hope you have a nice cup of coffee, something warm because it is frigid out there in a lot of places. we're glad to have you here. i'm christi paul. >> i'm victor blackwell. good morning to you. this is cnn breaking news. breaking news is out of syria. there's new hope for thousands of people trying to escape the violence in eastern aleppo. according to state tv, buses have arrived to evacuate those still stuck in the city.

this is after a new deal was reached. >> this is happening, of course, as russia, syria, turkey, iran all meeting to discuss the situation in aleppo. that meeting taking place just a couple of days. cnn's muhammad lila is live from the turkey/syria border. i understand there are new details coming in about how this evacuation will play out? >> reporter: that's right. we understand that those now infamous green buses that are going to be evacuating people are now on the ground in the eastern part of aleppo ready to start evacuating the people that are trapped inside that rebel held area. more than that, you know, this started out as a simple evacuation deal to get those people out. it's now grown into a much more complicated plan that involves four different towns, two towns are towns that had mainly shiite residents. they have been besieged by islamist rebels for more than a year and a half. the evacuation, initially it started out as flowing out of

aleppo. it's effectively become a transfer. any time you have a transfer involving people evacuated from different locations it becomes a lot more fragile. you're dealing with different areas on the ground. you need security clearance and all it takes is one person to fire a gun in the wrong direction and all of this collapses. now you'll notice that i'm standing here right at the border. interestingly enough, guys, just as this evacuation plan was starting to resume, we've seen a very sharp uptick in the number of trucks that are crossing the border as well into syria. the turkish government says these are filled with humanitarian relief. we've also seen some heavy construction equipment crossing the border. clearly the indications are that things are definitely in movement. >> we certainly hope so for all of those people there. i want to ask you more quickly, what do you know about the expectation of this meeting as we said with russia, syria, turkey, iran later this week as they talk about aleppo?

do we understand or have any understanding as to what is going to come out of that, what are they hoping for? >> reporter: well, there's no question it's probably the most important meeting between the powers that are involved in syria in certainly the last several months. look at who's there, syria, russia, turkey, iran. these are the main players that are on the ground. they all have some forces or militia forces. this he have their own army on the ground. this is a very key thing that they're doing, but one of the complications we've seen some signs on the ground that there may be disagreements between the russians, the syrians, and the iranians that all have, you know, their own interests on the ground. there are some disagreements. there have been some accusations that maybe the iranian side held up the evacuations from continuing this weekend. we don't know how strong those alliances are. the timing is very interesting because it's coming at the end of the year. it's coming after aleppo is now more or less being retaken by the syrian government.

of course, it's coming before the trump inauguration in january. all of these are key milestones. there's been some indication that the powers on the ground may want to have some sort of tangible, very loose cease-fire on the ground before president-elect trump comes to power in the united states. >> interesting. muhammad lila, appreciate so much you bringing us the very latest from that region. thank you. let's talk about the weather here state side because the temperatures are plummeting and millions of people are bracing for a deep winter freeze. heavy snow, the ice of course slippery there on the roads, subzero temperatures have disrupted holiday travel we know. millions of people have been warned to bundle up or just stay inside. this frigid air has already made for deadly travel in some states. >> two people killed in baltimore after this massive 55 car pile up along i-95. look at that thing. a tanker carrying gasoline skidded off the highway. look at that. as you can see, it exploded. >> look at this, the weather is

affecting sports as well. nfl fans in chicago and the players are bracing for what could be the coldest game in chicago history. want to start with cnn meteorologist allison tracking the forecast. allison, not just about the snow and the ice but we're talking about just really cold air. >> we're talking about air so cold, victor, you have frostbite that can set in in less than ten minutes. in fact, this air temperature right now, not the wind chill, the air temperature in aberdeen, south carolina, minus 31 right now. the wind chill into the minus 40 degrees when that windows kick up. for obvious reasons we have the wind chill warnings and advisories out for many areas. we are still contending with winter weather. ice, rain, sleet. you can see the line stretches all the way from louisiana up to maine. we have winter precipitation and freezing rain in buffalo, pittsburgh stretching all the way down towards nashville. we have power outages and power lines that have come down in nashville because of some of those issues.

