glad forceflex. extra strong to avoid rips and tears. be happy, it's glad. hello, i'm chanel jones at msnbc headquarters in new york.

here's what's happening. we begin with politics and new reaction to the "new york times" and post reports on russia intervening in the presidential election. rnc communications director sean spicer this morning adamantly denying the rnc had been hacked. >> we were going to offer the "new york times" inside access to know what happened. we were willing to offer them proof. they chose not engage in that conversation. not us. the intelligence agencies we're working with tell us with certainty we haven't been hacked. we said it before and tried to work with these media outlets to explain that and show them. >> outgoing senate minority leader harry reid where he th k thinks the fight will go next. here's what he told my colleague this morning. >> i believe lindsey graham is a voice of concern. a good lawyer and i think he should get involved and doing that i think he will bring in

republican moderates. there aren't many. this is really important. >> meanwhile, rudy guiliani is fueling further speculation over who the president-elect will choose for secretary of state. here's what he said this morning about taking his name out of the race. he also had a message for one of the top contenders. >> i knew he had good choices. if i thought he didn't have a great choice and needed only me which was probably always true they only needed you, if i thought that i'd do it in a minute. if mitt romney, i voted for him and supported him and thought he would be a better president than barack obama. i do think as huckabee does he should apologize and the comm t comments he made when i was campaigning for my friend, donald trump. >> and we have news on secretary of state. let's go to andrea mitchell on

breaking details. this is about the secretary of state pick. what are we learning? >> what i've learned from two sources close to the transition, it will be rex tillerman barring an unforeseen problem. he is to be the new nominee for secretary of state and very likely would be paired with an experienced and sometimes controversial diplomat, john bolton, the former u.n. ambassador who would be the deputy secretary of state in this unusual pairing of corporate ceo from exxonmobil who has no experience in dropsy, spent his entire career in the increasing spector but in fact has wide global experience and could be controversial because of his close relationship with vladimir putin. they had a long standing relationship and one of their biggest deals was a victim of

the ukraine sanctions imposed by the obama administration, canceling 5$500 billion deal between exxonmobil and russia in the arctics. >>ents ing you just mentioned that. you know how we prep on the show, the next couple of hours that was a topic we were going to talk about, his connections with russia and going to ask journalists we were talking to if maybe that would dissuade trump from making that decision and clearly it didn't. >> reporter: this decision, as i understand it, was made in the last couple of days, as the appropriate people in the corporate world were notified of mr. tiller son's likely appoint and all before the breaking news about the russia investigation on the intelligence side. you saw the strong pubback unusual and unprecedented from the transition team from the president-elect against the cia's analysis as it was being reported today, last night and this morning. i do not think that would derail

what i have been told is a pe pending nomination of the nominee to be secretary of state. one of the big signals leading to this, of course, is the fact that rudy guiliani was no longer in contention and it is narrowed down. there's always the fallback the possibility that senator corker might be the fallback position. i was told in fact it is going to be rex tiller son. we saw the way president-elect trump brought up tillerson's name himself during his interview a couple days ago with matt lauer on the "today" show. he brought up the name. there have been a lot of signals the last couple of days and why we've been working our sources. >> with that said, how would you describe the buzz behind the sce scenes? obviously there will be critis.s is this someone the other side feels like they can work with. i was reading an article this morning and people complaining

this whole decision of secretary of state seemed like a reality show and we had mitt romney in front of the cameras and so much hoop law about it and now we have a decision. can you put it in perspective for us? >> reporter: there was a lot of pushback as you saw first of all on "meet the press," saying there was a lot of anger among the base, among trump supporters against mitt romney's selection because of the really strong language that he has used in his criticisms of donald trump during the campaign. that said, donald trump praised mitt romney, said their dinner went well, said they had a real connection. mitt romney was also going to be a controversial choice for the base. rex tillerson is more of a corporate ceo type who has great global experience. you can see where he would be a

fit with donald trump, where they would connect. certainly, it's going to be controversial among some crit critics, certainly critics of the increasing policy because he had a lot of other things going on, recently reporting of the "washington post" there was a very specific and unusual questionnaire by the trump energy transition team to top officials in the department of energy to try to nail down who among senior officials, among the civil servants in the energy department had been involved in any of the negotiations for the paris climate change accord or other big decisions in energy, really delving into what scientists were deciding and discussing in their professional roles under the obama administration. that is unprecedented in my experience. there will be a lot of controversy over energy policy

