>> dickerson: today on "face the nation." republicans rejoice after passing their tax bill. the president gets his christmas wish and signs the bill into law. but will this republican unity last into the new year? we'll take a look at the political landscape heading into the 2018 mid term and in our annual cbs correspondents panel we'll reflect on this year and look ahead to next. it's all coming up on "face the nation." captioning sponsored by cbs welcome to "face the nation." on this christmas eve morning with all the news makers out of town, we begin with 67-year tradition, the annual cbs news correspondent roundtable. joining us this year, white house and senior foreign affairs correspondent margaret brennan. ed o'keefe covers capitol hill and politics for the "washington

post" and is cbs news contributor we asked him to fill in or nancy cordes who we hope enjoying well-deserved break with her family. chief white house correspondent major garrett. justice and homeland security correspondent jeff pegues and david martin is also here. with a portion of interview margaret with vice president pence on surprise trip to afghanistan. he talked to him about accomplishments of the first year of the trump administration and what is ahead for 2018. >> this president has rolled back record numbers, unleashed american energy, appointed conservative jurists to our courts including neil gorsuch. thanks to president trump's leadership to see congress of the united states come together pass largest tax cut in american history. >> you see toe hold to get more done? >> as much as we've accomplished, rebuilding our military, unleashing the

american economy. passing the largest tax cut in american history and other initiatives that this president has advanced, we're just getting started. next year you're going to see this administering move on bigger, which will include infrastructure and welfare reform. progress that we've made in the war against isis, we virtually crushed the isis caliphate taken back the capital of raqqa, the fight here in afghanistan, taking the fight directly to the enemy. investment that we're making in our military, the growth and optimism in the american economy, i think sets the stage for tremendous growth and opportunity in security and prosperity in 2018. >> how do you explain to the american people how they should understand what just happened this month with mike flynn pleading guilty to lying to the fbi about his contact with the russian ambassador which the president said he lied not only

to you but the fbi that's why the president fired him. >> we'll let the special counsel and others do their job or we're going to cooperate but we're going to stay very focused on the job. american people elected us to do. >> can you clarify how you understand what happened with mike flynn who we known had lied to you. did you know he had lied to the fbi? >> i stand by everything i've said with regard to that individual and every other aspect of this. >> but when he was fired did you know he lied to the fbi? >> what i can tell you i knew he lied to me. and i know the president made the right decision. with regard to him. >> dickerson: so the vice president is fan of the job his boss is doing. let me ask you about that trip. it was supposed to be part of a larger trip that the vice president was supposed to take that part was cancelled. >> it was interesting that trip had been postponed until january, supposed to be two

jerusalem and also to egypt, part of what had initially been planned sort of a look, i delivered on this promise to eventually move the capital from tel aviv to jerusalem then trying to soften the blow that was very much dealt to all of the arab world and palestinians. as more and more cancelled the planned meeting with the vice president, that made that trip tougher, but this bond that was dropped with this decision on jerusalem, the the administration didn't say we'd see the blow-back, the risks and threats, but some had predicted but you have to understand that symbolically the decision on jerusalem will continue to be a sticking point for the arab world. it may not be the breaking point, because they have broader concerns with iran right now but it is certainly something that the administration is not going to quickly move beyond. >> dickerson: we heard the vice president assessment of the year, give us your assessment? >> very revealing.

last week of this year effectively in washington, year-end wrap up press conference was not donald trump it was mitch mcconnell. if you wanted to look at the person singularly most responsible for accomplishments on the guess particular side it's not donald trump it's mitch mcconnell the senate majority leader who held with the exception of one issue health care, republicans together on every single aspect of what president tried to accomplish. tax cuts were passed because mcconnell held his conference together. all of the 12 circuit judges, a record for any first year of any american president because mitch mcconnell held his conference together. and he got 49 votes on health care, closer than anyone probably could have under those similar circumstances. so mitch mcconnell put the bow on this year and quite properly so. the president signed, without

mcconnell who for very first time this last week the president actually praised on twitter because it has finally gotten through to him through many people inside and outside the white house, mr. president, forget what steve bannon says you can't get anything without mitch mcconnell. >> dickerson: stay can with congress you heard mike pence talk about infrastructure, welfare reform, given what major laid out also fact democratic party that doesn't want to help out this president, what do you think it will look like? >> mother likely those two infrastructure for sure. it was quite revealing how very quickly this week paul ryan tried to pivot to entitlement reform and very quickly mitch mcconnell and republican senators said, no, no way. because remember the math. 51-49 is new math starting january 3rd. doug jones comes to the senate democrat from alabama, courtesy of steve bannon, exactly, cooperation is required. the only thing that most

