schneider knows more about this than i do. i would say from a strategy point of view, one thing that we have ignored that our chinese friends have not, the mid-'90s it was general wong min at their military college made a stateme statement, the americans cannot fight a long war, and we will win a long war. even though their doctrine and what they'd prefer to do is to win a short, sharp victory. on the other hand, we spent a lot of time and effort during the cold war making sure the soviets knew we could fight and prevail in a long war. we've given up on that. and a big part of what we've ignored, i think, in that, are things like strategic material stockpiles, whether our industrial base can surge production. you can't surge production of a forward class carrier so, okay, but you can surge production of other things potentially like precision-guided munitions. so how we thought about what kind of posture we need to be in in order to convince the chinese that, you know, no matter how they are thinking about it, aggression and c

our other panelists is doctor william schneider. i colleague at the institute and also president of the international planning services incorporated. it is a washington-based international trade and finance a verse firm. now doctor schneider was formally under secretary of state for security, science and technology in the 1980s. he served as associate director for national security, international affairs and the office of budget. prior to be nominating as undersecretary and he served as advisor to the u.s. government in several capacities but i would even add almost endless capacities as his understanding of both military and scientific affairs is unparalleled in this town and in the thinking world. he also served as the generally by three on arms control and disarmament. he served on the defense science board since 2011. , 2001. gentlemen, my question to you as we begin this discussion and get underway and thinking about these questions is how did this offset strategy come to be formulated and how do we see it shaping up as somethi

schneider. let me give you my twist on the issue.irst, i think the third offset strategy is as dr. schneider term but term but at the core what we are talking about is strategy. and we all know the basic definition of strategy -- how you employees limited means to achieve the ends that you seek. but if you dig a little deeper, you see that strategy is also core, identifying, developing, and exploiting advantages against your adversary while at the same time recognizing those advantages that you have that are becoming what was called in the early wastingthe cold war, assets. advantages that are fading away. and your adversary is constantly trying to make your advantages wasting assets and develop new advantages of their own. and there is a constant competition that goes on. and as was mentioned by dr. schneider, we have this ignore miss advantage after world war ii where we had a nuclear monopoly. that became a wasting asset when the russians tested their nuclear weapons in august, 1949. we were confronted with a strategic choice abou

we'll have more on the wither in just a bit with meteorologist bobby schneider. for now west to hawaii, japan's prime minister is set to visit pearl harbor with president obama today, marking the first time in decades one of the country's prime ministers has visited the historic site. shinzo abe arrived in hawaii yesterday for a trip intended to show a strong alliance between his country and the united states. following his arrival, mr. abe visited the national memorial cemetery of the pacific which honors those who died while serving in the u.s. armed forces. while the prime minister's visit to pearl harbor has been widely reported as a first ever since world war ii ended, he actually will be the fourth prime minister to do so. that includes a visit by his grandfather who also served as prime minister. japanese officials are characterizing mr. abe's visit to the site as the first by a sitting prime minister with a u.s. president. this trip comes seven months after president obama became the first sitting president to visit a park dedicated to the 140,000 people

tide and downy together. >>> i'm meteorologist bonnie schneider.warmer temperatures the day after christmas. that's right, unseasonably mild, and many record highs occurred on christmas. expect more today with warm weather along the gulf coast. it will stay cool, though, across much of the rockies where we still have snow on the ground, and the blizzard i mentioned earlier will dissipate, leaving us with snow shower into northern minnesota and colder temperatures as well. dara, we're feeling the effects of winter, soon enough, as we wrap up the end of this year. >> thank you so much. >> now, to a story about speed dating for the 21st century. it's about a guy who's putting a new spin on an old tv favorite, except he swapped the studio for the back-seat of his car. kevin tibbles wint along for the ride. >> let's go downtown. >> on the streets of san francisco, cupid's in the driver's seat. >> yes, it's ride share the love. the dating game that takes place in the back-seat of an uber car. >> you feel me? >> and your host is 28-year-old stand-up comed

jessica schneider is in times square now.here's not a whole lot of people, you know, a few hundred there with you, jessica. what more do we know about the extra precautions being taken? >> reporter: they're trickling in, fred. it's a bit chilly out here. they're saving up their energy for the ball drop at midnight. this is the magic of the nypd. it's a carefully corrographed endeav endeavor. you can the barricades here and the police presence back there and all around here. this is just one of the many security measures. they've upped the ante. they've put out 65 sanitation trucks filled would sand. they're all around times square. they're also putting in 1,000 block vehicles to project this area as well. there's concern -- no credible threat -- about some of the isis inspired attacks we've seen in europe. they've also got 7,000 officers stationed all over the city, including 550 new graduates from the police academy. and when it comes to these pens right here. there will be 65 of them set up here in times square. each of the

