and turkish president erdogan. "morning joe" will have the winner later this morning. kasie? numerous events set in and around pearl harbor to mark the 75th anniversary of the attack by japan against the u.s. naval base there. 2,400 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured and the attack led to the united states joining world war 2. >> that does it for us on this wednesday. i'm ali velshi for louis burgdorf and kasie hunt. "morning joe" starts right now. >> good morning. it's wednesday, december 7th. a big day here. hello, mike. good morning, joe. are you doing well? >> pearl harbor day. >> 75 years. >> 75 years ago today. >> veteran columnist and msnbc contributor mike barnicle is here. and more coming. we've got a lot of news to cover.

a brand new poll shows president-elect trump showing a bump in popularity. the first poll after the election showed trump favorability up to 50% up 17 points since last august. and since election day, 55% are optimistic about trump's presidency with 73% saying it was okay for the president-elect to recalibrate his campaign pledges now that the election is over. turning to his business empire, 69% feel trump should not be forced to sell his businesses. 67% felt that trump should choose between being president or being a businessman but 51% are confident he'll put the nation's best interests first. >> willie, a lot to go through there. first of all a 17% jump in his

approval rating since august. what's going on? >> i think there's a natural element to it. i do think that president obama and others have set the tone for the trump presidency. he's come out and said let's give this guy a chance. i think that's what some people are doing. we'll see how long the honeymoon is. the first decision he makes, the numbers may come down. i do see a country, not all the country but some of the country saying let's stop now. he's our president. let's see what happens. >> that's an excellent point. last night i went to the rfk dinner. logically, naturally, it was filled with a lot of people that supported hillary clinton running for president. joe biden was one of the guest speakers. other than joe biden, before joe biden stepped up, the air in the hall was people thinking my god, what's going to happen. you would think you were talking to people living in occupied france in the 1940s. but biden stood up and spoke

about he's hopeful for the country. as obama has said and i think it's helpful to stop this hand wringing. we don't know what's goingo happen or where the trump presidency is going to go. this is still the united states of america. let's have a little hope that things will be okay. >> john heilemann is here. take us into the poll. >> i think that it's a pretty good reflection of the fact that as mike said that we go through these very contentious election and this one has been as divisive as any i've been through. you get to the other side and you say this is where we are and make the best of it even for the most adamantly opposed to donald trump, have to move forward. >> what do you say to the people watching this poll and watching

news reports as donald trump starts to begin to be treated like what he is and that is president-elect and they complain about the normalizing of trump or the decisive trump. >> he was not a normal candidate. the democratic norms, values, everyone should hold donald trump to the same exacting standards but he's going to be president of the united states. that's the ultimate normalizing force. it's not about the press. not about democrats. not about critics. he's going to sit in that big office and that's going to normalize him whether you like him or not. >> i think it's time to get past the tweets and everything that the news media focuses on each and every day with donald trump. i harken back to the dinner last night celebrating the life of

robert f. kennedy and people walking around today. i get it. i understand the fear of the future and a trump presidency. i do understand it. there's legitimacy to it. i would just remind people i'm a little older than some people. 1968 was an absolute horrendous year. we got through it. we survived it. heart of the vietnam war. the assassination of martin luther king. the assassination of robert kennedy. the chicago riots. the country collapsing around us. we survived. we prospered. we're america. so let's stop it. >> one bit of perspective, donald trump is up 17 points but that's up from 33% in his approval rating around this time in 2009, barack obama had a 78% approval rating. so it's up but it's up from almost nothing. >> donald trump went to fayetteville, north carolina, last night and that's of course the home of ft. bragg and 82nd airborne division and laid out the vision for the military's mission under his administration.

>> in every generation a new threat to freedom arises. just as we defeated these threats, we faced generations in the past and you understand that so to will we defeat the forces of terrorism. it's unseen in many cases but we're going to defeat that force. we're going to defeat it strongly and quickly. from now on, it's going to be america first. america first. we will stop racing to topple foreign -- you understand this. foreign regimes that we know nothing about. that we shouldn't be involved with it. instead, our focus must be on defeating terrorism and destroying isis. we're going to have such a strong, powerful military. it's not going to be depleted

any longer. i mentioned equipment previously. i said we're going to have the finest equipment in the world. it's going to be new. it's going to be modern. it's going to be clean. it's going to be the best. that's what we're going to have. we got to be so strong militarily like we've never, ev ever been before. >> trump promised he would end the secuts in 2015. it gives us a sense of his thinking on this. >> i thought that speech was the most boring donald trump speech ever which is probably for the best. he was so on -- there was hardly any deviations from script. totally on prompter. i watched it with great care. i found almost nothing in it

that was controversial, wasn't flying by the seat of his pants throughout the speech. i sort of thought maybe this is where we're headed is to a slightly more controlled, at least last night a more controlled version of donald trump. >> what's not controlled is he's talking about spending all of this defense money. we're not going to reform entitlements. we're going to have this massive infrastructure package. we're going to spend all of this money on more additional money on defense spending when we're spending $500 billion right now. there's a "washington post" story how to say money in the pentagon over the next four years. where are you going to get this money? you can't build the roads? you can't turn alind eye to entitlement. the explosion of entitlements, you can't turn a blind eye to the $20 trillion national debt. what do you do? something has to give.

>> again, you get back to, you know, people fears -- >> oh wait. i'm sorry. and you're going to cut taxes. >> you get back to people's fears about a trump presidency. we don't know. we will know when policy begins to be worked out. that's a difference between personalities that you see in tv. president-elect trump speaking last night and the actual policies that they're going to have to put together. there's going to be a collision course. >> something has to give. i don't think, john heilemann, after what republicans went through with george w. bush where bush comes in. there's $155 billion surplus. a trillion deficit. he leaves and the's a $11 trillion national debt. they go along with medicare part b. an expansion unfunded to a medicare program already on shaky financial grounds over the next generation. i find it hard to believe

they're going to do the same thing again. they can't just rubber stamp another $10 to $15 trillion in debt. >> you're a conservative and a republican. you spent the last year pointing out that donald trump is not a conservative and not really a republican. one of the most clearest ways in which he's not genuinely conservative or genuinely republican is on questions of spending debt, deficit, entitlement reform. now we're going to see it. i think it's the place where the greatest likelihood of conflict between people who are traditional conservatives and republicans especially in congress and the white house is going to be on questions like this because he doesn't seem to care at all about those issues. >> you're going to have to cut somewhere. >> you don't have to. you don't have to be a republican. you can run up a gigantic deficit higher than anyone has seen to ratio to gdp. >> and they'll have someone like

ross perot running on the debt as an independent. >> or democratic running as fiscal conservative to trump's right on these issues. >> deficit numbers speak for themselves. people gamed out his tax plan, he added money to the debt. this is definitely not the conservative that he promised to be to some of the voters if he gets through some of these packages. and i just think that there's the opportunity and the possibility that some people would be disappointed, some people that voted for him. >> it's a surprise for him to talk about increasing defense spending when he's actually talked about how it's been the wars that have stopped us from rebuilding our country. what would make sense is keep the sequester in place and invest instead in america. instead of spending billions of dollars a week across the globe in different parts -- rebuild

our infrastructure. rebuild our bridges. rebuild our airports. rebuild our, you know, have a transportation system that actually works. >> again, to your point about the pentagon budget and the report that you alluded to that was basically tucked away and hidden from view for over a year, the pentagon within the report they retain and pay more than 1 million contractors. more than 1 million. >> almost one for every soldier. >> unbelievable. >> the swamp inside the swamp. >> i think something happened in the past 24 hours since we first started talking about this and then, mike, you did what did you with pence. donald trump's transition team is loong to distance itself from flynn jr. after he spread fake news regarding former secretary of state hillary clinton. in a conference call yesterday, communications director jason

miller confirmed that flynn jr. is no longer involved in transition efforts. no longer involved. miller said the younger flynn had only been helping his father with some administrative and scheduling duties but "the new york times" reports that flynn jr. was fired for pushing a number of fake news stories including so-called pizza gate. the conspiracy theory that was the reported motive behind a man firing an ar-15 assault rifle in a washington, d.c. restaurant on sunday. the move to fire flynn jr. came after vice president-elect mike pence said on our show yesterday that he was not involved in the transition team. >> what's the level of concern within your national security apparatus about general flynn's son? >> general flynn's son has no involvement in the transition. >> he has a transition e-mail. >> no involvement in the transition whatsoever.

>> i think as he was coming over, i think that message was probably sent. i know we were talking about it at the top of the show. it was absolutely outrageous. >> what time was that interview? >> 7:30. >> so has. he might have been telling the truth. they may have fired him at 7:02. >> bigger picture, doesn't flynn himself have some issues with this or is it just his son? >> he, too, general flynn has also forwarded, retweeted stuff that have to do with ludicrous conspiracy theories and gets to his position in the white house. i can't think of a more critical component of the presidency right now given the fact that donald trump has very little experience in foreign affairs, military affairs, fighting in a war, than the national security advisers position whose job it is to assemble various points of

view from the intelligence community and present them in an impartial way to the president of the united states. i mean, you know this from your own father. >> i think that, first of all, what's the process? is there a confirmation process? >> no confirmation process. this is why it's so critical that you have somebody great at defense, which he does in mattis. i believe most people on the hill think that mattis, jgenera james mattis is great and gets someone good at the state department. that will make a huge difference and make the flynn selection less worrisome for a lot of people in national security. he's the wrong person for the job because the person there has to be the organizer. and the honest broker. >> that person makes a call that can impact the future of the world.

