joy." maybe donald trump will call in. never know. and reverend al hosts a special "politics nation: 2017, a year in social injustice." that does it for "dateline saturday night mystery". it's "mtp daily" with katy tur. if it's friday, alarm bells ring -- are you listening? good evening. i'm katy tur in new york in nor chuck todd. welcome to "mtp daily." the people around the president are simultaneously celebrating the end of this year, and freaking out about next year. let's start with the senate's pop trb mitch mcconnell, and his year-end press conference today. celebrating. >> this has been a year of extraordinary accomplishment.

by any objective standard. >> yes! that is mitch mcconnell celebrating. trust us. and here he is sounding the alarm over next year, telling the "washington examiner" the environment is not great. generic ballot not good and i'd love to see the prid's approval rating higher. we shouanticipate a knock down out even on the senate side. celebrating the tax plan as a boon for the naeparty in 2018, politico sends a warning to the white house of the party's collapse with female voters. same with the president's inner circle as the "washington post" reports. within hours of celebrating, aides and outside advisers vented frustrations with electoral defeats this year and concerns about the 2018 political map. and as for the president, he officially signed the tax bill

today before leaving for mar-a-lago insisting this plan is going to sell itself. and democrats are going to come onboard in 2018. >> mr. president, can you talk a little about how much you'll travel to sell this tax bill? >> i don't think i have to travel too much to sell it. i think it's selling itself. it's becoming very popular. i think the democrats will really regret, democrats already regret it. they have their typical thing, it's for the rich. they know that's not true. i really believe we're going to valuate of bipartisan work done, and maybe we start with infrastructure. >> right now democrats have very little incentive to help the president next year. not in this political environment, which as i mentioned, is freaking out a lot of republicans as they celebrate the end of 2017. to put it simply, the trend is not their friend. steve kornacki is at the big board to break it all down. >> well, look, katy, to 18,

midterms, the big year. 2017, off year, produced clues, very important clues. three i think pointing about where politics, where elections in 2018 might be heading. number one, show you this. the generic ballot. the question we ask in polls. which party would you like to see control congress? do you plan to vote for in 2018? ending 2017 with the average of all the polls out there giving democrats a double digit advantage on this question. that is significant. obviously, yes, plenty of time between now and the midterms. it can change. for a party, an opposition party, up double digits on this question at the end of a presidential first year in office is usually a very alarming sign for that president and for his party. that's one of the signs. there are more, though. this is always crucial in midterm elections. there's always been a relationship between the president's approval rating and how the election goes for the president's party. you see it here. the wave elections. midterm elections of modern

times. first-term presidents suffering big losses in midterm elections, what do they have in common? approval rating well under in cases 50%. look where donald trump is end of this year. 36%, right in line. at the low end of what historically has meant wave elections against the white house party in that first midterm. worse for trump, again, it can change. everything can change, worst for trump, highest the number has been. gallup takes the poll, highest, 46%. still puts him in a danger zone. again, that is sign two. sign number three, simple. it's what we've seen. actually had happen in special elections this year. look, you've got four house races here and three of them, kansas fourth district around wichita. south carolina's fifth around rock hill. at-large seat in montana. look at that. 20, 15, 15, double digit gains for the democrats from trump's performance in '16.

of course, the alabama senate race. democrats winning first time in a generation. the only thing republicans can look at this map and take solace from, trump barely won in atlanta. republicans won it. honestly, the only positive thing looking at this map that republicans can take out of 2017. otherwise, historically, got three things pointing at the end of 2017 to a hopeful year of 2018 for democrats. republicans, maybe have to say, hey, trump defied history in 2016. we need you to defy history in 2018. >> cold, hard numbers. thank you. joined by msnbc political analyst hugh hewitt and host of "hugh hewitt" right here on msnbc. thanks for being here. you watched kornacki lay out numbers of republicans in 2018. the looks of what he's talking about, it doesn't look good. what is your reaction? >> well, don't bet against

kornacki when it comes to numbers. republicans have every right to be cautious. give it time. point to an overwhelmingly favorable republican map in terms of the number of democratic seats to be defended in states that it donald trump carrieded. states like missouri, claire mccaskill faces josh holly and look at 3% growth in 2017 in the likelihood of 4% growth next year and katy, what the president said about the bill selling itself. in the two days since the tax bill passed, three different companies, comcast among them, our parent company, the bank of america and at&t have given $1,000 bonuses to 445,000 individuals. that's the kind of thing that mitch mcconnell is talking about the optics changes, that paul ryan talked about. the reframing of the political environment. so the president's numbers are horrible, but the accomplishments of this year especially when it comes to neil

