Reporter yeah, thats right. The president spent most of the waking hours of today so far on the golf course. Although he was golfing with the republican senator so i suppose its possible they were talking policy. The white house doesnt make a habit of providing readouts of what the president discusses in his golf games. He started talking about policy this morning, actually, too, with a tweet about obamacare, saying that now that the mandate had been removed from the obamacare law, that happened in the tax bill, that now perhaps in the future, democrats and republicans would come together to put some kind of new Health Care Plan together. That may happen down the line but its not going to look like a repeal and replace. The laws that are working their way through the senate right now, for example, things that might get voted on in the not too distant future are designed to stabilize obamacare. You talked about his other tweets both today and over the weekend. A lot of focus on the fbi. The most recent tweet today talks about the fbi broadly being tainted by this dossier and the work done on it, but most of the president s ire over the weekend was focused on one man, Andrew Mccabe, the Deputy Director of the fbi, a close ally of james comey, the former director, someone who can corroborate comeys account that the president had asked him for his loyalty. One of the issues about mccabe that seems to have piqued the president is mccabes wife ran for office last cycle as a democrat and was supporting by a Hillary Clinton ally, Terry Mcauliffe and some pacs of his in virginia. The president took issue with that in several tweets. We wont read through all of them but you get the general idea here that this man Andrew Mccabe has gotten very much under the president s skin, both for his involvement on the russia side of things and for his involvement on the clinton side of things. Its a bad mix and its brought us to this unprecedented situation of the president of the United States attacking one prominent Law Enforcement officer at a federal Law Enforcement agency which overall, he controls. Garrett, what are we expecting next, in the next few days from the president . Reporter well, hes here in palm beach until the 1st. He has nothing on his public schedule, but i do expect we will see more potentially golf course diplomacy, more visitors here. We have had spottings of trump friends and allies in palm beach although nothing we are ready to report at this juncture. Then theres the response to events around the world that continues wherever the white house goes. For example, the north korea sanctions rolled out this afternoon by the Treasury Department against two north koreans involved in their Ballistic Missile program. The response to world events continues, regardless of where the president is or what hes doing in the moment. You set me up so nicely. In just a few moments, i will talk about those sanctions. Enjoy your Sunny Afternoon in west palm beach, florida. You do know that its like 18 degrees here in new york. Dont let that trouble you. Garrett haake. Reporter im really sorry to hear that. I am, too. All right. As the president rails against top officials in the fbi, the president s opponents are trying to build a case that he broke the law and attempted to intimidate possible witnesses in special counsel Robert Muellers russia probe. Those witnesses include the fbi Deputy DirectorAndrew Mccabe on the left, fbi former director james comey in the middle and outgoing fbi general counsel james baker, all of whom have been the target of trumps twitter fury. Joining me, richard painter, who served as white house ethics lawyer under george w. Bush. You have got a lot of things to say about how President Trump has conducted himself in office since becoming president as it relates to ethics but you think these particular tweets have crossed a particular line. I do. Hes back to work, i see. Golfing and tweeting. But the problem here is if hes going to send out multiple tweets attacking Andrew Mccabe for various things, you know, theres just no argument that mr. Mccabe did anything wrong. His wife ran for Public Office. His wife has the right to run for Public Office and yes, even as a democrat, and that doesnt mean he has to quit his job or get a divorce. And the attacks on mccabe are really unjustified. Then you know exactly why hes doing it, because mccabe is a material witness in the mueller probe. Apparently director comey came back and talked to mccabe or shared with mccabe some of his experiences dealing with President Trump and President Trumps insistence on loyalty and the intimidation of director comey, and so hes a material witness here. I think its critically important for President Trump, who is his boss, after all, hes head of the executive branch, and the fbi is part of the executive branch, its critically important for President Trump to lay off of someone who is a material witness in a criminal probe. He risks getting himself in even more hot water than hes already in for having fired director comey and other acts of obstruction of justice. Its not been a good day for President Trump but then again, whats new. One doesnt have to be a scholar of history to understand that the fbi formed 40 years after the department of justice was formed, while part of the executive branch, is specifically meant to be