congratulations, ashley. >> thank you. >> very excited. we are off christmas eve. join us new year's eve for our look ahead to 2018. for now, good night from washington. up next the year's ten most, brian williams and nicole wallace count down the year's ten most intriguing people and things. stick around. fake news. >> congratulations, mr. president. >> i am outraged. >> i hope there are tapes. >> this trump and russia thing is a made up story. >> we're getting nothing done. >> violated my body. >> it was disgusting. >> he mashed his lips against my face. >> 2017 has been an unbelievable year. the most outrageous, the most

surprising and exhausting. the greatest number of have you seen this events we've ever seen. >> everybody makes lists this time of year. we're calling ours, the year's ten most. >> welcome to the ten most. i'm brian williams. >> i'm nicole wallace. >> i hoped she was going to jump in there. >> he kicked me. >> we have done this before. i should explain, we're on the 27th floor of 30 rockefeller plaza in a kitchenette. we don't like to brag but it's pretty nice. >> we close it though. >> we did choose it to get away from the usual studio look and boy, did we succeed. we have been at this before. our producers on this project in their wisdom said to us about a month ago, why don't you kids sit down and hash out what would be your list, brian, and your list, nicole, for the ten most

and there were a million different subcategories because it's been a year. has it not? here are some highlights from our first sit down. >> i feel like you copied my list. >> i have not seen your list. >> my list. we can do better on culture. >> you have no list discipline. snapchat? >> i just was trying to be edgy and young. i don't know what it is. ♪ >> let's get to the list. starting with number ten. bob corker, republican, departing senator from tennessee. >> from the great state of tennessee. >> most important voice, of course, on foreign policy in

congress, foreign relations chairman senator bob corker. >> bob corker is so interesting. he was rumored to be a candidate for donald trump's running mate. >> came to trump tower. we saw him in trump tower. >> was an ally. lent his credibility as a figure with a good deal of respect on the world stage to trump's candidacy when he endorsed him during the general election. he's had a very public breakup with donald trump. >> the president has not yet -- has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability nor some of e competence that he needs to demonstrate in order to be successful. >> during a time these last few months when profiles in courage have been rare, even though i know you said on the air this year that he had the truth serum of not running for re-election, i think we would still list bob

corker, as i always call him a workhorse and not a show horse in the senate, as one of those profiles, perhaps. >> it's a shame the white house has become an adult day care center. someone obviously missed their shift this morning. this was not the first time corker expressed grave concerns about the president's conduct. >> listen, i think that republican senators who have stood up to trump in some instances get too much credit. jeff flake is not on the list, because he is fluent in anti-trumpism. but he never puts actions behind it. >> regret because of the coarseness of our leadership. >> people are starting to ask questions about the president's fundamental fitness. if that becomes a bigger thing, a bigger conversation, corker will have started it. >> it's obvious his political model and governing model is to divide. and has not risen to the occasion. >> he is someone that said out loud what a lot of people in

washington only say behind closed doors with a couple cocktails, that donald trump appears to lack the stability and competence for the presidency. he held a hearing to question whether or not he should have all of the nuclear command at his disposal. >> can i expert a point of personal privilege and ask you as my friend and co-worker, what 2017 has been like. you are a very visible republican communications director in the 43 white house. what's it been like for you? >> it's like an endless funeral. it's like going to the political wake of a party i served for -- from the time i was 25 until the sort of calamity that was the mccain palin campaign. this sort of wave started in 2008 with the crowds that came out for sarah palin. >> great answer. number nine. the mayor of san juan, carmen

cruise. born in puerto rico. degree from boston university. and a master's in public policy from carnegie melon. a very substantial person who it turns out was required -- there's no way you can tell me our response to what happened to puerto rico was a response to what would happen to one of the lower 48. >> i totally agree with you. >> parts of buildings being blown off. debris throughout the street. trees toppled. communications are starting to go down. >> hurricane maria, one of the strongest storms ever to hit puerto rico. a total death count still not known. >> i am begging, begging anyone that can hear us to save us from dieing. >> she's that rare politician

for whom that wasn't hyperbole. people were -- people are still dieing. >> if anybody out there is listening to us, we are dieing. and you are killing us with the inefficiency and the bureaucracy. >> i mean, she was on my list from the first day we got this assignment. she is someone who i think will stay with me forever. and donald trump really messed with the wrong twitter combatant when he picked a fight with her. >> president trump's series of tweets critical of her and quote others in puerto rico saying they want everything done for them. >> puerto rico did not get the response the victims of the hurricanes that hit houston and florida got. full stop. >> that's true. >> it didn't. what she did probably saved lives. what she also did was stand up to someone who was in the moment bullying her. >> he trolled her. he trolled the mayor of san

