Word or late word joining us from trump tower. What can you tell us about the romney team and whether hes seriously considering the position is this. Reporter well the suspense continues about how this will all shake out and the final decision. But we are told that mitt romney is seriously considering the possibility of being secretary of state that hes talking it over with his family members. There has been contact between romneys world and trumps world. Which is an indication this is a serious discussion. Not just something that was done from a photo op. Now, to the best of our knowledge. Mitt romney doesnt want to say hes going to accept unless the offer is on the table. Donald trump doesnt want to make the offer unless it is clear mitt romney is going to accept. I am told by sources that mitt romney is a leading candidate. Hes not the only candidate in the mix though. Rudy giuliani is still under consideration for this post. So still a few days of suspense ahead i think john. So sara, these men exchanged incredibly harsh words during the campaign. Is that all buy gones and thats all away . Not just incredibly harsh words. They have incredibly different views of the world. Remember mitt romney is the guy who was criticized for calling russia americas number one geopolitical foe when he was running for president in 2012. Whereas donald trump has spoken about putin in much more favorable terms. So i think that is another issue were seeing. Trying to trying ironed out. But i do think the romney team wants to send a signal they are willing to send. It is fascinating, a lot of discussions will be had over the thanksgiving tables for the trump family and the romney family. Now Donald Trumps session with the New York Times. All the news to print on that. You know, political analyst and New York Times correspondent Maggie Haberman was in the room and tweeting all about it. Joins us by phone right now. First of all, what was the atmosphere like inside that room . Especially given the fact that mitt romney had not mitt romney. Donald trump sort of canceled the meeting on twitter and then decided to uncancel the meeting. And the fact that he actually went to the New York Times and said the usual which is have everyone come to him in trump tower. Thanks, among other things for taking me by phone. It was a cordial meeting. He started out defensively. His arms were crossed were tightly as he delivered the pretty calm and diatribe against our coverage. That it was very tough. That we were the toughest, you know, and then said and this is what surprised me, that he believed that having a Good Relationship with us would make governing easier for him in terms of what he would like to coand it went forward from there. And after that loosened up and he was very e gajd. He was as he is often is in these meetings very charming. Look, the New York Times is still his hometown paper and it has a different place for him. And sort of always has throughout the campaign but we covered an enormous amount of ground. You sure did. About where his head is right now. Covered a lot of ground. Made a lot of news during the meeting. Curious what you think was the biggest piece of news to come out of it . Two things. I think him sort of retreating from some of the most extreme positions he had taken. And again the retreating, im still not quite clear where he is. But on Climate Change he allowed for the possibility. Said he thinks there is some connectivity, was his words, between humans and Climate Change. That is very different from what he had said. He had this tweet many, many years not that many but a number of years ago about how Climate Change was a hoax. And he suggested that he was open to the paris accord. A little more muted on that. And he also basically said, you know, yes, im im still at my business. Im still doing things and declared that it is not possible for the president to have a conflict of interest. Just because anything could be a conflict of interest. Pretty breathtaking statement. Hes said and hes correct that weve never had a situation with an incoming president with as sprawling a set of enentanglements he has. But it does mean there are a lot of different complications. Those two things are mutually exclusive. A blind trust is not run by your children. And he dropped the blind trust today. Didnt say it at all. Made it clear hes phasing out as you said of overseeing most of the business. It is interesting though hes willing to give on interests of the Climate Change, for instance, and at least opening the door on that but not willing to open the door at all or give at all on the issue of potentially conflict of interest. He seems pretty dug in. He was not hearing any of it. And as ironic, as i was listening to sara speaking just now and i have very similar reporting about where romney stands in all of this. You know, the main objection within the Trump Campaign and there are two camps. A rudy camp and a mitt camp. The objection to rudy is about vetting over business conflicts of interests and ties. So it is kind of ironic, as we are with whats goes on with trump and it sort of doesnt matter, i cant be healed to that. He also said what role he saw for his soninlaw Jared Kushner in the administration which he has said he wants him to do something. And he basically said im probably not going to do Something Like that because i dont want to open jared up to criticism. But then went on to suggest that, you know, there still wouldnt be a problem with it. And when i pointed out there are antinepotism laws he sort of brushed right past them. He also suggested that his soninlaw jared kush ner plight be good at reaching peace in the middle east which is something obviously that