this sunday, looking back on 2017 and ahead to 2018. president trump, did he keep his promises? >> i will be the greatest jobs president that god has ever created. the tax relief will be concentrated on the working and middle class. i will be president for all americans. >> we will look at promises made, promises kept and promises broken. the 2018 political landscape. democrats aim to take back congress. >> you could smell a wave coming. our republican friends better look out. >> republicans hope to hang on to power. >> i feel very optimistic about 2018. >> 2020, potential candidates are visiting early primary and caucus states and dreaming of

challenging the president. >> i may very well do. i'm being as honest as i can. >> are you likely to run? >> this is not what i'm doing. >> how many democrats will jump in? will any republicans prime mary preside president trump? from the words we use to race. >> very fine people, on both sides. >> welcome to new year's eve sunday, it's "meet the press." >> from nbc news in washington, the longest running television show in history, this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. >> good sunday morning and happy new year's eve to everyone. almost from the moment he put his hand on the bible, president trump signalled to the country that his presidency would be different. different in ways that would thrill millions and different in ways that would appall millions more. it began with a jarring comment about the state of the country. >> this american carnage stops

right here and stops right now. >> within a day, press secretary sean spicer lectured white house reporters arguing that more people witnessed donald trump's inauguration than president obama's. a day later here on "meet the press," kellyanne conway offered this explanation. >> sean spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts. >> that weekend kicked off a year of friction between the white house and the press, between the president's supporters and his detractors, liberals and conservatives, which has helped feed an uneasy sense that we as a country are more divided than we have been for decades. over the next hour, we will look back at the past year and ahead to the next. our panel this new year's eve morning, charlie cook, nbc news white house correspondent chris contin chrkristin welker, and rich low.

we will start things off by looking at some of the promises made by candidate donald trump and talk about whether he has been able to make good on them or not. let's watch. >> donald j. trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of muslims entering the united states. $1 trillion in infrastructure investment. the tax relief will be concentrated on the working and middle class. i will be the greatest jobs president that god has ever created. repealing and replacing obamacare, a disaster. save medicare, medicaid and social security without cutting. have to do it. i pledge to every citizen of our land that i will be president for all americans. we will build a great, great wall and mexico -- mexico -- mexico will pay for the wall.

>> all right, guys, what's been the single most important promise he made and the single most important promise he has kept? rich, i will start with you. i think the wall is probably the single most important promise connected to him as candidate. >> yeah. that was his signature promise and was probably the most unrealizable in all the american presidential politics. the idea that mexico would pay for this wall. >> let alone build the wall. but the other country paying for it. >> immigration is a success story for him. he doesn't have a wall. by re-establishing a certain baseline of enforcement it sent an important message. you have illegal border crossings down to the lowest level since 1971. >> what's been the most important one that he has kept? >> the most important one i think that he has kept is that he would be the president for the people who voted for him and he would carry on the culture

wars in their favor. that he would carry on talking in ways that white working class voters who felt they had been neglected before, they feel they have somebody who is their president, that they don't have to be pc anymore, that they can say things that they might have wanted to say for years and president trump has emboldened them to do that. >> what's the biggest one he missed in first year? >> i think a couple. he said he was going to repeal and replace obamacare. that didn't happen. he tinkered with it around the edges. where is the replacement? he also said he was going to prevent north korea from advancing its nuclear program. that hasn't happened. that has proven to be one of the biggest foreign policy crises. to pick up on that, he has been a president for his base but failed to be a president for all people. in many ways the country is more divi divided. the nfl, charlottesville. that's a problem.

>> i left you with the topic that is sort of interesting here and that's the economy. it's been a great year. that has not translated or as john reese says maybe it has and he would be at 25% if it wasn't for the economy. >> it's funny so many polls show people dislike him, disapprove of him, think he is a bull in a china closet on foreign policy, all these things. and yet, the economy is doing really well. and either, a, something he has done is right or he is just really, really lucky. i just kind of wonder whether the fact that maybe it's the absence of president obama or just sort of the idea of a president that's less adversarial towards business, whether it released animal spirit in the economy or maybe he's just lucky. >> let's debate this. luck or has he done something? >> let's go to 50,000 feet.

