. ♪ ♪ ♪ sleep in heavenly peace ♪ silent night >> despite those efforts today, the electoral college is set to

vote for donald trump, as some electors are reportedly being harassed to change the results of the election. zplrchlts plus, evacuations in aleppo are back on after several buses meant to help people leave the city were set on fire. and lawmakers on capitol hill are asking to investigate russia's possible interference in the u.s. presidential election, as president obama claims he previously warned putin to cut it out. ♪ good morning, it's monday, december 19th, i'm mark hal prin in new york, alongside kasie hunt in washington and louis burgdorf. 41 days since election day, 32 days since donald trump will take the oath of office. today members of the electoral college will cast their vote.

there is more focus on this typically ceremonial moment than there has ever been in recent memory. electors are going to meet in their state capitals, each to cast two votes, one for president and one for vice president. today, republican electors had faced intense pressure to change votes from somehow preventing trump from becoming president. trump responded, if my many supporters acted and threatened people like those who lost the election are doing, they would be scorned and called terrible names. many are emphasizing hillary clinton's lead in the popular vote, but a new poll found 52% of republicans believe trump actually won the popular vote, 24% of independents, and 7% of democrats incorrectly believe that, as well. >> and mark, a bipartisan group of four senators have sent a leader to mitch mcconnell asking

for an investigation into russian interference in the election. among them, chuck schumer and john mccain say they are concerned about future russian attacks. >> there's no doubt they were interfering, and no doubt they were cyber attacks. the question now is, how much and what damage and what should the united states of america do, and so far we've been totally paralyzed. >> yesterday mccain told the arizona republic it appears a select committee will not happen, so he plans to form a new standing subcommittee on cyber war issues and mccain dismissed president obama's original response to russian meddling, which the president explained at his news conference on friday. >> in early september when i saw president putin in china, i felt that the most effective way to ensure that that didn't happen was to talk to him directly.

and tell him to cut it out, there were going to be some serious consequences if he didn't. >> the president has no strategy and no policy as to what to do about these various cyber attacks that have possibly disrupted an american election. i'm sure that when vladimir putin was told cut it out, unquote, i'm sure that vladimir putin immediately stopped all cyber activity. the fact is, they are hacking every single day in other areas of our military and all kinds of different aspects of american life. >> the president did say the u.s. is responding in secret saying, "some of it we will do in a way they will know, but not everybody will." kasie? >> yesterday, a former secretary of defense weighed in, saying that u.s. leaders were too laid back about russian aggression.

>> i think that putin saw the united states withdrawing from around the world. i think there's actually the problem has been that president obama's actions often have not matched his rhetoric. his rhetoric has often been pretty tough, but then there's been no follow up and no action. i think it sent a signal that the u.s. was in retreat. in syria, evacuations are reportedly back on now in eastern aleppo after multiple restarts since thursday. comes as russia and france have agreed to a plan to have the united nations monitor the evacuations and distribute humanitarian aid. a vote is scheduled at the u.n. later this morning. meanwhile on friday, president obama addressed the persistent criticism against his administration that his policies have led partly to the situation in aleppo. >> i always feel responsible.

i felt responsible when kids were being shot by snipers. i felt responsible when millions of people had been displaced. so with respect to syria, what i have consistently done is taken the best course that i can to try to end the civil war, while having also to take into account the long-term national security interests of the united states. i cannot claim that we've been successful. and so that's something that as is true with a lot of issues and problems around the world, i have to go to bed with every night. >> more on this when nbc's lucy cappenof joins us in a moment. on saturday, president-elect donald trump pushed back against first lady michelle obama and

her claim that the country has lost hope. in mobile, alabama, trump disagreed with the first lady, but he also defended her. here's what michelle obama said, followed by trump's reaction. >> your husband's administration, everything, the election, was all about hope. do you think that this administration achieved that? >> yes. i do. because we feel the difference now. see, now we're feeling what not having hope feels like, you know? hope is necessary. >> michelle obama said yesterday that there's no hope. but i assume she was talking about the past, not the future, because i'm telling you, we have tremendous hope. and we have tremendous promise and tremendous potential. i actually think she made that

statement not meaning it the way it came out. i really do. because i met with president obama and michelle obama in the white house. my wife was there. she could not have been nicer. i honestly believe she meant that statement in a different way than it came out. >> vice president joe biden was among the many that offered heartfelt tributes to john glenn over the weekend. roughly 2,500 packed the auditorium on the ohio state university campus saturday to honor the history making astronaut and former ohio senator. the vice president recalled glenn's remarkable life and he choked up a bit while discussing glenn's wife of more than 70 years, annie glenn. >> it was said, come with me and be my love and all the pleasures we shall prove.

