omolay presents the regenerist luminous collection. renews surface cells to even skin tone. in just two weeks, see pearlescent, luminous skin. regenerist luminous. olay. your best beautiful. good morning from new york. thanks for being with us. i'm francis rivera. one of the nypd officers shot and killed last week will be laid to rest just hours from you now. we'll have a report live from the scene in a few minutes. former president george h.w. bush is waking up in a houston hospital yet again this morning. he's been there since experiencing shortness of breath on tuesday. and we begin this morning in queens, new york, where funeral services are about to get under way for a slain new york police officer, rafael ramos. ramos and his partner wenjian

liu were gunned down in their police car one week ago today. the nypd estimates as many as 25,000 officers will attend the service at christ tabernacle church. we go to adam reece who is at the church where the funeral will be held for officer ramos. >> reporter: good morning to you. a solemn day as the officers are dressed in their dress blues to stay good-bye to officer ramos. they called him ralph here where he was a member for 14 years, a sunday morning usher, always helping the young and the old get to their seats, always with an infectious smile. he was a family man, always talking about his two young boys. he was studying to become a s p chaplain. he will get that degree from the

seminary po seminary postumously. vice president biden, the mayor and police commissioner bratton are all expected to speak. francis? >> prominent political figures will be attending this morning's funeral services as well as bill de blasio. de blasio has had a front relationship with the nypd with officers feeling scorned by the mayor's support for protests against police violence and also a grand jury's decision not to indict in the death of eric garner. the tension reached its height last week when officers turned their backs on de blasio as he entered the hospital that night. joining me is a political correspondent. everybody is gearing up for the funeral today and preparing for that. retired officers flew this banner above the skies of new

york city. that banner reading, de blasio, our backs have turned to you. you spoke with some of these organizers here. does that reflect what most officers are feeling or just a select few? >> well, the people are active and retired duty officers. in general, it's bad to make generalizations but there's certainly a lot of bad feelings in the police department where people are feeling that the mayor could be more supportive of them and the work that they do and they are very frustrated and upset with them. so this is a very stark example of people being angry at the mayor. >> the people responded and i want to share this statement with you. "this is a time to think about the families and honor our fallen officers. dividing people won't help our city heal. we'll continue to stand with responsible new yorker who is are doing the right thing in a time of pain." we heard about the mayor's urging. even the night of the shootings.

but this should be about the family, not about anything else. how have the mayor's calls for pauses in the protests? >> some people have decided to turn down the rhetoric. some officials had very pointed comment and decided to put that on hold until after the funerals for the two officers. but other people are doing that, even though the death is a tragedy, that should not stifle their ability to speak for themselves. >> the tension goes back even before the shootings. we saw some members even saying, mayor, we don't want you to attend the police officer funeral when they die in a line of duty and then we see this tension here. when did that start brewing as far as how this relationship has been? >> i think it goes back even to

before to the campaign when de blasio was running for mayor and there was a lot of discussion of the nypd stop and frisk tactics and whether that was the correct protocol or whether that should be changed or scaled back. that was a very big debate in the department and i think there's still some hard feelings. >> yeah, given that it will be a year this week since he was sworn into office. so what should we expect from him today? will he speak at the funeral? >> he's going to have to walk a very fine line, not obama today but going forward. i mean, he has to balance between letting people speak their mipnds and express their concern for the police department but also showing respect for the police officers and also that he has command as the mayor. >> also with the funeral and the services for officer liu coming into play as well, he will be watched then as well. celeste katz, thank you for your

perspective this morning on msnbc. north korea is speaking out about the sony hacking scandal. the north is blaming the u.s. for shutting down its internet earlier this week and says president obama was behind the controversial release of the film "the interview." there was a statement released today that reads in part, "obama always goes reckless in words and deeds like a monkey in a tropical forest." north korea has denied any involvement in the cyberhack on sony, but has been furious about the film as they describe it as illegal and honest. more later this hour. in houston, president george h.w. bush was admitted to the hospital on tuesday and his spokesman tweeted, "president bush continues to make progress but will remain at the houston methodist hospital this evening." the hospital trip was just a

precaution and he's been receiving visits from family. the 41st president returned 90 earlier this year and has been using wheelchairs to get around. bush spent nearly two months at houst houston methodist for a bronchitis-related cough and other issues. a cdc official is being monitored even though his or her health risk has been deemed low. the technician may have been exposed when a sample that may have contained the virus was moved from a high-level containment lab to a lower level lab. cdc director tom frieden has ordered a review of what led to that mistake. and some moments that have us still scratching our heads. we'll discuss those stories, next. i will take beauty into my own hands...

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welcome back. naturally, the end of the year is a place to tie up the loose ends. but there are some stories that have captivated us that have not been wrapped up yet. still some big questions remain. we have evan mcmorris and also joining us is anthony roman, a security expert. we thank you both here to delve into so many of these mysteries this morning. anthony, let's start with you. probably the biggest mystery of 2014, nine months later, malaysian flight 370. where in the world is this plane? >> well, we have to remember, we all believe that commercial aircraft, specifically airliners, are these giant

machines. but the only thing that's big in the sky and the ocean is the sky and the ocean. it is less than a needle in a haystack. it is a pinprick in a haystack. we started with 23,000 square miles of search area. we now have a priority search area of 4200 square miles. it's only being covered by three search ships, one of which is having technical difficulties now. but what we've done that's been wonderfully successful is we've mapped about 77,000 square miles of ocean bottom. >> okay. >> so that's going to allow us to search four times faster than we had in the past. >> well, that's reassuring to hear, especially after all of this time. this is the latest search area. as you know and as we mapped out, that's the positive here but why is it so difficult to find, especially during our

coverage in those months after, it was fascinating to see the debris field and how difficult it is and to map out that ocean floor, too. what other factors are making it so difficult? >> well, if you think of the topography around the rocky mountains, that's what the ocean floor looks like. it has huge peaks, several miles in height, it has huge valleys. and it really -- in order to speed up the search area, it had to be mapped out so that the remote submersibles could go a little bit faster, actually, four times faster, 4 knots, and would know where the obstacles are and kind of mapping the terrain as it moves along. and the aircraft could have broken up into a lot of pieces. there is debris, there is silt, there's salinity layers which

cause the sonar to have anomalies. there's all sorts of factors. >> i read something a couple months ago where they resumed the search again saying that there was a little bit of discrepancy about where the searchers wanted to tackle next. are they all in agreement now? >> i think they are all in agreement but the search area has been continuously refined by reviewing the technical data by the inmarsat satellites. this is technology used in a very different way. it's the first time that we have used this handshake ping from the acars unit in the aircraft to try to locate the exact position of the aircraft. it is experimental and, so far, so good. we are refining it a little bit more every time we research it. >> and hopefully it produces more leads.

evan, the second biggest mystery of the year, maybe the sony hacking. president obama and the fbi have said that north korea is behind the attack but some security analysts have argued, you can't quite pin it on them. how confident is the obama administration that it was, in fact, north korea? >> i'm not a security expert. i'm not an internet security expert but i will say, you know, a lot of them have raised questions about what happened about some of the data and some of the evidence that the fbi has released. of course, not everything has been released. a lot has not been released yet. but it's difficult to imagine why the obama administration would want to lie about who was respon responsible for the hack. you look at the story that you had earlier, north korea and their response, they are sort of racially tinged response to the sony hacking. >> right. >> it's difficult, like i said, to imagine why people would want to lie about it. i think there are going to be a lot more investigations going on.

i don't think we know a lot about where the vulnerabilities were in the first place, why sony was so easily hacked, why so much of their stuff was available to any hacker that would want to get it like this. we have this mysterious outage in north korea that happened. there are a lot of unanswered questions here but i think that, for now, the evidence that we've seen for now seem to suggest that north korea is behind it. >> let me ask you this, evan, quickly in the time that we have, motive here. is it really because of the release of "the interview" and what about "team america," would that be the motive, really? >> you know, "the interview" -- i'm not sure why you would let that movie come out on its own. i don't think anyone would have seen it if it hadn't been hyped up like this. maybe it's a marketing ploy. there's been a change in leadership in north korea since then. the movie is a little bit

different. one was puppets and one was live action human beings. the world has changed a lot since then. "team america" is pretty funny, i guess, and "the interview" is not. that could be the difference. >> anthony, "the interview," is that the motive for north korea? >> i saw the movies over the holidays and from a western point of view, it's quite amusing and american satire. from north korea's point of view, it's extremely -- if it was hacked into north korea by the western powers, that is a big motive all by itself. i'm not convinced and other security experts are not completely convinced that it was north korea. it could have effectively been a group such as anonymous.

>> but wouldn't they want the credit for it by now? north korea is getting the credit now. >> at this juncture, it could just be internal bragging rights. for the hacking community, it can be fun. it's also effective corporate espionage and it could be a for-profit hacking event executed by the nigerians, eastern european, in some cases, in south america as well. >> thank you, anthony and evan, for your perspective this morning and hopefully in 2015 we'll get some of these mysteries solved. well, one of the year's biggest political stories impact your vacation plans for next year? we'll have that story for you right after the break. i told my dentist about my sensitive teeth,

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destinations in the next year? i'm joined by wendy to help us out. wendy, thanks for being with us this morning. >> no problem. >> a lot of people are at home and in vacation mode between the holidays. what are you seeing as far as the most popular vacation trends for starting 2015? >> at trip advisor, we have gotten positive feedback and in the united states, wildwood, new jersey. >> what? >> yes. >> that's awesome. >> yes. and then nag head, north carolina, great outdoorsy beach activities. after those two, prescott, arizona, which is an area south of the grand canyon in phoenix and flagstaff. >> can you fly into phoenix? >> or into flagstaff, yeah. >> it looks amazingly beautiful.

i'm sure you can do a lot of hiking trails? >> yes. five lakes, in fact. and a lot of outdoorsy activities. and then telluride is next. that's a former gold rush town. it's a great recreational place. and then florida, in the middle of the gulf coast there, great for shopping and beach activities. >> it's great to hear something like these areas like wildwood that would not come to mind right away. >> they are making a comeback. >> yeah. how about the destinations abroad? >> well, vietnam. three of the top five destinations on the rise internationally are in southeast

asia. >> that's great. >> yes. so the middle of the vietnamese coastline. beautiful white sand beaches and it's a real beacon for foodies. and then cambodia. this is a spectacular beach town on the gulf of thailand. >> that's amazing. people can imagine sitting there right there. that is your view. and then the other destination in southeast asia? >> well, thailand is another destination that is great for beach activities. it's gorgeous with these candy colored sun sets at the end of the day. >> what is great when you go to southeast asia, your dollar really goes a long, long way. >> exactly. the hotels are less than $100 a night. you get exotic luxury for a lot less. >> i've been there and you can get a nice massage for under $20. >> it's a great bargain once you

get there. absolutely. >> with the news developing, especially with the u.s. ties in cuba and now with that shift, everybody is saying, hey, let me be the first to travel to cuba. how is that turning out for destination to travel? >> people are chomping at the bit to get there. when the white house made the announcement of easing travel and trade restrictions, we saw a nearly 300% spike in interest in sight traffic to cuba and more than half of our poll respo respondents, 55% said that they are interested in traveling to cube next year. people are so intrigued by cuba. >> i can bet. and all of the gifts coming back for the holiday of next year, cuban cigars. wendy, thank you. we are ready to go. we have our bags packed.

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is without equal. start investing with as little as fifty dollars. and i'm being absolutely sincere when i say i want to work with this new congress to make those investments, make sure that the government is working better and smarter. >> that was president obama last week's end of the year press conference saying he will work with congress as the next session gets under way. new returning members will take the oath of office in a little more than a week. big changes are going on with mitch mcconnell taking the reins of the senate. joining me now this morning to discuss this is assistant director of "politico" and who is going to have a very busy start in 2015 as they get

started. >> that's right. >> let's begin with news that broke over the holiday, michael grimm pleaded guilty to one count of felony tax fraud after that long federal investigation. will he remain in the republican caucus? >> if house republican leadership had their way, he would not remain. he has promised that he will serve out his term. he was just re-elected in november. right now in terms of what specifically house leadership can do, there is not a lot that they can do to push him out. they say he's staying. one example would be to get the house ethics committee involved. republican leadership can nudge him out. michael grimm doesn't have a lot to do right now. one big way would be for the house to vote to actually expel him from congress. it's only been done five times in the house of representatives. last time was in 2002 and it requires a two-thirds vote of

the house. that could be a very embarrassing episode for the republican in the house. >> especially with his constituents who have forgiven him and then he got re-elected and then there was that whole debacle with the video, asking a reporter to throw him over the bridge. do you think this is going to be the final straw? >> it clearly wasn't. he pleaded guilty to just one count of tax fraud but he was facing 20 counts initially. and even that, and with the behavior that he had towards the tv journalists and what else, he was still pretty well elected over a very weak democratic challenger now with his guilty plea coming, democrats are ecstatic again. so you can expect to see them capitalize on this as many ways as possible. >> i want to ask you, too, president obama ended the diplomatic stalemate with cuba by reopening relations with the

country. many were blindsided by this news. how is congress reacting now and will anything be done about it in the coming session? >> i think that's going to be one of the major issues that congress will grapple with in the new year. in terms of a lot of things that president obama wants to be seen done, like lifting the embargo with cuba, a very strong vocal voice against president obama's new cuba policy is marco rubio who has been very out there opposing every bit of that policy. but right now, i mean, the week and a half since, you've seen a lot of republican divisions bubble up. most notably between senator rubio and senator rand paul. both then are considering runs for the presidential nomination in 2016. rand fall actually favors what the president has done on cuba and you can see the two men battle it out publicly and

