good saturday to you. i am richard lui at msnbc headquarters. we will start with the trump team. in a statement the trump transition team firing back saying, these are the same people that said saddam hussein had weapons of mass destruction. nbc not confirming the "washington post" report

independently as of yet. and what prompted rudy guiliani taking himself outrunning for secretary of state. >> if i thought he didn't have a great choice, and he needed only me, which is probably never true that they need only you, but if i thought that, they would do it in a minute. mitt romney, i voted for him and supported him, and i think like mike huckabee thinks, he should apologize or explain his comments. >> here's trump's take on the impact of african-american voters on his win. >> we've forgotten about our inner cities. no longer. and the african-american community was great to us, and

game through big league. frankly, if they had any doubt, they didn't vote, and that was almost as good because a lot of people didn't show up because they felt good about me, and the hispanic community, great, great. >> now to campaign spending. records showing hillary clinton and her supporters spent a $1.6 billion to team trump's $600 million. $66 million of it came from his own pocket. what more is the trump team saying about this report? >> hi, richard. this morning donald trump tweeting about another subject entirely trying to put the focus back on "celebrity apprentice" and his role as executive producer, but our focus is the new "washington post" report saying not only did russia try to interfere with the election throwing questions up about the

results, but by helping trump to win the election, and trump, as you reported there, immediately pushing back. there are some in his own party who are promising to keep digging into it. >> by the way, i don't need the hat either, right? who wants a hat? >> reporter: even calling off anti-hillary clinton protesters that chanted lock her up. >> that plays great before the election, and now we don't care. >> this morning donald trump is at war with the intelligence community, and the "washington post" reported the cia thinks russia helped the trump campaign win, and the trump campaign dismissing the claim saying, quote, these are the same people that said hussein had weapons of mass destruction and the election ended a long time ago and it's time to move on. but trump's own party believes

russia did interfere. >> no doubt in my mind they hacked into the dnc and e-mails and i believe the russians were behind it. this is not about the democratic party but america as a whole. >> senator lindsay graham wants to put sanctions on putin, and the obama administration has demanded to know more about what happened before the inauguration. >> he wants the intelligence commune to conduct a full review of what happened during the 2016 election. >> trump has praised putin, and michael flynn once had dinner with the former kgb officer. 2012 nominee, mitt romney, is still a pick for secretary of state and he once labeled russia america's number one foe, and rudy guiliani has taken himself out of the running.

>> he had a lot of terrific candidates, and i thought i could play a better role being on the outside. >> reporter: president-elect trump promising he will make a decision for that critical post by the end of next week. >> and also new, a report is saying the russians did hack into the republican national committee but did not release any of those e-mails, and you will remember we saw quite a few e-mails from the democratic committee as well as from hillary clinton chairman, john podesta, in the days leading up to the election. >> you are heading down to baltimore, and what are you hearing about the plans there? >> it's a storied football tradition, of course, here in america, and president-elect doesn't want to take sides between the service branches and

will spend of his time on the army side and the other half with the navy. >> always a great game. joining us now, beth fouhy, and paul singer from "usa today." let's talk about the timeline of what is being released, and "the new york times" also reporting, and what is the sense of the optics, why now instead of before the election in terms of this information being released? >> the reporting suggests the information was available before the election and there was discussion about how to proceed with it, and president obama didn't want to appear to be interfering of the election by releasing the findings, and the majority leader was questioning some of the intelligence with a

briefing before with senators, and donald trump is going to be our next president and the information coming out in order to help people understand what is happening, and it's leaking, and it has not been officially released, but now we know that the things that we suspected before the election, these strange releases of john podesta releases and e-mails out of the d.n.c., and we were reporting that it looked to be coming from the wikileaks. >> paul, the president is ordering a full review of cyber activity and he wants that to happen and given to him before the end of his term, and might this bipartisan interest move forward? >> yeah, it very well might. senator lindsay graham has said -- and he's a republican senator, and he said he's interested in getting to the bottom of this, and there's