>> what we're going to have here is what we had in the first bush administration where you had rumsfeld that would run over nsa director in condy rice. trump is going to listen to mattis. it's obvious that mattis has his ear. >> general mattis is if not, one of the most respected military men living in the country today. so he's got general flynn's respect. that's for sure. when you talk to people in national security community they say mattis is great on his own merits but he's also a great counterbalance to general flynn. he can keep him in check. that's something maybe trump considers. >> flynn will be the first to say mattis is smarter than him. he outranks him. he defers to him. >> one of the keys you just mentioned is rank. rank is important in the military whether you're retired or whether you're enrolled in the military right now today. general mattis is a four-star general. general flynn is a three star. one extra star counts for a lot. >> and they know it. >> you'll be headed to a massive

turf war. you've seen so often in our history is that foreign policy you see turf wars between secretary of state, secretary of defense and national security adviser when you have a national security adviser that is outspoken and opinionated and wants power, and you have a secretary of defense, for instance, who is also outspoken as mattis was well known to be, i can't imagine we're not going to see a huge, huge infighting between those two. seems inevitable to me. >> i would be surprised if general flynn didn't realize he needs to keep his head down for the next six months. very surprised. i don't think -- i have absolutely no info on this, but i don't think we'll see tweets from general flynn any time soon. he's stay out of the headlines. he was the one that brought in robert gates. he was the one that asked robert gates for help. he was the one --

>> that's a good sign. >> still ahead on "morning joe," donald trump announces a new deal that he says could create 50,000 new jobs. we'll dig into that. 75 years later since the day that lives in infamy. tom brokaw and jon meachem will join us. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. >> 1941, a date which will live in infamy. the united states of america was suddenly and deliberately attacked by forces of the empire of japan. no matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the american people in

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built for speed. built for business. president-elect donald trump called for a deal with boeing to be called off. we reported trump's tweet at the end of our show yesterday. boeing is building a brand new 747 air force one for future presidents but costs are out of control. more than 4 billion. cancel order. boeing responded in a statement that its current deal for air force one development is worth $170 million. it also said previously that it makes no money on the presidential planes says producing them is more a matter of prestige.

trump later talked about his tweet with reporters. >> it's out of control. it's ridiculous. i think boeing is doing a little bit of a number. we want boeing to make a lot of money but not that much money. >> trump's tweet came an hour after boeing ceo called on trump to back off his anti-trade rhetoric fearing a trade war that could undermine boeing's business exporting planes overseas. boeing executives did reach out to the trump transition team yesterday offering to work with the elepresident-elect on lower the cost of the new version of the plane. >> it's a remarkable pattern. you saw the flag burning tweet last week. where did that come from? he was watching tv. there was a piece yesterday in the chicago tribune where the ceo of boeing questioned donald trump's policy on trade. he attacks the air force one

order. he's watching everything, man. he's tweeting about it. >> he's well read. wow. >> or well watched. >> what's the deal. a $4 billion plane. they came out and said it's a $700 million plane. what is it? >> he's closer to being right than boeing is. first of all, the plane is seven years out. won't be ready until 2024. by then the cost will be $4 billion. what they do is they buy an existing plane that's being built here in the united states. they're not going to build it in france. and then you have to add on all of the anti-missile stuff and all of the defense stuff and everything like that to make the president safe. you want your president flying around in a safe airplane but by 2024, president-elect trump is right it will be $4 billion. >> 3.7 according to the budget or something. current air force ones are almost 30 years old. >> 27 years old.

>> you need a new plane. >> you need a bigger plane. >> more business from the trump transition yesterday. the president-elect announced that japese telecom and internet giant whi controls sprint will invest $50 million and create 50,000 jobs here in the u.s. >> we invest into the new startup companies in the united states. i said i would like to celebrate his presidential job and commit, you know, because he would do a lot of deregulation. i said this is great. u.s. will become great again. >> trump took credit for the investment tweeting -- >> all right. okay. now, i just -- so john heilemann, our critique of barack obama from the very beginning -- there's donald trump taking credit. wouldn't have done it unless

trump won the election. we were critical of barack obama not engaging in theater. >> he did not. >> he never did. even when oil was spilling. he hated doing it. thought he was above it. >> optics. >> optics, please. >> no optics. >> far too smart to worry about whether people actually know what i'm doing or not. i think we're on the other side of that. i mean, so let me ask you on the other side of that spectrum, what does a media do moving forward? you have the carrier deal. the bright shining object. and of course everyone is going to be fighting about the carrier deal. it's 724 jobs. no, it's 1,042. going to be arguing about this small, brigh shiny object and then we have the boeing tweet which leads to him looking like

he's tough on cutting back on defense spending even as he's going to blow a hole in the roof of the sequester and now you have this. what does the media do? how do you put this all in perspective if he comes out and does this every day? >> look, you just got to keep trying to keep your eye on the ball and tell the truth about this. i believe it came out shortly after that statement on the camera turned out that this investment had been planned for months and that it's about $100 million. it's also a bunch of saudi money. totally untrue that this is new money or a new deal or has anything to do with trump. i think it's a useful thing for us to keep pointing that out. is it $50 billion? >> i believe the investment is $100 billion but it's half japanese money and half saudi money and has been planned for

more than a year. >> that's a lot of money. >> it's a lot of money but it has nothing to do with donald trump. >> in the same building. >> it does now. >> yes. >> it does now. as does this incredible story on the front page of "the new york times." >> i'm so glad you pointed this out. you know, the united states has not been the best ally to saudi arabia or sunni nations over the past eight years. they have felt at every turn snubbed by barack obama. if the saudis want to have a better relationship with the united states of america, they're going to have to take care of this problem right here where the saudis have been funding the taliban and extremism in afghanistan basically meaning we're spending $2 billion a week to compete against people who claim to be our allies who are funding an outfit that is killing u.s.

soldiers, u.s. marines. killing our sons and our daughters. does saudi arabia want to be an ally or do they want to be an enemy? if donald trump wants to draw a bright line, this is a great place to start. you're either for us or you're against us, saudi arabia. you're either funding islamic extremism across the globe or your america's ally and we will defend you. mike, they've been doing this -- they've been doing this for 20, 30 years. they have conflicts inside their kingdom. maybe we can help them out with that. but they can't keep funding our enemies. >> in the fall of 2001, the united states with a handful of cia operatives on horseback basically took on elements of the taliban and afghanistan and defeated them forthwith within two to three to four months.

while they were doing that -- and this is after september 11th with all of the lingering questions surrounding saudi involvement in september 11th, this story gets to the heart of what the saudi arabia government has been doing. funding terrorism. helping to destroy our effort in afghanistan. >> funding people who are killing our sons and daughters. >> front page story "the new york times" saudis fund taliban and back government too. must read. >> check it out. coming up, how long can the house speaker bite his tongue about the president-elect? that's what "the new york times" frank bruni is asking this morning in his new column. frank joins us for must read opinion pages next on "morning joe."

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35 past the hour. the head of the local union representing workers at carrier's plant said the president-elect lied his behind

off when he came to indianapolis last week. >> tough way for a guy that runs a union to speak. >> the president of the united steel workers local said he was optimistic when trump announced they would preserve 1,100 jobs until they heard from carrier that only 730 of the production jobs would stay and 550 of his members would lose their livelihoods after all. jones hoped trump would explain himself in a meeting with workers and he got up there and for whatever reason lied his expletive off. of the 1,100 jobs that will remain, 600 are leaving and another 700 layoffs are taking place in huntington, indiana. yesterday house speaker paul

ryan dismissed trump's call for a 35% tax on goods from offshore companies while the president-elect called for tough trade policies. >> the problem we have largely speaking is that we tax american businesses at much, much higher tax rates than our foreign competitors tax theirs. therefore, they're winning and we're losing. so we think the real solution here is comprehensive across the board tax reform which is what we're going to work on in early 2017. >> a trump administration will renegotiate our terrible trade deals, stand up to foreign cheating and defeat every last american and we'll do this. we'll defeat the enemy on jobs and we'll defend american jobs. we'll defend american jobs. and we have to look at it almost as a war because that's what's happened to our workers. >> joining us now, "the new york times" columnist frank bruni and

in washington senior writer at politico, jake sherman. thank you both. this is an interesting balance that paul ryan needs to strike at some point. how is he going to position himself? you write in part this. on the subject of trump, paul ryan has spoken out of both sides of his mouth and less an oval than an octagon at this point. last spring he even affirmed his endorsement of trump while calling him out for his racism. he said that trump with his tweets was basically giving voice to a lot of people that felt they were voiceless. sometimes, yes. but many times, trump is giving a green light to kooks and the finger to the dignity that americans rightly expect of a president and that ryan should

demand of him. it's time he made fresh afaicqut acquaintance with his spine. >> so why the focus on paul ryan at this point? >> because i think it went by way too quickly that he was asked in that "60 minutes" interview on sunday about the donald trump tweet about millions of illegal votes. a tweet that has gone by too quickly. i think paul ryan and republican leaders need to choose moments when they're going to say, no, we're not going to just bless that. we're not going blind to that. he was asked about that and he basically said that doesn't matter. i don't care. i know nothing of these things. maybe it's true. maybe it's not. he didn't say all of that but that was the gist of what he said. i think they have to be careful when they say, no, donald trump,

that's not okay to say. that's wrong. that's corrosive to democracy. it's irresponsible. right now i don't think paul ryan is finding that balance. >> i understand, and i certainly would do that if i were in somebody's position to do that as a republican elected leader. at what point do you then cross into the territory where you're spending your entire time defending what donald trump -- okay. what about the tweet that donald trump said 3 1/2 weeks ago. at some point paul ryan wants to talk about what paul ryan is really going to do to push back on donald trump which would be fighting 35% tariffs. >> right. he was asked at a press avail yesterday. i'm not going all day commenting on donald trump's tweets. that's the right response. he shouldn't. but what happens here -- i said this before, trump benefits by doing so many outrageous things that each one of them slips away quickly as the next one comes

