here's a look at the top stories we're watching at this hour. not letting up, president trump is still on the attack against the fbi, now he's getting some backup from his allies? >> congress, and stunning new comments. plus cold cash, less than a week after ambassador nikki h l haley vowed to take names. new news about the historic cut and what it could mean for the u.s.-u.n. relationship. republicans are heading into the new year with a major legislative win. for the rest of the country, it could mean major confusion and chaos, as companies try to figure out what it means for payroll. we start this hour with the russia investigation, more specifically the attacks on that investigation by president trump and his allies, in an effort to discredit him. after taking a break from that on christmas, the president woke

up from christmas ready to go at it again. trump tweeted, wow, fox and friends, dossier is go bus, clinton campaign, dnc funded dossier. with us to break this down, garrett hague, who's in palm beach with the president. and we have reporter julia ainsley. and the advisor of the new york democratic party. and the advisor of the bush cheney campaigns. there were comments about andy mccabe, the deputy director of the fbi. what does the president have to say here about the dossier and about mr. mccabe over the weekend? >> reporter: andrew mccabe sort of sits under the nexxus of everything that gets under the president's skin, he was deputy

director of the russia probe, especially with his old boss, james comey, he's someone who has told congressional investigators that he can corroborate james comey's account that the president had asked him for loyalty before he was fired. mccabe is also embroiled in the clinton investigation as well, in part because his wife was a democratic candidate for senate in west virginia who received hundreds of thousands of dollars in pacs who districted to her campaign. these facts have sort of conspired to place mccabe in donald trump's twitter crosshairs. he spent several tweets over the course of the weekend attacking mccabe's involvement, sort of connecting him to his wife's campaign, connecting him to leaking james comey, he called him. essentially taking shots at mccabe's credibility, even mentioning in one tweet that

mccabe was in a race for the exits. there was a report in nbc that mccabe plans to end his career by retiring to get his full benefits in the spring and trump seems to be aiming to undermine his credibility. >> that relationship to that pac,cauliffe in west virginia. there was a rather extraordinary exchange today on msnbc between our colleague halle jackson and congressman francis rooney about who should head the fbi. let >> i'm very concerned that the doj and the fbi, whether you want to call it deep interstate or not that, it's completely off the rails, when you look at that ohr guy talking to the dossier,

and then mccabe's wife takes money -- >> republicans are working to essentially try to discredit the department of justice and thus discredit the russia investigations. is that not what you're doing? >> no, i don't want to discredit him, i would like to see the directors of those agencies person purge them. we have got a lot of great agents and great lawyers and that's the good work i want to see being done not these people who are part of the deep state. >> this is something that the president has seized upon, some republicans have seized upon. how widely is this sentiment growing down in washington, d.c. among some members of the republican party? >> it's definitely growing, david, we saw sort of a steady drum beat on efforts to undermine it sort of growing before the holidays and i think we're going to see more of it,

particularly because trump's legal team has been very quiet since a meeting that they had last week with the mueller investigators. they wanted basically for the president to be exonerated from wrong doing while the rest of this investigation continued. we haven't heard anything from that meeting and we know the leaks that would come from it would be from the white house not from mueller's team. they wanted to be able to keep the president calm, instead this investigation is continuing, and as it continues, there's more anxiety building in the white house and then there are republicans who are wanting to show loyalty to the president like the ones we just heard to halle, to try to undermine this investigation so that any findings that may come out later might be discredited or not believed by the american people. >> i wonder what's your sense of how widely this is growing? >> well, just to roll back here for a second, the idea that this is somehow some deep state conspiracy suggests a certain

degree of selective outrage, the head of the justice department is jeff sessions, who's one of the most conservative republican senators a year ago. and christopher wray was a republican, most of the fbi agents i knew were republicans. i don't think this viewpoint is particularly widespread in the upper chamber, if you will, in the u.s. senate. a lot of folks who have been in the senate for a long time, republicans, look at this issue, this investigation very seriously. and they look at it on the merits, by the way, of russia being a foe of the united states, sort of setting aside the idea of a trump collusion element of it. people like john mccain, lindsey graham, marco rubio, richard burr, leading the intel community investigation into this, all look at russia as a strategic foe of the united states and this is something that needs to be taken seriously by the appropriate law

