Set the stage for what could be the first big fight between the Trump White House and his own party. Sources telling us tillerson does come highly recommended to trump. Those endorsements, former secretaries of state Condoleezza Rice and james baker and bob gates. Were covering it all for you. Jason carroll is live outside of trump tower. Cnn political reporter manu raju live in washington. Jason, lets start with you. Good morning. Reporter good morning, carol. A number of gop leaders are weighing in. People like paul ryan and newt gingrich. Trump tweeting this morning saying, quote, i have chosen one of the truly great Business Leaders of the world. Though you also have senators like marco rubio weighing in saying, he has serious concerns. This morning president elect donald trump picking exxonmobile Ceo Rex Tillerson for secretary of state. Sources say tillerson was recommended by former republican secretaries of state including james baker and Condoleezza Rice. Tillerson chosen after trumps vetting of a string of high profile candidates including an unlikely courtship with onetime rival mitt romney. Trump called the 2012 gop nominee personally last night to say it wasnt all a game. Tillersons nomination already generating controversy with no formal Foreign Policy experience. The business titan instead forming Close Relationships with many World Leaders by closing massive oil deals including russian president Vladimir Putin sparking criticism from both sides of the aisle. Anybody whos a friend of Vladimir Putin must disregard that hes a murderer, thug, kgb agent. Reporter this after theyre talking about him being an agent. This smells like politics. Reporter a Bipartisan Group of senators calls for a congressional inquiry. I think we ought to approach all of these issues on the assumption that the russians do not wish us well. Reporter president obama reiterating calls for a review to prevent russia from impacting future elections. This was not a secret running up to the election. The president elect in some of his political events specifically said to the russians, hack hillarys emails. Reporter trumps team says he wont interfere with an investigation. Hes the president of the United States. The legislature can do what it wants. Reporter he delays a News Conference where he promised hell discuss how hell handle his conflicts of interest. He will be leaving his businesses before january 20th and two of his three children, don and eric, plus executives, will run the companies, notably no mention of his daughter ivanka who is likely to step away from the businesses and serve as an advisor to her father. Trump also promising no new deals will be done during his terms in office. And, carol, trump continuing to name names to his administration. Gary khan will be director of the National Economic council. Mcdaniel, the niece of mitt romney to head up the rnc and former Texas Governor rick perry said to be the frontrunner to lead the Energy Department, a department he once said he would eliminate if he ever became president. Carol . All right. Jason carroll reporting live from trump towers this morning. Tillerson isnt a shoe in for secretary of state. He still needs to be confirmed by the senate and considering his close ties to russia he could be looking at a i heated showdown on capitol hill. Lets bring in manu raju to talk about that. Hi, manu. Reporter hey, carol. Republicans have fallen in line behind trumps other picks but not Rex Tillerson. Yesterday Mitch Mcconnell refused to discuss the possibility of tillersons approval. Weve heard reservations from four republicans. A time that many want to take a hard line against russia. They issued this statement. While Rex Tillerson is a respected businessman, i have serious concerns about his nomination. The next secretary of state must be someone who views the world with moral clarity, free of potential conflicts of interest and has a clear sense of americas interests. Now this is significant because if democrats stay united against tillerson on the Foreign Relations committee and rubio votes no, that could be enough to derail the nomination because republicans only have a one seat advantage and thats one reason why the outgoing democratic leader harry reid told me tillersons confirmation may be in doubt. I dont know if he can get 50 votes. Reporter do the reports that youre seeing about his russian connections concern you . Its in keeping with trump. Hes he hes already stated he likes putin better than he likes obama. Its obvious he likes russia and thats fairly concerning to the world and certainly concerning to america, concerning to me. Reporter now the challenge to trump is 52 senators, on the floor of the senate the trump team can only limit its defect shuns to three republican senators to get them confirmed if all the democrats vote no. Because of those four republican senators have expressed reservations so far, trumps team and tillerson himself have some selling to do on capitol hill to close