along. that tweet that said millions of americans voted illegally and that questioned the integrity of the system without any proof offered whatsoever, that was a pretty big and bad moment and receded way too quickly and when the speaker of the house is asked about it he has to say i don't want to get into it with the president but i see no evidence of that. wish he hadn't tweeted it. there's a gentle way to challenge trump on that and that's not what the speaker did. >> mike barnicle, there's also, believe it or not, because incoming is constant and it is so rapid that -- i'm not comparing the two exactly. i remember we were in government reform and oversight and there would be a different person from the clinton administration coming up to the hill lying to us every day. missile technology to china from the top contributor to the dnc and everyone would lie about it. and then the next day someone

else would come up and then the next day. you sat there going there is so much stuff coming at us that the more we complain, the more we sound like we're just screeching and only thing press would ever pay attention to was the monica deal. they didn't care that bill clinton was selling missile technology to china that dod and state and nsa and everybody else said was dangerous. that was too boring for them. you go through one after another. it's exactly what you're saying. it comes at you so quickly at that some point everything is overwhelmed. >> i choose to think that president-elect trump designs these tweets in sequence, does it on purpose, he gets us off track. he tweets, you know, the falsity of the election being rigged or whatever and there's a combustible response to it from the media and he'll hit us with

another tweet and we'll follow that tweet. at some point he's the president-elect of the united states. at some point tweeting in the actual office of the presidency once he does, i'm donald j. trump do solemnly swear and becomes president, that's a combustible element. jake sherman, i don't know about what's happening in washington about this but there must be some sense of consternation among other elected officials about what happens when he's president of the united states. is he still going to tweet? >> i hope not. i'll take issue a little bit with what frank said and agree with joe. paul ryan, if you remember, spent the entire campaign calling donald trump a racist. his office said when asked that the voting system was completely legit. the guy was elected a month ago. i think what paul ryan is doing, frankly, is giving him an ounce of breathing room, and i think that paul ryan will call him out. if you're listening to what he's saying, he's saying we're not

for a tariff on american companies that's going to cost americans -- it's going to boost the cost of a lot of goods. i'm not one to defend paul ryan. i've been very sharply critical of him. he deserves it. he's the top elected official on capitol hill. i think what he's trying to do is he's trying to salvage some relationship with the guy he spent the last six months dumping on every single day. >> willie, what about -- at some point i think the media also has to figure out how much am i going to pay attention to this tweet, which he obviously is doing because he wants to go over the meeting and talk to his 25 million people, and how much am i going to pay attention to who he's appointing or how much am i going to pay attention to his policies because those tweets are specifically to go over all of our heads. at some point you go, you want to do that? you want to do fake news. i'm not going to be shocked and stunned and deeply saddened about that it i'll focus on the fact that all of your policies

together are going to blow a hole in the debt. >> in the absence of press conferences and conventional press releases this is how donald trump communicates. like the carrier deal, like the boeing thing yesterday, it's our job to say and annunciate to the audience whether that's true or the contradiction within that tweet. i do think the tweet about the illegal voting got tons of coverage. every sunday show those were the interviews that the press pointed out that were completely false. if he puts something out there, take it head-on and until he gives press conferences or granting interview to people like us, that's how we're communicating with the president-elect of the united states. >> how do you put it in proper perspective? a tweet versus a policy proposal? >> i think willie has it right in the sense that he's doing all of it by twitter. it's not so -- so the question isn't how do you cover a tweet but the question is there anything other than the tweet to cover? if he's announcing things

through tweets, then i think it's just a different way of communicating and we have to look at everything he communicates and report on what he's saying and challenge it when necessary. i think millions of people voting illegally was such an incredibly reckless statement. i don't think paul ryan spent the entire campaign calling donald trump out as a racist. there was a moment when there was the whole issue with the mexican american judge where paul ryan said to me that is the definition of racism but spent most of the campaign being mum. >> i think that's true. he spent a lot of the campaign being mum. he went on a phone call with 200 house republicans and said i'm done defending the guy. you guys do what you need to do to win elections independent of donald trump. if donald trump wasn't elected president, paul ryan would not have been speaker and it would have been because he was sharply critical in a lot of people's view. >> that's why i'm sort of

waiting and watching. i was so critical of paul ryan for not speaking out and clearly it worked for him. i do agree he needs to find a voice now. >> i think when asked about the million of illegal votes, that's a moment to say i disagree with the president-elect on that. don't say i don't know of such things. they don't matter to me. >> let's talk about real quickly and we have to go to break but think about it because i know that mika and i said from the very beginning paul ryan and the senators and everybody else, they're going to have to pick a side. they didn't pick a side. they stayed in the middle and they were rewarded for that. >> it worked. >> i've got to say, it's pretty stunning. you are right. i am the opposite of that. yes, no. black, white. >> you're solid. solid food. >> exactly. when you see something that you think is racist, you have to call it racist. you can't endorse somebody

that's doing something that is racist in your mind. >> when you see something crazy and without fact like the tweet about millions of votes you say in a diplomatic restrained way that's crazy and without fact. >> frank bruni, jake sherman, thank you both for being on this morning. still ahead, we'll go live to capitol hill where today the senate honored vice president joe biden's decades of service. rumors of biden's retirement may be greatly exaggerated. we're back in a moment.

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officials in oakland identified nine more victims of last week's deadly warehouse fire. nearly all of the building has been searched. investigators are working to determine the cause of the fire. officials say a refrigerator or another appliance could be to

blame. the associated press is reporting that at least 97 people are dead after a 6.5 magnitude earthquake stuck indonesia early this morning. officials say that number could still rise. the quake hit just offshore of the northern province of aceh. officials say there's no tsunami threat following this event. dozens of homes and buildings and mosques have been destroyed. hundreds of people are also reportedly injured. in 2004 a devastating earthquake and tsunami hit the region killing more than 200,000 people. and german chancellor merkel -- >> you hear about this. she has caps she's putting out make germany great again. i think it doesn't work there as well as it works over here. >> merkel called for restricting the use of full faced muslim

veils wherever legally possible. >> wow. >> excuse me? >> i said wow. that's fascinating. >> germany saw 900,000 asylum seekers arrive last year and merkel says germany will continue to take in people in need of protection. >> what do you think there, mike? >> clearly walking back her open door policy of year, year and a half ago, that has not gone down well. >> brought a lot of chaos to germany. >> coming up -- >> by the way, you talked about "the new york times" story. the saudi story. you see this iran story? we did this great deal with iran because let's make peace with them. that makes sense. the president posed the question to the audience that was chanting death to america and

the president of iran continued america is our enemy. we have no doubt about this. i'm so glad we gave them billions and billions of dollars and so glad we did that nuke deal with them. really. i think we're in better shape now with iran than we were because, you know, at least they're not burning the american flag while they're screaming death to america to the president's delight. >> there are five other countries in on the deal. >> let them be in the deal. >> they're going to be in the deal. >> it's going to be very difficult to get out of the deal. >> we need to get out of the deal. we never should have got into the deal. we gave these people how many billion? 150 billion? >> whado it matter? >> it matters bause they've been the epicenter of terrori since 1979. >> and they still are. >> and we've given them hundreds of billions of dollars to kill americans and undercut american interests across the globe.

>> the play is there's a split within the culture, within the society. emerging middle class in iran more attuned to us than to their own leaders. >> yes, there is. the leader who is supposed to be the moderate, we've been looking for those moderates since 1979. >> the guy you quoted is 106. >> america is our enemy. we have no doubt about this. >> let's just go in there. >> i'm not saying that. >> what are you saying? >> i'm saying we shouldn't have given them 150 billion or howev however much we gave th. president obama was set to strike a deal with iranians. never put conditions on. >> how much would you pay for 25 years of no nuclear weapons being made? >> from whom? >> in tehran. >> you trust the iranians whose president is supposed to be the

guy saying that we're the enemy while his audience chants death to america? you trust them? >> i trust the international search committee. >> all right. that's great. in the next block joe is going to tell us what he would have done in great detail because he knows. >> i said it day in and day out, don't strike a deal from a position of weakness. >> you can't just disagree. you need a solution or you sound like the democratic party over the last eight years. >> you sound like someone that hasn't listened to me for the past three years. this has been a bad deal from the start. barack obama was desperate to have a deal that he threw all leverage out the window and we bent over backwards. alex is saying we'll continue this after the break and you really need to start listening to me.

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and messy and fragile. but under the proper care, they become something beautiful. >> today our brave men and women are the first in line. defense. defense. against radical islamic terrorism. words that some people don't like to say. an ideology of death that slaughters innocent men, women and children. we're going to protect our people. we'll protect our country. believe me. >> today's terrorists can kill innocent people. but they don't pose a threat to

our nation and we must not make the mistake of elevating them as if they do. that does their job for them. it makes them more important and helps them with recruitment. >> welcome back to "morning joe." it's wednesday, december 7th. with us we have veteran columnist and msnbc contributor mike barnicle. managing editor of bloomberg politics john heilemann. where's heilemann? there he is. so cute. >> handsome guy. >> even when he pouts. he has an arrogant pout. >> that's what they said about churchill. are you saying that he's churchillian? >> they said he had a pouch. >> no pouch. and joining the conversation washington anchor for bbc world news america katty kay. >> since you have a british accent i have to ask you this question. >> exactly. she knows stuff. you can just tell. >> you have a british accent.

have you watched "the ground" yet? you spoiled it for me the other day. i was halfway through and you gave me what happened in the plot. >> why would you do that? he always did that. >> you seriously did not know that -- >> i didn't know churchill stepped down. i didn't know it would happen in the show. which episode and how it was going unfold. >> where are you right now? >> things are tricky in the marriage. he's not nice, is he, phillip? it's a -- >> i have got to say that like the americans, it has a very, very complex marriage and relationship and one moment you're sitting there thinking she's too cold. the next moment you're sitting there thinking he's just an s.o.b. and next second you think he's so marginalized.

