She joins me from florida, where the president is spending the holiday week. So this next push is infrastructure. And it is the lesser, i guess, of the controversial moves you could make or choices you could make, on what to push forward on, but its really unclear if the president is going to get democrats behind him on this one. Reporter thats right, poppy. I mean, some people would argue that infrastructure was one of the things the president should have done first, because its the one thing the democrats have been saying since the campaign, they would be interested in working with him on, but the white house is saying, theyre going to try again in january, after this big tax cut push was such a success, the president wants to work on something that he thinks can get democrats to the table. Theyre planning on rolling out a big infrastructure plan midmonth, in time for him to give a big push for it during the state of the union address. Its going to be about 200 billion in spending over ten years. That is far less than the 1 trillion in spending that he proposed during the campaign. And of course, democrats are saying, its simply not enough money. But the president seems insistent on pushing for this next priority, especially as hes trying to tick off more and more items off of his todo list before these Midterm Elections next year, poppy. Abby phillip in florida with the president , thank you very much. Meantime, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee wants answers on these controversial Text Messages sent about President Trump and sent between two top fbi employees. Senator grassley is asking for those answers by today. And one of those exchanges, one of the top fbi agents called then candidate trump an idiot and awful in an exchange with the top fbi lawyer. Our legal analyst, paul callan, joins me now. Paul, youve read through this letter. It came a few weeks ago from senator Chuck Grassley who heads judiciary to Rod Rosenstein asking for a number of answers here. Lets just talk about how legitimate you think his questions are, first, and then well dive into your oped about the broader issues here that the white house sees with the agency. What do you think, paul . You know, i started writing this piece about the whole situation that was raised by grassley. And originally, i was angered at the president s attacks on the fbi. I thought they were unjustified. But when i started to delve into the facts, boy, theres some really disturbing stuff here. What grassley is talking about is this agent, his name is strzok, and hes a counterintelligence agent for the fbi. Hes exchanging Text Messages with his girlfriend, lisa paige, which just trashed the president. They call him an idiot, and you know, that language weve put up on screen was the mile esmildes. But essentially, the two of them, the lawyer and the agent agreed that the president is a threat or would be a threat to the president if elected. Now, hes in a central role in the hillary email investigation. And as a matter of fact, strzok was the person who went to james comey, just before comey had that famous press conference, where he kind of let hillary off the hook and said, the investigation is going to be dropped into criminal charges. Strzok was the guy who changed the language, which originally was that she was grossly negligent in her handling of classified material. And he softened it to say, extremely careless, which is not criminal. This is the same guy who the Inspector General now has exchanging these emails, you know, showing that he has a personal bias against the president. So thats what senator grassley wants a close look at. And i think its legitimate to look at the bias of the investigators. So let me ask you this, because then republican congressman, francis rooney, who we have on this show a lot from florida, went further than grassley has. And he said in an interview just yesterday on msnbc, whats needed is a purge of the fbi and the doj because of it. Just listen to him. Im very concerned that the doj and the fbi, whether you want to call it deep state or what, are kind of off the rails. I dont want to discredit them, i would like to see the directors of those agencies purge it and say, look, weve got a lot of great agents, a lot of great lawyers here. Those are the people that i want the American People to see and know that good work is being done. Not these people that are kind of the deep state. A purge of the agency . Well, i think rooney has a legitimate point about the leadership of the department of justice and the leadership of the fbi. Were not talking about field agents, but were talking about leadership positions. And ill give you another example that has come up. Deputy director andrew mccabe. A huge controversy about his involvement in these trump investigations, because his wife was taking almost 700,000 in contributions from friendly democratic sources, friends of Hillary Clinton, while he was in the chain of command also of the hillary investigation and later, the Trump Administration. So, it just looks like, from an appearance standpoint, that theres bias at the top levels of the fbi. But, christopher wray, you know, whos leading the agency, there have not been complaints from the administration about him. Well, no, why would there be . Its not really the same thing. And ill give you heres the way i look at it. Ill tell you, when i started to look into this and write about it, i was very antiPresident Trump on this. Youre seeing the mueller team. Youre separating the two here . Well, i think they all kind of merge together, ultimately, because if we talk about the mccabe situation, hes the Deputy Director of the fbi, or at least was the Deputy Director of the fbi. Skpf he, h and he, his wife was running for a senate seat in virginia and she took 700,000 in contributions from Terry Mcauliffe and passed control by him to support her in that campaign. And he then is in the chain of command of the hillary email investigation. Now, that would be like if the fbi, lets say they were investigating a bank and, do you think theyd let an agent investigate a bank if his wife was taking a 700,000 loan from the bank . No theyd pull the agent from that investigation. Let me ask you. So you know, the Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein was hammered on questions over political bias in the agency. Heres one of his ans. He sai he said, its important to recognize that when we talk about political affiliation, he went on to say, the issue of bias something different. So hays saying, there can be a line there. These are humans that have beliefs, et cetera. That does not translate into bias. Where is that line in your opinion . And is there anything that you think clearly outlines that . I think theres a clear line and its a common sense line. If your wife is taking 700,000 from the democrats, maybe you shouldnt be handling the investigation of whos going to be the next president of the United States. Thats a clear line, in my view. Theres even a federal law, the hatch act, by the way, while a federal employee can be registered and vote with a particular party, he cant be active with a particular party under the hatch act. Now, that doesnt apply to his wife, but common sense would say, if a wife is taking a lot of money from a Democratic Party or a republican party, anybody whos under investigation, it may be best to put a different agent in the case. The fbi didnt do that. As a matter of fact, this is the person in charge of making these sensitive decisions, and hes he doesnt have the common sense to see that hes in a conflict situation, himself. So i think theres legitimate criticism of the fbi here. Im talking about the leadership, not the field agents. We will see if senator grassley gets those answers from the Deputy Attorney general today, he certainly put a deadline of today on those questions. Paul callan, appreciate it. You can go to cnn. Com and read your opinion piece. Joining me now, a trio of our political commentator, scott jennings, matt lewis. Nice to have you all here. And matt, you would agree with paul callan, and you say, look, the fbi has invited this new scrutiny. But at the same time, if the if the white house here, the president have nothing to hide on this, why ramp up the criticism of the investigation of the agencies, tweet in all caps just yesterday that the fbi is tainted. Why accelerate it . Well, look, if we want to be cynical, lets assume that donald trump, you know, hes either guilty of some sort of, you know, working with the russians or he knows that this is just bad, right . Its not good for his administration to be hanging under this cloud, even if donald trump himself is completely innocent. You know, surely, Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn and others have been in some ways implicated in this investigation. So this is just not good for trump. So maybe donald trump wants to delegitimize the fbi as an institution. Thats a problem, right . But heres the bigger problem, is, i think, that the fbi, as cnns legal analyst was just describing, has actually aided and abetted him in this process. Look, i dont know if this is a systemic problem, or a few bad apples in leadership positions, but liberal democracy is very fragile and i think our institutions really need protected. And part of the job is for those institutions to behave in a matter that is beyond reproach. The fbi and i would add the media into this, as well, and our zeal to hold donald trump accountable, i think has occasionally aided the attempts to delegitimize these institutions. I think its very damaging for our civilization, actually. Brian, you heard what paul callan just heard about from contributions of the clintons. And is he correct . I have a lot of respect for paul, but i have to disagree. In the case of the agent that sent of the smebad Text Messages the fact that bob mueller himself kicked mr. Stro strzok o the investigation back in july. The fact that this has continued to be talked about, i think, is an example of what matt was talking about, which is trump trying to delegitimize the investigati investigation. Strzok is off the case as of july so is his girlfriend who he was exchanging the Text Messages with. Bob mueller has already deemed this inappropriate and taken the appropriate steps. And with respect to mr. Mccabe, this was aired fully during the 2016 campaign. And what was omitted from pauls comments was the fact that this occurred, these donations to mr. Mccabes wife, who was then a candidate for the state senate in virginia occurredcauliffe, w