celebrate this week. don't we all need exciting news? we have a new little member of our show family our incredibly talented, i can't emphasize that enough, director josh haskins and his wife katie welcomed a new baby girl this week, her name is edie and she is perfect as you can see in that picture. mom, dad and little edie are all doing great. we can't wait to meet her. we miss you but most of all hope the family has a wonderful holiday together this holiday season. that does it for me today. we will see you back tomorrow night at 8:00 p.m. eastern. stay where you are because there's more news coming up on msnbc. ♪♪ very good day to all of you from msnbc world headquarters in new york. welcome to "alex witt reports." it's 36 days until inauguration day with president-elect donald trump's administration still

taking shape. last night trump announced several appointments and they include the ceo of trump's truth social, social media network, devin nunes to lead the president's intelligence advisory board, as well as long-time adviser richard grenell for a newly created position, that being presidential envoy for special missions. the appointments came after trump's attendance of the 125th army-navy college football game, flanked by a posse of political allies including two embattled cabinet picks who are expected to face steep resistance during their senate confirmation hearings. >> i'm in a good place with pete, unless something i don't know about comes out. these allegations are disturbing, but they are anonymous. you're not going to destroy his nomination based on anonymous sources. people have to come forward and make credible allegations and we will see if they do. >> i have a couple terrence with tulsi gabbard, the first is a complete lack of experience. never worked in an intelligence agency, and this gets to the point about her comments about

bashar al assad or her echoing of talking points about the origin of the war in ukraine. you want someone with good judgment in that position. meantime, more mysterious drone sightings over the east coast. an fbi official telling nbc news they have received approximately 5,000 reports, but fewer than 100 of them have warranted further investigation. this was the reaction on capitol hill. >> if we identify any foreign involvement or criminal activity, we will communicate with the american public accordingly. right now we are not aware of any. if we become aware of any, we will communicate accordingly and take appropriate action. >> our adversaries that would wish us harm, you know, have billion dollar satellites over our heads right now that are capable of, you know, doing what we do to them, wig observing. do you know what they're not going to do, they're not going to put technology over newark, new jersey, that could fall out of the sky and we would capture

it. and former house speaker nancy pelosi is recuperating today in a hospital in germany after successful hip replacement surgery. one long time democratic ally wishing her a speedy recovery following pelosi's fall during a congressional trip to luxembourg. >> i communicate with her daughter christine and i understand that she's recovering from the surgery well. so our thoughts are going out to her. she's an amazing person and as strong and as tough as she is i know she will be back on her feet soon. >> we have a number of reporters in place ready to go over all of the developments with us. we will start with nbc's sam brock. sam, but what is the latest we are hearing from officials about these drone sightings? >> sure. so, alex, obviously there's been a lot of criticism directed at the federal government for what folks feel has not been sort of honest brokering, they haven't been fair or honest in terms of the details of what's behind these sightings. alejandro mayorkas from the department of homeland security

you heard him a second ago, dhs saying that we have a scenario in this case where there's no threat to public safety. they have sort of ruled that out. but i think it's his tone that really struck me. instead of continuing the argument that we've heard so often that this is really manned aircraft and that just a small fraction of what they're seeing right now people throughout new jersey, maryland, other parts of the country are drones. he changed a little bit and said, no, there are definitely drones out there, there's also manned aircraft out there, too, but the point of this felt like it was more about reassurance, less about proving that point. he also in her interview with "abs this week" said that the faa has changed its regulations dating back to 2023 september that you can now fly your drones at night. perhaps not coincidentally he's suggesting that might explain why you're seeing more sightings right now. he also said there's about 8,000 drones on a daily basis that are saturating the skies. he also discussed that dhs has a

limited capacity, limited authority to capacitate these drones. he called on congress to expand that within his agency and also other government agencies as well. let's get back to the original point. why are we potentially seeing so many drones right now? here is what the secretary had to say. >> in september of 2023 the federal aviation administration, the faa, changed the rules so that drones could fly at night. that may be one of the reasons why now people are seeing more drones than they did before, especially from dawn to dusk. so that is the reality. but i want to assure the american public that we are on it. >> okay. so to that point about assuring the american public that we are on it, you heard him kind of echo what we've already seen from the fbi and dhs which is language around the ideas of personnel and technology being deployed to work with the new jersey state police to try to figure out what is actually happening on the ground.

