He made comments about the white house being forced to return the press pass of a cnn reporter and there was an uncomfortable moment with Kirstjen Nielsen right beside the president as he said hes happy with almost all of his cabinet so lots to talk about. All of this a last minute add, giving the press a chance to question the president. Kelly odonnell joins us from the white house with more on what he has to say. Good afternoon to you. As i said, this is the time when we didnt know that the press was going to be able to talk to the without but clearly he had some things to say. I was thinking hmm, i wonder what his lawyers say about him saying hes answering this on his own. I asked him a week or so ago and at this point he wouldnt engage at all so hes moved to a point where he is more comfortable to discuss written answers provided to the special counsel. He carefully said hes worked on this himself. He does have the help of his lawyers but he tried to separate that responding to a series of questions provided by the Robert Mueller team that deal with issues of russia collusion alleged during the campaign period. Not questions with anything that happened since he took office so if president being willing to chat about this today. A little with reporters and it raises the question what will the issue be among those who will review the president s answers when theyre ultimately submitted. There will open the door to additional questions . Will it resolve the muchanticipated last chapters of the Mueller Investigation . We dont yet know but heres what the president had to say. I havent submitted them. I just finished them. As you know ive been busy. Weve been in europe, working on various deals, we just finished the usmca, if you look at that deal which is one of the great trade deals, you ill see. You can see how happy our farmers are. Weve done a lot of work in the last period of time so its been very hard to find time. A very busy time for the president he says. He also passed out the most heralded of civilian honor, the president ial medal of freedom so hes been attending a reception far as well. But the hours put to answering the questions from the special counsel, wouldnt we want to be a fly on the wall when that happened . So from the president s take the work is done, awaiting to submit it. Well see if the special counsel, which is really notably tight lipped throughout the entire more than a year and a half long investigation if we will get any response from that side. Kemly odonnell at the white house, thank you for that. So much to talk about. To take a closer look, peter bak baker, New York Times chief correspondent. Phillip bump, Washington Post political reporter and msnbc legal analyst and brand new dad danny cevallos. Ive spent over the last 24 hours or so looking at baby pictures. I want to hear what the president had to say hbim answering Robert Muellers questions. I write the answers, not my lawyers. I was asked a series of questions. Ive answered them very easily. Im sure theyre tricked up because they like to catch people, gee, was the weather sunny or rainy . He said it may have been a good day, it was rainy, he told a lie. So you have to be careful when you answer questions with people that probably have bad tensions but the questions were very routinely answered by me. Peter baker covering this president , knowing his legal team, what did you make of that answer . Well, you know, he wants us to think hes the one answering these questions as opposed to his lawyers who of course are heavily involved . Because he has nothing to hide. Thats his message. Thats what he wants to say. When president clinton was interrogated by independent counsel ken starr 20 years ago in the case involving Monica Lewinsky he went before the prosecutors in person, spent four hours being interrogated. Thats not something President Trumps lawyers want him to do, theyre worried he would say things not about the weather but much more substantially in conflict with things hes said in the past so they dont want to get him in further trouble with answers that would give ammunition to the prosecutors. Mind me the legit lawyer whos going to say to a client heres the papers, you fill them out and ill turn them in. Its astound fog think about. Prosecutors dont give written questions to defendants or suspects or anybody. Were already on brand new ground as it goes to these written questions but if there were such a thing as written questions that prosecutors gave to defendants or suspects, no lawyer would ever let them sit at their desk even if its the resolute desk and answer them him or herself and submit them for review by the attorneys at the end or maybe not. It would never be done because ultimately no matter what is submitted it will be considered the words of the president or whomever submits the answers to those questions and signs them at the bottom and those can and will be used against him or her. Do you think this is in any way a signal that maybe and kelly was questioning whether this opens the door to something additional, does it resolve maybe last questions, would this be the beginning of the end . I think necessarily it is. This was one of the steps that Robert Mueller and his team felt needed to happen. There had been a lot of discussion about how they were going to compel President Trump to offer answers if he werent willing to do it by himself. One of the things thats fascinating and Maggie Haberman of the New York Times pointed this out, the amount of time donald trump has spent railing against this investigation and how its been going on but this is one of the things that has been holding it up. This long standing almost a year negotiation between trumps team and muellers team about how and when he would offer testimony. This is what we landed on. Part of the reason this stretched as long as it