enforcement body, in this case, the fbi and now the special counsel's office, set up and designed to be as free from the appearance of partisan politics as possible. >> robert train, from the bipartisan policy unit. congressman ted lu, a democratic congressman tweeting this morning, d.a. dear real donald trump, fbi director wray gave over 39,000 exclusively given to -- are you worried about the effects of these kinds of attacks on a nonpartisan institution in washington, d.c. >> yes, because it undermines who we are as american citizens, we reserve the right to be able to give to whomever we want to under the constitution, we reserve the right to vote for whoever we want to, regardless if you're a secret service agent, in fact we encourage that as part of process. what the fbi has done time and

time again has shown that it's a professional impartial institution, the president as the head of that organization by default should be supporting it not undermining it so what the president is doing here is slowly chipping away at the core democracy or the pill lars of o democracy. >> as this is gathering steam, as we see more members of the republican party jumping on to this, does it have an affect on how the american people see these investigations? >> i think for donald trump's supporters, it is more fuel for their ability to go out and very vehemently sort of support of their candidate. but i think for the average american, they are perplexed by this, because the fbi is known to be nonpartisan, democrats, interestingly enough, who are not known to be sort of the law and order party, in a position to be very defensive of the fbi in this particular instance, we are probably going to be the

ones defending them morn te tha the republicans will, but it's got to be demoralizing for those fbi agents, this is their boss going on twitter and ranting. and we have seen this before, we saw this throughout the campaign, him talk this way about the intelligence community and his generals, but when you have these individuals, these agents conducting investigations on mass shootings, on terrorist attacks and then to have the president of the united states come in and make these comments about them, it's beyond the pale. >> just a little bit over a year ago, democrats were upset with the fbi for the whole opening of the email scandal just two weeks before the election, i think that shows how frankly impartial the fbi is, they follow the evidence where it may be. >> certainly not the subject of a lot of attacks or commentary from this president on twitter or elsewhere, what is he trying to do to is fbi?

what do we know about his vision for the institution, i guess it's not out of the norm for somebody to pick a new deputy in short order? >> jim comey himself, he came in, he wanted to reshuffle his senior advisors, he put someone like james baker in the position he's now been assigned from. there's a lot of kind of turmoil over the weekend, about why mccabe may be resigning, why baker may be reassigned. that's fairly normal. it's just given this context and given what the president has been doing on twitter, given the war between the white house and the fbi that makes those reassignments seem so contentious right now. but as far as what we know about morale within the fbi and actually wray, it actually goes into what we were talking about, a foiled terror attack in san francisco over christmas, those are all indications that the fbi

is running smoothly and it's really the bulk of their work, to wray seems to be someone who's surrounding himself with his own team and someone who wants to stay pretty much out of the public eye as james comey did. even people who were very loyal to james comey, say they welcome a leader who wants to be a little less public, especially since the fbi has been made so politicized during this mueller investigation. >> let me ask you about the congressional investigations that still continue here. i'll ask you about the house one in particular. president donald trump is poised to enter the new year with the russia investigation still unfolding, but his legal team reasserted monday that the investigation will continue. outside of washington, d.c., the republicans who suspect or think that that house investigation is going to wrap up pretty soon. where do things stand on capitol hill as we get to the end of the year? >> well, i would be curious to

know how the president's lawyers have any idea when these investigations will wrap up. on the house side, i can tell you the democrats have been concerned that republicans who control that panel are trying to move it towards a quick conclusion. they would like to see it wrapped up sooner rather than later, for reasons both political and just sort of operational. if they're going to learn anything from it that they can put into use in the midterm elections, they need to move quickly. there was some reporting, not confirmed by nbc news, that two former campaign associates, steve bannon and cory lewandowski might be appearing in front of that house panel in the near future. on the senate side, it's a different story, mitch mcconnell, the senate majority leader was asked about this at his end of the year press conference a few days ago, he said, look, richard burr is going to tell me when they think they're done, that probe is going to go on as long as it has

