Good morning. Welcome to weekends with alex witt. President obama is in hawaii beginning the first day of a 16day vacation. He was discussing a variety of stop kwreubgz, including the sony hack. Sony is a corporation, and it, you know, suffered signalant significant damage. I am sympathetic to the concerns they faced. Having said all that, yes, i think they made a mistake. But he defended his record especially on the economy. As a country, we have every right to be proud of what we have accomplished. More jobs, more people insured, a growing economy, shrinking deficits, bustling industry, booming energy, and take any metric that you want, and americas resurgence is real. He faced a republican controlled house and senate for the first time during his term in office and he promised to Work Together with the gop. I am being absolutely sincere when i say i want to work with the new congress to get things done. To make those investments. To make sure that government is working better and smarter. We are going to disagree on some things, but there are going to be areas of agreement, and we have to be able to make that happen, and thats going to involve compromise every once in a while and what we saw in the lame duck period that perhaps the spirit of compromise may be coming to the fore. Good morning, ed. Good to see you. What do you make of the tone the president struck yesterday in the press conference . I think this is a guy is that beginning to come out of an election cycle and knows that he has two more years to go and has to find ways to cement his legacy, and he is going to speak his mind a little more and wants to remind people the successes of his administration that he would argue that the media didnt help highlight as much this past year, and is looking for ways to work for congress on things they might agree on. Yeah, and here is how you are calling it at the washington post. Obama was in command displaying little of the disconnectedness and listlessness. He was also more considerably concise in his answers than often, and he generally appeared entirely comfortable in his own skin. Do you get a sense this is the tenor, which is the type of president we will see in his final two years especially in the Republican Controlled Congress . We will see. Hopefully it will stick. He is coupling off the two weeks of the immigration announcement and his decision to cut a climate deal with china, and then, of course, the big announcement this week regarding cuba, and anybody gets a little excited right before their vacation, so you never know. But i think, you know, the white house certainly wants to start casting him as somebody who has done a lot of great things in the last few years, and is going to be a deal maker in the new year even if it means separating himself from congressional democrats. Lets talk about the issue that came up yesterday on sony. The president said the u. S. Will respond proportionally to the cyber attack. What does that mean . What might that look like . Its interesting, because this is an issue, Cyber Security that has occupied a lot of official washington over several years, but it has been hypothetical. This, i think, now, becomes the first big example of what can happen if a cyber attack succeeds, and the question is how do you respond . Do you respond in a way that is obvious or in a subtle way that only the North Koreans will pick up on, if indeed it was them, or do you do Something Else . The pentagon has a whole unit devoted to Cyber Security. And they have a Cyber Security command center, and a law that was passed in the closing days makes dh coordinate more with private industries, and this more than anything is the first example of what can happen big time if one of these happens, and the response, whatever it may be will certainly serve as an example of what might happen in the future. The white house has spent preoccupied on what was an attack on a private company, and the fact that he weighs in because of the First Amendment concerns that the movie didnt get released or what not, thats there. That shows you how potentially the u. S. Government might have to involve itself on a corporate attack. Thats an interesting quandary you put up there. He also talked about cuba. Lets listen to that. This is still a regime that represses its people. And as i said when i made the announcement, i dont anticipate overnight changes, but what i know deep in my bones is that if you have done the same thing for 50 years and nothings changed you should try Something Different if you want a different outcome. Do you think this is a legacy item for this president . If it works, yes. But what it speaks to is the original 2008 campaign themes, the idea that the United States is going to do things differently when it comes to foreign policy. If this succeeds, he can say, look, i ended the war in iraq and yes we have to go back there and we are drawing down the end of afghanistan, and i told you we would go into pakistan and get bin laden if we had to and we have done that, and he talked about reaching out to the castro regime and hes done that, and he was speaking about how he was interacting with raul castro, and he is very comfortable talking about it. I think this is one that outside of south florida and a few other areas will be seen as very popular with going there. Theres a lot of agreement with the president that perhaps after 50 years Something Else needs to be done, and everybody has realistic expectations, this wont happen over time. He will face a lot of practical resistance on capitol hill from republicans that position themselves in slots where they could put a hold on money, on his ability to nominate an ambassador and get it confirmed. He will have a practical fight on congress over this, but when you see polling in the next few weeks, republicans will agree with what he did. Thank you very much, my friend. Other news now. Australian police have a suspect in custody in the murder of eight children in a home. The eighth child was her niece. Children are examining