now in today's other top stories the nypd is investigating after homeless man was found on fire inside penn station last night. the 67-year-old is in critical condition with burns to his upper body. police are looking into how the fire started. no arrests have been made at this time. shucking video from peru showing waves toppling boats, some even sink. dozens of ports are closed as the mammoth waves are expected to last for days. one person in california is the winner of the $1.2 billion jackpot. the lucky ticket was sold in cottonwood, california last night. the estimated cash payout is $549.7 million. the state of california of course does not tax lottery winnings. in just a moment, the

dramatic developments in the crash of an airliner in kazakhstan. . good day from msnbc in washington. welcome to "alex witt reports." i am christina ruffini and for alex. we begin with reactions from donald trump's request to the supreme court asking for a pause on the tiktok and. trump previously supported the band because he wants to negotiate a resolution. months after the law passed with bipartisan support. democrats now questioning the reason for trump's flip flop . >> it's a combination of two things, jim. one, flattery and inflating his ego. you are so popular in tiktok and the loading -- young people love you. and two is the corruption of his inner circle. also new today, escalating

civil war. elon musk and vivek ramaswamy pushing for visas for tech workers while american workers should get i already. ramaswamy on social media criticized culture saying it mediocrity over excellence and will not create the best engineers. we will get reaction from congresswoman jasmine crockett later this hour. and a new meeting between canadian ministers and trump's cabinet picks failed to remove the terrorist threat. here is congressman adam smith. >> this is trump's policy during his first term and what he promised during his campaign this time. he is a bully and he's going to punch and see how people react. he will punch in all directions. and with six days left until the house votes for a new speaker new reports mike johnson may not have the votes

he needs. republicans say they are undecided and republican thomas maisie says he will vote for someone else. democrats will not rush to johnson's rescue. >> we know two, three, four other republicans who have expressed their doubts. i hear the name jordan as a potential alternative, so i don't know what will happen but what i do know will happen, democrats will be united. we will not fail this time. >> politico reporting johnson has reason to be nervous and johnson is deliberately letting questions swirl. we will get to those stories ahead but we want to begin with breaking news. russian president vladimir putin apologized to the president of azerbaijan for the deadly christmas day plane crash but putin did not take responsibility for the crash. nbc's meagan fitzgerald is

following all of this from london. how did this apology come about? >> reporter: there was a phone conversation between vladimir putin and president of azerbaijan and that is where this apology happened but as you mentioned putin stopped short of taking responsibility. the statement went on to say putin called the crash a tragic incident that occurred in russian airspace. the statement went on to reference grozny, a russian city where the aircraft was heading to and it talks about how it was undergoing in the middle of ukrainian drone attacks and the russians were trying to fend off those attacks. this is reporting that is in line with reporting nbc news obtained yesterday by two military officials who say that intelligence suggests russia may have misidentified the airline and shot it down

thinking it was a drone. look at the footage we are seeing coming in moments after the crash where you can see the exterior of the aircraft and what appears to be what could possibly be some shrapnel damage. again, an ongoing investigation right now. azerbaijan officials are investigating to figure out what caused the plane to crash, killing some 38 people, christina. >> meagan, thank you. mike memoli is following the president in the virgin islands. mike, as meagan mentions, this might have been russia at fault. i know you are keeping an eye on what the administration has been saying. what do we know about whether or not they were surprised from the statement that came out yesterday? >> reporter: well, the president has been regularly briefed on this tragic crash and officials say based on their indications there was russian defense system responsible here, they see it

as further evidence of the recklessness for which russian president vladimir putin has been conducting this war against ukraine. we heard from white house officials about this. they are pointing to using stronger language than that, talking about how disastrous we are seeing from the russian president at this point as he seeks to reverse the losses russia has faced on the battlefield as ukraine has gained more and more capabilities here. the question heading into the new year for president biden, what more can be done to support ukraine as there continues to be support but that might change with the new administration. there has been the discussion of a potential peace summit. the slovak prime minister offered to host such a summit. vladimir putin saying he would be willing to consider that if

