wow! >> cav a gnjudge kavanaugh, how supreme court? >> with me, my temperament? are you insane? no, they went with that nerd merrick garland but when i say i like beer, they find is charming and not like i'm threatening violence! ♪ i believe we are going to get really good health care. >> do i think this is going to be the thing that crafts some type of bipartisan health care agreement? of course not. >> people don't realize i have a lot of friends who are democrats. >> it will be interesting to see who the president is talking with -- about when he says democrats will help him on that issue moving forward. >> another day of resignation at the white house. >> secretary of the interior ryan zinke announced he is out.

>> zing zinke is being accused of using finances for his own personal. >> there is no doubt we are a long way away from iowa voters heading to their caucus sites for the 2020 presidential campaign but never too early to get a sense of what iowa voters are thinking. ♪ 7:01 is the time on this sunday morning. we have grateful to have you with us. i'm christi paul. >> i'm martin savidge in for victor blackwell. >> good to have you here, martin. the battle over health care coverage is now center stage again in washington thanks to a texas judge's ruling striking down the affordable care act. >> the debate will have democrats now controlling the house and while republicans have a stronger grip on the senate. >> president trump says a fix will happen but some republicans are less hopeful after watching democrats ride their defensive obamacare to midterm victories. we are getting in your reporting on the time and

reasoning about ryan zinke's exit from the trump team as white house continue to investigate whether he is in office or not. we want to begin with health care, though. as president and former president offered dueling messages in the wake of the texas judge's ruling here. cnn white house reporter sarah westwood is with us live. what are you hearing this morning? good morning to you, sarah. >> reporter: good morning. president trump is take ago victory lap this weekend in the wake of that federal judge's ruling invalidating obamacare. remember, the president hopes the affordable care act fails and hopes the fail of the obamacare act would drive them to the negotiating table but republicans failed on their own to pass a replacement for obamacare despite controlling chambers of congress and that process exposed how many divisions exist within the gop how to approach health care even though obamacare has been a unifying force within the party

for years now. democrats have united beyond the affordable care act. the president is renewing calls for that backdrop for work on a bipartisan health care plan. he is using the texas judge's ruling to revisit an issue that, to say the least, is complicated for his administration. last night at the congressional ball at the white house, he said health care is possible for becom possible for democrats and republicans to come together. take a listen. >> i believe we will get exciting health care. exciting things happened over the last 4 hours. if everybody is smart, we have a lot of democrats here tonight and i'm happy about that. people don't realize. i have a lot of friends who are democrats. we have democrats here. if the republicans and the democrats get together, we are going to end up with incredible health care, which is the way it should have been from day one. and it's going to happen. it now has a chance to happen. >> reporter: former president

obama last night on facebook continued his defense of his signature policy achievement, as he opened enrollment period for the exchanges drew to a close. he warned supporters of the affordable care act they had to keep voting because republicans will never stop their pursuit of repeali repealing obamacare, something they have been after for years now. we talk stark and different reactions from the current and former president to the judge's rule. >> no doubt. thank you, sarah westwood. joining us to talk about this is errol louis who is commentator for "spectrum news." >> good morning, martin. >> let me ask you what is your take on all of this. as far as the ruling has come and what you think will come next. >> i think what comes next is probably a third trip to the supreme court. repeal and replace efforts ended up in the supreme court in 2012

and 2015 and i guess we will see them back in front of the judges. the fundamentals have not changed. the politics really still don't work for the president's position, unfortunately. you know? this kind of tension between the red state attorneys general who brought this lawsuit where it's relatively ease for them to say let's declare this unconstitutional and overturn this entire system and members of congress, including senators from those same states have different politics because tens of millions of people who would be at risk losing their health care coverage and that is not a popular proposition. in large part why the republican party lost as many seats they did during the midterms. the president is kind of walking them down that same path. i think for some republican legislators and other political leaders, it's going to be a real

problem. the president the may see this as a victory but do republicans see this as more of a complication? >> yes, it depends. we will see what the fallout is, martin. but the polls that i've looked at and if you look at the way the democrats took control of the house, it turns out, according to the exit polls and according to subsequent polls, it turns out that health care coverage is actually important to people. more important than the immigration issue, more important than even jobs and tax cuts and other things that the republicans are trying to run on and that is why so many of them lost. so going in to the 2020 elections, i'm not sure that is going to change. you know? this is the sign-up period and like everybody else maybe youtube, martin, i had to go through a lot of paper work and try to figure out how to take care of my family and make sure we had everything in place for medical issues if they come up in the next year. it's real serious stuff for millions and millions of families and to sort of dispense these talking points and say we

