[Suzanne Malveaux, Cnn Anchor:] Good morning. I'm Suzanne Malveaux in for Carol Costello. Thanks for joining me, Happy Holidays. We begin with sad news, however, the sudden death of pop singer George Michael, shocking fans and entertainers around the world. The wham singer shot to fame in the 1980s with this cult classic. Later in his solo career he went on to sell more than 100 million albums. Tributes now pouring in as fans learn the news. Our CNN's Ian Lee is live outside his London home with more. And Ian, I understand that there are people outside the home who really want to express their condolences today.
[Ian Lee, Cnn Correspondent:] That's right, Suzanne. And you can actually see right here all these tributes that are coming, a lot of personal messages like one saying last Christmas, you gave us your heart, we give you ours this Christmas, a lot of people just devastated by this news. We are also hearing on Twitter from Ellen DeGeneres saying, "I just heard about my friend's @GeorgeMichael's death. He was such a brilliant talent. I'm so sad." And then, George Takei said, "Rest with the glittering stars, George Michael. You've found your freedom, your faith. It was your last Christmas, and we shall miss you." A lot of people in shock because he was so young, 53 years old, and it is being reported that it was heart failure was the cause of death. There are people here, you know, sharing personal memories and just sharing their thoughts about him as an artist. I have one here with me, Tonia. Just tell me what was George Michael, what did he mean to you?
[Tonia Katsantonis, George Michael Fan:] George is everything to me. I loved George from when I was 7 years old, followed him for over 30 years of his career, went to countless tours, everything was George. My son was born on George's birthday. My second child was born on George's day. My connection to George and his music will go forever.
[Lee:] This news, how shocking was it?
[Tonia:] I thought it was a hoax. My phone was there was messages coming out of my phone every second. I genuinely believed it was a hoax. And then I got home and I just crumbled into a million pieces. I can't even tell you what I'm feeling. I have no feeling.
[Lee:] You know, this is someone who also had an impact on people, not just through his music but he was a strong advocate for the LGBT community, as well as a strong advocate for AIDS awareness. Suzanne?
[Malveaux:] Yes, Ian, I loved George Michael, grew up on him. And he certainly was courageous and soulful and just a wonderful talent. Thank you so much, Ian. Appreciate that. A blistering rebuke from Benjamin Netanyahu, threats by Republican lawmakers now to withhold U.N. funding and the U.S. ambassador summoned by Israel. This is just some of the fallout after the U.N. Security Council voted 14-0 to condemn Israel's settlements in the West Bank. Netanyahu, now, is accusing the Obama administration of coordinating that vote while the U.S. says it had no role in proposing or drafting the resolution. I want to bring in CNN's Oren Liebermann. He's joining us now from Jerusalem. And Oren, Israel is now voicing new concerns this morning. Why don't you lay out that for us and tell us where we are going with this, this morning?
[Oren Liebermann, Cnn Correspondent:] Well, the new concern is that there could be another U.N. Security Council resolution, one that would try to lay out parameters or conditions for negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. It would try to move forward the process on discussion of some of the most sensitive complex issues, borders, how to look at Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees. Israel is absolutely against this but fears it may happen either in the next week before the end of the year or sometime in the first two weeks of 2017 when there is supposed to be an International Peace Conference in Paris but Israel has said it will not attend. That resolution is Israel's greatest concern right now and yet, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu very much not afraid to lash out at President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry. As you pointed out, he blames them pretty much directly for this resolution saying, he colluded on drafting it and getting it through. Those are accusations that Israel that the U.S. and even the Palestinians deny. Netanyahu summoned not only the U.S. ambassador but ten other ambassadors from countries that voted for this resolution. But those other countries, they met with the Foreign Ministry. It was specifically the U.S. ambassador to Israel, President Obama appointee, who met privately with Netanyahu. Netanyahu is expressing his anger not only in that meeting but as he has in so many other times over the course of the last couple of days. Netanyahu has left no doubt here. He's done working with President Obama and he's very much looking forward to working with President-elect Trump. Suzanne, as you pointed out, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham has said that the U.S. would consider cutting funding to the U.N., U.S. portion of the U.N. budget is quite high. Israel has already taken its own steps diplomatically against the
[U.n. Malveaux:] Oren, thank you so much. This is a It's a lot to digest and of course, it's going to be a lot for Donald Trump to handle in the next administration. Well, Donald Trump also says that he is now closing down his foundation. This was a Christmas Eve announcement. The president-elect released a statement reading in part, "to avoid even the appearance of any conflict with my role as president, I have decided to continue to pursue my strong interest in philanthropy in other ways." But the New York attorney general's office is putting the brakes on Trump's plans. A spokesman says the foundation cannot legally close until an investigation into the foundation's charitable practices has been completed. Ryan Nobles is following the story from Washington. So, tell us where it stands from here. We know that there was a shakeup in the Trump communications team over the weekend. Tell us about that as well as what can be done with the foundation.
