ou're totally blind, you may also be struggling with non-24. calling 844-844-2424. or visit my24info.com. that does it for me. i'm ali velshi. i'll be back at noon eastern but for now, time to hand it over to my friend, tamron hall. >> we should call this your network, you're working so hard. good morning. coming to you live from our msnbc headquarters in new york. we are following breaking news on the trump transition. advisors now say the president-elect will make two new staff announcements today. we'll have a live report from florida and developing news, the first american soldier killed in syria in the fight against isis. what happened and what are military officials saying about this death? and found alive. a missing mother of two reunited with her family three weeks

after vanishing while jogging near her home in california. what authorities say about the search for her abductors. and let's start with the breaking news regarding the trump transition. we just learned within the past few minutes we will, meaning the public, will be getting new additions to the team trump later today. kristen welker is at mar-a-lago in palm beach. so crikristen, these are not bi names or positions but nevertheless, sounds as if the president-elect wants people to know he's working while away in florida. >> reporter: i think that's absolutely right, tamron. look. we're going to get the names of two more staff level members of his team later on today. so his administration coming into clear focus as you point out, these are not positions that require senate confirmation. these are folks who will be in the west wing with him and still we know he's working on trying to shape his administration. he's debating his cabinet. a number of top positions, particularly secretary of state and among the questions he's asking, should he include more

former rivals or bring in more loyalists. that's the key question as the political world awaits his next move. >> kristen, we'll talk more about some of the big appointments that could be coming with you a little bit later but there's a report now that you have some perceived or real in-fighting about mitt romney and the role he could play if selected as secretary of state. what's going on there? >> reporter: you're absolutely right. look, the choice is between the two front runners, mitt romney, former 2016 presidential candidate, former governor of massachusetts. he's a republican moderate but one of the first top republicans to come out and criticize donald trump and not only criticize his policies, but essentially, to pa paint him as someone not qualified to be president and then rudy giuliani, he is one of donald trump's strongest supporters with him through thing and thin and a bit of a

hard liner. so you have a number of republicans in the party saying, hey, look. mitt romney could be a real counterpoint to someone like a michael flynn that's going to be the national security advisor who was also a counterpoint. so there's a big debate going on and yesterday we got a bit of a tea leaf, if you will. kellyanne conway, one of donald trump's top advisors tweeting out the virtue of loyalty. that word there hung in the air for a lot of people. it seemed like she was picking sides and pointing to giuliani. but the question is, does this internal debate lead the way to another candidate, someone like a david petraeus, for example, former cia director but as you know, he was prosecuted for mishandling classified information. that's something donald trump railed against throughout his campaign. so a lot of intrigue through this big decision. >> in the past, when donald trump would bring up general petraeus, often said hillary clinton did worse. why was david petraeus prosecuted in a way, he was

defending him and the name came up before, general petraeus as potentially secretary of defense. now, kristen, fox news is reporting that mitt romney may issue a public apology to the president-elect if this is to continue forward and eventually end up as the pick for secretary of state. that would be an incredible development given the strong stance against trump that you mentioned that we all witnessed during the campaign. >> reporter: it would be an incredible development but think about mitt romney. this is someone who ran for president twice. this is someone who wanted to seek the highest office. if he could serve as secretary of state, it wouldn't be president, but it would be a cabinet level position. it would be significant. it would be a larger position than anything he's ever taken on. and look at his background. this is someone who's served as governor of macssachusetts. enjoys public service.

it's been his life's work and if you read some of his tweets or comments about this, he would bring something to the table. so wouldn't be surprised if we saw an overture like that. the question is, how public would it be? how big would that olive branch be but certainly, based on our reporting, it's a position he's interested in. >> thank you very much, kristen. now to the tragic development in the war against isis. for the first time, an american soldier killed inside syria while fighting that terror group. it happened on thanksgiving day in northern syria near the border with you are kof turkey. >> reporter: we know few details about the identity of the service member killed. it happened on thursday. somewhere in northern syria not far from raqqah, the self-proclaimed capital of isis. that the united states and allies try to encircle and cut off to try to essentially

destroy the battle with isis. secretary carter issued, saying yesterday on thursday, i am deeply saddened by the news on this thanksgiving day that one of our brave service members has been killed in syria while prekting us from the evil that is isil. it is a painful reminder of the dangers our men and women face throughout the world to keep us safe. remember, during the past month or so, two major operations have been launched to defeat isis throughout iraq and mosul and in raqqah. the two cities about 200 miles apart and these are major operations that the united states is trying to execute during the waiting days of the obama administration and try to really destroy and deliver a devastating blow to isis before president obama leaves office. so one service member has been killed in syria, so far, there have been four who have been killed in iraq.

