And now its solidly trump. Clinton lost by 42 points. It sent shock waves through american politics, but here big time. He takes the oath of office in 36 years and battling bipart an criticism and his rejection of intelligence and business conflicts. As the same goes in politics, loyalty is everything. We begin with a test of that loyalty. Trump supporters dont just trust him, they seem to trust only him. He questions intelligence on russia, so do they. He picks a cabinet of billionaires to champion the middle guy and they love it. How do we know . A focus group of 12 trump voters conducted and moderated by pollster peter hart on behalf of the university of pennsylvania. Part of our polling team. It was a fascinating and eyeopening look at the trump phenomenon. When trump talks, his supporters listen. What trump says, they say. I cant be bought. You cant buy him. You cant buy him. We use political hacks. They have no clue. Politicians are not good deal makers. They made a mistake when you chose mitt romney. He was a disaster as a candidate. No energy or nothing. He was stiff. Thats something that mccain and romney refuse to do. Trump has come under intense bipartisan fire with business conflicts. He canceled that and these supporters couldnt care less about the issue. He is not putting his Financial Affairs into a blind trust and bothered by that. This is unprecedented what is going on with his wealth and everything. No concern around the table . Trump has come under scrutiny for rejecting findings that russia tried to interfere with the election. Are the supporters worried . Take a listen. Not concerned at all. No. Right now im not concerned. I know the media twists a lot. It wouldnt surprise me if they are just putting it out there as a theory. Julian assange said it wasnt the russians. I think its nonsense. What came out came out. I know what some of you are thinking. They might be lifelong conservative republicans. Guess what. They are not. Did you vote for either reg clinton or obama . Obama. My favorite president would probably be obama. I voted for obama. I voted for obama. I voted for clinton in the past. I voted for clinton in the past. I voted for obama once. Thats right. Seven out of 12 of that trump Voter Focus Group voted for bill clinton or barack obama. I am joined by the moderator who is the Democratic Team of our nbc wall street journal poll. As well as nbc news editor. Peter, i have to say i think the most its not that surprising, but if you are donald trump and you saw that focus group and the intro we did you have to feel pretty good about your core base and your ability to talk to your base. Peter, did you not hear that . I think we are having an audio issue with peter. It was interesting that if you are donald trump and you are the Trump White House team and you see the focus group and you realize the core base is with you through thick and thin. This group was willing to give donald trump just a very, very wight berth, almost limitless leeway at the beginning of his presidency saying that they are totally unbothered by the stories that are plastered on the front page of newspapers and of nightly news. About his conflicts of interest and russia and the cia story. What the voters want to see is results on two issues. Jobs and obamacare either changed or repealed. Those are animating issues. Those are the things he wants to see action on right away. As far as the day to day tone ai lot of these voters said he needed to moderate his tone after the election and he has to the extent that he tweets more than we would like or he would be more president ial there. Thats a far less concern than the bold action than his Business Savvy and the things they liked about him that got him elected with the folks. I think we have the audio issue fixed. I think carrie did a good job of answering that first question. Let me go to the 30,000 feet. What surprised you about this focus group . Two things, check. First and fore most, not only the leash he gets but the breath of saying he is the person in charge and deserves the power. Congress should listen to him and there is not necessarily a sense of an independent brand. More importantly than that is how the voters sort of looked at the world. Thats these are the people who chant usa, usa. When it comes down to it, they are talking about themselves. Us. What they care about is not that the russians are hacking or being involved in terms of the election. They are not being concerned about what may happen throwing out people on immigration. Its a sense of what it means to us. Its not necessarily a bigger view of the world. It is what can be done to help us as individuals. That is different from a Democratic Party. You talked about that two core promgss that if he has to fulfill here, he gets a wide berth. How much patience do the folks have . Nearly infinite from the voters right now. When asked what would disappoint them about donald trump, they pointed back to his campaign promises. They said we want him to stick to what he talked about with jobs and health care. Immigration and terror were two big planks. They said over and over again, the reason they liked him was his boldness and he is not beholden to anybody. If that changed, that would disappoint the voters. Tharm saying he could not be bought and they were willing to give him a pass. He made his money. This was an argument in the focus group. He is not beholden to anybody and doesnt need more money. He will be a representative for the people. If patience runs out, its because he is on those issues. They are willing to give him a long sleesh. If you had a slew of clients and had to figure out how to win in trumps america and win over trump voters, what would you tell them you learned from this about how to communicate with the people . The most important thing is to get back to the neighborhoods. We ignored people from west of new jersey all the way out to the west coast. They need to get back there and i think we had a good economic message, but they stopped telling that message. Change and how are we offering change and whats going to be different. The long leash is right. I have been here before and