cereals fell, jose. >> thank you so much. i want to take you live to mexico to the basilica of our lady of guadeloupe, mexico city. tonight at midnight, it's tradition to celebrate the virgin of guadeloupe and the first indigenous saint of the americas. every year, 20 million pilgrims visit this sanctuary. in these last couple of days of december, more than 9 million come to celebrate. tonight at midnight, they sing to the virgin of guadeloupe. that wraps up the hour for me. you can always reach me on social media, watch clips from our show at msnbc.com/jdb at youtube. thank you for the privilege of your time. andrea mitchell has more right now. >> right now, a law enforcement official telling nbc news they've matched the fingerprints

of 26-year-old suspect, luigi mangione, to prints found close to where united healthcare's ceo, brian thompson, was murdered. the suspect is fighting extradition to new york. lashing out as sheriffs deputies hauled him into a pennsylvania court. into a pennsylvania court. on capitol hill today, the house foreign affairs committee grills secretary of state blinken over afghans abandoned and american citizens from 2021 and president-elect trump's choice to lead the pentagon continuing to try to prevent republican defections in the senate. plus, crews in southern california are working around the clock fighting that massive franklin fire surrounding malibu. good day.

i'm andrea mitchell in washington. there's new evidence today as new york state is preparing a governor's warrant to try to bring the suspect accused of killing the united healthcare ceo to new york city to face justice. luigi mangione was shouting outside court tuesday and today is fighting extradition from pennsylvania. his defense attorney says there's no evidence his client is the killer. that was before a senior law enforcement official today told nbc that mangione's fingerprints match prints found near the manhattan crime scene. police may be piecing together a positive motive for the attack. an archived version of his now deleted reddit account as suffering debilitating back pain, writing quote, it is absolutely brutal to have such a life halting issue that wears down the critical/logical thinking mind. adding that people around you probably understand your

symptoms, but a friend who lived near him in hawaii said it affected everything he did. >> we did everything we did to make him comfortable. to watch somebody suffering or in pain, it's difficult. physical pain is trauma that affects us beyond anything else in this world. and just broke my heart to know he had these three inch screws in his spine, you know, and just, you know, we can't imagine what goes, what that pain is like and how long that lasts. and how long are you immobile for. >> investigators say they were looking at how that pain could be connected to the murder of united healthcare's ceo, brian thompson. and whether the insurance industry could have denied mangione's medical claims. the nypd also looking into whether the suspect possibly saw the killing as a symbolic takedown. police now warning against potential copy cat violence and calling the internet obsession

nothing short of disturbing. >> this guy's not a hero. if you have any issues with somebody, we don't go out there and commit violence. this guy committed cold-blooded murder on our streets and that's not something we tolerate and i don't think he's a hero for that. >> we begin with sam brock and harry lipman. sam, what do we know about the fingerprints and what are we learning about his medical history? >> police have the fake id and gun they're viewing as potentially critical pieces of information. now, you're talking about a whole other layer to this. a senior law enforcement official telling our folks here with wnbc in new york that the fingerprints were matched from what was taken from mangione after he was detained in pennsylvania with fingerprints found near the shooting scene in

manhattan. police said minutes before the shooting took place, their suspect was inside a starbucks, bought a number of items including a water bottle and two energy bars. there was a cell phone recovered, too. it's not clear which item the fingerprint came from, but what we know is that it matched mangione, which presumably is a paramount piece of evidence. the gun, of course, ballistics testing, ongoing as well. that could prove to be very important but thomas dickey, mangione's attorney, said i haven't seen a single piece of evidence that would implicate my client. to your other question about this whole back situation. i did have a conversation with rj martin. he owns a co-living community on the island of oahu where he said that he spoke first with mangione in january of 2022 where mangione had expressed the fact he had a lot of back issues. when he arrived according to