these are relatively small numbers and we're taking about hundreds, not thousands, but hundreds of american special forces troops near the front lines, training, assisting and recruiting local forces. the administration emphasized that they are not playing cop b combat roles but they're involved in combat. the administration tried to emphasize that the local forces are out in front but again, the death of the service member in syria and iraq is a reminder there's a real war going on there. there are casualties happening and that may in fact continue to happen as america pushes this operation to try and really destroy and deliver a devastating blow to isis, iraq, a syria. five men were arrested on sunday planning according to authorities to launch an attack on december 1st. among the possible targets, the

christmas market and disneyland theme park in paris. in a zeshsearch, they found an arsenal of weapons and computer analysis detailing how isis guided the group remotely from syria or iraq. for more on this new development, we turn to nbc foreign correspondent matt bradley. what more do we learn about this plot and even down to the specific date of that these suspects were allegedly planning to strike? >> reporter: good morning. again, the specter of isis terrorism spooking france. this country has been urnldnder state of emergency when the bataclan attacks in 2015. and the revelations that came out today from the paris prosecutor regarding these five people arrested on sunday show sop of the level of communication that was happening between jihadis based in france and a sort of puppet master or

coordinator based in syria or iraq and the french prosecutor said that there was all five suspects, four were in the eastern city of strasburg and one was in marsaill zeres recei detailed instructions from an isis jihadi or commando based in the middle east. these instructions were able to show these commandos based in france where to go to pick up cash and where to go to find the weapons that they picked up that were later found in the homes in strasburg and marseilles as you just mentioned. one french, one moroccan will appear for charges in court today. >> matt, thank you very much for the update there. and now what could be a boost for some retailers. black friday is in full force right now. 137 million americans expected to shop this weekend.

records are already being broken and the national retail federation predicting this will be the biggest black friday in terms of sales. scores of bargain hunters ate early or just rushed out to the stores that opened pretty early yesterday. 4:00 p.m. in some cases. >> saved a lot of money. it's fun. i do it every year. >> it's a sale. you save a lot of money. >> mariana atencio is live at the world famous mall of america in minnesota. intriguing numbers, marianna because you have records reportedly broken and some numbers show around 23% fewer shoppers participating in black friday. so are the people going out buying more things? >> reporter: i can tell you, tamron, what many malls are doing are creating more of an experience to lure people to come to the mall so they're doing giveaways, doing raffles and we've seen that really have

an effect on consumers, at least here at mall of america. 11,000 people got reinforcements for a day like today. 74% of people plan on shopping on black friday. and for that, trends expert sarah rogers. what are the hot ticket items? >> gift cards are popular and people are buying for themselves. leisure going strong and toys like star wars, lego, american girl and electronics. >> reporter: tamron, i'll head over on the other side because 30% of people planning to buy consumer electronics today and ran into this bunch a little bit earlier. alex, what are you holding? >> a monitor i got at best buy. it was 50% off and so i was excited. >> you're here with your friends, your girlfriend. what did you get? >> a lot of clothes, really. >> reporter: buying clothing and accessories. and what about friends over here? >> xbox 1 controller, 30% off. >> a sports bra from viktctoriv

secret. >> reporter: definitely focused on today these electronics. >> let's head to new york area. nbc's jolene kent at a mall in jersey city, new jersey. what are you observing there with the black friday epic dealing out there? >> reporter: that's right. it seemed like the whole mall is 50% off and see the signs here, 50% off all across, every single store. charlotte russe, michael kors and meeting with the great families of jersey city. great for being out here today. what brings you out with your entire family? >> well, i'm looking for a good deal. i can't i'm not. i'm looking for a good deal. my brother called me this morning. he was like, i hope you're dr s dress dressed, let's go.

