December 4. Im Ayman Mohyeldin alongside Yasmin Vossoughian and louis burgdorf. There are new questions this morning about why President Trump fired former National Security adviser Michael Flynn. On friday, flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi. In fact, President Trump shared his thoughts about the situation on saturday. No. Im not. What has been shown is no collusion. No collusion. Theres been absolutely no theres been absolutely no collusion so were very happy. But shortly after noon, the president sent out a tweet saying, quote, i had to fire general flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the fbi. He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There is nothing to hide. This was the first time President Trump mentioned knowledge of flynn lying to fbi ag agents in january about contacts with russians. I asked for his resignation. He respectfully gave it. He is a man who there was a certain amount of information given to Vice President pence who is with us today. And i was not happy with the way that information was given. He didnt have to do that will because what he did wasnt wrong. My white House Counsel came to me. They had, i believe, two meetings. And we ultimately fired, but we fired for a different reason. Youre talking about general flynn. General flynn. Because lying to the Vice President. Yes, but everything plays in. Everything plays into it. We fired him because he said something to the Vice President that was not so. So the president s outside lawyer john dowd at first said the tweets simply paraphrases what white House Counsel said. That the falls statements to the fbi neared those he made to administration officials. Later said he wrote the tweet and all the president knew about flynn and the fbi at the time was the department was not accusing him of lying. Now as for the email with the tweet, dowd said he dictated it to dan. Dowd said it was the first and last tweet he wrote for the president. A lot of questions there. President trump laid into the federal bureau of investigation writing so general flynn lies to the skpib his life is destroyed while crooked Hillary Clinton on that now famous fbi holiday interrogation with no swearing in and no recording lies many times and nothing happens to her, question mark. Rigged system or just a double standard. James comey said they had no basis to conclude she lied. After years of comey with the phony and dishonest clint investigation and more running the fbi, its reputation is in tatters. Worst in history, but fear not, we will bring it back to greatness. Despite white house claims that Michael Flynn acted aide loan. New york times reports that emails show flynn was in close touch with other senior members of the trump transition before and after he spoke with Russian Ambassador about u. S. Sanctions. That includes a december 29 email sent from transition adviser mcfarland. Voiced concerns that it could make it harder tos tensions with russia. Tit for tat, trump will have difficulty approving. Unclear she believed the election was thrown. Now, according to the times, another transition official forwarded mack far lands email exchange to six other trump advisers, Michael Flynn, reince priebus, and steve bannon, told nubs it wou nbc news it would have been mps not to discuss internally. Specifically encourages contact within outreach to foreign dignitaries. Cob defended mack far lands email saying she was new to the trump team at that point and simply referring to democratic arguments. Devin knew nez is demanding answers from the fbi and Justice Department over bob muellers. Knew nez and other republicans are drafting against Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein and former fbi director. Claiming both are stonewalling efforts to produce information related to russia investigation, including the removal of peter astronaut. This comes after reports on saturday revealed mueller had reassigned him from the russia probe this summer after learning he and fbi lawyer exchanged Text Messages and expressed antitrump sentiments during what the Washington Post said was an extra marital affair. Knew nez sea nunnunez sea nunes lets talk taxes here. Republican leaders from the house and senate said to come together today to start the process of merging the bill of the countrys tax haul in more than 30 years. Party leaders insist there are no major differences between their two bills, but one early issue may be changes made to senates final legislation. Preserving provision of the tax code that sets alternative minimum tax for very wealthy individuals. That provision would be eliminated in the house bill and scrapping the alternative minimum tax has long been a priority. The Senate Passed its bill in early hours of saturday morning in a 5149 vote along party lines. Some lawmakers including democratic senator john tester of montana decreed the move arguing that lawmakers were not given enough time to review the bill, which was riddled with handwritten, sometimes barely legible notes. Its the night were going be voting on the tax bill. I just got the tax bill 25 minutes ago. This is the tax bill. See how thick it is. I want you to take a look at this folks. This is your government at work. Heres the bill as its written. Heres the modification. I can read one word. Add this language. Can you tell me what that word is. If you can, youve got better eyes than me. So speaking yesterday, Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell offered confidence on being