to. and really from the beginning, much more of a bipartisan effort, with richard burr, the chair of the senate committee, and that doesn't seem to be wrapping up any time soon. they want to make sure they leaf no stone unturned. i think feeling some of the pressure of those perceived as the more partisan, more credible investigative effort at capitol hill at this point. >> i want to wrap up by asking what this means for 2018. i want to read a quotation that gabe sherman wrote for "vanity fair," talking about jared kushner's role in all of this, he's taking meetings with russians to get additional stuff. this tells you everything about jared. they were looking for the picture of hillary clinton taking the bag of money from vladimir putin. so what degree is this, these investigations into russia going to weigh on the campaigning, on

voters minds as we head to the midterms in 2018? >> no doubt about it, look, i think it's going to be a democratic wave, if in fact something does not change. which is ironic, because the stock market as we just heard ali talk about is going through the roof. but i think that the anxiety that the american people have about this -- it's going to be a democratic wave probably to the likes of 2010 or 1994. >> how do you regard bannon at this point, we have seen him get involved in a couple of races, down in alabama, the race in virginia as well. not to great effects. >> that's my point, let him go, because i do think that the american people have coming much more wise to what's happening here, probably just a little more conspiratorial in my thinking, the attacks on the fbi, not trump, but the fact that the gop broadly is weighing in on the fbi in the same way,

and last week we heard about more hearings in 2018, this is part of their continuing strategy. and to me, i think the american people are looking for better governance and if it's a democrat they need to put in office to get that outcome, that's what they're going to do. >> should democrats being talking about russia? shouldn't they be talking about tax reform or should this be a wait and see moment as we get into 2018? >> we have been talking about tax reform, certainly how the problem in terms of the cuts for the corporations but not nearly for households and you'll see their taxes go up in a number of years, so i do think there are amount of folks that are looking at that, they may see people looking at that and see that there are people making money and it's not them. so i do think voters are a lot more attuned to sort of this division between the wealthy and the haves and the have-nots. >> jew> still ahead, is nicky e

following through with a threat? what she's saying about the u.n. getting a massive cut, next. plus new details be it the lengths russia has gone to in its disinformation campaign against the u.s., as russia is now dealing with their own election related drama. millions of you are online right now, searching one topic. that will generate over 600 million results.

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welcome back. "the washington post" taking a deep dive into the dangerous disinformation campaign russia has weaponized against the united states in a new article,

vladimir putin's outmaneuvering of the united states in the 2016 election leads us to the precarious state we're now in. the former u.s. ambassador to nato warned in the article, quote, the russians are on to something, they will find a weakness and they will be back in 2018 and 2020 with a more sophisticated and targeted approach. joining us now to discuss this and the day's other news, hans nicholls and former national security department reporter josh leeman. let me ask you first of all what your response to this campaign has been. washington has described it as a piecemeal response, what does it look like? >> the more that we have learned over the last year or so about the disinformation campaign, the more evident it becomes that there really was a blind spot for the u.s. intelligence community and this wasn't something that cropped up last minute when the russians decided they wanted or didn't want a certain candidate to win, but there was a concerted long-term

effort that had roots in what russia has been doing against other countries for many years and that after the fact, the u.s. was really caught off guard and had to sort of scramble to figure out an appropriate response. >> hans nicholls, reading this article, i was struck by how seemingly easily aware our allies are to what is happening here, and i know you spent some time reporting overseas as well. you a russia is engaged in these issues and the u.s. is not? >> the russians saw what was happening a little bit sooner than the u.s. did. you have to go back in time and what the obama administration was doing and they were very concerned about the sanctity of the actual vote, how people transmitted their ballots and how those ballots got counted at state and local levels. in the u.s., when they were thinking, at least the obama administration about that election, there was some concern about how do you make sure that you preserve the integrity of

the vote and not go so far as to antagonize russia to where they did something that could show collusion with the russians even more. >> i think that's fair and i think you see this in some of the -- like the june "washington post" article from "the washington post," quoted dennis mcdonough talking about the tension, there was one official that said we kind of choked on this. all of this is retrospective, the president himself at the time, president obama was very forceful with president putin, telling him to knock it off, cukit us out, were the words that were used, so they were trying to deal with it within the bounds of acceptable behaveoff. josh also reported on this as well. in october of 2016, when the u.s. finally did announce and have all the intelligence agencies and then when they took their action in december

