thanks for watching this hour of "velshi & ruhle." i'm ali velshi. i'll see you back here at 3:00 p.m. eastern. now it's time to hand us over to andrea mitchell and "andrea mitchell reports." >> right now on "andrea mitchell reports reports." congressman blake farenthold

will not seek reelection next year. he left the capitol after posting this statement on facebook. >> i allowed a workplace culture to take root in my office that was too permissive and decidedly unprofessional. it accommodated destructive gossip, offhand comments, off-color jokes and behavior that in general was less than professional. i allowed the personal stress of the job to manifest itself in angry outbursts, and too often a failure to treat people with the respect that they served. defiant, roy moore refusing to bow out, still not acknowledging defeat. >> and the battle rages on. in this race we have not received the final count to include military and provisional ballots. this has been a very close race and we are awaiting certification by the secretary of state. and badge of courage. as senator john mccain battles

brain cancer, his daughter megan on "the view" opening up to joe biden about the painful journey both families have shared. >> your son bo had the same cancer that my father was diagnosed with six months ago. >> there's a lot of hope yet. >> i think about bo almost every day, and i was told -- sorry -- that this doesn't get easier. >> look, one of the things that gave bo courage. my word was john. so there is hope, and if anybody can make it, your dad -- her dad is one of my best friends. and we have breaking news at this hour. nikki haley, the u.n. ambassador in washington, now about to display a iranian made that struck near the saudi capitol as the u.s. tries to make a case of

withdrawing from the u.n. iranian deal next month. >> the terror groups is increasing. its ballistic missiles and advanced weapons are turning up in war zones across the region. it's hard to find a conflict or terrorist group in the middle east that does not have iran's fingerprints all over it. four days ago, iranian foreign minister zarif wrote an op-ed assuring the world that iran has been misunderstood. he wrote, quote, iran's military capabilities comply with international law and are entirely defensive. instead of stoking violence, zarif promised that iran and its partners, quote, labor to put out fires while the arsonists in our region grow more unhinged. but the united nations just released a new report that tells the opposite story. it tells the story of iran as the arsonist.

the report shows the tehran regime not putting out fires, but fanning the flames of conflict in the region. this was secretary general's fourth report detailing iranian compliance or noncompliance with u.n. resolution 2231. that resolution places specific prohibitions on iranian conduct. in its strongest language yet, the secretary general's report describes violation after violation of weapons transfers and ballistic missile activity. the united states welcomes this report, as should every nation concerned about iranian expansion. we are grateful for the depth of the u.n.'s inspection and analysis. most telling, the report in iran is providing the militants in yemen with dangerous weapons. the report provides devastating

elements of missiles, developing arms and explosive boats used by the rebels in yemen, all of which violate u.n. resolutions. the united states and our partners went to great lengths to support the u.n. investigations into iranian violations by declassifying evidence so that the world could better be informed of the extent of iran's maligned activities. as you know, we don't always declassify this type of equipment in these attacks. but today we are taking an extraordinary step of presenting it here in an open setting. we did this for a single urgent purpose. because the iranian regime cannot be allowed to engage in its lawless behavior any longer. international peace and security depends on us working together against the iranian regime's

hostile actions. the fight against the iranian aggression is iran's fight. the united states is acting today in the spirit of transparency and international cooperation that is necessary to defeat this threat. in this warehouse is concrete evidence of illegal iranian weapons proliferation gathered from direct military attacks on our partners in the region. behind me is an example of one of these attacks. these are the recovered pieces of a missile fired by huthy militants in yemen from saudi arabia. the missile's intended target was a civilian airport in rijad in which tens of thousands of passengers travel each day. i repeat, the missile was used to attack an international civilian airport in a g20 country. just imagine if this missile had been launched at dulles airport

or jfk or the airports in paris, london or berlin. that's what we're talking about here. that's what iran is actively supporting. what is most revealing about this missile is what's not here. this is a short-range ballistic missile. it is missing the large stabilizer fins that are typically present on these kinds of missiles. the iranian missile is the only known short-range ballistic missile in the world that lacks such stabilizer fins and includes nine valves that you will see running along the length of the missile. those valves are essentially iranian missile fingerprints. on your walk-through, you will also see missile debris stamped with the logo of shahid bagery, an iranian manufacturer. these are two pieces of evidence

