. top of the hour, you're live in the cnn newsroom. i'm poppy harlow in new york. so glad you're with us. we're monitoring protests unfolding in major cities. for the fourth straight day, demonstrators take to the streets to protest the election of donald trump. in some cases the protests have turned violent. [ gunshots ] >> that from police in portland, oregon, responding to violence,

throwing flash-bangs b s into t crowd. one person was injured during a shooting in a march in portland last night. president-elect donald trump has not addressed the protesters directly today but is calling for unity on twitter, writing "this will prove to be a great time in the lives of all americans. we will unite and we will win, win, win." that unity however not being seen across some american cities today. our reporters are on the ground across the country. let's begin in new york. brin, what are the protesters in new york city calling for? >> reporter: poppy, i can tell you right now, they're booing i want to. some people have just walked on to the balconies of trump hour. that's who all this anger is pointed at. it's interesting that you mentioned donald trump's tweets.

talking to these protesters, their frustration is with the division in this country that they believe the president-elect has only fostered. one person said, after this election, everybody works, they go to school, and this saturday is the first time that people could actually come out and absorb the fact that they have a new president, they're not happy about it, and they can speak up about it. poppy, you said it, they have been here for two hours, there is no signs of any letting up in this protest. the numbers are in the tens of thousands. it's hard to estimate. it stretches for several blocks. fifth avenue is shut down in front of trump tower. i also want you to hear some of the messages that people have been spreading and talking about. take a listen. >> this is enormous, definitely. it's big. i don't know what we can actually do to change things. but we just have to keep coming

out and making sure that his hatred and his fear and the anger that he's stirring up or using to get elected doesn't manifest itself in our country. >> we're getting together to support each other as a community. this is a huge loss. this election has set us back and has definitely shown the world that we are not as advanced as we claim we are. >> reporter: police all around this area, poppy, making sure it doesn't get out of hand. it's still early in the night. we'll see how it goes. certainly so far it's been rather peaceful, poppy. >> thank you so much, brynn gingras. in los angeles, kyung lah is there. mayor garcetti said he was so

pleased about how peaceful the protests had been. what are they asking for today? >> reporter: a lot of people are talking about immigration, women's rights, as well as gay rights. i just want to give you a brief look at what's happening here. we actually have moved off the street, and they're pushing protesters onto the sidewalk. the lapd and the chp are trying to make sure things stay peaceful. overwhelmingly they have been. you're seeing the last few remnants of what began as an extraordinarily large protest that snaked through los angeles. they started at a park two miles away. then this stretch of los angeles as the protesters snaked all the way through the city, it was blocks and blocks long. we don't have an official count of how many people were here, but you can see some of these protesters. it's quite a diverse crowd. it's difficult to tell from the people who are left, but immigration certainly one of the biggest issues here in los angeles, being so close to the border with mexico.

a lot of people of color here filling this particular crowd as well. and women's rights. we saw a lot of women carrying their children here, poppy, asking that trump listen to their concerns and talk about family rights as well as women's rights, especially concerned about some of the comments that he's made while he was on the trail, poppy. >> kyung lah live for us in los angeles, thank you very much, we appreciate it. let's discuss with our panel, josh grogan, paris dennard, and he h thank you all for being here. paris, as a donald trump supporter, i want your reaction to the two ways he's addressed the protesters. thursday night he came out and he tweeted this: "just had a very open and successful professional election.

now professional protesters, incited by the media "then the next morning, "we will come together and be proud." two very different messages. which is it, and does it concern you that he seems to be on two opposite pages when it comes to people voicing their first amendment right? >> you know, what, poppy, i think what mr. trump, who is now president-elect trump, is doing is being presidential. first, he is acknowledging the fact that some of the agitators there are professional. the other night, the sergeant from portland, oregon said there were some anarchists there who came and infiltrated the peaceful protests and caused violence and crime. then we saw the mayor just recently that you just reported on saying that there were some people that were agitators who were not a part of the peaceful

