Transcripts For MSNBCW Morning Joe 20171219

Over here. Really . Im not ready. I think we need to turn back time. Potting soil. Its the last day of hanuk h hanukkah, there you go, how wonderful. Thank you new reporting from nbc news reveals high level counterintelligence briefing from the summer of 2016, stay with me, summer of 2016 the fbi warned then cad donald trump that russians might try to infiltrate his campaign. Hmm. Citing multiple government officials familiar with the matter, the report says the warnings were timed to occur around the period when the candidates began receiving classified intelligence, which put them at greater risk from being targeted by spies. They got a clear morning. Trump was believed and warned. The way they were put. At a session 2016 about sfaj attempts from russia. Two Law Enforcement officials told nbc news, Hillary Clinton received a similar briefing and the candidates were urged to alert the fbi about any suspicious overtures to their campaign. Youd think youd tell someone, right . Im a little confused. What are you confused about . Willie can tell you. Shopping online. 4 30 in this chair. Online Christmas Shopping is all i can do. You look good. We have been trying to figure out this time line. Because they were warned by the fbi. It doesnt make any sense. They said if you see something, say something. Say something, yes. Definitely. Few hear russians infiltrate. Definitely report that. You can report that. Were now putting a frame around this say figure you see this, say it. Say it. Its kind of like when welillie and i lived if turkey, if you know anyoneing heroin trade, let us know. We had sal came in. He gave you the definition of coup. He took the parts. Anyway, we probably should have told turkish officials. You should have. Now what if you were in that meeting briefed by the fbi and something had already happened . That was bad. You say it. Thats the point i was making about turkey. Thats the correlation here. It might be time to raise a meeting you had at trump tower, for example. That had to be after, or before, what . I was trying to show that time line, joe, you havent been listening to me. You need to get off your stop Christmas Shopping. You are telling me, mika. Mmhmm. That the fbi warned them. Yeah. That those russians were trying to infiltrate their campaign and if they saw something or heard anything happening. They had the opportunity askew to pass it on. Are you telling me they had already had a meeting with all those russian, they had like 14 interpreters in there. So the reaction could have been, gosh darn it, we just had a meeting just like that, why dont you tell you all ab it. Instead by the time of the warning in late july august, 17 Campaign Officials had been in contact with russia as we just said, according to public reports. There is no public evidence the campaign reported any of that to the fbi. Im just a dumb country lawyer, carol lee. Wouldnt you bring it up . That doesnt sound good. Now i hear are you the reporter of all these stories. You got this stuff down. So can you tell us . Because were confused, did the warning come before or after all those russians crammed into donald jr. s office and he was all giggly about it . This would have been after. No, i never saw that coming. So tell us everything about your reporting. Reporter well, look, this is a briefing that under normal circumstances is relatively standard. Both candidates got this briefing. Its essentially saying, hey, now are you the nominee. Our government adversaries will try to infiltrate your campaign. There is concerns about espionage. Heres what that might look like. Heres what you should do if you see anything that looks suspicious, report it to the fbi. We know that candidate then trump was there for the briefing t. Person said in response to this story. They maintain that President Trump had no idea that his Campaign Officials were having contacts with the russians, but its not clear, you know, if he then, this was passed on stho everybody else in the campaign, that anybody else told the fbi, it wasnt just the contacts before the briefing, but there were contacts after this briefing. You remember the direct messages between don jr. And wikileaks, for instance, and things like. That it raises a lot of questions, obviously, it has an amount of snefx, in the brief tack president clinton got. This is when they got information no the election that caused collusion. You would think they mentioned it. Maybe they did mention it. Sam, we are obviously concerned about the trump team not understanding the significance of this or if they understand the significance, not reporting it to the fbi, not working with the fbi. Also every time a story like this comes up it casts a dim light on the Obama Administration. Just time and time again say, wait a second, so you had the fbi going and warning the campaigns, you knew about this, democrats like to say, oh, Mitch Mcconnell tried to make it partisan, it was a horrible, horrible thing for Mitch Mcconnell to do. Im im the president of the United States, id say screw my opinion mcconnell, id want everyone to know the russians are trying to subvert american democracy. Yeah. Thats absolutely true. There was a general sense within the Obama Administration that this would almost take care of itself. Hillary was going to win. If you raise these concerns in advance, you may cause a raucus. Why do that anyway, if retrospect, that was a dumb speculation. You hamper the voting booth, state election sites, obviously subterfuge and propaganda, thats happening online. The clear attempts the russians were making with the Trump Campaign. There was enough smoke there to declare, hey, guys, theres a fire. Yet they didnt do it t. One time they did do it was the same day that the billy bush tape ras released. Where is billy bush . So, richard, well get back to willie. Billy bush, a full and complete pardon. Totally. No, he just laughed while the president grabbed him in the crotch. Billy is making a comeback. Okay. That happened. Listen to the tape. Oh just stop. What did you take last night . No, listen to the tape. We have been talking about the past. We have been talking about donald trump. We have been talking about the Obama Administration what they did not, do richard. More relevant to us today is whats happening in the future and sadly we have a russian government that is trying to influence elections in germany and france and the United States, across western democracies, we have a trend. We have pattern. We have some very disturbing information from 2016. But isnt the evidence that the United States government, that Donald Trumps administration is doing what its required to stop them from hacking the 2018 elections and the 2020 elections . No, its worse than that. All you have is a russian government thats not only interfering with elections here and elsewhere. This is an election government that has essentially become a spoiler. They have become an outsider, an outlier. They want to over turn everything, whether its in the middle east, democratic elections. We have responded to what theyve done. So there is no deterrence of what theyd like to in the future. Weve essentially given them a pass on the aggression forms of destabilization in the world. Whats so crazy, its so cheap. They dont have to spend that much money to korea it this much chaos. Especially if you have a president in donald trump that denies the truth. Oh yeah. That gives them free reign, even though he knows they were trying to influence the election before. He said, no, they didnt influence the election. Of course, hes not affecting his people. Mike pomp peo going out there has been rumors, this isnt implemented. This is months an months away. There is no price theyre paying for it. Church littles famous comment, its a mystery wrapped in enigma. That applies to this administration. After two years, what is motivatpoet rate ising, motivating, what has been a space a single question in american politics. Carol lee, who was in the meeting from the trump side . I know the president was in the counterintelligence briefing, who else was in it . The second part, it strikes me as i read the report the cia had talked before these meetings saying we are seeing contacts between russia and the campaign. James comey launched it that summer. That came before those briefings, in other words, they knew they had reaped out to russia, gave them a chance to talk about it t. Campaign did not. Reporter well, first, willie, we dont know exactly who else was in the meeting. You know, obviously, the candidate trump was in the meeting. If you look at who was typically around him when he would have National Security briefings like this, it was largely Michael Flynn and Chris Christie, another pen who had clearances to be a part of briefings like this. We dont know who was with candidate trump at the time. What was your second question . Just that the fbi already knew going into that meeting, because they had already been told the campaign was talking to the russians. They knew the answers to the questions they were asking. Right. Thats whats so extraordinary about this whole, this moment and you know everything weve seen if terms of their being an investigation and there being the republican nominee. Everyone was in sort of unchartered territory at this stage. But there was an awareness, the investigation was beginning at that time. The other thing i would point out, when we heard from Trump Officials over and over again, whenever things are brought up about contacts with russia during campaign, the question of collusion and reporting them. We didnt know any better, what did we know . The fact that they had this warning, you know, during campaign, suggests that, you know, thats not necessarily the best excuse, they were told this would be something that was unusual and they should look out for and so, you know, to hear them say, repeatedly, they didnt know anything, they were just bumpkins on their First Campaign, this calls that into question. Then there is the immediate future the impact t. Front page of the Washington Post. Trump team to press mueller. There is a meeting against ty cobb and the special prosecutors people, bob muellers people. This is a never ending investigation. They are not going to go in there later this week and ask for and get from muellers team, the idea that this investigation will end quickly. This is exactly what he was trying to do with james comey, which got him, bob mueller, got him the trouble he had got, if he had not pressed comey, let comey do his job. Chances are good the first National Security adviser wouldnt have already pleaded guilty and his Campaign Manager wouldnt, you know. The timeline of caroles story is rife with questions that im sure has been asked or without answers being provided, i would assume. But its august when they get the warning, when President Trump gets the warning and the security briefing. Yeah. Now, did he hear of any prior meetings between his sons and the russians at trump tower by then . Its a closely held campaign. There is no way they are meeting with anybody, fought knowing within that time period force way. There is no prosecution rests. Can you see in caroles reporting the beginning of the Trump Defense in all this, which is President Trump himself, candidate trump, himself, did not know about the candidates. This may have been happening beneath him. He didnt know about it. Thats the defense they have. We will talk about this a lot more. We have great gifts this morning, moving on, two weeks ago, 35 senators called on al franken to resign over multiple independent claims of groping and forced kissing. Now one senior democrat reskinned that demand and others are reportedly reconsidering their position after this plea by west Virginias Joe Manchin who refused to join the chorus. What they did to al was atrocious the democrats the most hypocritical thing ive seen done to a human being and having sit on the floor, watch him give his speech, go hug him. Thats a hypocrisy at any level of my life. It made me sick. Heres a man that said take me through the Ethics Committee. Ly live by whatever decision and walk away thanking this opportunity ive had while i was here. You find out few think im a predator. He says, i have a lot of faults, this is not one of them. I think its atrocious. They had enough guts, enough conscience and enough heart to say, al, we made a mistake to ask prematurely for you to leave. Would you subject yourself to a rigorous ethics examination, an ethics investigation and live by whatever comes out and then well put the vote on you, al. Thats what they should do. That itself human and decent thing to do. If they have any decency in them, theyd do that. Every one of them would do that, including chuck schumer, should do that. Now senator leahy of vermont called for the resignation says he regrets the decision. A spokesman for langford declined to comment you, pointed to the previous comments urging the ethics process concede. This sentiment shared by several republican senators from the outset, including my opinion mcconnell, who initially said, quote, the Ethics Committee should review the matter and senator bill cassidy said franken, quote, did not have to quit, lamenting a lack of due process. According to politico, those familiar with frankens thinking saying he is not considering his decision to resign, the minnesota governor is already named tina smith at 16 franken, who said she intends to run next november to complete frankens term smr do you know, mike, when are you in a situation that has a real opportunity to run, go askew, when there are elements out there who see the words due process as inconvenient. You will see due process as dirty words. You see due process of getting in their way of whatever campaign theyre running or whatever mission they are on him al franken said from the very beginning. You know what, voluntarily, lets take this through the senate Ethics Committee. Lets have a bipartisan investigation and i will abide by whatever comes to that. And his own friends rat him out. Ran him over for political convenience and somebody who, i dont know, found jesus, 17 years after kissing