use to race. >> very fine people, on both sides. welcome to new year's eve sunday, it's "meet the press." >>> from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history, this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. >>> good sunday morning and a happy new year's eve to everyone. almost from the moment he put his left hand on the bible at his inauguration, president trump signalled to the country that his presidency would be different. different in ways that would thrill millions, and different in ways that would appall millions more. it began with a jarring comment about the state of the country. >> this american carnage stops right here and stops right now. >> within a day, press secretary sean spicer lectured white house reporters arguing implausibly that more people witnessed donald trump's inauguration than president obama's and a day later here on "meet the press," the president's counsellor, kellyanne conway offered this explanation. >> sean spicer, our press secretary gave alternative facts. >> that inauguration weekend kicked off a year of friction between the

regulatory rollbacks of obama's regulations using the congressional review act. but once passed, through the end there weren't a lot of high points because they spent most of middle of the year trying toç reform obamacare. that was a failure. but, you know, they've gone off on a true high. the economy is strong, tax reform act should probably propel that economy, so they've got the winds at their back going into the 2018. paul: we do want to talk about the economy in more detail later, mary, but i think the deregulatory agenda is really both what congress did with the congressional review act. it'd only been used once before, i think they've used it 13 or 14 times this year. but what they did in trump's agencies with this idea of a regulatory budget, if you're going to add a regulation, you better get rid of others, i think that that is an unsung triumph this year. >> right. and that goes to another big accomplishment which is the people he put in some of these places were so key. people like scott pruitt at the epa, scott gottlieb at the fda and sort of an awareness that the hostility to b

us from london. here in new york giddeon rose and a distinguished fellow at the hudson institute. you tried to make sense of donald trump's foreign policy. so i thought it was the most articulate account. so lay it out. >> well, you know, i think in some ways american foreign policy has been to build this increasing complexity weight and density. we never really as a country after 1990 had the same kind we had in 1945 to 1947. thece sense was it was the end history. we could do a lot of things as we cut defense budgets and it wouldn't be a problem. over time it's become more of a problem. the foreign policy is harder to explain. there has been a withdraw of public concept from this large global foreign policy. we say to the exat the present time -- extent it would be recognizing that gap. woe a we are seeing an effort to rebuild that can be defended to the american people and have some kind of support. >> so is that fair? it was global urnderreach. >> one could make that case for the administration for certain aspect of the foreign policy in terms of what they are doing. in practice i

our enemies. those that would do us ill seem to be able to take advantage of the uncertainty as well. you mentioned russia and china. my expectations that will continue to be the case for them as well as iran and north korea. >> let me tell you what the white house says. h.r. mcmaster, the national security adviser, who you know well, says he has been moved out of his comfort zone, as well as others in the white house. yet his advisers, according to "the new york times" argue he's blown the cobwebs off decades of foreign policy doctrine. and as he approaches his first anniversary he's learned the realities of the world in which the united states must operate. do you see that happening at all? >> well, certainly, i would say he's -- he's been incredibly disruptive with respect to the institutions. the commitments. the leadership. where we have been for the last 70 years. i think a big question for us as the american people is whether we continue to support the institutions and all they represent in a world that is chaotic, as you pointed out in your opening. that becomes a fundamental

that conversation. the editor and chief of "the economist" joins us from london and here in new york, gidden rose and russell immediamade --. you tried to make sense of donald trump's foreign policy or donald trump brings foreign policy back to earth. so i thought it was perhaps the most articulate plausible account of what might be the best case as it were. so lay it out. >> well, you know, i think that in someways american foreign policy since the end of the cold war has been to build this very imposing increasing complexity weight and density but we never really as a country after 1990 had the same kind of conversation we had, say, in 199 or 1945 to 1947. the sense was, it was the end of history. we could do a lot of things. we could do a lot of things as we cut defense budgets and cut aid budgets and it wouldn't be right. over time, the foreign policy is harder to explain to the average person. there is a kind of a palpable withdraw. to the extent there is a construct tiive agenda, it woule recognizing that gap and i think with people like secretary mattias, national security adv

