hello, everyone. i'm richard lui at msnbc headquarters in new york city on this sunday. good day to you. president trump may be seeking some relaxation at the winter white house this holiday weekend, but he is back to tweeting and stirring up more controversy. and we approach the new year. yep, republicans growing more concerned about the midterms, though. what the tea leaves are telling them makes them believe they could lose control of congress

altogether. and we're keeping an eye on the holiday forecast for you. we'll see who may be waking up to a white christmas across the great land. now, the afterglow of president trump's first big achievement did not last very long. president trump touted the $1.5 trillion tax cut as his christmas gift to america. >> this is, again, the biggest tax cut, biggest reform of all time. >> this afternoon, cbs news reporting president trump kept telling friends during a dinner, you all just got a lot richer. though nbc news has not confirmed that report, but celebration of success has been overshadowed. a "new york times" report yesterday claiming the president made some uncharitable comments about immigrants in an oval office meeting earlier this year. the white house categorically denying they happened. >> 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. >> the president's immigration policy, meanwhile, suffered a new blow with a federal court partially rolling back the

administration's refugee ban. while the president pass ede a traditional holiday news conference, he's taken to twitter. the president lashing out again at the fbi's deputy director in the first of more than a half dozen tweets of various topics. joining us, msnbc correspondent in florida covering the president, garrett mccabe. and you are one of the few who might be able to corroborate comey's senate testimony and some might ask is this why the president is now going after him in his twitter feed? >> reporter: well, richard, it's always a tricky game to try to understand exactly why the president tweets exactly what he does when he does, but you're right about andrew mccabe. he's the second highest ranking person in the fbi, was close with james comey, and he's told congressional investigators that comey told him contemporaneously that, yes, the president had asked him for his personal loyalty, again, shortly before

comey was fired. that certainly would make him a target or a person of interest to the president. add on top of that the fact that mccabe is sort of mixed up in the clinton investigation. he had been one of the officials overseeing that effort during the campaign. his wife was also a democratic candidate for the virginia statehouse who received some significant donations from pacs associated with clinton ally, then virginia governor terry mcauliffe. mccabe sits at the nexus of two things that tend to infuriate donald trump, the russia investigation and anything involving the clinton family, and that certainly puts him on the president's radar. >> you know, garrett, another part of all this is reporting coming out making a little bit of a turn here, in "the new york times." we were mentioning it at the top of the hour here. those are comments that the president made about haitians, for instance, and about nigerians. the president coming back and saying, you know, that is not what was said. what is the white house saying further about this very issue?

>> reporter: well, it's interesting, richard. yesterday we had sarah sanders coming out with a statement saying these comments ascribed to the president aren't accurate and that other people who were in the room sdpooit dispute them. they don't dispute the fact that the meeting took place and don't dispute the fact that the president was talking about refugees or folks who are here on temporary protected status. one of the people who was also not in that meeting but is involved in this issue, marc short, elaborated on this earlier this morning. take a listen to what he had to say. >> let's talk about the temporary protected 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 protected status. we have tens of thousands of people in our country from honduras and from nicaragua from a hurricane that happened in 1999. tens of thousands of people under temporary protected status. the president's again and again made the case that on our immigration laws, congress needs to change these laws. >> reporter: so, richard, look, there is the white house saying we need to get tougher about

this particular type of immigration law. we know this has been an issue that's animated the trump campaign into the trump presidency. it's always been a big thing for him. as relates to that "the new york times" story, let's look at the context now. we know that this meeting occurred. we have white house officials denying that certain things ascribed to the president were said, but nobody who was in that meeting has come out yet and said on their own credibility that those things that the president was accused of saying about groups of people we know that based on his politics he does not particularly want in the country are things that he might have said. and again, we're talking about a president who talked about immigrants from mexico being rapists and criminals at start of his campaign, so that's the context there. and now you have sort of "the new york times" and their sources lined up against folks from the white house who also weren't in the room. it will be interesting to me whether you have a general john kelly or rex tillerson or somebody who was in that room willing to stake their credibility and come out and say these things that "the new york

