eighth architect of the capitol, george stewart, had the suggestion from the speaker of the house, john mccormick, established the annual tradition and by 1970g a tree the united states forest service joined in the holiday cheer by providing a capitol christmas tree from one of america's spectacular and inspiring national forests. year, ladies and gentlemen, the payette national forest in , theygraciously graciously provided this magnificent ingle min spruce behind me to serve as the 2016 capitol christmas tree. , theeping with tradition speaker of the house, the honorable paul ryan, will share his holiday greetings with you and officially light the tree. before we get there, let me welcome members of congress and are distinguished guests. our capitol hill neighbors and those of you who are visiting the nation's capital today. electedo happy that you to join us in celebrating this most wonderful time of year on the west front of the capital. evening arehis members of the idaho delegation. senator mike crop of, senator jim risch. labrador and congressman simpson. this gorgeous spruce is a gift fro

jon: john mccormick from the weekly standard, john, thank you. >> thank you. melissa: all right we are waiting remarks from secretary of state john kerry on the peace process. whether he bring remarks as soon as the secretary steps up to that podium that you're looking at right there. also we are keeping a close eye on stocks today. once again as dow continues to hover around 20,000, what is holding it back from the milestone? one part of the country, latest forecast straight ahead your insurance company won't replace the full value of your totaled new car. the guy says you picked the wrong insurance plan. no, i picked the wrong insurance company. with liberty mutual new car replacement™, you won't have to worry about replacing your car because you'll get the full value back including depreciation. and if you have more than one liberty mutual policy, you qualify for a multi-policy discount, saving you money on your car and home coverage. call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance. jon: winter storms watches in effect across

john mccormick. >> members of the congress, it is a privilege and i deem a high honor to present to you brave and courageous american. a hero in world war ii and in the korean conflict, who recently in the most notable manner, added glory and prestige to our country, the first united states astronaut to have achieved orbital flight, lieutenant colonel john h. glenn, united states marine corps. [applause] president, members of the congress, i am only too aware of the tremendous honor that's being shown us at this joint meeting of the congress today. this has been a great experiencs pride in our country and its accomplishments are not a thing of the past. [applause] know i still get a hard to define feeling down inside when the flag goes by, and i know all of you do, too. [applause] launch itself was conducted openly and with the news media representatives from around the world in attendance. this is certainly in sharp contrast with other programs in the world and elevates our program. today, i happened to be standing alone on this great platform, just as i seems to be alone in the carpet

let's go to john mccormick, a weekly writer. a lot of trump voters say they don't love trump, their vote for him was a rejection of the obama gained. doesn't that make defeat for obama as much as it was for hillary? >> i think that's true. when obama says he could have won, that's speculation, when the election comes down to less than one percentage point. if a stronger candidate than hillary clinton, could someone have squeezed past trump. that's certainly possible. what obama is doing right here is evading his own responsibility for hillary clinton's defeat and more broadly the defeat of the democratic party which up and down the ticket, all across the country. when obama took office they had a super majority in senate, house of representatives and they lost, they lost both of those, a large number of governors mansions and state legislators and who bares responsibility, the man at the top of the ticket who set the agenda. obamacare, isis, people are unhappy and a lot of voters didn't like hillary clinton. they didn't like don

hth architecteig of the capitol, george stewart, at the suggestion of speaker of the house john mccormick established the annual tradition of decorating a tree. by 1970, the united states forest service joined in the holiday cheer by providing it tally cap christmas tree from capitolmerica -- christmas tree from one of america's spectacular national forests. this evening, the payette national forest in idaho graciously -- [cheers and applause] they graciously provided this magnificent england spruce behind me to serve as the 2016 capitol christmas tree. in keeping with tradition, the speaker of the house, the honorable paul ryan, will share his holiday greetings with you and officially light this tree, but before we get there, let me welcome members of congress and are distinguished guest, our capitol hill neighbors, and those of you who are visiting the nation's capitol today. we are so happy you elected to join us in celebrating this wonderful time of year on the west front of the capitol. areing me this evening members of the idaho delegation, senator mike crapo, senator jim risch, con

