chris. buckle up, get ready, "morning joe" begins now. ♪ at christmas men the electoral college officially casts the vote for president, and he teared up after voting for hillary clinton, he said except for that wet t-shirt contest i judged, that was hard, that was a hard decision. >> good morning. it's tuesday, december 20th. welcome to "morning joe" with us. we have phaoeumike barnicle, anc political analyst and the

professor, mr. ford, and aid and police saying a truck driven into a crowd at a christmas market was done intentionally. we have lot to get to abroad, joe, as we look at politics here at home. >> no doubt about it. the electoral college obviously finalized and made official yesterday, and it didn't end up the way people thought. donald trump picked up a net three electoral votes. so much for that and on to the next attempt to stop him. >> let's start with the electoral college. there were more defectors from democratic nominee, hillary clinton. in washington state four clinton

electors broke away, and one voted for a woman. there were even more electoral college attempts to break from clinton but were thwarted by the laws of the states, and in maine, one of clinton's three votes tried to cast his ballot for bernie sanders but was forced to switch back, and in minnesota, a clinton elector

tried to defect. according to state's won in last month's election t. trump was supposed to get 303, but in the final tally, trump received 304. and they will make the valley official in a joint session, and i am thinking of the conversation we had yesterday with the historian on our show about this whole process. joe? >> i think it was jeff greenfield. mike barnicle, why do we have the electoral college.

it needs to be automatic. this is just absolute nonsense. a lot of people think the electoral college itself is an owe kwaeutd. we are not back in, you know, 1789 here. people know who they are voting for and they make that decision whether we respect their decision or not, and the elector should affirm that. >> yeah, there's no rhyme or reason why the state of wyoming should have equal weight or weight in terms of the electors as the state of california. it struck me that there is a

symbiotic relationship of what happened here, the former election of donald trump by the electoral college and his welcome to the world as the word is today in places like berlin. this is what he's going to be dealing with. the weight of the presidency of each and every hour of each and every day. >> i think it's this world donald trump is being welcomed to is the world that helped him get elected. i think one of the more defining moments of the campaign was were the paris attacks and president obama's muted response, and at least in the republican primaries, in the early republican primary states, they liked donald trump's red hot

response to it, instead of the president of the united states who may be accurate, but the last thing you want to hear when you see paris on your tv screen saying well, you know, more people die in bathtub accidents than america. >> trump is not going to change as president, and his responsibility will change. tweeting out will not be enough. he will have to try and make the united states to be a force to stop these kaoeupdz of attacks or limit them or bring to justice people that commit them. it's not clear from his response to the latest round what he's actually going to do, but come january 20th, it's going to be a different set of responsibilities. as electoral colleges met in state capitols across the country, and bill clinton

received a standing ovation as he entered the state senate chamber yesterday in albany, new york, standing alongside andrew cuomo, and the 42nd president casts his ballot for his wife of 41 years, and later tweeting, as an elector from my home state, i have never been prouder to cast my vote. >> i watched her work for two years and i watched her battle through the bogus e-mail deal, and she fought through everything and prevailed against it all, and then at the end we the had the russians and the fbi and she couldn't prevail against that and she did everything else and still won by 2.8 million

people. >> and bill clinton spoke with the record review, a small weekly newspaper near the clinton's home in chappaqua, while the former president browsed at a local book star, and he acknowledged he received a phone call from trump on the day after the election, and he was strangely cordial, and he said one thinge does know how to get angry white men to vote for him. he also addressed suspected russian cyber attacks damaging his wife's candidacy, and you would have to have a single-digit iq not to know what was going on. he send landslide, i got something like 370 votes. that was a landslide. he also said we are living in a new world.

a post truth era, where facts don't matter. >> oh, my god. oh, my god. this coming, mika, from the man that said it depends on what is your definition of "is" is. as mark and i were saying earlier f. they would just get out of the way, then -- and be gracious about this, there would be people carrying their water, but herald ford, for bill clinton to say trump only few how to get angry white men to vote for him. here are a couple facts. if hillary clinton would have carried the same people that barack obama carried among these quote, angry white men, she would have been elected but they switched from obama to trump, and those angry white men that bill clinton is talking about

are the same angry white men that got him elected president and the same angry white men that bill clinton was complaining for months. >> i can understand the frustration on his part, president clinton, but no doubt a lot of what you are saying is true, and there were signs in michigan and wisconsin and ohio throughout the final weeks of the campaign that perhaps the economic message from the clinton campaign was not reaching and piercing and penetrating big segments of the voting population. and, again, i can appreciate the frustration on their part, and i happen to agree in large part with whatever you and mark might have been saying, i think it should be a different tone and approach now that it's over, and the focus should be trying to insure that this new president understands the enormity of the weight he faces and the

challenges his new team will face as the front pages of all the national newspapers demonstrate so profoundly this morning. >> mika, it's just really -- it's, again, more of the same where the democrats aren't facing the facts that the past eight years he been disastrous for them nationwide, not just in this election, and they can blame vladimir putin for this election, or angry white men, but it's not going to go help them move forward and figure out how do they win back the house in the next two to four years. how do they not get wiped out in the senate in 2018 when all the republican states are up in 2018. they have got to stop looking back and start -- i say this as a republican. they have got to start looking forward. that doesn't mean the

investigations don't go forward. they need to go forward. i think it needs to be very aggressive, and i said repeatedly it needs to be a two-year process. they need to get to the bottom of it. them saying they just lost because angry white men voted. >> yeah, i think they are blocking out an entire section of the country. if they look at these thing way, i think these are important issues and i think they are all worthy points, and i just wish we could hear a little bit of the other part that you are talking about as well, because then it would have more credibility and move forward. >> i think there are some democrats trying to do these things? >> like who. tim ryan? >> yeah. clearly there's an oddance of people across the country that

are interested to know. >> what democrats are speaking to that audience? >> mika, agree with you, and it is clear that members of the house, and i ran against nancy pelosi 14 years ago because i believed the party was drifting in their direction then. a lot of oblivious, but it doesn't mean we abandoned who they are, and we have to rethink approaching these issues. i think there are governors across the country and state senators and representatives that are looking to run, and they have to step outside of the rhetorical tent, and so there are some trying. >> is there a clinton club? why can't -- >> it's time for the clintons to go home.

>> yeah. i think that's a great question, mika. is this loyalty to the clintons? what is stopping the democratic party from doing what any organization would do? this would be the equivalent of a ceo coming out the day before the earnings report saying this is going to be one of our finest quarters on record, and then having the absolute worst on record, the worst earnings report on record. this would be like a football team being 40-point favorites and losing by 40 points. but it even goes beyond that, mark halperin, this is not just the football team or corporation, it's the entire feeder system. the democrats not only lost at the top, but they have been wiped out. there's no bench. they lost 900 legislative seats across the country.

they lost the senate. they have lost 60 seats in the house. they are at the low points since 1928, and nobody in this blankety-blank party -- we never saw what happened in the senate coming and what happened to the governorships coming, and people will tweet, we are doing two things at once. no, as mika said, who are the leaders of the democratic party that are actually saying we have let democrats and the world down? >> it takes money and ideas and it takes personality, and it takes an understanding of the media, and it takes an tphrgsing of what donald trump's potential is.

what it really takes is a ferocious desire to be somebody that puts it on your back and change it and modernize it. many are interested, but they are all busy. none of them see as bill clinton did in 1990, and none of them see this as their primary responsibility to convince the donors and members of congress, one message and effort and one modernization. i don't see that person or group right now. >> we want to get to yesterday's assassination of the president of turkey. some viewers may find the next images next. the ambassador was giving a speech at an art exhibit when a

22-year-old man dressed in a suit and tie shot him in the back and then he yelled in arabic, quote, god is great. those who pledge allegiance to god, god is great, and then he said don't forget aleppo and syria and step back, only death can take me from here, and three other people were injured in the attack, and he worked with riot police and he was later killed. and vladimir putin called the cowerly assassination was to disrupt the normalization of the turkish relations, and president

putin agreed to cooperate in the if investigation, and meanwhile hours later, a man opened fire to the entrance to the u.s. embassy in turkey and the gunman took a shotgun out of his coat and fired around eight shots into the air, and nobody was injured. turkish authorities took the man into custody and an investigation is ongoing there and the embassy is closed from operations today. for all of this, let's bring in richa richa richa richa richard engel live. >> reporter: what they are

trying to figure out is did this militant have any help, was he working with other people? we already know he was motivated because he wanted to punish russia because of its involvement in operations against aleppo and syria in general, but was he working alone. how did he get into the embassy, into the art gallery? we have been told by security officials, he flashed his badge and was able to get into his gun into the location itself and nobody thought it was strange, he was just another member of the security detail until he pulled out his weapon and open fire. officials say he was going to name the street where he was shot in honor of the ambassador, and his body is expected to be flown back to moscow today, a memorial service held in the area of istanbul. another incident at the u.s.