martin, for about six months in 2022, within about a week, he was taking a surfing lesson, suffered a back injury and ended up being basically in his words, off his feet and immobile for a week at least. and that was an ongoing problem. posts on reddit have been confirmed from mangione that it could have been a years long fight. he says from childhood until age 23, this was back in february, my back would always ache if i stood too long, but it wasn't too bad. in my opinion, that sort of achy symptom makes sense to medicate. it's bothersome. but once the spine is unstable, that's something you don't medicate. that's something you fix. i'm sure that will become standard medical knowledge in a decade, but it seems we're early on that. he also describes the fact people don't understand this condition and it's totally debilitating. he said it slows down the ability to think clearly, to

paraphrase. we have police investigators saying they are looking into an image he put online on social media of an x-ray. not clear if it's the same that was shared with rj or not, but we have seen images of what they are examining. and they want to find out if he had an insurance claim that was denied, what was his level of coverage. these are all questions swirling within the confines of the investigations. when by spoke with martin, he said he never heard mangione complain specifically about the healthcare industry. he said he wasn't the type to do that. he never saw him taking any sort of medication. he was generally a positive person and just to see the emotional reaction having this conversation evoked with rj was sort of eye opening as well. just the fact that he was touched by mangione to a degree that he would feel this kind of emotion. we've seen that from others as well. is that the profile of a sociopath, of somebody capable of murder. so many pieces that need to be

connected. >> that's so much information. sam brock, that's extraordinary. we've got new possible evidence, harry, that was just brought to us by jonathan dienst, our great new york wnbc correspondent there. and two sources familiar with the investigation are telling nbc, telling jonathan dienst, that in addition to allegedly carrying that three page letter, he had a notebook and it had some writing saying he wanted to target a ceo at a conference with a gun and that the method was preferable to other means like an explosive device or a bomb. so others are not hurt. that's the gist of it. those are not quotes. harry, that's another thread in what they're trying to build to get the extradition. his defense lawyer said there was no evidence. well, now there's evidence. the prints and this writing in a notebook. >> the evidence is overwhelming,

andrea. i don't want to say what a jury would say, but this is the guy. we have prints on the candy bar, the water bottle left at the scene. we have the three-page basically confession which includes saying, you know, these parasites, it just had to be done. talking about as you say, doing a targeted killing rather than a bomb. he's the guy. and what it's going to come down to is process and what kind of defense he can mount. so as you say, he's now being held in pennsylvania on charges having to do with firearms. basically just to sort of, you know, incapacitate him. new york is saying, under standard procedures, which happen every day, bring us. here are the charges. we've indicted him on second degree murder. second degree, by the way, is

just because there's no aggravating factor. it's what we often think of first degree and it's a 15-year to life sentence. they're going to go through the paces. he has a right to it. he basically says show me that i'm the guy. i don't think that will be very difficult. and show me that the crimes that you are charging me with are real crimes in new york. so that's going to be, it might take the sort of standard rule of thumb is about 30 days, but that's going to happen. he's going to be extradited. he's going to confront an overwhelming case. it's really in the last 24 hours has developed into something that really makes it not a hard charge to prove in court. but there will be questions about mental status including the back stuff. i'll just say briefly because i looked it up. the mental, the insanity defense in new york is not very favorable to him. he has to basically think he's

not doing anything wrong. you look at the spiral notebook and the three-page confession, he knows what he's doing is very wrong. >> and also, harry, please say that he was not even on their radar. despite the face for a few seconds. it's a still frame. it was available to everyone. but even though that was everywhere in this country, until the tip from the mcdonald's employee, they didn't have him. what do you make of the fact that no one knew him in school, in several schools, or most importantly, his family called, and called the police? >> it's whole classification of crime. it happened with mcveigh, with the unabomber. hardest one to solve because it tends to be lone wolves. we're going to see some social media we haven't seen yet. but he's on his own. he cracked in some way, but normally, it's all the networks