bonnie schneider will check in next. we'll be right back. you got it! what do you think?ing to wish, wish big at the lexus december to remember sales event get up to $2500 customer cash on select 2016 and 2017 models for these terms. see your lexus dealer. >>> let's get a check on your weather now with nbc meteorologist bonnie schneider. >> hey, chris. we're watching the rain come into much of the northeast. it's interesting, we may see a burst of snow in new york city before this all changes over to rain. don't expect a lot of snow, but i just want to let everyone know that's possible. we're already getting snow across parts of pennsylvania. let's look at where the advisories are right now. we can see we've got quite a few winter storm warnings. a lot of this will go into effect throughout the morning. let's look at the pattern of this storm. rain will develop along the front in the south. low pressure developing across the mid-atlantic, eventually moving to the east, bringing heavy rain for long island into connecticut and then snow will be coming in heavy and hard as w

cnn's jessica schneider is outside trump tower. good morning. >> reporter:

let's begin this hour with cnn jessica schneider in lansing, michigan. every state meets in its own state capital or state house. michigan will be an important one to watch. >> yeah, that's right, chris. michigan 16 electors will cast their votes at 2:00 today. it will be happening in state capitals all around the country like you said. something that happens every year, but this year we're expecting protesters and thousands of calls for electors to vote their conscious, an unlikely scenario, though. donald tromp getting one step closer to officially becoming the next president of the united states today. all 538 members of the electoral college casting their ballots across the country. the typically ceremonial process in the spotlight since some are urging electors to go rogue and block trump from the office. for that to happen, though, 37 electoral would have to switch their votes. highly unlikely. >> the question is whether there are 37 republican electors who think that

. >> like the schneider. >> like the schneider of the house. >> greatest protest ever. >>> merriam webster announced the word of the year. it is surreal. marked by the intense irrational reality of a dream, unbelievable, fantastic. 2016 was a surreal year remember this? secretary of state. the publishing company picked surreal because of the number of lookups. liberals were hoping they were living in an episode of st. elsewhere. for oxford it was post-truth. for dictionary.com xenophobia. my word of the year, bumfuzzle. you know what it means? to confuse? you confuse them. you bumfuzzled them. >> do you notice a pat western the dictionary picks? they all seem to be picking what? >> things that are -- give me some clues. i thought this was a game show. >> exactly. >> you got the post-truth. that's a dig, right? >> they're all digs. >> they are all orwellian digs at trump or trump supporters. >> why do you think the world of lexicon is against trump. >> anything in charge of giving you information is against trump. >> what is it? >> he is an evil person in their eyes. i love him. >> i was su

. >> reporter: jim eric schneider man says donald trump will have to wait until after an investigationcomplete, and the new york's top cop isn't the only one speaking out. after the president-elect's announcement he will end the trump charitable foundation, new york's attorney general saying not so fast. the trump foundation is still under investigation by this office and cannot legally dissolve until the investigation is complete. new york a.g. snyder man launched the prohibit amid allegations that he used it to settle personal business dealings, trump making mention of the order in october that's still in effect only say the foundation has done enormous good however, to avoid even the appearance of any conflict with my role as president, i have decided to continue to pursue my strong interests in philanthropy in other ways, but donald trump hasn't even donated to his ocharity since 2008, according to the foundation's tax records. the democratic national committee mocking plans to shut the foundation down, saying the announcement is a wilted figure leaf to cover up the remaining confl

secretary schneider. a certificate of ascertainment will be printed in full under the journal of the proceedings of the electoral college. secretary speaks will call the role of electors. as your name is called. please rise in your place and answer, present. >> honorable robert asher. honorable mary barket. honorable robert bozzuto. honorable theodore christian. honorable michael downing. honorable margaret ferrero. honorable christopher gleason. honorable robert gleason. honorable joyce haas. honorable ash khare. honorable james mac rolling. honorable elstina pickett. honorable patricia popper. honorable andrew riley. honorable carol sides. honorable gloria "lee" snover. honorable richard stewart. honorable lawrence tagus. honorable christine toretti. honorable carolyn bunny welch. >> thank you, secretary speaks. 20 electors, having answered to their names, we shall proceed with the business of the 58th pennsylvania electoral college. we are pleased to have one of pennsylvania's distinguished jurors to a

if you are heading to times square new york, bundle up, bonnie schneider is tracking the forecast. bonnie. >> we have lake effects snow coming in and a second clipper, that'll move through over the weekend bringing light additional snow. unfortunately, more snow on top of that. plenty of rain coming through los angeles today causing airport delays so we are watching that in southern california. we are looking for more rain in southern arizona as well. some mountain snow as well going forward. the road parades looks good in pasadena. how about times square ? what can we expect when the ball drops? >> 40 degrees and mostly cloudy. a good looking forecast to start out the new year and temperatures looking pretty good for today. we'll be watching cooler air coming through across the northern tier and the country is working its way through the east. not a bad looking forecast for the new year. >> meteorologist bonnie schneider. >> thank you, what do we know of the people of the intel community, what is the proof? that's straight ahead. type 2 diabetes. listen up. we're not professional

