that is a wrap of this hour of msnbc live. i'm alex witt. my colleague david gurr is going to pick it up from here. >> good morning. i'm david gura coming to you live. the white house is pushing back against a bombshell report in "the new york times" that says president trump made racist remarks about immigrants in an oval office meeting last june. according to officials who attended or were briefed on that meeting, trump while venting about the slow pace of implementing his immigration agenda told members that, quote, haitian immigrants all have aids and nigerian immigrants would never go back to their huts.

mark short this morning denied the president made those comments but pushed for congress to take a more restrictive stance on immigration policy. >> i was not in that meeting but the people in the meeting say that those comments never happened and so i have no belief that that actually transpired but let's talk about the temporary protective status for a second because it's an important case. the people here from haiti are here from an earthquake that happened roughly ten years ago under temporary protective status. we have tens of thousands of people in our country from honduras and nicaragua from a hurricane that happened in 1999. tens of thousands of people. copying needs to change these laws. >> mark short speaking a few minutes ago. let's start with kelly o'donnell down in west palm beach florida with the president of the united states. sarah huckabee sanders vehemently denying this. what have administration officials said since, kelly?

>> reporter: well, good morning. good to be with you and merry christmas to everyone. this is one of those instances where the white house is pushing back hard. now they're not saying the meeting did not occur, a meeting that was happening in june, so six months ago, and it was as is described by "the new york times" in other reporting, that the president was talking about the numbers of people admitted under visas by the state department from a range of countries. the volatile comments that you cited focused on nigeria, haiti, also afghanistan. what the white house is saying they have consulted with cabinet level secretaries and other senior level officials who were present in the meeting. they say those comments were not made. "the new york times" reporting using a number of sources, unnamed sources, and they say that a couple of those sources indicate these comments were made by the president while other sources had a differing view on that, didn't hear it, didn't remember it, didn't think it happened. so the reporting by t"the new york times" is their work, it's

not nbc's work, but it has certainly touched off a lot of controversy about this and forced the white house to have to respond. the white house gave us a statement as well as other news organizations saying this didn't happen. you heard mark short saying it didn't happen. it plays larger in part because the president's own public history of talking about immigration and a lot of different issues about immigration law where at times he has said volatile things and that makes this story resonate in a different way. the white house pushing back hard today. it is christmas eve. we saw the president once today where he was addressing via video conference members of the armed services to thank them for their service. we'll also expect to see the president and first family this evening when they attend christmas services. so a little bit of activity from the trump family on this holiday. the rest of the time over the next several days while the trumps are here the president says he will have some meetings and some work to do. obviously it's also holiday time for the family. >> kelly o'donnell in west palm

beach, florida. joining me is reverend al sharpton and raul reyes. reverend sharpton, let me go to you. what did you make of what you read in "the times" yesterday. >> i think they are definitely racist and incendiary. i think the reason they resonate is not only do they run parallel with the immigration policy that this president has had from being a candidate going forward, it also is not out of line with his whole bigoted biased kind of rhetoric in the past. you talking about a man who said that there were fine people on bowe sides when neonazis were marching in charlottesville. you're talking about a man who was a leader of the berther movement who said the president

was not one of us all the way back to the '80s where he had to defend racial discrimination in housing suits. so why wouldn't we believe he wouldn't have said this? what would be anything in his career that would make anyone disbelief that donald trump did not say this? i think it is the height of an insult to the american public if he is setting immigration policy based on his bias and bigotry. notice, it's always people of color that get the venom. we're not talking about other people here, we're talking about haitians, we're talking about people in nigeria, afghanistan. oh, yeah, mexico wall. the rest of the world seems never to be the target of his immigration. >> raul reyes, let me talk to you about that. this is a continuation along the lines of what the president has said before. >> right. >> is this a turning point as you see, what was quoted as something he reportedly said in the times yesterday?