it comes to it. u.s. officials putting cold water on that idea. take a listen to what john kirby reported about just yesterday. >> any other nation that wants to get involved in helping a negotiated settlement in this war needs to be in complete lockstep with president zelenskyy and the ukrainian people. he gets to determine if and when he's ready to negotiate and he gets to negotiate the circumstances and the conditions under which he would do that. >> reporter: now kirby also reinforcing the idea the president has additional authorities, presidential drawdown authorities and he plans to make an announcement in the coming days about more assistance to the ukrainian government. it's all part of what national security advisor jake sullivan has talked about is giving the best leverage you can as possible to the ukrainians and it's interesting to hear sullivan try to influence the new administration about what a

peace deal might look like and what an end to the conflict could look like. he says president-elect trump likes to get good deals. well, he should try to get the best deal in return after what the u.s. has invested in so heavily the last few years. >> at the negotiating table, not on it. mike memoli, thank you so much. let's bring in msnbc contributor and morning joe contributor, political white house correspondent. eugene, as the biden administration is winding down there is a lot going on in the world. do you see any efforts happening to try to get some sort of resolution to ukraine or russia in the past few days, or are they passing it off to the next administration? >> a lot of it is out of their control, right? when i talk to national security folks in this administration they don't have a lot of chips left to play here. they don't have a strong

relationship with russia and more importantly, they don't want to give up what it seems like russia wants to kind of get to the negotiating table. they want zelenskyy as you heard john kirby say there leading this and at this point it's not clear whether or not zelenskyy would be okay giving up a certain amount of land to shut this down, to stop the war, to make russia feel good about it. from the very beginning of the conflict, what folks told me behind the scenes over and over again, they needed to find an exit ramp for vladimir putin but felt he won the war and they have yet to find that over the years. >> zelenskyy has been saying from the beginning they will fight for every inch of ukrainian territory and it's getting to the point even allies are saying that may not be realistic. i want to turn out to the hill. you know, it was an ugly budget

battle and house speaker mike johnson's job might be on the line following those negotiations. i'm wondering your take. does he have the votes or could he be out on his ear when congress returns? >> it's hard to tell whether or not anything will work out, but what we have seen and what we have reported in playbook over the last few weeks is president trump has been upset with johnson, right? he did not like how these continued resolutions ended up. he wanted a bill that they wanted to pass and he's not happy, but at the same time, trump doesn't want a messy fight. there is the question whether or not they have a speaker by january 6th. will they be able to actually find trump's win there? >> we saw how long this took the first time around. what happens if they cannot consolidate around a candidate and there is no speaker on

january 6th? what does that mean? >> that means we are in uncharted territory as we were the last few years. it's possible to take over the roles and duties as the house speaker. we have not seen that happen. with this congress, with republicans, morse importantly, with the far right republicans. they are not voting for mike johnson, right? what are they going to need from him to get their vote? we saw this happen with mccarthy before he was ousted as speaker when he negotiated for the continued resolution. you know, ticked off the right wing and got kicked out of his job. that could be the case with mike johnson but at the same time over the time he has been speaker we have been surprised over and over because of his stronger relationships with the right.

jordan is a name you hear a lot from folks on the right and it may come down to him and johnson once again. >> otherwise we will need a par with terry and on speed dial come january 6th. there has been a lot of chatter on biden trying to trump proof his policies before the end of his term. what is he doing to ensure his legacy remains in place? >> part of this has been making sure some of the money gets out of the door before trump gets in and come up the works. two, trying to work with the other agencies around the administration to shore up the things and speeded up. there is not much time left obviously and not much they can do at this point. a lot of folks in the administration were surprised when trump won and they are working on their back foot here, thinking vice president kamala harris what have won and

they wouldn't have to worry about these kinds of things. i did an interview with chuck schumer, the senate majority leader for now and he's thinking the same way a lot of people in the administration i've talked to. the judiciary will be the tip of the spear of the resistance to protect what they see are the accomplishments of the biden administration. >> eugene daniel, always nice to see you. have a good new year. meet the new guard, same as the old guard. what happened? back in 90 seconds. n. ♪♪ really, gary? mom, i'm thirsty. don't settle for cheap, stinky floor mats. at weathertech we make our floorliners and cargo liners here in america, out of pure non-toxic american materials. dad, next time get weathertech. they don't stink! i'm on it. find out everything we have at wt.com.

