>> "cnn newsroom" with brianna keilar starts right now. hi there and welcome to "cnn newsroom." thank you so much for joining me. i'm brianna keilar. and the first u.s. senator to back donald trump for president is on his way to donald trump's cabinet. jeff sessions, nominee for attorney general. one of three major hires the transition team announced this morning. retired army general michael flynn will be trump's national security adviser. having advised trump throughout his campaign and campaigning forcefully for donald trump himself. congressman mike pompeo of kansas, trump's choice for cia director. you'll hear much more about these men ahead, but first here's the transition over president and vice president-elect showing up at

trump tower. >> a great number of men and women, great qualifications come forward to serve this new administration and i'm just humbled to be a part of it. our agency teams have gown arrive gun begun to arrive this morning and what will move this country forward. >> bring in sunlen serfaty. sunlen, a lot of interesting picks today. a lot of movement at trump tower? >> reporter: right. a lot of comings and goings and donald trump will hold a two-hour meeting with his transition team here to really talk about some of his picks. not only the ones made today but reflections on the many, many interviews he's held throughout the week. trump tower really has been a hotbed of activity all week and he is heading into important meetings coming up as well. a leader today, he sits down

with governor mike huckabee, someone whose name is offered as a potential secretary of commerce, potential secretary for hhs, health and human services. they'll sit down later today and going into the weekend, of course, a big meeting scheduled with mitt romney. sitting down, and in bedminister, new jersey, where donald trump has a golf course and hearing from aides, his name considered for secretary of state. a lot of interesting meetings. picks today you noted, but many, many more to come. brianna? >> and sunlen, we're still seeing no picks for defense secretary, secretary of state, as you mentioned. romney is a possibility. i think that made a lot of people raise their eyebrows. donald trump has a busy weekend ahead, though. what is he doing besides meeting with mitt romney? >> reporter: we know according to aides that it seems it's going to be a breakneck pace of schedule. he'll hold numerous meetings not only people within hi transition

people but tpotentially picks fr cabinet positions, people he wants to do final interviews with and sitting down with his transition stach ff and looking forward 20 the week ahead. more cabinet picks, not sure in the order, and then going on sort of a victory lap, so to speak. likely a tour in some of the states he flipped from blue to red, thanking americans to s fo victory. >> talking more about the alabama senator likely to become the nation's highest law enforcement officer and for that we turn to cnn justice correspondent evan perez. 30 years ago, what everyone's really talking about today, evan. whenever jeff sessions name comes up, this is something i think has really haunted him now for decades. before he was senator, he was nominated in the '80s for a federal judgeship by ronald reagan.

he didn't get it, and that was in part because of allegations of racism and something that has really stuck with him over the years. >> it really has, brianna. look, with jeff sessions you know what you're going to get. he's been in the senate 20 years. he's one of the most conservative members of congress, and represents, obviously, a conservative state in alabama. i will say this -- 1986 hearings in which he was rejected for the judgeship he was nominated by ronald reagan, by president ronald reagan, that really has stuck with him and it's almost become shorthanded. a bit caricatured what exactly happened. i think there's a lot more to that. certainly we'll hear a lot more about those hearings and some of the people who testified. some of them i think now are coming forward and saying things they really said, they didn't say back in 1986. for example, we know some of them testified that he said racist things, but at the time they said actually they didn't

view him as a racist, viewed as an honorable man. we'll hear a lot more about that. we know as head of the justice department she going to he is g oversee immigration laws. strong views about immigration and illegal imgreat lakes. an interesting part of the discussion as far as his confirmation is concerned and also in 2009 when the senate, when congress decided to expand hate crime laws to cover gays and lesbians, he voted against that. he said he did not view gays and lesbians to be suffering from the same type of discrimination as african-americans did, when hate crimes laws were first passed. so a lot of things that we will be talking about with jeff sessions. obviously, the fact he's been in the senate for 20 years. he's got a big body of support there. not only amongst conservatives but probably some democrats will vote for him as much as donald trump seays he wants to drain te

