>> dear colleagues, on monday night we receive add detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace by matt lauer, and it represented after a serious review of clear violation of company standards and as a result we decided to terminate his employment. while it's the first complaint in 20 years, we are also presented with reason to believe this may not be the only -- >> i don't know how close these outlets were to publishing. >> one last question. will this now preempt or preclude any publishing? do those stories go away now? by nbc getting out in front of it, will they have to spike those stories? >> no, they will be published just sooner than they would have

been. >> the stark contrast between how this industry is dealing with the store geez and allegations and accusations and the political realm. how many lawmakers have been had -- yeah, these settlements are bad? yeah, i never heard of them, had no idea. different levels of recognition of something equally obvious in both places. >> they can't run from this. they have to confront this. we are going to hear more. the key question is not what nbc knew, was there behavior they knew about all along, and that will come out, and that's what we know about charlie rose, for example, we don't know about those things yet but that's the kind of thing that will be covered in that kind of story. >> a tough spot for savannah. that's for sure. >> my heart went out to savannah and hoda, and al roker, and he's trying to deliver the weather

report and get through it. these staffers and co-hosts knew something was brewing but did not know he was going to be fired overnight. lauer's behavior, yes, it was rumored behind the scenes, and i wrote a book and mentioned the widespread belief he had sexual relationships with colleagues. we are in a different era now and different environment where women feel more comfortable to share stories of misconduct and they are not going to be shamed and silenced. that's the overarching headline and many will be disappointed to see matt lauer disappear. >> bill, thank you very much. we are following a lot of news this morning, so let's get to it. good morning, everyone. good morning and welcome to i don't "new day." it's wednesday, november 29th. the entire united states is

within reach of north korea's missiles. the north now claims it can deliver a heavy nuclear warhead. president trump offered a measured response saying, quote, we will take care of it. >> that may be a reflection of the complexity of the situation and the attempts to build a reliance to respond to the north korean aggression. we will give you the latest on that. the president is facing a lot this morning. there's a new crisis for him to deal with on a personal front, reporting that raises serious questions about his grasp of reality. "the new york times" reporting the president is reviving his baseless conspiracy theory that former president obama was not born in the united states. one of the reporters behind the story is going to join us in a few moments. we have it all covered and there's a lot going on. let's start with will ripley live in seoul, south korea. this latest test is really

resonating here in the united states all the way up to the presidency. >> and here in seoul as well, chris, because for the north koreans they are claiming this is a game changer, they have now proven they have a missile that can hit anywhere in the world, and that was something that was affirmed by the u.s. defense secretary, saying as well this is really a new level of north korean missile capabilities. the wow song 15 reached an altitude we have never seen from a missile. north korea claims there was a heavy warhead or a simulated warhead on this missile and they say their test prove it could survive re-entry into the earth's atmosphere, and the key and missing component of the north korean missile testing. they reiterate they don't feel diplomacy is possible with the united states yet, and they think they still have more to prove and by doing that, proving

that this missile can actually do what it says they say it can do, they are talking about an above-ground nuclear test and possibly detonating a missile over the pacific ocean, and that's a threat the united states and the world should take literally, and unknown how the world would act to such a provocative act. there's lot of concern about north korean provocation leading up to that. this latest missile test proves they have rounded off their nuclear program, and will they need to do more and that's the big question and unknown and that's what is sparking concern here in r and in south korea around the region and around the world. >> will, thank you very much. so president trump is still peddling debunked conspiracy theories. "the new york times" says president trump is once again

citing sources, and they doubt it's his voice on the infamous access hollywood tape. you have covered donald trump for a long time, many years. why does he bathe in conspiracy their yes? >> he likes the idea of a hidden hand, something you can't see is out there governing a bunch of things, and his idea that somebody is controlling things and somebody is out to get a certain group of people, whether it's him or his voters. when he seized on the birther issue in 2011, it was not something he had given a whole lot of attention to before that and that was on the fridges of the gop and of conservative politics. it's ironic, because breitbart that is supportive of trump or has more of a troubled relationship lately, but over the last few years, it's founder

