The Note: Clinton, Sanders’ Post-Election Reflections

— -- NOTABLES

--CLINTON SAYS 'NEVER EVER GIVE UP' DURING 1ST SPEECH SINCE ELECTION LOSS: Hillary Clinton last night made her first public appearance since delivering her concession speech last week, making an emotional plea for the country to focus on helping underprivileged children while acknowledging the pain she feels after her unexpected failure to defeat Donald Trump at the ballot box, ABC’s MARGARET CHADBOURN notes. Speaking at the Children's Defense Fund's 26th annual Beat the Odds Celebration in Washington, D.C., Clinton said, "I know this isn't easy. I know that over the past week a lot of people have asked themselves whether America was the country we thought it was. The divisions laid bare by this election run deep. But please listen to me when I say this: America is worth it. Our children are worth it." http://abcn.ws/2f1TGU1

--SANDERS -- 'MAYBE I WOULD HAVE BEEN ELECTED PRESIDENT': Bernie Sanders last night denied that he hurt Hillary Clinton's chances of being elected commander in chief, suggesting that he could have beat president-elect Donald Trump. "I say to those critics, number one, that you can argue the exact reverse, that maybe I would have been elected President of the United States," Sanders told a crowd of about 1,000 people while being interviewed Wednesday night by Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne at George Washington University. He added, of his impact on the election, "My campaign brought millions of people into the political process, the overwhelming majority of whom ended up voting for Hillary Clinton." More from ABC’s MARYALICE PARKS: http://abcn.ws/2gj9uaf

--5 BIG QUESTIONS FROM TRUMP'S FIRST WEEK AS PRESIDENT-ELECT:  It’s been over a week since Donald Trump was declared the president-elect, and he has kept a relatively low profile, holed up in Trump Tower in New York City, assembling his incoming cabinet and White House staff and tweeting occasionally. His inauguration is more than 60 days away, but questions are already starting to percolate about how Trump will lead once in office. ABC’s VERONICA STRACQUALURSI takes a look at five big questions from his first week: http://abcn.ws/2f5xKuz

--STRONGMAN LEADERS AROUND THE WORLD REACT TO TRUMP: As President-elect Donald Trump prepares a team that will transition into the White House this January, world leaders are preparing for their own transition: a relationship with the next U.S. president. Among those ready to work with President-elect Trump? Many of the world's most authoritarian leaders. ABC’s ELIZABETH MCLAUGHLIN looks at the most recent comments from strongman leaders, from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to the Philippines' Rodrigo Duterte: http://abcn.ws/2fZ2uNe

--WHAT TRUMP IS TWEETING:

@realDonaldTrump: My transition team, which is working long hours and doing a fantastic job, will be seeing many great candidates today. #MAGA

--ANALYSIS -- WHAT TYPE OF PRESIDENT WILL DONALD TRUMP BE: LINCOLN OR BUCHANAN? The big question that remains is what type of president Donald Trump will be. The potential answers run the gamut, depending on his performance and leadership, between an abject failure and a transformative leader, ABC’s MATTHEW DOWD writes. http://abcn.ws/2f5BtIO

TODAY ON ‘GMA’ -- JARED KUSHNER HAS NOT APPLIED FOR WHITE HOUSE ROLE, CONWAY SAYS. Jared Kushner has not applied for a role in the administration of President-elect Donald Trump, nor has he applied for security clearance, Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said today. “He has not applied for anything formally and I just think many of these press reports are false and inaccurate,” Conway said on “Good Morning America.” “I would just call on everybody to just give us a little bit of time to form our federal government, get those appointments in place and respect the election results and allow this man to do his job.” More from ABC’s KATIE KINDELAN: http://abcn.ws/2fzDYUq