swamp, brianna, you know, feel in washington, especially capitol hill, they take wear ca each other and we expect him to be confirmed by the republican-controlled senate. >> and voted to confirm eric holder, very controversial on the other side. evan perez, thank you very much for that. i want to talk about this. so much going on. cnn political analyst and national reporter for rekalil politics rebecca burr and chief correspondent for politico. talk about jeff sessions and talk about some of what we heard evan say, but can we first talk about something so many people are wondering, because you had donald trump during that one debate saying, you would be in jail, when hillary clinton said, thank goodness you're not in charge of laws in this country, and he said, you would be in jail. it was a quip, but a lot of people wondered, is he going to do something? have an investigation? something, glen that falls under the per view of jeff sessions, who's raised questions about

whether she's corrupt. what do you think? >> a really interesting question. obviously, lock her up was one of the big lines in his rallies and raised eyebrows joining in the audience and saying, "lock her up." lo and behold in his "60 minutes" interview, apoirpointia special prosecutor and pursuing the case wasn't going to be a priority. this entire matter was about e-mails, compromising national security. we saw reports out he was considering conversations with international leaders over unsecured phone lines without briefings from the state department. >> maybe he opens himself up to that as well. i wonder, today we heard loretta lynch, outgoing a.g. who made this announcement, talking how the feds are looking at alleged hate crimes and harassment arising from the election. the very end of president obama's tenure. where do we go from here with that looking at potentially jeff sessions taking over for loretta

lynch? >> already hearing he is racist, pointing to the fight over his appointment as a federal judge. much earlier in his career, but some of the concerns that halted that nomination were over things he had said that people thought were racist, and also he has voepted against the voting rights act and so there are fundamental concerns among democrats about jeff sessions and sort of how he would tackle some of these issues, racial issues. issues of hate crimes. as attorney general, and whether he would really take a strong stance against them. but i think this also highlights broader concerns about the trump administration. we've heard concerns from democrats about steve bannon working in a senior position in the white house. concerns that so far the only people he has named to roles in his administration are nominated for cabinet positions have been white men. i think a lot of people because of the sort of tension that this election has produced are

looking for any signs from the trump administration they are going to really work to unify the country, and work to represent all americans, and all of their interests. >> retired general flynn looks like he's in agency the national security adviser. such an interesting position, because susan rice has it now. that's someone who was discussed for being defense secretary and yet after what she said about benghazi, pretty clear she would struggle to be confirmed. the nsa does not have to be confirmed, and yet, you know, they have the votes in the senate and yet he's controversial enough maybe it makes more sense for him to be in this position that doesn't need to be confirmed? >> yeah. they were talking, i should say, when the clinton campaign thought they were going to win thinking of putting jake sullivan, policy adviser in that role precisely, involved in the ema-mail stuff and a non-confirmable position. you covered the nsa. more than anything else it's

about what the president gets to see in terms of facts on the ground. flynn had a reputation in his previous job what were called flynn facts. carefully picked out pieces, cherry picked pieces of information that supported his particular world view. again, you have a guy, no other way to say it, that has an islam foeb vi foeb islamophobic vuft world. he has differentiated between violent islam and the religion itself. whether or not confirmed he'll be a railing point for protest. >> call it is a political ideology rather than a religion which is something that's important to point out. i do want to talk about pompeo and how he's going to be the pick for cia director. this is someone that, you know, you've covered the hill. you know him. he came in in 2010 and you were up covering congress while he was there. so tell us a little bit about him. i know he's known as a very

smart guy, but what are people saying about this as a pick? >> right. this is actually a really reassuring pick for a lot of what we would consider more traditional republicans, republican leaders who maybe have been a little skeptical of donald trump and some of the people he might pick to serve in his administration. pompeo is both someone who has military experience. he went to west point. was first in his class at west point and also an intellectual. went to harvard law school, edit theed "harvard law review," he's someone who's accomplished in a broad range of area and also serves on the intel committee. so he has experience, and that, evan mcmullin, as we know, ran against donald trump. he was so -- >> a run for his money. >> skeptical of his candidacy. exactly. so evan mcmullin tweeted earlier he's very heartened by this pick of pompeo who also served in the

