any amount you can give is helpful. there's no contribution too small to have a real impact on malawi. for joyce and the hundreds of thousands of other kids you have helped in malawi, we can never thank you enough. msnbc's live coverage continues into "the 11th hour." tonight, she may be back. what we are learning now about the job sarah palin might be up for in the new administration. after those chants about draining the swamp at those trump rallies, how are his fellow republicans feeling about the insiders, the millionaires and billionaires the president-elect is bringing in. donald trump says he's getting out of the business, the question tonight, who will run the business while he's busy being president?

"the 11th hour" begins now. good evening, you are looking live at the u.s. capitol building where 50 days from tomorrow donald j. trump will put his hand on a bible and be sworn in as our 45th president of the these united states. today we heard from the president-elect the only way he's been communicating with the american people of late. he said on twitter he will hold a news conference in new york on 15 december alongside his family members to explain how he's going to remove himself from his business to concentrate on the presidency. he said today it is visually important to avoid any conflicts of interest. interesting choice of words. so questions about his business empire remain as do questions about draining the swamp. candidate trump's campaign call and response was about draining the swamp. the cabinet list so far is populated with some billionaires and millionaires, his new pick for treasury secretary, steve mnuchin, spent nearly two decades at goldman sachs. anthony scaramucci, a

billionaire who twice worked at goldman before going to trump's transition team being considered for a top post. political citing multiple sources is also reporting tonight "trump is considering goldman sachs president gary cohn for a senior administration job, possibly director of omb." former breitbart ceo steve bannon also a gold pan sax alum. it was donald trump who famously attacked hillary clinton for her connections to goldman. >> the banks have him. goldman sachs will call "ted, this is what we want this week, make sure you get it." hillary speaks in secret to goldman sachs, sharing a private position then lies to you, the public, with her public position. >> tonight we are learning more about who else could make up the trump cabinet, which brings us to our guests here tonight gop veteran former white house communications director and notably a veteran of the

mccain/palin campaign nicolle wallace is become with us. ali velshi is with us tonight and with us from washington former rnc chairman michael steele and "new york times" political reporter jeremy peters is with us from washington. jeremy, you get the leadoff slot tonight because of what you're hearing and reporting about one sarah palin. what is it? >> well, the sarah palin consideration is very, very serious, brian. you have to remember her ties to trump go well beyond her involvement in the campaign and her endorsement of him in his initial phases. she's very close to steve bannon who you referenced earlier. steve bannon was a political adviser of sarah's. he was a vessel for the populist brand of conservatism he would settle on in trump as a vehicle for the presidency.

so steve here has been very, very crafty and careful about which conservatives he's chosen to latch himself on to and sarah palin is being rewarded likely for her loyalty to steve. >> but jeremy, of all the jobs, v.a. secretary for sarah palin, not a veteran but notably the mother of one. what would be notable as -- for sarah palin as v.a. secretary. >> you're exactly right. she has been the mayor of wasilla, she was the governor of alaska and she did not complete her term. i think if she is indeed nominated -- which is not a done deal, i want to emphasize that, that this is under consideration and donald trump is considering her very closely, there are still other candidates in the mix. but if she were to be nominated it's going to be a huge fight

and remember that senate democrats have their battles to pick here. and i think that on the one hand you have jeff sessions and the attorney general who's going to be a major source of contention on the other hand, if we were were to nominate somebody as divisive as sarah palin, that might be the other battle they choose to pick and it could be a very ugly confirmation fight. >> jeremy, to bring us up to speed at 11:00 eastern time. the list on secretary of state as far as we all know remains down to four -- romney, giuliani, petraeus, corker? >> yes. that is what i'm hearing. i would not be surprised, honestly, at this point if it's neither romney nor rudy giuliani because the baggage that those two have has been litigated over and over on these airwaves and my newspaper, in just about every media outlet there is. i do think that donald trump's best option at this point, at least from what i'm hearing

