it comes to rfk. if rfk does not reassure a sufficient number of senators that he is going to respect vaccine policy in this country, that he is not going to undermine a policy that has clearly had many successes, then he might struggle to get the 50 votes he will need to get confirmed, so, look for senators to press him very hard on that issue, and i am talking about senators from both parties. that's okay, thank you guys so much, shaniqua and carlos, good to see you. reports a mysterious drone settings across several states sparking fear and a whole lot of speculation. we are separating fact from fiction. >> [ music ] >> [ music ] good day from msnbc world headquarters here in new york, welcome, everyone, to alex whitney reports.

we are counting down 36 days until the inauguration of president-elect donald trump's inauguration is taking more shape this weekend. last night, trump announced several appointments. they include the ceo of his social media platform devin nunes to lead the intelligence advisory board, as well as a longtime adviser richard for a newly created position titled presidential envoy for special missions. now, the appointments came after trump attended the army- navy college football game with his political allies, which we are showing you right there. two of those in trump's suite, embattled picks pete hegseth and tulsi gabbard, who are generating a lot of talk today about the qualifications. >> i am in a good place with pete and less 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 concerns with tulsi gabbard, the first

is a complete lack of experience. never worked in an intelligence agency. and this brings forward her comments about bashar al-assad or her echoing about talking points about the origin of the war in ukraine. you want someone with good judgment in that position. meantime, new and mysterious drone sightings this weekend. the biden administration out today insisting the drones pose no national security or safety risk. >> we have deployed personnel, technology, and if there is any reason for concern, 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. >> and lawmakers from capitol hill are also trying to reassure americans. >> this is not iran or china trying to attack the united states, but the public does deserve more information and faster.

>> our adversaries that would wish us harm, you know, have billion-dollar satellites over our heads right now that are capable of doing what we do to them, which is observing. you know what they are 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. >> we have that report is in place covering all these new developments for us and we are going to start with politics. in west palm beach, florida for us. welcome to you, what can you tell us about the troubled world better and who has been picked to lead the intelligence advisory board? >> reporter: well, alex, what i can tell you is devin nunes, the current ceo of truth social and the former republican chair of the house intelligence committee is a long, staunch advocate for the former president, who during trump's first term released a report that essentially accused the fbi of conspiring against trump and surveilling on members of his team. it was that report that fueled a lot of republican allegations that the fbi was politicized,

been weaponized against trump. allegations that nunez himself makes to this day, particularly after watchdog group on this month that the justice department obtained phone records for members of congress and congressional staffers, including kash patel, trump's picked to lead the fbi. here is what nunez had to say about that earlier today. >> and now, what also came out this week is that kash patel, including many of the other stop on my committee as they were investigating the fbi back in 2017 and '18, were actually spied on by who? the fbi and the doj. really, you can't make this up, and that's what needs to end. we have to restore integrity back into the system, and i think that's what kash patel will bring as the future fbi director. >> reporter: alex, on kash patel, we know that you spent

the last week on capitol hill, lobby and republican senators, more than a dozen, for support, as he seeks to be confirmed as trump's next fbi director. >> thank you much. we go from there to nbc's garrett joining us from capitol hill with what we can expect when some of trump's picks meet with senators this week. what are you hearing from lawmakers about their perspective meetings with rfk jr. and others, are there others this week? i know it will be rfk's week. >> it will definitely be rfk jr. this week, we will see about others, perhaps tulsi gabbard stopping by a few offices as well, but it is going to be all eyes largely on rfk jr., and he is going to be asked serious questions by members of the united states senate about his vaccine skepticism that you were talking about last hour, where he stands on the polio vaccine, and i think there are a few senators you need to be watching here in particular, and those are the senators that are physicians. there are four members of the senate who are also doctors. they include bill cassidy, rand paul, john barrasso, and roger marshall. and i think what they believe and what they think is going to be really important to the rest

