here is "morning joe." it eliminates oil and gas production and many deductions that families and businesses specifically draining the swamp. there are promises. he delivered on his promise to focus on middle income families as well as to provide corporate tax relief. we didn't get as much as we want. it's part of the compromise, what you have to work with. tomorrow, the house is expected to vote on the tax bill and white house legislative affairs director marc short worked to dispute the fact that many of president trump's campaign promises on taxes are officially not happening with this final bill. good morning, everyone. it's monday, december 15th. oh, it's the 18th. >> it's the 18th. >> okay. this is going great.

with us, vel veteran columnist and msnbc contributor mike barnicle, political writer for "the new york times," nick confessore, elise jordan and former treasury official and "morning joe" economic analyst steve ratner. >> nick, i have to ask you, man, did you see it? >> friday. >> friday? >> no, no, i have tickets for this friday, 9:00 in the morning, by the way, imax ticket, reserved seating at that big theater in times square. don't tell me a thing. >> he's going to ruin it for you. >> did you see the number it put up? >> what's that? >> did you see the number it put up? >> no. what did it do? >> like $222 million on opening weekend. >> "star wars" man. >> you know what is amazing about it? my boys and i are freaks about it, absolute freaks about it and have been for a long time.

and everybody goes out with a different opinion. >> really? >> joey scarborough said it's the best one he has ever seen. others go out, saying they're shocked. that it's -- >> some just don't see it. because it's a waste of time. >> that it's terrible and it's -- i thought it was a great movie. >> where is joey on the porgs? >> joey is fine with the porgs. it's not like it's jaja binx. that's not a spoiler. but anyway, it's great movie making and mark hamill, holy moly, inkrcredible.

>> second biggest box office opening in history, $222 million. >> yep. >> amazing. can we get to the news? cool. when voters were asked who they want in charge of congress, a new poll shows democrats have their biggest lead since september of 2008 in the newly released nbc news wall street journal poll, 50% of registered voters said they prefer democratic control of congress while 39% want republicans in charge, an 11-point edge. democrats led by 12 points among independent voters, two points among men and 20 points among women. along with a four-point advantage with seniors and a 48-point lead with voters under 35. republicans continue to hold a two-point edge with white voters and 12-point lead among white voters with no college degree. the poll also measured a gap in the interest level among the 2016 electorate with 11 months to go, 62% of clinton voters

have a high level of interest while 50% of trump voters do. the poll showed an uptick in the president's approval rating to 41%, though he remains historically unpopular for this point in his term. >> you look at the republican and democratic split, elise, and it's like alabama and it's just like virginia. young voters especially. minority voters, women voters just flock away from the republican party. >> and you go back to this 2012 autopsy after mitt romney lost the election, the gop commission. it was all about how the gop needed to focus on the looming demographic issues with losing minority voters and losing young voters. you're actually -- that didn't impact 2016 as much. but i think that now with these special elections, we really are seeing young voters mobilize in a way that they really haven't in previous cycles. >> here is -- steve, we have the

short-term problem, which is 2018, but we have the long-term systemic -- this is going to destroy the republican party for a generation problem. republicans are losing to democrats with people under 35 years of age. i'm going to say this really slowly for republicans. because this is the death star aiming right at them. actually, they're firing the death star lasers at themselves. minus 48. they are down 50%, basically, with people under 35. that stays with them forever. those 35-year-olders get older and move forward. this say branding problem. i was a republican at 18 and remained a republican until i was 54.

people don't switch very much. what do they do? other than just fold up the tent. >> i think there are things they can do. whether they are going to do them or not remains to be seen. are they going to deal with this bannon-ite, populist crazy wing of the party, get them out of the way and start to adopt policies that they say they're trying to help as opposed to helping corporations and rich people, which is what this tax bill does. >> did you hear what our friend tom cole said this weekend? >> no, i didn't see tom cole. >> tom cole actually came out and said man this bill didn't do what we said it would do for working class americans. >> that's the washington definition of a gaf. that's a fact. the tax bill is historically unpopular as well. the american public seems to have figured it out yet they're plunging -- they're going to pass the thing.

they're in a terrible place. the party is obviously driven down the middle. can they pull it together? sure, they could potentially pull it together but they've got to start to do some stuff. >> mike? but they followed up. they had the disaster in alab a alabama. you think they would have -- i mean this. you would think they would have learned this lesson. okay, we are really turning off younger voters, we're really turning off women. we're really turning off people who aren't just the most state-run tv and republicans going out saying fire bob mueller. something that the overwhelming majority of americans will believe would launch a constitutional crisis. they never learn. >> not only that but usually state-run tv and employing the word coup. >> coup! >> which is a truly dangerous word to employ. >> who is running fox news, by

the way? >> donald trump. >> seriously. >> i think he was serious. >> you see what some of those people are saying. and i have stayed away from criticizing fox news for years, for a lot of different reasons. you see the irresponsibility, especially this weekend. fox news -- let me say this. they are fomenting a constitutional crisis by suggesting to people watching fox news in middle america that somebody is attempting a coup, a coup against our government. >> let's take an unsponsored break here brought to you by webster's dictionary. >> violent overthrow or altering of an existing government by a small group. that's what they're fomenting. that's what they're pushing about a fact-finding, truth-seeking mission led by a guy who absolutely, bob mueller,

lives his life right down the middle. >> let be clear. that was set up by donald trump's own administration, his own justice department, his own attorney general, his own deputy attorney general. this is called the rule of law. this wasn't the deep state. this was donald trump state. we're going to get to this in a little bit. what they are doing could lead to violence and what they are doing is about as deeply irresponsible than anything i've ever seen. again, for the purposes of this discussion, since the republicans even further down in the approval polls. >> and that's, i think, a key point to the question that you posed a few minutes ago. and it is anect krchlanecdotali

picked this up. it's a fix that young people, suburban women have about this administration. the cosmetics of it are people like bannon on tv. people like -- >> are you saying people like steve bannon? >> no, people -- >> who are like? >> very few and hear people like steve bannon on tv and something that they do, that they say, people like bannon say and do and behave on tv -- which is where most people get their information about presidential politics -- it jars young people. some of whom are conservative, by the way. it's not their country. >> 50%, almost 50% of people, voters under 35, disapprove and are disconnected from the republican party. that's going to have a devastating impact on the republican party for decades to come.

>> if those number hold true, yes, it will. what's happening right now with the tax cut, this is a party that is doing the last thing it knows how to do, which is cut corporate taxes. all the donors, all the businesses that have been holding their tp tongue tongues trump presidency so far this is what they get in exchange. when you have full kroefl both ends of pennsylvania avenue they say we have to do this now. in fact, the worst thing is to get to the polls, the more incentive to be aggressive because they sure can't do this in two years. >> this tax bill, let's talk about the first major policy initiative of this administration and how it negatively impacts young voters. it's kicking the can down the road, increasing the deficit, not doing anything to curb entitlement spending. we, as a generation, see this ruling class that really could care less in their short

termerism about what kind of country they're leaving, what kind of fiscal health they're leaving the country. >> this is a tax bill that will turn young voters into socialists. >> but to your point, nick, yes, they had a short window to get stuff done. i agree with that. you could fix the corporate tax code and still be fair to individuals and still help working americans and still do a lot of stuff. this is the swamp taking over. this is every special interest, everything donald trump said he wasn't going to do, happening in front of our very eyes. >> this is where the republicans really get crushed, though. front page of the financial times. windfall from tax overhaul. >> fantastic. >> young people out there working, suburban families struggling to make ends meet, they know and they're going to find out that the tax cut that they get is pretty much meaningless in terms of their everyday lives. but they also know the reality, that the big companies they work for, the conglomerates they work

for, the company profits are going to soar. >> and it won't be passed down. we said that happened in the 1980s. >> never happen. >> that doesn't happen now. they're going to buy back more shares. everybody said it. you know, gary cohen asked all the ceos. nobody raises their hand. they know they're going to get the tax break, buy back stock and the millennials, younger voters that elise is talking about, millennials, you just had $1.5 trillion stolen from you. past congresses have stolen $20 trillion from you. over the next ten years, they're going to steal another $10 trillion from you. and they're going to die and then you're going to be left holding the bill. and, yes, as nick said, it's going to turn a lot of people, mika, into socialists and our economy is going to collapse because republicans are -- and

democrats, in the past, neither have been responsible about the debt. they just keep -- and republicans who claim to care about the debt are voting to steal $1.5 trillion from millennials, the very people who 48% are saying, no, we don't like the republican party. those are record numbers. >> the house rules committee is set to meet today to lay out the rules for debate around the gop tax bill when it heads to the house floor for a vote. speaker paul ryan has signaled that could happen as early as tomorrow. the move comes after house and senate republicans unveiled their joint tax bill friday afternoon. the plan dramatically cuts corporate tax rates and overhauling the individual tax code. the bill will keep the current seven brackets for income taxes, but it lowers the rates and changes the income thresholds, for example, the top rate would be 37% versus 39.6% under

current law. and the individual tax cuts expire after 2025. meanwhile, the standard deduction is almost doubled to between $12,000 for individuals and $24,000 for couples. the new tax bill cuts the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% while taxing foreign earnings at lower rates and the bill offers an expanded child tax credit for some low-income families thanks to a push by republican senators marco rubio and mike lee. that more generous child tax credit was key in securing senator rubio's support for the final bill. as party leaders work to make sure they have the votes needed from gop holdouts, senator bob corker, who voted against the initial senate bill over deficit concerns now says he will vote in favor of the final version. we'll get to the news surrounding corker in a moment, because there is some there.

and senator susan collins is also expected to back it. >> why would susan collins back this bill? anybody have any answers on that? given her vote on health care reform? >> right. what they promised her -- we'll see if they can or do deliver it or not, are votes on two other health care bills coming along that would restore some of the subsidies, in her mind, offset the loss of the individual mandate in this tax bill. >> votes yet to come? >> votes yet to come. >> we know how that always works out. >> they never come. >> they never give you what they promise you. >> she has to know that. she has been there long enough, susan collins knows that it's more likely than not, with history as a guide, they won't have the votes. if they do have the votes they won't pass the vote. >> she's voting for the final passage of this bill because she's a nice, trusting person getting played by republican leadership.