was anti-trump in 2011 in part because of the birther conspiracy that he embraced and championed. that was useful to him. he also has, as you know, and as you know a hard time admitting he was wrong. with the birther conspiracy, which was a lie about the birthplace of the first black president of this country, he eventually conceded that he was born here, and this literally was based on nothing, this claim, during the 2016 campaign, he didn't really do an apology, and he blamed hillary clinton for getting the whole thing started in the first place. it's not a big surprise that he has clung to that. in terms of the "access hollywood" issue, that started after he won. i started with one person who is familiar with the conversation that the president had with a senator in january, shortly

before he was inaugurated where the president said we don't believe that's my voice, and they said they were thinking of look into it and hiring investigators, and sounded similar to what he said about obama's birth certificate and continued at points saying it since. >> i don't get it. first of all, this is helpful, because this is not just propaganda, you know what i mean, or political spin. if he wants to do this thing with "access hollywood," it's just a naked lie. there's absolutely -- >> yes, it's his voice. >> there's zero to it. he apologized for what happened. billy bush lost his job over this. if anybody was going to question its authenticity, it would have been billy bush because he would have been wrongly dismissed on something baseded on a farce. we're not psychologists, but if you want to scrutinize this objectively, it has to make you

wonder what do world leaders think that the president of the united states is contemplating whether or not he said what he once said he said. >> there's no question that it's incredibly strange to hear. when you hear this your jaw sort of drops, my jaw dropped, and then we had several people close to the president saying that's what he said. it's hard to tell what is him believing what he's saying or trying to convince somebody else and selling them on somebody. we have long known him as a real estate developer and reality television star to paint his own reality as he wishes it and will it into existence. he keeps tweeting he accomplished more than any other president in the first ten months and that's not true. he was speculating with senators there might have been 3 million

illegal voters and there was a vote fraud commission, and he put the leavers of government of power into looking into something that as far as we can tell that came from his head. a lot said they don't know what the line is of what he believes to be true or what he convinces himself is real. he's not somebody who experiences shame very often, and it's part of why he's been able to regenerate himself repeatedly after bankruptcies and divorces, and he was publicly humiliated and he referred to it at the debate as very embarrassing, and i think this is basically trying to erase some shame. >> he apologized. that also we don't hear. he said i said it and i'm sorry.

explain the dissidence on the senator -- >> it's stunning. you hear it and it's just completely at odds with objective reality, and one of the problems we have seen over the last few years and the president fuels this, and has put accelerant on it, it's not just that people have different opinions, it's that people don't agree on a shared set of facts. it's problematic, because it's hard to accomplish anything if you can't agree on what just happened. what i have to say about the "access hollywood" tape, when he was presented that the "washington post" had this audio, he was doing debate prepare at trump tower and he was with half a dozen aides, and he was told the language and he kept telling people in the room it does not sound like something i would say, and then he played the audio, and he listened to it and he said, it is me.

he knew it was him. it's a pretty distinctive voice. >> i can't know i was running for president at the time. i was joking around with a tv guy. there are lots of different things you could say that would garner different levels of consideration by voters. the reason we are seizing on this, one, it's a naked lie, and even with most of the audacity, there's usually space, even on the birther thing there was two different tapes of paperwork from hawaii and the reluctant -- >> no kernel of truth here. >> it calls into question the level -- the mentality of the president of the united states. if he is willing to go there on this tape, what else is he willing to call into question without basis? >> i think as we have seen with this president, i think you are

asking the key question, and what concerns people who i have talked to around washington, particularly republicans, is things in terms of what acceptable continue to go down. there's no bottom. >> this is the media, and you guys are ringing your hands over nothing. look at his twitter feed this morning. >> we thought he had been hacked. >> why would you think that? >> because it's so inflammatory. i hear you, maggie, but sometimes, believe it or not we are still shocked. >> i am not saying don't be shocked, but i am saying when there was a hacking question that came up, and there's nothing at odds -- i am not saying outrage should not happen, because what he's doing is inflammatory, and he gave an interview once upon a time, and their folks are tweeting it's not a good idea.

