thank you to robert costa. that does it for this edition. ending as i started.ing over my words. "hardball with chris matthews" starts right now. >>> the coming of trump. let's play "hardball." >>> good evening, i'm chris >>> good evening, i'm chris matthews. back in washington. well, we're at the start of a very busy month politically, of course. a transformative one for the country. in just 18 days donald trump will be sworn in like it or not, actually, as the 45th president of the united states. get that into your head. today, president obama returned from vacation in hawaii with the obvious goal of trying to protect his legacy which is now an endangered political species. the white house announced the president will deliver his last major address next week from chicago. president-elect trump returned to new york today from his vacation and he continued

joining us to talk more about that is robert costa, national political reporter with "washington post." robert, who is up first next week? lot of e'll see a different trump appointees come own and it is going to be conteco conioco fight.ious looking ahead to the 2018 election, price may have a fine biography, maybe a fine person for the job, in terms of his need to make a stand on president obama's legacy. paying close attention to rex tillerson. again, he is a former boy scout, eagle scout, he's seen as someone with sterling character the ople on both sides of aisle, but his friendly weapon exxonmobil and vladamir putin of russia, what can we draw out in the hearings to put trump under the gun speak whenning it comes to russia and the hacking issue. host: and tom price up for and human services secretary. rex tillerson, secretary of state. insisting they get more information about mr. tillerson. guest: democrats believe they can delve deeply into tillerson's experience with putin. they want to paint him, my allie tell me, someone of putin and raise a red flag on human rights issues a

all right, david, robert costa? guest: as a reporter, you don't making you try to avoid sweeping generalization on any political party, back it up by is what reporting, that we're trying to do at the post n. terms of social security, you didn't see trump run on social security, rero forming medicare, this was not paul ryan style republican. more as to -- he ran democrat in a sense on issues, which is not touching them. speaker, the house made career of reforming institutions and departments. is fwing to be really fascinating to watch how much ryan get from trump? on issues t anything close to his heart? host: robert costa, before we go, you have to get go withing your reporting, what are atching for today and in the coming day? guest: there is so much to watch with how people talk about trump in the speaker lobby, on the floor, senate floor. no one knows the president-elect. hey know him, they know the celebrity, but he doesn't have a history in washington. many members tell me they have going to trump's hotel on pe

thank you to robert costa. that does it for this edition. ending as i started. over my words. "hardball with chris matthews" starts right now. >>> the coming of trump. let's play "hardball." >>> good evening, i'm chris matthews. back in washington. well, we're at the start of a very busy month politically, of course. a transformative one for the country. in just 18 days donald trump will be sworn in like it or not, actually, as the 45th president of the united states. get that into your head. today, president obama returned from vacation in hawaii with the obvious goal

. >> joining us here from canon house rotunda to talk more about that is robert costa, national political reporter with "the washington post." robert, who is up first next week? >> we're going to see a lot of different trump appointees come down and it is going to be a contentious fight. democrats want to make a real showdown on someone like congressman tom price of georgia, as they look ahead to the 2018 elections, they say, hey, price may have a fine biography, maybe a fine person for the job in terms of his resume, but we really need to make a stand on president obama's legacy. and also paying close attention to exxonmobil executive rex tillerson. again, with his biography, he's a voice -- former boy scout, eagle scout, he's seen as someone with sterling character, but people on both sides of the aisle, but his friendly relationship during his business time at exxonmobil with president vladimir putin of russia will make him a target and they'll say what can we draw out from tillerson to put trump under the gun when it comes to trump and the hacking issue. >> tom price up for health and

robert costa, you're a straight reporter, you cover this every day. does this sound like what trump was promising to the people when he got their votes? >> reporter: chris, it's right out of it steve bannon/jeff sessions playbook, done through executive orders, not working through the congress. >> is there enough money in the bin to pay for a wall of 2,000 miles? >> reporter: within the white house there is confidence this is at least enough in terms of federal funds available to start construction of the wall. trump's directive to all of his advisers is, don't wait, work with congress on this, we're going to negotiate with nieto, the president of mexico. he does not want any kind of delay because he thinks this is the chief political promise he made during this campaign. >> did it seem to matter to people in scranton, pennsylvania, other parts of the country, that he's not going to get the mexicans to pay for it in the near term, that somewhere down the line he'll find some financial means of saying the mexicans paid for it, he's not going to bill th