>> okay. >> steve? >> steve, what can you tell us about the new additions to the republican tax plan? >> the fact is it's not tax reform. it doesn't make things better for the average american and it will increase the did he haefic joe said. let's look at some numbers that will show us how this works. this is the change in after-tax income for people based on this tax bill. for people who earn over $100,000 a year, their after-tax income will go up anywhere from 3% to as much as 5.2%. if you happen to be in the sweet spot between $500,000. this didn't have to happen. you could have made this -- in fact, in the house bill, it was pretty much a flat line across here in terms of the increase in after-tax income and later in the senate in the congress, they added more goodies for wealthy people. now let's talk for a second about marco rubio who went to

the mattress and said i'm not going to vote for this unless you fix the child tax credit. it's being doubled but also being allowed to apply to people with higher incomes. the only way to get the full child tax credit is have an income of $400,000. if you have two children you get $4,000. if you have $100,000, you get $2,000. single parent with a minimum wage of $14,500, you can only get $75. here is what marco rubio got, this little orange piece, $600 for people who make $30,000 a year, they still only get a total of $800 of child tax credit. even the child tax credit is biased toward the wealthy. lastly, to joe's point, and certainly an important point, let's look at the deficit. the deficits were going up anyway, even before this tax bill was passed. and what this tax bill does, it

adds on to that deficit enough to push us back over $1 trillion in deficits in 2021. we haven't been at a trillion dollars in deficits since 2012 when barack obama was trying to save the country and was roundly criticized by republicans for doing so. and when you get out toward the end, the individual tax cuts expire. those tax cuts will be extended and the deficit will simply get larger as you get to those out years. >> and if you're a young voter, really quickly, just explain -- put in real terms, what does it mean if you're a millennial and the republicans have just added $1.5 trillion to the ta national debt and social security, medicare, medicaid, we're coming up with $30, $40, $50 trillion of unpaid liabilities. talk about how crushing that will be to somebody who is 25 years old today, when they're my age, 54.

>> what's going to happen even before they're 54, taxes are going to have to start to go up. >> sky rocket. >> sky rocket. services will have to be cut. your children, my children, millennials, they're going to pay for our retirement, medicare, social security. there is nothing in the trust funds. we've put nothing aside. you have these huge 10, 20rks 30 -- more than the debt. tens of trillions of unfunded liabilities to pay for the medicare and social security for all the people sitting around this table. >> in the 1950s when my parents start ed working, 15 people wer working for every one person on social security. my children will have two people working for every one person on social security, medicare and medicaid. >> we could have dealt with that had we done it the right way. it should have been funded like an insurance program. you pay into it during your lifetime and get money out of it after. >> we're going to have to fix this. >> we're going to have to fix this fwl it's not going to be like republicans want to fix this. yeah, let's do entitle reform.

we're just going to kick a lot of people off medicaid. no. we're going to have to look at medicare, social security and save it for our children and save this economy for our children. every time the republicans talk about taking care of this, all they do is let's go after medicaid. >> but they also, in fairness, they want to cut medicare and social security as well. their idea of saving it is to cut benefits. paul ryan has made very clear that next year's agenda, which they can also do a lot of this -- not social security but medicare with 50 votes. donald trump has said he won't do it, but he has said a lot of things he has done later. we'll see what happens. >> i'm tired of hearing how we always need more defense spending. doesn't matter necessarily what it is. let's keep piling on the defense spending when clearly the national debt is the greatest looming national security challenge we face right now. >> it is. >> and we don't spend a whole lot of time on this program, or any programs, actually, talking

about one of the elements that steve just alluded to, actually pointed out. marco rubio's child tax credit. the hardest job in this country is being poor. and tax bills like this ensure poverty for many, many people is going to be both a life sentence and a death sentence. and we ignore it. >> why should we have just given $4,000 to people who make $400,000 and $75 to people who get minimum wage? >> which also goes to social security and medicare. if you're going to save social security and medicare, republicans are going to have to do more than just cut benefits. you're going to have to make sure that people like steve ratner and joe scarborough don't get off free. we're going to have to get less in benefits. they're going to have to means test it. they're going to have to make sure that medicare and social security help working class americans and middle class

americans. and people like us, with our own retirement plan don't draw from it. it's going to have to be a balanced approach. this white house says they're looking after the forgotten man and woman of america. >> if you call multinational corporations -- this is also, again, another reason why -- i said before i wish i were a socialist. because i would love to be a democrat and run against republicans that voted for the health care bill, that voted for this tax bill. because, hell, even running in 1994 as a right wing conservative, i would have torn those two bills to shreds. and it would have gotten 75%. because they're not conservative bills. they're radical bills. and they hurt working class americans. they hurt middle class americans and they're just payoffs.

we all know. everybody knows. this is payoff to the richest donors in america. that's the only reason you would write a tax bill this way. i would never support a tax bill in northwest florida that looks like this in a million years. >> don't forget the special deal for real estate developers in this tax bill. they come out better than any other class. >> donald trump, you're saying, and his family? >> donald trump. >> or their brand. >> get up to $1 billion. the trump family some estimates suggest, will make $1 billion off this tax cut. >> that's important. them first. still ahead on "morning joe," it's not uncommon for countries to share intelligence. it does seem unusual for presidents to publicly thank one another for it. what we're learning this morning about the second call between president trump and vladimir putin in less than a week. plus the president leaves the door open for a possible pardon for former national

security adviser michael flynn -- >> hey, mr. president, if you do that, he's going to be charged in new york state and things will get a lot worse for him. he has a better deal with the feds than he will with the state. the state will put him in jail forever. >> maybe he wants to hurt flynn. >> but go ahead. if you want to hurt all these people, pardon them. if you don't think that robert mueller is 12 steps ahead of you on that front, eat your big mac and relax. you pardon them, it only gets worse. let's go to bill karins now with a check on the forecast. how are the skies looking after that big mess in atlanta? power outage. >> georgia power is blaming equipment failure, underground fire that knocked out power at the jacksonville airport for 11 hours. 1,100 flights in all were canceled. the power is back on. delta has 300 flights still canceled this morning. airplanes have to get back in position. by this afternoon, they say, things should be up and going.

you have to imagine how many people are still wondering when and where they're going to get to their destination. besides the power problem now we're dealing with a fog issue in atlanta and throughout the south. 39 million people. one of the foggiest mornings i ever remember from dallas, san antonio. shreveport, quarter mile, san antonio, quarter mile. careful. give yourself extra time driving. this will have airport implications, too. not a lot of cold on the map. no one is complaining about that. highs are 10 to 20 degrees above average. much of the country is dealing with rainy weather, drizzly weather. the warmth will head from chicago to the east coast throughout this week. we should even see 60 in d.c. by the time we get to tuesday. we'll call this our prechristmas storm, coast to coast. starting on the west coast tuesday, goes to the middle of the country thursday. if you have airport plans midwest or ohio valley on friday and then east coast to saturday, keep that in mind. just a rain maker. we will have airport problems

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russian president -- >> before we get to that. >> yeah. >> we had some wonderful conversations while you all were away. >> but we shouldn't have them here. >> but i know. but anyway, so i had talked about new york state bringing charges if there is a pardon. you brought up something else, another reason why michael flynn would not be helped by a pardon. >> because he loses his fifth amendment protection f you're pardoned, then you can't -- you obviously can't incriminate yourself. you have to testify truthfully to mueller about everything that went on. mike made a further point which

i thought was -- >> i feel like this has been bought out. >> by the way, mike, this is really devastating. flynn doesn't want a pardon, does he? >> if he accepts a pardon, my understanding is that it ruptures his signed deal with the prosecutor, with robert mueller, which would then put his son in jeopardy. >> his son in jeopardy. also pennsylvania, new york, whatever state the plans were hatched to kidnap the turkish dissident. >> that's complicated. >> guess what, i'm not really good with this law thing but kidnapping charges. >> bad. >> that sentences you to life. it doesn't matter whether it's the feds that are getting you or pennsylvania or new york. you're just behind iron bars. >> wow. >> no pardon. i don't want the pardon. >> please, don't pardon. >> pardon me. >> i don't want to go to jail. >> seems complicated. maybe like not all that thought

out. but who are we to know? russian president vladimir putin called president trump yesterday morning and thanked him for cia intelligence that helped russia allegedly thwart a bombing in st. petersburg. it's the second time the past two days that the leaders have talked on the phone with each other. >> i don't believe that's what they talked about. i think they talked about "the last jedi." nick, don't you think so? >> i don't agree. >> i don't think putin likes "the last jedi." >> he hates the porgs. >> he does? >> good taste at the end of the day. beatles fan. >> he was a jar-jar guy. >> no, he was not. trump/putin call, quote, president trump appreciated the call and told president putin he and the entire united states intelligence community were pleased to have helped save so many lives. >> he likes the intel community now? >> president trump then called

director pompeo to congratulate him, his very talented people and the entire intelligence community on a job well done. >> okay. >> exclamation point. was that in a tweet? >> touting the intelligence community and how they helped russia thwart an attack, with the same president who is doubting the intelligence community when it came to the intel community's assessment of russian election interference. >> you may recall that during his november trip to asia, trump met with putin and said every time he sees me, he says, i didn't do that, meaning interfere. and i -- i believe. i really believe when he tells me that. he means it. >> you know, he looked into his eyes and he saw down to his soul. what did trump do? >> followed that up by criticizing u.s. intelligence. then you hear it's 17 agencies. well, it's three. and one is brennan and one is whatever. i mean, give me a break. they're political hacks.

