>> and yet "snl" most notable this weekend for what wasn't funny. the poignancy that they applied to the election of what it should mean for all of us. >> and no donald trump impersonation. not one. >> where was alec baldwin? he's probably in east hampton where he lives. but i wonder why he wasn't on. lshtd a lot of news this morning. some big appointments by the president clinton. what do they mean for you? there it is. the face that makes everyone smile. "newsroom" with carol costello. >> oh, that did make me smile. that's hard to do on a monday. thanks, have a great day. "newsroom" starts now. and good morning, i'm carol costello. thank you so much for joining me. angry protests boil up in american cities. six whole days after donald trump wins the white house. [ chanting ] >> thousands pour into the streets to disown the next

american president in a polarizing election that has fuelled racial tensions and reports of minorities being harassed. trump downplaying these demonstrations. >> i think in some cases you have professional protesters, and we had it, if you look at wikileaks, we -- >> those people -- >> well, lesley -- >> are professional? >> i think some of them will be professional. >> today, trump has only fuelled racial concerns with the hiring of his campaign ceo steve bannon has close ties to the alt-right fringe including white nationalists. his rise to being the right-hand man to the president is stirring deep concerns in washington and beyond. we have a lot to cover this morning. let's begin in washington with cnn's phil mattingly. hi, phil. >> if you look at the trump campaign one thing was very clear. over the course of the last couple of months there were an extremely close, extremely time night and extremely small group of advisers that kind of ran the show. a group of advisers that donald

trump trusted almost wholeheartedly and as you talked to them it became very clear those advisers were likely to land in the white house. well now we know that's the case with at least. rnc chairman reince priebus making his way there. assuaging a lot of the concerns from establishment republicans about what a trump administration might look like. but it's the other adviser, steve bannon, raising major alarm bells. president-elect donald trump's administration starting to take shape. trump naming rnc chairman reince priebus as his chief of staff. and campaign ceo steve bannon as chief strategist and senior counselor. creating two duelling power centers in a potentially rivalry between his two top aides. priebus the ultimate washington insider with deep connections to gop leaders. bannon the polar opposite. a man who has operated on the republican fringe as executive chairman of breitbart.com. one with a known talent for riling up the grassroots while maintaining close ties to the

alt-right movement within which anti-semitism and racist troeps are pervasive. bannon's appointment drawing sharp condemnation. the spokesman for harry reid saying quote it is easy to see why the kkk views trump as their champ when trump appoints one of the foremost peddlers of white supremacist themes and rhetoric as his top aide. the ceo of the anti-defamation league calling it a quote, sad day. the executive director of the council on american islamic relations says the appointment of bannon sends the disturbing message that the anti-muslim conspiracy theories and white nationalist ideology will be welcome in the white house. as thousands across the country protest against trump for the fifth straight day, trump addressing his supporters who have harassed minorities in his first tv interview. post-election. >> i say stop it.

if it helps. i will say this, and i'll say it right to the cameras. stop it. >> trump also appearing to tweet a central tenet of his immigration proposal. >> they're talking about a fence in the republican congress. would you accept a fence? >> for certain areas i would. but certain areas a wall is more appropriate. i'm very good at this. it's called construction. >> so part of the wall could be a fence? >> yeah, could be some fencing. >> reporter: and discussing his supreme court appointees calling same-sex marriage a settled issue, taking a hard stance against national abortion rights. >> having to do with abortion if it ever were overturned, it would go back to the states. so, it would go back to the states. >> reporter: some women won't be >> so some women won't be able to get an abortion. >> no it will go back to the states. >> by state -- >> perhaps they'll have to go to another state. >> and carol in talking to republicans around kwlil just in washington in general the phrase you hear over and over again is personnel is policy. and perhaps none more so than in

donald trump's administration. administration where policywise nobody's really sure where he's going to end up. now what we have seen over the course of the last couple of days is some flexibility on policy. we've also seen some definite answers on personnel. but one big question everybody still had is what of donald trump's primary campaign promises? what happens to hillary clinton? donald trump saying repeatedly over the course of the last couple weeks of the campaign he will have his attorney general appoint a special prosecutor to investigate hillary clinton. last night in that "60 minutes" interview appearing to pull off that a little bit. but still, no firm answer yet. carol? >> all right. phil mattingly reporting live from washington. thank you. by the way, president barack obama will address the nation later today and he will take questions from reporters, and, i wonder what those questions will be about. don't you? i think you have an idea, and so do i. let's talk about that and more. david fordham is with me cnn political commentator and assistant editor for "the washington post." rebecca berg is a national political reporter for real clear politics.

