marine corps sends its first female infantry regime to camp lejeune. you go, girls. amazing. that does it for us on this thursday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. >> we had a great meeting with the president. slirlts o virtually all of our caucuses attended. he was very inspiring. telling us we -- we were working out our strategy and we have a great deal of optimism that the good things that have happened in ach are going to stay and that our republican colleagues don't quite know what to do. they are like the dog who caught the bus. >> yes, yes they are at least on that front, willie. republicans are like the dog that caught the bus. they have been chafing sing it six years and don't know what to

do with it. >> the front page of every newspaper. the senate gop opening a fight with obamacare and health law and see what they have. if they are going to repeal, what are they going to replace it with? >> yeah. it's going to be hard what they do and paul ryan, play the clip in a second. paul ryan was asked what do they replace it with and they are having a hard time figuring out what to do. a political battle is going on. the trump administration doing their own thing. they are moving on a different track and their attitude is sort of different than the republican houses which is -- and the senate which we are going to put together our plan. we are not going to cobble something together based on politics. so i think it's going to be very fascinating to see how this turns out. and whether you actually have a situation where the trump administration would even consider vetoing one of the first things the republicans pass. if it was just a repeal without

a replacement. who dove around the table? >> veteran columnist, you know this guy. >> stop it. >> legendary! >> mike barnicle. managing editor of bloomberg politic and wearing his kornacki casual this morning, mark halpern. >> role model. >> professor of the university of school of public college, from the great state of tennessee, former congressman, harold ford and in washington kasie hunt. the senate took the first step to repeal obamacare and voted 51-48 that allows repealing major parts of the law with a simple majority. that means senate democrats cannot stop them through the filibuster. afterwards, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell spoke to the press. >> we are going to move forward with the obamacare resolution first and take the second step a little bit later. >> president-elect donald trump

appeared to caution his party about this tweeting earlier republicans must be careful in that the dems own the failed obamacare disaster with its poor coverage and massive premium increases like the 116% hike in arizona and deductibles so hard it is practically useless. don't let the schumer clowns out of this web, trump wris. massive increases of obamacare will take place this year and dems are to blame for the mess. it will fall out of its own weight. be careful. vice president-elect mike pence met with members of congress yesterday about the republicans health care plan. alongside paul ryan and republican leadership, he said the party would not just strip away the affordable care act. >> the first order of business is to repeal and replace obamacare and that was our message today and it will be our message on capitol hill. >> the health care system has been ruined!

dismantled under obamacare. the answer here is not to ignore the problem. we will help americans crying out for relief from obamacare. >> why still no plan to replace it? >> we, we, we, we have a plan to replace it and plenty of ideas to replace it and you'll see as -- the weeks and months unfold what we are talking about replacing. how we can get better choices with lower prices by not having a government of government take over health care and causing the problem in the first place. >> the accidenxiety is palpable the speaker of the house did a news conference today where he was unable to explain why republicans have not put forward their replacement plan. he's a smart guy. he spent years thinking about this. he is smart when it comes to politics and smart when it comes to policy. we have profound differences and he has a different point of view but nobody questions his intellect. and even he can't articulate

exactly why they aren't putting forward a replacement plan. >> so, joe, there are plans. republicans do have plans. tom price has a plan and a number of republicans have plans but as we have talked about on this show, if you're going to take something away from people who voted for you, people who support you, republicans who benefit from obamacare, you better well show them what you've got to give them in its place. >> mark halpern, did you notice in that press conference, you actually had -- mike pence, you have the future vice president saying, yes, our first order of business is on to repeal and replace. that is the first order of business. it wasn't we are going to repeal and worry about this two or three months down the road. paul ryan got up and they said why don't you have a plan to replace it, he said, we do and then he said, we have ideas. you will see over the coming weeks and months what the ideas are. yesterday is walking a gauntlet.

democrats will have the high ground and they will be able to pick them off one-by-one-by-one. i really do think, based on my talking to trump's top advisers over the last couple of days that they are putting together a plan to replace and they want congress to repeal and replace at the same time. but the pressure can't you sense it? it's just overwhelming from the constituents of these republicans who are saying, we want to repeal it now. we don't care what you replace it with. go. >> i think that pressure will be overwhelming. it's a two. sten process a two-step process. can the republicans build the system that has more coverage, more choice, lower costs, and deals not just with people on the public program and private and employer insurance, but also

medicare and medicaid. it's a massive complicated thing. harold, if you were a strategist for the senate republicans would you feel comfortable in doing a two-step process or delay a repeal? >> i would i want to do it all at one time. how you just described it and what is said around the table, i think pence is the one to watch in the whole process and i think yesterday it became abundantly clear from the way ryan attempted to answer the question. he even looked back at pence as he was trying to answer the question which signaled to me physically and figuratively and literally the white house will drive this process. i think credit should be given politically to the trump team for saying, look, don't do this. if anybody is going to own the failure, let democrats own it. joe, you're right. if they do do this, this is the start of schumer campaigning for those senate democrats up for reelection in two years. and and pelosi and other democrats to find a way to the

majority in the house. >> ksaie hunt, off what joe scarborough just indicated his feelings in terms of replacement, there is no replacement right now, here is the killer quote and i would ask you about the timing of any replacement from paul ryan when asked about his replacement plan. ed, well, you'll see it as the weeks and months unfold. for those without health insurance that is a long, long time. who has a plan? >> look. i think the person you want to watch in this is mitch mcconnell and you heard mike pence talk about this yesterday in that picture you just showed. he stood with senate leadership and it's down in the weeds. he talked about budget reconciliation measures. the reality is that mitch mcconnell is a master of this process and if anybody can figure out how to craft something that both repeals but then sets up the right kind of opportunity for republicans to replace this law, it's going to be mitch mcconnell. so paul ryan sort of has it easy

because he can push whatever he needs to through the house most likely. the challenge on the other side. mcconnell has to give republicans the right set of opportunities to fix this without creating all of these political problems and he has to figure out how to win over democrats to help him solve the problem afterward. i think, look. democrats tried to send the signal yesterday they are going to dig in and not help. the president said don't qu republica rescue republicans on this and don't help them. joe manchin was on the show yesterday morning as well talking about the conundrum he has on this. he said, look. it's hard to get people like the coal miners in my state to give you credit what you did for them but they sure as hell will blame you if you take it away and what republicans are facing. manchin is a democrat that wants to help and i think that is the tension to watch in the next month or two. >> more on this coming up. another big story this morning.

uneasy relationship between donald trump and the intelligence community continued yet as a report emerged the new administration will reorganize and pare back the office of national intelligence and the cia. "wall street journal" reports that trump believes dni created in 2004 to coordinate between intelligence agencies is bloat and politicized. intelligencedvory board found the office was distracted not at agile as it should be and prone to turf wars and according to the journal trump advisers are working on a plan to restructure the cia cutting down on staffing at its virginia headquarters and pushing more people out into the field posts around the world. reportedly leading these reform efforts is michael flynn and nominee for cia director congressman mike pompeo. there is look at of streamlining

the agencies and make them more efficient -- but according to "wall street journal" report, quote, oversold. joe? >> kasie hunt, there has been a battle between intel agencies for a very long time. we saw most infamously after 9/11 how they just didn't communicate with each other. a 2010 shows they are distracted and a turf war going on and this could be a reality. even if the initial reports are blov overblown it looks like the intel communities could be set up for realignment. what are you hearing on the hill? >> i think there is an appetite to reforming the dni a if the trump administration is coming in and say we are cutting these intelligence agencies i don't think that is going to fly. i think it really plays into this broader struggle we are

seeing. the hill today is going to be all about russia. john mccain is holding this hearing. i think the thing that you really want to watch over the course of the next couple of days is how donald trump reacts to that intelligence briefing that he is set to get on friday. if donald trump comes out after that briefing and continues to cast doubt on these assessments, i think you're going to see not just democrats but republicans like john mccain and lindsey graham really come out and be willing to take a pretty aggressive stand against them and where do republicans have leverage on capitol hill right now? with nominations, cabinet nominations like rex tillerson. if he puts a foot wrong on russia could lose on republicans in his hearing. if donald trump is casting doubt on what the intelligence agencies have to tell him about the hacking into the election on the part of russia, i think you're going to start to see some real potentially surprising problems for his cabinet nominees on capitol hill.

>> mark halpern, reviews, questioning, skepticism of intelligence, those are all good things. every president ought to have more of each of the three when it comes to intel, but the idea, the reality of the president-elect, yesterday, sort of implying, more than implying that julian assange is a more credible intelligence operative acting on behalf of the united states than is the central intelligence agency is beyond bizarre. >> it's a classic trump thing, right? questioning. you'll get a lot of support from the public. as kasie said from some members of the congress said let's look how this is structured and look at the history but to question their integrity in some of the tweets and comparing them to unfavorably asang is inexplicable what he gets out of that. the suspicion remains he is trying to get a conclusion in

part from russia helped him to disproportionately take away the plex. the question of the way things have been done in washington he'll get support from that from the voters and chuck schumer say he has been playing political analyst. he says you shouldn't do this because the intel community will come at you hard. they are the toughest people to take on in washington but that shouldn't be a reason not to do it but to disrespect him the way he has, i don't see what he gets out of that. >> i would agree with you. you said is well. i think inclination is right on part of the president-elect. i do think he should be careful in the way he characterizes something things in the way you state it. republicans have been talking for years repealing health care and given the opportunity now and they have the votes in the house and senate, they don't know what to do and they are going to wait for trump and trump will lead on this.

kasie's point about trump not backing off the russia comments that may hurt some of his nominees. are you actually hearing that from senators, that that would cause them possibly not only rethink around tillerson or mattis or kelly? the intel stuff sounds like flynn talking as much as trump are you seriously and legitimately hearing they might reconsider their votes for some of these cabinet appointments? >> i think it depends on what trump says after his intelligence briefing on friday. i think that there is a serious risk there. some of these nominees are safe. mattis is extraordinarily possible but there are places where they certainly could cause a lot of problems. think about the question. do you stand with donald trump or our intelligence agencies on whether or not russia hacked into trying to affect our election? yes or no. there is a right and wrong answer in the view a lot of these members of congress. it may not be on donald trump's

side and puts them in a tough position. you're seeing reporters put those type of questions to these nominees. >> one other interesting footnote general michael flynn who is leading this push according to "wall street journal" was nudged out by james clapper in 2014 from dni. there is complicated personal relationships there as well. >> yeah. and general flynn, i'm sure, has a list of grievances against -- >> what i'm saying. >> -- against the intel community. how many are legitimate? i don't know. he has a list and you say how much is that playing in the role of this some of them are constitutional. if they elect to look at how things are done and do them differently this is an important it's good the questions are being raised. stayed, chuck schumer says the democrats will block all of trump's supreme court picks. plus, senator chris coons joins

the conversation. congressman chris collins. also, meredith vieira is with us with her powerful new documentary. and tonight joe's band is playing at prohibition right here in new york city on the upper west side. it all starts at 8:30 p.m. study by if you're in the area. you can also tune in for a live stream of the show at facebook.com/joenbc and that is tonight at prohibition in new york city. bill karins now has a look at the welcome back. >> snow overnight in kansas city and analysis and streaking through the ohio valley. the stuff in california is epic. we got done with a big, huge storm that snarled traffic all over the ms.us regions. the passes. the ski resorts picked up around 3 to 5 feet of snow. this wasust storm on orm two this upcoming weekend is expected to be even bigger

and a lot worse. we are watching the snow streaking. denver snow and blue and light snow over kentucky and areas of tennessee. winter weather advisories for this area. then we have to deal with the winter storm watches and up for alabama, georgia and portions of north and south carolina. this is the snow map. only 1 to 2 inches. a huge section of the country including late tonight through southern new england and "the new york times" and washington, d.c. to baltimore. but as the storm after this has the attention. european computer models pinpointing this is 6 inches possible in eastern north carolina and 3 to 6 inches in areas of south carolina. a significant, if not huge storm system for areas of the south. be prepared. that is friday night and all day during saturday. washington, d.c. looks like the big storm hit your friends to the south will miss you this weekend. you're watching "morning joe." we will be right back. just like the people who own them, every business is different. but every one of those businesses will need legal help as they age and grow. whether it be with customer contracts,