able to get a final bill to President Trumps desk. A key swing vote cautioned on the final vote being approved. Well be able to get to an agreement in the conference. Im very optimistic about it. We think this will make a big difference in getting the economy moving again and providing jobs and opportunity for the American People. Youre discomfortable with your vote on this tax bill. Is it there no matter what comes out of conference. No, i mean obviously i want to see what comes out. I believe the amendments that i added on medical expense deductions, on property tax deductions, on helping Retirement Security for Public Employees improve the bill. I got a commitment were going to pass two bills including the aaron hicks mu alexander i i got commitment we will not see cuts to medicaid. Ironclad these days. Reconciliation approaches as friday where the Government FacesGovernment Shutdown. Likely need democrat votes to keep the government from shutsdown. Joining me now, Daniel Litman. Lets talk a little bit about republicans introducing the symptom gap bill. Did it standard with hopes of delaying friday deadline for Government Shutdown until december 22. A few weeks from now. The question is will this be enough time to negotiate with democrats on a new spending bill. Yes i think it will be, but you have Mitch Mcconnell saying yesterday on the sunday show that the government will not shutdown. And what was also interesting you saw omb director mic muk mulvan mulvaney. Hard line conservative before he joined the Trump Administration. Saying theres a bunch of crazy right wringers who want to shutdown the government. This is not the way a government funding scheme should work. You should not have all of these stopgap measures, temporary funding solutions. That does not, you know, provide a good way to fund the government longterm. I feel like were in this cycle every couple of months. Exactly. So were heading into a hectic month ahead. So much on the docket for congress. Among them mounting claims of Sexual Misconduct claims. And the use of taxpayer money to settle some of them. How much could this play into the midterm sgls more democrats and republicans get accused of this, it just hurts everyone. Theres more stories reporters in washington are working on. May see a couple more of these people drop. Its damages for the institution in conyers will have to make a decision this week as to whether he will resign. He still has members of congressional black caucus. His friends are stay saying to him, stick it out. Youll be fine. This week saw a flurry of tweets from President Trump. What has been the reaction in washington. What are you hearing in terms of what people are saying. I know Lindsey Graham and others on the sunday show warning it will put in legal jeopardy, yet again. One republican person who worked in the white house said it was a lost cause for trump to tweet this. They really there is no stopping trump from tweeting. Last thing i would mention, i talked to former Senior Administration official. They said when trump talks on the weekend to his friends, they say you should just continue to attack the mainstream media. They feed into his tweeting things that rely maybe unorthodoxed and so its hard to cancel the weekend. I saw 60 minutes interview with trump from way back when. Maybe hes not going to be tweeting as much now that hes president. That didnt seem to happen. Daniel litman. Thanks for joining us from washington, d. C. Still ahead, with alabamas election just a week away, Mitch Mcconnell appears to walk back criticism of roy moore. Billy bush weighs in on authenticity of trumps comments on access Hollywood Tape. All thaw and a check on the weather when we come back. Keyboard clacking ] [ 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. Talk to one today and see why were bullish on the future. Depend real fit briefs feature breathable, cottonlike fabric. In situations like this, theres no time for distractions. Its not enough to think im ready. I need to know im ready. No matter what lies ahead. Get a free sample at depend. Com. more people shop online for the holidays than ever before. clapping and the United StatesPostal 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. Even the smallest things for years, at t has been promising fast internet to small businesses. But for many businesses, its out of reach. Why promise something you cant deliver . Comcast business is different. We deliver superfast internet with speeds of 250 megabits per second across our entire network, to more companies, in more locations, than at t. We do business where you do business. Explanation last week that despite the direct and blunt content of those tweets, it should not be the focus. General, why did President Trump send out those videos. President trump is the best judge of why he did that. I know it was his intention to highlight the importance of creating safe and secure environments for our citizens, to make sure that we have the right laws in place, Enforcement Mechanisms in place to ensure that this critical time when isis is being defeated in the middle east, there isnt a return of terrorist and extremists who can pose a risk to American People or to our allies and partners. Now, almost a week until election day, new polls show the Alabama Senate race in a tossup. The latest poll has doug jones leadsing roy moore by three points. However a new cbs news poll shows moore with a six point lead over doug jones. Meanwhile as the race