that is our broadcast tonight as we start a new week. thank you so much for being here with us. good night from nbc news gsz. amtrak train korecareened o bridge in. could be a major win for president trump or republicans in the senate have no room nor for error. nbc news exclusive report. fbi warned donald trump before the 2016 election that foreign adversaries, including russia, would probably try to infiltrate his campaign. good morning, everyone.

it's tuesday, december 19. i'm ayman mohyeldin alongside yasmin vossoughian. we're learning more details about the amtrak that sent rails tumbling. overnight the national safety transportation board confirmed the train was traveling 80-mile-per-hour in a 30-mile-per-hour zone. at least three people were killed when the derailment happened. amtrak says 80 passengers and five crew members on board at the time. according to washington state police, 72 people were taken to local hospitals. >> everything was fine and suddenly, you know, just out of the clear blue, there was no warning of any kind. it was just total shock. i thought initially it was an explosion. a lot of yelling and skraem icr i was probably one of the first few guys out of the train and a lot of people were stuck in the

train. so they were running in, and, you know, trying to get them t out. >> amtrak saying the train was not using the technology positive train control that can be used to prevent derailments. >> bring in scott live. good to talk to you this morning. what more are we learning about the cause of this crash, why it was traveling at 80-mile-per-hour when it should have been going 30. >> well, that's the big question, yasmin. it's something the national transportation safety board team which only got here late last night is going to be looking into. as you said, they were able to determine the speed. they did that quickly. they found the black box on one of the locomotives. determined indeed the train was going 80-mile-per-hour in a 30-mile-per-hour zone. this track is configured so the engineer has to slow the train down from 80 miles an hour down to 30 miles an hour to make that

turn. clearly that didn't happen. and the question is why didn't it happen. and also, there's a lot of attention being paid to positive train control. that's the technology that's been around for a while, but only spe radically implemented around the country that can automatically slow down a train going too fast. the technology was in effect here. investigations don't know if that would have prevented the accident. this is a tragedy with multiple levels. take a look at interstate five now. you see the scene of the disaster there. train car still on the highway. cranes have been brought in to try the get the wreckage out of there. anybody's guess as to when they'll be able to get the highway back open. there could be structural damage that they'll have to deal with as they continue to deal with the investigation. yasmin? >> about 16 hours or so after that crash took place, still very much an active scene there and a lot of questions, not a

lot of answers. scott, thank you. president trump's initial reaction to the train derailment was to tweet about the relationship to his policy agenda. quote, the train accident that just occurred in due ponte washington are soon to be submitted infrastructure plan must be approved quickly. $7 trillion spent in middle east while our roads, bridges tunnelling and railways crumble. not for long. ten minutes after that my thoughts and prayers are with everyone involved in the train accident. thank you to all the wonderful first responders. currently monitoring it here at the white house. >> swimpi ingswimp switches gea the house vote is expected around 1:30 this afternoon. the bill is expected to pass and head over to the senate where there is less room for error, but is also expected to pass that chamber as well. senator john mccain will miss the vote as he recovers from

chemotherapy. senator susan collins and mike lee who had been undecided said yesterday that they would actually support the bill. only senator jeff flake remains undecided. vice president mike pence has postponed trip to middle east in case his vote is needed to break a tie. meanwhile, senator corker railed against what the bill would do denies that an added provision that would actually enrich him personally was the reason why he flipped in favor of the measure. take a listen. >> obviously, i didn't finish reading the bill until this weekend. it's a 503 page bill. and obviously was never aware of it. certainly had nothing to do with me deciding i wanted to vote for the bill. when i didn't even know the provision existed. >> couple days before the holidays, mitch mcconnell laid out what he plans to tackle before he leaves town.

