send it to rachel.com. we thank you. we will see you again tomorrow. with just two days left until donald trump takes office, new polls show he's set to face the white house with a low approval rating. plus, chelsea manning's sentence for leaking army documents is drawing remarks from top republicans. and the air strike in nigeria leaves dozens of nigerians dead as they target boca haram militants. good morning, everyone. it is wednesday, january 18th. i'm alex witt alongside louis

burgdorf. >> the inauguration is just two days away. work continues at a busy clip as finishing touches are put on everything from the inauguration itself to the trump administration. there are confirmation hearings today for wilbur ross in front of the senate commerce committee. nicki hailey, governor of south carolina, and u.n. ambassador nominee is in front of the senate foreign relations committee. and oklahoma attorney scott pruitt will be on cap stole hill as well. congressman tom price goes in front of the health committee today, though his actual confirmation hearing is actually a week away. the president-elect is also expected to meet with new york governor andrew cuomo. last night he was in washington with vice president-elect mike pence. pence tweeted, snuck? a dance with karen backstage tonight. couldn't wait for the inaugural balls to begin tomorrow. trump talked to the crowd of international diplomats about the man they are likely to be working with. the secretary of state nominee

rex tillerson. >> we have a man i wanted from the beginning in rex tillerson. the lights are bright but i know he's out there. thank you very much. thank you, rex. i think it's covered, he's coming into a country, takes the oil, comes into another country -- it's tough dealing with these politicians, right? >> "usa today" says donald trump's inaugural speech could be less than 20 minutes long and could reference the make america great again platform. and new polls show president-elect donald trump coming into office with low approval ratings. the new nbc news/wall street journal poll gives him a positive opinion rating of 38% with negative feelings at 48%. approval of how trump has managed the transition has dropped since just last month. now under water at 44% approval, 52% disapproval.

that's a 17-point swing in the negative direction. and this compares unfavorably with the obama transition which had a 71% to 14% favorability. and the clinton transition which was 77% to 8%. president obama's policies and goals, only 30% of people polled say they are extremely or quite confident. 70% are somewhat or not confident. trump's 30% confident rating compares to 54% of president obama in 2009. 40% to george w. bush in 2001. and 50% for bill clinton in 1993. and multiple polls yesterday showed donald trump in negative territory just days before he takes the oval office, down ten points in the nbc/wsj poll at negative 12 points in the monmouth university poll, and down 14 in the abc news/"washington post" poll. and 9 in the orc poll.

what will be his final acts in office, president obama committed the prison sentences of more than 200 people, including former army intelligence official chelsea manning. she has served six years of her 30-year sentence after pleading guilty to leaking information to wikileaks. the information included hundreds of thousands of military documents from the wars in iraq and afghanistan as well as secret department files. the sentence is the longest any leaker has ever received. the day after sentencing, manning who then was known as bradley, announced she was a transgender woman. the former army intelligence officer has been serving her sentence at the men's military prison at fort leavenworth, kansas. during that time she's tried to kill herself twice and carry out a hunger strike aimed to receive sex surgery. she was on the president's list

for commutation. around the same time, founder julian assange tweeted he would be extradited to the u.s. to face extradition charges if he gave clemency to manning. that offer played no role to their decision and it is unclear what the status of the offer is by wikileaks. manning's commutation has drawn criticism from top speakers in congress. house speaker ryan released a statement saying, quote, this is just outrageous. senator john mccain echoed the sentiments calling the decision, quote, a grave mistake that i fear will encourage further acts of espionage and undermine military discipline. senator marco rubio said it is, quote, shameful president obama is siding with lawbreakers. while senator tom cotton said, quote, we aught not treat a traitor like a martyr. in addition, president obama issued a pardon for a key former member of his national security team, retired marine corps