that colder air will work its way eastward. >> bonnie schneider for us there, thanks. >>> gun violence up a record pace as the year comes to an end. over the weekend 43 people shot, 11 of them died. for the year more than 4200 people have been shod, a devastating 47% increase over last year. nbc's ron mott reports. >> reporter: good day to you, hallie. if folks thought the holiday weekend would have an impact of bringing down the gun violence, unfortunately not the case. 41 people shot at least here in the city, 11 fatalities. this is as we still have four, five more days to go for the year. we are looking at close to 800 homicides in the city of chicago this year. a huge increase over last year, as much as 50 percent, and a sobering statistic, the "sun times" published a graphic that arrests are down by their estimation of upwards of 28 pittsburgh drop in arrest from one year to the next. we not the city of chicago has -- they're going to try to target some of the harder-hit areas in town. the west side of chicago, the south side of chicago, but the numbers were waking up to today, as

jessica schneider, thank you very much.py new year. >>> cnn's anderson cooper and kathy griffin will co-host the new year's coverage. 8:00 p.m. eastern to 12:00 a.m. don lemon and brooke baldwin will also be counting down from the music club in new orleans. the party begins, again, at 8:00 p.m. eastern right here on cnn. >>> and a kennedy cousin could be headed back to prison for murder, after a connecticut judge overturned an earlier ruling that freed him. now in 2002, michael skakel, remember, was convicted of killing martha moxley, a 15-year-old neighbor back in 1975. skakel was the nephew of ethel and robert kennedy. the ruling said that skakel's lawyer hadn't represented him well. now, that decision was overturn by a judge who disagree. skakel's current lawyer sent a statement to cnn. we want to read it now. it says we haven't had time to fully digest the opinion at this juncture. but, of course, it's a setback. we're going to be dealing with other procedures that are available to avail michael of any and all of his co

msnbc meteorologist bonnie schneider, thank you very much. >>> to politics now.president-elect donald trump took to twitter this morning to share new years well wishes. even for those, he calls my many enemies. let's go to nbc's kelly o'donnell in west palm beach, florida. what else is the president-elect up to today? >> reporter: well, being it's a holiday, stephanie. it's pretty quiet on the trump world front. there are no public events expected. but there is also a tradition for the trump family here in palm beach. they will have the annual new year's eve party at the mara lago club. that will have about 800 guests we're told. this is something that is not a personal party hosted by the trumps, but it is the club. and we expect that sylvester stallone and quincy jones will be among the guests. dinner and dancing will be there. they will be ringing in the new year, unlike many americans, in a very posh style. and ringing in a year that will send them to the white house. so we don't know of any other events today, or if we will even see the president-elect in pu

president schneider-amman: it is going to happen within the next couple of days. message from my side will be, my dear president-elect, please think about the small and midsized countries of this globe. markets, and an open market philosophy based in the wto as an opportunity. and i hope that trump will realize the opportunity to discuss about the need of the smaller and the might of the future economies. i am looking forward to speaking to him. scarlet: that was switzerland's president johann schneider-amman speaking with guy johnson about donald trump. we discuss the outlook for global financial markets in a donald trump presidency. the weeks since have seen a surge in equities and a stronger dollar. bill gross doesn't think the markets are getting everything right when it comes to the longer-term picture. bill: what they are getting wrong in the longer term is there are a lot of negatives in terms of anti-globalization policy. many of them are anti-trade, to a certain extent. many of them promote a strong dollar, which sounds good, but ultimately puts u.s. corp

snk jo >>> joining me now, bonnie schneider. talk about the storm. what's on your radar? >> the lake effect snow and the wind this afternoon. you can see the snow coming in now to cleveland, buffalo. we have colder air over the warmer waters of the great lakes. that kicks up the intense snow bands. that's something i'm concerned with throughout the day. heavy snow into northern maine. watch for lake effect snow going forward. let's look at what we can expect over the weekend. there is another storm coming through. a fast moving clipper system that will bring only additional lighter snow. we have airport delays due to rain in los angeles and strong wind in newark. 30 miles per hour wind gusts now. in california, the rain has been pretty tremendous, i would say, for southern california standards. we are looking at rain for san diego and more storms expected there. through the weekend an unsettled weather pattern emerging with rounds of rain. mountain snow in the southwest. moisture out there. that will work into southern arizona just north of phoenix. we expect quite a bit

let's begin with cnn's jessica schneider live in palm beach, florida. >> reporter: good morning, don. for the past few days, the president-elect has staid mostly out of the public eye here at mar-a-lago. of course, late yesterday his twitter account sprung into action with those flurry of tweets. the president-elect going after president obama after obama speculated he would have won a third term if it was possible, using his message of hope and inclusion. >> i'm confident that if i had run again and articulated it, i think i would have mobilized a majority of the american people to rally behind it. >> reporter: trump tweeting, obama said he thinks he would have won against me. he should say that, but i say no way. then boasting, the world was gloomy before i won. there was no hope. now the market is up nearly 10% and christmas spending is over a trillion dollars. trump seemingly overlooking obama's record of cutting unemployment to a nine-year low and taking credit for holiday spending figures that aren't final numbers. trump also going after his favorite target, the media, over his

