Clinton. Im sick and tired of hearing about your damn email. The pope of the holy see. If theres anything true about pope francis, he is close to the people. God bless america. Joy to the world, the lord has come let earth receive her king let every heart prepare him room and heaven and nature sing and heaven and nature sing good morning. Welcome to a special Christmas Day edition of new day. Merry christmas. You have your news elves. And whatever my name is. Were all here for you. You were listening to the young peoples chorus of new york city. Were also going to give you the latest news. As well as going through 2015. From the rise of trump to the ongoing terror threats home and overseas. And well have a look at the role that faith played in the headlines this year, including the popes historic visit to the u. S. Of course and cuba. And our show wouldnt be complete without talking about holiday returns. You probably got something today that you might not have had on your list. Well share some tips to make the process painful painless. Lets get a check of your headlines. Good morning. And Merry Christmas. Lets take a look at the top stories. The Severe Weather death toll rose overnight. With a record warmth continuing, the threat of Severe Weather continues through the weekend. The National Weather service issued a rare Tornado Warning for the sierra foothills. Left behind toppled trees and damaged homes and car. A very different story in the southeast though. Officials now say 14 people died as a severe thunderstorm tore across the region. At least seven of the deaths came from mississippi where the governor has declared a state of emergency. The Weather Service says at least 14 tornados hit that state alone. I want you to listen to this man east s terrifying experience. I took off to take cover. Officials say most of the damage came from one monster tornado. Look at that. It may have been on the ground for 150 miles, all the way from mississippi into tennessee. Six people there died. In georgia as well, there was widespread flooding from heavy rains. The weather still causing headaches for holiday travelers. More than 100 flights already canceled this morning. More than 400 Flights Canceled in the u. S. Yesterday on Christmas Eve with delays stretching several hours. Airlines also bracing for a winter storm that could wreak havoc over the weekend. Chad, good morning, Merry Christmas to you. We were joking about the warm weather we were going to have on christmas, but this is what you get with those unseasonably warm temperatures. Some spring Severe Weather. It felt like spring. It still does here on the south. We did have tornados in california yesterday. Two tornados in california and one down in the deep south. Thats about what we expected, just one. We knew it wouldnt be a day like the day before where we had like 20. Today hes still going to be a wet day. Really, even in california, there are two tornados on average every december. So i guess we got our two, now were done, we dont need anymore. Theres a lot of flooding. Honestly, there are many many roads in the southeast either under water, impassable or have a blo a blockade over it. One shower after another, rain after another, on top of another, another. Thats where were seeing warm weather, human weather, lots of rainfall. D. C. Today will be 24 degrees above normal. When you get that kind of warmth, you get humidity and you get heavy rain. Back to you. Chad, thank you. Protestors staged what they call a black christmas in Chicago Holding dieins and calling for the resignation of mayor rahm emanuel. Happening in response to the 2014 Police Shooting of laquan mcdonald. And tense moments inside a busy mall in charlotte, north carolina. The incident started with a fight between rival groups where the suspect allegedly fired his gun. It obviously drew the attention of an off duty cop. Witnesses say the suspect pointed his gun at the responding officer who then shot and killed the suspect. Right now, pope francis sharing his traditional christmas message to the world. During Christmas Eve mass, he urged catholics to not be intoxicated by possessions. Until then, theres a look at your Christmas Morning headlines. Back to you. Lets begin this morning talking about the role of faith in some of the biggest headlines of the year. We all remember the popes historic trips this year. All the religious rhetoric surrounding the 2016 president ial race. Lets discuss it with christine lee, father john devaney. And mckay, senior Political Writer from bud feed. Lets looks at the best and the worst. When you think about faith, best manifestation of it this year . I think definitely pope francis visit. Why . Well, i think theres something about pope francis. He said this himself. That when he looks at people, he sees the image and likeness of god in them. Whether hes talking to president obama, a homeless person, he sees each person as made in the image of god and treats them as such. Thats so out of the ordinary in our very politicized world. The