There in l. A. Steve, what do we know at this point about the cause of his death . What are they saying . Hey, craig. Good morning to you. The 53yearold died in his home in england yesterday. Police responded to the scene at about 2 00, saying at the time that the death was unexplained, but not suspicious. Then his longtime manager tells the Hollywood Reporter that michael died from Heart Failure. All this while tributes have been pouring in, obviously, from all over the world for a music legend. Freedom i wont let you down its music that made an entire generation move. Baby those catchy melodies mixed with social commentary. All tied together by glossy unforgettable hooks, became mega hits. I dont need your freedom and turned George Michael from teen pop singer into an international icon. A career spanning four decades, spawning ten number one singles, selling more than 20 million albums in the u. S. Alone. I will be your father figure put your tiny hand in mine michael rose to fame in the early 80s as one half of the british pop group wham, with songs like freedom, careless whisper and wake me up before you go go. Wake me up before you go go the group became one of musics biggest acts in the world before they split in 1986. I gotta have faith the following year, michaels debut solo album faith won critical acclaim including a grammy and generated four number one hits. Michael, who wrote and produced nearly every element, also became a world famous sex symbol. Like the sun going down on me in the 90s, he had even more chart success, including a smash hit live duet with elton john. In 1998, the singer made headlines after being arrested for exposing himself to an Undercover Police officer in an l. A. Public restroom. After the incident, michael came out as gay and became an advocate for aids prevention and gay rights. But the song writer who achieved so much success in his mid20s said the attention was too much. He told matt in 2004, he wanted his private life back. So freaked at the amount of attention that was being pointed directly at me. More recently, the artist suffered a series of Health Scares including a near fatal bout with pneumonia in 2011. The hospital in australia that they rushed me to was absolutely the best place in the world i could have been. Tributes on social media from friends and famous fans began pouring in almost immediately sunday night, including his wham partner who tweeted, heartbroken at the loss of my beloved friend. Forever loved. The last christmas for a man who will forever be remembered as a music legend. Last christmas i gave you my heart the very next day you gave it away officials at this point are saying there are absolutely no signs of foul play, and that an autopsy will be conducted in due time. In the meantime, his publicist said he passed away add his home peacefully. Humming his hits all morning here. Steve patterson for us in the Los Angeles Bureau this morning. Thank you. Back to politics. In the next 24 hours, it will be jam packed for the Trump Transition Team as it prepares for Donald Trumps inauguration on january 20th. Israeli settlements in the west bank and East Jerusalem have become an issue for the president elect this weekend after the United States declined to block a u. N. Security Council Resolution condemning israeli settlement policy. Hallie jackson is in palm beach where president elect trump is spending the holiday weekend. Are we expecting details on any other key issues toold from the president elect or his team, hallie . Hey, craig. I think its going to be a fairly quiet start to the holiday week here in south florida. The president elect, of course, spending the holidays at his maralago property just down the road from where we are. I think the israel issues is one that you saw president elect trump tweet about over the weekend. We may see more tweets from him, possibly today, but notable that he waited on an issue that has created friction between Benjamin Jett netanyahu and pret obama. Its not typical we would see an incoming president get so involved in International Foreign policy, not just on saturday talking about the security Council Resolution, but even earlier, issuing his own statement about what he believed the u. S. Should do. A senior official telling us at the request of israeli officials. He has big cabinant vacancies still to be filled, not as high profile as the state department, but v. A. , secretary of agriculture, director of national intelligence. Those are the outstanding positions yet to be chosen, at least, by the president elect. He may be sort of doing some work on that over this week, but if theres movement, i suspect we wont see it until later this week. What can you tell about about how hes going to wind down his charitable office. This was a little bit of a Christmas Eve surprise. The president elect announcing he wants to dissolve the Trump Foundation which has come under fire and investigation for the way it spends money. The Trump Foundation, currently under investigation from the new York Attorney