a big question for me and those of us who watch the fed, jose, what does this mean for your interest rates. the fed meets in 13 days. a lot of folks are saying these numbers are strong enough, not too strong. the fed can trim interest rates 25 basis points, which could mean relief for american families. a resilient labor market but not gang busters, which is what we were worried about, an economy that was too strong. this is an economy resilient, doing well but not overdoing it. >> briefly, there's 13 days when the fed is going to meet. is that the time when they would also announce the decision, either way, a quarter point or not? >> yeah, in a couple of weeks they will have their next meeting, watching inflation numbers. we're going to get more key inflation numbers. the credit rating agency fits yesterday. very interestingly said, inflation might actually, the

risk for inflation is that it starts to go up again, if you have deportations and slowing immigration to the country, if you have tariffs. because the consumer is still so strong, the consumer is out there spending a lot of money there. that could be an inflation part of the story to watch. but again, overall, in the next couple of weeks, the end of the next meeting on december 17th, 18th, a lot of folks think the fed will trim interest rates a little bit. jose. >> christine romans, thank you so much. that wraps up the hour for me. i'll be back here at 3:00 p.m. eastern, noon pacific. i'll also see you tomorrow night on nbc nightly news saturday. you can reach me on social media at jd balart. msnbc.com/jdp. andrea mitchell picks up with more news right now. right now on "andrea mitchell reports" the man hunt for the suspect of the shooting death of unitedhealthcare ceo

brian thompson enters a third day, with new details, possible leads about the gunman's movements before the attack. also president-elect trump posting a vote of confidence for his pick to lead the defense department, pete hegseth, but no indication that he's pressuring senators to support his controversial choice. >> and new reporting confirmed by nbc news, president biden is considering preemptive blanket pardons, for key trump targets like dr. anthony fauci and liz cheney, because of threats of retaliation from some of his choices with the fbi and other defendants. plus, six weeks before he is sworn in as president, mr. trump goes to paris, the unprecedented trip of the reopening of notre dame kicking off a foreign policy agenda. and big news for millions of tiktok users with the d.c. court of appeals, upholding the law, requiring the social media giant's chinese parent company to divest. ♪♪

good day, everyone, i'm andrea mitchell in washington, and there is new evidence but very few answers as the man hunt continues for the suspect in the brazen killing of unitedhealthcare ceo brian thompson. three senior law enforcement officials say the that suspect may have gotten on a greyhound bus, a bus that originated in atlanta, to manhattan, on november 24th. investigators are looking into whether the suspect then checked into a youth hostile on the upper west side using a fake i.d. authorities say this photo on the left is of the person of interest taken at the hostile where he lower his mask briefly to flirt with the woman behind the desk. police still trying to piece together a time line, including this new video that may show the suspect leaving the subway about an hour and a half before the shooting. this video taken minutes after the shooting, showing a man who may be the suspect, 30 blocks north of the murder scene. biking near central park.

this time, without the backpack. mayor eric adams of new york, telling cnbc the nypd has new leads but does not want to tip off the gunman. >> i do not want to do anything that's going to hamper the investigation, and the apprehension of the person responsible for this crime, but this city is a safe city. we have an amazing police force, and they continue to have drawn down crime, the spire time that i have been in office, and so we're going to continue to ensure that safety with the come omni presence of our uniformed police officers. >> we continue with nbc news national law enforcement and intelligence correspondent tom winter. what is the latest in this investigation, and has it expanded beyond new york city? >> andrea, good afternoon, yes, as of 12:03, eastern time, the nypd does not have a firm identification on this individual that they have been seeking since this homicide

happened in midtown, manhattan, shortly after 6:45 a.m. on wednesday. obviously this investigation has been going on and going on full steam, really. you're looking at the various images that we have been able to obtain or have been provided by the new york city police department, putting together a bit of a time line: i said last night on the nbc nightly news, the time line is the key to the case, bearing out today as myself and my colleague have been reporting, dozens of images and stills from the new york city police department, detective bureau and patrol bureau have been able to gather throughout the city. they have put together a comprehensive time line of the individual's arrival here since november 24th, as you referenced before, he arrives from greyhound bus from atlanta. whether or not he's exactly from atlanta, whether or not he's from that general area, whether or not he's from somewhere beyond tla hat is just somethin that i don't know at this hour,

