camerota and john berman. >> good morning. welcome to your "new day." it is friday, november 29th. 8:00 in the east. john berman is still at home digesting. john avlon joins me. >> it takes time. it takes time. he deserves that digesting time. >> president trump is back in florida as of about an hour ago. this is after making his surprise trip to visit u.s. troops in afghanistan. the president did not speak to the press upon his return, but in afghanistan, he announced he is reopening peace negotiations with the taliban less than three months after breaking them off. >> president trump also served troops a holiday meal and spent about 3 1/2 hours in afghanistan. made the trip in the face of unprecedented tensions with senior military officers over his decision to intervene in war crimes cases. joining us now, maggie haberman, white house correspondent from "the new york times," and cnn political analyst. all right. >> cnn has just obtained a statement from the taliban from

a spokesperson there. we've been waiting for this to see how the taliban feels about are reopening these peace negotiations. quote, our policy regarding peace talks is same as it was. if americans want talks will resume from the point where it was stopped. okay. that's interesting because the president was saying, well, if the taliban wants to do it, then that's fine. and the taliban saying, well, if americans want to do it, that's fine. >> the talks were called off not only amid the firestorm about a floated plan to invite the taliban to camp david but because a cease-fire was violated and the taliban refuses to extend any proposal of a cease-fire to the afghan citizens. what does that sound like? >> it sounds like the president made a trip about something else, which was a surprise thanksgiving visit and he announced as he often does that there was some greater thing at work and not everybody was read in on that. it was met by surprise, the reporters traveling with the president.

i think the president wants to notch victories ahead of next november. and i think you have to look at everything through that lens right now. so he is very well aware that the war in afghanistan is this longest engagement that the u.s. has had. that voters are tired of it and he knows that he campaigned in 2016 on a promise of ending that. that's where he's coming from. as we saw, there's not much evidence that talks are actually really resuming or that there's even a framework for anything taking place. >> i think what is so curious about this, much like the announcement of the withdrawal from areas in syria, surprising your military commanders and the pentagon is that a good idea? we've already seen this play out. so around the president, why does this keep happening? >> i would say with syria it was a different situation. with seria, he was on a phone call with erdogan and by all accounts of it, he basically, as one person close to the president put it to me, wasn't strong enough.

some administration officials have tried to insist the president did everything he could there to prevent this incursion into northern syria. we've not seen the transcript but based on what happened and what the president said, there's a lot of reason to doubt that. in this case, i think this was just the kind of thing that the president says. but you're right. that it all becomes of a piece where he is essentially imposing his will on his commanders and catching them off guard. and they then end up doing the same thing any number of trump administration officials have to do which is reverse engineer facts to fit into what he is talking about. i'm not sure, however, this is going to get. now that we've seen that taliban statement, i'm not sure where this goes. we will see. but clearly, he was getting ahead of where things actually were. >> if the president's goal is to get this done by november to fulfill a campaign promise from 2016, the taliban must recognize that and puts him in a position of negotiating from weakness. >> which he doesn't like and will pretend isn't there.

>> let's switch from foreign affairs to domestic. a big week on the impeachment inquiry. things move to the judiciary committee. the white house seems to be embracing a strategy of denial. the white house press secretary saying that there's nothing here. the president has done nothing wrong. the democrats know it. it's an illegal impeachment sham. what are you hearing from within the white house about the president's willingness to lawyer up either for the judiciary committee hearings coming up or the senate trial? >> the senate trial you can expect there's going to be not lawyering up but lawyer engagement. this is all fluid and could change with some assist from the president's team of personal lawyers. in terms of the judiciary committee investigation or inquiry in the house, they're still debating what they want to do in terms of engagement. they don't want to elevate something where there's not a ton of polling and they are watching the polling very carefully indicating that voters' minds have been changed. they don't want to engage in a way that then elevates it.

