welcome to a special holiday edition of "morning joe." we are on tape. if you have no sense of humor, we are on tape. we hope everyone is having a nice holiday, on tape or live. with us, we have veteran columnist mike barnicle. white house reporter for the associated press, jonathan la mere. cute haircut. david ignatius. >> do not even ask how we did this. >> capitol hill correspondent

and host of casey d.c. casey hunt. all right. we will talk about that later. we have a lot to talk about moving forward here. >> jonathan, we are reviewing the year. the story of the year, of course is the boston red sox. >> world series championships. >> we were consistent. this team is going to fall short. take that with a grain of salt as we predict 2019. >> i want to talk about, though, you are at a white house. you followed so many stories. looking back over the year, sum

it up in 15 seconds. where do we find ourselves at the end of 2018? how much has the election of nancy pelosi, the speaker, how much has that changed the dynamics? >> more than anything, it's a year the wall creeped closer and closer to the president. he's under investigation on a number of fronts, not just the special counsel. we have probes in the inaugural committee and the foundation and the trump organization. we have michael cohen, his former fixer say, in court, he committed crimes at the direction of individual one, the president of the united states. now, we have donald trump, who already had a depleted west wing staff, who is facing not just the legal pressure, but the house of representatives went to the democratic party. they are armed with a subpoena and talk of impeachment. we have a president who found himself weaker and weaker, whether it was his performance

with vladimir putin and to signs the economy is slowing. he begins 2019 far more vulnerable. >> let me ask you the same question, david, about foreign policy. where do we find ourselves at the end of 2018? >> this has been a difficult year. we encountered more reversals than i can remember in terms of relationships with allies, our relationship with germany, with britain and other key allies. it's as weak as it has been in many years. at the same time, we see resurgent, pure competitors in russia and china being assertive. so, i think, at the end of this year, we are seeing donald trump's policies disruption abroad in a weird way being successful. the world is disrupted. whether it's good for the united

states, hards to say. as we look forward, joe, we need to have north korea at the top of our minds. the north korean nuclear threat is as potent as it was a year ago. donald trump promised to sit down with kim jong-un. what is going to happen there? we go into a confrontation mode? many think it is likely. will the president pull another rabbit out of the hat? it's a question i'm going to think about as the year turns. kasie, capitol hill, the year that was and the radical changes, dramatic changes coming in 2019. >> incredibly dramatic, joe. jonathan talked about the investigative portion of this. it's going to be, potentially, a really, really difficult year for this president and considering how 2018 went for him on the legal front, that is saying something.

it's clear there are a lot of shoes to drop with the investigations ongoing. with addition of subpoena power from democrats is going to be significant. the other piece of this is he is going to face divided government. we got a taste of what that is going to be like at the end of the year with the contentious oef oval office meeting. democrats have leverage. the past two years have been dominated by republicans doing things with their own votes, 50 votes in the senate, tax reform, failed attempts to repeal and replace obamacare. they are not going to be able to do that anymore. they are going to need democratic votes in the senate. they are going to need democratic votes in the house. i'm interested to see how this president, you frequently joke donald trump has been a democrat longer in life than a republican, are they going to do

things that would be traditional democratic priorities, infrastructure and government spending? things like that? >> the questions they will finally be able to ask, some of the questions on the table and i wonder how it plays out, elijah cummings sends letters to the head of the hhs, homeland security attorney general demanding age, gender, country or origin and location of every child separated from his or her parents under the immigration policy. will they be compelled to answer? is now the time we get the answers? >> i think we will. you look at that, what he was able to get away with for the past two years because paul ryan let him get away with it. that nonsense is over. >> there will be no midnight runs to the white house with adam schiff running to the

president. there will be more pressure on the president by virtue of democrats having power. adam jiff, jerry nader, they have been very careful. democrats have been very careful talking impeachment. nancy pelosi very careful. jer jerry nather said they want to follow the facts. he also said it appears to him the president and his campaign perpetuated a fraud in the election of 2016. what is your sense, kasie of how aggressive democrats are going to be? as you know, there are many voters, many progressives and activists who want to move hard against president trump. >> reporter: that's for sure. i do think leadership on the democratic side and the house is united in viewing this as something that would be simply a

huge political step and one that would need to be bipartisan. so, i'd almost look more to republicans and how they are handling this president as a way to tell us whether or not democrats are going to be willing to go there. i think that's a shrewd political move on the part of nancy pelosi. i think she understands the future of the democratic party is going to lie with independent voters who turned on the president if they want to win back the presidency in 2020. 2020 is also going to be the wild card for how this plays out in addition to the revelations that continue to come from the ongoing legal battles. the reason i say that, how many members of congress are running in 2020? how many are fighting to be seen as the progressive choice, the progressive voice? they have been running around the country for impeachment. forget what we learned in the

final months of 2018. i think that presidential battle, which is going to start soon here as we are heading into the new year could put pressure on democrats in the house. the interesting thing is whether or not that pressures leaders like nancy pelosi. >> throughout 2018, the mueller investigation, at times, seemed to be in jeopardy. that is going to be a big change in 2019. adam schiff, as he is coming in on the intel committee for the democrats said protecting the mueller investigation is one of his top priorities. go to the senate side, donald trump doesn't have a lot of friends when he attacks robert mueller. you have chairman burr who has been steadfast saying this investigation must move forward until it comes to a natural

conclusion. >> all of that, joe, all that we have been talking about here suggests, obviously, clearly, the walls are closing in on the presidency. 17 different investigations. all of it, i wonder, and with some fear, i would like to ask david about this, in terms of if wild card, this is all domestic that we are talking about here. but, there's clearly been a shift in policy in syria and turkey and is 2019, in your view, going to have an element of danger to it in terms of our foreign policy, reaction to what's happening in the middle east? almost all of it controlled by the president, depending on what he wants to do, a year of danger. >> we are closer to confrontation with russia. by that i mean shooting confrontation than any reasonable person would want.

the instance in the last month, six weeks, surrounding ukraine should worry all of us. when you have russians ramming boats in the black sea and capturing their crews, when you have close confrontations with jets and ships at sea. you know, you are too close. same thing in asia. we are poised in a much more confrontational way with china. china wants to push back. >> john, we are reminded, time and again, robert mueller is in the backdrop of this. we don't know what is coming around the corner in 2019 with mueller. we had one former prosecutor say we know 1% to 2% of what bob mueller is working on. i wonder, who is around the president as we head into the

new year? he lost his chief of staff. he has nick in there. his children? where are the guardrails? who is around the president as the walls close. >> the circle around the president has really shrunk. john kelly was able to impose a degree of discipline on the west wing. that faded. he and the president were barely speaking the last few months. you have the attorney general, jeff sessions who drew the president's wrath. he was there and rob rosenstein were there to run some interference with the mueller probe. time will tell with whittaker whether that will continue. in the west wing, mulvaney is someone who is a strong choice. there's not a lot of confidence he will say no to the president.

