To lead the department of Homeland Security. And a vote by the way expected in the house this hour could help trumps choice for defense secretary, general james mattis needs a waiver from both chambers to be eligible for the position. So far, president elect trump has filled more than half of his cabinet and top level positions. Today, hes on the road once again. He continues whats called his thank you tour with a rally later tonight in des moines, iowa, and in grand rapids, michigan, tomorrow. Youre looking at live pictures of Donald Trumps plane in new york city. Will soon leave for columbus, ohio. Cnn political reporter sara murray is in new york for us. Our senior political reporter manu raju is up on capitol hill. Sara, tell our viewers, first of all, why the president elect is visiting columbus, ohio. Well, wolf, most of the stops on Donald Trumps agenda, as you pointed out, are part of this victory tour. Theyre uplifting events, ways for him to thank the people who delivered him the presidency. His stop here in columbus is going to be a different kind. Its going to be a more somber stop for hip m to meet with fir respo responders as well as victims of the attack. Youre going to see a different side potentially of donald trump not just sort of the candidate we saw in the campaign trail and the president elect we see at rallies but more essentially the comforter and chief kind of role we expect to see from our president s, wolf. Its a very Important Role indeed. I assume over the next four years hell be doing unfortunately a lot of that kind of comforting. Sara, the president elect also held more important transition meetings before leaving for columbus, ohio. Who are some of the people hes been meeting with today . Thats right. The effort to build his White House Team carries on. Before he heads here to columbus. Then a couple of interesting meetings on that agenda. In addition to congressman raul labrador, hes meeting with the former ford ceo alan muaoie. So thats an interesting meeting. The other one is another potential candidate for secretary of state, retired at Michelle James strevitis. The secretary of state job is a highly coveted position. He continues to interview candidates. I think thats what we saw today. Strevitis was not giving any indication of where he thought he stood on that list. He cracked a joke about the short list as he was on his way out. No indication as to whether donald trump may be any closer to filling this position. We know there are other candidates in the running including mitt romney, as well as rudy giuliani. Yes, hes a former nato supreme allied commander, now a dean at the Fletcher School of law and diplomacy at tufts university. Manu, explain how a vote on emergency government funding coming up in the house of representatives right now could actually wind up helping the president elects nominee for defense secretary. Yes, thats right. James mattis retired from the marine corps in 2013 but urn nd the law, he cannot serve in that top civilian post at the pentagon unless Congress Grants him a waiver because theres a sevenyear prohibition from the time someone served until the time they can take that post. That waiver, a process to expedite that waiver is included in this must pass spending bill. The must pass spending bill is about to pass the house of representatives. But the senate is running into some issues. Sort of unrelated topic. Democrats pushing from coal states like joe manchin of west virginia, ohio, to get money to help with coal Miners Health programs, to help their Health Insurance needs. Well see how that plays out in the senate. At the same time, wolf, senators are also considering and weighing in all these cabinet picks coming out day after day, donald trump, some democrats raised some sharp concerns. I had a chance to talk to tim kaine, Hillary Clintons running mate, about these picks. The senator from virginia, he was sharply critical about a couple of Donald Trumps picks, take a listen. I dont mind having an epa critic. That is not my concern. Hes a Climate Science denier. And that causes me great concern because if theres any agency of the federal government that virtually every decision they make is a decision thats based on science what about, youre on the armed serviceses committee. What about the idea of putting three generals in the cabinet . General flynns trafficking in conspiracy stories, that a fourth grader would find incredible, suggests either that hes highly gullible or that hes so consumed with malice that he loses his ability to judge what is fact and what is fiction. Now, the senate does not have any authority to confirm that National Security adviser position that Michael Flynn has been appointed to by donald trump. But kaine suggesting he should step aside from that position because he does not have the judgment. Tim kaine also has taken himself out of the running to run for president again, run for president in 2020. I asked him why. He said he wants to serve in the senate for a very long time. All right, thank you very much. As president elect trump taps a third general to serve in the highest levels of his administration, National Security and Homeland Security, hes also in discussions with three more generals and admirals