times square awaits the new year. 2017 arriving in 12 hours. unprecedented security tonight. hello, i'm stephanie gosk, just blocks from times square at msnbc headquarters in new york. a number of countries already bidding ado to 2016. vietnam on the early list of early celebrators with this beautiful display. and not long before that, spectators in hong kong crowded waterfront to watch a dramatic fireworks display over victoria harbor.

earlier, new zealanders celebrated with a brightly colored fireworks display from the sky tower. and perhaps most dazzling of all, 1.5 million people in sydney celebrated as tons of fireworks blasted over the famed harbor. it lasted for nearly 15 minutes. let's go to new york city's times square with yet another dazzling sight later on tonight. adam reese is there. adam, what's it like where you are? is excitement building? >> reporter: hi, stephanie. good afternoon. they're already gathering here as expected by the thousands. they're right in the front row. they want to see that crystal ball drop and bring in 2017. as you know, security very tight here today and tonight. nypd is out in force. 7,000 officers to protect the nearly 2 million revelers. they're already wanting people as they enter the pens, metal

detectors, radiation detectors, some dogs going through the crowds, looking for any potential bomb residue or anything like that. choppers in the air. one thing that's different this year, 65 garbage trucks to complement the 100 police cars. they will act as blocker vehicles to prevent any vehicle from entering the perimeter of times square. they don't want to see anything like what happened in berlin and in niece earlier this year. i have a group from charlotte, north carolina. they came all the way overnight on a greyhound bus. jennifer and colin and jessica, maid of honor. you guys just got married, decided to come here for the honeymoon. why? >> we just wanted to do something special for the first new year of a marriage. so we decide today come watch the ball drop. >> reporter: so you took the greyhound bus all night. you wi you'll watch the ball drop and get back on the bus to go back. >> at 1:00 a.m. >> reporter: why is it so special be here and watch the

ball back. and what does it mean for you going forward in your marriage? >> it's a once in a lifetime opportunity and we feel that will be the best way to bring in the new year. >> reporter: and you brought your maid of honor. so what's it like for you to be here, joining them, honeymoon and get to watch the ball drop? >> i mean, it's very special to me. it was a christmas gift. and i was shocked. we had a little bump in the road when i first learned about the trip. but i'm just blessed to be here with them and share this moment with them. >> reporter: congratulations on your marriage. and happy new year. stiff kn stephanie, you know the is no known credible threat, the nypd tells us to the festivities here tonight. let's let the party begin. happy new year, stephanie. >> happy new year. that's great that the maid of honor was able to make the trip, too. that's pretty cool. in times square, adam reese, thank you very much. happening now, new reports of another russian hack aimed at the u.s. a vermont electric utility says it found on one of its laptops a

malware code the u.s. government says is used by russian hackers. the "washington post" first reported this, citing a senior obama administration official among its sources to say the russians did not actively use the code to disrupt utility operations. nbc's chance nichols joins us. what do we know about this? any reaction from the white house as of yet? >> reporter: no reaction from the white house. they're just waking up in hawaii, stephanie. we'll give them another couple minutes, maybe a full hour. here's the key point about this story. a distinction between hacking the system of burlington electronic and the actual grid. there is a single piece, signature malware found on a laptop. that laptop was not connected to the grid. so to say there was a hack of the grid and that the russians have figured out a way to burrow in may be going a little too far. however, this is an indication they're attempting. i was speaking to an analyst earlier today and he said that's

the important thing, the intent to get in. the security procedures after the white house notified utilities, financial institutions, had a long conversation on thursday trying to share information. this is one of the defensive sweeps in this defensive sweep ticked up this one bit of malware. one incident. wondering whether or not there are anymore. this is the only confirmed case and it was stopped before it got into the grid. stephanie? >> hans, quickly, we don't know what the attempt was once there, do we? >> reporter: yes, it could have been to monitor, it could have been to influence it. we simply don't know that. one quick note, we should say the governor as well as lawmakers from the state of vermont, outraged, expressing outrage, while also pledging to work with state, federal and national utilities to make sure that this actually gets halted. stephanie? >> terrific. hans nickel son, thank you very much. the washington report came just hours after the president-elect praised vladimir putin for his decision to not retaliate against new u.s. sanctions.