insulated from direct contact with the president or attacks from the president in order to conduct its investigations independently. Thats a very this isnt just about president ial behavior. This is about the structure of the Justice Department and why the fbi is structured and siloed in a way to conduct independent investigations. Absolutely right. In a democracy you cannot have the fbi, the cia, these agencies which are responsible either for intelligence or for Law Enforcement or both, you cannot have those agencies turned into political weapons for the president. That is how you get nointo a dictatorship. We do not want that in the United States. We have been very careful to co keep the fbi independent of political influence. Thats the way we did it under george w. Bush. When i was in the white house i met director mueller a few times, he was director of the fbi, but he was expected to do his job independently of the white house or anywhere else. That out to be the way its run now. I would say director w oor wrayo lay down the law to the president and say this has to stop, these attacks on the fbi, the agents of the fbi, have to stop. Any possibility in testimony, he seemed to im fplyimply, the thing he did was come out to defend the men and women of the fbi. A lot of people ask me where this leads legally and the conversation often goes to impeachment. You tweeted out democrats wont impeach him. Hes a walking, talking, tweeting free infomercial for the dnc that runs 24 7. Your view is its better for democrats to keep trump around than not . Well, i guess so. I have been a republican for 30 years and i think its going to be a bloodbath in fall 2018 for the republicans. We have a handful of republicans that actually have the nerve to run around repeating President Trumps slanders and talking about deep state and other foolishness and many of the republicans are just trying to keep their head down and get through the elections but this is a disaster for the republican party. The president s behavior, the behavior of members of congress and i dont see the democrats having any incentive to get him out of there at all. They end up with mike pence, who would at least be calmer than President Trump. I think the republicans need to grab the bull by the horns and sit down with the president and say hes got to shape up or ship out. This has been going on for almost a year now and its ridiculous. Every one of these tweets, just ridiculous. Richard, good to talk to you. Thank you for joining us. Former chief white house ethics lawyer richard painter. A republican. The Treasury Department issued new sanctions this afternoon against two Senior North Korean government officials. This is what garrett talked about earlier. They say its for aiding the countrys Ongoing Development of weapons of mass destruction and for helping to deliver them. That of course would be a violation of u. N. Security Council Resolutions that were passed just four days ago. For more on this, im joined by my friend who always makes this stuff a little more understandable. You usually see her when we talk about sanctions because shes the former treasury spokesperson and spokesperson for the mission to the United States. These sanctions, the new sanctions against north korea, are about its Ballistic Missile program. We are normally thinking about the Nuclear Program. Whats the connection . Right. At the end of the day when it comes to the Ballistic Missile program, all of it is about the broader weapons of mass destruction Proliferation Program by north korea. Ballistic missles also, what they are trying to target is the delivery mechanism. Is this a big deal, this set of sanctions . I think listen, my guess is these were targets. Having been on the inside, my guess is these are targets that were ready for sanctions. Its not a big deal. It wont move the needle. It exposes two additional figures but at the end of the day its about a steady drumbeat. Constant new sanctions, Something Else happening. The important part is it sort of supports the sanctions coming out of the United States which are really one of the u. S. Successes at the u. N. To get Security Council sanctions that include china and russia against north korea. Right. There is sort of a steadiness to what nikki haley is achieving at the u. N. Completely. I was going to add that todays action, youre not going to see a lot of effect out of that but it follows on a very successful resolution on friday which feels like forever ago but it was recent, and it cut off 100 of north korean exports, 30 of north korean imports, 90 of refined imports, ability for anyone to hire north korean workers. This is a significant resolution and very good step in the right direction. Again, this is all mixed together part of their steady escalation. There was a conversation we had this morning that i want to have a little more of. Stick around. I want to talk about this. The new budget for the United Nations is out. The u. S. Ambassador to the u. N. Calling it a success because she was able to cut more than 285 million or a little over 5 of the u. N. s budget. On sunday she released a statement saying we will no longer let the generosity of the American People be taken advantage of or remainhinted th cuts to protect u. S. Interests. I want to take a look at just what the u. N. Budget is and what it does. Lets walk over here to the board and i can show you this. The u. N. Budget for 2018 tops out at 5. 