Good evening again. Were just about 24 hours from the precise moment when you falla sleep on the sofa. Thankfully, theres plenty happening tonight including new names for Donald Trumps cabinet, sharp new criticism for one big league frontrunner, mitt romney, and a great look at how families divided by the election will cope tomorrow. Lets begin with cnns jim acosta. Reporter as donald trump settles in for the thanksgiving weekend, the president elect is making room at the table for picks. For starters, his ambassador for u. N. Nikki haley. The South Carolina governor and daughter of immigrants is a proven deal maker. She will be a great leader representing us on the world stage. Explace her decision to step down as Governor Haley said when the president believes you have a major contribution to make to our nation and the nations standing, that is a calling important to heed. When a bully hits you, you hit that bully right back. Reporter haley had a different calling in the primary when she was backing marco rubio she attacked trump as a race baiting bully. I will not stop until we fight a man that chooses not to disavow the kkk, thats not part of our party, thats not who we want as president. We will not allow that in our country. Reporter trump punched right back. Shes very weak on illegal immigration. You cant have that. Reporter in addition to haley, trump tamped betsy devos for education secretary and appears to be closing in on announcing ben carson for housing and urban development. The de vos pick is irritating people. De vos says she opposes common core something trump repeatedly vowed to end. Were going to provide, youre going to like this, School Choice and put an end to common core which is a disaster. Well bring our reporter secretary of state, mitt romney. His domestic policies would lead to recession. His foreign policies would make america and the world less safe. He has neither the temperament nor the judgment to be the next president. Reporter the potential move is enraging some of his core supporters. Theres only one way i think mitt romney could be considered for a post like that, that is that he goes to a microphone in a very public place and repudiates everything he said in the famous Salt Lake City speech. I can think of 20 other people who would be more naturally compatible with the trump vision of Foreign Policy. Reporter before the president elect left for florida he recorded a thanksgiving day message. Cnns Jason Carroll is in palm beach, florida, tonight. He joins us from outside of maralago. What more can you tell us about the video . Reporter well, a couple of things, when you think about the campaign, as you know, a number of Donald Trumps critics thought he ran a divisive campaign. Some saying it was a racist campaign. Trump always denied that. Having said that hes put out this thanksgiving message calling for unity saying its time for the country to heal and come together. He knows that this is something thats going to take time. At one point also quoting Abraham Lincoln saying, one voice and one heart. Weve just finished a long and bruising political campaign. Emotions are raw and tensions just dont heal overnight. It doesnt go quickly unfortunately, but we have before us the chance now to make history together, to bring real change to washington, real safety to our cities and real prosperity to our communities including our inner cities. So important to me and so important to our country. But to succeed, we must enlist the effort of our entire nation. Reporter so, again, the message is one tonight of unity and coming together. Trump critics already saying though, look, its more about words. Its more about what this president elect plans to do in terms of putting forth policies. That is what theyre looking for. Jason, you are in florida at maralago or near maralago where the president elect will spend thanksgiving with his family. Reporter yes. Do we know about his plans to celebrate . Reporter we know what he wont be doing. He wont be giving a press conference with the media. Thats not going to be happening. Look, this is something, the holiday that the trump familys been looking forward to. Its going to be a down day for what were hearing for the president elect and his family. I know a number of people are still looking for more names, more announcements in terms of whos going to be making up his cabinet. We would not expect that to happen tomorrow. Maybe friday, but certainly tomorrow is going to be a down day for trump and his family. All right. Jason carroll for us in maralago. Hope you get some down time. Happy thanksgiving to you, jason. Reporter you bet. You, too. That eyebrow raise means, no, im not getting any down time. Back with the panel. Jeffrey, i want to start with you here. Nikki haley, governor of South Carolina, widely respected, seen as a rising star within the Republican Party but not seen as someone with vast Foreign Policy experience, and she is going to the united nations. Does that matter . I dont really think it does. Im not saying this because of nikki haley. After all, there are lots of republicans and other americans who feel we elected a fouryear United States senator with no serious Foreign Policy experience as president of the United States than senator obama whose main experience had been as a state legislator in illinois. I just think that, you know, one of the things weve gotten away from in this country, john, is the whole premise of the United States of america was that average citizens could govern the country, we werent monarchs, wouldnt have royal at this. You could come from the private life, private sector and govern the country. I think weve gotten away from that. We have a political process and we need to get back to the original intent of the country. I say lets give her a try. If the president wants her, lets go with it. The counter argument, jeffrey, and