have thrown their hats into the ring. chuck schumer and bernie sanders have thrown support behind ellison. we have idea to hear of hispanic or lateen owes signal their interest for the job. bottom line, the party was not prepared for any of this at all. they need a game plan and need one fast. joining me now is likely going to be one of the people. it s congressman javier basera from the house democratic caucus. great to see you. great to be with you. let me start with the protests of the streets. is this plenty of democratic leaders said understand the protest, but don t do the violence. is this the time to protest or not? what is your message to the protesters? civic participation and restrictions for those who try to manipulate currency to get an advantage against the u.s.? those are things if he works on it, you want to work with him? we were talking about it way before donald trump. he will find democratic support in that direction, but if he wants to tell an immigrant family you can t stay in this country and tell a judge because of his heritage that he can t be a good judge, he will have someone fighting against him. i want to read you something harry reid wrote. it s tough. the election of donald trump is emboldened the forces of bigotry and hate. watching white nationalistings celebrate and others cry tears of fear does not feel like america. a sexual predator who lost the pop lawyer vote and fuelled his campaign with bigotry and hate. harsh words in there. i know many democrats believe everything that he said in there and she feeding that passion. heritage, you can t be a good judge. we have to be ready to stand up. that anxiety that was expressed in this vote is where we have to as democrats convey to the families, got your back. it looks like there is a rush to endorse keith ellison. those are three pretty powerful names to get behind. it s almost a coronation. is it? so did the others have you heard. i don t think we are going to stop. they voted for democrats and made it clear. we look like the rest of america. the party will reflect that very well. there is a danger. it turns out for all america. what do you say to that. we have their back as well. we have to prove to them. donald trump follows through and makes sure that jobs are coming back from joefr seas. we have been talking about that for a long time. i would love to hear how he was going to look to do that, but they fought laws that made sure we can keep jobs in america. we worked to make sure that rural america has the support it needs making sure we have affordable health care and not getting rid of something they benefitted from. president-elect trump was asked about obamacare and talked upkeeping preexisting conditions and keeping kids on health care. does that make you feel a little better? it makes it clear that what he said as candidate he can no longer say as president-elect. there are great candidates out there right now. that s not a no. i am not looking to run. for recruited? that was the asked that was asked about vice presidency. california governor. that s closer to no. thanks for coming in. certainly no shortage of ideas in the democratic party and how to right the ship. here s howard dean making his pitch to run the dnc earlier today on msnbc with my colleague. we have a lot of work to do in the democratic party. my plan is to reach out to young people. they are devastated by the loss and now understands that politics matters. i like keith ellison a lot. he s a good guy. you cannot do this job and sit in a political office at the same time. it s not possible. we have seen what happens. debbie wassermann schultz was not the only one to do this. this is more than a full time job and we have to rebuild of what has been a tragedy for the democratic party, but perhaps for the country. we don t know. this is a big rebuilding job and i like keith. i would be happy to help and support him, but not if he is going to sit in congress. a large number of dnc members believe that. there you go. let s bring in the panel. the former chairman, michael steel. washington post fix boss and political analyst and the washington post deputy ruth marcus. hello all. michael steel, you run for a chairmanship before. you know what it s like. it s not one on cable. explain how you win. it is on tarmacs and in board rooms and barns. wherever you find your committee men and women. you have to go to them. we rented a plane and erp on commercial flights. to run for chairman is at least a 50 to $60,000 proposition. you have to raise money for it and get the grass roots and knock on doors and call people. it s small for voters. here s the thing. 168 for the republicans and four times that. what a surprise. it seems like the field will get big in a hurry. that s right. i heard about it. you heard them say there are other good people if you run. he could be one of them. you heard his name, a younger up and coming star in the democratic party as well. martin o malley has thrown his name in the ring. we will see more. it s an interesting thing because this always happens when you lose an election and particularly when you think you will win as a party. there are several camps that diagnose what you need to do differently. this is the smartest political person not in the white house. progressive. a person of color. it s an interesting argument because you look at where they lost. maybe you say those states are gone in the future, but they lost parts of pennsylvania and they lost parts of michigan and ohio. i could make a strong case for someone like joe biden with that profile. i will give you a name. the lone wolf screaming about that. he is a grown up and a governor. he is a veteran of this administration. he knows rural america. he has been talking about opioid abuse. he was there to fix the mecha c mechani mechanics. i would argue a lot of people. ed you to be a spokesperson and a mechanic. they wanted you out in public. they didn t want that. that s different. they don t know what the committee members want. if i could offer up a word of caution. the base is making it clear. i would not assume that because you label a congressman a progressive that that s where progressives in california and florida and progressives elsewhere have their head. they need to be careful because they can do it before it launches. democrat i republican, across the board. they are about the grass roots. they are about something different than what you see in washington. this is a power vacuum that 72 hours ago. no one thought they were going to exist. it s like a black hole. the opportunity that now exists. let s assume obama is on the stage. there is a lot of opportunity there. that s why you will see more people. wait a minute. now is the time. it s so unexpected. everybody will have so many other kids to scramble after. this is the only that is left. i had an e-mail from a reader who said please can you get michelle obama to run for it? she is not going to do dnc chair. as if. i want to play for you, i get what you are saying about washington. elizabeth warren is popular with the base. people have a right to be angry. angry that wages have been stagnant for a generation. angry that washington eagerly protects the tax breaks for billionaires while it refuses to raise the minimum wage. angry that washington pushes big corporate interests in trade deals. angry that washington tilts the playing field for giant corporations. angry that working people are in debt. my producer listened to that and he said sounds like a progressive trump. channel in anger. we have been talking throughout the campaign that the thing that hillary clinton has never been able to be and cannot be is a pop lift when that s what people were looking for. that s no secret. i thought donald trump had done and said things image-wise that would make him unsatisfactory as an alternative, but she was not a good fit not only for the democratic primary, but for a general electorate. that is angry. the speech is fascinating. she identifies specific areas of potential agreement for president trump. it will be interesting to so how they decided to work with him. a programming note, michael moore will join us at 8:00 p.m. eastern on to discuss the country s reaction to the election and to the protest movements. coming up, the one fact that should have told us all along that donald trump would win the election. how did we miss it? all members are formed into common service. veterans day often follows a hard fought political campaign. the government you fought for. it often lays buried in disagreements across the nation. the american instinct has never been to find isolation in opposite corners. it is to find strength in the common creed. to forge unity from our great diversity. if something doesn t seem right, so everyone comes home safely. because safety is never being satisfied. and always working to be better. inexperienced and not having the right temperament and some were attacked for both. you know what else? each got the support of blue collar voters, working class voters over candidates with more experience and the deeper resumes. think about it. carey, clinton. my gosh. when folks are living paycheck to paycheck, they want something better than now and they gravitate to something different. it s simple in hindsight and we forget the power of the changed candidate and changed message and inexperience ends up being the asset to those voters. let me bring in the next guest. chris clay is policy editor for dtn s progressive farmer. he is a journalist that covers and lives in rural america. you had a powerful analysis of what happened the trump-pence signs or the hillary for prison 2016 signs. there were not a clinton cane signs. explain why hillary clinton was so unpopular in rural america and whether there was anything she could have done about it. there were so many factors with hillary. he was unable in iowa to beat president obama in 2008. she barely scratched out a victory over bernie sanders in the caucuses and that was contested. they had resentment or unwillingness to embrace her. she was not able to catch on and communicate with your average rural blue collar worker or farmer. what moved the obama voting iowan in some of those farm communities in northeast iowa, traditional democratic area, i can t believe the counties that flipped. why did these obama voters become trump voters? in 2012 you had really strong farm economy at that point. farmland prices were really strong. farm commodity prices were good. right now commodity prices have continued to slip. now you are seeing actually the federal reserve start to stress that the farmers are now tight on working cash and they are going to the lenders more. the farmers themselves are much more stressed. the counties that obama won, they had a lot of dairy farmers up there and a lot of very commodity producers and overall they were not as willing to give another chance to a democrat this time around. they want to throw you a few questions. tell us what attracted. you have given us a wonderful vision of what the concerns were. what was the attraction of donald trump? change in one sense. there was also a belief among some people that he will be able to make changes to these trade agreements. i think that might be tough. we export a lot of commodities under nafta right now. it might be more difficult to actually find markets in mexico and canada that are not already accepting our crops and wheat and dairy products and things like that. but also just the regulatory issues. that was something that a lot of people didn t dmee on. there is a rule under the epa called the waters of the u.s. every farm group in the country. liberal and conservative. they have hammered on the issue. they want to get rid of it. they are terrified of it. if you read the rule, it is mind-numbing what it does. clinton supported it. trump continued to hammer he was going to get rid of the rule from day one. that was a key point. they believe that the regulatory yolk will be lifted off of them and as far as farmers were correspond, that drove them in a big way. in addition to the economic narrative, how did the social narrative play out? with the descriptions of the rural america and the talk about deplorables and the language that sort of cropped up in this election, how did that play in effect the thinking of farmers and people, middle class workers in your area? it s difficult because honestly a lot of farmers and rural people really gravitate towards conservative media. they were maybe not hearing so much or paying as close attention to trump s rhetoric. there might have been a belief that they didn t take trump literally and took him seriously. it was a phrase i had heard used once. they also heard media that constantly hammered on clinton s trustworthiness. among e van gel kals, there was a strong belief and christianity and faith has been lost in the country. i had the same conversation with a man from my church a few weeks ago and he was really hammering on that point that he did not believe that the democrats put much emphasis on god and christianity any longer. i know that s not the case, but that is a perception. chris? a lot of the analysis, particularly among democrats and liberal democrats said it was all about race. donald trump appealed to our darker natures, particularly in some of these more rural communities. you offered a more nuanced take about it. can you how much of people you talked to in your reporting, how much did race come up if at all. it may not have because people are uncomfortable to talk about it, but is it a factor if not the factor? i think immigration issue is a huge factor in rural america. people are concerned they are losing their culture somewhat. they are uncomfortable around seeing increasing minorities in particular areas that don t speak their language. don t go to the same churches they grew up with. those kinds of things. it was a concern, but you take a look at iowa. barack obama won iowa twice. hillary clinton got clobbered in rural iowa. it wasn t that she lost the counties i but by such a wide margin. it couldn t have been race because these upper midwest states supported obama twice and turned away from clinton in droves. i have to leave it there. we have about 17 more questions for you. i have a feeling that hopefully you will be a familiar face to our viewers. thank you for having me. thank you for having me. you guys are stuck. anyway. donald trump s transition team is in transition. a big name is out and a new big name is back in. stay with us. see ya next year. this season, start a new tradition. experience the power of infiniti now, with leases starting at $319 a month. infiniti. empower the drive. that s it from cnbc first in business worldwide. free, be fr cause there s a million things to be you know that there are and if you want to be me, be me and if you want to be you, be you cause there s a million things to do you know that there are in the fast moving world of the transition, chris christie is out and mike pence is in. the transition team does now include three of donald trump s children and his son in law. what may be a related note to staffing at the trump white house, we learned that trump s former campaign manager and still an on again off again personal adviser resigned officially from his job at cnn. the new team includes my next guest, congressman chris collins, the first member of congress to endorse donald trump. welcome back and congratulations. chuck, it has been a whirl wind and before we start, i want to thank the veterans today on veterans day for their service to the country and tell you how honored i was to present five gold medals to world war ii tus keegee air men. that are is amazing. any day you get to spend with a world war ii veteran, you need to cherish. they have unbelievable stories. let me start with your role. can you explain what your is what what advise you are being asked to give? i will be a member on executive council along with donald s kids and ivanka s husband and great other members. it s going to be a job of vetting the candidates for the 4,000 or so positions. 350 in the west wing. we will see when the new executive director, how we divvy that out. none of that has been detailed. we put this together today. when we are back monday in d.c., we will detail more of it out. i m honored to being asked to serve on this council. one of the challenges i feel like you will face is similar to what barack obama faced when he got here. he ran as an outsider and promised that you weren t going to see the same types of people. he didn t use the phrase drain the swamp, but it was implied with turn the page. donald trump used drain the swamp. there are only so many people with the right amount of experience to do these jobs. how to you make sure that you are bringing in people that aren t just coming from the other side and the rules you hope will prevend that oh, geez it s just the republicans and they are in charge and vice-versa? less regulation and getting back to the federal government and doing what it should, but relying on the states and the tenth amendment to do the rest. the division starts with president-elect trump. we get into the cabinet officials and people believe in smaller government and less regulations. that s a mantra that we have. you are going to need institutional knowledge. no question. we just need to make sure that those bringing in the institutional knowledge that served in various roles also understand less regulations. i do believe i will work. you can marry those two, but it starts with a strong division that everyone adheres to. i was struck by a comment that trent lott made. he wants to drain the swamp and some of them have to help us navigate his way in and out of the swamp. the point that was lobbyists and the community that are a necessary evil. what s your view on that? we are talking about the folks that are doing the nuts and bolts of keeping our government running. knowing that we have a different vision and we need the skill sets. they will have to understand that it s a smaller government, less regulation and understanding where the federal government starts and stops and state s rights starts and stops. i don t think we need any lobbyists coming in. would you propose anybody who has been a registered lobbyist that shouldn t be able to serve in the trump cabinet? i never go to extremes like that, but in vetting we have to know where their values are and what the focus is. it ams can back to the vision of smaller government and less regulation and state s rights and clearly what donald trump talked about whether it s n an all of the above policy or when we replace obamacare and making sure we don t disadvantage everyday americans and we won t. it s a monumental task that i m up to and others are as well. we will have more time to do that. congressman chris collins, thanks for coming on. always good to talk with you. you too. have a great day. on meet the press, i will talk to one of the key figures who helped make donald trump president and a fresh perspective on what went so wrong for hillary clinton and the democrats. why i m already obsessed with the next big election fight. student. if you re totally blind, you may also be struggling with non-24. calling 844-844-2424. or visit my24info.com. good news democrats got on tuesday. what? recent election cycles have followed this pattern. democrats win wednesday and republicans win everything else. the party out of power usually does. while democrats win the white house, the republicans have wiped out the democratic party on the state and local level. now the situation that gives the democrats a chance could be reversed and it could happen in 2018 which might be the perfect year for the democrats to win statehouses, win a few legislatures, replenish the system, and don t forget governorships f. they have success in 2018, suddenly that s the year that state legislatures will be drawing congressional districts after the 2020 census. they will be there in 2021 if they win. if you are looking for lemonade after all these lemons, that s the lemonade that the democrats have if they want to take over the house in the next decade. very little turned out right on tuesday, but the seeds have been sewn for the come back that serves as a 2022 opportunity. we will be back. ed. [beeping] take on any galaxy with a car that could stop for you. simulation complete. the new nissan rogue. rogue one: a star wars story. in theaters december 16th. protesting. and i think there s a lot of unhappiness in the country and it s probably good to let that out. i think where it goes too far is, obviously, in violence, and it also goes too far when you talk about calling for his impeachment. that s just as wrong as it would be, to talk about hillary clinton s impeachment. well, it was just as bad when jason chaffetz was talking about ridiculous then and progressives attacked it. it s ridiculous now and conservatives are yeah, he was elected. a lot of people, myself included, were not happy with that outcome, but it is the democratic outcome. popular vote notwithstanding. we solve our problems in america through elections. beauty of the ballot box. he won. and you don t have to like that, but he won. people say, well, he didn t win the popular vote, but that s not how the system works. those aren t the rules. somebody made a great point, i saw on twitter, like saying, well, we got the most hits in baseball, so we won. well, we don t do it on hits. my ap, john, said it better. he said, yeah, one team can hit five home runs and the other team can hit two, but if all theirs are solo and the others are five-run homers, you lose. i m with ruth. part to have democracy is we respect the result and we respect the rights of people to say, you know what, i want to voice my concern with that. the thing that i don t like about it is the attempt to de-legitimatize trump. simply because you don t believe him doesn t mean that the 59 million people who voted for him were wrong or it s rigged in some way. he won! you have the right to protest. civilly, without violence. but it doesn t michael, what s donald trump s responsibility here? because, he look, he blew it last night. obviously, he woke up and realized self-corrected. self-corrected! corrected, one way or another. it got corrected. it got corrected. and you know, you know, basically, crisis averted what could have been his first crisis, averted. but it is on him to calm the water, whether he likes it or not. my take on that is very simple. you re president and a lot of stuff is going to be coming. incoming every day. it s not personal. it s your job. and you cannot react the way you did initially and i think someone or the at least he did realize that. i think for donald trump, what he has an opportunity to do now, he s the first president in a long time to be elected the unencan you remembune unencumber unencumbered. he s not beholden to the democrats or the republicans. so he in my view can create an opportunity for pragmatic populism, where he can go out into the country and put together the deals that makes america great again, but more importantly, addresses issues like we see on the streets right now and also addresses issues that go to the economic heart of the country. hey, i want to bring up something. we didn t get a chance to sort of debrief after talking with chris clayton. there was one other point. chris clayton makes on my podcast, 1947, ding ding, be sure to download it. and subscribe. there you go. he said, the way we in the media analyzed the policies and talked about the split between college-educated whites and noncollege-educated whites. get what america heard when we did that? dumb. the smart people and the dumb people. just because you didn t go to college doesn t make you dumb. and clinically, when we would describe it, when i would describe it, it was an academic, clinical but that s not how it was taken. i ve been guilty of this. i said, i think it was on a different network, i described uneducated voters you know what, they re plenty educated. that was wrong. and i wanted to take this to a responsibility that the president-elect has. he has said a lot of things that were hurtful to people. they are protesting in the streets in a way that they wouldn t have protest romney, that they didn t protest president bush after he settled. he needs to be aware of that. i m sorry. time cop! sorry! guess what, we can talk about it in ten seconds while we throw to break. thank you, michael, chris, and ruth. wonderful comments, ruth. thank you for saying those, as well. we ll be right back.