cia himself. something that i think will give republicans a lot of confidence, especially someone like flynn picked as national security advisers who some people are a little more skeptical of. >> in light of this pick, donald trump has expressed so much criticism over the intelligence community. the generals, too, but the insell communitinsetel community. what does this tell us what his plans are as what he campaigned on actually doing? >> who knows? he is essentially a black box on this stuff, or orange box, whatever you want to call it. the issue here is a lot of the people he is appointing to these positions have world views that are somewhat at variance to his. i mean, pompeo i think would be considered to be a little more hawkish than trump is. i mean, trump essentially ran on barack obama's position on iraq. even though there was some controversy. >> to the left of hillary clinton on foreign policy. >> absolutely. another issue we'll deal with, particularly with flanigan,

funky connections with russia. a paid contributor on r.t. he had private -- >> russian television. >> funky business dealings with turkey. the question here is, is this trump's genius or just happenstance we seem to get a hot pick and a cold pick? bannon in the white house, priebus in the white house and now have flynn and pompeo? a lot of nervous republicans would be very happy if you kind of had this one-two punch keep re-appearing. >> something for everybody. you know? >> exactly. >> rebecca burr, glenn thrush, thank you very much. we mentioned, retired army general michael flynn is donald trump's top choice for national security adviser with several tours of duty on the battlefield. his experience cannot be disputed. it's his management style and history of controversial remarks that's really in question here. talking more about that, next.

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it's his style and whether he's the right man in temperament, teamwork and management to be at the president's side in such an important position in the country's most critical times. here the pentagon correspondent barbara starr. >> this was not an election. this was a revolution. >> reporter: this is retired lieutenant general mike flynn, a one-time army intelligence officer highways loyalty to donald trump will likely catapult him to a high-level job. >> -- since bringing on george whaug he decided not to be a king. >> reporter: flynn is controversial in hill tear circles after several jobs dealing with middle east terrorism. in 2014 he was pushed out as head of the pentagon's defense intelligence agency. one official who served with flynn at the time tells cnn there were ongoing tensions. flynn wanted more authority. >> wow.

>> reporter: after forced retirement, flynn appeared to change. two senior military officers who served with him tell cnn. they describe a somewhat bitter officer who adamantly believes president obama isn't paying enough attention to the isis threat. >> we must regain our ability to truly crush our enemies! >> reporter: the question now -- can he operate on a global scale? >> he's going to have to expand his skillset after a 30-plus year career of dealing primarily in the military element of national security. >> reporter: flynn will have to work well with the rest of the trump team. >> there's a whole lot of pieces of input that come in to decision-making rather than just the one you're providing. >> reporter: ultimately, the new commander in chief will still set the tone in national security. but just what is trump still trying to tell the pentagon? >> we have great generals.

>> reporter: you said you knew more that the generals about isis? >> to be honest, probably do, because look at job they've dub. look at the job they've done. they haven't done the job. >> barbara starr at the pentagon for us. and a daily beast contributor you know general flynn personally, know him really well here, and i have so much to talk to you about and had to whittle it down. i want to first start with one of the reasons donald trump would have seen him as such an ally. we know, of course, a lot of people in the republican national securities fear rejected donald trump and flynn was one of the few who didn't, but also someone who bring as tremendous amount of experience to this. >> general flynn helped build the machine that targeted al qaeda after 9/11. he was part of the elite special operations forces that fused together not just u.s. special operations but brought in the cia, the nsa, on the ground in

iraq, so that they all worked together. no rice bull fights between them, to gather the intelligence they had and they built an efficient hunting machine to go after militants. i think what you might be going to see in this white house is a very tactical white house. people who know him well, even people like general mike hayden, former head of the cia saying this morning he was always brilliant as a tactician, at going after the enemy. it's looking at the bigger picture that he hasn't had as much experience doing. >> and so let's speak -- that's the positive he brings. the negatives. he was pushed out, really, by president obama and those around him. why was that? and part of it was his management style, give us a sense of what happened there. >> for a couple of reasons. trying to do groundbreaking things at the defense intelligence agency, like bringing together the operators and analysts. it's something that they later did at the cia and at the nsa. he was ahead of his time, but