up to the clintons suddenly is the one leading the charge, of course, i i understand it. I actually i understand it, unfortunately. I actually like Kirsten Gillibrand. Me too. I ask a question of everybody at this table and everybody watching that can hear me. Does anybody believe kirsten jill brands decision on the clintons whoob it was today if Hillary Clinton had been elected the president of the United States . Would al franken be working . Al franken would be senator and Kirsten Gillibrand who rode in the clintons wake for decades would still be riding on that wake right now. Lets just move that to the side, because Everybody Knows thats true. Actually, id like this address that, go ahead. But, mike, whats wrong with al franken getting due process and actually going through the hearings that eb said they were going to go through until there was sort of a political stampede . We all know the bitter truth surrounding what happened to al, truth. I think we all know it. And it has less to do with due process and more to do with alabama. Amen. There you go. Thats it. I mean, they had to get him off the scene. They had to get him to resign in order to continue to assault legitimately so the complete nut case running for the United States senate as a republican in alabama. I think alabama could have been won without al franken resigning. Im not sure if al franken should have resigned. I would have liked to find out. There was a lot of debate. Got a lot of hateful reaction on twitter about, well, there is evidence with franken. I think the evidence is hang on there, calm down. Is debatable. I think we have to look at all the facts and i think we have to look at the accusations and, yes, at times, you have to look at the accusers. You have to try and say, oh, wait a minute. Thats what happens when you have due process. Right. Thats what happens when you have something thats investigated and researched and, oh, wait a minute, are we the judge and the jury . And the cops . Are women the judge, the jury and the cops . Is that where we want to go . Because i dont see us getting hired, if thats the case somerset we need to figure out a better what toy get rid of harassers, real harassers. We need to think of a better what i to deal with people who need to be educated t. Rules are changing, thats great. Lets be fair in this process and as far as kirsten jill brand is concerned. I think that shes an incredible talent. I think that there is a chance shell run for president some day. I think i might support her. Right. She has to deal with her clinton issue. She has to address the cameras and answer the question as to what had, what was the motivation behind her change of opinion about the clintons . Because for me, for the ten years that i have been on this show, i have been extremely critical and concerned about the clinton because of their abuse of women. I dont know how your position could change on this, id like to know about that process, im sure its a fair process. What else was out there that changed other than Hillary Clinton losing and the clintons for the first time in 25 years being out of power of some sort . I just want to understand how you got there. Again we go back to what barry white said, fork times, she wa New York Times, she wants to be on the process, instead of mob rule. So what is the problem without having due process and having a hearing, for not just al franken, for many more democrats whose names are surely to come up in the coming weeks and months. When this was all happening and unfolding and we were reporting this out, there was in real time discomfort with what was happening the franken set. Assuredly, there are people sitting in office, including the United States senate who have done worse than franken. Its by the grace of god they would be exposed. Now they would be run out t. Question is, what is the Impeachable Offense . What is the line you have to cross. Who is to say . Who is to say . So with franken as we reported New York Times, his issue was it was a continuous drip of revelation, it wasnt one or two, it ended up being seven or ache. By the eighth time, people said enough is enough. Why is it the eighth time . Should it have been the tenth, the 12th . Are they all crushed out . What is due process . Is it voters weighing in, the colleagues weighing in . The ethics weighing in. Should roy moore have stepped out or the judicial body allowed to decide if his issues were problematic. These are incredibly difficult answers in the United States senate or honestly a society at large. But they can give him due process and they can give republicans in the future due pros sechlts and they can say who is your accuser . Who wha is your accuser saying you have done . Lets investigate that. How does this stack up . And even if they at the end of the day decide to censure or expel or leave it to the voters of minnesota or alabama or kansas or whatever state, thats actually the best thing to do. Its called due process. We have it for a reason. But we, the reason it gets whipped aside with al franken, alabama. There is no question about it. There is no question about it. They wouldnt have done it if the governor of minnesota was a republican. Exactly. If the governor had been a republican of minnesota, al franken. There is no way he still would be there. Kirsten jill brand, this is a small group of people that said, maybe you ought to come back. Its so clear and cynical, as pike said, they got past roy moore. So that sidebyside comparison is gone. I want to talk about the women accusing al franken. Im not. Im talking about the senators and their position, suddenly, they think, get on back here you old rascal a. Couple weeks ago, we had members of Congress Come on, say, why not go through the ethics process . The answer is the process is flawed. It favors members of congress. That may well be true. Its the process you got. You dont throw out due process. The process is what we need to talk about be every the men. The process needs to be, its going to be complicated but i think women feel that they are ma lined and mistreated through the process, therefore, they feel they hate to step forward. We need to look at the process. Right now any woman can say anything and a mans career is ruined. Now, a lot of women can say things that are true and their careers should be ruined. By the way. The problem is. Hold on. Any women can say anything and thats it, its over. Is that how we are running businesses now . There is a reporter woes name i will not mention, a very good reporter who was called in, was not told what he was accused of by an anonymous person and he was immediately dismissed. Not only do you get to face your accuser . In this case, you dont know what the charges are against you, when you hire a lawyer, you cant defend yourself. Again, if this is where this movement takes us, this is very dangerous, not just dangerous for men. This is dangerous for everybody. This is why the solution is in open door policies in ways that prevent these types of things from happening. Its why we have to look at how we do business him we have to make hard changes and pull back a little bit. Some of the ideas i had in the path seemed like elizabethen times, we have to prevent the possibility. Instead of the hr office, you are cowering in there, you dont want to see your face, you think no one will believe you. Thats a problem. I understand what women face here. I am also stricken, i am child by some of the cases i am seeing now of people being run out of their jobs, bankrupted and absolutely no due process. I would say again, ill go back, whatever the movement is. Whatever the cause is, if you think it is bigger than due process, giving people an opportunity to be heard and making sure that people, i know there are some people that say, well, you know what, if some people get destroyed, if their lives get destroyed, thats a small thing. I know if someone could say, hey, someone touched me inappropriately. Its an atmosphere of women coming forward. Its a problem. What happens 20 years from now, sam, where somebody says, i work with sam stein at the Huffington Post. We were having drinks, he put his hand on my leg. What happens in this environment, 20 years from now you are fired . Say i work at the daily beast. Exactly. When you started at the Huffington Post thats the voormt we are in now. In a swimming pod. I agree that there is a really difficult problem here of due process, it needs to be, whoever is accused needs to have their point heard and the ability to face their accusers, which is due process, the essential elements of due process. I worry and i want to make sure like that you allow an environment where the actual victims here are still able come forward and say, this happened. This is difficult. Without al the problem with al in the end was that he had a series of incidents where he was grabbing peoples butts in this way. That doesnt say he should get due process. Is there a pick of that . He admitted. The problem with al is all making, now the secondary problem was, what happens when those things come out into the foray, in that case, al did deserve to have, i keep calling him al. Senator franken did deserve to have due process. Lets not act like the system screwed him. He screwed himself, thats all im saying. Mika, by the way, were at 6 30. This is our first block. We have broken a record. We have to continue this. Very proud we have broken a record. Hold that thought. Im talking about a transparent work place so we dont have. That well get there. Still ahead on morning joe, congress is on the verge of passing tax reform, despite finding another poll deeply unpopular, plus, donald trump lays out a National Security strategy almost a year into his presidency. Did we learn anything new . I went to two parties over the weekend, where i was told by men and women, they dont want to hire women anymore. So this is an important conversation. You are watching morning joe. Well be right back. All right, a brief continuation of this conversation. Carol lee, chime in. Were debating due process trance parent work place politics brigg down sometimes good people who dont get a fair chance. Yeah, what i was thinking about as i was tloins you all talk, have you the countrys top elected official was had an opportunity essentially with al franken to set an example and lead the country in this debate that everybody is having by perhaps implementing some sort of policy allowing this to go through, some sort of due process to answer all of these very tough questions and instead what you saw is the countrys leadership essentially make a very politically expedient decision now having some sort of buyers repercent, as a result nobody else has any sort of direction on how some of the countrys top officials might suggest people hand him these tough questions and you are going to see more and more people come out with facing allegations and there is no process soond it seee and it seems like it should be extended. There should have been a process, Kirsten Gillibrand on the forefront with al franken, it unfortunately sets her up for a lot of criticism since she worked for so many years alongside and within the clinton bubble and in support of Hillary Clinton and getting support from bill clinton who she now conveniently says, should have stepped down for sexually harassing an intern in the white house among other things. It all just seems political. It all just seems kind of dirty and hypocritical instead of an opportunity to really shine the line on perhaps some behaviors that might have been send even five years ago that we no longer accept today. That would have been a great conversation and we were not able to have it. Carol lee. Reporter yes, yeah, i think thats exactly right. You cant help and this is what people in the country cant stand. Right. Reporter have you the democrats that say al franken has to resign, now everyone is like, maybe he shouldnt have had to resign, there is this buyers remorse, what do you stand for . What is your position . If anything, i think people appreciate somebody who has had the conviction and make sticks with what their position is, and what you are seeing now is this sort of wishy washy flipfloppy and out of that is no leadership. You cant see where the leadership is here. We get to pick and choose our leaders, bill clinton what he did isnt as bad, he is bill clinton. The things youd like to see implement itself and have been talking about for quite some time are all necessary. But this is a National Discussion. Its not a debate. It involves far more than people like al franken, bill clinton, kristen jill brand. It involves nurses, women who feel threatened, coerced, intimidated, sometimes on their job sites, that ought not to be. We should have a National Discussion about it. And we are having a National Discussion about it. Hopefully, improvements will come quickly they are long overdue, but when you have reached an initial stage in this early part of the discussion, with the mere mention of your name as a guy in the paper linked to Sexual Harassment, it means the end of your career, the end of your income opportunities, in essence, the end of a critical part of your life. Weve got to stop and wonder, okay, what are we doing here, we got to as a news business, separate the Harvey Weinsteins from people accused. The glen thrushes. Yes, thank you. Thats bad date, glen thrush. You know this weekend, mika, you had talked about, you said you had been to a couple of events. Yeah. You had men and women saying they all say, a lot of them, im talking about leaders in business and. The talk of the top. What you said reminded me of what chris hayes tweeted last night, which was for everybody that thinks there is a huge disconnect between what people say on twitter and what they say out here in the real world. Yeah. This discussion is one of the greatest examples of that, on twitter, its all. Very ugly. Get the torches. Its, you know, shoot first, let god sort them out. Thats not what you hear any e when you were off of twitter. You were talking about it this weekend. Im worried t. Conversation was, how do we take this movement into a real discussion, into real change, into real