thank you for watching. if you want more, and i'm not saying you do, find me again at 8:00 p.m. eastern tonight when i'm in for chris hayes and if you like watching around this hour, steve kornacki will be right back here tomorrow. now mtp daily with hallie jackson starts next. if it's monday, donald trump promises a big reveal this week on russia. tonight, in the know -- >> i don't know either. they don't know and i don't know. >> i also know things that other people don't know. >> decoding the president-elect's cyber strategy and his way forward with russia. plus lasting legacy. as the president tries to save obamacare from repeal, republicans have a new plan to undo a lot more than just health care. and it's all in the jeans. why denim is hitting a political high as we welcome the new year. this is mtp daily, and it starts

right now. hi everyone, i'm hallie jackson in washington in for chuck who is back tomorrow. welcome to mtp daily. we begin tonight, the first show of the new year with a strange question. when the president-elect speaks on a matter of national security, do you take him seriously or literally? what about the u.s. intelligence community? do they take him seriously or literally? what about congress? and what about voters? trump is meeting with members of the intelligence community this week where he'll be briefed on the most sensitive elements of russia's interference in the u.s. election, ahead of that meeting, here's what he said this weekend on the topic. >> i know a lot about hacking. and hacking is a very hard thing to prove. so it could be somebody else. and i also know things that other people don't know, and so they cannot be sure of the situation. >> what dhooun other people don't know? >> you'll find out on tuesday or

wednesday. >> so what does donald trump know? there's one guy who you'd think would know, especially in that information is about to be made public as early as tomorrow. we're talking about donald trump's incoming white house press secretary sean spicer. he's crisscrossed the air waves in the wake of trump's comments, but it seems like maybe he's not sure or maybe he doesn't to want say. >> has he shared this information with the cia? with the rest of the intelligence community? because he would be talking about information that would be vital to national security if it involved the hacking of our national election. has he shared it, and if not, is he holding it out there like some tease for a reality show? >> i think -- look, the president-elect is briefed business i had security team, by the current security team, and intelligence community. i think he does know things. that's why he's the president-elect. >> actually, spicer seems to think we're talking too much about what trump might know when beshd asking hillary clinton what she knows.

>> 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 an valid attempt to influence an election. it's not hey. no one's asking those questions. and the fact is that everyone wants to talk and make donald trump admit to certain things, when are we going to talk the other side, which is what did hillary clinton do to influence the election? is he being punished. what are we doing to make sure people don't get the debate questions. if my boss, reince priebus got the debate questions and handed them off, he would have been driven out and donald trump would have been vilified. >> so, what does president-elect trump know? when did he know it? and how is that different from what the intelligence community already knows? the answer seems to be, who knows. and that is an interesting place to be. just three days ahead of the first congressional hearing on russian interference in the election. top republicans on capitol hill seem convinced they know plenty. and some are raising the

possibility of punishing putin's russia with even tougher sanctions. hawks like john mccain aren't talking about intelligence anymore. they're talking about potential combat. >> when you attack a country, it's an act of war. and so we have to make sure that there is a price to pay so that we can perhaps persuade the russians to stop this kind of attacks on our very fundamentals of democracy. >> i am joined now by ken delaney, intelligence and national security reporter. ken, thank you, and a lot to talk about here on this holiday monday. you're plugged in. what is the reaction now from the intel community to these donald trump remarks that he has inside info and he's going to share it? >> well, you know, it's always dangerous to talk about the intel community, that's like saying the media. there's different points of view within the community. a lot of -- i've talked to several people that say trump views this as an assault on the integrity of his election

victory. so we're taking it with a grain of salt all his resistance to our findings. i mean, nobody was happy when he mentioned the cia's mistake in iraq. that was a cheap shot. but, there is sort of a sense of like when he becomes the president and staurts being briefed by his own people, he'll come around on this stuff, hallie. >> our unit here as you know, our team has reported that since mid-august, the president-elect had been receiving briefs on the links between russia and the potential interference. why does he need another briefing this week, what's the difference? >> well, you know, our reporting has suggested that these briefings have not been very detailed. the president-elect has the opportunity to get deep dived briefings where the experts from the intelligence community come in and tell him everything there is to know about a certain topic. they could be combining a deep dive cyber briefing where they explain how they attribute cyber attacks. and it's not as simple as sean

