he's senior media correspondent for cnn, and jeff mason. he's a white house correspondent for reuters, and president of the white house correspondents' association. welcome to both of you. jeff mason, to you first, based on what you've seen of donald trump so far, both the campaign and the transition, what do you expect from him when it comes to press relations? >> well, judy, we're sort of going to wait and see right now. we're pleased to see and we congratulate the new members of donald trump's press team going into the white house and we look forward to working with them. certainly there have been some challenges between the media and the trump team during his campaign, but we've made a lot of progress during transition in working on that relationship and setting up a protective pool, for example. so i am cautiously optimistic that we will continue to make that progress once they're in the white house. >> woodruff: brian stelter, we know there has been attention on some difficulties between the trump team and the news media. do you think

. >> jeff mason? >> thank you. lisa, one of the other long list of things that you cover in your job has been guantanamo bay. the president has acknowledged the difficulties in getting it closed before he leaves office, seems to be leaving the door open for further action. the vice president expressed optimism just a couple months ago that it would be closed. what is your take on the possibility that it will be closed by january 20th? how would that happen? and as a separate note, what are your thoughts on general kelly? >> so on gun ta know, the president spoke of this earlier this week. the nda going with the current restrictions that apply, nevertheless, the work that has been done to go from 242 detainees at the time the president took office to today 59 detainees remain in guantanamo, but the transfer efforts are on going and the work that has been done by the state department, defense department, across the board to engage and do tremendous diplomacy and security arrangements with other governments to allow f

jeff mason, jay gibson, mark so many ton of time and phil rutger of the post and we'll do our best to disabuse you have the idea it's a boys club. i notice all the questioners are men, not a good thing. let me ask you about the transition. the political reported that while president-elect trump's landing team has been in place for a while, not all of them got the necessary security clearances, have you met your successor, how is the effort going to transfer the body of knowledge from you to whoever is going to be responsible for this 0 on january 20? >> i have not met my sucticesso. i am eager to sit down with that person. this role, i think as many of, you know, is one that was created in a post 9/11 environment and was specifically called down by the bush administration and in this administration to have one person who is focused on homeland security counterterrorism with direct and immediate access to the president. when i go upstairs about 50 paces from my cave office in the west wing up to the oval office, the president knows it's because something bad has happened, quite frankly

let's go behind the scene, jeff mason, he's in denver with us this morning, thank you for being here. >> my pleasure. >> josh earnest says he's concerned but what changes of the trump administration is thinking about. are you concerned of the future of the daily briefings? >> we'll wait and see what the trump team does when they get to the white house. we got assurances that they'll respect the traditions o f the white house press core but then you also have things like the interview that mr. reince priebus gave last week. my concern is the press core has an opportunity to provide robust coverage of the new president. >> have you asked for medians with any of trump's communication aids to talk about this? >> yes. >> what has happened? >> we have been in telephone conversation and we have been in e-mail contact and we have not had as much contact as we would like. we are in talks with them and expect to have even more. >> how should i interpret that basically what you are saying is no, they have not been willing to meet many person? >> i think you should interpret that as we would like

joining us, cnn political analyst jackie kucinich and david gregory, also with us, jeff mason, with reutersnd also the president of the white house correspondents association. guys, thanks very much. so yesterday we saw meeting with the tech leaders. three of donald trump's adult children were all there. listen to how some of his advisers are explaining that. because some are saying there's a potential conflict. >> so ivanka and jared will make their own announcement in due course. i think we would benefit tremendously by having them inside the administration. ivanka's incredibly committed to women in the workplace, women in the economy, women entrepreneurs. >> number one, the president by law can't have a conflict of interest. number two is the reason you know about the children being involved are two things, one, they're on the website and they were publicly named as being part of the transition. and two, we brought the press in to show who was at the meeting. so it's not like there's anything nefarious going on or sneaky. we'll been very clear about the role of his family. >> so what do