and do believe that's something that the police department is still looking into. this is their investigation, but obviously they have a robust relationship with a number of law enforcement agencies, so if they need their assistance. they will certainly grab that as well. put together here, andrea, in looking at what we have reported so far and where this is going getting the actual real identification of this individual as we reported earlier yesterday, there was a fake i.d. that was presented at that hostile. he paid for it in cash. this person has taken, really, some significant steps that law enforcement is certainly paying attention to to avoid their detection and to avoid what their true identity is and where they are actually really from, so that's the priority. as soon as they get that name, i think they will feel like they'll be in a better position to track down this person. but the investigation is obviously still enormously hot in the amount of resources being

poured into it is definitely significant. >> and so, tom, there's video that shows the man who may be the suspect after the shooting but without the backpack. what does that suggest to you? >> it suggests a whole host of things, and without getting into speculation, and i know you're not asking me to speculate, but, you know, does he ditch the backpack at some point. does he have something preplanned about where to leave the backpack behind. the bike he gets on, he had obviously left at that location. the second the suspect gets on a bike at 56th street, he's got ha ready. he leaves through an alleyway following the shooting. suspect shoots thompson, where that red dot is, he walks west, and there's an alley way through midtown blocks between 6th and 7th avenue. picks up his bike in front of a restaurant, and scoots up 6th avenue as a way to avoid detection, and given the amount of traffic, even at 6:45 in the

morning, the morning of the tree lighting, a lot of traffic in new york city, as you remember, he was able to really get into the park. where he leaves that backpack, if he pick its up, still traveling with it, all great questions. >> tom winter, thank you so much. i know you have been all over this, fact by fact. joining us now, former new york city police commissioner, ray kelly, now a distinguished visiting fellow at the counsel on foreign relations. commissioner kelly, it's great to see you again. this is obviously a very complex investigation. do you think the police have broadened the search area for any clues? obviously the park is a difficult target. fewer cameras there. but how would you be approaching it? take us behind the scenes. >> well, they say now that they have some dna samples. obviously that's a major achievement. i think that it's table that this individual will be identified very quickly. just think about this picture

being on the front page or near the front page of every newspaper in america. every tv station. i mean, it's totally infatuation. i think the department has done a good job in getting this informing out. i'm glad they're not holding too much back. i'm sure they're holding some things back. i believe now they are maybe close to being deluged by people calling and thinking they identify this person, thinking they recognize him in some way, going to be very demanding t is because these leads have to be followed up. i have never seen a distribution of someone's picture or information to this extent in any case, that i remember. >> now, it takes us back to the tsarnaev brothers, the boston bomber and the way, you know, ctv footage and coverage has changed and advanced since those

years. obviously raises privacy concerns, but right now what we're concerned about is finding this man. what does it tell you -- what is your take away as to whether this was a professional hit job, whether this is an amateur? he seemed to know how to handle a gun. unjammed it, but he didn't know the silencer would jam it. he let his face be shown when he was flirting with the desk person at the hostile. he went into a starbucks. he didn't disappear like a professional hit guy. >> exactly. he made a lot of mistakes. i think he's a motivated amateur. he did some things that were right, but, you know, a lot of times the criminals in general have no idea how many cameras there are certainly in new york city. it's about 18,000 cameras, most of them in midtown, manhattan. there's a lot more pictures than have been shown about this individual doing various things.

