Throughout the program but first, we start with what she would want us to start with today and politics. John fultons name has now been floated in as a possible secretary of state while the world is grappling with the meaning and potential repercussions of donald trump First White House that appointment over the weekend. Chairman, Reince Priebus as white house chief of staff and steve bannon, the former head of breitbart and a firebrand figure associated with altright movement. They will be equal partners in running the administration. Priebus,ecting reince trump is signaling he wants to. C. Ct bc swat d swampdwellers. Better represents the nationalist and racist views that trump should be vocally rejecting. The Antidefamation League put callingrse statement been an hostile to core american values. The pig was a mockery of trumps pledge to unite the country. Andck obama had advice tough love for critics of the team that trump is building. Pres. Obama i have been encouraged by his statements on Election Night about the need for unity and his interest in being the president for all staffs,nd that how he the first step he takes, the First Impressions he makes, the reset that can happen after an election, all of those things are important and should be thought about. People have spoken. Donald trump will be the next president , the 45th president of the united states. Him to set be up to up a team that he thinks will serve him well and reflect his policies. Choices,k, these two obviously big news, and aiding the conversation ever since they were unveiled yesterday. Reince priebus, steve bannon. Talk about that. Mark it is obvious. These are two guys who played as big a role as anybody else and getting him elected, two guys loyal to him, whom he feels loyalty to, who he thinks will produce the kind of white house he wants. The reality is, if you take them and mike pence, it is not a bad set up. John trusts them. Reince priebus is trusted on capitol hill. By not addressing these issues head on, they are allowing him to be defined in a negative way, and rightfully so. People are alarmed by his association with breitbart, doing nothing to address it except saying bannon is a great guy and i think they are creating a problem they should address headon is that it is going to be a senior government official. He needs to be accountable. Trump needs to display and why he is willing to overlook, which he apparently is, some of the most controversial aspect of what breitbart has done. Josh he might want to embrace some of the controversial aspects of what breitbart has done. See these incendiary headlines, you cannot hold steve bannon accountable for every headline on breitbart. Yeah, you can. You really cant. He ran breitbart and proudly trumpeted the notion that breitbart had become a home for White Nationalism and the altri ght. That is a toxic force and eight divisive one. Youre picking steve bannon a divisive one. Youre picking steve bannon, sending a horrible message about what kind of attitude and attributes you are willing to embrace close to the seat of power in the oval office. I do not know what donald trump can say about steve bannon that would make anybody not worried about him given his history and given breitbarts history, but certainly not saying anything, this is an incredibly controversial pick. The most controversial pick for chief in our lifetime, not chief of staff, but it threatens i think to undermine whatever modest good donald trump has done so far by trying to be reassuring to people. It underlines all of that with everyone who has the worst fears and suspicions about where this administration is going to go. Mark it is not just controversial with partisan democrats or the media. It is controversial with republicans. They need to address at a minimum, but i do not think they will fire him over the firestorm, obviously. They need to address the specific headlines. He can say, i did not write he needs to repudiate them if he is going to have any hope of being part of a unifying administration. As i have said, he has a fuller resume than this, but you cannot hide behind that. He has to take responsibility and explain and announce the things that people are rightfully really upset about. As donald trump tries out his new role as president elect, he seems to be toning down more than just his demeanor. During that news interview he did with 60 minutes on sunday night, trump was asked about several policy positions. Immigration, gay marriage, the Affordable Care act, trump appeared to soften his past stance. Are you really going to build a wall . Pres. Elect trump yes. They are talking about a fence in the republican congress. Would you accept a fence . Pres. Elect trump in certain areas, i would, but in certain areas, a wall is more appropriate. Could be some fencing. You aboutask obamacare, which you say you are going to repeal and replace. When you replace it, are you going to make sure that people with preconditions are still covered . Pres. Elect trump yes, because it happens to be one of the psalmist assets. Also with the children living with their parents for an extended period. Well try to keep that in. It adds cost, but it is very much something well try to keep. Do you support Marriage Equality . Pres. Elect trump it is a relevant. It was already settled in the Supreme Court. It is done. Even if you appoint a judge pres. Elect trump it is done. These cases have gone to the Supreme Court and then settle. Settled, and i am fine with that. Trump walked back controversial statements and policy predictions at times, often claiming he had been misunderstood or taken out of context, and in all of that back and forth, it never really seemed to hurt his standing in the polls. Mark president obama suggested shifting his inflexibility on policy and to be an asset. Pres. Obama he is coming to this office with few were fewer policy prescriptions than a lot of other president s might