gorsuch and 12 appeals court jumps, epa rollback of the waters, clean power plan, paris accord and most importantly, defeating isis in syria and iraq, there's a lot of reframing going on. i never argue, steve is right. a lot on the margin making republicans like me more optimistic. >> a good point about companies reinvesti reinvesting. handing out bonuses. see if more companies do that. a lot of people, yes, but not the majority of the american public and a lot of companies are out there sitting on tons of cash. $2.3 trillion already. see how much this tax break gives them and see if those companies reinvest. taxes in a moment. talk about voters in general. they don't seem to be voting, or right now at least along the lines of their pocketbook. they don't seem to be considering it all that much. wages have been going up ai already. market booming since donald trump took office. unemployment near record lows, yes. same time, donald trump is very

unpopular. he's the least popular president at this time since we've been keeping records of this. four in ten americans want to see impeachment proceedings started. republicans are getting crushed on the generic ballot and democrats, despite all that, hugh, are more trusted on the issue of the economy. so why are you still so confident that there's not going to be a democratic wave? >> it's an understatement. one other poll with an 18-point deficit for republicans on a generic ballot. when the republicans come back they have to keep working. the money stranded overseas, the $2 trillion, most comes back under the repatriation window, a pile of dough to do infrastructure funding on if they do it the right way. there are policy opportunities. one more budget. one more set of budget reconciliations, probably another supreme court vacancy, certainly another dozen federal appeals court judges so come

october and september, the arpgtarpg argument's going to be simply, if you don't like donald trump and majority of americans don't. a lot of republicans that don't, the question will be, are you better off than you were two years ago, and can you risk going back to democratic rule of either house? or do you put up with donald trump, the noise and disruption and go with the economic gains and gains for the rule of law? a close-run thing. i don't disagree with anything anyone is saying but think the tax bill was enormous in reframing everything else it's important. >> let me ask you about the tax bill. right now the average american, typical family, republicans touting this, get $2,000 worth of relief. that's $20 a week. that's not exactly paradigm shifting. >> actually it is. i do believe you will find for example one of our -- >> can you say it is paradigm shifting when 80% of the rest of

the benefits go to the wealthy and corporations? >> yes, i can, because i believe that economic growth flows from that economic return to the corporations and that employment pressure drives up wages. some of that under story, not just bonuses, the hike in minimum wage at wells fargo and third fifth bank from $13.50 to $15. i believe it will cause 4% growth, we haven't seen in a decade. it will have succeeded pulling the chestnuts of the republicans out of the fire. there's a lot of danger if it all becomes carried interest kickbacks to the super wealthy and we have that problem to worry about, but right now republicans are aware they've got to sell. the good news is, they're selling money in pockets ands 20ds $20 is not a lot to some but enormous to others. trumbull county, places in michigan, and wisconsin, pennsylvania. the blue wall that crumbled.

this is real money. $2,000 a year is real money and goes a long way to a lot of people. >> it may be real money. we'll see if folks look at that and think to themselves, god, i'm getting $2,000, but lots of very, very rich folks already are getting a whole lot more than that. hugh hewitt, leave it there. appreciate it. mshg ms ms merry christmas. and real clear politics, and an msnbc political analyst and "daily beast" columnist and a republican strategist. guys, hugh hewitt is painting a rosier picture than many paint for 2018 for republicans. even mitch mcconnell is somewhat worried about 2018. worried about the women in 2018. the tax bill. let's see, the polling suddenly gets better. could be an albatross for republicans. what's your take, john? >> i think democrats are getting a little ahead of themselves. i'm a little more on hugh's side of are the argument when it comes to the politics. >> really?

