>> bret: a rhetorical line been crossed, john lewis says russian interference makes the donald trump presidency illegitimate. this is sb 18. ♪ good evening, welcome to another two-hour edition of sb 18. we are coming to live tonight from gorgeous naples, florida, as the sunsets over the gulf. one of the most senior democrats capitol hill says he does not consider donald trump's election to be legitimate. critics say this is an organized

plan one week from inauguration day. telling us today what is behind it. >> for decades, democratic congressman george lewis from georgia, a hero of the civil rights movement, has enjoyed unique status in congress as a voice of moral conscience. but when asked by nbc news' check.if he plans to forge a relationship with an ex-president, lewis intimated that donald trump is unworthy of respect. >> going to be very difficult. i don't see the president-elect is a legitimate president. >> lewis' comments came after there was a probe announced into the conduct of james comey, a move many, including mr. trump, saw as part of a broad effort to delegitimize his victory. the president-elect tweeted at 6:22:00 a.m. based on the information she had, she should never been allowed to run, guilty as hell, they were very nice to her, she lost because she campaigned in the wrong

states, no enthusiasm. >> none of these emails should have been on any kind of unclassified system. >> the statement where he impeach clinton for using classified servers, but declined to seek her indictment in federal court. the probe will also examine leaks out of the bureau and the explosive letters comey said to congress, reopening and closing again the bureau's investigation into the democratic nominee. clinton herself speaking to donors in mid-november blame comey for slowing momentum and her campaign manager now believes comey should resign. >> i think it is hard to be director of such an important institution when that trust is no longer there. >> many trump supporters, conservatives, and legal experts such evidence that its motivations have more to do with evidence than sound law enforcement. >> not looking into the meeting between loretta lynch and bill clinton or the fact that

the fbi and justice department have been hamstringing any serious investigation into the clinton foundation and frankly how the clinton email matter was handled generally. >> the head of the republican national lawyers association called for observers to withhold judgment for now on whether the ultimate aim of the ig probe is, as many claim, to weaken the trump white house. >> the inspector general michael horowitz, great reputation, remains to be seen when we see the final report as to whether or not this seems to be politically motivated. >> a spokesman for president-elect trump did not respond to my request for a comment. however, fresh from a meeting with trump, called lewis a great man before adding that he doesn't set the best example by, "constantly looking for ways to delegitimize the results of a election" ." bret? >> bret: james, thank you. inside one week until donald trump becomes the 45th president of the united states.

he is apparently just fine with some of his top advisors disagreeing with him during their confirmation hearings. correspondent peter doocy is live outside trump tower with that story tonight. good evening, peter. >> good evening, bret. if the president-elect last friday working out of trump tower before getting sworn in, even as he looks ahead to leading and legislating, mr. trump is still getting visis friends and tying up loose ends from his day of campaigning. >> repeal and replace. >> the president-elect isn't just monitoring dismantling of obamacare, watching cabinet nominees go before senate committees for confirmation hearings and says he doesn't care if they have different ideas about some things than he does. >> i told them, be ourselves and say what you want to say. don't worry about me, and i'm going to do the right thing. whatever it is. i may be right and they may be right, but i said cannot be ourselves. i could have segment do this, say that. i don't want that.

i want to multiply themselves. >> but the president-elect is concerned with that unverified report that was widely circulated earlier in the week, the director that james clapper said he was dismayed leaked out. so @realdonaldtrump tweeted, quote "it now turns out that the phony allegations against me were put together by my political opponents and a failed spy afraid of being sued. totally made-up facts by sleazebag political operatives, both democrats and republicans. fake news. russia says nothing exists. probably released by 'intelligence' even knowing there is no proof and never will be. my people will have a full report on hacking within 90 days." : family feud host steve harvey dropped by trump tower today for a sitdown he said was arranged y members of trump and obama's team. upstairs, harvey said ben carson was on the phone so they could talk about constructive ways to save some of america's poorest neighborhoods.

