managing editor at "the bulwark," sam stein joins us. as does the co-host of "the weekend" on msnbc, symone sanders townsend. just saw her on "way too early." joe, mika, and willie have the morning off. wee will dive right in. a lot of headlines this morning. thank you for joining us. we begin with congress which managed to pass an 11th hour government funding package late friday evening. the short term bill will keep the government's lights on through mid march. the package passed through the house, 366-34, with democrats providing the votes to get it over the needed hurdles. the senate, for its part, passed the legislation 85-11. the no votes came from ten republicans and senator bernie sanders of the vermont, an independent who caucuses with democrats. the bill's passage comes after president-elect trump torpedoed the bipartisan agreement that had been brokered by congressional leadership. trump had called for any funding deal to increase or even abolish the debt ceiling, which is not up until the middle of next year. trump went as fa

let me get sam stein in here to comment on it because it's going to be very controversial, just as thetrump's, you know, pledge to pardon all of the january 6th people, you know, potentially hundreds of people who have been convicted. this is the authority that any president has, and these things happen as they go out the door, and it's certainly going to blow up, have a huge effect on gerald ford obviously. >> sure. a few things here to unpack. one is, yes, you're right, the olivia troy thing did happen. kash patel did issue a threat. her lawyer spoke to me, said they're taking it very seriously. but he noted that this is not a one off incident, that there's been other legal threats issued by patel, rick gri nnel and others. i spoke with brendan boyle about the possibility of preemptive presidential pardons. he says he has been advocating aggressively for them. he believes it would be foolish to not do them. he doesn't want to take a chance. he did relay that there's conversations that are happening, that's about as deep as it would go with respect to those conversations. but of cours

. >> let's discuss this more with sam stein. eugene daniels and chuck. the cohost of the latino vote podcast and president of solidarity strategies. sam, we'll start with you. we are already seeing fights with individual cities over deportation policy. you saw thomas homan take a dig at san diego. just this week, he has been sparring with illinois governor jb pritzger and the mayor of chicago as well. how much and local and city and state governments hinder the mass deportation plans? >> it depends. they are necessary to implement the most severe elements of what the trump administration wants to do. there is just not enough federal forces or federal law officials who could handle all of this. to the degree if the trump administration wants to execute plans to stated objectives they will need localities to participate. if localities choose not to participate, they can't do it. that said, if you listen to that segment that led into this, we should expect protracted legal fights. earlier, they had hinted he would just force mayors who didn't comply to compl

managing editor, sam stein, thank you for this. sam. >> john, thank you. you're the best. >> we really appreciate it. we'll talk to you again soon. >>> next up, we'll go live to cnbc for a look after the dow ended the week with its longest losing streak since 2020. the fcc is giving elon musk the chance to end the agency's investigation into his takeover of twitter. we'll dig into that settlement offer when way too early returns. right now, a look -- >> under ten days until christmas. we'll be right back. swiffer duster traps 4x more dust, for a clean even mom approves of. that reach! making hard to reach... so easy. swiffer. wow. the mother of all cleans. love it or your money back! ♪♪ well would you look at that? jerry, you've got to see this. i've seen it. trust me, after 15 walks, it gets a little old. ugh. i really should be retired by now. wish i'd invested when i had the chance... to the moon! unbelievable. stop waiting. start investing. e*trade ® from morgan stanley. for more than a decade farxiga has been trusted again and

sam stein, i won't talk about the celtics on christmas, that was a dreadful performance.e nfl is just this juggernaut that sort of stomps everything in its path. other sports are healthy, baseball if a good couple of years after the rule changes, soccer is on the rise, i'm an nhl fan, but it is football and it is everything else. >> yeah. football is king. it is just -- it is the beast of american sports. people love it. we have an insatiable appetite for it. sometimes we can make the argument that things are cyclical and that will go back to loving baseball and basketball more, but truth of the matter is this is a multidecade trend here where people are gravitating toward football. i will say, i listened to a lot of commentary about the nba's poor ratings, and the product that it is putting forth. and i agree with some of it, the league is -- there is so many three-pointers and so many drives and that's it. it becomes a product that is a little difficult to watch. if you watch wemby on christmas, which i did, you saw the future. this man is a freak. 7'4" freak and he's s

