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Trump Focusing On Filling His New Cabinet; GOP On The Brink Of Control In D.C.; What Trump's Plans Mean For The Economy; GOP Senators Vying To Replace Mitch McConnell; Trump's Influence On The Ukraine War. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired November 10, 2024 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[20:00:36]

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening. I'm Kaitlan Collins on a very busy Sunday night at Mar-a-Lago.

We have some new reporting for you this evening on what's been going on in the last 48 hours inside Donald Trump's orbit as the president- elect is now narrowing down his choices for critical roles in his incoming administration.

Staffing was one of Trump's biggest regrets in his first term and he has vowed to get it right this time, which for him means hiring people who are more loyal to him and less likely to push back. Apparently there are many people eager to meet that requirement.

Mar-a-Lago has basically been brimming for the last few days, I'm told, with two kinds of people, those angling for a job and those who are trying to influence Trump into hiring their pics. But one person has loomed over all of that. His name is Elon Musk. Multiple sources tell me tonight that Musk has been seen at Mar-a-Lago nearly every single day since Donald Trump won, dining with him on the patio at times. Today they were seen on the golf course together.

Musk has been in the room when world leaders have called Trump and tonight we've learned he's also weighing in on staffing decisions, making clear his preference for certain roles even. Publicly tonight Elon Musk is backing Florida Senator Rick Scott as the next leader of the Republican conference to replace Mitch McConnell.

While Musk himself is still not expected to take any kind of formal position inside Trump's administration given how complicated it would be with his companies, what's becoming clearer tonight is that he doesn't really need to with one source telling me Elon Musk is having just as much influence from the outside.

With Trump on the verge of announcing some new hires including several people who served in his last administration, he did confirm today there are two who will not be asked back. Nikki Haley, who served as his ambassador to the United Nations, and Mike Pompeo, who is Trump's CIA director and secretary of state the last time around. The former president very publicly crossed their names off his list with this post on Truth Social, saying, quote, "I will not be inviting former ambassador Haley or Secretary Pompeo to join the Trump administration."

Joining me now is CNN's Alayna Treene, who's covering Trump in West Palm Beach.

Alayna, what are you hearing about not just Musk but also what else has been going on down there over the last few days?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you're exactly right. I think your analysis of Musk's influences, Kaitlan, is right -- definitely accurate, is spot on, I should say. I mean, I also heard that he's also not just, you know, with Donald Trump and at Mar-a-Lago but he's also been calling up, I'm told, some of Donald Trump's allies including many people in Congress, lawmakers, and trying to exert his influence that way.

He's also been bringing his children to Mar-a-Lago. Donald Trump just the day after the election, we reported earlier this week, was shown or was seen showing around Musk's children around his Florida home. And so there's no question that Musk has such great influence, and part of that as well, I'm told, behind the scenes is that, one, Donald Trump thinks that Musk is really smart. He loves being able to say that he is someone who is backing him, who he is close to, who is involved in sending rockets into space.

And so some of that as well is Donald Trump loving just having Musk by his side. But as for some of the other new hires, like there's no question that on that island behind me at Mar-a-Lago Donald Trump has been locked down. I'm told he is very focused particularly this time more so than back in 2016 on making the right decisions for who was going to fill out his cabinet, and that is really the main focus right now.

He is primarily focused on filling out who his cabinet is going to be and also top White House roles. Now I also think him crossing off Mike Pompeo and Nikki Haley from his list is very interesting. I heard in my conversations about why he went so public with that over the weekend was that, first of all, when it comes to Pompeo, even though many people close to Trump believe that Pompeo was a great secretary of state, that he deserved a seat at the table this time around, they argued that Donald Trump wasn't sure if he was loyal enough.

And actually in private conversations he had asked people directly, do you think he would be loyal to me, can I trust him? And of course we know that that is really the upmost value, and the thing of utmost importance to the president-elect. As Haley, I'm told that he still harbors a lot of animosity toward her for, one, the attacks that she lobbed at him throughout the Republican primary but also for staying in that primary beyond what Donald Trump deemed appropriate.

[20:05:01]

And so all together I think if you look at some of what he is saying, maybe not even just his new announcements but the people that he's announcing will not be in his second administration, it clearly shows that loyalty is going to be the top of his list and he wants to surround himself with people who will say yes to him, who will not hold him back. Definitely a departure from what he did back in 2016 -- Kaitlan.