they were also very frustrated watching the impeachment inquiry testimony where republicans were muddying it up as much as possible in terms of witness testimony that they themselves didn't have a lawyer there. they didn't have anybody from their own actual team and they're weighing that. i suspect we'll know in the next couple of days what's going to happen. >> what's been the aftermath to your reporting that the president, of course, knew about the whistle-blower complaint by the time that he started denying it? and the congressional investigation and so it just -- all the narratives the republicans had hung their hats on in terms of, couldn't have been a quid pro quo if the president didn't know and if nobody on the other end knew. so now what? what are they saying now? >> it's now the same thing. nothing really has changed. the response that i heard from folks around the president to our reporting was, look, this is an unprecedented situation. of course you had the white house counsel briefing his client. the client is the president. this is an unprecedented situation and so this is a

complaint about the client. and so that -- the client who controls all kinds of responses within the white house. so that creates its own layer. but i think alisyn, you'll see the same thing from the white house we've seen before which is to basically ignore that detail. focus on the witness testimony that they want to try to poke holes in like from ambassador sondland and see where that goes. >> and where does that leave the members of the administration like ambassador sondland who gave testimony that was not favorable to the president? where is currently the president's status with rudy giuliani? he has stood by him. normally loyalty is a one-way street. so far that hasn't been true though there was a bit of daylight in an interview late last week. >> unlike michael cohen who was at a bit of a weak hand with this president, rudy giuliani has a much stronger hand. number one, it's really hard to basically suggest that rudy giuliani was just off doing this on his own. we've seen the president start to try that, but he hasn't done it to the extent that, frankly, i and a bunch of other folks

thought he might at this point. you also have the transcript of the phone call between the president and the president of ukraine. and that just, i think, changes the calculation in terms of what president trump is able to do in explaining away these actions. look, i think if rudy giuliani presents a real threat, but that would mean that he's under serious investigation himself. we know the sdny is looking at him. or if rudy giuliani is about to turn on the president, which, remember, was when the president separated from michael cohen last year. it was when it became clear that michael cohen was going to say things unfavorable to president trump. i think that would be the point at which you see a break. i think they do not want that unless that presents itself. >> i think the giuliani thing is so fascinating because giuliani is complicated, obviously, because he was drumming up business for himself over there. and the president said as much. the president has begun alluding to that. i don't know why rudy giuliani went there. i know he has a lot of business dealings over in ukraine.

true. >> that helps him to say. if you are arguing that giuliani may have been out there operating on his own and not for me. and the fact he had all of these other potential pieces of client work with ukraine government officials helps him. >> for sure. so i'm just saying it gets complicated because if rudy doesn't want that narrative depicted -- >> might be out of his hands at this point given the wealth of evidence. >> what was the white house response to the decision regarding don mcgahn being forced to testify. they're appealing it. buys them a little more time. there's going to be the appeal hearing. the judge's wording was very tough saying we don't have kings. that's a tough ruling for this white house to confront. >> it's a tough ruling but i think that we tend to look at these decisions that come down from the courts in particular piecemeal in terms of here's an individual decision and here's a statement from a judge. and there are people who are following this who are going to recognize that voters who are going to recognize that that's a pretty damning statement about the administration but what we've seen is the administration is going to ignore it and put

blinders on and just charge ahead toward trying to appeal this decision. and that will be what they focus on if it goes their way. and they are focused on running out the clock on any number of these cases. that's what they're doing with mcgahn. >> it's always interesting to have a little weekend reading. here's what's "the new york times" best seller list. number one "a warning" by anon us in who is supposedly this senior trump official still in the white house. >> we don't know -- >> we don't know anything. >> senior administration official. but in their ask me anything thing they did on reddit, it sounded as though they were acting they are still in the white house. >> so we don't know. they've refused to say whether they're in the white house or not. what was interesting about that ask me anything was they said, yes, i will reveal my identity at some point. the whole conceit in the book is i'm not going to reveal my identity because that will allow the president to focus on me but now it's a good thing to say what your identity is. for a lot of people, for people

