over the other? would that be so hard? by the way, my next fear is pair noid college football coaches you are paparanoid enough. anyway. that's all for tonight. ari melber picks up our coverage now. >> 6:00 p.m. on the east coast. donald trump pushing back on the reporting of putin overseeing the russian hack of the u.s. election. why is trump attacking the current president of the united states? also, protests against trump's conflict of interest and how democrats want to force him to separate his business from his administration. and late-breaking story. the guilty verdict in the dylann roof murder trial moving forward to the first federal death penalty case since the boston bombing. our big story tonight, though. it was nearly 24 hours ago that nbc news broke the story that

u.s. officials said vladmir putin personally directed the hacking plans to impact the u.s. election. now tonight we can report virtually every political reader -- leader who responded to the story has criticized russia because, obviously, an attack on u.s. democracy is bigger than any political party. well, every leader except donald trump. he may be the only person in the u.s. government who ordered a bad headline about putin and responded by attacking president obama. we'll show you the tweet. if russia or some other entity was hacking, why did the white house wait so long to act. why did they only complain after hillary lost? he tweeted. now we want to be fair. two anonymous sources in washington doesn't make an entire allegation automatically true. and some are disputing parts of this story. russian government officials call it ridiculous. and, quote, laughable nonsense. u.s. officials say, however, that the outlies of this entire

plot are not exactly new. homeland security pointing to russia in october saying they were confident the russian government directed recent comprises of e-mails from u.s. political organizations. and what is new, they say, are the u.s. intelligence assessments about details and motive. what started is what they're calling a vendetta over clinton after she questioned russian elections. we want to be clear. there's much here about this story that we do not know. a declassified presentation of the evidence by the intelligence agencies could help americans -- all americans try to work from a common set of facts. but it is notable that right now the trump transition team appears either unsure or downright evasive about how to respond to propaganda attacks on

the united states by an adversary. the kind of attacks that one former bush intelligence official likened to the political equivalent of 9/11. today trump aids were ducking questions from nbc about this on their daily call. a certain point got to realize the election from last month is going to stand. >> no one is questioning whether the election stands. which is what makes that statement so odd. but don't take our word for it. here is a senior foreign policy republican, senator lindsey graham saying trump's disbelief about russia's apparent intervention is troubling. >> i'm 100% certain that the russians hacked into podesta's

e-mails, the dnc, and other political organizations. most of the information released was unfavorable to clinton not trump. and here is president trump's dill limb ma. what are you going to do? if you don't believe that the russians were involved in interfering in our election, then i'm troubled by that. because i've been briefed. i don't think anybody who has heard the briefings doubt that the rush chance were interfering in our election. whatever their motives were. i don't care. >> graham's emphasizing saying he doesn't care is that the motives don't matter that much. and donald trump is so caught up on how it could affect his political standing he, so far, has barely addressed how it affects the united states security standing. the broader significance here is not about delegitimizing who won the election. it is, according to all the information we have thus far about putin trying to delegitimize american democracy

itself. joining us now malcolm nans nbc -- and the author of "the plot to america." ambassador mcfall, is this significant story, in your view, and what, if anything, concerns you about trump's apparent lack of belief in it? >> well, it is the story significant? absolutely it's significant. it's unprecedented in our history that a foreign government intervened, stole information, publicized it and had a definite impacts on the election, i don't think it caused the outcome. there are many variables. there are at play. it is a huge story about national security. not partisan politics.

what people have said are undenial facts. he's privvy to the facts, by the way. he can ask for a deep dive presidential daily briefing and they'll bring in the people who know the most about it and explain it to him. i would hope we take the facts seriously so we can prepare for our national security and not keep fighting about the legitimacy or not of the election, which i, for one, am not concerned about. i'm concerned about the national security implications. >> yeah, ambassador, is it your view that this is clear, at least at the broadest jot line that russia was seeking to intervene their motives and donald trump is wrong about a public fact and something of a russia truther? or do you think there is genuine disagreement about the facts? >> i don't think there's any agreement about the facts of the hacking. by the way, i wrote about it many times before the election.