of people that give rise to proof of violent crimes like this. these are very, very hard to ferret out in advance and in other cases like this involving lone wolf actors, usually, the police will be in a reactive mode. not a preventive mode. >> and does he have to be extradited to new york before alvin bragg can begin presenting the case for indictment? >> short answer is yes. it will happen straightforwardly, but for that charge to be presented in court, he's got to be there. before he can go there, the state of new york, they've got a letter from the governor that's gone to shapiro. that will happen quickly, but the proof in pennsylvania will be he really is mangione and the crimes he's charged with are the kinds of crimes you can extradite for. it may take a little time but there's no real possible impediment to both of those

proofs happening. he's going to be in new york and face the second degree murder charges. >> it's hugely helpful. thank you. and sam brock, you've been all over this from the beginning. thanks so much. in just 90 seconds, the latest from capitol hill where secretary of state blinken is facing tough questions about the biden administration's 2021 withdrawal from afghanistan and a very contentious hearing. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. rts"n omsnbc. in psoriasis commercials? the thousands of real people who go undiagnosed. people whose psoriasis can look very different depending on their skin tone. as the makers of tremfya®, we understand that everybody's moderate to severe plaque psoriasis doesn't look the same. so, we undertook a first-of-its-kind study of plaque psoriasis in every skin tone. like hers and his and yours. serious allergic reactions and increased risk of infections may occur.

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secretary of state blinken is getting grilled by republicans on the house foreign affairs committee today about the u.s. withdrawal from afghanistan in 2021 where 13 american troops were killed. his testimony comes three months after michael mccall threatened to hold him in contempt for failing to appear in september. at one point, it was interrupted by protestors. the chairman challenged him about decisions made by the biden administration. >> why did you ignore the cries for help? why did you leave this embassy open? and finally, who was in charge? was it you or mr. sullivan? because seems to me you delegate all your responsibility on this. you had very little to do with it and it was jake sullivan and the national security council at the white house calling all the

shots. however, under law, sir, you are the captain of the ship. >> chairman, that's incorrect on a number of counts as is the report i read. first, when it comes to the evacuation, that is a decision that's reached by the entire agency and ultimately by the president. >> joining me now is nbc news capitol hill correspondent, ryan nobles. ryan, first of all, the state department says the committee was trying to call him there to testify. when he was away, he was on one of 12 missions to the middle east. he's been traveling all year, more than a year. he's leaving again in an hour for the middle east. so this was very contentious. it's very unusual for the chairman, i think, to jump in and quote unquote fact check the democrats after they've finished asking their questions. he would add something, then cut off the secretary in the middle of a sentence when he was

answering. we don't have a hostile witness and it's a cabinet secretary, usually, you give them the courtesy of finishing a sentence. it's been a mess as far as the state department is concerned. it's also that they're asking him about what happened, you know, from when biden took over and refusing to deal with the withdrawal agreement made unilaterally between the trump negotiator and the taliban in doha. now, that said, there were a lot of mistakes. the state department did not get the visas properly for american allies. they didn't get all the americans out. some of the americans didn't want to leave. they had families there. mixed families. but, you know, they're also today blaming him for russia's invasion of ukraine, saying that it was a weak, that america was so weakened by the withdrawal from afghanistan that russia then invaded ukraine when russia first invaded ukraine in 2014.

i don't know what your take is though. >> reporter: well, there's a couple of points you raise here that i think are worth making note of. first, you describe the secretary should not be viewed as a hostile witness. i think under normal circumstances, that would be correct, but there's no doubt the foreign affairs committee on the house side has been very frustrated by the fact it took so long to get blinken in front of them. and yes, he has a lot of responsibilities as secretary of state going all around the world, but he also has a responsibility of oversight and accountability to the congress. they felt that they deserved an appearance by him in front of this committee and they really wanted it to happen before the election and that they felt there was an effort by blinken to delay that appearance. so as to not muddy up the election process and remind folks about the chaotic withdrawal from afghanistan. so i think that kind of set the stage for what you see playing out here today in terms of this