times" inscribes were not said in that meeting. >> thank you, garrett haake following the president in west palm beach. thank you. we have a great panel. in washington, political analyst and republican strategist rick tyler. in san francisco, msnbc contributor and president and ceo of vota latino, maria. and in ft. wayne, indiana, we have the whole country covered, msnbc contributor charlie savage, also washington correspondent for "the new york times." rick, let's start with you. and on the very topic that garrett was just finishing up with. and this is, of course, forward looking as well as current looking. we have the issues that have come down on friday and saturday on the travel ban and on the refugee ban that have come down from the white house through executive orders. we also have what's going to be happening in the new year, right? we have daca going to be debated there on the hill as they're looking at budget issues. that's going to be included. with these comments coming out, where does this put this white house and republicans on the hill on this topic of immigration? >> well, comments like that

certainly don't lend credibility to the administration and certainly don't reflect well on the white house because of the nature of the comments, but i expect in the new year you are going to get some movement on daca. you'll probably get some sort of a compromise. it's surprising to me that democrats insist on the compromise, but chuck schumer has said that he was given some assurances that there will be some sort of deal on daca in the new year, so we'll just have to wait and see. >> one of the questions, maria, is will this put some wind in the sails of those in support of d.r.e.a.m.ers, of those that were brought here when they were young, brought here illegally, and protecting them as they move forward because they were brought here through no fault of their own? that's been the debate as we go into january. will these comments reported, allegedly, in "the new york times," help that argument, we must maintain the support for these d.r.e.a.m.ers? >> well, i think what the story broke in "the new york times" is basically what the president has been able to demonstrate even when he is speaking out loud to the american public, and this is

a disparaging view of immigrants, and specifically a certain type of immigrant, disproportionately an immigrant of color. and what we're seeing when it comes to daca, it just puts the republicans, you know, with their backs against the wall. they're going to have to come forward and negotiate something. there is not literally an undocumented person today that does not have an ally that is either a voter or that lives in their family that can also vote. you have roughly 16 million americans that live in mixed-status families. when the republicans are looking to the verizon of the midterm elections, you'd better believe they are concerned, because again, immigrants are not sectioned off to the coast normally, as many folks imagine. they're actually in the brown belt. so i think this is basically a group of people that the republicans are incredibly concerned with what the republicans are doing, but also, i think what the d.r.e.a.m.ers have been able to do is that they have taken control of the agenda. they're the ones that are driving it. they're the ones that are protesting. they're the ones that are making sure that they're getting arrested and saying you have to do something, mr. president, you

have to do something in congress, because that was the promise in which you shared with us back in september. >> it has also been the courts from the coast from which you are speaking from there, maria. and i'll move over to you now, daniel. it has been the courts from the west, in washington state, of the ninth circuit, as well, that have come out on friday and then yesterday, moving against the president. checks and balances, right? that's what we're seeing happening right now. what does this mean moving into 2018, though, because the courts are not necessarily taking a step back on these travel bans? still active. >> look, the problem for president trump and the white house is that a travel ban has been one of the signature pieces of legislation that they've been trying to move since the president took office. and the fact that he keeps running into road blocks, he keeps getting blocked by courts around the country on this, is going to come up in 2018. there are going to be candidates who wanted to run on a hardline immigration stance, and they're

not going to be able to. then there will be democrats who are going to bash their opponents and tie them to trump on something like the travel ban or his comments. >> i want to move on to the other issue that garrett was telling us about here, rick, andrew mccabe. we've seen many statements via twitter from the president over this weekend, really hitting out against andrew mccabe and his wife. in addition to that, we have the reassignment of chief counsel, or the counsel there at the fbi, james baker. these are two of three individuals, which has been widely reported, that james comey had confided in within a couple of days, this after that meeting, remember, that james comey had testified upon that he had had with the president. are we going to see the questions surrounding this saying why is the president, or why are they being reassigned and the president calling out against two people that could be part of this investigation in the russia connection question? >> well, it's really fascinating