of the united states senate, because if a physician is okay with what rfk jr. believes and what he wants to do with medical policy in this country over the next four years, then perhaps the rest of the united states senate will come on board, but it is of course not just rfk jr. that is going to be discussed this week. we have got tulsi gabbard discussions, many others of the potential trump nominees to fill his cabinet. here is what massachusetts congressman jack had to say about rfk jr. and tulsi gabbard. >> my concern is she is 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 aid is a committed anti-vax or who is going to be going after not just the polio vaccine, but the measles vaccine as well, at a time when there are a half- dozen states in this country were herd immunity rates for measles are hovering at the level below which there will be outbreaks. >> now, all of this focus on rfk jr. exactly good news for

some of his other nominees, putting pete hegseth and kash patel, folks who would otherwise have a lot of attention on them, a lot of scrutiny on them, because there are 36 days until donald trump takes office, and that's when the confirmation hearings will begin. every day that there is not a focus on kash patel or pete hegseth is a win in trump's mine. >> gary, thank you so much for that but we have this breaking news, there is some hope for the release of a missing american journalist austin tran29: the toppling of the assad regime, and today, tice's mother, deborah, sitting down with kristen welker on meet the press to discuss what a reunion with her son would mean. let's go to matt bradley in damascus, syria. tell us what we heard today from austin's mother. >> reporter: it was interesting, she was describing the fall of the regime and all of these images we have been seeing. of people going into these prisons, like that notorious barracks where we have seen people just wasting away for

years at a time, the victims of torture being crushed to death in these cells. and she said that this gives her hope. seeing these people being released, seeing these prisoners flooding out into the streets, and seeing the people of syria trying to break in and bust them out. now, this has been happening in the past week, and again, we have seen so many incredible images and sequences of this, but she said just recently, the discovery of this american, travis, basically she saw that as a rehearsal. now, this man was somebody who nobody really knew that he was here in syria. he had been discovered walking down the street there for. he had crossed over from lebanon, through the woods, through the mountains, and spent three days in the woods, and was discovered by a border guard here in syria. and you know, his release apparently gave her hope. she described this again as a result for the eventual discovery of her son, austin tice. here is what she told our own

kristen welker. >> it was saturday night when this happened, when they reached damascus, and for us, you know, this kind of chaos -- for us, it represented a huge opening, a huge opportunity. and especially when people started going into the prisons, finding their families. austin was born alive and he has been alive ever since then, so, i have never had any doubt about that. >> reporter: and alex, again, we saw those horrific images of those prisons. it is perverse, but you can understand why seeing these people released from these horrific conditions, knowing that her son probably endured them, if he is still alive, that still gives her hope. that is the depth of the despaired that she has had to go through for the past 12 years since her son was last seen.

even seeing the horrors of the prison and other prisons throughout syria, would give her hope. >> yeah, unimaginable. i admire her strength, that is for sure. and you very much, matt bradley. new insight into the possible defense strategy for the man suspected of killing the unitedhealthcare ceo. we are back in 90 seconds. bac. (♪♪) voltaren... for long lasting arthritis pain relief. (♪♪) big news for mahomes! i'm switching to iphone 16 pro at t-mobile! it's built for apple intelligence. that's like peanut butter on jelly... on gold. get four iphone 16 pro on us, plus four lines for $25 bucks. what a deal. ya'll giving it away too fast t-mobile, slow down. when life spells heartburn... how do you spell relief? r-o-l-a-i-d-s rolaids' dual-active formula begins to neutralize acid on contact. r-o-l-a-i-d-s spells relief.

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return to new york, just days after he attained top lawyer karen friedman agnifilo to his legal team. we are hearing a grand jury could hand up an indictment sometime this week. let's start with priscilla thompson covering this story for us in hollidaysburg, pennsylvania. what can we expect in the coming days regarding luigi mangione is a legal battle? >> reporter: yeah, alex, we are learning just now that two new york attorneys did visit him in prison on friday, that is according to the department of corrections here in pennsylvania, so it appears that agnifilo and her team could already be hard at work on this case, and it is going to be work, something that she herself asserted the knowledge on cnn earlier this week before she was hired, talking about the sheer amount of evidence that they appear to have against her now client, and as we know, the nypd has that surveillance video showing that horrific shooting of the unitedhealthcare ceo brian thompson. they also allegedly have