. >> garrett, thanks so much. stay with us. matt, one of the reporters who going to join us to talk more about it. >>> joining me now is one of the president's fear es critics. congressman maxine waters great to have you on this saturday. >> thank you. >> let me talk about this interview this week wide ranging spontaneous interview that lasted about 30 minutes. what's your reaction to the substance broadly of what they discussed? >> well, first of all, it's very interesting that the president sat with the "new york times" journalists without any of his aides, anybody around, and he said over and over and over again there has been no collusion. he has a way of repeating things over and over again so as to believe and make others believe that somehow he knows what he's talking about. and he believes the more you say it, the more you can make people believe it. so he used a lot of that time simply repeating that there was no collusion. the other thing that was very interesting about this interview was the fact that he tried to say he thought that mueller would treat him fairly. i think that

calculated on what he talks about. big take away he wanted us to get, he believes there was no collusion with russia. it is interesting that he asked about jeff sessions. clearly he is still having problems with his attorney general reducing himself from the russian investigation. he said he doesn't want to talk about loyalty, he moves on to say i have a lot of respect for the fact that eric holder, president obama's attorney general, had his back, was loyal to him. clearly he is still having issues with the jeff sessions issue. and lastly, you talk about china, another issue he wanted to talk about obviously, he has been praising of ping, saying the reception in china was amazing. on the other hand, now saying we have to get tougher with them, they may be doing the exact opposite of what we agreed to. these are things he wanted to talk about. it is indicative when he sits down with a reporter like that. >> he is defending his strategy. here's what he said on msnbc. >> the president is a difficult person to interview. he can move quickly from one subject to another, he is very difficult

: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> sreenivasan: an arctic cold wave still dominates the nation's weather tonight. it's blamed for several deaths, and it's making life miserable for millions of people. that includes new york, where a dozen people died last night, in the city's worst residential fire in decades. john yang begins our coverage. >> yang: it was just 15 degrees when the bronx blaze erupted, forcing firefighters to battle both the fire and the cold. residents escaping the flames had to brave the elements. >> all i see is a bunch of kids on the fire escape-- cold, and with no jacket, no pajamas, no nothing. >> yang: the city's fire commissioner said today the fire was started by a child playing with a st

for being with us. >> happy new year. >>> as peak shipping season wraps up, president trump taking shots at the postal service, tweeting today, why is the united states post office which is losing many billions of dollars a year while charging amazon and others to little to deliver their packages, making amazon richer, the post office dumber and poorer? should be char now, the president has never been a big fan of amazon ceo jeff bezos. but does he have a point? morgan brennan delves into the finances of delivering packages. >> reporter: the u.s. postal service does make money on package delivers, but margins are thin compared to regular mail. >> it's subsidized its parcel delivery, that's why its rates are less than ups or fedex. >> reporter: the postal service probably should be charging more. starting next year, rates in fact will be going up. regulators dictate those prices. critics argue they're still artificially low, something fedex and ups have voiced concern about on the hill. for its part, amazon relies heavily on the postal service for the last mile to home. two-thirds o

white house in west palm beach and joins us with more. >> president trump thrown immigration issues to the congress. now he is telling democrats precisely what he wants. >> president trump will deal with democrats though he has conditions. he tweeted: >> i am here to announce that the program known as daca that was started under the obama administration is being rescinded. >> through executive action, president obama created daca to protect those brought to the country illegally as children. the trump administration is ending those protections. arguing it's congress's role to set immigration policy. >> i have a love for these people and hopefully congress can help them properly. >> democrats and republican congressional leaders will meet wednesday with the white house legislative director and the budget head to discuss immigration. government spending and other issues. in a 30 minute interview with the "new york times," the president wants democrats and republicans to work together on health care and the trillion dollars infrastructure package and told the "times" about robert mueller:

a small child who started it. plus, cold shoulder. president trump tweets the east coast could use a little global warming, but the joke may be lost on americans suffering from wildfires, floods and hurricanes. welcome to "the lead." i am in for jake tapper. down in florida away from many of his aides and mingling at his golf club, in an interview with the "new york times" the president sounded a tone about special counsel robert mueller even as he repeatedly insisted there was no collusion with russia, and on twitter he's making a series of claims that don't always comport with the facts. we will come through it all with my panel, but first let's go to cnn's ryan nobles who is joining us from west palm beach. we heard a lot from the president over the past 24 hours despite the fact he's still on a working vacation, and he's still golfing but got his messages out, many of them. >> reporter: that's right, dana, and the president has made news on a number of topics, including in a wide-ranging interview with the "new york times" that could serve as a preview to his second year in offic

. thanks for joining us today. i'm jon scott and for dana. here's rick leventhal and for shep. >> rick: president trump making all kinds of news now, telling mccarthy wants a borderline immigration reform, otherwise don't expect any help for young immigrants illegally brought here as kids. the president also talking about the russia metal investigation, saying there's no conclusion. telling "the new york times" that robert mueller will be fair. the president also weighing in on lots of other topics from his new tax law to attorney general jeff sessions and the former republican alabama senate candidate roy moore. also why trump says he will have no problem winning another term. it's the last business day of the year, so could be her last chance to prepay some taxes before the new irs rules kick in. what you need to know, and the rest of today's top stories in this hour of "shephard smith reporting" ." ♪ >> rick: i'm rick leventhal and for shepard smith. president trump sitting down for an interview with "new york times" that his golf club in florida, claiming a rush investigation is