COLLINS: Yes. And Alayna, are there any jobs in particular that the Trump team has been hyper focused on whether it's attorney general or any of those where he did feel like he made the wrong decision his first time around and now is especially focused on?

TREENE: Yes. I think attorney general and I know you know this as well, Kaitland, this is the most important role for Donald Trump. And actually when he had left the White House back in 2021 he had said privately that his biggest regret was who he hired to fill the role of his attorney general, referring directly to his attorneys general Jeff Sessions and Bill Barr.

And so this time around, he really wants whoever his attorney general to be is going to be someone that is in lockstep with him. He wants his attorney general to be his legal pit bull. And part of that as well, I should note, is that he wants to completely change how the Department of Justice operates. He no longer wants it to be as independent as it has been traditionally and over the past several years now.

Instead he wants it to be operating alongside him and of course potentially even using his attorney general to help prosecute some of his political opponents. I think the other big roles that I'm told Donald Trump values most right now includes the CIA director, includes secretary of Defense and secretary of Homeland Security. I think that also is just a good preview of what Donald Trump may do with all of those agencies and what he is looking forward to as his biggest priorities come January 20th.

COLLINS: Yes. Many decisions to come. Alayna Treene, thank you.

I want to talk about this now with my political sources who are here, former New York City mayor Bill de Blasio, CNN political commentator S.E. Cupp, and Republican strategist Shermichael Singleton.

Shermichael, can I just start with you?

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, sure.

COLLINS: On the level of influence that Elon Musk is having here, because what I was picking up today when I was talking to people, and we had kind of -- I mean, we knew that he was having influence from the campaign obviously, but on Friday it became clear, and just this weekend has really showcased how much Elon Musk is going to have influence over what this potential second term, you know, staffing wise, looks like.

SINGLETON: I mean, look, I'm not necessarily opposed to it. I think about presidents of the past who had influential outside advisers. FDR's brain trust, Kennedy's wisemen. Reagan's kitchen cabinet, you've seen something similar in the past where presidents have relied on actual outside advisers, close friends who didn't have cabinet posts, who've sort of advised them on some very influential issues.

I went back and looked at some of the old news articles on some of those presidents, and some journalists were very, very critical of some of those outside advisers at the time because they did not have cabinet posts, so I would put Elon Musk in the same vein as some of them. I don't think this is very problematic at all.

COLLINS: S.E., how do you see it just given Elon Musk is obviously not -- yes, that's true. Everyone has had outside advisers, but he's also the world's richest man, he has a major defense contracts with the federal government.

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Right.

COLLINS: How do you view this?

CUPP: Well, it would appear that there would be some conflicts, and I've got my opinions about Elon Musk and the way he's run Twitter and some of his other companies. He's been accused of firing people within his companies who disagree with him. I think that's awful. But here's what, my opinion doesn't matter. Donald Trump was given the keys to the kingdom last week. And with that he gets to put anyone he wants around him, and it can be the people that I think are very dangerous to democracy, it doesn't matter.

This was a mandate. Unlike 2016 where Donald Trump won the Republican primary by a plurality because 1800 people ran alongside him. And then there was this sense of when he went in that he, you know, he wasn't really going to know what he was doing so they surrounded him with people who had already been in, you know, the establishment, in Republican circles, in the administration.

This is not that time. He gets to bring in anyone he wants. We could hate it, we could be very afraid of it, but that's what he won and I would not blame him for bringing people he thinks are loyal to him and he thinks are going to help him implement his vision of the country. Not one bit.

BILL DE BLASIO (D), FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: Well, I hear you. I think you're right about the reality. But I think we should ask the question about conflict, and those examples that Shermichael gave which I think we're very historically helpful. The difference here is Elon Musk combines world's richest man with defense contractor with the person who controls Twitter or X. That is not something we've seen before. And the potential there for it to be a further constraint on the function of government, certainly he could be favored in the function of government, with really big contracts that the public should be worried about that.

CUPP: I have no doubt he will be, right?

DE BLASIO: Right?

CUPP: Yes.

DE BLASIO: And then the fact that we already have great questions about how he's handling one of the major ways in which we communicate with Twitter.