going to be a significant question to ask, and doesn't whether you are a trump supporter or opponent, but they are asking if a foreign actor has been intervening and hack into politically sensitive material in the united states and there's a dispute about whether or not russia was trying to support donald trump, although this is now what the cia or intelligence community seems to be saying, in fact, it was intended to affect the outcome of an election and that has to be a concern. >> to influence the election is the reporting so far. how do you watch -- how do experts watch whether it did affect the election? >> well, that's a much harder thing to ask. what that does it mean to affect the election? clearly the dispute over some of the dnc e-mails were detrimental to hillary clinton's campaign throughout the summer. was that, then, a direct result

of russian interaction in the election? was there information the russians collected from the republican party, which "the new york times" is reporting that they did not release, and the rnc is denying they were hacked, and the e-mails that were released had a negative affect on the clinton campaign and you start there. >> beth, the criticism or the warning, if you will, coming from donald trump is let's move on, and at least from what we know now, and we don't have the full report, right, not before january 20, but do we get a sense how partisan this might be going forward, because the reporting says they did have access to the rnc and access to the dnc but held the rnc information and did not release that to the dnc? >> we know donald trump is pushing back on this and says he doesn't believe the russians were involved, and kasie hunt

interviewed senator graham, and he said he wants to get to the bottom of this, but we have not heard from other republicans so it remains to be seen whether this will be taken up as a partisan cause to figure out if a foreign actor stepped up and interfered with the elections, and that's a suggestion that needs to be explored but it needs to come from both sides. republicans control the congress, and if they don't decide to press forward with this it could get lost. >> and since we have both of you, trump's transition team, it has been a busy week with headlines, and donald trump nominating three goldman sachs officers, and he was railing against goldman sachs earlier, and this is what kellyanne conway had to say.

>> he said that they don't have influence over him politically and they will not have influence over him in the white house but will work with him. >> able to make this term successfully? >> absolutely. donald trump's campaign theme in part was i am successful, and it proves i can be successful and i made myself rich and let me make america rich. in trump's world view, and i think for his supporters as well, and the fact you have been a business successful person and made a billion and is in some way proof you are a good manager, and it makes sense within his framework, that rich people are smart and can run things. >> he has been able to do things on other topics, and kasie was showing that in her package, the lock her up was good for the election, and he is trying to make a turn and now making a

turn and bringing in those from goldman sachs? >> i would agree with paul that it fits with trump's framework, and there's no question he made tremendous political hey during the campaign, at first going after ted cruz and then going after hillary clinton, and it was a big campaign theme for him and something he brought up repeatedly, and he said he didn't need to be owned or bought by anybody at goldman sachs and he has so many bankers now up to close proximity in the white house, and kellyanne conway was threading a needle, saying it was not political influence but policy influence, and hard to know if that's the case going forward, and these guys are political appointments going forward. another story we are watching for you on this

saturday, a winter storm blamed for at least three deaths threatening to leave several states under whiteout conditions over the weekend. it's been grounding flights and highways, and forecasters warn it could get worse into next week. morgan, it's quiet in chicago right now, and how are people preparing for the storm? >> reporter: richard, it's quiet but cold. in fact, it feels like 10 degrees where i am standing in chicago. this is all part of a winter storm system that started out west, and now it's moving here to where i am standing now. this is already affected 27 million people who are currently under a winter storm warning and it has affected all of the northern half of the states, and more of those winter warnings are expected this weekend, and also the snow, that's what we are really paying attention to right now. we are expected to see up to 12 inches of snow around the chicago area, and 8 inches in new york and pennsylvania, and then in boston has to be

especially weary, and they are expecting a wintry mix ahead of monday, but it's also the cold, richard. we are seeing highs of single digits not only here but across the south, the midwest, the northeast, and this is considered a particularly dangerous storm system as it materializes and has been blamed for one death, and the portland fire department out west they had 400 calls for emergencies last night, and the snow will begin at 5:00. >> the midwest, miss my days there but maybe not the snow. thank you so much, morgan, for your report. double standard or not? paula broadwell talks about the fight to regain her representation as the general she had the affair with is being considered for secretary of state. i will ask a former marine captain about that.