destruction. this is threatening a feud between the top agencies and the president-elect white house. we re getting phew reaction from moscow. we ll get to that in a moment. let s bring in eugene scott and tom lobianco. good morning. the strategy behind this statement. just three sentences. unsigned. what what is the the calculation here from the trump folks? it s a continuation of donald trump s message during the campaign that he believes he knows more than the intelligence community. that s a hard sell to make at this point, given that we know he only is getting about once a week president daily briefs gnat would give him more information about national security globally. that statement is inaccurate. these are not the same people that were heading the departments when the bush administration was in place. this is new information and new revelations about what is happening abroad. tom, i talk t about the possibility that this would cause a feud between the intelligence community and the incoming trump white house. these are the career folks. could there be some real life and death important consequence to this what looks to be the beginning of a feud? sure. well, it s up to the president to decide, you know, who he wants to listen to. among his advisers. among the executive branch. you know, it was fascinated we re talking about russia meddling in the former soviet union. by all accounts, putin, a former kgb agent, right, involved here. all right in our election. this is absolutely shocking. what trump decides to do with it is up to him. but by all accounts, there s been some level of impact here. as eugene pointed out this is not the same people who made the fuel review of russia s involvement or interference in the election. even if something is found, that may be where it ends. thank you both. thank you. we re getting reaction from the kremlin this morning. jill doherty. former cnn moscow bureau chief joining us live. jill, always good to see you. i understand you received a text there the kremlin spokesman dmitri pet kof. what did he say? what the russians have beeen saying all along, essentially. prove it. he says they re not new conclusions. seems like naked blaming. no evidence to be based on. he says it looks to be an attempt to influence the president-elect with a certain negative image of our country. the foreign minister said the same thing. we the russians have asked for details from the americans that they won t provide. again, where is the evidence? the difficulty here, as a lot of people know, is that the united states really would have grave difficulty in saying precisely how it got this information. it would reveal sources and methods and ways that the united states has of getting information about russia in a lot of different ways. and they don t want to reveal that. so the russians are very aware of that. they everyone kind of does the same thing on some level. they know that the americans can t give this data. completely. so that s obama s dilemma right now. he s saying collect all the information. i want it by the time the inauguration. before the inauguration. but, will they reveal all of it? they may not be able to reveal all of it. this could continue to roil and go along as it s been going. we look at the russian response, the latest russian response from dmitry peskov, there s no conclusion, no evidence. seems like a deflection asserting that the u.s. administration, the current administration or perhaps the n int intel, current intel are attempting to taint donald trump s view of russia. has anyone from russia come out and said, we did not do this? has that verbiage been used? the government has said, we are not doing this. right from the begin, they re say, we didn t do this. then the next thing is, and prove, if you have some information, give it to us. but i think, what s happening here is, and the phrase has been used, you know, this is a new threshold. and people don t really know how this could all turn out. say the united states really decides it wants to retaliate. and it has said, vice president biden has said, we ll do something in our own time. but, what do you do? do you take some type of action that could really send a message? you know, by taking down electric systems or something? or do you out the people responsible? these it s a very serious decision. by the president. whoever that will be, to take some response. serious and delicate. no doubt. you answered my next question. jill dougherty, thank you. a shutdown was avoided last night when a budget billionaire roily passed through the senate. democratic senators planned to block the bill unless it incl e included an extension for benefits for retired coal miners. an eerie confession from a mass shooter who taughted a church. dylann roof laughing, while telling the fbi, i did it. the bizarre confession tape and why he says somebody had to do it. that s next. fornia walnuts. the best simple veggie dish ever? 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whoa. i had to do it. because somebody had to do something. because you know, black people are killing white people every day. so you re deal, is it like to agitate race relations. to make it worse. right. just make things better. but in your mind, making things better, right, because you said in the begins, going back to segregation, white people are white people would need to be running the country, right? yeah, sure. right. i mean, like no more black presidents. no more black politicians, right? no more black president, sure. we don t need a black president. roof admitted that he drank a little just before visiting the church. he sat with his victims during bible study for about 15 minutes before that slaughter. he fired 70 rounds. a dozen people. here are their faces. they had their eyes closed as they stood for prayers. nine of them were killed. roof faces 33 federal charges, including hate crimes. he could be executed if convicted. your first reaction, to this confession that we hear. well, it s difficult. it s sad. we knew that dylann roof was disturbed. but when you hear his words. the words that come out of his mouth, it it s even more troublesome. you try to identify or figure out why someone that young has the hate in his heart of george wallace. and when you hear how he identified with white nationalism. you look at some of the platforms that individuals are giving today. some of the messages coming out of people s mouths today, you raeltz dylann roof s not alone. that s probably the scariest thing. i want to play another bit of sound here. he was talking about sitting with these people for about 15 minutes and what he was thinking about in that period of time. let s listen. i was sitting there and i was just like thinking about whether i should do it or not. that s why i was sitting there for 15 minutes. just like, oh, you know, because i now e couldn t have just walked out. they didn t say anything to me about the thing on my belt. i wouldn t say spur of the moment. but i just finally decide i had i had to do it. from a legal perspective, does that establish premeditation? this isn t a case about whodunit. this is one of the more difficult questions that many people in america are going to have to grasp with, including myself, which is whether or not someone believes in the death penalty, if, in fact, you do, this is the case that fits that. dylann s never shied away from whether or not he did it. from the malice in his heart. from the fact that this was a hate crime. and so this is you know, even more difficult because you re dealing with a callous individual who killed nine people. you had three survivors. and so, this is not we don t have to worry about a slager-like verdict in this case. and i m referring to the walter scott shooting. this is simply whether roof dies for his crimes or not. he s representing himself. what does that tell you about his mind set? and how involved will defense attorneys be? they re very involved. he has some of the pre-eminent death penalty lawyers in the entire country at his side. this will be tied up for years and years and years on appeal. however, i ll tell you one of the more difficult things that many of us in south carolina are having to deal with is the simple fact that dylann roof gets to use this platform for the next week or two to talk about his views. first. and second, he s interviewing or examining or bringing to the witness stand many of the same people that were in the room the night that he committed the slaughter. i think he s in for a rude awak awakening. felicia sanders, poly sheppard, two women i know, they re very strong. they were in the room that night. they survived. i think he ll have a rude awakening when he attempts to cross these individuals and talk about the hate that s in his heart. let me just say that the women in this the survivors and the families in this case, probably some of the strongest individuals that we have ever seen. and, they re the reason that charleston hasn t fallen apart and that i have strength every day when you re faced with this type of hate. bakari sellers, thank you for your insight and reminding us about the strength of the victims. you re right on so many levels here. it is, at the end of the day, because he s not disputed anything, really. it s about keeping him off death row. we ll have to see if that happens. thank you so much. thank you. let s turn and take you to baltimore now for the annual army-navy game. coy wire can t wait. he s got a i think it s a questionable decision. 30 degrees there in baltimore. victor, you know us hairless men need to keep our heads warm. coming up, the army-navy game. we ll hear from one of the greatest navy players of all time. and see one of the coolest traditions of the many here at the army-navy game. from baltimore, coming up. are online right now, searching one topic. that will generate over 600 million results. and if you ve been diagnosed with cancer, searching for answers like where to treat, can feel even more overwhelming. so start your search with a specialist at cancer treatment centers of america. start with teams of cancer treatment experts under one roof. start where specialists use advanced genomic testing to guide precision cancer treatment. .that may lead to targeted therapies and more treatment options. start where there s a commitment to analyzing the latest research and conducting clinical trials-to help each patient get the personalized cancer care they deserve. start at one of the cancer treatment centers of america hospitals near you. the evolution of cancer care is here. learn more at cancercenter.com/experts appointments available now. on xfinity x1. okay, so we know that traveling can be stressful. especially this time of year. with smartphones, relief may be in the palm of your hand. we caught up with a couple of travelers to hear which apps they use to stay organized on the go. one of the issues that i find when traveling with a group or work colleagues is finances. and money. and who owes what? i use the app split wise. it allows me to keep track of the expenses, categorize them. break up each bill by percentage or amount owed. it allows multiple currencies. and you get a downloadable excel spread sheet at the end. now when i travel, i have no issues. it s all taken care of split wise. one way i like to stay organized is i use an app called trip it pro. trip it is an app that will synch with your inbox. it will input all your travel information and itineraries. i click into the app, everything i need to know is right there. i don t worry about documents. looking for e-mails. everything i need is in one easy place. it gives me the latest, up to date travel information. i know if train times have changed. if things are delayed. it s superuseful. (vo) it s the holidays at verizon, and the best deals are on the best network. (both) yes! (vo) with no surprise overages, you can use your data worry free and even carry over the data you don t use. and right now get four lines and 20 gigs for only $40 per line. and, just for the holidays, get the motoz play droid absolutely free. no trade-in required. i love you in that, no, i love you in that. no, i love you in that! (vo) hurry, these offers end soon. get the best deals and the best network, only on verizon. so we re a week away from the first day of winter. by the calendar. step outside. only on the calendar. yeah, freezing temperatures are taking the u.s. by storm. great writing there. has nearly 10 million people throughout the west brace frd a winter storm. there are warnings and watches going into next week. cnn meteorologist alison chinchar. i came back from a place where i had packed my jackets. i came back in shorts and received a rude awakening. that would not work for you today. mother nature has not gotten the memo that winter starts next week. she s a week early. we start in the west. the system makes its way toward the east. we have millions under some type of winter watch or advisory from today to wednesday. the system begins to shift later today or tonight. earlier this week, in states like michigan, ohio, pennsylvania, we had multicar pileups. some of which were deadly. we could go through the same stereo again today and tomorrow because this is actually a much more potent system than the one that we had a few days ago. that will likely have at least a few issues. now, in terms of the total amounts, some of these areas could be looking at impressive snowfall accumulations. 8 to 12 inches. great lakes, as much as 20 inches of rain. one of the other things to keep in mind of, the football games taking place starting tomorrow. one is the browns game. this may end up being one of the snowiest games in cleveland history. the previous record was 3.7 inches. we re forecasting five inches for tomorrow. ohio fans are used to it. they re playing the bengals. that should help a little bit. we ve been talking the cold temperatures as well. we have the big dip of air starting today. notice the pinks and the white region coming down into portions of the midwest. look at the blue coming down to cities like atlanta and nashville. retreats a little monday and tuesday. then notice how much further south that cold air comes next week. that s right. we re going to get a colder blast of air. maybe doubling some of the temperatures in terms of below average by the time we get to wednesday of the upcoming week. we re feeling the blue. yes. it s christmas. well, georgia? thank you, alison. donald trump already backing away from one of his campaign promises. take a listen here. [ chanting lock her up ] that plays great before the election. now, we don t care. we ll tell you why he doesn t want hillary clinton investigated anymore. say that to the nanny cam. it s your tv, take it with you. now you can watch your dvr anywhere, at no extra cost, with directv from at&t. farm fresh ingredients, step-by-step recipes, delivered to your door for less than $9 a meal. get $30 off your first delivery blueapron.com/cook. welcome to saturday. we have been waiting for you. i m christi paul. and i m victor blackwell. president obama is waking up in new york and will head to the army-navy game in hours. he ll meet with cia designate mike pompeo. all this after he dismissed that the russian government was behind cyberattacks to help donald trump win. it says these are the same people that said saddam hussein had weapons of mass destruction. it s now time to move on and make america great again. this statement was issued after president obama launched a full review into cyberattacks by russia. the president wants it done before he leaves office in january. we should point out russia insist there is is, quote no evidence of hacking. we still have a couple of weeks before inauguration day. donald trump is seemingly going back on one of his campaign promises. you ll remember he promised to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate hillary clinton for using a private e-mail server. it happened during one of the debates. listen to what he said at one of the thank you rallies just last night. [ crowd chanting lock her up ). that plays great before the election. now, we don t care. he s talking about that so-called war on christmas and claims that people have stopped saying merry christmas. watch this. and merry christmas, everybody. merry christmas. right? merry christmas. [ cheers and applause ] that s right. they reminded me. we re going to start saying merry christmas again. [ cheers and applause ] how about all those department stores? they have the bells and they have the red walls and they have the snow. but they don t have merry christmas. i think they re going to start putting up merry christmas, merry christmas. all right. let s talk about this. let s bring in cnn politics reporter eugene scott and politics reporter tom lobianco. trump says he doesn t feel strongly about prosecuting clinton anymore. we don t care about that now. people in the audience still care. absolutely. i mean this is you put maybe three or four things out there that defined his campaign. that s right up there with building the wall. one of those things where you kind of can t go back on it. so, the thing that i m watching for at least is how will crowds start to react when they realize that, okay this is not on the table anymore. this really isn t? there s sort of a dynamic that we re still getting used to as political reporters, which is the words aren t always as literal in his when he s using them. but the in the crowds, and his supporters, they don t take them literally, they take him seriously. what will happen when it becomes serious to them that he s not going to go after her? it think that remains to be seen. eugene, is there any evidence that there will be any consequence for donald trump pulling away from that promise he maid that he ll appoint a special prosecutor? if you saw only of the crowd s reaction, they just laughed as he said, oh, that played well during the campaign, but not so much right now. i think many of his supporters, especially the base, are just glad he won. i don t know if they wanted to see this fold through. most would have liked to have seen hillary clinton have to face more prosecution or even persecution for her activity. i think this is something that they ll baseball to let go if he holds tight to many of the other promises that he s made. it seems like there s a chance he may not do that. tom, let me come to you with the reporting from the new york times. they re reporting at the top of the trump transition team s list is rex tillerson for secretary of state. the president of exxon-mobil. i want to play for you what he said about his role as a businessman and not representing the u.s. government. let s watch this. from the university of texas just a couple of months ago. host governments, resource owners, whether it s russia or yemen or wherever, middle east, make sure they understand that i m not the u.s. government. i am an american company, and i will be bound by the laws of the united states and other countries. and i m going to follow those laws. but i m not here to represent the united states government s interests. i m not here to defend it nor am i here to criticize it. that s not what i do. i m a businessman. now, if he goes back to these countries as the top diplomat for the u.s., as the secretary of state, there will be some obvious complications, some difficulties now making that turn from businessman to the voice of the president as we re seeing with donald trump. sure. you know, traditionally, secretary of state top diplomats, the type of job where, by definition, you have been constrained. you re constrained by all the international dynamics at play. look back just a week ago to the call of the taiwanese president. the fallout from that. these are the kinds of things where, yeah, you re kind of locked in. then again, that s tradition. who is to say that will continue to be the case with trump? i do think however, if you don t play by that book, you re likely to face more problems like the fallout with china from this call with taiwan. the taiwanese president. that s the kind of thing you have to watch out for. obviously, the exxon ceo is incredibly sharp. he knows what he s doing. but, he s not coming out of that world. he s not coming out of fog by b foggy bottom as they say about here. one of the names off the slis rudy giuliani. let s go back a couple of weeks ago. it seems like much longer than that. this is what he said when there was discussion about his name being in the hat for secretary of state. they reported that the choice for secretary of state in a trump administration is down to rudolph giuliani, john bolton. we don t have john here tonight. i m going to ask you questions about john would be a very good choice. is there anybody better? maybe me. i don t know. a lot of confidence there from the former mayor. now he s off the list. he says that at least the campaign said he removed himself from consideration. is that the full story? not according to our reporting. he probably still does think that he s the better option. it s just probably not something that the campaign agrees with him on. we have reporting that says that he was told previously before the announcement came out that he would not be selected. look, the thing is, this is not as big of a deal as some people perhaps think it is. you can still be a very informal adviser and be very effective and have the ear of the top leader without being in the cabinet. i believe there is a bit of disappointment. this is the position that he wanted. i don t think we ll see a huge departure between giuliani and trump. i believe they re going to the army-navy game together any way. the producers are keeping us on time. they re giving me the wrap. i want to get into why later on in the show. thank you both. it s called the greatest rivalry in sports. army versus navy. guess who got a good ticket to that? coy wire. good morning to you, christi. victor. 