protests. then what you saw, the second tweet -- >> that's not what the mayor of los angeles said. he actually said he doesn't buy the argument that it's professional protesters. and donald trump, you know, said the media is inciting this. >> well, i think when the media continues to drum up old stories, past stories, past comments about the past from the campaign trail, that's not looking forward and talking about what mr. trump is going to do or wants to do to bring this country together, that can incite people to have these type of outbursts. but to your first point, about the second treat, it's his job to understand and appreciate that there are people who are passionate, people who will disagree with him and some of his statements and policies. but it's important at the end of the day for us to come together, accept the fact that he won, and move forward as a country, because we always have a peaceful transfer of power. he is going to lead this country. he's going to do it together with the support of republicans,

democrats, african-americans, latinos, and the coalition of persons who elected him to be president. >> as a muslim american who did not support donald trump, but who has also, you called on my program earlier this week for people to come together behind the president-elect, what's your take on these protests? >> well, i think that there's something called the first amendment that somebody might want to tell donald trump about. of course we have the right to protest. at the same time i think it's really important for donald trump to come out and unite all us americans and make clear that he is definitely a president for all of us americans. it's undeniable that he ran on a campaign of divisiveness and hate. let us not -- >> that is deniable. >> it's actually a fact. please let me finish my point. >> no, it's not a fact. it's your opinion. >> if you would let me finish,

that would be very nice. >> paris, let her finish. >> thank you. i think it would be really great if donald trump came out. the southern poverty law center has said since he has been elected president there has been 200 different cases of hate crimes across the country. i think it would make a really big difference for donald trump to come forward and say, don't make these crimes in my name, don't commit these crimes in my name, we're all united. i have to say as a very strong -- not only as a muslim-american but as an american, as a woman, as a mother, i mean, i have come to accept that hillary clinton has lost this election, that donald trump is our president. i have accepted that fact. but the million dollar question now is, does he accept us? >> josh, let me get you in here, because she brings up the muslim ban, which if you go to donald trump's website right now, his presidential website right now, that proposed ban on all muslims

coming into this country at least for a specified period of time, it still stands on the website. it has not been formally updated or addressed by the campaign, what he said in the october 9th debate was that he calls it extreme vetting. you know, just respond to the disagreement between our other two panelists on that point, because it is why some of these people are protesting. >> yes. first of all, a couple of facts. there is no evidence that any of the protesters were paid and no evidence of direct incitement by the media. when we're looking at this, we should start with an agreement on what the reality is. as for donald trump's reaction, we can see the two sort of sides of the trump team battling here in these two tweets. you have one that wants to spread conspiracy theories and push back against any sort of criticism. that's the steve bannon wing. then you have the kellyanne conway, reince priebus wing that wants to be more open and inclusive. donald trump will have to do

outreach that's longer than 140 characters. he hasn't done that yet. he still has time. when it comes to the muslim ban, when he releases his exact plan for the first hundred days, it actually said a ban on immigration from areas where vetting can't occur. that's the massaged version of it. the bottom line is the trump presidency has not started and they don't know what they're going to do. that, again, is part of the battle between the two wings. it's not "the apprentice," it's "the hunger games." these who sides will fight until we see whether he will stick with the more extreme stuff or moderate on obamacare, the things we're hearing trickling out now. we just don't know because trump doesn't know. by the way, the fact that there was an undertone if not overtone of racism during his campaign is

indisputable. we're going to switch gears for a little bit. legendary investors w arary inv buffett talked with us earlier this week. you, the voter, voted on that issue. i asked the oracle of omaha. that's next. you're live in the cnn newsroom. if you're searching other travel sites to find a better price...

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chris christie is now not the number one man on the transition team for donald trump. mike pence now holds that top spot. the change made just this week. and sources tell cnn loyalty or a lack thereof may be to blame. also the bridgegate scandal surrounding christie.

let's bring in our national correspondent. chris christie was the first one to come out and back donald trump in the primaries. i remember it was a shock to everyone. why is he not number one on the transition team anymore? >> first, poppy, we have to note this is not particularly unprecedented, to have a vice presidential person take over the role in the transition. dick cheney took over such a role in george bush's transition. but cheney wasn't under this cloud that chris christie is. as you mentioned, the bridgegate investigation, the bridgegate scandal constantly in the news and hanging over his head. sources say loyalty was an issue, chris christie took a step back in recent weeks, he wasn't by trump's side in the whole "access hollywood" tape

