Sometimes are going to disadvantage democrats. But the truth of the matter is that if we have a strong message, if were speaking to what the American People care about, typically the popular vote and the Electoral College vote will align. And i guess part of my overall message here as i leave for the holidays is that if we look for one explanation or one Silver Bullet or one easy fix for our politics, then were probably going to be disappointed. There are just a lot of in whats happened, not just over the last few months but over the last decade that has made both politics and governance more challenging. And i think everybodys raised legitimate questions and legitimate concerns. I do hope that we all just take some time, take a breath. This is certainly what im going to advise democrats. To just reflect a little bit more about how can we get to a place where people are focused on working together based on at least some common set of facts, how can we have a conversation about policy that doesnt demon identifies each other. How can we channel what i think is the basic decency and goodness of the American People so it reflects itself in our politics as opposed to it being so polarized and so nasty that in some cases you have voters and elected officials who have more confidence and faith than a foreign adversary than they have in their neighbors. You know . And those go to some bigger issues. You know, how is it that we have some voters or some elected officials who think that Michelle ObamasHealthy Eating initiative and School Nutrition program is a greater threat to democracy than our government going after the press if theyre issuing a story they dont like. All right . I mean thats thats an issue that i think weve got to wrestle with. And we will. People have asked me how you feel after the election and so forth. I say, well, look. This is a clarifying moment. Its a useful reminder that voting counts, politics counts, what the president elect is going to be doing is going to be very different than what i was doing. And i think people will be able to compare and contrast and make judgments about what works for the American People. And i hope progress weve made that what the president elect is proposing works. What i can say with confidence is that what weve done works. That i can prove. I can show you where we were in 2008, and i can show you where we are now, and you cant argue that were not better off. We are. And for that, i thank the American People, and more importantly, i thank well not more importantly. As importantly, i was going to say josh earnest for doing such a great job. For that, i thank the American People. I thank the men and women in uniform who serve. I havent gotten to the point yet where ive been overly sentimental. I t my last Christmas Party photo line. Many of you participated in those. Theyre pretty long. Right at the end of the line, the president S Marine Corps band comes in. Those who have been performing. And i take a picture with them. And it was last time that i was going to take a picture with my marine corps men after an event. I got i got a little choked up. I was in front of marines so i had to like tamp it down. But it was just one small example of all the people who have contributed to our success. Im responsible for where weve screwed up the successes widely shared with all the amazing people who have been part of this administration. Okay . Thank you, everybody. President obama reflective there as he approaches the last month and presidency, finishing what will be his longest news conferenc of his presidency. And as we expected, a lot of the questions having to do with the question of russian hacking. The president noting that the uniform assessment of the u. S. Government is that the russians were responsible for the hack of the dnc. I want to go now to chuck todd, nbc news political director and moderator of meet the press. Chuck, he walked a fine line here of confirming that the russian hack, but not necessarily suggesting what the intent was. It seemed to me that his intent today was to try to deescalate the partisanship around this conclusion and try to see if he could use a to toneddown reasoned way of maybe convincing president elect. If hes skeptical, other republicans if theyre skeptical, take a step back, because he went out of his way to separate the Election Results from what russia did. But i tell you, i was struck by he was thought, about how forthright, how much sense of urgency there was in early on in letting the country know, letting people know about the russian hack, sort of almost deflected the criticism a little bit, put it on the news media, saying the news media with a is more obsessed with the substance of whats being leaked rather than the story itself. Look, at the end there, lester, i was struck hes clearly pained about how hes leaving. You can see it. Hes pained about the political climate. Hes pained about this idea that there is an agreed upon set of facts that the demonization you can just it was there was more rawness, i thought, at the very end of that press conference. Wasnt whimsical. But almost was obviously very reflective. But he seemed i cant put my finger on it but just very, very upset about how hes having to exit. All right. And the president s goodbye there as will take their annual vacation next in hawaii. Of course, we have been reporting exclusively on the russian connection. Well have more the cynthia mcfaddens reporting tonight on nbc nightly news. Ill see you then. For now,news. For now, im lester holt. Nbc news, new york. Right now at 4 00, tracking chances for freezing rain and ice, folks. And listen up. There is a new Winter Weather advisory. It was just issued. Our storm team 4 meteorologist doug kammerer, Amelia Draper, theyre going to explain what all that means. Jim and i are standing outside on the weather deck. I cant feel my face. How