ugh! heartburn! no one burns on my watch! try alka-seltzer heartburn reliefchews. they work fast and don't taste chalky. mmm...amazing. i have heartburn. alka-seltzer heartburn reliefchews. enjoy the relief. there it is, whoa, whoa. >> there's stuff in the air. >> right now, deadly torpedos tear through north texas overnight killing at least 11 people. nearly a dozen twisters reported. these aerials just in give us a first look at the damage in daylight. the debris cut across a 40 mooil long stretch across the dallas area and crews are fanning to locate people who may still be trapped in the rubble. >> i've been here for 13 years and this is the most serious incident we've had. we have a map where we think the

general path of the tornado did hit. huge amounts of damage, so we will be out there in the field this morning. >> let's get an update from on the ground right now, charles hadlock is live in rowlett, texas, damaged or hit by the tornadoes. he has the latest on the aftermath. >> reporter: good morning, eamon. parts of texas are waking up to a cold, wet mess this morning. as many as 11 tornadoes struck the state overnight, killing as many as 11 people. >> oh! there's stuff flying in the air. >> a path of destruction near dallas as deadly tornadoes touched down, terrorizing residents for hours. five people were killed in garland, texas, when the fierce winds swept their cars right off i-30. >> it appears at this point that they probably came from the roadway, from the highway, around 17 feet. >> eyewitnesses came upon a scene of devastation. >> it was terrifying. it was heartbreaking.

especially being the day after christmas. >> as the monster storm bore down on rowlett, bystanders recorded warning sirens and enormous bangs. >> i've seen tornadoes before, but you've never seen damage like this. >> reporter: homes and lives ripped apart in seconds. >> i cannot believe this amount of damage was done probably 30 seconds but it felt like a lifetime. it did. it was horrible. i'm sorry. >> reporter: building materials flew through the air, piercing walls. suzanne sorenson came out to find a stranger's treasured memories stuck to her mailbox and inside her truck. >> i pulled it out i was like my gosh that's someone's wedding picture. >> reporter: south of dallas, in waxahachie 40 homes were damaged in the surrounding area but no serious injuries reported. >> i'm thankful to god all of my neighbors are alive. >> reporter: the power of the storm was visible from above as planes passed over dallas.

below, a full ground stop was ordered at the dallas-ft. worth airport during one of the busiest travel times of the year. rescuers were slowed by flooded roads and power outages. nearly 25,000 people lost power. the city of dallas was spared the worst of the twister's destruction. >> new tornado warning in effect for ellis county. >> reporter: warnings may have saved many more lives but for those who came through the storm, a long road to recovery lies ahead. >> i have no doubt everyone will pull together. it will take a lot of time and effort. >> reporter: texas is getting this t all this weekend, a blizzard in the panhandle, tornados in northern texas and heavy rain the potential of flash flooding and snow could be mixed with the rain later tonight. eamon? >> that was nbc's charles hadlock. thank you very much. we'll try to get some official commentary from what is happening on the ground from authorities and officials

currently operating in the dallas area. we'll have that for you throughout the course of the hour. we also want to get an update on how this weather pattern is now unfolding. for that, we get the forecast from msnbc meteorologist bonnie schneider, joining us in monitoring the situation. >> eamon, unfortunately the threat for severe weather across texas is not over yet. we're getting strong thunderstorms with frequent lightning strikes just over the texas/oklahoma border and as our reporter on the ground mentioned, texas is experiencing all types of extreme weather from snow to ice to severe storms. now we have some new aerial pictures of what it looks like in the area hit by the tornado yesterday. just looking at this, it does look like it was a very strong tornado but the national weather service team has a survey team on the ground now evaluating it and eventually today they'll let us know what level on the ef scale this tornado was. when you are talking about total destruction it was likely a zrong one. this is garland, texas. typically with strong tornadoed some roofs damaged, some

completely demolished and neighbors across the street around the corner with nothing because the narrow vortex of the tornado bounces up and down through the region. when it hits, very difficult to track but when there is a tornado warning of course that's when you want to take cover and with the light of day you can see the ground is pretty wet and saturateded. texas everyone saw devastating floods over the fall season and the threat continues for flood this season now because the ground is so saturated. i mentioned the snow, you can see it's calming down all the way across parts of texas and oklahoma right now. we have several inches on the ground in amarillo but in new mexico we're getting reports of 16 inches in the eastern part of the state. here is the heavy rain and storms working their way through texas into sulfur springs along i-30, treacherous travel on one of the busiest travel days of the year. the flood advisories are widespread, texas, indiana, illinois, and into ohio. for the millions of people driving or flying today you're likely to face challenging conditions due to all the rain coming down.

for example, in st. louis, we are in the middle of a very serious flood event. st. louis has in the area two to six inches of rain on the ground but additional two to three inches anticipated through monday, so we will see intermittent rain for today, the national weather service describes this as widespread dangerous flooding, paducah through indiana impacted by the flood so long it will be a long event. going over the next 24 hours you can see i talked about st. louis getting about three more inches of rain. look what's happening in eastern oklahoma, where we could see six to eight inches or more, ten inches in some localized areas, so this is a really widespread dangerous situation for texas, oklahoma, missouri, and really all the way up through the region where we have that flood threat. let's talk about the wintry weather that we're experiencing because this is new this morning. we now have an ice storm warning just to the west of oklahoma city, so not necessarily for the city itself but we are seeing icy conditions. cumulating ice on trees, on power lines, likely to continue to cause power outages

throughout the day, plus the blizzard warning persists. yesterday i was talking about the potential for ten feet snow drifts, hard to imagine, but believe it or not, early this morning, we've had reports of eight foot snow drifts in eastern new mexico. at first it was five but we got a report in it was eight feet. this is in eastern new mexico all the way into texas, looking at not only this blowing and drifting snee with gusts currently reported at 60 miles per hour, zero visibility, but dangerous windchills below zero. this is just not advisable to travel anywhere, and in fact, parts of the interstate were shut down all the way from west texas to the border there, so we're looking at treacherous travel. elsewhere across the country we have that record warmth throughout the southeast so that's good news. but we do run the risk of severe weather in the same part of the country we saw tornadoes earlier in the week around christmas eve we'll watch out for that into east texas and lower mississippi valley. new york looks good today, a couple showers, 63 degrees. much colder off to the west, 26 degrees, but notice chicago 40

degrees, temperatures will be dropping tonight and chicago you're looking at a wintry mix way little bit of icing coming in tonight and for new england we'll be watching for snow going into monday night and tuesday. there's a lot going on weather wise. hard to keep track of it all. the next few days will be treacherous in many locations. here's a look at the ice and snow falling in the oklahoma city area by monday, 29 degrees, that cold air really settles in. still mild across the east, but we are getting changes. temperatures will be dropping in boston and new york city from sunday to monday. look at this, 34 is your high in boston and 42 in new york city. so we are getting colder and we do run that risk for sleet, just north of new york city, and some snow into boston, for monday into tuesday. so winter is worki ining its wa into the east but the main thing is the blizzard threat and flood threat across parts of the plains. >> i want focus on dallas and the surrounding area. we saw some aerial shots showing the scale of the devastation as

a result of those tornadoes. is the all clear given for folks or are there still serious weather patterns that could disrupt efforts for the folks on the ground going through the search and rescue and search and recovery phase of assessing the damage right now? >> looking at the pictures it looks like there's only officials in the area and even if the rain subsides and the win subsides it's a dangerous situation. i know people want to get to their residences and see what survived and what didn't but of course when you have things dangling, including power lines and electrical things, it's too dangerous so officials have to assess that area of danger before they can give the all clear but yes you're right, we still have the threat for severe weather into texas. it looks like the threat is going to be further east more towards the houston area but still raining there. we have thunderstorms in the area and just looking at that destruction this close up picture is riveting because you can see complete demolition and that's usually the sign of a very strong tornado. >> absolutely. msnbc meteorologist bonnie schneider, thank you very much for that update in what is shaping to be an ugly end for

the folks in the plains as well in texas for 2015. we're also following a developing story in california, where a massive brush fire that's burned more than 1200 acres is now 60% contained, more than 600 firefighters battled the fire which started friday night in ventura county. investigators say downed power lines were to blame. it's not only bad weather in north america, we're also seeing it in south america as well, the worst flooding in half a century, more than 150,000 people fleeing their homes in paraguay, argentina, brazil and uruguay. officials reporting at least six deaths so far with paraguay and arnl tina bracing for high water levels. elle demean yo brought torrential rains throughout the region. first up, a big victory in the fight against isis, stay with us. the flu virus hits big. with aches, chills, and fever, there's no such thing as a little flu.

and it needs a big solution: an antiviral. so when the flu hits, call your doctor right away and up the ante with antiviral tamiflu. prescription tamiflu is an antiviral that attacks the flu virus at its source and helps stop it from spreading in the body. tamiflu is fda approved to treat the flu in people two weeks of age and older whose flu symptoms started within the last two days. before taking tamiflu, tell your doctor if you're pregnant, nursing, have serious health conditions, or take other medicines. if you develop an allergic reaction, a severe rash, or signs of unusual behavior, stop taking tamiflu and call your doctor immediately. children and adolescents in particular may be at an increased risk of seizures, confusion, or abnormal behavior. the most common side effects are mild to moderate nausea and vomiting. anti-flu? go antiviral with tamiflu. (politely) wait, wait, wait! yyou have to rinse it first.t, what's that, alfredo? no, that can go in. no it can't! what are you, nuts? that's baked-on alfredo.

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police across europe are stepping up security measures over concerns of a possible terrorist attack in the coming days. authorities in vienna say a friendly intelligence service warned of a series of attacks before the end of the year. german official wouldn't be more specific about the potential threat but says the security measures had been adapted in response to last month's attacks in paris. in other news, isis released an audio message yesterday purportedly from the terrorist group's leader who rarely makes audio recordings. he condemns coalition air strikes this as iraqi forces are closing in on a central government compound in the city of ramadi. the target of a now five-day assault to take the city back from isis control. and in syria, syrian democratic forces took control of a dam in northeastern aleppo province yesterday. it's a strategically important win for military forces in their

fight against isis. here to take a closer look at the region is former senior british officer michael cain will break it down for us. >> this is the town of ramadi which we've been following for the last 48 hours. iraqi security forces here and we must be mindful within the iraqi security forces there may be shia-backed militia as well who have been quite instrumental in targeting islamic state in this part of the world. the key component is the government complex, isis territory is shrinking by the day and iraqese security forces reached within about 500 meters of this. taking the government complex would signify a re-taking of ramadi as a whole which would be significant fort the reasons we spoke about yesterday. however like with all are fare what we're hearing from the anbar council is that 80% of ramadi have been destroyed between october 2014 and may when the islamic state took it. that will take some ten years to

rebuild, so we must be mindful that yes, the iraqi security forces may have taken ramadi back but it's going to take a long time to rebuild it. now, more broadly, within the region, there are unconfirmed reports in haweja, a peshmerga and u.s. commander assault on an isis prison a couple of months ago, unconfirmed reports yesterday another assault by peshmerga and u.s. forces that have gone in here to retake that area. we'll keep you updated as we go along. as eamon referred to earlier on, there was an audio message put out by the islamic state's leader that's abu bakr al baghdadi. al baghdadi in september was targeted on the border between syria and iraq by an iraqi drone and there were unconfirmed reports that he had been killed but clearly this audio message yesterday tells us quite clearly that he is alive and well. moving up to raqqah, just above raqqah, the self-proclaimed capital of islamic state, there