generals office, and the a. G. Is saying the president elect cant shut down his foundation until our investigation is complete. Trump has called that investigation partisan, essentially, you remember the new york a. G. Is a democrat who has tangled with trump before. All of this is meant to, at least in the eyes of donald trump, try to untangle some of the potential conflict of interest issues or appearance of conflict of interest, which is y he says despite his foundation doing good work, hes going to be winding it down prior to the inauguration. Questions of how that really will work. Questions that the president elect has promised to answer after the new year in a press conference, but as you know, his promised press conference for this month never materialized. One was promised on december 15th, a thursday, and it never happened. Its been almost 200 days now if im not mistaken since the president elect has decided to answer questions from members of the media. Meanwhile, russias president , Vladimir Putin, as you know, criticizing democrats in this untry over charges that russia tampered with the u. S. Election. Has there been more reaction from president elect trump on that . Over the last 48, 72 hours, craig, he basically, president elect trump, agreed with Vladimir Putin, talking aboutthosis remarks that putin made at the press conference, the lengthy press Conference Friday morning, talking about essentially it being humiliating for democrats at this point, and president elect trump tweeted, so true, over the weekend, or i believe on friday afternoon as well. So some more i guess you could call it symmetry, perhaps, or signs of agreement between donald trump and Vladimir Putin. Something well likely see more of come the new year. Whats the temperature down there . How warm is it . Beautiful but windy, my man. Love for you to come hang out. Looks nice. Stuck in the studio. Thank you, hallie jackson. Talk to you soon. Josh is an msnbc contributor, al a Senior Editor at business insider. Also has a fantastic radio show which well talk about in a moment. Niles is the associate editor at the hill. Good to see you both. Thank you for being with me. Let me start with you, josh. This ongoing conversation were having about donald trump and his relationship with vladimir put putin, what do you think it is going to portend for this country and its relationship with russia moving forward . I mean, there are a number of important areas. One is we have imposed these sanctions on russia related to what its done in ukraine, retaking the crimea peninsula in ukraine, a jet shot down over ukraine, widely believed to be a piece of Russian Military equipment, shut it down, very little apparent punishment for russia. Certainly, they would like donald trump to thak those off. That seems like something he might well do early in his administration. We have been at odded with them in syria. Its likely we will no longer be at odds with him, as we stand by as they support the assad regime. So i think theres a lot that u. S. Policy could be shifted to be more favorable to Vladimir Putin and i assume thats part of what hes hoping for. Thats russia. Lets talk about israel, the effect of the latest conflict with israel on the relationship between the Incoming Trump administration and Benjamin Netanyahu. Well, clearly, the Trump Administration was the place to which the netanyahu people appealed when they realized that this resolution was going forward. The Obama Administrations decision to abstain had the effect of allowing that resolution to pass. So what were seeing, clearly, is both donald trump saying that he would change things, that things will be different at the u. N. After january 20th, as he put it in a tweet, but also i think youre sealing the Israeli Administration put in a lot of faith in things are clearly strained between netanyahu and obama. Thats been the case for years. Netanyahu looking forward to the inauguration of trump, i think. What are you hearing from your sources on the hill . From lawmakers on a macro level about how the transition is going . Well, i think its fascinating, you know, in terms of the Republican Party, they are obviously happy that they have the white house. A lot of republican lawmakers did not expect that to be the case. But when you speak to people on background, where they have not been identified, theres still quite a lot of republican consternation of a trump. They know hes not by any stretch of the imagination a traditional republican or a traditional politician. At least in some republican quarters, there is a wariness about people tying themselves too closely to the Trump Administration in case things, you know, new controversies could erupt that would damage everyone associated with them. Is that what youre hearing as well . Yeah, i think and then you can see this also publicly with some of the picks that have come out. I think theres been generally a desire to stand with their president elect from their same party on his nominees, yet, for example, with the Rex Tillerson