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where do you stand? are you likely to run? >> how many democrats will jump in? will any republicans primary president trump? and the ways the president has influenced culture, from the words we use to race. >> very fine people, on both sides. >> welcome to new year's eve sunday. it's "meet the press." >> from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in history, this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. >> good sunday morning. happy new year's eve to everyone. almost from the moment he put his left hand on the bible at his inauguration, president trump signaled to the country that his presidency would be different, different in ways that would thrill millions and different in ways that would appall millions more. it began with a jarring comment

about the state of the country. >> this american carnage stops right here and stops right now. >> within a day, press secretary sean spicer lectured white house reporters, arguing implausibly that many more people witnessed trump's inauguration than president obama's. and kellyanne conway offered this explanation. >> sean spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts. >> that kicked off the year of friction between the white house and the press, which has helped feed an uneasy sense that we, as a country, are more divided than we have been for decades, if not longer. over the next hour, we'll look back over the last year and ahead to the next. nbc news white house correspondent kristen welker. katty kay, beyond 100 days that

will appear on pbs starting tuesd tuesday, and rich lauer. we'll talk about candidate trump and the promises and whether he has been able to make good on them or not. >> donald j. trump is calling on a complete shutdown of muslims entering the united states. the tax relief will be concentrate d on the working an middle class. >> i will be the greatest jobs president that god has ever created. >> save medicare, medicaid and social security without cuts. have to do it. >> i pledge to every citizen of our land that i will be president for all americans. we will build a great, great wall. and mexico, mexico, mexico, mexico will pay for the wall.

>> all right, guys, what's been the single most important promise he made and the single most important promise he has kept? rich lowery, i'm going to start with you. i think the wall is probably the single most important promise connected to him as candidate. >> yeah. that was a signature promise. and probably the most flagrant unrealizable promise. but immigration is a success story for him. he doesn't have a wall but baseline for enforcement, he had illegal border crossings down to the lowest level since 1971. i'm surprised he doesn't boast about that more. >> ka it ty, what's been the most important one he has kept? >> he would be a president for the people who voted for him and

carry on the culture wars in their favor, that he would carry on talking in ways that white working class voters who felt were neglected before, that they have somebody who is their president, that they don't have to be pc before, that they can say things they haven't been able to say for years and president trump has emboldened them. >> what's the biggest thing he has missed, that he whiffed on? >> that he he would repeal and replace obamacare. that didn't happen. he tinkered with it but where is the replacement? he also said he would prevent north korea from advancing its nuclear program. that hasn't happened and has proven to be one of the biggest foreign policy crises. to pick up on what katty is saying, i think he has been a president for his base but failed to be a president for all people. in many ways the country is more divided. nfl, charlottesville. i think that's been a problem.

>> charlie, i left you with the topic that is interesting here and that's the economy. it's been a great year. and that has not translated or, as john reese, my pc, says, maybe it has and he would be at 40%. >> so many people dislike him, disapprove of him, may be embarrassed by him, think he's a bull in a china closet on foreign policy, all these things. yet the economy is doing really well. either a, something he has done is right or he's really, really lucky. i kind of wonder whether the fact that maybe it's the absent of president obama or just the idea that it's a president less adversarial to business or he's just luck. >> i let's debate this. luck or has he done something? >> let's go to 50,000 feet.

there's a disconnect between political dysfunction around the world, not just here in the united states, but around the world. there are national security issues that are looming in crises in ways we've not seen a very long time. yet every single investor will tell you this is a great time to -- economically. what point does that disconnect come back to haunt us or does it? wages are ticking up. it's not just american political insecurity but global political insecurity. >> rich, it does seem -- i remember you would hear the frustration in the last two years of obama, everything is there. it's poised to take off but it wouldn't. trump's election and then you, to quote charlie, whatever the animal spirit is, boom, it finally -- >> yeah. so it's luck in that he inherited an economy that was in pretty good shape. it's not like obama inheriting an economy that's cratering after a financial crisis but more than luck in that policy

matters and the expectation of the market and the business community is that at least you would see no new regulations, no new taxes, not any additional burdens on the economy. and we've seen even better than that because you've seen a major deregulation rollback and a tax bill that's a major change on the corporate side and will, all things being equal, be progrowth. >> the fact that they've cut so many regulations has really spurred this economy. look at the way that president trump dealt with health care versus taxes. he got read in all the details, went out and sold the tax package. he ran as the jobs president. and i think you have investors who feel good about that, market, obviously, reflecting it. we're starting to see that in his policy. >> let's pivot a little bit to foreign policy.

a year in, do we know what trump doctrine is, katty? >> in some ways it's a continuity of the past. it was a key campaign speculation, nafta is still in place for the moment. we still have american troops in afghanistan. we still have them in iraq, we still have them in syria. so in some ways things are the same. what's different is that in the foreign policy, the big security strategy review that the president gave at the end of the year, no mention of climate change as a national security threat and no mention of american human rights and values. the single biggest change with the president is that we are not seeing america leading the world through principle. america hasn't always got it right, but it has always relied on some sense of principle and higher moral standing. what we have is a transactional foreign policy. >> you're nodding a lot. >> the basic structure, it's a central right realism. you see the policy even on north korea where he's been aggressive, it's a status quo of policy, very cautious in the middle east. more cautious than george w. bush and obama, who did a big

surge in afghanistan early in his administration. but i agree there needs to be more of an emphasis on ideals. this is a reaction against the crusade that george w. bush fought for our ideals, they're an important tool against our adversaries and in our interests. >> i don't sense coherence. he does seem, i'm going to get tough on china, and then say we're pals. and you're like what? >> you're seeing that disconnect around north korea as well. he talked about fire and fury, and that made a lot of people very nervous that he was on the brink of taking some type of action, and he didn't. i think we won't know what the trump doctrine is until we see how north korea plays out. will he take some type of limited military action? based on my conversations with senior officials, his military options are very few and very far between. so it doesn't look like that's likely. i do think though, chuck, retreat from multinationalism, he pulled out of paris and tpp, i think that is the beginning at least of a shift. >> legacy there. >> the national security policy

report that katty referred to that was released just before christmas, when i read it, it actually did provide some coherence to what, through the past year, has looked like complete, random ricochetting around and i couldn't tell whether is this thing actually more coherent than i thought or is there just a heck of a speech writer on board? i tend to think the latter. >> let me ask you this. i feel like the issue we don't cover enough in foreign policy is how close are we to war, a hot war? whether we're involved or not, a hot war that involves iran or saudi arabia? it feels like a tinder box between the two. >> we have in yemen iranian proxies fighting saudi regulars. we have in syria, saudi proxies fighting iranian regulars. we are one step away, and with the yemeni rebels firing missiles at riyadh in saudi arabia, that's a hot area of the world. >> there is one foreign policy

issue that seems to congeal with our domestic politics, and it's russia. here's the best of russia from this year. >> i have nothing to do with russia, folks, okay. >> why would there be any contacts between the campaign? >> i can't think of bigger lies. >> russia is a ruse. i have nothing to do with russia. >> there is no connection. you've got russia. if the president puts russian salad dressing on his salad tonight, somehow that's a russian connection. >> we had no dealings in russia. we have no projects into russia. we have nothing to do with russia. >> those conversations never happened. >> there was no collusion between me and my campaign and the russians. >> we've been going on this russia/trump hoax for the better part of a year now with no evidence of anything. >> there is absolutely no collusion. that has been proven. >> rich lowrie, he's not getting the benefit of doubt on all of this, it seems to me, for one big reason. he seems to want nothing more than to cozy up with vladimir putin.

if he were willing to be tough on putin, the way the rest of the republican party wants to be, he might get more benefit. >> or say the meddling was an outrage and i'll never stand for it and it won't happen again on my watch. he won't say that. it's a bit of a mystery. my theory, which i can't prove is he considers the russian story a personal affront because he thinks it undermines his victory. so it's kind of a psychological reaction rather than speaking to a deeper conspiracy he's trying to hide. >> i think that's right. and one of the things that is so striking if you look at his tweets, he's lashed out at just about everyone, including the leader of china who he needs to work with on north korea. he's never had sharp words like that for russia. he's never convened a meeting of the national security team to just address that issue. i think that's what people are hungry for. remember, he begrudgingly accepted more sanctions that congress imposed and it sort of boxed him in. >> it's not just that he wants

to cozy up with putin but people around him, time and again, seem to forget meetings they had with russians. why the secrecy? why have the meetings and reveal them later? and it's happening too often it seems for this to look like just coincidence. >> final word, charlie. >> nobody wants to think that they won illegitimately. you want to believe i won on my merits. i think rich is right, why can't he just say, you know, they were meddling. i don't think it had an impact on the outcome of the election, but we need to make sure this never happens again. that's pretty painless. what's wrong with that? >> you're doing something donald trump's never done before. be humble. all right, guys. when we come back, we're going to look ahead to the year that starts tomorrow. it's an even numbered year. and you know what that means. elections. are we looking at a democratic wave or can republicans somehow maintain their hold on congress and of course that means on all of the power that comes with it? my experience with usaa has been excellent.

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welcome back. if there's one thing that you can count on in politics, it's that the party that loses the election one year gains seats in the next. this looks to be no exception. and the party's upset win in alabama this month means democrats would only need to net two seats to achieve their longer shot goal of taking back the senate. >> in 2005 you could smell a wave coming. the results last night smell exactly the same way. our republican friends better look out >> we think we'll produce results. . results that we will certainly be able to talk to the american people about in the fall of 2018 and in 2020 as well. >> can you win back the house next year? >> the door is certainly open for us.