in a tweet, trump said, "i always knew he was very smart." president obama setting his focus on securing his health care law. he'll sit down in an effort to stop republicans from gutting the affordable care act. as well as making drastic changes to medicare and medicaid. and as president obama wraps up his christmas vacation this weekend, he's touting some of his administration's achievements and what lies ahead. here's what he said during his last weekly address of the year. >> it has been the privilege of my life to serve as your president. and as i prepare to take on the even more important role of citizen, know that i will be there with you every step of the way to ensure that this country forever strives to live up to the incredible promise of our founding. that all of us are created equal, and all of us deserve every chance to live out our dreams.

from the obama family to yours, have a happy and blessed 2017. to talk about all of this and more, i want to bring in seema menta from the l.a. times, and molly cooper from the hill. ladies thank you very much for joining me. seema, i want to start with you. we just heard from the president, his final address of the year. what do you make of his legacy and does he have to fight for it? >> i mean, he clearly believes he does have to fight for it. we see this in the steps through his executive actions and through the statements he's making, meetings with democratic lawmakers upcoming. efforts to protect his legacy. obamacare, his foreign policy decisions. his immigration policy. we know he is completely at odds with the president-elect on a number of these issues. and the president-elect has vowed, the first day he takes office to use executive actions to really try to overturn much of the president's legacy. >> let's turn now to congress, molly. i want to ask you about, you

know, this news today that a -- that a computer at the vermont power company was breached, potentially. is this the kind of shout across the bow that just might bring democrats and republicans together on this issue of cyber security and how important it is to our country? >> absolutely. i mean, cyber security is an issue that has been receiving a lot of attention on capitol hill since president obama actually became president. i mean, in 2009, you know, the u.s. since 2009, the u.s. has been tracking efforts by china, russia, big countries, to hack into u.s. utilities. and so even though it's not the sexiest of issues that gets a lot of coverage up on capitol hill, you know, definitely intelligence committee members and various members on the energy and commerce committee, oversight and government reform, including darrell issa, actually has seemed up with susan d

delbena, a later in microsoft before she became a member of congress, to work on cyber security efforts. because it is something that they realize is a huge issue for this country. you know, and protecting our utilities that could be hacked. >> molly, stay with you for just a moment and on the hill. talking about obama's legacy moving forward. he has taken some very dramatic moves in the last couple of weeks. how do you see his legacy playing out in the immediate beginning of the trump presidency? >> well, you know, typically, presidents move away from washington, d.c. president obama is not. he's going to be staying in the capital, kind of for a reason, i think. that's what some people on capitol hill are telling me. they say he wants to be very close to the action, to make sure he can put as much pressure as possible on the new congress and president -- incoming president trump to maintain his

signature items, like the health care law. it's interesting that he's meeting with democrats now. i know that before congress left for the recess or left for the 114th congress when democrats in the senate had more authority and more power. he tried -- you know, harry reid was trying to write legislation in a way that president-elect trump could not undo it, undo things that have passed under president obama. and so now that president obama is going to be meeting with the democrats on capitol hill, they have less power. so it will be interesting to see what comes of this. i know that key democratic leaders are going to hold these national days of action to, you know, call for, you know, preserving obamacare. but we'll see what happens with that. >> seema, let's turn a little bit to trump's reaction to the sanctions this week.