spicer and trump himself keep saying. it isn't about proving who hacked. our understanding is u.s. intelligence community has other intelligence monday the ones and zeros. human sources, communications, they've named specific russian officials as being responsible for this operation. they don't do that lightly or without evidence. now, many people are saying they need to show some of that evidence and they say they will before obama leaves office. >> okay. i take your point, ken, that the intel community is not one sort of monolivic blob. in the folks you've talked to and concern or sense of concern inside that community that the well has been poisoned basically after months of leaks, attacks, et cetera? >> yeah, not that the world's been poisoned, but there's definitely a concern. a lot is going to fend on whether he ultimately turns and accepts their unanimous conclusion, you know, that russia was behind the hacking. i mean, the intel community has a long history of president's treat them in different ways. clinton famously ignored the cia

and the director at the time couldn't get a meeting with clinton. bush paid careful tension, every president deals with it on his own terms. and there's a the love people who have an open mind and they hope he's going to come around. there is concern with comments and it isn't every day you get a consensus view of the intelligence community. that something like this happened. >> i'm told bay transition official, ken, that the briefing will be with the full spectrum. is that your spens kbhap do you think the president-elect is going to hear this week that he hasn't yet heard? you talk about more detail. higher level of classification? >> i'm not clear about that. i mean, i think he's briefed -- as president-elect he can ask any question he wants and gets the highest level of classified briefing. there could be more context. there could be more explanation of not just how they attribute the hacking, but the communications intercepts, the full picture, the history of russia's involvement with hacking elections.

the context, you know, this isn't just about the forensics, it's also about motive, means, and opportunity. if it wasn't the russians, frump and people suggest hey, it's the chinese masquerading as the russians. that's certainly possible, technical, but is it realistic? and may hear from analysts that talk about that. >> quickly, sean spicer in that interview we played you earlier, plays the russian versus the china. why two different public responses from the white house this morning? >> very simply because the chinese hack of federal personnel data was considered by officials a legitimate target. that they would have done and probably have gone after in china. the difference with this -- and so by the way is hacking the dnc, if they just hacked the dnc and kept the information. the difference it was weaponized, it was leaked in an effort to influence the election. and that's where u.s. intelligence officials say russia crossed the line. >> it's the idea of fair game espionage as well. >> exactly. james clapper said, something to

the effect of if i take my hat off to the chinese, that was a good get for them. you know, but damaging for us, but a legitimate espionage target on the opm stuff. >> great perspective there, appreciate you joining us. now tonight's panel, a veteran reporter with the washington post, a democratic strategist, now the ceo of park street strategies, and a former bush/cheney advisor, now a bp with the bipartisan center and msnbc contributor. lady and gentlemen, thank you for being with us. happy new year. surprising amount of things to talk about today. if you will, i know, okay, i want to start with the russia interference in u.s. election and the news from our nbc/wall street journal poll. 29% of republicans are bothered a great deal or kwibt by russia's interference in the election. fewer than one in three here. how hard are capitol hill republicans going to fight on this issue given where their base is if they are in fact more concerned about it? and we have heard concern from

republicans on capitol hill? >> i think there's actually something of a crisis of faith among a lot of congressional republicans on this point. i mean, here is something that has been taken as absolute gospel for conservative national security republicans. that russia is not to be trusted. russia is not our friend, and that there is a long history of tit for tat of mutual speen and all the sudden the leader of their party, the president-elect of the united states is saying things that make them uncomfortable. and i'm thinking of the john mccain and lindsey graham -- exactly. and they are saying so publicly that this makes them uncomfortable. what do they do with that? how certainly this hearing this week -- promises to be a full board investigative hearing where they will go hard at the evidence. what do they do with it afterward. >> what's concerning about this is that the poll in zits partisan. it has republicans and democrats. the real question is is

americans being frustrated and very concerned about what the russians allegedly did? the good thing about this is that senators hopefully have the long view, they will get to the bottom of this because this is a threat, allegedly, to our democracy and to who we are as a country. i don't care whether or not you're a republican or democrat. i care that you're an american and that you care about our democratic system and things allegedly got hacked. >> so you believe -- the capitol hill, members of congress are going to push this, push this investigation, despite perhaps maybe a lack of an outcry from, for example, republicans and the rest of the country. >> i think they're going to push it because i think it goes to their own personal preference for these issues. i think the problem here for establishment republicans, you know, when you're talking about john mccain and others like him, is i'm not sure they have yet and we're all going to find out here in about a few weeks, the trump reality. and the trump reality is, he is not going to shy away from challenging people in his own