>> suggesting a wave election is coming your way, that your majority is at risk. what do you make of that? >> blah, blah, blah is what i say about that stuff. >> i think we're going to win the senate and the house. >> i feel optimistic about 2018. >> we're going to do the blah, blah, blah, the panel is back with us, let's talk about the blah, blah, blah in november of 2018, welcome. got to love speaker ryan. >> this is my life's work and he's making fun of it. >> he blah, blah, blah'd over the best part. let's do it by the numbers here, senate make-up after doug jones is essentially 51-49. blah, blah, blah. the house is 239-193. charlie cook, this is what you do for a living. you saw the 11-point advantage of the nbc wall street journal poll for democrats. it suggests that wave is building. the question is just how big and will it crest at the right time and at the right moment for the democrats? >> this is what waves look like

when you're standing on a beach looking out. we've seen this before. >> see it from afar, wow, look at that. >> you know, can't tell precisely how tall it is, but you can tell it's a big one. could things change? you know, if we had a couple more quarters of good economic growth, could it dissipate? it could. i don't think it will. we're looking at the senate. it's now plausible that democrats could take the senate back. i think it's not likely, but it's plausible in the house. if you had to bet today, i think you'd bet the house would turn. >> one of the reasons why, rich, it doesn't look like it's going to shift, we look at the ballot. we look at the demographic breakdowns. among millennials, it's nearly a 50-point advantage. among women, 20 points, independents, 12 points.

even seniors which has become a base vote. it's the democrats that are up four and among all white voters, only down two. that's why it doesn't look like a couple of good economic quarters change things. >> that's the best thing republicans could have going for them is robust growth to take the edge off of this, but my fear is that this isn't a condition's based reaction, it's not an agenda-based reaction so much. it is a profound personal reaction to trump himself. and there is no way to change that. >> the white house says the opposite. they say that candidates are knocking down their doors to get an endorsement from president trump and he's eager to get out -- >> by the way, there probably are some candidates knocking on their doors for an endorsement. their door is not being answered when they knock on mitch mcconnell's. >> that's right. they look at ed gillespie and say he tried to walk a fine line and it backfired. the white house saying you should embrace trump. we saw that that doesn't always work. obviously roy moore deeply flawed candidate in his own right, but he did run on

an trump playbook. i spoke with the democratic strategist who said we're looking at a tidal wave. and i said, wait a minute, don't you run the risk of overplaying your hand? if you go into 2018 with that type of thinking. i think that's the real concern. the economy is a big unknown. that could i think shift the outlook. >> you know what's interesting is that you look historically and there's this very clear pattern. i mean, all but three midterm elections since the end of the civil war, but we're now seeing a more explosiveness. i mean, the last six midterm elections, either the house or the senate or both have flipped in four -- >> that hasn't happened in 100 years. >> yeah, yeah, yeah, and so it's -- people are voting, it's not more parliamentary, but it's more by party and we're seeing big, big explosive results and that's got to be scary for republicans. >> katty, the challenge for democrats, on the senate side at least, is the red state democrats. and you could argue, how they handle red state america in order to win the majority is going to say everything. let me put up the senate map here. these are just democratic seats

that are in states in 2018 up where president trump carried that state and you can see, montana, not surprised but your florida, ohio, wisconsin and michigans in there, here's how a few of the red state democrats we've talked to the last year have been walking the line of trump. take a listen. >> one thing that we don't have and you see that born out in public polling and when i'm out and about is so, what do you guys stand for? what are you about? overarching discussion for the democratic party isn't there. >> my job's to fight for missourians. so i get up every day, my feet hit the ground figuring out how to get stuff done for them and not how i can criticize the president. >> here's the thing, chuck that, bothers me more than anything because i am up for re-election in 2018, i guess people think in washington i'm going to vote differently or i'll be differently or i'll have to cowtail, if you will, to what they think might be popular.

i don't think impeachment is something we should be talking about. >> katty, what was interesting this year, we all expected at least some of the red state democrats to somehow forge a partnership with trump, and none of them did. i think some of them wanted to, i don't know -- joe manchin blames mitch mcconnell and not donald trump, which i think is convenient. what say you? >> we came out of alabama with democrats say we can win in true red states. we've done it in alabama. exactly those people you chose, north dakota, missouri, west virginia, they took some heart from there that, but they have different populations. they do not have 30% african american make-up in those states. they know that. they have to be more careful about how they run. they can't expect to run up against a roy moore again. that's just not going to happen, and claire mccaskill said donald trump is above water in my state. he has approval ratings that are parallel to mine. i cannot totally isolate myself from him, but she's not going to sign up. sherrod brown has, he is a

democrat who decided that he's going to try and work with the president. >> i am curious, charlie -- >> some can. >> if impeachment is part of the conversation in the fall, i assume it's red state senate democrats that are the most nervous about that. >> i think you're right. and the thing is, this is so implausible. i mean -- >> and yet -- >> every single -- if democrats won every single senate race next year, every single one of them, they would still need ten republicans to vote for impeachment. and that's not going to happen. so why -- just shut up. they're not helping themselves. >> these democrats hate that conversation. they really don't want those ads up on tv. >> i want to pivot because i hinted at it before. i want to pivot to the republican side of things. the reason the democrats have a longer shot at winning the senate, look at the senate republican map. this is a rosy scenario. i throw in texas and nebraska on there. texas for demographic reasons.

i throw nebraska on there because of what steve bannon has promised, rich lowrie, which is to primary some establishment republicans like ed fisher in nebraska. here's our little bannon versus the gop compilation, and we'll talk about it on the other side. >> and right now, it's a season of war against a gop establishment. >> i think what steve bannon is trying to do is completely inappropriate. >> because they think you're a pack of morons. >> i hope he pays attention. you need good canndidates to wi senate races. >> mitch mcconnell and this permanent political class is the most corrupt and incompetent group of individuals in this country. >> what he's a specialist in is nominating people who lose. >> i like mr. bannon. he's a friend of mine, but mr. bannon came on very late, you know that. >> look, steve bannon is the face of that sort of anti-establishment crowd. before there was a steve bannon, there was still an anti-establishment crowd that cost them at least five senate seats. you can blame i guess bannon for the sixth, right? the three in 2010 that everybody likes to talk about, colorado,

delaware, nevada, two from 2012, indiana and missouri and, of course, roy moore. bannon, is he going to cost them another senate seat? another i could put up there is mississippi. >> yeah, well, i would hope alabama was a blow to steve bannon's theory that you can just run any loathsome couth for the senate and somehow win a general election, but you're right, this is not a new phenomenon, it began before steve bannon and it's in part because republicans kind of against type, they're not the blue blazers tie types anymore, they are the anti-establishment party, which involves very oftentimes not just rejecting the establishment's judgment about candidates, but rejecting conventional norms around that. >> this is important. mcconnell and ryan are no more in touch with the base of the party than trump is with the establishment. >> that's right. and who did president trump speak to after the roy moore loss? he spoke to steve bannon that week. so, he still sees him as a touchstone to his base.

and to your point, does bannon take a look at that race and say hey, it was the candidate? no, he says we need to work harder. we're now emboldened, energized, we know what we need to do in the next race. i think the challenge is he obviously divides resources and messaging and continues to have this internal war. >> go back to 2008 when barack obama won. this so radicalized, i mean, the conservatives, republicans despised him so much that it effectively radicalized a large element of the republican party, i think it led to the tea party movement. it ultimately led to the election of donald trump. but it led to the -- this nomination or this attraction of these exotic candidates that are just more exotic than can win general elections. and i think republicans are paying a price. and if i were democrats, i would worry about the loathing that they have for president trump, whether it radicalizes an element of the democratic party and we start seeing that happening in coming years. >> well, that is the nice segue because the next conversation

we're going to have has to do with the list of candidates running for president. is it easier to make the list of candidates not running? that's going to be the real debate. once we're done with 2018, it is 2020 vision time and whose vision is only focussed on 2020? we're going to look ahead to the many, many, many democrats who may decide to run for president and a handful of republicans as well. now you can join angie's list for free.

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welcome back. from the moment a candidate is declared the winner of a presidential election, people in my business begin to ask, who is going to run in four years? this year is no different and with president trump's approval ratings stuck in the 30s and low 40s, many democrats and perhaps a handful of republicans are viewing a run as a real possibility. one sign that someone is considering a run at this stage, they write a book. it's seen as a sign that the author is serious about becoming a candidate. so far books from senator bernie sanders of vermont, former vice president joe biden, senator elizabeth warren of massachusetts, and senator cory booker of new jersey. those are the democrats. now, you have governor john kasich of ohio. senator ben sass of nebraska, and senator jeff flake of

arizona, all of whom are republicans. the panel is back. okay. another way you get yourself on the list to run for president, say you're not going to run. take a look. >> where's your mind about that right now? are you 50/50, 80/20. where do you stand? are you likely to run? >> no. this is not what i'm doing. >> other people will make lists, i'm not running for president. >> sure, i just might. >> that is not on my radar screen. that's a long way off. >> i don't know what i'm going to do tomorrow. >> if in a year from now, if i'm ready and no one has moved in that i think can do it, then i may very well. >> obviously, the most significant person in that list who say yes i'm thinking about it is the former vice president, i think he decided to say hey, i'm sending a message to national donors. i want in. >> yeah, the most honest of all of those answers, right, was probably joe biden. the concern for democrats has to be that the two white guys most likely to run who you'd have to give a reasonable shot at giving the nomination to, joe biden, bernie sanders, they're going to

be 78 and 79 on inauguration day of 2021. that's a problem for the democrats. if they -- and you could go through a list of them and there's problems with all the candidates. but two, you know, old, white guys. is that where the party needs to be positioning itself? >> kristen, before you chime in, i want to show, we put this together. here's all the traveling in the early states. that's another way to let us know. you show up in iowa, sanders, mark zuckerberg, ben sass, tom cotton have all made iowa trips this year. in new hampshire you have kasich, biden, sanders, and o'malley. south carolina, biden, zuckerberg and o'malley. it's book tourish. biden and sanders among the busiest ones. >> and i don't think that should be a surprise to anyone. the the one person is kirsten gillibrand. she hasn't been doing a whole

lot of traveling but she has been, i think, putting a marker for herself around the issue of sexual harassment. it's one she has obviously championed in the past, but she's really i think been out front on that, taking the lead in terms of calling for al franken to resign. angering a lot of folks in her own party saying that former president clinton should have resigned. i think she's eyeing a run seriously. >> in that vain, is it gillibrand has she had the breakout '17 to carve out space? who else has had breakout to start carving out -- doing more than just saying i want to be in. i'm carving out space. >> well, with gillibrand i have to put up an asterisk. people up for re-election in 2018 have to be a little bit more discreet, but i'd say harris in california, that she's poised to do that. the way i look at it, i've got a list of like 25 people here

that -- and the thing is some of these i think are laughable, but you know what, three years ago today, donald trump was. and bernie sanders was too. so i'm being a lot more humbled than i used to be, but the way i'm looking at it is there will be at least one woman. there will be at least one african-american. >> and when you say one woman. there will be multiple women that run. you mean one that is -- >> the final four. the final four. there will be a woman. there will be an african-american. there will be one white guy, and then there's an at-large. and some of these, like a harris could be two of those categories, but that look for categories. because there are powerful constituencies within the party that i think will gravitate behind. >> i think just a bigger point, we can all do this on paper, but the lesson from the last two people who have been elected president, donald trump and barack obama, is that personalities matter so much. both in their own way, completely dominated the media. figures of fascination that the supporters couldn't get enough of, and another lesson that we should all remember, crowd size really does matter. >> actually rich, great segue,

my 13-year-old literally the other -- said to me, hey dad, you know that dwayne johnson is thinking about rung for president. and i said why do you say that? well, he said so on ellen. i went, he did? here's the evidence. >> will you run? i mean -- would you -- seriously, would you run? >> i'm seriously considering it, yes. >> really? >> look, i've actually been following him for the last six months on instagram and social media. this guy is very good at his own public relations. very good. hears about a sick kid that's a fan, the rock is there with tickets. somebody in this space is going to break out. is it cuban, the rock -- >> zuckerberg -- >> somebody's messing around here. >> if we are now living in an era where to run for president of the united states you need to be a celebrity and you need to have a television following and an instagram following and you

need to be able to reach people through charisma and through your background for having been on the television screens for years and years and years, which was donald trump's way of doing it, then somebody like the rock has a chance. donald trump may have been an exception, i don't know. >> three years ago -- >> there are presidents rolling in their graves. >> and as they should. >> here's what i don't get though, kristen, is that actually i think when you try to do -- when the other party does something and you try to do what that party does light, it always fails. >> backfires. >> when you do the exact opposite. where is the boring, who is the least charismatic, most boring lowest crowd guy or gal out there? i have a theory that's the person we'll turn to next. >> i think whoever can give president trump a real run for his money has to be his counterpoint, there's no doubt about that. what does that look like? does it mean the person is unifying though? is that the aspect people are looking for? one thing in addition to all of the charismatic, all of things