as i say, it's inevitable that in short order he's going to be i.d.'d. even the gun itself is unusual. it looks like a version of an old world war ii german gun. and if this individual was a gun aficionado in any way, that will be clearly identified. and as far as the backpack is concerned, i mean, obviously that's a reservoir, that's a big lake. that's where the bag could be. i know they did a preliminary search of the park and they didn't find it, but i would bet that it's in that lake. >> now, there's been a lot of hostile social media, you know, postings against the health care industry, his wife, penelope said that there had been some threats of some kind. did it surprise you that a ceo of this magnitude did not have

personal security, and we know now that others in the industry are taking down pictures of prominent executives from their web sites, and are increasing security. >> well, he had curt security w him, but he left early. he went out on his own. the shooting happened at 6:45 a.m. for whatever reason, he left the hotel and looked like he was going into the hilton hotel to check and see if arrangements were in place for him to speak. what i want to know is what was in the speech, what he was going to say. i don't know if there's prepared remarks or what, but the shooter obviously did not want him to get in and make that speech. that's one of the possible motivations as to why this shooting took place. you know that mr. thompson was being investigated.

we don't know what that means or other people involved or is there information that could have come out at this briefing, could have impacted on other people, other employees, so there's a lot of course that we still don't know. it's starting to come together. and, yeah, it is unusual that someone like him did not have security, but we're told now that he just -- probably just did a quick run over to the hotel to see if everything was in order, and this individual somehow knew about that. and knew about the door that he's going to go in. i know you know that hilton hotel has multiple entrances and he was at the right door, the right location. so, yes, there's a lot that we don't know, but there's so much information out now on this individual that i'm pretty certain he's going to be

identified pretty soon. >> finally, what do you make of the clue or misdirection from what was scratched on the cartridges of defend, deny, depose. is that a lead or is that trying to, you know, send the police in the wrong direction? >> that's an excellent question because we don't know. was that something that -- it's kind of app phrase in the insurance world, as we know, a book was written with that title in 2010 about the insurance industry, and generally speaking, their refusal to answer claims, to make payments. so i think you're right on target. was that put out to throw off the investigation or was it really the -- something behind the motivation that brought this shooting about. so we'll have to see.

>> commissioner ray kelly, it's such a privilege to see you again, sir. no one has more experience in new york city. thank you very much. >> great to see you. thank you, andrea, always great to be with you. and in 90 seconds, the state of the trump transition effort, tumultuous week for pete hegseth and elon musk back in the spotlight on capitol hill. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. mitchell reports" on msnbc. why use 10 buckets of water when you can use 1 fire extinguisher. and to fight heartburn, why take 10 antacids throughout the day when you can take 1 prilosec. for easier heartburn relief, one beats ten. prilosec otc. one pill. 24 hours. zero heartburn. when i hear cancer, i hear death sentence. every 15 seconds someone will hear the words, “you have cancer.” at the american cancer society, this is why we're here... to help people through their entire journey. i was ready to battle... to be there for my family. and today, we're asking for your support.

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president-elect trump today defending pete hegseth on truth social. his embattled pick to be defense secretary, despite as many as six republican senators telling nbc news privately that they cannot support him. that would be more than enough to defeat him. hegseth has agreed to undergo an fbi background check according to his lawyers last night who denies multiple reports of alleged excessive drinking and sexual misconduct. after a round of meetings with senators, trump's choice told reporters, he's a changed man and he's going to fight to get confirmed. >> i'm a different man than i was years ago. that's a redemption story. i'm not going to back down from them one bit. i will answer all of these senators' questions, but this will not be a process tried immediately, i don't answer to anyone in this group. none of you. >> meanwhile, two sources are telling nbc news that president biden is considering potential preemptive blanket pardons for officials who could be facing a

hostile incoming administration, confirming reports in "politico" and the "washington post," now also confirmed by "the new york times." including dr. anthony fauci, liz cheney, adam schiff, and former joint chiefs chairman, general mark millie. joining us now, garrett haake, gabe gutierrez, the bulwarks managing editor sam stein, and former presidential candidate, john kasich. garrett, president-elect trump defended hegseth on social media today. what's going on behind the scenes, though? we haven't heard reports that the president-elect is actually on the phone lobbying hard for this choice. how hard is he fighting for him? >> that's right, andrea. in the last 24 hours, there's certainly been a vibe shift in pete hegseth's favor on capitol hill. his meetings yesterday, largely went well. i spoke to him at the end of one meeting with mike rounds, a republican senator from south