>> that tells you something. >> yes, it does. something is unleashed with him lately. i don't know what is causing it. i don't know how to describe it. >> you see a difference in the past, what, days, weeks? >> i think the last couple days' tweets have been -- >> you know, unhinged. >> he's tweeting anti-muslim tweets. why? why? what's the point? >> because it makes him feel good at any moment, because he having anxiety about north korea, and you add whatever reason to it. it gives people who have anti-muslim sentiment to act on it. >> who says to him, this is dangerous? it seems like you are suggesting a holy war. >> there's a myth, and you guys

know this, that everybody around him tells him no, and people around him tell him not to do things but he's a grown man and they can't break his fingers and keep him from tweeting so they tell him don't do this and he does it anyway. and one other problem, and i want to defend our reporting here, a sarah sanders said frome podium some version of why won't the media let it go, and that's just a fundamentally different question. this is new information. this is something different. this is him now saying something other than what he said last year. there's probably a reason that i didn't get pushback from the white house in any meaningful way. >> good point. good point. no word from the white house, that's not true, he's not telling anybody that. >> i will tell you one adviser did insist they had not heard him say anything about the birth

certificate thing, and we are good on our sourcing, but he has pretty widely said the "access hollywood" thing based on my reporting, and again, it's fine to stand at the podium and i understand that sarah sanders and sean spicer before her have a difficult job, and you can't say that up and down and black is white and something was reported that wasn't. again, there's a reason that we have not heard a complaint about that. >> thank you very much for all your reporting. >> thanks. >> you will hear complaints. >> we have not heard him ask for a correction or say it's false. sarah sanders never said once that's false. she hedged and went around it but did not say that. >> thank you. north korea, very much in the news. it just launched another missile it says the entire united states is in its range. what can the u.s. do about this? we have former director of

national intelligence, jim clapper, joining us next. david. what's going on? oh hey! ♪ that's it? yeah. ♪ everybody two seconds! ♪ "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..." through the tuition assistance program, every day mcdonald's helps more people go to college. it's part of our commitment to being america's best first job. ♪

sarah sanders. north korea says the u.s. is now in striking distance of their most power full missile launched. what options does the united states have to respond?

joining us now to discuss this is cnn national security analyst and former director of national intelligence, james clapper. director clapper, thank you very much. this missile has gone higher and further than any we have seen before. how do you think this changes the equation? >> i think the important thing here is context, and you know the north koreans have been on a path developing a intercontinental ballistic missile for sometime, and each one of the missile tests moves them along on that path, and they have accomplished yet another milestone and what they want to be able to portray is a credible operational military operational intercontinental ballistic missile capabilities, and they have been on this path for sometime. so yes, it's worrisome and

disturbing, but at least they did not fly it over the land mass of japan, so if you are looking for good news of sorts, i guess that's it. >> i guess, except as you say they have been working on it for sometime, and is it time to change the united states response to this? >> as others have aobserved man times, there are no good options in response. there needs to be a combination of carrot and stick here. we have been long on the stick and kind of short on the carrot. >> what can we change to change -- what feels like the march that they keep making? we keep hearing we have no good options, but are we out of ideas? >> i think the path ahead, the only logical path is through diplomacy negotiations.

on the one hand, yes, we need to continue with sanctions, and coercive steps, and as everybody knows, china is key to that. but i also think that the -- you know, there would be some merit, maybe the north koreans right now are not in the mood to listen to offering, for example, discussions about a peace treaty. all we have right now there's an a armistice, a cease-fire, and when i visited north korea, that's bother some to them. as we look south, the south korean military is overwhelming to them and they use that in their own domestic dialogue to hype the paranoia, and to me

this is a path -- one thing we could at least discuss with them, which perhaps could lesson the paranoia and the saepbiege mentality. >> what about the olympics coming up? >> well, i trust the south koreans will continue to prepare for it and that that will go off. it certainly -- the south koreans, i have no doubt, i have every confidence to conduct the olympics and do it securely. there's opportunity for provocation on the part of the north koreans. i'd be a tad surprised if they do something like that to disrupt what is really an international event and it's not related only to the republic of korea or the united states. >> director clapper, i want to ask you about what is happening this morning. president trump is tweeting

