♪ good morning. it's tuesday, december 30th and with us this morning, we have nbc news foreign correspondent, eamon mohyeldin, political correspondent, kasie hunt. co host of "the cycle" and former air safety investigator with the national transportation safety board greg five. michael steele and sam stein both with us in washington, d.c. but first we start with this morning's news. the search for missing air asia

flight confirms debris has been found in the sea. it includes a plane door and oxygen tanks, luggage and life vests. a spokesman for indonesia's navy confirms ropes are being lowered into the sea to search for additional victims. loved ones of passengers broke down in tears at the airport as their worst fears appear to become a reality. one middle-aged man collapsed while watching the news reports and was taken out on a stretcher. the airbus passenger jet with 162 people on board was heading from surabaya to indonesia. my heart is filled with sadness for all the families involved. let's get right to nbc news

foreign correspondent katy tur live from indonesia. families have at least one big answers. but local television there's been some really terribly terribly untasteful news about what has happened in local television out there. tell us about it. >> reporter: so you see these families hanging out at surabaya airport to get information on what's going on. they have been hanging out or waiting for three days. they came in according to our people on the ground now, looking a little dejected a little listless, because it's been so long. sat down and a knew conference with indonesia officials saying they found debris bodies in the water. and as they were going on with this news conference they showed live footage from the television tv one footage on this press conference and on that tv footage dead bodies floating in the water. the families had no warning of

this happening. so the ones that were maybe a little bit drained before that started to scream out and cry and that's when the emotion really started to overflow. there was no word to them that they believed that all their loved ones may be lost. there was no bring them into a room and tell them first before we tell everybody else. it's a little shocking considering that you think they would have learned a lesson from mh 370. and remember the families after a while got a text message saying we believe there were no survivors on that plane. the malaysian government was heavily panned for doing that really criticized for the insensitivity of it all. and this situation seemed to be taking a much different path keeping the families in the loop, telling them what was going on weren't hiding anything. air airasia ceo comforting them. they obviously didn't have much hope the families would survive

this. but to see it on a screen without warning is a completely different story so now indonesian tv is being criticized. the worst has been done. that's how you would find out the worst news of probably your life. >> katie, to be clear, it was the indonesia government conducting the press conference not the airline, correct? >> reporter: no, the airline was not conducting the press conference no. it was the indonesian government giving an update to reporters and loved ones watching from a screen in another room and that's where they saw the images of these bodies. so it's better the airline has been trying to keep them comforted and they're actually offering a charter flight tomorrow to circle around the islands, the last known location of the plane so families can pray for their lost loved ones.

of course it has not been confirmed officially this is the plane. they say they're 95% sure they found wreckage and bodies. they're also not confirming there were no survivors. but it's a shocking experience. indonesian officials were holding that press conference. >> it's obviously the end of daylight there where you are, katie, today. what are the immediate plans? what is the plan going forward from this point? >> reporter: well they're going to continue searching today for as long as they can, and it's getting dark and the weather is not so great. so they will probably have to suspend separations for the evening, and hope the water currents and winds haven't taken the debris and whatever else too far off course. they have also noticed there is a dark shadow under the water in the shape of a plane. they believe that's the plane. the java sea is pretty shallow so they believe the recovery effort should not be too difficult. they're going to try and figure out exactly what happened whether or not weather was actually a big factor in this so

they'll be looking for the black boxes. it's unclear whether they'll find the black boxes among the larger debris or somewhere else in the water. quite a bit of time before they can officially tell anybody what went wrong with this flight. >> nbc's katy tur, thanks very much. we'll be back with you throughout the morning. greg, we don't want to get into a great deal of speculation, but in terms of debris field 40 bodies, what does this tell you? >> immediately, the fact that we have bodies floating we have what looks to be interior debris with life vests and interior material, says the fuselage tube broke up in some regard. so a portion of that fuselage is not intact. it's opened up seats and people and luggage and that kind of thing have floated out of it. now the question is where is the rest of the debris and taking an inventory to make sure we have all of those parts in a generalized area. we could still have a portion of that airplane having broken up

in flight. if you get into a high-speedy descent, you could have flaps and farings come off in flight. it looks to be a consequence concentrated area. that stuff has been floating for three days. we don't know if in fact that debris is colocated with the main debris field resting on the bottom of the sea. >> initial reports that we've seen indicate so far that of the bodies that have been retrieved, none wore life jackets. what does that tell you? >> to me it sounds like they weren't briefed or at least given any kind of fair warning about their impending doom. it sounds like whatever happened with the flight crew they got themselves into a situation they were trying to control the airplane. but apparently inside the airplane with flight attendants or even the two pilots there was no warning as to what was happening, and that there was no way to prepare the cabin folks

to put on a life vest you know. we've got an emergency here kind of thing. >> bill karins can you tell us what kind of weather the search teams are facing out there today? >> yeah, mike. we have one hour left of daylight in the area where they're actually trying to do the recovery and hopefully a rescue or two. right now you saw with the live shot there are thunderstorms in the region. if you look at them katy tur is in singapore. the circle with the glowing dot is where the vicinity of the wreckage has been found. there are a couple showers and storms but it's not that bad so they'll have at least a good hour. water temperatures in this region are still 80 degrees, that's why even after three days the water is plenty warm enough if anyone could possibly survive, they could still, you know hypothermia would not set in that quickly in water temperatures this warm. over the next three days still expecting a lot of rain in this region with additional thunderstorms. so the weather actually was better today than what was expected, mike. but over the next two days more rain is expected with storms.

so hopefully it will pan out with decent conditions. but thunderstorms are in the forecast. >> all right bill thank you very much. >> as we have just discussed, weather appears to have been a factor. nbc's peter alexander has this report about flying in dangerous skies. >> reporter: flying in severe weather can be risky. lightning can strike at any moment. high winds, heavy fog, snowstorms. even clear air turbulence can cause passengers to panic. like this american airlines flight from south korea to dallas diverted to japan earlier this month. >> everything that wasn't bolted down or seat belted flew into the air. >> reporter: severe thunderstorms like those encountered by the missing air airasia flight anything on board can be the worst enemy. >> hail lightning, vertical down drafts. something pilots learn early you have to avoid pretty much at all cost. you don't fly into thunderstorms. >> reporter: airlines and pilots

specifically prepare their flight paths to go above or around storms. still, flight 8501's disappearance is being compared to the air france disaster after a severe storm. and an air algerie flight that crashed this summer while trying to avoid bad weather. no one survived either crash. but planes are designed to withstand elements like lightning strikes estimated to hit airliners once a year. today's planes are ruggedly built, pushed to the limit where engineers built the 777 wing an estimated 23 feet before they could make it snap. and planes that can fly eight miles a minute have live radar that can track storms hundreds of miles ahead, giving pilots time to plan a detour. >> in the very rare case where someone does enter a thunderstorm, the biggest issue is hail because of the damage that it can cause to the leading edges of the wing the windshield and to the engines.

>> ari melber. i was reading something earlier today. 33% of all passengers worldwide now fly in this region of the world. a growth in airline travel and the region has been just enormous. and unfortunately, we have had these catastrophic accidents in this region. two this year malaysian air and this one. >> tremendous growth. and with these accidents the fatality rate for airplane crashes will be the highest since 2005. so it is not only that these are big stories obviously generating attention. there is something here that may not, as you have educated us in other programs may not be as broad a trend line in terms of airport safety. when we look at what's new, including what mike was talking to katie about, these reports of these bodies these corpses here in the sea, and what you were telling us about the fuselage breaking apart, what does that tell us about the accuracy of this initial statement we heard that was somewhat controversial for folks following the story that, well oh the whole plane is at the, quote, bottom of the

ocean? >> well from a logic standpoint we don't know if the entire airplane is at the bottom of the ocean, because, again, if this airplane had any kind of breakup in flight we can spread debris, and since some of the smaller islands are in that area, there could still be debris from this airplane. but for all intent and purposes if this airplane has hit the ocean and broken up yes, the remnants of the airplane are sitting at the bottom of the sea. >> greg you probably know a little bit were experience but i was wondering if you could talk about the industry in that part of the world, the standards. with all of this rapid growth obviously it will be lucrative and low-fare discount airliners. since you have been through that part of the world and familiar with the standards, how rigorous of an aviation industry is there on flights, on you know -- why would they even launch a plane like this in these weather conditions? >> airlines over there have grown immensely. 33% now. that's a big growth.

plus now they have developed this business model for low-cost airlines. if you look at the way airasia is structured, you look at southwest airlines this is a common fleet. they use airbuses they use boeings. so now they're understanding you can move people with ultra low cost carriers no-filly airlines. the question is does the regulatory authority like in malaysian or china, have the ability. we had that problem when i investigated value jet, one of the big issues that came out of value jet, it was an ultra low low-cost carrier. it was growing so fast monetarily that the oversight by the regulators was insufficient to ensure they didn't have as many accidents. they had had five events. >> we know during the course of the investigation over the next few days and weeks we'll find

out an awful lot about how this tragedy occurred. what won't we find out? what will be the most difficult element to find out? >> i think the most difficult element of this is going to be what the decision-making process was. we're going to hear what was left on the cockpit voice recorder, any communication between the two pilots. some pilots are very talkative. they're going to be talking. you have a very senior captain here, better than 20,000 hours. you have a relatively inexperienced first officer, about 22 2,300 hours of total flight time. in that part of the world, unlike here in the united states where pilots have a tendency and we've developed that through this thing called crew resource management, where we're going to talk and we're going to make a joint decision as to the best course of action. that doesn't necessarily transpire into the cockpits of foreign carriers and we have seen this in the past as well. we may have a very good discussion, what do we think of the weather and we need to do.

we need to coordinate our activities or it could be silent and we may never know the decision making process that went into why they are deviating or they decided to try and climb. that's the big question for me, what prompted these two pilots or at least the captain to make the decision that they were going to go to 38,000 feet. that's not just an altitude you pick. they were at 32. what prompted them to go to 38 rather than 34 36 or whatever. we may never know those questions or have answers to those questions. because unfortunately, the cockpit voice recorder is an artifact recorder. it only records what's there and then for investigators, you have to put inafrican-americans in there. >> we spoke about this yesterday. if it's an american carrier on the ground in that region of the world, and they are -- thunderstorms out there, lightning storms out there, do they depend locally on clearance or do they communicate back to the united states about what they're going to do whether

they're going to delay their flight or not? >> all the flight planning for a carrier from the united states flying in that part of the world will communicate back with their own respective dispatch organization. and a lot of the legacy carriers here in the united states as well as the small carriers have their own meteorologist on staff. so they're doing a very thorough weather analysis. they're talking to dispatch and dispatch and the flight crew are also analyzing the weather, determining the best route of flight. and then the best course of action if they have to take an alternate course of action. that doesn't necessarily translate into the other parts of the world. and so that's going to be a question for investigators as to how much analysis went into this weather. this weather just didn't pop up 42 minutes after these guys took off. it was starting to develop. so it's really looking at the trend, and then knowing what the crew knew what dispatch knew and why they dispatched the airplane under those conditions. >> we're going to be following the developments surrounding the search for airasia flight 8501 all morning and bring the latest

information as we get it. also ahead today, we're going to break down the biggest foreign stories of the year and how greece is poised to shake up that list with just hours left in 2014 and from big stories to amazing images "time" magazine is out with its list of the 100 best photos and it's a stunning collection. so stick around. we'll be right back. well, a mortgage shouldn't be a problem your credit is in pretty good shape. >>pretty good? i know i have a 798 fico score thanks to the tools and help on experian.com. kaboom... well, i just have a few other questions. >>chuck, the only other question you need to ask is, "what else can you do for me?" i'll just take a water... get your credit swagger on. become a member of experian credit tracker and find out your fico score powered by experian. fico scores are used in 90% of credit decisions. it's just ordinary fleece but the comfort it provides is immeasurable.