. >>> now a check on your weather with bonnie schneider.onnie. >> an update for you, a new winter weather advisory just issued for upstate new york, into pennsylvania. with the exception of boston and new york city, we're likely to see rain, but the winter storm warning is in effect for tomorrow, that's when we expect the storm to ramp up. watch as this front pushes across the mid south, bringing strong storms, maybe even hail to threaten the area and eventually pushing east tomorrow. that will trigger some showers through much of eastern north carolina, but as this low pressure system works offshore and emerges, we're looking at a nor'easter, because this storm will move to the north and the east. interestingly enough, when it bombs out and drops down it will be more towards maine than areas into new york or boston, but let's break it down for you, the snow is for interior new england and the coastal low will cause some very strong winds and we're always watching that, even early in the season for beach erosion. here's when the storm will

msnbc meteorologist bonnie schneider joins me now. bonnie, where are the trouble spots today? >> well, melissa, you heard about the airport delays we're facing in dallas and phoenix, weather-relate the especially in arizona as moisture comes in from california into arizona. we're seeing snow in the higher elevations. a vigorous storm system that impacts so many americans. we have rain in sandiego, still kind of lingering in las vegas dealing with wet weather. as the system emerges, we're going to see that snow get heavy at times in utah and eventually in colorado, and eventually a blizzard. this will happen on christmas day right through the northern plains as the cold air wraps behind this low. those wind gusts could climb up to 5 miles per hour. so blowing and drifting snow, making vizability nonexistent. not advisable to be traveling. and minneapolis, starting the day tomorrow with freezing rain on christmas morning. eventually changing over to rain. for those traveling in the afternoon, on christmas, we're running the risk for severe weather. in terms of thunderstorms, dam

cnn's jessica schneider now joins me. jessica, some key members of trump's staff are also speaking out. what are they saying? >> reporter: we know trump's top advisers are reacting with a combination of doubt and even their own accusations. top adviser kellyanne conway saying the sanctions seem largely symbolic and she continues to cast questions on the intelligence community and its conclusion that the russians hacked into political committees in the midst of the election. then conway even went on to accuse president obama of playing politics in this whole situation. >> even those who are sympathetic to president obama on most issues are saying that part of the reason he did this today was to quote, box in president-elect trump that. would be very unfortunate if that were the motive, if politics were the motivating factor here but we can't help but think that's often true. >> reporter: trump's chief of staff speaking out too, repeating his request for more information from the intelligence community. >> we agree that for

jessica schneider is live in palm beach. jessica, what do we know about what trump said about president obama? >> reporter: well, suzanne, we do know that donald trump has previously praised the president but all of that seems to be out the window after president obama sat down for a podcast with his senior -- former senior advisor, david axlerod. in that podcast president obama said that he believes if he were eligible for a third term that he would have won saying the voters, he believes, would have embraced his message of hope and inclusion. upon hearing that the president-elect took to twitter firing back. donald trump unleashing late yesterday saying this on twitter, saying president obama said he thinks he would have won against me. he should say that, but i say no way. jobs leaving, isis, o care, et cetera. of course, donald trump did base his campaign on channelling some of that anger from americans on jobs that were lost, on the economy, on trade as well as on obamacare. seems that donald trump may be channelling so

sarah schneider is live with more. does this mean it is over, sarah?celebrations are short lived here. there are upwards of 8,000 people inside this camp. we watched as the camp grew and grew and grew. we also watched as people celebrated. there was drums beating and people crying, people cheering, people chanting. feeling like they were finally heard, especially the members of the standing rock sioux and the sioux nation who have been fight over this pipeline for months trying to stop it from going underneath the missouri river saying it would poison their water and the water of millions of americans who live down stream. yesterday they thought they had a victory but energy transfer partners came back with a scathing response to the army corps of engineers telling them that they could no longer do that and reroute the pipeline saying the isis a political ploy and talked about the administration saying they are going to continue along the path that they've given legal permission to do so. alisyn, chris? >> thank you very much. >>> some parts of the cou