but i would also point out as you said at the top of why you are segment we heard from the fbi over the weekend, begin the amount of concerns out there, they delivered these numbers, 5,000 calls to their tip line and according to the fbi fewer than 100 of them were actionable or really warranted further investigation. there's that paired with another tidbit editorially that they provided which is that there seems to be an overlap between the density of reports around drone sightings and the flight patterns from laguardia, jfk and newark. which would speak to the idea that a lot of these reported drone sightings may be confused with aircraft. not all of them. for the first time we're really hearing from the secretary today saying you're not crazy. there are drones out there. but we just don't think they're nefarious drones. the fbi and dhs has handled this appropriately, looked into it and there is no foreign threat, no national security threat. they're trying to make people clearly feel more comfortable about this. will that do the trick? the days and weeks to come will be more telling on that. >> i'm glad that he did open it

up to the possibility of there are drones out there among all these sightings. >> yeah. >> yesterday it seemed very extreme that it was all fixed wing aircraft. you're like, huh-uh. there's got to be some drones in there. >> what gives? >> exactly. >> thank you very much. let's go to gary grumbach on capitol hill. relative to all of this what are you hearing today from lawmakers? >> reporter: we're hearing a lot of angst and panic and much seems without merit. you heard what the federal agencies are saying, lawmakers saying they are not getting enough information from the leaders of these federal agencies so they're taking matters into their own hands. the problem there is you have elected officials with little experience in aviation making grand pronouncements and only causingel more widespread panic. i want to have you see some tweets from new jersey senator andy kim. of course, new jersey is where a lot of these alleged drone spottings are happening. on friday night he posted a long thread about drones he said he saw. that reached 7 million people on

x. 24 hours later you see the tweet at the bottom of your screen, he posted what was essentially a never mind, most of the possible drone sightings pointed out to me were almost certainly planes. you have that sort of information out there and on the sunday shows this morning that kind of information will continue to spread. here is what one representative had to say. >> let me -- let me say something that i know with confidence. it is not the iranians, it is not the chinese, they aren't martians, that's unsatisfying for people who want a hollywood movie out of this. >> how can you say that, though? >> i can say that because i spent all my time as the ranking member of the intelligence committee watching from the iranians and the chinese do. do you know what they don't do is put a bunch of drones that we could easily recover over the continental united states. >> reporter: now, congress is not just talking here, alex, they're going to start proposing legislation this week. just hours ago senate majority

leader chuck schumer is going to be proposing legislation that will allow state and local officials to intercept and track some of these drones, something right now only federal officials have the ability to do. >> thank you for that, gary. for all of you coming up a little later this hour i will be talking with a drone pilot about where he thinks these drones might be coming from and why the fbi is looking into so few of the reported sightings. again, about 100 of the 5,000 reported ones. let's go now to politics and a busy week ahead for president-elect trump's cabinet picks. with just over a month now until the inauguration nbc's aaron gilchrist is at the white house for us. how is trump showing support for some of his more controversial selections. >> reporter: alex, the president-elect had two of his top national security choices with him at that big army-navy football game yesterday. pete hegseth is among several of trump's cabinet picks who have been making the rounds on capitol hill as of late, and that sideline appearance reads as a sort of a calculated play to show solidarity with some of the most embattled players on

team trump. ♪ for the ramp arts ♪♪ >> reporter: president-elect trump using the army-navy football game to stand with some of his controversial cabinet picks. standing shoulder to shoulder with tulsi gabbard, trump's choice for director of national intelligence, also in the presidential sky box, pete hegseth the former fox news host and army national guard veteran who trump chose for secretary of defense. a high-profile show of support for hegseth whose selection has been challenged by allegations of excessive drinking and sexual assault, both of which he denies. hegseth fresh off days of one-on-one sessions with senators he will need to win over to get confirmed. >> i think if he gets out of committee which i expect him to i don't think he will lose any more than four. >> reporter: also under scrutiny and expected on capitol hill this week robert f. kennedy jr., trump's choice to head health and human services. it comes amid new reporting from "the new york times" that the

lawyer helping rfk jr. build his team, aaron siri, asked the fda two years ago to revoke approval of polio vaccine. mitch mcconnell a childhood survivor of polio telling nbc news that anyone looking for senate confirmation should, quote, steer clear of efforts to undermine the value of the polio vaccine. a kennedy spokesperson saying, quote, the polio vaccine should be available to the public and thoroughly and properly studied. all this as a settlement has been reached between abc and the president-elect. abc agreeing to make a $15 million donation to a future trump presidential foundation and museum. trump filed the defamation lawsuit after abc news anchor george stephanopoulos said on air that trump had been found liable for rape in the e. jean carroll case when the jury instead found trump civilly liable for sexual abuse. abc agreeing to pay $1 million to cover legal fees and public a statement of regret.