is lake assad and above that tis shring dam. the syrian democratic forces being a conglomerate of arabs of of kurds, turkmen and various coalitions in the area, they've retaken that dam and that's significant because oil isn't the only commodity that the islamic state are after. it's also water, and then coming back down we've had a significant amount of air strikes reports they are targeting up to 15 times a day in aleppo and idlib and another significant piece of information in the damascus area is the targeting and the killing of the leader of jaesh al islam, previously called liwah al islam. we're not sure whether it was a russian or assad air strike, he's been killed and his role in

the entire opposition process was significant due to him being part of the talks, the recent talks, the opposition talks in riyad by the saudis. eamon? >> michael, you mention the killing of this leader, can you talk to us how it might change the dynamics on the battlefield? >> he's a polarizing figure. some argue he was instrumental to the peace process. for example, there was a recent u.n. brokered deal which had assad's buy-in that would take 2,000 islamic state soldiers from around the damascus area, east guta, all the way down to douma and take them back up to raqqah here. that deal has been put on hold because of the killing and he's been replaced by a guy named boudwani. others argue he was a proponent of osama bin laden, proponent of sharia law and he's now killed,

it's a good thing. he's a polarizing character. >> we have to leave it at that, michael kay thank you. lot of moving pieces in iraq and syria including that purported recording from isis' leader, abu bakr aa aal bag taddie. if you're just joining us, live pictures from the dallas area and damage in the wake of a series of deadly tornadoes an at least 11 people were killed either from the storm or in traffic-related deaths. dozens of people also hurt. we'll go live to the ground in texas in just a bit. next, campaigning on christmas. (vo) some call it giving back. we call it share the love. during our share the love event, get a new subaru, and we'll donate $250 to those in need.

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accelerating transformation. accelerating next. hewlett packard enterprise. we have new pictures of rowlett, texas, from kxas our affiliate in texas. you can see just this scale of the devastation and the damage caused by those tornadoes

overnight. some areas complete homes, complete buildings razed off the ground. you can barely make the rubble as a result of those tornadoes, very devastating scenes. these are new images that we're getting the scale of the devastation caused by the severe weather there that left people dead. we'll be touching base with a red cross official on the ground in dallas. we want to switch gears for a little bit and talk about politics in 2016. the presidential candidates will be back on the campaign trail tomorrow as you can expect and with the iowa caucuses five weeks away, some republican candidates are taking advantage of the christmas holiday to win over crucial evangelical voters in the hawkeye state. ted cruz for example ran this ad last week. >> imagine the greatest christmas stories, green eggs and ham from the senate floor. >> 'twas the night before the shutdown and all through the house, not a bill was stirring, not even to fund a mouse. >> joining us now is a former

bobby jindal campaign manager, and also dan gerstein, democratic strategist and former senior adviser to senator joe lieberman of connecticut. gentlemen thank you for joining us. i want to start off with ted cruz and put up a full screen of the cartoon of "the washington post," showing his daughters as monkeys, and shortly after that ad was released, "the post" had to really retract the cartoon. does this whole controversy surrounding the children of senator ted cruz hurt or help his campaign? i know that's a very political question to look at something like that, but does it hurt or help him? >> i think it helps a little bit because the sure thattest way to fire up conservative voters is to have the liberal media do something stupid to you, and with john mccain there was a controversy in the "new york times" a story about his ties to a lobbyist and it allowed him to play the victim.

that animates voters on the conservative side so probably a little bit of a boost for him headed into iowa. >> it's not a surprise for candidates to use this holiday season to get across their messages. donald trump certainly has as well in some of his recent campaign stops. he had merry christmas printed on his podiums. how is that playing with evangelical voters? is that strategically designed to reach a voter in. >> i don't know trump is doing anything strategically. ted cruz did a southern state swing because there's a huge southern primary march 1st that he plans to win and he has santa claus traveling with him and doing pictures with people so i'm more doct-- >> santa claus it on his side? >> well the santa claus he hired is on his side. i'm interested seeing where the candidates are going around the holidays. cruz is doing a huge iowa tour. he's in a position to win iowa. he's got the best organization, no matter what the national polls say, everything that matters is iowa and new

hampshire and south carolina. rubio's heading into new hampshire or excuse me, into iowa this week and you've got christie, who i think still has a shot, is doing all his time in new hampshire. christie has done 131 town hall events in new hampshire and that's the most interesting part i see who wins iowa and new hampshire and who goes to the southern state primaries. >> in terms of how republicans have been campaigning throughout the holidays in particular, do you expect any of the major candidates to change what they're doing or everyone staying locked in what they have doing and wait for the first ballots to be made? >> i would guess probably going to continue doing what they're doing. i think what's most interesting is what is not happening in iowa. trump is very late to the game, doing a little bit of organizing but to mostly he's running a national media campaign and that is not an effective strategy in iowa. we were talking about this

before, ted cruz is the best funded, best organized and smartest campaign in targeting their voters and iowa, you really need to get people out, the caucus is a tough sell, and trump's voters there's a lot of buzz around him, but they're the typical voters who least likely to come out on a caucus night. if he gets embarrassed in iowa -- >> what do you say the least type to go out? >> caucuses attract the most committed voters who have a record of voting, who are prepared to come out and spend four, five hours listening to speeches on an icy night. >> one thing no one is talking about, the most interesting part of this whole thing is the super pack side, you've got some of the biggest donors in the world that give to politicians and they're freaking out, and between january 1 and february 1, there's going to be hundreds of millions of dollars, and i like to say dumped on trump's head. he doesn't know it's coming. he's not prepared for it because he's not spending any money right now. it will be interesting to see when that money is spent in iowa and new hampshire, south

carolina, the southern states where the first primaries are how that effects him because it's come. >> you think that may force his hand to start spending? >> well, yes, or switch to be an independent candidate. >> we'll have to leave it at that. thanks you guys for joining thus holiday weekend. we're continuing to track the line of deadly storms devastating the dallas area. at least 11 people have been killed as we mentioned. we'll go live back to texas for the very latest right after this.  i asked my dentist if an electric toothbrush

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we've been following breaking developments out of texas all morning long. at least 11 people are now dead following a violent night of storms that spawned as many as 11 reported tornadoes. residents describe the terrifying moments as the fierce winds swept through. take a listening. >> then you heard all the windows breaking and you heard everything hitting the house and the house was shaking and then

we stood there and just prayed until we thought it was safe to get out and we walked out and saw what everything had happened. >> now we're getting our first pictures of the damage in the daylight, the destruction is widespread as you can see there, homes completely destroyed, power lines toppled. authorities in the hardest hit areas have put a curfew into effect so emergency cruise can get to those who need help. charles hadlock has been following the latest for us all morning long from rowlett, texas. good to have you with us. what are officials saying about the extent of the damage? describe for us what authorities are saying in terms of the sheer size of this devastation. >> reporter: of course, eamon, this tornado struck last night, so the first light today is really the first look anyone has had at the tornado damage. you see those aerials show a wide swathe of damage leading from just southeast of dallas to the east side of callas county, up into rockwall and colin counties of texas.

as you mentioned, 11 people have died in the storm, 8 of them in garland, in the city of garland and most of those, at least five of them were motorists who were traveling down interstate 30 over an overpass, and were swept away as the tornado just happened to come by. those cars were smashed onto the ground below, killing at least five people. they probably had no idea what was happening. the cloud itself was wrapped in rain. it was hard to detect in the nighttime. the sirens were going off and of course motorists wouldn't know that as they were driving by. elsewhere across texas, two people were killed in a gas station in copeville to the north of here and also an infant died in the town of blue ridge overnight. so a devastating night and adding insult to injury, the temperatures here have plummeted and now a thunderstorm, waves of thunderstorms are passing through the area, and tonight, snow could be mixed with the rain. eamon? >> charles, looking it's shaping

up to be an ugly day for the folks there. could you give us a sense, have some of the folks down there been able to get back to their homes or is the area still a no go zone so to speak in that authorities do not want people coming back to assess the damage of their homes to try to recover things? what is the latest on the ground there? >> reporter: some homes have been totally wiped off their foundations. here in the town of rowlett, heavily damaged, a lot of roofs peeled off. believe it or not some people spent the night in their homes here, they had nowhere else to go and it was a cold, wet night but they did find a corner of their house, perhaps a dry mattress to sleep on. today they're venturing out surveying the damage here in their neighborhood. >> charles hadlock with us for the live update. the red cross launched a region-wide response to the storms. for more on those efforts we're joined on the phone by anita foster, spokesperson for the red cross in texas.

at ani anita, thank you for joining us. how many shelters are open? how many people do we expect to take refuge in shelters the red cross is setting up? >> we did set up three shelters last night in three different gee xwraskal areas. the tornado outbreak was fairly widespread across a large geography. we wanted to make sure no matter where you were in the north texas area you had a place to go, so we monitored the shelters progressively throughout the overnight hours. residents took advantage of the shelters and stayed. some people stay at their homes, they fear looting, they fear people coming by their homes that they don't know and so we understand that, so today as soon as the weather clears, our number one priority is actually getting into the neighborhoods to make sure that as people are trying to salvage what they can, they have needed supplies like shovels and tarps and rakes, those kinds of things you don't realize you no longer have when

a tornado rolls through your community. >> anita, you talked about the shelters that you've set up. do you have a sense of how many people are in need of sheltering right now, either people that may be staying with homes? are we talking about hundreds? are we talking about thousands? >> no, the thing with sheltering after tornadoes is tornadoes, while they're very deceptive, they typically hit a fairly isolated area. the metroplex being such a huge location, affords people the opportunity to spend with family or book a hotel in a nearby city. while our shelter numbers won't be as dramatic, it doesn't mean the tornado has not left massive destruction. folks will be out on their curb today realizing they don't have the capacity to make a cup of coffee. >> we can see some of the destruction. i want to talk to you about the

resources you're in need of and providing. is there a place set up for people to donate or contribute? what are you in most need of down there to make sure to get to the folks whose homes have been damaged or in need of help down there? >> the american red cross, the best way to help us is always a financial gift. it allows us to supply folks on the road right now, the shovels, the tarps, the hygiene items, all bought in advance, packaged, palettized and shipped to go at a moment's notice. it also allows us to help people with the things you can't donate, things like prescription medicatio medications, eye glasses, assistive devices, things that can't be donated unfortunately with i think in this disaster to have a large cadre of disaster mental health volunteers available to help people cope. financial donations are the best way to help. our supplies we do have rolling out today and we'll continue to

purchase those as we need them for the communities. >> all right, anita foster, our thoughts and prayers are with you and everyone in the community affected by the tornado. thank you for your work and thank you for updating us. we'll check in with you throughout the course of the day. we'll take a short break. you can see pictures from rowlett, texas, showing you the scale of devastation caused by severe weather overnight in the dallas and texas area. but i keep it growing by making every dollar count. that's why i have the spark cash card from capital one. i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy for my studio. ♪ and that unlimited 2% cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business... that's huge for my bottom line. what's in your wallet?

