The legal team may try to paint mike flynn as not trustworthy. If he accuses the president of behaving badly. Msnbcs Garrett Haake is here in west palm. Garrett, fill us in on whats happening here. I know youve been reporting this out this morning as well. Reporter sure. The Washington Post has been if Michael Flynn were to roll over on the president or other Senior Administration officials, the Washington Post sources say the response would be to try to discredit him, paint Michael Flynn as a liar, an untrustworthy person. The white house attorney, john dowd, has been pushing back at this report calling it complete nonsense and more fake news. On the one hand, it would make sense. Youve got Michael Flynn who admitted to the fbi as part of his deal with the special prosecutors office. On the other hand, youve got comment after sympathetic comment from the president himself all on tape. Listen. Well, i feel badly for general flynn. I feel very badly. Hes led a very strong life. Michael flynn, general flynn, is a wonderful man. I think hes been treated very, very unfairly by the media. This man has served for many years. Hes a general. Hes, in my opinion, a very good person. Hallie, i guess time will tell whether or not this is a backup plan or something that the white house and the white House Attorneys attempt to put into action here on Michael Flynn preemptively. Well see what flynn has to say for himself or what Robert Mueller has to say on flynns behalf, i suppose, down the road. Garrett, i want you to hang around for a second because i want to talk with you more about Something Else developing on a political front. I want to stick on this topic with former Deputy Assistant general tom dupree. Also joining us josh dawes i. Tom, let me start with you. What do you make of this strategy by the president s legal team . The president s lawyer, john dowd is obviously pushing back on this. But the person behind the story, talk about her reporting in the last hour. I want you to listen to what she said. Weve done our reporting. We know what people inside have told us about this view of the legal strategy, which is if flynn makes accusations against Senior Leaders in the campaign, the white house or the president , people feel that they can dismiss that. The lawyers feel they can dismiss that as the protestations of a person who admitted lying to the fbi. On the post reports, thats not a totally shocking strategy for a defense team here. Yes. Hallie, i agree with that. Look, this doesnt surprise me in the slightest. If bob mueller brings a case thats largely based on the testimony of Michael Flynn, i think it would be a classic defense response to go after flynn himself. How could you not . If so much of muellers case hinges on the truthfulness of flynn. I think that the administration will have a reasonable argument to say this is a guy who admitted to lying to federal agents. At the same time, i think youll have to be careful in navigating around the past statements of the president endorsing Michael Flynns character, saying that this is a standup guy makes it more difficult to launch that line of attack. Josh, toms point that hes making, not surprising, but maybe a little risky. What is the risk in labeling it guy potentially a liar. Somebody who was the National Security adviser inside the west wing. The highest levels of clearance here and somebody who the president has, as garrett pointed out, the president spoken highly you haof in the p discrediting him as a liar, he was the top National Security surrogate, National Security adviser, obviously in the west wing. He was privy to hundreds of if not thousands of private conversations in the white house and really knows the inner machinations of it well. Its hard to hear that hey, hes a liar, we barely know this guy. You go, why was he in the white house . Why was he a leader in your campaign . Certainly seems to be the strategy of the legal team. The president , he doesnt always follow what they want to do. The team wants to do one thing, the president will do another. Its part and parcel for our life in trumps world. But it does if you throw him under the bus strategy ends upcoming to fruition, if it is the strategy, it complicates the idea of a potential pardon. As you know, weve been asking the president about it. Josh, will he consider pardoning mike flynn . The president has been saying i dont want to talk about it yet. Well see what happens. By the way, yet. He doesnt want to talk about it yet. This could complicate things for any potential flynn pardon even as Michael Flynns brother is tweeting to the president , hey, let him off the hook. Right, hallie. All of this is unfolding pretty quickly. If you see the white house lawyers, they were saying before christmas, we want to go in and meet with bob muellers team. Theyre telling the president we expect you to be exonerated, this to end quickly. That may not be the case. I think youre seeing different strategies unfold as this investigation has developed. At first it was a cooperate, cooperate, cooperate. And now in 2018, there could be a new chapter in this. I think its going to get dicier. Tom, as we talk about the special counsel investigation, theres new reporting out from michael isikoff, from yahoo, he says that Robert Muellers team has started questioning rnc staffers. Specifically about the digital operation that worked with the Trump Campaign to target voters in key swing states. According to is i cough, they want to see if theyre trying to shape voter opinion. Whats the significance of muellers team having those conversations now . I think the significance is that it under scores this is not an inquiry to be wrapped up in the near future. Its an inquiry that looks by all indications it might expand. It might go in new directions. Ones we havent anticipated up until