>> we're going to team up and see if we can bring about some positive change in the inner-city, which i felt was my only agenda, and he agreed, and he wants to do something. >> mr. trump also wants to bring down the cost of lockheed marti martin's expensive program, and after weeks of pressuring the company publicly, its ceo had an announcement to make. >> we are close to a deal that will bring the cost down tremendously, and moreover, it is going to bring a lot of jobs to the united states. >> a week out until inauguration day, the official program has been released, and it reveals the chief justice of the supreme court, john roberts, will be the one administering the oath of office to the next president and justice claire thomas will be administering the oath to the next. bret? >> bret: peter, thank you. let's get some analysis of the probe and the ever-changing

legacy. charles krauthammer joins us. i want to start with james rosen's piece and put congressman john lewis said that seems to be something that perhaps other democrats are saying. you foreshadowed this yesterday in your comments about all this. >> look, i don't know whether it is actually orchestrated that this is all scripted or one at a time with john lewis being sort of the conscious of the democratic party speaking and being the one to kick off the idea. but this is a lot of coincidences at once. look, the democrats had this period of about a month and a half where they were so stunned by their loss, probably the most surprising in our lifetime, literally speaks to us. now they seem to have found a way to deal with it, which is to say it was a stolen election. they start with putin, and that's the idea of having this

entire probe, obama demanding a report before he leaves office, obviously to put it on the table, now all of a sudden the ig wants to look into what comey did. comey clearly on both sides, whether he has a political agenda or not, he made one mistake after another. but the republicans -- they democrats want to have at least two reasons outside of themselves to say why it was a rigged election which, of course, is highly ironic, as that was the trump charge during the campaign. and this is a part of it. that ig story, they will be hearings on comey to rehash all. and for the democrats, that is their way of diminishing trump from the beginning. i'm not sure it's going to work. i don't think it's going to work. i think people have a sense you would make the election, the electoral college with a pretty wide margin.

you get sworn in, and that is it. but what else are they democrats going to do. they have been decimated. >> bret: what about director comey and his future? same james comey best service, the new agent should ask -- the new ag should ask him to resign. do you think that should happen? >> i'm not sure it will happen under obama, but it certainly has to happen. whatever your political inclination, it is very clear that comey simply is, i don't know out of incompetence or ambition or whatever, he made some terrible decisions that he should not have made, injected himself into a campaign in a way that the fbi should not have been injected, and he has lost the confidence of everybody, and i think if you are the fbi director and you've lost the confidence of the country, you have to go. i think he should understand his

position and make it easy on the two presidents and simply resig resign. >> bret: charles, as always, thank you. congress has passed a waiver allowing president-elect trump's pick as defense secretary to take the job. the bill will permit retired general james mattis to bypass a law requiring officers to be retired for seven years before holding the position. president obama's spokesman has indicated the president will sign it. the house has put the finishing touches on the first and arguably the easiest step in the process of repealing and replacing obamacare. lawmakers voted today to adopt a house-senate measure to allow a repeal bill to advance through the senate without the threat of a democratic filibuster. we'll get a live report on the latest from capitol hill and just a few minutes. there is plenty of negative reactions nine to president obama's surprise announcement of the wet foot, dry foot immigration policy for cubans. corresponded steve harrigan is

listening tonight in miami. >> a 20 year policy of allowing cubans who make it to u.s. soil to remain and become permanent residence is over instantly as of thursday. the end of the so-called wet foot, dry foot policy that give special privileges to cuban migrants was sudden and surprising, empowered to prevent any last-minute exodus of cubans risking their lives on the open water to beat a deadline. obama administration officials say cubans who arrived without visas could face arrest and deportation, like migrants from many other countries. it is a change the raul castro wanted and has been sharply criticized who opposed normalizing relations. in a formal statement, marco rubio said, we must work to assure that cubans who arrive here to escape political persecution are not summarily returned to the regime. the suddenness of the change