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now to some of the criticism that is aimed at donald trump's choice for key cabinet positions. he has chosen three retired generals for head of homeland security, and a veteran was asked about the concern voiced by members of congress. >> as somebody who is serving in the national guard i find it pretty offensive for people to out right discriminate against veterans. these people arguably have put far more on the line and are far more deeply personally committed to upholding and protecting our democracy than their critics. >> joining me now a former marine captain and executive director and founder of service women's action network. thank you for being here with me. you heard some of the criticisms here, and is it just because too much of one type?

>> well, three machine generals is quite a lot to have in one administrations, but, no, to those comments, i think the congresswoman has a point that veterans have put their lives on the line, but there's a deeper point running underneath that, which is that just because you are a general or a war fighter, do you have the temperament or experience to run a civilian agency? i am very much willing to give all of these cabinet appointments a chance, but civilian oversight is an important part of our democracy and their service as civilian heads will remain to be seen. >> on one side of the criticism is, well, because you have three generals that now will be serving in key positions, will the temperament be more towards considering military intervention or military action

than not? >> well, again, that remains to be seen. these men have all spent the majority of their lives in the military and have a certain world view but we should not discount their experience over all. i think much remains to be seen, and i would prefer a more well-rounded cabinet, but if these men are actually hired to do the job, they will surround themselves with an extremely diverse workforce. >> and it's also being said if you have been in theaters and you have been shot at before, if anything you will try to move away as a veteran, as an ex-leader of any of the servi s services, your propensity would be how to avoid conflict? >> that's not necessarily true, and we see the veterans community as --

>> 22 million veterans? >> that's right. the "mad dog" mattis, he's known as a fairly balanced and kind of intellectual warrior as well, and all of this remains to be seen and we should give these guys a chance. >> i want to move to what president-elect trump said, he will announce the pick f, and petraeus would have to be pardoned to be nominated, and paula broadwell had something to say. >> i was both shocked that i'm still in this tenuous position, and yet happy because i think he

should be able to go on with his life, he's earned it, and so should his family. but then it begged the question of why shouldn't i be able to go on? i have a degree from the university of denver in international conflict resolution, and i have a degree from harvard in public policy. >> you are a west point graduate. >> it shaped me into a standard. >> is there a double standard? >> definitely a double standard. i am proud of paula broadwell for stepping forward after four long years of public shaming, which frankly she didn't deserve. the public -- the american public and the media really, i would say, abused her publicly, while kind of giving general petraeus a pass. first of all, this was a -- while the issue of confidential information potentially being

compromised was an issue of concern and their private relationship was none of her business. she's an incredibly talented and accomplished woman and i hope she goes forward in whatever career she would like to choose at this point. >> when you look at some of the details of this case, general petraeus receiving no disciplinary action from the military, and broadwell receiving a reprimand a month ago. it has been five years. how do you explain this? >> i worked on issues of discrimination of women in the military for many years, and the military criminalized consensual sex in many ways, and not too long ago homosexuals could go to jail, and there's a specter of darkness when it comes to consenting adults and sex in the military, and you could go to

jail for adultery, and the fact that the military -- at least disproportionately punishes women for what it seems inappropriate relationships, and women still make up a minority in the military, they should not be punished for what is between two parties, and it's sexually shaming a woman who is deemed to bring down a powerful man. women have been blamed since the dawn of time for bringing down powerful men, and all of these narratives are well known to us, but paula broadwell does not need to carry the shame of this relationship any further. >> thank you, former marine

captain and director and founder of women's service action. a new report of russian interference in the election, and how strong the evidence is that points to the putin government.

