we heard enough from sam stein this morning. thanks for being with us this morning. >>> new this morning, president obama reportedly will make good on his promise earlier this month there will be consequences to what intelligence agencies say was russian interference in the u.s. presidential election. the administration readying its response. likely will involve covert cyber operations. the post reports that public consequences could be announced as early as this week with officials seeking to broaden the president's authority to freeze u.s. assets and impose travel restrictions on the suspects involved. the effort could involve broadening an order that gave the president authority to respond to foreign hackers that harm economic or national security to declare electoral systems part of the critical infrastructure of the united states. the post wants to make the new punishments "public or communicated to congress in a form that would be difficult for president-elect trump to simply walk back once in office." also the russian gov

joining us now, josh barro, sam stein and clifford krauss, energy correspondent for the "new york times." josh barro, conventional wisdom, smooth sailing, but the complexity of just the background check on this guy could mean anything. >> i'm not sure the conventional wisdom is that he's going to have smooth sailing. you've already got senators ot the out there saying they have some reservations, mark rubio, lindsey graham. they should give him a hearing and see what he has to say. but there's a lot of concern among republicans about where he stands on russirussia. there are concerns that donald trump has no foreign policy experience, so maybe he should have a secretary of state that has more forren policy experience. i there are a lot of foreseen things that are likely to be problems. this is the first real test on whether they are going to stand up to trump on nominations. >> bob corker today, and keep in mind when you listen to this, that bob corker was a candidate for secretary of state in the trump administration, and donald trump rejected him, which is always a very dangerous thin

"the washington post's" robert costa and "huffington post's" political editor, sam stein. both of them are msnbc analysts. so hallie, let me start with you. in terms of a formal policy taking shape here right now, donald trump obviously very outspoken on this issue of israel, the united nations resolution, the obama administration breaking with past u.s. foreign policy precedent, not backing the israeli government. trump saying, hey, when i'm in there, we will do that. what is the trump doctrine that's coming into focus right now? is there one? >> reporter: yeah, and i think it's fairly clear by the person he has appointed to be the ambassador to israel, david friedman, a rather controversial pick. steve, this is somebody who is considered by outside analysts to be even to the right of prime minister benjamin netanyahu. somebody who has supported settlements. you look at, for example, donald trump, the president-elect's pledge to move the embassy to jerusalem. again, a controversial move and one that raises a lot of eyebrows among experts in the middle east peace process,

>> um -- how to keep a straight face on a set with sam stein.rday. >> that was incredible. >> the bitterness. >> the bitterness of it, the way both sides view how this election was won and lost. and quite frankly, what our conversations are going to sound like for the next four years. >> oh, i hope not. >> i just don't think that the bitterness is going away. in addition to the personal animosity, the culture clash that underscored this entire election was on display, and i just don't see that getting any better, especially if the president elect is making speeches, the speech he made last night was in such sharp contrast to the gracious concession he gave on election night. i wonder which donald trump are we going to see every day. >> i learned donald trump is extraordinarily caught up in the question of who his secretary of state should be and there's a lot of toing and froing around him, and i think in his own mind about how to resolve this. >> you think what? >> toing and froing about how to resolve this. >> it's wide open, and he is in abso

right now. >> that would answer your questions. >> they will do it in coming months with help of sam stein. he's got facial hair. >> it's not going to work. still ahead on "morning joe," in the face of rising premiums, fewer options and threats of repeal, signups for obamacare are up. what this means for the future of the law. plus nbc's kristen welker latest reporting on donald trump's agenda today in florida. >> you have to admit that john bolton -- do we have the side by side. >> no. >> i want to put up john bolton and captain kangaroo. ben, you haven't seen this, right? >> i saw it earlier this morning. >> let's see it again. kids are just waking up on the west coast right now. >> there's no similarity at all. >> there are a lot of similarities. only difference is -- >> which is which? >> i can't tell. >> you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. says it won't let up for a while. the cadillac xt5... what should we do? ...tailored to you. wait it out. equipped with apple carplay compatibility. ♪ now during season's best, get this low mileage lease on this cadillac xt5 from aro

sam stein of the huffington post joining me to talk about democrats, joe biden in 2020.ge of discussion points. you heard kelly say this is likely a bid by him to try to remain relevant. is running in 2020, if that's his plan or his thought process now, is that the best way to do that? >> first of all, how masochistic are your producers to put together a 2020 discussion? we are barely over 2016. i'm getting ptsd on this one. let's skip to 2024. don't bother with 2020. as for biden -- >> point taken. this is news from the vice president. >> okay. no, no, it's fine. biden is 74, right? in 2020, he'll be 78. we have never had a president elected at that age. he would be easily the oldest. there is a big push in democratic circles to get a new generation at least into the upper ranks. the house leadership already is fairly old. i'm not ageist. that's a fact. those are the numbers. it is not a unique observation that the bench is thin. the way to get a thicker bench is to develop some of the younger talent. that comes with risk. biden has a national fund raising base, he's a