>> i don't necessarily see it as a turning point in any sense. unfortunately, i think it's quite sad. what we're learning now is really just a continuation of what we've known so far of the president based on public remarks. as the reverend mentioned, he's insulted mexican immigrants. he's insulted disabled people so when we have this push back between the white house, you know, against the reporting, it's very easily disputed when you look at what the president has been willing to say in public. by the way, it also shows -- gives us a window into how this administration makes some of his decisions, for example, ending the tps for 59,000 haitians in a country that has not significantly made progress in many areas since the earthquake. just for the record, he's here making disparaging comments about nigerians. nigerians are among the best educated immigrants to the country. 37% have bachelors, 17% have

masters. honestly, i'm glad that this reporting is out. i'm glad that it's being talked about, but it is quite sad as people all over the world are celebrating the holidays that here we are discussing these deeply offensive apparently racist views of our president. >> jennifer reuben, a take away from this piece is policy making when it comes to immigration is emotionally driven within the white house. is it an outlier in that sense? when you look at all of this white house's policies, do you see emotion playing a larger role than it has in the administration's past? >> well, you have a president who is an irrational figure, who is motivated by personal peek, by angers, by resentment, by prejudice i do believe. yes, i do think it is emotionally based. a couple of things are interesting. they put out mark short who was not in the meeting. it's an interesting ploy when you don't want to have someone go out there who will directly lie to the press.

i wasn't in there and the people there deny it. why don't we talk to some of the people who were in the meeting. frankly, if you ask president trump directly he'd probably confirm some of these. he has no shame. he either doesn't understand or doesn't care if he's perceived as being a racist. this is what he believes and i think we have to abandoned the pretexts that everything is a miscommunication, everything is a misunderstanding, everything is wrong reporting. no, this is who the president of the united states is. and i would say one thing about the policy. mark short has it exactly backwards. these people have been here for year. they've had children. they've lived productive lives. they've put down roots in the cumulative community. why, for goodness sakes, would we want to send these people back? so their logic is completely backwards. >> reverend sharpton, i talked to peter baker who didn't write the piece and he said it's a larger piece and larger look at immigration policy. how difficult is it to look past this and look at immigration at

large? >> you can't easily look past the comments because the comments tells you the basis and premise that he's setting policy. so if you're looking at his immigration policy and realize the basis of it is his bias and his prejudice, then it reflects on the entire resulting immigration policy. the other thing, david, i felt was interesting as a minister, he's going to christmas services tonight, kelly told us. the interesting part of that, he campaigned about we should be talking about merry christmas, not the season -- bring kleist in. jesus kleist was a refugee. i hope tonight whoever preaches these christmas services, they tell them the story of where mary and joseph had to take the baby jesus and flee to egypt to save them from the wrath of what was going on at that time. he is telling us to worship a refugee while he's making these kind of statements about immigrants.

irony? i don't know. >> raul reyes, let me ask you about policy. what this means about policy as you mentioned a few moments ago. what happens to the children of undocumented immigrants still very much up in the air. it's not something they dealt with before they went on the holiday recess. how optimistic are you that this will be dealt with after they get back to washington in the new year? >> to be very honest, i am very ambivalent for some type of legislative fix for daca. what gives me cause for optimism is when i talk to the daca grantees, these young people, they are not giving up the fight. their lives are literally at stake. they will be back pressuring lawmakers, taking to the streets and engaging in civil disobedience to fight for their protections and other people in their similar situations. what is concerning for people, this is an issue among the american public there is great consensus. no matter which poll you look at, fox, washington post, cnn,

the american post wants there to be a legislative fix for the daca grantees. where we don't see that is in washington. and when we have people in the white house such as steven miller, when we have people in the administration like jeff sessions, both of them with long documented histories, anti-immigrant, very zen knopho. it will be up to congress to act. unfortunately congress on both sides has a tendency to kick this issue, all immigration issues down the road. so hopefully something will happen, but it's hard to be optimistic. >> jennifer rubin, last question to you on this note. do you have a sense what president trump's attitude is, what this white house position is on daca? it's been kicked over to congress for them to deal with. you get the sense that the president's conflicted on this iss issue, at least in part having met many of these d.r.e.a.m.ers. do you get a sense you have an idea what the white house policy