he's not someone who is going to step up and say, sir, this is not what you should be doing. same with the white house counsel coming into the job. at this point, the president's closest confidants are his family. there's few people who can still get in the way and tell the president, this is a bad idea, you shouldn't be doing this. this leads him to be more vulnerable than before with all the investigations closing in. >> and more impulsive. >> yes. >> for the past couple months, the president and chief of staff have been barely speaking with one another. >> all right. we will leave it there. still ahead, the ap's year in review. the ten biggest stories of 2018. that is next. we'll be right back. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. great news for anyone wh-

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we have been covering big headlines all yearlong. it's a tough task to narrow down the top news stories of 2018 into a single list, but that is xwa exactly what the associated press does. we sat down with david to run through the top ten stories. >> let's hop into the countdown. ten is the kosoji killer. >> the saudis denied anything

bad happened. no, no, we didn't do it. then, by bit, the story leaked out. people were shocked by the details, dismemberment. the diplomatic repercussions, we don't know how that is going to play out. it's a story playing out. >> and the president's reaction or lack there of. we talked about the killing and the fear. >> the entire at least is scared of it. they are handing over cell phones, afraid to talk. trying to summarize, they are a group of people, usually the elite, but not exclusively. a family is important to the stabilization of saudi arabia. we need to protect them. there's another group of people saying absolutely not, you know?

he is untouchable. there is a red line. all people, on both sides, saying this man is not reliable. even if you work it out, he's never delivered anything. he promises it will take two months. it takes three years. whatever he says actually does not deliver. there's a lot of fear and they are putting all their bulls in american's hands. >> nine is climate change, which drew a good amount of people to the polls. >> i'm surprised this made the list because there's never been a day it made headline stories. i think it was the gradual consensus that climate change is real and linked to natural disasters. people made that connection. >> that correlates into eight, the california wildfires. >> exactly. the climate change is a sub text

for the horrible series of fires. the imagery, the photos hit people. >> number seven is the kavanaugh hearings. >> people were rooting for kavanaugh or for ford. they were really engaged emotionally. it was a different kind of story. >> six is u.s. immigration, a story that continues to play out even this morning. >> that was a year long story. again, the phase of the separation of family that moved people. that morphed into the caravans coming to the border. >> five is the u.s. midterm elections in which democrats flipped 40 seats but the president declared victory because they got a couple seats in the senate. >> in another year, it was

higher. there was so much going on this year. it was important as you said with seat changes. >> all the seats won at the state level as well. a few hundred or so. >> governorships as well. >> four is mass shootings. >> we felt bad having to make this entry. you would think any one of the high profile shootings would be an entry itself. to do justice to the overall effect, we decided to put them together. the synagogue in pittsburgh, the newspaper in annapolis, the country music bar. >> it happened this year. parkland, somebody was reminding us parkland happened in this year, 2018. how far removed we are from that. >> you will see, as we go on, parkland did have a distinctive resonance. >> harvey weinstein is due in

new york city to see if his trial will move forward. the metoo movement is three. >> that was the number one story last year. a lot of people wondered if it would have staying power this year. yeah, it did. bill cosby is in prison. the sports doctor in gymnastics. unbelievable, hundreds of people. >> two, the trump-russia probe. it goes on to see what the special counsel might reveal in 2019. >> we don't know the final act. that was a year long story. it kept morphing into different investigations. people are confused, what is the mueller probe and does it intermingle? they intertwine. >> the number one story of the

year, according to the associated press, the list out this morning, the parkland school shooting, which you separated from the mass shootings. how did you make that distinction? >> there is a strong reason. the aftermath. the students, some of them, almost immediately started organizing and spreading the word, we have to react differently. they had walkouts. it changed the momentum of the gun control movement. it's going off how that is going to play. it is remarkable. >> what jumps out at you on the list as you look at it? >> the overwhelming amount of news we see, stories tkavanaugh hearing seems like it was months

ago. >> i think it will be a big issue in 2020. >> how about for you? >> a lot of paradigm shifting, the metoo movement, a lot of shifting of paradigms, it's a new beginning, i hope. >> our thanks to the ap for that. let's turn to the law of the land. centuries in the making. we spoke with richard brookhouse about his new book, john marshall, the man who made the supreme court. let's start with where we have today. marshall's view of the supreme court shaped america for centuries yet the acting attorney general disagreed with his view of the supreme court. what do you make of that s? >> that's an opinion out there but it's a wrong withiopinion. marshall didn't invent judicial

review. people were familiar with that, people had written about it. he made it happen for the first time, 1803 decision where he was scolding the jefferson administration. he said they should have given a man an appointment to which he was entitled, but he could not give william the redress he sought because the law he was appealing to was unconstitutional. >> what was the court's role in american life back then and who was john marshall? how did he get there? >> the court's role was kind of small. the chief justiceship became vacant. adams lost his re-election. as lame duck, he was trying to stuff people in his party in as many jobs as he could. then he gets a letter from the

chief justice, my health is bad, i have to quit. adams nominates the first man to be chief justice, john jay. he held the job six years and left to be governor of new york. signs to the senate. the senate confirms him. he gets a letter from john jay, i'm not taking the job again. he says the court lacks energy, weight and dig any ty. i'm not going to go back to it. adams is sitting in his office in his brand-new white house with his secretary of state, john marshall, 45-year-old virginian. he says who do i nominate now? marshall says i don't know, sir. adams says i will nominate you. that's how he gets the job and stays there for 34 years. >> a fascinating character. fought with washington. fought with hamilton in the revolution. congressman, secretary of state. he came to the job with

incredible kcredentials and shaped the role of what a justice would be. when we look at justices today, how much did he have to do with that? >> he made the supreme court the peer of the executive and the congress. it had been a stepchild. that's why john jay wouldn't come back. he makes the supreme court give one opinion. it's not justices used to give their opinions one after another when deciding a case. under marshall, there's an opinion of the court, often unanimous, often written by him. we are one body, not a collection of six or seven guys. we are a court. here is our opinion. he takes them out of politics. before he got on, justices campaigned for people for president. you know? he sort of let them know, we shouldn't be doing this anymore. we have to try to put ourselves

above it all. the third thing is, he's there 34 years. it's still a record. he's young when he gets it. he's 45. he's there until he dies at 79. >> he makes a supreme court the third branch of government. >> yes. yes. >> what do you think he would think of how the legislature kind of has been punting so many, congress has been punting so many things to the supreme court? >> i think he would be surprised. you know, he had been in congress himself. i think he might very well think, come on guys, you have to step up your game. >> progressives have been taking up the mantle of judicial review to progress a legislative success. at what point can they no longer with stand the pressure? >> you know, over time it goes back and forth. there are times when the court pulls in its horns.

