tv MSNBC Live MSNBC January 1, 2017 9:00am-10:01am PST
9:00 am
breaking news at this hour from turkey, scene of the terror attack that claimed 39 lives. officials are developing a clearer picture of what happened at that istanbul nightclub in the hours after the clock struck a new year. good to be with you on this new year's day. onhis first day of 2017. here is the latest. a manhunt is on in turkey for the gunman who unleashed bullets in a crowded nightclub in istanbul. it happened shortly after midnight where 600 people were inside celebrating the new year. the gunman's identity is still unknown and eyewitness footage captured the immediate aftermath of the shooting and the panic that followed.
9:01 am
[ speaking foreign language ] >> bodies are seen lying on the ground. at least 39 people were killed, 70 others injured. the u.s. consulate is worning people to limit their movement in the city. kelly, what can you tell us about the latest from there? >> caller: right now, the nightclub reina nigh club is covered in a blue tarp. there are police officers outside and a long row of international reporters on the other side of the street. this has drawn huge attention from around the world, largely because of the terrorist attack on new year's eve, something many people had feared and because of the number of victims from really around the middle east and canada and belgium, in
9:02 am
fact. the turkish prime minister said details aremerging about the g gunman. he has not said whether they have an i.d. on who they are looking for. e manhunt for him continues at this hour. the turkish prime minutister sa they did find the weapon inside. the prime minister saying that he slipped away in the chaos and left his weapon behind. so a potentially vital clue for investigators there. we are hearing about the victims. as you mentioned, 39 people killed, 11 of them we turkish citizens, 28 foreign nationals, including people from iraq, syria, saudi arabia, lebanon, kuwait, canada and israel. the israeli, according to the
9:03 am
israeli consulate, was an 18-year-old young woman who was here celebrating the new year with a couple of her friends. they survived but she did not. dozens were injured as well. we're not yet sure whether or not americans are among the wounded. we cannot definitively rule that out as of yet. many are still in the hospital, at least three people are in critical condition. so still trying to confirm whether or not any americans are among the wounded here. >> this is an awful start to the new year. thank you. on the heels of the turkey terror, a new report on isis and its aspirations to launch mass casualty chemical attacks. it comes from the british security minister in a newspaper interview published today. i want to bring in chris dicky and also an msnbc contributor. thanks for being with me once again. while we have no claim of responsibility for the attack in turkey at this point, i want to
9:04 am
ask you about the new interview with the british security minister on chemical weapons. do we even know whether isis, on an operational scale, is capable of that kind of attack on a western target? >> well, i think it certainly would like do something like that. whether it's able to use the kinds of weapons that we usually talk about when we're talking about chemical weapons like nerve gas, i doubt that it's going to have that capability. but if you are talking about, for instance, using chlorine, gas, readily available in a lot of environments, yeah, that's possible. if you use it in a closed environment, it could be deadly and create a lot of casualties. this is something that al qaeda talked about and tried to do for a very long time. it's not surprising that isis wants do it. but there's a scary precedent here which was the arrest of several people in morocco in the last few months who were, indeed, actively trying to create some kind of chemical
9:05 am
weapon for isis. >> you also have the islamic state using mustard gas in an attack on a syrian town last year, august 2015, i should say. i want to ask you about the report that suggests the uk carried out exercises preparing for an attack like that. when you look at intelligence, is there any way to pick up or identify potential chemical attack? are there any sensors that could be used here? >> well, it depends on the chemical. i mean, one of the dangers of a weapon like nerve gas is that it is odorless and colorless. you don't know what's happening to you unless it's happening to you. it's extremely dangerous. something like chlorine gas often is colored. you smell it. it smells like swimming pools. to that extent, it's easier to get away from. it's less dangerous. but all of these things are very dangerous. the mustard gas that isis is believed to use probably is some
9:06 am
it captured at some point from an old syrian arsenal. we believe if it had more effective chemical weapons, it would have used them by now. >> another one of the concerns. back to the nightclub attack, security was reportedly increased in recent days. american intelligence officials warning about an attack in turkey. does this mean that even -- anybody out there, whether in turkey, in other western nations, in the united states, that you are alert, taking precautions, you are still hopeless if someone is committed to carrying out something like this? >> well, it's almost impossible to stop people who are willing to risk their own lives, to die themselves and who are going to hit very soft targets. i mean, this is one of the reasons we think this is an isis attack is because they are willing to slaughter civilians wherever they find them if large groups. we saw it again and again. we have seen it in a lot of different places. whereas for instance, the kurdish groups that might have
9:07 am