and praising putin. ishere a strategy to this? i mean, it disturbed a lot of people on the hill, and members of his own party. >> right. absolutely. i mean, it seemed like there was bipartisan agreement, you know, on the hill that something that the administration needed to do something about russia, potentially meddling in our are elections. and on the republican side, there was some criticism. leadership in both parties said sanction needed to happen. what i found fascinateling, traditionally if the united states does something and russia hits back at a simultaneous or similar level, that tit for at that time, diplomacy or whatever, in this time putin after the united states decided to send 35 diplomats and their families to make them leave the country. closing those two properties or deny access to two properties in new york and maryland that russia owns and diplomats use for recreation that americans argue they use them for spy

purposes. i was amazed russia did not retaliate. definitely a deviation from their behavior. and some would argue this is putin playing chess. trump because of his warm words towards russia throughout the campaign, he was facing a lot of scrutiny. so once he took office f russia had hit back, at the united states, he would have been facing even more scrutiny and tension from members of his own party to continue to stand up to russia. so the way this will unfold i think will be fanaturing. >> let's take a quick turn. so much different now than president obama's first swearing in. you have 23 permits filed so far by organizations planning to protest. the biggest expected to be what's being called the million-women march. do you think trump will be able to overcome this in terms of optics? >> well, the thing about this is, if you go back to 2008, when president obama was elected president, it was just -- you know, hope and change and it was

a positive vibe. and the election -- i mean, president obama did not have the negatives that trump did when he won the presidency. and, you know, this kind of is an extension of the campaign. if you think about it, hillary clinton and donald trump had the highest negatives of any candidate running for president. i remember there was just distrust on both sides. so this really has a lot to say about the state of the country right now, and the state of uncertainty, what's going to happen in the future. but we'll see what happens with these protests. i know that on the other side, one of the big inauguration balls that's getting a lot of coverage, or at least a lot of interest among, you know, trump sponso supporters is the deplora ball, people on the amount alt-right. and so there is an opposite situation. we'll see how that plays out also. but it definitely is a different vibe in this city than it was

when president obama was inaugurated. >> and some indication that president-elect trump recognizes that. he said he will try to bring the country together. seal we'll see how that goes. thank you both very much. >> thank you. are more sanctions needed against russia? i'll ask a member of the house intelligence committee. and later this hour, new year, new life. a chicago man embodies the hope and mercy of president obama's clemency initiative. how could this man get life behind bars after just one criminal conviction. see how the prosecutor who put him away helped free him. >> you know, when you look at something, you wait for something so long and finally get it, something like that, it's like -- it's -- a burden is lifted off of you. but now it's like, wow. you know, it really happened. there's a denture adhesive that holds strong until evening.

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we consider these sanctions completely unsubstantive, unreasonable. and very detrimental to the bilateral relations between the united states of america and the russian federation. >> that was the counselor general of the russian federation reacting to the sanctions announced by the white house this week. joining me now is congresswoman jackie spear, member of the house armed services committee. and the house permanent select committee on intelligence. congresswoman, thank you very much for joining me. i want to start with this news out of vermont. a vermont electric utilities confirming it found malware on one of its laptops. the u.s. government says that malware code is used by russian

hackers. now the "washington post" first reported this story, citing a senior obama administration official. your colleague from vermont, pete welch, said in a statement, this shows how, quote, rampant russian hacking is. do you agree with that assessment? >> i think absolutely. we know that they are not just interested in hacking into the national committees of our parties, but they're very interested in being able to take very aggressive action against us if they are so inclined. so hacking into the electric grid in vermont, trying to shut down the financial services system, doing any number of things to show their prowess is what -- is what russia is really all about. >> senator john mccain is scheduled an armed services committee hearing next week. it's focusing on cyber threats to the u.s. will the american people learn more about russia's intentions here, do you think?

>> we might. but i think it's important to point out that warfare today is more than gun powder and weapons. cyber warfare is how you can bring a country to its knees by being able to hack into whether it's the electrical grid or the financial services grid. and i think that we have got to do a much better job internally, within the u.s. government, in making sure that there is the kind of cyber protection that, frankly, is not always there. that's why the office of personnel management was hacked for over a year by the chinese before we knew about it. and so much greater effort has to be made to make sure that we have the kind of hygiene in the cyber systems within the federal government. >> do you think that there is the kind of bipartisan support for that, as you call it, hygiene necessary? is this bringing both sides of the aisle together? >> there's no question that