[20:10:02]

This could be something that takes us to a different place. Now I do believe when people overreach, when people get that kind of power and influence, they tend to overreach and when they overreach, the public reacts. The media looks into it, the rest of the political world looks into it. And the public does not like the misuse of power. So, one, I don't want to say silver lining but I think one reality here is it will be very surprising if Elon Musk and obviously Donald Trump and his team don't overreach in this environment.

COLLINS: Well, and he's someone who clearly bet big on Trump and it's paid off for him. I mean, to see the level of influence he is able to have in this because of, you know, how much he helped to get Trump elected. And, you know, obviously we've seen just how close they are. I've heard from some people like Anthony Scaramucci, we're going to talk to him coming up, he thinks Democrats need to try to win Elon Musk back, to have them on their side saying he would be powerful. I'm not sure that's happening.

SINGLETON: God bless him.

COLLINS: But, Shermichael, on this, you know, the other thing as being -- as someone who's covered Trump for eight years, there are very often people who are very important and prominent in Trump's orbit that sometimes have a falling out with him if they do disagree over something.

SINGLETON: It happens. I've been there.

COLLINS: And so I think that is a question of what that looks like if that happens with someone as powerful and influential as Elon Musk is.

SINGLETON: Well, look, I'm looking at it from this perspective. Elon Musk is an innovative thinker, and I think that's a good thing in terms of approaching a second term of the Trump presidency. He has been given a mandate. There are some very complicated things he's going to have to address for the American people whether it's the economics, economic dislocation. We've seen major technological advancements and the implications for that on work, particularly among men.

Maybe Elon Musk can help advise the former president about making some of the decisions that could be helpful through the legislative process. I'm also looking at the foreign policy issue and maybe having some of those outside individuals that Musk can maybe bring to the president's table could also help as well. So I understand why people may be concerned. I would pause and say give the former president the opportunity to see what the advice is, and how does that advice in a positive aspect maybe help him lead and govern a little differently.

COLLINS: And --

DE BLASIO: I have to agree with Shermichael.

COLLINS: Wow.

SINGLETON: You're agreeing with me.

DE BLASIO: I'm going to agree with you.

COLLINS: Wow.

DE BLASIO: Because I have a --

COLLINS: All right. We can end, I mean, at 8:11 p.m.

DE BLASIO: Yes, that's it. History ended. History ended. I have a huge critique of Elon Musk but I will say on artificial intelligence, he has been a critical voice. He has raised a lot of real concerns about the kind of guardrails that are needed and reforms. So I would agree with the point. I'd actually be happy to see someone like that in the inner circle saying we may need to make some real policy changes.

COLLINS: Yes. And let's not start overstate. I mean, Donald Trump is making these picks. It's not like Elon Musk is deciding but he is having influence obviously. But on these picks overall, S.E., like what has been happening in the last 48 hours is intense jockeying happening in Mar-a-Lago.

CUPP: Right.

COLLINS: Where everyone is trying to get either their word in of who they want picked or whatnot. Mike Pompeo, you know, was the result of that because someone did not want him to be picked and they started showing Trump what he said when he mildly criticized him on the classified docs. They talked about his contracts with Ukrainian entities. And Trump comes out and says, I'm not hiring Mike Pompeo again.

CUPP: Right. I'm not surprised at all. Look, there was a saying during Trump's first term that emerged over and over again, when you found out someone was going to go into the White House, the saying was lawyer up. Lawyer up. There have been no consequences for folks, you know, going in and being in Trump's orbit. And so I think there's a little less fear. And so everyone wants to be -- have this proximity to power. Everyone wants to be in Trump's orbit.

Listen, for Nikki and Mike Pompeo, it's a little special because he has a relationship with both of those two people. They aren't strangers to him. They were both inside already. Mike Pompeo is one thing. Nikki Haley didn't just represent Nikki Haley. She represented a voter who did not want Donald Trump to win. That would be weird to have her in, you know, in the orbit, in the inner circle. I get that even though she would have been my pick. She's representing voters that were deeply, deeply dismayed by Donald Trump.

COLLINS: Yes. And also they would replay her criticism all the time.

CUPP: And they don't need that.

COLLINS: Of what came out calling him unhinged and too old.