you can see there's a disconnect between political dysfunction around the world, not just here in the united states, but certainly in europe, too. and there are national security issues that are looming, crises in ways that we have not seen for a very long time. and yet, every single investor will tell you this is a great time@ñ economically. at what point does that disconnect come back to haunt us or doesn't it? can we carry on? stock markets keep rising, unemployment keeps falling, waging are ticking up and still have this political insecurity that's not just american political insecurity but global. >> it did seem -- i remember you would hear the frustration in the last two years of the obama -- everything is there. it's poised to take off. but it wouldn't. trump's election and then to quote charlie, whatever the animal spirit is, boom. >> it's luck in that he inherited an economy that was in pretty good shape. it's not like obama inheriting an economy that's cratering

after a financial crisis. it's more than luck and policy matters. the expectation of the market and the business community is that at least you would see no new regulations, no new taxes, not any additional burdens on the economy. we have seen even better than that from the business perspective, because you have seen a major deregulation rollback. now a tax bill that is a generational change on the corporate side and will, all things being equal, be pro growth. >> the fact they have cut so many regulations is what has spurred the economy. look at the way president trump dealt with health care versus taxes. he got in on details. he sold the tax package. he ran as the jobs president. i think that you have investors who feel good about that, the market obviously reflecting it. we're starting to see that in his policies. >> let's pivot a little bit to foreign policy. a year in, do we know what a trump doctrine is?

>> in some ways it's continuity of what we had in the past. he has not reneged on article 5 of nato, which was a speculation. nafta is still in place for the moment. we still have american troops in afghanistan. we have them in iraq. we have them in syria. in some ways, things are the same. what's different is that in the foreign policy of the big security strategy review the president gave at the end of the year, no mention of climate change as a national security threat and no mention of american human rights and values. the single biggest change with this president is that we are not seeing america leading the world through principal. america hasn't always got it right but it has relied on some sense of principal and higher moral standing. what we have is a transactional american -- >> richard, nodding a lot. >> it's a center right realism. on north korea, he has been very aggressive, it's a status quo policy. very cautious in the middle east.

more cautious than george w. bush and obama who did a big surge there afghanistan early in his administration. i agree there needs to be more of an emphasis on ideals. this is a reaction against a crusade that george w. bush fought for our ideals. they are an important tool against our adversaries and in favor of our interests. >> i don't sense coherence. i'm going to get tough on china and he goes to china, he and i are pals. what? >> you see that disconnect with his rhetoric around north korea as well. he talked about fire and fury. that made a lot of people very nervous that he was on the brink of taking some type of action. he didn't. i think we won't really know what the trump doctrine is until we see how north korea plays out. will he take some type of limited military action? based on my conversations with senior officials, his military options are very few and very far between. it doesn't look like that's likely. i think we're seeing a retreat from multinationalism. he did pull out of tpp, out of paris. i think that is the beginning at

least of a shift. >> a legacy there. >> the national security policy report that they referred to released just before christmas, when i read it, it actually did provide some coherence to what, through the past year, has looked like complete random ricochetting around. and i couldn't tell whether -- is this thing more coherent than i thought? is there just a heck of a speech writer on board? i tend to think the latter. >> let me ask you this. i feel like the issue we don't cover enough in foreign policy is how close are we to war? a hot war. whether we're involved or not, but a hot war that involves iran and saudi arabia. it feels like it is a tinderbox between those two. >> somebody described it like this. we have in yemen iranian proxies fighting saudi regulars. we have in syria saudi proxies fighting iranian regulars. we are one step away.

with the rebels firing missiles in saudi arabia, that's a hot area of the world. >> there is one foreign policy issue that seems to congeal with our domestic politics. it's russia. here is the best of russia from this year. >> i have nothing to do with russia. >> why would there be contacts between the campaign? >> i can't think of bigger lies. >> russia is a ruse. i have nothing to do with russia. >> there's no connection. you have got russia. if the president puts russian salad dressing on his salad tonight, somehow that's a russian connection. >> we have no dealings with russia. we have no projects in russia. we have nothing to do with russia. >> this conversation never happened. >> there's no collusion between me and my campaign and the russians. >> we have been going on this russia trump hoax for the better part of a year now with no evidence of anything. >> there's absolutely no collusion. that has been proven. >> rich, he is not getting the

benefit of doubt on all this it seems to me for one big reason. it seems to want nothing more than to cozy up to vladimir putin. if he were willing to be tough on putin the way the rest of the republican party wants to be, he might get more benefit of the doubt. >> say the meddling was an yoult ra outrage. it's never going to happen. he won't say that. it's a mystery. my theory, which i can't prove, is just he considers the russian story a personal affront because i think it undermines his victory. it's a psychological reaction, rather than speaking of some deeper conspiracy he is trying to hide. >> i think that's right. one of the things that is so striking if you look at his tweets, he lashed out at just about everyone on twitter, including the leader of china, who he says he needs to work with on north korea. yet he has never had sharp words like that for russia. he has never convened, for example, a meeting of his national security team to just address that issue. i think that's what people are

