it started with sean spicer's very first statement from the podium. >> this was the largest audienceuration, period. >> sean spicer gave alternative facts. >> reporter: the president's tribute crumbled. >> they came out here to punch you. >> reporter: spicer left. >> sarah huckabee-sanders pretends to know something he said but she pretends to know nothing else. >> reporter: fact checkers in overdrive this year and it is another stain on the white house's credibility but, at the same time, there is more pressure than ever on us in the press to be careful and get it right. number three. the power of investigative reporting. it created the conditions for michael flynn's firing as national security adviser. it led to the ouster of health and human services secretary tom price following a story about his use of private planes. and it drove the withdrawal of president trump's drug czar nominee. >> this was something was an explosive report by "60 minutes" and "the washington post." >> reporter: viewership and readership way up in 2017 as the reporter held the powerful to account and saw t

>> spicer left. replacement didn't exactly inspire confidence. >> sarah huckabee sanders knows what the president said. she's just pretending she said something else. >> fact checkers have been in overdrive this year. and every false statement is a stain on the white house's credibility. at the same time, there is more pressure than ever on us in the press to be careful and get it right. number 3, the power of investigative reporting. it created the conditions for michael flynn's firing as national security adviser. it led to the ouster of health and human services secretary tom price following his use of private planes. and the withdrawal of president trump's drug czar nominee. >> there was an explosive report by "60 minutes" and "the washington post." >> readership and subscriptions way up in 2017 as investigative reporting held the powerful to account. number 2 is donald trump versus the media, still. we wondered if the new president would tone down his attacks on the fourth estate. but no. >> you

sean spicer and reince priebus had been notified otherwise. had been notified of the truth of the matter when they made false public statements about flynn and russia. why did they lie about it publicly? when it came to the vice president, he was lying, too, which is possible and that possibility shouldn't be discounted. it's fair to say assertionins should no longer be taken at face value. when it comes to the vice president, there are only two options and neither of them are the white house story what happened. either mike pence like priebus and sean spicer lied about flynn and russia. he few tknew the real story and a fake story to the public or he thought he was telling the truth but if he thought he was telling the truth, he wasn't just lied to by mike flynn. he was lied to by k.t. mcelderry c mcelderfarland and who knows wh else. all of whom stood by and let the vice president make all these false statements about it multiple times on national television, on different networks with different interviewers over and over and over again fals

- sean spicer. - sean. - where did sean go? - he walked away. he just... chatter] - good-bye, spice. now, with any new administration, it is normal for there to be a lot of turnover, but the question raised by some of donald trump's firings is whether they are normal, or whether he's illegally trying to protect his own interests, because in addition to famously firing the head of the fbi, he also fired u.s. attorney and indian al gore preet bharara under allegedly similar circumstances. - using my brown illuminati connections, i landed an interview with trump's most famous indian-american fire-ee, former u.s. attorney preet bharara. i keep acting like i know what obstruction of justice is. i have no idea what that means. - fundamentally, if someone with corrupt intent tries to influence or impede an official proceeding, like an investigation, that's unlawful. - and sure, trump called bharara three times and invited him to swing by his golden penis rectangle, but obstruction of justice hinges on trump's intent and whether bharara's office had an open invest

sean spicer.ean spicer, seemed like he was press contrary 100 years ago but he's writing a book now about his experience working for trump. it will be called "the briefing." i guess "confederacy of dunces" was taken. the book promises to shed new light on all the spicer cried himself to sleep in the white house. it's scheduled for release july 23rd of next year. that's good. all the guys he writes about can read it in prison, so that will be fun. end of an era. another trump o.g. is out. o fired from her general at the white house. apparently she didn't sell as much lemonade as bret michaels did. is that how it works? she was fired by trump's chief of staff, john kelley, and reportedly did not take the news well. they say she was forcibly removed from the white house after angrily demanding to speak to the president and shouting profanities. although to be fair, everyone leaves the white house shouting profanities. [ laughter ] apparently quite a scene. by the way, now that she's leaving, can some

