steele and "new york times" political reporter jeremy peters is with us from washington. jeremy, you get the leadoff slot tonight because of what you're hearing and reporting about one sarah palin. what is it? >> well, the sarah palin consideration is very, very serious, brian. you have to remember her ties to trump go well beyond her involvement in the campaign and her endorsement of him in his initial phases. she's very close to steve bannon who you referenced earlier. steve bannon was a political adviser of sarah's. he was a vessel for the populist brand of conservatism he would settle on in trump as a vehicle for the presidency. so steve here has been very, very crafty and careful about which conservatives he's chosen to latch himself on to and sarah

he was terrific. >> any foreign leader. >> uh, merkel. >> jeremy peters, i mean, i gave him the worldu let him pick someone from the audience, practically, to give him the answer. >> he got a phone call, too. >> then he put the dunce cap on himself by saying another aleppo, because he was referring to the fact that he didn't know what to do with aleppo in an earlier interview. and he's running for president of the united states, commander in chief of our forces, head of us in the world! and didn't ever think about the world long enough to think about, you know, i've been looking at some of these leaders, some of them are pretty impressive. he could have said merkel the first second. nobody would have questioned it. he could have talked about winston churchill. you know, i know you're talking about now, but winston churchill is my -- >> you know bill weld is sitting there thinking, how do i get off -- >> bill wasn't jumping in either. >> that interview might have won the race for donald trump. because trump was actually struggling with some johnson voters who were anti-washington. and

"the new york times" reporter jeremy peters. in washington, columnist and associated editor of "the washington post." >> we can do legendary for him too. >> all right. i know it's funny that open for "saturday night live." >> that was funny. >> very funny. >> can i do a little debriefing with david ignatius for a second off the top of the show. >> talk about the phone calls you had over the weekend. >> i don't really want to. david doesn't want to talk about that. a couple names have risen, beat reporter jeremy peters has been talking about them, but a couple names. one, david mccormick as general mattis' number two. what can you tell me about david mccormick? >> an intelligent person. he works for a big hedge fund called bridgewater. he's been top flight in running one of the largest and most successful. he has a defense background. i'm told that he's a favorite of bob gates and one of the things that i'm hearing over the last few days is that the most interesting figure behind the scenes in this inner circle recommending peopl

joining me jeremy peters. a serious subject despite satire from snl. but let's face it.t kate mckinnon and others on snl are portraying no real protest will make a difference. donald trump is elected. they will confirm the election. if they didn't the house of representatives would. >> that's right. this reminds me of earlier in the year when there was a movement of republicans trying to derail the donald trump nomination. they tried to figure out a way to contest the convention and that didn't work. that didn't stop the media from covering it as if it were going to be a true contested convention. of course it was not and the media love as little bit of tension, drama, and amping up the stakes when, indeed, we all know what the outcome will be and it won't be as exciting as some would lead us to believe. >> there may be pivoting now but donald trump initially angrily rejected this as an attempt to delegitimize him but the briefings he received before election day pointed to russia. it is accepted by intelligence, the fbi, this is john podesta on "meet the press" in his f

and on capitol hill, "the new york times" reporter jeremy peters. good to have you all. there are growing concerns this morning at trump tower that john bolton will face significant obstacles in his bid for a top spot at the state department. "the new york times" reports that several republican figures are privately voicing resistance including condoleezza rice, bob gates and former national security adviser steven hadley. as jeremy peters reports, rex tillerson has himself expressed misgivings about having bolton as his deputy. according to a person that spoke with mr. trump in recent days but mr. bolton remains under consideration for the job. he enjoys a powerful ally in sheldon adelson, someone will have to explain this to me. money only goes so far, right? or maybe not. favors the hard nose posture that mr. bolton would bring. >> talk about your reporting. what are you finding out? >> so ever since the report over the weekend that there would be a rex tillerson, john bolton duo running the state department, alarm bells have started going out inside trump tower and t