sort of consulting with Different Industries to help women go into a safe process, if they feel they were harassed, but to set up work places where its presented. Maybe redesign the rules. Maybe some things dont happen the way they used to. Maybe that is too ricky. I had written a blog on it on think with my own thoughts ab it. But the bottom line is, whats happening now is such an over reach that you are going to have men and women thinking, you know what, i dont want to take the risk. If i have women in my office, they could say anything and theres no due process. We cant. Thats not going to work for women. I understand and believe in the women. I understand that, in a number of the cases of Sexual Harassment that have come across this desk literally, ive spoken to the accusers, ive spoken to the harassers. Ive seen from both sides the same story. Thats why i believe the women. In some of the other cases, i look at both sides of the story, i am uncomfortable with the outcome, with a man being run out of time. Which is why we should have due process, another thing, mika, you have told me in talking to other women executives, sam was saying off camera, that you have herd of people saying the whole idea of women on business trips. Dont forget it. Mika had a top Business Leader not only in america, in the world say, if this was the environment back when i was 30, starting to move towards management, i would have never been taken on a business trip. I would have never been taken to lunch. I would have never been, whatever. And she wouldnt be where she is today. She goes, she said the guys, of course, keep going golfing. It would be patently unfair. We as with imif industry have to figure out a way to protect our own, who ill making sure it doesnt get in our way of our advancement. Were at a tipping point, where you can see one of two paths happen. One is to create a wholistic system, you try i to build a structure, where you can have due structure, with the stories of the accused. The other is basically cordoned off. Do endobusiness trips, dont do the dinners, have closed off meetings, all that stuff. Honestly, its difficult to see the way we go. I think the one easy, not easy the one way where we can get to a better place, its pretty dam simple is have more women if top ranking checktive positions. Its happening. It should happen, its happening more to reflect the demographics and the dynamics of the society. If we can get there, i think we will make progress. Coming up, the trump judicial nominee, who went viral. I actually felt sorry for this guy. He withdrew his nomination. Oh. It was just fought going to happen. He shouldnt have. That story ahead including the my cousin vinney connection. Morning joe is coming right back. The great emperor penguin migration. Trekking a hundred miles inland to their breeding grounds. Except for these two fellows. This time next year, were gonna be sitting on an egg. I think were getting close make a uturn. Uturn . Recalculating. Man, we are never gonna breed. Just give it a second. You will arrive in 92 days. Nah, nuhuh. Nope, nope, nope. You know who im gonna follow . My instincts. As long as gps can still get you lost, you can count on geico saving folks money. Im breeding, man. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Have any of you not tried a case to verdict in a courtroom . Have you ever tried a jury trial . I have not. Civil . No. Criminal . No. Bench . No. State or federal court . I have not. Have you ever argued a motion in state court . I have not. Have you ever argued a motion in federal court . No. Just froerd, do you know what a motion in limine is . I would fought be able to give youance answer at the table. Do you know what the pullman abstention doctrine . You see all that online in federal court. Its a viral moment last week when during his hearing Matthew Peterson couldnt answer some bake questions posed by republican senator kennedy him let me stop right here. I actually felt sorry for him. I did, too. Its a process for him. Awful. The fact is the man was a lawyer. He obviously was not qualified to be a federal judge . Yeah. But he wasnt the person that put him in that chair. No. That was don mcgan at the white house and donald trump and that was the white house. So, again, i actually feel bad for the man and have so many questions about why the white house is sending the people to the senate that theyre sending for federal judgeships. This is sick. Well. I mean, look at the other guy that was a ghost buster. And others. Because of him . Others that put some really offensive stuff up. By the way. Ghost busters. Are we going to talk about the ufo stories . Yeah. They had white house has now confirmed that peterson has withdrawn his name from consideration yesterday. The ufo is here and turns up like this. Kennedy had this to say about the exchange. Just because youve seen my cousin vinny doesnt qualify you to be a federal judge, and he has no litigation experience, and my job on the Judiciary Committee is to catch him. So hes not going to be a judge . I would strongly suggest he not give up his day job. He said kennedy, when some of my guys send somebody over there whos not qualified, get me a job. Get me off the short list. I know. Ive seen it three times. Apparently thats not enough anymore. Ill do a little study. Senator kennedy did a good job in the hearing, obviously, assessing this out. After this she was funny. He said peterson is smart and has worked in Public Service for 20 years. This is just the wrong job for him and he never should have been in that chair. Kennedys, the message he was sending was not to peterson. It was to don mcgab. He served on the with peterson. Mcganns chief of staff is the wife of ghost chaser extraordinary. Are you kidding me . This guy sent the ghost buster . There is frustration. Who never tried a case out of here, out of practice for three years in. This whats happening. What you going to call . Don mcganns friends. This is a source of incredible frustration on the hill where the senators are saying you are sending us cro cronies of don. People are are unqualified but they know don mcgancgann, and kennedy new Matthew Peterson never tried a case. And kennedy asked the question and let Matthew Peterson hang himself. Let the stories speak for themselves. Well be right back in Washington Bureau chief for the New York Times elizabeth miller. Shes very good. Very talented. Now do your clients plead . The federal rules of evidence all the through my clients are caught completely by surprise. I dont have that readily at my disposal. What are you telling me . Im, again, my background is not in litigation. I dont want to hear explanations. For the record, do you know what a motion in liminie is . I would not be able to give you a good definition at the table. Ive heard of it. This seems to be a great deal of confusion here. You all see that a lot in federal court . 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Use your employee discount for everyone and trade up to this silverado all star to get a total value of over eleven thousand dollars. Find new roads at your local chevy dealer. So listen. Heres the deal. Were issue. Maybe you could tell us on twitter. Heres the deal. If you could go to morni to morningmika on twitter and just hash tag mika christmas movies. They dont have to be christmas movies. Were going to binge. Mika has not seen any movies. We have my cousin vinny. I could cry wedding crashers again. Do the will ferrell. We dont we hash tag this mikamovies. Ive seen grease. She has not seen the god father or any of the star wars. The president s National Security speech, morning joe is coming right back. Is in ful. you are going to be a big surprise. whining aww, i see a big puppy. I see a biig puuppy. Hey greg thats ford, americas bestselling brand. Now get exclusive holiday offers, with 0 financing for 72 months across a full line up. For a limited time, get an additional 1,000 cash back on top of 0 financing for 72 months. Get these exclusive offers during the ford year end sales event. Get these exclusive offers this s electricity. This is a power plant. This is tim barckholtz. Thats me this is something he is researching at exxonmobil using fuel cells to capture Carbon Emissions at power plants. This is the potential. Reducing co2 emissions by up to 90 . While also producing more power. This could be big. Energy lives here. A wealth of information. A wealth of perspective. A wealth of opportunities. Thats the clarity you get from fidelity wealth management. Straightforward advice, tailored recommendations, taxefficient investing strategies, and a dedicated advisor to help you grow and protect your wealth. Fidelity wealth management. Im doing something important here. Listen, mika movies. This is what people already are suggesting that you mika has not watched my movies. In my whole life. Her parents would let her go in the backyard and play with rocks. No. Princess bride. 50 first dates. How about 40yearold virgin . I dont think youd like it. Casablanca. And somebody says look at this, mika is the chicken lady. That, i am. And we will be bringing chickens in to watch with us. Its tuesday, december 19th. With us we have i walked out of pulp fiction, and i also walked out of deliverance. Great movie, but theres a lot in there. Thats not a great movie. Somebody, i got to say, over the weekend i saw i was going through the channels, and i actually had sort of a down saturday for once. I walked out. Die hard came on. The original. If allen ritman, and i remember, i said that guy, i dont know who he is, that may be the best villian ive ever seen. Hanz gruber. Theres lights. By definition. The big chill . I watched home alone the other day, and the pain inflicted on bandits would have killed anybody. They had paint cans dropped on their faces. We talked about die hard where bruce willis would have died died 38 times. And home alone 2, they did it again, lost their child again. I wonder who thats happened to . Mika, youve been lost in new york city. I was in time square, they lost me. Santa saved me. Youre the inspiration for the movie. Her parents, they left you in new york. For half an hour. They left you at the top of a ski slope. Yeah, but thats okay. You got to find your way down and be tough. And then they left you in france when you got kidnapped. Thats true. Let my daughter go i seriously was kidnapped in france. That really happened. You didnt get lost in new york city . I did. What about the ski slope . That happened too. They just want noed me to ge down myself. With us politics editor for the daily beast sam stein. Richard haas, analyst for nbc news, wauns ratte, carol lee, and New York Times washington pure row chi bureau chief, elizabeth. Elizabeth, i know you love the movie discussion. The brzezinskis kept mika in a bubble. Thats all right. Do you have a christmas suggestion for mika . Shes going to watch a lot of movies over the holidays. Miracle on 34th street. The onlial oiay original one . Right. Donald trump spoke at the Ronald Reagan building and International Trade center. He outlined the world vision while calling out what he sees as the failures of past administrations. For many years our citizens watched as washington politicians presided over one disappointment after another. Our leaders in washington negotiated disastrous trade deals. There was nation building abroad while they failed to build up and replenish our nation at home. They undercut and shortchanged our men and women in uniform. They failed to insist that our often very wealthy allies pay their fair share for defense. They neglected a Nuclear Menace in north korea, made a disastrous week and bad deal with iran. They surrendered our sovereignty to foreign bureaucrats in far away and distant capitals. Our leaders drifted from american principles. They lost sight of americas destiny. America is in the game and america is going to win. Our strategy advances for vital interests. First, we must protect the american people. The homeland, and our Great American way of life. This strategy recognizes that we cannot secure a nation if we do not secure our borders. The second pillar of our strategy is to promote american prosper prosperity f. For the first time economy security is National Security and thats recognized. The third pillar is to reserve peace through strength. We recognize that weakness is the surest path to conflict, and unrivalled power is the most certain means of defense. Fourth and finally, our strategy is to advance american influence in the world. This begins with building up our wealth and power at home. Richard haas, break it down for us. What was different and what was borrowed from past administrations . Well he tried to differentiate himself. The talk of transforming the world to bring democracy to the middle east. He wasnt talking about bringing china or russia into the International Community at all. Tough language on that. Big emphasis on protecting the homeland. Close it off to immigration and refugees not interested in trade. Be the biggest problem was it was not that far out. Its the gap between the document and his own forbe policy. You have things like saying National Debt is a grave threat to the United States, but now today were going to pass a tax bill that will exacerbate it by 1. 