that you laid out, i think the person needs to be authentic, even if they're a little boring. >> charlie, go ahead. >> i would just say that ralph, doug jones, i can go down the list here. the good democratic candidates this year were boring guys. >> yeah. >> were not offensive. but to your point, our friend mark shields has a theory that let's say you're in a subway car and it stops between stations, it's -- you know, the lights go out. panic, chaos, and then a reassuring voice. a firm, reassuring voice comes on to make you feel calm. things are under control. and will people be looking for someone that would be reassuring, calm, a good bedside manner, that sort of thing? >> the rock played tooth fairy. >> all that's true. >> boring never works in presidential politics. you could be the opposite, like george w. bush emphasis on toughness, barack obama emphasis

on thoughtfulness, right, but he was not boring. >> but we hadn't had a donald trump before either. >> has he changed the game? >> let me close with this. i think trump will get a primary challenge just for the sport of it. the question is who is the most effective primary challenger to a trump? rich, let's start with you. this is what national review may be covering a lot of. >> yeah, it's really hard to see how this would work unless trump totally craters, otherwise, you'll get some symbolic challenge from someone like john kasich who if you've got 25, 30% in places, but if you ran against him at this juncture, he wouldn't even win ohio. >> you don't buy ben sass, mitt romney? >> ben sass or mitt romney will be the two names that would come up. mitt romney probably has a better chance because he's done it before, he knows the access to the money and he has more name recognition, but it's a tough call. >> it is. somebody's going to do it just for the coverage. >> i think jeff flake could be interesting. don't overrule jeff flake. >> president trump runs, he will be the nominee. the only question if he doesn't, then it's pence versus the field.

>> free for all. when we come back, oh how the political world has changed in just one year.

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well if you look at our new nbc news wall street journal poll for the end of the year, the answers are mixed. ahead of president trump's inauguration in january, 37% of americans felt the country was going in the right direction. 52% felt it was on the wrong track. that was actually an improvement at that time from the months before the 2016 election. but in your year end poll, 29% now say right direction. that's an eight point drop from january. while 63% say wrong track. that's up 11 points. and no surprise, how you view the year depends a lot on who you are. republicans thought it was a pretty good year, for example, 79% say 2017 was either the best year for the united states above average or average. only 20% thought it was the worst year or below average. independents were pretty evenly split. while hardly any democrat thought it was a good year, the vast majority, 81%, saw 2017 as either the worst year for the

country or the below average. men and women also viewed the year differently, a majority of men thought 2017 was good for the country, while a majority of women thought it was bad. and we saw similar breakdowns across racial demographics. only a slim majority of white americans, 52% thought this year was either the best, above average, or average. while majorities of hispanics and african-americans thought it was the worst year or below average. finally, what did americans view as the most significant events of 2017? events like the mass shooting in las vegas and natural disasters like hurricanes and wildfires were on folk's minds the most. third on the list was president trump's inauguration, followed by terrorist attacks, the attacks in congress, and sexual harassment revelations, and of course the me too movement. when we come back, words that came into being. and new words that gained new meaning in 2017. president trump's impact on american culture is next.

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welcome back. we're going to look at some of the culture changes that took place this year, that i think for some people were inspired at least in part by donald trump's presidency. guys, i think the biggest one in sports has to do with his involvement in the nfl which has been sort of with race. let's take a look at what -- what sort of instigated this. >> wouldn't you love to see one of these nfl owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say get that son of a bitch off the field right now. out. he's fired. he's fired!

and you had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides. now we're going to take down his statue. so you know what, it's fine, you're changing history, you're changing culture. was sheriff joe convicted for doing his job? i'll make a prediction, i think he's going to be just fine. okay. >> you know what's interesting, kristen, especially that first one, many times when he dabbles into sort of culture wars, it's at a moment of political weakness for him. where he did the nfl was when he was embarrassed to be endorsing luther strange at a time when he knew that candidate was about to get thumped by roy moore that weekend before. and, strangely, the story wasn't about him supporting luther strange. it was about him and the nfl. >> it's a great way to energize his base to rally supporters around him. it was very similar during charlottesville when he made

those remarks, which by the way, engaged some people within his own administration, but i think you're starting to see a backlash at the polls. you saw that with how energized african-american voters were in alabama. that's concerning republicans when they look at 2018, look, i think the white house know they have a problem when it comes to more diversity, particularly to their senior staff. we just reported on omarosa leaving. she was the only african american senior staffer that he had in the west wing, and so i think that's going to possibly be a focus in the new year. >> i would have guessed at the beginning of the year you'd have an unorthodox president with an unorthodox agenda. instead, you've had an orthodox republican agenda that doesn't having for the signature kind of trump voter, but you still have this unorthodox president, and stoking these controversies is what his voters are getting in. >> but there's been a weird backlash not from voters, some with voters but corporate america has been the one, and the nfl is part of this. they have struggled with how to

handle this. they don't know how to handle it, especially nfl, i think has really struggled with it. >> i think they're to be. they don't approve of the behavior, but i was meeting with the ceo recently who said the tax bill would probably save about $350 million. they're torn. there's some good things, less regulati regulation, lacks enforcement. there's things they like, but they don't like the tone and where this is going. they're really torn. >> and corporations have to watch out for customers, shareholders, brand, and all of that. when the president says something which is why we've had so many advisory counsels disbanded, they don't feel they can be aligned it. >> a lot of it, he just enjoys stirring the pot. he enjoys everyone freaking out and the remote control goes and he watches it onnen his 90-inch

tv screen and enjoys it. >> as he said to me, it's the trump show, and it's been sold out for years. >> i think that's the part of the job he wanted. it was sort of head of state, and to be the pot stirrer, and all this other stuff, gosh, do i have to do this too? >> all right. i think 2017 the times person of the year were the whistle blowers on women. you informed us feminism is the word of the year. i would say it's an understatement to say culturally, and i think many people think women are speaking out more because of the election of donald trump. here's sort of a highlight of the year. >> hollywood titan harvey weinstein fired. >> matt lauer. >> sexual harassment has no place in any workplace. let alone in the united states congress. >> we are in the mid st of a cultural revolution. >> was it one accusation, two.

>> however, congressman conyers should resign. >> he is not going to be pressured by nancy pelosi or anyone else to step down. >> in the coming weeks, i will be resigning as a member of the united states senate. >> the president has firsthand knowledge on what he did and didn't do. he can speak directly to those. he has and has addressed them. i don't have anything further to add. >> i think everyone should be held accountable, starting from the president of the united states. >> quite the moment that this has been. in politics, i think they're struggling with it measure any other sector. >> this has been the last two or three months. there's a snowballing effect where sexual harassment doesn't seem to be tolerated. there's concern among some women there will be a backlash because it's happening so fast. but look, everybody agrees. if we can make safer workplaces and bring men with us on board on that project, so they don't feel victimized or like they're

the objects of revenge, then we'll be better off. politically, you see it in the number of women running for office. >> i think it was the week before the franken allegations that led to a resignation, you said there's going to be some that wonder is that resignation worthy? do you throw him out, but that's what happens in moments of revolution, there's not sure moments but larger moments happening. >> it was a bizarre speech. he processes innocence. if he's innocent, it owes it to himself and to his voters to stay and fight. it doesn't surprise me that there's been some back and forth about this, but that new york times story and harvey weinstein is the single most influential piece of journalism i can remember. it changed the culture. >> it was harvey weinstein. i don't know why the fox firings which were sort of the canaries in the coal mine.

>> you're right. what requires the death penalty, and the standard has gotten very, very slim on what ends a career but i think this is going to provide a lot of opportunities for women, for younger men who behave themselves. this is a society-changing event, set of circumstances. >> november, 2018, i think when we are look agent the new faces of the new congress, i have a feeling we're going to see what the house bank scandal did in 1992, it wiped out people on both sides of the aisle. this moment on women and sexual assault, it wiped out 50 members left and right. >> i they that's right. and i think they're bracing for that possibility. a lot of people on both sides of the aisle think this is going to be the year of the woman when it comes to 2018. but look, i think that democrats have tried to seize the moral high ground on this, and i stress that word tried to because it is very complicated, and i think the white house knows they've got some work to do. a lot of the president's accu r

accusers came forward. they said we didn't feel like our voices were heard during the campaign. they're being heard. the white house infuriated by this. they said the voters have had their say. >> i'm going to close with new words meiriam webster included. troll as a verb. dog whistle, and alt-right. what does that say about america? >> wow. i'm 64 years old, and i'm sitting here. the whole world is changing, and i'm just sort of astonished by it all. >> one thing i'm going to tell our viewers to do. >> quit trolling people, charlie. >> that's not my style. >> when charlie starts trolling stew, we'll know the world has changed. you guys were great. that's all we have for today. thank you to our viewers were being such a big part of our broadcast each week. please, continue to send your

cr critiques. i want to wish everyone a safe, happy, healthy, and politically less stressful year. we'll see you here back week, because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press".

good morning. good morning and welcome to "morning joe." >> alabama plays today, willie. alabama plays clemson today. >> joe, they don't get the joke. >> alabama plays clemson today. do you think alabama is going to win? >> i like the tide. it's part three of the trilogy of their series. >> what were you pointing at, joe? >> recorded earlier. i didn't want to confuse anybody. >> you can have more titos now and then blog. >> roll tide.

with us national affairs analyst for msnbc, john heilemann, also josh earnest. >> josh, you wore that on christmas? >> you did. >> happy new year, everybody. >> and republican stat gist -- >> what? you wore that on christmas. >> and the week before. >> first, 2018. john, start with you. >> conflict. >> okay. that's good. i like that. >> what? conflict? >> conflict. >> you know, i think you're going to have -- i keep coming back to what i consider the existential crisis facing the trump administration. the mueller probe is going to come to a head in 2018, and we're going to find out whether or not bob mueller is going to get to the two major tracks of the investigation, the question of whether there's collusion with russia, getting to the bottom of the relationship between putin and trump, and on the other hand, the obstruction of justice charges that a lot of

people think are pending against the president. i think that the politics of that in addition to the legal trek, you also have a situation where as this plays out over the course of the year, increasingly, i think the question of the ability to impeach if necessary the president will become central to our politics. the argument in the mid terms, republicans that are certainly on the house side which is where the action would be are essentially signaling in a very direct way they have no intention of taking seriously any charges mueller might bring and not moving -- >> we're going to hear through 2018 if you elect democrats they're going to impeach them. >> or at least they'll be open to the idea. >> oh, no, impeached. >> they may, but i think that is going to be a central argument. >> and nancy pelosi will be telling democrats, don't say the i-word. >> correct. i think the framing of referendum on the question of the possibility of impeachment will be central to the midterm elections.