>> reporter: a lot of different family members. what are the items? >> i'm looking for some baby items because i have brand new babies that arrived in my family, three of them, which is crazy and awesome, such a blessing and on top of that, my wonderful children and they're also going to show you what santa will want them to get for them this year. >> reporter: a list for santa claus, right? >> yes. >> reporter: thank you so much for joining us. we also want to show you more of this mall, tamron. come this way. we look at the health of the consumer and so we want to check in and see how these stores are doing and we've heard that target.com had a record year or a record day, excuse me, and we know amazon.com also having record sales so far for black friday and we checked in with the target ceo brian kornell about what he thinks the american consumer is up to this weekend. listen to this. >> i think from a consumer

standpoint, what i'm encouraged with is i think it's a great time to be a consumer. interest rates are low. there's the food. fuel prices are low. i think it's a really good consumer environment. and i expect that to translate into a really positive retail environment. >> reporter: it's a positive retail environment in the eyes of target ceo but the real question, can the stores deliver in the final three months and boost the bottom lines to get to where they need to be? we have discussed it's been a soft retail year, a lot of pressure on this holiday shopping season. >> indeed. thank you very much. and for a second year in a row, much more serious scene on black friday in chicago where protests are getting under way. nbc's blake mccoy is live in chicago and blake, we saw last year, a very large protest where people focused in on police accountability. maybe not the turnout from last year but certainly some of the

issues being brought to the forefront, again, in chicago. >> reporter: absolutely, tamron. about 100 people gathered so far this year, definitely smaller than last year but last year followed the police shooting and cover-up of laquon mcdonald. you may have heard that name over and over and the things they were pushing for were a new state's attorney and new police commissioner. they got both of those things. the only person still around they had been asking to resign was mayor rahm emanuel. this is jeff, one of the organizers here. what are you hoping to accomplish this year with this rally here on michigan avenue? >> we're out here because democracy has not come to fruition. we have been pushing for at least the last five years and it really went into overdrive for community control of our police. we're not just asking them to give us a fake ordinance, which is what they have given us. >> reporter: you want the power.

>> citizen control of the police. there should be regular folks like you and i to make sure what is standard operating procedure, what is excessive force, necessary force? we have no control over that and that is why we continue to get the same outcomes that we get. which is police officers not being indicted and taking aggressive action when it's not necessary. control of the police would change that and that's what we're working on. >> reporter: 100 people here. what do you hope to accomplish by gathering on michigan avenue on one of the busiest shopping days of the year? >> i think we've got about 300 people here at least and still getting started. supposed to be here at 10:00. it's not 10:00 yet but what we hope to accomplish is put pressure on those that really have power over our government and in our city council, 50% of the people that came to the meetings to talk about curing this justice system talked about police accountability council. and when they passed the law, they didn't pass cpac. we have talk to people who have

a safe zone. >> reporter: thank you for talking with us. you can see them gathering now. they're told not to enter into stores. this is about a peaceful rally. >> thank you very much. up next, as mentioned as you know, black friday is under way, but a lot of people are already pivoting to cybermonday. just skipping the weekend. we've got some new numbers on what this could do for the economy as we get a heavy weekend of shopping and a monday filled with online shopping and later, a mother disappears for nearly a month. and now she's been reunited with her family. the latest on the search for her abductors and how she was ultimately found by authorities. they're calling it a miracle right after this. thank you for . hope to see you again soon. whoa, whoa, i got this. just gotta get the check. almost there.

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welcome back. black friday may be one of the busiest days of the year for finding a good deal, loading up on things you may or may not need. shoppers do plan to shop online and finance expert, lynette cox. thank you so much for joining us. i know we can get caught up into where to get the big tv and all of these other things but in reality, there are some forecast numbers out there that show the cybermonday could be huge. >> right. i think we're seeing early indications the fact that target ceo said their target.com web site has already had record sales. adobe digital came out with early numbers and showed well over a billion dollars in online spending on thanksgiving day alone, so that was yesterday while people were sitting around having turkey, you know, and so yes. i think all of this bodes well for a strong sense of sales come

cybermonday. >> you have some say it's the beginning of black friday and they were upset that employees had to work on thanksgiving and is it true, has it peaked? >> i think it's a disturbing trend we see holiday creep throughout the month of november, obviously throughout the month of december. i don't believe for a moment we'll see a curtailing of stores starting to open on thanksgiving day and more spending happen. some think because thursday, the traditional thanksgiving holiday had so much spending and we'll see less on over the weekend or in the coming weeks ahead but it usual works in the exact opposite and people tend to keep spending more and more as the season goes on. >> what groups push cybermonday? demographics-wise. >> you mean from the retailer standpoint? >> millennials or just about everybody? what groups are pushing in?