embassy, the motivations of the older gentleman of the shotgun who fired in the age are unclear at this stage, and the embassy here is closed for the moment. >> thank you. now in berlin 12 people dead and 48 more injured after a truck plowed into a crowded christmas market. police say the truck was, quote, intentionally driven into the crowd, and they are investigating as a possible terror attack. and angela merkel said we must assume at the time it was a terror attack. a polish citizen was found dead inside the truck but police say he was not the driver. officials say the truck had polish plates and that it appears to have been stolen. yesterday in switzerland a man storm into the a mosque in zurich, and reuters is reporting this morning that the gunman is

dead and local police identified the suspect, and authorities declined to comment on potential motive and said it's too early to determine whether there could be any link to ans incident to berlin. and trump tweeted out, today there were terror attacks, and the civilized world must change its thinking. >> let me go to ayman right now. first, i don't know what we are going to do about trucks, unless we are going to ban trucks. some of the deadliest attacks have been with vehicles. i want to playoff of something that richard haass tweeted yesterday, and ayman, he said with the fall of aleppo and fall of mosul that we can look

forward to this being the new normal. they have got to compensate in the eyes of their followers for all the defeats they are facing on the battlefield. do you agree with richard haass's suggestion and this is if all in reaction to the fall of aleppo? >> i partly agree with it and i would make a distinction with what happened in an kau raw and aleppo. i would say it was a politically motivated assassination, and that has less to do with isis, and isis did not have a strong foothold in aleppo and they are not the ones losing in aleppo, and the images of the young ones coming out of there and them bombing aleppo, and that's enough to radicalize millions of

people including the turkish security office and he was trusted with guarding all kinds of personnel within that country, and for him to snap in a moment, i think has less to do with the issue of recruitment, and has less to do with the radicalization. clearly he's an issue who is duh ranged and motivated by what he is seeing. and there are the types of attacks in onkrau. he's watching this and he's saying to himself, i have to go out and do something now because the islamic state is losing and i can't let this happen and he is finding soft targets which are nearly impossible to protect against, like you said, what are you going to do, ban trucks? that's going to be a challenge

to prevent this from happening going forward, and you are right, i do see these two different attacks motivated by different things. it goes back really quickly to that point. if you are looking at the images coming out of aleppo, and this is a point that a lot of people are saying when it comes to the u.s. involvement in the region, and the inaction of the international community, there are generations of people who are watching these images every day online, on tv, and they are self radicalizing themselves because they are looking at it with dispair and their governments and international community are sitting by idly and not doing anything to help these people. still ahead on "morning joe," john kirby will join us, and michael mcfall, and john miller, all straight ahead on "morning joe." to a few places...

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president-elect trump announced his pick for secretary of the army yesterday. he is billionaire owner of the nhl's panthers. he made his fortune in part by founding an electronic financial trading firm. we also learned president-elect is reaching out to another billionaire. the washington post reporting trump entertained mexican financer carlos slim at his florida estate over the weekend. and the meeting was arranged by trump's former campaign manager, cory lewandowski. trump told the post that his dinner was a lovely dinner with a man, and that's quite the

contrast of what he said earlier. >> the largest sre holder, and carlos slim comes from mexico and has given many millions of dollars to the clintons and their initiatives, so the largest donor of the paper from mexico, and reporters of the "new york times" -- they are not journalist, they are corporate lobbyist for carlos slim and the clinton campaign. joe, the wall and cory lback in the picture, no? >> yone of the things that is frustrating bill clinton, he is out bill clinton bill clinton,

and he has done that. mark -- >> good point. >> bill clinton said he called me the day after, and it was like nothing had ever happened. that's what bill clinton preaches that you do, and we do have for those who actually want to look at the president-elect and try to figure out how he is going to govern, you can look at the example of carlos slim, barack obama, mitt romney, and bob gates, and you can look at that to see that this guy will say really, really tough and vicious things, out-of-bounds, and that he always seems to be in the friend-making business, and this is one extreme example of it. i suspect over the last couple of months and possibly years, we

will see many examples of it. >> i say the same thing about bill clinton. it's a great window into this part of his pernality. it's not personal, it's business, and he wants to do business with carlos slim and he doesn't think about what he said previously and he hopes people like carlos slim can get over it as well because he wants to make deals wherever it will suit his personal -- i mean, professional business. >> herald, any comments on carlos slim? >> i agree with everything said. it will be interesting to see if people like carlos slim will do anything to shape our relationship with mexico, and i

think it's -- you can't get away from some of the things that are said and the impact it may have on other politicians and voters, and i hope the president is able to bring his supporters around as well, and his positions towards mexico and broader trade policy evolve as well. >> the interesting thing about the carlos slim dinner saturday evening, this is proof once again, once again, once again, and people on both sides of this ideological argument, whether you despise donald trump or are the thing to remember, we have a 70-year-old fully formed adult, a transactional figure, and can we get this deal done? yeah, i know what we said about you yesterday, but look what we have on the table today. >> yeah. and a turkish gunman guns

down a top official, and that's next on "morning joe." ♪

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it's 37 past the hour, joe. joining us now, state department spokesman, professor burns from harvard kennedy school of government. joe? >> mr. ambassador, we have been trying to adapt to a changing turkey for the past decade, changing in very troubling ways. i am wondering how do the latest developments, the latest acts of terror over the last six months to a year, and now assad's emerging success and possible victory in syria, how is that going to impact us over the next four years in our relationship with turkey? >> i think, joe, it's going to make our relationship with turkey more difficult. the turks are accustomed over decades to leaning on the united states and looking to us for leadership and we are normally in most of the middle east countries the out side power,

and no longer, and the obama administration has taken the united states out of the leadership, and russia is now the dynamic power and the turks are looking to the russians, not for leadership but for cooperation, and the turks need to protect their border with syria, and they want to protect the turk population and ethnic group in northern syria and they want to prevent the syrian kurds from dominating that region, and putin allows them to do that and there's a understanding between putin and aired juan. >> obviously our relationship with turkey has gotten considerably worse over the past decade. what would you recommend given everything you have just said to donald trump this morning in reversing some of these trend

lines with turkey, who obviously s. an extraordinarily important ally when they choose to be? >> it's the largest standing army outside of the united states and the nato reliance. they are critical as the nexus point between the middle east and europe. i think that donald trump needs to reach out to president aired juan, and he's difficult, and he's been using the united states as a punching bag, and he has been blaming most everything that goes wrong in turkey, including yesterday's assassination of the russian ambassador in ankara. i think personal relationships are important to him, and an early call and meeting with donald trump would be well advised. we do have common interests with turkey. the turks very much want a

vocation, and that might be an issue that donald trump could help the turks with in relations, for instance, with angela merkel and some of the other european leaders. >> mr. ambassador, i hear turkey spoken about carefully in conversations, and he is described as an important ally and the concern about the decline of american influence in the region. can you explain why the relationship with turkey was already very difficult? >> well, it has been difficult for a number of reasons, mika. one is that the turks wanted the united states in 2012, '13, '14, to be active in syria and back some of the leading sunni groups against ashawn, and he has

arrested 65 to 70,000 people in all walks of life since the attempted coup, and the obama administration has been critical of that and both factors have pointed to the lowest point with the united states and turkey in sometime. >> it's a huge sprawling country, and covered three borders, iran, iraq, syria, and for a period of time in those years you just mentioned, aired juan turned a blind eye, and he has cracked down on his army once in the wake of the attempt attempted coupe, and talk about his own internal problems and how that might obstruct any step

towards progress with the larger group of countries? >> it's a shocking development this could happen in turkey, but frankly the seeds of this were there, and it's a deeply divided country. turkey, it has been a second muslim country, and over the last decade or so he has taken them in a more islamic direction and brought islam into the government and strengthened the role of islam in society, and liberated muslim clerics to be more powerful in the country, and that has divided the country. the military had been the protection of the secular state so he deeply is mistrustful of the military, and you saw the reason why, elements tried to unseat him and kill him and his family in july. so that 60sam in turkish

politics is what leads to this. >> there have been grave concerns over the last, gosh, i guess ten years now, and this move in an islamic direction, and how about the emergence of the radicals temper it on his part? >> he would say peaceful islam has nothing to do with the terror of isis, and this might be a connection for donald trump. donald trump spoke forcefully in the campaign against the islamic state, and the islamic state has carried out a number o terrorists attacks in turkey, including just last week against turkish security forces in ankara, and that could be a meeting point that they could

work on and it's another issue donald trump could present early on, i can help you in the fight against the islamic state, and i know you referred to richard haass, and he is right, i think we will see more terrorist attacks, and it's the way the islamic state might choose to make its presence felt. >> thank you so much for being on the show. >> thank you. still ahead on "morning joe," you don't often hear new york's mayor tearing people away from spending time in the city. >> he has to do what he thinks he needs to be allowed to govern the location, and i don't want to second guess him on the location, and i would say go to the beautiful golf course. >> mayor de blasio wants

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50 past the hour. it's time for the must-read opinion pages. this is from the wall street journal hamilton's electoral board. nearly all followed the public will in the 29 states carried by donald j trump. there will be no electoral college coup.

and t the spectacle of the last month has been an exercise in political intimidation. everybody, including the clinton campaign, knew that the victor would be determined by electoral votes. nobody ordered mrs. clinton not to campaign in wisconsin. doesn't it come to that? i guess haeurd would erald woul person to ask. again, i hate to sort of -- i would rather move on, actually. i feel like the only people coming back to kind of continue this conversation are those doing things like this, and trying to intimidate the electoral college to change, and trying to blame everybody but perhaps the campaign that was weak. >> i think you said it well. >> along with all these other problems. >> i think there should be an investigation into what the

russians did, but you can't get beyond the fact that there was decisions made in the campaign that impacted the outcome, and you also have to recognize and it has been said on this show today and other times, this electoral college, and the fact that there was a effort to affect the electoral college after the man won the race was just pathetic. >> we have been saying all along, which is all of us around the table, nobody ordered her not to go to wisconsin. herald ford was telling me two weeks before the race was over, she's in trouble in michigan. and i can't -- he didn't say i can't get her up here, he said they are worried in michigan and they can't get her up there. you have the unions talking about getting people in buses in iowa driving them to michigan to try to save michigan, and the campaign becoming outraged and

yelling go back to iowa a. state where they got blown out in. yes, we have to do the investigations. we have said let's investigate. but there's no -- there is no after report. there's no intraspecktion. instead of striking out, striking out, and the democrats need to look at this and figure out what went wrong. >> what has happened has happened and you need to move along and don't become a prisoner of the past. the problem for the democrats, joe, is that many of them -- too many of them are walking around as if they lived in occupied france in the early '40s with the spectacle of a trump presidency hanging over their head. he is going to be president of the united states, and for the democrats and their party to spend so much time and energy

