[Carol Costello, Cnn Anchor:] Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. Donald Trump launches a flurry of Twitter attacks to push back against reports that his all-important transition team is in turmoil. Here's one. Attacking the "New York Times" it was tweeted out just a couple hours ago, Trump says the transition is going so smoothly. Minutes ago I asked Trump's communications director about that Twitter outburst. He downplayed it.
[Jason Miller, Communications Director Trump Transition Team:] I would describe it as this is the president-elect setting the record straight. And I think this is a part of the reason why he received such great support last week and why he won the election, because he's not this typical politician. He's not going to be confined by the media norms. When he sees something that's incorrect he's not afraid to stand up and set the record straight.
[Costello:] But Trump's latest firing, adding to the concerns of establishment Republicans. Mike Rogers, the former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, was booted from Trump's transition team. Rogers telling CNN, he was among several recent dismissals, all with ties to recently fired, Chris Christie. And sources say, Trump's son- in-law, Jared Kushner is at the center of all the infighting. All of this unfolding just 65 days away from Trump's inauguration. CNN's Sunlen Serfaty is outside Trump Tower where the president- elect is back at work today at his transition headquarters. Good morning, Sunlen.
[Sunlen Serfaty, Cnn Correspondent:] Good morning too, Carol. Lot of pushback coming from Trump transition officials disputing the notion that this last week for them has been a turbulent time for their transition and joining in that chorus this morning is President- elect Donald Trump himself, taking to Twitter to tweet out this, "Very organized process," in talking about the transition, "taking place as I decide on Cabinet and many other positions. I am the only one who knows who the finalists are!" And as the process continues today here at Trump Tower, the team potentially zeroing in and making some final decisions on some of these top Cabinet posts, Eric Trump, Donald Trump's son, just entered Trump Tower a few minutes ago and spoke briefly with the press.
[Serfaty:] Eric, what are you expecting for today? What do you guys have planned?
[Eric Trump, President-elect's Son:] Good day.
[Serfaty:] Good day? Are you guys planning on any more positions today?
[Trump:] Likely.
[Serfaty:] Likely, anyone in particular? What are you going to be working on today?
[Unidentified Male:] Eric, how was dinner?
[Serfaty:] Now, as many on Trump's team are very trying very hard to project calmness and steadiness amid all these reports, there has been turnover behind the scenes. Multiple sources I believe that we have, by the way, live pictures of Sen. Jeff Sessions arriving now at Trump Tower. He was also here for many hours yesterday. But back to the turnover, there are multiple sources that say that Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner is really at the center of much of this infighting going on. That he has really been pushing to purge many of the transition members that are closely aligned with former transition head Chris Christie and one of those who has been shown the door yesterday, was former Congressman, CNN contributor Mike Rogers, who was closely aligned with Chris Christie. Here's what he told Anderson Cooper.
[Mike Rogers, Former Member Of Trump Transition Team:] Sometimes in politics, you know, in the palace intrigue there are people who are in and people who are out. And the people who have been asked to move on have some relationship with Chris Christie. In my case I was hired by him. And so there's a whole series of about five of them that fit that criteria that were asked to leave in the last few days. And you know what, that's the absolutely the campaign's prerogative. I think there is some confusion going on about a chain of command coming out of New York. Hopefully they will get that settled pretty soon. I think they're going to need to do it because as this clock ticks, all of these decisions become more important.
[Serfaty:] And that word, Carol, confusion really caught my ear, because here we are a week a full week after Election Day and they are, you know, constantly plagued by the stories of infighting and turnover, certainly not the sort of image that you want to project at a time where you need to be making these big decisions. Carol?
[Costello:] Yes and as I watch Sen. Jeff Sessions at the elevator, about to go up to meet Mr. Trump. Eric Trump said there might be some somebody named today to a cabinet position. Then we know that Sen. Sessions is up for attorney general. He is also being considered for Secretary of Defense. So, if you look into your crystal ball, Sunlen, do you see Jeff Sessions being named to a position sometime today?
[Serfaty:] I really believe that there potentially could be some announcements coming up, potentially as soon as today. I know you talked to Jason Miller in the past hour and he didn't really show his hand but made clear that the final decision, of course, rests with Donald Trump. Sen. Sessions was here at Trump Tower for many, many hours yesterday. And as you noted, his name has been bandied about for a plethora of positions including Defense Department and attorney general. There seems to be a feeling within the transition team that he can play in many positions, potentially someone that could be easily conformable given that he is a senator well liked on Capitol Hill. So, we will see what position he potentially gets. Carol?
[Costello:] All right. Sunlen Serfaty, I'll let you get back to it. Thank you so much. So let's talk about all of this. Larry Sabato is here. He's the director for the University of Virginia, Center for Politics. David Catanese joins me. He's a senior politics writer at "U.S. News & World Report." Patricia Murphy is here. She's a columnist for "The Daily Beast" and for "Roll Call." Welcome to all of you, so much to talk about this morning. So, Larry, Mr. Trump went on a sort of tweet storm this morning, pushing back against the "New York Times" reporting that his transition team is in turmoil. What do you make of that?
