ari@msnbc.com and a shout-out to all of our msnbc folks in the control room who put on all of our show. hey, everybody! merry christmas and happy new year to them. maybe taking some long-deserved rest and a merry christmas and a happy new year to everybody at home watching. "hardball" starts right now. >> the reality tv white house. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm joy reid in new york, in tonight for chris matthews. in the 1980s, it was getting his name in the paper any way he could. then it was reality tv. these days, donald trump's go-to medium and his communication tool of choice is twitter. he used it to announce appointments, suggest policy, and mainly, to start beef with politicians, late-night comedy shows, former beauty pageant winners, and the casts of

late-night show s. within one of his staunchest supporters, an unprecedented call to expand the nuclear arsenal. at 11:41 a.m., trump tweeted, someone incorrectly stated the phrase "drain the swamp" was no longer being used by me. actually, we will always be trying to drain the swamp. nine minutes later on a very different topic, trump said, the united states must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability, until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes. the call to expand the country's nuclear capabilities is something no president has suggested in decades. in fact, quite the opposite. presidents from eisenhower to raggan to obama have called for reducing the threat of nuclear war. meanwhile, there was news today about the coming trump administration's trump -- the coming trump administration. kellyanne conway will take on

the role as counselor and sean spicer was named press secretary. one person who has not been named to a post in the administration is former u.s. ambassador to the u.n., john bolton. but his absence apparently is not due to his controversial views, such as his advocacy for bombing iran. according to the "washington post," trump believes those aspiring to be in the most visible spots in his administration should not just be able to do the job, but also look the part. and for trump, bolton did not look the part. quote, several of trump's associates said they thought that john bolton's brush-like mustache was one of the factors that handicapped the bombastic former united nations ambassadors in the sweepstakes for secretary of state. donald was not going to like that mustache, said one associate, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak frankly. i can't speak of anyone really close to donald that has that beard that he likes. i'm joined by "the washington post's" karen tumulty, michael steele, and washington bureau chief for mother jones, david corn, and our msnbc political

analyst. karen, i have to go to you first on this, because this is your story. this is kind of remarkable. i think we've heard lots of reasons for presidents choosing members of their team, but looks has not been among them. let's talk a little bit about that. >> first of all, i'm so happy that you balanced this panel with a man with a mustache. >> it's important. we have to defend the stach. this is what we have to do. there you go. rock it, michael, rock it. >> well, we certainly knew all the way through the campaign how important appearance was to donald trump. don't forget near the end of the campaign, he said that people wouldn't vote for hillary clinton, because she didn't have a quote/unquote, presidential look. he talked about introducing his running mates, he said that he might pit mike pence's economic record was the reason he picked him on top of the fact that he looked good and had a good family. and certainly this focus on looks, his own team acknowledges is a factor in who he picks and

why he picks them. that he really does believe that the way a person presents themselves publicly is sort of part of the message that he is trying to send, as he builds this team. >> yeah, well, with john bolton actually had a response to this. he tweeted this afternoon, i appreciate the grooming advice from the totally unbiased mainstream media, but i will not be shaving my mustache. >> by the way, we were quoting people near trump. i think his mustache is perfectly fine. >> i don't know if the mustache has its own twitter account, but i'm sure someone is working on that currently as we speak. >> i'm doing this right now. let's go to our mustache panelist, michael steele mich l michael. michael, it was not the mainstream media's suggesting shaving of the mustache, it was more donald trump. what do you make of this? you as chairman of the rnc, one of the great things about what you were able to accomplish is that you are good on tv. you're somebody that can be interviewed and present yourself well. it's not irrelevant to doing a person's job in this modern and

very visual era. but does it mean that donald trump cast aside, let's say, can we then draw the conclusion that a chris christie or rudy giuliani, that maybe -- or a newt gingrich, maybe the reason they didn't make it into final dance after having been really staunch supporter that is donald trump, despite their loyalty, may have looked at them and said, not wrong visual image. >> i think that's a valid part of the packaging that donald trump is looking to present to the country as he rolls out his administration. it does matter just as much how you look as well as how you sound. and what you say. and i think that's consistent with what we've seen donald trump do. and the way you opened the segment, in the 1980s, he was about one thing. getting his brand up and running. and since that time, it has always been about building on and expanding that brand. and the reality television market was where that all came together for him. so when he sat around that conference table and you were on