that's going to define what congress does on cuba as well. >> and the president is saying, you know what, pass a bill. pass a bill. is there any hope for the new session? >> there's always a little bit of a chance but i would put the possibility pretty low right now. you're already hearing a little bit of talk coming from republicans about bills that they would want to do. you hear a lot about border security. you have both homeland security chairman in the house and senate planning some kind of border security bill. there's some chatter about guessworker legislation for high-skilled workers and low-skilled workers as well. but right now what really colors this whole debate on immigration is the president's immigration executive action that he took last month. it has poisoned the well for any bipartisan cooperation in the future. you can expect to see bills that roll back the president's

executive action. obviously they would get vetoed if it reaches the white house. the other issue that we're facing are short-term funding and republicans are going to try to use that as leverage to roll back some of the president's actions. it's unclear whether they will be able to succeed. >> and then you have the other orders of business, the high levels of vacancy as the department of defense. does the nominations get held up? >> i think with the divided white house and congress that we have, those two nominees probably have a good chance of getting confirmed despite kind of this partisan atmosphere. ash carter, who is the nominee to become the next defense secretary, i think everyone is expecting him to be confirmed pretty easily. you've gotten praise from -- democrats don't have a problem with him and you've got a lot of praise from conservative republicans as well on mr. carter's service and his ability to lead the pentagon. loretta lynch, the nominee to

become the next attorney general, it's a little bit more of a question mark. obviously the issues with, again, the executive action on immigration, will have an effect on that as well since the justice department is the one that declared those actions constitutional and legal. she's going to have questions to answer during her hearings about whether she agrees with that. obviously she's dealing -- the justice department is dealing with a lot of other controversial issues as well. i talked to a lot of republicans before the break who had a chance to sit down with her privately. they like her and think she's qualified and barsiring a major gap that we don't know about, she should get confirmed as well. >> thank you for your time as well, especially since it's a down time for you before everything gears up. thank you for being with us this morning. >> thank you. vice president joe biden is on his way to the funeral for one of the nypd officers ambushed by a gunman last week. nbc's ron mott is in queens

reporting. >> reporter: the funeral for slain police officer rafael ramos today, is expected to attract a show of force. as many as 25,000 cops from around the country as well as vice president biden. >> it's a little part that we can do, we can be there for the department and the family. it shows the cam raaraderie and could be any of us. >> it formed his belief as a husband and father. >> reporter: ramos and his partner, wenjian liu, were ambushed by a lone gunman. the suspect, ismaaiyl brinsley, killed himself soon after authorities closed in. there have been heightened tensions of late which has caused friction between the new york mayor and his offices. some turned their back after bill de blasio arrived at the

hospital. the mayor's office responded, "this is a time to think about the families and honor our fallen officers. dividing people won't help us heal." meanwhile, stepped up protection after six arrests and weapons found at one suspect's home. >> he was loved. he was loved. it's like losing your brother. >> reporter: friends and family of officer ramos and liu prepare to say good-bye starting today. >> that funeral begins at 10:00 eastern time. thank you to nbc's ron mott for that report. he made americans laugh and changed the way that people looked at their neighbors. an interview with norman leer is next. and then peter white is here for the latest. a ♪ (holiday music is playing)

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. from scandal to "house of cards," there is a different breed of politically inspired films. you remember archie bunker that tackled tough topics like war. norman lear sits down with steve kornacki to discuss his memoir. >> you are forever going to be identified with "all in the family." a groundbreaking sitcom that tackled politics, abortion, homosexuality, race issues, things like that. i was thinking about this

interview and to compare your shows back in the 1970s with this sort of renaissance of political shows that we're seeing now, "house of cards," "scandal," stuff like that. they are about politics but it looks at how we address politics on television has changed a lot. do you feel that way? >> well, we're dressing the politicians, the people who make the policy as opposed to the people who were impacted most, the families that are supposed to be led by those policies. you know, as a government that depends on an informed citizenry, that's the way that we are constituted. the responsibility is on those who we are informing and i'm not sure that we handled that well. >> well, let's take "all in the family" as an example, a show that i grew up watching just the reruns of it with my family.

but what strikes me, when i think back to that, you would tackle these political questions and you had cheaaracters that represented a variety of view points. everyone remembers archie bunker but you had meat head and the activists as well and it seems like you guys incorporated -- the appeal of the show was very broad and that was back in the day when there were four or five channels. when people do political television right now, are they aiming for a more narrow audience than you did? >> well, i think they are. there were three channels and only three networks. and we were attracting -- it's an unbelievable figure. 120 million people across the shows we were doing. but that is because there were only three networks. i mean, there seemed to be 100

to 300 today. >> i was looking at some of the ratings for when "all in the family" was number one and you guys were getting 40 to 50 million viewers for an episode. it's a hit if it gets 4 million now. could you impact the country more with what you were doing then? >> the statistic that i enjoyed the most when i would read about what was happening with those ratings was that the water table in new york had commercials on "all in the family." the water table shifted. you know, the technology that indicated what was happening showed people were going to the john at commercial time. that was the statistic that i enjoyed the most. >> you know, archie bunker, it's one of the reasons that i think "all in the family" is an enduring show, it captures something about the culture and politics at the time. archie bunker was is stand-in for a big part of the country as it was reacting to all of this

social change and upheaval around it and i sort of often felt myself thinking, how would today archie's bunker, how would the son of that guy be responding if there were a show today to something like ferguson in the news, garner decision is in the news this week. it's sort of that culturally conservative lunch pale character. if you were doing "all in the family" today, how do you think you'd be treating the garner and ferguson decision? >> archie would be having a very difficult time with it. he certainly was not a hater. he was afraid of progress. you know, black families moving next door, that wasn't anything he grew up on. it wasn't anything that he understood. progress, basically, was what he feared, what was going to happen tomorrow we're seeing an awful lot of, i think, out and out

dislike. i'm having a difficult time using the word hatred but it's out there. that was not who archie was. >> one other thing i wanted to get to you with the time left is, i saw a story that said, you're trying to -- you're interested in pitching another television series and tell me if i've got this wrong, but it would be set at a retirement home and the title you want for the show is, guess who's dead? >> well, close. it's not a retirement home. it's a retirement village. >> okay. >> people are running around on golf carts and dancing are owe occurring and a lot of love is being made. it's a very lively retirement community. and the title of the show is, "guess who died?" >> has there been any interest in it? have you talked about it? >> there's interest in the comedy. there's no interest in the

demographic. it seems that one betty white -- and i adore betty white -- one betty white serves the whole demographic as far as a couple hundred networks are concerned. >> that's really interesting. you talk about the change of television from networks and from three networks to 100 gazillion. >> and that history i cover in my book, "guess who died?" >> in the book. >> even this i get to experience. >> well, there's so many channels out there, netflix, so many services, i hope you can get that on the air. norman lear, great pleasure to talk to you. >> my pleasure. >> and i would watch "guess who died?" for what it is worth. that was steve kornacki speaking with norman lear. the holiday season is here, which means it's time for the volkswagen sign-then-drive event. for practically just your signature, you could drive home for the holidays

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north korea alleging this

morning that the united states is behind the recent internet outages in the country. an official asserting unspecified threats of retaliation. hallie jackson is live with more of the ongoing hacking headaches for sony. >> good morning to you, frances. north korea is blaming the united states for the suspected cyberattack that crushed the country's internet earlier this week. u.s. officials denied any involvement. and now the fight is getting nasty with north korea slamming the president with an ugly slur. the war of words escalating again overnight and taking a nasty turn with the north korean spokesman saying, "obama always goes reckless in words and deeds like a monkey in a tropical forest" and promises inescapable blows. "the interview" features a

fictional plot to assassinate kim jong-un. meanwhile, sony's gaming division hopes to get up to speed after another suspected hack, this one blocking gamers from logging on to the network. the branch of the company that made "the interview." >> i think this is all coincidental. i would be really hard-pressed to say any connection between the two is taking place here. >> reporter: multiple platforms are letting people buy or represent "the interview" online and while streaming statics are not available yet, box office numbers are. the controversial comedy that played at only 331 theaters grossed $1 million. it's unprecedented that a big movie is made available online and on the screen at the time

since that cuts into profits at the theaters. but independent cinema owners do not seem to mind. >> given the huge interest, i think releasing it online makes a lot of sense. >> reporter: but this may be short lived. >> i don't know that this sets a new standard. i think this is one of the most unique situations we have ever seen and is unique to "the interview." >> something that is not unique, the number of illegal downloads online. "the interview" has been pirated more than 1.5 million times in the last few days. >> think about how much revenue that would bring in. hallie jackson, thank you so much. joining me now, thank you both for being with us. giles. >> thank you for the correction.

>> what did you think of "the interview" and it doesn't matter how goofy it is. >> it's the type of film that we've seen from seth rogen before where they are sitting down with kim jong-un. it was never meant to be an act of political provocation and it's kind of absurd. it could be its own james franco/seth rogen film. >> nancy, offensive as far as north korea, would they be saying, we take so much offense to this, let's hack them. >> after calling president obama a monkey, i have no sympathy for them this morning. but it's in terms of being kind of dopy. for someone like me who may not know all of the work of seth rogen or james franco, they were

playing their persona. if you're into that, it's like seeing these guys in a whole misadventure. if you're not, it's guns, war and dopiness. >> you know what, it doesn't matter if it was horrible or if it was good, it doesn't matter if the reviews were bad to begin with even before this happened and it doesn't matter if you're a seth rogen and james franco fan. >> the hype. part of me thought this was set up from the get-go. >> leak a pr stunt? >> maybe. it could have been. >> it makes seth rogen and james franco into these cult heroes for free speech. but just on a financial level, they would have made so much more money from a proper theatrical release. >> sure. we're talking about the initial box office reports for this weekend say that they will make about $2.6 million in the opening weekend. put that in perspective.

is that a big deal? >> that's a little bit of money compared to modest. it's a movie that they spent just 40 to $50 million to make and then another 30 million to market. >> without all of this, you know what i mean, would any of this happen? would they make money? >> people were already primed for it. there was a window before there were these threats of possible acts of violence at the theaters, there was a hype and just a volatility about it and i think people were sort of at their most excited. >> in that sense, when this came out and said that it wasn't going to be released and then the independent companies played it and then it came out online, is that a defeat for sony? >> i'm not sure. i don't know all of the ins and outs of movie distribution but part of me, the part that is a conspiracy theorist, it almost feels like they wanted to get

the independent films down with doing the big releases, too, and i feel like they are trying to avoid the bigger theater chains. what do you think? >> i think their hand was forced when president obama criticized them at the press conference. >> you should have called me and let me in on this kind of stuff. >> that was the moment. i think that's when their rhetoric changed. >> and they were saying, hey, the a-list celebs -- >> people can say what they want on the internet or twitter but when the president is calling you out, i think they were in a position where they felt they had to do something. they didn't want to be the first major movie studio to restrict the free speech of their artists. >> i did say to dave earlier, i wonder when i look at this movie about some of the movies by the people of color that never get made at sony. after the leaked e-mails, i was like, oh, so this is what you are going to make. >> we're going to be back with

you talking about the big pop culture stories of the year. that will be fun, too. thank you both for being with us, nancy and dave. all right. thank you. keep it right here on msnbc. here is a live look where mourners are gathering for the funeral of one of the nypd officers killed last week. stay with us. we'll be right back. you got that right! bam! just gotta check your bag. huh, charmin ultra strong. you're cleaner than i thought. charmin ultra strong cleans so much better it meets even his highest standards of clean. with a soft duraclean texture, charmin ultra strong is 4 times stronger. and you can use up to 4x less. are you good to go hun? cleaner than ever. rotorooter approved. charmin is clog-free or it's free. creeping up on you... fight back with relief so smooth... ...it's fast. tums smoothies starts dissolving the instant it touches your tongue

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thanks for keeping it here on this saturday morning. good to be with you. i'm frances rivera. the funeral for one of the killed nypd officers will begin in about an hour. a motorcade carrying vice president biden is just arriving. and north korea's internet went down again. north korea responds to the release of "the interview." who the country is blaming for that release.