been suspected, they have come out and said, it's not us. we don't attack civilians in this fashion. they tend to try and target government officials and the military. which is not to say they aren't terrorists, but it's a different m.o. this looks like an isis operation. there's something also that needs to be understood about this particular fight, which is that turkey has been putting a lot of pressure on isis. it used to almost cooperate, in fact, some people said it did cooperate withisis. now isis feels betrayed. it's going after the turks. particularly in a gruesome incident just before christmas, it released a video of two turkish soldiers that had burned alive. warned that turkey was now the land of jihad. so while we need to fear random violence, it's also to some extent the case that isis telegraphs its blows. it has made it clear it's going to do as much as it can to take
9:08 am
the fight into tury right w. >> something they have seen in the past year withust the past month alone, i believe four attacks, 180 killed in attacks over the past year. in that sense, when we look at all of the past -- this rundown right now, this full screen of the attacks that they have endured in 2016, and we see this one here at a nightclub where there are a lot of foreign nationals. no confirmations of any americans. is that what we expect to continue to see into the new year? >> they are going to try do it. the turks will try to stop them. the turkish intelligence services are pretty good and ruthless. they will pull out a lot of stops in order to keep aid on this kind of terror. clrly, they are concerned. one of the first things the turks do with these kinds of incidents is try and put a lid on the press so people don't know what's going on. there's a wall street journal reporter who was detained for tweeting out images of the soldiers being burned alive.
9:09 am
there was an immediate clamp down on the media in the aftermath of the first few hours after the ghtclub attack you are going to have a situation where there's not only going to be an effort to control the terrorists and stop the terrorists, there's going to be an effort to control the reporting on it. as if that would help. >> very quickly -- >> i think we're in for a difficult time as civilians, as the press, as the military, as intelligence services. i think we're looking at a real covert war that's going to go on for a long time. >> talk about here at home. we saw security amped up at times square, other areas in light of this. whatan we expect as far as what can be learned from this that we can apply here at home? >> well, you know, i wrote a book about the new york city police department's counterterrorism operations there. they are incrediblebly good. most of the american cities have adapted practices that make americans a lot safer. u.s. and especially new york and
9:10 am
washington are always the number one targets of terrorists. if they could hit us, they would. and they would do it again and again. they haven't been able to. they've been stopped again and again. sometimes the police have gotten lucky. sometimes they have been very effective. but it's an ongoing game. the terrorists certainly have to get through once or twice to horrify the nation. even an attack like the one in san bernardino where you had people who went and shot up an office party in an organization they belonged to, all of a sudden that became an isis attack that terrified the nation. so you can't stop all of it. you can say you can, you can say you can try. but ultimately, you cannot. americans are going to have to get hardened to the idea that these kinds of attacks will take place. >> it is a disturbing reality we have now. thank you for being with us. to politics now. president-elect trump rang in the new year at his estate
9:11 am
partying along stallone and fabio. even at a party, he faced questions about cyber security and the russian hack. >> kelly o'donnell is in west palm beach, florida. interesting to hear these commentso and even donald trump saying that he has information about this hack that he is going to withhold until next week. >> reporter: it was interesting because it was not expected that the president-elect would take questions from the mall group of reporters who were assigned to sort of witness the holiday party and get some pictures of
9:12 am
that. but he did take questions. the questions did go to some of the issues we have been covering in the national conversation in recent days. you heard him advocate for the old-fashion courier aroach instead of the electronic age. he also talked about his son's skill at computers, that he knows how to do all kinds of things. the paint you made, he was asked about his confidence or lack thereof in the intelligence assessment that russia is behind the hacking that attempted to affect the election season. he won't go that far yet. we know he has reserved judgment saying that he has no reason to believe that russia was solely responsible and is concerned about the assessment. talked about the fact that he knows some extra things and suggested when asked what are those things that he knows that others do not, he offered up this kind of future prediction that he would reveal it tuesday or wednesday. in the time line, that suggests he means after his intelligence briefing, which is scheduled for tuesday, with som very high level members of the
9:13 am
intelligence community. he also made reference to president obama and talked about the fact that they have had a pretty good working relationship during this transition and indicated they have been in touch. >> reporter: so part of what is notable is that donald trump is willing to speak very forcefully on the issue of israel but on the issue of hacking and russia's involvement there, he has held back. so that's sort of two different ways in which as this transition period unfolds, he is entering sort of the world conversation and the diplomatic conversation in two different ways.