[Ryan Nobles, Cnn National Correspondent:] Yes, well Suzanne, let's talk about the foundation first. And you know, logistically, it shouldn't really take too much to shut the foundation down. It currently has no paid employees and Trump himself hasn't raised any money for the foundation in some time. He hasn't even donated to the foundation since 2008. But legally, it's a bit of a different story. A spokesperson for New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman, he was a Hillary Clinton supporter during the campaign. He launched an investigation into the charity in the fall, and he said the foundation cannot dissolve until his investigation is complete. And Schneiderman has been investigating how Trump used the foundation to settle his personal business dealings. Democrats aren't very impressed with Trump's move. The Democratic National Committee releasing a statement that reads in part, "Trump's announcement is a wilted fig leaf to cover up his remaining conflicts of interest and his pitiful record of charitable giving." Of course, the much bigger chore for Trump is figuring out how to isolate himself from his vast business interests around the world in a way that avoids potential conflicts of interest. Now, Trump has said that he will outline that process but the details of that plan won't be revealed until after the New Year. And as you mentioned, Suzanne, this all comes at a time where Trump is dealing with a bit of a staff shakeup. He had intended to appoint Jason Miller, who worked for him during the campaign, as the next White House communications director, but Miller on Christmas Eve, putting out a statement saying, that he's decided not to take that powerful job because it would be too demanding for his young family. So, that among the many things that Donald Trump is being forced to deal with here as he prepares to take office in the next few weeks. Suzanne?
[Malveaux:] All right, Ryan, absolutely a lot to deal with. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. With me now, to walk through all of this, Timothy Naftali, he CNN presidential historian, Errol Louis, CNN political commentator, Andre Bauer, former South Carolina Lieutenant Governor, he supported Trump in the 2016 campaign. Thank you all for joining us during the holiday. Appreciate that. Errol, I want to start with you here. I want to talk about the Trump Foundation we had just discussed previously. Trump says that he's going to dissolve it but the New York attorney general's office says that the Trump Foundation can't officially shut down until after this investigation is over. So, tell us about this limbo that we're in now.
[Errol Louis, Cnn Political Commentator And Political Anchor "spectrum News":] Well, I don't know if I would call it limbo necessarily. I mean, what happened, Suzanne, is if this foundation has collected money from people who then took tax deductions for those contributions, that's got to be looked at. If this foundation used foundation funds to settle business debts, private debts of Trump organization, which might be illegal, that's got to get looked at. There are transactions this foundation might have made that might have to be unwound, that might lead to sanctions, fines, reversing of the transactions or even criminal penalties. So, the attorney general is speaking the law as it stands when it comes to regulating nonprofits. That's what the New York attorney general does. For the Trump organization, I should say, for the foundation, they are trying to solve a political problem and saying that they clearly intend to wind down operations is a good first step toward trying to put this behind them.
[Malveaux:] Yes, I know a lot of people think that at least they are going to start to figure out how to deal with the issue of conflict of interest which is something that they did not believe was going to happen previously. I want to switch gears here. Timothy, Netanyahu and other Israeli officials are now saying they have evidence that the U.S. orchestrated the U.N. Security Council vote which was critical of Israel regarding the settlements. And they say they will share this evidence with the incoming Trump administration. We see President Obama, Prime Minister Netanyahu historically have had this tense relationship. So, what do we make of what is happening now? How much of this do we think is personal, is perhaps positioning before President Obama leaves, and how does that impact the next administration?