>> it's way early now to be predicting a democratic takeover of the congress. there's so many moving parts. >> 11 months. >> we haven't talked about. that's a lifetime in american politics, as you know. just, for instance, take money. which is extremely important in senate and house races. we don't know whether the donor class in the republican party is going to really step up now, and i think some of what mcconnell is saying, and the other republicans are saying, and, oh, we're really concerned about this election, it's to convince the donors to put in, you know, a couple hundred million dollars to retain the house and the senate. then you have gerrymandering, which makes these midterms quite different from midterms of the past where there's been a real movement of house seats. the maps are drawn to the advantage of the house republican incumbents. having said that, i think democrats still have a good chance, but they need to do a lot more work on meg issaging a

in for a big fight in november. not a gimme. >> shaking your head. >> a lot of plans. jonathan is right. no one should get ahead of themselves, but even democrats when they came out on the tax plan said it's going to be an initial sugar high. i agree. very good. what else is in there is repealing the mandate for health care, which guess what you get in october, a month before the election? your rate increase, from the health insurance. and very little doubt that will cause a big increase. will their gains of $20 a week be washed out when they see what their premiums are, voters see premiums next year? and assuming all things are stable, and we can't do that, when we look at donald trump as president. who is he going to endorse? he endorsed roy moore, an accused child molester last year.

republicans also in states, the very blue states, s.a.l.t., went through. will hurt in california, pennsylvania, new york. a lot of swing districts in it. those members of congress will have to worry about primaries. do you bring donald trump in to win it? if you do, you're sure to lose the general. a lot of moving parts, but i agree with steve's analysis, and given the way the economics and the uncertainty of trump, it looks to be a very decent year for democrats, but -- as i say about my own party. never underestimate the ability of my party to mess things up. >> i heard that same thing from a democrat earlier today. a democrat i was sitting down with. talking about his party saying if there's a way for democrats to mess it up they're going to mess it up. >> right. well, they also don't want to get overexcited about some of these recent wins, because they do have say the of work to do. on the republican side, it would be political malpractice not to brace for the worst. to your point, they are

concerned about the money, but also about the surge of democratic enthusiasm that we've seen. now, the tax bill, i think, you know, democrats take a risk by campaigning against it, if it turns out that people are seeing a little bit more money in their paychecks. on the same token, they're also kind of counting on the president's approval rating not increasing by much. people kind of are transfers support or their disapproval of certain policies coming from this administration to their disapproval of the president, and i think when you're kind of looking at the bigger picture here, the question is -- okay. republicans did a lot this year. this administration did a lot beyond taxes. the judicial nominations are hump and other executive measures. does that animate republicans or serve to really rev up the democratic base in some of these places they need to win? >> we've seen in 2017, seen a lot more millennials coming out

on the older side of millennials see an increase. women are coming out. >> and the #metoo movement. a game changer. >> and the infrastructure bill. should have started with if he really wanted bipartisanship. >> good luck with that. >> will democrats work with him? >> he says to democrats. his message, democrats don't want to fix your bridges. they are falling down. your roads are collapsing. blame it on the democrats. trains are crashing. blame it on the democrats. is that not going work in his favor? >> he'll try that and might score some points, because he hasn't done anything to this point. i don't think there has been many accomplishments in terms of his campaign promises. hasn't done anything for the independents and democrats and working-class people who voted for him. he's done nothing for them so far. so i think he gets that. and that's where they're going to propose infrastructure. remember,

infrastructure plan isn't even popular with republicans because of the deficit. they didn't care at all about the deficit last week. now this coming year, talk all the time about the deficit. >> indulge me before we go. two things. donald trump touts this as the largest tax cut ever. graphic. this is not the largest tax cut ever. not even close. trump, 0.9% of the gdp. look at everybody else. reagan, truman, truman, obama. not even the last decade. johnson, obama again. also, says he's making history number of bills signed in his first year. again, not even close. look at this graphic. 96 for trump. 121, obama. 102 for bush. 208 for clinton. just wanted to get on the record with those two things. the panel stays with us. just ahead, the daca divide. why have democrats are feeling the heat from other democrats over helping young undocumented immigrants.