inside his campaign is that they go with a third way. but it changes hour to hour and he has a lot of good choices. the last i was told, brian, is that they are taking their time, they see no need to rush this and we should not expect a decision this week, maybe not even into next week. >> jeremy, we're always fortunate to have your late live local reporting. especially to start us a off at 11:00. jeremy peters from the "new york times." thanks. >> thank you. >> foreshadowed, that's what i was doing. i foreshadow's nicolle's resume entry, the part about the mccain/palin campaign. your reaction to your former boss -- >> so that video brought me back to the moment when we were all here with chris matthews and chucked to covering her live endorsement of donald trump. jeremy correctly shared with us her deep ties to steve bannon but she was also an important endorser of donald trump at a time when a lot of the good money was on her endorsement

going to ted cruz and iowa is a place where her endorsement mattered so she put her money on donald trump, she came and visited with donald trump when she was wering her own run four years earlier when his sort of central political cause was birtherism and she was the rising political star in that wing of the republican party so their ties run deep. the most interesting thing to me about sarah palin in the cab it? that sarah palin's presence was not requested at donald trump's convention. she was notably not asked to speak in prime time. the excuse given was that alaska was far but sarah palin travels to the east coast for speeches, she travels overseas so i'm not sure that we know exactly how much donald trump is desperate for her to serve in his cabinet or how much this is about paying back a favor. >> well, not just cabinet but v.a. secretary. she would be a first

non-veteran. there's a kaleidoscopic list of women we can name for potential v.a. secretary. are you surprised at this slot? >> not from donald trump whose central sort of world view is about brand and sarah palin's brand is associated with standing up for veterans. she has a son who has publicly grappled with ptsd. she was the vice president nominee on the ticket at the hour her son deployed to eric. she is a known mother of a soldier and now a veteran and she has been active in veterans causes so for donald trump, a man without experience for the job he's about to take, if you look at what he values, it's someone's brand. her brand is not dissociated from veterans 'causes. >> michael steele, former committee chair of the rnc, what's your wince index like these days? [ laughter ] democrats job is to -- they just get sweaty and wince at all of this and this is -- we're 21

days into a new america. but what do you wince at? >> oh, gosh. >> we wince all the time, right, michael? >> it's a perpetual wince. because what i'm wincing at, i think more these days, more than anything else, brian, is this sort of delicate balancing act that donald trump is trying to carry out with the base of this party that gave him 14 million votes in that primary. that propelled this unknown largely unwanted individual for the nomination into the nomination and now into the white house. this concept of draining the swamp, a lot of people are down playing it andover looking it and saying it's not relevant. the base will stay there, these folks understand, they get him but i have this sense that if this goes a little too far, if they look up after the inauguration and they see washington with just a different pair of shoes on a different color tie, a different jacket

but it's the same old stuff, that could hamper those first 100 days so that churns up the fighting we haven't finished fighting about yet. all the stuff beneath the surface comes back and it becomes a nightmare to establish the party as a governing party. >> that brings us to ali velshi. huge fan. great to have you on this team. goldman sachs and its role in american contemporary political history. what should we know? >> it's coming back but you recall matt tiabi wrote in "rolling stone" that was is a giant squid wrapped around the face of humanity. >> he does have a way with words. >> he does. bob rubin was bill clinton's treasury secretary, henry paulson was george w. bush's. now we have a bunch of goldman

people. you mentioned anthony scaramucci started his career there. you have steve manchin, he's left. you mentioned bannon it's a long tradition back to the 1920s that goldman sachs and investment banks that when you get successful you give service to government. goldman was the gold standard of investment banks, during the financial crisis it for for good reason, gained a bad reputation. so the problem with steve mnuchin and wilbur ross as treasury secretary and commerce secretary respectively is that they're millionaires and billionaires so it's washington with a nicer pair of shoes and silk tie but steve mnuchin left goldman sachs, bought a bank called indy mac, changed the name of that bank and foreclosed on 36,000 people. that's different from passively taking advantage of a bad market because you happen to be a savvy investor like john paulson did.