juan. >> the president unleashing 12 tweets on puerto rico saying results of recovery efforts will speak louder than complaints by san juan mayor. >> he can attack me all he wants. bring it on. i'm here. >> mr. president, between one and ten, how would you grade the white house response so far to the hurricane? >> i would say it was a ten. >> the island's decimated infrastructure makes it impossible for workers to get to many of the areas. >> a few weeks back she was on with rachel maddow and was wonderful. i don't know how she views her future. i think a good many americans would have voted for her for just about anything. at the height of this. >> it's been very difficult. it's a lot more difficult for people that still don't have water or have to boil their water, but they don't have anything to boil it with. >> she has an urgency about her and a decency about her.

and a econocompetence about her. this president attacked her during her roughest time. >> she went to meet him when he visited puerto rico and had that ridiculous paper towel moment. when he did that, when he threw paper towel at her citizens, the island still had i think sdei h and 41% had no safe drinking water. she never made it personal. she stood up for her citizens. >> when we come back from a break, our list of the ten most continues. it's been said the president loves generals. well, a few of them have gotten into trouble over the years. we will talk about that when we continue.

our list of the ten most comes to number eight. it's been said that one man more

than others knows exactly where the mueller investigation is going to go because he lived it. would you like to tell our audience who that is? >> mike flynn. >> lock her up. that's right. that's right, lock her up. >> mike flynn is the most stunning -- well, not just indictment but mike flynn has pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi. >> former national security adviser. >> former national security adviser to the president of the united states. >> lock him up. >> the question that we sort of leave with after this dramatic news of his guilty plea is not just what does he know and what has he told mueller, because the answer is everything and whatever mueller wants, according to every prosecutor who has ever been involved in a case like this. >> the people who interacted with flynn, they know who they are. so whether it was take your pick, the vice-president,

kushner, sessions, trump. >> the question is, how high up did this go? >> this explodes the idea that no one in the white house knew and that he misled everyone. >> not a single person who knew flynn from his military days thinks that flynn was the strategist of a pro russia campaign, thinks that flynn would have on his own said i'm going to rip up russia sanctions. >> a few biographical notes. three stars in the u.s. army. a lot of people said that something changed, something turned in mike flynn. this former army ranger, a man who spend time in combat, a man who a lot of the retired generals who stick around the military knew and spoke so highly of had changed. >> i think he saw donald trump as a blank slate. our friend chris christie, he believes one of the reasons he was fired from the trump presidential transition is because he was waving a red flag

about mike flynn for weeks. >> i begged him to get rid of mike flynn. so, you know, that was a bad hire. >> his son had become ensnared in the mueller investigation. you have a son. i have a son. i don't know any parent who wouldn't do just about anything for their son. we don't know yet if this was a test for flynn, if his loyalty for trump was infinite but for the legal exposure of his son. that's one of the theories out there. >> it's impossible to overstate what a big deal this is. how important it is. and once again, today, this moves closer to the oval office. we seat unraveling of all the lies. >> we also don't know yet how cooperative he will be. i mean, mueller grants his reprieve on sentencing at the end of the process. so mike flynn works for mueller. he works for team america until mueller is done with him. >> number seven is an athlete,

colin kaepernick. >> we must confront oppression as a doctor would a disease. you identify it. you call it out. you treat it. >> he is famous in his own right because the story of colin kaepernick became intertwined with the story of donald trump. colin kaepernick and what he has stood for or more appropriately knelt for has attracted the attention and criticism of donald trump. colin kaepernick from your san francisco 49ers took them to the super bowl, has not worked in the nfl for some time but is now synonymous with taking a knee. >> and i think bringing it back to kaepernick is the right way to put this on the list. because there were a lot of players who -- by the time donald trump was attacking the nfl week after week after week,

callen c colin kaepernick wasn't playing for the nfl anymore. >> wouldn't you love to see one of the nfl owners when somebody disrespects our flag to say get that son of a [ bleep ] off the field right now, he's fired. he's fired! >> he had started something that the president saw as an opportunity for twisting the knife in some of our sort of cultural boo boos. one of those is around the issue they were trying to raise awareness for. that was criminal justice reform, social injustice. what kaepernick was doing was almost epitomized peaceful protest and the right to do so. >> the message is that we have a lot of issues in this country that we need to deal with. we have a lot of people that are oppressed. we have a lot of people that aren't treated equally, aren't given equal opportunities. >> i think what makes the kaepernick story endure is that ultimately, the nfl didn't ban the protest. they said they didn't like them.

