Faces at trump tower rolling on. Rick perry tapped top energy secretary. Hed be heading an agency he once tried to eliminate, and then theres kanye west. Probably the only person to visit trump tower in the last two weeks who doesnt want a job, maybe. I just want to take a picture right now. Okay. Lets go back to jim acosta in wisconsin for us this evening. J jim, good evening to you. Youre covering another socalled thank you rally, this one in wisconsin. How did it go . Reporter well, there are no kanye sightings here. There are some Christmas Trees behind me. I guess you can see that donald trump was in sort of the Christmas Spirit tonight, although i think he feels its better to receive election victories than he gobbled up about 22 minutes of this 50inout rally talking about his victory on Election Night. He also defended some of the decisions hes made as president elect. Most specifically, Rex Tillerson as secretary of state. He announced that earlier today, and he talked about tillersons presence on the world stage, his contacts with World Leaders. Even some World Leaders he mentions the United States does not get along with. Though donald trump did not mention one name in particular, and that is Vladimir Putin who has a long relationship with Rex Tillerson. Heres more of how donald trump put it tonight here in wisconsin. Rex will be a fierce advocate for americas interest around the world. And has the insights and talents necessary to reverse years of Foreign Policy blunders and disasters. Blunders and disasters. Very excited about rex. And you know, rex is friendly with many of the leaders in the world that we dont get along with, and some people dont like that. They dont want him to be friendly. Reporter and as you know, don, earlier today donald trump did announce some other cabinet selection picks. Energy secretary rick perry. Thats the choice that donald trump is making for the energy department. And we also learned that line zinki a republican congressman from montana has been tapped for interior secretary, and we understand katrina pearson, a spokesperson during the campaign, she was at trump tower to talk about press secretary and other positions in the administration. Paul ryan was by his side tonight. Are they on the same page tonight, jim . Reporter on the same page, thats a tricky question. As we saw during the campaign, they were not on the same page. There were times when paul ryan had to Cancel Campaign appearances with donald trump. He did not want to appear essentially by and large with donald trump during this election cycle. But he was here on stage tonight. There were a few boos for the House Speaker here. There are some republicans here in wisconsin who are still upset with the speaker of the house for not fully embracing donald trump throughout this campaign cycle. And donald trump seemed to acknowledge some of those feelings in his own feelings about the House Speaker. There were times when they clashed publicly, privately, and in all ways. At one point during this rally, trump did praise ryan, though in somewhat of an unusual way. Heres what he had to say. Speaker paul ryan. Ive really come to appreciate him. Speaker paul ryan. Where is the speaker . Where is he . He has been ill tell you, he has been terrific. And you know, honestly, hes like a fine wine. Every day goes by, i get to appreciate his genius more and more. Now, if he ever goes against me, im not going to say that. Okay . Hes a great guy, and we have some Amazing Things in store. And were going to work on taxes. Were going to work on obama care. Were going to work on things, and hes going to lead the way, so thank you. Reporter and that was not the only mention of rivals from the past, don. At one point donald trump was talking about Hillary Clinton and her Election Night party on november 8th that he said had gucci fireworks waiting in the wicks for her victory. He described her fireworks there as gucci fireworks and at one point took a jab at her when he asked the crowd here whether anybody remembers her name. Even though its been morn a month since he was e lekded, hes still taking shots at Hillary Clinton and the news media. It is gucci brothers with an r, right . I think the fireworks, im pretty sure. I dont know. I sounded like gucci from where we were standing. Lets get back on track. Trump has chosen an interior secretary. What the k you can you tell us about him . Its the congressman from montana, former navy s. E. A. L. We were hearing the number four republican in the house Kathy Mcmorris rodgers, she had the inside track for that position of interior secretary, and then sort of late in the Selection Process ryan zinkis name was emerging as well as a congressman from idaho. It seemed to be between them. At the end they went with ryan zinki. They were pretty impressed with his interview. But one potential ramification from all this is there was some talk back in montana that ryan zinki was going to challenge the montana senator coming up. That would take that off the table. There might be Montana Republicans not particularly happy about that, but probably pleased to see one of their own in the trump cabinet given the assumption that everything should be just fine with ryan zinki being confirmed. Jim, thank you very much. I want to bring in fareed zakaria. Welcome to the show. Tillerson has no political experience. Hes spent his life working for big oil. Big oil is a political business. Theres no question with this nomination the guy is competent. He runs the Largest Oil Company in the world. They employ 80,000 people. Theyre in more countries than i think the state department. They have their own internal Intelligence Agency like the cia. Hes run a big