starts right now. >> good morning, it's friday, december 1st. welcome to morning joe. with us we have national affairs analyst for nbc news and msnbc john heilemann, washington anchor for bbc world news america catty kay, morning joe economic analyst steve ratner, white house reporter for "usa today" heidi pryzbilla. >> we got it right this time. >> awesome. >> we take a crack at it. did you see that christmas tree lighting last night? >> the one in d.c. that everyone showed up to. >> talk about that. >> a beautiful, balmy evening on d.c., no excuse not to get outside? >> yeah. >> you go to the christmas tree lighting. except not many people came. i never seen it this empty. never seen it. >> oh my god! >> low turnout. >> wow!

>> but someone is not going to be happy with that photograph. >> that is the biggest turnout at a christmas tree lighting in history. there has never been so many. >> all of d.c. comes to a halt because of the traffic is so bad. >> yesterday the streets were empty. >> you look at this picture. there were people that did side-by-side comparisons with last year and this year. last year, it was a mob scene. it shuts washington down. you can't move anywhere around. >> people are just disgusted. guys, it was a nice, warm, mild evening. >> yeah, there is no reason. >> nobody showed up. yeah. interesting. >> okay. >> that looks like the biggest proud i ever seen. >> a picture speaks a thousand words. a thousand empty seats at least. that's a low turnout. >> that would be a very small crowd. actually there is no dispute. >> it's so sad. >> people didn't show up. >> that will be like this crowd at donny's birthday party tonight.

>> i feel a dispute brewing from the press briefing this afternoon. >> that would be so much fun if he actually asked his pressing is to argue this. >> the biggest crowd of all. >> you count social media and satellite tv, more people saw that christmas tree lighting than anyone else. >> news, that was news worthy. it's really amazing actually and a sign of disgust. in separate private conversations this past summer. >> it's like watching a basketball game. >> no, they don't want to see the president. they're disgusted with him. >> maybe some people. >> nope. >> did not see the second season of "stranger things. >> nope. >> so maybe everybody in washington owe glow the last thing everybody want to see, too. >> maybe they're home waiting for the second season of "mind hunter" when is it coming out, if they have a surprise drop, i want to be in front of the tv. >> alex said a minute ago, we've beaten the horse already today. >> i'm dead serious, you were in joking mode. i think people are really

disgusted. so here's the news this morning in separate private conversations this past summer, president trump urged members of the senate intelligence committee to end their probe into russian interference in the 2016 election. >> wait, wait, hold on. i'm confused. so, john heilemann, i know that he told the fbi, right, i think we heard that he was pressuring them to stop it and that. >> and that caused some controversy. >> i understand, i'm confused, though, so he did this not only to comey and then bragged about getting it to lester holt the russians and sarah huckaby went out real proud the fact that her boss did end the russian investigation. but he did this with the senate investigation, too. there is a constitutional separation of power, john. >> there is. >> doesn't he know that? >> no. >> you would think.

and here's the craziest thing about it. i don't mean it to belabor the obvious. he had gotten into a lot of trouble for what he did with james comey to the point it sparked a special prosecutor to look into it. they're looking at obstruction of justice. so while the special prosecutor is engaged in his investigation, he's at the same time doing the same thing again now on capitol hill. >> for children who are at home thinking, hey, one day, i'd like to grow up and be a special prosecutor, what they look at is they look another evidence and pot terrence, for instance, when donald trump got everybody towing on air force one to lie about the russian meeting. >> write the letter himself. >> a special prosecutor, catty, will look at that and the

intent, why isn't the president of the united states putting out a statement that is a false base lie to the new york sometimes? it's the same case here with the investigation of the senate. you are doing it again him any sane, rational human being with all their mental faculties would say, wait a second, i just got a special prosecutor for trying to kill this over here in the justice department. i better fought do this to the united states senate. but he did. >> because there is a consistent belief from donald trump that he can bend reality to his will. so i can make this what i want it to be. i can make this go away. even if that flies in the face of logic and what's happened, because i had a special prosecutor candidate, i will try it again. >> because, mika, he has people around him that actually justify him bending the truth and lying. when you have a spokesperson that says it doesn't matter if

the fascist videos coming out of britain are actually factual or not the truth does not matter. which, by the way, that's official policy now from the white house, from the spokesperson in the white house. >> yes, it is. >> the truth does not matter. >> wouldn't even comment on the conspiracy theory he tweeted among many other lies and stupiditys. the spokesperson has zero credibility. >> she said he was elevating the conversation, elevating the issue. >> yeah, by having -- >> see, i actually think she's not a stupid person. >> okay. so -- >> i think she may be a smart person, so, therefore, what she's doing is even more wrong. does that make sense? >> so catty also. >> she know what is she's doing. >> just so we know about these videos against, piers morgan, who is, has been kinder to donald trump than most people.

>> nigel farage, who has been consistently supportive. again, came out yesterday and said, this is not okay. >> and especially if you look piers morgan, it's daily, you don't understand what you are doing you don't understand the impact this is having over here, mr. president. can you explain -- these are neofascists that donald trump is embracing, right? >> they're way outside the norms of political spectrum. these are people who have been indicted on charges of hate crimes against muslims, retweeting these videos which have been unsubstantiated and are deliberately fostering anti-muslim feeling has been condemned across the political spectrum across the uk from the left and the right. i have never in 20 years of covering american politics seen a british politician, a british

prime minister in public on camera deliberately criticizing an american president in the way that teresa may did. never happened and there is no -- >> one at a time. one at a time. when prime minister -- had the remarks and so i fear that this relationship is a bad relationship. >> it's a bad relationship. >> a bad relationship. >> very. >> bad relationship. >> can we go out and find that? because that was quite a scene. >> it was actually sick. >> the thing is it actually sets back all the good work that's been done on intelligence sharing that we actually really need all of us every single day to keep us safe. this does not help. you got police forces saying this doesn't help. all it does is helps the fascists and the terrorists. >> right. >> that's all. >> does this help teresa may do mostically to stand up to donald trump? >> i think she should have done

it before. i think the question will be if the state visit is revoked. the big question is okay you criticize him, but you will still invite him for a state visit to the uk after hess done this? >> you sa you that crowd for the christmas tree lighting, that small one, that's not going to be the crowd of protesters in london. >> it will be walls along the wall. >> that will be the million man march in london. >> i'm all for carrying on the business of a country even after tiananmen square. i didn't like that bush sent scowcroft over to china, but i understood. but in this case where donald trump is promoting fascists, neofascists in great britain, don't you think the british should cancel this or postpone this state visit and say, we're sorry, mr. president, not now. and bluntly not until you come

out and criticize these neofascists? >> i don't see how from their own domestic standpoint, their own domestic politics and credibility, how they could possibly have donald trump for a state visit at this point. there is a second visit sort of on the table, whether he goes for a more formal visit. the u.s. embassy will go across the river and open next year, he can go if he wants to, then are you in protest happened. will you have enormous pushback from the population over that. >> also the aspect, which we haven't touched on the security of u.s. personnel overseas in embassies, what we snow when we have these incidents, they then become a target as well for people who are angry when there is a backlash and americans are perceived as anti-muslim rhetoric. >> wow, fought wanted. i bet there will be a definite low turnout, be very careful and i'm dead serious.

>> a high turnout calls for trump to be charged with race crime after vial tweets. praise of hateful group. >> so the republican chairman of the senate intel committee back to the first story -- it's hard to be back after the disgrace. richard byrd told the "new york times" it was something along the lines, i hope you can conclude this as quickly as possible. he said they would end when they were done with the interviews. he portrayed it as the action of someone who has quote never been in government. lawmakers and aides told mitch mcconnell. >> so never met a government, i know richard bur and richard burre burrerr, he -- burr has been acting in a bipartisan way, over this past year one of the best

of the republicans actually keeping their head down and dock their work. but when he says, when he says it reminds me of somebody who has not been in government before, that itself the same way as saying, you know what, he's just ignorant. he doesn't know what he's doing. >> that was the same thing when the intel chiefs as well came before congress, right, well, i didn't feel pressured. but these things happened and what we're seeing here is a portrait of multiple pressure points now. because it wasn't even just the head of the intel committee. he got multiple members of that committee. other members of congress to then try and pressure burr. there was a pattern here. the times used. time to move on. >> right. >> so you see here a pattern where he is cornering people on the plane, blunt was roern cornered on the plane. >> roy blunt. >> to me one of the telling points in that article in mitch mcconnell's words, you could see

in his interactions, the president not able to separate out the fact that russia needed to be published for this interference from the fact that his campaign was under investigation for occlusion. he couldn't separate the two. that's why you see this almost bitterness by this president every time the issue of russia comes up and he had to sign those sanctions into effect. >> don, he was yelling, wasn't it like a shouting match on the phone with mcconnell? >> well, there was, there was certainly that, i want to go back to your point about burr, put aside his excuse for why trump did this. >> it was ignorant. >> he's on the record in this story talking about the fact that this happened. the most important thing in this piece the number of republicans on the record with the "new york times" going to say the president was trying to shut down our inquiry. >> no what's they felt about the words, the president used the words, let's move this along. >> they went on the record the chairman of the senate intel committee.

he can characterize it or frame it whatever he wants. he's on the record saying this. it's an amazing thing. >> this is one of those moments you have to stop and put context to things. donald trump has so lowered the bar on every level, whether you are talking about culturally, politically, here legally, i can only use my experience as if i were being investigated by someone in the house ethics committee, never happened. and i said to my chief of staff, hey, i'm going to talk to so soond on the house or tell them to move it along t. blood would have drained from his face and he would have said, you can't do that. that's obstruction of justice. like, anybody on the hill. you don't do that. that is grossly just not proper,

improper. >> but this is how donald trump has always rolled. he doesn't care what the rules are. he will push and pull and use every means, you know, politically connected lawyers, whatever he needs to do to get done what he needs to get done and he has not learned that when you come to washington it's a different set of rules. he thinks he is back in new york, where you can push and pull and elbow people and bully them. >> call the press and pretending you are someone else. >> and all the rest of it. >> on the full screen, these are the patterns.

meanwhile, here is what ranking senate intel adam schiff said yesterday after attorney general sessions testified in a closed session. >> i do want to express my concern over his refusal to respond to what i think is a very important question. i asked the attorney general whether he was ever instructed by the president to take any action that he believed would hinder the russian, russia investigation. and he declined to answer the question. there is no privilege basis to decline to answer a question like that. if the president did not instruct him to hinder the action he could say so. if the president did instruct him to hinder the investigation in anyway in my view that would be potentially a criminal act and certainly not covered by any privilege. so it was disturbing to me that

the attorney general would not answer the question as to whether he was instructed by the president to hinder the russia investigation in anyway. >> a justice department official confirmed to nbc news that sessions declined to answer questions about his conversations with the president, yet, but he also said the same thing he has said before. >> that he has never been directed to do anything illegal or improper. period. >> or that he's ever met russians. so, john heilemann, you brought up also mike rogers. >> at the same time in the list we had of reported incidents where trump tried to pressure someone to end the probe. we mentioned anne coats, the case was reported mike rogers the head of nsa received the same phone calls from trump. that's a pattern, to your earlier point what would have happened if you had tried to engage with the ethics committee.

take it to the presidential level. imagine a parallel circumstance in which barack obama did what donald trump is accused of doing. imagine what would have happened to john w. bush or any of those people would have done, there would be calls for impeachment that day. >> i remember the clinton white house that said it before 1993 got somebody from the fbi over to help them work on a statement and the travel gate investigation. my god, a nuclear cloud rose over hc-5 among the republican caucus. i'm wondering, though, is there any chance that if you have obviously mueller is investigating obstruction of justice so if he had interviewed -- and i just speculate. i know nothing here, of course, that's always something. if he's investigating

obstruction of justice and obviously knew about these calls if he called sessions in and asked him, did the president ever ask you to drop this, could sessions have not answered that question because it is an active part of the obstruction case against donald trump? i don't know. >> it's lard to see how he couldn't answer that, because we don't even know under what privilege he is evoking to not answer it in front of congress. and so at what point to your point, unable to use that privilege? especially with mueller. also the president, too, in terms of obstruction of justice, at one point is it not good enough for him to say, i didn't know any better. these things happen. if you look at how mueller conducted previous investigations, for example with the enron investigation.

