Good. But we begin this morning with a look at todays eye opener, your world in 90 seconds. It will be up to him to set up a team that he thinks will reflect his policies. Thats how did democracy works. Growing backlash over trumps choice for chief strategists. Lies. President obama says lets give this guy a chance. You should be ashamed of yourself that youre justifying what hes about. Political correctness has taken a huge blow to equate that to antisemitic or racist is absurd. Violence at Ohio State University. Oh were hoping for the best. And preparing for the worst. Dozens of wildfires are raging in the southeast. Dozens of firefighters are fighting these fires. Award winning journal sift gwen ifill has died. I wont say goodbye. Because goodbyes are so hard but i will say so long and thank you. President obama arrived in greece, the last scheduled overseas trip as president. Politics has always been a kind of contact sport, says Conor Mcgregor of the ukraine. Touchdown. Thats Michael Jacksons thriller right there. 75 of americans were surprised when donald trump was elected president. Heres a photo of two of them. And all that mattered donald trump spent his weekend in the trump tower penthouse instead of the white house when Hillary Clinton found out, she was like, hes not going to be there. On cbs this morning when you looked outside, did you see the super moon. Its true, according to scientist, the moon is closest to earth since 1948. Yeah. The moon is worried and wants to know what the hell is going on down here [ laughter ] [ cheers and applause ] announcer this mornings eye opener is presented by toyota toyota, lets go places. Captioning funded by cbs gets serious and tells cbs news that former new york city mayor Rudy Giuliani is now his number one choice for secretary of state. John bolton u. S. Ambassador under george w. Bush is also in the running. Favoring the uproar of the ceo steve bannon to be strategist. Major garrett is at the white house, he takes a look at the names well all be talking about today, major, good morning. Good morning, president elect donald trump values loyalty above any and all considerations. Hes about to make an announcement for treasury secretary and secretary of state. The nominations for those. And the top contenders, longer on loyalty than experience. First of all, i want the attorney general reporter former mayor Rudy Giuliani is now seen to be president elect Donald Trumps top pick for secretary of state. His main competition, former u. N. Ambassador john bolton. John would be a good choice. Anybody better . Maybe me. Reporter bolton a hardright hawk on defense has advised several republican administrations. Bolton wrote last year the only way to stop Irans Nuclear program was to bomb iran. A lot of hard work going on upstairs. Reporter campaign mns chairman Steve Mnunchin visited ved and is recommended as treasury secretary. Goldman sachs and democratic fundraiser, mnunchin is favored as one of trumps top campaign officials. Mnunchin said this when asked by charlie rose if he would be treasury secretary. Id be honored to serve this country and serve donald trump in any role that he wants me in. Reporter president obama who knows plenty about white house power and personnel would not echo criticism of Steve Bannons appointment as a top whiter white house aide. Bannon standed criticized as being antisemitic. It will be up to him to set up a team that will serve him well. Reporter mr. Obama had this to say federal government and our democracy is not a speed boat. Its an ocean liner, as i discovered when i came into office. President elect has already taken calls from several heads of state, among them russian president Vladimir Putin during that call, he said he hoped to forge a strong relationship between the russian people and its government. And cbs news has learned mr. Trumps Transition Team is exploring how some of his kids could get top secret security clearances. The potential move is raising some ethical concerns. Julianna goldman broke this story and is in washington with what shes learned. Juliana, good morning. Reporter good morning, the sources tells that you the president elect donald trump Transition Team is looking to designate some of his Adult Children as National Security advisers that they be able to receive the top secret security clearances. Now, even if it doesnt happen during the transition, trump would still be able to put in the request once he becomes president. Looking at the rules here. Th they nepotism rules prevent them from working in the white house but not to serve as unpaid or advisers. To put this in perspective, its common for private citizens to get top secret security clearances, but family members are a totally different story. Former intelligence and white house Officials Say trumps request is truly unprecedented, given that his kids dont have National Security backgrounds. Now ethics watchdogs are also sounding alarms, though. They say the fact that trump wants his Children Armed with access to some of the nations top secrets raises more questions about the conflicts of interest playing roles in the Trump Administration while also running the Family Business and whether they could use the intelligence for their financial interest. Now, norah, last night, a transition official told reporters that the president elect did not request this step. And