darlene, give me the reaction in the room. to when the president brought this up. >> this is a sort of standard line in president trump's remarks whenever he's talking to service members and members in uniform. he always talks a lot about what he's done for him. how he's rebuilding the military. this line about the pay raise, which is untrue, it's false, it's something that he continues to repeat. no amount of fact checking has been able so far to budge him away from that line. it was hard to see the reaction. but most members, they cheered because i think to some degree they don't really know what he's not telling the truth here. >> right. general, it also seemed more like a campaign rally at times yesterday then it was an actual visit to the troops. he talked about the democrats and said they don't really want the wall because i want the wall. you've seen these visits over and over again. how unusual is it that the president politicized a visit like this one? >> basically unheard of. look, it's a good thing that the presiden

. >> darlene, are you aware of any concessions at all that the president would be willing to make to avert a partial shutdown? >> i'm not aware of any concessions he would be willing to make to avert a shutdown. unless he just has a complete change of heart and realizes that a shutdown would be bad for him and bad for the country and bad for hundreds of thousands of federal employees that would be affected going into the christmas holiday. >> do you think he's getting that message from anybody, though? stephen miller certainly isn't giving it to him. >> that's right. it's interesting and we'll have to see what happens. >> all right. let's shift gears with what was happening today with rudy giuliani, the president's personal attorney making his way around the talk shows, really slamming michael cohen. let's take a listen. >> pathetic. that man is pathetic. that was a lawyer you were interviewing, and he said, oh, he directed me to do it, oh, my goodness, he directed me. he's a lawyer. he's the guy you depend on to determine whether or not you should do it this way or that way, whether

. >> i want to ask this next question of both of you, and darlene, you first to answer it.r reaction on a yahoo report that trump first wanted his attorney general pick william barr for another job, defense lawyer. how do you read this? is there a conflict here at all? >> that's an interesting question. i don't know if there is a conflict there or not. many of us were surprised on thursday or friday, whenever it was, that the president announced he was going to nominate bill barr to be attorney general. there were other names in the mix. bill barr's name didn't seem to be there. so it came as a surprise. >> is this new, charlie, that -- have we heard this before, that barr was being considered as a defense attorney? >> when i read that from the article, it was the first i had heard of it. it fits the pattern. mike whitaker, the acting attorney general right now, first came to the trump white house's attention last summer, summer of 2017, when he was interviewing for a job of being the in-house white house counsel for the purpose of managing defense against the mueller inves

. >> reporter: darlene and bob are the elves behind it. it turns out, the spirit was contagious. >> i like decorating for christmas. whether all these people show up or not, i'd still do it. >> reporter: from hub cab christmas trees to flamingos, eyes of all ages gaze in wonder. >> it doesn't feel like christmas until you come here. >> it makes you feel jolly and happy and really get into the spirit. >> seeing these lights turn on is total christmas cheer. >> reporter: a gift to the community but also one for those who live here. >> just to see those smiles and know you made somebody happy for a few minutes is worth it. >> reporter: catie beck, nbc news. >> merry christmas. >> looks like it's worth checking out, bright and cheery block. that's "nbc nightly news" for this thursday. i'm lester holt, for all of us, >>> right now at 6:00, gone in seconds. what thieves put in the back of that truck that makes this crime a felony. >>> but first, only on nbc bay area, the salacious tape that has one police department under the microscope. >> a po

. >> reporter: darlene and bob are the elves behind it.started when bob strung lights between a few neigh19rs' houses i. turns out the spirit was contagious. i like decorating at christmas, whether all these people show up or not, doesn't matter. i'd still do it. >> reporter: from hub cap christmas trees to ilatable s,eidels to festive flamin eyes of all ages gaze in wonder. >> it doesn't feel like christmas until you come s 3 the miracle h street. >> it makes you feel jolly and happy. >> seeing these lights turn on is total christmas cheer. >> reporter: a gift to the community but one for those who live here. >> just to see those smiles and know you made somebody happy for a few minutes is worth it. >> reporter: catie beck, nbc news >> merry christmas! >>oe could go baltimore and see. >> that you'll drive, sflienchts i would, yes. >>> it's been another wild week, david, in washington. >> it sure has and several things to cover. here to help us break it down, moderator of "meet the press," chuck todd. let's start with what folks in our are

country's only newspaper for three decades he's been a passionate advocate for the local people his wife darlene kaiju was a famous nucleus of five who died of cancer and age just forty five it really makes us wonder if marshall i don't wonders will ever get justice from the nuclear weapons tests that were conducted here and justice is the right word it's really important to understand the. that a lot of nuclear contaminated material was tossed into a crater left over from a bomb test a coral atoll essentially and a coral atoll by its nature is porous. when the us was getting ready to clean up i believe in the one nine hundred seventy s. they picked the pit that had been left by one of the smaller atomic explosions and dumped a lot of this plutonium and other radioactive waste into the pit and covered it over with an eighteen inch thick dome and left. the dome was never meant to be anything but a temporary solution to the problem of atomic waste at almost every stage of its construction safety was sector fi's to save money. michael gerard is a us climate change specialist who's visited the dome