and as you've recorded that the u.s. government came out with a definitive statement in october before the election, i don't think there's any doubt about the facts. i'll tell you, honestly, what i worry about for the president-elect. if he keeps denying intelligence that everybody else sees as facts, that's going to start to look like a cover up. that's not good for his own foreign policy. that will make people wonder about why he's doing certain things with the -- in terms of the bilateral relationship with russia that may be good things to do in terms of cooperation. eventually i hope he'll see we all, the american people, have an interest in knowing the basic facts. i continue to believe a bipartisan, independent commission like the 9/11 commission is the right way to go so we can get the facts straight first and then work on the prescriptions so we don't repeat this again in 2020. >> malcolm?

>> mike mcfall is absolutely right. the ambassador hit the nail on the head. you know, my book came out one month before the election. my analysis was written four months before. i'm not, you know, the central intelligence agency and other analysts have been watching this for some time. the ambassador and myself were on television several times in august a -- warning about the hack. and it's very true. donald trump right now risks the possibility of not just looking like he is apologizing for moscow. from a counter intelligence perspective, i can tell you i speak to many people in the intelligence community every day. and right now people are saying donald trump's invisible strings to moscow, which may have been part of a fsb intelligence operation are starting to look very visible. the question that we want to know fundamentally is what did

he know about this hack? when did he know about this hack? on july 27th, he actually requested for russia to conduct the hack as if he had known there was an operation going on. which means he believed in it that time. but at this time, he's in full diagonal mode. and the question is is he come police it in these hacks? and if so, then he does -- and may have a legitimacy question. >> you're right. yeah you're raising some serious issues there of ones he hasn't cleared up. you're referencing a press conference where he referred to maybe the russians can help find the missing e-mails. they later tried to defend it by saying it was a different comment. second, i want to put on the screen the august briefing which he was entitled. prove briefings from u.s. intel. nbc news previously reported classified materials prepared for the briefing and showed u.s. officials had drawn direct links between putin's government and

the recent hacks and e-mail leaks. so, you know, malcolm unpack that for people at home. we heard about putin has a big break in the story yesterday. but the implication there being that what was new to us may have been old for the nominees based on the briefings they got in the summer >>well, that's new information to me, too. and outstanding job by nbc investigative. you know, so he was -- he was given in his first intelligence briefing information that showed the united states intelligence community had high confidence. and we killed people with high confidence with drones, by the way, almost 100% of the time. so high confidence that this hack was directly linked to moscow and it was the cia who took it a step further doing a proper analysis exactly as i had done with my book, and showed there had to have been a benefit to someone -- it wasn't just a chaos operation. putin endorsed trump as far back

as december 2015 and they were inside the dnc's computers for almost six months before that. and so as he went through the nomination process, russia seemed confident in him. and then started the systemic leaks. he was clearly aware from u.s. intelligence but his denial, his flat out denial right now is nothing less than suspicious. and i'm sure ambassador mcfall will speak more on that. >> ambassador, let's broaden to the foreign policy implications here. which is there is room for agreement about how to approach these countries. people have rightly pointed out that barack obama ran on warming relations with certain controversial countries like iran and cuba. certainly another nominee has the right, in this case the president-elect to advocate relations with various countries based on an assessment of u.s. national interest. what seems to be the problem here is the idea not that donald trump is doing it independently. in a way that might have -- his interest. but it seems like putin time and

time again is getting the better of the u.s. in these interactions. right now to a lot of people it looks like the u.s. is getting played and the incoming president saying nothing to see here. what is your view of where our relationship with russia goes from here? >> well, let me make two pnts about that. a very important question. the first thing is president-elect trump keeps saying is foreign policy objective is to get along with russia. and i disagree with that. i don't think getting along with any country should be the objective, the outcome of foreign policy. instead he needs to define what national security interest he wants to pursue and then choose the means to to do it. whether it means getting along or confrontation. i think he's confused on basic strategy in that regard. i worry if the objective is to get along then the means for achieving it is lifting sanctions, endorsing what russia is doing and you rain and syria.