4 billion. The u. S. Contributes about 22 of the total budget. Contributions are calculated from a formula that is in the United Nations charter. Next year, the u. S. Owes the u. N. About 1. 2 billion. Meaning that cut to the budget saved the u. S. About 62 million. Not that big a deal. Where is all this money going . Last year, u. S. Contributions made up 37 of u. N. Hcrs funding. The High Commission for refugees. This is the program that aids refugees, particularly focusing on syrians fleeing the civil war. 34 of the world food programs budget in 2016 came from u. S. Contributions. This feeds people in areas like pakistan, yemen, refugee settlements in jordan. More than 31 of the International AtomicEnergy Agencys budget is paid for by u. S. Contributions. The iaea helps monitor Nuclear Programs around the world. It was one of the agencies responsible for monitoring and verifying the destruction of iraqs Nuclear Program in the early 2000s. It monitors iran. This isnt the only stuff getting cuts. Over the summer, nikki haley tweeted just five months into our time we cut over half a billion dollars from the u. N. Peace keeping budget. Thats a separate budget all together. 6. 8 billion, the u. N. Contributes sorry, u. S. Contributes 1. 9 billion. A little more than 28 . This obviously funds things like Peace Keeping operations in kosovo, darfur, central sudan and haiti. I want to talk about this, hagar. The United States does pay a lot for the United Nations. The United Nations has been criticized for inefficiencies in the past. Is she on the right or the wrong road here . I think shes on the right road. Its consistent with the Trump Administrations policy for sure. The budget cut they negotiated is just a little over what u. N. Secretary General Gutierrez was arguing for, a cut in 200 million. This is a bit more than that. They stated and i believe when they say this was targeted to cut office, Expensive Office leases, compensation rules, travel consultants, things like this, and its true. When it comes to u. N. Headquarters in new york there is fat to trim. Let me bring hans nichols in from the pentagon. Hans, the president is not a fan, we know from the campaign, of the u. S. Funding of the United Nations, but the problem with this is this announcement seems linked to the u. N. Voting against the u. S. Recognizing jerusalem as the capital of israel, and more importantly, the president said we are watching, nikki haley said were watching. Something seems to be going against the diplomatic spirit of what the United Nations is. Reporter well, diplomacy always involves give and take. What the Trump Administration clearly wants to do here is put pressure on the u. N. To hue the party line and they are willing to withdraw funds because of that. We have to take their threats seriously. Thats a new chapter in u. N. Diplomacy, threatening and in some way, to take away funding. What we clearly have is two separate issues here. You have the president hinting they are going to do this and then nikki haley essentially doing a victory lap for a larger cost efficiency, cost savings that were taking place there. Whether or not these two issues are going to fully come together, we dont know. I will say the pentagon, every day at the pentagon we hear the importance of the diplomatically led effort involving north korea. Jim mattis is fond of saying fewer diplomats means i have to buy more bullets. Right. So the point is, if this is all about as hagar says making the u. N. A more efficient body, the u. S. Will get some support on that. If this is about doing Something Else outside of the u. N. , cutting funding to places that u. S. A. I. D. Contributes, that stuff is not charity. The United States, when it gives money to other countries, and it gives a lot, its usually because there is something we are getting for it. Reporter yeah. Take Peace Keeping alone. Thats a strategic United States interest. You hear that at the pentagon, where they need or want peace keepers, how well they want them to be trained, especially in africa. When you look at the funding on Peace Keeping, yes, the u. S. Does have the highest percentage. The real issue on peace keepers a lot of times, especially in conflict and postconflict zones, the real issue is what country do they come from. Thats an entirely different game of diplomatic chess when you want to make sure we will have nigerian peace keepers in liberia. Theres a lot of diplomacy that takes place at the u. N. Hagar would be well positioned to speak on this but its not just funding. It has to do with man power, resources and expertise. Does this fundamentally affect the work on the ground of the u. N. . You were saying in new york and the consultants and expenses here, thats one thing. But the stuff i was showing people, United NationsHigh Commission for refugees, the food program, things like that . I dont think this cut is going to have an effect on that type of work in the field, because they specifically earmarked what that cut would be tied to. Where i think we run the risk and garrett focused on this, hans, sorry, focused on this, is its worrisome about the potential future cuts and tying our financial contributions or aid to specific u. N. Policies. So what we need, really need to be careful