CUPP: Yes. Yes. COLLINS: One person who was in the Republican primary, though, Vivek

Ramaswamy, who dropped out and took the opposite route of Nikki Haley was very praised worthy of Donald Trump. Vivek Ramaswamy was asked about whether or not he has a future in a Trump administration, and here's his answer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VIVEK RAMASWAMY (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's a couple great options on the table. I want to have the biggest possible impact on this country. We're not going to sort that out in the press but we're having some --

JONATHAN KARL, ABC NEWS ANCHOR: Secretary of Homeland Security?

RAMASWAMY: We're having some major -- we're having some high-impact discussions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: I don't know.

DE BLASIO: That was subtle.

CUPP: Yes. They're not subtle about it.

DE BLASIO: Well, look, I mean, that's smart of him to not be particularly detailed about it but it's self-promoting as per usual to make himself seen like someone in demand, but I think when we look at this overall picture, here's a very interesting history point with Donald Trump.

[20:15:03]

The folks he brings in end up on the chopping block so often, I hate to make an "Apprentice" analogy, but let's be clear. I mean, we don't have to go to Michael Cohen, just look at Jeff Sessions and look at Barr and look at all these folks who once upon a time were going to be the saviors.

I met with Donald Trump 10 days or so after the election in 2016 and he brings Jeff Sessions into the room, as like a guy who's going to be like core --

COLLINS: Oh, you were in there?

DE BLASIO: Yes. And so --

COLLINS: Go on.

SINGLETON: A little news.

DE BLASIO: So, yes, so the point is the warmth and the connection and then when it's gone, it's really gone. Now in most operations in politics, Republican or Democrat, there is some mutual loyalty. People stick with a team for a long time because the leader is also loyal to their people. That's not so true with Donald Trump. So the interesting reality here is going to be, people who are in vogued today may not be in vogued tomorrow and the chopping block happens.

COLLINS: Well, that's why people like Tom Cotton are taking themselves out of contention in part because, you know, they're eyeing 2028 and they do realize how risky to join --

SINGLETON: And look, it's complicated. But I want to say on the Pompeo and the Nikki Haley thing, I've talked to a lot of people in the former president's orbit, and a lot of conservatives sort of view them as war hawks. We know that Donald Trump has been very skeptical of prolonged expensive military conflicts with us involving ourselves in the interest of other countries. And so a lot of Republican are saying this is a good choice, we applaud this not to add people who we think are going to want to be pro-war.

COLLINS: Yes. We'll see what that looks like.

Everyone, thank you.

Up next we have new details on Trump's swing states as he has now swept all seven battlegrounds. Harry Enten is here to break down that numbers as we have now projected that the president-elect has won Arizona. We are still waiting tonight for key winners in the House and Senate races. A huge battle for the Senate leader is playing out. We're going to tell you the state of that race ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:21:32]

COLLINS: Tonight, Republicans are keeping a close eye on several outstanding House races as they are hoping for a unified control of Washington. Just days after they retook the White House and the Senate, Donald Trump has now officially won Arizona bringing his final electoral college tallied to 312 as he marks another battleground that he lost in 2020 but won in 2024.

CNN's senior data guru Harry Enten is here to take us inside the numbers.

And Harry, obviously with Arizona capturing this, it just solidifies what a strong night Tuesday night was for Donald Trump.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA CORRESPONDENT: What a strong night. You know, there's one way that I think you can sort of get an idea of how strong it was a night for Donald Trump. Let's look at the states where he outperformed in 2020. And guess what? Oops, I pulled it up and then we'll pull it back there. Look at this. It's every single state where he outperformed his 2020 performance.

I went back through the record books, Kaitlan Collins, and I looked at every single election dating back since 1976, when did a party's candidate do better than the prior candidate for that same party did in the last election. It's the first time since Jimmy Carter in 1976 where they outperformed in every single state plus the District of Columbia. That is how wide Donald Trump's win was in this particular year.

But there's another way you can get an idea of how wide Donald Trump's win was in this particular year. Let's take a look. You mentioned, the electoral votes, right? 312, 312. You go back to, let's go all the way back to 2016, how many did Donald Trump get that year? He got 306 if you tally up the states that he won obviously when they actually gathered the electoral college. It was slightly less than that but he won in states containing 306 electoral votes.