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welcome back. as we said, president trump is off to his florida estate for the holidays but not before signing the republican tax bill. >> i'll sign this today rather than having a very big, formal ceremony in two weeks when we were going to do it, because i didn't want you folks to say that i wasn't keeping my promise. i am keeping my promise. i am signing it before christmas. i said that the bill would be on my desk before christmas. and you are holding me literally to that. so we did a rush job today. it's not fancy but it's the oval office. it's the great oval office. >> one thing president trump didn't do before jetting out of to mar-a-lago -- hold a year-end press conference. it's something of a tradition for presidents to take questions from the white house press corps before the end of the year. we don't know yet if he'll hold one yet while at mar-a-lago, but

president trump held to one formal solo press conference this year. it was in february. all the way back in february. that's compared to 11 from president obama and his first year. 5 for george w. bush and 12 for bill clinton. we'll be right back with more "mtp daily" in just 60 seconds.

welcome back. some division in the ranks of the democratic party before the holiday break. despite opposition from democratic leadership, 17 democratic senators last night voted for the stop gap spending bill. ensuring there will not be a government shutdown before the end of the year. also not happening by the end of the year, a so-called daca fix. some democratic leaders promised to oppose any year-end spending deal without protections d.r.e.a.m.ers. in the end didn't want a shutdown over the issue and

promising to fight the fight in the new year. some aren't happy with the decision to punt until january. yesterday members of the congressional hispanic caucus went to chuck schumer's office and according to the "washington post" things got heated. luis gutierrez accused them of throwing d.r.e.a.m.ers "under the bus." schumer raised his voice and told gutierrez not to insult democrats. congressman, thank you for joining us. good to have you. >> thank you. >> what exactly happened yesterday with chuck schumer? >> look, for me it's pretty simple. what i say and how i express myself today with you before this camera and your audience, same way i expressed myself when in a private meeting. i'm not going to change. i think we need to be completely transparent, in how we advocate for people. part of the problem in

washington, d.c. is people really don't believe us. they think we say one thing in public and another thing behind closed doors. that's just not the case. the fact is that in the house of representatives, katy, under the leadership of nancy pelosi, we were able to keep all of the democrats together to say, here's our -- it's not about shutting down the government. it's about saying, if you have a republican agenda, proposal, and you don't want to include our ideals, our agenda, our vision of america, then get 218 votes. what they did in the house of representatives. unfortunately in the senate, once again we find democratic senators saying manana. saying "tomorrow". >> did they throw them under the bus? >> look, here's what i believe. i believe when you sit down with the president of the united states, less than 24 hours after he has revoked the legalization

of 800,000 young people who are school teachers, who are doctors, who have come out of the shadows, who have been educated by our system who have been to two, three background checks and say to them, you're going to live in fear now. we're coming after you. we're allowing -- you know, daca, it isn't like it expires next march. already 30,000 d.r.e.a.m.ers either lost their daca or didn't reapply, because they don't feel that it's worth it. >> do you have confidence it's going to pass? >> we need to get it done right away? >> do you have confidence it will pass in january? >> here's what i believe. i believe that if we speak clearly to those in powerful positions about the needs of those that are being -- attacked by what i can only describe as a racist misogynist and xenophobic administration, that we need to raise the bar, too. if we raise it, yes.

i tweeted after the meeting, just so we're clear, since now people want to talk about what was the private meeting? i shook chuck schumer's hand and i told him i look forward to working with him and got on my twitter account and said, we're doing better today. democrats are more on the same page now than they were before the meeting. i think that's what meetings should be. where people come, bring their visions of the future, and sometimes there is a clash, and clashes aren't necessarily a bad thing. it kind of clears the air. >> do you think the democratic party is taking advantage of the support of hispanic-americans, or do you think that the democratic party has the interests of hispanic-americans front and center? >> well, katy, yes, in so many avenues it does. in so many avenues, which it comes to health care, the minimum wage. you know, when it comes to job training. when it comes to education which is so important. when it comes to giving housing

opportunities. absolutely. but on the core civil rights issue of the moment, immigrants and immigrant reform, given the positions of donald trump who says that mexicans are murderers, rapists and drug dealers and we should get rid of them all. let's remember, that's the basis, this foundation of his campaign, and when he says mexicans, he means latinos, he means all of us. so i think that we need to be as responsive. so to answer your question, look, if we're going to take d.r.e.a.m.ers and we're going to extol their values and their contributions and we're going to tell the world how importantly special they are, which i believe in the core of my heart, then we also have to defend them with the same kind of tenacity and with the same kind of rigor, and that's all i'm saying to democrats. don't take d.r.e.a.m.ers as we have to the 2012 and 2016, d.r.e.a.m.ers, took them to the

