Changer in this back and forth. Francesca chambers, north korea again. You do a lot of foreign travel. It has to be part of the buzz on the back of the plane every day that you are flying. I 100 agree with what youre saying. I dont want to be like accused of warmongering or scare tactics, but, look, this administration is looking at plans to be able to, if they had to, as youre saying here, to be able to go forward with some sort of a Military Option. I know they keep saying those are always on the table, but i am hearing they are trying to afford a Military Option if they had to, in march of next year. Again, hopefully, well obviously not get to where they would have to do that. When they say the Military Option is on the table, the Military Option is on the table. General dunford said at the aspen security institute, thats what you pay us for. We have plans. It is hard to think about the unthinkable, but we have plans. Desensitized, as james was saying, to so many of these things. We are not talking about isis because isis has been defeated. Am i correct . Is that an overstatement . It is an overstatement to say they have been defeated. They dont have their caliphate. There are 6,000 to 10,000 isis fighters in iraq and syria, the euphrates valley. I think people would be surprised how wide a swath is still controlled by isis. They have moved into africa, the sinai. At the end of the day, even though the caliphate is gone, their ideology is still very real. That being said, though, i think 2017 was a good year in the fight against isis. And i think the administration, the u. S. Military has a lot to be proud of for what they have pushed. And a reminder as we approach
new years, tens of thousands of americans deployed not just on the ships always at watch but on the ground in places like syria, iraq, afghanistan, in harms way. We often dont write about them. They do their 11 or 13 months and come home. Yeah. We found out in 2017 how many are in afghanistan despite we have been told it was somewhere around 8,000 or 9,000. It is closer to 15,000. They have always used funny math how many people are on the ground and because the Trump Administration has added several thousand more. Francesca, on the disaster stories, which have stuck with you and you think we will still be talking about . I still dont understand las vegas. We dont have a motive. We dont have witnesses. I dont think thats going away. Youre talking about 2020. You think he will be facing off against harris. You could potentially see chris murphy rise up because hes from connecticut. Newtown is very, very important to him. And this issue has been very important to him. And i think americans really do care about the Gun Violence Tragedies and obviously conservatives and liberals disagree what the response should be. But this is a conversation that is clearly not going away. But to speak to what you were saying about neil gorsuch and whether that is still resonating, it depends on what President Trump is able to get done in 2018. This may be the only thing the republicans really have to be able to say, look, this is what we did this year. They werent able to get a full Obamacare Repeal and replace. Maybe they will get it done before the elections. But i think President Trump has said, look, this is something we did. That is not a time to hang your hat on going into elections. When we come back from the break, well look at the year. I think we ended up with the president on a winning streak. Well talk a little bit about that and pick it up after the break. Stay with us. His lapel hes got a purple heart. bruce we started talking about the service. I outrank him. chris [laughs] yeah. Meals on wheels reaches so many people. Its impactful beyond anything ive ever done in my life. bruce the meals and his friendship really mean, means a lot to me. vo through the subaru share the love event, weve helped deliver over onepoint Seven Million meals to those in need. Get zero percent financing for 63 months on select models, plus well donate Two Hundred And Fifty Dollars to charity. It was always our singular focus. To do whatever it takes, use every possible resource. To fight cancer. And never lose sight of the patients were fighting for. Our Cancer Treatment specialists share the same vision. Experts from all over the world, working closely together to deliver truly personalized cancer care. And these are the specialists were proud to call our own. Expert medicine works here. Learn more at cancercenter. Com Appointments Available now. Welcome back. Im hugh hewitt with my year in review show. Its My 19th Radio Show next week 6 00 to 9 00 Eastern Standard Time but the conclusion of my first year on msnbc. I wrap one a great panel today. Francesca chambers, courtney kube, tim alberta. I want to talk about collusion, russia, mueller, comey. Call it what you will. But it is is trumps twitter trevails. Will we have move on significantly but a year from now . I doubt we will. It is drip, drip, drip. The president s lawyers convinced him to cooperate. Trump believes it will be wrapped up in the next couple of months. The fact that Michael Flynn turned. We dont know what he has, what he has delivered. There are interviews that still havent been done as of the end of the year with prominent people. It seems likely trump himself will be interviewed. It is a story of unforced errors. I think if donald trump can take back one decision he made it would be appointing Jeff Sessions as attorney general. Not only did the alabama defeat in december for republicans, but, you know, everything that set in motion. Special counsel with bob mueller firing comey. Theres a lot of things that if you had appointed someone who didnt have to recuse themselves, this would have been more isolated and controlled. It is frankly a cancer on the presidency. All four of you are fair minded. Francesca, how do you keep track of it without a score card . For a veteran who can remember watergate, this isnt nearly as complex. You have people behind closed tkaorg testifying on capitol hill. Youre taking on lawmakers who are partisan. We obviously dont know what they are telling Mueller On Top of that. The president has been tweeting. One of the challenges for reporters this year. I think a major challenge is starting your day every day not knowing if they will tweet about russian collusion. Great for a radio show. And its great for television. But youre waking up every day looking at your clock and its 6 30 and you think is he going to tweet. And when he starts tweeting it is so not what you thought he would be saying. How much does the russia burden enter into the calculation . He is a legislature. A wonk. He wants to do stuff. Russia drains the energy out of everything. I will take it a step further, hugh. I cannot tell you how many members of congress, especially republican members of congress, have had these conversations with me, other reporters that i know that the russia thing, more than anything else that has been fatiguing that the Russian Investigation and the layers of it, how it seems to expand drained the life out of people on capitol hill. They want to he escape this. You are going to see more retirements at the beginning of the new year. Theres no question that for ryan, for mcconnell, for members of the Republican Leadership who are trying to keep the trains running and trying to pursue a legislative agenda is as far as tax reform, welfare reform, infrastructure, title thes in 2018, you only have so much band