fdr tried to expand the size of the court. that failed in congress. the court began changing the decisions handed down on legislation, striking a lot of it down and all of a sudden, lo and behold, they stop striking it down. maybe word got to the justices to change the tap a little bit. >> our thanks to richard. coming up, we spoke with an author who tries to answer the question, why are we so angry? good luck. for many americans, partisan politics has a lot to do with it. that conversation is next on "morning joe."

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during anxious times, it can be difficult to follow the call of the angriest voices. resist that temptation. some think you have to be the loudest voice in the room to make a difference. that's not true. >> as far as i'm concerned, anger is okay. anger and energy is what this country needs. >> wow. anger has always been part of american politics. >> isn't that what yoda said to luke? >> anger leads to hate. >> look at that. >> whoa! she actually almost seemed kind of real. like that was -- >> could you give us that quote again? >> reporter: fear leads to anger. anger leads to hate. >> i love it. >> thank you. >> there you go.

>> i just -- we don't -- that's one thing i don't get. these days, it seems like that emotion, anger, is more dominant than ever. we recently sat down with best selling author, charles duhig who cover story attempts to answer the question, why are we so angry. did you get the answer? >> i tried. what's interesting is anger is one of the most positive emotions in the human vocabulary. if you look at the brains of people who are angry, they look similar to the brains of people who are happy. when you are angry, people pay attention. it's one of the densest forms of communication. anger on its own isn't the same thing. when anger becomes something else, when it becomes a vengeance, a desire for revenge, then it's corrosive and can

affect everything. >> it's easy to blame social media. i blame social media for a great deal of the coursening of politics. go back to watergate. go back to the 1960s, look at the street scenes in chicago during the democratic national convention. over the past 50-55 years, this has been a country that has been addicted to anger when it comes to politics. >> that's right. it's important to realize, trump is not the source of anger. he is a symptom, not the cause. if you ask, what do we know about this science of anger? where does anger come from? there's a difference between anger and a desire for revenge, which we are experiencing now, which we saw in 1968. when people feel like anger

doesn't produce results and the system stopped working, we stop being focused on shouting so people will listen, we beat the other guy. we don't stop until someone else said you are wrong, my bad. this white house resident, that's not going to happen. >> right. walter is with us from tulane. walter? >> when you are writing about social media and how social media by the algorithms, by the way it amplifies it, by the rewards it gives, in other words, you get retweeted. in sense, the increase of anger and rewards anger. is that part of the problem we are facing today? >> absolutely. it is a great question. you are right.

think about what would happen. when you or i yell at our wives and those unfortunate circumstances, what we are doing is trying to get a reaction. this is important to me. i want you to listen. what happens is a compromise. we come to an agreement. anger eradicates tensions. >> doesn't work with my 11-year-old daughter. >> maybe not 11-year-olds. you have to be careful. think about what happens when you post something angry online. it's not trying to convince someone else. it's letting it out. someone else, at the end of the line, at the other end of twitter says you are an idiot. you are a moron. it's not resolving a problem, it's inflaming them. social media is terrible about this. if you want to get an indifferent crowd to pay attention, shout and yell.

if you want to go viral, say something outrageous and attack someone else. you get rewarded for being angry, not bringing down the temperature. >> let's talk about that more, charles. the level of anger on social media and twitter, do you find it interesting that in most cases of mass shootings, no matter where they occur, one of the first things investigators do is track the social media accounts of the people perpetrating these things? >> absolutely. what we know is people who make the turn, the terrible turn to violence, they are not just angry, they are dispirited about the change anger will make a difference. there was a study of when people get fired from factories, layoffs. they found when you get fired and it feels fair. it seems like the system is working. they adhere to rules, follow

seniority. people might be upset. when they are fired in a way that is unfair, when justice breaks down, workers sabotage thank yo things. we need a system we can believe in to feel like our anger has productive impact. if that's not there, we are not just angry, we are vengeful. >> and dangerous. >> and dangerous. >> charles, we are surrounded by structures in life designed to wake up, harness and reflect anger. social media, attack ads, po politicians. >> exactly. >> is anything built to bring the temperature down? a social institution or structure that responds in a positive way? >> we have not seen a lot of it. there's an opportunity. it's not just politicians, it's

corporate america. in the article, there's a researcher who had a debt collection agency. they would train their debt collectors to get people riled up by yelling at them. as soon as they reach a pitch, calm them down. you feel good when someone isn't yelling anymore, you will agree to pay anything. the question becomes, how do we reward people for not amping up our anger? is there a system out there that helps cool the temperatures? we, as voters and the citizens, we have to stop following the people on twitter who are the angriest and follow the ones who say, look, have a rational conversation. >> how do you find them? >> look for someone with a low number of followers. or, frankly, at this point, look for anyone who isn't in the white house. >> our thanks to charles for

that conversation. up next, we turn from anger to laughter. we sat down with a comedian who has been impersonating the president. he is incredible. that's next on "morning joe." g . when you have a cold, pain from chest congestion can make this... ...feel like this. all-in-one cold symptom relief from tylenol®, the #1 doctor recommended pain relief brand.