dakota, who had been someone who seemed more on the fence about hegseth, but was moving in his direction, and of course we've had public displays of support from president-elect trump and vice president-elect j.d. vance who both obviously hold sway with republican lawmakers. but vibes aren't votes, and it's still clear that hegseth has a number of lawmakers he has to convince to get on board, including some he has met privately with, most notably, joni ernst who had a meeting with hegseth on wednesday that she described as thorough and frank, and yesterday wouldn't go any farther than this, when asked if she's ready to support his nomination. >> i think for a number of our senators, they want to make sure that any allegations have been cleared, and that's why we have to have a very thorough vetting process. >> i think what we're going to see now is this vetting process continue as a lot of folks on capitol hill wait with baited breath to see if there are more

allegations, more stories to come about hegseth. remember, he's going to kind of hang out here for quite some time. his confirmation hearing won't be until early january at the soonest. the advice he's been getting from senators is he has to answer these questions directly, whether that's in confirmation hearing or in an interview, i think it's a bit more of an open question. i think we're basically in a situation where both on capitol hill, and perhaps even down at mar-a-lago, everyone is waiting to see what else might come out before hegseth gets his day in front of the senate armed services committee. >> and gabe gutierrez, nbc news has learned that president biden is considering those preemptive pardons, blanket pardons from multiple officials, among the possible targets, adam schiff who has said that he doesn't think it's a good idea, the senator elect, and liz cheney, i don't think has been heard from. mark milley, there's a long list of targets, and i think all of

the reporting says that that the white house is considering this very unusual step because of the people who were chosen to head, you know, the justice department, pat bondi, and particularly kash patel at the fbi. >> reporter: yeah, that's right, look, you listed off names there. two sources familiar with the discussions confirm those are some of the names being talked about. there is no official list, according to these sources, but this is something that president biden is speaking with senior aides about, and no final decisions have been made, but there have been many people in the democratic party, never trumpers that have apparently been reaping out, very concerned because of the increasing rhetoric about retribution, and we're also told by sources familiar with the discussions that to expect announcements in the coming weeks, separately, about other potential pardons regarding criminal justice. there has been outreach from people like democratic leader

hakeem jeffries, publicly asking the white house to consider more pardons. also civil rights attorney, ben crump, but, andrea, you mentioned, this is an unusual step. certainly unusual, especially in this polarized environment. but there have been tive presidential pardons before. gerald ford pardoning richard nixon, and george h.w. bush, pardoning a former defense secretary over the iran contra affair, so this has been done before, but certainly, andrea, in this polarized environment, it will get a lot of attention. >> and of course there's always bill clinton and a pardon of mark rich on the way out the door which was very controversial. governor kasich, your reaction to potential pardons that the president is considering and we should point out, this is just apparently his chief of staff, his general counsel, his white house counsel talking about the

possibility. there's been no decision made. >> yeah, i sometimes wonder, andrea, in washington, d.c., it's just, you know, i don't know if this is actually coming from the administration. and some of your reports are that it is, but i'm not so certain about that, that it's just not speculation by people who are really outside the circle. >> i can tell you that it was reported first by "politico," then confirmed by "the washington post." but our own reporting, i can't speak to their sources. i can speak to the fact that it was confirmed with sources familiar, clearly, within the administration. it's not from outside people. >> yeah, my sense is, andrea, look, when they come in, this administration faces a perilous time internationally. with all the trouble we have with ukraine, with what's happening over there in the middle east, relations with china, then you think about the tariff issues that they're going to address, the meetings, the quick meetings with canada, and

mexico, and then on top of that, of course, everything about immigration, and then you've got the committee to reinvent the government. i mean, if you start doing this, you create such confusion, and you -- i think you can lose your way. there may have been some law enforcement people who maybe violated their oath of office who will be reviewed. but the sense that they're going to go after people like liz cheney, i just kind of -- anything is possible, but i sort of dismiss it because i think at the end, the administration is going to want to be focused on these really big things, and if they just really willy nilly start doing this, you're going to see uproar, confusion and they will lose their way. i'm skeptical about, you know, what the trump folks might do. i know what they say, they say a lot of things. people say a lot of things, but again, it's a matter of what your priorities are, and do you want to take your eye off the ball on some of these very very critical issues that this