>> spymaster. >> have you brennan, clapper, comey. you look at that and you have president putin very strongly, vehementally says he had nothing to do with it. >> that quote is about as damning as any quote where you have the president of the united states, and he has continued to do it. and now some people, who are making fools of themselves, and history will prove them to be useful fools, going on fox news and basically saying the fbi has become the kgb. but in this case, you have the president of the united states saying he trusts putin more than he trusts the fbi, the cia and the entire intel community. the men and women who fight every day, put their lives on the line every day to keep this country safe from terror attacks. >> i continue to be baffled by donald trump's allegiance to

vladimir putin over his own intelligence professionals. he never says a bad word about vladimir putin, ever. you go back to even thursday. news happens so constantly but do you remember before he got -- headed out to quantico to speak at the fbi what he said yet again? there is no collusion. he stressed it again. everyone agrees, democrats and republicans, that there's no collusion, which is flat out false. he really just cannot get over the fact that his election win might have not happened in the way that he would like to believe. >> and his crowd size was actually a lot smaller than he believes as well. coming up, senator bob corker has flipped from a no to a yes vote. >> which is a surprise because he said he wouldn't do it if it raised a penny on the federal debt. >> right. there are new questions about a provision added to the final version of the bill that's being called the corker kickback.

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i did speak to senator mccain. i wished john well. they're headed back. i understand he'll come if we ever need his vote which hopefully we won't. the word is john will come back if we need his vote and it's too bad. he's going through a very tough time, no question about it. but he will come back if we need his vote. >> senator john mccain is back home in arizona. the senator's office says he will, quote, undergo physical therapy and rehabilitation at the mayo clinic in arizona and looks forward to returning to the nation's capital in january. the doctor treating mccain says he is, quote, responding positively to ongoing treatment for his gioblastoma. they don't need mccain's vote because they have corker's. senator corker spent the weekend further explaining his decision to support the tax bill and a

provision that could potentially benefit him financially ended up in the legislation. he announced on friday he would support the bill after his previous criticism of the senate's plan. corker, who is not seeking re-election next year, said, in part, in the end after 11 years in the senate i know every bill we consider is imperfect. the question becomes is our country better with or without this piece of legislation? i think we are better off with it. i realize this is a bet on our country's enterprising spirit and that is a bet i am willing to make. he is facing backlash over a last-minute change to the legislation, being dubbed the corker kickback. according to a report by the international business times republican leaders added the change that would reduce taxes on income from real estate llcs. corker owns a large amount of commercial real estate. he told the paper he was not

aware that the provision had been included in the final bill, which he said he had not read. >> let's stop right there for a second. nobody has read this bill. mike, you talk to all the members, nick, and they haven't read the bill. and this is what's happening in trump's washington. you get paul ryan and a few people. they go behind closed doors, write a bill. mitch mcconnell and a few people in the senate go behind closed doors, write a bill. there's no hearings, no regular order, no nothing. and then they pass. they pass a bill and nobody has read it. >> look, on top of that, they haven't got a really clear understanding of what the implications of their own bill are. not reading it -- a lot of bills don't get read. this is an important one. they should probably read it. they have kneecapped their own score keepers in congress on the

implications. they've ignored the economists who say it will not produce the kind of growth they want to create. but it's so complicated, so many things that were changed at the last minute i'm not sure anybody has a really good sense at what the long-term thing will be here except for deficits and that's kind of scary. >> nobody knows. you're right. mike, republicans were the ones who appointed the director of the congressional budget office. this was their pick. this was their selection. and every time the congressional budget comes out and tells the truth about this bill they all say they're lying. they don't matter. >> this is the most far-reaching tax legislation in over 30 years. it's a generational change in terms of what is going to happen to people down the road because of this tax bill being passed. the leader, the chairman -- ranking member in the house, ways and means committee got this tax bill to look at for the

first time one hour before it was introduced. i would ask our financial expert, mr. ratner, how many public hearings do you recall being held on this far-reaching piece of legislation? >> there were a few but no historical precedent for passing this kind of legislation this quickly without anybody knowing what's in it, let alone opine on t they had a couple of hearings, couple of mark-ups. it was done in a short period of time and changed at the last minute. not just this provision but lots of stuff. >> compare this, mika, to 1986 when ronald reagan and the democrats best comprehensive tax reform, that was an ongoing battle of back and forth regions lative give and take that went on. there were hearings after hearings and debates after debates, writes, rewrites. it was a long, complicated, difficult process. >> yeah. >> but by the time that tax reform was passed in '86,

everybody knew what was in it and knew what the impact was going to be. >> senator corker has sent a letter to the senate financial committee chairman, orrin hatch, asking for an explanation of the provision and how it made it into the final kvens report. corker's office says the senator is not a member of the tax write-in committee and requested no specific tax provisions or in any knowledge about the provision that would benefit him personally. >> elise, any ideas on why bob corker would have switched his vote? any ideas on why john mccain said he was so dead set against the health care bill because there's no regular order and then decided to vote for the underlying bill? >> i at least thought with this bill senator corker seemed very serious about the deficit. and that had been his stance from the get-go.

so his shift was quite odd for me. i thought if anyone wasn't going to cave that bob corker, especially after his previous statements, warnings about president trump and his mind-set and his decision that he wasn't going to run for re-election, he seemed like he could be a figure who actually was not just talking the talk when it came to cutting the deficit. >> you know what's amazing, though? >> what's that? >> imagine how many republicans are going to vote for this bill and then scream and cry about the debt ceiling again. over and over. they'll say we can't raise the debt ceiling. you just guaranteed yourself the necessity of voting to raise the debt ceiling over and over and over again. >> my one argument for continually going back to the need for entitlement reform is the debt. how do you go next year and say we really need entitlement reform? it's going to be 30 trillion in

a decade. how do you do that with -- when with a single vote you passed a $1.5 trillion debt on to millennials and future generations for a tax bill that we don't need? for a tax bill that helps only the richest of the rich at the end of the day, for a tax bill that just about every bipartisan, nonpartisan econo said is the wrong tax bill at the wrong time. >> this bill is so bad, we could talk about it every day, all day, for days on end. but your question gets to the nub of elise's point about bob corker. it is, how can you go on talking about the tremendous impact, the negative impact that the rising deficit, the debt we are going to owe for generations and pass on to our children, how do you go on and on, prattling about that and then vote for a bill that will only add to the

deficit? unless you have a theory that it's an inside game one is playing on him in the inside senate old pius bob, talking about the president. let's see how he handles this. >> i wouldn't be surprised if that happened. i am surprised that after saying he wouldn't vote for this bill if it raised a penny, voted for it. i wonder if he's looking at trump's approval ratings collapsing from the 60s to the 40s. >> why would that influence his decision? >> maybe he decides he's going to run for something else. i mean, right now, donald trump's approval rating is around 48%. bob corker's approval rating in tennessee around 48%. maybe bob corker's decided maybe i can run down the road for governor. maybe i can run the road for something else. i'm not going to cut off all my

exits. >> this doesn't help him right now. >> i know. i don't see it. >> the daily tennesseean has a negative 2008. when it comes to who people want to control congress. veteran republicans -- it doesn't take a veteran strategic to know a 48% lead is a problem for republicans. e we shall be right back.

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a wealth of information. a wealth of perspective. ♪ a wealth of opportunities. that's the clarity you get from fidelity wealth management. straightforward advice, tailored recommendations, tax-efficient investing strategies, and a dedicated advisor to help you grow and protect your wealth. fidelity wealth management. welcome back to "morning joe," it is monday, december 18th. with us we have political reporter from "the new york times" nick convosori, john heilemann, former aid to the

white house and state department celis jordan, treasury official steve rattner, also with us political reporter for "the washington post" and moderator of washington week on pb sro better costa. >> with a brand new haircut. >> youthful, handsome. >> saw him in new hampshire a couple years ago. >> i remember that. i had toen send him to the barber. >> he can confirm. i forced him to get a haircut. >> it's true, he did. he tells me to get a haircut. he knows the most stylish one around. >> exactly. >> i was a grateful dead fan. >> we begin this morning -- >> it was a "simpsons" episode. >> we begin this hour with new polls that show democrats enjoying their biggest lead

since september 2008 when it comes to voters of who they want in charge of congress. in a newly released "wall street journal" poll, 50% of registered voters say they prefer democratic control of congress. while 39% want republicans in charge. the democrats lead by 12 points among independent it voters. 2 points among men. 20 points among women. along with a 4-point advantage with seniors and a 48-point lead with voters under the age of 35. >> let's stop right there. john heilemann, we talked last hour about the millennials. i have never seen polling like this before in my life where an age group breaks for one party 50%. that's why the republicans in congress don't understand. they are not only offending independents and women and their own children. i hear it from my kids and --

>> who are big trump fans. or used to be. >> most of them have been republicans, grew up in a conservative, republican household. but it's toxic. you talk to them about the republicans, it's toxic among them, among their friends. i live in what can safely be called a very republican encl e enclave. >> you think about this. this has been a trend going on for several cycles. we have seen millennials driven towards democrats. it's part of the reason they thought they had a lock in the electoral college. when barack obama seemed to be the beginning of a huge generational wave, but it's clearly just -- the issues on which this generation were breaking with republicans previously like gay marriage, for instance, tolerance issues in general, they were headed that direction any way. trump has been an accelerate

rant to them all running now. not just jogging away from the republican party but sprinting for the exits. the question, obviously, is going to be how well do democrats mobilize those people in an off year election. midterms are the times when young voters stay home. will that be different in 2018? >> the thing republicans always sort of had going for them with younger voters, even if they weren't as tolerant, there's been a growing libertarian strain among young voters who say stay out of my bedroom, stay out of my pocketbook. stay out of my wallet. republicans, this is not even big government republicanism, this is big government trumpism. they added $1.5 trillion debt bomb to millennial voters. there's really no reason for young voters now, even if they have libertarian strain in them,

to vote for donald trump's party. >> that libertarian strain is why ron paul had a group of supporters. you look at now what is being offered and it's so backyards leaning. just the short-termism of looking out for the immediate quick-hit fix that's definitely going to benefit the boomer generation, but where does it leave the generation that has to pay for that and cover the social security and all those entitlements. >> you look at all the issues, whether you're talking about the social issues or the economic issues, i think one of the biggest issues, es. personally for younger voters from what i'm noticed, is the race issues. they don't understand the president trying to preach moral relativism in charlottesville when white supremacists kill an american, they expect the president of the united states to come out and roundly condemn

nazis, condemn white supremacists. this president didn't do it. this president is still push in for what he called a muslim ban. this president said he didn't know who david duke or the kkk were. attacked a muslim gold star family, attack ed an indiana judge because his parents were born in mexico. add all of this up and you have a toxic, toxic brew, especially for young voters who, again, are against republicans by almost 50%. >> millennials are the most tolerant people in generations. they have been brought up in an environment and schools where they are taught to be tolerant. it's the educational kind of environment they are in. i also just say student debt, though. the person who got the most votes from young people in the primaries in 2016 was bernie sanders. it was in large part because he