leaves a number of cubans who have made part of the journey, like those in panama, in limbo. i am not going to cuba, this woman says. also uncertain is the fate of cubans to return to the island. the castro government has agreed to accept them but has offered no guarantees for their treatment, nor it is it clear t effect, if any, the roles will have. >> cubans are going to continue to leave the island, because there is a leadership that oppresses them on the island. >> more than 50,000 cubans came to the u.s. in 2016. that is double the number from just two years ago. bret? >> bret: steve harrigan in miami, thank you. let's get more on this policy switch from florida republican government rick scott paid >> i hope you are enjoying our weather. going to be a lot colder next

week in d.c. having snow tomorrow, aren't you? >> bret: that is exactly right. trying to stay here as long as possible. what about this wet foot, dry foot switch, and what is your reaction to it? >> it is classic barack obama. he doesn't talk to congress, he doesn't talk to members of our congress, doesn't ask for any advice, he is coddling up to a dictator, somebody that arrested 10,000 people last year, and he is not thinking about the people that are still being persecuted. we clearly have to work all across the world and come up with a better immigration policy in america, but we've got to take care of those people that are trying to leave the raul castro tierney, all of these people being arrested and beaten up. >> bret: when the administration said something had to be changed, something wasn't working after 50 years, how do you respond? >> first off, nothing changed

for them. raul castro is still a dictator. he has not been elected by a democracy. there is no political freedom. he arrested 10,000 people last year. he is doing all of the things -- there is nothing that has changed for the better since barack obama did what he did. now what he is saying, if you are trying to leave that dictatorship, there is no home in america. so he needs to work and come up with a much smarter policy. i believe donald trump is going to do it. i'm going to work with him. just sent a letter to raul castro the other day saying, you have a choice. you can continue the path you're going down where there is no freedom, there is no economy, or you can have the biggest economic growth in the world right now if you turn to a democracy. >> bret: have you talked to the president about this? do you think the policy will change? >> absolutely. going to do everything i can. donald trump has been a friend for a long time. going to do everything i can to help them come up with a policy in cuba that is good for cubans and good for other people from

cuba that live here in florida. >> bret: i want to turn to obamacare. what happened in the house kind of paved the way for repeal and replace. you've been an advocate, sent a letter to congress. you said that the time for major change in health care is now, not six months or two years from now. at is the biggest question is, when is the replace part going to get ironed out? >> let's remember, obamacare was sold on a bunch of lies, done the opposite of what it was supposed to do, people can't afford their health care today. these exchanges have big deductibles, so people, they might have an insurance policy, they are not getting health care they deserve. we have got to come up with a plan for states rights come on, have something that will drive down the cost of health care so more people can afford their health care, whether it is you as a consumer, as a business, or as taxpayers. i think they need to do it as quickly as possible.

it is all part of our economy. >> bret: doesn't sound like they are saying, the same sheet of music, at least not yet, it has been, you know, seven years to come up with one plan. is that fair criticism, that there is not one plan, and then democrats say, this is chaos on the policy front, that they are politically making points? >> i am very optimistic. i think people do it quickly. clearly there will be differences of opinion, but i believe they are going to come up with a plan that is going to give states flexibility with regard to medicaid and drive down the cost of health care which is the biggest issue, and that is when they started with obamacare, but it was sold on complete lives. >> bret: when you hear congressman john lewis say that this president incoming is not legitimate, what are is your reaction? >> i am disappointed in him. we have a president that was lawfully elected. an honest, fair election in our state. we need to rally around this president and make donald trump is very successful for our kids, your kids, i have grandkids, i

want this to be the greatest country in the world. we all tried doing everything we could to make sure barack obama it was successful. we need to do the same thing with donald trump. >> bret: you are a businessman, he became governor, what about the split between his business and his presidency? >> i think he is going to do what i did. put yourself in a position we don't have conflicts. i put my assets in a blind trust so no one can say i had any kind of conflict. i think he will figure out what to do to make sure he doesn't have conflicts. you don't want to put yourself in that position. >> bret: lastly, you have to go to some funerals coming up, police officers. >> we had the shooting done at the fort lauderdale airport, that was devastating for those families. we lost -- them he had five families in the hospital that were shot. then on monday, i had two law enforcement officers tie, one shot by somebody that killed his girlfriend a the month before, another one in a traffic incident. i will be doing that tomorrow and monday. your heart goes out to them.