i would be nervous about that. but the second piece, you're absolutely right. he is the president. he will soon be the president. he gets to choose his team. and pursue his foreign policy toward russia. i think what he doesn't understand is that this lingering scandal that he is just adding fuel to the fire by denying that it exists will just continue to raise suspiciouses about his ulterior motives for embracing president putin. i think it's in his own interest to say we want the facts. we want to get to the bottom of this. and then distinguish it and disaggregate that from his foreign policy. if he doesn't do that, we'll be talking about hacking and nefarious fies -- ties around different people and the kremlin for the entire next four years. >> yeah. there has to be a full accounting journalistically and security perspective. this segment was interesting for me. all though at times profoundly

depressing. i appreciate your insights. >> thank you. >> good evening to you. coming up after the break. hillary clinton wasn't the only democrat or politician targeted by russian hackers. we have a new report today that is suggesting a lot more fall out, which is pretty important. we'll bring it to you. later in the show from fast money to america's future. our good friend dylan ratigan is here to tell us what he's been up to since it happened. >> the american taxpayer finds himself stuck with a trillion $bill and the trillions lost in the stock market. it doesn't make you feel good, does it? >> then give you an unrealistic timeline. i'll nod in agreement so my wife thinks i understand what you're saying. i look forward to questioning your every move. okay, well i'll leave your house in shambles and disappear for six months. wouldn't it be great if everyone said what they meant? the citi® double cash card does. it lets you earn double cash back: 1% when you buy, and 1% as you pay.

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it was obvious to everyone paying attention, including the gentleman whose thumbs authored that tweet that the impact of that malicious activity benefitted the trump campaign

and hurt the clinton campaign. >> president obama spokesperson there today stating the obvious. russian hacking activity hurt clinton more than it hurt trump. and not just clinton, as it turns out many other democrats were targeted. this is a story that has gotten surprisingly little attention. how many? we'll the new york times reporting almost a dozen democratic house candidates were also targets of russian hacking. the down ballot races were in competitive districts where they were perceived to have a shot. annette patio ran in florida's primary and lost after internal party documents were given by russian-linked hackers to florida bloggers, including among them russian actors stole information from you and linked it. bottom line, do you think it cost you the race? >> well, we'll never know that answer, but i do know this. i know that it was very suspicious that two weeks before our primary election when a poll had just come out showing we had

moved from 24 points down to being virtually tied with my opponent. this information comes out. so the timing is suspect. certainly my primary opponent used it against us, and it was very troubling. but more importantly, i think it's really, really troubling that we are in a little house race being targeted by the russians in a primary. >> yeah. i mean, let me put up for folks trying to make heads or tails of this. we heard about the clinton side of the story. people may be less familiar with yours. here is is a little more of a tweet from the russian-linked hacker saying i'll send the major drove of dcc materials and e-mails to wikileaks. keep following. these are internal memos and other information. shortly after there was a twitter exchange between the russian hacking group and the florida blogger backing republicans.

the new york times obtained this and said the blogger said i don't think you realize what you gave me. it's probably worth millions of dollars. guccifer replying you owe me millions. >> it's like if you're on a football team and your entire playbook is out there for everybody to see. you worked so hard to have internal polling, targeting memos, what is your play? you know, your playbook. and that's what came out. also, all of our research we did on our opponents, on ourselves. all of the communication it was out there for everybody to be seen. i told the new york times i felt like i was naked out there because all of a sudden everything was in the open. and no longer was our strategy or path to winning. which clearly showed we had a path not just in the primary but in the general that we were the candidate that could actually win as a democrat. >> right. >> that was very troubling. that the russians got that

information and put it out exactly two weeks before our primary election. >> as you know, though. it a big controversy what to do about this. most news organizations, including us here at msnbc did report on the illegally obtained e-mails. we made judgment calls about what to report, but we reported on them while telling our viewers some of the sourcing. do you think the press was wrong to do it? what do you think is the solution here? >> i'm for freedom of the press, however, i think it is a fine line when it's stolen information. so i think we need to get to the bottom of this. i think it's important. this is not a democrat or republican issue. it's a national security issue. so everyone needs to come together and say we can have this. this is a direct hit to our democracy. when we have the russians or any foreign government getting involved in our elections. so i think it's something that the press definitely needs to look at and say what are we doing in the future with stolen information when it comes from a