the hot seat, it mattered how you look as much as what your product was or what you were saying or what you were doing. so, yeah, i think that plays a little bit into this job hunting process that he's unfolded. >> but david corn, does that mean that qualifications for the position are taking a backseat to aesthetics? >> yes. listen. i am happy that a mustache saved america from john bolton. that's a good development, even though it comes about from the wrong reasons. but i do think it shows -- that he's a superficial guy. you know, he rates women on numbers, he said carly fiorina looked bad. he made fun of rand paul's -- not his ideas, which would be fair to do, but of his looks. this is a guy who is, you know, a sexist, misogynist, a lookist, whatever you want to call it. and so, yeah, rick perry may look like he should be in government somewhere because he comes from central casting, but the last two secretaries of

energy have been nuclear scientists, scientists who understand the hard issues of handling nuclear weapons, which brings us back to the other tweet today, in which donald trump shows he knows nothing about bipartisan policy and nuclear arms control. so everything with him is superficial, it's about impressions, impressions, impressions. good for politics, maybe really bad for nuclear war. >> and it also sort of cast new light on ben carson for hud. i wonder if the stereotype may be driving that. i hope that's not the case. karen, let's go back to you for a second. according to your story, people close to trump have been eager to quote telegenic woman as press secretary or some other public-facing role in the white house, because he thinks it would attract viewers and would help inoculate him from the charges of sexism that trailed his campaign. some of the names are pundits familiar to fox news viewers. but we do know now that sean

spicer will be the press secretary. so he didn't go for a pretty blond woman. but what do you make of this idea that he is trying to cast his administration with attractive women? >> in fact, what we were told is that central casting is actually a phrase he uses quite a bit behind the scenes. it was, for the exact to reasons that i mentioned, it was important. his first preference for the job, i have from multiple sources, was kellyanne conway. she was not interested in doing the job. she wanted another post, which she got. again, it is a way of sort of in donald trump's mind, putting yourself forward. and when it comes to the kre credentials of people, he's putting a lot of nontraditional choices in jobs. you know, nikki haley is not somebody you would have normally thought of the governor of south carolina for u.n. representative. rex tillerson is the first

secretary of state in modern history to come to the job with absolutely no government experience. by the way, as does the president-elect. this is a strategy. these are people who, you know, he's determined to shake things up. and he really thinks that going by the old standards of what constitutes a resume, what constitutes qualifications, is not the way to do that. >> yeah, absolutely. one of the people who was passed over got into a little bit of a controversy with donald trump, apparently this morning via twitter. donald trump promised throughout his campaign to, quote, drain the swamp in washington, but in the last 24 hours, a couple of his supporters have downplayed that language. here's trump's former campaign manager, corey lewandowski, this morning. >> where does "drain the swamp" stack up on things to adhere to on the trump camp? >> look, i think if you had to put them in a chronological order, drain the swamp is probably somewhere down at the bottom as opposed to getting tax reform done, making sure middle class people have more jobs. so draining the swamp is a

larger narrative, but what it's really about is putting people back to work. >> and yesterday newt gingrich had a similar message to npr. let's listen. >> you say you've been working on these issues, others might say you've been working in the swamp to use donald trump's language? >> although i'm told he now disclaims that. it was cute, but he doesn't want to use it anymore. >> somebody sent me that note last year, because i had written what was a very cute tweet about the alligators are complaining and someone wrote back and said they were tired of hearing that stuff. >> as i said earlier, that message got a rebuke from donald trump on twitter this morning, saying drain the swamp is here to stay, and a chastised newt gingrich took to facebook to walk it back. let's take a look. >> i want to report that i made a big boo-boo. i talked this morning with president-elect donald trump and he reminded me, he likes drain the swamp. i mischaracterized it the other day. he intends to drain the swamp. so i want to let all of you know, i goofed. draining the swamp is in. the alligators should be

