to stop charging for wireless. all right everybody. have a wonderful weekend. that does it for us this morning. we'll be back at it monday morning 6:00 a.m. eastern. stay with msnbc all day for today's live news right now. on this friday after thanksgiving sales splurge. retailers cash in as shoppers hit the stores and their smart phones before the dishes were even cleared. is he cooperating? michael flynn's lawyers cut ties with president trump's legal team. this is big news folks. learn what the president's attorney is saying about the russia investigation. >> breaking overnight, the south african court more than doubles the sentence for olympic sprinter oscar pistorius. welcome to msnbc's live coverage on this friday, november 24th. i'm chris jansing. we begin with the new reaction in the russia investigation as

the legal term for former national security adviser michael flynn signals a change in their strategy. t"the new york times" was first to report th, that the call fro flynn's lawyer to trump attorney john dowd took place wednesday evening. flynn's attorney had no comment. information sharing is a normal tactic for defense attorneys. a sign flynn could be cooperating with robert mueller's probe or at least beginning negotiations. president trump's lawyer, jay sekulow said in a statement, no one should draw the conclusion this means anything about general flynn cooperating against the president. describing the development as no sur prize, sekulow says what was not entirely unexpected is that flynn may be discussing a plea

with special counsel. president trump spent his thanksgiving holiday with family at his club in florida, but he took time to visit with members of the u.s. coast guard where he discussed selling military equipment abroad and made a comment that has some questioning whether his former national security adviser was on his mind. >> when we sell to other countries, even when they're allies. you never know about an ally. an ally can turn. >> joining us from bloomberg news, shannon petty. what potential insights can you offer us on what this all means now? it seems like pretty big news. is it? >> flynn was central to a lot of these key moments in this administration that we know that mueller is looking at. >> make america great again. >> he was the one who talked with the russians during the transition and discussed sanctions, something that he then misled the president about

which led to his firing. he was the one who president trump asked comey to go easy on in that infamous meeting where he called comey back and asked him to stay behind and specifically asked comey to go easy on flynn. of course, flynn has these deep business ties during his time as sort of a lobbyist or agent or if you want to refer to him as, with turkey, with a lost of questionable figures that could play into this investigation. >> is there any question that the white house has been waiting for another shoe to drop. you already had indictments in one guilty plea and flynn obviously very concerned about hits son and what the potential legal implications meeb for him. >> people in the administration had been expecting some sort of indictment on flynn, even sooner than this. i know nbc reported they were told there was enough information that an indictment was ready on flynn. the big surprise initially is why wasn't flynn indicted, a week, two weeks after manafort.

it seemed like there was momentum there. this signals they might have been trying to get flynn to cooperate, to negotiate a plea deal or work as a cooperating witness. >> if you're negotiating a plea deal chances are you're negotiating a plea deal for something. you're not just negotiating the plea deal so they don't have to go to court. if you're robert mueller you'll negotiate a plea deal with somebody like flynn was you want something for him. >> right. and that's the thing that the white house would point out, that we don't know, this could be completely unrelated to collusion, unrelated to the president, obstruction of justice. this could be related to flynn's business work before he was an advisor to the white house or before he was part of the administration. so it could be something along those lines like we saw with manafort. even if we do see a plea deal or indictment that doesn't seem to be related to collusion or russia, it also doesn't mean that's the last we'll hear of flynn. >> things keep piling up as a

result of this. you reported recently the trump campaign stopped paying the legal bills for donald trump jr. setting up a new defense fund. who, if anyone, is helping current and former trump aides pay these legal bills? some people are in a position personally, i soum donald trump jr. is one of them, to be able to pay his own legal bills. other people wouldn't be able to? >> obviously flynn and manafort at the center of this investigation, likely have legal bills that exceed a million dollars. flynn's family set up this legal defense fund for him so people outside could contribute. we don't know who, if anyone, has given to that legal defense fund because that information is not public. she a private citizen. anybody could give to pay for his legal bills. there's no restrictions on him as a private citizen. the campaign side, the white house staffers, a lot of those people are struggling because even as witnesses you would need a lawyer, that could cost you $30,000 for one interview with