is towards is it? >> the president is conflicted because he doesn't like being seen as a racist. he doesn't like being seen as the guy that will kick these young people out of the country after living productive lives. he's put in office people who are strongly anti-immigrant. not anti-illegal immigrant, anti-immigrant. they want to cut illegal immigration in half. they have emotionalized views. whenever this issue comes up, he's very swayed by the people in his inner circle. unfortunately i would say this to my democratic friends, it's time they put down their foot as well funding the government they essentially allowed this to go forward. i think there needs to be consensus about people who say they are concerned about daca that they're not going to consider these two week crs, two-week continuing resolutions until the daca situation is finished. >> thank you all. coming up, north korea calls

the latest round of u.n. sanctions, quote, an act of war. more on that in a moment. stay with us. love this city. leonardo: woo! michelangelo: whoa! haha. leonardo: gear up guys!

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as we celebrate this most precious holiday, we're grateful for each of you who spend this christmas away from your families and defend all of our families. our freedoms and our flag. every american heart is thankful to you, and we're asking god to watch over you and to watch over

your families. >> that was president trump this morning in a video teleconference with military personnel overseas as tensions continue to escalate with north korea over tough new sanctions approved unanimously by united nations security council on friday. that includes sharply lowered limits on north korea's refined oil imports and tighter restrictions on smuggling. pyongyang responded calling those sanctions, quote, an act of war. joining me is ro khanna. let me have you respond to the rhetoric, what we've heard from north korea. this has been played back over and over again. have we reached the end of the line about sanctions? >> it's appalling rhetoric. i give our team credit for getting the sanctions unanimously through with russia and china backing us. north korea's declaring war not just on the united states but also threatening russia and china and every country that

voted for the sanctions. that said, i still think that we need a diplomatic approach. that's what south korea has called on, and we need to explore diplomatic alternative like president clinton did in the 1990s. >> let me ask you about something the president tweeted. the united nations security council just voted 15-0 in favor of additional sanctions on north korea. the world wants peace, not death. from your vantage on the house armed services committee, how much talk has shifted to military actions versus the diplomatic solutions? >> there's been too much emphasis on diplomatic solutions. secretary mattis thinks that's not feasible. it's telling that south korea is the country that wants us to engage in diplomacy. that diplomacy can involve a few things. first, we need to have a clear line of communication with north

korea so we can de-escalate any conflict based on miscalculation. we ought to make sure they're taking measures not to have more nuclear strikes, and we should talk about the size of our joint military exercises and assure them that we don't want regime change. president clip ton took this approach in the 1990s. it was quite successful. we need to go to the table again, and the people who are most at risk in south korea, that's what they want us to do. >> congressman khanna, a bit of semantics. james mattis sads aboid about a ago, quote, it is not yet shown to be a capable threat. what's that word capable mean? what's the significance of that adjective the secretary of defense has been talking about when he talks about north korea's capability? >> as the representative of silicon valley it concerns me because there is this threat, could north korea put a nuclear warhead on an intercontinental

ballistic missile and strike the united states? of course, silicon valley would be a target, and i think secretary mattis is saying they don't have that capability yet, which is, of course, reassuring, but we are all concerned whether they would develop that capability and that is why a diplomatic approach to prevent them from doing so is so important. >> in that ad hoc signing ceremony in the oval office before the president left for florida, he signed something that was known as a $4 billion missile defense. that was the continuing resolution with the provisions for missile defense. how right is that, to be investing more money in missile defense as we look at this issue in particular? >> well, we need to look at the facts. look, i'm all for developing missile defense, but here are the facts about this. only 50% of these ground interceptors have worked, and i don't want to have a 50% chance of some ballistic missile comes towards us that it would be