tightens, Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell may be changing tune on roy moore. Called on roy moore to exit the race after allegations of Sexual Misconduct. Had this to say on sunday morning. Do you believe the judge moore should be in the senate. Im going let the people of alabama make the call. The election has been going on a long time. Theres a lot of discussion about it. Theyre going to make the decision a week from tuesday. Lets get a check on the weather with nbc meteorologist bill karins. Rockefeller center tree is on the plaza. Holiday season is in full swing. You say now the cold weather the m c is coming. About time. This weekend was so warm across the country. Now watching first significant winter storm. Pattern change to welcome in winter. Storm out in the northern plains. Blue is snow. Snowing with wisconsin. Areas of south dakota. Winter weather and storm spots in wyoming and northern half of minnesota. Heres how it plays out today. Rain in wisconsin. Little bit of snow on the become side. Storm gets stronger today. Thankfully not much Severe Weather with this. One or two isolated strong storms in illinois. This is at 11 00 p. M. Snowing in minneapolis. Minneapolis in the 50s by the time the evening rolls around. Temperatures plummet. Little bit of snow on the backside. Take the cold front through the ohio valley through tuesday. Tuesday afternoon, rain in new england. Heavier rains on the front. Mississippi back through tennessee heading through the appalachians and by wednesday clear in the east coast and behind it. Cooler conditions. I mentioned the snow. A blizzard warning doesnt mean it has to be heavy snow. Just means visibility has to be low. Very windy conditions only 24 inches of snow in north dakota and minnesota. As far as rainfall, this is needed. Not a lot of rain in areas of the east coast. Get this back up in new england. Maybe an inch of rain. Nice day today around the eastern sea board. Be careful around new york city. A lot of fog in raerareas of southern new england. What a swing from minneapolis. This weekend was very warm. Wont go above 32 degrees for much of this week. Thats their reality. They know that. Still ahead, week 13 of nfl season is now in the books. Were going to have all the highlights for you. Including one starting quarterback who took time to call former coach, a coward. Sports is next. Mountain coffees sumatra reserve told in the time it takes to brew your cup. Lets go to sumatra. Wheres sumatra . Good question. This is win. And thats wins goat, adi. The coffee here is amazing. Because the volcanic soil is amazing. Making the coffee erupt with flavor. So we give farmers like win more plants. To grow more delicious coffee. That erupts with even more flavor. Which helps provide for wins family. And adi the goats family too. Because his kids eat a lot. All, for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. Green mountain Coffee Roasters. Packed with goodness. Everyone deserves attention, whether youve saved a lot or just a little. At pnc investments, we believe youre more than just a number. So we provide personal Financial Advice for every retirement investor. Hey julie, i know todays critica. A sick day. Need. Dads dont take sick days. Dads take dayquil severe. The nondrowsy, coughing, aching, fever, sore throat. Stuffy head, no sick days medicine. Pepsoriasis does that. It was tough getting out there on stage. I wanted to be clear. I wanted it to last. So i kept on fighting. I found something that worked. And keeps on working. Now . They see me. See me. See if cosentyx could make a difference for you cosentyx is proven to help people with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. Find clear skin that can last. Dont use if youre allergic to cosentyx. Before starting cosentyx, you should be checked for tuberculosis. An increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur. Tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms. Or if you have received a vaccine or plan to. If you have inflammatory bowel disease, tell your doctor if symptoms develop or worsen. Serious allergic reactions may occur. Never give up. See me. See me. Clear skin can last. Dont hold back. Ask your dermatologist if cosentyx can help you find clear skin that lasts. Rams bring central pressure picked up. Allen ogle treetree. From the six. Looking. Lofting. Touchdown. Down the middle. Hes got his man. Touchdown. Mcgwire speed. They got it. Gets the angle. Second week in a row hes been injured in the fourth quarter. Huge hit. Interception. He will go the distance and a touchdown. Those were the highlights from week 13 turns out sunday night football. The eagles who hold the best record in the nfl travel to seattle to face the sea hawks. Russell wilson and the sea hawks gets off too fast start. 11 yard touchdown. Jimmy graham giving seattle a 100 lead. Then in the third. Finds tyler for a score. Giving the sea hawks a 173 lead. Eagles will try and battle back. Scrambles and gets the ball out of his hands for a deep 51 yard pass. That was great field positioning there. A few plays later, wentz connects again for a 27 yard touchdown. Tightening the score to one position game. Would not be enough in this one. Wilson to wild open. Gets to the end zone. 15 yard strike commending the lead and 2410 win there in seattle. Meanwhile t era or smith and giants michigan yesterday. I mean experiment. Smith controversially got the start over the giants staple eli manning. Ending consecutive start streak to 210 games. Second tole brett favre at