that tells us of this missile's ordinance. it was made in iran and then sent to huthy militants in yemen. from there it was fired at a civilian airport with the intent of killing hundreds of civilians in saudi arabia. there is also material from an anti-tank guided missile. such missiles have a range of over two miles and can destroy tanks and even buildings. you will see material from an unmanned aerial vehicle, also known as a kamakazi drone, that can take out radar sites. you'll see material from the shark 33 explosive boat. these are boats with the radar inside them that can blow 6-feet-wide holes in the hulls of ships. all of these weapons include parts made in iran, some by iran's government-run defense

industry. all are proof that iran has defined the international community, and not just one time. this evidence demonstrates a pattern of behavior in which iran sows conflict and extremism in direct violation of u.n. security council resolutions. in just a minute, laura seal from our defense department will walk you through the items gathered here and explain their connection to the tehran regime. we welcome a thorough examination of this material, not just by members of the press here today, but by the international community. several countries will be sending delegations here to view this material in the next few days. some have already been here. we are inviting the entire u.n. security council to see it for themselves. and we are inviting all members of congress to view it. this evidence is part of what has led the u.s. intelligence community to conclude unequivocally that these weapons

were supplied by the iranian regime. the evidence is undeniable. the weapons might as well have had "made in iran" stickers all over it. the united states stands ready to share what we know to further the cause of peace. we ask our friends and our allies to do the same. iran is determined to undermine -- >> nikki haley, u.n. ambassador at an air force base facility in washington, d.c. revealing evidence that she says is ir refur irrefutable iranian missile fired at the airport in yemen and then near the airport outside the saudi capitol. joining me now, jeremy bash, the former chief of staff of the cia and the pentagon of alabama. also public diplomacy and public

affairs and nbc analyst as well. jeremy bash, this is really just a speech aimed at justifying the president's upcoming decision about a month from today to get out of the iran nuclear deal. she's not saying they're violating the nuclear deal, but she is saying they're violating other underlying u.n. resolutions which says that iran should not form in the region and should not proliferate. >> that's right, and u.s. officials and pentagon officials have known for a long time that iran has been proliferating its missile technology, has been testing missiles, have been arming with surrogates, including the huthy yemen. she is standing there basically on a u.s. military base near the defense intelligence agency just a few miles from downtown washington, and she's standing in front of material that was collected by our partners in the region. by the saudis, probably by the

emeratis as well, and showcasing the way iran has been attacking those u.s. allies. it really does show the united states is in a proxy war with iran with regard to iran's activities in yemen, and some might argue as well with regards to their activities in syria as well. so the administration is really amping up the rhetoric, trying to galvanize international community support for what iran is violating if not the letter and the spirit of the deal. >> but the french and other allies, including the russians and the chinese, would say, wouldn't it be a lot more dangerous in that short-range missile also had a nuclear warhead which iran for at least a decade will not have because of the nuclear deal? >> there is no doubt that you could argue that the nuclear deal that the united states and major world powers struck with iran set back their program, and that it delayed their program, and that it removed nuclear facilities and nuclear material from iran. i think there is also a compelling argument to make,

andrea, that iran did not simply join the international community, lay down its arms and declare tpit wanted to engage i peace. it has been engaging in other activities including iran and key allies. i'm struck by how much thought they put into this, how much k orchestration, how much showcasing of iran's activities, to put a u.n. ambassador in front of these missiles. you don't see this a lot. i think it does show the administration really wants to ramp up against iran, and i think we could be headed for a year in 2018 of heightened tensions between the united states and iran. >> absolutely. rick stengel, you understand the diplomacy as well as jeremy.

the u.s. has been one of the signatories, but this is something the president campaigned against. he said he was going to tear it up. he's been waiting with tillerson and mattis who has been barring him from this. to declassify this, is it reminiscent of past performances? i'm not saying that pejoratively, but performances by top officials, kirkpatrick, both parties. certainly the most controversial and most damaging was colin powell, he would be the first to tell you, with what turned out not to be real evidence in february of 2003 against saddam hussain, which was a major predicate of war. this is a huge step and it aligns the united states with saudis and really the rest of the world. >> what's not new here is the fact that iran is a terrorist state. even when we did the so-called