[Timothy Naftali, Cnn Presidential Historian And Former Director Nixon Presidential Library:] Well, the first thing is that the U.N. resolution will have has no practical effect for the next administration. It's just useful for Donald Trump, frankly, as a way of distracting people from his from the problems of his administration's links to Russia. As regards Obama and Netanyahu, that's a really fraught relationship. And the United States sort of quietly threatened to remove its diplomatic cover at the U.N. for Israel in 2014 when Netanyahu came to the United States to campaign against President Obama's approach to Iran. So there's a very personal element. But let's we got to put this in some context. Since 1977, since the government of 1977, there has been tension between the bipartisan tension between Republican and Democratic administrations and the government of Israel on the question of settlements. Some Israeli Prime Ministers, like Ehud Barak and Olmert, have both offered to give away most of the West Bank privately. But publicly, the Israeli government has been very tough on settlements. The U.S. government has tried to keep this dispute private. The difference here is the Obama administration has decided to show the world the frustration that Presidents Reagan, Carter and the first Bush had with Israel. That's what makes this unprecedented. The policy of being against settlements is actually not new for the United States government. It's just now very public and there may be a personal element to it in the fact that President Obama's leaving office and he wants the United States effort to be an honest brokering in Israel and in the Middle East to be one of his legacies. He's tried and he's failed.
[Malveaux:] Andre, I doubt that Trump is going to be very private about some of these things in light of the fact that he does like to tweet. And Trump's choice for Israel's ambassador really very much more aligned with Netanyahu's policies and values. So, what does it say about his views on the U.N. where we might have a relationship, significantly different relationship with the United Nations?
[Andre Bauer, Cnn Political Commentator And  Former Lieutenant Governor South Carolina:] Well, I think you are going to see that. You know, Nikki Haley will go in there. She's a young aggressive person. I think they will have a pro-Israel standpoint like so many in this country have had, but to me this was a parting shot from the Obama administration against the state of Israel. We know we have had a special relationship with Israel for decades and I think you are going to see Donald Trump as a pragmatist take a much different approach in trying to he said, "direct negotiation between the parties." And I think you're going to see a businessman's approach, sit down with parties on both sides and try to come up with some type of an agreement that we can live by and move forward, but you are going to see a friend in Donald Trump to the state of Israel.
[Malveaux:] Another question here. President Obama's time obviously up in office, almost over. Now, Trump has said he's going to establish peace but the choice for ambassador, again, is an opponent of Palestinian statehood, a supporter of Israeli settlement. So Errol, tell us, where does it go from here? Are we going to see a significant shift in U.S. policy regarding Israel?
[Louis:] It seems hard to imagine that there would be a significant shift but you never know. Donald Trump of course is the exception to many rules. The reality is from 37 percent of Americans who opposed or who favored economic sanctions against Israel because of its settlement policy, that was last November, that's increased to 47 percent over the last year. We are talking about 350,000 settlers in a nation of eight million. The settlers are controversial within Israel. We should never make the mistake of thinking that Netanyahu speaks for some vast majority of Israeli opinion. He doesn't. In fact, two-thirds of Israelis say they would like him to reengage with Mahmoud Abbas and start a peace process again. So, these politics are not something that Trump is going to simply, I think, walk into and say, well, I'm going to stand with Netanyahu and come hell or high water, that's going to be what we do. That is not in keeping with Israeli public opinion, it's not in keeping with U.S. American public opinion and it's not in keeping with what generations of not only American but Israeli administrations have done. I mean, you've got to remember, everybody from Olmert to Sharon, dismantled settlements. You know, this is not something that's really up for a lot of discussion about whether we should have them or we should not have them. The Israeli Supreme Court has ruled that many of them are illegal. So, Trump is going to find a much more nuanced position. I'm pretty sure, the minute after he takes office.
[Malveaux:] All right. We will see how nuance fits the next president, Donald Trump. Appreciate that. Timothy Naftali, Errol Louis and Andre Bauer, thank you so much and Happy Holidays. Still to come, the Democrats lost the White House. President Obama is confident his vision is what the American economy needs.
[Barack Obama, President Of The United States:] The Democratic agenda is better for all working people.
[Malveaux:] So does he have a point? That's up next.