ran into road blocks with that. it's his position, however, on the muslim community that has really surprised a lot of his friends in the special operations community. they're all like, love mike. he's the most loyal froeiend to have but we don't know where he's coming from on this labeling of all of islam as a political ideology rather than he was part of a team that used scalpel-like precision to try to get the islamic militants as oppose to the wider islamic community. that you need your friends in that world and many people in the world part of the effort to hunt terrorists who risked their lives for americans and risked their lives for special operators. that leaves some of mike flynn's former comrades going, where did this extremist viewpoint come from? >> they're puzzled. talks about islam as a political

ideology, nos a religion and tweeted, fear of muslims is rational. and obviously wants people as you said this here, please forward this to utter the truth fears no questions. it's like he doesn't make a distinction between islam and radical islam. see what does that mean for his position where he will be advising the president, president trump? >> that's a very popular viewpoint throughout followers of the trump campaign. so i don't think he's going to get a lot of pushback. what you could see as a matter of policy coming out of this point of view is guantanamo will stay open. the u.s. will get back into hunting terrorists, bringing them back. they may bring back something like enhanced interrogation techniques. which president obama has called torture. you will see a return to a stepped up covert war. probably starting in places like syria. in iraq, as much as the iraqi

government allows it, but across the wider world, including statements coming from the white house that some of our arab, muslim and gulf allies will really have trouble. >> and before i let you go, i need to ask you something i've been hearing people on the left so concerned about. the idea there would be a muslim registry? it's not that you at this point in time are hearing donald trump or those close to him say, oh, we're definitely going to do this. the issue is, they're not saying we're not going to do this. that is the concern. a registry of american muslims. tell us in light of especially the opinions of general flynn what is the prognosis on that? >> well, i think what you could see is a stepped up list, the one held at the national counterterrorism center, where maybe you'd put someone in a lower category, they're going to put more people in a higher category. i can hope as an american that that's as far as it's going to go, but some of flynn's

supporters talked about taking profiling to another level and considering anyone in the muslim community a suspect. >> we will see. that's the thing. so many unanswered questions. we don't know how it will move forward. kim dozier, appreciate you being with us. the trump transition team announced the nomination of kansas congressman mike pompeo as director of the cia. just ahead, learning more about his background, talk about his reputation and why his appointment is taking some people by surprise. my budget used to be a real downer. especially around the holidays. but thanks to fingerhut.com, we can shop over 700,000 items from brands like samsung, kitchenaid and lego. all with low monthly payments. ♪

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to lead the cia in his new administration. pompeo is already on the house select intelligence committee put out this statement a short time ago saying he was ready to take on this role saying "i am honored and humbled to accept the president-elect's nomination to lead the central intelligence agency. this was a difficult decision but to lead the warriors who labor tirelessly to keep this nation and safe is a call to service i cannot ignore." >> he quickly gained the trust of john boehner, house speaker at the time appointed him to the house commerce and intelligence committee, two very influential posts and typically more senior members. got that and added to the

benghazi committee investigating the 2012 attack. one thing, he's a lot more conservative than some of his members and on the benghazi committee did not like the direction the republican-led committee was going or the findings it came up with and issued a separate report along with congressman jim jordan laying the blame on the benghazi attacks on hillary clinton, on barack obama, and the rest of the obama administration. now, his views are much in line with donald trump on issues about immigration. he wants to expand domestic surveillance, like donald trump has called on the campaign trail, but does not necessaryly have that much of a personal relationship with donald trump. in fact, he supported marco rubio in the primaries. >> and even when he endorsed donald trump, or said he would support him, it seemed kind of indirect from a spokesman. seemed luke warm. >> he wasn't on the stump campaigning for him or anything like that. unlike the mike flynn and jeff sessions appointments, donald

trump loyalists, pompeo not so much but did, told by a source close to pompeo, did rely on him for national security advice. trump team did, calling him during the course of the campaign and a surrogate for mike pence during the vice presidential debates. tie there's. but donald trump seemed to have trusted instincts he believes mike pompeo given his knowledge on these national security issues, that his tyce are in-line with ddonald trump's vi the world, best suited for the job. >> thank you very much. and not as prominent as other folks put in position. great to get the insight, manu. thank you? >> bringing in mike baker, former cia covert operations officer who runs his own intelligence firm. sir, thank you so much for being with us and talking about this. >> thank you. >> when you heard about this announcement what did you think? what was your initial reaction?