ranks. Carol . All right. Manu raju joining us live. Lets talk about all of this and more. With me is jeff zel lenny, elise lab bet and cnn Global Economic analyst. Welcome to all of you. Lets dive right in. He has no military or diplomatic experience. This is a history making pick, right . It is, indeed, carol. He is totally different from the recent secretaries of state that weve had. Without question he has considerable experience making deals but not diplomacy and that, of course, is the hallmark of any secretary of state position. About managing those relationships, carrying out the president s wishes with russia. As manu just reported, this confirmation hearing on capitol hill is going to be divisive, its going to raise all the questions that weve just been talking about. Even more so, now that hacking is in the news, it is going to be a focal point for that conversation as well. It is a separate conversation but the you know, the emergence of russia as a central issue in our politics here in the u. S. Now comes at not an opportune time for Rex Tillerson. Donald trump doubling down here and he has the support of recent secretaries of state, Condoleezza Rice among them. Look for a bruising confirmation hearing as we go forward here. Once if he would happen to get confirmed an open question about what type of secretary of state he would be. Well, let me put that to you because jeff mentioned Condoleezza Rice, supporting the pick of Rex Tillerson. She said Rex Tillerson is an excellent choice for secretary of state. He will bring to the post remarkable and broad experience, deep understanding of the Global Economy and belief in americas special role in the world. So are critics wrong about tillerson, elise . Well, carol, its not necessarily unprecedented. You know, you have had very successful secretaries of state like George Schultz who ran a Big Corporation like pectel. Certainly Rex Tillerson has a knowledge of the world, International Experience in dealing with World Leaders. Diplomacy is very different to business deal making, and, you know, you measure it in different types of terms. In a deal you kind of look at profits, but here youre looking at, you know, results in terms of diplomacy. One diplomat said diplomacy has a very long tail. When you hit one thing it necessarily affects the others. Its kind of like this complicated International Puzzle of world issues that you have to take into effect. Ive spoken to a lot of diplomats a the the state department. They say perhaps the ceo approach, someone who knows how to negotiate could shake things up for the better. There are other concerns though as jeff mentioned about Rex Tillersons relationship with Vladimir Putin and with russia and also some of the other deals he made around the world. Several years ago exxonmobile led by tillerson was in iraq trying to work on oil deals there. They dealt with the kurds as opposed to the Central Government in baghdad. That kind of fostered fears of kurdish independence. That got people wrangled up. State department, eventually everything was worked out. Now exxon is working with the whole government. There are concerns about a possible culture clash. It also isnt clear how rex tiller son feels about the state department and how they would do things. He would work with donald trump. Hes been ceo for ten years. Donald trump is a ceo now. Youre talking about hardnosed negotiations. Rex tillerson, i would expect he is a hardnosed negotiators because he made billions and billions of dollars for the exxon corporation. Absolutely. Sometimes diplomacy takes a more delicate touch. Is he capable of that . Im going to push back. I think the experience of a head of a Multinational Energy company like exxon is actually pretty relevant here. I mean, what these guys do, typically they spend their days and nights talking to heads of problematic Foreign Governments. This is actually an industry, you know, you talk about long tail, oil and gas is probably the most strategic industry, the industry with the longest view. Theyre looking at 20, 30, 50 year time frames. Theyre dealing in long relationships with governments in some of the worlds hot spots. So i actually think that experience is very relevant. I think that where things are going to be trickier maybe in the confirmation hearings are tillersons personal business interests. To have this much of a stake in exxon as a major player in the russian market is problematic. I think hes going to have to explain that. Hes going to have to show us that he is no more in bed with putin, you know, or any olligarh is in russia. I have to leave it there. Many thanks. Still to come on the newsroom, putin wants to normalize relations with the United States, but a long list of lawmakers say russia is not our friend so which is it . I have asthma. One of many pieces in my life. So when my asthma symptoms kept coming back on my longterm control medicine. I talked to my doctor and found a missing piece in my asthma treatment with breo. Oncedaily breo prevents asthma symptoms. Breo is for adults with asthma not well controlled on a longterm asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. Breo wont replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. Breo opens up airways to help improve breathing for a full 24 hours. 