of and not run the risk of is undermining the u. N. Missions, especially abroad. Those that work with refugees, with children, with development. Those are tied directly to our own National Security objectives. So again, while i think this cut made sense to me, there is waste to eliminate at u. N. Headquarters for sure. We have to be very careful and i hope the Trump Administration wields that power very carefully and not forcing the u. N. To cut where it could hurt us. Good to see you. Former treasury spokesperson for the u. S. Mission to the u. N. And hans for us in washington. Gop lawmakers are cheering the new tax reform policy as a huge win for the middle class. Up next, i will show you why the gap between the haves and havenots is likely to get a lot bigger. A new the Washington Post report shows key warning signs about Russian Election meddling may have been missed for years. Why decisions made at the end of the cold war got us where we are today. L went up the hill to fetch a pail of water. All because of a burst water pipe in their house that ruined the Hardwood Floors in their kitchen. Luckily the Geico Insurance agency had helped them with Homeowners Insurance and the inside of their house was repaired and floors replaced. Jack and jill no longer have to fetch water. They now fetch sugarfree vanilla lattes with almond milk. Call geico and see how affordable Homeowners Insurance can be. In case you missed it, President Trump signed the gop tax bill before the holiday weekend. He did it on friday. It was a small ceremony. Wasnt really a ceremony. He was in his office. The bill vastly redistributes tax benefits to a tiny percentage of the very wealthiest americans while the white house insists this is a tax bill for all americans. Critics argue this could serve to worsen the already growing disparity between the haves and the havenots. Lets have a look. The motion is adopted. Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. Republicans have just enacted a tax law that critics say will widen americas already massive income inequality gap. I think of two big sets of causes of income inequality. The first is the pretax stuff, the stuff that affects how much you make before taxes come out. Thats globalization, deregulation, technology. Those forces have caused pretax inequality to go way up. Unfortunately, the tax code has also exacerbated that. David leonhard is a reporter at the New York Times who covers economic policy. He says the gap between the haves and the havenots has been widening to extreme proportion. In the 1950s and 1960s, income inequality was falling. The poor and middle class were getting larger pay increases than the rich. By the 1980s, the bottom 90 of earners owned 35 of the countrys wealth, while the top 1 controlled only 24 . Today, thats reversed. The top 1 own nearly 40 of the countrys wealth while the bottom 90 control just 27 . Income inequality is the gap between what the rich are earning and what everyone else is earning. One of the dominant features of the u. S. Economy over the last 40 or 50 years is that it has been growing a lot. While other countries also struggle with income inequality, they soften the blow by offering things Like Universal Health care, job retraining programs, child care benefits and free education. Meanwhile, the u. S. Isnt as generous. He says the new tax law will likely widen the income inequality gap. The tax cuts are small, temporary and the bill will increase the deficit. Which means longterm the government will have to find spending cuts to make up for the deficit. Those spending cuts to programs like schools, medicare, social security, are likely to hurt the middle class. For more, im joined by james galbreath, professor at the university of texas in austin. He has been studying income inequality since the 1970s. Good to see you again. Good to be with you. Look, this is not a uniquely american problem and its not even a modern problem. Its been going on for some time. We should be looking at changes to the tax code that stop growing income inequality and that hasnt been achieved by this one. No. On the contrary, this tax law now will affect income inequality in a number of ways. One of them, perhaps the most important one since the headline feature of the bill is to cut Corporate Tax rates, is that it will foster corporations buying back their own stocks, driving up the stock market and that will benefit Corporate Executives whose incomes are tied to stocks and people who own stocks which are obviously highly concentrated amongst the wealthy, and interestingly enough, thats an effect that will be felt before tax. It will not be recorded as an effect of the tax bill. But its an effect of the tax bill on the structure of the economy. Right. This is an important point that david was making. Before tax inequality and the inequality that the tax code either repairs or exacerbates and in this case, exacerbates. The point you make about buybacks, history has shown in the united kingdom, canada and here in the United States that Corporate Tax cuts when Companies End up with more of that money, if they distribute it, its either distributed as dividends or it is used for stock buybacks, which enrich the people who are already enriched. Even the stock market gains we have seen, 18 higher this year, a small proportion of the economy gets most of the