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you know, willie, i don't know about you, but i loved our

weekly literary reading last night at the holiday inn. >> it was nice. >> and yeah, it was frustrating at the one point where beckham was not following us on what situational irony is and how shakpeare employed it like "romeo and juliette." he seemed pretty miffed he couldn't pick that up. >> i think he'll catch up to us in our holiday inn book club. >> i know. it's great, isn't it? i can't afford buying all of the cigarettes. how many cartons did they go through last night? because beckham didn't get what situational irony was when we were reading shakespeare at the ymca, maybe he can pick it up this morning. he watches every morning on

armed forces radio. they have a satellite uplink. mitch mcconnell, i thought yesterday, now you see the windup, the delivery and the pitch. it only took four minutes! mitch mcconnell, yesterday, was the master of situational irony. here we go. boom. >> brought it in for a landing. very nice. >> holy cow. we were circling the airport longer than bruce willis in the second "diehard." >> chuck schumer take hand a page off the republicans playbook when it comes to filling antonin scalia's seat. mcconnell blocked president obama's pick of merrick garland to fill that seat is slam his counterpart's progress. >> we have said we were oppose

nominees who are out of the mainstream plain and simple. we haven't talked about hearings or these other issues but we will oppose nominees out of the mainstream. period. if it's one, if it's two, if it's three. if they put someone in the mainstream, we will give them a careful look and we hope they will. >> apparently, there is yet a new standard now which is to not confirm a supreme court nominee at all. i think that's something the american people simply will not tolerate and we will be looking forward to receiving a supreme court nomination and moving forward on it. >> joe, give them credit for keeping a straight face as he said that. the best i can do. >> can you believe that, willie? he said they won't stand for it. yet, the republican party is in a stronger position today than ever before because they broke just about every precedent in the book by not even giving

merrick garland a look. >> how that the shoe is on the other foot on january 20th, how does this change? >> we have fights over what the nominees are since the polarization became the way of washington. what happened for president obama was in some ways, unprecedented. certainly unfair by the standards of who was nominated. this was a pretty centrist guy. president obama was to elect supreme court justices for eight years, not seven. there is never a warm working relationship between chuck schumer and mitch mcconnell. this is not something it's worked out on trust and confidence. >> is it better than his relationship with harry reid? >> yes, it will be better than that. if you look at where donald trump is, he is going to nominate someone who s i think, mainstream conservative and far more conservative than what

chuck schumer wants. it's going to be a question how much each side is willing to fight. but i wouldn't be surprised -- i think republicans are underestimating the extent to which democrats may stake one of their big fights on blocking this because of the principle and just because of pure political annoyance to what happened to president obama. >> clearly, mr. obama is banking probably on the fact that we have a country filled with amnesiacs when he talking about what the democrats are trying to do. what they are trying to do is what the republicans did successfully. >> look. this will be a nominee specific. i think schumer has a point about inside the mainstream and if they pick someone who is pro everything that democrats are anti-or democrats are pro and where a majority of the country is, it will be a fight that democrats should stake and democrats will enjoy support from. but if it looks they are just saying no, much like republicans did with garland who actually

fit the bill better than probably many appointments over the last several years of being in the middle of the road, his record not inflammatory. clear but not inflammatory. if trump picks someone like oo on the other side right leaning, i think the democrats will have a hard time standing in the way like republicans. republicans made a credible argument. i didn't agree with it that a president shouldn't have in his last term an opportunity to replace someone and the person he was replacing was the conservative stallworth justice scalia. i think to your point about amnesia, no doubt the republicans will play this to the hilt. if the president picks someone way outside of the mainstream i think schumer and democrats will have not only a legitimate point but perhaps a winning point and president may have to pull and select someone else. >> kasie, the judge garland story is really kind of amazing. here you had a supreme court nominee proposed by a president of the united states. he couldn't even get an appointment with some of the -- he couldn't even get in an office to talk to them!

amazing! >> well, look. i think also -- harold mentioned this too. this is a fight that for democrats don't forget about the political pressure that they are under. their base knows the merrick garland story and they are angry about it and their base cares deem about supreme court. chuck shumer chumer is going to the fight for the sake of fighting it. democrats in a difficult place right now and gaplie grappling leading the party next and huge for elizabeth warrens and bernie sanders. there is so much at stake and i think that explains why schumer is taking the position he is. he knows between, you know, the ideology cal realities of this issue and what happened to merrick garland no way that liberal democrats and people democrats need in the next election aren't going to care about this and him showing some really impressive backbone.

>> joe, we are coming up on a year since the death of antonin scalia. february of last year and almost a year that seat has been open. >> wow. you know, willie, i don't see any way how, you know, you talk to kasie and other people on the hill that are covering this closely. i don't see how democrats support about any republican nominee that comes up over the next four years. you look at merrick garland. he was about at moderate as any democratic pick could be. certainly coming from this white house. and so you are going to face such an extraordinary amount of pressure if you are a democrat to lock and then ultimately vote no on every single pick that donald trump wants into the supreme court that, unfortunately, the days of supreme court justices getting 70, 80, 90 votes before they go, i think those days are over and i think almost every one of

these are probably going to be a 52-48. >> still ahead on "morning joe," we knew some of donald trump's cabinet picks would be tough sales to democrats but john mccain is looking to be a thorn in donald trump's side when it comes to rex tillerson. the arizona republican says there is a chance he can support him when pigs fly. his words. we will explain when "morning joe" comes back. it's a shark! it's a cancer-fighting shark... thanks to st. jude children's research hospital. at st. jude, no family ever pays for treatments, travel, housing or food... because all a family should worry about is helping their child live. wanna play? yes i do. give thanks for the healthy kids in your life

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it's really one of the more interesting moments of every new president's administration. when you start seeing how their cabinet selections are treated on the hill. this year, of course, there is going to be a lot more drama coming from republicans like marco rubio, lindsey graham, john mccain, especially over the pick of rex tillerson because of his perceived close ties to russia and, obviously, a friendship with vladimir putin. but that is ironically one of the cabinet selections that the trump administration, incoming trump administration are the least concerned about. they think tillerson is going to

get through just fine. my gosh. judging by what john mccain said yesterday, maybe they need to take a closer look? >> it's a mixed bag up on capitol hill. if rex tillerson is confirmed as secretary of state, he will walk away from his job at exxonmobil with a reported $180 million retirement package! according to the associated press, tillerson also has promised the state department he'll sell another 600,000 shares of exxon worked about $55 million and that will be managed by a third-party trust but all of that is contingent upon his confirmation. he spent yesterday on capitol hill meeting with senators of both parties including mitchell mcconnell and marco rubio and lindy graham and john mccain. many high profile republicans are skeptical. last month on twitter rubio blasted his ties to russia and asked on wednesday if he could support tillerson's nomination, john mccain said, quote, sure. there is also a realistic scenario that pigs fly, end quote.

here is senator graham with some concerns of his own. >> if rex tillerson, donald trump's nominee for secretary of state, if he does not agree with your assessment, if he does not see what you see and others see with regards to russia, does he have your vote? >> he'll have a hard time getting my vote because it's clear. you don't have to be sherlock holmes. the russians why undermining democrats by the entire world and taking land by others by force and they hacked into our political system and doing it to other political systems and they need to pay a price. sanctions are coming, president-elect trump. >> "the washington post" reports that behind closed doors, tillerson has sought to deliver tough message about how he sees russia and vladimir putin. obviously, in response to all of this. according to the unnamed senate sources, tillerson stopped sort of naming specifics on how he would handle sanctions and his interpretation of russia's involvement in united states elections. lae bring in senior write of politico and co-author of "the

playbook" jake. >> if he doesn't get the message he needs to talk to republicans then he is not listening and i have to guess the people around donald trump are hearing this loud and clear. it doesn't matter what his last relationship was with russia when he was chairman of exxonmobil at all. what matters is what he says at this hearing and that he has no sort of information that comes out during this process. and i don't know that that is the case. chuck schumer, when we talked to him the other day, said that he has stuff up his sleeves and he wants information pertinent to the hearing out before the hearing, which is not an unreasonable request. >> who has he met with so far? who has tillerson met with on the hill face-to-face? which senators? >> a bunch of people on the foreign affairs committee and talked to a lot of folks. i don't have the list handy. even more importantly is the back channels the trump world is working and they are talking to senators, they are talking to key aides and trying to assuage

concern on the hill he is too close to russia. yesterday, i think bob corker came out of a meeting with corker and said his views on russia are well within the mainstream. it looks like corker is going to support him but he needs graham and mccain. graham and mccain were just in the ukraine where they believe russia is interfering and has oub obviously, interfered. i can't see graham and mccain supporting this guy. >> donald trump announced his pick for the securities and exchange can commission. jay clayton with "the new york times" describes as the go to law firm for goldman sachs. recently retired is not dan coates the leading candidate to be is director of national intelligence. he represented indiana in the house and senate and ambassador to germany under george w. bush.

the date of trump's press conference is next wednesday, january 11th a big day for his cabinet picks with department of state, education, homeland security and transportation as well as the cia. hearing for attorney general nominee jeff sessions will start a day earlier on january 10th. speaking of sessions. it turns out and senator chuck schumer have a similar morning routine. >> nothing. we are on the bikes next to each other oftentimes, watching "morning joe" and making diametrically opposed comments about what is going on the show. >> good morning, senator schumer and sessions, whoever is on the elliptical. >> i like barnicle's tie. no, i don't like that tie. >> not really. exactly. they have them on in the gym

sometimes, we hear. no fights have broken out yet so a good thing. >> harold, what do you think-- back to tillerson into second. do mccain and graham and others hold their ground enough to make this a real problem for donald trump? >> i didn't hear them say they would vote against him but they had we have to hear him explain this. rex tillerson has negotiated great deals on behalf of exxon and implies aemployees and shar. if he takes that skill set and rk on behalf of th country i think the country w be well served by him. you look at the body of work. i think tillerson realizes the tough questions will come his way. he will have a hard time republicans if he is wishy washy. one to watch to me is sessions. we were having a conversation off air. i think the way democrats probe him and force him to explain his

record, not only will have impact on whether or not he is confirmed but will become the playbook how they go about questioning and being a supreme court nominee particularly around issues involving civil rights, issues involving women's rights and issues involving human rights. so i would watch that as close as tillerson. i think joe is probably right, maybe the trump team needs to take a closer look at tillerson but i think they have great confidence. you don't run exxonmobil, a global like that without handling tough and delicate situations which he clearly did for a long time. >> joe? >> yeah. i think a lot of people with rex tillerson, about five minutes in, they are going to see that rex tillerson controls the camera, controls the meeting room, every bit as much. the committee meeting room, every bit as much as somebody like, let's say, the supreme court justice john roberts did when he just completely wowed

people that questioning him and the press. i think mccain and graham probably will oppose but probably have to work their way back off of a cliff if they are. i think tillerson is going to be extraordinarily impressive in that room. jake sherman, to you on the jeff sessions question. i would say that jeff sessions would be facing probably the most problems of everyone up there except for the fact he is a member of the club. he's a member of the senate. these people have worked with him and they have co-authored bills with him and they have had dinner with him. they have sat close to him. they have had friendships with him for over a decade. it's kind of hard to have somebody as your colleague and your friend and then the second they turn on the lights, call him a racist and a bigot. i don't think that is going to be a comfortable switch for a

lot of democrats. they will play for the cheap seats and the crowd and bring up the quotes that he has already explained. but don't you agree with me? he has been very close to these people for a very long time. >> i think you're right. as you and harold know, there ask is a weird camaraderie even for people who hate each other on political issues. i could see manchin supporting sessions and i think the two have met and manchin has said nice things about him. i think manchin who is up in 2018 and one of the key people to watch. if you're a republican running against manchin in 2018 the easy thing joe manchin voted against donald trump's attorney general who is going to crack down on immigration. you're right. it's difficult for republicans to look sessions in the eye and say they are going to vote against him. i think you're absolutely right but doesn't mean you're wrong. this is going to be a tough and bruising confirmation process. i ultimately think you're right and the member of the club

survives. >> let's be honest, joe. the reality is it's almost certain that every one of these nominees will be confirmed. some will have a rougher time than others. the trump team have put professional sherpa teams around these nominees and they will have tillerson very well prepared and i think as you said when people hear tillerson talk. it will something that didn't come out comes out in the hearing and democrats being very well organized to create the groogr grassroots operation. mccain and graham want to know the administration is not going to be prorussia and i think tillerson will convince them it's pro-america and at a minimum, abstain. et's see what you all think of thisquestion. if you had to pick one nominee you thought was going to be in big trouble, who would it be?