but ultimately -- it was touch and go for a little bit. ultimately, the nfl stood up to donald trump. >> we saw some things that had to be called straight up stunts when jerry jones took a knee with his players before the anthem. then we saw it get hijacked as somehow anti-veterans, anti-troops fighting overseas. it was never about our people in uniform. >> you know what agrees? most people in uniform. i think in this vacuum -- i think it's safe to just assert that in the trump presidency, there's a morality vacuum, a leadership vacuum in our national politics. there have been some athletes who have stepped in around issues, and this was around the most basic american idea, free speech, and filled the vacuum. >> we will leave this here. when we come back, two men, both

powerful figures. and that's about all they have in common.

all of your time in republican politics, in all of your time working at the white house, how many people came up to you and said, some version of, russia or russians? >> never. >> i would like to introduce you to joe russian or join me at the russian embassy or can i get your boss involved? nothing? >> literally never. never, ever, ever, ever, ever. >> we talked about russians when we were last here in this beautiful space. we didn't talk about vladimir putin, number six. >> american presidents come and go. putin has outlasted them all. he purchase e perfected the art controlling every detail to achieve his own goals. all you really see when you look putin in the eye is exactly what he wants you to see. >> there is an inexplicable and

irrational affinity and i think affection on donald trump's part for vladimir putin. >> in every ut terance the president went out of his way to praise vladimir putin, to speak highly of him. >> he bragged about what a good, strong leader putin was when confronted by our colleagues. >> he is running his country. at least he is a leader, unlike what we have in this country. >> again, he kills journalists that don't agree with him. >> well, i think our country does plenty of killing also. >> you and i get to hang out around terrific experts. we get to have them on our broadcasts. you take a guy like malcolm nance, a 35-year veteran of counterterrorism, get him started on vice-president. >> he views kgb officers as the new nobility of russia. they are the pinnacle of russian society. he uses them on a daily basis.

>> used to be kgb. now fsb. they sound like savings and loans institutions. they are decidedly not. this guy is a trained spy. >> they can both find you. >> he would argue he's a trained killer. >> he messed with us. the only part of the story that doesn't satisfy a majority of americans is that trump isn't mad about it. there was some incredible reporting in "the washington post" about how the obama administration knew that the russians were meddling. they didn't do anything. someone described it as we choked. but the putin story could have ended on election day if donald trump said, i won fair and square, but i'm going to make sure that putin stays out of our democracy. >> i am puzzled by why our president isn't getting our defenses up so that we don't get hacked in another election. we've got all of congress coming up just next year.

then two years after that we've got another presidential. i don't feel prepared. i don't feel like we have been warned. our number five selection on our ten most list is john mccain. >> i've love midlife. i've loved every minute of it. the disappointments, ups, downs, wins, losses. but no one has had the wonderful life that i've had. no one. that i have ever known. >> he's an american icon. he, too, got caught up and criticized in the sweep of donald trump. he was a prisoner of war. not for the first time in his life is he in the fight of his life right now, john mccain. >> he has become an extraordinary spokesperson and a valiant warrior now against cancer. [ applause ] >> i stand here today looking a little worse for wear, i'm sure. i have a refreshed appreciation

for the protocols and customs of this body and for the other 99 privileged souls who have been elected to this senate. >> john mccain's place in history was secure even before this year. but this year you could argue has been really extraordinary. one in the fight against cancer. and two, in that thumbs down vote against repealing health care. there was a lot of drama leading up to that. >> it's expected to be a very long night in the u.s. senate where republicans are in a marathon session leading up to an expected vote. >> there's going to be a vote on a ton of amendments. >> in that moment which we carried live on television, it was a harrowing moment when he came out of the cloak room. everyone saw something different. i saw a man with his outstretched arm put his thumb

do down. but just in his outstretched arm i saw the scope of history of john mccain. both of his arms were so grievously injured. he has never been able to comb his own hair. he can't raise them above shoulder height. everything he was about was put into that moment, a vote he could not cast despite feverish lobbying efforts. >> looking back, it was so john mccain. if you are looking for a republican senator who has never strayed from his set of princip principles, that's john mccain. >> stop listening to the loud mouths on the radio and television and the internet. to hell with them. [ applause ] they don't want anything done for the public good. our incapacity is their livelihood. >> they won't always be in line with what democrats like and believe to be the right