>> bret: the president-elect tweeted out about a funeral in new york. law enforcement, it seems, is going to take a different focus in the trump administration? >> i can tell you, right after the shooting in fort lauderdale, the president and vice president called me and asked me to give them updates. i think he is going to be very supportive of law enforcement just like he is going to be supportive of our military. >> bret: thanks for the time. >> i'm glad you're in florida. >> bret: so are we. saying that they have violated the constitutional rights of residents for years, the year-long inquiry grew out of the release of a dashcam video in 2015 showing a white police officer shooting a black teenager 16 times. attorney general loretta lynch called the issues systemic. >> our investigation found that this pattern of practice is in no small part the result of severely deficient training procedures and accountability systems. >> standby.

>> bret: we will tell you what comes next in a lab report from chicago in our second hour. in new york, as i mentioned in that interview come at the funeral for a hero. police officers, residents, and politicians turned out as a hearse carrying the body of nypd steven mcdonald. president trump president-electe funeral beautiful. he became an advocate for nonviolence and forgiveness paid mcdonald died tuesday following a heart attack. he was 59. up next, what could be the beginning of the end of obamacare, we'll explain the logistics and the replace part. first, here is what some of our fox affiliates are covering. fox 2, agreeing to pay a billion dollars in fines and restitution over its airbag defects. this came hours after three former employees were indicted by a federal grand journey.

the air brakes can explode with too much force, over 60 people have died so far, set off the largest automotive recall. fox 25, mary fallin declares a state of emergency over the weather there. schools in the state were close today as school agencies make disaster relief plans. this is a live oak at denver from fox 31, one of the big stories there tonight, mixed reviews for marijuana. a federal advisory board says it has found substantial evidence that part is helpful in dealing with chronic pain and chemotherapy-related nausea, but it also finds a link between smoking marijuana and developing mental health issues such as schizophrenia and low birth weight babies. colorado is 1 of 8 states were e recreational pot is legal. that is to next life look outside the beltway. we are outside the beltway

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spread on a gorgeous night here in naples, florida. the epa has come up with one or last-minute regulatory thrust against the automobile agency. the agency is cementing strict fuel economy requirements forcing carmakers to make new vehicles significantly more efficient. the action keeps in place pollution reduction targets for the years 2022 through 2025. they say they will try to reverse that ruling. markets today, a mixed day. the doubt dropped 5. s&p 500 rose 4. for the week, the dow was down four-tenths of a percentage point, the s&p lost a tenth. we are coming to you tonight

from beautiful naples, florida, and there is no issue in this state that touches more people than health care, as we just talked about with governor rick scott. this evening, congressional republicans have crossed the first item off their list toward repealing and replacing president obama's signature health care law. mike emanuel shows us what happened today and what is next on capitol hill. >> voting in the affirmative, the resolution as a grade two. >> congress has taken its first steps towards repealing obamacare, passing a measure which will ask the committees to write a formal repeal measure. the house passed it 227-198 after the senate approved at 198. >> this is a rescue mission, this is a necessary move, and i urge all of our colleagues to do what is right, because the time is urgent. and on top of this, to my colleagues, we need to give our promise that we made to the american people, and this helps

us to justice. speaker nancy pelosi sounded like she was willing to negotiate to save obamacare. >> diminish the number of people covered, reduce the benefit package and increase the cost, do damage to medicare and medicaid. >> a top house republican said this was about a lawmakers keeping their word. >> this should not be about preserving somebody's legacy. it should be about fulfilling those promises to the american people that were broken, and we are here to fulfill that promise. how refreshing it is that you have people who ran for years saying we are going to repeal obamacare with a president who is ready to sign a bill. >> president trump weighed in early morning on twitter. "the 'unaffordable' care act will soon be history." >> we want to do this at the same time, in some cases, the same bill. we don't have a date but that is something we are working on.

