Catherine herridge and we start off with mike emanuel with a big reward for one of trumps most loyal supporters. Good evening. Reporter good evening. Jeff sessions has served in the senate for 20 years. If confirmed by his colleagues to be the next attorney general, there is no doubt sessions will enforce the nations immigration laws. Americans cant continue to bring in labor to do work and subsidize people not working by the millions. Reporter sessions was one of the toughest conservative critics of bipartisan immigration immigration reform, concerned it would lead to amnesty for millions of Illegal Immigrants in this country. That made him a natural as the first senator to back donald trump in the 2016 campaign after trump spoke about building a wall to protect our southern border. We will build a wall. Mexico will pay for the wall. Reporter sessions defended trumps call for extreme vetting for those seeking to come to the u. S. If you have two people and one that wants to believes in the democratic republic like we have, one that has an ideology that wants to impose a narrow view of how the government should be run, then why would you not choose the one most harmonious to our values . Reporter his loyalty is being rewarded. Jeff sessions is a good friend and i think he will make an excellent attorney general. He is a strong principled conservative. And we are going to need a strong attorney general to restore uning at the rintegrity. Reporter he was nominated to be a judge in balabama. He called the only black county commissioner in mobile the n word. In an interview, the next Senate Democratic leader said, sessions wont get special treatment. Will he have trouble getting through . He will need a thorough vetting. Many of those statements, theyre old but still troubling. The idea that Jeff Sessions is just because hes a senator he should get through without a series of tough questions, particularly given the early things, no way. Mitch mcconnell has announced he supports the sessions nomination. Calling him principled, forthright and hard working. Leadership aides say the senate will consider nominations in a thorough and timely manner to ensure a smooth transition between administrations. Mike, thank you. Graduating first in his class at the u. S. Military academy, grad atding from Harvard Law School and editing the harvard review. Catherine herridge. Reporter the selection of kansas republican pompeo was welcomed by a former cia director. I think this is a serious man who takes these questions seriously and who studied these questions. Reporter iran, along with republican senator tom cotton, he exposed side deals in the agreement. The congressman investigated the 2014 intelligence on isis that painted a rosie picture of progress when the terror group was expanding in iraq and syria. At a hearing thursday, he expressed outrage that no one has lost their job for putting lives at risk. I have to tell you the American People deserve not to wait two years to hold accountable folks who put Bad Information in the field. Reporter pompeo sat on the benghazi investigation committee. He chastised Hillary Clinton for ignoring the Terror Threat in libya because it did not fit the political narrative. On the failure to launch a rescue during the attack i find it reprehensible. If it was your son or daughter, one of your family members or friends on the ground that night, you watch the actions in washington, d. C. , you would have every right to be discussed. Reporter they praised him as smart and open minded but voiced reservation. Mike will have to set aside that very partisan role that he can play, has placed at times in the congress and certainly did play on the benghazi committee. Im confident he can do that. We will rely on him to do that. The job of cia director has to be strictly nonpartisan. Reporter pompeo favors leaving guantanamo open, getting back into interrogating terror suspects. He suspects nsa collection programs. The aclu said his positions also raise serious Civil Liberties concerns about privacy and due process. If confirmed, he will lead an agency of 21,000 employees spread across the globe with a budget of 15 billion. Former cia officers say the priority for the next director is rebuilding the human spying capabilities. Thank you. Lieutenant general Michael Flynn elicits strong feelings frommed afrom admirers and detractors. Some see someone who crossed a line. Others see a maverick with the guts to speak out and call out radical islam. Here is james rosen. Reporter visits to trump tower by Michael Flynn, former director of the Defense Intelligence agency, attracted special interest as word of his appointment as White House National security advied advis to come forward. In his 33year military career, flynn rose to become the top Intelligence Officer for the joint special Operations Command where he served under general Stanley Mccrystal and guided the elite delta force and seal team 6 units. He directed intelligence at u. S. Central command. And is credited with revolution a revolutionizing the speed of which information is delivered. He testified to Congress Alongside the directors of the fbi and cia but never once did he receive an audience with the commander in chief. In his book the field of fight he said he was fired because his assessment of the threat from isis and other islamic jihadists conflicted with the more optimistic view the president and his aides wanted to present. He spoke to these tensions, including at the gop convention. I am infuriated when our president bans criticism of our enemies. I am certain i am deadly certain that we cannot win this war unless we are free to call our enemies by name, radical islamists and failed tyrants. This isnt