expelling the diplomats, they had more clarity in december as to what the russians tw s actua did. the clarity wasn't as clear as it is now. >> it also takes stock of where things are now. there's a quotation in the piece, many in the white house, including the president played down the effects of russian interference and claimed that the 2016 intelligence report on the u.s. election has been weaponized to detract from trump. is there a divide as you talk to your sources? >> there is a divide, because everybody in the white house knows that one thing you don't want to do is signal a lack of confidence in your intelligence community, your spies, that would have a lot of dangerous consequences and folks in the white house are very wary of the fact that the president has played into that when on a number of occasions he indicated

he does not believe that russia meddled, that they were running this from the very highest levels, meaning putin himself. at times the president will come back and say he's with his intelligence community. so it's a mixed message coming from the president and you see that reflected in his aides who really want to send a signal that the national security apparatus is firing on all cylinders. >> news of the treasury department in recent years, we have seen the obama administration and the trump administration, deal with north korea in recent years. who did they sanction today and what about the tact that the administration is taking toward north korea? >> these individual also have their sanctions, their assets frozen, it will be more difficult for them to be involved in the international banking system to travel abroad. that doesn't really happen a lot

with north korean science it ises. the biggest set of sanctions set by the white house on friday, that 90% of north korea's oil will be cut off and the u.s. had some of their wish list watered down a little bit. but for the most part the u.s. got what they wanted and those sanctions which are a response to the most recent icbm tests, those sanctions do have some bite and they brought along china and russia. >> news out today that over the weekend, nikki halle succeeded in negotiating the reduction of 2 $209 million off the u.s. budget. melissa crocker said this is all so misleading, the u.s. fights hard together with other countries every year to cut u.n. budget and regularly does, this is neither a u.s. or u.n. decision. how much credit can nicky haley,

how much credit can this administration take for the u.n.'s budget? >> they certainly can take credit that they said they were going to cut our contribution to the u.n. substantially and they did. and as a result, you see the reaction from the rest of the world has been, yeah, you said you were going to do that and you did. so a lot of these foreign countries now that they see that president trump really is serious when he talks about pulling the u.s. back from some of these global commitments, whether it's the paris climate treaty, or the iran deal or our contribution to the u.n. and you see a lot of these foreign countries trying to mitigate the damage, how can we negotiate with him, trying to make it less bad than it could have been. >> what's happening here in new york and the role that nicky haley is playing? >> they want to make it very clear, from the joint chiefs of staff to the diplomats, they

want to give time to resolve the north korean crisis, they want to give all the availability tools to get the reaction. up next, with less than a week to go before america's new tax system set to go into effect, the mad scramble is on for companies and even the irs to figure out the massive new changes. we're going to discuss what it could mean for you. and speaking of taxes, an exchange between basketball legends charles barkley and -- >> poor people to keep waiting for all this to trickle down. they have been waiting for like 1,200 years. >> i don't like it for poor people. nba on tnt, rich people should not get tax breaks, shaq. so we sent that sample off to ancestry.

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welcome back. here are the headlines at the bottom of the hour. president trump golfing in florida despite pledging to get back to work today, before heading out to his golf club, the president also tweeted a call for bipartisanship saying democrats and republican also come together in the new year to work on health care. russian president vladimir putin today nominated for president just hours after calling for an investigation. utah's major newspaper, the salt lake city tribune calling on oren hatch not to run for re-election. and consumers are feeling the holiday spirit, total retail sales added up to a record $598 billion, that's up $33 billion

from last year, researchers notching their best season in six years. also just in time for christmas, the president signed the republican tax bill into law and hours later he reportedly told some friends at dinner at mar-a-lago, his club down in florida, you all just got a lot richer. promising tax cuts would be a christmas gift to all americans. >> as you know, we had the largest tax cuts in our history just approved. the bottom line is this is the biggest tax cuts and reform in the history of our country, this is bigger than actually president reagan's many years ago. again, the biggest tax cut, the biggest reform of all time. >> most republicans in washington seem happy with how the tax ligegislation turned ou. is the rest of america? according to politico companies are bracing for confusion as they figure out new withholding rules that will affect millions