it is going to take us time, but we are working on this as fast as possible. >> for more than six years, we have been waiting for a credible republican care plan, and none has been forthcoming. all you have a is smoke and mirrors. and the american people are getting ready to get screwed. >> republicans say with obamacare, too many families have seen their costs, quality dropped, and health care choices reduced. now the challenge is fixing it. bret? >> bret: mike emanuel on the hill. some thoughts from karl rove, republican strategist and former senior advisor, and joe trippi, veteran democratic strategist who has worked on several presidential campaigns. joe is in washington. let me start with you. when i hear democrats on the hill, they are ready to really call this trumpcare, and they

are ready to hand over and say, where is the replace plan? is that smart politics or are they going to try to offer some suggestions? speaker nancy pelosi said, be willing to offer suggestions. i'm not sure that the republicans need much help. the same way that democrats passed it without a republican vote, that is what is going to happen. there is not going to be any democratic support at all. fix commit yes, but i don't think any votes, very few votes, for repeal. this is an important step today, and it stops and a filibuster to stop repeal. but the problem still is the replace part. charlie dent, the republican member from pennsylvania said, let's not take off in this plane unless we know we can landed, and he said he wasn't sure they could have landed, and that is going to be where the republicans, they are going to need to pull together, it is not clear what that is yet.

>> bret: karl, what is your sense? is this overblown as far as pushing replace so fast? >> they were affordable care act took 15 months for the democrats to write, even when they were voting, nancy pelosi famously said, we've got to pass it in order to know what is in it. i think the republicans particularly in the house are firmly committed to the idea of, let's discuss this, let's work it over, let's have it be known so when we vote on it, we know it we are going to be voting on. that means that they not going to get it done by the january 27th deadline for reporting a bill that is in the reconciliation. that is really important. it is a date stuck in there, but no enforcement ability overage. probably means we are likely to get to of the first 100 days without this process being completed. but it is the right way to do

it. make sure the people understand what is going on. >> bret: we should point out, reconciliation is 50 plus one, not the 60 60 votes needed fort things in the senate. donald trump tweeting, "the 'unaffordable' care act will soon be history." take a listen to the house speaker and the house minority leader. >> this law is collapsing while we speak. we have to step in before things get worse. this is nothing short of a rescue mission. our goal is a truly patient-centered system, which means more options to choose from, lower costs, and greater control over your coverage. and as we work to get there, we will make sure that there is a stable transition period.

>> feeding their ideological obsession with repealing the aca and dismantling the economic security of hard-working american families. >> bret: joe, the republicans control the house and senate in some part because a lot of those were decided on obamacare and high deductibles and high premiums. >> absolutely. obamacare, because that was passed with just democratic votes, plenty of democrats paid the price for that, and orange in washington anymore. the problem the republicans have is, it will become trumpcare, whatever comes out of this, whenever they repeal, whatever they replace it with, they will own, probably 100% with no democratic votes either. that's why i think karl is right. it is unlikely that this is going to happen by the 27th of january or the first 100 days. it is likelier that they should take the time and make sure they do this in a way that, when they own it, they are going to be happy with what comes out and

that the american people are happy with it or many of them may pay the same exact price. i think that is why they can't come to agreement right now. >> bret: karl, quickly, there are two focuses, it seems, russia and obamacare, the themes that democrats are really hitting in these confirmation meetings. does it make it tougher for tom price when he gets up for hhs? >> tom price is capable of handling this issue. since he came to the congress in 2004, he has been involved in health care, writing legislation, let's be clear. the affordable care act, >> ryan was right. it is collapsing. remember all of those -- all of those great choices we were going to have ad exchanges, lots of states are now starting to find many counties in their states or in some instances the entire state has one option for everybody in the state. we are talking about premiums that are going up by double digits. and so the republicans are going

to take their time and do it right. let the democrats be responsible for what they wrote and what they passed and that is collapsing before our eyes. >> bret: karl, joe, as always, thank you. international news. syria is accusing israel of firing missiles that struck near a major military airport west of damascus. syria says it is the latest such attack from israel. corresponded conor powell has the information tonight. speak with the explosions and plumes of smoke can be seen, claiming several missiles were fired north of israel on the south western edge of the syrian capital early friday morning. the target appears to have been a weapons storage facility. syrian media for reported thatr soldiers were injured, the mazzah airport as a key facility