robert costas, i want to know more about that interview.ou did get one, that's a tough one. >>> whethn we come back, i'm gog to ask the chairman what trump going to do to try to unify the country. that's "hardball" where the action is. (scream) i don't do blood. but now, thanks to cigna, i can do more than just look the part. is that a foot? we are the tv doctors of america. and we're partnering with cigna to help save lives. by getting you to a real doctor for an annual check-up. so go, know, and take control of your health. doctor poses. cigntogether, all the way. >>> here is what's happening turkish authority say a man who opened fire killing 39 people has been captured. >>> the wife of omar mateen wife's was arrested. >>> as stro naught gene cernan passed away. back to "hardball." >>> i'm here because donald trump is one of my closest friends for 40 years. i have nothing negative to say about hillary, i have amazing things to tell you about donald. because this man is good enough he is tough enough, he smart enough and he well versed en

are people drawing a link back to general flynn and what robert costa described as some personal animus against some of the actors? >> i think they are. you heard michael hayden say it in the interview, larger concerns whether he's the right man for the job. he's got tactical experience in a more strategic job. but i think it's a mistake to focus too much here on the mechanics of the intel community and what trump is saying about how the intelligence is presented and what flynn's role is here. zoom back and just ask why is this happening? why is trump constantly going out of his way to apologize for vladamir putin? to bat down accusations of malfeasance against vladamir putin? going back a long time, i mean, going back to -- if you recall when the passenger jet was shot down over ukraine and there was a wide consensus that russia was to blame, trump said that's not proven. the larger question is, why does trump not want to see -- >> what's the answer? what are some of the theorys? in theories, you can't talk there is a pattern of donald trump doing business with very wealthy russians. i

robert costas, msnbc contributor, and jeremy bash, msnbc's national security analysis and former chief of staff to leon panetta. let me be positive, trump went over there because despite all the bs and phony feuding. with the intelligence people, he knows right now he needs them. >> and the people on capitol hill know that as well. this is the an ally trying to keep those relationships alive. understanding they can't have a war with the intelligence community even though they just had one a few weeks ago. he's president now. >> why does he keep holding up the press like stooges? like they also have to have a bourgeois business guy they have to hold up? he clearly loves it. >> every hero needs an anti-hero. when he was standing there with the cia, he was looking across the lobby with the agency motto, from john chapter 8. and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. >> what about that line? some of the people on the left that i talked to today, not only left, but critics of trump saying wait a minute, didn't he run against the iraq war and is he running a new one? was

robert costa, national political reporter for "the washington post." and michael crowley, senior foreign affairs correspondent for politico. thank you all for being with me. i want to start with you, jeremy. i pulled you into late-night duty a second night in a row because you kept me up last night worrying and general hayden did it again tonight. i want to ask you about what he said. that he posited one of the motives of donald trump trash talking was to intimidate the intelligence community. do you agree with that? >> who knows? but i don't think it's going to work. they're used to talking to presidents and people at all levels of the government. this is what they train for. so i don't think it's going to be successful. i actually think tomorrow is a huge opportunity for the trump team to put a lot of this to rest and put it behind them. i think frankly all they've got to do tomorrow is come out sort of with a short statement that says, russia tried to hack our election. we don't think it had any impact on why donald trump had this big victory in the

robert costa, maria teresa kumar and john feehery. >>> mr. trump calls for a major investigation into voter fraud even thee thereough there's no of voter fraud. by digging into something that's not real, giving permission for republicans across the country to crack down even further on voting rights in that's a really big deal. >>> plus, kellyanne conway is going to come here tonight. i'm going to ask her about trump's big moves today on illegal immigration. >>> the "hardball" roundtable on the big stories of the day tonight. trump's border wall with mexico. trump's taking the steps to make good on a big pillar of his campaign. like it or not. >>> finally let me finish with the death of a beloved actor, mary tyler moore. every saturday night, she was great. this is "hardball" where the action is. mone hundredts thousand times a day, sending oxygen to my muscles. again! so i can lift even the most demanding weight. take care of all your most important parts with centrum. now verified non gmo and gluten free. >>> california governor jerry brown

let me go to robert costa. trump i spoenoticed is very goo finding the weakness of the opponent whether he's short or sweats or drinks water during speeches or something he finds about a person and hones in on it. today he hit buzzfeed, tied cnn to buzzfeed. he knew he found somebody that had information out there that shouldn't be going out there and blamed the press for it. your thoughts? >> chris, it wasn't just about his opponents, this news conference, it was about his allies. i watched it from here at the capitol. a lot of republicans this morning were on edge about the story coming out of russia and this intelligence dossier. they wanted to hear -- >> it's not an intelligence dossier. it did not come out of intelligen community. it was listed, marked clearly, to the pple who leaked it as disinformation. just that. >> correct. i agree. my misstatement. they were also on edge, chris, about the financial questions swirling around the president-elect. could he separate himself from his business? they wanted