got to just get rid of this. that is really not going to work with a lot of people. we have got a populous we are into eight years, nine years of a flawed for sure but certainly stable kind of health care system that brought more people in. they are going to have to be very careful how they work on this. >> so you don't believe that congress is going to pick this up and try to make some kind of change, other than what the court has already ordered? >> i think most are going to duck and cover. i think most members in both parties will say let's wait until the court deals with this and better than even chance i think this latest repeal effort is going to fail either the appeals court or supreme court will say this judge in texas is out of step with prior precedent. even if it does sort of cause turmoil, that turmoil is not necessarily going to play out politically to the advantage of

anybody. i think the american people will be upset with everybody in washington if we have to, one more time, go through what we went through in 2009 and 2010 with a lot of uncertainty, a lot of fears that people will lose their health care coverage. it would actually be, i think, a failure of the process if we have to start all over again trying to figure out how to stop people from going bankrupt just because somebody in their family got sick. >> yeah. i'm with you, especially on that point that it's on the minds of most americans. that's what i found when i was out there covering the campaign trail. errol louis, always a pleasure. thank you. >> thank you, martin. we are learning new details this morning about interior secretary ryan zinke's depart tour. according to "the washington post" white house officials will be pushing him to resign for weeks concerned about the number of investigations the democrat majority house could bring against him. "the new york times" reporting john kelly's team told zinke that he could face a potentially

humiliating firing. "the washington post" said zinke didn't want to leave until he attended his christmas party thursday night where apparently there were activists and lobbyists and donors invited to that. cnn national security analyst samantha vinograd is with us. ji zinke is not the only one dealing with this. epa administrator scott pruitt who left in july with the same kind of accusations about housing arrangements and spending. what i want to ask why this is such an issue. is it really an issue in this administration or is this something that has happened a while and other administrations and it just has not been under such scrutiny? >> well, it looks like the man

that rode his horse to work on the first day needed one last hooray in the form of this christmas party and wanted to have his position until the bitter end. every administration has people that may not, in fact, follow the rules. the difference this time around is that the signal from the top is this may be okay. the standard for behavior comes from a leader on any team, whether it's an administration, a company, or a baseball team. the fact of the matter is when we talk about investigations into a conflict of interest, unethical behavior and mixing business with pleasure, that could, in fact, describe a lot of the president and his family's activities on the same day or the day before, excuse me, that zinke announced he was leaving the white house, we had stories about ivanka trump booking rooms rooms during the inaugurati inauguration. it is not a stretch to imagine

that members of his team would follow the example that he is setting. >> does it make national security vulnerable in any way? especially this time of the year. >> i think that we are highly vulnerable right now. the holidays are always a high-risk environment because there are so many americans traveling and there's so many high profile events. i remember being in a sit room and getting these briefings going into christmas and new year's. this time around, we have an added element and that is it is painfully clear the president is distracted by two things. the investigation into his campaign and resolving door of cabinet officials and his chief of staff. every day that i was at the white house, i wish that there were 12 more hours in the day because there wasn't enough time to get the work done and that was without an fbi investigation and without multiple transitions. so at this point, it is unclear what the president has time for, aside from consulting with his lawyers and trying to figure out, frankly, how to stop the cabinet. >> thank you for your time,

samantha. republican senator susan collins and elijah cummings are on "state of the union" this morning at 9:00 a.m. and noon today on cnn. first look of what voters are thinking, coming up, how voters in iowa are bracing for the race to face president trump. also, a troubling social media message from "snl's" david patterson prompted nypd to do an investigation. we have a live update on that from new york. stay close.

having moderate to severe plaque psoriasis is not always easy. it's a long-distance journey, and you have the determination to keep going. humira has a proven track record of being prescribed for over 10 years. humira works inside the body to target and help block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to symptoms. most adults taking humira were clear or almost clear and many saw 75% and even 90% clearance in just 4 months. and the kind of clearance that can last. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal, infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms, or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. join over 250,000 patients who have chosen humira. ask about the #1 prescribed biologic by dermatologists.