party. it is how he became the nominee. >> but chris, it doesn't matter. >> i glee with you. i'm not questioning that we shouldn't be doing this. and i personally believe this is a serious issue that needs to be addressed. i'm looking at it from the politics of it too which is to the poll question, where the republicans are going to be in a box here is as much as they're unified in terms of the control all the chambers and the white house, there is divided as informer some respects because they have someone in the white house who is going to look at the same facts that they're going to look at and come to a completely different conclusion. that has not happened before. >> ann. >> that's exactly what i mean. this hearing could result in a finding, essentially a congressional finding won't be like a written determination, but the evidence presented at the hearing and the way congress approaches is that agrees with the intelligence community unanimously that this broad and targeted hacking happened in a different way than has happened

in any previous election where the information was selectively leaked and essentially as you say weaponized. and then what? then you have a republican-led congress, agreeing with the intelligence community, and we do not yet know what the republican president will do with that information. >> and then think about it, you know, over the next four years. think of the potential foreign policy crisis that we may have. that we may need to get involved that effect america's national interest. where the intelligence community is saying one thing and the president of the united states is simply choosing to ignore it. all right. where you create this battle between republicans and democrats in congress saying one thing. the intelligence community saying another. and the president of the united states saying, i just don't agree. >> so you heard sean spicer be pressed about this, not just yesterday, but today as well. on the today show. i want to play a little bit what have he said. we played it earlier, i've got to replay it again. i want to listen to the comparison he makes. play it. >> why aren't we talking about the influences on the election.

why aren't we talking about hillary clinton getting debate questions. that is a valid attempt to influence the election. >> your head was in your hands. >> but is that the e give lan si. >> of course it is. >> here is what we know. we know that wlaex got the information from a russian hack. we know that. spo to suggest and sean my dear friend. i've worked for him with many, many years, to suggest that a planted question by a cnn analyst that went to secretary clinton is on the same level as trying to influence a national election, it's like me comparing -- >> for an hour. >> and it's like me comparing, you know -- i can't even come up with a comparison. >> it's ridiculous and laughable, but it's very, very sad. >> listen, sean spicer is clearly trying to spin his way out of a fundamental pr problem. >> we're making the argument. >> over cheese balls. >> here's the real simple

reality. hillary clinton lost. it is over. all right. whatever happened in the election is done. in terms of what they think influenced or didn't influence on the democratic side. >> didn't help. >> yeah, no joke. the question here is, you have clear russian influence according to to the intelligence agencies in an american election. what are we going to do about it? if the question is nothing, then we sit as a nation, forget about politics, forget about partisanship. we set a dangerous precedent going forward. >> we have a ton more to talk about. we have out of time which is why i'm making you hang out. we'll be back with ann, chris, and robert. you should stay too, coming up, we're going to turn to international events now. an update on the manhunt for the gunman in this weekend's attack in istanbul. plus a closer look at the investigation and possible connection to terror groups. stay tuned. tech: at safelite, we know how busy your life can be. mom: oh no... tech: this mom didn't have time to worry about a cracked windshield. so she scheduled at safelite.com

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new congress hits the ground running tomorrow. president obama makes a trip to the hill wednesday for a strategy session with democrats on thousand protect obamacare and by the way, we learned latd this afternoon, vice president elect mike pence set to meet with house republicans the same day. and of course, the senate is gearing up for those big battles over trump's cabinet nominations. we've got nor mtp dayfully 60 seconds. be in good hands? like finding new ways to be taken care of. home, car, life insurance obviously, ohhh... but with added touches you can't get everywhere else, like claim free rewards... or safe driving bonus checks. oh yes.... even a claim satisfaction guaranteeeeeeeeeee! in means protection plus unique extras only from an expert allstate agent. it's good to be in, good hands.