sam stein is the managing editor of the bulwark and an msnbc political contributor. brendan burke served as counsel to speaker paul ryan and as press secretary to speaker john weiner. they both join me now. sam, i'll start with you. i say this all the time. i have no interest in house intrigue. i don't want to hear doesn't get along with you. i don't want to hear the gossip. that's great, it's fine for game of thrones but not for the federal government. we are looking at this sort of incoming administration, what kinds of people -- we see the famous folks at the top, right, but where are the lower-level bureaucrats coming from? are they all coming from right ring right wing organizations? is there a list floating out there from the federalist society, like they do with judges? where are the new coming administrators coming from besides tv? >> will first of all, i kind of believe you want house intrigue. you like a little bit of the juice, too. who doesn't like a little bit of the juice? come on. as for the stuffing of this administration, look, some of this is being

i'm sam stein in for ayman mohyeldin. let's do it. >>> let's start tonight with the breaking news that donald trump announced he would take kash patel, former chief of staff to the acting secretary of defense during his first administration, to services fbi director. nbc news correspondent von hilliard joins us by phone. thank you so much. after abruptly firing james comey as fbi director in 2017, trump chris wray to replace him. chris wray was an establishment type figure. a chris christie guy. tonight trump has apparently announced his intention to fire chris wray, even though chris wray's term is not done until january 20th. what do you make of what is happening here? >> right, this is a saturday night announcement, i think that is an understatement. you are looking at chris wray, who was donald trump's own selection back in 2017, serves that 10 year term. we reported just earlier this month that chris wray was anticipating either being forced out through firing or resigning with the expectation that he would be fired

sam stein is in for ayman . now. >>> good evening. tonight trump's team sign in transition agreements with the biden administration. but in true trump fashion, there is a twist. >>> plus, donald trump may be the president-elect, but right now it is elon musk acting like he is in charge. we will unpack trump's newly imposed tariffs. what they could mean for our allies and for you. i'm sam stein in for trying to anyone. let's do it. all right, good evening. the trump transition team has finally agreed to work with the biden administration on the official handoff from one administration to the next. but there is a catch. well, there's three catches. trump's team is still refusing to sign an ethics pledge that would swear off conflicts of interest. they are refusing fbi security checks for their staff, and continuing to fund the transition with secret, unlimited donations. so, basically the trump transition appears to be as indifferent to charges of corruption and preventable security lapses as they were before this announcement. now, the

sam stein, senior political analyst matthew dowd, also from her george w. bush strategist, and founder of country over party senior writer at the dispatch and author of the book, in trump office shadow. sam, let's start with pete hegseth. he is putting on a full-court press to save his nomination. in the last 24 hours we had not heard from him about his former fox news colleagues seem to be in his corner and pretty vocal, but this thing looks like it is getting tougher and tougher. what are you hearing? >> two things are related. it's tough, and that's the reason he's going with the full- court press. for a while hegseth has basically done this with private meetings one-on-one with senators knowing he can only lose three. but these reports have dripped out painfully for him. his team recognized they either had to ramp up the pressure on republican senators, or they were going to lose the nomination. the last was a key turning point when reports emerged that trump has talked to ron desantis. that doesn't come out unless the trump team lets it come out and wan

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sam stein is the managing editor of the bullwashing. and brandon buck and they both join me now. sam, i'll stark with you. i say this all the time. i have no interesting in palace entry. i don't want to hear who doesn't get along with who. i don't want to hear the gossip. great for "the game" of thrones but not for the federal government. when we're looking at the incoming administration, what kinds of people -- we see the famous folks at the top, right? where are the lower level bureaucrats coming from? are they all coming from right wing organizations? is there a list floating out there from the federalist society? where are they coming from besides tv? >> well, first of all, i kind of believe you. like a little bit of the juice, too. who doesn't like the juice? come on. as for the staffing of this administration, look, i mean, some of this has been people who have worked in conservative politics in project 2025. we've seen it in the hires. some of this is people who are on tv because trump watches a fair amount of tv, more than the average person, and is enamored with people wh

life just went by mike right now as he was supposed to go to sam stein. and coming up, the federal reserve cut interest rates yesterday with fed chair jerome powell saying the economy is in a really good place, but he also sounded a cautionary note about additional cuts next year. we're bringing those details. >>> plus, amazon workers at several facilities walked off the job this morning during the height of the holiday rush. >> yikes. >> mike, i hope you got your shopping done early. cnbc's dom chu and nbc's christine romans join us with the very latest next. nbc's christine romans join us with the very latest next the virus that causes shingles is sleeping... in 99% of people over 50. it's lying dormant, waiting... and could reactivate. shingles strikes as a painful, blistering rash that can last for weeks. and it could wake at any time. think you're not at risk for shingles? it's time to wake up. because shingles could wake up in you. if you're over 50, talk to your doctor or pharmacist about shingles prevention. power e*trade's award-winning trading a