he went in waves and the first wave when ron was stringing these guys up on obstruction of justice. now, at what point do you reach a critical mass of multiple pressure points where you can no longer say he didn't know any better. >> steve, my question, could sessions not be telling us something about mueller's investigation again i have no information, if i'm mueller and are you the attorney general sex, i bring you in, listen, it's obvious he's called senators, he's done this done that did he ever ask you, specifically, to derail this? and let's say sessions said he did and then mueller might say to him. okay. thank you. just if you can keep that under wrap, please don't tell anybody that it's a part of the investigation. >> so you think mueller may have already called sessions in and had this conversation with him? is that what you are saying? >> it's possible. i'm saying there is no good

reason for jeff sessions not to answer unless mueller told him not to go there -- i said good reason. there is a slimy reason not to answer the question. >> which is that -- >> he's covering up for donald trump. >> exact ply. >> our he told the truth. just to elaborate on this, if he told the truth, he'd be indicting trump, not legally. >> to get to him. >> he doesn't want to perjure himself. he will eventually sessions will end up in front of a grand jury on this question. mueller will eventually -- >> i think sessions is too smart to perjure himself. okay. so, therefore, i think the fact that he didn't answer the question means there is something there that he didn't want to say that would either make trump look bad or cause jump legal jeopardy. whether mueller thought out the answer to that question or not. he will find out with sessions. >> so people working in the white house that watch tv for a living because they have to, because their president does, what are they thinking at this

point? like they will be paying legal fees for the rest of their lives, that's if they get lucky. are you kidding me? why would you do this neighborhood, still ahead on "morning joe" the white house is planning to replace rex tillerson at the state department. plus drama has mitch mcconnell scrambling on the tax plan. where things stand right now. first, bill kierans with a check on the forecast. >> we are watching cold air. next week, one more beautiful warm weekend to enjoy being outside, getting the christmas lights off, raking the leaves whatever you want to do. next week looks considerably colder, a couple showers left over in georgia and southern alabama to start december like this, 50s and 60s, even 48 at minneapolis, about 15 degrees warmer than normal for this time of the year. how does the week look? we continue with that widespread warmth. the only travel issues this

upcoming weekend will be in the north and the west with rain and snow. by the time we get into sunday, that mild air holds with us 57 in d.c., 50 in new york city. 70s in the middle of the country. in december, extremely rare. we will continue as we go throughout sunday. it looks like the cold air arrives tuesday of next week, it will be here to stay throughout much of the middle of december. so far, no snowstorms, lake effect snow next week. new york city, enjoy three or four more very mild days. you are watching morning joe. we'll be right back. as you can clearly see, the updates you made to your plan strengthened your retirement score. so, that goal you've been saving for, you can do it. we can do this? we can do this. at fidelity, our online planning tools are clear and straightforward so you can plan for retirement while saving for the things you want to do today. nana, let's do this!

aye aye, captain! ♪ and as you go through life -whoo! -♪ tryin' to reach your goal when i met my team at ctca, they put together a comprehensive plan, that gave me an opportunity to accomplish my goals, and my dreams. learn more at cancercenter.com

♪ but it might be hard to handle ♪ ♪ like the flame that burns the candle ♪ ♪ the candle feeds the flame ♪

topped steak & twisted potatoes at applebee's. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood. i got this...n there? that's the new man, huh? yup. getting kinda' close to my ride. wow... now, that's how you make a first impression. they're going to love you... that's ford, america's best-selling brand. hurry in today for 0% financing for 72 months across the full line of ford cars, trucks and suvs! and just announced...get 0% apr for 72 months plus $1000 cash back! take advantage of these exclusive holiday offers during the ford year end sales event.

or a little internet machine? [ phone rings ] it makes you wonder. shouldn't we get our phones and internet from the same company? that's why xfinity mobile comes with your internet. you get up to 5 lines of talk and text at no extra cost. so all you pay for is data. choose by the gig or unlimited. and ask how to get a $200 prepaid card when you buy any new samsung device with xfinity mobile. a new kind of network designed to save you money. click, call or visit today. so we have been talking, obviously, been talking a lot about this story, about trump trying to kill the russian inquiry. right next to it, though, as far as foreign policy goes, another sign of the united states' failure in the middle east and across the world.

egent agrees to open bases to russian jets and, catty, we saw russia getting into syria for the first time since 1972. this is going to be the first time since the early '70s that russia had a presence in egypt. there is no doubt that steve bannon's vision of the world, where we pull up stakes come home and disengage from the rest of the world is interesting impacts. now the russians are moving to syria, moving into egypt, long-term implications are pretty terrible for this country strategically. >> yes, we talked a bit about how if america steps back who fills in the vacuum, somebody will step inened a take over those power positions. we've go cussed a lot of our attention on beijing, specifically in africa. when you look at ukraine, crimea, syria and now egypt. it does look like the russians are step nook the whole role

america would have traditionally have filled. we have to say, what does it mean for us in the long run, domestically, america will be fine, the structures are there, if america really pulls back from global leadership at a time when power balances around the world are shifting and things are up for grabs. >> right there and countries like russia and china move in on a transactional basis not on a principal bound basis, what does it mean for us in the long run? what kind of world are we looking towards? >> and how easy is it to get them out of syria in the future? >> once they pulled it, why would they pull back? >> mia, you said after your father's passing, you stopped reading in the newspaper the in the final weeks of his life, it was depressing to him because donald trump and his team were undoing all of his life work and everybody else's life work. you talk about egypt. this goes specifically to what

your father and henry kissinger and he can go all the way back what we have been doing in the entire post world to try to minimize the influence of countries like russia and china and here we see ten, 11 months in, the impact of donald trump's retreat, his neoisolationism. he talks big, guess what, he's let the russians go in and basically invade space they haven't been in since '73 in syria now in egypt a company pivotal to your father obviously under president jimmy carter did in the camp david accords. >> and in helping administrations out as well. i will just say, i'll correct one word, it wasn't depressing to him. it was terrifying. absolutely terrifying, given the classified information that he has had over years and the relationships that he knows about and the secret missions

he's been on i trust that his terror is real. a and. >> if the balance of power continues as it is at the moment with the rise of china and russia, this won't be another american century. it won't. >> steve, obviously, you still travel across the world, you were a reporter overseas. i think for a lot of americans to sit back saying what are you doing over there? they don't realize it takes an entire department. it takes ambassadors across the globe. it takes work every single day to stop our allies and also people sort of ambivalent from letting the russians come in the military, letting the chinese come in financially. it literally is a 24 hour a day, when donald trump says we don't need people in the state department, because i make all the policies, such a dangerous

ignorant statement that increases to russians increasing their sphere of influence and the chinese more quietly increasing their sphere. >> it's ignorant on two levels. this idea that it's america alone or we will withdraw from the world and secondly the way they operate the state department not having people there. catty knows well, i was there the other night with leading journal businessmen, people are terrified the idea, they don't love us and they don't love us when we go in, but the idea that we disappear and leaving the playing into else to the chinese and russians, they have their own sphere. >> we are abdicateing our values, we are not abdicateing to another world power that has democratic values. we're not abdicateing to germany or britain. we're advocating to these

oligarchic thug-like countries that do not share our values. you see that manifest income ways small and big in the way journalists are being treated in other countries. i represent journalists without borders, freeing journalists imprisoned overseas, they see that pressure is not from from the united states of america. nobody is there. >> you see the impact, donald trump attacks cnn international and then a couple days later saudi arabia attacks cnn int international and you see what's happening, i tried to explain this on twitter. you can't, people are just -- anyway because they say. >> because it's a sewer. but china is becoming even less quote democratic. there were moves towards market reforms. there were moves towards political reforms. that's all changed. so the world really, brian

clause is right, our rivals are becoming more autocratic every day. in part they are doing it because there is no moral voice coming out of the white house, there is as reagan said, no city shining brightly on the hill for all the world to see. and so they do whatever the hell they want to do. they know they're not going to get pushback from the state department from the u.s. ambassador, because there is not one there, certainly no from the president of the united states, who is more interested if picking fights with lowly cable news hosts than he is worrying about a nuclear conflict with north korea and working around the clock to keep america safe. >> we'll get to steve's charges and we'll go live to capitol hill. >> didn't he thank you every day? >> every day. >> after a quick break. we'll be right back with much more "morning joe".

paying less for my medicare? i'm open to that. lower premiums? extra benefits? it's open enrollment. time to open the laptop... ...and compare medicare health plans. why? because plans change, so can your health needs. so, be open-minded. look at everything-like prescription drug plans... and medicare advantage plans from private insurers. use the tools at medicare.gov. or call 1-800-medicare. open to something better? start today. ♪

was supposed to be a wake reup call for our government?sh people all across the country lost their savings, their pensions and their jobs. i'm tom steyer and it turned out that the system that had benefited people like me who are well off, was, in fact, stacked against everyone else. it's why i left my investment firm and resolved to use my savings for the public good.

but here we are nine years later and this president and the republican congress are making a bad situation even worse. they won't tell you that their so called "tax reform" plan is really for the wealthy and big corporations, while hurting the middle class. it blows up the deficit and that means fewer investments in education, health care and job creation. it's up to all of us to stand up to this president. not just for impeachable offenses, but also to demand a country where everyone has a real chance to succeed. join us. your voice matters.

. >> all right. >> do you think we should go to alabama? >> i do, catty is going, i do everything catty does, we wear the same clothes. >> i'm going to alabama. i'm worried about the polls. >> i'm not focused on the polls

as i am getting back to greenland and having some ribs. >> think of the eating we can do down there. >> greenland is something. >> i got chills. it's been such a long time. >> we can hang around see the tide. >> either way, it's a big story, right. >> it's a big story. >> either way. >> and we get to go to alabama and eat. >> okay. voting on the senate's tax overhaul is set to pick up again at 11:00 morning, this as the gop leadership hopes to pass the bill last night. those hopes were dashed, after new analysis from a non-partisan congressional joint committee on taxation said the bill's growth projections fall short of paying for itself by $1 trillion. >> you see the dude on the floor lean with the sign, maybe he ought to stand up? >> stand up, man. >> if are you going to do it do it. if you want to go there. go there. >> a trigger mechanism to raise rates in response to a rise in

the deficit ran afoul of parliamentary rules, causing republicans to search for savings of about $400 billion according to tom tillis. the situation is complicated by senator ron johnson's demand for deeper cuts for small businesses and senator bob corker and jeff flake deficit concerns. according to wall street journal, republicans are deciding whether to walk back their plan for a permanent reduction of the corporate tax rates to 20% from 35%. there was consternation in the ranks last night. republican senator said of corker, hemoprobably call another meeting along with other people who won't be here very long to determine the fate of the rest of us. >> crazy. >> oh my god. >> hokie. >> can you imagine this? >> crankster. >> the nerve of bob corker. >> to care. >> when you are -- first of all republicans, somebody brought this up on twitter yesterday. i love this so republicans have been bitching and moaning,

steve, for 800 years t. tax code is too complex t. tax code is too complicated. it's just impossible to figure out everything in it. it needs to be simplified and yet they take this code they say is so complicated that nobody can figure it out and they don't have regular order. they don't have any hearings, they don't have an experts. they go behind closed doors and have a handful of people trying to figure this out. last night, i'm sorry, it's a jackass move to say, we got to get together in the morning. why? the world's most deliberative body i think not and now now pat roberts is mad at bob corker for, get this hold on, 2017, for calling a meeting because we're

going to steal another $2 trillion. not for future generations but younger mens. we got to a point it's not regular order, now republicans are bitping if you call a meeting to deal with $400 billion in additional debt on a $20 trillion national debt. these guys are sad a pathetic and if you vote for this bill, are you not a conservative and you have never been a conservative. >> okay. you want to do chart? what corker wanted were two things, he wanted this trigger if the revenues fell short there would be an automatic increase. the second thing was the parliamentary had ruled against the second was a score, that shows the growth would compensate for the increase in deficit. he didn't get it. if you look at this cart, you will see, republicans were looking at .4 of a year of additional gdp growth.

what the joint committee open taxation said yesterday is it will be less than .08% growth per year over the next ten years so instead of a 1. trillion addition to the deficit. it's a trillion. they want zero. it's a trillion. >> that doesn't count the fact that there are a whole bunch of tax cuts that expire that will inevitably get extended. so that's really what stopped the train in its tracks. when you get more fundamentally to what's in this bill you still end up with a situation where donald trump who over the last couple says keeps saying, there is nothing in this bill for me, for my rich friends, based on his 2005 tax returns we have he would get over $40 million in benefits from this bill. only a small amount of offsets. if the house version passings, which has the repeal of the state tax senate. >> wow. >> we would get 1 to $4 billion

of state tax relief t. idea that the this wouldn't help trump is ludicrous. >> go back to the chart. i'm not good at math. but that means donald trump and his family are going to make over. >> he says he gets nothing. >> his accountant. >> over a billion dollars if this goes through. >> the house bill. >> apparently hes that worst accountant in american. my accountant fells me i will get killed on this bill. whoever his accountant is. i got a better accountant than that. >> he's a billion dollars off, steve. >> a simple way to put it. he lies. >> oh, now i get it. >> let's take trump out of the picture and look at what happens for other americans if this tax bill were to pass. if you are on the bottom of the food chain, you will get $50 per year.