scandal. that was significant and is an indication of how much chris christie's stock has fallen in the trump world. >> trump's transition team, sunlen, features washington insiders, jeff session, the first senator to publicly endorse him, ben carson. this as trump's resounding message in the last weeks of the campaign was drain the swamp, drain the swamp. it doesn't seem like that when you look at who he's surrounding himself with. >> it is noteworthy, as he's gearing up to make appointments, it seems like the leading contenders are people who are from washington and who are insiders. you have one of the leading contenders, reince priebus, the rnc chair, for chief of staff, such an important job in the administration, setting the tone for what a potential trump administration will look like. it certainly is a little bit different from the rhetoric or a lot different from the rhetoric

we heard from donald trump on the campaign when he notably said drain the swamp, essentially get all the bums out of there. that's why people are paying such close attention to these picks and what tone it's going to set. >> for someone who is not a washington insider, although bloomberg called him the most dangerous political operative out there, is steve bannon. this is the guy who was the chair of trump's campaign and is the one believed to have been behind the very controversial move to bring all of those bill clinton accusers to the second debate. he is someone who donald trump trusts implicitly. will he get chief staff? if he doesn't, does he stick around? >> that's the big question now. his name is certainly in there for potential chief of staff. but as of now according to sources it does seem like reince priebus is the number one contender for chief of staff. it could be possible that steve bannon has a white house senior adviser job.

it does seem that donald trump trusts steve bannon, and the things he likes the most about him is that he's all about winning, all about success, two things we know are big themes for donald trump, and he likes to cultivate. certainly that attracts him, and it does seem he is tempted to put steve bannon in quite a big white house job. >> sunlen serfaty, we'll wait to see, thank you. sunlen reporting from washington, we appreciate it. coming up next, the battle for mosul. an update from the front lines. stay with us. ♪

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intense fighting in mosul, iraq this weekend, as people living this are torn between huddling in their homes and fleeing for safety. u.s. commanders believe there are still 3 to 5,000 isis fighters inside the city. but the ground fight is all being done by iraqi troops. some disturbing new developments, reports that isis militants are committing across adverti atrocities against civilians in mosul, executing people for having cellphones. irbil, iraq is 55 miles outside of mosul. what can you tell us about the fight as it continues now?

>> reporter: poppy, it's still bogged down in this very difficult, slow part of the battle. it's been going for three weeks now, most of the time surrounding the territories and towns around mosul itself. it's when things started to get really difficult, really slowed down. they're going up against an enemy that is very prepared, this afternoon they were coming, that has been digging tunnels, setting sniper positions, building car bombs and other booby traps and improvised explosive devices, all being used against the iraqi forces on a daily basis. they say they're making progress but by their own admission it's slow, difficult, bloody, brutal urban warfare. the other complications you mentioned are the civilians. this is still a city of more than a million people or so. iraqis are trying to fight

around them and do as little harm as they possibly can. we're hearing stories from people in the city about the atrocities being committed, dozens of people said to have been executed in the last week or so, accused of being spies for the iraqi operation to retake the city and condemned for being spies simply because they owned cellphones. some of their bodies have been strung up on electrical poles across the town with words like "traitor" across them. it is a brutal, bloody warning to the people who are still in that city as the war rages around them, poppy. >> phil, i wonder what the response has been to the u.s. election, because donald trump has vowed to deal with isis quickly and decisively, for example he was very critical of the obama administration for talking at all in advance about the siege on mosul. he said why give warning. what are they saying about how they believe his approach will be different as commander in chief in terms of trying to defeat isis?

>> reporter: well, they believe that american foreign policy is set on defeating isis. no one here appears to be worried about the u.s. withdrawing any of its support. that support is significant. it would be difficult to see this operation taking place in the way that it is without u.s. support. the air power, the air strikes, the training, the advice, the special forces on the ground, all these sorts of things are making a real difference and ultimately making this battle possible at this time. donald trump has said he still believes very strongly in military operations against isis coalition, aggressive military action involving other countries and so forth. he's said he would order generals to come up with a plan to defeat isis as quickly as possible. what we would expect and what people here would expect is more of the same, more of what we're seeing in iraqi, more of what is seen in syria as well. but how much more, that's really the question. looking across the border to syria, the question there, given