1890 is when this storied rivalry began. there have been ten presidents to come see this game. the game is awesome. wait until you hear about some of the traditions and antics leather leading up to the game. we caught up with some of the folks that ran the game ball all the way here to baltimore. wait until you hear that coming up after the break. hashtag stuffy nose. hashtag no sleep. hashtag mouthbreather. just put on a breathe right strip. it instantly opens your nose up to 38% more than cold medicine alone. shut your mouth and say goodnight mouthbreathers. breathe right. alzheimer s disease the fi is out there.survive and the alzheimer s association is going to make it happen by funding scientific breakthroughs, advancing public policy, and providing local support to those living with the disease and their caregivers. but we won t get there without you. visit alz.org to join the fight. you know it s one of the oldest, most heated rifleries in college football. army and navy meeting for the 117th time this afternoon. coy wire is in baltimore with all of the pomp and circumstance. and the tradition around the game. he lost his hat. he got rid of the hat. hey, coy. you made me second-guess myself. you said it was a questionable decision. you re a fashionable guy, victor. i heed your word. to quote the 34th president of the united states, and commander of the army, dwight eisenhower. he said the army and the navy are the best of friends 364 1/2 days of the year. on this one saturday afternoon, they re the worst of enemies. we caught up with one of the greatest navy players of all time, keenen reynolds. a member of the baltimore ravens. we asked him his thoughts on this historic rivalry. the army-navy game in many opinion is the biggest and best rivalry in all of sports, really. what it means to both sides. it s the biggest thing that you learn as a pleb walking in, is to beat army. the high note of my career at the naval academy. nothing feels better than running on that field with hi teammates. my prediction is obvious. it will be navy in a rout. beat army! well, hey, hey, hey, victor, look what i found. i found myself a nice, cozy hat. i m warm now. one of the things that warms up the rivalry are the traditions. up with of those is the running of the game ball. yesterday, the 13th company of mid shipmen, they ran the game ball 88 miles from annapolis, at the naval academy, through washington, d.c., all the way here last night to baltimore to deliver the ball they ll use in the game. just one of the coolest parts of the many traditions in this rivalry. this is an opportunity today, guys, to watch the men who salute us but now we can salute them. it s the only college football game on in the country. the game is at 3:00. president-elect donald trump will be here. splitting sidelines. half for naifr i have. half for army. so as not the choose sides. can t wait to share more with you. you look great in the hat. don t let anybody tell you otherwise. we ll be right back. they do it for the rest of us. they re a reminder of what s good in the world and what it truly means to be a hero. we give them the foundation from which they the thrive. we have transformed the lives of many clirn. tomorrow night, cnn presents a special live event. the 10th annual cnn heroes all-star tribute. tonight, we gather to celebrate extraordinary men and women. join hosts anderson cooper and special co-host kelly ripa as we honor ten extraordinary people. the tenth annual cnn heroes all-star tribute. tomorrow at 8:00. i m hall of famer jerry west and my life is basketball. but that doesn t stop my afib from leaving me at a higher risk of stroke. that d be devastating. i took warfarin for over 15 years until i learned more about once-daily xarelto. a latest generation blood thinner. then i made the switch. xarelto® significantly lowers the risk of stroke in people with afib not caused by a heart valve problem. it has similar effectiveness to warfarin. warfarin interferes with vitamin k and at least six blood clotting factors. xarelto® is selective targeting one critical factor of your body s natural clotting function. for people with afib currently well managed on warfarin, there is limited information on how xarelto and warfarin compare in reducing the risk of stroke. like all blood thinners, don t stop taking xarelto without talking to your doctor, as this may increase your risk of a blood clot or stroke. while taking you may bruise more easily, and it may take longer for bleeding to stop. xarelto may increase your risk of bleeding if you take certain medicines. xarelto can cause serious, and in rare cases fatal bleeding. get help right away for unexpected bleeding, unusual bruising or tingling. if you have had spinal anesthesia while on xarelto watch for back pain or any nerve or muscle related signs or symptoms. do not take xarelto if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. tell your doctor before all planned medical or dental procedures. before starting xarelto tell your doctor about any conditions, such as kidney, liver or bleeding problems. to help protect yourself from a stroke, ask your doctor about xarelto. there s more to know. xarelto. donald trump s wife melania says she ll not be moving to washington initially. ivanka, however, is planning to move to the capital. which leads to a question, writes kate anderson brower, on cn thrks.com, who exactly will be the first lady come noon january 20th. the answer, i think is now one. melania may prefer to remain in new york. it doesn t make ivanka the de facto first lady. kate anderson brower with us now. kate, good to see you. give us your first take on when you heard melania was not coming to washington immediately. is that really that uncommon, for a mom with a child? it is. in modern times. we haven t had a first lady do that. jackie kennedy was not particularly excited about moving to washington and uprooting her family. she did it. she left to go to virginia as often as she could to ride her horses. bess presumen wz nout a fan of being in washington. a list of first ladies who haven t enjoyed the job and have been kind of commuting from their homes back and forth to the white house. to make the decision not to come down for the first several months. i think it s likely she will eventually. it shows her commitment to her son. it s interesting to look at ivanka trump s role. she s not going to bo the de facto first lady. i think she ll be something like we have never seen before. just like this spt something we have never seen before. to me, that s fascinating. you write when former vice president al gore emerged from his meeting, he made sure to tell reporters that he met with ivanka trump first but spent the bulling of the time with her father. what do you make of that? that need to say i spent my time with ivanka? i think for al gore, vice president, almost president himself, he doesn t what it to look like he just met with the president-elect s daughter. he wanted to be clear he met with the president also. the fact that she s facilitating these meetings says a lot about her power. she s house-hunting with jared kushner. friends of the trump say nobody is more trusted in that circle than jared kushner. and ivanka and her two brothers are advisers to their father. we ll see at a press conference what he intends to do to separate his business from politics. this is unchartered territory. we have had first ladies that have not been the spouse of the president. in fact, the first time the term first lady came up was in the mid 19th century. it was james bu cannon s niece. the first first lady of the land, she was called. she was not married to the president. she was his niece. we have had women serve that role that have not been the president s wife. i don t think it will be ivanka trump. kate andersen brower. we appreciate it. good to see you. thank you. the next hour of your new day is coming up after a short break. stay with us. what s the best way to get two servings of veggies? v8 or a fancy juice store? ready, go! hi, juice universe? one large rutabaga, with eggplant. done! that s not fair. glad i had a v8. the original way to fuel your day. (vo) it s the holidays at verizon, and the best deals are on the best network. (both) yes! (vo) with no surprise overages, you can use your data worry free and even carry over the data you don t use. and right now get four lines and 20 gigs for only $40 per line. and, just for the holidays, get the motoz play droid absolutely free. no trade-in required. i love you in that, no, i love you in that. no, i love you in that! (vo) hurry, these offers end soon. get the best deals and the best network, only on verizon. everything your family touches sticks with them. make sure the germs they bring home don t stick around. use clorox disinfecting products. because no one kills germs better than clorox. looking for clear answers for your retirement plan? start here. or here. even here. and definitely here. at fidelity, we re available 24/7 to make retirement planning simpler. we let you know where you stand, so when it comes to your retirement plan, you ll always be absolutely.clear. time to think of your future it s your retirement. know where you stand. i ve heard it all. eat more fiber. flax seeds. yogurt. get moving. keep moving. i know! try laxatives. been there, done that. my chronic constipation keeps coming back. i know. tell me something i don t know. vo: linzess works differently from laxatives. linzess treats adults with ibs with constipation or chronic constipation. it can help relieve your belly pain, and lets you have more frequent and complete bowel movements that are easier to pass. do not give linzess to children under six and it should not be given to children six to seventeen. it may harm them. don t take linzess if you have a bowel blockage. get immediate help if you develop unusual or severe stomach pain, especially with bloody or black stools. the most common side effect is diarrhea sometimes severe. if it s severe stop taking linzess and call your doctor right away. other side effects include gas, stomach-area pain and swelling. talk to your doctor about managing your symptoms proactively with linzess. it was an unprecedented cyber attack ordered by senior russian leadership on the russian election. trump repeatedly praised russia during hi campaign. two of trump s most high profile and loyal supporters, chris christie and rudy july yanny are no longer in the running for jobs. that confession video of dylann roof. i went to that church.
best practices within the ihs system itself and shared those and incense vized the ability to move that kind of activity that is providing high-quality care for individuals in that system, in certain areas, and making certain that we re able to extend that across the country in the ihs. okay. we look forward to working with you on that. i think best practices is a good place to start. obviously, those have not been employed in a lot of facilities in our state. in 2009, cms issued a final rule that required all outpatient therapeutic services to be provided under direct supervision every year since then. the rule has been delayed. either administratively or legislatively in small and rural hospitals. i shared this with you as well. in my statement we have a lot of critical access hospitals, rural areas, big geography to cover, and sometimes difficult to get providers out to these areas. so, the question is, if confirmed, will you work to charge of some of these issues in a way that removes that power from washington, d.c., where i think too many of the problems have been happening. thank you, mr. chairman. look forward to it. senator casey. thank you, mr. chairman. dr. price, good to be with you again. thank you. i want to ask you a couple questions that center principally on children and individuals with disabilities. first with regard to children, i think if we re doing the right thing, as not only as government but as a society, if we re really about the business of justice, and if we re really about the business of growing the economy, we should invest a lot and spend a lot making sure every child has health care. the good news, despite a lot of years of not getting to that point, not moving in the right direction, the good news is, we made a lot of progress. the urban institute in an april 2016 report, i won t ask i won t ask the report to be made part of the record, but i ll read a line from this urban institute report. uninsurance among children 1997 to 2015 dated april 2016, says as follows on page 3, it said that the decline in children s uninsurance rate occurred at a relatively steady pace and includes a significant drop following implementation of the affordable care act s key coverage provisions from 7.1% in 2013 to 4.8% in 2015, unquote. so, that s a significant drought. 7.1 to 4.8 is millions of kids have health insurance today that would not have it absent the affordable care act, including the medicaid provisions as well. that 4.8% uninsured rate is at an all-time low. that means we re at a 98% insured rate across the country able to commit to us today, that that that the number of uninsured children will not increase under your during your time as secretary for ywer to be confirmed and the number of uninsured would not increase? our goal it is to decrease the number of uninsured population under age 18 and over age 18. i hope you maintain that because i think that s going to be critically important. the reason i ask that question is not just to validate that as a critically important goal for the nation, but it s your answer seems to be contrary or in conflict with what you have advocated for as a member of the house of representatives, not only in your individual capacity but as chairman of the budget committee. looking at now for reference a an op-ed by gene spurling. with regard to with regard to your policies, the effect of what your policies would be, and now apparently contrary to what was said during the kaernlgs it s now the policy of the trump administration to block grant medicaid? with respect to both you and to mr. spurling, it s because you all are looking at this in a silo. we don t look at it in a silo. we believe it is possible to imagine, in fact, put in place, a system that allows for greater coverage for individuals. as a matter of fact, coverage that actually equals care. right now many of those individuals the aca actually increased coverage in this country. it s one of the things that it actually did. the problem is, is that a lot of folks have coverage but they don t have care. so, they ve got the insurance card. they go to the doctor. the doctor says, this is what we believe you need and they say, i m sorry a cut of $1 trillion, a combined cut of $1 trillion that would adversely impact the children s health insurance program and the medicaid program is totally unacceptable i think to most americans, democrat, republican or otherwise. you re looking at that in a silo. you aren t looking at that in what reform and improvement would be. we re look at the rebuttal in not just what gene spurling said but a whole line of public policy, advocates and experts. and i think the burden for you, sir, is to make sure you fulfill your commitment to make sure no children will lose health insurance coverage while you are secretary. look forward to working with you. senator hiller. thank you, mr. chairman. dr. price, thank you for being here today. thanks for your patience in working with us throughout this confirmation process. if you can put your mike on. it is on. i ll lean a little forward. mr. chairman, as you can imagine, i committed to ensuring that all have access to quality and affordable health care insurance. i have a letter from nevada legislature, directly from our majority leader of the state senate and our speaker of the assembly. and they re good questions. five questions. obviously, they want to get the same answers that all of us want here. we have a nevada 88,000 nevadans who have health insurance through the exchange. 77,000 nevadans eligible for federal tax credits. 217,000 nevadans that receive health care coverage under expansion. basic questions. mr. chairman, if i may, can i submit these questions to the record, on the record, and also if i may ask dr. price if he would respond to this particular letter, to these legislators. again, i think they re very good question. without objection. also if i may add f you could cc the governor also. i think the governor would also like answers to these questions. i think you re in a great position to answer these particular questions. thank you, sir. thank you. if i may, can i get your opinion on the cadillac tax? i think the cadillac tax is is one that has made it such that individuals who are gaining their coverage through their employer there may be a better way to make if so that individuals gaining their coverage through their employer are able to gain access to the kind of coverage they desire. the cadillac tax would affect about 1.3 million nevadans. school teachers, union members, senior citizens. and there s some disagreement as to whether or not these individuals are wealthy or not. there are some on this committee that believe the $1.1 trillion tax increase in obamacare does not affect the middle class. do you agree with that? i think it does affect middle class. i do, too. do you believe school teachers are wealthy? everybody has their own metric of what wealthy is and some people use things to determine what wealth that aren t the greenbacks i would argue most school teachers don t think they re wealthy. do you think most union members are wealthy? i doubt they think they re wealthy. yeah, i would agree with that. do you think most senior citizens are wealthy? most senior citizens are on a fixed income. they would argue they re not wealthy. that s my argument on this particular tax. in fact, obamacare as a whole is it s another middle class tax increase of $1.1 trillion. my i guess my question and question for you is, is that if i can get your commitment to work with this committee, work with myself to end and the treasury secretary to repeal the cadillac tax? well, we ll certainly work to make certain those who gain their coverage through their employer have the access to the highest quality care and coverage possible in a way that makes the most sense for individuals from a financial standpoint as well. does the cadillac tax make the most sense? as i mentioned, i think there are other options that may work better. do you believe it is an increase, health insurance increase, to middle class america? i do. okay. i want to go to medicaid expansion for just a minute. nevada was one of 36 states that chose to expand eligibility for medicaid. we went from iveng the enrollment went from 350,000 to over 600,000. and i guess the concern, and i think it s part of the letter that i gave to the chairman, is whether or not that will have an impact. what we re going to do to see that those individuals aren t impacted. probably the biggest question we have for you here today is what are we going to do about those that are part of the medicaid expansion and how that s going to impact them? yeah, again, as i mentioned to a question on the other side, i believe this is a policy question that needs to be worked out through both the house and the senate. we look forward to working with you and others, if i m able to be confirmed, and making certain that individuals who are currently covered through medicaid expansion either retain that coverage or in some way have coverage through a different vehicle. but every single individual ought to be able to have access to coverage. dr. price, thank you. thank you for being here. thank you. senator warner. thank you, mr. chairman. good to see you again, dr. price. thank you. let me start on something we discussed in my office. one. issues i ve been working on since i ve been governor, working very closely with your friend senator isaacson is the issue of how we as americans address the end of life and those issues. i think we both shared personal stories on that subject. senator isaacson and i have legislation that is called the care planning act that does not remove anyone s choices. it simply allows families to have those discussions with their health care provider and religious/faith leader if needed or desired in a way to prepare for that stage of life. this year cms took a step by introducing a payment into the fee schedule to provide initial reimbursement for providers to have these conversations with others. this is mentioned in a multidisciplinary case team. it also ran a pilot program that allowed hospice-type benefits to be given to individuals who were still receiving some level of curative services called the medicare choice medicare care choices. i believe it s very important that we don t go backwards on these issues. i think we talked about, maybe the only industrial nation in the world that hasn t had this kind of adult conversation about this part of life. again, not about limiting anyone s choices, but would you if you re confirmed, would you continue to work with senator isaacson and i on this very important issue? i look forward to doing so. and not be part of any effort to roll back those efforts that cms have already taken? i think it s important to take a look at the broad array of issues. one issue is liability. i can t remember if we discussed that in your office. the whole issue of liability surrounding these conversations is real. we need to talk about it openly, honestly and work together to try to find a solution to just that. i would concur with that. but i also think this is something that more families need to take advantage of. on friday, january 20th, the president president trump issued an executive order th that that says federal agencies, especially hhs, should do everything they can to, quote, eliminate any fiscal burden of any state on any state or any cost fee, tax penalty or regulatory burden on individuals and providers. dr. price, if you re confirmed in this position, will you use this will you use this executive order in any way to try to cut back on implementation or following the individual mandate before there is a replacement plan in place? well, i think that if i m if i m confirmed, then i m humble enough to appreciate and understand that i don t have all the answers and that the people at the department have incredible knowledge and an expertise. and that my first action within the department itself, as it relates to this, is to gain that insight, gain that information, so that whatever decisions we can make with you and with governors and others can be the most informed and intelligent decision possible. i m not sure you answered my question. i just what i would not want to see happen, as we take i understand your concerns with the cadillac tax. i know there are concerns about you and others have raised about the individual mandate. there are some that are concerned about the income tax surcharges. it s just remarkable to me, and this is one of the reasons i think so many of us are anxious to see your replacement plan, that the president has said we want insurance for everybody. he wants to keep prohibitions on pre-existing condition, keep people on policies until 26. it seems like there s at the same time a rush to eliminate all of the things that pay for the ability to have for americans to have those kind of services. and i would just want your assurance that you wouldn t use this executive order prior to a legal replacement to eliminate the individual mandate, which i would believe helps shore up the cost coverage and the shifting of costs that are required in an insurance system. yeah, i a replacement, a reform, an improvement of the program, i believe, is imperative to be instituted simultaneously or at a time in you will not use this executive order as a reason to, in effect, bypass the law prior to replacement in place? our commitment is to carry out the law of the land. in these last couple minutes i want to go on. i know you ve been in the past a strong critic of the center for medicare and medicaid and innovation of cmmi. i believe in your testimony last week, you saw great promise in it. to me f we re going to move towards a system that emphasizes quality of care rather than simply quantity of care, we ve got to have this kind of experimentation. there s one such program, the diabetes prevention program. that last year cms certified it saved money on a per beneficiary basis. i know my time is rung out. i think they can probably be answered yes or no. do you support cmm delivery system reform demonstrations that have the potential to reduce spending without harming the quality of care? the second clause is the most important one. i suspect making certain we deliver money that we deliver care in a cost effective manner but we absolutely must not do things that harms the quality of care being provided to patients. if part of that quality of care, and i d agree with you, would mean bundled and episodic payment models that actually move us toward quality over volume, would you support those efforts? for certain patient populations, bundled payments make a lot of sense. if these experiments are successful, would you allow the expansion of these across the whole system? i think that what we ought to do is allow for all sorts of innovation, not just in this area. there are things i m certain that haven t been thought up yet, that would actually improve quality and delivery of health care in our country. we ought to be incentivizing that kind of innovation. i would simply say, mr. chairman, cmmi is an area i would like to have seen more but it s a model and tool we ought to not discard. thank you. thank you, senator. senator scott. thank you, chairman. dr. price, good see you again. launched the nation s first statewide pay for success project with nurse/family partnership with the use of medicaid funds. 