abc news saying in a statement, quote, we are pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss this lawsuit. alex? >> okay. aaron gilchrist at the white house, thank you for that. so what should happen to u.s. troops in syria after the regime change? my next guest is a congressman and marine corps veteran, he's going to weigh in in 90 seconds. s going to weigh in in 90 seconds. - one versus the other. new sensodyne clinical white, it provides 2 shades whiter teeth as well as providing 24/7 sensitivity protection. patients are going to love to see sensodyne on the shelf. singer: this is our night! shingles doesn't care. but shingrix protects! only shingrix is proven over 90% effective. shingrix is a vaccine used to prevent shingles in adults 50 years and older. shingrix doesn't protect everyone and isn't for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients or to a previous dose. tell your healthcare provider if you're pregnant or breastfeeding. increased risk of guillain-barré syndrome was observed after getting shingrix. fainting can happen so take precautions. most common side effects are pain, redness, and swelling where injected, muscle pain, tiredness, headache, shivering, fever, and upset stomach.

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bringing both pete hegseth and tulsi gabbard as his guests to the army-navy football game in madd yesterday, but the question remains whether they have enough support in the senate to make it through the confirmation process. joining me now we have our good friend democratic congressman from massachusetts jake auchincloss, he also sits on the committee on transportation and infrastructure and the select committee on competition with china. welcome. what do you make of trump's public show of support for pete hegseth and tulsi gabbard? and i'm curious from what you're hearing from your republican colleagues, will they get through the confirmation process, because gabbard is reportedly struggling in some of her meetings with senators. >> alex, thanks for having me back on. i'm just happy rfk wasn't there with them. unfortunately looking at the last decade what is the case with senate republicans is they huff and they puff and then fold to donald trump. my presumption is they're going to do similarly with these two picks, even though both of them

are grossly unqualified for office. i imagine that these one on ones that tulsi gabbard is having are really painful because she's a bashar al assad apology gist trying to talk to senators, many of whom know their stuff on foreign policy at a time when current events in syria are front and center. i bet she's in over her head and coming across as both suspect and unqualified for the post. but my concern is she's going to be a heat shield for rfk and rfk is, if anything, more dangerous than gabbard in the role that he is trying to assume. his number one legal aide is a committed anti-vaxxer who is going to be going after not just the polio vaccine but the measles vaccine as well at a time when there's a half dozen states in this country where herd immunity rates for measles are hovering at the level below which there will be outbreaks. >> i'm curious, do you think there are chances that even if these more controversial picks, gabbard, hegseth, kennedy, get confirmed that it's going to be

the revolving door that we saw during the first administration, or is the trump team coming in better prepared this time? >> boy, alex, you're asking me to predict a second trump administration. >> i will move on. i'm just kidding. >> a lot of incompetence, yes, i expect a game of musical chairs. doesn't mean they can't do damaging things, though. if rfk fuses his personal brand with the organs of state he can drive vaccine uncertainty particularly for polio and measles which collectively have saved more than 100 million lives in the last 50 years. this can really affect people's lives intimately. >> can you imagine if there was a return of those two diseases in this country. let's not imagine it for now. >> we don't have to. look at samoa. >> 100%. let's talk about trump's invite list to his inauguration. it includes an unusual name, chinese president xi jinping. cbs news reports xi is declining the invitation but what does it

tell you that the offer was made? >> i'm not involved in the party planning for the trump administration. i think he's got a big owing goe and wants to see other world leaders sum kate themselves to him. the thing about an american presidential inauguration is that the guest list has never been what impresses the rest of the world. what impresses the rest of the world is the fact that since john adams handed over power to thomas jefferson we have had peaceful transfers of power between parties. that the greatest democracy in the history of the world is able to have these exchanges of authority, despite the intensity of our politics. that was true until january 6, 2021. nothing donald trump does in his inauguration in the next couple of months will ever wipe away the dishonor of what he did in january of '21. >> let me turn now to syria with you because secretary of state antony blinken says that the u.s. has made direct contact with the hts rebels after the fall of assad's regime.