jason poe agreement with iran -- >> the nuclear deal. >> -- the nuclear deal, everybody said and everyone knew that iran was a supporter of the region. but the point, as you said earlier, was the obama administration said let's separate that out from these nuclear negotiations. do you want a regime like that to have a nuclear weapon? i would argue no. and if we had not separated those two things, we never would have had a deal. i would say it is much more urgent and important to try to denuclearize iran, to put them a decade away, 15 years away, 20 years away from having a nuclear weapon than underlying those city terrorist groups. what's different here is the show and tell aspect of it. >> hans, you were there with the show and tell. we've been on this route before, but never with declassified

weaponry taken from the battlefield and displayed for all the world to see. >> the optics on this are important and the strategy is important. about 40 days ago, that missile that nikki haley is standing in front of was flying through the air landing near the airport in saudi arabia, clearly designed to attack a g20 partner. those are the optics and you see the valves behind nikki haley there. they say these nine valves are clearly a military footprint. only iran has nine bars. i think the broader implication is once we get past the stagecraft. what the strategy is. they're clearly saying they declassified this evidence to make sure the u.n. is part of this and also to put pressure on united nations countries that the threat from iran could potentially hit them. you heard nikki haley mention

berlin, paris and london. the range of that missile she's standing in front of is about 950 kilometers. from iran that really wouldn't put most of -- state actors, it would put countries like iran and saudi arabia in range. they're doing it in a pretty correspo choreographed motion. you'll remember in october of 2016, they filed missiles. the stagecraft is important here but also the policy and what those policy implications are going to be and crucially what the international community's reaction is going to be to this evidence. andrea? >> thank you so much, hans, and of course, mr. people, many americans probably unaware that we are involved in the civil war and yemen by proxy.

>> our involvement there is to restrict the fueling of the saudi planes. >> vermont independent center bernie sanders. we've been talking about what nikki haley is saying about iran. she's displaying these missile pieces. i want to ask you first about taxes, because while we've been focusing on this today, that tax package is racing through capitol hill. is there any way that you and other opponents of it, first of all, can find out what's in it, since it was done in secret in the conference committee to say nothing back that they didn't hold full hearings on it as it went through the white house. is there anything to do to stop it? >> are you suggesting that a bill that impacts the entire economy, virtually every american, should be read before people vote upon it? i would tend to agree with you. >> red-tinted -- disclosed? >> something like that.

the process for this bill has been just a disaster. it's been done around back doors. some 5,000 lobbyists have participated in it, but the american public does not know what's in it. bottom line, and i think some of the republicans have been honest enough about acknowledging this. this is a gift for republican wealthy campaign contributors. in the senate bill, at least 72% go to the top, 1/10 of 1%. at the end of ten years, 83 million middle class families will be paying more in taxes. this 32 million people will lose the health insurance. premiums will go up by 10% with people in the individual market. this is going to exacerbate incoming wealth at a time when we have to protect the middle class and working families. it's a disaster, and in the remaining days, i and roerz

going to do as. very appealing the way they describe it. >> sure it is. but it's a lie, like many statements. there were some elements of it that will benefit the middle class. we've got to make those permanent, which is not what the republicans do. but the richest people in this country who are doing phenomenally. they do not need huge tax cuts that drive up the deficit to $1.4 trillion and then leads donald trump and paul ryan to say, well, we have this huge deficit. we'll have to cut medicare and medicaid. you will recall that during the campaign, trump said, i am a different type of republican. i'm not going to cut social security, medicare and medicaid, but that is exactly what paul ryan, the speaker of the house, has in mind.

i say to the president, keep your promise. do not cut medicare and medicaid. if you want something that benefits the middle class, you've got allies here. but we do not need the wealthy to drive up the deficit. >> net neutrality, which is a complicated way of saying, oh, people on the internet will not get the same access to high-speed internet. we expect the fcc to be voting on momentarily. they're in the middle of their votes, which was proposed and extrude under president obama. you are one of those opposed to what we expect them to do this hour. >> andrea, it's almost unspeakable to talk about what a disaster this will be. the internet has been a real effort to enhance democracy and

level the playing field in this country. it means that if you are a small businessperson right now, you were a start-up company, you can use the internet to get the word out about why people should come to your business. you can have the same opportunities on the internet as walmart does, or as a large corporation sdr. you can compete with nbc and the "new york times." people can access your website the same way a big corporation can. they're going to do away with that and it's going to be much more expensive for the little guy to play and compete against the big corporations. it is an absolute disaster. we've got approximate. we need to make sure this

