in >> today on ?matter of fact? -- democrats make some serious new year's resolutions. >> we need to understand their fears. >> what they say about turning their bad year around. plus, fake news -- why should it matter to you? >> what we saw election was huge amounts of completely false stories getting traction on facebook. >> and did you hear the one about air force one? we did our own research. but first -- soledad: how do democrats fix the political fallout? i'm soledad o'brien. welcome to ?matter of fact.?

and washington, d.c., democrats are doing just that, but have already decided they will stick with their current leaders for the next term. the strategic questions are critical. >> when we don't talk about economics, we lose elections. >> we need accountability. there is no accountability from leadership. >> this business as usual here in congress is not going to work out for democrats. soledad: do you focus on traditional democrats whose turnout was lackluster this election? or do you reach across the aisle trump voters this time around? democratic congressman don beyer was reelected for his second term representing northern virginia. nice to have you with us. mr. beyer: thank you, soledad. soledad: do you think the democrats are in crisis? mr. beyer: it feels that way. i've been back in congress the last two weeks, and there have been many, many long meetings, and not so much finger-pointing but hand-wringing. everyone tries to figure where to go from here. and the good news is i haven't

soledad: that is, i guess, encouraging for democrats. republicans did the autopsy after their loss and looked at what went wrong. what would you analyze as what went wrong in this election? mr. beyer: we have lost the saliency of our brand, and i think i read that hillary lost rural and small-town america by a 3-1 margin, and if it had been 2-1, she would be the president-elect. we do wonderful on the coast -- california, new york, virginia, but we have to get the middle part of america. soledad: a lot of analysis focused on the white working class voter, but it's actually the white middle class and the wealthy white voter that went for donald trump. people who were typical republicans remained typical republicans, some who voted for obama in 2012. there were a couple hundred

time voted for donald trump. is the strategy now to try to get back those voters, those trump voters? or do you look at the lifelong democrats who just did not bother to come out in this election? mr. beyer: i give you great credit for putting your finger on exactly the existential problem, exactly the debate in the democratic party. we have always been the party of the little guy or the underdog. and these have been underdog groups. these are the groups need that legitimacy, need embracing. the dilemma was, we apparently, at least in some ways, we have lost the folks that aren't part of those identity groups, and so the other part realizes we need to go to coal communities, farm communities, manufacturing communities that have been devastated and have real messages of economic growth and

them, just as well. soledad: don't you think white was an identity in this election? we talk about identity politics, and i think white is an identity that can be identified in this particular election. there was an interesting article in "time" magazine. they interviewed a young woman talking about her vote, and she said -- i'll paraphrase -- she said something like, you know, hillary clinton really reached out to minorities and immigrants but didn't care about everyday americans. mr. beyer: i think, perhaps, even the emphasis on identity politics of these other groups is always created, by the sense of a white identity which maybe didn't exist before. i think i saw some statistics yesterday that hillary's percentage of the white vote was the lowest anyone has had in many years. it's been a slow decline. so my hope is that the democratic way forward will not be to abandon this wonderful base but to find ways to bring , everybody together. soledad: can you, within two years, before the midterm elections, reach those people?

democratic brand in rural america, small-town america, and the middle of america is going to be a generational challenge. we're not going to do in two years, but we got to get out there right away, and we start with authentically caring about their issues and their lives and building policies and leadership around that. soledad: we'll see, congressman. thank you for your time. mr. beyer: thank you, soledad, very much. >> coming up next president-elect trump keeps , jobs, in america. mr. trump: hi, everbody. >> but at what cost? >> we elected donald trump president. we didn't elect him chairman of the board of every company in america. >> plus, political adversaries come together to honor a lost son. and -- can obsolete parts really ground the world's most

soledad: even before he takes office, president-elect donald trump is crowing about his ability to bring american jobs back. in a deal with united technologies, the parent company

jobs at their indiana factory will not move to mexico. in exchange, the company will receive $7 million in tax credits and training grants over the next 10 years. while it's great news for workers whose jobs were saved the 1100 number is misleading. , it's more like 800 jobs that will remain. approximately 550 union jobs will still go to mexico. 300 more jobs were never scheduled to leave. and a second united technologies and it is moving 700 jobs to mexico. james pethokoukis is an economist at the conservative american underpriced institute and he has called this deal , chilling. nice to have you with us. james: i appreciate it. soledad: so the responses have been divided between people that were cheering hey, jobs were , saved, and if you are one of the 730 to 800 people whose jobs