. today the president invited members of the u.s. coast guard to play golf with him. now joining us from west palm beach. sara murray, we know he often taunts "the new york times" as failing. tell us more about this interview. >> reporter: well, apparently he got over that last night. but impromptu interview. "new york times" reporter apparently reported to the club by chris ruddy, ceo of news max and friend of president trump. and on today here's what he had to say. >> it certainly wasn't the plan. michael was a guest of mine with a couple of other people, including andrew stein, former president of manhattan, and the president enjoyed his conversation with michael. and they did an interview of quite a lengthy interview, but you know the president is a guy who likes to speak his mind and he doesn't necessarily follow protocols all the time. >> reporter: and it was a lengthy interview, indeed. in addition to talking at length about the russian investigation saying the president won't call fr an end to it, but he believes in fact that robert mueller will treat him fairly, the preside

ryan nobles joining us live from west palm beach near mar-a-lago. what else can you tell us about this interview? >> reporter: well, this was a pretty revealing and wide ranging interview, ana, many ways sets the stage for donald trump second year in office. you are right, he talked quite a bit about that investigation into collusion with his campaign and the russia government. he even talked about robert mueller who is special counsel investigating that matter. and even though he's called robert mueller's investigation a witch hunt he says in this interview he believes robert mueller will be fair and ultimately will not reveal any results. also talks about jeff sessions and china and their role in dealing with the north korea situation and also talked about his electoral victory and defended the fact that he won the electoral college and not the popular vote. what's interesting about this interview, ana, is the way this came down. while the president was at his golf club in south florida, in west palm beach, it's actually not mar-a-lago, trump international golf course, he happen

, thank you so much for joining us. unscript and on the record, president trump gives an impromptu and wide ranging interview to the "new york times" and said the russia investigation is making the u.s. look bad. from russia with regret. the kremlin sizes up relations calling the current state of affairs one of the major disappointments of the year. and china rejects trump's accusation of violating sanctions against north korea and not doing enough to end the standoff. up first, president trump has a message for democrats. no protection for the dreamers without the border wall and changes to immigration. in a tweet the president said democrats have been told and fully understand there can be no daca without the desperately needed wall without the chain migration and ridiculous lottery system. we must protect our country at all cost. he gave an impromptu interview to the "new york times." the president is spending the holidays at mar a lago. fill us in on what he told the "new york times." >> it seems clear over the past couple of days that the president is setting the stage and laying

quoted him saying he was hitting the golf ball a little less far than he used to, which didn't sound quite as angry or struggling. what did youty? >> i think that he gets very frustrated. his level of frustration didn't seem different than it's been about the russian investigation in general. i think this shan annoying terrible cloud over him at times that he blames on jeff sessions and that, but i think he has this confidence that it will come and go. at the same time, i think he sometimes thinks the more he says there is no collusion the more true that it makes it. he said time and time again in the interview, coming back to it and repeating it. in terms of nextier, i was struck by the fact that he talked a lot about doing deals with the democrats, talking about infrastructure, talking about health care. i sort of said to him, are you moving to the center here the old deal-maker here? he didn't like the idea that he was moving to the center. he said, look, i would have done deals before, i think we can do them now, too, with the democrats. he kept on talking about that, how he thou

and dare i use the word ineffable interview, indescribable interview that broke in your hour. and since you have been breaking the story, we just obtained the entire transcript, 18 pages, of the rest of the >> i am marking it up and i will be right there. >> i will only add this was not planned because i didn't know the president was going to sit down and do an interview without a lawyer or aide and talk to "the times" and i didn't know i would need joy reid and see you soon. >> excellent. see you in a bit. >> thank you, joy. >> bye. >> as she mentioned, i'm ari melber in for lawrence o'donnell here in new york on a breaking news night. in addition to joy, lawrence will be joining this show live later this hour. but the breaking news is as discussed. the president sitting down for what appears to be a completely unplanned impromptu interview. no aide present. no lawyer present. nobody on team trump present which is not how presidents usually do any interview and this was about half an hour of grilling as we mentioned by "the new york times." it took place at trump's golf club in w