[Larry Sabato, Director University Of Virginia Center For Politics:] Well, there'll be a lot of
[Costello:] OK. So Larry, we will go on and we'll ask Patricia that question. So while Larry fixes his Skype, what do you think about Trump's tweeting this morning? He tweeted at least four times.
[Patricia Murphy, Columnist "the Daily Beast" And "roll Call":] Well, it feels a lot like candidate Trump. It doesn't feel like a future President Trump. And I think what is so unusual about this transition process besides the infighting which you know, of course can occur, the information flow out of this process has been so bizarre. The fact the only information we are getting about the transition is from Eric Trump just shouting across Trump Tower lobby, from Donald Trump tweeting early in the morning, and then from unnamed transition officials and everybody else who got booted off. So it doesn't feel like there's transparency. It doesn't feel organized. It doesn't feel like they even had any of this in place before they won. It's just so unusual. And I feel like it does send a message that this is a group that didn't have their act together and wasn't ready to become the president. I think they need to certainly kind of button it up and it will be very helpful for members of the media to have a regular information flow.
[Costello:] Yes. Good luck with that. I did talk to Jason Miller, however, this morning. He's Mr. Trump's senior communications director. And he told me there's no turmoil within the transition team. It's just a bunch of people who are kind of bitter about not being named to White House positions. So, let's listen to that.
[Miller:] Well, I think it's important to keep in mind that he's actually putting this team together. He's working with the vice president-elect, with the executive director of the transition team. They have a very structured plan and are going through this methodically to make sure they get it right. And that's the important thing I think that people need to know is they have the plan in place, they're going to go through. They're going to do the due diligence to make sure they check people's backgrounds and make sure they are on the up and up and we have a very good team put together. And then, once he's inaugurated we're going to do some very exciting things. But there's a clear structure in place. I think some of this palace intrigue, really where I think this comes from usually as folks who either aren't up for jobs who maybe a little bit bitter or some people who are just maybe bitter that the election didn't go their way last week.
[Costello:] So David, might this all be coming from people who are bitter and want to say bad things about Mr. Trump because they are petty?
[David Catanese, Senior Politics Writer "u.s. News & World Report":] Yes, there's probably some of that. That goes on all the time in politics. It is not abnormal to have warring factions within campaigns, within administrations. That is actually pretty normal. I think the difference here with the Trump campaign is the outsized role of his family. I don't know if there's ever been a comparison where you have his family members, his sons, his son-in-law, his daughter, who are playing such an important role. I mean, you would have to go back to probably the Kennedys to make that comparison. And go to Jared Kushner, who obviously has a real problem with Chris Christie. Remember, Chris Christie put Jared Kushner's father in prison years ago. So he clearly doesn't like the guy. He's gotten involved in the vice presidential process in blocking Christie from ever having a real shot at that. Now he has ousted the Christie faction in the transition. So I just think we can, you know, underestimate the power of Jared Kushner and he's been a pivotal player through the Trump campaign. He's going to be a pivotal player through the transition and probably once Trump is in the White House.
[Costello:] Well, here are two things that Jason Miller told me about Jared Kushner. And Larry, you can address this after I inform our viewers what he said last hour to me. He said that Jared Kushner is not behind the supposed bloodbath within the transition team. He's just trying to help out Mr. Trump in the best way possible. I asked him if a security clearance was requested for Jared Kushner and Jason Miller told me no. So it's unclear that Jared Kushner will have any role at least at this point going on down the line and according to Jason Miller he's not behind the bloodbath or the infighting or whatever.
[Sabato:] Well, we really don't know one way or the other, but in listening to Mr. Miller and seeing President-elect Trump's tweet about how things are going so smoothly, I would hate to see what chaos is if this is smooth. And this is the easy part. The tough part is governing that begins January 20th. So look, people have all kinds of varying sources but it's pretty obvious from statements made by people like your contributor, Mike Rogers, the former Congressman, and others who have been involved in the process, that something's happening and basically the response of the Trump people is who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes. Well, I will take the lying eyes, thank you.
[Costello:] So Patricia, so there's a little chaos maybe within the Trump transition team, but as long as he's named important positions by the time he needs to, what difference does it make?
[Murphy:] Well, I think it makes a difference. It is sending a signal both to the American people as well as to people around the world, allies, what kind of a president, Trump is going to be. It's very, very important how he's going to run his administration. It's very important who he names to these posts. And it's really important how he names them. Is this a transparent process? Is this a process that's organized? Is it a process that's professional? Is it out of control? Is it run by rumors? Is it run by his family? So far were getting a lot of the latter, not a lot of the former because Donald Trump has so little experience because we don't know what kind of a person he's going to be in government. All of these are going to tell us what kind of a president we can expect. And so far it's not going well. He can certainly turn it around. He can professionalize it. He can start to have regular flow of information. But so far it's been a really bad week for them.
[Costello:] All right. I have to leave it there. Larry Sabato, David Catanese, Patricia Murphy, thanks to all of you. Still to come in the "Newsroom," they're not just angry. They are fearful. Up next, we'll tell you about a new wave of anti-Trump protests expected today.