went out there and said free college tuition. aside from the merits of that policy, student debt -- >> or the fact it would bankrupt us. >> student debt from college is a huge and overriding issue for young people. what does trump do? nothing. he's been doing things to make it harder and reversing some things obama did to make it easier. it's a time bomb, but it's also because there's not any sensitivity to the policy needs of that cohort. >> how do republicans in the chamber behind you look at these numbers with anything other than panic when they are down, again, overall about 12 points, but they are down 48% to democrats among millennials, which is soon going to be the largest voting bloc in america. >> to start, they tell me not every race is going to have a roy moore candidate. they believe the social issues

that do motivate younger voters to come out to the polls in large numbers are not going to always be there to motivate because candidates are going to be more mainstream on the republican side. they have to find a way in the gop to connect the booming stock market and this tax cut to actual growth for millennial voters. i feel like they are stuck in jobs and not able to grow out of their student debt. what they are facing right now is a challenge. can they make an economic argument. democrats talk about bernie sanders. can the democrats bring populism into their message. bob casey of pennsylvania, they are trying to speak to that steel back, trump populism from the president and make it more populous argument next year. >> president trump is up early watching tv making sure his tv network follows orders and he tweeted this morning also. he says this, remember republicans are 5-0 in congressional race this is year.

the media refuses to mention this. i said gillespie and moore would lose for very different reasons, and they did. i also predicted i would win. republicans will do well in 2018, very well. >> quotes around the "." >> he tags the tweet @foxa tweet @foxandfriends. >> he's so wrong he's not even worth addressing. but the quotation marks around the "i", he puts them around randomly is and just around the "i", ien don't know what to make of that. it's the most meta thing he's ever done. >> so let's break this down.

republicans have been underperformed by 9 to 12 points in every congressional race. he's talking about congressional races. the democrats did 20 points better in kansas. republicans won by 3 in georgia. >> this is referring to the presidential results. >> i thought you were comparing to the last congressional kapd which really they underperformed. 15 points better in south carolina, 3 points better in virginia, then alabama senate race 30 points better than donald trump. >> you think about some of those. in alabama we did it in certain places in virginia where you looked at trump's performance in certain key swing districts where he carried those places in northern virginia or in the

suburban upper crest republican neighborhoods in alabama where they were the democratic candidate blew out the republican, whether it was roy moore or conventional race gillespie got beat. republicans are losing in these races, but the republican brand is losing. donald trump in particular is being repudiated in county after county. the counties where republicans are going to need to win to hold control of congress in 2018. >> you look at this. democrats have flipped 14 state legislative seats since donald trump won. you know how many republicans have flipped, none. >> i would guess zero. >> even districts the mar jib of skri victory are dropping. you can u go. to delaware county to the local

level in pennsylvania, they are electing democrats for the first time in history. you go across the country and look and from pennsylvania to alabama all across the country, donald trump and republicans are bleeding votes. >> meanwhile, president trump is reportedly ready for a robust campaign schedule next year. as "the washington post" reports, the white house plans to insert the president into 2018's midterm elections. >> that's not beginning to go well. >> citing senior officials and advisers, a report says trump wants to travel extensively and hold rallies that he's look iin forward to spending much of 2018 campaigning. >> the one in pennsylvania really helped roy moore. >> this is where he's comfortable. speaking to a crowd that will clap back at him. and he will get a small crowd, sometimes a big crowd, but they

will all clap back at him and that's where he's comfortable. white house political director told the post, quote, for the president this isn't is about cheering crowds. this is about electing republicans. no, it's not. >> bob costa in virginia, nobody would want donald trump to go to virginia if they were a republican on the ballot because he's such a divisive figure. he didn't go to alabama, but he b went to pence and they still lost. what's the likelihood that republicans in swing states like missouri are going to want to have donald trump running against claireccaskill, with his low approval rating. >> senator mccaskill said she looks pretty good. they can probably win in tough

states. give posse republicans feel so uncomfortable at times with the president. you had ed gillespie struggling with voters in northern virginia. a quick note on the president's tweet. he says he was 5-0 in congressional races this year. it's important to know the senate is part of congress and he lost the senate race in alabama. >> that's a good point. >> what's the likelihood you're going to have republican candidates wanting donald trump to go into swing states and campaign for them if he's as unpopular in the fall as he is right now? >> whoever runs in north dakota, i'm sure they will welcome president trump. if you're in a red state, it's helpful. a suburban dominated state, more purple state, that's going to be one of the biggest judgment calls you make as a candidate next year. >> usually around this time when you have somebody unpopular, they try to keep the president

out. i remember 1994 "the new york times" writing that some democratic candidates were considering moving anti-aircraft guns to their state lines just in case bill clinton was tempted to bring air force one to come to town. >> according to multiple reports, the president's legal team will meet with bob mueller's investigators this week to discuss the next steps in the probe in the 2016 campaign meddling. that comes after the legal team raised new complaints about the investigation over the weekend. a top lawyer for the trump transition team has accused a government agency of, quote, unlawfully providing mueller thousands of e-mails exchanged between the president's advisers during the transition. saturday's letter from trump for america argues that the general services administration which hosted the e-mails did not own or control the records it provided. alleging that the special counsel's office has extensively

used the materials in question, including portions that are susceptible to claims of privilege, and that they did not notify trump for america or take precautions to protect rights and privileges. a spokesman for mueller's office said sunday morning when we have obtained e-mails in the course of our criminal investigation, we have secured either the account owner's consent or appropriate criminal process. a gsa official disputed the claim telling buzz feed that transition team members were informed that materials would not be be held back in any law enforcement actions and agreements they signed included that there could be monitoring or auditing of devices. do you want to hear trump reacting? >> no, i really don't. this strategy we were talking about before, they are literally trying to throw anything they can against the wall so people on a certain network can talk about a coup.

even though they are completely baseless charges. the texts leaked out on the communications between the fbi agents and now this, again, there's nothing there. but they throw it out there and immediately people on a certain network and trump's lackeys will seize it and then it will just be the big lie. they will keep repeating it hoping people will believe it. >> it's fascinating the president's team is getting dr the entire campaign cheering on the russians to hack in and get personal e-mails on hillary clinton. if it they had a good claim on the law here, it's telling that this letter went to congress. if they thought they had a claim to the law, take it to court. if you can beat mueller on this, if there's a claim of privilege, even though these people were not government officials yet, but if there are claims of privilege, they can go to court. they didn't.

they went to congress, which goes to the point you're making. this is about muddling the waters and creating a set of reasons to disregard what mueller is doing. >> you're exactly right. if there had been any legal remedy, they would have immediately, that's what they would have immediately done. let's bring in law professor at george washington university jonathan turley. a lot of muddy waters out there this weekend. people talking about a coup in america and bob mueller should be fired and i don't know if the white house gave it to fox, but worse than water gate was the one catch phrase that everybody had had imprinted in their head and kept repeating it. let's sort through these things. first of all, what we were just discussing. transition documents, which bob mueller's office said got

legally. what can you tell us about that? >> i think the trump transition team has a valid point in that the transition team documents are not agency records. they do not belong to gsa. in some ways, this was a misplay by mooueller. he could have gotten this material in a another way. he could have allowed for review. he didn't know what was in these e-mails. they are claiming there might be privileged information. >> do we know which means he went through to get those? >> according to the letter, it was a demand letter and not a subpoena. >> we haven't heard yet from the mueller team, so we really don't know whether they got it legally or not. >> that's right. the problem is why take the risk. lawrence walsh had a problem with tainted evidence that ended up costing the conviction of oliver north because he couldn't show that material that he used didn't taint all the rest of his investigation.

if there was a taint, this would be catastrophic. >> i was just going to say we don't know yet if there is. we don't know how mueller's team got the evidence. all we have is a letter to congress. i want to follow up with nick said. if it they got the letter improperly, what would any lawyer do? you'd immediately go to court, right? >> i think you would. that's a good point. the problem is it's a little hard at this stage to find the type of injury to go to court. they could have gone to court and that's a valid point. the question, however, if this information is later challenged as improperly seized, the answer is it could. the question i have is why take the risk at all. >> but again, not to put you on the stand and cross examine you, but we don't know they took that risk. >> gsa has not said they received a subpoena, which they would have said by this point. but you're right, there's still details to be filled in here.

but the question i think here is there's been ab ambiguous status. it's a weird thing about this administration. it's a perpetual motion machine. this is one more issue that is really not clearly resolved. transition papers have held this vague position. so some of the points made in the letter are valid. those documents really do belong to the transition team. >> let me ask you about something that fox news has been pushing all weekend. that this is a, quote, coup, that bob mueller's investigation is a coup of the united states government. what's your response to that? >> that's obviously not true. any suggestion of firing mueller would be perfectly suicidal. >> why would it be suicidal? >> i think it would trigger

serious impeachment questions of the misuse of the office. it would put him in the nixonen realm. if there is a problem, it's also not a reason to be talking about mueller. we got into the problem with the ill advised firing of comey. i raised a lot of question, as did others, of the need of a special counsel. i changed my view once comey was fired. and i also have never understood why the white house took the position he's taking on mueller. they should have said bring it on. we'll give you everything we you need and we'll wait for the results. that's not the narrative they are pushing. >> let me ask you about when we go through everything. what do you think about donald trump possibly pardoning michael flynn? we have been talking about how short sided that could be, all

the legal problems that would cause flynn and all the states that could go after him for much larger possible legal remedies. what's your thought on a possible pardon of flynn? >> first of all, i think it's unnecessary. flynn has a quite beneficial deal that he got from mueller. we're still waiting to see what deliverables were part of that deal. but there's precedent for this. bush pardoned some of the iran contra figures. i thought that was wrong. is is this being dangled out there to signal to flynn he doesn't have to fully. cooperate, i don't know. but at this point, flynn showed up and said i'm your man. once you sign that plea agreement, you're in for it. you're all in. so i think it's not going to affect flynn's judgment, it's going to have to cooperate. what's weird is that we haven't

seen an up tick in investigation. there's a report they might be done interviewing white house people. that's not usually what you see after a major deliverable plea agreement. usually it extends grand juries extend the investigation. so we're still waiting to see what was on the table. what led to that very good deal. >> rich laurie has a piece that raises the question why fire mueller if trump has done nothing wrong. if the people on fox are right and he's committed to crime, mueller will vindicate him. >> why start a constitutional crisis if you're innocent? >> there's a latin thing for that. the question answers itself. trump continues to say, as he said over the weekend, he's not consider fire iing mueller. we have this suspicion there's some possibility that he has

considered if it in the past. he's volatile and has problems with mueller. will he do it in the future, as of the weekend, he was heard y saying he's not contemplating firing mueller. now people are focusing on b whether he's starting to turn his fire on rod rosensteinrosen. that's where he seems to be focused. it's more directed about the fbi and the justice department than at mueller in particular. at this moment, but it's trump, so by wednesday it could be different. >> rosenstein was in congress last week. there's a possibility in trump's mind. there's trump, which is first and foremost. even if trump doesn't think they are going to get him on collusion, you have jared out there as well as other people he's close to who seem to have issues of one thing or another. it's possible he's worried about them as well as himself. >> bob costa, talk about the sliming of bob mueller.