sean spicer is back to set the record straight.e got...♪ ♪...nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea!♪ ♪nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea!♪ here's pepto bismol! ah. ♪nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea!♪ aleve direct therapy. the only remote controlled tens device that's drug free, wire free for deep penetrating lower back pain relief. get aleve direct therapy with $10 back and extra bucks rewards at cvs pharmacy. ♪ but it might be hard to handle ♪ ♪ like the flame that burns the candle ♪ ♪ the candle feeds the flame ♪ topped steak & twisted potatoes at applebee's. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood. if you can train oxford to sit... sit you can train yourself to cook with less oil. introducing new pam spray pump made with extra virgin olive oil. now you can pump instead of pour, plus get the superior non-stick you love. new pam spray pump. >> welcome back. it's time to set the record straight said the man who was in charge of doing exactly that for the trump white h

it started with sean spicer's very first statement from the podium. >> this was the largest audienceon, period. >> sean spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts. >> reporter: as the press secretary's credibility crumbled, the ridicule ramped up. spicer left, but his replacement didn't exactly inspire confidence. >> sarah huckabee sanders knows what the president said. she just is pretending he said something else. >> reporter: fact checkers have been in overdrive this year, and every false statement is another stain on the white house's credibility. but at the same time, there is more pressure than ever on us in the press to be careful and get it right. number three, the tower of investigative reporting. it created the conditions for michael flynn's firing. it led to the ouster of health and human services secretary tom price. and drove the withdrawal of president trump's drug czar t nominee. readership, viewership all way up in 2017, as investigative reporting held the powerful to account. we saw that again in our top media story of the year coming up. number two is donal

initially we -- they weren't really truly in touch and it was about only -- you heard sean spicer say now saying, what -- >> it's important to point out that what sean spicer said was, in fact, lies. that was false. >> right. >> the white house has repeatedly lied on this. flynn lied to the fbi about it, as we now know. he's pleaded to a felony. if there is nothing here, why is everybody lying? >> why does president trump keep asking people, comey, burr and the list on down to kill the investigation? >> there is just sort of a -- exactly. there is a lot of smoke around this and it's not entirely clear what's going on. there is a legitimate defense i suppose, which is we were trying to have a strategic rapprochement with russia. we were trying to do a reset, to use the word hillary clinton used -- >> the russian reset. >> fine. why lie about it? why tell the fbi to stop looking into it? why? you know, that's the part that we still don't understand what is this, you know, how does this relate to this issue of russian interference before the campaign and are the two connected? >> 30 seco

>> sean spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts. >> as the press secretary's credibility! >> spicer left, but his replacement didn't exactly inspire confidence. >> sarah huckabee sanders knows what the president said, she just is pretending he said something else. >> fact checkers have been in overdrive this year. and every false statement is another stain on the white house's credibility. but at the same time, there is more pressure than ever on us in the press to be careful and get it right. >>> number three, the power of investigative reporting. it created the conditions for michael flynn's firing as national security adviser. it led to the ouster of health and human services secretary, tom price, following a story about his use of private planes. and it drove the withdrawal of president trump's drug czar nominee. >> this was something that there was an explosive report by "60 minutes" and "the washington post". >> investigative reporting held the powerful to account, and we saw that again in our top media story of the year, coming up. number two is donald trump versus

sean spicer actually said, take the president's tweets as policy. so at this point, phil, what do you make of this business of john dowd saying, i wrote that tweet? at some point, how are the rest of us supposed to think about the president's tweets? >> well, it certainly is in the president's voice that tweet, whether john dowd drafted it or not, it might have been a little of both and sort of a review process as we understand it. but i think there's an effort here by john dowd and the white house staff to distance the president from those words. there are a couple complicated factors, however, if john dowd wrote the tweet and drafted it, does he then become a witness in the mueller investigation? and if that happens, does he have to recuse himself from somehow representing the president and his personal attorney? i don't know. i can tell you within trump's orbit there's a lot of c consternation about the whey the white house have handled the tweet issue over the last 48 hours. a real sense that the legal team doesn't quite have the its act togethe

. >> sean spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts. >> regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire mueller. >> drop any investigation connected to flynn. >> the nomination is confirmed. >> i regret that our efforts were simply not enough. >> my [ bleep ] paranoid schizophrenic, paranoid -- >> we have come so far, and the people of alabama have spoken. >> rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself. >> the deadliest mass shooting in u.s. history. >> isis collapsing. >> we are experiencing a new trend in the threat we face. >> disrespecting our flag and our country. >> i don't think we should be judged as un-american because we believe in equality. >> powerful men falling like dominoes after stories of sexual misconduct. >> mow more. name it, shame it -- no more, name it, shame it, call it out. >> this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> how could all of that happened in this one year? good morning, everyone, welcome to a christmas day edition of "new day." i'm alisyn camerota along with chris cuomo. wee a ve-- we have a big day. it's been a wild ye