mangione's fingerprints near the scene, and also some ballistics matching the gun that was found on him in pennsylvania. but his new attorney also laid out on cnn earlier this week, again, before she was hired, a possible defense strategy, take a listen. >> as a former prosecutor in the office, i would be concerned that you have someone who is a valedictorian of his class, he was brilliant his whole life, he comes from this great family, something changed, right? significantly, something changed, and they are going to, i think, potentially have a not guilty by reason of insanity, potential defense. so the prosecutors are going to try to shore that up as well. >> reporter: but experts i've spoken to say that can be a tough defense, because if it doesn't work, your client has already admitted that they committed the crime on the record, and so, you kind of don't have a backup plan after that. as for what comes next year, agnifilo has not commented on

whether they plan to fight this extradition or not, that was something that the attorney here in pennsylvania before he hired her had suggested they might do, but we heard from manhattan district attorney alvin bragg on friday, suggesting he had some indication that they would waive extradition and that he could be in a pennsylvania court as early as tuesday to waive that extradition, paving the way for him to make his way back to new york city. alex? >> we will see, because there has been a lot of back and forth, as you are saying, on that issue. thank you very much, priscilla. join now, vanity fair fishel correspondent and host of the fast politics podcast, our friend, molly jong-fast. molly, social media, i know you have been monitoring this, many people are heralding mangione as some sort of a modern-day antihero who is waging a battle against accrual system. an online campaign has raised more than $100,000 for his legal defense so far. look, america has a long history

of glorifying people who take the law into their own hands, and we are living in a moment of intense rage against institutions, against government but how does this play into public sympathy for mangione? >> yeah, you know, i was actually thinking about this when i was reading about it earlier today. think about all the countries that have had these anti- incumbent headwinds that have had antigovernment movements, anti-expertise, i mean, this really does fit a pattern of a kind of collective rage, and i have to wonder how much of this is from the sort of post-covid, you know, the kind of whatever has happened in american life that has made people so angry, but it is also, i think you really have to look at the numbers here. i mean, unitedhealthcare's profits, $16 billion this year, and there is quite a lot of add to in people with denied claims. when this came out, the stories that broke were people who were

sharing these horrific stories of having claims denied and having relatives die. >> i mean, brian thompson's murder, it has sparked a torrent of fury at the u.s. healthcare industry. we are hearing many people sharing these just got wrenching stories about being denied medical coverage, but the amount of outrage, it seems somewhat overwhelming. have you been surprised at how much there is? >> i think there is a lot of anger in this country. look, violence is not the answer, is never the answer, and it is really important that all of us can continuingly say that, because it is not okay, it should not be normalized. but i think that clearly, there is something really wrong with our healthcare system if the response to a violent crime is people just telling these horrific stories, right? i mean, that is a sign that things are not working the way

they are supposed to. and look, we have this really good public option. when i was a kid, we didn't have that, we had just uninsured people, so there for sure is an opportunity to make healthcare better, and that was the goal. i don't -- we will see what happens when trump comes in. it is hard for me to imagine that the person who tried to take away obamacare is somehow going to make it better, but look, clearly, this is what the american people desperately, desperately want. >> well, interestingly, this week also saw daniel penney and the toco death of jordan neely on a new york city subway. like mangione, penny has been celebrated as a hero for taking action in the face of perceived threat, except in neely's case, praise is coming from the political right. these two incidents differ in many ways, but to their narratives have common ground? >> look, what we want in a functioning democracy is not to reward vigilantes. right? that is what we want, we don't

want people killing each other, it is against the law, it is bad, leads to more violence, and it doesn't solve problems. these are symptomatic problems that are happening, right? there is a policing issue here, there is a mental health issue, there is an insurance issue, there are a number of problems here that were solved by vigilantism. that is not what anyone wants, but i think it is interesting and also quite scary to see the amount of anger that the american people have right now, and it also shows like wealth inequality is a major issue, and remember, these people elected donald trump to make things cheaper. >> let me ask you about this, though, you mentioned donald trump. he has stoked much of the anger towards institutions in recent years. in fact, it helped him win the election. and this week, trump repeated that he will begin pardoning january 6th rioters on his first day in office. is using violence in some sort of situations some sort of a