who don't like this administration, this book really appeals to them. for people who are looking for people to be vocal and stand up about it, they are looking at witnesses going up to capitol hill, testifying, you know, no masks, with their identities or people like richard spencer, the navy secretary who was fired but he wrote a blistering op-ed this week about the president. >> on the flip side to that, number two is "triggered" by don trump jr. there's been reporting that basically the rnc has been bulk buying the books, inflating its success. that says a lot about the country right now. what do you say about the reporting that some of the sales figures for don trump's book have been inflated by the rnc and others. >> nick confisore, my colleague did a look at the groups. maybe nine of them have purchased in bulk copies of the book "triggered." >> i think it adds up to 16,000 or a little north of 20,000. it's still a pretty big

dichotomy between the number one slot where he is and the number two, so there's no indication those sales are why he is number one. it's obviously going to raise questions for people particularly because the rnc was not honest about it when they were asked about it in the first go around. i think it's an interesting window into how complete the trump takeover of the republican party is. and also donald trump jr. has become a big surrogate for the gop in his right. surrogates have their books sold. it becomes a fund-eration effra effort. there's a synergy. in this case, the trump family. it's fun to watch. >> maggie haberman, thank you as always. all right. the black friday frenzy is here. after record-setting online sales of $4 billion on thanksgiving day alone, americans flocking to stores now in search of holiday bargains. and analysts expect black friday to be one of the biggest shopping days of the season.

cnn's alison kosik live in paramus, new jersey with more. >> red, get set and job. that's how it is at this best buy. a few minutes ago, the doors opened and dozens of people came streaming in looking for those bargains. it's proof that black friday, it is still a thing. but this time it's expanded to a five-day shopping event. it began on thanksgiving day yesterday and continues all the way through monday on cyber-monday. what are people shopping for? tvs, appliances and other electronics. the best place to be is best buy. but one thing that is on shopper's minds are those tariffs. the u.s./china trade war is under way. some tariffs have gone into effect. and although the national retail federation doesn't think it's going to change the way people shop, 79% of those surveyed say as they're shopping, they are

concerned those tariffs will cause pricings to rise. it's why retailers like best buy have taken steps to mitigate the effects of the tariffs. they've negotiated with their vendors, diversified their supply chains and also bought inventory early before the tariffs actually went into effect. that way those products clear customs before those taxes take effect. but not every business is doing as well as best buy in that realm. small businesses are unable in most cases to absorb the higher costs. alisyn and john, back to you. >> alison, we see you're no longer alone in the glorious paramus mall but you had those -- >> i've already picked out what i wanted. >> i hope you grab stuff as discussed. >> thanks, alison. all right. you have to see this. gusty winds did not ground the iconic macy's thanksgiving day balloons, but maybe they should have because handlers struggled. oh, my gosh. to rein in particularly the

nutcracker who went rogue. watch what happens when this gust hits and the nutcracker knocks over a parade marcher. luckily, she is okay. she got back up and soldiered on, john. >> no marchers were injured in the -- by the errant nutcracker but getting knocked down by a nutcracker like that is going to leave a mark. >> also a great story when you go back for your thanksgiving meal. the time i got knocked down by a nutcracker and it went viral. more storms will cause travel trouble for those trying to get home on sunday. chad myers has been keeping an eye on this. what are you seeing? >> or even trying to get home today, alisyn. i-17, i-40 closed across flagstaff. very heavy rainfall in phoenix right now. that's the next storm that will get to the northeast saturday night and sunday. temperatures are good for shopping right now, i guess. if you are going to get out there, i'd rather be in here. here's the heavy rainfall in