that many people expect donald trump to have a cozier relationship with the russian president, is whether or not russia and the united states would come to any sort of agreement to fight isis and other militants on the ground there together, poppy. >> phil black, live for us tonight, just after midnight in irbil, iraq. thank you so much. also today, in afghanistan a suicide bomber killed four americans. it happened at bagram airfield, the biggest u.s. base in afghanistan. two of those killed were american service members. the other two were american contractors. a nato official said the bomber was wearing an explosive vest and set it off near a group of people getting ready for a group run. the taliban has already claimed responsibility. next live in the cnn newsroom, it was one of donald trump's signature campaign promises. >> on day one, we will begin working on an impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful,

beautiful southern border wall. >> well, day one is only 69 days away. will it happen? how are those living south of the u.s. border feeling now that donald trump is the next president? we went to mexico to find out. i love getting more for less. that's why this control enthusiast rents from national. where i can skip the counter... ...and choose any car in the aisle. on average, four out of every five rentals at national is a free upgrade. getting a full-size and paying for a mid-size? ♪ whoa, oh, whoa, whoa, lovin' every minute of it... ♪ as the boys from loverboy so eloquently noted... i'm lovin' every minute of it. go national. go like a pro.

it's one donald trump's most memorable campaign promises. but is it feasible to build a wall, a very tall wall, as he said, along the u.s. southern border, and get mexico to pay for it? our ed lavendera headed south to see what people there are saying now that donald trump is the next president. >> we're going to build a great wall. the wall just got ten feet higher. maybe some day they'll call it the trump wall. >> reporter: the border between the u.s. and mexico stretches 2,000 miles. nearly 700 miles of it is already covered with walls or

steel fencing. donald trump wants more. >> on day one, we will begin working on an inpenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful southern border wall. >> of course it can be done. >> reporter: professor michael dear is an author of the book "why walls don't work." >> a large concrete structure, 25 feet high, which would be very extensive in terms of resources and money. >> reporter: cnn has surveyed civil engineers, academics, and architects. the wall would most likely be made of precast cement panels, 20 feet wall, eight inches thick, requiring 339 million cubic feet of concrete. the panels would be held together by 5 billion pounds of reinforced steel with an estimated cost of at least $10.5 billion and possibly much more. trump supporters say they can't

wait to see the beginning of the border wall construction. >> that wall will get built and mexico is going to pay for that wall. >> i think he'll try to build a wall. i think he'll try to secure our borders. >> if people want to come into the country, they should do it legally. >> reporter: but in mexico, the idea of a wall is often shrugged off as a bump in the road north. jose torrez hernandez says he's illegally crossed into the u.s. many times to find work picking fruits and vegetables. he says a wall might make crossing over a little harder but immigrants like him would always find a way to find work to feed their families. and armando gutierrez says he's crossed the border 25 times starting when he was just 16, to work farm fields all over the u.s. he says keeping people like him out of the country will only hurt the u.s. he says if he tries to remove all of the mexicans in the united states, donald trump will realize what a huge mistake that is and how much the u.s. economy

depends on mexican immigrants. >> all right. ed lev ender are dede levan dar now. . >> reporter: they've had a subdued response, the president of mexico sending an olive branch, saying he looks forward to working with president-elect trump. there hasn't been a lot of boisterous talk. you hear it on some lower levels, lawmakers who are warning the mexican government they need to be prepared to fight back against whatever donald trump does. one lawmaker said they would introduce legislation to make it illegal for mexican money to go toward paying for that wall. they insist if donald trump continues to push on this or nafta or immigration issues, there are other routes they can go to fight back. there could be a fight. >> and we saw quite an effect on