my pick, i think it's going to be donald trump's selection for the treasury, steve mnuchin. a man many people on the inside he could not find his way to the united states senate unless he had google map. he does not know the town and does not know the people there and does not know the senate. his connections on the street are not that great. my god, in 2017, you look at what happened. mike barnicle, i'll go to you. you look at the sort of questions he is going to have to answer. is it really true that you evicted a widow from her apartment that was -- i don't know. i heard something like she was like 58 cents late on a payment or something like that. i don't know the exact details. i've got a feeling, though, there are going to be a thousand of those stories and i think that is going to be a nominee unlike rex tillerson who is not going to be as well prepared and not going to be as nimble on his

feet and who is going to have a record that is going to be really hard to defend when you really drill down to the small, small parts of it. i think that is a democrat's best opportunity. >> mnuchin is going to get pummeled more than any other nominees because mnuchin will have the witnesses at his hearing and introduced by other senators saying i lost my home for 32 cents and my six kid were thrown out in the street. tom price is going to get pummeled over medicare. rex tillerson is a very impressive guy. he certainly is going to get, you know, cleared. but his problem is going to be he's a friend of vladimir putin's and by the time those hearings take place, more people than ever are going to be convinced that russia is not our friend. might be tillerson's friend but not our friend. >> don't mistake what i'm saying about jeff sessions. i think he gets confirmed. the only point i was making i think democrats will use the hearing as a way to test how they will go after a supreme court nominee. being a member of the club is an advantage. i don't know jeff sessions particularly well but i would have to imagine he has made a

bunch of friends in the senate. i would agree with mnuchin and i think this guy pruitt, epa is going to have a lot of questions to answer around climate change. each of these democrats in these committees will use that as a sounding board and beginning audition for the presidency in four years and everybody have a toug time. most of them if not all of them ll be confirmed but democrats will use this as a test which is the big one of them all. >> that is the big one of them all, no doubt. the risk of us saying we agree with you way too much, i agree with you, harold. sessions is going to be an ugly fight. i agree, i agree, i agree. session is going to be ugly fight and tough battle. i think at the end he gets through and the same with rex tillerson. i don't think he is much of a fight. i do think kasey, steve mnuchin and pruitt at the epa, a climate change denier.

most americans would suggest a science denier. pruitt going in at the epa is something democrats are going to have to throw the gauntlet down on. they simply give an inch there. >> they are. i think whether or not they are able to be successful depends on how organized they are. i think you're right with mnuchin. i had run. say to me privately yesterday about that very itch of the widow's house. saying he is the swamp. you're trying to bring the swamp to washington. he also has to release his tax returns to the finance committee. not all of these nominees are having to do that. that is place that can generate surprise and usually what, if something is going to take down a cabinet nominee is what it is. but i will say on tillerson, and i think the panel is, again, right on a lot of these things. he is doing a very good job and people are saying positive things. he'll read right on camera. i've had people say he is one wrong answer from russia on serious problems. if he does go down it's not about him but it's about trump

and russia. the people to watch are on the committee not necessarily on the floor. so mccain and graham can make a lot of noise but you have marco rubio who has talked about this intelligence issue. jeff flake as we know no friend of donald trump's. then rand paul who doesn't seem to have any feeling about opposing this administration either. the three of them could potentially cause some problems if this russia issue stays. >> one other name to throw in the hat, tom price at hhs, he'll be confirmed but a bruising fight. the must read opinion pages are next. stay with us.

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are you guys up for a video of a car going into a restaurant? restaurant owners in michigan left with a mess on their hand after an suv careened into abdominal and all caught on

camera. nobody is hurt here. >> you're serious? >> yeah. the vehicle crashes into the restaurant and barely misses a booth full of customers. >> i thought it was a drive-thru. >> the lansing state journal said the driver borrowed the suv and was not familiar with it with gas and brake, apparently. authorities say the driver hit the accelerator instead of the brakes. thankfully, as i said, no one in the restaurant was injured. driver wasn't injured and everybody is okay. >> where is the dukes of hazzard theme music? i'd like to hear that. >> dana rorbacher how the lawmakers can work with the russian legislature. senator john mccain said reportedly said in response there is one in every party. and review of the latest phish album when he joins us next.

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ask your doctor about xarelto®. insurance changes? xarelto® has you covered. >> the cia, fbi, and department of homeland security say they strongly believe and have evidence that indicates that russia hacked american computers during the election. trump maintains not only does he say he doesn't buy their story about russian hacking, when he goes to the grocery store, he won't buy russian dressing. the obama's are packing up their stuff and leading. the first lady is saying her final good-byes to her vegetable

garden before donald trump throws a kfc on top of it. then oprah, samuel l. jackson and bradley cooper, and beyonce and jay-z. at the end of the party, beyonce and jay-z will move out and chachi and gary busey will move in. >> welcome back. there is quite a transition. a lot going on in the hill today regarding that transition. we talked about it a little bit last hour but i just think it's fascinating what is happening with obamacare and how the republicans now are coming to terms with the fact that this issue they ran on for all of these years finally dropped into their lap and like a hot potato. a lot of them don't know what to do with it. >> it's easy to repeal. how do you replace it? mika has the morning off. on the set is mike barnicle and mark halpern and former democratic congressman from

tennessee harold ford jr. and msnbc political correspondent kasie hunt. the news and finance anchor andrea. and msnbc political analyst mr. robert costas. the senate yesterday took the first step toward repealing obamacare voting 51-48 in favor of a budget resolution that allows repealing major parts of the law with a simple majority. going through the budget process means senate democrats cannot stop them through the filibuster. afterwards, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell spoke to the press. >> we are going to move forward with the obamacare repeal resolution first and we will take the second step a little bit later. >> vice president-elect mike pence met with members of congress yesterday about the republicans health care plan, alongside house speaker paul ryan and gop leadership. he said republicans would not just strip away the affordable care act. >> the first order on of business is to repeal and

replace obamacare and that was our message today and it will be our message on capitol hill. >> the health care system has been ruined, dismantled under obamacare. the answer here is not to ignore the problem. we will help americans crying out for relief from obamacare. >> why still no plan to replace it? >> we, we have a plan to replace it and plenty of ideas to replace it and you'll see as the weeks and months unfold what we are talking about replacing it and how to get better choices with lower prices by not having the cost of government take over the health care which is causing all of this problem in the first place. >> the anxiety is palpable. one of the no articulate republicans on capitol hill is the speaker of the house. he did a news conference today where he was unable to explain why republicans have not put forward their replacement plan. he's a smart guy. he spent years thinking about this. he is smart when it comes to politics and smart when it comes to. .

we have profound differences and he has a different point of view but nobody questions his intellect. even he can't articulate exactly why they can't -- why they aren't putting forward a placement. >> also yesterday, president obama went to capitol hill for a meeting with democrat ib lawmakers. those inside said he told them, quote, in two weeks i will no longer be a politician but i'll still be a citizen. i envy so much right now because i would love to be on the field. senator chris murphy shared more of the president's message. >> his message was, first and foremost, that we certainly lost some of the messaging on this, but that there is still is not -- there still isn't a majted of america majority of americans that want it repealed. only 25% want it repealed. >> there is a friction between trump and the incoming congress. i heard several weeks ago the

speaker's office was pushing them to go ahead and get on board with just the repeal and take care of replacement down the road. but yesterday afternoon, i heard that's not their approach at all. they still believe they need to build up the bill in its entirenot create what they call some sort of frankenstein monster that is trotted out for political purposes, but build an all-encompassing replacement for obamacare and put that out as the repeal vote is. you even heard that, though, from the vice president-elect but what are the rank and file saying, bob? i suspected it's something completely different. >> not just about building some frankenstein piece of legislation but building consensus. they got to find votes for something. that is has been the big question for rank and file republicans. what do they actually want to support in terms of a replacement? an idea is floating around that

making a new system of tax credits and keeping some aspects of the current law in in terms of people keeping parts of their insurance but no real agreement and why the speaker ryan knows he has to spend weeks, if not months, trying to get his own conference together. >> joe, there is really tough choices to make. do they repeal all of the taxes that were in the affordable care act which pay for the current system in part and which republicans may the to hold on to or part of their commitment to get rid of the medical device taxes and others. do they do anything to change the relationship that the employer provided health care which is a huge part of the system or do they scale back medicare and medicaid to do a deficit reduction. th this is a new washington and new congress but they haven't repealed the relate. congress doesn't until the last possible moment and to get consensus on some of those bigger issues beyond the 75% of things they want to do like

selling insurance across state lines, et cetera, that is going to be tough top and not happen fast enough to deal with the demand that they must show they are going to repeal the law. i agree it creates a problem but almost certain that is the way it's going to go. >> just real quick. the two dynamics yesterday at the capitol a huge push joe you're talking about the grassroots and republicans in congress to get this repeal and replace done. the trump people in new york don't want to own this if this is a replacement disaster. they are cautious and know they want to get rid of the law but not move fast and have the democrats the opportunity in 2018 to blame republicans in a lot of things. >> you saw that in donald trump's tweet yesterday afternoon talking about this is the democrats problem and need to take their time and wait. that is why everybody around donald trump that i've been speaking to yesterday on this very issue are saying nobody

understands how complex this is. you can say yes, let's just repeal obamacare but a reason why democrats have had such a hard time explaining it because it's so convoluted and there are so many intricate pieces woven together and you can't pull one thread out or another thread out would you the entire thing unraveling and having a political crisis on our hand. >> there is a reason it's six plus years now that republicans haven't been able to come up with a significant replacement plan. donald trump knows this comes now problem for him. this be becomes trump care and they have to answer to the constituents at home saying you've had all of this time now to come up with a plan. you've been talking about

repealing. where is the plan about replacement? we don't have one right now. >> the republicans gap in their rhetoric is about the real lives of real people. help people have better haeveea care or not? they are talking about choices and that leaves them vulnerable because democrats are talking about real people. >> what is interesting and joe pointed this out a couple second ago. a split what is going on what they are talking about in new york and the floor of the house and the floor of the senate. paul ryan's language, americans crying out for relief from obamacare? i don't think so. i've got a pretty good ear. i haven't heard wailing and crying about obamacare. in new york they know instinctively they are looking at a doom's day scenario, joe, if they just repeal and don't replace it? what does he do? urge all americans not to get sick for 18 months? >> mike, that is what, again, everybody that i'm talking to in the incoming trump