and george h.w. bush remains hospitalized. we'll go live to houston for the latest on his condition. and now to queens, new york, vice president biden is there. his motorcade just arrived to attend the funeral of the slain police officer rafael ramos. thousands turned out for a memorial yesterday evening with the line stretching several blocks for people to pay their respects. it was one week ago today that wenjian liu and rafael ramos were assassinated for their officials. 25,000 officers will attend the service at christ tabernacle church. adam reiss, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, frances. thousands of officers are lining the streets here and continue to flow into the church to pay their final respects and a final

good-bye to officer rafael ramos. he was a 14-year member here at christ tabernacle church. he was loved here and also at the 84th precinct where he worked. he was a real family man, always talking about his two boys, and studying to become a chaplain. he will get a degree from the semina seminary. the vice president has arrived as has the mayor and police commissioner. they will all speak in memory of officer ramos. >> adam, tell us what people are

saying. >> reporter: he was beloved, not only one that attended to his bible studies but an officer who was the first one to volunteer, always wanted to help out and many here are just here to remember a man whose life was cut short by an assassin's bullet. >> adam reiss, thank you so much. north korea is speaking out about the sony hacking scandal. the north is blaming the u.s. for shutting down its internet earlier this week. it was also down this morning. north korea alleges that president obama was behind the release of "the interview." a statement was released that said, "obama always goes reckless in words and deeds like a monkey in a tropical forest." north korea has been furious

about "the interview," a film that they call illegal and dishonest. a cdc technician is doing well. the worker will be monitored for 21 days even though the health risk is deemed low. the technician may have been exposed when a sample was accidently moved from a high-level containment lab to a low-level containment lab. dustin diamond was charged with stabbing a man on christmas near milwaukee. diamond told police that he and his fiance got in a fight with two men and a woman at a bar on christmas. he was trying to protect his fiancee. that man was not seriously hurt. this week marks the tenth anniversary of the tsunami that hit the indian ocean region that

killed close to 250,000 people and was one of the worst natural disasters in modern history. nbc's katy tur has more. >> on december 26th, 2004, we woke up and took a stroll on this beach. >> oh, my gosh! >> reporter: an hour later, the beach was overcome and a wave like no one had ever seen was crashing into their hotel room. >> i didn't know what tsunami was. >> reporter: you never heard it? >> never. >> reporter: suddenly, the supermodel was clinging to a tree. >> a palm tree like this one was my saviour. >> reporter: her boyfriend, just more than 5,000 on the coast who didn't make it. a decade later, the town is rebuilt and the tourists have

come back. but the losses are long from forgotten. to the south is banda aceh, just 150 miles away from the epicenter of the 9.1 quake that caused the tsunami. there, the anniversary was marked by prayers for the dead. 130,000, one-third of this coastal community, killed in a matter of minutes. suchi never found her mother, brother or sister. >> and the worst thing is, you could not do anything. >> reporter: but the focus is on a brighter future. earthquake-proof homes, the face of a lost loved one in a 1-year-old child. and on a thai beach where so much was taken, a smile from a survivor. >> the tsunami has given me many gifts and one of them is to be -- to have this consciousness of how lucky i am. >> that was nbc's katy tur

reporting from thailand. it's going to be a wet weekend for much of the gulf coast. a flood watch is in effect for louisiana and mississippi which could see as much as 4 inches of rain. mike seidell is joining us. >> reporter: good morning, frances. we're looking up river towards the crescent city. we've seen a couple of cruise ships that have come in and docked and then folks will be enjoying new year's eve in a tropical location. we have flash flood watches in louisiana and mississippi. we could see localized flooding. this area has had a lot of rain this weekend, even back to houston we have rain in texas and the moisture will head up the eastern seaboard. if you're flying in and out of the northeastern hubs, today is a great flying day even down to

atlanta. atlanta gets wet later tonight and tomorrow. we've had wintry weather in parts of the upper midwest. they had snow in oklahoma city and we have snow up towards green bay. those totals are generally in the 2 to 4-inch category. we have a couple reports of 4 to 5 inches. that's going to wind down this afternoon. but the big story in the week ahead is the big chill down for a lot of us. it's been a mild december and temperatures are going to go below average for most of us as we get into monday, tuesday and wednesday. enjoy the milder than average temperatures now because it's going to get much colder, probably not quite as cold as it did in november but certainly a shock to our system. because as you know, temperatures in the very pleasant 50s. frances? >> the fog seems to be getting thicker. it looks like a white sheet is right behind you. >> well, now we've got a big downpour that's kicked in. now we can't see anything

because we have the fog and heavy rain coming down on us here right off the french quarter. >> mike seidel, thank you very much for that report. >> sure. up ahead, the biggest stories that you'll be talking about in 2015. stay with us. my hygienist told me that less tartar means less scraping. so i'm going pro. [ male announcer ] new crest tartar protection rinse. the only rinse that helps prevent tartar build-up and cavities. a little swishing. less scraping. yes! [ male announcer ] new crest pro-health tartar protection rinse. it helps you escape the scrape.

there are just a few days left in 2014 but this year is not going quietly. the united states and north korea have traded allegations of cyberterrorism related to the release of the sony movie "the interview." president obama forms an historic deal after half a century. and as we learn this week that the u.s. economy grew a stunning 5% in the third quarter, the strongest growth in more than a decade. as you put the finishing touches on 2014, what will be the biggest stories that will shape the new year?

joining me to discuss the headlines, liz sweet from "the chuck sun times" and evan mcmorris with buzzfeed. happy 2014 and 2015 to you. >> thanks. >> with the allegations that north korea hacked sony to prevent the release of "the interview," what do you see as far as the president and congress coming together to address this cyberwarfare? >> well, if there are concrete proposals, that may work in the next year but i think that will be the exception, not the rule as we look at the gop senate being sworn in in just a matter of days. that's, i think, the area to look at where the story will be. if somebody has ideas on cyberterrorism, this is also an area where the obama administration can work with

executive order, regulations, or add minute straigadministrative and unseen at this stage. >> there's a cyberterrorism and also the u.s. responds, you know, if the united states is behind the internet outages. we understand there was one recently, another internet outage there in north korea. lynn? >> yeah. well, you know, this is the story that's unfolding right now. one other thing that often happens in these kinds of international incidents is that you've got copycats or you have to be careful not to rush to think that we know the culprits because there's a lot of rogue operators. in this case of north korea, it's a little different. >> even if they don't get credit for it and north korea does. evan, president obama ended with the historic shift in policy to cuba. and the passing of the

immigration bill that has a controversy surrounding that. what is on the president's agenda when he gets back from his holiday vacation in hawaii? >> look, what i think has been amazing is this started out as a terrible year for the president. it was a terrible year throughout the whole year. he had ebola, he lost a huge election, historic gains by the republican party, in part due to the public's perception of the president's policies. and then they sort of, in the end, these last two or three weeks, stacked up a bunch of presidential actions that have sort of put the spring back into the step of the white house. i remember a few days after the election, after they had sort of announced the immigration plan and announced their attorney general pick, a top white house official told a bunch of reporters who were at this breakfast and said, you know, we're winning right now. we're doing really well right

now. this is our time. they are going to want to carry that momentum, this sort of presidential executive action momentum that has seen the poll numbers increase into the new year. it's not really clear how they are going to be able to do that. you have a new congress coming in that will rally very quickly around not liking what the president is doing and the republicans have waited a long time to control both houses of congress with obama in power. now they are going to. it's not exactly clear what the president can do except for the nakt the fact that there is a chance for bipartisanship and a world in which this new gop leadership in congress is going to deal with the divided party itself. >> right. >> and it's possible that what the president will try to do is work those republican divisions, sort of get his things passed. and if he can maintain this current air he has of being very presidential and very powerful to make she's big, sweeping changes with a stroke of a pen,

that's the kind of thing that can help carry people along with him. >> some reports saying that the president has his swagger back. in january when congress comes back, what will be the biggest thing to watch? lynn? >> i think the republicans want to work on corporate tax reform. the republicans want to figure out a way to thwart or diminish obamacare and what was left undone in this trillion dollar deal to keep government open was funding for the department of homeland security because that's where a lot of the immigration executive orders will be administered. so i think that would be some of the top items just in terms of the order of things having to get done. there are also a lot of presidential appointments that obama made that need to be confirmed. so the stuff i mentioned, figuring out what deals to make and not make with this

uncontrolled senate coming in. >> then you have isis in syria as well. evan, to you, what we faced this year was this dramatic rise of isis in syria and iraq. the president was adamant from the beginning and has continued to say that there will be no boots on the ground. is that still going to be the case? especially when you factor in recently, you have this coalition -- the first coalition jet that was downed with the jord jordanian pilot that was taken. >> the president said at the beginning, this is going to be a long conflict. as you say, isis is not going away. they have taken some pretty major setbacks, thanks to coalition action, but there is no gaining of popularity in some places and gaining of power in some places. i think that the white house is very uninterested in sending

armed combat troops back into iraq. i mean, this is a main goal of the president when he was elected was to get troops out of iraq. he successfully has done that for the most part and this is honestly an open question to see how far the public will let the president go when it comes to the war in isis and how far isis will go. >> and it's been said time and time again, air strikes are not enough. maybe a little dent here and there but you both heard that argument. we'll see where that comes into play. lynn, let's talk about the court decisions. 35 states have legalized gay marriage. where do you see this for the lgbt in 2015? >> it will still remain center. there were questions whether there should be a federal law and even president obama said this is a question for states to

decide. so i think you will have more coming on. there are other -- and i think it's just as simple as that, that it's a wave that will overtake the nation and it's a matter of time until you get others. i imagine there will be some holding out. but i think that trend is set. >> all right. very quickly, did you want to chime in there, evan? >> i wanted to add, the two things that lynn just mentioned, the gay marriage expansion and immigration, these are the two things that viewers should be watching when congress comes back because what the party does about immigration and same-sex marriage and other issues that have been very divisive when it comes to the rest of the american people will explain exactly what the congress will be like. if they come in and go hard against immigration and try to nationally prevent the spread of same-sex marriage, you're going to look at a party that will have a hard time in 2016. if they don't do that and change

their tune, they are going to have a hard time with their base but much more competitive in the general election. >> what are you most anxious to cover in 2015? evan? >> well, i'm really looking forward to the future of what's happening in the police community relations issue. >> right. >> the white house has raised it. they are doing a bunch of task forces about it. what happens, and what the white house is able to do now in terms of dealing with this issue that's been so huge. it will be a very interesting story to watch this year. >> lynn? >> i'm curious where the obama and the first lady want to put their presidential library. the decision should be coming soon. >> we'll be watching that as well. lynn sweet and evan, thank you for being with us. lynn, you'll be back in the next hour so looking forward to that. >> thank you. >> thanks. we're looking at live pictures of the dignitaries arriving in queens, new york. keep it right here on msnbc. it's just ordinary fleece

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american's 41st president, george h.w. bush is still in the hospital. jacob rascon is joining us. jacob? >> reporter: he's going on his fifth day behind me and he's not well enough to release. the family says that president bush is in high spirits and continues to make progress but will stay in the hospital overnight. we imagine he's been surrounded by family the entire time. we know that on christmas day the family's statement said that he was with his wife, son and other family members in the hospital as well. the statement said he's receiving well weishes from family and friends and every day americans from across the country. mr. bush is 90 years old. he's the oldest living president. he has a number of conditions that we know of.

he suffers from a form of parkinson's disease which makes it difficult to speak or walk. we know that he's confined to a wheelchair or motor scooter. he's made public appearances at a book signing with bush 43. we also know that he went skydiving. at 90 years old, it was something, of course, to watch. and he did very well there. other public appearances include, as i said, the book signing where he appeared his age and was doing well and moving around. his health deteriorating on tuesday. we know that he had trouble breathing and was rushed here to the hospital and has been here ever since. improving, again, but not well enough yet to go home. frances? >> jacob, thank you for the update. up next, details on how president obama is spending his christmas vacation with the first lady back in his home

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president obama took time out from his christmas holiday with the first lady in hawaii to visit a marine corps base there. he hailed the end of the combat mission in afghanistan. we're joined by senior white house correspondent kristen welker. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, frances. president obama's comments were met by cheers and applause by the troops stationed here in honolulu. president obama praising the service members for their sacrifices and noted that the united states is ramping up its campaign against isis in iraq and syria. he also noted that the united states and nato are preparing to lead more than 13,000 troops in afghanistan. they will serve in training and aid advisory roles.

here's a little bit more of what president obama had to say. take a listen. >> we have difficult missions. that includes afghan security forces, people helping deal with ebola in west africa and we've got folks stationed all around the world. >> reporter: the 13-year war has chamed mo ch claimed more than 2,000 lives. so afghanistan remains a foreign policy challenge for president obama. senator john mccain, who is set to take over as armed services committee. the united states had a rocky relationship with the former president so they are hoping to have better cooperation moving forward under this new leadership. frances, back to you. >> all right. our thanks to kristen welker for joining us this morning. 2014 has been a year of surprise in politics and the

twists and turns will continue to reverberate through the presidential race of 2016. chris christie began the year being looking like the establish's front-runner but after the lane closures of the george washington bridge hit his inner circle. and then on the democratic side, hillary clinton's rocky book tour fueled the rise of this senator. >> ramming through a provision that would do nothing for the middle class, do nothing for community banks and do nothing but raise the risk that taxpayers will have to bail out the biggest banks, once again. >> senator elizabeth warren there. in addition to the individual jockeying, hot issues that could shape the presidential race also shot to prominence this year. joining me to discuss, lynn

sweet, washington bureau chief of the chicago sun times. she's back with us. and leslie lowry, thank you for being with me again. let's start with this "wall street journal" headline. he cited the failure to indict darren wilson for the shooting of michael brown is a major turning point. we have to consider the domino of tensions from that leading into staten island, eric garner and then the shooting of the two police officers. wesley, how do you see this shaping the 2016 race? >> it's going to be really interesting. one of the things that is going to be interesting is how race factors in to the cast of characters than you do on the left than the right. there doesn't seem to be strong candidates of color. in the republican side, you have

bobby jindal. it's going to be interesting to see how race plays into the conversations as we reach the end of the first black presidency and how the campaign in some ways takes the temperature of the nation when it comes to issues of race and ethnicity and color and the talk of 2014 and then into the presidential cycle. >> especially with these protests still very prevalent across the country. len, another issue that has divided washington is immigration reform, the executive action taken by the president. how will the impending race impact that debate? >> this is mainly on the republican side and it will be very important, also, to jeb bush, governor of florida, former governor of florida probably be prime swing state. the swingiest of the swing