policies. but john mccain has never stopped putting the country ahead of politics. he sort of represents the best idea of what the senate was supposed to be. >> i believe in americans who are capable of better. i've seen it. we're hopeful, compassionate people. we still have leaders who will uphold the values that made america great and a beacon to the oppressed. >> he has some of the best friendships i've ever seen. he's got life long friends in lindsey graham and joe lieberman. they were the three amigos. >> together again. the band back. the e street band. >> another good friend of his is joe biden. he was on "the view" recently where he tried to comfort megan mccain. joe biden's son had the same type of cancer. >> there is hope. if anybody can make it, your dad -- her dad is one of my best friends.

her dad -- her dad goes after me hammer. we're like two brothers who were somehow raised by different fathers or something. >> what do you want to be remembered for? >> he served his country. that's what i'd like to see. he served his country. hopefully with the word honorably on it. that's all. we'll be back in a moment. when we do, the news media start to work their way into our list. old and new.

when we first sat here, one

of our more boisterous conversations was about what wasn't going -- >> you attacked me about buying toothpaste on amazon. >> you have amazon. is that amazon prime or are we talking three to five days? >> amazon is a -- it's on multiple levels. >> big customer here. >> i live above a drugstore. i order toothpaste and deodorant on amazon. >> that's tragic. they might as well call that carbon footprint toothpaste. amazon does get us to the owner of amazon, jeff bezos, who is also now the owner of the "washington post." great news for the journalists, i think they would agree, at "the washington post" because they're a well financed news organization. this brings us to number four on our list. >> the reporters. >> joining us is "the new york times" reporter who broke the

story. >> editor for "the washington post." >> i'm joined now by my colleague carol lee. >> covering this administration has sparked an entire industry. >> it's also created some of our best tv friends. >> ashley parker, white house reporter for "the washington pos post". >> "new york times" political reporter -- >> these people are family because we rely on not just their scoops, which come at a pace that -- it's dizzying. but they have also become our storytellers of this presidency. >> now to you. >> they manage to cover this white house to maintain all the access that they have. >> carol, you are the lead on this story. i'm going to start with you. >> not to take anything away from our investigative unit which breaks stories all the time, but to cover such a disruptive period in politics, whether it was a democrat or a

republican, it takes a village. what we get do is showcase all the journalism. >> nbc news learned robert mueller has enough evidence to bring charges in his investigation of former national security adviser michael flynn and his son. >> as we're having this conversation, i'm representing my broadcast we had julie ainsley talking about her exclusive, peter baker and robert costa. >> republicans are enthused because president trump is in the corner of roy moore trying to rev up that base in the state. the stakes are enormous. at this point it's a jump ball. >> more often than not, that resembles our first segment. we throw stuff out the window that we can't handle in our hour. there's so much news now. this network is all about covering it. >> i mean, they are competitive, i'm sure. but there is a camaraderie to

covering not just donald trump and the unconventional ways that he has turned the presidency on its head, but covering this moment. you think of all of the people sort of bringing us these stories day after day after day. it's an embarrassment of riches. >> we know this christmas season, meryl streep and tom hanks -- >> i have heard of them. >> in this movie called "the post." >> they 7,000 pages detailing how the white house has been lying about the vietnam war for 30 years. >> the first thing i'm going to do on my first day off of christmas break. have you seen it? >> i have not. >> it goes to this point about what we are living through. the idea that the media was a check at these pivotal points in our history is an important inflection point. the parallels can't be ignored. >> under constant fire, these institutions like "the times"

and "the post," like nbc news and msnbc have to make it through the other end. >> exactly. you know, the publishing of the pentagon papers is often overlooked when people talk about watergate. there have been a lot of movies made deservedly about the great journalism of bernstein and woodward. this one, i can't wait to see this. >> number three, the twitter feed of the president of the united states. >> it comes after president trump unleashed the highly charged allegation on twitter accusing the former president of spearheading a nixon watergate-style plot. >> there's always statements from the president available. >> declarations of war, of peace. then from donald trump, obama tapped my wires. it's audacious. i think this will be controversial. because even if the press, there is a group of thought, a school of thought that we should ignore them. i come down on the other side.