he knows that sean spicer and he says publicly that the president was informed of all of this. one of the things that investigators will have to determine is whether trump knew on the 26th of january that mr. flynn had lied to the fbi which is a felony. that's a big deal. >> the other point i want to raise is today president trump under mind his position publicly and he also given us the impression that mr. flynn did not make a mistake and if no mistakes are made during the transition which means that president trump believes if it is okay that his team under mind our efforts to play sanctions on russia after russia had intervene of the 2016 campaign. that's part of the official document that we saw. we know now that mr. flynn admitted this that he talked to the russians and signals to the russians that the obama approach would not be the approach of the upcoming trump administration. which means mr. trump believes that's okay. us going light on putin was the right thing to do. that raises all kinds of questions. >> one of them, renato, within that guilty plea, we see that flyn

happening in north korea and between the us and the uk as well, but will he go the way of flynn, spicers. senior white house people, in this case the secretary of, is he going to go out well? this is the biggest clue —— secretary of the. the white house says he is definitely staying so that has to be the biggest clue —— secretary of the. i looked online and i couldn't find anything as to whether or not rex tillerson would leave and the global instability that would cause to some extent, given the stock market is at an all—time high. but i did find bets on donald trump being impeached, that's what people are putting their money on, not rex tillerson. what the odds might be... i saw one line that says when the president loses confidence in someone president loses confidence in someone they will no longer serve in their capacity, that comes from sarah huckabee saunders. talking about losing confidence, we know what rex tillerson is reported to have said about donald trump in any case. allegedly he called his president a moron. one would expect that sooner or later he will go if that sooner

spicer left, but his replacement doesn't inspire confidence. >> sarah sanders knows what the president pretending he said something else. >> fact checkers have been in over drive this year, and at the same time there's more pressure than ever on us in the press to be careful and get it right. number 3, the power of investigative reporting. it created the conditions for michael flynn's firing as national security adviser and the ousting of tom price following his use of private planes. >> this is something where there was an explosive report by "60 minutes" and the washington post. >> readership subscriptions up as the investigative reporting was held to account. number 2 is donald trump versus the media, still. this time last year we wondered if the new president would tone down his attacks on the fourth estate, but, no. soon after taking office trump called the media the enemy of the people and tried to redefine the term fake news to mean any coverage he didn't like. >> all i can say it's fake news. >> trump lashed out with verb you wiverbal attacks. >> trump's media bashing has sent

spicer often blasted the press. he accused the media of reporting incorrect information and attacking the administration. he says he wants to set the record straight. >>> and some of the leading if i plan throw mi philanthropists were in france sis at the start of an international stum mitt marking the second anniversary of the climate deal. arnold schwarzenegger was there and had harsh words for trump's decision to withdraw from the paris accord. >> when you hear people talk about the united states dropped out of the paris agreement, don't may any attention. united states did not drop out of the paris agreement. donald trump dropped out. >> schwarzenegger wauchblts the first to criticize the move. john kerry called it, quote, a self destructive decision. >>> and with the olympic games fast approaching, another group of russian athletes are slapped with a lifetime ban. today the international olympic committee banned six female russian hockey players. officials say that they cheated at the 2014 winter games in sochi

. >> everyone, knowing what we know now that -- i want to play for you what sean spicer said when these calls were first reported. this is from an official transition team call with reporters on january 13th. listen. >> with respect to general flynn, just to give everyone a tick tock on this. on christmas day general flynn reached out to the ambassador, sent him a text and it said i wish you merry christmas and a happy new year. i look forward to touching base with you and working with you and i wish you all the best. the ambassador texted him back wishing him a merry christmas as well and then subsequently on the 28th of december texted him and said i'd like to give you a call. may i? he then took that call on the 28th and the call centered around the logistics of setting up a call with the president of russia and the president-elect after he was sworn in and they exchanged logistical information on how to initiate and schedule that call. that was it plain and simple. i believe stephen ignatius will print a -- i don't want to call it -- an update to be more accurate with respect to the

sean spicer is writing a book about his time in the trump administration.release in july. spice plans to share de trails from his time as press secretary. spicer left the white house over the summer but he still hasn't found a permanent job since then. i wand wonder what he's going to say. secret apps, wicker, telegram and vapor extreme are used for private situate. automatically deleting messages without saichg copies. the tools are stirring up legal and regulatory issues, various federal and state laws require companies to keep records of internal communications for a set period of time. chip pot lazies trying to get people about their new batch. >> you can give it a today, but there is a catch. you have to order anen tray wearing your cheese yes sweater to get the free side of quais oh . that's a lot of work for cheese. if you like it, have at it. we're back after this. >> or ohio is rolling out three new fan created flavors in 2018 i don't know about these, cherry cola or ohios, pass. kettle corn or yoas, pass. and opinion a could he lad a or they're go