states. and he's had more of a middle of a road approach to immigration. he hasn't been hostile no matter what. plus letting other things happen. so where they stand in the republican party will help to find the first stage of the primary season where you will see differences very sharply among the contenders. now, at the same time, this will play out in the republican-controlled senate where the members will try to curve some of the action that obama put into play earlier this year. >> let's talk about obamacare. and while the president's health reform had a rocky rollout, a number of uninsured americans fell by 10 million. wesley, there was that distancing that we saw and then

republicans might begin to step away from as well. >> of course, i don't think that republicans will step away from it in the same way that democrats certainly latched on to the war in iraq back in 2008 and even back in 2012, the president in opposition to it despite the fact that there wasn't much that could be done. the war was being fought and now you're talking about potentially pulling out. you will see likely republican candidates to talk about the care act and their opposition to it and however there is going to be a disconnect between what they say on the trail and what they would do were they elected. it's going to be interesting to see how democrats handle it. there will be more distance between the very complicated rollout and where we stand in late 2015 and early 2016 and i think at that point we already are seeing some democrats declare that this was a victory,

that they were able to pull it off and despite some of the problems, there will be another year of distance between the initial dust-up in 2015 and 2016 if there are democrats that might proudly come out and be able to say, yes, i was involved with this. i did vote for it and support for it and it's a legacy piece of the obama administration. >> we know what a whole year can do. looking ahead, senator bernie sanders said this. last week we saw hillary clinton making strong appeals to liberals in honor of a memory of robert f. kennedy. here's what she said about that. >> our values are what set us apart from our adversaries. i am proud to have been a part of the obama administration that banned illegal renditions and brutal interrogation practices, including torture. >> okay. so lynn, what do potential democratic contenders need to

shore up for support here in the party's base? >> well, there's a big difference between hillary clinton and everyone else and now that it's clear that there's no one of her stature running, there are people who may run to -- because they think she's too center or right of center, it doesn't matter when bernie sanders decides or not. it doesn't matter if elizabeth warren gets in or not in terms of timing because i think the thinking is now that hillary clinton can just take her time. maybe a few months ago you people might have thought she needs to get in and let people know what she is doing. well, no. she's here. everyone else is below her. so i would think, actually, that senator sanders, if he wants to put ideas out there, that's why you get in a he race. that's why dennis kucinich got in the race and stayed in in order to make sure there that were presidential debates to make their views known and give

a push to the left. >> and what a race it would be if we're talking about clinton and bush here for 2016. so jeb bush exploring this presidential run, you know, he had his release of all of the e-mails coming back here. so how is his rollout going and what should we be looking for in the coming months? >> i think that we're probably looking at an interesting timeline here. jeb is the first one out on the right formally declaring his intentions here and is that a play to signal mitt romney to stay out of it? is that a play to signal to the moderate senators, that, hey, i'm going to occupy this lane and maybe even play a chris christie who is seen as a strong front-runner types among the republicans? so as we look at the next few months, jeb is going to continue what he's been doing in terms of

detangling hem self in terms of releasing and shedding light on things that he did as a governor and e-mails and those kinds of things and test the waters. one of the advantages of getting out so early is that any little ticking time bomb, anything back from when he was a governor comes out now, maybe in 2014 even, early 2015 as opposed to deep in the 2015 and early 2016 when it really matters. what we're seeing here is, in some ways, a similar strategy from the bushes and clintons. hillary is not even saying that she's formally exploring, the same way that bush is. she's had a scrutiny of a candidate on her at this point for more than a year. anything that was going to come up came up a long time ago. she's had a clear runway towards the candidacy. >> here we go. one quick thing about jeb bush, i don't think we give him a lot

of extra points for this e-mail release. florida has some of the most extensive freedom of action act laws. reporters get e-mails all the time. he wanted to make it sooner. >> lynn and wesley, thank you for being with me this morning. >> thank you. >> thanks for having us. we're monitoring live pictures of that funeral for rafael ramos where vice president joe biden and andrew cuomo and bill de blasio are present. [coughing]

dave, i'm sorry to interrupt... i gotta take a sick day tomorrow. dads don't take sick days, dads take nyquil. the nighttime, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, fever, best sleep with a cold, medicine. welcome back here. we're going to start off with a little warning before we continue. if your kids or any other kids happen to be around you, we're going to ask you to ask them to play in the next room for a few minutes because the grownups are about to have a pretty interesting discussion about our favorite guy in a big red suit. that's right. we're talking about santa.

so time for the grownups to talk. he's had a very busy few days and is resting up for next december. while santa is drawing up his 2014 naughty and nice list, we are joined by executive producer of "the big bang theory" and his attack on believing santa claus to putting presents under the tree. air i can a eric, good morning to you. let's talk about what prompted you to write a book about believing in santa class, especially when you have "the big bang theory" that you have going on. >> i had an interesting experience. my son ari was going to go on a play date at the zoo around december time and with a friend of his and his friend's mother called me and said she wanted to cancel the play date and i said

why and she said there will be reindeer at the zoo. she said, the reindeer are going to prompt a discussion of santa. your son does not believe in santa and my son does and i don't want my son infected with your son's santa athiesm. >> when she said, i'm putting a stop to this, i'm forcefully not allowing my kid to play with yours because your son doesn't believe in santa. >> well, i thought it was a real life alagory. some people believe in god and they think that the people who don't believe in god are wicked and bad and some people who don't believe in god think the people who do believe in god are foolish. that seems bad to me. i thought, that's no way for us

to talk about the metaphysical beings that has more respect for both the pro and anti-position than we usually do. >> how does that work if your family believes in it and others does and how important is it for families to protect the children from the truth and keep the relationship okay and balanced? >> well, i don't know that -- i'm going to question your presupposition that he doesn't exist. >> okay. >> because i think there's a lot of different ways that we have of interpreting reality and santa is one of them and, you know, i analagize santa like you would a human face. my face is made of meat and molecules but because you're the kind of species that i am, you

see a face, not a pile of meat. if you have a normal brain, i know that you don't. so in a sense, santa is a face of reality that with our culture and with our family structure and our biology, sometimes we can perceive reality as having santa in it. >> yeah. >> and that's fine. i'm not a santa atheist. >> there is a little bit of santa in everyone. whatever happened with that play date? your son did not go? >> he did not go but they later became friends and they both like jazz. >> okay. i guess they find common ground in that and does that boy still believe in santa, by the way? >> well, i'm sure he may in some corner of his being. i don't know. i haven't interrogated him. you can have him on. >> thank you for being with us this morning. >> thank you. have a happy rest of the holiday season. >> and to you. well, the year in pop

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it was a big year in pop culture. here to wrap up the most memorable moments of the year, culture reporter for the "new york times" and contributor to cbs sunday morning. >> i keep telling you. >> let's talk about the selfie thing. it really seemed like the year of the selfie from the oscars with ellen degeneres. is the selfie here to stay? >> when she took the picture at the oscars, people were already doing selfies but there was something so charming about that. julia roberts, who whatever, she looked really goofy. everybody just looked excited. for a moment they looked like real people so that was nice but it's gotten a little bit like crazy. >> it has. >> we are at a point in the lexicon where a selfie now refers to a photograph of

anything taken by anyone. >> i could sit here and do this -- [ speaking simultaneously ] >> instead of doing this, i was actually gifted one of those and i have to admit i did use it to take that. >> you get everybody in the shot but there is this weird thing where people, i know i do this, people say do you want me to take the picture. i'm like no, i want to do it myself. >> it seems like it's here to stay. >> folks would love to pay $25 for a piece of plastic they are selling at the cash register. >> is that how much they are? $25? who came up with that? >> here's the good part of social media and how it works. the whole ice bucket challenge movement, we saw that start and it just exploded. really shows you the power of social media. >> and just the number of really like prominent celebrities and figures who did get involved with it. we were looking at bill gates

and benedict cumberbatch. people who weren't self-conscious about it and they understand the sort of viral power they have to get a message out. it seemed to be really genuine, really spontaneous and organic. that's what i think people were responding to as much as getting to see these people doused in cold water. >> makes you wonder what will be the next ice bucket challenge for 2015. >> it's funny, it was more effective for a.l.s. than anything. i think they raised over $200 million which i'm glad about. who wouldn't be glad about that. >> on a serious note, it is stunning so many people, the man we grew up with, bill cosby, america's dad and all these allegations, one after the other. what are we, up to like 20 something now allegations coming out? is this irreparable for him? >> i grew up with him. this has really been very very hard for me -- everyone is innocent until proven guilty but it's been very difficult. part of my heart is broken but

yeah, i kind of wish he would like retire and let it, you know -- i don't know what's going to happen with the criminality. >> he needs to say something even though his wife made the statement standing by him. after all this time and these women, countless coming up with similar accounts. >> we were talking before about the power of social media and this sort of shows you how it sort of has many widespread effects. in some ways, some of these allegations had been out there for years. and women who were going out with their own names, not anonymously but saying this is something that happened to me, and for whatever reason, it kind of festered this year. >> a comedian put -- posted a bit he did where he said you should google bill cosby. >> very quickly, a non-kardashian 2015, yes or no? >> we can pray. there are constellations in the heavens now. they will always be in our

lives. >> all right. that is tough. thank you for being with us this morning. we appreciate it. our live coverage continues next. we will have much more on the funeral for one of the officers killed last weekend. vice president joe biden just arrived.

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oral-b. so ally bank really has no hidden fethat's right. accounts? it's just that i'm worried about you know "hidden things..." ok, why's that? no hidden fees, from the bank where no branches equals great rates. good morning. i'm ayman mohyeldin. it's 10:00 a.m. on the east coast. ahead this hour, how reproductive rights, fair pay and pregnancy discrimination are expected to take center stage in 2015. we will also get an update on former president george h.w. bush's condition as he remains hospitalized in houston. but first, a sea of blue mourns the loss of murdered nypd officer. at this moment, the funeral for slain new york police officer rafael ramos is getting under way at christ tabernacle church in the glendale section of queens here in new york city.

vice president joe biden is in attendance along with law enforcement from all over the country. some who were aided in their travel by free flights from jetblue. ramos and his partner, wenjian liu, were shot and killed on december 20th as they sat in their police cruiser in the bedford stuyvesant section of brooklyn. arrangements will not be finalized for wenjian liu until relatives from china arrive in new york. joining us from glendale is adam reese. adam, good morning to you. what have you seen there this morning? >> reporter: good morning to you. the vice president just arrived. he literally walked right by us here, very unusual arrival for a vice president. he is one of 1,000 mourners inside the church and thousands more outside the church. officers coming from ohio and

texas and maine and as far away as canada, all to mourn officer rafael ramos. he was called ralph here at the church, christ tabernacle church. he had been a member here for 14 years, an usher every sunday morning helping out with the old and the young. very beloved man here at the church. also at the precinct house, where he was studying to become a chaplain. he had his bible books inside his locker. his commanding officer said he was the first person to always volunteer for extra work. he will be buried tomorrow -- rather, this afternoon following this service. vice president biden will speak, the mayor and the police commissioner. ayman? >> adam reese will join us throughout the course of the hour with updates. joining us now from south carolina is marquez claxton, retired nypd detective. good morning to you, sir. >> good morning. >> i wanted to start by talking to you about your reaction to this shooting and the inherent

dangers of being a police officer in a big city like new york or anywhere, for that matter. >> i think my sentiments are the same as what's happening nationwide. that is there is tremendous shock and dismay and sorrow and really, this is a national period of mourning. people understand and realize that an attack on a law enforcement professional, police officer, is really an attack on the core values of this nation, and whenever we lose one, and in this case, two, it is reason to pause and to be grateful for the effort given by those law enforcement professionals and to acknowledge the importance and the role of policing in our society. >> obviously right now there's a lot of divisions in new york city between the protesters, city hall and the police, but do you agree with mayor bill de blasio's call to protesters to pause demonstrations for reforming the police while these officers are mourned and laid to rest?

