A democratic congresswoman refusing to attend the inauguration and why the president elect spent today in a Democratic National convention. I mean, do you want me to read it . All in starts now. Good evening from new york, im joy reid in for chris hayes. In 15 days, donald trump will become the president of the United States and tomorrow hell come face to face with a group he seems to oppose more than anyone since Hillary Clinton, americas Intelligence Community. A senior u. S. Intelligence official tells nbc news that the director of National Intelligence and the heads of the nsa, the cia and the fbi are all scheduled to be at trump tower tomorrow to brief the president elect on their finding that russia was behind the Election Hacking of democratic emails. President obama received the same briefing this morning but its the conclusion that trump still refuses to accept. Appearing to favor the denials by wikileaks founder Julian Assange, delivered most recently in an interview with a very solicitous sean hannity on fox news over the evidence presented by american intelligence profesonals. And its leaving trump increasingly isolated. Today he turned to his favorite medium twitter to defend himself tweeting the Dishonest Media like saying i am in agreement with Julian Assange. Wrong. I simply state what he states. It is for the people to make up their own minds as to the truth. The media likes to make it look like im against intelligence when in fact im a big fan now its tough to square that claims with trumps repeated rejections of their conclusions and reluctance to receiving daily briefings and statements like this from his transition team. These are the same people who said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Well, today after weeks at the center of the backandforth over russian hacking, working mostly behind the scene, top intelligence officials finally stepped into the spotlight, putting faces on the faceless Intelligence Community trump has been attacking. Appearing on capitol hill, the director of National Intelligence, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence and the director of the National Security agency all testified at the first congressional hearing on the election hack helded by the Senate Arms Services committee. The chairman, none other than senator john mccain. Now mccain is no ally of Donald Trumps but hes remained studiously silent throughout the Campaign Even as trump did things like mocking mccains time spent as a prisoner of war or insulting a gold star family. Today was mccains turn to talk and he went straight for Julian Assange. I believe he is the one whos responsible for publishing names individuals that work for us that put their lives in direct danger. Is that correct . Yes, he has. And do you think theres any credibility we should attach to this individual given his record of not in my view. Not in your view. Senator Lindsey Graham, mccains closest ally, has been a vocal critic of trumps stance on russia and he asked about the upcoming intelligence briefing. Youre going to be challenged tomorrow by the president elect. Are you okay with being challenged . Absolutely. Do you both welcome that . We do. Do you think its appropriate . We do. Are you ready for the task . I think so. Good. In a pretty remarkable moment, director of National IntelligenceJames Clapper who, he noted, has served every president since kennedy, actually criticized the president elect by implication for his attitude towards the Intelligence Community. I think there is an important distinction here between healthy skepticism which policymakers to include policymaker number one should always have for intelligence but i think theres a difference between kept schism and disparagement. This comes immediately after the wall street journal reported based on Anonymous Sources that trump is planning to revamp the office of the director of National Intelligence, paring back both that agency and the cia. Trumps spokesman strenuously denied that report on a call today with reporters. There is no truth to this idea of restructuring th Intelligence Community frastructure. Its 100 false. But clearly someone in trumps orbit thinks that the story is true. Both the Associated Press picked it up citing Anonymous Sources of their own. Lets not forget trump has contradicted his team before and hes claimed to know more about Cyber Security than the professionals. Here he was at his new Years Eve Party last weekend. I know a lot about hacking and hacking is a very hard thing to prove so it could be somebody else and i also know things that other people dont know and so they can not be sure of the situation. Reporter what do you know that other people dont know . Youll find out on tuesday or wednesday. Well, today is thursday and we have yet to hear trumps grand revelation tonight, however, nbc news reports according to a senior u. S. Intelligence official that u. S. Intercepts picked up senior russian officials celebrating Donald Trumps election victory as beneficial to russia. The source also says the u. S. Has identified russian actors who turned over stolen democratic materials to wikileaks, according