convention, said, here they are. our best and fine effort and let them down by joining republicans and not allowing them to live in a free space and allowing them to get out of this hostage situation they find themselves in and become citizens of the united states. because those kids, katy, are as american as my children, and everything but a piece of paper, and just like -- this is christmas, katy! what does anybody think you should do in the days before christmas? it's a holiday season of peace, harmony and family, and i want peace and harmony and family values for those immigrant families, too. >> congressman, looking forward to the fight for daca. a fight for d.r.e.a.m.ers. you'll be a part of it. the president's going to be a part of it. republicans will be a part of it. they'll want to negotiate, want to get something, for something. what would you be willing to give the republicans or give this president for protection for d.r.e.a.m.ers? is a wall, part of the wall, funding for the wall on the

table potentially? >> here's how i look at it, katy. i don't negotiate with hostage-takers. the d.r.e.a.m.ers have already fulfilled all of their requirements. all of them once. the vast majority fwitwice. going through a criminal background check, exhaustive background check, some twice, tens three times. i say, look, the president of the united states, even donald trump said, they're great. i'm going to do something special and important. something great for them, which he always said just about everything. so why can't he just keep his word tleefat least on one thinge he know he doesn't keep his word on other things. i'm saying to congress. no need to negotiate. it's win the constrains of a budget deal. this is what republicans will want to -- they want to end family reunification. these of the same republicans saying they're for family values

and families and take pictures of themselves with their children and wives, how great family members they are. you know where family also starts, i say to my republican colleagues, in an immigration debate. keeping immigrant families together. the same way my family was kept together. the same way generations of immigrants from ireland and poland and germany and asia and africa have been kept together. i want to keep those families together. let's extol those family values. >> congressman luis gutierrez, thank you. merry christmas. >> thank you. coming up, the man responsible for one of the biggest political bombshells in history. tan ellsbe daniel ellsberg. his decision to blow the whistle changed washington. >> i think the people of this country can't afford to let the president run the country by himself without the help of the congress, without the help of the public. around the world who are not in school today. girls are not in school because of economic issues and they have to work.

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welcome back. the pentagon papers helped end a war and bring down a president. and now they're even the subject of a new steven spielberg film, the massive leak of top secret documents revealed the government was lying to the american people about the veet ma'am war.

the political fire storm started with a former military analyst who became disillusioned with the conflict in vietnam. >> i began xeroxing the mcnamara study in the fall of 1969. at the end of the day, working i would put several volumes into my briefcase to take with me. walking past the security guards, i could feel my heart beating. i couldn't help thinking about the dozen of other secrecy agreements i signed over the course of my career in government. the task seemed endless. i often worked through the night. early in the morning, i returned the papers to my safe and headed home. >> the first issue they ran had a paragraph from assistant secretary of defense to secretary mcnamara. i can almost tell it by memory. we're in vietnam, 10% to help

the south vietnamese, 20% to hold back the chinese and 70% to save american face. well, every woman in america that had a boyfriend or husband could take it if we defending the south vietnamese, to learn just trying to save face is a thing that angers you. >> that was part of a documentary airing on msnbc tomorrow called "the most dangerous man in america." daniel elseberg and the pentagon papers. the man responsible for sharing those critical documents is also the author of a new book "the doomsday machine" confessions of a nuclear war planner. good timing on that one. daniel ellsberg joins kne s me. wonderful to have you. one of are the biggest lessons, we can't afford to let a president run the country by himself without the help of congress, without the help of the american people. do you think that the country is

still operating with that lesson in mind? >> i wish that were true, but, really, for a long time now we've in effect delegated authority to get into a war with our presidents's that's been very courtly. true in vietnam, defrauded by the president i served, lyndon johnson and then president bush. a lesson is learned for a while and gets forgotten again. congress doesn't want the responsibility the constitution lays on them, article 1, section 8 saying congress should declare war only and means by that that it should be a decision of congress, not one man when american troops are committed to combat. but we pretty much lost that right at this moment. it's extremely timely that this

movie is coming out right now, the documentary and film by spielberg. once again, we have a president that seems to believe he doesn't need congress or advice from the public or anything if he should decide to go to war against north korea. that would be the first time we've made nuclear threats and any kind of threats, really, against a nuclear weapons state since the cuban missile crisis, which i describe in my new book in which i participated at the time. it's very dangerous. >> i want to talk about the book in a moment and also want to talk more about the similarities that we're seeing today that we experienced in the past. also we have a president who is critical of the judicial system. critical of other branches of government, critical of the media bringing us to one other moment from the film. i want to play it for our audience and then have you react on the other side. >> in one of the most important judicial decisions in the