width to pursue these things when the President Trump is not only being investigated and his team for potential collusion but he is being investigated for Obstruction Of Justice as well. Courtney, the one great thing about the russia story, it has not invaded your building, the pentagon. Mike pompeo, nsa people, general mattis, general dunford and the rest, its just not touched them, has it . So thats actually been great as a reporter because i can kind of heisman the story. Whats been difficult is the first time in my 13 years at the pentagon, we have a pentagon leadership who doesnt engage with the media very much. They have twice each in all of 2017. And Secretary Mattis likes to come by. He gets his drycleaning. He stops by and chats with us. Sometimes its on the record, sometimes its not on the record. Theres never a camera. But one of the reasons is they dont want to get pulled into politics. They know right now they have a lot of gravitas with this white house. They call and the president takes their calls. And Chief Of Staff kelly is sitting there as part of the team. The alignment of iran is the strategic pivot of the last year, the great win. Do people talk about that other than dimly perceived by the news media. They do talk about it. It is actually something that nicky haley revealing the missile. It reminded me of baghdad when the u. S. Military would bring out pieces of projectiles, efps
and say these are markings from iran. It reminded me of 10 years ago in baghdad when they were rolling these out, proving of irans efforts in the region. And i think we will see more and more of that going in the new year. They are trying to make the case against iran, how they are aligning themselves, they are particularly causing troubles in iraq with the United States with who they are aligning themselves with. They will make that case, the administration, as a way to also make the case against the jcpoa, against the United States. And in favor of getting rid of she questeration. We have to do that. The time people of the year are silence breakers. We will talk about the Me Too Movement which burst two months ago and continues to erupt. Im shocked and appalled by the behavior of a lot of people i have worked with for 35 years. But i dont know that it is going to be over any time soon. Whats your personal reaction to this unfolding . Oh, you put me on the spot first. I think the timing of this really had an effect on the senate race we just saw. We talked about how roy moore is not donald trump. And i think that the timing of the me too Movement Really encapsulated and had a huge effect on the senate race and how republicans lost that seat. I also think that the president is going to have a difficulty running away from this story broadly in the white house. They have said obviously none of the allegations against the president are true and that was litigated in the last election. Okay. But there is actually ongoing litigation from one of his accusers. We have seen four or five pop back up in recent weeks saying they want him to be held accountable. That is also going to continue
to happen. Sopbgs that continues to happen, it is still a national story. Not just the senate race but in november we saw a massive swing in the gender gap. 2018 will be the year of women on steroids. It will be bigger than 1992. A lot of people will get elected to the house. There will be a culture change. The pendulum swings. This is a seminole moment. We havent seen the last of it manifest itself. In some ways this is a latest effect of the access Hollywood Video from 2016, the fact that trump won, Harvey Weinstein opened the flood gates. And the flood greats are still open. One ahead of the curb was the pentagon. As a young Woman Working in that building and your beat, do you
think it has changed significantly . The military takes a lot of black eyes on Sexual Assault in the military. The reality is they do make a lot of efforts against a problem and sexual harassment, not just assault. Lets be honest, it is never going to go away. You cant stop is it. The Me Too Movement is wonderful, tremendous that its coming out and that it is part of the conversation and conversation but it is is not going to end it. It probably wont curtail that much behavior. When i started i was one of two women. I was 10 years younger than anyone else. People called me honey, sweetie, young lady. That has changed. Professionalism helps. It does. I have heard 30 to 40 more have problems. What do you think . This is going to cascade into
the new years. This transcends the political. This is a cultural watershed moment. This is the problem with the nature of mankind. We have heard a lot about people saying as a father of daughters or the mother of daughters. I think this needs to be more about sons. I was not raised to treat women this way. As a father of two young sons, if they watch this tape one day and im gone by the time they watch them, i want them to know this is not how you treat woman. Im proud of my boys in that regard and my soninlaw. Thank all four of you for helping to close out a great year. Everyone out there, have a great 2018. My final thoughts after this. Adjusts on both sides to your ideal comfort, your sleep number setting. Does your bed do that . Right now our queen c4 mattress is only 1199. Plus 24 month financing. Ends monday. Visit sleepnumber. Com for a store near you. You myour joints. Thing for your heart. Or your digestion. So why wouldnt you take something for the most important part of you. Your brain. With an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is now the number one selling brain Health Supplement in drug stores nationwide. Prevagen. The name to remember. Thank you for watching. Thanks to everyone who has been watching since we started this show, especially everyone at msnbc who makes this possible. Burt and mel who keep me from knocking over the sets each
week. And the rest of the team at msnbc, happy new year to all of you as well and thank you for watching. Please keep the conversation going well into 2018 over at msnbc. Com hughhad hewitt. See you next saturday morning in 2018 right here on msnbc. You cant predict the market. 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. I just finished months of chemo. But i dont want to talk about months. I want to talk about years. Treatments have gotten better, so. Im hoping for good years ahead. Thats thanks to Research Funded by the american cancer society. The same folks giving me free rides to treatment, insurance advice,and a place to stay during chemo. I need that stuff like you dont know. And now that you do, please give at cancer. Org breathe freely fast wmy congestions gone. I can breathe again i can breathe again vicks sinex. Breathe on