9:14 am
that's interesting to watch. he has proclaimed that after january 20th, his view toward the u.n. and what it has done regarding israel, he would take a different approach. he has a forceful position on israel. of course, you heard him criticize the speech that john kerry gave, which was also critical of israel's settlements which under the obama administration and john kerry's leadership at state, he has felt that that was a deterrent to the two state solution in the hard to achieve attempts at a peace process in that part of the world. >> kelly o'donnell, thank you. new outrage on the sunday talk shows this morning. did donald trump's reservation about the hacking.
9:18 am
9:19 am
ranking member of the intelligence committee. >> how solid is the evidence it was the russians? >> it's very solid. it's overwhelming. the president-elect as you know said that he knows things that other people don't know. he needs to stop talking this way. if he is going to have any credibility as president, he needs to stop talking this way. he needs to stop doing this. they didn't just steal data, they weaponized it. they dumped it with the intent of influencing the outcome. that is not something china has done, frankly russia has done. >> the department of homeland security is backing the vermont utility company's assessment that there's no indication the power grid was penetrated. neither the white house nor russia has commented publically on the code. i want to bring in paul
9:20 am
singer and yamichele. glad you are spending your new year's afternoon with me. paul, i want to start with you. what does trump mean saying we will find out from him tuesday or wednesday? what has he got? >> i have no idea. this is the -- donald trump ran an election campaign based on the notion that government is corrupt, lying to you and inept most of the time. the problem he faces is in about three weeks, it's his government. and now he has to turn around and say, well, the government is no longer lying to you and no longer inept because it's my government. this is a challenge for him. he has denigrated all the institutions that he will have to run and give people confidence in. when you do stuff like this and say, i know stuff you don't know, it leaves the american people thinking, who exactly is in charge? >> interesting you use that word, denigrated. we heard adam say he needs to
9:21 am
stop talking this way if he wants credibility. it seems to have worked for him so far. >> sure. because he's not in charge of anything. all he has had to do is run a campaign. he hasn't had to run an agency. let's see what happens when he has to run these government agencies. >> your take on this, when you see him going to intelligence briefings this week. is there anything that could change? how is ts going to affect that coming into it and especially knowing that this -- so many people want to know what he has to say. >> the question that reporters and people have been asking since the beginning, i would say, of this campaign season, even though it's over now, is that will he become more presidential? we were waiting for him to change his tone and stop tweeting as much and really be more presidential before he won. now that he won, i don't think he is going to start changing and saying that -- and start really making solid claims and using evidence and showing
9:22 am
people right away what he means by the things he is saying. he has gotten away with being vague, with really winning this presidency without really laying out his policies. now he is saying, trust me. i'm going to tell you kind of what i know. i have this secret that no one else has. this, of course, has worked for him. his supporters trusted him. i thin going forward what paul said is going to be very center to his presidency. people trusted him up until a certain point. now if you start saying things like this and you don't follow through -- if he doesn't go on tuesday and wednesday and say this is the evidence, this is why this is different from other parts of the -- of our history, he is going to have a big problem, i think. >> especially when it comes to russia. you have a lot of people watching this. take a listen here to more of congressman schiff this morning and how congress will respond to mr. trump if he tries to undo the current president's actions against russia. let's listen. >> reaction is going to be even more vigorous, i'm convinced, in favor of stronger sanctions
9:23 am