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>> that's a scene from the powerful new movie "concussion" which opened nationwide on christmas day. the film tells the story of dr. bennett amalou, played by will smith, the first to discover a link between head injuries and degenerative brain disease found in many former professional brain players. his findingings rocked the nfl with accusations the league was trying to stonewall the doctor to raise alarm. >> do you understand the impact of what you are doing? >> if just 10% of the mothers in america decide football is too dangerous for their sons to play, that is it, it is the end of football. kids, colleges, and eventually just a matter of time the professional game. >> joe, he does autopsies. he's not in the outcome business. >> he has no business. >> do you know what history does to people? trained physicians who ignore

science. >> seth, i am not done. history laughs. if you continue to deny my work, the world will deny my work. but young men continue to die. >> in a statement the nfl says in part "we are funding independent scientific and medical research and the development of better protective equipment to advance further progress. the game continues to change and player health and safety remains our highest priority. meanwhile, congress is planning to tackle the hot button issue, the house energy and commerce economy announcing they'll hold meetings on the risks that come with playing america's favorite game. joining success genejean lassicd her book "concussion" and former nfl punter for the new york giants steve weatherford.

jean, why did you feel dr. amalou's story needed to be told? >> well, because his story was not told. he was marginalized and in fact he was even out of the glare of the media since he reported this first in 2005 in the medical literature. when i came and started researching this in 2009, his name was in that original medical literature, but nowhere else. he had really disappeared, marngmarng marginalize . my question what happened to this guy and what did he figure out? >> steve as a former nfl player, what has been the discussion among players, former players about cte, when you if, learned about it? >> well, really my first experience with learning what cte actually was, was only two years ago during the passing of a good friend of mine, june yio

seau, i worked out with the guy daily, he was my neighbor. that was one of my dear friends, hit home for me. just to see how popular the game has become and to hear people marginalize a doctor trying to make the game safer or make people aware of it is not surprising to me, because it's such a big industry and a big money make pr. >> we know folks are trying to get nfl players to see this, i understand that players are encouraged to show up with their player cards and get a free screening of the movie. this movie takes on a slightly different role than simply a movie for entertainment purposes. there's an educational value to this as well. >> absolutely and this is, it goes beyond just the game of football and it really goes across all of sports and really to kind of let people know you can get your knees replaced. you can get your hips replaced about you can't get your brain replaced. you have one body, take care of it. the fact of the matter is, this

is a violent game and there are strides being made right now by roger goodell, the commissioner of the national football league, to make the game safer, but at the end of the day, it's a violent game. concussions are going to occur and they're putting safety measures in to make it a safer game but they're going to happen. >> jeanne, i know you've been following the story from the beginning. the nfl resisted dr. amalou's findings. what did it timely take for the league to recognize they have a major issue on their hands and they have to address it? >> they're doing what they can to have this not quite be as true as it is. the issue is not just the big dramatic hits in the game that seem obviously people are getting hurt, getting their heads bashed in. the issue is the subconcussive hits that the linemen take each and every single play in each and every single practice.

what is happening around the skull is being jostled around. that's what the skype 'tises find causes cte, baked into the game. the question is what are we going to do to save our game by saving our players? >> jeanne, is this will saving or changing the game? some are going to be concerned that to have restrictions on the sport to make it safe but if you do so you're fundamentally changing what as steve was just describe something a fundamentally violent game? >> it's a fundamentally violent game and the question is, either we take it, the head out of the game how we can do that, i don't know, but we take the head out of the game or we advance the science far enough to where we can cure this thing, we can diagnose this disease in a living person and figure out what you can do to make it better. we don't know any of that yet. the science is in the beginning. that's what we're hoping we can advance the science. >> you brought up a good point about science. steve, you pledged to donate

your brain for research. i'm concerned about that or really interested to learn more about that in terms of what are the players saying about the future of health concerns for the players. there's enough being done post-nfl careers. >> i'm sitting in the studio with you and got my 8-year-old son here with me, and i played this game for ten years. i'm a super bowl champion, i've been through the highs, i've been through the lows and sustained concussions, and i'm not going to let my own son play until he's at least 16 years old why his body has had maturation because you can learn the nuances of the game playing flag football, without the physical contact and jeanne alluded to taking contact of the head out of the game. i love the idea but it's never going to happen. you're never going to be able to take head contact and concussions out of the game. you can have the greatest equipment in the world and all the science in the world, but you're never going to take head trauma out of the game. it's about lessening the amount of impact that's going to happen but you're never going to be able to take it completely out

of the game. >> steve, quickly, knowing what you know now about the sport would you have still played in the nfl? >> at my position being a punter i would have. i played for ten years and sustained one concussion. that's enough for me but if my son wants to play when he's 16 years, can he pick, punt and play quarterback. as far as defensive positions, positions of wide receiver where you're left in a defenseless position it's not something i'm' going to put myself in harm's way. >> thank you for joining us. happy holiday answer happy new year to you both. we're following breaking news from the series of tshds in north texas, where the death toll has now reached 11 people. these are live pictures from the dallas area. there's a potential for more severe weather today. we'll keep you updated throughout the morning here on msnbc. the mayor of oklahoma city will be here to comment right after this. what they wished for.

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this is the time of year many of us start contemplating new year's resolutions. one popular one is to lose weight. in 2007, oklahoma city was ranked as one of america's fattest cities by "men's fitness" magazine. the mayor decided to do something about it, he put his city on a diet and challenged citizens to lose a collective 1 million pounds. in 2012, four years after the initiative -- the mayor's initiative began. the people of oklahoma city reached their goal of 1 million pounds lost. in the process of city not only shed pounds but grew its economy and transformed its infrastructure. here now to tell us just how he slimmed down america's one-time junk food capital. maybe you can help us live up to our own new year's resolutions. mayor, happy holidays to you.

before we begin talking about some of these programs that you initiated, i want an update from you about the weather. i know oklahoma city was in the path of some of those severe weather patterns we saw yesterday. what can you tell us this morning about how your city is doing and the areas affected by it? >> well, right now it is just raining in oklahoma city. it is a very cold rain. just west of here though the roads are starting to ice up so we're keeping an eye on it. the oklahoma city thunder plays the denver nuggets tonight so a lot of people will be on the roads. we hope temperature stays above freezing for as long as it can but eventually i'm thinking we're going to get some snow over the next 24 hours. >> all right, tlauhank you very much for that update. one of your major causes of concern is the obesity problem. certainly not just affecting oklahoma city but to america. what do you think contributed to the city a he obesity problem? >> well, i think it is an american problem and a lot of people are into short-term ideas that will make them happy. we have a lot of fast food

restaurants in america. people tend to live around the automobile. what we did was launch an awareness campaign, and now we're trying to rebuild our infrastructure and design a city that's built around people instead of around cars. it's a generational a movement in oklahoma city to allow people to prioritize their health. i think we're heading into the right direction. >> one of the suggestions that is often bounced around among politicians in cities is sugar tax or trying to even ban big gulps or big drinks. do you think that's an effective program? how did you get your city to lose the weight without doing those things? >> well, that's not my style. i believe it is better to work with the private sector. they have big marketing budgets. if you can get them to kind of adopt some of your methods, i know here in oklahoma city we had some of the top chefs in our restaurants start to create healthier menu choices. and we've had restauranteurs be a part of our program.

a sugar tax might be effective, but i certainly don't think it is a method that we would embrace here in oklahoma city because at the end of the day, it is still about choices and people need to make better choices and prioritize their health. >> mr. mayor, you brought up the issue of a city more focused on people. that's certainly something that probably catches a lot of folks' minds. what do you mean by a city that is built or geared more towards people? >> well, we had built an entire city's infrastructure around the automobile. we'd built streets that were very wide and it just wasn't very pedestrian friendly. now we're going back into the suburban neighborhoods and trying to build more sidewalks and jocking and biking trails and in the urban area we're trying to narrow the streets, more heavily landscape it and try to make it just a more pedestrian-friendly community in general. you ought to be able to live in a community and not feel like you have to own a car. in oklahoma city that's the direction we're headed. >> mr. mayor, finally, quick question for you, what's your new year's resolution for 2016? >> well, keep getting my 10,000

steps on my wearable fitbit and count my calories. >> all right. oklahoma city mayor, thank you very much for joining us. i'm ayman mohyeldin. thank you for spending your sunday with us. kristin welker picks up the live coverage next with the latest on the tornado damage out of dallas where at least 11 were killed in violent storms overnight.

a good sunday morning, everyone. i'm kristin welker in new york. this is msnbc live. melissa harris-perry is back next week. we begin this hour with the tornadoes that struck texas saturday afternoon and overnight. at least 11 people are now dead after severe storms tore through the dallas area damaging homes, downing power lines and causing flash floods. the national weather service says several tornadoes touched down in the area.

rescue efforts are ongoing this morning as more than 10,000 people are still without power. for more, we go to nbc news charles hadlock in the dallas suburb of rowlett. charles, what's the latest on this devastating weather out there? >> reporter: good morning. as you might be able to hear, thunder overhead adding insult to injury after the storms last night devastated this community now a cold, hard rain is falling here and it could be mixed with snow by later tonight. this tornado was a wedge type tornado. this wasn't a rope tornado that you typically see this time of year in northern texas. this was a rare wedge. shaped tornado. you could see it last night between flashes of flight thing as it moved northward across this area. rowlett, garland, rockwall, those communities were touched by the tornado. in the town of garland, eight people died. that's where most of the

fatalities happened and most of those were motorists who were traveling over an i-30 overpass and were swept away just as the tornado came through. their cars were swept off the roadway and then smashed on to the pavement below the yoef pass. at least five people died in that manner. two people died in a gas station in the community of cookeville just to the north of here when that gas station was wiped away. sadly, an infant was killed in the town of blue ridge to the north of us here. today it is about picking up the pieces. daylight is here now. you might be able to see from the aerials how widespread the damage is. it ranges from this area of rowlett which has seen moderate damage to some of the houses here. the roofs are ripped away, trees are down. and in other areas, complete devastation where houses were completely removed from the foundations they were built on. it is going to be a while before this community can snap back

from this. of course the weather is not cooperating at all today. >> our thoughts go out to everyone there who is recovering. that is just so tragic. charles hadlock, thank you so much. the spain storm system that spawned those deadly tornadoes in texas is also expected to bring blizzard conditions to parts of the state. heavy snow is already creating dangerous road conditions. parts of interstate 40 have been closed from amarillo, texas to albuquerque, new mexico. msnbc meteorologist bonnie schneider has been tracking this severe weather all weekend long. when will this come to an end? >> not for a while. this brand-new watch is texarkana, shreveport, and even into houston. it's pushed to the east the texas for that threat. more thunderstorms are still to the east of dallas right now. the area where we see all this damage in rowlett, luckily at the moment this batch of storms has already worked its way through but it is not over yet