general james cartwright. he was due to be sentenced this month for talking to "the new york times" about a top secret program that infected iran's nuclear program with a computer virus. "the times" argued the former general was trying to talk the paper out of publishing the report rather than leaking the information. he pleaded guilty to making false statements during a federal investigation. and president-elect trump's nominee for education secretary went before the senate last night. betsy devos was praised for her advocacy of funded charter schools by republicans and pressed for specific responses by skeptical democrats. health, labor, education and pensions chairman lamar alexander of tennessee limited the questioning to just one round, which committee democrats repeatedly complained about. at one point, devos and senate democrat tim kaine were in a standoff about performance standards. >> so public charter, private k-12 schools, if they receive taxpayer funding, they should

meet the same accountable standards. >> yes, they should be transparent with the information and parents should have that information first and foremost. >> if confirmed, will you insist on that equal accountability in any k-12 school that receives public funding whether public or private. >> i support accountability. >> is that a yes or a no? >> that's a -- i support accountability? >> do you not want to support my question? >> i support accountability. >> all school that is receive taxpayer funding should be equally accountable. do you agree with me or not? >> well, they don't, they are not. >> i think they should. do you agree with me? >> well, no, because -- >> you don't agree with me? >> cory booker came out with a statement saying he will oppose devos since booker once sat on the same committee as devos.

donald trump isn't letting up on congressman john lewis after the civil rights icon questioned the legitimacy of his presidency. during his interview on "meet the press" the congressman told chuck today that trump's inauguration will be the first one he's missed since his time in office. then when a "washington post" story from 2001 began circulating that he skipped george w. bush's first inauguration, his office released a statement acknowledging that fact. and he explained that the congressman's quote absence at that time was also a form of dissent. he did not believe the outcome of that election including the conversations around the results in florida and the unprecedented intervention of the u.s. supreme court reflected a fair democratic process. the president-elect refusing to back down said, john lewis said about my inauguration, it would be the first one i've missed, wrong or lie? he boycotted bush 43, also because he thought it would be

hypocritical to attend bush's swearing in. he doesn't believe bush is the true elected president. sound familiar? the president-elect echoed the same sentiment in an interview that aired last night. >> congressman lewis is saying he didn't remember he skipped that inauguration. >> he conveniently doesn't remember. how do you forget if you go to an inauguration? i can tell you when i was at the inaugurations and you don't forget something like that. so he got caught. and it's pretty bad. and it's making him look bad, frankly. i think for him to have grandstanded, because i think he just grandstanded, john lewis, and then he got caught in a very bad lie. so we'll see what happens. as far as other people not going, that's okay. we need seats so badly. >> we did not attend the first bush inauguration. that is factual. >> because you did not consider him a legitimate president at the time? >> we didn't attend like so many other members of congress

didn't. but president bush is a friend of mine. >> meanwhile, the number of democrats boycotting the inauguration with solidarity with congressman lewis is nearing 60, mostly members of the house as of right now. not a single senate democrat is on that list, alex. an accidentally air strike by a nigerian fighter jet killed dozens of refugees in nigeria. according to authorities, the fighter jet was targeting boca har haram. doctors without borders said it counted at least 52 dead and 120 wounded. the associated press citing a state official put the death toll at more than 100. this is believed to be the first time nigeria's military admitted to making such a mistake. the nigerian air force released a statement saying it is saddened by the accidental air strike and regret the loss of life from it. and russian president vladimir putin is accusing the

obama presidency saying it is fake and the people who ordered it are worse than prostitutes who don't have any moral boundaries. the claims in thes so -- in the dossierunspecified. samantha powers is warning against the reset with russia. >> yes, the obama administration tried this approach in our first term, but 2017 is not 2009. in 2009 russia was knock bying crimea, fueling an ongoing conflict in eastern ukraine, and bombing first responders in syria, nor had russia interfered directly in the u.s. election.

>> ambassador power also said that america must maintainrobust support for nato, a position echoed by john kerry at the world economic forum in davos. >> in the last few days you have seen images of the cold war, with troops going to these countries in order to provide a famework, structure and make it clear, article 5 is meaningful and nato is meaningful. the reason people came together was not just economic, in fact, it was not principally economic, it was to stop europeans from killing europeans. it was to stop the carnage that came out of world war i and world war ii. it's worked, folks. >> turning to florida now where authorities have captured murder suspect markeith loyd who 1was n the run for killing the pregnant mother of two. and he killed master sergeant debra clayton after she spotted him outside a walmart earlier

this month. loyd fled and in pursuit norman lewis was killed in a car accident. loyd was armed and wearing body armor and did resist arrest. he suffered injuries although the orlando police chief calls them minor. as a tribute, they used clayton's handcuffs to arrest loyd. bill karins will check on the weather for us coming up. plus, paying tribute to josh earnest in a surprise appearance at his final press briefing. those stories and more when we come right back, if.

