That donald trump has filled as of this morning. His former rival turned supporter is now his nominee to head up the department of housing and urban development. Ben carson becomes the first africanamerican nominated to Donald Trumps cabinet. Vice president elect mike pence talked about carson moments ago. We are excited to have dr. Carson as our intended nominee for housing and urban development. We are looking forward to another very productive week to the transition thats setting a historic pace. Lets go live for more to cnns Jessica Schneider outside trump tower. Lets go back to china real quick. What is the transition saying this morning about the president elects comments . Reporter well, you know, they are not saying much. We can glean alone from Donald Trumps conversation with the leader of taiwan on friday as well as his subsequent tweets, of course, that controversial call, tenminute phone call on friday, then a slew of tweets over the weekend criticizing china. But of course, donald trump is defending the phone call. He says it was a call that was made to him by the leader of china and also vpelect mike pence is defending the call as well, saying this was just a courtesy call. Over the weekend, donald trump did in fact double down on his criticism of china, tweeting this. He said did china ask us if it was okay to devalue their currency, making it hard for our companies to compete, heavily tax our products going into their country, the u. S. Doesnt tax them, or to build a massive military complex in the middle of the south china sea. I dont think so. Now, to be sure, donald trump did make many of these remarks when he was campaigning, talking about china devaluing its currency but of course, now with about six and a half weeks to go until donald trump assumes the presidency, there is a lot of concern that this could be a new hostile era in u. S. China relations. In fact, right after this phone call with the leader of taiwan, chinese officials scrambled to call the white house, tried to get some clarification and there have been a slew of statements over the weekend from the Foreign Ministry of china. They havent said much in particular but they do say that they dont want to further scrutinize or analyze Donald Trumps actions or his tweets and then continuing to reiterate that the policies that have stood with the u. S. China relations over the past four decades, they need to continue to stand to continue that relationship, in particular that one china policy. So a lot of confusion here. Will this mean a change in policy . A lot to be seen but definitely drawing some controversy over the past few days. Kate . Also this morning, the transition is just saying, it got a lot of peoples attention that ivanka trump is planning to meet with al gore today to talk about climate issues. Thats a little surprising, to say the very least. Reporter yeah. The future first daughter meeting with the former Vice President , of course al gore, his signature issue is clima change and in recent weeks, we have actually heard that ivanka trump may be making this one of her signature issues as well. Its something she hasnt really spoken out about. When we heard her at the Republican National convention she was focused on child care, making that her platform but it appears that she may be shifting or adding to so yes, she will in fact meet with the former Vice President , the former president ial candidate al gore right here at trump tower. That meeting happening today. When asked if donald trump himself might meet with al gore, the Transition Team said thats not scheduled at this point but who knows. In addition, its interesting, we have learned that Jared Kushner and ivanka trump are house hunting in d. C. It looks like that couple may make the move down to Nations Capital with their three children. That bearing questions as to what exactly Jared Kushners role could be in the presidency. Of course hes barred by antinepotism laws from taking on an official position but we know hes had Donald Trumps ear throughout this campaign as well as during this transition process. But yes, the kushners perhaps going down to d. C. We learned that they are house hunting down there. With the transition announcing this meeting between ivanka trump and al gore, it also renews questions of what is ivanka trumps role within the administration, the transition, because obviously donald trump said over and over the children are going to run the business. So this does raise a lot more conversation to be had. Great to see you. Thank you so much. Joining me, cnns chief National Security correspondent jim sciutto, who spent many years working in china, including as chief of staff and Senior Adviser to former u. S. Ambassador to china. Richard quest is host of cnn internationals quest means business and editor at large for cnn money. Ron brownstein is here, cnn senior political analyst and Senior Editor for the atlantic. Guys, thanks for being here. Jim, the call between donald trump and the taiwanese president , what is your take on the real impact now, especially as we saw in the Washington Post reporting this morning that this call was in the works for weeks, maybe months. Thats right. That fights the initial spin, which was this was just one of many congratulatory phone calls that donald trump received as opposed to arranged. Heres the thing. I spent a lot of time covering china and in china. China is extremely sensitive to the most minor shifts in rhetoric, diplomatic signals, policy shifts, et cetera. To have the president elect tweet out, we know the way donald trump uses twitter, this is expressions of his policy positions, to have a president elect tweet out two very, i dont know if antagonistic is the right word, but very firm statement, shall we say, on major policy issues between the u. S. And china, economic policy, Foreign Policy with the south china sea, that signal a substantive shift from a bipartisan decadeslong bipartisan approach to china, right, on those issues, but also in terms much tof taiwan that g back to 1979 recognizing beijing as the seat of china as opposed to taiwan. When that happens from the president elect, thats major. Thats substantial. While chinas public statements have been very measured, saying well, this is a trade relationship that has benefited both sides, i have heard and i think this is quite credible, that inside chinas Foreign Ministry, inside the Chinese Embassy down here the street from us in washington, d. C. , there is genuine concern about whats next with the u. S. Thats significant. Richard, from your perspective, when you saw the tweet, jessica read the tweet trump sent out over the weekend directed at china, saying several things, how do you describe the relationship between the United States and china . Lets say over the last eight years under obama and what this kind of do you think just these words are likely to change that relationship . Oh, yes. It has all the potential for doing that. You have to understand, very much as jim was saying, the idea of all of this whole business of diplomacy and communication between countries is that we are both doing the same dance in the same direction. So i agree with you we are both going to do the fox trot and we start to do it and we may not do it very well, but hopefully if d diplomacy is right we are both gliding around the floor. What donald trump is doing is telegraphing to people they are actually going to be doing the tango. Now the