>> i mean, i support the mayor's request and i think in large part, it has been adhered to. but i think more, what's most likely is that many of the protest organizations which by the way are not anti-police protesters, which has been, you know, they have been mislabeled that for many weeks now, but many of those protest organizations have themselves out of their sense of empathy and humanity, understood that this is a period of mourning for these families and that department, and they have been respectful of that. other individuals may feel differently and they have an absolute right to further their goals and express themselves and protest as they see fit, but i think the call by the mayor as well as brooklyn borough president eric adams, it was very significant in calling for a moratorium, if you will, on protests. but i understand fully the rights of those people who choose differently. >> we have also seen some

comments coming out of the police unions as well as some banners that have been flying above various cities. are police union voices like that of pat lynch's helping or hurting here? is the police force too sensitive to criticism? >> well, the police force is historically, notoriously sensitive to any criticism. in large part, the police unions rely on really rallying the troops, getting everybody under one flag, and sometimes it's unreasonable. sometimes the police position through the unions is either you believe and support everything which we believe in and do, or you are on the outside. it's us against them, that mentality. that can never be helpful but they have an obligation, they have a role to their membership as unions do, and they carry out that goal. the responsibility of the mayor and city hall is a larger scope

and that's to include all of the people of the particular jurisdiction and their concerns, not just the police. but the short answer to your question is yes, police are hypersensitive to any criticism at all, at any time, and given what's happening throughout the nation during this time, they are especially sensitive to any type of move towards reform. that's something that needs to be worked on. >> let's pick up on a point that you just mentioned, which is what the city needs to do now. what are the most immediate issues that both the nypd and the city need to confront in the wake of these murders of these officers? >> well, the most immediate issue for the nypd for any police agency is preserving and protecting human life, safety, so as long as they continue to do the job, the fine job they've done throughout the years, then that really is job one for them. moving forward, i think what's more important from a comprehensive viewpoint is trying to figure out what

direction law enforcement will be going in the next -- in the upcoming weeks and months and years, whether or not they will be increased aggressiveness, increased militarization, what direction is law enforcement going in in the future, i think that's a hefty goal, a hefty obligation that's placed on the hands of not only the mayor but more specifically, the police chiefs and police commissioners in this case in new york. >> challenging times ahead. marquez claxton, thank you very much for joining us this morning. we will have more throughout the course of the hour on that funeral. now we turn to tough new rhetoric from north korea this morning in an inflammatory statement, a spokesman for the government referred to president obama as a monkey and blamed him for the release of the movie "the interview" which earned more than $1 million when it opened on christmas day. north korea's also accusing the

u.s. of shutting down the communist country's internet service earlier this week in retaliation for the hack on sony. the studio behind the film. for the latest, halle jackson joins us from los angeles. halle, do you think north korea's new message could have an impact at the box office with some of these threats against movie chains and others? >> reporter: you know, it seems to be driving people to the box office, the controversy as a whole. in this new statement, north korea again denounced the release of "the interview" which is something we had heard earlier in the week from a diplomat as well, and that seems to be getting people's backs up. audiences don't want to be told what they can and cannot see, particularly by an outside international entity like north korea. there has been a sense, real sense of patriotism at these theaters across the country. here in l.a. there is an american flag, for example, hanging over one marquee. we have seen people, for example, in austin, at a theater in texas singing "proud to be an american" before one of the showings of "the interview."

people are embracing this as a symbol not just of america but as a symbol of free speech. so the controversy as a whole seems to be what's getting people through the door, especially for this particular movie. >> we saw on christmas day there were disruptions to the servers of both xbox, microsoft xbox and sony playstation. what more do we know about those hacks on both of those game consoles? >> neither microsoft which owns xbox or sony which owns playstation is talking about the cause of the outages but a particular hacking group called lizard squad is claiming responsibility for these outages which disrupted people's service logging on to the network on christmas day and even beyond. playstation network even having problems this morning, intermittent outages there. it does not appear that this suspected hack, this potential hack, is related at least at this point to the original cyberattack against sony pictures. that's the branch of sony corporation that obviously made "the interview." >> halle, thank you very much

for getting up early for us this morning from los angeles. aaa forecasts that nearly 100 million americans are traveling at least 50 miles from home during the year-end holiday season. for the latest on how the weather is cooperating, the weather channel's meteorologist mike seidel joins us with the latest on that forecast. mike? >> reporter: good morning. from new orleans, where we have had rain and fog this morning, some showers, some thunderstorms. we have flood watches and flash flood watches for a good deal of louisiana and mississippi. this batch of rain is heading along the gulf coast today and tonight into atlanta. that could cause some flight delays at the world's busiest airport on sunday, and then up the eastern seaboard. so although today is a beautiful day, nice and mild, 50s in the new york city area, up towards boston, and a great day for flying, better than it was earlier this week getting to where you had to go for christmas, tomorrow won't be quite as nice because we will have some rain, some lower ceilings and cloud bases. the only snow right now is to the rockies, the upper midwest. we have had several inches around minneapolis-st. paul.

it's snowing in the upper midwest towards green bay and up towards the u.p. of michigan. we have had snow this morning in oklahoma city, about an inch or two there. that will be wrapping up by late morning. the big story ahead, though, is the cold weather coming in this coming week. by tuesday, the high in denver, only in the single numbers and where it's been so mild in december for so many folks like chicago, minneapolis running about seven degrees above average, and they have only had a few inches of snow. that cold air is going to settle south into dallas. even here in new orleans, it will drop down to the low 40s by the latter part of the week. so enjoy the mild weather back east today because it's going to be turning colder and even a little bit below average. your highs by the middle and latter part of the week in new york city will probably barely get to freezing so it will change for many, for millions, and get back to something more reasonable for early january for most of the country. >> mike seidel in what appears to be a wet and foggy new orleans, thank you very much. stay right there. up next, the latest on former

president george h.w. bush, who remains in the hospital this morning. and a report card on the current president. was 2014 a banner year or a bust for president barack obama? smot and quit a lot, but ended up nowhere. now...i use this. the nicoderm cq patch with unique extended release technology helps prevent the urge to smoke all day. i want this time to be my last time. that's why i choose nicoderm cq. yyou would need like a bu those to clean this mess. then i'll use a bunch of them. what are you doing? dish issues? ... ... get cascade complete. one pac cleans better than six pacs of the bargain brand combined. cascade. now that's clean.

thanks for joining us on msnbc. here are two of the stories we're watching this morning. a makeshift memorial for teenager michael brown was destroyed apparently on purpose by a car on christmas day. many quickly congregated to rebuild it by friday morning. when questioned about the incident by the "washington post" the ferguson police department's public relations officer said quote, i don't know that a crime occurred but a pile of trash in the middle of the street, "the washington post" is making a call over this?

one of the alleged planners of last week's deadly school attack in peshawar has been killed. a taliban commander died in a gun fight wednesday about five miles from where the december 16th massacre left 132 children dead. the deadliest assault by pakistani militants since 2007. former president george h.w. bush spent christmas day in a houston hospital and remained there this morning. the 90-year-old was admitted to the hospital tuesday after suffering from a shortness of breath. for the latest, we are joined live from outside the hospital in houston. jacob, what more can you tell us about the president's overall condition? >> reporter: ayman, good morning. we can tell you this. every day we get a statement from the bush family spokesman and every day we are told he's doing better, he's improving, he's in high spirits, but never well enough to leave the hospital. he is now going on his fifth day at houston methodist. we know he suffers from a number of medical conditions and has had health scares before.

he suffers from a form of parkinson's disease that forces him to rely on a motorized scooter, makes it difficult for him to speak. we know two years ago, he was here during christmas time for two months, in fact, suffering from bronchitis and a persistent cough. this time around his health care started on tuesday after he was rushed by ambulance here to the hospital after he had some trouble breathing. we are told this time around, the condition is far less serious. we know he spent christmas time and all of the time in the hospital with some family, with his wife, son and others, and that during his time he has received lots of well wishes from everyday americans around the country. so he is in the hospital, he is doing well. at least we can say he's not getting worse. ayman? >> thank you for that update on the president. up next, 2014 is almost over. we will take a look at what kind of year it has been for president obama. and much more to come this hour on the funeral for slain new york city police officer

rafael ramos. that is now under way in queens. for the volkswagen sign-then-drive event. for practically just your signature, you could drive home for the holidays in a german-engineered volkswagen. like the sporty, advanced new jetta... and the 2015 motor trend car of the year all-new golf. if you're wishing for a new volkswagen this season... just about all you need is a finely tuned... pen. hurry in to the sign then drive event and get a five-hundred dollar new year's bonus on select new volkswagen models. offer ends january 2nd.

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is right for you. we have been covering the funeral under way right now for new york city police officer rafael ramos. we take you live now to christ tabernacle church in queens, where vice president joe biden is speaking right now. take a listen. >> mom, no child should predecease a parent. my heart aches for you. i know from experience there are no words that i can offer to ease that profound sense of loneliness and loss you're feeling right now. but i also know from experience that the time will come, the time will come when rafael's memory will bring a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eyes. that's when you know it's going to be okay. i know it's hard to believe it will happen but i promise you, i promise you it will happen and

my prayer for you is that it will come sooner rather than later. there's a headstone in ireland that reads death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory that no one can steal. just sitting here for a few moments looking at the screens, no one had to know your husband to not know how desperately he cared about his family, how close he was to all of you. you know, i didn't know your husband and i didn't know his partner, who were keeping watch at myrtle and tompkins avenue on that terrible afternoon. but i do know why they were there. they were there to protect and

defend as they always are. sometimes fearful but always watchful. i knew them. they're the guy i grew up with in scranton and claymont, delaware. the boy with the most courage and the most compassion. the man, the brave heart and the generous soul. a brother who always looked out for his sister, a father, a father whose words were always encouraging to you boys with a touch that could soothe away the fear. and a son who made his mother proud every time he turned and smiled at her. and a husband with a gentle hand who could soothe away the concerns, who you knew would always be there. a former school safety officer became a cop at age 37. an active member of his church

studying to become a chaplain. a father, a husband, a son, a seven-year veteran on the force. a son of a chinese immigrant, his partner conversant in several dialects, a newlywed. both confident, committed, passionate and vigilant. being a cop was not what they did, it was who they were. like every man and woman in uniform here today, it's who you are. and they, like every one of you in uniform inside this church and outside, you all joined for essentially the same reason. there was something about you that made you think you could help, that you should serve, that you had a duty. i have spoken at too many

funerals for too many peace officers. too many funerals for brave women and men who kept us safe, and watched their families grieve. and i have observed one thing that unfortunately, it's only when a tragedy like this occurs that all their friends, neighbors and people who didn't even know them become aware and are reminded of the sacrifices they make every single, solitary day to make our lives better. today, we pay tribute to officer rafael ramos and wenjian liu. we pay tribute to their families. because every day, when a police officer pins on that shield and walks out the door, the officer's wife, husband, mother,

father, brother, sister, children, they know anything could happen. the fear of that call at 3:00 a.m. in the morning, the relief of hearing the voice as the door opens that says i'm home. there's a line from the english poet john milton, he said they also serve who only stand and wait. thousands upon thousands upon thousands of american families stand and wait for their husbands, wives, fathers and sons who serve the rest of us. police officers and police families are a different breed. thank god for them. thank god for them.

and your husband and his partner, they were part of new york's finest and that's not an idle phrase. this is probably the finest police department in the world. the finest police department in the world. they earned that praise. there's a sacred trust they took on and they kissed their children's forehead as they sleep and head out on night shift to watch over all the children of this great city, protecting and treating each of them as if they were their own. when you patrol the streets in new york, you circle the earth. a six-story walkup, apartment towers, aromas of millions of

kitchens, continuing thousands of traditions, streets full of silence, streets bursting with hundreds of languages, whispering, laughing, shouting and an intimidating city. a city of others. a city of labels and borders and seemingly unbridgeable gaps. a city constantly grappling with the issues as old as the nation and as new as the morning headlines. yet in every neighborhood in this great city, this most alive of all cities, this chaotic miracle, stands as a beacon to the world in no small part because of the sacrifices that the new york police department makes every single day. so when an assassin's bullet targeted two officers, it targeted this city and it touched the soul of the entire

nation. a city where the son of a chinese immigrant shared a patrol with a hispanic minister in training. a city where a single ride on a subway brings you into contact with more people, more lives, than many people in this country will encounter in an entire lifetime. a city that educated a young college student with a mother from kansas and a father from kenya, who would one day stand before the nation and declare this is not a black america or a white america or a latino america or an asian america. this is the united states of america. and for those of us who are not new yorkers, we look at you in awe because this is the united

city of new york as well. a city that rose as one to confront two of the greatest disasters of this century. one from the evils of terrorism on 9/11 and one from the fury of nature in super storm sandy. this is a city of courage and character, having faced and overcome the toughest challenges and i'm absolutely confident as you are that spirit is still alive and well in this city, and i'm absolutely confident it will guide you in the days and weeks ahead. i believe that this great police force and this incredibly diverse city can and will show the nation how to bridge any divide. you have done it before and you will do it again because to paraphrase the words of william

alan white, you are not afraid of tomorrow because you have seen yesterday and because you love today. to the ramos family, we were all lucky to have rafael. he didn't just have a bible in his locker. he lived it in his heart. he was a cop for all, all the right reasons. mom, we owe you for nurturing him. maritza, we owe you for supporting him. justin and jaden, know that although your father is gone, you have inherited an entire family, the men and women of the new york police department will always be there as long as you are alive. they never, they never, never forget. there's a communion hymn in my

church that has a stanza that goes like this. may he raise you up on eagle's wings and bear you on the breath of dawn, and make the sun to shine on you. that's what your father wished for for both you boys. that's what your father wished for for this city. and it will happen. may god bless your family and the family of his partner, and may god protect the 84th precinct and every police officer throughout this great country and keep them safe while they stand watch for us. god bless you all. [ applause ]