contentious back and forth. i think that foreign affairs committee, chairman in particular, would have been open to the idea of a more substantive back and forth if they didn't feel blinken had gone out of his way to try and avoid this confrontation. that being said, they did leave out a lot of the very specifics about the decisions made when it came to that withdrawal. that it was a decision that was made in the trump administration and it was left with the responsibility for the biden administration to execute but where you really see the focus of this 350 page report that the foreign affairs committee put out was that it was the decision making process leading up to that withdrawal then the subsequent actions taken as a result of it. the people left behind. the service members that were killed as a result of that chaotic withdrawal. so there's a lot of problems with this. they don't all lie with the biden administration, but i think republicans on the house side are frustrated by is there

isn't enough accountability for what the biden administration did wrong during that process to prevent something like this from ever happening again. the last point you made about finding a way to wedge ukraine into this conversation. that was not necessarily the purpose of this particular hearing, but as we know, the way congressional hearings work, when you give a member of congress a microphone and a principle in front of them, they will try and grind any ax that they are able to do, which i think is probably the result of what you see playing out in this hearing. >> i think the most serious criticism and a lot of critics suggest it, justifiably, was that they didn't have the process for visaing the american allies. and for getting americans out and that they said it was because of covid. they had nbc staff in lockdown but didn't explain why they couldn't off site that, do it out of country.

figure out a way during covid to get all that done because they knew that august date was looming for a withdrawal. bottom line, the u.s., throughout the u.s. government, did not anticipate that the afghan army was going to collapse that quickly. >> reporter: right. >> and the pentagon argued against it. so the state department and white house have to take a lot of blame as well. thank you so much for all the context. after today's hearing, secretary blinken is going to jordan and turkey for discussions on syria. he's trying to promote a syrian-led political transition. that is a tall order. inside syria, rebel forces are trying to build that new government and consolidate control, but they include a diverse mix of people. non radical, less radical, atheist, islamic fundamentalists. as israel is launch strikes

across syria saying it's trying to keep them out of the hands of extremists and that is something that has alarmed the u.n. and others. joining me now from damascus, matt bradley. matt, what extraordinary events we are seeing just this week in syria. a complete shift in the middle east. what progress can you expect will be made towards trying to create a central government or is this going to dissolve into factions ruling different parts of syria? >> reporter: it's a big question and what everybody's looking for. the million dollar question. nobody knows whether or not this country will simply persist in its civil war. there's such deep wounds dividing this place, but we've been going around the capital all day today and seeing a lot of signs of things kind of going back to normal. as normal as they can get after 14 years of civil war. we have just heard from the government. this interim government

announced they're lifting the curfew. that's going to go a long way toward returning this city, this country, ck to normal. we heard from the new prime minister that one of the top priorities is returning the syrian refugees that fled this country. that's going to be pretty tough. we've already seen a lot of decisions in europe where people, european governments are saying they're going to be freezing applications for asylum. i spoke with my arabic instructor. he's in the netherlands trying to get asylum. he's syrian. he was very frustrated and frightened today. he said he hasn't seen his family who's in istanbul, for more than a year, as he's trying to get asylum in the netherlands. he just heard today they're going to be freezing all asylum applications for the next six months. he's living in a dormitory with other men who are refugees as

well, many from syria. so he doesn't know what's going to happen to his application and dreads the prospect of return to be a syria that is going to be governed by jihadis. he said he doesn't want to live in that kind of country even though he was not fan of assad and that regime. it's a real issue for those here and the millions of refugees living in europe and the united states and elsewhere, they don't know if this is a place they can come back to and don't know what this government has in store. we spoke with a couple of soldiers down the street. they spoke very freely. they're with the group that led the rebel groups that took over damascus and overthrew the assad regime. they told us religious and ethnic minorities can have nothing to fear from this new regime. we've also heard the head of hts, the rebel group, they said they are not going to necessarily be punishing rank and file soldiers.

