And manhunt over. And tarmac on the hours, ending just a short time ago. Why hijackers forced a libyan jet liner to land in malta. President elect changing Nuclear Policy in just 140 characters. It started with, you guessed it, a tweet. Trump calling for the United States to greatly strengthen and expand nuclear capability. That sounded like Nuclear Proliferation proliferation but not to closest aides. After a day long clarification to walk it back, redefine it, trump got on phone this morning and said this. Mika asked the president elect, while we had the opportunity, what his position was on trying to clarify the tweet yesterday regarding the Nuclear Arsenal and the president elect told you what . Let it be an arms race. We will outmatch them at every pass. And outlast them all. Outlast them all. My colleague, kristen welker, in west palm beach, florida. How is the Transition Team responding to the latest bit of news from the president elect . Reporter well, theyre walking a fine line, katy. Theyre trying to moderate it, put the focus on updating the United StatesNuclear Arsenal which is, of course, something that president obama is already doing, modernizing it, securing it, but thats, of course, not what president elect trump indicated in that tweet and his comments to mika b. Earlier today. His incoming press conference, sean spicer, the former rnc director was pressed on this by matt lauer earlier today. If theres going to be an arms race theres not going to be. But theres not going to be because hes going to ensure that other countries get the message hes not going to sit back and allow that and whats going to happen, theyll come to their senses and well all be just fine. Reporter so sean spicer trying to walk that fine line of talking tough but at the same time, reassuring americans there wont be a Nuclear Arms Race. Vladimir putin was asked about this and he wasnt surprised because it echoes things he had said on the campaign trail. But the president elects tweet did set off alarm bells within the International Community and said it essentially breaks with u. S. Foreign policy going back to ronald reagan. Every president has been effectively focused on trying to draw down Nuclear Arsenal and president obama delivered the speech in prague where he envisioned a World WithoutNuclear Weapons and since then, he has held four Nuclear Security summits in which he has gotten various International Communities to draw down Nuclear Arsenal. So it couldnt be a bigger break than the president s current policy whit coen it comes to tht what will it look like when the president elect takes office and that remains an open question, katy. Kristen welker in west palm beach. Im joined by jim heinz of connecticut. Member of the Permanent Select Committee on intelligence. Congressman, normally, the president elect doesnt start changing policy, talking about policy until he is inaugurated, especially when there is a sitting president still in office. Sean spicer was asked about this on fox and lets listen to how he responded. Should he have checked with barack obama first . No, hes the president elect. He doesnt need to check with people. We respect theres one president at a time and this president is not going to sit back and wait for things to happen. Hes going to get things done. Do you think thats a good explanation . Were not going to wait for things to get done or is there a confusion in the world about whos actually in charge of the United States right at this moment . Yeah, well, confusion, i guess, is a nice word and you sort of made me laugh there when you said normally. What were seeing here is a complete overturning of all norms in everything from whether we have one president at a time to whether we should, as we have for the last 50 years tried to reduce the size of the global Nuclear Arsenal and spicers comment was entertaining because he said, of course, we have one president at a time and then a bunch of words that mean, no, we dont have one president at a time. The president elect is not going to sit back. And im reminded when barack obama was invited to a george bush economic conference that president bush pulled together because the economy was in full blown meltdown and president elect obama said we have one president at a time and declined to participate. Now we are in a world where the president elect and soon to be president is going to do everything different. Hes going to overturn decades of careful thoughtful balanced representation and provide us every single day with another event like this one. Youre on the Intelligence Committee in the house. What does it mean for intelligence gathering . Is this putting the United States in an uncomfortable position . Is it leaving other thagnations feel like they can take advantage . Its horrifying. Two examples in and around intelligence as you asked. Number one, it was, what, a week and a half ago that the president in a tweet castigated, delegitimized his own intelligence community. This is a group of people on which we spend some 70 billion, 80 billion a year, many risk their lives to the cia and very dangerous places. These are the folks that got it wrong and totally delegitimize them and in moscow were thinking when they saw the president elect aof the United States do that and heres where it gets more dangerous. Sure, bring on a Nuclear Arms Race. Thats a reaction in other Nuclear Armed possibly antagonistic countries. In beijing and moscow, when we talk about nuclear arms, not particularly good weapons to fight terrorists, most think we should be focused on right now. Theyre good for deterring russia