. >> the interesting political thing the polls show americans understand this. over 50% of americans think this is a bad bill. >> they understand it's a tax cut for the rich. >> yet they are still trying to push this through t. public does not seem to rise up against it like they did against the health care bill. >> usually the public likes tax cuts. the tax cut bills tend to be enher rently popular. >> joining us from capitol hill correspondent jared haig tracking the votes all along now, where do we stand? >> reporter: hey, guys, that pat roberts comment speaks to the pressure senate republicans are under to get something done after the appearance unable to pass anything during the course of this summer.

coming into today, that's a pretty tall task. can you pick your fate metaphor, for how hard this must be for mitch mcconnell. he has to satisfy a couple blocks of people. first you mentioned the budget hawks, bob kirker and jeff flake. they were upset to see this trigger provision would out last night. they are trying to build something else into this bill to address some of those deficit concerns a. lot of their colleagues in the senate don't like that and the house really doesn't like that susan collins is somebody still sitting out there. she wants an amendment to this bill to change how it deals with state and local stacks deductions. we know she is willing to vote on public priorities. we've seen it before. you got the ron johnson, steve danes folks, who want the small business side this morning. steve danes came out and says he wants to see if that gets ron johnson on board. if you lose two, you can lose corker and flake and pass this it's an ugly look for republicans to lose the two most

outspoken folks on budget deficits when that has been an important part of their platform for so long. >> thank you so much. greatly appreciate it. heidi, what's going on that you've got a republican congress that tried to write the health care bill and reorder one-sixth of the economy behind closed doors, they're trying to do the thing with the tax code the entire government bureaucracy and republicans are getting angry, bob corker wants to call a meeting, he says they're not going to be around, this isn't about them, bob corker, this changes american life. >> and they know, joe, that if you have any kind of extended debate like we did for instance around the reagan reforms, this will get torn apart because we're not in the same place we were when reagan tried to lower taxes at that point when individual rates were at 70%, we know that if we look at the economic data, for example, we are around near full

unemployment. and that the challenges facing this country right now don't have to do with what this tax cut bill has to do wit. they're wage and equality. they're the fact that people are already working two or threeothey can't afford their health care, this is not necessarily the plan that fits this moment in history. they have an extended debate. there will just be more and more threads that get pulled at this. it won't work. just like it didn't work with the obama deal. >> i'm surprised susan collins is thinking of supporting it coming up, the plan to replace rex tillerson, our next guest writes, the secretary of state has been politically dead for months, the only question is, when they will hold his funeral? that's ahead on "morning joe".

dad: molly, can you please take out the trash? (sigh) ( ♪ ) test. dad: molly! trash! ( ♪ ) whoo! ( ♪ ) mom: hey, molly? it's time to go! (bell ringing) class, let's turn to page 136, recessive traits skip generations.

who would like to read? ( ♪ ) molly: i reprogrammed the robots to do the inspection. it's running much faster now. see? it's amazing, molly. thank you. ( ♪ ) thank you. depend real fit briefs feature breathable, cotton-like fabric. in situations like this, there's no time for distractions. it's not enough to think i'm ready. i need to know i'm ready. no matter what lies ahead. get a free sample at depend.com. we cthen we are toldrld it's braver to go it alone. ♪

that independence is the way to accomplish. ♪ but there is another way to live. ♪ a way that sees the only path to fulfillment- is through others. ♪ that our time here can be deep beyond measure. ♪ no one who chose interdependence ever found despair. ♪ because what the world taught as weakness, is in fact our greatest virtue. ♪

but the fact we work together does not mean we're afraid to say when we think the united states have got it wrong,

and be very clear with them. i'm very clear that retweeting from britain first was the wrong thing to do. >> we got what we came for. and our special relationship is still very special. >> prime minister? >> i love that word, relationship. covers all manner of sins, doesn't it? i fear this has become a bad relationship. a relationship based on the president taking exactly what he wants and casually ignoring all those things that really matter to britain. >> they left out the best part. alex, you got to get the part. we are the country -- no, it's like shakespeare and churchill. then he gets to david beckham's

right foot. his left foot. all right. let's see the whole thing. >> the whole movie. >> great movie. >> here we go. you going to play it? >> we got what we came for, and our special relationship is still very special. >> prime minister? >> i love that word, relationship. covers all manner of sins, doesn't it? i fear that this has become a bad relationship. a relationship based on the president taking exactly what he wants and casually ignoring all those things that really matter to britain. we may be a small country, but we're a great one too. a country of shakes spear, church hill, the beetles, harry potter, sean connery, david beckham's right foot. david beckham's left foot. a friend who bullies us, he's no

longer a friend. and since bullies only respond to strength, now on ward, i will be prepared to be much stronger. >> coming up, we're in a wide shot because joe cries when he watches this movie. >> oh, stop. hold on. >> let's watch more. >> you say it's a hard movie. i thought everybody loved "love actually". apparently they don't. >> every christmas we watch "love actually". the guy who turns up in michigan and picks up all the girlfriends? minnesota. >> come on now. >> i think everybody -- you love it. you love it? >> i love it. >> have you ever seen it, mika? >> you show med parts of it and you cried. >> you know what? that was "you got mail". okay? >> that's a terrible movie. >> what are you talking about? >> laura, i have nothing to do.

we love -- >> give "love actually" a try, mika. >> you showed me the movie. you showed me --. >> eugene robinson joins us. "morning joe" is coming right back. when you have a cold, pain from chest congestion can make this... ...feel like this. all-in-one cold symptom relief from tylenol®, the #1 doctor recommended pain relief brand. tylenol®. i mwell, what are youe to take care odoing tomorrow -10am?

staff meeting. noon? eating. 3:45? uh, compliance training. 6:30? sam's baseball practice. 8:30? tai chi. yeah, so sounds relaxing. alright, 9:53? i usually make their lunches then, and i have a little vegan so wow, you are busy. wouldn't it be great if you had investments that worked as hard as you do? yeah. introducing essential portfolios. the automated investing solution that lets you focus on your life.

we make sure you're in the loop at every step from the moment you decide to move your money to the instant your new retirement account is funded. because when you know where you stand, things are just clearer. -♪ a little bit o' soul, yeah welcome back to "morning joe." top of the hour. this got a lot of play yesterday. republican senator lindsey graham speaking with cnn versus his evil twin from february

during the campaign. >> you know what concerns me about the american press? this endless, endless attempt to label the guy as some kind of cook, not fit to be president. >> i'm not going to try to get into the mind of donald trump, because i don't think there's a whole lot of space there. i think he's crazy. i think he's unfit for office. >> he said the same exact thing. i'm confused. >> wait. this is what they were talking about with his evil twin brother skippy? >> no. >> that was his evil twin brother skippy. >> what's to him? >> can we play that one more him? >> you know what concerns me about the american press is this endless attempt to label the guy as some kind of cooke, not fit to be president. >> i'm not going to try to get into the mind of donald trump, because i don't think there's a whole lot of space there.

i think he's crazy. i think he's unfit for office. >> okay. so -- he said the same thing. wait, i'm confused. did he attack the media. wait. play it one more time, because i think he attacked the media. i think he attacked the media for saying the same thing he said about donald trump when it served him politically. could we play that again? >> you know what concerns me about the american press? this endless, endless attempt to label the guy as some kind of crazy, not fit to be president. >> i'm not going to try to get into the mind of donald trump, because i don't think there's a whole lot of space there. i think he's crazy. i think he's unfit for office. >> he said the same exact things, the same exact things and he's blaming it on the press. if we could replay the "love actually". i'm joking. >> no. >> today is a huge day.

there are some days throughout the year that just kind of stand out. obviously december 7th, a day which will live in infamy, for me a beetles fan, december 8th, the passing of john lennon. christmas and easter are pretty big days too. but today -- >> it's huge. >> somebody has a big birthday. >> a big birthday. >> yeah. >> turns how old? how old is he? >> how old is donny? >> i have a little present for you? >> i'm entering the -- i'm 60. well -- >> that was hard to say. >> no. i figured out for anyone who's 60, here's the great way to look at it. i'm going to live like a 40-year-old. when you're 80, you don't give a darn. i'm going to take the attitude of an 80-year-old and live like

a 40-year-old. >> are you telling me you cared before about what you said. >> actually, my birthday was last week, but i'm having a party tonight. >> we got you a present. we care about you. we want you to be okay. >> open it up. >> joe and i are just -- we want to make sure that when you're alone, which is not often. >> when i fall down, help, i've fallen, and i can't get up. >> your daughters can make sure you're okay. >> he has on the bracelet. mika thought you had the life alert bracelet. >> this is a great gift. >>. >> you go out. you exert -- you push this button. >> i will have this on my neck. this is more funny. thank you very much. >> and that way. >> and by the way, there's a sticker. you can put this on your helicopter or porsche.

>> isn't your daughter newly married? now she cannot worry about you. >> my daughters will not worry about me. this is very sweet. >> or at least wear it. >> i don't want him falling down. >> 60 is the new 59. >> exactly. >> happy birthday, donny. you're 60. it's all right, grandpa. >> grandpa's pants are wet. can you bring something over here? i was going to get you some depends. >> thanks, donny. it's okay. it doesn't matter. >> the world is falling apart around us. >> the oops i crapped my pants. remember the snl? >> no. it's 7:00 in the morning. >> sthalso we bring in eugene robinson, he has not spilled his drink all over himself this morning. also national political reporter, jonathan swan. gene, i want to go to you. a back story, i wrote a column yesterday, and i turned it in at

noon, and ruth markus politely e-mailed me with good news and bad news. she said it's a really great column. i go fantastic. i'm going to be like everybody is going to be -- she goes here's the bad news. gene robinson just wrote the same exact column. and his got put in first. here's an excerpt of what gene, you and i and this mind meld wrote in "the washington post." >> all right. this is getting worse, and here's a part of the article. quote, how long are we going to ignore the signs that president is dangerously out of control in trump supporters comfort themselves with the idea that he's being crazy like a fox. that all the outrageous lies abrupt reversals, bizarre pronouncements and vicious personal attacks are calculated to achieve some rational goal.

he's just playing to his base, perhaps, or distracting everyone from unpopular legislation cutting taxes for the rich. but what evidence is there of calculation? i agree with this. it is one thing to create a fantasyland for political ends. appealing to some voting group's prejudices or giving supporters a reason to excuse bad behavior. it is another thing all together, however, for trump to fall into his own rabbit hole and actually believe what he wants you to be untrue. whatever the problem is, it's serious, and it's getting worse. >> so gene, since i did a lot of work -- >> yeah. >> i just want to add so people don't go that's just you liberals saying this. i dug up old quotes from people who know him the best. senate republicbob corker quest trump's competence saying he's

putting america with his erratic behavior on the path to world war iii. the secretary of state has called the president a moron. his national security adviser has reportedly said trump has the mind of a kindergartner. a senior republican senator who has spent hours with the president is privately fretting that the president is, quote, mentally ill. "vanity fair" has trump insiders saying he is unraveling mentally. the new york daily news which the president reads every morning says the president is by any honest layman's definition unwell and viciously lashing out. and then maggie haberman has done a task, she has one of the best working relationships with the trump white house and donald trump because she's known him the longest, and she writes scathing pieces. she tells the truth, but she's still maintained this relationship with him because she's known him for so long.