the congressional interview, $30,000 just to produce documents, help you prepare, so you don't accidentally obstruct justice or make a false statement. that's a concern right now among the campaign saffirs and the white house and why they're looking to set up some sort of fund to help these people. not all of them come from big means as you pointed out. even michael flynn, he spent his career in the military, not a high-paying profession. >> a little different situation than someone like paul manafort. thank you very much. senator al franken issued an apology yesterday after several women made allegations against him of unwanted sexual contact. franken said in the statement, quote, i've met tens and thousands of people and taken thousands of photographs. i'm a warm person. i hug people. i've learned from recent stories in some of those encounters i've crossed a line for some women and i know that any number is too many. the statement went on to say, quote, i feel terribly that i've made some women feel badly and

for that i'm so sorry. franken apologized to his constituents and the entire state of minnesota for the scandal and said he is committed to regaining their trust. according to the star tribune a spokesman said yesterday the senator has no plans to resign. the "huffington post" reported on wednesday two new allegations of inappropriate touching that occurred in 2007 and 2008. both women who spoke with the "huffington post" anonymously accused franken of groping, one saying that franken suggested the two visit the bathroom together. abc news has not been able to verify those reports. with almost two weeks left in the alabama senate race, attacks are ratcheting up. roy moore sent an e-mail thanking president trump for his support saying i appreciate donald trump for defending my honor and characters. trump on tuesday said moore

denied the allegations against him and took aim at doug jones. moore says they have documents that refutes a story. one woman who claims moore approached her inappropriately in his home when he was 14 years old. he was 32. the democrat in the race, doug jones is defending his record against trump's attacks and released a new campaign ad with the names and images of moore's accusers. >> gina richardson, kelly harrison thornton, and the list is growing. they were girls when roy moore immorally pursued them. new they are women, witnesses of his disturbing conduct. will we make their abuser a u.s. senator? >> joining me from birmingham, alabama, is msnbc's von hilliard who has taken up residence there. so much happened this week. any sign of roy moore around the holiday at all and any indication on the ground that

trump's comments might be enough to persuade whatever republican voters who meeb on the fence to back moore? >> reporter: good morning, chris. it's quiet around here in alabama this weekend. this is day number eight in which roy moore has not been seen publicly. we don't expect to see him saturday or sunday either which will mark ten days with less than three weeks out of the republican candidate for the u.s. senate not being seen in public. roy moore is running a very paired down campaign. it's questionable whether you can call it much of one at this point. they have just six staffers on the ground, two of those being florida operatives. they have no campaign office where people with come in and pick up seens or really go out and kansacanvas. doug jones, on the other hand, the democratic has multiple field offices set up across the state. you see signs, to what ever seens are worth, signs spread out in many neighborhoods. several people said they never

expected to see a democrat sign in these republican neighborhoods. talking with voters, we're just 18 days out. it's still very much up in the air as to where this election is going. i want to play a little sound here from some of these skeptical republicans. >> what do you make of the president's comments? >> i think he's kind of like us and doesn't know what's true and we're not going to assume guilt until we have proof. i kind of don't blame him. i know a lot of people won't like it though. >> president trump said yesterday, kind of endorsed roy moore. >> hey, i wouldn't have done it. you don't know the truth. you can't believe that that many women would say something bad about somebody. >> reporter: the question in these last 18 days is how many of those republicans are ultimately going to go and check the ballot box for doug jones, the democrat? >> there are so many things so bizarre about this obviously, including the president of the united states seeming to endorse

somebody who is an accused child molester. having said that, just from a purely political standpoint, you have a race that is maybe as tight as some people think it is. you're 18 days until the election and you don't see a candidate for ten days? can we ever remember a situation like this? >> reporter: i'm trying to think. alabama hasn't seen quite a senate election like this before. whether donald trump is going to come out here is still a question. donald trump left that on the table. it's still just an interesting race. not like doug jones has national democrats coming out here. for being the only senate race left this year, it's interesting to see it be generally so silent. >> von hilliard, thank you so much and for all the reporting on the ground. we have breaking news from overnight. the prison sentence for oscar pistorius convicted of the 2013 murder of his girlfriend reeva

steenkamp was more than doubled by a court this morning. pistorius was sentenced at his initial trial in 2014 for manslaughter which was later changed on appeal to murder. originally jailed for six years. prosecutors ordered that term was shockingly lenient. in response, south africa's supreme court of appeal increased the sentence to 15 years, that's the minimum for murder. he fired a gun multiple times through a closed bathroom door in 2013. he said he thought steenkamp was a dangerous intruder. up next, 90 days into the president's new afghanistan policy. are we seeing a difference? we'll get an update from a top u.s. commander there. and what's the deal with uber? the personal information of some 57 million accounts exposed after a hack late last year and we're just learning about it. we'll talk cyber security and if it's ever okay to keep a hack under wraps. back in a moment.