carlos lets bring you in here, you appoint people where they have expertise. You appoint people who have Foreign Policy experience in a Foreign Policy job. Im not saying jeffrey is right or wrong but ben carson, his experience is in medicine, in surgery, not in urban development per se. So there is another side to what jeffreys saying. Sure. Although, of course, you see a president who had never been a politician before beat 16 other politicians. Call it a greater openness so in some ways youre not surprised. I think the ben carson one though does surprise me a little bit. Nikki haley going from governor to u. N. Ambassador aund understands thats driven by the United States. Ben carson is a little weird. We would readily expect this neurosurgeon to be talking about hhs or Something Like that. The one thing ill say about the romney thing that no one else is talking about that i find interesting, remember the worst thing that can happen for a president who wants to be two term president is to be primary. George h. W. Bush saw that, jimmy carter saw that. Could you be sidelining a potential opponent by bringing them in. Certainly thats what the Obama Program thought dhoe do that. It wouldnt be crazy. Putting in Hillary Clinton it wouldnt be out of place. They also were thinking rather have her closer than an opponent out there. Jeffrey, go ahead. One other thing here, the way washington works is that a lot of times cabinet members who are stars in one fashion or another are selected for the top spot. In the second spot, in the less visible spot is selected somebody whos a real career professional, who has very good experience. I worked with jack kemp who was definitely a star. He cared passionately about urban policy. Underneath jack kemp, however, were serious pros and in urban policy. Thats pretty confident is that the star who gets the cabinet level job, a. Mbassador ship underneath them. They are the they help decide the policy, but youve got growth there that can help you. Jack kemp had done a lot of thinking, writing and work. Absolutely. Before he took the job. I want to bring you in because in the area of expertise theres an article that says that donald trump has only taken two of the National Security briefings that he is entitled to now as the president elect. Mike pence is doing it every day, donald trump is not. Hes working hard, getting these briefings. Yeah. And i think it also plays into the stories that weve heard about donald trump talking to foreign leaders on nonsecure lines as well, which i think is you know, he has i think he didnt reach out if i remember reading, its like the state department had heard from the Transition Team about how to whats the protocol in making that happen. So i think it plays into all of us. It is concerning, right, because he is going to be our president and he needs to start realizing there are certain protocols and certain ways to go about being a president which is taking National Security. Thats his choice. I understand that. Would he be better served getting enough information now versus in my office. Its my understanding president elect trump talks to mike pence. He was saying when he was setting up administration, mike pence would be an integral part. I can understand, donald trump is a delegator. Hell be a ceo who makes the decisions. Hes very different about what we needed and delegated it, put people in place and i think hes talking to mike pens. I dont have any concern that president elect isnt reading the briefings. You sound like pens. He has an enormous amount of power and sway, alex. Mike pompei. It really does seem like hes going to have an enormous role. The part of that is mike pence has great relationships in and out of washington and he has a great movie, behind the scenes in the primary process bringing a lot of disgruntled Republicans Holding their nose with his working with people. He was able to bring a lot of members of congress together to support donald trump. I think with him being head of the transition, hes bringing people up for consideration that wouldnt normally want to sit down and have a conversation with donald trump, let alone be part of his administration. But mike pence i think is a great pick, a for vp, his ability to bring people together. Were able to see the best of the best. What did mike pence think of mitt romney . If one of the biggest reasons of intrigue is whats going to happen with the secretary of state, everyone is very, very keir yous about whats going on here. I talked to many who say he is considering it. The trump people say he is considering it. Yeah. I mean, it wouldnt surprise me at all, mitt romney, id like you to be my secretary of state. It would surprise me that mitt romney hesitated that. Mitt romney has been grooming himself for a long time. I think while he disagrees with donald trump, i think he still also does all of the steel. I think that he would public performance. If he still thinks that i think a what youre seeing with mike pence, this is where it happens. He had problems in the 2008 primary. Can i interrupt you . Yes, sir. Is donald trump a conservative . No. Im trying to connect the dots. Take a look at who we just put in. Nikki haley conservative. Now youve better have that base when you jump into the big fight. Ronald regan had it and donald trump knows hes going to need it. The only other part of the shakespearean drama that no one is talking about yet is if someone is going to reach out and bring in mitt romney, never trump, establishment. Would you go the same for saying president george bush or h. W. Bring back billy bush. Oh, gosh. Were going to leave that one where it is, jeffrey lord. Thank you. Another bridge people . Stick around. Much more to talk about tonight including Donald Trumps positions on some very big issues versus Donald Trumps positions on some very big issues then and now. Next. When