to nbc news, intelligence officials are so worried trump wont accept their findings tomorrow cia officials actually called members of Congress Asking them for public support in anticipation of a public drubbing by the president elect. Joining me now is congressman mo brooks, republican from alabama and member of the house Arms Services committee. Congressman brooks, i want to start by sort of getting taking the temperature of where you stand. Are you a Julian Assange republican like sean hannity or are you a john mccain republican and with clapper and the others who say russia was behind the hacking . Well, ive been on the Foreign Affairs committee for a number of years and also house Arms Services committee my entire time in the United States congress and i think its important to note that you do the best you can with the information that the Intelligence Community gives to you, nonetheless there is almost always some elements of doubt because the Intelligence Community rarely has perfect information and they have to draw certain inferences from the information that they have. So i would agree with mr. Clapper where he says that there is warranted quite often a healthy degree of september kichl and caution but ultimately you have to make decisions based on the best dell jens that you have. Usually its correct. Sometimes it is not. Certainly the decision to enter into the iraq war as well as instances where it was questionable resulted in a very significant decision on the part of the United States which has been questioned many years thereafter. Im not sure i gotten a answer to my question. You sit on the relevant commit s the. Who do you believe, Julian Assange and donald trump or the Intelligence Community when it comes to russian hacking . Which one do you believe . Well, i dont think that is the right question to ask because sometimes i will agree and sometimes on this specific. Not in general. On this, on whether or not russia was behind the hacks. Whose side are you on . It is a premature question to ask and its not fair to try to place a congressman on one se orhe other. I need to be given the kind of information from the Intelligence Community that makes he feel comfortable with the conclusions they have reached. This is a Brand New Congress that just started this week. We have not yet had in the house Arms Services committee or the house Foreign Affairs committee the kinds of hearings that are necessary for me to have the information to reach the kind of conclusion that you want me to make right now with incomplete evidence. Well, the senate has one of those such hearings today. They had all of the top leaders of the Intelligence Community before them. Im assuming you watched at least some of those hearings or were briefed on them by your staff. I did. You have been a pretty big skeptic about donald trump. During the campaign you were quite if not a never trumper, you were extremely skeptical. You said hes taken every position on everything that if people knew hed been all over every issue that people would be skeptical but hold on a second. But now youre saying you are not prepared to decide whether you believe Julian Assange more or whether you believe the Intelligence Community more . Youre not prepared to decide that right now . The Senate Arms ServicesCommittee Hearing today was public. Classified information, the kind of information you need to look at to reach your own conclusions as to the veracity of the opinions given, thats a different thing. So what we heard today were opinions given from the witnesses. I want to look at the primary evidence. Im an attorney by training. Ive prosecuted many a case as a District Attorney and assistant District Attorney. Ive also defended people on the defense side and you make decisions based on evidence, not based hearsay. Im not sure they were giving their opinions. I think they were giving their considered judgment. You say they were just giving their opinion . Well a considered judgment is an opinion. Before i let you go, we are out of time. Who would you say on balance is more credible . Who would you tend to believe more . Julian assange or dni clapper . Well my default position is going to be to give the Intelligence Community the benefit of the doubt because after all they do have access to information that has not yet been shared with me as a member of the house Foreign Affairs committee or house Arms Services committee. Then we have gotten you closer to believing the Intelligence Community over assange and donald trump. But to have a final opinion, though, i need to see the evidence. All right, well congressman mo brooks, thank you very much. Im joined by charlie pierce, writer at large for esquire and msnbc contributor Charlie Sykes of right wisconsin. I dont know if you are as surprised as i am that when you hear a republican member of congress who sits on the relevant committee, Arms Services and Foreign Affairs, that he was not willing to definitively say, Charlie Sykes, that he believes dni clapper more than he believes Julian Assange. That is how far the Republican Party has gone. They arent willing to come out and say no, i dont believe