senators rights now believe could start the year off in a good way is working on some kind of plan to fund big construction projects basically in this country. the question of course as always seems to me, how will you pay for. that given that you just splashed tax cuts republicans will probably turn around suggest that entitle. reform is the way to do that spin respects but lot of those republican senators, fair number of congressional house members who are from suburban swing districts are going after medicare, social security, is unpopular thing to do in an election year. are going to resist it. >> dickerson: the vice president said isis decimated, is that accurate if so why has it been -- why has this come to pass? >> i this it's what you say the caliphate as it existed in owe rook and syria is crushed. used to control all of northern syria, northern iraq, western iraq, they're now down to few pieces of territory along the u freights river in sewer i can't

i think the trump administration deserves some credit for that. the weight of american airstrikes and capabilities of american special operations forces would sooner or later crush the isis caliphate no matter who was in the white house. the way that general mattis, secretary of defense, was to give his commanders more authorities to make decisions in the field. so when they saw target of opportunity they didn't have to come all the way back through the chain of command to the white house to get approval. they just did. now, isis, that once existed is almost dead. as secretary mattis says over and over, they're not defeated. the caliphate is going to become isis the movement and its followers, we already see them

in afghanistan, somalia, yemen, name almost any country there, these aren't fighters who for most part escaped from iraq and syria, these are just angry young men looking for a cause to serve. >> dickerson: jeff, vice president talked about michael flynn. michael flynn at the heart of both relationship with the russians among trump advisors but then also obstruction question about whether the president told the fbi director to go easy on the flynn investigation. where are we at the end of the year with these cluster of investigations? >> well, they're ongoing. the questions i know the white house is interested in this to wrap up, it doesn't seem like there's an end in sight right now. you have mike flynn who was given thisly deal. he is a figure track straddles the cans i can, campaign, fist few weeks of the white housef he's cooperating with the investigators you see what they

may be looking at, at least according to some of the people i know who have worked with mueller in the past. they know how he builds his cases. he tries to get some cooperating witnesses which he has now with flynn and popadopoulos, the foreign policy advisor who also tookly deal. you wrap up these witnesses, but you don't tip your hand according to these people who work with mueller to what the main charges are going to be at the end. so that's the question. when will this end and what are they trying to get out of michael flynn. >> dickerson: we'll take short break now, but we'll be back in a minute with more from our panel. the market.redict but through good times and bad... ...at t. rowe price... ...we've helped our investors stay confident for over 75 years.

call us or your advisor. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. when food is good and clean and real, it's ok to crave. and with panera catering, there's more to go around. panera. food as it should be. >> dickerson: we're back with our panel. major, i want to start with you. lot of management changes at the white house, with where are we. >> john kelly has brought discipline and functionality to not only the way decisions are brought to the president but who is allowed to bring them to the president. and they go through john kelly. but that doesn't change the

fundamental truth about the trump approach to the presidency. i've been trying to think of a metaphor. to make america great rock concert there are two songs, forgotten americans and america first, 12 solos. by the same so lowist on different instruments. that so lowist is donald trump. when he says interviews i'm only one that matters, he fundamentally means that. and everything about this administration pivots off of that truth. he is the central actor, the central soloist in everything. imagine yourself at the rock son silt and hear 15solos you'll be tired, because you get the soloist and very little else. you talk to cabinet secretaries, we do all these things but hard to sorted of get people aware of it. the soloist is on the flute,

drums, electric guitar and every other instrument, that is both the reality draw of the trump presidency, the management reality and exhausting reality. >> dickerson: by the time he gets to the -- margaret, pivot right from that to rex tillerson. give us a sense of that powerful job, is rex going to stay in it. >> major is right there's only one star in the show and everyonish that administration is keenly aware of it. in the past few weeks in particular you've seen secretary tillerson be a bit more assertive, particularly you see this in this newly assertive position perhaps ukraine, to open up this idea that we could express more support and actually provide weaponry to the ukrainians which is a shot across the bow at russia which you've heard tillerson say, this is the one issue of ukraine where we can't get past that broader deal with russia.