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what a great rally. what a great rally. we are here in pennsylvania, home of steel and we love steel.

we love steel, don't we, folks? and we love aluminum and the aluminum foil. we use it to wrap up the leftovers and we love the leftovers. and we are going to put the foil in the microwave. they say you can't do that, but they also said i can't win. i'm the human equivalent of putting aluminum foil in the microwave. >> ma was a clip from comedy central. joining us, the creator and star of the series, one of the best trump impersonators, the author of "american tantrum" good to see you. how long have you been impersonating donald trump? >> since 2018. i work with the upright citizens

brigade. i was impro vising. i thought this would be funny. i tried doing trump. i wrote a show because it came true. it was a press conference after he won, march 17, 2017. we toured, my friend james and i playing trump and bernie that did 40 cities internationally and nationally. then i had to learn to be him. >> what is the key. alec baldwin does it. what is the key to a good trump? >> physically, have no center of gravity. keep your arms up and waving all the time and always pivot. when you turn, you crane like an animal? >> neck jury. >> after this rally, let's have a telethon. should we do it? >> abandon morality and logic

and any sense of order and you can do his thought process. >> let's drop one of the best impersonators. i thought it was trump when a clipplaying. >> everyone knows the press is terrible people, the worst people. that's why i'm trying to change liable laws to make it easier to sue the crooked media but the lawyers say it's impossible. so executive order. so the first amendment is the last amendment. and the second amendment is promoted to the first amendment. from now on you have to say something with a gun. >> i want so ask you how many hours were you forced to watch trump in order to start mimicking him. >> on the road i watched every rally from september on.

it was like watching jonestown play out without the end. >> let's talk about the book, "american the tantrum." what do we find when we open this up? >> i wrote this book with my friend neil casey before the michael wolfe book came out. it's the journey of this character casey nelson who met trump at some point at a golf party and he's there to interview the president. there's a true line of casey's journey with the president and transcript after transcript, interviews, phone calls. we have excerpts from steve bannon's like fantasy fiction novels. basically like dan brown occ oro -- occult movies. it's a tribute to americana.

>> what do you figure the number of people in the united states of america who might pick this book up, start reading it and think it's nonfiction? >> i think a lot of people. we captured them, my good friend told me there's things in here that he heard him say. in addition when the sars report, all the report about the suspicious activities and his father's money being poured in that's like a series in here that we wrote ten months ago. we've been predicting both with the show and book forever. we predicted the kids separation of families on the show almost a year before it happened. >> i love the different versions of trump you have. if you don't mind walking us through them. casual trump. what's casual trump. >> casual trump is, you know when he was dancing at the church and sort of like in fleetwood mac. casual trump is breezy, light.

casual trump walks with the umbrella while his wife is walking uncovered. and he's a breezy guy who done care. he's the guy who says who cares, who cares about elizabeth warren dna test. >> are you singing the national anthem to avoid answering the question ♪ and the ramparts -- rampart >> do you know the words >> quiet honey, if words mattered i wouldn't be president today. >> how about rally trump? >> rally trump, that's where he's the medicine man. he's sweaty.

he's more louie armstrong. he gets in there and belts more. he's a calmer response. this is where he's telling a story to his followers. i think people don't understand how important the rallies are in galvanizing the support because the rallies are the story that the people who support him follow. that they are a part of his story. i will say fundamentally misunderstand what's happening in this country, i'll say that. >> who is going to pay for the wall? who is going to pay for the wall? who is going to pay for the whaul? they won't even let me build the wall. congress won't pay for it. the military won't pay for it. i guess i'll just give up and make you pay for it. doesn't that sound nice? >> last nice, prompter trump.

>> that's a grandmother reading "good night moon." my favorite thing is steve bannon's dungeon and dragon's thing. he stands there and goes -- watch he so hates the prompter and he huffs and the turns and look at the next one and barely can spit the words out. >> it's so clear when he ad libs and goes back to the prompter. >> he hasn't read the speech. he's commenting -- he's doing the notes while reading it. this is a chance for all americans to set aside our differences. no matter which side of the aisle you're on. from the instructionist freedom stealing democrats to the unamerican witch-hunting democrats, we can't politicize our politics. somber. >> the book is "american

tantrum." anthony thanks so much. congratulations. you got a whole massachusetts thing going on there. >> forget it. i'll see you at the new bridge. >> absolutely. >> we'll be right back with more "morning joe". "morning joe".

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new aveeno® maxglow™ infusion drops with kiwi to lock moisture. and soy to even skin tone. unleash dewy, glowing skin from within. new aveeno® maxglow™. >> welcome back to the special taped holiday edition of "morning joe". still with us we have mike barnacle. jonathan lameer. david ignatius. and kasie hunt along with joe, willie and me. good to have you on board on this holiday. hope you enjoy yourselves. as we head into the new year there's multiple foreign policy questions facing the united states. chief among them saudi arabian relations the ongoing fallout from jamal khashoggi's murder and u.s. involvement in the saudi-led war in yemen. trump's trade war with china, which is beginning to have a massive impact on america's economy.

north korea's ongoing nuclear and ballistic missile programs and expected second trump-kim summit. jared kushner's peace plan. america's closest ally the united kingdom could be leaving the eu in march. russia's increased aggression aimed at american ally ukraine. and amid all this the united states is still at war in afghanistan for the 17th consecutive year. >> david ignatius, that summarizes just about everything except one thing i want to ask you about. that is the administration's decision to take our troops out of syria despite objections from the pentagon. what does that mean? >> joe, that was a shock to the pentagon. they didn't see it coming. they were really blind sided by it. pentagon officials from secretary mattis on down feel

very proud of the operation that they've conducted in northeast syria, which destroyed what was once a toxic threat to the region, namely isis. did it out of sight of the american public for the most part. did it with very low cost financially and in terms of american lives lost. and there was a hope that those troops might remain as a stabilizing force as syria gradually gets back on its feet. so pulling the plug on that mission, which just recently happened, i think will be distressing to all the men and women in uniform who were a part of that operation. what i think the u.s. is trying to do is get back in the diplomacy game more aggressively, challenging russia's role as the peacemaker and this was seen as a necessary requirement to get turkey on side with us in that process.

but, again, i've spoken often on this show -- i just wish people could see this very small, couple thousand americans winning a significant success over these last few years. that period now appears to be ending but we should celebrate it. >> again, holding that group that david talked about, holding isis in check, defeating them, holding the iranians in check, and also the russians in check. what they did was extraordinary. >> the nominal strategy the u.s. has around which it organizes all of its middle east policy now is the need to check iran. that's why we have supported mbs the crown prince in saudi arabia so aggressively despite evidence that he was involved in killing my colleague jamal khashoggi. a key block against iranian expansion has been this american force in northeastern syria.