virgin governor of virginia was raising money for a range of candidates because he was trying to take back the state senate. He donated to a raft of candidates. Mr. Mccabe was not in the position that he currently holds overseeing the investigation in the same way that he was in 2015. So Terry Mcauliffe would have had to have been able to see in the future and predict that mccabe was one dangy going to b overseeing the Hillary Clinton campaign. So the claims dont merit the claims coming from the trump camp. And if you look at peel like christopher wray, rachel brand at the justice department, also giving to a slew of republicans, no one is calling them biased or saying that theyre going to be overly protective of donald trump. We believe that theyre professionals that can do their job, the same courtesy should be extended to bob mueller, whos running his investigation. And as i get scott in here, the argument is also that, as you know, scott, a number of the key people on muellers team have donated much more to democrats than they have to republicans. What do you make of the read from paul and the read from brian . I think paul callan is right. I think the appearance of a conflict should trigger some common sense into people who are involved here, that they should not have taken these positions in these investigations or step aside. At the end of the day, to me, this is a lot about the crisis of confidence in institutions we have in this country. Right now, the American People are willing to look with a skeptical eye on every major institution. You can see it, our government, big businesses, the media, and in this particular case, enough information has come out thats extremely troubling from the fbi and as matt pointed out, in the medias attempt to discredit donald trump, a lot of botched things have happened. When you have all of this sort of botched attempts and conflicts of interest and all of this information, it does make people say wait, youre saying its the medias hold on. Hold on. Scott, youre saying its the medias fault . No, im not saying its the medias fault. Im saying that right now, there are two things that are a dark cloud over Donald Trumps presidency. This investigation and frankly, the Media Coverage of his administration, i think we would all agree, has been pretty terrible. And so when youre looking at how the American People are viewing these things i dont they are looking at these institutions and asking themselves, are there motives at play here . Im not saying there are, but in this country, we are inclined not to believe in constitutiins and these two are under the microscope. Hold on, i would say i dont think everyone would agree, scott, with that assertion. And it would be nice if the president sat down for an interview with us, so that a lot of the members of the media could ask him direct questions. Stay with us. We have a lot more to get to on the other side. We appreciate it very much. A lot ahead for us this hour. This morning, a new interview and a new warning from former president obama. His message for social media users in this interview with prince harry. Also, imagine being on a flight for eight hours, ending up in the same city where you took off from. It just happened. We will tell you why. Ive always been a morning person. Its when i ponder the deep questions, like which came first, the egg . Or the chicken . How would i know . But i do know that first, qualcomm connected the phone to the internet. 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Take cepacol instamax. Not in this house. cause thats no average family. Thats your family. Which is why you didnt grab just any cheese. You picked up kraft mozzarella with a touch of philadelphia for lasanyeah kraft. Family greatly. But when we brought our daughter home, that was it. Now i have nicoderm cq. The nicoderm cq patch with unique extended release Technology Helps prevent your urge to smoke all day. Its the best thing that ever happened to me. Every great why needs a great how. Must haveyeahn hot out there today, huh . Ok, yeah. Even the toughest stains and odors with new super concentrated tide sport. The new tide sport collection its got to be tide the white house is planning to unveil a big infrastructure plan in just a few weeks. The catch, can they get any bipartisan support . My panel is back. And scott jennings, let me pick up with you. You worked with mcconnell, right . And we heard mcconnell say, look, were not going to tackle entitlement reform in 2018 because there are no democrats behind it. You think infrastructure seems a whole lot more palatable to democrats. But when youre looking at a Midterm Election year and youre lacking at the president s Approval Rating among democrats, its politically risky for them. Which way does this thing go . Yeah, i think mcconnell is right about entitlement reform. We have to remember that in 2017, we spent a lot of time in the senate trying to count to 50, because they were using reconciliation. That process more than likely wont exist in 2018, so we have to now count to 60. The question is, will democrats want to give donald trump and the republicans a big win on Something Like infrastructure . My bet is no. I think its politically smart for the president to talk about it. I also think on his right