>> i want to bring in adam reese outside the church there in queens, where vice president joe biden was just paying tribute for rafael ramos. we just heard from the vice president. talk to me about the turnout there for this funeral today, what the mood is now that the vice president just spoke and the crowds that have gathered. >> reporter: they are out here listening, a very touching tribute, a touching eulogy from the vice president. he says he speaks for the nation when he says our hearts ache for you. thousands of officers out here listening intently. they come from ohio, from nevada, from texas, as far away as canada, here to pay tribute to a fallen officer, to say good-bye to officer rafael ramos. he was a member of this church. he was an usher. he was a member of the 84th precinct. he kept bibles in his locker. he was studying to become a

chaplain. he was very close and he will receive that degree from the seminary. he will also be promoted to an officer first grade posthumously remembered by the police force, by many in the community, the mayor, the police commissioner and the president. back to you. >> we heard the vice president also called nypd the finest police force in the world and also referenced the shooting, saying the shooting of those two officers touched the soul of the nation. adam reese, thank you very much. we will have more on the funeral throughout the morning. we are going to turn now to other news. president obama is wrapping up the sixth year of his historic presidency. at his annual year-end press conference, the president took stock and if he does say so himself, it's been a pretty solid year. >> in last year's final press conference, i said that 2014 would be a year of action and would be a breakthrough year for america, and it has been. the strongest year for job

growth since the 1990s. wages are on the rise again. america is now the number one producer of oil. the number one producer of natural gas. about ten million americans have gained health insurance just this past year. and in less than two weeks, after more than 13 years, our combat mission in afghanistan will be over. >> joining us from d.c. for a more in depth and less personal evaluation of the president's year are matt and sabrina. sabrina, let me start with you and ask you straight up, how would you rate the president's year overall? >> what's remarkable about this year is it's pretty dramatically divided between the time leading up to november's election and then everything that's happened since. obviously it was a tough year for the president if you look at democrats suffering heavy losses in midterms and a lot of that being attributed to his own low approval ratings. but then in the last two months, positive news about the economy as well as a series of bold

actions this president has taken have helped his approval rating tick up a little bit as well as helping him end on a high note. >> matt, how about you? >> i think the same thing. it's hard to give him a great year, given what happened in the first ten months of the year. culminating in november's deep losses for democrats losing the senate. on the other hand, the past two months have been a reinvigorated version of president obama. you have things like cuba, immigration, the climate deal with china. some things that have been awhile in the making but all came together sort of in the last few weeks to create sort of some momentum heading into 2015 for the president. >> the president may be feeling pretty good but his approval ratings are still not that great. what do you attribute that to? >> well, some of it is the sixth year slump that is not unique to this president, as well as the fact that although there has been economic progress, there is still a lot of americans who feel left out. there are people who aren't

maybe feeling the benefits of that just yet. foreign policy is also an area where he has struggled. that's where his approval ratings really took a hit over the summer with the rise of isis and some of the administration's own mixed messages around whether the group was a real threat or not. but i think he wants to use this next year to kind of refocus the message around the economy based on what i know from the administration officials, they see that as a strong point for them, and something where they could garner more support for this president as well as his legacy. >> the president has taken very bold executive action since the midterms, like his immigration reform that allowed 3.7 million people to stay and his reestablishment of diplomatic ties with cuba. certainly it's very bold. what do you attribute that boldness to? >> you know, it seems like there was a lot of pent-up activity that took place after the elections. some of those may have been political decisions, like waiting to announce the immigration executive actions,

but some of it, it seemed like obama was not asked to campaign a lot with his fellow democrats during the campaign year, so it seemed like he was very eager to get back in the game, you know. he's very competitive by nature. he talked in the press conference about this being the fourth quarter of his presidency and a lot of things happen in the fourth quarter. i think for him, he was excited to get back on the offensive after being on the defensive for so long, partly by his own actions, partly by his party not wanting him to campaign and some of those approval ratings throughout the country. >> because it's in the news and has been dominating the news so much, the issue of policing, race relations, how has the president handled the questions of race and policing that have come up with the deaths of michael brown and eric garner, and what is the line he's trying to walk here? >> well, he's clearly trying to walk a very fine line. i think there has been a lot of comparisons when you look at the deaths of eric garner and michael brown to the shooting

death of trayvon martin in 2012 but the difference here is these deaths happened at the hands of law enforcement. law enforcement agencies have a lot of clout. we were just watching vice president biden's remarks at the funeral for the nypd officers who were killed, and there is a lot of i think sense within the administration that they have to be sensitive to the policing community and to the fact that they go out and protect people and not to really rile up law enforcement agencies across the country. but he's also spoken out of course on issues of race. i do think that some of his supporters want to see more of a trayvon-esque speech, the big speech he gave on race, but you have to remember that also happened after george zimmerman was acquitted and here, the investigations are still ongoing. so there could be something around the corner but yes, he has been a little more reticent this time. >> thank you very much both to matt and sabrina in washington, d.c. coming up later, we take a closer look at what made international headlines this year. after the break, why 2015 will be a record-setting year

for women in america.

the 114th congress will gavel in next month with a record number of women serving as legislators. 20 in the state and 84 in the house of representatives. it's not exactly gender parity. those 104 women make up fewer than 20% of the lawmakers in congress. but it is progress. 14 members of the incoming class of freshmen legislators are women, women like senator-elect joanie earnst, the first woman to be elected to represent the state of iowa in either congressional chamber, and the first woman veteran from any state to serve in the senate. she defeated four men in the republican primary in iowa and one in the general election thanks in part to ads like this one. >> i'm joanie ernst. i grew up castrating hogs on an iowa farm so when i get to washington i will know how to cut pork.

>> so what do all these women in congress and in state legislatures and governors' mansions and the supreme court mean for the other 160 million women in the u.s.? joining me is megan carpentier, opinion editor for the guardian. let's start with reproductive rights. incoming senate majority leader mitch mcconnell says he will have a vote on legislation that would ban abortions after 20th week of pregnancy. >> well, he can have a vote and it's obviously just going to be a vote for show. they don't have 60 votes to overcome a filibuster to get cloture even with the three pro-life democrats that there are. they would lose senator susan collins from maine, anyway, who always voted pro-choice. it's just for show. >> the white house says they will veto anything like that. there's no chance of this becoming legislation. >> there's no chance on this becoming federal legislation. 20 week abortion bans have been passed in about ten states now and are up for judicial review

but there are states where this is actually the law already. >> do you expect a republican led congress to take any action on fair pay guarantees? >> i don't think -- the republicans have been very clear that they don't think especially in the wake of the lily ledbetter decision that any more legislation is necessary to ensure that women get equal pay or can enforce their rights to equal pay. >> i want to talk about minimum wage for a second. minimum wage is certainly a women's issue. two-thirds of workers who make the minimum wage or less are women. 14 states in d.c. raised their minimum wage in 2014, the states in yellow, by ballot measure, and those in green through the state legislature. any chance we will see a wage raise at the federal level? >> well, you have to think last time we did raise the federal minimum wage was under president bush. so there is a chance republicans have at least in some part, supported minimum wage increases before and you can look at that math and see there are republican-leaning states and certainly states that republicans would like to keep in the presidential election that are already passing it on

their own. southern states are -- >> do you think the minimum wage debate is framed in the public discourse as a women's rights issue? >> i think democrats really tried to do that, and obviously, there is the popular idea that the minimum wage is something that kids make but half of the people that make the bare federal minimum wage are actually over the age of 24 and half of them are women. so it's a women's issue but it's really a fairness issue, an issue in the southern states that adhere to the federal law and those are the people that would be disproportionately affected by an increase. >> i talked about joanie ernst, the first woman veteran in the senate and the first ever woman to serve in congress from iowa in either house. she portrayed a sort of unique feminist -- femininity in her ads this year. let's take a look at another one. >> she is not your typical candidate. conservative joanie ernst, mom, farm girl, and lieutenant colonel who carries more than just lipstick in her purse. joanie ernst will take aim at wasteful spending and once she

sets her sight s on obamacare, joanie is going to unload. [ gun shots ] >> now that the great ads are over, what will we see from her? >> well, i think what she is going to find, the same way that senator hillary clinton found, is it's great to have name recognition, the ballot box and the ads and people paying attention and talking about you on the cable news doesn't necessarily translate when you get to the senate and to any more power than your average freshman senator. >> let's talk about the supreme court. the supreme court is expected to rule this year in a very important case, young versus ups. tell us about the significance of that case. >> well, in that case, you have a ups worker who announced she was pregnant and was immediately put on unpaid leave and had her health insurance taken away several months into her pregnancy which i think is almost every woman of reproductive age's nightmare. the fact you could be pregnant with no health insurance. and the supreme court has heard arguments that it's in violation

of federal law and they are going to have to decide. when the supreme court agreed to hear the case, ups actually changed their policy which sort of indicates that they knew it wasn't really going to fly. >> let's talk about abortion on a state level. the fate of abortion clinics in several states continues to hang in the balance. there is a lot of court cases. what are some of the cases we should be looking out for this year? >> well, the big push this year between pro-life and pro-choice groups has really been what are known as trap laws. so the state senate -- state legislature will pass a law that says you have to maintain very high medical standards that aren't standard in this industry or most out-patient surgery facilities, and it makes it very hard, it forces clinics to close, it's really targeted not at women's health but at closing clinics and making abortions much more difficult to obtain in states. those are the ones that are really going to court. but there's this crazy alabama law that says that if you are a teenager and you don't have your parents' permission to get an abortion or can't obtain it, you

actually have to go to trial and they assign a lawyer to your fetus to argue that you can't have an abortion. >> certainly very important for women's rights issues. we will watch all of that. thank you very much, megan. coming up, north korea's latest response to the opening of "the interview" in u.s. theaters. her smile is so white. i was pretty stunned myself. removes fourteen years of stains. see? crest whitestrips work on a deeper level than paste. whitening toothpaste only removes surface stains, but whitestrips go below the enamel surface to safely remove deep stains. don't miss our buy one get one free offer this holiday season!

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i want to go back now to adam reese in queens, new york. adam, mayor de blasio is speaking at the funeral for officer ramos. tell us what you have been seeing out there. >> reporter: ayman, he has said that our hearts are aching today and he said that he wants to extend his condolences specifically to the nypd. i can tell you outside here, there is a large contingent of the nypd who have turned their backs on him. not all of the police officers here but a large contingent that i can see off to my right have turned their backs on him, despite his emphasis that he wanted to extend a helping hand to the nypd, extend his

condolences not only to the ramos family but to the entire nypd, they have turned their back on him. ayman? >> adam reese, thank you very much. we will check in with you again at the top of the hour. now we turn to international news. north korea is reacting to the release of "the interview" with angry new rhetoric. sony released the movie christmas day, raking in slightly more than $1 million. in a statement, a government spokesman for north korea blamed president obama for the movie's opening and compared him to a monkey. north korea also accused the u.s. of orchestrating the internet outages that plagued the communist country earlier this week. but north korea denies that it was behind the hack on sony's compu computer systems and some private security analysts say there's no reason to doubt that north korea was responsible. for insight on the relationship between the u.s. and north korea, charlie sennett, executive director of the ground truth project, joins us from boston. good morning to you. i want to start off by your

reaction to the latest rhetoric that's coming out of north korea. >> the rhetoric has reached this sort of racist proportion that i think reveals a lot about the character of the regime in north korea. i think americans are just getting to see a side of this through that rhetoric that just reconfirms this sense of wanting to really challenge restriction to our freedom of expression. i would say i have four teenaged sons, all of them very drawn to this movie, all of us did our patriotic duty last night and watched "the interview" and i think there is a real reveal here about the nature of the regime that comes through the recent comments. >> so let me ask you some security researchers are expressing skepticism that north korea was even responsible because the u.s. government really has made the accusations but hasn't really put out the evidence of what it has to support that claim, but in your opinion, is this something that north korea could have done, had the capability to do? >> north korea definitely had the capability to do it.

these kind of cyberattacks have been a pattern of theirs against south korea in the past. there have been attempts that have been made against the united states before. there is no question about intent. there is no question about capability. the fbi has confirmed these attacks. it's true they haven't revealed the signature that is imbedded inside the cyberattack that lets them believe it's north korea. i think we will see that forthcoming. i'm not sure where this criticism is coming from. i certainly don't see any reason why the united states would want to sort of grab hold and fabricate an attack when an attack, you know, very seriously happened. it's a reality. i'm just not sure where that's coming from. i think we will see more details on that. but the fbi for now is confirming it. >> do you think we have heard the last from north korea on this movie? >> i don't. i think we have really sort of awakened this darkly comical regime and their engagement with the u.s. on this i think is

energizing them in some sort of perverse way. i don't think we will see the end of this. i think we will see more rhetoric and more confrontation and more attempts at this kind of cyberattack. as the president has been very clear, there will be proportionate response but we don't want to go into disproportionate response, either. this is clearly an attack on an american corporation, on american sense of freedom of expression, and proportionate responses will be forthcoming, but i think it's a time for measured response as well. >> charlie, very quickly, did you like the movie or no? >> i thought it was pretty -- look, you got to believe in freedom of expression but no, i didn't love it. i thought it was pretty silly. i didn't love the plot. >> thank you very much for that. we will have more in the coming hours. coming up at the top of the hour, we go back to queens where mourners are remembering a new york city police officer shot and killed in an ambush attack one week ago. the funeral service is under way. while there is news of new threats against the new york police department. and pumping gas for less than $2 a gallon. what does your holiday spending

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staying competitive begins with the cloud. this is the microsoft cloud. welcome back. i'm ayman mohyeldin. a funeral for one of the two new york police officers killed in an ambush attack last weekend is under way in queens. this morning, vice president joe biden spoke at the service before an estimated 25,000 police officers and officials from across the country. te at the end of his remarks, he addressed ramos' two young sons. >> there's a communion hymn in my church that has a stanza that goes like this. may he raise you up on eagle's wings and bear you on the breath of dawn and make the sun to shine on you. that's what your father wished for for both you boys. that's what your father wished

for for this city. >> officers ramos and wenjian liu were shot and killed as they sat in their patrol car on december 20th. police say the shooter, ismaaiyl brinsley, then turned the gun on himself. joining us from queens is msnbc's adam reese. what has the mood been there this morning and what are some of the notables you have noticed attend this event? >> reporter: well, aside from the vice president, governor cuomo is here, the mayor just spoke a minute ago, commissioner bratton is speaking there. now, the vice president as you heard a moment ago, said he spoke on behalf of the nation when he said our hearts ache for you. no two children should have to lose a father this way. now, the mayor spoke as well and he spoke, he tried to lend a hand to the nypd and reach out, and he said he wanted to express his condolences but i must tell you, out here on the street, a large group, many, many officers here, turned their back.