a war hero, a guy that guided america through 9/11. are republicans that you speak to on the hill other than the small lot who are basically carnival barkers trying to get a little pith of attention, are your rank and file republicans like rob portman, are they comfortable with the trashing of a war hero like bob mueller? >> they are very uneasy about it. but you have to put an asterisk next to that. they are rushing through this tax bill. they feel confident about confirming justice gorsuch earlier this year. they have something to run on in 2018. they also know this russia issue and mueller issue hangs over everything. they are not sure yet on capitol hill among republicans about what is the threshold that is too far. when does president trump cross the line?

firing bob mueller would be, for many of them, the line. they are not sure about the questions of rod rosenstein or if the president starts to lean further against the fbi. at this point, they know the basis. so with the president, they haven't made a decision. he fires mueller, they will turn. but anything beyond that, they are really debating amongst themselves about how to handle president trump. >> thank you very much. still ahead on "morning joe," today president trump is set to unveil his new national security strategy. but is it really that new? we'll see how it compares to that of his predecessors. you're watching "morning joe," we'll be right back. ( ♪ )

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with us now is kristen welker. president trump set to make a speech later today laying out his vision for national security. he has the twitter machine out and humming this morning. we'll put the tweets aside for a minute. tell us what the main focus of that speech. what do you expect it to be? >> this is a big one. the president is going to unveil his national security strategy this afternoon. it's going to be the first framework of its kind since president obama unveiled his national security vision in 2015. you might remember that moment. and a lot of folks are saying this plan tracks very closely with president trump's predecessors. they counter it will have an unprecedented focus on trade, border security, that's one of the president's big issue, anden counterterrorism as well. these pivotal remarks are unique because they come against the fresh tensions over the russia probe. the four pillars of the speech will be defending the homeland.

that's going to include a focus on border security. also missile defense, promoting american prosperity to emphasize the economy as a national security concern. advancing american influence and peace throughen strength, that might sound familiar. it tracks closely with rhetoric from the reagan era. and president trump will put the focus on modernization in that part. a key focus of the speech is going to be china and russia. the president is expected to argue in one section that china and russia attempt to erode american security and prosperity. and it does all come against the backdrop of the russia probe, which is intensifying and has been getting under the president's skin. and president trump and russian president vladimir putin had yet another phone call. putin thanked president trump after the cia provided russia with critical intelligence to thwart an isis-inspired terror

attack. the press secretary giving a little read out. president trump appreciate the the call and told putin he and the entire united states intelligence b community were pleased to have helped save so many lives. president trump called pompeo to congratulate him on a job well done. what's significant there it's the second conversation the two leaders have had in the past week. >> republicans, obviously, trying to get a tax bill through to the president's desk as early as this week. how confident is the white house that lawmakers are going to be able to do that? >> they did learn that senator john mccain was heading home to arizona. he's continuing to recover from what his doctors said are side effects from it his cancer treatment. president trump yesterday asked about that. he said he talked to cindy mccain and said he would come back if his vote is needed. but white house officials believe they are going to get

this over the finish line in part because they were able to flip two key votes ob friday. marco rubio and bob corker. marco rubio wanted more money for child tax credits. the house is going to vote tomorrow. the stakes can't be overstated. president trump is looking for his first legislative victory and he thinks he can get it on tax reform. >> thank you so much. really appreciate it. alex, do you have the full screen on what the president said about russia and china or what he's going to be saying about russia and china? i'm just wondering, while we're in a nuclear showdown with north korea and china is the key player, is this really the time to be going out and bashing china? >> no, we need china to help us in north korea. we need china in a lot of other

places. there's no question that china is a trade manipulator. not a currency manipulator, but a trade manipulator. they are protectionist. i think pushing back on that, to some degree, is appropriate. they have a trillion dollars of our debt. they have their influence growing in asia. you can't simply take them on full force. >> i'm just asking right now. is now the time to do that when they are -- if we're going to resolve our north korean nuclear showdown, they are about as key of a player as we have. >> they are absolutely key. you have to balance that. it does lead you to be -- it's a matter of degree. it's appropriate to start the pushback a little bit on china's trade policy. i would not go to war with them. it was interesting trump said over the weekend that china has been helping on north korea and russia hasn't. it's one of his rare criticisms of russia. >> the path of the speech today includes economic security, as we have been told.

and the threat that china poses going forward. it also has to involve, i don't know how the president is going to allude to this, he talks about ttp. which puts us in a key role in trading in the regions around the world. >> i have issues about trade and how our partners trade with us. that's one of the worst policy decisions ever made because tpp was central to our security and other interests in that region. we walked off the playing field and left it to china. it was one of the worst decisions i have ever seen. >> what did we get in return for that? >> nothing. >> trump gt got to go to his base. >> he claims he's going to renegotiate a way better deal. that deal hasn't happened. >> china is negotiating its version of tpp with all the same

countries. >> the part of the world that's it growing the fastest, the country whose economy is growing the fastest, we have completely shut ourselves out and completely turned it over to china. great job, mr. president. i'm glad that's helped you with millennials. i'm glad that's helped you with your base, your 31% base. >> coming up, president trump renews his criticism of the fbi right before telling the graduating class at kwahe has tr back. that's next on "morning joe." at fidelity, trades are now just $4.95.

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there's, quote, extreme bias at the fbi against president trump. "the new york times" reports that underneath the anxious for mueller is greater anger with the bureau. he was far more frustrated than with jeff sessions and

christopher ray than robert mueller. >> wait, he just put christopher ray in there. >> well, yeah. the sources claim that trump has said that ray has not moved quickly enough to rid the bureau of senior officials biassed against trump and worked for former director james comey. the president has tweeted the fbi's reputation is in tatters and alleged that the public is angry about bias at the bureau. >> no, they are not. >> he's what he said on friday on his way to speak at the fbi graduation ceremony. >> it's a shame what's happened with the fbi. we're going to rebuild the fbi. it will be bigger and better that be ever. it's sad when you look at those documents and how they have done that is really, really disgraceful. you have a lot of very angry people that are seeing it. it's a very sad thing to watch. i will tell you that. i'm going today on behalf of the

fbi, their new building. everybody, not me, the level of anger at what they have been witnessing with respect to the fbi is certainly very sad. >> i want you to know that with me as your president, america's police will have a true friend and loyal champion in the white house, more loyal than anyone else can be. you very rarely get the recognition you deserve, i can tell you that. so many people in the fbi, these are great, great people. these are really heroes for all of us. >> mika said, as she was listening to that, don't do that face. >> it's so sick. >> i'm going to break this down. mika said that was really demented. >> let me finish. >> there's a punch line here.

alex, you said it wasn't demented. >> it was very post modern. >> explain that to our viewers. >> when you say something and then the next sentence you say the complete other thing, it's that juxtaposition, and say in the business, post modern. >> the president is slowly chipping away at our republic and the institutions that hold it up. >> it's demented. >> he doesn't have a mike, but i'm going to translate for him. as an author, he thinks it's post modern as well. >> we're going to leave it at that. >> i'm going to go with demented and dangerous to the republic. >> the production is engrossed in this. supposed to be producing the show. alex is leading a seminar. >> what is the president's network saying about this? are they saying what they see?

or are they lying? >> they are literally, and it's very dangerous, because blood will be on the hands of people that whip people into a frenzy and lie. but they are saying there's a coup going on right now. which is one of the most extraordinarily irresponsible things i have heard a major network do. that's what they have been saying all weekend. they have donald trump saying one thing one minute and the next minute completely lly revg himself. >> it's incredibly self-serving. self-serving, inconsistent, ridiculous, detached from reality, you can throw all that out there. but the thing you're pointing to that's important. it's not the first time in the course of the last 12 months where i felt compelled to remind people of what happened in

oklahoma city about a decade ago. in 1995 when mcveigh blew up the building and some of us in this business had to fly out there and see what paranoid, anti-governmenting ranting led to. which was a militia member going and blowing up a federal building and killing hundreds of people. it hasn't happened yet, thank god, and hopefully it won't. but every time you're striking matches and throwing it at this giant pool of gasoline, you're courting this kind of disaster. we will be able to point to the people who helped enable it happening quite pointedly because they are on television every day doing it. >> they are on television every day doing it. i will tell you i had a conversation with roger ailes after gabrielle giffords. and said to him, we have known each other for a long time.