somebody who has done that said he's unmoored. something has happened over this past week, and he's unleashed. when you hear that from maggie, that's almost even more damning than hearing it from the secretary of state who met him a year ago. >> it is. first, we can share the by line. i'd be happy to. this is the important story. right? >> yes, it is. >> the president of the united states acts as if there's really something seriously wrong with him. and that's just the fact. i suspect you do too, but i hear from mental health professionals who e-mail and who call, and whose hair is on fire as they look at his behavior, look at his performance, look at what they see as deterioration. i talk to people who have known him far long time as i know you

do who say they have seen a deterioration that they don't recognize the donald trump who is in the white house now, and when you look at the things he does and says that are against his own political interests, that keep him from getting his agenda passed inso far as he has an agenda that are just totally off the wall, you -- at some point you have to stop trying to rationalize this and say that it's part of some grand plan and he's playing four dimensional chest. he's not. this is a serious issue that is difficult for us to talk about, but we have to talk about it. >> i think we have to talk about it. yesterday i talked about how somebody during the campaign who is a close associate of donald trump told me that everybody on the campaign staff believed he had predementia. and i remember talking about bringing it up on the show last year, and they said first, it's a layman, somebody very frustrated. they don't know. that's too much of a bomb shell.

i wrote it in a couple of columns, and i think "the washington post" said the whole gold water rule and everything. you don't go there. okay? it was somebody frustrated. you're not a doctor. and i think "the washington post" wisely side we're not comfortable putting this into the column because it's too inflammatory. you can never prove it. i think this week, i mean, it's the reason why i said it again yesterday when people have been concerned about it. it certainly colored mika and my views throughout the campaign, and that's why we issued the warnings we did. but donny, people that have known him for ten years and liberals get really angry, you didn't know he was a piece of garbage. i understand that, but people who have known him for ten or 12 years have noticed a mental deterioration. maybe he wasn't the nicest and was depraved in whatever ways, but as far as just sheer mental fitness, trump used to be in on the game. he used to nod and wink.

in on the joke. he wanted you to know that he knew that this was all a branding exercise, and even if he was fighting with rosy, rosy's killing him. he's killing rosy. guess what? both sides love rosy more, love trump more, and it was all part of a tv reality show game. there is no doubt mentally and maybe it's the pressure of the campaign and this, everybody that's known trump for years says he has mentally devolved, and i just want to know when it's safe to start talking about it and writing about it. we're in a nuclear showdown with north korea. >> by the way, ooifr known him for 20 years. i was one of the first people to come out and bring up the mental health issue. i got a lot of flak. i've spent hours and hours with him everything from negotiating leases to at school functions to hours and hours of interviewing him on my old show.

he's not the same guy, you can see it in his eyes and speech pattern, and in most frighteningly his behavior. i think there's something else happening here. i think he's feeling the noose around his neck tightening with mueller. i think that's driving this. if you think about his mental state now, layer a guy getting backed in a corner, that is only going to heighten. i think we're going to see he knows what's coming. we don't know what's coming. he does. take a guy who is mentally unstable. put a gun closer -- metaphorically, closer to his head, and i think that's what you're seeing this week. i think there's a new level, and i think we're going to see it heightened as these two stories are coming together. his mental health and the russian inquiry are coming together. and it's going to crescendo in more insane behavior. >> i think he's also never -- like a lot of people we've seen in the past that things have not ended well, he has never seen the consequences of any of his

actions, ever. so he may be in kind of a weird unself-pay ware -- aware mode. i can't explain this crazy behavior, but i can call it crazy. >> i have a question for you. you know the people around him, a lot of decent people. at what point do they stop the it's better me being here versus i love the country. i love my grandchildren. there's a man with his hand near the nuclear button and somebody has to stand up. >> here's the deal. if you're a domestic adviser for the president, then i do think that you have to -- you can't stay. i don't know how gary cohn stays. if you are some of the generals around him, we're in the middle, and we have been hearing for some time that they fear a land war on the korean peninsula is coming. for them to abandon their post right now with a tweet, they cannot do that. >> i didn't bring them.

right. >> i believe history will show a lot of these men and women that are standing shoulder to shoulder through this crisis to be people that put their country first. >> but the domestic people are in a different position. >> that's different. >> what's a little scary is john kelly who i don't know but seems to have been a great guy. he seems to have become a bit of an enabler. when you look at the stuff said after the kid was killed in niger, i hope he's willing to stand up to trump when the moment comes. >> they're not going to bail, but when you look at who's going to speak out, it's from the national security community. you see corker saying this is the person controlling the nuclear arsenal, essentially turning this into a reality show. and then you see this poll, for example, by the military times, i don't know if you saw it out recently where they say only 30% of commissioned officers think he is fit. so i think if there is a community that's not going to bail, but then also speak out,

it's the same thing you saw during the campaign. >> strategic command. he's been saying that questioning the legality of a proposed nuclear strike. i think those people are thinking how do we put ourselves in a position where if something were to happen that we believe is catastrophic for the country, we try to make sure that we can prevent it. i think these rumblings about a strike, that's what they're preparing for. >> somebody who has knowledge of the president's thinking, i'll put it that way, says that donald trump's trip to mar-a-lago is what unleashed him. that general kelly came in and general kelly, a battle every day. it was a fight every day to stop donald trump from going absolutely crazy from being unmoored. he went down to mar-a-lago by himself. there were no staffers, and he started doing what general kelly stopped him from doing. he was just picking up the phone and calling his old friends

nonstop, and he liked once again, being donald trump, the dude, the new york manhattan guy on the phone and not the president of the united states and decided then when he came back, he was not going to get general kelly influence any of his behavior. which, if this person is correct, and i think they are, i fear what's going to happen over the christmas break at mar-a-lago. >> that's a good point. >> the environment in mar-a-lago is free wheeling, and it's also an opportunity for all the people who are there whether they're friends of his, business, old business partners, and various other things to basically be almost informal ad hoc advisers to him to put thoughts in his ear. one of the biggest problems that general kelly had when he took over was the information flow to the president. in fact, if there's anything general kelly is proud of, it's that he believes he has -- and he has, objectively changed the

information flow to the president. it used to be the case that there was the paper flow you could slip a breitbart article into the morning briefing book if you wanted to put a mischievous idea in the president's head. you had steve bannon completely going around the national security council process and pushing this idea to do basically a private militia or in afghanistan with erik prince. you had people going all around in his ear, and this now is what happened is my understanding at mar-a-lago, and i think your point is correct. i think this is potentially where we could see this heading. not within the formal hours of the oval office, because i don't believe that's changing but it's the opportunities outside the oval where this happens. >> and where do you think he got the conspiracy theories? i mean, he didn't get those from general kelly. he got those from people like steve bannon and others that are sending him these articles and

conspiracy theories and saying you need to back roy moore. >> but then what's happening in the construct. >> birtherism again. make racist jokes. >> what's happening in the construct of the white house when he does those things? what are they saying to him, and by the way, then it felt filters down to the white house press secretary. at what point do you say i'm not going to do this? >> what you're going to see is -- >> rip up the script. >> i think you're going to see general kelly give up. if this behavior continues, and certainly if it accelerates over the christmas break, then there are degrees of donald trump's madness. and we have seen over the past 72 hours this week particularly just how bad it can be without general kelly controlling the paper flow. >> well, your point is well taken. general kelly's schtick to date

has been don't judge me on his tweets. don't judge me on his tweets. the tweets are his tweets. that wasn't my job. my job was to control the staff. and the tweets are meaningless, but when you have -- as others pointed out, the special relationship as you showed with "love actually". when you do something that is pushing the boundaries so far that you actually force the british prime minister to condemn you, that is so difficult to do. then you can't just say they're tweets. this is affecting global relationships. so, yes, i think -- i don't know what he does when this actually becomes a matter of policy. the schtick is no longer sort of credible. >> closing with gene. it's getting worse. how much worse does it have to get? >> boy, that's -- that's a good question, because if it gets much worse, it gets really bad. right? we're in the middle of an international crisis with north

korea, with him calling kim jong-un rocket man and kim jong-un calling him an old lunatic, and at least they speak the same language, but i don't know if that's in our favor right now. you've got all the stuff happening around -- >> i don't know that it's in our favor right now. >> stuff happening all around the world. china is moving to fill the vacuum of world relationship that the world is creating. i was a correspondent in london. the idea that a british prime minister is going to publicly and sternly rebuke the president of the united states given what britain feels about the special relationship, especially after brexit, that's kind of all they got. i mean, it's just extraordinary how much worse can it get? i fear it can get worse, and the people who are professionals in mental health frankly tell me

this doesn't get better. this probably won't get better. it's not going to resolve itself somehow. and as you said, he tends to want to escape the people who could keep him on the straight and narrow, so maybe we need to shut down mar-a-lago. >> yes. >> yeah. >> donny, just to end where we started. again -- >> put the bracelet on. >> you've known him for a long time. and i know you told me even after he got elected you wrote him a really nice note, said congratulations. really proud of you. like you would for even though you voted against him, against him the whole time. >> very much so. >> you still reached out to him because you had known him for a long time, and we're trying to show kindness and hope that maybe it was salvageable. but it's just not salvageable, is it? >> no, and if you've been around mental health issues in your life, and gene talked about this

as age goes on and pressure heightens, it gets worse. and we should be frightened right now. we should be -- there is nothing glib about it. richard haas was har tiar ticku it well yesterday. at what point do you go to article 25? we -- our well being is at risk here. >> the 25 th amendment, again, mika, wasn't put for a situation like this. it's hard to wonder. >> it is complicated. >> yes. >> to execute. >> but you do wonder. donny says, my mom has dementia. she had predementia for several years. my father's death, the pressure of that, is when we really lost her. and so it got exponentially worse very first. the more pressure you're under in this -- if this is, in fact, the problem, the worse it gets.

>> so you jueugene robinson, thu for writing joe's column. >> you're welcome, and happy birthday to pops. >> pops. his pants are wet. still ahead on "morning joe" -- >> his pants are wet. >> this is the president of the united states sharing with millions inflammatory and divisive content. by sharing it, he is either a racist, incompetent, or unthinking, or all three. >> we cannot simply roll out a red carpet and give a platform for the president of the united states to also so discord in our communities. >> british lawmakers say what many senate republicans won't. andrea mitchel joins us on that and the potential of rex tillerson becoming one of the shortest-serving secretaries of state in generations. "morning joe" is coming right back.

