before we toss it over to "morning joe" let's get a check on the stories you will be hearing about in the day ahead. the u.s. security council could vote on a resolution today demanding israel halt its settlement was set for yesterd the vote was delayed. president-elect trump said the u.s. should veto the measure. >> today is expected to be one of the busiest days of the holiday travel season so be safe out there. aaa expects about 6 million people to fly and 103 million to hit the road. >> that does it for us on this friday. "morning joe" starts right now. >> happy holidays. >> happy holidays? where is the christmas music? i thought it was already christmas, isn't it? >> i don't understand. >> the war on christmas is coming to "morning joe." >> can you believe this? >> did you guys know it was christmas? >> i didn't know it was christmas at all. who would know in rockefeller center that it was christmas. >> good morning. it's my brother's ian's

birthday. happy birthday, ian. even though you're a republican. >> republicans have birthdays too. >> we try and get through them. so with us on set, grinches. nick confessore. chair of the department of african-american studies at princeton university and columnist for "time" magazine, eddie glaude jr. >> come down the stairs smoking a cigarette, forgot the presents this year. >> in washington, columnist and associate editor for "the washington post" david ignatius and in nashville, tennessee, well from the bottom down you never know. i think he's got his pajamas on. we're hoping. pulitzer prize winner john meachem. merry christmas, everyone. >> where are you going for

christmas? >> washington to see my parents. only for a short time. my father doesn't allow me there for a long time. >> new jersey. mom is making seafood. >> headed out for the big family celebration. >> you guys are going to have to loosen up for this show. we're getting the fireplace out in ten minutes and big comfy chairs and presents. >> we're going to do news and then we're going to talk about the spirit of christmas. >> air grievances? >> we have a few for both of you and definitely for john meachem. this morning though we begin with breaking news. nbc news has confirmed that the suspect in the berlin christmas market truck attack has died in an overnight shootout in melan, italy. let's go right to hans nichols live from berlin. what can you tell us? >> reporter: italian authorities confirmed that he was killed at 3:00 a.m.

a young police officer in italy exchange exchanged fire with them. german authorities are waiting for dna evidence. we just spoke to the prosecutor's office here and have not confirmed that this is the person that they've been seeking. here's why we think he may have gone to italy. remember when he came to europe, he lands in sicily, which is just a short way away from north africa by poboat. he sets an apartment on fire and spends 3 1/2 years in italian prison. he knows italian society. he may have felt more comfortable here. one note of caution on all of this. it's undeniably good news he's been captured and killed but there's concern in germany and across the country this morning. this morning there were raids where police officials are trying to break up a plot and we spoke to a top german police official who said there are some 600 suspected terrorists across

germany. they simply do not have the manpower to monitor all of them. the equation they use. for 24-hour surveillance for one individual, they need 25 to 30 police officers. they simply don't have the resources. guys? >> nbc's hans nichols, thank you very much. we'll be following that story throughout the morning. we're learning this morning that president-elect trump spoke with egyptian president yesterday evening in which the egyptian leader agreed to hold off on his country's draft of a united nations resolution calling for an end of israeli settlement building in palestinian territory. he said he would not have the vote to allow the new trump administration time to deal with the issue in a comprehensive manner. yesterday trump sent a public message to the obama white house concerning the scheduled u.n. vote. diplomatic officials say the obama administration planned to abstain on the resolution

critical of israel. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu publicly called for the u.s. to use its veto power as a security council permanent member. israel was also said to be alarmed that secretary of state john kerry planned to deliver a speech on the israeli/palestinian situation earlier this month kerry called the israeli settlements a barrier to peace. israeli officials report lrepor reached out to help stop the resolution. as the united states has long maintained peace between the israelis and the palestinians will only come through direct negotiations between the parties. and not through the imposition of terms by the united nations. this puts israel in a very poor negotiating position and is extremely unfair to all israelis. now, this is just the latest foreign policy issue where trump asserted himself before the

white house notably breaking the long standing one china policy by speaking with taiwan's leadership. >> david ignatius, even asking if this is unprecedented seems to be far too obvious a question for someone as brilliant as yourself. come on, i mean, this has never happened before, has it, where you have a president-elect actually talking to the leader of another country saying undercut our position at the security council. >> i can't remember a period where a president-elect was so active in framing disruptive policies for the current incumbent administration. he's been issuing these tweet pronouncements on very, very important and sensitive issues. it's so much in contrast to the way barack obama has tried to conduct the transition, which is all sweetness and shaking hands and how can i help you?

the tweet storm continues from trump tower. there's a method in trump's madness. he thinks that by disrupting these long standing policies he'll open some space for negotiation. >> david, you know, the thing that is so fascinating about the approach right now that trump people have to the middle east, it is pure disruption. but they disrupt by picking a secretary of state that is seen as too close to the sunni/areab countries and select an ambassador to israel which is far too extreme for arabs and yet they're able to -- he's able to pick up the phone and call and have him back off. this is just, i think, i would love to know what you think. you know more about this than i do. this is just another example of how we all, especially foreign

policy leaders, need to buckle up for the next four years. >> it's going to be a bumpy ride. disruption is useful if it creates space to negotiate and then things are less disruptive. if it's just one disruption after another, if it overturns existing policies without a stable new structure, you have a situation that's going to be very difficult for the u.s. and hard to say that our interest in any way are served by that. i think that's the real transition we're waiting for in terms of trump's foreign policy. he's stirred up the pot. now does he have a strategic vision about how he wants to put things back together. haven't seen that yet. really on china, on nuclear weapons, on israeli -- any of these major issues where he's had such, you know, disruptive policy statements. >> john meachem, let me ask you as presidential historian if you can think of any precedence

where a president-elect was as actively involved in issues before he was sworn in on january the 20th. >> no. in fact the most notable cases they run the other way. 1932-'33 as mika remembers and as is often talked to me about, hoover wanted roosevelt to be part of those conversations about trying to respond to the depression. roosevelt didn't want anything to do with it. he wanted to be clean come march 4th. another very close example, which particularly resonates right now with the conversation about nuclear weapons and their expansion, when george h.w. bush became president after being vice president for eight years, gorbachev at a meeting in december during the transition with both men was surprised at how quiet bush was. and in fact, bush came in and hit a button, the pause button.

was criticized for it by a lot of people. he wanted six months to think about things. so it sort of the polar opposite of tweeting out new policies and as david said trying to create new negotiating opportunities. most of history is where presidents either don't want to be involved at all or they want time and space to create their own policies. >> you can see an extraordinary example of cooperation between an incoming president and sitting president by going back eight years ago when we were in the midst of a terrible economic crisis and you had -- you know, you had george w. bush and barack obama so linked on the wall street bailout and a lot of these other issues that it's really hard to remember who did exactly what in that process because they were united together and worked together. >> this seems really convoluted. here's kellyanne conway trying to explain how trump respects

obama but -- but, dot, dot, dot. >> president-elect trump has been incredibly respectful toward president obama and toward the fact that until january 20th we have a sitting president. at the same time he asked his opinion on many different matters. in most instances, this is not the first time, he's been asked or has provided his opinion. he's done that all through the campaign. it really should surprise very few people this is his position. he's not going act on it until he's actually in the white house. >> i'm not exactly sure. you listen to that and watch what's happening. >> convoluted. >> a little convoluted. this is something the president-elects haven't done in the past. >> we've seen this skirmish more on domestic policy. right now you see obama laying land mines and warnings about obamacare. you have seen this skirmishing. don't try to undo my policies. be careful about the future. on foreign policy there's always

been a broader consensus on bigger picture issues. trump is driving directly at that. at our alliances, our policy on israel. it's upsetting to people. >> we can see what type of president he's going to be. he has said when i go to the white house, i'm not going to be golfing a lot. i'm not going to be traveling a lot. i'm not going to do vacations. he basically said i'll work around the clock. he is starting to work and starting to run before the it's gone off. let's bring in nbc news foreign correspondent. you have some background. what can you tell us? >> just to add to that point talking about how unprecedented this is. think about this. you have an egyptian president who is tabling a u.n. security council resolution that is critical of israel while all reports suggest that the united states was going to abstain from that vote to allow that resolution to effectively pass. how unprecedented is it that you have an arab country coming to

the defense of israel on this particular issue? >> for a guy that ran with rhetoric that the arab world considered anti-muslim. you brought this up at the table a couple days ago. sunni/arab leaders in the gulf states are looking forward to this guy being president. >> they're looking for him to be president on two different issues. they expect him to be tougher on iran. that's welcome news when it comes to the iran nuclear deal for the arab gulf countries. perhaps there's some light there. they were disappointed with the position that president obama took on the nuclear deal. but i think you're looking at someone who is welcoming trump because he thinks he's going to be very tough in supporting egypt on the issue of domestic terrorism. something plaguing the egyptian government and would like to see a stronger engagement from the united states in doing that. obviously with the obama administration there's been a lot of reservations about egypt's human rights record under him but they may table

this resolution permanently and not delay it. according to the statement put out by the egyptian government, this call was received by the president from donald trump and they agree it was buried in that statement but agreed to give donald trump a chance at reaching a comprehensive peace. one quick point you were talking about with john meachem about how president-elects don't generally get involved. eight years ago there was the gaza/israel war as president obama was coming in. i remember having covering that war at the time, president obama was asked what should president bush do? he would defer. only one president at a time especially when it comes this this particular issue. >> and then there's this. president-elect trump tweeted out what would be major shift in u.s. security policy. "the united states must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes. his comments came on the same

day russian president vladimir putin said russia needs to strengthen strategic nuclear forces praising their triad launch capabilities. 95% of the nuclear arsenal is possessed by russia and agreed to reduce weapons which they have done to a dramatic extent since the 1980s. president obama recently introduced a long-term plan to modernize america's nuclear delivery systems which critics say will cost a trillion dollars but in july the president was exploring options to reduce the cost and limit nuclear weapon use. transition spokesman jason miller released a statement saying this. president-elect trump was referring to the threat of nuclear proliferation and the critical need to prevent it to and amongst terrorist organizations and unstable and rogue regimes. he's also emphasized the need to improve and modernize our

deterrent capability as a vital way to pursue peace through strength. >> i was jittery. you spoke with bob gates. what did he tell you? >> i had talked to gates at length about trump's foreign policy on wednesday for a column that appears this morning. i called him back yesterday after this tweet about nuclear weapons came out and asked him, is this dangerous? what do you think. he said he wishes he would use the word modernize strength of gre -- instead of strength and expand. he didn't think it was all that surprising or dangerous. i wish these words were defined better. the last thing the world needs is another nuclear arms race right now. i don't really think that's what