i think you will continue to see him quietly move on that front. along with more sanctions on russia, along with more assertive position and also more outspoken in the new year but he clearly doesn't want to try to compete with the star in this show on the main stage. >> dickerson: we'll see how long we can extend this metaphor. david, let me ask you about north korea where does that stand at the end of this year. >> 365 days further down the load of a collision course. u.s. is making to give up nuclear weapon programs, north corey saw not going to accept. north korea is developing a weapon of intercontinental ballistic missile that the trump administration says it cannot accept. something has got to give and probably going to take some major decisions by somebody in the year 2018. to get us off this collision course. >> dickerson: jeff, what's the state of homeland security?

>> the main focus right now is on these lone wolf actors. law enforcement doesn't like to call them that because they feel floor files the act. but these are people that are harder to spot. they are sitting in a basement with some, radicalized online with the array of information op line they can be radicalized within weeks and carry out an attack. the fbi does about a thousand investigations, isis related in the u.s., that's been consistent number over the last couple of years. but spotting these people is so difficult because they blend in, you don't really have a history of law enforcement with them. and so trying to wrap them up and get them is a problem for law enforce. and will continue in 2018. >> dickerson: end that round talking about paul ryan, their relationship with the where the now, it was rocky year, is everybody on the same team now are things coming in 2018 that you think will create more

potential conflict? >> this is by far their best week. i think you saw that in their public praise of each other, and fact that they all understood this was a significant win not only for them but for the republican party and its existence. you're going to see some more disagreements about what to do next year, both officially and politically. there are competing priorities obviously in the house and the senate. mcconnell doesn't want to rock the boat, ryan is eager to try to take another step in terms of looking at sort of domestic policy and what could possibly be shaped in more conservative image. both of them struggle every day with the fact that the president does not grasp, care about or really talk to anyone about details of this stuff. >> dickerson: ask you about under reported story from the year. what would you put in that category? >> one overseas one at home. that relationship with saudi arabia. when i covered the trump campaign did i not imagine the very first stop he'd made would

be riyadh. his orientation tolt muslim world in general and possible restoration in the words of the saudi kingdom about islam. and taking on terrorism in way that didn't before could be potential far-reaching story. at home, it's energy. that administration has 20th century point of view on energy, extraction and exploitation. it does not have an embrace sieve renewable or 21st energy concept that will radically change where we drill, where we don't drill, environmental implication. >> dickerson: margaret, what is your under cover story? >> one thing, what we're seeing in terms of the lost generation, this refugee crisis that was so focused on syria has now continued, worsened, become a health epidemic where you're talking about conflict in yemen, outbreak of cholera, looking at the democratic republic of the congo where unicef predicting 400,000 children under the age

of five could die because of the health risks and issues of displacement. whether it's syria, africa, throughout the middle east, these issues, united states isn't talking about as much, isn't leading on, is only articulating in homeland security point of view. but these things have consequences in years to come in terms of radicalization, health risks. >> dickerson: david, what is the under covered story? >> you heard vice president pence say we are rebuilding our military. not so much. there's a big new defense spending bill but it's just a wish list until you get a deal in congress. so the fact is, that the pentagon along with the west is going to continue to operate on these continuing resolutions which keeps you going along the same path. the heads of all of this, just

say that they're readiness is falling apart. and when you listen to the details of what an aircraft carrier has to go through these days to get underway, when we saw those three carriers operating off the korean peninsula awhile back, the machination, is that it took to get one of those carriers underway, they were stealing planes, and parts, just have air wing to go on there. the secretary of the air force says that when she saw on her first briefing on the new readiness when she came into office she said, there must be some mistake. this has got to be wrong. of course, it wasn't wrong. nobody should conclude from that that we're about to be inferior to anybody. we're still number one, but as secretary of the air force said, these decreased readiness rates

don't mean we're not going. but it does mean fewer come back. >> two quick ones. first off, there was assassination attempt on a top house republican this year. and this was the most threatening year for lawmakers in history, at least 1,650 threats against lawmakers as of late july. i couldn't get updated stats in time for this but safe to surmise it was at least double last year. the other, internal displacement crisis in this country. at least 230,000 people have left puerto rico. since hurricane maria, they're in florida, georgia, texas, north carolina, new york. they're going to reshape the politics of those states. but there's an island that needs to be rebuilt and united states didn't do it this year. >> i would agree. puerto rico is just -- what has happened there and u.s. virgin islands, the lack of focus on those issues there, not exactly my beat but something that i'm interested in. but also if you look at