other side is saying hold on, i thought we were doing the fox trot and somebody else says, no, i thought it was a rumba. I give you this exam wipleexamp rules of diplomacy are there for a purpose. It means when you sit down, you know where youre going and what youre doing. Thats vital in business. Who wants to commit billions of dollars of investment anywhere in the world inwards or outwards if you dont know . Besides the fact i have this Beautiful Image of you and i trying to fox trot, rumba and tango at the same time, which would be quite something to see, let me get your take on this, then. All of this in mind, what does this mean for Donald Trumps, at some point will be announced very soon we think, maybe, his incoming secretary of state . I found it interesting i think probably everybody did as well, as this is happening you have the former ambassador to china under obama, the former utah governor Jon Huntsmans name being added to the list of candidates being considered. Look, as jim and richard well know, the u. S. Relationship with china is always big and messy and sprawling and contradictory. There is always a mix of confrontation and cooperation going on at the same time. On the one hand, donald trump is clearly signaling a more confrontational tone with the tweets and the call. On the other hand, he is dropping on chinas doorstep a giant christmas package wrapped up in a big bow which is withdrawing from the Transpacific Partnership which was the principal means by which the Obama Administration was hoping to contain chinese economic power in asia and allowing china to fill the gap with their own regional free trade agreement. Where this comes back to secretary of state, one reason why this job is so hard is because donald trump departs i think more decisively from traditional republican thinking on Foreign Policy than he does even on domestic policy. Finding someone who basically shares the same coordinates in their views of the world as donald trump and is also credible as an international figure, as secretary of state, that is a narrow needle to thread. I think you are seeing the difficulty of doing that play out as this process continues. We see some of that concern, i dont know if concern, but its also questions of course immediately going to republicans on capitol hill. Mike mccarthy sorry, Kevin Mccarthy was asked by reporters about this on the hill. Manu raju tweeting out mccarthy was telling reporters that one congratulatory phone call will not change u. S. Policy. You see this delicate kind of dance going on. It is delicate. Im going to extend richards powerful point there and go from rumba to mosh pit. Because thats the difference here. We are swinging blows on the dance floor here. Now, the thing about that diplomatic dance, i have been answering a lot of questions on twitter. Theyre like why is it bad to stand up to china. Im not a diplomat or Government Official here, im not making judgments about policy decisions, but the reason diplomatic language and Communication Matters is because it avoids wars, right . Throughout history, this is the way difficult states with difficult relationships try to communicate important stuff without shooting at each other in the simplest terms. And thats why i was just going to say, right now, the u. S. And china have disputes that have the potential to escalate. One over the militarization of manmade islands in the china sea, trade issues, human rights issues, et cetera. This kind of Communication Matters. What is the important point also is we shouldnt be having these discussions at such level of detail until january 21st, when the president elect takes office. The u. S. Only has one president at each time. We are always told by both the winner and the incumbent. Maybe that also, though, says that he hasnt done anything yet. He has. Hes doing manasomething wit these statements. Words count. Words matter. Lot of people say words played less of a role in a lot of the conversations had during the campaign as we went over and over again. Ron, you get the last fun one. I dare you to make a dance metaphor in this. The changing world captured in one image. I will put up the picture. A lot of folks have been pointing to this as a lot of folks describing this picture taken less than a year ago. Obama with the World Leaders from the uk, france, italy, germany, taken in april 2015. Since then, just take a look around. Especially after over the weekend. Angela merkels really the last one standing. Obamas on his way out. Hollande is not seeking reelection. And renzi and cameron have resigned or announced resignations. What does that say about the world right now . It says when you have a sustained period of slow growth and Living Standards you get a lot of political turbulence no matter what country you are in. What we have seen is this global backlash in countries across europe and certainly in the u. S. Election among a big portion of the electorate recoiling against trade and immigration as kind of a target, as an explanation for those slowly growing Living Standards. But as we saw in austria yesterday, that tide is not necessarily irreversible. I think it is an enormous choice coming up as richard knows better than i, with germany and france this year, when britain has already pulled back and donald trump signaled support for the insular populist movements, which way europe turns in the next year is going to be a truly consequential choice and one that is not entirely possible to predict today. Great to see you. Noteworthy, ron did not make a dance metaphor. Thanks, guys. Great to see you. Much appreciated. More on the horrific warehouse fire in oakland, california. The death toll rising this morning, now 36 people confirmed dead. In the words of the oakland fire chief, she absolutely believes the death toll will rise again. Overnight they had to halt all Search Operations at the warehouse after finding the building unstable and at risk of collapsing on rescue workers there. Cnns Stephanie Elam is at the scene joining us with the very latest. What are you hearing . Reporter well, at this point, the Structural Engineers should be on scene now working to make sure this building is safe for them to continue their Recovery Efforts and also to find out what started this fire. They do believe they have isolated the place where the fire began. In fact, take a listen to what the oakland fire battalion chief had to say about that. Where this steel is actually twisted and wrapped in the back of the building, we can see fire spread and atf and our local investigators feel very strongly they have identified the section of the building that is the area of origin. Reporter and they are also hoping that after they are able to shore up the building that the firefighters will be able to get back in there, investigators will be able to get back in there somewhere between noon and 4 00 p. M. Local time so that they can continue these efforts to recover victims and as you say, they do believe they will recover more victims inside of this building. A slow, painstaking process they say will continue to move at this speed simply because they do not want to miss anything or anyone, despite the fact that rain is in the forecast for later on this week. Kate . Stephanie, thank you very much. In minutes, i will speak live with the citys District Attorney who is launching a criminal investigation into that horrific fire. 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