administration after administration and expert after expert has been successful in. But he thinks his soninlaw would be successful in that. But he thinks he would be successful in that. Trumps talks about that pretty contently in the campaign. Hes frequently said he thinks the people have given up on the concept too easily. He would like to revive it. Ive not heard him talk with Jared Kushner in conjunction with it. Helps craft trump speech before the group aipac earlier this year. And has been sort of the one of his advisors on issues related to israel. But certainly not an issue that kush ner has decades of diplomatic experience. But he was serious just to be clear. He was completely serious. You asked him all the paper, everyone asked him about the altright and these racist groups that met over the weekend. This one racist group, neonazi group. And you tweeted trump on altright support, this is not a group i want to energize and if they are energized, i want to look into it and find out why. So this was trump finally after days directly addressing this and denouncing it, yes . Sure. Except i dont know what it means in the sense that he said that if he had learned that steve bannon was connected to quote unquote altright and this was his phrasing then i wouldnt have even had him work here. Bannon said in July Breitbart is a platform for the altright. And trump said i want to know if stuff comes up. Bring to it my attention. So it is true that hes disavoid hi what are the big stories today even before donald trump spoke to you, the Transition Team had opened up the possibility that donald trump in his administration would not seek to investigate or press charges against Hillary Clinton. What did he have to say about that . He was very i began actually with that question. And asked him to clarify. He was talk about the emails and the Clinton Foundation. He was talk about both in terms of backing away from an investigation. He maid clear he recognized there is a limit to what power there is in the white house. And in fact the president is supposed to have nothing do with this in terms of the department of justice. It is supposed to be independent which was always a criticism of the fbi investigation into clinton, was, you know, his and others argument was. He said he thinks that she has suffered enough. That shes been through im paraphrasing. Sees been through too much. This was a brutal campaign. And then says that the Clinton Foundation some say has done good work. Which is a little bit different than, you know, its a scam line we heard from him and Rudy Giuliani for most of the final weeks of the campaign. More like the donald trump who through his Foundation Actually donated to the Clinton Foundation years ago. That was before he ran for president against her. Maggie, a fascinating discussions you all had with him. Thanks so much for coming on and sharing your insight from that meeting. Appreciate it. My pleasure. Joining us now. Democratic strategist Maria Cardona. And kristine gwynn. And Kayleigh Mcenany and more. There was a lot to discuss about that. Lets start with the business side of this. Maggie was talking about christine the fact that donald trump really wont budge on the idea there might be conflicts of interest between how hes behaving during this transition period and his own personal business interests. What do you make of his answers there . I find it bizarre that if you are the president of the United States you can have no conflicts. It is like a mega papal blessing he gave himself that hes ab solved from all of this. It makes so sense. Absolved from. It makes so sense. In government you have to be particularly careful disclosing all of your outside interests. Recusing yourself from any business that has anything to do with it. We would have counsel members recuse from votes on School Funding for schools where their children went. That is how specific it gets in government. Nonetheless, what multi national, International Foreign interests he might have and were hearing reports if they are true of him meeting with leaders from Great Britain pushing against a wind farm because it might block the view of his golf course. That is like neon bright light conflict of interest if it is true. There were people in that conversation who said it was true. Donald trump was asked about that at the meeting today with the New York Times and he actually said i dont remember whether it came up or not but certainly didnt deny it. Jeffrey lord. Student of history. Excited to have your here with us tonight. When president elect tump says the law is totally on my side. The president cant have a conflict of interest. Sort of sounds like when the president does it that means it is not illegal. So how are these two things different jeffrey . Well, first of all president s have always had conflicts of interest. The most perhaps the most famous example in the last 50 or 60 years was the kennedys owning the merchandise march in chicago. When president kennedy took office they not only did not sell the Merchandise Mart they head the head of the Merchandise Mart director shriber of the peace corps. Nobody said a peep about it. The only difference here really is scale. Admittedly that is what draws all of this attention to it. I may not have been born so i want to be clear on the kennedy situation so i dont think i could have said a peep or on the johnson thing being very young. No offense jeffrey. And jeffrey is right there have been president s in the past that have had a lot of businesses that have been very rich. Guess what, most of them put their assets in a blind trust. A real blind trust. A real blind trust. Clearly donald trump is parodying what i think has been