against russia. you will see democrats come together with a strong sanctions pa package. even though what they did was more than symbolic, it is meaningful, it's not enough to deter russia. >> hard le republicans given the hill, how do you see the fight against russia playing out? >> well, we're going to find out this week -- i believe it's thursday john mccain and the armed services committee is planning a hearing on russian hacking with the intelligence officials sitting there in front of them explaining what they know. there has been indications from a lot of republicans that they believe that mr. obama steps on sanctions have been too little and too late. they should have been firmer. it's entirely possible the republican congress want to move very swiftly and very significantly against russia in ways mr. trump has not embraced at all. it will be interesting to see what happens thursday and see what they say, mr. mccain particularly says about hacking and what it did to the elections. >> take away from that press
9:24 am
conference, i guess or just q & a yesterday at the party was his take on computers and what he said. frankly saying they're not safe. if you want to have sensitive material courier? >> i think that's going to be that snail mail situation. but i think the fact that he is saying that you shouldn't use e-mail, you shouldn't use computers at all, that's really problematic. most people who understand the government or most people who understand how information is used and given back and forth to each other understand that the swiftest way if the president might be traveling around the country or might be in another country is to use some form of electronic communication. it's going to be very surprising to a lot of people, journalists who covered donald trump understand how he uses devices and how he uses -- how he
9:25 am
doesn't use computers and how he uses a cell phone. i think it's going to be interesting to people, the american people when they start understanding that the president as of now does not use e-mail. >> you have that scenario. computers aren't safe. then mr. tweet, tweet away, as we have seen. then you have incoming press secretary sean spicer who said this this morning and his lack of news conferences. >> everyoneants to talk about the tweets he sends. would focus on the action that he is getting. donald trump is not president yet and he is getting action, successes and wins both abroad and here at home. >> we're going to see twitter? >> absolutely you are going to see twitter. >> he said that he was going to cut back. >> the fact of the matter is that when he tweets, he gets results. >> are you going to have regular white house press briefings? >> absolutely. some way. some on camera. some will be off. >> help me understand here. essentially, by that sense it's computers equal unsafe. but then again, tweets equals results.
9:26 am
paul. >> well, of course, twitter is a public medium all the time. no one can steal your tweets. honestly, donald trump has a point. >> somebody can hack. we have seen that happen with celebrities. >> someone can hack your account. the fact of the matter is that trump has a point here that any -- particularly once he is in government, anything you say on e-mail becomes a public record that someone can see later. you have seen in some of hillary clinton's e-mails she was saying to colleagues, print this out and bring it to me. because that's how they move some secret information. they do do it on paper sometimes. it's hard to imagine that a guy who runs a multimillion dollar, billion dollar contact doesn't use e-mail. but he doesn't. he does seem to enjoy twitter. go figure. none of us are consistent. >> all we know too well with tweets. we will see what he says tuesday or wednesday when he holds that press conference. to both of you, thank you and happy new year. >> thank you. >> happy new year. what president obama will do
9:27 am
9:30 am
welcome back on this new year's day. at the half hour, here is what we're monitoring. live look at the nightclub in istanbul where a gunman opened fire and killed at least 39 people. the attack happened just after midnight local time. some 600 people were believed to be inside celebrating the new year. right now, the identity of the gunman and his motive remain unknown. bring in retired atf special agent, jim cavanaugh. thanks for joining me. we know they are looking for this gunman. any information. walk me through what might be going on right now. what steps are authorities taking to try to find him? >> they are looking carefully at all this close circuit television video which is available on the web from
9:31 am
various news organizations. i have been looking at that all night asell. i'm skeptical of their claim it's only one gunman. here is why. there's close circuit television video. it's out there publically of a gunman dressed in black, a hood, a black backpack clearly shoots people in the street, a policeman and enters the nightclub firing a rifle. looks like a can a lish any could have rifle. he is clearly a shooter in the nightclub. the closed circuit television footage from inside shows a person dressed in a kriss kringle outfit in white, like a night cap and looks like he may be handling a handgun. the police have said -- now, a person can carry two guns, of course. but the police have said the gunman might have escaped. i just don't believe that we