there is. there is great concern by republicans and democrats about the condition of our cyber security, not just in the government, but among our corporate companies, that exist throughout the country. so oftentimes, they are hacked, and they don't know it until the federal government tells them. so we need to do a lot of work in that regard. so it was very important to do the attribution, identify russia as the hacker. make no mistake they were clearly trying to impact the u.s. democratic process. the election process in this country. and we need to identify them as the perpetrators. we need to deter them, and we need a wholesale inventory of our vulnerabilities. >> there has been some criticism of the obama administration's response. congressman shift, the top

democratic on the house intelligence committee, criticized obama for his, quote, excess in caution, in dealing with the interference. do you agree with that? >> i think there will be overt and covert action against russia for the steps that they took. i think the president was in a difficult position in that had he taken steps before the election, it would have been seen as trying to sway the election. so having that as a backdrop s was, i think, somewhat problematic for him. i do think, though, we have to be very aggressive at pushing russia back. the 35 people that have been expelled from the country, one being a chef in san francisco, was a cover. they are using many of these individuals as persons that are indeed spies on behalf of the russian government. >> you see, we have to be aggressive. but we saw trump yesterday praise putin on twitter.

he is soon going to meet with intelligence officials. are you confident that the president-elect will accept their assessment and their conclusions about russia's hacking activities, and let the sanctions stand? >> you know, the president-elect is now responsible for the safety and security of 325 million people. for him to come out and praise putin, when he hasn't even taken the time to be briefed by the 17 intelligence agencies about the hack is truly troubling. and i hope that the president-elect realizes that this is a very serious issue. republicans and democrats alike recognize that it is. and it's very important for him to become educated and to speak with knowledge and not with ignorance. >> congresswoman, it certainly does seem that president-elect trump believes that a closer relationship and a better relationship between the u.s. and russia would make americans safer. do you agree with that? >> well, that was, you know, a

position that president obama took when he became the president in 2008. he wanted a reset with russia. and i think he learned over the years that that was not practical. we've got to remember, putin is a kgb man. he has been grown up in the espionage world. he is very interested in recreating the ussr. he would like to see russia gain the power that it has lost. and so he's going to -- he's going to use every technique and talent he has as a spy and psychological warfare to get the president-elect to accommodate him. and that would be a huge mistake. so i think the congress is going to become critical in an effort to make sure that the united states puts itself first, front and center in terms of making sure that we stay secure. >> congresswoman jackie spier of california, thank you very much and happy new year. >> happy new year to you.

he's tweeting again. coming up, donald trump extends new year's wishes to his alleged enemies. that's charmin ultra strong, dude. cleans so well, it keeps your underwear cleaner. so clean... you could wear them a second day. charmin ultra strong. it's 4 times stronger, and you can use less enjoy the go with charmin.

the eag has officially landed. or at least one of them, it looks like. mill of people have been watching this live stream of a bald eagle nest in florida, waiting for two chicks to hatch. and today it finally happened. one of the two baby eagles broke free of its shell earlier this morning. and it could be seen chirping away as an eaglelette would do. the debut has been much anticipated since the hatching process began thursday, in north ft. myers. mama eagle is known as harriet, and her mate called a lessen deering n-15. the new offspring is e-9. definitely needs a better name. the other eagle could hatch any day now. we'll be back with some of the

new years celebrations from arounded world. arounded world. darounded world. .

welcome back. i'm stephanie gosk here at msnbc world headquarters in new york. at the half hour, here's what we're monitoring. here's the latest live look at times square. the big bash is about ten and a half hours away. but it already looks pretty crowded. weather will be on the side of the revelers today. give the time the ball drops, the temperature is expected to be in the mid 40s. and there's very little chance of rain. lucky them. and weather not cooperating in other places. millions from connecticut to maine are feeling the effects of a massive nor'easter. the storm dropped more than 2 feet of snow in some areas over the past few days. joining me now, msnbc meteorologist bonnie schneider. bonnie, how is it looking now? >> i'm not surprised that maine is still dealing with power outages. maine saw the worst of it this week. 27 inches of snow, and many