the america red cross brings hope and help to people in need every 8 minutes every day. so this season give something that means something. i take prilosec otc each morning for my frequent heartburn. because it gives me... zero heartburn! prilosec otc. the number 1 doctor-recommended frequent heartburn medicine for 9 straight years. one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn. airasia we needed 30 new hires for our call center. i'm spending too much time hiring and not enough time in my kitchen.

need to hire fast? go to ziprecruiter.com and post your job to over 30 of the web's leading job boards with a single click; then simply select the best candidates from one easy to review list. you put up one post and the next day you have all these candidates. makes my job a lot easier. over 100,000 businesses have already used zip recruiter and now you can use zip recruiter for free at a special site for tv viewers: go to ziprecruiter.com/offer700. i have an idea.

take a look at the morning papers. >> love that. >> it's morning. papers are out. let's take a look at them. >> very logical. >> "usa today." officials in scotland say a health care worker who returned from sierra leone has been diagnosed as the united kingdom's first case of ebola. the patient was isolated at a hospital in glasgow and transferred to london for further care. the woman is a nurse who worked with the organization save the children in kerry town and is believed to have had contact with one other person. >> gmail was blocked in china after experiencing months of major service disruptions, most of googles service have been disrupted since june. until last week gmail users could still access e-mails via third party apps. a member glams the country's firewall and claims the block is an attempt to eliminate google's presence in china. >> and in the "new york times" andrew cuomo vetoing a bill

which would have protected teachers and school administrators from receiving low ratings based on students' scores. the move is considered a sharp reversal since the administration initially drafted the bill in response to calls from the teacher's union. governor cuomo says he is looking to make teach evaluations, quote, more rigorous. without his signature, teachers who earn low ratings two years in a row could be dismissed. >> casey is feeling badly. do you want to read one? >> i'm happy to. >> morning papers. the "washington post" a new study shows americans under the age of 30 hey, here you go are volunteering at higher rates than their parents. 20% of people under 30 volunteered. that's up 14% from 1989. >> what did they volunteer for? we have to read that. >> and was it on an app? >> yeah. >> does that count? >> on your smartphone. >> contributions count just as much as everything else. also in the "washington post" a

new report suggests germany is passing the u.s. information on hundreds of german citizens believed to have ties to surgent groups in syria and iraq. that includes names, cell phone numbers, e-mail addresses and other data collected by german intelligence. germans were outraged when it was revealed that edward snowden, the nsa agent, was monitoring german chancellor angela merkel's data. analysts say germany is reluctantly reliant on intelligence assistance as the threat from groups like isis continues to grow. and in the "washington times" united airlines and arrest bits suing a teenager to assist users to fine flights with a ticket with their layover at their actual destination and abandon the last leg of their trip and save a significant amount of money. the 22-year-old new yorker found the site skip lag, last year.

i don't know if it has volunteering or not. but insisting it's not legal. not illegal. so it would be legal. united and orbitz are seeking $75,000 in damages much. >> leave the kid alone. >> sounds like an innovator. >> yeah. come on. >> the "new york times" game of throne has been named the most pirated show. they say it's amc's hard drama, "walking dead" came in second compiled by torrent freak. analysts say television piracy is only expected to increase. >> and over at the "new york daily news" pop star justin bieber has earned the title of the worst celebrity neighbor of 2014. i guess do they -- nobody lives next to you? according to real estate listing website zillow cops were called to the biebs beverly hills mansion multiple times for a

range of issues from loud parties to vandalism after he egged his neighbor's house. close behind were kim kardashian miley cyrus. but if you live next to jimmy fallon, he is considered the most desirable celebrity neighbor of the year. >> jimmy fallon is one of the nicest human beings on the face of the earth. >> no doubt. you've been to some of bieber's parties, right? >> i wanted to grab him by the neck because he egged my house. get off my lawn justin. to politics and congressman steve scalise, one of the most powerful men in house leadership, is drawing criticism for speaking at a white supremacist conference. it dates back to 2002 when scalise was a state representative, and reports of the meeting first broke on a louisiana politics blog. but scalise's office says he wasn't aware the group known as the euro european american unity and rights organization had ties

to neo-nazi activism. it was formed by kkk wizard and louisiana politician david duke. in an interview, scalise says at the time he spoke to all kinds of groups to oppose a tax plan adding, quote, i didn't know who all of these groups were and i detest any kind of hate group. for anyone to suggest i was involved with a group like that is insulting and ludicrous. he says he never saw duke at an event event, adding he was a state representative before me. earn everyone knew who he was. i would not go to any group he was a part. robert costa reported this david duke told the paper his long-time political adviser, kenny knight had a relationship with scalise himself, and quote, that is why he was invited and why he would come. scalise new knew kenny. they were friendly. now some democrats are calling into question whether scalise should remain in leadership.

>> other colleagues are offering the congressman their support, including bobby jindal and cedrick richman. in washington michael steele, we knew why we wanted you here today. >> oh great. >> and the reason we want you here today, is to answer the age-old question will the i am a moron defense work for scalise in this regard? >> you know it probably will. in the long run. i think at the end of the day you know there's no evidence of scalise having these types of associations in the past or having uttered words that would link him to groups like this. you know at one level, a very base level, not to diminish the import of it this is poor staffing. one person working his calendar and booking him for these events to get his message out on this tax issue. as we have just discovered as robert costa noted, he had a relationship.

that's one staffer, had a relationship with kenny. kenny had a relationship with david duke. so in the long run, this is going to be i don't think much. he's not going to step down from leadership. he's getting support from the leader and a few governors, republican governors. but again, mike it's the same old narrative we go through with the gop. they take a step forward and try to expand the party and create a new message. and then boom you know you have these associations and these relationships that everybody was gung ho about 5, 10, 15 minutes ago but now come back to bite them. >> sam stein also in washington with us and enjoying the last few days of his school vacation before he reports back to home room monday. >> are you volunteering lately sam? >> i thought that was mika -- >> no no. i'm not giving you a pass. >> not a hall pass or any kind of pass. >> brought an apple for the teacher today. >> thank you. so sam, let me ask you, you

know the republican majority assembling in the house again, running the house, running the united states senate what does this do? michael just alluded to it coming into a new congress, and this -- a member of the leadership, steve scalise. what does this do to any plans they have about getting off on a fast track? >> i don't know. i mean the key thing here to remember, that in the first week of january, early in january, john boehner will have his own election to be speaker again. and i think he's going to hold off on weighing in too heavily on the scalise matter until he recognizes or realizes whether the conservatives in his caucus will rally around scalise. he doesn't want to offend that portion of his party. wants to see what facts emerge. it's a very sort of fluid situation. we're digging into this and figuring out what the story is. to scalise's credit we did a lot of newspaper archive searches. he was giving tons of speeches as he says around then. we saw 130 speeches, one

newspaper can account suggested. on the other hand, it's a little far- far-fetched to think he didn't know who this group was at the time. it wasn't like this was some totally obscure organization. in fact, there was a newspaper article at the time that the cubs farm team in iowa was going down to the same hotel where this convention was being held to play a game in new orleans, and they moved hotels because they were so offended by the fact this convention was going to be there. so you had on one hand the iowa cubs farm team saying no no no way too toxic. and on the other hand steve scalise saying i didn't know what was going on i didn't have google, only one aide there was no way i could have known this group was a white supremacist group. so sort of indicative how fluid the situation is now. >> i think it is fluid. and i hesitate to ever disagree with a former chairman of the republican party about republican party politics. because michael obviously knows these players well. but i do think it is -- i do think it's probably too early to

conclude where the story lands, because it broke late last night, and it will definitely re-up scrutiny of mr. scalise, his statements and dealings. and if this is the only thing and it's isolated i think the chairman is probably right, he weathers it. but people also do remember when senator trent lott put his foot in his mouth, trying to give some sort of tribute to strom thurman and ended up losing his leadership post. those were directly raciallyin send incendiary comments. is there anything else as national reporters dig in. the front page of the "washington post" says you confirm you addressed, quote racists. never a good headline. and saying you have love and will herd coming in two more black members of congress than the republican party had last term when it was zero.

so there is an evolution here. but the history is not gone. and i think a lot of folks now are going to be giving it a close look. >> well it will be interesting. if i could real quickly, folks, it will be interesting to see if those two new black members of congress will have anything to say about it. particularly mea love and mr. hurt, whether or not they have some thoughts on this. coming into this new session. i think in the long run, though ari, this does pass. unless there is a smoking gun or more appropriately, smoking words, where the context of his speech is revealed and he said something that was a little bit more you know warm and fuzzy with that organization. but you're right. i mean, it does stretch credit credulity to say you had no clue what this group was about and what their business was. and that's something they'll have to address. >> he's going to have a happy new year's eve. every reporter in america now combs over every remark.

>> and so does house speaker john boehner. i think this will be a real test for all of the leadership in the house as republicans are coming into the next congress and taking over. >> okay. still ahead, the very latest in the search for the missing airasia flight as bodies have been found this morning. also ahead, not so smart. that's what president obama called one of vladimir putin's moves this year. the biggest overseen stories of 2014 when "morning joe" comes right back.

u for calling colonial penn life insurance company. i'm glad i was able to help you today. hi, my name is diane tull, and i'm a customer service representative for colonial penn life insurance company. insurance can sometimes be difficult to understand, but here at colonial penn, we make it simple. alex trebek has been representing colonial penn for over ten years and is here to tell you how we do it. thanks, diane. i'm happy to be here with these knowledgeable colonial penn representatives. i know that customer service is a priority for them. i've been representing colonial penn for over ten years talking about their guaranteed acceptance life insurance. if you're 50 to 85 write down the toll-free number on your screen and call for free information. with this insurance, there's no medical exam, no health questions either guaranteed. you cannot be turned down because of your health. and especially important in this economy, colonial penn guarantees that your

rate will never go up and your benefit will never go down due to age. it costs just $9.95 a month per unit. that's less than 35 cents a day. did you know that the average cost of a funeral is over $7,300 now? don't leave the burden of medical bills or other final expenses for your loved ones. you know how difficult it can be to find good customer service these days. at colonial penn it's their number one priority. call them now. you'll be glad you did. at colonial penn we've been serving our customers for over 50 years, and we have over half a million life insurance policies in force that help cover funeral costs, medical bills, credit card balances or other final expenses. we're committed to our customers. we make insurance simple! (representatives speaking)

an update now on this morning's breaking news on the search for airasia 8501. the airline confirmed that debris and dozens of bodies have

been found in the java sea. a spokesman for indonesia says bodies have been recovered. the debris includes red and white materials, the colors of that missing aircraft including a plane door and oxygen tanks. >> here with us now from miami, ceo of publisher of foreign policy magazine david rothgoth and foreign affairs correspondent mikie kay, who has logged 3,000 hours of flying helicopters and jets. let's start with you. we asked this question earlier of greg feith. what's your instinct right now about what happened here? >> well i think what voices are reporting at the moment is a number of bodies and debris which look like it could be from a plane. so it's important to note it's not 100% confirmed that it's from 8501 but looks like it

could be from a plane in terms of the colors and the fact that it's door and things associated with an aircraft. and it's in the strait in the vicinity of where the last contact was. these investigations are split down into three specific pillars. the where, what and why. and unfortunately, with malaysian 370, we haven't got past the where. the where is identifying the wreckage. the way these investigations play out, search and rescue crews identify usually wreckage first. the wreckage will be then confirmed and linked to the aircraft that's gone missing. once the wreckage has been found, it will then hopefully lead the investigators on to the two black boxes, the one being the flight data recorder the other black box recorder. once those are found, the analysis can be on the what. the what is what happened. so the information ascertained

from those black boxes will be things like what altitudes was the aircraft at. what was the rate of descent. what were the engines doing, what was the rpm doing, the pressure doing and so on and so forth. so this is the first step in the investigation. >> we are now being told that the aircraft -- the airline has confirmed the debris is from the aircraft. it is from the aircraft. so this is the aircraft that they have been searching for. the airline confirms that. david rothgoth in miami, let me ask you in terms of the search now ongoing, no longer a rescue the search mission, how is it employed? how do different countries come together? is there a protocol for countries participating in this the united states offshore or ships in the area? what -- do you have to go through a certain agency or certain rules, employ yourself in that search? >> well first of all, there are protocols, and they -- you know a variety of countries have a claim on the search or get