for other posts. Former cia director, retired u. S. Army general david petraeus. Hes being considered for secretary of state as we just heard admiral james severiti was added to the growing list of possible secretaries of state and for director of the national intelligence, retired Lieutenant GeneralKeith Kellogg among those being considered. Lets discuss all of this and more with Illinois Republican congressman adam kinsinger. Hes joining us. Hes a u. S. Air force pilot. He served in both iraq and afghanistan. He served in both the house and Energy Commerce committee. Thanks for joining us. So we all remember this very famous donald trump quote from the campaign trail. I know all about isis, more than the generals do, believe me. I would bomb the [ bleep ] out of them. Why the switch . Why do you think hes filling his key government posts, several of them, with retired generals and admirals potentially . El with, i think what you see is the difference between campaign. Obviously donald trump ran a very unique campaign, some of the things he said and the ways he did it, versus governing. When the weight the presidency is on your shoulders. You realize, im president elect, ive got to put together a team. Then you start, in a very serious way, looking, you know, whos the best for this position. Theres a lot of hysteria over the number of generals hes putting in there. I think its important to remember that, you know, theyre not in the military currently. Theyre retired. But somebody like in the case of mattis that can come in with a perspective of knowing where, you know, theres waste in the pentagon, knowing how the process of buying new planes and Everything Else workings as and it fails is basically the right person we need in that. A lot of hysteria made about the number of generals. Its important to know were not taking talks directly out of the military in uniform and putting them in the position. Theyre retired. What do you think the greatest concern is about having these retired military commanders in these top cabinet civilian posts . We, well, i dont have a great concern about them but what ive heard from colleagues is there has to be a difference between military leadership and civilian leadership. If he was taking somebody thats a currently serving general and placing them in the role of secretary of defense, for instance, there would be widespread opposition to that. Instead, you have a guy that, you know, has really been dedicate to the cause of the nation, to the defense of the nation, and has been retired for three years, and youre putting them in a position where he can shake up the pentagon. As weve read about the waste that was buried in the pentagon. And understands what we need to do to prosecute the war against, you know, isis and whatever comes after isis. Do you have any concerns about his picks so far . I dont. You know, the only one slight concern, slight interest in is obviously general flynn and for the reasons you just lined a little bit earlier, some of the things ive heard potentially about russia and his i guess affection to it. But hes been very good about what we need to do to destroy terror. What we need to do to destroy al qaeda, isis and all these. You know, nsa, Donald Trumps pick, and that was the concern there. The concern expressed from tim kaine, the senator from virginia. John kelly, the man tapped to become next secretary of Homeland Security. Retired u. S. Marine corps general. He led the u. S. Southern command under president obama. Hes a former senior military assistant to defense secretary leon panetta. One other very important point, he is a gold star dad. His son, Second Lieutenant robert kelly, was killed while serving in afghanistan. Lets listen to a clip of a speech, a very powerful speech general kelly gave back in 2014 at a California Gold star parents event. Listen to this. When future generations ask why america is still free in the heyday of these terrorists and their allies, was counted in days rather than centuries, as they said, as they proclaimed would work or would happen, that our hometown heroes, our soldiers, our sailors, our airmen, our coasts guardsmen, our marines, that they can say, because of me and people like me who risked all to protect millions, millions who will never know my name, thats why we still have an america. For those of you tonight, all the families that were lost, the light of their lives, they can say to every american that it was my boy or it was my girl who stood their post and did their duty into eternity. Very emotional, powerful words from general kelly. Do you think, congressman, that having a gold star father as the secretary of Homeland Security will make a difference . Yeah, i think so. That was the first time i ever heard that and it choked me up to be honest with you. I think it does make a difference. Its one thing to be in the military command. Its one thing to talk about defending the homeland. Its a totally nother thing to have felt that sacrifice personally. You see that. Weight of a president is he has to order troops into combat, but you especially see that in the weight of somebody that lost somebody serving. And puts a different perspective on, you know, what sacrifice is, put ace different