alone. to choose someone from the world's biggest oil company to be secretary of state nominee will raise issues. there are so many other questions before this senate confirming these choices, the foreign relations committee will be headed by bob corker and if this goes through and announced this week is passed over for this job and he's in charge of the hearings of the republican-led senate. >> with that said, there is a caveat here, how final is this? >> reporter: nothing is final until a nominee is announced. i'm saying sources are telling me close to the transition this is going to happen. i've also been led to believe that the appropriate steps are being taken by exxonmobil, which is a major step for the corporate board to take, they're expecting their ceo to be nominated. >> i will throw you a ball here

and i hope it makes sense. you have so much experience here, i think the challenge is when you have breaking news like this, there are a lot of people who watch our programming and they're in the weeds, in the ins and outs and tell you about ceo rex tillerson and tell you why he would be a great secretary of state or wouldn't be. a lot of people want to hear breaking news and come to us and turn on nbc and thmsnbc and the filter. it depends on the filter what type of reaction you get, as best you can for people tuning into this news and people just finding out about rex tiller son, what's your take what he would bring to this role? >> reporter: it's really hard to say. we don't know as much about him as we would know as someone who has come up through the role of diplomacy or public policy mitt romney, let's say. this is someone who is coming from the outside, bringing a

great deal of global experience as perhaps the world's leading executive in the increasing field but someone who would be controversial with a lot of critics of donald trump's energy policy. as any would tell you, elections have consequences. we have seen this in the nominee for epa and the nominee for what you're going to see in a number of these other -- in other ar areas. senator sessions, for instance, is very controversial among many people but he is more likely to be approved because he comes from the senate. if they wanted an easy confirmation, bob corker would have glided through most likely. these things are unpredictable. way back i covered a senator's nomination in 1989 by president bush 41 to be the defense secretary. at one of his early nominations over chairman of the armed

sieveses committee and it went completely off the rails and we ended up with dick cheney as defense secretary. these things are really hard to predict. what is the issue that will come up and came up for the number of attorney general nominees for bill clinton back in 1993? you ended up with a complete man with two nominees having to prove themselves and pull back and finally the third one nominated as attorney general. i would caution you don't know which of these nominations is going to be tricky and the democrats have to make their choices. how many will they try to challenge and confront? they will be aggressive in their questioning but how many will they try to derail? the epa may be one and labor may be another. those are so controversial. the secretary of state may be one where they decide to take a pass.

>> nbc chief foreign affairs correspondent, andrea mitchell, thank you for joining us for this breaking news for the president-elect's choice of secretary of state. thank you. >> reporter: you bet. let's bring in our contributor, michael, also former ambassador to russia. are you comfortable with this pick? >> no, not really, to be honest. i want to look more closely at it. it's breaking news. i thought we were going to talk about russian hacking and now to rex tillerson. >> welcome to the news. >> yes. let me say a few things. the main reason i am uncomfortable is that the secretary of state is a multi-dimensional policy job. it's not just an energy job. you have to deal with the military issues, you have to deal with diplomacy about trade issues, you have to deal on a myriad of issues, human rights, for instance, whereas the increasing sector, i've dealt

with the energy sector in the government very close toly, they're one dimensional. that's the first thing that troubles me. the second thing more deeper about, exxonmobil, of course, has a major pending deal with the russian oil company. vp, several times, has called it the most important issue in u.s.-russian relation is in deca decades. when i was in the government, i want to be clear, i supported that deal. i thought that was an important joint venture between these two companies, but it was suspended rightly because of russia's intervention in ukraine. what i worry about here we will lift sanctions and forget about crimea and forget about these military intervention in ukraine for the sake of an oil deal. that's not good foreign policy in my view. >> you make good points but is it enough to fight, if you will,

you were hearing andrea mitchell talk about they have secretary of labor or epa, so many choices to fight or accept. is this one worth it to you to push a little bit and say no? >> i would want the process of confirmation 0 be thorough and comprehensive. it was for me. i had several republican sena r senators put holds on me about policy issues. i would hope there is a thorough scrub to make sure there's not a conflict of interest and that this person is the best qualified person for the job. whether they seek to block it or not, that's a political matter above my pay grade. >> can you talk about the importance of his role as secretary of state and on the other side as chairman and ceo of a large company he can use the skill-set to be effective in this role. >> yes. i think that's fair and should be noted.