hungry for. remember, he begrudgingly accepted more sanctions congress imposed. >> it's not just that he wants to cozy up to putin or hasn't been aggressive enough, it's that people around him time and again seem to forget meetings that they have with russians. why the secrecy? why have these meetings reveal later? why say things that perhaps weren't actually true at the time? it's happening too often it seems for this to look like just coincidence. >> final word. >> nobody wants to think that they won illegitimately. you want to believe, i won on my merit. rich is right. why can't he say, you know, they were meddling, i don't think it had an impact on the outcome of the election, but we need to make sure this never happens again. that's pretty painless. what's wrong with that? >> you are doing something donald trump has never done before. be humble. when we come back, we will look ahead to the year that starts tomorrow.

it's an even numbered year. you know what that means. elections. are we looking at a democratic wave or can republicans somehow maintain their hold on congress and, of course, that means on all of the power that comes with it. their experience is coveted. their leadership is instinctive. they're experts in things you haven't heard of - researchers of technologies that one day, you will. some call them the best of the best. some call them veterans. we call them our team. finding the best hotel price is whoooo. now a safe bet. because tripadvisor searches... ...over 200 booking sites - so you save up to 30% on the... ...hotelock it in.

tripadvisor. this holiday season... give the gift of effortlessly smooth feet... from amope. amope pedi perfect with diamond crystals. removes rough, hard skin effortlessly... for touchably smooth feet. salon quality results you can see... and feel immediately. new amope pedi perfect soft feet kit... perfect for that special someone on your list. exclusively at walmart.

amope. love every step. looking for a hotel that fits... whoooo. ...your budget? tripadvisor now searches over... ...200 sites to find you the... ...hotel you want at the lowest price. grazi, gino! find a price that fits. tripadvisor. welcome back. if there's one thing you can generally count on in american politics, it's that the party that loses the presidential election one year gains seats in the following mid term elections, 2018 looks to be no exception. president trump's record low approval ratings have given democrats hope they can win the 24 seats to take back the house and the party's unexpected upset win in alabama this month means democrats would only need to net two seats to achieve their longer shot goal of taking back the senate. >> in 2005, you could smell a

wave coming. the results last night smell exactly the same way. our republican friends better look out. >> we think we will produce results, results that we will be able to talk to the american people about in the fall of 2018 and in 2020 as well. >> can you win back the house next year? >> the door is certainly open for us. >> suggesting a wave election is coming your way that your majority is at risk. what do you make of that? >> blah, blah, blah is what i say. >> i think we will win the senate and house. >> i feel optimistic about 2018. >> we will do the blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. let's talk about the blah, blah, blah, blah. welcome. gotta love speaker ryan. >> he is making fun of it. >> he blah, blah, blahhed over the best part. let's quickly -- do it by the numbers. senate makeup after doug jones is 51-49. there are two independents that caucus with the democrats. the house is 239 to 193.

this is what you do for a living. you saw the 11 point advantage in the poll for democrats, 50-39. it suggests a wave is building. the question is how big and will it crest at the right time and the right moment for the democrats. >> this is what waves look like when you are standing on a beach looking out. we have seen this before. >> see it from afar. look at that. >> can't tell precisely how tall it is. you could tell it's a big one. could things change? if we had a couple more quarters of good economic growth, could it dissipate? i don't think it will. we are looking at the senate, it's now plausible that democrats could take the senate back. i think it's not likely. but it's plausible in the house. if had y if you had to bet today, you would bet the house would turn. >> it doesn't look like this will shift. we look at some of the demographic breakdowns.