several knives in the home. The children range in age from 14 months to 18 years. And then terrorist are focused on places of worship and schools and two hostages and the gunman died. And then ray rices fiance kissing, and they were handcuffed and being taken to ja jail. The fbi says it recovered 12 million in stolen paintings. A thief stole the painting from a Southern California home in 2008. A tip from overseas led the fbi to the suspect who is now in custody. He tried to sell the art to undercover officers. Nine of the 12 paintings stolen are recovered. Theres a reward for the three still missing works of art. We are offering a reward up to 25,000 for information that leads to an arrest and conviction. And the nine paintings recovered were from the 20th century. Lets go to the weather and the two winter storms that could make a mess of your Holiday Plans. Heavy rain may make driving difficult for houston on friday. A storm broke a record with the city receiving almost three inches of rain. And alex wallace has more on what to expect this weekend and for the holiday week. Good saturday, alex. As we head to the pacific northwest, we have moisture streaming in here with several disturbances will be moving on throughout the weekend. We are talking about some areas that could see 3 to 5 inches of rain, and so again, we are talking pretty steady rains expected here through the weekend. And then we turn our attention towards midweek and getting close to christmas, we have a storm system in the middle of the country headed towards the great lakes, and really strengthening out there, and thats going to mean big time winds and the potential for rain and snow out there as well. So lets get you into tuesday now. Upper midwest, the snow will impact us further. By Christmas Eve a. Big travel day, right . We have a wintry mix, and then all rain to deal with on the east coast. I think that will be the general trend. East coast rain, and better chance for the wintry weather, and everybody having to deal with the wind. So i would say travel problems will ensue as we heads toward the christmas all day. Its going to be a mess. Thank you, alex. Up next, checking on the ground in hawaii to see what is on the agenda for the president s first day of vacation. And then later a. Groundbreaking announcement this week brought the people of cuba a bit closer to their dreams. Goodnight. Goodnight. For those kept awake by pain. The night is anything but good. Introducing new aleve pm. The first to combine a safe sleep aid. Plus the 12 hour strength of aleve. For pain relief that can last until the am. Now you can have a good night and a. Good morning new aleve pm. For a better am. He found it cleans everything. Whefrom stove tops. D writing a book about his magic eraser. To scuffed shoes, and more. And when ran out of pages, he made a website instead. Share your tips at mycleanbook. Com i think there are real opportunities to get things done in congress. As i said before, i take Speaker Boehner and Mitch Mcconnell at their word that they would like to see things get done, and i think the American People would like to see things get done, and the question will be are we able to separate those areas out where we disagree and areas where we agree. That was president obama hoping how things could be. And him and his family arrived in hawaii for a 16day vacation. Lets get to Kristin Welker who is traveling with the president. Lets talk about the main message from the president in yesterdays news conference. Reporter well, good morning to you, alex. President obama saying he is energized and excited about the new year. This was a fired up president despite the fact that he and the democrats suffered huge losses in the mid terms and he spent time talking about his achievements, and the economy, and the Unemployment Rate is the lowest it has been in years, and he talked about finding Common Ground with republicans in the new year, with things like Corporate Tax reform, and he acknowledged the devil is in the details, and alex, you know as well as i know that its hard for washington to agree on anything. While you have both sides signaling that those are possible areas of agreement and Common Ground, its going to be tough for them to get anything done on either of the issues. The president did draw some lines in the sand, particularly on health care. He said he will not budge on legislation, and republicans signaled he tried to make changes to his health care policy, and on keystone, interesting, while he did not issue a veto threat, he didnt say keystone was developed as other projects, and so one interesting point that i think you will like, yesterdays press conference, it was the annual end of the year press conference, and it was the First Time Ever that the president only called on women. So all women correspondents got called on. We have a couple weeks of vacation for the president. What does he have on his agenda . A lot on the agenda when he comes back. He Just Announced the immigration executive action. His top officials are going to spend a lot of time trying to implement and educating people haorbgs , who is eligible and who is not and those that are have the proper paperwork they need to sign up, and then he announced a major shift in the u. S. Policy toward cuba, so there will be a lot of focus on implementing that, and setting up an embassy in havanna, and he wants to see congress rescind the embargo, and in the wake of ferguson and staten island, the president vowing to try and improve relations between the Police Department and the community. Thank you very much. North korea today is calling for a joint investigation into the hack. They remain on the defensive after the white house made it clear that the industry cannot be bullied by north korea. We cannot have a society in which some dictator someplace can start imposing censorship here in the United States, or even worse, imagine if producers and distributors and others start engaging in self censorship because they dont want to offend the sensibilities