. >> joining us here from canon house rotunda to talk more about that is robert costa, national political reporter with "the washington post." robert, who is up first next week? >> we're going to see a lot of different trump appointees come down and it is going to be a contentious fight. democrats want to make a real showdown on someone like congressman tom price

trump's going to have to make a sale, as well as making these executive actions. >> robert costa of "the washington post," excellent insight and perspective as always. thank you very. coming up, we're following up on what bob's talking about. putting his executive power to action. when that happens live in the oval office, we're going to take you live. and breaking news now that marco rubio, who you see on your screen, will support that nomination. we're going to look at how this all plays out next. i don't want to live with the uncertainties of hep c. or wonder whether i should seek treatment. i am ready. because today there's harvoni. a revolutionary treatment for the most common type of chronic hepatitis c. harvoni is proven to cure up to 99% of patients... ...who've had no prior treatment. it transformed treatment as the first cure that's... ...one pill, once a day for 12 weeks. certain patients... ...can be cured with just 8 weeks of harvoni. harvoni is a simple treatment regimen that's been prescribed to more than a quarter of a million patients. tell your doctor if you've had a

joining us now, robert costa, washington post national political reporter and msnbc political analyst, and robert, i understand you talked with the president elect and got a preview of sorts of what he's going to say to the country on friday. what are you hearing? >> over the weekend the president-elect wants toeep it relatively short. about 20 minutes long. he knows it's going to be relatively chilly in washington. he's looking to people like reagan and kennedy, not so much for the content of their speech, but for how they had a big picture theme kept it pretty brief, and had a memorable impression. also some of his aids tell me he's thinking about andrew jackson, the populist from centuries ago as he think abouts his own address. >> so much attention this week oofbl to the fight, the back and forth between trump and john lewis. you've got four dozen democrats you say they are not going. you've got a bunch of them saying trump's not even a legitimate president. we have these polls showing the approval rating already sitting down there in the 40s before the swearing in. is that on his

all right, david, robert costa? guest: as a reporter, you don't making you try to avoid sweeping generalization on any political party, back it up by is what reporting, that we're trying to do at the post n. terms of social security, you didn't see trump run on social security, rero forming medicare, this was not paul ryan style republican. more as to -- he ran democrat in a sense on issues, which is not touching them. speaker, the house made career of reforming institutions and departments. is fwing to be really fascinating to watch how much ryan get from trump? on issues t anything close to his heart? host: robert costa, before we go, you have to get go withing your reporting, what are atching for today and in the coming day? guest: there is so much to watch with how people talk about trump in the speaker lobby, on the floor, senate floor. no one knows the president-elect. hey know him, they know the celebrity, but he doesn't have a history in washington. many members tell me they have going to trump's hotel on pe

answers and analysis from alexis simendinger, of real politics, michael scherer of "time" magazine, robert costa of of "the washington post," and cnn.zeleny of >> this is "washington week," by boeing.provided the x.q. institute. newman's own foundation, donating all profits from newman's own food products to charity and nourishing the common good. the ford foundation. the ethics and excellence in journalism foundation. koo and patricia yuen through the yuen foundation, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. again, from washington, ed o'keefe of "the washington post." ed: good evening. today, president-elect donald trump came face-to-face with the u.s. intelligence chiefs he's disparaged for months over their russia meddled election.sidential mr. trump acknowledged that the mr. trump acknowledged that the of. has been the target cyber attacks but assured all americans that there was absolutely no effect on the election, the including the fact that there was no

joining me now is political analyst robert costa. one better has a direct line into the donald trump transition and to donald trump himself than you do, robert. now talk to me. how frustrated is he potentially going to be seeing that congress does not work as quickly as maybe he would expect them to? or maybe he is used to in his business dealings? >> quite frustrated. the u.s. congress here at the capitol is by no means like the trump organization. things move at a glacial pace in congress. it is difficult to get rid of the obamacare because of all the different taxes and to make sure the insurance system doesn't collapse. while they want to get rid of the health care law as soon as possible the process could take not only weeks but months. >> as you are talking you should mention that senator sessions as you can see on our screen is still being grilled, if you will, on capitol hill. his hearing started at 9:30. it has been quite a long time. it is going to go through tomorrow. talk to me about how the transition is preparing not on