us now former secret service agent and conservator contributor dan bongino, kayleigh mcenany and former clinton pollster and our friend doug schoen, let me go right to you. the man in the center, politically, we will call you that. what do you say to speaker gingrich's prediction that there will be a shock in the republican quarters? >> well, i would say to my good friend newt gingrich, go back to 1994 when the democrats passed a tax bill with no republican support and it led to a d republican wave for america, and i think with president trump at a level of approval in the mid-30s, the democrats with an 11-point lead in the generic vote, and history suggesting that in the midterm of a first-term president, that there is an average of 24-30 odd seatt picking up in the house, it is much more likely that the democrats have the blue wave that you spoke of, david, than that there be a republican wave. >> david: is this the same environment as 1994? i've said this before, we have a generational change, change ine the electorate, you look at the change in the legislature, i understand d

thing he still hasn't done more than two weeks since election night is concede. joining us now from montgomery, alabama, cnn's diane gallagher. first off, diane, what's in the new statement from the moore team? >> i can tell you what's not in there, john. and that's an official concession. i want to give you just a little bit of a synopsis of what's in there a little bit here. he says, election fraud experts across the country have agreed that this was a fraudulent election. he then says, i have stood for the truth about god and the constitution for the people of alabama. i have no regrets. to god be the glory. >> a little bit of a clarification there, in his statement, by election experts across the country, you must assume that he means the three election experts that were quoted in his lawsuit. one of whom is a bit of a notorious conspiracy theorist, someone who peddles jfk assassination theorys and the dnc staffer seth rich's murder. also, you mentioned the polygraph test that roy moore says he took after the election about those allegations. well, roy moore signed an affidavit

a senior political scientist at the rand corperation and can help us understand today's attack. what's the status of i.s.i.s. in afghanistan? >> i.s.i.s. has proven to be a surprisingly resilient force in afghanistan over the last couple of years. it emerged in early 2015, predominantly composed of former pakistani taliban, that is a different group than the afghan taliban, though it has undoubtedly attracted some local adherence, as well, including other militant groups such as the islamic movement of uzbekistan, which is an afghanistan-focused group. it has suffered considerable pressure from the u.s. forces in afghanistan, from afghan government forces and, indeed, from afghan taliban forces as well, but, despite claims of success and the progress against the group in afghanistan over the last year and a half, as you saw in today's events there, it has proven resilient and it has proven able to regenerate its forces. >> sreenivasan: how much of this is due to the porous and somewhat lawless border with pakistan? >> that's certainly a factor that facilitates the endurance of

in the forecast, as well. abc's alex perez starts us off from erie, pennsylvania. >> reporter: tonight, 200 million americans bundled from head to toe, that dangerous cold snap gripping more than half the country. from the northeast, where temperatures are 15 to 30 degrees below normal, freezing fountains in philadelphia and new york. to chicago. at midway airport, it was too cold to fly. more than 80 nights canceled. >> nobody offered any answers, no solutions, anything like that. >> reporter: officials warning, the cold could be deadly, especially for the very young and the very old. >> extreme weather is more than an inconvenience, it remains a serious and potentially life-threatening event. >> reporter: shelters overflowing with people trying to escape the frigid temperatures. the arctic temps shattering record after record. 17 below zero in flint, michigan. 32 below in watertown, new york. and in cotton, minnesota, an unbearable 41 below zero. >> it feels like your skin is going to be on fire. >> reporter: tonight, it is colder in cotton than in parts of siberia. meanwhil

bridge. jeannie moos, cnn, new york. >> have we got any water? thanks for joining us. ac "360" starts now. >>> accused child molester loses election, is the only plausible explanation really voter fraud? i'm in for anderson, state of alabama made it official, certifying that roy moore lost. doug jones won by more than 25,000 votes. judge threw out last minute attempt by moore to block proceedings. on top of the statement that moore took and passed polygraph on the allegations against us. still hasn't done since election night? concede. diane, what is in the new statement from the moore team. >> what's not in there, official concession. i want to give you a little bit of a synopsis of what is in there. he says election fraud experts across the country have agreed this was fraudulent election. he then says i've stood for the truth about god and the constitution for the people of alabama. i have no regrets. to god be the glory. clarification. election experts across the country you have to assume he means the ones quoted in his lawsuit, one a notorious conspiracy theorist, jfk an

palm beach, florida and what can you tell us about why the president is issuing this warning to china today. these images aren't new. >> well it's a little bit of a mystery as you pointed out, there were these reports coming out of south korea media. the chinese deny they were taking part in any kind of sales of oil that would violate u.n. sanctions. the treasury department note d last month that there were north korea ben shipping companies that were attempting these ship to ship transfers likely of oil to evade u.n. sanctions, but the president is on vacation here in mar-a-lago. he was on the golf course when the tweet was sent. we've reached out to a number of of his aides at national security counsel. was there something new that set off the president? some new piece of information he had confirmed? did he know there was a new transfer attempt and we got no response ch it's worth remembering that the president travel wg a very thin staff when he goes on vacations like this. so it's possible that even his own staffers don't knowd the pr to send this tweet today. >> all right,