donald trump intends. the words are so imprecise. you can't make nuclear strategy in 140 characters. >> no. you actually can't do that. >> the extended twitter you can do it more easily. >> he should get extended twitter. >> i'm not laughing. >> i got to say it was in response to putin, which i'm sure if he hadn't done that, we would have seen this morning that vladimir putin is going to build a nuclear arsenal and build up unilaterally without us. maybe that's why he did it. i hate to keep going back to it. we've got a $20 trillion debt. we're spending $550 billion every single year on defense spending. you have a lot of people saying he needs to expand that budget. our deficit is 550, $600 billion. interest rates are going up. that means servicing the debt is going up and that means deficits

ares going up. we can't afford an arms race. >> that's certainly the case. i'm really confused. disruptive for what ends? disruptive on foreign policy level but what is objective? what's the trump doctrine? what's emerging. part has to do with there's a consensus in terms of these foreign policy positions. >> i hope there's an answer to that question. >> since the first george bush, there's been a kind of consensus around the settlements. are we going to start a trade war with china? there's these issues. david ignatius' wonderful column this morning in quoting gates he's between nixon and kissinger. this is not the soviet union and this is not miles china. i'm not sure what the end is here. >> there was a key word missing from jason miller's statement,

walking back statement. that was expand. expand was not in that statement. back to modernize and not expand which is a key distinction. >> david ignatius, there actually does appear to be talking to some of trump's foreign policy people who will be running foreign policy if they're all confirmed, there's a belief that the secretary of state's close ties to the arab world and trump's close ties to israel especially through his son-in-law jared kershner, they believe that they can bring about peace through disruption and not playing by the rules. that you don't just pick up the phone and call the president of egypt and say we need your help with israel here. they believe that can happen. again, you know much better than

any of us. there are 1,000 blind turns in that process. it does seem like they're coming at it at a completely different way instead of a u.s. president helicoptering in getting one israeli leader and one palestinian leader saying let's make a great big bargain, they're going about it by going sunny country by sunni country by sunni country and letting israel know they're with them. >> the trump team knows in secret that israeli/sunni/arab relationship today is unusually close. they share the fundamental strategic interest of opposing iranian expansion in the region. in secret, there's already a lot happening. i think people in the incoming trump administration imagine a time in which you might get saudis, egyptians, sponsoring

some kind of open meeting with israel. that's a dream i've heard arabs express talking about the future with the trump administration. ypt in pticular has such a close relationship with israel that when israelis said to egypt you have to pull this back, this resolution is not the moment for it, they did it. it wasn't just trying to create favor with the trump administration. that's the vision. is it realistic? i don't think progress is possible unless israel will step up on the palestinian issue and we don't see that. >> of course, you referenced this before, you have leaders in egypt and saudi arabia and uae and qatar and jordan that are actually more optimistic than they've been in quite some time that they're going to have a white house that will deal with them and with egypt overlook a

lot of human rights violations. saudi arabia the same thing. but who are ready to make a deal and say we will give you what you want if you recognize israel. that's coming at it from a completely dramatic -- we really do, as david said too, have the chance to reshape the middle east and have a lot of sunni arab countries actually becoming closer allies. >> that's certainly wishful thinking at this stage. there are a lot of very lasting problems that have not been addressed yet as david was mentioning. the core of which remains the israeli palestinian issue. it's hard on some of these issues for saudi arabia and for united arab emirates and qatar to meet halfway. some of the palestinian issues whether it be issues like the right of return or land or borders, some of those issues the palestinians will have a monopoly on negotiating about

but some issues it's not just up to the palestinians. for example, the issue of jerusalem, which is a city holy to muslims around the world. that's something saudi arabia, egypt, jordan, a lot of countries feel they need to have a say as they go forward. whether or not the united states can bring these countries to a table, a lot of that is going to depend on what kind of relationship donald trump develops personally with these world leaders but at the same time what he can do to bring israel to the table in terms of dealing with palestinians. i don't necessarily think that all of the countries in the arab gulf countries are excited about donald trump. they're optimistic about it. it's slightly different. he had some tough words about saudi arabia. the money that's being sent there. i think those are still issues of concern for them. >> excited may be the wrong word. after eight years, they see an opportunity that they did not have with the last american president. >> we have a lot to get to this morning including newt gingrich saying he made a big boo boo.

this is painful to watch. >> there's a first for everything. one mistake. come on. >> we'll tell you what it was and big guests this morning. donald trump's newly named press secretary sean spicer joins us. he's wearing pajamas. we gave him the memo. nick is a grinch. eddie, i don't know what's going on there. israel's ambassador to the united nations danny danon joins us. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. 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.

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overnight shootout in milan. it is without a shadow of a doubt the man killed was the suspect. anis amri. they are awaiting dna proof of this. police in australia say they stopped a plot to bomb parts of melbourne on christmas day. three are facing charges. one person is awaiting a court hearing. the three others have been we leased. the terror plot reportedly involved the use of improvised explosive devices. the plan involved a surveillance mission of the area that was to be attacked. investigators believe the suspects were self-radicalized but certainly inspired by isis and isis propaganda. and there are new reports that an internal flight in libya was diverted to malta due to a potential hijacking. maltese media is reporting that the flight landed in malta after two hijackers threatened to blow

up the plane. the plane, an airbus 320 had 118 people onboard. malta's prime minister is aware of the situation. nbc news is working on confirmation. we'll keep you updated on any new developments here. turning now to syria where after a devastating and deadly four years of fighting, the battle for aleppo is over. the syrian army announced that it has retaken the ruined city adding they liberated it from terrorism and terrorists. evacuations have ended as the last remaining rebel fighters and civilians wishing to leave have done so. roughly 40,000 people since last week alone. despite all of this, the more than six-year civil war is not over. with rebel groups holding other parts of the country including a

city of idlib. 15 civilians and eight policemen are confirmed to have died in a car bombing. iraqi forces previously liberated the area from isis and is the deadliest bombing in the area since that time. a lot more to talk about. coming up, incoming white house press secretary sean spicer joins us. he's going to be in his pajamas. we'll be right back. hey there, hi. why do people have eyebrows? why do people put milk on cereal? oh, are you reading why people put milk on cereal? why does your tummy go "grumbily, grumbily, grumbily"? why is it all (mimics a stomach grumble) no more questions for you!

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welcome to "morning joe" living room live from top of the rock. the 72nd floor of 30 rock. morning joe living room. we only do this every three or four years. >> the best way to christen sean spicer's reign as the incoming white house press secretary. >> very exciting. >> are you excited? welcome to "morning joe" christmas edition. >> look at your background. so gaudy. i love it. you got some really good socks. all right. so let's ask you about -- you have to keep a straight face

while we ask you these questions. look at me. i mean, who can keep a straight face. >> fantastic. >> i will make sure all of my children get that. we'll go online afterwards. >> how much has changed since we last saw you in this building and you took us back into a closet and said we have good data. we think we could do well? >> morning of the election. everybody said you were going to lose. you showed us data that showed you guys were going to win. >> yeah. and we won big. >> bigger than you expected. >> bigger than most people expected. i think there was a message that resonated with the american people. you look and saw pennsylvania, wisconsin, michigan, states that hadn't gone red since 1980s. i think one of the things that people have to remember is that donald trump is speaking to something that most people haven't gotten. he understands the frustration and anger and concerns that many americans haven't been able to voice in decades.

>> let's talk about the tweet yesterday. obviously causing a lot of concern in the foreign policy community about nuclear weapons. there seemed to be a bit of a clarification that came out later on that you're not talking about expanding the nuclear arsenal. donald trump was talking about that but modernizing the nuclear arsenal. >> there's another piece of this. other countries need to understand this president will act if they expand their nuclear capabilities. there's a few countries around the globe, russia being one of them, china, others that have talked about increasing their nuclear capabilities. the president-elect's point is unless these guys come to their senses and recognize that this is not a smart move increasing the nuclear stockpile around the globe is not good for anybody but the u.s. is not going to sit back and take it. >> this is a reaction to what putin said earlier? >> domestically and internationally business as usual is over. this guy is going to bring real

change. that means if our partners around the globe think the u.s. is going to sit back, they're sadly mistaken. >> that includes vladimir putin. >> that includes everyone. >> this was a -- this was a response to what putin said a couple hours earlier, right? >> i think it's putting every nation on notice that the united states is going to reassert its position in the globe and make sure that if you act, the united states is going to act. >> so let's talk also about you and i growing up with presidents named bush. at the transition the presidents named bush quietly helped the person who defeated them, the person who is replacing them, and stayed off the stage publicly and let them do their business. shouldn't donald trump follow the same example of george h.w. bush and george w. bush and even what barack obama is doing right now? >> no. i think this is a guy who made it very clear to the campaign that on every aspect of policy he's not going to sit back and just wait.

>> he's not president yet. there's only one president. >> look what he's gotten done whether the deal with carrier, boeing cost on air force 1, cost of f-35. >> under what authority? he's not president yet. >> he's getting results. internationally and domestically he won't sit back and wait. >> what would we say if barack obama were doing this to george w. bush eight years ago? let me tell you what i would say. i would say he needs to sit back. he's being a classless punk. that's what all republicans would say. >> i would argue he's been very respectful of the idea that we have one president at a time. he's been in constant contact with president obama. making it clear that what his views are on certain things. he's been respectful -- with all -- i think president obama and his team have been extremely gracious to the incoming team and the relationship has been phenomenal. look, he's not going to sit back

and wait. he's going to get things done. >> well, i'm looking at this from a different angle because i want to speak to a lot of concerns people expressed to me and the atlantic ronald brownstein articulates this concern well. donald trump is making little to reconcile the country. the distance between trump president-elect and trump presidential candidate has been small. he appointed a cabinet and white house staff that braid the competing factions of the republican party but offer virtually no rououtreach to vot beyond them. greatest asset is that he's embodied change while many americans believe the political system needs it but by all indications trump is preparing policy change at home and abroad appropriate to landslide mandate of support despite facing skepticism if not hostility from more americans than any recent incoming president.

is there going to be a message of inclusivity perhaps on inauguration day? >> there has been. i would argue that he's from election night forward talked about bringing americans together. he's been talking about putting america first and american jobs. he's succeeded in it. with all due respect to ron, i think there's a lot of folks that still haven't gotten the message that change is coming. he's done it. he's been talking about bringing america together. >> what are words that show an attempt at national reconciliation that everybody feels like a part of this? >> on election night at 3:00 a.m. just down the street from here he stood there and said i want to be a president for all americans whether you voted for me or not. i want to put american workers first. american families first. he's been clear. over and over again he's done the same. he sat with president obama in the oval office. when he made his comments after his meeting on capitol hill. he has talked about uniting

america, bringing america together and moving it forward. as an entire country. not whether or not it's -- if you look at the people he's met with, the people he's appointed. it's republicans and democrats and people that haven't -- >> for a major cabinet post, will he appoint a democratic to a major cabinet post? >> yet to be determined. we have four left. again, you look at some of the folks that he has appointed, not necessarily democrats, they've been people that were opposing him in the primary and some of them his political opponents that he's met with. he's met with democrats. he talked to them about embracing the agenda that can move the country forward where there's common ground. >> does sean spicer know what he's got himself into? historically all you need to do is read the book to realize they don't care who your president is, they kick you in the gut until the moment you walk out of the white house. it's their job. >> jim baker's great line is you have to feed them all the time. they're just always hungry. >> so true.