joy, also with us, sam, mad dog stein. >> no. warrior monk stein. >> sam, the monk guy, senior politics editor. at the huffington post. and ana marie cox. the esteemed. >> mad cat, mad kitty. >> where to begin. so the rallies have started. the guy who won with rallies is now back on the rally stage, where he calls home. >> yeah, you know, i half expected him to regale the crowd about how he saved the nfl, or how he saved delta airlines by buying the eastern shuttle and then destroying it and having to get rid of it and there by opening up the eastern corridor between new york and d.c. and making delta more profitable. it's really remarkable the way donald trump spins failure. and to your point, i'm really glad you said it. because he doesn't talk, anything he tweets becomes reality for much of the media, which is credulously reports what have he says as if it was true. so the carrier deal is exactly as you explained it. the removal of 1300 jobs, not just those 1300, but carrier has another facility not that far away that's also m

sam stein is political editor for the huffington post. hugh hewitt is the host of the hugh hewitt show on the salem radio network. great to be here in person with you in d.c. i'm going to let you play armchair psychiatrist. donald trump won the election, the electoral college certified him. why does he seem, sam, to be so bothered by this popular vote number? >> it's a great question. i think newt is right there. he won by the rules that you play the game and he's president and there's no way to take that away. if you are going to say it matters it's only to the extent that he can claim a mandate which is sort of this symbolic thing because if you win you'll pursue your agenda regardless. why does it bother him? >> the election denieser don't bother him. the election deniers are on every cable show bringing up this irrelevant fact she did win by a lot in the popular vote. he's concerned about a.p. test takers. every the popular vote comes up someone gets a 2 or 1 on the test because they think it matters. he responds to the news. when we

i used to like sam stein. now i'm over him. katrina said. >> what is he wrong about. >> electorally we were disseminated we did gain back seats from where we were in 2012. we certainly didn't do what we could have accomplished. when you look at his personal favorability though it is obviously split along party lines. >> you were looking for seats. looking for 30 happy with 20 and you got six. >> president would have taken at this point quite frankly. i do think back in june of 2010 when mitch mcconnell said it was his goal to make president obama a one-term president. the republicans have a role in this we couldn't have all that legislation that katrina brought up that would benefit both sides. >> so you concur with sam stein now the divider in chief. >> i wouldn't call him the divider in chief. there are a lot of parts to the democratic platform overwhelmingly popular like raising the minimum wage, gay marriage, obama care. trump voters don't want their obama care taken away. not necessarily the democrat agenda has moved too f

. >> that was sam stein of the huffington post.e to talk about it is a columnist for the washington examiner, author of the sexy vote. the former dnc official, nice to see both of you. remarkable in a sense this was said by the editor of post, a clearly liberal organization willing to take this kind of stand against president obama who they championed so long. that novel or insightful? >> sam is absolutely right that president obama was very good at winning elections for himself. the power has been transferred. in 2008 when republicans lost, their in mind, they lost badly in 2006 when nancy pelosi became speaker. took a look and said how can we win again? ed gillespie, former rnc chairman, said go to the states, that is where the low hanging fruit is where we can make an impact. let's try to win there, so many decisions affect people's lives are not just made by the president or made in washington or in the state by governors, state legislators the republicans made for this smart strategic decision to focus on winning races out the

joy, also with us, sam, mad dog stein. >> no. warrior monk stein. >> sam, the monk guy, senior politics editor. at the huffington post. and ana marie cox. the esteemed. >> mad cat, mad kitty. >> where to begin. so the rallies have started. the guy who won with rallies is now back on the rally stage, where he calls home. >> yeah, you know, i half expected him to regale the crowd about how he saved the nfl, or how he saved delta airlines by buying the eastern shuttle and then destroying it and having to get rid of it and there by opening up the eastern corridor between new york and d.c. and making delta more profitable. it's really remarkable the way donald trump spins failure. and to your point, i'm really glad you said it. because he doesn't talk, anything he tweets becomes reality for much of the media, which is credulously reports what have he says as if it was true. so the carrier deal is exactly as you explained it. the removal of 1300 jobs, not just those 1300, but carrier has another facility not that far away that's also m

so sam stein, let's go to the trump side of this. the question has now been raised and kellyanne conway talked about it last night, of donald trump being boxed in. what does he do on january 20th? does he remove these sanctions? and i guess my question is, what would be the grounds for his removing them, given all we've heard and know now in the last 24 hours? >> well, i don't know what the grounds would be. from a political standpoint, it's a difficult one, because there's already this narrative that he's predisposed and favorable to putin and certainly letting back these diplomats into the country would reinforce that narrative. so i don't know. it's a tough one and when he's going against not just his predator and barack obama and also the top leaders of his own party, that does box him in. respect to the cotton statement, it is interesting that the administration didn't sit on their hands, but that they didn't take this type of action prior to the election. and on a conference call with senior officials yesterday, one of the thin