and some of us in the media for covering this futile electoral college effort which was never going to happen, that says something about the democratic party's future, and they are supposed to stand by people who have been victimized by wage stagnation and corporate influences and the destruction of unions and they have lost their way and if they are going to continue to look in the rear view mirror over the election that elected donald trump as president of the united states, as much as a lot of people hate to hear that, their future is dimmer than what we have been talking about. >> mark, i can also say the same thing about, again, the paper i read every day, the only paper i read every day, the new york state times, which seems to have decided that they are going to take on -- instead of being journalists, they are going to be the resistance. it's so skewed one way and it's

so backward looking that there's nobody -- they should be the ones on the forefront if they really decide they want to be a progressive paper, to explain y. have democrats lost 900 state legislative seats over the past eight years? why they have lost 60-plus seats in the house? why have they lost 12 seats in the senate? why have they lost all those governmentships? you can only blame the russians and donald trump for so many things. >> there were russian troops on the iowa/wisconsin border that kept hillary clinton from going in. and it's not a new economic agenda for a revitalized democratic -- people want to change the direction in which the country is getting ready to

go, and their failure to not just take responsibility but to think about what is the path back, and most democrats i talk to who are thinking about this say it's with an economic message that speaks to everybody in the country. >> joe, i mean -- >> mika, why have they lost all of these seats over the past eight years? they either figure this out or they do become a permanent minority. >> yeah, i'm -- i am still concerned there's still an allegiance that is false that they are clinging to, and we can talk more about that coming up because it's complicated. >> the democrats are looking ahead. >> who are they? >> i think tim is looking ahead, and i think andrew cuomo is looking ahead and there are democrats -- many more of them. >> okay. >> i am a democrat and looking ahead. >> good. all right.

i am, too. what are we going to fight with bill about? >> his predictions. we will find somebody. >> and cookie roberts joins the conversation as well. authorities in germany now say the driver that crashed into christmas market killing 12 people acted deliberately. our guests include state department spokesman, john kirby, and michael mcfaul, and deputy commissioner john miller. we'll be right back with "morning joe." on sketchbook, and i'm going to draw mustaches on you all. using the pen instead of fingers, it just feels more comfortable for me. be like, boop! it's gone. i like that only i can get into it and that it recognizes my fingerprint. our old tablet couldn't do that. it kind of makes you feel like you're your own person, which is a rare opportunity in my family. (laughter)

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♪ ♪ welcome back to "morning joe." it's tuesday, december 20th. everybody is singing on the set here. still with us on set, we have veteran columnist, mike barnicle. and mark halperin. and professor at the university of michigan school of public policy, and former democratic -- >> herald ford. >> and joining the conversation, editor of the weekly standard -- >> i don't have to sing. >> you are not the grinch that stole christmas, are you? >> i like the grinch. don't you like the grinch? >> no. i am looking for things to fight with him about.

>> and casey hunt is with us. >> the election is over, and i just want to know what are we going to fight with bill about? >> that's what i am wondering. >> bill, what do you have on the menu for us to get into an uncomfortable fight about? >> we are not fighting about anything, joe. i am on my way to trump tower with my top secret meeting. >> we will think of something, joe. >> over the next four years, we will probably disagree on a few things. >> do you want me to read from the- >> that's promising. >> one lesson of 2016 is that it's time to worry about liberty again. for, to say the least, neither of this year's presidential candidates made liberty a theme and neither seems enamored by liberty, and donald trump said he would make america great

again, but his affective raw toric to clinton's creepy i am with her was the creep y populists i'm with you, and it produced a right led by a narcissistic no nothing. it featured a contest between authoritarian progressivism, and a authoritarian populism. joe? >> you are a mean one, mr. grinch. >> he's the grinch. >> i will tell you this, what we do agree on and what i think a lot of conservatives will find themselves on a position on is with george w. bush, and you ended up having massive deficits, massive debts, explosion of domestic spending

and explosion of defense spending, and tax cuts, and a deficit that went from, you know -- actually we had a surplus, $155 billion surplus to a massive deficit. i see absolutely no sign that small government conservatives like you or me are going to be happy forward eight years from now with what the republican party did with our budget. >> let's see. he's full of surprises, and i think when you see a progressivism full of political correctness and has no limits on governments and then trump's populism that has limits on government, and people might learn a lesson on the rule of law and there's a reason why we don't want government meddling in every aspect of our lives. >> the exert we read, though, i

have been surprised at people who express fear, and they say do you think he will really ship me and my family back to where we came from? not just refugees, ordinary tphaeur knee people express fear about hre about liberty fears we all take for granted. >> if muslims and others have legitimate fears about a trump presidency, maybe people can come together and say this is why we don't want government intruding in every aspect of our lives, and maybe that's not a bad agenda for the next four years. >> when you talk about government -- this is where i

differ. i think people don't mind government in their lives if they see it working. i think people over the last several years got frustrated because government got involved in their lives in big ways and it didn't work. trump talked about involving government that would make their lives safer, and he talked about making america safer and greater and using the force of government to do it and when he got involved in the carrier plant, he outraged a lot of people, and and if you step back from, he is using the power of government to defend me. >> he's doing something. >> it's normally used to defend big corporate interest, and he's using it to defend and protect and enabled me, and if he is able to do that i think the concerns around deficits and debt, and this is the first time in my adult life neither talked about debt and deficits, and you

could not have convinced me four years ago, a democrat could run for president and not talk about the debt or deficit, let alone a republican, and as we talk about the role of government in solving problems. >> i think you correctly described the current public mood and my point is that is a mistake, people should mind more about government in their lives, and they should think about the longer term consequences. and you can't move here or there, and what does that look like four years from now in terms of the governance and rule of law. i agree that's not where the debate was in 2016. >> the electoral college saw a record number of defections

yesterday, despite protests against donald trump, there were more defectors from democratic nominee hillary clinton. in washington state, four clinton electors broke away, three to break away for colin powell, and then in texas trump lost two of his 38 votes with one going to ohio governor, john kasich, and another to required congressman ron paul. according to states won in last election, trump should have received 306 while hillary clinton was to get 232, and in the final election, donald trump got 304, and clinton got 227.

trump responded i thank the american people for their overwhelming vote to elect me as the next president of the united states. the official votes casts by the electoral college exceeded the 270 required to secure the presidency by a very large margin, far greater than ever anticipated by the media. >> that's true. >> that's true. >> and he tweeted to his followers. we did it! thank you to all of my great supporters. we just officially won the election despite all of the distorted and inaccurate media. >> joe? >> that's loaded. >> joe, i have been looking at the sports pages more than the news fronts of many papers in the last couple of weeks, but did nate sylva put any percentage on his chances of winning the electoral college? >> i don't think so. >> did you notice anything about that? >> no. i really didn't.

but i suspect that all of these -- all of these people that have been trying to reduce the possibilities down to .003%, i suspect they will have a rougher run four years from now, and not only nate sylva but the upshot. everybody was off. i open this up to the entire table, mike, mark, everybody, what does donald trump do now? he's going to be president of the united states? mark, we will start with you. he is going to be president of the united states. he is meeting with carlos slim and other people that he bashed during the campaign, but at this point the media is so overwhelmingly weighted against him. does he just stay hunkered down and not send out sort of peace offerings to the media, or is

this -- or is this the new normal? is it going to be a constant war between the media and the president over the next four years? >> it won't be constant but it will be frequent and episodic. i think it's a side show. what can he get done with paul ryan and mitch mcconnell and perhaps chuck schumer, and that ability to have a record-fast legislative push in the first six months i think is bigger than anything that is going to be with the media, but i think he will fight with the media. >> is the media irrelevant now? has the 2016 campaign taught donald trump and his advisers that what they say about him just doesn't matter so they -- i had a top adviser say they just don't watch the news anymore because it's so overwhelmingly negative, they wouldn't know where to start in their responses. is the media completely irrelevant to them?

>> there was often in the campaign serious and fair investigations on donald trump that had no political impact with those that got him elected and that work needs to continue with him on the conduct of his administration, and i see why based on what happened during the campaign trump and his advisers don't worry very much about that, because he can, with his own megaphone, social media as president now, change the course of the discussion on any given day relatively easy, but we must, and anybody as a watchdog must pay attention to it. >> and i think governing really matters most, not the megaphones and media and not about

quibbling about whether or not he won with a landslide. he's got 52 senators, and there's a lot of divisions among republicans and can he get democrats to cooperate? it's doable. there's a reason why dick was important in the reagan administration, you need somebody that knows how to put together a legislative package and work with congress and make sure you don't antagonize too many congressmen along the way, and pence is the guy there, and to govern successfully, you have to be able to do it. executing will matter a lot is all i am saying. >> and you are right, bill, we have seen it. we have been around long enough to see white houses, you know, presidents being swept in, and

feeling like they are going to be able to get whatever they want through the house or senate, and they want such a big victory, but herald ford, i always warn people and incoming administrations and people who want to understand washington, d.c. that to me the most powerful person in washington, d.c. is the senate minority leader, because if you have a president in the other party, because that senate minority leader usually can stop or slowdown things enough to frustrate the will of the majority, which is exactly why the senate was set up the way it was. >> as you so correctly pointed out, 52 senators, i think bill said it, there's no doubt, the action will be in the senate, and the house will pass a lot of what he wants and the question is can you work deals and find democrats to be supportive. probably he has two head winds