>> sean, i was going to ask, this will be -- it's incredibly difficult job no matter what, but you have a client, a principal, who may be ahead of you. usually the agencies or departments might get out in front of you. are you going to know when he's tweeting something out? what's the story of -- >> how's that going to work? >> are you getting paid extra is what we need to know. combat pay. >> hazard pay. in every aspect we talk about it. this is going to be a very different presidency than we've seen before but a very effective presidency and very successful presidency. >> are you going to do daily briefings? >> i think so. i assume so. we'll look at everything. you've seen -- i think the point we've been trying make through this transition is just because it was done a certain way before doesn't mean it's going to happen. we need to sit down with folks from the white house press corps and sit down with our team and say what is the most effective way to communicate messages to the american people. >> you understand the importance

of the press pool? >> absolutely. >> why has it been so long since the president-elect had a press conference with the press? >> he came out and talked to the press the other day and sat down with "the new york times" for an hour and a half. he came down the other day and talked to the pool. look, i get that there's this idea of sit behind a podium. t the president-elect has been communicating. >> a lot of first amendment concerns about the president wanting to weaken first amendment protections. >> he loves the first amendment. look at his use of it. >> good point. >> he does love the first amendment. for those who expressed that concern he would want to weaken the first amendment, weaken sullivan v. "the new york times," are you saying that's not anything that anybody needs to be concerned about? >> i think there's a concern by some in the mainstream media that he has this ability to communicate directly to the american people via twitter and

instagram but respects and understands the role of a press in a democracy. the difference is for the first time a lot of folks in the media haven't been called out the way they have when their stories have been wrong or when their opinions have gotten in the way of the facts. he's going to be very forceful. he understands the role of the press. we are going to enjoy having him, you know, communicating on a daily basis. >> getting ready to move to washington? >> i live in washington. i'm lucky to move back. >> let me say we understand the mistakes we made over the campaign. that's why we're ending the year trying to be as serious and forthright and sober as humanly possible. >> totally sober. >> would you like some eggnog? it's strong. >> i'm good for now. a long day ahead of me. >> where are you going next? >> small little network. >> do you need any -- i got slippers. do you need slippers? >> i'm good. >> why don't you bring those to

matt. >> congratulations. >> i don't know if i should say congratulations or condolences. >> this is a huge honor. >> have you read marlon fi fitzwater's book. >> it's on the list next. i cannot think the president-elect for this honor. to play this role is a very small club. i can't thank him enough for this honor. >> two words. hazard pay. still ahead -- >> a jetblue passenger kicked off a flight yesterday accused berating ivanka trump on the plane with her family. we'll hear from the airline and a witness. "morning joe" is coming right back. ♪

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welcome back to "morning joe." >> this just happened. >> sean spicer -- >> he just left on the phone with the president-elect and mika asked the president-elect while we had the opportunity what his position was on trying to clarify the tweet yesterday regarding the nuclear arsenal and the president-elect told you what? >> let it be an arms race. we will outmatch them at every pass. >> outlast them all. >> and outlast them all. >> you can put that down as breaking news. >> there you go. check. >> david ignatius, let's bring you in. so we were seeking clarification on the nuclear tweet. not quite the clarification that we would expect. so the question now that the president-elect has said this will let it be an arms race. we'll match them all. we really have to ask the

question on -- is that his opening bid? is that a message he's trying to send to vladimir putin? do we put this in the same category as the 40% tariffs against china? a tough opening line? or is this going to be policy? i think that's a question and maybe he wants to keep the world off balance. what are your thoughts? >> you know, joe, i think he does -- his initial move is to unbalance things, to disrupt, to say the unsayable. the question is that when he gets cornered on that and when people call him out and say what do you mean about the end of the one china policy and greatly expand the nuclear arsenal, rather than pulling back as his spokesman did we're talking about modernizing the nuclear arsenal or whatever the diplomatic fix is, he sometimes doubles down. and i think that's the thing that as i talk to world leaders,

foreign policy veterans who served in republican administrations. they worry about this. you can create space but the space is there then to be able to negotiate. not to add -- throw more wood on the fire with another statement. if you say what i really do want is an arms race, you're going to lose the country. the country doesn't want to go through a nuclear arms race. the country wants balance and pushback against moscow. for those positions he would have support. not for a nuclear arms race. >> john meachem, this is reminiscent of what we heard from ronald reagan from 1979 to '83, '84. remember the radio statement where -- first of all, he called them the evil empire. the soviet union the evil empire and asked what his strategy was on not only the nuclear race but the cold war. reagan said we win. they lose. and then talk about that radio

broadcast that really deeply unnerved not only the soviet union but also our allies in europe. >> right. he was testing the mike and said i just signed legislation outlawing russia forever. we begin bombing in five minutes. often a joke is more revealing than a serious remark. this is the man and the reason why ronald reagan is a world historical figure. when he was recuperating from being shot in 1981, he sat down in the white house and hand wrote a letter asking to meet and talk. it took until gorbachev at geneva in '85 for that to happen. so the reagan analogy is fascinating here. one of the things that i think we should pause and note is this is why trump became president-elect. he's saying something that has a

kind of commonsensical view. this is what trump's base would like to hear. it runs counter to the narrative. this also intellectual honesty requires us to note this. we spent the last couple of months saying that somehow or another trump is a tool of putin. now we would like kids at a soccer game chasing the ball across the field saying, wait, wait, now it's an arms race. >> he went from being a dupe of putin to one day now being us concerned that he's going to start an arms race with putin. i think most of us would be happy if he was just somewhere in the middle. >> i think this is our new normal. we have a president who values instability. as david just said, the question is going to be, where he lands on the governing spectrum. we should be aware that -- the one person who knows that he's kicking the ball and we're chasing it is over in mar-a-lago

right now kicking that ball. >> for anybody that's ever done business with trump, this isn't surprising. vladimir putin said something nice about trump. he's thinking he can work with trump. vladimir putin goes out yesterday and makes a speech suggesting that russia is going to be stronger than the united states. so, again, the thing that people don't understand about donald trump is it's transactional. how does he get the best deal. you're his best friend until the moment you're not. and so now you have him punching back toward putin from what putin said yesterday. >> but the thing though is it's often more tactical than strategic. he prefers instability on his staff in his white house, in his negotiations with business partners. it's the way he sees the world. create leverage and create advantage and uncertainty and we are used to the u.s. being the font of certainty in the world. he is not like that. it is hugely disruptive and

different. >> you also have to sort of really measure your responses because how silly do people look going, he's cozy with putin. did you ever think he would be completely cozy can putin? >> if he can work a deal with putin that is in his best interest and in the country's best interest, he'll be great with putin. regardless of everything that happened before. >> don't waste your time. >> what's fascinating is putin comes out yesterday and makes this statement sort of rubbing trump's nose in it after trump thinks he's working so trump immediately goes, okay. >> i need some eggnog. >> we're going to get some. >> what is the principle and commitment in forming the vision? that's what i want to understand. >> we'll work on that. you just have your eggnog. >> it's america first, which was his campaign platform. we'll get you the eggnog because you look like you need it right now, buddy. are you doing okay?

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>> i don't think the tweet was ground breaking in this regard. it seems like president-elect trump himself has called for an upgrade in our capabilities. i read up to $1 trillion is the price tag. we all, president obama, president-elect trump, everyone shares the same, i think, core value in the first duty to keep us safe. we know it's a dangerous world and that includes nuclear weapons. >> top of the hour almost. >> where is sean spicer. he walked out. >> we have a lot of breaking news to report this morning. joining us this hour, political writer for "the new york times" nicholas confessore, chair of african-american studies at princeton university eddie glaude jr. who is demanding an eggnog. he needs it bad. david ignatius and john meachem also joining the conversation. political reporter and msnbc

political analyst robert costa. >> let's set this up. sean spicer was on the phone with donald trump. we spoke to donald trump in between the break. you asked him if he wanted to clarify what happened yesterday with the tweet. and he did. not quite the way we expected. >> i didn't even have to ask. it was an interesting conversation. very quick in the breaks here and sean is over doing other shows as this kind of is rolling along here. just moments ago i spoke with president-elect donald trump about his tweet on the nuclear arsenal in which he said "the united states must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes." this morning he told me on the phone let it be an arms race. we'll outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all. now, yesterday's comments came on the same day russian president vladimir putin said

russia needs to strengthen the strategic nuclear forces praising their triad launch capabilities. the united states and russia possess 95% of the world's nuclear arsenal. and in recent decades have agreed to reduce weapons, which they have done on a dramatic level since the 1980s. >> let's go right now to david ignatius with this breaking news. vidad, give us your insight on what's going on here. >> a couple of things. first, it's striking that donald trump in his comments to mika did what he often does when he's cornered on something which is he doubled down. after the initial statement yesterday talking about greatly strengthening and expanding the nuclear forces, his spokesman walked it back. we mean we want to modernize the forces. and here's donald trump saying to mika, no, if it's an arms race, bring it on. let it be.

i ask myself, what's the strategy here? what's the idea the president-elect is working on? i think it's this. he's been criticized for being too close to russia even as he's making very harsh statements about china. he's trying to establish equal distance between the united states and russia on the one hand and china on the other. that's what henry kissinger did in the 1970s when he tried to change the relationship. >> kissinger has been speaking with trump and the trump team for some time now. when you were describing that, it sounds like it's straight out of 1971. 1972. keep china. keep russia off balanced and constantly be triangulating those two. >> i think that's right. it's out of the '71-'72 playbook. there had been concern over the

last few weeks that even as he was striking out against china, he was way too close to russia, to accommodating. let's sit down and do a deal on syria or whatever. with these tweets over the last two days and his comments to mika doubling down, trump has established distance between the u.s. and russia for real and there will be a lot of anguish about that. i think the fundamental idea that our two key adversary potential partners are off balance, that's exactly what he wants. >> you wrote a column about some obvious concerns about donald trump and what he said about taiwan. you also said that there were a lot of positives keeping china off balance. >> from everything i hear in beijing, there's consternation. donald trump has questioned the sacred cow of relations and many people are concerned about

china's advance in asia. they are concerned to say thank goodness something has come along that disrupts the chinese plans. i think the trick here is you have a very nervous world as donald trump moves toward inauguration day. he doesn't want to frighten people too much. he wants to disrupt maybe. he's got to be careful about people thinking, my gosh, this guy wants to take us into world war iii. >> john meachem, your thoughts this morning on the president-elect's comments to mika regarding a nuclear arms race? >> well, words matter as we all know. and if you just take the last 30, 40 years or so, when ronald reagan became president within seven days he gave a press conference in which he repeated frequent line of his that the soviet union reserves onto itself to lie, cheat and steal and seeks world domination. he ends his presidency in red square literally holding a

baby's hand and saying in 1983 he had gone to orlando and told the national association of evangelical that the soviet union was focus of evil in the modern world. a reporter asked him about this in red square. he's standing there with gorbachev. he says that was another time. another era. could we watch an elaborate negotiation? possible. one hopes so. there was a heartfelt moment on august 5th, 1990, totally unscripted moment when george h.w. bush got off marine one in the middle of the iraqi crisis with kuwait and said this will not stand. this aggression against kuwait. he walked in the oval office and the national security adviser said this will not stand. who gave you that? where did you get that language? bush looked at him and said from me. that's what i feel.