worried. >> david corn, what does it say that a very cowed newt gingrich had to walk that back? >> kind of like a hostage taking. let's go back to what corey lewandowski was saying. yesterday he announced that he was becoming an alligator. he is opening a lobbying shop one block away from the white house. when he was running the trump campaign, he was going on and on of how he had to drain the swamp of consultants and influence peddler and lobbyists. so i'm waiting to see donald trump or newt gingrich or anybody else to start rebuking corey lewandowski. i don't expect fox news to do it, but others might. and we see people from goldman sachs and all the other folk who is seem to be part of the swamp before the election now getting high-powered jobs. i really think that trump whose hotel here in d.c. is in the middle of the swamp and makes money off the swamp doesn't really care much about this. >> we needed more time to continue talking about mustaches and swamps. we are out of time. karen tumulty michael steel,

keep that stache forever. coming up, donald trump's dream of being the celebrity president is turning into a nightmare. being a president shunned by celebrities. we will talk the star-free inauguration and rumors of a star-studded alternative event on the same day. and later, "time" magazine's top stories of the year and our panel's top stories, too. this is "hardball," the place for politics. my business was built with passion... but i keep it growing by making every dollar count. that's why i have the spark cash card from capital one. with it, i earn unlimited 2% cash back on all of my purchasing. and that unlimited 2% cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business... which adds fuel to my bottom line. what's in your wallet? ♪

♪ see ya next year. this season, start a new tradition. experience the power of infiniti now, with leases starting at $319 a month. infiniti. empower the drive. in a house intelligence report released today, congress called edward snowden a liar, accusing him of being a serial exaggerator and fabricator, arguing that he isn't the whistle blower he claims to be, and adding that he continues to be in contact with russian intelligence. snowden pushed back against the report. here to explain, nbc news's justice correspondent, pete williams. all right, pete, explain what that report said today. >> well, we've seen a preview of

it in september when we got an unclassified summary of it said. now we've gotten the unclassified report, although it's got heavy redactions to remove classified material. this is a list of 13 things the defense department identified in the material that he took from the nsa that could jeopardize troops overseas, but we don't know what they are, because it's redacted. the report does say, as you note, that it believes that snowden is still in contact with the russians. it says, since snowden's arrival in moscow, he has had and continues to have contact with the russian intelligence services. now, snowden today says that's not true. his lawyer says it's not true. but there's some interesting new things in the report, joy. it says, for example, when he was working in the government, he repeatedly failed a test about how one of the programs worked for doing surveillance on e-mails. a program that snowden would later leak material about and seriously criticize. the report says the part he

failed was the part about privacy protections for americans. so, the theme of the report is that he took a lot more than what he said he was all about. that he said he was a whistle-blower, that he wanted to alert americans to civil liberty violations, but the report says the 1.5 million documents that he took, that if printed out would be three miles high, dealt with a lot more than that, and only less than 1% that had been published talk about the kind of civil liberties protections he was worried about. so they say he's been misleading, casts himself as a whistle-blower, but they say that's not true. both he and his lawyer pushed back against it today. >> all right. very interesting. pete williams, thank you very much. appreciate it. >> you bet. . and "hardball" returns after this. , at the supermarket buying cheese. scandal alert! flo likes dairy?! woman: busted! [ laughter ] right afterwards we caught her riding shotgun with a mystery man. oh, yeah! [ indistinct shouting ] is this your chauffeur? what?! no, i was just showing him how easy it is to save with snapshot from progressive. you just plug it in

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♪ money, money, money ♪ money >> welcome back to "hardball." that was how donald trump presented himself to the country when he was merely a reality tv star on "the apprentice." now, having been elected to this country's highest office, he's set to reintroduce himself as the 45th president of the united states. and as we saw with his trump tower escalator announcement and his over the top entrance at the republican national convention, it wouldn't be a trump production without high drama and showmanship. in planning his inauguration, trump has again teamed up with the executive producer of "the apprentice," mark burnett, but donald trump is so displeased with his team's inability to lock in a-list talent for his inauguration events next month that he's ordered a hail mary shake up of his recruiters to try to book performers. among those who have declined requests to perform, elton john, garth brooks, an opera singer, andrea bocelli. the wrap also reports they couldn't book celine dion.