he made a new threat today. he said that anybody who committed atrocities and war crimes can expect to be hunted down and punished. so there is much talk of retribution here. andrea? >> matt bradley, thank you so much. and joining us now is former cia director, john brennan. so there's a lot here. the biden administration is considering removing the foreign terrorist designation from this syrian rebel group, hts. two current administration officials who spoke with nbc news. this is clearly an attempt to try to get some humanitarian aid in to stabilize the situation, but do you think that's wise? in this context to do this so quickly before we've seen whether he is going to be a moderate leader, granting amnesty and including former assad people in the government? >> as my brother said, the situation is very unsettled.

i think there's great angst about what the future holds. the organization, which is a coalition of various rebel groups, they reunited in their opposition to assad. well, assad is no longer there. so the question now is what is it that's going to hold them together. are they going to be united in terms of their approach to the governance of syria. but the syrian economies, society, have been devastated because of a dozen, more than a dozen years of rebellion. so the situation is going to remain chaotic for quite some time. i think there are some radical islamist extremist groups within this organization that will want to seek revenge inside of syria and will engage in certain types of activities and violence that i think the united states government will have concerns about. i would urge caution at this point. there is a great uncertainty in terms of what is going to happen so we'll have to see how this is going to evolve. but right now, i think there's a big question as far as what will

emerge in damascus and what it will do inside of syria as well as how it's going to look at its regional neighbors including israel, palestinians, and others. >> do you think it's premature though to lift that terror designation against jalani and the $10 million on his head? the reward, and deal with him? >> well, i think i would wait on the removal of the designation. you might want to remove the $10 million reward on him at this point, but i do think we have to wait and see what's going to happen. we've just been days since assad fall. so i think what we should do is to wait a bit and not be sort of just reacting in the moment. i think we have to see where this goes and whether or not some of this rhetoric is going to match actions in terms of moderation. but he's made publicly clear he is going to seek to avenge some

of the atrocities within the syrian regime under assad. we'll have to see how that plays out. >> secretary blinken is going to jordan and to turkey. erdawan's role has really expanded. >> the turks have been providing support to a number of groups and hts was located in the north of syria and has been in control of that area for a bit of time and the turks have provided support to it. there have been long tensions between turkey and syria, between the two governments. so i'm sure erdogan is pleased assad is no longer there. but the turks need to be concerned about what's going to happen inside of syria and whether or not this is going to be an issue the turks have to take into consideration when they think about their security along the very long border

turkey has with syria. >> david ignatius is reporting today that among the people who may have helped hts with their very rapid movements, is ukraine providing drones and other military equipment to try to further embarrass russia or hurt, or damage russia? interesting? >> it is interesting but it's clear that both ukrainians and rebel groups have a common enemy, which was russia. which was the main benefactor and supporter of the assad regime. so the ukrainians have capabilities. i think the reports are that there were some drones, drone operators, that were deployed to syria to help these rebels. i don't think it was the major factor in terms of what led to the rapid collapse of the syrian armed forces, but i think it was something that had helped the rebels. i do think it was mainly the lack of support that the assad regime was receiving from russia, iran, and hezbollah that led the syrian military to just

melt away. >> and meanwhile, president biden is reportedly considering preemptive pardons to people who could be targeted by president-elect trump's administration. you're one of the people that might be on that list for sure. would you accept a pardon? >> i don't think the folks who might be on a list are looking in any way for a pardon. no, i would not. i believe what i did during my government service and subsequent to it was fully consistent with the law. so therefore, despite some of the political winds that might be blowing here in the united states, i do have faith in the justice system and i'm hoping that the professionals within that judicial environment are going to continue to carry out their responsibilities irrespective of those political winds and any type of partisan pressure they may face. >> mr. trump has chosen congresswoman tulsi gabbard to be his director of national intelligence.