involved in the search, the country of origin of the flight the country to which the flight is going, the country of origin of the aircraft. and so forth. all end up getting involved in the search. tragically, in this case this is a region of the world where the countries involved have too much experience, because of the earlier malaysian flight, because of the degree to which so many countries were involved in the search. and i think that's one of the reasons the search on this particular flight came together so quickly. >> david, it's kasie hunt. we've seen governments in this region sort of struggle to wrap their arms around what has been you know how a pair of major crises on this front and now this morning we're hearing from our katy tur in singapore the indonesian government showed photos to families. what do governments need to do to get their arms around how to deal with these crises from both

a logistical matter and a way of relating with people going through these tragedies? >> well you know unfortunately the thing that's the best teacher in this particular case is experience. and these countries that end up going through these learn from these experiences. this particular instance however, i think needs to be distinguished from the earlier one in that the governments and the search parties responded fairly quickly, found the flight fairly quickly, have gotten the information out fairly quickly. and for the families of those involved in this flight there is at least the small solace of knowing what happened to their loved ones. >> david, we want to talk about a year of global politics and president obama talking now about russia's economic problems and saying it shows that sanctions may be working, that vladimir putin was actually not

so smart in his approach to crimea crimea. i wonder if there might be a dynamic here of short term versus long term geopolitics. people used to say goldman sachs isn't just greedy they're effective because they're long-term greedy. the president seems to be making the argument while putin was short-term effective and got part of what he wanted in his crimea strategy he may be long-term ineffective. how do you rate that from the president? >> i think the president is right in the -- you know if you look at the state of the russian economy and where it's likely to head over the next year. in fact, i think if you're looking out to 2015, one of the things we need to worry about the most is what putin does when the economy gets worse and worse. he has never proven particularly good at managing his economy. and if you end up with people unhappy or food lines or other kinds of things will this drive him to be a little bit more erratic? or will it drive him to work

better with the west? we don't know. and i think that's where i take some issue or have a little bit of problem with the president's line. first of all, saying putin was not so smart does sound pet u land and school yardy. saying look, you weren't able to stop him. i'm not sure we can actually claim credit for the oil price drop which is really what drove russia into the position that it's in right now. and secondly i think in the course of the decline that russia faces, we can't actually predict how this is going to work. and nobody is predicting this decline and economic fortunes is going to reverse what happened in crimea or ukraine. so he is going to end up getting what he tried to get in those cases. >> michael, let me ask you about putin's next actions and what possibly he can do in terms of

lashing out now that he is coming under both the pressure of the economic crisis that is being put on him, some of this political criticism from obama with some of these -- president obama with some of these sharp words. is there concern he may lash out against europe going to the winter season and cutting off glass supplies to eastern europe and the rest? >> yeah i don't think rhetoric from anyone -- i think the critical aspect or component of what he does next will be what the price of oil does. i think the oil as a commodity will drive putin's agenda. we know that oil has dropped from over $100 a barrel. it's now settled at $60 a barrel. what's helping that settling and going on in libya. also opec usually a swing provider, is absolutely critical, and the saudi arabia isn't budging in terms of its delivery or intended delivery of output of oil in 2015. so what i think it really is if you look at putin's economy,

it's mostly invested in oil and natural gas and also a huge arms trade in russia. so i think it will have to divest his economy. and in doing so i think the arms trade will become more important to him. and we know who his main customers are in terms of the arms trade. it's iran and syria. >> david roth cop of in miami. a great website, look at it every day. great stuff on it. >> thank you. >> we appreciate you being with us. mikie kay, you're going to stick around? >> love to. >> thank you very much for saying that. and we're going to bring you the very latest information surrounding the recovery mission of the airasia flight. again, the airline has confirmed the debris in the java sea is from that missing plane. we're going to be going live to singapore in just a moment. also ahead, it's one of the big unknowns in president politics. can chris christie keep his outbursts under control? politico asks that. and the other looming questions for the new year, when we come right back. stick around.

[vet] two yearly physicals down. martha and mildred are good to go. here's your invoice, ladies. a few stops later, and it looks like big ollie is on the mend. it might not seem that glamorous having an old pickup truck for an office... or filling your days looking down the south end of a heifer but...i wouldn't have it any other way. lo ok at that, i had my best month ever. and earned a shiny new office upgrade. i run on quickbooks. that's how i own it.

these ally bank ira cds really do sound like a sure thing but i'm a bit skeptical of sure things. why's that? look what daddy's got... ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!! growth you can count on from the bank where no branches equals great rates.

♪ joining us now, the chief white house correspondent for politico mike allen. mike, i know its not friday so i'm not going to ask you to do happy friday. but can you do happy new year for us? can you do that? >> happy new year's eve-eve, and fantastic 15th. >> i'll settle for that. thank you very much. so this morning you guys of politico, you're looking at the top 15 questions for 2015. let's start with one of the basic questions for the democrats. can anyone emerge as the left's alternative to hillary clinton? >> yeah nobody is going to beat her in money, but certainly someone could beat her in excitement.

so that's what the hillary clinton camp is watching much jim web is someone who has gotten a lot of good buzz. elizabeth warren. people just aren't satisfied with hillary clinton. once she's running and has a message, this may die down. but at the moment there is a hunger for something else. >> do you sense that elizabeth warren has managed to push hillary clinton further to the left than she was six or seven months ago? >> no question. we've talked about this. you can hear in her rhetoric she has been including more of a nod to the progressive wing. she has been including frequent talk about working people helping people get jobs. a big part of the hillary clinton economic message is going to be inequality and helping ordinary americans. they recognize the obama threat they don't want it again.

this time it's not taking them by surprise. >> another one of the questions you posted in the political piece has to do with chris christie. can he control his outbursts, will his outbursts hurt him as a candidate. what's the deal there? >> james holloman who wrote this piece says chris christie has lost an estimated hundred pounds since his lap band surgery. can he shed some of his temper. this has really held him back vetters for mitt romney looking at chris christie as a possible vice president, showed him a dvd of all the outbursts, the youtube moments. so this tell it like it is nothing hold back personality that helped make chris christie a national figure it also is something that could hold him back. he's very popular, though with new york money people. they want to get behind him. he's spent most of this year putting bridge gate behind him. now he has to put a piece of himself behind him. >> michael steele the

over-under on the amount of people in this country who are thus still unaware of chris christie's outbursts, 99%, 98%? >> i think we've pretty much covered that one. and, you know that -- i think mike is right. that's going to be his hurdle coming into the 2015 season, if you will that he is able to show that softer gentler christie. that ability to take the incoming but not deliver same in response. and that's -- you know it works in jersey. but i even hear in jersey it's a little bit, okay we've got it. certainly beyond jersey he's going to have to show that new temperament, along with other things he's going to have to deal with the investigations, et cetera which could get under his skin. because that's what reporters are going to ask, what's going on in new jersey and how you're dealing with that and why are you out here and not there. so he's got a temper meant

issue. >> a newer fresher media outlook. >> i want to meet the kinder gentler chris christie. >> mike allen, thanks so much. say it one more time for us. >> we've got the cuddly christie and happy new year happy new year's eve-eve. thanks for a great year. >> we're going to check out the full 15 questions at politico.com, mike. thanks very much. michael steele thank you as well. still ahead today, a big meeting on the schedule in new york as mayor bill de blasio and members of five police unions sit down this morning. can they ease the growing tension amid reports that low-level policing has all but stopped new york city. stay with us. we'll be right back. ♪

you owned your car for four years. you named it brad. you loved brad. and then you totaled him. you two had been through everything together. two boyfriends. three jobs. you're like "nothing can replace brad!" then liberty mutual calls. and you break into your happy dance. if you sign up for better car replacement, we'll pay for a car that's a model year newer with 15,000 fewer miles than your old one. see car insurance in a whole new light. liberty mutual insurance. we come by almost every day to deliver your mail so if you have any packages you want to return

you should just give them to us i mean, we're going to be there anyway why don't you just leave it for us to pick up? or you could always get in your car and take it back yourself yeah, us picking it up is probably your easiest option it's kind of a no brainer ok, well, good talk i take prilosec otc each morning for my frequent heartburn. because it gives me... zero heartburn! prilosec otc. the number 1 doctor-recommended frequent heartburn medicine for 9 straight years. one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn. daughter: do you and mom still have money with that broker? dad: yeah, 20 something years now.

thinking about what you want to do with your money? daughter: looking at options. what do you guys pay in fees? dad: i don't know exactly. daughter: if you're not happy do they have to pay you back? dad: it doesn't really work that way. daughter: you sure? vo: are you asking enough questions about the way your wealth is managed? wealth management at charles schwab.

the worst fears have been realized for the families on passengers airasia flight 8501. we go live to singapore and why loved ones are outraged about how the local media has covered this. stay with us.

>> important message for women and men ages 50 to 85. please write down this toll-free number now. right now, in areas like yours, people are receiving this free information kit for guaranteed acceptance life insurance with a rate lock through the colonial penn program. if you're on a fixed income or concerned about rising prices, learn about affordable whole life insurance with a lifetime rate lock that guarantees your rate can never increase for any reason. if you did not receive your information or if you misplaced it call this number now and we'll rush it to you.

your acceptance is guaranteed, with no health questions. please stand by to learn more. >> i'm alex trebek and the announcement you just heard is for a popular and affordable life insurance plan with a rate lock guarantee. that means your rate is locked in for life and can never increase. did you get your free information kit in the mail? if not, please call this toll-free number now. in the last month alone, thousands have called about this plan with the rate lock guarantee through the colonial penn program, and here's why. this plan is affordable, with coverage options for just $9.95 a month. that's less than 35 cents a day. your rate is locked in and can never go up, and your acceptance is guaranteed. you cannot be turned down because of your health. see how much coverage you can get for just $9.95 a month. call now for your free information kit. don't wait, call today.

♪ you don't think much about it... you never dwell on how it was made... it's just a blanket after all... but when everything else has been lost, the comfort it provides is immeasurable. the america red cross brings hope and help to people in need every 8 minutes every day. so this season give something that means something. support us at redcross.org