5 million. It talks about the importance of diplomacy. This is an administration that boycotted the migration meeting, is gutting the state department. It talks about how important it is to be tough on russia. Talks about russia as a revisionist power, talks about the danger that russia poses by interfering in the domestic politics of western countries. Thats at variance with the policy of the trump administration. Its very tough on china, but the first thing this administration did was what . It got out of tpp. That was principle instrument it inherited in order to push back against chinas reach in the region. The document is not that far outside the Foreign Policy mainstream. The problem is the gap between Donald Trumps document and Donald Trumps Foreign Policy. Elizabeth, what was your take away from the president s speech yesterday . I would agree with richard. Whats striking is it was tough on russia as well as china. As you noticed in the president s speech, he was not tough on russia. He praised Vladimir Putin for helping for calling him the other day because the cia helped russia thwart a terrorist attack in st. Petersburg. He made no mention of russian intervention in the election even though the document does. Were seeing a document thats pretty much in the mainstream. Its a dark document talking about the return of great power and competition which was an sent from other documents previous the administrations. But trumps speech and his tweet driven presidency does not coincide with the policy in the document. So one, if you listen to the speech, the president went through a litany of mistakes the previous administrations have made neglected north korea, the iran deal. What is different about what he said yesterday in terms of an american Foreign Policy view from the previous administration. Well, i was there yesterday, and listened to the speech. I agree the speech was a disconnect from the document itself. I think its an ambition document, and part of whats different is this notion that you do have two great powers trying to rewrite the rules of the International Order. I think that is fundamentally different here in that the president is trying to lay out that were in a grand competition. Competition militarily, economically, and the document tries to then lay it out. One thing thats different and the president pointed this out, looking at Economic Security broadly. This idea that china, russia, and other powers state and nonstate are actually trying to undermine u. S. Influence and power. So thats why the document gets into things like energy dominance, the protection of the innovation base, protecting end lek chul property. I think its a much more aggressive tone. How does it mesh with whats happen and how do we advance u. S. Interest when it appears to the world were withdrawing in many ways from the transpacific trade partnership, and is the world ready to deal with us on a transactional basis. The president says well deal with the world but it has to be on fair terms. If were trying to push back against great powers and trying to deal in the cyber do main as well as the physical domain, you need friends. You cant alienate them while you deal with hard problems. Thats right. This is a dark view of the world. The interesting statement is it gives up on the idea thats shaped american Foreign Policy for 25 years. Were going to build a post cold war world with russia and china. Very dark. But it disarms. What weve done is weve added all sorts of conditions to our Alliance Relationships in europe and asia and so forth. Theres a disconnect. Its a very dark view. But at the end, it doesnt make available to ourselves what we need to do in order to implement a strategy to pushback against the china and russia that this document describes which, by the way, is not the china and russia that mr. Trump talks about. He constantly talks about his relationships and how good they are with the leaders and the document poses a different view. You wonder is this the document of the Interagency Community of hr mcmaster and others to what extent is the document of the president i worked were four president s. I had never been in a meeting in four administrations where someone said we have to do this or we cant do that because of our National Security strategy. I dont think necessarily this is a document thats a guide post or the piebl for this administration. Right. Its like Party Platforms at conventions. Elizabeth, this just comes at the worst of all possible times. Weve been talking about rise in china for 20 years. But we are seeing it every day. The chinese first of all, clamping down at home at the same time theyre doing everything they can to extend their power across the globe with open arms, trying to get as many trading deals with as many of their allies and adversaries as possible. And, well, but as weve said, the president has withdrawn from the Transpacific Partnership which was our principle vehicle for challenging china in asia, and we have now seated a lot of territory to china. I think its interesting in the document, theres no mention of Climate Change which is completely against the pentagon policy which sees Climate Change as a National Security threat around the world. Instead theres talk about energy dominance. Its very odd they came out with this so early. Usually administrations wait a couple years before they pull Something Like this together, and usually the president does not himself announce it. Were told that the trump looked at the document and got excited about it and wanted to speak about it. Thats what we have yesterday. All right. There is new reporting from nbc news revealing that in high level counterIntelligence Briefings, during the summer of 2016, the fbi warned then candidate donald trump that russians might try to infiltrate his campaign. Citing multiple government officials familiar with the matter, the report says the warnings were timed to occur around the period when the candidates began receiving classified intelligence which put them at greater risk for being targeted by foreign spies. Trump was briefed and warned at a session on august 17th, 2016, about potential espionage threats from russia. Two people familiar with sessions told nbc news. Hillary clinton got a similar briefing and the candidates were urged to alert the fbi about any suspicious overtures to their campaigns. By the time of the warning in late july or august, at least seven trump Campaign Officials had been in contact with russians or people linked to russia according to public reports. There is no public evidence the campaign reported any of that to the fbi. But its unclear whether the warning about russia was passed onto other Campaign Officials. But carol lee, the people that were in the don junior meeting included, of course, Jared Kushner who is the de facto leader of the campaign. Paul manafort who was the actual Campaign Manager, don junior, and a host of others. Right. And if you that meeting took place shortly before the briefing would have happened. Whats significant is yes, both candidates received similar briefings where they were told theres foreign governments including russia who are going to try to infiltrate your campaign and try to spy. Heres what to look out for. Let us know if you see anything suspicious. Contact the fbi. What we know is President Trumps campaign had a number of contacts with russian officials both before this briefing and then after this briefing. And theres no evidence that any of that was reported to the fbi as these officials told the campaign to do. And so it raises a number of questions about why werent they notified about these previous meetings and all these contacts that we keep learning about either before or after the campaign, and so its another piece of this puzzle that puts into context what was happening, what the campaign was aware of at this time, and it turns out that they actually knew this was a possibility and that their defense that they didnt know about this was their First Campaign and they didnt have any idea of how to run things. They were warned about this. The cia briefed the fbi before this took place and said were seeing contacts between the Trump Campaign and russians. When the fbi gave the briefing, they knew there has been contact in the campaign. Youre saying be careful, watch out, youre giving the campaign an opportunity to say don junior had a meeting a month ago at trump tower, and theyre not offering that information. What are you thinking as an fbi agent . Well, i think youre very worried, obviously. I think youre also worried about maybe an inexperienced campaign. We have to remember that was a campaign that wasnt big or well organized or stocked with veterans of the intel community. I would be thinking youve got to be very concerned and worries because there are vulnerabilities on the cyber domain and in terms of information attacks. You have vulnerabilities physically. So im worried that the campaign not be aware of that. And secondly, i want to make sure i have a line of communication with a campaign and all elements of the campaign that matter. Its not clear to me that the campaign was well organized enough to sort of strategize around how they defend against not just the russians but the chinese and others who would likely try to get information and frankly try to influence the campaign as it was developing. So if youre the fbi agent, i think you want as much candor as possible. These are real. These are actors that are serious and they have real capabilities. You have to watch out from a cyber context and the physical context perspective. Elizabeth . What i think this shows is yet again how extensive the contacts were between the Trump Campaign and russia. Every day, every week theres a new revelation. You take them together and what you get is a very different picture than when we started out which was just, again, extensive contacts between senior Campaign Officials with russian officials some intel officials. And its a very, very, if you put it together, its very, very striking about how deep the contacts were. Elizabeth, carol, juan, thank you for being on the show this morning. We have more ahead on the russia investigation. White house lawyers will reportedly meet with special counsel bob muellers team this week. Will they get the news they want . Well talk to former u. S. Attorney, joyce vance. Hold on a second. So it appears, willie, that mikas movies is trending on twitter now. Here we go. Lets see what we have. The producers. The family stone love actually. Whenever you try to show me that one, you cry like a baby. Pretty woman. Smokey and the bandit. I would put in minority report . Great book and movie. Imitation game. If you dont start with coming to america ill be so disappointed . Mika, have you seen top gun yet . No. Is that with little tom cruise . Oh, come on. Dont pull out the donald trump stuff. I thought that was how we normally talked about people these days. We learn everything from the great president of the United States. 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Yeah, with Liberty Mutual all i needed to do to get an estimate was snap a photo of the damage and voila voila i wish my Insurance Company had that. Wait hold it. Hold it boys. Theres supposed to be three of you. Wheres your brother . Wheres your brother . Hey, wheres charlie . Charlie . you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you. Liberty stands with you™ Liberty Mutual insurance. I think this past weekend is a luster of what a great officer Vladimir Putin is. He knows how to handle an asset, and thats what hes doing with the president. Im saying this figuratively. I think we have to remember putins background. Hes a kgb officer. Thats what they do. They recruit assets. And i think some of that experience and instincts of putin is coming to play here, and his managing a pretty important account for him, if i could use that term, with our president. Former director of National Intelligence James Clapper reacting to President Trumps statement after russian president Vladimir Putin called to thank him for intelligence that he said helped stop a terror attack. President trumps High Expectations for an end to the russia investigation could ratchet up tensions between the white house and special Council Robert mueller. According to Washington Post the Trump Legal Team is heading to this weeks meeting ready to hear about the Justice Departme departments probe and that the president will be cleared. This is the same thing, is it not, that the president kept demanding from james comey . Yes. Do they not understand that they keep repeating the same mistakes. I dont think hes used to not getting his way. Its that simple. Hes used to telling people what to do and then them respecting that. This is a wholly new sensation for him. Its bapartially why he fired james comey. Thats why everyone is talking with great nervousness in washington d. C. About the increasing likelihood that he will fire or get to bob mueller himself. After what he did, a lot of people around him are most likely going to jail, and chances are good that there may be more coming up because of what he did with james comey that same thing hes trying to do again. And people have told him, people close to him have told him the comey decision was a mistake. Yeah. Does he learn that lesson . I dont know. Richard, i want to ask you about the James Clapper before we continue. The James Clapper interview about donald trump being an asset that Vladimir Putin is managing. James clapper was not the first person to make that suggestion. Every once in a while we have to stop and things take your breath away. The idea that the former director of National Intelligence would say the president is the asset of a former kgb guy is a stunning moment. Only if were so super numb do we not say holy cow. Were living in a moment that Something Like that by a responsible person could be said and people just brush it off and go on to the next thing. Every day as Elizabeth Mueller said, everything day Something Else happens that makes us question what does putin have on trump . Every single day. Something happens that just doesnt make sense. No. Its been going on for two years. Its a thread. We dont understand what motivates, what is behind the benign, sanguine, behavior toward russia. And that is at the end of the day, thats not to be got to bed of the road. What explains what cant be explained in other terms. You mentioned numbness, the numbness that comes to this every day aspect of this presidency. And its also exhaustion. Again, Washington Post this morning, trump talked of rescinding Gorsuch Nomination once he was nominated. The reason its, the body of the reporting in the story, the reason he was considering rescinding the nomination is he was outraged that neil gorsuch in the conversation with senator blumenthal indicated that he, gorsuch was upset at the president s constant attacks on the federal jush diciary, and t president felt that was disloyal. The level of exhaustion and numbness in this presidency on an everyday basis is incredible. Meanwhile