>> you know what concerns me about the american press is this endless, endless attempt to label the guy as some kind of crazy. not fit to be president. i'm not going to try to get into the mind of donald trump, because i don't think there's a whole lot of space there. i think he's crazy. i think he's unfit for office. trillions of dollars going back to taxpayers. who could possibly be against that? well, the national debt is $20 trillion. as we keep adding to it, guess who pays the bill? him. and her. and her. congress, we should grow the economy. not the debt. ♪ you can do it. we can do this. at fidelity, our online planning tools

are clear and straightforward so you can plan for retirement while saving for the things you want to do today. -whoo! the ford year-end sales evente. is here. i can guide you in? no, thanks , santa, i got this. looks a little tight. perfect fit. santa needs an f-150. that's ford, america's best selling brand. hurry in today for 0% financing for 72 months across the full line of ford cars, trucks and suvs! and just announced... get 0 % apr for 72 months plus $1000 cash back! take advantage of these exclusive holiday offers during the ford year end sales event. when you're clocking out. i'm the one clocking in... sensing your every move and automatically adjusting to help you stay effortlessly comfortable. i can even help with a silent night. does your bed do that? i don't actually talk, but i can tell you how you slept. i'm the new sleep number 360 smart bed.

let's meet at a sleep number store. replace the full value of your totaled new car. the guy says, "you picked the wrong insurance plan." no, i picked the wrong insurance company. with new car replacement™, we'll replace the full value of your car plus depreciation. liberty mutual insurance. dad: molly, can you please take out the trash? (sigh) ( ♪ ) dad: molly! trash! ( ♪ ) whoo! ( ♪ ) mom: hey, molly? it's time to go! (bell ringing)

class, let's turn to page 136, recessive traits skip generations. who would like to read? ( ♪ ) molly: i reprogrammed the robots to do the inspection. it's running much faster now. see? it's amazing, molly. thank you. ( ♪ )

do you want rex tillerson on the job, mr. president? >> he's here. rex is here. >> thank you very much, everybody. >> donald trump would only confirm rex tillerson's location yesterday as nbc news has learned trump -- >> they're trying to shame him. they're trying to shame him. >> because of calling the president a moron. >> they're trying to shame him. i don't think -- i think you need to be -- here's the deal. >> are you going to give advice

right now? donald. >> you need to be careful with rex tillerson. unlike the other people around you, rex tillerson ran i think the largest company in the world, and after this is over, rex tillerson goes back to all of his buddies and all of his friends, and he's accepted back in the community, and he rolls his eyes, and depending on how you treat him from now until when he leaves the office, that's sort of his decision on whether he calls you a moron in private settings or he calls you a moron in public settings. so your leverage thing you like to talk about that you're not good at anymore, you need to be careful with rex, because, i mean, they actually think rex cares. >> yeah. >> and he just does not care. >> i would be very careful. i don't think that rex took the oath. that's my gut. as nbc news has learned the trump administration is considering a plan to replace the secretary of state with cia director mike pompeo.

joining us now, host of "andrea mitchel reports" andrea mitchel. >> andrea, obviously you've had problems getting access, asking simple questions of rex tillerson. >> basic questions. >> yesterday i had some very unkind things to say about the way he was running the state department, but all that aside, if -- can you explain how if you're trying to shame somebody or intimidate somebody rex tillerson is probably the wrong target? >> exactly. this is a very proud man. he wants to accomplish something. you've got to give him credit for at least trying to work with secretary mattis and moderate the president's instincts in a number of matters. clearly on north korea, for instance, cleaning up a lot of the messes, and trying to fix this problem in the gulf that's been created partly because of steve bannon, jared kushner and

some of the president's own instinctuals on riyadh and creating frirks. there's a lot of problems around the world. this is hardly the time to have this kind of public shaming of the secretary of state, but he's clearly lost confidence in him. it's an untenable precious. the refusal of sara sanders to say anything other than there's no personnel changes at the time. they're putting it out there, embarrassing the secretary of state right before he leaves for may be his last foreign trip. how can he know negotiate? what kind of diplomat can he be? this is the end of a long period. some of it self-inflected. the job freeze, the refusal to talk to the press, not to be a public diplomat, but that said, he's been more in line with traditional diplomacy in his values and with mattis and some

of the others. i don't know what they're going to get if it is mike pompeo, it will be somebody close to the president, whether he will stand up to the president and push back is another question. he's very bright. harvard lawyer. a popular tea party elected member among conservatives. that said, we don't know what's going to transpire. >> president is right that he's gotten more done in the first ten months of his presidency than anybody. >> one record after another for firing people. >> one disaster after another. >> your point, it's different when you fire shawn spice who are -- sean spicer who needs to work again. this is a guy who is probably worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and going forward to going to care about his legacy. there's no incentive for him to toe the party line from a personal and moral point of

view. i believe the things we were talking act in the last segment, who starts to raise his hand? this will be the first firing that will sound different after the bomb drop. >> it will sound very different, and jonathan, reporting in i believe it was "the washington examiner". something in the white house saying jared kushner has been after the secretary of state from the very beginning, and that the final straw was when the secretary of state refused to send a large entourage with ivanka trump to india. any reporting that you can follow up on that, or whether it is a jared kushner led exit? >> i was very skeptical of that report. particularly the particular detail about ivanka. it was also source to a former white house official. there's a lot of people who can't stand jared, but -- >> is that steve ban snn.

>> i don't know. i have no earthly idea. >> when you hear something inflammatory about -- and i'm not saying this to you but everybody and it's a former white house official, i wish reporters would tell steve bannon they're going to have to say his name on the record. it's obvious when it's bannon. hey, it's a great idea to put that conspiracy theory out. i'm sorry. go ahead. >> like so many of these stories, while i don't believe the particulars, there is a broader truth to it which is that jared kushner and rex tillerson have been at odds for some time now. it's no secret. it's much bigger than that. it's rex tillerson beyond john kelly sort of being kind of there for him and certainly general mattis being there for him. he has no hall lies in the white house. you cannot find anybody in the white house. i've said this before. when you try to get them to defend him publicly, they will not do it.

it is quite remarkable. >> all right. andrea, you spent time this morning, we were talking about the blowback overseas to president trump's circulation of anti-muslim videos on twitter. you spoke with brendan cox, the husband of british parliament woman murdered by a far right extremist. here's what he told you about trump's retweets. >> it matters not just because i don't like the content. i don't like what he was saying, but it matters because it drives hate, and when you drive hate, there are consequences. my family is a living consequence of what happens when people are fed hatred and this president, it pains me to say, but this president has become a p purveyor of that hate. >> and the problem is when the president is a purveyor of hate, and there are unbalanced people

out there who we saw as in this tragic case act out on the president's ideas. >> between the british intelligence and the state department there was a warning to the white house yesterday, not what you'd call a terror warning, but the kind of advice that u.s. facilities in the uk and elsewhere around the world need to be on special alert, need to be much more careful because of potential violence against american interests there after the president's tweets that this is inciting the very people that we are hoping to try to combat. so brandon cox was so powerfully passionate about this, and he does reflelkt ct, an incredible outcry, a united outcry. it took a retweet from donald trump to unite the brits around anger in america. it's extraordinary. i'm not suggesting the special relationship is not special on a

profound level intelligence unit to intelligence unit. that kind of cooperation. but there is concern going all the way back to the fact that the white house was indicating information about manchester. there have been a lot of tensions there, and for the prime minister to come out, you played "love actually", but it was amazing. it took this to get theresa may. it was the second time she rebuked him, but this time on camera. this occurred while he was in baghdad, and then in jordan she stepped up to the plate. >> let's put this in context. imagine if a member of the united states congress was shot and killed, and when they were killed the person shouted out america first or whatever. that's exactly what happened in great britain. and then imagine if a british prime minister retweeted

something from that group who inspired the murder, the assassination of a member of congress. that's exactly what we have here. isn't it? >> this really is tragic. they have two little kids, a little girl and boy left behind. it's painful to see him talking like that, but what's happened is that those organizations have now been given oxygen. after this first happened britain came out and thanked the president for the publicity. they said they're pleased. the videos are giving them exposure they haven't had. david duke came out and said this is why we love president trump. he speaks out about all the attacks against white people no one will talk about. those are the two people who benefitted. david duke and britain first. is that what we want to achieve? >> it's like charlottesville. in this case you have the british kn british neo fascists.

i want to say one thing about this. you think about both in britain you think about american servicemen around the world. you think about american muslims in this country. when jonathan swan made the point when trump retweeted the videos, it was taking us out of the realm about being tough about islamic terrorism or extreme vetting or any policy dispute. all three of these videos were just designed to incite hatred toward a religious group, and by being that, trump is inciting hatred and putting people at risk, lives at risk in britain, american servicemen, a muslim americans in this country, his fundamental job is to keep americans safe. that's the mufundamental thing president is supposed to do. by doing this, he made people less safe for no purpose. >> and we can't effect the

measure this has on our cooperation from muslim nations when you have the president of the united states exporting this type of domestic problem that we have, by the way, according to fbi statistics, hate crimes on the rise in the situation. this becomes a global phenomenon when you show the president's tweets have this. >> when people who do things without any rep ur cushions, a socio-path. >> what about our muslim brothers and sisters here in america? muslim americans whose children are going to school this morning? what looks are they getting from classmates? what pressure -- >> is this really who we are? -- >> do these children feel? they're not muslim americans. you know what they are in they're americans, and they have a president who is actually encouraging hatred against other americans. >> andrea mitchel, thank you very much.

>> thank you all. >> and as we go to break, here's press secretary sarah huckabee sanders digging in on this controversy yesterday at the press briefing. >> look, i think what he's done is elevate the conversation to talk about a real issue and a real threat. that's extreme violence and extreme terrorism. something we know to be very real and something the president feels strongly about talking about and bringing up and making sure it's an issue every single day, that we're look agent the best ways to protect americans. >> did the president when he retweeted know who the woman was? >> yobi don't believe so, but i believe he knew the issues and that's what we have a real threat of extreme violence and terrorism not just in this country but across the globe particularly in europe and that was the point he was making, and i don't have much to add beyond that. we all want restful sleep. that's why nature's bounty melatonin is made to help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer.

so you'll be ready for whatever tomorrow brings. because mom's love is unconditional. even at 6am. nature's bounty melatonin. we're all better off healthy. more people shop online for the holidays than ever before. and the united states postal service delivers more of those purchases to homes than anyone else in the country. because we know, even the smallest things are sometimes the biggest.

you can do it. we can do this. at fidelity, our online planning tools are clear and straightforward so you can plan for retirement while saving for the things you want to do today. -whoo! ( ♪ ) ♪ one is the only number

♪ that you'll ever need ♪ staying ahead isn't about waiting for a chance. ♪ because one is... it's about the one bold choice you make that moves you forward. ♪ ...that you ever need the one and only cadillac escalade. come in for our season's best offers and drive out with the perfect 2017 cadillac escalade for you. get this low mileage lease from around $899 per month. ( ♪ )

who can you trust most not to show you their penis in a professional setting? is it the candidate who doesn't have a penis? i'd say so. i will not sexually harass my

staff, and i won't tolerate in your workplace. i won't work around in a half open bathrobe, and i'll continue to satake all sex crimes serio s seriously. >> that's one way to draw distinction against your opponent. a person in michigan is going there against an opponent. >> there's a lot of danger in that. >> i thought that was really, actually -- >> what's the danger, donny? we're drawing gender lines and all men are bad and evil and the penis is bad and the vagina is good. that's a dangerous place to be. >> i think everybody knows it's a joke. >> as you get older, you lose your filter. okay. "morning joe" is coming right back. i no longer live with

the uncertainties of hep c. wondering, what if? i let go of all those feelings. because i am cured with harvoni. harvoni is a revolutionary treatment for the most common type of chronic hepatitis c. it's been prescribed to more than a quarter million people. and is proven to cure up to 99% of patients who have had no prior treatment with 12 weeks. certain patients can be cured with just 8 weeks of harvoni. before starting harvoni, your doctor will test to see if you've ever had hepatitis b, which may flare up and cause serious liver problems during and after harvoni treatment. tell your doctor if you've ever had hepatitis b, a liver transplant, other liver or kidney problems, hiv or any other medical conditions and about all the medicines you take

including herbal supplements. taking amiodarone with harvoni can cause a serious slowing of your heart rate. common side effects of harvoni include tiredness, headache and weakness. ready to let go of hep c? ask your hep c specialist about harvoni. we make sure you're in the loop at every step from the moment you decide to move your money to the instant your new retirement account is funded. because when you know where you stand, things are just clearer. -♪ a little bit o' soul, yeah because when you know where you stand, was supposed to be a wake reup call for our government?sh people all across the country lost their savings, their pensions and their jobs. i'm tom steyer and it turned out that the system that had benefited people like me who are well off, was, in fact, stacked against everyone else.

it's why i left my investment firm and resolved to use my savings for the public good. but here we are nine years later and this president and the republican congress are making a bad situation even worse. they won't tell you that their so called "tax reform" plan is really for the wealthy and big corporations, while hurting the middle class. it blows up the deficit and that means fewer investments in education, health care and job creation. it's up to all of us to stand up to this president. not just for impeachable offenses, but also to demand a country where everyone has a real chance to succeed. join us. your voice matters. swho live within five miles of custyour business?-54, like these two... and that guy. or maybe you want to reach women, ages 18 to 34, who are interested in fitness... namaste. whichever audience you're looking for, we'll find them

we're the finders. we work here at comcast spotlight, and we have the best tools for getting your advertising message out there. anywhere, any way your audience watches. consider them found. . joins us now, staff editor and writer for "the new york times" opinion beige berry

weiss. thanks for being on this morning. >> thank you. >> interesting what you told us. >> about the apology? >> yeah. >> we're seeing so publicly these really famous people having this public reckoning. one thing that's amazing about many me too moment is that conversation, that reckoning is happening in private and subtle ways. literally last night i got a message from someone who i went on a date with two years ago begging for my forgiveness for the han house way he acted. this is someone i called the next day and chewed out and said you can never act that way again. he still felt the need to reach out to me. >> that's so interesting and a curious thought of that happening across the board with people who have a conscience. >> so many good men came to me and said i'm revisiting something that happened to me 20 years ago, 30 years ago, 40

years ago. do you think i should reach out and apologize? would it bring up bad memories? i do not think this would happen without this moment. >> you've also written about this issue. it's been fascinating. it's par of the conversation i've been trying to have on this show, but a hard conversation to have because it's black and white -- on some levels it's black and white, on many levels it's black and white, but there's a lot of gray about what happens in the workplace or anywhere else, that it's hard to talk about about getting people really mad, but you give it an attempt. the limits of believe all women, you say due process is better than mob rule. i believe that the believe all women vision of feminism unintentionally fetishizes women. women are no longer human and and flaws, they are truth personified, above reproach. i believe it's con sending to

believe women and their claims can't stand up to interrogation and handle skepticism. i believe facts serve feminists far better than faith. that due process is better than mob rule. i totally understand exactly what you're saying and completely agree with it. do you understand, though, this is a very hard time to be talking about that? >> yes, i saw my reaction to the piece. >> what was the reaction? >> a lot of the reaction was thank you for breathing some sanity into this debate, but the other reaction that i saw from a lot of feminists my age is you're promoting rape culture, you are facilitating the backlash against this moment. frankly, i just -- i don't agree with that. i think revolutions, as we know from history, often don't know their limits and it's very, very important to maintain a kind of sobriety and skepticism, especially when the moment is so hot. if it means i'm taking a little heat for it, so be it.