>> he knew what he was getting into. that's my problem with him. he knew what he was getting into it, and he doesn't do it with good grace and not totally supportive of her. >> the guy spent his entire wife walking five steps behind his life. >> we're talking about the beginning of the marriage. phillip and the queen had quite a successful marriage through the years. >> yes, they have. you hear stories behind the scenes about his attitude toward her position and whether he's been as supportive as he could have been. they're still married. three of our kids are divorced. she's still married. there is that. there is that. margaret and peter just tried to get together and she's banished peter to brussels. that's where i'm up to. >> you're lucky. you have a lot of episodes. we're talking about "the crown"

on netflix. >> she's great. fabulous. >> where did she come from? >> so ambiguous and just her majesty. >> what's remarkable is with her is it's almost like what she doesn't say and the look in her face when you say something to phillip. say something to margaret. >> churchill comes in to speak to her and she doesn't say anything. she's brilliant. >> boston red sox fan is extraordinary as churchill. >> amazing actor. >> extraordinary. >> nice guy too. >> yes, he is. i think i saw him at a red sox game. enough. okay. i want to show -- she has a british accent so she may have a smarter take on these new polls. >> don't you say you have gotten very for america based on what? >> based on the fact that i'm

good. >> you know your value. >> a new poll shows president-elect donald trump enjoying a post-election bump in popularity. the first bloomberg politics poll taken after election shows trump's favorability up to 50% up 17 points since august and since election day, 55% are optimistic about trump's presidency with 73% saying it was okay for the president-elect to recalibrate his campaign pledges now that the election was over. 79% felt that trump should now tone down his betrayal from the campaign trail. turning to his business empire, 69% feel trump should not be forced to sell his businesses. 67% felt that trump should choose between being president or being a businessman however 51% are confident he will put the nation's best interests first. okay. anybody surprised by these? >> no.

i think 73% number is interesting. okay with him recalibrating. that's a lot of people who hope he may recalibrate some of the things he said. john heilemann, this is your guy's poll at bloomberg politics as i pointed out last order, it's important to put in context that donald trump is up 17 points but he's up 17 points from 33% approval rating he had in the previous poll whereas someone like president obama in january of 2009 was up at 79%. >> one poll says 69% of people say he shouldn't be forced to sell his business empire and then 67% say he has to choose between being president or a businessman. i'm not sure how you reconcile those numbers. >> especially in this case

because obviously the business interests are so convoluted. i got to say. it is fascinating through the entire campaign, trump he's a scam. he doesn't have any business empire. he just puts his names on buildings and has a couple golf course and now he has the most convoluted web of powerful business interests and they're international. does he just get paid $15 to get his name on the building on west side highway or is he a businessman, international businessman. >> you're auditioning for a villain in a disney movie? reques "despicable me." >> the press was wrong. critics were wrong. it's very complex.

how does he sort through that? he doesn't have to devest but he has to figure out how to separate that. >> he would need to put it into a blind trust where he doesn't know what's going on and that's not related to his family and family are not good enough as custodians of that blind trust especially if they do move down to washington d.c. >> which reportedly they are. >> reportedly they're looking at houses there and jared has a close involvement in the white house. that's still family and a family he'll speak to clearly every day. we've seen this during the course of this transition. she's looking at a business interest in japan. is that okay? is there a conflict of interest. >> are you talking about the visit by shinzo abe? i heard she was just saying hello because she's his daughter. it's very complicated. >> saying hello as his daughter but she also as a business

interest she's trying to get through in japan. just the fact that you sit there say hello as daughter of the president-elect influence in some way favorably or unfavorably your prospect for getting the deal through. >> they have to sort through this is a mine field because if she were a college student and not involved in business, it would be the natural reaction. come over. i want you to meet the president of japan. this is really cool. they have to understand all of them have to understand now what was -- >> a different level of scrutiny. >> is it okay now? it's not just with this family. it's with every family of presidents. >> i can tell you what happened in that case. >> i would like to ask all of us here including john heilemann who is here somewhere, especially you because your accent will soothe my concern about this. >> soothe his jangled nerves. >> the one number in the poll that jarred me. 51% of people polled felt he

would act in the best interest of the country. i want it to be like 80% or 90%. 51% confident that donald trump will put nation's best interest first. >> from where he was before -- >> i was going to say, after this election, i understand obama was at 8,000. after this election, either hillary clinton or donald trump being at 50% is pretty remarkable. i think. because it was such a nasty election. they had approval ratings historically low and also their trust factors were historically well. >> you're sieeing a reflection f the popular vote. >> say that again. >> you're seeing a reflection of the popular vote. >> isn't that great? >> the people who supported hillary clinton don't think he's going have the best interest of the country at heart. people that supported donald trump think that he does. >> on the business question though, there's no arrangement short of a blind trust that will

give any appearance that there's not some conflict somewhere because it's a family business. it just is. members of his family are running his companies. so unless he can get ivanka out and don jr. and eric out, there will always be an appearance of a conflict. >> she went down to say hello. >> that doesn't really matter. >> i know it doesn't matter. i'm saying everyone is trying to figure this out. >> there's no perception of inpropriety. >> ivanka is very smart too. >> thank you, joe. >> can i keep talking for one second about "the crown." two more names. duke of windsor. alex jennings. is he popular?

>> no. fantastic. >> you have to see this. >> i've been watching it. >> duke of windsor. extraordinary. also jared harris. >> the way you saw the coronation through his eyes was great. >> bagpipes. willie, you're going to be crying. you're going to be crying. >> you have just given up your throne. >> i'm crying because i can hear everybody clicking. >> i'm not going to tell you how it ends, but he still loves the crown. that's all i'm going to say. he still loves the crown. >> did you see the new season of "elf"? >> donald trump went to fayetteville, north carolina, last night where he laid out his vision for the military mission that will be under his administration. >> we build up our military not as an act of aggression but as an act of prevention. we pursue and build up arms not

in order to seek conflict but in order to avoid conflict. we want to be strong. in short, we seek peace through strength. this destructive cycle of intervention and chaos must finally, folks, come to an end. finally a commitment to only engage the use of military forces whe it's in the vital national security interest of the united states. we don't want to have a depleted military because we're all over the place fighting in areas that just we shouldn't be fighting in. >> we shouldn't be there. i think they're giving a sense of exactly what -- he actually brought general mattis out. he is laying out a philosophy. >> the message is conflicting.

we're not going to extend american power across the globe. it has depleted our resources and caused too much suffering among our soldiers and marines. we're going to draw back for people that voted for him in the upper midwest. the mixed message is we'll blow a hole in the levels that were set by sequestration. we'll spend a ton more money on defense, when he should not be spending a ton more money on defense, and we'll have the greatest military in the world but isolate ourselves. >> you need to have defensive capabilities. he's playing to his base and giving people in that audience shg they want and a lot of people in the midwest that feel like america has lost respect

around the world like more military spending it's good in some circles of the republican movement and good conservative principle. the question is does this work in a world where you're not acting against state actors. that's not how you fight the battle and the threat that is against america which donald trump says is his top priority. you don't fight it by boosting up your military in the way he's talking about. >> john heilemann, how long does a republican congress, the conserve republican congress go along for the ride of more defense spending? more entitlement spending? more infrastructure spending? bigger tax cuts. higher deficits. massive debt. just for kids keeping score at home, when george w. bush became president, we had a $5.6 trillion national debt. when barack obama has left, he's doubled it like bush did from 11

to almost $20 trillion. they need to get a director of o & b fast. these numbers only don't add up but all together will lead to massive deficits and doubling of the debt again. >> we were talking about it last who hour. i think debt and deficits were nowhere in trump's campaign. i don't think he cares about those issues at all. never given any indication that he cares about them. obviously they're at the very center of paul ryan's agenda? the house of representatives and mitch mcconnell's senate. i think it's one of the places, there are many but this is one of the places where the republican establiment and republican traditional views about what should happen in terms of domestic spending and in terms of foreign policy but particularly on these issues in terms of domestic spending where

trump is headed on a collision course with the traditional republican party that he sought so aggressively to distance himself from and that helped get him elected. we'll see where it plays out. there's a lot of crashlashes do the road here. >> trump's treasury pick warned america that we have to get used to higher interest rates. once higher interest rates are shown, people start focusing on it and then you explode the deficit and then it's a serious political issue and serious economic issue. >> you see headlines every day about how much it's costing us to just service the debt every year. you take medicare, medicaid, social security, the national defense and servicing the national debt and right there is 90% of the money. everything else that we think of as government takes up 10%, maybe 11%.

>> the one added element you mentioned last hour is tax cuts. th estimates are donald trump's plan $7 trillion over the next decade added to the national debt. >> if we do nothing on spending, if we just maintain the present course and you add those tax cuts, the deficit explodes. if you do those tax cuts and you explode transportation spending and you explode defense spending, you explode the economy. interest rates go up and suddenly we're spiraling out of control. things get out of control. >> i don't see any deficit hawks coming into this administration. >> there are none. i don't see a lot of deficit hawks right now on capitol hill standing up saying we can't do this. i love paul ryan. >> where is paul ryan? >> we're not sure. we've tried to figure that out today. >> $7 trillion medicare plan that was not paid for.

are we going to have a repeat of what happened during the bush years. big government republicism. >> to end this segment on a really somber note throw this into the equation. with medical advances the way they are, new medical advances nearly every day, every week, people are going to live long are. so go out 10 or 15 years with an ageing population growing even older and existing basically on what? >> medicare, social security. >> all of your entitlement programs. that is combustible. >> if you haven't heard it a billion times, in the 1950s there were 15 people working for every one person on social security. today there are three people working for every one on medication. these programs are not sustainable as is.

they just aren't. >> on that note, still ahead on "morning joe," it was 7:55 a.m. hawaii time when japanese forces launched a surprise attack on pearl harbor. that was 75 years ago today. nbc's tom brokaw and historian jon meachem join us next with their thoughts. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. bonus cash back to places they choose... then they change those places every few months. quicksilver keeps it simple. with quicksilver you always earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase, everywhere. 'tis the season for simple. what's in your wallet?