[ crowd chanting "lock her up" ] >> let's begin with jessica schneider outside of trump tower in new york. did trump make policy announcement, jessica? >> reporter: i think it's fair to say, brooke, that donald trump was in his element last night, covering a multitude of topics. after weeks of being holed up in trump tower, he got out into the crowds to hammer home his messages and priorities. the theme of his speech and rallies, putting america first. he talked about a number of different things. he said reaching out to american workers, cutting taxes, securing jobs in the country, preventing them from leaving the country but he went into many of his campaign promises, he talked about cutting back on immigration from countries that have been come mized by terrorism and then, of course, he hammered in on his promises of repealing and replacing obamacare and he talked about a multitude of issues, interestingly, when people are saying he should be reaching out to the plurality of voters who did, in fact, vote for his opponent, he offered these words of bringing this country together. t

now a check on your weather with nbc meteorologist bonnie schneider. it is a mess in some places. >> it is, especially for maine, lots of heavy snow falling right now at a rate of one to four inches per hour. that's intense. at the height of the storm it was going six inches per hour. we still also have lake effect snow coming in. i want to let you know we have advisories all the way from syracuse, jamestown, and into erie, pennsylvania. this lake effect snow event is one of a couple we're going to be seeing this week. let's talk about maine right now. your winter storm warning continues. so we're still watching out for dangerous conditions. travel not advised for northern vermont and northern new hampshire and snow totals are still coming in. we've already seen 20 inches in some parts of maine, just mind boggling. early snow and then the lake effect snow comes in and those bands will be intense, so we could see several inches plus as it comes through. then by tomorrow the new clip is coming in over the great lakes and that will bring light snowfall ac

bonnie schneider at the weather map friday. bonnie, thank you. roads and airports not necessarily to shop. this time they are returning. that's a big bust for retailers. last year americans returned more than $260 billion in merchandise. nbc's morgan radford outside of walmart in new jersey. she's giving us some tips on what we need to know before we return these items. may, morgan. >> hey, craig. that's right. cold weather isn't stopping people from coming back and returning items. we've seen a lot of big spending this season. spending estimated to be up $1 trillion, that's about a 4% increase from what we saw last year. even an increase last month 5% in terms of sales. again, that's just in terms of the end of this holiday season. a lot of people did not want to wait in these lines outside. it's cold, so they went online. when they did that, we saw about a billion dollars in sales just this year alone. a lot of them were procrastinators. they saw tendencies of people who tended to shop online. it looks like they waited until the last minute. th

>> jessica schneider live from michigan. let's head to wisconsin now. wisconsin will cast its ten electoral votes after a recount certified donald trump as winner. >> reporter: you know, i talked to one elector who says he received more than 80,000 e-mails and more than 2300 pieces of snail mail, all from people trying to sway his vote. he's not the only one. he of course knows some of the other electors because they are all part of the executive committee of the republican party here in wisconsin, and he says some of his fellow electors received 2300, 2400 pieces of snail mail all trying to sway his vote and their vote against donald trump, but the thing is, michigan and wisconsin, like jessica was just mentioning, are states that have faithless elector laws. all that means is that they have laws against electors going against the november 8th election results. so what we are expecting here to happen today is in the doors you see behind me are for these ten electors to come in and vote for donald trump, because donald trump won the election here on nov

. >> our leslie schneider is live outside the trump tower. what is the latest news, jess? >> reporter: secretary of state is the mostly watched post. all eyes have been on the former massachusetts governor mitt romney. he's a leading contender sitting down with donald trump twice over the past few weeks. mitt romney after the last time he met with donald trump even came out and praised donald trump's electoral victory. interestingly this morning, donald trump talked about the fact that the two have come a long way together. and that donald trump has come a long way in his thinking about mitt romney. but despite that over the past few days and weeks, we have heard a lot of other names emerge as possible contenders for secretary of state. in particular, we've heard about general david petraeus. and we have heard about former utah governor and former u.s. ambassador to china, jon huntsman. also emerging in the past day or so, exxon's ceo ron tillerson. he met with donald trump here at trump tower. donald trump called him out by name this morning calling him a great man. so wh

meteorologist bonnie schneider tracking several storms across the country. where are we going to have the biggest problems today, bonnie? >> we face dense fog and that's impacting airports throughout the southeast but we see improvements especially through the middle and latter part of the morning, you could see some of the advisories are dissipating and the ones in the southeast and to georgia and south carolina, they may linger longer. but as we look towards the northeast, we've been watching rain and snow move through. some lake-effect snow, not much of a problem in terms of accumulation. light if that, an inch, maybe e less and not a trouble spot for the northeast but the northwest, that's where it gets dicey. plenty of rain, a steady rain along the oregon coast and that will continue as well for seattle and a lot of snow. mountain of snow building in the cascades and this could get us high as 2 feet, so very, very heavy snow expected with some pockets of rain coming through. and let's take at a look with the snowfall and measuring it by the foot. so a l

let's begin with jessica schneider outside of trump tower in new york. good morning, jessica. >> the inclment weather could not stop donald trump from getting to those clouds in north carolina. it was a thank you rally where he largely stuck to script and also promising unity and also touting his business expertise and his election win. >> we will have two simple rules when it comes to rebuilding this country. buy american and hire american. >> reporter: taking his first first message to north carolina, the president-elect vowing to protect american jobs. >> we will defeat the enemy on jobs and we have to look at it almost as a war. >> reporter: donald trump, once again, taking aim at corporate america. the president-elect spent much of tuesday criticizing a government contract with boeing to build a new air force one. trump tweeting, costs are out of control. more than $4 billion. cancel order. it's unclear why trump attacked boeing, america's largest exporter or where trump even got that hefty price tag. boeing says it currently has $170 million develo

