. >>> president elect donald trump is calling for flag burners, us flag burners to be country. trump tweeting, nobody should be allowed to burn the american flag. he went on to say, if they do, they must be consequent is. perhaps the loss of citizenship or a year in jail. the supreme court has twice from the right to bring the mac applied as a form of free speech. drums transition spokesman rejected the constitutional protections of flag burning. >>> the president-elect is a strong supporter of the first amendment but there's a big difference between that and burning the american flag which has no place in ousociety. >> discussions about respect for the flight have regained traction after us flag was burnt in an election that is a massachusetts. >> city is planning its neighbor for falling sales of its flagship stores. a high-end jeweler in new york is near trump tower. it says the nearby chaos has had some adverse effect on traffic its fifth avenue store. that's accounts for 10% of the company's total sales. >>> there's high praise for hospitals. one of hospitals in our state

and earlier in the day p sparked a debate over flag burning using twitter to go after flag burners at hampshire college. >> reporter: good morning. one thing you learn early on in this business, old controversies rarely, if ever, die. case in point, the president-elect's resurrection of one of the most time-tested hot-bent issues there is, flag burning. burning -- hot-button issues there is. perhaps loss of citizenship according to trump. that won't be happening. the supreme court has twice ruled that flag burning is protected by the first amendment like other offensive speech. and you can take it to the bank that trump isn't serious about challenging that law. he wants to shift focus away from stories about his business conflicts an way hillary clinton did when she was in the senate and 'sponsored a bill to out-- and cosponsored a bill to outlaw flag burning. in many countries burning the flag is a serious crime including in some places with freedom of speech roughly and juvenile form of expression. we who deplor it are free -- deplore it are free to say so. we shouldn't be baited by

some key republicans are unsettled by trump's threat of extreme punishment for flag burners. joining us from capitol hill, you had a chance to speak with mccain bethe tweets. >> remember, he voted for a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning. but republicans would rather focus on the transition and what they'll do in the new congress. when i had a chance to talk to mccain, he made clear there should be some form of punishment for flag burning but did not say he wanth to talk about what donald trump talked about. >> he said the people who burn the flag should be prosecuted. what do you think? >> a very close decision by the united states supreme court. i do not approve of burning the flag. that. >> if i do not approve of it and i think there are other ways to express views rather than burn a flag that so many americans fought and died for. >> he even said people should lose citizenship on it. >> i'm not going to comment on trump's he comments. i have not and i will not. >> why not? >> because it is my choice. my choice. i am just reelected by the people of arizona and during that c

us tonight. appreciate it. >> sure thing. >>> coming up, as promised, on twitter, flag burning, our very own flag burner right here on the last word. that is next. do not miss it. >>> and, the story donald trump doesn't want us to talk about. here's a hint. it's about a hotel. and why, why donald trump's pick for secretary of health and human services is a very big problem for donald trump. he gets a lot of compliments. he wears his army hat, walks around with his army shirt looking all nice. and then people just say, "thank you for serving our country" and i'm like, that's my dad. male vo: no one deserves a warmer welcome home. that's why we're hiring 10,000 members of the military community by the end of 2017. i'm very proud of him. male vo: comcast. >>> okay. here it is. as promised. flag burning time on the last word. >> the bill of rights. the first ten amendments from the constitution, including my favorite amendment, the first amendment, it's the one that guarantees not just everybody in this room, but every single person in the united states, every citizen, every visitor, every magician freedom of speech. it's the one

us tonight. appreciate it. >> sure thing. >>> coming up, as promised, on twitter, flag burning, our very own flag burner right here on the last word. that is next. do not miss it. >>> and, the story donald trump doesn't want us to talk about. here's a hint. it's about a hotel. and why, why donald trump's pick for secretary of health and human services is a very big problem for donald trump. did you know slow internet can actually hold your business back? say goodbye to slow downloads, slow backups, slow everything. comcast business offers blazing fast and reliable internet that's 10 times faster than slow internet from the phone company. say hello to internet speeds up to 150 mbps. and add phone and tv for only $34.90 more a month. call today. comcast business. built for business. >>> okay. here it is. as promised. flag burning time on the last word. >> the bill of rights. the first ten amendments from the constitution, including my favorite amendment, the first amendment, it's the one that guarantees not just everybody in this room, but every single person in the united states, every citizen, every visitor, every magician fr