allen silly is a former communications director for ted cruz and hilary rosen is a cnn political commentator. brian stelter is the cnn senior media correspondent. welcome to all of you. good morning. so, brian, i want to start with you. and i want to get in to who steve bannon is, and why so many minority rights organizations have a problem with him. >> because he is a bomb thrower. provocateur. a man that is a symbol of the alt-right movement. and the alt-right movement means many things one of the things it means is a white identity politics. white nationalism. that's why we heard some people say this is white supremacy is a disguise. now steve bannon rejects that entirely. says he has nothing to do with that. he told me months ago this is all about populism sweeping the globe. but the bottom line, carol, is that reince priebus on the morning shows today said donald trump will be a president for all of americans. that's not who steve bannon is. that's not what breitbart is. breitbart is not a website for all americans. it's a website for the alt-right. so we're getting two messages,

clearly mixed messages from the trump administration. >> so, alice can you help us understand and calm the fierce that these minority groups across the nation? >> look, if you go to their website and you listen to what steve bannon has said in the past, his focus is not on the distractions that have been focused on the last 24 hours about the alt-right. his focus is and always has been about reforming washington, draining the washington swarm, draining in the size and scope of government. and that's what he focused on throughout the campaign with donald trump. and that's what he plans to do in the future. as we heard from the statement from donald trump yesterday, the key component with this duo which is unique is that he worked very well with reince priebus during the campaign, and they will work well together moving forward and their priority is to reform washington and no one in that campaign has made any secret of the fact they are outsiders coming in to make big changes. and that's priority number one

for steve bannon and the campaign moving forward. >> i do think, being an outsider is one thing. promoting white nationalist policies is quite another. if you go to the breitbart headlines of the past, steve bannon was editor, right, of breitbart and i'm just going to read one, he said head line there not too long ago dear straight people i'm officially giving you permission to say gay f-a-g-g-o-t and we're. i mean look at these headlines in breitbart. hillary, is there a difference between an outsider and a white nationalist provocateur? >> like i think so many people -- >> there's a huge difference, and that i think -- >> hilary. >> there's a huge difference, and you know, as brian said this breitbart news has fomented division and anger, and fear in people, and you know, i hate to see, frankly, what power they could have when they have the full resources and secrets of

the federal government to attack people with. and the idea that steve bannon will be conspiring with, you know, right wing media, to send messages out, and kind of appalling to me. but this is really about two donald trumps. and donald trump not having an ideology. people are used to our president actually caring about something. and what we have here is, you know, steve bannon's appointment being focused on fomenting the kind of outsider, white nationalist movement and reince priebus making sure that, you know, the banks get their lobbying deals, and that climate change is repealed, and that, you know, essentially the government is handed back to big corporations, and fat cats. and so you have kind of the combination of these two things, and the little guy that donald trump says he got elected for, in my view, ends up getting screwed because those people are

not going to protect them. >> well, well here's the thing. i think that there is a line of thought that, that, you know, we've become too politically correct in this country, minorities have too much power, it's time to right the ship, you need someone like steve bannon in there to do just that, right? and also, trump -- trump supporters saying when mr. trump says things he doesn't mean them literally, he just needs to sort of even things out. and one good example of that may be the wall. right? because on his website even this morning it still says he wants to build an impenetrable physical wall that mexico will pay for. but last night on 60 minutes he said something different. let's listen. >> could be -- it could be some fencing. >> what about the pledge to deport millions and millions of undocumented immigrants? >> what we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, there are a lot of these people. probably 2 million, could even