>> well, i think it's a good pick. i guess i should get that out first of all. i think it's a solid pick. he's got an interesting background. militaryio militaryiously, great ready for the military, out of west point. a business background. successful in business and that may sound strange but also important. you're at the top level of the cia and that essentially is a management experience there that i think will play out well. he's obviously been on the intelligence committee. also served on the subcommittee for the cia itself. and so there's a respect, an understanding for the institution. it's interesting in that it's a bit of a surprise that, you know, his name was not floated around as some others were. so his name hadn't surfaced during the speculation obviously that's been rampant ever since the election for this position, but i do think it's a solid position. >> and so a little bit of a surprise there, but solid as you say. >> uh-huh. >> what do you think, mike, about the fact that you had

donald trump expressing so many doubts about the intelligence community? i wonder, how's the intelligence community responding to this pick? and in light of donald trump at times talking about how he essentially wanted to clean house, what does pompeo's position in this job mean for that? >> well, first of all i think, intelligence community personnel, military personnel, are very pragmatic. early on in the election perhaps donald trump wasn't their preferred candidate but particularly in this world, in the world of intel xmuncommunitd intel when the election takes place, what happens, you have a winner, doesn't matter who the winner is. you march forward. now you serve your country, and that's just the mind-set. and so people tend to just get on with it. the agency, the cia, is a very interesting and fascinating institution, i should be fully forward in saying i love the

organization. one of the things that's very good about it is unlike the feature films and beach books sometimes portray, it's haven't non-partisan. doesn't matter. administration comes in, deliver tasking. cia like fbi and others do their job, march on. pompeo will come in and underneath him is the deputy. the deputy tends to come in and be promoted from within the ranks. you have somebody underneath pompeo that will have extensive experience working. perhaps an operations, perhaps in the intelligence side, the intelligence director within the organization, and then you've got the various service line division leaders and leaders all well steeped in the operation's aspects. but the person at the top, the cia director, you know, his job is to liaise primarily between that organization and his superiors. his superiors in this case, d.n.i., important pick coming forward and obviously the white house. >> mike baker, we'll have you

back, because we're going to talk about those other positions coming up here in the future. thank you for your insight there. >> sure. thank you. president-elect trump is meeting with people who supported him and meeting with people who did not, including mitt romney. you might be surprised about that one. what we expect they're discuss this weekend, plus more voices weighing in now as donald trump builds his top security aides. his team. your insurance company

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president-elect's national security team taking shape today. three men all now confirmed as being offered and accepted positions in the new administration. the jobs are attorney general, cia director and national security adviser.

now to our political commentator bill press, supported hillary clinton in this election, and mike shields, former chief of staff are the republican national committee. you also support eed bernie sanders? >> in the primary and then hillary. >> just wanted to point that out. i am fascinated, donald trump having all of these meeting, going thru this transition process is meeting with mitt romney. so outspoken about him. let's talk about that and listen to the back and forth we saw between these gentlemen. here's what we heard -- >> donald trump is a phony. a fraud. >> mitt was a disaster as a candidate. >> he's playing the members of the american public for suckers. >> romney let us all down. a very poor campaigner. >> a free ride to the white house and all we get is a lousy hat. >> romney choked like dog. he choked. he went -- >> his promises are as worthless as a degree from trump university. >> he was begging for my endo e