♪ welcome back to "morning joe." amen mohyeldin, sam stein with us. and joining the discussion cnbc's brian sullivan. and in washington pulitzer prize winning columnist and associate editor of the "washington post" and msnbc political analyst, eugene robinson. >> we follow breaking news out of indonesia. the debris found in the java sea is from missing flight 8051. search and rescue agency made the discovery. indonesian officials say there is red and white material the colors of that missing airasia

aircraft and the debris also includes a plane door and oxygen tanks, luggage and life vests also visible. a spokesman for indonesian's navy says 40 bodies have been recovered. crews and ropes are being lowered into the sea for search for additional victims. loved ones of passengers broke down in tears at the airport as their worst fears appear to become a reality. one middle-aged man collapsed while watching the news reports and was taken out on a stretcher. the airbus passenger jet with 162 people on board was heading from surabaya to singapore when it lost contact with air traffic control. there were high winds and thunderstorms and the pilot asked for approval to change the flight's path and elevation. airasia ceo tony fernandez tweeted his condolences saying in part quote, my heart is filled with sadness for all of the families involved. >> michael, let me ask you, we've talked about this earlier, about an hour ago. but the 40 bodies that have been

reported to have been found thus far, initial reports are that none of them were wearing life jackets. the trajectory of the plane, when do we find out about the trajectory of the plane, when it hit the water, and what does that tell you about the bodies they're now finding in the water? >> i think we started getting clues when we didn't receive distress call from the jet. what that told us was the crews didn't know what was going on or something very abrupt and catastrophic happened. it's incredibly difficult, especially at this stage to under the mechanics of how the aircraft arrived at the crash site. in terms of was it a mechanical breakup, did it break up at altitude did it remain intact until it hit the ocean. we won't be able to understand that information until we have detected the black boxes, both the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder. and once we have that when the black boxes get into the correct authorities, the ntsb have a

fantastic capability for analysis on the black boxes and then they'll start looking at what the engines were doing. the black boxes will tell you what the engine rpm was, what the rate of descents were what the altitudes were the cockpit voice recorder and internal communication going on. and then it will start to come out. but this is a very long process, mike, as we know. one thing i would say, though that is -- it's heart-wrenching whenever you have an incident like, this absolutely heart-wrenching. but the silver lining in the cloud is the families now will be able to at least get some closure. mh-370 we never got past or haven't got past the where bit yet. and there are families of over 279 people that still do not know what happened to their loved ones. the difference here is that that grieving process now can start to occur. and i think that's important. >> well you talk about the ntsb and the black boxes. but the indonesian government

will be the ones investigating this. i mean we don't have much of a hand in the analysis do we? >> yeah, you're absolutely right. it's called -- it's the annex 13 to iko and what that does is give guidelines in terms of who is responsible for the investigation. and there are aspects to it such as the state of occurrence. usually where the state of occurrence of the incident occurred will be the leading investigative authority. but there are also other key components of this such as the state of design the state of manufacture, the state of rectangle industry. even with the people on board in terms of the nationalities, and all of these countries responsible for that will come together under the guidance of the state of occurrence to then lead the investigation. but the ntsb the air accident investigation board from the uk the australian transport safety board. all these authorities have a lot of experience when it comes to this. but it will be up to indonesia

to accept those offers. >> yesterday indonesian authorities asked the state department for help with the search part of the investigation, so there is the possibility that may now morph to include help with the investigation of this debris and all the other parts. and there has also been criticism about how the indonesian government has handled this in trying to offer assistance to the families. >> it is also a tragic reminder that flying is serious business. you know it's gotten so safe. i know this year is a bad year for flying but 2013 was the safest year in history. you go back to the mid '80s, you would have 20 to 25 fatal crashes a year and hijackings back in the '70s where once a week occurrence. and we just do -- this is a sad remeander, this is a tough business. and remember the pilots even though they ask for permission, we don't know what happened they can fly the plane however they want even if the control says no don't deviate, they have the authority to fly the plane how they choose. we're going to elevate and go

off course no matter what. ultimately, the pileot is the one who can decide if they feel their safety is in jeopardy. >> we go to singapore and katy tur live from singapore. can you writebring us up to date? first of all, a lot of people just tuned in it and probably don't know what occurred at that initial press conference when the local television station -- tell us what happened and how horrendous it must have been for the people there. >> reporter: yeah, we have more detail. there was a press conference going on the family members were in another room watching the press conference on live television, on tv one in indonesia. and as the press conference was going on the tv station was playing the images live images of those bodies. they have since apologized. but for the family members, this was the first they were learning and seeing they were finding debris from the plane and bodies

from the plane. so far they found about 40 bodies, roefd those, 16 2 people on board, 17 kids and 1 infant. they're still looking for quite a few bodies in the coming days. it's dark now, and it's definitely going to hamper the search effort. they'll resume in earnest in the morning. there is a dark shadow in the water, they believe that's the plane. divers will try and locate the black box. once they find the black box, they can bring it back to land and have it analyzed to find out exactly what went wrong, if weather was indeed a factor. but just a tough day all around here. some unimaginable pain -- i can't even imagine the idea of watching a television and seeing potentially your loved ones floating in the water. it's just been hard to -- hard to swallow for a lot of people. >> i wanted to ask about that point. and help me understand this maybe our viewers, as well. when you say the press conference was showing live

images, were they literally transmitting live from the helicopter these emimages, so they didn't have a chance to filter or screen before it was shown at the press conference or was this somebody saying let's show we found the debris? >> i'm not -- i'm not entirely sure what the editorial decision was there, whether or not they had that on tape or feeding it live. i don't know what the live capabilities were. i know if it was a u.s. network, that sort of stuff, it doesn't really happen on u.s. tv. because it's very sensitive. they don't like to show those things. it's happened in the past. but they don't really like to do it. so i am not -- it's unclear. it's a different standard when you go overseas. they do show a lot more bodies. they show death they show destruction. they show a lot of disasters in a way you don't see on american tv. there's not a big filter. so there might have been just the fact they just didn't think it was an unusual thing to show because you see that on tv quite a bit out here.

but for families who debit didn't have a warning, that's what added to the pain. i don't think anybody was particularly surprised they would show images like that on tv out here but i think the timing of it was a little -- well it was really insensitive. certainly, according to our standards, american standards, it was strikingly insensitive. >> katy tur in singapore, thank you very much. we appreciate it. with us now, the foundder and ceo of a risk investigation company, anthony roman, a commercial pilot and former flight instructor. what's your reaction to what the poor people -- family members waiting for news had to view this morning at that live press conference? it's horrendous that would have occurred. >> it is absolute torture. my heart goes out to the families and our prayers are with them. this is a terrible experience to have to encounter.

first the uncertainty of your loved ones disappearing, expecting them to be at a another location within two hours, and waiting for them in anticipation. then the long wait to try and determine whether or not they may have survived the disaster. and then to be told and shown images of the bodies floating in the water is just a terrible experience. i think that airasia is managing this extremely well. they have counselors on site they have religious personnel onsite. they have provided transportation and all of the supportive needs, food water, housing for the family. so i think we're doing the best we can for them. but nonetheless, it is an extremely heart-wrenching experience. >> gene robinson in washington, d.c. i believe you have a question. >> yeah. i just have a question for anthony. this is apparently a very safe aircraft. i'm not aware of any reports

that there was -- that you know we know there was some weather issue, but i haven't heard anything serious enough to create you know that bad a problem for this aircraft. so is there any sense of what might have gone wrong? did it have to be something sudden and catastrophic or could it have been something else? >> we don't want to suffer from investigation bias and proceed with conclusions prior to having all the facts in. however, some of the facts just scream out at you at this time. this area is known as the intertropical convergence zone. that's the area around the equator in which the north and south air masses meet and form terrible weather. it's also the monsoonal season. and this creates extreme weather. this type of extreme weather, level five thunderstorms, can result in catastrophic failure

of aircraft whether systems failure, engines failure or structural failure. it can also result in loss of control of the aircraft. so all of those are a possibility. although we have to keep open other possibilities such as terrorism, as remote as that might be. since in the point of origin there is terrorist activity and restlessness with regard to some of the militants there. >> anthony, it's brian sullivan. all our viewers have sat an airport and been delayed because of weather. the question is why were they flying into this category 5 thunderstorm? it's a relatively small geographic area. we have auto seen the radar. you can bring it back up guys how dense the storm was. why do you think the plane took off in the first place? >> well in this area there are storms a good deal of the time.

and particularly during the monsoonal season. aircraft fly there all of the time. this particular captain had 20,000 hours of experience. and the first officer, 2,500 hours, just with airasia. so it's likely even more experienced than that. they know this weather pattern, and they know what's safe and what's not safe. and it's traversed all of the time. the radar plot of the air traffic in that area shows three other aircraft following the same exact flight path ahead of 8501. they successfully traversed the storm squalls without any problem at all. however, these storms develop so quickly, that they can go from a top of 20,000 feet to 50,000 feet in two or three minutes. the pilots of 8051 recognized

the weather in front of them was deteriorating. they made a left-hand side. they attempted to climb but they were is sip plea caught in an unusual circumstance of extreme conditions without having the opportunity to escape. >> bill karins you've been looking at some of the weather factors that play out in that area of the world. let me ask you, with all of the instruments you have available to you, when would you have seep the formation of this storm on your radar? >> there's no radar here like here that shows a squall line moving. they have it on the plane but not the ground. so we don't have that data. they would have had the radar on the plane. and looking at the satellite data it was really rapid, a narrow line. but, yeah it looks like the plane took off and then

thunderstorms popped up. and if they actually -- the director could let me an meat on the screen i can point out what i'm talking about here. it's right in the middle. that line of storms that goes east to west above the letters there with the java sea. that is where we are looking at this line right there. that is the line of storms that they had to fry through. that is where they found the debris during the last 12 hours. so there was a pilot who saw it those storms were exploding quickly right in the flight path. they didn't want to go around so they tried to go above them like thousands do every day. so now i want to go back to my weather graph and explain the threats and dangers of what a plane does have to go through a thorp. this plane was at about approximate 34,000 feet. these storms in this region can

fly through this thunderstorm. it was growing rapidly at the time. that's all of these updrafts. that's extreme turbulence. along with the updrafts you can get a lot of large hail at high elevations. this is 30 for you feet and the hail can get up to 30,000 feet. remember, the pilot said he wanted to go from 34,000 to 38,000 did feet and we find the black boxes maybe we can figure out exactly why he thought 4,000 feet elevation would make a difference in that altitude. but maybe it was to avoid a hail shift showing up on his radar. or maybe possibly to get to colder temperatures. because if the plane was flying so say negative 30 type temperatures, it can be in what they call super cooled air. one pilot tweeted out saying a plane flying through a they were can cumulate ice in 30 seconds.

it's dangerous at temperatures minus 30 or so because they can couple late ice. if it's quick and they have to turn those on manually they may not go on fast enough. that's some of the concerns. of course, lightning too. but i think hail and eye ice may be the biggest factors. >> this is mikey kay. we're talking about this specifically to the region of indonesia. there are thousands of flights every day. can you give a sense of is this weather phenomenon specific to indonesia and that part of the world, or is this weather phenomenon that other pilots will be navigating on a daily basis. >> this pilot, 20,000 hours, and if he's flown in that region probably thrown hundreds of times. similar scenarios of this size and magnitude in that area. so obviously you wonder -- horribly unlucky to get caught in this unusual updraft.

maybet read the radar wrong. like i said other pilots hours or minutes would have made it through that route. >> butill, thank you very much. i want to add, guys a lot of other pilots had the same idea. if you read the transcript of the conversation between the pilot and air traffic controller he requested to move to a higher altitude. the air traffic controller said hold off. there's too many planes that high at that level. so they were saying other pilots had obviously done the same thing. it took a couple minutes for the approval to be granted. and when they granted the approval, they heard. so there is going to be some focus on that delay between the approval and the wish. so a lot of other pilots had obviously moved. >> there is going to be a question as to whether this was a human error in judgment or whether those on the ground control at what point did that -- or whether a pilot's

lapse in judgment. the airport manager at the international airport tells nbc news the jet overran the runway in a flight that was from manila. 153 passengers and 6 crew members on board that flight. some of them tweeted pictures of the plane on its nose with the emergency chute deployed. several passengers sent to the hospital but nowhere near the tragedy now developing with flight 8501. we're awaiting a response from the philippine civil of aration authority on that. >> and the latest information from the java sea as officials confirm they have located the debris of flight 8051. also ahead, the most important images of 2014. "time" magazine is out with its definitive list and we'll show some of the best pictures. they are amazing. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back.

so ally bank really has no hidden fees on savings accounts? that's right. 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. she inspires you. no question about that. but your erectile dysfunction - that could be a question of blood flow. cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment's right. you can be more confident in your ability to be ready. and the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved to treat ed and symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently or urgently. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. to avoid long term injury, get medical

help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision or any allergic reactions like rash, hives, swelling of the lips tongue or throat or difficulty breathing or swallowing, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis for daily use and a free 30-tablet trial. [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.

well odds are this morning in hawaii the president of the united states is on vacation. he would like a mulligan on this story. his love of golf accidentally forced a couple to change their wedding plans 24 hours before the big day. the couple both army captains are going to be married on the 16th green of the marine base in hawaii over the weekend. so let's bring in nbc news senior white house correspondent, chris jansing, live from honolulu hawaii. chris, this is -- well tell us the story. it's pretty good. >> reporter: well, yeah. i mean you may know mike barnicle aloha, the president does like his golf. and the golf course at the marine corps base is the one he plays most when he's here. they always warn people to expect last-minute schedule changes. i would say neither the president, though, nor the two

u.s. army captains who got married sunday expected that the commander in chief might become their wedding crasher. newlyweds, ed and natalie, didn't mind when his cell phone rang right after their "i dos." >> hi! >> both army captains their commander in chief made sure no one was teed off. >> i feel terrible. nobody told us. i hope the wedding went okay anyway. >> it did. thank you very much. it was a blessing in disguise. >> it might not have seemed that way at first. ed an avid golfer wanted to tie the knot near the base where they're stationed in hawaii. >> >> we knew there were two things that could mess up the wedding and one was weather and the other was the president. >> reporter: so when the president decided to play the couple got word they would have to move their ceremony. >> i'm sure the staffers didn't let him know. >> reporter: so you weren't ready to yell at him.