to have an administration -- this is -- the justice department is trump's justice department, and therefore, it's his fbi, and he's underwriting their credibility. and had ae's conducting it like political campaign. he's now saying he has no intention of firing mueller, but he's saying that because he knows that there's no public opinion that would support that. so what he's trying do is undermine the fbi, and therefore, mueller, so he can get at this idea of undermining mueller, either by firing him or somehow limiting what he's able to do in his investigation. so, that's the process that they're going through. so, you can see right now he's not to the point where he can say he could fire mueller, but this is just another issue in that campaign that will undermine the fbi and the justice department, which, by the way, will come at great cost. i think it's very detrimental to a free society to have people believe their justice department and the fbi is corrupt. >> as our viewers will have

noticed in this latest five blocks, we've added somebody, and that is charlie savage, "the new york times" washington correspondent, msnbc contributor. we have tightened up the technical connections there. and charlie, you may have heard what rick was saying there. the question to him was about andrew mccabe as well as james baker. james baker, as you know, being reassigned. andrew mccabe, the reporting about him retiring and the president coming out against him. but i was asking what this might mean, because these are two of three people that reportedly james comey had confided in about that key discussion he had with president trump in the white house. what do you make of that? >> i think that's absolutely right. and what we're seeing is an attempt -- i agree with the last speaker, an attempt to sort of lay the groundwork or set the battlefield to come where they don't know exactly what mueller's investigation is going to come up with, but by preemptively attacking some of the key witnesses, if there is an obstruction of justice

finding by mueller, or by saying that the law enforcement agency that's involved in gathering the facts that will go into what mueller ultimately determines happened in the broader investigation into russian interference to help trump in the 2016 election, i think all of that is softening up the eventual target. and the target is, maybe mueller will come back and find nothing of interest, or maybe he'll come up and find something that is damaging to the president. if it's the latter, what the president and his supporters want is for people to say, well, this is just biased, this is just -- you can't believe these facts, like stephen colbert famously once said, the facts have a liberal bias. and that means the findings will not result in, say impeachment proceedings in the house or even the base of vanity with trump. so, this is not about what's happened so far so much as it's about what may happen in the next few months. >> i want to bring in a tweet that sally yates had put out. and here we go. she says "this on christmas eve? secret service, be on the

lookout for three ghosts visiting mar-a-lago tonight." this in reflection to what the president had tweeted out against andrew mccabe. maria teresa kumar, you're now seeing in this case, again, a very key voice in this entire investigation coming out and saying, it doesn't look good for this president. that's what she's intimating, right? >> right. well, sally yates, let's not forget, she was fired by trump, but she knows a lot. she was the one that basically started telling folks, look, michael flynn, he might be compromised by the russians, and it was shortly after that that she was swiftly moved away from her office. but let's take a look. i think what rick says is absolutely right. the fact that this president is trying sew doubt into our major law enforcement agency, the one who is unbiased, the one who right now under comey, for example, served both republican and democrat -- mueller is also beyond reproach -- that is something that should be alarming to the american people.

the fact also that mueller sees and reads the tea leaves saying, look, they're trying to try to find fault and say that we are biased? let me make sure that i move mccabe as fast as possible, let me make sure that general counsel baker is also removed so that folks recognize that the fbi is working under standard operating procedure, that we are not biased. what we want is the truth. we want to make sure that those who are culpable, if there was tampering in our elections, those authorities should definitely come and be reckoned with. and so, he sees the trump administration trying to undermine, sew doubt in the american people of the legitimacy of the fbi, and mueller is basically playing chess to say, not on my watch. if there is any suspicion that these folks within the fbi may be acting against the administration by bias, i want to make sure that i am dealing with them swiftly. >> all right, maria teresa kumar, thank you so much. this is truly a national panel, so i thank you all three as we kicked off this hour. everybody else will be staying put. we are just getting started this