>> you said especially younger -- it does seem to be generational. >> it is. >> mika has come on here several times and gone there on a lot of things and expected -- no, people have all been supportive saying thank you for talking about the shades of gray. you issue a warning to everybody after you say i believe in due process more than mob rule. you're saying so many women executives we're hearing say which is, we're going to overreach and the duke lacrosse case and the virginia rolling stone story is going to happen, and when it does, the same thing that's happened on college campuses, the backlash -- >> exactly. >> -- is going to happen here. somebody that reported the duke lacrosse case as fact for a month and then we reported the rolling stone rape case, horrified, probably for a month. that's exactly what happened. >> i agree.

i think if we go to a place which i sort of see often, especially among millennial feminists of this burn it all down, all men must die quality which gets to what donny was saying before the break, i think there's a real danger in that. i think right now we're on the righteousness side of the equation, but i'm afraid we'll get to the vindictiveness. >> there will be a story that is unverified or turns out to be bogus, and that delegitimizes victims out there. this may have already happened with this woman on capitol hill that was going to charge that a congressman had harassed her. we found out she's affiliated with a known conspiracy theorist. >> did she have an attorney? >> i'm not sure. i haven't spoken to her. at last minute bagged on the news conference. >> there's another mega trend that's so important challenging

against this, every workplace is making workplaces more social, putting beds in there. >> do you think what they did the project va of saying we are to try to test these cases, do you think that was helpful? >> i thought it was incredible, an example of women's claims should be scrutinized. my fear is, say this woman in the heat of the moment when somebody is disturbed about true allegations about roy moore, imagine if she would have taken that claim to social media? i would have undermined all the other women with claims. >> bari weiss, thank you very much. great piece. >> thank you. >> you can add at least two more republican senators to the list of people the president urged to end the russia probe. we'll lay out what appears to be a pattern.

plus senator angus king joins us as the republican tax bill hits a snag in the senate. "morning joe" is coming right back.

you can't predict the market. but through good times and bad... ...at t. rowe price... ...we've helped our investors stay confident for over 75 years. call us or your advisor. t. rowe price. invest with confidence.

we make sure you're in the loop at every step from the moment you decide to move your money to the instant your new retirement account is funded. because when you know where you stand, things are just clearer. -♪ a little bit o' soul, yeah because when you know where you stand, you give us comfort. and we give you bare feet, backsweat, and gordo's... everything. i love you, but sometimes you stink. soft surfaces trap odors. febreze fabric refresher cleans them away for good. because the things you love the most can stink.

and plug in febreze to keep your whole room fresh for up to 45 days. breathe happy with febreze. good morning. it's friday, december 1st, welcome to "morning joe." with us national affairs analyst for msnbc news, john heilemann. washington anchor for bbc katty

kay and white house reporter heidi pri heidi perez bill la. >> did you guys see the christmas tree lighting last night. >> the won in d.c. everyone showed up to? >> talk about that. beautiful balmy evening on d.c. no excuse not to get outside, right? >> yeah. >> you go to the christmas tree lighting, and i've never seen it this empty. >> oh, my god. >> low turnout. >> one we know is not going to be happy with that turnout. >> the biggest turnout at a christmas tree lighting in history. never had as many people -- >> so backed up that all of d.c. comes to a halt. >> yesterday the streets were empty. >> look at this picture. there were people that did side by side comparisons between last

year and this year. my gosh, last year it was a mob scene. it shuts washington don't. you can't move anywhere around the location. >> a nice, warm, mild evening. >> no reason. i was out walking the dogs. >> nobody showed up. >> that looks like the biggest crowd i've ever seen. >> a picture says a thousand words. a thousand empty seats at least. that's a low turnout. that would be a very small crowd. and there's no -- actually there's no dispute. >> it's so sad. >> that's going to be like the crowd at donny's birthday party tonight. >> there will be a dispute brewing from the press briefing. >> that would be so fun if he asked his press secretary to argue this. she would. >> you count social media and satellite tv, more people show that than any other in history. >> it's amazing actually, a sign

of disgust. >> maybe people were just watching a basketball game. >> no, they didn't want to see the president. they're disgusted with him. >> maybe some people did not see the second season of "stranger things." so maybe everybody in watching was staying in to watch that. >> nope. >> maybe they're home waiting for the second season of "mind hunter," when is it coming out? if they drop it by surprise drop, i want to be in front of the tv. >> alex said a minute ago that we had beaten the horse already to death. >> i'm dead serious. i think people are really disgusting. here is the news this morning. in separate private conversations this past summer, president trump urged members of the senate intelligence committee to end their probe into russian interference in the 2016 election. that's what the committee -- >> hold on. i'm confused. john heilemann, i know that he

told the fbi -- we heard he was pressuring them to stop it. >> yep. that caused some controversy. >> and i understand -- i'm confused, though. so he did this not only to comey and then bragged about ending it to lester holt and sarah huckabee sanders was real proud of the fact that her boss did it. but he did this with the senate investigation, too? there's a constitutional separation of power, john. >> there is. >> doesn't he know that? >> no. >> you would think. the crazier thing about it -- not to belabor the obvious, he had gotten in a lot of trouble with what he did with jim comey to the point a special prosecuted was appointed. one of the things that was being looked into was obstruction of justice. so while this special prosecutor

is engaged in his investigation, he's at the same time doing the same thing again now on capitol hill. >> for children who are at home saying one day i'd like to grow up and be a special prosecutor, what they look at is, they look at evidence of pat terchs terns obstruction -- for instance, when donald trump got everybody together on air force one to lie about the russia meeting. >> you mean to write up the letter himself? >> a special prosecutor, katty, will look at that and say in looking at the intent, why is the president of the united states putting out a statement that is a bald face lie to "the new york times." it's the same case here with the investigation of the senate. you're doing it again. any sane, rational human being with all their mental faculties would say, wait a second, i just got a special prosecutor for trying to kill this over here at

the justice department. i better not do this to the united states senate. but he did. >> because there's this consistent belief from donald trump that he can bend reality to his will. so i can make this what i want it to be, i can go to the senate and make this go away. even if that flies in the face of all logic and flies in the face of what's happened because i had a special prosecuted accounted, i'm going to try again. >> because, mika, he has people around him that actually justify him bending the truth and lying -- when you have a spokesperson that says it doesn't matter if the fascist videos coming out of britain are actually factual or not, the truth does not matter which is -- by the way, that's official policy now from the white house, from the spokesperson of the white house, that truth does not matter. >> said it themselves in their

own words. >> wouldn't comment. the spokesperson has zero credibility. >> she said he was elevating the conversation, elevating the issue. >> i actually think she's not a stupid person. i think she actually might be a smart person. so, therefore, what she's doing is even more wrong. does that make sense? >> katty, also, just so we know about these videos again, piers morgan who has been kinder to donald trump than most people -- >> nigel farage has been consistently supportive again came out yesterday and said this is not okay. >> especially, if you look, piers morgan, it's daily. you don't understand what you are doing. you don't understand the impact this is having over here, mr.

president. these are neo fascists that donald trump is embracing, right? >> yeah, they're way outside the norms of political spectrum. these are people who have been indicted on charges of hate crimes against muslims. retweeting these videos which have been unsubstantiated and deliberately fostering anti muslim feeling has been condemned across the political spectrum in the uk, from the left and from the right. i have never in 20 years of covering american politics seen a british prime minister in public on camera deliberately criticizing an american president in the way that theresa may did. never happened. >> one other time, there's one other time when prime minister in "love actually" said i fear

that this relationship is a bad relationship. >> actually sick. >> the thing is it actually sets back all the good work that's been done on intelligence sharing that we need all of us every single day to keep us safe. this does not help. you have police forces in the uk saying this doesn't help. all this does is help the fascists and terrorists. that's all. >> does this help theresa may domestically to stand up to mr. trump? >> she probably should have done it beforehand. i think the question is whether the state visit is revoked. the big question now is, okay, you've criticized her, but you're still going to invite him for a state visit to the uk after he's done this? >> that crowd for the christmas tree lighting, the small one, that's not going to be like the crowd of protesters when donald trump shows up in london. that's going to be the million man march, trafalgar square.

>> i'm all for carrying on the business of a country, and even after tiananmen square i didn't like that bush sent scowcroft over to china, but i understood. in this case where donald trump is promoting fascists, neo fascists in great britain, don't you think the british should cancel this or postpone this state visit and say, we're sorry, mr. president, not now and bluntly not until you come out and criticize these neo fascists. >> i don't see how from their own domestic standpoint, domestic politics and credibility, how they can possibly have donald trump for a state visit at this point. there's a second visit that's on the table which is whether he goes for a more informal visit. the u.s. embassy is about to move across the river and open early next year. he might go and do that. obviously he can go if he wants to. but then i think you're in

protest land, and you're going to have enormous pushback from the population over that. >> also the aspect of the security of u.s. personnel overseas in embassies. because what we know is when we have these incidents they then become a target as well for people who are angry when there's a backlash and americans are perceived as being anti muslim. >> not wanted. not good turnout. i would be very careful. i'm dead serious. >> calls for trump to be charged with race crime after vial tweets. >> the republican chairman of the senate intel committee -- back to the first story. it's hard to keep track of the disgrace. richard burr told "the new york times," quote, it was something along the lines of i hope you can conclude this as quickly as possible. burr said he replied it would

end when the committee finished its interviews. burr said he did not feel pressured by trump's appeal, portraying it as the action of someone who has, quote, never been in government. lawmakers and aides said trump told senate majority leader mitch mcconnell -- >> can i stop there for a second? i know richard burr. richard burr, heidi, i believe, i believe he has been acting honorably in a bipartisan way with mark warner. he's been i think over the past year one of the best of the republicans actually keeping their head down and doing their work. but when he says -- it reminds me of somebody who had not been in government before, that's the same way as saying, you know what, he's just ignorant. he doesn't know what he's doing. >> that was the same thing when the intel chiefs as well came before congress, right? well, i didn't feel pressured, but these things happened. what we're seeing here is a portrait of multiple pressure

points now, because it wasn't even just the head of the intel committees. he got multiple members of that committee, other members of congress to then try and pressure burr, and there was a pattern here. the words that were used, time to move on. you see a pattern where he's also cornering people on the plane. blunt was cornered on the plane. to me one of the most telling parts of that article was that in mitch mcconnell's words, you could see through these interactions that this president was not able to separate out the fact that russia needed to be punished for this interference from the fact that his campaign was under investigation for collusion. he couldn't separate the two, and that's why you see this almost bitterness by this president every time the issue of russia comes up and he had to even sign those sanctions into effect. >> john, he was yelling -- wasn't there like a shouting match on the phone with mcconnell? >> there was. there was certainly that. but i want to go back to your