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quarter past the hour. breaking news out of egypt. state tv reporting at least 85 people are dead, more than 75 injured following a bombing and a shooting at a mosque in north sinai east of cairo. police officers say a group of men in four off road vehicles opened fire and set off one bomb during the attack. so far no claim of responsibility. here at home, according to a report, u.s. shoppers spent more than $1.5 billion online thanksgiving day alone. that surge does not reflect a shift from instore shopping as brick and mortar locations are also seeing an increase in sales. it comes as americans are experiencing a strong labor market, rising home prices and

record high stock markets. as strong as thanksgiving day sales were, adobe analytics predicts a bigger cyber monday, their estimates a whopping $ .6 billion in sales. i want to bring in retired executive assistant director of the fbi sean henry, also president of the security firm crowd strike services. happy belated thanksgiving. >> hi, chris. happy thanksgiving to you. >> how can consumers stay safe? you feel like you have to shop online. it's necessary in modern life, convenient, you get a lot of good deals, right to your house if it's a big item. you also know your information is out there. what do you do about it? >> that's all true. the convenience is tremendous, the opportunity to shop extensively. consumers are relying upon the

retailers themselves to control the information. once you release that information, it's somebody else's responsibility to maintain it. if they're not doing it in an appropriate way by using encryption in the way thetransme type of information they're collecting or the length of time they hold that information, that's a problem because as we kn know, the attackers around the world are tarlgting the retailers because of the vast amount of valuable information you can turn into money. >> let me ask you something specific. do you, sean henry, knowing what you know which is a lot more than most of us, when you're shopping online, i assume you do at least some shopping online. they say shall we store your cred e it card information, should people check yes? again, it's a matter of convenience? security is always about convenience. the length of time it takes to enter that information is pretty

small. it's an easy security tip. you don't know if the retailer is holding that in an encrypted database as well. >> we're reminded of the threat to this information, this time involving uber. the company admitted to concealing this colossal data breach. sean how does this happen and what do we do again to protect our personal information, or is that pretty much the same as going online and buying a sweater? >> companies are starting to change the way they're monitoring their data. a lot of these breachers have gotten boards of directors involved. i've been briefing boards

recently. they're changing to being much more proactive. >> you feel like they're getting it? >> they certainly are getting it. the reality is the networks are so big and so vast, you can't stop every breach. you have to identify the breaches so you can respond to them. consumers need to be asking companies and holding them accountab accountable. the attacks are getting bigger and more extensive. we're moving closer and closer to full electronic connectivity around the globe, chris. this is something that's going to can't for a long time going forward. >> word to the wise. sean henry, thank you so much. >> thank you. coming up, major backlash over the plans designed to keep access to the internet open. we'll have more on what the rollback could mean for you. quickly, the president is tweeting out his agenda from

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it's beginning to look a lot like christmas. obviously that is rockefeller center. weave got seven skaters out this morning. the tree is up. getting ready for the big

lighting this coming wednesday, november 29th which is 7:00 p.m. to 9:00. i think the reason there are so few skaters out there right now, bill karins, when i was walking into work this morning at 5:00, 4:30, it is cold out there. you came back from my stomping grounds in albany. you said it was freezing. >> it was cold in new england. raising everyone's stress levels, too. a lot of people are already thinking. hanging the lights, doing all that stuff, all the shopping that goes along with it. yesterday we had fantastic weather, some of the warmest temperatures you'll see in arizona, california, all the way to montana. the only bad weather was some rain in florida. leftover showers in jacksonville. even florida is starting to look at improvement. the only problem this weekend is this huge storm off the coastline of british columbia. there's usually a big storm

somewhere, if most of the lower 48 is calm, you can look to the north. another big storm heading across central canada. this will drag rain into the pacific northwest. that's the worst of it. today's forecast, no travel problems at all in the middle of the country. strong winds in the north. some showers that are exiting so that's not going to be an issue. as we head to saturday, sunny and warm in the middle of the country. chris, when i'm talking about breezy and minimal lame effect showers -- >> that's great, a lot of people traveling. >> a lot of christmas decorations going up. >> yes. even in new york city you forget what that's about. >> the competition with the neighbors. >> which i miss so desperately. thank you, bill karins. up next, new moves in the russia investigation. michael flynn's lawyers are no longer sharing information with the president's legal team. we'll try to read the tea leaves