hour. still to come for you, we'll talk about midterm madness and some soul searching on the part of republicans of how best to hold on to their majority. and bill richardson is standing by with the latest on the u.s. sanctions against north korea. are they good enough? and whether or not they will change the calculus on the region. first, weather along the east coast is making travel particularly precarious for some. meteorologist bonnie schneider has more on the developing weather situation. snow, huh? >> that's right, richard, a white christmas for many. we're watching for snow across chicago, falling right now into cleveland and across the great lakes. this will work its way into interior new england for christmas day. so, it will hamper travel a bit, especially if you're driving in the northeast or the great lakes like on i-90. this is where we could see some slowdowns and poor visibility. give yourself extra time for this christmas. that will continue throughout the afternoon. another factor, if you're not seeing a white christmas, you're probably going to see a windy one. we have wind advisories with gusts up to 55 miles per hour. that includes new york city and

boston, down through roanoke, virginia. we could see some tree limb damage and maybe even power outages as the winds will be strong. we'll see the winds and gusts pick up through much of christmas, but everyone's asking about a white christmas and where we'll see it. we'll see the snow through the rockies, the bitter cold building in through areas of the northern plains, and that cold air will be filtering in further east as we go through the first part of the week. we're looking at where we're going to see the snow. at least one inch possible through much of the country, and of course, likely in many locations, especially those that we have snow falling right now. and it's cold enough for it to stick. those temperatures are getting much colder as we kind of wrap up the final days of 2017. we're also looking at snow accumulating out west, throughout the rockies into montana, wyoming, and parts of colorado. temperatures are cooling down rapidly for those morning lows. starting off in the negative numbers by monday morning, so it's going to be really cold for christmas morning in cities like international falls. well, that's a look at your christmas eve forecast.

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welcome back to "msnbc live." i'm richard lui. joining us now from santa fe, new mexico, former u.s. ambassador to the u.n. and former new mexico governor bill richardson. governor, thanks for being with us. we've got two big topics, of course, to talk about, and more, but let's get with north korea. the very latest, as you know, coming from reuters, and they are declaring at the moment the latest u.n. sanctions against them an act of war.

what are these new sanctions to you? this is a space you're very familiar with. it was at a marked increase in the severity and really practical output, these new u.n. sanctions? >> well, they're the most severe that i've ever seen through the united nations and bilaterally through the united states, so i'll give credit to the trump administration. it limits 90% of all petroleum products imported. that's fuel. it says over a two-year period. north korean workers have to get out of places like china, which deprives them of foreign exchange. we did try to get tougher sanctions that we didn't get, like stopping some of the cargo ships that have some banned products and freezing international assets of the north korean leadership, but they are significant. the issue, though, richard, is are they going to be enough to bring north korea to the negotiating table? i believe not.

but they're going to progress. and i think it's a sensible policy. i'm against the preemptive military strike. i'd like to see some diplomacy. i think the president has been undermining the secretary of state, who's tried to talk to north korea without preconditions. >> and governor, you've not been shy, being pragmatic in dealing with north korea. there have been various multilateral efforts. the u.n. sanctions have come down every year or every other year, and we don't seem to be seeing any difference in outcomes here. are you aware of any back-channel, bilateral efforts here that may be a different beat to this song? >> well, i believe the secretary of state did try, possibly, and i'm not privilegety what he was doing, but simply saying let's have a freeze for a freeze. north korea, you stop your testing, nuclear, your missile

testing. in exchange, we'll talk to you. maybe we reduce a little military activity with south korea. but it seems that when tillerson laid that out about ten days ago, he was brought back by the white house, and that white house effort i think has undermined him with the north koreans. now, you know, as long as there's no preemptive military strike, i really regret when the president starts tweeting and calls him rocket man and, you know, the north koreans, i've dealt with them for years, they hate these personal insults. and i know they insult the president back, but i think the key here is diplomacy. sanctions are not going to work eventually, although they're good progress. preemptive military strikes, what, 125,000 people, americans, just americans in the seoul area, 25 million south koreans. we've got troops in japan and -- >> a lot of risk. >> -- and south korea. >> a lot of risk, certainly, yes. >> the option is just not good.