out -- retweeting, i guess i should say, this highly inflammatory anti-muslim videos and stuff from the far right nationalists -- british nationalists website that is full of anti-muslim hateful crap. what is happening here? what do you think the consequences are? >> well, i have no idea what would motivate him to do that. to me it's bizarre and disturbing, and particularly when i think of him doing that in the context of north korea, where moderation and thought is critical. when you see him do something like this, i find it very disturbing. i have no way of explaining what on earth motivated it. >> look, i don't want to sound

too alarmist, but with your experience do you find that things like this end up having a ripple affect around the world? does this get the attention of people who want to perhaps perpetrate violence? >> there's that, and as well, i think it causes our friends and allies to question where is he coming from with this, so it has all kinds of ripple affects, both in inciting or encouraging anti-muslim violence, and it causes our friends and allies around the world to wonder about the judgment of the president of the united states. >> director james clapper, we always appreciate getting your perspective. thank you for being here. >> thank you. the gop tax bill cleared an important hurdle, but what does that mean in terms of the chance

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breaking news.

tampa police have yarrested a 24-year-old man in connection with a string of murders that happened over the last two months. what do we know? >> that's right. in fact, chris, we are waiting for the governor who is going to go and speak to the police officers after really what has been a 51-day manhunt. 24 hours a day, canvassing this neighborhood. it all came down to one tip. >> we're bringing somebody to justice who doesn't deserve the right to walk amongst us. >> 24-year-old donaldson charged with four counts of first-degree murder. police in tampa, florida, detaining him at this mcdonald's where he worked after he handed a gun to a manager who alerted a police officer in the result. >> we said all along that no tip is too small, and somebody stepped forward and gave us what

we needed. >> donaldson is accused of fatally shooting four people in the last two months. >> not sure why he was in this neighborhood and we are not aware what his ties were or what his motive was. >> the first victim, mitchell, shot and killed in front of his home. authorities releasing this surveillance footage of a person running near the scene of the crime, images of a man they called their suspect. on the 13th, the body of monica hoppa discovered, and then a man gunned down after taking the wrong bus home and the 20-year-old had autism and just graduated from high school. and then 62-year-old felton was murdered while walking to a local church to help feet the homeless. a terrified and grieving community, relieved a killer is behind bars. >> the process will occur when

this individual rots in hell. >> there's still a lot of questions. the big one is the motive. why did this individual go and randomly shoot these four people? we are hoping to learn more on that. the other is the six-figure reward, whether or not that manager at mcdonald's will receive that. we will be hearing more from authorities in tampa a little bit more this morning. >> a lot still to be learned here. diane, thank you for keeping us ahead on this. the tax bill just cleared a major hurdle. it got through the budget committee. now there will be a full vote on the senate floor. still a big challenge to passage. joining us now is somebody at the center of the process, senate majority whip john cornyn. good to have you, sir. >> good morning and good to be with you. thank you. >> i will put up for the audience the list of people in play here in terms of getting

people onboard. when you are looking at johnson and danes, it's about treating people equal with corporations, and you have people worried about unspecified interests as well on there. where do you think it stands in terms of whipping the vote? >> you need another category of people who are just worried, period. this is not easy and that's why it has not been done since 1986, and we are doing the best we can despite our democratic friends decided not to participate in the process. i sense a big difference between this and the health care vote because in this case i do believe all of the people you listed want to get to yes. they have legitimate concerns, and we are trying to address those concerns and i think we passed a big hurdle yesterday, as you pointed out in the budget committee. >> so we had senator brown on

here, and he said that's not true, the democrats want to work and they are being kept out of the process. >> that's just not true. share kwr brown is on the committee with me, and he did not win a lot of his amendments but when you are in the minority that happens, and that's not when you take your ball and go home and that's what they did. there's still an opportunity for the democratic colleagues on the vote for today and on thursday to per taearticipate, and we wo love to have a bipartisan bill. >> if they can't get anything changed in the bill why would you expect them to cooperate with something they think is a fraud? >> because it's the way the process works, and i don't think they should assume they can't win amendment votes. they should try to craft them in a way that will attract bipartisan support. a number of things we tried to