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hello. welcome back to msnbc's live coverage on this friday morning. i'm chris jansing. the alabama senate race is entering the home stretch. on wednesday night embattled republican roy moore sent supporters a fund-raising e-mail thanking president trump for his support saying, quote, i

appreciate donald trump for defending my honor and my character. when asked about moore on tuesday, trump said moore denied allegations of sexual misconduct and took aim at his opponent doug jones. moore's campaign has refused to make public documents they claim to have that refute the story of one of the accusers, saying moore touched her inappropriately in his ohm when she was 14 and he was 32. doug jones is defending his record and released an ad of images of moore's accusers. >> gina richardson, wendy miller, kelly -- and the list is growing. they were girls when roy moore immorally pursued them, now they are women, witnesses to us all of his disturbing conduct.

senator al franken apologizing, saying in a statement, quote, i've met tens of thousands of people and taken thousands of photographs. i'm a warm person, i hug people. i've learned from recent stories in some of these encounters i crossed a line for some women and i know any number is too many. the statement went on to say, quote, i feel terribly i have made some women feel badly. for that i am so sorry. franken apologized to his constituents and the entire state of minnesota for this scandal and says he is committed to regaining their trust. according to the star tribune, a spokesman for franken said yesterday the senator has no plans to resign. the apology comes as the "huffington post" reported two new allegations of inappropriate touching that occurred in 2008 and 2007. both women accused franken of

groping with one saying franken suggested the two visit the bathroom together. nbc news has not been able to independently verify that report. former national security adviser michael flynn is seen as a key figure in the russia investigation. now there may be a change in his legal strategy. "the new york times" first to report flynn's lawyer trig gert a special sharing of the probe. the washington post reports the call took place on wednesday evening. flynn's attorney had no comment. now, information sharing is a normal tactic for defense attorneys during investigations, but must stop when doing so would pose a conflict of trt, a sign flynn could be cooperating with robert mueller's probe or at least beginning negotiations. president trump's lawyer jay sekulow said in a statement, no one should draw the conclusion this means anything about general flynn cooperating against the president. describing the development as no surprise, sekulow said, what was

not entirely unexpected was that flynn may be discussing a plea with special counsel. let's bring in associated press reporter josh letter man and politico reporter kevin robilar. >> what kind of pressure do we know he's been under and how concerned is the white house about this? >> the white house is very concerned, and as are a lot of republicans throughout washington. a lot of the city is focused on trying to discertain exactly what special counsel mueller is inning do, what he's not doing, how far reaching this investigation goes, and there have been a number of signs over the last self months that some of the key players in this like mike flynn might be cooperating, trying to get themselves -- some type of better arrangement from prosecutors if it ultimately comes to that. of course, the prosecutors are not going to talk about this. mueller is not going to say, yes, we're cutting a deal, not

cutting a deal, we're trying to get information from this person. >> one of the things we know for sure is mueller runs a very tight ship. kevin, let me read again that statement from sekulow, the president's lawyer. no one should draw the conclusion that this means anything about general flynn cooperating against the president. and yet is that the likely conclusion? >> i don't think that's the likely conclusion. right now you have to sort of look and see that there's many reasons flynn would cooperate with the government. he's the person based on what we know so far that the government might have the strongest case against. it would be for him and both former trump campaign manager paul manafort. flynn is also probably working to protect his son who is wrapped up in the investigations and was working with flynn both when he was working as a lobbyist for an agent and working on the trump transition. sekulow is saying we don't have

any proof that flynn is cooperating with the government, we don't have proof in the opposite direction anyway. this certainly would be a sign -- that's certainly within the realm of possibility, perhaps a likelihood. meantime, donald trump jr. has been under increasing scrutiny for his interactions with people tied to russia in the 2016 campaign. the president's son is responding. he is not backing down. he's had these non-stop fwiter attacks saying russia is a false narrative, he was taunting, keep coming at me guys? what do you make of his strategy? >> he seems to be nearing the behavior of his father in terms of going right after his accusers and not backing down. of course, that's the same approach that a lot of lawyers are urging the president not to take which is to weigh in publicly on matters that can publicly get dragged into court if there are charges brought. it isn't a particularly wise legal strategy from the perspective of a lot of defense lawyers. this is part of the trump brand.

