who was a republican when republicans were republicans and a conservative who was a conservative when conservatives were conservatives. still are. >> the is rououtrageous. >> what? >> that somebody on tv is able to work at the united nations. as a reagan republican, i find this whole actor to u.n. ambassador thing very -- >> she was a news anchor. >> what was your favorite ronald reagan movie, mike? >> i think it was the one with the monkey. >> yes. yes. >> good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it's friday, december 7th. we're in washington this morning along with the washington anchor for bbc world news america caddie kay. >> you were a jeopardy clue, were you not? >> i was. >> and you were on "snl." >> i was. >> it made me look 20 years younger. thank you, claire foy. >> sam stein is with us and

msnbc analyst and former chairman of the republican national committee michael steele and "new york times" reporter michael schmidt is with us along with willie geist up in new york. willie is in new york and we're in washington this morning because we had an amazing event last night that we were honored to be a part of. >> it was great. >> it was the 35th anniversary of the national democratic institution, the 35th annual event that they have. of course, the institute was inspied by ronald reagan's 1982 westminster speech and there were tribute toes john mccain and kofi annen. madeleine madeleine allbright is behind the whole thing and got us to engage. you say susan rice there. my brother mark was there and we were honored to be a part of it. the theme of the nights was reaffirming democracy here and around the world and mdi does so much to try and continue that

effort. so important. >> really does. really does. and caddie, the theme of it, again, for 35 years they've been bringing -- you know, sort of trotting out the reagan westminster speech and talking about the fight for freedom, the fight for democracy, the fight for free press. all of these things have, for about 33 of those years, nobody really believed was in great jeopardy, that the march of democracy was moving forward. >> moving forward, yes. >> but last night, and the year before, they had to talk about the media under attack. technology, which was supposed to be an accelerator for freedom actually in some ways threatening freedom,s what's happening in poland, brazil, other places across the world. a really frightening moment for democracy. democracy in retreat, which is why mdi is so important. >> they do great work.

they go out and monitor elections in countries where the democratic process is a still fragile in africa and latin america they've been on the ground for years and years. i'm a huge supporter of the work that they do to make thoos susu elections are free and fair. i don't think there has been a moment since the end of the second world war where the west and liberal model has been this under threat. we've had the cold war, but we are under threat internally now, as with well. >> john mccain, kofi annen, two people honored. was a bipartisan event. >> it was beautiful. and so many friends of my father who i've known all my life and my family members, jenny and sophie were there. my best friend. >> we don't go out a lot. >> no, we don't. no, we don't. >> we felt like this was worth it. >> we set plans.

>> and then you're in bed at 9:00. >> oh, 7:30. >> oh, well. >> willie, i don't know if you saw this or not, but led zeppelin aheader tom nichols tweeted this list yesterday. nk gives us the finger. dow crashes. russia on the march in the black sea. the chinese laughing at tariffs. u.s. farmers go under. gop having psychotic meltdowns in wisconsin, michigan and north carolina. dems pick up 40 in the house. inf treaty scrap, massive deficits. finally, what conservatives have always wanted. then imagine the list as a new verse to billy joel's "we didn't start the fire." >> kim's alive, putin is in the black sea, traders in the gop. nukes are loose, dems boost, mueller takes a tighter noose. house is gone, dead is gong, xi laughs, twitter laughs but it's

all the will of god. >> very good. >> we didn't start the fire, willie. pretty good succinct list. >> that's an amazing thing. i think, obviously, this is all about his positions on led zip ly -- zeppelin, but we can get past that. we're going hear from bob mueller a couple of times today and we're going to get a window into this investigation. we don't get many windows into what bob mueller is up to, but the president this week, since the end of the funeral for george h.w. bush has ratcheted up again his attacks on bob mueller. it's about to get worse, you can believe that from the white house. >> his attack on bob mueller, also, his attack on the free press tweeting in all caps last night, the media is the present enemy of the people around the

same time that cnn had yet another bomb scare, just a few weeks after pipe bombs were sent around to a lot of his enemies, his sort of -- his enemies list, fake news, the enemy of the people. that is exactly what -- donald trump's name did not come up last night. that is exactly sort of the autocratic tendencies in countries across the globe that really are posing the threat to the democratic foundations. >> here we go. and new documents that are are scheduled to be released today could shed new light on robert mueller's russia probe. prosecutors for the southern district of new york and the special counsel's office both have until 5:00 p.m. tonight to deliver sentencing memos concerning president trump's former fixer, michael cohen. the documents are expected to detail cohen's cooperation in those ongoing investigations.

mueller's team should be file ago document that outlines the crimes and lies that led to the collapse of former trump campaign chairman paul manafort's plea deal. meanwhile, nbc news has learned that in recent days, president trump's legal team has resumed discussions with the special counsel's office. that is according to two people familiar with the matter. it's been just over two weeks since trump submitted written answers to mueller regarding the russia probe. so much that could come out today, even, that would give us some guidance to what potentially is going on. >> yeah. so michael schmidt, what should we expect? >> he still has not answered all the questions, even on russia. >> were there a lot of them? >> there was a lot of questions about russia and questions about russia before the -- he came into office, since he became president, and then there's obstruction questions. he hasn't answered the obstruction questions and he hasn't answered all the russia

questions. we're not going to get to an end of this until there's some resolution about what to do with those. and i just find it very hard to believe that mueller is going to say, okay, i came all this distance and the central issue is whether you had criminal intent when you took these measures around obstruction and just say, okay, i don't need answers and go away. >> sam, what do you expect today? >> i mean, doesn't that lead to the bigger question, which is does mueller end up going to the courts to compel trump to answer these questions? he's held off on that for the time being. we have the cloud over who the ag is going to be and whether matt whitaker will remain in the post or whether barr will replace him. for me today the big question is what did paul manafort lie about that got mueller's team to reverse course and say the plea deal is scrambled. if it's a russia-related matter, that's huge news. if it's something that's related to manafort's time as operative

in ukraine, that's still big news, but it's not necessarily the juicy stuff that could be out there. so i'm looking at that. obviously, there's the whole cohen drama happening today. but all of this is really about how does trump react? when you're talking about attending a thing about democracy and how that's treated, we live in a fragile democracy, too. at any moment, trump could make a dramatic move and everyone is sort of waiting for it and it hasn't happened yet. but what would be the triggering point? >> and willie, we're fought getting a lot of clarification from donald trump's attorney, rudy giuliani. who basically got the very real impression that the president was just winging it in his answers to robert mueller. >> well, it turns out, joe, your impression is correct. remember back in july, president trump's lawyer, rudy giuliani

promised there would be a counter report to robert mueller's findings when it came out. but now, a half dozen current and former white house officials are telling the atlantic the administration has no plan in place for responding to the special counsel's findings. speaki speaking to "the atlantic," giuliani said it's been difficult in the past few months to consider drafting response plans or to devote time to the counter plan they were working on as he and trump confronted mueller's written questions about the campaign. giuliani said, quote, answering those questions was a nightmare. it took trump about three weeks to do what would normally day two days. >> you don't want your lawyer saying that. >> no, you don't want that. so a former senior white house official who requested anonymity told "the atlantic" attempting a plan would mean you would have to have a honest conversation about what might be coming. while the white house might not be ready, giuliani says that will not stop president trump from tweeting about it, of

course. giuliani said letting trump guide the response to the special report might not be a good idea, but i don't think there's anyone in the world that can stop donald trump from tweeting. i've tried. >> a lot of cya. >> what time did he craft that statement? >> i don't know, but -- willie, isn't that -- >> was it late in the day? >> isn't that fascinating that you could look at about four or five different parts of that statement and you would see rudy giuliani distancing himself from donald trump. >> oh, yeah. >> or it's just late in the day. >> also, i don't want my lawyer saying this should have taken two days but it took that guy three weeks. that's not what i want to hear from my lawyer. i guess the answer to the plan is we've been watching it for a year and a half now which is that the president has been undermining the investigation. that's the plan, that when it comes out, president trump can say see, i told you, 17 angry democrats, it's corrupt, it's a witch-hunt, don't believe a word of it.

>> well, that's been the goal from the very beginning because of what's late out in "the atlantic" story. there has been no internal operational control over this situation to the extent that they are prepared to respond from a legal perspective, they're prepared to respond politically. the president has taken it on to himself because he is unto himself all things. the idea that he can best message a response to this whenever it happens. and that is why you see a giuliani and others out there saying, you know, a little back strop stroke here, this guy, two weeks, you know, three weeks for other people or whatever. the reality of it is trump controls this. always has, always will, right to the bitter end. and that is the most frustrating part for the people who are actually trying to get this man's feet off the hot kohlcoal. and he keeps putting them back in. today is a big day. we're going to be waiting. i won't be surprised if there's a lot of black print on those

pages. mueller is not going to, even in these, you know, sentencing charges to the courts, detail out for the public at this point, certainly for the trump team, stuff that he plans to drop a little bit later on. he's just not going to do it. >> michael, those black bits on the filings, because he was such a sphynx, we don't hear anything -- >> redactions, you mean? >> yes. so we go through these documents and we think to ourselves, what are we lenning from them? but there are so many redactions that so much of it is blacked out. when you look at the documents coming from the sentencing documents for man ifafort and cohen, as well, how many redaction do you expect there to be? >> my guess is we'll continue to see these because if these folks have been helpful, like cohen, then you don't want the fruits of that help to be hub as you continue to investigate. so i'm always -- never waiting

for bob mueller to make our days easier in terms of that. but what he has behind those black marks is whatever will come from this. is this really -- did this -- >> that's the real story. >> yeah. did cohen really help them in ways that are extraordinary about the businesses, about what was really going on with trump and his money, or was this just stuff about the payments? unfortunately, we'll have to look at those black areas in several months or years, we'll get to see behind them. but for now, they need to protect what they're doing going forward. >> michael, it's interesting how the republicans have responded to donald trump's blurg of trin the lines when it comes to saudi arabia and the murder of a washington post columnist, virginia resident, the father of american children. i think it would be curious to see after this report comes out

and as the mueller investigation moves down the road will we see more republicans backing away from donald trump on this matter as they backed away from him on saudi arabia? and we're not at a tipping point, but are we starting to move toward it? >> i'm not convinced of that yet, joe. you're talking really two different things. the saudi arabia piece is foreign affairs, it's international intrigue, it's a name, you know, a lot of folks have a hard time promounsing. in other words, it's not something that's in the day do day mind of a lot of the base republicans out there, the members of congress would be concerned about. whereas on the other side of that, you know, with respect to mueller and other things that are going on, they're much more -- the base is much more connected to those stories lines. so they get immediate feedback from that and the members respond to that. and that's why you'll see them sort of step in more boldly, you

know, lindsey graham up there showing his anger over the president's response to khashoggi but sort of back pedalling on north carolina. or back pedalling on wisconsin, what's going on there, or back pedalling even on the mueller investigation and not really stepping in and saying, you know, mr. president, we have a problem here. so i think the way they bifurcate this is what the political interest is and where it lies and where it lies is largely outside of the base of the khashoggi situation. >> have you seen any situation that the republican party that the 40 seats they lost in the midterms is having an effect? i was wondering whether the khashoggi stuff is in some way related to that, that he is less -- he has less of a mind-set now. >> i can tell you, it's a clarifying moment when you were sitting in the house and you're elected as i was elected in '94 and you develop close friendships and alliances with

certain people who you expect to win, expect to work with for the next two years and then they come back and, boom, it's like the rapture. you know what? they just, book, disappeared. and after '96 losing some freshmen that came in. and when that happens, it's chilling. and you think, wait a second, i thought there was no way that guy would get beaten. it could be me next. and so i do think it's going to have an impact. maybe not immediately, but i think you're going to see more members deciding very early on to explain to their base why they have to separate themselves from donald trump on certain issues where he basis in an aberrant way, violates constitutional norms. there also is still rank hypocrisy. you brought it up in a tweet, sam stein. we have michael steele talking about north carolina. marco rubio, before the