among millennials, it's nearly a 50 point advantage for democrats. among women, 20 points. even seniors, which is a base vote for the republicans, it's the democrats that are up four. white voters are only down two. that's why it doesn't look like a couple of good economic quarters changed things. >> that's a couple of good things they have. robust growth could take the edge off of this, but my fear is this isn't a conditions-based reaction. it's not an agenda-based reaction so much. it is a profound, personal reaction to trump himself and there's no way to change that. >> the white house says the opposite. they say that candidates are knocking down their doors to get an endorsement for president trump. >> there probably are some candidates knocking on their doors for an endorsement and their doors are not being opened when they knock on mitch

mcconnell's. >> he tried to walk a very fine line and it backfired and the white house is saying you should essentially embrace trump, but we saw that that doesn't always work. obviously, roy moore, deeply flawed candidate in his own right, but he did run on a trump playbook. i spoke to a strategist who said we're looking at a tidal wave and i said wait a minute, don't you run a risk of overplaying your hand if you go into 2018 and i think that's the real concern, and the economy is a big unknown. that could, i think, shift the outlook. >> you know what's interesting is you look historically and there's this very clear pattern. all, but three midterm elections since the end of the civil war, but we're now seeing a more explosiveness. i mean, in the last six midterm electionsy either the house or the senate or both have flipped and -- >> that's -- that hadn't happened in 100 years. >> yeah. yeah. yeah. and so it's -- it's -- people are voting. it's want more parliamentary,

but it's more by party and we're seeing big, big explosive results and that's got to be scary for a republican. >> the challenge for the democrats, though, is -- on the senate side at least is the red state democrats and you can argue how they handle red state america in order to win the majority is going to say everything. let me put up the senate map here. these are just democratic seats that are in states in 2018 up where president trump carried that state and you can see montana, the not surprise and your floor dass, ohios and wisconsins and michigans in there. here's how a few of the red state democrats i've talked to in the last year have been walking the line of trump. take a listen. >> one thing that we don't have and you see that more out in public polling and when i'm out in about is what do you guys stand for? what are you about? the overarching discussion for the democratic party isn't there. >> my job is to fight for

missourians. i get up every day and try to figure out how to get stuff done for them and not how i can criticize the president. >> here's the thing that bothers me more than anything because i am up for re-election in 2018 i guess people think in washington i'm going to vote differently, or i'll be differently or i'll have to cow tow what they think is popular. >> i think we all expected at least some of these red-state democrats to somehow forge a partnership with trump and none of them did. i think some of them wanted to, and i don't know -- joe manchin blames mitch mcconnell and not president trump which i think is convenient. what say you? >> we came out of alabama with democrats saying we can win in true red states. we've just done it in alabama and exactly the people you chose, north dakota, missouri, west virginia, they took some heart from that, but they have very different populations.

they do not have 30% african-american makeup in those states. they know that. so they have to be more careful about how they run. they can't expect to run up against roy moore again. that's just not going to happen and claire mccaskill has told me many times. donald trump is above water in my state. he has approval ratings that are parallel to mine. he won my state and i cannot totally isolate myself from him and sheriff brown is interesting. he's a democrat who has decided that he'll try and work with the president. >> if impeachment becomes part of the conversation in the fall, i assume it's the red state senate democrats that are the most nervous about that. >> i think you're right and the thing is this is so implausible. i mean, if -- >> and yet? >> if every single -- if democrats won every single senate race next year, every single one of them they would still need ten republicans to vote for impeachment and that's not going to happen, and so why just -- just shut up.

i mean, they're not helping themselves. >> the democrats hate that conversation. they hate them and they don't want the ads to end up on tv. >> i'll pivot because i hinted at it before and i'll pivot to the republican side of things and the reason why the democrats have a long are shot is look at the senate map. this is a rosy scenario of senate targets for democrats, and i throw in a texas and a nebraska out there and texas for demographic reasons because of what steve bannon has promised, rich lowery, which is to primary some establishment republicans like a deb fisher in nebraska. here's our little bannon versus the gop compilation and we'll talk about it on the other side. >> right now it's a season of war against a gop establishment. >> i think what steve bannon is trying to do is completely inappropriate. >> because they think you're a pack of morons. >> you need good candidates to win senate races. >> mitch mcconnell and this permanent political class is the

most corrupt and incompetent group of individuals in this country. >> what he's a specialist in is nominating people who lose. >> i like mr. bannon, he's a friend of mine, but mr. bannon came on very late. you know that. >> look, steve bannon -- he right now is the face of that sort of anti-establishment crowd, but before there was a steve bannon there was still an anti-establishment crowd that cost them and i'll put up here, at least five senate seats. you can blame bannon for the sixth, right? the three in 2010, colorado, delaware and nevada, two from 2012, indiana and missouri and of course, roy moore. bannon, is he going to cost them another senate seat? another state i could have put up there was mississippi, for instance. >> i hope alabama was a blow to steve bannon's theory that you can run any loathsome cooth for the senate, and it's in part because republicans kind of