country faces. >> that's a fair point. i think what was alarming in particular in the last 24 hours that olivia troy, a former homeland security official who was detailed to vice president pence during the covid task force and then became a whistleblower and a critic, subsequently, and, you know, more cent, she just got a letter, her lawyer got a letter, apparently from kash patel warning of legal action if she did not retract criticisms of donald trump that she had made on msnbc. and he has said previously on camera recently that, watch out, because he was going to go after media critics and others. i think it's that that created the incentive, shall we say. let me get sam stein in here to comment on it because it's going to be very controversial, just

as the donald trump's, you know, pledge to pardon all of the january 6th people, you know, potentially hundreds of people who have been convicted. this is the authority that any president has, and these things happen as they go out the door, and it's certainly going to blow up, have a huge effect on gerald ford obviously. >> sure. a few things here to unpack. one is, yes, you're right, the olivia troy thing did happen. kash patel did issue a threat. her lawyer spoke to me, said they're taking it very seriously. but he noted that this is not a one off incident, that there's been other legal threats issued by patel, rick gri nnel and others. i spoke with brendan boyle about the possibility of preemptive presidential pardons. he says he has been advocating aggressively for them. he believes it would be foolish

to not do them. he doesn't want to take a chance. he did relay that there's conversations that are happening, that's about as deep as it would go with respect to those conversations. but of course if the president were to take this action, if he were to issue presidential pardons preempty liveily, there people who don't want thee pardons because they think it would be tantamount to admission of guilt on their part, and they don't think they have done anything wrong. they don't want the target on their back. it's not something that's easily, there's not a real easy way to go about doing this. it's not clear that everyone wants it. and that's why i think right now it's just the subject of an intelligence internal debate in the white house. >> and finally, governor kasich, there is talk about whether or not joe biden should preemptively, or not preemptively because he's been

convicted convicted but not sentenced, should pardon donald trump, what do you think about that? >> i think, andrea, at some point, the country has to stop the back and forth. you know, we get you, you get us, we get you, they get us, i mean, this back and forth is distracting us from things that are really critical. again, if people violated the law somehow in the justice department, and they need to be held accountable. but when people speak out and they have their opinions, i mean, we live in a society that respects, you know, free speech, and, again, at the end of the day, it's going to be trump's decision. and i just sort of feel like at the end, he's got bigger fish to fry recrimination. i hope i'm right. >> do you think president biden should pardon president-elect trump so that he doesn't have all of this hanging over him? >> you know, i actually thought, andrea, you probably think i'm crazy, but i was hoping that donald trump was going to pardon hunter biden.

i actually thought that would have been a great move, and it would have shown some togetherness. i mean, everything is going back and forth in this country. we just, you know, this -- i don't want to tie it to what we just saw happen in new york, but the anger that is out there, it's got to be dealt with, and you know, you get us, we get you, leads us down a road into an alley that none of us want to live in. so what i'm hoping is going to happen is if it's legitimate, they'll do it. if not, and if joe biden were to do something like that, he would be offering an olive branch, but i don't think donald trump is going anywhere in terms of being prosecuted. i just don't think that's going to happen, andrea. would it make some sense? sure it would. it would actually represent something we don't see much in washington, and that is a word called kindness. >> yeah, and i didn't even play that clip from yesterday from that hearing with the head of the secret service and the congressman from texas.

i spared you that today, governor kasich. spared all of us. >> you're the best andrea, you're just the best, what can i say. >> thank you, and happy weekend to all of you. >> happy holidays. >> could all use a good rest. garrett haake, gabe gutierrez, sam stein, and john kasich, and sunday, be sure to watch "meet the press" on nbc as moderator, kristen welker is going to have an exclusive interview, the first broadcast interview with president-elect trump since his election. and next, paris prepares for the arrival of the president-elect as notre dame is set to reopen five years after that devastating fire. an amazing rebirth, you're watching andrea mitchell on msnbc. andrea mitchell on msnbc. take a left here please. driver: but there's a... carl's way is the best way. client: is it? at schwab, how i choose to invest is up to me. driver: exactly! i can invest and trade on my own... client: yes, and let them manage some investments for me too. let's move on, shall we? no can do. client: i'll get out here.