has is because donald trump and his team were pushing backed on how he would offer them answers. The federal judge who was appointed by President Trump ordering the white house to reinstate the press credentials of jim acosta saying dhihis Due Process Rights were violated. Cnn sued, others joined in after his credentials were revoked. Heres how the president responded to the ruling. Supreme to behave and were writing up rules and regulations to make our position. I think you were treated very unfairly, both of you. I think you were treated unfairly because you have somebody interrupting you and if they dont listen to the rules and regulations well end up back in court and well win. We want total freedom of the press. Thats very important to me. More important to me than anybody would believe but you have to act with respect. You here in the white house. Well, look,ing a we can all agree. Youre in the white house. Its noise too act with respect. Having said that the president went on to say hes instructed to his people if that if they feel like theyre disrespected, just leave. He said well just walk away. And my mind went to when is the last time, how many times this month has Sarah Sanders held a press conference, who is going to walk away from what . They already walked away from a decadeslong tradition of Daily Press Briefings in the press room on camera on the record answering questions and putting out information. Theyve already walked away. Did they walk away because we were rude or because they dont believe in the institution . On the other hand this is a president who does answer our questions regularly, thats one thing you have to give him. Much more than our recent president s, whether it be obama or bush. President trump answers questions with some regularity. Whats worrisome about this idea of rules or regulations is, of course, theyre the ones who will be the judge of who is considered can be respectful or rude and thats a sword that will hang over every reporter, not just jim acosta because the intent is to intimidate or put on notice anybody who gets out of line. The white house says it is true, this president speaks to the press a lot. We were not expecting for him to make himself available during that bill signing. He did and there was a moment that you might think was maybe a little bit uncomfortable when he is right next to kirj who has been widely reported as somebody who may be on the shopping block. Listen to what he had to say while she was standing so close to him. Im very happy. Im very happy with the white house. Im extremely happy with our country. Im very happy with almost all of my cabinet and changes are made because theyre always made, especially after midterms but its all fake news. Almost. Almost, phillip. Almost. What does that signal . The thing about that is that just to wrap it up with its all fake news, weve seen or are rey that donald trump is unhappy with his cap in tbinet and said is fake news so we cant take him at his word that he is happy with most of his cabinet and this is standard operating procedure. Theres multiple reports from multiple outlets suggesting Kirstjen Nielsen is at risk of losing her position and theres no reason double donald trump when he says that may not be the case. I want to look ahead to what you might be hearing about the president s visit to california. Hes going into a state where his party lost a lot of seats and having spent time in Orange County a lot of people who were republicans who voted for the democrats did it because of donald trump. He is going into a state where he has threatened to pull money. Where hes suggested that the reason that the fires are such a problem is because of management not really understanding or letting people know that more than half of the forests in california are managed by the federal government. What are we expecting from a president who, frankly, when hes gone on other trips where theres been tragedy has not had good luck with empathy. Throwing paper towels. I went on his only other trip, i believe, of his presidency to california. Its not friendly territory to him. Its the center of the resistance, if you will. And hes had an on again off again war with the state and leadership of california for almost two years. What is trystriking is when he blaming mismanagement for the fires, the last few days he held back on that. He called governor jerry brown, who has been a tough antagonist of his and put out a tweet saying were with you, were behind you, very president ial tweet so maybe hes going to make a point tomorrow to try to keep to that tone and do as you say a better job of showing empathy to people who lost a lot. There is a terrible tragedy and these are americans who are. Have suffered so much and i think that he has every incentive to try to show that side of his presidency rather than the more combative side when he goes there tomorrow. Peter baker and phillip bump, thanks to both of you. Danny stay close. Coming up next, the most destructive fire in california history that we were just not talking about still spot showing signs of being over with. The numbers are staggering and getting worse. As the president threatened to full federal dollars from california, u. S. Troops are in neighboring arizona preparing for the Migrant Caravan thats not headed there. Is this the business smarts trump promised to voters. [ phone rings ] what . ready for christmas . No, its way too early to be annoyed by christmas. You just need some holiday spirit thats it this feud just went mobile. With xfinity xfi you get the best wifi experience at home. And with xfinity mobile, you get the best wireless coverage for your phone. Youre about to find out you dont even know where i live. Hello see the grinch in theaters by saying get grinch tickets into your xfinity x1 voice remote. A guy just dropped this off. Hehehehe. As