i don't criticize you guys that much. i never told you how to do your job. but we have crossed a line. and i specifically said, glen beck has crossed a line. he says, i won't say the word i said, stuff on television every day that has my mother and other people in my family calling me up believing that the government is coming to kill them. i said, this leads to people getting killed. and i will say it too. i then walk down and i talk to phil griffin. i said, phil, you have people on your air that are whipping up extremists on the other side of glen beck and words have consequences. your television shows have consequences. enough. and of course, i told phil that every day for six years. so it didn't have as much of an impact on phil as maybe on roger

ailes. but we had a great conversation. i'm sure it wasn't because of my phone call, but at some point, he and everybody else at fox understood that at the point glen beck was being irresponsible. glen beck now says that himself. but this, when you're spreading a message that the federal bureau of investigations and that a vietnam war hero who won the purple heart and one e medal after another and devoted his entire life to america that he's launching a coup against the president of the united states, that will, in the same way that other cexperience theorconspira theories, that will attach and take action and, yes, we will

know who put those diseased thoughts in their heads saying that the federal bureau of investigations was launching a coup against an elected president. >> i cannot think of a more reckless, irresponsible thing i have ever heard in my life. this even surpasses what glen beck was saying. >> absolutely it does. and remember, even worse than when glen beck was saying it, it's been encouraged by the president of the united states and his followers. absolutely, we could see another oklahoma city. i would argue charlottesville kol out of this rhetoric and incitement against the government and democracy and everything we stand for. >> i don't want to compare tragedies and hate crimes, they are all horrible. but i was thinking about the scale of it.

that network has these clowns on television who last week went on and repeatedly compared the fbi to the kgb. they said we should shut down the fbi because it's turning into an obama-led kgb. do these people have any idea what the kgb did in the soviet union for a hundred years? they were complicit in deaths of millions of people. tens of millions of people. these people go on television and say the fbi is the kgb. in a weird way, to your point, steve, when trump says it even though he's the president of the united states, i think we're getting -- trump says stuff like this all the time. it's up to us to be the sane ones in the room and not do that. let the president say what he's going to say because there's no way to contain him, but the rest of the responsible adults out here should not be saying things

like the fbi is the kgb. >> joseph stalin's kgb killed many historians people 30 million people. they are on fox news this weekend people women who put thn the line every day for us. who put their lives on the line under the leadership of bob mueller after september 11 to make sure we departmep didn't gh another 9/11. and we didn't get hit with another 9/11 in large part because of bob mueller. and they're comparing bob mueller to joseph stallen's kgb. there no words. >> you're talking about what the fbi has done post 9/11 to try to keep us safe. as someone who spent time in baghdad, i know what fbi agents over there were doing. an american gets kidnapped, they're on the ground immediately trying to figure out what happened. an american gets killed, they're trying to track down and figure

out what happened. they're not just in the united states. they're everywhere that we are at war. they are going to war in the same way that are troops do and i think that it's ridiculous that these so-called conservative news outlets are denigrating people who are putting their lives at risk for our country. >> in afghanistan, iraq, across the globe. every day their sons and daughters don't know whether they're going to come home at night. they do it to protect us. they've done it to protect us. bob mueller has done it to protect us. you have problems with mob mueller, that's fine. don't say he's launching a coup on the united states of america. don't compare him to the kgb. don't inspire hatred that will lead to the killings of americans. >> i want to make sure we post this entire conversation online. this will be the most important conversation probably so far

this year that people who really want to understand the dangers that we face should take a second to listen to. thank you for that. that was really important. we'll be right back. whoooo.

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ings s and do every day. >> sir, you just shoot the gun at the floor and i'll dance. >> that's my girl. >> mr. president. >> if it isn't my fall guy -- i mean, mr. president. . i hope i'm no, ma'am slurring my speech. i had a ginger ale. >> are you here to deck the halls, mike. >> i don't like that song. it mentions gay apparel. >> where's my next ornaments. >> i'm right here father. >> ivanka, you made it, but where's jarred. >> he's packing a go bag before the fbi arrives. >> i'm going to miss him. >> yes, me too. i'll always remember that one time i heard him talk. >> still ahead, new polling shows democrats with their

biggest lead in almost a decade. we'll break down those numbers and what it means for the midterm elections, plus the gop appears on the verge of passing their tax bill, after a couple of key senators flip from no to yes. morning joe will be right back. 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. ♪ ♪ 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?

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# #. 8:00 a.m. on the east coast. 5:00 a.m. out west. with us veteran columnist and

mike barnicle. political writer for the "new york times". former treasury official and economic analyst steve rattner. when voters were asked who they want in charge of congress, new poll shows democrats have their biggest lead since september of 2008. 50% of registered vote voters. 11 point edge. the democrats led by 12 points among independent voters. two points among men and 20 points among women. along with four point advantage with seniors. 48 point lead with voters under 45. republicans continue to hold a two point edge with white voters and 12 point lead among white voters with no college degree.

poll also measured a gap in the interest level among the 2016 electorate with 11 months to go. 62% of clinton voters have a high level of interest. 50% of trump voters do. polls showed an up tick in the approval rating. >> you look at the republican and democratic split and it's just like alabama and just like virginia. young voters especially minority voters, women voters, flocking away from the republican party. >> you go back to the 2012 autopsy after mitt romney lost election. the develop commission and it was all about how the gop needed to focusing on the coming democratic -- looming demographic issues with losing minority voters and losing young voters. that actually didn't impact 2016 as much. i think now with the special elections, we really are seeing

young voters mobilize in a way that they really haven't in previous years. >> here's, steve, we have the short terms problem. which is 2018. we have the long-term. republicans are losing to democrats with people under 35 years of age. i'm going to say this really slowly for republicans because this is the death nail. this is the death star. like aiming right at them. actually, they're firing the death star lasers at themselves. minus 48. they are down 50% basically with people under 35. that stairs with them forever. those 35-year-olders get older and move forward.

this is a branding problem. a republican at 18. they remained a republican until i was 54. people don't switch very much. what do they do? other than just fold up the tent? well, i think there are things they can do. weather they're going to do them or not waits to be seen. the question is are they going to deal with this populist sort of crazy wing of the party and get them out of the way. are they going to actually start to adopt some policies that would help the people that they say they're trying to help. which is what the tax bill does. >> did you hear what our friend tom cole said this weekend. cole came out and said, man, this is -- this bill didn't do what it said we were going to do with working class americans. helping rich people too much. >> that is washington definition of a gaffe. speaking the truth. that is the fact. many people have been pointing it out. you know, the tax bill is

historically unpopular as well because the american public seems to have figured it out. yet they're plunging ahead and going to pass the thing. they're in a terrible place. the party is down the middle. can they pull it together, sure. they can potentially pull it tog together. they've got to start to do some stuff. >> they had the disaster of alabama. i mean this. you think they would have learned their lesson and said we are really turning off younger voters. we're really turning off women. we're really turning off people who aren't just the most hard core republicans. and what do they do right after that, they get state run tv republicans going out saying fire bob mueller. something majority of americans believe would launch a constitutional crisis. they never learn. >> using state run tv and

employing the word coup. >> coup. which is a truly dangerous word to employee. >> who is running fox news, by the way. >> donald trump. >> seriously. >> i think he was serious. >> you see what some of the people are saying. i've stayed away from criticizing fox news for years for a lot of different reasons. you see the irresponsibility, especially this weekend. fox news, let me see that, a constitutional crisis by suggesting to people watching fox neuews in middle america th someone is attempting a coup. a coup against our government. >> let's take a break brought to you by websters dictionary. overthrow of existing government by a small group. that's what they're pushing about a fact finding truth

seeking mission led by a guy who is absolutely, bob mueller, lives his life right down the middle. >> let us be very clear, that was set up by donald trump's own administration. his own justice department. his own attorney general. this is called the rule of law. this wasn't the deep state. this was donald trump's state. we're going to get to this in a little bit, but what they are doing could lead to violence. and what they are doing is about as deeply irresponsible of anything i've ever seen. and, again, for the purposes of this discussion, since the republicans even further down in the approval polls. >> that's i think a key point to the question that you posed a few minutes ago. anecdotely you picked this up.

less to do with the issues of the tax legislation or the environment it's almost a cosmetic fix that young people suburban women have about this administration. the cosmetics are people like bannon on tv. people like -- >> are you saying people like. do they like steve bannon. >> no, people who are like. >> they view and hear people like steve bannon on tv. something that they do, that they say, people like bannon say and do and behave on tv which is where most people get their information about politics. presidential politics. it jars them. 50%. almost 50% of voters under 35. disapprove and are disconnected from the republican party.

devastating impact of the republican party for decades to come. >> if those numbers hold true. i guess they will. no reason to think. what's happening is right now with the tax cut is this is a party doing the last thing it knows how to do, which is cut corporate taxes. all the donors and all the businesses that have been holding their tongues for the trump presidency so far, this is what they get in exchange. when you have full control of both ends of pennsylvania avenue, they say, you know what, we have to do this now. because, in fact, the worst thing is getting the polls. the more incentive they have to be as aggressive as possible right now. they sure can't do this in two years. >> this also this tax bill let's talk about the first major policy initiative of this administration and how it negatively impacts young voters. it's just kicking the can down the road. increasing the deficit. not doing anything to curb

entitlement spending and we as a generation see this ruling class that really could care less in their terms about what kind of country they're leaving. what kind of fiscal health they're leaving the country in. >> this is a tax bill that will turn to young voters into socialists. >> to you point, nick, yes they had a short window to get stuff down. it didn't have to be this way. you could fix the corporate tax code and still be fair to individuals and help working americans. this is the swamp taking over. every special interest, everything donald trump told us he wasn't going to do happening in front of our very eyes. >> front page of the financial times. headline u.s. companies set for big profit windfall from taxover haul. >> fantastic. >> young people out there working, suburban families, they know and they're going to find out the tax cut that they get is

pretty much meaningless in terms of every day life. they also know the reality, the big companies they work for, the company's profits are going to sore. not going to hire. >> it won't be passed down. we said. that happened in the 1980s. >> never happens. >> that doesn't happen now. they're going to buy back more shares. every said it. you know, gary cohen asks all the ceos. nobody raises their hand. because they know. they're going to get the tax break. buy back stock and the millennials, younger voters, that we're talking about. millennials you just had $1.5 trillion stolen from you. past congresses have stolen $20 trillion from you. and over the next 10 years, they're going to steal another $10 trillion from you. and they're going to die and then you're going the be left holding the bill and yes, nick,

