hey there. good morning, everyone. i'm alex witt here at msnbc headquarters in new york at the half hour. here's what we're watching for you. the president is at camp david for a retreat with gop leaders and top white house officials as they discuss legislative goals for 2018. notably left off the list is attorney general jeff sessions. canada's transportation safety board is investigating a fiery collision on the ground at toronto's pierson international airport. officials say a plane wait to go enter a gate was struck by a plane waiting to be towed. after the tail burst into flames, all 168 passengers used

emergency chutes to evacuate. a firefighter was the only one hurt. a blanket of dangerous arctic cold is shrouding the midwest and northeast. temperatures in parts could plunge below zero. in upper new england it might feel like, are you sitting down for this, 50 below. most of the country is dealing with outbreaks of the flu. widespread activity is reported in 46 states. each state reporting tens of thousands of cases. far more cases this year compared to a year ago. it is the hottest ticket in the country. somebody in port richie, florida bought the only winning ticket in last night's mega millions drawing worth $450 million. here are the winning numbers to check out. 28, 30, 39, 59, 70, and the mega ball 10. there's another big prize at stake in tonight's powerball drawing. the jackpot is $570 million.

president for the first time pushing back on allegations of mental instability. the bombshell tell-all, "fire and fury" tweeting throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart. crooked hillary clinton all played these cards very hard and, as everyone knows, went down in flames. i went from very successful businessman, to top tv star. to president of the united states on my first try. i think that would qualify as not smart, but genius, and a very stable genius at that. chris, good morning to you. what is your reaction? >> thanks for having me. it is an extraordinary book. i've been working on a new chapter for my own book, "the gatekeepers" where i also look

at the first half of the trump white house under reince priebus and john kelly. it was a white house that was fundamentally uninterested in governing. they had not -- the transition was a disaster. it was almost anti-transition. they were determined the to learn nothing about anything. and on day one they had no idea what they were doing, which of course gave an opening for steve bannon with his white boards to come and do the executive order on immigration. of course bannon at the end of the day is a disruptor and not interested in governing. it is a fascinating story. and i get into it in the new chapter of my book that comes out next month as well. >> so given that, you've got this new chapter and we have michael wolff's book. i do want to make note of this, though. nbc news itself has not

confirmed a lot of what appears in this book. when we asked the white house of the allegations they referred us to earlier statements calling the book ridiculous and full of lies. part of what the white house is referring to are the statements from bannon. here's how press secretary sarah sanders is describing the relationship between donald trump and bannon. here it is. >> how close were they when they were in the white house? one of the claims made in the book is that you frequently dined with mr. bannon. >> the book said he had been sidelined by april, which goes further that he had very little credibility to give much information particularly after that point, which most of the book is based after that time frame. again, this book is mistake after mistake after mistake. >> were they not close by the time -- >> i'm not aware they were ever particularly close. >> what kind of access would steve bannon have had to the president and other top members of the administration about this?

>> it is a fascinating relationship. i think this so-called rift between bannon and trump is really overblown. these guys are close. bannon was one of the few people who could tell donald trump what he didn't want to hear. and by the way, he was the only quibble i would have with michael wolff is not everybody in the campaign thought they would lose. bannon was sure they were going to win. trump respects bannon and bannon has a certain amount of respect too. whether you like or loathe him, one thing he is good at doing is telling you stuff with the bark off. he's not afraid to tell you what he thinks. >> you believe even though he fired that tweet he not only

lost his job he lost his mind. you think these two are going to come back around and they will be talking on a daily basis. >> i don't have a crystal ball, but i think they will get over it. i would be surprised if he isn't on the phone to bannon next week. trump has an extra phone, and he doesn't hesitate to use it. it is not monitored by john kelly. he calls reince priebus, bannon, lewandowski. i would be surprised if these guys didn't patch things up. >> so the cease and desist letter, wolff said it reflects one of the president's core character traits. >> i will tell you the one description that everyone gave, everyone has in common, they all say he is like a child.

what that means is he has a need for immediate gratification. it's all about him. the letter for the cease and desist letter, i have sources in the white house. i know everybody was going, we should not be doing this. this is not masmart. he just insists, he just has to be satisfied in the moment. >> so you write about "the gatekeepers" which begs the question where is john kelly in this picture? >> that's a good question. kelly made a big mistake day one to say he was not put on this earth to manage donald trump. everybody successful chief will tell you the easy part is making the trains run on time in the west wing. the hard part of the job and the most important part is walking into the oval office on, closing the door, and telling the

president what he does not want to hear. the cease and desist order was idiotic on its face. kelly may have felt he had no choice. when you look at what's been happening with trump the last few months and the, you know, the unhinged twitter storms, the lack of discipline, you know, it really almost makes you nostalgic for reince priebus. kelly has not stepped up and done the job of telling donald trump troops to reign him in. >> michael wolff implies around the time he was named chief of staff, his access to the white house came to an end. but there was the 18 months before that before he completed 200 interviews with the president and most members of the senior staff. wolff is saying he also has recordings to back this up. i'm curious how plausible all of that is.