Julian Assange over our own Intelligence Community. Yeah, that was traordinary and somewhat cringe worthy because you asked him the easiest question of the year who do you believe, Julian Assange, who is an antiamerican activist whos hiding out in an embassy or do you tend to believe u. S. Intelligence agencies . And he was struggling to give you a straight answer. I am old enough to remember when republicans actually trusted and respected the u. S. Military and our intelligence agencies and actually were not willing to give the benefit of the doubt to either Vladimir Putin, russia, or to toadies like Julian Assange. And this wasnt a question of do you believe donald trump more or the Intelligence Community because that would have put them in an an intractable bind because he is the guy, their president , their guy. But this is Julian Assange. This is not saying do you believe trump more. Its saying Julian Assange or the Intelligence Community. He didnt want to answer. No, and unlike my colleague from milwaukee, i expect nothing from modern republicans so i wasnt disappointed or not. Ill tell you, my favorite moment of the day was thom tillis, the senator from north carolina, making the u. S. Lives in a glass house therefore virtually coming right up to the edge of saying we can expect this because its karma because what we do because of what we do overseas. If any democrat had ever made that argument theyve have been barbecued on the white house lawn. Incredible. Rank churc frank church must have been laughing his head off in senate he van at that time. Thats a Perfect Point to play this montage that the great producers have put it together. It shows where its coming from. These are republicans who are in fear trump voters are in their district, they dont want to walk away from donald trump who is with Julian Assange and who has said the following things about russia and putin over lo these many years. Take a listen. He kills journalists that dont agree with him. Well, i think our country does plenty of killing also, joe. They say it wasnt them, it may have been their weapon but they didnt use it, they didnt fire it, it was probably russia, it was probably people involved on the prorussian side but i think we have to straighten our own problems out right now, katy. The people of crimea from what ive heard would rather be with russia than where they were and you have to look at that also. If putin said were going to murder somebody in america and theres radioactive stuff all over america if he did it, fine. But i dont know that he did it. Charlie sykes. We kill plenty of people as the reaction to Vladimir Putin has had journalists killed is extraordinary for someone who is going to be president of the United States. It is extraordinary on so many Different Levels including the moral equivalency that republicans used to dislike. Look, one of the things that happened in that really rather remarkab hearing today was there was kind of a bipartisan consensus that were not going to let this go. That were not going to rom over for donald trump. You truly did get strong rhetoric from john mccain, whos a republican. You got some strong rhetoric from Lindsey Graham. So i do think that theyre trying to send a signal to him. I know donald trump wants to live in his posttruth alternative reality world but now that hell become president , there are some reality checks here and the United States senate, i think i thought that hearing did a good job in exposing how thin his position is and how outrageous it is for the president of the United States to be carrying water for Vladimir Putin and the russians. I have to play a little piece of sound from joe biden today, Vice President joe biden who had advice for donald trump. Lets take a listen. He said he said doing my best to disregard the many inflammatory president o statements and roadblocks. Thought it was going to be a smooth transition, not. In all caps. Grow up, donald. Grow up. Time to be an adult. Youre president. Youve got to do something. Charlie pierce, i wonder if we laugh about that and joe biden is always delightful to listen to but there is a sense that donald trump has the potential to become pretty isolated here because there is still part of the Republican Party still with john mccain. That still exists. We dont know how large it is. The Intelligence Community is not an amorphous blob donald trump is tweeting about. Its those guys with those bars on their chest that now even Trump Supporters can look at those guys and say, wait, eyre not more cdible than Julian Assange . Does donald trump risk becoming more isolated now . I have no idea. I think for all intense and purposes in the Republican Party as is presently constitutes, john mccain and Lindsey Graham might as well be lawn jockeys. They have no power. Nobody listens to john mccain. A lot of pundits do and some democrats do, but the real fire in that committee came from thom tillis and joni ernst and deb fisher and tom cotton to an extent who are the future and they were not quite i mean Lindsey Graham was incredibly amped up today, it was interesting to see. But those were the people trying to make the