administration understand and they understand that not only will measures not, quote, crying out for relief from obamacare, they certainly know who the republican base is but they also understand where they won, wisconsin, michigan, ohio, pennsylvania. there are a lot of working class voters that drive around with pickup trucks, with trump make american great again bumper stickers on them that have obamacare. and what they see as, yes, some problems with obamacare, they also see that costs are getting under control, that health inflation may continue to slow down even moore. and also that the cost of this program over the next six months to a year, the trend lines look like it may slow down a bit. so they want to fix it but they see it as a major disaster if the republicans just rush off and repeal it and don't have a

complete hoone of the most fascinating splits what is happening with republicans on the hill and what is happening with republicans in new york and trump tower. >> the president-elect is up this morning with new comments about this debate on twitter. he writes the democrats, led by head clown chuck schumer, know how bad obamacare is and what a mess they are in. instead of working to fix it, they do the typically political thing and blame. the fact is obamacare was a lie from the beginning. keep your doctor, keep your plan. it is time for republicans and democrats to get together and come up with a health care plan that really works. much less expensive and far better! obviously, joe, a strategy. he used the clown term around schumer yesterday in another tweet. drawing a line between himself and democrats in the senate. >> i'm just going to say, willie, if you're going to fix

this with democrats, don't call the most powerful person in the democratic party -- in fact, the second most powerful person i would argue in washington, d.c., a clown. that may work on the campaign trail. he is going to need to sit down with that clown if he wants to fix obamacare, if he wants to change it to trump care, whatever he wants to do. that -- all roads for any compromised legislation, all roads, they lead through chuck schumer. a guy he is fairly comfortable with and one of the first phone calls he made after getting elected president of the united states. i would humbly suggest not the time to be call the second most powerful man in washington, d.c. a clown. >> mark, typically, a method by an insane tweet for donald trump. what is the strategy this time, if there is one? >> well, i mean, he would be better for the country and for trump's governing vision i think to do a bipartisan deal on the

replacement bill. democrats are no mind to do that. it's hard to imagine a replacement bill that they would like and both support. i think donald trump has learned it is time in national politics calling people names, a lot of people he called names endorsed him. and i agree with joe. in this context i don't think it's going to work. >> but this is different. yeah, this is different. and it's different because if you shame a ceo, that ceo -- like the ceo of lockheed, can see their market value go down by a couple of billion dollars in a day's time. if you shame somebody under the political trail with that is a republican, actually that could hur them as well. and they are going to have to come endorse you at the end of the day because they get too much pressure from their constituents. when he calls chuck schumer a clown, he is actually helping chuck schumer and he is strengthening chuck schumer with

his democratic base. he is strengthening chuck schumer with the people you see around him right now, the people that he works for in the united states senate and with nancy pelosi. so he is actually playing into chuck schumer's hand and making him stronger. the best way to hurt chuck schumer is to say, i like this guy, can get along with this guy. yeah, maybe he is saying some nasty things about me but i can make deals with him. >> i totally agree and i think on infrastructure and tax reform that is possible. on health care, i just think we talked earlier about the left pressure on schumer and the republicans policy vision of how to replace the affordable care act. i don't think the chances of a bipartisanship deal on health care are very deal compared to other issues where i do think he could do business with schumer. >> isn't this the same clown that donald trump told privately he liked more than paul ryan and mitch mcconnell? maybe he is trying to walk that back. >> harold ford, they are new yorkers. been new yorkers their entire life. somebody, yesterday, described

them as outer borough guys and not raised on the upper east side pampered. they are tough. i would guess that chuck schumer probably is not benefited by the term clown in a tweet. in fact, it helps him. at the same time, you may not get him on health care but you can get him on infrastructure and on tax reform and get him on a lot of other things. no need to unnecessarily antagonize the second most powerful guy in washington. >> both of them have tough skin. i noticed a change in trump's tone in that tweet. he mentioned bipartisanship. you read the editorials in the leading paper and the "wall street journal" editorial page they challenge him to rise to this moment and trump and pence as we noted already, you watch pence in both the house and senate press conferences, he was the one to listen to and making clear it's a repeal and replace.

far be it for me to give advise in washington, democrat or republicans, but if were in the republican administration the new one or working with democrats in the senate i'd reach out to governors across the country and align them with whatever plan i was willing to advance or hope to advance because they are the ones on the front lines with medicaid expansion. they are the ones who the citizens in their own state benefiting from aspects of obamacare and affordable care act and said on this show and network many times probably millions of americans who did not vote for hillary clinton who are actually benefiting from obamacare, actually on obamacare. so i would want some cover from governors as well as you think about some broad comprehensive and perhaps bipartisan reform on the health care act. >> bernie sanders tried to use the president-elect's own words against him and trotting out a giant poster featuring a trump tweet. as part of his argument on entitlements. >> may 7th, 2015, donald trump

tweeted, quote, i was the first and only potential gop candidate to state there will be no cuts to social security, medicare, and medicaid. end of quote. if he was sincere, that i would hope that tomorrow or maybe today he could send out a tweet and tell his republican colleagues to stop wasting their time and all of our time. mr. trump to tell the american people that he will veto any proposal that cuts medicare, that cuts medicaid, and that cuts social security. >> bed the fact that bernie sanders is keeping kinkos busy with his posters there, is there movement in a new administration on entitlements? donald trump hasn't been terribly focused on it. he has made, obviously, some public comments about them in the past.

do they change? >> classic bernie. look. i think that democrats strategy here is to try to make these entitlements part of the debate over health care. the reality they are, especially medicaid. to harold's point earlier, donald trump has shown that he has incredibly political instincts for his base and to a certain extent, the republican base but, obviously, it's wider than that. and there is a reason why he spent a big part of the campaign saying we are going to take care of people. and i think that helps explain why he is saying in this third tweet it's time for republicans and democrats to get together. i mean, democrats spent the last eight years learning the very painful lessons of what happens when you try to tackle health care with no help from the other party. and republicans, i think, this is a warning that trump has been trying to send. they run the risk of facing that same lesson if they try to do this by themselves.

both sides think there are things wrong with health care but it's become so political that i think trump understands there is now a risk to those people who sent him to the white house. >> kasie hunt in washington, thank you. bob, stay with us. still ahead on "morning joe," the "wall street journal" says if you want a job in the trump administration, chris collins is the guy to talk to. the new york congressman is filling thousands much positions and he is not afraid to look at democrats for some of them. he joins the conversation next on "morning joe." tonight, joe's band is playing at prohibition in new york's upper west side. the party starts at 8:30 p.m. stop by if you're in the area and tune in for a live stream of the show at facebook.com/joenbc. we will be right back on "morning joe." [burke] at farmers, we've seen almost everything,

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dana rohrabacher.

what you write on him this morning, quote, coy when asked whether his group would meet with putin. i really can't say that rohrabacher said after a half smile, it's possible. john mccain told you in response is there a lunatic fringe in every party. rohrabacher has been accused of being an apolifor russia. >> this not backed by house speaker paul ryan. one says he could nix this trip but rohrabacher sees an opportunity with his favorable

views of putin and russia. after being a back bencher for russia on policy for years, he told me he thinks he can bring some members there and he wants to work actually with the russian legislature to try to coordinator an agenda between the two countries and comes as the investigations into the hacking and intelligence issues. a congressman close to trump who wants to head to russia next month. >> robert, fine. plan a trip to the duma but why not plan a trip to meet with vladimir putin we know nothing happens there without vladimir putin's final say. what negotiations will he bring given he thinks everything russia has done is faultless? >> he didn't rule out a meeting with putin which would put the trump administration in an interesting position to have a subcommittee chairman in the house and in essence making foreign policy with russia as tillerson is going through his confirmation process on capitol hill. the one thing about rohrabacher

he has a history with putin. he has arm wrestled with putin. >> really? >> literally at a bar in d.c. and this is who he is. >> that's quite a way to end it with the arm wrestle. joining us from buffalo, new york, member of the trump transition team and executive committee republican congressman chris collins. congressman, great to have you with us this morning and thanks for being here. >> good morning. >> let's talk about obamacare. the repeal and replacement of it. you say we are voting to repeal it like we did six months ago. what are you going to replace it with? repeal we have said many times is the easy part but saints it important to communicate to the american people, many people are benefiting from and depend on the affordable care act what they are going to get immediately when you take it away? >> well, we will repeal it quickly. the replacement is something you'll see, you know, sometime in june, july time frame. we are going to have a lot of hearings, both on my health

subcommittee on the ways and means on the replacement plan. you've seen five or six different versions of replacement plans on the republican side. we are going to have to bring those all together to have one final product. we are going to spend a lot of time talking to the governors. certainly some of the republican governors that have taken advantage of the medicaid expansion. there is a lot of work to do but our message to america is this disastrous plan called obamacare with 20,000 deductibles for a bronze plan that effectively means you're buying a product you don't want to buy and it doesn't do any good for an american family to have a 12,000 dollar deductible. so immediately what we are saying we are not going to pull the rug out from anyone. there is not going to be any changes in 2017. there is not going to be changes in 2018. those products are already -- have already been approved by the state insurance agencies or for the 2018 time are in negotiation right now.

so we are talking about new plans in 2019 or later that will be more affordable and let patients pick their doctors and we will have to figure out exactly how we make sure that americans are not disadvantaged and that is a promise we have made. we are going to pull the rug out from anyone so there is no reason to worry the next two years. >> okay, congressman. let me ask you. you're in buffalo and you hold office hours. i come it to see you. i'm a constituent and i tell you i have three kids and a 9-year-old doubt who has cystic fibrosis. you're repealing obamacare. what happens to me six months, nine months down the road with my daughter and her doctors and her needs, when you haven't replaced obamacare yet nine months down the road? tell me about that? >> she is going to have exactly the same plan. the plans for 2017 are locked in stone. so her doctor, her coverage, everything that she has for 2017, there are going to be absolutely no changes whatsoever

in 2017. >> what are you repealing? >> we are sending the message to america that as we move in beyond, say, a two-year window, we are going to have a new plan. we don't have it finalized yet. it's going possible patient c t centric and no health insurance taxes on insurance companies and no medical device tax and those are the pieces we are going to be repealing. as far as the programs go, that is a discussion we will have over the next six to eight months to have a plan in place in time for the insurance companies who will be designing the program for 2019 and no panic and the sky is not falling. we have plenty of time to bring all of the groups in. we are going to bring in the insurance companies, the hospitals, the governors.

