historic developments. thank you so much. really appreciate it. great conversation. >> good to talk to you. and that wraps up this hour of msnbc live, yasmin takes over from here. it's so good to see you in person. happy new year. >> can we make a new year's resolution that we read less of the president's tweets? >> we can be more scrutinizing about what -- >> about what tweets we actually read. that's a really good resolution. happy new year. good seeing you. right now on msnbc, everybody. 20/20 vision, the first big name democrat jumps into the 2020 race for the white house. what senator elizabeth warren is doing, why she's starting so early and what the president is saying about her. also, general disappointment. president trump announces he will slowly pull troops out of syria while blasting his critics including those he calls the failed generals who are against the withdrawal. and on target just weeks

away from when we expect bob mueller to submit his report to the attorney general, and at least one expert says the biggest bomb shell may have more to do with what the president has done since being in office. happy new year, everybody. i'm yasmin va suing yan. president trump is kicking off 2019 in all caps telling his twitter followers to quote, i'm already breaking the resolution here -- enjoy the ride in a new year with a new house democratic majority and an upcoming russia report from special counsel bob mueller. the president has an eye on 2020 taking a swipe at massachusetts democratic senator elizabeth warren in an interview with fox news. watch this. >> i hope she maybe gets the nomination. that will be a wonderful thing for me. she did very badly in proving that she was of indian heritage, that didn't work out too well. i think you have more than she does and maybe i do too, and i

have nothing. we'll see how she does. i wish her well. i hope she does well. i'd love to run against her. >> she says she's in the fight all the way, mr. president. do you really think she believes she can win? >> that i don't know. you'd have to ask her psychiatrist. >> to be expected, the president of course referring to that dna test with elizabeth warren. joining me nbc national political reporter mike menially, kimberly atkins and white house correspondent ann gurin. welcome to you all, and happy new year, everybody. mike i'm going to start with you on this one. the president starting 2019 just like he finished 2018 on twitter ready to battle with con dwre congressional democrats he sees as threats in 2020. should we expect more of the same in the coming months? your predictions? >> whiery should the next few months be any different than the last two years. i was up in boston yesterday outside of elizabeth warren's house as we were covering her

announcement there, and i spent most of the day looking down at my phone waiting for that tweet to show up. we all expected him to weigh in quickly about her announcement. obviously he did it in that interview you played later in the day. this is going to be one of the most fascinating things in terms of not only covering a government shutdown, covering the day-to-day governance here in washington, but now as we move into a presidential race having a president who's going to be weighing in in realtime on a daily, hourly basis about the race to challenge him. he's got a chance as he's already done with senator warren who obviously he likes to call pocahontas to brand every other democrat in the race. this is something he was able to do with great success in his own campaign, to at least his own advisers it still works for him and something he'll keep doing. >> and obviously everybody asking if that golden retriever could be the next white house dog making a super star appearance yesterday. >> yeah. >> next to elizabeth warren. kimberly, why do you think it was important for senator warren to get out in front of some of

the big names like beto o'rourke, kirsten gillibrand, joe biden and bernie sanders to start that fund-raising operation now? >> i think you hit one of the key phrases there, which is fund-raising. there are a lot of reasons for senator warren to get out ahead. this is going to be a very crowded field. i mean, upwards of 20 candidates are flirting with the presidency on the democratic side, so by getting out ahead, she not only gets a fund-raising jump, she has an apparatus in place. she's able to draw staff and volunteers away from other potential campaigns. it's also a shot across the bow and a way to potentially scare off some of the other people who are considering a run, maybe whittle down that field a little more and increase her chances a bit. it also comes with peril, coming out early and you try to claim

front runner status, and even though you're well funded, well organized, that's exactly what jeb bush did in 2014 just before the new year, and it didn't work out well for him. she has to find a way to avoid all of the pit falls that we saw jeb bush fall under when he came out ahead in a big crowded field. >> right. so you bring up fact that coming out ahead of this crowded field could help her claim front runner status, but there's also this fear that if you come out too soon, you could kind of get lost in the mix of everything. wondering how elizabeth warren plans to get ahead of that? >> yeah, i mean, one traditional rubric for this thing in looking at the calendar is that the first person to go out, you know, is either the sort of obvious front runner which is the parable of jeb bush and to a degree hillary clinton, or you know, you risk being shot at,