about you . And wendys wearing flipflops. I just had a pedicure. Thank you for joining us. We hope youre warm and cozy. Were out here on the weather d that theres really no wind. It is cold, as you can see on the thermometer. About 30 degrees right now, but folks. Overnight, this cold weather is no joke, its going to get icy. Its going to get dicy. Lets go inside to doug and amelia for the latest. We continue to track that right now. Thanks, by the way, for you going outside instead of us. No problem. You owe us. We appreciate that. Its extremely cold. The coldest temperatures this morning we have woken up to since 2008 in the month of december. At 18 degrees. Thats going to cause a problem in the morning. Were going to see freezing rain moving in as early as 2 00 a. M. , but it looks like it might hold off until 5 00, 6 00 a. M. The entire area under some kind of advisory. You see the arctic air in place. 19 in d. C. 4 in pittsburgh. The cold air here. We have seen clouds all day long, and were tracking, see this snow flurry, this band of were tracking that. Its extremely dry. Were not going to see much in the atmosphere anytime soon until tomorrow morning. Because of that with the cold air and the next system moving in, we have advisories. In the purple, Winter Weather adviso advisories. Thats issued when we have snow, sleet, or phrasing rain. Down to the south, just freezing rain. And you do not need much. The only thing you need is a tiny bit of ice to get a freezing rain advisory. Thats what we have down to the south. We think those are the areas that are going to see a little bit. A bigger impact to the north. And roads will be a problem. Amelia and i have been looking at this all day and she has more on the roadways tomorrow. So many folks with plans for saturday morning. You might want to avoid travel if at all possible in the Early Morning hours. Were going to see that change over by the late Morning Hours from freezing rain to plain rain. Take a look at your road forecast. I think neighborhoods, secondary roads going to have the biggest impact. Icy conditions. On the main roads, i think theyreng reduce your speed. You should be okay. Areas like the beltway, and as doug was saying, south of d. C. Its looking mainly dry. Fredericksburg, charlottesville, might not get a drop. 7 00 a. M. , ice. By 11 00 a. M. , just wet roads, and more rain in the forecast on sunday, but no freezing rain on sunday. Thats because temperatures soar to the 60s early on sunday morning, but they come crashing right back down. Well have it for you throughout the afternoon into 7 00 tonight. Stay with us. Well be in the storm center. Im Meagan Fitzgerald in Silver Spring. I can tell you the freezing cold temperatures certainly made it challenging for firefighters who rushed to this home here on sea island court, right near New Hampshire avenue, early this morning. Investigators say the homeowners 19yearold daughter caused the fire. Shes been charged with arson. It was around 1 00 this morning when firefighters got the told flames were already shooting through the roof. Montgomery county firefighters say the homeowner tried to extinguish the fire himself but it quickly got out of control. But pete, with the Montgomery County fire and rescue said the delay in calling 911 mixed with the cold weather created a challenging situation for crews on scene. The equipment gets stiff, the ladders are hard to operate. Tools get stiff, clothing gets wet and freezes up. It was difficult because of the weather and heavy fire volume, they called for a second alarm which brought about 75 firefighters to the scene. It took 30 to 45 minutes to knock down the bulk of the fire. Fire officials tell us no one was injured but this house is a total loss for this family just a couple days before christmas. We had an opportunity to speak to the homeowner and coming up at 5 00, youll hear what he says he did to try to extinguish the flames that likely his house. Back to you. Meagan fitzgerald, thank you. The man indicted for firing an Assault Rifle inside a d. C. Pizza restaurant will be held without bond until his trial. Edgar welch was in federal court this morning for a detention hearing. News 4s Mark Segraves was in court, too. Reporter edgar welch is now facing 35 years in prison. He was arraigned this morning on three charges. Welch has entered a plea of not guilty on all of those charges, but he did tell the judge through his attorney that he no longer wants to be released from jail. Hell stay there until his next hearing in early january. His attorney did tell the judge shes upset prosecutors didnt inform her about the additional charges. She learned about it from the press. Speaking of the press, what started out with a fake news report now has his defense attorney upset about a real news report. The fact that the New York Times is able to interview him in jail. Reporting fromor 4. And breaking right now, at 4 00, u. S. Officials are telling nbc news the fbi is now supporting the cias assessment that russia hacked our president ial election in part to help donald trump. This is a big change from what the fbi said earlier this week. Then, the fbi agreed that russia interfered with the president ial election, but they did not say that the motive was to help the gop nominee. During a News Conference, president obama said the u. S. Will retaliate against russia for its actions during that election. And during that News Conference, president obama boasted about his administrations achievements at home and abroad, but he was bombarded with questions about russia. Scott mcfarland at the live desk with the president s response. Good afternoon. The president had a long list of things he wanted to talk about, but reporters kept coming back to russia and its nrltference in the u. S. President ial election. The president said his administration was right in not te election that russia