outside the pizzeria in washington and also joined by jeff mason, white house correspondent.? i take it a 28-year-old, edgar madison welch? >> reporter: that's right. that's his name, wolf. he's from salisbury, north carolina, and he is locked up right now, but he is expected to appear in d.c. superior court in a little while charged with assault with a dangerous weapon. now, authorities say he was here over the weekend, walked in with a rifle. apparently that rifle was fired, authorities say, when they took him into custody, they found two additional weapons, and amp they charged him, they sat down and asked him questions, and what he told them was a little surprising. of course, he said that he came here to self-investigate, if you will, the allegations against pizzagate. a pizzagate, of course, is that online internet false rumor that has been going around for quite some time suggesting that hillary clinton and john podesta, her campaign manager, were, in fact, involved in a child sex ring here. all of it totally false, but it started in late october and kept building thro

jeff mason of reuters, mark thompson and phil rucker of the post and i want to disabuse you of the idea that it is a boys club, all the question is are men, not a good thing was let me ask you about the transition. the political report that the landing team has been in place for a while. not all of them the necessary security clearance but have you met your successor, how is the effort going to transfer the body of knowledge from you and whoever is going to be responsible for this on january 20th food. >> i have not met my successor was my successor to my knowledge is not been named, i am eager to sit down with that person. this role as many of you know is one that was created in a post 9/11 environment and was specifically called by the bush administration and this administration to have one person focused on homeland security, counterterrorism with direct immediate access to the president. when i go upstairs 50 paces from my office in the west wing up to the oval office the president knows it is something bad has happened, domestically usually or 2 us persons abroad, that is my focus

of the past and previous to that and before that also reporter and editor at the pioneer press, jeff mason on the far end to is a correspondent for writers and currently president of the white house correspondent association and the interactions with the incoming administration. kevin goldberg an attorney, but most importantly, he is the president of the chairman of the board of the national press foundation. welcome to all three of you. so i thought we would get started with jeff, if you could maybe just give a sense of where things stand between the correspondent association and the administration? >> the correspondent association started having communications both at the trump and clinton campaign as early as last spring where we just wanted to get the relationship started to explain what our expectations were in terms of press pool, neither hillary clinton nor donald trump had a full protective pool as a candidate in a protective pool for those who are not completely familiar is a group of 13 journalists including wires, print, tv, photography, still photographers and radio who follow

at the pioneer press, jeff mason on the far end is a white house correspondent for reuters and currently correspondent for interactions with the incoming administration. kevin goldberg, an attorney, but most importantly, he is the president of the chairman of the board of the national press foundation. welcome to all three of you. i thought we would get started with jeff, if you could maybe just give a sense of where things stand between the correspondents association and the incoming administration? jeff: the correspondents association started having communications with the trumpet clinton campaign as early as last spring. we just wanted to get the relationship started to explain what our expectations were in terms of press pool. neither hillary clinton nor donald trump had a full protective pool as a candidate . a protective pool for those who are not completely familiar is a group of 13 journalists including wires, print, tv, photography, still photographers and radio who follow the president or a candidate of the president-elect, were wherever he or she goes. that means being on a mo

let's talk about this with jeff mason, the white house correspondent for reuter's. nt to get to this talk about rex tillerson, ceo of exxonmobil, has close business relationship with vladimir putin of russia. does the putin connection raise any red flags there on dc? have you heard anything? if so, in what regards would this be concerning? >> definitely it's raising eyebrows in dc for sure. my indocks is filled with statements from people, environmentalists in particular who are concerned about his background at exxon. on the putin subject in particular this comes just a day after the white house said president obama ordered an investigation or report into rest's hacking of the 2016 election. so really 24 hours or so after that to have these news reports that tillerson, who is somebody who has a close relationship with putin, would be the nation's top diplomat, that has definitely raised some eyebrows, both among democrats and among republicans. >> none of this has been confirmed yet. just talk. but let's try this on for a second if you would with me, jeff. >> sure.