we talked about this before. this is what can happen when you have freezing rain. it doesn't take much, even about 1/4 of an inch can cause a lot of slick spots on the roads. that causes hazardous travel conditions. once you start getting between the quarter and half inch rains, now it starts to stick to power lines and tree limbs. once you get to the half inch threshold, that's when your power lines start to snap and come down. tree limbs come down and you can also, victor and christi, be dealing with frozen pipes. that may be a concern going forward as we have what's called a flash freeze which will take place in cities like boston and raleigh overnight tonight. >> all right. allison, thanks for watching out for us. >> i still have minus 31 in my head without the wind chill. >> when the air just hurts, the air hurts your face. >> yeah, that's not good. it makes you think about, you know, the people obviously that want to stay inside. they're fine. they have some football games today. people are die hard fans, andy

scholes. they're going to be in their seats. >> absolutely, christi. you know you're a hard core football fan if you go to one of these outside games today especially in chicago. the bears and packers have played some cold ones. today's temperature could set the all-time record. the kickoff calls for an air temperature of 2 degrees with the wind chill going to feel like 16 below zero. that's the coldest home game for sure in bears history. the team is trying to make it a little less miserable inside the stadium. >> we've added two warming stations on top of the two we already have. we also have added medical teams, we've added staff and roving teams throughout the day so that's been beefed up for the game a little bit as well. >> the kickoff is at 1:00 eastern. it's cold in buffalo. the bigger problem is all the snow. they had so much the bills asked for fans to come help shovel it

all out of the field. they quickly got to work clearing the seats and aisles. their hard work didn't come for free. the team paid them $10 an hour and gave them a free ticket to an upcoming game. they were asked to bring their own shovels if they could. good time to be a texans, cowboys, vikings, cardinals fan. all of those teams play inside. >> medical teams and i thought unless your medical team is going to bring me a warm blanket -- >> two warming stations and how many tens of thousands of people -- >> those are the two they already have so they have four. >> four. >> hot chocolate. >> andy, thank you. as we're talking about this weather i want to talk to you about something that happened in california. there was a huge tree that fell on a wedding party in a park. this happened just outside of los angeles. one person was killed, five were injured. >> some officials say that the drought that they are having there may have weakened the tree but there were no indications it was vulnerable to falling.

witnesses say the wedding party was taking photos just moments before the tree split in two. >> we were taking pictures like right on the side and the tree, like we just heard like something crack like really hard and people were yelling and i guess like there was another party over there and a lot of people started running. >> firefighters had to use chain saws to cut those branches, those limbs into pieces to pull people from under those huge chunks of that tree. new hints this morning on how donald trump plans to try to avoid business conflicts as president. we've got details next. also, ivanka trump, the president-elect's daughter, expected to take an informal role in her father's administration but she may end up, some say, looking more like a first lady. nds can mean the de between life and death. for partners in health, time is life.

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president-elect donald trump is ending his thank you tour where he says his political movement began. donald trump taking one last victory lap in an hour-long speech in front of this crowded football stadium. this is in mobile, alabama. >> his speech echoed familiar campaign themes, keeping his

focus on creating jobs, also praising the electoral college system, something that he once called a disaster back in 2012. >> the electoral -- i never appreciated it until now, how genius it was, what they had in mind, because at the time they didn't want everybody going to boston and new york and everything else would be forgotten and now it's the same thing. it's genius. it's genius, i'm telling you. i went to 17 states. i went to states -- i went to states that, you know, you just wouldn't go to. >> trump also fired at michelle obama's recent statements. ryan nobles watched it all on the ground. >> reporter: donald trump making good on a campaign promise returning here to mobile, alabama, the site of one of his first major campaign rallies. it was back in august of 2015 that trump brought out a crowd of some 30,000 people, and on saturday he told a similar sized

crowd that this is where it all began. >> thank you very much. this is where it all began, remember that incredible rally we had? and people came out and it was like this. it was packed and incredible. people said, something's going on there, right? that was the beginning, wasn't it? that was the beginning. and if you remember, even though you don't have to vote for me, maybe four years we'll take a look, right? but you know what, i said i'm coming back to see you in alabama. right? >> reporter: now trump gave the crowd a history lesson detailing state by state his victory on election night. what trump didn't do is wade into some of the complex policy issues when he takes office. he didn't mention china or russia. despite the relationship with both of those countries becoming a problem for the incoming trump