history of the country, the supreme court today ruled that the "new york times" and "washington post" may continue to public the secret pentagon papers. >> the rules was amazingly simple. it was approving the need for prior censorship is a heavy burden and the government didn't meet that burden. >> a decision was a great one. the story today is, what the constitution of this country means to us. i really -- never appreciated what the meaning and importance of separation of pow sir so much as in the last week. >> when we finally won the right to continue publication from the supreme court, this was a firm ruling that national security alone, the cry of national security, does not justify censorship in advance. >> i wanted to tell you i was so damn mad when that supreme court had to -- first i didn't like their decision, but unbelievable. wasn't it? >> unbelievable. >> those clowns on there, tell you, i hope i out live the b

bastards. >> nixon wasn't happy with the courts and donald trump tells us he's not happy with the press and criticizes us every day. you see what happened then and see what's happening now, what are you concerned about? >> nixon's lesson on his last day in office just before he resigned he told his staff, when you hate someone you bring yourself down. and that was a good lesson that he learned at that time. trump hates the press, as nixon did. nixon called them the enemy. trump calls them the opposition party. i don't think either had any respect for the first amendment of the constitution or in fact the government is the servant of the people as justice black said in his opinion on the pentagon papers. not the people are the servants of the government. so the governors, the sovereign public has a right to know what's being done in their name what their decisions are and governments like all bureaucracies are anxious to

keep their decision-making to themselves so they can't be held accountable. that's happening now, of course. all the voices you've replayed are actually the actual people who participated in the time including nixon right there at the end. i know nixon by the way can use words on television and others get bleeped out for, i noticed. i think i could even quote some of them, but i won't try. >> let's talk for a second about your new book. "doomsday machine." you were a nuclear war planner. you hear the president, see the president tweeting about nuclear war when we're talking about north korea. what is it like for you to see the president tweeting so casually about something so serious? >> of course, his informalitiy, his casualness about the possibility of nuclear war has people worried. and rightly worried.

it's attracted their attention to dangers that have been there all along. as i show in the book in one chapter, virtually all the presidents have considered the possibility of eminent use of nuclear danger, nuclear war. usually in secret from the public. there's a difference here now. they're talking about it publicly, and using what nixon called his madman theory. the threat of madly reckless actions. but in this case, when nixon was threatening north vietnam, something i was concerned about, and he was concerned that i might expose that. that's why he took criminal actions against me that, in fact, did bring him to the brink of impeachment and lend to that speech he made when he was made to resign. he was making statements against north vietnam. first time since, as i said earlier, the cuban missile crisis, 55 years ago in which i participated. i have a couple chapters than in the book. first time since then threats

are made against a nuclear state. and senator mo monstrous casualties will be over there, assured that by president trump, is a rather vile calculation and it's not even true, because if he believes that, he's a fool, or he's been deluded. the fact is, kim jong-un doesn't need icbm to get casualties here in the united states. he needs only to put a warhead of which he has scores on a boat and sail it to long beach harbor or long island or los angeles harbor, san francisco hasher, near where i live, and explode it by radio. the idea that he has not made provision for such retaliation, if he is killed, as were openly, as trump is openly threatening to do, is absolutely wrong. unreliable.

casualties will be over here. >> daniel elseberg, the perfect guest for these times. thank you so much for joining us. the author of "the doomsday machine: confessions of a nuclear war planner." and don't miss msnbc's special airing "the most dangerous man in america c daniel ellsberg and the pentagon papers" only on msnbc. thank you. we will be back in just a moment.sa w the change in rich wn we moved into the new house. but having his parents over was enlightening. ♪ you don't like my lasagna? no, it's good. -hmm. -oh. huh. [ both laugh ] here, blow. blow on it. you see it, right? is there a draft in here? i'm telling you, it's so easy to get home insurance on progressive.com. progressive can't save you from becoming your parents. but we can save you money when you bundle home and auto.

welcome back. 2017 is winding down. a lot of republicans including the president are hoping that the russia investigation winds down, too. that's ahead.or geous. 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.