be 3 million. we're getting them out of our country, or we're going to incarcerate. but, we're getting them out of our country. they're here illegally. >> okay, so, so, david, maybe donald trump means when he says he's going to build this impenetrable wall and have mexico pay for it he doesn't quite mean that literally. but he is going to get something done and won't that be enough for his supporters? >> well, i think that remains to be seen, carol. i mean, that is what we've already looked at in the last couple of days with some of the statements that president-elect trump has made. he has, in that interview clip that you just played, he was backing off this idea that he's going to build this big physical structure of the wall across the entire border with no fencing, just a big, as he said, big, beautiful wall and make mexico pay for it. he sounded more measured on that. he has made signals in the last couple of days that he is rethinking some of the specifics on the affordable care act saying he wants to keep in place letting people keep their kids on their insurance plan until they're 26. making insurers cover people who

have pre-existing conditions. you know, if you're a fan of someone being moderate and judicious in the way they approach their job as president, i guess you could say those are good things. the difficulty is that one, those aren't the promises that he made on the campaign trail. and that number two is, is that if you're not supposed to take trump literally at his word on what he said on the campaign, how are you supposed to evaluate now what he says going forward when he's making some, what i would say are significant changes to his approach, at least rhetorically, in just the first few days of his transition? >> something he seems to be like toeing the line on very carefully is this idea of locking hillary clinton because those were campaign chants during the campaign lock her up. he said yesterday over the weekend that he was thinking about maybe firing the fbi director. he didn't really know. but as you know the president can appoint an fbi director. and then he said he wouldn't totally take off the table that notion that somehow hillary clinton will be prosecuted. let's listen.

>> you called her crooked hillary, said you wanted to get her to go to jail, your people in your audiences kept saying lock her up. >> yeah. she did some bad things. >> i know but a special prosecutor? >> i don't want to hurt them. i don't want to hurt them. they're good people. i don't want to hurt them. and i will give you a very, very good and definitive answer the next time we do "60 minutes" together. >> so, rebecca, thoughts? >> well, it does look like he is beginning to back away, carol, from his campaign promise to appoint a special prosecutor. his assessment apparently being that now that the campaign is over, it's less important to settle those scores with a former political rival. and if that is the case, and again his statement is really hard to dissect at this point, and really know what he truly means, or wants, but that should encourage a lot of people on the

democratic side, i would imagine, who were very, very worried when we were hearing these chants at his rallies. when he was talking about a special prosecutor, especially because this begins to sound like sort of a third world country sort of thing that you are threatening to jail your former political opponents once you win. so i think this should be encouraging for a lot of people. and certainly it's going to be very difficult for donald trump to unite the country, as he says he wants to, if he's actively pursuing a case against hillary clinton, his former political rival. >> all right. i have to leave it there. thanks to all of you. still to come in the "newsroom" it's not just protests. a new report shows hateful harassment is up post-election. and will having a man with white nationalist ties so close to the oval office just fan the flames more?

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it has been six days since america elected a new president and we're still a nation divided. protests planned again today in tucson and in los angeles. the lapd already dealing with several days of protests. 8,000 people marched through downtown saturday. across the country also large protests in places like new york, portland and philadelphia. >> this election has set us back, and has definitely shown in the world that we are not as advanced as we think we are. >> i have been aghast at the -- the behavior of donald trump. i think his racist and xenophobic rhetoric has been very disruptive. >> i am a single father. i pay my taxes. i'm scared. i really am scared. of being deported to a country that i am not familiar with. >> the protesters, because of

incidents like this, graffiti reading trump nation, whites only, that was discovered on sunday morning, sprayed on a wall at an episcopal church in a heavily latino neighborhood just outside of washington, d.c. the southern poverty law center says this is not an isolated incident. it has counted more than 300 cases of election related harassment and intimidation across the country. so let's talk about that. cnn's correspondent rachel crane has been looking into it. good morning. >> good morning, carol. one of the most disturbing things about these incidents is that the southern poverty law center is saying that the most commonly reported location of these incidents of hate crime, of these incidents of the you know racist graffiti are happening in schools. children k. through 12 engaging in this type of horrific behavior. they say that more than 40 incidents have been reported at schools. now, in michigan, at a middle school, we saw in a cafeteria children chanting build the wall, build the wall. there's a video of that.