9:32 am
have a gunman that's doing more changes than a broadway play, that he is running in there all in black with a backpack and rifle, changing to dress as kriss kringle with a handgun, then rechanging to escape. i think that's not really what's going on. it could be, i suppose. but it doesn't seem to fit to me. i think more likely we gotta be looking at there's a confederate inside dressed as kriss kringle with a handgun, coordinating on phone with a gunman with a long gun outside. the attack is coordinated. he comes in shooting. the santa claus starts shooting. the two gunmen are shting. they both escape. they have a lot to report here. that's just one possibility. i don't know. i'm just looking at the footage. maybe the guy is changing. >> let me ask ybout this. we talked about this earlier. it suck me as alarming when you say the nightclub owner had
9:33 am
increased security leading up to new year's. this still happened. we know in istanbul in turkey, government officials had a number of officers out there in areas where the public were. you told me earlier though that it was still inadequate security. the officers were not in the right place at the right time. how can we change that? how can we make sure in the future whether it's in istanbul, whether it's in cleveland, ohio, or any lace in the weplace in t the forces of protect are in the right place at the right time. >> you hit on that earlier. this is not any given night at any given nightclub. this is new year's eve at a well-known very popular nightclub in the city. they thought they had threats. nightclub owner has to lay on security. the police can't secure every private venue. he can ask for help from the police. they can push the security perimeter back a half a block. that guy couldn't have penetrated with the rifle. if they didn't search every bag, someone could have got in with a
9:34 am
handgun like santa klaus here. at least maybe could you have stopped the rifle attack, which is going to be very deadly. if people are stopped half a block away with a rifle, if you start shooting at that perimeter, the police or security at the door can lock the door, shut up and repel them there. you are letting people with rifles backpacks with ammo and maybe bombs penetrate crowded venues. that should have been stopped. security could have been better there. it wasn't any given night. it was new year's eve at a very popular venue in downtown istanbul. >> alarming since we know the past. you hear nightclub, you think of paris 2015, orlando earlier this year, all nightclubs like we see here as well. thank you so much for the perspective. i appreciate it. >> thanks. president obama's visit to capitol hill this weekend, how it could be a key move in protecting his health care law.
9:38 am
president obama and his family will begin traveling back to the white house later today after a vacation in hawaii. a meeting on capitol hill is geared towards preserving the affordable care act. tammy, what can we expect from president obama this week? >> reporter: president obama will be heading to the hill to try and come up with some type of strategy to preserve obamacare. as you know, democrats have already been huddled in strategy sessions trying to figure out how to protect this law that's about seven years old. on wednesday, this joint meeting will happen between the house and senate democrats. obama's big argument is that it really is a danger to repeal the affordable health care act without having something else already in place. it could create chaos within the health care system. as you know, republicans have vowed to get rid of this with the new congress. in fact, they haveeen wanting
9:39 am
to get rid of this all along. they now have the means to do that with donald trump taking office. as you can imagine, this has been a big talk on the sunday talk shows. let's listen to a little of that sound. >> the one thing we can all agree on is that the things that were announced as going to reduce the cost of healthcare universal coverage and so on didn't. we really want to have affordable medicine that we then figure out who pays for. >> i hope that we will come up with the solutions before we try to get rid of something that will impact all americans. >> reporter: the last few weeks of president obama's president will really be dedicated to preserving his legacy and trying to prevent the future president, donald trump, from making any far reaching changes. >> far reaching changes and replacement to be seen.
9:40 am
hope you were able to dip those toes in the water. thank you. a rocky start to 2017carey. thegiven to not being able to sing. why north korea could be president trump's biggest challenge. at planters, we're all about great taste. and we thoroughly test all our nuts for superior craveability. hey richard, check out this fresh roasted flavor. looks delicious, huh?