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I like that only i can get into it and that it recognizes my fingerprint. Our old tablet couldnt do that. It kind of makes you feel like youre your own person, which is a rare opportunity in my family. laughter laughs. here it is. Hey dad wishes do come true. The lincoln wish list sales event is on. Get exceptional offers on the lincoln family of luxury vehicles. Sign and drive off in a 2016 lincoln mkx with zero down and complementary first months payment. Try theraflu expressmax,nd flu hold you back now in new caplets. Its the only cold flu caplet that has a maximum strength formula with a unique warming sensation you instantly feel. Theraflu. For a powerful comeback. New expressmax caplets. Good morning. Vladimir putin says he is ready to meet americas president elect at any moment although hes a little confused by mr. Trumps slogan, make America Great again. Putin said he objects to america exceptionalism. The United States is a great nation, nobody is arguing about that, but i think its completely excessive and creates certain issues in interaction. Also, carter paige, who advised the Trump Campaign for six months, appeared on Russian State Television extolling the virtues of trumps pick. Hi, matthew. Reporter hi, carol. Thats right. Carter paige is a former advisor to mr. Trump. Hes been making his rounds in russia. He was an unknown figure before his name was dropped by donald trump in the president ial campaign. Hes since been dropped by the Trump Campaign. He still sort of comes to russia as part of the organization hes founded which does business here to talk about policy issues. And hes been meeting the local press here over the past couple of days. You know, theres a sense in which they believe hes got some kind of incite into what donald trump is thinking about russia. Because theres such an appetite here in russia for anything donald trump has to say for any sort of possible change in policy towards his country, hes getting extremely large audience. Carter paige very positive on the appointments of Rex Tillerson as secretary of state. Take a listen to what he had to say to a bunch of local journalists gathered in moscow last night. Theres a lot of rumors out there. I dont have any specific insights into the rumors. Im really personally excited you know just as one small example one major example on one hand but one of many examples about Rex Tillerson, you know, being awarded the order of friendship, the many joint ventures he creates worked to create in the black sea, tide oil, the list goes on. Actions speak louder than words. I think theres a lot of ways we can certainly Work Together on this. Reporter carol, after donald trump announced his decision on twitter that Rex Tillerson was his choice for secretary of state, he tweeted again saying this. The thing i like best about Rex Tillerson is he has vast experience dealing successfully with all types of Foreign Governments. Its his dealings with the russian government that are potentially the most controversial, are potentially going to create the most problems when it comes to his confirmation hearings in the senate. Matthew chance reporting live from moscow. Thanks so much. Let me introduce my next guest. Congressman reed ribble. Republican from the state of wisconsin. Serves on the House Foreign Affairs committee. Good morning, sir. Good morning, carol. Good morning. Lets start with carter paige. American citizen, onetime trump advisor. Appeared on Russian State Television which is the Government Television station to taut Donald Trumps pick for secretary of state. How does that strike you . Well, i mean, i think the whole russian connection with tillerson is something that Everyone Needs to be a little bit cautious of. It does throw up some red flags and certainly mr. Tillerson should divest himself of his holdings at exxon so theres no conflict of interest at all. Then we have to recognize, i think, mr. Trump has to recognize that russias not necessarily a great friend of the United States and has never been held accountable for some of the actions in ukraine. It has to be both intrigued and a bit troubled. Well, you know, russias foreign minister, who is the equivalent of americas secretary of state, already sent out a news release saying that russia welcomes the nomination of Rex Tillerson as u. S. Secretary of state and is ready to work with him. He says, i think both President Trump and the new secretary were not opponents to developments of our relations. On the contrary, people are pragmatic. We expect the pragmatism will be a good basis for building mutually beneficial relationships with russia. You dont find this coming