. >> this is the sort of thing we heard about happening where somebody would call sean spicer and say what do you think of the president's remarks and he would not necessarily know about it s. you tweeted that you called a somewhat senior aide to the president and they didn't know about it. >> he destroys reparty in the give-and-take. you have top aides who said let's not do the press conference and stick with the momentum we have on the tax cuts he designed. let's try and stick to the message and the president as we have seen time and time again is most comfortable when he is unfilter and unstrip theed. that's what we saw to michael and kudos to michael for getting the interview. he is sitting in the middle of the trump golf course and he is stopping and chatting and if you read the transcript, he is talking to club members. it's his natural habitat and that's what he likes to do. >> he likes to talk. if you are donald trump's legal team and looking at the interview, are you cringing? >> you are definitely cringing. what strikes you most is a slap in the face as someone who worked in

sean spicer. >> how are. >> you what is going on my friend. >> checking in neighborhood. >> stoppingcurity here. >> so much to talk about, also. >> we have some -- we have some great guests in the next hour congressman shane duffy i have given him a hard time as house putting together this tax package, so i am sure mr. duffy is ready to give it back to me a regular economic advisory art laffer, stuart varney don't miss any top story congress has until tomorrow midnight to aelevator government shutdown after gop victory on tax reform, blake burman live at the white house with the latest blake. reporter: hay there goingen good morning to you a quick story yesterday at the white house as the president and capitol hill republicans were celebrating big tax victory one aide on capitol hill came up said what a great day all we have to do next make sure the government doesn't shut down. >> here at the white house, they are not too concerned about that, kellyanne conway earlier today put the odds, of slim to none last night the treasury secretary mnuchin echoed that as well. >> i think it is

reince p reince priebus and sean spicer. >> with donald trump, you will never know. >> we kind of haveer because we have gone too fast. we have not seen the president since both of these newspaper stories dropped. it drops minutes after wheels up. that's going to be interesting and we also had a white house non denial statement as they were depafrting. >> right, i don't think this story is going to bed any time soon. this will be the number one story in america next week. that's a problem for him. the rest of the world is watching, too and not just us here in america. when he tweets anything from the department of justice and anything. he needs to focus on this trip. he cannot be a lose lip president leaking classified information and tweeting aggressive thing of the department of justice. if his staff can keep him focused and on track and on message. that'll be a success. thank you eli and shelby holiday and curtis lee, we appreciate you all joining us tonight. coming up, the republicans to watch by some one who's watching all of this very closely. i am totally blind. and non-24 can t

the long suffering and often parodied sean spicer is gone. day 186. for the first time a member of the president's inner circle faced questions on capitol hill. it comes as trump pours the pressure on his own attorney general jeff sessions. he wrote about sessions on twitter this morning. quote, our beleaguered attorney general. day 187. tonight the senate judiciary committee dropped its subpoena of former trump campaign chairman paul manafort and said manafort started to cooperate. jared kushner spent second day with lawmakers, this time in the house intelligence committee. as for the president, after a morning attack on twitter, he continued his open rebuke of his own attorney general. >> very disappointed with the attorney general. but we'll see what happens. time will tell. >> day 188 of the still young trump administration and day 7 of the president's public humiliation of his own attorney general. trump is talking privately about the idea of a recess appointment. "the times" indicates trump family members who want session out as they ian become

. >> sean spicer, say it isn't so. pricer is getting off the trump train. at one point he was reduced to petty faith when he had to take a mini fridge junior staffers refused to give up. >> you're testing me, big guy. >> i think he's got some of the best political instincts in the world. >> the newest member of trump world, in coming white house director, scaramucci. >> just to paraphrase, mooch, it's -- the greatest instincts in all of broadcast. >> he's really rich and his suits fits and all that kind of thing. >> it happened. yes, that's right. reince is out. >> the president has a right to change directions and has a right to hit a reset button. >> meet the new chief of staff. the first day on the job for john kelly, the former department of homeland security secretary. >> i think kelly will demand to be the gatekeeper. >> what good does it do to have a gatekeeper when the lion is already out of the gate. >> you are all fired. all four are fired. >> and white house editions. we learn the white house communications director is out after a week on the job