it's been viewed millions of times on social media. incredibly disturbing. to see them engaging in that type of behavior. also in minnesota at a high school we saw racist graffiti, pro-trump graffiti in a bathroom reading white america, also reading go back to africa. trump let's make america great again. also, in a high school in california, we saw a student giving out fake deportation letters to minority students. you know, this isn't just happening in high schools and middle schools, also in colleges. we saw a student at san diego state university being accosted by two people, she was wearing a hij hijab, they were spewing racial slurs, they skoel her purse, skoel her keys, stole her car. we're also seeing graffiti not just in schools but across the country in philadelphia, because in north carolina graffiti reading black lives don't matter. your vote doesn't matter. carol, just incredibly

disturbing. >> there are some would say because you mentioned a number, 40 high schools and middle schools across the country. we live in a country of 330 million people, right? so some people might say, you know, so a tiny fraction, you know, a tiny number of idiots across the country are doing these things. but it's not a widespread problem. so how would you characterize it. >> well, you know, the southern poverty law center coming out and saying just this morning on cnn, there have been more than 300 incidents of this since donald trump was elected president. and they're calling on donald trump to take more responsibility for these instances. you know, just last night on "60 minutes" donald trump did acknowledge that a handful of these incidences were occurring calling on the people committing these crimes to stop it. but, you know, the president of the southern poverty law center saying that there are actually hundreds of these crimes happening not just a handful. >> thanks so much. so here we are. there is real fear, i hear it in

new york, they're surprised at this, i hear it from my family in ohio. so how do we as a nation process this? here's dave chappelle on snl. >> a few weeks ago i went to the white house for a party. it was the first time i had been there many years, and -- and it was very exciting. and b.e.t. had sponsored the party. so everyone there was black. and, it was beautiful. i walked through the gates. you know, i'm from washington, so i saw the bus stop, the the corner where the bus stop used to be where i used to catch the bus to school and dream about nights like tonight. it was a really, really beautiful tonight. and at the end of the night everyone went into the west wing of the white house, and it was a huge party. and everybody in there was black except bradley cooper for some reason. and on the because were pictures of all the presidents of the past.

now i'm not sure if this is true but to my knowledge the first black person that was officially invited to the white house was fredrierick douglass, they stopd him at the gates. abraham lincoln himself had to walk out and escort frederick douglass at the white house. it didn't happen again as far as i know until roosevelt was president. roosevelt was president, he had a black guy over and got so much flak from the media that he literally said i will never have a nigger in this house again. i thought about that, and i looked at that and i saw all those black faces around it, and i saw -- and i saw how happy everybody was. these people who had been historically disenfranchised. and it made me feel hopeful. and it made me feel proud to be an american. and it made me very happy about the prospects. so in that spirit, i'm wishing

donald trump luck, and i'm going to give him a chance, and we, the historically disenfranchised demand that he give us one, too. thank you very much. >> all right so that's one point of view. but this is why many minority groups worry. donald trump appointed that man name steve bannon. a man white nationalists embrace and for good reason. bannon's breitbart launched headlines like these. bill kristol a renegade jew. why islam is the single greatest threat to civilization. the ten things milo hates about islam. and six reasons pamela gellar's muhammad cartoon contest is no different from selma let's talk about the divide in our country with the executive director of c.a.r.e., welcome, sir.