of american paychecks while the treasury department is having to find ways to implement the new law. let me ask you first of all about this challenge that politico is describing there in that analysis, this just passed, just a few weeks to go before the end of the year, what kind of challenges do companies face? >> they do have to work all the way through the holidays how this will affect those that get a w-2, those are staff employees and they have to figure out how that affects each income group and how much to withhold and forward on to the irs. it does take some sharpened pencils and green eye shades to figure this out and it goes into effect immediately on january 2 when everybody gets backs to work. so that's n ee's not a time to the tables. >> corporate tax rate dropping from 35% to 21%, that top individual rate dropping from

49.6% to 37%, we saw that state and local tax deduction capped at $10,000. that repeal of the obamacare act. what's your counsel to individuals still trying to process what's in those many hundreds of pages. >> if you're filing an e zerz f, the companies will take care of those forms. if you do have a -- figure out exactly how this affects you, at what level the various tax rates kick in, what your total tax rate will be in 2018. if you're a married couple that has an llc or a pass through entity, s-corp, what have you, you get a tax deduction.

th those individual proprietors will have a tougher time than anybody who's a staff employee. >> there were some announcements from some major corporations about bonuses that were going to be implemented, raises that were going to be raised. let me just read a tweet from the president, our big and very popular tax cut and reform bill has taken on an unexpected new source of love that is big companies and corporations showering their workers with bonuses. this is a phenomenon that no one really thought of. what are you going to looking at? >> we had about a dozen companies say they would either raise their minimum wage, a couple of big banks did that, a company of companies, a trt&t a comcast said they will give b e bonuses once the bill is signed and that's something that's

giving economists to raise their forecast by as much as .9%. but we could see 2018 come in a little stronger than expected because some companies are going to take advantage of the big tax break that they get for investing in plants and equipment, computer systems and the like, and buy those, which could really juice the economy in the short run. as far as handing out bonuses, again, we have only see a handful of companies doing that, a handful of banks have said they will raise their minimum wage to $15. >> happy new year. turning now to the royal family, prince harry's interview with former president barack obama is set to be released tomorrow by the bbc, the two discussed the president's final days in office, as well as how he's spending his time these days.

>> i have to speak faster, because i'm a slow peeker. . >> no, no. >> do i need to use a british accent? >> if you start pausing between the answers, you're going to start getting the face. >> their friendship in full display, raising some speculation about whether the obamas will be on the guest list when prince harry gets married this spring. the two spent their first public holiday together with the whole family. >> reporter: it's a royal first, meghan markle spending christmas with the queen, an honor usually reserved for family and spouses, not fiances, the present is already opened, all eyes are on the royal family. the big moment, the queen and the curtsy. >> first and foremost, meghan's

advisor in chief, will be prince harry, just as william helped kate with the ropes in the first early days, she'll also have the duchess of cambridge's help, because she's the next available woman who knows a little bit of what it feels like to marry in from the outside. >> prince harry and meghan said they wanted to hit the ground running, and they have, on their first royal work trip just days after sitting down for their first interview. their engagement photos showing a modern couple in love. >> the queen is absolutely delighted that prince harry has found the one and that she and her husband are around to witness a wedding. >> my own family often gather around to watch television and they are at this moment. six decades on, the presenter has evolved somewhat >> the queen in her traditional christmas day speech, now in its 60th year talked about family.

>> as we enjoy spending time this christmas with our family and look forward to welcoming new members into it next year. >> reporter: william and kate will welcome baby number three in april and many may, wedding bells at windsor castle, where prince harry and meghan markel will tie the knot in front of a massive tv audience. after their first public holiday together, the british public approves. >> the me too movement shows no signs of slowing down in 2018. now as the sexual misconduct allegations spread, the move that's being made to change the way these cases are handled in court, that's next.