do to accommodate republicans, the ones you mentioned and others, the sorts of things i think if the democrats would take a hard look at they could say that makes sense to me. if their whole point is to deny the president and the majority a win here on tax reform, unfortunately, the american people are going to be the ones that pay the price. this really -- we need to do this for the doers and the d.r.e.a.m.ers and the hard-working families and the small businesses that need the workers and people that want a little bit more take home pay in their paycheck, we can do this. >> why don't you help them more then? when you look at every analysis of this bill, you can argue the economics and political choices and there's no right answer about who to help and why to help them, but this was billed as a middle class for the d.r.e.a.m.ers and workers as you say, and there's no analysis that shows them being helped disproportionately to the top tier, so why not call it a tax cut and say the people at the

top will be helped the most because they pay the most or whatever rational you want to apply, instead of saying it's for the doers and d.r.e.a.m.ers when it isn't? >> i disagree with it. the people that do pay more taxes, they are going to benefit. every income bracket will benefit and the lower income brackets in the 40 range will benefit the most. >> why does the cbo and joint tax reform say that's not true? >> i disagree with your analysis. i spent quite a bit of time emersed in this as a member of the senate finance committee and what the committee on taxation says is every bracket of taxpayers will see their taxes reduced. >> out of the box, senator, but not over time. this is not my analysis. this is not new to you what i am saying. it's right in the listings of

the different numbers and graphs over time that people over time, as you go down an income bracket they will lose their benefits and start to go into the red in this. that's not my analysis. >> that's just not true. >> that's what the cbo says and joint committee says. >> if you give me a chance to answer your question. >> please. >> a median family income from $70,000 of four will see their tax burden go down $2,200, and we are removing the individual mandate that hits people that earn $50,000 or less, 6.7 million people have to pay a tax penalty because they can't afford the affordable care act policies and we are going to allow businesses to bring earnings back home and invest them in workers and wages here in the united states. i think this is not a perfect bill, as senator round said this morning in your interview, but i think it's a big improvement over the status quo, and i don't think you can just look at the

status scoring numbers that disregard how people will respond to this huge change which i think will benefit all taxpayers. >> look, it's fair to argue the magic of trickle down and what the top can do for the other tiers. i am not saying that's not to be said politically. you can argue that. you are welcome to do it here. i'm just saying, i am looking at a graph of the assumed distribution of tax benefits under the current reckoning of the bill, which, of course, could change, and if you look at the bracket you are pointing to, 75k to 100, it does not benefit the way the top tier does. it's just the numbers. it's not my reckoning of them. it's what it is. why say the bill is designed to help a group that doesn't get helped the most? >> i disagree with your point of view. when you call something trickle down, that's a phrase designed to cynically look at what we are trying to do here.

what we are trying to do and we will continue to work to improve it is to make the bill as good as it can be. if the democrats would join us in the process it would be better but they refused so we have to do the best we can given the hand we have been dealt, and hopefully improve the lot of hard-working american families and make ourselves more competitive in the global economy and leave people with more take home pay than they have now. >> those goals should be shared no matter which side of the aisle you are on. always welcome on "new day" to make your case to the american people. >> thank you. breaking news in the news business this morning. nbc news stunning viewers with the stunning announcement matt lauer has been fired from the "today" show and nbc for sexual misconduct claims. we have all of the breaking details for you next. grocery bags. just likt

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know for your "new day." number one, north korea claims to have fired a missile that puts the entire united states in range.

the republican tax plan cleared a major hurdle. it got out of the budget committee and will be debated and voted on by the full senate. they are hoping to have a vote this week. more good economic news for president trump. a new report shows the u.s. economy growing at 3.3% in the third quarter. that is the fastest rate in three years. >> a federal judge siding with president trump in the fight over whom should lead the consumer financial protection bureau. the judge denying a request to block mulvaney from taking the post from acting director. veteran tod"today" show anc matt lauer has been fired for inappropriate behavior in the workplace. for more on the five things to know you can go to cnn.com/newday for the latest. first, a young woman