phoenix. flash flood warnings all over sun city here. we're going to see the valley of the sun. not see much today. the snow will be north of you into flagstaff. it will move into the four corners. it will move into colorado. great news if you are sitting there on the ski slope waiting to go out today because there's fresh powder coming. unfortunately, there's powder coming to the northeast, too. we're going to watch saturday night and sunday trying to get in and out of the airports in the northeast. and by sunday, 7:00, the snow is everywhere across new england. and it doesn't even leave until monday night. so this is a multiday snow event. if you don't get out, enjoy some more cold turkey because you'll be there awhile. an awful lot of snow across massachusetts, connecticut, rhode island, vermont, new hampshire and maine. some spots will have more than a foot of snow by monday night. guys, enjoy. >> that's some cold turkey there. >> cold turkey used literally. thank you very much, chad.

all right. have taliban peace talks restarted as president trump claims? well, a new statement just obtained by cnn puts that in doubt. we'll discuss, next. what does it take, to call yourself an explorer? traveling to the darkest depths of the ocean. pushing beyond the known horizon. passing through... "hey mom," "can we get fro-yo?", >>"yeah, fro-yo." "yes." the all-new 2020 ford explorer st. with intelligent 4wd and terrain management system. it's the greatest exploration vehicle of all time.

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breaking news. president trump just returned from afghanistan where he surprised u.s. troops on thanksgiving. the president also revealed this during his brief visit. >> the taliban wants to make a deal, and we're meeting with them. we're going to stay until such time as we have a deal or we have total victory. and they want to make a deal very badly. >> but cnn has just obtained a statement from a taliban spokesperson that completely undermines the president's claim. quote, our policy regarding peace talks is the same as it was. if americans want, talks would resume from the point where it was stopped. joining us now, global affairs analyst max boot. max, what do you make of this? the president making a statement during a press conference.

seems to be contradicted in terms of the state of talks by the taliban just this morning. >> well, it's very hard to figure out the president's policy towards negotiations with the taliban because, remember, in september, they were very close to a deal. and then there was an attack that killed a u.s. soldier in afghanistan, and trump pulled the plug. he was even planning to invite the taliban to camp david and decided not to do that. and so the negotiations were off. now he's saying they're on. it's not clear what has changed between september and now. i would hope they'd take this opportunity to change the u.s. negotiating posture because i think there were a couple of major weaknesses with the u.s. envoy negotiating in september. one of them, there was no commitment from the taliban for a cease-fire as a precondition for american drawdown. and, two, there were no direct talks between the taliban and the government of afghanistan. i think it's crucial to do both of those so that you have a successful end to the war rather than just an american withdrawal leading to a possible taliban takeover. >> we just had maggie haberman

on from "the new york times" who has her finger on the pulse of what's being said inside the white house. her thought was the president got out ahead of his skis. >> i can't believe that would happen with this president. >> shocked you. >> this is like one of his twitter moments except it wasn't a twitter. it was actually on live tv. >> this is also war and peace. this is not, you know, photoshopping yourself on top of rocky balboa. you say he put the cart before the horse and the negotiations haven't been where they should be in your mind if we'll have a real end to the conflict. >> it's not clear there's been a change in the negotiations because it could just be trump sounding off without any real progress being made in the talks that khalilzad has been trying to get going again. >> my point is that, sure, trump being trump, i know we say things like that a lot, but this is about international -- this is about war and peace. this is about foreign affairs.

i was telling maggie it reminds me of what happened in syria where suddenly the pentagon has to scramble and commanders on the ground have to scramble acting as though this is real. >> well, this is the real nightmare the pentagon has which is that trump is simply going to go on twitter and announce that he's withdrawing most of the u.s. forces. and a lot of what is driving the negotiations on the part of khalilzad and his team is trying avoid that from happening. trying to negotiate because everybody knows that trump is desperate to pull out. he even said he wants to cut, by 50%, a number of u.s. forces. that does not strengthen the u.s. posture when you're saying we want to leave but please negotiate and make concessions to allow us to leave in a face-saving way. that's not how you successfully negotiate. >> speaking of jefgestures befo important meetings. cnn reporting that the white house is actually cutting the u.s. contribution to nato from 22% of its total budget of $2.5 billion to around 16%, which