so every once in a while you have to take -- it seems to me we just saw a moment where the president-elect of the united states just told mika probably exactly what he thinks. he didn't get that from somebody, right? he just told you. >> by the way, that's a question that trump staffers never have to ask the president-elect. where did you get that from? they know precisely where they got that from. bob costa, let me bring you in. you have been following this campaign and candidate for quite some time. it seems this morning that -- there seems to be developing a method to this madness that you probably should take somebody at their -- if not at their word, the example over the last 40 years with donald trump it's always about the deal. donald trump always has gone into a boardroom asking for everything. trump's attitude has been and

he's written in and he's said it and rudy giuliani who negotiated with him even giuliani said this before he supported trump. he said donald trump is the only person i've ever negotiated with where he goes into the room and he doesn't want everybody to walk out winners. he wants to win. he wants everybody to lose. and so he comes in really strong. it seems like he's doing that with russia now. he did that with china. and it appears like the strong opening bids that's going to be the new normal over the next four years. >> that's great point, joe. this is an intriguing time for the president-elect because based on my reporting, he doesn't have his formal cabinet at the moment. he has a kitchen cabinet. so he's working with general flynn, reince priebus but in particular with steve bannon, his chief strategist and his son-in-law jared kushner. especially on the recent

statement that trump issued on the israel/u.n. resolution matter. so you have trump engaged on foreign policy before he's even president working from mar-a-lago with this inner group and tight circle trying to navigate his way before he's inaugurated. >> david, you spoke with robert gates and wrote about that in "the washington post" saying there's value in trump's disruptive approach. bob gates has worked in senior national security positions for the past five presidents. so it's note worthy and encouraging that he's advising president-elect trump. gates spoke with me about the advice he's given trump and his team and opportunities and pit falls ahead. at the top of gates' to do list is striking the right balance with russia and appearing too cooperative with a belligerent president vladimir putin. let's stop right there. it seems that that has been modified a bit even this morning as "the washington post" goes to print. >> he took a step back from that

one for sure this morning. and with the comments onuclear weapons. one other thing that gates said in this interview, which i just want to note, because it goes to this question of what kind of president is donald trump preparing to be, gates noted after looking at five white houses that when you have a fairly undisciplined man in the oval office in trump and you have a lot of advisers competing for attention, you have a recipe for what he called disjointed government where people try to go around each other to get to the president. the president himself is communicating through multiple channels. as you i have discussed, it was only when leon panetta came in as bill clinton's chief of staff in 1984, that the clinton presidency really began to work. a lot of people i talk to say they may need to have a crisis early in the trump presidency for the president to realize

that he needs better discipline and control. he needs access control by one person, not five principles as you have now. >> and bill clinton's -- you read the history of bill clinton's first two years in the white house, it was chaotic. everybody was coming at clinton. eisenhower saw the presidency as a pyramid. it better be extraordinarily important. bill clinton saw himself in the center with all of the arrows pointing to him. that caused chaos and that changed very quickly as david said when leon panetta came in and brought order to that structure. you wonder if that's something that might happen over the next couple of years here. >> how will it jive with a strategy that's disruptive? a figure that's undisciplined. i'm sitting here thinking about a number of things as you rub my shoulder. one, what does it mean to liken

this today, 2016, 2017, to 1971, 1972? the world seems to be dramatically different in a number of ways. i want to see what those differences are. what does it mean to think about intensifying this relationship? whether triangulating or triangular move that david ignatius talked about. when you have afghanistan, iraq, yemen, syria, what does it mean to add this onto that and then to talk about it being undisciplined. i'm just really concerned. >> it's possible that instead of there being a strategy here, a three-point strategy -- >> spaghetti on the wall. >> that's the real danger there is in the strategy. >> and that actually is the question, john meachem. again, as i said yesterday, there's the famous bill clinton comment which is if you see a turtle sitting on top of a fence post, it didn't get there by

accident. and what's so fascinating is that what kissinger tried to navigate with nixon in '71 and '72 is still the basic reality all these years later that you have the united states and two powers sharing the stage with them and there's a constant balance of power. >> well, it's also true that we need to be careful about the tyranny of the present. we think the problems of our own time are unmatched because they're our problems. they have a tactile reality for us. throughout the cold war we had territorial regional conflicts that at any moment had the capacity to expand into a nuclear conflict. that's what the cold war was as late as 1979 with t invasion

of afghanistan into the spheres of influence in central america in the 1980s. you talk about psidents with a rough first couple of months but jack kennedy damn near got us into a war in cuba. >> there is that. >> in april of '61 because he thought that -- this is something to always watch, president kennedy thought that eisenhower was too bureaucratic and that the old man liked military bureaucracy too much. liked decision making too much. it is said the only thing kennedy was really interested in when they had their transition meetings was when ike showed him the button he could push to summon the helicopter. and then he comes into the bay of pigs -- >> by the way, i loved ike's response when he kept looking back at the button saying to the young incoming president, you have a lot more to worry about

than that. follow me. >> exactly. we've been here before. we have been here before. we know all about it. i think the chief question and david got at it with his conversation with gates is to what extent is the character of the principle, the man behind the desk now going to be a gamut or is it going to be consistent? how does he conduct himself? >> we'll find out. we'll continue this conversation. right now we want to follow some breaking news regarding the berlin truck attack. nbc news has confirmed that the prime suspect has been killed in an overnight shootout with police in milan. let's bring in nbc news correspondent hans nichols in berlin.

what can you tell us? >> reporter: italian authorities confirmed that anis amri was killed in an early morning shootout at 3:00 a.m. he was stopped in a routine stop. a young police officer in italy exchanged fire with him. there's an injury but he is confirmed dead. now, i should caution. german authorities are waiting for dna evidence. german authorities we just spoke to the prosecutor's office here have not confirmed this is the person that they've been seeking. here's why we think he may have gone to italy. it's about 11 hours south down to milan but remember when he came to europe, he lands in sicily, just a short way away from north africa by boat. has an altercation. sets an apartment to fire and spends 3 1/2 years in italian prison. he knows italian society. he may have felt more comfortable here. one note of caution on all of this. yes, it's undeniably good news he's been captured and killed, but there's still a great deal conrn here in germany across the country. this morning there were raids

where police officials are trying to break up a plot and then last night we spoke to a top german police official. he said, look, there's some 600 suspected terrorists across germany. they simply do not have the manpower to monitor all of them. the equation they use, for 24-hour surveillance for one individual, they need 25 to 30 police officers. they simply don't have the resources. guys? >> all right. still ahead on "morning joe," donald trump has called on president obama to veto a u.n. resolution on israeli settlements. israel's ambassador to the united nations, danny danon joins us next. plus, what happens to ivanka trump and her family on that plane yesterday? ridiculous, horrible for her. >> this is "the daily news." >> trying to travel with her kids. >> yelling at her. >> we'll have the story. "morning joe" will be right back. afoot and light-hearted i take to the open road.

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we're learning that president-elect trump spoke with egyptian president el sisi yesterday evening in which the egyptian leader agreed to hold off on his country's draft united nations resolution calling for an end to israeli settlement building in palestinian territory. in read out of the call this morning, el sisi said he would not have a vote to allow the new trump administration time to deal with the issue in a comprehensive manner. yesterday trump sent a very public message to the obama white house concerning the scheduled u.n. vote. diplomatic officials say the obama administration planned to abstain on the resolution critical of israel. israel prime minister benjamin netanyahu publicly called for the u.s. to use its veto power as a security council permanent member. israel was also said to be alarmed that secretary of state

john kerry planned to deliver a speech on the israeli palestinian situation. earlier this month kerry called the israeli settlements a barrier to peace. israeli officials reportedly reached out to the president-elect to help stop the resolution. in a statement, truch said trumd peace between the israelis and palestinians will only come through direct negotiations between the parties. this puts israel in a pour negotiating position and is extremely unfair to all israelis. joining us now is israel's permanent representative to the united nations, ambassador danny danon. thank you for being here. >> mr. ambassador, thank you for being here. happy holidays. you came here one day early. tomorrow our hanukkah set on "morning joe." please come back tomorrow if you would like. let's talk about yesterday. the events of yesterday.

you've been an ambassador ser serving over here for a year. you said it feels like six years. yesterday had to be one of the more interesting days for you as israel's ambassador to the united nations. tell us what happened and how it unfolded? >> we knew it was coming. approximate palestinians have been talking about it for a long time. they want to bring a resolution to the security council to condemn israel. instead of negotiating with us, it's easier for them to come to new york and security council so the egyptians put a draft resolution and we're happy to hear the discussion was postponed. it's not the end of the game. it will come back and we urge our friends not to allow it. we should talk with the palestinians. let us speak with the palestinians directly. >> how much communication went on yesterday between benjamin netanyahu and the president-elect, donald trump?

do you know? >> prime minister netanyahu spoke with leaders from around the world. i want to negotiate with the palestinians. you say don't speak with president netanyahu. come to new york. me here instead of letting us have a renegotiation. i want to remind you, the prime minister negotiated with assad before we signed an agreement with egyptians. you cannot have negotiation through the security council of the u.n. >> so what happens today? there have been reports this morning that the president, president obama, has sent the message to ambassador power to veto the resolution today. do you believe that's what's going to happen? >> i hope so. that should be the policy of the u.s. it was the policy of the u.s. until today. president obama himself when he spoke in the u.n. in 2011 said

through direct negotiations we can achieve peace. so i hope it will be the official position of the u.s. and we expect that. the u.s. standing with us. the u.n. i feel it every day the support i get from ambassador power and a great team. we need that support now in the transition period. >> let's go to david ignatius in washington. david, do you have a question for the ambassador? >> mr. ambassador, i think the question the world would be wanting to get an answer to is whether your government, president netanyahu, continues to support a two-state solution that would create a palestinian state living side by side with israel. is that still the policy of israel? >> prime minister netanyahu said it very clearly. he's willing to negotiate everything. he's willing to come here to new york or washington to negotiate everything without preconditions

and unfortunately we don't hear it from the palestinians. they want a resolution to the security council without speaking with us. >> but as you know, ambassador, one reason the palestinians are reluctant to negotiate is they feel israeli settlements are just taking so much of the land and really making it impossible for them with their public to do that negotiation. why not have some limits on settlements for a while if israel really does want to talk bring palestinian partners in? >> first, we have tried it. nothing happened. when you look at t facts on the ground, settlements are not the issue. take, for example, gaza. in 2005 we evacuated all of the settlements from gaza, look at what happened today in gaza. the settlements are not the real issue. the real issue is the fact that palestinians are not willing is sit down with an israeli representative. >> jon meacham in nashville with a question. jon?