flank, whether they spend 200 billion or 1 trillion, whatever the number is. There are going to be a lot of conservatives in the congress who want to know, how are we going to pay for this . They dont want to spend that extra money without paying for it. They didnt want to know that so much with the tax bill, scott. Well, they believe on the tax bill that the estimations on Economic Growth are very, very conservative. They believe, as republicans, and as conservatives, that lower taxes will spur a lot of Economic Growth. There were conservative estimates on that. Most republicans i know believe this thing is going to pay for itself payoff is increased growth in the economy. They hope so. Sort of a finger crossing and hoping that history we dont hope, we believe. I think every american believes. Matt lewis, to you. Where does this thing go . I think scotts probably right. It doesnt get easier in 2018. Republicans spent 2017 trying to do everything via reconciliation. To some degree, that may poison the well. Democrats say, you didnt need us last year, now all of a sudden you need us. Well, maybe you could argue, yeah, but democrats like spending money, they like infrastructure, they should be for this. Thats going to have to be balanced, though, against the desire to beat donald trump. And why would you let him put more points on the board in 2018 going into a midterm . Im not saying its impossible, but i dont think it gets easier than 2017, certainly. Is there nothing, brian fallon, from the democratic viewpoint . Is there nothing that is above politics here . How about bridges collapsing, roads with huge potholes . Is there nothing above how it looks, politically . I think theres a window where it would have been quite tempting for democrats to work with donald trump on an infrastructure package. The problem is, that was last year or right on the heels of trumps inauguration. But he decided on a goitalone path on priorities Like Health Care repeal and this tax package that just happened. So i think the incentive for democrats will be quite low. Trump, to be quite frank, is not even making it very tempting to them. The proposal is running around 200 billion. Thats about a fifth of what he promised during the campaign and what most democrats would like to see. And if you look at a bunch of these red states where democrats are facing reelection in places where trump won in 2016, people like joe manchin and Heidi Heitkamp are more popular than the president , and thats why they felt no obligation to vote for his tax package last month and theyre not going to feel the need to cooperate with him on infrastructure. I think this is a metaphor for the lack of agenda youll see in 2018. I think its going to bring more attention to the russia investigation, as theres stalled priorities on capitol hill. So i think more and more likely, were going to learn in 2018 all the developments about whether bob mueller intends to charge jared kushner, whether he thinks there was obstruction of justice we the president , whether trump decides to hand out pardons to silence people like michael f n flynn. I think that stuff is whats going to really capture news attention in 2018 compared to 2017, where you had some priorities ton capitol hill that were providing some kind of political distraction. Scott, you have predicted that this will be a tough midterm for republicans. Of course, history would show you that for any sort of party in the white house, that the Midterm Election that follows is rough. And youve said, look, if democrats take over both chambers in november, it could be the end of this administration. Those are your words. But theres a fascinating headline and piece in the Washington Post this morning that im sure you read. The headline, to beat President Trump, you have to think like his supporters. And the argument here is that, quote, normal politicians collapse in the face of scandal, because the scandals show them doozing on the job or falling back on their promises. Trump voters didnt vote for silence. They voted for a bang. Scandal is no threat to populism. Scandal sustains the populism. Is that right . I dont know if thats true or not. I mean, i do think that the democrats, i mean, you brought up the word impeachment. Clearly, this is where they are headed. I think the leadership of the Democratic Party is going to try to say, well, we dont have that on the agenda, but the rank and file i didnt say they are going to go down this road, absolutely. I didnt say impeachment. Well, i was i thought you were referencing what i have said earlier about, it will be the end of this presidency if they get control of one or both chambers. I see. Because they will move to impeach the president. I follow your argument. Okay, go ahead. Poppy, one thing i think bears noting, for months weve heard, while a lot of republicans will probably abandon the president once they get tax reform through, the reason theyre looking the the other way on some of these russia allegations and the bob Mueller Probe is because they dont want to alienate the president ahead of getting tax reform pass. I think this was a mistake and naive view because youre seeing tax reform happened and still sending Chuck Grassley sending letters about malfeasance at the fbi, toeing the line. I think youll