while they say they have.

I would not be surprised if this investigation does turn up some things and people are iced out. - I'm reminded of Michael Cohen. I was also, I pulled out this, I don't know if you remember Carl Palladino? Do you remember him from New York? - I do not, I probably blocked it from my memory.

Well, he ran for Congress recently after the gubernatorial run that perhaps the rest of us remember him for. He complained to the New York Times. He was not exactly sure why he had paid Mr. Epstein $20,000 a month because he was not endorsed by Mr. Trump in his 2022 race. He was highly recommended as having good relations with some people that work for Mr. Trump, Mr. Palladino said in 2023. I was told it would be in my interest if I sent money to this Boris. I did, and we heard nothing from the man. He was totally useless. Well,

Well, a couple of things. One is this has been going on since, you know, politics, you know, was invented that that there was this, you know, behind the scenes money. Sometimes more gracefully, though. But not to the level that we've seen. And I would say this. If Boris Epstein does get pushed out of Trump orbit, I guarantee you he will be back.

We've seen it with everybody else. Boyd Lewandowski, you know, scene four. Yeah, that's true. All right. I'm going to leave you with this. As we all prepare to give thanks and reflect on the past year, an Australian dictionary has chosen its word of the year. And it is, well, let's just say I'm going to let the host of Australia's ABC News say it for us. Macquarie Dictionary has crowned its word of the year. And the winner is enchitification.

According to Macquarie, the term describes the gradual deterioration of a service or product, especially when it comes to online platforms like social media. So it was a little hard to read on that like chyron there, but you did hear it correctly. Let's listen again. Today we have another word so perfect and so lewd that I'm only allowed to say it once. So kids, it's time to put on those swearing earmuffs. In shitification. Are you fun? In what? In shitification. Wow. In shitification.

On the Macquarie Dictionary's website, the committee in charge of selecting the word of the year says it describes, quote, what many of us feel is happening to the world. A Canadian-British journalist and author named Cory Doctorow says he's the one who came up with the term. And what was that term again, Cory? I have a somewhat notorious name for this that I coined. I call it inshittification.

I'm a fan of the F word, so I'm not a fan of the F word. So I want to know if I say this word out loud, do I have to put $5 in the swear jar is what I really want to know. Have we crossed that line? It's embedded with suffixes and prefixes. You're fine. I mean, it is supposed to be a family program. I will say that. So my apologies. I do have a friend who consistently sends me pictures of her four-year-old daughter watching the show, so I'm sorry for that. I

I apologize. Thanks, you guys, for being here this morning. Thanks to all of you at home for joining us as well. I'm Casey Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now. I run a school for young women.

We're not a threat to anyone. In the new HBO original series, Dune Prophecy, it is sisterhood above all. I'm Greta Johnson. And I'm Ahmed Ali Akbar. Join us on the official Dune Prophecy podcast, where we unpack each episode with the show's creators, cast, and crew. Stream Dune Prophecy Sundays starting November 17th exclusively on Max, and you can listen to new episodes of the podcast every Sunday night.