nuit's earned in every wash... earned overnight. ... and re-earned every day. tide. america's number one detergent. welcome back. the manhunt for a terrorist who opened fire on a nightclub in istanbul, turkey, continues right now. 39 people were killed in that attack. dozens more hurt. it started in the early hours of new year's day when a gunman shot his way past security. isis claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement today, but there's no indication about whether the group orchestrated or directed the shooting. police are trying to identify this person, right here. the suspect. from photos taken from security footage. turkish police release these images via turkish media and

investigators think they have his fingerprints. eight people have been held in connection with this investigation, but the search is still happening right now. nbc's richard engel has the latest from istanbul. >> reporter: turkish officials say they are getting very close to identifying this gunman. the question is, finding him. throughout the day, turkish media have been broadcasting increasingly clear images, also video. they show him clean shaven, but we don't know anything about him burden of proof he's from. only the claim that he was an isis fighter. isis saying he was one of their soldiers of the brave caliphate. but, what we saw and what we heard from survivors of the this attack was that it was anything from brave. the gunman was running through this club shooting people, some of whom were already on the ground pretending to be dead. witnesses said that the gun masn was going up to people on the ground, shooting them as they lay, moving to the next one, shooting them. we spoke to an american who was

hiding under a table. his legs sticking out, the gunman actually was on top of the bench, and was shooting down, shot him in the leg, and this american, jake raak who was suffering from a gunshot wound when we spoke to him and now on his way back to the united states, said, even after he was shot, he had to pretend that nothing had happened. because he didn't to want scream, he didn't to want flimpbl so that he didn't give himself away to the gunman. horrific stories, 39 dead, 27 of those foreign nationals, tourists from primarily the middle east, but really all over the world. this country is -- i wouldn't say in shock, however, people here are increasingly angry. angry that terrorism is becoming common place. terrorism coming from isis as it appears to have been in this case. terrorism coming from kurdish militants. also, a crackdown from the government against the opposition. so people in turkey are feeling

that maybe at their wit's end. they don't feel safe. they don't feel safe to protest. they don't feel safe to speak. it is really, hallie, a very dark period for this country. >> dark and certainly terrifying for so many people. thank you, richard. i want to bring in special ops intelligence officer and nbc terror analyst, malcolm nance. thanks for joining us. what are the chances this guy's still in turkey? >> well the chances are good he's still in turkey. turkey is set quite a tight perimeter these days on the turkish/syrian border ever since their force supported oerngss inside of syria. it's very interesting, right after a -- a few hours after the manhunt began, there were journalists inside much turkey who were noting there were no checkpoints anywhere around istanbul leading out of the city to other major cities and even to the east where it's pretty much a hinterland. the turkish effort is now concentrated on putting this

person's image out to the public. he appears to be -- was the origin, the same type of origin of the attackers who attacked the airport in istanbul earlier in 2016. so, they hope that that will get them this man in the manhunt. >> so it's all what a manhunts looks like that the point a day, day and a half after something like this twor happen. you just assume they're all hands on deck spread everybody out. >> well that depends on which jurisdiction you're in and who's got control of it. here in the united states, yeah, that's what we would do. we would have state police, local police throwing out these rings of steal, rings of manpower. we did notice that turkey and the united states appeared to have some intelligence indicators that an attack of this capacity was going happen. and within hours of this attack. turkish police actually worked their way back to eight accomplices of this person. which means that they may have

had some sort of electronic intelligence indicating where this originated, but not m name of the individual. that person carried out the attack and now probably trying to run down those leads based on what information they had prior to the attack. had a dozen terror attacks in the past year, isis made calls to target the country. what do turkish authorities need to do now to bolster security or give some measure of reshurns to people there after what you're seeing on your screen. this laundry list of terrifying attacks? >> people that i know in istanbul, over the last year, after every attack, i call my associates in istanbul and ank ra, and they're frustrated. they're frustrated one because for a few years, the government of turkey allowed isis to infull trait in and not even infiltrate, allow thousands and thousands of people to come into

turkey legally, than cross the border and go in there and provide manpower to the islamic state. and they were making money off of the refugees who were coming out by profiting, you know, them coming in, selling them food stuffs and getting them on boats. so they're very frustrated because it's a problem of their own making. isis has little bastones in the major cities. places like that. and they're very well-known. however, the turkish have been emphasizing intelligence, but on the other hand, whenever they have a terrorist act of this magnitude, they tend to use it as political thing to go after their opposition inside of turkey. >> thank you for being here to talk us through this, appreciate it. >> it's always a pleasure. still ahead, new questions about the president-elect's potential conflicts of interest in office. we're going to take a look at the latest international issue, stay tuned. ♪ (laughs) here it is.