ambitious agenda packed into this week. starts with tax reform. expires friday. renew funding for chip. children's health insurance program. renew the veterans choice program for va needs. pass supplement funding for hurricane ravaged states and territories. pass a waiver to avoid automatic medicare cuts and stabilize obama market bills. action from this list is daca, republicans say will be dealt with january as it nears expiration deadline in march. >> i thought i had a busy two weeks before the new year begins. all right. joining us live from washington, breaking news reporter for the washington examiner. melissa quinn, great to have you with us this morning. let's talk a little bit about republicans and expectations to vote on the gop bill tax bill today. what are you going to be watching out for. what should we be looking out

for as this plays out on capitol hill. good morning. i think this vote specifically in the senate is going to be one with very little fanfare. really, that changed yesterday when susan collins and mike lee both republicans who had expressed some he is takes about the plan came out in support. what that really did is gives them more wiggle room. one senator to watch is going to be jeff flake, the republican of arizona. as you mentioned earlier, he is at this point the only republican senator who has not come out and said whether he is in favor or opposed to the bill, but the thing about senator flake is that he really is not opposed to sort of bucking president trump and his agenda. we've seen him frequently speak out against president trump and i don't think he's one who would have any qualms about going against his party and opposing the legislation. >> melissa, obviously avoiding a government shutdown, also the days are narrowing for that. are we going to see woet sides

he here come to an agreement here before christmas so we don't come to government shutdown. >> i think that's the million dollar question. the litany of items for mitch mcconnell before the end of the year, there is speculation about what is going to happen with the government spending bill. republican leaders and congress, mitch mcconnell and paul ryan have been meeting with democratic counter parts. hopefully to come to some sort of an agreement. at this point, doesn't look like an agreement has been reached and there are a number of items including legislation to stabilize obamacare's health insurance market. of course. democrats are pushing for legal protections. for dreamers which we know expire in march. that make this situation all that more complex and complicated given the various dynamics within each party of the house and the senate. interesting to see how it's all going to play out. live in washington. thank you. nearly ten months after

inauguration president trump announced national security str strategy yesterday. made a point to bash predecessors. extensively listing grievances and things he views as, quote, failures and also reiterated many campaign vows before proclaiming a new list of fundamental truth that serve as a base for his strategy. >> america is in the game and america is going to win. our strategy, for instance, we must protect the american people. the homeland and great american way of life. this strategy recognizes that we cannot secure our nation if we do not secure our borders. the second pillar of or strategy

is to promote american prosperity. economic security is national security. the third pillar of our strategy is to reserve peace through strength. we recognize that weakness is the surest path to conflict and unrivalled power is the most certain means of defense. fourth and finally, our strategy is to advance american influence in the world. this begins with building up our wealth and power at home. >> so trump also made a point of slamming russia and china as rival powers that seek to challenge america influence, value, and wealth. >> the president's speech contained little about stopping the type of cyber warfare russia is believed to use to metal in the 2016 election. now exclusive nbc news report reveals the fbi cautioned then candidate trump about foreign rivals including russia during the campaign.

nbc peter aaron hicks has more on this. nbc news learned senior fbi officials warned donald trump weeks before he secured the gop nomination. >> my message is things have to change. >> foreign adversaries including russia would likely try to spi and infiltrate his campaign. according to government officials familiar with the matter. both urged to alert the fbi about any suspicious overtures. candidate trump made his own unusual overtures. >> calling nbc's report on the contents of a classified conversation an inappropriate leak. mr. trump's toward russia translating to policy. vladimir putin keeping praise on president trump. cia helping break up a major terror plot in russia.

also under scrutiny, transition team. one lawyer counsel robert mueller improperly obtained thousands of e-mails now being used in the russia probe. in a rare public statement, a mueller spokesman says not true. >> you can't unring this bell. if they've already reviewed the e-mails and know what's in them, then deleting them or giving them back doesn't really change anything. >> senior republicans on the house intel committee tell nbc news they expect to conclude they year long russia investigation in the coming weeks. top democrats are complaining they would like more witnesses to be interviewed and claiming republicans are trying to shutdown the probe prematurely. "washington post" reports that people with knowledge of the mueller investigation said it could last another year. with members of special counsel seam says that expect to be working through how much of 2018 at a minimum. still ahead, ambassador nikki haley offering up harsh

words at u.n. vote. been three months since hurricane maria. puerto rico is still struggling. very latest on the recovery efforts there. plus a check on the weather when we come back.