administration. the president-elect focused on many of his campaign promises, specifically how he plans to help the american economy. he did go off script a bit criticizing the first lady, michelle obama, for an interview that she recently gave to oprah winfrey where she suggested that a sizeable part of the country lacks hope because of trump's election victory. >> michelle obama said yesterday that there's no hope. but i assume she was talking about the past, not the future, because i'm telling you, we have tremendous hope and we have tremendous promise and tremendous potential. we are going to be so successful as a country again. we are going to be amazing, and i actually think she made that statement not meaning it the way it came out, i really do, because i met with president obama and michelle obama in the

white house, my wife was there. she could not have been nicer. i honestly believe she meant that statement in a different way than it came out because i believe -- i believe there is tremendous hope and beyond hope, we have such potential. >> reporter: trump now heads to his estate in palm beach, florida, where he plans to spend the christmas holiday with his family. he's not expected to make any news but there is a chance we can learn more about the appointments to his administration in the coming week. ryan nobles, cnn, mobile, alabama. let's continue with tom lobianco and errol lewis. good morning to both of you. >> good morning. >> errol, i want to start here with china and president-elect trump did not talk about china last night but, again, he has gone to twitter to talk about this drone that was snatched out of international waters by the chinese. he tweets this, we should tell china that we don't want the drone they stole back.

let them keep it. there has been this policy that there's one president at a time when you have a president-elect on deck. president-elect trump now weighing in here, and it seems as if this is going directly to his phone without going to any of his advisors. >> well, that's right. and i think we can expect a lot more of that. it will be interesting to see if that continues after the inauguration when he's -- he'll be in an ideal position to under cut his ambassadors, secretary of state, national security team and everybody else. i think it's important that the country speak with one voice, toond that extent, you know, right now as we're in this lame duck period i suppose he could get away with this here and there, but it's really going to be a whole new ball game after the inauguration. one would hope that there would be less of this because in certain instances, you know, you can write off statements about taiwan, you can write off this statement or that statement, but it really starts to become a

serious problem if you have a president or a president-elect even who's not going to take any time to come up with a measured response on the most serious of matters. >> especially as it relates to twitter. the president-elect said he will not tweet as president because he said it's not presidential. he has five weeks to tamp that down. tom, let me go to you. what is the division the president-elect will create between his cabinet and businesses. he tells sarah murray he will not participate in briefings during his presidency. additionally, he is not against restrictions on speaking with his family regarding the business, not against restrictions. is that the wall that they've been talking about? i'll be open to maybe not talking about it? >> well, i mean, they're entering that way. since the election they've been kind of getting in that direction. kind of reminds me of when the office of government ethics had

that sort of interesting -- a lot of people thought it was a twitter hack when they started putting out these fairly candid tweets talking about how happy they were that trump was going to divest. of course, he wasn't divesting. it was very odd, but he seems to be pushing that way. you know, one of the interesting things, you want to put this in context, is that this is kind of moving away from the campaign mood in towards actual governing. regardless on how they may feel about the ethics, any sort of conflicts of interest that arise out of this, there's also a practical matter of being the president 24/7. you can't run a business. you could theoretically, but it doesn't seem plausible. >> errol, let me come to you with one of the picks that we've learned about this weekend, representative nick mulvaney who will be the budget director. this is someone who is known as a deficit hawk. how does his philosophy reconcile or coincide with

donald trump who's made campaign promises for big military spending, big infrastructure spending. this is the deficit hawk who now works for at least in business the self-described king of debt. >> yeah. it's interesting you should say that. he's a -- deficit hawk is a nice euphemism and being polite. he voted for a government shutdown. this is somebody who has been one of the biggest members of the freedom caucus, kind of making war on the whole notion of government functioning as we've known it over the last generation. so, you know, i suspect what may be going on here is that there are some politics, there's some consultants who have been suggesting to me, capitol hill politics at play here. you send somebody like that out of the house of representatives, it gives paul ryan a little bit less of a headache, the same kind of freedom caucus radicals who drove his predecessor out of office are now out of his hair. this person ends up in government and as you say, is