jeremy peters is with the "new york times." let's talk about this thing because it's really against the heart of what's going to get done next year or not. lawrence a braid med and said, well, brian isn't going to approve any spending bills. will paul ryan agree to some grand economic deal next year, or will nothing get done? >> no, he will. he has to. let's be honest. paul ryan at some point made a calculated risk that trump was not going to win. now trump wins and what ryan has said since then is he's spoken with people that we haven't been. the key from that footage that you showed was, you have to understand, a lot of trump supporters are not necessarily republican supporters. they're trump supporters. and ryan needs them, but at the same time president-elect needs ryan. it's an arranged marriage, but i think they're going to try to make it work. >> the reason people voted for trump voted for him, at least the better people, who had aspirations for this country, who were patriotic, was hoping to get the country rolling agai

let me turn to jeremy peters with "the new york times" and an msnbc contributor. , you have been listening to all of this too. one of the other lines that struck me is i believe in peace through strength, which i believe is a reagan line originally. talking about the way he views the world. what do you make of what you've heard? >> it's funny, kate. chris was talking about how this is donald trump's thank you tour. i think it could also be titled donald trump's self affirmation tour because what he's doing here is really for his own mental health, talking to his aides, what they said is very comforting for him after these, you know, long days, this highly stressful period planning this presidential transition is he needs to get out there and push reset. he needs to bask in the crowds adulation which is a way to fire him up during the campaign, a way to recharge, and i think you're going to see this not just throughout the transition but over the course of his presidency. this is going to be a hallmark of a trump presidency. >> the other day we heard donald trump sa

jay newton small and jeremy peters, a political reporter with "the new york times."ak with authority. who's got the best shot to be secretary of state at this hour? >> the best shot, it changes hour to hour. the trump camp is very much a camp divided at this point. there are the lines that have been drawn for the last couple of weeks, where -- >> you mean the factions? >> there are those who are pro-romney. those who think, give it to rudy, he's been a loyal supporter all along and adored by the grassroots. some want to see a military figure like a general, like general kelly in there, or the huntsman thing was curious to me today. because that to me showed that there is real division in the ranks. that didn't leak intentionally. that leaked accidentally. >> is that just to tick off huntsman -- tick off romney, because they hate each other. >> it's true. that would be the ultimate way to needle romney for not supporting him. i assume this circle is widening because trump is not sold on any of the four people we were told were finalists. the longer it goes on, the les

joining me now, msnbc's contributor, germany peters, nice to have you jeremy, how are you doing? >> i am good. thank you. >> a transition official told halie jackson, that trump's sons were not aware that they were being listed as directors for the newly formed entities. the original brochure offered hunting trips awith the trumps and down the wild tur kkeyturke. the newly revised brochure does not have this. what kind of blow back has this been? >> this cuts right to the core of donald trump's vowed to drain the swamp as he likes to say. this is anything but. he's as somebody who ran a campaign pledging not to be influenced boo i the special interest, this under cuts the theme of his candidacy. >> this is not something that we have not seen from other politicians including democrats, and not at least of which would include the clintons. lets not forget, he ran a campaign to be the anti-clinton. >> that's ironic of this whole thing. that's what he called out the clintons for of this play for play or access or given donations. >> that's exactly right. now, he's risked looking like

"the new york times" reporter jeremy peters.snbc political analyst and professor at the university of michigan school of public policy, former democratic congressman harold ford jr. >> harold and i are -- >> matchy, matchy. >> it's sort of a uva thing. >> campus look going. >> something like that. >> and in washington, columnist and associate editor of "the washington post" david ignatius. very elegant. a lot going on today. >> we're sorry to bring you in on a day where there's absolutely nothing to talk about in your realm. i'm looking right now. this front page article -- actually, this is a good look at what's going on this weekend. the "times" comes out with a story. "the washington post" responds as well. fascinating hearings on whether the russians were trying to influence this election. as the "times" says, we'll get to this in a second, right now a conflict between the cia's conclusions and also with the fbi's conclusions and so just pretty remarkable what's going on in our intel communities and then the president-elect

