he said general mattis. no, no, i mean, he said, who is the officer of the day. he said general mattis. and here comes the brigadier general and he has his sword and the commandant said what are you doing here? he said, a young lieutenant was on duty today and he has a wife and children and i thought it important he have christmas with his family. that's the find skinned of man he is. independent, strong and will be good for the country. >> woodruff: we're off to some high praise here. let's talk about something else donald trump did this week. that is, the first public speech he made since the election, he went to indianapolis, and announced a deal that he's cut with the carrier corporation, air conditioners, furnaces, to save a thousand jobs, not all the jobs that were going to mexico, but a lot of them. what kind of precedent does this set? what do we make of it? >> i agree with sarah palin on this one. she wrote an op-ed today where she called it crony capitalism and source of corruption and i think that

mattie d.j.ing, i can't wait. it's going to be fun. >> reporter: just yesterday, they were featured on cbs "sunday morning." >> woodruff: don't do it for fame. i do it because i love it. and i do it for the money. >> for the money. i do it because i love it. you get rich so far. not yet. >> reporter: they are also making a documentary about their journey. tim forester is leading that project. >> there are so many stories we >> we that as big culmination of this thing, movie stand out on own, but to see the time the effort, patients involved making this movie, that's the real story. >> reporter: on this halloween, updating a feel good zombie story, i'm mike melia for the pbs newshour. >> woodruff: sam and mattie have a big future, we want to be there to cover the whole thing. finally, we stay in the halloween spirit for our newshour shares, something that caught our eye that we thought woulbe of interest to you, too. the vampire bat is hardly the agent-of-evil its association with dracula would suggest. we asked sm

. >> woodruff: general mattis. -- yes, most people would have a high regard for. for me, let's wait and see what actually happens. in a sense, what is more motivating to me is not a result in the particular case, it's what are these practical solutions that are going to allow us to develop our countries in the way that protects the basic liberal democratic values, the values that are dear to me and of the essence of the success of our countries, in my view. >> woodruff: tony blair joining us to talk about the center ground and waiting and seeing on the president-elect. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: stay with us, coming up on the newshour, how egypt's foreign minister views the future trump administration. what the halting of the dakota access pipeline means long-term. and a look inside the nation's largest art fair. but first, for more on the president-elect's call with the taiwanese president and the latest from the transition, it's time for politics monday. joining us are amy walter of the "cook political report," karen tumulty of the "washingt

mattis would need a waiver from congress to accept the position because he's been out of the service less than seven years. >> what a great guy, he's going to be incredible. he'll get that waiver, right? he's going to get that. ohh, if he didn't get that waiver, there'd be a lot of angry people. >> reporter: the stop in north carolina is part of a clear ramp-up of travel for mr. trump. tomorrow he'll be in columbus, ohio, to meet with responders to the ohio state campus attack last week, then a thank you rally in des moines, iowa. friday, the stops are baton rouge, louisiana to support the republican senate candidate in a runoff, and another thank you rally in grand rapids, michigan. president-elect trump has said his biggest remaing pick, secretary of state, will be announced next week. this morning, he told the "today" show he's getting advice from his predecessor. >> i will say this, i've now gotten to know president obama. i really like him. we, obviously, very much disagree on certain policy and certain things, but i really like him as a person. >> reporter: and today mr. trump

general james mattis himself, being a former marine, is strongly against this position. he thinks it is weakening the marine corps. he likened it to a football team to take on 10, 15, 20 perfemale players and go ahead and play. he said everyone would laugh at that idea but that's what you're asking the marine corps to do. he's strongly against it. whether it's overturned, he is not a fan. >> woodruff: you talked to so many women going through boot camp, william. what do you think their reaction would be if the defense department says we're going to undo -- or if the marines undo this? >> i think there would be an enormous amount of disappointment amongst the female recruits and marines we spoke to. they went into it, want to serve their country, saw this as a final barrier this was breaking and deeply proud to take on these jobs. people outside the marine corps, for instance kay jermano who we talked to, said it would be a huge blow to the morale of women and reinforce the idea that exists in some corners of the marine corps that women are second-class citizens. others t

there's also a waiver for retired general james mattis to serve as defense secretary, even though he's been out of the military less than seven years. before the vote, lawmakers on both sides complained about the process, and the result. >> i truly hope that in the near future we can stop lurching from cr to cr and return to regular order for the sake of our national security, our economy and the well being of all americans. however at this point, this is our best and only path forward. >> we cannot go down a path of missed opportunities and just roll over and not speak out and say this isn't the best that we can do for the american people. and we owe them much better than this bill. >> sreenivasan: the bill's passage in the senate is still threatened by a fight over health-care benefits for retired coal miners. but the senate overwhelmingly gave final approval to a defense policy bill today. it again bars closing the prison at guantanamo bay, cuba, and grants a pay raise for the military. >> woodruff: senate minority leader harry reid delivered his final speech to the chamber today. t