would put us on parity with germany. how do you read that going into the meetings given the president's concerns to nato. >> it's mainly a symbolic step because most of what is involved in nato is national defense budgets. and this is a very small part of a contribution to a joint nato fund. but the message it is sending is that trump does not like nato. he thinks that our allies are deadbeats. he wants to reduce the american commitment to the atlantic alliance. the atmospherics are terrible going into this 70th anniversary summit of nato coming right up here. again, trump is signaling animus toward what's been a bedrock of american security since the late 1940s. >> but president trump's supporters, and probably a bunch of other americans and voters, do feel like, why do we get stuck with the bill more than germany. if you're saying it's not a big deal and even the generals we've had on, this is part of their direct funding, their overhead

infrastructure budget. why not pay the same amount as germany. maybe people will applaud president trump for this. >> well, in the past there was -- it was based on the country's share of the global economy. and we're richer than germany. so we were paying more but this doesn't matter see much. what matters is, will trump remain commitmented toina ed te. there's good cause to doubt that. >> before we go. apple, an extraordinary company in many respects, raised a lot of eyebrows. seemed to be getting knuckled under by russia because in their maps in russia, it says that crimea, the province that it essentially took over and is contested in ukraine, apple maps saying it's part of russia. this is part of a larger pattern of companies knuckling under pressure from foreign countries. we've seen it in taiwan and china with regard to airline maps. what do you make of this? >> well, it's unfortunate, but it's also probably inevitable. i think this is -- >> inevitable? >> this is, you know, the challenge that these american

internet companies face doing business in tiranical countries like russia or china. they're basically given a choice which is either they can engage in the kind of propaganda that the regime demands or they can pull out. i would hope in most cases they would actually pull out, but this is, you know, unfortunately, they are having to make real compromises with their values because they are so desperate to continue doing business. and me personally, i don't think it's 24th bworth it but this is difficult decision they have to make. >> a difficult precedent being set. >> max, thank you. >> pleasure. breaking 2020 news. there's turmoil inside senator kamala harris' campaign. what a top aide is telling people on her way out the door. we have that, next. celebrating a successful business trip together is easy,

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okay. breaking 2020 news. is there turmoil in senator kamala harris' presidential campaign? "the new york times" obtained a scathing resignation letter from one of her aides. the aid writes, this is my third presidential campaign, and i have never seen an organization

treat its staff so poorly. with less than 90 days until iowa, we still do not have a real plan to win. our campaign, for the people, is made up of diverse talent which is being squandered by indecision and a lack of leaders who will lead. that is unacceptable. politico reports that staffer has accepted a job with michael bloomberg's presidential campaign. joining us now, political correspondent abby phillip and contributor and democratic strategist aisha moody-mills. that's not good. that is a -- that's the most scathing exit letter i've ever seen from a campaign. abby, what's going on? >> well, this has been, unfortunately, a long time coming for the harris campaign. there's been a lot of dissatisfaction for quite some time. taking a step back. this is happening because the campaign initially said she was moving to iowa in october. that she was going to invest everything in iowa so that, if we got to december, they would be in a good position to really

reinvest, to do tv ads. turns out moving to iowa was not enough. they ended up a month later having to lay off a lot of staff. a lot of staff were in the operations department which kelly ran and they laid off their almost entire new hampshire ground team. so there have been a lot of layoffs. people have been blindsided by the staffing decisions. and on the bottom line really is this feeling of a lack of strategy. that i think is behind all of this. that even while she's moving to iowa, kamala harris is in iowa right now. she spent thanksgiving with a family there. but it's not enough. there's a sense among senior aides in the campaign that they are directionless. that they don't have a plan to win. >> layoffs are devastating in a campaign, especially when people sign up, they move and all of a sudden, they're taken out. but the strategy is the real killer here. kamala harris began the campaign incredibly strong. she was top tier. she had that incredibly powerful first debate against joe biden.