overseas, european officials were saying that they're not getting outflow of isis fighters back in new york, that they were anticipating. i talked to top counter terrorism officials here in the u.s. who agree with that. >> dickerson: prediction time. what are you going to predict in 2018? >> might recall that last year i predicted that james comey was going to stick around. >> dickerson: you're a humble man. >> so this year, i won't be as bold but i will say that i think the mueller investigation is going to, one way or another is members of congress a big decision in 2018. it will end up in their lap. >> dickerson: david, what's your prediction? >> as long as we're confessing. last year i predicted that president trump and jong-un would have face to face meeting.

i was dead wrong. so, i'm not going to touch north korea. i'm going to predict that abu bak, the leader of isis will meet his end in 2018. >> one of the big four congressional leaders, nancy pelosi, paul ryan, mitch mcconnell will either be gone or on their way out by this time next year. >> dickerson: major? >> the president is going to have to come to terms with what the resistance means. you talk to ed gillespie, he got more votes, but lost by nine points the victor got even more. says, i met the resistance and it's real. the mid-term elections everything that is on the agenda will have to require democratic votes, that will be larger compromises than this president has shown any inclination to achieve. 2018 for this white house and this president if it has any accomplishments at all will have to be through and over or around

resistance, that will be a fascinating story. >> dickerson: margaret? >> secretary of state rex tillerson does not resign in january as had been predicted and asked many times. he'll stick around. i think he will be engaging more and more assertive as i said, but i think one of the areas that is is going to really take up a lot of his time is trying to save whatever chance of diplomacy with north korea but we may see also more immediate crisis with iran. >> dickerson: thank you. i want to thank everybody on our panel today for today but also for all the work you do for cbs and for "face the nation." your reporting, insights and curiosity about the news and what's going on in washington and around the world, help us inform and make sense of what has been a very unusual year. we'll be back in a moment.

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>> dickerson: well kelp back to "face the nation." big political question for 2018 whether republicans will build on their single party control or whether democrats will flip control of the senate, house or both. we'll look where things stand as we move into 2018, we turn to dan balz who is the chief correspondent at the "washington post." his colleague karen tumulty is national political correspondent our own anthony salvanto is cbs news director of elections. first, we'll get to the house and senate and break those down. i want to start with the very broad question for all three of you, dan, start with you. what is the landscape look like here at the end of 2017 for next year's election? >> everything we see at this point, john, is a very, very difficult landscape for republicans, almost every measure or every event that has

happened so far this year politically has been bad for the republicans and good for the democrats. you can look at it in terms of the president's approval rating which is historically low for first term president. you can look at it in the nature of the current preference for how the house should break, democrats have a significant advantage on that at this point. and we know that from the recent elections through the enthusiasm is much greater or appears to be greater among democrats than republicans to turn out that is often the key indicator in mid-term elections. >> dickerson: karen? >> it's true. mid-term elections especially in president's first term are almost never good news for president. only twice since 1934 has president's party picked up seats in the first mid-term of his first term in office. but it really does seem like the republicans are in fact heading into some really tough weather here. and it's true, generic ballot,

rather see democrat or republican in office, democrats are ahead in that by double digits. but i agree. i think this in enthusiasm gap is really the biggest thing republicans ought to be worried about right now. >> dickerson: get to the roots of that enthusiasm where it comes from. anthony, where do you put the needle down on the record here? >> really, the math is still a little bit advantage of the republicans, at least on the senate side. the reason forethat is that the democrats are defending more seats and any time that happens, you have a harder hill to climb. look, on the house side, it's true, that we see a national polling that more people are now saying that they would like to see the democrats in control. but remember that those polls are talking to people in very heavy democratic districts as well as heavy republican ones. that generic ballot can oversight the case. what you want to focus on is how many specific house seats could

be competitive. and on that side there may be just enough for the democrats to put the house in play, real question going forward is, can they expand that. can they make more seats than ordinarily come into view. >> dickerson: on that generic ballot isn't it the case, this question would you vote for republican or democrat even though it's imprecise number, when it's that big, people are favoring the democrats that much isn't that sort of a blunt indicator when the number is that big, it's still does tell you something. >> absolutely. it gives you general sense of the direction. there's no question that that direction is pointed towards democrats. it's maybe half as many. if you see national ballot, national generic ballot they might win maybe half that much in the actual election. but there again, going to be where they can start to try to persuade people and as you look around the country, a lot of these suburban districts, lot of wealthier districts that have