we are going to turn out to president-elect trump's day one plans for mass deportations. thomas homan's agenda include family detentions and this week he told sam brock family separation would be left up to parents. >> we have no plans. the parents will have to make the decision. that is parenting 101. i will say again, if you choose to have a job in the united states while you know you are under court ordered deport, that's on you. >> joining us now, jasmine crockett, democrat from texas and member of the oversight and agricultural committees. all right, when you hear those

remarks, what are your initial thoughts? >> again, we have someone who does not know what he's doing and this idoh, you know you are illegal and go out and have a child, it is not quite that simple when you have people doing things like seeking asylum and saying, listen, i'm trying to make sure i can live a better life in the united states and i will do everything i can to become an american citizen or at least get legal status and you have trump who goes out there, him and his minions, who say things like we will only get rid of the bad ones, right? wait a minute. you will come to my job where i'm working and paying into taxes or whatever? or my kids who are at school? i think there will be a rude awakening on all sides. >> vulnerable women without access to healthcare or birth control may or may not be choosing whether they conceive

a child. i'll leave it there. family centers could play a role in deportation efforts and added not jails, but open air campus is designed for families. i'm not sure access to fresh air was people's issue with that policy. >> i am curious to know if he's ever been to a jail or prison. the reality is these are nothing more than detention camps that look a lot like jails and prisons. there is what they call the yard when you go to a prison and that is an open air facility. there is always the lack of humanity when it comes to immigration and this administration. if people remember the separation before, they may not remember how much it cost the united states when we were sued about the fact these families were separated. >> deportations themselves are -- >> expensive, right. texas is like, we will give you the land to do what you want to

do but it takes officers. we need to hire more officers to execute this. you can't just throw people into facilities. you've got to make sure you feed them and keep them healthy. >> it expands when you're talking about children and families as well. >> exactly. it'll cost monetarily upfront. we know again so many people are contributing to the economy. >> there is this interesting pivot where you've got, you know, elon musk pushing for more high skilled tech visas and evoking anger from maga supporters who claim foreigners are taking american jobs and this is playing out publicly on twitter, or x, or whatever we're calling it now. is trump sending mixed messages on immigration and will they be able to get on the same page? >> the only message we saw during the campaign was deport them, kick them all out. that

is what he was saying at rallies. democrats struggled because we cannot effectively communicate like why immigration is and the most terrible thing we've ever experienced. because it's not. we are a country of immigrants, right? we haven't had conversations about the fact we get so many trained nurses right now because we are losing so many in the healthcare field because of covid-19. we know there haven't been investments made to make sure we have workers coming up. we get a lot of them out of the philippines, right? yes, a lot of high-tech businesses such as tesla have been working those coming out of parts of asia. you know, it's crazy that we really aren't having these conversations, or if we aren't talking about what happens with our food supply, and who it is that will work agriculture, who

it is working construction. like, there are jobs here for everyone not only for those coming in but for those who are here every day because when we look at the joblessness numbers, they are low. >> another thing democrats got flak for in addition to immigration was this kind of age gap with president biden and, you know, house democrats are coming under fire for not supporting alexandria cortes on the oversight committee and some are blaming the old guard. there are all of these memes online from a millennial about not getting the job because someone older won't retire. you think she was treated fairly? >> it depends on how you define fairly. someone who serves on the oversight committee, while i think both are absolutely qualified, i think within the democratic caucus, we are stuck in our old ways of doing things which is you get there by

seniority. if you've been there longer, you get the post. i don't think we fully sit there and say who may be best equipped for this moment? that is not to say not but that is what we see out of the democratic caucus and i think america is looking at us and saying, weight a minute, we lost the election. the house picked up seats, right? they are saying we are looking towards y'all to show us you're willing to shake it up if it means we can move this country forward. oversight will be great under connelly's leadership. he's not new to this. he is very true to this and i think within the caucus we will have conversations about how we do leadership because on the republican side they have term limits and you can't sit in