flag-burners. still to some, more troubling than trump's threat to imprison protesters who burn the flag, is his suggestion of stripping citizenship. that would also be unconstitutional. someone's citizenship away can't be used as a punishment. that citizenship isn't a license that expires when someone commits a crime. >> reporter: now even newt gingrich, a high professional trump ally says he has his own concerns about certain trump tweets, like a recent one on voter fraud, pointing to the different weight of a president's words, versus a candidate's. >> presidents of the united states can't randomly tweet without having somebody check it out. promote what he's calling his thank you tour, kicking off thursday in cincinnati. he seemed to enjoy the energy of those campaign rallies as candidate. now as president-elect, lester, packing his bags to get back on the road. >> all right, hallie jackson, thank you. >>> let's turn back to the president-elect's pick for health and human services. it's shining a spotlight on the effort to repeal and replace obamacare. what next? nbc's kristen welker has >> reporter: since obamacare's implementation six years ago, georgia congressman tom price has been proposing ways to

flag burners, the press, the popular vote? trump has gone after them all at times, using wild experience theories even as president-elect to do it. he quoted a treat from a 16-year-old as a way to justify crazy unsupported claims about the popular vote. trump seems to be begging for a fight or begging for a distraction. trump's hunt for a cheap enemy comes as journalists and members of congress are looking at potentially serious conflicts of interest at his sprawling multinational business empire. we will dive into that later in the show. trump's business conflicts are big enough and have come up throughout various aspects of this transition. not only can it not be ignored, but needs to be dealt with before he can conduct his presidency. he dismisses the concerns even as some republicans like lindsay graham are making the case that business ties deserve the scrutiny. here's senator graham talking with reporters today about it. >> i think concerns with a member of kwng a fab net official being active in business. i don't see why it wouldn't apply to the president. i don't think most people would want me to have a business rela

saying flag burners should, quote, programs face a loss of citizenship or a year in jail. as wmur's jennifer davis tells us now, the claim has members of even his own party outranged. reporter: tom and jen, loss of citizenship and jail are the consequences donald trump is now suggesting for those who burn the flag. donald trump ignites another controversy over twitter, with this tweet suggesting ny flag and there must be consequences including impretty ms. if they do. >> the president-elect is a very strong supporter of the first amendment, but i also think there's a big difference between that and burning the american flag, which has no place in our society. reporter: the supreme court has twice ruled that flag burning is protected by the first amendment. democrats and many republicans were quick to respond, saying while they don't support flag burning, the constitution should prevail. supreme court decision is that people are free to express themselves that way. >> i don't think we want to make this a legal issue, and i disagree with mr. trump on that and the court is probably right. reporter: lawmakers

flag burners. there is such a disconnect between donald trump and the underpinning flo underpinning philosophies that make us pluralistic and democratic society and make us better than the countries he routinely lambasted, cuba, iran and china, where flag burning is illegal. >> it's interesting. you got the personal impact of this, jeff, last night. you had an excellent report on cnn talking about the accusation from donald trump that millions of people voted illegally in the most recent presidential election. then he went after cnn, went after you with a retweet of sorts. some are suggesting he simply overreacts and goes maybe is even undermining some democracy, if you will. >> it could be the direction he is heading. i'm not sure these are completely unrelated things. it all goes after the first amendment. he is, a, trying to de-legitimize people's trust in a lot of things. institutions, the media. there are questions about the media that can be raised by people. no question about it. people don't view the media in high esteem. eroding all those principles, he knows exactly what he is doing here. obviously

flag burners to be thrown in jail or lose their citizenship. >> he may have been reacting to some of the protests against his electoral college victory. bruce leshan is here to tell us the supreme court has ruled on the court has said repeatedly it would violate the constitution for the government to rob you of your citizenship or to punish you for burning the flag. but the pressure has a way of grabbing headlines and reopening old debates. it is an active protest that ignites a visceral anger. >> some time in jail wouldn't do anybody any harm. they have to respect the flag and respect the united states. >> >> a piece of cloth, it's symbolic. you can college allegiance to it or if you want to and you're not posing any safety risk or anything you should be able to burn it. >> we went to frederick county maryland where mr. trump beat hillary clinton by about 3000 votes to get a sense of how his latest tweet is playing. >> i understand the freedom of some people just forget that. >> raise your flags, everybody. >> apparently in response to a fox news report on a new hampshire college, mr. trump tweeted nobody should be allowed to burn the american flag. if they do ther