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welcome back. the united states has vetoed a decision to recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel. >> the fact this is district manager done in defense of american sovereignty. it's not a source of embarrassment for us. it should be an embarrassment to the remainder of the diplomatic counsel. some presume to tell america where to put our embassy.

the united states has a sovereign right to determine where we establish an embassy. the united states will not be told by any country where we can put our embassy. what we witnessed here today in the security counsel is an insult. it won't be forgotten. >> it was the first time ambassador haley has used veto power and first time in six years the u.s. has done so. added it's a charge. administration will review the death toll from the hurricane especially hurricane maria earlier this year after criticism that the number of fatalities was severely underreported. officially only 64 deaths have been pinned to the category four hurricane that made landfall or september 20. analysis by the "new york times" found in the 42 days after land

fall, 1052 people died across the island. according to "washington post," government will re-examine medical records and call doctors for more information to determine whether deaths identified as quote, natural need to actually be reclassified. in the nearly three months since this storm, thousands are still with little or unreliable access to electricity. making it difficult for those who depend on equipment and medicine and treatment to stay alive. switch gears and bring in nbc meteorologist. bill karins. give us an update. >> we don't have to switch gears. it's good to keep bringing up puerto rico and remember they're going to go through the holiday season and still like 35% of people don't have power. it's been over three months now. and we can't forget that story and forget about the suffering they're still going through and will go through for who knows how long. let's get into the story of the morning. the fog once again. yesterday we had 38 million people in dense fog. this morning up to 59 million.

the reason we have so much fog out there. extremely warm. we have a lot of humidity. moisture in the air. we have dense fog from areas of southern kansas, all texas throughout all the gulf coast. almost the entire state of florida. now many places reporting visibility under a quarter mile. some areas like houston reporting zero visibility. houston international airport. just like pea soup type fog. we will see a change during the day. storm system coming in. clear things out a little bit with the heavy rain a bit. right now thunderstorms and heavy rain. that's sliding up over austin and waco. here's 7:00 a.m. this morning. heavy rain. not yet in dallas. by the time we go through the afternoon, that's when it will shift up towards dallas. ly is really drench memphis and

nashville. northern portions of mississippi. all day take the rain right through the state of north carolina and also through south carolina. today's forecast. there's the fog. there's the rain. one more maybe one and a half more warm days in areas like boston, new york, d.c. d.c. near 60 degrees today for your tuesday. that's much warmer than it's going to be next week when we have a cold air arrive. minneapolis, small sample of the cold coming your way. by the time we get to wednesday, only 25 for you. rain in the southeast and begins to cool off in areas especially of northern new england. take a look coming up next half hour at the christmas forecast. changes especially in the northeast. chance that some people could get snow on christmas. >> really. >> wow. >> look at that smile on her. >> i'm like teasing a little seven-year-old kid. >> wow. >> and i'm seven. >> thanks, bill. still ahead the falcons and the bucks squared off on monday night football. all came down to the final play

of the game. plus kobe gets not one, but two numbers lifted to the rafters last night in los angeles. sports is next. [ mouse clicks, keyboard clacking ] [ mouse clicking ] [ keyboard clacking ] [ mouse clicking ] [ keyboard clacking ] ♪ good questions lead to good answers. our advisors can help you find both. talk to one today and see why we're bullish on the future. yours.

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and help make tomorrow possible. ask your doctor about entresto so this is the all-new chevy equinox. it's gorgeous. it offers rear seat reminder, built-in 4g lte wifi... apple car play compatibility... wow... ...and teen driver technology. that's crazy... now to get all of these features, you'd need all six of those crossovers. that's insane! yep, and you still wouldn't get everything that's in this equinox. wowww... six cars in one. use your employee discount for everyone to get forty -five hundred dollars below msrp on this 2018 chevy equinox. find new roads at your local chevy dealer. welcome back. louis is here for sports. falcons travel to tampa bay. bucks just trying to play spoiler at this point. out of the playoff picture. go to second quarter. we love big guys that score

touchdowns. freeman, that's a fumble. offensive lineman jumps on the ball. that's a touchdown. love that. he'll keep that ball for the rest of his life. 14-7 lead. freeman would also redeem himself in the third quarter. 32 yard run. no fumbles this time. safety. >> that poor guy. >> 24-14 lead. here come the bucks. he's looking for adam humphries. touchdown. only down by three. time for the kicker. this is for the tie. jeez. that was low and right the whole way. that pretty much sums up the bucks season. 54 yard kick. wide right. falcons win, 24-21. playoff hopes still alive. john skipper has resigned as president of espn and co-chairman of disney media siting a problem with addiction. i've struggled for many years with a substance addiction. decided the most important thing i could do right now is take care of my problem.