election, after the election, was banging the drums on democrats stealing votes and voter fraud. no evidence whatsoever about voter fraud in the state of florida. and, yet, you approached marco rubio and his office and asked what they thought about the clear evidence of republicans committing voter fraud in north carolina. what was their response? >> i haven't -- it's been well of 24 hours now. i haven't gotten a response. and, listen -- >> but voter fraud was so important to him. what happened over the past month? >> i'm happy if they want to come back to me and say, listen, that's north carolina, i'm the senator from florida, stay in your own zone, fine, i don't care. but he made election integrity a paramount issue of his concern in the aftermath of what happened to the florida senate race to the point where he was tweeting out a video

conspiracy -- >> but actually, nothing happened in the florida race which separates the florida race from the north carolina race. >> right. >> so if it's about the integrity of the democratic process, should marco rubio come out today and criticize what is clearly election fraud in north carolina? >> that's why i asked. i would think so, yes, absolutely. michael schmidt, let's move from hypocrisy to, again, the robert mueller investigation. when do we expect -- when do we expect the documents to come out and what's next? what's after? >> we'll have to see. and we mentioned this earlier is if mueller does want to subpoena the president, is he allowed to do that? does whoever the acting or attorney general allow him to proceed with that? and that's important in terms of a report. because if mueller want to take

a major investigative step like subpoenaing the president or charging someone and at the top of the justice department they say no, no, you can't do that, then that triggers a report to congress. now, is this a robust star-like report? probably not. but it means that congress has to be told that mueller wanted to do something and was not allowed to do that. so it puts the top of the justice department, the officials who are going to be political appointees, whether they're the acting attorney general or not in a bind because they don't want to be seen -- may not want to be seen as impeding that. and that will probably be the biggest next test as it relates to the president. >> i still believe it's going to be very hard for any attorney that works in washington, d.c. or ever wants to work in washington, d.c. after donald trump to stand in the way of robert mueller. if he wants to get a subpoena and the president is fighting

him to stop him from going to -- >> same with anybody in the administration. >> stop him from going to the united states supreme court. who would confirm that robert mueller has a right to sa mean ma t -- subpoena the president.? and still ahead, president trump's trio of flaps slipping, tripping and flipping. we'll leave it to jonathan swan of axios to explain that. first, bill karins with a check on the forecast. >> this will be quite the snow event in north carolina and we have to deal with flooding today. yesterday was california. now we're breaking out the rain through texas and into arkansas already heavy rain in northern portions of mississippi. so we have 33 million people under some kind of weather headlines, either winter storm watches, flash flood watches. so the first thing that is going to happen is the heavy rain today into tonight. we could get the potential for flash flooding going through the weekend. and we're mostly concerned with southeast texas. the ice forecast has come down. it's not all that bad any more.

the snow forecast has come down a little bit for north texas and oklahoma city which yesterday looked to be about 2 to 3 ive . inches. here is the possible historic portion of the storm. notice the cutoff, richmond, south wards. but everyone in the middle from charlotte to winston salem, asheville, the mountains of north carolina could get up to 18 inches of snow. we get 6 to 7 inches in charlotte, same for winston salem. the timing on that snow for north carolina, it breaks out late saturday and it's with you all day during sunday. so we'll give you pictures of that come monday morning. washington, d.c. still looks like you avoided this one. earlier in the week, we had our questions. but your weekend just looks plain old cold. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. what if numbers tell only half the story? at t. rowe price, hundreds of our experts go beyond the

numbers to examine investment opportunities firsthand. like a biotech firm that engineers a patient's own cells to fight cancer. this is strategic investing. because your investments deserve the full story. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. brushing only reaches 25% of your mouth. listerine® cleans virtually 100%. helping to prevent gum disease and bad breath. never settle for 25%. always go for 100. bring out the bold™ and everyone i've ever opioloved away from me.thing everything. i blew my ankle out and i got prescribed pain pills by my doctor. if making my detox public is gonna help somebody i'm all for it.

i just wish i would've had a warning. you're still here? we're voya! we stay with you to and through retirement. i get that voya is with me through retirement, i'm just surprised it means in my kitchen. so, that means no breakfast? voya. helping you to and through retirement. in baltimore, a community sees new life rise from ruin. in southern california, a small family business becomes a beacon of hope. in seattle, people with disabilities create success and shatter barriers. day in, day out,

people prove that when we work as one, we have the power to create better futures for us all. we have the power you're in the business of helping people. we're in the business of helping you. business loans for eligible card members up to fifty thousand dollars, decided in as little as 60 seconds. the powerful backing of american express. don't do business without it.

i am a techie dad.n. i believe the best technology should feel effortless. like magic. at comcast, it's my job to develop, apps and tools that simplify your experience. my name is mike, i'm in product development at comcast. we're working to make things simple, easy and awesome.

joining us now, national political reporter for axios, jonathan swan. good to have you on board this morning. anything going on? >> we're reaching peak uncertainty right now, aren't we? >> yesterday was crazy. i'm sure i'm not alone -- >> i mean, like what are you talking about? >> it's friday. >> the crazy meter, is it nine? >> i think there's not a zero percent chance that something happens with white house chief of staff john kelly, but i've said before i need someone's tongue to be notarized before i write that story. it's like groundhog day. yesterday was crazy. people in there widely believe that something imminently is going to happen with kelly and the most likely person to remrains plar replace him is nick ayers.

kelly effectively is seen as someone who is living on borrowed time for a long time and no one is in charge of that building except for the president reacting to what he says. >> we've heard this for a long time. it could be that the terms of his departure is that he doesn't want to give up his voice. some people at this point need to start talking about what's happening in there. >> well, let's talk about nick ayers. this is a guy that a lot of trump allies don't trust. why does trump trust him? >> well, the family trusts him. so -- and that's not nothing. >> that hasn't -- >> hold on a second. the family trusted paul manafort. the kids said, hey, dad, we've got a great idea. let's bring in paul manafort. >> or michael flynn. >> the kids love michael flynn. >> they wanted rudy giuliani for secretary of state. >> they said, dad, let's let michael flynn fly around the country. at what point does donald trump

realize his children give him really, really bad advice? and by the way, bad advice that has caused some great legal problems for him. >> i can't crawl inside donald trump's head and analyze those relationships. >> thank god. >> but, no, it's true. there is a not insignificant faction inside the white house who has been trying to stop this from happening and that's why i'm not putting a fork in this at all. and, yes, there are plenty of detractors of nick ayers throughout the building. >> and willie geist, of course, you understand donald trump because your son, george w., is your agent, negotiates your deals with him. >> he does. that's why i'm working subminimum wage and taking second and third jobs. he's a terrible negotiator. he's 9, but i'll attack him on tv. >> what are you talking about? >> jonathan, let me ask you based on this report in the atlantic about rudy giuliani

going on the railroad record and saying, look, it took donald trump three weeks to answer questions that should have taken two days. you've received your share of late night texts from rudy giuliani, i'm sure. what do you make of the idea that there is no plan in place, giuliani promised over the summer there would be a counterreport as soon as the mueller report came out, but it looks like there is no plan beyond tweeting from the president. >> far be it for me to defend rudy giuliani. what he means by this three weeks is it's so hard to get the president's time. but, no, of course there's no plan for some detailed counterreport. i mean, rudy says had this on the record. a conversation with rudy is an adventure. you jump on the horse and you ride the horse and rudy takes you all around the world and you

just sort of latch on and listen to him. he also corrects himself on the record. so you say things like i said to him, rudy, southern district of new york, are you worried about what allen wiselberg is going to say, the chief financial of the trump organization? do you feel like you know? and rudy says, oh, yeah, i know, it's all fine. how do you know that? have you spoke.ton wiselberg? he says, no, i haven't. >> how can you be so sure? ets just say reasonably confident. >> do you think he's a spokesperson for the president? >> one might draw that conclusion, willie, one might. >> and, sam, you look at rudy's comments here. again, he's distancing himself from the president time and time again. >> yeah. i mean, when we talk to rudy about this report that they're putting together to counter the mueller report, the xwrimpressi

we got was basically it would be a compilation of newspaper clippings. so i was already sort of underwhelmed by this public report, but maybe something has changed. >> he had a tweet earlier this week that led people to the wrong website which ultimately said trump was a traitor. he created it. >> they were a platform trend. >> something -- >> i think there's a bigger thing to take away from this and it goes to what is happening to john kelly, too, which is we said this early on, there is a severe staffing issue that the white house is grappling with and it's happening throughout the government where you are really not having -- i don't want to say the best and brightest, but a lot of republican figures and people who have been good in these jobs do not want to join this administration for obvious reasons. when you go through the first layer of people and you have to get to team b and team c, you start to see the real problems that that produces. so we're going to now potentially be on our third

chief of staff, maybe. we are elevating -- and no offense to heather nauert. but we are elevating a state department spokesperson to the u.n. ambassadorship, potentially. you are having a real staffing issue here and i think that's manifesting itself into poor decisions and chaos. >> a lot of the staff republicans understand this white house job may be the last white house job they would ever have if they whip it and especially now. >> do they? >> they do. secondly, it is the believe of donald trump and it was the belief of jared kushner -- i don't know if it still is -- they just don't need to put people in the white house, people in the state department, people in these other agencies because they just get in the way of donald trump and his family running the entire government. >> well, people forget -- i mean, again, it's a cliche, but it bears repeating that the trump organization was not some vast multi layered corporation.

it was really a family business, a very -- and at the executive level, a very small one. trump used to go into his office with a completely open slate. he would take phone calls. he would improvise and people would come in and out of his office. that's how he want the west wing to operate. he did not enjoy it when kelly started to put structures around his life. >> let's go to the tweet desk in butte, montana, this morning. willie geist. >> do you remember, joe and mika about 15 minutes ago when we predicted the president would be melting down by the investigation? it's happening in realtime. the president is on twitter talking about bob mueller and leaking lyin james comey are best friends, a double nickname. he talks about a woman who prosecuted jerome corsi.

he went on about bob mueller's big time conflicts of interest will be listed at the top of this report. some other names are thrown in and it's to be continued. this is exactly what we were just talking about a few minutes ago. >> we'll be coming back to you. >> he's doing a great rudy giuliani -- i hope there was something about it took this guy because willie did it so well. >> he did. and, willie, when we come back from butte, we'll get a report of butte's favorite diner that you're going to be visiting and you're going to show us how to have breakfast for under $4.99. what is the building wind you in but -- behind you in butte? >> that's a ski lodge. all the trails are open this morning, joe. >> good to know. >> flipping, and flipping, and flipping. jonathan swan, go. >> it is.

it is. it's true. >> i'm talking about you. >> i was like, wow, that's offensive. look, trump, i don't think we have emphasized enough the pressures bearing down on him with an economy that was booming and suddenly looks very vulnerable and very volatile stock market which is the metric he's been using as the new poll to measure himself. and that does affect his psyche. he says almost every day to staff with, what's the dow doing today? you have these two mueller reports bearing down and you've got the staffing uncertainty. there is a lot of pressure here and a government shutdown, spoeshlly. >> can i ask you about the economy and specifically the stock market which he follows. >> he likes to tout it. >> obviously, we've had a terrible week this week in the stock market because of pressures with china. and then we go out and arrest one of their top industrialists

which is only going to make matters worse with china. >> well, i don't know that we should stop enforcement against china, but the real injection of uncertainty is this trade negotiation with china, which is very vague. he came out of the meeting, there was mass confusion. there were competing statements from the two sides. the markets had this little bump and then they freaked out because people were saying, oh, maybe the tariffs come back on. but what people aren't talking with about is earn assumed nafta 2.0 was going to fly. trump did this deal with mexico and canada. everything is great. that is not certain at all. and if trump issues a withdrawal notice in the new year, as he's threatened, the markets will go absolutely berserk. if you have china uncertainty plus a withdrawal notice for nafta -- >> and, again, you're arresting chinese executives and saying it might be good leverage in negotiations, my god, what door did they just open?