the deadliest wildfire in california history continues to scorch large swaths of the state, officials continue efforts to recover more bodies from the ashes. The butte county camp fire has taken the lives of 63 people bringing the total lives lost statewide to 66. And the number of people unaccounted for has gone from 130 to a shocking 631. Its estimated roughly 52,000 people have been displaced in a state that already has a serious housing crisis and homelessness problem. In chico, california, the largest any butte county, shelters are unusually full even without 10,321 structures destroyed in paradise, california, alone. Paradise is just about 14 miles east of chico and as you can see in this drown footage it was almost entirely wiped out by the fire. Joining me from chico. Steve patterson. Steve, as if whats going on in there isnt more than any family oar any community should have to bear, there are now reports of norovirus breaking out at some of those shelters. What can you tell us about that . In fact, it broke out at this shelter, this is one of the shelters in chico. About 180 people are station here at this point. Most are more elderly citizens, as we found out, obviously paradise more of a retirement community. So why dont we bring in tony brigs with the red cross. Our ka our anchor was asking about the norovirus. What can you tell us about whats happening here . Were just making sure we educate our residents on proper hand washing techniques and our red sox workers are making sure were using sanitizer, and areas where people would touch to make sure we keep everything under control. Are some people being quarantined or sectioned off . The best way to make sure that we keep our hands on this is to to have those who have been showing symptoms to go into a separate area and they have their own separate washroom. We want to keep everyone safe and were working everyone safe and were working with butte county public health. And hand washing in general is the best you can do. It is. I want to speak about this. This is the list of missing. The official representation here is staggering. You were telling me about things happening where the sheriff was taking account of the missing, right . How does that work mechanically . When the first hours of the incident someone calls the Sheriffs Department and say they need help or they need and the Sheriffs Department dispatch would ask how many people so a that is where they got that number and the sheriff had his staff go back through in realtime and count up and thats where the number comes in but this visual representation is everyone that wanted to find out some information and they put the names and Contact Information on there. This is good but its one tool. What were using is something called safeandwell. Org and it helps us get names on a database where people can check from anywhere in the country and get that information. So if people have a loved one, thats where you recommend they go . Yes. Tony, thank you for everything youre doing. The need here is huge, the humanitarian crisis is unprecedented in this area and its just getting under way. Im going to double down on our thanks to people working from the firefighters on the front lines to the folks from the red cross. Steve, thanks to you as well. While the nightmare continues in california, 1500 troops are stationed along the southern boarder in arizona to stop a Migrant Caravan from central america. But nbc news is on the ground at the arizona border and reports the only problem is the Migrant Caravan isnt headed anywhere near arizona. Since the midterms the president hasnt spoken as fervently about the caravan, after even rushing 15800 tro 5800 troops at the border, troops that will likely spend their thanksgiving away from their family. Joining us, Julia Ainsley who has been following this story. Julia, what have the soldiers been doing there . Is there any indication that they could this caravan could change course an end up in arizona. They say theyre prepared for that scenario. This used to be an empty dirt field until late october when the president rushed those 5800 troops down to the border as he started to drum up fears about this caravan that was approaching the united states. A few of those have started coming into california now. Were expect dodd see as many as 3500 to 4,000 but in arizona theyre not seeing those caravans. Yesterday i was able to go down to nogales where engineers are deployed a few days at a time where they hang wire and theyre building barricades they are container ships stacked on top of each other. They would put these in cargo lanes in the event there was an invision of immigrants. That would be a very unlikely scenario, chris, and we have about 30 of those barricades sitting in storage down at the border. Meanwhile, these soldiers are continuing to build. They have military police that arm what they do and you can see just the extent of this deployment in arizona behind me here. Julia ainsley at the border where it doesnt look like theyll get any members of that Migrant Caravan. Thank you so much. Still to come, the secret is out. The Justice Department mistakingly revealing plans to indict wikileaks founder Julian Assange. How did that happen . Plus, Monica Lewinsky opens up like never before, talking about the start of her relationship with bill clinton. He you know, paid a lot of attention to me. He spent time standing there and held my hand longer than he should have and gave what others have described as the full bill clinton. Ill clinton. People tell me all the time i have the craziest job, the riskiest job. The consequences underwater can escalate quickly. The next thing i know, she swam off with the camera. Its like, hey, thats mine i want to keep doing what i love. Thats the retirement plan. 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