while there's no word yet on skipper's replacement. sports network will replace from 1998 to 2011. as acting chairman for the next 90 days. to the nba, hasn't been the same ever since kobe bryant retired in 2016. didn't take long for the lakers to retire his numbers. eight and 24. kobe was honored last night before the lakers squared off before the warriors. thanked laker's legends, fans and support. now he won five championships during that expaspan. he's the only player to have two different numbers retired by the same team in nba history. game leader in points free throws and steels. now the only question is which kobe was better. number 8 or 24? >> you know i'm going to have to weigh in on that one. >> it's 24. >> oh, bill. why do you think that.

>> that's how i remember. i picture kobe, i picture 24. >> how many championships did he win with eight or 24 bill. >> i would have to research that. >> you do that. you get back to me. >> i would probably say eight when he started out his career with shaq in the early career. >> he won two with shaq. >> it's not about the quantity, it's the quality. thanks, bill. one of president trump's judicial nominees withdraws after video conference went viral. >> live to the deadly amtrak derailment. investigators still on the scene this morning. very latest coming up next.

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let's start with the morning's top stories. house is set to vote on the republican tax plan today moving one step closer to the president's first major legitive victory. house vote is expected around 1:30 this afternoon. expected to pass and head over to senate where there's less room for error, but still expected to pass. >> john mccain will miss the tax vote. continues recovering from chemotherapy. yesterday tweeted a thanks for all the words of encouragement. feeling better and looking forward to returning to work after the holidays. learning more details about the deadly am track derailment that sent cars tumbling from a bridge outside of tacoma washington. overnight. confirmed that the train was traveling 80 mills an hour in

30-mile-per-hour zone. three people killed when the derailment happened. five crew members on board at the time. according to washington state, a police 72 people were taken to the local hospitals there. joining us now from washington once again. nbc news scott cohen. good to see you once again. what more do you know about the derailment and possible causes. >> well, we don't know yet what the cause was. as you said, they know now looking at the block box that the train was going 80-mile-per-hour in a 30-mile-per-hour zone. we also know that the way that this track is configured, the engineer has to take the train down a straight way going around 80 mills an hour down to 30-mile-per-hour in a relatively short distance. it's a challenging maneuver and for whatever reason they weren't able to do it on this maiden voyage on this newly refurbished track between seattle and

portland. you can take a look at the scene now. train cars still in the middle of interstate five. cranes brought in to remove those cars. we don't know yet how long it will be before the interstate is open. in the meantime, people who survived this disaster are telling some truly harrowing stories. >> i heard the sound first. and then felt instability and i thought we derailed. we derailed. we came off the rails, i could tell. >> we start to lean and your body naturally understands this isn't normal and then when glass and shatter and people are flying, you know, you're like oh, my god. this is real. >> three people killed in this disaster. 72 people transported to local hospitals. ten with series injuries. put that in perspective of the 85 people who were aboard this

train, only ten walked away unhurt. >> still an unbelievable scene there this morning. scott cohen, thank you. now to politics, new reporting from nbc reveals in high level counter intelligence briefings during the summer of 2016, warned then candidate donald trump that russians might try to infiltrate his campaign. siting multiple government officials familiar with the matter. report says the warnings were timed to occur around the period when the candidates actually began receiving classified intelligence which put them at greater risk for being targeted by foreign spies. trump was briefed and warned at a session on august 17, 2016. about potential espionage from russia. according to two former law enforcement officials familiar with those sessions and that spoke to nbc news. hillary clinton received a similar briefing and the candidates were urged to alert the fbi about any suspicious overtures to their campaigns. by the time of the warn in late july or august, at least seven trump campaign officials had