you don't back downment when someone punchs, you punch back twice harder. this is what we're seeing from the president's son. >> congress has a pretty daunting to-do list to get through by the end of the year, passing the spending bill probably at the top. you have taxes, lots of things, daca, what they're going to do about that. how big of a threat do you see a government shutdown at this stage? >> i think it's definitely a possibly. i think it's very interesting to see how many democrats are willing to take sort of a hard line on daca and willing to say, look, if we don't do something about these hundreds of thousands of children who were brought here illegally by their parents, if we don't do something to formalize their status to make them permanent residents of the country, we're not going to deal with you on the government funding side of this. i think that's the key thing to watch here. if there is a government shutdown, that will probably be what drives it. >> it was so interesting, wasn't

it, josh, the president is nothing if not consistent. yesterday on thanksgiving seemed to be saying essentially, i should be thanked, i'm doing a great job and the economy is going strong. it's something he talks about frequently, that he feels he doesn't get enough credit for. but you've got congress going in in this very busy, potentially combative december. how is the white house feeling about getting these things done, about avoiding a government shutdown, getting what the president arguably might want most which is tax reform. >> you're right. they're very excited about those economic indicators which are positive for the country. it's a bigger question as to whether can congress accomplish anything. we haven't seen a lot of that. i think the white house knows that even if the government shuts down because democrats try to force a fight over the daca program, republicans control congress and they control the white house right now. the likelihood is a lot of voters are going to blame

republicans. >> josh ledderman and kevin robillard, thank you. police in texas have arrested a man, 32-year-old black was arrested yesterday evening. they say shots were exchanged between block and the arresting officers. it happened about 90 miles south of dallas. officials have identified the slain officer as texas highway patrol trooper damon allen. he was returning to his vehicle following the stop when he was shot with a rival. black, who police say fled the scene before being captured is expected to be charged with cab tall murder. a new twist in the hunt for a killer of a veteran homicide detective and father of five in balt lore. the officer was a witness in a federal corruption case involving his colleagues. nbc's tom costello has new details. >> reporter: a week after sean suiter was shot and killed, the

revelation from the city's police commissioner was stunning. suiter was set to testify before a federal grand jury next day against eight elite baltimore officers already indicted in a police corruption investigation. the nigser in says there is no no evidence that suiter was set up. >> the fbi did not possess any information that this incident was part of any conspiracy. the evidence, in fact, refutes that notion. >> reporter: evidence on suiter's clothing suggest a struggle. a radio transmission may have caught the moment he was shot with his own gun. >> we do not know where these shots came from. we have officers in bad locations. >> reporter: they were investigating a 2016 triple murder when he approached a suspicious individual in a vacant lot. his partner was across the street at the time of the shooting, police insist he's not a suspect. an 18-year veteran and father of five, suiter was set to testify

against fellow cops for allegedly stealing money, property and drugs. >> there's no information that has been communicated to me that detective suiter was anything other than a stellar detective, great friend, loving husband and dedicated father. >> our thoughts go out to his family. thanks to tom costello for that report. up next, america's top commander in afghanistan with his outlook on the war in afghanistan. why he says after 16 years the war is at a stalemate and why he believes president trump's new policy could be the key to victory. plus dramatic video out of australia showing one woman avoiding tragedy as a train barrels into a local station. we're back in a moment.