. >> congresswoman sam stein the bulwark had a theory about biden's last moves on the ukraine-russia conflict. have a look at this. i want to get your reaction. >> the outgoing biden administration pumping weapons into ukraine and weighing the possibility of additional energy sanctions. trump could undo all of this, of course. but that would be a fairly politically precarious to take right out of the gate. >> jason: what are your thoughts on what he just said there? >> you know, i will say first and foremost and you know this of all people being on oversight that we actually saw direct evidence that the biden family was actually profiteering from ukraine, money going into their bank accounts and then you see what they're doing on last ditch effort on the way out. the fact is that for months we have been hearing from our friends in the senate that the biden administration was trying to run the traps to prevent president trump from having an aggressive foreign policy that would pursue peace, especially in that region. but, again, i think that one of the things that the american people

. >>> joining us now, we have managing editor at the bulwark sam stein, staff writer at the new yorkered to be admitting he understands that campaigning is easy, governing is hard, and prices of groceries, something he was obsessed with all year long, will be a difficult challenge. >> yeah. i mean the interview was tonal shift for trump, obviously, going from saying he will definitely bring down prices to i think i can bring them down, but it's going to be hard. clearly a rhetorical backtrack. look, this happens, obviously, but it should be an insult to the people who voted for trump based on the price of grois.cer. his policies as basically every economist will say are inflationary if you're going to launch trade wars, jack up tariffs with foreign countries including mexico and canada, he's already threatened to do, that will have inflationary effects. it you're going to launch a mass deportation upon entering office, which he said he's going today, that will have a direct impact on the price of groceries. and so at some point the rubber hits the road and looks like to me at least thi

sam stein is here, managing editor for the bulwark and an msnbc political contributor. and david drucker, senior writer at the dispatch, author of the book "in trump's shadow." ali, what is the latest? are we headed for a shutdown? because lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have a lot to say about all of this. tell us what you're hearing. >> first of all, thank you for the congratulations and the early tease for the show. i'm up way past my future bedtime. but for you i will always be available. look, on the shutdown piece congress is clearly playing with fire at this point because when we watched that vote go down it really does serve for us to continue to underscore it's really weird and very rare when house republican leadership puts a bill on the floor that they know is going to fail but they let it do so publicly anyway. they were trying to make the point. they made it. but now they have nowhere left to go. when we saw the speaker and other top republicans leave the capitol tonight, they said we'll see in terms of if they end up having another vote tomorrow. but

i'm sam stein in for ayman mohyeldin . let's do it. all right, good evening. the trump transition team has finally agreed to work with the biden administration on the official handoff from one administration to the next. but there's a catch. well, there are three catches. the trump team is still refusing to sign an ethics pledge that was swear off conflict of interest. there refusing fbi security checks for their staff and continuing to fund the transition with secret, unlimited donations. so basically, the trump transition appears to be as indifferent to charges of corruption and preventable security lapses as they were before this announcement. now, the standard practice during presidential transitions is to sign an agreement that puts strict limits on private funding, discloses the names of private donors, and caps donations at about $5000 in exchange the transition team gets $7 million in federal matching funds. instead, team trump is continuing to rake in untold sums of money from secret donors, both domestic and foreign, in exchange for who knows what. a

sam stein is out with a new piece in "the bulwark" detailing one key item missing out of the republicanor cancer research program that was named after a 10-year-old virginia girl who died from an inoperable brain tumor in 2013. it passed in 2014 in a deal between congressional republicans and then president obama. now, it needs to be extended. negotiators thought it'd sail through, at least until elon musk went on an x rampage, tweeting that the bill was antithetical to small government ambitions and threatening primaries of lawmakers who supported it. sam wrote this piece and was on x yesterday, highlighting a few other key things, none more than this one, that suddenly and seemingly, nonsensically, cut from the bill. >> yeah, first of all, let me just say, it's wonderful to see you. we've been on this journey together for so much -- for so long. to see you move into your new role just brings my heart -- just brings a smile to my face and fills my heart. i know you'll be as courageous and truth telling as you always have been, jonathan, so i'm so excited for you, man. congratulations.