cnn reports unnamed sources who have spoken with the president say trump seems so convinced of his impending exoneration, hes peling associates Robert Mueller will soon send a letter clearing. The washington report says people with knowledge say it could last at least another year and members of muellers team have told others they expect to be working through much of 2018 a minimum. White house lawyers told the president he could be exonerated as early as the beginning of the year after previously reassuring him he would be clear bid thanksgiving and christmas. They plan to ask investigators if they need more information that the probe related to trump is complete according to a person familiar with the trump plan. Joining us now, former u. S. Attorney for the Northern District of alabama, joyce vance. Joyce, good morning. Its great to see you. Sift through some of this if you could. The pace, first, of the mueller investigation. We know that he sort of has his blinders on and hes going to keep his head down and do his work however long it takes. You know, thats a truth about prosecuters. They dont indict cases before theyre ready to be indicted. They dont delay them once theyre ready. So the reality here is only bob mueller and his team know where they are in the investigation. But because were in the christmas season, you cant help but think that whats going on is a lot like toddlers you see in toy stores with their parents and theyre screaming and they want their parents to buy them something, and their parents will tell them anything just to get them out of the toy store without making a scene. This presidency feels a little that way as though perhaps the president s lawyers are just really you wont get indicted. Please lets leave the toy store. And we know that there was reporting last week about the briefings that the president receives that they try to bury information that they think hell react poorly to. You have a sense they want him to stay off of twitter. They dont want him to do anything that will be additional evidence bob mueller can use down the road if there is an indictment at some point. No one has been successful doing that previously, and hes already had some damming tweets. This question of whether or not he may fire bob mueller used to be a propostrouse idea. People say really, its donald trump . What would it look like if he did . He cant do it directly. Hed have to get Rod Rosenstein to do it. He could fire him until he could find somebody that would fire mueller. What would be the implications if he did fire indirectly, bob mueller . Its hard for someone to think of this situation rationally and contemplate how the president fires mueller. It would be an admission of guilt, trying to tamp down on the investigation. There is suggestion that the president will be able to pardon people who are closest to him, perhaps to pardon jared or others in his family should they be indicted and that rather than an outright firing of mueller, which were starting to see indication that that would, i think, lead to an outpouring of people perhaps on the streets certainly of ethics advisers from previous administrations, coming out with strong statements, it would be truly a constitutional catastrophe that none of us really wants to live through and that i dont think this president could survive. Joyce, on the topic of pardons, yesterday we had a conversation and several people drew the conclusion that the last thing the former National Security adviser Michael Flynn wants is a pardon from donald trump because, actually, hes got a pretty great deal and things can only get worse for him. You also have the possibility that weve heard of several of the people being tried in state courts where Donald Trumps pardon power doesnt reach them. Isnt the power of the pardon significantly reduced now because of the way bob mueller is running this investigation . Yes. Thats absolutely right. Because of the state court, the possibility of parallel prosecution, pardon isnt very helpful to many of these people. But something that i think is important for those of us who have been inside of the Justice Department and who have lived through pardon processes in the past to think about is pardons are typically used in situations where someone who perhaps theres significant evidence that theyre innocent but theyre out of time for appeal, a pardon is used there. Or for someone who receives a very long sentence, perhaps it reduces their sentence. This idea that the pardon is now being used as a favor being given to people who are close to the president is really startling to people who have been in the Justice Department for years. I think also there has been some talk, mika, that the president s power to pardon is not absolute, and if this president pardons only to obstruct investigations, if this president pardons only to let guilty family members or Close Associates out of jail, or to get them from underneath a sentence, that that will be challenged. That will go to the Supreme Court, and we may actually see the Supreme Court ruling that maybe the power to pardon is not absolute. The system and all of the rules are being pushed to the limits. Yeah. For sure. Joyce vance, thank you so much. Sam, quit final thought . If it goes to the Supreme Court, well get a test of knne gorsuchs loyalty. There are bills to protect Robert Mueller. And theyre going nowhere. And the hill, the people on the hill is acting as if its inconceivable that donald trump would go down this road. To willies point, i dont know why anyone at this point in time would think its inconceivable. Many say the republican tax bill will increase the deficit without fueling much economic growth. Well bring in a member of the budget committees, republican congressman, tom cole, next on morning joe. Lets get the big guy in place. The ford year end sales event is here. I can guide you in. No, thanks , santa. I got this. Santa uh, it looks a little tight. Perfect fit. Santa needs an f150. Thats ford, americas best selling brand. Hurry in today for 0 financing for 72 months across the full line up of ford cars, trucks and suvs. For a limited time, get an additional 1,000 cash back on top of 0 financing for 72 months. Get these exclusive offers during the ford year end sales event. Get these exclusive offers the market. Redict but through good times and bad. At t. Rowe price. Weve helped our investors stay confident for over 75 years. Call us or your advisor. T. Rowe price. Invest with confidence. Pain from chest congestion can make this. When you have a cold,. Feel like this. Allinone cold symptom relief from tylenol®, the 1 doctor recommended pain relief brand. Tylenol®. So the house is set to vote on the Republican House plan at 1 30 this afternoon getting closer to a legislative victory this year. The bill is expected to pass and head over to the senate where there is less room for error but also the senates probably going to pass it as well. Theres a new poll out from cnn this morning that shows a majority of americans disapprove of the bill. 55 are against the bill. 33 are for it. A poll found 47 disapprove. The bill is going to end up costing somewhere between 2 and 2. 2 trillion, its estimated. Lets meet with a member of the budget committees congressman tom cole. Congressman, im going to ask you the first couple of blistering questions. I just have to do it. At least you gave me a warning. Im giving warning. Question one, oklahoma and georgia. How badly do you think the bulldogs beat you guys . Thank they beat us at all. Theyre a well balanced team. Theyre not going to stop the guys. We look forward to playing them. Weve never played georgia before. It will be a first. Two great teams. Well move on and see who comes out. You dont have to see. Thats like saying were going to see whats going to happen in the morning. Alabama will beat clemson, maybe i like that. We have a winning record against alabama. We dont against clemson. Well see how that goes. Thats number one. Number two, mika, she had a misspent youth and hasnt watched any movies. Its trending right now, mikas movies. Were asking for suggestions. This is a waste of valuable time with tom cole. No, i respect tom cole. What movie could you suggest he watches . Ill give you two the darkest hour. Thats an amazing movie about winston churchill. The second one is a family favorite. Its about my great aunt. Its a sort of boutique film about an indian performer. Not greatly known but a great movie. Now onto less significant things. Tax bill, youre a conservative. Im a conservative. Im concerned about debt. Youre concerned about debt. We have a 20 trillion debt. It doubled from five to 11 under bush. It doubled from 11 to about 20 under obama. Its going to go from 20 to 30 under trump. This adds anywhere between 1. 5 and 2. 2 trillion to the National Debt. Are you comfortable with that . Well, im not comfortable with adding to the National Debt ever. I think the numbers are lower. Its about 440 billion over a decade. Eventually it pays for itself. Under every estimate, it varies which one you read, it speeds up growth. Theres parts of this i like. A lot of it. I like doubling the standard deduction. I think that helps people at the bottom end. I like the expanded child tax credit. Thats a good thing. Frankly, i like the fact that most of the rates are lower. I would have kept the top rate the same and just raised the threshold. And i like the fact that american businesses are going to be more competitive. People forget that president obama favored a cut in the Corporate Income tax down to 28 and frankly, the chief tax writer on the democracy side said he would favor between 25 and 28. 21 wasnt seem all that unreasonable. Congressman, what Study Suggests that this tax bill pays for itself . I said outside the tenyear budget window. Theres a specific period of time we tend to look at. Again, Tax Foundation has it at less than 500 billion. As you pointed out, i think rightly, the debt forget the tax bill for a minute, is going up regardless unless you deal with entitlement reform. When people focus on the tax bill chwhich is a small part of the debt over a decade. I say lets talk act the things that matter, Social Security, medicare, medicaid. They dont pull in enough money in the taxes they generate to pay for themselves. The income tax pays for all the Discretionary Spending we have and helps finance some of the mandatory programs. We need to look at the funding streams and make reforms. Congressman, the president has hail third down tax bill as one of the great achievements of the 21st century. Its going to change middle class lives. Lets go to alaska cioklahoma c. Who does better under this bill . Chesapeake resources or a family of four making act 75,000 a year . In my district, i can give you the numbers. Pretty close to what you cite. The Median Income in my district for a family of four is about 73,000. They get about a 2 ,000 tax cut. Thats a pretty dramatic percentage of the federal taxes they pay, the income tax. Thats good. Chesapeake and continental both win and lose. That is, they lose some tax credits theyve had in the past. Called enhanced oil recovery which helps on frankly low yield wells. But they get the Corporate Income tax, and probably the big win for them is whats called expensing. For the first five years any p Capital Equipment they buy, they can write off the bottom. That encourages drilling and activity. Employs a lot of people. Im certainly not unhappy that people who are big em employploe going to do well. I once bringing the Corporate Tax down to 28 but not 21 . What evidence do you have the corporations are going to invest that amount. I think its likely they wouldnt buy back shares, pass it back to people through dividends. What confidence do you have when already most corporations, a lot of manufacturers are at full capacity and dont need to expand . I think if each company will make what they think is the best decision for themselves and the shareholders. I dont have any problem with people injecting money in the economy by buying back shares. I mean, that puts the money out there. Its not as if its not going to be invested. It doesnt disappear into a magic ball. I think it generates activity. If people wanted to hire Corporate Income tax rate, than if you had for democrats participating in the process, they might have been able to get that. Again, look, ive seen a lot of American Companies that leave this country. I dont own a lot of stock. Two of the 12 companies i own have left the United States. Johnson controls and Spectra Energy to go overseas because of the tax rate. This is a problem that needed to be addressed. Were trying to do that. If we dont hit it right, well be back next year. I think this will be a process, not an event. That is, there will be a number of years where theres a lot of activities in ways and means as you try to respond or correct errors you made. Congressman, you mentioned early on that you want to go and tackle the entietlements. Is that the plan . Next year to go and do those entitlement reforms after this, and two, how do you respond to the pushback that it seems odd and unfair to give a massive tax cut that geared to corporations. And then to say we need to scale it back . I didnt say we needed to scale it back. You can form it a lot of ways. You can gradually raise the age. People are living longer. You can also raise the caps. Subject more income to taxation. I think thats part of the solution going forward. We did that by the way, in 1983, the last time we put this thing on sound footing. You to make tough decisions and not demagogue it. The speaker said well be looking at some of the entitlement programs next year. I doubt Social Security is among them. You still have a trust fund thats come vent until about 2033. Its smart toer to fix it now. Last night i was in the rules committee. We were debating the tax bill and democrats said this is the republican plan. Theyre going to cut taxes and then entitlements. Not necessarily true, but i hope we do tackle them and get some president ial leadership on that issue. We havent had any of it, frankly, president obama didnt lead on that front, and i dont think President Trump has led on that front. If you want to balance the budget, you need to go where the spending is at. 70 is entitlement. Tom cole, thank you. Happy holidays. Thank you. In our next hour, well talk to the chief author of the house tax bill who then led the committee to reconcile it with the senate. Congressman kevin brady joins us. Plus new information on the train that derailed in washington state. It was going 80 Miles Per Hour in a 30 Miles Per Hour zone. Morning joe is coming right back. David. Whats going on . Oh hey thats it . Yeah. Everybody two seconds dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance. 