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welcome back, everyone. the federal government agreed to

pay $24 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a group of former african-american secret service agents. that suit dates back to the year 2000 when ten agents accused the she secret service of discrimination alleging the agency promoted white agents over more qualified black agents. in 2013, that suit was certified as a class action covering about 100 former agents. the secret service admitted no wrongdoing but agreed to change the longstanding process. and president obama will address the white house press corps for the final time later today. but yesterday he surprised his press secretary josh earnest during his final briefing. take a look at this. >> i have now known this guy for ten years almost. and i have watched him grow, and i have watched him advance, and i have watched him marry, and i have watched him be a father, and i have watched him manage younger people coming up behind

him. and he's never disappointed. he has always been the guy you wanted him to be. he is not only a great press secretary, but more importantly, he is a really, really good man. and i'm really, really proud of him. so josh, congratulations. >> thank you. >> some nice words from the president there. after the president's interruption, reporters got down to business pressing earnest on putin's comments that the obama administration is trying to legitimize the president-elect. >> first of all, it sounds like he got his copy of the talking points. second -- well, i don't know, it certainly sounds a lot like the incoming administration's team is saying. it's not the first time that the president of russia has said things about the u.s. government that just don't withstand any scrutiny. >> reporter: so it's not true? >> of course it's not true.

this was a suggestion repeated just yesterday by the president-elect who is raising doubts about the integrity and intentions of the men and women of the intelligence community. and that is deeply misguided. all right. on the heels of that, we'll get a check of the weather now with nbc meteorologist bill karins. good morning. >> good morning. remember yesterday we had the great video of the cars off the road and that guy was say, bad day, bad day? we have another candidate for bad day. we'll take you to oregon. this big rig is -- >> uh-oh! >> that was about as close -- >> oh, no. oh, no. >> that was very close and still just drifted. yeah. >> oh, no. >> oh! >> right, yeah, big rigs and all that -- it hurts, but the situation in oregon continues still this morning. in the northeast, people are waking up, probably have school delays out there this morning, it's a little bit of freezing rain leftover in the hudson valley and areas of the valley in northern connecticut.

the mass pike is a wintry mess. north of there, we are still dealing with light snow. we are not going to see a huge amount of additional snow. the winter weather advisories continue for another couple hours. the winter storm warnings near the concord area. additional snow, one to three inches. most of the damage is already done. we have also seen heavy rain in texas, a soaker of a day. and areas of east texas, shreveport, one of the worst commutes, just pouring rain, but not too much severe weather. maybe it is isolated. this is going to turn out to be a beneficial rain. we have a drought in the southeast. we'll get some of the rainfall in northern alabama in the days ahead. and the only other story out there, alex, the west coast dealing with another big storm. a little one on thursday. then another big storm on friday. so by far the worst winter weather has been on the west coast and remains there this week. >> all right. thank you for the heads-up on that, bill kairps. still ahead, the los angeles chargers are moving but their fans are not making it easy for

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that. it was sell fish for him to do that. and it was inconsiderate for him to do that. not only is it a violence of our policy, it's a violation of league policy. both of which he knows. >> brown later took to social media calling his actions wrong and apologized for creating a distraction ahead of the afc championship game against the patriots saying, quote, i let my emotions and genuine excitement get the best of me and i wanted to share that moment with our fans. while playoff teams ready for this weekend's match-ups, the chargers prepare for their move to los angeles, but san diego fans would rather not see their team leave the city and are making it tough with the help of an online campaign, san diego moving companies have banded together in an effort to refuse to help the chargers to actual physically move to l.a. as of this morning, the site lists 24 san diego-based companies along with 12 from the l.a. area that have agreed to join the protest. and let's go to the nba, the clippers will be without chris