and you better have the good armor in order to deflect that. jeb thought he did. hillary knew that she was going to be shot at, thought she had the armor. elizabeth warren has been shot at, you know, for three years and directly by the president for the last two. it seems that her calculation is she needs the money. she doesn't have a leadership pact. she doesn't have some of the other fund-raising advantages that some of the big names among democrats who are hanging back, joe biden and others, do have, so she needs the money. she needs to get out in front. she's able to claim that, you know, first in the circle, the first, the only one to do it inside 2018, and those things were advantages to her that outweigh the potential disadvantage of being the only thing to shoot at. >> so two things here, let's bring up that full screen of all the possible candidates. first of all, do we actually think hillary clinton could throw her hat back in the ring here? >> i think that that would

probably be unwise. i mean, i don't know what secretary clinton is thinking, but i can't imagine that she would want to, and i certainly can't imagine at this point if elizabeth warren may face some potential problems in terms of exciting people or be a known commodity, certainly those problems would be multiplied tenfold for secretary clinton. >> and what about the fact that we're seeing all politicians here in that lineup. it's all people that we know from washington, but as we well know as donald trump was, he was an outsider to say the least, and a lot of people didn't give him much -- they didn't really sort of think that he had any opportunity to really win, and obviously he went on to win the presidency. what about the possibility, mike, of an outsider here entering the race, like a mark cuban? >> well, certainly in a field as big as this, there will certainly be a number of people, even those who serve in elected office claiming to be outsiders. the other dynamic that we often

see in presidential races is that we elect the person who's the opposite of the predecessor, and if you have donald trump who was trying to use his outsider status has been a wrecking ball to washington, i think by any standard maybe there's a joe biden argument that what you need is stability. what you need is somebody who knows how to get goth back or not rails. -- government back on the rails. >> thank you, guys. ann, i know you're going to stick around for us. appreciate it. we also have new details this morning on the american man beginning the new year in russian custody. nbc pentagon correspondent hans nichols at the white house this morning. hans, paul wheelen is accused of being a spy by the kremlin. what have you learned about this detainment and paul himself? >> reporter: at this point there's more mystery than clarity on this whole case. what we know is from the brother, his twin brother, a 48-year-old. he says his brother paul is a retired marine, ask here's what he tweeted out this morning saying that my brother was

detained by the russian government on friday as an alleged spy. now, the brother says that he had been traveling for two weeks in russia. he left on the 22nd. it's not paul wheelen's first trip to russia. he works in corporate security services for an automotive supply chain company. he was in the marines. we're working on getting the service record from his marine corps time. if you've been retired, that means you've been in for more than 20 years. we're trying to find out more about this individual, what he was doing there and ultimately what sort of efforts there might be to get him freed. remember, this could all be clouded by that case of maria butina. what the family is saying is that they don't want the politics to cloud this, and they're very cognizant that there are politics at play here. >> what are we hearing from inside russia, if anything really? not necessarily knowing if we're hearing much about that if this is payback for maria butina, and

how long this has really been planned. is this reactionary now or was this planned from her arrest way back when? >> reporter: they are not making that claim. all they're saying is he's being arrested for carrying out an act of espionage. he was arrested on friday, and they made that announcement on monday. the links have been made by former intelligence officials here in the states. no one in russia is explicitly making those links. >> we have a former cia officer who was telling the daily beast from my experience we would almost never send someone to russia without diplomatic immunity given the laxity of russian laws and the aggressiveness of their espionage apparatus. we could not guarantee the safety of someone traveling under official coverage. >> reporter: typically in any united states embassy across the globe there's certain people that answer to the cia. they are there with a diplomatic passpo

passport. if things go bad, they're expelled. everyone kind of knows who they are, at least at the official level. that's why frequently you'll have a lot of u.s. officials that are expelled and in response you'll have americans that expel russian officials. that's where it stands right now. there's no indication from either -- at least from the u.s. side that he was in the paid employ of the united states central intelligence agency. >> but as we well know, historically this is certainly russia's m.o. to pull off something like this if we were to look back at their spy practices in the past and how they monitor americans abroad in their country. hans nichols for us, thank you so much. happy new year to you. >> reporter: happy new year. coming up, a new year's resolution. will the democrats plan to reopen the government, make it through a republican senate and white house. a live report from capitol hill next right here on msnbc. we'll be right back.