seemed to boomerang on her. now she's at 3% in the latest cnn poll. so is michael bloomberg who just got in the race. what's gone wrong and our friend and colleague, jonathan martin reporting that some of her supporters are suggesting she may need to get out by december to avoid the embarrassment of being on the california ballot super tuesday and losing. >> to the point that abby was making. so much of this is about poor hr. we don't realize -- >> poor hr? >> we don't really think about campaigns as being organizations and having like staffing that requires deep management. and i have been on so many of these. and it's kind of no holds barred, everybody go run and do something. the truth is to have a sophisticated engine that runs you need management and layers of management and communication. and so much of the complaints that i am hearing are that staffers don't understand what's going on and they feel a bit disrespected with regard to the way the campaign is being managed. sure, layoffs are tough. people don't understand strategy because it's not being communicated. people don't know who they're

reporting to and taking orders from. we're not sure if maya harris, her sister, is the one calling the shots on strategy or if it's the campaign manager calling the shots on strategy. who are we to be deferring to. if you look at really successful presidentials like the obama campaign and even the hillary campaign which was quite an engine, there are layers of actual hr management that are put in place to deal with the staffing and the infrastructure and to connect with the people working on the teams. >> you aren't blaming the candidate. you don't see this as any reason to blame the candidate? >> it's not fair. i wouldn't say i know enough to blame the candidate, but the struct surbroken which is why you get a resignation letter like this. >> there was one quote in this excellent times piece from a former aide to harris who said it's hard to make the case to the american public that you want to run the country if you can't run a campaign. and so there is -- there's an element of that. that's true. but i do also think the underlying problem with her standing in the polls is lack of

focus on message. they've really struggled to settle on what they want her campaign to be about. and this middle lane that she has tried to be in is now extremely crowded. you have pete buttigieg rising in iowa. taking a lead in our last poll in that state and then you have people like michael bloomberg, also a moderate candidate, jumping in the race. all of that putting pressure on kamala harris to really clarify what she's running and why she's running. >> on paper, she's triangulated between the pete buttigiegs and elizabeth warrens but it hasn't translated to actual support. she's lost so much support. let me ask you about the entry of kelly into the bloomberg campaign. bloomberg got in a week ago and he's already at the same number kamala harris is at who has been in for months. >> i don't think that you can actually buy voters and buy constituents. and i keep repeating that because at the end of the day, there are so many people,

billionaires, millionaires who say i'm going to throw up all these ads on the air and that's going to get you to maybe 5% or so. at the understand of the day it's about voters turning out and constituents on the ground. how many are going to carry a banner for you and get their friends to come to the polls. i'm not convinced that just because you put up ads it's going to happen. it doesn't mean much to me that bloomberg has 3% and kamala has 3%. it will be interesting to see who has the turnout engine on the ground that gets people to the polls rather than folks who say i have an opinion. yeah, i like you, when you're doing a survey. >> speaking of pete buttigieg. as we were not. you know, he is struggling to win over black voters. and so at the latest democratic debate, he basically said as a gay man, he can relate to a feeling of being marginalized and discriminated against. maybe i should be asking aisha since she's already -- what's wrong with that? why can't he relate to being

marginalized? >> i'm probably the most senior african-american woman to lead the -- to be a leader in the gay rights movement. i gave pete buttigieg his first national platform when i was the head of the victory fund to come out and speak to the community. so i have a great appreciation and fondness for him. the challenge with this oppression olympics, though, is, one, that it pits communities against each other. the reality, though is that as a white man in america of privilege, pete buttigieg has not felt the same type of discrimination just walking around as african-americans. he was able to go to the best schools, come from a privileged family, end up at harvard, become mayor, go into the navy, doing all of those things to build himself as a closeted man and he could do that because he walks through the world being white, right? so i think that african-americans get frustrated with that comparison because it's not the same. i show up as a black woman. i'm a black woman. you don't doe knknow that i'm a lesbian until i tell you, right? he is trying to dial that back.