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welcome back. my fellow road warriors and i traveled tens of thousands of miles covering the presidential election. but we were not the only nbc news reporters on the road covering the 2016 campaign. we couldn't have done it with an ebeds. who covered all the candidates running for president, all of the time, in all of the states where they were running. it was quite literally a 24/7 job. now they've had a chance to get label the of sleep.

we asked to reflect a little bit on their journey through 2016. take a look. >> the hardest part about the campaign is it's sensory overload from morning tonight, there's so much information coming at you. >> it was nonstop for seven days. different city every night, sometimes three different cities every day. >> one of the things i liked best about the campaign trail was watching candidates get grilled by voters in places like new hampshire where people would just be able to walk right up to them. and ask them the most pressing questions of their lives. >> the kindness of iowa voters was one of my favorite parts about the campaign trail. there was one time i remember, i was at the iowa state fair, very much lost and confused, and a farmer camep to me and showed me around. helped me understand where i was, and he said, i want to do this for you because i hope if my son ever goes to new york, someone will be kind enough to do the same for him. >> my most memorable interaction with donald trump was when i was

taken into the buffer area around the stage over a rally during christmas, and asked to shoot cuts of the candidate up close which is a normal piece of being an eed on the campaign trail. as i got up there, i was holding my camera and donald trump pointed to me and said -- >> look, here we have nbc, they're supposed to be back there, but that's okay. >> that was probably the most memorable and definitely the most bizarre interaction. >> one of my favorite moments from the campaign trail happened in new hampshire. as governor bush was on a bus tour. and it was in the middle of a snowstorm. and i'm outside the bus with my camera raised, ready to film him. and as he's walking by me, he bends down and fms a snowball and throws it at me. and gets this big laugh. it's a moment i'll always remember his personality coming through. >> can't do anything about it. >> no. >> that's not fair actually. >> mike pence plane goes off the runway, new york city, la guardia airport, it veers, you smell the rubber come up.

and it's one of those moments, where it's still like, you've got a job to do. you have to start filming. and you realize, you can't believe this is happening. >>aving a roomful of voters who are there to see dr. carson at a campaign event in iowa, break out in a happy birthday song for me at a staffers direction. it was one of the most memorable moments on the campaign. you know, you're going so many places and sometimes you're giving up your birthday and you know, that really just made it special. >> that was absolutely the best year and a half of my life. both professionally and personally. and i think what will make it so special is that i probably will never do it again. at least not this way. anything else to talk about. but then i realized there was. so, i finally broke the silence with my doctor about what i was experiencing. he said humira is for people like me who have tried other medications but still experience the symptoms of moderate to severe crohn's disease.

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welcome back to mtp daily. donald trump will be sworn in as president in 18 days. but before then, he said he'd hold a press conference to answer questions on how he'll untangle himself from his big

business empire which includes unprecedented dealings all over the world. all leading to potentially countless count les conflicts of interest. guests attended by donald trump and his family paid more than $500 each to ring in 2017 with the president-elect. and the "new york times," did you see this, reporting now two trump projects in indonesia are moving forward, even though he promised no new deals while he's in office. the president-elect repeatedly pointed o thought federal conflict of interest laws do not apply to the president of a and he's right, but international deals could violate the constitution fm the very second that donald trump is sworn in. joining me now to talk about all of this, richard and norm, they were both chief ethics lawyers in the white house. richards served under president george w. bush, norm under president obama, they've written -- done talks and speeches about trump's conflicts extensively since election day pushing the president-elect to divest completely from his business.

and you have a new paper too. norm, you said the president-elect is basically cordingisaster here. with his businesses, 18 days away fromecoming president. it is fairly clear he has not going to fully die vest. it is congress obligated to hold his accountable? >> congress, the courts, hallie, your profession, journalism is obligated, and all of us are obligated to do all we can, because the president-elect is on a collision course with corruption. this is not just a matter of what looks or smells good. and it doesn't look good. it doesn't smell good. it is the constitution. there's a constitutional conflicts cause. the monuments clause, it's a fancy 18th century word, all it means is no foreign government money, cash, or other benefits to an american president. he's collecting those all over the world. >> so let me just to clarify

this, to sort of explain this, if he hands over his business as expected to donald trump jr., eric trump, his sons, ivanka trump removes herself from her brand and the president-elect says i'm not going deal with it for four years, that doesn't satisfy you? >> it does not. it is a break with what presidents with far lesser conflicts have done for the past four decades. they go to a trustee, independent trustee, not a family member, they turn over ownership interests to be liquid dated, to be sold. donald trump has much more profound conflicts issue. it'll be a paw over everything he does. he's got to die vest. >> richard, i want to play something, president-elect trump said last week at mar-a-lago. i want to play this and i want to get your response on the other side. >> it's a much bigger business than anybody thought. it's a great business. but, i'm going to have nothing to do with it. i don't have to because as you know, i wouldn't have to do that by law. i want to do that because i want to focus on the country. it's actually a very simple