>> they may have that take action against huawei for what it's been doing on sanctions and espionage, but the chinese clearly were not happy about this, that this arrest took place as president trump was sitting down with xi jinping in argentina at the g20 summit. they're furious about this. they want this woman released. this puts the white house in a trek tricky position. it's bound to have an impact on this 90-day period of trade. >> you guys read the new book, "fascism, a warning"? it's fascinating. >> by the way, she says that randomly. >> no,ite important. >> she randomly brought that up every dinner. >> every child, teenager, adult -- >> so jack came in and i was trying to get jack my 10-year-old to read a book. >> everyone should read it.

>> he's only 10. >> good night reading for the 10-year-old. former attorney general william barr may get his old job back. we'll talk about how that possible appointment could impact the mueller probe. "morning joe" is coming right back. >> we believe that the investigation should be brought to a close. we think they're at the ends of it. they should render their report. put up or shut up, what have you got. ♪ ♪

♪ the united states postal service makes more holiday deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. ♪ with one notable exception. ♪ it's proven quality sleep. the new sleep number 360 smart bed, from $999... intelligently senses your movement and automatically adjusts on each side to keep you both effortlessly comfortable. it can even warm your feet to help you fall asleep faster. how smart is that? smarter sleep. to help you shed those sugar cookies, get a running start on the holidays, and take it all in with the patience of a saint. don't miss the last chance to save up to $500 on select sleep number 360 smart beds. ends monday.

new johnson's cottontouch™ a wholwash and lotionre for newborns is born made with real cotton and enhances your gentle touch a new soft a new touch a new gentle new johnson's cottontouch™ (baby cooing) choose gentle

joe, i got one for you here as an alabama guy and a football guy. derrick henry, former alabama running back won the heisman trophy three years ago. we have to show you this run last night. this is a 99-yard touchdown run. he's not fast, but he's strong. he just punches a man, pushes him away. here come two nfl linebackers. he dismisses that guy, throws him to the side. another linebacker, he's gone. 99-yard touchdown for derrick henry. titans win. but that is as good as you'll see in the nfl.

he's not super fast, joe, but my god, if you can punch three linebackers and discard them on your way to a 99-yard touchdown, you don't have to be fast. >> you know, my brother had -- my brother tweeted this last night. he reminded me of the time we saw tony dorset go 99 yards. of course, he just ran past them all. derrick henry just -- >> and through them. >> sam stein said, beast mode. just throwing -- and, again, they are nfl linebackers. >> yeah. those are big, strong guys. >> we always talk about those are the guys that when they run into a linebacker, it has the impact of a 20 miles per hour car crash. >> ooh. >> look. >> it's like he picks them up and discards them. >> this guys, throws him to the side. >> that is just amazing. >> now, sam stein says that there is one run that may compete. >> the marshawn lynch playoff

run against the new orleans saints was the ultimate beast mode run. this was like -- this is great because it's 99 yards. to do that -- i don't think i could run 99 yards. >> i want to know -- i want to know what this has to do, willie, with what you have on sunday today. >> oh, everything. everything. >> oh, gosh, how can i tie these together? my guest is ben stiller. >> oh, really? oh, my god. >> no connection to derrick henry. >> you know what, willie? we have seen ben stiller take on one challenging role after another that people thought would bring his career to his knees. >> toss away the critics. >> instead, he threw off those challenges, he brushed them aside. >> no, no. >> and he rises as one of america's great actors. willie, you're going to be talking to him on sunday. >> discarding his critics along the way. we talk about his run of huge comedies with, but he's directing the new showtime

series. remember that prison break in upstate new york three years ago where the two guys had the help of the woman who worked in the prison, they got out and led police on a chase for 23 days. he's not in the show, but he directs it. it's incredible. it's dark and it's really good and it's based on a true story. so we talked about that, but dig through zoolander and some of the good stuff. >> the important stuff. >> ben stiller is awesome. willie, can i ask you a question? >> please. >> and maybe this is the wrong place to ask it. when do we sell our story about breaking out -- >> up next -- >> i talked to ben. he is formally attached to direct. so we just have to cast it now. >> sort of a papion -- >> please don't make it worse. former fbi director james comey is heading to capitol hill today to testify behind closed doors. we'll talk to a member of the judiciary committee who will be in that room for that testimony.

congresswoman karen bass joins us live on set. back in a moment. (music throughout)

only tylenol® rapid release gels have laser drilled holes. they release medicine fast, for fast pain relief. tylenol® you'll make my morning, buty the price ruin my day.ou? complicated relationship with milk? pour on the lactaid, 100% real milk,

just without that annoying lactose. mmm, that's good. moving? that's harder now because of psoriatic arthritis. but you're still moved by moments like this. don't let psoriatic arthritis take them away. taltz reduces joint pain and stiffness and helps stop the progression of joint damage. for people with moderate to severe psoriasis, 90% saw significant improvement. taltz even gives you a chance at completely clear skin. don't use if you're allergic to taltz. before starting, you should be checked for tuberculosis. taltz may increase risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection, symptoms, or received a vaccine or plan to. inflammatory bowel disease can happen with taltz, including worsening of symptoms. serious allergic reactions can occur.

for all the things that move you. ask your doctor about taltz.

♪ what's that? >> joining us now, member of the judiciary and foreign affairs committee and incoming chair of the congressional black caucus, democratic congresswoman karen bass of california. great to have you on this morning. we have a lot to get to. you started with a great question off set. are we still going to focus on the children from the border separated from their families. are you in touch with lawyers working with these families. how many kids are left? >> first, i appreciate you focusing on it. my big concern are the kids separated will they ever find their parents, especially the parents that were deported. the other concern i have, because one issue i worked on for years is improving our child

welfare system which is already overburdened because of the opioid crisis. we don't have enough foster homes for those children. i know many of these kids from the border will wind up in foster care. you can only be in foster care for a short period of time. after that parental rights can be terminated. >> the hypocrisy of donald trump, of all people, suddenly taking a tough line on illegal immigration. there's a story in the "new york times" talking about a woman who cleaned his room, changed the sheets on his bed, dusted his room. not only did she work for donald trump, and clean up for his family, but also people that worked in the trump organization helped her evade authorities. >> she was honest about it. >> so he goes from benefiting and profiting from illegal immigrants to suddenly deciding

to separate children from their parents. >> the other thing i'm concerned about are these teenagers in these tents. they had to ramp up so fast. they didn't do background checks on the staff working there. so there's already been cases of molestation and abuse and you can only imagine that will continue. >> this continues. this is happening right now. for people that think it's over and it's been fixed because they stopped the policy. they are children's lives hanging in the balance right now. >> they are. that's one piece of many big pest. you're going to be tackling a big piece today with james comey coming in to a sit down in a closed door hearing. one, what is your expectation there and to work what safe guards will the public have that we'll actually know what transpired in this hearing? >> the safe guards that i think the public will have because there's a commitment which is why he agreed to testify.

we'll get a transcript within 24 hours. >> why won't republicans allow cameras. why won't republicans allow americans to see this hearing? >> because i don't think they want the public to see the theater that's going to take place. i've been there in the previous closed hearings and it is theater. i think, frankly, they are embarrassed because they know the clock is running out. they also know they provided virtually no oversight over this administration which i believe will change next month so this is their last hurrah. >> what do you expect to happen from the hearing? >> not much. i expect my republican colleagues to grill him over and over again on the same subjects. but i really don't expect much. i do think that's the other reason why they don't want the public to see because there's not going to be much substance there and i think it will be easy to see through. >> your republican friends have turned james comey into a straw

man. do you ever ask them off the record, back in the cloak room, have you ever asked them if they understand that james comey helped elect donald trump with that letter, with that press conference that violated every norm of past fbi behavior? he helped elect donald trump. >> exactly. you know what i haven't asked them specifically that but i'll tell you, and you know this, when you talk to them off the record many of his tweets, many of his positions they are embarrassed by. also they feel unstable because they don't know what direction he's going to go in. >> did he ever finish his tweet this morning? he left it with a dot, dot, dot. >> you're going to be sitting on this incredibly powerful committee and will be in the majority in january. there's so much that you could look into but there's only so much bandwidth that a committee has. how do you go about prioritizing

and what should be the top three things that the judiciary committee could be focusing on in the year ahead? >> number one is basic oversight. >> sure. within that umbrella what would you prioritize as issues specifically? >> myself, certainly be looking at voting fraud. i mean all the concern about voting fraud in this last election, where were the two places where there was major voting fraud going on, north carolina. what happened in georgia. restoration of the voting rights act is certainly something that's very high on our agenda. i do think there's a lot we want to do. criminal justice reform. my own focus on criminal justice reform is on gender. when you talk about criminal justice reform it's often about men and the situation with women is complete lie different. why women get involved, what happens when they are there and what happens when they return to their community. >> thank you very much. come back on the show. great to talk to you. coming up right now the

president is in the middle of another twitter meltdown over the mueller probe. he left everybody hanging. four tweets so far and counting. we'll try to keep up with that and the russia investigation may not be the only challenge to trump's presidency. cnbc's john harwood joins us to talk about that. former cia director john brennan joins us here on set. "morning joe" is back in a moment. not long ago, ronda started here.

and then, more jobs began to appear. what started with one job spread all around. because each job in energy creates many more in this town. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

this holiday season, families near you need your help. visit redcross.org now to donate. discover.o. i like your card, but i'm absolutely not paying an annual fee. discover has no annual fees. really? yeah. we just don't believe in them. oh nice. you would not believe how long i've been rehearsing that. no annual fee on any card. only from discover.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ cancer treatment centers of america. appointments available now.

. blank news 400. >> uk born katty kay presents it, this world news america. dave. >> what is bbc? >> yes. >> yeah. oh, my god. >> that was so cool. i was on that show a while ago. >> did you win? >> i was so bad. you have to be humiliated in loss. i lost to chris wallace. you go through the humiliation and then rejection at the end. >> welcome back to "morning joe". it is friday, december 7th. we're all very punchy. >> not only are we punchy. let's go to willie geist. willie just got back from copper

city. >> what's going on? >> so you're going from our twitter desk in butte, montana this morning. the president is in a bit of a meltdown. >> yes. with this heat coming from bob mueller today with the michael cohen disclosure and one about paul manafort, the president is going to step up and his attacks and he's doing that. he's in the middle of like a 45 minute tweet storm right now, literally. >> oh, my god. >> i hesitate to even read through it all. one thought is not connected to the last. mike mulvaney and leakin' lyin' james comey are best friends. just one of many mueller conflicts of interest. and bye the way, wasn't the woman in charge of pro se

cutting jerome corsi [ who i do not know [ in charge of "legal "at the hillary clinton foundation. i could keep reading if you want me to but i'm not sure we're getting anywhere. >> i got the popcorn. >> the campaign of crooked hillary that worked for the clinton foundation. sneepts a lot of things listed. >> it will be hard to get them all in. >> the scathing document he goes on about james comey. >> didn't he call him something, something, leakin' lyin' but now

he's just shortened to it lyin'. >> keep going. >> now he's going after once again after rod rosenstein who said will he be a part of the report. isn't rod totally conflicted wonders the president of the united states and we're in the middle of an elip d ellipsis. >> we haven't seen what if anything mueller will reveal today. the president it seems to be getting to him. >> somebody needs to change his channel to "fox & friends" asap. >> he would be tweeting about that town that bans snowball fights. >> what if they built a fake