been in contact with russians or people linked to russia. again, according to public reports. there is no public evidence that the campaign reported any of that to the fbi, but it's unclear whether the warning about russia was passed on to other campaign officials. a lot of questions there. that's for sure. president trump's high expectation for the end the russia investigation could ratchet up tensions between trump and mueller. legal team is heading to hear the justice department probe is at an end and the president will be cleared. cnn reporting that unnamed sources who have spoken with the president say trump seems so convinced of his impending exoneration telling associates mueller will soon write a letter clearing him. the post reports people with knowledge of the investigation said it could last at least another year. and members of mueller's team have told others they expect to be working through much of 2018 at a minimum. white house lawyers have told the president he could be

exonerated as early as the beginning of the year after previously reassuring him he would be cleared by thanksgiving and christmas. they plan to ask mueller's investigators if they need more information about reaching a conclusion that the probe related to trump is complete. the white house confirmed judicial nominee matthew peterson withdrew his name from consideration. had this to say about his grilling of peterson. >> just because you've seen my cousin vinny, doesn't qualify you to be a federal judge. he has no litigation experience. and my job on the judiciary committee is to catch him. >> so he's not going to be a judge. >> i would strongly suggest he not give up his day job. he has told me, he said kennedy, when some of my guys send an illusion i qualify, you do your job. >> this as the daily beast reports republican senators including kennedy have grown frustrated with the white house counsel of the nomination

process. the number of unqualified picks that are being pushed. mcgahn has exercised a growing influence over nominations appointing allies to key positions within the department of justice as well judicial nominees. peterson was mcgahn's protege during his time and another failed nominee brett tally is the husband of mcgahn's chief of staff. number of unqualified picks have caused the white house to experience some embarrassment. we mentioned the republican tax bill is on the verge of passing congress. the house votes today and senate vote today or tomorrow. joining us now from washington, once again, breaking news reporter from the washington examiner melissa quinn. good to talk to you once again. number of on the fence republican senators have announced they're now going to back the gop tax plan. why are they now back on board. >> i think the two most surprising switches came from susan collins and bob corker.

bob corker was the only republican to oppose the senate's version of the bill when they voted a few weeks ago. senator corker in interviews yesterday said the reason he decided to come out in support of the plan is after he spoke with a number of local businesses in his home state of tennessee, he also spoke with treasury secretary stoouf mutevn and went for a long walk and said is this bill going to make the country better and the answer in his mind was yes. i'm sure senator leader mitch mcconnell was relieved to see susan collins come out. it has been reported she went ahead and announced her support for the plan because both president trump and mitch mcconnell promised her votes on two different bills that would stabilize the obamacare markets. with their support for the bill as well as that from marco rubio and mike lee, this certainly puts the tax plan on more stable footing heading into this evenings's vote.

>> it's hard to imagine almost a year, full year into president trump's time in office, this is going to be his first major legislative win, but is this really going to be a win for mitch mcconnell or will passing this tax reform be somewhat of a liability going into 2018 because the bill according to several polls is highly unpopular with the public. >> i think both president trump and mitch mcconnell are certainly hoping that members of the republican base look at this tax reform bill and say not only is it going to provide them with relief, and hopefully raise their incomes. it will also create jobs as they say, but this is going to be as you said a major test, not only for president trump, but mitch mcconnell. the republican led congress has struggled all year to deliver president trump any legislative victim have is. we've obviously seen victories in terms of the nominations process for trump's judicial nominees, but they failed to pass a bill repealing and replacing parts of aokiobamacar

they said this was next on the agenda. a lot of republicans are hoping when they head home for the holidays potentially at the end of the week, see about that. going home with one victim have i for voters. >> quickly, there's still as we've mentioned earlier a very lengthy to do list for members of congress. what should we look for in this week. what are they going to get done. >> that remains to be seen. a government spending bill is top of the list. there have been reports mitch mcconnell wants to include reauthorization of section 702, the government surveillance program potentially in that government spending bill. help gain sport from democratic senators where there's likely to be more of a challenge in getting a spending bill passed. also talk of including those two obamacare stabilization bills that mitch mcconnell promised susan collins on the fax reform plan. and democratic members pushing for legal protection ifs dreamers. that is something that both the white house and congressional republicans want to see dealt