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it was in the early morning hours on wednesday that investors started to digest that donald trump would be the next u.s. president. that sent markets around the world plummeting. with dow futures down nearly 900 points at one point. but then the dow opened. and it finished the week up nearly 5.5%, hitting a new record high yesterday. what does legendary investor warren buffett think of the u.s. economy right now? and how can more people achieve the american dream? here is part two of our exclusive interview with the oracle of omaha. let's talk about the economy. in february, you said that the u.s. economy is a little bit weaker than you had expected. what's your assessment as we sit here today? >> well, it's interesting, poppy. i would say at this time i would probably use the term it's softer than i think people think it is. i don't mean it's weak. but it's softer than people

think. you know, the gdp comes out for the third quarter, 2.9%. i don't think it was a 2.9% quarter. they've got way better figures than i do. >> you think it was lower than that? >> yeah. >> what signs are you looking at? >> i look at everything. we have 70 different businesses. >> railroads to fruit of the loom underwear. >> i love numbers so i get it on a realtime basis. >> what do you see? >> the federal reserve are getting a thousand times as many figures and they've got all kinds of people working on it. if i had to bet, if they were revising the third quarter, it would get revised downward. the economy is not growing at 2.9%. >> markets move on your words. you're seeing a softer economy. >> i'm buying stocks. >> what is it? you've said before, periodically financial markets will be divorced from reality. it sounds to me like -- >> financial markets don't have to go with business. >> right. but are they divorced from reality right now?

>> no. >> are stocks at this point overvalued? >> no. this relates to interest rates also. i don't pay any attention to what the business numbers i see in determining the orders i have in for stocks today. i'm buying businesses for ten years. what difference does it make this week or next week? i think i know what they're going to do over time. i know i don't know what they're going to do next year. >> can you take us through the signs and numbers that are showing you softness? >> this is not exactly right, but they may have 25 categories or something of the sort, you know, there's coal, there's grain, there's all kinds of things, automotive. most categories, a very significant percentage of categories, are down. that's physical volume. and they measure the movement of goods. and they're not the only thing.

but you look at the trucking industry in october, for example. it was not good. so when you take trucks, you're talking about moving goods. it wasn't weather at all, the balance of the weather has been favorable. that is people bringing things forward who eventually sell to consumers. there's a whole bunch of figures i see. and you may be seeing it in auto of fairly soon. >> does it concern you to the point of a possible recession in the near term? >> no, i can't predict recessions. if you guaranteed me there would be a recession next year, i would be buying and selling the same securities i'm buying and selling today. >> who is winning in this economy right now? >> the rich. guys like me. we have gone from having $93 billion in the top 400 in 1982 to having $2.4 trillion. it becomes a more and more

specialized market economy. it was an agrarian economy 20 years ago. it's hard to get 20 times more than the next guy if you're a farmer. but now you can become incredibly wealthy at a young age, not because you earned the money to build one steel mill and saved to buy another steel mill. you get the capitalized value of an idea. so the wealth moves big time, even on an anticipatory basis. that has become more accentuated in the last 30 years. >> the income inequality continues to grow. >> absolutely. >> and the big question is, what are the societal and social impacts of that? >> you may have seen it in the election. >> i think yes. and look at the rise of bernie sanders. >> yeah. bernie sanders said to a good bit of the american people, you're getting the short end of the stick and it isn't your fault. >> do you think bernie sanders

would have had a better shot against donald trump? >> no. >> on the economic message. >> i don't think he would have had a better shot in terms of getting elected. i think that he would have been totally focused, just like you saw him do in the primaries, on just a couple of issues. >> a harvard study came out earlier this year that absolutely fascinates me. and, you know, as america has elected the ultimate capitalist in donald trump, this study found that 51% of young people between 18 and 29 do not support capitalism. and the director of the study said they are rejecting the way that capitalism is practiced today. but capitalism is what made you, warren, into a billionaire. capitalism is what made donald trump into a billionaire. why is it not working for more young people? >> because the market system does get more and more specialized as we go along. in other words, if you were -- i'm going to use iq, and i know the limitations of it, but i'll use it just as a marker for a

bigger idea. if you were 130 iq, working on a farm, and the person next to you was a 90 iq, the other person probably was worth 90% as much as you. you know, it just didn't make that -- there were tools valuables, you couldn't have to do planting or anything like that. that was an agrarian society. then we moved into a manufacturing society. if you run the ford motor assembly line in 1915, differences in intellect were important but they didn't produce 50 for one results or 100 for one results. now we're in an economy where specialized talents bring incredible sums. and where if you're a little bit where you really don't fit as well into the market system, you are left behind. >> so then the question is, do we need a more inclusive form of capitalism? i know that you and some of the

ceos -- >> we need an earned income tax credit. >> that's going to solve everything? >> nothing solves everything. >> does capitalism as we know it need to evolve? >> the market system works. now, you've got two questions. you want to keep a system where the goose lays more golden eggs every year. we've got that. now the question is how do those eggs get distributed. and that is where the system needs some adjusting. we have adjusted. we voted social security. we've done things in the past. we have to address the problem of not how to get more eggs out, we know how to do that, but we have to make sure that in a super rich country, anyone who is willing to work 40 hours a week has a decent living. >> what does that mean for minimum wage? you and i have talked for years about the minimum wage debate, you told me before that it's the hardest question i've been asked, i don't know the answer, i would like to see people make