in terms of the risk for more, unfortunately, strong winds and dangerous weather in the region. we are still looking at a lot of rain coming through in and around the bals adallas area. at the dallas airport they've already reported this year 60 inches of rain. that's a record amount of rain. that means the ground is saturated and right for flooding. there's rowlett. we still have the potential for more rain over the next 24 hours. looking at this storm, one of the other factors is damaging winds. here's dallas. we're looking at the winds in the forecast going through the rest of the day on sunday, not as bad as other places in texas like amarillo. but this storm will bring about very fierce winds that will likely cause damage. any kind of wind coming through already an area that was hit hard with severe and extreme weather will likely cause damage. so something else to keep a close watch on. talking about the snowstorm, the area of the road closures is from right here from the new mexico border all the way into texas, east of amarillo and with good reason it's been shut down. in eastern new mexico, eight

foot snowdrifts have already been reported early this morning. we are looking at this brdz warning continuing for eastern new mexico and into west texas. there's also an ice storm warning. this is also extremely dangerous because it is the hardest thing to drive on ice. east of oklahoma city, this is where ice will accumulate and we're likely to see more power outages on sunday. heads up, also looking at snow developing over the next 48 hours in the northeast. some of it will be heavy into vermont and new hampshire anden maine. looks like boston will gets their first measurable snowfall of the year starting monday night into tuesday. another imminent threat is flooding. we've got that all the way across a good portion of the center of the nation. i mentioned the flood threat in dallas but it is also rolling through into arkansas, tennessee, indiana and illinois. st. louis has already seen two to six inches in the region of rain at this point but it is not over yet. we still have two to three inches through monday so there

is more rain coming through in this a saturated area. the national weather service is saying this is widespread and dangerous flooding and in some areas with could be historic, an epic event going into mississippi as well. brand-new warnings through texas, into tennessee and arkansas so a very dangerous situation that's by no means over yet. extreme weather covers more than half the country at this moint. we are looking at these advisories going through monday and into tuesday. i think by the end of the year starting next year we'll start to see improvements nationally. >> all right, bonnie. thank you. i guess the message to folks in the path of that extreme weather -- stay inside. bonnie, we appreciate it. we'll check back in with you soon. turning now to news out of chicago. we are learning new details about the police-involved shooting that left two people dead early saturday morning. one of the victims has been identified. he was 19 years old. according to the "chicago tribune" he was carrying a bat and threatening his father when police were called.

relatives told the newspaper he legrier wasn't acting like himself and may have been s suffering from a mental illness. the woman who opened the door for police was shot shortly after but circumstances are still unclear. according to the "chicago sun times," jones' mother says she woke up to gunfire and found her mother bleeding on the ground. the chicago police released an updated statement calling the shooting of jones accidental. it reads, in part, "officers responded to a domestic ds disturbance at a residence. upon arrival officers were confranted by combative subject resulting in the discharging of the officer's weapon which fatally wounded two individuals. the 55-year-old female and victim was accidentally struck and tragically killed.

sin details of this latest police shooting story are still unfolding. we're expecting to hear more from the families of the shooting victims later this morning. the officers involved are being placed on routine administrative duties for 30 days. joining me now from chicago, susan smith richardson, editor and publisher of "the slaug report of "the chicago reporter." thank you for joining me. look, it is too early to know exactly what happened in this case, but we just brought up the death of laquan mcdonald and that video and protests that ensued. so you are there on the ground. what's the mood, what's the feeling after this latest police shoved sho involved shooting? >> i think a couple of things are going on. first, we have to acknowledge what a horrible tragedy this is that an innocent woman was killed. and also that here the city is again, a 19-year-old young man shot. someone whose family said that he was struggling with mental health issues.

clearly this continues the narrative coming out of chicago that a policing system is broken. >> so, there's already so much tension between the community and the police department. i know that you all have been working through that there. to what extent does this just compound all of that and what are you anticipating? have you heard that there may be more protests, for example? >> well, i'm sure that there will be more protests over this case. we've seen the city protesting near daily since the release of the laquan mcdonald video just before thanksgiving so there's no reason to believe that that would not continue. and at the core of this issue of course is the question of trust. what we learned from the laquan mcdonald video as journalists and as chicagoans was that many of these cases in which police say one thing occurred, you know, were completely incorrect. so the release of these videos have really galvanized people

who have been organizing around police violence issues for years. because they have been proof to many that these are really systemic issues. so what you're seeing unfolding as a result of this horrible story with the death of betty jones and with mr. legrier will just continue. the sense of what police say and what actually happens are two different things and of course, in this case, there is no video, there is no dash cam. there is what the family said on both sides and what police officers said. so to that point, as the independent police review authority begins to investigate, it is going to be very, very hard to convince people that this investigation can be thorough, honest, transparent, and fair given a number of high-profile cases where just the opposite happened. >> susan, that's a really important point that we don't have video in this case. i want to ask you because it is

unique. you do have the police issuing this apology. does that in any way, do you anticipate, mitigate the frustration? why do you think they apologized so quickly? >> well, you know, i have no way of knowing what their internal workings were there but i would like to think if this is a situation where they clearly realize that they made a mistake that's beyond tragic, they acknowledged it. but i want to refocus this a little bit on a couple of really critical things here. as you know, the city has been struggling with these issues a lot earlier than the laquan mcdonald case. i think that merely opened the floodgate for a number of other issues to come out with a number of the people. but a couple of key things about this particular story. it is shocking that so quickly the police have acknowledged that they killed an innocent woman. the other issue here, too, is a system failure in a way that has

really not been discussed in the last four weeks. if the details that the parents expressed and if what's been reported is accurate, this call was also about a young man who had mental health issues. and the fact that it escalated -- and we don't know the details, as you said. but the fact that it escalated and ended not in one but in two deaths raises questions about an issue that's been in the national conversation for a while. >> susan, i know you looked into how the city handles mental health issues. what did you determine and how does it relate to this case? >> well, police are supposed to have special training to deal with cases when people have a mental care health crisis. but only a small percentage when we reported on this story last year, 14% of police officers were trained. i've seen the more recent story that says 20%. but the point being that you have officers who volunteer to

receive this training. the point of that training is to de-escalate the potential for violence, to give police officers different tools to work with when they deal with someone who is not just suffering a mental health crisis, but also just could be agitated for a in um b number of reasons and we're seeing that didn't work. >> susan smith richardson, thank you so much for joining us from chicago this morning. the obama administration is upping the stakes in the record refugee crisis. we now know the president will host a major refugee summit at next year's u.n. general assembly. the number of people forcibly displaced is expected to exceed 60 million. the white house is standing by its commitment to take in 10,000 syrian refugees in the coming year. that plan faces growing political pushback because of terror concerns. the state department says a little more than 2,000 syrian refugees have been admitted to the u.s. since october of 2010. a new quinnipiac poll finds that more than half of americans

polled are opposed to accepting any more refugees. joining me now to discuss all of this, a senior fellow at the carnegie council for ethics in international affairs. thank you for joining me. i really appreciate it. >> thank you so much for having me. >> let's just start by looking at the broad picture here. this is a dire situation. you have hundreds of thousands of syrian refugees. explain a little bit about why it's so desperate. >> okay. so the current situation in syria, we know there are about 12 million people who have been displaced from their homes. we know that internally, there are about 4 million or 5 million people who are displaced internally, about 7 million people who have been displaced internationally across international borders. these numbers are estimates, at best. we really don't know how many people are there. what we do know is that the number of the people are fleeing are fleeing in desperate straits. even if people who are able to cross over borders, we may

generally consider them to be better resourced or better positioned than their fellows who have been left behind. they're leaving in a state of desperation. so we're finding that the outflows in the region are impacting all of the neighboring states. we know that in lebanon, poverty levels are extremely high. about 70% of all refugees from syria in lebanon are food insecure, are officially food insecure. in turkey we know that the majority of refugees are working in informal or undocumented work. and we know that the people who are crossing into europe are crossing in dangerous over-sea pathways. so there is a lot of vulnerability that this population is facing. >> a lot of these are children. we just talked about the fact that the president wants to convene a summit on this. what are your hopes? what do you think needs to happen now for these refugees? >> well, i want to say, first of all, i want to applaud the president's effort to convene this summit. this issue needs leadership.

it needs global leadership and while the united states has for many years been on the forefront of refugee resettlement in the official unhcr refugee resettlement program, we have not taken active leadership on this issue. >> there is so much push-back though. i just read the poll where you have all of those americans opposed to accepting more refugees. do you anticipate that the president and those still saying we need to accept refugees will be turning that tide? >> i think whether or not we are able to turn that tide -- i think we can very easily. i think the case is easily makeable that we can say that refugees are an investment that not only pays economic dividends for the united states, but it does actually pay social and political dividends as well in the long run. we've seen this in places that do accept refugees. they in the long run have economic benefits and advantages that have been very, very clear and easy to point to. but in the broader picture what

we need to see is more than the few hundred thousand that resettle in the united states is the millions, the vast millions. if we talk about the syrian refugee crisis we're only talking about 7 million people. and overall the official numbers of people of concern are around 60 million as you pointed out. i think this is a grotesque underestimation of how many refugees and insecure and displaced persons we have in the world today. >> thank you for your insights. we will continue this very important discussion. we really appreciate it. coming up, if you are coming to new york to see the balance drop at sometimes square on new year's eve, you'll probably notice heightened police parens by the nypd. the former homeland security director joins us next to talk about preparations for the big night. stay with us, we'll be right back. today people are coming out to the nation's capital to support an important cause that can change the way you live for years to come. how can you help? by giving a little more, to yourself. i am running for my future.

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in the wake of recent attacks in paris and san bernardino, heightened security is expected at major new year's celebrations around the country. last week president obama said there was no specific or credible threat information on terror plots during the hldz ols but urged the public to remain j vigilant. for the rose parade there will be a temporary surveillance system along the route and 2,000 federal agents will be brought in to secure the event. the parade is expected to bring in 700,000 people. in new york's "times" square where approximately 1 million are expected to attend the ball drop, expect to see a very large nypd presence including a new anti-terror unit. joining me from tampa, michael balboni, former director of homeland security in new york state. thanks so much for being here, michael. >> my pleasure. >> i want to start with some

news. yesterday in vienna, austria, officials said that a "warning" was sent out by a friendly intelligence service to numerous european capitals saying that it could come to an attack involves shooting or explosives between christmas and new year in crowded spaces." should people be concerned about attending big public events this new year's like the rose bowl or ball drop? >> that warning that came out from europe is consistent with the information the federal government here if the united states put out december 16th basically saying the threat environment is very dynamic which means there is a lot of information out there. when you look at whether it is times square or the rose bowl, what security officials look at is three essential elements. the threat, the consequence, then the vulnerability. when you take a look at threat obviously there is a lot out there. we've seen that people specifically targeted times

square. you've seen various things around the country where they targeted new year's, whether it's in thailand or in nigeria. obviously after the paris attacks, the u.s.-led coalition is doing a lot of the bombings -- escalation of the bombings, you've seen a lot of information on the net that isis and al qaeda want to get people in to the game itself, like happened in san bernardino, do those types of attacks. now when you take a look at consequence, in times square alone, over 1 billion people watching around the world. it is a moment -- same with the rose bowl. what do you focus on? vulnerability. frankly, new york city police are some of the best at doing that. >> let's talk about that. has security ever been this type before? give folks a preview of what they're going to experience and how they should prepare for that. >> sure. what you really want to do is you want to create as much information at a time as possible. what you do is you create frozen

zones. obviously that's targeted towards preventing anybody with a vehicle-born improvised explosive device coming in. so there a he no traffic. you basically have people, like they've done in past years, you put them into these areas where they're kind of cordoned off and you know who's there. a lot of the restaurants in and around the times square area has required folks to have advance notice that they're going to be coming there. some of the subway systems entrances have been shut down because of that massive system. but moreover you have this new kind of terrorism unit that's involved in new york city. they're going to be very active. of course you have tremendous surveillance. this is really a partnership. nypd is the lead obviously in this but they are alsoassets, whether in the federal, state or private sector. >> we say all the time if you see something, say something. but what does that really mean? what should people be looking for? >> when you come in, it is all

about your surroundings, your awareness. it is a great place to have a wonderful time but you got to make sure you keep your head on you and make sure that you pay attention to what's going on around you. >> great advice. thank you. from tampa, florida. coming up next -- let the countdown begin with just 36 -- that's right -- 36 days to go until the iowa caucuses, candidates will be back on the campaign trail starting tomorrow. we'll bring you an update. ♪ (vo) some call it giving back. we call it share the love. during our share the love event, get a new subaru, and we'll donate $250 to those in need. bringing our total donations to over sixty-five million dollars. and bringing love where it's needed most. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru.