>> governor -- >> so, let's try diplomacy. >> and soft power, many supporting that. you have a weakened state department you're alluding to, you have a compromised state department, so the reporting goes, because of not only the secretary himself not seeing eye to eye with the president, and that could be hampering those efforts being made by the united states is what you're saying, from the perspective of north korean kim jong-un. one question for you -- >> for instance -- >> i want to add one more thing to this, governor. >> yes, yes. >> what do you think your perspective is here? because those who support president trump's efforts, the rocket man sort of talk, or that swagger, if you will, some who support president trump saying, well, maybe you need to try some different language with kim jong-un because that's who kim jong-un is? >> well, look, you know, the president has his unique style. he's not going to change. i wish he did change, because the north koreans, the asians, they're traditional diplomats,

regardless of what positions they take. they want to save face. they want to find ways to negotiate through formal channels. you know, my hope had been that maybe a separate channel, a as you mentioned, maybe the united nations, maybe germany, maybe new actors coming in. i think there are some soft power issues, which i commend you for talking about. for instance, the recovery of the remains of americans in north korea. find a way to open that up. maybe some sports diplomacy. i think all we're doing is, like, heading towards a precipice of a skirmish, which is going to light up the area very negatively. that's my worry. >> i want to play a little bit of sound here from senator ben cardin today on "fox news sunday," and this is what he said. >> it now needs to be followed up with diplomacy where we get china and the united states working with the same strategy with north korea to find a way that we can ease the tension and get north korea to change

directions. so, it's a good first step. >> good first step. he mentioned china, another country, in your work, sir, that you're familiar with. is china turning the corner on this? will they turn the corner further? >> they're turning the corner, but too slowly. now, i will give credit to the trump administration. they've really engaged china on this issue. and any kind of sanction with china against north korea has to go through china. 90% of all commerce goes through china, so china has to enforce it, and they are doing more, but they're not doing enough. for instance, they vetoed those two provisions i mentioned, the banned cargo area, international assets, freezing of the north korean leadership. if they had not banned those and said they're going to veto the security council resolution that we wanted, maybe it would accelerate north korea coming to the negotiating table, but there's no assurance. i think we've pushed the

sanctions as much as we can. let's try diplomacy. let's give tillerson a little space to negotiate. >> i want to switch topics to immigration. and as you've been watching, governor, on friday and saturday, we've had courts in the west, federal courts that have basically stopped or struck down parts of the travel ban, the refugee ban that the president has moved upon through his executive orders, just on friday and saturday itself. put that together with what we're going to be seeing in january as, again, the question of immigration comes up. we're going to be hitting 2018. that topic will be coming up. but this, the words being used in "the new york times" reporting are derogatory, if they are true, and the white house, though, saying they're not true. >> well, you know, richard, i can't verify if the president said that or didn't say it. it seems like it's a pattern where he perhaps thinks that way. i just am very distressed by how

we're hitting on our immigration policy. in fact, i will say this, i wish the democrats had been stronger on the d.r.e.a.m.ers as they pursued this agreement on the end of the year budget talks. i want them to save the d.r.e.a.m.ers. i mean, this ban expires in march, and you've got 800,000 d.r.e.a.m.ers, young men and women, including some of our military people, that are vulnerable. i wish the president would look at the issue in a comprehensive sense. more border enforcement, i think we're okay on that. no wall. i mean, that makes no sense, especially since immigration coming into the united states is severely being reduced. i'll give him credit for that, too, about 40% in the last year. the problem is central american refugees, kids coming in. let's have a humane policy there. but this is the president's top issue. this is his political base, and he doesn't seem to want to move away from it. i'm glad the courts have struck down part of the refugee ban, but you know, in the end, it's tough to stop a president.

>> governor bill richardson, always a pleasure speaking with you, especially as we cover two very important issues that the country is facing and debating right now. thank you, sir. >> thank you, richard. >> all righty. when we return, it was supposed to be democrats on the defensive in 2018, but will it be republicans now under pressure during the midterms instead? that after this. afi sure had a lot on my mind. my 30-year marriage... ...my 3-month old business... plus...what if this happened again? i was given warfarin in the hospital, but wondered, was this the best treatment for me? so i made a point to talk to my doctor. he told me about eliquis. eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots and reduces the risk of them happening again. not only does eliquis treat dvt and pe blood clots. eliquis also had significantly less major bleeding