benefits from stock market gains. So this whole concept of all of these things trickling down just doesnt seem to be in play. Thats correct. If you look at the income inequality numbers in the u. S. Over 30 or 40 years, they match up very closely to the gains and occasional losses in the stock market. So this is really a number that reflects the income shares going to the richest americans. Lets go back to the pretax discussion. As i mentioned in that piece i did, in other countries, if you are in norway and you have this kind of income inequality, your general wealth inequality is mitigated by the fact that education, Higher Education system is subsidized, health care is universal, there is real maternal and paternal leave for people that have children and theres real child care. Its not a silly little credit in a tax code. Theres institutionalized child care. So you dont feel the effects of it as much as you do in a place like the United States which just doesnt have that strong a social safety net. Well, fair to say norway is exceptional. Its a small country, its extremely wealthy. Its fueled by the north sea oil. But if you look over, i would argue if you look over the spectrum of industrial countries, the u. S. Experience isnt all that bad. It hasnt been all that bad. We made tremendous gains against poverty amongst the elderly, thanks to social security, against poverty due to health conditions, thanks to medicare and medicaid, against poverty due to race, particularly in the 60s and again in the 1990s. Those numbers went down. So the u. S. Is a big continental economy with a complex history, has in fact made significant gains over 30 or 40 years but the thing about whats going on now is that its really targeted at undoing those gains, and the way poor people will see this, lower income people will see this is as the tax bill takes effect, there will be pressure on states and localities to cut services, to cut spending on education, there will be pressure on congress to accept cuts in medicare and these things wont even show up in the income statistics. Right. They will simply be an effect on the Living Standards of poor americans. Good to talk to you. Thank you for being with us. Thank you very much. A New Washington post report says u. S. Leaders were not paying attention to threats from the kremlin. There were signs that may have predicted the trouble we faced in 2016. Liberty mutual saved us almost eight hundred dollars when we switched our auto and home insurance. With liberty, we could afford a real babysitter instead of your brother. Hey. Oh. Thats my robe. Is it . You could save seven hundred eighty two dollars when liberty stands with you. Liberty mutual insurance. I am totally blind. And non24 can make me show up too early. Or too late. Or make me feel like im not really there. Talk to your doctor, and call 8442342424. The 2016 president ial election highlighted the major issue of russias cyberattacks on the United States that is pervading our democracy, but this isnt something that started in 2016. A new report from the Washington Post dives into the history behind russias disinformation campaign, revealing the roots of the allout battle stemmed all the way back from cold war. In 1990 and 1991, when the soviet union was collapsing, the last director of the u. S. Information agency said the thought inside the white house and congress was quote, we had won the propaganda war but during the rise of russias current leader, vladimir putin, the Washington Post reports that the kremlin seized an opportunity to level the Playing Field by replacing its crumbled military with influence campaigns and cyberwar fare. That includes the 2005 launch of kremlinfunded television rt and the 2007 cyberattacks on estonia. How did the u. S. Miss these signs that have now opened the rift within our Political Landscape . Joining me is one of the authors of that great story, National Security reporter for the Washington Post. Ellen, its a long and involved and important story. What were the first missed steps . What was the first glimpse that we should have or we had and didnt do anything about russias postcold war playbook . Well, as you noted, the russians started to move into hybrid warfare and the use of cyber and Information Operations really in the 2000s, they started to see it as a strategy to help overcome the disadvantage they had in a crumbling military. We saw flashes of it in 2007 in estonia when they used cybertools to overwhelm web sites of the government there, then in 2008 in part with their military invasion of georgia. Then the real significant sign was in the 2014 conflict with ukraine. And there, the russian, in particular the military intelligence agency, the gru, really started to use Information Warfare in a big way in the leadup to their annexation of crimea. There were proposals circulated around the Obama Administration that didnt make it up to the cabinet or the presidency because in the post9 11 world, the security establishment in the United States was worried according to your article about the legal peril of snooping on social media and inadvertently interfering with americans communications. The state department created a small team to tweet messages about ukraine but they were vastly outnumbered by russian trolls. Some of the stuff the article talks about indicates we didnt seem like