your pain reliever stops working, your whole day stops. sighs sadly try this. Only aleve can stop pain for 12 hours. Plus, aleve is recommended by more doctors than any other brand for minor arthritis pain. Aleve. Live whole. Not part. How else do you think he gets around so fast . Take the reins this holiday and get the mercedesbenz youve always wanted during the winter event. Now lease the 2017 gle350 for 579 a month at your local mercedesbenz dealer. It. When that laxour loves your body back. Only miralax hydrates, eases, and softens to unblock naturally. So you have peace of mind from start to finish. Love your laxative. Miralax. Last r last night on the Program Douglas brinkley cited Donald Trumps talent for contradicting himself. I am large, the song goes. I contain multitude. Whitman grew up in brooklyn, trump in queens. Whitman wrote large, trump says huge. Cnns bryn gingras reports. Reporter scheduling, canceling, and then rescheduling a meeting with the New York Times isnt the only thing president elect donald trump has changed his mind about since being elected. In his first sitdown interview with the newspaper since winning the election his flipflops have added up. Like prosecuting Hillary Clinton. She deleted the emails. She has to go to jail. Lock her up. Lock her up. If i win, i am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation. Reporter hes since softened telling the times, quote, i dont want to hurt the clintons, i really dont. She went through a lot and suffered greatly. About obamacare, trump first said. Its got to go. Obamacare has to be repealed and replaced. Reporter hes changed his stance on that, too. Some parts could stay. Coverage for patients with preexisting conditions and children staying on their parents plan until theyre 26 as he said in this 60 minutes interview. Adds cost but its very much something were going to try and keep. Reporter as the president elect fills his administration, general james mattis appears to be a frontrunner for secretary of defense despite the two having differences on the use of water boarding. This is what trump told the times about water boarding. I said, what do you think about water boarding . He said i was surprised. He said, ive never found it to be useful. He said, ive always found, give me a pack of cigarettes and a couple of beers and i do better with that than i do torture. Reporter so is trump backing away from what he continuously told supporters about using torture on terror suspects . I love it. I love it. And i said, the only thing is we should make it much tougher than water boarding, and if you dont think it works, folks, youre wrong. Reporter when it comes to Climate Change, the president elect once tweeted Global Warming is an expensive hoax now telling the times he believes theres some connectivity between humans and Climate Change stressing, quote, clean air is vitally important. The list goes on and on, the president elect changing his mind about president obama. At one point he called him ignorant and now he likes him. The notorious wall may become a fence and the New York Times called disgusting is now a world jewel. All of this cries out for someone who knows what makes donald trump tick or flip as the case may be. Fortunately trump biographer michael dantonio, author of the truth about trump joins us tonight. Michael, donald trump has seemed to reverse himself on many of the things he campaigned on. I suppose most notably and famously right now this idea that he wanted to lock Hillary Clinton up. Is this something this malleability, this changing on a dime is something thats characteristic of donald trump . You know, it really is characteristic of him. Hes more flexible, i think an ideologue would be. His frame of reference is whats going to work, especially whats going to work for him. I imagine hes looking forward and thinking, do i want to get bogged down in keeping some of these promises like to lock her up that are really not possible, you know, to pursue or do i want to move forward and get the country going on my agenda . You know, hes always been good about changing direction and people forget his position. Are there core convictions that you can point to . Well, i think if we look to his campaign where he was saying america first, and i think that if were looking for something outside of his own success that would drive him, i do think theres a traditional america that hed like to restore, one that may even just be in our fantasies of what the 1950s and early 60s were like, but if theres a core conviction, its that. And i also think, and this may take some viewers by surprise, that he doesnt really like to see people suffer. So when he said that people werent going to be dying on the streets for lack of health care, he really meant it. And even this comment about hillary and bill clinton saying theyve been through a lot and he doesnt want to cause anymore pain. I think thats sincere. This is pretty consistent with the donald, i know. Again, this is someone youve covered and written about for a long, long time, not necessarily in flattering terms. To hear that from you is notable. One of the interesting things weve seen is his continued closeness to his family. Ivanka trump in the meeting with the japanese minister. Jarrod kushner wants some role. Donald jr. His son attended a meeting with someone involved in the Syrian Opposition in paris. His family has been involved at all levels of the campaign, knowing him like you do, do you think he could do the presidency without his family playing a role . Well, i think he could do it. I think hed be uncomfortable trying, and this is, you know, where i could put a knock on him. They tend to be rather tone deaf when it comes to the appearance of conflict. He likes to go by the letter of the law so if its legal for him to do something, hes going to do it and feel justified and profitabl