>> what is the view from your country of potential instability? some of the uncertainty that we see with a lot of the statements from president-elect trump? how is your government planning on dealing with someone who is the most unconventional american leader that you will have dealt with. >> we have a strong relationship with the u.s. administration now and we'll continue under president-elect trump. we have no doubt about it. i met president trump in the past and i'm sure he will stand with israel. >> do you expect a closer relationship with the incoming administration than you had with president obama's administration? >> i have to admit, you know, being at the u.n., we do have the support of the u.s. today. we have just signed a memorandum of understanding. we see the support. we feel confident about the existing administration but also about the future.

>> any concerns about the arms race? we had a statement from vladimir putin yesterday talking about how they were going to strengthen their nuclear arsenal. the president-elect tweeted that the united states would do the same. and then this morning in a conversation with the show, with mika, president-elect trump said that if they want to have an arms race, let there be an arms race. any concern there? >> our main concern is iran. we're worried about what they're doing and the agreement and this issue will be brought up in the meeting between the prime minister and president-elect trump. >> should that iran deal be overturned by the incoming trump administration? >> we will bring this issue when the prime minister will come to washington to meet the president-elect, the issue of iran will be the first priority. >> should it be overturned? >> let's wait and have them discuss it. we do have problem with this agreement. when i see what's happening now in lebanon with hezbollah, in yemen, in syria, iran is capable of doing a lot of harm in our

region not only nuclear issues but also sponsoring terrorism. >> mr. ambassador, thank you so much for being with us. happy holidays. happy hanukkah. >> thank you. still ahead, russian president vladimir putin is speaking this morning and weighed in on the american election. we'll tell you what he said next on "morning joe." for adults with advanced non-small cell lung cancer

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>> well, this is something. >> i fixed the water cooler. >> glad. that thing has been broken for a while. >> it's cold out there. >> we have the fire. don't worry about it. >> by the way, if you want to talk to the guy that painted my porch -- >> for me? that would be fantastic. please stop turning down the thermostat. it is freezing in here. you always do this. >> joe, when you usually talk to people, you should have your mike on. you work on that. >> work on the mike. >> can you believe this, guys? a passenger jet flight jetblue flight, passenger onboard claimed he was removed from the plane because of an incident involving donald trump's daughter ivanka. ivanka and her husband jared and

their three children were preparing to travel out of new york's jfk airport when they were confronted by a fellow passenger. ivanka and her family landed safely in san francisco but two men were removed from the flight before takeoff. now before the incident, one of the men removed from the plane tweeted his husband was chasing them down to harass them. here's how a witness described the witness. >> he got on and he said oh my god. this is a nightmare. he was shaking. and jetblue approached him. he said, you know, they ruined our country and now ruin our flight. he was upset. he walked on and as soon as he saw her he started shaking. he was agitated. if i was security, i wouldn't take the chance either. >> jetblue later released a statement saying the decision to remove a customer from a flight is not taken lightly. if the crew determines that a customer is causing conflict on

the aircraft, the customer will be asked to deplane. >> he said he was chasing them down to harass them. with their three kids. >> that's totally inappropriate. >> very open-minded of them. >> joining us now, editor of bloomberg business week. she got a promotion since last time we saw her. >> yet, you still don't know how to dress to theme. >> that's true. >> i know. this is very true. >> you can come back tomorrow for our hanukkah show. we'll give you another chance. >> seriously, this is amazing. i love that magazine. >> i love that magazine too. >> it's really good. don't change it too much. >> so this morning we are actually all trying to get our arms around donald trump and his strategy and what's going on and wonder whether we're starting to see actually a method to what seems to be madness from the outside in response to a putin

tweet as david ignatius said, he delivers the first blow and then he doubles down in talking to mika earlier this morning saying if he wants an arms race, we'll have an arms race. you look at 40% tariffs with china and other things, it seems like so many statements are the opening shot in a negotiation. >> i think negotiation is exactly the word when we look at what happened this week with boeing and lockheed and marching ceos in front to try to extract, you know, lower prices for air force one. this is clearly how he's approaching the opening part of his presidency is treating everything like it is a business deal in terms of putting out that strong opening position and seeing what the counter is going to be. the problem is i'm not sure there is a method to the madness right now in terms of a clear, cohesive pattern continuing to make policy by tweet including nuclear policy and changing sort of decades of pentagon

commissioning process. is this the way we really want to go? i think it's unsettling. it's destabilizing and possibly disruptive potentially good effects from that. where this is all going -- >> appears to be what he's trying to do whether with china or putin saying we can be friends but we're not going to be friends on your terms apparently based on what happened yesterday. nick, these tweets and we'll get into this in a second, but these tweets about lockheed has cost the company well over $1 billion talking about the f-35. the f-35 has been written up a year or two ago. one of the most wasteful pentagon programs out there. and now he's got lockheed on the defensive. he's costing them over $1 billion to their market share and now they're going to have to deal with him and cut costs. >> america has needed a

cheapskate at the pentagon for a long time. it's a great thing he'll send shivers through this. there are cost overruns. he's destroying company's stock prices through tweets. is that a good thing? i don't know if the wall street guys feel it's a good thing. >> the wall street guys i think just don't know where to look. when you go out and talk, we spoke with jamie dimon last week in detroit. he was positive about donald trump and people in his cabinet right now and see lower taxes and lower regulation a boom time for financial services, energy, health care, et cetera, i think what they don't know is when he does venture into the foreign policy territory and ventures into nuclear and china and putin, that's unsettling. that's what the market will react to more than his sort of -- you're right. boeing and lockheed people want these contracting processes reformed. it's foreign policy that unsettling factor of what he's going to say about china. >> political side of that is

most americans believe the last 16 years have been disastrous when it comes to foreign policy. so anybody talking about a consistency in foreign policy may make some people in washington, d.c. feel better. certainly not the american people who have seen, again, the first 16 years of this century as disastrous for u.s. foreign policy. >> we have bob costa standing by. first, trump is putting new pressure on the defense company lockheed martin to lower the cost of the f-35 program. to lay it out here, yesterday he tweeted based on the tremendous cost and cost overruns of the lockheed martin f-35 i asked boeing to price out a comparable f-18 super hornet. that sent shares of lockheed martin tumbling falling 2% and moving $1 billion in market value shares of boeing going in

the opposite direction gaining nearly 1%. trump met with ceos of boeing and lockheed on wednesday after criticizing both companies for the cost of military projects. after wednesday's meeting, lockhe lockheed's ceo said she appreciated the opportunity to discuss the importance of the f-35 program and the progress we've made in bringing down the costs. >> bob costa, this is so opposite. i say this as somebody that sat on the armed services committee and was always shocked by how these votes went. they never went by party. they went almost by lockheed versus boeing versus all of these other companies. and they pay off their members of congress. they pay off their lobbyists. they work it very carefully. and they make billions and billions of dollars. this system, this very comfortable behind the scenes system appears to be blown up

right now by donald trump who actually even brought in pilots and asked them to weigh in in on the f-35 versus the f-18. >> joe, i'm here on capitol hill. i'm covering a whole new world. you know who knows more than anyone are the actual lawmakers here in congress. there's a sense that trump and his acknowledgement that trump will be directly negotiating federal contests particularly when it comes to defense contracts. he wants to be negotiating on foreign policy and on trade. so there's a strange atmosphere here. a lot of the control you're talking about that used to be with the committees and president would delegate to congress and now they say maybe on regulations and tax reform congress can take the lead with paul ryan and others. on these federal contracts which usually warrant the purview of the president, trump wants it. >> a brave new world or strange new world. the military industrial complex obviously being shaken up by a guy that's looking at an f-35

project that had costs overreturoverruns and extraordinarily expensive and getting in the middle before he's sworn in as president. >> you wonder if he knows details well enough to be in effect negotiating. i have never seen a president let alone a president-elect use the bully pulpit quite this directly. one thing we were talking about earlier, creating space in a negotiation by putting your adversaries on their back foot is obviously a good tactic. trump used it his whole career. diplomatic negotiations are a little bit different in part because the stakes are different. the security of the world is at stake. you need to be careful about frightening your allies. i think if someone like jim mattis who will be secretary of defense was here to join our conversation, jim mattis would say my whole career i have worked with allies and maintaining the strength of u.s.

alliances is part of our security. that's something the president will have to think more about. from what i hear overseas, alleys are hearing new language and new policies and taken by surprise and their support is going to be important for trump's success. >> all right. >> up next, newt gingrich says he made a boo boo. he actually said that. about trump's -- the former speaker said he goofed. next on "morning joe." ♪ you better watch out ♪ you better not cry

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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. >> you did. >> he did. >> no, you did. you always do. >> no, i don't. you owe me an apology. >> no, i do not owe you an apology.