we wanted to step into this fight. We knew they were doing something and didnt want to step into it. Actually, there were quite a few things going on there in that time period that we found out. In 2014 and 2015, there were actually senior National Security advisers within the white house who were very concerned about what they were seeing in ukraine and directed the cia to start looking at options or proposals for covert influence and covert cyberresponses to counter the propaganda message in ukraine, and this would have been, in fact, the first overarching president ial finding since the collapse of the soviet union, since the cold war, if this had gone through. But there were internal debates about whether these measures would be effective or longlasting or have any impact on the russianspeaking populations there. They ended up going nowhere. Move forward to 2016, president obama was loathe to do things that were going to disrupt or cause the russians to disrupt the vote, but after president obama had warned president putin to back off, after donald trump had won the election but before he took office, the u. S. Went to nato headquarters with a warning. I will just read this. By the time u. S. Officials came to grips with the threat, it was too late to act. Now they wanted to make sure nato allies didnt repeat their mistakes. So prior to donald trump taking office, the United States had told its nato allies what was going on, saying this is going to happen to you, too. Yet we still have an administration that will not seemingly acknowledge the depth of this problem. The current administration, yes. So after the Obama White House received information in the summer of 2016 that the kremlin had actually sought to help trump win the election, it redoubled its efforts, revived the old debate about whether to do a finding to enable covert influence and cyberactions against russia. They realized they were short on time and so they basically went with a smaller set of covert cyberactions that they wanted the cia to draw up. But they realized that this would be something that the Trump Administration would have to implement, because there wasnt enough time to do it in the Obama Administration. As you noted, this Trump Administration hasnt seen fit to act on them. Remarkable. A mustread, this story in the Washington Post. Ellen nakashima, thank you. Thank you. Terrifying moments for travelers on board a Christmas Day flight to boston. This jetblue plane you are looking at slid off an icy runway at logan airport. What happened next for the passengers and why millions of other travelers are having a tough time getting home today. With chantix. I would doubt myself that i could actually quit. That i could climb that hill and get over it. I really honestly dont believe i could have done it without chantix. Along with support, Chantix Varenicline is proven to help people quit smoking. Chantix reduced my urge to smoke. When you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix, you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. Some people had changes in behavior or thinking, aggression, hostility, agitation, depressed mood, or suicidal thoughts or actions with chantix. Serious side effects may include seizures, new or worse heart or blood vessel problems, sleepwalking or allergic and skin reactions which can be lifethreatening. Stop chantix and get help right away if you have any of these. Tell your Healthcare Provider if youve had depression or other Mental Health problems. Decrease alcohol use while taking chantix. Use caution when driving or operating machinery. The most common side effect is nausea. It feels so good to say, im a nonsmoker. Ask your doctor if chantix is right for you. Many insurance plans cover chantix for a low or 0 copay. Travelers heading to boston from georgia had a big scare yesterday as their jetblue plane slid off the runway at logan airport. The plane reportedly hit a patch of ice before skidding off to the side. One passenger called it a White Knuckle landing, said it felt like the plane would never stop. It actually spun around to face the other direction. Firefighters came on board, helped the passengers get off the jet. The flight was coming from savannah, georgia. No reports of anyone hurt. That was fantastic that thats the way it ended. Dreams of a White Christmas came true for Many Americans yesterday. Winter storms blanketed parts of the midwest and the northeast. Unfortunately, millions of americans trying to get home have to deal with the aftermath of that. Im joined by wnbcs weathercaster dave price. Thats always the price to pay for a White Christmas. Absolutely. Listen, it looks great. Traveling in it, much different story. Lets talk about where we have travel troubles. First lets take a look at the national map. Southwest looks great. Middle of the country, look at the temperatures. Subzero in some locations. Showers for the gulf, florida looks fantastic and lakeeffect snow which is really problematic for folks right along the great lakes from northeast of cleveland through erie, pennsylvania, where you have some recordsetting snow there, up through areas just south of buffalo and through central new york. We are watching it all. Even watertown, in that area, affected by some of this. The impacts, heavy snow and this is going to continue through the midweek. It is going