helping him. there may be an appetite to work with him, and democrats in recent days say if he is going to pull back or change big parts of the affordable care act or obamacare, there's a willingness on some democrats to replace parts, and even secretary clinton talked about that in the campaign, and i think the agenda could lift regulations, and he will move agenda around and lifting regulations around the financial services industry, because you will find a large group of republicans and some democrats that want to do that. at the end of the day, what is really going to confuse and confound them, and i hope they have the team for this is what we are seeing on front pages today, foreign policy does what mike tyson does that everybody that faced him, they had a plan until they punched him in the case, and they have to be ready

to deal with it in a serious and sustained way. >> one of the great columns had to do with what find out what a president is, what kind of president a president is going to be when they face their first crisis and then suddenly everything changes. mika, we figured out in congress pretty early on when the minority shrunk, nine or ten of us in the house could stop everything and they had to go through us, and in the senate, now, you have three republicans, and any three republicans can come together and they can stop anything from passing so long as they line up with the democrats, and that is -- that is chaos waiting to happen. everybody is going to have to deal with everybody, and nobody is going to rollove anybody and this is going to frustrate the trump administration just like the obama administration was frustrated and just like the bush administration is

frustrated. >> i think it's going to be different than any of those administrations. kasie hunt, i think one of the things we learned about donald trump, he will keep everybody guessing, and i can see him aligning with democrats easier than some republicans expect to. >> i think that's a play to watch for from chuck schumer in particular, and he is talking about the power of the position. trump is, a, going to need schumer to get things done, and also, b, has the potential to make a deal with him to go around mitch mcconnell if that's what he wants to do. i think schumer is probably already looking back at this, and take the health care law, which is going to be an early fight here, and he can sit back and say you want to take it apart, you go right ahead but you are not going to put it back together without my help, so we are not going to help you dismantle it and change it around, and you need us in a later part of the process, and i

think how the president -- how president trump deals with the health care law will be a real test of all of these things that you have been talking about, because one perception from voters that i picked up on the campaign trail, was yes, government was trying to help some people but it was never me, middle class voter, and if that makes sense, and i think that donald trump can use the perception that, hey, i am stepping in and helping people that have working jobs in a place like carrier, for example, and he can use perception contrary to what bill said i. think he can use perception to govern, frankly. >> so i agree with you, but, again, borrowing from my good friend, herald ford, i also agree with bill crystal in this respect. >> you have three points, joe. >> three points, please. >> i don't have the three points. but kasie brings up the most important issue, and you have to

be able to handle the logistics of this, obamacare, and right now donald trump is facing immense pressure from paul ryan and the republicans to immediately repeal obamacare and then worry about the details of changing it. that is that going to be a massive crisis in the making because the second they repeal obamacare, even if they sunset it in let's say, 2019, the democrats are going to say, you did nothing but block our efforts to deliver health care to americans, and now we're going to return the favor. trump is facing tremendous pressure from paul ryan and his people to abolish it now, and worry about the details later, and there are people on the inside who are saying just like bill crystal, we have to worry about the logistics of this, and if we do it it's going to be a nightmare and we are never going to be able to replace it and we are going to lose wisconsin, michigan, ohio, and pennsylvania.

bill is exactly right, you can't tweet your way out of this, and you can't give a speech out of this. you are going to have to figure out how to work inside james madison and alexander hamilton's system. >> let's get to yesterday's assassination of russia's ambassador to turkey. we want to warn you the images you are about to see graphic. the ambassador was giving a speech at an art exhibit when a man dressed in a suit and tie shot him in the back. he yelled in arabic, quote, god is great, and then switched to turkish yelling don't forget aleppo, don't forget syria. he was an officer in the ankara special forces and worked with riot police for two and a half years and was later killed until a shoot-out with turkish special

forces. vladimir putin called the ambassador a very intelligent and gentle person and his cowardly assassination was meant to disrupt the turkish relations. meanwhile, just hours later in ankara a man open fire to the entrance of the u.s. embassy in turkey, and turkish state-run media said a gunman turk a weapon out of his coat and shot in the air and nobody was injured. an investigation is awninongoino that. and then a truck plowed into a crowded christmas market and the trubg was intentionally driven into the crowd and they are investigating it as a probable terrorists attack, and angela

merkel said we must assume at the current time it was a terror attack, and a suspect was arrested at the scene and a polish citizen was found dead inside the truck but police say he was not the driver. officials say the truck had polish plates and that it appears to have been stolen. yesterday in switzerland, a man stormed into a mosque in zurich and open fire on worshippers wounding three people before fleeing. reuters is reporting the gunman is dead and local police identified the suspect. authorities declined to comment on potential motive and said it's still too early to determine whether there may be a link to the incident in berlin. and donald trump weighed in tweeting on today there were terror attacks in turkey, switzerland and germany, and it's only getting worse. the secivilized world must chan

its thinking. and ahead, the former pentagon official that helped lead russian policy, and up next, we will bring in political analyst, coky roberts. you are watching "morning joe." we will be right back. they are the natural born enemy of the way things are. yes, ideas are scary, and messy and fragile. but under the proper care, they become something beautiful.

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♪ ♪ >> all right. it's 27 -- you're a mean one. that's perfect. they are talking to you. joining us from washington, nbc news correspondent, hallie jackson, tell us about the meeting donald trump had with mexican financier, carlos slim. >> yeah, he journeyed to palm beach to have dinner with the president-elect over the weekend, and dinner described as lovely, and in the election,

slim was a villain to donald trump, and he was trying to control the media and the rest of the nation essentially. there's talk that he talks about his vow to destroy nafta, and he's got a couple more meetings, but it's going to be fairly slow. he's got the v.a. position still open, and the secretary of agriculture still open and dni, and those will be the focuses for the trump team over the next couple of weeks, and they will look for the number two positions, deputy at state and defense department, and names being mentioned, i'm told people like david mccormick, and john bolton has been in the mix, and it's not clear where the pieces are going to fall yet, where the dominoes are going to fall and they are all names that will be talked about, and we will see more announcements if not this

week, after the new year. we both know she's the author of "ladies of liberty", and based on her acclaimed work on the women that shaped our nation. >> she's the best. >> i am thinking you and i have not seen cokie since before the election. >> no. i want to talk to her about this. >> joining us now, political commentator, cokie roberts. a lot has changed since we last saw her. take it, joe. >> i was going to say, cokie, you obviously, you know washington as well or better than anybody. i have been fascinated. i wanted to hear your take on not only what happened with the election but more importantly how washington is enduring the coming trump era, and if you ever have seen anything rese

reseplabling. >> all yearlong we have seen never seen anything like this, never seen anything like this. i guess merriam-webster said the word of the year is surreal. that's where we have been all yearlong. and washington loves having a new president come to town regardless of who he is, and real estate agents are getting busy, and inaugural planners are getting busy and everybody gets excited. >> also, cokie, everybody, you know, there are a lot of people that have been jumping off the cliff, this is the end of democracy and there's going to be a republican rice tag. you and me and mike barnicle and other people have seen more big shots and hot heads absorbed and chopped up and spit out into little pieces by washington, and madison's checks and balances than we can even count. do you have confidence that the

system will absorb donald trump as wewell? >> absolutely. it's why i write the history books, and we are here to talk about them. >> there you go. >> yeah, very good. >> really, when you cover congress and politics for as many decades as i have you get to know the founding fathers on a first-name basis, and going back and learning what they had to say, most recently on the electoral college, and the remarkable checks and balances they put in having overthrown a king, and it gives me great confidence of the occupant of the white house. >> tell us about the book. mika, are you fascinated about the book. she keeps talking about trump,

but what about "ladies of liberty? >> tell us about the book, and then i do have another question. i did write the book about founding mothers, and "ladies of liberty" just came out, and the fabulous illustrator diane goode doing wonderful pictures, and "ladies of liberty" you never heard of, two first ladies, elizabeth monroe, whose daughter, by the way, really was first lady, and so we have something to look forward to if ivanka really does play the role that we are hearing she might. that woman, the monroe daughter, was despised in washington. and then we have luisa katherine adams, the only other women

borne out siborn out side the country. >> mark halperin? >> isabella graham, she started a school and then an orphanage along with liza hamilton, who s, of course, become famous on broadway, and this is something for women to do. they had no legal rights and could not own property and had no political rights and could not vote but they went into the public square and lobbied the legislature and went to the public and got funds and kept, thank god, records, and so they were able to do all kinds of things that were important for the people who were not making it in this exciting new country. and the orphanage she started is still serving children in new york today. it's not an orphanage anymore, but serves the needy children of new york. these were lasting institutions. >> the checks and balances joe

was talking about, what i wanted to ask you, and i am curious about, do you get a lot of questions that people afraid of a trump presidency, and say i am worried he's going to deport me and my family is going to get sent away, and what do you say to them? >> i say this is america, and with any luck that is not going to happen. you have some recourse. but also to be vigilant, be organized. one of the things -- women's march on washington is being talked about. >> yeah, in january. >> and everybody tells me their houses are full. but the fact is, i think they should have a goal, they should not just show up. have a goal, have the goal be that the children who have been told they can stay here can stay, or have a goal be that we want to elect 100 new women by 2020. something that you can work towards in the way -- >> just not against. >> not just say i'm mad.

you know? >> right, makes sense. cokie roberts. thank you very much. the new book is "ladies of liberty", and we will take any of those books as christmas gifts. >> my daughter's birthday -- >> i need some of those books. >> i got one, joe. >> good. >> coming up, new reaction this morning to russia, turkey and syria's civil war, and there's breaking news to report and we'll be back in just a moment.