serious argument that, among other things, the current president hasnt kept our Cyber Security the way he should have. That having been set, i think the Republican Party is Donald Trumps right now. Charlie pierce, last word. I dont think hes isolated at all. Charlie sykes, last word to you. Well, i think do not underestimate the fact that donald trump only has a twovote margin in the United States so its not true to say john mccain and Lindsey Graham dont have a lot of power, i do think once you no longer have barack obama to kick around anymore, hes going to own this. Hes very off message. A guy says im going to fight for america, i want to make America Great again and what is he doing . Hes had this selfinflicted problem again of appeasing russia. Yeah. The charlies, great tonight. Charlie pierce and Charlie Sykes, thank you both for being here, appreciate it. Coming up, the fight over trumps cabinet. Why Top Democrats are demanding an ethics investigation into his pick to lead the department of health and human services. But first, nbc has exclusive new details from the topsecret report on russias hacking. Evan mcmullin will be here to break down the intelligence findings that donald trump refuses to accept. Thats just after the break. Li of bad breath germs for a 100 fresh mouth. Feeling 100 means you feel bold enough to. Assist a magician. Or dance. Listerine®. Bring out the bold™ the russians hava long history of interfering in elections. Theirs and other peoples. But i dont think weve ever encountered a more aggressive or direct campaign to interfere in our election process than weve mean . This case. What exactly did russia do to interfere with the u. S. Election . Nbcs Hallie Jackson has exclusive details. Reporter tonight an exclusive inside look at a top secret report on russia, one that went directly to president obama today. So what does it reveal . Two top intelligence officials with direct tell nbc news a detailed russian cyber attacks. The staff, the state department, american companies. Some successful, others thwarted. The report explains moscows motive, partly to disrupt the democratic process and partly as payback, the intelligence analysts conclude, for the Obama Administrations questioning of Vladimir Putins legitimacy as president. Its not just last years president ial campaign either. The report backs russian cyber activity back to 2008 and 2012 it doesnt speculate on whether russias interference affected the outcome of 2016. While president obama says today he has full faith in the conclusions of that report. President elect trump, who will get the same briefing tomorrow, haseemed skeptical of the Intelligence Community so far. When the president elect receives his own briefings and is able to examine the intelligence as his team is put together and they see how professional and effective these agencies are that some of those current tensions will be reduced. Reporter Hallie Jackson, nbc news, the white house. And donald trump has already responded to that nbc news report tweeting how did nbc get an exclusive look into the top secret report he, obama, was presented . Who gave them this report and why. Politics joining me now to talk about what were learning is a former cia analyst and author of the targeter. And evan mcmullin, former cia officer. Im going to start with you putting aside donald trump questioning where nbc got the report. I was interested in one piece of what we just heard, the idea that part of this was payback by Vladimir Putin for the Obama Administration questioning his legitimacy as president. Is it just me who sees constant mirrors in the things Vladimir Putin thinks and the things donald trump obsesses about . Russia has been playing this game with the United States for close to 70 years at this point so most of what russia does should not surprise us. The spying game is what it is, its true. But on the same hand, accepting that a Foreign Government could possibly be not only in the United States, within our election system is unfathomable to me. And to essentially pick the side of a Foreign Government and possible international criminal, Julian Assange, over the men and women who work hard to keep this country safe. That i would not have expected. Evan mcmullin, i have to throw that to you. We managed to speak with a republican member of congress who was never a protrump republican during the primaries but he seemed to find it difficult not even just to say he doesnt believe the intelligence services, which is shocking in and of itself, but to put distance between himself and Julian Assange do we get to the point where the indemnified individuals include Vladimir Putin and Julian Assange when it comes to republicans . Its truly unfortunate, in the earlier segment when you asked a question to Charlie Sykes i thought he gave the excellent answer. Its the easiest possible question you could give and he botched it but it shows you how unrecognizable elements of the Republican Party are these days. Its unfathomable to me that we have a question about whether we trust our intelligence professionals over an antiamerican activist supported by russia. I want to talk about some