humira... and go. whoooo. with tripadvisor, finding your perfect hotel at the lowest price... is as easy as dates, deals, done! simply enter your destination and dates... and see all the hotels for your stay! tripadvisor searches over 200 booking sites... to show you the lowest prices... so you can get the best deal on the right hotel for you. dates, deals, done! going to extremes for perfect skin? where does it end? new olay whips. while not equal to cosmetic procedures, our b3 complex hydrates to smooth skin. injections? rejected.

beautiful skin? accepted olay.

don't you get the one of those travel sites? they tell you that, but when you book at hilton.com, you get the price match guarantee. so if you find your room at a lower rate, hilton is like... we're gonna match that rate and give you an extra 25% off. what would travel sites do if you found a better price? that's not my problem, it's your problem. get outta here! whoa, i really felt that performance. it's just acting, i'm really good at it. book at hilton.com and get the hilton price match guarantee. if you find a lower rate, we match it and give you 25% off that stay. fans and celebrity are pouring out support this morning for "saturday night live's" pete dafedsson following a trouble message he posted on social media. >> the message prompted new york city to check on him to make sure he was all right. polo sandoval has more details for us. what are you hearing from there? >> reporter: good morning. the nypd confirms that officers

wchl wchl performed a wellness check on the "saturday night live" actor. after noticing a post yesterday afternoon and before deleting his instagram account davidson wrote, in part, quote. last night, davidson did appear on "saturday night live" during two segments. we understand one of them was pretaped and the other one was live. davidson has been very open about his mental struggles in the past. he was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and it's been a difficult year for the comedian as well. he and ariana grande called off their engagement this year and then earlier this month, he also

took to instagram to share his personal story that he had been the victim of bullying during his relationship with ar aniana grande. when the post surfaced family, friends and officials taking it very seriously responding to make sure he was at least physically okay. we are seeing outpouring of support not only for davidson on online and for others. reminding you if you need help, there is help available. >> important important and we should always reach out. >> i hope he is finding some comfort in what people are saying to him. even on twitter and instagram, it's been sweet what people have said and hopefully he absorbs that. we are getting our first look of possible presidential hopefuls in 2020 and where they

stand with voters. we have a new poll result in a moment. lilly. she pretty much lives in her favorite princess dress. but once a week i let her play sheriff so i can wash it. i use tide to get out those week old stains and downy to get it fresh and soft. you are free to go. tide and downy together.

for you, it's always now over later. and pause. not even in your vocabulary. so when a cold sore tingle strikes. you act on it. only abreva can get rid of a cold sore in as little as 2 1/2 days when used at the first sign. it start to work immediately to block the virus and protect healthy cells. nothing gets rid of a cold sore faster. and because abreva acts on it... you can too. act on it, with abreva.

♪ there's no place likargh!e ♪ i'm trying... ♪ yippiekiyay. ♪

mom. ♪ we are more than a year away from the first contest of the 20 2020 presidential campaign and joe biden leads a crowded field in a new cnn des moines register poll.

iowa is the first state in the nominating process and ryan nobles is saying caucus goers are warming up to familiar faces. >> reporter: no doubt we are a long way away from iowa voters head to go their caucus sites for the 2020 presidential campaign but never too early to get a sense of what iowa voters are thinking and democrats are telling you what their early thoughts are about the 2020 race for president. we are seeing their thoughts are matching up pretty closely what we are seeing nationally. former vice president joe biden leads the field at 32%. bernie sanders who had a pretty sec at 19%. the name that jumps off the page is beto o'rourke who just lost in texas to senator ted cruz is in third place. he's in double digits at 11%. in the last caucus many people didn't know who beto o'rourke was. we could be in store

for a wildcard when it comes to this race. names we threw into this poll to see how iowa voters are thinking about them. among them is hillary clinton and oprah winfrey. it's pretty clear iowa voters would prefer not to see any of them get into this race. 72% of iowans saying hillary clinton would be a distraction and 55% say oprah would be a distraction. what is the minds of iowans is picking a winner. 54% say they will vote for someone in the caucus can win the presidency and more important to them than necessarily voting for someone who strictly aligns with their ideology. this is something they feel a great deal about. and that is exactly what they are thinking at this early stage of this campaign. so a long way to go. 14 months before the iowa caucus, but we are now starting to see what iowa voters are thinking. ryan nobles, cnn, washington. we have cnn political