was going to clean if an better than a manual? he said sure. but don't get just any one. get one inspired by dentists. with a round brush head. go pro with oral-b. oral-b's rounded brush head cups your teeth to break up plaque and rotates to sweep it away. and oral-b delivers a clinically proven superior clean versus sonicare diamondclean. my mouth feels super clean. oral-b know you're getting a superior clean. i'm never going back to a manual brush. respite, the 2016 candidates will be back on the campaign trail as of tomorrow. donald trump, marco rubio, chris christie, john kasich and martin o'malley all hold campaign events tomorrow. notably they all return to just 1 of 2 states, either iowa or new hampshire. no surprise there. iowa and new hampshire are, of course, the first two states to hold nominating contests with the iowa caucuses on february

1st. and new hampshire the first in the nation primary state on february 8th. and while much of our focus throughout this political season has been on the national polls showing former secretary of state hillary clinton and donald trump dominating the democratic and republican national polls respectively, recent campaign seasons show us that dramatically things can happen after iowa and new hampshire weigh in. in 2008, for example, on the day of the iowa caucuses, senator john mccain was at just 17% in the national polls. then five days later on the day of the new hampshire primary, he had climbed to 20% nationally. but, after winning that contest, he skyrocketed nationwide and went on to secure the nomination. similarly on the democratic side of the day of the iowa caucuses in 2008, then senator obama trailed then senator hillary clinton by more than 20 points in national polls. it wasn't until more than half of the states held their own nominating contests that mr.

obama moved into the lead in the national polls. we all know what happened next. so what are the lessons that we can apply to 2016? i'm joined by senior editor for msnbc.com, and from boston, former bush-cheney senior advisor, robert traynam. beth, start with you. the gop establishment doing a lot of hand-wringing because obviously donald trump is strongly in the lead as we just said. but we just remembered those lessons from the past. are we missing something here? could things change dramatically? >> yeah. at least the last two contests somebody came out of iowa who did not go on to do anything in the overall race. huckabee came out in 2008 as the favorite among iowa republicans. in 2012 it was rick santorum and neither became the nominee. on the other hand, on the democratic side, barack obama won big in 2008 and that's what catapulted him into the presidency. had he not won iowa there was no

way he could have gone on and done what he did. on the republican side, we are of course talking about trump. he's trailed in iowa, not as strong there as he is nationally. he's a different type of candidate than we've ever seen. be interesting to see if he can keep going. >> robert, what are your expectations? former president george w. bush didn't win new hampshire but obviously went on to win the presidency. could we see big changes after iowa and new hampshire? >> absolutely. iowa and new hampshire are very important bellwether states but they aren't the key indicators, as you mentioned, as relates to who the republican nominee is going to be. in fact, quite the opposite. i hate to say this, but it is very true based on what we read in history, the republican nomination has bulls bealways b very, very rocky road. it's never been a clear path. a lot of people think kind of "it's your turn" on the republican side. but when you look at bob dole in

1988 when george h.w. bush was supposed to get it. bob dole came in a strong second. when you look at 1992 even an incumbent president, meaning george h.w. bush and pat buchanan were wrestling for the nomination. republican primaries have always been volatile. they've always been contentious. i go back to 1976 with gerald ford and ronald reagan. that was very much an antiestablishment mode book then. fast forward to today. donald trump is such an interesting person in many ways and i disagree with beth slightly where she said we've never seen a candidate like him. i disagree. back in 1992 we had a ross perot. a billionaire. someone who ran and obviously dropped out, then went back on a ticket. someone who got 18% of the national vote in 1992. a lot of people would make the argument if in fact ross perot didn't run in 1992, george h.w. bush would have run a second term. we have had these upset candidates before that have spent tens of thousands if not millions of their own money to upset the apple cart. >> very interesting point. let's look at iowa, beth. take a look at the dynamics

there. you have -- we have this poll i believe that we can put up. ted cruz, 20% if you look the a the average of polls, to donald trump who gets 27% he's actually beating donald trump there. if trump loses iowa, what is the significance of that? how much of an impact does that have? >> that's the big question. one could argue that because iowa's not a great predictor of who is going to win the nomination that he could come out of there and do okay. but he's the guy who says he's going to win everything. he's huge. he's a winner. everybody else is a loser. so if if he loses iowa it is a bigger blow. >> robert, back to your point about republican primaries being so unpredictable. one thing we have seen in recent years is the establishment candidate still emerges as the person to win the nomination ultimately. we saw that with mitt romney. do you anticipate seeing something similar at the end of

this cycle and who would that candidate be? >> it's funny you mention that. at the end of the day i still think jeb bush is going to eke this out. >> you do! incredible prediction. i >> i do. >> okay. >> i say that two reasons. one, he's got the money for the long haul. i mean the super tuesday. he mathematically can lose new hampshire which looks like he probably will -- remember, iowa's very different from new hampshire. iowa's got a 99 counts all of which are evangelicals on the republican side. these are grassroots movement ideological conservatives who most likely would not vote for donald trump, mainly because of the religion issue, mainly because of the life issue. so he's somewhat of a disqualifier. then you transit -- that's on february 1st. then you transition to february 6 or february 8 to the new hampshire primary, that's a very different type of conservative out there. they're more economic conservatives, not ideologues. that's where i think chris krity will most likely win that state. then moving on to south carolina which will probably be bumpy. then you move on to super

tuesday which is the last tuesday of february. that's why i think jeb bush just from a ground game standpoint and just from a numbers standpoint does have the change and he very well could eke this out. >> fascinating. you heard it here first. jeb bush could pull out a victory. that was great. in new york, thank you, beth. we'll see you in our next hour. coming up next -- the fight for ramadi and the war against isis. could this be a pivotal moment? we'll take a look at that right after a quick break. discover card

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the iraqi military with the support of u.s. forces is battling to retake the city of ramadi from isis. the u.s. is supporting the offensive with air strikes over ramadi, a city in central iraq not far from baghdad. when isis overtook ramadi if may it was a military loss that

prompted u.s. secretary of defense ash carter to claim that iraqi forces "just showed no will to fight." now iraqi authorities say they are close to driving isis from ramadi once again. joining me now for more on the fight against isis is malcolm nance, executive director of the terror asymmetrics project and author of "defeating isis." thank you for being here. start with this news. we are seeing the iraqi army make gains. could this be a turning point in the war against isis? >> it could be. i think that this is really important to understand that the iraqi army on the ground, the iraqi counterterrorism force and the iraqi special forces and iraqi armed forces, without shia militias are actually doing all the heavy fighting in ramadi. with u.s. air support. >> explain why that's so important, malcolmalcolm. >> it's important because we don't have to be on the ground and they are actually showing

the capacity to go and take the fight on the street and counter isis' offensive capability. the secretary of defense made this comment a year ago after two iraqi divisions collapsed and ran. what we've seen now is that we've seen this year-long process where we will leadreal n the iraqi army are coming to the top and guys who really know how to fight. losers who were just there for political purposes have either been killed or fired and the iraqi forces are showing true military capability now. >> just to be clear, you think that what ash carter once said, that iraqis don't have a will to fight, that that's changed at this point, that it is a completely different situation going on there now? >> sure. at the time there were conscript forces. these are a lot of shia shareholders from southern iraq placed in northern iraq with some military leadership that were essentially corrupt, just put in there for political

patronage. in the first shot 40,000 men and all of their equipment ran and it was captured by isis. now what we see is the nucleus of a combat force that has real inspirational leaders, guys who they want to follow in to combat and people who are really willing to fight isis. >> let's just understand what ma ra ramadi, where strategically it is so significant, very close to baghdad. sits between baghdad and mosul really. why is it so strategically significant? >> if you look at it just to the west of isis -- besides the fact that it cuts off the euphrates river from north to south, if tu go to the west it has all the highways to lead to the jordanian border which is a significant line of communication and a significant line of logistics. that line -- town goes up into syria through the desert to

allow isis to bring in weapons to places they ordinarily couldn't. then the border leading right into syria. this is a major highway between raqqa, their capital, and baghdad. isis needs that line of communication to move their equipment, weapons and oil around so ramadi is very significant. >> malcolm nance, thank you for helping us understand all of that from albany, new york today. coming up next -- we will go live to hawaii where president obama is on vacation with his family with the new year just around the corner, what are his political resolutions for 2016? that's next. but i keep it growing by making every dollar count. that's why i have the spark cash card from capital one. i earn unlimited 2% cash back on

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of the american people. >> president obama there. so have you made your new yea s resolution? seems the president has. with just a little more than a year left in his last term, the president is mapping out his agenda. >> i've never been more optimistic about a year ahead than i am right now. and in 2016 i'm going to leave it all out on the field. >> so for more on the president's 2016 to-do list, nbc's ron allen is with the vacationing president in honolulu, hawaii. ron, thanks for waking up early. i know it is a tough job out there, if you can get it. let's talk about the president's top agenda for 2016. what's on his agenda? what are we expecting this final year? >> reporter: well, obviously the big issue is terrorism, keeping america safe, and taking on isis. things of course changed a lot after the paris attacks and the san bernardino attacks. so that is clearly the big

priority domestically on the homeland, and as well as broad trying to step up the air campaign, trying to get the coalition partners more involved, trying to share more intelligence, trying to take out the leadership of isis, trying to degrade and destroy that organization. what the president has said probably will not happen -- a defeat will not happen on his watch but that's clearly the main concern for american people. then on his to-do list, gun control. he stopped on the way out here to san bernardino to see those families. his biggest disappointment during his time in office has been his inability to get more gun control legislation through the congress. we've heard for several months now there is a team at the white house trying to look through existing laws to see how the president can change things with executive action, particularly things like the gun show loophole, the no-fly, no-buy list that he wants to put into effect. those kinds of things. there's also gitmo still out there, closing the guantanamo bay prison which was a priority when he came into office. there is still a hundred or so

prisoners there. what's going to happen to them? the bottom line is trying to get a democrat elected and being relevant. >> very well put, ron allen. thank you, my friend. don't go anywhere, we're going to check back in with you in our next hour. coming up, the year in pop culture from adele's mega hit "hello," to the hottest movies of the year. we'll break down the buzziest moments of 2015 -- next. when heartburn hits

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2015 has certainly been a year to remember, in part because it was filled with pop cultural moments that are impossible to forget. from the biggest box office hits to the most binge-worthy shows of all trends that really lit up social media. there is a lot to look back on over the last year. joining me now to run down the

greatest hits of 2015, political analyst and "essence" magazine contributor. nikki novak, young hollywood entertainment correspondent. thaun thanks. start with adele's big comeback. why is this so significant? >> she said "hello" again. first, because it's been four years since she released music and her last album was such a phenomenon. people just wanted more from her. she said her last album was kind of talking about heartbreak and this one is talking about making up for lost time. >> it is really -- so many people love adele. why? why is she resonating? >> authenticity. i think it is something about performing, who you really are, genuinely talented. it is not just about glitz and glamour and artificial authenticity. it is real, real person who really has genuine talent.