paul for the next six to eight weeks. the l.a. guard is expected to have surgery today after an mri yesterday revealed a torn ligament in his left thumb. paul injured the thumb in the second quarter of monday night's win against the thunder. to the ice, the stars and rangers meeting for the first time since december when dallas' cody egan picked up a suspension for a brutal hit on new york goalie henrik lundqvist. the rangers got their revenge last night. chris krider gets tangled up with ekin's helmet in the second and uses it as a weapon. he only got a five-minute major for fighting. the stars win it 7-6. and to college hoops, tempers boil over to the end of last night's game between ryder and see ysienna. the brawl broke out and coaches

had to be held back. siena wins it by ten. the coach says it was an effort to avoid further altercation, but there was no escaping the handshake for cnn's jamie hatsos giving out air shakes to an imaginary team. got to love that, alex. >> that is one way to do it. i mean, that made a statement right there. very cool. thank you for that, louis. still ahead, with obamacare on the break of repeal, millions of americans could lose their coverage if there's no replacement. and vladimir putin taking a parting shot at president obama. we'll get a live report on that next. want longer lasting heartburn relief?

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welcome back, everyone. i'm alex witt alongside louis burgdorf. it's the top of the hour, here are your top stories. police say 41-year-old markeith loyd was wearing body armor and armed with two handguns when they found him inside an abandoned apartment last night. he resisted arrest and suffered injuries to his face. loyd is accused of shooting and killing a woman last month before two other officers of the law died pursuing him. police say he was arrested last night using one of the slain officer's handcuffs. the nigerian air force is saddened after mistakingly bombing a camp of refugees while

targeting boca haram. doctors without borders counted at least 50 dead and 100 wounded. the associated press said the death toll is more like 100. and george h.w. bush is in a houston hospital after experiencing shortness of breath according to a spokesman for the methodist hospital saying mr. bush is being monitored as a precaution and is resting comfortably. the former president is 92 years old. >> we sure do wish him well. well, inauguration day is friday, but before the pomp and circumstances, there's plenty to be done. there's a confirmation hearing for wilbur ross in front of the senate commerce committee. nicki hailey, governor of south carolina and u.n. ambassador nominee is in front of the senate foreign relations committee. and oklahoma attorney general scott pruitt will be on capitol hill as well. and congressman tom price goes in front of the health committee today. his actual confirmation hearing is one week away. the president-elect is also expected to meet with new york

governor andrew cuomo today, but his opposition mounts from some democrats in massive protests planned. last night in an interview with fox news, trump brushed aside democrats sitting out his inauguration. >> things will be done beautifully, but they will be done differently than they have been over the past eight years. and i can say over the past 16 years, they will be different. and we have to have a smooth transition. and president obama understands that very well. and that is why he's been so gracious. >> and the battle for health care moves to the senate today where the health education, labor and pension committee will question tom price. democrats senators al franken, lizwelizabeth and tammy baldwin asking to wait for his hearing until questions on stock trading can be resolved. and tom price is said to have invested in a medical devices

committee and voted on the committee that could affect the stock. a statement says dr. tom price has a diversified portfolio with morgan stanley in a brokered-directed account. it claim that is morgan stanley did comprehensive rebalancing of dr. price's fort folio on march 17. and he was not informed until april 4, disclosing the trade after that. the stock fell in a period where they contend price did not know about his stake. price is likely to face questions on that issue later on this morning. now as congressman ryan zinke is widely expected to escape to become secretary of interior, yesterday during his senate confirmation hearing, he became the latest nominee to contrast the president-elect. >> is president-elect trump right? is climate change a hoax?