>> no not at all. >> reporter: the headlines weren't good for the white house. and it's not the first time obama's love of golf has provoked critics. he admit his mistake following the execution of james foley. ed and natalie say this is no controversy. this photo tells the story of a uniquely memorable wedding. >> unbelievably shocked and aweed. >> two west point grads on the phone with their boss. >> we were watching you golf. >> reporter: and ed got to ask the president a question the white house won't ever answer. but the president did. he shot an 84. >> reporter: could you beat him? >> probably. >> reporter: you golfers out there, ed is a five handicap. i'm told that's really good. both he and natalie did tours in afghanistan. a change in venue wasn't going to throw them. she said look we're west point grads and went into emergency planning mode.

and we should say that the couple isn't going to take a honeymoon because a lot of the wedding guests are sticking around to celebrate the new year with the newlyweds in hawaii. guys? >> yeah, well chris, god bless them. two literally great americans. west point grads, serving their country. and it's a happy story. nice story. beautiful place to get married. five handicap. >> you're a five handicap but per hole that's what i hear. >> to i'm down to two, because i've mastered the whale mouth. >> once the ball goes over the waterfall and through the gorilla gorilla's nose. i want to know about chris jansing did she go to sleep and wake up? it's 2:30 in the morning. >> reporter: i did, tough. it's 2:27 a.m. in hawaii. so i went to bed at like i don't know, 8:00 last night, after rushing off and interviewing folks. and can i just say, i gave him a little bit of a hard time because i said -- they were spending two nights at this

amazing, very simple resort but with spectacular views on this little cove. and i said okay this is what you call not a honeymoon. but they're incredibly nice and they were really -- they only talked to me. they had events they wanted to do but wanted to make the point there are a lot of headlines that say the president ruined their wedding and their argument is actually he made it. and i said to them are you sure you're not just saying that? because, you know he's the commander in chief. and they said you mean our boss' boss' boss' boss' boss? no. >> i think they are owed a set of golf clubs. >> go out on a limb. i will make barnicle a bet. i will buy you a pabst blue ribbon. captain ed will get an invitation to golf with the president.

he's a five handicap. he said i could beat the president. and the president probably wants to show no hard feelings. to wants to take that bet? he gets an invitation for a round of golf. we better shake hands. >> i don't know if i trust you. chris jansing out there, 2:30 in the morning. rock on. we appreciate you joining us. today marks one week since george h.w. bush was hospitalized for having difficulties breathing but encouraging news this morning. joining from us houston, nbc news correspondent, jacob rascon. jacob, how is the former president baggagepresident doing this morning? >> reporter: his breathing has returned to normal the most encouraging news yet. important to note we get positive updates every night on the former president. he got here last tuesday, as you said. having some trouble breathing. but he remains hospitalized as now his seventh night at houston methodist. and also important to note he's been here before. two years ago. and we only learned how serious the condition really was after

he left. so very well may be he'll go home sometime in the next couple days, and we'll learn just how bad it really was. only after he gets home. >> jacob rascon thank you very much. coming up debunking new years resolutions. a far better way to focus our energy over the next 365 days. we'll be right back with that.

welcome back everyone. breaking news overnight on airasia flightel 051. debris from the passenger jet was found in the java sea. and a spokesman for indonesia's navy tells reuters 40 bodies have been recovered. loved ones broke down in tears at the airport as their worst fears appeared to become a reality. airasia ceo tony fernandez tweeted his condolences saying in part quote, my heart is filled with saness for all of the families involved. >> indeed. here with us now, pastor of coral ridge presbyterian church florida, and grandson billy graham. author of "it is finished: 365 days of good news". >> you look like an undercover

pastor. >> i'm going to take that as a compliment. >> i'm not going to be picking you out as pastor. >> good to be here. thanks for having me. >> good to see you again. >> let me ask you, as we begin, how is billy graham doing? 96 years old. >> yeah, doing well. i mean his mind is working well. his body is the body of a 96-year-old, so things are, you know, kind of falling apart. but there is no real serious health concerns. he's doing well. we're proud of him. we hope he's around for another ten years, at least. >> wow. 96 and still -- still sort of getting it done. >> yeah he is. he really is. in fact, my daughter who is with me this morning, went up to spend thanksgiving with him, and she said that as soon as they walked in the door he recognized her right away. which is great. >> that is great. now, new year's resolutions, talking the last time you were here on the eve of new year's eve. >> yeah. >> how bogus do you think new year's resolutions are? how bogus is it to keep making

them? >> well making them isn't the problem. keeping them seems to be the problem for most of us. and i'm not on some campaign against new year's resolutions. but i think when we begin to examine and explore what lies underneath new year's resolutions and the making of new year's resolutions -- >> what does? >> well i think at least for me, what i've discovered is that it's really an attempt to fix ourselves. it's an attempt to make ourselves more loveable. to make ourselves better. thinking that we can find freedom and fullness of life if we can become better if we can fix ourselves, if we can in a sense save ourselves. and so the devotional i wrote, "it is finished" 365 days of short readings the sub title is 365 days of good news. and i'm really trying to help people know that all of the meaning, all of the worth, all of the value, all of the significance that we long for, and that we look for, by doing

things like trying to fix ourselves and better ourselves and all of those things. we already have because of what god has done for us. so it's really god's love that establishes our identity not our ability to fix ourselves. >> it's a daily devotional. >> daily devotional. it's one short, 250-word 300 word reading for every day of the year. >> what's today's? >> i don't know. i haven't looked at it. i write them i don't read them. >> can i ask you to go back to your grandfather for a second. i covered governor mitt romney when he was running for president. obviously he's met with many of the political leaders over the years. >> every president since harry truman. every one. >> i wanted to ask you, you've been critical of religion in the public sphere. you said it's the association between the church and politics has done big-time damage. >> yeah. >> to christianity. what role should religion play? >> well it's not so much

religion in the public sphere as much as religion in the pulpit behind the pulpit. that's my primary concern. that as a preacher, my job when i stand up on sunday mornings to preach is not first and foremost to address social ills or social problems or try to find social solutions. my job is to diagnose people's problems and then announce god's solution to their problems. so i think, in my opinion, over the course of the last you know 20 or 30 years, evangelicalism specifically their association with the religious right and conservative politics has done more damage to the brand of christianity than just about anything else. and that's not to say that christian people don't have opinions on social issues and we shouldn't speak those opinions. but sunday morning from behind the pulpit is not the place. >> do you think politicians sometimes hijack religion? >> they can. my granddad would be the first to say he felt especially early

on in his career felt used by politicians who were trying to gain his audience for political gains and political purposes. >> look i'm with jimmy graham. >> yeah absolutely. and then automatically people would think, oh this guy must be a christian or this guy is legit because billy graham said he was legit. so, yeah certainly. i think politicians can use religious leaders. >> we put pressure on ourselves to achieve goals, and you also write our goals are values not set in the goals we set out for ourselves. >> yeah. >> can you talk about that and why you think maybe it's harmful, maybe, to set goals for ourselves? >> well, it's not so much setting goals for ourselves. it's what's motivating the setting of goals. what are we trying to accomplish? and if we dig beneath the surface and examine our hearts and lives, what we discover is that we really are trying to justify our existence. we're trying to validate ourselves, trying to ensure that our lives matter. and the good news of

christianity is that god has done everything for us. he has already given us the meaning and the value and the significance and the worth and the love and the approval and the acceptance that we long for. and that we look for in 1,000 things infinitely smaller than what he has done for us. >> you know, you look great. okay? >> well thank you. it's early. >> and it's the inner sanctity that's important. i'm just wondering, what do you wear on sundays when you preach? >> basically, what you're seeing here. >> really? >> yeah. it's florida. south florida. so it's pretty hot, you know. i try not to get dressed up too much, because i sweat when i preach. so, yeah. i mean this is -- south florida is a pretty casual place. >> that's cool. >> the church needs it too. because the church has been losing people. catholic churches especially shutting down. >> please we're coming back. >> pope francis. he's the guy. >> father barnicle will lead us. >> the book is "it is

finished: 365 days of good news." thank you very much for being here. >> thanks for having me. up next a maryland woman is admit to go a hit and run that killed a bicycle rider. it happens to be the first female episcopal bishop. that story next on "morning joe." i take prilosec otc each morning for my frequent heartburn. because it gives me... zero heartburn! prilosec otc. the number 1 doctor-recommended frequent heartburn medicine for 9 straight years. one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn. u for calling colonial penn life insurance company.

i'm glad i was able to help you today. hi, my name is diane tull, and i'm a customer service representative for colonial penn life insurance company. insurance can sometimes be difficult to understand, but here at colonial penn, we make it simple. alex trebek has been representing colonial penn for over ten years and is here to tell you how we do it. thanks, diane. i'm happy to be here with these knowledgeable colonial penn representatives. i know that customer service is a priority for them. i've been representing colonial penn for over ten years talking about their guaranteed acceptance life insurance. if you're 50 to 85 write down the toll-free number on your screen and call for free information. with this insurance, there's no medical exam, no health questions either guaranteed. you cannot be turned down because of your health. and especially important in this economy, colonial penn guarantees that your rate will never go up and your benefit will never go down due to age. it costs just $9.95 a month per unit. that's less than 35 cents a day.

did you know that the average cost of a funeral is over $7,300 now? don't leave the burden of medical bills or other final expenses for your loved ones. you know how difficult it can be to find good customer service these days. at colonial penn it's their number one priority. call them now. you'll be glad you did. at colonial penn we've been serving our customers for over 50 years, and we have over half a million life insurance policies in force that help cover funeral costs, medical bills, credit card balances or other final expenses. we're committed to our customers. we make insurance simple! (representatives speaking)

[ female announcer ] nervous whitening will damage your teeth? introducing new listerine® healthy white™. it not only safely whitens teeth, but also restores enamel. lose the nerves and get a healthier whiter smile that you'll love. listerine® healthy white™. power to your mouth™! ♪ church leaders are stunned after a bishop in baltimore is being blamed for a deadly hit and run. joining us now from washington nbc news national correspondent, peter alexander. peter, it turns out this isn't her first run-in with the law. am i correct in that? >> reporter: mike that's exactly right. this is an awful story. in september of this year

heather cook became the number two leader of the diocese but now is under investigation for what was an awful hit and run crash. it left a beloved father of two young children dead and church leaders themselves acknowledge it could result in criminal charges. >> it will be my special care to nurture all god's people. >> reporter: she is maryland's first female episcopal bishop. heather cook now on administrative leave after she was involved in a deadly hit and run crash saturday afternoon. this morning, flowers mark the baltimore street where 41-year-old tom polermo was killed while riding his bike left mangled beside the road. witnesses say the driver fled the scene. church officials acknowledge cook was the driver. you can see the point of impact on her car's windshield. but in a statement, they say, she returned 20 minutes later to take responsibility for her action. across baltimore, bike riders say polermo died in the type of

violent crash they all fear and are outraged the driver didn't stay to help. >> that's terrible. maybe he could have been saved if the 911 call had been made right away. >> reporter: it's not cook's first brush with the law. in 2010 court records show she received probation before judgment for a drinking and driving charge in maryland. cook was also charged at the time with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia. but those charges were dropped and she successfully completed her probation period. church leaders are stunned. >> she was a very considerate, very kind person. she is a wonderful priest. and has a huge heart. and i am deeply saddened by this event. >> reporter: cook's lawyer wouldn't discuss saturday's crash, but told the "washington post" cook was distraught about the death of the cyclist, naturally, and added she is praying for him and his family. >> baltimore police would not say whether alcohol was suspected to be a factor.