in from other countries like our strong allies like germany and the u. K. It came first from russia. Well, yeah. I dont know that we should necessarily be surprised at that simply because exxon is a big player in russia. Russias number one industry is energy and so i think that that would be logical. We have to remember that these Business People that trump is bringing into the into his cabinet, theyre typically obsessively selfinterested. When youre looking at someone whos going to be secretary of state, particularly in a trump era where he wants to go with an american first ideology, have somebody selfinterested in america, i dont think thats necessarily a bad thing. Is russia our friend . Because senator Mitch Mcconnell said russia is not our friend. He intimated mr. Trump should keep that in mind. He certainly should keep that in mind. As i mentioned a bit earlier. The fact that mr. Putin was really a party to the murder of 298 citizens in the Malaysian Air shootdown over ukraine, he has been very involved in the movement of russia and the involvement in ukraine in usurping the sovereignty of that nation, it should be very troubling to the United States. Russias not necessarily a friend. It seems that the Trump Administration is pivoting towards asia. I think that that should give some pause to everyone. So when you say give some pause, are they deeply concerned about mr. Trumps picks as far as being in russia . Its going to be dependent on what they do going forward. Im intrigued by this pick because mr. Tillerson has a really broad foreign experience and he knows a lot of the state departments players, our ambassadors and professional diplomats abroad. That level of experience is actually a very interesting benefit for the american Foreign Policy world and i think he could be very successful at this as long as we dont have conflicts of interest and he deals with those ahead of time. As far as any sort of congressional investigation into russia interfering with our election, are you for such an investigation . I am. Im not surprised that russians the russian government, the iranians, the chinese are trying to hack into our system. Thats pretty typical and its really, quite frankly, a daily occurrence around here. Do you believe the cia when it says that russia specifically wanted to swing the election to donald trump . Well, i dont know that they necessarily did that. I dont know that i believe them there, but i do believe that the russians were very selfinterested on their own to influence the election and, in fact, they have influenced the election because theyve been able to cast doubt on it. And so just the fact that you and i are having this discussion today shows that theyve been able to do that. And so it absolutely warrants further investigation. We ought to look into it. But we have to remember that our president s are elected via 50 independent states with tens of thousands of observers so its very, very difficult to swing an election one way or another here. You mentioned the fact that were having this discussion at all. Yeah. I cant stop thinking about people are saying, oh, my gosh, the United States congressman is saying that russia interfered in some way in our election yet were talking about all of these picks for the Trump Administration with connections to russia and for some people thats a little scary. It is a little bit scary. Scary for me and i spoke out about it during the campaign for presidency that i felt that the relationship between mr. Trump and russia was a little unusual. Certainly maybe more cozy than i would like to see, but we should not be surprised by it today because he has spoken of this quite frequently during the course of the campaign. But i do not believe as mr. Trump said, i do not believe that the russians swung the election one way or the other. Secretary clinton was a flawed candidate and the american people, particularly in the central part of the u. S. And in my own home state of wisconsin chose to go a different path. All right. I have to leave it there. Congressman reed ribble, thank you for joining us. Exxon stock has been rising. As alisyn kosik joins me, good morning. Rex tillerson leaving exxonmobile apparent bely not rattling investors too much. In fact, theyre buying into shares of exxonmobile. The funny thing is it has less to do with the fact that tillerson is trumps pick for secretary of state, it has more to do with an agreement between opec and nonopec proe erduce zwroers cut the output of oil. All Energy Companies benefit from Higher Oil Prices but exxon here, exxon is the real winner because when Oil Prices Fell to 40, the company had to wind up scaling back its share of buy backs and dividend hikes. Shareholders could be rewarded. Theyre buying into shares hoping theyll get that reward later. As for what else is on the table for investors, the fed meeting beginning today. Decision day coming tomorrow. Carol, all the expectations are the fed will hike rates tomorrow. Carol . Oh, boy. Youll be back with me for sure. Alisyn kosik, thanks so much. Still to come in the newsroom, donald trump makes a key announcement about the future of his Business Empire and daughter ivanka, shes not part of it. Why . I am benedict arnold, the infamous traitor. And i know a thing or two about trading. So i trade with e trade, where true traders trade on a trademarked trade platform that has all the. Get off the computer traitor i wont. cannon sound i wont. I pull inspiration from around the globe. Jareds commitment to quality and craftsmanship has helped bring my designs to life. Each handset ring is my interpretation of timeless classics. The vera wang love collection. Now available at jared. And good morning, im carol costello. Thanks so much for joining me. I want to take you to trump tower because we are monitoring the golden elevators to see who is talking with donald trump. This morning, yeah, kanye west entered trump tower. You see him back there. It wasnt so long ago that at a concert he went on this rant where he told his audience that if he had voted he would support donald trump and then a short time later he ended up in the hospital. Im sure the two were not connected. We found it was an interesting picture that trump was coming in to talk to mr. Trump and willing to kill some time. Jeffrey lordes is dialing in his skype account. Already here. Were going to kill some time, too. Its fun. You know, i thought i had seen it all, carol, but now there you have it. Is he like are there any posts still open . Is he going to be secretary could he i think here we go. I think he could be secretary of sanity. I know that seems like a far cry, the idea of kanye west for secretary of sanity, but you know, these concepts are now relative. Better hurry up and get her. Very fungible in a Trump Administration. Mr. Trump is talking to a variety of people so he can come up with ideas to unify the nation. Maybe kanye west can help him in the africanamerican community, you dont know. Maybe. Theres a larger issue here. People are choosing to legitimize trump. President elect trump who we should note, yes, has won the Electoral College but lost the popular vote by a more significant margin than, i mean, ever, right . In other words, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by a greater margin than most people in history. His credibility was already questioned. Now we have the question of russian hacking. Come on. None of this looks good and he hasnt made a single overture to say, look, im going to try to govern for all people unlike barack obama who at this point in his president electness has a 71 Approval Rating and trump has 40 Approval Rating. He has appointed far right conservative autocratic Business Leaders instead of looking to represent the broad interests of the american people. So jeffrey lord has arrived. Oh, goody. Jeffrey, there you are, youre laughing. Maybe you heard part of what sally said. I did. We were talking about kanye west coming into trump towers helping mr. Trump and wondering why, why, why . Hes going to be the new secretary of state . Maybe ive got that wrong. No, thats Rex Tillerson. Oh kanye. If only it were kanye. Got it. Got it. Well, listen, contrary to my friend sally, i think hes done a great deal. Hes talking to everybody from as she puts it the far right autocrats or whatever to al gore. Talk about a unifying scheme in things. Hes talking to everybody. This is the donald trump i know. Hes more than happy to talk to people. Heavens, mitt romney said all sorts of terrible things about him and hes been extraordinarily kind to mitt romney. This is the thing. I want to talk about mitt romney. He fell off the map. How do you go, jeffrey, from seriously considering mitt romney to Rex Tillerson, a man with no military or diplomatic experience. Well, i think hes got the kind of experience in the Business World in terms of diplomacy around the world in terms of his company, but i think the mitt romney thing was genuine. I mean, i personally was not thrilled with it because i thought mitt romney was way over the top about donald trump during the election and as a former republican president ial nominee, i just you know, thats sort of was gob smacking to me. He was very kind to mitt romney. He was genuinely under consideration. Hes gone with mr. Tillerson whos getting recommendations and kudos from condy rice and jim baker and others. Hardly a bunch of right wing nuts. Its just that hes not been in the public eye, thats really all thats going on here. Hes not been a member of the or a visible member, if you will, of the political class. So you think that donald trump was at one time very serious about mitt romney because sometimes i wonder if he really was very serious about mitt romney or hes just doing it as an olive branch. No. My understanding close to trump is it was all for show. Lets be clear, he made jeffreys right, hes meeting with people but hes not actually putting them into positions of power. The people