new, socially accepted norm? granted, we are saying never, never, but how much of this delay at the feet of trump for this, just the way he is saying he is going to pardon january 6th offenders? >> well, when you read about autocracies and the sort of worst moments in american history, the buildup is stuff like this. so, what we don't want is we don't want pardoning violent criminals, right? there are enough people who deserve pardons who haven't done violent crimes, but we need the law is the law for everyone and this is how it works. and i do think that the more we can -- the more politicians -- there is an opportunity, i don't think he will take it, but it would be amusing if he said [ inaudible ] we really need to tamp down the violence, we really need people not to

take the law in their own hands, we have huge police departments, an enormous department of defense, you know, there are many people who can handle crime and it should not be random people, and i think it is really important to just keep transmitting that message, because when you read academics on this, the worst thing you can do is encourage stuff like this. >> yeah, okay. we are going to encourage you to come back, my friend, anytime. see you soon, molly, thank you. so, what are they? it is a big question everyone has been asking and we are going to try to solve the mystery with a drone expert, next. a drone expert, next. but then, trelegy helped us see things a little differently. with 3 medicines in 1 inhaler, trelegy keeps airways open for a full 24 hours and prevents future flare-ups. once-daily trelegy also improves lung function, so he can breathe more freely all day and night. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems.

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breaking news from boston, police say they have arrested two men accused of flying a drone near logan airport last night. officials say they were operating the drone haphazardly and they face multiple charges. all through this weekend, federal officials are trying to ease fears following weeks of drone sightings. officials say there is no public safety threat and some drone reports may actually be manned aircraft. ranking member congressman jim hines ruled out two adversaries. >> now, let me say something that i know with confidence, it is not the iranians, it is not the chinese, they aren't martians, i know that is very unsatisfying for people who want a hollywood movie out of this. i can say that because i and all my time as the ranking member of the intelligence

community watching what the iranians and the chinese do, and you know what they don't do? put a bunch of drones that we can easily recover over the continental united states. the chinese of course learned that lesson with their spy balloon. >> nbc's sam brock has more on the public frustration over the lack of answers. sam? >> reporter: alex, good afternoon. there have certainly been more than a small chorus of voices and criticisms about what the federal government has been doing here in terms of responding to concerns from new jersey to delaware to maryland about all of the reported drones that are being cited. for the first time today, some different language from our federal officials, and specifically the secretary of the department of homeland security, alejandro mayorkas, he was talking about the fact that actually, there are drones out there, you are not crazy. we are seeing drones, we are also seeing manned aircraft. initially, a lot of the language coming out of the federal government was almost all of these are manned aircraft and you are wrong. he changed that a little bit

today and also discussed some of the details as to why. part of that being that back in september 2023, the faa changed regulations, so you can fly your drones at night. plus the fact that you have some 8000 drones being flown every single day, according to alejandro mayorkas, and you put those things together, and yes, the stars are more saturated with drones. he seemed to suggest maybe people are just noticing it more. he also said dhs has a limited capacity, ability, to incapacitate drones if they pose a risk to the public. he said it is very limited in scope. he was almost calling on congress to expand it for dhs, but also to expand it for other government agencies as well, but the bottom line that he wanted to convey to viewers and really anyone out there in the public is we are on this and yes, there are drones as a part of the equation. take a listen to what he had to say. >> we have deployed personnel, technology, and if there is any reason for concern, if we identified 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. >> and so, one of the major questions on many peoples' minds is what are you doing about this, and alejandro mayorkas repeated once again what we have heard from the fbi and the dhs, which is they are deploying personnel and technology to the new jersey state police to try to buttress their resources with federal resources. another interesting point about this, get to those numbers again, 5000 calls according to the fbi and their national tip line, fewer than 100 of them were leading to something actionable as far as investigating drones. take that with another tidbit we learned this weekend, there is a lot of overlap going on between flight patterns in newark and jfk and laguardia with the density of calls for reported drones, and it would seem to support the federal narrative that a lot of this is manned aircraft being mistaken