20% of the babies born in south carolina are born to first-time, low income mothers. we also have a much higher than average infant mortality rate. nurse/family partnership is an evidence-based and has already shown real results. both in the health of the mother and the babies. but also in other aspects of the mother s life, such as high school graduation rates for teen moms and unemployment rates. what are your thoughts on incorporating a pay for success model to achieve success metrics? it sounds like a great program that is actually has the right metric. that is the quality of care and the improvement of lives. and as you state, if it s having that kind of success, it probably ought to be put out there again as a best practice for other states to look at and try to model. yes, sir. thank you. i believe you were the director of the orthopedic clinic at grady memorial hospital in atlanta. i was. you mentioned something that i think is very important. i think grady hospital had the highest level of uninsured georgians. you talked about having coverage but really not access. can you elaborate on how your experience at grady may help inform you and direct you as it relates to the uninsured population? it was an incredible privilege to work at grady the number of years i did. we saw patients from all walks of life and many, many uninsured individuals. they come with the same kinds of concerns, the same kinds of challenges that every other individual has. and one of the big they have an additional concern and that is, is somebody going to be caring for me? is somebody going to be ainl able to help me. that s why it was so fulfilling to have the privilege of working at grady and assisting people at a time when they were not only challenged from a health care standpoint, but challenged from the concern of whether or not people would be there to help them. yes, sir. i know you re aware of the title i of every student succeeds act. head start to have access to resources. it seems to me that would be imperative for the secretary of hhs and secretary of education to look ats tos synergiz to help the underprivileged student? can i get your commitment to work with the secretary of education where it makes sense to help serve those students? we have head start under you and other programs under esa. it would be wonderful for us to take the taxpayer in one hand, the child in the other hand and look for ways to make sure that they both win. yeah, i you ve identified an area that is a pet peeve of many of ours. that is, that we don t seem to collaborate across jurisdictional lines. not just in congress, but certainly in the administrative side. look forward to doing just that. having as a meertd tric, how ar kids doing? are they actually getting the kind of service and education that they need? are they improving? are we just being custodians? are we just parking kids in a spot or are we actually assisting in improving their lives and able to demonstrate that? if we re not asking the right questions f we re not looking at the right metrics, we won t get the right answers to expand what s actually working or modify it and move it in a better direction. thank you. i think that s one of the more important parts of your opportunity in this position, is looking at those kids, and you know as well as anyone as a doctor, those ages, before you ever get into pre-k, kindergarten, the development of the child in those first three or four years are powerful opportunities for us to direct one s potential so that they maximize it. sometimes we re missing those opportunities. we think somehow the education system will help that child catch up, but there are things that have to happen before they ever get in the education system. so, i thank you for your willingness to work in that direction. my last question has to deal with the employ-sponsored health care system we re so accustomed to in this country that provides so many with their own insurance. in my home state we have 2.5 million people covered by their employer coverage. if confirmed as hhs secretary, how would you support american employers in their effort to provide effective family health coverage in a consistent and affordable matter? said differently, there s been some conversation about looking for ways to decouple having health insurance through your employer. i think the employer system has been absolutely remarkable success in allowing individuals to gain coverage they might otherwise not gain. i think preserving the employer system is is imperative. that being said, i think there may be ways in which individual employers i ve heard employers say, if you give me the opportunity to provide my employees so they can select the coverage they want, that makes more sense to them. if that works from a voluntary standpoint for employers and for employees, then it may be something to look at. that would be more like the hra approach, where exactly. employer funds an account and the employee chooses the health insurance, not necessarily under the umbrella of the employer specifically? exactly. and gains the same tax benefit. thank you, chairman. thank you. senator mccaskill. at risk of being way, way away from you, and you being someone i ve worked with and respected greatly i want to correct something in your opening statement. the first nominee of president trump that this senate considered was confirmed by a vote of 98-1. i would not consider that a partisan vote. the second nominee of president trump was confirmed by a vote of 88-11. once again, i would not consider that a partisan vote. so, i really do think we are all trying to look at each nominee individually. and i have had a chance to review congressman price s questioning of secretary sabelius. it was no bean bag. it was tough stuff. i think all of this looks different depending on where we re sitting. i wanted to make that point. as to passing obamacare without one democratic vote, we re about to repeal obamacare without one democratic vote. this will be a partisan exercise under reconciliation. it will not be a bipartisan effort. what we have after the repeal is trumpcare. whatever is left after the dust settles is trumpcare. now, i know the president likes to pay close attention to what he puts his name on and i have a feeling, congressman, that even though you keep saying today that congress will decide, you re not really believing, are you, that your new boss is not going to weigh in on what we what he wants congress to pass? we re not going to have a plan from him? we look forward to working with you and other members my question is, will we have a plan from the president? will he have a plan? if i have the privilege to being confirmed, i look forward to working with the president and bringing a plan to you. great. so, the plan will come from president trump, and you will have the most important role in shaping that plan as his secretary of health and human services, correct? i hope i have input, yes, ma am. yes. so whatever trumpcare ends up being, you will have a role in it. i think it s really important to get that on the record. now, when we repeal obamacare, we re going to do a tax cut. does anybody in america who makes less than $200,000, are any of them going to benefit from that tax cut? that s a hypothetical and you all are no, it s not a hypothetical. when we repeal obamacare, there are taxes in obamacare. and when it is repealed,there is no question that taxes are going to be repealed i promise you, the taxes are going to be repealed. when those taxes are repealed, will anyone in america who makes less than $200,000 benefit from the repeal of those taxes? i look forward to working with you on the plan and hopefully that will be the case. no, no, no, no. i m asking, the taxes in there now, does anybody who makes less than $200,000 now, pay those taxes now? it depends on how you define the taxes. many individuals are paying more than they did prior to no, i m talking about taxes. the cadillac tax has not been implemented, so that doesn t affect anybody. i m trying to get at the very simple question, that i don t think you want to answer. in fact, when obamacare is repealed, no one in america who makes less than $200,000 is going to enjoy the benefit of that. as i say, if confirmed, i look forward to working with you on that. that s not an answer. in my office, ending medicare, your plan and you have worked on for year, and converting medicare to private insurance markets with government subsidies, correct? not correct. well, we talked yesterday, and we kind of went through this in my office. by the end of our conversation, you admitted to me, and i m going to quote you, that your plan for medicare in terms of people getting either tax credits or subsidies or whatever however you re going to pay for the medicare recipients would be them having choices on a private market. you said, yes, it was pretty similar to obamacare, with the exception of the mandate. didn t you say that to me yesterday? that s a fairly significant exception. well, but these people are old. they don t need to be mandated to get insurance. it s not like a 27-year-old who doesn t think he s going to get sick. you don t need a mandate for people who are elderly. they have to have health insurance. so, the mandate is not as relevant, but didn t you admit to me that obamacare and private markets is very similar to what you were envisioning? didn t you use the phrase, similar? it is pretty similar. what i did say is the mandate is significant. the mandate is significant, i get, in obamacare. but we don t need a mandate for seniors, would you agree with that? you don t need to tell seniors they need health insurance? i hope we don t need a mandate for anybody so they can purchase the kind of coverage they want and not the kind the government forces them to buy. finally, you want to block grant medicaid for state flexibility and efficiency, correct? i believe that medicaid is a system that is now not responding necessarily to the needs of the recipients. consequently, it s incumbent upon all of us as policymakers to look for a better way to solve that challenge. are you in favor of block granting medicaid? i m in favor of a system more responsive. are you in favor of block granting medicaid? it s a simple question, congressman. for the most powerful job in health care in the country. i don t know why you re unwilling to answer block granting medicaid. it s not that complicated. i m in favor of making certain medicaid is a system that responds to patients, not the government. i don t understand why you won t answer that. and i don t have time. i know i m over. i will probably i don t know if we re going to get another round, mr. chairman. should i ask my last question or are we going to get another chance? i m going to allow additional questions. i hope that not everybody will take the opportunity. i will digssappoint you, i m sorry. let me just on that point say that obamacare raised taxes on millions of americans families across income levels. nonpartisan joint committee on taxation in may of 2010 analyses identified significant widespread tax increases on taxpayers earning under $200,000 contained in the aca. and, for example, for 2017, 13.8 million taxpayers with incomes below $200,000 will be hit with more than $3.7 billion, with a b, in obamacare tax from an increase in the income floor for the medical expense deductions. obamacare has led to middle class tax hikes. without question, it s led to fewer insurance options, higher deductibles and higher premiums. so, i think those are facts that can t be denied. i ll look forward to looking at those facts because somewhere in this mix we have alternative facts. well, just i think these are right, i can tell you that. well, i think mine are right. mr. chairman, point of privilege to respond? yes, sir. on this point, no alternative facts. the republicans in last year s reconciliation bill cut taxes for one group of people. they cut taxes for the most fortunate in the country. that s a matter of public record. it s not an alternative factor or universe. people making $200,000 and up got their taxes cut. that was in the reconciliation bill of the republicans last year. well, let s see who s next here. i don t agree with that, but we ll see who s next. senator grassley oh, cassidy. i didn t see you. senator cassidy and then senator grassley. thank you, mr. chairman. dr. price, how are you? i m well, senator. let s talk a little about medicaid because we re getting this rosy scenario of obamacare and of the republican attempt to replace it. it does seem a little odd. first, i want to note for the record that president trump has said in various ways that he doesn t want people to lose coverage. he would like to cover as many people as under obamacare. wishes to take care of those with pre-existing conditions and to do it without mandates and lower costs. those will be your marching orders, fair statement? absolutely. now, let s go to you and i, we talked at a previous meeting. we both worked in public hospitals for the uninsured. and for the poorly insured, folks like medicaid. now, let s just talk about medicaid. why would we see patients on medicaid at a hospital for the uninsured? if they wanted to see an orthopedic orthopedist in private practice, does medicaid pay a provider well enough to pay costs of seeing an orthopedic patient? oftentimes it does not. as you well know, as i mentioned before, one out of three physicians who ought to be able to see medicaid patients in this nation, do not take any medicaid patients. there s a reason for that. whether it s reimbursement or whether it s hassle factor or regulations or the like. but that s a system that isn t working for those patients. and we auought to be honest abo that, look at that and answer the question why and then address that. now, i ll note that when the house version of the aca passed, robert pear in the new york times wrote an article about a michigan physician, an oncologist, who had so many medicaid patients from michigan medicaid that she was going bankrupt. she had to discharge patients from her practice. now, the ranking members said we can t have alternative facts. agree with that. we also know new england journal of medicine article speak being medicaid expansion in oregon about how when they expanded medicaid in oregon, outcomes did not improve. so, i suppose that kind of informs you as you say we need to make medicaid better for patients. absolutely. we need to look at the right metrics. just gaining coverage for individuals is an admirable goal. but it is it ought not be the only goal. providing for people on the ground, for real people and real lives. whether or not we re affecting them in a positive way or negative way. if we re affecting them in a negative way, again, we need to be honest with ourselves and say, how can we improve that? now, a lot of times there s this kind of conflation of per beneficiary payments to states per medicaid enrollee and block grants, which to me is a conflation. i ll note that bill clinton on the left and phil graham and rick santorum on right proposed per beneficiary payments some time ago. it s actually how would you agree with this, how the federal employee self-benefit program pays for these federal employ s employees, they pay per beneficiary payment to an insurer, fair statement? correct. wouldn t it be great if medicare worked as as well as federal employee health insurance in terms of outcome? when you talk about the medicaid population, it s not a monolithic population. there are four different demographic groups within it seniors and disabled and then healthy moms and kids, by and large. we treat each one of those folks exactly the same from the medicaid rules. so, when you re pressed on whether, by golly, you believe in block grants, i don t hear any nuance in that queshgs are you speak being a per beneficiary payment? are you speak being each of those four, one of those four? how do you dice that? new york is an older state demographically. utah is a young statement. fair statement? absolutely. those are the things i think we tend not to look at, because they re more difficult to measure. they re more difficult to look at. but when we re talking about people s lives, when we re talking about people s health care, it s imperative we do the extra work that needs to be done to determine whether or not, yes, indeed, the public policy we re putting forward will help you, not harm you. let me ask because there s also some criticism about health savings accounts. i love them because they activate the patient. i think we re familiar with the healthy indiana plan where on a waiver they gave folks of lower income health savings accounts and had better outcomes, decreased e usage. any comment on that? just when people do engage in their health care, they tend to demand more, they tend to demand better services. and individuals that have greater opportunity for choices of who they see, where they re treated, when they re treated and the like, have greater opportunity to gain better health care. going back to not one to have alternative facts f we contrast the experience in healthy indiana with the experience in oregon where national economic bureau of research published in new england journal of medicine found no different outcome from those fulfilled in medicaid expansion program in oregon, contrast with good outcomes, in that which in indiana engaged patient to become activated in their own care, er usage fell but outcomes improved. i think in our world of standard facts, i kind of like your position. thanks for bringing a nuanced, informed view to the health care reform debate, dr. price. thanks, senator. senator grassley. two statements before i ask a couple questions. one is, it s kind of a welcome relief to have somebody of your profession in this very important role, particularly knowing the importance of the doctor/patient relationship, because in my dealing with cms and hhs over a long period of time, i think that the bureaucracy has been short of a lot of that hands-on information that people ought to have. and secondly, when you were in my office, we discussed the necessity of your responding to congressional inquiries. and you very definitely said you would. i tongue in cheek said maybe you ought to say maybe because a lot of times they don t do it, but since you said you would, i will hold you to that and appreciate anything you can do to help us do our oversight. as a result of oversight, i got a legislation passed a few years ago called a physician s payment sunshine act. and the only reason i bring this up is because it took senator wyden and me last december working hard to stop the house of representatives from gutting that legislation in the cures act that passed. i want to make very clear that the legislation i m talking about doesn t prohibit anything. it only has reporting requirements because it makes it very, very well, it brings about the principle of transparency, brings accountability. and i ve got some studies here that we did, and some newspaper reports on them, particularly one about a psychiatrist at emory university that was not reporting everything that they should report and even the president of the emory university came to my office and said, thank you for making us aware of this stuff. i want to put those in the record. since you re administering this legislation and since senator blumenthal and i will think about expanding this legislation to include nurse paractitioner assistant and even under the obamacare administration, after we got it passed, it was three years getting regulations, to get it carried out. so, effectively, it s only been working for 2, maybe 2 1/2 years. so i would like to if you re confirmed, would you and the department of human health and human services work with me to ensure that this transparency initiative is not weakened? we look forward to working with you, sir. i think transparency in this area and so many others is vital. again, not just not just in outcomes or in pricing but so many areas so patients are able to understand what s going on in the health care system. thank you. last one deals with vaccine safety. you re a physician. i believe you would agree that immunization is very important for modern medicine and that we ve been able get rid of smallpox way back in 77, worldwide polio, i think, in 1991. at least in the western hems and all that. so, as a physician, would you recommend that families follow the recommended vaccine schedule that has been established by experts and is constantly reviewed? i think that science and health care has identified a very important aspect of public health, and that s the role of vaccinations. thank you very much. i yield back my time. thank you, senator. senator stabenau. thank you. a series of stories from public forehe forum that was held by my colleagues, that that be included in the record. without objection. thank you very much. welcome, congressman price, and senator. and appreciate our private discussion as well as the discussion this morning. let s start out with lots of questions and see if we can move through some things quickly. you said this morning that you would not abandon people with pre-existing conditions is that basically what you re talking about is high-risk pools, is that one of the strategies that you re thinking about? i ve heard that talked about this morning. i think high-risk pools can be incredibly helpful in making certain individuals that have pre-existing illness are able to be cared for in the highest manner possible. i think there are other methods as well. we ve talked about other pooling mechanisms, the destruction of the small group market has made it such that folks can t find coverage affordable for them. one way to solve that challenge is to allow individuals in the small group market to pool together. i think we talked about this in your office. with the old blue heel model being the template for individuals who aren t economically aligned are able to pool together their resources solely for the purpose of purchasing coverage. for about 35 years we have tried high-risk pools. 