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thanks for staying with us. let's talk about the midterms now. it's less than a year away, but might as well have already started. first the narrative was all about red state senate democrats having to defend their turf, but increasingly, it looks like it may be republicans put on the defensive. majority leader mitch mcconnell told "the washington examiner," "the environment today is not great. the generic ballot's not good, and i'd love to see the president's approval rating higher. so i think we should anticipate a real knockdown-dragout, even on the senate side." and about missed opportunities in alabama, he said this -- >> do you blame steve bannon for doug jones being elected in alabama? >> well, let me just say this, the political genius on display, throwing away a seat in the

reddest state in america is hard to ignore. >> the "washington post" and political report about a "spirited meeting" on wednesday involving political director bill stepien, john kelly, kellyanne conway, and even cory lewan dowsky. the "post" reports "lewandowski told the president that the rnc was not raising nearly enough money, even though they're raising record sums and not doing enough to support his agenda." and then from politico -- "weeks before the special election in alabama, rnc chair romney mcdaniel giving john kelly a two-page memo detailing the party's collapse among women voters." the president, of course, still tweeted his support of roy moore, recorded robocall for him and campaigned in nearby pensacola." talking to us about the shifting strategy inside the republican party for 2018, rick tyler, still with us, daniel strauss, chief washington correspondent for "bloomberg," kevin cirilli joins the fray with us now.

kevin, this is, i know, the $64 question here, and that is the power dynamic when we look at the white house, the rnc, steve bannon, and then you've got, as you just heard, mitch mcconnell. and where this all ferrets out, because you know, during the election we thought the republican party was in flux. and if we were to measure the level of fluxness then, if that was a five, we're certainly at what, an eight or nine. >> yeah, absolutely. look, i was speaking with a senior republican aide to a republican leadership member just a couple days ago who said take a look at the western pennsylvania congressional district of congressional district 1. there's a special election there in march, and district 18 is a district that candidate trump carried by more than ten percentage points, outside of pittsburgh. so look, i think that's going to be a really interesting bellwether, but the stakes have never been higher for republicans. should democrats carry the house, there's going to be a lot of pressure for democrats to start impeachment proceedings. on the flip side of that, as

leader mcconnell said just before the holiday recess, in terms of republicans fighting to keep control of the senate, that's a new type of phenomenon. how they're able to sell this tax plan, that's when this is really going to matter. >> there's a tax plan, and then there are the demographics, rick. as the reporting in the lead-up here, women, how they are polling at the moment. we certainly saw that in voting in alabama because of the very dynamics on the ground there. how might that be remembered in 2018 or forgotten? >> well, it won't be forgotten. the democrats are going to take every opportunity to make sure people remember that the republican party nominated an accused child molester and that women responded in alabama. and you have to argue, richard, that if democrats can win a u.s. senate seat in alabama, they can win anywhere. alabama is the reddest state,

arguably, in the country, and now the democrats have it. and before, you had the democrats defending 30-some-odd seats in the u.s. senate and the republicans defending, i think, 8. but remember, the democrats only need to pick up two. and if this 2018 is anything like 2017, then all the stories, it will be about trump. and if this election going into 2018 is about trump, with a 35% approval rating that sets up what seems to me like a wave election for the democrats. >> you were talking about alabama, and you were talking about a democrat in what you were calling the reddest state in the country, potentially. and as we do look at this, daniel, i'll go straight to the local paper there in alabama. and if you go there, you may have seen the headline here "the color purple," talking about alabama. "how millennials and gen-x after electing doug jones could change a red state." if that's again the micro of the macro, are we going to see more

red turning purple, and not only because of women voters, female voters, but also the increased participation of gen-xers and millennials? >> yeah, i mean, look, that's what republicans were so jarred by with this doug jones win in alabama. he was not buoyed by a conservative electorate. he was buoyed by an active millennial base in support of suburbanite and suburban women. that's a trend we've been seeing for a while, younger voters and suburbanites moving away from the gop. and if democrats are to take the senate, the house or both chambers, they're going to rally a lot of those voters and right now the trend seems to be in their favor. >> there are, as we were showing through the graphics here, kevin, which you may have seen on screen, we're looking at red states and some of the senate seats that are up. a lot of democrats in these trump states. do you think there will be