those posts very long so they end up shipping out their leadership more frequently than we do on the democratic side. on something completely different, i want to ask you about trump's comments. he spent much of the holiday targeting panama, greenland, and canada for u.s. expansion. what do you think is driving these moves? how far do you expect him to go to accomplish this? >> i don't know. it is crazy that this guy is about to walk into the white house for a second time and again, this guy doesn't know who our friends are. he loves to pal around with putin and we know putin has decided he wants to bring back the former coalition they used to have and that's why he went into ukraine. i'm here to say we've got to have really good people around trump and right now the people he's picking are not the best

people because someone needs to explain to him in a very elementary way why we don't go after our friends, why we don't start wars. honestly that includes tariff wars with our friends. >> congresswoman, thank you so much for joining us. he's got a big to do list but can he check it off every time? a realistic view on what will actually happen on donald trump's first day, next. those that donate to st. jude, i hope that you will continue to give. they have done so much for me and my family. please don't wait until the last minute. make a difference by supporting the children of st. jude. please donate now.

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president-elect trump's new

and rather unprecedented efforts to push the boundary of international policy and potentially the united states. nbc white house correspondent allie raffa joins us from west palm beach, florida. trump met with high-ranking canadian officials at mar-a- lago. what was that about? >> rter: chstina, apologies in advance for the background noise as we have some friends power washing nearby but as you may remember we saw late last month president-elect trump meeting with canadian prime minister justin trudeau at his mar-a- lago estate about the 25% tariff on his first day in office on products from canada and mexico, unless the two countries took action to curb the blowup undocumented migrants as well as illegal drops dropping across their borders. the prime minister calling it a productive meeting, though not

signaling if any agreement was reached and we are learning about the part two of that conversation. top canadian officials went to mar-a-lago to meet with the president-elect's picks to run the department of congress and the interior respectively and canadian officials say this was a productive meeting, that they shared their concerns about the tariff threat and about their plans to curb the flow of illegal migration as well as drops across their borders, but they say the meeting did not change things on the tariff front. although they did agree to relay information to the president-elect and this is just one example of the president-elect's very bullish america first policies he plans to implement upon taking office. you will remember recently has post on truth social talking about his calls for the u.s. to

control not only the panama canal as well as greenland and that has backlash among democrats. >> he is a bully and he's got a punch. he's got to punch and see how people react. he's got to punch in all directions. does he really plan on using the u.s. military to retake the panama canal? probably not, but he wants to bully panama into maybe giving us a better deal. he thinks he can maybe bully the netherlands into giving us greenland but he will simply lash out. it is the way he conducts business. >> reporter: you heard the reaction from a democrat. we are seeing some republicans say this is just trolling by the president-elect while others say this is his way of gaining an edge on trade negotiations for his next term in office. christina? >> get all of the power washing

in before the new year. thanks for powering through. now to new questions about how much of donald trump's agenda he can actually accomplish on his first day. according to axios from as recently as december 6th, trump has made 59 day one promises. topping the list is settle the russia/ukraine war, close the border, cut funding for schools that have a vaccine mandate, and begin the largest deportation operation. joining us now, senior political reporter. okay, in your latest article, you spoke to a conservative legal scholar about what trump can and cannot actually get done in his first day or days in office, so what was the conclusion there? >> the conclusion is trump has a lot of power when it comes to foreign policy. like, he can really help broker a peace agreement with ukraine

and russia. you could drop a bomb. congress gives him a lot of power to do that, but in terms of finishing the border wall, he needs congressional approval and thankfully the budget to do that. he cannot just tap the treasury like he tried to do his first term. he can force i.c.e. to start deportations but cities and states can try to halt that and then there is the question on whether he can cut off funding to the various cities and states that act as sanctuary cities. that'll be up to congress to enforce that as well. birthrate citizenship will end up going to the court and he will probably lose that. he can tell his attorney generals, his star line in his enemies list, but at the end of the day, you need a grand jury to decide to prosecute or go