>> the trend is in place for all kinds of shoppers but definitely the case that a lot of millennials prefer to shop digitally. which makes sense. laptop, smartphone. >> a third or more of them will be shopping online. and so that is in place. but they also like the experience and some data that suggests people start to make this a family gathering sort of event they'll go on friday or over the weekend out to shop just as a sort of thing to do. >> how does it impact seasonal workers for brick and mortar stores? feel migrate to shopping online, what does it mean for people who pick up part-time work in some stores? >> again, i don't think it's a case of one area diminishing the other but such strong demand to see a lot of online shopping continue and think the brick and mortar stores, the retailers need bodies and usually see this uptick with seasonal hiring and

one is not necessarily going to suppress the other. >> thank you so much. really appreciate it. the search under way for the alleged kidnappers of a california mom missing for weeks andrea mitchell she was found eventually tied up on the side of the road. the chilling details about her abduction and the hunt for the people responsible. plus, a judge has just handed down a key ruling in the case against dylan roof and the latest on his upcoming trial is next. every day starts better with a healthy smile. start yours with philips sonicare, the no.1 choice of dentists. compared to oral-b 7000, philips sonicare flexcare platinum removes significantly more plaque. this is the sound of sonic technology cleaning deep between teeth. hear the difference? get healthier gums in just 2 weeks vs a manual toothbrush and experience an amazing feel of clean. innovation and you.

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better taste. better nutrition. better eggs. welcome back. time now for other stories we are following this morning. a judge in the charleston church shooting case declared dylan roof competent for the june killings of nine parishioners. the 22-year-old indicted on 33 counts. most related to federal hate crime laws.

jury selection will begin this monday. and the fight against isis has claimed the life of a u.s. service member, military officials say the soldier died of injuries from an ied blast while fighting alongside kurdish forces in northern syria. it is a first american casualty in syria since the start of the operation against isis. >> the number of people killed is rising after a suicide bomb attack at a gas station just south of baghdad. isis has claimed responsibility for the blast which killed at least 73 people. officials said the target of the attack appears to have been a bus carrying iranian pilgrims heading home after taking part in a major religious observance in karbala. a 3-year-old mi week old mis case in a miraculous way. sherry, a wife and mom of two found on a road bound and restrained nearly 150 miles from

where she was last seen in northern california. for more on her case, we go to gadi schwartz in los angeles. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, tamron. three long weeks ago, sherry papini went for a run and never came home. her community came to find the missing mother of two. people called in tips, over 400 tips came to investigators while investigators searched dozens and dozens of miles all the while her family never gave up hope that she would be found safe and alive. 34-year-old sherry papini described by her family as a super mom. this morning, once again surrounded by those she loves. >> sherry papini located and reunited with her husband and family on this day of thanksgiving. >> reporter: papini found at 4:30 in the morning 150 miles from where investigators believe she was abducted while out jogging over three weeks ago. >> she was bound with restraints. but was able to summon help from

a passing motorist on i-5 near county road 17. >> reporter: now the mother of two is recovering with her family by her side. for weeks, the community had come together to search for any sign of papini after her husband reported her missing. her sister asking for the public's help. >> you don't realize that it could happen to your family. i know my sister would never abandon her children in any way and loves her family very much. >> reporter: papini was last seen on a run, her cell phone and a pair of headphones a mile from her house and described two captors as hispanic women with a gun and a dark suv. >> we don't know if that's a stranger abduction or not. so that's part of the ongoing investigation. >> reporter: while the papini se celebrates a mother's safe return, still cautioning that whoever kidnapped sherry papini

is still on the loose. the community of redding is still very much on edge right now, investigators are still speaking to papini and expected to provide an update later today. tamron? back to you. >> thank you. up next, mourning a tv icon. a look back at the life and legacy of one of america's favorite moms. florence henderson. >> marcia, your speech was just fine. you mustn't let the boys upset you. >> i know, but -- >> look, if you're going to run for any kind of office, you have to expect the opposition to be, well, rude. on the other hand, you shouldn't have to expect it in your own home. our mission is to produce programs and online content for african women as they try to build their businesses and careers. my name is yasmin belo-osagie and i'm a co-founder at she leads africa. i definitely could not do my job without technology. this windows 10 device,

the touchscreen allows you to kind of pinpoint what you're talking about. which makes communication much easier and faster than the old mac that i used to use. you can configure it in so many different ways, it just, i don't know, it feels really cool. i feel like i'm in the future.