see republicans run interference for donald trump all the way through 2018. Its not just tax reform they were doing this for, they really, legitimately feared Donald Trumps base. Youre seeing a lot of disaffection among ordinary rank and file Establishment Republicans that are turned off by the trump presidency. So republicans are looking at the midterms next year and saying the last thing we can afford to do is also afford trumps element of the republican party. So i think theyre going to run interference for him all the way through november 2018. And i think its premature to talk about impeachment now. But i think in light of letters like the Chuck Grassley one that opened the last segment, if you want to see any meaningful oversight imposed by the legislative branch, its probably going to take a flip and control of congress. Scott jennings, brian fallon, matt lewis, we are out of time. Gentlemen, thank you very much. Well have you all back. So a deadline fast approaching for new sanctions on russia to kick in. The question is, will they . And if that do, what will they be . Next. When youve got. Nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea heres pepto bismol ah. 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Its not just picking a surgeon. Its picking the care team, and feeling secure where you are. Surround yourself with the team of Breast Cancer experts visit cancercenter. Com breast Appointments Available now. The clock is ticking the for the white house to roll out another round of sanctions on russia. This comes as former top intelligence Officials Say that russia continues its cyber attacks, that it is far from having ended a former cia operative and cnn intelligence and security analyst, bob baer, is with us. Nice to have you here, bob. Good morning, poppy. As you know, the president blasted this sanctions bill when he first signed the first round of it in august. He called it, quote, seriously flawed, because it encroaches on the executive branchs authority to negotiate. After that, the administration went 25 days over schedule on the first deadline to name the russian entities in the military and in the intelligence sector that should be subject to these sanctions. Now the administration has until january 29th to call out, to name the businesses from various countries that have continue to do business with those russian entities, and then impose the next round of sanctions. Talk to me about the significance of this next round of sanctions and, you know, what it means for the white house to meet or not meet that deadline. Well, exactly, poppy. Its up to the white house to implement the sanctions. The department of treasury is going to be doing it, if they choose to be active on this and go after sanction busting, itll work. On the other hand, if they give it a pass and go to symbolic gestures, nothings going to happen. It will not affect the russians. It depends whos on this list, what sort of intelligence is procured to figure out whos culpable in this. And if the white house decides to ignore it, theres not much congress can do. You say, quote, your words, unchecked russia is going to do its best to neutralize mueller, bob mueller the special counsel in the russia investigation, and the fub. Do you think were seeing evidence of that already . Oh, i think theyre undermining the russians, for sure. You look at the Washington Post yesterday, morrells article, and its very clear that the russias are calling in the legitimacy of the fbi. The implication is the fbi, bizarrely enough, is part of a deep state and is out to get this administration, which is pure nonsense. Lets read part of this. Im glad you brought it up. This is a joint oped by the former acting director of fbi, mike morrell, and former house intel chairman, mike rogers. The sanctions that the Obama Administration and congress put in place inform aftermath of the 2016 election are steps in the right direction, but they are not significant enough to check russian president Vladimir Putin, true deterrence requires policies that prevent adversaries from achieving their onti objectives while imposing significant costs on their regimes. So far, we have done neither. This is blasting the Trump Administration and the Obama Administration on this front. Its a failure to defend if United States in our democracy. This was the equivalent of a 9 11 attack, the hacking in 2016. And if we do nothing now, in between now and 2018, they will come back again. Its extremely successful covert action operation, simple, efficient, cheap, and its thrown us into a political tailspin, as everybody will admit. Both left and right. And if they go after the fbi successfully, after certain agents, after the Deputy Director and call into question the legitimacy of the fbi, we will suffer as a democracy. I its just the way it works. We did see a joint intelligence operation where the u. S. Intelligence sector was a i believe to prevent what could have been a horrific terror attack a few weeks ago in st. Petersburg, russia. President trump thanks Vladimir Putin for that. So ill make the effort, the u. S. Has to be on better ground with russia, have another attempt at a russia reset, if you will, as we saw under president obama and secretary of state clinton. Does one negate the other . Meaning if you hold russias feet to the fire on these issues with sanctions, et cetera, does that make every other joint effort null and void . Or are there two separate tracks here . No, the russians have always cooperated with the United States. Ive worked with the russian government. If theres a threat against americans theyve passed it over and likewise. Its called the duty to warn. This is not something new under trump. If we go after the russians on hacking, it doesnt mean theyll stop cooperating on terrorism. Secondly, they werent all that cooperative in the first place and never have been. Its not like the fsb and the kgb and the rest of us exactly trust us. They dont like us. But at the end of the day, it is a hostile power out to undermine the United States, our world standing, and internally. And we just have to face that truth. The cold war did not end in 1991, period. Bob baer, leaving us with that, thank you very much. Its nice to have you. So ahead for us, a flight to nowhere. Seriously, this plane takes off from l. A. X. , flies for eight hours and lands back at l. A. X. How could this happen . Well tell you, ahead. I had frequent heartburn, but my doctor recommended. Prilosec otc 7 years ago, 5 years ago, last week. Just 1 pill each morning, 24 hours and zero heartburn. Its been the number 1 doctor recommended brand for 10. Straight years, and its still recommended today. Use as directed. Breathe freely fast wmy congestions gone. I can breathe again i can breathe again vicks sinex. Breathe on. Its the start of a new year for you and your family. And wed like you to be part of ours. Happy new year so our chevy employee discount is Still Available to everyone. You pay what we pay, not a cent more. Were so happy to share this with you. Because you deserve to start the year off in style. Its our way of saying happy new year and welcome to the family. The chevy family. The chevy employee discount for everyone ends soon. Four teens in ohio now facing murder charges after they allegedly dropped sandbags from an overpass. One of them crashed through the windshield of a car, it hit a passenger. That passenger, just 22 years old died later as a result. Scott mcclain joins me now with more. These boys being arraigned today . Thats right, poppy. So before christmas, four teenagers in ohio were charged with felonies for badly injuring a man. Now they are facing murder charges. S the the reason for that change is because the victim in all of this, 22yearold marquis bird, has now died of his injuries. He was sitting in the passenger seat of a car heading southbound on i75 when a sandbag crashed through the windshield. At the time, he was taken to a toledo area hospital in critical condition. He died on friday, according to the medical examiners office. It will cause of death was Blunt Force Trauma to the head and neck. These boys, they are young. Three of them are 14 years old. One of them just 13 years old. The prosecutor in this case says she will not try to have these boys charged as adults because they have no prior criminal history and under ohio state law, it would be impossible to charge the 13yearold as an adult, even if she wanted to. But so far, theyve not been given the kid dplogloves, exact. They were in Court Last Week and pled not guilty to the earlier felony charges, but they were denied bail. Theyre back in court today. Its not clear if theyll get bail at this point in time. The court date is set for early january. Now, the toledo blade spoke to the cousin of marquise byrd, one of his cousins. She says she has no sympathy for these boys, would like to see them charged as adults, and she also said he was engaged and the father of a 1yearold son. 22yearold parent killed in this ways. Scott mcclain, appreciate the reporting. Please keep us posted. All right, so an eighthour flight yesterday that went nowhere, prompting a fullscale investigation this morning. Heres what happened. Somehow, a passenger got on the wrong plane, boarded a flight in l. A. , bound for tokyo. The crew realized four hours into the flight what had happened, turned the entire plane around as a result. A lot of folks not happy because of it, including, you recognize them, thats Musician John Legend and supermodel, his wife, chrissy teigen, lamenting about this, taking to twitter. A tweet storm about the flight to nowhere certainly has gone viral this morning. Ahead, crews are working around the clock after pennsylvania gets smacked with recordbreaking snow. More still to come. An update, straight ahead. Yeah . I switched to geico and got more more savings on Car Insurance . They helped with homeowners, too ok plus motorcycle, boat and rv insurance geicos got you covered like a blanket houston . You seeing this . Geico. Expect great savings and a whole lot more. Geico. Steyer the president S National Security adviser guilty. His Campaign Chairman under indictment. His soninlaw secret talks with russians. The director of the fbi fired. Special counsel Robert Muellers criminal investigation has already shown why the president should be impeached. You can send a message to your representatives at needtoimpeach. Com and demand they finally take a stand. This president is not above the law. I met bruce i saw on his lapel ches got a purple heart. E bruce we started