make america great again is trump's vow, but key lawmakers are concerned he will destroy america's superpower status next.

welcome back. i am richard lui right here at msnbc headquarters in new york. here's what we are monitoring, ash carter said there are 200 more troops headed to syria to take on isis. the additional troops will join 300 u.s. special operations forces already in syria. >> i know president obama has already engaged in conversations

with the president-elect and we will work as diligently as we can to impart to the incoming team the absolute urgency of keeping that and other agreements intact. >> that's secretary of state john kerry speaking this week's obama administration's landmark nuclear deal, that donald trump vows to scrap. let's start with the idea, can the trump administration undo the iran agreement? >> well, they could undo the iran deal and they could undo it in a couple different ways. one, it's an international arrangement, not a treaty, not something that requires the act of congress and the president has specific authorities that allows him to agree to the international arrangements that involves international parties, and russia and china were all

part of the process, and that would be devastating for that to happen and he could decide not to move forward. but the more realistic way in which the treaty could be sabotage san diego to not to tend it. i have talked to john kerry about a regular process, the requirements of the treaty are so complex there are a lot of compliance questions on both sides and a lot of problem solving behind the scenes that you and i don't see. he has a staff member assigned to deal with that. if you don't tend that relationship, there could be misunderstandings and missteps and you have folks in iran wanting to see the deal undone from their side and you could accuse the other party of not complying and use that for a justification to with draw. i think it would have devastating on circumstances for american's credibility in the world. >> the idea that focusing less on arms control and more on the

economic opportunities or sanctions that could be levered against iran, do you agree that they focus more on one. >> you didn't fall into the notion there was a good side and bad array of players in iran and you were trying to influence the outcome to see the moderate rise, and the supreme leader and the atalk raw see behind him, it's the one that tilts one way or the other. that makes a lot of sense. just to think that the economic dimension is the only way to get there i think misses the point that while iran may be a fake democracy, many of its citizens believe it's a democracy and they have a choice and choice of what happens and their own views matter, and the fact is in every way we see polling done and

there has been legitimate polling, iran views the nuclear deal as something in their interests, and so i would be very careful of simple binary proposals, let's just offering more crippling sanctions, and it could be undone by other parties in the world, india, brazile, russia, china, europe, they have to be with us, and there's an incredible hubris where we think everybody is going to line up with us again and i don't see that happening. >> you brought up some countries currently certainly watching the united states very carefully, and this is visa vie dianne feinstein, and top democrats in the foreign intelligence committees, and arguing trump's foreign policy could put america's superpower status in jeopardy. you brought up the idea of china and other important countries

that will be part of the mix here. is it legitimate, can the united states lose that status? >> it's absolutely legitimate, and it's something that we need to be very careful of and donald trump needs to be careful of. sometimes the kind of bravado and turning old assumptions on their head could be a good thing if it's connected to strategy and a well-thought plan about how you crunch out the honor shaw and deadwood thinking in certain national security issues, but if it's all happenstance it plants doubt in the minds of allies that think we will not be with them on their dark days and we won't be a good ally and dependable, and they count on us less, and it could be the case where america's superpower status crashes down simply because our allies don't trust us anymore. >> in that status, the soft

versus hard power question, thank you very much. at the latest trump stop, even his family was not sure of his win. >> they had me written off, right? they said, the polls, and i said to ivanka, you know, honey, i may have lost -- based on what they were saying, it was going to be an early evening. they didn't realize it was going to be an early evening for us. >> for more on today's top political stories, let's bring in morris reid, democratic strategist. and matt, why talk about this right now a month after the election? >> talk about what? >> what donald trump is talking about right now, what happened on election night?

>> because it's entertaining and enjoyable and honest, and to have the candidate say the winner did not think he was going to be the winner at the beginning of the day, and it's an interesting clip and the interesting thing about donald trump is he tells you what he thinks. >> on one of trump's latest appointment was ben carson as hud secretary, and what do you think of that idea? do you agree with that idea? is carson being used? >> i don't think so but it's a curious appointment, and he's a qualified surgeon, and you would have thought his talent would be better serve as h.h.s. or create a better role for him in the white house on health care, and i think he could be better used in another place.