foreign government that has, obviously, stolen it and going to affect elections. >> right. i think you put it well. what is our responsibility if the underlying information may be true and news worthy but on the other hand if it's from an adversary, as you say, trying to disrupt, dem grade, or confuse our process, how do we do it in a way that is responsible to our viewers? i think as we learn more, i think a lot of us struggling with that. thank you very much for your time tonight. >> my pleasure. i wish it was under different circumstances. >> i hear you there. donald trump's conflicts of interest is another story we're not letting go of. reaction from the team about the trump children in those government meetings. also, dylann roof found guilty on all counts in the charleston church massacre trial. we'll give you an update when we come back. ♪ i want a hippopotamus for christmas ♪ ♪ only a hippopotamus will do

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guilty on all 33 counts for hate crimes and other charges related to his horrific attack at the historic black church in charleston killing nine people. his federal jury deliberated for about two hours found him guilty on the charges. roof will representative himself in the penalty face and could face the death penalty. we'll be right back. ♪

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politics. and as wall street drew big bailouts ratigan focussed on systemic failures at the top. >> i've had a few thoughts and ideas how we got in the mess. the lack of transparency how i got in the mess. and now the american taxpayer finds themselves stuck with a trillion dollar bill and the trillions lost in the stock market. it doesn't make you feel good. i'm the bank. i'm suddenly holding a pile of garbage. >> i want to know. >> why do you want to know what is in this bag? why is it so important to america? >> i want to know if there's anything in there worth the money you've been given. >> we have a broken system now. we allowed excess rich -- checks and balances of capitalism. capitalism is broken. >> ratigan left msnbc in 2012 saying he thought he could do more good in the arena than covering it.

he asked me to do his exit interview. he began flushing out what would come next. >> i'll meet with teachers. i'll meet with consultants. i'll immediate with media distributors and farmers and crime fighters. we'll collaborate over the next few months to figure out a way to come back into the public space with something that is meaningful in helping people not just learn about these things but actually see it and experience how to better apply these things in their lives. >> after about four years out of the spotlight, ratigan is here today. he founded a company which buil builds solar power and wi-fi whenever they're deployed. they said they are a crucial tool for sustainable plans to cut poverty and create jobs. here is a headline. "host left tv battles behind to

fight poverty." it notes outposts in louisiana and virginia have pure fied 75,000 gallons of water and grown 1200 pounds of vine crops. and the units are sold and used at about a fifth of the water and a tenth of the land of traditional organic farm. wowza. our guest is my colleague and friend dylan ratigan. >> i'm humbled by your introduction. it's nice to see you. >> for those that know and followed you. it's interesting to see what you've been doing since you left the media. walk us through the project. >> think about it briefly having had a career in new york for 20 years as a financial executive and as a journalist and finding myself out talking to some of the folks i mentioned i was going to talk to. and saying, listen -- the basis of global conflict is resource scarcity, and if we have the technology to resolve resource

scarcity. we need to create a kit that can resolve resource scarcity and maybe we can employ the veterans to deploy it. you have the assets and labor force that wants to work on something larger than themselves. the technology to do it. the evidence that the basis of conflict is derived from the absence of resources people aren't just fighting religion. they're fighting over water. >> religion is a good -- it's a great finisher. but the difference between me thinking i don't like you and me wanting to kill you is the lack of food. the lack of water. the actual mortal risk. the actual conflict. my point is, everybody thought it was a good idea. nobody knew how to do it. it wasn't until i ended up with a group of oil men from louisiana saying why don't we do this? make a kit that is a solar power farming system that can provide