makes it very tough for the iranians to move forward. that space will be filled, from what i'm hearing by turkish led, turkish organized forces and they are much less reliable as a barrier against iran. so i think that you point out in some ways the biggest contradiction here, how it lines up with the american administration i can't tell you. i noticed in the last couple of months an eclipse for mike pompeo who had the president's mind on everything and a conhe is consequent rise for john bolton. it's one of the things we'll watch play out. >> if john bolton who spent most of his career attacking the russians and attacking the iranians, now pushing a policy that helps the russians and the iranians. >> right, exactly. pushing them to a place where

they will be happy us cutting and running or leaving syria in a place where russia can fill that void. i want to ask you too, david, about another item on the laundry list of foreign policy challenges that mika laid out at the top of this segment and that is north korea. the president left singapore summit talking about that he had achieved this great deal with kim jong-un for nuclear disarmedisar disarmame disarmament. north korea continues to build its missiles. what should be the posture of president trump and what hopeful notes can you give us as we head into the new year that there won't be some sort of conflict on the korean peninsula? >> willie, it's fair to say that president trump declared victory at his singapore summit and then left secretary pompeo holding the bag. okay, you figure out what's in this deal that i've been asked

that's going to defang the north korea nuclear threat. they are trying to figure that out. we say trump will meet for a second summit with kim jong-un. north koreans have to deliver more than they have in terms of real concession or even trump with love of summit pageantry will have to pull back from that. the north koreans are also in a fascinating situation. they bet long on donald trump. and i don't think they had any idea of just how vulnerable he would be at the end of 2018. they saw a president who was just on top of the world. so i think this is a period of re-examination for the north koreans. one reason they may be reluctant to give up nuclear weapons they don't think donald trump will be around long enough to deliver on the deal. >> kasie hunt, republicans have

pushed back, obviously, in recent weeks on the president's policy towards saudi arabia, pushed back a long time ago when he started attacking nato early in his term and also have not been hesitant to push back at times when he started engaging in trade wars and pushing tariffs. do you expect to hear more republicans in the senate strike back against the president, push back against the president's policies if they disagree with him? >> i do, joe. i think that at the end of the year you saw what was probably the most aggressive push back from the republican party as a whole on this president. basically since he was inaugurated. the challenge is that it's also the place where they have the least power. typically our presidents conduct our foreign policy, we often talk about politics stopping at the water's edge. congress has relatively limited tools in their arsenal if they do want to push back on the president, but i do think what you saw in that yemen vote was

significant. i also wonder how republicans may try to step up on the world stage. one thing that john mccain was doing in the time before he passed was making trips abroad to try to reassure world leaders that while we may be in an interlude with president trump, that america is still the america they know and has worked around the globe to join with european partners and allies to fight major world wars, to stand up for right in all of those things. so i'm interested to see, we're losing some key voices. bob corker stepping off the stage of foreign relations chairman. >> as we were talking about people stepping into voids, who is running right now donald trump's foreign policy besides donald trump? you look at the foreign policy team around him, who has the

most influence, whose influence is on the line. >> as david says, we're seeing john bolton become much more of a key voice. pompeo is still seen favorable by the president. but he's faded a little bit from the background. in terms -- when we talk about the middle east jared kushner's voice still looms very loudly. he's been the point person on this peace plan that's supposed to come out in the next few months, whether or not it has any life to it we'll see. kushner is the one who helped broker this tight relationship with mbs and saudi arabia, and the president has been listening to for months and willing to let this murder of this "washington post" journalist go unpunished, unmentioned. >> we heard donald trump was angry after the murder, thought jared kushner exposed him. is he past that? >> there was certainly some flash of that with jared kushner, but he's still his son-in-law, someone who just in the last couple of weeks delivered a victory on criminal

justice reform. he still wields a lot of influence in the white house. why he didn't want that chief of staff job that went to mick mulvaney. right now he has a more free flowing role. >> why is pompeo's influence on the wane? >> i don't want to overstate that, but there is a blockage for a moment on north korea. that's very much in pompeo's brief case. pompeo after the death of jamal khashoggi went to saudi arabia and i'm told privately, although there were paragraphs of smiles and, you know, affable scenes of mbs and pompeo was very blunt in telling him what he needed to do to re-establish any coherence

and credibility as leader. that hasn't worked out the way i think pompeo initially hoped and this has been an embarrassment for the white house. the white house feels exposed on the issue of saudi arabia, so i think some of the blame comes back to pompeo. pompeo looked like secretary mattis, it was embarrassing when they said there's no smoking gun linking mbs to the killing of khashoggi and then a week later, the cia director came up to the senate and said yes there's a smoke gun and privately told them some new details. so i think that's just part of the mix. pompeo is a guy with a lot of ambition. we shouldn't forget that mike pompeo would like to do other things in politics beyond being secretary of state. so we'll see how he recovers from this. >> still ahead we know by now who "time" magazine picked as its 2018 person of the year. but it is less clear exactly how the editors came to their decision. we dug into that during our conversation with "time's"

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i'm in product development at comcast. we're working to make things simple, easy and awesome. . there was no shortage of notable figures topping "time" magazine's list of finalist for person of the year from donald trump to vladimir putin to bob mueller. but in the end the editor's choice was the guardians. it highlights specific examples

of courage in journalism include jamal khashoggi. we sat down with "time's" editor-in-chief, edward felsenthal. take us inside the room. what was the debate and how tough was the whois? >> it was a tough choice. the main story lines of 2018 were moving really into last week, and so it was a tough year. but, you know, i think when we really stopped to look at the major themes, the common thread is the manipulation, abuse of trust, democracy in crisis and so we chose to highlight these individuals who are standing up for truth and free expression at a moment when technology and the political environment are threatening both around the world. >> was there any hesitancy within the debate, around the

table about this selection, about the, you know, the self-reverence, about the media, ourselves, self-absorption, things like that. >> these are people, all of them who took great risks, faced unimaginable obstacles, in some cases gave their lives for the pursuit of facts, of truth. there's an extraordinary quote from khashoggi in one of his last columns where he says i still worry, wake up every morning and ponder the choice i've made to speak my mind. this is a question for democracy, for freedom that extends well beyond journalism, well beyond trump, well beyond all of us. >> whether it is or not it's going tore interpreted by fortunate and his allies as a rebuke against him. it's been a very bad year for

journalists. this is deserved, but is it a rebuke of this president? >> you know, for all the name calling, we still live in a country in the united states where news organization can sue the white house and win at the hands of a trump appointed judge. we're a country where jamal khashoggi actually took refuge. you know, the rhetoric, i think, lots of signs and evidence of it being used by dangerous actors around the world and that's an issue. but the u.s., for all our trouble, for all the contentiousness remain as beacon, i think for hope and truth. and for free expression around the world. >> when you look at who else was in the lining. number five was the president of south korea. how so? >> kicked off, really kicked off the conversation. brought the north back into the