endorsement. i could have said, mitt, drop it to your niece, he would have dropped to his knees. >> oh, my goodness. you can mash up a lot of theme things between donald trump and who is critical but that might have been the most scathing back and forth i've sooner. in light of that, rumored for secretary of state what do you make of this? >> well, first of all, i have to tell you, i cheered out loud for mitt romney's speech when he gave that speech about donald trump, and he never veered as other people did, once he became the nominee, mitt romney still stayed outside the pack, but i think this proves in the end party trump's truth, and mitt romney is getting together. after all, donald trump will be the next president of the united states. republicans will have the house and senate and white house. mitt romney is ultimately a member of that team. and i think this is a, a hugely significant meeting. even maybe more so than when hillary and barack obama got together, and i'd have to say, if he is able to persuade mitt

romney to join him as secretary of state, it would be a real coup for donald trump. >> what do you think about that? would romney do that? think even if i don't agree with this president, i feel responsibility to do this? what do you think? i think romney said he's interested and this actually, it's country trumping party. i think it's the president-elect putting the country first, and he said from the beginning he wants to bring people together from his election night speech to the press conference with president obama to everything he's done since then. you've seen move after move he is saying i want to bring the country together. to bring one of your staunchest opponents and even having that conversation sessions a huge thing about what kind of man donald trump is and what kind of president he's going to be. >> what does that look like? i understand some people will make the comparison of barack obama and hillary clinton, and, yes, they had their differences and campaigned on them for the iraq war, but i am imagine mitt

romney as secretary of state and can see a moment where he is very much in disagreement fundamentally with donald trump? >> in some ways hillary clinton and barack obama were bigger political opponents. mitt romney wasn't running against donald trump. gave a speech, not going to support him whereas hillary clinton campaigned against him. factions in the party against each other. and so you could see where you put the rhetoric aside and the country first what is looks like they're both doing, at least to have this meeting. it's a good sign for the country and his administration. >> i have to say neither hillary nor barack obama said the things about each other that donald trump and mitt romney have said about each other and during -- when obama was the nominee, hillary was supporting him and campaigning for the nominee. it's a big, huge difference. again, i think if trump is able to bring mitt romney aboard, or even meeting with him, it is positive. for him. for donald trump. he wouldn't be my choice as secretary of state, but i think it's -- i have to point out, mike, this is the exception so

far to the rule in terms of reaching outside his loyal bloc of supporters with steve bannon and jeff sessions and mike flynn and the others. so maybe this is a good trend, but it's the first one. >> can we talk about mike flynn? i think this is so important to discuss, because this is someone who does not need to be confirmed. so there's not the full airing we are going to see with a jeff sessions, for instance. okay. so i want listen to -- or i want to take a look at what the house minority whip steny hoyer said, very much against this. not one of the more liberal democrats certainly on the hill but said it should alarm all americans. in particular serious questions about general flynn's competence and composure. his ongoing lobbying on behalf the turkish government and links to russia. he also said that he fears, says we've learned many lessons since 9/11. one of which not provide our enemies with fodder to fuel anti-american hatred. appoints this individual to a

central position to our national security will do just that. david petraeus warned about this in the spring. wrote and op-ed about this. if, mike flynn is someone who says islam is a political ideology not recognizing it as a religion and seems to, doesn't see a distinction between islam and radical islam. is that something that could actually embolden, say, isis, in its recruiting of, let's say people in the west even? >> well, first of all he's going to be a part of a team. so not the president. donald trump is the president. going to be his policies. he's brought someone into his team advise him on the policies. second thing, bigger picture, a sign the president is serious about the war on terror and going after isis. putting people in place to do exactly what he said he would do in the campaign. win this war and be aggressive and change the policy and failed policies of the last administration going after terrorism. so we're getting into a policy debate about, watch lists,

that's for later. once you get in the administration. he's sending signals he's bringing in tough people he believes in that will help him fight this war. >> this is a very troubling nomination and significant this is one job as you pointed out that does not need senate confirmation. because i'd have to tay michael flynn would not be confirmed, could not be confirmed by the senate. here's a lobbyist for the government of turkey. a guy who went and took a fee, accept add fee from vladimir putin to go to this big dinner in moscow. >> the state-run russian broadcaster? >> right. >> sat next to putin at the dinner. >> right. and this is a guy fired by fellow generals as head of the federal intelligence committee and a hot head. >> not fired. >> he's not another condi rice or susan rice. that job, the way it's developed, the most important member of the national security team you need a calmer, cooler influence. not another hot head like donald