other locations, 25-plus. you can see other states impacted like new hampshire, massachusetts, as well. and into vermont. we currently have lake-effect snow affecting the western add ron ack mountains. we could see the quick moving clipper system. to the south, all rain. heavy at times from lake charles all the way into baton rouge. we're watching out for a flash flood watching, because the potential exists through monday for heavy rain. what a start to the new year. we could see flooding in this area. we'll let you know if anything develops. off to the west, a new storm coming through with cold air, rain heavy at times today into much of southern california, and then tomorrow, this moisture works its way across to southern arizona. so tucson and phoenix, wet weather for the first day of the year. and speaking of new year's eve, looking great for times square. relatively speaking. the temperature will be comfortable. 41 degrees, a lot colder than that, certainly. we have seen that in years past. mostly cloudy conditions, so not

bad at all. it's going to get colder, though, in 2017. we have got a big batch of cold air coming in, and you'll start to feel it as early as next week. look at these numbers into the teens, the 30s and 40s. this is a sign, stephanie, of what's to come. all of this cold air pushing east. and by the end of next week, most of us across the country will be feeling it. >> sounds brutal. msnbc meteorologist bonnie schneider, thank you very much. to politics now. president-elect donald trump took to twitter this morning to share new years well wishes. even for those, he calls my many enemies. let's go to nbc's kelly o'donnell in west palm beach, florida. what else is the president-elect up to today? >> reporter: well, being it's a holiday, stephanie. it's pretty quiet on the trump world front. there are no public events expected. but there is also a tradition for the trump family here in palm beach. they will have the annual new year's eve party at the mara

lago club. that will have about 800 guests we're told. this is something that is not a personal party hosted by the trumps, but it is the club. and we expect that sylvester stallone and quincy jones will be among the guests. dinner and dancing will be there. they will be ringing in the new year, unlike many americans, in a very posh style. and ringing in a year that will send them to the white house. so we don't know of any other events today, or if we will even see the president-elect in public. so we're watching that. but twitter is his instant early-morning way, any time of the day, way of communicating to the public. to the media, to the voters, even around the world. and we saw that today. and like so many of his tweets, there are a couple of different messages. the happy new year wish, the noting that he has many enemies, suggesting they haven't gotten over his victory. and then sort of the trademark exclamation point after the word "love." how you interpret that, could that be part of his message of

saying he will be a president looking to unify the country after a contentious election? and at the same time, is still uncomfortable with those who continue to criticize him. that's what makes a donald trump tweet so interesting. you can see different things in it. and advisers are reluctant to add anything to it. or to explain his position. so a bit of holiday mode in trump world. he will go back to new york, we expect, tomorrow and continue his work on the transition. >> let's look at those tweets for just a second and talk about his tweets when it comes to russia. can we interpret anything from those tweets about what he is going to do in the early days of his administration, and could he potentially undo obama's moves? >> reporter: he would have the power to sort of swing back some of the actions of president obama. but it also appears that president-elect trump is taking his time on this. he has been reluctant to publicly acknowledge russia's responsibility in the hacking.

in fact, advisers say he will get more information from the intelligence community this week with a special briefing they are setting up, not just with professional staff briefers, who would be the normal way the current president or the future president would learn about events and threats around the world. this would be top chiefs at the intelligence agencies would come and sit with trump, and talk about what they have found and why they believe it is so persuasive that russia was responsible. after that, will we see a policy change? will we see a public pronouncement. aides are not able to tell us if we should expect that or not. they keep pointing to the event of this intelligence meeting. he has a couple weeks before he takes office and it may be a case he wishes to wait until he takes the oath to really come down on where he stands with russian hacking. he has made it curious, because as we know, barack obama has taken a hard line against russia on this issue. we have seen him compliment vladimir putin not to expel

american diplomats in response to what president obama has done. so it is a curious situation with trump on russia. we don't have a real sense yet of how he's going to respond. >> sounds like we're all going to have to wait a little bit on that one. nbc's kelly o'donnell, happy new year to you and thank you very much. >> happy new year. new beginning. a chicago man's 21-year-long nightmare ends and president obama made it happen. that's next. looking for balance in your digestive system?