together, annie -- excuse me, you and john proved all the pleasures. you not only had a magical love affair, the other thing about you, you were partners. >> john glenn will be honored at arlington national cemetery in a private ceremony this spring. this morning the world is remembering zsa zsa gabor. she was 99 years old. kristen welker looks back at her incredible life and career. >> hello, darling, i'm zsa zsa. >> zsa zsa gabor, that unforgettable accent. her string of husbands and jewels, and a wit that would steal the show every time. >> you'll just be there in the room. you and the champagne. >> her film career began with "lovely to look at" in 1952. followed that same year by perhaps her most famous movie,

"mulan rouge." >> i see them as i want them to be, not as they really are. >> she appeared in more than 40 films and television shows, in everything from horror movies, to comedies. >> we have two cars, one limousine and one jeep. >> i'll take the limousine. >> her acting career was soon eclipsed by her glamorous image, which she happily played up. >> i always said life should be 50/50 proposition. he should be at least 50 years old and have at least $50 million. >> she was the middle of three beautiful sisters. her many lovers included some of herra's most famous and desirable men, and she headed to the altar nine times. hotel magnet conrad hilton was her second husband and the father of her only child, francesca. on her final marriage she found her prince charming.

>> it was a very simple person, got involved with all these crazy people in hollywood. >> she had her share of legal headaches, in 1989 she was convicted of slapping a police officer during a traffic stop and spent three days in jail. in her later years, medical problems began to take their toll. in 2002, a car wreck left her partially paralyzed, then a broken hip kept her in and out of the hospital, and most recently, her right leg was amputated, but to the end, zsa zsa maintained a persona of flirtatious fun and a touch of old hollywood glamour. >> that was kristen welker reporting. what a fascinating life and career, mark. >> incredible, incredible woman and family. still ahead, there were record low temperatures across parts of the country over the weekend. meteorologist bill karins will have more on what to expect this week. plus, cowboys' rookie sensation ezekiel elliot donates

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comcast business. built for speed. built for business. let us get a quick check on your weather now with the great nbc meteorologist bill karins. bill? >> last week was all bad news. here comes the arctic blast, snowstorm, arctic blast behind it, and now it's good news for the next four to five days. maybe a treat in the middle of the holiday weekend for the central plains, but that's still five, six days away. it's cold. not as cold as yesterday, but we're still at negative 21 wind chill in chicago, and how about dallas this morning at 9, again, it's pretty much from the west coast, through new england, it's cold. but we're heading in the right direction, and here's why. this is a storm coming into the

pacific northwest. it is bringing rain and snow to the northwest, really the only storm on the map, but this is going to send mild air across the country, pacific air, not warm, but not the air coming down from siberia or the north pole or canada for that matter. we like it when the air from the pacific moves across the country. we warm things up. denver up to 42 degrees, that's a sign of things to come for everyone in the east. another cold day, chicago, new york city only 29. you'll recover nicely in atlanta. dallas only a high of 37, pretty rare for dallas to stay that chilly without any -- it's not even that cloudy either. through the week, notice what happens. here's the forecast tuesday through thursday. chicago, not exactly toasty, but near freezing. little rock into the 50s on wednesday. dallas is 60 degrees on wednesday. in the northeast we get a nice warmth, new york city, very cold today, tuesday, little better, wednesday 43, thursday 43. you get the picture things are going to improve. no snowstorms anywhere from the rockies eastward over the next