. >>> joining me now, robert costa from the "washington post." looking at the venue where the president of the united states will give his farewell address in a bit as it is packed with supporters. you've been reporting on capitol hill. let's talk about the news that's the addendum to the intelligence report that contain allegations against the president-elect that he was believf briefed on. how is that reverberating on capitol hill? >> i'm here steps away from the capital and it's reverberating in a negative way among republicans. there's a lot of caution about the specifics of this report, waiting to see what president-elect trump has to say but there's a lot of anxiety tonight because tomorrow will be another big day of confirmation hearings, trump's first news conference in months and it could be, likely to be, all about russia. >> we're going to have the news conference tomorrow, i imagine this will be the first question if i had to guess. there's an on-the-record denial from michael cohen, his lawyer, who was reached on the phone by mike. t

this is a time in their minds to push. >> washington post, robert costa, thank you very much. appreciate that. and joining know discuss more, we have jonathan-political analyst and national spokesman for ted cruz for president. jonathan, i want to go to russia here in the back and forth. obviously this is a story that's really only intensified. when you look at sean spicer, going to play the comments he made today that are catching some new year's backlash. as a matter of his job as incoming white house press secretary is so represent his boss and leave room. you could give himome charitable understanding there. and yet it's hard to know exactly what he's trying to achieve here. take a listen to sean spicer today. >> he says that he knows things we accept obviously he knows things we don't know. he is getting intel briefings. he can reveal something from an intel briefing. >> he's going to talk about his conclusions and where he thinks things stand. he's not going to revealed anything privilege odd r shared classified. i think he can share his conclusions of the report. and hi

thank you to robert costa. that does it for this edition. ending as i started. stumbling over my words. "hardball with chris matthews" starts right now. >>> the coming of trump. let's play "hardball." >>> good evening, i'm chris >>> good evening, i'm chris matthews. back in washington. well, we're at the start of a very busy month politically, of course. a transformative one for the country. in just 18 days donald trump will be sworn in like it or not, actually, as the 45th president of the united states. get that into your head. today, president obama returned from vacation in hawaii with the obvious goal of trying to protect his legacy which is now an endangered political species. the white house announced the president will deliver his last major address next week from chicago. president-elect trump returned to new york today from his vacation and he continued tweeting today. suggest there might be a role for the federal government in combatting chicago's soaring number of murders. 762. this past year. and he criticized what he called media outlets and pundit

to discuss how donald trump may be redefining what it means to be a leader of the free world, robert costa and ashley parker of the washington post, and indira lakshmanan of the boston globe and jeff zeleny of cnn. stay with us. that's next. >> this is "washington week." funding is provided by... >> xq institute. ♪[music] >> additional funding is provided by boeing. newman's own foundation. donating all profits from newman's own food products to charity and nourishing the common good. the ford foundation. the ethics and excellence in journalism foundation. the yuen foundation. committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you! >> once again, from washington, suzanne malveaux of cnn. >> good evening. what a week it has been. by any standard. it is fair to say this has been unlike any jump-start of a presidency we have ever seen. the frenetic pace challenged those around the country and the world and around this table to keep up. president trump ended his first week

and msnbc political analyst, robert costa and columnist and associate editor for "the washington postespondent for the associated press, julie pace. and law professor at george washington, john turley. >> who the largest inbox of all of us this morning? >> and jon meechaacham and back new york, mark halpern. everybody on deck at the top of the show this monday morning. >> second weekend just extraordinary. i don't think we have seen back-to-back weekends with the women's march last week then what happened this week. i just don't think we have seen that in a very, very long time. >> we had quite a weekend here trying to bring it altogether and fully get the scope of what is happening, talking to people on both sides of the aisle. why don't you tell us a little bit about that and then i'll get to the news. >> we met with the president yesterday, but the night before, met with members of barack obama's foreign policy team. democratic senators who i'm surprised by the democratic senators' reaction to this, as well as speaking to members of the president's foreign policy team that has gain