$20 an hour but are concerned about what that would mean. the fight for $15 an hour has really elevated. is that the answer? >> you don't need a minimum wage. you need a minimum income. >> that's interesting. >> no, the income comes from your employer plus whatever the government does. and the earned income tax credit can give everyone $15 an hour, even if their market skills don't command it. so you don't lose any employment and you make it graduated so there still is an incentive, if your $7.50 an hour, you get to 9, then your 15 becomes even higher. the earned income tax credit is a great answer. like i say, it isn't how much you get in wages. it's how much you get in cash. >> why does it need to be on the government? why shouldn't it be on the businesses? >> because then you lose employment. if you tell me i have a business that pays $15 an hour, i'll employ less people than before.

i don't want to employ less people. i just want the person to make $15 an hour. if you can have a minimum wage that kept everyone in the country working making 20 or $25 an hour, we have the money to do it, but that doesn't work because it leaves millions and millions and millions of people who don't have the skills to actually command that in the market. the earned income tax credit solves it. >> what is the minimum income, then? >> well, you can design that -- >> a living wage in this country, in an average american city. >> it depends on the geography. >> of course. >> i would think that you could design an earned income tax credit that left people receiving $15 an hour and also with meaningful incentives to move up their own skills so that between 7.50 and 15 they weren't just reducing the amount they received on the credit. and you would give them a feeling of self-worth. and you wouldn't hurt any jobs. society would say, we've got enough in the society, so that,

you know, if we got an $18 trillion gdp, we can allocate -- right now we're spending $60 billion a year. we can allocate -- i don't think it would take more than another $60 billion to get the job done. >> is the american dream alive? >> of course. >> for enough people in 2016? >> sure. it's alive for millions and millions. take omaha, right here. a significant percentage of the people in this city, it's alive. we've got 360,000 people working in berkshire. i think that's a very high percentage of the emergenamericm is alive. some people will have special talents, some will make tremendous sums beyond that, and they will be the ones responsible for having more golden eggs to distribute year by year. >> give me the five reasons why you're hopeful today about the future of america. >> america works.

when you fly back, new york, whatever it may be, just look at what you see. you see 75 million owner-occupied homes. you see factories that are producing goods and services that the american public loves that they never even dreamt about years ago. you see a country where in one person's lifetime an already prosperous country became six times as wealthy or as income producing per capita. you see more change in our 240 years than happened in millennia before. it's because we have a system that works. >> so america is already great? >> oh, it's more than great. it will become greater. america is great. just look at the medica facilities. everything out there is profit.

it wasn't here in 1776. there was a bunch of land here that nobody can do anything with. there were primitive little industries, cottage industries here and there. everything you see here is -- it's about $100 billion in terms of present value. >> now the hope is more americans can share in that. >> that should be -- that should be the number one economic goal of this country. you don't have to worry about having more stuff. you do have to worry about whether people who are perfectly decent citizens, working hard, are getting enough of it so they can live decently. >> warren, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> an important message there from warren buffett. in the next hour, he speaks out for the first time about the scandal that rocked wells fargo and cost more than 5,000 employees their jobs. he is the biggest shareholder in the bank. what does he have to say about all of it? 5:00 p.m. eastern, right here. also see my full interview with warren buffett at cnnmoney.com/buffett.

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the election may be over but the jokes are not. comedians found plenty to work with this week. take a look.

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5:00 p.m. eastern. i'm poppy harlow in new york. so glad you're with us. happening right now, cities across the united states bracing for what could be the fourth straight night of anti-trump protests. we've already seen major demonstrations this afternoon in both new york and los angeles. thousands of people marching through the s