fold. we'll see where it all goes. but a brave and remarkable move. but still very much unfolding which i think is why he landed where he did. but one of the main themes, story lines of the year, certainly. >> when does the inhouse debate about the selection process begin. how long does it go on? how many meetings are there? >> it's been nonstop pretty much 24 hours a day for three months. we start with a terrific meeting of the entire staff at the end of september where we, people around the world dial in and we debate and discuss the people of the year, the themes of the year, and it's really a great way to actually, a lot of wonderful story ideas come out of it. but it's a spirited discussion with the entire staff. over time the circle narrows but the debate continues. some years there's an obvious

player early in the process. this year, as i said the story lines were moving really into last week. >> number two was donald trump on the list. number three is bob mueller. we dot drips and drabs out of his investigation. his name may be even more prominent next year, perhaps. >> we're at the beginning of the crescendo of this story. he's had a remarkable, methodical year as you all were discussing in the last segment. three dozen people and entities charged with almost 200 crimes laid out in page turning detail. certainly had enormous impact on the year but i think this is the big story of 2019. we'll see. >> you could have a president of the united states every year effectively, especially this president you could make the case for. what was the conversation between one and two, what did that debate look like? >> you know, trump, as you say,

any president, all presidents and especially this president had extraordinary impact of course on the year. headlines around the globe. we shaped the supreme court. immigration. regulation. but it was also -- and exposed the weaknesses of our system. but what was interesting about this year is that it also exposed the strength, revealed the strength of the system and we saw a blue wave bigger than most of us predicted in the house. democratic victories in the state legislatures. many rebukes in the courts for trump and of course the mueller investigation teams hide. >> our thanks to "time" magazine's edward felsenthal. the most memorable milestones of 2018 the editors of the world almanac list the top stories that held the world's attention in 2018. we'll run through them just ahead on "morning joe". 25% of your mouth.

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>> it's only through talking with those who we disagree with we can achieve any sense of form. talking in the sense of abstract sense includes literature, film, art, culture. includes all forms of engagement across multiple platform that seek to address this one of the most pressing issues of our day. how to deal with what i call the most in question, the successful integration of muslims in the west and the effect of that on muslims in muslim-majority countries. >> after we had this conversation i think we both felt a responsibility to make it as available as possible to others. and to inspire this kind of

dialogue in others. because conversation is the only remedy to this problem beyond violence, and there's been far too much violence already. >> that was a look at the new documentary "islam and the future of tolerance." joining us now the film directors. good to have you both. how did this come about? inspired by a book? inspired by a conversation? >> that's right. so we met -- i met jay, actually online. i was involved with an event with sam harrison in australia, and we were putting together the event and we realized the content of the event was so inspiring, and by chance jay reached out and said this is an important conversation. should we do something with it. and that was the beginning of this. >> jay, what was it about the conversation that struck you, the passion in you?

>> i think it's just a crucial particular conversation. it was a lot of questions that a lot of us are having quietly in our own minds about this particular issue and a lot of other contentious issues. to see two people engaging what i felt was a genuine effort to try not only true things to say about it but true and helpful things and make mistakes and stuvgle through it stumble through it. >> let's talk about the history. you were foes and didn't see the world together. >> sam, for the longest time has been looking for someone to have this conversation but not from the side that he was coming from. so they met at an event here in new york where after the

event -- the whole story is in the film, i don't want to give too much. but a conversation that was started from a point of disagreement in a phone call. then there was some nuggets of, you know, opportunity during this debate that sam felt like, you know, i should talk to this guy. then at that point maajid didn't know much about sam. >> was the point islam, christianity, religion in general is intolerant. >> i don't think sam would phrase it that way. >> i'm saying in the past that was sort of the general feeling and i'm wondering if that's what part of the conversation was about. >> i would put it that sam's piece is there was a link between belief and behavior and simply ignoring these

conversations or denying that there's any connection between ideology and belief and actions we see in the world is a dangerous position to take not only untrue but dangerous. the challenge is how do you approach that conversation in a way that is, that doesn't -- he asked a very direct question to maajid in the film. how do we talk about this honestly without empowering right-wing bigotry or left ring liberalism that we're seeing. being afraid of the conversation is not the remedy to it is basically his position. >> that's my next question. what was the most difficult part of this? what transparent hardest things to take on or the risks? >> i mean, the whole thing is quite difficult. >> right. >> because we live in a world where, you know, the conversation is quite polarized. and it is quite easy to, if you go online and social media, you see people's frustration.

and just by attempting to making the movie about this particular subject matter people have already preconceived notion of what this is going to be. and when we started off -- >> what's the preconceived notion. >> certain group of people think it will be an attack on an ideology. a certain group of people are going to be on the other side thinking that, you know, this will be a celebration of that ideology. the film is neither. it is a conversation just like jay mentioned earlier. there are points -- there's a lot of learning in this film. this is both parties, two people that have not had this conversation, both are learning from each other. and as an audience, we're going to learn a lot of things that we had no idea about that the other side is talking. >> i love it. thank you both for being on the show this morning. the documentary is "islam and the future of tolerance" available on digital platforms from the film site the orchard.

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>> you're not some flash in the pan. you're [ bleep ] a quarterback. you know what that means? it's the top spot, kid. it's the guy that takes the fall. it's the guy everybody is looking at first, the leader of a team. who will support you when they understand you. who will break their ribs and

narrow noses and their next for you because they believe because you make them believe. that's a quarterback. >> that was a clip from the movie "any given sunday." joining us now john feinstein, author of the new book "quarterback." >> thank you. i'm done. i'm good after seeing that. >> run through a wall after seeing that. you got together with six quarterbacks, five of them, i guess active plus doug williams the famous redskins quarterback. why did you go after it this way. >> i wanted guys who were willing and able to give me the kind of detail and insight that i was looking for in terms of explaining what it's like to play quarterback in the nfl because there's so few guys who do it well. that's why teams are always searching for a quarterback. that's why when the star quarterback fails, he goes from the most popular guy in town to

the least popular guy in town. there's nothing in between. the common ground with these guys is they were all really smart. doug williams, inactive quarterback was the first african-american quarterback to start and win a super bowl. he was a starter in tampa bay in 1978 when an african-american quarterback in the nfl was almost unheard of. he brought both history and current context to the book because he's the personnel director in washington right now. >> you talked to alex smith who just suffered that horrific injury with people thinking about joe theisman's injury 30 years before him. you got an early paycheck moment with alex smith where he looks at it and thinks oh, i got a thousand books, cool. >> because 95% of the nfl's salaries are paid during the regular season and he had been through too many camps. he was the first pick in the nfl draft in 2005 and he found two checks in his locker. one for $700, the other for