four to five days. that's great for everyone traveling. so today's forecast slowly coming out of the deep freeze. we have the storm system in the northwest, that's the only travel trouble spot, but looking nice across the country, guys. louis, this is what we need. last week was just miserable. now everyone can get to their destination safely. >> i'll take 30s and 40s. >> it's going to feel warm after what we went through. >> weather was better at at&t stadium in dallas for sunday night football. cowboys taking on the buccaneers. dak prescott was dialled in, throwing 32 of 36 for 279 yards. he also rushed for a touchdown. while rookie running back ezekiel elliot ran for 159 yards, including this franchise record breaking two-yard touchdown. celebrated by jumping into a salvation army kettle, which drew a penalty. owner jerry jones said, "i think the salvation army should give him the highest award, and he

threatened to go all the way to the supreme court if the league fines him. if he does get fined, he'll match it with a donation to the salvation army. cowboys inch one step closer to an nfc east title. jaguars fire head coach gus bradley after the loss yesterday, dropping them to a miserable 2-12 on the year. bradley was 14-48 over nearly four seasons with the team and that's good for the second worst winning percentage in nfl history. ouch. and nfl legend tim duncan had his jersey retired yesterday, known for his mastery of the fundamentals of the game, arguably the best power forward to play the game. he played all 19 seasons of his career with the spurs under head coach gregg popovich, winning five nba championships along the way. the 15-year span between duncan's first and last is the second longest ever and he's

only the second player to win an nba championship in three different decades. the spurs beat the pelicans, improving to 22-5 on the year. mark, truly an end of the era there, retirement of tim duncan. >> incredible, one of the greats of all time, will be missed. louis, thank you. still ahead, joe scarborough joins me next to discuss the trump transition and a lot more. we'll be back right after this.

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welcome back. president-elect donald trump is spending the holidays in palm beach. he's down there new. expected, though, to make this a working vacation. joe scarborough joins us now. joe, thank you for coming in. what do you expect from donald trump this week, just golf? >> no, you know, by the way, there is no such thing as a vacation for trump. it's always a working vacation. the man apparently doesn't sleep. this week, actually, we're going to be looking for a couple of different spots that may be filled. they are two of the most important vacancies still left in trump's cabinet to be, and it's actually for number twos at two of the most important agencies, so let's start with defense. a lot of people talking about david mccormick as a possible number two over at defense to work with general mattis. mccormick, one transition

official tells me, if they could get mccormick in that position, it would be a home run. he's well respected not only across the financial community, but also the business community. he's got a military background and a lot of people think he'd be great for that job. they are hoping to make that happen. over at state, john bolton's name continues to be bounced around, but a new name into the mix this weekend, steven hadley, who, of course, first started working in republican administrations for nixon from '72 to '74, he then worked on gerald ford's national security council. also, of course, spent a lot of time working for reagan and working for george w. bush. hadley would be, many washington insiders would absolutely love the idea of having him as rex tillerson's number two, if, in fact, tillerson is confirmed, but that certainly would be seen as a steady hand and somebody that could really help tillerson do what the trump administration wants to get done across the

globe. but the word i'm hearing over the weekend is, that this is no longer going to be a decision that's going to be made solely by donald trump, that he's looking to defer to rex tillerson and basically says rex tillerson is going to be making this choice. if, in fact, that's the case, then certainly a lot of people inside suggest that pushes john bolton even further away from the number two slot over at the state department. >> those number two jobs are, obviously, huge, but mccormick and hadley, you couldn't have two names that would be more reassuring, not just to the republican establishment, but to democrats, as well. >> exactly right. these are not ideologues. certainly, even though you had in hadley somebody that worked for an ideologue, both of these would be seen as steady hands, not only as republicans, as you said, but many democrats and certainly by the foreign policy establishment.

and also for allies across the globe. this, mark, this would be two great choices and would be a very strong way. i think most people in washington and people who know foreign policy, would be a very strong way for donald trump to end his selection process. >> he's down in florida, as we said, but this will be a working vacation. what do you know about his attitude about how things are going overall? >> i think he's very positive about it. the campaign workers and transition staff very positive about it. i did notice one thing over this weekend, that a lot of his top deputies and even donald trump, they've just started to tune out most of the news. they figure that they are not going to be able to control what's going on. every headline is a bad headline. everything they do they feel has turned into a negative story, and so they are just not worrying about it at this point.