>> he's really trying to figure this message out, trying to find a way to connect on this issue of -- and make the issue of his sexuality not a liability. but rather something that he could use to connect with voters. but, obviously, it's a struggle and difficult. >> and the senior most member -- african-american member of this town endorsed joe biden last week. >> longtime antagonist. >> all right. up next, a desperate dash at an ohio wildlife park. this is heartbreaking. more on these exotic animals trying to flee the flames, next. s like this three-piece diamond set, under one-hundred dollars or this diamond ring, under two-thousand dollars every best gift ever... begins with kay. ( ♪ ) only tylenol® rapid release gels have laser drilled holes. they release medicine fast, for fast pain relief.

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a truly grim scene at an african safari wildlife park in ohio. ten animals died after a barn they were housed in caught fire. brin gingras joins us with the details. >> there were a few animals that did survive. that, according to a police officer who was on scene shortly after this fire broke out at the african safari wildlife park near toledo. this is so heartbreaking. it's a few giraffes running around in circles. the building behind them engulfed in flames. neighbors reported hearing screeching from the animals coming from this park. and that same officer tells cnn the giraffe was finally found shelter in a nearby pond and was rescued. people on scene were also able to rescue a zebra that was outside that barn but hiding under an overhang. ten animals, though, lost in this fire which overtook a heated barn where they were housed for the night to keep them warm. three of them giraffes. three red river hogs, three

bongos and one springbok. they said we are grateful that our staff is safe and no one was injured, but the loss of the wildlife that we care for every day is tragic for our team members and those who love these animals. the cause of this fire is under investigation. a first responder reports hearing two explosions and it's possible it was electrical because there were also reports of lights flickering before this fire broke out. this park boasts 300 wildlife animals and really allows visitors to drive through and feed them. it will be closed today so authorities, including the ohio state fire marshal can really get to the bottom of this. >> brynn, thank you. that video is just horrible. thank you very much. so the death of a parent is a life-long trauma for children. after losing her dad when she was 14, one of this year's top ten cnn heroes struggled with depression into her late 20s. mary robinson finally got help. for nearly two decades now she's

dedicated herself to making sure other children do not spend years with unresolved grief the way she did. >> my name is bella, and my dad died. >> kids in grief are kids at risk. >> my mom died. >> time does not heal all wounds. time helps, but it's what you do with that time. and what you need to do is mourn. >> when you hear other people's stories, it kind of brings comfort. >> that's why a place like imagine exists to give children a place to mourn their loss and find out they're not alone. >> mary has provided free year-round help to more than 700 grieving families. go to cnn heroes.com to vote for her or any of your favorite top ten heroes. so, should you buy those gifts today on black friday? or wait until cyber-monday? well, we'll start talking shopping strategy. is there a difference and all the best deals. >> why not both? >> that's up next. when in doubt, do both. drivers just wont put their phones down.

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well you remember what happened last year. you can't bring a backup thanksgiving to my sister's house. it's not like we're going to walk in with it. we'll bring it in as we need it. ...phase it in. phase it in? yeah, phase it in. black friday shoppers are out in full force right now. look at this. from around the country. shoppers stood in line to get the first crack at sales. online sales for thanksgiving are expected to reach a record $4.4 billion. nearly half of those came from buyers on their smart phones. joining us to explain all of this, we have the chief research officer for h squared research. >> thanks for having me. >> $4 billion. but why were they shopping yesterday? aren't you supposed to wait until black friday? did they get bad deals yesterday? >> shopping online has been so easy in the last couple years. and especially this season.