gone republican and economic issues, particularly places that they're targeting and if they can put those in play then we start to see really competitive house election. >> the first place to look will be there are 23 house districts and democrats have to pick up 24. there are 23 house districts where there is a republican incumbent sitting in a district that was won by hillary clinton. and these districts are all over the country, they're in california, texas, florida and they -- big range, lot of suburban but lot are rural and lot of them have large numbers of hispanics. >> there's one other element in terms of the tempering of where we are. we have an odd situation which is a president with very low approval ratings at a time when have historically over the last 17 years, lowest unemployment rate, a stock market that the president says constantly is

breaking records weekly. and steady economic growth. for the republicans if they can in one way or another force people to think about the state of the economy rather than their view of the president, they could hope to do better than a lot of this polling suggests at this point. history says that there are two other times in the last half century where you have this anomaly of low presidential approval and low unemployment. in both those cases, presidential approval turnedded out to be more significant and party lost a lot of seats. >> in the last three mid terms most people have said that the mid term vote is about the president. there's no question he's a factor and approval rating looked like -- >> dickerson: that's where enthusiasm you're talking about comes from. explain that for people, it's linked to the president. >> what pollsters ask, how excited are you about this election. they look for other measures of how engaged people are with the

fact that they're even is an election this year. just this week, the "wall street journal," the pollster found a ten-point enthusiasm gap between democrats and republicans. >> that's really important, too. because remember, in mid terms, turn out is lower. and folks who tend to vote are a little disproportionately republican, at least recently. what the democrats have taken out of these last couple of elections, virginia and alabama, is that they can motivate their base. people who don't ordinarily come out except for presidential years have been willing to come out f. they can do that, then that changes the dynamic. because there are folks sitting in these districts who normally out mid terms, turn out goes, they reshape that and whole electorate changes. >> dickerson: let me ask you about the senate. karen sketched out the situation in the house. after doug jones is seated at democrat next year after this that exciting race this year,

there will be a two seat majority for republicans, democrats need to pick up two seats to gain control of the senate. ten democrats are up for reelection. in recent history states have tended to vote for senator the way they have for presidents that's one factor there. there's only one republican running in state where hillary clinton won that's in nevada. then some other interesting states, tennessee and then minnesota are on. where you see the senate shaking out? >> i'd make two points. first of ail if we were having this conversation a year ago we would be talking about the likelihood of potentially significant losses for the democrats in the senate because as you say, they're defending so many seats and defending them in states that trump won. however, of those ten five are truly red, five are what i would call more swing states. but what's happened over the course of the year is because of

the turbulence that the republicans have run into there's now at least possibility of democrats being able to take control of the senate. i think it's still very difficult. but they have three opportunities. arizona, nevada and possibly tennessee because they have candidate there the former democratic governor who may be the only democrat who can win statewide. but i'm not predicting at this point that he will. and many of their incumbents are in reasonably good shape or better shape than you might have thought six or eight or ten months ago. i think it's still heavy lift for democrats to take over but at least hawaiian opportunity this they wouldn't have dreamed up at the beginning of the trump presidency. >> dickerson: karen, when dan talks about senate seats being in more of swingy areas than -- you have classic seats that are up where democrats are trying to defend territory in west virginia where trump won by 45 points. others are in michigan, wisconsin, which were closer. so is that the distinction,

another one we should watch for the rust belt states that flipped and went for trump in the presidential, how do you think that will play out in the senate elections? >> turns out i spent some time in michigan. actually looking at the governor's race there. what i found is that democrats sort of activist base, people who are engaged now, are so traumatized by seeing what they thought were going to be easy wins for hillary clinton last time around that also contributes to the enthusiasm factor. they were caught napping in 2016. there is a determination i think not to have that happen again. >> dickerson: anthony, another thing should talk about with respect to the senate there are primaries to come. we saw in alabama some extraordinary interparty republican fighting, comments, people even saying they were no longer republicans after the national committee supported roy