now. I think if youre in the president s legal team shoes, what you may have advised the president , if it wraps up by the holidays, you might have to rethink that. Bob mueller is not showing any signs of going away. Hes going to be ramping up his investigation in these key areas. President trump, perhaps unsurprisingly, is not talking about the russia investigation while hes been here on his holiday break. Instead, hes talking about his accomplishments in 2017 looking ahead to 2018. Garrett haake, youre here in west palm where the president made a rare public appearance outside of maralago, outside one of his Trump Properties where hes back today, presumably on the golf course. Walk us through what were hearing from the president and this interesting fact check of a claim hes made before about his legislative achievements. Sure. So late yesterday afternoon, the president appeared off of a trump property for the First Time Since he has been here in palm beach. He went to a firehouse not too far from where im standing and talked to firefighters there and spent a lot of that time talking about his legislative accomplishments, both the specific in terms of the tax cut bill getting rid of the individual mandate, and also making a broad statement about how much his administration has gotten through congress. Take a listen to that. Well fact check on the other side. A lot of legislation passed. They were saying if we got this one done, we would have succeeded with the legislation. I believe we have youll have to ask those folks, but i think they know the real answer. They have more legislation passed, including the record was harry truman a long time ago. Reporter Research Team took a look at the numbers and they just dont add up. This is not in the ballpark of being true. The president in his first year has gotten 96 bills through congress. Harry truman had more than double that. When we pull back the lens even further, President Trump had fewer things get through congress than any modern president going back to jimmy carter who had the most. A strange statement for the president to make when its so easily fact checkable. And also an odd statement for a conservative to make. An odd thing to brag about, how much the government is getting done. Typically, you have conservatives wanting to say we want our government doing less. One thing to talk about rolling back regulations, rolling back things that were done by previous administrations, but to be bragging about how active your government is sort of out character for a nominally conservative president. Although, garrett, i think the white house, in my conversations with officials there, i think they are frustrated with what theyve seen as a narrative of this president not having done a lot legislati legislatively. Maybe hes pushing back on that. I want to bring tom and josh back with us. As garrett pointed out, the president laying low in south florida. The secretary of state also talking accomplishments from 2017. Rex tillerson saying hes proud of this administrations diplomatic efforts here. Josh, you cover this white house, you cover this administration. There has been a lot of talk about Rex Tillersons future. A lot of speculation about how long he will stick around. How do you see this oped . Is this an end of year, this is what we did or a parting shot, im going to drop the mic and peace out. Hallie, we both know that Rex Tillerson is a dead man walking in the west wing. Theyre guessing will he leave this month or that month. Certainly lots of frustration from the president on down. The secretary has said hes going to extend some travel, take a higher profile. He said he was beginning to like his job. As we know about this president , hall hallie, hes reluctant to fire someone. He gets frustrated, make their life miserable, for a man who says youre fired, he doesnt do that. Will Rex Tillerson, does he want to stay. All indications is that hes trying to stay and telling the white house, hey the ball is in your court, if you want me gone, you have to tell me. I dont know that that will happen. When you look, though, at the end of the first year in past administrations, too, its sort of a time when people go home for the holidays, talk with the families and a lot of folks take stock with the administration and whether they want to continue, in any administration. When you look at staff and turnover, the wall street journal has an interesting piece out, sort of the turnover the past four decades, a senior fellow who has followed this found that the Trump Administration has a 34 turnover rate among senior officials. Thats actually higher than any other administration doing this tracking. The next closest is reagan. 1981 with a 17 turnover rate. How do you read that, tom . Is that a function of this fastpaced burnout moment in time were living in or something more . Hallie, like a lot of things, its atypical. What we have seen is number one, a higher than average rate of turnover, even for the first year of an administration which typically sees more turnover than the norm. This has been a lot of churn in this administration. The other thing weve seen is the president is not owe he reluctant to criticize. Typically when an administration, cabinet official comes under fire, they circle the wagons. Weve seen Something Different. The president is not afraid to call out officials he sees as taking the wrong course, making a bad judgment. Hes not abashed about publicly criticizing and chastising that official, which may lead to more turnover than weve seen. Tom dupree, josh dawesy, thanks for hanging out with us. Were heading to alabama where roy moore, remember him, is challenging the election a couple of weeks after he lost to Democrat Doug Jones. Moore is claiming now, voter fraud. Just hours from now the certification of the results. Will this lastditch effort actually work . Were breaking it down with Steve Kornacki coming up. You always pay your insurance on time. Tap one little bumper, and up go your rates. What good is having insurance if you get punished for using it . News flash nobodys perfect. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. Switch and you could save 782 on home and auto insurance. Call for a free quote today. Liberty stands with you™ Liberty Mutual insurance. You are taking a live look at the intercoastal here in south florida in West Palm Beach. Just behind us on our studio for the next week on the road on assignment covering donald trump on his holiday vacation here in south florida. Were in florida, but just north of us in alabama, private citizen roy moore is throwing a lastminute hail mary. The failed Senate Candidate wants a court to basically block his loss in that special election a few weeks ago. Heres the strategy. His campaign filed a complaint overnight complaining of potential election fraud. Why now . Because this afternoon Democrat Doug Jones who won the election is supposed to be officially certified as the next alabama senator. Heres one of moores fellow republicans, congressman Leonard Lance giving his take this morning. I think its ridiculous and im sure the authorities will certify the election. State officials said last week they found no evidence of voter fraud in this race. Joining me to talk about it is steve tore knack i, working on a kornacki, working on a holiday. Heres what they had to say this morning. Will this affect anything . The short answer to that is no. So hes saying no impact. Explain the strategy here. Is there any chance this is going to work, this is going to hold water from the Moore Campaign . No, you have the secretary of state of alabama saying that he plans to certify the election today. Hes not moved by anything that roy moore is claiming. If you look at what specifically is being alleged, there arent many specifics. Theres broad aspersions being cast by moore about the overall integrity of the election. Nothing really specific to back it up. For example, he talks about saying hes suspicious. That turnout was high in jefferson county. Jefferson county is the biggest county in the state. Birmingham, suburbs around there. He says it was suspiciously high. It clocked in at 47 . That was the turnout rate as opposed to 43 elsewhere. Thats not something that you look at and say wow, thats shocking. Thats the normal. Not every turnout level in every county is the same. Its not like its 106 or something. Thats when you see alarm bells. Nothing hes presenting here is going to, i think change what the secretary of state just said there. What strikes me, steve, is how this is frankly a trumpian move with a big difference. The president made unfounded claims of voter fraud after he won. Moore is doing it after he lost. Yeah. I guess the parallel that i see here, there was a congressman named allen west from florida, a republican, who was sort of a very lightning rod figure, he had a close reelection race in 2012. I was trying to see if he ever did concede it. I know for weeks after the race, after he exhausted all the recourses available, turned up nothing, he continued to refuse to concede it. I think we have in some cases seen this before where a candidate just wont i remember, allen keys, lost to barack obama by 43 points in a senate race in illinois in 2004. The race that launched barack obama. Took about a week or so to actually concede. Even then he refused to congratulate obama. Throughout political history, you see characters like this. Listen, as you heard from congressman lance just in that introduction there, moore does not have a lot of support, right, from republicans in his own party. Theres no pressure building for him to be doing this, to try to block this loss. Do you think that the pressure will build for republicans to force moore to concede or fine with them never saying his name again. Theres no avenue for him to get this election overturned, to end up in the senate. I think republicans clearly are in some ways they are relieved that he lost this race and sparing themselves a bigger headache. Their instinct is to let it play out for a few days or however long it wants and that moore fades away and hey, whether he ultimately says i lost or not maybe becomes a storyline that nobody even follows a week or two from now. Because, listen, in a week or two from now, doug jones will be sworn in as the next democratic senator from alabama. Steve kornacki, a pleasure to have you on the show. Thank you very much. Well talk about how hundreds of homeowners are rushing to pay their property taxes this week. You may be one of them before the clock runs out on 2017. The irs is saying, not so fast. Why the agency says the strategy could backfire in some states. As you look now at a time lapse of the sun just off the horizon in west palm where we are, where the president is spending his holiday week. The great emperor penguin migration. Trekking a hundred miles inland to their breeding grounds. Except for these two fellows. This time next year, were gonna be sitting on an egg. I think were getting close make a uturn. Uturn . Recalculating. Man, we are never gonna breed. Just give it a second. You will arrive in 92 days. Nah, nuhuh. Nope, nope, nope. You know who im gonna follow . My instincts. As long as gps can still get you lost, you can count on geico saving folks money. Im breeding, man. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. We are back with the morning headlines. 84 people hurt and 41 dead in kabul, afghanistan. Attackers they had gotten together to mark the invasion by the former soviet union. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for this deadly attack. No evidence produced to support that. Erica gar