obviously, if you're the ceo of exxonmobil you're dealing with headin ings of states and prime minister s all over the world. they are a global company. with respect to russia, rex t l tillerson is one of the few non-government americans that sees putin regularly, so he's not going to be starting from scratch in that relationship with president putin. literally, there's only two or three people i can name, tiller son, maybe henry kissinger that have that advantage. i suspect if he has those relationships in russia he has them all over the world as well. >> does the u.s. need -- this ventures into what we were going to talk about anyway, does the u.s. need better relations with russia? >> i'd frame it differently. to say we need better relations with russia makes better relations with russia the objective of foreign policy,

right? the means to that are things like lifting sanctions recogn e recognizing crimea. i want to flip it around exactly. i want to say what are american national security interests and economic interests with respect to russia. and then the means for achieving them are relationships with putin. having a good relationship with russia is meaningless unless it advances our national interests. >> put this in perspective for me. i don't know if you heard me asking andrea mitchell earlier this morning, the challenge in these days and times, things are so polarized, people turn on the news, they don't know whether they're getting a filter, accurate information, balanced, fair, to the best of your ability, how should we react to this choice? also talk about the fact there has been so much buzz, you know, about president-elect trump and his connections with putin and some of his choices and whether they have connections, put this in perspective here whether people should be concerned.

>> with respect to your first question we all need to dig into his history, into his background and look very closely whether he's qualified or not. this is one of the most important jobs in the u.s. government. we all need to do that. right now. in an objective way and look at it as you and i were doing a few minutes ago. there's plus side and up side to appointing an official like this. with respect to russia, you know, i'm sure the kremlin is very happy about this choice, this is somebody they know well. he wants to do business with russia. they were against the sanctions. they are doing business by the way with an oil company that seized a lot of its assets in a way that many people think were illegal. so, you know, for them, a guy like tillerson is going to put that behind them. they're not going to question that previous history. that's the kind of history we all need to look at very

closely. >> a lot to dig in. before you leave me, i want to ask you about the cia, about the fall-out, new revelations that russia influenced the election to favor donald trump. the "washington post" reporting russian hackers intervened to help donald trump win. are you surprised there isn't more outrage over this. senator john cornyn tweeted this morning while serious, this isn't news, he says, this is something that's been going on covertly for a long time. what's your take? >> i've been following this a long time during the campaign, i talked about it and wrote about it on other shows on msnbc. i'm not surprised. i think it was very obvious the russians preferred donald trump to secretary clinton. by the way the conversation we're having about rex tillerson reaffirms that was a good bet in terms of their strategy. they stole data and transferred that data to wikileaks.

that's the news for me over the last 24 hours our intelligence community is now saying they have evidence of that transfer. we didn't know that. we were guessing before about that. what it says to me, not whether we need to reassess whether president-elect trump is a legitimate president. the election is over, he's the president. we need to move forward. but to move forward we have to have a real investigation of what happened here. bipartisan independent serious investigation. with all due respect to my colleagues at the white house, a review within the obama administration in 20 or 30 days, that's not enough. we need to know the facts so that we can prepare for 2020, so we can have a free and fair election in 2020. i think there's a lot more to be learned here. >> listen, michael mcfaul, thank you for talking to me. i know it changed a little bit as you were sitting there. i appreciate your perspective and very happy we had you this

afternoon. >> thank you. >> drama building in baltimore, the annual army-navy game. president-elect donald trump is expected to arrive. hang with us. ways wins.

especially in my business. with slow internet from the phone company, you can't keep up. you're stuck, watching spinning wheels and progress bars until someone else scoops your story. switch to comcast business. with high-speed internet up to 10 gigabits per second. you wouldn't pick a slow race car. then why settle for slow internet?

comcast business. built for speed. built for business. breaking news chief nbc news correspondent dra mitchell is -- andrea mitchell is reporting rex ti tillerson is president-elect donald trump's choice for secretary of state. casey is in boston for donald trump going to the football game in baltimore. do you think donald trump will talk about it?