against blue blazers tie types and they're the anti-establishment party which is not just rejecting the establishment and conventional norms. >> this is important. mcconnell and ryan are no more in touch with the base of the party than trump is with the establishment. >> who did president trump speak to after the roy moore loss? he spoke to steve bannon that week and so he still sees him as a touchstone to his base and to your point, does bannon take a look at that race and say hey, it was the candidate. no. we just need to work harder. we are emboldened and energized and we know what he needs to do and he divides resources and messaging and continues to have this internal war. >> go back to 2008 when barack obama won. this so radicalized that conservatives and republicans despised him so much that they radicalized a large element to

the republican party and i think it led to the tea party movement and it led to the election of donald trump, but it led to this nomination or this attraction of these exotic candidates that are just more exotic than can win general elections and i think republicans are paying a price and if i were democrats i would worry about the loathing that they have for president trump whether it radicalizes an element of the democratic party and we start seeing that happening coming here. >> well, that is a nice segue because the next list of candidates running for president. that will be the real debate we have. once we're done with 2018, it is 2020 vision time and whose vision is only focused on 2020? we'll look ahead to the many, many, many, many democrats who may decide to run for president and a handful of republicans, as well.

your body was made for better things than rheumatiod arthritis. before you and your rheumatologist move to another treatment, ask if xeljanz xr is right for you. xeljanz xr is a once-daily pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well. it can reduce pain, swelling and further joint damage, even without methotrexate. xeljanz xr can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections,

lymphoma and other cancers have happened. don't start xeljanz xr if you have an infection. tears in the stomach or intestines, low blood cell counts and higher liver tests and cholesterol levels have happened. your doctor should perform blood tests before you start and while taking xeljanz xr, and monitor certain liver tests. tell your doctor if you were in a region where fungal infections are common and if you have had tb, hepatitis b or c, or are prone to infections. xeljanz xr can reduce the symptoms of ra, even without methotrexate. ask your rheumatologist about xeljanz xr. ♪ oh, look... another anti-wrinkle cream in no hurry to make anything happen. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair® works in just one week. with the fastest retinol formula available. it's clinically proven to work on fine lines and wrinkles. one week? that definitely works! rapid wrinkle repair®. and for dark spots, rapid tone repair. neutrogena®. see what's possible.

welcome back. from the moment a candidate is declared the winner of a presidential election people in my business begin to ask, who is going to run in four years? this year is no different and with president trump's approval rating stuck in the 30s and 40s, many democrats and perhaps a handful of republicans are viewing a run as a real possibility. one sign that someone is considering a run at this stage. they write a book and it seems a sign that the author is serious about becoming a candidate. we've seen bernie sanders of vermont, joe biden. senator elizabeth warren of massachusetts and senator cory booker of new jersey. those are the democrats.

now you have governor john kasich of ohio. senator ben sasse of nebraska and senator jeff flake of arizona all of whom are republicans and the panel is back. okay. another way you get your way on the list to run for president, say you're not going toç run. take a look. >> where's your mind about that right now? are you 50/50? 80/20? where do you stand? are you likely to run? >> no. this is not what i'm doing. >> other people make lists and i'm not running for president. >> sure. i just might. >> that's not on my radar screen. that's a long way off. >> i don't know what i'm going to do tomorrow. >> if a year from now if they're ready and no one has moved in that i think that can do it then i may very will. >> the former vice president because he decided to say, hey, i'm sending a message to national donors, i want in.

>> it was probably joe biden. the concern for democrats has to be that the two white guys most likely to run who you'd have to give a reasonable shot at giving the nomination to, joe biden, bernie sanders, they'll be 78 and 79 on inauguration day of 2021. that's a problem for the democrats. and you could go through a whole list of them and there were problems with all of the candidates, but two old white guys is where the party needs to be positioning itself. >> kristen, before you chime in i want to show, we put this together and here's all of the traveling in the early states and that's another way to let us know that you think about running for president. you show up in iowa. where you have sanders, martin o'malley and ben sasse, tom cotton, in new hampshire, you have kasich, biden, sanders and o'malley and in south carolina, you've had biden, zuckerburg and o'malley there. so common denominators, it's book tourish, but biden and sanders among the busier ones.