we are going to bring in individuals. we are going to bring in medical groups to have, through our hearings, both on energy and congress, on my health subcommittee and also on ways and means, to make sure we do not screw this up. >> this is harold ford. good morning, congressman. >> good morning. >> what you are saying sounds very different and far more appealing than those who are serious about this policy. you're saying that nothing will happen until 2019 to anyone that has any aspect of the affordable care act providing health insurance. the second question, why reit now if everything is going to stay in place until you actually have a replacement and still bring in all of the constituency groups you so eloquently talked about? and then all of america can weigh in and understand what it will like a year or two from now. if what you're saying is correct there is no need for alarm across the country. why repeal it if you are working

on a plan to replace it two years from now and saying nothing is changing with any family over the united states? >> well, it goes back two things like the medical device tax, the health insurance tax on insurance company. the mandate will be repealed immediately. those are going away but that does not impact the individual that you indicated has got someone with a chronic disease that needs treatment. the repeal is going to be dealing with some of these owners, parts of obamacare that have been job killers, that have impacted employers and penalized workers, you know, on the 30-hour versus 40-hour workweek. those very, very negative aspects of obamacare will be going away but not impact the patients seeing their doctor and the coverage that they have. that is the difference. >> congressman chris collins from up in buffalo this morning, congressman, thanks so much for your time. we turn to the other side of the

aisle. with us from chill is senior member of the ways and means committee democratic congressman richard neil of massachusetts. thank you for being with us this morning. >> good morning. >> you're a supporter of the affordable care act. i don't know if you heard what congressman collins said there but what do you make of the general argument to get rid of obamacare as soon as possible whether they have something to replace it with? >> sound to me the rhetoric has not caught up with the plan. i have had congressman collins say there are six different plans. i must pell you those of us on the democratic side have not heard one of them and have not seen one of them. i think they have had a bit of an open mike when it comes to talking about repeal. they have not concentrated on the idea of replace. so i think that the opportunity that they have presented to the american people right now is pretty empty. >> congressman, we just asked,

as you heard, congressman collins about office hours in buffalo. let moo he ask you about office hours in downtown springfield, massachusetts. it sounds to me from listening to congressman collins he is talking about revising obamacare more than repealing and ruining obamacare. what is your view on what needs to be done to obamacare? >> here is the problem. why wouldn't they treat obamacare the way we treated george bush's prescription d benefit plan? if you recall, we opposed president bush's plan, largely because of what was known as the doughnut hole. that ments you had to spend out x number of dollars before the benefit kicked in. we won the house. we won the senate. we won the presidency. and quickly we closed the dough net howl and moved on. prescription d, part d of medicare, is now an accept will entitlement and no effort made to repeal it. instead we improved it. i think here there was that opportunity but they have used

the rhetoric of repeal really without replace. and i'd like to improve it but here is the other part of it i think that bears noting. you need the mandate. governor romney in massachusetts, at the time, said that there was no room for free riders, that you had, in fact, to buy health insurance. you can't do the other things by expanding coverage without requiring people to have health insurance. their plan is presently -- again, just the outline of what we have seen because there really is no plan. what they have suggested is that you could actually wait until you got sick before you bought health insurance. any actuary can tell you -- the mandate that holds the entire obamacare plan together i think an entirely reasonable

expenditu expenditure. >> thank you. the president-elect in agreement with wikileaks founder julian assange. that is a ahead when "morning joe" continues. constipated?

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intelligence analysts expressing alarm at president-elect trump's agreement with julian assange. intel officials tell nbc while there are a lot of republicans and trump supporters in the spy agencies, there are few, if any, julian assange fans. yesterday, vice president-elect mike pence respond to do a question about assange by defending the president's skepticism. >> look. i think that the president-elect has expressed his very sin sear and healthy american skepticism about intelligence conclusions. we have receiving since the regular plex intelligence briefings and received a presidential daily brief with the president yesterday. and we will be looking at the

facts and the information. but i think, given some of the intelligence failures of recent years, president-elect has made it clear he is skeptical about conclusions from the bureaucracy and i think the american people hear him loud and clear. >> trump is critical of assange in the pasts and he and here is had to say during an interview in 2010. meanwhile, several top republicans are voicing their distain for julian assange. >> let me ask you what is your opinion of julian assange? >> mr. assange is a feithi fugi.

i hope no american will be duped by him. you shouldn't give him any credible. >> julian assange is a bad person with probably american blood on his hands and definitely the information he has put out there has made our country far less safe. >> this morning, buzzfeed is reporting the fbi never asked them for access to hacked computer servers that u.s. official say were hacked by russia. back to washington with bob costas. rhetoric from what we are hearing from the trump transition team and trump himself and on capitol hill. >> it's a gathering storm of sorts for the trump transition team because not only do they have skepticism towards the intelligence complete but also somewhat hostile to the hawks within their republican party. and these two forces are coming together and it's really making republicans on capitol hill quite nervous, speaking of senator mccain and others yesterday.

they are wondering how does this play out once trump is president? is he actually not going to believe what he is given in terms of intelligence and will he not work with the congress on these issues? >> this fits into the report in the "wall street journal" this morning as well that donald trump is going to pare back dni and pare back or reshape the cia in some way. he is completely changing, at least in the early going here, the relationship between the executive and his intelligence agencies. >> and one has to wonder how much of an influence michael flynn has in this decision making as well. obviously, disgruntled with the intelligence agency. i've said this befe and say it again. you can't oversay what a coup this is for vladimir putin to have a president-elect of the united states on almost on a daily basis question the u.s. intelligence for him and russia, he gets a daily briefing every single day. the guy ran the fsb. he never questioned the intelligence agencies. in russia. and it's -- donald trump playing with fire here because once he becomes president, god forbid we

have a another terror attack or something calls falls through the cracks he is not listening to the intelligence agenes reporter to him. >> tomorrow, it's hard to imagine hllome out of the briefing with the same posturing he has had. he is going to look in the eyes of the leading members of the intelligence and law enforcement community who tell him, presumably, this was the work of russia where an attempt to help him and he will tweet sarcastically about their abilities and hard to imagine he's in the same place tomorrow. >> beyond his point, one of the other elements is we share intelligence with our allies. so what is the reception to what we share among our allies, given the posture that has been taken over the last few weeks towards intelligence professionals from the president-elect? >> exactly. what does this do to moral for all of the people that work for these intelligence agencies? by the way, are the final line, the last line between us and many times going to war. >> you have to wonder what value

is there even if what trump is saying has some accuracy to it? what value is it to your point in disclosing it and making it public? if these things need to be fixed and fix them properly. to your point, putin would not make public he didn't believe something in a presidential briefing et received in russia. he would fix it behind closed doors. this is not a conversation to be having and seemly as carelessly as the president-elect is having. >> and creating infighting once again within his own party. >> publicly. >> yes. >> this is something else in entirely. robert costas, thank you. talk to you soon. coming up, look at our luck. meredith vieira is here. she is the executive producer of an amazing new documentary that has now been short listed for an oscar, meredith? an oscar? that is next on "morning joe."

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my mission was to get into the tower. >> don't worry. we will be okay. or we are going to die. >> it won't be much longer now. don't worry. >> we lay there and just talked, which was kind of wonderful, because it kept me conscious and i don't know what would have happened had i been unconscious. >> that is a look at tower. the critically acclaimed documentary about the deadly shooting spree in 1966 at the university of texas at austin. one of the 15 films on the potential oscar nominees. joining us is the film's executive producer, our dear fre

friend meredith vieira. >> nice to see you guys. >> people will see that if they haven't seen the film and animation and it's mixed in with hi cal footage and interviews and it's pieced together but the animation part is kind of what makes it. explain the decision to go that way. >> so funny you mentioned that. that threw me when i was first involved with this film. why you animating something so horrific? the reason that keith maitland, is the director and deserves all of the kudos here, one to attract a younger audience because they have grown up with that. and to draw them into the story. so that you're really there on that day. and he fel the only way you could dohat wasn't enough historical footage that you needed another method to bring you back to august 1st, 1966. so what they do is they use real actors all first-person accounts and nothing is made up and all of the dialogue is real. then they animate over those people. it really does feel like you are there. there is something that is almost eerie about it.

and it also has a surreal quality which is what those people were feeling that day. never been a mass shooting on a campus and thatashe first one. >> it's amazing. the film is amazing. the memory is en more aming. is. charles whitman, really the first time america became familiar with a mass shooting. one of the johnson girls was at the school, attending the school at the time. >> we made a real effort not to bring up his name. it's only brought up, i think, three times in the film. the shooter's name. and part of the reason for that is when keith was researching this, and he also went to the university of texas, like you and austin, there was so much about that man and almost nothing about the victims and the survivors. and part of that was because nobody talked about it and you see that in the film. some of these people, 50 years later,or theirst time, are talking about their experiences. because they were told not to. the university of texas, i think, shut down for one day, to wash the blood away. and then it was business as usual. not taught in school.

i don't know if it was taught when you were there. >> it's interesting, freshman year, you can't obviously miss the tower. it's right there in the center of the square and you walk by it and everybody knows the history. but i remember freshman year, i had a professor who was -- had just started out at u.t. teaching that day and remembers where he was and what he was doing. and he re-tells the story, vividly. and apparently he does this to every incoming freshman class, because it's an incident that still haunts the city and the campus, obviously, they've moved on, but you can't help but walk by that tower and not recall what happened there, so many decades ago. >> and when you think about the fact that it was 50 years ago and it is still so much a part of these people's psyches, those folks who were there that day. we have the perspective of 50 years to look at this. and you imagine -- you know, it doesn't go away. it doesn't go away. but when you saw that clip earlier, one of the points i want to make is for all the horror those people experienced on that day, there was so much love. you saw claire lying on the

sidewalk. she was -- her baby had died. probably shouldn't have revealed that, but she was giving up. and that woman, rita, another student, ran up to her and kept her talking, so she knew she can't fall asleep. if she falls asleep, she might die herself. and there were so many moments like that of real love, of people coming together to help each other on that day. >> and not to turn political, but now with the new open carry law in texas, it's become a big issue on campus, as well. many professors and many students were against it, as the heads of the school were against it, in fear that they wouldn't be attracting the students and top talent in teaching for fear of this law. and one of the reasons there's this fear, obviously, is this haunting memory. >> although, it's interesting, on that day, the students were allowed to carry on campus. and the police relied on them. said that one of the policeman that got there, they didn't have s.w.a.t. teams back then and didn't have the equipment needed to get to somebody who was up in a tower.

they were asking students, does anybody have a shotgun? the police themselves didn't have shotguns. and the students helped them. >> so what was it about, you've done so much in your career, what was it about this story that grabbed you and drew you in. was it that you saw some of the film first? you saw some of that animation. what was it that you wanted to attach to? >> initially, it was virginia tech, actually. when i first started at "today," that was one of the first big stories they covered. >> i remember that morning. with you. >> and that was after the fact, we went after the shooting, and i was so overcome by that. and to this day, it haunts me. and i felt like, yeah, let's go back, let's go back to the first one. i'm just interested in what happens to people in those situations. because you do see the worst, but you also see the absolute best. >> now, i'm going to totally jinx you right here, but people are mentioning a potential oscar nomination for this. pretty cool? >> i think it's very cool.

and i think keith matlin totally deserves it. he's a brilliant filmmaker. and that's the kind of thing that helps you for the next film you want to make. i love his storytelling and his approach to stories and his humanity and i would love to see more work from him. >> how long was this film in the works? >> ten years, but four years of really shooting. but ten years ago, he was, "i want to make this film." because he grew up in texas, he went to the university of texas, austin. and he was one of those people who heard very little about it. and he felt, you know, we need to honor these people. we need to tell their stories. and because of this film, he brought together folks that had, like i said before, had never spoken about it. he was part of a catharsis for these folks and a healing. and moving forward, you know, it's funny, there'll be another, i'm sure. i hate to say that, but i'm sort of convinced that's the way things are. and the purpose of this film, it wasn't political, but we want people to keep talking. we want people to leave this film and start a conversation, no matter what side you're on in

terms of gun control, nobody wants to see children being killed. >> it's an extraordinary film. and it is just so visually -- it just grabs you. it's called "tower." it's on itunes now, available next week on vod platforms. and by the way, speaking of next week, meredith vieira back to host the "today" show -- got the alarm ready? >> that matt lauer needs propping up, constantly, you know? that savannah had to have a baby to get away from him, and i can't. my eggs are powdered, as my friend joy behar says, so i'm back! >> my eggs are powdered! >> on that note. >> words to leave meredith with. great to see you. congrats on the film. >> great to see you guys. >> still ahead this morning, the uneasy relationship between donald trump and the intel community. a new report this morning says his incoming administration will have big chances for the office -- big changes of director of national intelligence and the cia. plus, the battle over the fate of obamacare underway on capitol

hill. republicans begin the long-promised repeal effort, but president obama is firing up the opposition. we'll talk to democratic senator, chris coons. and chilling video of a chicago teenager being beaten and tortured, all streamed live on facebook. four teenagers arrested. this morning, the growing calls to charge them with a hate crime. we'll go live to chicago for that story when we come back. what shall we call you? tom! name it tom! studies show that toms have the highest average earning potential over their professional lifetime. see? uh, it's a girl. congratulations! two of my girls are toms. i work for ally, finances are my thing. you know, i'm gonna go give birth real quick and then we'll talk, ok? nice baby. let's go. here comes tom #5! nothing, stops us from doing right by our customers. ally. do it right. whoo! look out.