The last time a Republican won that many, I have to go all the way back, we have to go all the way back to 1988. We don't have it up here but George H.W. Bush won over 400 electoral votes. So the bottom line is this was an absolutely mammoth win for Donald Trump. The fact is he put in a strong electoral college performance this time around than any Republican since George H.W. Bush.

COLLINS: Which only makes what happened in the Arizona Senate race as we're watching it right now play out even more remarkable because it's still between Kari Lake and Ruben Gallego. Where is it standing as you see it in this moment?

ENTEN: Yes. There's only two races that are uncalled. We'll go to Arizona which is one of those, and what do we see? We see Ruben Gallego up at this particular point. 49.8 percent to 48.1 percent, now we're up to 88 percent of the vote. If you were to ask me a few days ago what you saw was Kari Lake was closing, closing, closing, but Ruben Gallego has actually spread out this lead a little bit more. He's now up by a little bit more than 51,000 votes.

What a difference between Kari Lake at 48.1 percent and Donald Trump in the same state, look at that, if we were in fact -- let's zoom out a little bit, it will put the percentage on, there we go.

COLLINS: Yes.

ENTEN: And she's at 52.5 percent. Look at that. That is just such a difference between the Senate race and the presidential race, and that is something we've seen across the political map where, you know, if were, say, let's go to Wisconsin, right, here's another state where Donald Trump, 49.6 percent, wins the state but you go to the Senate race and what happens, Eric Hovde only at 48.5 percent. We've called that race for Tammy Baldwin.

It's the same story in Michigan as well, right, where Elissa Slotkin winning that race barely by just 0.3 percentage points but again Donald Trump easily won in that state by about 1.5. So bottom line is, you see these Republicans underperforming Donald Trump in these key swing states. The coattails turns out weren't exactly that long.

COLLINS: Yes. It's interesting. I think Mitch McConnell would argue that some of those candidate quality, obviously they put no money in Arizona. But the other Senate races that is still uncalled also is what's happening in Pennsylvania.

[20:25:02] And I saw a lot of Republican senators today on Twitter complaining that Dave McCormick, the Republican candidate in that race, is not going to be able to come to Washington and get briefings starting soon because it hasn't yet been called. Bob Casey, the incumbent Democrat, has not conceded. What is going on in Pennsylvania?

ENTEN: What is going on? So if we go to Pennsylvania, what do we see? We do see that Dave McCormick has a clear lead right here. You know, he's up 49 percent, Bob Casey at 48.4 percent. The lead right now is a little bit over 40,000 votes. What is a few reasons this race hasn't been called yet? Number one, in Pennsylvania, as long as the race is within half a percentage point, it means it's an automatic recount. We're right on the edge of that.

More than that, what do we see? You know, you go down to Philadelphia, right, a slew of Democratic votes. There are still only 92 percent of the vote in there so I think we're waiting for a few more votes and see if that race actually ends up within half a point.

COLLINS: All right. We'll be watching it all closely. Harry Enten, as always, thank you for that.

ENTEN: Thank you.

COLLINS: Up next, he has promised to make the economy great again. The question is how. One of my next guest is going to -- is suggesting that the president-elect could do so by just going to play golf on day one. She'll explain next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:30:29]

COLLINS: Donald Trump won back the White House on a promise to lower prices and he's about to walk into office with low unemployment and a growing economy. But neither of those facts could overcome how voters felt about it when they went to the voting booth on Tuesday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The number one issue in this county is the economy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think inflation, economy, that's the big thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: CNN's exit polls showed about two-thirds of voters felt the way those two voices did, describing the economy as not so good or even poor.

With me now two experts on the topic. CNN economics and political commentator, as well as "Washington Post" opinion columnist, Catherine Rampell, and CNN global economic analyst and "Financial Times" columnist, Rana Faroohar.

It's great to have you both here. Catherine, you are basically making the argument that Trump doesn't

actually have to do anything to lower prices once he is in office. Tell me what you mean by that.

CATHERINE RAMPELL, CNN ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, no one is going to lower prices, to be clear. The best we can hope for is that prices don't continue to grow very much. And we're already there. So yes, I think the very best outcome we can hope for is that Trump does nothing at all. He just goes out and plays golf.

RANA FAROOHAR, CNN GLOBAL ECONOMIC ANALYST: In so many ways.