>> as the new year ended, we started getting news that don mcgahn reportedly knew about what was going on with michael flynn, which means the president knew when he was going to james comey telling him kill this investigation. we also know that michael flynn got a sweet heart deal from the special prosecuter. so there are some things we don't know. there are some things we do know. >> that's right. >> if bob muler eller is fired, people are going to jail. they are going to be charged at the state level, and people like michael flynn will probably spend the rest of his life behind bars. >> we got a barometer at the end of 2017 for how concerned both the white house and congressional republicans are about what bob mueller is working on. this assault on bob mueller and the fbi that we saw in the judiciary committee, on the intel committee, you had the chairman of the intel committee running this parallel operation

to look into the fbi, to look into bob mueller. they are obviously concerned. i think it's a question of when bob mueller delivers his product. he's in no rush. he will do his work. is it the beginning or later in the year? they said it could be the end of 2018. we'll see. it will hang over everything else that happens in washington. >> bob mueller does not care, and susan, i think people will look back maybe even six, nine months from now and look back at the times of the republican attacks from the house which bob corker on last week, mocked the house saying nobody in the senate is even saying that. but we'll look back and people will ask, wait a second, these republicans in the house waited until a national security adviser was charged with a crime and pled to a crime and the president's campaign manager was charged with a crime and then they started attacking the person that discovered these crimes going on in the

government? >> yeah. and we already know as of the end of 2017, there were four indictments by robert mueller. he is moving on an investigation throughout the year. i think it will be toward the end when it concludes. there were a lot of other people that are going to go down in this mess. there's no doubt. he's just getting going, i think, on the higher level people he's going to reach, and this is going to be a place where i think the american public who are really wanting to rally around something that is meaningful and bipartisan that they can. that's our legal and justice system, and they will get around bob mueller, and they will throw those congress members who dare question his integrity out on their ear, because this could be the year of the primary. >> josh, as we talk about primaries and general elections, 2018, most people at the end of 2017, almost everybody i've heard talk on this topic are predicting a huge democratic win

in 2018. it's enough to make you think that it's going to be a great year for republicans. >> well, this is still a steep climb for democrats. it's not just about the number of seats in the house they have to retake. they're going to have to take a number of gerrymandered districts to be in the majority again. the other thing we should not overlook are the consequential government races on the ballot. 34 governor races are on the ballot on 2018. just about every one of them with the exception of new hampshire will be in office when their states are considering redistricting. we're talking about a midterm election that is not just consequential in terms of the remainder of president trump's first term in office. we're talking about the next decade of control of the united states congress. this is a consequential election. i think the question is going to be will democrats remain fired up? can they stay engaged, and can democrats continue to succeed in persuading moderate republicans, college educated republicans that republicans have lost their

way? i think there's plenty of evidence to back up that argument, but can they succeed in making the argument and motivating that brand of republicans to show up at the polls and support democratic candidates including democratic governors in the upcoming election. >> for two years you've had nasty things tweeted at you by the president, mika, and the white house. you faced attacks, and conservative media. it's almost enough to make you forget just how -- it's such -- how badly you were viewed by hillary clinton, and democrats, democratic women coming up to you all the time asking what's wrong with you, why are you so ant anti-hillary? why are you so anti-democratic party? and you kept saying they don't have a message. they don't have a message. what's their message? so i ask you at the beginning of 2018, you have some democrats

watching right now. what does their message need to be? what do they need to do that you complained for two years that hillary clinton was not doing? >> i'm not going to tell them what their message needs to be, but it needs to be honest. it can't be hypocritical, especially on issues like sexual harassment, especially since these are the same democrats, many of them who stood for hillary clinton and supported bill clinton every step of the way. you can't have it both ways. we have to be honest that the society is evolving. democrats need to be honest that they want a big tent as well. and they have to address the needs of not just our diverse society but all americans who are hurting, especially the middle class, the lower middle class, and those who are working for minimum wage. they have to have a genuine, honest, message that is led by someone or a group of people who actually have the skills to deliver that message, and that's a tall order. i wouldn't get -- i wouldn't get

too happy about the situation now, because i think anything goes in the midterms. people may not feel the effects of the tax cuts that the republican congress got through, because it may not be enough time, and quite frankly, i think that anything goes in 2018. i think we've all talked about a best-case scenario, but this president has pushed the boundaries of moral decorum on every level and pushed the boundaries of democracy. i am concerned the system will not hold if we're not careful. in terms of the midterms, i'm hoping it's the year of the woman. >> picking up on what you both side, i'll be interested to see if the democratic energy we saw in virginia and alabama makes it all the way to 2018. if the energy that started with the women's march, if that continues through virginia and alabama. alabama is an interesting case. we saw african american turnout

that i think the night before none of us expected to see levels of president obama in 2008. african americans energized to go out and vote. suburban women and suburban republicans who voted in mountain brook where we were that day. came out and voted for a democrat. the question is was that because roy moore was so distasteful, or was it about donald trump, or was it a combination of two. if luther strange was on the ballot, would they have voted for him? >> i think other question is what are democrats going to do to have their own proactive message in office. i think president trump and they're going to be more roy moores in 2018. there are going to be crazy people who are running on the republican side who do likely win primaries, and that is going to fuel some democratic turnout and some democratic enthusiasm and emergency. but democrats will need to center on their own message that succeeds in getting people

motivated and energized so they're not just voting against something but for something as well. >> we're also going to see something that's challenging for democrats and republicans. that is the -- i have a strong feeling of members of the house and senate that are probably going to have to resign or not seek reelection because of sexual harassment. that $17 million secret fund will become exposed. more importantly, campaign committees will be looked at and where the payoffs are going. and for nancy pelosi, especially, because she oversaw most of the -- she was there in power during most of the payoffs, that's going to be extremely problematic for the democrats to have to explain where that $17 million went. >> let's not forget we look back historically, midterm elections are bad for the party that's in the white house. historically if a president is below 50% in approval rating, the opposing party does really well. this president is below 40, and a lot below 40.

there's no modelling for that. and the generic ballots, the democrats have been double digit lead, in some cases more. the numbers right now in history suggest this should be despite the gerrymandering and the map in the senate, if you look at what happened in 2017, and you look at all the historical precedence, this should be a really big year for democrats unless they blow it in some profound way that signifies political malpractice. >> we saw it in the last election. >> they were in 2016. >> they were. >> they worked overtime. >> but the circumstances are prime for them. if they cannot take control at least of the house under these circumstances, they should probably hang it up. >> and people will say the tax cut is maybe a mitigating factor, but you remember in 1982 even after the reagan tax cut of '81, republicans got wiped out in '82. >> and extraordinary limits of

unpopularity. it's up to democrats to prosecute the case. they start with the tax cut being unpopular. they have to drive the message and not let republicans turn it around. they're starting from the right place from the democratic point of view. >> what republicans need to push is the economy. it's doing well. unemployment is low, and stock market's at an all time high. your 401 ks are better than ever before, and they need to keep pushing that. i will say going into 2018, one word of warning for republicans. the economy was pretty darn great in 1994. and bill clinton got wiped out. 2010, things were starting to turn around. 2014, the economy was doing much, much better. republicans won the senate in 2014. the tea party took over in 2010. these midterm elections disprove the famous saying, it's the

economy stupid. that may be true in types of economic change. it's not proven to be the case in midterm elections. >> it's the thing that republicans are pinning their hope to. the hope republicans will be persuaded to keep them in office and keep them doing their thing, whatever that is. the other thing democrats face, and this is a challenge that my party has not solved, democrats don't historically turn out well in midterm elections, and that's something that we're going to have to figure out, and it's going to be part of working through the challenge that we face. and look, the results in alabama and virginia obviously give democrats a lot of hope, and democrats are engaged in a way they haven't been before, but historically the trends in midterm elections favor the party out of power, midterm elections have historically not favored democrats because we have trouble. >> democrats have a great motivator in 2018. his name is donald trump. >> still ahead in "morning joe,"

a look back at the year that was in trump tweets. >> oh, my goodness. >> that head spinning compilation is next. >> you think you'll be in there? >> i think i might. i don't know. it wasn't that important. plus the time line of a trump/russia connection. we'll be right back. ♪ (woman) one year ago today mom started searching for her words.

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president is president of the united states, so they are considered official statements by the president of the united states. that's what sean spicer said in june about president trump's tweets. those official statements drove a lot of news cycles last year. here now is the year in trump tweets. >> are you going to be tweeting and whatever you're upset about, just put out there this. >> i'm going to be very restrained, if i use it at all.

>> he tweeted yesterday. he says if chicago doesn't fix the horrible carnage, i will send in the feds. does he ever sleep? the answer is no. this isn't going to be a one-off. this is going to be every day with him. >> first, it's not a travel ban. >> that was president trump's tweet yesterday. if the ban were announced with a one-week notice, the bad would rush into our country. >> he's using the words with media is using. >> the president tweeting he will be announcing his supreme court selection. >> tweeting around 10:00 last night, the obama administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from australia. why? i will study this dumb deal. >> let's go to donald trump's tweet. >> iran has been formally put on notice. >> at 8:12:00 a.m., the opinion of this so-called judge. >> president trump is tweeting about john mccain. he's been losing so long he doesn't know how to win anymore. >> the president of the united states responded writing in all

cap letters on twitter, see you in court. >> president trump's tweets regarding nordstrom dropping ivanka's line. >> the president tweeting this morning for asking questions accusing us of misinformation. yesterday the president also tweeted information is being illegally given to the failing new york times and washington post by the intelligence community nsa, and fbi? just like russia. >> wait. is that meant as a compliment? >> the sitting president of the united states in another unchecked saturday morning tweet storm accusing his immediate predecessor of tapping his phone. >> it is one thing when a reality tv star accuses a president, but when a president of the united states accuses another president, the context changes, and it becomes dangerous. >> i think the president's tweets speak for themselves. >> this tweet from the president this morning once again about his predecessor, is incorrect

with facts. >> i tweet two to five times a day. if i make one mistake in a month, this one, i don't think is going to prove to be a mistake. >> germany owes vast sums of money to the united states. it doesn't work that way. a third grader would understand. >> this tweet from the president promoting a show on fox news when viewers tuned in, this is what the host said. >> paul ryan needs to step down. >> quote, why isn't the house intelligence committee looking at the bill and hillary deal? >> president trump tweeted the following. mike flynn should ask for immunity, and this was a witch hunt. >> when you are given immunity, that means you probably committed a crime. >> the president's u.n. ambassador isn't paying attention to his tweets. >> none of my colleagues are talking about d.c. chatter. >> quote, did hillary clinton ever apologize for receiving the answers to the debate? just asking. swear to god.