going to be pushing in exactly the opposite direction of what the president has promised. this is, i think, a conservative wing of the party and of this administration sort of taking up a lot of space, grabbing a lot of turf, grabbing a rlot of territory. we'll see what happens when those commitments run smack into the promises that the president-elect has made. >> we have time for the rally sound bite yesterday? let's play it. >> this is the last time i'll be speaking at a rally for maybe a while, you know? they're saying as president you shouldn't be doing rallies, but i think we should, right? we've done everything else the opposite. this is the way you get an honest word out. >> hey, tom, is that unusual, for a president to go out on the road after a state of the union address when he has a big policy push? but should we expect a president

trump to be out more at the rallies? >> this is his strength. it made him a rock star, right? we started picking up on this 18 months ago when this is like an arena rock show. tens of thousands of people showing up to this. you almost think, why not, right? everything else is different about this. you know, why not do that? it's your job as the president to go out there and sell your policies to the public so, hey, it seems like a great idea if that's what he wants to do. >> we'll see. tom lobianyo, errol lewis, always a pleasure. >> thank you. ivanka trump setting up the beginning of a long-term career. . >> thank you. ivanka trump setting up the beginning of a long-term career. . >> thank you. ivanka trump setting up the beginning of a long-term career. this weekend "saturday night live" made no apologies to wrapping up 2016. we'll have a couple of their funnier moments. generosity is its own form of power.

you can handle being a mom for half an hour. i'm in all the way. is that understood? i don't know what she's up to, but it's not good. can't the world be my noodles and butter? get your mind out of the gutter. mornings are for coffee and contemplation. that was a really profound observation. you got a mean case of the detox blues. don't start a war you know you're going to lose. finally you can now find all of netflix in the same place as all your other entertainment. on xfinity x1. ivanka trump on the phone this week with members of congress discussing child care legislation. >> and then of course there's an auction selling a coffee date

with the president-elect's daughter. it got canceled in published -- amid the published allegations that is a little bit more than access for sale. the bidding raised more than $70,000 before that plug got pulled. >> this is before the soon to be first daughter may end up functioning like a first lady. cnn's tom foreman looks at the evolving role ivanka trump may play. >> christmas season brings mrs. kennedy to a children's hospital in washington for a visit with ill and crippled children. the first lady was doing what so many have since, making ceremonial appearances, pushing social causes. >> just say no. >> reporter: sometimes grappling with governmental issues. >> we know we can get savings. >> reporter: but when donald trump's wife melania slips into that role it is now clear she will have company. his older daughter ivanka is expected to play a major part in

the pageantry and policies of his presidency. >> he will deliver. >> ivanka's incredibly committed to women in the workplace, women in the economy, women entrepreneurs. she is -- she's had a wonderful platform during the campaign. certainly she and her father announcing the child care, elder care. outreach to women. >> reporter: there is talk about ivanka having an office at the white house. since her role is not yet defined, the transition team is pushing back on that, but she and her husband have been house shopping in d.c., she's sat in on chats with world leaders, helped arrange a meeting with al gore to talk about climate change. >> i found it an extremely interesting conversation. >> the ivy league educated 35-year-old has been a key player in her dad's empire and

she's helped temper his hottest moments on the campaign trail. >> while i do sometimes tell him to withhold some of that fire, i also understand it and i think it's instinct. i think it speaks to his passion. >> reporter: in return he openly admires her intelligence, drive, sometimes to an uncomfortable level her looks as it was on "the view" a half dozen years ago. >> if ivanka weren't my daughter perhaps i would be dating her. >> so weird. >> our thanks to tom foreman for that. israel is concerning some, let's say that. we'll tell you why dana friedman is being called a con throw verse nal pick. that's up next. but, you've got hum. so you can set this. and if she drives like this, you can tell her to drive more like this. because you'll get this. you can even set boundaries for so if she should be here, but instead goes here, here, or here. you'll know.