. >> former white house press suspect sean spicer wants to be an arthur he wants to set the record shape of what happened during the 016 election and sebing in trump administration. ice sphere says stories told are in the accurate of trump campaign and presidency. he left his role in jewel 6 months after he took office and when announced anthony scaramoci. the much tried a book and it doesn't get much interest. the book will be released. >> and british to diplomatic staff. stray cat embassy rescued from shelter is appointed chief mouse catcher they named him lawrence. he's doing more than catching mice. embassy calls him a diplocat and says it's his job to reach out on social media and represent agency. he has his own twitter act. lawrence dipcat and he has 60,000 followers. >> we'll wrap it up after the break break you can't predict the market. but through good times and bad... ...at t. rowe price... ...we've helped our investors stay confident for over 75 years. call us or your advisor. t. rowe price. <

at the very start of the trump administration on day one, sean spicer made clear what posture the white house would take toward the press. >> this was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period. both in person and around the globe. these attempts to lessen then enthusiasm of the inauguration are shameful and wrong. >> that moment, that remarkable moment in which a representative of the president, the press secretary himself yelled false statements that everyone knew to be lies set the tone for this white house. the president who has vilified journalists decried unflattering stories as fake news and lied over and over again but the trump administration repeated attacks on the rights of american citizens to know the truth about their government did not have its intended affect. press was not cowed. it was invigorated. throughout this hour we'll talk to the journalists that brought about the most remarkable years of reporting in memory, covering one of the most hostile administrations in american history. we begin with michael schmidt, correspondent fran chessa chambers.

keep in mind during the transition, sean spicer incoming press secretary and jason mill ser communications director who didn't take the job, told reporters on conference call that michael flynn did have a phone conversation with the russian ambassador around that december 28th, 29th time frame. and during that statement that sean spicer and jason miller gave to reporters, there was no talk of michael flynn and the russian ambassador talking about sanctions. this was described as something of a courtesy call trying to st up a phone call or meet tg at some point between president trump and russian president vladimir putin. so it may be, and this is just me guessing here, that michael flynn did not initially tell the truth about this because he perhaps was trying to stay consistent with what the transition told the american people as to what was going on during the transition. i only put that out there because that is what we were told in late december before president trump was sworn into office. i'll tell you that i tried to ask president trump a couple of hours ago about michael flynn's p

and step by step, that's what's happening behind the facade of trumpisms and, you know, spicer anticsore the press. and the press is pretty much falling for it. that's what they focus on, not what's being carried out. there is, of course, criticism -- mild criticism -- of outrageous lies, but i think that just plays the game. that's what the lies are for. then you can yell about the liberal press that is trying to undermine us. it's all a kind of a desperate effort to keep a con game going. trump does have a base, a voter base. he's kicking them in the face with abandon. and the idea is, how do you hold onto them while you're doing this? not an easy trick. and this, i think, is part of the con. and there are people in the press who are pointing it out -- paul krugman, for one -- but nothing like it should be. amy: which takes us to your latest book, "requiefor the american dream," where you talk about the 10 principles of the concentration of power and wealth, how it's happening, what to watch out for. >> well, credit for the 10 principles should go to the producers of the film. what

sean spicer quits. john kelly is named chief of staff.he fbi raids paul manafort's home, and then there was the mooch. the 13 days that transforms the white house this summer. coming up on "morning joe." >>> welcome back to "morning joe." as the sun comes up over the united states capitol in washington on thursday, december 28th. joe and mika have the morning off. with us sam stein, republican communications strategist rick tyler. republican strategist and political commentator susan dell purse owe, and richard haas in boots and jeans. and joining the conversation jonathan lameer. >> i'm wearing a full suit. >> you have jeans on too, rick. just you and me, man. >> and the chucks? that's amazing. it is a holiday week. isn't it? >> let's begin with jonathan's great piece for the associated press. the trump white house us crucible look back at a pivotal 13 days in july for the trump administration. they write events in the second half of july unfolded at breakneck speed. they encapsulated both the promise and peril of donald trump's first ye