time now nor political panel john mccormick senior writer. let's start with julian.worked inside the national security council at the white house. and theresa may, i mentioned this at the top. british prime minister put out this statement saying today we do not believe that it is appropriate to attack the composition of the democratically elected government of an ally. she was obviously referring to the fact that secretary of state john kerry and the obama administration has spent so much time in the last week attacking israel. what do you make of an ally like britain coming out and calling out the obama white house? >> what's so funny about that quote is you could also read it not knowing the context and think she was talking about russia and the united states. >> um-huh. >> they their alleged interference in our american election. that was interesting point there not knowing the context of that tweet myself. that was the first place my mind went. obviously reels between the united states and our adversaries around the world are strained with many of our allies, too

deputy at state and defense department, and names being mentioned, i'm told people like david mccormick, and john it's not clear where the pieces are going to fall yet, where the dominoes are going to fall and they are all names that will be talked about, and we will see more announcements if not this week, after the new year. >>> we both know she's the author of "ladies of liberty", and based on her acclaimed work on the women that shaped our nation. >> she's the best. >> i am thinking you and i have not seen cokie since before the election. >> no. i want to talk to her about this. >> joining us now, political commentator, cokie roberts. a lot has changed since we last saw her. take it, joe. >> i was going to say, cokie, you obviously, you know washington as well or better than anybody. i have been fascinated. i wanted to hear your take on not only what happened with the election but more importantly how washington is enduring the coming trump era, and if you ever have seen anything rese reseplabling. >> all yearlong we have seen never seen anything like this, never seen anything like this. i gu

people inside suggest that pushes john bolton even further away from the number two slot over at the state department. >> those number two jobs are, obviously, huge, but mccormickldn't have two names that would be more reassuring, not just to the republican establishment, but to democrats, as well. >> exactly right. these are not ideologues. certainly, even though you had in hadley somebody that worked for an ideologue, both of these would be seen as steady hands, not only as republicans, as you said, but many democrats and certainly by the foreign policy establishment. and also for allies across the globe. this, mark, this would be two great choices and would be a very strong way. i think most people in washington and people who know foreign policy, would be a very strong way for donald trump to end his selection process. >> he's down in florida, as we said, but this will be a working vacation. what do you know about his attitude about how things are going overall? >> i think he's very positive about it. the campaign workers and transition staff very positive about it. i did notice one thing over this weekend, that a lot of his top deputies and even donald tru

mccormick. we're now hearing about stephen hadley and not john bolton at state. >> or someone associated with theretary of state. >> richard haass. >> that would be richard haass. >> i tell you, it is, though, all of these people that were naming, though, not only the foreign policy establishment in washington, d.c. and also internationally, david, what would that do to the standing of this administration across the globe? >> well, it would make it a lot easier for donald trump to conduct the foreign policy that he wants if at this deputy level, he has solid people who are well known. i think the fact that he's listening to bob gates, i covered bob gates. bob gates understands how this government works in national security better than anybody i have ever met. he came out of cia, to nsc. he was so solid at defense that he was kept over. he was serving for george w. bush and then obama kept him on. so this is somebody who really knows how it works, and if he's the guy that donald trump is listening to on the key appointments, you would have to say that's a good thing. >> let's get to the top story.

mccormick is a of the world's biggest hedge fund, and he was formerly considered to be a candidate for treasury secretary. in ohio, mourners are saying goodbye to famed astronaut and former u.s. senator johnd as a hero after becoming the first american to orbit earth in 1962. he grew up in ohio and represented the state in the u.s. senate for 24 years. he became the oldest man in space at the age of 77 in 1998. he died last week at the age of 95. global news 24 hours a day powered by more than 2600 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i am taylor riggs. this is bloomberg. oliver? oliver: thank you, taylor. haven assets are getting a bit -- risk assets are getting joining us with his reaction and is 2017 outlook is the j.p. morgan asset management solution cohead jed laskowitz. let's talk about what is happening to there is a market reaction. it was a quiet day and a quiet week, but there is a move here. why do think investors are responding to this news today? jed: it is a great question, and whether this year has taught us is to expect the unexpected. you saw that with brexit, with the u.s. election. time and time again, events like this show they end up being short, abru