just an individual who is intimately familiar with the highest level of intelligence gathering and analysis in the United States federal government. He also is a big picture thinker. If you are looking for a man who already has established a reputation of talking truth to power, you could do very, very well by simply choosing a man who has demonstrated it and thats general flynn. Reporter critics have flagged his attendance at an ave event alongside Vladimir Putin. Flynns tweets including one in which he called fear of muslims rational have drawn criticism. As have his business dealings in turkey, a critical country in the war on isis. St his statements about muslims are unamerican said a democratic senator, a member of the Intelligence Committee who added his financial entanglement with russia and other foreign governments are cause for concern. He earned the confidence of president elect trump through demonstrations mr. Trump is said to prize, loyalty. He has been a close adviser to president elect trump. Reporter as National Security advisor, he will not require confirmation by the senate nor will he be subject to demands for testimony by congressional committees. James, thank you. Lets bring in our panel early for some analysis of the first trump picks. Steve haze, maura liason, and tom rogan. The president elect tweeting out today, will be working all weekend in choosing the great men and women who will be helping to make America Great again. He is in bedminister, new jersey, for meetings among them, mitt romney tomorrow. Lets start about the picks today. Sessions, pompeo and flynn. Pompeo first. We talked about it yesterday. He brings a long resume to the job. Nunes is on the executive committee of the transition team. Mike pompeo is one of the bratest members of congress. He has been true in my experience in talking to him and interviewing him and looking at the way that he studies issues. A lot of times you have members of congress who will read questions or talking points presented to them by their staff and then cant go beyond those. Thats not a problem with pompeo. He knows the issues. He knows them well. He asks relevant questions as you saw in the package. He is respected by members of both sides of the aisle. I think thats an incredibly solid choice. I would expect he will have virtually no difficulty getting through. Perhaps somebody who would be concerned is iran. He has a pretty aggressive iran view about the president current president s policies. These choices are competent. They are at least with flynn and sessions really loyal to donald trump. He chose mostly from the inner circle. I do think the orientation to russia is something i heard from democrats and republicans are giving people pause. This is trumps vision that russia isnt our number one enemy. We should consider them an ally. He expressed lots of positive feelings about Vladimir Putin. Certainly general flynn agrees with him on that. But otherwise, i think they are tough on iran. They want to make isis a top priority. But they definitely reflect this new orientation thats shaking up a lot of our traditional allies. He was on fox and friends november 9, Lieutenant General flynn. What should iran, russia and maybe even syrian president assad know about a donald trump Foreign Policy . I tell you what. Its going to be one that leads from the front. You cannot have a complex, uncertain world that we have and have a depleted military. He didnt get into the details. Those are the big questions. Assad sees Donald Trumps election as a positive thing. So does putin. At least in syria, the United States will be on the side of iran if they side with assad and russia. Well, one of the interesting things about syria at the moment is you have seen the russians continue this Aggressive Campaign against aleppo which suggests they are not sure about trump. If they thought confidently he was in their back pocket as it were, they would wait simply and build consensus. Were conceding and then go at that point. One of the things thats interesting about general flynn, i spoke to someone who used to serve with flynn. Joint special Operations Command he served at and said flynns nickname was the fire hose. Not in a good way. He had a reputation for going off the rails, being a bully to subordinates. If was tempered to a task, there would be difficulties. I think you sigh that ee that. The most important thing in that job is the trust in between the president and the National Security the process. Any red flags here for obviously flynn does not need to be confirmed. You mentioned pompeo, sessions. I think as we saw in the clip from the Chris Wallace interview, democrats would like to make an issue with Jeff Sessions, despite the fact he is a colleague, a senator. That does give you additional points when you have a senate confirmation, if theyre coming from your group, the senators. It usually does. I expect it will. The democrats will prepare for a big fight because they think they can exact some political price for having chosen Jeff Sessions given what he said in the past. Just a comment on mike flynn. I think maura is right to raise questions about russia. It also shouldnt be it should be more than an asterisk he was right about al qaeda. He was one of the only voices in the Intelligence Community sounding the alarm in 2012, 2013, 2014 about the rise of al qaeda, the continued proliferation of al qaeda, the growth of al qaeda offshoots including isis. It turns out the guy was right. The New York Times wrote a profile on him and had that as a parent th pa parenthetical. Pushing against the administration. I think he has that reputation. He earned it. I think it does show that there is controversy surrounding him from the