to be difficult to travel, especially right along the shorelines and again, visibility is going to be down. Watertown, oswego to jamestown, ashtabula, ohio. These are bands of snow which lift warm water off the lake, they carry it, they drop it down in colder conditions and it comes down as snow. Upwards of two inches an hour. Now, places like erie, you have seen over four feet of snow since 7 00 p. M. Christmas eve and theres no sign this is going to stop. These are pictures of erie. That snow just continues to pummel the area and again, there is a neverending supply of that as long as theres warm lake water and cold winds above it. So what do we expect . Well, we are talking about again, another foot on top of this before all is said and done. Heres how it works. Again, that cold arctic air sweeps over these warm waters, it gets all that moisture, picks it up and then whats it do . Drops it right down. Thats where we are seeing the heavy snowfalls and thats going to continue again for at least 24 hours. Some areas could wind up with over five feet of snow. Merry christmas to you. I grew up in toronto. We never got the lakeeffect snow. Buffalo always got it. People always thought it was a very snowy place. Toronto was moderately snowy. You got the bitter cold temperatures. We got cold weather. But it was painful to drive through sections of buffalo. Thats exactly what we are seeing and probably will through the midweek. Then frigid temperatures make their way into the northeast before all it said and done. Real cold. Thanks very much. Always a pleasure to see you. Nice to see him when its not a weather disaster. Thats the only time dave and i spend time together. 2017 was a year that saw massive increases in data breaches and cyberattacks. Now some computers companies are working to revolutionize one of the first layers of defense. The password. I can do more to lower my a1c. Because my body can still make its own insulin. And i take trulicity once a week to activate my body to release it, like its supposed to. Trulicity is not insulin. It comes in a onceweekly, truly easytouse pen. The pen where you dont have to see or handle a needle. And it works 24 7. Trulicity is a onceweekly injectable medicine to improve blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes when used with diet and exercise. It should not be the first medicine to treat diabetes, or for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. Do not take trulicity if you have a personal or Family History of medullary thyroid cancer, if you have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if youre allergic to trulicity. Stop trulicity and call your doctor right away if you have a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or symptoms like itching, rash, or trouble breathing. Serious side effects may include pancreatitis. Taking trulicity with a sulfonylurea or insulin increases your risk for low blood sugar. Common side effects include nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, decreased appetite, and indigestion. Some side effects can lead to dehydration, which may worsen kidney problems. To help lower my a1c i choose trulicity to activate my within. Ask your doctor if onceweekly trulicity is right for you. Great news for you aspirie ing cryptocurrency moguls out there. Todays price is more than 50 up from when bitcoin plummeted to a low of 10,400 on friday. The skyrocketing price may make some early investors think they hit the lottery. Hopefully they remember their password from all those years ago because theres no way to reset a forgotten password in that world. Thats the nightmare facing investors across the world, some of whom are reportedly turning to therapy to remember the passwords and cash in on their booming bitcoin investments. For those people, the next story comes too late. Tech companies are working on boosting cybersecurity by getting rid of passwords all together. I want a piece of that future. Heress nbcs stephanie gosk. Reporter our computers are under attack. All across the world, one million victims a day. There are a lot of attacks. Yeah, there are. Reporter outside of seattle, microsoft keeps track of cybercrime at its own internal lab and they have noticed something alarming. 81 of the data theft we saw was related to user name password, so that gives you a good idea of the magnitude of the problem. Using reporter brett is their chief Information Security officer. Did you get any bad guys . Without going into specifics . Yes. The Hacking Community has grown both in size and sophistication and the techniques they use which again, goes back to why it was so important we solve this problem. Reporter microsoft is one of a handful of Companies Pushing hard to scrap passwords. Is onel of Companies Working hard to scrap pass words, the most vulnerable aspect of everyday cyber life. People trying to guess sophisticated computers are very easy to crack. Reporter in 2016, the most popular pattern found among data breachers was 123456. Whats more, what are of tech users write their pass words down on paper, leaving an estimated 24 billion intelligent devices over the next two years expose. This is microsofts envisioning cente cent center. Julia white is head of microsofts cloud password. Using your face, sometimes even a heart beat to say you are who you are. Reporter even if you just look