that trumps children had not filled out any paperwork about security clearances. The official added, quote, its not something im expecting right now. Great original reporting. Thank you so much. Cbs news political director and face the nation moderator John Dickerson is here. As juliana reported this would be unprecedented for any children to have top security clearances. What do you make of it . Well, the whole baskets of issues related to the trump family and the trump operation is really interesting. We just spent a Campaign Going through the connections between the Clinton Foundation and Hillary Clinton because there was a lack of transparency. There were muddy and fuzzy relationships and influence was being sought by various people through various connections. So that seems all in play here. So whatever happens, presumably, if they want to drain the swamp, the relationship with the family and the business would be very open and above boards. Or the walls between the two would be very high, if president elect trump wants to keep faith with the promises he made and all the criticisms he leveled during the campaign. Can we talk about president obamas News Conference yesterday, it went on much longer than many people thought but he appeared to be reassuring, cautionary and complementary. And sending messages to people. What was your takeaway . I think the biggest message to take away those worried about donald trump as president he was saying the office of presidency slows you down. Which is funny, thats what those people were critical of him about, the change is not coming fast enough. You can take comfort in that because change is slow. He kept talking about the constraints on the president and the rules and norms that you have to follow. The use of that word norms is interesting, the one thing about Trumps Campaign it was normbreaking. That what worries, hell break those those norms. He was almost fwlaterring of the president which is a remarkable turnaround. Theyre both flattering of each other. President obama said he hes not ideological. He talked about his gifts. He seems to be sending messages through that flattery. The flattery was the appetizer and the meal was dont get ahead of yourself here. Get a good staff in place. Dont be too radical, recognize you have to be slow in what you do. What do you think the point of that flattery was . Donald trumps advisers have talked about how they sought to speak to him through the television. It was sending messages to his supporters and also to donald trump. And complimenting what hes done. Thats right, recognizing and paying homage to it. Also if you want to be totally crass and political for it, did hes going to criticize him later, he needs to not look like he criticized him out of the box. And he did not address the appointment of steve bannon. He did not. He did not on bannons specific grounds, he said im not going to talk about every single pick. And remember, obama intends on living in washington for the next coming of years as his daughter finishes high school. Youre going to have a president and former president in the same town. George bush said a precedent to not talk about his former predecessor. Is barack obama going to do that . And the cabinet posts. Its fascinating, as major pointed out, loyalty. Heres the challenge, with donald trump with any presidency, if you surround yourself with loyalists, you cocoon, and it all gets wrapped into a tight bubble. Is loyalty a trump thing, do you think . In this case, its not always a bad thing. Especially when that is reinforcing people around you, john kennedy talked about this early when you get into group think. On the other hand, you need loyaltyists who may be the only one who can tell the chief executive no because he trusts him. Thats where the family is super important. Thank you, major. So much to follow. An Ohio State University student is facing Assault Charges for allegedly hitting an antitrump protester. Hey the video capture the man slamming into the protester, was knocked down the stairs. Campus police took him into custody. More than 5,000 seattle students walked out of classes to protest the election. Police say two men who were not students were arrested. More than 1,000 students in los angeles stormed the downtown plaza. Signed said no hate, no racism no trump. President obama touched down in greece this morning as the start of this final trip abroad while in office. He joined the greek president. The president said part of his mission is to reassure allies about president elect trump. In my conversation with the president elect, he expressed a great interest maintaining our core strategic relationships. And so, one of the messages i will be able to deliver is his commitment to nato and the transatlantic alliance. I think thats one of the most important functions i can serve at this stage, during this trip. Margaret brennan is traveling with the president in athens. Shes near the acropolis. Good morning. Reporter good morning, president obama is confronting urine totally rattled by a donald trump election. Theyre worried that his actions will match his campaign rhetoric. Despite will trumps assurances to the president that he will stand by nato. They worry that the friend outreach to russia means that Vladimir Putin will have free rein to do what he pleases. And theres concern that with european help may now