-- that is an amazing thing to , others bemoaning the way this was done. where do you stand on it? james: i'm concerned. i want make companies making decisions based on what is best for their customers and their shareholders, and over the long term, what is best for their workers. what i don't want is businesses making decisions on the whims of politicians including the , president of the united states. this is kind of a weird situation where we have a business telegraphing or sometime the econo be competitive, they need to be making products somewhere else where labor costs less, and they made that decision. and the president decided, you know what, i know better, and you can make these jobs here, maybe less profitable but you'll be ok. we elected him president, not chairman of the board of every company in america. soledad: it is very hard to spin saving jobs as a bad thing. james it's the job of the : president to take a longer

saved their jobs? well, maybe not. workers have to be prepared. their jobs my go overseas or elsewhere. for the long term viability of carrier, they are owned by united technologies, which has government contracts. i'm sure at the end of the day, and the ceo implied this, it was less about tax breaks they got, but they were worried about losing government if this was a standalone company, carrier, without a wealthy corporate parent, they would be at risk. soledad: here is an interesting quote - ?the free market is sorting it out and america has been losing.? that is from the incoming vice president, mike pence. i thought republicans were all about the free market and free enterprise. i have not really a heard -- really heard elected officials on gop side decrying what they are seeing happening.

their president. he won. he beat clinton. this is one of the first big things he has done even though , he is not president, he is the president-elect. the polls say this is popular. at this point they are going with their guy and what the polls say. that is wrong, what pence said. listen we have had more open , trade over the past 30 to 40 years. this economy has created 15 million jobs since the early 1980's. the market is doing just fine. but doesn't mean there won't be losers or people left behind, and been doing more all this time to help people who have lost their jobs. but free trade has been good for america. soledad: a water bill passed in the senate with a provision about buying american steel in it that house republicans removed. now i am really confused about what republicans want. james: republican party, i think, is confused.

making companies buy american steel, it seems again reasonable thing. james: but then you are raising costs for every other company that uses steel, and sold the products are more expensive. the republican is trying to figure out what they believe about economics. soledad: james, thanks so much. >> when we return, fake news -- turns out it's not so new. >> i started to shift around 2010 and a few years ago did a project >> and in the pacific northwest, voting gets easier. the one big change that could be on the way to your state. then congress steps up -- ,>> the motion is agreed to. >> -- to aid families devastated by opioid misuse.

restaurant here in washington, d.c., this week. why? well he told investigators he , wanted to check out what ended up being a so-called fake news story. the story, if you can call it that, accused hillary clinton and her campaign chief of running a child sex ring out of a popular pizza restaurant, comet ping pong. fortunately, nobody was hurt in the shooting, but the incident does point to the real life dangers of online fake news. according to pew, 62 a adults in the u.s. get their news in some fashion from social media. and an analysis by buzzfeed found that fake news headlines fool american adults 75% of the time. craig silverman is the editor of buzzfeed canada saw this coming. he has been studying the veracity of online news for the past decade. he is in toronto today. nice to talk to you.

that this would eventually become a thing, fake news? craig: one of the things i was paying to 10 years ago is actually real news, mainstream media, and looking at the lack of discussion around accuracy and the lack of discussion around fact-checking. that was back in 2004. i started writing about it and researching it and looking at the level of accuracy of main stream media. but as social media really took off and i started to see rumors and tremendous velocity and huge distribution, i started to shift around 2010 or so and started looking at that element and looking at the role of social media and a few years ago did a project specifically about misinformation online. soledad: so 62%, the figure that i just gave out, who get some of their news in some way from social media. it is now a cultural shift, so how can you possibly clamp down on fake news when so many people are accessing social media, which really the way

craig: that is it. i mean this is a fundamental , change in how people are getting information and consuming information. we don't want people to turn off and sensor everything -- and censor everything. and what social media has done is democratize media. what i mean is that anybody can publish, whether you tweet something, post on facebook, start a blog, and on and on and on. it is a fundamentally different universe. there is a lack of control with that, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. this is free speech, but it introduces new consequences and spread of rumors, and misinformation is one of those. and we saw, in particular around the election huge amounts of , false stories that were getting a lot of traction on facebook. soledad: the top 20 fake stores -- stories were getting far more engagement than the top 20 real news stories from some of the biggest names in news.