>> a lot of apologies. >> apparently, the president-elect doesn't apologize, right? but he got one. >> once in a while, he apolog e apologizes. >> no. >> i have heard him apologize to you. >> no, you have not. he got one yesterday after newt gingrich went around making statements like this one. >> you might say you have been working in the swamp, to use donald trump's language. >> i'm told he now disclaims that. it was cute, but he doesn't want to use it anymore. >> the drain the swamptheni thi? that didn't sit well with trump. >> he said it on the campaign trail, i don't like it, but people like drain the swamp. >> trump tweeted this. someone incorrectly stated that phrase drain the swamp was no longer being used by me. actually, we will always be trying to dts. >> dts, baby. >> listen to this one. the former house speaker went on

facebook to let everyone know trump was speaking about him. i'm grinjing. listen. >> 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 draining the swamp. i mischaracterized it the other day. he intends to drain the swamp. he even describes it as dts. he thinks taking on boeing and the price is an example of draining the swamp. and so i want all of you to know, i goofed. draining the swamp is in. the alligators should be worried. when i make a mistake, i'm doing to tell you. i blew the one. draining the swamp is in. >> e, stop. just stop. >> it's in now. well, you know -- >> cringetastic. >> which consulting firm in washington had taped the firm about draining the swamp in the board room. >> i think my favorite description of that was the

first hostage video of the trump administration. >> and there will be more. >> i think actually just a tweet would have probably been preferable. >> i don't like him saying i made a boo-boo. it seems weird. anyhow. i don't like it. didn't it feel wrong to you? >> the whole thing felt wrong to me. but you know, i don't know. >> but -- >> it's just -- i don't know. not what i do. not what i do. i don't go on and say i made a boo-boo. >> we're in our pajamas, so who are we to talk. >> that's a boo-boo. we make breaking news. >> we had a lot of serious news and we're also in our pajamies. is that the first time a morning show has bun two things at once. we can do haul we costumes next if we want. i just like pajamas. i'm comfortable. >> daltrump raised questions after tweeting he wanted to strengthen u.n. nuclear defenses. the same day vladimir putin called for expanding russia's

arsenal. in fact, putin did it first. dm now, this morning, trump told me on the phone, quote, let it be an arms race. we'll discuss that next on "morning joe." >> that's breaking news. world ugly and messy. 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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at one of the greatest, greatest portraits. it's huge. and eddie is weeping because he doesn't have one in his house. you also, of course, see up there also the ashes of uncle festus, who died tragically -- >> welcome back to "morning joe." >> -- in a christmas -- he was making eggnog and there was a blender accident. >> the morning before christmas eve. >> uncle festus is not with us anymore. what were you saying. >> this artist captured the creepy televangelist quality. >> the very essence. yes, it's interesting. i asked -- i said, i want to know, because this was being commissioned, of course, by congress, when i left. i said, they said who do you want to do your portrait? i said, who did oral roberts and tammy faye bakkers's portrait,

jon meacham, as you know as a southerner, some of the creepiest portraits ever made. and by the way, after the show, i'm going to the top of the rock and not coming down until i get $3 million in donations. >> there you go. >> from down here, it has a certain velvet elvis quality. >> it does. >> a natural. >> it's huge. huge. >> as you can see -- >> if gilbert stewart had done velvet elvis. >> on this day before christmas eve. >> almost post-modern. >> we have nick confessore, chair of the department of african-american studies, eddie glaude jr., who has been drinking a lot ofbourbon. >> stressed out by the show. not sure if he regrets coming. >> what is it about a nuclear arms race that mabkes you nervous? >> exactly. >> aside from the nuclear arms race part of it. apart from dying. >> in washington. columnist and associate editor for "the washington post," david

ignatius. >> a patient man. >> i let you wish you let us have our pjs in washington. >> you should be wearing your pajamas and your robe with your cigar, your pipe. >> doesn't seem fair. >> exactly. >> next year, we do the christmas and hahn daw show. >> and do it right. everybody comes in in their pajamas because that's what we do. in nashville, tennessee, pulitzer prize winning historian jon meacham who has at least boxers and slippers on. and former dod official and now a senior fellow at the atlantic council, dr. evelyn farkas. >> so, about an hour and a half ago, after talking to sean spicer, we actually -- he was talking to donald trump on the phone. mika got -- commandeered the phone from the new spokesman for the white house. and asked for some clarification. >> just said hello. >> oh, so he provided the

clarification. >> being very nice, and then he said, let me tell you this. and we have of course been talking all morning about his tweet, which he said, the united states must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes. i guess he had been watching the show. on the phone, he said, let me just tell you. let it be an arms race because we will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all. i asked him to repeat himself, and he said it again. yesterday's comments came on the same day russian president vladimir putin said russia needs to strengthen the strategic nuclear forces, praising their triad launch capabilities. transition spokesman jason miller released a statement. president-elect trump was referring to the threat of nuclear proliferation. >> yeah, no. >> and the critical need to prevent it, particularly to and among terrorist organizations. >> i think jason needs a follow-up today. >> he also emphasized the need to improve and modernize our

deterrent capability as a vital way to pursue peace through strength. >> so david ignatius, that is the part that bob gates actually likes. you interviewed the former defense secretary, and the man who had worked at five different white houses. >> yes. >> and that was the part that he actually liked. let's step back for a moment and talk about, you explained this a couple hours ago, about the part of america's nuclear capabilities that actually need to be modernized. >> so, we had this morning a case study in the disruptive approach of donald trump to foreign policy. it is a fact that america's nuclear deterrent does need to be modernized. that hasn't been done in decades. the russians have been doing it, creating new modern versions of weapons. their weapons totals are higher than the u.s. at the present.

so that's an urgent need. and trump is right to say that we need to modernize and in that sense strengthen our nuclear -- and it was good after putin yesterday issued a kind of belligerent statement about nuclear weapons for him to come back. what's fascinating is in his comment with mika this morning, the thing that people most worry about, holy smokes, are we going into a nuclear arms race, he says yeah, let it be an arms race. is that tv talk? part of the bargaining that is going on, does he mean it? very few people who think that would be an advisable way to spend our defense dollars today. for the new president, but it's just been a fascinating example of what is very different with trump. the whole world will be talking about it today, i think, trying to parse it. >> jon meacham, we saw so many times in the 1980s, the beginning half of the 1980s when rona ronald reagan would make

belligerent statements that shocked and offended not only the press at home but allies abroad, the soviet union. i remember when he stood in front of, i believe it was mx missile, and deaver put behind him the peacemaker, which people found to be abhorrent. and yet, you described the end of the decade and his march through the kremlin. >> absolutely. and remember that trying to deploy the persian 2s where you had these massive demonstrations in germany. reagan once said actually in the 1980 campaign that the image he had to fight was that people thought he was a combination of ebenezer scrooge and the mad bomber. for the first couple years, he staked out a very traditional right-wing cold war position. he said that the soviets were the focus of evil in the modern world. evil empire. he said that, remember, to the

national association of evangelicals at a meeting in orlando. >> jon, because we have been talking about this, and you were talking about how i guess it was mark twain who said history may not repeat itself, but sometimes it rhymes. if you could explain to people just, just how disruptive ronald reagan's position was towards the soviet union that upended -- we talked about kissinger, butkusinger and nixon and ford were champions of detente, and this was extraordinarily disruptive. >> oh, my lord. there was a plank in the 1976 platform that was basically, a conservative plank from the reagan wing, that attacked secretary kissinger and detente. reagan was seen as very much a right-wing figure. his main alternative in 1980 was

george h.w. bush, who was seen as a ford republican, ani eisenhower republican. reagan was a disruptive conservative force in foreign policy in 1981. you said earlier, he said that his philosophy of the cold war was, we win and they lose. he was very much in that first term seen as someone who was potentially too trigger happy. behind the scenes, the old union president, remember, he was a movie actor, but to my mind, the more transformative experience for him in mide life is he was president of the screen actor's guild. someone asked him what it was like to deal with gorbachev. he said, hem, you never had to deal with jack warner. >> which, of course, offended everybody. >> exactly. >> what a shallow b-list actor th ronald reagan was. >> when he was shot on march 30th, 1981, when he was recovering, he sat and wrote a letter to bresch nev reaching

out. he rebuffed him. he didn't meet with the soviet leader, remember, until september 1984, when he met with them, and that was in the run-up to the re-election in which reagan, in this polarized year, it's hard to remember, but the 49-state victory of 1984. by '85, he's in geneva. by '86, at reciavic, by '87, in washington signing a significant treaty. by may of '88, i think it was, he was in red square. playing with babies. saying it was another time, another era. i don't know if that's analogous to what's happening. but it is simply, i think, a pretty concise historical narrative of what happened in the 'iates. >> that's the point, actually, mika, that i think needs to be made this morning. we don't know if it's analogous to what's going on right now,

but the parallels that are there right now, that we can say right now at the beginning of trump's presidency is you have somebody coming in to power who, like reagan, was disruptive to the existing structure, and who created a great deal of fear. even for reagan, even among his own party. rald ford in 1976, i said it before, he had a tv ad when he ran against reagan in the primary, governor reagan can't start world war iii. president reagan can. >> well, at -- there's lot of different things going on at once. it's hard to keep track, but i think we have to stop trying to make two close parallels to other things because we have no idea how this is going to go. but at his four-hour-long news conference this morning, vladimir putin responded to trump's tweet on an expanded nuclear arsenal. >> translator: finally, just

coming back to the point about donald trump's tweet yesterday, are you not concerned, though, that there is a danger of a new arms race if america is talking about boosting its nuclear arsenal? >> translator: a new arms race, the prerequisites for a new arms race appears the united states withdrew from the missile defense treaty, and this is obvious. it was not our intention. it was not started by us. we have to respond. if someone accelerates and speeds up the arms race, it's not us. but i would like to underline, which is important for our domestic situation, domestic public, i will like to say we will never, once we're in the arms race, we will never spend too much, more than we can afford. >> evelyn farkas, watching

vladimir putin talking about in a press conference, a four-hour press conference. as nick confessore says, be careful what you wish for. it's remarkable what a difference a day makes when it comes to what many people were referring to as a bromance. now this looks like the opening moves of a possible arms race. >> well, let's see. i mean, i would say, first of all, i think that donald trump is signaling he's using the reagan peace through strength approach. he's signaling, you know, we're going to maintain our nuclear deterrents. i have to add, sort of in defense of president obama, this is a continuation of current policy. when president obama brought the treaty, the new start treaty to the senate, part of the deal was for them to agree that we should lower together with russia the level of strategic nuclear weapons. he agreed to a trillion dollar over 30-year modernization of

our nuclear forces. what trump is proposing when it comes to the modernization, it's not new. i think this approach to russia, this kind of firmer approach, is probably very constructive, and if he can couple that with, you know, his hand extended, maybe this new approach can bring us to a new world. as long as he remains firm and continues to adhere to u.s. interests and values. that's the big question. >> and david, that is the big question. you look at polls that have been out recently about america's views towards russia. new york magazine article, i think, from a couple days ago just said americans just aren't as nervous about russia as they have probably been since 1917. what are the opportunities there? but also, as we're seeing over the past 24 hours, there's some great risks. the people you talk to, what opportunities do we have over

the next four years with russia and how could it be sidelined by this type of talk. >> as bob gates, our former defense secretary, told me in an interview wednesday that was published this morning, the job for any new president, it's now trump's job, is to thread the needle between slowing this radical downward spiral in the u.s./russian relationship, which is really getting dangerous. when you have russian jets flying at close quarters over u.s. war ships in the baltic sea, the black sea, that's dangerous. >> how did we get here? we heard about the russia reset. you can see in putin's body language with barack obama, early on, when the two met, he was slumping. there seems to be contempt between the two men. what happened? it was never great when george w. bush left, putin had just

invaded georgia. so nobody is sitting here pretending that it was -- there were hals yacyon days in the relationship, but how has it gotten so bad and as you said, dangerous? >> joe, we have to wait for jon meacham to write the history, but i always thought vladimir putin was kind of born with a chip on his shoulder. he's a man who was deeply wounded by the fall of soviet union. he said so, catastrophic event. he's been trying to build back soviet pride and power since becoming president. and he found in barack obama somebody who was seemed to be exceeding to that russian effort. and not pushing back in a way that american presidents sometimes do. i think putin began to take advantage of that and see obama as pliable. there was a fear, a ekeweek agof you asked people who follow foreign policy, what's your concern about donald trump?

they would have said they're worried he's too accommodating to russia. russia supported his campaign during the election, and talking about a new friendship, alliance with vladimir putin. so the events in the last 24 hours are really interesting, as a sign of trump's ability to kind of make a course correction in what people were sharply criticizing. and we'll have to see. somewhere in the balance between talk of a new arms race and a new bromance between putin and trump, is the right policy. and we'll see if they can find their way toward it. >> david ignatius, thank you so much. we greatly appreciate you being here. let's turn to evelyn farkas. evelyn, putin brought up something interesting in the press conference, talking about what russia could and could not afford. there's a reason we won the cold war. we won the cold war because gorbachev realized they could not keep up with the united states. they didn't have the money. they were going bankrupt.

not a whole lot has changed since then. oil prices have been depressed over the past couple years. >> right. i think he's signaling to his people, you know, i'm not going to bankrupt the country. i'm not going to go toe to toe with the united states. but this was after he had given a really kind of stem winding speech to his top defense officials where he was bragging about the fact that, first of all, their nuclear arsenal is 60% modernized. that they had tried out, i think, over 100 different weapons systems in syria. they rattled down all of the targets they hit in syria, leaving out, of course, the innocent civilians and hospitals and humanitarian convoys. but you know, he had just been bragging, and of course, that was heavily covered in the russian military about their military capabilities. that statement about i'm not going to bankrupt us, came after he was saying, look, we're really strong. so i don't need to bankrupt us. >> nick.