this guy is tweeting right now, the leader of the free world. he's got his fingers on the button, and he's tweeting about hillary. >> i would love to see the tweeting stop, but i'd also like to see pigs fly. >> yesterday president trump tweeted i have great confidence that china will properly deal with north korea. >> president trump weighed in on the demonstrations. someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday. the election is over. >> the president has been talking about his first 100 days. he tweeted out, quote, eventually, but at a later date so we can get started early. mexico will be paying in some form for the badly-needed border wall. >> he wrote i received calls from the president of mexico and the prime minister of canada asking to renegotiate nafta, rather than terminate. >> he did what he does so often. he started tweeting. >> our country needs a good shutdown in september to fix

mess. >> as an active president with lots things happening, it's not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy. president of the united states tweeted this. james comey better hope there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press. >> wow. >> that's not a threat. he's simply stating a fact. the tweet speaks for itself. >> tweeting russian officials must be laugh ageing at the u.s. >> i'm wondering about his explanation about the odd tweet the president put out last night. apparently it speaks for itself. >> covfefe. >> president trump is criticizing the mayor of london following this weekend's terror attack tweeting at least seven dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and mayor of london says there is no reason to be alarmed? here's what he actually said. >> londoners will see an increased police presence today and over the course of the next few days. no reason to be alarmed. >> he actually gets the quote wrong. >> quote, we need the courts to

give us back our rights. we need the travel ban. >> he just basically gave the supreme court of the united states all the ammunition that they needed. we thank you for responding the our show. donald trump tweeting out, people, the lawyers and the courts can call it whatever they want. but i am calling it a travel ban. >> are president trump's tweets considered official white house statements? >> well, the president is the president of the united states, so they're considered official statements by the president of the united states. >> he tweeted and says, quote, despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication. and, wow, comey is a leaker. >> he's commenting, again, he can't stop himself. on robert mueller's investigation earlier this morning he tweeted they made up a phony collusion with the russian story. found zero proof. now they go for obstruction of justice. nice. the single greatest witch hunt

in american political history led by some very bad and conflicted people. friday morning shortly after we went off the air he posted, quote, i am being investigated for firing the fbi director by the man who told me to fire the fbi director. just ahead of today's deadline to turn over any tapes to the house intel committee, did anyone think there were tapes? >> i didn't tape it, and i don't have any tape. >> the president tweeted some of the fake news media likes to say i'm not engaged in health care. wrong. i know the subject well. >> the president has been attacked mercilessly on personal accounts by members of that program. it's like we're living in the t twilight zone. everybody is apolled when he defends himself. >> the president tweeted -- >> "morning joe" speaks badly of me. >> low iq crazy mika and say koe

joe came to mar-a-lago three nights in a row. she was bleeding badly from a facelift. i said no. >> mika, what's been going on the last 24 hours? >> it's been fascinating and frightening and really sad for our country. >> the president tweeted this morning when i left the conference room for a short meeting with japan and other countries, i asked ivanka to hold the seat. very standard. angela merkel agreed. that is fake news. >> we now go to zurich and the donald trump tweet desk. you have a satellite link up and talk to willie geist at the donald trump tweet desk. will sf willie? >> he tweeted my son donald did a good job last night. he was open, transparent and innocent. >> painting a rosy picture on twitter yesterday. the white house is functioning

perfectly. >> oh, yeah. >> president trump spent much of his weekend putting his message out on twitter. sending 19 tweets and among the 10, he sent before 8:30 on saturday morning. all agreed the u.s. president has the complete power to pardon. yesterday the president tweeted to our beleaguered ag. >> this morning we wake up and see this tweet. >> where is the investigation? >> it's a slap in the face to sessions. >> president trump is trying to get receive jeff sessionss to e resign? >> you can be disappointed in someone but want them to continue to do their job. >> donald trump's tweets yesterday seemingly out of the blue. announcing a ban of transgender individuals from serving in any capacity in the military. >> the president of the united states saying our relationship

with russia is at an all time low. >> north korea best not make any more threats to the united states. fire and fury. >> the president tweeting locked and loaded. >> the outdated filibuster must go. >> i said mitch, get to work. >> the president yesterday took to twitter writing, quote, the u.s. has been talking to north korea and paying them extortion money for 25 years. >> this is true. >> talking is not the answer. >> well, the president is up, of course, and tweeting this morning. >> wow. looks like james comey exonerated hillary clinton long before the investigation was over. a rigged system. >> tweeting another attack in london by a loser terrorist. so that's the president of the united states who tweeted out this. >> come on. >> that mocking tweet about kim jong-un describing him as rocket man. >> i find as i travel internationally, more and more people are adopting the position of hey, let's watch what the

administration does, not what the president tweets. >> the name offensive, and at times dangerous tweets aimed at the nfl, the nba, and nuclear north korea. >> lashing out at the mayor of san juan, puerto rico, from his country club. >> while he was golfing, the mayor of san juan, puerto rico was up to her neck in water. throwing paper towels at the victims of the hurricane like it was a game. >> tweets, the trump made undercut tillerson saying save your energy, rex, the new unplugged bob corker. he compared the white house to an adult day care center careening toward world war iii. >> when he talks about adult day care center and talks about somebody obviously wasn't making their rounds, there is a suggestion there. let's go to our hong kong trump tweet desk and our own willie geist. >> what did he say, willie? >> do his tweets make your job

for difficult, general kelly? >> no. as far as the tweets go, it's funny, i read in the paper, or, you all know. you write it. i have been a failure at controlling the president. or a failure at controlling his tweeting. i was not brought to this job to control anything but the flow of information. >> happy halloween. a scary day for a lot of people. >> two tweets. quote, sorry, but this is years ago before paul manafort was part of the trump campaign, but why aren't crooked hillary and the dems the focus? >> tweeting shortly before midnight, nyc terrorist should get death penalty. >> donald trump tweets my twitter account was taken down for 11 minutes by a rogue employee. >> mr. president, stop tweeting and start leading. >> trump tweeted this, quote, meeting with chuck and nancy today. i don't see a deal. >> moments later schumer and pelosi pulled out of the

meeting. >> president trump has been busy on social media retweeting in quick succession a series of alarming videos. >> it doesn't matter that it's a fake video. >> i think you're focusing on the wrong thing. >> these tweets have impact on relationships around the world. >> president trump just tweeted about center kirsten gillibrand after she called for him to resign yesterday amid sexual misconduct allegations. lightweight senator kirsten gillibrand would come to my office begging for campaign contributions and would do anything for them. >> only if your mind is in the gutter would you have read it that way. >> if your day is not consumed by getting him to take down that tweet, please leave. >> i think the presidents tweets speak for themselves. >> up next, to know where things stand in the russia investigation, you have to trace the story back to the beginning. our producers did just that, and we'll bring you the full time line of all the block buster reporting and spilled secrets next on "morning joe."

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hey, need fast try cool mint zantac. it releases a cooling sensation in your mouth and throat. zantac works in as little as 30 minutes. nexium can take 24 hours. try cool mint zantac. no pill relieves heartburn faster. steyer: the president's national security adviser -- guilty. his campaign chairman -- under indictment. his son-in-law -- secret talks with russians. the director of the fbi -- fired. special counsel robert mueller's criminal investigation has already shown why the president should be impeached. you can send a message to your representatives at needtoimpeach.com and demand they finally take a stand. this president is not above the law.

bob mueller has been on the job for about seven months digging into contacts between russia and members of the trump team. so far he's gotten guilty pleas

from trump's former national security adviser and george papadopoulos. and indictments of former trump campaign chairman paul manafort. and top aide rick gates. here now is "morning joe's" look back at how we got here and what's still to come. >> we don't get it, and we never have. >> how's it going? >> it's going well. >> yeah? do you like vladimir putin's comments about you? >> sure. >> why has president trump kowtowed to russian president putin sin the beginning of the campaign? >> people call you brilliant, that's good, especially when the person heads up russia? >> no one has a good answer. >> i mean also it's a person that kills journalists, political opponents. obviously that would be a

concern, would it not? >> any other candidate would have hit this softball out of the park. >> he's running this country. . >> but not trump. >> at least he's a leader unlike our country. >> joe tried slowing down for emphasis. >> but, again, he kills journalists that don't agree with him. >> well, i think our country does plenty of killing also, joe. >> but bob mueller heads into the office every morning to put the puzzle pieces together, and what we know so far might explain why the president appears so panicked. september 2015, three months after trump campaign down the escalator to announce his campaign, michael cohen, executive vice president of the trump organization began discussions about a trump tower project in moscow. that same month, cohen said this as a campaign surrogate. >> there's a better than likely chance trump may meet with putin when he comes here for the united nations. people want to meet donald trump. >> your outside council intim e

intimated you may have a meeting with the russian president. >> well, i heard he wanted to meet with me, and certainly i am open to it. i'm not sure i know that people have been talking. >> cohen told "the washington post" he discussed the deal three times with the candidate and that trump who led in nearly every poll for the republican nomination signed a letter of intent with a moscow based developer on october 28th, 2015, the night of the gop's third presidential debate. >> i think maybe my greatest weakness is that i trust people too much. i'm too trusting. >> in an e-mail on november 3rd, later reported by "the new york times," a trump business associate wrote about the moscow project to cohen. quote, i will get putin on this program, and we will get donald elected. in december, national security adviser michael flynn was paid through his speaker's bureau to attend a gala with putin. putin later said they hardly spoke. >> i didn't even raeeally talk

him. that's the extent of my acquaintance with him. >> january 2016, in the attempt to revive the stalled trump tower moscow project, michael cohen sent an e-mail to putin's personal spokesperson to ask for help according to documents later submitted to congress reported on by "the washington post." it was later said he got the e-mail but did not reply. meanwhile trump began to rack up primary victories and endorsements. >> this is a campaign. this is a movement. >> february 29th, 2016,, paul manafort, a career consultant for international strongmen wrote a memo offering his services according to new york times. in which he offered to work for free. recent court filings accuse manafort and rick gates of being tied up in a multimillion dollar money laundering scheme with pro russian interests.

they have pleaded not. on march 10th, russian hackers sent phishing e-mails in an attempt to compromise democratic party operatives tied to hillary clinton. within nine days they would have access to at least 50,000 e-mails of john podesta. in a meeting with the washington post on march 21st, trump announced members of his foreign policy team. >> george papadopoulos. he's an oil energy consultant. excellent guy. >> that very week papadopoulos met in london with a russian national and w ties to the kremlin. the volunteer e-mailed sam clovis and others telling them he had met with the russian ambassador and, quote, putin's niece who discussed a meeting between russian leadership and trump. he replied not to make any commitments and added great

work. >> i have nothing to do with russia. to the best of my knowledge, no person i deal with does. >> at a national security meeting held in the under construction trump hotel in washington, papadopoulos told trump, jeff sessions and other about the meeting according to j.d. gordan, sessions shut down the idea. the president said he doesn't remember. >> it's a very unimportant meeting. took place a long time. don't remember much about it. >> a few weeks later in late april the democratic national committee's it department picked up suspicious activity and called in crowd strike, discovering a hack that pointed to the russian government. at the same time the foreign professor with kremlin ties told papadopoulos he just returned from moscow where he learned the russians obtained dirt on hillary clinton. thousands of e-mails. papadopoulos continued the correspondence an attempts to set up a meeting. that night trump posted huge victories in a slew of states.

>> i consider myself your presumptive nominee. >> april 27th, trump delivered a foreign policy speech in washington d.c. >> some say the russians won't be reasonable. i intend to find out. >> in the audience? jeff sessions. who met with the russian ambassador before the speech. an encounter sessions forgot in sworn testimony. >> i did not have communications with the russians. >> jared kushner also met with kislyak at the event. something he would not disclose for more than a year. later reported kushner had three undisclosed calls with the ambassador from april through the general election. in may kushner received an e-mail from the head of russia's central bank seeking a meeting and hinting he had a message from putin.

he declined. the biggest development was still to come. >> that biggest development is next on "morning joe."