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then why settle for slow internet? comcast business. built for speed. built for business. just about 39 past the hour. we have two important guest wz us now, but first mike barnicle, you have an update on the attack in -- which one, germany? berlin? we don't have a double source, but go ahead. >> according to the german newspaper, according to police sources they arrested the wrong man for the truck attack on the christmas market in berlin, and the suspect is still at large and considered to be very dangerous. >> with that, joining us now, john kirby and deputy commissioner of the nypd, john miller, and he heads up the department's intelligence and counterterrorism unit, and we will get to john in just a

minute, but joe take it away with admiral kirby. >> certainly i think that the russians and the turks which just now started a joint investigation into the murder of the russian ambassador, they are looking at possible terrorists links, too. we offered assistance to the russians and turks for their investigation and we will stand by to do whatever we can for the german officials as well. >> we are seeing automobiles, and we are seeing tens of millions of automobiles on the

road every day? >> we have the density of traffic, so it's actually hard to get up the speed to run anybody over, and on the other hand, you know, we look at this joe n. a layered approach. after al qaeda came out with the magazine that suggested running people over with cars operation nexus started a lot of visits to truck rental places and other things, and looking at commercial driver's license holders and background checks and so on. and after the nice attacks, updated contact information, and talked about suspicious behavioral indicators, and when you look at events like the thanksgiving day parade which was threatened directly in isil's magazines as a suggested attack, and we locked down the route to make that kind of

attack impractical. you focus on a chemical attack and you get a bombing and you focus ondetections, and so when i talk about a layered approach, it's also a 360 approa approach, an all threats approach. >> john kirby, i am curious to the background of the turkish officer, we know a bit about his background, and i am still -- i don't understand how he was actually able to get into the position he was in for such a brazen assassination, which is now across the front pages around the world. tell me what you know and what this may lead to. >> well, it's hard to say where it's going to lead. very troubling indeed he was able to get in there, and you would think the ambassador being anywhere would be surrounded by his security folks and i am not

saying they were not there, but as far as we know, he is an off-duty police officer and he was able to use his police credentials, and how he got so close to the ambassador they are still trying to work that out but apparently he used his police credentials to gain access. >> was he working that day or just walked in? >> information is hard to come by right now and it's not our investigation, but our understanding he was off duty in civilian clothes and had his credentials and was able to use the credentials to gain access. >> so much of the security, but will there be continuity for new york and other cities around the country from obama to trump in terms of spending and posture? >> we hope so. you know, everything that i was talking about, the layers of security in centric circles,

almost all of that is paid for at the base by homeland security funds, and right now new york gets under $180 million a year from five separate streams of homeland security. they are talking about the trump tower, and the con tptinuity is attached, and i don't think anybody in that congress will toy with that. >> you come back with bill and are here with jim o'neal, the concern the commissioner, in that span of years the threat level presented to police departments, los angeles, and specifically here in new york now, the threat level, has it increased per septemberively? >> it shifted.

we call it flash to bang, when somebody may be radicalized to the time they act, now it can happen to days or weeks as opposed to a period of a couple years, and we have seen a downgrading of expectations but an upgrading of cade kwrupbs, and we are seeing the attacks faster and more often. when you see a paradigm not directed the toppling towers or destroying buildings, but they are now low cost and high impact, and those are things where you have to use your imagination and best intelligence and spread your resources out carefully. yesterday an attack on a christmas market in germany. we have over 500 uniform cops and counterterrorism detail out on the street and that was a fast shift, because you have to

be very agile to remove resources to half a dozen christmas markets we had up and running in the city that day until we understood more about that attack. >> admiral kirby, the threat level rising and taking it to another level, in terms of the transition happening now between the obama administration and the trump administration, can you give the public some assurances of how that is working, that these events in the last few days changed that conversation. two, is there increased security across the middle east in embassies? >> there will always be a high level of interest in making sure protection is taken to be a high pro priority in the presidential transition, and that's nothing new, and the interagency as well as local law enforcement are taking that seriously as we prepare for the inauguration,

but periods have known some sort of testing by the international system of america's strength, and we are all mindful of that. in terms of what is going on around the world, we are always vigilant, particularly this time of year. back in november before thanksgiving, we issued a travel alert for europe, and not to discourage people from going there but to make sure they were mindful and vigilant as they were out at public events including festivals and markets such as what happened yesterday in berlin. we want people to keep their head on a swivel and don't want them to stay home, and there's no reason to do that, but clearly during the holiday season is a time to always be very vigilant and self aware of your surroundings. >> john kirby and miller, thank you both for being on today. we're back in a moment with much more "morning joe."

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tadirectv now. stream all your entertainment! anywhere! anytime! can we lose the 'all'. there's no cbs and we don't have a ton of sports. anywhere, any... let's lose the 'anywhere, anytime' too. you can't download on-the-go, there's no dvr, yada yada yada. stream some stuff! somewhere! sometimes! you totally nailed that buddy. simple. don't let directv now limit your entertainment. only xfinity gives you more to stream to any screen. welcome back to "morning joe." let's go to kasie hunt in washington. there's been a lot of tog, and we talked about it this morning about using mike pence to get

legislation through the house. he's -- house and senate obviously, he's a man who knows how washington works. how do you think that will work on the hill in practice? are there any concerns? >> well, i think objective one for trump coming in here was to make sure that she was building brujs to republicans. that's what mike pence has done on capitol hill with mitch mcconnell, with paul ryan. he obviously has a previous relationship with paul ryan that's very strong. and he's been the person that we have seen three or four times since the election even on capitol hill. but there is some risk here, i think, as i talk to democrats. they're watching what's happening, and they're saying, this might be a signal that republicans aren going to do the kinds of things under trump that we thought maybe we could work with them on. this is, in their view, a very traditional idealogical republican. and i think there's a lot of reluctance and nervousness among

top democrats about, okay, what does this mean about whether or not we can actually work with trump. i also think they believe that donald trump's success isn't going to be replicated by the republican party that was, if you will. the way republicans were doing things before trump. they're not going to be able to come back in four or eight years and run a traditional republican candidate and win with the same coalition that trump did. so they also kind of have a warning, hey, maybe you should be working with us. maybe we should be talking about infrastructure and all these things that trump might have more in common with democrats on. >> yeah, mark halperin, though, you look, you do look at -- and i think one of the biggest surprises for me in this transition has been just how idealogically conservative, how orthodox-like his selections have been on domestic cabinet members, whether you're talking about department of education, whether you're talking about the epa, whether you're talking

about labor, whether you're talking about a series of his choices for cabinet secretaries. right out of mike pence and paul ryan's idealogical playbook. >> no question. then look at steve bannon, whose views are not conventionally republican, and then mr. cohen, who will be the head of the national economic council. a democrat from goldman sachs. so i don't know who is going to be running these things but oniously, anything that is legislated has to go through congress. it's not clear to me whether there's already a strategy or the strategy is in formation, but the main thing to me is, as much as mike pence is a traditional conservative republican, trump's not beholden to the republican party the way a normal president would be, and he may have different ideas about what kind of coalitions he wands to build to pass big things. >> one of the things, to kasie's point, that might be confusing democrats around whether they can find common ground, i think

is this omb chief pick, who obviously comes from a more conservative wing of the party. he is someone who has been, who is perceived, i think rightly so, who puts a pencil and pen to the paper to figure out where money is going. not only do democrats have their concern. it raises, i would imagine, some concerns among some of mr. trump's independent supporters who believe a big infrastructure spend and other things should be a par of what we doi going forward. there's probably confusion in policy circles. you can imagine what the traditional party thinking is in some of the caucus meetings taking place since the election. >> a lot of conflicting signals, really, with what donald trump is aing he wants to do with infrastructure and defense and other areas and also, again, some of the cabinet selections he's made. you talk about omb -- >> and tax cuts. >> yeah, and tax cuts and military spending and domestic

spending. i do not, if you're a conservative and you're running omb, you're probably going to have one of the toughest, most frustrating jobs over the next four years. >> to say the least. >> anyway, yeah, exactly. still ahead, despite protests and calls for electors to deny him the presidency, donald trump won the electoral college and increased his margin over hillary clinton. we're going to dig into that and get the reactions from the panel and also "the new york times" and "wall street journal." also, following several fast moving developments overseas with the shocking attacks that happened yesterday. vladimir putin said the assassination of moscow's ambassador to turkey plays into the hands of those who want to derail the peace talks in syria. we're going to be bringing in former u.s. ambassador to russia mike mcfaul to join that conversation, and germany's angela merkel summons her top security officials to discuss a response to the deadly attack on a christmas market, and a report this morning that they arrested

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good morning. it is tuesday, december 20th. welcome to "morning joe." with us, we have veteran columnist and msnbc contributor mike barnicle. managing editor of bloomberg politics, mark halperin.