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through to absolute victory. >> it's 25 past the hour. joining us now from the site of the president george h.w. bush presidential library in college station, texas, pulitzer prize winning historian john meachem and tom brokaw here on set writing an article for "usa today" entitled "pearl harbor is the birth place of the greatest generation." as for pearl harbor, once a tale of unexpected treachery and above all individual heroism in the power of america's unleashed moral might. it was the birth place of what i came to call the greatest generation. the american men and women that went to war against the madness of nazi germany and imperial japan and saved the world with their selfless and heroic actions on the home front as on

distant battlefields. i have chills. tom brokaw, thanks for being on with us. >> good to be here. especially with jon meacham. he's the professional historian. i'm the amateur. >> you haven't heard him speak yet this morning. let's start with you and then we'll go to jon. also very interesting why jon is down at president bush's library. tom, you have chronicled this as well as anybody in america or the world in our time. this greatest generation. talk about this day and how it jarred a country still recovering from the great depression immediately into war. >> well, i was reminded of all of this on 9/11 because in a way that was our pearl harbor. there had been some warnings. anxiety in washington about an attack coming to america. just a week before pearl harbor

happened, president roosevelt said to the commanders out there, look, these are things getting very tough. there was a japanese representative who turned out to be a decoy in washington negotiating the relationship. they were planning the attack. and then of course we were unprepared. differences between then and now, 24 hours after pearl harbor, recruiting stations were jammed with people. mark hatfield went down the next day and enlisted. the senator. a japanese american living in hawaii went down as a boy scout to use his boy scout training to help his fellow americans. and then later his cousins were sent to camps back here. he enlisted in 442nd. most heavily decorated division in world war ii. as he left, his father said you may have to sacrifice your life for this country. if you do, it will be an honor

for our family because this country has been so good to us. it just across the country people knew we were at war even though there had been people trying to keep us out of war and of course the power of the rhetoric of franklin roosevelt cannot be underestimated i think. he was our winston churchill december 7th, 1941, a day that will live in infamy. people got it. >> they got it. jon meachem, two young men that got it are going to be meeting today at president bush's library. one of them a young man who had his college career cut short and led in an assault against a german outfit and while trying to save fellow soldier received life threatening injuries. that's bob dole obviously. and he's going to be rewarded down there by another guy who

knows a little bit about conflict. george h.w. bush. tell us about what's going on down there today. >> well, it's a little bit like john adams and thomas jefferson. old rivals coming back together in the twilight of their lives. president bush is giving bob dole an award for a lifetime of service that began at kansas university in lawrence on december 7th. senator dole was saying last night that the thing he remembered about the w beginning was him sitting in the fraternity house, that's where he spent most of his time as he put it, a man ran in and said turn on the radio. and at that point, he knew the world had changed. at that moment in massachusetts, a man from a different kind of america, george h.w. bush, son of a senator, bob dole the senator of a man that ran a creamery, doles had to rent out

the top of their house during the depression moved into the basement to get through the 1930s that tom just mentioned. these two men, president george bush was walking across the lawn at his prep school and heard about it. immediately wanted to join the royal canadian air force because the brits didn't care if you were 18 yet or not. bush was talked out of that. he waited until june 12th. three things happened on june 12th, 1942. george h.w. bush turned 18. graduated from andover and drove to boston and took an oath as naval enlistee becoming the youngest flier in the navy. these two men were political rivals for decade upon decade have come back together in honor of realizing that what unites them is more important than what divided them. >> it's striking the kind of men

who were presidents. the kind of people who were leaders in this country and what they brought with them from their past and these conflicts that we just don't see anymore at the top of our government. >> they've been through so much. i think, for example, bob dole, a child of the depression, i felt greatest generation was formed. when i would talk about basic training, i said what do you remember? i never had a breakfast like that. i had my first pair of boots or trousers. and one of them said to me i said how tough was it? they said not as tough as putting up hay on my uncle's farm in kansas in the middle of summer. they were a tough generation in a lot of ways. let me say something quickly about bob dole and phil hart, the senator from michigan. ironically, having been wounded in different theaters of the war came back and they were in the same holding place at a veterans hospital in upper michigan and

they lived together for three months. they came from entirely different backgrounds. they would lie awake at night and talk about what they wanted to do with their lives. they all went into public service. one became a republican senator. other two were democratic setors and they were bonded by their war experience but also by their commitment to make this country not have to go to that kind of a war again and to work together across party lines. i think if anything else, that's what the greatest generation legacy is and we need to be thinking more about it. >> mike barnicle? >> you know, i grew up on a street where there were seven gold star families from world war ii. it was a war that changed this country. the direction of the country. i think much more so than september 11 did because the foundation of this country moved in a different direction, more progressive direction because of the war. the big thing about the war is, we now communicate through cell phones and we have a million

cable channels and internet gives us access to everything no matter where we live. world war ii is the connecting tissue. the connecting fiber of this country for many, many families. and, john meachem, you have written about the culture of this country and culture of our politics and how it's changed but one thing we had then that we don't have now that the two men who you were going to see later today symbolize is a sense of national service that began in conflict in the war but then sort of dissipated over the years to the detriment of this country. >> totally agree. i think that they -- as you say, they came of age doing this. george h.w. bush was 20 years old. he could not vote. he could not vote in a presidential election when he was flying his mission and shot

down out of the sky losing two crew mates. he thinks about it every day. he asked the question why was i spared? to some extent his life has been a head long pursuit of trying to justify that he was spared when others were destined to die. if you look at senator dole, a man who lost the use of his right arm, he told me last night that he still has sensory problems with his left hand. when he puts his hand in his pocket, he can't tell the difference between a dime and a quarter unless he looks at it. this man bears the wounds of this struggle in a personal way. this is not virtual reality. this is the reality that shaped the world. it led america to global status, and it's an enormous legacy to all of us and a very solemn reminder on a day when we commemorate the 2,000 soldiers, sailors, who died at pearl

harbor. 1,700 that were wounded. just at the beginning of that immense conflict. we should remind ourselves all the time that we're the children, grandchildren, great grandchildren now of that sacrifice. we should be worthy of it. >> the awful conflict of pearl harbor, my parents were growing up in britain in the second world war and they were desperate for americans to get involved. churchill was asking. people of britain knew we wouldn't overrun. we wouldn't be great britain today if pearl harbor hadn't happened and the americans got involved in the war. when the day came it was terrible. everyone in britain knew the rescue was coming. >> no one knew that better than winston churchill. he knew the arsenal of democracy would be there. these are lessons of history we all have to remember. >> tom brokaw, john meachem, thank you for helping us do

that. up next, the latest on the trump transition. nbc's kristen welker reports on who the president-elect will meet with today. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. afoot and light-hearted i take to the open road. healthy, free, the world before me, the long brown path before me leading wherever i choose. the east and the west are mine. the north and the south are mine. all seems beautiful to me. when i was too busy with the kids to get a repair estimate.

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40 past the hour. joining us now, kristen welker covering the trump transition. trump has more meetings scheduled today. any names? >> pat mccrory outgoing governor of north carolina. of course he just conceded. the big event, president-elect donald trump is going to attend a fund-raising breakfast. one of the first for his transition team. but the big news at trump tower is that the president-elect just announced as "time's" person of the year. his schedule light i anticipate because he'll spend quite a bit of time today answering questions and talking about that. mewhile, mr. trump continues to try to build his cabinet and last night he officially rolled out his pick for secretary of defendants, james "mad dog" mattis at a rally in north

carolina. one of those thank you rallies. he also used that event, mika, to really reinforce his vision for national security. he talked about the importance of scaling back the sequester and building up the military and defeating isis. he took some not so subtle swipes at president obama even slamming him for not using the term radical islamic terrorism although he never mentioned him by name. this was a president-elect who was largely on message, on script and that speech came just hours after president obama gave a sweeping defense of his foreign policy and talked about the importance of working with alliances and warned against banning entire groups of people and tough talk as replacement for smart action. take a listen to these starkly different visions for these two leaders. >> we build up our military not as an act of aggression. but as an act of prevention. ursue and build up arms not

in order to seek conflict but in order to avoid conflict. we want to be strong. in short, we seek peace through strength. [ applause ] >> so rather than offer false promises that we can eliminate terrorism by dropping more bombs or deploying more and more troops or fencing ourselves off from the rest of the world, we have to take a long view of the terrorist threat. we have to pursue a smart strategy that can besustained. >> reporter: this all comes as the president-elect continues to mull his pick for secretary of state. of course that key position who is going to help guide his foreign policy. yesterday he met with rex tillerson, the ceo of exxon mobil and will have more meetings throughout the week. mika? >> nbc's kristen welker, thank you very much. all right. >> that's interesting.

so we have general mattis at defense. we've goteneral kelly nsa. i'm sorry. general flynn nsa. and everything i've heard, it's going to be general kelly. >> that's a lot of generals. >> that's three generals. he was looking at general petraeus but no more. you have three generals there. obviously that will raise some concerns. >> well for sure. i think there will be a healthy debate over the notion of the military control over the defense department because we usually like to have splitting control there. there is no more revered institution in our country. it's one of the few institutions that continue to give perspective. people hate media.

they still respect the military. although there will be a lot of theoretical debates and discussions over this, i actually think it will not be a big political problem for donald trump to have a lot of reliance on the military. >> i don't sense that either. i do see a couple polls here in "usa today," a couple graphs that i want to share with you. number one, 75% of americans make up three-fourth of the population. >> is it a pie graph? >> do we trust that poll? >> it's a colored pie graph. second one is, let me ask you this. what percentage of americans admit to rewrapping gifts? >> a lot. >> what percent do it or admit to it? >> the pollsters said they put in a bright colored graphic. >> it's the polling we we've been talking about all year. >> it's a term coined by

seinfe seinfeld. >> 61. 65. >> 34. >> 63%. look at that. that's scary. >> that means the real number is like 92. >> here's the thing you taught us. during the whole campaign, this is within the margin of error so it's a tie. you both were right. >> you'll get each other used gifts this christmas. >> y'l get repackaged gifts and for all contestants on "morning joe," rice a roni and we have michael lewis. it's going to be great. i can't wait. >> that's next on "morning joe."

