Trump tells NBC News he has a mandate ‘to bring common sense’ to country

welcome to Meet the Press now I'm Kristen Welker in Washington as president-elect Donald Trump's transition to power now begins and Democrats grapple with the uncertain fate and future of their party I spoke with president-elect Trump earlier this afternoon by phone as he and his team begin the transition process the president-elect outlining his priorities for day one of his administration among them taking action at the southern border including implementing what he has called his Mass Deport plan regardless of the price tag the president-elect also describing to me his calls with some 70 world leaders since his

victory including prime minister Netanyahu of Israel and president zalinski of Ukraine two conflicts that Loom large over the campaign adding that he had not yet spoken with Russian President Putin but believes he will Mr Trump also shared details of his conversations with President Biden and vice president Harris since the election calling them quote very nice calls both respectful both ways our conversation came after President Biden spoke from the White House today for the first time since the election echoing remarks made by vice president Harris yesterday pledging a peaceful and orderly transition in contrast to the

turmoil and the Insurrection from four years ago yesterday I spoke with president-elect Trump to congratulate him on his victory and I assured him that I direct my entire Administration to work with his team to ensure a peaceful and orderly transition campaigns are contest of competing Visions the country chooses one or the other we accept the choice the country made I've said many times you can't love your country only when you win now the president-elect clearly booed by his victory telling me in our conversation today that he believes he has a quote mandate to bring Common

Sense back to the country after his decisive win which saw him flip at least four Battleground States shattering the Democrats blue wall and presiding over a national rightward shift that has taken the Democratic party Democrats meanwhile left to figure out what went wrong and what comes next as vice president Harris urged supporters to continue the fight during her concession speech yesterday in our nation we owe loyalty not to a president or a party but to the Constitution of the United States and loyalty to our conscience and to our God my allegiance to all three is

why I am here to say while I concede this election I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign now of course whether Democrats have any power in Washington to continue that fight all comes down to which party controls the house which remains uncalled at this hour but Republicans appear to have the easier path to winning a majority than Democrats Republicans will control the Senate with at least two seat majority potentially more once races are called in Arizona Nevada and Pennsylvania it all means that president-elect Donald Trump will be taking the reigns with potentially

few checks against his power as he embarks on fulfilling promises made during his campaign a long list that if implemented would fundamentally change this country and its institutions on the economy foreign policy and immigration joining me now from the White House is NBC's Mike memy and Von Hillyard is in West Palm Beach with the very latest from the Trump transition Mike let me start with you it was notable in my conversation with president-elect Trump he talked about the fact that vice president Harris and President Biden both emphasized to him that they want a smooth and

orderly transition he said he totally agrees 100% you heard that in their speeches really emphasizing the importance of a peaceful transfer of power it comes of course against the backdrop of what this country experienced for years ago which was not a peaceful transfer of power Mike what's the Thinking Inside the administration right now now well Kristen I think we can predict that this 74 days before Donald Trump is sworn in as the next president of the United States will at times have some bumpy moments in this transition there it's almost inevitable that there will be

conflicts and some tensions as these teams try to work with one another to prepare for this handoff of power but it is striking to see how in the first 48 Hours both sides and all three sides in fact have been trying to put their best foot forwards and act in a civil fashion right we've seen uh as you illustrate from your conversation with the president-elect uh as we even see in some of the statements from members of his team usually very sharply worded have all been very gracious and very positive at this stage we saw

the Vice President yesterday and then we saw President Biden today doing everything he could to both try to reassure his supporters his staff uh some of those who voted for vice president Harris about the fact that there will be another day here uh but also to try to put what we expected I think frankly from President Biden he's a person of norms and traditions uh who is going to do extend every bit of graciousness to Donald Trump that he feels he was not extended for years ago it's a sort of implicit contrast that has been

a Hallmark of President Biden but I want you to listen to part of what the president said in which I think he could send a message while still striking a positive tone take a take a listen I also hope we can lat to rest a question about the Integrity of the American electoral system it is honest it is fair and it is transparent and it can be trusted win or lose I also hope we can restore the respect for all our election workers who busted their necks and took risks at the outset we should thank

them so Kristen you were with me at the White House 8 years ago we remember just the shock of Obama staff at the time of course President Biden was then the vice president he experienced that as well it's a different level I think of surprise and shock at this point not necessarily because they had expected vice president Harris to win I think they certainly had hoped so but because I think they fear what he might represent now where he was much more of an unknown eight years ago so this is really the undercurrent which with