tmz reports that the band, kiss, turned down a request, too. and "the washington post" reports that david foster has also declined. however, the "new york post" reported that the beach boys have been asked and have yet to make a decision. i'm joined by lynn winstead, as well as ted johnson, senior editor at "variety," sitting next to each other, i believe, in minneapolis. but, ted, let's start off with this. because it does look like this is shaping up to be an inauguration free of celebrities, which would be kind of unprecedented. barack obama had every celebrity imaginable and hillary clinton did at her convention. >> i keep on thinking back to 2009, when president obama had a concert at the lincoln memorial and it was a-list talent after a-list talent. bruce springsteen was there, beyonce was there, u-2 was there, pete seger was there. it's just not going to happen for donald trump, because where we are right now is hollywood leans left, there was a lot of

people who showed up for hillary clinton, and they still have a lot of hurt feelings. they're not going to all of a sudden say, well, in the name of unity, i'm going to show up in washington. that seems to be the mentality right now. i mean, they're more worried about what's going to happen under a donald trump presidency than, oh, well, maybe we should show up and support his white house. i think that hollywood will probably turn out to be kind of a voice of opposition large part. >> and that's ironic given the fact that donald trump was a celebrity, right, until not too long ago. lynn winstead, for these artists, when you talk to people in the media world and celeb world, are they more concerned about the underlying issues, you know, the potential for a muslim band, the wall, the or more concerned about a backlash on themselves, meaning boycotts to them if they show up to this event? >> i think when you look at the -- first of all, when you

look at "celebrity apprentice," those were crumby celebrities. so, like, the basis of his celebrity outreach is terrible. but i think to your point, when you think of the a-list celebrities that are out there now, women, black and brown people, immigrants, like, for somebody who ran a campaign and won an election saying i'm going to strip rights away from you, i think they're human beings who said, you want to know what? i don't think i'm going to celebrity you when you want to literally destroy the lives of me and my family. >> and ted, you know what i find really sort of fascinating about this, and it does say a lot about donald trump's psychy, right? every biography of him describes him as the queen's rich guy who wanted the manhattan wealthy folks to respect him and sort of craves the adulation of the press and of hollywood. but the reporting that we're hearing is that he's blaming his team for not being able to pull these celebrities in. and looking to shake up the team. why is it that donald trump does not reflect back and say, maybe the reason these celebrities

don't want to be involved in his inauguration something about his campaign and his own brand? >> well, yeah, there's a ni naivetivety. there weren't a whole lot of celebrity who is showed up when george bush was inaugurated. you saw a lot of country music stars, the people you would expect to show up for a republican president or an incoming republican president. one of the few that kind of diverged was ricky martin and ricky martin got a lot of flack for it. and i often look back to that and think, well, that was actually slightly less controversial than donald trump's candidates, where you have, you know, genuine concerns about what it's going to mean for a number of these groups, muslims, what he said during the

campaign. and there hasn't been any kind of, kind of a unifying speech that has come from donald trump since then, since his victory. maybe that will come in the inaugural address, but i think that a lot of these celebrities want to see something like that, if they're even going to consider showing up to the swearing in or the inaugural festivities. >> and remember, elton john performed at rush limbaugh's wedding, and it was the same thing, horrible backlash. it was like, why would you help celebrity somebody who literally, completely criticizes everything that you're about and your way of life. >> yeah. let's talk about some of the people that they have been able to secure in trump world. so far, the team has announced 16-year-old jackie evancho, who's career was launched on "america's got talent." the mormon tabernacle choir, which is interesting, because mormons seemed so resistant to him. and the radio city rockettes

will participate in the inaugural festivities. that's a huge contrast, since barack obama had aretha franklin perform and beyonce at the second inaugural. for those on the right who sort of look at celebrities as unwanted intruders into the political process, for their side of the aisle, so what, right? if there are no celebrities at donald trump's inauguration, if his inauguration is basically a couple of people from "america's got talent," et cetera, does that have a broader meaning in some way? >> well, actually, you know, if i were donald trump's camp -- or donald trump's team wibld say, why don't we just go for a traditional inauguration? don't obsess so much about getting these a-list celebrities. having the marine band play a few more hymns or numbers, you know, out there at the swearing-in ceremony and just make it as traditional as possible and just kind of move on and don't be so obsessed over which big name actually show s p