kim davis. I like how you tucked that in there. He had struck this almost secular vibe, boy, hes just going the right thing, doesnt matter what you believe. And then there was that meeting with kim davis. The pope has been interesting in the way hes kind of scrambled the politics in this country. I think the visit with kim davis was a nontoward the fact that the Catholic Church cares a lot about the issue of religious liberty. Kim davis in particular has been a very controversial figure. She was coopted as an icon of the religious right and the republicans. You saw Mike Huckabee and ted cruz aggressively champion her. I think that the issue of religious Liberty Continues to feed into the 2016 race and well all through next year. Theres also signs of real compromise that are to be had if people are willing to come together in good faith. Real flip on the notion of religious liberty. This wound up being about essentially the right to exclude. Kim davis of course the kentucky clerk. So father, that brings us to you. The worst manifestation of faith. What do you see out there, wow, this is not good for the world of faith . Any kind of fundamentalism. Now the threat of isis. Pope francis talked about this not too long ago. Any kind of fundamentalism in the name of god is blasphemous. Your brothers and sisters do not like to hear that. They say the muslims are different. Christians dont do that. What do you tell people . Were all people of good will. If we believe in the one god who created us all, we view him as a merciful father, and for example, you know, we have christians in the middle east who are finding a place they cant live necessarily anymore. We have to believe everybodys children of god. We are dealing with this as a culture right now. Whether its president obama and what he decides to call terror, not saying the word islamic, what do you tell people when they say, but christians dont run around killing people in the name of christianity, theyre different. I always go back to a great quote about the line between good and evil doesnt run through religions, it doesnt run in between religions, but through every single human heart. I think there can be a lack of humility on the part of christians when you say theres a good us and a bad them. Its not a muslim or a christian thing. Its a human thing. I feel like with that, there should be some kind of understanding and a graciousness towards each other knowing were all trying to do the best that we can. High bar when people deal with fear and anxiety and terror. What do you think needs to happen in terms of bridging this gap what is about faith and what is a perversion of faith . No matter what faith you come from, you can find historical examples of your faith being perverted and turned evil, right . This is a point president obama once made and it became very controversial. In our time obviously, muslim people of faith are dealing with this hateful ideology thats taken roots in some parts of their community. One thing that can happen is if christians and people of all faith were able to reach out to muslim people. Weve seen an interesting example of that in texas with the syrian refugee crisis. You saw religious organizations defy the conservative politicians in their state and take Syrian Refugees in and say we want to help these people regardless of the pulpit pounders and the comfort political world are saying. And they cite religious liberty at their right to do it. The more we see that, we see religious organizations reach out to muslims, i think that that will help to bridge the gap. Christine, mckay, father john, thank you very much. Merry christmas to you both. You too. Youre a reporter. Allison, well end it where we started with the pope. When he was asked this question, he said be kind, always be kind. That is so simple, yet profound. Now to the other end of the spectrum, politics. The fill pundits dismissed him, but donald trump dominated in 2015 becoming the undisputed republican frontrunner. Will the same be true in 2016 . Well discuss when our Christmas Day edition of new day continues. But first, lets listen to the young peoples chorus of new york city. 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No one other than perhaps donald trump saw this coming, his dominance in 2015, john. Its been through the Looking Glass this year. This is a circus unlike anything that we have seen in modern american politics. For the sheer style of a celebrity demagogue. Its like someone with a telethon. It has been powerful. At this point, it aint no joke. This guy could be a real threat to be the nominee. To say otherwise is irresponsible. Well, look, it was slow going for a lot of people in the media to take him seriously. But now i hope that it has moved past that because theres too many polls saying it another way. People say its a revolution. That they are done with politics as usual. They want someone from outside to has showed success and says it like it is. Its very interesting. You pivot where the media should have