nomination at secretary of state, you have seen some quite public doubts expressed by certain republican members of the senate. I think that stuff is likely to intensify as we go into confirmation hearings. This transition has been actually fairly efficient in terms of nominating people, but part of that seems to be theyre being a little more casual than you have seen in the past about vetling nominees. Some of these people have Less Government experience than is typical, so there wil be unknown unknowns that come out in confirmation hearings. People say things that are unexpected, so i think there will be further opportunities for things to drive wedges between republicans and especially in the senate, and president elect trump. One of things that continue to fascinate me, two, one being how quickly some folks have come around on the president elect. Just two or three months ago, some of the things they were saying about this man. And folks like Chris Christie, folks like rudy giuliani, folks who were by Donald Trumps side long before a lot of the socalled establishment had made their way to be by his side, nowhere to be found in his administration so far. Does that seem odd to you . Not really. Were also hearing this at the staff level, people with the campaign from early on who expected to get good jobs. Theyre not getting phone calls yet. There was a call with one of the incoming deputy chiefs of staff in the white house with one of the trump veterans and one of the things he said is you dont want to work in the white house, the hours are awful and the pay is not good, you dont get to see your family on the weekends. I think Donald Trumps band of misf misfits and Newt Gingrich and Chris Christie and rudy giuliani, this isnt the team he had because it was who he wanted. It was who was willing to be with him. Trump cares about loyalty in terms of people being loyal to him. I dont find it surprising now that everyone in the Republican Party is calling, wants to work with him, some of those people he finds tempting to pick rather than the people who were so desperate to work, they went to work for him 15 months ago. Thank you for your time. The radio show, whats it called . Left right and center. Out of los angeles. There you go. Do you have a radio show . Sadly not. Im working on it. Maybe josh can have me on one day. You get a radio show, come back and well promote it a day after christmas at 9 15 in the morning. Happening right now, some 3500 people searching the waters of the black sea near sochi. Theyre looking desperately for victims of a Russian Military plane that went down on Christmas Day. The Russian Defense ministry saying this morning that two fragments of that planes control mechanism, as its called, two fragments were pulled from the sea floor. 92 people were onboard that flight, including members of a beloved military choir. Lucy kafanov continues to follow the latest on this story for us from london. Lucy, what more do we know at this point about the investigation . Reporter hey, craig. Good morning. Well, as you say, the divers found several pieces of that tu154 plane this morning at the bottom of the black sea. They were able to drag those parts onto land. Russian Officials Saying today that the investigation is focusing on pilot error or technical problems, not on terrorism. This has developed now over the past 24 hours. Authorities scrambling to figure out why this plane went down on Christmas Day. Its an aroundtheclock mission to piece together a deadly puzzle. Thousands of emergency workers scouring frigid waters, salvaging what they can of what remains. No survivors, all 92 onboard dead. The plane departed from sochi, bound for a military base in syria, but just two minutes after taking off, it plunged into the black sea in near perfect weather. Most of its passengers, members of its world renowned military choir heading to spread Holiday Cheer in a new years concert for russian servicemen. This young couple, dancers with the ensemble, were planning a wedding. Also onboard, a beloved Charity Worker known simply as dr dr. Leeza, taking much needed medicine to a syrian hospital. War is a hell on urthd, she once said. But kindness, compassion, and mercy are stronger than any weapon. Reality is now beginning to sink in for those who loved and lost their dearest. Onboard a Christmas Day flight to a wartorn country with a tragic end. And craig, singers, dancers, also nine russian journalists, some of them very young, among the dead. 11 bodies recovered so far, but critically, the planes black boxes have not yet been found. Russian president Vladimir Putin declaring a national day of mourning across the country today, as that investigation continues. Craig. Lucy kafanov for us this morning from london. Thank you. Threats of new fallout following the u. N. Security councils stinging rebuke of israels settlements in the west bank. Is Benjamin Netanyahu finished with the Obama Administration . Done dealing with them all together. 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