know i'll see her again, and that gives me hope. that's all for this edition of dateline. i am craig melvin. thanks for watching. good morning, i am dara brown in new york at msnbc headquarters. 7:00 in the east, 4:00 out west. here is what's happening. after the interview, reaction from members of congress and white house staffers, following the president's unexpected chat with reporter at his golf club in florida. not everyone is happy about it. close adviser describes his impact on foreign policy. does this discomfort come with a cost. bitter blast, some are snow bound, others are dealing with dangerous cold. what it means for tomorrow's new year's eve sell bragcelebration new fallout over president

trump's impromptu interview with "new york times." reaction from both sides of the aisle, one of the most explosive comments, saying i have absolute right to do what i want to do with the justice department. here is former ethics lawyer richard painter last night. >> wrong country to be president of if he thinks he has absolute power to run the justice department however he wants. that may be the way it works in putin's russia and other places, that's not the way it works here. he is not above the law, he is not a king. he is a president in a constitutional system of government. >> congress adam schiff, ranking member of intel committee slamming him, no, you don't. you can do what you want with your golf courses but the country and justice department belong to the american people. "the washington post" says "new york times" interview is reminder that his time at march a lag oh is respite for him and headache for staff.

as word trickled back to the white house, advisers worked to reach the president, interrupting to hand him a cell phone with white house communications director hope hicks on the line. we have more revelations from the interview. >> teeing up 2017. >> honor to have you at the course. >> the president hosting the coast guard near mar-a-lago. a day earlier he acknowledged he has been soft on china on trade, and that impromptu interview with "new york times." his administration hoping beijing will pressure north korea to end its nuclear weapons program. new concerns china is helping the rogue regime and violating u.n. sanctions. u.s. treasury satellite images show what south korea suspects is a chinese ship, transferring oil to north korean ship in international waters.

the chinese strongly denying the government was involved. hours after this accusation from the president. oil is going into north korea, so i'm not happy about it. the 30 minute interview shattered what had been relative quiet of the president's working holiday as he decried the russia investigation but not the man overseeing it, robert mueller. i think that he is going to be fair. that's different from questions of credibility some other republicans raised. the president's friend joined him for part of that interview. >> have you seen in the last week, couple of weeks, change in tone when it comes to special counsel russia investigation? >> i think he's always had a lot of respect for mueller as an individual. >> not once, not twice, but 16 times insisted there was no collusion between his campaign and russia and doesn't want the investigation to drag on. quicker it end, the better for the country. >> that was hallie jackson.

bring in shannon and white house reporter for nbcnews.com. alley, let's start with you. what are you hearing about the interview, what sense are you getting for how president trump felt once it was published? >> halle is right when she said there was relative quiet during the period. he tends to hunker down, play a few rounds of golf, whether or not the white house wants to confirm that orn not. he also likes being in the news. that's what you see when he encounters a reporter at the club. he wants to talk to them. if you read the transcript, he said i think i'll say something on this or that. he is calculated on what he talks about. big take away he wanted us to get, he believes there was no collusion with russia. it is interesting that he asked about jeff sessions. clearly he is still having problems with his attorney general reducing himself from the russian investigation. he said he doesn't want to talk about loyalty, he moves on to say i have a lot of respect for

the fact that eric holder, president obama's attorney general, had his back, was loyal to him. clearly he is still having issues with the jeff sessions issue. and lastly, you talk about china, another issue he wanted to talk about obviously, he has been praising of ping, saying the reception in china was amazing. on the other hand, now saying we have to get tougher with them, they may be doing the exact opposite of what we agreed to. these are things he wanted to talk about. it is indicative when he sits down with a reporter like that. >> he is defending his strategy. here's what he said on msnbc. >> the president is a difficult person to interview. he can move quickly from one subject to another, he is very difficult to interrupt. i took a strategy of asking questions about the most important issues of the day, allowing him to speak. i thought that was the best way

i could learn and we could learn how he views things and the reader can decide what level of credibility they're going to give it. >> shannon, he decided against asking follow-up questions, but got him on the record on the russian investigation and china. do you think a sense president trump may have been waiting for such opportunity to share his thoughts? >> we see time and time again he is unfiltered at mar-a-lago, and that's because not all staff members are there with him, and it is possible he sat down, hoping to get across several points. in particular with china, we see him coming strong against china's potentially shipping oil to north korea. that lines up with what he outlined in national security strategy, that the u.s. may take a controversial tone in the coming year. >> and president trump appears