as nick said. it's going to turn a lot of people into socialists and our economy is going to collapse. because republicans and democrats in the past, neither have been responsible about the debt. they just keep. republicans who claim to care about the debt are voting to steal $1.5 trillion from millennials, the very people who 48% are saying no, we don't like the republican party. those are record numbers. >> the house rules committee is set to meet today to lay out the rules for debate. when it heads to. the move comes after house and senate republicans unveil that joint tax bill friday afternoon. the plan dramatically cuts corporate tax rates and overhauls the individual tax code. the bill will keep is current seven brackets for income taxes, but it lowers the rates and

changes the income thresholds for example the top rate would be 37% versus 39.6% under current law. in the individual tax cuts, expire after 2025. the standard deduction is almost doubled to between $12,000 for individuals and $24,000 for couples. the new tax bill cuts the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. while taxing foreign earnings at lower rates and offers an expanded child tax credit for some low income families, thanks to a push by republican senators marco rubio and mike lee. that more generous child tax credit was key in securing senator rubio's support for the final bill. as party leaders work to make sure they had the votes needed from gop holdouts. senator bob corker who voted against the initial senate bill

over deficit concerns now says he will vote in favor of the final version. and senator susan collins also expected to back it. >> why would susan collins back this bill? anybody have any answers on that? >> well, what they promised her and see if they can deliver or if they do deliver. votes on two other health care bills coming along that would restore some of the subsidies in her mind, offset the loss of the individual mandate in this tax bill. >> votes yet to come. >> where e know how that works. >> they never come and never give you what they promise you. >> she has to know that. she's been there long enough. susan collins knows it's more likely than not with history they won't have the votes. if they do have the votes, they won't pass the votes. >> she's voting for final package of this bill because she's a nice trusting person who is getting played by republican

leadership. still ahead on morning joe, president trump has been critical of u.s. intelligence agencies in the past, but after rare words of praise from vladimir putin, is trump changing his tone. we'll discuss that, but first let's go to bill karins with a check on the forecast. bill. good morning to you. after yesterday's fire at the airport in atlanta, least thing they needed for today was really dense fog. yesterday over 1,000 flights canceled because of the power outage and underground fire at the airport. right now 39 million people under dense fog advisory. ev visibility in atlanta was a quarter mile. now a half mile. dallas fort worlt worth at a quarter mile. not good. memphis also at a quarter mile here. we're also watching a new storm coming into the northwest. little rain today in the pacific northwest. this is the storm that we'll

track christmas week. going coast to coast. behind it much colder air. as we go through this week, tuesday, delays possible. seattle and portland. by the time we get to thursday, watching snow in green bay, possibly minneapolis. thursday rain. unfortunately looks like for saturday that rain arrives for the eastern sea board. a lot of major airports. that's only two days before christmas. pom lar ti popular time for flights. you're watching morning joe. we'll be right back. n. a wealth of perspective. ♪ a wealth of opportunities. that's the clarity you get from fidelity wealth management. straightforward advice, tailored recommendations, tax-efficient investing strategies, and a dedicated advisor to help you grow and protect your wealth. fidelity wealth management.

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mcminnville, tennessee... poughkeepsie, new york... milton, indiana... chattahoochee, florida... wow... we're looking at the whole country. not just the coasts. even in utah, we're starting to realize trump has been doing things that are against our laws. i definitely worry about war. north korea. i don't want that guy's hand near the bomb. sick to my stomach. he's not the kind of person that should be running our country. the things that he does has consequences. is this going to be here for my grandchildren? he's not being held accountable. if we have the vote, like we have for election day, they will impeach him. times square is the crossroads of the world. we need everyone to go and put their name down at needtoimpeach.com. we need to speak up together and demand an end to this presidency.

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russian president called plump yesterday morning and thanked him for cia intelligence that helped russia allegedly twhart a bombing.

>> i think they talked about the last jedi. hwart a bombing. >> i think they talked about the last jedi. >> he's got good tapes at the end of the day. >> no, he was not a jar jar guy. >> the white house read out of that trump putin call said, quote, president trump appreciated the call. and told putin that he and the entire united states intelligence community were pleased to have helped save so many lives. >> so he likes the intel community. >> president trump then called director pompeo to congratulate him. his very talented people and the entire intelligence community on a job well done. exclamation point. was that in a tweet. >> interesting to compare the president there touting the intelligence community and how they helped russia thwart an attacks with the same president doubting the intelligence

committee when it came to intel community assessment of russian election interference. >> you may recall that during november trip to asia, trump met with putin and said every time he sees me, he says i i didn't do that, meaning interfere. and, i believe. ereal i really believe he means that. >> he looked into his eyes and saw in his soul. >> followed that up equity criticieri criticizing. you hear 17 agencies. it's three. one is brennan. and one is whatever. give me a break. he is continued to do it. now some people who are making fools of themselves in history

will prove them to be useful fools. going on fox news and basically saying the fbi has become the kgb, but in this case, you have the president of the united states saying he trusts putin more than he trusts the fbi, the cia, and the entire intel community, the men and women who fight every day, put their livings on the line every day to keep this country safe from terror attacks. >> i continue to be baffled by donald trump's allegiance to vladimir putin over his own intelligence professionals. he never says a bad word about vladimir putin. you go back to even thursday. news happens to constantly. do you remember before le got headed out to speak at the fbi, what he said yet again. there is no collusion. he stressed it again, everyone

agrees democrats and republicans there's no collusion. which is the just flat out false. he really just cannot get over the fact that his election win might have not happened in the way that he would like to believe. >> coming up on morning joe, a top lawyer for president trump's transition team is accusing a government agency of unlawfully handing over e-mails to special counsel robert mueller. and mueller's team is defending its work. msnbc chief legal correspondent joins us life for that discussion next on "morning joe." [ keyboard clacking ] [ click ] [ keyboard clacking ]

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we'll see what happens. let's see. i can say this. when you look at what's gone on with fbi and the justice department, people are very, very angry. >> and by people being very, very angry, president of the united states means, he is very, very angry. so that was donald trump speaking on friday on whether he would pardon michael flynn. that response prompted white house counsel ty cobb to make a clo clarifying statement.

for the record, there's no consideration at all for pardoning michael flynn at all at this time. the top lawyer for the trump transition team is now accusing government agencies of unlawfully providing mueller thousands of e-mails exchanged preen t between the president's advisers. let's clear this up. host of the beat, so is this what you do about nothing? this story about trump transition lawyers sending letters to congress over transition documents? >> based on what we know, much to do about nothing if you can catch a prosecutor in breaking the law or coming close and gathering evidence. >> you where to a judge.

it gets your voice out there, but it doesn't suggest any confidence that you would win in court or you would be going to court. >> has no legal effect whatsoever. you're just again playing nor the cheap seats and hoping some network picks it up and starts talking about a coup. >> what network are you referring to there. >> why do i have to be referring to a network. i said just a network in general. >> m. tv. >> telemundo. perhaps. listen. it's funny. saying the same thing he said an hour ago. you said it. >> he's a lawyer. >> so just to note, though, the other thing that reinforces the point, even in the realm of the trump legal team, you can see that the people who actually have trump's ear on the legal

team were not saying we're not reinforcing this point. they were backing away from hit almost as soon as the letter was sent. the people who were actually on the inside of trump legal team, like ty cobb. no, we're not making a lot of noise. it's just the cheapest pr stunt in the world part of the concerted stunt. >> seems a little ironic. >> if it was a cheap pr stunt, you would have had the president's actual lawyers, ty cobb and others talking ab it. >> try to take enforceable action. i find this ironic considering the 2016 campaign was a huge part of it was railing on hillary clinton for not disclosing all of her e-mails, the so-called missing e-mails and lawyers vetted the e-mails that she disclosed. sounds like that's actually what the trump transition team is arguing they deserve the right to do too. >> the president was on the stump encouraging russia to steal e-mails from the secretary

of state to help his campaign. and now, they're very angry about what was apparently a lawful course course of action to obtain e-mails that came through an actual investigation by an actual investigator in the u.s. it's very interesting that again, they're doing everything they can to attack mueller. they, political people. some hacks on tv. donald trump's own lawyers are saying, we have a good -- we're having good talks with mueller aes team. we're cooperating fully with the beef he's doing everything by the book. you don't hear ty cobb or even j going out there trashing boub muell -- bob mueller. >> you don't. calling for the second special counsel without any evidence of a crime. i don't think they go as much attention as you mentioned as

all these other offensive techniques. there seems to be a little more energy. a little more boil there which suggests some people who work for donald trump feel the need to offer up extra things. credit to dowd and ty cobb who publicly and privately continue to emphasize they want to cooperate. they don't think there's a smoking gun. as far as they're concerned, other people can be charged as long as their client as they view is in the clear. >> they keep saying this investigation is coming to an end soob. no more investigations into the employees of the white house. do you medical leave that. >> i think their emphasis is on showing progress wherever they can. many ways to say give me a little more time. which is something attorneys do. he was saying thanksgiving. now end of year.

now saying beginning of year. all white house staff interviews are over and maybe what that meant is all scheduled interviews are over. doesn't tell you much. we do know historically in an investigate like this, of a complex bureaucracy, you usually finish out the interviews to the top. doesn't mean there's anything wrong. it is a little odd they tried to emphasize procedure steps as if everything is about to end. >> really important thing you said there. people forget. ty cobb, john dowd do not represent jared kushner. they represent other people. they represent the president of the united states. in the end, they don't care. donald trump may care about jared kushner and the other people. those two lawyers when they talk, they're only client is the president. if the president doesn't go down, that's the only thing they have at stake. they don't actually care if other people go down as long as they can protect their clients sgls t. >> the president is their client. one of the things is to keep him

from popping off. keep him chilled out. keep saying to him, it's almost over, it's almost over. it's almost over. >> that's the chamomile tea strategy here. keep things as calm as possible. >> next was thanksgiving and christmas then the new year. next it's going to be pictures and catchers reporting. then it's going to be spring training. then definitely over by opening day. >> thank you so much. we're going to be watching the beat. all the wizards watch the beat every night at 6:00 p.m. eastern. ahead, we have everything you need to know about 2018. we'll explain that when morning joe returns. i love you, couch.