a joint statement with arab nations called for a hopeful, secure and peaceful future. trump implied the u.s. should largely stay out of what's happening in syria, but how do you expect republicans to handle it and what kind of role do you think the u.s. should play, and should troops remain to fight isis? >> yes, american troops should stay on the ground right now. these are special operations, these fellows are well trained, well-equipped, well supported for high intensity operations and they've been there for a decade now. we don't have the luxury of pulling back from events in syria and i don't think congressional republicans would want to. we need at least three things to happen there, number one, we need the incoming government to respect the rights of kurds, of women, of other minorities. number two, we need them to exclude any terrorist elements from syrian territory and not give them safe harbor, isis of course in particular. number three, they have to adopt

a stance of nonbelligerence to israel and their other neighbors. those three things are true, i think we can engage product ifl with hts or whatever the du jour government becomes, but we cannot just turn around and walk away. that's not an option we have. >> okay. you are on the transportation committee, you also served in the marines, so what do you make of the drone sightings we're seeing across several states? the fbi now says that many tips turned out to be just regular manned airplanes flying into the three major new york area airports. though there have been some drones. is the concern about all of this overblown, and if officials are saying these aircraft don't pose a threat, what do we know about them, particularly these 100 that need to be furthered investigated? >> so first i think jim himes who i know you had up previously said it well, he is the ranking member of the intelligence committee and what he says we can take to the bank that this

is not iran or china trying to attack the united states, but the public does deserve more information and faster. i'm a member of the transportation committee, alex, as you said and last congress as we were reauthorizing the federal aviation administration i was working with the nfl and in particular gillette stadium and the patriots in my district to delegate more authority and more intelligence about unmyofascial bands aerial systems to the level of stadium operators and state police so they can respond more quickly to drone incursions because we are in this phase transition in the skies where it used to be that drones were relatively rare if i had and expensive piece of equipment that only governments would have or corporations would have. now ponce of people have them. our mentality has to change. it can't just be the faa, we have to delegate to state and local actors so there is more information and more authority to take them down if necessary and more public accessibility. >> congressman jake auchincloss always a pleasure. happy holidays. coming up next, we're

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into the murder of the unitedhealthcare ceo could take a big step forward. suspect luigi mangione may return to new york in just days while a grand jury could hand up an indictment at any time. nbc's priscilla thompson is outside the courthouse in

hollidaysburg, pennsylvania, for us. welcome on this sunday. what do we know about mangione's legal fight, where it stands right now? >> reporter: yeah, alex, right now mangione is beefing up his legal team in anticipation of that likely extradition back to new york as sources familiar tell us that a grand jury could be asked to hand up that indictment this week. accused murderer luigi mangione has a new lawyer, high powered defense attorney who worked as a chief assistant district attorney in the manhattan's da's office for more than seven years. >> the evidence is going to be so overwhelming that he did what he did. >> reporter: she dee mind nbc's interview request but appeared on cnn before becoming mangione's attorney laying out her thoughts about a defense strategy. >> he was brilliant his whole life, comes from this great family. i mean, something changed, right? significantly something changed. and they are going to, i think,

potentially have a not guilty by reason of insanity potential defense. >> how rare is it now for someone to try to mount an insanity defense? >> it's a huge risk because the defendant has to admit that he is the one who committed the crime. >> reporter: nbc news legal analyst danny cevallos a practicing criminal defense attorney in new york. >> sometimes the only option for a defense attorney is put the government to its burden, make them prove their case, and hope they make a mistake. >> reporter: when mangione will be moved to new york to face charges there remains unclear. this morning he's locked down in this pennsylvania prison. he eats three meals per day, taking all of them in his cell. a 15 by 6 foot concrete box like this, with a bed, sink, toilet, desk and a window, with no access to tv for now. no word on if mangione's family has been able to see him. but two sources familiar with the matter tell nbc news authorities spoke with his

mother the night before he was arrested, showing her photos of the suspect. his mother acknowledging that it could be her son. and, alex, online signs of support for mangione continue to grow. already a fundraising campaign has raised more than $100,000 to aid in his defense. alex? >> it is extraordinary. priscilla, thank you so much. and for all of you in our next hour, a former fbi special agent joins me to talk about what's ahead for mangione. taking the temperature on capitol hill about the odds of tulsi gabbard getting confirmed next. the odds of tulsi gabbard getting confirmed next en you're a small-business owner, your to-do list can be...a lot. ♪♪ super helpful. ♪♪ [ cheering ] what are invoices? progressive makes it easy to see if you can save money with a commercial auto quote online so you can get back to all your other to-dos.