talking about the service. I outrank him. chris [laughs] yeah. Meals on wheels reaches so many people. Its impactful beyond anything ive ever done in my life. bruce the meals and his friendship really mean, means a lot to me. vo through the subaru share the love event, weve helped deliver over onepoint seven million meals to those in need. Get zero percent financing for 63 months on select models, plus well donate two hundred and fifty dollars to charity. It is cold outside. Most places right now across the United States, bonechilling cold gripping the northeast this week with some recordbreaking snow. Look at erie, pennsylvania. Nearly 63 inches of snow there since christmas eve. And get this, more is on the way. A disaster emergency declared in the city. 21 National Guard troops put on active duty to help with Law Enforcement and medical emergencies. Good luck to erie. Undoubtedly, this years Natural Disasters have be s hav devastating for millions of americans. Heres chad myers with a lack back at the top seven weather events of the year. It was an incredible year of weather extremes. 2017 produced 15 different billiondollar weather disasters in the u. S. Here are the top seven weather and claimant events of 2017. Number seven, every acre of california was in drought and nearly twothirds of the state was classified exceptional. Tens of millions of trees died, creating concern for a major wildfire season ahead. Rain and snows returned with a vengeance to california in the fall of 2016 and continued through the spring of this year. By april, Governor Brown officially declared the drought over. The heavy rain and melting snow was beneficial to most, but some, it became too much of a good thing. In february, the orville dam was in danger as an emergency spillway began to erode. 188,000 residents below the dam were evacuated. In the end, the dam was shored up and the disaster was narrowly avoided. Number six, the eclipse of the century. On august 21st, millions of americans stopped what they were doing and witnessed something that hadnt happened in almost a century. Those lucky enough to be in the path of totality, which was about 70 miles wide, it went all the way from oregon to south carolina. They were plunged into darkness for just a couple of minutes. But millions drove hours to see the amazing show. Oh, my gosh you can look at the corona. The corona is crazy number five, on earth day 2016, countries around the world came together to sign an historic agreement. The u. S. Pledged to cut emissions 26 to 28 by 2025. But in one of the most significant moves in his first year in office the United States will cease all implementation of the nonbinding paris accord. President trump puddle out of the deal. The u. S. Is the second biggest emitter of fossil fuel gases behind only china and is now the only country in the world not part of this agreement. We are following breaking news. The death toll from the wildfires raging in Northern California has now climbed to 29 with hundreds of people reported missing. California wildfires are number four on our list of the biggest weather stories of 2017. In october, Northern California was hit with deadly wildfires, the worst damage and highest death toll occurred in wine country. In the city of santa rosa, entire neighborhoods have been reduced to ashes. Theres no words. Its a nightmare. Its a reallife nightmare. The fastmauvie infastmovin dozens and destroyed thousands of structures. A new blaze that has erupted in the fireravaged southern california. All of these embers fly towards the houses that havent burned yet. In the foothill area of ventura, california, this home completely lost. 20 homes that we can count that are burned to the ground. They look just like this. The thomas fire alone in Ventura County scorched an area bigger than boston and new york city combined and will likely continue to burn into 2018. In 2017, our hurricane drought ended abruptly. Irma, maria, harvey brought death and destruction from the islands of the caribbean right through the florida keys and up the gulf coast. Now, its not like we didnt have major hurricanes in the atlantic or the caribbean. They just never hit the u. S. They were what we called fish storms. But with these, many are still picking up the pieces or even waiting for help. Hurricane irma has made the turn. It is moving up the west coast. Irma is number three on our list. The storm set many jawdropping records. It was the strongest Atlantic Basin hurricane ever recorded outside of the gulf of mexico and the caribbean. It spent three days as a cat 5, the highest category hurricane, with winds that approached at times 200 miles per hour. It brought its fury to florida on september 10th, starting with a direct hit on the lower keys, then flooding miami and landing again near naples where our cnn crew experienced being in the eye of the storm. These gusts are the real dea deal. Over 6 Million People were ordered to evacuate along its projected path and impacted at least nine states in the southeast, leaving a trail of destruction and millions without power. The most devastating storm, either in a century or quite, frankly, in modern history. At number two, hurricane maria. This devastating storm reached category 5 strength and hit the small island of dominica on