and really get that message out there. >> and i have to ask you about this, lynn winstead. there is word there might be a counter concert. steve ross is in the process of put together a large-scale concert called we the people that would directly counter this inauguration. and according to ted ross, he's saying that celebrities are actually clamoring to get in. he says the talent is banging on our doors to do this, said a source familiar to the planning pplanning. i googled back in 1973, leonard bernstein did a peace concert to counter the nixon inauguration. it's not like it's unprecedented, but what do you make of this attempt to get all the starses trump couldn't get and have them in miami doing their own concert? >> i think it's great for a number of reasons. i think it shows solidarity and gives people who literally don't want to watch this person get sworn in something to watch. i think it's always nice to gather around and feel like, hey, we can move forward. and i think it's a reminder that

trump couldn't get people. i mean, not only could he not get a-listers, he can barely get b-listers. i don't think he can get craiglisters at this point. i think -- i'm thrilled that people are trying to do anything to counter this. >> it is surprising that he can't get people that are alum of the "celebrity apprentice." they would seem to be the obvious first people to call. but we will wait and see. lin winstead and ted johnson, thank you both very much. up next, north carolina's lawmakers voted down an attempt to repeal the law limiting bathroom access for transgender people. well, now there are some who want the naacp to call for an economic boycott against the state of north carolina. will it happen? we will ask a man pushing for that boycott. this is "hardball," the place for politics.

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i'm milissa rehberger. here's what's happening. new dash cam video shows the moment a truck rammed into a christmas market in berlin on monday. it also shows people running from the scene. meanwhile, german authorities say fingerprints belonging to the suspect were found inside the truck's cab. a manhunt is underway in europe. and two u.s. intelligence officials say the suspect was known to counterterrorism agencies, and he was also one or more terror watch lists.

shame on you! shame! shame! shame! >> that was the scene at the north carolina statehouse last night after lawmakers failed to repeal the state's controversial hb2 law that limits bathroom access to transgender people, among other things. despite frooefs agreements among members of both parties to revoke the law, which has cost the state potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in lost business and sporting events, the special session ended after nine hours, preserving the status quo. in reaction, reverend william barber announced today he will ask the national board of the organization to consider a national economic boycott of the state until hb2 is repealed. i'm joined now by dr. william bashber, president of the north carolina naacp.

>> so charlotte never should have repealed their good ordinance in order for the state to repeal a banned unconstitutional bill in the first place. but you just have this out-of-control extremism that has been operating in our state now for more than four years. and they do not have integrity when it comes to keeping their word and they do not care about fundamental rights. 13 times, joy, this legislature has voted on things that have been proven to be unconstitutional. >> so tell us, sir, what you plan to ask the naacp. walk us through what your request will be and how likely you think it is that they will do it? >> i feel very good about it. in fact, it's broader than the hb2. we are going to go into serious deliberations after christmas and put before the national board a formal request to engage in economic work for the state for different reasons. we believe until they repeal the policy coup d'etat, they changed

the laws and changed access to the supreme court after now two african-americans are placed on supreme court. that's a fundamental violation. number two, we want an economic boycott until they repeal the changes they made to the state board of elections that undermined the power of the people. we want to boycott until they pass nonrace-based redistricting plans that give the people a fair chance at elections and complies with the rulings of the federal court, which is due before march of next year. they haven't even begun to work on it. and then, we want a full repeal of all aspects of hb2. it never was just about bathrooms. we want them to repeal the anti-living wages, that doesn't allow cities and municipalities to repeal the wages, we want them to repeal that denies to even straight people, and we want them to repeal all of the lbgt party that denies equal

protection under the law. and undermines it for a host of people, not just the lbgt community. so we have this attempt to have a kind of -- one lady called it today a rising of kind of a new policy confederacy. and we have to stop it here in north carolina, otherwise, other state legislatures will feel like they have the freedom to do pinpoi . we're going to have a mass march, but we believe we need to ask for economic boycott. >> well, reverend dr. william barber, thank you so much for being here. we'll definitely be following your progress and talk to you again after christmas. merry christmas to you, sir. thank you. >> thank you. have a great day. up next, a look back at 2016, a year filled with political highs and lows. so which were the best moments and which were the worst? you're watching "hardball," the place for politics.