"the washington post" and cnn reported he's chosen retired marine general james mattis as his secretary of defense. but a trump spokesman said no decision has been made yet. we'll have a closer look at the carrier deal in indiana right after the news summary. >> sreenivasan: in other news today: the smoke is clearing from days of wildfires in tennessee's great smoky mountains, and recovery efforts are in full swing. the death toll from the blaze rose to ten people today as search and rescue crews fanned out around the eastern city of gatlinburg. sevier county mayor larry waters said authorities were making headway on dozens of missing persons reports. >> we're pleased with one aspect of it and that is that a significant number of those leads, we found people where they are, and we hope that that trend continues as we move forward. >> sreenivasan: officials said they expected search teams to finish combing the fire-ravaged areas tonight. >> woodruff: french president franÇois hollande said today he won't seek a second term, citing historically low approval ratings. during his time in of

the very first thing general mattis will find out when he takes over as secretary of defense is we don't have the money to pay for the programs that are on the books. for example, the navy goes ahead and builds a whole new fleet of ballistic missile submarines in the next decade, it has to cut its conventional navy by 50%. who would make that kind of choice? so these are some of the considerations that will face the new administration. here's the up side of the -- let's say this is all about negotiating leverage, this is mr. trump opening up closed issues, looking for bargaining in ahead of his meeting with vladimir putin which will probably occur in the beginning of next year. here's where he could cash in, take a page from ronald reagan, negotiate with putin, deep cuts in both sides, get rid to have the unnecessary weapons we don't need, save hundreds of billions of dollars to use for conventional forces, and really make a name for himself. this could be the deal of a lifetime. this would put him in the history books and then we won't be talking about these silly tweets. >> yang: what

very bad outcome can, and i think a smart decision-- and you'll have pragmatic people like general mattis at defense and rex tillerson at state to tell the president-elect that a smart decision is going to be to stay with the nuclear deal, but try to limit iranian behavior in the sunni world, and support those countries that are victims of iranian aggression. >> woodruff: steve coll, quickly, is there something you can shed-- that would shed light on rex tillerson and his posture toward iran from your reporting? >> well, he has been realistic in seeking stability in the middle east. he has advocated for a world that is managed, rather than disrupted. he is skeptical about sanctions, though his allies have clarified in the last few days that he's more worried about enforcing them than imposing them, but they are a very important instrument of american foreign policy that he has often advocated against. now in his public role he may have to clarify his views about that. >> woodruff: quickly, again, john hambre, and just finely, if we look to russ tiller ston-- i'm sorry rex tillerson-- in u

he said he's spoken to general mattis who he has been considering for secretary of defense and says essentially that waterboarding doesn't work and that he's inclined to buy that assessment, so that was new. he also said he wouldn't necessarily rip up the paris climate accord which is something he's really been against or had been really against as a candidate. so there was a lot that was new. >> woodruff: and yet, i gather from the reporting of tiemedz when reporters pressed him on his business arrangements and how those might be affected when he becomes president, he was pretty insistent on his position on that. what did he say about that? >> well, he essentially said, you know, we asked him about whether he would liquidate his business. he said, it's real estate, you can't just sell things off. essentially his point was, as president, i'm not really bound by any of the ethics rules, there is no such thing as a conflict of interest if you're president. which the letter of the rule is true, but the spirit of the rule, when pressed, he said i would like to do something to give an appearance the

trump described retired marine general richard mattis who was interviewed for secretary of defense as "very impressive." on cbs' "face the nation" today, pence said the administration will take steps to avoid conflicts of interest with the trump organization's international business holdings, >> i'm very confident that the president-elect and his extraordinary talented family are going to work with the best legal minds in this country and create the proper separation from their business enterprise during his duties as president of the united states. >> stewart: on cnn today, incoming white house chief of staff reince priebus reiterated mr. trump's position that people from countries suspected of harboring or training terrorists could be temporarily barred from immigrating to the u.s. on nbc's "meet the press" moderator chuck todd asked priebus about a potential muslim registry. >> we are not going to have a registry based on a religion, but i think what we are trying to do, is say that there are some people, certainly not all people, chuck, there are some people that are radicalized a