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new pressure on federal agencies in the wake of growing drone sightings in the skies. the drones spotted in new jersey, new york, virginia, maryland, even in california. officials are urging calm saying there's no evidence to suggest the sightings pose a security threat. an fbi official telling nbc news they have received approximately 5,000 reports, but fewer than 100 of them have warranted further investigation. joining me now michael bee, an experienced drone pilot and ceo of terror talk. michael, big welcome to you and thankfully you sent us some video from one of your spotters in hillsborough, new jersey. we're going to pull this up here and show our viewers there is a big red dot, there you see it dead center of the screen. what do you think that is?

what do you think people are seeing in the skies and why only at night? >> at this point i think that someone knows what they are. so what we're doing is we're going to go up and watch you. you're watching us or doing whatever, so we're up there watching, we're following, we're trying to get in the air. what they could be, i have no idea. >> okay. we have more video that you sent us of you, in fact, trying to launch a drone and it was right near an airport. so tell us what happened there and why it's so noteworthy. >> okay. so we got reports last night that there was a lot of drone activity in the east hanover area, which is -- backs up to morristown airport and all of that vicinity. so we head out there, we set up in a parking lot, about a quarter mile away from the airport, and i'm trying to get flight clearance to take the drone up and see what this other drone is and i cannot. restricted, i tried to bypass it.

at one point it even asked for my phone number and i said, no, i think we're good at this point. >> hang on. when you say looking for flight clearance, how does that work? are you literally talking with a control tower or what are you doing? >> so there's an app that you use to connect to the drone. when it's time -- when you want to fly you press a button and what it does is it looks for flight clearance or restrictions. what happened was there was a restriction in that area and i couldn't get up, but there were drones in the air that weren't following the restriction. now, we verify everything above us with flight radar so we can tell if it's an airport or it's not. none of the things we go after are on flight radar. >> okay. what we're looking at this device notwithstanding, this control for your drone, if drones are getting into areas without clearance by the faa, is it possible they figured out some kind of a technology to keep their drones from being jammed and or losing power? >> absolutely. absolutely. i don't know if you are aware, last week or so, two weeks when this started i tried to take my

drone over an arsenal to follow a drone that was just hovering over there. as i got closer my drone lost power, spun out and the battery died and it went down, but the other drone remained sitting in the air unaffected. >> why? what do you think? >> secrets that the government don't want us to know and they're playing stupid. either that or [ inaudible ]. >> oh, come on. not the latter. okay. you're smiling. >> so are there enough restrictions for drones? you are a drone user. are those restrictions taken seriously by your colleagues, your friends that are drone users as well or is more regulation needed, and if it went out there would it be followed? >> i think people are always going to find a way around the regulations. i don't think the average user can get around it because without that app and without that clearance your drone will not go in the air, it just sits there with a red light.

so if they did more restrictions i don't know that they would be followed. >> what do you make of the number that the fbi says of all those reports they've gotten, 5,000 reports, fewer than 100 or so warranting further investigation. what do you think would warrant further investigation or exploration? what is it that would pop up that they would say, we have to look at this? >> i would start with drones hovering over military bases, which i live right next to and i watch them. they go back and forth, they leave for a little bit, they come back, they hover around. nothing happens. no one does anything. they just sit there and watch them hover in the air. >> but you don't know that those aren't intentionally there, right? that they have been cleared. >> could be. we don't have information on drones. when i go on to a flight radar app i can only see whatever aircraft is registered in the sky at that moment and drones are not part of that. >> people -- at least secretary

mayorkas he had suggested before yesterday that these were all fixed wing aircraft, these dozens and dozens and dozens of sightings. now he's saying mostly that, but there are some that are just drones. what's your expectation of this? if it's fixed wing aircraft, why is it so hard to tell the difference? >> i believe the misconception is when we say drone people are picturing my recreational drone, it has four propellers and they can get very large. the drones we're seeing are like mini aircraft, they look like airplanes, but at the distance they are at they're too small to be airplanes, too small to be aircraft and they are not on the registration for the flight radar. so they do look like airplanes and that's what's confusing people because they look up and they say, okay, that looks like an airplane, but it's not, it's a small drone. >> okay. michael b, this has been super

interesting and very illuminating. thank you very much. >> thank you, alex. whether donald trump's pressure campaign is working on capitol hill, that's next. 's pressure campaign is working on capitol hill, that's next. the freestyle libre 3 plus sensor tracks your glucose in real time, and over time it can help lower your a1c. ♪♪ this is progress. learn more and try for free at freestylelibre.us ♪♪