commentator and republican strategist alice stewart with us and cnn political commentator and democratic strategist, maria cardoba. ryan was saying iowa democrats find is choosable to find somebody who aligns with their beliefs. what does it say about the state of the country in this matchup? >> it says it's a smart strategy. right now, you would like to think that all of the names on the democratic side, if you're a democratic voters, their policies align with you but you may not have enough special affinity for them. you need to go with someone that really lines up with your policies, for the most part. it might not be the one you like but if you really look at the long game you have to look at who is going to win. who would be able to potentially take on donald trump if he is the gop nominee. you're going to have to really put your feelings aside and crunch all of the numbers and

look who has got the fund-raising and the enthusiasm, who will go out to those early states and do those rubber chicken dinners and bun shoe ledger. that matters. look at those factors and who will actually win against donald trump and kind take your feelings out of it and look at the strongest to take on the gop. >> maria, when you look at that list, biden 32%. o'rourke at 11%. your thoughts. >> well, i think, first of all -- >> is biden your guy, essentially, at this point? look at those numbers. >> sure. but, you know, let's be realistic. a poll about 2020 in december of 2018 is all about name recognition. so, of course, biden is going to be at the top of the list. plus he is very well liked. and he is not in -- he is not in yet. so i think what all of this means is not really anything at this point. but i agree with everything that

alice said, because the one thing that i will say to my democratic party family is that no matter how unbelievably unfit, how colossally corrupt, and how incredibly inept this president has been and continues to show us he is every single day, it's not going to be easy. we need to focus on somebody who can win because that has got to be the ultimate goal. >> a lot of people might be looking at this who might be more down the middle and they don't know where to go right now because everything seems so extreme, either left or right. with that, i want to talk about politico had this report this morning on o'rourke and he is already taking hits from the left but he is only one that made, you know, of three that made double digits in this poll and he he said, apparently, when he was asked if he was a progressive democrat on friday, here is what he said.

i don't know. i'm not big on labels. i don't get all fired up about party or classifying or defining people based on a label or a group. i'm for everyone, he said. is he going to have to pig a more pr -- pick a progressive or definitive lane to earn more support? >> i think he has to be a little bit more definitive about who he is. he was, no question, an incredibly exciting character in 2018. he did, i think, what a whole a lot of people didn't think was possible which was to actually make a real race out of texas, to make the gop spend money there, to make ted cruz go through many sleepless nights and to make donald trump go there to support ted cruz to make sure that texas would remain in the republican column for the senate. that is an incredible endeavor. he came more close than anybody, closer than anybody has gone

from a democrat in recent history. and so he definitely did what a whole lot of people didn't think he could do but he didn't win. and so i think that moving forward, first of all, let's wait until he decides whether this is something he wants to do or not. but he has a ton of options in front of him. he is young. he is incredibly exciting. let's see what he wants to do next. i don't want to put him in a box by saying, oh, he should definitely run for president now. because we don't know what he is going to do. >> sure. the description that you're giving sounds a little bit, just a little bit like what people said about barack obama. alice? >> you stole my line, christi! that is exactly what i was going to say. >> it is. >> barack obama won as senator before he became president. let's remember that. >> they are very similar in their young and exciting and engaging. i'll acknowledge and i said this throughout the campaign. beto did a good job competing against my former boss ted cruz.

the problem he is a very blue candidate in a very red state and may play much better when he is campaigning across the country and what he has to do is do what he was doing raise the money and keep the enthusiasm. what he has in addition to all of those other attributes like barack obama, he has that like ability factor and that goes a long way when you're out campaigning and he apologize it. he did run a positive campaign. it was a little towards the end, he started throwing some punches but the like ability factor he has will go a long way with others that he is competing against and he is pretty smart not to put a label on himself right now. have you to go to the left to win the primary but you have to get back in the middle as we get into the general. so i think he is very wise not to -- >> i literally have 15 seconds left. melania trump. her chief of staff wrote this on twitter.