through with charges, so you have to look to the courts and a lot of these cases. can he pardon everyone from the january 6th insurrection on day one? yeah, he can do that. could he possibly pullout of nato? that's unclear. that is not a clear thing because it is a treaty and so far the constitution allows the president to pull out of treaties and that will be tested. he could definitely pull out of the paris climate accord because that was not ratified by congress, so there are a number of things he could do that will create an earthquake. he could create a lot of psychological warfare for humans, particularly those impacted by communities with large amounts of migrants. but, you know, a lot of these things could be held up day one by the court if he tries to impose a ban. it took a year to get through

the courts. >> you talked about whether or not trump the target people the administration or trump himself considers adversaries. what is the likelihood of that happening, and how do you think you would go about it? >> he could pass on the so- called enemies list. he is seen as the chief prosecutor as the president of the united states. every prosecutor that works below him including the attorney general works for him and they could start an investigation into these people. being investigated is a very, you know, exhausting process. ultimately it's up to a grand jury, an independent body to decide to move forward with charges, but yeah, he could start charges for sure. >> i also wanted to ask you according to trump bill gates wants to meet with him. we have seen this parade of wealthy business owners and

billionaires going down to mar- a-lago to kiss the ring. what do you make of this? do you think it is becoming a situation where if you don't go, you may be on the outs in the next four years? >> i think these billionaires certainly see that trump has a very expansive view about his role as president. you know, he can implement tariffs on mexico and canada and he's threatening that now. especially if they end up on trump's enemies list. i think a lot of these men are business minded and they want to make sure their companies are in the best position moving forward into the next administration. usually you would hire lobbyists to set up a meeting with the president once he's in office but with trump it is so much about the coming his best buddy that they have learned from the past administration that he is pretty successful. bill gates, you can get a

meeting with him. go to mar-a-lago and try to kiss the ring. >> head on down to palm beach. all right, tara palmeri, thank you for joining us. it would be wrong to have this picture at our disposal and not show it to you. this is saint croix. sure, it's cloudy, but the high today, 80 degrees. however on the mainland, seatac airport looking pretty wet there and there is more weather trouble elsewhere in the country. we will show you next. so you can feel lighter and more energetic. metamucil keeps you movin'. and try fizzing fiber plus vitamins.

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this just in, at least five women or tornadoes have been reported in louisiana and texas. take a look at that map. severe weather is happening just as millions are heading home from the holidays. powerful storms left downed trees tangled up in power lines creating quite the cleanup job for crews there. and in lake tahoe, people are dealing with 3 feet or more snow this weekend. adrienne broaddus joins us from chicago o'hare international airport. how is all of this crazy weather and a dangerous weather impacting travel this busy weekend? >> reporter: you know, christina, it is a holiday

weekend and mother nature is not doing anything to help travelers. let's take a look at the 17 million people under fog alerts in cities like little rock, memphis, and omaha. you mentioned the preliminary tornado reports. five of them in different parts of the south and right now there is a tornado watch in effect from east texas to west mississippi set to expire in about 30 minutes. for those heading to the airport in the next hour or so, i wanted to show you what you might be facing. there are thousands of delays across the country, more than 5000. we are talking all flights taking off or landing in the u.s. according to flightaware. leading the leaderboard, dallas, miami, and atlanta. folks passing through chicago's o'hare where i am right now are

lucky because the average wait time for the security checkpoint screen time is 5 to 10 minutes, and they hope that holds. take a listen. >> we've been out here at times there were blizzards, a deep- freeze, and when the airlines were shut down. two years ago, there were abandoned bags. i feel like this is a piece of cake so far. >> reporter: no major delays here in chicago. people are waiting in line on average 5 to 20 minutes but this all comes as aaa is estimating millions are expected to travel. tsa will screen 40 million passengers through january 2nd. back to you. >> adrienne broaddus in chicago, thank you very much. coming up, maga backlash and the rift between two advisors and the voters who elected him.