>> reporter: we will see. donald trump is on his way to baltimore we're expecting this afternoon. kickoff is at 3:00 this afternoon. army versus navy, a storied tradition. donald trump will spend time with members of both branches of the service although he won't do a formal switch from one side to the other reserved for signature preside presidents, still the president-elect. all the focus for this president on russian hacking and the trump's campaign aggressive response to it last night saying they, these, this intelligence community are the same people who said there were weapons of mass destruction on in iraq. we do know we will hear from trump himself on fox news sunday tomorrow morning and we also know he will talk to the cnbc sports anchors midway through this game, around halftime. we will keep an eye on that and keep you updated. already intense criticism and calls for investigation from democrats, notably, harry reid, the outgoing democratic minority

leader in the senate. he says fbi director, james comey, knew about what was in the cia assessment as the election was ongoing an he withheld it from the public. take a look what he had to say to joy reed earlier today. >> i did not believe that comey was the new j. edgar hoover. i thought that he would do the right thing for the country. comey, who is a republican, refused to divulge this information regarding russia and the presidential election. >> do you believe jim comey should resign, senator reid? >> of course, yes. >> it's important to point out comey was appointed by president obama who is a democrat. tough words from reid and jim schumer the incoming democratic leader in the senate says the wants to go into bipartisan investigations into russian h k

hacking. i talked to lindsey graham he and john mccain, also a republican are working into investigations into russia and said he wants personal sanctions on vladimir putin and his personal circle if the evidence stacks up against him. >> i don't want to speculate but you've been covering this campaign and a while. there are critic who say there is a timing and strategy rele e releasing this pick here. in the midst of all this news with the russian hacking, do you think there's anything to that speculation he's trying to change the topic of conversation although interesting enough we are still talking about the ties to russia with his picks. >> reporter: donald trump has shown himself at being very adept at turning the conversation where he wants and issues he wants to be focused on. we have not seen trump himself so far today focused on this hacking issue. his tweets have been focused on

"the apprentice" and his remaining executive producer credit there. i apologize. there seems to be a train going by the army any navy stadium, and i apologize if you're having trouble hearing me. rex tillerson is expected to be the pick for the secretary of state. it's possible that's part of it. >> interesting conversation for saturday afternoon. thank you for checking in with me. >> reporter: thanks. more now on that russian hacking report. joining me now, greg miller, national security correspondent for the "washington post," thank you for talking to me this afternoon. >> sure. >> let's talk about russia's intervening in the election. first, your reaction to sean spicer pushing back on reporting lumped in with his criticism of the "new york times." >> i'm not sure he's pushing

back on our reporting, i think he ae's aiming that specificallt the "new york times." we explored that issue that the rnc had also been hack and we got conflicting information on that. we were in contact with the rnc and the vigorously disputed that. we've also heard from a number of u.s. officials who said there was clearly some probing, some effort j some hacking increasing aimed at the rnc. what ae's less clear is whether they were able to extricate any materials. that is something get to be resolved. >> viewers will be interested to hear your take. can you walk us through a bit how you and your colleagues went about reporting this story? >> this has been an intense subject for quite a long time now. we spent -- many of my colleagues at the post and i spent a lot of time over the many months of the election trying to examine trump's

relationship with russia and trying to examine russia's interest in this election and what it was doing about it. there was widely held position when the hacked e-mail showed up at wikileaks there was a russian role in that and it didn't take long for that to become the prevailing suspicion in theory. now we're starting to piece together actual evidence that draws connections that makes it much more clear what russia was doing and what its intentions were. >> thank you. national security correspondent for the "washington post." thank you for what has been a very busy news day. >> and trump's choice for epa, why some environmentalists say he's no friend to mother earth. >> we had a big election.