RAMPELL: You're right. Well, that's also true. But in terms of economic outcomes, you know, the economy is already doing well as you pointed out. Low unemployment, robust GDP growth, inflation has cooled a lot, grocery prices are close to flat year-over-year. They're only up like 1 percent. I know people are still feeling the hangover from price increases that we saw in 2022, 2023. I get why people are frustrated by that.

But in terms of where the economy is now, the economy that Trump is inheriting is quite good. And all of the policies that he has laid out, whether we're talking about global tariffs, mass deportations, politicizing the Fed, huge unfunded tax cuts, all of those things would either be inflationary and-or crash the economy. So just take the win. Do nothing.

COLLINS: So even though he just ran on it being a terrible economy, he's actually inheriting a very -- a pretty good economy when he is going into this. What happens if he does come in? Because it still is a question of his day one pledges if he actually fulfills them and how quickly mass deportations, the tariffs that he's throwing, what would that do and what would the impact on that be for the voters who just said, let's put this guy back in the office because I trust him more on the economy?

FAROOHAR: Yes, I mean, you know, it's just sort of incredible as Catherine just laid out that we've had the best recovery in the rich world, period, in the last three years. So in a way to me the risk is actually he's going to push an already good economy into overheating. And I think you can already see some of the handwriting on the wall for that. So one thing that was very interesting is right after the election, the markets didn't actually believe that he was going to do what he said, which is protect U.S. manufacturing jobs, you know, put tariffs, broad-based tariffs on.

You know, be protectionist in a way that, say, Pennsylvania or, you know, other parts of blue wall wanted to hear. It thought, hey, tax cuts, we're going to go back to the 19th century, you know, it's going to be oligarchs running the economy. It's going to be a free-for-all. We're going to use debt and deficit to bolster asset prices again. So the markets started going up.

We are, Kaitlan, six years overdue for a recession if you discount the COVID V shaped blip. So I am worried that Trump is actually going to push us into potentially a little bit more fraught, you know, there's going to be an M and A boom because he's going to get rid of Lina Khan, he's going to get rid of antitrust policies from the Biden ministration. We're going to get a sugar high briefly but then I think it's very possible you're going to get a market crash at the same time that you've got debt and deficit levels rising.

That could mean, particularly everything else that's going on in the global economy, that you would see U.S. borrowing costs go up a lot. So bad scenario potentially in I would a year and a half to two years.

COLLINS: Well, J.D. Vance likes her. We'll see who wins out in that situation.

FAROOHAR: Yes, doubtful. Doubtful.

COLLINS: He's been someone who has praised her. In that situation, though, you know, that this looks like as Trump is making these pics when it comes to Treasury secretary, maybe SEC chair, I mean, these are ways that he is looking to shape what this is going to look like his second time around. I mean, Steve Mnuchin, his Treasury secretary last time, was actually the longest surviving cabinet member maybe who remained all four years. There were a few others, I think Elaine Chao up until the end almost. But what do you make of that?

RAMPELL: Well, Steve Mnuchin, I disagreed with him on a lot of the things but he was a moderating force. Right? He did --

FAROOHAR: It's all relative.

RAMPELL: Yes, well, for example, Trump kept threatening to fire his own Fed chair, Jerome Powell, when Jerome Powell was either not cutting rates or raising rates.

[20:35:06]

COLLINS: And I think he blamed Mnuchin for picking him because he recommended him.

RAMPELL: Yes. And Mnuchin talked him out of firing him which would have potentially set off a global financial crisis. I mean, the idea of the Fed's independence suddenly becoming no longer credible, that the money supply would be put in the hands of politicians, would be very traumatic for financial markets because we've seen similar outcomes in Venezuela, Argentina, Turkey right now when the central bank is under the control of politicians, you don't have as good inflationary outcomes.

And I will point out that one of Trump's preferred Treasury picks, and we don't know, right, he hasn't announced yet, but one of them, Bessent, is one of the people who would really like to politicize the Fed.

COLLINS: But that's, you know, Scott Bessent, someone who is in the running. What about Trump's pledge, though, you know, no taxes on tips and over time? Those were two very popular policies that he just outflanked Democrats on in the election. FAROOHAR: Well, you know, classic sort of Republicans being good on

messaging, Democrats being good on policy. I mean, it's irrelevant no tax on tips from an economic standpoint. The amount of people at the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum who get tips is about 5 percent so there's not a lot of money that you're talking about. It's not actually going to make a difference in the federal balance sheet.