correspondent jessica schneider joins us particular palm beach with the latest. tell us about the complications that might affect the president-elect's decision to try to dissolve the trump foundation? >> reporter: well, jake, new york's attorney general is saying simply it won't be that easy. they're saying that the president-elect cannot simply end the trump foundation. in particular because of the legal entanglements it's in. the spokesperson putting it succinctly in a statement saying, the trump foundation is still under investigation by this office, and cannot legally dissolve until that investigation is complete. now, attorney general schneiderman, who was a hillary clinton supporter during the campaign actually launched this investigation in the midst of the campaign, amid allegations that donald trump had used the foundation funds to settle some of his personal business dealings. donald trump did release a statement, not referring at all to the investnvestigation, sayi would dissolve the foundation and looked to continue his philanthropy in other ways. de

they reported directly to governor rick >>schneider. all are accused of misleading the state treasury of getting millions in bonds, misusing the money and forcing the city's drinking water switch to the flint river. the question remains will the accountability here reach to the highest levels of government? total of 13 people now facing charges. >>> lawmakers in north carolina meeting in a special session today to consider repealing the state's controversial bathroom law. house bill 2 has been a lightning rod for controversy ever since its passage back in march. it demands that people use the public rest rooms according to the gender identified on their birth certificate. the bill triggered boycotts and economic backlash throughout north carolina. >>> now to holiday travel headaches. southwest airlines saying its frustrating website and app glitch is now mostly fixed. people were having fits for hours tuesday as they tried to check in or book flights. southwest says flight delays yesterday had nothing to do with its web problems. in jul

>> jessica schneider live outside of trump tower. later this hour, alexandra field will join us from beijing to discuss china's reaction to all of this. let's talk about that and much much more. with me, cnn political analyst rebecca berg, national political reporter for real clear politics. karen tumulty from "the washington post," andrey brower, former lieutenant governor of south carolina and cnn commentator bakari sellers. welcome to all of you. what do you want to talk about first? we got a lot on the plate this morning. let's start with jill stein. she's expected to speak at any moment about this recount and is holding this rally in front of trump tower. what is she expecting to gain from that? >> i can't answer that. i don't know what she's expecting to gain. it's not moving america forward. it's not continuing to get ready for the new president to take office. to me it seems like a side show. i don't want to negate anybody's opportunity to challenge something they feel is not right, but i don't know what the goal is here. i d

poppy and don. >> thank you so much, jessica schneider with that reporting. let's discuss with our panel. former cia counterterrorism official philip mudd and military analyst and former army command general mark hertling and senior editor of "daily beast" michael weiss. compare this to the cold war for us. give us a reality check on that. >> well, you are saying that because i'm the oldest one on the panel, poppy. >> i am not. >> i fought in the cold war and patrolled the borders between west germany and some of the war saw packed. you could see what was going on on the other side. with cyberwarfare, you can't see it. the objectives are to create distrust, seed confusion and cause mayhem. the russians have done that in this case. they have gone beyond cybersquirmishing. the difference between having one individual go into the land between east germany and west germany during the cold water versus sending an entire tank division across the border. this is critically important because, as russia tried to do the things they did, it was not just against the poli

bonn bonnie schneider in new york. still ahead, president obama's push to save the legacy. what he's doing in the last weeks in office. next. >>> in the next hour, we'll ask a member of the intelligence committee what her biggest fear is when it comes to computer hackers. >>> a new gallup goal calls president obama the most admired president. joining me now, democratic strategist, daron johnson, regional director of obama's 2012 campaign. happy new year to you. >> happy new year, stephanie. >> you know, talk of obama's legacy really started during the campaign. in fact, obama encouraged support of hillary clinton to bolster his legacy. and he is still making a case for it. listen to what he said during his last weekly address of the year. >> poverty is falling. incomes are rising. in fact, last year, folks' typical household income rose by $2,800. 20 million more americans know the financial security of health insurance. our kids' high school graduation rate is at an all-time high. we have brought 165,000 troops from iraq and afghanistan, and took out owe bin laden. >> he r

jessica schneider, do take care. safety to all of you there.hank you. >>> in just a few hours, vladimir putin will give his new year's address to the russian people in a statement to world leaders earlier, though, he congratulated donald trump, gave president obama the cold shoulder. >> new allegations have surfaced of russian hacking. this time the target apparently is a vermont utility company. burlington electric says it found a company laptop with the same malware russian hackers allegedly used to meddle in the u.s. elections. meanwhile, donald trump is praising putin's decision to not expel american diplomats in response to u.s. sanctions against russia tweeting this -- great move on delay by v. putin. i always knew he was very smart. >> one of the latest information on that target of russian hacking we just mentioned that appears to be our nation's electrical power grid. that vermont, officials confirmed a code associated with the russian hacking operation was detected. the vermont senator called this a direct threat to vermont and we do