of the things that were quite frightening, the idea of what could go wrong. Lets start by playing dni clapper who talked about what the response to such cyber warfare could in theory be. Take a listen. When something major happens in cyberspace, our default policy position should not be exclusively to counter cyber with cyber. We should consider all instruments of national power. Unlike nuclear weapons, Cyber Capabilities are difficult to see and evaluate and are ephemeral. Is there anything that the u. S. Has in its arsenal, in its kit back to respond what has happened during our elections right now that russia would already know about or be prepared for . Ihink thats a very good question. One that i would not want to answer on live t. However, i do think and i agree with senator graham, he said there are other things the United States should be doing besides sanctions and declaring diplomats persona non grata. A place like russia, putin, authoritarian regimes dont find that to be very intimidating. I think there is more they should be doing. Evan, one of the other pieces thats come out of nbc this is what journalists do, they obtain advanced word on this report and one of the striking things is they said theyve identified russian actors involved in turning in information over to wikileaks. Does it get more definitive than that or is there still reason to consider that as congressman brooks said, just an opinion . No, thats pretty damming information without seeing the specifics. But i will say its interesting that Julian Assange in his interview with fox news the other day when he was asked did you receive the information from the russian government . He was very careful to answer the question in a particular way. He denied receiving the information from the russian government but did not say he didnt receive it from a third party who could have been working for the russian government. If you go back and watch that interview, hes very careful in how he talks. The question posed to him let him off the hook but it seems clear there was a cutout and it was interesting to hear that from this report to want. Nada, having been in the position with dealing with an administration that was putting pressure on analysts to come to a politically desirous conclusion, something they wanted, in your case during the runup to the iraq war, give us a preview of how difficult it could be for analysts if theyre already hearing that the Incoming Administration wants to somewhat take apart the cia and other agencies. It sounds like punishing for coming to a conclusion that they dont like. It sounds like it but the difference between what we dealt with with the Bush Administration and the questioning of our analysis i think is very different than what the analysts are going to face with a trump administration. Under george w. Bush, there was a respect for the office and intelligence work and an understanding of how hard they work. So thats entirely different than what we had to deal with. Evan, you ran for president. Did you ever think youd leave to see the day when an incoming president of the United States essentially set aside the joint findings of all of our intelligence agencies in favor of a guy hiding out in the Ecuadorian Embassy in london. No, but more importantly i never thought i would see a president elect in the United States or a president that would align himself or herself with the very adversary that is attacking our democracy. Thats the underlying source for the tension between the cia and donald trump. Its his general threat to this country through his policies and through his alignment with Vladimir Putin. Thats the deeper issue here. Its not the capability of our intelligence analysts or anything else. Thats the deeper issue. Donald trump will blame it on the iraq war and a range of other things he can point to but that is the deeper issue. Indeed. Nada and evan, appreciate you being here. Coming up, flooding the zone, republicans staff hearings for six cabinet picks on a single day the same day trump claims hell hold his First Press Conference in over five months. Thats ahead. According to the new york post, donald trump recently told the new Senate Minority leader Charles Schumer that he likes schumer more than he likes Republican Leaders in congress. But it sure didnt seem that way this morning when trump unleashed a tweet storm that started off like this. The democrats led by head clown Chuck Schumer know how bad obamacare is and what a mess theyre in. Instead of working to fix it they do the typical political thing and blame. Shortly after trumps tweets schumer made news regarding trumps pick to lead the department of health and human services, representative tom price who the wall street journal reports traded more than 300,000 in shares of healthrelated companies over the past four years while sponsoring and advocating legislation that could potentially affect those companies stocks. Trading stocks in companies while pushing legislation to affect those companies is not exactly drain the swamp stuff and schumer called for the Nonpartisan Office of congressional ethics the group the gop tried and failed