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editor for time magazine to reveal the latest cover of time. 2018 the year ahead in politics. health, culture and more. sixth annual guide to the year ahead. by the way, little thrown off. i'm trying to give spoilers on the last jedi. i won't. you've seen the movie. >> yes >> without spoiling it, what doid you thiid you think. >> i loved it. thought it was great. >> are you a "star wars" fan. >> yes. it's the best "star wars" they've ever made. >> you and my son. my son, he like follows "star wars" creed closer than the bible. he studies everything. we all are. we are all nerds. tall b all the boys are nerds in the family. >> there are going to be a lot of movies next year where people lose their mind. this is the first one of those. the theater i saw it in people were going nuts. >> i think it's the most

anti-millennial movie that's ever been made. it's about how young people rush into situations. people die. be if you slow down, listen to the general exers and older people in the crowd, then you can fight. >> heard going into again. we're not going to spoil anything. i heard going into it mark was a little disappointed because he was grumpy jedi for part of the movie. right about everything. fools rush in. >> that's something you need to learn. something we're going to learn a lot in 2018. >> we can learn just as much from this spiffy new cover of time magazine. robots may safe usz. actually, nick and i believe

they may kill us all. >> in the 2018 time frame, can be pretty comfortable with the robots coming. they're a lot of developments in robots going to dangerous places. more zone places of disasters. that kind of thing. the robots. >> at least 20 years old. >> maybe like 201 year ahead. >> maybe so. how soon do they develop robots they can host a morning show? >> not soon enough. >> tough. it takes a lot of. >> artificial intelligence. artificial ego. >> they can coordinate. it's a colored thing. so you say that there is a republican that has a plan to save the party.

time frame may be a good thing. not so good thing. he is the master minds who is in charge of trying to make sure the midterms are not a disaster for the republicans. a person who can be brusque. he grow up in a -- >> was hillary clinton -- >> he is definitely going to turn the midterms into a referendum on nancy pelosi and who do you want in charge of congress. do you want pelosi or ryan. >> what makes him different? >> he has not really doesn't rely on ads so much. he's really trying to get people to go out there and knock on doors and get people in front of voters and try to convince them personally that they should stick with whoever. >> he thinks that it will solution here for republicans is that they can make nancy pelosi a bigger and worse brand than donald trump.

>> that's right. >> but donald trump seems to want to make himself the only brand in politics, we've read that he doesn't like not seeing his name in the paper. so did cory talk much about what the challenge is when you have a president at the top of the ticket so to speak. >> on the ballot. >> who sucks up all the available energy and attention. >> in you look at the races he's run before and he was instrumental on the special election in georgia. he really makes it a referendum on somebody else. and in terms of talking about trump, the only really time it comes up is an example that anything can happen. even if history is against the republicans in this particular case that anything can happen. >> i knew that a lot of people in the gop are concerned about the impact that president trump has had on candidate recruitment. recruiting quality candidates. certainly what just happened in the alabama was because there was literally the worst candidate the gop could have possibly put forward.

>> it was still close. >> still close. where is he on candidate recruitment and how -- you know, in the motivation of people to put themselves out there into a line with the party of donald trump. >> it's sort of -- it's really not about the person you have, it's about the person you're running against and making it a choice against somebody else really, but if you talk to democrats, they feel good, but they also are worried about their bench. worried about not having 50 state strategy really. i think it may not be the route, the democrats think. >> really quickly got to go to break. tell me about the prime minster of new zealand. this is a great great story. it's a person to watch. youngest female ladd younge youngest female leader in the world. >> young is how young. >> 37. >> she took a bus home from her inauguration. so it's sort of the anti- -- again. quite different than what we have going on here.

>> exactly. one second. so your theater. you said people went crazy. was it like the end of black ford jungle where they tore up the seats when rock around the clock started being played? was it just booing, cheers. >> disney. also made a wrinkle in time the movie we have on the cover this week is really good at understanding what people want and fans want and delivering that in a systemic way. >> there may be people who thought it deviated from "star wars" creed. it was a movie like raiders of the lost arch. movie making meant to entertain the people sitting in the seats. that's nothing wrong with it. >> very good. you'll like it. i promise. time magazine's new guide to the year is on the stands today. matt, thank you so much. >> thank you so much.

coming up next, alabama's contentious senate race has come and gone. some evidence democrats didn't actually gain a new vote in the senate. we'll explain that ahead. i can guide you in. no, thanks , santa. i got this. santa: uh, it 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 up of ford cars, trucks and suvs. for a limited time, get an additional $1,000 cash back on top of 0% financing for 72 months. get these exclusive offers during the ford year end sales event. get these exclusive offers 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.

one of the problems in america politics right now in my opinion is because everybody thinks you're a member of one party, you're going to vote a certain way. that should not be the case. shouldn't ever be the case. i'm going talk to people on both sides of the aisle. try to figure out what i think is in the best interest of my

state and in the country. don't expect me to vote solidly for republicans or democrats. i don't think anybody should depend or be able to count on my vote for anything. they've got to make sure i'm looking at it. studying it. study all alabama's democratic u.s. senator-elect doug jones and whether he's going to be voting with the republicans on some issues. we've been talking about the web the democrats have at their backs going into the midterms. with us to talk about it, former democratic congressman paul hods who served new hampshire's second district from 2007 to 2011. and democratic political strategist, participated in every presidential campaign since 1972, peter emerson. they write about the future of the democratic party. quote, one of the definitive aspects of political campaigns much like most sports contests is that on election day or at the end of the game there are winners and losers. there are not candidates or competitors who almost win or

almost lose. there are winners or losers. right now, the republican legislative chaos and trump's legislate ive failures. even with recent victory, we remain stuck in denial and internal factional wrestling. the mentality of losers. democrats need a total reboot to win again. peter, tell me about it. >> it's just a fact of life that the democrats, with every new poll, like the one you've been discussing this morning, celebrate. when the numbers speak the opposite, whether it's governor, secretaries of state, attorney generals, whether it's the house of representatives, even the senate, democrats are running behind and we don't see any structural rebooting that will -- >> what that? >> everything from messaging. a better deal is the current slogan. a better deal is about as firm as jell-o. you don't even get the fluorescent colors to choose from. it's like an ad for a weekend

furniture sale. voters vote, as you well now, as a former congress person, they vote on the motions. the democratic party is not providing emotional resonant messages to voters whether they be millennials or seniors to drive them to the polls at any level right now. >> doug jones caused some consternation among democrats when he said yesterday he doesn't think president trump should resign. and his campaign in and of itself barely eked it through in alabama because he's pro choice. is -- when are democrats going to open up the party a little? that seems like it's party of your thesis, that democrats have to be more understanding that their cultural differences across the nation. >> absolutely. i'm going to let the former congressman respond because he was recruited specifically to run in a rural at that time

state. >> remember, 2006, rahm emanuel fit the candidate to the district. and clearly doug jones fit his district. look, a squeaker win against a racist child molester is not a template for success or a real h h harbanger of future victory. the democrats really are going to need to pay real attention to their message and their agenda at being able to talk to rural voters if there's any hope of, say, taking back the house, where rural red state voters are not incluned to hear what democrats have been saying. >> john. >> so gents of a certain age, i'll leave elise out of this because she's a good deal younger than rest of us here, we've seen a lot of cycles of this in democratic policies. the squabbles. and you guys -- nothing at the high level theory you guys bring

forward, the argument that strikes me as objectionable. what do you do with a party that has to speak to rural voters on one hand and at the same time has a coalition that is increasingly young urban multiracial progressive? like, how does that get reconcileled in this democratic party as a practical matter. >> first and foremost, you look at what the republicans did over the last 20 years to take back america. they own the state legislatures. they own the secretaries of state. i had a conversation with one of the most premier leaders of a big group in washington and they said we're hiring consultants to devise a strategy. i said why do you need a strategy? the republicans already have a strategy and they execute it successfully. let's take that strategy and figure out the tickets for the democratic party. >> in new hampshire, we're going to run a neighbor to neighbor campaign and that's what you got to do in every state and every district and every county in the country.

you got to get down to the grassroots and really have neighbors talking to neighbors and the national party has to support that which right now i just don't see happening. >> all right, guys, thank you so much. greatly appreciate it. we'll be right back with final thoughts. bp's natural gas teams use smart app technology to share data from any well instantly. so they can analyze trends and stop potential problems in their tracks. because safety is never being satisfied and always working to be better.

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the violent overthrow of existing government. that word is being loosely bandied about by people who ought to know better. >> donald trump's lawyers are meeting with bob mueller's team this week. that should be an interesting meeting. maybe it's just, you know, a normal procedural or maybe they're giving a head's up about something. >> what do you think? >> following up on mike's point, i would like to advise all of those who not only are going for a coup, but the fbi somehow or even in recent years has somehow resembled the kgb. get off the wiki media. go read some things about the rise and fall of the soviet union and find out what the kgb was really like in the early part of the 20th century and then come back and tell me if the fbi looks anything like that. >> there was some people that had tweeted that i was talking about one particular program or one particular show or one particular -- no, i wasn't. i was talking --

>> there are multiple clowns. >> i was talking about everything that happened throughout the entire weekend. i wasn't calling out one person or one show. there was a concerted effort and there has been a concerted effort, there have been talking points about, quote, worse than water co watergate. i saw a public elected figure from florida talking about worse than watergate. shocking. i saw a talk show host talking about worse than watergate, shocking. i saw people who had no idea what they were talking about. talking about coups, comparing the men and women at the fbi to the thugs in the kgb that conservatives actually have always feared. now, these people are not conservative. they're not even worthy of the term right wing. there's nothing right wing about who they are or what they are doing. i just hope somebody with some responsibility and some authority stops that extremist

talk before somebody gets hurt. it's happened before. it happened in oklahoma city. it can happen again. if this reckless reckless talk continues. that does it for us this morning. >> on a high note. >> stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. stephanie. >> thank you very much, joe. good morning. i'm stephanie ruhle with much to cover after this weekend. starting with questioning mueller. the president's lawyer says the special counsel illegally obtained thousands of transition team e-mails that are now being used in the russia investigation. >> not looking good. it's quite sad to see that so my people were very upset about it. >> the mueller team says try again. and the taxing time line. with just five days until christmas break and a looming government shutdown, republicans are very close to passing a massive tax bill. >> there's a terrific bill that's going to get to the president to sign