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The ap first to report on the trees condition, and also people with eyes. Noting bare branches and needles that dropped instantly when touched. All is not lost. Governor said yesterday that a new tree is coming, thanks to a local tree farm that offered to donate a new tree. Isnt the first time the rhode island state house has had tree trouble. In 2005 the tree shed the needles after being doused in fire retardant. Then there was last year, the state house tree was removed after the staff decided the 14 footer was too small. Replaced with a 20 footer. I think how they saw at the bottom where you put it in the water so it can drink. That was. I dont know why we did that story, but i enjoyed doing it. Still ahead, nbc news has learned that just weeks after winning the republican president ial nomination the fbi warned then candidate donald trump about russias efforts to metal in 2016 election. By that time, several members of his campaign had already been in contact with russians. Well bring back into the conversation one of the reporters who broke that story, nbc carol lee and pentagon official with her take on the Foreign Policy speech. And kevin brady ahead of todays vote on the tax bill. A lot more ahead on morning joe. Dad promised he would teach me how to surf on our trip. When you book a flight then add a hotel you can save. Three waves later, i think it was the other way around. Everything you need to go. Expedia. Were on a mission to show the new keurig k select brewer is the strong way to start your day. Pop that in there. Hit strong. Press brew. Thats it. Strong. Bold. Rich. I feel like youre toying with me. Show me how strong you are. screams lift me up dan lift me up screams when youre clocking out. Im the one clocking in. Sensing your every move and automatically adjusting to help you stay effortlessly comfortable. I can even help with a silent night. Does your bed do that . I dont actually talk, but i can tell you how you slept. Im the new sleep number 360 smart bed. Lets meet at a sleep number store. Somesend you and your family overwhelrunning. Y can. Introducing febreze one for fabric and air. No aerosols. No dyes. No heavy perfumes. It cleans away odors for a pure light freshness. So you can spray and stay. Febreze one, breathe happy. [ mouse clicks, keyboard clacking ] [ mouse clicking ] [ keyboard clacking ] [ mouse clicking ] [ keyboard clacking ] good questions lead to good answers. Our advisors can help you find both. Talk to one today and see why were bullish on the future. Yours. Welcome back to morning joe. Its tuesday, december 19. 8 00 a. M. On the east coast. 5 omar mate 00 a. M. On the west veteran columnist, sam stein, president of the counsel on foreign relations, richard haas and National Political reporter carol lee. Reveals high Intelligence Briefings during the summer of 2016. The fbi warned then candidate donald trump that russians might try to infiltrate campaign. Siting multiple government officials familiar with the matter, the report says the warnings were timed to occur around the period when the candidates began receiving classified intelligence. And put them at greater risk for being trafargeted by foreign sp. They got a very clear warning. Trump was briefed and warn. At a session on august 17, 2016. About potential espionage threats there russia to former Law Enforcement officials familiar with the sessions told nbc news Hillary Clinton received a similar briefing and the candidates were urged to alert the fbi about any suspicious overtures to the campaign. You would think you would tell someone, right. Im a little confused. Weve been trying to figure out this timeline. Because they were warned by the fbi. It doesnt make any sense. And they said if you see something, say something. Yes. Definitely. If you hear of russians trying to infiltrate. Definitely report that. You can report that. And ask were giving you, were now putting a frame around this saying if you see this, say it. Its kind of like when willie and i lived in turkey. If you know of anybody thats running a heroin trade through this neighborhood, let us know. We had sal come in the back and he faded for a couple of minutes. Gave you the definition of coup. We probably should have told turkish officials then. We wouldnt have spent as much time in jail. What if you were in that meeting being briefed by the fbi and something had already happened. What if that would be bad. You say it. Thats the point i was making about turkey. Thats the correlation here. Might be a time to raise a meeting you had a trump tower. Had to be after. Stop Christmas Shopping. Youre telling me mika, youre telling me that the fbi warned them youre telling me they already had a meeting with all the russians and 14 interpreters in there. The reaction could have been gosh, we just had a meeting just like that. Why dont we tell you all about it. Instead, by the time of the warning in late july or august, at least seven trump Campaign Officials had been in contact with russians or people linked to russia as we just said. No evidence the campaign reported any of that to the fbi. Im just a dumb country lawyer, carol lee, but that doesnt sound good. Now, i hear youre the reporter. Shes got all the invest stuff. Did the warning come before or after all those russians crammed into don juniors office and he was all giggly about it. This would have been after. Oh, i never saw that coming. This is a briefing under normal circumstances is relatively standard. Both candidates got this briefing, essentially saying, hey, now youre the nominee, foreign governments adversaries are going to try to infiltrate your campaign. Concerns about espionage. Heres what that might look like. Heres what you should do if you see anything that looks suspicious. Say something. Report it to the fbi. We know then candidate trump was present for the briefing. Now, his person close to the white house said in response to the story that you know, they maintain that President Trump had no idea that his Campaign Officials were having contacts with the uses, but its not clear. If hes told about previous contacts. Wasnt just the contacts that happened before this briefing, but contacts after this briefing. You remember there was the direct messages between don junior and wikileaks, for instance. Things like that. So it raises a number of questions and obviously it has a certain amount of significance because this was all happening as opposed to the briefing that secretary clinton got. All happening at a time the government was starting an investigation into russias metaling in the election and possible collusion. You would think they mentioned it. Maybe they did mention it. Were obviously concerned about the trump team not understanding the significance of this or if they understand the significance of it, not reporting it to the fbi and not working together with the fbi. Also every time a story like this comes up, it also cast as dim light on the Obama Administration. Time and time again say wait a second. So, you had fbi and going and warning the campaigns. You knew about this. I know democrats like to say Mitch Mcconnell said they tried to make it partisan. I understand that. Those are horrible thing for Mitch Mcconnell to do, but if im president of the United States, id say screw Mitch Mcconnell, you know what, i want everybody around this country to know that supervisor of election in wisconsin that the russians are trying to divert american democracy. Thats absolutely true. There was a general sense in the Obama Administration this would almost take care of itself. Hillary was going to win. If you raise the concerns in advance, you might cause a mess. Why do that when you know the outcome anyway. In retrospect, that was a dumb calculation they made. If you had seen all the stuff building up as the administration did, attempts, state election sites, the obviously propaganda that was happening online, the clear text that the washington was making contact with the Trump Campaign. There was enough smoke there to declare, hey, guys, theres a fire. And yet they didnt do it. The one time they did do it was the same day that the billy bush tape was released and completely buried by that news. Where is billy bush. Richard, richard well get back to billy bush. Billy bush full and complete pardon. Totally. Well, no. He just left while the president grabbed him. Billy is making a comingbaeb okay. That happened. Listen to the tape. What doid you take last nigh. No, listen to the tape. Leave the guy alone. Weve been talking about the past. Weve been talking about donald trump. Weve been talking about the Obama Administration. What they did not do. More relevant to us today, is whats happening in the future. And sadly we have a russian government that is trying to influence elections in germany and france and the United States across western democracies. We have a trend. We have a pattern. We have some very disturbing information from 2016, but is there any evidence that the United States government, that Donald Trumps administration is doing what is required to stop them from hacking the 2018 elections and 2020 elections . No. Its worse than that. What you have is a russian government thats not only interfering with elections here and elsewhere. This is a russian government thats essentially become a spoiler on the world stage. Theyve become an outlier and outsider. They want to overturn things. We havent responded directly or forcefully to what theyve done. No deterrence of what they might do in the future. Weve essentially given them a pass on one of the most aggressive forms of russian destabilization activity in the world. Its so cheap. They dont have to spend that much money to create this much chaos. Especially if you have a president in donald trump that denies the truth, that gives them free reign. Even though he knows they were trying to influence the election before, say no, they didnt influence the election. Hes not directing his people. Mike pompeo saying theres no evidence of the russians trying to influence. Do we have any status of the russian sanctions bills he was supposed to sign. This is months and months away. Theres no price theyre paying for this. Churchill comment about russia saying its a mystery wrapped in an enigma. That applies to this administration. After two years, what is motivating what that has been a sustained consistent pass on russia is tostill to me the biggest question mark in politics. Number one who was in the meeting from the trump side . I know the president was in the Counter Intelligence briefing, but who else from the meeting was in it . Second part, strikes me as i read your report the cia had talked to the fbi before these meetings and said were seeing contact between the Trump Campaign and russia. You ought to look into them and james comey launched an investigation that summer. That came before those briefings. In other words, they knew in that meeting that the Trump Campaign had already reached out to russia. Gave them the chance to talk about it and the campaign did not. Yeah. First, i dont we dont know exactly who else was in the meeting. Obviously the candidate was in the meeting. If you look at who was typically around him when he would have National Security briefings like this, it was largely Michael Flynn and perhaps Chris Christie was another person on his campaign who had clearances to be part of briefings like this. We dont know exactly who was also with candidate trump at the time. The fbi knew going into the meeting. They had already been told by the cia the Trump Campaign had been talking to russia. They knew the answers to the questions they were asking. Thats what is so extraordinary about this whole investigation. Everyone was in unchartered territory at this stage. There was an aware rns. Investigation was beginning at that time. Another thing we point out is we heard from Trump Officials over and over again whenever theres things brought up about contacts with russia during the campaign or the question of collusion and meetings and not reporting them. We didnt know any better. This was First Campaign. What did we know. The fact that they had this warning during the campaign suggests thats not necessarily the best excuse because they were told this is something that would be unusual. To hear them say repeatedly that they didnt know anything and they were just bump kins on their First Campaign. This calls that into question. Then the immediate future, the impact of the front page of the Washington Post this morning. Trump team to press mueller. They are not going to go in there later this week and get the idea that this information investigation is going to end quickly. This is exactly what he was trying to do with james comey and got him bob mueller and got him the trouble he got. The question is ripe. Its in august when they get the washing. President trump gets the warning and security briefing. Now, did he hear of any prior meetings between his sons and the russians at trump tower by then . Its a closely held campaign. Theres no way theyre meeting without anybody without donald trump knowing during that time period. No way. There is no prosecution arrest. You can see in carols reporting at the beginning of the Trump Defense in all of this. President trump himself and then candidate trump himself did not know about it. It may have been happening beneath it, but he did not know. Laughable. Still ahead on morning joe, President Trump lays out strategy for National Security. Sends mixed messages about russia. Well talk to two Foreign Policy experts plus the house is set to hold a final vote on the gop plan for tax reform today. Well bring in the ways and Means Committee chairman kevin brady. First, here is bill karins with a check on the forecast. Bill . Good morning. Fog is the story and the rain. Its not going to last and may have a little bit of snow for someone on christmas day. Lets get into it. Fog, 62 million people. Yesterday was 38. I thought that was a lot. Florida to texas. A lot of areas with dense fog. We will have delays at the airport and a little bit on the road. Also heavy rain around dallas with thunderstorms this morning. December thunderstorms. Overnight san antonio. Now drifting up towards three port. Georgia and carolinas as we go throughout the day tomorrow. Mentioned the warmth. This is as warm as it gets and as warm as it is going to get. This map will be the complete opposite in seven days. Major cold snap going to hit right around christmas and continue into the new year. Mild today. 