It's also really not going to make too much of a difference to people's lives because most people that are earning money from tips, you know, in the service sector are making so little money that they're paying almost no tax anyway. So it's just -- it was a meme, it was an economic meme policy I would say rather than something that's real.

COLLINS: Yes. We'll see what it looks like. Thank you both. Great to have you here as we continue to watch that impact.

Also tonight, all eyes are turning to a fierce fight that is happening in the Senate. There's a secret ballot election that is looming in the next few days to determine who is going to replace Mitch McConnell as the Republican majority leader. What President-elect Trump is demanding tonight and their response.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:41:50]

COLLINS: The secret vote on Wednesday to decide who will become the most powerful Republican in the United States Senate is leading to a not-so secret battle that is playing out right before us all tonight over who is going to replace Senator Mitch McConnell as the GOP's leader. The three names that are vying for the coveted jobs, the ones you see here, Senators John Thune, John Cornyn, and Rick Scott.

Whoever gets it could have to follow President-elect Trump's new mandate tonight to fast-track his cabinet nominations but also to block Democrats from appointing any more judges while Joe Biden is in office. Very quickly after Trump made those demands on social media, all three candidates agreed to use recess appointments as a way around Senate approval.

Joining me here tonight is the deputy Washington bureau chief for the Associated Press, Michael Tackett, who is also the author of McConnell's new biography, quote, "The Price of Power."

It's great to have you here. And I want to talk about this book because it is just such a fascinating look at McConnell's role in the Senate but on this race to replace him tonight, you know, you saw Rick Scott quickly coming out almost immediately saying he 100 percent agrees with Trump, he'll do whatever it takes to get his nominations through.

I just wonder, you know, from your perspective, how clear is it that the deference to Trump will be a requirement for whoever it is that takes McConnell's spot here? MICHAEL TACKETT, DEPUTY WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS:

It's starting to become very clear. It's also clear that when you have outside validators like Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson trying to shape the race, that this puts the Senate in a really unusual spot.

As you know, Kaitlan, the Senate prides itself on being an exclusive club, you know, made up of people who are very self-made, who don't really need the validation of other people. And here, you've got outside forces trying to shape an inside election.

COLLINS: Yes. And when you look at that, I mean, it's very clearly working because they're all coming out, they're all saying they agree to this. I'm not sure if anyone would have envisioned that they would have all emphatically, you know, endorsed recess appointments before.

What do you think McConnell makes of what we're seeing playing out tonight on social media?

TACKETT: Well, he certainly believes in the idea of co-equal branches of government and the separation of power. However, I doubt you'll see him say much publicly about this because he knows that if he would, you know, put his thumb on the scale for one candidate or another, it might actually backfire. So I suspect you'll see him stay quiet until the election itself.

COLLINS: Yes. It would almost guarantee that Trump would maybe pick that person. And, you know, I was reading your book, it's full of McConnell very critical of Trump and the state of the Republican Party. He told you at one point the MAGA movement was, quote, "completely wrong." He said Reagan wouldn't recognize the party as it is today.

I wonder in hindsight of Tuesday how that thought shapes out for him.

TACKETT: Well, I don't think he's changed his mind. I think, you know, we're in a position where we're going to see what happens. You know, all the norms that we thought existed obviously have been shattered. He's in a position where he's ceding power that he'd held for 17 years. And so in some ways I think he's relieved because it's a very difficult job. You're often the subject of ridicule. You're rarely the subject of praise. And so he's going to stepping on the sidelines.

[20:45:00]

COLLINS: Yes. And certainly for him, and with Trump demanding about the judicial nominations today saying Democrats, he doesn't want them to be able to confirm any of them over the next, you know, two months until Trump takes office, but obviously McConnell and Trump together pushed through many of their own nominees the same timeframe after Trump lost the 2020 election and includes Judge Aileen Cannon. She was one of those confirmed in this period after Trump had lost, before Biden took office.

Do you think Senate Republicans will follow through on that?

TACKETT: I'm not really sure how they would stop it. They don't really have the numbers to do so and the Democrats were certainly within their rights to do it. As you've noted, both parties did it and the Democrats were the ones that eliminated the filibuster initially from federal judges and then Mitch McConnell did it for the Supreme Court so that's really the state of play.