enough support, enough of a wave, in alabama, as we were discussing, to potentially turn this, and why? >> i'm hesitant to say alabama's a bellwether. the guy was an accused pedophile. i think that -- you know, when i was in alabama covering that race, i spoke with several republicans, and all of the voters and all of them were saying that if they were voting for doug jones, it wasn't because he was doug jones it was because he wasn't roy moore. i would come back to the special election in pennsylvania in western p.a., the suburbs, to daniel's point, the suburbs of pittsburgh, this special election, a district that trump carried by more than 10 percentage points. if democrats win that special election, that i think is more of a bellwether. look, the bottom line, though, if you do have a lesson to learn from alabama, richard, it's that the coalition of voters that came out for the democrats and how organized they were, all different facets. if that organization and that motivation to get to the polls carries through in the midterm

elections, then yes, i think the democrats will have a stronger showing in november. >> rick, what about money? rnc seems to be doing okay, but then again, we were just talking about how lewandowski is saying, no, we don't have enough money. go ahead, rick. >> the professionals never think there's enough money in the races. >> that's why we're talking to you, my friend. i have to ask you, rick. >> basically, there's got to be more money. but look, it's really, to kevin's point, you look at the enthusiasm gap. that's what you want to look at, because when the grassroots is activated, no amount of money's going to overcome that. and look, in certain states, you can't buy enough media, because the markets are so small. so the money's not going to make the difference. it's going to be the grassroots and it's going to be enthusiasm on the ground. and i would say that alabama may not be a bellwether. i would agree with that, because it was unusual, but it does, shall we say, buoy the spirits

of the democrats to say if we can win in alabama, then they get motivated everywhere else. and the republicans -- look, the generic ballot right now for the republicans is awful. >> yeah, and it really is a battle of the coalitions and who can develop one, whether it be a small coalition or a large coalition across all these different states as we move forward. rick tyler, daniel strauss, kevin cirilli, great conversation. thanks for bringing it. >> thank you, guys. merry christmas, happy holidays. >> straight ahead, invasive security checks. privacy complaints soar over the search of cell phones and laptops.

in the new investigation, "the new york times" obtained more than 200 privacy complaints from travelers crossing the u.s. border since 2011. they say their cell phones and laptops were searched without a warrant and their privacy was violated. the accounts detail border agents allegedly searching e-mails, text messages and photographs without cause or consent. let's bring back msnbc contributor charlie savage from "the new york times." charlie, take us through your reporting on this topic. >> sure. this is an interesting issue about 21st-century technology and how that's changing longstanding balances between individual rights and national security and law enforcement power. so, it's always been the case since the beginning of this country that courts have allowed government agents to protect the border to go through people's stuff as they cross the border without a warrant from a judge, without any kind of suspicion. they can just go through your suitcases to make sure you're not bringing something bad into

the country, and that's just been accepted because there's something special about the border and we all understand that. but in the rise of smartphones, which we all carry in our pockets now, and laptops have really started to put pressure on that old balance, because the amount of private information that's in anyone's smartphone is just dramatically more than what you would carry around in your suitcase. and so, there's been -- and at the same time, agents have been making exploding use of their power to go through people's smartphones and laptops, and not just to look through it, sometimes to copy it and put the copies of that data in some kind of a government file that who knows what happens to. the number of such searches have almost quadrupled just in the last two years, up to about 30,000 a year. and so, what we got a hold of, actually, it was the first amendment institute at columbia university, used the freedom of information act to get complaints filed by people with the department of homeland security about their electronics being searched, going way back into the obama administration. they got hundreds of them out of the government and they handed

them to us, and so we went through them, and we have all these stories that sort of show what it's like. and something different about this. the feelings of humiliation and privacy violation and people just being staggered and feeling ashamed and being treated like a criminal because people are going through their e-mails and seeing photos of, you know, their girlfriends or wives partially undressed or whatever. the feelings of violation are quite different than what one normally is used to just when having someone sort of look open your suitcase, and so that's what this project was about. >> ten seconds. what happens next? >> well, there's a huge lawsuit that was just filed by the aclu and the electronic frontier foundation in boston. they're asking a judge to declare that warrants should be required before the government can do this with electronics at the border, and the government -- the trump administration has asked a judge to dismiss that case. so we'll see what happens. >> interesting article, if you have time to read it, from charlie savage of "the new york times." thank you so much, sir. have a good sunday. >> thank you. you, too. >> you, too. next, it might be the least