. >> sam stein, thank you very much at the white house. >> roadblocker, donald trump taking aim at presidentobama, through twitter accusing him creating unnecessary hurdles days before moving into the white house. ♪ glad forceflex. extra strong to avoid rips and tears. be happy, it's glad. . . . . . >>> as u.s. israelis relations taking news. check out this tweet that donald trump sent out today. >> doing my best to disregard the many inflammatory president o statements. >> joining me our white house reporter, good to see you both, david, how much truth is there that the obama staff is not helping. >> trump responded a couple of things and not just the administration did with the resolution at u.n. president obama sat on the interview on the radio saying that he would have beaten donald trump had he run for the third term and the president said yesterday at a visit for pearl harbor that we need to remember our common bond and unity. i think he's reacting to that. >> francesca, it feel that is the president-elect is blaming blame to a slow start of this transition at the feet and for some rea

foundation that came under fire over how its funds are used and joining me now, senior politics editor, sam stein and msnbc contributor. sam, good morning. good to see you. >> good morning, happy holidays. >> happy holidays, these questions about conflicts of interest. and donald trump with his children, it's limitless here and you and i both know the story. barack obama's inauguration was famously reported republican to gather plotting how they would block this president coming into this office with message of hope and change. what is abohappening behind the scenes or looking at with these obvious conflicts of interest beyond this foundation? >> sure. first of all, the foundation was sort of a conflict of interest but mostly about not much charitable giving at all. it's under investigation for having a false or bad registration in the state of new york, that he shut it down is sort of a distraction because the real conflict of interest stuff comes with the trump organization that's massive business empire, holdings all over the globe and we don't know the extent of his conflict of interest becau

sam stein is still with us. >> we apologize the sam's mother.y, so we have this study which i think we should just put it on the screen because it's so jarring. i can't even -- when you look at these numbers and you look at how they have declined -- >> this is quantifying the american dream, if you were born in 1940, you had a 92% chance of doing better than your parents. in 1950, a 79% chance, in 1960, it drops to 62%, then 1980, down to a 50% chance of doing better than your parents. i suspect, david, it only gets worse. >> i hope not, but i think it's hard not to look at the line and not think so. the remarkable thing about that is it used to be guaranteed you would do better than your parents, right? you didn't have to graduate from college. maybe even didn't have to graduate from high school and you would do better than your parents. now we get to the point where it's basically a coin flip. you understand why people are so angry. >> and of course, ed, we're putting up studies that are also showing you're not even living as long. life expect

thicee advs "let it heas t sam 0 voteer there's been any shenanigans in ou elections. >> jill stein pays millions dollars to force a recount in wisconsin to verify the vote, duffy specifically called out democratic senator tammy baldwin. up for re-election in 2018, for criticizing trump during the campaign, when he claimed the election was rigged. >> tammy baldwin should have the back bone to stand up and push back against her party and against hillary clinton and ask baldwin, would you like to challenge her in 2018? >> i haven't made any decisions about what i'm doing in 2018. i haven't even got to 2017 yet, i'm enjoying my job representing central and northern wisconsin. >> senator baldwin's office had this response to the recount writing in part. senator baldwin sees no evidence that voting machines were hacked in wisconsin. she doesn't believe a recount will change the >>> there might not be any snow on the ground yet, but parking regulations are in effect through march 1. the city of milwaukee advising drivers to pay attention to the signs during the winter period. most residential

sam sweeney is here with more. the judge's ruling gives michigan more time to complete the count ahead of the december 13th deadline. green party presidential candidate jill stein requested the recount. president-elect donald trump sued elections officials to stop it. trump defeated hillary clinton by nearly 11-thousand votes in michigan. stein received about one-percent of the vote. she plans to seek an emergency federal court order today in her bid for a pennsylvania. a recount that stein pushed for in wisconsin is now underway. trump's victory in all three states would have to be overturned to impact the election results. it's back to work for donald trump as he continues to fill his cabinet. one of the critical positions yet to be filled is secretary of state and the list of possibilities appears to be growing. karen travers has the latest from washington. you can be the first fans to watch "rogue one: a star wars story" in 3d imax. call right now. the number is 703-528-7334. the screening will be held next wednesday at the silver spring regal majestic. again, the number to call is 703-528-7334 good luck! it's 5: and time for a check on weather. - morning c