intercepted. second, the problem with this funding is they're saying that they should develop additional ground interceptors before doing the testing. my view is why don't we first do the testing, make sure these things are working before spending additional money. finally, i don't think we should be lulled into a false sense of security. we need to be honest with the american people that these anti-missile p grouground inters have a 50% chance of working and what we really need is a diplomatic approach. we shouldn't think we are immune because we have this anti-missile defense technology. so i think the facts here really are important and we should be honest with the american people about our capabilities. >> you're on the armed services committee, i believe you're on the budget committee as well. i want to ask you about the consequences of the continuing resolution i spoke about. it's been a long time since we've had a traditional budget

process. have crs become the new normal in washington? what are the consequences of that when it comes to the state department? >> unfortunately, they have become the new normal. if you talk to anyone in our military, they will say it's an awful way of planning. it restricts them. we want to get a budget resolution, but i heard your earlier guest talking about the d.r.e.a.m.ers. i was one of the democrats, among others, who believe that we need a solution to the d.r.e.a.m.ers before we just allow government to go on, that it's a moral issue. so we're going to have a lot of work to do when we get back from the holidays, to get a real budget, not just the continuing resolutions and to solve the issue with the d.r.e.a.m.ers. >> policy decision for the state department giving weapons to ukraine. there's been a tremendous amount of tension between ukraine and russia. how comfortable are you with that policy move when you look at it from a defense perspective? >> i thought it was a mistake and i was surprised because this

president, this administration has talked about de-escalating the crisis with russia. we, of course, were involved with encouraging at first the coup in ukraine. i think it's been a mistake to have nato expanded in ukraine or to push for the european union to expand there. we should have ukraine as a neutral buffer nation which doesn't threaten russia. so i think it's just going to escalate the violence to put the missile defense there. i was frankly surprised that this administration given their prior comments is taking that step. >> all right. the gentleman from -- >> david, at the end, i want to wish you and everyone a merry christmas over the holidays. despite all the difficult issues, i do hope people will get some break over the holidays. >> to you as well. the gentleman from the 17th district in california, congressman ro khanna joining me from florida. president trump says he's had more legislative accomplishments than any of his

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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. >> president trump addressing the media before christmas.

he moved it up because the media would not let him live it down if he waited until the new year. with his major tax reform bill in the rear-view mirror, what's next? here we have atima and curt morrow. he left the gop and joined the democratic party. great to have both of you with us. let me play one more cut from that ad hoc bill signing in the oval office on friday. the president was talking about the importance of that tax cut legislation. >> we have more legislative victories than any other president, not including this, but this is the capper because this is, again, the biggest tax cut, biggest reform of all time. >> curt, let me ask you this. he called it the capper. he said this is a bill that's going to sell itself. we heard from house speaker paul ryan saying this is going to become more popular as americans look at their paychecks down the line and be see what's in it for them. are you confident this is something republicans are going to keep talking about, this is something they're going to want to run on as we approach 2018?

>> i think they're going to want to try to create some distance. this tax bill is a disaster. donald trump as he entered mar-a-lago he said to the wealthy 1% who can afford to even go there, y'all just made a lot more money. so this tax bill is a bill for the rich. it's a bill for corporations. it's a bill for ceos. it's not going to do anything for the working or middle class in this country. republicans realize there's a reason why this bill is incredibly unpopular, why only 24% of americans support this bill. they're not going to want to keep talking about it the same way as when obamacare became unpopular, democrats faced the same conundrum. >> that anecdote is something that the president walking into dinner, seeing a few friends and saying, quote, you all just got a lot richer. let me ask you how democrats should approach this? wait and see approach, see how

this plays out betting on the fact that many americans won't be as excited as they think they will be. >> the fact that the gop has been very, very hush hush about a lot of details about this bill until the last minute tells you just how much they know that this is not going to be a popular sell. two out of three middle class americans are going to see actually their taxes raised off this bill. if you're an heir, heiress or working on a pass through organization, something like the trump organization where you get a lot of passive income, you're going to benefit from this bill but you're not if you are a regular american. going into this coming election cycle, democrats are going to absolutely point that out and they're going to highlight it and run on it because this is not the america certainly trump promised even his voters. >> i want to ask each of you about the prospect for more bipartisanship in 2018. let's hear from the president and the majority leader of the u.s. senate. >> i really do believe we're going to have a lot of

