President obama delivers his farewell address to the nation tonight. Lets given with Jason Carroll who is live at trump tower in new york. Whats the latest . The president elect feeling confident about his cabinet choices and his soninlaw despite all that, they are expected to face tough opposition in the coming hours and coming days. The president elect says hes confident in all eight of his cabinet nominees facing confirmation hearings this week. The confirmation is going great. I think they will all pass. I think every nomination will be they are at the highest level. Trumps controversial pick for attorney general, alabama senator Jeff Sessions is first up, followed by retired marine corps general john kelly who is up for Homeland Security secretary. His move to appoint his soninlaw Jared Kushner that is raising lots of questions. Top democrats on the House Judiciary Committee calling for a review of the appointment, arguing the anti nepotism law leaves kushner inn eligible for the job but kushners attorney maintains the anti nepotism statue excludes west wing posts. Meantime, kushner is moving to resign from all executive positions at his companies and divest a significant number of asets, including all Foreign Investments to comply with government ethics rules. Something the president elect has yet to do. An official briefed on the transition says kushner will not take a salary at the white house and not all democrats are wary of kushner. Im certainly pleased he will be in that role. I find him to be a lot more reasonable and a lot more moderate. Its not clear what role ivanka will have and whether the first daughter will have a west wing office. Well talk about that on wednesday. Reporter thats when trump will hold his First Press Conference in nearly six months where he is expected to be pressed about his conflicts of interest. Its very simple. Very easy. Whether he accepts the conclusions of intelligence agencies that russia meddle ds in the u. S. Election. Well talk to you about that at another time. And much of the focus is on the incoming president. Tonight the focus will be on part of the outgoing president. President obama expected to give his Farewell Speech tonight in chicago. Much of the speech will focus on thanking his supporters over the years. Its expected to be forwardlooking and written from the heart. Chris. Jason, thank you very much. A busy week of Senate Confirmation hearings kickoff on capitol hill just hinled us in a few hours. History is going to be made at the hearing for attorney general because you got nominee Jeff Sessions and you got democratic senator cory booker who is going to take an unprecedented step of testifying against his senate colleague. Why . He says sessions civil rights record demands it. Cnn sunland surfati has more. Reporter thats right. This has never happened before where you have a sitting senator testifying against another. Cory booker saying he did not make this decision lightly but the immense powers of the attorney general combined with the deeply troubling views of this nominee is a call to conscience. The attorney general is responsible for insuring the Fair Administration of justice and based on his record, i lack the confidence that senator sessions can honor this duty and this is very unlikely to stand in the way of his confirmation but keep in mind there is some history here too. This is the same committee that rejected senator sessions back in the 80s when he was up for a federal judgeship. That derailed over some of senator sessions past statements, racially incentive statements in the past. Questions that will very likely come up again today. A statement just released by the trump transition team, sessions makes no mention of his controversial past but he does defend his civil rights record saying in his Opening Statement i deeply understand the history of civil rights and the horn do you say impact that relentless and systemic discrimination and denial of Voting Rights has had on our africanamerican brothers and sisters. I have witnessed it. I understand the demands for justice and fairness made by the lgbt community. Also happening today will be the confirmation hearing of john kelly for homeland secretary. Republicans, as you know, plan to repeal obamacare, but with no alternative on the horizon, they are looking at simply replacing some elements of the law. We have more on capitol hill. Republicans are moving very rapidly to repeal most of the law as early as a selfimposed january 27th deadline and they can do that under the rules of the senate that allows them to use the budget process to repeal that law without getting any democratic support. Actually using a procedure to avoid a democratic filibuster. Replacing the law will require democratic support and thats something Republican Leaders say could take some time. There is anxiety in the ranks among republicans that they need to have a replacement at the same time as they repeal the law, including from an influential senator bob corker of tennessee. I dont see any way you can intelligently have a replacement plan by january 27th when your hhs person isnt going into office until at the earliest january 20th. People who really want to see good things happen for our country, which there are many of those, are beginning to understand that its problematic. Now, in