got past ben carson and he gets past a lot of things and that's one of the surprising things, jeremy petersp has savaged, including us. >> neurotic. >> that was true. how can you argue with the truth? >> as bill clinton said and i said on the show all the time, what a president needs more than anything is a short memory. he appears to have a short memory. >> yeah, it's a funny dynamic to his personality, because when you are feuding with him from afar on twitter or on television, it seems to be much more passionate and intense and nasty, but once you sit down with him and you talk to him, that's really proven to be an icebreaker with a lot of these people, a lot of the candidates and former enemies he has had in the media and it's the personal connection that goes a long way with him and can rebuild some of the burned bridges. i think that's part of what you are seeing in the process is trump actively seeking these people out so he can sit down and get a real feel as to whether or not they can effectively serve in his cabinet. >> and joining us now from fayetteville, north carolina, hallie

nbc chief foreign correspondent richard engel in moscow and jeremy peters. first to you, peter. let's talk about the extraordinary situation where the president will be pressed to talk about a highly secret operation if he does have steps. he's pressed also on why politically he didn't take more public action before the election. sort of damned if he does, damned if he doesn't. >> you're right. he'll be pressed on whether he thinks what happened in november was a free and fair election. trump aides say this is all about delegitimizing the election. that's another topic i anticipate he'll be asked about in the course of this. so what are the range of options he faces now? does he need to be very public about it, do something where he shows the evidence? a lot of our reporting at nbc news is based on u.s. intelligence officials. he says there are a lot of assessments taking place. how strong does he feel about the evidence, about vladimir putin's direct role in this and what does the response look like with the risk that many people fear this becomes some form of a tit for tat sit

"the new york times" reporter jeremy peters.ersity of michigan school of public policy, former democratic congressman harold ford jr. >> harold and i are -- >> matchy, matchy. >> it's sort of a

and jeremy peters is with "the new york times." let's talk about this.really gets to the heart of what will get done. he said, well, he won't approve a spending bill. will paul ryan grew he some grand economic deal? or will nothing get done? >> he has to. let's be honest. paul ryan at some point made calculated risk that trump won't win. what ryan has said since then, he has spoken to people that we haven't been. the key from that footage that you showed, you have to understand. a lot of trump supporters are not necessarily republican supporters. they're trump supporters. and ryan needs them. at the same time, president-elect needs ryan. it is an arranged marriage that you i think it will work. they're hoping to get the country rolling again. big economic opportunities for everybody. if they don't pass a bill, road building, bridge building, spending money, hiring people, it is all bs if he doesn't do that. will everything along with it? >> ryan is governance. that's what he is in place to do. building bridges. the nation needs infrastructure. we have cr

join iing me now is a politico reporter and jeremy peters, msnbc contributor and reporter for the "new york times." let's get right to it. i want to play for you what reince priebus said about your paper's story that the rnc had been hacked. >> it was not hacked. >> why were they involved? >> it's really simple. when the dnc was hacked, we called the fbi and they came in to help us. and they came in to review what we were doing and through our systems went through every single thing we did. we went through this for a month and we were not hacked. so if we were not hacked and that is absolutely not true, where does that story lie? >> what's your reaction to that? >> it's interesting because if the rnc was not hacked and the russians are behind this, it would suggest that by only hacking the dnc the russians were trying to sway the election against hillary clinton and for donald trump. so i was a little confused to what the point the chairman was trying to make there. but certainly to say that the insist that the rnc was not hacked points to or suggests that what the russians motives rea

. >> joining me now for the daily fix, jeremy peters and "wall street journal" white house correspondent pick up where josh earnest left off. nbc news confirming from sources familiar with the conversations that president-elect donald trump had these conversations or had conversations with his own top advisers dating back for months prior to the election about having this conversation with the taiwanese leader. the source says the conversations became more intense of course after he was elected. they say there was an awareness that it would send a strong signal to china in the wake of trump railing against currency manipulation. we know the white house is doing a delicate dance on this. i'm curious for your take. carol, we'll start with you. for the trump administration, what message they are trying to send here with what appears to be a more thought out move than just accepting a simple phone call. >> well, think broadly the message they are trying to send is things are no longer going to be status quo. to accept a phone call like that, to plan on having that sort of engagement with tai