decision does not stand. >> senator, while we've been speaking as well, on a very busy news day, paul ryan, the speaker, said he does think farenthold will not step down immediately. he paid thousands of dollars in cash for a settlement. you were there for the abusive workplace conditions that he has acknowledged on facebook today. is deciding not to run for reelection a year from now good enough? >> i would hope that the republican leadership in the house will put that is, if these allegations are true and if you've not studied this issue. i appeared -- should be the

leadership's position that it's best right now. >> did you see these deals where people are silenced using tax dollars? >> i do. but we've got to go beyond that. s as you all know, ns a con gregs although problem. the women lost on the job. this is surely true at the. we need cultural revolution in this country. i applaud all those women who had and attacks they have experienced. our goal must be to create a workplace. in congress, in the private sector, where every workplace,

has the right to feel comfortable in the workplace in which she's working. and the government needs to help with that. coming up, t"the apprentice ". what omarosa manigault said was behind her. [ keyboard clacking ] [ click ]

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breaking news. as we've been reporting, blake farenthold is the first to drop a re-election bid, but not immediately. several learned he had settled a sexual harrassment claim back in 2014 for $84,000. those are your dollars, folks. speaker ryan spoke with farenthold for two hours on sunday and spoke a moment ago. >> i think he's making a good decision to retire. there are new stories that are very disconcerting. unacceptable behavior has been alleged in those stories, and i think he made the right decision that he's going to be leaving congress, and that reflects in the conversations we had. >> joining me now, kristen welker in the white house and kasie hunt on capitol hill. not much going on there now,

kasie. every day it's another episode. blake farenthold not stepping down immediately, and why wouldn't he feel pressured by his coworkers to step down? i guess the allegations piling up don't hold for him? >> reporter: it's pretty clear that farenthold himself has really doubled down, and, i think, refused to go along with some of the public demands and potentially private ones. the speaker is saying publicly that he believes this is the right decision, that he's going to retire is the correct move here. that is not necessarily in line with what we've seen in some other cases where there has been questions about misconduct. the speaker obviously called on john conyers to step down immediately. conyers was also somebody who had settled with women who had made complaints against him. now those settlements were made using a different pile of money,

although it was still taxpayer money. but it does seem in this case there may be differences in how these are being handled. farenthold insists he did nothing wrong and that these complaints are false, and his office is not the way that is alleged by the staffer lauren green which is the one with whom he settled. he did, in a video he put up on his facebook page, acknowledge he had created cultural problems in his office. the harassment that is alleged, now two on the record, including staffers, includes gener general abuse. there are recounts of him throwing things in the office, tipping things over, using very vulgar language to talk about staffers and others, physical appearance of women in congress, et cetera. it's not clear why the standard is a little bit different here for farenthold, but it seems to be the case. nancy pelosi, we should point

out, is dealing with a problem of her own with congressman rubien quen. he sa one woman said he harassed them once when he was in the senate seat and another one when he was in the state legislature. he also has had calls to resign. pelosi also called on him to resign but said she wouldn't take any other steps to punish him. she did, however, call on farenthold to resign immediately. this, frankly, is a bipartisan issue, as you can see. it's affecting staffers and young women on both sides of the aisle. andrea? >> and this, of course, as the tax bill is rocketing through both houses, most likely, and final passage coming up. on the other side of pennsylvania avenue, kristen

welker. the president focusing on the tax bill, what he's calling this giant christmas present. not seeming to get as upset about some of the other setbacks, and yet at the same time, we've seen this really emotional moment. john mccain and walter reed recovering from one of the side effects, we're told, of his chemo, of his treatment for brain cancer. joe biden on "the view" yesterday with one of their hosts who was megan mccain. and biden having just gone through this horrible tragedy with his own son with the same diagnosis as john mccain. let me play a little bit more of what actually transpired between megan mccain and joe biden. >> but look, one of the things that gave bo courage. my word was john. your dad -- you may remember when you were a little kid, your dad took care of my bo. your dad when he was an aide and worked with me became friends

with bo. and bo talked about your dad's courage. not about illness but about his courage. >> i mean, the connection between the mccain family and then john mccain tweeted a thank you to joe biden for all the support he's given for the entire biden family for serving as an example and a source of strength for my own family, wrote john mccain from the hospital. you and i both covered joe biden. i covered his very first race when he first lost his first wife and his daughter in that horrific car crash. so i've known him since the '70s through all this tragedy and some triumphs as well. but to see john mccain going through the same horrible form of brain cancer that teddy kennedy suffered, bo biden. that was such a moment between those two people. >> it was so incredibly powerful, andrea, and you could really feel the emotion, i think, from both of them there. and look, i think there is a lot of focus right now on senator mccain even though he is