to dismantle to investigate. The Senate Hearing on price isnt scheduled yet but a bunch of hearings have been scheduled for next week on trumps cabinet picks and the schedule suggests team trump is doing everything kgb to make sure the news that comes out of those hearings gets buried. Ill explain next. The confirmation hearings for trumps cabinet picks kick off next week, while some hearings are yet to be scheduled, have a look at this there are hearings for six different cabinet members scheduled for the same day, next wednesday, including what would be day two of hearings for attorney general pick Jeff Sessions who civil Rights Groups oppose due to his past and allegations of racism. Wednesday will also be the day for hearings for secretary of state pick rex tillerson, the exxonmobil ceo with close ties to russia and education secretary pick betsy davos, who has long favored Charter Schools and uchers over public schools. Also that day trump has claimed via twitter hell hold his First Press Conference since july on wednesday, though it remains to be seen whether hell do that since hes claimed hed have press conferences in the past and it never happened. The packed schedule could ensure the headlines from the hearings will get buried, which may be the point. We should note is back in january of 2009 four of president obamas had hearings on the same day but those picks were less controversial. There are two fewer candidates and the president elect hadnt claimed he was holding a press conference. By the way, its not just about when the hearings take place but the kind of scrutiny candidates will receive and theres more. One of our next guests has broken news on that front and we will explain next. Joining me now is msnbc next is now. Joan walsh National Affairs correspondent for the nation and jason johnson, politics editor at the root. Magic. Now. You have a scoop ott nonjust the what and when but the mechanics of this. Senator feinstein, whos now the chair of the judiciary committee, senator leahy who is the past chair, they have asked for more time because Jeff Sessions hasnt completed his questionnaire. Its great he got himself elected from the state of alabama but thats not the same as being prepared to be the top Law Enforcement officer so theyve been asking for more time and witnesses but chairman grassley has said no, yesterday he came out with a a schedule. The democrats will get four witnesses. Only four witnesses . Only four witnesses and only two days and there will be no delay despite the woefully inadequate disclosures hes made. Jason that seems first of all shocking that you could limit the democrats to only four people, four witnesses that can testify. Does that sound like its feasible to get through all of the past that baggage Jeff Sessions is dragging with him to washington . It takes a long time to lay out how much of a bigot he is and so i think that and heres the thing i think is important. Given the fact that, again, this guy was rejected 30 years ago, he has statements today and i think one of the things any witness would want to do is say look, not just that he may be a bigot but there are consequences to that attitude being in this position and that requires time, that requires witnesses, thats clearly not something the Republican Congress wants to do and there will be bad consequences for rushing this through when he has to adjudicate on behalf of this nation. Joan, do you have reporting on now that its going to be a scramble, civil Rights Groups and others that oppose sessions will have to choose. You have criminal Justice Reform issues with him, direct race issues, but you also have voting rights. Voting rights, banking. Theres so much, its going to be very hard to choose those four witnesses but what people have told me, which is kind of interesting, theyre very upset about this truncated hearing but theyre also saying they will push senators to bring some of this stuff up on the floor. When this goes to a vote, assuming hell get out of committee, which he will, there is a lot of push for Progressive Democratic senators to oppose him, to talk about his record and well see what they can get away with under Mitch Mcconnell but the battle does not end what the haring ends next wednesday. We know there was civil disobedience in alabama about Jeff Sessions. Have you got any reporting that there will be some disobedience in washington . There will be. People are talking about it now. The issue will be this. Its like we saw with the phone calls this week, you have to put pressure on these senators, you have to make that clear because heidi heitkamp, you have democrats in red states who are going to say i cant oppose trump. They need to get phone calls otherwise all these confirmations will go heitkamp, manchin. Lets talk about the six people at one time. How are democrats deciding how to apportion their time if they have to deal with tillerson, day vos, et cetera, all at the same time . Theyre scrambling. Feinstein wants to grill mike pompeo as the cia director. She may have to choose between going to her own hearing and talking to him about torture. As you made the point earlier, Barack