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welcome back, everybody. congress -- excuse me. congress returns tomorrow, both sides no closer to a deal to end the shutdown. even as headlines like this capture the literal filth and fury of a shutdown. park bathrooms overflowing with human waste, vandals causing damage, fighting over camp sites. each side seems to be talking past the other. house democrats have a plan to turn the heat up on the republican senate colleagues. president trump meanwhile, only wants to talk about the wall. >> we are not giving up. we have to have border security,

and the wall is a big part of border security, the biggest part. >> the biggest part. joining me now msnbc's garrett haake on capitol hill, matt gorman, a former communications director for the national republican congressional committee charged with helping elect republicans. joel payne a democratic strategist and aide to harry reid. garrett, let's start with you. talk to us about this democratic plan now that we're hearing about. >> the democrats have a two-pronged planned when they take control of the house to pass two separate bills and turn up the pressure on the republican colleagues. of the seven departments that are shut down right now, they would pass one bill that fully funds six of them for the full year to come. these were bipartisan bills already negotiated last year. they were popular in the senate. they shouldn't have any problem passing on their own. the second half of this is a continuing resolution to fund just the department of homeland security just until february and adding just $1.3 billion in

additional money for border security. none of that is for a wall. the idea here is to come in and look like they are governing and to essentially dare their republican colleagues to not do the same. the two democratic leaders nancy pelosi and chuck schumer gave a joint statement yesterday. in it they write in part, if leader mcconnell and senate republicans refuse to support the first bell, then they are complicit with president trump. it would be the height of irresponsibility and political cynicism for senate republicans to now reject the same legislation they have already supported. this is talking both about the six bills to fully fund the government for the next year and the continuing resolution which remember, in a bit of a tactical misstep here, republicans did allow a vote on this continuing resolution back prior to the shutdown simply a voice vote. they fully expected the president was going to support it. when he did not, they were back to square one, but it gives democrats yet another talking point here to say if this was good enough for republicans before the shutdown, ought it

not to be good enough now. now, mitch mcconnell said he doesn't want to move forward on anything the president won't sign. this package seems to qualify. this does put the ball back in mcconnell's court. changing metaphors, it puts this problem in his lap with the republican-controlled senate to start trying to solve after democrats pass this on thursday. >> so joel, what if the republicans take this dare, mcconnell takes the dare. he refuses to hold a vote on the house bill that the president vetoes or refuses to sign as well. then what? what's democrats' next move to reopen this government? >> well, i think the democrats are just giving republicans enough rope to do what they will with themselves. listen, this president has radicalized the republicans in congress. in the house he's got kevin mccarthy who's a trumper, the freedom caucus. if you're mitch mcconnell as garrett said, you've passed these bills already. the only reason you wouldn't pass these bills right now is to

help the president follow some rabbit hole down on the border wall that he didn't tell you that he wanted to pass before. this is all a crisis that the president has manufactured, and he's dragging republicans into it, and i think it's a sign of what we're going to see the next two years. >> matt, why has the president continued to sort of put pressure on the democrats via twitter? why not have him walk out in front of cameras, get photo ops in the oval office to say, look, i'm waiting here for these democrats to come and have a discussion with me about how to reopen this government. instead really waging a war on twitter? >> that's a great question. as we saw nancy pelosi was in hawaii during this shutdown, but really the only thing that matters, the only thing is what president trump and leader schumer can agree to. they're going to need democratic votes. until the president can show what he will sign and tell the world what he's going to sign, nothing is going to go on on the floor because they're not going to have it vetoed by the

president. the only thing that matters is what schumer and president trump can agree to. neither side has any incentive to give in. they're both playing to their respective bases and it's broader than the physical wall at this point. for president trump it's about a central campaign promise. he talked about it on day one of his announcement. he needs to fire up his supporters. >> he's not making it about anything besides the wall. you're saying this is about more than just a wall. the president doesn't seem making it about anything besides wanting this physical wall to fulfill a campaign promise. >> i'm talking about politics. for the democrats it's about stopping trump and if they stop the wall they stop trump. it's a central campaign promise. it's broader than the wall in the political sense. he needs to fire up his supporters. he's running for re-election. we saw elizabeth warren announce yesterday. he's going to start campaign season. >> what about reopening the government for people to get paid that are living paycheck to paycheck that don't know if they're going to be able to pay their rent next month. >> agreed. >> hold on a second -- i want to