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good to have you with us. i'm christi paul. >> i'm victor blackwell. good morning. donald trump's pick for ambassador to israel is known for several hard line views and controversial stance that could change u.s. relationships in the east in the future. denise lavitt has details. >> reporter: christi, victor, donald trump has tapped his hard line campaign advisor as ambassador to israel. david friedman has talked about policy in the region, settlements, two-state solution and the embassy in jerusalem. the reaction is a potential true

partner to totally unqualified and risking u.s. credibility around the world. in tapping his long-time friend and bankruptcy lawyer david friedman as his ambassador to israel, donald trump moved to make good on a campaign promise. >> we will send a clear signal that there is no lay light between america and our most reliable ally, the state of israel. >> reporter: israel's right wing education minister praised friedman calling him, quote, a great friend of israel. by appointing the hard line friedman, trump could be signaling plans to reverse decades of u.s. policies against israel. friedman, an orthodox jew, has no training in diplomacy. he's questioned the need for a palestinian state writing that a two-state solution appears, quote, impossible as long as the palestinians are unwilling to

renounce violence against israel or recognize israel's right to exist as a jewish state. >> i'm reminded of a line from "the wizard of oz." i don't think we're in kansas anymore. i don't think the i shall use that have been attributed to him on two-state solution, settlement activity that clearly contradict decades of u.s. foreign policy. >> we will move the american embassy to the eternal capitol of jerusalem. >> reporter: he says he looks forward to doing his job. >> the law provides that you can move the embassy to jerusalem from the state department. donald trump says you're all fired. >> reporter: for decades u.s. presidents have argued the

status of jerusalem can only be settled as part of a peace deal. friedman has criticized the left leaning jewish lobby which has criticized u.s. policies calling them, far worse than cakapos. they're not jewish and they're not pro israel. the group that supports a two-state solution said it was, quote, vehemently opposed to friedman's nomination calling it reckless and putting america's reputation in the region and credibility around the world at risk. current and former diplomats say by picking friedman as ambassador and promising to move the u.s. embassy to jerusalem, donald trump is moving counter to his professed desire which is making what he called the ultimate deal between israelis and palestinians because it raises doubt about whether the u.s. can continue to be a broker

in future u.s. mid east peace talks. a reporter for cnn politics.com and errol lewis and tom lobianco with us. let's talk about friedman and so much of what he's talking about would, indeed, spin on its head decades of u.s. policy. how much do you think he can actually change? >> well, i mean, trump's, president's place to set the tone. obviously he's picked someone who is a hard liner who, you know, wants to go the opposite direction where we've been going for decades now. so i guess what's surprising is trying to square this with differing campaign statements. on the one hand we heard there would be no daylight between israel and the united states. on the other hand we heard they wanted to set the ultimate deal

for some two-state solution. those are two diametrically opposite things based on this. he sets the policy and it's pretty clear where it's going to go. it's definitely not a two-state solution. >> we talk about the direction that he wants to go. we had ben ferguson earlier saying this is the draining the swamp. this is what donald trump promised to do with some of these picks who are people who do not have diplomacy under their belt as friedman does not. is this just a changing of the guard, errol? >> no. i think it is not. it is a radical departure from, as your reporter points out, decades of american policy. we've got to keep in mind a couple of things. one is that israel itself has not made up its mind about this question. the notion that, you know, simply backing the most radical settlers, rejecting a two-state solution, moving the embassy and so forth is what israel wants is by no means determined. and if you take any kind of even a casual look at israeli

politics, that becomes clear. it's a controversy. the second thing though which is more important is that, you know, this is not america's deal to make. this is between the palestinians and the israelis. to the extent that the united states can be helpful as at the camp david accord, is as a broker. to get involved and give away all of his political capital and say we're going to take one of the most controversial parts of this deal that two other parties have to negotiate between themselves and simply, you know, give it away before day one, namely the location of the capital, not a very good way to make or broker a deal. >> tom, how involved do you think donald trump is going to be? do we have a good indication if he's going to be taking the reins or if he's going to be passing this off to the people he's appointing? >> well, i mean, listen to what he said and listen to how he sees how he's put things together. it's clear he wants to delegate

on this, although, you know, the israeli relationship and, again, you know, here with you had a lot of conservative jewish support for trump so you have to think this is an incredibly important case. any decisions will ripple out. what does this feel to how we play out in syria, fringes. you know, i'm not a policy expert by any stretch. i do follow american politics. how this ripples is huge. whether or not he wants to, he might be forced to. i think that's where this is important. he's back to -- this reminds me newt gingrich used to say this, politics every now and then, it's easier to toss a grenade than it is to catch one. >> that's a good one. i want to ask about -- look forward to what's going to happen tomorrow with the electoral college. we're seeing something that i don't know we have seen before.