not all of the officers, but at least several hundred both here on this street corner and down the street, turned their back on him. so there is still a divide within the police department in terms of relations between the officers and city hall and that's a bridge that they will need to try to resolve in the days going forward. >> certainly going to be a challenge. adam, what do we know about some of the threats we have been hearing throughout the course of the week against the new york police department since the murders of ramos and liu? >> reporter: there have been dozens of threats. they are trying to figure out which are real and which are pranks. 40 of them they deemed serious enough to investigate. there have been six arrests including one man who was heard at a bank on a phone making a threat that he wanted to kill two white police officers. they arrested him at his home. they found two guns, two bullet-proof vests and brass knuckles. so this is something that's ongoing and they are staying on top of it. >> adam reese in queens, thank you very much. we will come back to you later

this hour. joining me now from columbia, south carolina, retired new york police department detective and the director of the black law enforcement alliance, marquez claxton. good morning to you, sir. welcome back again. we just heard right now and we are seeing an incredible number of police personnel from all over the country at today's service. talk to me about your reaction to that and what kind of time this is right now for police across the country. >> this is an incredible and sorrowful time throughout the nation for law enforcement, police. it is really difficult, it really taps into so many emotions and you have to realize i think there's a tremendous amount of empathy throughout the nation and especially in law enforcement community, because people relate to loss, relate to pain and anguish, and the loss of the immediate family, i think police officers have a particular sensitivity when you're dealing with children and

women, et cetera. so this is really a period of mourning. it is a painful time. it takes some time for law enforcement agencies and the local precincts to really readjust and kind of get back on to a kilter after a death as tragic and senseless as these two deaths were. >> when mayor de blasio was speaking at the service just moments ago, we saw what appeared to be some police officers outside the church making a point of turning their backs. what is your reaction to that? >> well, if that is the case, and i have received some information that that occurred on kind of a large scale, i think it's sad. it really, there's no place for it on this day. this is a solemn occasion and this is an occasion for the police officers, the colleagues, people around the nation came, they want to pay honor and tribute to this police officer and they want to make sure the

family understands that there is support and love. so the turning of the backs, although it is the union's right, individual rights and some form of protest and we have spoken about the significance of protest, decorum and timing is vitally important and i think the focus of the day should be on respecting the memory of this police officer and if you want to expand it, the sacrifice made by law enforcement throughout the nation, throughout the years. >> we are hearing a moment ago from our correspondent that there are some new threats against the police. given the news of these threats against the police officers since last weekend's murder, do you think we will see any procedural changes for the nypd and other law enforcement? >> i don't anticipate any major procedural changes. there are regulations and operations in effect to deal with threats against members of the service, police officers, and quite frankly, threats against police officers are

unfortunately more common than people realize. i think just the combination of what's happening in the city and throughout the nation has really raised the attention level to these threats. but i can assure you that these threats won't deter professional police officers from continuing what they have to do and that's upholding the law and protecting and preserving human life. threats are a part of life in law enforcement and policing. many of us have received individual threats. we take them seriously but it should not deter us and will not deter the police department from continuing on its mission. so it's just par for the course and i'm sure the police department is addressing it in the best way that it can address it to ensure the safety of others. >> marquez claxton in columbia, south carolina, thank you very much for joining us this morning. >> thank you, ayman. now for other headlines making news this morning. sony pictures' "the interview" grossed $1 million in its first

day. officials confirmed the controversial movie played in only 331 independent movie theaters across the country. after pressure from the white house and hollywood celebrities, sony opted to allow theaters to screen it and make the movie available for online streaming. stores are bracing for this onslaught of christmas gift exchanges this morning and refunds this weekend. employees are on the lookout for fraudulent returns. merchants expect about 5% of all returns to be fraudulent, costing retailers an estimated $3.8 billion. many stores now require you to show a government-issued i.d. and your information so it can be stored to help retailers target repeat returners. in international news, one of the alleged planners of last week's deadly school attack in peshawar, pakistan has been killed. a taliban commander known only as saddam died in a gun fight wednesday about five miles from where the december 16th massacre left 132 children dead. the deadliest assault by pakistani militants since 2007.

stay right there. up next, retail sales are up and gas prices are down. does that add up to a happy holiday season for the economy? we will take a closer look.

this holiday season brought some good news for the economy as holiday spending rose 11% from the previous year. this on the heels of last week's good news for wall street with the dow topping 18,000 for the first time ever. meanwhile, oil prices continued to fall friday, leading to lower gas prices across the country. in some places, even dropping below $2 a gallon. in the new poll just released this week shows for the first time that since 2007, a majority of americans feel positively about economic conditions in this country. so are things finally starting

to look up? joining me now is john simons, business editor at international business times. so the question is, are we seeing an upward positive trend continue or is it over? soon to be? >> we are seeing a lot of really positive signs in the economy right now. gdp growth is up, oil prices are down, a lot of the things that you pointed out in the intro are all true but there are a couple of missing ingredients from this economy that make for a good long-term kind of virtuous cycle. >> like what? >> full-time job growth and income and wage growth for americans. basically, we had these economic numbers come out and it shows that it's easy to look at gdp as the -- as this cold economic measure, but this is the sum total of all of our work, people who go out and sort of make and move things around the country.

and these people are not seeing, a majority of these people are not seeing wage increases. >> it's not trickling down to average americans. we have seen the dow hit 18,000, gdp you were talking about, 5%, pretty good numbers, but you feel it's not trickling down to the average american. >> no, it's not. and it hasn't. basically we are all out there working harder and smarter and the economy's growing. we did that. we got the economy growing. and we are not seeing those wage increases. in fact, american workers haven't seen wage increases that keep pace with inflation and with productivity for more than three decades. >> wow. so let's talk a little about holiday spending. we saw growth in the industry. retailers obviously feeling very optimistic. but we also saw that more people were buying or spending on credit. >> yes. well, you know, that's another factor. you showed here that americans feel really good about the economy. there are a couple of really good signs. people feel like when their home

values are increasing and when the stock market is growing, people feel wealthier and they feel better about the economy. and so you know, what's a little concerning here is that during the recession, a lot of people sort of deleveraged, they cut back on their debt which was great for overall long term economic health. what we're seeing now is that people are feeling a lot better but they're increasing the rate of debt that they have. >> let's talk about oil prices. if they continue to drop, will this have an effect on the economy? is there a point at which it becomes a bad thing for oil to be so low? >> yeah, i'm sure there is a point where it becomes bad. you know, refineries and oil producing companies are already seeing a hit to their profits and that could trickle down to workers and affect the economy

long term if this keeps up. but we're not at that point yet. >> i think people are still going to welcome the low oil prices. >> we're at the point where people feel really good about the fact they are not paying as much for gas right now. >> especially if they are spending time on the roads this holiday. thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you very much. up next, how the president is spending his holiday vacation. we will go live to hawaii. and later, what if north korea wasn't behind the hack on sony. why some experts are now expressing doubts. with chantix. i had tried to do it in the past. i hadn't been successful. quitting smoking this time was different because i got a prescription for chantix. along with support, chantix (varenicline) is proven to help people quit smoking. the fact that it reduced the urge to smoke helped me get that confidence that i could do it. some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. some people had seizures while taking chantix. if you notice any of these, stop chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of mental health problems, which could get worse while taking

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visit our armed service men and women and their families. take a listen. >> the world is better, it's safer, it's more peaceful, it's more prosperous and our homeland is protected because of you, and because of the sacrifices you make each and every day. i know that i speak for everybody in the entire country when we say we salute you. >> that was president obama there. now for an update on the funeral of slain nypd officer rafael ramos happening now in queens. we go to msnbc correspondent adam reese outside christ tabernacle church. police commissioner bill bratton just spoke at the service. what did the commissioner have to say? >> reporter: commissioner bratton said we don't really see each other. we don't see the people that we are and there's no way that we can heal. the person who killed these two officers just saw two uniforms. he didn't see the two people that they were and if we don't see each other, there's no way we can heal. what a tribute it would be to officer ramos if we could see each other as people.

ayman? >> i can hear some music behind you there. can you tell us a little about the atmosphere? i also know there was supposed to be some members of various police forces from across the country. do you know who else is in attendance there today? >> reporter: well, we see the streets here lined with thousands of officers from maine and ohio and texas and kentucky, as far away as canada. the vice president spoke earlier, he said he speaks on behalf of the nation and that our hearts ache for you. mayor de blasio spoke, he said that he also mourns for the nypd and this officer was a hero. i must tell you, when mayor de blasio was speaking, a large n contingent of officers turned their backs on him. not all of them but a large contingent. when he was done, they turned back around. >> you have been covering this story all week long. do you think the divisions, now that you have talked about some of those handful or maybe even more, some of those police

officers turning their back, do you feel the divisions between city hall and nypd are very much getting bigger or is there any room for optimism there? >> reporter: well, there was no better illustration of the division than seeing these officers at a funeral turn their backs on him. this is something that he will have to deal with after these two funerals take place moving forward. it's a bridge that he will have to cross. i don't know how he will work out the differences between the administration here, city hall and all the police officers who have turned their back on him here at this funeral. >> adam reese, thank you very much with that update. as we heard commissioner bratton speaking and addressing the thousands of police officers who have come out to pay their respects to rafael ramos from the nypd. up next, from the growing threats of isis to the united states' changing relationship with cuba, we reflect on some of the top international headlines of 2014. and hollywood is gearing up

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welcome back. i want to quickly bring in white house correspondent kristen welker, who is in honolulu, hawaii traveling with the president. i want to talk to you about a "new york times" story that came out about the presidential motorcade. what is that all about? >> reporter: good morning. well, this is a practice that goes all the way back at least three decades. the secret service allowing the white house to bring in volunteers with no real special training to drive white house staffers and journalists in the presidential motorcade. but now there are some new questions about whether that could be putting the president in jeopardy. it's all coming after a graduate student posted a picture of herself on facebook showing her standing next to the president's

limousine. she was among the volunteers on the president's trip to san francisco this past fall. natalie tyson telling the "new york times" she received quote, little training from the secret service, but the agency's spokesman ed donovan defends the practice, saying the vehicles driven by volunteers are nowhere near the president's and the volunteers are briefed by the secret service agent responsible for the motorcade prior to any movements. the motorcade has a police escort and typically there is no other traffic on the road at the time the presidential motorcade is moving. still, there are critics who worry that those untrained volunteers could put everyone at risk. the white house had no comment about this and we were unable to reach tyson for comment. officials do note, though, that the white house hired a company of professional drivers that they have used in past years to shuttle the press corps here in hawaii. ayman? >> kristen welker roughing it in honolulu, thank you very much. now to international news. north korea is reacting to the opening of the movie "the interview" with a scathing new

statement. the movie grossed more than $1 million when it opened in limited release on christmas day. a spokesman for the north korean government blamed president obama for the movie appearing in theaters and accused him of being reckless like a quote, monkey. north korea also accused the u.s. of shutting down the communist country's internet service this week in retaliation for the sony hack. but north korea denies it was responsible for the sony incident and now some security experts agree. for some more insight, i'm joined by tara maller of the new america foundation. thank you very much for joining us. what do you make of the skepticism that north korea may have been behind the sony cyberattack? >> i think some of it is misplaced. the fbi came out pretty definitively with statements saying there is evidence that north korea did the attack so unless there is reasons to believe that they would be making up this evidence, i'm not sure why the skepticism is continuing to persist. having said that, some of the alternate story lines are not mutually exclusive with it also being tied to north korea. other groups might have worked

in conjunction with north korea and we are probably not going to see the specific pieces of intelligence because that would undermine intelligence collection if they were to reveal the sources and methods by which they were able to track the attribution of the attack itself. >> generally speaking, for somebody who knows nothing about this kind of stuff, how do you even begin to determine who is behind an attack like this? >> absolutely. like with any sort of attack, whether it's an attack in a traditional crime scene, whether a terrorist attack, intelligence analysts look through, they are looking through all sorts of intelligence related to motivations, capabilities. there may have been, this is just speculation, there may have been what we call signals intelligence about people talking about an attack and we are not going to see that if that was the case because if they release that it shows certain types of intel collection mechanisms they might not want to give away for future intelligence collection. so it's also the malware used, tracking the signatures, all of these things together are what intelligence analysts combined with the technical experts put together to sort of make a fingerprint for the attack itself. >> assuming that north korea was

in fact behind the attack, do you see that now the release of "the interview" is going to deter north korea from carrying out any further attacks or have these chains put themselves in harm's way? >> i don't think it will deter a future attack. in fact, with or without the movie, this is the sort of wave of the future in terms of the types of attacks we are going to see by small groups like guardians of peace, by other non-state hacking groups and by countries, unfortunately, like north korea and other countries as well. this is not new. the mandate report last year had a slew of attacks by china. didn't get much publicity like this did with the whole movie plot going on here, but this is -- these are the types of attacks to watch out for. >> they are going after some of the biggest corporations in america. we have seen home depot and now sony pictures. thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you. the showdown with north korea over the sony hack was just one of the international headlines in the year, from the disappearance and still