moore, how do you think the primary process plays out in terms of, well, just how do you think it plays out? >> the thing to watch this spring. we can be sitting here a year from now the landscape will be very different. behind all of this is which direction does each party go? republicans are stillñ that conversation. we talked a lot about populist wing of the party, part that is voting against anything seen as the establishment. versus the more traditional conservative wing. and if you start to see primary challenges to sitting incumbent republican senators, in otherwise safe states, then you start to get a dynamic like you saw, like many people saw in alabama where the republicans could potentially nominate someone who can't appeal to a drawedder electorate. and then you get a potentially safe red seat that becomes in play. same thing on democratic side. they're still going to have a conversation about which

direction their party goes and so both parties are having to see that. >> dickerson: is that delayed by democrats thinking, look, if we just run against the president we take advantage of this enthusiasm from our base, let'sr postpone the question about what exactly the democratic party means because we got chance to playoff of this. or is there going to be a real conversation? >> i think there will be partial conversation but iñi think at ts point for most democrats the view is, the harder they can go after the president and tie their republican opponent to the president, the better off they're going to do. they will defer that conversation about who they are as a party for the 2020 democratic nomination battle. they may pay some price for that. i'm not understating how significant that challenge will be for them. but i think for the mid term, focusing on the president, one of the problems that republican candidates potentially face is how much do they identify with

president trump in order to energize their base and the cost of that in general election if they become so identified that people think, well, just another trump -- >> dickerson: right. ran into virginia. >> also finding that lot of these republicans who are running for the senate are not willing, trips, to commit to voting for mitch mcdonnell to continue as their leader as well. on the on hand they don't want to be too, too close to be establishment on the other they don't want to offend the base. it's really -- it's really a delicate act for a lot of them. >> dickerson: anthony, how much do you think danger for democrats to not have something to run on to just focus on the president, because obviously they focus on the president that encourages the republican base. >> one of the things so interesting in 2016 that you mentioned democrats didn't win as many seats as some thought they might, is that voters said donald trump was a different

kind of republican, he was a brand unto himself. and they had a hard time tying the republican senate candidate to donald trump. the question to watch is, whether or not they can do that now because so many people have seen the president sort of different brand altogether. >> dickerson: the "washington post," wrote piece how the president is dying to get out there and campaign, we know all presidents loveçó to getñi out n campaign so much more fun than what they have to do in washington. how does that work out, a situation where people think, go campaign somewhere else, mr. president or he just spends his time in the states and districts, how do you think that plays out, his active participation. >> we know that he loves to get out. we know that those big rallies energize him that he loves to do that, that he creates enthusiasm as well as gets energy back. he's going to want to be out there a fair amount. difficult for lot of these candidates to embrace him too

closely in some of these competitive races, so i think individually all of those candidates will have to decide how close do i want the president to be. ed gillespie talking about virginia wanted to keep him at arm's length, it didn't matter in the end he still got beat pretty badly. >> dickerson: how do you think policy landscape will show up. are we going to have a bunch of fights that will be about value issues, cultural issues, things that get voters excited or is there any way which the policy might actually be part of the conversation? >> well, the big policy issue right now especially coming on the heels of the tax bill, is whether they are going to be brave enough to begin real conversation on entitlements. that is san absolutely treacherous issue to bring uppish election issue, mitch mcconnell has already said it ain't happening here unless there's some democratic buy in, which there won't be. >> dickerson: all right. quickly. >> remember, republicans rely on older voters very heavily.

that does put things is into different context. >> dickerson: thanks to all of you. we'll be right back. 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. ♪

>> dickerson: it's time now to take a look at perfect timing. we spoke earlier with best selling author daniel pink, his new book is out in hearing loss january called "when: the scientific secrets of perfect timing." you say this is not a how-to book but when-to book, tell people what that means. >> we think that timing is an art.

make hour decisions about when to do things based on gut instincts, in tuition, but timing is actually a science that crosses multiple digs palestinians, there's a huge body of research showing us how to make better evidence-based decisions about when to do things. it turns out they have material affect on our well being, productivity, creativity, our health, many domains of life. >> dickerson: what i love is also the way in which it's not just, are you a morning person or evening person although you have great explanation and description and a little test how you can figure out who you are in that group. but also when you choose to do certain kinds of thinking, like creative thinking versus, explain that. >> absolutely. what whole range of scientists have found that the day has hidden pattern, basically a peak, trough, and rebound. most of us proceed through the day in that order. peak, trough, rebound. it turns out we're better off doing analytic during the peak which is in the morning. trough not good for anything, actually danger zone in many