point about burr. put aside his excuse for why trump did this. >> that he was ignorant. >> he's on the record on this story talking about the fact that this happened. the most extraordinary thing about the piece is the number of republicans on the record with "the new york times" saying the president was trying to shut down our inquiry. >> no matter what they felt about the words, the president used the words let's move this along. >> that's the chairman of the senate intel committee acknowledging -- he can characterize it or frame it however he wants. he's on the record in "the new york times" saying this. it's an amazing thing. >> this is one of the moments where you have to stop and just put context to things. donald trump has so lowered the bar on every level, whether you're talking about culturally, politically. but here legally. i can only use my experience. if i were being investigated by someone in the house, the house

ethics committee -- never happened, but in the house ethics committee and i said to my chief of staff, i'm going to talk to so and so over on the house floor, the blood would have drained from his face and he would have said you can't do that. that's obstruction of justice. anybody on the hill knows you don't do that. that is grossly just not proper, improper. >> this is how donald trump has always rolled. he doesn't care what the rules are. he will push and pull and use every means, politically connected lawyers to get done what he needs to get done. he has not learned when you come to washington there's a different set of rules. he thinks he's still at new york where you can push and pull and elbow people. >> call the press and pretend you're someone else. >> call the press and pre tend

you're someone else and the rest of it. >> on the screen these are the patterns, february 14, comey asked to let the flynn investigation go. flynn now obviously a main target. march 22nd, trul asked coats to pressure comey. march 30th, trump asked if comey would lift the cloud. may 11th trump fired comey and then, of course, bragged about firing comey to the russians. this summer trump asked senators to end the probe. still ahead on "morning joe," jeff sessions takes a pass on what could be the critical question when it comes to president trump and suggestions of obstruction. the attorney general may not be playing ball with congress, but that's not -- probably not going to fly with bob mueller. we'll go through that next on "morning joe."

if yor crohn's symptoms are holding you back, and your current treatment hasn't worked well enough, it may be time for a change. ask your doctor about entyvio, the only biologic developed and approved just for uc and crohn's. entyvio works at the site of inflammation in the gi tract and is clinically proven to help many patients achieve both symptom relief and remission.

infusion and serious allergic reactions can happen during or after treatment. entyvio may increase risk of infection, which can be serious. pml, a rare, serious, potentially fatal brain infection caused by a virus may be possible. this condition has not been reported with entyvio. tell your doctor if you have an infection, experience frequent infections or have flu-like symptoms or sores. liver problems can occur with entyvio. if your uc or crohn's treatment isn't working for you, ask your gastroenterologist about entyvio. entyvio. relief and remission within reach. it's an emotional connection i focus on techniques because it's really the techniques that are the most important part of any recipe. salt enhances, acid enhances, pepper, changes flavor. pan roasting is a technique to give you almost pudding like, zucchini. every technique that i'm sharing with you is something that will last you a lifetime. i'm thomas keller and this is my masterclass.

what if we could keep more amof what we earn?d. trillions of dollars going back to taxpayers. who could possibly be against that? well, the national debt is $20 trillion. as we keep adding to it, guess who pays the bill? him. and her. and her. congress, we should grow the economy. not the debt. ♪

welcome back to "morning joe." several republicans on the

record about president trump's direct appeals to have them wrap up the russia investigations. jeff sessions, however, isn't saying nearly as much. here is what ranking democratic on the intel committee adam schiff said yesterday after the attorney general testified in a closed section. >> i do want to express my concern over his refusal to respond to what i think is a very important question. i asked the attorney general whether he was ever asked by the president to take any action that he felt would hinder the russia investigation, and he declined to answer the question. there is no privilege basis to decline to answer a question like that. if the president did not instruct him to take an action that would hipder the investigation, he should say so. if the president did instruct him to hinder the investigation in any way, in my view that would be a potentially criminal act and certainly not covered by

any privilege. it was disturbing to me that the attorney general would not answer the question as to whether he was ever instructed by the president to hipder the russia in investigation in any way. >> a justice department official confirmed to nbc news that sessions declined to answer questions about his conversations with the president. quote, but he also said the same thing he has said before, that he has never been directed to do anything illegal or improper, period. >> or that he's ever met russians. john heilemann, you brought up mike rogers also. >> at the same time, and the list of reported instances where trump tried to pressure someone to end the probe, we mentioned dan coats. it's reported mike rogers, the head of the nsa received the same types of phone calls from trump. to go to your earlier point about what would happen if you

tried to engage with the ethics committee, take it to the presidential level. imagine a parallel circumstance in which barack obama did what donald trump is now accused of doing. imagine what would have happened to george w. bush, bill clinton, if any of those people had done what trump is reported to have done in "the new york times," there would be calls for impeachment that day, that day. >> i remember the clinton white house, i said it before, in 1993, got somebody from the fbi over to help him work on a statement to end the travel-gate investigation. my god, a nuclear cloud rose over hc-5 among the republican caucus. i'm wondering, though, is there any chance that, if you have obviously mueller investigating obstruction of justice, so if he had interviewed -- i'm speculating. i know nothing here, of course. that's always a safe assumption

to make. if he's investigating obstruction of justice, then obviously he knew about these calls. if he called sessions in and asked him did the president ever ask you to drop this, could sessions have not answered that question but caused it as an active part of the obstruction of justice case against donald trump? i don't know. >> it's hard to see how he couldn't answer that. we don't even know under what privilege he's evoking to not answer it in front of congress. so at what point is he -- to your point, unable to use that privilege, especially with mueller. also, the president, too, in terms of obstruction of justice, at what point is it not good enough for him to say i didn't know any better. these things happened. they establish a pattern. if you look at how mueller

conducted previous investigations, for example, with the enron investigations, he went in waves. the first wave with enron was stringing these guys up on obstruction of justice. at what point do you reach a critical mass of multiple pressure points where you can no longer say he didn't know any better. >> steve, my question specifically is, could sessions not answering be telling us something about mueller's investigation? again, i have no information. if i'm mueller and you're the attorney general and you're sessions and i bring you in, i said, listen, it's obviously he's called senators, he's done this, done that. did he ever ask you specifically to derail this? let's say sessions said he did. mueller might say to him, okay, thank you. if you can just keep that under wraps, please don't tell anybody. >> you think mueller may have already called sessions in and had this conversation with him, is that what you're saying? >> it's possible.

i'm trying to figure out -- there's no good reason for jeff sessions not to answer the question until mueller told him not to go there. i said good reason. there's a slimy reason not to answer the question which is he's covering up for donald trump. >> or to be told the truth, he had a choice of telling the truth. if he told the truth, he'd be indicting trump, not legally -- >> implicating him. >> he doesn't want to perjure himself. he'll event, i think sessions will end up in front of a grand jury on this question. mueller will eventually -- >> i think sessions is too smart to perjure himself. therefore, i think the fact that he didn't answer the question means there's something there he didn't want to say that would make trump look bad or cause trump legal jeopardy. i think at some point whether mueller has already found out the answer to that question or not, he will find out the answer to that question when he interviews sessions. >> coming up, how do you sum up the tax debate on capitol hill?

according to senator angus king, calling it a circus would be an insult to circuses. the independent senator explains what he means next on "morning joe." ♪ it's a lot easier to make decisions when you know what comes next. if you move your old 401(k) to a fidelity ira, we make sure you're in the loop at every step from the moment you decide to move your money to the instant your new retirement account is funded. ♪ oh and at fidelity, you'll see how all your investments are working together. because when you know where you stand, things are just clearer. ♪ just remember what i said about a little bit o' soul ♪

things are just clearer. bp is taking safety to new heights. using drones and robots offshore so engineers can stop potential problems before they start. because safety is never being satisfied and always working to be better.

jimmy's gotten used to his whole yup, he's gone noseblind. odors. he thinks it smells fine, but his mom smells this... luckily for all your hard-to-wash fabrics... ...there's febreze fabric refresher. febreze doesn't just mask, it eliminates odors you've... ...gone noseblind to. and try febreze unstopables for fabric. with up to twice the fresh scent power, you'll want to try it... ...again and again and maybe just one more time. indulge in irresistible freshness. febreze unstopables. breathe happy. [burke] abstract accident. seen ♪ video-it. covered it.c we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪

we are the driven... the dedicated... the overachievers. we know our best investment is in ourselves. we don't take no for an answer. we fight for what we want. even for the things that were once a given. going to college... buying a home... and not being in debt for it for the rest of our lives. but we're only as strong as our community. who inspires and pushes us to go further than we could ever go alone. sofi. get there sooner.

a member of the intelligence armed services committee, senator angus king of maine. so great to have you here. we've been complaining about no regular order here like i think most americans who want congress to work right. now we're finding out republicans are getting angry at bob corker because he may call another meeting because he's concerned about additional 400, 500 billion thrown on to the national debt. what's happening there? >> well, first let me put it in context, joe. this may be one of the most important votes any of us ever take. we're talking about something that's going to affect every american, every american business, the entire economy for decades, probably 20 or 30 years. so you'd think in that situation that the care that went into creating the proposal and the bill would be extra good.

instead, it's the worst ever. i've never heard of or seen anything like this. on this huge bill, huge impact, do you know how many hearings we've had on the bill? zero. nothing, nada, sill ch. talking about voting on it today, nobody knows what the bill is. as of now, nobody can tell you what's in the bill. it's goings to be voted on sometime today. it's absolutely ridiculous. >> unbelievable. every bit of reckless as the way they try to reorder one-sixth of the economy with health care. >> senator, heidi przybilla. we do know the general outlines of it. what's if this version blows up. corker can't get his trigger, we know that's not going to happen because of parliamentary rules. like we saw with the obamacare repeal, it doesn't go away, it keeps coming back in different iterations. >> here is the best case that it does blow up, that it stops if

they can't get the votes. and then what might happen is what happened with the health care bill last summer. later on in august we started working on a bipartisan bill with lamar alexander and patty murray and myself and a bunch of others and came up with a bipartisan bill sponsored by 24, 25 senators, and that's the way it ought to be done. and that's the way it could be done. i know there are at least a dozen, probably more like 20 or 25 democratic senators in the caucus who want to do tax reform, but they want to do it in a targeted way that will, in fact, stimulate economic growth and not slant so much toward the wealthy and do it in a way that everybody understands the implications. this is really complicated stuff, and that's why you have to have hearings, so people can come in from the outside experts and say if you do this, it's going to have this effect. we're not looking before we leap off a 30-year cliff. i said yesterday on the floor

the bangor city council wouldn't amend the leash law using this process. >> senator, donny deutsch. i'm missing something here. the republicans seem to feel that passing this bill is going to save the party and put them on the right track, yet every study shows two-thirds of the benefits go to the wealthy, it's a redistribution of wealth. if i was running democrats' campaign in 2018, i couldn't wait to run against this. i'm curious why they see the politics so in their favor here? >> i don't understand that either. i said to my republican colleagues and said if i were a republican senator, i would be very afraid of voting for this bill because there are so many traps in it. there are things in it that are going to come out over the next several weeks and several months. i thought it was very instructive in the house, when the bill passed the house, my understanding is the republicans, as the vote came in, the republicans started to applaud it and so did the democrats because they saw this as an albatross for 2018. like i say, it's unbelievably

complicated. i have a new rule, by the way. this is king's rule. the faster a bill goes through, the worse it is, and that's what's going on here. as people learn -- that's one of the reasons i predict there will be a vote today, because the longer the days go on, more people learn how really terrible this bill is. of course, the real blow was yesterday when the sort of neutral umpire that looks at economic growth came out and said this thing would create .8% of additional gdp in ten years. you know, a couple good summers can give us .8 good gdp. it kicks a trillion dollar hole in the deficit. >> katty. >> senator, your democratic colleagues did a pretty masterful job around health care reform in killing attempts to