they are going to do what they are going to do, and if the press doesn't like it, well, looks like they are going to find out how to use that to their advantage. >> they've still got a lot to do at the white house, including most of the staff outside the national security council. we'll talk about that later on "morning joe." joe, thank you. continue this conversation with joe in just a little bit. we have a lot more coming up, so stay with us. this is lulu, our newest dog. mom didn't want another dog. she said it's too much work. lulu's hair just floats. uhh help me! (doorbell) mom, check this out. wow. swiffer sweeper, and dusters. this is what i'm talking about. look at that. sticks to this better than it sticks to lulu. that's your hair lulu! mom, can we have another dog? (laughing)

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welcome back. i'm mark halperin alongside kasie hunt and louis burgdorf. it is the bottom of the hour, so let's start with the top stories. russia and france have agreed to a plan to have the united nations monitor evacuations from aleppo in syria and distribute humanitarian aid. the u.n. security council plans to hold a vote on the deal later this morning. meanwhile, evacuations of civilians and rebels are back on after multiple restarts since thursday. the agreement comes after at least six buses were torched apparently by a group of armed rebels before they reached their destinations. today, members -- back here at home, today members of the electoral college will elect votes to formally elect donald trump as president of the united states. this as members of trump's team have stated objection to republican electors being harassed by democrats urging them to vote for someone besides trump. as for now, only one trump

electorate said he'd change his vote. trump is on track to get over the 270 electoral votes required, despite weeks of attempts to stop him, efforts that enraged republicans and divided the democrats. some asia analysts are seeing a provocative china test to the united states and its incoming leader in a standoff over a piece of u.s. military equipment china seized. china now greed to return the underwater drone it picked up in international waters. president-elect trump responded with some tough tweets, both before and after china agreed to return the drone. some, though, including john mccain see the act as declining respect for the united states. >> maybe they saw the success that the iranians had after they captured two american vessels and put american sailors on their knees, and then when they

were returned, the secretary of state thanked them for that. look, there's no strength on the part of the united states of america. everybody's taking advantage of it, and hopefully that will change soon. six weeks after the election and just a month until inauguration day, and the russian government's role is still dominating the conversation in washington. on friday -- consensus among us on the scope, nature, and intent of russian interference on our presidential election. this after nbc news was first to report the agency concluded russia's goal was to help president-elect trump. though, as our pete williams reports, the intelligence agencies are not saying they believe the sole intention of the hacking was to elect trump. the agency still has to complete a thorough review, while the

kremlin is demanding washington provide evidence showing they were involved. congressman peter king is calling for an investigation of brennan, saying he refused to share his findings with the house intelligence committee. >> we have john brennan, supposedly john brennan, leaking to "the washington post," to a biased newspaper as "new york times" findings and conclusions that he's not telling the intelligence committee. should be an investigation what the russians did, but also an investigation of john brennan and the hit job he seems to be orchestrating against the president-elect. meanwhile, audio recordings of hillary clinton speaking candidly and pointing fingers for her loss, addressing a gathering of donors in new york city, she blamed the fbi for sinking her campaign and said the 2011 comments about elections in russia motivated vladimir putin to target her. >> take it from nate silver, who's pointed out that swing state voters made their decisions in the final days,

breaking against me because of the fbi letter from fbi director comey. and nate silver believes, i happen to believe this, that that letter most likely made the difference in the outcome. we have to recognize that, as the latest reports made clear, vladimir putin himself directed the covert cyberattacks against our electoral system, against our democracy, apparently because he has a personal beef against me. >> president-elect trump so far hasn't commented on clinton's statements, but sean spicer, the republican national committee's communications director and possible white house press secretary said the hacking was clinton's fault, despite the attacks being directed against the dnc and clinton campaign. >> do i think foreign