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there are many glaring aspects surrounding the trump team's contacts with russia. among them, a tweet from the president just 15 minutes after wikileaks urged trump junior to share a link to spread their stories. it's part of our second installment of our trump russia time line. shortly after donald trump junior met with a british music publicist who worked with the trump family on the 2013 miss universe pageant e-mailed trump junior on june third about a back channel to the kremlin writing a russian oligarch met with a moscow based lawyer. he said she had some official documents and information that would incriminate hillary and her dealings with russia, part of russia and it government

support for mr. trump. trump junior replied, if it's what you say, i love it. especially later in the summer, and set up the meeting. after yet another primary victory four days later, candidate trump made this promise. >> i am going to give a major speech on probably monday of next week, and we're going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the clintons. >> on june 8th, trump junior forwarded the e-mail to jared kushner and paul man fort. on june 9th, they met with the women, and a russian lobbyist and a man who worked for a russian billionaire and was the subject of a federal report on foreign money moving through u.s. banks and a russian translat translator. weeks later, trump denied it. >> what's happening with the

russians is phony and disgusting. >> he continues to insist nothing of consequence came from the meeting. hours after the russians left trump tower, trump senior responded to a clinton tweet writing, where are your 33,000 e-mails that a clinton tweet writing where are your 30,000 ec-mails that you delete. >> we had upcoming leaks. >> meanwhile, jared kushner took over campaign data operation in june according to interview with forbes. it said kushner gained access to voter file and soon brought in the firm cambridge an lit ka to target voters. that same month. ceo of cambridge e-mailed wikileaks to organize and disseminate clinton e-mails, but assange said no. this as the first batch of hacked dnc documents were leaked

on june 15. u.s. intelligence later determined was a tool of the russian military. later. later attended rnc sent an e-mail to top campaign aides as well as foreign policy advisers to say he was headed to moscow. page later said he members of the juried -- mentioned the trip to jeff sessions. >> i'm not aware of any of those activi activity. >> also forgot another meeting he had. >> after page delivered speech in moscow on july 7, he spoke with deputy prime minster and supported it back to the campaign. also on july 7, pal manafort then trump campaign chairman sent e-mail to intermediary of russian billionaire.

kremlin ally offering private briefings on the campaign according to "the washington post." the offer was kept esecret. >> are there any ties between mr. trump, you campaign and putin and his regime. >> no. >> all this as the republican national convention softened the party platform's position on armi arming ukraine against russian con congressional. and marked by wikileaks thousands the of stolen e-mails that show party officials opposition to bernie sanders during the primary fight. trump brushed off suspected foreign involvement. >> russia, if you're listening,ive hope you're able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing. i think you will probably be rewarded kindly by our press. >> august, multiple interviews, trump confidant claimed to have

a back window to wikileaks. on august 21, it will soon be podes podesta's time the. >> confident that mr. assange has virtually every one of the e-mails that the clinton hench women thought that they had deleted. >> a week after manafort was asked to leave the trump campaign, secret payments abo ukraine. mercer asked the ceo of data firm cambridge working for the trump campaign to reach out to wikileaks to help organize the clinton e-mails ivana trump was releasing. wikileaks turned them down. cia told members of congress about russian interference later in the summer. trump received counter intelligence briefing with explicit warning. if foreign actors like the

russians try to infiltrate the campaign, tell the fbi. trump continued to cast doubt. >> originally said the hacking of the democratic national committee' e-mails was a public service. do you agree. >> i don't have any opinion on it. i don't know anything about it. i don't know who hacked. i'm not sure. >> september 8, jeff sessions had yet another meeting with the russian ambassador that he forgot. >> i did not have communications with the russians. >> on september 20, wikileaks contacted donald trump junior with a password of anti-trump website. hours later trump junior responded and according to the atlantic. relayed the message to senior members of the trump campaign including bannon, digital director and kushner reportedly. october 1, roger stone tweeted wednesday, hillary clinton is done with hashtag wikileaks. >> i have exact channel

communications with wikileaks. they don't tell me what they're going to do. >> two days later trump asked what's behind wednesday's leak i keep reading about. there was no sponresponse. >> on october 7. came under fire for access ho y hollywood tape. released first batch of podesta's e-mails. said wikileaks disclosures were consistent with russian directed efforts. nevertheless, trump praised them. >> wikileaks, i love wikileaks. >> october 12, urged trump junior to share a link to spread stories. 15 minutes later candidate trump sent a tweet about the little pickup of dishonest media of wikileaks incredible information. >> 17 intelligence -- you doubt 17.

>> the mystery has gone long beyond election day. trump's upset made these data points more significant. what do they suggest? coincidence? collusion? opportunism? perhaps only one prosecutor knows and one day we will too. you can go to nbc.com to rewatch the full report. >> that was a good show. >> so denying. >> you can do that will because people will think you pretend to be live when you actually recorded earlier. there it is. morning joe will be back tomorrow morning at 6:00 a.m. stay with msnbc all day for all your breaking news. my ancestry dna results are that i am 26% nigerian. i am just trying to learn as much as i can about my culture. i put the gele on my head and i looked

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we're so happy to share this with you. because you deserve to start the year off in style. it's our way of saying happy new year! and welcome to the family... the chevy family. the chevy employee discount for everyone ends soon. nuclear warning. all of america is within range. iran and president trump. that country's regime is responding. and welcome to 2018. we'll show you how people rang in the new year. some in bone chilling temperatures. great being with you. welcome to 2018. welcome to msnbc's live coverage on monday. january 1. i'm francis reveiverarivera. begin new year's day with warning from north korea.

address on television. kim jong-un claimed country's nuclear arsenal is complete. the entire united states is within range of nuclear weapons and button is always on my desk. adding, quote, this is reality. not a threat. joining us live from seoul, south korea. kelly. happy new year. what else did kim jong-un say. how is this being received in the south. >> good morning. happy new year to you as well. warning for the united states. and also an ominous goal for north korea in 2018. all included in 30 minute address to the nation for new year's day from kim jong-un. he didn't mention president trump's name a single time during the speech, but he did talk about north korea's goal's for the coming year. should focus on mass producing nuclear war heads and ballistic missiles for operational

deployment. he says country will only use the weapons if threatened. now, it's not clear, difficult to verify whether north korea is in fact now a nuclear power. they were racing in that direction great speed last year with 15 ballistic missile launches and sixth nuclear test in september. the strongest yet. still no way to verify really that they have what they say they have. really there's a very interesting part of the speech as well. dealing with of all things, the olympics. kim jong-un talking about how he wants the olympics to with a success for so you recolleuth k to be held next month 50 miles south of tv korean border. considering sending a delegation. have a couple of ice skaters who qualified. wants the two countries to sit down and talk urgently. >> we are watching the

president's twitter feed here. looking for any kind of response so far. nothing yet. excuse me. in iran, 20 peop 12 people killed during the protests. try to take other police stations and military bases. meanwhile, authorities move to block access to some social media. claiming the plat foforms are bg used to promote violence. the largest spread of violence since 2009. latest report coming up in a few minutes. "new york times" report this weekend claims the justice department probe in russian metaling of the 2016 election had or gins in a night abroad. four anonymous officials tell

the paper that while drinking at a bar may of 2016, trump adviser george papadopoulos told australian diplomat the russians had thousands of e-mails that would embarrass hillary clinton. when hacked e-mails appeared online months later. australian officials informed american counter part what papadopoulos said. sparked interest in russians involvement. the white house had no involvement, but to say it with cooperating with the probe. joining us from the white house, matthew. happy new year to you. thank you for your time this morning. let's start with this h. you covered the white house. what's your sense of how the president and allies are responding to this? the president hasn't directly referenced it in his tweets. did come out with a tweet saying phony and nonexistent sources are being used more than ever. what are you hearing. >> that's his normal response to sort of dismiss any anonymously

sourced articles. this piece from the times is a serious problem for the white house. what their argument has been so far is you know, that russian investigation is a hoax and started with this politically motivated dossier and that's been what they've been pointing to. this is why the fbi launched the investigation. now know that's not the case. this was intelligence given to us by a close ally. you know, months before the election, and that's what got this investigation going. that just makes it even harder for white house to dismiss the investigation and remember they were saying again, and, again, they expected to be exonerated by the end of the year. it's 2018 and as far as i can tell, bob mueller is still not out there exonerating the president. >> not to mention the role of papadopoulos. copy boy volunteer. then find out we know he has been editing the outlines of foreign policy speeches for the president and spending meetings with the egyptian president.

that also we see the difference there. how he's being perceived. >> that's right. at this point, he's cooperating witness. we have information now about him exchanging text messages with mike flynn and being in contact with steve bannon. this whole oh i never heard of him. he was a coffee buy kind of stick is looking sillier and sillier. the more we learn. >> turning now to the legislative agenda for the new year. we look ahead. we know on wednesday there's going be a meeting with white house officials. comes to tackling do cameaca. is that the top of the president's agenda there. >> look, at this point, infrastructure is something of a pipe dream. you would need democratic cooperation to get that done. 60 votes in the senate and democrats haves no appetite to cooperate with this president. approval ratings down in the 30s with the midterm elections coming up a lot quicker than we think. democrats have no reason to work

with this guy. and there's not a real republican appetite to do infrastructure yet. paul ryan saying he wants to reform the welfare code. as much donald trump wants to talk about infrastructure, i think we're unlikely to see any action there. keep in mind, congress also has a ton on their must pass to do list. fund the government before the tend of january. debt ceiling coming up. issue of daca and the dreamers. if they get that done by march, midterms are speeding right up. i don't think we see any infrastructure. >> when it comes to the midterms, president has said he intends to aggressively campaign for house republicans when it comes to midterms. is that welcomed especially with the look at alabama and saying, all right. is this something we need to assess in 2018. >> i don't think donald trump aggressively campaigning for vulnerable house republicans is what pretty much any of them are looking for. you see a lot of vulnerable republicans are in districts in new jersey, new york,

california. those are places where this president is very unpopular. democrats are energized because they see a real opening, a wave similar to the one the republicans had in 2010. again this president is unpopularity. i don't think tom mcarthur in new jersey is looking at donald trump coming to campaign for him. >> what is going to be the tip of that wave that democrats are riding on tip of midterms? going to be a tax bill or donald trump himself. >> i think it will be it's hard to say this far out. obviously the tax bill is a major issue right now. we'll have to see how that plays in the the months ahead. the more donald trump keeps tweeting, the more he keeps stoking controversy and the more he keeps looming at such a large figure in politics, i think for the democrats, that's welcome. they're happy to have him out there driving the show because it's driving their popularity. >> we're going to see how it starts on this first day of 2018. thank you. happy new year to you. thank you.