that assad forces have used. it has also previously come under its israeli fire. acknowledging publicly for the first time that israel had carried out numerous strikes in syria despite insisting that israel was not involved in the syrian war, saying, we are trying to prevent the smuggling of advanced weapons, military equipment, and weapons of mass destruction from syria to hezbollah. in the past, similar promises of retaliation have not materialized. the ability of the assad regime to retaliate and target against israel is extremely limited right now given that the syrian military and its allies, as below, are tidy on fighting syria's rebels. bret? >> conor powell, connor, thank you as much as 130 tons of uranium

according to iranian media, u.s. state department officials say this is not violate the presidents nuclear deal with iran because the uranium cannot be used for a weapon and its original form. critics say the substance could eventually be enriched enough to provide fuel for several simple nuclear bombs. a civil rights icon questions donald trump's legitimacy as president as the man a week away from the oval office says he is fine with disagreements in his cabinet. cabinet. the panel breaks down sfx: loud poorly played electric guitar that sounds awful but a lot better than last week ♪rock guitar music ♪we weren't born to follow

you won't see these folks they have businesses to run. they have passions to pursue. how do they avoid trips to the post office? stamps.com mail letters, ship packages, all the services of the post office right on your computer. get a 4 week trial, plus $100 in extras including postage and a digital scale. go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again. >> i don't see the president elect as a legitimate president. >> you don't see him as a legitimate president. by is that? >> i don't think he participated

in getting this man elected, and they have destroyed the candidacy of hillary clinton. i don't plan to attend the inauguration. it should be the first one that i have missed since i have been in congress. >> visible signs of disrespect for the man, and i have always said, if you don't respect the man cannot respect the position. >> bret: congressman john lewis today and congressman john lewis from february of last year talking about president-elect trump and talking about president obama and the legitimacy of president trump, he is questioning one week from inauguration day. let's bring in our panel from washington today. byron york, chief political correspondent. mollie hemingway, senior editor at "the federalist." and jonathan swan. your thoughts when you heard this today? >> it was pretty stunning. a number of democrats have been

edging toward this decision, and i would say, in some ways, he is just honestly, you know, expressed what many people have been saying, people in hillary clinton's camp have been delegitimize delegitimizing it for ages. are they going to have donald trump, who else is going to come out and say is not legitimate, we have surely seen people who have already been inching up to this position. >> bret: byron? >> we're going to see how many democrats follow suit here. i think john lewis used his stature to say something that other democrats probably wanted to say. you have to remember, donald trump won pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin. there are a lot of democrats in those places. are they going to follow suit or are they going to work with the new president. my feeling is, they are probably going to express respect for

lewis but work with trump. >> bret: met with trump at trump tower saying he was asked about this very comment by congressman lewis. >> the idea of constantly looking for ways to delegitimize the results of the election, no matter how unhappy are you are about it, isn't the best example we said. the best example we set is understanding that there is a democratic process that you go through, there is a unique process in our country where states don't matter, and mr. trump won that handily. >> bret: mollie, your thoughts. >> i think there is a process of delegitimization. many people struggle to cope with it. jim call me, the electoral college, the popular vote, fake news. then they resurrected an issue that was not so successful for them during the general campaign come at this idea of russian

meddling. the intelligence community put quite a bit of effort into supporting this claim of russian meddling, strategically doing leaks and dropping information that would push that narrative, and, of course, donald trump has been very antagonistic toward the intelligence community. and he is not the first president to warn about the danger of that community. dwight eisenhower mentioned it in his farewell speech. but he is certainly much more vigorous about it the most have been, and he has been warned that this will only elevate the pushback from the intelligence community, and they certainly have. i thought it was interesting that lewis talked specifically about russian meddling and uses that as a pretense or a reason to say this is not a legitimate presidency. this is a dangerous issue that needs to be dealt with, and a lot of people voted for donald trump precisely because they did want to clean the swamp. they agree with him that the intelligence community has become dangerously politicized and power-hungry in a way that is threatening to our national