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welcome back. the me too movement brought down some of the country's most influential men this year with ael allegations of sexual assault and harassment from unwanted touching to rape. but some of these cases are

unlikely to lead to legal proceedings because of statutes of limitations. some states don't have any limitations for felony sex crimes but vary state by state. our legal analyst joins us now to break all this town. any law that bars claiming after a certain period of time passes after an injury. the period of time varies depending on the jurisdiction and the type of crime. >> there's a lot of legalese in there. simply put, there's a period of time that we as a society, we draw an arbitrary line and say after this date, you cannot prosecute, you cannot sue this person for any crime that arose prior to the expiration of that date. >> you highlight the fact that these are largely arbitrary? >> they're completely arbitrary, just like the drinking age, just like the age of voting. these are lines, ages, numbers that we draw in the sand.

and the sad fact is that having an arbitrary statute of limitations is that some cases with merit may be out of time, whereas some cases with very little merit may be brought just because they're within the statute. there's nothing inherently just about a statute of limitations. ironically the very purpose is fairness. the idea that it's not fair to ask a defendant to defend himself after 10, 15 years or really a particularly arbitrary time period where we see evidence is steale, the witnesss moved away or died. and the prosecution after a certain point is not as reliable. and it's obvious they're arbitrary because they vary from state to state, the federal system, civil, criminal. they're all over the place. >> there are 28 states across the u.s. that have dna evidence. how much are these cases being

re-evaluated? >> rape crimes, similar sexual assault cases are now being re-evaluated, the current trend is to extend the statute of limitation or to do away with them all together. proponents of them says hey, it allows more crimes to be prosecuted, more victims to bring their cases. there's always the other side of the coin, there is a price to pay, and that price is any time you expand the number of claims that can be brought, expand the number of claims that can be prosecuted. the older evidence gets as it goes on, if it's less reliable and we acknowledge that, you're increasing the risk that an innocent person might be convicted. and if we're comfortable with that, then there's no problem. the way that eliminating statutes of limitations works is that if you assume 100% of all claims and allegations are always true, so we know that's just not true. so maybe society wants and it may be the appropriate time for

a change, but as with all changes in the law, it comes with a price. >> you look at this on a ste spectrum, you think what is is the statute of limitation related to how serious the crime is? >> some states are eliminating it all together for very serious crimes like rape. on the other end of the spectrum, in sexual harassment or in employment discrimination cases, you have 180 days or sometimes 300 days to file a complaint. after that, your right to sue is gone. from the civil side all the way up to the criminal side, they vary from a matter of days to forever. >> i'll ask lastly about this moment, the me too movement and all that we have seen here over the last few months, as we talk about state legislatures, is the zeitguist changing the feeling

of what's happening across the count country? >> we're seeing an expansion of statutes of limitations, we're seeing an elimination of statutes of limitations. clearly, that's the way the system is supposed to work. us the citizens speak to our elected officers in government, and it doesn't happen overnight. it's not designed to happen that way. but the trend reflects society's changing views on statutes of limitations. the more time that's passed, there's more to produce repressed memories. and the law should take into account those effects. when we come back, it's been a year filled with unbelievable headlines and jaw dropping news, we'll take a look back at one of the stories that made this one of the most unforgettable years of our lives.

so that's the idea. what do you think? hate to play devil's advocate but... i kind of feel like it's a game changer. i wouldn't go that far. are you there? he's probably on mute. yeah... gary won't like it. why? because he's gary. (phone ringing) what? keep going! yeah... (laughs) (voice on phone) it's not millennial enough. there are a lot of ways to say no. thank you so much. thank you! so we're doing it. yes! "we got a yes!" start saying yes to your company's best ideas. let us help with money and know-how, so you can get business done. american express open.