to have free reign at mar-a-lago. is there protocol to prevent these impromptu interviews or do rules by john kelly not apply there? >> it is hard to reign in this president. this is someone if he wants to talk to media, he will probably talk to media. this is another example of that. at the same time i don't think there was anything in the interview that put him off message in a way there should be grave concern about. there's always concern when he is talking about the russian investigation, on twitter he has gotten himself in a little hot water in terms of what he treated, when he found out that flynn may have lied to the fbi. things like that, he is gotten -- in this interview i don't think there was anything shocking. i think it was like michael sh my -- as michael said, it is important to let him. he is somebody that hasn't minced words doing interviews with reporters, he will be

honest and forthright how he feels about some of the issues. this was a great example an important one actually. >> also headlines on daca, he tweeted that democrats have been told and fully understand there can be no daca without the desperately needed wall at the southern border and end to horrible chain migration and ridiculous lottery system of immigration, et cetera. we must protect our country at all costs. shannon, how does in play out during negotiations. republicans signal willingness to protect dreamers. >> that's one of the main issues. it is a bipartisan issue. trump pushing back on this shows that even though he decided he would be repealing the program coming up in march, there's bipartisan support for the program. the question is has he necessarily made it his strong point to say okay, we may not have this program in full force if these things don't happen. this goes back to what he said before. if congress doesn't get their

act together, i may pull this together for the dreamers. he has himself in position where he can't necessarily really in full faith go back on his previous word. but as we have seen with president trump before, some movements are erratic and hard to predict. >> are we supposed to take this as message to daca recipients that he won't protect them? >> i'm not sure about that. when you first saw him talk to chuck and nancy, schumer and pelosi in the fall, came out he was willing to do a deal and the wall wasn't part of it, there was push back. lot of us thought was the wall a well branded talking point that could be a bargaining chip? the base cares about the wall and he cares about the base. this is attempt to put the negotiating table back, say we can do something on daca and dreamers, i want to do that, but i am not willing to give up on the wall. >> stay with us. we have more to talk about. meantime, 2017, it is going out

on ice. part of the country like cedar rapids iowa coping with snow and deep freeze. in new york, expecting one of the coldest ball drops on record to bring in the new year. anne thompson is in times square. how are you doing out there? >> reporter: i am bundled up like i am in greenland, it is so cold. it is going to get even colder. this new year's eve in new york could be one of the two or three coldest ever in history. this will not be for the faint of heart. the mercury will drop with the famous ball, high above times square, giving a frigid welcome to 2018. as the clock strikes midnight, the temperature could sink to 11 above. new york city officials say it is crucial to make smart choices. >> if you have a prior medical condition or have young kids, this is not the year to be out here. if you come out here, healthy

adults, dress for it. no skinny jeans, no mini skirts. >> reporter: to endure the hours-long wait, dress in layers, wear heavy boots, cover head and hands, don't drink alcohol. you want to avoid hypothermia, when the body's temperature drops dangerously low. symptoms are intense shivering, dizziness, trouble speaking. >> hope they bundle up. >> reporter: new york has plenty of company. >> this cold is on a different level. >> reporter: this morning, the northern section of the country is stuck in winter's brutal grip. arctic blast adding insult to erin erie pennsylvania, more snow adding to five feet that already fell. >> i have run out of places to throw the snow. >> reporter: the coast guard coming to the rescue on st. mary's river to free two stuck freighters. roads are no better. more than 1100 spinouts and

collisions in minnesota, one driver killed in wisconsin. sioux falls, cedar rapids, iowa, covered by heavy snow. and niagara falls came to a halt in plunging temperatures. tomorrow night, emts will be on patrol looking for anyone with signs of hypothermia. if they see such person, they'll get them warm so everyone starts off 2018 on a healthy note. d dara? >> you look nice and bundled up, stay warm. thank you. new report on president trump breaking 70 years of important policy. why he has the national security adviser out of his comfort zone. (siren wailing)

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i don't blame china. after all, who can blame a country for being able to take advantage of another country for the benefit of its citizens. i give china great credit. >> president trump talking about china during his visit to beijing in november. handling of foreign policy, topic of new interview with h.r. mcmaster in "new york times." joining me, executive director of defense one. thank you for joining us. he says the way he handles foreign policy has moved a lot of us out of our comfort zone, me included. he calls the policy pragmatic realism. how do you interpret what mcmaster is saying? >> i think mcmaster is on a bit of a pr campaign after he had the new strategy. mcmaster and the rest of trump's foreign policy advisers around