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sometimes in life to be successful often times most of the time you have to follow your instincts. you have to follow your gut. you have to. >> trump talking four years ago about trusting his gut. in his new book, michael lewis explores the science. we have michael with us now. always great to have michael. >> it is. i think this is a fascinating time to have this discussion. i'm not sure you timed t book more perfectly. >> i did not have the trump administration in mind. >> you didn't. >> you can filter the trump administration through it. >> you found in the early 1970s when the psychologists found troubling to think that crucial decisions are made today as thousands of years ago in terms offends guesses and preferences of a few men in positions of authority.

why frightening? because they were consequential decisions? >> these are the two israeli psychologists who did the initial work on human judgment and decision making. and if there is a central lesson to the work it is fallibility of the human mind when operating with intuition. if you have someone in charge with a finger on the button with pure intuition and does not acknowledge infallibility it is scary. >> let's talk about data versus instinct. i have talked to people that ran the naval air fare in the united states saying i need a lot less engineers and a lot more p.e. majors that i used to have in the '60s and '70s who do operate on instinct. sometimes some leaders are better going with their

instinct? >> i would say instinct is better having a check on it. that is the oblem. you have these biases. you are wired pr problems. your memory distorts your judgment. we think in stereotypes. i give you a counter example. these guys were brought in by delta airlines in the late '80s having problems in cockpits because pilots were doing things like landing in miami instead of fort lauderdale. >> and taking off at lax and turn off the engine, almost crashes into the pacific. >> and they said the problem is you have a captain nobody questions judgment and no one checks. it's the structure of the environment. delta airlines changed the way they train pilots.

people can check each other's thinking. the guy who trained the guys said the problems went away. so the notion that you proceed as if you are infallible and that is a good way to go through life making decisions i don't think is very good. the whole porting world is upended by the replacement of instinct or judgment with analytics. why is that? it's because analytics do a better job. gl what about the fact that women are helping to make decisions? is that going to make it better? seriously. >> why don't we have women running wall street firms? the financial crisis -- >> lehman brothers and sisters we wouldn't have jumped off that cliff. >> i think that is absolutely true. >> that would have been the check. you want the combination of more risk tolerance and less risk tolerance and different

approaches to the problem. are there instances that you found during your research where somebo acting on sdm instinct does a better job than somebody going on data and experience? >> that will always happen because you are dealing with essentially situations where you are wrong some of the time. purely by chance someone guessing -- >> here is an example, we are in the age of trump. a guy that every brilliant person said had a 1% chance of winning. >> i think the best data person is nate silver and said he had almost a 30% chance of winning. he said if there are systematic errors in the polls these guys could win. that was the best description of the environment going into the election. >> through the primary he said he had absolutely no chance of

winning. >> no he didn't. >> never said zero chances of anything. >> nate silver and the data change has had a horrific year because they thought that data, that trump people won. it's like the dog who caught the car. >> he was acting on instinct. >> he was acting on instinct but that is not the reason he won. this is why this never goes away because the guy at the blackjack table do it by gut because he feels lucky will sometimes beat the guy counting the cards. it's always better to count the cards. >> the thing is what we saw four years ago was we had everybody

beliing that politics could be stripped down. i agree with your premise. i'm playing devil's advocate here. four years ago everybody said that politics, that all the passion, all the instinct can be drained out and it was all just ones and zeroes. this blew that model. >> there is a human element. candidate performance does matter. you can't put a specific number. 33.68% that somebody is going to win. i did think a lot about money ball. it's the cigar chomping scout. it's changing not just sports but politics. >> the new book is "the undoing project." still ahead donald trump can add person of the year and he would say finally because there were two messing him up last

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they are the natural borns enemy of the way things are. yes, ideas are scary, and messy and fragile. but under the proper care, they become something beautiful. welcome back to "morning joe." it's wednesday, december 7. 8:00 a.m. on the east coast. 5:00 a.m. out west. with us we have mike barnacle and managing editor of bloomberg politics. brand new poll shows

president-elect donald trum enjoying a post election bump in popularity. first bloomberg politics poll taken after the election shows trump favorability up 50% which is up 17 points since last august. since election day 55% are optimistic about trump's presidency with 73% saying it was okay for the president-elect to recalibrate his campaign pledges now that the election was over. 79% felt trump should tone down his vitriol. turning to his business empire. 69% feel trump should not be forced to sell his businesses. 67% felt trump should choose between being president or a businessman. 51% are confident he will put the nation's best interests first. >> 17% jump in his approval rating since august. what is going on? is that a natural post election?

>> i think there is a natural element to it. i do think president obama and others have set the tone for the trump presidency. president obama could have gone after donald trump but he said let's give this guy a chance. i think that is what some people are doing. we'll see how long the honeymoon is. the first decision he makes the numbers may come down. i do see a country, not all of the country, but some of the country saying he is our president. let's see what happens splmpt dw that's an excellent point. last night i went to the dinner and naturally it was a lot of people who supported hillary clinton running for president. joe biden was a guest speaker. other than joe biden, before he stepped up, the air in the hall was -- people thinking what's going to happen? and you think you were talking to people who are living in occupied france in the 1940s.

biden spoke about he is hopeful for the country as obama has said. i think it is helpful to just stop this pandering. we don't know what is going to happen. we don't know where the trump presidency is going to go. this is still the united states of america. >> the bloomberg poll. >> i think it's a pretty good reflection of the fact that we go through these very contentious and devisive as any in my lifetime and people get to the other side and say this is where we are. let's go forward and try to make the best of it. >> even for the people who are most adamantly opposed to donald trump to be like i move forward sblmpt dewhat do you say to people watching this poll and watching news reports as donald trump starts begin being treated like what he is and that

is president-elect and they complained about the normalizing of trump. we have the vice president doing it and president doing it is there any concern there? >> i think for everybody that donald trump is not a normal candidate and the questions about like the democratic norms, values, things we care about in the country everybody should hold on to the most exacting standards. yet he is going to be president of the united states. that is the ultimate normalizing force. he is going to sit in that big office. that is going to normalize him whether you like him or not. >> i think it is time to get past the tweets that the news media focuses on. i harkin back to celebrating a life and legacy of robert f. kennedy and people walking around today. i get it. i understand it, the fear of the

future and trump presidency y. do understand it. i would just remind people i'm a little older than some people. 1968 was an absolutely horrendous year. we got through it and survived it. the assassination of martin luther king and robert kennedy, the chicago riots, the country collapsing around it. we survived and prosperred. let's stop it. >> one bit of perspective donald trump is up 17 points up from 33% in his approval rater. around this time of 2009 barack obama had 78% approval rating. it's up but up from almost nothing. donald trump went to fayetteville, north carolina last night. that is the home of fort bragg. he laid out the vision for the military's mission under his administration. >> in every generation a new threat to freedom arises and

just as we defeated these threats we faced generations in the past and you understand that so, too, will we defeat the forces of terrorism. it's unseen in many cases, but we are going to defeat that force and we are going to defeat it strongly and quickly. from now on it's going to be america first. we will stop racing to topple foreign -- and you understand this -- foreign regimes that we know nothing about, that we shouldn't be involved with. instead our focus must be on defeating terrorism and destroying isis. we're going to have such a strong powerful military. it's not going to be depleted any longer. i mentioned equipment previously. i said we are going to have the

finest equipment in the world. it's going to be new and modern and clean. it will be the best. that is what we are going to have. >> we have to be so strong milita militarily like we have never been before. >> trump also promised to end the defense sequester, the automatic cuts, the pentagon's budget that began in 2013. any guess how some of the ideas are? at least it gives us a sense of his thinking on this. >> i thought that speech was like the most boring donald trump speech ever. he was just so on -- like there was hardly any deviations from script. i watched it with great care because i was doing the show last night. i sat there and watched it and found almost nothing in it that was controversial, wasn't flying by the seat of his pants.