and china and other nuclear powers. Theyre sitting back and saying, my god, this guy is unpredictable and unpredictability and Nuclear Weapons do not mix. And since youre on the Intelligence Committee in the house, i want to ask you more about russia. What do you think of the investigation just staying in the house instead of Intelligence Committees, instead of going to a select committee, potentially, or some sort of special investigator that would figure out what was going on and allow the American Public to see more evidence of russian hacking . After all, everyone saying the russians were involved but no evidence so far. Right. Right. A lot of the evidence may be a good long time before its made public because, of course, we get this evidence through intelligence collections and if you make that public, it risks making our sources and methods public. Isnt there an obligation to the American Public when you talk about an allegation as serious as the russians hacking into the political system, isnt there an obligation to show us some sort of concrete evidence that that happened instead of just saying, trust us, weve seen it . Yeah. There is. And remember, we have a long precedent of this going back to the cuban missile crisis when our ambassador to the u. N. Showed photographs and the Security Council and colin powell with the intelligence that turned out to be flawed in front of the Security Council around saddam husseins weapons of mass destruction so yes, there is, but we need to make sure there is a robust committee, ideally, it would actually be an outside Commission Like the commission we put together for 9 11. I would certainly settle for a select committee and it just makes me crazy that Mitch Mcconnell has said, no, were not going to do it as a select committee. This is a Republican Party in the congress thats not hesitated to put together select committees to investigate benghazi, to investigate planned parenthood in the face of absolutely no evidence and so its really frustrating to see them, something as serious as the russian hacking of people constituti institutions associated with the elections saying, well do this business as usual. This is not business as usual. Do you think youll be able to get it to a committee or commission . Elections have consequences and Mitch Mcconnell is running the senate and paul ryan is running the house. Theyll be making the decisions and i hope they make the decision thats really not about their party or protecting their president elect but getting out and getting the truth out on very serious issues. So not much hope so far at least. Thank you very much for joining me. Happy holidays. Representative himes. The president elect weighing in, some might say complaining on twitter this morning about the trumps family ties to businesses and charities. My wonderful son, eric, will no longer be allowed to raise money for children with cancer, trump tweeted because of a possible conflict of interest with my presidency. Isnt this a ridiculous shame . He loves these kids. He has raised millions of dollars for them and now must stop. Wrong answer, exclamation point. With less than a month to go before inauguration, whats the solution to the trump familys conflict of interest problems . Lets bring in Darren Samuelsson to drill down on this. Talk to me, darren. This feels like what was lobbied against the Clinton Campaign during the primary, during the general election. Is there any difference or now its his side of things doing it . Theres a difference. Hes about to become the president of the United States and these are his businesses and will be affected by how he governs. With the clinton foundation, this was looking at her time at the state department, not time as president of the United States or serving in that capacity. So theres a big difference. This is the first time were ever going to see a president of the United States with this level of conflict of interest crossing all manner of his businesses, his real estate, his business portfolio, his investments. He hasnt yet sd what hes going to do completely with respect to this. Were waiting patiently. He was supposed to do a press conference, but push that of january and see what he puts together. Darren, tell me, just because he was elected, does that mean hes okay . After all, the public knew about his businesses beforehand. Its not illegal for him to have a conflict of interest, technically, because he is the president of the United States. I mean, i know theres caveats to that, but because he was elected, does that essentially mean its okay for him to do what he wants . Politically, its a question we see going forward. I think he thinks its okay and i think his supporters voted him because he is a successful businessman. They see his family and those connections and theyre very happy that donald trump is going to try to do what he did for his company for the rest of the country and for the world, for that matter. There are some legal, ethical and very serious political questions though while donald trump doesnt face an exact conflict of interest, law requiring him to divest, he does face some constitutional requirements if he were to take payments from foreign governments. That could put him in cross hairs. The emollients clause. The emollients clause, something we havent heard about for a long time. And then politically as well, scrutinized. This could look bad. Democrats are not going to let go and the longer they push and more noise they make, this could be something that drips away. Let me ask something about the republicans. You talked to a gop source who