let's take a look at what hollywood is doing, this campaign that they have created themselves trying to keep from officially getting voted in. >> republican members of the electoral college, this message is for you. as you know, our founding fathers built the electoral college to safeguard the american people from the dangers of a demagogue and to ensure that the presidency only goes to someone who is to an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications. >> errol, what do you make of -- is it unprecedented to see something like this? >> oh, it certainly is, and god knows if they got their wish and provoked yet another constitutional crisis on top of the other ones that are already brewing because of the conflicts of interest presented by the president-elect. i don't know if we would thank these people for doing this. this is, i think, sort of a last-ditch effort. they can tell themselves at

their cocktail parties and on the red carpet that they do everything that they could to try and stop what i think we all know is going to happen in 30 days. kind of a distraction in a lot of ways. any reporting that we've seen on the electors, and if you go through the thick jet of laws that govern their activity and behavior, it makes clear that it's just not in the zblards tom lobianco, errol lewis, always appreciate your insight. thank you for being here. an exclusive interview with jake tapper on "state of the unit." how loretta lynch is describing looking more closely into the e-mails than the dnc hack by the russians. see me. don't stare at me. see me. see me. see me to know that psoriasis is just something that i have. i'm not contagious. see me to know that... ...i won't stop until i find what works. discover cosentyx, a different kind of medicine for moderate

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hillary clinton's former campaign chair john podesta who was the target of a massive cyber attack earlier this year blasted an op ed in the washington post calling it broken over russian hacking. today in an exclusive interview on "state of the union" attorney general janet lynch weighs in on

podesta's claims. >> john podesta is trashing the fbi and saying the investigation into the hacks of the dnc was substandard. that's clearly what he's saying. do you agree with that characterization? >> i don't. i don't. first of all, the investigation isn't even over so i think it's impossible to characterize it in any one way or the other. you know, again, i don't know where mr. podesta is obtaining information. >> he said "the new york times." big long "new york times" story. >> i know also because of his involvement with the campaign he's going to have a certain interest in this and a certain view of that. and so i -- again, i allow him his opinion. everyone has a great deal of respect for him so i allow him that opinion but i disagree with that if that is, in fact, the characterization he is trying to make. >> jake tapper hosts "the state of the union" joins us now. good morning. >> good morning. >> what's your take on the degree of frustration that loretta lynch is feeling over

podesta's comments? >> well, she's really in a tough position because obviously she did not authorize a lot of what fbi director james comey did, but because of that incident in the summer when bill clinton went on to her plane to talk to her, she kind of, although not officially, but kind of stepped back and recused herself and allowed comey to be more autonomous with his decisions when it came to the investigation of hillary clinton's private e-mail server. so she's in a position of having to defend actions that she didn't necessarily authorize but by the same token, you know, we see a lot of democrats now blaming hillary clinton's election laws directly on fbi director comey. i think there are a lot of people in the law enforcement community, even those who are democrats and supported hillary clinton, who think that that is unfair and untrue. so that's kind of the situation she's in, but she did offer a

full throated defense of the fbi. >> one of two big interviews on "state of the union" coming up at 9:00 a.m. this morning. we understand you also have senator john mccain who has expressed some concerns about at least one member of donald trump's potential cabinet, rex tillerson at state. >> that's right. here's somebody else in another tough position. senator john mccain who has squabbled with president-elect donald trump and is trying to enter the new year not being a harsh critic of donald trump and yet has always been a hawk when it comes to russia so you know these issues having to do with rex tillerson and having to do with the russian hacking of the dnc and john podesta really concern him quite a bit. and so we'll see what he has to say today. obviously we have still heard more from donald trump in terms of poo-pooing what the 17 u.s. intelligence agencies are saying about russia's involvement in

the election and hacking democrats. >> jake tapper, looking forward to both of those big interviews. >> thank you so much. >> attorney general loretta lynch and senator john mccain 9:00 a.m. eastern right here on cnn. "saturday night live" wrapping up its final episode with quite a punch. political impersonations back in full swing.