trump administration with a conversation with julie hirschfeld david of the new york time and robert costa of the washington post. >> what we're seeing is the culmination of action the president was talking about in the election address and the populism has been put into policy through executive orders working long side senator jeff sessions and steven bannon a controversial aid at his side. >> and look at a report stock market performance with bryon wien and michael regan and dennis berman. >> now they're expected to go up to 125 or 120 to 125 but there's been little earnings improvement over the last few years. under trump's program if he cuts taxes, dismantles regulation earnings can go to 130. the market can sell at 20 times that. that's 2600 on the s&p 500. that's a 10% move from here. >> and a preview of the 2017 best picture academy award nominees announced yesterday. >> it's conflict and compromise and very very excitable. >> i got two girlfriends. >> and today we remember mary tyler-moore who died at the age of 80. >> i have done television until carl reiner read with me that audi

robert costa for the "washington post" and nbc contributor, and leon pa net at a. went over there because of all the b.s. and shadow boxing with the intelligence people, he knows right now he needs them. >> and the people on capitol hill know that as well. this is the an ally trying to keep those relationships alive. understanding they can't have a war with the intelligence community even though they just had one a few weeks ago. he's president now. >> why does he keep holding up the press like stooges? like they also have to have a bourgeois business guy they have to hold up? he clearly loves it. >> every hero needs an anti-hero. when he was standing there with the cia, he was looking across the lobby with the agency motto, from john chapter 8. and usuyou shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. >> what about that line? some of the people on the left that i talked to today, not only left, but critics of trump saying wait a minute, didn't he run against the iraq war and is he running a new one? >> he said we might have a second chance. >> what does th

was not born. >> was not born then. >> political report for "the washington post" robert costa and alsoet. >> jake sherman, you know i wanted donald trump and mika wanted donald trump and i think all of us in our bubble wanted donald trump. >> what? >> and his inaugural speech to be gracious towards hillary, to be gracious towards all of the presidents who were there. >> give us our place in history. talk about where we are going and maybe some positive things about america? fundamentals? >> you actually had some pretty positive poll numbers suggesting that americans actually liked the speech. >> what? >> tell us about it. >> it definitely resonated. if i knew we were talking about music costa and i could talk about the grateful dead and fish. >> great song. >> 49% of people polled in our new poll thought the speech was excellent or good which is a fair number. here other striking numbers here. 51%. >> that is actually -- that's pretty darn good. >> it is. but the better number is 51% said the speech was optimistic. >> what the what? >> what? >> and 65% said the america first message re

. >> the house republicans went into an emergency meeting in the basement of the capitol where robert costa wrote, kevin mccarthy asked members if they ran on repealing the affordable care act and tax reform or ethics. that room went silent. the house republicans pulled the ethics change while vowing to hold members to a high standard. they spoke to president-elect trump by phone as jack abramoff spoke about this. >> they want to keep the office in place but they have serious things the congress has to do to make some reform in washington and, in fact, to clean up the government. don't they realize what the election was about in november? it was about that americans are sick and tired of what goes on in washington. >> and president-elect donald trump had been slated to address ethics concerns about his business empire in a news conference last month until it was indefinitely postponed. but now there's a date with trump confirming to hold a news conference on january 11th, one week from today. if trump keeps the appearance, it will be 168 days between his last formal news conference. >>> and

i want to bring in robert costa he's the national political reporter for "the washington post" and nbc and msnbc political analyst. robert, lots to talk with you this afternoon. let's start with this regreet. and whether congressional republicans are in sync with the president. what's your read on how close that cooperation is right now? >> quite a seen in philadelphia to see republican, conservative lawmakers from both the house and senate applauding economic interventionalism. a president who is very populist. he's leading in their direction. it's a change in the republican party. right before our own eyes. >> on obamacare, sorry, my mike was down for a second -- the idea of a replacement plan. that was supposed to be the subject of the day, today, at this conference? to kind of hash out how did they get there. what's your reporting on how far along they are, do they have a plan for repeal and replace? do they have a replacement? >> as we've been talking about for a long time, kate, there's a lot of plans floating around the capitol for years on the political side. trump talked about