9:41 am
9:43 am
a little over 12 hours into the new year and this is what times square looks like right now. did anything happen there? look at it. cars are coming. no confetti. here is how it looked at midnight. an estimated crowd of 1 million people rang in the new year. they enjoyed themselves undet undeterred by heightened security concerns. 7,000 police officers helped to keep everyone safe. mariah carey ushered in 2017
9:44 am
with a flop. she started lip syncing when something went wrong. ♪ >> jt walk me down. happy new year. we can't hear but i will get through the motions. all right. >> she stopped. the dancers kept dancing. she said she would let the audience sing. she was a good sport. she took to instagram saying, here is to making more headlines in 2017. parts of the country starting off with sunshine. here is a look at philadelphia which held its annual mummers parade this morning. people bundled up, but they didn't have to bring out snow boots or umbrellas. however, not the case down south
9:45 am
where many are dealing with rain. for the latest we turn to bonnie schneider. a lot of people traveling back home to work or school after the long holiday. >> the wet weather for the first day of the year in the south is causing problems, especially for travellers. the rain in southern georgia, overcast skies in atlanta. then rain back out towards louisiana and into mississippi. we're watching out for the risk for flooding. this is going to occur through the afternoon today into monday. we will see that threat with all the heavy rain and thunderstorms working their way up to georgia. no delays in atlanta. we did have 30 minute delays at the airport a moment ago. seattle, your airport delays are at 33 minutes. you may be wondering, why do we have delays? it's snow. that's right. two inches of snow and snowing in seattle. very unusual. the last time it snowed on new year's day in seattle, 2004. we went back to get that. the snow is coming in.
9:46 am
what we really have a lot of cold air. as that cold drops down, not just the pacific northwest will be impacted but so many other places for this first week of the year into boise. look at the numbers drop down. salt lake city as well. the cold air will actually spread all the way eastward. we will feel it into the rockies and the northern plains. it will be cold enough for snow and a lot of it. look at the advisories posted straight through monday into tuesday. we're expecting a substantial amount of snow accumulating all the way to duluth, minnesota, down through minneapolis where you will see an icy event. heavy snow into north dakota and northern minnesota. winter is here and so is 2017. it looks like it's going to be a very snowy and cold one. >> hope it's a safe one as well for everybody. thank you. still ahead, a well-known television chef is waying in on wh what happened to democrats and the middle of america. that's next. d clot,
9:47 am
i sure had a lot to think about. what about the people i care about? ...including this little girl. and what if this happened again? i was given warfarin in the hospital, but wondered, was this the best treatment for me? so i asked my doctor. and he recommended eliquis. eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots and reduces the risk of them happening again. yes, eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots. eliquis also had significantly less major bleeding than the standard treatment. both made me turn around my thinking. don't stop eliquis unless your doctor tells you to. eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. don't take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. if you had a spinal injection while on eliquis call your doctor right away if you have tingling, numbness, or muscle weakss. while taking eliquis,you my .and it may take longer than usual for bleeding to stop. seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures.
9:48 am
9:50 am
why aren't we talking about the influence -- other influences on the election? why aren't we talking about hillary clinton getting debate questions ahead of time? that's a valid attempt to influence an election. everyone wants to make donald trump admit to certain things. when are we going to talk about the other side, which is what did hillary clinton do to influence the election? is she being punished? >> that is sean spicer hitting back at the idea that russia's election interference was meant to put donald trump over the top. i want to bring in howard dean, former governor of vermont and msnbc contributor and susan delbursio. thanks for being with me. howard, i want to start with you with your response. what stands out most as far as what sean spicer said? >> the interesng thing to me is i think sean spicer is the wrong guy for this job as trump has done many times in his
9:51 am
appointment. he has a history of being a partisan spokesman for the republican national committee. the president's spokesman cannot be partisan. the president's spokesman is there to defend the president, not to attack former opponents of the president. this does not look good. this is not what president's spokes people do. it's nonsense. there's a difference between hillary clinton trying to get an advantage or whatever she might do to try to win the election and making friends with somebody and having them influence the election who is a foreign power whose interests are very different than the united states of america's interests. i will let the comments speak for themselves. it shows to me, i think, another sort of malappointment by trump who doesn't understand what the presidency is about yet. >> what do you think on that? >> i don't think it was necessarily a poor appointment. i think it was a good appointment. as we know, most presidential spokes people come in, have worked on the campaign or the campaign with the