COLLINS: Yes. Michael Tackett, it's an excellent book on the inner workings and some amazing stories there from McConnell. Thank you very much for your time tonight.

TACKETT: Thank you for having me.

COLLINS: Up next, Ukraine has so far launched its biggest attack on Moscow yet. What this war could look like, a big question tonight, when Trump is back in office. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:50:46]

COLLINS: Ukraine has just launched its biggest attack on Moscow since the start of the war. With the Russian Ministry of Defense saying that a total of 34 drones were launched on Saturday night in the direction of the Russian capital.

Now that attack demonstrates the precarious moment in this war as Donald Trump is preparing to take office. In the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine, Russian forces have been making gains as we've seen there. And as many as 10,000 North Korean troops have now bolstered the Kremlin forces there and American officials are telling us they expect them to enter combat soon.

Meanwhile, this weekend, Ukraine says it launched a drone attack on a Russian chemical plant in the western city of Tula. And stepping into all of this turmoil as we see very critically what is going to happen next is going to be Donald Trump, whose eldest son is offering this message to world leaders.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP JUNIOR, DONALD TRUMP'S SON: Everyone understands that, you know, Daddy is home, and they've got to start behaving accordingly. It's really incredible to watch the world fall in line.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: I'm joined tonight by CNN military analyst and retired Air Force colonel Cedric Leighton.

It's great to have you here, Colonel. I just want to get your lay of the land first on what is happening in Ukraine right now especially with just the 10,000 North Korean forces. It could be even more than that, we've heard from some sources on this. And how you expect, you know, they're looking at this over the next few months before Trump is in office?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, it's great to be with you, Kaitlan. The big thing about the North Koreans is that their presence could expand quite a bit so if you talk about 10,000 now, being basically what we say in theater is somewhere probably near Kursk, in or near the Kursk region, there's a possibility of a total of 100,000 coming in over the course of the next year.

So if that's the case, that could definitely tip the balance in favor of the Russian forces as they maneuver in and around Ukraine and that could definitely make a difference when it comes to the personnel shortages that the Russians are experiencing. It could basically backfill those Russians that are being lost to (INAUDIBLE) neither being wounded or being killed in Ukraine. And it could also of course cement the relationship between North Korea and Russia even further. So this is a major development and it could very much affect the course of the war.

COLLINS: Yes. What's happening on the battleground but also what's happening here in the U.S. when it comes to the politics around supporting Ukraine. And you know, Trump is someone who is never -- he's never visited, you know, Ukraine, Kyiv, during the war or anything like we've seen obviously other world leaders do, and certainly President Biden went obviously as you know as well.

I was there last February talking to Zelenskyy about Trump, and he was saying, you know, he should come and see this from himself to understand really what it's like here.

I wonder how he's viewing this likely right now, knowing that someone who has pledged to end the war in one day is about to take office?

LEIGHTON: I think for President Zelenskyy this is a very challenging moment. It's interesting to note that when President Zelenskyy spoke with President-elect Trump, Trump put Elon Musk on the line, and in some ways that could be a good thing because it allows everybody to, in essence, talk the same language, be at the same moment in time, when they're, you know, when they're discussing this.

So if it that, you know, if it does have benefits for Zelenskyy, it could be that it at least gives Trump a bit of a pause because if he withdraws from Ukraine, withdraws U.S. support from Ukraine, that could in essence show weakness of the U.S. position and I don't think Trump wants to show weakness so this is a dilemma that Trump has. He's got the campaign rhetoric on one side but on the other side he's got the possibility of flagging weakness to the Russian and others around the world.

COLLINS: Yes. It's going to be a fascinating situation to see how he handles it once he does have the Oval Office back in his hands.

Colonel Cedric Leighton, as always, thank you for your expertise.

LEIGHTON: You bet. You bet, Kaitlan.

COLLINS: And as tonight we waiting more hiring picks from the president-elect for his new White House team, we're going to talk to one of the ones from the former time who survived only 11 days, and the old one about potential chaos and what it's like to work inside Donald Trump's West Wing.

[20:55:09]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: We're back on a busy night with new developments as Trump is beginning to select who will staff his second term. Some of whom are familiar faces from his first term. I'm hearing tonight that in the coming days, Donald Trump is expected to announce that he is bringing back Tom Homan.