as the "washington post's" robert costa tweeted. "in spite of winning the electoral college, trump sees the popular vote as a rating that wasn't fairly won by hillary rodham clinton and he won't let that view go." after tweeting he'll launch an investigation into supposed voter fraud threatening to "strengthen up voting procedures" president trump explained his thinking in an interview today with abc news. >> you have people that are registered who are dead, who are illegals, who are in two states. you have people registered in two states. they're registered in new york and new jersey. they vote twice. there are millions of votes, in my opinion. >> important point, adding extra people to the voting roles is not the same thing as documented evidence of widespread voter fraud. it's easy to keep dead people from voting and a bunch of people register in two places because they move around or have more than one home. for instance the president's own daughter tiffany who is registered to vote in new york and pennsylvania and his controver

back on them and they had to stop doing what they were otherwise going to do is because of what robert costa at the "washington post" describes as "a blizzard of angry con stitch when calls." that's what republican members of congress told him they got after this news broke about them trying to kill the ethics office. after the news broke, look at this. look at this. google says searches spiked online for the phrase "who is my reentative?" something's going on. something is bubbling out there. the "washington post" just profiled the retired lawyer in hawaii, 60 something woman lives in hawaii, never been particularly politically active in her life, she never set up a facebook event page before. but she decided she wanted to do something. she asked a friend to help her set up a facebook event page for a march on washington after donald trump's inauguration. didn't put too much thought into it but decided she'd do what she could do. when she went to bed that night after she made the facebook event page there were 40 people who said they were interested. when she woke up the next morning, 10,00

i want to bring in robert costa. you have a great interview just took place with the president-elect. i want to share a quote that stood out to me from donald trump. "we're going to have insurance for everyone. there is a philosophy in some circles if you can't pay for it, you don't get it. that's not going to happen with us." clearly we're talking about repeal and replace of obamacare. how is donald trump going to do it? >> it's still somewhat unclear. he says he's nearly finalized a republican plan. one of my big takeaways from the conversation that he's been watching closely what's been happening at the capitol. he understands that democrats are very critical of republicans. they say the 20 million people who are currently covered under obamacare or through medicaid through the exchanges could lose their coverage and so his political antenna is up in the air. he's starting to frame an argument in our interview about how republicans have to say everyone is going to have insurance. maybe not through federal coverage

chiming in this morning as hallie jackson said, not condemning the act itself, more the timing, robert costa, political analyst, national political reporter with the national post joins us now. he's been doing reporting on this subject. bob, let's first of all reset the basics here. last night, this is customary, the republicans are the majority party. they draw up on their own the rules they're going to present for adoption to governor the next two years on the first day of congress. one of the rules they say they want to put in there is going to zlap ethics watchdog, then today, some time after donald trump puts that tweet out, they walked that back. how much did donald trump have to do with it? >> this was an internal house debate as you said, it started last night. this rules change to gut the office of congressional ethics. it was put on to the whole rules package. and it was agreed to late last night. and then the next 12 hours, we saw it all fall apart. at love house numbers tell me they got calls from constituents, angry about this move. wondering if this was the right thing to be do

reporters hype that story, "washington post" national political reporter and msnbc political analyst robert costa is with us. nice to see you. >> great to join you. >> it is quite a story you have written. you write about the influence of senator sessions and you say he has had a hand in virtually all of the actions we've seen in these first ten days, including executive orders. but i want to point out as halle was reporting earlier at the judiciary committee session this morning chairman chuck grassley read from comments that were submitted by senator sessions in which he said to the committee, i had nothing to do with any of the these executive orders. so help us understand what your reporting is. >> great to be with you kate. forrally and technically speaking senator sessions sense he has been nominated for attorney general has not been involved in drafting the executive orders. that's based on numerous conversations with sources within the white house. however, before he was nominated for attorney general, he was and in many ways the intellectual godfather, the populist and conservative behin

. >>> i want to bring in "new york times" reporter matt apuzo and political analyst robert costa is with us as well. matt, i'll start with you about this crazy week we'll have. you've written a lot about senator jeff session, up for attorney general. his hearings will start, i believe, tomorrow and then possibly go into wednesday as well. what do you think democrats may find objectionable about him or will it be easier than we think? >> he's a member of one of the most exclusive clubs in washington, that's the u.s. senate and he's been here for 20 years. he has a reputation on the hill as being a pretty liked guy. so, it's going to be hard for, i think, for democrats to mount any opposition, certainly in the minority. to try to stop his confirmation. but i think the goal is just as kelly was saying, i think the goal is to try to put some distance between jeff sessions and donald trump. frankly, through questioning the attorney general nominee, what you're trying to do if you're democrats is to try to sketch out the legal boundaries of the incoming trump administration. you use sessions a