organization. The state department is very large. He has all the attributes youd look for. He comes highly recommended. I think that this is a nomination where the debate will actually end up being something which one can look forward to. Its on the substance. Nobody disputes hes competent and has the experience and background that he would know how to run the state department and know how to negotiate. The question will be more about the substantive policies that he might pursue. Will they be too closely tied to what is good for exxon and not for the United States, and where does he stand on the important issue of russia. Well talk about russia, but i want to get in, several high ranking people in the Bush Administration have praise for him. Form secretaries of state, and james baker, gates and rice are paid consultants for exxon. Do you think theyll have an influence on the confirmation process . The one thing weve learned over the last few months or a year is that the republican establishment does not hold as much weight with the public as we thought they would. After all, think about how many of them came out against donald trump, and it made no difference. Condoleezza rice posted on facebook, and robert gates said donald trump didnt have the temperament you need for commander in chief. I dont know theyre going to make that much difference. I think here what youre moving so is theres an important moment for american democracy. The senate seems to be taking its role seriously including republican senators. He is controversial. Though democrats are critical. Three republicans on the Foreign Relations free, mccain, and graham and rubio said theyre concerned about his ties to russia. Rubio issued a statement. He said while Rex Tillerson is a respected businessman, i have concerns about his nomination. The next secretary of state must be someone who views the world with moral clarity, is free of potential conflicts of interest, has a clear sense of americas interest and will be a forceful advocate for the american goals and on the world stage. Could those three senators hold up the nomination . Three senators is all it would take. The interesting question is marco rubio, john mccain, Lindsey Graham are starting a very important conversation about what american policy toward russia should be. And what russia, what are russias goals right now . What we are witnessing with russia over the last few years has been a country that has decided to invade georgia, invade ukraine, interfere in elections in western europe, in eastern europe. We now know with some degree of certainty that in some way or other they try odd to get involved in the american political process and the election. Theyre trying to assert more and more control in syria. This is a russia on the move that is aggressive. Its ironic that Rex Tillerson is getting the job because that seems to vindicate one of the principle points of mitt romney when he ran for president in 2012. He said russia is our number one 1993 owe political adversary, and it appears to be thats the case. Now, can Rex Tillerson what has had close relations with putin, in fact, one of the reasons he was promoted to ceo of exxon was he had good relationships with the russians and could do deals. That doesnt mean he wont be able to represent american interests and American National interests, but thats the issue. Its not his competent. The question is where does he stand on what is likely to be americas principle gee owe political problem. How to deal with Vladimir Putin. And more on john mccain. Hes called putin a murder and a thug. He and he talked about the order of friendship putin awarded him in 2003. Listen to this. Frankly, i would never accept an award from Vladimir Putin, because then you kind of give some credence and credibility to this butcher, this kgb agent of being against sanctions after Vladimir Putin invaded, basically ukraine and partitioned it in violation of all International Law and took crimea, then that leads to me to question what about the issue of morality. There should be some certain standards, whatever business we are in, and, again, honoring having accepting an honor from Vladimir Putin legitimizes Vladimir Putin. You see my point in. John mccain, a respected senator. That seems like a high hurdle to clear. The way mccain described it, certainly. The only thing i would say is being a businessman and being secretary of state are Different Things. If youre running a big company, and you have dealings with russia, one of the two or three Largest Oil Producers in the world and youre doing business with them, i think thats one thing. The real question is can tize that in a geopolitical sense were in dangerous waters where its possible that the president elect wants to make some kind of deal with russia. Hes talked about it all the time. But in doing that, you would make insecure all of eastern europe. The polls, the baltic states, all these countries would be deeply insecure, think the United States was abandoning them. You would create an enormous amount of instability in doing this one deal with putin. So one would hope that Rex Tillerson would understand that. Theres no reason to assume he wouldnt. He was a businessman and protecting exxons interest. I dont fault him for that at all. The test he should be put to is can he now defend americas interests with the same zeal and intelligence that he defended exxon. Thank you very much. Always appreciate you. When we come back, donald trump is building his cabinet, but what do his picks tell us to expect after he takes the oath of office in 38 days . What time is it . Its go time. Come on. Lets go, lets go, lets go. Woooo hoooo yeah i feel like i went to bed an