>> kendrick lamar also popping off the charts. authenticity as well? >> i think one of the moments this year was when rachel maddow during one of the protests had to add commentary kendrick lamar is anthem of a protest movement. that's been fascinating to watch. >> talk about tv. one of the phenomena of tv, "mad men." and it came to an end. so many people were upset. how do they go on. will anything fill the void? why did it resonate? >> because it was the first of its kind. that period drama that was so well done and so precise and just off the charts in -- we were talking about authenticity, feeling like what it was real like at that time. john hamm finally won his emmy. i think it was 13 nominations before. i'm so happy for him, he's one of my favorite actors. they had a really strong last season and they really went out with a bang.

i think that was the important thing because it had sort of trailed off in the last few seasons and the last season was one of the strongest they had. >> you talk about all the awards they won. "empire," getting a lot of awards as well, a lot of incredible actors. >> there's something about "empire" that we can all relate to. young, old, black, white, everyone loves it. not necessarily because we acknowledge because it is very high quality, it is more that it is like a juicy show that you tune in to just to see what happens. people i don't expect -- 80-year-old white women are like, "i love empire." you never know. >> the internet obviously dominates our world these days. and when you think about the internet you think about kim kardashian and that moment that almost broke the internet. she had that magazine cover on "paper" magazine. what is it about the kardashians

that they have mastered the internet so well? looking forward to 2016, can anyone match that? >> when you look at that photo, she is fearless. she puts it literally puts it all out there. and the family from the very beginning the show "keeping up with the kardashians," they let it all hang out. that's the reason they say so on our minds and so on our lips because nobody else has the shock value that they do. you almost couldn't write a drama better than this family, the amount of drama this family has. >> i think that's probably very accurate. one of the moments that we just loved was this whole discussion over the dress, what color was that dress. let's put it up. a lot of people said why is this getting so much buzz? but people had so much fun with it. >> because it is something that you can send to your friend, family member, say what you do you see. i started out seeing that as white and gold and then later i was, like, i see the blue! then you have a debate about it in the office. >> my favorite moment of the

year i think is steve harvey confusing miss universe. i'm going to have you both weigh in on this. it was an embarrassing moment at first but he's been able to poke some fun at himself and the ladies handled it so well. >> i don't know if you saw the tweet that he posted on christmas but it said happy easter, basically. he had a significant gar in his hand and he's having fun with it. he's having his moment. the old adage, no press is bad press, is definitely true with this. >> very quick, your take away from that moment? >> it is an honest mistake. it just happened on live television. he wins in the end because he can make more money off this. >> appreciate you both being in the studio. coming up, the latest on the race to contain a huge wildfire in southern california and why social media could play a very critical role in the race for 2016. stay with us. i asked my dentist if an electric toothbrush

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again, everyone. i'm kristin welker in new york and this is msnbc live. melissa harris-perry is back next week. we begin this hour with an update on those deadly tornadoes that struck northern texas overnight. at least 11 people died during severe storms that tore through the dallas area destroying homes and downing power lines. search and rescue efforts continue this morning and more than 10,000 people are still without power. for more now we go to nbc news charles hadlock who is in a suburb of texas. charles, what are you seeing there? how bad is the devastation? >> reporter: well, it's pretty widespread. this was large tornado. it was not a ep rope tornado, t was a rwedge tornado. this was a very wide tornado. you can see some of the destruction. this house here has its roof peeled back. there's another one over to the right that also has a truck in

front of it. back down this way you can see a long line of houses. the trees have been stripped of all their leaves. some of them have been knocked down entirely. rooftops have been peeled back. in other sections of garland and rowlett, entire homes have been flattened. wiped off their foundations. 11 people died in the storms. there were 11 tornadoes that the weather service has counted so far. at least five people died while driving in their car. they were traveling down interstate 30 passing over an overpass just as the tornado came through. they were wiped off the road -- their cars were smashed on to the pavement below. they died instantly. probably not knowing what happened to them because this storm came through at night. you couldn't see it. it was wrapped in rain. and it was packing winds of more than 120 miles an hour.

a terrific storm that passed through here. it is one that people here aren't going to forget. one of the things you see around here, not necessarily in this neighborhood because a lot of the houses are more intact, but if you travel to some of the neighborhoods you see the homes flattened and you are reminded of what time of year it is because you see christmas decorations, and presents that have been lingering in the rain now. that's another insult here. after the storm passes, the temperatures plummeted from a mild 75 degrees, down into the 40s. and now it is raining. they say this rain could change at be mixed with snow by later tonight. kristin, back to you. >> charles, thank you for that reporting. please stay safe out there, my friend. while parts of texas are still assessing the damage from the tornadoes, other parts of the state are facing blizzard conditions. that's right. nbc meteorologist bonnie schneider has been track being

the dangerous weather. bonnie, blizzard conditions in the wake of a tornado? >> yeah. blizzard conditions and a tornado watch all in the same state right now, that's in texas. this tornado watch is in effect for houston and beaumont. this includes also texarkana and shreveport. still the risk for severe weather continues as we go through the afternoon. look at all the thunderstorms we've seen roll through the dallas area. now as we take a closer look at today's somewhe a's severe weat even going through the day we are likely to see movement of severe weather towards mississippi and louisiana, central areas like new orleans. i wanted to show you a little bit about how much rain we can spent. you were seeing those incredible aerial pictures of a likely very strong tornado that rolled through rowlett. rain chances for the area, unfortunately, they're still in the forecast. blizzard warnings, know drifts in eastern new mexico?

ten feet tall. we've had wind gusts at 60 miles an hour overnight and now. there is also an ice storm warning east of oklahoma city. this could be really dangerous because we anticipate a lot of power outages, strong winds as well and we're likely to see ice accumulations on roads, not just bridges and overpasses but everywhere. so a devastating snowstorm in the southwest. then snow that will impact us in the northeast. we are seeing a little bit of wintry mix to the great lakes. going forward from monday into tuesday, this will be the first measurable snowfall of the season for a good portion of the northeast, including upstate new york, new england, even boston should see a few inches of snow before it changes over to rain. so be prepared monday night into tuesday you might have a tough time driving out there. today is the busiest travel day of the year, at least one of them. flood concern persists from texas all the way through areas of the heartland and into the great lakes we are still looking at flood advisories.

one place we've seen a lot of rain already and a dangerous risk is still in place for today -- st. louis. two to six inches of rain already. talking about another two to three through monday. it will be intermittent today. that's why we are anticipating widespread flooding. we've already had reports of flash flooding. these boxes in red means flooding is happening right now. a dangerous situation across much of the country. at least 50% of the u.s. right now under extreme weather advisories of some kind. they could be the fire danger out in california, all the way to the flood danger in the center of the country to the blizzard warnings. it is a really active weather pattern and timing couldn't be worse. traveling after christmas things should calm down nationally as we get towards new year's but we still have a couple of days at least of dangerous weather. >> it is a very busy travel day and this is just complicating things. we appreciate that reporting. turning now to a developing story out of europe. officials in vienna are stepping

up security after several european capitals were warned of the possibility of a terror attack involving explosives or firearms between now and new year's day. nbc's kelly cobiella reports on the latest from london. >> reporter: good morning. well, police in vienna, austria say they've looked into this. they say the tip came from a friendly intelligence service warning of a possible gun or bomb attack in a european capital some time between christmas and new year's. they say they found no evidence of a plot or potential plotters, but they've increased security and big events and crowded places as a precaution. it's been six weeks since those attacks in paris that left 130 dead and capitals around europe have been on a heightened state of alert since. in fact, two weeks ago swiss authorities stepped up security around the united nations headquarters in geneva because of what authorities there called a specific terror threat. this latest tip comes as a new audio message believed to be from the reclusive isis leader

a abaghdadi was released. the first from him in seven months. it is 24 minutes long. in it he criticizes the new saudi-led coalition and says isis is getting stronger. nbc news cannot independently verify the authenticity of that message but our partners at flashpoint say it appears to be from baghdadi and youauthentic. >> thank you. turning now to politics and a popular social media and its growing role in the presidential campaign. for one as of this morning, more than 5 million people "like" donald trump on facebook. candidates now make news and sometimes apologies on facebook and twitter posts. campaigns release ad-like campaigns. whatever your level of tech sav savviness, you have to admit it's already playing a significant role in the 2016

presidential election. jim anderson is the ceo of social flow, a start-up that manages social media for businesses. jim, thanks for joining me this afternoon. >> thanks for having me. >> as of right now heading into 2016, who would you say is winning the social media game? >> winning is really going to depend on the candidate but we have to begin with donald trump. he's clearly got the most attention, saying the most outrageous things and garnering the attention on the social networks. if relevance and attention is what you need to win a political election, he certainly has that right now. >> trump was even tweeting on snas d christmas day. he's always on social media. you worked up a chart for us which shows the number of posts mentioning each republican candidate. start with the republicans. this shows donald trump mentions spiked after he talked about banning muslims and after the late aesst rnc debate. >> he's shown an ability to insert himself in all manner of

news. the comment about banning muslims came after the san bernardino shooting sew very quickly made the story about him by making that proposal. you saw that spike was five times the social media mentions that he had received up to that point. we should note that those are not always positive. there's plenty of negative attention. what we don't know with trump is how much of that activity is going to translate into the polls and into the ultimate ballot box but he clearly has gotten the attention of the social media ecosystem. >> very important point. it's not clear that there's a direct correlation to votes. let's go to the democrats now. this is also interesting. not surprisingly, hillary clinton way up more than bernie sanders. however, bernie briefly got a big boost after the dnc database flap. that controversy. what do you make of that where a lot of the negative or positive or what was the reaction? >> well, i think a lot of it was positive. you saw a lot of people rush to defend him and you saw a lot of activity there saying, hey, this

is not fair. i think people want a fair fight, if it were a fair election. so you saw a lot of activity in support of bernie sanders. obviously some negative as well because there was a data breach at the heart of the issue. on that day the activity and the mentions of bernie sanders actually exceeded hillary clinton and that was the first time we'd seen that in the past 30 days. >> of course, president barack obama who when he was a candidate in 2008 was really one of the first candidates to use social media in a robust way to help him get elected. how have we seen social media shift since then and even since 2012? >> well, it's become a flnecessy now. back then it was a novelty and it was unusual that barack obama used social media and used it well. you'd be hard pressed to find a candidate these days who doesn't feel like social media is an essential part of their ability to communicate to the population as a whole and also to their base whether it comes time to get the vote out and energize the base of your supporters. >> you talk about communicating. one of the words we've been

discussing all morning long is authenticity. this is obviously an important issue for voters this year, a lot of voters fed up with washington, d.c. is this sort of a barometer of how authentic a candidate can be? >> yeah, i think it is. people want to see the real candidate. i think if you want to start to deconstruct a little bit about why donald trump ends up being so popular, i think very few people doubt that what you're seeing with donald trump is really him. whereas a lot of candidates have to fight with the impression that what they're getting is a stage managed presence. so that fed up with the status quo thing is certainly something that trump is capitalizing on and i think all of the candidates are paying attention to that. >> shifting to the democratic front-runn front-runner, secretary hillary clinton. look at this now-iconic image of secretary clinton on her blackberry. this has been an issue in her campaign for a whole host of reasons, but how tech savvy and how social media savvy has she turned out to be? >> i think very tech savvy.