watched it the last 40 years. People always say they are going to give a long leash, but you are delivering and things change more quickly than he expected. If in two years he hasnt accomplished that, we will give him more time. They want him to act president ial. Right now in this interim period, they are giving mild criticism. It will get heavier if he continues doing the same thing. I will leave it there with the two of you. As always, we appreciate you bringing the focus groups to us. A big change. Editor as large. Bill, i should say congratulations, i think. This feels good. No more day to day management . Exactly. I can spend more time doing god knows what. Coming on here. I will let you have the first word. Anything surprise you at what you saw there in that focus group and how connected they are request their candidate . What struck me is how unhappy they were with how things are now. How willing they are to have things blown up. They dont care if he appoints people who dont have experience or dont care what they do. They just want things to change. That gives donald trump enormous running room to do things and they expect things to change. If in a year from now, things are not different especially the way washington works, these voters could become disenchanted with them. Half of them were democrats as recently as four years ago. They are not dedicated republicans, but they signed on to donald trump. More than half of them were voters for democratic president s. The Democratic Party has a messaging problem. Its the power of trumps messaging. It was not about economics or anything that is typically political, but identity. Taking america back to a point where frankly white americans had more advantages than they do now. At least perceptively. Thats the question i would like to hear them ask. Is identity and white identity specifically a drivewing force behind your support for donald trump . I was struck by how much what donald trump says, they say. Its not unusual they will echo some things, but it seemed almost verbatim. Its like he is not just their president , but he is where they get their news from and their filter. Plain and simple. They identified with him in a way that is somewhat unusual. Maybe like peter, with the focus group and the millennial voters and december 2008. They would sound like barack obama and would have echoed barack obama and had great hopes and expectations for barack obama. 2010 was a rough midterm for him. Not because of his core voters, but it stuck with the democrats. Swing voters swung. At the end of the day, it wasnt that different from 2o 12. The democrats are not in as bad of shape as people being. Trump and the republicans are not in a strong shape as they would think if they look at a friendly focus group and say we are just in charge and can do whatever they want. We need to execute on the policies and not executing on different policies that is not easy. The other thing that struck me is i tell you now you understand democrats who say my god, his business deals or oh, my god, this. It was clear any of the personal stuff got washed away. They didnt care about potential conflicts. They assume it wont matter to him because they think he is already so rich. They didnt care about the russian hacking and they didnt care to find out they cared about jobs and obamacare. They had trouble getting this on a third issue. Build the wall didnt get a lot of play. Are there jobs for them to go to. It has been a burden to pay for premiums for coverage. You guys are sticking around for the hour. We are here at black sheep burrito and brews in West Virginia. We will talk to joe manchin and whether he can work with the president elect. Thats why i have the spark cash card from capital one. With it, i earn unlimited 2 cash back on all of my purchasing. And that unlimited 2 cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business. Which adds fuel to my bottom line. Whats in your wallet . Because it knew an ordinary wastissue was near. Ar. The fiery tissue left her nose sore and red. So dad slayed the problem with puffs plus lotion, instead. Puffs have pillowy softness for dakotas tender nose. With lotion to comfort and soothe when she blows. Dont get burned by ordinary tissues. A nose in need deserves puffs, indeed. Now get puffs plus lotion in the squeezable softpack. Tadirectv now. Stream all your entertainment anywhere anytime can we lose the all. Theres no cbs and we dont have a ton of sports. Anywhere, any. Lets lose the anywhere, anytime too. You cant download onthego, theres no dvr, yada yada yada. Stream some stuff somewhere sometimes you totally nailed that buddy. Simple. Dont let directv now limit your entertainment. Only xfinity gives you more to stream to any screen. Welcome back. Trump a trumps picks are diverse, but trumps cabinet has a diversity problem. White men dominate the post. You can see where im going. If trump picks a while male to run the ag department, the line of succession to the presidency will go through 12 white men. There is diversity in the cabinet with ben carson, but if they are all confirmed, the big four, state, defense, justice and treasury and dhs if you want to call it the big five will be all white men. The First Time Since bush 41s cabinet in 1989. How much will donald trump pay a price for that if at all . Well be right back. And ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. Do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, or adempas® for pulmonary hypertension, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. Do not drink alcohol in excess. To avoid longterm injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. If you have a sudden decrease or loss of hearing or vision, or an allergic reaction, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. Ask your doctor about cialis. So we know how to cover almost almoanything. Hing, even a rodent ridealong. [dad] alright, buddy, dont forget anything [kid] i wont, dad. [captain rod] happy Tuesday Morning captain rod here. Its pretty hairy out on the interstate. Traffic is literally crawling, but there is some movement on the eastside overpass. Getting word of another