church leaders will discuss ways, in their words, to move forward. mike cook's lawyer he declined our request for any comment from the bishop herself. >> so peter, obviously, it's difficult to find out, given the fact that according to your reporting and reports, she has had a drug arrest a driving under arrest. any indication whether her parishioners parish superiors reached out to obviously try and help her, a woman in distress clearly? >> reporter: it's a good question whether or not they reached out to help her, we don't know. but we do know they were aware of that dui arrest. ultimately the probation period, when she recently in september took this new position as the bishop and the diocese of maryland. obviously, the whole community has been distraught for a variety of reasons and it appears there are fears this may have been something she has had issues with in the past. >> another victim. peter alexander, thank you very much. up next it's time to

lighten things up a bit. it wouldn't beel hot days in new york without the rockettes. and we've got an exclusive behind the scenes look at the legendary dance company's christmas spectacular. brian sullivan was dancing with the rockettes. you're going to see that next. stick around. ♪ you park your car. as you walk away crunch! a garbage truck backs into it. so,you call your insurance company, looking for a little support. what you get is a game of a thousand questions. was it raining? were your flashers on? was there a dog with you? by the time you hang up you're convinced the accident was your fault. then you remember; you weren't even in the car. at liberty mutual we make filing a claim as stress-free as possible. see car insurance in a whole new light. liberty mutual insurance

okay it's okay to smile. look at the tree! planted that tree may 15th. look how it grew. wow. and we use brian sullivan because he's 6'8" to put the star on the top. >> i was going to say, did you string those lights yourself? >> you did a good job that day, by the way. >> i'll put some on your head if you keep talking like this. where's my beer? >> it's over there. please go get it and stay over there. radio city christmas spectacular wraps up its run tomorrow. but before putting the christmas fun away the great jordan roth caught up with the stars of the show, the world famous rockettes. >> all right team morning joe. it's the most wonderful time of the year which means it's time for the world famous rockettes. we are here at radio city for an exclusive backstage look at all

the high kicking holiday fun. when you were little did you dream of being a rockette? >> i was always watch and see the kick line. it was so fabulous. it looked so easy. >> is it as easy as it looks? >> oh absolutely not. >> to be a rockette it takes a lot of hard work and energy. >> can we see this amazingness? >> right over here we're going to show you actual costumes we wear in the show. this is our new exciting scene that we have this year. it was completely reimagined for year's spectacular. >> amazing. how many rockettes are there on stage at one time? >> you'll see 36 women on stage. the longest line of rockettes, obviously to fill the great stage. >> this is our santa costume. i'm going to let you hang onto this. this is a lot heavier than it looks. >> this is really heavy. >> it's very heavy. this is a number where you can hear the audience just clapping

and laughing. >> 36 santas. >> more than. there's about 50 santas on stage. this is our iconic soldier costume. this was designed and been in the show -- >> by vincent minelli? >> yes. >> >> we have to keep our hands gu h glued to our sides. we stand up straight. we walk with our legs totally straight. we can't bend our knees. and you have to lift the hip to keep the leg straight. >> oh. right. lift the hip. >> just 36 women, and we're all falling on each other and using a series of steps. it's like the hardest part of the show. you have to buckle l down use, you know every bit of strength that you have in your body. we walk through a number of steps, of course engaging your abs, and hopefully create an effortless domino effect of a fall.

>> this is not the complete -- there's more. >> oh yeah. we have hat and cheeks that are going to top off our final look here. >> okay, this is not so easy to balance. >> let's do the walk now thattive got the hat and cheeks. >> right. >> oh my god. amazing. ♪ the minute you start, like the first leg goes up and the audience goes insane. >> so we'll start with the right. >> you have no idea how special i feel. >> we'll start with a right and finish with a left. all right. big smiles. you're on the great stage of radio music city hall. ready. five six, seven, eight. one, two, three, four. >> amazing!

>> that was awesome. >> i know you are jealous because you did not get that assignment. be honest. >> here's your chance. >> i've done that. >> the high kick? >> yes. i did it last year on stage. i'm kidding. what about the collapsing line of soldiers? that was impressive. >> who gets the last in line job? that seems like -- >> that is a good question. >> the strongest one. >> what do they do with the -- they have live camels in that show. what do they do with the camels? they use scarborough's office when he's not here? >> i've seen some camels walking on 50th avenue. >> that's when the bar is closed. >> you know. that's at 4:00 a.m. it's a pink elephant. well, we bot to switch gears now. up next we're going to go live to singapore for the latest in

the heartbreaking discovery of at least 40 bodies and debris from flight 8501 and why the families of the passengers say this local media has added the to their grief. u for calling colonial penn life insurance company. i'm glad i was able to help you today. hi, my name is diane tull, and i'm a customer service representative for colonial penn life insurance company. insurance can sometimes be difficult to understand, but here at colonial penn, we make it simple. alex trebek has been representing colonial penn for over ten years and is here to tell you how we do it. thanks, diane.

i'm happy to be here with these knowledgeable colonial penn representatives. i know that customer service is a priority for them. i've been representing colonial penn for over ten years talking about their guaranteed acceptance life insurance. if you're 50 to 85 write down the toll-free number on your screen and call for free information. with this insurance, there's no medical exam, no health questions either guaranteed. you cannot be turned down because of your health. and especially important in this economy, colonial penn guarantees that your rate will never go up and your benefit will never go down due to age. it costs just $9.95 a month per unit. that's less than 35 cents a day. did you know that the average cost of a funeral is over $7,300 now? don't leave the burden of medical bills or other final expenses for your loved ones. you know how difficult it can be to find good customer service these days. at colonial penn it's their number one priority. call them now. you'll be glad you did. at colonial penn we've been serving our customers

for over 50 years, and we have over half a million life insurance policies in force that help cover funeral costs, medical bills, credit card balances or other final expenses. we're committed to our customers. we make insurance simple! (representatives speaking)

welcome back to "morning joe." it's the top of the hour at 8:00 in the east. we'll be bringing back in former investigator with the national transportation safety board greg fife. >> but we want to begin this hour with the latest on the

flight 8501. just a short time ago the airline confirmed the debris found in the java sea is from the airbus passenger jet. ind indonesia says there is red and white material, the colors of the missing aircraft and the debris including plane door, oxygen tanks, luggage and life vests were visible. 40 bodies have been recovered. loved ones of passengers broke down in tears at the airports as their worst fears began to become a reality. indonesia's president will travel to comfort the families and they are setting up a family center with counselors and religious leaders. it was heading to singapore when it lost contact with air traffic controls. and the pilot did ask for approval to change the flight path and the elevation. air asia ceo tony fernandez tweeted his condolences saying

my heart is filled with sadness for all the families involved in this. >> one of the things we were discussing before we came back at the top of the hour the problems involved with information dissemination. the rapid dissemination of information and ludicrous "s from the media about it. >> absolutely. this for me started to emerge when deborah hersman, then head of the ntsb was leading the charge as the investigation, which was the korean jet that crashed into the sea wall in san francisco. we noticed that she was coming on very frequently almost a couple of times daily to update this media frenzy this appetite to know what was going on and greg and i were talking before the break. sometimes you just have to wait. this is an investigation. and there are many parts to it. and it can take a long time. at the center of this must be

the respect of the families. this going viral. there's a video wenched down to the java sea looking to recover a body. that body will have a family. it will have loved ones. there just seems to be a lack of respect at the moment in terms of the way this information is pushed out there for the appetite for everyone on social media, facebook twitter to see, that i think needs to be captured formally. >> and it goes to the fact that we have the live distribution of what is essentially primary source material. and you start with evidence. and an experienced investigator can weigh the evidence or have a historical context from what that means. and certainly when you talk about the heartbreakers, what you were talking about earlier, live video images o going up

that's not how, of course anyone involved from the company side or the government side wants the notification process to go greg and yet in this technological environment, if the cameras are on and they're a part of it although not a particular showing of those corpses i should mention, to be clear, but part of the larger coverage. how does it affect the type of investigation as they proceed? >> well you have to control the information. one of the things when you talkeded about deborah hersman. she was putting out information. that was great. but the problem is that it fueleded so much speculation. she was provideing information off the voice recorder well before it was vetted by thorough investigators. you cannot do that. you cannot run an investigation and feed the media frenzy. at this particular event, it looked like airasia got it right. they were controlling the information. they were providing it in a timely manner to families and

then something happened. something broke down, and all the sudden the families watching tv -- >> what broke down? >> well it was the government. if i'm going to break the press under family assistance here in the united states and the foreign family assistance act, you brief the facts first before you provide any information to the media so that they understand this is what we have and this is what we're going to go with. and you control that information. and then provide it to the media. in this case they were briefing the press. giving them information about the bodies and debris and all the sudden the family members happened to see it on tv. you have to maintain the protocol. and unfortunately we tend to jump and we want to feed people, and we want to get the information out. and that unfortunately leads to heart ache that these families are now experiencing. this was going well up until that point. >> we're going back to singapore where katy tur is live from singapore. katy, anything -- what are the

plans for the family members of the deceased? the family members of the people who were in that plane. have any been made by the airline or indonesian government? >> reporter: well the imminent plan that airasia put in place before the bodies were found was to chart aeroflight for tomorrow. they're going to take family members, anybody what wants to go up in a flight half way between singapore and indonesia and around the area where the plane was last known to be those families will be able to pray for their loved ones. they're also going to do something similar to this for mh370 off the coast of perth, so this seems to be a protocol for families when these things happened. then the process is getting the bodies back, identifying them and getting remains to the family members so they can make arrangements for ceremonies and funerals and burials and follow

their local custom as soon as they can. it's a really tough situation. you were talking about protocols and we live in an age where the the media animal the media beast, the social media beast is constantly being fed. you have to be extra careful not to add insult to injury, any more pain to what people are experiencing already. unfortunately this seems to be a case where the government was trying to inform the press and keep it very transparent. but in the process, ended up hurting their own people. so it's certainly a tough day out in southeast asia. but in terms of like the recovery process and in terms of the investigation, they're going to go out again tomorrow and try to recover the bodies. they're still calling this a search and rescue effort. they're still holding out hope for a survivor in the water. they can't rule that out. it's important to note until they call it a recovery effort we should point out it's still a rescue effort. that being said they're going

to send down divers to an area under the water where there's a dark shadow. they believe that's the bulk of the wreckage. and they're hoping if the divers go down, they'll be able to recover the black boxes, take those black boxes back to land have them analyzed to find out exactly what happened and if weather was a factor in this and how it can be avoided in the future. out in the water, is it still a multiple nation rescue effort out on the water? >> yeah five countries are involved. the u.s. sends a destroyer. as well as singapore and australia sent over an oh ryan. the same kind of plane serging for wreckage for mh 370. it's a multinational. there are a lot of fishing boats. there are a lot of tankers.