of somebody whose sensibilities probably need to be offended. Sony is firing back, and north korea is denying that it was behind the hacking. Good morning, alex. Sony responding not just to the president s remarks but to a lot of the criticism it has been receiving this week and all of it evolved around the movie the interview. Sony hopes anybody that wants to watch the movie will get the opportunity to do so but the question is how to make that happen. What started as a hollywood hack has grown far bigger than the big screen. This is the secretary of the communication of north korea. And now sony stepping into the spotlight. We have not caved. We have not given in. We have persevered and not backed down. Fplt sony argues they had no choice but to pull the interview after theater chains refused to screen it. We have to feel like this is a genuine emergency. This is the population of cyber war. And clooney said nobody stood up and took the stand. Even after sony executives received a message that appears to be from the cyber attackers demanding the studio wipe all traces of the film off the internet, sony insists they want the interview to go public. They need to decide how they can get it out there. They are looking at what video on demand platforms it could use to distribute the films, and judd tweeting it started as a goofy movie and now people will see it and then discuss why its okay to let people control and starve its people. Maybe turning the spotlight on the hackers themselves. The studio will recover, and remember the studio is also facing four class action lawsuits. Okay, thank you so much for that. So its a controversy, everybody. Should sony have pulled the interview from theaters . Talk to me on twitter and i will read some of the tweets throughout the day. And then answers in todays big money headlines next. So,as my personal financial psychic, im sure you know what this meeting is about. Yes, a raise. Im letting you go. I knew that. You see, this is my amerivest managed. Balances. No. Portfolio. And if doesnt perform well for two consecutive gold. Quarters. Quarters. Yup. Then amerivest gives me back their advisory. Stocks. Fees. Fees. Fees for those quarters. Yeah. So, im confident im in good hands. For all the confidence you need. Td ameritrade. You got this. Philosophy is, reynolds . No. Not exactly. To attain success, one must project success. Thats why we use fedex one rate®. Their flat rate shipping. Exactly. It makes us look topnotch but we know its affordable. garage door opening sighs honey, havent i asked you to please use the. We dont have a reception entrance. Ship a pak via Fedex Express saver® for as low as 7. 50. Dave, im sorry to interrupt. I gotta take a sick day tomorrow. Dads dont take sick days, dads take nyquil. The nighttime, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, fever, best sleep with a cold, medicine. Suddenly youre a mouthbreather. Well, put on a breathe right strip and instantly open your nose up to 38 more than cold medicines alone. So you can breathe and sleep. Shut your mouth and sleep right. Breathe right. You dont need to think about the energy that makes our lives possible. Because we do. Were exxonmobil and powering the world responsibly is our job. Because boiling an egg. Isnt as simple as just boiling an egg. Life takes energy. Energy lives here. Thats a very popular sight outside of our front door here. The getaway and big loss and getting physical, and joining he to break it down, regina lewis. Lets start with the getaway and the forecast for holiday travel. How is it looking . Aaa expecting a Record Number of holiday travelers. About 100 million in total, and 90 will travel by car so low gas prices helpful there and those traveling by air are going to run into increased hotel and rental car fees. The fact that christmas and new years both fall on thursdays, also that helps so if you go away for one holiday or the other it gives people more time to work with. A big week. Lets talk about the fallout about the hacking of Sony Pictures. What is the economic fallout to pull the plug on the interview. Variety magazine estimated the cost at somewhere between 75 million to 100 million. It took 44 million to produce the film and 30 million to market it. So that is significant, and thats before you get into class action lawsuits. I will say this, on the up side, clearly they have a premium video demand hit on their hands who is not going to watch it, and its how are they going to roll it out and who is going to take the risk . And lets get to getting physical and what some believe as a blackberry smart move. They are relaunching the blackberry classic. It has the keyboard which is significantly different than android and iphone touch screen phones. Its going to be somebody that really cares about security and with the back drop of the sony story that could be more people. What has happened is a lot of corporate i. T. Departments based on demand switched to apple and android, and will they switch back . Will they support this platform . That remains to be seen. They can still be profitable with a mere 1 of the smartphone market. Good to see you and happy holidays. Thank you so much. Coming up, mail deliveries are about to get much slower . What the Postal Service is forced to do that should affect all of us. For practically just your signature, you could drive home for the holidays in a germanengineered volkswagen. Like the sporty, advanced new jetta. And the 2015 motor trend car of the year allnew golf. If youre wishing for a new volkswagen this season. Just about all you need is a finely tuned. Pen. Get zero due at signing, zero down, zero deposit, and zero first months payment on select new volkswagen models. I was out for a bike ride. I didnt think id have a heart attack. But i did. Im mike, and im very much alive. Now my doctor recommends a bayer aspirin regimen to help prevent another heart attack. Be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. Wow [ narrator ] on a mission to get richard to his campbells c