hes putting into positions of power are billionaires and executives and far right ideye ideologues. His promise was he was going to drain the swamp. He is gilding the swamp. Its upsetting. Listen, he has exxon executive with close ties to russia, with business interests, billions of dollars of business interests in russia and zero Foreign Policy experience at an incredibly precipitous and dangerous time for the world, i cant imagine anyone thinking thats a good idea. Donald trump doesnt care. He cares whats good for business. Jeffrey. Sally, number one, i dont know how many conservatives barack obama put in his cabinet. I mean, a lot of them were far left wingers from a conservative point of view so, i mean, what can i tell you. Not true. Barack obama won the election, he has the right to put whomever he wanted in there. He campaigned on one america, red, white, blue, all of that thing and proceeded to steer the government incredibly left. Actually, he put a number of republicans in his cabinet. For instance, kept robert gates. He put no conservatives in his cabinet. Gates . Well, all right. Point taken, one. Oh good. Willing to concede. Carol, that was very good. But, jeffrey jeffrey, forgive me. Dont let facts get in the way of your point. Go ahead, please. No, jeffrey could also bring up rick perry, right . Rick perry was not a strong supporter of donald trump. Said very nasty things. Now hes top of the list. Nikki haley is in the cabinet as the u. N. Ambassador. The point is he is going to govern the way he said he intended to govern, hes going to bring people together. This is a good thing, not a bad thing. People like sally, my friend sally, are not going to agree. I get that. We had the election. Here in pennsylvania he won. Yes. Im going to do exactly what republicans do. Lets be clear. People like my friend jeffrey hammered Hillary Clinton for not giving press conferences when she was just a candidate. Hes now president elect and he not only has not given a press conference in 139 days but hes delaying for a month the one he promised to give. I am pretty confident that if a president elect Hillary Clinton said she wasnt going to take intelligence briefings, i mean, the thunder of republican objection and outrage would be deafening. Thats just not so. It was donald trump in 2014 who bashed president obama for rumors, rumors that he wasnt fully reading the briefings. Sally. Donald trumps really smart so its okay, right . Sally, look, there is defend it, please. President s as former cia director James Woolsey has said, president s take these briefings in different fashions. President clinton yes, but they take them, jeffrey. President clinton did not do them in person. He read them and he still took jeffrey, he still took the information on a daily basis. Do you understand . What your president is saying is hes not even going to take the information. Lets let jeffrey finish. Sally, if i am going to tell you the sun is hot, do i need to tell you tomorrow . Or the next day . Or the next day . Or the next day . Again, the glibness only in trumps world, the glibness with which you are taking youre supposed to be the party thats strong on national security. Youre supposed to be the party thats tough on these things. It was the republicans who bashed president obama for not being tough enough on putin. I am going to enjoy the next four years as much as you enjoyed the last eight. Come on. Im going to end it there. Jeffrey around merry christmas, carol. Still to come in the newsroom, the long shot planned to block donald trump from ever taking the presidency. What a slew of Electoral College members are now demanding. There is no typical day. There is nothing typical about making movies. Im victoria alonso and im an executive producer. At marvel studios. We are very much handson producers. If my office. Becomes a plane or an airport the surface pros perfect. Fast and portable but also light. You dont do this 14 hours a day, 7 days a week for. Decades if you dont feel it in your heart. 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Which would turn the election over to the house of representatives. Of those 19 there is a lone republican, chris supran. Chris is live, welcome. Good morning, carol. Good morning. So you guys wrote an open letter to clapper. Did you get a response . I have not heard anything yet, but i am hopeful. And what exactly do you want from him . Well, i think we deserve to know what russias involvement may have been, what was the basis of the Washington Post story about how far russias intervened and intruded in our election system. It seems from the Washington Post story it wasnt simply to undermine the election but in fact to pick a favorite. Hillary Clintons Campaign director is going one step farther. Its demanding that trump prove that mr. Trump did not collaborate with russia during the campaign. Is that also info you might welcome . Well, i wouldnt welcome it. I hadnt heard that news. Im not sure im ready to take