time for "the lid." the panel is back. let's talk about robert mueller. we keep talking about is the fire going to fire mueller? is he not going to fire mueller? here's what was said. he can curb him, he can install someone at the department of justice, a minder, if you will, he could issue pardons to don jr., michael flynn. he could smear mueller which he is already doing to turn public opinion against him or he could try to fire him or those in the justice department that would try to fire him. do you think this is a real

possibility? democrats are worried about it. >> i don't think him firing mueller at this point is a real possibility. he had his legislative victory. he knows if he wants to do anything else going forward, too many republican there's stand up and call foul. there will be some republicans rooting him on. that's one of the divide that's really remains. at least 50% of the senate would. i don't thinkfully of those four things that you mentioned will deter mule until he is pulled out of there. if he is fired until his last breath he will be work to do his job. that's what really scares the trump folks the most. he is undeterred. he will keep going. you go try on smear him. mueller doesn't care. he will keep going. that's a good thing. >> are you as confident?

>> no. nothing is beyond donald trump. every time we think he's touched bottom, he crashes through the floor. >> endorsing an accused child molester. >> i wouldn't be surprised. i think the more likely outcome is that he will appoint somebody in rosen seen the's place to contain -- >> a minder to kind of eat away at the investigation when the press isn't looking. cut their funding. make it harder. meanwhile, fox is going almost 24/7 saying this is a coup attempt. they're doing everything they can to lay the ground work for attack this man of great integrity, bob mueller. it is really a shameful moment in the sort of republican echo claim better right now. they want to do something that would destroy our faith in the rule of law. which is what getting rid of mueller would do. >> even if mueller comes out and

lays out his conclusions, says the president obstructed justice, i don't know if he says that. there will be a good portion of the public that won't believe it. >> that's the whole point. they are trying to sway public opinion on this and in some cases it's working. they're trying to protect the investigation. the democrats risk looking political at some points, too. taking to the senate floor at times to talk about not firing mueller. when it exists as a possibility, not necessarily firing mueller but getting to people at d.o.j. which i think is the actual real concern here. you're having this really big fight on both sides. >> let's go back to 2018 that we talked about in the last segment. what does mueller do to motivate democrats in 2018 and maybe even turn some republicans? that's a big gamble. i think the president is more

concerned, he is starting to wake up to the fact, if he loses the house, he can face impeachment. and firing mueller will be certainly very detrimental to that effort. >> and his lawyers will tell him, if you fire mueller, you won't be shutting down the investigation. the new york state attorney general has a lot of material that mueller has collected. pardons don't do any good. >> for state offenses. >> and they can bring indictments. >> we'll see if that's what ends up happening. i would remind everybody back in 2016 when it looked like donald trump was going to lose because of the "access hollywood" tape, the reenergizing of the hillary clinton e-mail investigation led a lot of moderate republicans and those who didn't like donald trump say i can't vote for someone who is under federal

investigation. oh, how times have changed. just ahead, roy moore still fighting to keep up with the jones. my day starts well before i'm in the kitchen. i need my blood sugar to stay in control. i need to shave my a1c i'm always on call. an insulin that fits my schedule is key. ♪ tresiba® ready ♪ (announcer) tresiba® is used to control high blood sugar in adults with diabetes. don't use tresiba® to treat diabetic ketoacidosis, during episodes of low blood sugar, or if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. don't share needles or insulin pens. don't reuse needles. the most common side effect is low blood sugar, which may cause dizziness, swtiting, confusion, and headache.

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in case you missed it, when it comes to waiting for roy moore's concession, you haven't missed a thing. he still hasn't conceded the race. he's trying to fundraise for a recount. his election integrity fund has raised almost all the $75,000

goal. but he won't get one. the alabama secretary of state says there aren't enough overseas military votes and provisional ballots to trigger a recount. so roy moore appears torn riding solo on this one. that's all for tonight. happy holidays. we'll be back tomorrow -- not tomorrow, monday. "the beat" we ari melber starts right now. >> that's the funny thing about elections. even if you don't concede, sometimes you still lose. have a great weekend. >> you too. merry christmas. >> it is fris evening heading into christmas weekend. we're tracking several unusual stories that make there a busier news cycle than usual. first reports that all the attacks on bob mueller, they may be coming from inside the white house. a reporter only story will join me in a motel. second, jeff