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visit myrbetriq.com to learn more. of bad breath germs% for a 100% fresh mouth. feeling 100% means you feel bold enough to... ...assist a magician... ...or dance. listerine®. bring out the bold™ we had a great meeting with the president. virtually all of our caucuses

attended. he was very inspiring. telling us we were working out our strategy and we have a great deal of optimism that the good things that have happened in aca are going to stay and that our republican colleagues don't quite know what to do. they're like the dog who caught the bus. >> yes, yes, they are! at least on that front, willie, republicans are like the dog that caught the bus. they've been chasing it now for six years and they just don't know what to do with it. >> yeah, front page of every paper this morning, the senate gop opening a fight with the obamacare health law. we'll see what they have. if they're going to repeal, what are they going to replace it with? >> yeah. it's beginning to be hard to -- going to be hard to see what they're going to do. you even have paul ryan, we'll play the clip in a second, even paul ryan yesterday was asked, what do they replace it with? and they're all having a hard time figuring out exactly what to do.

there's a political battle going on. the trump administration doing their own thing. they're moving on a different track. and their attitude is sort of different than the republican house's, which is -- and the senate, which is, what we're going to put together our plan. we're not going to just cobble something together, based on politics. so i think, willie, it's going to be very fascinating to see how this turns out. and whether you actually have a situation where the trump administration would even consider vetoing one of the first things the republicans pass. if it was just a repeal without a replacement. so who do we have around the table, willie? >> we've got veteran columnist, maybe you know this guy -- >> legendary! >> stop it. >> right on cue! msnbc contributor, mike barnicle. managing editor of bloomberg politics, wearing his kornacki casual this morning, mark halperin. >> role model. >> msnbc political analyst, professor at the university of michigan school of public policy, former democratic congressman from the great state of tennessee, harold ford jr..

>> good morning, brother. >> and msnbc political correspondent down in washington, joe, kasie hunt. so we've got a full house for you. the senateesterday too t first step towards repealing obamacare. it voted 51-48 in favor of a budget resolution that allows repealing major parts of the law with a simple majority. going through the budget process means senate democrats cannot stop them through the filibuster. afterwards, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell spoke to the press. >> we're going to move forward with the obamacare repeal resolution first, and we'll take the second step a little bit later. >> but president-elect donald trump appeared to caution his party about this, tweeting earlier, republicans must be careful in that the dems own the failed obamacare disaster, with its poor conch and massive premium increases, like the 116% hike in arizona. also, deductibles are so high that it is practically useless. don't let the schumer clowns out of this web, trump writes. massive increases of obamacare will take place this year and

demes are to blame for the mess. it will fall of its own weight. be careful. meanwhile, vice president-elect, mike pence, met with members of congress yesterday, about the republicans' health care plan, alongside house speaker paul ryan and republican leadership. he said, the party would not just strip away the affordable care act. >> the first order of business is to repeal and replace obamacare. and that was our message today and it will be our message on capitol hill. >> the health care system has been ruined, dismantled under obamacare. the answer here is not to ignore the problem. we will help americans crying out for relief from obamacare. >> why still no plan repla it? >> we have a plan to replace it. we have plenty of ideas to reple it. and you'll see, as the weeks and months unfold, what we're talking about replacing it. how we can get better choices with lower prices, by not having

a cost of government takeover of health care, which is causing all this problem in the first place. >> the anxiety is palpable. one of the most articulate republicans on capitol hill is the speaker of the house. and he did a news conference today, where he was unable to explain why republicans have not put forward their replacement plan. he's a smart guy. he spent years thinking about this. he's smart when it comes to politics. he's smart when it comes to policy. we've got profound differences and he's got a different point of view, but there's nobody that questions his intellect. are and even he can't articulate exactly why they can't -- why they aren't putting forward a replacement plan. >> so, joe, there are plans. republicans do have plans. tom price has a plan. a number of republicans have plans. but, as we've talked about on this show, if you're going to take something away from people who voted for you, people who support you, republicans who benefit from obamacare, you better well show them what you've got to give them in its place.

>> and mark halperin, you notice in that press conference, you actually had the -- mike pence, you had the vice president, the future vice president saying, yes, our first order of business is to repeal and replace. that's the first order of business. it wasn't, we're going to repeal and then we're going to worry about this two or three months down the road. then paul ryan got up and said, why don't you have a plan to replace it? and he said, well, we do, but we've got ideas. and you will see over the coming weeks and coming months what those ideas are. that, as i said yesterday, is walking into a gauntlet. chuck schumer, democrats will have the high ground and they will be able to pick them off, one by one by one. i really do think, based on my talking to trump's top advisers over the last couple of days, that they are putting together a plan to replace. and they want congress to repeal and replace at the same time. but the pressure, can't you

sense it, is just overwhelming from the constituents of these republicans, who are saying, we want to repea it w. we don't care what you replace it with. go! >> well, i think that pressure will be overwhelming. this is going to be a two-step process. they have a lot to manage. and in the end, what matters for the house republicans is not the politics of it, although that's on their mind. it's, can they do what they're promising? can they build a system that has more coverage, more choice, lower costs, and deals not just with people on the public program in the private insurance and employer insurance, but also medicare and medicaid. it's a massive, complicated thing. harold, if you were a strategist for the house republicans, the senate republicans, would you feel comfortable in doing the two-step process, or would you try to delay repeal? >> i would want to do it all at one time. i think how you just described it and what's been said around the table, i think pence is the one to watch in the whole process. and i think yesterday, it was -- became abundantly clear from the

way ryan tried to answer the question or attempted to answer the question, he even looked back as pence as he was trying to answer the question, which signalled to me physically, figuratively, literally that the white house will drive this process. i think credit should be given politically to the team, to the trump team for saying, look, don't do this. if anybody's going to own the failure, let democrats own it. and joe, you're right, if they do do this, this is the start of schumer campaigning for those senate democrats up for re-election in two years. and it's certainly a start for pelosi and other democrats to find a way to majority in the house. >> kasie hunt, off of what joe scarborough just indicated, his feelings are about in terms of replacement, there is no replacement right now, here's the killer quote. and i would ask you about the timing of a replacement, from paul ryan, when asked about his replacement plan, he said, well, you'll see it as the weeks and months unfold. for those without health

insurance, that's a long, long full-time. who has a plan? >> look, i think the person you want to watch in this is mitch mcconnell. and you heard mike pence talk a little bit about this yesterday in that picture you just showed. he stood with senate leadership and talked -- it's down in the weeds. he talked about budget reconciliation measures. the reality is that mitch mcconnell is a master of this process. and if there's anybody who can figure out how to craft something that both repeals, but then sets up the right kind of opportunity for republicans to replace this law, it's going to be mitch mcconnell. so paul ryan sort of has it eased, because he can push whatever he needs to through the house, most likely. the challenge is going to be on the other side. mcconnell has to both give republicans the right side of opportunities to fix this, without creating all these political problems, and he has to figure out how to win over democrats to help him solve the problem afterward. and i think, look, democrats tried to send the signal

yesterday that they are going to dig in. they are not going to help. the president came in and said, don't rescue republicans on this. don't help them. but the reality is, i talked to joe manchin yesterday. he was on the show yesterday morning, as well, talking about the conundrum he has on this. he said, look, it's very hard to get people like the coal miners in my state to give you credit for what you did for them. but they sure as hell will blame you if you take it away. that's what republicans are facing. manchin is a democrat that wants to help. and i think that's the tension to watch in the next month or two. >> more on this coming up. meanwhile, another big story this morning. the uneasy relationship between donald trump and the intelligence community continued yesterday, as a report emerged that the new administration will reorganize and pare back the office of the director of national intelligence and the cia. "the wall street journal" reports that trump believes dni created in 2004 to coordinate between intelligence agencies is bloated and politicized. a 2010 classified report from

the president's intelligence advisory board found the office was distracted, not as agile as it should be, and prone to turf wars. also according to the journal, trump advisers are working on a plan to restructure the cia, cutting down on staffing at its virginia headquarters and pushing more people out into the field in mosts around the world. reportedly leading these reform efforts are incoming national security adviser, michael flynn, and nominee for cia director, congressman mike pompeo. a top transition official tells nbc news there is, quote, a lot of discussion on streamlining the agencies and making them more efficient, but called "the wall street journal" report, quote, oversold. joe? >> yeah, you know, there's been -- kasie hunt, there's obviously been a battle between intel agencies for a very long time. we saw, most famous, or most infamously, after 9/11, how they just didn't communicate with each other, but you look at a 2010 report that shows they're

distracted, there's still this sort of turf warfare going on. it looks like this actually could be a reality. even if initial reports are overblown, it looks like the intel communities could really be set up for a realignment. what are you hearing on the hill? >> well, look, i tnkhere could be some appetite for re-forming the dni. people do think ihasn't necessarily worked the way it was supposed to. i think there's also support for pushing the cia further out into the field. if the trump administration is going to come in and say, hey, we're going to cut these intelligence agencies with, i don't think that that's going to fly. and i think it really plays into this broader struggle that we're seeing. the hill today is going to be all about russia. john mccain is holding this hearing. and i think the thing that you really want to watch over the course of the next couple of days is how donald trump reacts to that intelligence briefing that he's set to get on friday. if donald trump comes out after that briefing and continues to cast doubt on these assessments, i think you're going to see not just democrats, but republicans

like john mccain, like lindsey graham, really come out and be willing to take a pretty aggressive stand against them. and where do republicans have leverage on capitol hill right now? with nominations, cabinet nominations, like rex tillerson, who, if he puts a foot wrong on russia, could lose republicans at his hearing. and if donald trump is out there casting doubt on what the intelligence agencies have to tell him about the hacking into the election on the part of russia, i think you're going to start to see some real potentially surprising problems for his cabinet nominees on capitol hill. >> mark halperin, reviews, questioning, skepticism of intelligence. those are all good things. i mean, every president ought to have more of each of the three when it comes to intel. but the idea and the reality of the president-elect yesterday sort of implying, more than implying that julian assange is a more incredible intelligence operative acting on behalf of the united states than is the

central intelligence agency, is beyond bizarre. >> it's a classic trump thing, right? questioning, he'll get a lot of support from the public. and as kasie said, from some members of congress to say, let's look at how this is structured and let's look at their history and their record. but to go a step further and question their integrity in some of the tweets, comparing them unfavorably to julian assange, it's inexplicable what he gets out of that. although the suspicion remains, he's trying to protect in part from a conclusion, from the senate or the house, that russia helped him disproportionately win the election. take away that variable, though, and this notion of questioning the way things have been done in washington, they'll get support for that, from the public and from his -- >> as he ought to. >> as he ought to. and when chuck schumer says, you know, he's been playing political analyst since he became minority leader. when he says, well, you shouldn't do this because the intel community will come at you hard. we all know there's a history of that. they're the toughest people to

take on in washington. but that shouldn't be a reason not to do it. but to disrespect them the way he has, i just don't see what he gets out of that. >> i would agree with you. are you said it well. i mean, i think it's the inclination is right on part of the president-elect. i do think they should be careful in a way he characterizes some things, for the reasons you stated. but you contrast this with health care. they've been talking for years, republicans, about repealing health care. and given the opportunity now, they have the votes in the house and senate, they don't really know what to do. and they're going to wait for trump. trump will lead on this. i'm curious kasie's point about, if trump does not back off some of the russia comments, if that may hurt some of his nominees. kasie, are you hearing that from senators. that that would cause them not to only rethinking around tillerson but mattis or kelly or some of the others? because frankly, the intel stuff sounds a lot like flynn talking, as much as it does trump. but are you seriously and legitimately hearing that they might consider their vote or might reconsider their votes for

some of these cabinet appointments? >> reporter: i think it depends on what trump says after his intelligence briefing on friday. but i think that there is a serious risk there. i mean, some of these nominees are pretty safe. mattis is extraordinarily popular, but there are places where they certainly could cause a lot of problems. i mean, think about the question. you just say, okay, do you stand with donald trump or our intelligence agencies on whether or not russia hacked into trying to affect our election? yes or no. and there's a right and a wrong answer in the view of a lot of these members of congress. and they may not be on donald trump's head. you're already starting to see reporters put those types of questions to these nominees. >> one other interesting footnotes to this story, general michael flynn, who's leading this push, according to the "wall street journal," was nudged out by james clapper in 2014 from dni. so there's complicated personal relationships there as well. >> and general flynn has a, i'm sure, a list of grievances against the intel community.