. make sure to use your dvr. now it's time to go to mike emanuel. he's my only friend. >> aren't you usually taking a nap this time of day? >> i am. that's why i didn't make much sense. >> thanks for staying away. the heat is on at the fbi as a top republican says the agency is falling short on answering congress' questions. sorting fact or fiction. the president is planning on signing more legislation than any other administration. and we look at what is on the agenda for 2018. this is "special report." good evening. welcome to washington. i'm mike emanuel in for bret baier. another republican condemns the nation's top law enforcement agency over failing to comply with its probe into the so-called trump dossier. the chairman of the house intelligence committee says the justice department and the fbi's lack of action can no longer with tolerated. this after another republican congressman caused quite the stir when he called for a "purge" of the fbi following reports of political bias among its ranks. kevin corke joins us with the details. >> great to see you, mike, this is our first

sarah murray joins me now from west palm beach. sarah, give us sop insight into what bottomed this tweet. >> reporter: well dana, as you mentioned, this is a tweet that was sent from the president's account when he was at his golf course today. here's what it said, caught red handed, very disappointed that china is allowing oil to go into north korea. there will never be a friendly solution to the north korea problem if this continues to happen. so, of course the question is what set the president off? what got him thinking about this issue? there are reports coming out of south korea saying that there were chinese and north korean ships that linked up and attempted to transfer oil, but there was also a report from the treasury department last month that noted that there were north korean shipping companies that were trying to do these kinds of ship to ship transfers likely of oil to try to avoid these u.n. sanctions. now as for china, it insists that it did not sell oil to north korea in violation of these sanctions, but we still don't have a clear answer from the white house or f

briefing." thanks for joining us. i'm john scott. >> rick: new year, new agenda. republican congressional leaders agreeing to meet with president trump to stake out a plan for 2018. from the white house, some mixed signals on healthcare. secretary of state rex tillerson is defending the foreign policy effortses of the last year. ahead what he said the trump team has accomplished. also, this is as cold as it gets in some ports. record lows, freezing a lot of folks in the north and the northeast. don't look for warmer weather any time soon. plus, terrifying moments when a train flew off the tracks. emergency calls showing how people reacted in the seconds after the crash. >> 911. what are you reporting? >> we're in an amtrak train accident. we're south of tacoma and north of olympia. >> rick: that in this day's news in "shepard smith reporting." i'm rick leventhal in for shepard smith. president trump praising his accomplishments so far in the white house, pointing to the gop's tax plan and the economy and tweeting "you haven't seen anything yet." of course, some critics are saying that the

more can you tell us about it? >> so it's sort of is a bit confusing as to why it was that included, that information, in the motion, the lawsuit to begin with. but i want you to listen to something that happened between roy moore spokesperson and dana bash earlier today as to why they thought it was important to put in there. >> can you give me the circumstances of that polygraph test? who administered it? were there witnesses? so and so forth. >> that's all been submitted to the court. i think it's connected to the complaint zb but most people aren't reading all 84 pages. >> all i know it's a renown independent expert that he went before and took the polygraph test, not surprising to anyone who knows judge moore he passed it, he never knew these women and engaged in sexual conduct. what a surprise. it's not. >> why take the polygraph almost a month between the time these allegations came out and his election day? >> dana, we may not agree on much, but you and i agree on that. i would say if i was the rone running the campaign i would see that done. but where we are right now he pa

disproven. but he talked about the fact that there was a higher voter turn out. they used this analysis from they called three election experts who one of whom is sort of a conspiracy theorist who talks about the assassination of jfk and dnc staffer rich. they pointed to certain areas like jefferson county that have high african-american population and had high turnout and looked at the precincts and found it unusual they would have such high turnout. roy moore also alleged that perhaps people came in from out of state and voted with out of state driver's licenses. they used youtube videos to back those claims up that, again, secretary of state looked into, and they were not voter fraud instances, he determined. that was a person who actually had an alabama driver's license and was resident and just misspoke when he was talking online. so a lot of these cases, anna, seem to be things that he grasped at online. i can tell you that the secretary of state's office, they have been answering phones since we have been here nonstop with people calling, you know, either issuing complai