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president-elect trump is set to attend tomorrow's grand reopening of the iconic, cathedral of notre dame, which is almost completely destroyed five years ago in a devastating

fire. mr. trump frs was invited by fr president emanuel macron, for the historic occasion. it's the first trip before being reelected. the french government collapsed this week after a no confidence vote in the parliament on the assembly on wednesday. and the prime minister resigned. leaving macron's future on shake i y ground. joining us now is nbc news correspondent vaughn hillyard in paris, and richard haass, the president emeritus of the council on foreign relations. vaughn, first to you, what is president-elect trump hoping to accomplish with this trip? >> reporter: right. with so much uncertainty, andrea, here with the french government, what is certain is tomorrow is going to be the reopening of the notre dame cathedral, and it's going to be president macron who invited the president-elect to come and be by his side for the ceremony ahead of the official opening, and then when the bells ring to

welcome everybody back inside of this cathedral, donald trump is going to be joined by the presidents of jordan, morocco, italy, prince william as well. first lady jill biden, we should note, will be here in attendance. president biden was invited but declined the invitation. and this is going to be donald trump's first international visit. as the president-elect. and the stakes are so high. not only for donald trump but president macron here, at a time in which the coalition government fell apart just this week for the french. this is a moment of reckoning, in which donald trump has promised to implement tariffs on all eu goods, 10 to 20% on all goods in just two month's time. but also, donald trump has called into question the extent to which continued financial and military aid will be provided to ukraine in its defense against russian aggression. macron has been a staunch defender of president zelenskyy and ukraine's efforts, and so

for him, this is an opportunity to welcome donald trump to his country, a key ally to the incoming president, and at a moment in which is not only imperative for president macron, but also european allies and particularly ukraine here at a moment of deep questions about what the united states posture will be towards the country and the greater region. >> vaughn hillyard, we all wish that we were there with you to see notre dame in all of its glory again. thank you very much. and richard haass, mr. trump arriving at a precarious moment as vaughn has just pointed out the french government has collapsed. macron is caught between the left wing and the right wing. how important is this moment for donald trump, for the macron relationship, and what does it say for europe and ukraine? >> lots of questions there. >> a lot. yeah. >> i think, for donald trump,

this is an enjoyable trip, a triumphant trip, and it's a positive sort of, you know, the reopening of notre dame, the problem is he's arriving in a paris, france, that's closing. the government isn't working. macron has a few years left. itst is not clear to me he can survive it. it's not clear he has a foundation for governing. the left and right have brought down the most recent government. they don't agree on what needs to take its place. france has reached a real impasse, germany has reached a real impasse in its politics. britain is not doing well. what donald trump is facing is a weaker europe, economically, europe barely growing, politically, it's weaker. in terms of ukraine, though, the most interesting news is not in europe. it's in his appointment of keith kellogg has written recently a

paper that doesn't call for throwing ukraine under the bus. but talks about continuing to arm ukraine, to try to bring about a cease fire in place. i actually think it's a realistic, reasonable strategy, so i take that as a very good sign. >> and if the world were not as challenging as it was with two hot wars and problems in between, and syria blowing up, now we have a major u.s. ally in such a critical place, korea, in turmoil. south korea's president facing an impeachment vote tomorrow following his shocking short lived martial law degree earlier this week, which caught the u.s. completely by surprise, what are you anticipating there, and it's certainly reaffirming that so many people turned out in the cold in the middle of the night. >> sure. >> democracy, for liberal democracy, and supported by the military and by the parliament. >> 100%, president yun, seemed

almost he snapped under the pressure, various investigations, impeachment efforts against senior people. i think he's lost what the chinese would call the mandate of heaven, he's lost his legitimacy. i don't think he survives politically to be perfectly honest here. the good news is that there are resilience of korean democratic institutions, i remember when i used to go there as a young man, i would visit campus in every trip i took, it would end up with tear gas because students would be protesting against the military leadership. a robust democracy after four decades, it's one of the world's, what, 10 or 12 largest economies, it's a real ally. basically this is good news. the only thing that i worry about a little bit is the orientation of the next leadership of south korea. south korea has been quite robust in recent years, and being, you know, moving closer