>> i can give you -- the best answer is three things. first of all, climate the climate is changing. that's undisputable. i'm from glacier national park. >> we don't have any more glaciers there, huh? >> i have seen glaciers over the period of my time. as a matter of fact, when my family and i have eaten lunch on the glacier, the glacier has receded during lunch. the second thing is man has influence. i think that is indus putable as well. i think where the debate is what the influence is and what can we do about it. and as the department of interior, i will inherit, if confirmed, the usgs. we have great scientists there. i'm not a climate scientist expert, but i can tell you, i will become a lot more familiar with it. and it will be based on objective science. i don't believe this is a hoax. >> tough questions from bernie sanders. by contrast in 2012, donald trump tweeted the concept of globaling warming was created by and for the chinese in order to make u.s. manufacturing

non-competitive. since then, trump said nobody really knows whether climate change is real. and he said he's looking into whether the u.s. should withdrawal from the paris accord. he also said he's very open-minded. zinke said he absolutely opposed the sale or transfer of public land. and secretary of education nominee betsy devos went before the senate health, labor, education and pensions committee last night where the billionaire philanthropist testified on her record as an advocate for choice in public education. championing vouchers for charter schools. but the senate democrats were skeptical of her experience with the public school systems when a majority of the students are educated. and senator bernie sanders facing one of the billionaires, he questioned whether her wealth is her chief qualification. >> would you be so kind as to tell us how much money your family has contributed to the republican party over the years? >> i wish i could give you that number. i don't know. >> i have heard the number was $200 million. does that sound in the ballpark?

>> collectively between my entire family, that's possible. >> my question is, and i don't mean to be rude, but do you think if you are not a multibillionaire, if your family has not made hundreds of millions of dollars in contributions to the republican party, that you would be sitting here today? >> senator, as a matter of fact, i do think that there would be that possibility. i've worked very hard on behalf of parents and children for the last almost 30 years. russian president vladimir putin is accused president obama of undermining the legitimacy of his successor donald trump. putin took that shot at the current administration speaking in moscow yesterday. he also offered some choice words for those he says are responsible for leaking a dossier of unverified intelligence. trump has vehemently denied the allegations. and buzzfeed which released the

details admits the claims unterrified. let's go to lucy cavanaugh. pretty tough time here from putin ahead of the inauguration on friday. >> reporter: tough talk and quite extraordinary to have the russian president defending donald trump ahead of the inauguration. now, he never mentioned president obama by name, but he did lash out at his administration accusing it of trying to undermine the legitimacy of the presidential election even though as putin described it, the election is over and mr. trump won. now putin said all the allegations over russian interference caused, quote, enormous harm to u.s. interests and are meant to, quote, bind the president-elect by hand and foot to prevent him from carrying out his campaign pledges. putin then went on to say that the claims in the unverified 35-page dossier, which trump denies the contents of were fake, adding people who spread the allegations in it are worse than prostitutes, and he

ridiculed some of the more evidence as political elites falling. making a joke how russia has the best sex workers in the world, but he doubted trump would have met any. he went on to ask putin how to improve the russian relations with all the fake stories out there of russia. he said trump had no political motivations when he came to moscow. and he doesn't chase every american billionaire. very colorful language there. and unprecedented situation to have the russian president weigh in like this just days ahead of mr. trump taking office. >> yes, colorful is one way to put it. thank you for that, lucy cavanaugh in london. and with just days left in office, president obama is commuting the sentence of former army intelligence analyst chelsea manning. manning has served more than six years of her 35-year prison sentence for pleading guilty to a massive 2010 leak of classified documents to wikileaks.

cynthia mcfadden has more on that decision. >> reporter: chelsea manning, the army private convicted of leaking thousands of secret military and diplomatic documents will be free in may. president obama announced he will commute her 35-year sentence. >> i think justice was finally done today. 35 years was not an appropriate sentence. >> reporter: the commutation is not a pardon. her conviction still stands, but her sentence has been reduced to the seven years she will have complete in the next few months. the case broke in 2010 with all the makings of a spy thriller. >> a senior pentagon official says the prime suspect is 22-year-old army private first-class bradley manning. >> the day after manning was convicted, another bombshell. when manning announced she was a transgener transgender woman now known as chelsea. manning tried to commit suicide

twice last week at the jail in kansas. >> we had secret sessions of the cou court-martial where people would do that. what they would be able to show and what they did show was certain diplomats had their feelings hurt, certain countries were upset. >> reporter: manning's 35-year sentence is the longest any leaker has ever received. but not everyone supports the decision, a senior u.s. official tells nbc news the secretary of defense ash carter did not support the commutation. at her trial, manning apologized for her actions but that apology was never heard outside the courtroom until last week when nbc news broadcast it. >> i can only go forward and i want to go forward.