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keeping the power lines clear,my job to protect public safety, while also protecting the environment. the natural world is a beautiful thing, the work that we do helps us protect it. public education is definitely a big part of our job, to teach our customers about the best type of trees to plant around the power lines. we want to keep the power on for our customers. we want to keep our community safe. this is our community, this is where we live. we need to make sure that we have a beautiful place for our children to live. together, we're building a better california. they're bringing drugs.

they're bringing crime. they're rapists. >> the american people are sick and tired of hearing about your damned e-mails. >> thank you. me too! me too! >> you know? >> such a nasty woman. >> and and to all the little girls who are watching this never doubt that you are valuable and powerful. >> welcome back to "hardball." that was a highlight reel, if you will, of some of the more memorable moments of 2016 in the presidential campaign. this past year in politics was filled with plenty of memorable highs and lows, so which were the most notable and what can we expect from 2017? let's bring in our roundtable. joan walsh, msnbc political analyst, matt vella, and harold ford jr., who's also an msnbc political analyst. and you usually get up super early for "morning joe," so thank you for hanging around.

have you been working 18 hours today? >> when it's you calling, it's easy. >> that's very kind. i'll go to matt first. top stories of the year. what does -- what did "time" determine to be the top story of the year? >> we had a presidential election. >> did that happen? >> yes. i think the general, the rise of pop you lymph in the united states, but all over the world, really, sort of shook a lot of people up and will be a story that's definitely going to continue into 2017. >> yeah, absolutely. and joan, that is something that i think americans, we're very compartmentalized in our own country, but there really is a broader trend that's taking place of these nationalist movements, very anti-immigrant, they have these common threads. they're all sort of triggered by the flood, by the exodus of migrants and refugees out of syria and that part of the world and of muslim immigrants. what do we make of that in the united states, that we're just a part of that wave? >> i think we have to be clear, we're a part of that wave.

what we saw happen in the election for the first time outside of the south is you have a cohort of white people that really did vote as white people. who self-consciously chose donald trump because he promised to make things great again, make things white again, however you want to phrase that. and i think it's really important, as you say, to put it in the context of a global movement, a global white nationalist movement against muslims, that's also being aided and abetted by vladimir putin. putin has links to a lot of these far-right characters, and has sponsored meetings in spartanbust. petersburg for these same folks. so in terms of looking backwards and frarorwards. >> and russia roaring back to the sort of front row of world dominant, world leadership. it's got to also be considered a big story for 2016. >> huge, obviously, so much of this began with the vote in great britain, around brexit,

and we now have a few other votes that will take place next year in some important nations that can help determine the stability there and the kind of policy we'll have there. i also think, in addition to the election and the rise of populism, and we've seen a kind of tribal approach and focus on voting and elections, politics in the democratic party, in the republican party, have changed dramatically, and it's going to cause a rethinking and almost a reimagination and reinvention for democrats. if we were hitting here six to eight weeks ago, we would say, the republicans are going to think long and hard about next year. it's the democrats that are having to do that. there are a lot of stories and pivot off matt's primary point, politics, and the outcome of this election. >> and speaking of donald trump, here's donald trump back in july during the republican national convention, accepting his party's nomination. >> i have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people who

cannot defend themselves. nobody knows the system better than me. which is why i alone can fix it. >> matt, you know the rise of the american strong man form of politics, where it's all about, i am the state win alone can fix it, which is a bigger story? that rise of the strong man form of politics, or the sort of flipping of that on its head, now that donald trump is putting together an administration that mostly is comprised of the 0.1%. >> i think the conventions are really interesting thing to look back at this year, because that point, specifically, that line, "i alone can fix it," i think was misread by so many people. so many people after that said, it looks like the performance of