she would of course present the president's, or edit the president's daily brief. choose the briefer. there's a "new york times" op-ed today by john cipher and mike hayden, former cia and nsa leader calling her quote, wholly unqualified for the job. do you think she has the experience and reliability for the job? >> she doesn't have intelligence community experience so it raises questions about her qualifications. but also, some of her very questionable actions and statements in the past in terms of her visits with assad of syria. her very sympathetic statements about putin and russia. her trafficking and conspiracy theories such as bio weapons labs in ukraine and the deep state and also the 2020 election. i mean, it shows that she is really, i think, of questionable integrity as well as questionable judgment. and somebody who heads up 18

intelligence community departments and agencies will not only need to have those credentials, but confidence that they're going to carry out their responsibilities with the highest integrity and honesty. so i think the confirmation process is going to i think reveal some real doubts along those lines in her background and resume. >> john brennan, former cia director, thank you very much. and up next, we have a live report from southern california where crews continue to battle that 3,000 acre franklin fire surrounding malibu. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. it has derm-proven retinol... ...expertly formulated... ...to target skin cell turnover... ...and fights not one—but 5 signs of aging. with visible results... ...in just one week. neutrogena 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.

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in southern california to contain a wildfire. more than 1500 firefighters have been deployed. it's an attempt to tackle the

franklin fire. evacuation orders have been issued for nearly 20,000 people including some very famous residents. david noriega is in malibu for us. david, are they getting anywhere this trying to control this and what's happening with the weather? >> reporter: yeah, andrea. so just to set the scene a little bit. this canyon behind me has been burning all morning long. if you look a little bit that way, not far at all, there's this impressive view of the pacific ocean. that view is known all over the world and why there are so many celebrities and entertainment industry executives among those who are under evacuation orders or warnings since the fire started. crews have been making significant progress. there's a plane flying currently down the middle of this canyon behind me throughout smoke.

we've been seeing them flying all morning and drying bright red fire retardant which has caused the flames behind me to diminish to very little. they're not just putting out the existing flames, but making sure the fire line does not cross down to the bottom of the canyon and start creeping up this hill where they would start threatening a number of homes. the weather has improved since the first night when this fire exploded. very powerful santa ana winds caused it to grow quickly in the first 24 hours. about 1500 firefighters assign today this fire are taking advantage of the improved conditions to increase the containment. the fire is about 7% contained. it's a big improvement from the zero it was last night. we are still under a red flag warning. that means very windy, dry conditions. authorities say this area still in danger as long as those conditions persist. andrea? >> david noriega, thank you. the man accused of trying to

assassinate donald trump at his florida golf course appeared in federal court today. ryan ruth, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, appeared before judge cannon. joining me from outside the white house, jesse kirsch. did judge cannon make a ruling whether she would delay the trial? it's scheduled to start in february. >> reporter: that's right, andrea. we are expecting that could be delayed but so far, nothing official has been announced. the judge said there will be a written order to follow. bottom line, the defense says that they are essentially being drowned in discovery. a lot of information coming in that is taking weeks just to download and review. including from more than a dozen cell phones. something the defense attorney said she has not seen in prior cases. they are asking for this to be pushed to december of next year. the prosecution says they are open to the idea of a delay, but delaying it that far would be

wrong. that is the stance of the prosecution and the judge is expected to make a written ruling on this at some point in the not distant future. but there are a few other things that came up in court of note to us. first of all, we had the expectation from prosecution that this will take about two weeks of trial days. about ten days after jury selection, the prosecution thinks jury selection could take a third week. we also learned some of what was discussed by mr. routh and his daughter on a phone call in october. and the prosecution shared some of that transcript. essentially, mr. routh trying to ensure he is portrayed positively in the media. we also learned more information including that the defense has had a mental health expert meet with routh at least twice, but no opinion has been made by that expert. >> jesse, thank you. next, pete hegseth meets with another key republican