>> with a trip complete. the world rings in a new year. hello 2018. new zealand. millions of people celebrated the new year putting on bright colorful extensive firework displays. meanwhile, frigid new year celebration with second coldest on record around 10 degrees. ball drop took place in 1917. way back when at 1 degree farenheit. still ahead on msnbc. including california, recreational marijuana is fully legal. what it means for the state's economy going forward. plus we go live to colorado where a gunman opened fire on police. killing one and wounding several more. we have those details and others straight ahead. after more than 20 years,

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police were responding to a domestic disturbance outside of denver when the bullets started flying. >> i do know all of them shot very, very quickly. and they all went down within seconds of each other. it was more of an ambush type attack on our officers. he knew we were come sglg the fallen deputy is identified as 29-year-old. married father of two. joining us now from littleton colorado. what have were learned about the shooter so far this morning. >> this is 37-year-old matthew reel. as the expression comes from the sheriff, he was known to police, but had no tangible criminal history. investigators now digging into

his background. this was a former attorney and iraq war veteran. served as an army national guardsman. and then was deployed to iraq in 2009. honorably discharged in 2012. attorney in wyoming. dropped from the bar in 2016 after he lost interest in practicing law. what investigators are most focused on is what he's been up to lately. seemingly coming unhinged in a series of online rants against law enforcement, specifically looking into a series of youtube videos where he's blaming law enforcement for various things in a belligerent series of online rants. investigators focused on that as a possible motive for luring and possibly targeting these deputies for investigating this as a disturbance in that apartment complex. we now know he fired 100 rounds in that gun battle with police. in that ensuing gun battle

followed killing one sheriff deputy. >> thank you. for the update. now, more on our top story this morning. north korea kim jong-un warning the united states that its nuclear arsenal is complete. the button to launch is sitting right there on his desk. chairman of joint chief of staff on sunday. >> we're actually closer in my view to a nuclear war with north korea and in that region than we've ever been and i just don't see how -- i don't see the opportunities to solve this diplomatically at this particular point. >> with that, we want to bring in senior fellow at center for new american security. served in state department from 2009 to 2013. happy new year to you. as we devil into this. you heard there former joint chief chairman where do they stand with north korea from a diplomatic standpoint. >> happy new year to you. thanks for having me on.

i think the former chairman is right. this is a very unnerving situation where we've seen extremely rapid progress out of pyongyang on the nuclear front. while the trump administration in particular secretary of state rex tillerson has said that the door is open for diplomacy, it's pretty clear isn't a lot of talking going on right now between the two sides of this conflict. >> certainly waiting to see the outcome of the response from president trump. we know he already started tweet accident this morning. yet to hear about north korea. turn now to russia with midterms just around the corner. will we be able to see if russia tries to interfere with election. >> i see this as a real risk of 2018. if you're sitting in moscow, you're vladimir putin. you're looking back at 2016 and you had a very successful

intervention in the u.s. election causing a lot of chaos, confusion, a lot of ongoing investigation in washington, sucking up a huge amount of oxygen. you've got to be thinking, could i do this again with the congressional midterms and should i do this again with the congressional midterms and frankly we have not seen a very aggressive response out of either congress or the executive branch in terms of making sure russia doesn't metal in our midterms so i mean, i know we're going the see a lot of gridlock in congress over the next couple of months. great if we could see some bipartisan unit around trying to make sure russia does not interfere in our election again this year. >> is that something you could see happening now. it's the first of the year. what would need to happen to get that attention. >> i think you really need probably in the first instance to wrap up the mueller investigation. because you do have this view in congress at least towards the investigation of 2016 play out before we take more actions. as i said, i'm not optimistic

congress is going to act on this. just given the overall gridlock and fact president trump still denies in many waives that russia did metal in 2016. something that i think bipartisan leadership whether it's john mccain or the republican side or ben garden on the democratic side should be calling for and making a real effort to get through. >> something we'll watch. the unrest in iran. president tweeting this morning. saying iran is failing in every level despite terrible deed made with them by the asbestos administration. have be oppressed for years. hungry for food and freedom along with human rights. the wealth of iran is being secluded. time for change. we heard yesterday from public address referencing donald trump saying that he has no right to show sympathy for iranians after branding them a terrorist a few months ago. can you see him back out of the

agreement. what would the impact be? >> trump actually faces a deadline in about three weeks to decide whether or not to renew the waivers that delivered the sanctions the u.s. agreed to under the agreement. so it's very much on his desk right now about whether the u.s. is going to stay in the agreement or back out of the agreement. i think that most of his national security team, secretary tillerson, national security adviser, hr mcmaster and many of the rest of them would like to see trump stay in the agreement. while mounting a kind of more aggressive campaign against the iranian government outside of the agreement while preserving the agreement. we've seen trump take a pretty unpredictable stance on the agreement over the last year. i don't think we could guarantee today he stays in. if i were betting, i bet he stays in when he has to sign decision in january. i don't think there are

guarantees on this. clearly, if he did withdraw from the agreement, you immediately see the narrative in iran change from narrative where you say we're having protest against the government today, i think it's very heartening to see these popular vote protests against the government in tehran and the protest with the sense which being against the united states we're pulling out of the agreement, you also see a big rift between the u.s. and our closest allies on iran and european with europe leaders making very clear they want to preserve the nuclear agreement with iran. >> peter, we thank you for your time this new year's day. thank you. >> thank you. still ahead, it is now officially 2018 which means the midterms are right around the corner. crash course on what you need to know about the upcoming election. first, new years kicks off with cold for the country. what's in store. forecast straight ahead. :.

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>> battle for control of congress is well underway. all the house districts controlled by republicans in contrast more than 80 seats held by democrats do not have republican challenger. majority democrats targeting 91 districts compared to republicans targeting only 36 of the 194 seats democrats hold. that's just the tip of the

iceberg for everything you need to know about the november 6 contest. joining us from washington, national politics reporter for nbc news and msnbc. let's start with the house. alex, looks likes the democrats have the strongest opportunity and your story notes that the democrats need to pick up 24 seats to win majority in 2018. on average, the president's party loses about 32 seats during the midterm elections so democrats expect to flip the house in november besides donald trump's rating. what are they pointing to. >> good morning and happy new year. the democrats feel very confident. they feel there's a win at their back. part of that is history. since the civil war, the first midterm election of a new president, the president's party has lost on average 32 seats. democrats only need 24 seats. one operative put it to me. history says we're going to lose. our job is to defy history. also look at polls show on a

gener generic ballot test. people right now are saying democrats by a 10-13 point margin depending on the poll. of course look at president trump's approval rating. unusually low. especially considering the economy is doing well. you mentioned tax reform. even if they be or that law succeeds in stimulating the economy a little bit. feel confident they can hold on. people are not giving trump credit for the already strong economy. >> all about momentum and carrying that over through the start of the year. comes to riding on that. >> right. absolutely. they feel like people have given president trump a chance and they're not super satisfied with what they've seen. and midterm elections tend to really be a referendum in a lot of ways on who is in charge. republicans are in charge of the white house and chambers of commerce. americans are not really happy with washington. the idea which is historically been true, people will vote for a change or vote for a check on those in power. that's happened the last three

midterms we've had. 2006, 2010, 2014. all reversals of paefrts s par >> talk about the senate. republicans have favorable landscape there. what should we watch out for. >> the senate is typically the most interesting and most watched of the races. take a back seat to the house this year. that's because there's two countervailing forces that cancel each other out. you mentioned the map. very favorable for republicans. on the other side democratic energy and all the things pointing to democrats we talked about. two seat majority for republicans after doug jones victory in alabama. givie ing democrats a lot of enthuse yae enthusiasm. keep an eye on arizona. if they can do that, they can take the senate. >> watch the governor's races. in 36 states this year, every state democrats who lost a lot

of ground during the obama years. losing 1,000 seats. 15 governor ships at one point. are they more competitive now. >> they are. basically democrats have nowhere to go, but up. typically don't get a lot of attention. they're going to be huge this year because heading into redistricting. state legislature and governments get a chance to redraw the map for both the u.s. house and state legislation. 36 states as you mentioned. huge range of possibility. democrats looking to pick up a lot of ground they lost. blue states like illinois and maryland. places you typically think would be favorable to them. huge swing in a lot of state houses. they do tend to a little bit less. >> as always, thank you for the breakdown. happy new year to you. you can find more on alex inside on 2018 midterm on nbcnews.com. thank you. still ahead, president trump weighs in on the anti-government protest hitting iran. what it means for americans. rheumatoid arthritis?

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welcome back. frigid temperatures to ring in the new year. time square, cleanup operation already done. over and home now. take a live look this morning. speck and span. totally spotless. can't even tell anything happened. new york city sanitation said nearly 300 employees got to work shortly after the ball dropped.

last year officials say they cleaned up 50 tons of trash. city's second coldest new year's eve celebration on record. the numbers and single digits we're talking about. bring in michelle. talking about single digits. not just northeast. a big chunk of the country. >> well below single digits and 50 below zero windchill. dangerous temperatures here. we have a windchill warning. that's where you see darker pink and windchill advisory. covers eastern half of the country. almost unheard of this time of year. arctic blast come down from canada. jet stream to the south. keeps old air up to the north. allowing the arctic cold to come down. as far as the south. looking at temperatures below freezing in most spots there. six below zero in st. louis. six in columbus. zero in boston. peoples like 17 below 0. look further to the west, 3

below zero in kansas city. feels like nine below zero. dangerous temperatures. ten below zero and windchill of 23 below zero. we're not going to improve as we go throughout tomorrow either. even into wednesday. 5 in chicago. 12 in boston. 16 in richard monday. all the way down to atlanta. 25 degrees below freezing. in atlanta. back to the west. also just as cold. stay cold through wednesday. as you can see, three day forecast. new york city by thursday. we're going to come down a tiny bit. below freezing. still cold and below normal this time of year. look at friday. another shot of arctic air. once again looking at third blast of arctic air by this weekend. in addition to the cold weather. we have snow. it's ripe for snow. additional lake effect snow. lakes have no frozen over yet. we are looking at more snow. going to add to 60 inches of

snow we have already. lake an terrontario looking to most. back to the west, looking at really nice conditions in the southwest. a little bit of freezing drizzle this morning in the upper evaluations in northern california to the northwest. 44 degrees. still dry in the southwest. center of the country that we're looking at record breaking cold. same story throughout tuesday. wednesday moderating a bit and by the weekend looking at temperatures even colder than we're looking at now. >> i wish we could all hibernate. we have school and work to go back to. >> feel for the kids at the school buses. really layer up tomorrow. >> thank you. just three months after a gunman killed dozens of concert goers, police arrested a man who they say was found with several guns and ammunition at a houston hotel that hosts one of the city's largest new year's parties. discovered the weapons after

responding to an incident yesterday morning. hotel guest appeared to be intoxicated and harassing other guests. alerted offduty police officer working security at the facility who noticed weapons in the men's room. told nbc affiliate that the weapons found included an ar 15, a handgun and many rounds of ammunition. the man was charged with assaulting police officer and trespassing. police state that investigators do not believe there was an intent to use the weapons. ten americans including a family of five are among 12 killed after a plane crashed in costa rica. investigation would begin today as to what called the airplane to go down in the northwest corner of the country. witness told nbc news that the single propeller plane was flying low and crashed into a mountain less than a minute after takeoff. a mother, father, and three

children with aboard that plane. all killed: the sister confirmed now with nbc news. the family was on a sightseeing tour at the time. confirmed the death of multiple americans. declined to provide additional details. the u.s. government is closely watching what is happening in iran this morning. growing death toll amid anti-government protest. reporting to iranian state tv, at least 12 people have been killed. including ten doing demonstrations sunday night. try the take over police stations and military bases. bring in nbc news correspondent matt bradley joining us from london. what's the latest that you're hearing. >> there hasn't been any signs of further protest today. the biggest is what you already mentioned. revelation about the death toll from yesterday. that news alone the escalation of that death toll could inflame

the protest even further. watch out for it has the week goes on. state news agency didn't give a lot of details on how or why that death toll appeared to increase from 2-12 as it is now, but they did report that protesters or police stations or military bases all night last night in several cities and towns all across the country. reporting from iran, spotty at best. very difficult to tell with real certainty what's going on on the ground. especially since a lot of the social messages services like telegram and instagram were shutdown. at least temporarily by the government. reports of these additional are true, mark a really substantial escalation in the violation. came hours after president who is a moderate and what popular in iran. for the first time since the president and that was carried on television. actually defended government activist rights to protest.