jessica schneider joins us from lansing. what are you seeing, jessica? >> reporter: john it was so close here in michigan. donald trump winning by about 10,000 votes over hillary clinton. but today those 16 electors will be right here at the state capitol. 245i8 they'll arrive in an hour. the vote at 2:00 p.m. already here about 100 protestors, circled the capitol. not in front of the capitol chanting saying, "vote your conscience." urging electors to not cast their ballots for donald trump. however, that likelihood is extremely slim. these are electors voted unanimously at the state party convention back in april. this is led by the republican party, presided over by the state's govern rick snyder, also a republican. however, he's electors have been receiving threats. in fact one elector right here in michigan receiving death threats. in addition, michigan's own michael moore, documentary filmmaker, as well as activist, took to facebook saying he would pay the fines for any elector who did in fact go rogue and vote their conscience, but, again, not like

jessica schneider is standing by outside of trump tower. we talked about these individuals as potential picks. what about policy announcement, jessica? did trump make any policy announcements today? >> reporter: brooke, this was all really reminiscent of candidate trump where he riffed on a multitude of subjects going in every which direction. it was part teleprompter, part off the cuff but it was all signature donald trump and he honed in on his message that he honed in throughout the campaign on putting america first. he says he wants to put america first to american workers cutting taxes and when it comes to immigration, suspending immigration from countries he says are compromised by terror but also talking about a number of subjects as he tends to do in these large rallies where he sometimes does go off the prompter. he even lashed out at the media calling it "the dishonest media." he even took a few jabs at ohio governor john kasich saying, of course, john kasich not endorsing donald trump during the campaign but donald trump said joh

that's where we find jessica schneider.at's the beefed up security measures that you're seeing down there so far? >> well, martin, the nypd stresses that this times square will be the safest place in the city to be tonight and that's because of those increased security measures. the nypd has the numbers to prove it. in fact, take a look at these stats. new this year there will be 65 sanitation trucks in the perimeter of times square. they'll be filled with sand and that's all to prevent any sort of truck style isis-inspired attack like we saw overseas. the nypd does stress no credible threat here in new york city or times square. also 100 blocker vehicles, that's double the number from years past. 7,000 nypd officers will be around the city. that includes 550 new graduates and in addition, 65 viewing pens. each pen is to be filled with 3,000 spectators. you can see things in times square, still a bit empty out here. the crowds start arriving in probably the next hour or two, yes, they do arrive that early even though the ba

schneider-ammann: it is going to happen within the next couple of days. from my side will be my dear president-elect, please think about small and midsized countries of this globe. markets, and an open market philosophy must be your philosophy as well. based on wto as an opportunity, and i hope that some offers the opportunity to discuss about the might ofthe smaller the future economies. i am looking forward to speaking from an entrepreneur to an entrepreneur. guy: thank you so much for sharing your time this morning. the swiss president. tom keene, back to you. tom: a good chart right now, euro swiss. davosrro and i were in when this happened. the collapse of the swiss franc, and what all in switzerland have done is battle with what they perceive is the irresponsibility of europe, with still a very strong swiss franc. kate rock -- eight more will join us from -- kate moore will join us from blackrock. mario cavalli and search for the -- thislue -- go valley is bloomberg. stay with us. ♪ francine: i am francine lacqua in rome, tom keene in new york. i go

cnn's jessica schneider is following the story for us this morning and has more. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. cnn has asked the transition team repeatedly is the president-elect getting these daily briefings by u.s. intelligence, especially in the wake of the overseas attacks this week. all they are saying right now is that he is being briefed by his national security adviser, retired lieutenant general michael flynn but that's essentially second-hand information. we have learned that trump will meet with flynn today. it will be for a briefing on events around the world as well as staffing discussions. that meeting was scheduled before the attacks overseas took place. cnn has also learned that trump is averaging one presidential daily briefing per week with some weeks as many as three briefings. of course, they are available every day. we also know that while the president-elect is vacationing in florida, he does have someone available directly to him 24/7 to inform him on the latest intelligence and of course, that is something that's customary for pr

bonnie schneider, thank you. >>> breaking news. more arrests in the terror attack on the christmas market in berlin. next, some answers about how difficult it is to track these potential attackers. >>> we've got to rely on law enforcement in the intelligence services to utilize intelligence to try and identify and mitigate these attackers before they can bring harm to innocent civilians. >> former fbi agent, sean henry, talking about heightened security here in the u.s. this holiday season. meanwhile, today we are getting breaking word of new arrests in the attack on a christmas market in berlin. tunisia's interior ministry says officials there have arrested three suspects, what they're calling a terror cell, in connection with that truck attack earlier this week. a nephew of attack suspect, anis amri, and two others are now in custody in tunisia. officials said amri sent his 18-year-old nephew money to join him in europe. amri himself now dead after a police shootout in milan. joining me, former state department spokesperson and f