hour ago. Ill make the cocoa. Get a great offer on the car of your grownup dreams at the mercedesbenz winter event. Its the look on their faces that make it all worthwhile. Thank you santa now lease the 2017 c300 for 389 a month at your local mercedesbenz dealer. Family road trip fun check engine. Not fun but, youve got hum. Thats like driving with this guy. All you do is press this, and in plain english, coolant, youll know whats wrong. If you do need a mechanic, just press this. Thank you for calling hum. And if you really need help, help can find you, automatically, 24 7. Because you put this, in here. Hum by verizon. The technology designed to make your car smarter, safer and more connected. Put some smarts in your car. After weeks of drama we now know Donald Trumps choice for his secretary of state, the exxon mobile ceo. Here to discuss, kiersten powers, salena deto. Thank you for coming on. Kiersten, i want you to pay close attention. A lot of new cabinet announcements tonight. Rex tillerson, secretary of state. Rick perry, secretary of energy. Heres how donald trump described his tcabinet earlier tonight. I believe were in the process of putting together one of the great cabinets, certainly a cabinet with the highest i. Q. I mean, these are seriously great people. Kiersten, do you think hes on the mark. Tremendous. Amazing. He is. Yes. Look, this is how he talks. So i think that hes putting together a cabinet that is one that would make conservative republicans very happy. Probably in some ways their dream team when you think about the type of people theyve wanted to have. Somebody taking on the epa. Somebody who is going to be possibly taking on the energy department. I think that they are looking at the kinds of people they never thought they were ever going to be able to have this cabinet positions. And donald trump is not a conservative really. You took the words hold on. Go on. I just think its interesting that republicans, i think one of the biggest reasons a lot of people opposed him is they didnt believe he would be conservative. The criticism of him, at least during the primaries was hes not a real conservative. Hes a democrat. And now kiersten said this is sort of the dream team for most republicans. If anybody thought that donald trump wasnt serious about what he was saying during the campaign, that he was just sort of mouthing words on a teleprompter, that there was just another show. I heard this over and over. We have no idea what hes going to be like. We cant believe anything he says. I dont think anybody has any questions now. As kiersten said correctly, this is a conservative cabinet. More conservative than any of the last three cabinets around the president bushes. And the people surrounding him. I was up at the tower the last couple of days. There are a lot of good, strong principled conservatives who are vetting the next round. Deputy secretaries, assistant secretaries. Donald trump made a promise to the American Public he was going to do certain things and he feels bound to deliver on that. And if you do, you need people to share in the vision. It sounds like Wayne Industries when you say that when you say the tower. What do you make of what Rick Santorum said, and how do you think the appointments are playing along voters . The basics are people wanted change. Thats part of why they voted for him. But they conservatives, like kiersten said, i dont think they thought that they would maybe get this kind of cabinet because there was no ideology ill differ with the senator there, no ideology with this guy. He didnt process to have any sort of set values on where his political lines were. Yeah. Salena, im going to disagree. Donald trump said that he was going to drain the swamp. He was going to cut back the regulations in this country. He was going to create opportunities for manufacturing and energy. He was going to have a reset when it came to our Foreign Policy that was going to be american first Foreign Policy on immigration. Look at jeff sessions, the justice department. Go down the list of things he campaigned on. Were very clear. Not all of them were traditional conservative. I agree with that. Do you think by appointing people tied to wall street, that that consistent with draining the swamp . There are few people tied to wall street. You have the treasure secretary which has been a long history of treasury secretaries. Its sort of a wall street kind of function. You dont want somebody who doesnt really understand the functions of the treasury to be your treasury secretary, but if you go beyond that, youre talking about a lot of good, solid americans who have great track record of accomplishment outside of government primarily. And i think thats what donald trump was looking for and hes giving it. A similar question to kiersten. Weve had this conversation. A lot of traditional folks, i mean, you know rick perry today, his former rival, do you think thats draining the swamp . Well, i think when he said drain the swamp, i think hes talking about the creatures of washington. So the k street lobbyists and people who live there all the time and make money off the government which has been ive been in washington between washington and new york and its been an ever expanding group of people getting rich off the government. Thats what i think he was talking about. I dont know that he was necessarily talking about not having a treasury secretary who is from goldman sachs. Bill clinton had one from goldman sachs, but rick perry is a politician, obviously. And hes but hes also somebody critical of trump. Ultimately came around and campaigned for him. Its interesting he would choose somebody to really came after him. Rick perry, secretary