>> are you taking a victory lap? >> no. with some interest, i read your tweets about the election 140 years ago. was that a relative of yours? >> he was in the united states way before my ancestors were. >> you had a republican? >> my grandfather, boy, he was all the way.

breaking msnbc news, dran

mitchell reporting rex tillerson is trump's choice for secretary of state. let's join with milwaukee. i tell you what we have news thrown in our lap. >> it's coming fast and furious, isn't it? >> give me your fist reaction to this choice. >> my first reaction to this choice how amazing it is you have one of the ceos of one of the largest multi-national corporation added to the trump cabinet of billionaires and millionaires and number two, someone this close to vladimir putin named to this position, somebody actually awarded the order of friendship by the kremlin. that is an extraordinary choice and comes within hours of the breaking news story you've been talking about, the role of russian intelligence in hacking this u.s. election. i think there will be a lot of questions about this. i don't think it changes this

subject. i think it probably weaponizes it a little bit. >> could you hear my conversation with casey. i was asking her about it this morning. i host the "today" show on the mornings and weekends and he was tweeting about "the apprentice." a lot of people feel there's a strategy and the media were going to make a left turn and talk about something else. do you think that is behind this decision. we're still talking, if anything, even more about the issues with russian intelligence? >> i agree with you on all of this. this story about the possibility the russians were trying to influence an american election is a very very big story. it is not going to go away any time soon. you could argue. the reaction ought to be bipartisan. democrats and republicans should be pushing to get to the bottom of this. this could be one of the biggest stories of the 2016 election. to follow this up with somebody

this closely intimately connected with vp i don't think changes the subject in any way whatsoever. >> interesting we're hearing trump did indeed meet with ti tillerson this morning. give me your take on this. sitti ting in this seat where i right now we talked so long about rudy guiliani guiliani and mitt romney and he was met with such resistance, do you think that played any part in his decision or was it just for show? what's your take? >> i can't possibly get into what's going on inside the mind of the president-elect. i don't think i'm alone in all of that. i was encouraged when he was talking to mitt romney. that maybe it was an indication he would make this long rumored pivot to be more presidential and he would be broadening the scope. i was relieved he wasn't going to nominate somebody as erratic as rudy guiliani.

i'll be honest, this is a very surprising choice, somebody very much outside the diplomatic community and somebody who's frankly going to be bringing a great deal of baggage into this position. i think it's fascinating these reports he'll be paired with john bolton. john bolton is very aggressive and very very outspoken. it will be interesting to see how that particular marriage will work. >> i will move on quickly, i'm picturing double box, as we sane the news business, with a picture of mitt romney and rex tillerson, they're just so different, i'm baffled. >> it is. we will find out, i suppose, over the next couple of weeks, what attracted donald trump to this particular choice. obviously, this is the choice that would be most favored by the kremlin, by cell phovladimi

and famously, mitt romney said the biggest geopolitical threat we faced was russia and vindicated for having said that. you couldn't have two more different views of the world. now, i think the senate will have to go in a very detailed way and unravel all the possible conflicts in an administration that is rife with these conflicts. >> i have to ask you about this fake news everywhere. the article you wrote for "politico" magazine, you wrote, you think the truth took a hit last year, it's about to get worse, a lot worse. kind of scary, how so? >> it is. it's not just that there's fake news. it's the fact we have created these alternative realty silos, these media universes not just echo chambers but create their own set of facts and arguments. i think you have an

administration that may feel it is insulated from the normal practices of journalism because they know their followers will stay in that echo chamber and bubble and they will shoot down criticism and the scandals won't penetrate and he can count on these media flying monkeys to protect him any time there is a controversy. obviously, there are alternative realities on the left as well as the right. i think we're in a dramatically new media political reality and i'm sorry to say it will get worse. >> even with rex tillerson, with andrea mitchell and we respect andrea. if you're sitting at home and you want to know the truth so to speak, sometimes it's hard to know what that is. great conversation. thank you for talking with me this afternoon. >> trump and pruitt will make america gasp again talking about

the president-elect's choice for the epa. what makes tom pruitt so objecti objectionable? that's next. "mr. garner, are you related to jennifer?" kind of joking with him. and my dad was so proud to tell her, "as a matter of fact, she is my middle daughter". so now dad has the venture card, he's earning his double miles, and he made a friend at the company. can i say it? go ahead! what's in your wallet? nice job dad. let's just get a sandwich or something. "or something"? you don't just graduate from medical school, "or something." and we don't just pull smoked chicken, bake fresh foccacia and hand-slice avocado. there's nothing "or something" about it.