. . all right. donald trump you got vladimir putin. you got potentially clinton and kellyanne conway, even exxonmobil made their way on to "saturday night live". donald trump was mocked for his pick of rex tillerson as secretary of state and ties with putin. >> ahead of tomorrow's electoral vote and there was so much more. remember this one from "love actually." taking a shot at that. >> i know you're wondering but

no donald trump has not weighed in, has not tweeted his review of snl this week. maybe he will when he tunes in. let's show you part of the cold open. this is alec baldwin playing trump and inviting someone over for a merry christmas. take a look. >> putin? oh, my god. >> baby. za, za! [ laughter ] >> oh, my stars. you didn't tell me putty would be here. man was i hoping to catch up with you. >> my old friend, so much to talk about. right here. we're having some oil drilling problems here. >> oh, that's no problem as soon as the sanctions are lifted we'll up our intake by 30%. >> what your guys talking about? >> don't bother it. >> what about production here? >> already under way. just have to take control of the

bridge. our military is on it. >> then we'll destroy "vanity fair". right. their publication is just terrible. >> sure, buddy, sure. >> trying to use trump's own words against him. you mentioned the hillary clinton cameo as well. the real hillary clinton, kate mckinnon playing for clinton holding out for one more chance referring to the electoral college. watch this.

this is straight out of "love actually" that great christmas movie. kate mckinnon as clinton. snl no friend of donald trump and we've seen that the past few weeks in particular. this show, especially on weekend update and with the cold open and with skits like this still wishing hillary clinton was in the mix, was still a possibility, snl showing maybe its true liberal hearts, comedians going out, finishing the year with this christmas scene episode. they will be back in january in time for inauguration day. >> oh, my goodness. brian, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> we appreciate it. be sure to watch brian later this morning. 11:00 a.m. eastern right here on cnn, of course. so maybe you recall the

moment caught on tape earlier this year at the trump rally in north carolina where donald trump supporter suckered punch a protester in the face. now they face one another again, this time in north carolina in a courtroom. john franklin mcgraw apologized. watch. >> we got caught up in a political mess today and you and me we got to heal our country. >> well the trump protester rakim jones opened up about why he accepted that apology. >> i just want to shake his hand and be able to, you know, be able to actually face him. >> and more than just the apology and being accepted the two men agreed to work together to heal the nation.

>> the trump supporter was sentenced to a year probation. what does that say to all the people and all of the -- boy, i dare say hatred we saw. >> a lot of vitriol during the campaign. >> what an example. >> those two men can come together and apologize and accept the apology and work together to move forward. good example. >> thank you so much for sharing part of your morning with us. we hope you make some great memories today. >> stay with us. "inside politics" with john king starts right now. bottom line, life is hard. that's why godaddy created website builder... it makes creating a website...easy. build an awesome mobile-friendly, website... and it's free to get started. plus with the money you save, you can hire a math tutor. get your free trial of godaddy website builder now!

at godaddy.com p is for permission to indulge. o is for out of this world. l is for loving the seasonal cuisine. a is for access to everything, including the aisle. r is for reclining in tailor-made bedding. and i... must be dreaming. s... so long, jet lag. polaris, from united.

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donald trump offers supporters his holiday take on naughty and nice. >> i mean you were nasty and mean and vicious and you wanted to win. right? now you're mellow and you're cool because we won. >> current president's year end message is more sober. >> horrible things happening around the world and because i'm president of the united states i feel responsible. >> one month before the trump inauguration russia year hacking remains a flash point. >> over a third of republican voters approve of vladimir putin the former head of the kgb. ronald reagan would roll over his grave. >> the president-elect says he doubts it happens and republicans worry he's too cozy with the kremlin. "inside politics," the biggest stories sourced by the best reporters now.