he wears his army hat, he gets awalks aroundliments. with his army shirt looking all nice. and then people just say, "thank you for serving our country" and i'm like, that's my dad. male vo: no one deserves a warmer welcome home. that's why we're hiring 10,000 members of the military community by the end of 2017. i'm very proud of him. male vo: comcast. welcome back. we have more now on the death of tv icon florence henderson. she passed away of heart failure yesterday in los angeles.

nbc's willie gooeist with more her life and career. >> reporter: america's mom. carol brady. for five seasons, starting in 1969 and for years after in reruns, that lovely lady, florence henderson starred on the brady bunch. as a widow with three daughters who marries a widower with three sons setting down in sunny california. >> yeah. >> when you come back to earth, would you tell the boys to straighten up their room? >> yeah. >> reporter: henderson helped raise a generation of kids with her optimistic wit and wisdom. the brady bunch showing how a non-traditional blended family could work, an idea way ahead of its time. >> that really was a memorable event. >> reporter: born in dale, indiana, henderson the youngest of ten children. the stunning beauty made her

mark on broadway starring in a string of hit shows before getting her big break on tv. she was in every sense of the word a today's show original. in 1959, hired to be the very first "today" girl doing the weather, fashion, and other light news segments. and it wasn't just morning tv. she broke ground in late night as well. in 1962 becoming the first woman to guest host "the tonight show" before johnny carson took the reins. >> this is later today with jodie applegate and florence henderson. >> reporter: four decades later, henderson returned to her "today show" roots. co-hosting the spinoff "later today" and through the years, shared memorable moments on "today." florence spoke to matt in 2015. >> you say you feel better now than when you were 30. what makes you happy in life these days? >> i try to get up every day and

say, wow, it's a great day. i'm alive. i have four healthy children, five healthy grandchildren, grand dogs, i am so blessed to be able to still do what i love. i work all the time. and just grateful. >> reporter: when she wasn't appearing on tv, she was popping up in commercials. perfectly poised, pitching products from wesson oil. anderson continued to appear in a variety of shows and in 2010 at age 76, she competed on "dancing with the stars." overnight, celebrities sent condolences on social media including actress mauen mccormick who played henderson's daughter, marcia, on the brady bunch. tweeting florence henderson was a dear friend for so very many years and in my heart forever. love and hugs to her family, i'll miss you dearly. >> wow, that was lucky to be an

event with florence last february actually bringing attention to women and heart disease. we were in the go red campaign and she was as amazing in person as she was on screen and a wicked sense of humor so wie certainly remember her fondly. we'll be right back.

welcome back. president-elect trump seemingly putting the brakes on yet another campaign pledge. trump now said he has a quote open mind when it comes to the recently signed global climate change agreement. he had promised to abandon the deal. an environmentalist warned that could still happen. to talk about what could be a reversal, jeremy psi mosigh sim environmental defense fund. >> glad to be here. >> it started with "the new york times" that he's willing to accept humans contributed to our

climate issues and a stark difference from what he said on the campaign trail and a different view from many republicans. how do you see or assess where donald trump stands on climate change at this point? >> i don't think it is that different from many republicans. i think on the campaign trail, president-elect trump had very radical views when it came to climate change saying it was a hoax from the chinese. so the bar was very low in saying he has an open mind is encouraging in that the stakes are so high for all of us because this is about public health, this is about our children's future, and it's also about growing america's clean energy economy. we need him to do the right thing here. it's just hard to tell what he's really thinking. >> think about what we saw when he was in west virginia. he put on the coal miners hat and had the shovel, mimicking as if he was in the mines there but

saying and krcriticizing hillar clinton and said he would be the president ever for the coal industry >> yeah, he's been talking a lot about quote unquote clean coal but the reality is that coal isn't clean. coal pollution kills a lot of people but the communities that trump was speaking to, you know, they have to have a path forward for their economy. and it isn't fair to those communities to make a promise he can't keep that coal is going to be that way forward. and they need to look to the future, not to the past. find new opportunities. the clean energy economy here in the u.s., if we built that economy and communities and found other opportunities and because it is the pastest growing economic sector in the united states at adding jobs. two or three times as fast as other sectors in the economy. >> what's interesting, the person trump has chosen to lead the transition, along target of the republican party, the epa, he's a leading opponent of the clean power plant.