watching, thank you so much for joining us. last minute legal ploy. roy moore issues a new challenge to the out come of the alabama senate race he lost. state officials are set to certify the results. defending u.s. diplomacy, rex tillerson writes an oped on north korea, china and russia. moscow calls it confrontational and republican retreat. president trump and gop leaders plan to gather at camp david days from now. we will preview to map out the republican agenda. in less than an hour, it will be official. doug jones will be certified the winner of the race. roy moore is not giving up without a fight. he is alleging voter fraud and calling for a delay and certifying the results. the secretary of state said that's not going to happen. we will talk with john merrill in a few minutes. we want to bring in diane gallagher in montgomery, alabama. walk us through the specifics of roy moore's complaint. >> so bryanna, initially the goal of the complaint is first they would like a new election. a do-over. if they can't get that, they would like for the secretary of state to investigate the cl

himself. >> the white house in some ways are in the same position the rest of us are, and we don't know what's going on inside that mueller investigation. i know a couple months ago the name papadopoulos came up. none of us had been talking about it. it turned out mueller was going there. there is an element here from everybody either involved or watching the story and trying to figure out what all the possible contingencies here are. >> to go back to your point and the discussion with julia, i think what's less significant here is not the substance but the timing. the timing of this is most interesting to me because you'll remember that the president's lawyers had a session with mueller's team just last week. so days after their session with mueller's lawyers, we're now hearing this clear twist in strategy, this clear veering from the road that trump and his team were on before. so what we have now is a carrot and a stick strategy. the carrot is where the president was calling flynn a wonderful man, a goodm man, telling reporter mike isikof to stay strong. we're now hearing there

in office, specifically to give us a grade of what you think the president's first year in office has been like. you can grade that on a lot of fronts. but give us a grade for the president and tell us why. ou can call us at 202-748-8001 for republicans. 202-748-8000 for democrats and independents. 202-748-8002. if you want to post on twitter, it's twitter.com/cspanwj. about seven of you this morning so far, and on our facebook, at facebook.com/cspan. ari fleischer who served in the george w. bush administration has an op-ed talking about the president's first year. too many flags in trump's first quarter, he says. to grade his performance in football termsen he deserves credit for moving the ball down the field over several different drives but he also committed so many unnecessary roughness penalties along with giving up one huge fumble that he may have to give up 200 yards to score one touchdown. -- ari fleischer goes on to say but often mr. trump runs himself too hot to handle. -- host: again, that's some of the comments from ari fleischer this morning when it comes to the preside

. the administration asked us to provide anti-tank weapons. he was the odd man out in the administration and would never do it. this administration thought about it for a year and finally, i think we are doing the right thing, giving the people of ukraine the ability to defend themselves. that was the most interesting thing the administration has done with russia. sanctions are up because of congress, not the administration. >> north korea. this is the point of the op-ed where you take exception. >> they must earn their right to the table. it sounds conditional to me. then he talked about the only acceptable outcome being denuclearization. that's saying we don't care about it. they are not going wake up tomorrow or the day after and say uncle. the sanctions will never be enough to give up their missile inventory. that is their self-preservation. we need to think about what is an interim arrangement? what can we do. freeze them. stop their testing. i'm not saying give up our military exercise. there's a range of things we could put on the table and i don't see that from thi

>> download the fox news app and take it with you everywhere. >> 30 seconds. now, that's it for us. "special report" is next. mike is filling in for bret baier: >> mike: good to see all of you at the five. thanks, chris. president trump gets unsolicited social media advice from former president obama. look at north korea's nuclear weapons progress in 2017. and who is the worst republican governor in america? this is "special report." ♪ ♪ >> mike: good evening. i'm mike emanuel in for bret baier, president trump is once again touting the stock market as evidence the economy is on the right track. the president made a comment a short time ago during a visit with local fighters? west palm beach, florida. >> we broke it 84 times this year. the stock market hit a new high 84 times since we won the election on november 8th of last year. so that's something you can all be proud of. the stock market goes up, that effects everybody, not just you think of the rich, you think of the factories. it effects everybody. >> mike: stocks were up after a slow day on wall street. the dow gained 2.