governments, you know, russia and others, try to probe u.s. sites, government and otherwise? absolutely, china, russia. we do it, they do it. but i think the problem i have with this story and the narrative that's out there about russia is a few things. number one, this wouldn't have happened if hillary clinton didn't have a secret server. she didn't follow protocols. >> yesterday clinton's former campaign chairman john podesta questioned the possibility of, quote, collusion between the russian government and the trump campaign. concern over russia's meddling in the election also dominated president obama's final end of the year news conference. the president defended how he handled the situation as it played out, and he vowed to take further action. >> so, when i look back in terms of how we handled it, i think we handled it the way it should have been handled. we allowed law enforcement and

intelligence community to do its job without political influence. we briefed all relevant parties involved in terms of what was taking place. when we had a consensus around what had happened, we announced it, not through the white house, not through me, but rather through the intelligence communities that had actually carried out these investigations. at a time when anything that was said by me or anybody in the white house would immediately be seen through a partisan lens. i wanted to make sure that everybody understood we were playing this thing straight, that we weren't trying to advantage one side or another. and the truth is, there was nobody here who didn't have some sense of what kind of affect it might have. i'm finding it a little curious that everybody's suddenly acting surprised that this looked like it was disadvantaging hillary

clinton, because you guys wrote about it every day. every single leak. about every little juicy tidbit of political gossip. including john podesta. all right, let's turn now to business, where iranair confirmed it would be cutting its order from airbus planes from 118 to 100. lisa joins us live from london. will this signal anything with the deal that iran made with boeing just a few weeks ago for $16 billion? >> well, with boeing, they are still going ahead. they are just cutting this particular deal a little bit with airbus, so 18 planes less than what they had been planning initially, so they are dropping a number of the super jumbos a-380s, huge mega planes. originally it was a $27 billion deal, now less. but iranair are confirming they are doing this deal with boeing

to buy around 80 new passenger jets. that is happening. there's also speculation in general deals like this might be less and less, given the trump presidency. however, if you think about it, boeing and airbus are two of the largest provider of jobs stateside and that's been one of trump's biggest mantras, he wants to create jobs and keep jobs in the states. probably hard to pass that in congress in terms of scrapping deals. let's talk about apple, as well. ireland accused of avoiding international tax rules. apple are going to be launching an appeal this week against the record tax demand coming from the european union related to the taxes in ireland. the european minister said the irish tax is 000.5%, in essence, nothing. let me mention the markets, as well, in europe, trading

primarily slightly lower, smaller markets hanging on to small gains, but bonds also sold with yields pushing higher. you know what they say, the trend is your friend until the bend in the end, so for now, we're sticking with it and sticking with this market rally that we're seeing, louis. >> the trend is your friend until the bend in the end. i'll take that one. live from london, kasie, back to you. attorney-general loretta lynch says the backlash to her meeting with former president bill clinton on an airport tarmac this year was, quote, painful. the outgoing a.g. described that june conversation, a fateful one as it turned out, during the height of hillary clinton's e-mail investigation as, quote, primarily social. despite the casual nature of the conversation, lynch says she regrets it. >> i wish i had seen around that corner and not had that discussion with the former president, as innocuous as it

was, because it did give people concern, make people wonder, is it going to affect the investigation that's going on. and that's not something that was an unreasonable question for anyone to ask. and my view is, and always has been, that when you are in public life, or even in private life, and you make the mistake, you own it. >> despite her remorse over the meeting, lynch continues to insist there was nothing inappropriate about the time she spent with president clinton. more on russia now. clinton campaign chairman john podesta is calling for an investigation into the hacking, suggesting possible, quote, collusion between donald trump's operation and moscow. take a listen. >> i would argue that there's very -- it's very much unknown whether there was collusion. i think russian diplomats have said post election that they were talking to the trump campai campaign, roger stone in august foreshadowed the fact they had

hacked my e-mails and those would be forthcoming. when he said he was in touch with julian assange and wikileaks. carter page, one of trump's foreign policy advisers, went to russia before the republican convention and met with a person in the russian hierarchy, who is responsible for collecting intelligence. what did trump inc. know and when did they know it, were they in touch with the russians, i think those are open questions and the electors have a right to know what the answers are, if the u.s. government has those answers, before the election. >> joe scarborough is back with us now. joe, lots of moving parts here, president obama, mish mcconnell, john mccain, different perspectives how the hacking should be investigating. where do you see this going in the new congress? >> there's going to be an investigation, john podesta needn't worry. there's going to be a two-year investigation. this is going to cover the first couple of years of donald trump's administration. but the thing that is most