with at a later date. a lot to do in a very short period of time. >> melissa quinn, thank you. >> thank you. new report president trump considered pulling kneneil gor h gorsuch's nomination to the court. grew angry after the nominee was critical of attacks on judges. one source with knowledge of the situation said trump expressed concerns that gorsuch would not be loyal and was upset with what he called gorsuch's insufficient gratitude for the nomination. to calm the fears that the white house gave him a letter from gorsuch that thanked trump for the nomination and complimented his address to congress. had to ensure trump he was trying to make independence. pulling the nomination could anger supporters. >> now really how this sort of thing should work. >> two weeks ago, 35 democrats called on colleague al franken

to resign. no one senior democrat has rescinded demand and others considering their position after this plea who had refused to join the chorus against franken. >> what they did to al was atrocious, the democrats, most hypocritical thing i've ever seen done to a human being and have enough guts to sit on the floor and watch him give a speech and go over and hug him. that's hypocrisy at the highest level i've ever seen in my life. made me sick. here's a man that all he said take me through the ethics committee. i will live by whatever decision and walk away thanking this opportunity i've had while i was here. you find out if you think i'm a predator. . al says listen, i've got a lot of flaws this is not one of them. give him a chance to prove it. if they had enough guts and conscious and heart to say we

made a mistake asking prematurely for you to leave. an ethics, you know, investigation. and live by whatever comes out and then we'll vote on you, al. that's what they should do. that's the human decedent thing to do. if they have any decency in them, they would do that. every one who signed for him to go out, including chuck schumer would do that. >> senator patrick leahy of vermont said he regrets his decision. a statement provided to the burlington free press. i have stood for due process throughout my years as a prosecutor and in sharing the judiciary committee. i regret not doing that this time. the ethics committee should have been allowed to investigate and make recommendation. politico reporting another two senators that voted for him to step down said they felt rushed. many felt comfortable. those familiar with franken's thinking said he is not

reconsidering his decision to resign. still ahead with tax reform about in the rearview mirror. live report next. (avo) when you have type 2 diabetes, you manage your a1c,

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welcome back, everybody. want to turn to business now. twitter announced it's going to aggressively enforce new rules to stop abusive behaviorme. supposed to be a widespread. >> good news. >> what more can you tell us about this. >> these aren't new guidelines. just now enforcing them. going to be reviewing accounts banning groups that engage or promote violence or groups that claim they have extremist goals. now taking action it seems from a business perspective.

trying to either retain existing users or attract new ones put off by some of the stuff we've seen on the platform. always about maintaining the user base. sticking with silicone valley overnight. american authorities have making more requests for people's data in secret than ever before. the number of requests rose 26% for the first six months of 2017 versus the last six months. number that came with confidentiality demand rose from 50% to 57%. a lot of numbers. of the 52,000 requests, facebook said they approved 85% of them. >> wow. kind of scary to hear that much data is being transferred to the government. >> it's good to hear they are enforcing the new rules. >> also important facebook releases the information to the public. >> so they know what's happening. >> let's talk about the controversial thing happened yesterday with president trump. pushing infrastructure after the train derailment. how likely is it that his $1

trillion infrastructure plan is going to happen next year. >> well, even before this awful tragedy in washington state, critics have been pointing out that president trump promises on improving airports, roads, railways, schools lagging behind as a priority. he's talked about a trillion dollars. independent experts. civil engineers say 2 twld $2 $. one of the challenges of course with this tax reform bill we could get a vote on today, really sucked up energy, time, and congress. most importantly, when you're talking about the deficit, fewer funds to go around once this tax reform bill passes. >> think about the conflict of interest if you have saudi investing in the u.s. infrastructure project to bring it up to speed. that could be controversial stuff if they were to happen. >> absolutely. and new twitter enforcements.