him, secretary mattis and tillerson seem to tamper down his rhetoric. a lot of grading of national security strategy is that it is not so bad. kind of centrist, not too republican, not too democrat, follows through on some of the record of obama that was promised, things like being tougher on china, on iran, on north korea, with rhetoric, but with policy, not so much. you see mcmaster going out there, made a statement like he is out of the comfort zone, wasn't saying it in a bad way, he was saying the president recognized things need to change and we're doing things differently. everybody is in a new world trying to figure out how to do foreign policy under this president. >> when you hear pragmatic realism and america first, what is the potential fallout of these ideas for u.s. foreign policy? >> there's another phrase he didn't use that he has in previous speeches, strategic competence, uses it as a big negative to go after the previous 8 years under obama,

claim that the united states left itself as disadvantage. coming out of obama years, china was embolden, north korea was embolden, russia was embolden, iran was embolden. nothing the united states was doing was stopping them. trump comes in, and america first, he is always talking about winning. i have written about this when it comes to war in afghanistan or dealing with north korea, getting china on board, it is a zero sum game. china is doing the winning or america is doing winning. don't hear about collective agreement or alliances to make the world safer and better place in the way one used to. so i think mcmaster and his team when it come to policies are pretty much in that vain of the world needs alliances and collective agreements but still have to deal with his rhetoric and tweets that go the other direction. >> the article says while mr. trump held more than 130

meetings and phone calls with foreign leaders since taking office, he has left the rest of the world still puzzling over how to handle an american president unlike any other. foreign leaders have tested a variety of techniques from shameless pandering to keeping a steady distance. is this uncertainty how to deal with the president more of an advantage or disadvantage? >> depends who you ask. from the bannon crowd, want to shake up the system, tired of how politics are done, not just washington but global, this is great, wonderful. somebody coming in, blowing it up to say forget it. we have to start from scratch and have a guy tells it like it is. but if you're a diplomat, a foreign policy professional, you hate this. this is very disruptive. all it has done is serve to push allies and friends away. you have a president who is more willing to openly and harshly criticize people like theresa

may, angela myrerkel. but won't say a single bad thing about russia. he thinks he has a hand on china, but most important policy watchers say he doesn't. thinks he has a way in the middle east, others thinkesq he is being played by the saudis. >> pro-government rallies in iran the past few days, the president tweeting about them. what's the significance? >> everyone hopes one day iran will have rallies that rise up again like in the last decade. something happens, trump puts out a smooth and normal presidential tweet saying iran should listen to protesters, free speech is great. my thought was this is the same president that criticizes an envelope player taking a knee during the national anthem, doesn't have a lot of ground to support that. >> great to have you this saturday morning. thanks for joining me. >> you bet. coming up, new year, full

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the trump administration wrapping up first year of milestone president trump would call fake news. "the wall street journal" reports the trump white house saw a record number of first year staff departures. the 34% first year turnover rate is twice that. you were covering the white house, you were on the campaign trail from the beginning. you know this president and white house, on top of the pr aspects, how big an impact on the daily operations at the wlous? >> -- white house. >> you went from cory lewandowski era, through paul

manafort, and kellyanne conway. it is not new to see this in trump world. it is something that the president and candidate thrived on. people fall in and out of favor with him all the time. you see that in this white house. it is a more public dismissal process if and when someone leaves. from the outside, you see a lot of confusion and chaos. this summer when you saw basically every friday in july and august, someone new resigning or being fired, it did feel chaotic. now if you look at the communications department which did see a lot of back and forth when it was anthony scare mooch ee. you can see that people settled into roles, found more of the smooth course to take. that said, with the end of year, you see people leaving. seen several white house aides say they're leaving in january, omarosa, rick dearborn. that's somewhat normal. because you saw so much during

the summer, it is notable that six months later, you see recycling again. >> source says 2018 brings full trump. what did this person mean? >> as my colleague mike allen reported overhearing from the white house and some trump associates is that while we have seen trump take a conservative line with republican measures in terms of supreme court appointment and tax legislation, what's coming up in the next year is perhaps an unchanged trump, who is working around him. what he wants is first tariffs, come up likely on china in the next month or so, next couple months, wants a law dealing with border security and is interested in military option for north korea. we are hearing we are uncertain on time line for items to come forward, we hear that aides are more concerned about this than the mueller investigation. >> thank you so much. you have a new piece on the millennials and trump, we will

look for that. thank you for joining me. that will do it for me. i am dara brown. at the top of the how, hugh hewitt. up next, "your business." hurry, it's the final days of the ford year end sales event. ♪ i'm on top of the world, hey. ♪ it's your last chance of the year to get our best offer of the year: zero percent financing for seventy-two months, plus an extra one-thousand cash back across a full lineup of ford cars, trucks and suvs. so hurry and save big on america's best-selling brand. it's the final days of the ford year end sales event with zero percent financing for seventy-two months plus an extra one-thousand cash back! see your ford dealer before jan 2nd and save.

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