msnbc political analyst and professor at the university of michigan school of public policy, former democratic congressman harold ford jr. we have a lot to get to abroad. joe, as we look at politics here at home. >> yeah, no doubt about it. the electoral college obviously finalized and made official yesterday, it didn't quite end up the way people thought. donald trump actually picked up a net three electoral votes. so so much for that. on to the next attempt to stop him. >> let's start with the electoral college, which saw record number of defections yesterday. but despite protests against president-elect donald trump, there were more defectors from democratic nominee hillary clinton. in washington state, four clinton electors broke away. thee to vote for former secretary of state colin powell. while one voted for faith spotted eagle, a sioux elder from south dakota. in hawaii, another clinton

elector broke for bernie sanders. in texas, trump lost two of his 38 votes with one going to ohio governor john kasich. and another to retired congressman ron paul. there actually were even more electoral college attempts to break from clinton, but they were thwarted by laws binding the electors to the state's popular vote winner. in colorado, a clinton elector attempts to break away and vote for republican john kasich. but was replaced. in maine, one of clinton's three votes tried to cast his ballot for bernie sanders, but was forced to switch back. and in minnesota, a clinton elector defected to sanders and was replaced. what are we doing when you think about it? in the end, the seven faithless electors were the most in american history, breaking the record set in 1808 when six new york electors switched their votes from president james madison. according to states won in last month's election, trump should

have received 306 electoral votes while hillary clinton was supposed to get 232. but look at this. in the final tally, trump received 304 votes, and clinton got 227. states now have until next wednesday to submit a certificate of vote to the federal registrar, and congress will make the tally official in a joint session on january 6th. i'm thinking of the conversation we had yesterday with a historian on our show. just about this whole process, joe. >> i think it was jeff greenfield. mike barnicle, why do we even have these electors? if you're going to have an electoral college, and we can have that debate, if you're going to have an electoral college, it needs to be automatic. as jeff greenfield said, who wrote the book on the electoral college, this is just absolute nonsense. a lot of people think the electoral college itself is antiquated and they have a lot of great arguments for that, but again, if you're going to have

it, then the people's vote have to count, and it needs to be pledged. we're not back in, you know, 1789 here. people know who they're voting for. they make that decision whether we respect their decision or not. and the electors should affirm that. >> well, there's no doubt about that, joe, and no doubt about the fact that the electoral college -- >> a little earlier. >> is an an crunistic element of our political culture. no rhyme or reason why the state of wyoming should have nearly equal weight or equal weight in terms of electors to the state of california given the population, but it is what it is. the funny thing about yesterday is it struck me that there is almost a symbiotic relationship between what happened yesterday here in this country, the formal election of donald j. trump as president-elect of the united states by the electoral college, and his welcome to the world as

the world is today in places like ankara and berlin. >> well, this is what he's going to be dealing with, the weight of the presidency each and every hour of each and every day. >> it is. and mark halperin, it's really, i think, this world that donald trump is being welcomed to is the world that helped get him actually elected. i believe one of the more defining moments of the campaign was the paris attacks and barack obama's muted response that caused concerns. not just among republican primary voters but people across the political spectrum. and at least in the republican primaries, in the early republican primary states, they liked donald trump's red hot response to it instead of the president of the united states, who may be accurate, but the last thing you want to hear when you're seeing paris on your tv screen is, well, you know, more

people die in bathtub accidents than terror attacks in america, which is what barack obama told his staff members after paris. >> you know, everybody has now accepted trump is not going to change as president, but his responsibilities will change. tweeting out or putting out statements denouncing things isn't going to be enough. he's going to be responsible for policy, for building relations, for coming up with tactics and strategies to make the united states a force to stop these attacks or limit them or bring to justice people who commit them. and it's not clear from his response to the latest round what he's actually going to do. but come january 20th, it's going to be a different set of responsibilities. >> so as the electoral college met in state capitols across the country, only one elector was a past presidential winner. former president bill clinton received a standing ovation as he entered the state senate chamber yesterday in albany, new york. standing alongside governor andrew cuomo, the 42nd president cast his ballot for his wife of

41 years. later tweeting, as an elector from my home state of new york, i have never been more proud to cast my vote than my vote today for hillary clinton. but clinton had more to say about the election, speaking with a reporter outside the chamber. >> you know, i have watched her work for years. i watched her battle through that bogus e-mail deal. be vindicated at the end when the secretary came out. she fought through that, fought through everything and prevailed against it all, but you know, then at the end we had to ru russians and the fbi. and she couldn't prevail against that. she still won by 2 million votes. >> more recent venting from the former president earlier this month. bill clinton spoke with the record review, a small weekly newspaper near the clintons' home in chappaqua. while the former president browsed at a local book store.

in the comments ubstained by politico, he acknowledged he received a phone call from trump on the day after the election. and that the manhattan billionaire was strangely cordial, quote, like it was 15 years ago. of the new president, clinton said trump doesn't know much. but one thing he does know is how to get angry white men to vote for him. he also addressed suspected russian cyberattacks damaging his wife's candidatcy saying yo would need to have a single digit iq not to recognize what was going on, and he took a dig at trump's win, asking, landslide? i got something like 3 sfebt electoral votes. correctly recalling his 1992 total. that was a landslide. he also said we're living in a new world, a post-truth era, where facts don't matter. >> oh, my god. >> joe. >> oh, my god. oh, my god, this coming from the man who said it depends on what your definition of is is.

i would ask, has he no shame, but he proved decades ago that he didn't. and as mark and i were saying earlier, if they would just get out of the way, and be gracious about this, there would be people carrying their water. but harold ford, for bill clinton to say that trump only knew how to get angry white men voting for him, ignores a couple facts. the first fact is that if hillary clinton would have carried barack obama's -- carried the same people that barack obama carried among these, quote, angry white men, she would have been elected, but they switched from obama to trump. and secondly, those angry white men that bill clton is talking about are the same, quote, angry white men that got him elected president. and were the same angry white men that bill clinton was complaining about for months that the clintons weren't reaching.

>> look, i'm the last person to criticize my dear pal. i can understand the frustration on his part. president clinton, but there's no no doubt a lot of what you're saying is true. there were signs in michigan and wisconsin and ohio and pennsylvania throughout the final weeks of the campaign that perhaps the economic message from the clinton campaign was not reaching and piercing and penetrating big segments of the voting population. and again, i can appreciate the frustration on their part, and i happen to agree in large part with whatever you and mark might have been saying about i think there should be a different tone, a different approach here. at the end, now that it's over, and the focus now should be on trying to insure that this new president understands the enormity of weight he faces and the kind of challenges and questions his new team will face, including his secretary of state designee as the front pages of all the national newspapers demonstrate so profoundly this morning. >> yeah, and mika, it's just

really, it's, again, more of the same where the democrats aren't facing the facts that the past eight years have been disastrous for them nationwide, not just in this election. they can blame vladimir putin for this election. and they can blame, quote, angry white men for this election. and they can do all of these other things if they want to. it's not going to help them move forward and figure out how do they win back the house in the next two to four years, how do they not get wiped out in the senate in 2018 when all of these democrats in republican-leaning states are up in 2018. they have got to stop looking back and start -- i say this as a republican. they have got to start looking forward. that doesn't mean the investigations don't go forward. >> right. these are serious issues. >> they need to go forward. and i think it needs to be very aggressive. and i have said repeatedly, it needs to be a two-year process.

they need to get to the bottom of it, but them saying we lost because angry white men voted for donald trump, ignores the fact that barack obama actually won a lot of those voters four and eight years ago. >> yeah, and i think that, again, they're blocking out entire sections of the country. if they look at things this way. i think these are important issues. i think they're all worthy points. i just wish we could hear a little bit of the other part that you're talking about as well because then it would have more credibility and help move forward. >> i think there's some democrats trying to do some of these things. >> like who? like tim ryan? >> you had tim on. >> i don't think he was taken seriously. >> he might not have been by some members of the congress, but clearly, there's an audience of people across the country who are curious to know how can we drive defense spending to make sure that jobs come back to big parts of the rust belt. >> what democrats are speaking to that audience? >> i don't disagree with you that members of the congress and

senate aren't doing it that much, and it's clear the party's approach was rebuked. the facts that democrats in the house, and i ran against nancy pelosi some 14 years ago because i believed the party was drifting in the wrong direction then. it's obvious they're oblivious in large part to what's happening across the country. that doesn't mean we abandon who we are, but we rethink how we're approaching the issues and tim is one of those leaders. i think there are governors across the country, some state senators and reps looking to run for governor who have to be courageous and understand they have to step outside of the rhetorical tent that some democrats including washington democrats want to put them in. there's some trying. >> the clinton club or what is it -- why can't leading -- >> it's time for the clintons to go home. >> well -- >> yeah, i think that's a great question, mika. is this about -- is this loyalty to the clintons? what is stopping the democratic party from doing what any organization would do?

this would be the equivalent of a ceo coming out a day before the earnings report saying this is going to be one of our finest quarters on record, and then having the absolute worst on record, worst earnings report on record. this would be like a football team being 40-point favorites and then losing by 40 points. but it even goes beyond that, mark halperin. this is not just the football team or the corporation. it's the entire feeder system. the democrats not only lost at the top, but they have been wiped out. there is no bench. they have lost 900 legislative seats across the country. they have lost the senate. they have lost 60 seats in the house. they're at the low point since 1928. and nobody in this blankety blank party can look forward.

you can do two things at once. you can say we're going to get to the bottom of vladimir putin and it's really, really bad that we not only ran the worst presidential campaign in modern history and here's how we ran the worst one in history, but we never saw what happened in the senate coming and what happened to the governships coming. and there is no reflection. people will tweet, oh, we're doing two things at once. no, as mika said, who are the leaders of the democratic party that are actually saying we have let democrats and america and the world down? >> it takes money and ideas and it takes personality. it takes an understanding of the media. it takes an understanding of what donald trump's potential is. but what it really takes is a ferocious desire to be someone who puts the party on your back and tries to fix it. and change it. and modernize it. you take someone like elizabeth warren or bernie sanders or some of the democratic governors.