the resources we're describing but serve as an educational hub. a community hub, and job creation. environmental benefits. disabled. you don't have to bend over. it's less back breaking. >> and the water is clean and recycled. how does work? >> in our case we use the container as a mechanism to trans -- to move. we don't grow inside the container. there are a lot of folks do. that has the place when the real estate is expensive and the climate is severe but you're better to grow outside and capture the benefits of the sunshine. so we use the container, actually, to contain a greenhouse that location so the container becomes a hub for the marketplace. a place to store valuables. and a support building for the greenhouse and also becomes the

powerplant of the communications portal and, obviously, the water filtration station. >> one of the things you said before you said in the old days you thought that pointing out problems and arguing about solutions was useful. and you came to think it sunt anymore. explain that. the intention to be useful and kind a and loving is the most important thing, period. but what frustrated me about my work in the media was the movement away from facts. that's gotten worse. the thing nice about covering sports or wall street is there are certain facts you can't deny. interest rates are interest ratings. google stock prices. nix won or lost. when you leave sports and finance and come to where we are in the political universe where

there aren't facts, becomes very frustrating to attempt to argue any point of view because the counter points are not based in the same world you're basing. >> let's talk politics. there's a caricature of you in the press for people who know you as the will ferrell character in, you know, "zoo lander" saying i feel like i'm taking crazy pills. talking about what is wrong with the people running the party and you think maybe he was on to something. this is him in july. >> how could it possibly ever be considered a democracy particularly in the era of the internet where the amount of individuals and information that is assessable to the american people is at an all time high and yet a very small group of politicians and the democrat and republican party collude to

determine who can be the presidential and who cannot. someone needs to sue both for closing the rest of america out of the presidential process. >> that's in chicago which is a group i'm working at tasty trade. >> basically. that was a clip of work i do with a company called tasty trade. take more control over their destiny. i'm a huge fan of the company. and i'm grateful they gave me the studio to work in. what i was speaking about that is the following. right now concentrated power. whether it's concentrated power and finance, which, again, the guys at tasty works are working to resolve. or concentrated power in resources which we are working to resolve or for us concentrated power in politics is the root of all of the symptoms we're suffering from. and so the concentrated power i was discussing in that

conversation there is the kons traited power of the committee on presidential debates that restricts access to the debate stage by making it impossible for anybody not a democrat or republican to get the visibility. what i'm talking about is peter ackerman who su suing the federal election commission on january 5th. he's looking to basically win the argument that the cpd is a partisan organization. >> when you say the fix is in a guy that ran on a rigged system is putting goldman and exxonmobil in charge of things? >> the thing that is amazing about donald trump and as donald trump knows that words are -- words are simply useful to create feelings. so the mistake that people make they hear donald trump use words

and think those words are supposed to be a sign of facts or outcomes or intentions. donald trump doesn't speak because he's trying to address a factor or an intention. trump uses words to generate feelings. he's really good at doing that. so by using his words to generate feelings he knows that people feel the system is rigged and he tells them the system is rigged and they feel good. donald trump's actions have nothing to do with his words. donald trump's actions are to empower those who are -- have been the closest to him and those given him the most. he's empowering those who deregulate the financial markets and not comprise the climate. who would ultimately create a weaker justice department. i would expect a weaker exchange commission. at the end of the day, the mistake people in general, not just journals but everybody look at donald trump's words if they have in meaning beyond generations of feelings. so i believe we're -- we're in a interesting moment in time. i believe donald trump's election is an extraordinary good thing for america.

because i believe it will expedite the demise of a democratic and republican party and expedite the emergence of broader mechanisms to generate political candidates which ultimately what we need is more political candidates. the same way we need more empowerment and control over our money. tasty works. the same way we need more control over our resources. we need more than anything more control over generating more political candidates so -- >> yeah. >> we need more. >> we're going to wrap up. >> it's a pleasure. >> i love hearing from you. i'm glad to see everything you're doing. i think other people will be interested, as well. >> appreciate it. dylan ratigan on the show. donaltrump's family ties. can he separate himself from the business empire by involving his kids? the bizarre tweet 17 million users woke up to this morning. stay with us. if you take medication,