♪ everything your family touches sticks with them. make sure the germs they bring home don't stick around. use clorox disinfecting products. because no one kills germs better than clorox. so we know how to cover almost almoanything.hing, even a rodent ride-along. [dad] alright, buddy, don't forget anything! [kid] i won't, dad... [captain rod] happy tuesday morning! captain rod here. it's pretty hairy out on the interstate.traffic is literally crawling, but there is some movement on the eastside overpass. getting word of another collision. [burke] it happened. december 14th, 2015. and we covered it. talk to farmers. we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪

a deadly snowstorm is moving eastward after wreaking havoc in parts of the northwest. look at ohio this morning after more than 30 inches of snow so far. foreca forecasters expect it to worsen much of the next week and bracing for freezing temperatures. in chicago, morgan is there where they're expecting more than 10 inches of snow. what can you tell us? >> reporter: that's right. it feels like 15 degrees. all morning we've been talking to people along the streets and tells us they are getting prepared for the snow packing extra blankets in their car and making sure tires are new and avoiding the roads when and if possible. this is part of a much larger

snowstorm, one that started on the west coast moving its way to the midwest and northeast bracing for 8 inches of snow in parts of new york and pennsylvania and boston getting prepared ahead of monday. there has been a winter weather advisor for 27 million people across the united states. listen to how some of them are co coping. >> trying to wake up, go to work this morning. as we're walking up here to see what's going on, we saw it's pretty much impossible to get out of this apartment complex. a thin layer of water that hopefully will melt so i can get back home. getting out of this neighborhood is really really difficult. >> reporter: weather advisories are expected tonight and into this weekend. here in chicago that advisory begins at 6:00 p.m. that snow is expected to start falling at 5:00 p.m. local time. >> the only challenge, i've

lived there in chicago and there are pros with weather like this and the challenge is for people ta take it seriously. >> reporter: a lot of people we spoke to outside said we're hea hearty, from the midwest and prepared. some said they're looking forward to sledding and skating. i said, look, for someone like me not from a part of this country, what is it i need to do to be prepared. they said there are other things you have to make sure when safety comes first and when they mentioned making sure their vehicles were in top shape if they were going to the road. >> good at vice. weren't you just in cuba. >> reporter: i was. what a difference a week makes. >> thank you. still ahead why some think epa candidate -- >> and how will ben carson's upbringing help him serve as head of housing and urban development.

transition forces have

confirmed donald trump met with rex tiller son at the trump tower today and heard from sources close to the team that rex tillerson is indeed the choice for secretary of state. the news caps off a week of cabinet picks including oklahoma general scott pruitt. you recently wrote this pick is basically going to bring a face jo between the two sides of the kilometer divide. how so? >> well, scott pruitt has been suing the environmental protection agency he's been called to lead regularly over the past several years and several of those are over the issue of climate change. they sued over the obama plan to cut power plants and the epa over methane, another powerful

greenhouse gas. in effect the confirmation b battle over pruitt could get into the science of climate change and whether people believe it or not. >> let's look at his record for the agency he has been chosen to lead. the climate change and clean power plan and over eight others challenged the epa's authority and on his linked in page he describes himself against the epa activist agenda. will he face a fight from environmental groups if confirmed? >> i think the environmental groups do not like this appointment and democratic senators on their side said they will fight as hard as they can. it's not clear where that leads. if every republican wants to confirm him j democrats can't really stop that. one thing they're pointing out, pruitt has expressed scepticism about climate change and hasn't

gotten into elaborate arguments where they are denying what scientists know and say this is a debate and scientists know it and not actually quite campaign trail, donald trump has been vocal about slashing the epa. are there initiatives that could be overhauled? >> i think they'll try to overhaul a lot of them. i'm not sure if i could point to one right now that has drawn sort of universal and bipartisan criticism but i think the strategy here is going to be that you get inside of the epa and then look at the various regulatory initiatives and try to figure out how they can slow them down. the trick really is that once the epa has made a final regulation, which is what the clean power plant is, which is the methane rule, make it hard to disappear. you'd have to go through an extensive public period making it a factual record for why you're going to do that and then

environmental groups could sue. why are you doing it this way? it's not something where you could turn on a dime and make these kinds of regulations disappear. >> chris mooney from "the washington post" thank you for talking with me this afternoon. new reaction to the breaking news, nbc's andrea mitchell reporting the choice of exxon mobil's ceo rex tillerson for secretary of state. how this pick will be received, next. ke them lighter? the lubricants that improved fuel economy. even technology to make engines more efficient. what company does all this? exxonmobil, that's who. we're working on all these things to make cars better and use less fuel. helping you save money and reduce emissions. and you thought we just made the gas. energy lives here. but my back pain was making it hard to sleep and open up on time. then i found aleve pm.