>> dr. farkas, i'm curious, until today, the whole discussion of trump and russia was the hacking, he was too close. his cabinet secretary's clo closeness. i wonder if part of the point this morning is to kind of move all of us off that discussion, to push back against the bipartisan call for an investigation into the hagging. is this tactical instead of strategic some. >> a very good question. one thing i would note is that trump apparently was meeting with general mattis and some other military officials getting briefings over the last couple days. so it may be that they, while he may not listen to the intelligence analysts giving him the real deep secrets on the truth, he is clearly listening to the defense officials. so they may have given him a message, you know, that he needs to sort of really take a hard look at russia and so maybe he's recalibrating based on that advice. >> you know, eddie, russia is not the only country that would have trouble with a new arms

race. we're $20 trillion in debt. our deficit is at $550 billion or so dollars. our defense budget is about that every year. as i said a couple hours ago, interest rates are going to be going up. that means the servicing of the national debt is going to go up. the last thing the united states can afford after wasting trillions of dollars over the past 16 years on defense, on wars, is a new arms race. >> right, and remember, over the course of the primary and of the general election, candidate donald trump said that our attention to wars in iraq diverted much needed funds from infrastructure, what needed to happen here in the united states. but what i'm interested in, particularly, i wanted to ask dr. farkas, you suggested that there was a sense in which the strategy reflected ronald reagan's peace through strength. >> right. >> could you say a little more? do we see a vision of the trump

doctrine here? >> it's possible. it's possible that he wants to negotiate. because we have a number of things on the table with russia. we haven't even mentioned, jon meacham mentioned the purshing issue in europe. that was a threat that the soviets were posing. they had this intermediate nuclear weapon that threatened our european allies. we were telling them, you can't have those weapons. the only way we were able to get them to negotiate a treaty which the russians recently violated, okay, is ronald ragp threatened to deploy our own u.s. intermediate nuclear weapons to protect our european allies because we provide the nuclear umbrella to all of our allies. we're back in that situation again. frankly speaking, if the military guys were briefing trump thoroughly, they would have told him about this. this is a problem that's now on his plate. he has to figure out a way to get the russians back out of violating the treaty, get them

to scrap their intermediate nuclear forces and one way is to project strength and tell them we're prepared to deploy again or something of that nature. i think this is going to be a very complex relationship with russia. i'm hoping he will negotiate through strength, meaning we will have a strong deterrent military force, nuclear and conventional, and we will get the russians to behave better on the international stage. >> dr. evelyn farkas, thank you once again for giving us all your insight. thanks for being on this morning. >> still ahead, following breaking news regarding the berlin truck attack. nbc news has confirmed the prime suspect has died in an overnight shootout in milan, italy. we'll go live to berlin next. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. ♪

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23 past the hour. we continue to follow breaking news regarding the berlin truck attack. the suspect, 24-year-old tunisia national anis amri has been

killed in an overnight shoot out with police in milan, italy. this according to germany's federal prosecutor. milan's police chief said amri passed through france and into italy by train. early this morning. joining us live from berlin, nbc news correspondent anne thompson. what more can you add to this? >> reporter: well, mika, i can tell you that german authorities say they have confirmed that it is indeed amri who was shot in the milan neighborhood this morning by his fingerprints. the very same fingerprints that authorities found in the inside and outside of the cab of that truck that barreled through the christmas market behind me on monday night, killing 12 people and injured up to 56. here's how the incident in milan went down. about 3:00 this morning, police were walking around this neighborhood, and they saw a man who they thought looked very suspicious. one of the officers went up to him, asked the man for his i.d. and italian authorities said

amri, instead of reaching into his backpack and getting his papers reached into his backpack and got a handgun and shot that officer. another officer seeing that happen then shot amri, and he was dead at the scene. now, one of the things about this, there are lots of questions, but certainly one of the questions is, is the pistol that amri used in the shooting this morning, is that the same pistol that was used to kill the polish truck driver on monday night? you know, german authorities have not been able to find that handgun. that's one question. another question, what was amri doing in italy? it's a country he knew well. he spent three and a half years in prison there. it's where he went originally after he left tunisia in 2011, but he was arrested for burning down a refugee center. after leaving italy, he came here to germany, and then what happened, the rest of it is an

unfortunate chapter in history. certainly, that's one of the questions investigators will look at. another question is was he going to italy because he had a support network there? that's a very big question. mika. >> anne thompson, thank you very much for that. and now this. police in australia say they have stopped a plot to bomb parts of melbourne on christmas day. seven people were arrested in overnight raids. three of those people are facing charges. one person is awaiting a court hearing. and three others have been released. the terror plot reportedly involved the use of improvised explosive devices. police say the plan also involved a surveillance mission of the area that was to be attacked. investigators believe the suspects were self-radicalized but certainly inspired by isis and isis propaganda. also happening this morning, just now, passengers are starting to be released from a plane that was diverted from libya to malta after an apparent

hijacking. according to reuters, maltese media is reporting the flight landed in malta after two hijackers threatened to blow up the plane. the demands remain unclear. the times of malta is saying it's an airbus 320 operated by a libyan state-owned airway. had 111 people onboard. malta's prime minister has been tweeting about the situation. nbc news is working on confirmation and we'll keep you updated on new dwems. >> now turning to syria after a devastating fouria years of fighting, the battle for aleppo is over. the syrian army announced it has completely retaken the ruined city. adding that they have, quote, liberated it from terrorism and terrorists. evacuations have ended. as the last remaining rebel fighters and civilians wishing to leave have done so. roughly 40,000 people since last

week. despite all this, the more than six-year civil war is not over. with rebel groups holding other parts of the country, including idlib, which president assad has vowed to retake. >> jon meacham, let's go to you. obviously, the word aleppo is likely to haunt barack obama. >> should haunt everybody. >> and certainly any biographies about barack obama and other western leaders, much like rwanda continues to haunt president clinton. >> i think there are two open historical accounts for president obama. one is syria. which is of course related to the russian question we have been talking about. the other is the iran deal. and depending on what happens there. and i don't think we'll be able to reach a historical verdict about president obama for a good number of years, until we see in particular those two foreign

policy questions as they play out. >> it certainly is going to be fascinating for historians to pick through what some might consider the wreckage of u.s. foreign policy over the first 16 years of this century. we come into the 21st century, the united states, as powerful. and as dominant as any country has been. i suppose you could talk about the british during victoria's reign, but maybe even exceeded that power. you might have to go back to the roman empire. here we are 16 years later, in a far more tenuous situation. in part because the president of the fist eight years overreached and many historians suggest include t second preside undershot the mark time and time again. >> yeah, i have been thinking all morning. it was 25 years ago this weekend that mikhail gorbachev went on

soviet television and announced the end of the soviet union. the defining conflict of 40 years of life. the first time man developed the capacity to destroy all of humankind. and that conflict came to an end without the firing of a shot, through bipartisan leadership, consensus from fdr, through the first bush. and you're right. and then history turns again. and pivots again. and we're now in this interesting, to me, sort of i go back and forth in my own mind about, is this a pre-world war ii kind of great game world with a nuclear overlay that we're entering into? is it a new cold war, is it a return to those tensions? what's absolutely clear is that in what we have learned again and again is the character of the temperament, the vision, the

instincts of the person behind that desk in the oval office will determine the fates of billions of people. and that's why i think we have to hope and pray if you're inclined that way, that the next four years are going to be -- going to turn out all right. >> all right, still ahead, vladimir putin apparently had a lot to say this morning because his press conference lasted three hours and 53 minutes. earlier, we played what's he said about a potential nuclear arms race. he also spoke about russia's role in the 2016 election in the united states. we'll play that for you ahead.

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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. >> just hanging out with us? what do you think, jacob, let me ask you something. a lot of people say you look kind of like my son or something like that. >> isn't it nice to see father up here? >> can we go to the portrait. >> i was going to ask where are your glasses? >> listen, it wasn't easy to gethat portrait in. >> very nice. >> some day you can have the portrait of father in your house. >> a banksy, lu? >> we have the urn with uncle festus' ashes.