power, it looks like the performance of competence. it's not the same thing. but that message really cut through, as we saw during the election. and actually, both conventions, if you look back at the coverage, there was a lot of negative coverage of the republican convention for being kind of haphazard, compared to the democrats, more well-planned convention. but i think if 25 years of reality television has taught us anything, it's that the hot mess is always way more interesting to watch than the pageantry. and i think we've seen that in the rollout of his cabinet, we've seen that in the twitter statements about the nuclear arsenal. this sort of chaotic and unconventional approach to messaging is something that has captivated people in a way that the traditional -- >> haven't. >> and again, you know, in terms of how politics change this year, there used to be a truism that the party with the more forward-looking, optimistic message did better. and i remember thinking, and i think, saying to you, in cleveland, it was a hot mess and

it was a really dark, distopic mess, you know? it was not morning in america, anymore. it was midnight. or,, you know -- >> it was called the midnight in america speech. >> right. it was really designed to scare you. you had people who had lost their children to allegedly to violence by illegal immigrants. and it was really, really just kind of scary and creepy. again, i missed a lot last year, i've got to admit it. i felt that this was going to bode really poorly for them. but that message carried. >> let's talk about the other thing they personally think was the big one of the campaign. people thought it was the "access hollywood" tape, but it turned out it was james comey. do we have time to play james comey in july? let's play james comey talking about hillary clinton's e-mails. >> although we did not find clear evidence that secretary clinton or her colleagues spe sd to violate laws, there is

evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive classified information. >> that was certainly unprecedented. when we look back on the 2016 election, will the fbi director making himself a part of the campaign be looked at as the moment or one of the top moments that changed the outcome of the campaign? >> it would have to be viewed as one of the top moments. and i think that moment was bigger than a moment a few days before the election. because i thought it was unprecedented for an fbi director was not to do -- he did his job and made the recommendation, his job was not to come out and then explain that, because it was still up to the justice department to do whatever they chose to do. they didn't have to follow the recommendation, but there's no doubt that that was one of the pivotal moments. in addition, i think, unfortunately, for my team, two moments that rank with that, unfortunately, one that we didn't have an economic message that was clearly understood by a vast majority of the country, and it didn't resonate. we had a position on every position you can imagine. but we didn't have a coherent, cohesive message, until

secretary clinton met as much harm as it was perceived edper when she used the term to describe some of his supporters as being deplorables, when you look at the data, that move, more independent-leaning voters, that moment more than any moment in the last 30 to 40 days of the campaign. >> its changed twitter. about 4,000 twitter handles with deplorable were born. everybody staying right here. when we come back, our panel will tell us their favorite movie of the holiday season. this is "hardball," the place for politics. afoot and light-hearted i take to the open road. healthy, free, the world before me, the long brown path before me leading wherever i choose. the east and the west are mine. the north and the south are mine. all seems beautiful to me.

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use as directed tonight, rachel maddow sits down one on one can kellyanne conway to discuss the trump transition and her newly announced role in the trump white house. that's tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern on the rachel maddow show right here on msnbc. "hardball's" back right after this. david. what's going on? oh hey! ♪ that's it? yeah. ♪ everybody two seconds! ♪ "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..." through the tuition assistance program, every day mcdonald's helps more people go to college. it's part of our commitment to being america's best first job. ♪ ♪ ♪

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i took a shower washing every body part with actual soap, including all my major crevices, in between my toes and in my belly button, which i never did before but sort of enjoyed. i washed my hair with adult formula shampoo and used cream rinse for that just washed shine. i can't seem to find my toothbrush so i'll pick one up when i go out today. other than that, i'm in good shape. [ scream ]