55 kansas city. Enjoy this d. C. At 60 degrees. Houston at 77. Still warm on wednesday. Here comes the cold. Starts in the west. Sweep around the country. Rapid city drops to 24 for a high. How about friends in minnesota. Finally feel like typical winter with high of 12 on sunday. And on christmas day, high will be zero. Middle of the country going to be frigid on christmas day. Very cold conditions. Only 14 in areas like des moines and quad cities. 34 in kansas. East is where we have a slight chance, maybe a little bit of snow. Storm coming up the coast. Same time the cold air will be pushing in. Too early. Five, six days away to know where the rain snow line will be. Northern new england had the best chance of seeing snow on christmas day. We have a couple days to watch out on that. See how it all plays out. Enjoy the warmth across the country while it lasts. Very cold stuff coming for the midwest first and eventually sweep to the east coast right after christmas. New york city looking good. Youre watching morning joe. Well be right back. i feel like fire the 2018 cadillac xt5. Worship me beauty, greater than the sum of its parts. Come in for our seasons best offers and drive out with the perfect 2018 cadillac xt5. Get a lowmileage lease on this cadillac xt5 from around 379 per month. President trump speaking yesterday. Promote accident America First theme. Plus, congressman kevin brady shared the committee that reconciled the house and senate tax bill. He called the agreement a big win for all americans, but then why arent all of his republicans colleagues on board. Well ask him. And were following latest on a deadly Train Derailment in washington state. Investigators say the train was traveling 80mileperhour when it careened off a bridge. Well get a live report from the scene. 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And thats where your donation truly shines. You help us fund free rides to treatment. A live 24 7 help line, free lodging near treatment centers, and even efforts to expand access to insurance. So, please donate today at cancer. Org and help attack cancer from every angle. America is in the game and america is going to win. Our strategy advance is for Vital National interest. First, we must protect the american people. The homeland and our Great American way of life. This strategy recognizes that we cannot secure a nation if we do not secure our borders. The second pillar of our strategy is to promote american prosperi prosperity, for the first time, american strategy recognizes that Economic Security is National Security. The third pillar of our strategy is to reserve peace through strength. We recognize that weak Social Security number the surest path to conflict. And unrivalled power is the most certain means of defense. Fourth and finally, strategy is to advance american influence on the world. This begins with building up our wealth and power at home. President trump outlined his National Security strategy yesterday. With us now to break it down, former dod official and former executive director of the wmd commission. Now senior fellow at the atlantic counsel, evelyn. And here onset. Gord gordon chang. His speech is very different to the document. If i read the document it reads fairly similar. Its got the right elements. The pillars are all fine. What i have a beef with is what is missing. He doesnt talk about the threat posed to america and the world by radical nationalism, ill call it. The idea that and the biggest cham example of that is of course what russia did with legal using military force to change boards. That gets me to the second thing they got wrong or they omitted, which is the fact that russia is actually a bigger rule breaker right now than china. So theyre kind of putting them in the same bucket. I dont think that works. Gordon, where do we put this speech on the president who has at times undermined his secretary of state on policy. How do we know what we know hire. I think the speech and, certainly, the National Security strategy like it or dont like it is historic. When you talk with china, theres been a china policy that has been in place since 1972 when nixon went to beijing. Now the whole idea was to integrate china into the international system. High objective of national policy. Look at the strategy, thats completely out. In a couple places it mentions how we tried to do that and that policy has failed. What the president is going to do is actually look at china and say, look, you got to comply with norms. You got to follow what the rest of the world wants. Thats a very, very different view of the way things are going. I think that you know theres a lot wrong with this nss, National Security strategy. It is aparadigm shift. Did you hear anything in that speech new or interesting or heartening about the president s approach to north korea. No, i mean its pretty much the same. One of the things thats interesting about the National Security strategy is it doesnt really focus much on north korea. I think what it is trying to do is say north korea is the paw. The cat is china. Therefore really focusing on the big power challenges, russia and china. Really taking a look at iran and north korea as being side shows. Lev lyevelyn, one of the thi about the speech that struck me and stood out in a negative way unfortunately for me had to do with references to the past. The past policies and past administrations. One line specifically i found to be upsetting in talking about past administrations and past president s. They lost their belief in american greatness. Go ahead. No, mike, i agree 100 . I was reading it thinking no other National Security strategy has slammed previous administrations the way that they did in that language. And tits trumps language and the speech he gave was so stark. Its wrong to say the previous president s didnt care about american power, american National Security interest. The issue here is that theyre saying by picking interest over value so theyre making this dark distinction that i think doesnt stand up in the other policy we might have denuclearizing north korea. We use influence. We use the attractiveness of u. S. Democracy. Of u. S. Diplomacy. The way we operate is not transactional across the board. We dont use force to get our way generally speaking. I would not have criticized previous administrations, but lets be clear. There is an important shift here. That is you look at Clinton Administration what the president said when he was in office. There was a sort of notion of the United States integrating itself into multilateral instituti institutions. Thats off the table in this trump administration. Its certainly not in the National Security strategy where hes saying the United States because the attractiveness of values and ideals and economy is going to lead. So thats very different. Im trying to figure out within the body of the speech in terms of what you were just talking about, specifically china and the threat china poses to us. How can you really go after china and talking about china when you were within the first few minutes of your administration void the tpp pact. We should have stayed in the Transpacific Partnership. That really was the center of president obamas shift to asia. I think that was a mistake. I just came back from tokyo. Japanese are livid about that. They put themselves on the line to join tpp. Nonetheless what trump is saying if you have a strong and resur gent american economy, this is going to allow the United States to accomplish historic goals. Thats something weve not heard before. Its an important way of looking at things. Very different. A lot of people may disagree with it. Its a new turn in american Foreign Policy that we have just not heard in decades. Yes, i agree that rhetorically its different. Do you see how theres a disconnect between the rhetoric in the parties. You can be a super pawer in theory. If you abdicate any Global Leadership roles. Push back or pull back from Transpacific Partnership. Gut your own state department, if you know anow allies and miss them off. If you make enemies of the british, of the german leadership. At at some point, the rhetoric seems flimsy when you have all these instances in which you are not exerting u. S. Leadership. The National Strategy came early in the trump administration. Much earlier than other administrations issued. I think were going to see specially with the section 301 investigation and the remedies that have come from that and other things. You talk about those things where we irritated allies. We have certain cases we need to do that. Someone needed to tell the germ germans. Someone needed to tell the dutch. This is no longer sustainable. I think about retweeting britain first the counts on twitter. Thats no different than saying you need to contribute to nato. Thats literally promoting White Nationalist in britain and fundamentally different. No one is going to argue about that. The point is when you look at this, what he has done is said look, we have an american first National Security strategy. I dont like the phrases, but nonetheless, what he did in nss is outline how that makes sense. A lot of people will disagree with it. The point is essentially, look. We have a resur gent u. S. Economy. We are going to have American Leadership just like we saw in previous administrations. Were not. If i can interject because i dont think that hes defending the International Order. I think the International Order is key. We set it up in order to serve our National Security interests. We overlaid our values or underverticaled it with values. I dont see him in this document certainly not in practice defending the International Order. Thats what russia is so aggressively railing against. Trying to up the International Order. By the way, i dont see china doing it quite as aggressively. They Vice President metalled in our election. Not metaling in elections all across europe. I think the equivalence si doesnt stand up. They needed to call out russia much more strongly and defend the International Order. Im worried now. You see monday the aus trtrian government was going to issue. Usually the small states cause problems for the bigger states we know historically. Im worried about the International Order. The boundaries of the west order. They need to be defended. The United States needs to be first and foremost leading the charge on that. All right. Evelyn, gordon chang. Thank you both for bing on this morning. The chairman of the tax writing house ways and Means Committee joins us next ahead of todays big vote in the house on the tax bill. Keep it right here on morning joe. Liberty mutual saved us almost eight hundred dollars when we switched our auto and home insurance. Liberty did what . Yeah, they saved us a ton, which gave us a little wiggle room in our budget. Wish our insurance did that. Then we could get a real babysitter instead of your brother. Hey, welcome back. This guy. Right . Yes. Ellen. Thats my robe. You could save seven hundred eighty two dollars when liberty stands with you. Liberty mutual insurance. The markets change. At t. Rowe price. Our disciplined approach remains. Global markets may be uncertain. But you can feel confident in our investment experience around the world. Call us or your advisor. T. Rowe price. Invest with confidence. I enjoy the fresher things in life. O. Fresh towels. Fresh soaps. And of course, tripadvisors freshest, lowest. Prices. So if youre anything like me. Youll want to check tripadvisor. We now instantly compare prices. From over 200 booking sites. To find you the lowest price. On the hotel you want. Go on, try something fresh. Tripadvisor. The latest reviews. The lowest prices. I love you, droolius caesar, but sometimes you stink. Febreze car vent clip cleans away odors for up to 30 days. Because the things you love can stink. Joining us now. Chairman of the house ways and Means Committee, republican congressman kevin brady of texas. Good morning. Good to see you. Today is a big day. Building to this for a long time. Any chance it doesnt make it through the senate today. No, i think its going to be approved in both chambers by new years day, america is going to have a new tax code. It is long overdue. 