surprising to me are all of the clinton campaign officials, and even hillary clinton herself, going out and blaming absolutely everybody but themselves for a loss that should have never occurred. they are blaming vladimir putin. now vanity fair has a story out, they are blaming huma abedin, basically everybody, just like they blamed mark penn in 2008. in 2016 it's huma, it's comey, it's the russians. which is all very good news for republicans, because nobody's coming to terms with the fact that they lost to wisconsin for the first time since 1984, lost michigan and pennsylvania for the first time since 1988. they've lost the industrial midwest. and mark, is this not the first time somebody's lost an election and there hasn't been any hand wringing? nobody's looking inwards saying what did we do wrong.

it's one of the worst run campaigns in the history of american politics, but nobody in charge there are stopping to say, gee, maybe we should have visited wisconsin once. maybe we should have, like, understood we could lose michigan before the last week. >> remarkable little soul searching about that, but also about something i've been asking a lot of democrats about, forget the loss of the presidency, what about the governorships and state legislator seats over the last six years. where's the soul searching on th that? >> that americans up the point, gee, we lost because vladimir putin hacked the e-mails. or hacked into the dnc. look at these numbers. democrats in the obama years, they've lost 68 house seats since barack obama was elected president of the united states. >> no putin and comey on those. >> no putin and comey on that. they've lost 12 in the senate. they've lost ten, they've lost ten governorships. >> any putin and comey on those?

>> no. again, i'm not saying this to mock democrats. i'm saying it to say with no introspection, they are not figuring out why they have lost middle america. why they have fewer representatives serving them across the states and state legislatures and governorships and the u.s. senate and u.s. house than any time since 1928. think about that. any time since 1928. and all of their attention is focused on a comey letter and on putin. as i said, investigations are going to come, they need to come. we need to figure out what happened. this is extraordinarily serious. but the lack of introspection by democrats, especially people in the clinton campaign, to try to figure out how in the hell donald trump was elected president of the united states and how they stop him four years from now, that's not happening. >> let me ask you one more about the investigation. it's been a long time since a truly bipartisan investigation where the republican staff

investigators and the democratic staff investigators strategize together to fact find and get to the bottom of it. do you expect that kind of investigation, whether a select committee or not? >> yeah, this will be a bipartisan investigation. when you have mitch mckorconnel along with paul ryan, coming out and saying i don't understand how any republican senator could not want to get to the bottom of this, and basically mock and ridicule them for downplaying it, you know it's going to be a very aggressive investigation, at least in the united states senate, and i suspect, given what paul ryan has said, we're going to see a tough bipartisan investigation in the house. and that needs to happen, mark. we need to make sure this doesn't happen four years from now. you know what, four years from now, this could be the chinese hacking into the rnc. >> set your egg timers and countdown clocks, because joe is going to be back in 15 minutes for "morning joe." thank you very much. >> thank you, mark.

in here it's pretty warm. outside, freezing cold from coast to coast after two blasts of arctic weather in seven days. bill karins is going to tell us what to expect this week. back with that in just a moment. they are the natural borns enemy of the way things are. yes, ideas are scary, and messy and fragile.

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come on! your turn! where do pencils go on vacation? pennsylvania! (laughter) crunchy wheat frosted sweet! kellogg's frosted mini-wheats. feed your inner kid welcome back. let's get a check on your weather now with nbc meteorologist bill karins. bill, we had the polar vortex last week, crummy weather over the weekend. big travel week coming up. what can we expect? >> we'd like it easier than what we dealt with. the snow was widespread, about 55% of the country covered in snow as of yesterday. some of that will melt, though. a lot of people that did get snow may not get that white christmas. yesterday, saturday, we had the snowstorm that went through new england and started in wisconsin. this was kind of the scene in a lot of areas. we only about -- wasn't a huge storm, but a lot of people picked up a couple inches, then it got really cold behind it. so let's get into the