they're all interested in that project, but they're busy. they've all got other jobs. none of them see as bill clinton did in 1990 and people, other people associated with the dlc then, none of them see this as their primary responsibility to convince the donors, to convince the members of congress, one message, one effort, one modernization. i just don't see that person or that group right now. >> all right, we want to get to yesterday's assassination of russia's ambassador to turkey and what the presidents of turkey and russia are both calling a provocative terrorist attack. we should warn you. the video and images you're about to see are graphic. and some viewers may find them disturbing. ambassador andrei karlov was giving a speech at an art exhibit when 22-year-old mevlet mert altintas shot him in the back. he then yelled in arabic, quote,

god is great. those who pledge allegiance to mohammed for jihad, god is great. then he switched to turkish claiming don't forget aleppo, don't forget syria. step back, step back. only death can take me from here. three other people were injured in the attack. altintas, who was an officer in the aara special forces and who worked with riot police for two and a half years, was later killed in a shootout with turkish special forces. russian president vladimir putin called ambassador karlov a very intelligent, gentle person, and his cowardly assassination was meant to disrupt the, quote, normalization of russian/turkish relations. turkey's president erdogan and president putin have agreed to cooperate in the investigation. the white house condemned the, quote, heinous attack, in a statement, president-elect trump labeled the shooting and assassination by a radical islamic terrorist adding the murder of an ambassador is a violation of all rules of civ

civilized order and must be universally condemned. meanwhile, just hours later, an ankara man opened fire near an entrance to the u.s. embassy in turkey. state run media reports the gunman took a shotgun out of his coat and fired around eight shots into the air. no one was injured. turkish authorities took the man into custody and an investigation is ongoing there. the embassy says it is, quote, closed for normal operations today. for all this, let's bring in nbc news chief foreign kraurnt richard engel. what are you hearing this morning? >> reporter: as you mentioned, turkey and russia are trying to cooperate on this, and a team of investigators from moscow has arrived here in turkey. and what they're trying to figure ow is did this militant have any help? was he working with other people. we already know that he was motivated because he wanted to

punish russia because of its involvement in operations against aleppo and syria in general. but was he working alone? how did he get into the embassy? into the art calgy? we have been told by security officials that he flashed his badge, was able to get in with his gun to the location itself. and that nobody thought it was strange. that he was just another member of the security detail until he pulled out his weapon and opened fire. officials in this country say they're going to name the street where he was shot in honor of the ambassador. his body is expected to be flown back to moscow today. a memorial service held at the airport here in istanbul. and about the other incident at the u.s. embassy, that motivations of that older gentleman with a shotgun who fired in the air are still unclear at this stage. the consulate here in istanbul and the embassy are closed for the moment. >> richard engel, thank you very

much. >> now to the breaking new s ou of berlin where 12 people are dead and 48 injured after a truck plowed into a crowded christmas market. the truck was, quote, intentionally driven into the crowd, and they're investigating it as a possible, probable terrorist attack. while german chancellor angela merkel said we must assume at the current people thtime that terror attack, a suspect was arrested near the scene. a polish citizen was found dead in the truck, but police said he was not the driver. the truck had polish plates and it appears to have been stolen. >> and yesterday in switzerland, a man stormed into a mosque in zurich and opened fire on worshiper, wounding three people before fleeing. reuters is reporting the gunman is dead and local police have identified the suspect. authorities declined to comment on potential motive and also said it is still too early to determine whether there might be any link to an incident in berlin.

still ahead on "morning joe," donald trump appoint another billionaire to his administration. >> plus, the president-elect is apparently made up with the mexican billionaire whom he took on as the election was coming to a close. we'll have more on trump's dinner and diplomacy with one of the world's richest men. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. ♪

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president-elect donald trump announced his pick for secretary of the army yesterday. he is billionaire philanthropist vincet viola. a west point grad and owner of the nhl's panthers. he was the first member of his family to attend college and made his fortune by founding an electronic trading firm. he's also reaching out to another billionaire.

"the washington post" reporting that trump entertained mexican finan financeear carlos slim at his florida eskate over the weekend. the meeting was reportedly arranged by trump's former campaign manager, corey lewin now dowsky during a visit to mexico city. the interaction with slim was a lovely dinner with a wonderful man. kind of a contrast from how he talked about the mexical billionaire who owns part of "the new york times" on the campaign trail last month. >> the largest shearholder in the times is carlos slim. carlos slim, as you know, comes from mexico. he's given many millions of dollars to the clintons and their initiative. so carlos slim, largest donor of the paper, from mexico. reporters at "the new york times," they're not journalists. they're corporate lobbyists for carlos slim and hillary clinton. >> trump met with slim just hours after his alabama thank

you rally, where he again promised to build the mexican border wall. joe, the wall. and also corey lewandowski back in the picture, or no? >> bill clinton, again, remember, i said it before on this show. bill clinton is the person who told me that to be president, you have to have a very short memory. right, and i think one of the things that's frustrating bill clinton is he's found somebody who can out-bill clinton bill clinton, and he's done that. you know, mark halperin. >> a good point. >> when bill clinton said he called me the day after, and it's like nothing had ever happened, that's what bill clinton preaches that you do, and we do have, for those who actually want to look at the president-elect and instead of just writing pieces about how he's a nazi, try to figure out how he's going to govern, you can look at the example of carlos slim, barack obama, mitt

romney, bob gates. you can look at that to see that this guy will say really, really tough, vicious things, out of bounds. polite society considers way out of bounds, but he always seems to be in the friend making business. and this is one extreme example of it. but i suspect over the next several months and possibly years, we're going to be able to name hundreds of examples of it. >> i was struck by the same thing. bill clinton who during impeachment would watch the hearings during the day and strike deals with the same republicans trying to impeach him in the evening. donald trump, i just quoted all the time because it's, i think, a window into this part of his personality. it's not personal. it's business. and he wants to do business with carlos slim now, so he doesn't really think about what he said previously, and he hopes people like carlos slim can get over it as well because he wants to make deals wherever it's going to

suit his professional interests. >> harold, any thoughts on carlos slim and his newfound friendship with donald trump? >> i agree with everything that's been shared. i do think that, as we think about policy, it will be curious to see if people like carlos slim and others help the president to shape trade policy and even shape a broader relationship with mexico. i'm pleased to see that. i do think there's something to be said, when you say things on the campaign trail, and there's nothing wrong with coming back to try to fix it, you can't get away from some of the things that are said and the impact it might have on other voters and politicians. i hope he's able to bring his supporters around if indeed his position and stances toward mexico and broader trade policy evolve as well. >> the interesting thing about the carlos slim dinner saturday evening is that this is proof once again, once again, once again, and people on both sides of this idealogical argument,

whether you despise him or are encouraged by his election, we have a 70-year-old fully formed adult who is president-elect of the united states, and he is a transactional figure. an idealogical figure. a transactional figure. can we get this deal done? i know i said this about you yesterday, but look what we got on the table today. >> exactly. >> still ahead, more on the assassination of the russian ambassador to turkey. we'll talk to former u.s. ambassador to russia, michael mcfaul. and former defense official dr. evelyn farkas. "morning joe" is back in just a moment. they are the natural borns enemy of the way things are.

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the united nations security council has unanimously approved a plan to send monitors to oversee evacuations from eastern aleppo. the syrian observatory for human rights says about 15,000 people have left eastern aleppo since thursday. nbc news chief global kraurnt bill neely is in aleppo with more. >> reporter: good morning, mika. from the ruins of eastern aleppo, take a lack at the devastation here. this area was in rebel hands

until about a week ago. now in the hands of president assad's forces. and it's from the carnage that took place here that convoys of people have been continuing through the night and today. thousands of people being evacuated from areas like this, formerly held by the rebels. the temperature here has been below freezing, so those people are not just cold and hungry. they are trompatized and exhausted after six months of siege and four years of war. remember, president assad's forces tactic here was surrender or starve. many of those people are really hungry indeed. today in moscow, russia, turkey, and iran are discussing a new peace plan. the u.s. not involved. it's very much on the sidelines. but really, the prospects for peace are very poor indeed. for the last 24 hours, president assad's forces and the russians have been bombarding areas

around damascus, and indeed, president assad's next target is likely to be idlib province, the very province where many of the people who have been evacuated from this area have gone to. so they are safe for now, but that may change in the months ahead. and one final thought, mika. the u.n. security council has just passed a resolution to send monitors to oversee the evacuation here. the evacuation that has almost ended. now, that is an illustration, really, of how slow and ineffective and powerless the u.n. security council has been in this crisis. principally, of course, because it is divided between russia and the west. this is a crisis that is very, very far from over. you can see from the scenes behind me that this part of aleppo has fallen. aleppo has fallen, but the crisis, mika, is very far from

over. back to you. >> slow to say the least. bill, thank you. ginning us now, the news and fnls anchor at yahoo! bianna golodryga. professor at stanford university, director of international studies and former ambassador to russia, michael mcfaul, and former executive director at the wmd commission, now a senior fellow at the atlantic council, dr. evelyn farkas. where to begin? >> i tell you where i want to begin. mr. ambassador, when you hear about peace talks being held in the middle east involving russia, turkey, and iran, that's something that would have been unthinkable eight to ten years ago. we have really become almost irrelevant to the most important crisis on the world stage. what impact, long-term impact, does that have on the united

states? >> well, first, i would agree with your analysis. it's a very strange combination to be talking about peace in syria, and that we are not there is not a good thing, in my view. and we're fighting in syria. let's remind everybody. let's remind your viewers, it's called operation inherent resolve. you can go and google it and find out what we're doing every day. we're fighting isis every single day. on the outskirts of raqqah now, as well as in iraq. so for a peace conference to happen without us there is wrong. and ultimately, i don't think those three countries can make peace in syria. you need to have other players there, including ultimately members of the syrian opposition. >> but evelyn farkas, obviously, our strategy, the president's strategy, very pronounced from the beginning, leading from behind, not stepping forwards aggressively as not only george w. bush, but every successor going back to fdr starting in

1941. what impact does it have on the united states, being a bit player in syria and basically ceding that leadership role to russia? >> again, i want to agree with mike. the russians and the syrians and the iranians and the turks cannot solve this without us. we have forces on the ground there in syria and in the region. and they need us at the peace negotiating table as well as the moderates. so i don't think there's any way that we can stay out of this. it just means that the suffering is going to be prolonged until we can get in, in a decisive fashion. >> but evelyn, haven't things changed, though, especially in the past eight years? russia going into that region, the president letting assad cross a red line. time and time again, making decisions that keep us out of the middle of this crisis?