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i think this smearing her as some sort of foreign asset is a slur against her. >> i have a couple concerns with tulsi gabbard. the first is a complete lack of experience, but also -- and this gets to the point about her comments about bashar al assad or her echoing of current talking points about the origin of the war in ukraine -- you want someone with good judgment in that position. >> with me now i hope we have dawn calloway host of the caucus room podcast. but apparently we don't. i think his shot is frozen because all we're seeing you is you my friend, susan del percio. we were having some technical difficulties during the commercial. susan, several weeks before these confirmation hearings get under way, but where does tulsi gabbard rank in terms of chances of getting through? does it appear that the gop is, indeed, closing ranks after matt gaetz's fall?

>> and what's interesting, alex, is you've heard me say before that there was a lot of time between these nominations going up, they have gone up very early from when a president is elected in november. they usually wait until about this time, actually, to start the process of at least with the announcements. while the timeline hasn't favored people like gaetz and others, i think the senate has learned something from that. they now know they're going to get fbi checks. i think they're holding their cards very close to the vest because they've learned from joni ernst who went out a little bit and said that she had very, you know, strong concerns about pete hegseth, now we're looking at former congresswoman tulsi gabbard who really has, again, someone else who has no experience in this field. it's, again, the trump loyalists. people are going to start asking why can't they find trump

loyalists who know something about the field they're being appointed to? but that being said i think it's really important to recognize the time on the clock and that senators don't want to put themselves out there for that long. i do think her nomination specifically is in grave danger only because of what the position is. she is going through the intelligence and deciding how it gets disseminated to the president. i think a lot of people who really love this country, both republicans and democrats, are concerned about her judgment in doing that. >> and we have heard that she has had some challenges, let's just put it that way, in her interviews with senators thus far on the hill. john is going to join us on the phone. republican senators are being threatened with primary challenges if they don't fall in line with the confirmations. there have been comparisons to liz cheney who was primaried in wyoming. whether any of them be willing to risk that?

? >> it's unclear. it's unclear who will be able to summon the political courage, but, you know, i think all three of us here are young folks but old enough to remember that this goes back to citizens united in 2010. when you open up the floodgates to unlimited amounts of money you ultimately open up the floodgates to a person who has unlimited resources. so elon musk has not only the authority and ability to buy the presidency, but he has the ability to buy the united states senate, which is the world's most impressive and important deliberative body and it should not be for sale in this way. it is very, very unclear out of who is up in 2026 who will have the political courage to resist, frankly because we might have seen the last of the old guard retire from the senate this past week in mitt romney and none of the current folks who are up in the class that's up in 2026 has demonstrably shown the political courage to resist not only the maga agenda but the corporate

dollar agenda when donald trump came into the game. >> susan, we have robert f. kennedy jr. who is going to meet with senators on capitol hill this week in his bid for health secretary. he's under more scrutiny now because kennedy's power has petitioned -- the lawyer advising him has petitioned the government to revoke its approval of the polio vaccine. you have senate majority leader mitch mcconnell who by the way survived polio, he's defending the vaccine. can kennedy get through congress if he's tied to this extreme non-medical position on a vaccine that has saved countless lives? >> if i was to bet the next person or presidential nominee from trump to drop out, not get a vote, but to drop out before there is a vote, it would be rfk jr. >> really? >> i think that this -- this is going to be an extremely tough process for him to go through on the background check. i'm very much aware of it being very much a concern for a lot of

folks who surround kennedy and what they're going to start to dig up in his past, i mean, we laughed at many of the things when he was no longer really -- he was never really a serious contender for president, but the brain worms and the bears in central park, we kind of laughed at that a little bit, although it was disturbing. there's a lot more to uncover there. but the bigger thing, alex, and this goes to all of these nominees, none of them have really been prepped to go through this type of hearing. the reason i say that is none of them have ever gone through -- even served in these levels of government before. so this is going to be a very tough experience for all those names we've just discussed. >> so, don, "politico" reports -- and barring what susan just said at the prospect of rfk jr. dropping out before confirmation hearings -- "politico" reports even though kennedy hasn't gotten as much attention as some of the other trump picks he could still very

