[laughter] i got a chance to see john avalon on the stephen colbert show on monday night of this week. he was a star there too. but he said something that resonates very is strongly with me. what john said that night is he perceived his duty, his responsibility as a journalism -- expert even call himself an expert but he is, as a journalist to call a lie a lie and a fact a fact. i wish that there were more people like him with that same attitude. i think we'll all see a long time ahead john avalon or on public stage of this world. and i think we'll all be glad what we met him on this stage tonight. and let me tell you about the other star i bet all of you think you know mark grove those of you who have been coming here for many years have is seen him on this stage with a possible exception of middleton mark has been on this stage more than think other human being, period. he was here as the director of the obj library from 2009 until they left last february. but he was very prominent before he came to this library. he was had a historian on the presidency that was well known throughou

we have cnn political analysts david gregory and john avalon.'s put it up for people here. repealing obamacare, infrastructure program, reforming welfare entitlement programs. david, do you think we have those in a right order, or they may come in a different order? >> i think they may come in a different order. and i would add the unexpected. whether it's the mueller investigation, another supreme court vacancy, the investigation around the mueller investigation or supreme court vacancy or some other shock, something in national security and foreign affairs. could make any kind of agenda just stand still or never get started. i still think that the potential promise of a trump presidency is to take on something that he may know something about which is infrastructure. a way to work with democrats. maybe the well has been too poisoned at this point. you know, welfare reform is certainly an area that i think certainly the speaker of the house, paul ryan, would like to take on. he's taken it on before. in an election year when it hurt him, the las

i spoke to journalist and "daily beast" editor-in-chief john avalon who's been following the year's twistsrns. so here we have a year-end legislative victory, a very, very rare one, but nonetheless, a big one for donald trump. this tax reform, first time since ronald reagan in the '80s. how significant is it not just for him, but for his base, his voters? >> from a political standpoint, it's a big win for the president, and he needed it. there had been no major pieces of legislation. republicans were staring the prospects of not having a big legislative win with unified control of government. they got it done in a record amount of time when they focused on politics. that said, the devil's always in the details. this is not a great bill if you line it up with what the president proposed and promised to do. he billed it as a middle-class tax cut. this is not a middle-class tax cut. it's focused overwhelmingly on the wealthy and lowering corporate taxes. he billed it as a tax simplification, something conservatives have held out for a long time with good reason. needs to be done. this doesn't

senior political analyst john avalon, editor in chief at "the daily beast" and senior political commentatorng news getting blowback for choosing him as a final. >> everyone should have guessed. mistakes were clearly made. you read the article, they're saying, look, this is sort of like "time"'s person of the year. it's impactful but it wasn't the best decision. >> i actually fundamentally disagree. they were very clear. and by the way, this just happened in utah. orren hatch sawas said in utah be the most influential utahan of the year. they sort of condemned some of his behavior and they were not plattering at all. the point is the measure of the prize or reward or recognition is the influence that person has had on society for that year. where i dislike the choice is that i actually think this gives richard spencer way too much -- i even hate saying his name on television -- but it gives him way too much credit. what has happened in the last year is there has been this emergence and maybe a little bit of a consolidation of white nationalist neo-nazi sort of fringe groups who have gotten a

we have john avalon and reporter and editor at large for cnn, chris cillizza. >> did you see the headon going on when i was asking that question. >> i have a great way to get out of questions i don't want to answer. thank you for having me on the show. >> i'm going through a tunnel. >> okay, back to the story of the day. what is the big picture here of roy moore's loss and doug jones' win. >> this is a roll tied through virginia to alabama last night, and a lot of washington analyst thought even though roy moore was an extreme candidate and even though the allegations that the gravity would take hold with red state conservatism, i think we saw two things. there's such a thing as too extreme in american politics, still. as chris documented, it's about the overall profile. he always had problems winning over suburban districts. if you look at the demographic break, it's between suburban and rural, and suburban swung hard against roy moore last night. >> i think that's right. just one other thing, base, excitement, and then this matters to 2018. the democratic base, if you told me the af

i'm sure there's quite a few, so let's bring back joanne lipman, john avalon, and sally buzzby.ou telling your journalists at the end of this year? >> it's a great question. washington reporting and what is happening in the trump administration is really the most important thing that's happening in the world at this moment. what we try to constantly talk to our journalists about is make sure you are not just focusing on that. there are things that are happening in the world, the rise of china's influence, what russia is doing, what people outside of washington in america actually think about what is going on in their country. and don't become obsessed with that just that one story. go out and say what's the impact of the policy decisions that are being made? cover the world and make sure that people aren't losing sight of all these things. the accountability journalism in washington is -- has been and is likely to continue being the most important thing that we do in the coming year. it is what is of interest to the globe. but make sure you're talking to real people too. make su

john avalon and mark updegrove. john is a true, rising star in this country in the media and journalism world. john got his start as a speechwriter for rudy giuliani, both when he was mayor of new york and later as presidential candidate. john avlon today is editor in chief and managing director of the "daily beast", but he is way more than that. he is a very active writer in this country. every major magazine has seen one of his pieces. moreover, he's on television all the time. you can look at cnn, look at msnbc, , you can look at pbs, yu can look at c-span and you will see john avlon. i will also tell you he is a prolific writer of books. he's written multiple books. the one that's most prominent, the most spotlighted is about washington's farewell address. and he reminds us that that is truly topical today. because in his farewell address, washington warned this country against excessive partisanship, greedy self-interest, and foreign powers that might affect our elections. [laughing] think about that. if that's