play from the president saying he's not going to budge when it comes to this demand. >> a lot of your supporters are hoping you will stand firm on that $5 billion mark or something big for the call. are you willing to continue the shutdown if that money does not come? >> well, we are. we have no choice. we have to have border security. >> so respond to that. then what? so the president doesn't budge. we're at a standstill. the government doesn't reopen and there are people that aren't getting paid. >> i think you're going to see a new stage in this shutdown. people have been tuning out. it's been holidays, you're traveling, you're hosting parties. as people tune back into the news, the new congress will be seated on thursday. people are going o'see the effects, we saw the waste overflowing in those bathrooms. you're also going to see pressure on some of the moderate senators up for re-election in 2020, susan collins, cory

gardner, thom tillis, pressure from their hometown newspapers to reopen the government. i think we're going to see hopefully some momentum in the senate among these moderates in short order. >> if the shutdown lasts weeks, what is the risk that the public is going to start to blame both sides for this? >> i mean, listen, there is always a risk that the public is going to say the pot's on both of your houses. the only thing less popular than washington is, you know, some sort of terrible disease. so washington as a whole is very unpopular. but the president has had ample opportunity here to move on this. he could have had his border wall last year. remember, there was a package that schumer gave him that would have given him funding for the wall. he also could have had the border security before this. he also could have had more money. now democrats are putting less money on the table because the president does not have the leverage anymore. so, again, this is all the president's fault. he doesn't have a strategy. he doesn't have a team around him. his inner circle is disintegrating. he's got a chief of staff that doesn't believe in the wall. he's got an outgoing chief of

staff that said the wall is a fantasy. the president has no legs to stand on. >> we're all looking to january 3rd to see what happens next and make sure this government gets reopened. garrett haake, matt gorman, joel payne, happy new year's guys. >> coming up, shocking new video shows migrant children being dragged and pushed at a shelter in arizona. we're going to show you that video and talk to arizona congressman reuben gallego next. this is msnbc. this is msnbc.

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welcome back, as the battle over funding border security plays out in washington, there are new and disturbing reports about the conditions in which migrants are being held and treated by u.s. officials. these videos obtained by the arizona republic obtained under a freedom of information request show staffers dragging and pushing children at a shelter for migrants in youngstown, arizona, shortly before the federal government suspended operations there earlier this fall. the state blurred the videos to protect the children's privacy according to the republic. i want to bring in arizona democrat congressman ruben gallego. he represents arizona's 7th

congressional district which includes phoenix. welcome to you, thanks so much for joining us, and happy new year to you. talk about your reaction to what we see in this video? it's pretty shocking to say the least. >> shocking, horrified, but unfortunately not surprised. we know that this administration has caused a lot of mayhem through the normal refugee process and really has created the situation, particularly with the republican house and senate in control where there is no oversight, that allows these types of situations to happen, and this is how you also get into a situation where you have two immigrant refugee children that have died at the border. so all in all, unfortunately i'm not surprised, and i think it's going to continue unless we have the president really, you know, effectively having oversight over his dhs or us in congress having to actually step in and provide true oversight. >> your heart breaks for these

kids in watching that video. you already know what they've been through in their journey to get there, possibly being separated from their parents, the people that they love and that they trust and now being treated this way while being held in detention just really unbelievable to see, and you can't just -- you just really feel for them. the arizona republic reached out to southwest key for comment, congressman. southwest key spokesman jeff eller declined to elaborate on the incidents on friday. instead he reiterated what the shelter operator said in october welcoming the move to suspend the facility's operations and pledging to refrain all staff. you satisfied with that response? >> not really. look, at the end of the day, this has been going on for a while in some form or another. we've had complaints about southwest key. we've had had -- asked for investigations prior to this video being released.