i thought maybe this is where we are headed is into a slightly more controlled at least last night more controlled version of donald trump. >> what is not controlled is he is talking about spending this defense money. we are not going to reform entitlements. we are going to add the massive infrastructure package. we are going to spend mismoney on additional money on defense spending when we are spending $500 billion right now. there has been a study that nobody paid attention to how we can save $125 billion over the next four years. we don't have all this money. where are you going to cut? you can't build the roads. you can't have the guns. you can't have the butter and turn a blind eye to entitlement. you can't turn a blind eye to the $20 trillion national debt. what do you do? something has to give. >> you get back to people's fears. >> and you are going to cut

taxes. >> you get back to people's fears about a trump presidency. we don't know. what we will know is when policy begins to be worked out. that is the difference between personali personalities, president-elect trump speaking and the actual policy. there will be a collision course with the republican congress. >> something's got to give. >> i don't think after what the republicans went through with george w. bush where bush comes in, $155 billion surplus. he leaves. there is a trillion dollar deficit. he comes in. there is a $5 trillion national debt. he leaves there is an $11 trillion national debt. they go along with medicare part d, unfunded expansion to a medicare program that is already on shaky financial grounds over the next generation. i find it hard to believe they are going to do the same thing again. they can't just rubber stamp

another $15 trillion in debt. >> you are a republican and a conservative and you spent a lot of last year pointing out over and over again on this show that donald trump is not a conservative and not really a republican. one of the clearest ways in which he is not conservative or republican is on the question of spending. now we are going to see it. i think it is the place where the greatest likelihood of conflict between traditional conservatives and traditional republicans in congress and the white house is going to be on questions like this because he doesn't seem to care at all about those issues. >> you will have to cut somewhere. >> you don't have to. >> you don't have to be republican. >> and four years from now republicans will have somebody like ross perot running on debt as independent. >> or a democrat running as

conservative to trump's right on the issues. >> deficit numbers speak for themselves. he added trillions of dollars to the deficit. for a guy talking about draining the swamp he is handing out money to the defense it apartment and entitlements and everything else. this is definitely not the conservative that he promised to be if he gets through these packages. and i just think that there is the opportunity and the possibility that some people could be disappointed. >> i think this is a surprise about him talking about increasing defense spending when he has talked about how it has been the wars that stopped us from rebuilding our country. it makes sense to keep the sequester in place, tighten up defense spending and invest in america. instead of spending billions of dollars a week across the globe in -- rebuild our infrastructure. rebuild our bridges. rebuild our airports.

have the transportation system that actually works. >> again, to your point, the pentagon budget and the report that was basically tucked away and hidden from view for over a year, the pentagon within the report they retain and pay more than 1 million contractors. more than 1 million. >> almost one for every soldier. >> unbelievable. >> meanwhile, i think something happened in the past 24 hours since we first started talking about this. mike you did what you did with pence. donald trump's transition team is working to distance itself from michael flynn jr., the son of trump's national security chief after he spread fake news regarding former secretary of state hillary clinton. in a conference call yesterday communications director jason miller confirmed that flynn jr. is no longer involved in the

transition efforts, no longer involved. miller said flynn had been helping his father with some administrative and scheduling duties. the "new york times" reports that flynn jr. was fired for pushing a number of fake news stories including so-called pizza gate, the conspiracy theory the reported motive behind the man firing assault rifle in a washington, d.c. restaurant on sunday. the move to fire flynn jr. came after vi president elect mike pence said he was not involved in the transition team. >> what is the level of concern within your national security apparatus about general flynn's son? >> general flynn's son has no involvement in the transition whatsoever. >> he has a transition e-mail. >> he has no involvement in the transition whatsoever. >> i think as he was coming over i think that message was

probably sent. i know we were tking about it at the top of the show. it was absolutely outrageous. >> what time was that interview? >> 7:30. >> doesn't flynn have some issues with this or is it just his son? >> general flynn has always forwarded, retreated stuff that has to do with absolutely ludicrous conspiracy theories and has done it multiple times. it gets to his position in the white house which requires no confirmati confirmation. national security adviser to the president. i can't think of a more critical component of the perez dense given the fact that donald trump has very little experience in foreign affairs, military affairs, fighting a war than the national security adviser's position whose job it is to assemble various points of view from the intelligence community

and present them in an impartial way to the president of the united states. trump's beef with boeing. the president-elect says he wants boeing to make money, just not that much money. how much does the new air force one actually cost. the u.s. senate will honor vice president joe biden's 44 years of service. first, bill karins with a check on the forecast. >> we have a big cold blast. we have a couple snow storms to deal with and exiting one storm in the northeast. a lot of low clouds lingering in new york city, philadelphia and boston. we are going to deal with airport delays. you can't see the top of the empire state building. the cloud deck will raise a little bit during the day so it should improve. as far as snow goes, the wind chill values behind the blizzard, negative 17, negative

18, negative 14 in bismarck. let me show you yesterday in north dakota. we had about 6 to 12 inches of snow. and then the winds were howling as the snow was exiting. the wind chill there minus 17. not fun. the chilly air is with us. it is moving across the country. the frigid air will move to the south. oklahoma city, omaha 25. tomorrow morning will be a lot worse. st. louis 13. even memphis at 25. and then the cold air will make its way towards new york and raleigh by friday. about all of the country is under the grips of winter as we head into the middle of december. only areas looking for big snows is inner mountain west. washington, d.c. you are going to watch temperatures plummeting as we head towards the weekend. you're watching "morning joe."

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donald trump called for the government to cancel a deal with aircraft manufacturer boeing yesterday citing cost concerns. we reported the tweet yesterday. boeing is building a brand new 747 air force one for future presidents. the costs were out of control. more than 4 billion, cancel order. boeing responded in a statement that the current deal for air force one development is worth $170 million. it is also said previously that it makes no money on the presidential planes saying producing them is more a matter of prestige. trump addressed his tweet with reporters. >> the plane is totally out of control. it is going to be over $4 billion for air force one program and i think it is ridiculous. i think boeing is doing a little bit of a number. we want boeing to make a lot of

money but not that much money. >> trump's tweet came an hour after boeing ceo called on trump to back off his antitrade rhetoric fearing a trade war that could undermine boeing's business overseas. boeing executives did reach out yesterday offering to work with the president-elect on lowering the cost of the new version of the plane. >> it is a remarkable pattern. if you saw the flag burning tweet like where did that come fromfelt a segment about flag burning. there was a piece yesterday in the chicago tribune where the ceo of boeing questioned donald trump's policy on trade. he attacks the air force one order. he's watching everything, man. >> he's well read. >> so what is the deal? he said it is a $4 billion plane. they said it is like a $700

million plane. what is it? >> he is closer to being right than boeing is. the plane is seven years out. by then the cost will probably be $4 billion. they buy an existling plane that is being built here in the united states. they are not going to build it in france. and then you have to add lon the antimissile stuff, air defense stuff. you have to make the president safe. you want your president flying around in a safe airplane. by 2024 president-elect trump is probably right. it will probably be $4 billion. >> 3.7 according to the budget or something. >> current air force ones are almost 30 years old. >> going to need new planes. more business from the trump transition yesterday. the president-elect announced that japanese telecom and internet giant softbank which

controls sprint will invest $50 million and create 50,000 jobs here in the u.s. >> investing into new startup companies in the united states. i would like to celebrate his presidential job and commit because he would do a lot of deregulation. i said this is great. u.s. will become great again. >> trump took credit for the investment tweeting -- >> okay. >> our critique of barack obama from the very beginning -- by the way, there is donald trump taking credit. wouldn't have done it unless trump won the election. we were critical of barack obama not engaging in theater. >> he did not. >> when oil was spilling in he

thought he was above it. optics, please. no optics. far too smart to worry about whether people know what i'm doing or not. i think we are on the other side of that. so let me ask you on the other sidef that spectrum, what does the media do moving forward? you have the carer deal and everybody is going to be fighting about the carrier deal. it is 724 jobs. it is 1042. going to be arguing about this small bright shiny object and then we have the boeing tweet which leads to him looking like he is getting tough on cutting back defense spending. >> even as he will blow a le in the roof of the sequester. now you have this and it does sound pretty damn significant. $50 billion investment, 50,000

new jobs. it sounds good. what does the media do? how do you put this into perspective if he does this? >> you have to keep trying to keep your eye on the ball. he came out shortly after that statement on the camera turned out that this investment had been planned for months and that it is about $100 million. it is totally untrue that this is new money or a new deal or has anything to do with trump. i think it is useful to keep pointing it out. >> $50 billion? >> i believe the planned invement is $100 billion. but it is half japanese money and half soudy money and has been planned for more than a year. >> that's a lot of money. >> i believe it has nothing to do with donald trump. coming up on "morning joe" time reveals its person of the year. is there any chance at all that

it won't be donald trump? >> it could be. it could be donny deutsch. >> i think if in the coming years i think human growth hormone are going to be one of the most important issues. >> i'm torn. >> revolutionized the field. >> up ended the republican party and won presidential election when no one thought it was possible. we will find out when the magazine's editor joins us next. ♪ ♪

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♪ really greatest magazine of all times. it's fabulous. huge. >> i have always loved it. >> a great american jewel. a world jewel. >> it does tell the truth. it's the truth telling. >> this morning it does. >> i love watching nancy's face. >> i challenge all of you to tell me who other than donald

trump had more influence on the events of this year. >> no one. we kind of mocked you endlessly for not picking him last year. you have nothing to justify it. >> he complained that we hadn't picked him. i pointed out time never put a presidential candidate as person of year and if he won he would in a strong position for 2016. we talk about person of the year as the person who influenced events the most for better or worse. there is uniform agreement that he had the most influence on the news and profound disagreement over whether it was for better or worse. that i had never seen in any degree like this. >> maybe reagan in 1980 caused a bit of a divide, but no doubt this goes very select group of people who really have fundamentally changed american politics in our lifetime.

ronald reagan in 1980. barack obama in 2008 and now donald trump. >> obama's victory was historic but not surprising. this one, again, to have spent the entire campaign defying expectations and breaking rule after rule after rule after rule and bng written off as i remember you at the south carolina primary that you cannot get up in front of south carolina voters in a debate and defend planned parenthood and win a south carolina primary. over and over and over again -- and almost -- >> also, attacking i thought more fascinating, attacking george w. bush for 9/11. i remember talking to him afterwards and he said if you win the south carolina primary after doing that, wow. >> the other thing i think is striking about it.