how many of them are legitimate? i don't know. i don't think anybody knows. but he has a list. you've got to ask yourself, how much of a role is that playing in this overview of the intelligence community. >> we know some of them are personal, but some of them are institutional. and again, if the country elects somebody and a new government to look at how things are done and maybe do them differently, this is an area, as importants a it is, where it's good the questions are being raised. still ahead on "morning joe," senator chris coons had an audience yesterday with rex tillerson. we'll ask him if he's comfortable with how the potential secretary of state will handle russia? plus, as donald trump prepares to push through the supreme court nominee, democrats take a page from the republican playbook. but first, bill karins has a check on the forecast, as some cold weather sweeps across the country. hey, bill. >> yeah, cold, a lot of snow in the next few days and a lot of rain in california. but i've got to show you this guy. he stole the show yesterday on lake michigan, surfing the large waves, yes, in the winter, lake michigan. almost looks like he's wearing a mask, not this guy, but him

right there. look at that! how long does that take to sit in that cold water to get icicles like that on your frozen beard? you're driving through it this morning, through st. louis, missouri, southern illinois, kansas city had a little bit of light snow. that continues through kentucky this morning. there are some treacherous spots. it's a little coating, but that's all you need sometimes for slick conditions. now let's talk california. ski resorts picked up 4 to 5 feet of snow. that's a lot of snow with one storm, but now storm number two is going to come in. this is the liquid precipitation that will fall. that's 7 to 10 additional inches in the next week. so if you just do a ratio of 10-1, that's another 5 to 8 feet of snow on top of the 5 feet they just got. the problem will with rainfall there. a little bit of light snow will happen in the mid-atlantic and southern new england. wake up tomorrow morning to slippery roads. new york city, boston, cape cod. only about an inch, but cape cod a little more. the timing of it on friday morning making it a little difficult for you getting out the door. washington, d.c., doesn't look like we're going to get too much

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senate minority leader chuck schumer has taken a page out of the republican's playbook when it comes to the battle over filling late supreme court justice antonin scalia's vacant seat. schumer vowing to keep the seat vacant while mcconnell, who successfully blocked president obama's pick of merrick garland to fill that seat, is slamming his counterpart's promise. >> we have said that we will oppose nominees who are out of the mainstream, plain and simple. we haven't talked about hearings or talked about any of these other issues, but we will oppose nominees out of the mainstream. period. if it's one, if it's two, if it's three. if they put someone in the mainstream, we'll give them a careful look, and we hope they

will. >> apparently there's yet a new standard now, which is to not confirm a supreme court nominee at all. i think that's something the american people will simply not tolerate and we'll be looking forward to receiving a supreme court nomination and moving forward with it. >> joe, give him credit for keeping a straight face as he said that, that's the best i can do that. >> can you believe that, willie? he said, they won't stand for it. and yet the republican party is in a stronger position today than ever before, because they broke just about every precedent in the book by not even giving merrick garland a listen. >> are things different now, this time around? how do things change now that t shoe's on the other foot? >> we've had these fights over what the standards are for supreme court nominees since the polarization became the way of washington. what happened for president obama was in some ways

unprecedented. certainly, unfair, by the standards of who was nominated. this was a pretty centrist guy. more liberal than mitch mcconnell would like, but pretty centrist, and president obama was elected and re-elected to nominate justices for eight years, not seven. i think this is one of the many things that are going to be up for grabs here. there's no -- there's never going to be a warm, working relationship between chuck schumer and mitch mcconnell. this is not going to be something where it's worked out on trust and confidence. >> is it going to be better than his relationship with harry reid? >> yes. it will be better than that. i think, if you look at where donald trump is, he's going to nominate someone who is, i think, a mainstream conservative. it's going to be how much each side is willing to fight. but i wouldn't be surprised if republicans are underestimating the extent to which democrats may stake one of their big fights on blocking this, because of the principle and just because of pure political annoyance of what happened to president obama. >> harold, clearly, mitch

mcconnell was banking on probably the fact that we have a country filled with amnesiacs. when he's talking about what the democrats are trying to do. what they're trying to do is what the republicans did, successfully. >> look -- >> do you have anything to say? >> this will be a nominee -- this will be nominee specific. i think schumer has a point about inside the mainstream, and if they pick someone who is pro-everything that democrats are anti, or antieverything that democrats are pro, and where a majority of the country is, it will be a fight that democrats should stake and democrats will enjoy support from. but if it just looks like they're just saying no, much like republicans did with garland, which probably fit the bill better that be most appointments in terms of being in the middle of the road, his record clear, but not inflammatory. if he picks someone like that, trump does on the other side, right-leaning, i think democrats will have a hard time standing in the way like republicans did. republicans made a credible

argument, i didn't agree with it, it was unprecedented, that a president shouldn't have in his last term a chance to replace someone. and that person he was replacing was the conservative stalwart, justice scalia. and to your point about amnesia, there's no doubt republicans will play this to the hilt. but if they do pick someone way outside of the mainstream, i think schumer and democrats will have not only a legitimate point, but perhaps a winning point in that the president may have to pull and select someone else. coming up on "morning joe," how president obama's legacy in afghanistan will be defined by his determination to exit. "the new york times's" mark landler is taking a look at that and he joins us ahead. "morning joe" will be right back.

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the simple fact is, the american people know who owns obamacare. it's the first half of the title. >> vice president-elect mike pence speaking on capitol hill today. and donald trump out with new tweets about obamacare. writing, "the democrats lead by head clown chuck schumer know how bd obamacare is and what a

mess they're in. instead of fixing, they do the typical political thing and blame. the fact is, obamacare was a lie from the beginning. keep your doctor, keep your plan." he goes on, it's time for republicans and democrats to get together and come up a health care plan that works, much better and much less specify. joining us from capitol hill, member of foreign relations, committee, senator chris coons of delaware. senator, always good to see you. thanks for being with us this morning. you met with rex tillerson, the nominee to be the next secretary of state. you met with him yesterday. what are some of the concerns you expressed to him with regard to a relationship between exxonmobil, the company he runs, and russia? >> well, my first question for him, and we spent a fair amount of time on it was how he views putin, how he views vladimir putin's russia, and what his view is of nato, of russia's aggression in ukraine, of russia's responsibility for the massacres the in aleppo, and

it's a conversation i intend to continue in the public confirmation hearings we will likely have next week. because i think the american people deserve an answer to these tough questions. my concerns really are primarily about president-elect trump and his very disturbing, even alarming tweets, suggesting he trusts julian assange better than the intelligence community and doesn't take seriously the threats to democracy, presented by vladimir putin's attack on our last election. >> senator coons, what did he tell you about his relationship with vladimir putin? >> he was it was a business trip. he and his wife had a good experience when he lived and worked in russia. that he understands the difference between the ceo of the world's largest oil company and the role as secretary of state? that's a question i intend to continue pressing him on, because fighting for america's values is a very different things than fighting for shareholder value. >> senator, in your conversation with rex tillerson, aside from his relationship as an oil

executive with vladimir putin, what else did he express to you that he knew about russia, whether it's their history on human rights relations, whether it's their foreign policy views whether it's internal dynamics within the country, from economic to geopolitical. >> well, a core concern for me was his view of sanctions, because he's been critical of sanctions very sharply. and we talked at some length as to whether he was willing to embrace the use of sanctions if they are strong, if they're multi-lateral, if they're enforced effectively, for the advancement of human rights and american interests. he was generally positive in his response on that. he was generally positive in his response on the importance of nato, but there is a real tension between his expressed views and our conversation yesterday and the views of president-elect trump. s so i look forward to exploring that tension further in the upcomi upcoming confirmation hearings.

>> senator, what traits did he exhibit that made youmore or less comfortable with him as a secretary of state? >> he's fairly measured and levelheaded and answers questions directly. and i did say to him that i'm gravely concerned that we have a president-elect that's conducting both domestic policy and foreign policy by tweet, as you just said a few moments ago. president-elect trump is ridiculing the minority leader of the senate, chuck schumer, and trying to lay the groundwork for his fight, repealing obamacare, with a series of tweets. one of the first he is did as president-elect was to wander into a fight with china over taiwan. something i think was ill advised and unprecedented. so i raised with mr. tillerson my grave concerns that if president trump doesn't rely on his secretary of state, secretary of defense, and conducts his own foreign policy in 3:00 a.m. twitter wars, that we may end up in a real war. >> senator, back to intelligence gathering and president trump's tweet, you just referenced it earlier, where he regards,

seemingly has higher regard for julian assange than he does for the american intelligence operatives that operate for us around the world. we have a new part of a tweet that he just issued, the dishonest media likes saying that i am in agreement with julian assange. wrong. i simply state what he states. it is for the people. uh, and that's just the first of a couple of more tweets that are coming on. but where are you on this? tell us about this? >> mike, i'm gravely concerned that we have a president-elect that is disrespecting the entire american intelligence community. all 17 agencies, every single element of the american intelligence community unanimously reached with high confidence a conclusion that the senior leadership of russia, including, obviously, vladimir putin, intentionally tried to undermine our democracy in the last election. and for him to take the side of julian assange over our own intelligence community, and now be apparently planning a restructuring of the senior

roles within the intelligence community is really troubling. there is going to be a hearing on armed services, i believe, later today. i look forward to a hearing on the foreign relations committee on which i serve. and i think we need to be standing up in a bipartisan way, and taking on this challenge of how we make america safe and strong against cyberattacks. not just by russia, but by our adversaries around the world. and this is a very troubling tendency by mr. trump to take the side of any source that feeds into his predisposition, in this case, his predisposition to think that trump is a great leader, rather tn hearing the bipartisan concerns about the aggression of putin's russia. >> did rex tillerson express any of the skepticism of intelligence agencies on the question of russia that we've heard from donald trump? in other words, does he line up with the intelligence agencies on the question of russia meddling in the election or with donald trump? >> i think that's a question we're going to have to let him answer in a public hearing. i didn't get as clear and satisfying of an answer on that

as i wanted in our meeting yesterday. it was generally a constructive meeting, but there's a number of issues i really disagree with him. obviously, i'm a democrat and he's a republican, and we have different views on a wide range of issues from climate change to my view of vladimir putin's russia and its aggression towards the united states. but that's the whole point of a confirmation process. and so, i'm concerned that we not have rushed or brief hearings and these hearings, that are very important for setting the groundwork for the foreign policy of president-elect trump's administration, that they not be done at the same time that we're all running back and forth to the floor to conduct votes. >> senator chris coons of delaware, appreciate a little window into your meeting yesterday with rex tillerson, thanks so much. >> thank you. coming up next, a very difficult story. four teens in the chicago area are being held after a shocking facebook live video showed what appeared to be the beating and torturing of a bound and gagged man with mental health challenges. we're going to get a live report, next.