be arriving with, and i do not think he is ideological. I think ultimately, he is thatatic in that way, and can serve him well. As long as he has got good people around him and he has a clear sense of direction. Mark john, trump can go left or right, but when he flipflops, will he pay a greater price if he does it in the oval office than he did as a candidate . Josh it depends on what he put on and flipflops on. There are many conservatives that did not get behind donald trump because they did not believe he was actually conservative at all, that he had been a democrat his whole life, donated two democrat his whole life, and on health care was further to the left than Hillary Clinton in his heart. One of the things we will find out now is how much is donald trump doug donald trump actually understand policy . Does he have actual beliefs of any kind about what policies he would like to see implement it and what are those beliefs . I think there are a fair number of people who believe that trump was saying all the stuff he thought he needed to say to win the nomination and to get elected. Well find out if there is a real donald trump and who that person is. If he moves to the center in the flopping, hell not pay a price at all. Much of the liberal media will appreciate that if he does that. You ask me, if does donald trump care more about what gary bauer things or maureen dowd . The question i think it will be for most of these issues is going to be, does he pay a price on the right . I think between trump and and and and some of the other people , kellyanne conway, they are going to find a way to make people feel good about what is happening, particularly economic conservatives. If they are going to pass major tax reform early on, a lot of economic conservatives who dont care much about the social agenda trump ran on as a candidate, they will be like, great. I dont think social conservatives, many of them are going to turn away because trump will find some way to keep them happy. Josh josh that is a concern, when he has to throw those pieces of red meat off to keep the right happy. John hate crime have been occurring across the countrys since the election and have not abated. Southern Poverty Law Center has tracked more than 200 incidents of election related harassment and intimidation over the last week alone, targeting africanamericans, muslims, women, and the lgbt community. The president elect keeps saying he wants to unite the country but has been silent on the matter until he was asked about it in that 50 minutes interview that aired last night. Do notbama i would say do that. That is terrible. Ideal bring this country together. They are harassing latinas, muslims. Pres. Obama i am so saddened to hear that and i say stop it. If it helps, i will say this. And i will say it right to the camera. Stop it. You and i talked last week about the obligation donald trump has to speak out against the acts of hate carried out in his name. Was what he said last night on 60 minutes enough . Mark nowhere near enough. I know he does not want his transition consumed by playbyplay horrible things, but this has been, he has never been mr. Empathy. He has never been a guy who emotes and talks about these kinds of things in a way that i think the country needs right now. We have said it before. It helps the country, i think he needs to talk more about it and some of the specifics and may be, as some people suggested, do symbolic events that would try to send a message. He sees the stuff happening and does not approve. He does not have to be asked about it. He has to be proactive and announcing it. N if you go through proactive in denouncing it. John many of these are horrifying. Carriedthem have been out by people who invoked donald trump name as they carry out these acts. This is an unprecedented thing. We have never seen anything like this in the wake of a president ial election. I think donald trump saying top it, is nowhere near close to the same as a sanity, the same universe of enough. We need to have the respect of more than people who voted for him and some of those people who are probably troubled about what they are seeing playing out across the country right now. We have got to do more. He ran a divisive and in some cases racist campaign that ofited and fostered a lot the negative feeling playing out across the country. Hard position, but he has got to man up and do more or this is going to be an ugly transition to power for him and for the country. And the campaign is over there is no reason i can think of to not do it. Up next, there is now a democrat with an inside track on the dnc chair job. Well talk about who that is and how he is getting to the top in a crowded field, right after this. Mark soulsearching democrats the future of out their party. Bernie sanders is behind minnesota congressman steve housman. Became anison official candidate. Would ellison, clearly the front runner now, be a good choice . John i think he would be a good choice for a couple reasons. He is the unity candidate, who can get elizabeth warren, Bernie Sanders on one side, chuck schumer, harry reid, or a liberal obviously, but not from the far progressive wing of the party, piling in behind him. The notion of an africanamerican and muslim as the face of the party at this moment, a stark contrast he would make with donald trump. He is a well spoken guy, smart. I think he would be potentially a really good choice for this job. Mark he brings a lot to it. He is a smart guy, principal, wellliked. , would question, principled wellliked. I would question, can he raise money . Can he really take on a president and can he be a member of congress and also run the dnc . A lot of people like howard dean saying this should be a fulltime chair. I think he is impressive. There is some big russian marks question marks. John those are fair questions. This guy as we have discussed face of potentially the the Democratic Party