generally speaking, how often are white house staffers open to talking with people with access to the west wing? >> i think it is not that usual. it is like death and taxes, they happen in every administration. it's a little unusual, very unusual to have the access wolff had. i've been on that couch in the west wing lobby. but i never really stayed kwropbtd my invitation. i was always escorted out at the end of the day. that was -- it is unusual certainly the access that he had. i'm really not aware that anybody has challenged the voracity of his reporting. and it's a devastating, detailed look at what has been an open secret since the beginning, which is that this white house is completely dysfunctional with a president who doesn't read and, you know, who is really

intellectually and temperamentally unfit for the office, which makes kelly's job all the more important. >> i want to get to one particularly explosive comment from steve bannon discuss the meeting with the russian lawyer. he says even if you thought this was not treasonous, unpatriot or bad, and there's an expletive, i happen to think it's all of that, you should have called the fbi immediately. what is he trying to do here? >> look, i think it is another example of bannon, he really doesn't pull his punches. he's a pretty straight shooter about a lot of this stuff despite his relationship with trump. you know, in a certain way, as i say, he's the only guy who can tell trump what he doesn't want to hear. he might have made a great chief of staff if not for his other

traits, being disorganized. that he wants the way bannon is. i think there's some misunderstanding what bannon thinks about the russian inquiry. i think the fund mental disagreement with the trump white house is that he feels they unilaterally disarmed. they have two lawyers up against 19 guys, the murderous row of prosecutors. that was bannon's real difference in the trump white house. i don't think he was saying there was necessarily collusion by trump. he is simply saying this is an unfair fight. >> all right. chris whipple, come back and see us after the new chapter is released in paperback. we'll talk about the reaction to that. >> i would love to. next, weather questions about the president's state of mind are fair game. shawn evans: it's 6 am.

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everyone around the president, senior advisers, family members, every single one of them questions his intelligence and fitness for office.

>> let me put a mark her in the sand here? 100% of the people around him. >> you say is, for example, he was at mar-a-lago and didn't recognize lifelong friends? >> i will quote steve bannon. he's lost it. >> all right. author michael wolff fueling questions about the president's mental health and the president firing back saying, throughout my life my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart. now the director of programming for sirius xm, zerlina, rick tyler. awfully good to see you guys to start off the new year with this discussion. i want to start with you with the questions about the president's mental health. fair game, do you think? >> i think it's fair game to

question the president's competency based on his behavior. this book by michael wolff, michael wolff doesn't have a lot of credibility as a journal eufjournalist. he burned a lot of sources. this book rings true. there's nothing in it we're really surprised about exempt the degree steve bannon was willing to throw his boss under the bus. the idea that katie walsh called him a baby. we chronicled that every saturday morning here. the fact that the president sometimes acts like an idiot. we chronicle idiocy every saturday morning. he's firing back. these tweets don't really lend to his credibility or give us the impression that he is

mentally stable. >> what about what politico reported this week, zerlina, that dr. lee, a yale professor, that president trump will unravel and we are seeing the signs. according to this report, those who met with dr. lee were all democrats. there was one gop senator in the bunch. how much of this is about an effort to remove the president from office, to talk about the 25th amendment? >> i think that's where this conversation is going. i think we have tip-toed around this issue every year. we analyze his crazy tweets and behavior throughout the past week. we are all concerned in terms of the national security threat it poses. it's not that, you know, democrats or people who don't like the president are saying that these crazy tweets, you know, warrant the 25th amendment just because we don't like his policies or we don't like the president.

there are things that he is doing that we can look at and see with our own eyes. we didn't need michael wolff's book to show the clown car pulled up to the on white house and has been wreaking havoc ever since. we can see through his actions and words and deeds that something could be wrong. that is i think a responsible thing to do. it's a responsible conversation to have. i'm glad we're finally having it because i think it's a security issue, first and foremost. >> so, as we know, joe, the president's first physical is set for next week. wolff writes, he had a longtime fear of being poisoned. one reason why he liked to eat at mcdonald's. nobody knew he was coming and the food was safely made. i want first your reaction to that. and do you think the physical is going to give us anything of substance? >> well, i don't know that the physical is going to give us anything of real substance. maybe it will be a true measure of where he is physically.