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today was the day president-elect donald trump was supposed to answer questions about how he would handle his business dealings when he enters the white house. the scheduled news conference was cancelled and there are signs some critics aren't accepting trump's attempt to change the subject. groups of protesters outside his washington hotel commanding he desperate himself. senate democrats announcing new plans for a bill requiring him to do it. and while expert says the conflicts are huge because of trump's complex holdings or refusal to realization information and insistence on weirdly bringing his children to government meetings as they run government meetings trump is pushing back. here is a new tweet. >> joining me now author "corruption in america" and

david corner. zephyr, is this complex or simple? what should be done? >> it's simple. he's got to sell. he's got to divest. i mean, he -- rightow he is planning to violate the foreign bribery provision of the constitution. what some people call the clause. it's the foreign bribery clause. he's planning on violating that. he's planning on violating basic ethics norms. he's really opening up the presidency of the country to real national security concerns. >> david, the trump team seems to vet this could go away. it doesn't seem to be going away >>well, it's not going away and every day it seems there's a new instance of the ethics violations or conflicts of interest. you know, the president, oddly enough is not covered by any thorough conflict of interest laws, but as zephyr said, there are norms and ethical standards. and when you have -- when you say you're giving your business to kids so you have nothing to do it, which is not true to

begin with. you're on the assets. you know it's there. and you have kids setting in on vetting meetings with cabinet appointees as with donald trump jr. and the potential appointee of the secretary of the interior. that's a direct conflict. it's not just what he owns. as we've been reporting at mother jones. it's what he owes. he owes almost a billion -- almost a billion dollars to a german duetch bank and through partnerships to the state-owned bank of china. how can you have the president of the united states dealing with these huge issues when he's in the -- to the major financial institutions around the world? >> yeah. i want to clarify something. all though some laws don't apply to the president, but constitution does apply to the president. and this clause hasn't come up a lot. the foreign bribery clause. not because social security it's so drivial but so fundamental. van buren called it a fundamental law of our republic.

it was embded in our constitution. so the president elect right now is planning to violate the constitution to be clear, at the time of the constitution the delegates, edmoney randall said a violation of this would be grounds for impeachment. we're talking about serious -- >> this part of the constitution, david, it said you can't take presents and gifts. shall not accept any present, office, title, or any kind whatever from the foreign states. in other words, unlike the federal bribery laws, which also do apply to the president, this is something where you can't take it period. >> right. and so there are a lot of ways to define gifts. if the bank of china, which is owned by the state of china gives you a loan that certainly is something of financial benefit to you.

it gives you very, very, you know, a big check to use your hotel to have rooms or events there, is that not a financial benefit to you? so this is started happening. it's not theoretical. it's literally happening today. and he has shown no interest. and, of course, you know, he said he was having press conference today to talk about it. he didn't do it. said it's going to be january. i would bet you your christmas bonus it doesn't happen in january. it may not happen at all. >> first of all, david, it's a hanukkah bonus and you know that. second of all, there's no second of all. the second question is, when you look at the role of the children, is there any historical context? you've been writing about it for a long time where nepotism is blatantly offered. it's not a personal criticism. it's not about if they're nice people or not. it's not as donald trump jr. is a specialist in interior

department affairs. he's involved for no other than he's a nearby child. >> the exacts we have aren't from this country but other countries. you saw a businessman enter public life and then separate themselves by basically just having the children run the business. worked out very well for the businesses of the prime minister and worked out badly for their countries. and, again, the risk here in the united states because of the importance of american trade policy military policy and foreign policy globally is that this isn't just an exposure to internal corruption but really corruption by foreign powers and it's a real national security risk. >> absolutely. and foreign powers at a time when we're looking at russia taking actions this isn't softball. there's a lot of ways they want leverage. thank you. we'll continue reporting on this. donald trump and us, the media, he's not a fan.