that step where mr. Trump was involved with russia. Im simply concerned russia was involved with our election when they shouldnt be. Im not prepared to make accusations against another u. S. Citizen without further evidence. The director of National Intelligence can provide us whatever declassified facts he has and we can look at them and go from there. Do you believe that russia tilted the election towards trump . Well, i guess thats really the question, isnt it . We dont know. Thats why im looking for a factbased intelligence agency. When the report came out i was disappointed that mr. Trumps first reaction was to defend russia instead of the cia and factbased intelligence gathering like i would think any american president would. What would you say, mr. Trump says this whole thing with russia has become politicized. Its just a push to delegitimize his election. What do you say to that . Thats not my point. Im interested in facts and whether or not a Foreign Government intruded on our elections, undermined our elections and or picked a favorite for their own benefit, theyre not doing it necessarily for mr. Trump or anyone else they may have been involved with. I think theyre doing it for their benefit which is a danger to our national security. So as far as i know, you were the lone republican pushing for this. Have you talked to other republicans in the Electoral College . I have conversations daily since the op ed came out monday of last week. Ive had several people contact me. Ive reached out to others and im trying to have conversations not only on the cia issue but on the original three most importantly the ee moll u ments clause. What are those republicans saying to you . You know, its a mixed bag and i dont want to jeopardize any of the discussions were having. Were six days out, as you noted, and were at a delicate stage where were trying to convince voters to say we perhaps need to pause, reconsider, send this to the house of representatives and get more information in the meantime. Jill stein went down a different road. She demanded recounts in three states and a lot of people laughed at her because her efforts were unsuccessful. Might that be might that be the outcome for you as well . It certainly could. I am less worried about whether or not im successful on december 19th than i am in doing the right thing. I think that leadership should be about doing the right thing every time, not about doing the easy thing, which i think too many of our elections have come. There are those who say our country is so divided and its time to move on and let donald trump become president and see what happens. People just arent giving him a fair shake. You just had a great segment on the very topic. If donald trump wants to unite the country, i would welcome it. What ive seen since the election, he is more willing to attack the cast of hamilton or saturday night live than take his own National Intelligence briefings. So is it your intent then to to persuade the Electoral College, the other members, that donald trump should not be president . Well, thats what i attempted to do with the op ed and thats what im doing in the calls im making and taking when i speak to other Electoral College members. All right. I have to leave it there. Chris supran, thank you so much for being with me this morning. Still to come in the newsroom, from namecalling to threats. The tough challenges journalists face while reporting on donald trump. Thats next. Donald trumps journey to the white house started with a ride down a golden escalator and the journey since, well, its been unprecedented. As journalists, were used to reporting on the story but not actually being the story but at times team trump has put us in the spotlight. The president elect lamb baflts the media as dishonest and disgusting. He calls reporters out by name. Things got even nastier behind the scenes. Cnns political analyst john avlon knows all about that. He wrote a piece for the first ever book from cnn politics called unprecedented, the election that changed everything. Welcome, john. Good to see you, carol. Some of the stuff you wrote in the article we cant say on air. Thats part of its charm. I mean, you want to put it that way. In fact, my favorite comes from a deposition from trumps first divorce and Michael Cohen, who was the special counsel to mr. Trump, so what happened . Correct, so one of our daily beast reporters tim mack called up Michael Cohen to ask about the deposition and some of the accusations that had been made. And in a exchange that involved him saying theres no such thing as marital rape which made some headlines there was an allegation out there that Donald Trumps first wife accused him in the Divorce Proceedings of marital rape. Of feeling violated and then it had been retracted after a settlement but it had been a matter of fact that had not been raised in some time. In the course of that, Michael Cohen explained to our reporter tim mack that if anything was reported of this