temperatures. the story of the weekend was how cold it was with the negative 30, negative 40 wind chills in the plains. they are improving. bismarck is at 8. minneapolis negative 1, chicago one of the coldest spots at negative 21. houston and new orleans below freezing this morning. storm in the northwest with rain and snow, so grab the umbrella, cascades will get decent snow. so let's take you into what we're looking at. for the rest of today, airports look great, roads look fine. careful on the icy sidewalks in the northern half of the country. let's fast forward into friday, a very big travel day heading into the holiday weekend. we look great on the east coast. temperatures in the mid 40s, no problems on the roads. rain in the middle of the country. the thing to watch over the holiday weekend is this storm in the northwest on friday. by the time we get to saturday, christmas eve, snow possibly from boise, all the way through areas of billings. eastern half of the country not bad. may be a little light rain, but mild in the midatlantic on christmas eve. then on christmas day, that

storm in the west, a lot of our computers are saying this could be a serious storm, maybe blizzard type storm in the northern plains, dakotas, nebraska, sections near denver, too. so that's the area of concern on christmas day. we're looking at mild, d.c. on christmas day, 54 degrees. last year christmas day in the east it was 70 degrees. you know, 50s is still pretty nice. >> okay, bill, thank you very much. still ahead, evacuations resume in war torn syria as the u.n. prepares for a vote today to monitor those evacuations and distribute humanitarian aid. we'll get a live report right after this. ♪ music playing

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turning back now to aleppo, where the evacuations have reportedly restarted. it comes after the syrian government and rebel groups agreed to evacuation more than 2,000 pro government residents from two rebel held towns that are to the west of aleppo. ten buses have reportedly left those two towns with civilians onboard, but that was after at least six buses were torched by a group of armed rebels before they reached their destinations. nbc news foreign correspondent lucy kavanaugh joins us live from london with the latest. lucy, good morning. >> kasie, good morning. some progress today with those evacuations starting, but we have to keep in mind there are still several thousand people trapped in eastern aleppo. conditions, as you can imagine, are terrible.

this is a city that's been nearly completely destroyed by syrian and russian air strikes. there's no food, no water, no access to medical facilities, and there are wounded civilians waiting to get out. it's been a long and disappointing weekend for them. no movement, no evacuations. finally we understand some 3,000 people have been taken out on buses. some by ambulance, out of east aleppo to the countryside, so this is progress. but also a very fragile situation. there are a lot of actors on the ground here, syrian government troops, pro government militias, a number of opposition rebel groups and any one can effectively undo the deal. that's what we saw over the weekend when a convoy of buses was torched, attacked by rebel groups. there's also concern for the safety of those who make it out. there's been efforts to get monitors on the ground, the crux of a compromise struck between france and russia. we are expecting a vote in just a few hours that would allow the u.n. to effectively monitor the evacuations. will it pass?

samantha power said it was hard to have total confidence in that vote, but she is predicting that it will unanimously pass. kasie? >> very tough situation there. nbc's lucy cav november, thank you. at least ten people are dead and 27 more injured following a series of ambush attacks in jordan. one of which occurred at a popular castle less than 90 miles from the capital. 70 security officers and three civilians, including a canadian national were killed. jordanian security officials say they killed four terrorist outlaws after a lengthy standoff. officials have not said who was behind the attack and so far there's not been a claim of responsibility. when we come back, a look at the stories happening in the day ahead. when coughing keeps your family awake.

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side effects can lead to dehydration, which may cause kidney problems. now's the time for a better moment of proof. ask your doctor about victoza®. before we toss it over to "morning joe," let's get a check on the stories in the day ahead. >> here's what you'll be hearing about. the electoral college is set it certify donald j. trump as president of the united states. e llectors will meet to cast thr official votes, and while protests are planned over those votes, they are not expected to change the final outcome. meanwhile, the minnesota

police officer charged in the fatal shooting death of philando castile is set to appear in court. the officer faces three felony charges, including the deadly july traffic stop. casti castile's girlfriend live streamed video from after the shooting. >> that does it for us on this monday morning. "morning joe" with mark halperin starts right now. ♪