to japan. being a partner with us on the peninsula. being a partner to some extent against china, and i think the question is will south korea have the band width, given its internal challenges, what will be its focus. again, i think this is basically good news for what it tells us about a democracy under stress and how it's surviving. >> and before i let you go, let me ask you about syria. rebel forces are now claiming more territory than recent fighting. they say vulnerability with iran on its back, hezbollah, how does this play out? do you think the regime could be at risk? >> i do think the regime could be at risk because its principle backers that kept it in place decades ago, russia and iran, shall we say, are somewhat occupied. they're somewhat weakened. i think the regime is at risk. it never regained the loyalty or support of the people, they were ruled by coercion, and if that coercion disappears as it seems to be doing, i actually think

this regime is vulnerable. that's the good news. the bad news, andrea, the people who want to take their place, fighting against it, they aren't good guys. a taliban group, turkey wants a large role. the old saying is the enemy of your enemy is your friend. quite possible the enemy of your enemy could be an enemy is. there may be no good news regardless of how this plays out. >> richard haass, thank you very much. appreciate it. and coming up, the state of the economy, the president-elect is inheriting an economy which is very strong, but it came into better focus, sharper focus today with the new jobs report. the details are next. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. hell reports" on msnbc. for five times more cleaning power than brushing and flossing alone. get a next level clean... ahhhhh with listerine. feel the whoa! inez, let me ask you, you're using head and shoulders, right? only when i see flakes. then i switch back to my regular shampoo. you should use it every wash, otherwise the flakes

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and breaking news concerning the hugely popular app tiktok, a three-judge panel on the u.s. court of appeals for the d.c. circuit ruling unanimously to uphold a law forcing tiktok's chinese parent company to divest ownership. the court backing congress and

the justice department inciting national security and data collection concerns about the app. tiktok owner bytedance has until january 19th of next year to divest or face a possible u.s. ban. tiktok will likely challenge this decision in the supreme court, and in a statement says in part that a ban will silence its users. the jobs market rebounded, according to new numbers from the labor department today, 227,000 skrobs 227,000 jobs were added in november. that's better than expected after a weak report in october because of the hurricanes and also the boeing strike. the unemployment rate is up slightly at 4.2%. nbc news senior business correspondent christine romans joins us now. thanks for being with us. >> hi, andrea. >> what do these numbers show, and what does it tell you about the fed's decision? >> i mean, as you said, you know, we had that really weak

reading in october, and we said there were strikes, and there were storms, there was so much going on, people weren't going out and getting hired because of all of these things that were happening in southeast in some of these important ports, and at boeing, and that has bounced back here. so november, you saw those idled workers go back to work, and then you saw more hiring as well. an unemployment rate that ticked up to 4.2%. but still, this is still relatively historically low. we'll watch that there. and here's where the hiring was, health care, retail trade lost jobs there. what does all of this mean for the fed, which meets in about 13 days? well, you still have strong wages. this is wage growth is 4%. inflation is higher than the fed would like, 2.6%. this picture right here is of the family's budget. it shows better purchasing power. do people believe it. we had a consumer sentiment that was strong. people spending a lot of money into the holidays. a fed, andrea, that is expected

to probably cut rates a tiny bit when it next meets. it can because inflation is coming back into focus, but i think the fed is going to be cautious, and the fed chief has sort of signalled this, and here's why, the economy is still strong. it's resilient. it's powering into the end of the year much better than anybody would have thought a couple of years ago or even a year ago. you've got a strong economy, inflation that's moderating. a jobs mark that is still resilient, although slowing from the fever pitch last year, and that's kind of the situation we see ourselves heading into the end of the year, andrea. >> it's pretty rosy, especially the broken roses, all the criticisms from the incoming president, you know. >> this is purchasing power here, but when will people start to feel it. it can take a year. it can take a couple of years of numbers like this before people start to shake off the sting of the higher prices, the higher inflation of a couple of years ago. >> exactly. thank you very much. we appreciate it. >> you're welcome. and next, how the national security community is responding