twitter system where he thought he was tweeting out to millions of followers and going nowhere. >> it's sort of pleasantville. the president is putting in an alternative white house. >> they are thinking outside of the box. you want to bring some elegance to the conversation? we're a little punchy. we're looking ahead to a lot. >> i'm looking at the president's meltdown and the fact we're in the middle of this. you're just anxiously waiting to see what comes next. i think the president, obviously, is completely still laser focused on the mueller investigation and he's very, very nervous just by the fact that he's tweeting about this. i talked to lawyers who worked with president bill clinton when he was in the middle of his controversial special counsel and they said we did everything we possibly could to keep the president thinking about running

the country and not about the investigation. rudy giuliani is telling everyone that calls him the president is not able to do that. he's focused on this all day. >> documents that are scheduled for release today could shed new light on robert mueller's russia probe. prosecutors for the southern district of new york and the special counsel's office both have until 5:00 tonight to deliver sentencing memos concerning president trump's former fixer michael cohen, the documents are expected to detail cohen's cooperation in those ongoing investigations. mueller's team should also be filing a document that outlines the crimes and lies that led to the collapse of former trump campaign chairman paul manafort's plea deal. meanwhile nbc news has also learned that in recent days president trump's legal team has resumed discussions with the special counsel's office. that's according to two people familiar with the matter. it's just been over two weeks

since trump submitted written answers to mueller regarding the russia probe. >> and, willie, it's so hard to figure out what donald trump is going to do and it's so hard to figure out what the next legal steps are going to do because he's made the terrible mistake and even his close allies will admit this. he's made the terrible mistake of not hiring competent attorneys from the very beginning. having people that haven't been in these type of battles before, instead finding people to go out and wing it when they are in the press. rudy giuliani has done that in the past but lived by that erratic sword, die by that erratic sword, rudy giuliani now appearing to be more interested in covering his own back side than defending the president. >> as you know the most important criteria for the president is how comfortable he is with someone and how viciously they might defend him

not necessarily their competence in this area. back in july, you may remember, rudy giuliani promised to deliver a counter report to bob mueller's findings. now the administration has now plan in place to respond to the special counsel's findings. tweaking to "the atlantic" rudy giuliani said it's been difficult in the past few months to consider drafting response plans or a counter report as he and trump have confronted mueller's written questions about the 2016 campaign. giuliani saying quote answering those questions was a nightmare. it took trump about three weeks to do what normally would take two days. a former senior white house official -- >> if you look, willie. let's stop flight. people inside the trump white house will try to whitewash that, explain it away, but rudy giuliani's own language, it took trump several weeks to do what

it would take other people to do in two days. you know, that not about schedule. that's not about anything other than rudy giuliani expressing his frustration and tipping his hat to hand it to the press that he, himself, very frustrated at donald trump. >> yeah. they are pretty fundamental broad stroke questions too. what giuliani is saying there it's a complicated process, the president is busy but he's covering himself. a former white house official who requested anonymity with "the atlantic" said attempting a plan means you have to have an honest conversation about what might be coming. giuliani says that will not stop president trump from tweeting about it as we're reminded this morning. giuliani told "the atlantic" letting trump guide the response to the mueller report may not be ideal but added i don't think there's anyone in the world who can stop donald trump from tweeting. i have tried says rudy giuliani.

we're getting our latest evidence of that as we speak from the president on twitter. >> america just said good-bye to a man, a president who believed in loyalty, believed that loyalty not only went up to the president but went down who worked for the president. george h.w. bush who had a tumultuous eight years, my opinion of george h.w. bush has changed a great deal since he left office, not based on what he said, not based on his art, but based on some pretty hardened washington operators who when they start talking about george w. bush will start tearing up about the love and the devotion that they still feel for that man, they still will not say anything negative about him. dr. brzezinski, the thing that was so telling about dr. brzezinski in all the private

conversations i had with him where believe you me he aired his grievances and differences with republican presidents, democratic presidents, senators, congressmen, secretary of states, had no problem in real-time telling you who he had problems with. jimmy carter, never once, never once did he say one negative thing about president carter. he believed in the code and he loved the man. >> yeah. i must admit i've really had to separate in recent years my feeling about, feelings about george w. bush, the president and his policies and what he did versus george w. bush the man for whom i've developed a lot of respect. i actually told him a couple of years ago i said mr. president this will be a surprise to you, but with the rise of donald trump people to the left of me saying boy i miss george w. bush

and he looked at me and he said, there are people to the left of you? that's a surprise. >> they are funny. >> whatever goes up goes down. donald trump done have a single person loyal to him now. >> no, no, he doesn't. and with reason, right? because of the way he treats people. you know, we see the tweet storm this morning which seems to have ended in mid-sentence which is kind of odd. but what one hears is he has less and less ability to focus for any length of time on anything and that's something that should be worrisome not only for those worried about i had defense and continuation of the presidency, but for all of us. i mean he's the president of the united states. >> trump is exceptional in how little loyalty he has from his team. it's not just george w. bush,

people around barack obama still have a lot of affection for barack obama. the people who worked for bill clinton and george -- george stephanopoulos had a lot of affection noifor him. i haven't seen a presidency like this. >> loyalty, empathy and knowledge is lacking. >> for him. >> full on. >> it leads to the paraintopara see. >> the voters, he can do no wrong in their eyes. there's something to be said about that. he feels in a way to embolden to

discard those around him, to discard norms to tweet in the manner he does precisely because he has this intensely loyal supporters. i look what's happening this morning. i think to myself, we feel like these past years have been chaotic and they have, and feel they are norm busting and they have. but it can get so much worse. we're on the precipice of the mueller probe producing tangible real results, and at that moment we have no clue how donald trump will react. we have no clue how those around him will react. i am just waiting nervously almost to see that. >> the folks we were sharing time with last night talking to last night at the national democratic institute, you know the damage, the long term damage that is being done, you know, it's sometimes hard to keep that in mind because we have to

survive the day and have some laughs, but it's not funny. >> just to the point, presidents have close advisers who they trust and are loyal to. those advisors can go to someone and say you're doing something or you have to reverse course or reconsider what you're doing. one of the tangible outcomes in trump not having that circle around him is that the depth of -- the depth of reactions in moments like these are vast. he can do things completely off the rails and nobody will go there and say you shouldn't and can't do that. >> bush had karen hughes, obama had david, ale rod and you can make the case trump has ivanka and erik. the only other people who had the long standing loyalty, the capacity to say at this point we need course correction, that's

not happening. >> eve given the worst advice. >> they can't really stand up to him. we've heard comparisons between trump over the past week. you have with george h.w. bush a mother who hammered into him so much not to be self-centered that he would drop the "i" from so many sentences. donald trump so self-consumed because you look at his management style it comes from a man who was given $200 million by his father, set up a business, surrounded himself with people that always had to say yes to him, nobody that would ever cross him, and that's how he's lived his entire life and that's who we have in the

white house right now, a man who for 73, 74 years has never had anyone that had the discipline to tell him no. >> he also has someone who got to the white house by ignoring a lot what republican consultants and republican advice ors would have told him to do. remember the republican party spent this money spending time about how to expand their base and president trump ran a campaign that was the exact opposite of what republicans wanted him to do. as a result i think you have somebody who feels emboldened by his gut and instincts and has proven that his instincts are good and can be politically advantageous to him. the other thing to think about, the president has been doing a message war. rudy giuliani has been consistent on the fact that he's called the russian investigation a hoax. he's been attacking robert mueller. been attacking everything as a witch-hunt. that to me is as important if

not more important than the actual legal facts behind this because when i talk to trump supporters they believe everything donald trump tells them lock, stock and barrel. they are echoing his language about the robert mueller investigation. whatever happens today or down the line a swath of people will come out and say we believe the president over anything else. >> one thing that's interesting, willie, feeds into a bit of news about who donald trump may select as the next attorney general is the fact that while he hasn't had people in the white house who would stand up to him, you look at some of the officials that he has selected and you can talk about dan coats at the dni, you can talk about chris wray at the fbi, gina haspel, controversial in some circles but not in the agency, not in the intel community, considered the best of the best.

and go down the list, james mattis at dod and now for attorney general we're looking at the possibility of him actually selecting the man who served as attorney general for george h.w. bush from 1991 to 1993, william barr, another establishment figure who i think would probably calm political tensions in this town just a bit. >> yeah, that's one of the interesting stories of the president's tenure so far the conventional picks for all the chaos and as unconventional candidate as donald trump was you go down the line and there are people if ted cruz had been elected president you might expect to be put in these jobs. you mentioned gina haspel. these people are doing their jobs. there's all this chaos happening in the white house but gina haspel marched in and gave a briefing about what the cia knows and the conclusions it reached about the crown prince

of saudi arabia's involvement in ordering the murder of "washington post" journalist jamal khashoggi. so she's able to block out some of that noise and conher job. william barr, we'll get into it a bit later, he said some things recently. he served as attorney general under george h.w. bush but said some things about the russia investigation. he believes the clinton e-mail scandal should be looked into, the iranian one deal, for example. so he has said some things that will cause information be alarmed, perhaps, if he's put in that job in terms of protecting donald trump from the russia investigation, but, again, he's a washington establishment figure who has already held this job some 25 years ago. >> all right. a lot to get to still ahead on "morning joe". president trump's twitter tirade has just included another frequent target, john brennan the former cia director joins us next right here on "morning

joe". he as in the president should change the channel. we'll be right back. 25% of your mouth. listerine® cleans virtually 100%. helping to prevent gum disease and bad breath. never settle for 25%. always go for 100. bring out the bold™

discover card. i justis this for real?match, yep. we match all the cash back new cardmembers earn at the end of their first year, automatically. whoo! i got my money! hard to contain yourself, isn't it? uh huh! let it go! whoo! get a dollar-for-dollar match at the end of your first year. only from discover. the full value of your new car? you'd be better off throwing your money right into the harbor. i'm gonna regret that. with liberty mutual new car replacement, we'll replace the full value of your car. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

you'll make my morning, buty the price ruin my day.ou? complicated relationship with milk? pour on the lactaid, 100% real milk, just without that annoying lactose. mmm, that's good.

this is moving day with the best in-home wifi experience and millions of wifi hotspots to help you stay connected. and this is moving day with reliable service appointments in a two-hour window so you're up and running in no time. show me decorating shows. this is staying connected with xfinity to make moving... simple. easy. awesome.

stay connected while you move with the best wifi experience and two-hour appointment windows. click, call or visit a store today. now back to butte, willie geist it continues. >> joe, finally after almost a full hour of a tweet storm the president while skimming the trees brought it in for a landing finally with one last tweet. he says the lying and leaking by the people doing the report and also bruce ohr and his lovely wife molly. that's not his wife's name it's nelly. adds comey our guest in a moment john brennan, clapper and all of the many fired people of the fbi be listed in the report. et cetera, et cetera. >> i don't think he's okay. >> we got with us now the former cia director the star of the

president's latest tweet, john brennan senior national security and intelligence analyst for msnbc and former chief white house domestic political adviser under president carter and deputy secretary of the treasury under president clinton. so, mr. director, what do we expect to see today? >> forgive us for laughing. >> i don't know what we expect to see today based on that tweet. i think mr. trump is seeing more and more of the walls closing in on him, which is why he's becoming increasingly desperate, but i think some of his tweets just indicate how ill-suited he is for the presidency and his handling of some of these issues demonstrates again he's incompetent. >> from what you know and what you can tell us, what should the president be most fearful of in the coming weeks? >> well, i think the mueller

investigation -- i won't say it's coming to in an end but it's building to a crescendo with reports coming out. who knows what sealed indictments are already out there. now that mr. trump has given his written responses to questions i think bob mueller and the team will feel that they can move forward with some of the other shoes that will be dropping on the people who are in the inner circle. >> does donald trump from what you know and what you can tell you, does donald trump have much to fear from vladimir putin, from russia? do they have him in a compromised position? >> i think if you just look at his tweets and his comments and his increasingly desperate attitude, i think he has a lot to fear, which is why he don't try to delegitimatize the mueller temple's efforts and the investigation overall. mr. trump knows what he has done in the past. he has demonstrated a lack of

ethic, a lack of principle, and whether it be in his government affairs or in his private business dealings, this is something that's going, to i think, come back and haunt him. >> let's shift from mueller to russia to saudi arabia, some of donald trump's apologists say that what happened in saudi arabia, what happened to a "washington post" columnist just happens in a matter of course in a lot of countries that we ally with. can you blow that lie to pieces right now? >> well, i think it demonstrates how unprincipled he is. he likes people with money. he likes people who can do things noirm and advice hed andn program. as a result of the briefings again before ien, mohammad bin

salman authorized the killing of this journalist for "the washington post". this is something the united states should never ignore and the president of the united states should come down like a ton of bricks on the saudi government and make it clear to the king and the rest of the saudi royal family that you have your fate in your own hands as far as the u.s. relationship is concerned. and if mohammad bin salman stays in power it will to be the great detriment of the saudi kingdom. >> you look at the way the president has responded to the saudi crisis, we look at the way he's responded to vladimir putin for some time. do you have reason to believe that much of the president's behavior towards those countries have as much to do with his own financial gain in the past and possibly in the future as it has to do with his political fortunes? >> yes, i do. >> his policies. >> i feel he's been driven by money, by his own financial situation.