can you say hello to me again? because i didn't hear you. >> sure, yeah. >> oh, good. i was worried there was something wrong with your audio. i'm glad there isn't anything. there are -- there are many people in this country that say the left wing is just in a state of hysteria right now and they should give this man a chance, so why aren't they? >> well, it would have legitimate concerns, and when you -- when you see that the president-elect appoints someone who holds anti-semitic, anti-muslim, anti-immigrant theories, you wonder, are we going to move this country forward? are we going to heal this country in the next few years? and i think the message that we see by appointing an all-right wing theorist we see it the very

own message that our nation needs now. our nation is divided. our nation has been wounded. with what we have seen in the past few months and if we would like to move forward we have to appoint chief strategists who believe in the plurality, diversity and core principles of -- >> let me -- let me -- let me put it this way. steve bannon has long been a part of donald trump's campaign. so, people went out and voted. and that includes 29% of hispanics, for donald trump, and 8% of african-americans for donald trump. those are larger percentages than voted for mitt romney. so he does have some support in the minority community. >> yeah, true. and even a small number among american muslims voted for him. we're not talking about now donald trump himself. we're talking about appointing people who do not believe in the plurality and diversity and the core principles of this country.

and we hold the president in the highest standard in defending the rights of all americans and those who arrive in the united states. by appointing steve bannon, president-elect trump is continuing to advance division and, unfortunately, dispute within americans -- >> but what, what, what is your fear about steve bannon? what, what policies might he push forward that concern you? >> conspiracy theories against muslims, jews, people of color, anti-women sentiment, so, you know, i can't imagine how the president of the united states will bring a bigot, and oppose that will divide america further to be a chief strategist for him in the white house. one of the most important positions in the white house, in the people's house, should have people who believe in the plurality and diversity of this

country to unite americans and to heed the warnings that we have seen over -- >> so how will -- how will your organization help heal the wounds? what will your organization do going forward, now that you know that steve bannon is trump's chief strategic guy? >> by speaking truth to power. by speaking to the president. by advising him. by telling him that the appointment of a bigot in the white house does not serve america, does not unite america, it will further deepen our wounds. and president-elect trump has said on "60 minutes" that he would like to bring americans together by appointing steve bannon, that is not the way to -- >> do you still have hope that mr. trump is serious when he says he wants to unite america? >> well i -- >> are you going to give him a chance? >> america needs to be united. and the president-elect now in a position to make serious and important, you know, statements

by bringing people who are -- and we believe he has the wrong people to advise him es special ply in this key position. mr. bannon has bigoted views a will bring bigoted policies and that will not help advancing unity among americans, and making this country move forward. >> all right i have to leave it there. mr. awad thank you so much for joining me this morning. still to come in the "newsroom," so much for repealing and replacing obamacare. now donald trump says he doesn't want to next all of obamacare. so does he mean kind of a version of trump care? we'll talk about that next. but first the opening bell moments away, is the market ready to hit another record? alison kosik is with me. >> good morning. the trump rally ready to roll into a second week. we are seeing the dow open at a fresh record high. that's after a string of big gains boosted by donald trump's win. look at the dow, up more than 5%

over that span of time. that's about 1,000 points. also predictions of a big drop of that, never materialized.ll - so you're seeing investors focus now on pro-business, pro-growth policies like tax cuts, and deregulations. so as we get into the trading day we see the s&p 500 about 1% away from a record of its own. investors are dumping gold, they're dumping bonds, they're buying into the market, and because of this market reaction, along with a stronger economic growth we've seen lately, carol, we can expect to see the fed, everybody see the fed raise rates next month. >> all right. i know you'll keep an eye on it for us. thanks so much. i'll be right back. i am benedict arnold, the infamous traitor. and i know a thing or two about trading. so i trade with e*trade, where true traders trade

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and good morning i'm carol costello. thank you so much for joining me. repeal and replace obamacare on day one. that was donald trump during the presidential campaign. but now that he's headed to the white house trump may be preparing for either obamacare-light or trump care. >> when you replace it, are you going to make sure that people with reconditions still cover -- >> yes. because it happens to be one of the strongest assets. >> you're going to keep that? >> also with the children living for their parents for an extended period. >> you're going to keep that? >> adds cost but it's very much something we're going to try and keep. >> and there's going to be a period, if you repeal it, and before you replace it, when millions of people could lose -- >> we won't do it simultaneously. it will be just fine. >> with me now the man known as the architect of obamacare, jonathan gruber. welcome, sir. >> good to be here. >> nice to have you here.