35 states had them before the affordable care act. frankly, it didn t produce great results. in 20110.2% of people with pre-existing conditions, 0.2%, were actually in a high-risk pool. and the premiums were 150 to 200% higher than standard rates for healthy individuals. and they had lifetime and annual limits on coverage and cost states money. so, that was the reality before we passed the affordable care act. so, let me also ask you, when president trump said last weekend that insurance was going to be much better, do you think that insurance without protections for those pre-existing conditions or without maternity coverage or without mental health coverage or insurance that would reinstate caps on cancer treatments is better? well, i don t know that that s what he was referring to. he said it would be better. if we, in fact, took away if we went to high-risk tools instead of covering people with pre-existing conditions or if we stopped the other coverage we have now, i m just wondering if you define that as better. you d have to give me a specific well, let me what may be better for you may not be better for me or anyone else. that s the important thing i m trying to get across. is patients need to be at the center of this, not government. should government be deciding these things or should patients be deciding these things? prior to the affordable care act, about 70% of the private plans that a woman could purchase in the marketplace did not cover basic maternity care. do you think that that s better, not to cover basic maternity care? i presume that she wouldn t purchase that coverage if she needed it then. she would have to pay more, just as in general for many women, just being a woman with a pre-existing condition. that is the reason why we have a basic set of services covered under health care. it s just a different way of looking at this. this is something where, sure, if a woman wanted to pay a premium, wanted to pay more, she could find maternity care. we said in the affordable care act, that s pretty basic. for over half the population who are women, maternity care ought to be covered. let me go to another one. do you believe mental health services should be a guaranteed benefit in all health insurance plans? i ve been a supporter of mental health inclusion, yes. so, mental health should be a defined benefit under health insurance plans? i think mental health illnesses ought to be treated on the same model as other physical ill pss. %-p lot of discussion, and i have to say also with the nominee for office management and budget also talking today about medicare and social security, i personally believe people on medicare should be very worried right now in terms of what overall we re hearing. but i did want my time is up. i did want just to indicate a message from my mom who s 98 years old who said she doesn t want more choices. she just wants to be able to see her doctor and get the medical care that she needs. is not at all supportive of the idea of medicare in some way being changed into premium support into a voucher. so, i m conveying to you somebody who s getting great care right now and she s not interested in more choices. she just wants to keep her care. thank you. chairman, i would just convey to medicare population in this nation that they don t have reason to be concerned. we look forward to assisting them and gaining the care and coverage they need. thank you. senator cantwell. thank you, mr. chairman. congressman price, sorry we haven t had a chance to talk. i apologize. no, i think both have tried and it s been a myriad of consequences. weather. i wanted to ask you broadly, i know a lot of my colleagues have been asking you about medicaid, but what do you think is the rise in medicaid cost? what is it due to? i think it s multifactorial. we have a system that has many, many controls that are providing greater costs to the provision of the care, that is that s being provided. i think that oftentimes we re not identifying the best practices in the medicaid system, so that patients move through the system in a way that s much more economical and much more efficient and effective. not just from a cost standpoint, but from a patient standpoint. there are so many things that could be done for especially the sickest of the sick in the medicaid population, where we could put greater resources and greater individual attention to individual patients. as you know, in a bell curve of patients in any population, there are those that are the outliers on the high side, where they where the resources spent to be able to provide their care is significant. and if you focus on those individuals, then you oftentimes specifically, then you oftentimes can provide a higher level of care and a higher level of quality of care for those folks and a more responsive care for those folks at a lower cost and move them down into the mainstream of the bell curve. okay. well, you brought up a couple of interesting points. and i want to follow up on that. specifically, if i started that conversation, i would start with two big fa nphenomenons. if you re living 10 or 15 years longer than in the past, they re going to consume more health care. second, the baby boomer population reaching retirement age. those two things are ballooning the cost of health care in general, and, specifically, for the medicaid population. and i want to make sure i understand where you are, because i feel like the administration is creating a war on medicaid. you re saying that you want to cap and control the cost. and what we ve already established in the affordable care act are those things that are best practice incentives and ways to give the medicaid population leverage in getting affordable health care. i want to understand if you are for these things. for example, we provided resources in the affordable care act for to rebalance off of for medicaid patients off of nursing home carrion to community-based care. why? because it s more affordable. do you support that rebalancing effort? i would respectfully, senator, take issue with your description of war on medicaid. we want to make sure medicaid population is able to receive the highest possible care. i ve cared for thousands of medicaid patients. the last thing we want is to decrease the quality of care they have access to. clearly, the system isn t working right now. moving towards home-based care is something that is that is if it s right for the patient, it s a wonderful thing to be able to do. we ought to incentivize that. there are so many things we could do in medicaid that what provide greater quality of care that we don t incentivize right now. we did incentivize it in the affordable care act in your state and about other 20 states actually did it. they took the money from the affordable care act, in fact, georgia received $57 million in transition to make sure medicaid beneficiaries got care in community-based care. it s been able to shift 10% of their long-term costs, basically, to that community-based care. so, huge savings. it s working. so, are you for repealing that part of the affordable care act? what i m for is making certain, again, the medicaid population has access to the highest care possible. we ll do everything to improve that. so many in the medicaid population don t have access to the highest quality care. i would hope you would look at this model, and also look at the basic health plan model which is, again, what i think you re proposing and what the administration is refusing to refute, when the president said, i m going to protect these things and my colleague, senator sanders brought this up and said, are you going to protect this and the white house chief of staff is now saying, no, no, we re basically going to cap medicaid spending. it s a problem. what we want to do is we want to give them leverage in the marketplace. that s what the basic health plan does. that s what the community-based care plan does. it gives them the ability to get more affordable care at better outcomes and is saving us money. so, if you could give us a response. i see my time is expired. look at those two programs and tell me whether you support those delivery system reforms in the affordable care act. be happy to. thank you. thank you, senator. that would end our first round. i d like to not go through a full second round. but we ve got some additional senators here who would like to ask some more, so i guess we ll start with senator wyden. thank you, mr. chairman. congressman, i have several ideas on we re going to break away from the hearing momentarily to assess what we ve just heard. an important hearing before the senate finance committee. the confirmation process for dr. tom price. the congressman who has been nominated to become the next secretary of health and human services. it s already three hours, jake, they ve been hearing the testimony. the confirmation process going forward. a lot of democrats are deeply concerned about this nomination. they are. and they ve been really trying to press for specifics in terms of what exactly will be the bill, the legislation that replaces obamacare after republicans repeal it. even just basic opinions. kellyanne conway, president trump s top adviser, has said publicly that they are going to take medicaid and make it a block grant program, meaning the money instead of going from the federal government to individuals will go to states. states will decide how to mete out that money. and congressman price wouldn t even offer an opinion. senator claire mccaskill, democrat of missouri, was just asking, are you in favor of block granting medicaid, and he
by the kremlin, an important point as well in the way donald trump painted his relationship with intelligence agencies in this country vis-a-vis how it could be taken overseas. right now is the start of the 1:00 p.m. hour here in the east. imagine the role of this man right now. this is a live picture in front of the senate foreign relations committee, and that is the ceo of exxonmobil, a multinational company so large, while it s said they can t change the weather, they can forecast it. they have their own weather bureau, a sprawling organization of 70,000 employees. rex tillerson is the nominee to be our next secretary of state, a job offer that came to him. it s been said in the public domain in part because of his relationship with russia, because of his relationship with vladimir putin. imagine all of this in light of the news conference we just witnessed, in light of what donald trump said and didn t say about russia and putin, in light of what donald trump said about u.s. intelligence agencies, here is a part of what we just witnessed this last hour. the democratic national committee was totally open to be hacked. they did a very poor job. they could have had hacking defense. president putin and russia put out a statement today that this fake news indeed fake news. they said it totally never happened. now somebody would say oh, of course he s going to say that. i respected the fact that he said that. if he did have something they would have released it and glad to release it. if putin likes donald trump, guess what, folks? that s called an asset, not a liability. do you honestly believe that hillary would be tougher on putin than me? i think it was disgraceful, disgraceful that the intelligence agencies allowed any information that turned out to be so false and fake out. i think it s a disgrace. and i say that and i say that, and that s something that nazi germany would have done and did do. i have no deals. i have no loans, and i have no dealings. we could make deals in russia very easily if. we wanted to. i just don t want to because i think that would be a conflict. kristen welker was inside the room. she is now outside trump tower, on what can be a perilous stretch of fifth avenue in new york. andrea mitchell in the equally perilous confines of the u.s. senate in washington, standing by to talk to us. kristen, i m still going through the quotes on, what, 15 to 20 topics from that news conference. what couldn t we see from our vantage point, watching on television that perhaps would assist our understanding of what a high wire act and high tension event this was? reporter: well two things, brian. one, of course, this is the first news conference he s had in 168 days. so you had reporters, we re always trying to get our questions in. but the number of questions, the range of questions i think was so expansive because there was souclost time to make up for, and i think that that contributed to some of the tension that you saw unfold there, and then of course you had these developments overnight, this reporting on russia that the president-elect dismissed outright, and that caused him to again attack his intelligence communities right off of the top. and i guess i would make one more point, brian, there are a lot of questions that went unanswered on his intelligence community. does he trust them? does he trust his intelligence officials? i tried to pin him down on that at the very end of the news conference and he sort of dodged exchange that he had with cnn s jim acosta, when he attacked cnn for their reporting, and jim said, let me at least get a question in, and he wouldn t allow it. that s really extraordinary, brian. i ve been to a number of news conferences and you ve been to a number of presidential news conferences and never really seen that type of tension before. again i would just underscore, this is the first news conference he s had since july so there s a lot of questions we didn t get to, like isis, like israel and the middle east, so it all set the stage for fireworks. kristen welker thanks and thanks to the mta for parking a bus behind you during our conversation. andrea mitchell is one of the people who has us beat in terms of our combined attendance at presidential news conference. andrea, i just can t ask you in enough ways to sum up, if this isn t a president-elect at war with the intelligence community, such a vital arm of government when you re a president, the intelligence community which is both vendor and client, to overseas countries, to private organizations, i don t want to see what war is, but try to sum up what the impact, the concussion this is going to cause in washington. well, concussion s a great word because there are concussion bombs. this is a concussion bomb. brian, he compared the intelligence community pretty directly on twitter and at his news conference used the same analogy to nazi germany. you re talking about men and women, thousands and thousands of them here and overseas who are often covert, and even those who are not have to make considerable sacrifices in their lives, not for great amounts of money. many of them have died. their stars are on the wall at langley. they ve been expanded in the last 15 years since 9/11, big expansion perhaps too much bureaucracy, that could be addressed. lot of critics internally and externally think that that is the real focus that he should be looking at once he gets into office but to raise that question, to talk about these leaks i think a lot of people, including myself last night on thir with you, questioned why there was that addendum of what most likely is unverified information that was attached to the classified intelligence brief. so those are the kinds of questions that you can ask but to compare them to nazi, germany, that is really escalating this war. this was the first grudging acknowledgment that russia was behind the hacking but again in the next sentence he compared it to the office of personnel management hacking 22 million people by china. well that did happen two years ago, there was a lot of attention. i was on the air a lot on nightly news and msnbc on the today show, we covered that story. the difference between what russia did and what china does, what north korea does, what we do, our country to, you know, foreign countries, allies and adversaries alike, i ve covered stories of us hacking the french and the japanese over commercial contracts, and whether airbus and boeing get contracts. all these kinds of things happen every day. the difference here in the russian hacking which was the consensus agreement of 17 agencies, it was weaponized. it was drnted. drnted under order by our own exclusive reporting by vladimir putin and confirmed by the report that was released to wikileaks, whether wikileaks was winning or not winning, wikileaks distributed it and distributed this harmful information, a lot of which could have had an impact on voting and donald trump kept refers to wikileaks during the campaign. he did it again today, in fact. look at the horrible things that john podesta said from wikileaks about hillary clinton, his characterization, not mine. the point is he keeps pointing to wikileaks the conveyor of stolen information hacked by russia and leaked during the campaign and this is the offense which may even be a criminal offense in some regards. we don t know what s been investigated. there have been hints of an investigation. so it s just amazing, and he s going to have to rely, i heard chuck todd say he has to rely on the same intelligence agencies and their career people. doesn t matter who is at the head. it s a big superliner to turn around. you re going to have to rely on the analysis of those men and women. it takes a long time to train them. you re not going to have them all, you know, leaving immediately. if north korea is close to launching an icbm that can hold a nuclear weapon and reach the continental united states, he has to not only persuade the american people but our allies about the veracity of that intelligence and what he is doing now arguably is destroying the credibility of american intelligence at home and abroad. that s a serious and important point you make there at the end. the only place you re going to learn abou the moves north korea is makings the very same intelligence agencies that were in for such a drubbing today. in our studio here we have ali velshi, we have katy tur, we also have standing by a guy who has been so patient with us, steve clemmons, editor at large for the atlantic. steve, where to begin? what was your lead story from that event? i think the lead story is two things, is that as you were showing earlier the rex tillerson exchange with the members of the senate foreign relations committee, many people say the intelligence was seemingly soft on some of the issues. i was struck by how hard he was in comparison to donald trump, so the taking of crimea was a taking. he criticized the obama administration for not putting in enough defensive weapons and not putting in enough support. it was a sort of hard edged assessment, and that it was highly unlikely, he said, that the united states would become friends with russia, and that just stands out as an obvious contrast with the tilt and tone of donald trump even with the kinds of things saying maybe we won t be friends with vladimir putin and others, but donald trump continues to sort of largely publicly hug that vladimir putin and hold that out, so i ve got a divide with a press conference going on at the same time as the senate hearing between the likely secretary of state, potential secretary of state and the president-elect, and that stood out. the other thing that s gotten almost no attention was that he nominated and talked about david shulke, veterans affairs obama appointee. he will be the first obama appointee if confirmed in the trump cabinet. that may not compare to all the other news out there but that is interesting. indeed. he s an d., and you re right, he will be a holdover from adstration t administration. also a very tough job to fill among all the cabinet agencies, but steve, imagine this. what you re talking about, the way donald trump treated and handled all things russian, from putin to russia in general, this was all in the context of a news conference that was designed in part to quash and criticize what they saw as scurrilous reporting tying donald trump to russia. i think what david ignatius said before is that the hostility really between the intelligence agencies and donald trump didn t get much help from this exchange. there s an opportunity with this call that donald trump has made for the first 90 days he ll get a report from the dni, the director of national intelligence, and the cia that strengthens our hand in the hacking arena, but broadly when you look at it, donald trump thus far goes to extraordinary lengths not to put russia on the spot, and that has put him at odds with a lot, not just the intelligence community, but a lot of national, republican national security stalwarts, and if there was going to be a break between the legislative department and the executive over something big, it s over these issue, and his dedication to kind of continuing really this crisis, not between democrats and republicans, but between republicans and republicans is i don t know what to call it. it s impressive, donald trump s willingness to continue to kind of run on that edge where his own credibility is going to be held in doubt by many of the top intelligence people in the country, but also the lindsey grahams, john mccains, marco rubios and many other that will matter to him on a whole variety of key executive decisions in the world. steve, finally, as someone to whom the printed word is so important, fake news. someone spent months making fake news a thing, an entity, fairly vibrant entity and now it s a bucket into which stories one doesn t like can be thrown. reminds me of the old days the founding of the republic. bill sapphire wrote a clever his oshlg torqual novel called scandal mongers. he talked about the early pamphleteeres who invented stories that defamed leading figures and they d fight the pages out there. i m reminded of that era in american history we ve come back into that as well. it s important we in journalism maintain critical distance and objectivity in what we do and find a way to present that as the alternative to this raif of fake news that seems to be proliferating on both sides, if there is, are two wils it s there. this era may test us all. steve thank you very much. always a pleasure to hear from you and talk to you. we re going to whipsaw a bit into the hearing room that had our attention yesterday. senator jeff sessions of alabama nominated to become the nation s top law enforcement official, the next attorney general. we re