i want to apologize for my actions. >> reporter: president obama decided that debt had been paid. and retiring marine corps general james cartwright is also a vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff is sentence this month for talking to the press for infecting the russians with a computer virus. and the pressure is on to replace obamacare. they estimate that 18 million people will lose health insurance in the first year if congress repeals the law without replacing it. the report also finds that within ten years, 32 million americans could be without insurance. house speaker paul ryan's office responded to the report saying the estimates of uninsured americans are meaningless because they fail to take into account measures that might replace obamacare. now the news comes as a new nbc

news/wall street journal poll finds 45% of respondents believe the affordable care act is a good idea. and that is the highest percentage since the poll began to ask that question in april 2009. it is also the first time since the law's passage in 2010 where more americans think it's a good idea than a bad idea. and alex, as he prepares for the final news conference, president obama is leaving office with a 16-point net approval rating with 56% approving of his performance as president and 40% disapproving. and as for his legacy, 55% of respondents believe he will be among the very best if not the better recent presidents while 44% say he'll be viewed as not the best in modern history. 53% say we are better than eight years ago, 44% say not as good or worse. president bill clinton left office with a 72% approval

rating calling the country better off and 15% saying it is worse off. in a series of exit interviews with jonathan alter from the new york times magazine, vice president joe biden not only looks back on his previous eight years in the white house, but also to what his future has in store. reflecting on his decision not to run for president, biden says he still questions his decision and believes he could have won had he run. biden whose son beau died in 2014 said, quote, i don't know what i'd do if i was in a debate and someone said, you're doing this because of your son. i might have a walked over and kicked his ass. biden also regrets not going with a different message while campaigning for hillary saying he wished to hell he repeated the message from his dnc speech instead of attacking donald trump's lack of qualifications. on the president-elect, biden said he reminded him of the bull d lys that teased him growing up due to his stutter. the question i get is, is

american leadership going to continue? if trump just says behind the lines, hands off, it could be very ugly, very, very ugly. and the outgoing vice president said, quote, even if the democratic party didn't want me, i'm not walking away. i've worked on this stuff my whole life, end quote. still ahead, we now know where president obama is heading once his term ends at noon on monday. and donald trump explains the need to tweet, just as the new nbc news poll tells about what he thinks of the social network. we're back in a moment.

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welcome back. the artists at madam tussauds will unveil their new trump

figure. they say the skin took several days and the hair took four weeks with each strand placed one by one. i'm sure he appreciates that detail. preside president-elect trump is one of the few to have a wax figure unveiled before his inauguration. the first family is looking forward to flying to palm springs, california, on friday. the president vowed to take his family to a destination that is warmer than washington, d.c. on friday. and palm springs fits the bill. this is a community that the president has visited on a number of occasions as president of the united states. he and his family have enjoyed the time they spent there in the past. and they are looking to travel there on friday. and when the president leaves, he's going to board the same jumbo jet that has served as air force one for the last eight years. it won't officially be air force one for the flight. in fact, that designation is reserved for the sitting

president. bill, the cracker jack staff checked the weather for palm springs, california, high of 56. maybe rain. >> that's not the best. that's like a warm d.c. day. >> don't you think he'll go inside and sleep, just chill out for a while. >> where would you go? if you have been president for eight years, where would you go the day you leave? >> i'm going to think about that. >> you would go to manmouth and go skiing. >> or go climbing a mountain somewhere. >> i would say hawaii, but they go there all the time. let me talk about the inauguration forecast. this is going to be iffy. through history, and this time of the year in d.c., you can get variable weather. when kennedy was inaugurated in '61, eight inches of snow. we are not dealing with that at this time. we have had whether where we dealt with rain, snow and extreme cold. two of the warmest were when reagan, both of his inaugurations. the most snow ever was taft back

in 1909. ten inches in d.c. imagine what that would be like back in 1909. that was in march, that was a little different timing there on the inauguration. as far as the rainfall goes, you can get some soaking rains, but the last time it did rain was when george w. bush was president in 2001, that was a .33 of rain. we are not going to see a lot of rain, but we'll look at a quarter inch developing during the afternoon. temperature of 47 degrees for this unaugust ration. i think the swearing in ceremony will be cloudy and mild. >> let's hope the rain stays away. still ahead, u.s. markets are pointing to higher openings ahead of earnings reports from goldman sachs and citigroup later this morning. we'll look at the stories driving business, next. sometimes when brushing my gums bleed.