collision. [burke] it happened. December 14th, 2015. And we covered it. Talk to farmers. We know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum there are ten Democratic Senators in states that trump won. He described the meeting asa informative. That job ended up going to another former governor from texas, rick perry. Manchin said he will stay in the senate where he is up for senate in 2018. Thanks for coming. Good to be here. Good to be here. Secretary of energy. Why did you take the interview . I thought anything i can do to propel my state and energy is what we are all about. You have been able to observe that firsthand and i had a chance to talk about the bill we have been fighting for. We will get that done and something we need to do. President elect donald trump has won every coal region in the United States he won West Virginia overwhelmingly. I wanted to make sure we were on the same page and we have to get this done and find a pathway forward to have a balanced Energy Policy with coal winning. What does it look like . I talked to miners and the thing they are most excited about and they assume a burch of regulations are going away. There was an overreach. There was a nuisance. What happens is all West Virginians want clean water. There is a balance to be had. We built on the energy we produced right here. They are looking at the balance and they overreached and president obama and his administration from day one. They overreached and that shut us down. Dont tell me you are from the working person when you are stopping them from working. They say we got what we have been asking for and we will get it. War war we know that the low price of grl gas had an effect and we have ridden the market changes, but never had the them holds under the water. Thats what we feel like. You get rid of the regulations that allow them to tread water again. To tablize. It can only grow. The federal commission determines on how energy comes on to the grid. If they are looking at the cheapest and not reliable and dependable. Its the most reliable and dependable until the natural gas. There has to be a balance. Give us a chance to survive. We dont have the markets we had before. Even with all the ability to go back and mine, we lost a lot of markets that shut down and changed over to cheap gas. There is a challenge. What does West Virginias economy look like in 30 years. Woo have to have broadband throughout. We are a rural mountainous state. Its hard to get the signals. I have been hearing about the promise with george w. Bush and barack obama. Its the money. I thought there was a tax like a quarter of a penny. It went to the urban areas too. We got tom wheeler here. Open your phone, right . We couldnt get a thing. He said im committed to get the money back to you. If you want to stop poverty, you have to get connectivity. What cole do you want to play . I want to make the senate work again. We have been miserable and im being honest. Why did you stay . A lot of people wanted you to run for governor and you probably would have won . I have hope and faith that Chuck Schumer is going to change and give us the spark we need and allow us im not a washington democrat. West virginia is different. We believe in hard work and helping everyone who needs help, but get off your butt and do something. Dont wait for a handout. I know john and i know kevin carthy. I know the trump team. I kelt comfortable. I feel he wants to do something. You comfortable being a West Virginia democrat . Absolutely. My brand is very independent. Thats who i am. Why do i have to change my identity to think i am sbn important . They come up to you and say help us reach out to rerl america and coal country. What advice do you give . Lets get the chairman. You would like a 30 choice . Absolutely. I think speaking from a hurl state that is getting our brains beat in because washington doesnt speak for us. Its hard for them to represent us. Thats hard. You have to fight to be a democrat in West Virginia. What are did bernie get that hillary excellent . I have a hard time explaining that one because i dont get it either. I dont understand it. Showing up and caring about it . He did donald trump do so well everywhere . He was going to win West Virginia. I knew that from day one. Did you think by the biggest margin in history . I didnt and he didnt either. He said i won big. He polled me how big he thought he won it. I said i think you won bigger than that. He was surprise at that. People were so mat and i felt it. They get matd r mad at everyone and they wanted change. They didnt think anyone would bring them change that has been ther bernie spoke of all these things against wall street. When you think about wall street that got bailed out. Kai cant even take care of our coal miners. We didnt even ask for a brought. Rex tillerson and his relationship with putin. Is that a problem for you . That specifically is not a problem for me. I will tell you the reason why. You have to have relationships. I spent time in germany. Why . I started talking to some of them. They said the cold war is colder than when it was on. Thats our job. We are the leaders of the free world. We have to reach out. Im cashed about rex. They said follow the money. Follow the money. I dont know how intertwined it is. The person is going to say no matter what, its about america and the security of our country. Its not about do i protect my investments. Those are the things i hear a lot of fellow democrats speaking about. Him having a relationship, no, we need that relationship, but i hope we can say no to him. I know rex. I know rex from this standpoint. He has the heart of a lion. He has the compassion too because i watched him with the boy scouts. He is very big in the boy scout movement. We put the scout camp in. Im going to leave it there. Good to see you. All right. With some republicans questioning trumps choice of exxonmobil ceo, i will talk to a republican who held the job. Former secretary of state james baker joins me ahead. I want a hippopotamus for christmas only a hippopotamus will do at the United States postal service, we deliver more Online Purchases to homes than anyone else in