going to hear some extraordinary remarks here, congressman lewis from georgia, is about to speak in opposition of senator sessions, and senator booker from new jersey. the importance of this, a senator speaking in opposition to a fellow sitting senator. there are only 100 people in that community. it is a very, very small world indeed, but this is part of the opposition lined up against senator sessions to be attorney general. we ll listen in, in the hearing room. like caucus. welcome to the committee, congressman richmond. finally we will hear from mr. william smith. mr. smith worked for senator sessions as the first african-american general counsel on the senate judiciary committee. he has known senator sessions for 20 years and we know him because that service as a staffperson here as well. welcome to all of you, and we ll start with senator booker. thank you, airmangrassley. i want to thank senator leahy as well, as well as the distinguished members of this committee. i know it is exceptional for a senator to testify against another senator nominated for a cabinet position and i appreciate the opportunity you ve given me today. i ve worked closely with many of you on this panel on both sides of the dais, on matters related to criminal squlus reform and you know just how deeply motivated i am by the many issues our next attorney general will heavily influence, especially the crisis of mass incarceration. i know that some of my many colleagues are unhappy that i am breaking with senate protradition to testify on the nomination of one of my colleagues, but i believe like perhaps all of my colleagues in the senate that, in the choice between standing with senate norms or standing up for what my conscience tells me is best for our country, i will always choose conscience and country. senator sessions and i have consistently disagreed on the issues, he and i have always exercised a collegiality and a mutual respect between us. perhaps the best example of this is the legislation we cosponsored to award the congressional gold medal to those foot soldiers who marched at selma, one of the foot soldiers is sitting next to me now. this was a blessing and an honor to me, because in 2015, a retired judge who was white told me that it was those brave marchers on the edmund pettis bridge who inspired him as a young lawyer in the 1960s to seek justice for all in new jersey and begin representing black families looking to integrate white neighborhoods, black families who were turned away and denied housing. one of the families was mine. i am literally sitting here because of people, marchers in alabama, and volunteer lawyers in new jersey, who saw it as their affirmative duty to pursue justice, to fight discrimination, to stand up for those who are marginalized. but the march for justice in our country still continues. it is still urgent. i know also though of the urgency for law and order. i imagine that no sitting senator has lived in the last 20 years in higher crime neighborhoods than i have. i have seen unimaginable violence on american streets. i know the tremendous courage of law enforcement officers who put their lives on the line every single day to fight crime in america. i want an attorney general who is committed to supporting law enforcement and securing law and order, but that is not enough. america was founded heralding not law and order, but justice for all, and critical to that is equal justice under the law. law and order without justice is unobtainable. they are inextricably tied together. if there is no justice, there is no peace. the alabama state troopers on the edmund pettis bridge were seeking law and order. the marchers were seeking justice, and ultimately a greater peace. one of the victories of the modern civil rights movement was the 1957 civil rights act, which in effect made be the attorney general not only the chief law enforcement officer of the united states, but also vested in that office the responsibility to pursue civil rights and equal protection for all of america. senator sessions has not demonstrated a commitment to a central requisite of the job, to aggressively pursue the congressional mandate of civil rights, equal rights, and justice for all of our citizens. in fact, at numerous times in his career he s demonstrated a hostility towards these convictions, and has worked to frustrate attempts to advance these ideals. if confirmed senator sessions will be required to pursue justice for women but his record indicates that he won t. he will be expected to defend the ecall rights of gay, lesbian and transgender americans but his record indicates that he won t. he will be expected to defend voting rights butis recd indicates he won t. he will be expected to defend the rights of immigrants and affirm their human dignity but the record indicates that he won t. his record indicates thated aattorney general he would object to the growing national bipartisan movement towards criminal justice reform. his record indicates we cannot count on him to support state and national efforts towards bringing justice to the justice system, and people on both sides of the aisle who readily admit that the justice system as it stands now, is biased against the poor, against drug addict n addiction, against mentally ill and against people of color. his record indicates that at a time that even the fbi director is speaking out against explicit racial bias in policing and the urgent need to address it, the last two attorney generals have taken steps to fix our broken criminal justice system as a time when the justice department he would lead has uncovered systemic abuses in police departments all over the united states, including ferguson, including newark, senator sessions would not continue to lead this urgently needed change. the next attorney general must bring hope and heal iing to thi country and this demands a more courageous empathy than senator sessions record demonstrates. it demands an understanding that patriotism is love of country and love of country demands that we love all of our citizens, even the most marginalized, the most disadvantaged, the most degraded, and the most unfortunate. challenges of race in america cannot be addressed if we refuse to confront them. persistent biases cannot be defended unless we combat them. the arc of the moral universe does not just naturally curve towards justice. we must bend it. if someone to be attorney general, they must be willing to continue the hallowed tradition in our country of fighting for justice for all, for equal justice, for civil rights. america needs an attorney general who is resolute and determined to bend the arc. senator sessions record does not speak to that desire, intention or will. with all at stake in our nation now, with the need for healing and love i pray my colleagues will join me in opposing his nomination. mr. chairman i d like to submit my testimony to the record and thank you for your opportunity to testify and finally i d like to acknowledge which was not done that sitting behind me are proud members of the united states congress and the congressional black caucus. thank you, sir. and you shouldn t have had to recognize them. i should have done that, i m sorry. thank you, sir. because i knew they were here. mr. huntley? . good afternoon. you got to push the button. i see, thank you. i ll start over briefly. you might pull the mike a little closer, get as close as you can. good afternoon. that s much better. my name is willie huntley and i m an attorney located in mobile, alabama. i m a solo practitioner and i have been practicing law for over 30 years. i m a graduate of auburn university, where i attended college on a football scholarship. i graduated from auburn in 1980, and i attended cumberland law school after that. i finished cumberland law school in 1984. after i finished law school i started a federal clerkship with a federal judge in montgomery, alabama. after i completed that process, i began a tour with the,ed aan assistant district attorney in macon county, alabama. i was there from 1985 to 1987. then my life changed. i got a phone call one day and my secretary comes in the office, and she says, jeff sessions is on the phone. and i m sitting there wondering why is jeff sessions calling me? i was wellware of the allegations that had happened in his bid to become a federal judge, which made me wonder why he was calling me. i answered the phone and i find out that jeff sessions wants me to become an assistant united states attorney in the southern district of alabama. this presented an ideal situation, so i decided to take advantage of that and the first time i actually met him was at a dinner in montgomery. that dinner was supposed to last probably an hour, hour and a half. we ended up meeting for about three hours. during that time period, we discussed a number of topics, football, religion, politics, family, we talked about all those things, and during the course of that meeting with him, i got the feeling more and more and more that the allegations that had been spread through the press weren t true. i also was contemplating whether i should make this move, because i thought if i go to mobile, i don t know anybody there. i have no family there, and what if this man turns out to be exactly how he s been portrayed? fortunately, it didn t turn out like that. i was at the u.s. attorney s office from 1987 to 1991. he assigned me the general criminal trial cases. he also assigned me to civil rights cases, and i would supervise all the civil rights cases that came through the office. during this time period, i can recall where we successfully prosecuted a police officer that was charged with excessive use force. unfortunately, i made a decision to leave the.s. attorney s office in 1991. that decision wasn t based on anything that had happened to me during my time period in the u.s. attorney s office. during that time period, jeff gave me advice, counsel. he provided a great deal of support in everything that i did. one thing in particular that he did was my second child was born, and there was a knock on the door that morning and through the door walks jeff sessions. after i left the u.s. attorney s office, jeff became the attorney general of alabama. he asked me to join his staff at this time, but i declined to join his staff. however, he made me a special assistant attorney general and he put me in charge of handling defense cases for the state of alabama. also during this time period, jeff became charged with violating the state of alabama ethics act. it involved a company by the name of tyco. jeff sessions could have hired any lawyer he wanted to, to represent him in that matter. jeff decided to hire me in that particular case. we had that case and during the course of it, it was probably the longest hearing that had ever been held before the state ethics commission. at that point, jeff was fully exonerated of all the charges involving the state ethics act. one of the things that i can say about jeff is that he has always been the same person that i have known. he s always been available for me, and always been there when i needed him. at no point in the time that i ve known jeff has he demonstrated any racial insensitivity, and i see my time is rapidly winding down and i would just like to say that, in my, jeff sessions will enforce and follow the laws of the united states even-handedly, equally and with justice for all. jeff sessions will adhere to the justice department motto quid pro domina sequitor it means for the lady justice, jeff will protect and defend the rights of all people. thank you for this opportunity. thank you. now we ll hear from congressman john lewis. chairman grassley, senator leahy, and members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to testify today. millions of americans are encouraged by our country s efforts to create a more inclusive democracy during the last 50 years, what some of us call the beloved community, a community at peace with itself. they are not a minority, a clear majority of americans say they want this to be a fair, just and open nation. they are afraid that this country is headed in the wrong direction. they are concerned leaders reject decades of progress and want to return to the dark past and the power of the law will use to deny the freedoms protected by the constitution. the bill of rights and its msnbcs, these are the voices i represent today. we can pretend that the law is blind. we can pretend that it is even-handed but if we are honest ourselves we know we are called upon daily by the people we represent to help them deal with unfairness and how the law is written and enforced. those two are committed to equal justice, in our society, wonder whether senator sessions calls nor law and order will mean today what it went in alabama when i was coming up back then. the rule of use we use it violate the human and civil rights are the poor, the d dispossessed, people of color. i was born in rural alabama, not very far from where senator sessions was raised. there was no way to escape or deny the chokehold of discrimination and racial hate that surrounded us. i saw the signs that said white waiting, colored waiting. i saw the signs that said white men, colored men, white women, colored women. i tasted the bitter fruits of segregation and racial discrimination. segregation was the law of the land, the order of society in the deep south. any black person who did not cross the street when a white person was walking down the same sidewalk who did not move to the back of the bus, who drank from a whitewater fountain, who looked at a white person directly in their eyes could be arrested and taken to jail. the forces of law and order in alabama were so strong that to take a stand against this injustice we had to be willing to sacrifice our lives for our cause, often the only way we could demonstrate that a law on the books violated a higher law, was by challenging that law. by putting our bodies on the line and showing the world the unholy price we had to pay for dignity and respect. it took massive well-organized nonviolent dissent for the voting rights act to become law. it required criticism of in this great nation and its laws to move toward a greater sense of equality in america. we had to sit in. we had to stand in. we had to march. and that s why more than 50 years ago a group of unarmed citizen citizens, plaqblack and white, gather on march 7, 1965, in a peaceful nonviolent fashion to walk from selma to montgomery, alabama, to dramatize to the nation and to the world that we wanted to register to vote, wanting to become participants in a democratic process. we were beaten. tear gas, left bloody, some of us unconscious. some of us had concussions. some of u almost died on that bridge. but the congress responded, president lyndon johnson responded, and the congress passed the voting rights act and it was signed into law on august 6, 1965. we have come a distance. we ve made progress, but we re not there yet. there are forces that want to take us back to another place. we don t want to go back. we want to go forward. as the late a. randolph the dean for the march on washington in 1963 often said, maybe our forefathers and our foremothers all came to this great land in different ships. well we re all in the same boat now. it doesn t matter how senator sessions may smile, how friendly he may be, how he may speak to you. but we need someone who is going to stand up, speak up and speak out for the people that need help, for people who have been discriminated fence and gainst, doesn t matter black, white, latino american, native american, asian-american, whether they are straight or gay, muslim, christian or jews. we all live in the same house, the american house. we need someone as attorney general who is going to look out for all of us and not just for some of us. i ran out of time. thank you for giving me a chance to testify. thank you, congressman lewis. now i go to mr. sorroyer. chairman, senators of the committee it s an honor for me to be here and i thank you for your time. my namis jesse sorroyer jr. i ve been in law enforcement since 1976 to 2016. i ve served in local police departments for 11 years, served in the united states marshal service for 8 1/2 years, served in the attorney general s office for 20 1/2 years. i first met jeff sessions when he was u.s. trt he were to in the southern district of alabama. jeff was prosecuted at that time by the name of henry hayes. jeff prosecuted that person for the abduction and murder of a black teenager. following jeff s election as attorney general i had the privilege to serve with him and his administration as his chief investigator. the beginning of jeff s tenure as attorney general presented senator sessions with challenges that included budget crisis, and one-third reduction of staff. things that jeff did when we came with the budget crisis and the reduction of staff, there were several people in the office that had to seek other jobs elsewhere. there was a black investigator in the office that came and had less than a year left before he was eligible to retire. jeff sessions allowed that to take place. he didn t have to do that. he did not have to do that at all, because of the situation that we were in. jeff sessions retained me. he did not have to do that. but he did. following the election, you know, we were charged with the responsibilities of a lot of crimes and the expectations of the attorney general was charged with the responsibilities of working various cases which included white collar crimes, public disruption, voter fraud and criminal investigations. as i reflect on our work there was never a time when any of these cases was investigated with any political agenda or motive. the utmost respect and zeg sbeg rit w integrity was exercised for all individuals involved. jeff sessions decisions as attorney general earned him a reputation and respect among his colleagues in appreciation for his willingness to do what was right. when jeff sessions got to the u.s. senate, as attorney general, he had argued to uphold the conviction and sentence of klaansman henry hayes for the murder of michael donnell. when jeff sessions became u.s. senator, he helped me with an appointment for u.s. state marshal for the district of alabama. he didn t have to do that but he did. i have known jeff sessions for 20 years. he s a good and decent man. he believes in law and order for all the people, all the people in alabama, because of his colleagues and all surrounded him, the things that he s done for the law enforcement community and citizens of alabama is great. it s without any questions as to whether or not he would be fit to serve this country as the united states attorney general. now, i did not learn these things from a political press conference or any website where i read about it. i know jeff sessions as the man, the man that i know is a decent and honest and respectful man that will put all of his life into public service. he s done that. when we talk about the criminal justice system, you know, we enforce the laws, and we do it because we have a love for the laws. jeff sessi loves the people that do the enforcement side of it. he respects the citizens, deserves a good and honest person that s going to give all he has to make sure that everyone is treated equally and fairly under the law. but his decency as a man, and his honesty as a man speak for itself. he is the type of individual that i support for the united states attorney general s office, because of my reputation and his history with me as a person, and the things that i ve seen over the years in jeff sessions. it s hard being a public servant. i was in law and been in law enforcement for 40 years. it s a tough job. we don t violate the laws. we don t get out there and do things that would cause ourselves to be brought into the system, and i m not saying everybody is the same. but i believe that he ll take hold of the justice system, justice department and he ll be fair, he will be honest and he ll do the same thing for every person with honesty and respect for all of us. my time is up. and thank you for listening. thank you, mr. sorroyer. now congressman richmond. congressman richmond? wait just a minute, congressman. human beings who are innocent let me thank thechairman and ranking member for allowing me to testify. i would ask to you hold. you won t lose any time. stop torturing people! proceed, congressman. let me thank the chairman and ranking member for allowing me to testify. the senate s duty to provide advice and consent to presidential nominees is a fundamental component of american democracy. i know you do not take this responsibility lightly. before i jump into my substantive testimony i want to address two timely issues. first i want to express my concerns about being made to testify at the very end of the witness panels. to have a senator, a house member and a living civil rights legend testify at the end of all of this is the equivalent of being made to go to the back of the bus. it say petty strategy and the record should reflect my c consternation at the process that brought us here. my record on equality speaks for itself and i don t mind being last but to have a living legend like john lewis handled in such a fashion is beyond the pale and the message sent by this process is duly noted by me and the 49 members of the congressional black caucus and the 78 million americans we represent and the over 17 african-americans that we represent. further on the issue of senator sessions record of prosecuting the marion three, stemming from a complaint filed by african-americans, i say the following. history is replete with efforts by those empowered to legitimize their acts of suppression and intimidation of black voters by recruiting other blacks to assist in bringing trumped up charges against law-abiding citizens who are engaged in perfectly legitimate voter education and empowerment activities. those tactics were effectively used gns former congressmen robert smalls, and hundreds if not thousands of black office holders and landholders in our post-reconstruction era, and they were used several years ago against mr. and mrs. alfred turner who was discussed by this committee yesterday. the declaration of independence set forth the idea of universal equality that rests at the heart of our democracy, but it is the 14th amendment of our constitution and its equal protection clause that has helped bring us closer to fulfilling that foundational principle and bringing us closer to a more perfect union. all cabinet officials have a responsibility to protect the interest of all of the american people, but there s no office for which the duty to apply the law equally is greater than that of the attorney general. in my capacity as chairman of the congressional black caucus, i urge you to reject senator sessions nomination. throughout our nation s history, attorney generals have used the resources of the federal government to vindicate the right of the most vulnerable in society. after the civil war, the first attorney general to lead the doj prosecuted the kkk for its widespread use of violence aimed at suppressing the black vote. this facilitated massive black voting turnout in 187 for the first time in our nation s history, former slaves were aforred the opportunity to participate in the democratic process. simply put, senator sessions has advanced an