it's an incident we don't like to talk about in the scarborough family. it involved a blender. a 30-weight ball bearing. >> some day he'll pass the picture on to you. >> i would love that in my home. >> one day. >> go down to 48th and fifth because there's guys who can do that in five minutes. while you wait. >> let's talk about someone who has a lot of portraits of himself. it's not joe. it's actually vladimir putin. >> yes. >> in his four-hour-long news conference this morning, russian president putin also touched on the u.s. elections, and he spoke of how the obama administration has blamed his government for meddling in the u.s. elections. he also took credit for foreseeing trump's victory and chastised democrats for not losing gracefully. >> says a man who shoots opponents. >> translator: any attempted to shift the blame from the current administration, the u.s. administration, is trying to shift its blame on some external

factors. we know that the democratic party hasn't lost just the presidential election but also the election to the senate, where the republicans enjoy the majority, to the congress, where the republicans enjoy the majority. it's this my job as well, is this my fault as well? did we break this chapel as well? this is not the case. i think reagan would be happy that the representatives of his party are winning everywhere. he would be happy for the new president-elect to have felt the mood in this society and wked in accordance with a paradigm. he went to the end, although no one believed he would win except me, and you, of course. the democrats lost once again and they're looking for someone who is guilty of this. i think this is simply humiliating for themselves. one has to know how to lose

decently. >> my god. joining us -- >> vladimir putin -- >> hold on. >> who shoots journalists. >> the world is upside down. >> he assassinates journalists with whom he disagrees. and he's actually projecting what ronald reagan would say about this election. >> we broke the biggest news of the year until now in our pajamas. joining us now, author and columnist for the new york daily news, mike lupica. >> the pajamas make him very uncomfortable. >> look at him, he's shifting. >> thank you for inviting me to mika and uncle joe's creepy story time. >> apparently, you're chafing. >> jacob, son jacob soboroff is here as well. >> son, good to have you. welcome back. quite a year. >> it's been nice. >> he's fine with it. >> he's fine with it. you grow up with that sort of chaos. >> i want a read a piece from

your "washington post" to make this creepier. did you mirror putin here? what's going on here? democrats' long road back to hope and change. and joe writes in part this, progressive road rage is getting in the way of democratic leaders pulling themselves out of the ditch. despite six years of historic political setbacks, there is little self-reflection from a party that seemed to be on the verge of becoming a permanent majority just eight years ago. with the 2018 senate map stacked dramatically in the republicans' favor and with democrats unwilling to take a realistic look at their dismal plight, roosevelt's party could soon find itself in an overwhelming disadvantage. how do democrats avoid handing president trump an unbeatable majority on capitol hill? they must start by admitting to themselves how bad things have become. the truth is democrats have lost middle america. the political landscape looks grim for the party of obama and

roosevelt. its path back to the majority can't be drawn up by a former republican congressman, but i do know this. the democratic party's demise will continue until it stops blaming others for its collapse and instead looks inward at a party that not so long ago defined hope and change. >> you know, mike lupica, let's put hillary clinton's election aside. and let's just -- she won the majority vote. you can talk about comey, you can talk about putin, you can talk about a lot of other events, but you and i and the rest of the world were so busy looking at the coming republican collapse, or at least i speak for myself, that we didn't see what was right in front of our noses, which is a democratic party that, as steve israel said yesterday, lost 1,000 local seats between 2008 and 2012, lost 900 state legislative seats over the same time period. lost 62 house seats.

lost 12 senate seats. lost ten governorships. they only have 18 out of 50 governorships. this is a party that has collapsed, and nobody is actually sitting down and looking in the mirror. >> joe, the old st. john's basketball coach used to talk about things happening in broad daylight, and he used to say they were happening in macy's window. what happened in to the democratic party happened in front of our eyes. everything we thought was happening to the republicans was happening to the democrats. >> it's amazing, we didn't see it. >> this sounds slightly agest, but that's okay. you can't expect crypt keepers to getout out of this. if joe biden and bernie sanders and nancy pelosi are the solution here, then the problem is far more dramatic than we thought. >> i started looking up their ages yesterday. i know that's the part of the op-ed you're talking about, but nancy pelosi, 76. i think bernie is 75. joe biden is 74.

talking about running when he's 78. he would be running against a 71-year-old elizabeth warren. this is a party of 70-year-olds. >> and listen, we just -- >> nothing wrong with that. >> we just elected a 70-year-old man president of the united states. what i'm saying is the democratic party, and i'm not buying into this putin version of the world that you're blaming everybody. there are reasons and excuses for what just happened. but the democratic party now has to look at who they want to carry the standard four years from now or even two years from now. >>. >> i'm not sure it's age. although i think i know what you're getting at in terms of being out off of touch. jacob, every time we looked at you, you were on the back of a motorcycle, in a pub, connecting to people. when they think of dhmentic party, who are the names you think they would -- give me a sense of where the party has gone out in america, where you have been for the past year? >> you know, listen, i would be surprised if the young people

that were backing bernie sanders this year wouldn't want to see him play in some way -- >> how about the middle-aged white guys? >> i remember when i was here and i was sharing a story with you from aliquippa, pennsylvania, a former steel town in pennsylvania. you said pennsylvania has been fool's gold, who knows what's going to happen there? are there enough voters in the western part of the state. these people were democrats, former democrats. they wanted anybody to listen to them, and if it was a joe biden, i feel like they would have felt like that person was listening to them. in willsboro, north carolina, it doesn't matter the age. when we were in hubbard, ohio, with the truck drivers, i shared all these stories with you over the course of the year. frankly y do not think people care about age, if they're 60, 70, or 80. they want somebody to listen to them. >> except i think joe is right about one thing. i think obama provided -- a

young guy like obama provided tremendous cover for all of the problems and all of the decay that was going on in the democratic party. i keep wondering if between now and then there will be a non-bernie populist midwestern guy who is somehow under the age of 50 who can come out of the democratic party. >> it could be -- jon meacham, when i was writing the column yesterday, i couldn't help but be struck by, again, as we said, history, the echoes of history. and as i was writing all of this, it reminded me of what you and i discussed about all of the columns in the newspapers the day after goldwater's massive defeat. people talking about the end of the republican party for a generation. and yet two years later, the reagan revolution starts in earn stz in california. >> it was scotty reston, the day after, conservatism was dead for a generation in '64.

lyndon johnson effectively had the same amount of time president kennedy had, about 1,000 days from the election in '64 to a big house loss, i think it was 47 seats, something like that, in '66. and reagan winning the governorship in california. and of course, the democrats really knew how to fight reagan, didn't they? when pat brown said to a school kid, you know, reagan was an actor, and remember who shot lincoln? you know, they really knew how to make that work. so you know, it does begin often, i think one point of the columns, too, is that, which i think is your point, is we have to be careful about declaring the democratic party dead in the way that we declared the republican party dead eight years ago. >> you can't do it, because mike lupica, ronald reagan in 1979 was a joke. i remember my dad seeing reagan speaking in pensacola. he came home and said i just saw the next president of the united

states. we laughed at him. barack obama in 2007, come on, this guy, his middle name is hussein. he's never going to be elected president of the united states. fast forward eight years later, you can say the same thing about donald trump. >> everyone did. >> well, actually, and even bill clinton, remember '91, clinton was one of the, quote, seven dwarfs. there was no way he was going to win. >> the democratic party has to do some reevaluation and look at the people who didn't hear a word hillary clinton said to them. in this election cycle. >> yeah. jacob, what was your big takeaway from all of your travels across middle america this year? >> oh, man, i think that first of all, for me, it was really humbling to get to be the vehicle through which so many people experienced h people feel about this country. i live in california, it's no secret. you guys tease me. we're here in new york. >> we tease you for things far different than that. we love california.

sheila e. gloves, that was the problem. >> then we lost prince. i think that there's a lot of resentment out there for the fact that we're not listening. i think that for me, it was a pleasure and a privilege to be able to go out and listen to so many people because they want to be heard. and they were heard by donald j. trump. >> listen, thank you so much for doing that. >> jacob, make sure you bow to father's picture before you go. >> i follow him on twitter. >> you have more hair than he does. >> do you need something? are you okay? >> no, the only nice thing you can say about those -- >> he's creepy. is he creepy? >> they're better than his. >> oh, it's true. >> he's really -- i hope you're talking about the shoes, as you look down. thank you so much, mike. thank you so much, jacob. >> another tweet from the president-elect. moves the markets. that's ahead on "morning joe." hi, we're the hulford quads.

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you know -- hold on a second. i have some breaking news. >> we already did that. >> nick is in the holiday spirit. nick got into the holiday spirit. >> it was really important to get the other pair on. >> those are feminine. >> you didn't say they were feminine on me. >> i thought it. >> you said -- >> nice masculine dark blue. no skid rupper sole. this is a quality slipper. >> i'm glad that zsa zsa gabor left those to you. news this morning of two billion dollar settlements involving the u.s. government. dom, what can you tell us? >> you have deutsche bank, germany's biggest lender agreeing to a $7.2 billion agreement with regulators tied

to mortgage bonds. $3.1 billion of civil fines, $4 billion of restitution to customers. while big, that final cost is half of what justice department officials reportedly want today get from deutsche. they wanted $14 billion back in the day. then you have a swiss banking giant agreeing to charges for similar offenses. $2 billion in immediately fines, $2.8 billion consumer relief in the next five years. one more bank, british banking giant barclays wants to have its day in court. barclays says it claims the suits really disconnected from the facts, and one more thing, the latest donald trump tweets out there taking aim at what he calls that costly lockheed martin next gen fighter program, he's asking boeing to look at the f-18 fighting jets.

lockheed stocks dropped and boeing stocks raised. >> you see the story where harry reid said the dnc was, quote, worthless under debbie ssman schultz. >> because she was working for hillary. >> still ahead, donald trump doubling down on his comments about a nuclear arms race. quote, we will outmatch them all. we will be right back. ♪ ♪ style lets you stand out from the herd. what's inside sets you apart. the cadillac escalade. enjoy our best offers of the year. listen up. etes. we're not professional athletes... but that doesn't mean we're giving up.

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now, as long as they do that, and as long as they at the same time have openly and publicly declared that the only morality they recognize is what will further their cause, meaning they reserve under themselves the right to commit any crime, to lie, to cheat, in order to attain that. that is moral. not immoral. and we operate on a different set of standards. i think when you do business with them, even at a detente, you keep that in mind. >> wow. ronald reagan speaking at his first press conference in january of 1981. taking on a tough tone on moscow early in his administration. this morning, i spoke with president-elect donald trump about questions on the meaning of his tweet, on expanding nuclear arms. he said, quote, let it be an arms race because we will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all. >> jon meacham, there are echoes of 1981 in that statement,

aren't there? >> absolutely. and we don't know how it's going to turn out. we were very fortunate in the '80s and into the early '90s with the leadership of reagan and bush, history will tell us about president-elect trump. but, you know, there is a pattern, there is a precedent for strong statements to set the table for successful negotiations. so i think that's what we hope for going forward. >> eddie, final thoughts? >> a dangerous world. i'going to enjoy these holidays and just snuggle up with my mom and my family. >> that's nice. >> happy holidays. final thoughts? >> are your traumatized? >> traumatized, also thinking if tv doesn't work out for you,s you have a great second career as a televangelist based on the portra portrait. >> as i said earlier, i will be going to the top of the rock. i won't be coming down until we raise $3 million for the

ministry. >> what are we -- >> you heard it here. >> what a day. >> $3 million. >> a lot of news going on. >> we're going to let people do it in real clothes now. >> i think that would be best. >> the day before christmas eve thing, it was good. it was interesting. >> i can't wait to see eddie next christmas. >> please have a wonderful holiday. >> a great and safe holiday as well. we want to thank you so much, as always, for packing your patience. >> yeah. >> we require more of it than most. >> that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. >> christmas, mika and joe. i'm starting to feel a little overdressed. i'm stephanie ruhle. this morning, we have breaking news to cover. hijacked, a dramatic hostin situation unfolding in malta. a libyan passenger plain diverted after two hijackers threatened to blow it up. an international manhunt ends. the truck driver in the berlin christmas attack killedane shootout overnight 650