bipartisan work done. >> i think one thing i can say about this year, it was pretty partisan. you know, most of the things that i mentioned, not all of them, but most of the big things i mentioned were done largely on a partisan basis. i don't think most of our democratic colleagues want to do nothing and there are areas, i think, where we can get bipartisan agreement. >> curt, give us the lay of the land as you've surveyed the legislative landscape. where are those legislative areas that lead eer mcconnell a referring to? >> these are extraordinary words by leader mcconnell. it's ironic the shoe is on the foot. he wants democrats to come to the table and work with him. unlike this year, next year it will require 60 votes in the senate to get through. they will require democratic support. the thing about trump is he's unpredictable. it will be interesting to see if trump really does the bring the

democrats 209 table, work with them. give them more than the republicans wanted to accede. the areas where they could find common ground, they'll have to try to do a drooem .r.e.a.m.ers fix. with the political climate, the mid terms coming down on people, primary elections starting and the fbi mueller investigation, it will be very tough to get anything major done. >> ateyma, i look at things on the agenda. infrastructure, welfare reform, entitlement spending, social security, how much due diligence do they have to have a hand in setting that agenda in washington? >> well, what's going to end up having to happen, which is what paul ryan had to do a few times, is already have conversations with schumer and pelosi about

getting anything done on the budget end of things. the republicans wanted to work on entitlement reform. that's what they're talking about with paul ryan if he wants to retire from congress as goes the rumor in town, that's really what they want to tackle first. quite honestly, democrats want to actually get some stuff done, but it's just going to be pretty much of a problem when you have republicans saying that they want to work at the table but every time they do pretty much on health care, pretty much on tax reform they've made it that a you will we need is 50 plus 1 votes to get it done and i think it's the same going into 2018. >> curt, i'll ask you about the republican party. you left that party. felt alienated by it. what does the republican party have to do to heal what wounds there are there to make it more conclusive. it's fractured. how do they repair it? >> they need to find their voice. we have this controversy where president trump makes these ridiculous statements about the

immigrants. where's the republican party saying this is outrageous? this is wrong? we don't feel this way? the reason why many people like myself have left the republican party is because of the overwhelming silence. it's not just donald trump and the roy moors, it's the cowardness and when ridiculous things are said, they hide. they don't speak out. until they find their voice and their own moral conscience. thank you very much. after the break, the president continues his war of words against the federal bureau of investigation. stay with us. box. it's what's inside the person who opens it. ♪ give ancestrydna, the only dna test that can trace your origins to over 150 ethnic regions... ♪ ...and open up a world of possibilities.

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welcome back. i'm david guer. the washington post is reporting that the fbi's director is planning to retire. andrew mccabe is reportedly hoping to retire after he becomes eligible for pension benefits in early march. this news comes after he faced hours of questioning in congress last week. cnn reported that mccabe testified that former fbi director james comey informed him of his conversations with president trump soon after they happened including the conversation where comey claimed the president demanded his loyalty. fbi director andrew mccabe is racing the clock to retire with full benefits. 90 days to go. trump continued his attacks this morning. i'm joined by natasha bertrand

jay newton small. let me start with you, natasha, to ask you about the unique role andrew mccabe plays here. >> right. so andrew mccape was the deputy director of the fbi during the clinton e-mail investigation. he's worked with james comey very closely and now he still remains the fbi deputy director. this is all an attempt to undermine muller's investigation. if you smear the way the clinton e-mail investigation was handled, you can smear the way the russia investigation has been handled, both by comey and now mueller. the line that has been used is to that mccabe's wife was given $500,000 to a polite calling committee linked to terry mcauliffe. there's multiple degrees of separation here. mcauliffe did not -- the clintons did not give the money to mccabe's wife and mccabe was not in charge of the e-mail