it's on his twitter feed that we see the sharpest edge, the fighter that they all describe. >> everyone has been talking about it from daytime to late night with seth meyers. >> trump thinks he is working hard because twitter went from 140 to 230 characters. my workload has doubled. >> sent from the president's twitter account saturday, i had to fire general flynn because he lied to the vice-president and the fbi. >> despite the constant negative press kafefa. >> why would kim jong-un insult me by call meg old when i would never call him short and fat. >> it's hard to believe the people he has gone after on twitter and as the phrase goes, the whole world is watching. it's hard to believe the time of day, the frequency, the day of a

terrorist attack he is likely to attack the media or the country already under attack. >> it's not nitpicking. getting these things right goes back to where you started. they are official statements from not just donald trump the man but the office of the american presidency. >> they are. >> to the degree that it is our job to mark dramatic shifts to institutions, the office of the presidency has been dramatically altered by donald trump. when we come back, the placement on our list of an issue americans have been talking about nonstop in the last several weeks and months. the tail end of 2017. the items that did not make this year's list.

i want to bring our audience in on the treat that was our first discussion of what wasn't going to make the list. none of us have donald trump because it's a given. >> donald trump. >> we are doing this broadcast and compiling this list in the era and in the presidency of trump. neither of us have mr. bannon. i don't know if i -- if i agree with that. >> trump and bannon, i would give them last year if we had done this last year. we were busy. but i would give them 2016. i would put jared kushner on

that list, too. i would put the trump campaign and sort of what they pulled off on the 2016 list. >> mil melania is on your list. >> she's stoic. i wouldn't have put her on a 2016 list. in 2017, she's been pretty perfect. >> separately as you know today, george papadopoulos pleaded guilty. >> i mean, just because he was a nobody and we know his name. >> it's fun to say. >> i agree. >> it's just a mouth party. it's just fun. >> he was a low level volunteer. >> you are a greek american. there's some element of pride,

i'm guessing, that we're saying that. >> he said he is a proven liar. >> i brought some things not on the list, either cultural or news markers of this year. the series on vietnam will go down as having been a product of 2017. dunk dunkirk. spicy and the mooch. houston in terms of floods and world series victory. the total eclipse. >> there it is. >> loved the eclipse. >> we were looking through odd devices. >> i think i have permanent damage. >> what las vegas endured, what mexico city endured, what charlottesville endured. o.j. simpson is out of jail. you have some favorites.

>> here is why i think big little lies deserved an honorable mention. >> this is happening now. >> they didn't know we were going to this. we're going rogue. honorable mention. >> look at me and smile. >> big little lies, by putting so many successful actresses in one body of work, by putting rape and sexual assault at the center of the story line, really elevated the topic. >> all of which brings us to number two on our ten most. something we are calling, after some deliberation, the reckoning. the wave of sexual harassment and assault accusations and dismissals in certainly more than one industry. >> i have been silenced for 20 years. i have been slut shamed. i have been harassed. i've been maligned. and you know what? i'm just like you.

>> mr. moore attacked me when i was a child. i did nothing to deserve this sexual attack. >> i think the best thing about the reckoning, about companies and organizations and institutions purging any man who is harassing women from its ranks, a lot of people probably believe that's long overdue. that moment for so many women who have felt voiceless has come way too late. but come it has. and it's a wave. it swept through this company. >> good morning. breaking news overnight. matt lauer has been terminated from nbc news. as i'm sure you can imagine, we are devastated. we are still processing all of this. >> savannah articulating what we all feel, that complicated feeling of not knowing the side of a person and feeling heartbroken. so brave of the women who come forward and tell their story.

>> before 2017 was born, in its formative dna, whether we knew it or not, this was coming. this was baked into who donald trump was, the man 63 million people voted for, was the man on the "access hollywood" tape. >> when you are a star, you can do anything. >> 2017 was born of a women's march that exploded. from the streets, in this city, other cities around the country, other countries around the world, that was the formative dna. >> the revolution starts here. >> the lava that formed into rock and gave us something to build 2017 on. harvey weinstein is related to that. >> it's all related. harvey weinstein denies the allegations. but in so many of these things

on our list are connected. go back to the newspaper and the journalism that's taken place this year, just the journalism in the first stories about harvey weinstein. then the journalism in the "washington post" about roy moore's nine accusers. >> "the washington post" sought me out. i didn't go looking for this. this fell in my lap. >> roy moore denies these allegations and further says he does not even know you. >> i wonder how many mes he doesn't know. >> the wave that is sweeping up men who are accused of harassing women is one phenomenon. the journalism that has chronicled it is another. in the view of many women, certainly the women who have been victimized by men in the workplace, probably a moment long overdue, but undeniably one sweeping every industry, sweeping ours, sweeping through corporate america, through