repeal and replace obamacare. they've tried some outreach with tax reform. the phones aren't as jammed as they were over health care. why is this not resonating with the public? >> i think two reasons, i checked with my office pretty much every day, running about 50-1 against this bill. but i think the difference is time. the health care bill percolated for three or four months, and the pressure built up as people came to understand it better. that's one of the reasons this is going so fast. they don't want to slow it down because the longer it goes, the more people will realize what the problems are, and it will become even harder. there's no deadline here. everybody is acting like there's a christmas deadline or the new year. there is no deadline for this. nothing happens if you do it in january instead of december. i think the moat vagts is, as i

told one of my colleagues last night, the longer this goes, the more people realize it just doesn't make sense, it doesn't hold together as a con heernt pie co-heerpt piece of tax policy. the difference between this and health care is i think the passage of time. >> senator, john heilemann, i want to take you to a different topic. you're on the intel committee in the upper chamber. we have a report in "the new york times" today that says president trump over the summer was pressuring the chairman of your committee, as well as putting pressure or at least making some requests of leader mcconnell and others on the committee to shut down the investigation into russia's activities in the 2016 election. first of all, do you know anything directly about the president trying to exert that kind of influence. secondly, if the times report is true, does that not look to you like another potential instance where the president is trying to obstruct justice? >> well, i think there's bad

news and good news about that. number one, i never got in one of those calls. so i have no direct knowledge. the bad news is the president shouldn't have done this. i think it's incredibly inappropriate. it would be like calling up a jury in the middle of a trial or close to that. it just should president have been done. the good news is, as near as i can tell, richard burr and the other folks on the committee who got those calls didn't pay much attention to them. i can't discern any change in the direction or momentum of the investigation after these calls came through. and i know richard burr pretty well. i think he just moved on, and we're still interviewing witnesses, reviewing documents and proceeding with our investigation. yeah, it was inappropriate to make those calls. again, it adds to the impression, if this is a guy who is as innocent as he say, why is he trying to shut down investigations? he ought to be giving all the

information, all the cooperation saying, yeah, we're innocent here and we're going to be vindicated. instead, you get phone calls saying let's get it over with. >> all right, thank you so much senator angus king. as always, we greatly appreciate you being with us. >> yes, sir. coming up, we'll be talking more about the republican tax plan with business insider josh bar barrow in his new piece titled "something very stupid is happening in the senate right now." indeed it is. we'll talk to josh when we return.

us. it's what this country is made of. but right now, our bond is fraying. how do we get back to "us"? the y fills the gaps. and bridges our divides. donate to your local y today. because where there's a y, there's an us. you or joints. something for your heart... but do you take something for your brain. with an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is the number one selling brain-health supplement in drug stores nationwide. prevagen. the name to remember.

the markets change... at t. rowe price... our disciplined approach remains. global markets may be uncertain... but you can feel confident in our investment experience around the world. call us or your advisor... t. rowe price. invest with confidence.

from our family to yours... may all your wishes come true this holiday season. our president, prpt and his wife maldavia took part in the annual christmas tree lighting. here we go. >> eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.

[ cheers and applause ] >> that is not festive at all. >> you don't know if that was real or not, do you? >> which might be why there was so few people there. coming up next, what did mike pompeo state department look any different from the rex tillerson state department. as long as donald trump is still president, we'll be talking about the state department offici official. keep it right here on "morning joe."

we're on a mission to show drip coffee drinkers, it's time to wake up to keurig. wakey! wakey! rise and shine! oh my gosh! how are you? well watch this.

i pop that in there. press brew. that's it. so rich. i love it. that's why you should be a keurig man! full-bodied. are you sure you're describing the coffee and not me? somesend you and your family overwhelrunning. y can... full-bodied. introducing febreze one for fabric and air. no aerosols. no dyes. no heavy perfumes. it cleans away odors for a pure light freshness... so you can spray and stay. febreze one, breathe happy.

as we've said many times before when it comes to questions like this of senior staff and cabinet secretaries, when the president loses confidence in somebody, they'll no longer be here. >> i think his future right here is to continue working hard as the secretary of state, continue working with the president to carry out his agenda. >> with us, former undersecretary of state for public diplomacy rick stiengel and josh barro. going off sarah huckabee sanders, it looks like rex tillerson, if you look at the pattern over the last 11 month, he's going to be shown the door soon. >> by the way, i hate these stories that journalists participate in, willing

executioner ins of the white house, flying up a strategy up a flagpole. i don't like that. the other thing, joe -- i've been listening to you all morning -- we'll look back at the rex tillerson as the golden age of moderation in the trump administration. >> oh, dear lord. >> that's what's going to happen. nobody who leaves is going to be replaced by a better, more moderate actor. pompey poe is much more of a hard liner, the state department is not going to welcome that. maybe he won't be charged with trying to deconstruct the state department, the hard line policy of iran, syria, all over the pla place. >> what people may not know is rex tillerson is extraordinary close with secretary of defense james mattis. they're on the phone every day, meet once a week. they're in coordination. and in coordination to try to moderate some of the more extreme -- >> that is a good thing, and we will look back on that as something that we will miss.

rex is singing, you're going to miss me when i'm gone. we're not quite there yet. that's what's going to happen. >> josh, you wrote about something stupid happening in the senate. we talked about this already, that you have senators actually attacking bob corker because he might ask for a meeting tomorrow. >> right. >> involving $50 billi0 billion debt. >> this report came out that it would grow the debt. it was unsurprising. james langford from oklahoma had a statement, he was confused why there was so much reaction to the report because it said what everyone thought it would said. it said bob corker was surprised to learn the bill was very far from being deficit neutral. they thought they were close to a bill because they thought they found some way to placate them. now i think what's going to happen, the thing he's asking for is so large, basically a huge reduction in the size of the tax cut, they'll have to

look to see if they can pass a bill -- >> you think they're going to try to run over him? >> yes, they need 50. they have 52 members. the problem is they have to give everyone else exactly what they want. steve danes, senator from the . they've further increased this particular tax break for a certain kind of business, pass-through businesses. the problem is, you know, they're giving him what he wants. they're giving ron johnson what he wants. then the bill will go to conference and it's going to have to come back presumably with everything those senators want still in it or otherwise there's risk they won't pass the conference report. >> how does this reconcile the fact the mechanism which they're passing this, long term, it's deficit neutral? when it looks like the final compromise is pile a whole bunch of extra, you know, bells and whistles on to this which would up that number. >> it only has to be deficit neutral after the ten-year budget window. that's a gimmick and republicans will tell you it's a gimmick. republicans say eventually it's

a tax increase, no, we'll come back and extend it later. about things that are more expensive. we haven't learned yet within the window to make it fit within the $1.5 trillion limit. so that could be another stumbling block. something that takes a tax break away from someone. >> what a shock, shock, shock. ron johnson, who is a no. >> now a yes. >> has found his way to yes. as if anybody ever doubted it. >> all of those deficit hawks who had such problems just a few years ago with anything that was going to increase the american debt. >> oh, yeah. >> now rolling over. even given this new scoring. you said this is -- tillerson was the age of moderation and we were -- you might regret when he's gone. the problem is if a secretary of state doesn't have the trust and support of the principle, he loses clout around the world. and maybe it's only a hard line secretary of state that's ever going to have donald trump -- >> i mean, catty, i don't have

to tell you this, has secretaries of state and the problems always seen eye to eye? since thomas jefferson was secretary of state. we even go back -- look at the hillary clinton e-mails. why isn't the president responding to me? why aren't i included in meetings? there's always this junction. i think it's absolutely -- >> it's not in public -- this time it has been. >> it's dangerous in this case to have a president trump with the secretary of state who sees the world the same way he does. there's no checks and balances in the administration. >> if he doesn't, he's going to be absent. you can't stay in this administration in that kind of a position if you're not prepared to toe the party line. >> i don't know if that's true. i don't know how much went on the with the alleged remark tillerson made about trump being the "m" word, all of those things. >> he certainly hasn't denied it. >> the superficiality of the way the president makes judgments is the problem. >> yeah. >> josh, a lot of people talking

about the president's well being over the past 72 hours. >> yeah. >> it's been quite a chaotic week. how do we sum up exactly what we've seen really starting with the navajo event. >> yes. >> and moving forward. even sort of checking us here on set. >> -- from "the times" who knows the president almost better than anybody in washington right now thinks his behavior is different and that something is different with him. i find it hard to tell, you know, because he's always kind of crazy. the stream of crazy stuff coming on twitter is maybe higher than usual this week but it's hard to see through the noise. you this the stuff going on with flynn and the talk that certainly looks like there's some negotiation about a plea agreement. so that would seem like something that would make sense to be making the president nervous and more inclined to lash out. >> that certainly seems to be a

very good explanation. a bombshell's probably coming. josh, thank you so much for being with us. we greatly appreciate it. msnbc is going to have live coverage as the senate plans a critical vote on tax reform. rick if you could stay with us, we greatly appreciate it. why do you do it? it's not just a pay check, you actually like what you do. even love it. and today, you can do things you never could before. ♪ ♪ you're developing ai applications on the cloud. finding insights hidden in decades of medical documents. and securing millions of iot sensors. so get back to it. and do the best work of your life. ♪ ♪

the updates you made to your plan strengthened your retirement score. so, that goal you've been saving for, you can do it. we can do this? we can do this. at fidelity, our online planning tools

are clear and straightforward so you can plan for retirement while saving for the things you want to do today. nana, let's do this! aye aye, captain! ♪ and as you go through life -whoo! -♪ tryin' to reach your goal but the fact that we work together does not mean that we're afraid to say when we think the united states have got it wrong and to be very clear and i'm very clear that retweeting from britain first was the wrong thing to do. >> we got what we came for and our special relationship is still very special. >> prime minister -- >> i love that word relationship. covers all manner of sins, doesn't it. i fear that this has become a bad relationship. a relationship based on the president taking exactly what he

wants and casually ignoring all those things that really matter to britain. we may be a small country but we're a great one too. country of shakespeare, churchill, the beatle, sean connery, harry potter. david beckham's right foot. david beckham's left foot. a friend who bullies us is no longer a friend. and since bullies only response to strength, from now onward, i will be prepared to be much stronger. >> thank you, guy, so much for tuning in today for the "love actually" hugh grant morning. we're going to be doing colin firth's finest moments from "love actually" on monday. catty, we could talk about all the important things in the world, but i think we need to talk about "love actually." because there's a division, a

lot of critics call it the worst movie of all time. i put it -- i think you said, "citizen cane," "love actually." >> and the second best scene in that movie where he's dancing down the stairs. i was going to hope you would do it for us but there we go. >> well, it's a big day. >> watch the christmas show. >> christmas show. final thoughts? >> joe, it is impossible to overstate how much this tax bill is a donor driven creation. not just the corporation tax cut but including not doing away with carried interest which is the one thing even donald trump said at a minimum, that's what we got to get rid of. the final verdict will be here whether the public views this as a christmas present or a thanksgiving turkey. >> it is a christmas present for donors and a few others. rick, talk about just how damaging the last 11 months have been to our diplomacy across the globe. we saw theresa may. we're talking about the secretary of state.

how damaging has it been? russia's moving into egypt. the first time since '73. >> if we take it from "love actually," basically the destruction of a special relationship. here's the tightest relationship we have. britain needs it because of brexit and we're asundering it. all of our relationships with our allies, we're alienating them and we're kowtowing to people we shouldn't be kowtowing, like the russians and the chinese. >> all right, listen, thank you guys so much for being with us. it has been an absolutely long week. try to have a great weekend. i don't know that i should say this, but get away from the news a little bit, like, this weekend. go outside and look at the sky, you know, and relax. take a deep breath. or as they're saying in my ear, or watch msnbc wall to wall, all weekend. and we'll see you on monday morning. that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now.

>> thanks, joe. watch msnbc or i don't know maybe look at that gorgeous christmas tree in rockefeller center. good morning, i'm stephanie ruhle with a lot to hit today, starting with stalled in the senate. republicans race to shore up support on the tax bill. delaying a very crucial vote. >> failure's not an option. we need a tax cut. >> now, a new analysis shows the cuts could add 1 trillion, listen to me, that is trillion with a "t," to the deficit. and a controversial verdict. the case that sparked a national debate on immigration reform, sanctuary cities and president trump's law. >> kate steinle was murdered by an illegal immigrant, deported at least five times. >> now a jury finds the undocumented immigrant at the center of it all not guilty of murder. this morning the president responding furiously on twitter. and a very undiplomatic good-bye. reports swirl