september 18th. [ screaming ] the storm then made a direct hit on puerto rico. It was one of the strongest storms to ever hit the island. Ive been trying to find the words. Ferocious doesnt seem to even be enough for how this storm has intensified. At the peak of the hurricane, 100 of the island was without power. Even now, months later, power is still out to many. And a cnn investigation found that the death toll has been vastly underreported. It seems that every hour, i keep telling people that it couldnt get worse, and yet every hour, it does seem to get worse. At number one this year, hurricane harvey. The numbers are staggering. Theyre still being counted. Its heart wrenching. Everything is gone. My some estimates, harvey could be the most expensive Natural Disaster in u. S. History. The storm made landfall as a category 4 storm with winds of 130 miles per hour, just north of corpus christi. But the damage just began. Houston was especially hard hit with flooding. Parts of the metro area saw over 50 inches of rain. Beaumont port arthur picked up 26 inches of rain in just 24 houf hours. Just got rescued right now. Weve been at it since 10 00 a. M. In the morning. Paramedics and volunteers are carrying her through the floodwaters. In the end, an incredible 27 trillion gallons of rain fell on texas and louisiana over just six days. Pretty remarkable, if you look back at the year and all of those Natural Disasters. Chad myers, thank you very much for that reporting. All right, still ahead, a Pittsburgh Steelers veteran signs with one of his former teams biggest rivals. W why . the Bleacher Report is next. , yn book a flight, then add a hotel, and save. Everything you need to go. Expedia my dbut now, i take used tometamucil every day. Sh it traps and removes the waste that weighs me down, so i feel lighter. Try metamucil, and begin to feel what lighter feels like. On a perfect car, then smash it into a tree. Your Insurance Company raises your rates. Maybe you shouldve done more research on them. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. Switch and you could save 782 on home and auto insurance. Call for a free quote today. Liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. Not in this house. cause thats no average family. Thats your family. Which is why you didnt grab just any cheese. You picked up kraft mozzarella with a touch of philadelphia for lasanyeah kraft. Family greatly. So, dathe family up to the lake for the weekend. But without the White Knuckles this time. cuz his new 2018 ford f150 has blis with trailer coverage. Its brainiac smart. Not only does it watch your f150s blind spots, its got your trailer covered too. One less thing to spoil the weekend. No, it cant make the fish bite but maybe theyll work on that. This is the new 2018 ford f150 it doesnt just raise the bar, pal. It is the bar. After being cut by the steelers, linebackers James Harrison finds a new home with their afc rivals, the new england patriots. Andy scholes has more in this mornings Bleacher Report. Andy, our executive producer, michellemore moric, not happy this. Berman is fine with it. I bet he is. Steelers fans everywhere not very happy about this. This is a typical Bill Belichick move. Signing a player that was cut by a team that his patriots may potentially play in the playoffs. Could get some good intel. This Bleacher Report brought to you by the 2018 ford f15. Harrison, fivetime pro bowler, former defensive player of the year. Big time fan favorite. And this kind of twisting the knife. Posted a selfie with tom brady saying, finally a attempt that is older than me. Harris, 39 years old, brady a area older at 40. Suns and grizzlies tied with just 0. 6 second on the clock. They inbound the ball, throwing it right at the hoop. Check out tyson chandler. He slams it home for the win, but that looked like offensive goaltending. Did you know, you cant goal tend a ball that isnt going to count. Since the ball was coming from out of bounds, you can slam it home fro matter where it is above the rim. Sun star kevin booker said he thought he was crazy when he made him go over that play in practice, but worked out. Whats one way to fig fool a big lebron james fan . How about make them think theyre getting a steph curry jersey for christmas. Yes yes you didnt even open it take it out yes [ laughing ] i love how his sadness went to pure joy when he eventually saw the lebron jersey. His little sister wanted that curry jersey. I see a pretty good sibling rivalry between those two. One a cavs fan, one a warriors fan. I love that. Jumping on tables. My 2yearold was jumping on tables but for other reasons on christmas morning. But it was a fun one. Andy scholes, thank you so much, my friend. All right, thanks to you all for joining us today. Im poppy harlow. Ill see you back here tomorrow. My colleague, dana bash, picks it up now. Hello. Im dana bash in for kate balduan. Back to work and looking ahead to his second year in office. President trump is hoping to strike a big bipartisan deal. He plans to unveil the framework of an infrastructure plan first thing next year. And a white house official tells cnn that the current proposal would allocate 200 billion to repair the countrys briblgs, roads, and airports. Lets get straight to cnns white house correspondent, abby