so everybody i think going along the paths has been informed to keep an eye out if to see if they see anything. so there's locals getting involved. fishermen and their boats were going out to try to see if they spot anything. so it's remarkable in the sense how people are coming together to try to find the plane, find the wreckage. find these people. the loved ones. and fingers crossed there might be a survivor out there. as the hours go by hope certainly starts to dwindle. >> katy, it's mikey kay speaking. i notice it's nighttime. i'm interested to get an air search, do the indonesians still have the capability to conduct the recovery and the search operation at night? >> you know that's to be determined. i'm not sure what capabilities

they have as far as nighttime. i think there's some capability of it. i don't know how extensive it is. they were resuming in the morning. it's also very bad weather out there, which is also hampering the efforts. i'm not sure they'll be able to do much over the course of the evening. i can't speak for them. maybe they will. in the morning they'll start in earnest. i know they did call in the u.s. to help with the recovery effort. it's a process. it's lucky it's in shallower waters so it won't be hard to get up. it's not like the indian ocean, which is extremely deep. so they're hoping it's not going to be too far extended process. certainly not like air france at the bottom of the atlantic ocean. that took quite some time to come up. but it is a multi-national operation. and they are utilizing everybody's best assets. i do think they'll be able to do a more thorough search certainly once dawn comes up tomorrow morning local time. >> katy tur with that live report for us. we're also following other

aviation news as we discussed. weather appears the to have been a key factor in the fate of the down airliner. peter alexander has this report on flying in dangerous skies. flying in severe weather can be risky. lightning can strike at any moment. clear air turbulence can cause passengers to panic. like this american airlines flight from south korea to dallas diverted to japan earlier this month. >> everything that wasn't bolted down or seat belted flew into the air. >> severe thunderstorms like those encountered by missing airasia flight can be an airplane and anybody on board's worst enny. >> hail lightning, thunderstorms are something pilots learn very early you have to avoid at pretty much all costs. you don't fly into thunderstorms. >> airlines and pilots specifically prepare flight paths to go above or around storms. still airasia flight is drawing

comparisons to the air france disaster that plunged into the atlantic after critical equipment iced up in a severe storm. and a flight that crashed this summer trying to avoid bad weather. in one survived either crash. but planes are designed to withstand extreme elements like lightning strikes, expected to hit each airliner in the u.s. once a year. today's planes are ruggedly built, pushed to the limit, as seen in this video, an estimated 23 feet before they could make it snap. and planes have live radar to track storms hundreds of miles ahead, giving pilots time to plan a detour. >> in the rare case where someone does enter a thunderstorm, the biggest issue is hail because of the damage that it can cause to the leading edges of the wing. the wsh, and to the engines. >> bill karins what kind of weather are they going to be looking out for the recovery process? >> during the daylight hours, which they just finished with

over the last 12 hours, so that was a blessing and hopefully one of the reasons they were able to make progress. right now there are showers developed over the area. cloudy skies. there are showers, and the weather is a lot worse in singapore than down in the search area. so it's not too bad. the forecast over the next two days doesn't look great. one thing that's a blessing is the water temperatures are very warm. 80 degrees in the search area. we're still holding out hope that if anyone is alive in the water, they would hold out hope for hypothermia. we're expecting a possibility that four or five inches of rain and thunderstorms in the next couple of days in this area. so the weather is not as cooperative in the days ahead as

today. the threat to the lightning and the hail and all things that the planes are meant to fight against. but one thing not mentioned is super cool droplets of water, and this plane was flying in temperatures that was conducive to going through the thunderstorms, which it looks like it did, that icing could be a problem. we get the black boxes up and the information, and we'll hear about that. the winds could easily be part of the story. >> greg sadly you've done this before. so take us through the steps of the investigation process. you're on the ground now. take us through the initial steps of the investigation. what will you be doing? >> now that we're recovering wreckage and victims, that process of the investigation will start to be choreographed by guys that will be an expert in subject such as aircraft structures, power plant and

those things. they'll want to examine the wreckage. one problem with wreckage recovery is you can induce more damage to those pieces that you're recovering. so they should have people looking at each piece of wreckage as they bring it up to document the damage. so while that part of the investigation is going on there's also still another part. recovering all the information from about the weather, the dispatch, the pilots the training and that kind of thing. because eventually you're going to marry all of this information together. the primary concern now that they've -- if they can find that main debris field, and that's what they really have to do it's one thing to find all the floating the debris but that stuff has been floating for three days. we need to find out where the origin is, where the the main imp pact point is. i know they've seen a shadow or something to that effect. >> how do you find that out? how do you find out the trajectory of the plane as it goes down and the main impact

point? they'll take side scan sonar. i would expect them to take side scan sonar. they will run it over that area and try to map the debris field. once they know that is the main wreckage, they will send divers down to a remote operated vehicle with a camera. they'll get out. they'll look at the wreckage and try to identify the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder. that's the primary mission, other than victim recovery is to get the two black boxes. that's going to set the stage for the story of the instres gators. this is an air bus. well over 200 parameters on the flight data recorder. so we'll have a lot of data we'll be able to put together. we'll know exactly what that airplane was doing from the time that it took off. and we're only 42 minutes into the flight. so they're going to have the entire flight. they're going to know exactly what the aircraft was doing

throughout the entire flight. once we get that picture, it will provide better understanding of the deposition exhibit the pilots were going through and the actions they had to take during the course of entering the thunderstorm. >> greg feif thank you very much. >> you're welcome. >> bill de blasio has a big meeting with the heads of five police unions a day after he is heckled at the police department academy graduation. plus, he may be retired, but derek jeter is still on top. r calling colonial penn life insurance company. i'm glad i was able to help you today. hi, my name is diane tull, and i'm a customer service representative for colonial penn life insurance company. insurance can sometimes be difficult to understand, but here at colonial penn, we make it simple.

alex trebek has been representing colonial penn for over ten years and is here to tell you how we do it. thanks, diane. i'm happy to be here with these knowledgeable colonial penn representatives. i know that customer service is a priority for them. i've been representing colonial penn for over ten years talking about their guaranteed acceptance life insurance. if you're 50 to 85 write down the toll-free number on your screen and call for free information. with this insurance, there's no medical exam, no health questions either guaranteed. you cannot be turned down because of your health. and especially important in this economy, colonial penn guarantees that your rate will never go up and your benefit will never go down due to age. it costs just $9.95 a month per unit. that's less than 35 cents a day. did you know that the average cost of a funeral is over $7,300 now? don't leave the burden of medical bills or other final expenses for your loved ones. you know how difficult it can be

to find good customer service these days. at colonial penn it's their number one priority. call them now. you'll be glad you did. at colonial penn we've been serving our customers for over 50 years, and we have over half a million life insurance policies in force that help cover funeral costs, medical bills, credit card balances or other final expenses. we're committed to our customers. we make insurance simple! (representatives speaking)

in just a few hours new york city mayor bill de blasio will sit down with the leaders of

five police unions. the private meeting comes amid tensions between the p two sides. including one union president who placed some of the blame or de blasio for the firing of two members this month. he praised the cadets for choosing a noble calling, but was booed and heckled before and during his speech. a spokesman for mayor de blasio reminded them former mayor was also booed when he was considering nypd layoffs. the graduating cadets also paid tribute to the slain officers holding a moment of silence during the ceremony. >> we have one more funeral service to occur, ari, this coming sunday for is second officer who was assassinated executed a week ago saturday in brooklyn. it seems to me that the labor strife here has been underplayed in the coverage of this story.

i think it's a huge cause of the continuing tension between the unions and mayor de blasio. >> i think that's right. this union contract already expired. this is a hangover from the bloomberg administration. they want benefits. they want pay. that is understandable. the question i think is not so much whether every police policy is perfect under this administration or the last one, it can be debated. but whether we're arguing about the right thing. to your point, mike i think the union leader here mr. lynch, has been incredibly irresponsible. i think you can be a critic of the protests and a critic of a lot of things without directly accusing them of being promurder. and look we're talking about crime and punishment he didn't offer evidence for that that. the fact that he talks about the issues in a certain way or his biracial family or the way some

officers feel impugn them is an issue for people in this city. >> "new york times" had a soft shop to pba. they talked about lynch in a feature a couple days ago. while the new york city police department is the most diverse in the united states. basically lynch whose chief lieutenants are middle l age white men, so they're taking a shot at the diversity of the union leadership not the police force leadership. >> limpblynch comes in and singled out eric holder and barack obama and other civil rights leaders, he has made it very political and if it really is a contract dispute, let's focus on details o f that. let's not pretend attacking the mayor will increase your leverage for other leaders. if anything it's really unhelpful. >> here's the deal with pat lynch and what he said.

bill de blasio is not responsible for the assassination. and his rhetoric afford this has inflameded the situation that ought not to have been inflamed. there should have been more respect paid for the service of these two offices. and my view is it interfered with the respect that nearly everyone accords the police department and the two executed officers and going forward, what happened at the police academy graduation yesterday. that was totally uncalled for. totally uncalled for. and what they're doing now is knowingly, unwittingly, you can feel it out of the streets, there's now sympathy for mayor de blasio among people including police officers. and the sympathy was not there a week and a half ago. >> the only thing i would say is even the democrats who i've talked to privately say that de

blasio really mishandled this. >> yes he has. >> you're right that the contract dispoort is very important part of the whole story. but that the the end of the day, this is about a lot more than unions. i think that this is a about the nypd, who has been beloved in the city for a long time has generated problems for de blasio. >> i don't know what specifically he could have done differently. i think the mayor has spoken repeatedly about the bravery of the officers and the rights of the protests. as you put aside if rhetoric unlike ferguson or new mexico where there's been other big police civilian problems we've had predominantly peaceful protests here. and the mayor is sitting down with the folks. he as reached out. we have crime as a real problem. we have questions about police accountability as a real

problem. when you put aside the new york post on the ground we've had peaceful discourse, it's not always the headline. >> and the mayor is going to lean on bill bratton to help him get through this. >> smart to do. till ahead, the selfie that broke the internet. time's picks for the most memorable photos of 2014. plus why the excitement over michael keaton's comeback is over and which you should watch out for instead. we're going to be right back.

the ceo of air asia addressed reporters a few moments ago. he refused to speculate on what may have caused the the plane to plunge into sea saying plet the black box tell us everything. he also expresseded grief to the others on board. take a listen. >> the only slight benefit is that for the people in there, there is some closure. this is a scar with me for the the rest of my life. it doesn't change anything. but very little there is at least some closure as opposed to not knowing what's happened and holding out hope. >> well we're going to find out everything from the black box, actually. we turn now to some of the images time magazine's photo editor picked as the best 100 photos of the year.

balinda, what do you have for pictures? everybody loves pictures and photographers. >> so many more people see photographs than they normally do. and we pick 100. we pick 10. we pick so many of the photos that carry the big stories. what is we? >> it's a cast of thousands. it's our photo editors and editorial stuff. >> what are you looking for? what jumps out and says this photo stands out? >> the combination of beauty a beautiful photograph that tells a real story. so beauty and narrative. especially in nature photos. the pictures of the hail or fire. those are beautiful and awful. >> you mentioneded more photos are being shared.

you have ellen degeneres' selfie. how many were taken by individual who is are not professional photographers? >> there's an amazing video of a hailstorm. the guy was bathing and took it on his little cell phone camera. and it made our list. it's just epic amounts. it's almost biblical. >> can we get that up on the screen to take a look at it? but many of the others are, you know, from forevers. the refugee in pakistan. this is a terrific shot. it tells us about the world around us and what is going on in the world around us that we somehow don't pay enough attention to. look at that picture. >> one of the stories of the year has been with the girls kidnapped in nigeria. how in any crisis where things

go bad, things go worse for little girls. that photo is so beautiful the way the eyes match the blanket that she's wearing and yet so devastatingly sad. >> another one of yours is a man being lynched in the central african republic by an opposing group. it's a photo that difficult to look at. you know the man is minutes from his demise. there are some photographs recently saying it's powerful but it's too much for our audience audience? >> that's definitely true. if the horror of the photo gets in the way of telling the story, that would be a reason we would exclude it. the foes that have a great emotion are wonderful. the photo of derek jeter when he hits the last home run, i think it's the ninth inning against the the baltimore orioles. it was a game winning home run. we can speculate on the baltimore orioles.