going forward, and there will be no more powerful vision, image, of a black man as the counterpoint to donald trump if things start to go in a nasty racially freighted direction in this and. Very powerful direction. Mark he is a very impressive guy. There is a reason people are coalescing around him. John i want to get to this topic. Hillary clinton basically said this weekend to a bunch of donors that she thinks she lost the election because of james comey and his intervention in the campaign about 10 days out from election day. Anything that is true . Think it definitely played a role and riled up republicans, maybe got some democrats piled up, too. I think they are being weighed two ad hoc and how they are addressing the way too ad hoc and how they are adjusting this. There are so many of the things the campaign did not execute on. What percentage of it is true, i do not know, and i think comey should not have done it, but i think they would be smart to have a more organized response because it they are leaving a bad taste in some peoples mouths. John did james comey play in the end a crucial, decisive maybe roll . Yes, possibly. He should not have done what he did. It was an inappropriate thing for the fbi director to do at the time, but Hillary Clinton, if she showed up with millions fewer votes than barack obama got in 20 all by running against 2012 byate in running against a candidate. She did not get the enthusiasm beatablen eminently candidate in donald trump. It has to do with her past, how she handled the emails at the very beginning in the year and a half, so comey is not to blame for it all. Mark josh green will tell us the latest about what is going on in the trump transition, right after this. Talked to earlier in the program about steve bannon, Donald Trumps pick for chief strategist. Joining us now, a guy who is the only reporter you can get steve bannon him and steve bannon on the record. Josh green. Then and knows he is controversial. What is in it for him to take such a big job and become a lightning rod in this administration . Josh benin safeties himself a revolutionary, as you know. He thinks he is then in bannon thinks of himself as a revolutionary, as you know. He was swept into the white house. I think he views himself as trumps karl rove, so it is only appropriate that now that trump is in the oval office, that bannon will be right there with him, advising him on strategy. Mark is he doing it because he is loyal to trump . Is he doing it because it is a fun and interesting job . Ish i strongly suspect it all three of those. If you look at what Breitbart News has done over the last few years, they have tried to lead this revolution in the Republican Party and drive out the old guard and bring in new people like trump and basically succeeded in doing that, so i think that what bannon sees himself in doing is formalized that victory by taking a powerful role in the white house so that he can steer the country and help President Trump realize the vision for a different kind of governing agenda than anything we have seen from republicans and democrats in the past. Profileu wrote a long of steve bannon a while ago, maybe a year ago or so. Critics ofe things this move are saying is that steve bannon is a racist, and antisemite, and breitbart is a reflection of those flaws in his character, personality. Is he a racist and antisemite . Know, as george bush said of vladimir putin, i cannot look into his soul. Maybe i have that backwards. I cannot look into bannons soul. He is not some knuckle dragging person from the backcountry. He is the chief executive of Breitbart News, which publishes articles that are intentionally inflammatory, racially charged, that certainly propagate a lot of racist and antisemitic themes and that is far outside the bounds of anything we have seen in mainstream american politics before and i think what that really does is speak to the fact that trump is a president ial candidate, now a president , so ill far the bounds of anything we have seen before. Hard to imagine a guy like trump being elected, but he has been, and the fact that he has been in there now it is not surprising he would surround himself with people like steve bannon. John he has been appointed along with Reince Priebus, chief of staff. One thing we know about been in is that he has talked about a desire to exact retribution and undermine paul ryan in the republican establishment. If you are sitting on capitol hill, you are happy about race between us Reince Priebus. I imagine youre pretty nervous. If you look at the balance of power in the trump campaign, then and i think was more of an architect then Reince Priebus was when it came to steering trump toward an agenda. The two of them worked well together. Bannon has always claimed they had and priebus has claimed that too. He took a subordinate position to trump the moment he became the nominee. My expectation i guess would be that that would continue in the white house at least until trump runs into some kind of trouble and feels of the need to shake things up. Josh, what is likely to be the role of breitbart in the Trump Administration . Josh i think that is an open question, and when you stop and think about it, it is difficult i think for breitbart to navigate the new terrain in washington. Happily andways gleefully been outsiders throwing rocks at the republican and democratic establishment, led by steve bannon, and now the fact that ben and is in the white house with the breitbart candidate and donald trump is going to make it much harder to play that same have a role, especially if trump does what he says he intends to do, and governance in a way that Establishment Republicans and even democrats. It will be interesting to see whether they wind up playing the same role they have in the past or whether it is some kind of watereddown version of you veryreen, thank much. 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