you're going have to tone it down on twitter. we don't want your account to be suspended. >> been flagged a little bit. >> stop harassing us, bill. live in london this morning. thanks. let's get a check on weather. nbc meteorologist bill karins. >> i promise that christmas. >> bill too, by the way. his twitter account. >> yasmin, we're going to get to tend of forecast. i'm going to give you christmas forecast. we're only six days away. we get a little better within five to seven days. fog is the issue. 62 million people with fog advisories from florida all the way the texas. heavy rains through central texas. this is storm one. going be a rainmaker. storm two is coming on shore in the pacific northwest. this is going to change the weather pattern across the country. wednesday snow in the rockies. thursday snow around minneapolis. green bay. a little back here in south dakota. thursday snow wrapped up. rain for a lot of airports. start to get here friday and maybe like detroit, louisville,

saturday this rain comes to the east coast and minor airport delays. not going to be a heavy delay. could be some problems out there with that. temperatures continue to be extremely warm across the country. this december warmth will get replaced next week. enjoe the warmth while it lasts. here's how it looks, we are frigid. it's negative 1 for a high in minneapolis on christmas day. about as cold as it gets here in the plains. here in the east, we have a storm coming up the coast. plenty warm enough, boston, new york, rain, once you get to northern new england, central new england, we could have snow, maybe a little ice to deal with, too. there in the central portions of the appalachians in west virginia. yasmin, new york city is not looking at snow or i-95. northern new england, christmas day. >> i'm happy for the northern new englanders. you did tease me, obviously.

>> i didn't tell you how it would ends up. >> the grinch still ahead the trump administration blames north korea for a massive regime next. why do you put up with it? believe it or not you actually like what you do. even love it. and today, you can do things you never could before. you're working in millions of places at once with iot sensors. analyzing social data on the cloud to create new designs. and using blockchain to help prevent fraud. so get back to it and do the best work of your life. and using blockchain to help prevent fraud. let out your inner child at the lexus december to remember sales event. lease the 2017 is turbo for $299 a month for 36 months. experience amazing at your lexus dealer.

welcome back, everyone, the white house is blaming north korea for the ransom ware cyber attack. in an op ed in the "wall street journal," thomas bossert

attendees out the case to kourn counter beijing's actions. joining us life, janice, we had that sony incident a couple years ago, everyone attributed to north korea. was this a tip of the iceberg of what they are unleashing? >> reporter: so the sns and cia long suggested, this was accusation it was directly responsible t. virus hit 300,000 computer, crippled banks, hospitals and other companies. now in this op edit calls for the u.s. to call on all responsible nations to work against north korea's capabilities to carry out cyber attacks and circumvent international sanctions in order to raise money for the regime. we saw on the week an australian man was charged with being an economic agent of north korea for allegedly trying to broker

sales from everything of missile components to shipments of coal in violation of u.n. sanction, it's long been known they have this hacker source to rattle nerves and steal money. >> that goes to the regime, which ultimately goes to funding the development of the nuclear weapons program. it's worth photoing in terms of actual capability as far as the internet goes that in october russia established an internet connection with north korea. until now, china unicom had been the sole provider of internet services in north korea. that was the case since 2010. now with the added infrastructure, pyongyang has increased its band width by 60%. it also provides a second connection from north korea to the outside world. >> important to note, it's not ordinary citizens that have access to the internet at least all of the internet in north korea, which makes you wonder who is behind these cyber

attacks in that country. thank you coming up next on "morning joe," everybody, carol lee with the russia investigation. she tells us the warning then candidate donald trump received in the weeks after winning the nomination and russians trying to inif ill trait his campaign. kevin brady, chairman of the house ways and means committee joins us and republican tom cole as well, "morning joe," everyone, just moment ace way.

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welcome back, everybody. before we toss it over to "morning joe," let's get a check of the stories you will be hearing about in the day ahead. as mentioned, the house is set to vote on the republican tax plan, moving one step closer to the first major legislative victory t. house vote is expected about 1:30 this afternoon. meanwhile, jeff sessions travels to north korea to fight violent crime. he made a serious appearance in ohio yesterday. >> that's it for us. "morning joe" starts right now. >> on january 20th, 2017, i stood on the steps of the

capitol to herald the day the people became the rulers of their nation again. [ applause ] thank you. >> president trump yesterday in washington. good morning here in new york, it's tuesday, december 19th. we have msnbc contributor mike barnacle, sam stein, author of "a world in disarray." richard haase, nbc news who has a new nbc news exclusive this morning. >> as she always does. >> she always does. >> good to have you often board this morning, serving just fine, right? in there the tree looks beautiful in the plaza. >> it does, it will be christmas sometime soon, is it coming? is everybody ready? >>