said, this is one of these situations where its so complicated and its so big that people keep thinking of these things. I dont even think theres an easy answer but a simple elegant idea not thought of yet. How concerned are the republicans about this . After all, the democrats are going to have a lot in their arsenal to go after donald trump with. Republicans are quietly, maybe a little bit concerned about this. Not going to say it publicly. I chased around members of congress. Nobody wants to go on the record criticizing this transition. This is not their jurisdiction on the conflict of interest question. Paul ryan said he is okay with what donald trump comes up with, but i think as this drags on, the democrats will be making a lot of noise. They know how to do oversight whether its pulling from the old play books that henry waxman and john dingman set forth. But whether it pulls over more people like Lindsey Graham and mccain, and i think this is on the newspapers for months to come. If more problems surface or something happens in one of the agencies that donald trump is running, thats when this could become a bigger issue. Isnt that the definition of politics . Its okay when our side does it but not when the other side does it. Thank you for joining me and i hope you have a wonderful holiday weekend. Thank you. Still ahead, we follow breaking news. The dramatic shootout in the suspect in the berlin truck attack. Plus, Early Morning hijacking of the libyan plane. How the tense situation ended. Ferus a Record Number of people set to travel for the holidays if the weather holds out this weekend. That is, bill karins, what does it look like so far . Were dealing with it this morning in california. Heavy rain. 135 minute arrival delays. Thats miserable. And then los angeles because of construction right now, about an hour and a ha the two big airport delays across the country. We have a lot of Winter Weather to come though. Winter blizzard watches, bismarck to rapid city and a winter storm warning for Salt Lake City. Thats coming in tomorrow. The mountains near Salt Lake City could be 1 to 2 feet and generalized in the Northern Plains and milwaukee, green bay, areas of northern iowa. So travel forecast, areas on the east coast and see light rain going to the big cities tomorrow afternoon. Maybe minor delays and the big storm on Christmas Eve in the rockies. And then well head out into the Central Plains and watch out. Severe weather possible. Oklahoma, kansas and then a blizzard on christmas day. You wanted snow . Youre going to get way too much with blowing winds around negative 30 in the dakotas. More msnbc live and katy tur when we come back. 6. Now to breaking news on the berlin terror attack. Europes most wanted man is dead after a shootout with police in milan, italy, overnight. Nbcs Claudio Lavango in europe. How did they get this guy . Reporter in the end, what got him was a routine check. Two young policemen in a quiet and residential area, they noticed this guy was hanging around at the local train station at 3 00 in the morning. They thought that was suspicious enough and show us your id and the guy, the suspect just put his hand in and instead, pulled out a 22 caliber and shot one of the policemen in the shoulder, fortunately and the other was prompt enough to pull the gun out and shoot the suspect dead, right there and then. And found out this was the amri. And the other one is a rookie. Been in the police force and is a 29yearold. The u. S. Confirmed he was on the nofly list. Italy, obviously, arrested him years ago. Why was he not in custody in germany and we should mention this as germany just released a new video of the terror attack in berlin, correct . Reporter after he fled the tunisia, he was welcomed in and said he was a minor and probably to get the preferred protection and then pretty swift in showing his personality was aggressive and violent. He was walking in the migration center, set fire to it with a number of other migrants and for that, he was arrested. And he spent tofour years, move from prison across cystly a lyse spoke to the director of the police force who said this guy was violent, always into fightinfights with other inmates to the point he was put into solitary confinement and couldnt stay with the other people but also said, the director, that he was, he didnt show signs of fundamentalism but just very aggressive guy. So when the sentence was over, italy wanted to expel him and said, no, thank you very much. You can keep him. Thats where he disappeared from the authorities later. Who did put into the area, that there is the guy and the legal migrant, aggressive, you know, just look out for him that nobody found him, of course, until monday. Msnbcs claudio lavagno. Thank you. Now to that breaking news out of malta where a hijacking ended peacefully, all 118 people on board have been released. The libya bound jet forced to land in malta where two hijackers took control and the suspects reportedly carrying hand grenades. And cal perry joins me now. What the motivations for the hijackers were . Reporter starting to become clear these two are pro qadhafi loyalists and there has been a lot of factually fighting and all 118 passengers off and in the custody of the authorities in malta. Still unclear if they had hand grenades and heard from the maltese Prime Minister, theyre sweeping the plane. The threat was that they would blow up this airplane on the runway in malta. That obviously didnt happen. But unclear if theres exloes i ives on the plane and because of the vacuum in libya. In 2013, the Prime Minister was kidnapped in a coup