offers the world leader advice on using social media. >> all of us in leadership have to find ways in which we can recreate a common space on the internet. the dangers of the internet is that people can have entirely different realities. they can be just cocooned in information that reinforces their current biases. >>> all right, good day, everyone. i'm iman in for andrea mitchell. the trump administration's aggressive rhetoric to north korea, rex tillerson telling him the war of words is unacceptable and has heightened tensions on the korean peninsula. it also comes as the same day russia offered to act as a mediator between north korea and the united states to help solve the escalating conflict. joining me now is nbc's pentagon correspondent in msnbc's hans nichols. hans, great to have you with us. what was actually said in the phone conversation between the foreign minister and the secretary of state? >> reporter: we may never know the truth because the readout of the same conversation are so different. you have the russian side saying their rhetoric from tillerson is inadmissible.

country first? it doesn't help us go after terrorists. it doesn't help us get to the bottom of this investigation and calling for things a look into uranium one again, that's a waste of resources, when we are supposed to be talking about, how do we pursue criminals in the united states. i think ultimately it will blow back on the gop. >> is this to be seen as other than that concerted efforts, you put purge, tatters, tainted from the president down, testimony by mr. mccabe in front of the judiciary committee. he was grilled and had the ethics of the fbi called into question. thi this appears to be a strategy by the republicans to under 89 i mine the investigation. >> it's clearly a strategy by the white house. in their world the political campaign, when you have an open six, you, you go work with the public perception and move that perception until the president can call for him to be fired. right. so he's not calling for him to be fired. there is an inherent contradiction. what they're saying is this is a hox. this is fake. well, if it's a hoax and fake, he should be fired, right?

with your bathrobe open. that's it for us. david webb gross hosting "hannity" tonight. >> david: thank you, mark. welcome to the special edition of "hannity," the trump agenda. i am david webb in for sean tonight. president trump with bias. we'll talk about that in a moment. the president tweeting earlier today, "wow at "fox & friends," dossier is bogus. clinton campaign, dnc funded dossier, fbi cannot, after all this time, verify claims of russia-trump collusion, and they used this crooked hillary pile of garbage as the basis for going after the trump campaign. president trump's tweet appears to be in reaction to reports that during his closed-door congressional testimony, fbi director, or deputy directorur andrew mccabe failed to specify which portion of the dossier the fbi claims to have corroborated. there is also a report that mccabe plans to retire in 2018 amid mounting criticism from congress. constitutional law expert alan dershowitz weighing in on the scandal, saying that maybe mccabe should have recused himself from any clinton-related investigations, given his conflict of in

. the russian wered trying to meddle and use connections with people close do donald trump and his businesses to exert their influence. as you know this is a serious concern among u.s. intelligence officials even before fbi got hold of the early drafts last summer. there's independent investigation by special counsel mueller that is a lot broader than the dossier. the president's tweets appear to be a political distraction to discredit the ongoing investigation. the fact is the russian interference happened even if the president doesn't want to acknowledge that it did. >> and it happened as i and i reported many times, the intelligence committee judged it happened in part for donald trump to win the election. as you know the president's legal team has been periodically predicting that the mueller investigation would be finished by thanksgiving, by christmas by the end of the year, there's really no sign this investigation is about to end. >> right certainly we have a few more days to see what the latest prediction will come do pass or not. the lawyers we talk to or associated with

, and they used this crooked hillary pile of garbage as the basis for going after the trump campaign. president trump's tweet appears to be in reaction to reports that during his closed-door congressional testimony, fbi director, or deputy director andrew mccabe failed to specify which portion of the dossier the fbi claims to have cooperated. there is also a report that mccabe plans to retire in 2018 amid mounting criticism from congress. constitutional law expert alan dershowitz weighing in on the scandal, seeing that maybe mccabe should have recused himself from any clinton-related investigations, given his conflict of interest. watch this. >> first of all, everybody tells me who knows a mccabe and has worked in the fbi, he's a very decent guy and was an excellent deputy director. having said that, he should have recused himself immediately from any investigation involving hillary clinton because of his wife's connection to hillary clinton. when you are investigating a presidential candidate, whether it be hillary clinton are president trump, you have to be caesar's wife, above rep