it really took the arizona republic to actually put public pressure for them to actually do any type of action. as a matter of fact, even a local county sheriff wasn't going to do anything unless the arizona republic exposed it. that's when they actually forced the hand of the county sheriff to actually demand for prosecution. it's a sad statement that, you know, children in our control and we are essentially acting as their parents are being treated this way, and we need to make sure in the future this is not how it's handled. >> while we're seeing this happen, we are also hearing reports from "the washington post" that more and more sick children are arriving at the border. of course this on the heels of the death of these two young migrants we have been reporting over the last couple of weeks or so, and we remember now secretary nielsen also visiting the border to make sure she can figure out what's going on there to change practices as to how they are observing children when they come to the border. what can congress and the administration do to assure the safety and health of those

children that are seeking asylum in this country. >> there are things you can just do at every border station, but the best thing we can do is to just reallocate and redeploy our refugee process that we've been using for many years. the reason this is happening is because a lot of these refugee families have to wait in these border towns in mexico that are very dangerous. some of them are getting kidnapped. you're hearing reports of women and men getting kidnapped out of these towns. they're actually sneaking in between, you know, border stations and then in the process of that getting sick, and then in the process of that not being caught fast enough by border control. this fake crisis that the president has created is essentially causing these threats. what we need to do is have the normal refugee process where people come, ask for asylum. we assess whether they deserve it or not, and we send them back to theirdon't, and for those that do deserve

dangerous areas and they're essentially -- we're essentially putting their lives at risk. >> congressman ruben gallego of arizona, thank you, happy new year to you congressman. >> you too. up next, general mistake. as president trump pushes out the last of his generals, how will the commander in chief work with the pentagon to pull american troops out of syria? that's ahead on msnbc.

welcome back, north korean

leader kim jong-un says he is ready to meet with president trump anytime to talk about denud denuclearizing the korean peninsula. he warnings washington not to test north korea's patience adding if the u.s. does not keep its promise north korea will have no choice but to come up with new initiatives and new measures. joining me now retired four star army general barry mccalf ri. happy new year's before we get started. anne, i already said happy new year's to you. how do you interpret new initiatives and new measures? >> look, this whole process is off the rails. there was never any chance that the north koreans are going to give up a nuclear program and the missile program. they've continued to produce

material, continued to produce missiles. sooner or later their icbms will work, will actually place the united states at risk. our diplomatic engagement so far is bust. we gave them legitimacy, recognition, we got nothing in return. north korea's attempting to break the sanctions, and i'll bet they're pulling it off. >> is there any reason for the president, general, to meet with kim jong-un again? >> none whatsoever. they need to engage by professional diplomacy and try and get what they can. part of the problem is we need a strategy. what are we trying to achieve? we're not going to get any denuclearization of the north korean regime, so what can we get? i think the whole process of engagement is lies. it's better than the fire and fury that president trump was using at the united nations. this kim jong-un is one of those brutal dictators on the face of

the earth. he's ir re erratic, young, unte and so far he's besting the u.s. in terms of his engagement on issue this. >> it seems like the theme for 2019 when it comes to foreign policy is we need a strategy in more places than just north korea. general, i want to read for you a tweet that the president put out this morning, even though i said my resolution was not to read president trump's tweets as much, but got to be read. general mcchrystal got fired like a dog by obama, last assignment a total bust. known for big dumb mouth. hillary lover. this of course general, coming as mcchrystal spoke out on sunday about the president. why is the president going after generals? we thought for a time besides of course his attack on john mccain, that he would not go after generals. they were sort of the untouchables for the president. it seems as if he's really going

in now? >> general mcchrystal gave this interview that was just devastating its indictment of mr. trump as being amoral and incompetent and dishonest. i'm sure it got under his skin. mcchrystal had been shot at a lot by real bullets. i don't think he's going to be too concerned about the president's tweet. it does underscore one thing, though. the lack of civility coming out of the white house now is almost childish. you can say a lot of thinks about mcchrystal. he had a hit piece published on him while he was in afghanistan. i think president obama had to take him out of office. later on he was cleared by dod ig. one thing you can say about mcchrystal is we owe him a lot for our national safety since 9/11. this guy is probably the best fighter, irregular warfare fighter we've had since world war ii. it's astonishing to me that the national security process is

broken. it's impulsive. it's erratic. it comes up with bad decisions. you can clearly make a decent argument for getting out of syria and afghanistan because we don't have a strategy that's working. you can't make an argument for this kind of bizarre individual behavior by the president. >> so in sticking with this theme of people speaking out against the president, a real tipping point, it seems, for defense secretary jim mattis's departure was the president's plan to withdraw troops from syria. in his farewell message to the pentagon he wrote, our department has proourch to be at its best when the times are most difficult, so keep the faith in our country and hold fast alongside our aallies aligned against our foes. i know you have been reporting in on this. how is mattis's departure going to impact the military overall? >> it's not difficult to read between the rielines of what ji