order to alleviate some of those concerns, Republican Leaders are talking about moving up the time line to replace part of the law, including to add some of those replacement provisions in that initial repeal law. The question is whether or not they can do that under the rules and whether or not they can get enough support to do it. A lot of questions right now about how to move forward on this key issue. Manu raju. A key grab with bob corker because he is one of the gop senators to talk about the timing of the obamacare repeal. Lots to discussion. Joining us is chris collins, a coshare of the house leadership committee. Always a pleasure. Welcome to d. C. Good to have two new yorkers here in a foreign land. Lets talk about Jeff Sessions. You got to know him in an unusually intimate way through whats going on with the trump transition. Correct. What did you learn about him that you think should matter to the people who start measuring him today . Jeff sessions is a true gentleman. He is thoughtful. He cares about america. He cares about people. Hes just a very softspoken southern gentleman, and to be tagging him with some of theage jektives that people are today its just not the Jeff Sessions that i know or that i think that america got to know on the campaign trail. What is motivating, cory booker, the democratic senator from jersey seems to be mainl as a. G. , sessions used his discretion to go after civil rights advocates that were going after people trying to register to vote. They believe that it speaks to his disrespect for that community and those rights. What do you see . Cory booker is all about the latest stunt. If you remember what he did when he was mayor in new jersey, the first thing he does is he tries to grab international headlines. What hes doing today every never before in the senate, it doesnt surprise at all. He did do the prosecution, he did celebrate openly when the Supreme Court turned down some of the supervisory roles over voting. What cory booker is doing is nothing but selfserving grabbing headlines. Jeff sessions is going to answer those questions. Jeff sessions as a senator in the last go around was the only senator in the United States that didnt even have an opponent. Thats how much he is loved by the people of alabama and so the q a is going to occur and i can assure you that Jeff Sessions is going toons the questions. Hes a constitutionalist, hes a conservative. We can all agree to disagree on certain issues. The constitution is first and foremost with Jeff Sessions. Thats what hes going to uphold and cory booker should be asking the questions like senators have done for decades. Not pulling a stunt like hes doing. Hes just grabbing headlines. Lets see how it goes when they start asking questions and hearing those answers. Jared kushner. How do you give comfort to people . The congressman is a businessman and then went into politics. So you understand this is a different presidency than weve seen before. Trumps business portfolio, kushners business portfolio. The law will be a little bit of an issue here. Its unclear. Lets say they get past that. You have the ethical considerations. Jared kushner is a soninlaw. Hes got big business interests. Hes brought people in to meet the president elect that hes done business with. He is already taking the steps to separate himself from kushner companies, which is the Real Estate Company that hes been running since his mid 20s very successfully by the way. What should give the country comfort, Jared Kushner has the ear of the president , he and his wife, ivanka, as well as his son don and eric. The team that was part of the campaign. That was the true inside. They are all going to be together as donald trump starts his presidency. These are the folks that donald trump trumps. We all know that jared has a different style. Hes soft spoken, but hes very smart, very thoughtful, very focused individual who puts America First and also wants to make America Great again. Thats how donald trump will be making decisions, is getting input from other folks. Hes surrounded himself with people he trusts. A president has to trust his advisers. They have to be trusted by the people who are around them as well. Thats why these questions come up. Correct. And Jared Kushner is taking the steps to separate himself as are the other cabinet officials and very complicated. These are very successful people. We should be very thankful that were getting the level of successful individuals into the president s cabinet who know how to get things done. They are no nonsense, they ask the right questions. They hold people accountable. These are ceos of major companies, real estate in the case of Jared Kushner who get results. I think america is going to see a presidency focused on results right out of the box. All right. Now one of those results is getting pushed you now in terms of its timing, changing the aca, whats known as obamacare. Repeal and replace. You have to give a nod to the idea that thats not normally what you would do. You come up with a plan of heres what were going to do exactly and then lets get rid of there right now, you are getting senators congressman who are spaying we got to slow down. Dont go for the bang for the buck for the political score for the repeal. Do you give a nod to the consideration . A promise was made by