this is myron and if donald trump's statement holds true that he's open, he has a more open mind when it comes to the recently signed globe climate change agreement, this would be perhaps even a divide within people's he's tapped on his transition team. how do you believe he'd balance this? where are you putting your bet at this point? >> where is he going to get his information? the facts are clear here. taking action, having a plan, sticking with the paris global agreement which is a breakthrough that's good for businesses as well as for our health and the future we leave our kids here, communities throughout america, i mean, those are all important ways forward but myron eebel, the head of the transition teamor epa is the ahitect of bringing tobacco's play book in creating confusion about climate science and president-elect trump seems to be one of the prime

recipients and victories because we have the full transcript of what he told "the new york times" and refers back to a conspiracy theory that's disproven again and again that scientists make this up and it's just not true. he is listening to his uncle to find out what's going on. he's the president-elect. he has a responsibility to protect and defend our health and needs to listen to scientists. they're not there right now. they're not part of the team. >> jeremy symons. we appreciate your time. thank you so much. from unconventional candidate to unconventional president-elect and president, what does it mean for the first lady, melania trump? will she follow the footsteps of her husband and carve out a completely different role than what we've grown accustomed to? i'll discuss how melania trump plans to carve out her place in the room. the won chron canned her predecessors, that's next. as we head to break, the

current first lady michelle obama welcomed the white house tree. it was presented to her from a family in wisconsin. the winners of the national tree contest and yes, the soon be on display at thwhite house in the blue room. we'll be right back. attention: are you eligible for medicare? the medicare enrollment deadline is just a few days away. changes to medicare plans could impact your healthcare costs. are you getting all the benefits available to you? call healthmarkets and we'll help you find the medicare plan that's right for you. hi, i'm doctor [martin gizzi.]

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he wears his army hat, he gets awalks aroundliments. with his army shirt looking all nice. and then people just say, "thank you for serving our country" and i'm like, that's my dad. male vo: no one deserves a warmer welcome home. that's why we're hiring 10,000 members of the military community by the end of 2017. i'm very proud of him. male vo: comcast.

melania trump appears to follow path to the presidency by delaying her move to the white house staying with barron until he finishes school. a decision that sets her apart from hillary clinton and michelle obama and many others and for more on what we could expect, we're joined now by betty crowley, a first lady historian. we were just talking on the commercial break about the new film "jackie" with nathalie portman. a humanizing portrayal of the first lady. historically speaking, if melania trump chooses to take a hands off approach and focus more on being a mother, is there

someone in the past that had a similar path? >> well, we'd have to go about 50 years to somewhere like beth time in missouri, didn't live there the way we think maybe melania trump will live here. but stayed there a lot of the time and really was not an activist first lady at all. that really started in the 1960s with lady bird johnson. she went out and campaigned on her own. once they got in the white house, she was a major player in getting the congressman to go for lyndon's policies and so forth. i don't think we're going to see anything like that from melania trump. that's not her background. i mean, people can change. but it's not what we have seen so far. so i would compare her really more to bess truman or somebody from the 1940s and '50s. >> is there anything that would obligate her in your view to be

a more forward figure rather than choosing to go in the back? >> you know, lady bird johnson said -- remember, she followed jackie kennedy into the white house, which had to be a really hard job. she played it differently. she was one for saying that each woman should define the job for herself. there's nothing in the constitution about what the presidential spouse should do. i think we can blame george washington for starting this attention to the first lady, because here we're sitting in new york, not too far from where he brought martha over on the presidential barge to a 13 gun salute and so forth. people paid a lot of attention to the wife from that point on. but there's no rule. you can play it any way you want. as an activist first lady, those ones who did campaign for their husbands, help in making decisions, help in negotiating with coressmen to get certain laws passed and so forth, it's said that the job of first lady