hacked in order to help gop nominee donald trump. The president said it was important to avoid interjecting politics into a very delicate intelligence investigation. In this hyperpartisan atmosphere, at a time when my primary concern was making sure that the integrity of the election process was not in any way damaged, at a time when anything that was said by me or anybody in the white house would immediately be seen through a partisan lens. I wanted to make sure that everybody understood we were playing this thing straight. President elect donald trump is questioning the conclusion that russia hacked the dnc to help him. He and his team have accused the Obama Administration and democrats of leaking the information about russia to damage trumps legitimacy as u. S. President. At the live with his administration winding down, president obamas about to leave for his final vacation in office. Good way to escape this cold. The first family is bound for hawaii, but first, the president met with reporters this afternoon in his final News Conference. You may have seen, of 2016. Edward lawrence monitored that for us. He joins us now from capitol hill. It was a long one. The president says that hes responsible for where his administration scre the successes are shared. He wanted to talk more about his legacy, but had to address russia and the hacking incidents before the election. Good afternoon. In his last News Conference of the year, president obama says russian hacking contributed to an atmosphere that got donald trump elected. But stopped short of saying it was the reason republicans won. Mr. Obama adds he warned russian president Vladimir Putin directly. Tell him to cut it out, there could be serious consequences if he didnt. In fact, we did not see further tampering of the election process. New tonight, the cia says it has agreement from the fbi and director of National Intelligence that the russians worked to help get trump elected. President obama says the u. S. Will retaliate at the time and place of its choosing. Our goal continues to be to send a clear message to russia or others not to do this to us because we can do stuff to president elect trump on twitter reminded voters that his election was a movement, not the result of russian hacking. Republicans on trumps Transition Team say this is just sour grapes by democrats because if president obama was really worried about russia, he would have done something during the campaign. We won fair and square. Even if they try to hack our system or do something to influence the election, we won anyway. And it didt really have an impact. Nbc news says russian leadererize challenging the cia and president obama calling on them to reveal the information russia hacked emails. And Hillary Clinton told donors last night that theres a direct line between the russian president s anger towards her and standing up for her standing up to him, and his actions during this campaign cycle. Reporting live on capitol hill, edward lawrence. Thank you. We have some wicked weather heading our way, going to be very cold and some freezing rain, doug. In parts of the area, and areas to the north of us. Much less of a concern to the south. Right in between, you have the metro area. Isnt that always the case around here . The metro area always on the dividing line between the north and west and areas down to the south and east. Lets take a look and show you what were dealing with. Cloud cover and temperatures held down all day because of the clouds. We told you highs today only in the upper 20s. Thats where we are now, 27 degrees. Winds out of the south at 8 miles per hour. A very cold afrnoon. One of the coldest decembers we are seen in quite some time. December days, that is. 22, the current temperature in martinsburg. 23, gaithersburg. 25 at dulles. You see the air is cold enough so that anything falling out of the sky in the next 12 hours or so is going to fall and freeze. Thats the key here. And notice the windchills down to 15 in gaithersburg. 19 in d. C. The winds havent been as big factor today, but still, when they blow even 10 miles per hour, it gives us the windchill. Heres what were watching. Nothing on the want to take you on a wider Vantage Point and show you what were dealing with. Not a whole lot. Snow back toward chicago, but notice this line of snow, thats one band. Another band starting, and the storm itself starting to come together back toward the middle part of the country. Really not even together yet, and when we get it together until it gets here early tomorrow morning. I want to show you the advisory. In the purple, thats a Winter Weather advisory. In the pink, a freezing rain advisory. Freezing rain advisory is issued when we think well have any freezing rain on surfaces. It could come down, freeze, thats a freezing rain advisory. Doesnt take a lot to get that as visery. Thats what we have over towards fredericksburg, down towards charlottesville. Not too concerned about this area. More concerned about areas to the north. First off, you know well see all of this change to rain quickly tomorrow, but heres future weather. Timing it out for us. Cloud cover around the area, light snow probably wont hit the ground, but heres 6 00 a. M. Notice the extent of the freezing rain. Winchester, fredericksburg, thats 6 00 a. M. Changing quickly by 9 00 to rain in northern parts of virginia but a pocket to the north and west where we could see problems. This is where i think well have the best chance to see the problems. Very icy, winchester, leesburg, frederick, Montgomery County, Howard County and points to the north. D. C. , a little problem early tomorrow morning. Isolated to the south, but not expecting much as far as thats concerned. Coming up in the next couple days, we soar to 63 early on sunday and come right back down next week, not bad at all. We have seen a lot of weather alert days lately.