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our troops will fight to win. we will fight to win. from now on, victory will have a clear definition. attacking our enemies, obliterating isis, crushing al qaeda, preventing the taliban from taking over afghanistan and stopping mass terror attacks against america before they've merge. >> welcome back. that was president trump back in august during his speech announcing a new strategy for america's longest war. however, america's top commander in afghanistan, general john

nicholson now tells nbc news exclusively that the war in afghanistan remains, quote, a stalemate those he does believe the administration's new strategy will get results. >> we're still in a stalemate. we're only 90 days into this new policy. with the u.s. forces that will be arriving, with the new authority we've been given, the pressure on external enablers, the fact that we're commissions based, not time based, we've set all the conditions to win. >> yesterday the president also addressed the war while at mar-a-lago. >> i have to say directly to the folks in afghanistan, everybody is talking about the progress you've made in the last few months since i opened it up. we said go ahead, we're going to fight to win, we're not fighting anymore to just walk around. we're fighting to win. we're being talked about again as an armed fors. we're really winning, we know how to win. but we have to let you win. they weren't letting you win

before. they were letting you play even. they weren't letting you win. >> there's been a dramatic rise in the last half hour in the death toll from the shooting and bombing of the mosque we told you about. state tv reports now at least 155 people have been killed. the ap sites police officers in four off road vehicles opened fire on vehicles during a sermon and set off one bomb. so far know claim of responsibility. in south america argentina's navy announced that a sound detected during the search for a missing submarine with a crew of 44 people apparently came from an explosion. argentine navy spokesman told reporters the cause of the explosion is unknown and the search will continue until they're sure what happened to the missing submarine. the u.s. government has isn't a dozen airplanes and ships as part of a multinational search

effort. after 37 years, a new president in zimbabwe. thousands gathered to watch the inauguration of the second president, emerson meng gao wah who promised to create a new and unfolding democracy. he was fired as vice president last month and was in hiding during a military coup that saw previous leader. he previously served as mugabe's ruthless enforcer and is the subject of u.s. sanctions. meanwhile mugabe was granted immunity from prosecution as well as a retirement package which includes a pension, housing and a vacation allowance. scary scene in australia. check this out. a woman is saved just moments before a train comes racing into a local station. the dramatic footage was captured by a surveillance

camera in melbourne showing the woman walking across the tracks, trying to pull herself up to the platform. there the police officers get out out of the way seconds before the train pulls in. officials say it's not clear why the woman was on the tracks. up next, are you ready to do some shopping? that's the question retailers want to know the answer to this black friday. we'll break down how critical today's sales are in what's so far been a tough year for some people in the retail industry. we'll be back in a moment. with some friendly advice, a genuine smile and a warm welcome they make your town... well, your town. that's why american express is proud to be the founding partner of small business saturday. a day where you get to return that love, because shopping small makes a big difference. so, tomorrow get up, get out, and shop small.

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welcome back. the federal communications commission is moving forward regarding rules of net neutrality. reporting they are expected to pull the plug on obama era regulations in three weeks. that could allow internet providers more control over what consumers see and access online and how fast websites run. it comes amid growing backlash to the plan. including google and facebook, which released statements earlier this week expressing concern and saying they were, quote, disappointed by the decision. nbc news is owned by comcast, the nation's largest internet service provider. now, for millions of americans, the thanksgiving holiday wouldn't be complete without taking advantage of black friday sales. retailers are slashing prices this year to try to turn around what's been a tough year for some. nbc news jays gray has a look at the critical kickoff for the

holiday shopping season. >> a wave of bargain hunters flooding malls and stores across the country. the black friday frenzy actually getting started on thursday. turkey and stuffing apparently not enough for shoppers hungry for savings. >> i'm always out, always out, especially on thanksgiving, black friday. >> reporter: and there are some big deals today. top american retailers slashing their prices 37% on average. analysts say the best buys will be on electronics, appliances and jewelry. the national retail federation predict shoppers will take advantage of the markdowns, spending an average of $970 on gifts this holiday season. total spending for november and december could climb to over $682 billion. >> there's a lot of pent-up demand. consumer confidence is at a high point. stock market is at a high point.