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otezla. show more of you. donald trump is back picking fights with the press. posting a tweet this morning "has anyone looked at the poor numbers of vanity fair magazine. way down, big trouble, dead! carter will be out." carter has been feuding with trump even longer than rosy

o'donnell. carter posted a review about trump's restaurant saying it could be the worst in the america. it's unusual for a president-elect to act this way. many says it's a distractions that the press is better off ignoring. others argue it would be biassed for reporters to neglect donald trump's statements because they are deemed silly or anti-media. it's better to cover what the president-elect says, let the public decide what you think. then a third view as long as trump provides spectacle and ratings, he's going to get away with more than the average politician. donald trump said he won't stop tweeting. reince priebus said the administration may look at changes to the daily briefing. joining me now are two media figures in the debate.

joe, you look at the back and forth say donald trump is getting what he wants. maybe vanity fair is getting what it wants, maybe. who is the wise ensure. >> for once both sides are wrong. a poll out today 66% found donald trump's tweets to be reckless and distracting. o 90% of democrats feel that way. responding to a restaurant review as a president-elect not the way to go. you want to wish everybody a merry christmas, happy hanukkah. do that. but fights like this talking about a business he's supposed to be divorcing himself from. that's the problem. here is the thing, that piece, that restaurant review was not written by somebody who does restaurant reviews. she did them years ago but at vanity fair her name is tina, you look at her archive 100% anti-trump. she went in there with a

predisposed notion that she was going to give a negative review calling the worst in the history on trip advisors 177 said good. it gets three stars out of five. not exactly bad. trump is defending himself where he shouldn't but the review shouldn't have been written. >> right. and how donald trump plays the press. look at the break down of coverage. something you know about from the campaign. what was covered overall. horse race 42% of the coverage, according to the studies. the other 24% controversy 17% policy. is that a problem? >> sure it is. in fact, you mentioned, ari the conversation i had yesterday morning on my radio show with reince priebus. it was 20 minutes long. we covered the timing of the supreme court announcement. the fact that the administration

would lead with repeal and replace obamacare followed by two tax bills in the reconciliation and a bunch of other hard news. at the end they threw off a throw away line about a talk show host in the front show of the white house? it was a joke. reince priebus went into a bit. and the press obsessed on itself. here is what i think, and judges gave a very excellent example of context around the tweet on vanity fair. the president-elect's likes to tweet. it's the a hobby. we're going to get used to it. reagan ran the media through mike dever by doing one availability a day. and donald trump is training them like so many circus pets to chase his tweets. if we stay focussed on, for example, crowley, three appointments appointed late this

afternoon. we ought to be talking about this not a vanity fair tweet. >> i feel that. we lead today with russia. we did two segments on that and a lot of coverage on of the segments. but we left time for tweets at the end. we're guilty of that. there's the negativity bias. not left or right. look at this hillary clinton's press coverage from the same study, according to all media coverage negative 64 to 36. that looks harsh. does it mean that clinton got the worst of it? ? no. same study. 77% of trump's coverage negative. at a certain point the media is willing to go down the road leaves a lot of viewers saying is every story bad? >> you may have heard these from the two most unpopular candidates in history. i think the mistake the media made throughout the empire campaign they covered the personality aspects too much.

is hillary clion authentic? is donald trump a bad guy? and everybody missed the policy aspect. the one message that residence natded in wisconsin, michigan, ohio. around trade and jobs. so people prioritized and said trump might not be a bad guy but we agree with his policy position. i think that's what we missed. we focussed on the personality too much. that's why it was negative. it was two unlikable people. >> what should the press do when you have something as unusual as donald trump basically defying a lot of what we're being told the fact around the russian story? >> i think you dig in and try to find people who general mattis when he was the commander of the -- at the camp pendleton. you find john kelley, former chief of staff and talk to him. they've got an amazing national security team. i have to add about negativity.

ivanka, donald jr., and eric. bobby kennedy served jack kennedy. hillary clinton served bill clinton. and george w. bush fired johnson for george h.w. bush. it's not new but being covered as a negative thing. >> you got the last word. thank you. i'm ari melber. you can e-mail if you didn't like or liked our media coverage. i'll be guest hosting tomorrow if you're around. and "hardball" starts now. trump and putin versus intelligence agencies. let's play "hardball." >> good evening. "joy" reid in new york. there isn't much disagreement when it comes to russia's role in interfering in the u.s. election this year. i