>> why you knocking baltimore? good thing thomas roberts is not there. let's add one. this will be next year's. >> that's absolutely going to be. >> i'm going to send this to you. the sheer volume of photographs make it harder in years past. billions of photographs taken every month. >> it is true. all over snap chat are things people don't see. i think a still image is still an incredibly powerful thing. and you can see, there's a great photo. i don't know if we have it here. of like very sad in syria. in pakistan. there's a refugee camp. and this photo was shared so widely it helped to get through. one that was very powerful was the mudslide. we're going to put that up. what was it that jumped out at you guys? >> the awfulness of nature and the beauty of nature at the same

time. it's the biggest most devastating mudslide in american history. 43 people died in the mudslide. so much rain. twice as much rain as they expected. it comes down. then you have the shot with the beautiful blue and the colors. >> we've been talking about the impact of the nature on the plane crash and the java sea and the lightning strike photo. on the world trade center a spectacular show. >> two bolts of lightning on that spire. this is now the tallest building in the western hemisphere so it's going to attract lightning, but it's amazing to catch two bolts. it's almost a year to the day day that photo was taken. maybe a week after. >> any pictures from outer space? >> i don't know. that's a question i'm not

comfortable to answer. you mean taken by aliens? >> have they submitted edted any? >> are you not following aliens.com? >> i meant anything from the satellite imagery often put out there. anything from the astronauts on the space station. >> you know the sun revolving around the earth as i believe it does. >> i'm not sure if we have space photography. those are mostly here. >> are you bias towards australian photographs? this photograph is so spectacular. it's a giant rock. >> i'm only one voice. >> i have one important question. is it cheating to use a selfie stick? it's an ongoing debate in h the selfie community? >> i personally think it is cheating. >> thank you. >> why would you? you're a tall guy. >> yes. i don't think it's fair.

barnacle has these little arms. i think the selfie stick is fair to use. >> i'm going to rescue you from him. >> thank you. >> there's a joyous photo at the air force academy graduation with hundreds of caps in the air. look at that. enormous jubilation. and in the background you can see the fantastic planes. and the thunder bolts going over there. i think vice president biden just said it's a fantastic, jub lent photo. >> we're happy that you survived brian sullivan. thank you so much. i feel like i've had my baptism. thank you for having us on. >> thank you so much. for the complete list of the top 100 photos picked. visit time.com. still ahead, jeb bush and hillary clinton. the "washington post" says which is in and which is out if r 2015? their answer might surprise you. we're going to be right back. stick around.

ring ring!... progresso! it's ok that your soup tastes like my homemade. it's our slow simmered vegetables and tender white meat chicken. apology accepted. i'm watching you soup people. make it progresso or make it yourself >> important message for women and men ages 50 to 85.

please write down this toll-free number now. right now, in areas like yours, people are receiving this free information kit for guaranteed acceptance life insurance with a rate lock through the colonial penn program. if you're on a fixed income or concerned about rising prices, learn about affordable whole life insurance with a lifetime rate lock that guarantees your rate can never increase for any reason. if you did not receive your information or if you misplaced it call this number now and we'll rush it to you. your acceptance is guaranteed, with no health questions. please stand by to learn more. >> i'm alex trebek and the announcement you just heard is for a popular and affordable life insurance plan with a rate lock guarantee. that means your rate is locked in for life and can never increase. did you get your free information kit in the mail? if not, please call this toll-free number now. in the last month alone, thousands have called

about this plan with the rate lock guarantee through the colonial penn program, and here's why. this plan is affordable, with coverage options for just $9.95 a month. that's less than 35 cents a day. your rate is locked in and can never go up, and your acceptance is guaranteed. you cannot be turned down because of your health. see how much coverage you can get for just $9.95 a month. call now for your free information kit. don't wait, call today. ♪ these ally bank ira cds really do sound like a sure thing but i'm a bit skeptical of sure things.

why's that? look what daddy's got... ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!! growth you can count on from the bank where no branches equals great rates. ♪ that is not the best song. >> best song of the year. please, please. here with us now from capitol hill staff writer amy is here with some of the items from the "washington post" list on who is in and who is out for 2015. i know i'm out. i've been out for like decades. but bush fatigue. bush fatigue is out. and bush no stalstalgia is in? >> i wouldn't have thought everybody would be talking or buzzing about the jeb bush

candidacy or george bush would have a book on the best seller's list. a year from now it will be reversed again probably. the same thing with clinton fatigue and clinton nostaljgia. >> i'm not saying he's going to win, but if he runs this is what people will be talking about. i know it doesn't sound trendy but get ahead. >> we want to get ahead. nicki minaj is someone people may be catching up with a very talented female rapper sometimes singer. but you say we should include dej loaf. >> nicki minaj is hugely popular, selling albums filling arenas. by the time your mother knows who nicki minaj is it's really

too late. you have to get in on the dej loaf bandwagon. she's from detroit. 23 years old. got a tomboy style about her. she got signeded about two months ago. she's going to be big. >> amy, i have a question for you as someone who lived in washington, d.c. downtown in a city, can you explain lumber sexuals and urban nomads? >> the lumber sexuals are out. you see them everywhere right anyway now. the guys with the beard and slicked air and plaid shirts establishing their urban environment. once the atlantic has done a big trend story about you, these guys are thinking they need to move to the next thing. you dress streamlined. dark clothes. you pack light. you're prepared to jet off at any moment to another city with your very lightweight laptop.

you know. >> >> ari is going to go shave that beard. he found out he's a lumber sexual. >> i don't want to puncture the magic of journalism. >> i think that was done 12 or 13 years ago. >> is this made up or according to you? >> listen once you're seeing lumber sexuals everywhere, you just know. that means their moment has peaked. it's crested. we're telling you what you need to look forward to in 2015. we're trying to get ahead of the curb for you. if you're aware of the lumber sexuals, you've seen them that's when you know their moment has passed. >> it's every bartender. it's the flannel shirt. i guess the question is why do the dudes feel the neeld tod to grow the beard? >> do the urban nomads live in the same neighborhoods? >> they coexist.

they're going to start taking over. you're going to see more and more of them. >> is that just like another term for air b&b users? >> probably. that's a web joke. >> why is kurt russell making a comeback? >> because he's going to be the new quentin tarentino fan. now he's back. he's winning all the awards. he's probably going to win an oscar for bird man. you have the comeback and you're just back. we're not saying he's out. but the michael keaton comeback you have to move on and look to the next thing. he's a star again. he's a-list again. now it's kurt russell who will be brought back in a big way.

>> i can't thank you enough for joining us this morning and bringing the word lumber sexuals into our vocabulary. i am amazed amazed amy, as how much has just gone right by me over the years. >> it's amaze inging the full list is online at msnbc.com. coming up purple rain 30 years later and how it turned prince from a pop star to a music legend. keep it here on "morning joe." e 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.

have you heard of the new dialing procedure for for the 415 and 628 area codes? no what is it? starting february 21, 2015 if you have a 415 or 628 number you'll need to dial... 1 plus the area code plus the phone number for all calls. okay, but what if i have a 415 number, and i'm calling a 415 number? you'll still need to dial... 1 plus the area code plus the phone number. so when in doubt, dial it out!

prince, the story. the struggle l., the movie. purple rain. >> all right. believe it or not this year marks the 30th anniversary of prince's academy award winning musical purple rain. with us now, former editor in chief, ivan light. prince in the making of purple rain. cohost and former rolling stone

writer. also the writer of "i would die for you: why prince became an icon." i'm a music nut. i'm totally hooked in. i hear this album. i'm like blown away. but i don't get the cultural significance until i'm driving in pensacola, florida, past a maw vee theater and see people wrapped around the movie theater. this is the first time the guy had the number one movie, the number one single and album al all in one week. this is a huge cultural achievement. >> it was a massive moment. this is a guy who had a couple of pop hits. he was not a mainstream star. he did no interviews. he went to miz managers and said get me a feature film deal or

you're fired. i'll find somebody who can. first time directors. prince had never acted before. the band was the cast. said we'll shoot in minneapolis in the wintertime. does that sound like a blockbuster idea to you? >> where he was in his career. he no business asking for money to do a movie. he had no business dplandemanding screens like this. >> why did he get it? >> because he demanded it. he understand the power of video music. someone believed in him enough to give him money. >> warner record said this is a good enough bet. it may help us sell some records. give it a shot. >> the album doesn't blow up quite as fast. it would still be amazing. it's an amazing album on its

own. because he had this video playing. >> amazing album. a lot of times somebody will catch fire blow up over a summer everybody stops. the thing about prince it's extraordinary music. i'm driving down the road two or three days ago. i hear "when doves cry." and there's no bass on that. how -- the only pop hit probably in the history of rock 'n' roll. and i said who that has the guts to say, you know what i'm going to take out the most important. >> and everything is leveraged. the biggest star in the world and the most experimental visionary musician. advertise manager told me he said to prince at one point you

can't be miles davis and elvis presley? and we've seen for 30 years. is he a guy who plays at stadium, the halftime show at the super bowl and is one of the biggest stars in the world? he caught that lightning in a bottle one time on purple rain and believed i'm capable of doing this. i can do both of those things. but it's been a seasaw struggle ever since then. but sometimes he wants to make a weird sort of smooth jazz record. and that's what he does. >> cool. >> he continued making great music after this h. but you're never going to have 25 million people. it happened once for michael jackson. it happened once for him. >> it happened once for springsteen. >> you guys talk about michael jackson, prince springsteen. >> it was all happening at the

same time. >> '84, prince. '85 springsteen. >> madonna there, too. >> jackson was what? '83? >> victory tour '84. same time. and mika goes to victory tour. everybody is complaining that it's 28 minutes. mika falls asleep in the 28 minutes. thank you so much. allen's book is called let's go crazy. we'll be right back with much more. y day to deliver your mail so if you have any packages you want to return you should just give them to us i mean, we're going to be there anyway why don't you just leave it for us to pick up? or you could always get in your car and take it back yourself yeah, us picking it up is probably your easiest option it's kind of a no brainer ok, well, good talk

[ female announcer ] nervous whitening will damage your teeth? introducing new listerine® healthy white™. it not only safely whitens teeth, but also restores enamel. lose the nerves and get a healthier whiter smile that you'll love. listerine® healthy white™. power to your mouth™! u for calling colonial penn life insurance company. i'm glad i was able to help you today. hi, my name is diane tull, and i'm a customer service representative for colonial penn life insurance company. insurance can sometimes be difficult to understand, but here at colonial penn, we make it simple. alex trebek has been representing colonial penn for over ten years and is here to tell you how we do it. thanks, diane. i'm happy to be here with these knowledgeable colonial penn representatives. i know that customer service is a priority for them. i've been representing colonial penn for over ten years talking about their guaranteed acceptance life insurance. if you're 50 to 85 write down the toll-free number on your screen and call for free information.

with this insurance, there's no medical exam, no health questions either guaranteed. you cannot be turned down because of your health. and especially important in this economy, colonial penn guarantees that your rate will never go up and your benefit will never go down due to age. it costs just $9.95 a month per unit. that's less than 35 cents a day. did you know that the average cost of a funeral is over $7,300 now? don't leave the burden of medical bills or other final expenses for your loved ones. you know how difficult it can be to find good customer service these days. at colonial penn it's their number one priority. call them now. you'll be glad you did. at colonial penn we've been serving our customers for over 50 years, and we have over half a million life insurance policies in force that help cover funeral costs, medical bills, credit card balances or other final expenses. we're committed to our customers. we make insurance simple! (representatives speaking)

good morning. good to be with you. breaking news to begin the rundown this morning. indonesia's search and rescue agency and the airline, both confirm the debris from airasia flight 8501 has been found in the java sea and at least 40 bodies have been recovered. the ceo of airasia spoke out just a short time ago. >> until the investigation, we cannot make aa assumption as to what went wrong. the weather is bad. floods in malaysia and thailand

a lot of rain. it's something we have to look at carefully. the weather is changing. >> and family members broke down in tears after learning of today's grim discovery. they encountered stormy weather with 162 people on board. we just learned a second u.s. ship, the u.s.s. ft. worth will be joining the search ef