that will be tough. if you were talking about draining the swamp, you're bringing in not on millionaires and billionaires but people who are not very much in touch with the people who elected you. wilbur ross owned the sego mine in which a number of miners died and he never went to that mine, he said he'd get in the way but he knew about infractions. these are working people who have been affected by these two men who have been nominated so that's something to consider gary cohn, he was in trump tower last night. so goldman sachs will be in a great position. >> the president-elect and vice president-elect travel to indiana tomorrow. this is a bit of a change of subject but these are busy days and they're going to have an event at carrier. the saving of the jobs going to mexico, at least a thousand out of the 1400 is sump an interesting issue. it has to be said barack obama, did you try to save those jobs?

did your administration try? but on the other hand, a cynic would say if i'm the cfo of a "fortune" 500 company i'm having an event tomorrow to announce we're leaving for mexico because i'm hoping to get a rich package of tax incentives to stay here and if this were a democrat there would be talk of corporate welfare and the like. where's your wince index on this one? >> well, this one i don't know if i should wince or it's just more of a curiosity. the makeup of the deal we don't know. what we do know is that the state of indiana is going to fork over roughly $700,000 in tax incentives and other benefits to carrier. that's something the president of the united states can't do. he's not a governor, he doesn't have that kind of power and he won't dip into the federal treasury to do that, of course because he's not president now. so the reality of this whole deal has to come clearer into focus. but here's the bottom line with the point i made about the base. this reaffirms a message to the base about what i said as a

candidate i'm going to keep jobs in america and negotiate the deals that are necessary to do that. so he's going to go to indiana tomorrow with the governor of indiana who is now going to be the vice president and they're going to make the case that their approach is what america needs to do to get back in the game to make the best deals and carrier will be the carrier pigeon. or less, we would love these devices to be made in this country, we would love for american workers, all of these things. >> i'm going to say what i keep thinking. the movie "dave." what people loved about "dave" who played the president while the real president was a coma in a base was dave was a business guy who said budget, secretary of defense, swap the money, move it. people like this about him that he's a guy who can get on the phone and say hey, carrier ceo i have an idea. using the bully pulpit to keep jobs here is central to his brand.

whether it's the best use of his time, what he should be doing is getting briefed on economic policy that makes it easier for every american small business. >> as nicolle knows, presidents don't create jobs, small and medium sized businesses do it. america creates 6,000 jobs a day. >> and the weakness of this strategy is i'm certain he has spent more time on the phone with carrier then he spent studying economic policy that would keep hundreds of carriers here and growing their businesses and their payrolls. >> we haven't even gotten to what michael steele has meant to the argyle industry. [ laughter ] we have to take our first break. when we come back, what donald trump said on a call with a foreign nuclear power that might surprise some people. and later -- you should hear the sound we have on part of this tape. i'll play it for you later. he may be less reachable these days, but is there a new way for donald trump to reach out to you

when "the 11th hour" continues.

>> we will get along with all other nations willing to get along with us. we will be. [ applause ] we'll have great relationships. we expect to have great, great relationships. >> donald trump from his election night victory speech vowing to have great relationships, as you heard there, and today we're learning he is talking to foreign leaders, according to pakistan's official news agency. trump received a call from pakistani prime minister nawaz sharif earlier this week to congratulate him on his election victory. during the conversation, trump reportedly told sharif that he was "ready and willing to play any role to find solutions to the outstanding problems."

trump also reportedly told sharif that he is a terrific guy, that pakistanis are one of the most intelligent people that "he would love to come to a fantastic country, fantastic place of fantastic people. and to please convey to the pakistani people they are all amazing and all pakistanis i have known are exceptional people. trump transition team released their own so-called readout late tonight of the conversation confirming the call happened, not disputing any of the quotes. ali velshi, this gets -- >> awkward. >> this gets real in a hurry. because phone calls become diplomacy and you start paying with company money and writing checks on the company balance when you're president-elect. anything trouble you? >> well, it's a an about face. 180 degrees from what donald trump in 2012 and then during the campaign tweeted about pakistan, that they're no ally of ours, they harbor our enemies and things like that. he's gains a nuance that pakistan is a frenemy.

they are an important ally. >> you think he got that? is that what you think? >> i think he understands that americans have to be -- you know, in the opening sequence of "homeland" that you have quote by hillary clinton where if you keep snakes in your garden don't be surprised if they bite your neighbors. she was referring to pakistan. that's the idea. so pakistan is a country with very complicated country with which america has to have a very close relationship, a close partnership, most of the terrorists who have been arrested have been arrested in pakistan with the cooperation of the isi, the intelligence agency. pakistan plays by a lot of rules, it sits on a lot of different fences and plays for and against us. so donald trump i suppose his first overture is we can do business together. at some point the conversation will have to get more serious than the people and the food and the culture. >> nicolle, people in the foreign policy realm say that what keeps them up at night is pakistan.