really driven, ultimately by , algorithms? craig: on facebook, it learns what you do and what you like and their goal is to feed you , more of that because it gets you to spend more time on facebook. the algorithms end up sending you more of the stuff that confirms more of what you believe and think. soledad: you can't expect the user end, like my aunt silvia, to say "oh, i'm not going to forward this story? because i deem it to be fake. we know most people can't tell fake from real. craig and look at your news feed, all of the links people are sharing look the same. you don't see logos. you have to go below the image and headline to see where it came from, and most people don't do that. soledad: it's not that people like a more factual story than one that actually confirms the conspiracy theory that they believe. plus, you have the president-elect elevating fake news, right?

craig: that's unprecedented. the fact that trump will tweet things that are untrue. for example, there was a fake news story that a protester had been paid $3500 to protest trump. that's from a completely fake website created by a guy who just creates hoaxes all day long to make money. but that was tweeted out by two of his campaign managers, one of his sons, also. when you have people at that level of influence pushing that misinformation out there, whether knowingly and un added layer of credibility. soledad: what do you think are the solutions? craig: the first step is purely fake sites, not things that are partisan and slanted, but purely fake sites should be labeled or find some way to clearly communicate that to people on facebook. the other piece you mentioned is education. i think there is a role for but i also recognize that this is a massive undertaking. i mean we're talking about , having to introduce some form of media literacy broadly in

maybe even earlier and that's , tough and challenging thing to have happen. soledad: craig, thank you so much for updating us. appreciate it. >> coming up, air force one, the nation's situation room in the air. what does it really cost you? then a parting gift to vice , president joe biden. >> the senate will pass the 20th century cures act. >> that could help families touched by cancer. >> cheers to a cure.

a voting development in oregon. they've launched an automatic voter registration system. it was put to the test on november 8 and apparently came through. here's how it works. whenever oregon residents go to the dmv for an id, a license, or license plates, they're automatically registered to vote. other states are looking at the same system.

a lot of people stayed home this , election. in oregon, of the 225,000 automatic registrations, just 100,000 people actually voted. it was just another tweet from the president-elect this one , targeting boeing, after the boeing ceo alluded to trump's stance on free global trade. following a speech in chicago, dennis muilenberg said anyone who paid attention to the recent campaigns realizes that one of the overarching themes was apprehension about free and fair tr trump's response? maybe cancel boeing's air force one contract. mr. trump: i think it is ridiculous. >> the result? boeing's stock fell by nearly $2 as share and then bounced back. the current air force one planes are more than 25 years old. despite their high-tech interiors, the planes break down more frequently for maintenance, because their parts are obsolete. the new boeing version is a 747-8, with the tail height of a six-story building. the four-engine plane has to

safety, and security requirements. the air force has budgeted $2.7 billion for two planes. but experts estimate an additional $1 billion could be added for manufacturing costs. the pentagon says canceling the order, there could be significant delays in replacing the aging fleet, and it would drive costs much higher and cause real safety problems. >> next -- >> i'm putting joe in charge of >> the cancer moonshot lifts off. vice pres. biden: i think it's possible. >> can the nation go full throttle -- toward a cure? would you say no to a lot more money? [excited scream] you just won a million dollars! no thanks. nice balloons, though! or no to more vacation days? janet, i'm giving you an extra week's vacation! oh, ah... nooo. what? no way. who says no to more? time warner cable's all about giving you more. like the most free hd channels

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soledad: for some of us, or maybe most of us, we're in the thick of the year's most stressful season. so we wanted to end with a little hope, namely two stories that say we're not as divided a nation as we fear. vice president joe biden was on hand and clearly moved as the

late son in what's known as the moonshot bill. sen. mcconnell: that's exactly what the senate will do. renaming the nih's cancer initiatives in this bill after beau biden. vice pres. biden: without objection. soledad: it's a multi billion dollar package aimed at finding a cure for cancer, backed by both republicans and democrats. beau biden, the former attorney general of delaware, battled brain cancer until his death at age 46. our elected senators and representatives from both parties also voted to include $1 billion dollars to fight an immense and growing health issue, opioid misuse. three key parts. the first expands heroin and opioid treatment and prevention programs. the second beats up -- beefs up drug monitoring programs. and the third will increase training for health care providers. the bill also requires the federal health and human services secretary to prioritize funding to states hit hardest by

all this comes together as what's called the 21st century cures act, and it now goes to president obama for signature. that wraps up our program. i'm soledad o'brien. we will see you back here next week. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.

>> good morning. this is a live look outside looking pretty ok, but the snow is starting to fall again. a lot of the highways are hearing speed ok. right along 94, there were some areas that shut up as no covers. if you are driving to the game today, the roads on 43 also