mattis is saying on his way out the door. without invoking the president directly, he's telling the people who worked alongside and for him at the pentagon and deployed overseas that their goal is larger and in many ways to mattis's mind more important than who occupies the white house. it's their oath to the constitution, and he is saying that in no small measure because of the criticism heaped on himself, but he's not -- you know, there's no pity party happening there. i think to answer your question more pointedly, mattis's departure leaves no one in the president's immediate circle and high ranking cabinet officials who can give him the kind of informed no answer that mattis was able to do. whoever replaces him is likely to be, you know, even less

influential and less able to do that. >> all right, thank you both. i also want to go to a story from russia today. a new year's miracle, everybody. a 10-month-old baby boy rescued alive after spending more than 35 hours in subzero temperatures, buried under the rubble of a collapsed building. rescuers temporarily suspended their search for survivors on tuesday amidst fears that the remnants of the building were too unstable following a suspected gas explosion. then a short time later, they heard the cries of the infant who according to a government official was protected by his crib. can you believe that? local media reports the baby is being treated for severe injuries. the blast killed at least seven people and as many as 37 remain unaccounted for. we're going to keep you updated with the very latest right here on msnbc. unbelievable miracle there. stay with us, everybody. we'll be right back. back.

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goldman said he is beginning to believe that election interference is not the most serious crime mueller is investigating and that the question at the heart of the inquiry is whether the president made foreign policy decisions based on his personal finances rather than the country's best interests. that could take quite a turn for the investigation to say the least. i am joined by barbara mcquade, former u.s. attorney in michigan, msnbc contributor glenn kirschner, a former federal prosecutor and msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos. everybody for msnbc, and happy new year to everybody. glenn, talk to us about the mueller investigation in general, what they're going to be focusing on come 2019 and the year ahead? >> first of all happy new year yasmin, and i read ken dilanian's really remarkable thorough reporting, and dan goldman's opinion did catch my eye. i think what we're going to see moving forward and we're probably going to see it through a combination of reports

authored by mueller's team and indictments that are likely coming soon, we'll probably see an answer to three questions. we'll see, one, did the trump campaign conspire with russia to undermine our free and fair election? two, did they cover up their conduct of conspiring with russia, if, in fact, they did conspire, and then three, and i think daniel goldman points this out well, what are the consequences that flowed from any conspiracy that they entered into with russia? what i mean by that is what actions did the president take that were informed by the fact that basically the trump campaign may have been beholden to russia. so as but one example, what sanctions did they place or what sanctions did they remove as a result of their connections with russia. and then also we've seen the letter of intent that apparently we were told didn't exist by which president trump said he was intending to develop a trump

tower moscow. have we ever seen a letter revoking that plan to develop a trump tower moscow? maybe i missed it, so i think there is a lot to come, and it's probably coming very soon. >> what do you believe is some of the biggest bomb shells that we're going to see in the coming weeks? obviously we've been talking about reports of how mueller is focusing on the trump organization, the trump family as well. we've been talking about roger stone and how possibly he could be seeing an indictment pretty soon. what are the biggest -- the biggest bomb shells you think we could see in the coming weeks? >> well, i think in the short-term what seems most likely to me is an indictment against jerome corsi. he is the conservative writer who disclosed his own plea documents a couple of months ago. a good prosecutor does not make a plea offer unless he's prepared to back it up. his rejection of that plea offer suggests to me we're likely to see an indictment coming soon. that one is so important because it goes to the heart of the

wikileaks coordination, if any, between russia and the trump campaign, and so i think that also could lead to an indictment against roger stone who's also intertwined in all of that. i think other potential bomb shells could include other bomb could include charges against donald trump jr. and jared kushner, and we know from the sentencing memo that he had testified false testimony to congress regarding a meeting with russians in trump tower and who else is in position to know about that? and we know that those two had testified before congress, and members of congress said that their testimony is consistent with what michael cohen said, and if they were indicted, that would be a bombshell. >> danny, i want to read rudy giuliani's tweet over the weekend. i challenge mueller to put up or shut up. you have no evidence of the