she's much more polished and has a much more i guess i would say professional polished packaged view. you'll even notice some of her tweets that come directly from her are signed with a dash h. that means the ones that are not signed from the dash h are coming from her staff. that shows a degree of sophistication to have an operation and staff that's tweeting and posting on your behalf, is as well as doing it on your own. much more polished than donald trump's approach. coming up, the recovery continues. fed chair janet yellen decided 2015's economic indicators were strong enough to raise interest rates for the first time in years. what brought her to that decision and is the economy at risk all over again in the year ahead? that question right after a quick break. ♪

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how is your wallet feeling? if you're like most americans, you spent a little more this holiday season and for good reason -- you're feeling a little bit better about the overall economy and your economy. consumer sentiment in december was nearly equal to the level of 2004. gains that were strong enough to convince the federal reserve to hike its key interest rate earlier this month. november boasted a u.s. unemployment rate of 5%. that's a seven-year low. the additional more than 200,000 jobs. the automobile industry especially profited from what could be its best year yet. technology and software sectors came through with some of the biggest merger and acquisition deals in history.

the housing market also showed signs of strength while oil and energy fizzled under weak demand. joining me now, roland jones, business editor of "the international business times. "look back at 2015 and start with the big news, what was it about 2015 and the economy's strength that drove the fed to increase rates? >> we had several months of pretty solid job growth, beginning about the springtime. that gave the fed to raise rates for the first time in nearly a decade. it is a historical event. that was the impetus. it is worth bearing in mind interest rates are still quite low. we've still got a long way to go to get to the historical level for a full-throated recovery. >> given that rates are still quite low, what is your advice to consumers? any tips that you would give them? >> to the people we speak to at

"the international business times," say one area to think about is your debt. if you have credit card debt, automotive loan debt, you may want to think about paying it off. short-term interest rates -- variable rate interest -- rates are affected by rates going up, the federal reserve changing interest rates. you have to think about managing that debt. >> try to get rid of your debt. >> yes. one of the things to bear in mind, too, this is a vote of confidence in the economy. the fed's saying there is some -- the economy can handle rates -- beginning of a rate rising cycle so you may want to think about your future, perhaps look for a new job. the job market is improving. >> interesting. well, you talk about the increased confidence in the economy. how strong is it do you think? how would you assess its strength going into 2016? >> the economists we speak to say it is in pretty good health.

there is some interesting facts to think about that we saw signs of wage growth in the most recent consumer spending report. >> that's key. that had sort of been lagging. >> that's been stagnant for quite some time. that's something the fed is looking at as well. we were seeing some signs of that improving. another factor, the price of gasoline has just dropped below $2 a gas at most gas stations. that puts a lot of money in people's pockets and enables them to spend creating a nice tailwind for the economy going forward into 2016. >> are there still some risk factors? >> yes. gas is the price of oil. the oil price has been -- dropped from around $100 a barrel a year ago to now just above $35 a barrel. that's significant. that's having a really big impact on energy companies, they're rethinking their capital spending plans. we see more of this happening in the year ahead because of opec continuing to pump oil and

there's no sort of pullback on that from the oil producing countries. that's having an effect on energy companies. what i'm saying is you may see more layoffs in these sectors. >> that's certainly something to watch closely. roland jones, thank you. it is a complicated subject. thanks for breaking it all down for us and happy new year. now to an update on the police-involved shooting in chicago that left two people dead on saturday. 55-year-old betty jones, and 19-year-old quinntonio legrier were killed when police responded to a domestic disturbance call. we expect to hear more from the victims' families later today. emily flores is a reporter for nbc's chicago station wmaq. emily, thank you so much for joining me this morning. what's the very latest there? >> reporter: good morning. yeah, we're standing outside the home where this fatal shooting

took place just more than 24 hours ago, just over 24 hours ago. it's been very quiet out here this morning. some friends and family have come and gone but you have two families who are impacted. two lost loved ones, both killed in this police shooting. let me show you some images from what we have accumulated over the last day. family is distraught to hear their 55-year-old mother, a mother of five, we're told she has four daughters and a son, had been shot and killed by police. later to find out the family being told it was all an accident. it was early saturday morning when police responded to the west garfield park neighborhood for a domestic disturbance call. police say they were confronted by a combative individual when shots were fired. those are the only details we've been told so far. family members say 19-year-old college student quintonio legrier surface from mental illness and was holding a baseball bat threatening his

father. 55-year-old neighbor betty jones was hit accidentally and tragically killed. cook county commissioner here in chicago richard boykin and chicago mayor rahm emanuel are demanding answers as to how a domestic disturbance call led to police shooting and killing two people. as you know, chicago has a new police superintendent put in place. under a new policy they are going to put those officers who were involved in the shooting on a 30-day desk duty. also the investigation is now in the hands of the independent police review authority. they will hold -- the family is going to be holding a press conference at 11:00 a.m. and then also a vigil later on, at 2:00 p.m. here chicago time. all of this to try to process what exactly happened. again, two people killed at the hands of police, one of which police are admitting it was an accident. >> emily, we know you'll track

that press conference closely. a quick follow-up question. given that this police shooting really comes in the wake of another controversy, we've been talking about it nationally, of course, the police-involved shooting of laquan mcdonald. what is the community's reaction? is it only increasing some of the tensions between the community and the police department? >> reporter: i think that's a good word. it still is contentious. people are trying to be calm. we've had protests though almost daily in the area with community demanding more justice within the police department, more accountability within the police department. so people are still angry over a lot of this but i cannot say enough that these protests have really been calm for the size and magnitude of many of them. so i think this happening on the holiday weekend i think we still have yet to see what this incident is going to do between community and police. >> i think that's a really important point. thank you for all of your great

reporting, nbc wmaq's emily florez. still is to come this morning -- the priorities for president obama's final year in office. but up next, the group for which 2015 was nothing short of historic. ♪ (vo) some call it giving back. we call it share the love. during our share the love event, get a new subaru, and we'll donate $250 to those in need. bringing our total donations to over sixty-five million dollars. and bringing love where it's needed most. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru.

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well. let's start with the supreme court decision. this historic moment. it changed everything. in addition to the practicality that same-sex couples can now marry legally, what are the ripple effects that you've seen in terms of turning the public tide, public opinion? >> i think the point you made that this has been a historic year. i think the only thing this year could be comparable with is probably 1969 and what we all know as stonewall which created the new gay rights struggle. from '69 to '71 which brought in the gay community was a community and the day liberation front which spearheaded the idea of identifying ourselves and becoming a community. that imagination, what we believe in those days would never have even imagined the fact that the supreme court would take something that rights of in 1969 and make it whole for the entire nation. all 50 states now. you can get married. and live with the one you love.

but, there's still a problem. while you can get married in all 50 states, in most of america today, you can be fired the following day for just getting married because we have no non-discrimination bill nationwide. >> talk about how that fight plays out in 2016. >> well, again we go back to history. first gay rights bill was introduced in congress in 1974. it's been introduced in every session of congress since. it has not passed. while several states around the country haven't non-discrimination bill, the majority of americans don't. and that will be the next battle for the gay rights struggle. but imagine what this year's been like. supreme court rules. that changes every single department in government from the irs to immigration, to housing. every single department in government had to change. but then we went on from there and governor mike pence in indiana tried to stop that

ruling. and by doing so, he created another sea change which was the anger of corporate america and public opinion which says, no, you no longer may discriminate against gay people. for the first time in history, the public overwhelmingly supported this fight against mike pence and a little unknown piece of history. mike pence was supposed to be one of those candidates for president of the united states. where is he? he's gone. literally the fight for gay rights is gone not only from the supreme court but also in this historic year changing landscape of the republican presidential race. >> that's important. the other thing that we have seen in terms of the landscape changing is you see these big public figures, caitlyn jenner, tim cook of apple coming forward and speaking out about lgbt rights. how has that shaped this conversation? mark, how does it continue to shape the conversation moving forward? >> well, go back again in

history. 1969. our goal from day one in that time period was to ending disability. i'm here at msnbc. 1969 no gay people were here. caitlyn jenner. tim cook. and a host of others now feel comfortable being out of the closet, being who they are, showing america who we are. if we do that, the more of us who come out, the more of us who show our mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, uncles, aunts, that we're their neighbors and that we live just like them, that creates a gay rights struggle. that korea its education. that's what creates the laws, changes society. and we're doing that today. >> we will leave it on that fantastic message, mark segal in philadelphia. up next, president obama is already preparing for one of the most important speeches of his presidency -- the unconventional plans he has just ahead. but first, this just in for the associated press.