told to him what the Founding Fathers have put in the constitution that they arent the president is exempt from a lot of the rules that the rest of officials are have to go with, because he is the president. He or she is the president. And they cant just easily recuse themselves from something that could be of national security. But that doesnt reassure people who have no clue whats in his taxes and who have no clue how deep and dangerous his business ties around the globe are that he could owe money to. Russian banks, german banks and then be influenced by it. Were going talk more about this. And were going to talk about apparently giving Hillary Clinton a free pass and also going to talk about the statements about the altright or this racist group that met over the weekend. A lot more to discuss coming you haveem you could spend days weeding through financial documents to refinance your home. Or, you could push that button. Skip the paperwork and get a mortgage solution in minutes. Lift the burden of getting a home loan with Rocket Mortgage by quicken loans. whisper rocket afoot and lighthearted i take to the open road. Healthy, free, the world before me, the long brown path before me leading wherever i choose. The east and the west are mine. The north and the south are mine. All seems beautiful to me. Were talking about the treasure trove of head lines that donald trump made today at the New York Times. Including this. I asked the president elect trump what role he sees for kushner, meaning Jared Kushner. Trump indicates formal role unlikely. But he could be a player on middle east peace . A word, wow. Errol lewis. This is a big project attempted by many people. Many diplomats with years and years of experience. And donald trump is suggesting his 35yearold soninlaw with no government experience might be able to somehow help forge it. By all accounts hes a capable young man. As a special envoy he would certainly have the president s ear. So i wouldnt rule it out automatically. If hes got connections and an aability look weve all been through this since the time i was a kid and i remember the 1973 war. Its been really the same five or six issues. Stats of the jerusalem. Refugee status. Land swaps for peace. It really hasnt changed. How you get from here to there though is the question. And i dont know if you need to have a wall full of degrees or years of experience or know all of the different players to know that it is a gourdian knot. If there is something that Jared Kushner can bring to the table apparently because of the antinepotism laws there is not a lot he can do with government but that particular job me height be able. Apparently hes very smart and did a very good job helping the Trump Campaign. But there is an area where so many have tried and failed. Every secretary of state, every president has tried and to some degree failed. And im just not sure that expectations should be set high on someone with no experience. But i think that kind of makes the point. Look we have had statesmen come in with all the degrees that errol mentioned and i think errol makes a good point that perhaps trying something else. You never know what could be achieved. And i want to echo something that my good friend jeff lord said last your. You had a peanut farmer from georgia come in and forge peace from egypt and israel. He had been governor of georgia and also had been elected president at that point. And also had a full cabinet and staff. To compare jimmy carter and the jared cukushner. A bright guy. Executive of a company. Why not try it. He is jewish faith and understands one side of the argument and might be able to bring light and understanding between the two camps. Anna do you want to jump in here . I think so many have tried and failed. The they want to throw out Jared Kushner, he brings the complete support and ear and confidence of the president of the United States his fournl. That is a plus for him. If he wants to try and fail okay. If hes able to make some progress, the best for it. I do want to go back though to the previous subject which was the conflict of interest. We talked about the legality of the it. What we havent talked about is the political cost to it. Its been only two weeks since donald trump has been elected president of the United States and theres already been a steady drip drip drip of stories about political interest. Ivanka trump sitting in with the Prime Minister of japan meeting. And. The wind farms in england. One after the other. And republicans are going to be in congress are going to be in a very difficult position. They honed in on the conflict of interest issue on Hillary Clinton for years now. It is going to be a lot of egg on a lot of peoples faces in congress if they dont exact the same kind of scrutiny and toughness on donald trump. Legality or not, i can tell you it is not going to pass political muster and people are going to be bothered and donald trump himself made such an issue of conflict of interest, of crooked hillary. So were going to have what knew . Instead of crooked hillary . Were going to have don the con trying to make profit out of presidency . Im not sure the American People will stand for that. And im not sure the u. S. Congress, including the republicans in there can do so either. Kayleigh, do you want to respond to this . Is this draining the swamp all of a sudden work on your familys business at the same time as the nation. Every day he sates with his accountants and lawyers to assure him that everything hes doing is right. We heard Reince Priebus say our white house counselal is going to look strenuously to make sure his business efforts are not flowing into his official government work. Hes taking t