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it's an emotional connection i focus on techniques because it's really the techniques that are the most important part of any recipe. salt enhances, acid enhances, pepper, changes flavor. pan roasting is a technique to give you almost pudding like, zucchini. every technique that i'm sharing with you is something that will last you a lifetime. i'm thomas keller and this is my masterclass. this is interesting. the number one group in the country on billboard music charts is not who you might think it is.

the singing nuns of the dominican sisters of mary have now attracted a growing legion of fans across the globe with their music this holiday season. nbc's catie beck has their interesting story on this christmas eve. ♪ gloria >> reporter: the hills of ann arbor, michigan, are alive with the sound of music. it echoes from this secluded convent in the woods, where inside, the dominican sisters of mary sing sacred songs. >> then sometimes i'll just stop and just kind of listen and go, this is so beautiful. this must be a little bit of heaven. ♪ >> reporter: for this order, song is more than a daily ritual. >> singing and music is just part of who we are. >> reporter: now a growing legion of fans from across the globe know just who they are. the sisters recently released their third album, "jesus joy of man's desiring," which quickly

shot to the top of the classical music billboard charts, holding steady at number one for weeks. >> it isn't something that you hear every day, you know, on the street corners where they're singing christmas carols or you can go to a concert, and we're giving them a glimpse into our life. ♪ >> reporter: the unlikely music stars recorded the album inside their chapel, designed especially for quality sound. what is it like to hear those voices? >> it really just elevates you for a few seconds. you kind of forget where you are, and you're just raised up, you know, above all the problems that everyone has. ♪ joy to the world >> reporter: along with the new fans, the order is drawing recruits faster than they can find beds for. the mother started the order four years ago with four nuns

living in a barn. >> now you look at where you are today. >> i know. >> reporter: 138 strong. >> that's right. that's right. >> reporter: what do you think? >> i don't know what to think. i think, you know, god's got the big picture. i only have a small part of it. >> reporter: the average age of a nun in the united states is 78 years old, but here that age is just 28. and for these young sisters, it's not all about the work. >> it gets competitive out there. >> it does. it does, yes. we give each other a good fight, that's for sure. >> reporter: while sister mary avila enjoys her time on the court and time with her sisters, it was their first album that brought her to join the order. >> i love music, so the fact that our sisters do it with such beauty and such care, it really is a prayer. >> reporter: despite topping the music charts, this is no "sister act." the religious life calls and fulfills them. ♪ a calling they hope to pass on

to their fans. >> to come into a greater place inside their own selves. and i think our music has that ability to just lift people up. and we all want to be lifted up. ♪ heaven and nature sing >> reporter: resounding joy sung on high. for "sunday today," catie beck, ann arbor, michigan. ♪ >> well, there you have it. the hills are alive with music in ann arbor, michigan. we are just getting started this christmas eve. another hour coming up.

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hello to you. i'm richard lui at msnbc headquarters in new york city. thank you for sticking with us this hour. the president is taking a holiday break from washington to close out a very busy year, but his weekend tweets may be making politics a bit more complicated by the minute. plus, new year, new tax code. at mar-a-lago, his private club, president trump reportedly telling guests on hand, you all just got a lot richer. and it is christmas eve, yes. we'll be tracking your weather as we count down to the holiday. and there's going to be snow to talk about. so, it has been anything but a quiet trip to mar-a-lago so far for the president this weekend. first there were "the new york times" headlines of some shocking reported comments made in the oval office about immigrants, claims the white house steadfastly denies. t