his profile and so all of this, i think, continues to be wrapped up in his approach to these very important national security issues where he puts first and foremost his interests financial, business, personal ahead of the country's. >> perhaps the united states would not be in the middle of a trade war with china if there had been trump tower beijing a long time ago, maybe 100 story hotel. but that is not where we are, we're in the middle of a trade war. we're coming up on the 40th anniversary of normalization of relations in january. >> 40 years ago. >> 40 years ago. but 40 years later things are looking fairly bleak. where do we go from here? >> there's no question that china trade practices are unacceptable. forced technology and joint venture requirement, actual theft -- >> can you path number on that theft, by the way? >> in the tens of billions of

numbers. what they want to do is dominate the new 5g, 21st technologies. they can't do it internally so they are stealing. you can't measure just in terms of dollars and cents. they will be able with artificial intelligence, driverless cars, sensors comes up, they can't develop it quickly enough for themselves so they are stealing it. >> why is this such a difficult problem for the united states to tackle? i remember in 1995 and 1996 and 1997 passing -- i never read it but mfn legislation for most favored trade status to china and we would always say every year okay we'll pass it in '95 but they have to stop stealing our intellectual property. a year later they are still stealing it. we pass it again. a year later they are steal it

again and pass it again. they have been ripping off our companies. >> i've been involved in two cycles. one in the actual normalization of relations with dr. brzezinski was involved with with president carter and then when we got in the world trade organization. they have a persistent problem. they have a different business model. sort of state driveen state capitalism. the way it should have been dealt with is getting our european allies together with us because they are suffering from the same problems. instead by going after our european allies on things like aluminum and steel we've divided and given china a gift. now i think the real reality that came out of the g-20 summit is despite all the rhetoric, the president realizes he does not have all the cards. he said this is an easy trade war to win. >> trade wars are easy to win.

>> easy to win because they have a big circle. he's found just the opposite, that we don't have all the cards. that's one of the reasons the stock market is wobbling and growth is slowing and he doesn't want to go into 2020 election with a trade war. i think he'll declare whatever he gets which is some increase in spending that back channel on our goods, some reduction in their theft, some reduction in their joint venture requirements and declare it the greatest trade ever. you can go into 2020 with an all out trade war. >> mr. director, we have quite a few new members of congress coming in, will be sworn in early january. advise them on how to approach china. how should they view china, is china a rival, is china an enemy. how do they approach their view on china? >> well, i think they have to

get briefed on china and china's evolution over the years. it is a big powerful country and in some areas we'll compete. some areas we can work together. they clearly are trying to pursue a, this one belt, one road strategy which is going spread china's influence and presence around the globe but they are encountering problems with that in terms of the different types of instability and war and conflict in different places that is disruptive to their aims. xi jinping is facing some criticism now. not serious in my mind in terms of any threats -- >> internal? >> some internal because the profile now of china has risen and it is causing some reaction, including from washington. and i think one of the things that xi jinping has tried to do is to avoid confrontation, continue to push the envelope. unfortunately there is confrontation. people are wondering whether or not they are moving too fast, with too high a profile and so

we're going to have to see how this will evolve over time. new members of congress need to understand just how wide and broad china's influence is. their role in terms of north korea, their role in cyber, their role in different parts of the world in the indian ocean, south china sea. there are many different aspects of chinese foreign policy and economic policies that are interrelated and so there are no simple sort of solutions to the china problem. >> so much to get to. we'll have more with director brennan and the ambassador after a quick break. we'll be right back.

to most, he's phil mickelson, pro golfer. to me, he's, well, dad. so when his joint pain from psoriatic arthritis got really bad, it scared me.

and what could that pain mean? joint pain could mean joint damage. enbrel helps relieve joint pain, helps stop irreversible joint damage and helps skin get clearer. enbrel may lower your ability to fight infections. serious sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, nervous system and blood disorders and allergic reactions have occurred. tell your doctor if you've been some place where fungal infections are common, or if you're prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for heart failure, or if you have persistent fever, bruising, bleeding, or paleness. don't start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. since enbrel, dad's back to being dad. visit enbrel.com and use the joint damage simulator to see how your joint damage could be progressing. ask about enbrel. enbrel. fda approved for over 16 years. after a scratch so small rocket you could fix it with a pen. how about using that pen to sign up for new insurance instead? for drivers with accident forgiveness,

liberty mutual won't raise their rates because of their first accident. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ only tylenol® rapid release gels have laser drilled holes. they release medicine fast, for fast pain relief. tylenol®

and we are back with former cia director john brennan, and the author of president carter the white house years, and willie we'll go to you first. you have some news. >> an especially deadly weeks in average. an official says 14 afghan soldiers were killed in a coordinated attack overnight by the taliban. 21 other afghan troops were taken captive. part of a surge in violence there that also has claimed the lives of five american troops in recent weeks and now new

reporting shows how one retired general views the situation there. according to task and purpose, general stanley mcchristal recently told secretary of state mike pompeo he did not know what to do in average but offered his best suggestion was for a small number of troops to remain, quote and muddle along in the country. the retired four star general telling that to a small group last month during his book tour. director brennan, i would ask you a question we've been asking on this show for gosh ten years at least, what's the mission? what are we doing there? the argument is if you pull out now you lose all the ground you gain. becomes once again a place where taliban and al qaeda and others can gather to plan and plot attacks against the united states. but as men and women continue to die, people now 17 years on who were in first, second and third grade on 9/11 now dying how long

ought we be there. >> i don't think the mission should be a combat mission for u.s. military troops. i think we need to maintain a presence there as far as providing training, support, equipping the afghan forces to do their mission. we need an intelligence presence there as well because as we all well know the al qaeda and other terrorist groups have used afghanistan, particularly along the border between afghanistan and pakistan for many years to pl plot and plan attacks beyond that theater. i think the american military presence is important in order to ensure that the afghan troops can be optimal in terms of how they are going prosecute the mission against the taliban. but i tend to agree with mcchrystal there's no easy solution to afghanistan. we shouldn't overwhen it but can't abandon afghanistan

either. >> we thought the easy solution to iraq was to leave iraq. we left iraq and isis formed in iraq, and a lot of chaos followed. when i say "we," i mean most americans including myself we have been in iraq long enough. we learned quite a lesson. >> yeah. of course people are thinking we've been in afghanistan 17 years and the prospect of general mcchrystal is all we'll do is muddle along. >> how long have we been in south korea? >> we're not fighting an active war in south korea. we're not losing troops there? >> we're preventing an act of war there, perhaps. and perhaps that's what we're doing in afghanistan. just no easy answer. >> there's no prospect of a clear win. that's what people find hard to stomach. it's the taliban at the moment who seem to be making the gains

not coalition forces. the question of internet supremacy is part of what huawei and this arrest seems to be about, are you concerned basically that the chinese are setting up a separate internet behind the fire wall, and they are starting to begin supremacy. a lot of americans for a long time felt silicone valley had the ideas and china of imitating. but my idea especially in veins and facial recognition the chinese are ahead of us and doe that, should that concern us more? should that be part -- >> we should be concerned. chinese are very aggressive, very innovative from the point of stealing things from the west and using to it their ends. they use it for economic, commercial and political reasons. they have emphasizeed a lot on the artificial intelligence front to incorporate these different facets so they have a

better understanding of who is doing what inside the country. they won't isolate themselves. that's one of the things stewart mentioned. they will continue to work with the rest of the world. that's why it's so important for our allies to be working with us so we understand fully the scope of chinese activities as well as how best to confront them. >> kissinger's book on china, he talked about how the united states, we've always been sort of evangelical about the spread of democracy, china has seen itself as the middle kingdom and they didn't want to spread their form of government across the globe, they wanted the globe to come to them. is that still your assessment of the way china views itself or has that changed? >> you know, the one party philosophy inside china is the reason why xi jinping and the chinese have been able to do so much because there's really no competition inside. so i don't think they are interested in propagating

democracy around the world in any respect. i do think they have a vision. it's long term. they are patient. it's partly because of their past. but they also recognize that the world is technologically driven and they want to be part, not just part of that, they want to be the leading part of this technologically driven world. >> i have a question for stu. on intellectual property, there are basically two things that chinese do. one they just steal it. they steal intellectual property from the u.s. and european companies and obviously that's wrong and has to be punished. the other thing they do, as i understand it, is say, okay, if you want access to the chinese market you have to form a joint venture with a chinese firm and transfer technology to that firm. or else you can't come in. so is that also completely out

of bounds? executives who agree, they don't have a gun to their head, they don't have to go into the chinese market if they don't want to transfer the technology. why does that violate trade? >> it's the second largest economy in the world and it's a great incentive for u.s. and european companies to be there and this forced technology transfer is unacceptable. it really is unacceptable. the way to deal with that is, again, with our european allies and asian alilies and one of th great mistakes the president made in the first weeks of his administration is take ourselves out of the transpacific partnership with the asian/pacific companies who have the same concerns about technology transfer. and have a united front against china. instead we gave a gift to china by pulling out. so this kind of forced technology transfer is really unacceptable. and in any trade deal that is made, and i think there will be one made because the president

doesn't want to go into re-election campaign without it, we have to deal with this situation and china has to be told that they are hurting themselves, companies are going to invest instead in vietnam and indonesia, in the philippines and other places in asia. it's going to hurt them as well. it's absolutely unacceptable. >> all right, john brennan, thank you very much. stuart, thank you as well. up next, efforts to reform the criminal justice system appear to have stalled. we'll talk to a republican co-sponsor of a bipartisan bill that mitch mcconnell doesn't seem too interested in. that's next on "morning joe".

what does help for heart failure look like? it looks like this. entresto is a heart failure pill that helped keep people alive and out of the hospital. don't take entresto if pregnant; it can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. don't take entresto with an ace inhibitor or aliskiren, or if you've had angioedema with an ace or arb. the most serious side effects are angioedema, low blood pressure, kidney problems, or high blood potassium. ask your doctor about entresto. ♪ the beat goes on. yeah!

unstopand it's strengthenedting place, the by xfi pods,gateway. which plug in to extend the wifi even farther, past anything that stands in its way. ...well almost anything. leave no room behind with xfi pods. simple. easy. awesome. click or visit a retail store today. majority leader mitch mcconnell has reportedly told white house officials the bipartisan criminal justice reform bill supported by the president is unlikely to get a vote before the end of the current congress. that is according to new

reporting from "the washington post." one mcconnell adviser says it is because the republican leader doesn't have enough time and is more focused on other things. however, a republican donor and key ally described mcconnell as a jeff sessions style lock them up and throw away the key kind of guy who just doesn't like the bill. joining us now a member of the house administration committee and co-sponsor of the criminal justice reform bill, republican congressman mark walker of north carolina. >> they say the most important part of the biowas left out. >> what's that? >> we can talk about that later. >> you were there throwing up. >> the panhandle of florida. my dad moved us there from 4 to 18. >> you will talk for hours. >> my dad went to milton high school. we'll need to talk after. >> look forward to it.