. >> reporter: darlene and bob are the elves behind it.turns out, the spirit was contagious. >> i like decorating ch fostmas. whether all these people show up or not, i'd still do it. >> reporter: from hub cab christmas trees to flamingos, eyes of all ages gaze in wonder. >> it doesn'feel like christmas until you come here. >> it makes you feel jolly and happy and really get into the spirit. >> seeing these lights >> reporter: a gift to the community but also one for those who live re. just to see those smiles and know you made somebody happy for a few minutes is worth it. eporter: catie ck, nbc news. be it's not the holidays until... all your streams come true. [ kids laughing ] that jerk is ours. play home alone. watch your holiday favorites however you want and find them faster with the x1 voice remote. now that's simple. easy. awesome. switch to the entertainment you've been streaming about. get started with xfinity internet, tv and voice for $79.99 a month for 2 full years. click, call or visit a store today. ♪ l chtsamera access >> w

. >> darlene is in gold hill, oregon. hi, darlene. >> caller: hello. i just want to tell ms.t i haven't read her novels, but after hearing her speak, i will be getting all of them. i love historical nonfiction and fiction. i find i agree with her totally on how important words are. it amazes me sometimes how the english language gets distorted, and, you know, 25 years ago, a word is different use than it is today. and the other thing -- the question i want to ask her is, why does she think that all of the -- i want to say great, but in a way i want to say large religions of the world are basically male dominated because throughout history there are women, such as cleopatra and queen elizabeth and throughout history, these women are so influential, their countries were at peace most of the time that these women were the leaders of their country. so i'm asking her, why are all these religions so male dominated? thank you. >> well, darlene, i just want to say you have one of my most beloved names. my older sister is a darlene, and it is not such a common name. so it's nice to he

. >> darlene and bob are the elves behind it. few neighbor's houses in 1991. turns out, the spirit was contagious. >> i like decorating for christmas. whether all these people come or not, it doesn't matter. i would still do it. >> reporter: from hub cap christmas trees to inflatable dradles to festive flamingos, eyes of all ages gaze in wonder. >> it doesn't feel like christmas until you come to the miracle on 34th street. >> it makes you really feel like all jolly and happy, and, like, really get into the christmas spirit. >> seeing these lights turn on is, like, total christmas cheer. >> a gift to the community, but also one for those who live here. >> just to see those smiles and know you made somebody happy for a few minutes. it's worth it. >> katie beck, nbc news. >> merry christmas. >> so fun when you have an entire neighborhood and one street that just goes all out. >> yeah. >> makes everything better. >> get ready to look outside. a rare cosmic statement. almost exactly in line with the winter solstice. it is the first t

that's associated with the pres press, and darlene sommerville we are no longer the suckers, folks. trump told american servicemen and women "we are respected again as a nation. >> i think it is important that we are asserting who we are. we can't say that isis is not who it used to be. so there are some important things in terms of that assertive message, but we have to have a clear strategy. and i think that will be the challenge for the president rolling into the new year, what does he do with the big strategic messaging standpoint? because it will take place here in the u.s. and people want to know, what does this mean for me? are we playing policeman to the world or is there a strategy in terms of things that are in our national interest? >> how long do democrats have to wait on this before criticizing the president on foreign policy? the images are coming back from this is pretty significant. >> it's soon to say that we are even doing that. one of the bigelow losses here is a loss of secretary mattis. is someone who is well respected and a strong, steady hand on matters like t

to sally mann, gloria steinem, to brian stevenson, truman capote, to david burns, lily tomlin, to darlene love, joan didion, to steve kerr, maya angelou, to desmond tutu, and many more. and many of her programs had an education focus, including lectures from nicole jones, janet cano, francis jensen, richard lou, marion nestle, and marian write a dome and. and whereas through its involvement with teachers and school communities and sfusd, city arts and lectures has reached tens of thousands of san francisco students, at each year , miss goldstein and her organization reserved thousands of free lecture tickets for teachers and their students, as well as nonprofit organizations like homeless prenatal projects, hamilton family, edible schoolyard, and the ella baker centre, and she also initiated a regular lecture series entitled on arts, with proceeds going directly to the scholarship component of a 26 valencia's college and career readiness program. and whereas, until 2012, city arts and lectures have the programs of the herb theater and when it was announced that they would close for retrof

i consider my future the interns and the volunteers that have been there, woo, steve, darlene, kimberley, ava, howard. you know h.j. he is special. and francis. that's the roster that is on the list now. there is a whole host of folks that have served with me, taken pictures and posted and signed -- been in charge of sign-in sheets and coats and have been in charge of getting the pizza and moving and driving and they never complain. and i remind them, that this is how it starts. and i like to remind a quote from one of my artists drake, we started from the bottom. you must start from the bottom. you must start from the bottom in order to know where you're going at the top. it's very true, very, very valuable lesson you get by getting someone lunch. i can attest for that. this is how i started. supervisor ronen, i can see your brow. you get to know someone when you're serving them. it's the most humble place to learn about work. public service is about service, whether it's in public or in private. these are values that i try to instill in my incredible team. i have a whole list of of men