$1,000. he went to the bank to open an account in san francisco. he's standing in line and look at the checks and realize the second check was for $1 million. he got direct deposit that day when he saw the look on the teller's face. the way it came up. i asked him you go from being the second string quarterback in your sophomore year in college and 18 months later you're number one pick in the draft. what was that like and he described that scene. >> in terms of the future of nfl not at pro level, high school. women go out and buy things for the kids much more so than guys do, okay. so they watch pro football on sunday as a family. and the number of times they see quarterbacks get hit from "the blind side" in the back, frighten being impacts and the

way tv does it with the replays, you wonder what will happen eventually to football. >> that is the multi-billion dollar question, mike. no matter how many times roger goodell the nfl commissioner says football is safe you now than it's ever been because of all the rules they put in place football is not safe. it can't be safe the way it's been played. i've been in football locker rooms before games and locker rooms in other sports. football is the only game you feel fear. they know it hurts to play the game. and somebody will get injured like alex smith. it's part of the culture to understand it is going to hurt. it's why so many reasons football players are fervently religious they want to feel they are protected because they know they are endangering themselves. your question about the future is right on point because in the old days when we were growing

up, mothers didn't want their sons to play football. now fathers don't want their sons to play football. ex-football players don't want their sons to play football. we're seeing high school teams disbanded. >> every time you come out with a book like this you say gee why didn't somebody else think of this first. parcells once said talking about what the job is like, you find out what you have after your quarterback throws three interceptions on sunday. on monday the media and the fans are calling for his job. and he said when he shows up on wednesday and faces his teammates then you start to find out what you have, particularly with a young quarterback. again, that's why this position is the most important position in sports and why we do have a fascination for it. >> if you talk to general managers, they will tell you that until you have a franchise quarterback, somebody who is going to start for you for ten years or 12 years, whatever, it is an obsession about trying to

get one. that's why going into the draft all people talk about is who is the first quarterback be chosen. what happens with the lamar jackson who people are questioning. ossie newsome last first-round draft pick. he took an african-american general manager to take the african-american quarterback. doug williams made a great point that he said, you know, if you are a superstar, if you're jamison winston, not cunningham because he went later. if you're jamison winston or cam newton you'll get picked high. if there's any doubts about you at all, look at russell wilson, third round, tom brady was sixth round. tom brady was not a star in college. these guys were stars in college but they got overlooked.

>> watson is getting it done in houston. >> if watson was white where would he have gone in the draft. he went 14. doug said he would have gone ahead of trubisky. i said trubisky went second and he said exactly. >> the greatest quarterback of all time. brady, peyton manning, joe montana. >> terry bradshaw. >> as you talk to people is there a consensus. >> i think because he's won five super bowls and been in eight and because he's 41 and he's still an mvp candidate. joe mountain hntana has to be i conversation. >> by the way, flacco. >> thank you very much. the book is "quarterback inside the most important position in

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from the winter olympics and the world cup to the me too movement and the mid-terms the biggest moments of the last year live on in the world almanac and book of facts 2019. joining us now for a look inside the new edition the senior editor at the world almanac, sa sara janson. >> so editors picked the top stories of 2018. >> the world almanac editors do a top ten news topic list every year. that's a way to look back at the past year, look at the events that took place and also going forward which stories will have

an impact on 2019. >> what was the top story? >> we had the mid-term elections as the top story. obviously a story that lasted all year long because the campaigns seemed to go on all year long. obviously something that's going to have a big impact on the 116th congress is sworn in next year. >> number one democrats making gains in mid-term elections. number two u.s. policies seek to limit both undocumented and authorized immigration. >> yeah. obviously, immigration was a huge news story in 2018. not just at the southern border but also refugee policy, asylum seekers, immigration being limited in a number of different ways, protected status being limited or ended. huge story. >> you look at number three, could be one that moves to number one next year. we don't know yet, mueller investigation gains legal victories, witness keeping. >> this is a story that slow

dripped all year long. we had different releases, different reports. obviously the indictments and then trials of manafort, a lot going on and a lot of ancillary stories. stormy daniels was not a name we knew at the beginning of 2018. a lot of different developments. >> a story outside of washington in parkland, obviously, a story that shocked americans but also immediately started a movement. >> it started a movement. i think that's how the parkland shooting seemed to sort of differ from a lot of the others we've seen. obviously las vegas at the end of last year was a big story too. the most deadly mass shooting in history in 2017. but the parkland students really took what happened and built a movement around it that it seems like it will continue going forward. >> you could almost take the

parkland story and move it up into one or two, i would submit, in terms of the cultural difference it made in this country as millions of americans final leadership realized that their children go to schools where they have escape drills in second and third grade because of school shootings that occur in this country. >> it's really remarkable, isn't it? that's the kind of discussion that the world almanac editors are constantly having around the ranking of these stories because ultimately a lot of them could be ranked one or two. it's definitely a difficult decision every year. >> if you look at number seven, me too moves to legal action. that started at the end of last year but boy it continued into 2018. >> it did. finally saw some legal consequences for some of these allegations. you know, the u.s. gymnastic's affiliated doctor, dr. larry nassar, over 100 women giving testimony as to what happened to

them and what they survived. that's something that caught a lot of people's attention and gave, you know, not just voices but faces to a lot of these situations. >> talk about the time capsule. what did you all decide went into the time capsule? >> the time capsule is theoretical. we look to put things in there that we think encapsulate niche stories or things that didn't make the front page but things people were talking about in 2018. this year i included things like plastic drinking straws which starbucks say they will ban. definitely had a little moment this summer. fichl flyers mascot who has been taking social media by storm. it's a lot of fun to talk about. the calendar that brett kavanaugh put together and gave us evidence before the senate judiciary committee from his high school days. so a lot of different things i think people will see and think

that, yes, that's 2018. >> you also got the hawaii's mistaken emergency alert which i had forgotten about early last year. >> oh, my gosh. >> so much happened in 2018. you kind of forgot everything that happened. >> the world almanac and book of facts 2019 is available now. thank you so much. great to have you on. now to another topic we've been following closely over the past year. the state of american health care. >> when my mom went into the hospital for a routine partial hip replacement the neurologist called us. your mom is in a coma. now it's brutally clear, i need a lawyer. >> we have not even begun to recognize the country's third leading cause of death, medical care gone wrong. >> the medical profession needs to be accountable for the errors. >> these are our costs,