president being involved in a conspiracy -- and why antagonize mueller? >> i don't know except he is a defense attorney and a large part of what the defense attorneys do is not just to go to trial and duke it out, but a huge part of it is before trial and opening up dying log can -- >> this is not a defense strategy, because p.r. campaign. >> yes, and more and more it is leading to the conclusion that rudy giuliani is not only having a conversation with robert mueller, but himself. talks about sitting down, maybe we will or won't, and none of these decisions will affect what mueller is going to do. and the latest example raises the question why threaten in any way the dialogue between the u.s. attorneys with robert mueller's team and the defense team or rudy giuliani and the trump team. why do that unless it just

doesn't matter anymore and he does not care. i would only caution that if rudy giuliani is going to do that and as confident as he may be, he, like many defense attorneys never knows quite as much as the government knows, because the government has more tools to know many more things. so i caution before you challenge them, and before you throw down the gauntlet that consider that they may know something that you, rudy, do not know know. >> and barbara, i want to talk about the role are of the department of justice in all of this. the washington poses "washingt e released a statement about the current a.g. that he is not going to the oare recuse himself, and do you e think that the confirmation hearings of william barr will shed new light on the department of justice? >> i i do. i think that the senators questioning mr. barr will want to satisfy themselves that the

mueller investigation going to be allowed to proceed. one thing that the attorney general can control is whether or not robert mueller's report is released to the the public. the regulations say that it has to be submitted to the attorney general are, and it is the attorney general whether it is going to be release nod the public. so a attorney general who is predisposed in the case should say that it is not going to see the light of day and bury it. and so who sits at that desk is very imopornt to that investigation. >> much more the come. and barbara mcquade, and attorney kirshner and danny cevallos, thank you. and what are the new laws on the books and how they impact your life is next. your life is next. i knew about the tremors.

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xfinity home connects you to total home security you can control from anywhere on any device. and it protects you with 24/7 professional monitoring. i guess we're sleeping here tonight. xfinity home. simple. easy. awesome. call, go online or demo in an xfinity store today. welcome back. a new year brings new laws. starting today, a host of new laws everything from equal pay to who gets the family dog in a divorce. here's nbc's pete williams on what else is changing today. >> reporter: vermont is going to begin paying people to move there up to $10,000 over two years for people employed by out of state companies who are willing to work in vermont remotely from a home office or a cooperative work with space. >> we have demographic problem in the state. we need more people. >> reporter: connecticut and hawaii make it illegal for employers to ask job applicants

about their pay history which brings to ten the number of states with similar bans to stop the cycle of pay discrimination of women and minor tis. >> there is an element of this about us competing, and we don't want to be known as the state where women can be low-balled. >> reporter: in any state, it is illegal to sell anything in foam polystyrene and that is a bap on trays and cups. >> paper cups, doesn't make a difference. less in the landfill. >> reporter: and foam packing peanuts are banned in the state. and also, dogs that are emotional support pets as trained service animals. >> i have had my dog attacked twice in walmart and lowes by aggressive dogs who bit my dog. who was in a muzzle.

>> reporter: judges can assign sole or joint custody in a divorce on the best interest of the pet. and shoppers in nine states will have to pay sales taxes on what they buy from out of state retailers. and in colorado, revelers wanting to toast 2019 can do it with all kinds of beer available in grocery stores starting january 1st, and not just low-alcohol brews p but a vestige of prohi p bibition out the new year. pete williams. that is it, a number of changes ahead. chris jansing is going to the pick up the coverage. are you tired yet? >> no, i am energized and 2019 is goi is going to be huge. your whole family is here. >> yes. >> and we are celebrating with the cutest kids you have ever seen. thank you, yasmin. i'm chris jansing, and happy new year to you. it is january 1st, 2019.

let's get started. >> we are learning more about the american detained in russia accused of be being a spy. >> my family members have been in contact with the people at the state department and the embassy in moscow, and we have heard they have received an announcement from the russian government that paul has been detained, but they have not yet been able to have consular access with paul. >> they can come over right now or any time. i spent christmas in the white house, and i spent new year's eve now in the white house, and you know, i am here and ready to go. >> the presumptive speak over the house nancy pelosi and charles shum vchumer have propo parts of the bill that would keep the government open, but not part of the wall. >> i have heard that the wall is old fashioned, but it is not old fashioned, but 100% foolproof. we have to have border security, and the wall is part of the border security, the bigs part. >>