. as kate rogers tells us now, it might not yet be over. she's in west nyack, new york .or us tonight at, where else, a >> reporter: christm may be over. but retailers have a lot to celebrate. the latest numbers from mastercard point to the best holiday season in more than five years. retail sales rose by almost 5% from november through christmas eve. online sales are up even higher, 18%. overall sales are projected to reach $682 billion. >> i got an apple watch and an ocustick. >> a universal for january. >> time with the family. my son. >> reporter: shoppers aren't slowing down anytime soon. in fact they're set to spend some $69 billion in the week between christmas and new year's. shopper track projects today, december 26th, as the fourth busiest shopping day of theon we spoke to were eager to take advantage of the deals. >> macy's has a 46% discount. >> maybe foot locker. >> you get good prices, it's like 50 to 75% off after christmas. then you can save it for next year. >> reporter: because christmas fell on a monday this year, shoppers got an extra saturday. this weekend, dubbed

little birdie to tell us when he's gone golfing. >> president trump for the birdie. >> reporter: jeanne moos, cnn, new york. >>> well, thanks for joining us. "a.c. 360" starts now. >> good evening, jim sciutto here sitting in for anderson, hoping you had a very nice holiday weekend. as for president trump, down at mar-a-lago, he signaled last evening his holiday is over. tweeting, "i hope everyone is having a great christmas, then tomorrow it's back to work in order to make america great again." which is happening faster than anyone anticipated!" so this morning he hit the links and had nothing on his public schedule for the rest of the day. more on that shortly. >>> we begin, though, with a tweet he sent out this morning. in a way, it did herald a return to work for him. namely his ongoing effort to discredit the russia investigation in general. the fbi in particular and a number of fbi officials by name including one assistant director andrew mccabe who he seems to be openly taunting. here is the latest. "wow, fox and friends dossier is bogus. clinton campaign, dnc funded doss

collusion. fbi tainted. they use this crooked hillary pile of garbage as the basis for going after the trump campaign. remember that the dossier's assertion that russia waged a campaign to interfere in the 2016 election and wanted to help donald trump and hurt hillary clinton has been verified and accepted by u.s. intelligence community. many of the more salacious parts of the dossier remain unconfirmed. t the president has also been targeting andrew mccabe over the holidays and despite his christmas day tweet that tomorrow it's back to work, he spent part of his day working on his swing on the golf course. abbey is out front in west palm beach near the winter white house. what's the strategy here for the president with these tweets? >> good night, pamela. the president has been relentlessly attacking the fbi and also the people who are charged with investigating his associat associates' alleged ties to the russian meddling in the 2016 election. now, all of this is happening as his allies on the hill are actually looking into potential misconduct at the fbi. and the president's tweets

. using both-caret -- >> encouraged by my conversations with president xi president xi." and stick. >> committed to the long-term. sorry. >> predictions of economic growth can be unreliable and china's economy has some dangerous structural flaws. during the 2008 recession, other countries let markets address. china did not make those corrections, opting for a more hands-on response. >> they embarked on a stimulus program which they've been continuing since that time. as they have done that, the imbalances in the chinese economy have gotten larger and larger. now they are so large that i don't think they can be solved without a systemic crisis. >> china's state owned businesses and enterprises are saddled with huge debt equal to 90% of the country's gross domestic product. a problem china is aware of. in august, bloomberg reported china's financed ministry ordered state owned companies improve returns and make sure projects are financially viable before decisions are made. bloomberg noted "the government feels the need to spell such obvious goals tells you the depth of the problem."

is not the clinton campaign that went and used the information or released the information. ever came pan obviously tries to put together opposition research. the investigators who put it together were well regarded. and as was one of their sources, christopher steele who had been a source for the fbi for some years. so, you know, look, it's like david said this is part of an effort not just to soften that ground but pour as much water on it as possible and everyone is walking in the mud. >> let's talk about obamacare. obamacare is gone, republicans and democrats will work out bipartisan agreement according to him on health care. mitch mcconnell he's not so sure about that. listen and then we'll talk about it. >> we obviously were unable to completely repeal and replace with a 52-48 senate. we'll have to take a look what it looks like with the other senate but i think we'll probably move on to other issues. >> david, i'm going to ask you, where does this fight with obamacare go from here? >> well, you know, it is no small thing that the president was able to sign into law the rem

for a presidential bid for a fourth term. >> they are afraid of me, afraid of us. >>> and chopping block. u.n. ambassador nikki haley announces a quarter of a billion-dollar reduction of u.s. aid to the united nagttions day after warning other countries not to move its embassy to jerusalem. >> i don't think a vote in the united nations will make my difference on that. but this vote will make a difference on how americans look at the u.n. and on how we look at countries who disrespect us in the u.n. and this vote will be remembered. >> for andrea mitchell, president trump's working vacation down in mar-a-lago continues over personal attacks over the christmas holiday and through the morning. on his feet about health care, congressional races, the economy, and one of his favorite political punching bags, the fbi. msnbc's garrett haake is live in florida with us. garrett, great to have you with us. the president not afraid to tackle a wide range of subjects, and he also isn't afraid to call people out on his twitter feed. take us through this publicly one-sided battle between the pres