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many for nonviolent drug crimes. this man is featured in the chicago sun times. mary mitchell authored the series and joins us now. thank you very much for joining us. this is some great reporting. let's start with the story of jesse webster, recently released from prison after serving more than 21 years. what got him there in the first place? >> well, what got him there was drug dealing. he admits that, he was selling drugs. he got into the drug business as a young boy. not even in high school. he came from a poor family, and a distressed neighborhood. and to make ends meet, he went out and shoveled snow, washed cars, carried groceries, and sold drugs on the corner. >> but then how did he end up with such a harsh sentence? what did he do? >> okay, so the problem here was that it wasn't the fact he was just selling drugs. because he admits that.

but it was a prosecution in chicago where prosecutors were looking to get something on the gangster disciples and basically larry hoover. they found out, through sources, thse webster was selling drugs, was a middle person in drug deals involving the gangster disciples. they wanted jesse webster to wear a wire. he refused to wear a wire because he said the feds could not protect his family. life in prison. but that's exactly what happened. and it happened without the feds bringing even a speck of cocaine into the courtroom. >> it's interesting. one of the things you point out is that the judge in this case actually had no choice in a life term. but what did he think about it? >> well, he thought it was absurd. he thought it was too high. and what i found fascinating

about the jesse webster story was the fact that he was able to -- the lawyer was able to get the federal judge, who sentenced webster to life in prison to write a letter to the office of the pardon attorney, asking them and supporting jesse webster's plea to be released. as well as to the prosecutors who worked on the case. >> tell me about how this clemency took place involved in the prosecution. tell me about that. >> i beg your pardon? >> talk me through the petition with clemency with president obama. how did that come about? >> okay. so jesse webster had been trying to get out of prison for a while. and he had -- as his last plea, he thought he could actually write a clemency petition. he ran into the lawyer, jessica ring-emerson, and she was able to put together a clemency petition. this was before the

initiative -- the obama initiative of 2014. this was actually in 2012. so from 2012, he had been -- all the way to 2016, he had been waiting to hear whether or not he was going to get clemency. so he was really at the very forefront of the whole clemency initiative. >> what's really remarkable about this case in particular, in his petition for clemency, he actually had the support of the very prosecutors who put him behind bars in the first place, didn't he? >> and that was the -- but, you know, here's what i think that i really wanted people to walk away with. that even people who were intimately involved in the criminal justice system, the judge, the prosecutors, understood this was overkill. but their hands were tied because of the mandatory minimum sentencing structure, the way it was laid out. so now 20 years later, that is beginning to crumble. and the fact that president

obama saw this as a -- injustice that could be righted by using the tool of mercy, which is what clemency is. it is a mercy tool. he used that tool effectively to release over 1,000 people who had been spending these long, unjust sentences behind bars. >> well, let's talk a little bit about those policies, about the effect of mandatory minimum sentencing on nonviolent drug offenders. you write, the result for the black community was catastrophic. that so many black men swept into prisons, that the war on drugs quickly became a, quote, war on families, leaving blind thousands of fatherless children. how are you seeing the impact manifest itself in the city where you are, the city of chicago? >> the city of chicago is still catastrophic. when you think about it, these are young men who were basically engaged in an underground economy, and why an underground economy? because there were no jobs. the manufacturing jobs were

gone. they had to feed their families. they made the bad choices and the bad choice was selling drugs. punishment should always fit the crime. and if the punishment doesn't fit the crime, no one respects the law. so it had a two-prong effect. it made the criminal justice system look racist and unfair. and then it swept so many young people -- it was like the vietnam war for african-american communities. these young men disappeared. they left mind women, they left behind mothers, they left behind children. and because of that, they also left a disrespect for the law. so i think it has been catastrophic. and i think what obama did is at least chip away at it, because there are still tens of thousands of young men and women behind bars, because of these draconian sentencing laws. >> and just quickly, if you could, does this country need to do more to help ex convicts when they come out of prison? >> oh, definitely.

once they are released from prison after spending 20 years behind bars, they've got to have jobs, they have to have a place to stay. some are estranged from families. you don't want to release them and send them back into an environment that was crueller than the environment they left in the first place. >> chicago sun times columnist, mary mitchell. thank you so much for joining us and congratulations on that report. >> thank you. countdown to 2017. up xt what the times square crystal ball symbolizes as we usher in the new year. my business was built with passion... but i keep it growing by making every dollar count. that's why i have the spark cash card from capital one. with it, i earn unlimited 2% cash back on all of my purchasing. and that unlimited 2% cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business... which adds fuel to my bottom line.