so, so what does it sound like trump is trying to do? is he trying to -- is he -- is he -- is he going for like an obamacare-light program? >> it sounds to me like trump is trying to say he's going to protect some of the parts of obamacare that are most popular without actually laying out a plan for doing so. so for example, one of the fundamental gains of obamacare is ending discrimination in insurance markets. no longer allowing insurers to deny insurance coverage to people just because they're sick or charge them higher prices. he hasn't mentioned that. pre-existing conditions exclusions, that's nice. but that doesn't solve the problem. so my wife, for example, a breast cancer survivor. what trump laid out if she went to the insurer, the insurer could say yeah if we offered you health insurance we'd make sure to cover your breast cancer but guess what we're not going to offer you health insurance because you're sick? trump has to address that problem. >> so, so, so he keeps -- like i guess -- this still would have to go through congress, right? so let's say he keeps the parts

of the law that, that people really like. what would that do to all of our premiums? if, if, if he could keep all of the elements that, that you say that -- >> the point is about obamacare it's complicated for a reason. the part people like is ending insurance discrimination. not allowing insurers to deny my wife coverage because she's a breast cancer survivor. however you can't have that unless you also make sure that people can afford insurance so that the healthy buy it and you get healthy people into the risk group. to just say we're going to keep the parts people like and get rid of the parts people don't, we've tried that. seven states tried that in the 1990s. they tried to tell insurers you can't discriminate against the sick. in every single case it destroyed the insurance market, premiums went through the roof and the insurance market shrunk to a fraction of its previous size. you can't have it both ways. if you want to tell insurers they can't discriminate you need an individual mandate and

subsidies to make sure healthy people come into the pool. >> why couldn't the government put price controls on insurance companies? >> the government could try to put price controls on insurance companies but then insurance companies could "a," exit the market. and say i'm just not going to offer insurance in this market. there's nothing the government can do about that. or "b" deny sick people coverage or say at that price i'm not going to offer coverage to sick people. the point is the government cannot force -- go ahead. >> it's okay. >> the bottom line is, you can't have it both ways. if you want insurance companies to cover everyone fairly, you have to bring healthy people into the pool. and the only way to do that is with a combination of tariffs, which is tax credits to make health insurance affordable, and a stick which is a mandate to bring the healthy people in to buy insurance. >> i have heard -- i've heard a lot of people say, you know what, there's 22 million people in obamacare right now, a large majority of them are -- are poor people who can't afford insurance but if they're tikd off with obamacare they'll just

go to medicaid. is it as simple as that? >> no it's not. the 22 million people who are on obamacare right now are on parts of medicaid that didn't exist before. so for example, before on medicaid, if you were, say, 25-year-old, or say a 30-year-old single woman with no children, and an income of $5,000 a year, you had no access to health insurance. that simply didn't exist. obamacare expanding medicaid said we're going to guarantee our poorest citizens, very poorest citizens a right to health insurance coverage. in those states that choose to expand medicaid. if you take that away then a woman like that simply has no coverage options. >> okay. jonathan gruber, thanks for stopping by. we'll all see what happens together. thank you so much. still to come in the "newsroom," people in aleppo, syria, flee now or face heavy bombing within 24 hours.

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imagine getting a text that your city is going to be bomd and you better get out when you can. people in aleppo, syria, are not imagining that. they're living it. that's the text they got and syrian rebels in the city are being told to lay down their weapons or die. cnn is following that from amen, jordan for us. good morning. >> good morning, carol. according to residents of eastern aleppo that we've spoken to, they say early on sunday they received these various text messages that they believe are from the syrian regime, really with a warning, addressed to the rebels in eastern aleppo, but also to the residents, a warning, an ultimatum, giving people 24 hours, telling the rebels to lay down their weapons, or even leave the city, and they're really warning of a military assault that they say is going to be launched on eastern aleppo. the people that we've spoken to, carol, say this is something

they've seen in the past, these sorts of messages, they've received them in the past on leaflets that have been dropped on their neighborhoods or broadcast through state media. they feel this is part of the psychological warfare and intimidation tactics to spread fear amongst the population in eastern aleppo. but, at the same time, there is this real sense of apprehension amongst the people in eastern aleppo, those that we have spoken to are absolutely terrified, carol, of what they feel might be an all-out military assault by the syrian regime, and their russian allies that could start any minute now. >> all right. jomana reporting live for us from jordan. thanks so much. still to come in the "newsroom" more americans picked clinton but trump won the white house. now some, well, some mostly on the left are saying it is time to change the electoral system.