agenda that will do great harm to african-american citizens and communities. for this reason the cbc believes senator sessions should be disqualified. he has demonstrated a total disregard for the equal application of justice and protection of the law as it applies to african-americans and false short on so many issues. jeff sessions supports a system of mass incarceration that is disproporgtately targeted of acap american sit stenographcit devastated african-american communities. he opposed common sense bipartisan criminal justice reform, and jeff sessions cannot be relied upon to enforce the voting rights act. in his decade s long career in public life, senator sessions has proven himself unfit to serve in the role as attorney general. and i would not have the opportunity to testify today if it were not for men like john lewis who was beaten within an inch of his life in his pursuit for the right to vote for african-americans. it s a shame he must sit here and he will litigate this 50 years later. we sit here as the prodigy of men and women who were bought, sold, enslaved, raped, tortured, beaten and lynched. black people were bought as chattel and considered three-fifths of a human being. we ve been able to endure and largely overcome that history thanks in part to brave men and women, both democrat and republican, who sat where you sit and cast often difficult votes for free tom and equality. these senators fought opinion and even their own party to do what was right? i come before you today asking you to do the same. now you all must face a choice. be cougeous or complicit. if you vote for session session you take possession of everything he may do or not do in office. he has no track record of fighting for justice for minorities despite the characterization you ve heard from others today. he and his supporters have told you he is a champion for civil rights and equality. characterization and revisionist histories are not the same things as facts. he is on the record on numerous issues. i have provided just a few examples today. let s think about this logically. if he were in fact a champion for civil rights, wouldn t the civil rights community support his nomination instead of speaking with one voice in near unanimous opposition? in closing, each and every senator who casts a vote to confirm senator sessions will be permanently marked as a coconspirator in an effort to move this country backwards towards a darker period in our shared history. so i ask you all, where do you stand? it is clear from senator sessions record where he stands, where you stand with him and allow history to judge you for doing so. i implore you all to weigh these questions properly as you prepare to cast what will be one of the most consequential votes in your time as a united states senator. res ipsa loquitor, a legal term which means the thing speaks for itself. senator sessions record speaks for itself and i would urge you not to confirm senator sessions as attorney general of the united states, and thank you, mr. chairman, for allowing me to go over. thank you, congressman richmond. now i call on mr. smith. chairman grassley, members of the committee, i ask my written statement be made part of the record. it will be and that s true of senator booker and anybody else that didn t get their entire statement put in the record, it will be in the record, yes. it s an honor for me to support senator sessions to be the next attorney general of the united states of america. he will do an outstanding job. the american people had an opportunity to witness yesterday through his testimony a brilliant legal mind, a man of the highest character, and great integrity. let me briefly address this legal mind. as a staffer your job is to be more prepared than the member. senator sessions made this difficult. when he didn t speak on the topic i would hand him another note on another topic. timely he decided to speak and he did as he did in his testimony yesterday, he crushed it. senator sessions was not ignoring my notes. he was systematically thinking about how to put all the notes together in one speech. a number of my colleagues i told them blank sheet of paper and told him to make me look good, and that s what he did. senator sessions spent yesterday proving to the american people that he understands the law, will disperburse it equally and made a bunch of staffers look good. lot has been said about senator session character. we ve seen people who have never met senator sessions claim to know him, know his heart. we ve seen members of this body and members of the house of representatives just now who has worked with senator sessions and praised him for his work and now turn to attack him. this should not be. the reason we did not see a lot of this yesterday, during the hearing, is because the members of this committee know senator sessions. you know he s a strong conservative but you also know he s fair and honest. if you disagree because of his political views let s have a conversation about that but let s do it on the facts, not on 30 years of old innuendos and allegations that have been disproven. there s something very consistent about praising senator sessions for for aiding african-american communities and working on crack and powder cocaine legislation and then criticizing him because it takes a different political view on another matter like immigration. enforcing immigration laws is want out of the mainstream. on the panel that testified before this one, through personal attack after personal attack after personal attack, i doubt any one of those individuals attacking senator sessions outside of yesterday has spent 30 minutes in the same room with him. that s 30 minutes in the same room, not 30 minutes talking to him. i doubt any of them have spent 30 minutes or ten minutes talking to senator sessions. this process should not be about this process should be about facts, not about political aspirations. every allegation and witness from 30 years ago has been discredited. members in the media should move on. senator sessions testified yesterday that he would enforce the laws whether he agreed with them or not. that s the role of the attorney general. not to embrace every point of view in the shifting political winds. if you come before jeff sessions, you will get equal justice and you will respect the outcome even if you lose. how do i know this? i know it because i know jeff sessions. i m not testifying as someone who just met him yesterday. i know his family. i ve dined at his house. we ve eaten johnny rockets burgers together. i ve traveled across the state of alabama with jeff sessions. i ve watched him order a heath blizzard at dairy queen, quote, heavy on the heath. i ve watched him prepare for hearings. i debated him on legislative matters. i ve written speeches for him. i ve made speeches on his behalf. i ve been in every political situation with him. senator sessions is unquestionably qualified for the job, for which he s been nominated. he s a good christian sxhan a good family man. he s a man who s dedicated his life to public service. in the course of that he s absolutely fault for disenfranchised. not only did he fight for citizen reform, he accomplished it. he fought for civil rights. he prosecuted members of the klu klux klan. and he fought for all americans, regardless of the color of their skin or beliefs. this is the way it should be. after 20 years of knowing senator sessions, i have not seen the slightest evidence of racism because it does not exist. i know a racist when i see one, and i ve seen more than one. but jeff sessions is not one. senator sessions has served with distinction throughout his career as united states attorney, as attorney general for alabama, and as a member of this body. the legal profession is better for his service. this body is better for his service. and this country at the end of his term will be better for his service. and every season, jeff sessions has been measured, courteo and kind. he has treated me and everyone respectfully and fairly. not showing favoritism at any point. this is the kind of attorney general our nation needs. a mraud his selection. i look forward to his swift confirmation. thank you, war eagle. the record will stay open until tuesday. i thank all of you for your testimony and the hearing is adjourned. there you heard it from chairman grassley after an emotional series of speakers. and it was the congressman from louisiana who asked the very basic question, and that was, why this panel was going dead last in the hearings. our justice correspondent, pete williams, has been riding this news day and yesterday along with us. pete, we ve been whip-sawed between the donald trump news conference, the rex tillerson confirmation hearings, remembering all the while that this, the confirmation of jeff sessions for attorney general goes on. how are we to fit in what we just saw against the overall records so far with the sessions hearing? well, this is day two of these hearings. they all follow the same pattern. you get the nominee on the first day and then people for and against the nominee the second day. you ve just heard a little bit of that. this morning we had speaking in favor of senator sessions, former attorney general, former deputy attorney general, member of the commission on human rights, the president of the fraternal order of police, opposing him we had the president of the naacp, advocates for rape victims, of former dreamer, someone who came here illegally under age and became an army veteran and u.s. citizen. this afternoon this somewhat unusual panel, all african-americans, all given the opportunity basically to speak without the members asking them any questions. whereas, there were questions of the panel this morning. the committee chairman, charles grassley, said this is something he and the ranking democrat dianne feinstein worked out in order to give, in essence, a platform to those folks who wanted to talk about senator sessions this afternoon, but were not in the sort of pro and con interest group area. but passionate statement from cory booker, who became the first u.s. senator. we checked with senate historian s office on this. he is the first u.s. senator to ever testimony against the nomination of a fellow senator. but what he said this morning is that he had to choose between his conscience and his country and the senate norms. basically, the message from the civil rights community here has been that senator sessions both in his time as the federal prosecutor, a state attorney general and a senator, has not shown the commitment to aggressively pursuing civil rights that they want to see in an attorney general. he has said yesterday, he spent a lot of time saying he would enforce laws, even though he disagrees with, but what you just heard from this panel of civil rights people is that they want to see an attorney general nominee, somebody who doesn t merely show a tolerance for those laws but somebody who would aggressively enforce them. nonetheless, i don t think that this passionate testimony this afternoon is going to change the outcome. it does appear that senator sessions, it comesown to a matter of simple arithmetic. the republicans have et votes. they need to get him confirmed. we have not seen any signs that opponents of senator sessions have peeled away a sufficient number to deny him the confirmation. as for timing, brian, my guess is the democrats will do what they can do in these situations. normally they could go first of all, the committee can t consider the nomination until there s a president to nominate him. so, this is all doing their homework in advance. they can t vote on the nomination until donald trump is inaugurated and formally sends it up to the senate. then the democrats have the option of asking for ten extra days. they may well do that. if that s the schedule, we may see a vote on senator sessions maybe early the first full week in february. pete williams, our justice correspondent, thanks. our viewers might have noticed our other guest standing by to talk to us. that s the former chairman of the republican party, michael steele. michael, where do you stand on the sessions nomination? i m in support of it, number one. i find i found the hearing process to be largely pretty good. i think jeff sessions has handled this very well. he articulated his failure in the past to really appreciate
intelligence and heads of the cia, fbi and national security agency will brief the president-elect on alleged russian meddling in the presidential election, certainly he has called repeatedly challenged. he said, well, maybe it s not the case, maybe even sided with julian assange tweeting even last night questioning the validity of the information he s about to receive. well, we have it all covered for you from every angle. kristen welker, what do we expect will go down here? reporter: the backdrop to this briefing is very tense, that s for sure. you have the president-elect just last night again questioning the intelligence community. he was infuriated after details leaked out about the report and actually what s in the report and intelligence officials telling us that some of the details in the report include intercepts which prove that top russian officials were celebrating president-elect trump s win. we were also learning they ve identified some of the go-betweens who delivered some of that information. the president-elect is saying why is this information leaking out? he s been questioning these people who are going to brief him for weeks now. so this is tensions that have been building. but we re also being told these are career professionals. they re not going in to pick a fight. they re going to be firm in what they know. if the president-elect pushes, they re prepared to push back. will things get heated, that s the other question. is the president-elect going to actually believe the intelligence that he gets? you have experts who are looking at this situation and saying, look, it s critical to national security that he backs up his intelligence community. what we have is this unprecedented moment where a sitting commander in chief is creating a huge rift with the intelligence community that he s about to leave. we re also learning some new details. this meeting s going to take place at 12:30 and vice president elect mike pence is also going to be in attendance. we re going to be tracking it all, steph, the fireworks and everything else. it s going to be a party over there. i want to bring in hans nichols in washington, d.c. it sound like moments from now we re going to be getting the public version of this report. what do we expect? well, the public version could come out any moment now. we do expect it today. my colleague is reporting it. you ll have the public version and the private briefing that mr. trump will be receiving at 12:30. intelligence officials saying both of very powerful saying russia actively intervened to influential the election for donald trump. the question really is at trump tower is what s the standard of proof, the burden of proof and will donald trump sport upport . joining donald trump will be michael flynn, his incoming national security adviser, head of the nsc. what was important about mr. flynn is throughout his career, he s been very skeptical of intel coming in. look to see if there s any showdown between flynn and some of the folks that they re briefing, namely john brennan, seen of a foreign government trying to interfere with a u.s. election. john mccain calling this an act of war. i think all of that is putting pressure on donald trump. how does he respond to it? that s the key question. a lot of people speculating he s going to come out and say, okay, the findings do point to russia, however, this has been overhyped and overpoliticized. remains an open question, though. let s bring in republican strategist and member of trump s national spanish advisory council, steve cortez and strategist david corn. donald trump has publicly been a skeptic of these intelligence agencies and this information. but the fact that there s a lot of pressure there, he s meeting with the intelligence officials, now the public report is coming out. to kristen s point, it s been called an act of war. nancy pelosi said the content is stunning. what is donald trump going to do? i don t know but we ll find out shortly today or in the coming days. i think that skepticism of intelligence reports is okay. publicly? yes. had george w. bush been skeptical of the cia s conclusion, we might never have got i don t know involv gotten involved in that awful embroilio in iraq as we did had he taken a skeptical view. without a doubt that s why someone becomes the president because they are the last word but being a public skeptic, goading, antagonizing, calling it intelligence. who does that help? how does that make america great? the reason he s had to go public is because unfortunately there have been so many leaks out of our intelligence commute is they chose to go public. it would be wonderful for american national security if all of this could have been done behind closed doors. so two wrongs make a right? no, no. hacking is wrong. we can t have it from americans, not from china, russians or anyone, if it jeopardizes our security or our economic security. i think we ve been too lax about hacking. whatever the source of the hacks, what was revealed by all indications of the truth and the truth about the democratic party and about hillary clinton and her top staffers, the truth once revealed convinced americans the more they knew about them, the less they liked hersh the less they trusted them. david? i pity you, steve, to have to defend donald trump on this matter. he has said so many things that are just outright false. not that he s a skeptic. that s a polite way of saying it. he said weeks ago this wasn t an issue during the election, why are we seeing this now? david, don t talk ko condescending to me this way. i know exactly what they are. gentlemen, we re going to end this right now if you can t be respectful to one another. david? he just sort of made it up that this was a post-election issue. he said julian assange knows more than the intelligence community does. he hasn t prove i don t knn tha. he said he knew something special about the hacking he would tell us this past tuesday and wednesday. he didn t do that either. he s been spinning or fabricating and saying false and misleading statements on this issue for months and it all ties into the mystifying approach he has towards russia and putin and trying to dismiss this intervention. it s what the mainstream media has been saying for weeks is that the election was hand. that s not true. the dnc was hacked. steve. steve. steve. steve. steve, i m not going to let you before we go, steve, you basically said or as i understand donald trump has done this in response to all the leaks that are out there. but if you could help me understand why is it that donald trump continues this tweet storm, today alone going after arnold schwarzenegger and the apprentice and ratings. this is the president-elect. doesn t he have anything better to do? of course. listen, no one can doubt his work ethic and how hard he s been working at this transition. yes, you can. the president-elect is a very unique politician, right. he s our first please answer my question. he didn t come from the military please answer my question. i am. part of what makes him unique is the way he speaks so candidly and such authenticity to the american people. about trivial matters. and he has an extensive past as a television celebrity. it s important to him and important to his brand. it s part of what made him he s not a grownup. it s part of what made him run for president in the first place. the media thinks he doesn t talk like a politician so going after the ratings of the apprentice. the guy in charge of our nuclear codes, who is being briefed on whether the russians intervened, he has nothing better to do than to sort of go on this sort of i m better than you tweet storm against arnold schwarzenegger. he s not speaking to you. he s speaking to the american people. he needs to grow up. he s not speaking to washington, d.c. or new york, he s speaking to the american worker who has been forgot i don t know forgotten. and if you live in new york, you count, too. we ll have michelle obama s final speech as first lady. her last public address before the transition to trump. but first, four african-americans charged with streaming the attack of a white teen-ager. they re going to appear in court today to face hate crime charges. doll? 