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we have breaking news on president-elect trump. an unusual occurrence. let's go to kelly o'donnell in west palm beach. >> reporter: well, good to be with you again. when we last spoke just a few minutes ago, you asked me what was on tap for the president-elect today and i said we did not have any expectation

of seeing him in public. i was wrong. the pool that travels with the president-elect had told us that he has left his compound and gone to his golf club in jupiter, florida without his travel press pool. now, that is notable because when you are the president of the united states or the president-elect of the united states, there is an agreement that a small group of reporters who regularly cover you go with you whenever you're in public when you could be seen in public. this is a long standing generational commitment that the press and the white houses have made. it stems from times when dangerous events have taken place, assassination attempts, and also world attempts that can be volatile to make certain that he is seen and as access for the about media. not for the media sake, for the public's saying. so it is notable that donald trump has gone without his travel pool after his team has

told us that they will comply with this tradition for public transparency. they are again not doing that today. how did we find out? people at the club tweeting pictures, talking about the fact that the president-elect is playing golf today. that is part of the reason this pool exists so that if he is out among members of the pin, there are observers there available to cover stories that may come up, give the president or president-elect access to the media, and also so we know at all times where the leader or future leader of the free world is located. so donald trump says he likes to break with tradition and he's doing it again today. >> that's right, the last time he did that was here in new york city, he snuck off to dinner. kelly, thank you very much. 2017 has arrived, at least a long way from the u.s. this is tokyo, ringing in the new year with the traditional release of balloons into the night sky. in just about ten hours, up to 2 million people are expected in new york's times square. and a piece of the events, the

crystal ball as it descends 141 feet to usher in 2017. joining us now from the company that designed the ball, tom brennan of waterford crystal. tom, thank you. >> good afternoon, thanks for having me. >> happy new year. >> happy new year indeed. >> first of all, the ball is ready to go? >> it is ready to go. the last minute testings have been done. and in my hand right now, this is one of the panels from the times square ball, a waterford crystal panel. just 2688 of these on the 6-ton ball, 12 feet in diameter on a reinforced floor. and either 00 iit's incredible that this irish heritage company has a billion people watching about and for that moment in time, we are the most advise willing brand on the planet. >> it is lovely and surprisingly heavy. >> i'm from waterford city, my dad was a master craftsman

before me. so we have a great story. >> tell me about the stein theme. >> this year's theme is part of the greatest gift series by waterford. so each year we introduce a new theme, a new design. and this year's theme is the gift of kindness. this year we could have all done with a little piece of kindness over 2016 as you have been reporting on. but the gift of kindness, the act of kindness is something that is very simple do. it can make a huge difference in somebody's life. and like i always say, the tom challenge is do one act of kindness for one person and make a difference. >> that's a lovely message. tell me about what you brought here with you. >> these are the classic quintessential waterford crystal designs. all of these waterford.com, but all tlehemed around kindness. celebrate with us and live a crystal life. >> that's wonderful.

you didn't bring anything to fill up the lovely glasses. >> we can take care of that offset. >> thank you very much for joining me. that will do it for me this hour. i'm stephanie gosk. thanks so much for watching. i'll be back more with news at the bottom of the hour. we leave but a look at times square.

>> the best of "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. we'll call it a political earthquake, an unraveling of the system or even a revolution. 2016 changed the face of american politics forever. there was the nationalist and populist ascension of our next president, donald trump, the collapse of the clinton dynasty, the revolutionary fervor that reshaped the democratic party with the socialist senator from vermont, bernie sanders. even a growing call for a third