unresolved mystery of what happened to malaysian airlines 370 to the rise of isis and the historic changes in the u.s. and cuba relationship. 2014 has been a year of dramatic developments on the world stage. for some perspective, joining us now from boston, charlie sennett, cofounder of global post and executive director of the ground truth project. welcome back to you, sir. >> thank you. >> it has been a year of ups and downs, one of the bleakest incidents happened just last week when militants attacked a school in pakistan killing more than 140 people, mostly children. but this morning, there are reports that pakistani security forces killed the alleged mastermind of that attack. was the school tragedy a real wakeup call for the pakistani government? >> well, the pakistani taliban is a uniquely troublesome movement, very different from the afghan taliban. i think we are going to see a lot more from them, unfortunately. i think this year, 2014, was a year in which we saw the real depths of darkness that a

violent islamist militant group can go to. we saw it with boco haram when it kidnapped the girls, still missing. we saw it with isis and a failure on the part of the state department to really see isis and as it emerged, a struggle to confront it. we have certainly seen it more recently in pakistan and i think we are going to continue to see islamist extremists sort of flailing out into ways that seem like we could never have imagined before. i fear that we are in for a continuation of the long war. i think one of the real truths of 2014 is that the long war has gotten a lot longer. >> another bleak moment you were talking about, is boco haram a major or localized threat to nigeria? >> i think they are a localized threat to nigeria but i think they reveal a global threat to the united states and anyone who believes in freedom of expression, believes in human rights, believes in moderate islam, who believes in that

religion as not being expressed by these militant groups so we want to see more of the moderate nations, muslim nations, really rising up and working with the united states and other allies to confront this form of extremism, because it is unbridled, out of control and posing a great global threat. as i say, the global struggle to confront this kind of terrorism is one of the great challenges of our time. what isis did over this year i think presents one of the great struggles. i think we are back into the war in iraq. i think we are back into the global war on terror in a way that we didn't expect we would be. i think we have to deal with that and be a lot smarter about how we confront it. >> this one is a little bit close to home. the committee to protect journalists reports that 2014 was particularly deadly year for journalists with at least 60 journalists killed worldwide. one of them was james foley, a colleague of yours who worked with global post, beheaded by isis. tell us a little about his legacy and the impact of his

death on your organization. >> james foley was a friend. james foley was a colleague of ours at global post and at the ground truth project. and jim had a real passion for being there. he had a passion for doing what we call ground truth, being there on the ground, covering the story, really getting up close to the edge of the horror of war to try to bring it home. i think his great passion was to tell the story of the syrian people and iraqi people caught in the middle of that war. and you know, he was captured while doing his job and he was murdered in the most brutal of ways, in a way that really revealed to us the depth of darkness of this group isis and a need for us to confront it. you know, one of the few sort of thin bands of light in an incredibly dark experience going through this terrible moment with the foley family was their faith, and it was their faith not only in their catholic faith as very religious family, but

also their faith in their son and what he did, and the need for us to have on the ground reporting is so important and something we have seen the foley family stand by and through the jim foley legacy fund, really want to support. we support them in that. we want to try to be part of a movement in a very challenging time for journalism, a time in which journalism is under attack. we need to defend that great need for us to be there on the ground, doing reporting and going at the stories that matter, and doing it in a way that's fearless, even in a time in which there is great and increasing peril. >> there were some moments of inspiring change this year. what do you make of the united states' new diplomatic breakthroughs with cuba? >> yeah. for an incredibly dark year in terms of international affairs, it ended with three really important and significant streaks of light. i think we saw the movement, normalization of relations with cuba which is important regionally and globally. i think it's a big opening.

i think it's more than time that this opening happened. i think we are going to see where this evolves, how far it goes. i don't think it's going to go anywhere very fast but i think it's a very important movement. i think the opening with china on climate change is going to go down in history as a really important movement, something that the obama administration will end its time in office very proud of and i hope there's more movement there. and also immigration reform. those are three very big areas in which we saw dramatic movement so we end a very dark year with some glimmers of hope. >> charlie, thank you very much for that international recap. up next, we are changing gears and headed for the movies. ♪ my baby drove up in a brand new cadillac... ♪ ♪ my baby drove up in a brand new cadillac... ♪ ♪ look here, daddy, i'm never coming back... ♪ discover the new spirit of cadillac

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the big screen is presented with big opportunities at the box office as many movie goers lined up to see newly released films. in fact, eight new films opened in theaters on christmas day, including one of the most talked-about holiday releases. sony pictures' "the interview"

the film which hinges on a fictional plot to assassinate north korean leader kim jong-un took center stage in a dialogue about freedom of speech after theater chains canceled plans to screen the movie in response to the threats of vinyls frolence hackers. when sony announced the film would go on at independent theaters, viewers lined up. an estimated $6 million from online rentals but "the interview" is not the only holiday release drawing big attention. "selma" was released in select theaters and has become a 2015 oscar favorite for some critics. a number of other recent releases have garnered oscar buzz including clint eastwood's "american sniper," "into the woods" and "interstellar." what might the february 22nd awards ceremony have in store?

eric gardner joins me with the crystal ball to tell us how it will all happen. tell us what films you think are serious best picture contenders this year. >> i think "selma"s certainly a great contender. it's of the moment, if not in the moment. it's the story of martin luther king jr. right before the march on selma and it tells a story about the struggle, the movement and i think it will ring true. >> it's very relevant right now. >> absolutely, with what's going on in ferguson. i think people will recognize elements of it and it never feels too preachy. there is always a lot of tension and drama. it is getting good critical praise. >> what's your best picture prediction? >> well, right now, that's up there. i would also venture to say that "boyhood," richard linkletter's film, is a strong contender. it's a bit of an unusual

contender, not one that maybe everyone has seen, but those who have seen it tend to love it. it's probably one of the most praised films ever on rotten tomatoes and it takes place over 14 years. it's a fairly -- >> massive undertaking film project. let's ask about best actress. >> yes. well, reese witherspoon is an actress many people know. usually for her kind of perky roles. but in this movie, she plays a woman who deals with the loss of her mother and goes on a 1200 mile hike. it's a fairly grueling performance, one that's rather introspective. >> what about "theory of everything"? >> that's about stephen hawking and his first wife. in a way, felicity jones has the tougher role because everyone knows who hawking is. not too many people know jane, the first wife. she definitely plays a strong lead in this picture, especially

since as the film goes on, he can't talk as much so she must carry the dialogue. >> you can't talk about "the theory of everything" without talking about eddie redmaine's role. is he in it for best actor? >> absolutely. in a way it reminds me of donald day lewis' breakout role in "my left foot." it hinges on the facial expressions, the small movements, fingers, how they kind of play out all the intelligence and emotional resonance of a man suffering from a.l.s. who has a lot to give but is kind of constrained. >> any other actor performances that jumped out at you? >> in "birdman" michael keaton has had a long career and this is a movie about an actor, kind of life imitating art, he's trying to make a comeback and put on a broadway play. i think he turned a lot of heads. >> let's talk about some of the

cinematography. "interstellar." talk about that. >> trying to capture "gravity," space and black holes, in a way that's never been done before. it certainly gets attention. when it comes to oscars, i never bet against costume dramas in the 19th century and space. post-21st century. >> any others that might surprise you in this category? >> "gone girl" is great. david fincher film. i think that's the most talked-about film of the year. by this time, it's gotten a little overlooked on the oscar front. in cinematography it's visually stunning. >> let's talk about anything that might drum up some controversy this year. do you think there's a film out there that has any controversial buzz around it? >> certainly "citizen four" the documentary about snowden. first of all, it made history as a documentary film to score best

picture nomination which is certainly an outside shot at the moment. but anything that deals with edward snowden is certain to be controversial. >> thank you very much. a busy list of movies to try to catch up with in time for the oscars. thank you for coming in. i want to go back one more time this hour to adam reese outside christ tabernacle church in queens, where the funeral for new york city police officer rafael ramos just concluded. lots of big speakers, lots of law enforcement officers in attendance. give me the sense now that it is over. >> reporter: we are waiting for the family to depart the church. the processional will begin from here and will lead to the cemetery. there were many speakers today starting off with the vice president, who says he speaks on behalf of the nation and that our hearts bleed for you, and ache for you. also, the police commissioner talked about how we need to see each other as real people and see through each other and be able to speak to each other. and mayor de blasio spoke as

well. he lent out a hand to the new york city police department. he said we mourn for this officer. i can tell you out here that many officers turned their back, not all, but hundreds of officers turned their back when he spoke, and when he was done, they turned back around. ayman? >> adam reese, you were saying that the cemetery, the families coming out to go to the cemetery, do we know where he will be buried? >> reporter: he will be buried not too far down the road from here in queens, new york, in the same borough where he was from. they are coming out right now. let's listen in. >> we are seeing there the

casket of rafael ramos being taken out of the christ tabernacle church and you can see there members of the police force paying their tributes. we want to thank adam reese for his reporting on this today. you are seeing live images there of the body of rafael ramos being loaded as it makes its way out of the church. that's the family of rafael ramos, his two children, his wife and his mother. up next, remembering one of the greats lost this year. the late dr. maya angelou.

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comcast business. built for business. the world of arts and entertainment lost some of its most notable voices in 2014. two comedic giants, robin williams and joan rivers both passed away this year. williams' suicide touched off a national conversation about depression. just as the death of actor philip seymour hoffman refocused our attention on the struggle against drug addiction.

2014 was also the year we lost mike nichols, the director behind such hits as "the graduate" and "who's afraid of virginia wolfe." hollywood mourned the loss of its two endearing leading ladies, lauren bacall and ruby dee who starred in movies like "do the right thing." another artist we lost this year, maya angelo. she inspired the host of the program normally scheduled at this time, melissa harris-perry. as a student at wake forest university, melissa took classes with dr. angelo and worked as her student assistant. as the two formed a deep personal bond. in 2012, dr. angelo invited melissa to her home for a wide-ranging interview that still resonates today. here's a portion of their

discussion. >> i took your class when i was a sophomore here at wake forest. >> yes. >> and i will never forget two important lessons. i wanted to ask you about both of them. >> please. >> the first is the lesson that courage is the most important virtue because without it nothing else can be practiced consistently. >> that's right. your memory is good, by the way. >> i've said it to myself over and over for 20 years. when you look at our current world, do we lack courage? >> yes, we lack courage particularly because we are not wise enough to try to educate ourselves so that we really can develop courage. so we act like cowards. we sit in rooms where people use

pejoratives, parable pejoratives or sexual pejoratives and where people assault and beleaguer other people, mexican or arab or jewish or -- we just sit there like numbskulls instead of taking up because whoever is being assailed, that's you, in itwit. so you should say, excuse me just a minute. i won't sit in this room when people are being assailed. those are human beings and i'm a human being. so i have to take up, i must support this person. you say, he's too skinny, too fat, too thin, stupid, bad teeth. wait a minute. the statement is, i am a human being. nothing human can be alien to

me. and if you know that, then you have enough -- you develop enough courage so that you can stand up for somebody. and maybe you don't know it at the time, but you're really standing up for yourself. it's the human in you. it's the kindness in you which allows you to be courageous. so you develop courage in small ways. you say, i will not be called this because i'm a woman, i'm not a "b." because i'm black, i'm not an "n." you have to develop ways to take up for yourself and then you take up for someone else. and so sooner or later you have enough courage to really stand up for the human race and say,

i'm a representative. >> you've also always said that words are things. >> yes. >> when i look at our current political environment, i see a lack of courage, i see us turning our opponents into enemies, non-human people and i see us using our words as weapons. is there some lesson for a political world that we can gain? >> i don't know how we can, after the fact, after the election, how we can look at each other with friendly eyes having, for all intents and purposes, cursed each other out and said that this person is not really -- this person is a liar, a brute, this person is a fraud. and then the elections will take place and then we have to work together in the house of representatives or in the senate or in the supermarket.

i think it's fair and proper to explain your point of view and what you hope to achieve. that's fair. but that doesn't mean then that to say of the other person who has another agenda that he's a brute. or she's a terrible word. that's stupid. what breaks my heart is to think what would our nation be like if we dared to be intelligent, if we dared to allow our intelligence to dictate our movements, our actions. can you imagine? >> yeah. a lot of times in politics, we hear about the idea of the big tent. but the first actual big tent i ever experienced was at your home. >> yes. >> at thanksgiving. >> yes. >> and you'd put up a big tent

and invite everyone. >> yes. >> is there any possibility that that lesson of our inherent equality under a big tent can become part of our politics? >> dr. perry, i pray so. that's why i'm doing this interview. that's why i write my books and go and lecture. i have something to say. and i pray that what i have to say will encourage the coming of this millennium you're speaking of, when we really will have enough courage to be courageous. >> that was some of melissa harris-perry's interview with maya angelo, one of the most notable people that we lost in 2014. that is our show for today. time for a preview of "weekends with alex witt." alex? >> ayman, thanks so much. everyone, a sea of blue as thousands attend the funeral of an nypd officer killed in the line of duty. the bitter blast of winter

about to return, where and when it will be the coldest. new worries about the flu and why this season is being called the worst in years. plus, is drinking alcohol this holiday season going to make you fat? the new article that says the science is murky. i'll be right back. the holiday season is here, which means it's time for the volkswagen sign-then-drive event. for practically just your signature, you could drive home for the holidays in a german-engineered volkswagen. like the sporty, advanced new jetta... and the 2015 motor trend car of the year all-new golf. if you're wishing for a new volkswagen this season... just about all you need is a finely tuned... pen. hurry in to the sign then drive event and get a five-hundred dollar new year's bonus on select new volkswagen models. offer ends january 2nd.

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