security, and they don't agree, the intelligence community does not agree with donald trump's policy changes regarding them or russia, and they are behaving, i think, in a very inappropriate fashion, in a way that also causes a lot of chaos in our country. so this is something to watch. >> i know a little bit about that eisenhower farewell speech. jonathan, let me put up a tweet. donald trump on this doj, ig appropriate -- tweet. "what are hillary clinton's people complaining about with respect to the fbi? based on the information they had she should never have been allowed to run. guilty as hell. they were very nice to her. she lost because she campaigned in the wrong states. no enthusiasm." that is his reaction on twitter in response to this new ig report, that comey investigation. >> two things here. this could be.

very messy for james comey. this is going to cause questions about his judgment, how he makes decisions. he's been telling people he is politically tone-deaf in a joking fashion, but he doesn't have the luxury of being politically tone-deaf in that. the interesting question without tweet, how does donald trump reconcile what he has definite doubts about comey's competence versus not wanting to delegitimize himself. it is going to be really interesting. it is very unclear whether comey survives his tenure as fbi director. >> bret: byron, what about looking back and the "guilty as hell" part of that tweet. a week away from inauguration. >> [laughs] look, there were a lot of really funky things that happened in this email investigation, no doubt about it. james comey comes out on july 5th of last year, just hours after interviewing

hillary clinton, basically makes a very solid case for indicting her and then says, and now i'm not going to do anything. and then it comes back on october 28th, says he is reopening it, it stays open and we are all talking about it every day until november 6, just two days before election day. there was some really funky stuff that went on there. this investigation is probably going to end up in a lot of partisan wrangling. one of the reasons we heard today is that the justice department, inspector general, is not going to include the airport tarmac meeting between loretta lynch, the attorney general, and bill clinton, as part of his investigation. and republicans are going to be very unhappy with that, and it is probably going to come up for them, it taint any results that comes out of it. >> bret: mollie, i guess i was referring to the fact that the president-elect, seven days before inauguration, is going back to that time. we talk about his different communication in twitter, but

this is what he puts out pretty much every day, some aspect of some policy fight that is going on. >> i think what he is doing is responding to how other people are relitigating this as well. been a failure to do with the reality, which is very shocking still that he won the election in hillary clinton did not. people are trying to, again, find reasons to explain it away as opposed to just accepting the reality. and there is a narrative being pushed in a lot of the media of focusing on distractions rather than the failures of the clinton campaign. so i think he is behaving in that manner, but actually the media and other people are also kind of hysterical and hostile on the issue as well. >> bret: all right. we are seven days away from the inauguration. standby, panel. next step, president obama and the wet foot, dry foot policy when it comes to cuba. what does that

♪ >> the change that we have announced ensures that we are harmonizing and normalizing our immigration policy with regard to cuban migrants. >> unfortunately, president obama has just -- cuban migrant who is going to continue to escape from cuba seeking freedom somewhere else whether there is a law that favors them or not. >> bret: with seven days left, president obama and his administration changing the cuba migration policy, the wet foot, dry foot policy, why and what does it mean? we are back with our panel.

mollie, your thoughts? >> we had a different policy with cuba because it is a place you are not free to emigrate from, and acumen population is one that assimilates here well and is a successful group. president obama wanted to send a message, that cuba, as part of his normalization process, is not as bad as we thought in the past, although i'm not sure why he wants to do that. the big challenge is that we haven't gotten a lot from this normalization agreement. even this policy change, we didn't get assurance from the castro regime that the people who are sent back to cuba would not be punished when they are returned. so this is an interesting policy and one where it makes it very difficult for donald trump to do anything different once he is in office. there are challenges no matter how he wants to change it going forward. >> bret: they are forecasting changes, we just don't know what those are. you mentioned cuba hasn't changed the way it is operating.