with which President Biden has to proceed now uh to try to set the stage for this handoff of power absolutely and and within that handoff of power president-elect Trump telling me that the two had agreed to meet to have lunch in the near future Mike you know I've been talking to sources within the Democratic party the finger pointing has already begun I was talking to one Democratic lawmaker who said this is a real moment of Reckoning that the Democratic party and as another source said has got to do some soul searching to figure out how

this decisive Victory by Donald Trump was possible what did they miss what are you hearing in terms of the that finger pointing that's already started starting to take hold within the Democratic party yeah it really started on Tuesday night as I was sharing with some of my sources what we were seeing in the exit polls which pointed to a much closer result than many had hoped for and very quickly the first question was raised whether President Biden should have stayed in this race I think the much more prevailing sentiment was should he have stepped aside

much earlier should he have even announced he was running at all it was really interesting to hear Karine janpierre at the Press briefing today and if you look at some of the polling that showed President Biden with such a negative uh approval rating in this country that the views of the economy were so negative the the White House Press Secretary tried to sort of broadly speaking say that this is not a problem unique to President Biden she pointed to elections in democracies all over the world since the pandemic that show incumbent parties incumbent administrations suffered

pretty much across the board and so I think one of the arguments that's most interesting from the Biden perspective is that because Vice president Harris took pains to try to distance herself from the president no one was making a positive argument about what this Administration did essentially conceding the economic issue to Trump and that was clearly decisive on Election Day a really fascinating Point Mike memoy thank you for that fun let me turn to you I know you're working your sources trying to get the very latest on the Trump transition which is now officially underway

I tried to get some details from president-elect Trump didn't get very far I asked him for example if suie WS someone who has managed his campaign is one of the top choices for Chief of Staff he certainly had high praise for her talked about the fact that he thought she would be a very good pick what are you hearing have any decisions been made yet right this is the moment where there are a lot of names swirling about those names that are going to be very legitimate contenders to be added to the administration but then

also those that are sort of at the last minute trying to throw their names back into the equation and that's what we're I L I know as a team Christen trying to do is sort through those realities there has been already a transition team that has been in the works now the last several weeks even before Donald Trump's election this week and it's led by Howard letnik and Linda McMahon and those are the two individuals I'm told Howard lutnick is really focused on the Personnel side Linda McMahon really focused on the policy side of this

that are getting ready for just two months from now when Donald Trump takes the Reigns of a white house that is expansive not only need to fill the cabinet post but also the 3,000 political appointees that ultimately staff out those departments in those agencies and I want to let folks just take a look at some of the names who we at NBC News are told are in fact under consideration here in Paul Beach to go into those key cabinet posts when you look at Secretary of State you have the likes of Florida Senator Marco Rubio

who who we are told is under the consideration but also the likes of Rick grenell who was the former acting Director of National Intelligence over at at the Pentagon Senator Tom Cotton was under consideration but publicly is now taking himself out of the running for contention you also have though the likes of Congressman Mike Waltz of Florida who was a Green Beret and somebody who was a frequent presence on the campaign Trail alongside of Donald Trump as well as on the TV Airwaves the big one of course is also going to be the next Attorney

General Donald Trump has big ideas for what his AG he wants him to execute on come 2025 and we are now told here this afternoon that there are at least three names who are under serious consideration that being number one Mark petta who was the former uh uh general counsel to the OM in the first Trump Administration and then two other names who are maybe more public publicly recognizable that includes the likes of Matt Whitaker who served as acting attorney general during his first term after Jeff sessions left the AG post and then also I'm

told Eric Schmidt by two sources the senator from Missouri is under consideration he is ALS been traveling in recent weeks with Donald Trump the now president elect over at DHS we're told that Chad wolf who was the former acting DHS secretary at the end of his first term is under consideration so as you said there's a lot going on Susie WS that was a important question to him because she was that one of the two Co campaign managers and we didn't see actually that many Palace Intrigue stories over the last two years of his campaign

in the large part was because of the way that Susie WS ran the campaign from sources that we talked to a great many would be eager to see her fill that post in order to ensure that there's a clean transition into the actual White House Kristen all right von hilard Great reporting as always keep us updated if you get any new developments while you're there really appreciate it thanks for watching stay updated about breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or follow us on social media