undergoing some treatments. his staffers saying that those were scheduled beforehand. but it does come as the president, as you mentioned, is trying to push this tax bill through, and senator mccain is a critical vote. and it's not clear exactly which way he's going to go. i can tell you that the vice president has delayed his trip that he is poised to take overseas for a few days because he wants to oversee the tax vote because there is some concern about how many senators will actually be there to weigh in on that final piece of legislation. but andrea, i think that moment there so much bigger, obviously, than politics, the tax bill or anything else. a very strong connection between these two families who happen to be political families but have obviously dealt with the same very, very difficult diagnosis, andrea. >> and kasie, before i let you go, there is reporting from

politico now that speaker paul ryan is talking about stepping down after the midterms, assuming he gets taxes and some of his big legacy legislature through. any truth to that? i think you were asking about that today. >> dreenandrea, he was asked be there was speculation in the huffi huffington post, about paul ryan's future. he was asked, are you going to quit? he said no, and sort of laughed as he walked away. there is, and forgive me, i'm just trying to dive into a very lengthy political story that just posted, and a lot of it is a profile of ryan politically speaking. how he came to be speaker, what it is he enjoys about the job and doesn't. a lot of it won't come as a huge surprise to those who followed the speaker's career.

you'll remember, he was kind of the reluctant recruit to fill the speakership. kevin mccarthy who is now his number two made something of a blunder on tv talking about hillary clinton and the benghazi investigation and suggesting there were naked political motives to it and that undermined the political objectives at the time, so he quickly dropped out of the race. we can go back a step further and say that john boehner's retirement as speaker was sudden and completely unexpected and set off this chain of events. after mccarthy, who seemed like a natural successor to boehner, paul ryan stepped in. he was the vice presidential nominee in 2012, but this has not necessarily been a mantel that it's always seemed he has worn comfortably. a quote that our producers are pointing out at the bottom of the story, he's quoted as

telling friends, i didn't know slitting throats was part of my job. of course, he had a conference with franks who resigned after being accused of misconduct. we have not confirmed the contacts in that conversation, but clearly a topic of conversation is one that's starting to bubble up here on capitol hill today. andrea? >> everything might change depending on the outcome of the midterm elections. that all remains to be seen. kristen and kasie, thanks so much for being stalwarts on all of this. roy moothe president not acknowledging the setback of the election in alabama. let's get some words from chief correspondent who wrote that piece, and msnbc political

analyst, heidi prizbollah, and a "new york times" reporter. you all have so many titles. i'm going to go to you, peter, about the president's reaction to alabama, surprising people inside and outside the white house. >> it is, right? he's obviously trying to pass off the blame. he doesn't accept any blame himself. he said yesterday, look, i knew all along that roy moore was going to lose. but he doesn't express any indication that he thinks he made a mistake by sticking with moore after these allegations of sexual misconduct. the entire republican party, in effect, went the tother direction. the question is what lessons does he take from this, if any, and does he calibrate his presidency at all? i don't know the answer to that, but we've seen other presidents like this, when they have a wake-up call with a special election that doesn't go their way in a state they probably should have won, it often can

foreshadow big losses to come. it's not that long ago to remember 2010 when the governor lost the election to ted kennedy. that loss in a big blue state foreshadowed a big state of red that followed in the elections. the question is, is that going to come next fall for them, and is there anything this president can do to stop that. >> and heidi, what about blaming steve bannon for dragging him back into this full-throated endorsement. >> steve bannon is the one who dragged him back in there and convinced him, in part, that if he didn't that he might be blamed for whatever happened in the race, but also i think the president himself has to take some of this blame because i think he thought that he was just going to ride this wave of what was going to happen in the race and that he wanted to be able to take credit for it. so at the end of the day, the president makes his own

decisions as well, and even though he was making a political calculus that may have been urged by steve bannon, it was, indeed, his decision, and he did a number of things to make that clear. he went down there and campaigned, he did a tweet that frankly, according to the reporti reporting, nobody in the white house was expecting. so that was fully the president's decision. >> and i'm trying to keep a straight face here. how big a loss is oem -- omaroso to this white house? >> she didn't have much of a job in the first place, so she's gone from little job to no job. she drew a lot of attention and probably counts for the string of leaks following her departure. >> at the same time, she was a high-profile woman of color in