sam stein, there's a lot in there. what does all of this mean?rom some republican senators who said they are willing to overlook all of this stuff that's out and reported. what does it look like for him in this moment in terms of being confirmed? >> oh, god. there are like four different cabinet nominees where you can make the case that they are either -- their fate is tenuous. and then you have kash patel, tulsi gabbard. there are a few things happening that are problematic. one is obviously all this years old evidence that he either committed acts of sexual assault, was a troubled leader in the heads of the nonprofit. then you have the email his mother sent him during the aftermath of the divorce. is that like a personal matter? and should we care too much about that? and the answer is, it does actually relate to how he would act as the head of the department of defense. he's very public in his criticism of women in combat roles which is, you know, obviously an important issue for the defense department. the defense department is also dealing w

joining me is sam stein. epublican congressman from florida and number two medications director and spokesperson for congressman hakeem jeffries. sam, some gop lawmakers are still holding their support out. they are not saying what they are going to do. here's what speaker johnson said about that last night. i think that those members and all of them want to be a part of the solution. they make big promises to their constituents in this campaign cycle and we have to deliver upon them now. what is the media and the left that wants to divide us and distract us. we cannot fall into that trap. >> what do you make of his response making the case for himself? >> there is not much more he can do he got the biggest endorsement he could which is donald trump. donald trump said no it would have been done. but that is not make him in the clear. he has a razor thin majority. he can stand to lose two potential members. that incentivizes every republican member to try to extract a promise or pledge from him. if you are goin

. >> sam stein, aaron, thank you for your reporting.udden rise in bird flu. how serious is this threat this time around? i will consult a doctor next. you are watching msnbc. watchin prilosec knows, for a fire... one fire extinguisher beats 10 buckets of water, and for zero heartburn 1 prilosec a day... beats taking up to 10 antacids a day. it's that simple, for 24 hour heartburn relief... one beats ten. prilosec otc. ♪ one beats ten. like a relentless weed, moderate to severe ulcerative colitis symptoms can keep coming back. start to break away from uc with tremfya... with rapid relief at 4 weeks. tremfya blocks a key source of inflammation. at one year, many people experienced remission... and some saw 100% visible healing of their intestinal lining. serious allergic reactions and increased risk of infections may occur. before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tb. tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms or if you need a vaccine. healing is possible with tremfya. ask your doctor about tremf

. >> all right, let's discuss this more with sam stein, managing editor for the bulwark and msnbc political the co-host of the latino vote podcast and president of solidarity strategies, it is great to have all three of you with us. sam, we will start with you, we are already seeing fights with individuals and cities, you saw tom moment take a dig at san diego. just this week, he was fine with illinois governor j.b. pritzker and the mayor of chicago as well. how much can local, state, and city governments hinder trump's mass deportation plans, if at all? >> well, depends, right? obviously, local authorities are necessary to implement the most severe elements of what the trump administration wants to do. there's just not enough federal forces or federal law officials who can handle all of this. so, to a degree, if the trump administration wants to expedite plans for the stated objectives, they're going to need localities to participate. if localities choose not to participate, then they can't do it. that said, if you listen to that segment that led into this, we should expect protracted lega

our friend, sam stein, highlighted one of these with a new piece in "the bulwark" which details thatafted government legislation is funding for cancer research program named after a 10-year-old virginia girl who died from an inoperable brain tumor in 2013. it originally passed back in 2014 in a deal between congressional republicans and then president obama, a democrat. now, it needs to be extended. negotiators thought it would sail through, at least until elon musk went on an x rampage, tweeting the bill was antithetical to conservative, small government ambitions, and threatening primaries of lawmakers who supported it. gene, sam also yesterday highlighted on twitter a research group that does work with, you know, ing children with cancer. their tweet from a few days ago, celebrating that they thought this vital funding was going to be included, and now, suddenly, it's out. >> yeah, i mean, it'll come as a surprise to elon musk, i guess, but this is what the government does. the government funds for research, not just the cancer research, not just research on children's cancer, whi

sam nunn symphony. tal kopan. >> josh stein al-awda woo won-shik chen lu. >> next up is the supreme magnificence on theraya river with its azertac south korea. >> justin brannan ziwe ju woong. >> li jingquan. >> and the final set of fireworks here. >> ladies and gentlemen, is named this celebrating the everlasting legacy of siam. >> michael holmes hello. hi. and rumtuwa iran zyn justin trudeau john harwood ju woong john thune. >> legacy aaron tang uqora thai les sydney hong kong lockup. >> commencing countdown. thailand. icon. siam. >> wow! >> oh ying h-1b my ni tsuite jing jing ha mai tuk tuk. >> tanaka sawasdee be my song. >> happy new year, everyone. happy new year, everyone. >> happy new year. shanon cook shanon cook. momo shang chen zhao qingfu man man, oh bright lights, revelry and celebration in thailand. >> it is 2025. in the kingdom. that was a spectacular display in bangkok. as we saw the fireworks light up the night sky with those golden showers above the temple of dawn, one of the most beloved, oldest and most famous buddhist temples in thailand. that's right there in the chao phraya river