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[ bleep ], [ bleep ]. the actions in that video are reprehensible. that, along with racism, have absolutely no place in the city of chicago. anybody seeing it is both it s sickening and sickened by it. but this morning the victim s grandmother tells nbc news she hasn t seen it and won t. i don t think i could handle that. i don t want to watch him suffer. i know he did. reporter: investigators confirm the victim went to school with one of his alleged assailants, jordan hill. he met up with hill at a mcdonald s on new year s eve. what began as a sleepover lasted for several days. police found him disoriented tuesday afternoon. they then located the house they believe he was being tortured in about a block away. it has caused condemnation by black leaders. our community is embarrassed by the actions of these young men. their actions are very barbaric and we are outraged. reporter: as for the victim his siblings say he s doing as well as can be expected. some of the charges these four are facing here today are hate crime charges. they re also facing unlawful restraint, battery with a deadly weapon and kidnapping charges. if they re convicted on kidnapping, they could serve up to 30 years in prison. joining me is a criminal and civil tone. eric, that video is awful, awful. we re completely shocked by it. we haven t seen anything like this. how common is this type of thing? it s common. and i hate saying that and giving the world the information because so many of these children are doing crimes, committing crimes for attention. they do it on facebook live, they record it, they take pictures of themselves, whether it s a jewel thief or a burglar or a robber, they re trying to get attention and likes and that is the fuel behind something like this. the fact that it was recorded, that there s a 28-minute video, does that make it a slam dunk case? it does in certain aspects. the only potential issue is the hate crime statute. you have to prove that it was because of race or his disability at that it was a hate crime. on the surface it definitely appears that way, which i do expect the prosecution to start making offers and deals, this is almost a race to the prosecutor s office for them to get their client a deal before the others. is there where they ll turn on one another and point the finger at the ring leader? absolutely. the canaries are going to start singing very shortly. you may be my best friend but if we re going to prison, i need to get the best deal for me. could this video get thrown out? i doubt it. of course the defense lawyers are going to challenge the video except they are the ones that put the video out there. they are. i believe this would be admissible in court. i don t see a reason why it would not be admissible. but the defense attorneys will try to keep it out, benefit their client and get them the best deal. this is a slam dunk case because these young children were on camera doing this crime. can i say one thing? they don t get to be called children. they re adults. they re 18. they re 18. old enough to know better. and i agree with that. this is the type of thing that society one of them is 24 years old. i think the others are 17. if you re 17 or 18 years old, i hope to heaven that you know better than that kind of behavior. absolutely. that s where we have to get to the home values and the things we teach these children. this is not acceptable by anyone regardless of where you re from or what you do. this is sick. this is sick, this is what it is. we re going to take a break. just in, a brand new interview with donald trump answering questions about the u.s. intelligence assessment of russia s hacking. he is calling it a political witch hunt. what else did he have to say? plus my colleague andrea mitchell just sat down with outgoing secretary of state john kerry. she ll join me live with highlights of their one-on-one. on the outside you have to feel healthy at your core. trubiotics a probiotic from one a day. naturally helps support both your digestive and immune health. feel a difference in two weeks or your money back. take the trubiotics 2 week challenge. will your business be ready when growth presents itself? american express open cards can help you take on a new job, or fill a big order or expand your office and take on whatever comes next. find out how american express cards and services can help prepare you for growth at open.com. if this intelligent report is indeed unimpeachable. it s him showing you what he s going to say. he s telling the times he thinks this is a political witch hunt. this is donald trump, the next president of the united states basically saying he s an assignment editor here upset about the amount of coverage that news organizations are giving to this, basically saying it s sour grapes. in that interview with my friend over there at the new york times, michael sheer, great job getting donald trump on the phone saying the chinese hacked the white house, there wasn t that much attention there. it says two times in the interview this is a political witch hunt. we are going to get this report, the public version of it within the hour we thing. we ve already heard from nancy pelosi. and pelosi seemed a little upset the report didn t go farther. going forward i think we ll have two conversations, one, what trump wants it to be and that is is there too much information on this and how unassailable is the information prevented in the public side of this report. as we always reveal, our roaring tactics, we need to find michael sheer, get his cell phone and he likes to play poker, maybe we can get his cell phone. sheer s a great guy. i love that, hans nichols always working i want to stay on donald trump but something else that he is up to, all of this very, very serious business, he s in a different kind of twitter battlea twitter war with former california governor arnold schwarzenegger. i can t even believe we re talking about this, the terminator versus the donald with the president-elect about to be briefed on the potential russian hacking. what is he doing? these tweets went down as the gang of eight were briefed on this on the hill. so here you go. this was about four hours ago. president-elect donald trump also by the way executive producer of the show currently. while the ratings are in and arnold schwarzenegger got swamped, look drain the swamped or destroying the ratings machine by himself. now compare him to my season one, we ll do that in a second. but who cares? great question. so arnold comes right back at him and writes there s nothing more important than the people s work. keep in mind movie superstar arnold schwarzenegger/former governor of california. please study this quote from lincoln s inaugural, it inspired me every day as governor and i hope it inspires you. he posted a video. i m not sure i want to hear me read lincoln speeches in my accent. here we go we are not enemies but friends. we must not be enemies. we are not enemies, we are neighbors and most importantly we are all americans. this is the famous inaugural address where lincoln said the better angels of our nature, stephanie. what do the ratings look like? he s not wrong but he s not right, which is kind of tich ca typical of the twitter thing. if you compare it to the first episode of 2004, yes but that was novel. if you compared it to the last time donald trump debuted a season, it s 6.5 versus almost 5, so not a big difference. but again, he s the boss. he s the executive producer of the show, which makes you wonder why the whole thing is going on anyway. or maybe they re all playing us. guess what we re all doing today? talking about the apprentice. that s what donald trump wants to us do, talk about the apprentice. we re going to talk to you more about this planet and another one. a live look outside the international space station right this moment, i love these videos! two astronauts are upgrading the space station s electrical power system by swapping out batteries that have been in place for a decade or longer. the walk began at 7:00 this morning and is expected to last until 2 p.m. and back on earth, more than 90 million americans are bracing for a winter storm over the next two days. part of 29 states from the south into new england will be hit with snow, sleet or ice. north carolina could see up to a foot of snow. and just moments from now, michelle obama will give her last speech as first lady. her good-bye speech coming up. we re going to bring that to you live. please stay with us. . cheesy chipotle pork quesadillas? 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[ male announcer ] join the millions of people who have already enrolled in the only medicare supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp, an organization serving the needs of people 50 and over for generations. remember, all medicare supplement insurance plans help cover what medicare doesn t pay. and could save you in out-of-pocket medical costs. call now to request your free decision guide. and learn more about the kinds of plans that will be here for you now - and down the road. i have a lifetime of experience. so i know how important that is. i wanted to know where i did my ancestrydna. the most shocking result was that i m 26% native american. i had no idea. it s opened up a whole new world for me. historically we would have considered anything below 5% pretty good. the problem is that we ve got a low unemployment rate relatively but haven t seen wages push up all that much. in president obama s eight years in office, the tally per year has averaged to 1,419,000 jobs created every year of the eight years. here s how that stands. this is the 1.4 million in relation to the last six presidencies. jimmy carter created an environment in which the most jobs were produced, 2.5 million, reagan 2 million, george bush the first, 659,000, clinton 2.8 million. stephanie, as you know very well and our viewers know, presidents don t create jobs and sometimes they don t even create the environment. it could be something that happened before them but this is what the tally looks like. we shouldn t forget, it s not just the unemployment number. it s the underemployment number. all of those people who aren t even looking anymore. that s why normally this would be good, the 4.7%. because we have so many people who either have two jobs or are not satisfied in the job they ve got or not working enough hours, this is not giving you the answer you actually want. not giving us the picture we want. thank you, ali. next to the white house. michelle obama about to give her last speech as first lady. a look at her legacy next. it worked better than plavix. don t stop taking brilinta without talking to your doctor since stopping it too soon increases your risk of clots in your stent, heart attack, stroke, and even death. brilinta may cause bruising or bleeding more easily, or serious, sometimes fatal bleeding. don t take brilinta if you have bleeding, like stomach ulcers, a history of bleeding in the brain, or severe liver problems. tell your doctor about bleeding, new or unexpected shortness of breath, any planned surgery, and all medicines you take. talk to your doctor about brilinta. i m doing all i can. that includes brilinta. if you can t afford your medication, astra zeneca may be able to help. east room of the white house where michelle obama is about to deliver what will be her final speech as first lady. it follows a series of powerful and highly praised speeches over the last six to seven months. the first lady s remarks today will be at an event honoring the 2017 school counselor of the year. it s a tradition she started two years ago as part of her reach higher initiative. as we wait for the first lady, i m joined by nbc news chief washington correspondent chris jansing and amanda turkle. people on the stage right now are the finalist for the school counselor of the year. clearly this is a big day, a big moment for them. chris, you want to start with you. this is also a big moment for michelle obama. what do we expect to hear from her? expect passion. we saw it on the speeches she did on behalf of hillary clinton, particularly one where she answered some of the things that had been said by president-elect donald trump. she minced no words. remember, politics is not her first love, far from it. she is somebody who in fact has always loved working in a different kind of process, in community leadership and education is a big deal for her. so we shouldn t be surprised that the last event that she does in a public forum le this is honoring school counselors, is going to honor the counselor of the year. and we re also listening very closely for some clues about her post-white house plans. she s talked very little about them, but i do know from talking to people close to her, she will focus heavily on women and girls. it s been a passion for her, even from the time that she was very young, and for her it s very personal as someone who grew up on the south side of chicago in a one-bedroom house, within a stone s throw of one of the best universities in the country but she felt as a young girl of color the opportunities were not there for her. she was wait listed at harvard law school. of course she got in and graduated. everything that she could possibly want to do is out there for her, one of the things she will clearly focus on is education, stephanie. so we re waiting to hear some of those details today. amanda, do we think that passion could be paired at all with pessimism? in her last interview where she sat down with oprah winfrey, she talked about a feeling of hopelessness as she talked about the new administration. that may be true but especially recently her speeches have been incredibly optimistic. you look at the speech at democratic national convention, her main line has been when they go low, we go high. that has encapsulated especially how she has approached especially the end of her tenure. she gave another remarkable speech during the campaign when she talked about what a strong man actually looks like and that they don t need to put down women, obviously responding to some of the remarks that donald trump made and she has really tried to be out there, be a role model for children because education is such an important issue to her. you know, i think we will see more of that tone perhaps. ron, what does this mean to michelle obama? we know she s spent a lot of time in the last few months on the campaign trail for hillary clinton, something she didn t want to do. politics isn t something she likes. but at the time she thought it was so important, specifically the messaging, what she needed to do for women and girls and hillary clinton was not elected to be the next president. so what does this speech today mean to michele? the program retire is about inspiring young people, especially young girls to do that, retirach higher, aspire beyond high schools, two year colleges, trade schools. it s her position that to succeed in society these days, you need more than a high school diploma. i think she has a lot to say, the first lady does. she has a lot to get off her chest. i think she ll be a fascinating person to talk to once the obamas leave the white house because she has played this role of first lady, which i think has restrained her in some ways. i think it will be a lot of optimism, a lot of positivity. i think some of the most enduring aspt of the obama legacy is the role model that they have been to so many young people of color in this country, who see them in the white house, who see them as the first family, who see them as a family with two very accomplished young children, who are now older of course. but i think that s what this event is. she likes to be in this kind of an environment where there are young people around, where she can be inspiring, where people will look up to her and where she can tell them essentially you can be me, you can do this. you just have to get past all these obstacles that are in your way. and the obamas are some of the first to say that there are in fact obstacles, that it is different for young people of color to get ahead in this society and they re very proud as well of some of the policies and education space, like the high school graduation rate of being the highest in the nation. the president set a goal of trying to increase the number of americans in college to a higher level than it s been in the past. again, i think this is an vant for the first lady really to just be the inspiring person that she s been, to set the example, to fill the room with optimism, with hope, with a positive vibe as we go through yet another of these last and final moments here at the white house for the past week or so. it seems like every day there s been a last farewell, final moment. it s a very emotional time here for a lot of people, for the staff, for the obamas i m sure. i think you ll see some of that come throughs well. the christmas event a month ago, she was very, very emotional when talking to military families. military families are another cause, another group she s really tried to support wholeheartedly in her time at the white house. if i can tell you a personal story, at the christmas parties, you have your picture taken with the president and first lady and last year i brought one of my brothers with me as my date. you re moving through fairly quickly, you don t have a time for real conversation. as we were walking away, she was thanking my brother. and i said for 30 years he was a school teacher. she stopped everything and spoke with him. that tells you a little bit how education is a priority for her. and she talked about the privacy of her daughters as much as she could. and we don t see a tremendous amount of her children. they are children of privilege and i need to stop you. michelle obama, the first lady, giving her last public speech. [ cheers and applause ] what s going on? thank you all so much. you guys, that s a command. rest yourselves. we re almost at the end. hello, everyone, and may i say for the last time officially welcome to the white house. [ applause ] yes. well, we are beyond thrilled to have you all here to celebrate the 20 national school counlor of the year, as well as all of our sta counselors of the year. these are the fine women and a few good men one good man who are on the stage and they represent schools from across this country and i want to start by thanking terry for that wonderful introduction and her right-on-the-spot remarks. i m going to say more about terry in a few minutes. first i want to introduce our outstanding secretary of education, john king. [ applause ] as well as our former education secretary arnie duncan. [ applause ] i want to take this time to thank you both publicly for your dedication and leadership and friendship. we couldn t do this without the support of the department of education under both of your leadership. so i m grateful to you personally and very proud of all that you ve done for this country. i also want to acknowledge a few other special guests we have in the audience. we ve got a pretty awesome crew. as one of my staff said, you roll pretty few good friends. we have with us today ted allen, lala anthony, cony britton, andy cohen, yeah, andy cohen is here. karla hall, coach jim harbaugh and his beautiful wife who is a lot better looking than him. lana pariya, my buddy jay farrow, kelly roland, usher. keep it down. keep it together, ladies, waleh is here and of course allison williams and her mom are here and all these folks are here because they re using their star power to inspire our young people and i m grateful for you for stepping up in so many ways on so many occasions. i feel like i ve pestered you over these years asking time and time again where are you going to be? i ll be in new york. can you come here, can you do this, take that, ask for that, can you come? can we rap? can we sing? so thank you all so much. it really means the world to this initiative to have such powerful respected and admired individuals speaking on behalf of this issue. so congratulations on the work that you ve done and we re going to keep working. and today, i especially want to recognize all the extraordinary leadership team that was behind reach hire from day one and this isn t on the script so they don t know this. iant to take time to personally acknowledge a couple people, executive director eric waldo. [ cheers and applause ] where is eric? he was in the you got to step out. [ cheers and applause ] step out there. there we go for eric. eric acting like he s a ham but he likes the spotlight. he s acting a little shy. i want to recognize our deputy director, stephanie sprouse. stephanie. [ cheers and applause ] stephanie. back there. and he s really not going to like this because he tries to pretend like he doesn t exist at all but our senior adviser greg darneter. [ cheers and applause ] there you go. greg has been a leader in education his entire life. i ve known him since i was a little organizer person, and it s just been just a joy to work with you all. these individuals, they are brilliant. they are creative. they have worked miracles with hardly any staff or budget to speak of, which is how we roll in the first lady s office. and i am so proud and so grateful to you all for everything that you ve done so let s give them a round of applause. and finally i want to recognize all of you who are here in this audience. we have our educators, our lead leaders, our young people who have been with us since we launched reach hire back in 2014. when we first came up with this idea, we had one clear goal in mind. we wanted to make higher education cool. we wanted to change the conversation around what it means and what it takes to be a success in this country. because let s be honest, if we re always shining the spotlight on professional athletes or recording artists or hollywood celebrities, if those are the only achievements we celebrate, then why would we ever think kids would see clem as a p college as a priority so we decided to flip the script and shine a big bright spotlight on all things educational. for example, we made college signing day a national event. we wanted to mimic all that drama and excitement traditionally reserved for those few amazing football and basketball players choosing their college and university teams. we wanted to focus that same level of energy and attention on kids going to college because of their academic achievements, because as a nation, that s where the spotlight should also be, on kids who work hard in school and do the right thing when no one s watching. many beating daunting odds. next, we launched better make room. it a social media campaign to give young people the support and inspiration they need to actually complete higher education, and to really drive that message home, you may recall that i debuted my music career rapping with jay about getting some knowledge by going to college. [ cheers and applause ] we are also very proud of all that this administration has done to make higher education more affordable. we doubled investments in pell grants and college tax credits. we expanded income-based loan repayment options for tens of millions of students. we made it easier to apply for financial aid. we created a college scorecard to help students make good decisions about higher education and we provided new funding and support for school counselors. [ cheers and applause ] thank you. you re welcome. all together we made in this administration the largest investment in higher education since the gi bill. [ cheers and applause ] and today the high school graduation rate is at a record high, and more young people than ever before are going to college, and we know that school counselors like all of the folks standing with me on this stage have played a critical role in lping get there. in fact a recent study showed students who met with a school counselor to talk about financial aid or college were three times more likely to attend college, and they were nearly seven times more likely to apply for financial aid. so our school counselors are truly among the heroes of the reach higher story, and that s why we created this event two years ago, because we thought that they should finally get some recognition. we wanted everyone to know about the difference that these phenomenal men and women have been making in the lives of our young people every day, and our 2017 school counselor of the year, terry trcyzinskcy a perfect example. terry works at the calhoun area career center, career and technical education school in michigan, and here s what terry s principal said about her in his letter of recommendation. he said once she identifies a systemic need, she works tirelessly to address it. so when students at terry s school reported feeling unprepared to apply for higher education, terry sprang into action to create a school-wide top-to-bottom college readiness effort. under terry s leadership students attended workshops on resume completion, fasfa completion, and ierview preparation, i can barely say it. they did career and personal personality assessments, they helped plan a special college week and organized a military day, hosting recruiters from all branches of our armed forces, and because of these efforts today, 75% of calhoun s seniors now complete key college application steps and terry s school has one state and national recognition, and all of this is just one small part of what terry does for her students each day. i can go on and on about all the time she spends one on one with students helping them figure out their life path. terry told us, as you heard, she told us about one of those students. we reached out to kyra, and here s what kyra had to say in her own words. kyra wrote that mrs. trcyzinski has helped me grow to love myself. she helped me with my doubts and insecurities. she said, my life has changed for the better in all aspects. kyra said she held my hand through my hardest times. she said mrs. trcyzinski is my life saver. that s what kyra said. and this is what each of you do. every single day. you see the promise in each of your students. you believe in them even when