the administration from the cabinet on down. when you look at u.s. attorneys around the country, all white men, virtually, they've got a problem. >> that's right, and she suggested she may have something to say about that. she gave an interview this morning where she said she had grown unhappy with things she has seen, unhappy about things going on in the white house and unhappy for things involved with her people. she didn't say exactly what she meant. she hinted she'll have a story to tell at some point, i imagine a book contract to be negotiated. it does leave the president sort of without high-profile african-american, a woman who was reporting to him. and so this is less than 24 hours, actually, the same night after the election in alabama showed that the african-american vote turned out in large numbers to support doug moore over roy jones against the president in that sense. it does expose the president if

you want to try to appeal to anything beyond his very, you know, constrained political base. >> peter and nick and heidi, thank you all so much. coming up, add it up. is the new gop tax plan the big christmas gift to america the president has promised, or is it a giant lump of coal? you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. it's the phillips' lady!

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american people, a giant tax cut for christmas. and when i say giant, i mean giant. if congress sends me a bill before christmas, the irs -- this is just out, this is breaking news -- has just confirmed that americans will see lower taxes and bigger paychecks beginning in february. >> president trump making extravagant promises about the tax bill that republicans plan to rush through next week, ignoring criticism that many in the middle class will be hurt and not helped to pay for a windfall for the wealthy and big business. a critical mandate to obamacare. joining me now is michael steele, republican adviser for house speaker john boehner, maya harris, senior policy adviser for hillary clinton's campaign and msnbc contributor, and

jillian, writer tofor the financial times. jillian, we know what's kind of been reported out from the partisans involved in the process, but the bottom line is they've sweetened the deal for the wealthy by bringing down the top individual rate, and the corporate tax bracket as well. that's gone up to 21 but not the 22. i mean -- where do we stand? >> if you are wealthy, you probably love this, except if you live in a state like new york or california because a deduction on state taxes are being capped. if you're a company or ceo, then you really love this. we already had delta come out this morning and say that they estimate their earnings per share will rise from about $1 to $5.50 on the back of these reforms. you'll see a lot of companies cheering this. i imagine it will keep the stock market very well supported, but as you say, the long-term impact

on many middle class households will be less positive. >> by the time they reach this, michael steele, by the time it actually is implemented, people will get a short-term high from it, but the expiration on the individual rates is a lot sooner and the corporate rates go on forever. >> yeah. the way to think about this is two-part. first is immediate benefits from middle class family, deduction, lower rates, expanded child tax credit, and then the longer term impact comes from reducing our corporate tax rate from the highest in the developed world to a competitive rate. that's going to create more jobs, that's going to increase wages, that's going to keep our economy growing and moving, and that's kind of the one-two punch of this legislation. >> the political benefits or lack of benefits, this is going to be sold big time. the president has a big megaphone. politically i guess they're betting that even though it's unpopular, it's better to have done something rather than

nothing before they go home for break. >> that's clearly the bet they're making, that they need to do something, anything, because this administration has not had a single legislative accomplishment despite having a unified government. that's not good for them going into it's not good for trump who likes to declare himself, you know, a winner. he looks like the biggest loser. when you look at the politics of what they're actually pushing, it's actually a curious political calculus. the bill is wildly unpopular. that's because people think that corporations taxes should be increased, not decreased, that people at the top should be paying more, not less. look at the november election we just had. health care was a voting issue. to their point, they're going to repeal the individual mandate which the cbo says is going to leave 13 million more people uninsured and increase individual premiums. just the election we've had, back-to-back consecutive elections in virginia and alabama, they're losing college-educated white suburban voters whose taxes, many of

whose taxes is going to go up as a result of things to really deal with the state and local income tax deduction and the deduction coming in the mortgage interest deduction, so in the short term, maybe it will be declared as a success and sold as a success, but, you know, over the long term, it's going to catch up with them. >> i want to ask you about what the treasury did the other day. because i've witnessed rosy scenarios coming out of white house's budget offices treasuries for decades. i've never seen the treasury put out this kind of projection based on what infrastructure bills might be passed down the road, bridges might be improved and that will raise the gdp. i mean, it was cartoonish. >> the problem right now is the whole process is so opaque and it's so complex we have these hundreds of pages coming out with hand-written, no one knows what's going on and it's very susceptible to having either the president tweet something or the treasury to come out with these