donald trump and by the republicans to repeal obamacare. We did it nine months ago. The senate and the house did it. We put it on obamas desk. Now he vetoed it. You knew that was going to happen. You didnt have to think it through. It would not have captured all the people who need insurance right now and it wouldnt have changed the situation. I would say this to my fellow republicans in the senate and house that dont want to do it. Thats basically saying to america i was pretty disingenuous nine months ago. I put a bill on the president s desk that was not going to get signed, thats why i passed it. I think thats a dangerous slope. We promised to repeal it. We should repeal it quickly. Now, theres no coverage changes in obamacare for the next two years. Why are you repealing it . We have to repeal it in order to get through the insurance issues, like right now 17 ploons are plans are set. The 18 plans have to be out in the next 60 days. Theres no way we could change coverage in the next two years just based on insurance requirements in different states. So individuals dont need to worry. With obama that they are going to have any coverage changes in the next two years, but then the replacements have to come out with the Insurance Companies designing new plans, many in conjunction with the companies they are going to be insuring. That process, you know, is a lead time. We make sure coverage doesnt change. We get the replacement out sometime this year. That gives the Insurance Companies time to get new plans out for 2019. So it is a two step process but the message to america is in many cases were getting rid of the ownerous parts, the mandates, things of that sort. We know its complicated. Stay on the story. Always a pleasure. Alisyn over to you. After eight years in the white house, today, president obama says farewell. One of his closest advisers joins us live next to preview that speech and tell us whats next for president obama. 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. 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 is specifically designed to open up airways to improve breathing for a full 24 hours. Breo contains a type of medicine that increases the risk of death from asthma problems and may increase the risk of hospitalization in children and adolescents. 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A great deal of emotion around the people that ive worked with and the gratitude i feel for the sacrifices they have made on behalf of the American People but also on behalf of me personally. So president obama will return to chicago today where he says it all started and thats where he will deliver his farewell address to the nation tonight. So joining us from the white house with a preview is Senior Adviser to president obama valerie jarrett. Good morning, valerie. Good morning alisyn. We know the president has been hard at work on this speech and weve heard that he wants to end his time in office the way he started it, quote, with optimism and hope. Now thats throout right. That sounds like its going to be a hard needle to thread given this climate, you know. All the stuff that has been said during the campaign, how toxic it became and with the president elect that president obama did not support. Well, you know, i think the president s optimism comes from the American People. Hes had the privilege the last eight years traveling the country, meeting people who are doing extraordinary things committed to our country to making it better. He is enjoying high popularity among the American People. Hes proud of his track record. If you think about when he took office, the fact that we were losing nearly 800,000 jobs a month and Unemployment Rate ticking up to 10 . Now its down to 4. 7. High School Graduation rates are up. College Administration Admission is up. Poverty is down. Typical Family Income is up. Theres so much thats going on that is positive. His recordbreaking announcements on Climate Change both here domestically and around the world. Bringing so many of our men and women home who have been serving our country. Theres a lot to feel very positive about and he wants to reflect briefly on the progress that weve made but also looking forward. Taking the long view about why hes optimistic about the future of our country. And yet, valerie, so Many Democrats would not describe what they are feeling today as hope, including the first lady, michelle obama, who sat down with oprah and said now we know what it feels like not to have hope. I wish you could have heard her speech last week when she spoke to young girls as we were honoring the best counsellors in the country. She said i have so much faith in you and were counting on you and i want to lift you up. I think young people give the president and the first lady hope and we always take the long view. The progress of our country has always been messy. There are going to be zigs and zags along the way, but if you really focus on what makes our country extraordinary, what makes it great, i think that there is reason to be optimistic and hopeful. As you stand there, still at the white house, ten days out from leaving, what do you think the future of obamacare is . Well, i hope that the future of the Affordable Care act called obamacare is positive. There are 20 Million People who never had Health Insurance b