>> so talk about this bill. a great shot at having a bipartisan bill go through. >> why won't it fly? >> bipartisan, we hear that all the time. this is the place it's legitimate. my father was a pastor. i can remember with him being a chaplain sitting on the bunk beds at christmastime. i think how that impacted me, drove me to congress. four or five months ago i reached out to cedric richmond. i was partnered with cedric richmond. if we can get this working together, why can't mitch mcconnell vote on this? this is preposterous. >> why? >> why do you think he won't do it? >> i think the ultimate reason is there's a stubbornness there that you have to operate on his

time line sometimes i think. i don't know that it's sinister. i hope it's not. i've heard some reports and read some things they are but i hope that's not the case. >> this is really a giant roadblock because don't you see the potential for this sort of bipartisan effort to go further to make an effort? >> i think it's humanitarian. when you think about the children who have parents incarcerated, male and female. that's crucial. go back to 1980 when you had 700,000 or 800,000. we're up to 2.3 million. that's more than russia and china combined. that's a republican. >> is that a record we really want? >> absolutely not. >> willie geist? >> congressman, it's willie geist up here in new york. good to see you this morning. i want to ask you about the democrat in your state has rescinded in the race, the

congressional race, his concession and he wants this election opened up again. what's your view of what's going on where there appears to be or are allegations of fraud on absentee ballots that favor the republican? >> yeah, i believe the premise of your question is spot on because there are some concerns with the absentee. i believe it's bladen county. if you look at my district and other districts. i do believe there's an issue and what we've seen is a nefarious gentleman who has been part of this campaign from the beginning. i don't want to put too much on the candidate himself. sometimes you don't always know who some of these -- in this case the people who are trying to embed themselves in your campaign. >> even wood house said if they can show there's fraud he's open

to a new election. is that something you would be open to? >> i believe if republicans jump up and down at voter fraud in problem areas, to be consistent if you show any kind of contentious or any kind of behavior such as this, i think you have to be willing to look at another election. >> would it be wise for mark harris, a republican, to say the things you're saying? let's have a look at this. >> it probably would be best. when this is your first entry into the political arena, you're not a seasoned politician, trying to figure out which is the right way to go at this point. >> congressman mark walker, thank you for being on. good to have you on the show. >> come back. the president of the united states is melting down in real time this morning. >> it happens. >> a one-hour twitter tirade. misspellings, et cetera, et

cetera. all of this as his trade policies send markets into a tailspin. now economist and the president's own advisers fear the u.s. is headed toward recession. a lot to talk about when "morning joe" comes right back.

the meeting of the executive finance committee is now in session. and... adjourned. business loans for eligible card members up to fifty thousand dollars, decided in as little as 60 seconds. the powerful backing of american express. don't do business without it.

oh, look... another anti-wrinkle cream in no hurry to make anything happen. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair® works in just one week. with the fastest retinol formula available. it's clinically proven to work on fine lines and wrinkles. one week? that definitely works! rapid wrinkle repair®. and for dark spots, rapid tone repair. neutrogena®. see what's possible. for each job exxonmobil creates, many more are created in the community. because energy touches so many industries, it supports 10 million u.s. jobs.

...and i found out that i'ma from the big toe lian. of that sexy italian boot! so this holiday season it's ancestrydna per tutti! order your kit now at ancestry.com hey, what are you guys doing here? we've been helping you prepare and invest for retirement since day one. why would we leave now? because i'm retired now. so? we're voya. we stay with you to and through retirement... with solutions to help provide income throughout. so you'll still be here to help me make smart choices? well, with your finances that is. we had nothing to do with that, uh, tie. or the suit. or the shirt. voya. helping you to and through retirement. are you okay? >> i'm okay. i know what jack is dolg. pull up his files, anything he's

worked with in the past. >> in the next half hour the man who has widely been acknowledged as a vital third partner in the peace process, the russian president will touch down at jfk. he'll be ferried into manhattan by helicopter and then to the u.n. >> that is former fox news personality heather nauert playing herself on the spy drama "24" reporting on a fictional showdown at the united nations. president trump, a former reality tv star himself, is poised to nominate her as america's real ambassador to the u.n. good morning. >> let me just say, though, as a former republican, a republican who is a republican when republicans were republicans and a conservative who was a conservative when conservatives were conservatives. >> still are. >> this is outrageous. >> what? >> that somebody on tv -- >> oh. >> is able to, you know, work at the united nations. i can tell you as a reagan

republican i find this whole actor to u.n. ambassador thing -- >> she was a news anchor. >> what was your favorite ronald reagan movie? >> i think it was the one with the monkey. >> good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it's friday, december 7th. we're in washington this morning along with the washington anchor for bbc, world news america katty kay. >> you were a "jeopardy" clue, were you not? >> i was. >> and you were on "snl" or -- >> made me look 20 years younger. thank you, claire. >> politics editor for the daily beast, sam stein, is with us. msnbc analyst and former chairman of the republican national committee michael steele, and "new york times" reporter michael schmidt is with us along with willie geist up in new york. willie is in new york and we're in washington this morning because we had an amazing event last night that we were honored to be a part of.

>> it was great. >> it was the 35th anniversary of the national democratic institute, the 35th annual event that they have. of course the institute was inspired by ronald reagan's 1982 westminster speech, and there were tributes to john mccain and kofi annan. we remembered my dad, and as you see madeleine albright is behind the whole thing and got us to engage. you see susan rice there. this is a great event. my brother mark was there. we were just honored to be a part of it. the theme of the night was reaffirming democracy here and around the world. ndi does so much to try and continue that effort. so important. >> it really does. and, katty, the theme of it, again, for 35 years they've been bringing -- sort of trotting out the reagan westminster speech and talking about the fight for freedom, the fight for

democracy, the fight for free press. all of these things for about 33 of those years nobody really believed was in great jeopardy, that the march of democracy was moving forward. >> moving forward, yes. >> but last night and the year before they had to talk about the media under attack, technology, which was supposed to be an accelerator for freedom. actually in some ways threatening freedom, what's happening in poland, brazil, other places across the world, really frightening moment for democracy. democracy in retreat which is why ndi is so important. >> ndi does great work. they monitor elections in countries where the democratic process is still fragile. they've been on the ground for years and years. i'm a huge supporter of the work they do to make sure the elections are free and fair. the questions are being raised in other countries and the west as well. i don't think there's been a

moment since the end of the second world war where the western liberal model has been this under threat. we are under threat internally now as well. >> mika, the john mccain, kofi annan, two people honored. it was such a bipartisan event. >> it was beautiful and so many friends of my father i had known all my life and my family members and my best friend were there. it was a personal, professional and really important -- we don't go out a lot. >> no, we don't. no, we don't. >> we felt this was really important. >> we set plans -- >> and then you're in bed at 9:00. >> 7:30. >> willie, i don't know if you saw this or not, but led zeppelin hater and professor at the u.s. naval war college tweeted this list yesterday. nk gives us the finger. dow crashes. russia on the march in the black

sea. the chinese laughing at tariffs. u.s. farmers go under. gop having psychotic meltdowns in wisconsin, michigan, and north carolina. dems pick up 40 in the house. inf treaty scrapped. massive deficits. finally, what conservatives always wanted. then manage the new list to billy joel's "we didn't start the fire." >> sing it. >> all the dow stocks just died. putin's in the black sea. traders in the gop. nukes are loose. mueller takes a tighter noose. house is gone, debt is long. xi laughs. twitter gaffes. but it's all the will of god. >> very good. "we didn't start the fire." >> pretty good, succinct list. >> i think tom just rhymed stormy's bod with the will of god. did i get that right? wow. that's an amazing thing. this is all undermined by his

positions on led zeppelin. we can get past that. >> this is true. >> this meltdown is about to get a lot worse because we're going to hear from bob mueller a couple of times today and get a window into this investigation. we don't get many windows into what bob mueller is up to but the president this week since even the end of the funeral for george h.w. bush has ratcheted up his attacks on bob mueller. it's about to get worse, you can believe that from the white house. >> his attack on bob mueller, also, mika, his attack on the free press, tweeting in all caps last night the media is the enemy of the people. around the same time that cnn had yet another bomb scare. just a few weeks after pipe bombs were sent. around to a lot of his enemies. fake news, the enemy of the people. that is exactly what -- though

donald trump's name did not come up last night, that is exactly the autocratic tendencies we're seeing in countries across the globe that really posing a threat. >> well, here we go. >> the democratic foundation. >> in new documents that are scheduled to be released today, could shed new light on robert mueller's russia probe. prosecutors for the southern district of northern and the special counsel's office both have until 5:00 p.m. tonight to deliver sentencing memos concerning president trump's former fixer michael cohen. the documents are expected to detail cohen's cooperation in those ongoing investigations. mueller's team should also be filing a document that outlines the crimes and lies that led to the collapse of former trump campaign chairman paul manafort's plea deal. meanwhile, nbc news has also learned that in recent days president trump's legal team has resumed discussions with the

special counsel's office according to two people familiar with the matter. it's been just over two weeks since trump submitted written answers to mueller regarding the russia probe. so much that could come out today even that would give us some guidance as to what potentially is going on. >> michael schmidt, what should we expect? >> well, he still has not answered all the questions even on russia. >> were there a lot of them? >> there were a lot of questions about russia and questions about russia before he came into office. since he became president. and then there's obstruction questions. and he hasn't answered the obstruction questions and he hasn't answered all the russia questions and we're not going to get to an end of this until there's some resolution about what to do with those. i find it very hard to believe that mueller is going to just say, okay, i came all this distance and the central issue is whether you had criminal intent when you took these

measures around obstruction and just say, okay, i don't need answers and go away. >> sam, what do you expect today? >> doesn't that lead to the bigger question which is does mueller end up going to the courts to compel trump to actually answer the questions? he held off on that for the time being. and then we have, of course, the cloud of drama over who the ag will be and whether matt whitaker will remain in the post or barr being a replacement. there are so many different balls in the air. for me the big question is what did paul manafort lie about that got mueller's team to reverse course and say the plea deal is scrambled. if it's a russia-related matter, that's huge news. if it's something that's related to manafort's time as operative in ukraine, that's big news but it's not necessarily the juicy stuff that could be out there. i'm looking at that. obviously there's a whole cohen drama happening today. but, you know, all of this is really about how does trump react? when you were talking about attending a thing about

democracy and how that's retreated, we live in a fragile domestic society, too. what we see in wisconsin and michigan is one opponent. you know, at any moment trump could really make a dramatic move and everyone is waiting for it. it hasn't happened yet. what would be the triggering point? >> willie, we're not getting a lot of clarification from donald trump's attorney, rudy giuliani. we basically got the very real impression that the president was just winging it in his answers to robert mueller. >> well, it turns out, joe, your impression is correct. remember back in july president trump's lawyer, rudy giuliani, promised there would be a counter report to robert mueller's findings when it came out. but now a half dozen current and former white house officials are telling "the atlantic" the administration has no plan in place for responding to the special counsel's findings. speaking to "the atlantic" giuliani said it's been difficult in the past few months

even to consider drafting response plans or devote time to the counter report he claimed they were working on this summer as he and trump confronted mueller's written questions about the 2016 campaign. giuliani saying, quote, answering those questions was a nightmare. it took trump about three weeks to do what would normally take two days. >> you don't want your lawyer saying that. >> no, no, you don't want that. >> so a former senior white house official who requested anonymity also told "the atlantic" attempting a plan would mean, quote, you would have to have an honest conversation about what might be coming. and while the white house might not be ready, giuliani says that will not stop president trump from tweeting about it, of course. giuliani told "the atlantic" that letting trump guide the response to the mueller report may not be ideal but added, i don't think there's anyone in the world that can stop donald trump from tweeting. i've tried, he says. >> goodness. a lot of cya. >> really. >> what time -- what time did he

craft that statement? >> i don't know. willie, isn't that -- >> was it late in the day? >> isn't that fascinating you could actually look at about four or five different parts of that statement and you would see rudy giuliani distancing himself from donald trump? >> oh, yes. >> or it's just late in the day. >> i don't want my lawyer saying this should have taken two days but it took that guy three weeks. that's not what i want to hear from my lawyer. i guess, michael steele, the answer to the plan is we've been watching it for a year and a half now. the president has been undermining the investigation. that's the plan that when it comes out president trump can say, see, i told you. 17 angry democrats, it's corrupt, it's a witch-hunt, don't believe word of it. >> that's been the goal from the very beginning because of what's laid out in "the atlantic story." there's been no internal operational control over the situation to the extent they are prepared to respond from a legal perspective. they're prepared to respond politically. the president has taken it unto himself because he is unto

himself all things, the idea he could best message a response to this whenever it happens. and that's why you see a giuliani and others out there saying, you know, a little backstroke here. well, this guy two weeks, three weeks for other people or whatever. the reality of it is trump controls this. always has. always will. right to the bitter end. and that is the frustrating part for people trying to get this man's feet off the hot colals ad he keeps putting them back in. i won't be surprised if there's a lot of black print on those pages. mueller is not going to, even in the sentencing charges to the courts, detail out for the public at this point. certainly for the trump team stuff he plans to drop later on. he's not going to do it. still ahead on "morning joe" everything is relative.