right. Yes, russia is the big motivator on that. These other issues, if those if it was purely about that record of predicting and assessing and pushing the administration, i think he would be a shooin. Doesnt have to be. Theres no confirmation. I want to go forward. A couple of the big picks coming. Secretary of state. Rudy giuliani in the mix here, even though there are stories whether his chances were dimini diminished. Bob corker. John bolton. David petraeus and mitt romney on the list who donald trump meets with tomorrow. Tomorrow. The most interesting thing there is the giuliani versus romney. Giuliani was the most loyal, loyal soldier to donald trump. After the access Hollywood Tape he was out there, even mike pence went to ground at that point. We heard earlier he could have whatever he wanted. He wants state. Mitt romney has a different world view. Mitt romney remember said russia was the number one threat. Geopolitical threat. And he has a very different world view than donald trump and the kind of soft on russia, whatever we want to call them guys around him, that would be an interesting pick if he went with mitt romney. That would send a big message that he wants to have different views, reaching out to the establishment who shunned him. Donald trump has a long memory. He doesnt like to forgive. Mitt romney was one of his most prominent detractors. If not the most prominent. Defense secretary. We mentioned tom cotton from arkansas. Senator Kelly Ayottes name had come out. She lost that Senate Reelection bid in new hampshire. Jock keane and james mattis has popped up and David Petraeus today has come up as well. Steve, that list. Thats a heck of a list. I would be surprised if james mattis he is writing books and big thinking, would come back. Certainly, that would be greeted with cheers and applause from the rank and file military, particularly the marine corps because of who he is and the reputation he has. Jack keane speaks for himself. I think tom cotton is getting serious consideration here. He is young but talk about a resume. Tom cotton has he served. He has studied these things. He distinguished himself early as a member of the house and then the senate as an outspoken proponent of American Power. Somebody who understands the use of American Power well beyond his years. I will say that the pentagon, having covered it for six and a half years, is a massive bureaucracy. You wonder whether you need to have someone who has run something before, whether this be a company or something big. Right. I think one of the interesting things is with mattis that he does have the the warrior scholar is his reputation. So he would be very popular. He was the he has managerial experience within dod. How much does he want to embrace that bureaucracy . Bob gates, former defense secretary said you couldnt drag me back to washington to deal with it. Its the hardest thing. The question is, one of the interesting things for secretary of state, even if we talk about giuliani and romney as different, both of them are very popular abroad. That would be another example. I could imagine the foreign allies would be very, very happy with either of them, because it would suggest that this is they have experience and engagement. We will see you in a bit. There are 19 1 2 miles of corridor in the pentagon. I walked them. Whats your reaction to this selections of president elect trump . Up next, it turns out Donald Trumps yidea to build a border wall, not really that new. Here is what some affiliates are covering tonight. Alaska, president obama blocks oil and gas drilling north of alaska. They say industry activities in the icy waters can harm wildlife and contribute to global warming. Energy industry representatives are calling the decision political and not supported by the facts. Republicans have threatened to immediately turn that decision around in the new year. Fox 2 in san francisco, a mysterious foam fills the streets in santa clara. It appears to be some kind of fire retardant. The crew on the scene is being told a buildings fire system malfunctioned. Its blocking several businesses and has completely covered some cars in the area up to about waist deep. A live look at new york. One of the big stories there tonight, daily Fantasy Sports rivals draft kings and fan dual announce plans to merge. The move requires federal approval. Full disclosure of the Parent Company of fox news is an investor in draft kings. Thats tonights live look outside the beltway from special report. Well be right back. North carolina governor pat mccorey is offering a 10,000 reward for information about who is setting fires in the western part of his state. More than 46,000 acres of land have been burned by wildfires. Many of the fires are believed to be man made. We should mention, the 2016 governors race in North Carolina has yet to be called. A complete count of votes there that could affect the outcome will not be finished on time to meet todays deadline. A state board of elections spokesman blames pending ballot challenges and compliance with a court order. The democrat has a lead over the republican incumbent. One of Donald Trumps first and most talked about proposals is the construction of a wall with mexico. The idea of a barrier between nations is nothing new. We look at walls around the world. We will build a great wall along the southern border. Reporter whether you call it a wall or a fence, border barriers are booming. Not just in the u. S. At the end of world war ii, there were less than five border walls anywhere in the world. As late as 1989 when the berlin wall came down, there were 15 border walls. Today, there are almost 70. Reporter greece, hungary, israel, countries are building walls. Wha