was elevated to that of associate president. so i don't think we're going to see that with the trump presidency. but it has been that strong in the past. >> staffing-wise, how does it work if she's here in new york? would you expect her staff, her secretary, her assistants to remain in washington, d.c.? >> the first lady's side of the white house is the east wing. it's huge. i mean, she -- most first ladies have 25 full-time staff, some of them borrow from agencies and don't have to pay them that way the agency continues to pay. but it's a huge operation. it deals with the social side of the white house but also the publicity for the first lady, sending out autograph pictures of the president and the children and scheduling speeches and so forth. much of that is institutionalized. betty ford, who went into the white house on very short notice, remember, after president nixon resigned, she said that the east wing really

pretty much runs itself. you know, there are the florists and cooks and gardeners. >> well-oiled machine. >> all you have do is show up. >> it's a big job to show up for. >> it is a big job to show up for. >> check out jackie, it's brilliant. before we go, we want to check in with nbc's kristin welker, she's following developments on the trump transition. she's live in florida. we were expecting new staff announcements today. do we have any new information? >> reporter: not yet. there are names that are being bounced around that we're trying to confirm. no staff announcements yet. we think we will get them by the end of the day. the headline there is the fact that these two positions do not need senate confirmation and, of course, we're still waiting on a number of cabinet positions, including setting of state. as you and i have been talking about throughout the hour, a l of buzz about who that might be and a lot of buzz about

potential internal divisions within the republican party, within trump world about this. you have trump supporters and loyalists who want giuliani. he is someone who has stood by donald trump's side from the very beginning. he is a hard-liner though. he is a little bit more of a lightning rod. the other top choice, mitt romney, former 2012 presidential candidate. he is more of a republican moderate, but as you well know, one of the first people to come out and sharply criticize donald trump in very personal terms. there's some musings about whether he might apologize, how public or private would that apology be and how would donald trump take that apology. those are among the questions that we're considering. i can tell you, he is getting some pressure from the republican establishment to bring in someone like mitt romney as a counter point to some of those hard line picks he has made. we are watching this very closely. the president-elect continuing what is a working vacation here in palm beach.

>> we reported yesterday that there was new information about donald trump choosing to skip intelligence briefings, having only attended two. what does that mean? is the campaign pushing -- not the campaign. we're now the transition team. pushing back on the importance of him attending these near daily intelligence briefings that vice-president-elect pence has chosen to be updated on? >> reporter: what's interesting about this is that his transition team is just starting to respond to the reports. first to put that into context, intelligence officials telling us that exactly what you said, he has only received two intelligence briefings since winning the white house. the reason why that is significant, because the expectation is that a president-elect will attend daily briefings. president obama asked for more briefings. the pushback that we're getting from his team is that national security is his top priority. you heard that on the campaign trail. and that he is in the middle of a transition. once he assumes office, he will

likely get into a more regular routine. you have a lot of folks within the intelligence community saying these types of sessions are critical to bringing a president-elect up to speed, particularly one who doesn't have any prior experience in elected office. >> kristin welker live for us in florida. thank you so much. we'll be right back. i am totally blind. i lost my sight in afghanistan. if you're totally blind, you may also be struggling with non-24. calling 844-844-2424. or visit my24info.com.

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thank you so much for watching this hour of msnbc live. i appreciate it. turning things over to my friend who you better not mess with on twitter. he will come for you. >> you have a fantastic rest of your afternoon. great to see you. right now, staffing up the trump transition moves ahead. two new staffers are expected to be named on monday. black friday begins. millions of americans hitting the stores, spending in record number. are those deals really worth it? a star is lost. florence henderson known for her role as mrs. brady is dead at the age of 82.

president-elect trump is spending the day after thanksgiving down in florida mulling over critical cabinet decisions. he could reveal two staff level announcements this hour. kristin welker is live in florida. hello, again. what more do we know? >> reporter: well, you are right, you hit the nail on the head. we are expecting two new staff announcements before the end of the day. what does that mean? these are people who will serve in the west wing with him. they don't require senate confirmation. so this would be the national security adviser, which he has named, doesn't require senate confirmation. positions like that. we are, of course, tracking those cabinet level positions very closely. who could be the next person to be named? here are a couple posts we're watching. commerce secretary, wilbur ross, who is a billionaire investor and also a personal friend of president-elect trump's has emerged as the front