we're just seeing a lot of spend go on in the market overall. >> reporter: which would make it the happiest holiday season for retailers in years. jay gray, nbc news, wood bridge, new jersey. >> and joining us now on this black friday, retail analyst at h. squared research and consumer spending expert. what do you think is going to happen? are you looking for a good holiday season this year? >> i think it's going to be good. in certain pockets, it will be better. it was interesting, i was out last night -- >> why? >> this is what i do, right, i'm out at the stores, i got a couple hours of sleep. but what i found was that consumers out there are not priced -- i'm sorry, they are price sensitive. so when you saw these discounts up to 50% off, you saw this rush of people going in, but when you saw discounts of somewhere between 10% to 20%, they kind of left those items alone or they wouldn't even go into that store. so consumers really want that discount. they want to make sure they are getting as much of a discount as

possible. the most discounts they saw really were on apparel. some of it up to 60% to 70% off. if you're in the market for a sweater, chris, now's the time to get one. >> from what you can tell so far, and, again, it's early. >> right. >> but what sectors are getting gains and which are struggling a little bit more? >> so what i was really interested in is the electronic sector. so what we saw in that report is actually very true. electronics are flying off the shelves. so last year we saw a lot of demand for toys. so now it's all about the xboxes, the televisions, you're seeing prices that are really, really inexpensive. i think i saw a 55-inch flat screen television for somewhere between 200 and $250. >> come on, really? >> this is the black friday price. we're going to see this across the board. there is talk that nafta -- all of this discussion that nafta might go away, those prices may even go up as we -- in the next coming years if that happens. >> one of the things i was surprised about was -- i tend to

think of online as taking over. there is something for a lot of people about just going into a store, seeing it, feeling it and maybe it's even part of the experience of standing in line. it's like we heard that woman in the piece. that's kind of a tradition for her. >> it is, it's absolutely about the experience. to your point, pay pal came out with a study, said 80% of people are now shopping online via their mobile devices so it's online and mobile devices. you also see people going into the stores to have that experiential experience, quote/unquote. they're going to cooking demonstrations. they're seeing raffles. i was at the mall last night and i saw teenagers lining up to get into pak sun in order to be a part of this raffle of a pair of shoes, a yeezy pair of shoes, if you know -- >> i don't know what -- >> kanye west shoes. they're drawing the kids in. that experience is everything for them. >> it's easy enough to say, because everybody wants the best

deal, is it easy enough to say you can go online and figure out where the best prices are? >> yes. there are different types of apps you can log on to and download on to your phone and price compare that way. at the end of the day, you have to figure out what is cost benefit for you. is it beneficial for you to get in your car, go to the mall, have that experience and maybe save $100 on a television or are you going to be spending more at gasoline, maybe you just want to stay at home, watch netflix, hang out with your family, probably get the same discount. >> if i'm self-gifting or gifting to somebody i won't see until after christmas day, will the prices get lower or impossible to tell? >> it really depends on the product you're trying to self-gift. if you are in the market for a sweater or clothe, prices on that is going to considerably get lower as we get closer to c krs day. if you're looking for a flat screen tv for yourself, now is the time to get it. >> how much lower can it get? >> i know, it's very low and also the inventory.

if you wait any longer, you're probably going to be stuck with maybe like a model from 2015 or 2016. >> i don't know if i'm allowed to say this on television, but i'm going to anyway, survived her husband in a new york city apartment trying to deep fry a turkey yesterday. we are so glad you are here and intact. >> thank you, we survived. >> and you said it was delicious. >> it was, he did a great job. >> thank you, great to see you. as the holiday season gets into full swing, putting up a christmas tree this year might cost you a little bit more. experts say there's a tree shortage expected all thanks to the recession back in 2007. they say that declining christmas tree sales that year led tree growers to plant fewer trees and a seven ton eight foot tree takes about ten years to grow so that means a smaller supply this year. experts warn that shortage may continue all the way through 2025 so their best advice to get the best price, buy early. which seems kind of counterintuitive. but that's going to do it for me this hour.

i'm chris jansing. stephanie ruhle picks up our coverage right now, hey there, stephanie. >> hey there, chris. good morning, i'm stephanie ruhle, with a lot to cover today. starting with flip or flop. new reports that mike flynn's lawyers have notified president trump's team they would no longer share information. a sign that he could be striking a deal with special counsel robert mueller. >> you never know. you're going to find that out. >> i hug people. senator al franken out with a new apology this morning as more women come forward, claiming he touched them inappropriately. and you know what day it is, ready, set, shop. 115 million americans race to the stores in hopes of snagging that black friday bargain. but it is just a drop in the bucket compared to how much money is going to get spent all weekend long. all right, you know what we're going to start with this morning.