Trump's Sweeping New York Times Interview; Romney Mulls Potential Secretary of State Job
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Big names in the mix of President-elect Trump's cabinets. Who will be the next one announced and when?</s>BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: And the president-elect pulls back how Trump seems to be softening his stance on climate change and Hillary Clinton.</s>ROMANS: Could Hillary Clinton have grounds for a recount? A curious pattern discovered in three key states won by Donald Trump. Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.</s>SANCHEZ: Always good to be here, Christine. I'm Boris Sanchez. We are 30 minutes past the hour. We're starting with an update that's expected this morning from the Trump transition team. They're scheduled to hold a conference call with reporters today. We'll also hear from the president-elect himself. He's set to release a Thanksgiving video message from Mar-A- Lago where he's spending the rest of the holiday week. Trump flew down to Florida after a wide-ranging, on the record sit- down with "The New York Times" reporters, editors and columnists. Among the news-making highlights, Trump backed off his promise to prosecute Hillary Clinton. This as sources tell CNN that Mitt Romney is thinking hard about taking the job of secretary of state if Trump should offer it to him. Let's bring in CNN's Jim Acosta for all the latest.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Boris and Christine, CNN has learned that Mitt Romney is seriously considering the possibility of joining Donald Trump's transition team as secretary of state. A source familiar with the transition discussion says it's likely the 2012 Republican nominee will be consulting with his family over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. The decision to select Romney would send a message that Trump is open to moderating the situation. Trump himself seemed to reveal he is open to toning down his positions in a wide-ranging interview with "The New York Times." The President- elect told "The Times" he is leaning against urging the prosecution of Hillary Clinton, something he vowed to do during the campaign. And his top advisers say it's a signal Trump is ready to move on.</s>RUDY GIULIANI (D), FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: Look, there's tradition in American politics that after you win an election, you sort of put things behind you, and if that's a decision he reached, it's perfectly consistent with sort of historical pattern of things come up. We say a lot of things. Even some bad things might happen and you can sort of put it behind you in order to unite the nation.</s>ACOSTA: As for the prospect of Romney joining the Trump administration, a source tells CNN a decision is not expected until next week -- Boris and Christine.</s>SANCHEZ: All right. Thanks, Jim. A lot to mull over.</s>ROMANS: Oh my gosh, right. All right. Trump's 75-minute with "The New York Times" yesterday was not televised or live-streamed. Instead, "Times" reporters blasted the remarks live on Twitter, 140 characters at a time. In many cases, Trump's statements came in in contrast to remarks that he made on the campaign trail on whether climate change is manmade. Trump said, "I think there is some connectivity. Some something. It depends on how much." On conflict in the Middle East, he said, "I would love to be the one who made peace with Israel and the Palestinians. That would be such a great achievement." He was a bit fuzzy on how exactly how to do that, but he did suggest his Jewish 35-year-old son-in-law Jared Kushner could help.</s>SANCHEZ: And something on the headlines that white supremacist movement known as the alt-right celebrating his election, Trump disavowed them and added, "That's not a group I want to energize. And if they are energized, I want to look and find out why." On his campaign CEO, a newly appointed top adviser Steve Bannon, Trump said, if I thought he was racists or alt-right, I wouldn't even think about hiring him." Keep in mind, though, Bannon is the former head of Breitbart News, a site that Bannon himself called the platform for the alt-right. And finally Trump swept aside any questions of conflicts of interest with his far-flung business empire. He said, quote, "The law is totally on my side. The president can't have a conflict of interest."</s>ROMANS: Interesting. Now, the Trump Foundation admitted violating IRS rules by improperly giving money to someone close to the organization. That's according to a recent federal income tax filing obtained by CNN a nonprofit watchdog Guide Star. On the return, a foundation checked the yes box when asked did the foundation transfer any income or assets to a disqualified person or make any other available for the benefit of a use of a disqualified person. Now, disqualified person is IRS speak for someone with significant influence over the activities of the organization, or someone related to those people. The filing did not disclose who that person was. The Trump team did not respond to our request for comment. Tax</s>SANCHEZ: Unexpected by almost any measure.</s>ROMANS: Absolutely. People kept saying that Donald Trump if you took him at his word, his policies for trade administration, had could be disastrous for the global economy. It looks as though global investors are not taking him at his word and they think the governing president-elect is going to be more market-friendly than the campaigning Donald Trump.</s>SANCHEZ: All right. So far, so gad. One appointment that's getting some attention here, potential appointment, I should say, President-elect Trump tweeting that he's seriously considering Dr. Ben Carson for secretary of Housing and Urban Development. The former rivals met at Trump Tower on Tuesday. Dr. Carson's spokesperson tells CNN the retired neurosurgeon is honored by Trump's insistence that he'd take a cabinet post and that he's going to spend the Thanksgiving holiday thinking it over. We're also told Dr. Carson made it clear that he would actually prefer to advise Trump from outside the administration.</s>ROMANS: All right. Michelle Rhee said she will not be pursuing the role of education secretary in the Trump administration. The former chancellor of Washington, D.C.'s public schools met with the president-elect last weekend, despite heavy criticism from the education community. On Tuesday, she tweeted, "I have appreciated the opportunity to share my thoughts on education with the president-elect of the United States. Our job as Americans is to want him to succeed."</s>SANCHEZ: Jared Kushner revealing that he played a pivotal role in the stunning election for his father-in-law by setting up a sophisticated secret data operation. Kushner tells "Forbes" magazine he called some friends from Silicon Valley and they helped him develop a social media micro-targeting strategy that involved a 100-person team at a data hub in San Antonio, working to unify fund-raising, messaging and voter targeting to get the most out of the lean marketing budget.</s>ROMANS: Do you remember all of that handwringing of how Donald Trump is not spending enough on television advertisements, Donald Trump is spending too much time on big rallies on social media, not on traditional ways of influence voters.</s>SANCHEZ: He got the last laugh.</s>ROMANS: He got the last laugh, for sure. All right. A group of top computer scientist are urging Hillary Clinton to demand a recount. The computer experts say they have found evidence that vote totals in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania may have been hacked. Now, they say Clinton performed 7 percent worse in counties that use electronic voting than in counties using paper ballots and scanners. Scientists have not told Clinton campaign officials they have not found evidence that proves hacking, but they say this is a pattern that needs to be investigated. Clinton would have to take all three states to change the results of the election. The deadline to file for a recount in Wisconsin is Friday.</s>SANCHEZ: We've been following this heart wrenching story out of Tennessee. Five kids killed in a school bus crash. There are new questions this morning about the man who is behind the wheel. Should he have been driving that bus?