>> absolutely. that shouldn't be a surprise to them. biden walked up to the line of running during the last election cycle. the one person who wasn't on that list is kristen gillibrand. she hasn't been doing a whole lot of traveling, but she has been, i think, putting a marker down around for herself around the issue of sexual harassment. it's one she's obviously championed in the past, but she's really been out front on that issue and taking the lead in calling al frank toen to res and calling for bill clinton to resign and she's eyeing a potential run very seriously. >> in that vein, is it gillibrand? did she have the breakout 17 to carve out space? who else has had some breakout? where it looks like they're doing more than just saying i want to be in. i'm kafrning out space. >> i would put an asterisk, people up for re-election 2018 have to be a little bit more discreet, but i would say kamala harris in california.

she's poised to do that. the way i sort of look at it, i've got a list of 25 people here and the thing is some of these, i think, are laughable, but you know what? three years ago today -- >> donald trump was. >> and bernie sanders was, too. >> i'm more humble than i used to be, but the way i'm kind of looking at it will be there will be at least one woman. there will be at least one. >> when you say one woman. >> there will be multiple women that run, but you're talking about the final couple. >> yes. >> there will be a woman. there will be an african-american. there will be one white guy and then there's an at large and some of these, like a kamala harris could be two of those categories, but that look for categories because there are powerful constituencies between the party they think will gravitate behind the one. >> i think just a bigger point. >> we can all do this on paper, but the lesson from the last two people who have been elected president donald trump and barack obama is that

personalities matter so much both in their own way, completely dominated the media and figures of fascination that the supporters couldn't get enough of and another lesson and remember, crowd size really does matter. >> you give a great segway. my 13-year-old literally said to me, hey, dad, you know that dwayne johnson's thinking of running for president and i said why do you say that? well, he said so on "ellen." and i said, he did? here's the evidence. >> would you run? i mean -- would you -- seriously, would you run? >> i'm seriously considering it, yes. >> really? >> look. i've actually been following him for the last six months on instagram and his social media. this guy is very good at his own public relations. very good. here's about a sick kid who is a fan. the rock's there with tickets for something or flies in there. somebody in this space is going

to break out. is it cuban? is it the rock? who knows? >> is it zuckerberg? somebody's messing around here. >> if we are now living in an era where to run for president of the united states you need to be a celebrity and you need to have a television following and an instagram following and you need to be able to reach people through charisma and through your background through having been on their television screens for years and years and years which was donald trump's way of doing it, then somebody like the rock has a chance. donald trump may have been an exception. i don't know. >> three years ago. >> there are -- there are presidents rolling in their grave, but as they should. >> here's what i don't get though, kristen, is that actually, i think when the other party does something and you try to do what that party does light, it always fails. >> when you try to do the exact opposite, where is the boring -- who is the least charismatic, boring, lowest crowd guy or gal out there?

because i have a theory that that's the person we'll turn to next. >> i think that whoever can give president trump a run for his money has to be a counterpoint. what does that look like? does that mean that the person is unifying? i think one thing in addition to all of the charismatic and all of those things that you laid out, i think the person needs to come off as being authentic even if they're a little boring. >> ralph northam, doug jones, john -- i could go down the list. the good democratic candidates were boring guys. >> not offensive. to your point, our friend mark shields has a theory that say you're in a subway car and it stops between stations and the lights go out and panic, chaos, and then a reassuring voice, a firm, reassuring voice comes on to make you go things are under control and will people be looking for someone that would be reassuring, calm, a good

bedside manner and that sort of thing and the rock played tooth fairy. >> boring never works in presidential pol iks ticks. it could be the opposite. george w. bush, emphasis on toughness and barack obama emphasis on -- and we hadn't had a donald trump either. >> has he changed the game? >> let me close with this. i think we all think trump will get a primary challenge just for the sport of it, but the question is who could be the most effective primary challenger to a trump rich? this is what the national review is covering a lot of. >> yeah. it's really hard to see how this would work unless trump totally craters, otherwise, we get some sort of symbolic challenge with someone like john kasich who could get 35% in some cases, but if he ran at this juncture he wouldn't even win ohio. >> what about a ben sasse or mitt romney. >> ben sasse or mitt romney

would be the two names that would come up. he knows the access to the money and he's got more name recognition than ben sasse, but it's a tough call. >> somebody's going to do it just for the coverage. >> i think jeff flake could be interesting. >> president trump runs, and he will be the nominee. the only question, if he does it then it's pence versus the field. >> when we come back, oh, how the political world has changed in just one year. 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. ♪ your bbut as you get older,ing. it naturally begins to change, causing a lack of sharpness, or even trouble with recall. thankfully, the breakthrough in prevagen helps your brain and actually improves memory. the secret is an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory. prevagen. the name to remember. we35 mules,ur doors with 70 mega-watts, and an ice plant. but we brought power to the people- redefining what that meant from one era to the next. over 90 years later, we continue to build as america's 3rd largest investor in infrastructure. we don't just help power the american dream... we're part of it.