>> i don't agree that he's accepting the nuanced american foreign policy than pakistan. i think he in his effort to be gregarious and generous calls people fantastic and amazing and this is sort of the affable side of him and he is putting on -- we know he views people as -- he thinks mitt romney looks like a secretary of state. i think he thinks this is what you sound like when you're being diplomatic. i don't think he's saying things based on a nuanced understanding of where the relationship is with pakistan. i would be -- i mean, he obviously did no harm, he was kind so that is good. bum you know we joked monday night when he was lashing out on twitter against jeff zeleny that this is only funny when he's tae tacking us, when he takes to twitter and it's not about how fantastic people are i think it's troubling and i think that he probably is getting smarter about world affairs.

he was not selected because he's a former diplomat, he was elected because he's a very successful businessman from totally outside of our politics but this is something and george bush learned this the hard way. he got a pop quiz from a local news reporter when he was at the primary, he called greeks grecians and never lived it down. so this is not where you can mess around and i believe that he said fantastic seven times because he did not have a nuanced understanding of where this relationship is and it doesn't sound like he's spending all this time in the transition learning about foreign policy. it sounds like he's having public interviews about who to pick for his cabinet. >> but he's having people tell him be careful about the iran deal, don't rip that up on day one but, in fact, if you are worried about a nuclear power in that region of the world, pakistan is the nuclear power to be more concerned about than iran. iran seems to be quite happy they're back into a trading relationship with the rest of the world and may not be in a hurry to ruin that. >> nicolle, in 15 seconds -- >> why do i always get the egg

timer? >> i'm sorry, i have people talking in my ear. >> you're like the new friend. i get -- in four seconds. >> is there a hadley briefing him as the phone is in his hand? >> god, i hope so. >> nicolle wallace, ali velshi, michael steele in washington who unbelievably we lost contact with. one of those nights. thank you all. thank you both. coming up a brand new power of communication soon available to the president-elect but with strings attached.

♪ you used to call me on the cell phone ♪ call me on the cell phone, i swear it's good to dance like us ♪ >> remarkable clip of the president-elect last time he hosted "snl." last thing before we go tonight, all the luck has to do with your cell phone. perhaps you remember when this first happened to you, a while back the skies darkened, maybe this summer where you live and you were surprised to get a weather warning via text on your phone based on where you were. it's still a relatively new technology. it's used for severe weather or amber alerts or when police are searching for a suspect like the chelsea bombing in new york. now there's this. you know how donald trump uses twitter? imagine if he was able to text all of us on all of our phones at once. starting january 20, the president-elect and future presidents will have the authority to send out

unblockable wireless emergency alerts or weas to every phone in the country up to 90 characters. new york magazine owe for all those worried about the president's impulse control, presidential alerts will have to be issued through fema, a division of homeland security so let's hope for all of us and for all the right reasons that we never have to read one on our phones. that is our broadcast. thank you for being with us, hard billion with chris matthews begins now. >> stoop to conquer. let's play "hardball."

good evening, i'm chris matthews in washington. while the transition effort rolls on and with it over the last 24 hours comes a series of new announcements from the president-elect about his cabinet, his agenda and not least of all his sprawling business empire. last night, mitt romney who is under consideration for secretary of state met with reince priebus eating frog legs and scallops at a restaurant in one of trump's hotels. in his remarks afterwards, the former trump critic struck a notably deferential tone. here's romney. >> it's not easy winning. i know that myself. he did something i tried to do and was unsuccessful in accomplishing. he won the general election. >> well, not too long ago he, romney, was singing a different tune. here's romney in march.