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pete hegseth has just wrapped up his meeting with a key republican senator, maine's susan collins. he says he hopes to earn her support after lisa murkowski remained noncommittal about hegseth following their meeting yesterday. >> i had a good exchange and we'll see what the process bears. he's got a process that is going to involve full vetting through the administration and then ultimately a committee. >> did he answer your questions on the sexual assault allegations? >> well, that was noncommittal. hegseth can only afford to lose three republicans. the veteran and former tv host has continued to deny allegations of excessive drinking and sexual assault.

something senator lindsey graham commented about yesterday. >> they have to be presented in a fashion that pete can rebut. so he's much better off this week than he was last week. >> and joining me now is nbc news capitol hill correspondent, ali vitali. susan page. former republican national committee chair, doug high. and former democratic new york congressman, joe crowley. ali, hegseth just left the meeting with senator collins. is there any sense from senator collins as to how it went? >> reporter: that's what we're waiting for right now, keeping our eye on our capitol hill text chain because one of our producers is standing and waiting outside of that office. as soon as we hear, we'll let you know. but we know what hegseth said. i'll play that now. >> it was a great meeting with senator collins and again, office after office, having the

opportunity to spend time with these senators who have invested their careers in ensuring our war fighters who get what they need has been an amazing and senator collins, like her colleagues before her, reiterated that. i'm certainly -- assume anything about where the senator stands. this is a process that we respect and appreciate. and we hope, through time, overall, when we get through that committee and to the floor, that we can earn her support. >> reporter: what's been clear this week, andrea, is hegseth has had multiple days of pivotal meetings. ernst on monday, murkowski yesterday, and now today with susan collins. it's clear he's been given the space to go through the process, but ultimately a lot of time between now and january when they'll do these confirmation hearings, more information certainly to come to senators. both in the form of these meetings then also those fbi background checks and any other reporting that might come out in the coming weeks.

all that is going to be pivotal to finding out whether all this amount to a confirmation battle that's successful or just bruising for pete hegseth. >> doug high, listen to what richard blumenthal said yesterday about what he's hearing privately from his republican colleagues. >> judging by what i've heard from my republican colleagues, i think the odds of his being approved are still less than 50-50. to be really blunt, if the fear of donald trump and his potential retribution for less, there's no question that this nomination would go down and go down heavily. >> and doug, i know i tried to promote you to chair. i know you work for the committee as a top spokesman. but let's talk about this. the pressure from ernst. they were running commercials

against her last week in iowa and she's up in '26. pressure is intense on all of them. >> look, one thing we know is what people say publicly and private are very different in washington. certainly in donald trump's republican party, that's the case, too. and donald trump is somebody who doesn't give points. he only takes them away one at a time. this is what senators are learning. so as we go through the process, it comes down to if there's a floor vote, are you going to defy donald trump and republicans are not willing to do that. >> and joe, you've served in congress at the same time as tulsi gabbard. she was well liked among many colleagues. they tell me that. but her lack of experience is being cited my michael hayden and john cipher in "the new york times" today. john brennan just spoke to that. no experience. knowing the difference between different sources and methods, the technical aspects of intelligence, had profound concerns about what she said about assad, the secret visits,

the praise for putin's invasion of ukraine. >> yeah. i think the entire intelligence community writ large has been outspoken. she is very personable, but there's been a real remarkable change in terms of her approach to politics writ large. i think much of that stems back to her visit to syria see happening here is trump again is putting forward projectablety w happens, you know, you lose a lot of credibility, i think, in term it is of the approach here. these are important positions that are going to be critical to the survival of our country. this is not a kids' game. this is not a tv show. this is real nuts and bolts government. i don't think that hegseth really is capable of that. i think tulsi gabbard, who again, i like her, but at the

same time, recognize i don't think she has the experience that we need in this critical position. >> what she's got going for her is her personableness and the fact that having taken down matt gaetz, they'll be even more reluctant to take her down and gaetz was so despised by so many money. picked gillfoil for greece raising a lot of eyebrows. there are a lot of ambassadors who are not terribly qualified who get confirmed. you write that foreign leaders like macron and trudeau are not wait for trump's term to begin. they're treating him like the president already. >> it's true. traditionally only had a practice of one president at a time, but the world has moved on to some ways to donald trump is