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texas is dealing with extreme conditions across the weather spectrum today. powerful tornadoes tore through the dallas area overnight killing at least 11 people. more stormy weather is expected today. that same weather system is bringing blizzard-like conditions to parts of west texas. some areas could get up to 16 inches of snow. in el paso last night, temperatures were near freezen at college football's sun bowl as players from miami and washington state played the second half in heavy snow. msnbc meteorologist bonnie schneider joins me now. what's the very latest? >> right now we have a tornado watch in effect for a new part of texas including houston and

beaumont because we have the risk for severe weather. you can see the thunderstorms lining up as they work their way towards i-45 and i-20. east texas, northwest louisiana and even southwest arkansas we run the risk of possibly tornadoes, damaging winds and even hail with lots of downpours. it is a widespread risk area we are watching today, enhanced, including houston and shreveport. we also have new orleans and jackson as we go through the day, we'll be monitoring this dangerous weather. this area in purple is ice. we have ice smack in the middle of these two systems where we have a blizzard going on into west texas and eastern new mexico, then the heavy rain into central texas and eastern oklahoma but right in the smack in the center is ice. very dangerous situation. this is an ice storm warning in effect and a blizzard warning also in effect. you can see the heavy snow working through certain parts of oklahoma but then zooming in to this region this is where the ice storm warning is east of oklahoma city. the blizzard warning with snowdrifts as high as eight feet already reported. we're looking a the a lot of snow coming in parts of eastern

new mexico, we've already got a foot on the ground so look for more than that. for those traveling -- and millions of people are, it is a busy travel day -- plenty of snow coming through to minneapolis, milwaukee, possibly even six inches-plus. if that's not enough, look at this. it is the first measurable snow of the season and that's coming to albany and boston. we'll be getting that as well. not a blizzard but we could see heavy snow in northern new england. >> we know you will continue to track it all for us, bonnie. thank you very much. the white house is promising that president obama will deliver a non-traditional speech in the final state of the union address of his presidency. the speech is set for january 12th, less than three weeks before americans begin voting in the presidential primary. so instead of listing policy proposals, president obama is expected to focus on broader themes around the challenges facing the country. in an interview with nbc's kelly o'donnell, the deputy press secretary for the white house says the president plans to make

his last year in office count. >> the president is pumped. the president has called these last two years his fourth quarter. he said we're only half-way through so he wants to leave it all out on the field. i think we've surprised you in 2015 a couple of times and i'm confident we'll be able to surprise you next year as well. >> my friend and colleague, ron all allen, is traveling with the president in hawaii. thanks for getting up early for us, ron. what do you anticipate the president will make his priorities in this speech and has he started working on it or is it mostly golf and enjoying the sun and surf? >> reporter: i think it's mostly golf and family and friends and enjoying hawaii. but as you know, the state of the union is a process. it's been going on for some time. they've been working on this speech if not writing it on paper, conceptualizing it and basically trying to write a speech that builds on what the president's been saying day in and day out about the economic accomplishments he's had that

job secretary growth, prospect of job sector growth has been strong. of course keeping america safe. these terrorist attacks in paris and san bernardino have changed everything, i think you could say. the final year of the obama presidency will be about terrorism and protecting america and defeating isis. i think he's also going to talk about in broad themes the vision he sees for america. remember president obama was elected, it was an historic election and i think he sees his place in history and his legacy and he wants to talk about that. he wants to talk about specific things he wants to accomplish and has accomplished. a lot of the surprises he's accomplished in the last year happened without congress participating as congress traditionally does. i think of the climate agreement. i think of the trade deal that happened with asia going forward which needs congressional approval, but is going to happen, the president would argue, with a lot of republican help, not traditional democratic

help. president is going to be out there campaigning, he wants to play a role the election is largely a referendum on what he's done in office. all the republicans are talking about are obama, obama, hillary clinton, hillary clinton, essentially being the same character, if you will. we know the president's a very young man, he is a very competitive man and he's going to be out there trying to put his stamp on what's happened in the country during the last seven or eight years of his presidency. he's not going to go quietly, he'll be an active participaicp. it is won't be a speech about the specific nuts and bolts of governing, it is going to be about president obama taking his place in history and saying what he has done and what he wants to do going forward. >> well said. ron allen in honolulu, hawaii, got the best assignment of the year. thank you, ron. >> reporter: thanks, kristin. enjoy the holidays. >> you, too. for more now on the president's state of the union address and his final year in office, i'm joined by

msnbc.com's senior editor, beth, thanks for being here. you just got new information about what we might hear in this unconventional state of the union. >> you're not going to believe it but president obama is still speaking in sports metaphors as his spokesman did. it is a fund-raising e-mail to his supporters headlined "the fourth quarter." and he promises that he made a point of telling folks to pay attention to what we do in our time left in the white house. interesting stuff happens in the fourth quarter. it's basically echoing this theme we've seen and he's raising money off of that theme. everything ron just said, we can expect the president in his last state of the union address to take a victory lap. really. who could blame the guy? it is his last time to trumpet what he feels are his biggest accomplishments, the affordable care act and he's teeing up the presidential race which starts a few weeks later. >> i think you are right, he is going to take a victory lap. but there are things he still has on his table that we know he

wants to get done. immigration reform hasn't gotten done yet. gun control. do you expect him to talk about those issues and to push for them in this final year in office knowing they're not going to get done but does he campaign off of them? >> he could theoretically take more executive action. he's shown no hesitation for doing that throughout his presidency. certainly around gun control he's hinting that already to many reporters, closing guantanamo bay, that last feisty press conference that he gave in december. >> seems like he's moving towards doing that. >> he explained his reasoning that it is a real magnet for jihad, the fact that it even exists and that all sorts of people are in there that have been cleared for release. why are they still there? plus it costs a fortune to house people there. he definitely is signaling he wants to get something done at gitmo. >> i'm getting the impression that immigration control may not happen. he's fired up, seems ready to go back out on the campaign trail

for the democratic candidates. >> everything that this president has done rests on the shoulders of whoever is the democratic nominee to carry it forward. if a republican is elected president pretty much everything the president's done in eight years is just wiped away. we have a republican congress, republican president, it would be gone. absolutely he's going to be out there campaigning and he needs to because whomever is the nominee, whether hillary clinton or bernie sanders, they don't have the support of that broad coalition of the ascendants that carried president obama into the white house twice, younger people, people of color, single people, voters who don't necessarily come out unless they're surpd fired up to vote. he has to get that coalition fired up. shifting gears again when we get back, and this key question -- did you get a drone for christmas? and if so, did you know what you have to do next? we'll break it all down for you. this is the best block of all. it's like candy cane lane. i know. oohhh. oh, holiday ferris wheel. i kind of love it. look at those reindeer.

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the playground this weekend is what did you get for christmas? well, we are long past the days of cabbage patch kids, and beanie babies, and into the days of toy drones and pie face. don't know what pie face is? i don't either. but here to tell us all about the latest toy trends, jackie brewer, editor in chief of toyinsider.com. what were the biggest sellers this christmas? >> so while traditional toys are still super hot, building and construction toys, games like you mentioned, pie face was huge and hard to find this year. also stuffed animals are still really cool. but technology is starting to take over. think way beyond batteries talking about virtual reality, augmented artificial intelligence, so products like view master's -- mattel partnered with google cardboard. >> what's this do? >> you put your smartphone in and it gives kids a real virtual reality experience. they're exploring space, prehistoric times, wildlife, really cool. then we also have would youieth

artificial intelligence vehicles. you can drive them with your smart device and you -- >> with your smart device. >> you're using a smartphone or tablet to drive it. if you don't have a friend, can you have two players or you can have a friend -- artificial intelligence can control one of the vehicles so it will use gps technology to track you and battle and race. >> what about this watch? is. >> kids want to be just like mom and dad. now kids can have their own smart watch. the kiddie zoom smart watch dx. >> is that expensive? >> it's not. it's only $65. for kids 3 and up, they can take photos, videos, play games, it has a fitness tracker so they can be just like mom and dad. the windows smart two in one curio from kd interactive. this is actually both a laptop and a tablet. you can take it on the go. it has parental controls so it is safe for kids. they're not getting into

anything parents don't want them to and it comes preloaded with 40 games and apps. >> small keyboard for small little fingers. >> it is a perfect first computer. we were just talking about how hot "star wars" is. just surpassed $1 billion. today is day ten in theaters. this is the interactive darth vader from think way toys. he will come to life. >> he's scary! >> he's really cool. he has a force mode. >> the biggest toy that we saw under our christmas tree -- drones. talk a little bit about drones. first of all, a lot of people didn't know how to use them? and second of all, there are a lot of rules and regulations that come with drones now. >> a lot of the rules and regulations that the faa has just introduced actually apply to professional drones. if you got a toy drone for christmas, these just weigh a few ounces and they don't apply to the regulation. this year it was such a big hot

topic. next year they'll be even cooler, easier to fly, cooler stunts. but this take from a bird's eye. really cool for kids. easy to fly. it does stunts. it's exact resistant. so when you're learning to fly and it crashes no problem. >> so it can crash no problem. >> i've crashed this one a few times. it works great. >> read the instructions if you get this. this is so much fun. happy new year. >> coming up next will past be prolog if there's one way to know what will come in the presidential campaign in 2016 perhaps what we saw in 2015. the lessons we learned. stay with us. i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy for my studio. ♪ and that unlimited 2% cash back from spark means thousands

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that's why i switched from u-verse to xfinity. now i can download my dvr recordings and take them anywhere. ready or not, here i come! (whispers) now hide-and-seek time can also be catch-up-on-my-shows time. here i come! can't find you anywhere! don't settle for u-verse. x1 from xfinity will change the way you experience tv. >> throughout much of 2015 the dominant political story of the year was the one that revolves around 2016. and if the review was any indication of what we can expect from the coming presidential

election year it's going to be quite a wild ride. take a look now at some of the highlights of the political campaign of the year that was. >> and i promise you this -- >> 2015 against all odds the year of donald trump. >> president trump -- >> his critics writing him off after his controversial entrance into the race. >> they are bringing drugs, they are bringing crime, they are rapists. they are not sending their best. >> but that was just the beginning. >> i like people that weren't captured. total and complete shut down of muslims entering the united states. she was going to beat, she was favored to win and she got [ bleep ] she lost. >> fiery remarks that would have sunk most candidates but trump is still surging. >> nice to meet you too. >> meanwhile the one time favorite for the nomination jeb bush struggling in the billionaire shadow. >> i got to get this off my chest. donald trump is a jerk. >> it's proven to be the year of the outsider. candidates like ben carson and

kerry sandesan bernie sanders a self-described socialist. the question now can they turn that passion on the trail into actual votes? >> thank you all so much. >> meanwhile the democratic front-runner is entering the new year solidly on top. hillary clinton so war weathering the controversy over her emails. >> did you wipe the emails. >> like with what a cloth? >> getting an unexpected pass from her closest competitor. >> the american people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn each males. >> a big boost from vice president joe biden who decided to stay out. >> it's time to mount a winning campaign for the nomination. >> and while a number of candidate in both parties have already dropped out, for the one whose remain the race for the white house is just about to kick into high gear. that is for sure. it is worth noting that the front-runners do have weaknesses heading in to the new year.

cruz is beating trump in iowa for example and sanders is giving clinton a real race in new hampshire and now it's almost time for vote towers have their say. the iowa caucus just 36 days away. who will come out ahead in 2016? at this point it's anyone's guess but one thing is clear it's going an incredible story to follow. well that is our show for today. thanks to all of you at home for watching. we really appreciate it. melissa will be back next week at 10:00 a.m. now it's time for "weekends with alex witt." >> look at the hardest-working woman. >> usually you're at the white house. i'm sorry i'm not there. >> i don't mind following you on air. for all of you dangerous storms on the move, promising to mess up your ride home after the holidays from a tornado watch to a blizzard warning. we'll tell you all about the changing weather situation.

erin brockovich joins me. plus the best movies of 2015. we'll look at the ones you want to see if you haven't already. don't go anywhere because i'll be right back from los angeles. when heartburn hits fight back fast tums smoothies starts dissolving the instant it touches your tongue and neutralizes stomach acid at the source tum, tum, tum, tum smoothies! only from tums

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have a good one. ah, these small new york apartments... protect your belongings. let geico help you with renters insurance. breaking news at this hour, video in just a short time ago of the devastation left behind after a twister swept through parts of texas but right now there's more dangerous weather developing throughout the country. hey there, everyone, it's high noon in the west, 9:00 a.m. out in the west here in los angeles. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." a new line of turbulent weather is sweeping across the united states. from a blizzard warning to massive floods threatening texas and oklahoma. hundreds of structures damaged in dallas and some homes levelled. death toll stands at 11 with dozens more injured. a different scene out