>> also addressing that dynamic of ethnicity and race here, matt, i would like to play more of what trump said last night and then i will get your reaction. >> we have forgotten about our inner cities. no longer. and the african-american community was great to us. they came through big league. and frankly, if they had any doubt, they didn't vote, and that was almost as good because a lot of people didn't show up because they felt good about me. and the hispanic community, great, great. >> matt, what is your thought on this? is it helpful here? is it good to do, suggesting that more african-americans did not vote that contributed to his victory? >> yeah, i would use different words, richard. i want everybody to vote and i want to encourage every person to vote that is legally allowed to vote, and what donald trump was saying with these words is that there was no question there was a big drop off of enthusiasm

from obama voters to clinton and they could not transfer that enthusiasm from obama to hillary clinton, and for those of us that supported donald trump we were pleased for a variety of reasons donald trump was more acceptable and did better. >> is ben carson a head nod to the group that you are eluded to in the numbers percentage wise for donald trump? >> i don't think he is making the cabinet picks based on the demographic political realities, and you can look at a number of ways you can demonstrate that. newt gingrich, and chris christie and rudy guiliani are not going to be in his cabinet and that's shocking as well, and he is reaching outside and bringing in new people, and i will root for their success because i think there are more important issues facing the country. >> donald trump said exactly

what is felt and that's exactly what happened. he did a certain number of people to vote for him and the enthusiasm gap was across the board, not just african-american voters, there was a sharp drop because both candidates were not inspirational or aspirational. this is a guy that wants to understand the chain of command and that's why you see him pointing to military points and ceos, and these are people that understand the chain of command because donald trump wants those lieutenants to do the work and then he can take the success, and i think it's consistent of who he is and how he wants to run his cabinet, and like he ran his campaign, lots of lieutenants but he was the star. >> do you think he is attracting

more individuals of color to his side of the camp? >> you know, i have to be transparent here. i am heartbroken that hillary did not win but i am seeing interesting things and interesting opportunities for all americans, businessmen, minorities, what have you. i am one that i believe you have to give the president the benefit of the doubt going through the door unlike a lot of republicans did for president obama going through the door, and i think there are opportunities to have wins here and being a winning narrative. we need to give the guy an opportunity. >> good for you. >> you are inkoubencouraging ea other. first time we have had that. and encourage me as we look at another topic for president-elect trump, and that's who is going to take on the role of secretary of state, and rudy guiliani no longer

there, and what about how they are discussing secretary of state? >> richard, it's hard, when you have a great juicy piece of news, if you share it on tv, you never get another second piece of news. >> i won't tell anybody. >> between you and me, what i hear is that they are looking far and wide and really considering this, and i don't think they are that close to making a decision, and i say they, and i think donald trump is making all these decisions and i don't think the decision is imminent and i think that's great. they have moved at such a mad rush on making these decisions, which is a smart thing to do, and it's okay on these key decisions to take your time, and i am also glad he is taking his time on the part of veteran affairs, and that's a crucially important pick that democrats and republicans across the country, they see how veterans have been treated and they want the system fixed, and that's a key pick as well.

there are several really important decisions to come, including populating the white staff which is going to be the most important decisions yet to come. >> and reporting shows there's a little behind there. many democrats are maybe rooting for mitt romney at this moment and looking at themselves saying i can't believe i am rooting for him? >> interesting and engaging. >> sorry, morris. go ahead. >> that's okay. i think it's funny that people are rooting for romney. trump wants a certain flare, and when he said mitt romney was ready for primetime, he looks the part, and there are other constituencies you need to take care of. the secretary of state is usually the first out the chute

because it's usually so important, and he's the incoming commander and chief, and i agree with my colleague that veteran affairs are very important because at the end of the day he ran a campaign that spoke directly to veterans, and these are a constituency he needs to take care of. >> thank you to our guests today. have a good saturday. >> thank you. pizza gate may be the result of fake news. coming up on am joy, looking for balance in your digestive system?