demanded refrain from attacking security forces or damaging property. these reports are true and protests and violence continue on a large scale, that might expose the limits of president's ability to reign in the protesters. on the other hand, president trump tweeting about six times since the protest started last thursday. he's been cheer leading on protesters with the we spoke with yesterday saying the u.s. president is so in iran that these tweets were no to have any effect at all to discourage protest. >> matt, thank you. sometimes secretary mattis is giving assessment of war against isis declaring the terrorist group is on the run. president trump expanded war, success on isis also led to casualties on new battlefields. >> this year the black flag of

isis fell in mosul and . since president trump took office, isis lost 15,000 square miles to local forces with support from u.s. air power. number of isis fighters down from 35,000 to around 1,000. iraq and syria, president trump's strategy is similar to predecessors. commanders on the ground have more authority. i think largely the same strategy as the obama era, but i think an aggressive decentralization tactful authority has paid off in the battlefield. >> as territory evaporates in the middle east, growing across the globe. 21 soldiers killed in combat this year, some were in afghanistan and iraq. soldiers died in new fronts.

oldest battlefield, trump administration is focusing more attention on isis. in april, the u.s. dropped the mother of all bombs on an isis stronghold. behind it all, general president obama selected to oversea the afghan war. still in command. >> you have confidence that you have the president's confidence. >> yes. >> what makes you say that. >> because the authorities i've been given and the policy we received. >> like president obama, president trump relied heavily on special forces to combat isis. he plans to sift tasks to general purpose troops in relying on elite forces for truly special missions. nbc news, the pentagon. >> still to come, update on senator john mccain's health battle. and when he may be back on capitol hill. well, a 103 yeah, 103. well, let me ask you guys.

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senator john mccain of arizona planning to return to washington this month amid his battle with cancer. close friend and colleague lindsey graham of south carolina confirmed the news on face the nation sunday. mccain returned to home state last month after being hospitalized from side effects of treatment. the statement from the senator's office on december 17 issued an assessment from the medical team that the 81-year-old was responding positively to ongoing treatment. yeah is latest state to legalize the growing selling of

recreational marijuana as the new year ushered in new state's and laws. golden state joins states like colorado, oregon, nevada that expanded adult use of marijuana markets. there are roughly 1,000 existing medical marijuana dispensaries statewide all which much apply for new paperwork. dozens of retail pot shopping started stocking shelves. worked through weekend to issue additional licenses. adding other new laws that took effect at midnight. prohibiting sale of tobacco products in pharmacies in new york city. allowing bashers to make house calls in tennessee. year from 2018 election. democrats are already planning to use recently passed tax bill against republicans nationwide. according to report of the "new york times," democratic leaders in states across the country are considering legal challenges.

on an effort to limit impact on constituents. economic policy reporter at the "new york times," covers the treasury department. writes about taxes and trade. happy new year to you. look into the impact. this republican tax bill will have on voters heading into the 2018 midterm elections. we know when it comes to polling, it's unpopular. it seems like taxes go up. benefits the wealthy. what do republicans need to do to turn it around in time for the midterms. >> happy new year. republicans are really hopeful that the big thing they're going get is people are going to start seeing larger pay checks. sometime in the new year, sometime in february, once the irs changes withholding tables, people are going to get a little more take home pay and hope people are going start feeling good about that. start feeling better about the tax law and a lot of the concerns they've been having about taxes going up. big tax cut for the rich. going to start to be alleviated. >> hope the democrats still ride on that unpopularity. also going to be tough for them

too. we see paychecks are getting a little bit more. all right. i see more money in my paycheck. they're going to have a sense of being a little careful in attacking that and seems to start to gain a little more popularity. isn't that the case. >> that's true. going depend on where you live. who you are. how much you make. people in high tax states are very concerned about the limitations on the state and local tax deduction. seeing a lot of confusion and chaos already this week with people rushing to try and prepay some property taxes and irs saying not so fast. i think democrats are really going to try to latch on this. sense of confusion and point to case where people are paying more to argue that republicans have raised taxes for middle class americans and given big tax breaks to the companies. >> liberals starting to pour out. hearing about it. talk about the influence of that and public opinion of the bill and how we could see it come into play in time for those

midterms. >> exactly. it's going to be a huge part of the argument for the midterm elections. going to see more and more of that especially as people are working on year end tax planning towards the end of next year. i think democrats are definitely going to be making the argument that republicans, you know, gave a lot of money to companies and they're going to be focusing on whether or not companies are giving this money back to their workers. saw a few examples earlier last week. companies giving bonuses to employees, but it will really play out -- it will really depend on whether this was sort of symbolic or that's going to be a new trend. >> interesting to see the legal challenges. and the states, high tax states starting to see legal challenges saying this is not something as far as the realm of this state. what can we see there. >> of course. the blistering pace of how quickly the tax law came together. means there's definitely going be opportunities for states to try and challenge some of the new federal laws and one thing i

feel a lot are going to try to do is change the way they tax in the local state and potentially make changes so that maybe have payroll taxes. so companies have to pay that. those could be to make things easier for their residents. this could end up making the tax law cost more in the end because there's always new loopholes that can be found. it's going to be great for tax planners, tax attorneys and accountants. >> also looking at foreign companies because following this passing you've got foreign governments like china that have begun incentives for u.s. corporations not to lee their country. so do you think it's an effective strategy? >> we expect to see that. other countries will start to lower their corporate tax rates as a result to the united states lowering theirs to 21%. so i think while the united states is now going to be a more attractive place to do business, other countries will respond in kind so you'll see a race to the bottom there.

>> all right, thank you for the breakdown, alan rappeport, and for starting your new year's with us as well. >> thank you. polling shows millenial voters don't seem to like president trump all that much but there may be a way he could still win them over. we'll talk about that straight ahead. hold on dad... liberty did what? yeah, liberty mutual 24-hour roadside assistance helped him to fix his flat so he could get home safely. my dad says our insurance doesn't have that. don't worry - i know what a lug wrench is, dad. is this a lug wrench? maybe? you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance.

u.s. chief justice john roberts will launch a task force review of how the federal judiciary handles sexual harassment, writing in his annual year-end address, events in recent months have illuminated the depth of the

problem of sexual harassment in the workplace and events in the past few weeks have made clear that the judicial branch is not immune. the judiciary will begin 2018 by undertaking a careful evaluation of whether its standards of conduct and its procedures for investigating and correcting inappropriate behavior are adequate to ensure an exemplary workplace for every judge and every court employee. it was a clear reference to the sudden retirement of judge am exk -- alex kozinski two weeks ago. he had served on the court of appeals for the ninth circuit for more than three decades. he suggested that he had been misunderstood and has apologized. president trump continues to lose support among millenial voters, but a new report based on interviews with a group of younger voters nationwide suggests the president may still have a chance to win them over. joining us now, the writer of that piece, a white house reporter for nbc news, ali

vitali. we're finding here in this latest polling that these young voters don't like president trump, but there's a dot dot dot here when it comes to that, and that could change it. >> yeah, there's absolutely a dot dot dot here. happy new year and it's pretty fitting that we're starting off with trump tweets this morning because that's one of the problems that several of the millenials pointed to when they talked about what they don't necessarily like with the president. all of them were respondents to this gen forward nbc news poll that really did find that millenials feel not just alienated by the political system but the political parties themselves. 71% of them said they wanted to see some kind of third party because they felt republicans and democrats alike weren't serving them the way that they thought they should. that's a lot because of the issues that they're not hearing about. many of them pointed to, for example, the idea of student debt, something that a lot of them are very concerned about and they're not hearing that from the president or really from people on capitol hill. now, the problem with president trump for them is that they say

that they may like some of the policies that he's undertaking, specifically about the idea of immigration, needing to crack down on our immigration system, they like those but don't like the way that he's going about implementing them. >> interesting that you say it's the tweets because you would think millenials are all about social media, they're always tweeting, snapchatting and instagram so interesting that that's the case there. what are they looking at as far as what donald trump could do to turn it around, especially as it comes to both parties? >> again, it goes back to that idea of issues. they do want to hear more about student debt, they want to hear about climate change and that's going to be one that's difficult for donald trump because it's kind of unclear if he believes in man made climate change at all. some of the folks i spoke to were democrats but also republicans said, look, it's science. we want someone that will confirm the science and take policy steps to catch up with that. they also want to hear him tone

down his rhetoric on the world stage. one man said to me he is a republican and he said, look, i just want him to start calling people little rocket man, obviously referencing what the president has said about kim jong-un and north korea so they want a little moderation. it's the same thing we hear from lawmakers on the hill, tone it down and be presidential. that's a pivot we've been waiting for for some time. in my two and a half years of trump coverage, we've always asked about it but millenials are waiting for that pivot as well. >> they're looking ahead to 2018 with those midterms. do you think the republican party has any cohesive plan for going after these millenials, these younger voters, or are they going to the 2016 thing and go after older americans. >> well, president trump did not do badly with millenials, he did better than romney did so there are positive signs there. what it's bearing out now, though, 63% of them disapprove of the way he's doing his job in office. so i think when you look to 2018 there is going to have to be

obviously a marketing campaign or branding campaign for the tax plan that they just passed. that's going to be a pretty critical issue. but i think millenials, again, want to hear the issues they want to talk about and several of the republican strategists that i spoke to for the piece said republicans have had a steep climb ahead of them with millenials before. this is only going to make it harder because as susan del percio said, someone on our network a lot, trump's messaging machine works for him in the same way obama's did for him during the course of his presidency but it doesn't necessarily work for candidates down ballot who may or may not be trying to run in his image and that's going to be really interesting as we try to see republicans skirt the issue of trump or fully embrace it in 2018. >> we'll see where the millenials take it as well. thank you, happy new year. >> thank you, you too. we know the president's vacation is coming to an end. he tweeted just moments ago, will be leaving florida for washington, d.c. today at 4:00 p.m. much work to be done, but it will be a great new year. that does it for me this hour,

david gura picks up our coverage right now. >> thank you very much. happy new year, everybody, i'm in for stephanie ruhle this morning. not just a coffee boy. a new report suggests a conversation between trump campaign aide george papadopoulos and australian diplomat prompted the fbi to open the investigation into russian meddling in the 2016 election. >> this sort of helps fit a big piece into the puzzle of the narrative of 2016. >> we'll hear from the reporter who broke that story. tragedy in costa rica. a small passenger plane goes down in a fiery crash leaving ten americans dead. among them, a family of five here on vacation. >> inconceivable that a whole family should meet with such a disaster. and unrest in iran. 12 people have reportedly died in the largest wave of anti-government protests since 2009. president trump sending his support to the protesters on twitter.