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northeast. southwest we have breaking news. nbc news has fired veteran "today" show host matt lauer for, quote, inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace. this development is sending shock waves through the media as

viewers wake up to the news. jim, this is, you know, obviously has been a seismic shock in our business. we understand "the new york times" has been working on a story for a while about matt lauer. what can you share about their reporting? >> we will be only reporting those details after they are firmed up from our standpoint, but obviously nbc found in its own investigation there were troubling incidents involving mr. lauer and relationships. this was interesting to me, what the chairman of next said to his staff is somebody came forward monday night and acted right off of that tip combined with what they found to be troubling stories about mr. lauer, and they saw no other option but to terminate him, and that is terminating not only one of

nbc's very biggest stars but one of the biggest stars in television, as you know. >> it's hard to argue that he's not nbc's biggest star. jim, how do you reconcile the fact you have been reporting on this and one other outlet has been reporting on this and other things that happened with the corporate statement from nbc that nothing in 20 years, maybe we have some reason to believe this happened on monday, we acted right away. how do you reconcile those two senses of perspective on how long this has been? >> well, that's something i think they know they are going to have to answer. i believe they are eager to answer it. i am under the impression what they were saying, we were not doing this under pressure from outside media and we heard what we heard and moved on it and there's a culture where people sadly, tragically sat in silence with the allegations and felt there was nowhere they could turn. that said, of course, where all of our reporting goes to, who

knew what and when in each of the cases, and those are the cases they will have to answer. they are trying to portray themselves as being proactive, and this is a case where unlike charlie rose recently, it sounded like they are all blurring together in time, but there was a reporter in the "washington post" with that, and there's more we will be reporting and others as well. >> brian, what a week in the tv news business. it was a week ago that charlie rose was fired after allegations -- it's hard to overstate matt lauer's relevance in our business. >> this is the biggest change that we have seen, the biggest firing that we have seen within this sexual harassment tipping point. this story, this phenomenon began with harvey weinstein two months ago, and weinstein, of course, a well-known movie pr producer, and matt lauer is different, he's a household name. i think it's important not to

paint it with a broad brush and we don't know what "the new york times" and "variety" and others will be reporting. we do know the complaint was serious enough for nbc to take action within 24 hours. we have been trying to reach out to matt lauer for comment and have not heard back yet. >> we have the world of politics, and they are not in the recognition tage, and it's troubling you don't have more men cooperating in the effort, but the settlement thing is the crux of accountability, they are still doing this on it. >> well, they will havett ethic hearings. >> it's not the way you are seeing it dealt, and then you have our business. fox, let's not forget what happened with them in terms of firings, and now nbc. the word change. fire something a kind of change, it's the easiest kind of change, because i thought what we were

dealing with here is trying to break through a silence in culture, who makes agreements. jim, who makes these kinds of agreements? who knows about this kind of behavior? what avenues are they for women not to take on everybody else in order to come forward? those are real changes. we don't hear about that after the firings. your take? >> first of all, we hold ourselves up to higher standards those of us that take news seriously, and it's incumbent upon us to take action and keep reporting. the political side, what might be troubling is that where they are not taking swift action, in some cases there might need to be some legislative action, and some are talking about the nondisclosure agreements, where accusers come forward within their corporate culture to make

an allegation, and they are paid off, and they are shut up, and then in many cases we are learning the abuser goes on to repeat the alleged horrible behavi behavior, in some cases assault. >> i am not saying all legal settlements have to go, not all accusations are the same and don't have the same merit. when you get to government and it's our money they are using to settle i think there should be a different standard. >> we are just at the beginning, i feel, and we're at the beginning of what is going to happen with the culture. thank you very much for helping share your breaking news with us. brian stelter, we know you will be reporting on this throughout the day. "newsroom" is going to pick up with john berman after this quick break. ive. t-mobile. holiday twogether.

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just for jared. or a piece we custom made just for you. because we're more than a store that sells beautiful jewelry. we are jewelers. the one, unique gift that tells her exactly how you feel. that's why he went to jared. what a morning, a morning of change. in fact, the change in mornings themselves. it may be much bigger than that. john berman here. the breaking news today, matt lauer, one of the icons of television was just fired for inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace. the host really seemed as stunned as the rest of us. >> we just learned this moments ago, just this