investigation so this is really a stretch. >> let me ask you about the relevance of that. you have a president casting aspersions on a non-partisan event. what are the consequences as you see it? >> it's completely demoralizing for the fbi, david. i've heard that from fbi sources, that the morale within the department is at an all time low. this is not just reflected in the treatment of david mccabe who is a very highly respected, long-time, in fact lifer at the fbi, but it's also reflected in the president's tweets about the fbi. he's tweeted repeatedly about how the organization is falling down on its job, how they're doing terribly and it's to the point where christopher rey who is the president's own head to lead the fbi, just this week there are articles about how demoralized he is, how he's struggling to bridge the sort of ocean between the president and the fbi. this really comes because mooul

l mueller is silent. the only person the president can attack is the fbi and that's why you see him going after the fbi so harshly in the place of going after bob muller. >> amid that quiet you do see people coming to their defense. the statement is beyond reproach. how effective is that defense as we see the president and others piling on here? >> many of the republicans that are now attacking mueller were the ones to say he is beyond reproach. he was a great choice but now that he's trying to wait his way into the white house, you see some republicans get freaked out. he could be charged with something like obstruction of justice and that the collusion aspect is coming full circle with the cooperation of mike flynn and george papadopoulos. what really matters right now is making sure trump stays calm and

doesn't do anything like fire mueller over the holidays which several democrats are very, very concerned about. >> let me ask you about the house intelligence committee's investigation in particular. there are always investigations happening in parallel. there are many high profile interviews. what does that in particular say about the focus of the house's investigation? >> well, there's been a lot of criticism, particularly by house democrats, that this investigation is being rushed, that they are not interviewing dozens of people that house democrats say they want interviewed. they're holding these interviews afield. so, for example, this interview of the president's long-time sort of gatekeeper as people sort of call her is being held in new york when it could be held in washington, d.c., basically preventing a lot of members from attending this with a lot of votes, they can't leave with voting schedules and go up and listen to the interviews. they have to be reliant on staff in order to be present during the interviews. so there's a lot of -- andrew

shiv who's the ranking democrat or the top democrat on that committee says he believes -- >> adam schiff. >> rushing to prematurely end this. yeah. prematurely end this investigation and that he believes that this is actually damaging to mueller and that they are really looking in many ways to weaken mueller's investigation. >> natasha, what's your time line for this investigation? you have a back and forth here between house speaker paul ryan and minority leader nancy pelosi talking about it. republicans are saying it needs to be wrapped up well in advance of the 2018 election. when you look at all of these investigations in concert with each other, what happens with the house investigation do you think? >> well, the house investigation, they're ultimately going to issue two separate reports. the democrats are going to keep investigating or keep looking into all of this and issue their report who knows when. the republicans at the latest

want to get their report out by spring. the house investigation has become not an entirely likely investigation as well. there's no indication the mueller investigation will wrap up before the 2018 mid terms. the senate investigation is a less partisan, kind of more serious probe so they have given no indication that they incontinued to wrap it up any time soon regardless of what ty cobb, the white house lawyer tells trump, he won't be out of hot water before the mid terms. >> cory lewandowski and steve bannon have been invited to testify. when you look at those two gentleman in particular, what's this committee interested in hearing from them? >> lewandowski, he was on the e-mail chains, george papadopoulos told him i want to set up this meeting between the trump campaign and putin. that was last year. he was privy to a lot of these

e-mail messages. steve bannon was there pretty much the entire time. he was another gatekeeper. they want to know what each of them saw and experienced during the campaign whether that had to do with potential obstruction or collusi collusion. after the break we're going to take a look at the administration's push to expand america's missile defense system and whether it will pay off. stay right here.