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now to a very disturbing story out of chicago, where a graphic video of four teenagers torturing a victim who police say has mental health challenges was streamed live on facebook. nbc's blake mccoy has details for us. blake, good morning. >> reporter: willie, good morning to you. the torture of this teenager streamed live to facebook is horrific enough, but also grabbing headlines this morning is some of the rhetoric that can be heard in the video. racially charged and against president-elect trump. the video is difficult to watch. some of it too graphic to show. a young white man that police say has special needs bound, gagged, and beaten by a group of african-americans. one attacker slashing his clothes and hair with a knife, while spouting anti-white, anti-trump rhetoric. >> [ bleep ], [ bleep ] donald trump, [ bleep ] boy. >> it's sickening.

it makes you wonder, what would make individuals treat somebody like that. >> reporter: investigators say patrol officers found the 18-year-old, disoriented, wandering the streets of a west chicago neighborhood, tuesday afternoon, and were quickly alerted to a nearby home where the attack is believed to have occurred. two men and two women, also 18 years old, have been arrested, but not charged. according to authorities, the victim went to school with one of the attackers and may have gone with them willingly. >> he is an acquaintance of one of these subjects and apparently they met out in the suburbs. these subjects then stole a van out in the suburbs and brought him into chicago. >> reporter: despite the anti-white, anti-trump rhetoric heard in the video, this morning, chicago's police superintendent is stopping short of calling this a hate crime. >> i think some of it is just stupidity. you know, people just ranting about something that they think might make a headline. >> while community activists

condemn the message. >> no matter what race, creed, or color you are, we're all human. nobody needs to go through this. >> reporter: two additional videos have surfaced overnight, showing even more disturbing behavior. we've been very selective about what we've shown you here. police do expect charges against those four individuals to be filed later today. meantime, that victim has been reunited with his parents and willie, this morning, we're told he is quite traumatized. >> to say the least. blake mccoy in chicago. thanks so much. mike, if that's not a hate crime, they ought to get rid of the term. >> yeah, they should get rid of the term. chicago does not need anymore of this. they do not need any additional burden in terms of crime. the chicago police department under siege with all the shootings, largely two neighborhoods being engulfed with shootings nearly every day, certainly every weekend. what they need is the federal government to come in, the u.s. attorney's office to come in and start charging some of the

perpetrators federally rather than locally. >> it's written all over the face of eddie johnson, the police superintendent. we see him once a week now at these press conferences, announcing some shooting record or whatever it is. they're completely overwhelmed. something's got to change in chicago. let's turn to business before the bell with cnbc's sarsara eis eisen. what are you looking at this morning? >> reporter: we are watching at the latest industry to come under fire from trump. that would be the automakers. the president-elect actually commending ford last night for its move to cancel construction of the $1.6 billion plant in mexico and instead invest $700 million in the u.s., in michigan, and add 700 jobs to build electronic cars and self-driving technology. here's the tweet. "thank you to ford," he says, "for scrapping a new plant in mexico and creating 700 new jobs in the u.s. this is just the beginning. much more to follow." so is the president-elect right to take credit for this move?

in part, yes, we spoke to the ceo of ford, and he said the main driver is that it's a market demand issue. in fact, lack of demand for smaller cars, which they were medal to be building in this mexico plant. and instead, they wanted to ramp up investment in new cool technologies in michigan. but fields also did point to the fact that ford would do well in a business-friendly environment. and some of the pro-growth policies of president-elect trump would be beneficial, like deregulation, of course, and lower corporate tax rates. another industry under fire this morning, nothing to do with politics, is department stores. last night, warnings out of macy's and kohl's on weak holiday sales numbers. and macy's saying it's going to slash more than 10,000 jobs at the company. 3% of its workforce closed 68 stores. these big department stores, guys, are just struggling to keep up with the surge in online spending. they're growing their online businesses, but it's not enough to offset a slowdown in retail traffic. and it turns out that the holiday period, although some

are optimistic about it, consumer confidence is rising, didn't look too hot for some of these big department stores. back to you. >> cnbc's sara eisen on the floor of the stock exchange, about 14 minutes before the bell. coming up next on "morning joe". >> as commander in chief of the most powerful military in the world, you know, i spent a lot of time brooding over these issues. and i'm not satisfied that we've got it perfect yet. i can say honestly, it's better than it was when i came into office. >> the long war in afghanistan has had a big impact on barack obama and on his views on everything, from the nsa to drones to his red line in syria. mark landler writes about it for t"the new york times" and he joins us next. constipated?

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this is literally throwing your money away. i think it's over there. that way? yeah, a little further up. what year was that quarter? what year is that one? '98 that's the one. you got it! nothing stops us from doing right by our customers. ally. do it right. let's get out of that water. president obama delivered a farewell address to the armed forces yesterday at a ceremony at a military base in arlington, virginia. the president received the department of defense medal for distinguished public service, along with honors from the navy, the army, the air force, and the coast guard. the president reflected on the burden the military carries for the nation and on his responsibilities ady ies as comn chief. >> by stepping forward and volunteering, by raising your reasoned and taking that oath, each of you made a solemn pledge. you committed yourself to a life

of service and of sacrifice. and i, in turn, made a promise to you, which to the best of my abilities, i've ryed ed tried every day since. that i would only send you into harm's way when it was absolutely necessary, with a strategy and well-defined goals, with the equipment skpoand supp you needed to get the job done. a lot of americans don't see the sacrifices you make on our behalf. but as commander in chief, i do. i've seen it when i've looked into the eyes of young cadets knowing that my decisions could very well send them into harm's way. we are called to remember core principles, that we must never hesitate to act when necessary, to defend our nation, but we must also never rush into war, because sending you into harm's

way should be a last and not first resort. it should be compelled by the needs of our security and not our politics. >> joining us now, white house correspondent for "the new york times," mark landler. his new piece on the afghan war and the evolution of obama is part of the paper's six-part series on the president's legacy, titled, the obama era. mark, great to have you with us. thanks so much. boy, a lot to sift through. donald -- excuse me, president obama came into office in 2009, with about 40,000 troops in afghanistan. he'll leave, he hopes, about 8,400, something like that. how has this war shaped his presidency? >> well, i think you could say that, really, across the board, if you look at the way he deals with war and peace, whether it's the use of clandestine, covert, drones and navy seal teams, whether it's the way he deals with the generals, whether it's the way he deals with foreign

leaders, all of those experiences were really forged for him in afghanistan and then, you know, really played through the rest of his presidency. so, if you look at the way he's dealt with libya and syria and iraq, you know, in the post-isis era, a lot of those decisions and instincts were really influenced by the experiences he had and in some cases, the disillusioning experiences he had dealing with the afghanistan war. >> and mark, it's true, is it not, that he came into office thinking that afghanistan was a winnable war, whatever that means, exactly. and over the years, got a little bit more disillusioned as the reality sat in, to borrow dexter filkins' term, that this may be a forever war in afghanistan. >> yeah, that's right. if you recall, he ran in 2008 as the candidate who said, i don't oppose all wars, i oppose dumb wars. which in that context, of course, meant the iraq war. he did feel that iraq was not only winnable, but should be the

top priority for the u.s. so he came in, shifted a lot of resources to afghanistan. you remember the famous debate about the troop deployment in the fall of 2009. ended up sending 30,000 additional troops to afghanistan. but then quickly discovered that some of the more ambitious plans that the military had for counterinsurgency policy were really not working as well as anyone hoped they would. and then over the period of the first term, really began to scale back his ambitions for what he wanted to accomplish in afghanistan. and then really spent the second part of his presidency trying very hard to get out of afghanistan and finding out how difficult that was. if you recall, there was a plan, first to pull out by the end of 2014. then there was a plan to pl out by the end of 2016. and last year, president obama acknowledged he wasn't going to meet that go, because there was a renewed threat in afghanistan, not just from al qaeda and the taliban, but also from the islam

state, which had established a foothold in afghanistan. so in essence, at the end of his presidency, to use dexter filkins' great term, he became the commander in chief of the forever war. this is now a war he turns over to donald trump. albeit, with a much smaller american footprint than when he came in, but still close to 10,000 troops and a major challenge for the new president to confront. >> so, mark, you think of a better example, for lack of a better phrase, the education of a president, who assumes office with such great intentions, such honorable intentions, that everybody's in favor of, and then is confronted with the reality of a war that we are fighting and are still fighting. is that not a great lesson nor any incoming president, especially a president who's coming in now with now relative experience in government? >> it absolutely is. and you know, remember, this is not a president who came in with what he would say were misplaced

hopes. he was already a skeptic about the role that america can play in foreign conflicts. so he came in with this pretty healthy dose of skepticism. i think one of the things he found out, particularly in his first year, as an inexperienced, young commander in chief, was how hard it was to go toe to toe with the military, in the debate over what was the right policy. he was always unhappy with the way that first troop debate played out. i think he felt, to some extent, he'd been rolled by the generals. you'll recall when he did send this those 30,000 additional troops, he also put a tomb liimt on them. he said, i'm going to set a date certain for recalling the bulk of that surge. and that was in turn criticized very heavily by john mccain and many other critics who said, once you set a date for america's withdrawal, all the taliban has to do is wait you out. and indeed, to some extent, that's what happened. so all along the way, it was an

education for the president, both in the limits of what american troops can do, but also in the kinds ofunintended consequences that you can set by doing things like setting a date certain for a withdrawal. >> and mark, given all of the investment and focus of the president had evolved over the years on afghanistan, how will history judge how he handled isis? >> well, i think with isis, you have to, obviously, disaggregate isis in its core area, in syria and iraq. and you know, the administration argues, they just, in john mccain exit memo that was just submitted to the president aide your this morning, he argues that isis only holds 61% of the territory it held at its height. you know, so i think the administration would make the case that this is a long-grinding battle, but it's moving in the right direction. in afghanistan, where isis has

also established a foothold, i think the problem here is that the government in afghanistan, which we have spent hundreds of -- tens of hundreds of billions of dollars supporting the afghan security forces that we have spent so many years training and equipping are really still in a very pitched battle with the taliban and with al qaeda for control of that country. so i think for the president, as history judges, it's going to be a very mixed picture in afghanistan. he's still left a cntry where the ultimate outcome is, i think, still up for grabs between the extremists and the central government. and that's probably a difficult legacy given the sheer amount of time and effort he put into afghanistan. >> we've only scratched the surface on this piece and this issue. we'll read much more from you, mark landler, in your reporting from "the new york times". >> thanks for having me. to get you up to date, donald trump has now completed

the tweet nthat mike barnicle read in part one. he said, the dishonest media likes to saying that i'm in agreement with julian assange. wrong. i state what he states, it is up to the people to make up their own minds. the media lies to make it look like i am against, quote, intelligence, when in fact i'm in agreement. he insists on putting intelligence in quotes. this morning, the russian investigation. the first public testimony from intelligence agencies on that election hack. it is happening in the senate this hour. new details set to be released. the controversial allegations finally coming to light and we'll bring that to you, live. >> and a possible intelligence overhaul. donald trump reportedly planning to reshape the cia and other intelligence agencies, but are republicans questioning his confidence? >> the president-elect's made it clear to the american people that he's ske