often person of the year is a representative of some larger group or phenomenon. in this case i don't think we have seen a presidential candidate who did it so on his own without the party, without the donors, without the infrastructure, without the huge staff of political professionals and that, too, all of the rules and politics that he up ended, the fact that it was possible to do it spending as little as he did, taking advantage of people's misconceptions in the way that he did is just unprecedented. >> for the record, i did predict he was going to win the south carolina primary. he is how the president reacted earlier on the "today" show. >> last year when time did not choose you as person of the year and chose angela merkel you said "time" magazine will never pick me as person of the year and they proved you wrong. how do you feel about this? >> it is a great honor.

it means a lot especially me growing up reading "time" magazine. i have been lucky enough to be on the cover many times. >> so how many times has he been on the cover this year? >> the first cover of the year was how trump won. that was cover line which was before the primaries. because he had won the pre-primary positioning in a way that no one had. >> first, given how many times he has been on the cover, looking back, should he have been man of the year last year? >> i think he had an argument to make and we certainly -- that was the reason we put him on the short list last year which was itself unusual that it is typically not where presidential candidates end up. it is the voters who decide these things. no one had voted yet.

but there is no question that his influence in 2015 was also profound. >> and then beyonce. why was she on the list? my daughter is like mom lemonade, jay-z cheated on her and there is a whole thing about it. i doept gn't get it. >> i think it is probably all of our children are in a better position to see it than many people are. what she did with lemonade is in a year when race and gender were so volatile to be the one who captured the space and swfrgz and put herself in it which is not an obvious thing for a globally successful pop star to do, to take the risks involved and to generate a million memes and a million conversations. this week she came away with nine grammy nominations.

that really as both the cultural event and a political and social event that she represented. >> i want to talk about the photograph almost regal photo of donald trump. what is the back story to that? >> it's in hisdepartment. this is his chair in his apartment. i think it is an unusual picture because it is not the way we are accustomed to seeing him. more sober, more contained almost. we are so used to seeing him leaning in and making that face that he makes. so getting in our face literally and i have been struck and have been struck in talking with him that at some point after you win the presidency the responsibilities that come with that start to settle on you. it was fascinating listening to

him talk to president obama and the relationship that has developed between them and how respectful he is about the president's desire to help him and talk through appointments with him. it is quite a remarkable -- >> i'm looking at this list. they cut it off at six here. we are number seven. >> stop. >> is that editorializing on the cover and does it happen usually? doesn't it say president of the divided states of america? >> when it was george w. bush in 2004 it was american revolutionary. with angela merkel it was chancellor of the free world. we often try to capture what it is that made them such a dominant figure that year.

i think with donald trump he talks about how divided the country is. he disputes whether he had a hand in dividing it. i think that of all the points of division the fact of the division is maybe one of the few that is undisputed. it's a serious challenge to him. he has talked about bringing the country together and people have asked him are you aware of how much your victory has frightened people about what it means for them or their children. and this is one of the significant challenges facing him. any newly elected president faces the challenge of bringing the country together any year when we have a person of the year it means half the country probably voted against him and that process has to happen. >> hillary clinton was number two in the list. i think by your standard you made the right and perhaps only pick. was there a descenting opinion in the room as you got together with your staff? >> we would really just have to

either stop doing it or say we are going to change the rules. i invited anyone, if you think somebody had more influence make the case. and i think it is just a hard case to make. obviously, the disagreement over the nature of the influence is also the story of the year. >> that is how you define it. >> possibly the hackers. we may look back. >> we may look back in terms of if that break through is as powerful as scientists think it is maybe it is the most important thing that happened is something that happened outside the headlines. >> thank you so much. great cover. >> we operate under the name. >> still ahead beautiful. thank you very much. the "washington post" reports that trump's unpredictable style has rattled corporate america. investors appear to be doing just fine as the markets continue to hit record highs. we will go live to the new york stock exchange next.

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what i need to see right now, you should have fun video. >> specifically of like cops dancing in tennessee. >> how about cleveland, tennessee. >> i was going to say cleveland, tennessee but i didn't. >> cleveland, tennessee. caught on camera dancing outside of wal-mart while collecting salvation army red kennel donations. cleveland police competed to see who can raise the most money. viewed more than 700,000 times. >> he is good. >> raising more than 1,000 bucks. >> willie, that's a lot.

>> so cute. >> i love him. >> my daughter is asking why do people make fun of nickel back. i went on the computer and i went on the internet and i typed in nickel back and went back. do you know -- >> this is taking a long time here. >> over 100 million views. they have like eight or nine songs with millions of views. >> somewhere along the line they became the punch line, the joke if you needed a bad band. there was a police department in canada last week -- >> time now. >> he has to finish the story. there are americans like --

>> here is the thing, the cops were going to play nickel back in the car if you got rested as punishment, a deterrent to crime. they had to apologize to nickel back. >> a very long story. >> you know who else has had 100 million views just reporting on wall street. >> no comment on nickelback. just on the market. >> let us know what is going on. >> the trump rally is still on and thdow is set to open opa fresh record high. it has been propelled since the election by groups like the banks and industrial stocks. the smaller stocks which are more exposed deskally are actually doing even better. a group of small cap stocks up 13% since the election.

the dow itself is up about 5% since the election. there are winners and losers. one winner overnight i know you guys were talking about softbank where the ceo made that deal inside trump tower with president-elect trump yesterday to add $50 billion of investment and more jobs in the u.s. that stock surged 6% in tokyo. it controls sprint. sprint also went up in yesterday's session. interestingly softbank based a number of regularatory hurdles since it brought sprint. one question under the new trump administration is it a more lenient anti-trust environment. that question will be front and center on capitol hill with at&t and time werner. they face a subcommittee.

both ceos to answer questions they say this would disrupt the cable tv industry. there will be a lot of lawmaker questions about power and consolidation and whether it would be too big. candidate trump came out against the deal when he was campaigning. no comment yet on president-elect trump on that one. >> thank you. thank you so much. viewed over 100 million times. i got tags from my brother in law who is in jacksonville. i don't know about nickelback. john says i like nickelback. it's cool. big red sox fan. i wi have to listen to these. up next vice president biden got the country talking when he

mentioned the potential 2020 white house run. so joe biden calm down that political situation. that's ahead. afoot and light-hearted i take to the open road. healthy, free, the world before me, the long brown path before me leading wherever i choose.

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i'm a great respecter of fate. i don't plan on running again. to say you know it will happen in four years i think is not rational. >> that is the sound of a door creeking open is what that is. >> look, i can't see the circumstance in which i would run. what i have learned a long, long time ago is to never say never. you don't know what is going to happen. hell, donald trump is going to be 74. i will be 77 and in better shape. >> it's on. it's on. >> big nickelback fan. i found out they are from canada. >> they sold 50 million albums. >> are you kidding me? >> we are four minutes -- democratic senator chris

spear headed bipartisan effort to celebrate joe biden's years of service. tell us about joe biden. >> 36 years that joe biden has been fighting for the state of delaware and representing us in the senate and eight years serving our country as vice esident. later today we will have a terrific bipartisan tribute and celebrating his next chapter. we will be passing the cures bill. and in a very emotional moment monday evening where the vice president was presiding over the senate we unanimously voted to rename the the portion of that bill in honor of joe's beloved son, beau.

i expect to be a show of bipartisanship. >> talk about the bipartisanship and the personal relationships that the senate has been so famous for across the years. mitch mcconnell opposition to nearly everything barack obama and biden administration stood for. he will be right there today. >> absolutely. there is relatively few things that leader mcconnell and leader reed easily agree to but when i suggested this they were both excited about this opportunity as i spoke to other senators we have many moreined up to speak today than we have floor time. after today we will present to the vice president a bound copy of all speeches that will be given today by dozens of senators. part of why he has got such bipartisan cred, why he is so loved by senators of both parties is that the very tragedy that has touched him and defined his life has made empathetic.

any of us who lost a loved one know what it is like to have a call from the vice president or a visit from them. he is also really capable of standing up and fighting for those who have lost a job, hope or a loved one. >> it's willie geist. i appld youor spear heading this. i do want to ask you about some politics and president-elect donald trump. you have been supportive of general mattis who will be secretary of defense. are you more or less encouraged by what you have seen out of donald trump in the last 20 or so days since he was elected. do you feel better than you did when he was elected? >> it's somewhat of a mixed bag, his transition process and folks he has nominated so far. some of them are strikingly unqualified to run major federal agencies. some of them like general mattis have impressive long deep

records of service. it is my hope that ultimately after the confirmation process we end up with a trump administration that is broadly representative of our country and includes a lot of folks with the kinds of strengths and skills that general mattis will bring to the job of secretary of defense if confirmed. >> which picks have discouraged you? >> there are some who are terrific people, i suspect. i don't know governor haley of south carolina. her previous experience in foreign policy dr. ben carson nominated to run the housing agency he is recognized as a very talented neurosurgeon. just because you live in a house doesn't mean you are qualified to be the secretary of housing for the country. i have a brain but that doesn't qualify me to be a brain surgeon. we have questions about whether or not some folks nominated have

the depth and qualifications. >> he himself said -- >> in ben carson's defense he has said he is not qualified. thank you so much. that does it for us this morning. stephanie picks up the coverage. >> good morning. this morning we have a lot of breaking news to cover. donald trump named person of the year reacting in an exclusive interview with nbc about that boeing deal. >> planes are too expensive and we are going to get the prices down. >> his conveations with president obama. >> i really like him. i take his recommendations very seriously. >> he even waited on alec baldw baldwin's impersonation of him. >> i like alec but his impersonation of me is mean spirited and not very good. we will take you inside the warehouse.