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with china's government. it's a campaign dubbed salt typhoon that targeted multiple u.s. telecom companies. a cisa official says that private communications of individuals involved in government and politics were compromised, and the hackers targeted information related to national security and criminal investigations. the white house says it is working in cooperation with the telecom providers. joining me now is former general council of the national security agency, senior adviser at the center for strategic and international studies. glenn, this is such a big deal, and with all the other torrent of news, appointments and controversial nominees, they're not nominees yet, but names, we have probably not focused enough on how did they get in, how long are they staying, what do we know, and why was it so easy, and what have they compromised? a lot of questions. >> a lot of questions, and you're right, in any other situation, if we didn't have

this much news, this would be the top of the hour news, so to speak, but it is an extraordinary development. it's an audacious, strategic action. we have a foreign adversary that somehow got into our telecom systems, apparently eight of our telephone systems, apparently had access to the voice calls and text messages of many millions of americans. and in particular, was chinese hackers were able to focus on about 150 high value targets so to speak, of interest to the chinese and this included president-elect trump, senator vance, homeland security adviser in the biden white house, senator schumer's staff, and you can imagine the kind of intelligence gold mine the chinese would get by having the ability to listen in on phone calls and see text messages of those people, and what an extraordinary development. >> so have all of these people been warned and have been told to change their data and

passwords, but do we know how they got in, and until we know that, we don't know if they're still there? >> so the fbi has said that it's gone to about 150 individuals and given them warnings that your communications may have been breached. exactly how they got in and whether they're still there are the big questions. there's a cyber safety review board meeting that's occurring today. it's going to start the process of trying to figure out how the chinese hackers were able to get into our telecom system. >> who runs that? >> that's a unit of the department of homeland security. it's an independent board. they'll issue their findings in due course. the telecom system that we have, we tend to think of it as one big network. it's easy for you and i to take our cell phones and dial the number, and we think of it as one seamless thing. it isn't, it's made up of many telephone companies, legacy systems, old computers, so there are a lot of seams, a lot of points of interconnection in every one of those is a

potential vulnerability. the telephone system has been known for years to be a -- just full of holes from a cyber security point of view. i should add one thing, though, that apparently the chinese were not able to get into ypted apps and messages, messages between two iphones, encrypted end to end, definitely not visible to the chinese. there are other apps elsewhere, like signal and others that afford some level of this. >> how do we know they didn't get into -- in direction, if they are in president-elect trump or chuck schumer who's, you know, a member of the big eight, they've got potentially national security information, but how do we know they didn't get into government systems? >> there's no sign they got into government secured systems, the classified systems that say nsa and the pentagon and the cia, but it does sound like, a little bit of uncertain news here, it does sound like the chinese were able to access the so-called

lawful intercept system, the fbi system with the elephone companies where they present a search warrant or other legal process to the telephone company and say give us this information from the target. the chinese don't care if the fbi is chasing a bank robber or child pornographer or financial crime. they're really interested in knowing which chinese spies are we on to, and which ones don't we yet know about, and that information from the chinese point of view would be just a devastating intelligence loss for us. an incredible bonanza for them. >> and what about tiktok, does this validate the d.c. circuit's unanimous opinion that tiktok and bytedance should be turned over? >> well, there's certainly no doubt that this feeds into the perception, which i think is the correct one, that china is a very very serious national security threat. debating that, even in the tiktok discussions, there might be questions over what's the best way to deal with tiktok.

obviously the d.c. circuit has decided that's constitutional. just because it's constitutional doesn't mean it's the best way of dealing with it. tiktok is going to be at a real dead end. the long requiring divestiture to find a non-chinese owner comes up on january 19th, the day before inauguration day. no internet provider, no app store is going to carry this unless there's an injunction placed. >> glenn gerstall, a great time for turnover in the intelligence agencies, she said ironically. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> it's good to see you. sta with y with us, i'll be for another full hour with the man hunt in manhattan. you're watching "andrea mitchell on msnbc." ing "andrea mitchell on msnbc." at one year, many people experienced remission...

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