house correspondent for reuters and current president of the white house correspondents association jeff masoneran columnist and msnbc contributor, mike barnicle. >> legendary. jeff, talk to me about your concerns about the report you heard yesterday. >> one clip that didn't get played is assignments in the briefing room and suggested that assigned seating only happened in the obama administration. it's important for us to make sure that he has all of the information about that, and that's just not true. there have been assigned seats in the briefing room since the reagan administration. in fact, since those seats were installed in that briefing room in 1981 and the white house correspondents association took over or assumed responsibility for assigning those seats in the last couple decades on the request of both republican and democratic administrations who were sensitive to the idea of assigning seats and giving favoritism in doing that. so there are reasons for some of these traditions. we want to be sure that the incoming administration has all of that information particularly when mr. pr

jeff mason on the far end is white house correspondent for roiters and current president of the white house association who is going to talk about the role of the correspondents association and its interactions with the incoming administration. and kevin goldberg, an attorney at fletcher, most importantly, he is the president of the chairman of the board, i'm sorry, chairman of the board and national press foundation, welcome to all three of you. i thought we get started with jeff, i mean, jeff if you could giver a sense of where things stand between the correspondents association and incoming administration. >> so the correspondents association started having communications, both with the trump and the clinton campaign as early as last spring where we just wanted to get the relationship started and explain what our expectations were in terms of press pool, neither hillary clinton nor donald trump had a full protective pool as a candidate, protective pool, for those of you who aren't completely familiar with that, is a group of journalists, 13 journalists including wires, print, tv, p

jeff mason on the far end correspondent for reuters and currently president of the white house correspondent who was here to talk about the correspondent association and his interactions with the incoming administration. and kevin goldberg an attorney at -- but most importantly, he is the president of the chairman of the board, i'm sorry, chairman of the board of the national press foundation. welcome to all three of you. so i thought we'd get started with jeff. i mean jeff, give a sense of where things stand between the association and the administration. incoming administration. >> so the correspondents association started having communications, both with the trump and the clinton campaign as early as last spring. where we just wanted to get the relationship started and explain what our expectations were in terms of the press pool. neither hillary clinton nor donald trump had a full protective pool as a candidate. and a protective pool for those of you who aren't completely familiar with that is a group of journalists, 13 journalists, including wires, print, tv, photography, still photogra

cook: jeff mason from reuters. jeff: lisa, one of the other long list of things that you cover in your job has been one-time obey. -- guantanamo bay. the president has knowledge difficulties in getting close before he leaves office. the vice president addressed optimism a couple months ago that it would be closed. what is your take on the possibility that it will be closed by january 20? how will that happen? and as a separate note, what are your thoughts of general kelly? guantanamo,so on the office spoke to this earlier this week. the same restrictions are going through the currently apply. nevertheless, the work that has been done to go from 242 detainees at the time the president took office to today, 69 detainees, remain in guantanamo. and therts are ongoing, work that has been done by the state department, defense department, across the board to engage and to tremendous diplomacy and make arrangements with other governments to allow for transfers, we will continue to pursue those transfers as much as we can be

jeff mason of reuters, mark thompson and phil rucker of the post and i want to disabuse you of the idea that it is a boys club. i noticed that all the questioners are men. not a good thing. let me ask you about the transition. ,olitico reported that president-elect trump's landing has been in place for a while. not all of them the necessary security clearance but have you met your successor, how is the effort going to transfer the body of knowledge from you and whoever is going to be responsible for this on january 20. lisa: i have not met my successor. my successor has not been named yet. i am eager to sit down with that person. this role as many of you know is one that wrepost 9/11 environment and was specifically called by the bush administration and this administration to have one person focused on homeland security, counterterrorism with direct immediate access to the president. when i go upstairs 50 paces from my cave office in the west wing up to the oval office the president knows it is something ,ad has happened quite frankly domestically usually or 2 us u.s. persons abroad. th