yesterday's chaos inside the white house was wild. jonathan swann explains that and what it might mean for chief of staff john kelly. you're watching "morning joe." ♪ ♪ ♪ the united states postal service makes more holiday deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. ♪ with one notable exception. ♪

i saw my leg did not look right. i landed. i was just finishing a ride. i felt this awful pain in my chest. i had a pe blood clot in my lung. i was scared. i had a dvt blood clot. having one really puts you in danger of having another. my doctor and i chose xarelto®. xarelto®. to help keep me protected. xarelto® is a latest-generation blood thinner that's... proven to treat and reduce the risk of dvt or pe blood clots from happening again. in clinical studies, almost 98% of patients on xarelto® did not experience another dvt or pe. xarelto® works differently. warfarin interferes with at least 6 of your body's natural blood-clotting factors. xarelto® is selective, targeting just one critical factor. don't stop taking xarelto® without talking to your doctor, as this may increase risk of blood clots. while taking, you may bruise more easily, or take longer for bleeding to stop. xarelto® can cause serious, and in rare cases, fatal bleeding. it may increase your risk of bleeding if you take certain medicines. get help right away for unexpected bleeding or unusual bruising.

do not take xarelto® if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. before starting, tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures and any kidney or liver problems. learn all you can... to help protect yourself from another dvt or pe. talk to your doctor about xarelto®. from capital one.nd i switched to the spark cash card i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy. and last year, i earned $36,000 in cash back. which i used to offer health insurance to my employees. what's in your wallet? ibeen building them fora 115 years,hat's get a ford. if you want a car with driver-assist technology, get a ford. if you want waze and amazon alexa compatibility,

get a ford. if you want a car that doesn't have any of that, get anything... but a ford. otherwise, you're gonna want a ford. ♪ unstopand it's strengthenedting place, the by xfi pods,gateway. which plug in to extend the wifi even farther, past anything that stands in its way.

...well almost anything. leave no room behind with xfi pods. simple. easy. awesome. click or visit a retail store today. joining us now national political reporter, jonathan swann. good to have you onboard this morning. anything going on? >> we're reaching peak uncertainty right now, aren't we? >> yesterday was kind of crazy. i'm sure i'm not alone -- >> i mean, what are you talking about? it's friday. >> the crazy meter, is it a 9? >> i think there's not a zero percent chance that something happens with john kelly, but i've said before i need someone's tongue to be notarized before i write that story. it's like ground hog day. yesterday was crazy.

people widely believed something is going to happen with kelly and the most likely person to replace him is nick ayers. it shows you how much uncertainty there is in the building and that kelly has been seen as someone living on borrowed time and no one is in charge except for the president. >> it could be the terms of his departure he doesn't want to give up to his voice like stick to go a loyalty oath. some people need to start talking about what's happening in there. >> let's talk about nick ayers, a guy a lot of trump allies don't trust. why does trump trust him? >> the family trusts him. hold on a second. >> wow. that was great. >> the kids said, hey dad, we

have a great idea, let's bring in paul manafort. i could go down the list. the kids loved michael flynn. let's let michael flynn fly around the country. at what point does donald trump realize his children give him really, really bad advice? and, by the way, bad advice that has caused some great legal problems for him. >> i can't crawl inside donald trump's head and analyze those relationships. >> thank god. >> it's true. this is a not insignificant faction inside the white house trying to stop this from happening and that's why i'm not putting a fork in this at all. there are plenty of detractors throughout the building. >> you understand donald trump because your son, george w., is

your agent, negotiators all of your deals with nbc. >> that's why i'm working subminimum wage and taking a second and third job. >> very cute. >> what are you talking about? >> jonathan, let me ask you based on this report in "the atlantic" about rudy giuliani going on the record saying it took donald trump three weeks to answer questions that should have taken two days. what do you make of the idea that there is no plan in place. giuliani promised there would be a counter report as soon as the mueller report came out but it looks like there is no plan other than tweeting from the president. >> far be it for me to defend rudy giuliani but i will in a narrow sense because i've had this same conversation with him about a week ago. he means it's so hard to get the president's time.

of course there's no plan for some details counter report. rudy says this on the record. a conversation with rudy is an adventure. you jump on the horse and you ride the horse and rudy takes you all around the world and you latch on and listen to him. he also corrects himself on the record so you say things like i said to him, rudy, southern district of new york, are you worries about what the chief financial officer of the trump organization will say? do you feel like you know? oh, no, no, no, it's all fine. how do you know that? have you spoken to him? no, i haven't. and i said, so how can you be so sure? he said, just say reasonably confidence. >> jonathan swan, thank you very much. coming up, there's a looming threat to president trump's re-election chances and we're not talking about bob mueller. john harwood describes what he sees as the potential crisis in

waiting. from the very beginning, it was always our singular focus, a distinct determination to do whatever it takes, and use every possible resource to fight cancer, and never lose sight

of the patients we're fighting for. our cancer treatment specialists share the same vision: experts from all over the world, working closely together to deliver truly personalized cancer care, specialists focused on treating cancer using advanced technologies, and more precise treatments than before. working as hard as we can-doing all that we can- for everyone who walks through our doors. this is cancer treatment centers of america comprehensive cancer care network. and these are the specialists we're proud to call our own. treating cancer is more than our mission. it's our passion. expert medicine works here. learn more at cancercenter.com. cancer treatment centers of america. appointments available now. -we have the power -to make a difference, right now. we have the power to make sure everyone has clean water. to provide access to education for all. -to rid the world of aids, -once and for all.

we have the power. to choose to include. to create clean energy. to raise capital. and be fearless entrepreneurs. to understand different perspectives. we stand behind all our partners working to make a difference. what would you like the power to do?

we stand behind all our partners working to make a difference. so lionel, what does 24/5 mean to you?rade well, it means i can trade after the market closes. it's true. so all... evening long. ooh, so close. yes, but also all... night through its entirety. come on, all... the time from sunset to sunrise. right. but you can trade... from, from... from darkness to light. ♪ you're not gonna say it are you? we're moments away from the

release of the monthly jobs report. and joining us now cnbc editor at large john harwood out with a new piece entitled donald trump could the first president since jimmy carter to run for re-election during a recession. also with us chief national correspondent for "the new york times" magazine, katty kay and eugene robinson are back with us as well. >> so, john, as we wait for the numbers, talk about the premise of your column. >> the economy is slowing down. we had 3.5 in the third. it expects to be lower -- or forecasts expect it to be lower in the fourth quarter and lower next year. the stimulus is going to wind down. it is not certain we're going to have a recession in 2020 but a recent survey of business economists found two-thirds of them expect it by the end of 2020. an analyst we use a lot on cnbc

is now accelerating her free dix. that is very rare. presidents usually time it so the economy is growing when they're seeking re-election. the last one who didn't have it work out that way was jimmy carter. >> the other premise is that donald trump will run for re-election. i don't know about that. >> i agree with you. between the threats from the economy and the mueller report and the other political difficulties that he is about to face with the house in control of the other party, i think the chances are quite good that he does not run for re-election. >> i don't think he will run and he will say i have done in four years what it takes most -- >> declare victory. >> couldn't be any greater. >> he fixed it. >> i want to underline something you said. >> the national association for

business economics has a periodic survey of economic forecasters from leading american corporations. two-thirds said they expect a recession by the end of 2020. that's not universal. greg who was head of the council of economic advisers for president george w. bush told me he thought the odds were 25%. we don't know. but when you see the uncertainty over trade, when you see the economy slowing down. when you see the demographics constraints of we don't have enough workers to fill the jobs and questions about does the fed get it right as they try to normalize rates, it is unpredictable and the markets are worried about it. >> mark, you have a piece in "the new york times" magazine about old washington colliding with new washington. >> this past week -- this is, by the way, still our national week of mourning.

it was bizarre to think about that on monday and it's bizarre to think of it now. the courtesy call lasted one day and we're back to president trump. >> katty is wearing black. >> i am, too. >> there's a back to normal sense already and traditionally on weeks like this democrats and republicans come together. president trump should make common cause. kellyann conway should be tweeting on the same page. again, this shows we are in very uncharted territory and today as we sit here talking almost 9:00 we don't know what the next few hours will bring is a perfect example of this. >> we did see glimpse of democrats and republicans getting along. we've had the mccain and bush

funeral back-to-back over the past few mon showing america, showing the world. this is how we usually do things. there's a good chance this is how we're going to do things when donald trump goes wherever donald trump goes at the end of his term whenever that may be. >> there was something reassuring about it. not everyone in washington has gone insane. not everyone has gone crazy during the trump years. and it is possible to have a different political culture from the toxic political culture we have now. that said, i do think that trump is more a symptom than a cause. we are in the middle of some sort of realignment, one of dislocation. things will be bumpy for a while, i think.

but donald trump adds an ineffable something to this mix. he's a unique figure. >> he's actually even unique in the video we're showing. the only one not taking part in the service. >> he doesn't know the apostles creed. >> you could see there was an awkwardness in the body language between the president and first lady and the other three who have a good relationship including with george w. bush as well and donald trump sat there at the end not really taking part in the service. people in the room said he seemed to fidget a lot, that that two-hour process put him almost judd of the room. not part of what was going on.

>> and george w. bush and michelle obama. that's the next buddy movie. >> donald trump was there for a reason. voters rejected that old normal just two years ago just in the same way george herbert walker bush was not re-elected. >> and voters, i must say before we go, mika, voters rejected the new normal. >> right. >> just a month ago with the largest legislative land side for democrats since watergate. >> dom, lower than expected number? >> lower than expected number. we have jops coming in at 155,000 created for the month of november. they were looking for 198,000. the unemployment rate stays the same.

a key measure to see if americans are making more money. they grew by 0.2%. the october and september numbers were revised to a net down 12,000. it looks as though the hiring was happening in health care. transportation related industries gained around 25,000 jobs. the labor force stays unchanged. those people who don't have full-time jobs or working multiple part time jobs because of economic need ticks slightly higher to 7.6%.

back over to you. >> dominick chu, thank you. greatly appreciate it. john harwood, what do you think? >> well, it is natural in the ninth year of a recovery for things to slow down. we have been running at a 200,000 jobs a month pace for quite some time. and once you start getting the labor market pretty tight, it becomes more difficult to sustain those gains. wages ticking up. i think the market will look for what happens in the china negotiations to see how uncertain they think the outlook is. >> so, jean, the u.s. economy is so cyclical. it's like a massive, massive freighter that perhaps at times a president, a single president, couldn't turn it around if they wanted to. >> right, right.