$421,000. all roads lead to the insurance company. their whole plan is to drag this out as long as they can. >> you're a lawyer, correct? >> no. i'm a comedy director. >> this has taken over our lives. >> problems in health care continue to be endemic. we're not learning from our mistakes. >> something has to change. >> that was a look at the new hbo documentary film "bleed out" shot over the course of ten years. the documentary uses one family's story to under score deep flaws in america's health care system. we spoke with the film's writer and director and one of the film's producers. steve, this is shot over ten years but i get the feeling you get a real sense into where this is going and just how bad this can get. >> all i can tell you is when i started this in trying to find out what happened to my mom, i thought it was just a

personal -- i thought it was just us. as i started to get into this thing, i started to find out that this is really a universal situation. i found out it's the third leading cause of death and 1 in 4 patients are harmed. i didn't know any of this. as i went deeper and deeper, i find of thought i would tell people what i found out about stuff. >> this personal journey you've been on, where did it lead you? what's the big idea that viewers are going to see from this documentary? >> well, i started to try to find out through these years who was in charge of my mom's care. there were events in surgery, icu and then i started to really ask who's in charge of health care. i don't know. i mean, i've been on this thing for ten years. i've been working hard to answer that question. i still don't know. >> mike barnicle, you've been complaining about this for as long as the show's been going on

that when the question is asked who's in charge of health care, too often the answer is insurance companies. >> yeah. well, this is a universal. it affects every american family and every american. let's separate it into two buckets. you seem to have a malpractice bucket but you have the larger bucket, the insurance bucket. i would submit to you that no one in america who has health insurance has ever read the policy. so in your mother's case, what did she begin with in terms of financial resources and what does she have now? >> my mom was a single -- she was a retired schoolteacher in milwaukee public schools. she saved her money for 50 years. she raised my sister and i. she had $200,000 that she saved and she owned her house, she bought a new car. then this happened. two years later, gone. everything to her care. she lost everything.

after she came out of this coma, she never went home. >> this obviously is a universal story. this is a great way to capture it through this one very personal story. there's an assumption, i've got an insurance plan, i'm paying a lot of money into it and i assume when i need it, it will be there for me. as steve's story reminds us, it's not. >> it's not at all. we realize so quickly how vulnerable we are. that's why the film resonates so strongly and that's why we feel it's such an important topic. everyone goes through this. every american has this problem. the big idea of the film that joe asked earlier is that there needs to be accountability and there needs to be transparency in the way the health care system works. any time there's an error that happens, any time some mistake happens, rather than a coverup and denial as a result of

insurance claims, that there is a sense of transparency and you can learn from those solutions. 250,000 people a year die from medical error and that can be drastically reduced if we have greater transparency and accountability. >> the thing i think that resonated with me about this is another universal thing. everybody that we know, everybody we've ever met who's had a parent or a grandparent who's gone through some medical situation, as they all do eventually, whether there's malpractice or not, if you are invested in their life in some way, you become engrossed in managing the process. that becomes in many cases even if you have a lot of resources and are really smart and dedicated to it, it becomes a full-time job because of the complexity. the insurance companies ran everything, you would have one target. instead you've got the incredible morass that is the american health care system with

a lot of different places to go for answers. it becomes an incredible drain on you, the person who's trying to figure it all out. talk about the way in which this taxed you. you lived in los angeles, your mother was in milwaukee, you're traveling back and forth. >> at first we didn't know if my mom was even going to survive. i didn't know if it was going to be a long-term thing, a short-term thing. then she did have a limited recovery but she was cognitively and physically disabled. i was back and forth every other week for a while. then a year and another went by. i was trying to get justice. i described it as juggling chain saws in quicksand. every day in the mail i'd get all these things from the insurance companies, then the medical bills, then the legal bills. all i did was kind of just put my head down and just kept going. the next you know ten years passed. >> your mom did everything right, saved her money, owned

her house, had the shushinsuran policy. yet we hear those numbers that you still owed $420,000 or something like that. >> the bills were so huge. when you go broke in america -- she's on medicaid so we'll all paying for my mother now. because in this case there was no accountability, she had to pay for it. then when she is broke, less than $2,000, to get on medicaid you have to have less than $2,000. she had to spend down everything she saved and then we qualified and the taxpayers are now paying for my mom's care. >> we all pay health insurance premiums. something like this occurs and instead of automatic coverage that you think you're insured, you end up in a fight with an insurance company and the insurance company becomes increasingly remote from the reality of your issue. do you get into that? >> we do get into it quite a

bit. ultimately this film is a story about his mother, but it's also his journey too. in the film you can see steve surrounded by a mountain of papers. just the bills that arrived today are stacked this big. it really highlights the way in which an american family can really have to battle this just to protect the mother. >> there's a lot of conversation in washington about what should happen with the health care system. you have a lot of young democratic socialists who have just been elected say we have singing payer. bernie sanders says single payer. you've been through this. what's a better way to go about this? >> the first thing is i know -- i certainly don't have all the answers. i know what's working right now is not working. i've tried every trick in the book to try to protect my mother and i have largely failed,

because everything is so decentralized. you've got profit hospitals, you've got not for profit hospitals. there's all these deferent -- it's like a maze. i don't know who's in charge of anything. when i tend to go to the top like with insurance companies, i want to talk to a supervisor, there's always another supervisor somewhere and they're always answering to somebody else. i still have not found that person. after all these years i still don't know who's in charge of my mom's care after all that whole thing. i think we all need help and i think it's going to have to come from us. i think we all have to somehow band together and some smart people really need to come up with something that's simple. i know it's complicated but we're in trouble. >> our thanks to sto s for that. that does it for us this

morning. stay with msnbc all day for your political news, analysis and breaking news. we hope everyone has a wonderful holiday. ♪ good morning. i'm chris jansing. this morning, shutdown standoff. a new claim by the president that he is ready, willing and able to negatiotiate over this shutdown stalemate. but no phone calls to democrats and nothing but intransigence on the wall. >> i hear so much about the wall is old fashioned. no, the wall is not old fashioned. the wall is 100% foolproof. we have to have border security and the wall is a big part of it, the biggest part. >> new year, new faces. the trump administration starts the year with what historians call an unprecedented number of