situation. it's not a big deal. >> so richard, he's going to have nothing to do with it, it's simple, the end. case closed, right? >> well, he's going to own it. and if it owns it, he has a conflict of interest, because of it. including the foreign government moneys that comes in. the only way is for him to divest, so far we're not hearing about this. just hearing about new business deals in indonesia and everywhere else. and as for congress. they're showing no interest in monitoring the president's conflicts of interest. indeed, they're just going to make their own conflicts of interest worse. the latest news they want to take the office of congressional ethics which has some independents and rain in it's independence and put turnld the house ethics committee which i call the fox in chancht chicken coop committee and the american tax payers are the chickens here. this is a situation that has become absurd. when members of congress are just saying, well me too on the conflicts of interest, i want my

own rather than reigning in the president-elect and letting him know that members of congress and the president as elected officials, hold positions of trust where they must be free of conflicts of interest. we need independent ethics oversight. both executive branch and the congress. and we see that our elected officials are moving at exactly the opposite direction. and they're not serving the american people at all with this kind of attitude. >> richard, i want to come back on the cause. and norm to set it up first. the projects in indonesia, moving forward, is that inin violation of this clause in your view? >> hallie, not only in my view, but the founders of our country and the framers of the constitution had exactly this situation in mind. they saw in the time of the constitution, in the 17th and 18th and 19th centuries, it was very common for foreign sovereigns to try to give things of value to american and other elected officials to get them to

favor the interests of the foreign sovrns. >> but donald trump could say i have nothing to do with my businesses now, right? >> but it doesn't seem like he's headed in that direction because he's resisting turning over the ownership interests. doing what all the other presidents have done for the past four decades so people all over the world will see, hey, when -- and diplomats are saying it, they're going to his new hotel and they're saying to reporters, of course i want to tell the president when i see him, what a great hotel you have. >> richard, it's not just the clause though, talk about the perception, even just the appearance of a conflict of interest with foreign leaders. he can say i'm not going to have a conflict, will that create lasting damage internationally, potentially from a perception standpoint? >> well, of course it could. and it could also be a global strategic risk when you have the president of the united states have properties and business deals all over the world and countries that are undergoing a lot of difficulty where the

important united states strategic interests and there could be terrorist attacks. we had a president's name up on a building. that's an invitation to an attack. there are loots of problems here that need to be addressed. and thus far, the president-elect is not addressing them, and then members of congress are just busy feathering their own nests rather than focussing on congressiol oversight of executive branch. unless things change quickly. mo than bad perception. bad policy and potentially a strategic national security risk for the united states because of this. >> okay. richard, what should congress do? what do you recommend? >> well first congress ought to make sure that their playing by the rules and instead of retreating from independent ethics oversight of the members of congress. second, the house oversight committee which was very interested, of course, in spending hours and hours going through hillary clinton's e-mails ought to continue it supervision of ethics and executive branch.

as controls the congress shouldn't mean that we're not going to worry about the fact that the president is receiving unconstitutional payoffs from foreign governments. it's up to congress to do it's job of congressional executive branch. >> okay norm, is donald trump doing anything right? is the trump family doing anything that you see as a positive. i think back the fundraiser issue that you see a few weeks ago that they were removed from it. the transition officials will say hey, we're workingen to basically. >> there have been some positive signs, the procrastination. several times now where the president-elect said i'm going to make an announcement. he's putting it off, he sees how hard it is. there is some unwinding of foreign deals of brazil, the republican of georgia, they have taken down some of the auctions of access to get access to the family. baby steps, hallie. we need a giant leap. i want to give a shoutout to one

other congressional effort. senator warren has announced that this week she and her democratic colleagues in the senate are going to put in a bill requiring the president to do a blind trust, putting teeth into the clause making clear what it means, the kinds of benefits we were talking about. there are some in the senate who are taking some positive steps as well. but on the other hand, then you hear that the house wants the house leadership wants to go -- >> oc -- >> independent office of congressional ethics. it's like a cancer that is starting to spread. we don't have to follow ethics rules. it's the opposite of the obama approach. it's very worrying. >> norm, richard, very spirited conversation as always. thank you very much. >> happy new year. still ahead, president obama will spend his final days in office trying to protect the legacy of the past eight years. so could he and the democrats really save obamacare? stay tuned. i didn't know where i was from ethnically.