the only one to combine a sleep aid plus the 12 hour pain relieving strength of aleve. now i'm back. aleve pm for a better am. hi! hey! i've made plans for later in case this date doesn't go well. same here. wouldn't it be great if everyone said what they meant? the citi double cash card does. earn 1% cash back when you buy, and 1% as you pay. double means double.

did you know slow internet can actually hold your business back? say goodbye to slow downloads, slow backups, slow everything. comcast business offers blazing fast and reliable internet that's over 6 times faster than slow internet from the phone company. say hello to internet speeds up to 250 mbps. and add phone and tv for only $34.90 more a month. call today. comcast business. built for business.

rvelgs we are following breaking news. nbc news chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell is reporting exxon mobil ceo rex tillerson is donald trump's choice for secretary of state and john bolton will serve as his deputy. let's bring in niles standish. let's get into this here. first your reaction to the report on the choices especially given tillerson's business ties with vladimir putin.

>> extraordinary timing. whenever we have this story with the cis believing russia was trying to influence the election and with the appointment of a man who has received an honor from vladimir putin, not that automatically is disqualifying but certainly i think that will add to the pushback that mr. tillerson is likely to receive. >> i was just about to ask you. give me the buzz on the hill. are these going to be ugly confirmation hearings? >> i think the democrats have to oppose a lot of these nominees and not just because they're sincerely opposed but because the liberal base demands that of them. having said that, the democrats don't really have the numbers for the most part. they would need to peel off some republicans to join them in opposition to these nominees. so far, that appears fairly unlikely to happen, but of course we can't rule anything out in this climate. >> i want to get back to reports on russia intervening in our

electoral system. the president-elect sent out a few tweets this morning having really nothing to do with these reports, nor have we heard from him directly about this through a paper statement or yesterday's rallies. so how should we be reading into his reaction as well as his team's? >> i think that one will be looking to see if he tries to tweet on more subjects again. the accusation from critics has always been he uses twitter sometimes to distract from stories that aren't favorable to him. you mentioned his "apprentice" tweets early on. i'm not sure if those are part of the strategy or generally really worked up about people accusing him of shadeiness with "the apprentice." >> the owners of the pizzeria are holding support for its donors, we have people in trump's future administration are promoting some of the fake news stories. >> you know, this whole story of fake news is a huge issue.

i think part of it is to do with the erosion of the credibility of the mainstream media, but it's also frankly to do with the fact that we have difficult distinguishing between different kinds of sources. >> niall, i have to leave it there. thank you for checking in with me today. >> thanks. at the top of the hour, more on rex tillerson, getting the nod as donald trump's choice for secretary of state. nbc's chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell broke the news first within the past hour. she rejoins us in a moment to explain why trump chose the exxon mobil ceo. y when growth presents itself? american express open cards can help you take on a new job, or fill a big order or expand your office and take on whatever comes next. find out how american express cards and services

can help prepare you for growth at open.com. only new alka-seltzer plus justfree of artificial dyes find out how american express cards and services and preservatives liquid gels delivers the powerful cold symptom relief you need without the unnecessary additives you don't. store manager: clean up, aisle 4. alka-seltzer plus liquid gels.

♪ gaviscon is a proven heartburn remedy that gives you fast-acting, long-lasting relief. it immediately neutralizes acid and only gaviscon helps keep acid down for hours. for fast-acting, long-lasting relief, try doctor-recommended gaviscon.

just serve classy snacks and bew a gracious host,iday party. no matter who shows up. do you like nuts? good afternoon, i'm chanel jones. breaking news, exxon mobil ceo rex tillerson is president-elect trump's pick for secretary of state. trump transition spokesperson hope hicks confirmed tillerson met with the president-elect today at trump tower.