>> well, yes, but i mean, joe, the president can jump in at any moment in time. it's really up to him. i would like to see our president jump in in some decisive fashion, personally, frankly. it's fine to have secretary kerry doing the diplomacy, but if we really mean it, get the presidents of these countries engaged. the other issue is that the russians are now saying secretary lavrov, foreign minister lavrov, his response to the assassination, the horrible assassination of their ambassador in turkey, was to say that they're going to continue to wage this campaign in syria, in an uncompromising and relentless fashion. that's a quote. i really worry about that because as your correspondent mentioned, these people are bussed to idlib. there's still an ongoing struggle going on in duma, which from the very beginning was in opposition to assad. i'm worried about how this is going to unfold on the ground and how many lives might be lost before we get to the negotiating table. >> ambassador, i have two

questions for you. first, when russia and putin first became involved in syria, the american response seemed to be, you know, good luck. see what happens when you get caught up in this quagmire there. that hasn't been the outcome thus far. putin has come out victorious. if america had responded differently, what would the situation be today? and looking forward, what is putin's ultimate goal in the region? >> well, by the time president putin sent his air force in there, i think it was too late. there were other opportunities before. i think joe was just alluding to, had we been more forceful, and had we created facts on the ground to create a stalemate in syria, that's when you get a real negotiation for peace. you don't get a negotiation for peace when one side feels that they're winning. we had a fundamental difference. when i was in the government, with mr. putin, about how to bring peace there.

his solution was to double down, triple down, to support mr. assad. ours was to have a negotiation. but we argued for negotiation without supporting the distribution of power in the war in a way that would lead to a stalemate. having said all that, this is not president obama's problem anymore. this is president-elect trump's problem. nothing is going to change in the next two to three weeks to affect the outcome on the ground. and he is going to inherit this problem, and he's going to have to develop a new policy to try to deal with it. it's still rather unclear to me what he plans to do in syria. >> mike barnicle. >> dr. farcus, sooiber attacks, a form of electronic warfare employed against us recently. affected at some level, no one knows how much, the election we just went through. but it also, i would think, exposed our vulnerabilities of all of our systems, electric

systems, financial systems. two questions. how vulnerable do you think we are? the second question is, what do we do to react or go at russia for what they tried to do and did do to us? >> right. so first of all, mike, it's an excellent question. and we are very vulnerable. i don't -- i know that the department of homeland security, i know that the department of defense, that the entire u.s. government has been seized with the issue of having to strengthen our cyber defenses, not only in the government b outside of government in these critical areas that are frankly speaking in the private sector. but i don't believe that we have actually done our work very well in these recent hacks into the dnc and the clinton campaign are just a demonstration of that. so we're very vulnerable. what can we do to retaliate? i think the answer may not lie necessarily in the cyber realm. i would have been happy to see more sanctions against russia and the russians who were behind

these attacks. i think so there's more we can do economically, and we have to think creatively. we have a lot of leverage against russia that we're not using. we could even threaten them. we could threaten to withdraw their access to the swift banking system. if they don't do x or y. so i think we definitely have to respond, because otherwise, not only russia but all the other countries who don't like the united states, who are watching, will feel emboldened. they'll feel like they can attack us again. >> bianna, you have a new series on yahoo! american goodness. and the look at how connecticut is helping syrian refugee families. >> yeah, we forget that america, dispite all our differences and struggles, is still the most benevolent and charitable country in the world. we talk about the syrian refugees in the u.s. we accepted 10,000, not as much as canada and europe has accepted, but there's some trepidation about who the people are. some states have not wanted the

refugees in their homes. we found a family and a community in connecticut that accepted a family, he was a baker in damascus. he found a job as a baker in hartfield, connecticut. >> wow. >> in hartford, connecticut, and he has three young children. we talked to him. he's so grateful to be here. his 9-year-old son is playing soccer, learning english. they have been here since april. and we talked to the head of the organization that brought them here, and a typical organization has professionals that relocate the people here and find them jobs. in this community, it's everyday volunteers, people like you and me, who take the time and the initiative to help them out. >> see the traditional way of resettling refugees is they're welcomed and resettled by professional but nonprofit refugee resettlement agencies. the staff of the agencies do all the work. but here in connecticut, we've got close to 50 community groups

who have stepped forward and said train us how to resettle refugees and we'll welcome them into our neighborhoods. we want syrian, muslim refugee family living in our neighborhood. >> bianna, that looks amazing. you have to look at that. ambassador mcfaul, before we go, if there was one thing our sitting president could do right now, especially for the refugees fleeing, what would it be, if anything? >> i don't have a great answer for you for that. i think to secure as many refugees. a very powerful story, to let those people in, as many as possible, is important. but in the longer run, this is -- we had our moments. it's been years now. i think syria will go down as an issue that was one of the biggest blemishes on the obama

foreign policy team, including me. and now we need fresh ideas to help resolve this horrible, horrible civil war. >> michael mcfaul, evelyn farkas, thank you both. bianna, great job on that series. stay with us if you can. >> up next, apple ceo tim cook tells his staff why he attended the president-elect's technology summit at trump tower last week. his answer is next. when you have a cold, pain from a headache can make this... feel like this. all-in-one cold symptom relief from tylenol®,

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all right. cnbc's brian sullivan joins the table. we were going to talk about tim cook. i didn't know he needed to explain going to visit with the president-elect, but apparently, he did. first, i want to hear about christine lagarde. what happened? >> what a weird story. christine lagarde is head of the international monetary fund, one of the most powerful finance people in the world. she was convicted of negligence in a french court yesterday. really wonky. >> i didn't know something

happened. >> she was, when she was in power in the government of france, effectively sort of their treasury secretary, she approved a payment to a guy that had to be bought out by the government, sort of did it on her own. it was ten years ago. it's a real wonky story. the point is the court found her guilty of negligence, the head of the imf. >> any personal gain? is anybody alleging she made personal gain out of this? >> no, she literally transferred government money to a rich guy for a payment when they bought him out of his company. had nothing to do with her. except that they claim she sort of did it without the full authority of tand the taxpayers were ticked off. >> this sounds like a political, a political witch hunt. this is amazing. tell us about this tim cook story. i mean, we've got, i'm sure, apple leaders have been going to talk to the butchers of beijing for year now. why is this such a shock that he actually would talk to a president-elect?

>> well, in my twisted mind, sort of, i get the idea that some of the tech executives wept back after the meeting, went back to their corporation, and people were like, how could you? how could you meet with that man? tim cook said, listen, he found it's better to be on inside than the outside. he wants to engage. why wouldn't you want to engage? i think the question to anybody would be why wouldn't you ceo meet with donald trump? >> were they upset? were his employees upset? >> somebody felt to need to post something to explain why he went to the meeting that you're seeing now. >> they had bad blood, too, tim cook and the president-elect over cooperating, apple cooperating, trump wanted apple to cooperate with the fbi over encryption. they did not. so it seemed like he wanted -- >> open the iphone. didn't donald say i would make apple open that iphone. >> san bernardino. >> they're going to have a lot. mika, they're going to have so

much to deal with with the government coming up, so many challenges whether you're talking about encryption, whether you're talking ubd trade. and i was using hyperbole when i was talking about china, but we did deal with china right after tiananmen square, and business leaders have been begging to get in there for years. are they really shocked and stunned at apple that tim cook would talk to a president-elect that's going to have a great say on the rules they play by over the next four years? >> yes, they are. >> apparently so. >> apple also has some $200 billion sitting overseas that trump wants them to bring here. there's another issue. >> just a meeting. >> 90% of winning is showing up, mika. >> i wonder, mika, if apple has ever met with leaders in russia or other countries where tyrants reign? i suspect they probably have. >> brian sullivan, thank you very much.

>> oh, my goodness. did he just say that to me? >> what do we have next? >> bill clinton and donald trump agree, they spoke on the phone the day after the election, but they seem to disagree -- >> bill clinton, yeah, but bill clinton was shocked that donald trump called him, right? >> he called him. no, he called me. we'll have that next on "morning joe." every day starts better with a healthy smile. start yours with philips sonicare, the no.1 choice of dentists. compared to oral-b 7000, philips sonicare flexcare platinum removes significantly more plaque. this is the sound of sonic technology cleaning deep between teeth. hear the difference? get healthier gums in just 2 weeks vs a manual toothbrush and experience an amazing feel of clean.

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early this morning, we told you about bill clinton's

comments after the election that were published in a small suburban new york newspaper. according to a copy obtained by politico, the paper says the former president received a phone call from trump the day after the election. and that trump was strangely cordial. quote, like it was 15 years ago. and when he was asked if trump is smart, clinton said, trump doesn't know much, but one thing he does know is how to get angry white men to vote for him. donald trump tweeted moments ago, bill clinton stated i called him after the election. wron he called me with a very nice congratulations, adding, it is clinton who doesn't know much. especially how to get people, even with an unlimited budget, out to vote in the final swing states and more. they focused on the wrong states. joe. >> wow. mark halperin, maybe this is what bill clinton meant when he talked about living in a post-fact world, where facts don't matter. he actually got the facts wrong.

apparently, he called trump. >> i predict the new york post will be covering this who called whom question for the foreseeable future. >> like dating or something. i don't know. okay, that does it for us this morning, doesn't it? it does, right? we're done, right? thank you for your patience. exactly. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. >> thank you for your patience. >> thanks so much. i'm stephanie ruhle. we have breaking news across the world. terror attack, a truck rams into a christmas market in berlin. >> missed me by three meters. i saw one guy being dragged away with blood on his face. >> 12 people are dead, 50 injures local media now reporting they may have captured the wrong man. also breaking, shots fired at the u.s. embassy in turkey, the gunman arrested. one day after this stunning scene. >> the ambassador assassinated