for drones, but again, the upshot of today's interview is that they're not dismissing the idea that there are a lot of drones out there. clearly, there are. the question now becomes what kind of reform will be seen from congress specifically to empower other agencies to really investigate and respond if something like this were to ever happen again? alex, that you. >> sam, thank you for that. joining me now, we have will austin, president of warren county community college and chief pilot for unmanned aircraft systems. welcome, glad to have you here. you went to emory riddle to learn everything about drones, so what do you think people are seeing in the sky and why only at night? >> i'm very fortunate, thank you for having me, that i was able to review countless hours of videos and pictures that people have sent me or reporters have sent me, and i can say right now, i have seen zero large drones. 100% of them are either airplanes that people have misidentified or drones that have grown in use since the media attention that are under 55 pounds, and in fact,

everyone i have seen is under 10 pounds. they are easily identified in the imagery. >> so, if they are under 10 pounds, they're flying pretty low, so let's talk about the common misconceptions that have been contributing to the people's unease, what are they? >> well, small drones are allowed to fly up to 400 feet, so they are going to be relatively close to your house, so you should expect that. i spoke to the last person on the last crew known to have flown a military drone over new jersey, and he told me they are not military drones, you would not see them, i have been around the drone industry since almost the inception, been training people, and almost everybody who flies or are designing and developing drones over 55 pounds, especially the large ones that you will see in your sky about the next two years, they reminded me they are serious business people who have devoted multimillions of

dollars to that technology and they are not taking joy rides around new jersey, so it is probably mostly people who are putting up their drones to look for the mystery drones, and it is probably some pranksters like you see in the boston thing who really don't know how to fly their drone. >> yeah, pranksters, but they were doing so very close to boston logan airport, and that is really what drew the attention of law enforcement, which brings me to the problem of people pointing laser pointers at aircrafts in recent days. that was a problem a while back, i think there were green once, there were red ones, but let's talk about the problems that that poses. >> your laser will do nothing to a drone. it will not take a drone out of the sky, it will not help you identify it, but it could on takeoff and landing, really hurt a pilot trying to fly your plane or a plane full of passengers. >> wait, does it go into their eyes, is that what it is, they

can't see? ask exactly, it could really disable their ability to see, and we are not flying autonomously on takeoff and landing, they need their eyes and they need their attention. so, i thought about where do i personally have laser pointers, i have one at the office for students, i have one on a thermal camera, i have one of my golf bag, but there are also laser pointers on gun sites, and that gave me tremendous pause. please, do not fire from the ground at any aircraft, you are probably going to miss it. if you do hit it, it is probably an airplane and it is illegal and you're going to go to jail for up to 25 years. let the proper authorities in the air force deal with things because they know what they're doing. and if you did hit the drone and you hit the battery and it fell to the ground, it would start a big fire and we have had a drought here, so you are really going to do a lot of damage to the environment and to your local community more than you're going to do anything to a drone that probably is an airplane.

>> wow, thanks for sharing that. you talked about the drones, the majority of them being maybe 10 pounds, but we have seen some drones described as the size of a car? are there any drones that are the size of a car? >> there are a few companies that have drones that size, and you have to have a special license for that. you have to file a flight plan with the faa, same as you would with a regular plane. when we talk about the 414,000 drone pilots that are certified for commercial and 800,000 that are recreational and the million drones, those are basically all under 55 pounds, and the reason why you are seeing problems with some of the flights is remember, to get a drone certificate from the faa, either part 107 or recreational, you just have to pass a multiple-choice test. you have to come to a place like emory riddle or warren u.s. to get actual flight training where we can certify you, so you actually fly the drone. so, most drone pilots passed a

multiple choice test, but don't have a lot of experience, so when they are flying at night and you're an airport, you probably don't know everything. when i teach during the day, flying for 20 students, when we go out with the same class at night, it is five instructors, because there is something called the parallax effect, which makes planes look like they stop moving and makes drones look like they stop moving, and our students can easily lose situational awareness. trainers like myself and emory riddle in october in prescott, arizona, we had a plane flight over the four drones we were flying, and we even got disoriented. and some of those people i work with at riddle, there were f-16 fighter pilots and they get disoriented. so when you say i'm looking at the sky and i can tell, no, you can't. you glance at the sky, you go about your business, then you glance at it again and that is the difference. if you sit and stare at those airplanes, the parallax effect will comment and they will stop