nature, that what he would do to him would be fing disgusting, that he would effectively bankrupt him personally as well as his News Organization and ruin him. In terms of such that referring to other things hed done to other people who made claims or accusations against donald trump in the past. This i think was a big reveal. This was just a few weeks after the campaign began, of the way that organization was used to treating the media, which was simultaneously craving the medias attention but attacking it and trying to intimidate journal itses from doing any reporting with threats of legal violence. You have to understand, that was a tear berrible allegation. So why shouldnt they intimidate the media out of writing about it . I think theres a difference between pushing back forcefully with facts and trying to threaten and intimidate and bully. When those likes gets bulled, we lose our ethical mooring as a country because then, you know, if the attitude towards the First Amendment is, you know, its an awfully nice First Amendment, be a shame if anything happened to it. If the attitude is we will individually attack and, you know, persecute people who say things we dont like and ask questions were uncomfortable with, thats a fundamental discomfort with a basic element of democracy. The Founding Fathers mentionedi, not political parties. Its all part of a larger game of checks and balances. Its not a game but a civic responsibility. When thats treated with contempt and theres attacks to individuals, thats chilling to every citizen. Heres the other thing. Some websites, the Huffington Post comes to mind, they took a stance against donald trump, they called him names at the end of every article. So in that sense im sorry, i just heard something. Oh, my goodness, john avlon. We had to show this picture. Long time. Weve been friends for a long time. Life. Discussing. 2020, that something you still want to do . Kanye, are you considering no comment about your meeting with the president elect, nothing to say . I just want to take a picture right now. Are you going to run for president , kanye . You take care of yourself, ill see you soon, all right . Cool, cool. So we just interrupted an impassioned speech by john avlon to show a picture of kanye west appearing with the president elect of the United States. So much for conversation about Rex Tillerson the new secretary of state for the next several hours. No, well talk about that, dont you worry. Donald trump is look, he is a master marketer. You know, i think a lot of it is impulse that some ascribe to strategy. He does have relationships with people like this. But by trotting out kanye west at this hour, bright shining object is going to drive a lot of coverage for the next few hours. Not on cnn. We just showed that because it was such an unusual picture and you wonder why kanye west was there. I mean, writ large, the impulse. One of the things social medias elevated is people chase bright shiny objects. The tension there is what is the heat and what is the outlier and its our job to distinguish between the two. Whenever you get a pop culture politics mashup of this nature, fascinating. Yes. Also is not deeply important. Thats right. We promise, we will not treat it as such. We really wont. Im sure thats also in cnns book unprecedented. Sure. Thats one of the challenges we deal with in covering the Trump Administration. Absolutely, look, again, hes been primarily a marketer his entire life. A hype man. Knows how to use the media. Thats one of the fascinating thing. He craves Media Attention but attacks the media when it tries to hold him accountable. Unlike any modern american political figure weve seen. In covering it, not to simply be distracted by the bright shiny objects but focus on the facts and keep in mind for readers and viewers everybodys entitled to their own opinion, not their own facts and thats our job as journalists. Thanks for stopping by. Reminder that cnns book unprecedented the election that changed everything is on sale now. You can order it at cnn. Com book. The next order of cnn newsroom after a break. Generosity is its own form of power. You can handle being a mom for half an hour. Im in all the way. Is that understood . I dont know what shes up to, but its not good. Cant the world be my noodles and butter . Get your mind out of the gutter. Mornings are for coffee and contemplation. That was a really profound observation. You got a mean case of the detox blues. Dont start a war you know youre going to lose. Finally you can now find all of netflix in the same place as all your other entertainment. On xfinity x1. Good morning, im carol costello. We have confirmed the former Texas Governor rick perry has been selected for Energy Secretary. You might remember rick perry at one time wanted to abolish the Energy Department but mr. Trump hoping hell become his Energy Secretary very soon. Jason carroll live at trump tower to tell us more, good morning. Good morning, carol. It was back in