this came after criticism of her earlier in the week. there is a lot of women who could get on that band wagon of strength and individuality and integrity. maria, what is the problem with being an unconventional first lady? what is wrong with that? >> i think the problem is that she is not relatable. when she does these interviews, when the whole thing that comes out is, whoa is me and i'm the most bullied person out there, people don't relate to that and especially with a first lady who seems to have everything. and, yes, i agree that, you know, we should give her more kudos for her focus on children, but when you go to visit the border and families who have been separated by the policy that her husband put in place and you wear a jacket that says i really don't care, do you? i'm sorry. that is completely like you're not only trolling your husband or the press or whatever you wanted to do but you're making fun of the people who are suffering because of what her

husband is doing. and when you represent that, you are going to have nothing but falling poll numbers. >> all righty. i'm sorry, we have run out of time. alice and maria, always a good conversation with you ladies. thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> merry christmas. happy holidays. >> you too. after nearly two weeks of negotiations, nearly 200 nations have now agreed on a way to put the landmark paris agreement on climate change in moment. attendees jumped with joy as diplomats passed a set of rules to curb global warning. you remember president trump campaigned to rip up the paris agreement. >> the united states will withdraw from the paris climate accord, but begin negotiations to re-enter either the paris

accord or really entirely new transaction when terms that are fair to the united states, its businesses, its workers, its people, its taxpayers. so we are getting out, but we will start to negotiate and we will see if we can make a deal that's fair. >> the u.s. is getting out. but not just yet because it can't leave that agreement until 2020. they will be part of it for sometime longer. cnn senior international correspondent nick patton-walsh joins us with more. >> reporter: a landmark moment. it was the will to reduce emissions. this is how they will do it. quick recap. the world is not in a good place and seeing record emissions this

year and the scientific report at the heart of this says massive change has to be undertaken in 12 years to stop the warming at one point 5 degrees celsius and stop the world we know is unrecognizable in a dramatic decade. dramatic changes unless the world changes its act entirely and part of that may be down to what was decided at 10:00 local time last night. the rule book, which enforces the sort of paris agreements. the country said they wanted to knack change to reduce emission and this is how they will do it, the mechanism they are counting. the checks and the transparency and possibly, financing to assist countries hardest hit by climate change. it was agreed to but some activists say they did enough to keep the agreements alive. two problems. donald trump saying he would tear the agreement up. it's going fine. it appears his diplomats stayed in the negotiations and didn't throw out much of a spoiler.

the political officials last week denied the sentence and rejected, refused to endorse the scientific report at the heart of climate change here, along with strange bedfellows here, russia, saudi arabia, and kuwait and a couple of days later put on a side show promoting fossil fuel use and aberration for many seeing that here. no doubt the world is boiling fast and emissions are growing and planet has to change. the second problem we saw in the closing hours brazil home of the lungs of the earth, the amazon rain forest took issue with reforms how carbon is traded and complicated part of the emission system but one they wanted to see to their advantage and no longer be resolved until the next meeting next year. a loop hope some say was decided but i think you can't take away from the fact despite the sort of background noise of people trying to continue with the idea of denying climate change is a thing. they still managed to get this rule book through. i think that is possibly a cause

for some celebration, but you have to remember, just over a decade for all of the world's economies to change how they fuel themselves before we possibly see this planet change to an unrecognizable future. martin? >> great point. now it's time to those words and move them into action. thank you, nick. the father of a 7-year-old guatemalan girl, she decide in u.s. border patrol custody. the father says agents did everything they could to save her. her family, however, feels differently. we will explain. (music throughout)

you wouldn't feel good not knowing the price here. don't let it happen when you buy your diabetes test strips. with the accu-chek® guide simplepay program, you pay the same low price. all without having to go through insurance. plus, they come in a spill-resistant vial along with a free meter. skip the guessing game and focus on your health. not the cost. make saving simple today at simplepaysaves.com. tand, our adulte children are here. so, we save by using tide. which means we use less. three generations of clothes cleaned in one wash. those are moms. anybody seen my pants?

nothing cleans better. put those on dad! it's got to be tide. enjoy your prime rib! anyone ever call you, "meat santa"? no, that's... weird. happy holidays. enjoy. next customer? hi. maria ramirez!

mom! maria! maria ramirez... mcdonald's is committing 150 million dollars in tuition assistance, education, and career advising programs... prof: maria ramirez mom and dad: maria ramirez!!! to help more employees achieve their dreams. mom and dad: maria ramirez!!! ...that's why i've got the power of 1-2-3 medicines with trelegy. the only fda-approved 3-in-1 copd treatment. ♪ trelegy. the power of 1-2-3