trump, and he is a bigger hot head than donald trump. >> leave it there, gentlemen. i could go on for hours with you. >> let's do it. >> there are differing, certainly, no surprise, differing narratives coming from flynn, coming from people who are opposed to flynn about what he was fired. so just putting that out there as well. bill press, thank you so much for being with us. >> good to see you. >> mike shields, thank you guys so much. president-elect trump made a lot of proms during his campaign. one of them is keeping jobs in america. that promise really translated into votes. now that he won, do manufacturing workers still believe trump is going to save them? you may be surprised by the answer.

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donald trump is facing a storm of criticism amp saying he stopped a ford company from moving to mexico. just got a call from chairman of ford keeping the lincoln plant in kentucky, not mex comexico. i owed it to the great state of kentucky for their confidence in me. the problem, ford was never

planning on moving this plants across border, just shifting production of the limpincoln an that no american jobs were in peril. dnt ca donald trump called out carrier, makes air conditioners moving its indiana plan to mexico. in indianapolis, some think despite the trump victory, it's too late for them. >> reporter: ronald harden and eric cottonham never forget the day it happened. >> devastated. >> reporter: last february the heating and air conditioning company carrier shocked employees at this irndiana plan said in order to stay productive it needed to move the plant. >> move the plant to monterrey,

mexico. >> reporter: 1,400 jobs soon gone. the loss quickly became donald trump's campaign game. >> carrier air conditioners s ss they're leaving the united states, 1,400 because they're going to build in mexico. >> reporter: trump said it wouldn't happen if he were president, part of a way to tap into blue collar discontent. >> it was em times. >> carrier. >> carrier. >> anybody from carrier? >> carrier says they're leaving. >> carrier air conditioner. >> you're tired of seeing carrier leave your state. >> and he knew that that was something that america it was happening, right now. >> reporter: it worked. trump won thanks in large part to working-class votes. now at sully's bar and grill across the street from that carrier plant, some are hoping for trump to keep his promise. >> exactly. exactly. because he made a lot of promises to a lot of people. so -- >> reporter: that's because things here have only gotten worse. we're less than a mile from

carrier and this is where they make bearings. just last month the company announced its moving this facility to mexico. taking ay way ov way over 300 j. even though this man didn't vote tore trump, he's hoping when president, trump will come through. you kmect him to live up to what he said during the campaign? >> my expectations, live up to what he promised. >> reporter: voted for donald trump believing it could save their jobs? >> correct. >> reporter: he voted for trump but his answer surprised me. do you believe donald trump can stop that place from closing? >> i don't believe he's going to stop that one. maybe in the future. you know? nobody knows what the future is. >> reporter: why not that one? why couldn't he stop that one? >> corporate greed. plain and simple. >> reporter: paul role also voted for trump and he does have hope -- sort of. >> i try to be optimistic, but realistic at the same time.

so -- >> reporter: what does that mean? >> he can save at least some of the jobs. because if they -- sense just half the jobs still make more money, all they're after. >> reporter: martin savidge, cnn, indianapolis. thank you so much for watching "newsroom." "wolf" starts right after a quick break. we started shoppingt fingerhut.com. first down! that's because with fingerhut.com we can shop over 700,000 items go to fingerhut.com to get low monthly payments and the credit you deserve. that's a touchdown, buttercup! ♪ ♪ oww! the search for relief often leads... here... here... or here. today, there's a new option. introducing drug-free aleve direct therapy. a tens device with high intensity power that uses technology once only available in doctors' offices. its wireless remote lets you control the intensity. and helps you get back to things like... this... this... or this. and back to being yourself. introducing new aleve direct therapy.

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hello. i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. in washington. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. ub fir up first, the trump transition proves into overdrive. picks to fill key national security positions. nom ainting jeff sessions for attorney general and kansas congressman mike