perspective on what freedom and what america means. I think thats a good perspective to come. You should listen to the whole speech he delivered. Its a powerful speech, congressman. You served in afghanistan. You served in iraq. Im sure you lost friends fighting for the United States in iraq and afghanistan. To hear general kelly speak as a gold star dad, as a gold star father, remembering obviously his own son who was killed in action in afghanistan and so many others who died in iraq and afghanistan and elsewhere, very powerful. I recommend it to our viewers as well. Congressman, thanks very much for your service, thanks for joining us. You bet, wolf, god bless the troops, thank you. Coming up, new signs that eye vo eye vonk ka trump may play a big role in her fathers administration. Plus, donald trump says he sought advice from president obama on several cabinet picks. What are we learning about those phone conversations and their personal relationship. Well be right back. [engine revving] is it a force of nature . Or a sales event . The season of audi sales event is here. Audi will cover your first months lease payment on select models during the season of audi sales event. Ive got a nice long life ahead. Big plans. So when i found out medicare doesnt pay all my medical expenses, i got a Medicare Supplement insurance plan. [ male announcer ] if youre eligible for medicare, you may know it only covers about 80 of your part b medical expenses. The rest is up to you. 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Our money correspondent Cristina Alesci is joining us from new york. What do we know about Donald Trumps plan to address this potential conflict . The New York Times is reporting that he plans he may hand operations over to his children, but not ownership. An important distirnnction becae that puts him at risk for violating the constitution on day one of his presidency. What do we know so far exactly . Trump plans to keep ownership. Don and eric potentially may be running the operations on a daily basis. And ivanka actually might leave the Trump Organization to take some kind of role in the administration. Unclear what that is right now. Its also unclear how this jives with antinepotism laws. Also trump supposedly, allegedly, according to the times reporting, will not sell or does not want to sell his business outright to his children or anyone else because he would take a large tax hit, wolf. So theres a consideration there. What do the ethics experts say about this . They dont like it. Im been speaking to them all along about the potential for this kind of arrangement. And one by one, both sides of the aisle have renounced this kib kind of plan, saying it does not its not really above board, and also, the office of government ethics has urged trump to go ahead and divest his holdings. Suggesting that is the best way to really put this issue to bed, wolf. Its going to be an issue. Well see what he says specifically on december 15th. The dow jones really going up, another huge day for the dow jones for stock investors today. I suspect trump might regret having sold all his stock back in june. Its gone up more than 1,000 points, the dow jones industrials, since he won the election a little bit more than a month ago. I guess investors are very upbeat about what he might be planning on doing for business. Is that right . Well, there are a couple things at play, wolf. Number one, investors and analysts were very uneasy with not knowing who the president would be. Now they have an answer. They can kind of guess and make Investment Decisions based on what they think donald trump will do. So an element uncertainty was removed from the market. Also, theyre seeing a pretty orderly transition process happen. So theyre not freaked out by the way donald trump is handling things so far. Youre right, in the long term, they see the prospect for lower taxes, less regulation and a very intense focus on boosting growth. If you look at the people who he is appointing in very key positions in terms generating that economic activity, the mark se market seems to like those decisions as well. Lower tax, rless regulation, they like those. The dow jones again, record high, 19,600plus, dow jones up, what, another 80 points today, 19,629 right now. Well continue to watch the market. Cristina, thank you. There are early signs that Donald Trumps controversial choice for epa administrator, the Environmental Protection agency, may hit a roadblock in Senate Confirmation hearings. Well discuss that and more when we come back. David. Whats going on . Oh hey thats it . Yeah. Everybody two seconds dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance. Through the Tuition Assistance program, every day mcdonalds helps more people go to college. Its part of our commitment to being americas best first job. This is judy. Judy is 63 years old. Her mortgage payment is 728 a month. Thats almost 9 thousand dollars a year. Now judy doesnt think that shell be able to retire until her mortgage is fully paid off. This is mike. Mike is also 63 years old. His mortgage payment was 728 a month. Mike thought he would have to work for another 12 years until his mortgage was paid off. 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