because during the campaign he had some doctor issue, a statement saying he was the most physically person to ever run for the presidency, which wasn't very credible. but that being said, i think -- the presidency is a very, very hard job. i work for a u.s. president in the white house. my daughter worked for another u.s. president in the white house. it's a demanding job. and the skills that may have gotten him to the white house, the tweets that may have worked in a campaign to successfully get him to the white house don't necessarily help when you're trying to govern the most powerful country in the world. doing foreign policy by tweet doesn't necessarily lend itself to successful foreign policy. and you've got to listen to your advisers. you've got to be well-read and studied. you've got to know all the issues. you've got to have smart responses to them. you can't fly off the cuff. you can't govern the country by the seat of your pants. these are all things we see happening and why there is such

angst among americans. >> i want to get this question to you quickly, rick. he said he cried when he was fired. bannon is trying to take take t high road, at least in public by calling the president a great man. but he has lost financial support the mercer family is pulling financial support for him. so it over for him, steve bannon if u.s. politics or not? what do you think, rick? >> maybe, maybe not. look, you go at the president who has a huge megaphone, you will just lose that, he has lost that. he has been cut off financially. we will see if he can regain ground t. question will be whether he maintains control of breitbart, which has been his vehicle. and so, look, the president, i don't know how smart the president is, maybe he's smart. but you know, he has the emotional development of about a 3-year-old. he werd that over and over again. i do think that is dangerous. and so, you know, we just have to watch it every single day and hopefully some good people and

there are good people who work over at the white house in the lob can keep this ship afloat. >> all right. you guys stay right where you are. we will take a break the panel is cominging ba. we will talk about the fbi reopening the investigation of the clinton foundation what is that all about? dad!!! can you drive me to jessica's house? uuughhh! ♪ this is what our version of financial planning looks like. tomorrow is important, but so is making the most of the house before they're out of the house. spend you life living. find an advisor at northwesternmutual.com.

. >> now to a new report that reveals the fbi is reopening its probe. the trump administration reportedly telling nbc news an investigation was relaunched several months ago. let's bring back our panel. i tried to put you guys towing. okay. zer li na, you worked for the clinton campaign. i want to get your reaction, top republicans are pushing for hillary clinton to be investigated. where do you think this is heading? >> i think the justice department is caving to political pressure, which historically the justice department and the white house are supposed to be independent

from one another. the justice department is not supposed to try to investigate a political opponent of the president. this goes back to the u.s. attorney firing scandal. it's a possible precedent to say the white house can dictate what the justice department is doing. i think it's a kramp political move. it's very unfortunate. i don't think they will find anything t. clinton investigation has been investigated and there have been reporting out there that shows that they're not doing anything improper. so i don't think that there is anything "there" there. >> well, speaking of investigations, joe, you got the senate judiciary chairman classly and they are asking to consider charges against christopher steele. democrats say this is an athe emto draw tensions away from collusion and justice, are they right? is that the goal there? >> democrats are right in that

regard. republican versus worked hard to kind of steer interest away from the collusion, some republicans, of course, worked hard to wrap up these investigations on the senate and the house side quickly when they ought to just wrap up when it's time to wrap up up him they shouldn't be trying to hurry them along. so democrats are right the making that complaint. justice ought to be blind people ought to do the right thing without political party and sadly this is not the case. >> so quickly the latest reporting on jeff sessions, to you, rick, multiple white house officials, including count dill don mcgan, they urged him to not recuse himself, nbc is following an article saying the president was the one arc straighting that effort him all of this feeding concerns about potential obstruction of justice. how are republicans making sense of this? >> look. i think the president has a

point. if jeff sessions is going to recuse himself in the russian investigation, which was he was wholly right to do. he ned to do that. he's a potential witness. he testified with russian, even though he didn't he should have taken the job him if he didn't take the job, we wouldn't have a democrat in alabama seat. we wouldn't have the mueller investigation. there is a lot of things. all these things fall back on the president. it's his fault that all these things have happened. but, you know, jeff sessions should have recuse himself and you know he's there, we'll see how it goes forward. >> okay. we will certainly see you guys again, that will be rick, joe, zerlina, i got it right this time. thank you so much. coming up, the so-called open secret, why republicans are accused of looking the other way when it comes to president trump's behavior. that dry my mouth. i just drank tons of water all the time. it was never enough.

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good morning, everyo