at the camera, it taking 300 different points and thats it. Reporter tell me what happens when you try to get into my lap top. Nope, it not logging me in. Right . You have the same hair cut. Reporter biometrics are already being used on cell phones and lap top tops. But the goal, she says, is to access everything from banking to brooks brother without ever typing another password. Its better from a security perspective because its just a better experience, rather than having to worry about forgetting my password, i am the password. Reporter a lot of people want to know is it secure . Because if my face is stolen, i cant get another face. That is incredibly unlikely. Im so bad with the pass words, i cannot wait. Stock market reached new highs this year, and donald trump says its because of him, but were going to take a look at some of the many factors at play. Whoooo. Wh book a. Hotel without breaking a sweat. Because we now instantly. Search over 200 booking sites. To find you the lowest price. On the hotel you want. Dont sweat your booking. Tripadvisor. The latest reviews. The lowest prices. 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. Hardly a day passes when the president doesnt brag about the stock market. And to be sure, it has had a great year. Take a look at this. This is is s p 500, i know you look at the dow, because theres a live number all the time. The s p 500 is 500 shocks as opposed to 40 stocks in the dow. Its up 18 in Donald Trumps first 11 months in office. Thats probably three times what the average gain in this market is over the last 100 years. This is what i want to remind you, while the markets under donald trump have performed well, thats the the donald trump area, thats the barack obama era. It started an upward climb in march of 2009. Donald trump has presided over a fantastic market, but other Global Markets are doing just as well, some better and they dont have a President Trump leading their countries. Japans nikkei index, one of the biggest in the world is up 20 , compared to the s p 500, the hang sen in hong kong, up 28 , the dax in germany is up only 12 , thats, again, pretty good and no donald trump there at the helm. Donald trump likes to claim that no other market has seen as big an upswing as the market right here. Again, not true. Lets just look at first years as president. President obamas first years, the gain was 38 , sure the u. S. Was coming out of a really bad recession, so you would expect a big gain. But it was substantially bigger, more than double the gain of george w. Bu george w. Bush. To talk more about this, i want to bring in cnbc Global Markets reporter, i think the question on most peoples mind, in regards to who you credit for this market, what do i do . Is 2018 going to look like 2017 . Reporter the stock market has had an upward year, the positive Economic Data has also helped, plus earnings have improved this year, so companies by an average are delivering bigger prospects. Its also working out that the prospect of tax reform which wall street has been excited about has also been part of the market rally. Some analysts warn that tax reform may not be as positive for the u. S. Economy as most companies are expected to spend the money they save from a lower tax rate on buying back their own stock versus spending it on employees. And thats where well have to see if President Trump tries to exert pressure on businesses in terms of how to actually spend that money. Also with the economy improving, the fed could very well hike Interest Rates multiple times next year, which means that your earnings or your savings increase, but also the cost of taking out a mortgage will go out. So that could potential be a risk for stocks in 2018. In terms of stocks or sectors, we are laser focused on technology. Its been an incredible year, up 40 , thats the technology sector, big names like facebook, netfl netflix, apples, its market cap is expected to hit 2 billion in 2018. The billest companies in the world used to be industrials, they used to be pharmaceuticals and banks and tech companies. Before we go, lets get a quick check on markets right now as we speak. We are looking at markets that are mostly lower across the board, but not by much, i would call that generally speaking flat. Thats it for me, i will see you back here tonight, 11 00 p. M. Eastern for Brian Williams tonight and ill be back tomorrow at 11 00 a. M. Eastern, and at 3 00 p. M. Eastern. Youre going to get tired of me. Continuing coverage on msnbc with david geren. It is 4 00 in the east and heres a look at the top stories were watching at this hour. Not letting up, President Trump is still on the attack against the fbi, now hes getting some backup from his allies . Congress, and stunning new comments. Plus cold cash, less than a week after ambassador nikki h l haley vowed to take names. New news about the historic cut and what it could mean for the u. S. U. N. Relationship. Republicans are heading into the new year with a major legislative win. For the rest of the country, it could mean major confusion and chaos, as companies try to figure out what it means for payroll. We start this hour with the russia investigation, more specifically the attacks on that investigation by President Trump and his allies, in an effort to discredit him. After taking a break from that on christmas, the president