bonnie schneider is tracking that for us. what are we seeing, bonnie?t delays in minneapolis, 45 minutes. not really surprising, weather related for that. the rest of the country doing okay. as you hurt from the previous reports, there will be a trickle down effect. the blizzard warning we have been watching has been in the northern plains where we had terrible, terrible travel conditions across north and south dakota with just blowing and drifting snow. wind gusts as high as 70 miles per hour. causing a complete white-out situation. that will improve as we go throughout the day. as the low works its way to the east, we'll be watching for more nasty weather. the rain coming in to pennsylvania, parts of upstate new york, we could see that change over to ice at times, so be careful driving. the winds will also pick up in this area. it's going to be a little treacherous for traveler. another spot that will be troublesome will be the pacific northwest. another system coming in from the pacific will bring rain and snow. very gusty winds, especially in bellin

jessica schneider, thank you very much. before he won his bid for the white house, donald trump vowed to overturn many of president obama's policies. so could the russian sanctions be added to that list? one top obama adviser tells cnn, not so fast. >> the reversal of sanctions such as what you've described would be highly unusual. indeed, the sanctions usually remain in place until the activity and the reasons for them being in place in the first place has been removed. >> joining me now to discuss the head spinning turn of events, david rohde, cnn global affairs analyst and national security investigations editor for reuters and editor emeritus at the world policy journal and "usa today" columnist. david i want to start with a tweet the russian embassy blasted obama as a lame duck, and called his actions, quote, cold war deja vu. so are we entering a new kind of cold war? and in the same response, what do you make of putin not doing anything? >> well, what i would make of putin not doing is really i think effectively a su

let's go to jessica schneider outside of trump tower. this is is big because he doesn't usually talk to the media going in and out. >> a lot twists and turns from the president-elect. what we thought was going to be a quiet day at least in the beginning of meetings here at trump tower turned into a appearance from the president-elect himself. donald trump spouting off this morning about air force one and what he's calling the bloated costs. now, let me give you a rundown as to how this all developed through the morning. around 8:52 this morning, just about an hour ago, donald trump took to his favorite medium, twitter. he put out this. help said, boeing is building brand-new 747 air force one for future presidents but costs are out of control. more than $4 billion and continuing with his exclamation cancel order. of course the new air force one will be a 747-8. the old air force ones, 747-200s. he greeted the pool cameras just inside the trump tower lobby and had this to say. >> well, the plane is totally out of control. it's going to be

. >> jessica schneider is live outside of trump tower. turned into the transition headquarters. good morning, jessica. >> reporter: good morning. the most anticipated pick from donald trump being secretary of state. he's saying he will likely announce his pick next week. of course, all eyes have been on mitt romney for many weeks now. he's emerged as one of the leading contenders. he sat down with the president-elect twice, most recently at a dinner just a few blocks from trump tower, and after he emerged from that dinner with donald trump, he said he was quite impressed by donald trump's electoral victory and this morning, donald trump saying the two men have come a long way in their relationship. donald trump has come a long way in how he feels about mitt romney. of course, mitt romney calling donald trump back in march a phony and a fraud. despite that, in the past few days we have seen several other on names emerge, people like general david petraeus, also exxon ceo. the former governor jon huntsman. who will donald trump pick? donald trump says he's not trying to string thi

jessica schneider at trump tower. also christina alesci. went down here. >> well, ana, first of all, this has been a very very cal aocal visible donald trump today. this is the second time he came down to trump tower to address reporters. the first time he came down to talk about his boeing tweets but this time to make an interesting announcement. he stood with a japanese businessman he referred to as masa from softbank saying softbank would, in fact, invest $50 billion into the u.s. economy toward businesses and 50,000 new jobs so an interesting announcement that we have to discern the details on and figure out what this deal might entail but donald trump has been visible and vocal today. of course donald trump campaigned on putting america first, spurring jobs, spurring the economy as well as putting innovation first. a few days ago he announced carrier would be saving a thousand jobs, today talking about the deal with the japanese bank. a lot more we need to figure out here, donald trump giving us very little in the lobby of trump tower

first, bonnie schneider is back with a look at your thursday. >> we are tracking this big snowstorm that will bring heavy snow to new hampshire and maine. elsewhere across the country, still mild. a couple storms near atlanta. up to the west, temperatures are cool, comfortable. that's look at the big weather story of the day. now, here's a closer look at the day ahead. temperatures are really cold in the northern plains, minneapolis at 31. to the south, still above normal for dallas. temperatures in the upper 50s, 61 in shreveport. what a contrast with the mild south that we have and the snowstorm brewing in nothinged. mellissa. >> thank you. just ahead, millions in bribes at the u.s. border are covered. that's just the beginning. you are watching "early today." . ...and his pants ignited into flames, causing him to stop, drop and roll. luckily jack recently had geico help him with renters insurance. because all his belongings went up in flames. jack got full replacement and now has new pants he ordered from banana republic. visit geico.com and see how affordable renters insurance can be