♪ trelegy 1-2-3 trelegy with trelegy and the power of 1-2-3, i'm breathing better. trelegy works 3 ways to... ...open airways,... ...keep them open... ...and reduce inflammation... ...for 24 hours of better breathing. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. trelegy is not for asthma. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. do not take trelegy more than prescribed. trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling,.. ...problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. think your copd medicine is doing enough? maybe you should think again. ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy and the power of 1-2-3. ♪ trelegy 1-2-3 save at trelegy.com. the father of the 7-year-old girl who died after being

detained by u.s. border agents said has no complaints about her treatment. agents did everything to help save his young child. >> back home, however, her family is saying they need an investigation. cnn correspondent ed lavandera has more. >> reporter: we are learning new details from the father of the young guatemalan girl who died while in border patrol custody shortly after crossing into the united states more than a week ago. according to a statement from the father's attorneys, the father is grateful for the efforts of first responders, including those border patrol agents and medical personnel who treated his daughter. we have also spoken with the guatemalan consul spent time here speaking exsensitively with the father. he says he has most complainant how the border patrol agents treated him and his daughter shortly after they turned themselves in to border patrol

agents on the night of december 6th. he says that he believes that those border patrol agents, after his daughter had fallen ill inside the bus that was taking them from the border patrol entry to a border patrol station 95 miles away that the agents and medical personnel did everything they could to save his daughter's life. this is the first details we have heard from this young girl's father. the family says they are devastated. he is being housed in a shelter here that helps migrants and migra migrant refuges in he will pass tow. here is how the father is dealing with this ordeal. >> he is grateful with what he saw, the response and the attempts that were made to save his doubt's life. at the hospital, hi daughter

arrested several different times and they were able to revive her. >> reporter: the mother of the young girl said they are rather frustrated by the speculation of exactly how the young girl died. the father in the statement also confirms the time line put out by the department of homeland security that the first signs that this young girl was in some sort of distress came at 5:00 in the morning on the morning of december 7th in the middle of that bus ride from the border to the border patrol station 95 miles away. the family says any speculation as to what the exact cause of death should not be discussed, that an official cause of death has not been ruled on by the medical examiner here in el paso and they are urging everybody not to speculate what might have caused the death of this young girl. ed lavandera, cnn, el paso, texas. >> as we get more information we will pass that on to you.

virgin galactic has never been able to launch a plane into space until now! what does this mean for space travel? we are at all to retire nasa astronaut leroy choaa. the greatest wish of all... is one that brings us together. the lincoln wish list event is here. sign and drive off in a new lincoln with $0 down, $0 due at signing, and a complimentary first month's payment. only at your lincoln dealer. and a complimentary first month's payment. acidic foods can your enamel is very precious. wear away your enamel. your tooth is going to look yellower, more dull. i recommend pronamel because it helps protect and strengthen your enamel. it's pro enamel. it's the positive thing. ♪ a new way to save on travel. now when you book a flight

you unlock discounts on select hotels that you can add on to your trip up until the day you leave. add on advantage. only when you book with expedia.

3-2-1. >> fire. >> fire. >> look at this! months and months of testing and virgin galactic launched a killed a co-pilot. do you remember that? >> i do, indeed. it is wonderful to see the success. and it indicates that sending tourists into space could be a matter of months. >> the test flight was the first time that the virgin galactic

had gone. there's a debate, though, whether it actually went into, quote, space. >> always has to be something. allison chinchar joins us. >> two definitions, u.s. definition that says anything above 50 miles totally counts. the international definition is higher, about 62 miles. this particular flight went in between that. 51.4 miles. some people are saying i'm not sure that really counts. you can kind of see here. it's a very narrow line, truly. you're not talking about a huge distance. >> what's in that space? >> not much. for comparison purposes, airlines are much lower, troposphere. international space station, much, much higher. we're thinking international space station is clearly in space. this comes down to it's the highest they've ever gone. it's still a feat for them to have gone this high.