moving in the sky, it is not that difficult and it is an optical illusion. most people are experiencing an optical illusion piquancy are definitely an educator, will austin. thank you for bringing us what you know the audience can appreciate you. meantime, power play and north carolina, republicans intend to strip power from incoming democrats, next. cleanup democrats, next. cleanup a once-daily pill. when symptoms tried to take control, i got rapid relief with rinvoq. check. when flares tried to slow me down,... ...i got lasting remission with rinvoq. check. and many were in remission... ...even at nearly 2 years. and rinvoq... ...helped visibly reduce damage of the intestinal lining. check. rapid symptom relief. lasting remission. and visibly reduced damage. check. rinvoq can lower ability to fight infections. before treatment, test for tb and do bloodwork. serious infections, blood clots, some fatal;... ...cancers, including lymphoma and skin;... ...serious allergic reactions; gi tears; death;... ...heart attack; and stroke occurred. cv event risk increases in age 50 plus...

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a republican created bill to strip incoming democrats of key powers is moving forward in

north carolina. on wednesday, the gop majority voted to override the outgoing democratic governor's veto of legislation. the decision was met with immediate outcry from protesters who were watching that session unfold. >> [ inaudible ] >> oh, boy, let's bring in anderson clayton, state chair of the north carolina democratic party. it is good to see you again, anderson. which offices are going to be the most affected by this bill, how is it going to change their ability to govern? >> thanks for having us, alex. the senate bill is an egregious power grab from republicans and orko manna, having an impact on not only our governors incoming power, but also our lieutenant governor, our superintendent, and our attorney general as well, the ability to be able to sue over legislation they deem

as unconstitutional coming out of our state legislature, basically making our attorney general a lame-duck attorney general at this moment in time after this bill's passage. >> good grief. ur state just to find this legislation and doesn't have anything to do with the gop losing their super majority? >> you know, republicans are upset that voters chose to go into the ballot box in november and denied him a republican supermajority in north carolina, and also gave democrats statewide power on the council of state races, making sure that was equal representation on our executive branch level in north carolina, and i just think that republicans are upset at the fact that they lost and are not taking it in the best way possible right now, but we are doing everything we can in north carolina to fight and push back and make sure that voters and what they chose at the ballot box is what we are prioritizing. you have seen attorney general josh stein and also our governor roy cooper suit to protect their constitutional

rights that our state constitution has granted to them. >> how confident are you that these efforts are going to be successful, and if they aren't, can anything be done to stop what has just happened or are democrats just going to have to work around it? >> democrats are probably going to have to work around this, i don't trust our republican courts in north carolina to do anything right, except for uphold what their buddies and the legislature have done, unfortunately. i think anybody looking at what carolina right now can see we have corruption, not just in our legislative branch, but also in our courts as well, when you have someone like a sitting court of appeals judge right now, jefferson griffin in north carolina, challenging voters in the state trying to take away a supreme court justice from democrats right now in our state. >> anderson, you and i spoke several times before the election about the possibility of north carolina swinging to the democrats. of course, that didn't happen in the presidential race, but your governor elect says let's fight that.

the tar heel state was a bright spot for democrats on election night. do you agree? >> i do, i mean, we had six statewide victories in north carolina and also managed to hold a supreme court race like i just talked about with 733 votes, and i think everything that you look to as a buildup, successful feel race. we are a lot different than what you saw at the federal level because we were not going to deny a red wave nationally, unfortunately, like we saw, but we were able to hold it down as orko manna democrats and make sure that people understand what was on the line, at least at the state level this year. >> i just want to say, i admire you so much in the lead up to the election, your energy, your passion, and i'm glad to see you have still got it. all right, anderson, thank you so much, stay with us for another time, we look forward to seeing you then. meantime, amazing pictures as a tornado touches down in a very unlikely place. a very unlikely place. ♪♪