president obama visited havana, this is from "usa today," just hours before president obama landed in cuba -- this is back in march for his historic visit -- cuban authorities arrested more than 50 dissidents who were marching to demand improved human rights. jonathan, i guess critics including the governor hearsay, what is the u.s. getting out of this change in policy? >> you see exactly what the policy will be. you find me a republican in the current climate who is going to say, no, let's create special classes of immigration for certain countries. you won't find it. i think he's going to find limited blowback on this policy. one thing i noticed, there is a guy who runs a group called fair, in terms of people that shake his thinking and immigration, be hard put finding someone who has had more effect,

and they praised obama to the heavens. they don't praise obama, they praised him to the heavens for this, you're going to see the hardliners supporting this, the real criticism will be exactly what you said, what do we get in return. this was a bargaining chip and we took it off the table for no reasons. >> bret: what about the politics, byron? >> there is an executive authority angle to this. in the past, jay johnson and ben rhodes of the white house had a conference call for a reported last night, and one side, in the past, the obama administration had said changing the wet foot, dry foot policy would be part of the cuban adjustment act and you couldn't do it without an act of congress. what changed? hmmm how come you did it now? the answer was, we just stated. the answer in part, people that have been upset with unilateral use of powers especially in

immigration, this does set a bad precedent for the future. can look at a lot of things that he says, you know, i can just do this. i don't have to ask congress, nobody will me. >> bret: just so everybody is clear and maybe didn't see steve harrigan's report before, wet foot, dry foot is the policy on immigration with cuba. if someone is stopped at sea, they have to be turned around and go back to cuba. under the old policy before today, if they landed on land, even just 1 foot, they were allowed to stay. mollie, here is governor scott referring to that earlier in the show. >> it is classic barack obama. he doesn't talk to congress. he doesn't talk to members of our congress. he is coddling up to a dictator, somebody that arrested 10,000 people last year, and he's not thinking about the people that are still being persecuted. >> bret: what about the obama administration's final days here? not just with this but in the

final days, what is happening? >> we are seeing quite a few of these types of last-minute actions, extensions of policies. this has been going on for weeks when you think barack obama has been talking a really good game about making a peaceful transition while at the same time putting forth policies that will be difficult for donald trump to deal with, whether it is dealing with israel, the arctic drilling ban, changes to immigration law and whatnot. i would expect a few more of these things to be put forth in the next few days too. >> bret: jonathan, we have seen it small transfers happening, those things continuing? >> i think they are going to continue to frustrate the trump people, and it is very frustrating for the trump people, seeing all of these actions accumulate which are going to be difficult to unwind. i think with the gitmo issue, these people are going to be staying. trump has made himself very clear on that. >> bret: byron, last word. >> well, you are going to see, i

think, more of this. the president still has a brick to go. especially on guantanamo. he promised to close the place, and he is not going to close the place because there are a few people he can get rid of. i would not be surprised in the next seven days to see them do more on this. apparently the only people who want to be able to escape from cuba are the current inmates in guantanamo. >> bret: right now about 50 left there, but, byron, there still isn't a policy about what happens if you capture somebody on the battlefield. >> the trump administration, i think, is going to make it pretty clear that they will actually bring them to guantanamo and try to try them with military commissions. obviously a lot of legal problems with that. the obama's administration's preference was to drawn people and not have legal problems afterwards. i think you will see, if captured on the battlefield, i think you will see the trump administration try to repopulate guantanamo with those prisoners. >> bret: us of the pendulum goes one way and another way.

panel goes one way and another way. that does it for our number one on bret. when we come back live from naples, a life panel about the justice

#kingforaday. we will see you monday at nine, martha maccallum is starting. >> sean: welcome to "hannity" ." we will be joined in just a few minutes, but first, the alt let media is gushing over obama over his final days in the white house while viciously attacking president-elect donald trump as he prepares to take the oath of office and that is tonight's opening monologue. it's no secret that the alt radical left media has utter disdain for the president-elect. but we are seeing play out here, obama heads for the exits is a disgusting, despicable double standard.