>> i actually handled then national security adviser tom darlen's transition personally and there werefs of staff when i worked for president obama. what i can tell you, ana, is haste makes waste in this type of situation. one transition at a time takes so much work. they're trying to handle the departure. come up with a list of qualified candidates. make sure they can play well with various constituencies, get them through senate confirmation, and most importantly, make sure that there is no lack of institutional knowledge transition, that no balls are dropped, that there are no exploitable vulnerabilities. doing so many of these, in such a short amount of time, makes me think it will really open ourselves up to potential exploitation during all of these transition points. >> vulnerabilities. that word stuck with me. because one of his vulnerabilities right now is what is going to happen with the russia probe and i want to bring shan wu back to the conversation. because the timing of john kelly's departure is interesting. the news coming on the heels of cnn reporting that john kelly w

country's only newspaper for three decades he's been a passionate advocate for the local people his wife darlene kaiju was a famous nucleus of five who died of cancer aged just forty five it really makes us wonder if marshall and wonders will ever get justice from the nuclear weapons tests that were conducted here and justice is the right word it's really important to understand the. that a lot of nuclear contaminated material was tossed into a crater left over from a bomb test a coral atoll essentially and a coral atoll by its nature is porous. when the us was getting ready to clean up i believe in the one nine hundred seventy s. they picked the pit that had been left by one of the smaller atomic explosions and dumped a lot of this plutonium and other radioactive waste into the pit and covered it over with an eighteen inch thick dome and left. the dome was never meant to be anything but a temporary solution to the problem of atomic waste at almost every stage of its construction safety was sector feist to save money. michael gerard is a us climate change specialist who's visited the dome the bo

our two labradors refuse to change their password and i say you just got hacked darlene. and she says i can remember my passwords and you start with the conversation, so why when these people sent you, you have caller id as another example. when you see the number you don't recognize, she doesn't pick up, the dogs, the labradors don't pick up the phones. but when she sees an email that looks familiar and attractive it's from fashion magazine that she will click on it, and guess what? she has just been fished. and doesn't mean that there, yes there are built-in vulnerabilities but most of these are managing the process. we would argue that the majority of all the hacks would be eliminated just through better procedures and processes. that's what the facts say. in addition to that, there are vulnerabilities to try and eight point, but come you have to as they learn about these vulnerabilities you have to update, if you get an alert from your service provider, telecom or your phone provider where it happens to be and they will say update your software, will update your softw

. >> reporter: darlene and bob are the elves behind it.ween a few neighbors' houses in 1991. turns out the spirit was contagious. >> i like decorating at christmas, whether all these people show up or not, doesn't matter. i'd still doit. >> reporter: from hub cap christmas trees tonflatable dreidels to festive flamingos, eyes of a ages gaz in wonder. >> it feels like christmas so we call i the miracle on 34th street. >> it makes you feel jolly a happy. >> seeing these lights turn on is total christmas cheer. >> reporter: a gift to the community but one for those who live here. >> just to see those smiles and know you made somebody happyor a few minutes is worth it. >> reporter: catie beck, nbc news. >> merry christmas! >>> lookt that image right there. a live l this morning in the nation's capital. lauryn ricketts is tracking the tempatures on this christmas eve. two days to get to get those gifts, david. >> we're getting on it, molette. this lunch monitor is still going well into her 90s. you'll hear why she is so dedicated when news 4 to

but, darlene, turning to you, something that surprised me was the agency that actually oversees them sent out sample letters to help these furloughed workers negotiate with their landlords and creditors in case they couldn't pay their rent. but is that all they can do? is that all they can do? >> it seems that that may be all they can do to sort of try to figure out ways to help these 800,000 or so workers who are being affected by this shutdown, figure out ways to deal with their landlords, deal with their creditors. mortgage payments are still going to be due on the 1st of january. the banks are not going to wait just because the government is shut down. so it seems that that's pretty much all that opm can do at this point, is to try to help the workers somehow manage this shutdown for which there doesn't seem to be an end in sight at the moment. >> let's not forget why we're here because the president suggested even if he lost the clash over border construction, it is a strong campaign issue. he called it the issue for 2020. true or false, is this the issue? >> i think you were ta