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...ad, and my sweethearts handsome,gone sayonara.rance... this scarf, all that's left to remember. what! she washed this like a month ago! how's a guy supposed to move on! the long lasting scent of gain flings. welcome back. president obama announced he's going to be delivering that farewell address a week from tomorrow in his hometown of chicago. saying in the e-mail, he wants to say thanks to the american people and offer some thoughts on where to go from here. up next, in the lid we're taking a look at how the president and democrats will be working to cement his legacy in those final 18 days in office. keep it here.

welcome back. it is time for the lid. prident obama king a rare ip to capitol hill later this week to meet with house and senate democrats. the focus, the future of his signature affordable care act and how to keep republicans from repealing it. meanwhile, republican-led congress is promising to roll back more than just the health care law. that of course is at the center of the republican legislative target. when the 115th congress begins tomorrow, they're expecting to take up two bills that would give congress more control over regulations including the ability to repeal some rules put in place by president obama. our esteemed panel is back with me now, thank you very much. let's start with the discussion about the affordable care act. there's a lot of action this week. wednesday the president heading to the hill. mike pence on the same day, and in order to make sure and it's not even possible.

>> it depends how the republicans try to do it what's their strategy. only require 51 this. budget reconciliation it require 6306 which allows the democrats to filler buster it. the problem for republicans, they are going to push to repeal it. but there are aspects of the obama affordable care act that has an attraction, you start going after that you create a political problem that i'm not sure they fully appreciate until you see some mother talking about her child who has a sickness and inability to take care of him. >> they are going to vote to

repeal this. >> again? >> but at the are not going to replace it with anything. there's one thing that's important that we never talk about that is how high the premium are for many of americans out there. there are tens of thousands that that got their bills the week before the election who said this is something i cannot afford. >> can they repeal it and not put anything out to replace it? >> i think there's a practical problem here, which is those popular elements would have to be reenacted. >> the president-elect acknowledge that he likes. >> that has to be a process that takes time and i think would be sort of a giant pain in the neck for the new congress but they do

fwl not want to take on. >> do they want to go to war or do they want to try to make government work. this is is an important distinction. if they go to war it's going -- if they want to try too solve the issue with the obamacare that democrats admit there are, we will have something productive. i'm not convince this is not where they are going. this is political than it is about solving or creating good policy. >> it's not about affordable care act some of it congress will do as we were talking about during the break, you called the theater putting regulation in place and pulling them back right away.

>> it's business as usual. >> except or immigration. trump can undue the obama exsective order then what. >> do you want president to undo that. i get that. it's to my point about making people on the defeps as they -- >> it's going to be interesting to watch over the years is -- you saw this with president bush, he went aaway when president oe became came in. i do not believe you were going to see the same thing for

president obama. >> i don't believe that for a moment because there's no other -- >> there's no other leader we have to his level in the democratic level. he is it. >> what president obama has said is that they were given space to govern the country as they see fit. president clinton was fairly quiet. president obama said i wan to go somewhere warm and drink out of a coconut somewhere. if in fact his signature issue, the affordable care act is threatened but i don't see him going out -- >> he is -- >> there's a lot of -- go ahead. >> i don't believe given where the democratic party is and the need for a powerful voice that

you have an incredible dynamic popular president who is simple going to go away. i don't think that's going to happen. >> thank you for hanging out. after the break we're bringing in the new year with some new laws. stay tuned. taking a holiday in britain, are ya doll? well, the only place you need go... london's got the best of everything. cornwall's got the best of everything. sport sport nightlife

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in case you missed it a new year means new laws. like minimum wage hike, and gun laws in multiple states.

in california the official state fabric is denim. crimes of fashion have the same punishment. in illinois, you can now legally catch a cat fish with a pitch forks if you do post it so ki watch it. people in ohio can drive golf course on the road. it has to be a tricked out with turn signal, horn, windshield. in pennsylvania freeing the six pack, beer can be sold in any qauntity. camera man giving thumbs up. tennessee brewer can make higher

alcohol content beer without license for it. boug bought. picking up covering from "30 rock." good morning evening. watchi watching msnbc live. also manhunt for a killer, the search for a man opening fire and murdering 39 people if turkey. president obama going home to chicago for farewell address. we go inside of that speech what to expect and whatnot to