Eric began Thursday's show by welcoming Donald Trump's top adviser Kellyanne Conway, who spoke about the transition and Donald Trump's upcoming meeting with Mitt Romney. "Donald Trump does what businessmen do," Conway said. "He takes the counsel of rivals and allies and even 'never-Trumpers' in this case. Mitt Romney did a good job as Governor of Massachusetts and has a lot to add to the conversation. Donald Trump knows it is incumbent upon him to take meetings with world leaders and legislators and opinion leaders." Conway then evaluated President Obama's public advice on how Donald Trump should deal with Russia. "What President Obama said was fair and reasonable, and this cuts right to the heart of what many in the media have been saying about Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, that somehow they are friends and intimates. President Obama is saying that he hopes the next president at least tries to find a balance in our relationship with Russia. Donald Trump has told the world that he will always put America first."

President-elect Donald Trump has talked tough on illegal immigration and trade, especially regarding Mexico. TV anchor Elvira Salazar assessed the current mood among our neighbors to the south. "Mexico is very concerned about its economy," she said. "Remember that Donald Trump has said he will impose a 35% tariff on all Mexican products coming into the United States, and last week the Mexican currency lost 10% of its value. But I'm sure that President-elect Trump will sit down and understand that NAFTA is a 25-year marriage." Eric reminded Salazar, "Sometimes there are bad marriages that have irreconcilable differences."

The Trump team is reportedly considering a registry that would monitor Muslim immigrants, an idea that has enraged many on the left. Eric discussed the legal ramifications with law professor Jonathan Turley. "What President-elect Trump is suggesting is not unprecedented and not unconstitutional," Turley declared, "if he's talking about a monitoring system that focuses on certain countries that he believes warrant extra attention. Those kinds of measures have been taken in the past, but it gets a little more problematic when you isolate a religion. The Supreme Court has given great discretion to the president when it comes to borders and non-citizens. But if you talk about citizens, then everything changes because citizens have a full panoply of rights."

Some leading Democrats want to see Congressman Keith Ellison run the Democratic National Committee. Ellison, a radical leftist and a former associate of Louis Farrakhan, has been denoucing Donald Trump as 'deplorable' and unfit for the presidency. Eric spoke about that heated rhetoric with former Democratic official David Tafuri. "Nasty rhetoric has no place in government," Tafuri said, "but Donald Trump ushered in a new level of discourse. He's the one who called Mexicans 'rapists' and he's the one who mocked a disabled reporter. Congressman Ellison is saying that Trump's behavior was deplorable, he's saying what a lot of people feel. Donald Trump's rhetoric has been too divisive." Eric admonished Tafure, saying, "You lost, stop it, Donald Trump is the President-elect and he is handling himself very respectfully."

While protests continue in many cities across America, President Obama declared that he "wouldn't advise them to be silent." Eric asked Republican Congressman Sean Duffy and Democratic strategist Jennice Fuentes whether the president should be taking a tougher stand against the protesters. "It is a right to demonstrate peacefully," Fuentes said, "and most of these protests have been peaceful. President Obama has never incited violence, while Donald Trump has! Where is President-elect Trump in this?" But Duffy urged the president to use his bully pulpit to calm the protests. "President Obama should say that we all have the right to protest, but we don't have the right to shut down streets or damage property. He's acting more like a community organizer than a president. He's not instigating these rallies, but he is not shutting them down. He should tell them to stop!"

Will Democrats and Republicans search for common ground after Donald Trump's inauguration? Eric invited political reporters Kelly Riddell and James Pindell to opine. "The Democrats have to think about self-preservation," Riddell observed, "because in two years there will be 25 Democratic Senate seats up for grabs, a lot of them in swing states that Donald Trump won. They need to find common ground and can't be holding up Trump's agenda the entire time. This election was a total repudiation of coastal elitism and identity politics." Pindell theorized that the Democratic Party will now begin the process of healing and rebuilding. "This is the worst spot the Democrats have been in since the 1920s. Clearly they have lost the working class vote and Hillary Clinton lost the Obama coalition. Democrats are now like a chick who just got hatched, they're looking around and trying to figure out which direction to go. They need to go in all directions right now." Pindell added that there is currently a duel for the heart and soul of the Democratic Party. "Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are fighting to see who will be the liberal lion in the Senate, who will play the role Ted Kennedy played. There is also a fight over whether the Democratic Party will continue to move left or more toward the center."