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welcome back. a new nbc/wall street journal poll shows 69% of people say using twitter as president is bad because it can have unintended major implications. here's trump on why he feels he needs to tweet. >> i don't like tweeting, i have other things i can be doing. but i get very dishonest press. and it's my only way that i can

counter act. for instance, when john lewis said, you know, he's never done it before, where he skipped an inauguration. he has, it turned out to be a lie. i'm able to say that. i'm have close to 50 million people including facebook and instagram. if the press were honest, which it's not, i would absolutely not use twitter. i wouldn't have to. now we'll turn to business as friday's inauguration approaches with the uncertainty of president-elect trump rallying the markets. teresa may gave the pound its best day since 2008. nancy hungerford is joining us live from london. how are the markets doing this morning and what can we expect today? >> reporter: well, we are looking at a rebound for u.s. markets according to futures, pointing to a slight uptick as we get closer to the market open on wall street. we did get the lowest close of the year for both the dow and the nasdaq yesterday amid some uncertainty over donald trump's

policies, especially when it comes to the strong dollar. investors honed in on comments he made that the dollar was, quote, killing us when looking at the comparison to a weaker chinese currency. so with just days before the inauguration, investors will continue to keep an eye on that and also goldman sachs and citi pick up the baton for earnings before the open. speaking of banks, deutsche bank finalized a $7.2 billion settlement with u.s. authorities for mishandling mortgage-backed securities leading up to the 2008 financial keep an eye on big tobacco, because british tobacco agreed to buy outright the american rival reynolds american to create the world's biggest listed tobacco company. and this deal is worth $49 billion. we have been watching the shares trading in london this morning, moving higher by about 2%, this after a dip in yesterday's session. reynolds american on wall street was moving higher yesterday by more than 3%.

guys, back to you for now. >> nancy hungerford live from london. thank you so much. when we come back, we'll have the stories happening in the day ahead. hey, need fast heartburn relief? try cool mint zantac. it releases a cooling sensation in your mouth and throat. zantac works in as little as 30 minutes. nexium can take 24 hours. try cool mint zantac. no pill relieves heartburn faster. introducing new depend silhouette active fit, with a thin design for complete comfort. they say "move it or lose it" and at my age, i'm moving more than ever. because getting older is inevitable.

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so before we toss it over to "morning joe," we'll check on the stories in the day ahead. we start with president obama set to deliver his final news conference as commander in chief. mr. obama will speak with the press this afternoon at the white house ahead of friday's n inauguration following the commutation of chelsea manning yesterday. and wilbur ross for secretary of commerce's hearing will continue today, nicki hailey, scott pruitt and congressman tom price will go before a senate committee. tom price's confirmation hearing is a week away. we may find out the newest inductees to the baseball hall of fame. in a month, the notables that could be named are tim rains, trevor hoffman and ivan rodriguez. that's a good group. that does it for us this wednesday.

i'm alex witt alongside louis burgdorf. "morning joe" starts right now. ♪ >> this is pretty great. senator john mccain was on "morning joe" today and he is going to be an interesting character to watch the next six months. as time goes by he appears to be giving what less they call of crap. >> senate the armed services committee and republican senator john mccain of arizona. very good to have you on the show this morning, sir. >> thank you. i'm freezing my ass off. >> sorry. >> he would be a good weather forecaster! >> you knew that was going to end up somewhere. good morning, everyone. >> yeah. >> i thought about that later. i can't believe i paired the words back to him later but he started it. good morning, everyone. welcome to "morning joe." with us on set, we ha