SPEED READ with ABC’s ADAM KELSEY and VERONICA STRACQUALURSI

OBAMA BIDS GOODBYE TO MERKEL AS SHE OFFERS TRUMP A TEPID WELCOME. Of all the goodbyes President Barack Obama must say on his final foreign trip as commander in chief, one of the hardest is likely to be to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The White House singles out Merkel as Obama’s closest foreign partner, with the two having worked side by side over the course of his eight years as president, notes ABC’s JORDYN PHELPS. “They’ve worked together on almost every issue. They’ve developed a deep mutual respect, I think, and close friendship as well,” Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters in a conference call last week. http://abcn.ws/2fVAklA

DE BLASIO BRINGS LAUNDRY LIST OF 'CONCERNS' TO TRUMP MEETING. As a number of high-profile Republicans and allies of President-elect Donald Trump make their way in and out of Trump Tower to meet with Trump and the transition committee, an unanticipated figure stopped by the Fifth Avenue skyscraper Wednesday -- Democratic New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. De Blasio, a progressive who campaigned for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and spoke at the party's convention in July, met with Trump for an hour, sharing the “fears” and “concerns” of New Yorkers with the next president, reports ABC’s ADAM KELSEY. http://abcn.ws/2fWqErh

WHAT COULD HAPPEN TO DACA RECIPIENTS UNDER DONALD TRUMP? President Obama’s signature immigration action could be immediately overturned when President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Obama pushed the deferred action for childhood arrivals (DACA) via executive action to allow undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children to come out of the shadows and pay a fee to receive a temporary work authorization and relief from deportation, writes ABC’s SERENA MARSHALL. Because this was done via executive action, and is laid out by the DHS, it can be immediately overturned by the next secretary of Homeland Security. http://abcn.ws/2fhUy89

MCCONNELL, SCHUMER ELECTED TO SENATE LEADERSHIP. Senators on both sides of the aisle elected their leadership Wednesday morning, with Democrats attempting to reconfigure their party for the future after a blistering election and Republicans consolidating power in the aftermath of last week’s surprising results. On the Democratic side, in a widely expected move, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York was chosen to be the next Senate minority leader, succeeding retiring Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada. As for the GOP, it re-elected Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky as majority leader, write ABC’s ADAM KELSEY and ALI ROGIN. http://abcn.ws/2ghhQzl

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

INSIDE DONALD TRUMP’S FRAUGHT RELATIONSHIP WITH THE PRESS. If anything has become apparent over the past week since Donald Trump won the presidency, it's that he has no qualms carrying on his fraught relationship with the press. Trump has taunted The New York Times on Twitter and targeted Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly after the first GOP presidential primary debate. Trump has also shown an apparent disregard for press protocol. He sneaked out of Trump Tower for a steak dinner last night without alerting the reporters covering the president-elect. That was the second time since Nov. 9 that the press was unaware of the president-elect's location. The move elicited a letter from 15 different press freedom groups calling on Trump to "commit to a protective press pool from now until the final day of your presidency." ABC’s ALEXANDER MALLIN on Trump's complicated relationship with the press and why it matters:  http://abcn.ws/2fYKGDG

WHO’S TWEETING?

@edatpost: "We’re a long way from Jack Murtha.” @pkcapitol on changing contours of increasingly marginalized House Democrats: http://wapo.st/2g1FNrP

@zbyronwolf: The battle for America's political soul cd come down 2 a street brawl btw 2 boys frm Queens n Brooklyn. http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/17/politics/chuck-schumer-donald-trump/index.html … @StCollinson

@amyewalter: Chris Van Hollen was in charge of DCCC in 2010 bloodbath does he really want DSCC w/ that awful 2018 map?

@politicalwire: This guy makes $120K writing fake news and says he’s responsible for Trump winning https://politicalwire.com/2016/11/17/fake-news-writer-says-hes-responsible-trump/ …

@gjbarb: .@washingtonpost asked Trump supporters why they voted for the president-elect. Here's what some of them said. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/opinions/trump-supporters-why-vote/ …