>> in this case if there is a recession in 2020, we're due. we're due. that said you look at what donald trump and the republican congress passed last year with these massive tax cuts, we're going to stimulate the economy, when other people said it wasn't going to stimulate the economy. they said it would help working class voters. a lot of other people said, no, big stock buybacks. this is the rich getting richer. here we are a year later and the only thing those massive tax cuts have done have made the rich richer, the largest corporations richer, and added to the national debt. >> corporations have been spending that money buying back stock and they have not been spending that money building new plants and creating this massive new jobs and this massive economic activity that was supposed to lift all boats.

the economy is cyclical. the ocean liner is turning. i don't think anything is going to stop it. the question is when we go into recession and whether it's 2020 or 2021 or whatever, i don't know. >> the tax cuts do seemed to have accelerated growth. it's just that's a short term phenomenon that will wear off. >> the degree to which donald trump supporters even amongst the farming community who have stuck with him despite the problem of trying to export soybeans, how much these people stick with him if we do get a slowdown in 2020. do those people still turn out and vote in the same numbers if the economy is ticking down when he has tied himself to their financial fortunes.

this is the right thing to do. i wonder how long that lasts. >> i suspect not that long. when you look at people who voted for barack obama many of them eight years later, four years later even voted for donald trump. >> john harwood, thank you very much for joining us this morning. up next, outgoing u.n. ambassador nikki haley is set to do something that's pretty hard to do, escape the trump administration untarnished. and if you ask joe, democrats should be running against her and not donald trump. here we go.

discover. i like your card, but i'm absolutely not paying an annual fee. discover has no annual fees. really? yeah. we just don't believe in them. oh nice. you would not believe how long i've been rehearsing that. no annual fee on any card. only from discover. oh, mianother dilemma.kfast, am i willing to pay the price for loving you? you'll make my morning, but ruin my day. complicated relationship with milk? pour on the lactaid. it's delicious 100% real milk, just without that annoying lactose. mmm, that's good. lactaid. the real milk that doesn't mess with you. and for chocolate lovers, try rich, creamy lactaid chocolate milk.

but some give their clients cookie cutter portfolios. fisher investments tailors portfolios to your goals and needs. some only call when they have something to sell. fisher calls regularly so you stay informed. and while some advisors are happy to earn commissions whether you do well or not. fisher investments fees are structured so we do better when you do better. maybe that's why most of our clients come from other money managers. fisher investments. clearly better money management. ( ♪ ) what do you get the person that loves to tailgate? (click, beeps)

( ♪ ) how about a new tailgate? ring in the holidays with great deals across the buick lineup. use your avenir cash allowance to get over $6,200 below msrp on this 2019 enclave avenir. discover card. to get over $6,200 below msrp i justis this for real?match, yep. we match all the cash back new cardmembers earn at the end of their first year, automatically. whoo! i got my money! hard to contain yourself, isn't it? uh huh! let it go! whoo! get a dollar-for-dollar match at the end of your first year.

she's under very serious consideration. she's excellent and has been with us a long time. she's been a supporter for a long time and is really excellent. we'll probably make a decision next week. >> presidents trump is expected

to announce heather nauert as the next u.s. ambassador to the united nations later today. multiple sources familiar with the decision told nbc news. nauert is the state department spokesperson and the under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs. she previously worked at fox news on and off for nearly two decades before joining the trump administration in 2017. that comes two months after the current u.s. ambassador to the u.n. nikki haley announced she is stepping down. the former governor is the subject of an exclusive new subject interview in "the atlantic" entitled "nikki haley is emerging from the trump administration unscathed. "joining us now staff writer at "the atlantic" gary friedman who writes this about the outgoing ambassador. haley perhaps more skillfully has navigated major differences with trump while cultrating

common ground and has done it representing an organization he once denounced as no friend to the united states. >> what was your take away? what did you learn? >> well, one thing i was particularly struck by how much she emphasized values. we think about transactionalism. she talks so much about human rights. she said the most dangerous thing we can do is ignore and turn a baseline eye to human rights violations. that is something that is striking and reminds us -- she endorsed marco rubio in the primary. that is not the way donald trump often talks. >> what does she do with this? she has political ambitions of her own. what does she do and when? >> so she -- i asked her what her campaign slogan will be and she didn't bite. she wants to binge tv and sleep. has been in public service for eight years and doesn't want to

look at her phone and be scared and have a pit in her stomach. she's 46 years old. she's extremely popular. it is possible down the line she will want to run. it's important to understand how she views the world. i don't think we can think of donald trump's america first vision as the settled future of the republican party. there are conflicting visions. >> nikki haley talking about human rights is almost reagan-esque. human rights used to be mentioned all the time especially in relation to china and russia. now you don't even hear that anymore. freedom, freedom of the press, to me is an interesting wedge in the party. >> how fascinating when you hear nikki haley talk at the united nations she sounds reagan-esque.

when you hear mike pence talking even in the baltic states, he sounds very reagan-esque. everybody around donald trump do not sound like donald trump. they sound like ronald reagan on policy. >> one thing i've always been concerned about with nikki haley she was governor of south carolina. she didn't have a whole lot of foreign policy experience. she seems to have been a quick study. what was your sense of her as an intellectual? >> she traced her focus to two things related to her governorship and background. she feels human rights are important for everyone not just americans, it doesn't matter where you were born and raised and has pointed in charleston when she decided to take down the confederate flag and that

made her feel valued and important. she said, which i thought was interesting, she learned a lot of negotiation skills that she was able to apply. and one thing i was struck by, do you remember that period in the summer and fall of 2017 donald trump was talking about fire and fury in little rock and she told me this really fascinating story of how she used negotiation skills and almost applied the madman theory from nixon to say i don't know what he's going to do in china and russia. he might go. i can't control him. and she was able to get really what i think is her greatest accomplishment, three rounds of sanctions passed that were the severest ever. were we really going to go to war? and she said, no. that's the first time a trump administration official has said no. if they launched something close to the united states he totally would have done something but, no, we were not going to instigate something. if you heard them during that period we never knew if trump was serious or not. >> thank you so much.

fascinating. great to have you on the show. nbc news can confirm john kelly is expected to be out in the days ahead according to four sources. the nation pauses to remember the anniversary of the attack on pearl harbor 77 years ago today. we'll reflect on that next on "morning joe." life isn't a straight line. things happen. and sometimes you can find yourself heading in a new direction. but at fidelity, we help you prepare for the unexpected with retirement planning and advice for what you need today and tomorrow. because when you're with fidelity, a partner who makes sure every step is clear, there's nothing to stop you from moving forward.

so shark invented duo clean. while deep cleaning carpets, the added soft brush roll

picks up large particles, gives floors a polished look, and fearlessly devours piles. duo clean technology, corded and cord-free. and fearlessly devours piles. with my bladder leakage, the products i've tried just didn't fit right. they were too loose. it's getting in the way of our camping trips. but with a range of sizes, depend fit-flex is made for me. with a range of sizes for all body types, depend fit-flex underwear is guaranteed to be your best fit.

the new capital one savor card. earn 4% cash back on dining and 4% on entertainment. now when you go out, you cash in. what's in your wallet?

for know your value, we travel the country, catty joins us, joe comes along, to teach women how to know their value and communicate it effectively. we had an amazing event we want to share with you. fun, right? >> oh, fantastic. this is a look at our first foray on to the west coast for know your value. >> are you ready to know your value? whoo. >> we're going to learn our value today and we're going to grow it immediately. so important. respect first. friendships will follow. remember, it's not personal. learn to press reset. don't act. be authentically you. above all, value yourself. it was a full house in the city

by the bay. tackling issues that matter to women the most. knowing their value, owning their voice and getting what they deserve. >> come prepared. know your numbers. work hard to establish a rapport with whomever you're negotiating with. >> we tend to think somehow we're there by the grace of our employees. really not. you're there because you're good. >> there was mira sorvino on me too. >> change the culture brick by brick. >> the ceo of time's up. >> failure is not fatal, it is feedback. >> deya sims on rising to the top. >> you have to be comfortable of thinking my value is three times what i think it is. i want to come in with an audacious, obnoxious, out of galaxy request because i'm worth it. >> ckamala harris broke the new she will decide soon whether she will run for president. >> over the holiday, i will make that decision with my family.

let's be honest and you know more than most, it's going to be ugly. there's breaking involved. when you break things, it is. aful. >> we talked money, networking. sexual harassment. mental health. reinvention and new beginnings. >> have you guys met my new husband? >> on body language, former federal investigator showed the power of effective x ivive commn skills. forces women to dig deep. >> that next negotiation, that next chunk of money, we have to ask for it. because people are depending on us. >> we took a hard look on what it means not just to know your value but to live it every day. >> we are just a couple minutes away from the big pitch. >> we wrapped the day with the grow your value bonus competition. three amazing women who we coached, styled and supported as they pitched their value live on

stage. >> this is your moment, go. >> i became a pilot not to become a bad ass but because i was already one. >> i want to go back to school to get my degree so i can continue to touch people's lives. >> she compelled the contestants to step up like danielle who went from this -- >> one of the things i want to focus on in coaching is learn to develop better boundaries at work. >> to this. >> it was this voice inside of me that said i was destineded for greater things. and this voice scares me but it makes me raise my hand when i'm afraid and i know that i may be small, but my future is big and my dreams are big and they're going to get done. >> and the shy grad student from oakland won the day and our hearts. >> i never would have thought something like this could happen to me. i made it happen today. i'm just so grateful. >> for these events -- have

always been special. i know catty will agree. this took it to a new level. >> this is great. i wanted all of them to win. >> i know. all three of them -- >> so great. it really was. i was so, so proud of the process that these women went through and she did such a great job with them. to see exclusive interviews, go to knowyourvalue.com. >> incredible panelists. elizabeth vargas. amazing. mira sorvino. so much. >> we took the conversation to the next level which is what we always try and do. on to the next one. >> final thoughts. will john kelly still know his value by the end of today? >> i hope so. >> i was actually thinking about

some kind of silly transition like that. john kelly, he came up briefly before. who is next. how this winds down for him. >> gene, we said good-bye to george h.w. bush. a young man who was in a high school at andover on december 7th, 1941, and he knew immediately what he had to do. >> the service on wednesday at the national cathedral was amazing. i was touched by the service yesterday in houston which was for family. there was something more personal about it. if you've ever buried a parent, you know how tough that is. your heart also s go out to the family. it's a tough time for them.

now we will swing back to today's washington. >> serve, the president well to have people close to them to tell them when they're on track, when they're off track. george h.w. bush had it. clinton had it. george bush had it. you look at this president and say who is there around him who can help him navigate these moments? >> that's a question, mika, we talked about loyalty going both wayings. sort of loyalty that your father provided jimmy carter through his entire life. that we saw with the bushes, the clintons, you name it. we don't see it with donald trump. and now the vise tightens from mueller and the southern district of new york. there is no loyalty around donald trump. >> i want to thank madeleine albright. it was such an honor to be part of the 35th anniversary and i

want to thank her for her book fascism, a warning. that does it for us this morning. >> -- buy it today. >> go out and buy it today. stephanie ruhle. >> hi there, i'm stephanie ruhle. a lot to cover today. starting with striking a nerve. president trump goes off on twitter, blasting robert mueller's investigation as well as jim comey who is expected to appear on capitol hill within the hour to deliver closed door testimony. meanwhile, new court document are also set to be unveiled on paul manafort and michael cohen. revealing just how much cohen is cooperating and just how much paul manafort lied. a political u-turn. shocking new details emerge in north carolina's election fraud investigation. and money trail leading back to the republican candidate but calls for new election are becoming even louder. even from the head of