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of which you cannot possibly comprehend. all right then. joining us now, former white house speechwriter under the obama administration along with a former senior gop congressional advisor. jesse, i want to start with you. as has been an interesting follow-up between maga faithful and not so faithful. we've got nikki haley and steve bannon slamming the comments as they look to curb immigration overall and you've got this big push back from the tech sector. donald trump is a business friendly guy, but also somebody wants to crackdown on immigration. how does he navigate this issue not only in a wider realm but within his inner circle? >> we are going to all start seeing doge casually. >> you know we love an acronym. >> it's catchy. i get it.

we are about to find out and i don't mean in terms of what will happen with the visas. i mean in terms of the tenuous coalition trump just rode to victory. i think, you know, everyone is declaring this a decisive victory and that's not wrong but it's a finally knit together coalition of people who kind of -- it's almost like a mar-a-lago coalition wing of the coalition who think of his presidency as a place you bring a gift and a flatter the host and get what you want and then there is the maga wing of the coalition who want to see the wrecking ball swing and take down the whole system. we get it. the biggest piece of this coalition he stitched together were a bunch of voters who were just mad and he is speaking their native tongue, off.

if he wants to take care of the mar-a-lago crowd going down ideological rabbit holes and not bringing down the cost of groceries he will find out really quick how fast this can fall apart. >> criticism is easier than consensus. i want to get your take. silicon valley has started to rely on these programs for engineers. how are you seeing the influence of these billionaires change the conversation around immigration policy? and, you know, jesse just talked about his base. where do we see trump winding up, with the more populist camp or the tech folks who are making their way down to florida to see him? >> one thing for sure, america has needed a conversation about how to make america great vis-a- vis immigration. it has been debated about merits being here, right?

one thing we have not seen is about a particular visa program like this. i am an american of indian descent and i've seen many of my countrymen and sisterly speaking. emigrant -- indians are dominant in tech. you are not going into the future for america. you're not rooting for america because with these indian americans, you are saying they are not like us because of skin color and that is just flat wrong so one thing we need to talk about in the republican party is how these people should not be taking up the options and these people are frankly racist. it has been dubbed as a musk versus maga fight but i don't see it that way. one thing we can agree on, capitalism creates these cultural dilemmas but that does not mean capitalism is bad. it creates good outcomes in so

many ways but this is an ugly side you start to see these people with horrible views look around and say look at these examples of people taking our jobs. hey, buddy, you wouldn't have so many great things happening technologically speaking if it weren't for the workers who took advantage of this visa program. >> it is almost as if these issues are very nuanced and shouldn't be boiled down to posts on social media. we've got a gallup survey that shows 19% of americans overall are ending the year feeling optimistic about the direction of the country. 30% among democrats and just 9% among republicans, but this isn't unique. you would have to go back two decades when more than half of americans thought the country was on the right track. why is this happening? somehow the country constantly feels we are on the right -- wrong track and we are knee-

jerk voting for the wrong guy every time. are we really getting change without paying attention to policy? >> i think that is the reality. your point to the existential challenge with our democracy, people feel disconnected from the systems that keep us afloat as a republic and that move us forward as an economy and a culture. and so, i think the challenge now is how do you speak the language of the people which is really angry, really frustrated , which is you have been told for generations if you work hard in this country, you can get ahead and buy a home, but the reality -- there are a few different starting points you could point to. you could talk about industrialization. people have been losing their handle on that promise and generation after generation we have been getting closer to a

precipice and we've hit it. it came when, you know, generation x kids had to move home and they start to realize that our kids, these millennial, gen z kids aren't seeing as many opportunities even with a college degree as i saw growing up in the '90s or '80s. >> yeah. >> it is starting to feel really real that, wow, this is the direction we are heading economically and i don't think there has been a political solution to that yet. >> rina, we have like 30 seconds left but i want your reaction to this. >> we choose the type of leader we elect. we deserve the types of leaders we choose to elect and when we don't pay attention to who we are putting in public office, we will start to see exactly how most americans around us, our neighbors down the street

feel it is what it is. government is not serving us. it is seen as this monstrous thing and it kind of is. over the years, look at the national debt. one thing that continues to go down his government efficiency. everywhere you look around in the real world, we see examples of that, so i'm not surprised most people don't agree the country is going in the right direction. >> we will have to leave it there. jesse, rina, thank you so much. that will do it for us. i am christina ruffini in for alex witt. i thought i'd get a wax figure of myself. cool right? look at this craftmanship. i mean they even got my nostrils right. it's just nice to know that years after i'm gone this guy will be standing the test of ti... he's melting! oh jeez... nooo... oh gaa...

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