jeff chirico has more. >> hey, buddy. what is on my list. >> reporter: easy to understand why mason cannot hold back his kisses, excited shelter found himself a family. he is one of the hundreds of cats and dogs adopted at this weekend's mega adoption event at 23rd street armory. >> we try to adopt a thousand animals, each event will have a different goal, but essentially it is our way of trying to cultivate a no kill community. through adoption. >> reporter: before doors opened long lines, at potential adopters wrapped around the building. volunteers unloaded pets from trucks and placed them in creates where they waited until the right family came looking. >> a dog need a home and we are trying to find him and give him a nice home for the holidays. >> i was going to buy one but my mom said i have to wait, i have to adopt one. >> reporter: haley of aston found herself a first best friend named hanna. >> we have a lot more space. we have to fill witt something fun. >> we came from florida this morning. >> jacksonville. >> which is where i'm from. >> reporter: organizers from the brandywine valley spca and other shelters reduced

mason on a run, penn loses 79-60. dropped four of five. flyers, sixers and st. joes tomorrow. >> i'm looking forward to the temple nova match up. thanks, jeff. >> the ice festival in philadelphia held its second annual ice festival. those strolling the street saw more than 35 ice sculptures in front of local shops ands restaurants there. police were staked out at the supermarket with a mission for the community. they asked people to fill the police cruisers with food and goods. all donations go to the food bank on whitmore road. "action news" at 11:30 continues next. open for business, the tennessee town devastated by wildfires is putting out the welcome sign showing it won't be defeated. plus a bus a humor. that and more after the break. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> "action news" continues. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> saturday night. walter is off. here's what's happening at 11:30. bitter cold and snow slams much of the nation. accumulations could reach up to two feet in some places. the town of galveston tennessee reopens after wildfires left the community devastated. what one famous pop star is doing to help the victims. >>> one man is sharing his passion for christma

mason political science professor says the president-elect is sticking with a tam -- campaign theme. >> trump is being unwilling to go with the media consensus of who a good cabinet pick would be. jeff: a star-studded day at trump tower. trump meeting with can kanye west and bill gates. >> conversation about the power of innovation. jeff: some leading republican senators express concern about including john mccain, lindsey graham and marco rubio. the confirmation hearings are shaping up to be big political battles on capitol hill next month. jeff goldberg, abc7 news. maureen: president-elect trump has two positions to fill in the cabinet. several high profile people have been interviewed for secretary of agriculture and secretary of veterans affairs. all of mr. trump's nominations must be confirmed by the u.s. senate. jonathan: in a series of tweets president-elect says the business won't do new deals in office. he said he will hand over control of the company to his oldest sons. the president-elect a wednesday news conference about the future of his business until month. maureen: more breaking news. the maryland governor's office confirms that prince george's county liquor board ch

mason got hurt. he left the game after a player nicked up his hands. the backup gave up on goal, but the flyers got shut out 2-0. here's jeffkeverski with the rest of the sports. >> reporter: sixers looking to rebound in denver last night after yet another 4th quarter meltdown in utah on thursday, good news, joel embiid, the best player back, the bad news without oak -- okafor. be careful. he is okay. he stays in and looks good. third quarter, the pump, the slamp, 23 for the -- the slam for the big guy. robert covington loses it and gets it back, what a shot, sixers up 4 entering the 4th. they don't below and hang on, sixers shoot 50% from beyond they hang ton win, 124-122 ending their four game losing streak. >>> eagles fans you hate the dallas cowboys, enough, so you will not want to hear this. eagles have lost 8 of the last 11 games of the cowboys at the linc. it's another reason the eagles must beat the boys tomorrow. eagles looking to win at home against dallas in five years. as this year comes to an end, doug peterson is proud of his team the way they responded through difficult times. he believes it's a building bloc