nick is a logistical mastermind. when it comes to moving packages on a global scale, nobody does it better. he's also an avid cookie connoisseur. dig in, big guy. but when it comes to mortgages, he's... less confident. fortunately for nick, there's rocket mortgage by quicken loans. it's simple, so he can understand the details and get approved in as few as eight minutes. apply simply. understand fully. mortgage confidently. rocket mortgage by quicken loans. we are back. data download time. what kind of year has 2017 been. my new nbc news/wall street journal poll, the answers are mixed. ahead of president trump's inauguration in january, 37% of americans felt the country was

going in the right direction. 52% felt it was on the wrong track. that was actually an improvement at that time from the months before the 2016 election, but in our year-end poll, 29% now say right direction. that's an eight-point drop from january while 63% say wrong track. that's up 11 points and no surprise, how you view the year depends a lot on who you are. republicans thought it was a pretty good year. for example, 79% say 2017 was either the best year for the united states, above average or average. only 20% thought it was the worst year or below average. independents were pretty evenly split while hardly any democrat thought it was a good year and the vast majority thought 2017 was the worst year for the country or below average. men and women also viewed the year differently and a majority of men thought 2017 was good for the country and a majority of women thought it was bad. we saw similar breakdowns across racial demographics and only a

slim majority of white americans 52% thought this was the best above average or average while hispanics and african-americans thought it was the worst year or below average. finally, what did americans view as the most significant events of 2017? events like the mass shooting in las vegas and natural disasters like hurricanes and wildfires were on folks' minds the most. third on the list was president trump's inauguration followed by terrorist attacks and sexual harassment revelations and of course, the me too movement. >> when we come back, words that came into being and new words that gained new meaning in 2017. president trump's impact on american culture is next.

♪ traders -- they're always looking for advantages. the smart ones look to fidelity to find them. we give you research and data-visualization tools to help identify potential opportunities. so, you can do it this way... or get everything you need to help capture investment ideas and make smarter trading decisions with fidelity for just $4.95 per online u.s. equity trade. fidelity. open an account today. ♪

open an account today. this is charlie. and this is charlie not coughing because he took delsym 12-hour. this is charlie not coughing while trying his hardest not to wake zeus. this is charlie not coughing while sitting ververy still. easy, walter. and this is charlie not coughing while getting a little too into nana's party. because he took delsym... the #1 12-hour cough medicine. nothing lasts longer for powerful cough relief. delsym. the joy of not coughing.

welcome back. we'll take a look at the cultural changes that took lace

in the country. they were inspired at least in part by donald trump's presidency. guys, i think the biggest one in sports has to do with his involvement in the nfl which has been sort of with race. let's take a look at what he is and what instigated this. >> wouldn't you love to see one of these nfl owners when somebody disrespects our flag to get that son of ofa bitch off t field right now. he's fired. he's fired! >> and you had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people on both sides. now we're going to take down his statue. so you know what? it's fine. you are changing history. you are changing culture. was sheriff joe convicted for doing his job? i'll make a prediction. i think he's going to be just fine, okay? >> you know what's interesting, kristen, especially that first one. many times when he dabbles into sort of culture wars it's at a

moment of political weakness for him where he did the nfl ref was when he was embarrassed to endorse luther strange the weekend before and the story wasn't about him supporting luther strange. it was about him and the nfl. >> it's a great way to energize his base, to rally his supporters around him. it was very similar during charlottesville when he made those remarks, which by the way, enraged some people within his own administration, but i think you're starting to see a backlash at the polls and you saw that with how energized african-american voters were and that's what's concerning a lot of republicans when they look at 2018. i think the white house knows they have a problem when it comes to diversity. they know they have to bring more diversity particularly to their senior staff. we just reported on omarosa leaving. she was the only african-american senior staffer that he had in the west wing, and so i think that's going to possibly be a focus in the new year. >> go ahead. i would have guessed in the end

of the year you would have had an unorthodox president with an unorthodox agenda. you've had an orthodox republican agenda that doesn't necessarily have anything for the signature trump voter, but you still have this unorthodox president and he's stoking these controversies and that's what his voters are getting. >> there's been a weird backlash not from voters and some of the voters, charlie. the corporate america has been one and the nfl is part of this. they have struggled with how to handle this. they don't know how to handle it especially nfl has struggled with it. they don't approve of the behavior, but i was meeting with the ceo recently who said the tax bill that would probably save $350 million, so they're torn. there are some good things and less regulation, laxer enforcement and there are things they like, but they don't like the tone and where this is