so all of these retailers have spent so much capital expenditure making sure that if we don't want to talk to our family, we can just go on our smartphones and do some shopping and pretend we're listening to that random story that uncle bob was talking about. >> this is a coping mechanism. >> it's a coping mechanism and retailers are benefiting from that. >> 47% of yesterday's $4.4 billion came on people's cell phones. >> exactly. because you have your cell phone with you and because infrastructure is so easy now, we can be shopping while we're walking around on the street, at dinner, in bed. it doesn't matter. retailers are capitalizing on that. >> let's see the deals that you have sussed out for everyone of the best deals. let's start with the headphones. the beats headphones. >> what's really interesting is that the best -- people are really kcoveting the apple ipod pro headphones so they'll not

really go on sale but the beats are discounted $150. they're originally, i'm going to look at my notes here. originally 199 -- sorry. they're on sale for $199. originally $234. so 150 markdown. if you can't get the ipod pro headphones that will not be available for another couple of months, go with these ones. >> next, the merch from frozen 2. >> you know, kids of a certain age. >> my kids are 1 and i'm sure that they are going to be on the bandwagon of frozen 2. this is a very big deal. for toys, you are seeing discounts between 30% to 60%. on the older stuff it's around 60%. on the newer stuff it's 30%. if you go on disney.com, right, you are seeing discounts of around 40%. so this is a castle here. it's call the arendale castle play set. it's $139.

there's free shipping, and there's also a discount code. so you're layering on your discounts. it's not just this discount that they're providing you for black friday. you go and get the free shipping and add in the discount code. >> these next deals should have a caution with them. a warning with them. so the first one is this vacuum cleaner. so it's regularly $299 but you can get it for $199. the next one is this slow cooker that's regularly $99.95 for $64.95. are you really supposed to be giving a vacuum cleaner as a gift? >> seems like sending a message that's -- >> seems like a message. >> here's the thing. we go through vacuum cleaners like crazy. so i feel like these sort of instapot presents and vacuum cleaners, these are out of necessity. some of the best deals i've actually seen are those things for your home. that you wouldn't probably want to gift but you really kind of need them. there was another gift that i saw that we don't have the picture for, but a printer.

who really wants a printer underneath the christmas tree or for hanukkah but it was discounted up to 60%. if you need the things for your home. >> self-gifting is better. >> i do know a husband who gave a wife a vacuum cleaner and they're no longer married. that's all i'm saying. >> was it a dyson, though? if i got a dyson, i'd still say married. >> thank you. >> thanks very much for walking us through all of that. great to see you. all right. the good stuff. that's next. this holiday season

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stuff." >> happy thanksgiving! >> the kindness of strangers on full display in pennsylvania. this group of people responding to a viewer's call at a local tv station on thanksgiving eve. >> i don't want no food. how about some friends. >> and what followed was hundreds of other viewers reaching out asking how they could find that man carl brown. then the call went out on social media for people to meet in a park on thanksgiving morning and surprise him. mission accomplished. >> i just could not believe that that many people did have open hearts. that cared. >> we hope you enjoy them. >> happy thanksgiving. >> carl quickly went from having no plans and no one to spend the holiday with to having more invitations than he knew what to do with. so get in line. carl is already booked for christmas eve and new year's. >> i call valentine's day. >> that is so wonderful, john. >> that is great.

>> people are wonderful sometimes. >> how about that? >> that is a beautiful story. >> that's what we like. that's what makes america great. >> john, thanks for being here. great to work with you. >> absolutely. any time. >> have a great weekend. happy thanksgiving and black friday, everybody. newsroom with ana cabrera starts right now. happy friday. welcome to this special edition of cnn newsroom. i'm ana cabrera. jim and poppy have the day off. it's black friday. the rush is on with shoppers rushing for deals. right behind them, this. dangerous winter weather. a mix of rain and wind will impact millions. we'll show you where and what to watch out for. first, this morning, president trump is back at mar-a-lago after a surprise thanksgiving trip to afghanistan. it was his first trip there, and it sparked a second chance at peace talks with the taliban months after they were scrapped