much be in trouble with closely watched senators not ready to commit to supporting him yet. but how many times, don, are republicans willing to stand up to trump, knowing it will come back to bite them one way or another? >> yeah, the question is that we have not seen evidence that that's the case. you know, we just haven't seen a universe in which a josh hawley or eric schmidt, they're from my home state of missouri, nor any of the republican senators who typically are in positions on things such as labor votes or health care, when they're kind of in a position to kind of move to the center, we haven't seen that they're willing to do that in the trump era, particularly when the very real prospect of a primary is there. we have seen deeply conservative senators over the last ten years be taken out by these extraordinarily problematic right wing well-funded candidates. at this point even just you, me, susan and david have been doing this so long together that we have to stop calling on each

other to try to find these moments where the republican caucus writ large is going to find these profiles in courage because we're several years in and it just hasn't happened yet. >> that's kind of depressing. but let me ask you this question, susan, abc agreed to pay $15 million to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by trump after anchor george stephanopoulos said in an interview with congresswoman nancy mace that trump had been found liable for rape when he was actually found liable in a civil case for sexual abuse. did that settlement surprise you? >> it did and then when you think about it for a moment it does not. because abc obviously wanted to get this find them. the case had teeth, when abc tried to get it dismissed it didn't go anywhere, it was so i organization trying to cover the president it was probably best to settle.

but, again, we were -- and whether it be us at msnbc or other news networks -- after this happened we were all given very specific language that we had to be aware of because we knew it was all wrong. we all went through it and we heard it, we were very careful in how we described certain things or that incident with donald trump. so there was definitely a feeling of that george stephanopoulos went over the line in that. and it's good that it's settled. i just hope it's not a sign of future prosecutions that, you know, a trump fbi would look to do or a justice department, excuse me. >> all tbd and let's hope we don't say anything or do anything that warrants even the possibility of that. okay. don, thank you for joining us on the phone and getting to -- when the camera dropped out. susan, always good to see you. appreciate you both. they are cranking out the cash for donald trump's inaugurations. what might they want in return? we'll discuss next. at might then we'll discuss next

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will today, we are learning more about who is opening the pursestrings for president trump's inaugoration, including some of the biggest names in tech. openai cofounder sam altman will personally make a $1 million donation. he joins other tech moguls with jeff bezos and mark zuckerberg, who already pledged similar amounts. joining us now, washington post

reporter meryl kornfield, who is reporting on the altman donation. welcome back to the show. this week, we know jeff bezos will be the latest tech billionaire to sit down with trumpet trump has had issues with zuckerberg and bezos in the past, so what has changed and does a lot come down to the perceived close relationship between elon musk and trump? >> the winds have changed in d.c. and i think this is part of a larger corporate charm offensive that you are seeing in washington now. we saw kind of the behind-the- scenes a little bit of it on the campaign trail as these leaders were trying to appeal to trump, and now it is just even more apparent with the million-dollar donations that you mentioned and there is going to be more of a push for them to try to have a seat at the table with trumpet >> yeah, the next four years are going to be crucial for tech companies, especially with calls for regulation around

a.i., rum cryptocurrency. so, what is the end goal for these tech leaders? if they're willing to play the game, if you want to put it that way, with trump, will he return the favor? >> i think some people are already excited about what they are seeing from trump. we saw most recently, he appointed dave sachs, elon musk person, as his a.i. czar, so putting someone in that position from the corporate world is already something the people there want to see. trump has also made promises on the campaign trail and he is talking about it more now, about deregulating tech, which is an important point for them. he has said he will rollback safety regulations that biden put in last year as part of the executive order on a.i., something that they are looking forward to as well. >> but let me throw in this,

because trump seems pretty confident that gail slater, his choice to lead doj's antitrust division, will be an aggressive enforcer, but then you can see how elon musk has positioned himself. so do you think trump is going to be selective about antitrust enforcement or will no one be spared? >> was a another position, ftc had, lina khan is leaving, and trump has suggested his own pick for that position, which suggests to some people that there could be a move away from it -- the ftc and others -- the biden administration is going after the company is on antitrust. >> yeah, well i guess it is all tbt, but thank you for giving us a preview on all of that. meantime, in a moment, new hot takes about which of trump's cabinet picks might get confirmed. cabinet picks might confirmed.