>> we are back. that was a scene from where the ho -- "home alone." before we father our families together we really like to celebrate the hall days and consume massive amounts of eggnog and talk about our favorite christmas movies. i'm back with our panel. matt, you're the new be, what's your favorite christmas movie? >> it's "home alone." >> we're geniuses in putting together the opening sound bite. >> yes. what kid doesn't dream about being emancipated from his family for christmas. >> but only for like a day or two until you realize no one will cook your food or do your laundry. >> but then it's a story about him and his relationship with old man marley and the power of forgiveness. >> and he was so adorable back then. >> he was super adorable. >> joan, what's your favorite christmas movie? >> "elf." can't be "elf." he's a little big to be an elf. and just hooks up with his

father, who's, you know, kind of a grinch figure and melts his heart and brings us christmas spirit. we watch it every year at least once. >> absolutely. it is a very heart-warming movie. i will say the executive producers of my other gig have designated him as elf. so james is an elf. >> mine is a little unusual, "trading places." it's a christmas movie. you had the rich guys take on the little guys and the its guys won. it's a little complicated how they became little guys together, but it takes on stereotypes. if you provide people a little opportunity you can overcome things. i'm a big eddie murphy fan. >> absolutely. i actually got two entries in. one i think is important is all of the different versions of "a christmas carol." it's a classic tale of the haves and have nots and finding your humanity after cruelty and greed. i think we're also going back to the dickens era so we might as

well go ahead and start watching it. but my favorite christmas movie is "a charlie brown christmas." i think we might have a clip of my favorite scene of it. oh, i can -- there it is. do you hear that? do you hear them singing? ♪ >> what's going on here? >> merry christmas, charlie brown. that is my favorite scene in the movie. my kids and i sing that version of that song around our house. what is your favorite christmas tradition? what do you do that's special? >> we watch "elf." we do stockings the night before and i guess that's mainly it. >> how about you, matt? >> i actually like to put on the vince giraldi album of that movie. >> my kids are little so we're starting -- my daughter turned 3 today, happy birthday, sweetheart, she's watching and my son is 1 1/2. we go to church at 11:00.

i go to church at 11:00, my wife and i do. we get home, my wife and i listen to a little silent night by the temp takestations, which as a kid. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics. and at progressive, we let you compare

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all right. and we are back. joan, tell me something i don't

know. >> the dnc chair race is shaping up. elise hope decided not to run this week and unfortunately it really is being set up as a proxy battle between labor secretary tom perez and congressman keith ellison, which i think is unfortunate because i think they're great people. >> like a proxy for bernie versus -- >> president obama versus sanders. and keith ellison stepped out to try to take himself out of that box, i believe it was this morning, tweeting a story about how people have to stop passing on right wing memes about hillary clinton being corrupt or losing the election because she was corrupt. and he was completely attacked by a lot of people, a lot of former supporters on twitter. he got a lot of support but he also got a lot of negativity. >> he's his own person. he existed before bernie sanders. >> there are four or five great people in the race. it should be interesting. >> should be very interesting. >> matt. >> over 1,000 babies were born this year in refugee camps in

greece of syrians who fled the conflict there. the refugee crisis is an easy story to forget when there's not something like the fall of aleppo happening. but i certainly think it's going to be important next year and that's why "time" is following four families, four children throughout the year next year to see what happens. >> it's an important story in and of itself. it is also the thing that's feeding the rise of right wing nationalism in europe. it's a huge sfoery and very important. harold ford. >> i think one of the things that will strengthen the democratic party over the next year, picking the right chairman. that market will work itself out. but i think the re-emergence of something in the party that speaks to the middle of the country and middle class voters, not in antagonistic way to the dnc, but something that speaks directly to voters, and it could be run by somebody that might have run against nancy pelosi in the congress who tries to give voice to how we expand this party. >> tim ryan. >> tim ryan. >> but you cannot leave behind the real base, which is african-americans, people of

color. any message that spurns black and brown people -- >> but that message is -- i'm one of those people too. no doubt about it. >> absolutely. thank you very much, joan, matt and harold. that is "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. from all of us at "hardball" to all of you, our wonderful crew and everyone, merry christmas, happy holidays, happy hannukah, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. "all in with chris hayes" starts right now. tonight on "all in" -- >> donald j. trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of muslims entering the united states. >> the extraordinary measures president obama is taking to prevent any kind of muslim registry and to trump-proof the country. then the debacle in north carolina that left democrats in the dust. plus trump's pick for press secretary. >> twilight sparkle from my little pony said this is your dream. >> and a rare retraction from newt. >> i goofed. draining the swamp is in. the alligators should be worried. >> when "all in" starts right now.