31 years. Weve got to shake and get this economy moving in a big way and competitive tax code we stop seeing jobs keep moving overseas, companies and headquarters as well. Quote. Were getting rid of interests. Hedge Fund Managers are getting away with murder. One of the Campaign Pledges to get rid of cared interest. Still in there. Exten ex the truth is hedge Fund Managers and private equities hold things for much longer than three years anyway. Why is carried interest still in the bill. Whats the benefit to the american people. Thats a perfect issue. Disconnect between washington and new york and the american people. Look, that average family making 73,000 a year. Both Blue Collar Workers will see a tax cut in this tax bill. For the first time, were actually going to be competitive, first time in 31 years. Worldwide. Thats what americans are really foe doesed on. Look carried interest we could talk about that for the next hour if you would like. For most americans, they could care less about that. They care about their paychecks. And getting the economy going. Frankly. Ive got a college son as well. Making sure theyve got a good paying job when theyre done with school. As you know, this is this goes to a lot of people in new york who make a lot of money. Why is it still in gl through your Holding Period to make sure hedge funds are using and flipping these. Making sure you have to have capital at risk. Hold it for a long period of time. And that you work to grow it. All that is the reasoning behind it. Again, perfect example i think of why washington and new york get caught up in all these ancillary issues and forget the big picture here. Its about growing paychecks for middle class families. Its about growing jobs in america. And about our jobs stopping leaving the United States and thats why theres so much support in congress for this. Well get into some of the other pieces. This is it. Thats the best question youve got. One of many questions weve got. Carried interest . Seriously. Hold on. Can you answer us . Chairman, this was a primary Campaign Pledge. He went after again, and, again, and talked about carried interest. You know what a primary Campaign Pledge was, lower the tax rates. Let people keep more of what they earned. Get our jobs going again. Get our paychecks increased again. President trump in congress is delivering on that big Campaign Promise today. Would you concede though that carried interest and we will move on to other parts of the bill, i swear. Ill concede that youre obsessed with one issue. The promise the president made. And something youre concerned about within the last month. Would you concede that this wealthy new york private equity firms. No it doesnt. It doesnt . At the end of the day, keep talking about this. This is why the American Public turns off these shows unfortunately. Because theyre not getting answers. Actually, kevin, people arent turning offer our show. We never talk about it, but since you talked about it, we have look, we have kevin. Let me talk. Kevin let me talk. We have highest ratings weve ever had this year. Been a very good year for us. People arent turning us off. People are concerned about is the fact that donald trump promised to run a campaign and pass a tax bill and pass a Health Care Reform that helps working class people that are in your district and help working class people that are in my district that said. People who voted for you. That said he was going to take it to the Hedge Fund Guys who pay their salaries and irs. Let me step back a minute. Let me finish. Let me step back a minute. Let me finish. Let me agree with you. Kevin. A lot of people in your district that work hard that dont make a lot of money are paying double that. I tell you what, people in my Community Working hard have not seen a paycheck increase in more than a decade. Washington loves to spend money. For the first time were saying why dont you spend your money on whats important to you family and let me agree with you in this point. When i say people are turning you off, i dont mean that for this show. I love coming on this show. The i think its an important part of our country. What im saying is i think generally when washington and other areas really focus on obsess on one provision when the rest of the country is really focused on their paycheck, were missing a really great discussion. Thats all. The part of the discussion and joe will let you take it away again here is that i think people are turned off with washington when the same old thing happens again, and, again, and, again. And really having very interesting question that is not an obsession that is about the fairness of this plan. Back home, i just have to tell you i dont mean to interrupt. No one back home says hey how is the carried interest provision going. Theyre asking hey can i keep more of my paycheck. Can we get the economy going. Can we get jobs back from overseas. My point to you is i think those are the big issues families care about. Thats all. I think as far as branding, as far as a message, i think when you look at the polls, this tax plan has a lot of the problems that the Health Care Plan had which is, which is that it seemed to help the wealthiest of americans and not help working class americans enough. Do you think republicans can get the message out here. Heres a Monmouth University poll that suggests that. Do you think that part of this is a failure of republicans to get the message out. That this doesnt just help rich people. This helps working class americans as well. Do you believe it does. The bill certainly does. The focus on middle class families. Theres an easy narrative around this country and has been for a decade. Look, make sure no one gets rewarded the successful the talking points on tax reform was written two years ago. Theyre still on it. Our democratic colleagues, but they ignore the rel benefits for hard working families, and, again, i know washington sneers at family getting 2,000 tax break, but for that family, its really important because they havent seen a raise in their paycheck. So yeah, i think as this bill when people really seem to understand what is in this bill and how it benefits where the fog of all the politics and washington ends, i think theres going to be strong support for this. You also talked about the need to get this economy jump started. Get it moving. Tax bill will do that. Donald trump has said and i know you hear him all the time talk about best stock market ever. Best economy ever. Best recovery ever. Pretty well. Is this the right time for a tax cut when you have the president of the United States saying that we already have the best economy weve had in a long time. Great question. Heres the answer. Look where were at. Three . Dramatically better than the obama years and slow growth of the last decade. It does feel much better than it did. Were now at the average, the average that weve been for the last 50 years. This tells you why we have to do it. Unless were going to settle and joe you know your economics. Unless were going to settle for 2 growth for the next decade or more every time, thats what well have to. Im not going to settle for that. We shouldnt settle for that. We get the growth. It helps jobs. Helps young people coming out of school. Helps major cities and economies like new york. Yeah, absolutely. Unless america is going to settle for a dumbed down version of the economy for another decade, its time to change. So congressman, i know youre pretty connected to your district and know your district pretty well. You probably are aware of the fact theres a two teiered economy in this country. Shareholder economy and paycheck to paycheck economy and a lot of your constituents havent received a decedent pay raise in over a decade. What would lead you to believe from recent history, past history, from today, from reality, that this sudden boom to so many corporations to hedge funds, to private equity funds as contained in the tax bill that theyre going to turn around and start hiring people. Yes. Probably the most loaded question ive had for a while. The truth of the matter is that so we in texas you know we understand energy. We understand International Trade. A lot of our jobs come from both. We know our local companies are getting clobbered when they try to compete around the world. Weve seen 18 of our we have a Good Business sector. Weve seen 18 texas based companies now located in england and europe and netherlands. Bu bermuda. Tired of seeing the jobs go overseas. One thing we dont talk about is when American Companies compete and win for the first time around the world, they can brick the dollars back to by reinvested in new york and woodland texas and across the country. Another big change in this tax reform plan. Congressman, sam stein here. One of the big selling points for the plan is the child tax credit. And i know it was increased in Conference Committee to help with support of marco rubio. As i understand the tax credit is not indexed to inflammation. Meaning the purchasing power of i represent, lack of a better word, wont go up over time. Why did you not index it to inflation. Increased in the house version. The senate version, and, again, in conference. I believe let me triple check that. I believe it was the conferenc version and i believe indexed for inflation over time. Ill doublecheck that for you. Its a great question. The other thing about this that most people dont know, its not mentioned, is for the first time instead of phasing out at about 110,000, a family which isnt much, especially where you live, it now starts to phase out at 400,000 a family. Which means more families raising kids are going to get help under the republican tax plan than ever before. I said child tax, i meant child credit, i just want to clarify. Mr. Chairman, thank you. Thanks for watching. We appreciate it. Let me just say one thing you got it. I think the chairmans right, if you ask somebody about carried interest, they wouldnt know what it is. Its arcane and hard to understand. What people do understand is the promise of this administration was to drain the swamp and people understand fairness. The promise that wasnt going to happen, thats what they do understand. They do. Loud and clear. I do think the great challenge for the republicans, and by the way, nobody ever knows how things are going to work out. Nobody saw it really. A few people saw 2008 coming. But you never know when a tax cuts going maybe this makes the economy explode. Maybe it goes up to 4 . We dont know. But you only have to deal with the facts that you have to deal with right now. We know a couple things. One, donald trump says the economys hotter and faster and doing better and the stock markets better than ever before. Thats not when you stimulate the economy with a tax cut. Secondly, we know that income disparity in the United States of america has grown at a faster clip than any other western industrialized nation. The top 1 control 25 of our nations income. And carried interest i went to a Republican Governors Association meeting a couple years ago, and everybody was talking, working class, working class. And im like, with you, with you, with you. Then i turned to a governor, i said, okay, why dont we get rid of carried interest . Because your dad, who you say is a working class guy, he wouldnt understand these Hedge Fund Guys paying 14 in taxes. And the response was oh, we can talk about carried interest all day, lets talk about nobody wants to talk about carried interest. Donald trump wanted to talk about carried interest. Donald trump promised to take care of carried interest. Promised to make sure that hedge people people that run hedge funds dont pay 14 in taxes while their assistants pay 28 or 35 in taxes. Theyre getting away with murder. The guys who are the hedge Fund Managers just happen to be the biggest donors in politics, so that might explain it. And Donald Trumps going to make 1 billion and his family will make 1 billion. Good for him. Off of this bill. The quick answer, all these good corporations are going to do very well. Theyre all on the new york stock exchange. What are they going to do first . Theyre going to go out and hire 100 people or increase the dividend . Again, the economy in 2017 is any profits they make, they will buy back stock. This is not 1981 when reagan passed tax cuts and actual tax savings meant you could expand an assembly line. Long gone. Up next, cars on an interstate below. Well get a live report from the scene next. The trash . sigh dad molly trash whoo mom hey, molly . Its time to go bell ringing class, lets turn to page 136, recessive traits skip generations. Who would like to read . molly i reprogrammed the robots to do the inspection. Its running much faster now. See . Its amazing, molly. Thank you. new details this morning on yesterdays deadly amtrak derailment. Just outside of tacoma, washington. Overnight, the National Transportation safety board confirmed the train was traveling 80 Miles Per Hour in a 30 mile per hour zone. Joining us now, nbc news correspondent gladi schwartz. Reporter we know it was traveling at 80 miles an hour in a 30 mile per hour zone because of a black box recovered in the back of the train. I want to show you whats going on. Live, very difficult conditions out here for crews in this washington rain but you can see over there, theres a crane working in tandem with another crane and its getting ready to lift up a piece of the train off of the bridge, off of that overpass. Other pieces of that train were littered all throughout this highway on i5 here. Theyre having to cut this train apart piece by piece and lift it out of the way. Theyre hoping to restore traffic here on i5. But this is where that train derailed. In fact if you look over there where those blinking lights are, that is where the train was coming into the curve. It should have been going 30 miles an hour there. It was going 80 miles an hour. That looks like a major contributing factor to this Train Derailment. Mika, back to you. I dont understand, we had a train wreck here in new york yes. Again, once again, went around the corner too quickly. Why dont we have systems in place that slow those well, there are some, just not in those obviously in the areas where same thing that happened in philadelphia a couple years ago. Tomorrow on morning joe, were going to speak with outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin gary kasparov. He joins us on set. Im going to play him a couple games, chess. My father taught me chess, i can beat him. That does it for us this morning. Stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage. More people shop online for the holidays than ever before. clapping and the United States Postal Service delivers more of those purchases to homes than anyone else in the country. because we know, even the smallest things are sometimes the biggest. Hi there, im stephanie ruhle. This morning, a deadly first ride. Officials reveal the amtrak train that careened off a Washington Bridge was traveling 50 miles over the speed limit. Just looking at this whole mess right around christmas breaks my heart. Questions about why a key Safety System was not in place. Would prevent types of accidents s