9:52 am
president-elect. that's not unusual. what i am a little surprised about is that we're still talking about what happened. i think that the president-elect's team should not be looking backwards and should only be looking forward. he is the president-elect. come january 20th, he will be the next president of the united states. and that's where they should be looking forward. not backward. >> i want to ask about you that, especially when it comes to the transiti transition. a reporter asked president-elect trump if he felt president obama is trying to undermine him. here is what he said. >> susan, is president obama trying to throw up roadblocks
9:53 am
here for donald trump? >> i don't think that's his intention. from what i understand and even what donald trump said, the staffs are working very well together towards a transition. this is just a unique time where we see the president-elect of the united states and the current president having very different policies and discussing it in the public, which is not what typically happens. >> howard, is that fair play on president obama's part? >> well, he is the president for another 19 days. i actually think trump handled that one fairly well. i think he -- it's important to have a smooth transition. i think president obama recognized that. that's what's in the best interest of the country here. they do have very different views on the behavior of israel and the settlements and so forth. but i think that was well handled by trump. >> when it comes to russia, we have donald trump telling people to move on. you have leaders in his own rty calling for stricter
9:54 am
sations. where does that leave the rank and file republicans? how is that goes to come into play, susan? >> it's a very good question. because you have the republicans coming back, the house and senate, before president trump is inaugurated. they're going to already start hearings on that. mccain said they will. we're going to be looking into the russian hacking scandal. what i think is a little unfortunate is every time we talk about it, donald trump takes it as a question of his legitimacy as the president-elect, which it should not be looked at. we need to look at if the russians were hacking into our systems and looking to disrupt our most sacred thing, our democracy, then we need to investigate and see how that plays out. >> let's shift now from some celebrity apprentice to celebrity chef. this interview, you have anthony bourdain slapped the utter
9:55 am
contempt with which they discuss working class america. what is your take on that? >> you know, i don't talk about cooking and he probably shouldn't talk about politics. let me say one more thing about the hacking though. i'm here in vermont. our little electric utility owned by the city of burlington was hacked by the russians trying to get into the grid. this is not just a matter of politics. this is a serious security problem. it's going to have to be dealt with applaud mccain for doing it. >> i have to ask you, do you have information that they actually were able to get into the grid, it was beyond the laptop? >> no. that was the apparently the attempt was to get through the laptop into the grid. that was not -- as far as we know, that didn't happen. if it had happened, that could be fairly disastrous.
9:56 am
the russians have done that in ukraine and the republican of georgia, which used to be their territories in which they are trying through force to take back. they have affected the grids and have caused blackouts. for them to be able to do that in the united states would be a major security problem. >> susan, i want to look ahead in the spirit of the new year, 2017. what do you think will be the defining issue for president-elect trump's first 100 days in office? >> after the 2016 election, i have learned not to predict anything when it comes to donald trump. >> a lot of us can agree. >> i'm with susan on that one. >> if you read into the tea lives alive leaves, it looks like tax reform and infrastructure will be reversing obamacare will be top priorities. >> how about you, howard? what do you think he will come out and say tuesday and wednesday? >> i have learned not to predict anything he will say. whatever he is going to say tuesday or wednesday will make it to twitter as soon as he thinks of it.
9:57 am
look, we need tax reform. i'm waiting for tax reform to get into the senate where the democrats can actually sit down and have some role in shaping it. weill see what's in it. i'm discouraged by what i hear, which is it will help peopl at the top and not much help for the middle class or the works class people who after all supposedly elected trump. we will see what happens. we do need tax reform. you could do both at the same time. if you strip out all the protections from wall street and add back in a lot of tax ways of making money and things like affordable housing and building roads, you could do this. there's a trump consultant whose report i saw -- whether he pays attention to this i don't know -- which had a good infrastructure plan. who knows what's going to happen. i think we're waiting with baited breath to see what happened january 20th. >> and before that, too. howard and susan, as always, good to start the new year with you. >> thank you. happy new year. >> thank you. happy new year. why they believe kremlin
104 Views
1 Favorite
IN COLLECTIONS
MSNBC WestUploaded by TV Archive on
![](http://athena.archive.org/0.gif?kind=track_js&track_js_case=control&cache_bust=1578069747)