been all along. Not so much whats going on in trump tower, but whats going out in the land. Is it a man or is it a movement . I think theres something going on out there. Its widespread distrust with many of our institutions. You see that the schools arent teaching, the factorys closed, governments been bought by the wealthy. People sort of get that theres this problem out there, so they have seized on donald trump because he has simple clear cut emotional solutions. Just this kind of raw emotion that somethings wrong, somethings horrible, lets go get them, round up the pitchforks. I think the two things that are different about this, theres one celebrity, becomes his teflon. Because he is a celebrity and hes seen as being brash, he cant say anything thats so scandalous that people are actually shocked. The second thing is the selffunding mechanismechanism. Okay. That was one big political surprise. Another surprise award goes to john boehner. Lets remember the moment that he announced his surprise resignation. Im going to cry. Listen to this. I rise today to inform you that i will resign as speaker of the house upon the election of my successor. I will also resign as the representative from ohios eighth district at the end of this month. I leave with no regrets, no burdens. If anything, i leave the way i started. Im just a regular guy, humbled by the chance to do a big job. There were lots of interpretations about why he chose that moment. Some gave credit to the pope, that he had had sort of a come to jesus talk with himself about what his future was. Maybe the pope helped him with the timing, but the fundamental forces relates back to the donald trump phenomenon which is massive discontent. We replaced conservative democrats with whom republicans normally had some sort of ongoing working relationship with Tea Party Republicans who are unyielding, who made an enemy of john boehner, forced him into all kinds of terrible choices. He got sick of it. I think he was right to get sick of it. Its been incredibly frustrating. I think the public that supports this working arrangement right now is going to realize sooner or later that this is not the way to run our government. It does seem that the gop avoided the baby bath water dilemma with paul ryan. Maybe does become a breath of fresh air. Absolutely. Once they hunted boehner and eric canter out of office, you had this real crisis. Kevin mccarthy pulls out of the race under murky circumstances. The entire leadership has to beg paul ryan to come in and save their bacon. Didnt want the job. Ultimately took it. In this transition was actually two moments of grace. One is that boehner really made an effort to clean the barn for the next guy. He took on a lot of tough bits of legislation. He didnt just leave paul ryan with a festering mess. Paul ryan has been a breath of fresh air. You talk to people on capitol hill, they feel galvanized, optimistic, more open style of leadership. Paul ryan is the only person who could have united the gop for now. Thats the big thing. Thats for the new years day show. Hillary clinton had an interesting 2015. How would you at the end of it categorize . I think she got lucky, a couple of different times. She made her luck. Met opportunity . Exactly right. She diligently put together a very Aggressive Campaign organization. She did the same in 2008 and it didnt work out. A lot of experienced hands who are not going to make some of the mistakes from the past. You can call it a circus, something unusual happening on the republican side, she really kind of got a pass on many things. The emails never really took hold with her base. She has an opponent who right up front said, im not going to attack her personally. Its a gift. Shes made very good use of that gift. Shes continued to raise money. Shes continued to line up endorsement. Shes got an eye fixed on the delegates which she screwed up in 2008. Looks like smooth sailing for her. She had a rough spring and summer. Dont kid yourself. All the energy in the activist class is surrounding a socialist from vermont is surreal. The gift of bernie. Thats right. Thank you guys so much. Merry christmas. Play on maji there. I saw that. Very clever. One of the biggest political debates is president obamas strategy against isis. They contain their reign of terror around the world. Were going to discuss the effort to defeat them next. At ce for years to come. How can you help . By giving a little more, to yourself. I am running for my future. People sometimes forget to help themselves. The cause is retirement, and today thousands of people came to race for retirement and pledge to save an additional one percent of their income. If we all do that we can all win. Prudential bring your challenges® just serve classy snacks and bew a gracious host,iday party. No matter who shows up. [cricket sound] richard. Didnt think you were going to make it. Hey sorry about last weekend, i dont know what got into me. Well forgive and forget. 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