>> let not overlook what is an amazing achievement. while we have you here, we have to talk about the christmas comet. >> this lasts a long time. tonight will be the peak for viewing this, especially if, say, you don't have a telescope or binoculars. you will be able to see this with the naked eye. however if the weather is not great you can still go out tomorrow and see this. it is supposed to be a pretty spectacular sight if the weather will cooperate. >> time and place roughly? >> as soon as sun sets in your location tonight. little darker in the sky. if you're in the city, try to head out a little bit. less light pollution. >> that makes a big difference. retired nasa astronaut leroy c chao is with us. we wanted to get your take. what do virgin galactic launch

mean? >> they did reach space, depending on your definition. nasa and actually even for spaceship one adhered to, 100 kilometers or 6 miles. they've evolved quite a bit since their 2014 crash. they were having some technical issues. looks like those have been fixed. the engines seem to be working well. and so i'm very happy for them, to see them actually get to this point. hopefully, things will continue to go well and we'll see flights that will be conducted in the very near future. >> as a professional space person, which you obviously are, bringing regular people up into space, the challenges and the dangers, is this really a worthwhile pursuit now or just what do you think? >> these people we're talking about right now, virgin galactic

and blue, they'll touch space and come back down. the actual time in space will be measured in a few minutes. they'll get to feel the weightlessness, view of the earth, the horizon and come back down. it will be in a 30-minute or so range, maybe a little bit less. they'll be paying a fair amount of money to go, still out of reach for most ordinary people, someone in the $100,000 per ticket. it's coming down. about 25 times more energy needed. they're doing a first step and that's important. >> some people have physical reactions on planes. on an aircraft like this and going as high as they do, do you anticipate real physical challenges for those people that -- i mean, would they have

to pass a snest anything of that regard come into play? >> any space flight would be much more stressful psychologically and physically than a regular passenger airline flight. they'll experience accelerations. psychologically, they'll know they're on a rocket. they'll feel and hear the rocket engines. they'll know they're climbing rapidly after those rocket engines are lit. i think more from a psychological standpoint maybe. of course, you would have to pass a medical exam. you would be trained or at least desensitized. i think my biggest concern would be someone, you know, kind of being overwhelmed during something like this. >> yeah. >> yeah, i would be. real quick, the technology that they've used and are advancing, is that going to help -- i would say the professional space industry? >> the actual technology that virgin is using, it's a hybrid

motor. they're using kind of a rubber fuel, a solid fuel within an oxidizer that fuels over it. scaling it is a bit of an issue. spaceship one flew in 2003 and used the same kind of technology and everybody thought it would be a simple matter to make a bigger spaceship one. it's taken since 2003 until now and spaceship one flew into space, by everyone's definition, over 100 kilometers. and after all these years, after 11 years, spaceship two finally made it up almost that high. that shows you the difficulty and scale in both the vehicle and the rocket engine to make it. it probably won't be useful for larger rockets like nasa is planning to use. >> so the answer is pretty much no. >> alisyn chinchar, leroy chiao, always a pleasure to have you

here. thank you. >> thank you. >> while you're making new year's eve plans, do not miss anderson coop er and andy cohen. starts at 8:00. dad, we need to talk about something important. you don't need to go anywhere dad, this is your home. the best home to be in is your own. home instead offers personalized in-home services for your loved ones.

home instead senior care. to us, it's personal. home instead senior care. what's critical thinking like? a basketball costs $14. what's team spirit worth? (cheers) what's it worth to talk to your mom? what's the value of a walk in the woods? the value of capital is to create, not just wealth, but things that matter. morgan stanley

to me, he's,s phil mickelson, well, dad.. so when his joint pain from psoriatic arthritis got really bad, it scared me. and what could that pain mean? joint pain could mean joint damage. enbrel helps relieve joint pain, helps stop irreversible joint damage and helps skin get clearer. enbrel may lower your ability to fight infections. serious sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, nervous system and blood disorders and allergic reactions have occurred. tell your doctor if you've been some place where fungal infections are common, or if you're prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for heart failure, or if you have persistent fever, bruising, bleeding, or paleness. don't start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. since enbrel, dad's back to being dad. visit enbrel.com and use the joint damage simulator to see how your joint damage could be progressing. ask about enbrel.

enbrel. fda approved for over 16 years. ♪ there's no place likargh!e ♪ i'm trying... ♪

yippiekiyay. ♪ mom. ♪ the presidency in peril. new details on the investigations and a long-time trump insider is talking. >> he knows the truth and it's sad that i should take responsibility for his dirty deeds. >> i never directed him to do anything wrong. plus, deadline week. will the president get his border wall or will the