going. they're really torn. >> customer shareholders, brand and all of that and when the president says something which is why we've had so many advisory counsels disbanded those corporate leaders don't feel they could be aligned about those positions. >> i think the other factor here, some of it is stra etegics well as the nfl controversy. >> he enjoys stirring the pot and he enjoys everyone freaking out and he watches it on his 90 screen -- 90-inch tv screen. >> it's the trump show and it's been sold out for years. >> i think that's the point, and that's the part of the job he wanted. it was sort of head of state and to be the pot stirrer and all of this other stuff, gosh, do i have to do this, too? all right. i think 2017, the time's person of the year were the whistle blowers on women. you just informed us, feminism is the word of the year. i would say it's an

understatement to say culturally, and i think many people think that women are speaking out more because of the election of donald trump, but here's sort of a highlight of the year. >> hollywood titan harvey weinstein fired from his own company. >> kevin spacey. >> louis c.k., matt lauer. >> sexual harassment has no place in any workplace let alone in the united states congress. >> we are in the midst of a cultural revolution. >> is it one accusation? is it two? >> john conyers is an icon in our country, however, congressman conyers should resign. >> he is not going to be pressured by nancy pelosi or anyone else to step down. >> in the coming weeks i will be resigning as a member of the united states senate. >> the president has first-hand knowledge on what he did and didn't do. he can speak directly to those and he has and he's addressed them and i don't have anything further to add. >> think everyone should be held

accountable starting from the president of the united states. >> quite the moment, kathy that this has been, and politics is struggling with it more than any other sector expect. >> and it's happened really, really fast and this has been the last two or three months of the year and we've had a snowballing effect where sexual harassment doesn't seem to be tolerated and there will be a backlash against this movement because it's happening so fast and the revolution will be to each his own, if we can make safer workplaces and if we can bring men with us onboard on that project and they don't feel victimized and they don't feel like they're the objects of revenge then we'll be better off and you'll see this in the women running for office. >> it was the week before the franken allegations that led to resignation and you said, hey, there's going to be some that wonder is that resignation worthy? do you throw them out? but ultimately that's what happens in moments of revolution. there are some not sure moment,

but there's a not sure moment. >> it was a bizarre resignation speech that al franken waged, he professes his innocence and he owes it to himself and to his voters that gave him the seat to stay and fight and it isn't surprise me that there's been back and forth, but the initial new york times story and harvey weinstein is the single most piece of journalism that instantly changed. bill o'reilly didn't change it. it was harvey weinstein. for some reason, i don't know why the fox firings which were sort of the canaries in the coal mine. >> i guess you're right. what requires the death penalty and the standard has gotten very, very, very slim on what -- what ends a career? but you know, i think this is going to provide a lot of opportunities for women, for younger men who behave themselves. i mean, this is a society-changing event and set of circumstances. november 2018, kristen. i think when we are looking at the new faces of the new

congress, i have a feeling we'll see what the house bank scandal did in 1992 and it wiped out, people on both sides of the aisle, this moment on women and sexual assault, they wipe out 50 members left and right. >> i think that's right, and i think they're bracing for that possibility. a lot of people on both sides of the aisle think this is going to be the year of the woman when it comes to 2018, but look, i think that democrats have tried to seize the moral high ground on this, and i stress that word tried to because it is very complicated, and i think the white house knows they've got some work to do. a lot of the president's accusers came forward. they said we didn't feel like our voices were heard during the campaign and we feel like we're being heard now. the white house is infuriated by this. >> i'll close with new words that merriam-webster included. troll, and they did it as a verb. dog whistle which we were surprised hadn't been in there before and alt-right.

charlie, what does that say about america? >> wow. i -- you know, i'm 64 years old and i'm sitting here, the whole world is changing, and i'm just sort of astonished by it all. >> one thing i'm going to tell our viewers to do. >> start trolling people. >> that's not my style. >> when charlie starts trolling stu, we will know the world is changed. anyway, you guys are great. that's all we have for today. as always, thank you to our viewers for being such a big part of our broadcast each week. we take every critique you have seriously, so please continue to send them in. on behalf of everyone at nbc news, i want to wish everyone a happy, healthy and politically stress-free new year, because all next week if it's sunday, it's "meet the press."