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especially in these critical moments in aftermath of assad being overthrown. >> joining me now, our friend, democratic congressman from virginia, gerry connolly, he serves on the house of foreign affairs and oversight committees. welcome to you. let's get into this because secretary of state antony blinken says the u.s. has made direct contact with hts, the syrian rebel group now in charge in damascus. this is despite it being on the state department terrorist list, so will we see them removed from that list, what will that take? >> i think there has to be a process for reviewing their status. clearly, they are in control for much of the country. there are other rival groups that could join a coalition government led by hts. we have to be involved. not militarily, but we have to be involved in trying to form a stable government that brings back peace to the region, it's critical. right now, syria is really a pockmarked kind of place, right? the russians have two bases,

including their warm water face to the mediterranean, something russia has been seeking for hundreds of years. will they give them up? will hts insist on then giving them up? the turks have a large swath of land in the north, we have a military presence, working with kurdish allies, and of course, the iranians are all over the place, so this is still an unstable situation. and if the united states can help ensure stability, that is a good thing. >> okay, but donald trump says the u.s. should have nothing to do with syria. in fact, right now, we have hundreds of troops on the ground in that country. syria is viewed as a very important foothold in the region, so what role should the u.s. play in this new syria? >> the idea that we should have nothing to do with syria is just a nonstarter and i think this may be a remark or a place of ignorance regarding how

critical syria is to the entire middle east region. one of his best friends netanyahu would tell trump we can't have no u.s. involvement in syria. going forward, they are going to be at the table as part of a peace process and trying to stabilize the regime, whatever that is going to look like, a coalition government, hopefully. i think it is important we remember that revolutions very rarely end well. ours is a big exception, but take the arab spring, which started the civil war in syria. all of the arab spring countries ended with authoritarian regimes. so, we have this moment, this window of opportunity to try to make a difference, we ought to try it. >> let's turn to the transition, because donald trump, as you know, has invited president xi jinping to his inauguration next month. president xi is turning down the invitation, but what could

this possibly say about u.s. relations with china? >> the well, it is not a bad thing to extend a hand to xi jinping, to watch a democratic inauguration and see what that is like. trump has had a sort of hot and cold relationship with xi jinping and with china generally. if we can tone down the rhetoric and have a working relationship with china, that is a desirable goal, and if that is what donald trump has in mind, that is a good thing. i am nervous, however, that the inauguration not be filled with a bunch of authoritarian dictators like xi jinping or an authoritarian like viktor orban of hungry, that is a bad image. >> you were the president of the nato parliamentary assembly and the secretary-general just this past week called the global security situation "the worst in my lifetime." what do you make of his comments?

>> well, i think he is looking especially to the european prison. remember, he was the prime minister of the netherlands, and he is watching russia and ukraine and he is watching the turn toward russia and authoritarianism in georgia, he is worried about russian interference and the elections, so i think he is really bringing a particularly european perspective right now that is kind of optimistic, and obviously the election of donald trump doesn't make anything better from the european point of view, so i can understand why he believes that. but i think there are also lots of reasons for hope. nato for example is stronger than ever. and there is a lot of solidarity, and i think we are going to do everything we can to make sure that ukraine prevails in its war with russia, and that peace and stability are returned to the sovereignty of ukraine. >> okay. virginia congressman gerry connolly, it is good to see you, sir, happy holidays. >> happy holidays.

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so this is in scotts valley, california. just below the bay area. when you say rare, these -- this type of storm system you rarely see in california, and it just really sent shock waves. we've got some video showing just that tornado touching down. it was captured on ring camera and some drivers that were driving through the area, this caught them off guard. you can see branches come pummelling their vehicles. the storm was so powerful, it actually picked up vehicles, flipped them on their side including cal fire battalion chief's vehicle was overturned. there's a big hole in his windshield. looks like he had to kick his way out of that vehicle to safety. a lot of people took cover in nearby shopping areas. it came in quickly and the national weather service confirming it was an ef-1 tornado. the vice mayor there talking about just the chaos that ensued. listen to what he had to say. >> so we had power poles that

were down. power was out in the area. we had multiple vehicles that were turned, both in both parking lots, both at safe way and target, in both centers across the street, and we even had a cal fire vehicle that was flipped in the center of the road. so we had a lot of -- it was pretty much chaos at the moment when i arrived here. >> reporter: a lot of chaos. and five people have been injured, one critically with a punk toured lung. one person has died in omaha, nebraska, near omaha, nebraska, after her car was involved in some icy conditions, slid off the road and hit another car head on. alex. >> oh, my goodness. all this news. thank you, dana. stay safe. that's going to do it for me on this edition of "alex witt reports." "prime weekend" is next.