the president. they're trying to cultivate favor with. we saw that with trudeau's remarkable private trip to mar-a-lago. somewhat contentious relationship at times during trump's first term. you know, that is a sign of the willingness of leaders. even the prince of wales to meet with trump to try to build a relationship because they know it's going to be more tumultuous years ahead. >> susan, when we get to these appointees, ambassadors, gilfoil is the former wife of governor newsome but has been the wife of donald trump jr. and spoke at the rnc. she's, i mean, to be in greece, that's kind of interesting and turkey is now a central destination. blinken is going there today. with syria falling apart.

so, tom barrack, who led the inaugural committee last time and is a very wealthy colleague and friend of donald trump's. this would be the time to have a professional diplomat there. >> well, of course, there's a tradition of sending professional diplomats to these key posts. there's also i think a general willingness to give the president -- about whether these nominees want to confirm, but don't fool yourself. donald trump is in a very strong position. 53 republican senators, even three of them, will confirm whoever he wants. >> absolutely. susan page, ali vitali,

congratulations on your new gig. starting soon. thank you. and of course, my friend, doug high from the rnc previously and also joe crowley. next, new details on a key immigration policy that could change under the next administration. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. tion you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. postmenopaus, and are at high risk for fracture, you can do more than just slow bone loss. you can build new bone in 12 months with evenity®. evenity® is proven to significantly reduce spine fracture risk. she said the evenity® she's taking builds new bone. builds new bone! evenity® can increase risk of heart attack, stroke, or death from a heart problem. tell your doctor if you have had a heart attack or stroke. do not take evenity® if you have low blood calcium or are allergic to it, as serious events have occurred with evenity®. signs include rash, hives, swelling of the face or throat, which may cause difficulty in swallowing or breathing, muscle spasms or cramps, numbness, or tingling.

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news on day one in office, president-elect trump is expected to end a long standing policy that prevents i.c.e. agents from making arrests at sensitive locations like churches, hospitals, and schools. julia, tell us more about this. >> well, andrea, this is a policy that's been in place since 2011. even the first trump administration pretty much kept this in tact. it basically requires agents to get prior approval and explain why they need to go into places like schools, hospitals, churches. the biden administration expanded that to say it applied to colleges or mental health institutions and even places where religious studies were happening. now we understand on day one, trump wants to lift this memo so agents can go into these places and make arrests. it also applies to events. weddings. funerals. rallies. so that means if you have a

protest against mass deportations where you would expect undocumented immigrants to show up, that could be a place police could target for arrest. it's a way they think they could expand their reach and boost those numbers as trump tries to make good on the promise of mass deportations. >> what are you hearing from religious leaders, hospital officials, others who might feel they are really being, that it's invasive? >> you know, a lot of leaders of those places really welcomed these rules because it allowed them to do their work. whether that be in a church setting or healthcare setting or educators. as we know, many undocumented children go to schools as that is their right, but their parents might be afraid to show up to parent teacher conferences. we've been speaking to faith leaders and churches that have served as sanctuaries. they do that in communities to offer a safe space but now they're worried because of what they see as a change, a shift to

the right in the american public where people are more in favor of american deportations than previously and they're worried about threats to them or to backlash if they continue to give migrants sanctuary. >> do you think it will be popular? >> to go in and arrest all those people in those places? perhaps not. perhaps those are the visuals that could lead to backlash. a wedding where there's an i.c.e. raid. this could be the moment where this comes to the forefront and if it's visible, on tv, we'll all be talking about it. then maybe there will be some reckoning with this is this far or the kind of thing americans wanted when the majority of them voted for donald trump. >> thank you and this does it for us. chris jansing reports starts after the short break. starts after the short break. ...in just one week. neutrogena ♪ limu emu & doug ♪ woah, limu! we're in a parade.

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