be in jeopardy. That includes the Iran Nuclear Deal and the International Climate change agreement. So any suggestion that america will retreat from Global Leadership really concerns europe which is also struggling with brexit. High unemployment, refugee crisis and the rise of nationalist groups here in greece, in germany and in the uk and in france. So, gayle, president obama has his work cut out for him, trying to reassure the longterm allies even though hes not fully sure what President Trump will do. All right, thank you very much, Margaret Brennan reporting from athens. Dry weather and droughts conditions across the south are fuelling an explosion of wildfires. Thousands of acres have burned now and heavy smoke is raising air quality concerns. Dozens of fires are still burn North Carolina income, georgia, tennessee and other states. Mark strassmann is in the northern georgia down of clayton right now. Mark, good morning. Reporter good morning, all of this charring comes from a Rock Mountain fire which has burned more than 5,000 acres and is only 10 contained. And the smoke here is so thick, residents are being urged to wear air masks like these whenever they go outside. More than 70 wildfires stretch across eight southern states. Those fires have already charred more than 100,000 acres and forced evacuations. Oh, im concerned. It was up there at the top of the ridge and now its down here. Its unnerving. Its scary. Its terrifyingin iterrifying. Reporter in North Carolina, flames are threatening 17 structures. More than 20 wildfires are burn North Carolina income many of them investigated for suspected arson. The way this fire is totally different. This is the worst thing ive ever been involved in. Reporter from the flames, massive plumes of smoke, so much that dozens of counties are facing air quality advisories. A view from nasa shows the extent of the smoke. Some of it has started to drift into the Metro Atlanta area. I have have asthma, being outside with them, ive noticed them coughing. Reporter making it difficult for firefighters. Dry conditions and severe drought that faced region. Ive got faith theyre going to get it out and that were going to be okay. Reporter another sense of the challenge here, there are 5,000 firefighters on the ground from as far away as colorado and california. And in this continuing drought, there is no rain in the forecast. Norah. That is tough, mark. Thank you so much. Gwen ifill is being remembered this morning as a pioneering journalist, its pbs coanchor died monday of cancer. She was 61 years old. Ifill leaves behind a legacy of a tough career. Im jude . Woodruff. And im gwen ifill. Reporter when gwen ifill joined the team it wasnt the first time she broke through barriers in journalism. I have a flat spot right in front of my head from trying to break down balls my entire career. Forcing diversity of thought and opinion into the newsrooms and on to the air. Reporter her career brought her to the Washington Post where she covered her first of seven president ial elections. And then the New York Times where she covered the white house. In 19 another, she made the jump to television joining nbc. And to our new Senior Correspondent gwen ifill, welcome, gwen. Thanks, jim. Reporter 1999, she moved to cbs where she spent the rest of her career which included multi tame debates and historic 2008 election of americas first africanamerican president. The Obama Campaign provided a story. Turns out ive been writing my hole life. Reporter president elect donald trump echoed those cen r sentiments on his facebook page. Gwen was a pioneer iing shatterg barriers. Your hopes for barack obama . My hope is the same as for any president that she succeeds. Theres too much at stake for him not to. Such a shock yesterday. I didnt know she was ill. She was very quiet about it. Her office was next to mine at nbc. She was a mentor to me as a young journalist. John, i know you sat in for her. The first person to email and say im sorry you lost your friend was gwen. She was a great journalist but a beautiful person. You wrote a beautiful tribute. You said you never prepared for an appearance when you were on her show. Yeah, the number of people who sent me emails who said, you know, little people, just starting out. That she helped. She helped all of us in one way or another. Not just the people famous in washington. Thats one of the great tests of character in washington is how you treat people, nobody knows. Thats actually true. She was lovely on and off camera. I love what you said you could read by the light of her smile. Moving on, Delta Airlines reaches a milestone. Ahead, well get a lk announcer this National Weather report sponsored by American Made weather tech car mats and floor liners. Shop weathertech. Com today. One donald trump supporter says this, were not electing someone to be a sunday tool teacher. Ahead, nearly 20 people in a focus group tells frank luntz why they voted for the president elect. The news is right back here on cbs this morning. Announcer this portion of cbs this morning sponsored by toyota. Lets go places. Oh dont tell me what to do just let me be myself thats all i ask of you the new 2017 corolla with Toyota Safety sense standard. You dont own me toyota. Lets go places. I love that my shop is part of the morning ritual around here. 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