numbers which look very impressive but actually most ordinary people have got no idea what it means. and there was a whole dance a few days ago where it was said actually the treasury had been doing all these kind of scenario plannings to see what the impact would be and then turn out there weren't any scenario plannings anyone could find. the reality is the treasury is basically cheerleading at the moment. which is good for the short term political sugar high. it's not very good for long-term credibility at treasury. >> but in the short term this will be very popular, with markets, with -- >> well, it's interesting about the markets. we've not yet had a dramatic rally on the back of this tax reform news since it came out the last 24 hours. partly because people are waiting to see what happens but also because so much of this is already baked into the markets. remember, markets are at 25% already. and i think the question a lot of investors are asking right now is, it wasn't the case that the economy was crumbling and it needed a massive fiscal boost. it's not the case you've got a

huge unemployment problem and you had to create jobs in a hurry. the economy was already operating well and the fed is raising rates. so one concern that's beginning to bubble around the markets is maybe this is actually going to give too much of a shot to the economy you're going to get overheating and that along with the issue of debt is going to create more problems further down the road. >> and, maya, what about working families, the kind of relief for working families and wage earners? >> well, you know, it's been sort of an interesting and evolving conversation, but i think you can sort of sum it up by saying that they're giving with one hand and taking away with the other. so on the one hand, you raise the standard deduction. on the other hand, you take away exemptions. when you look at the analysis done of the tax plan, they're all saying in the short term there are going to be millions more people who are going to actually pay more taxes and over the long term they'll be more. so you now have a very unpopular president working with an equalequa equally or if not more so equally unpopular congress about

to pass an unpopular bill and all i can say is good luck with that but all i can say is this is ultimately on the back of lower and middle income earners and this is not what the president said he stood for when he was running for president. >> i do have to say that many company's ceos would say we do like the tax cuts. >> we have breaking news that we need to report this hour because a major vote is expected any minute from the f drcc that wou change how you're able to access the internet. they are expected to roll back obama era rules. the obama policy is called net neutrality. it was put in place for all users. it is opposed by the trump fcc, some powerful internet companies, including our parent company, comcast, very much in favor of this rollback. joining me now is jo ling kent. the room was cleared a moment ago because of some security issues. let me just play a little bit of

the chairman announcing. >> on the advice of security, we need to take a brief recess. >> so everyone was told to leave and bring everyone with them. i guess they're going to look at packages. we don't yet know what's going on. give us the back story. >> we don't yet know what's going on. i was in that exact same room. you can fit a lot of people inside of it, on the advice of security, the chairman has now said the room needs to be cleared. we do know there has been a call to delay this vote. this may not at all be linked to what we're seeing on the screen. the main senators today, earlier today, were hoping this vote would be delayed. and because there have been millions of comments posted on the fcc website, 23 million, and that is a record, 2 million of those have been found to be potentially fake comments with identities stolen as investigated by the state attorney general of new york, eric schneiderman.

so we're looking at a very tenuous situation here. but a lot of people wanted this vote to be delayed but we do not yet know why that room was cleared. >> jo ling kent, been here working the phones, checking this for hours. thank you very much. we'll of course be watching for your reporting throughout the day and more ahead. stay with us. you're watching andrea mitchell reports on msnbc. a gillette sha. and at our factory in boston, 1,200 workers are starting their day building on over a hundred years of heritage, craftsmanship and innovation. today we're bringing you america's number one shave at lower prices every day. putting money back in the pockets of millions of americans. as one of those workers, i'm proud to bring you gillette quality for less, because nobody can beat the men and women of gillette. gillette - the best a man can get. for her compassion and care. he spent decades fighting to give families a second chance. but to help others, they first had to protect themselves. i have afib. even for a nurse, it's complicated...

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msnbc. yesterday evening our senior producer gave birth to her first child, a daughter. she went right from, in fact, the control room to the hospital the day before. eleanor dolan came just in time for the holidays. merry christmas. we are so proud of her mom. welcome to the world, baby eleanor. and that does it for this edition of andrea mitchell reports. craig melvin is up next. >> i just saw her yesterday. >> i know. >> i just saw her. i said cassie, you look great. >> cassie and dennis are parents. >> andrea, always good to see you. good afternoon to you as well. craig melvin here at msnbc headquarters in new york. is it enough? congressman farenthold announcing he won't run for re-election. but should he resign? now? also, sex and power, a cascade of new accusations of powerful men wheeielding their influence improperly