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donald trump riding his populist wave to the white house but he's not winning the popular vote. hillary clinton is up more than 600,000 votes and while donald trump won with the electoral college, he says he still doesn't like the system. let's talk about this with larry sabato from the center for politics at the university of virginia. good morning. >> good morning, carol. >> even mr. trump says i don't like the electoral system but i won so why should i complain. that's true, right? >> it's true. what's interesting is a number of people on the right, not just the left, have called for the abolition of the electoral

college over the years, including by the way, newt gingrich. now, look, is this going to have any practical effect? well, in one sense, no. hillary clinton in the end will win the popular vote probably by a record in american history. right now she's up as you mentioned 700,000 or so. the estimates are that she will end up winning by one and a half to two million votes. that's a lot of votes. you may remember al gore won the popular vote but he won it by 540,000. much, much fewer than hillary clinton. so you know, it has practical effects on a president because it gives his critics a useful retort to any proposal he makes. well, you weren't elected by the people. you were elected by this antiquated invention of the founders that fit the 1790s but doesn't fit the 21st century. >> although his new chief of

staff, reince priebus, put it another way this morning. let's listen. >> he played the exact strategy that a smart person would play in the 12 states that mattered and he won significantly. so i get the obsession over the popular vote but that's really not what this election was all about. >> okay. this was not what this election was all about. he said if donald trump had gone to california, he probably would have won california but he didn't choose to go there. >> there's absolutely zero chance that he would have even come close in california. newt gingrich made the same argument yesterday that if the popular vote mattered, donald trump would have campaigned in california and won at least two million more votes which is of course, absurd on its face. but you also have to ask what would hillary clinton have done. well, her campaign which was well organized and had tons of money would have organized the blue parts of red states. they didn't bother to organize

the college towns and big cities in red states because they knew it was hopeless. they weren't going to win the electoral vote. but if they had done so, she would have picked up millions of additional votes. so this is an argument that is a non-starter. >> so how likely is it that anything will change when it comes to the electoral college? >> carol, you know the gallop poll for many users, even decades, has shown that a very large majority of americans wants to abolish this crazy institution, the electoral college. we are the only democracy in the world that doesn't count the popular vote. you can win the popular vote, you can lose the presidency. it's already happened five times in american history. it's going to be happening more frequently as long as we have close elections and the democrats will be disproportionately disadvantaged by this. so all i can tell you is if the

people have their way, it would be abolished, because we are incapable of reforming our system and i say that sadly. the electoral college will be abolished on the 12th of never. >> just quickly, remind us why there's an electoral college anyway. >> well, there's an electoral college for a number of reasons. certainly one reason was it was a request slash demand of mal r -- smaller states particularly those that were slave states, mainly because the founders did not trust the people. we had no popular election in the beginning. we went through five presidential elections before we got to -- or five presidents before we got to a popular vote in the 1820s and even then it was extremely limited to a relative handful of white men, mainly propertied men. no women, no african-americans, so on. so it's been a long, hard

process to broaden the franchise and this is an important point to make. it still shows that the franchise is not universal because the people don't pick the president. >> have to leave it there. thanks for stopping by. the next hour of "cnn newsroom" after a break. when a moment spontaneously turns romantic, why pause to take a pill? or stop to find a bathroom? cialis for daily use is approved to treat both erectile dysfunction and the urinary symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently, day or night. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, or adempas for pulmonary hypertension, as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. to avoid long-term injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours.

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good morning. i'm carol costello. thanks for joining me. week one in donald trump's america. a sixth straight day of protests expected today against the president-elect.