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has been dubbed pizza gate, the fake news inspired a visit from a gunman to a pizzeria to

investigate a child sex trafficking ring. and joining me now is a washington columnist. thank you for being here, and what motivated you to write this op ed. >> i have been really concerned about this scourge of fake news and the actual facts that have come out since the election, that basically 20 fake news hyperpartisan sites got 1.3 million more views on facebook and more shares than the 20 top performing media sites including t"the new york times," and this is disturbing, when i heard about pizza gate -- >> how did you hear about it? >> it's our neighborhood pizzeria. >> how did you hear about it? >> the same way other most

ordinary americans did, reading about the fake news, saying john podesta, hillary clinton's campaign manager was along with hillary running a sex a pedophi ring out there. you know, there's nothing but pizza and ping-pong, and birthday parties and nothing else. we know the genesis of this story, is someone who went through the hacked e-mails of john podesta, basically found that he liked this pizzeria and this pizzeria had hosted a fund-raiser for hillary clinton. pizza plus hillary -- >> she addressed in this recent

comments just yesterday on the hill. do you think this is ever going to end? >> the only way this can end is if somebody prominent like trump himself or one of his people stands up and disavows it. and i really feel as president-elect he has a responsibility to stand up and reject these false assertions that put real people at risk. and we also need better education to that people can distinguish fake news from real news. >> appreciate it. >> thanks for having me. next the robot economy and what it means for manufacturing jobs in america. just serve classy snacks and be a gracious host, no matter who shows up. [cricket sound] richard. didn't think you were going to make it. hey sorry about last weekend, i don't know what got into me. well forgive and forget... kind of. i don't think so!

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nearly half of economists in a new "wall street journal" poll show automation alone is to blame for the loss of manufacturing jobs in the united states. it's the focus of this week's "newsweek" as well on the robotic economy. kevin, is that right? is it to blame? >> the point of my story is that it's a little more complex than

that. if you -- artificial intelligence is a form of automation, and we have been automating things for the last 50 or 100 years, and over and over and over again, as automation has been introduced, it's actually produced an increase in the quality of living, longer life spans, even though jobs have always been killed in some way, but other sectors get -- >> does it get worse before it gets better, that's what we should be watching? >> one of the differences here in artificial intelligence, artificial intelligence is based in software and can be spread through networks that are instantly accessible throughout the globe. automation in the past might have meant you had to build a factory, buy a tractor, things that were much more difficult to spread so quickly. even the white house has come

out with what the real danger here is a gap between the automation happening and it driving new kinds of jobs and new kinds of sectors of the economy. we might end up with this period of time where a lot of people lose jobs before we can actually create new ways for them to have new kinds of employment. >> a study that you mention said that machines will take over half of what's done by humans, researchers say 90% could be put out of work. is it that bad? >> i think there's a whole lot of other people who say that those sound like panic studies, that that's just not really the way things are going to happen. and, you know, one of the lines i have in the story is that nobody's grandmother was a search engine and optimization specialist. so google and those kinds of technologies came along and automated -- took away a lot of

different kinds of jobs, but it created these things that we never even could have imagined. and that's what's going to happen with ai, is it's going to create opportunities that we just can't even imagine right now. >> kevin manny, great topic, technology columnist for "newsweek" magazine, appreciate it. a.m. joy is next with senator harry reid who's responding to a report that says a cia assessment that russia interfered in the election to help donald trump win. stick around.

from everything i see has no respect for this person. >> well, that's because he would rather have a puppet as a president. >> no puppet. you're the puppet. >> it's pretty clear you won't admit that the russian -- >> good morning and welcome to "a.m. joy." donald trump may have denied