technology, getting tripped up a little bit in republican politics. >> elected office. >> right. there's donald trump. but even the trump accusers getting a lot more attention than they did during the campaign. >> all of a sudden, he is all over over me, kissing and groping and groping and kissing. >> i think to his great surprise and great dismay, he might have thought, to coin a phrase, this matter where he was concerned was put to bed. >> i think he thinks, he's sent his press sek retear out to say this, that the victory cleansed him of all tran gregss. >> the president has addressed these accusations directly and denied all of these allegations. >> no one who's been accused of sexual harassment in the workplace was spared when it came to their company's decision about how to handle it.

and it is something different to see donald trump and his al lies try to distinguish his conduct from the others. there is no distinction. >> when we come back, our number one selection on our list of the ten most.

this is probably a good time for me to admit that my favorite part normally of the emmy's and the oscars has nothing to do with the awards they hand out. but as a news person, i always look at those who have departed and left us this past year as the sign post of what the year was all about. and a little bit of who we are. because they take a little bit of us with them. with that in mind -- >> you make me feel shallow, i

look at the dresses. >> just to remind everybody some names and faces and what a year for departures this has been. mary tyler moore, glen cam pell, greg almond, judge wap ner, harry dean stanton, robert osborne, bill paks ton, dell la reese, adam west, hue he hagh h ner, chuck barry, jerry lewis and don rickles. that was a huge part of 2017 and think what they took with them and what they gave them in life. and now the time has come for number one. >> you ready? >> robert mueller. we did not disagree. quite the opposite.

from the first conversation we had about our number one selection. >> nobody more important in american politics right now than bob mueller. >> here's the story i hope we focus on. there's a picture of the st. paul's hockey team. i didn't know it growing up, i think it was called america's hogwarts. and there's a picture of mueller and kerry. >> i didn't know that. >> so mueller grew up with enough money and awareness to go to a place like st. paul's. and then when kids his age are trying to get out of vietnam, joins the infantry, and then

comes home, uva law school. >> i can say i never could have anticipated where i have ended up. >> we have talked about him on television together many times and we always come back to the themes of his life. that he is someone who has always chosen public service. if you were to go spoo a laboratory and create the perfect nemesis for donald trump, someone immune to twitter, someone who does not care about his own press, someone who is not at all distracted. he's not distractable. he is the opposite of donald trump in every way. >> what the prosecutors should be looking at are hillary clinton's 33,000 deleted e-mails. >> he defines discipline and focus in a way that makes him, as you end 2017 and head into 2018, he is the looming threat over donald trump's presidency.

>> an unyielding commitment to the rule of law and to the safety and security of the citizens we serve. >> think about this. since that first discussion we had, his power has only increased. we haven't seen him eat in a restaurant, drive a car, we haven't really heard his voice. yet his power, more than undiminished, i think has increased and i think people in the center politically and r certainly people center left view him, without question, nothing dramatic about it, as probably the most important person in our democracy right now. >> and we'd be remiss to leave out the fact that he is under vicious assault night after night on another network. >> special council robert mueller must be fired immediately. >> they assail the integrity and

character of bob mueller and his team. >> i think if they knew how ineffective it was with a man like bob mueller they might not do it. but i think they're doing it for an audience of one, an audience in the oval office. it's the kind of thing bob mueller might brush off. >> it's a formidable list. i think it'll hold. how do we end it. >> it was about having difficult choices, about having too much. the velocity of the year. >> alternative facts. >> no. russia did not help me. >> yeah that's him. >> mr. rosenstein, your testimony today is you believe bob mueller is a person of high integrity, right. >> yes. >> i think that bob mueller ends here at number one because he's already indicted or pled out

four former donald trump campaign officials one his former national security advisor, and he heads into 2018 with the fate of the presidency in his hands. >> just been told we've had cameras on us while we were having this conversation the whole time. thanks for joining us. >> good night. i'm chris matthews. after 36 years in the senate and another eight as vice president, could joe biden make another try for the white house? in this "headliners," a revealing look at what makes joe run. >> could joe biden have defeated donald trump? >> oh, i don't know. >> this is the great what-if. >> i say to democrats and republicans and independents alike, don't sell this country short, folks. >> joe biden has spent a lifetime as a political power player.