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times square in new york city where just a few days from now we'll see the ball drop, heralding the arrival of 2018. just a few days left here in 2017, a year that's been defined by political controversy, the reckoning over sexual harassment we just discussed and hurricanes that devastated many communities. there were also some glimmers of hope. here's nbc's cynthia mcfadden with a look at the news that defined the year. >> reporter: 2017. a year of tremendous change and

disruption that began with the peaceful transfer of power. >> i, donald john trump do solemnly swear -- this american carnage stops right here and stops right now. >> reporter: donald trump became president of a deeply divided nation. a country that couldn't even agree on how many people were there that day. >> photographs of the inaugural proceedings were intentionally framed to minimize the enormous support that gathered on the national mall. >> reporter: but our year of unrest is just getting started. by february, many believe we might be on the brink of war after north korea lobbed a missile over the sea of japan. >> the first global crisis for president trump. >> they will be met with fire and fury. >> reporter: by the end of the year, the north koreans successfully tested a missile that could reach anywhere in the u.s. terrorists continued to wage their war, cars and trucks

becoming a preferred weapon, beginning in march on london's westminster bridge. >> the new calling card for a low tech terror strike. >> reporter: as the year went on, more deadly attacks in london, sweden, spain, and new york. >> this is a nbc news special report. >> reporter: in april, the u.s. responds to a different kind of terror, a chemical attack on civilians. >> u.s. military forces have just waged a launch of cruise missiles. >> reporter: while a political battle was heating up in washington. >> there's no collusion between me and my campaign and the russians. the russians did not affect the vote. >> reporter: but when president trump fired his fbi director -- >> they did not see this coming at the fbi. >> reporter: a special counsel was appointed. he's still at work. in this violent year, no place seems sacred -- not a pop concert in england. >> teenaged girls screaming in terror. >> reporter: not a congressional

baseball practice. >> steve scalise, congressman in leadership was among those who was shot. >> reporter: not a country music concert in las vegas. >> a storm of gunfire raining down upon an innocent crowd. >> reporter: not even a church in rural texas. >> it was rapid fire. boom, boom, boom, boom. >> reporter: but killing even more people than guns this year, america's opioid epidemic. >> he said you have a nickname for this street. >> morgue avenue. in 47 minutes there was already nine deaths on the street. >> hundreds of white nationalists clashed with counterprotest yourself. >> reporter: deep divisions as white supremacist protested against the removal of confederate statues. >> this driver came plowing into a crowd of counterprotesters. people went flying in every direction. >> the president unfiltered and

defiant. >> there is blame on both sides. i have no doubt about it and you don't have any doubt about it, either. >> reporter: nature showed her ugly side this year. >> harvey's eye cut through here. in august, hurricane harvey made landfall, drenching texas. >> we have nothing. nothing left. >> reporter: irma, jose and maria came next to make this one of the most intense hurricane seasons on the books. parts of puerto rico still without power. another storm named harvey erupted in october. >> sexual harassment allegations spanning almost three decades from actresses ashley jud and rose mcgowan to young female assistants looking to start careers in hollywood. >> reporter: harvey weinstein's dramatic fall unleashes an avalanche of shocking charges against powerful men. thousands of women posting "me too" and everyone wondering who's next. >> what an amazing moment right now for the city of houston. >> reporter: but there was some good news this year. the houston astros won the world

series. the stock market soared. >> we are watching the dow which just hit 23,000 for the first time. >> reporter: but the real bright spot came in total darkness. >> it didn't matter where you were. the reactions seemed universal. >> reporter: a rare total eclipse of the sun. >> it was the most spectacular thing i've seen in my life. >> reporter: giving all of us a reason to look up and hope for a better 2018. cynthia mcfadden, nbc news, new york. >> we'll be right back. (chris) the very first time i met bruce i saw on his lapel he's got a purple heart. (bruce) we started talking about the service. i outrank him. (chris) [laughs] yeah. meals on wheels reaches so many people. (bruce) the meals and hisything i'vefriendship really mean, means a lot to me. (vo) through the subaru share the love event, we've helped deliver over one-point- seven million

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that does it for this hour. "mpt daily" starts now with katy tur in for chuck todd. >> are we going to have our awkward telephoneically. if it's tuesday, what happened in 2017 won't stay if 2017. good evening, i'm katy tur in new york. well continue to "mpt daily." a new year coming along with a new political reality, but the same president calling it a bunch of fake news. president trump is heading into 2018 talking about a political landscape that arguably doesn't exist. in the last few days, he's dismissed the toxic political environment as "fake