peter alexander at the white house, there's also donald trump talking to robert costa and "the washington post" about health kcare for all taking on big ph pharma. >> reporter: the customary republican line with the administration the idea of universal access. that's different than insurance for everybody, but donald trump went further insisting in fact that this plan was in the final stages, he said specifically it's down to the final strokes. he said it would include lower numbers, much low are deducti e deductibles. this poses real challenges for republicans right now of course during the course of their time as the opposition to president obama voted more than 60 occasions to repeal obamacare but have broadly opposed the idea of further expansion of government involvement in the health care system. we heard this morning from sean spicer, the incoming press secretary for donald trump, who said basically in effect in an effort to elaborate, this would be about marketplace solutions, adding greater competition to the system, nonetheless it has a lot of republicans asking questions about

trump administration with a conversation with julie hirschfeld david of the new york time and robert costa of the washington post. >> what we're seeing is the culmination of action the president was talking about in the election address and the populism has been put into policy through executive orders working long side senator jeff sessions and steven bannon a controversial aid at his side. >> and look at a report stock market performance with bryon wien and michael regan and

let's bring in msnbc political analyst robert costas.kable piece in "the post" today. walk us through this. >> it started monday night. a lot of lawmakers were coming back to washington from the break and bob goodlad forced together a proposal that many members have privately long wanted and get rid of this office of congressional edgics which is an independent watchdog within the house to police members and make sure they are not stepping over the line but a lot of members are grumbling to me and other reporters for years about this group. they don't like the excrete knew and other watchdogs on the outside say it's a great group and they got rid of it. >> bob, what is their chief complaints and do any of their complaints seem to have credence based on what you've heard? >> their chief complaint is allegations can be made against them through this office of congressional ethics. and oftentimes they feel vulnerable to the allegations being out there should they be put forward by a staffer or someone else and they feel like their political

and political reporter for "the washington post" and msnbc political analyst, robert costa.ou saw columnist and associate editor for "the washington post" david ignatius, along with joe, willie, and me. >> so, mika, and willie and mike, let's talk about this moment for a second. it is okay to say that we find it surreal that this day has come because donald trump even caught himself throughout the campaign saying, can you believe i'm ahead? i think everybody, including donald trump, were shocked on lex night he had actually pulled this upset on. here we are. donald trump the 45th president of the united states of america. >> you heard donald trump it's been 18 months. go back as he came down that escalator at trump tower. so many people it was a joke. he talked about it so many times before and people thought it was a publicity stunt. as he came up in the polls and getting 30,000 person crowds in mobile, alabama and started winning debates and elections and primaries and took the nomination and then the election. it became clear we were dealing with something we have never s

political reporter for "the washington post" and msnbc political analyst, robert costa.e winning editor of "the washington post" bob woodward. just to maname a few people. >> bob, there is so much incoming. it's every day. all of these controversies and i'm sure a lot of them are stirred up by trump deliberately, just kind keep everybody off balance. but it's been an incredible two months as far as just the velocity of controversies coming at us before the guy is even sworn in as president of the united states. what sticks with you over the last two months to suggest what type of president donald trump will be over the next few years? >> well, we don't know, obviously. he is different. i think some of these things matter and some of them don't. as jon meacham, i think, quite wisely was saying, the spat between trump and congressman lewis is going to last about three days. the spat between trump and the intelligence community really matters because they are going to need him and he is going to need them, and this back and forth makes absolutely no sense to anyone, and the

robert costas.day took the first step toward repealing obamacare voting 51-48 in favor of a budget resolution that allows repealing major parts of the law with a simple majority. going through the budget process means senate democrats cannot stop them through the filibuster. afterwards, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell spoke to the press. >> we are going to move forward with the obamacare repeal resolution first and we will take the second step a little bit later. >> vice president-elect mike pence met with members of congress yesterday about the republicans health care plan, alongside house speaker paul ryan and gop leadership. he said republicans would not just strip away the affordable care act. >> the first order on of business is to repeal and replace obamacare and that was our message today and it will be our message on capitol hill. >> the health care system has been ruined, dismantled under obamacare. the answer here is not to ignore the problem. we will help americans crying out for r