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north korea best not make any more threats to the united states. they will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. >> president trump there speaking about north korea back in august. on friday it was united nations ambassador nikki haley pushing back on the north korean test of new missiles. >> pyongyang has chosen the path of isolation. as we have in the past, we will continue to match the kim regime's choice of aggressive actions with actions of international sanction. >> the u.n. voted on tough new sanctions against the isolated regime after it test fired

another ballistic missile late last month. pyongyang voted to retalliate. >> joining me is steve clemons let me start with you and ask you about this rhetoric. the regime calling this an act of war. do you detect an up tick in the heat of that rhetoric? >> we have heard things like this from north korea in the past. with regard to the september u.n. sanctions, they called them brutal, genocide. the north koreans have the korean war armistice. they did that on september 25 when their foreign minister talked about the right to shoot down planes in international air space. what we heard the last few hour, it's terrible but it's things we have seen in the past. >> gordon, i want to you about the most recent amount of sanctions we have seen here. looking at minerals and energy

looks at those who have to leave north korea to work. how harsh are these sanctions relative to what we have seen before? >> they are harsher. they are the tenth set since 2006. they harsher than the ones we saw in september which were harsher than the ones before that. we have to remember they are not strict enough. if we believe we have only a limited time to deal with this, that we can't deter north korea and people believe. president trump needs to enforce his september 21 executive order. he needs to two after chinese banks that have been money laundering. we have can an immediate effect on north korea. what else is in this administration's tool kit when it comes to sanctioning north korea. he said there are limits to the levers this add mvrgs hministra.

>> i guess you'd have to go into some very extreme issues. sanctions have never been a real tool for the united states. it exists like a drug cartel does. it operates through illicit operations. it gets cash shipped into it. it engages in narcotics transport and whatnot around the world. it benefits from participating in these gray zones internationally with other countries that are willing to work with it. i think that's the change in perspective we need. you have others that say if you want to cut that stuff out then we need a real naval blockade. that might create real pressure. as we talk about sanctions and banking relationships, i look at that as very piecemeal when it comes to directing north korea

to take different actions. >> nikki haley working on issues, this is administration with an uneasy relationship with the united nations. how comfortable is it having the u.n. being front and center when it comes to its foreign policy portfolio. >> the united nations is a place that allows us to get a message the united states is trying to send. it's a place that sends signals back to the united states when other countries see we have crossed a line. when it comes to issues like the palestine case we have seen a rebuke from the rest of the world. we have an uneasy relationship with the united nations that

doesn't fit well with an america first foreign policy which is the brand this administration is putting out there. that's not a bad thing. sometimes the united states needs to make the weather in the world. there are other times we need to pay attention to what's coming. donald trump is asking the world to work with us on the north korea pro. many of our allies need to know we will be there for their threats. be there in dealing with refugees. i think there's an imbalance of empathy between our needs and our allies needs. >> we heard the french ambassador saying there's a diplomatic solution. we need to get to it. that's the path to that right now. >> i believe that is severe sanctions not just on north korea but on those countries

that back north korea. for instance, china, russia and a number of other nations throughout the world. we have really had not begun to sanction those countries. this is going to be drastic but if we want a peaceful solution, we have to make it clear to the north koreans that they have no choice but to do what we want. we have the power to do that. we've not been willing to exercise the elements of power. thanks the both of you. as we take a look back at donald trump's first year of presiden presidency, there's more news. machine

. president trump is spending his christmas in florida. fresh off his first major legislative victory. a sweeping overhaul of the tax code. trump told friends dining at the trump owned private club last night, quote, you all got a lot richer. this just hours after he signed that bill into law. most americans agree. 63% say the tax plan will mostly help corporations and the wealthiest americans. according to the most recent poll. trump is not too worried about how the bill is perceived telling the press on friday that americans will grow to love it. >> i think it's selling itself.

it's becoming very popular. i think it will really -- you'll see something on february 1st when they open up the paycheck. that's when you will start to see it. signing it now, it kicks in for this year. tell us a bit more about this. some dinner table conversation taking place last night. >> reporter: well, the backdrop is that the president when he spoke to reporters in the oval office he was asked there if he needed to do a public tour. sort of a post state of union kind of thing where we see a president go around the country and sell policy ideas. the president saying he doesn't think he needs to do that. the president was overheard saying to some of those who were attending that you're going to be richer. it