ways, doing our administrative stuff during the trough. during recovery turns out we're better at more creative tasks, tasks that require a little bit more looseness rather than that heads down, locked in approach. >> dickerson: that's when flashes of insight come. >> often. when we're at our peak we're very vigilant. we're able to keep up distraction, that's a feature when you're doing the analytic work. when you're doing creative work you actually want a little bit more looseness, you want let a few distractions in so to mix up the soup a little bit. so during the recovery period, which gibb mo of us is the late afternoon, early evening we do better on what are called insight tasks. >> dickerson: history fouled us up, we needed to create time and watches and hours we know when the bus arrives. but did we figure out system that is basically always fighting with our own natural h.i.t.isms? >> it's really interesting question. because one of the things that i discovered researching time itself is that a lot of things we think of as natural are completely human inventions

designed to corral time. so an hour has no natural substance to it. a minute doesn't have any natural substance, certainly a year does because planet goes around, the planet spins on its axis, we're trying to corral time. it's v hard to do and time is very illusive subject. one of the thing that's happened is that, i think as consequences when we think about our own performance we focus on what we're going to do. we focus on often how we're going to do it. focus on who we're going to do it with. we put when questions over there at the kid's table saying it's not that important. the science telling us it's demonstrably important. >> dickerson: to put at the front. one of the things i love about the book, lot of practical things you can use. >> absolutely. dickerson: give people a little sense of that, both in your day-to-day, but also you talk for example about mid life and guidance that -- give us sense of how-to. >> there are all kinds of

things. number one is that, think about science of breaks. not so many years ago people stayed up all night were heroes in the workplace because they were tougher than the rest of us. then the science of sleep began emerging, no, those people are fools. i think the science of breaks is what science of sleep was a decade ago about breaks in the surface is really instructive how we can work better. so, we need to take more breaks, period. one of the best things that i've done myself is that every day i have a break list. i write down two breaks i'm going to take during the day. we also know from the science that breaks are better taken with other people rather than solo even for introverts like me. better taken fully detached, don't bring your phone. we're better off moving during our breaks than being stationary. or near nature. stow what the science is telling us that if we take these regular breaks ten, 15 minutes we're going to feel better we're going to perform higher. make a break list, that's one of

my favorite tips. >> dickerson: go outside while -- >> even evidence that just looking out window seeing a tree is better than being in a windowless room. >> dickerson: let me also ask you about teams. how timing works when you're working with lots of other people as well. >> there's really interesting research on how teams synchronize like choirs, rowing teams, delivery services and one of the things that is so interesting about our nature is that it seems that coordinating with other people, being in sync and in time with other people is something fundamentally human about that. and we have a propensity for it. one of the things that's so interesting about that if you look at, let's say exercise as an example, exercise is absolutely good for you, right? it makes you -- boosts your mo mood, prophylactic against depression, controls your weight, all good. well, there's kind of new exercise out there it's chorale singing has benefits that are

just extraordinary. physiological level and psychological level. useful for cancer patients, improves your immune response, it boosts your mood, there's something about synchronizing with other people that makes us feel good. it also helps when kids do synchronous activities they actually afterwards are a little bit more, what social psychologists call pro social. will play with kids who aren't like them, more likely to cooperate, more likely to help. >> dickerson: we all should join roving bands of walking singers? >> i think there's some good evidence, like in schools, that choir, chorale groups have ancillary activity but something actually that boosts the moods of kids, improves their social and emotional learning and conceivably make them better citizens of school. >> dickerson: daniel, thank for being with us. the book is "when: the scientific secrets of perfect

timing" we'll be back in a moment.

>> dickerson: that's it for us today. thanks for watching. we here at "face the nation" want to wish everyone watching a

merry christmas, visions of sugar plums and very happy holiday season. i'm john dickerson. captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org 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.

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>> happy holidays and welcome to chevy sunday kickoff i'm don bella long side lesley van arsdall and pat gallen. the eagles don't play until tomorrow night as you know. but we're ready to get actn and get you ready for the action right here, right now, it's always a big game. especially when it's on a holiday. we have not seen these guys at the linc since thanksgiving weekend. >> let's me tell you after the giants game, they could not wait to gets back and play in fopts of the fans it makes a huge difference. >> no doubt they want to but it in the rearview m