Obamas cabinet was by and large senators, known quantities, eric holder had just been confirmed for a job two years before so hed been vetted already. There are a lot of people with years and years of vetting. These people are brand new to the jobs theyre going to do and a lot of them want to dismantle the agencies theyre supposed to lead and protect so there are a lot of questions, theres a lot that remains unknown nobody to my knowledge has completed their senate disclosers so youre supposed to have time to look at it, have your staff look at it, talk it over, think about what youre going to ask. Theyll get this stuff the night before so democrats are scrambling. Theyre angry but theyre hanging tough. Im impressed . Jason . Joy, how many times can you apply for a job of importance without filling out the application . Half of these people havent filled out the application so the democrats have to play whack a mole with all these people going through. One example, the education pick. This is someone there are so many different issues connected because now we have criminal justice with education, now we have School Violence in education, she doesnt have any history on these issues and i know some School Choice advocates think youre going to end up in dead poetss society and it will be nice but this requires work. I hope the democrats can lay out a plan where even if a lot of these people get through, they can put out the message, hey, we stood tough when these people didnt know the job. Stand tough and fast. Joan walsh and jason johnson, thank you. Coming up, another democrat announces plans to boycott trumps inauguration and shes here to tell me why. But first, tonights cocktailthemed thing 1 thing 2 starts just after this break. Stay with us. Thing 1, news today donald trump is scheduled to meet tomorrow with the editors of the conde naste media empire. Surprisingly, one of the people whos expected to be included in the meeting is vanity fair editor grayden carter, a man long considered one of trumps oldest rivals. Trump and carter have openly feuded with one another since the 1980s when a young carter writing for spy magazine dubbed the real estate mogul a short fingered vulgarian. That was ignited recently when another writer for vanity fair gave a scathinreview of trumps midtown manhattan restaurant that prompted trump to kweet as anyone looked at the poor numbers of vanity fair magazine in way down, big trouble, dead. Gray don carter, no talent, will be out. Despite that, other journalists showed up at trump grill to confirm the quality of the food and drink was horrible, which is how we got this photo from the Daily Beast Olivia Nuzzi of a trump grill martini served extra, extra, extra dirty on the rocks and in a wine glass. Now if that doesnt look appetizing to you, maybe youd prefer this slightly less disgusting looking drink from trumps cocktail bar in d. C. That is until you hear what it costs. And that is thing 2 in 60 seconds. Today with just two weeks to go before he becomes president , donald trump spent his day testifying in a lawsuit against a celebrity chef. Trump brought the lawsuit himself after Chef Jose Andres backed out of a deal to open a restaurant in trumps d. C. Hotel citing objections to trumps antiimmigrant rhetoric. Not to worry, you can eat and drink at trumps d. C. Hotel if you can afford it. The washingtonian has discovered that the bar in trumps d. C. Hotel has raised its drink prices twice since opening last september. So that now the cheapest drink on the menu costs a whopping 24. Now if youre wondering whats the most expensive drink on the menu, that distinction belongs to what is essentially a vodka oyster shooter with caviar that clocks in at 100 even. Very russian. Not a cocktail fan . Maybe youd like to try their finest hungarian wine which they serve by the crystal spoonful. Literally by the spoonful. It prices ranging from 15 to 140. Not for a glass but a spoonful of wine. Hard to imagine anyone spending that much money at any bar but with Inauguration Day around the corner, i bet there are a few people in washington badly in need of a drink. In 15 days, donald j. Trump will become the 45th president of the United States. And politicians are refusing to attend his inauguration and risk flouting years of precedent. So just this week bill and Hillary Clinton announced that they would be going. The clintons will join george w. Bush and his wife laura who cited the chance to witness the peaceful transfer of power, a hallmark of american democracy. And jimmy carter with his announcement last month was the first former president to rsvp for the inaugural. A few politicians are making other plans. Ive been to, let me see, two clinton inaugurations. Ive been to two of them for bush, two of them for obama. Im not going to this inauguration. I cant go to this inauguration because he continues to spew hatred, bigotry, and prejudice obvious after he said he was going to bring us all together, he was going to unify us, but hes not. Today a lawmaker from massachusetts with a history of being a rebel announced that she would also boycott the inauguration. Shell be here to tell us why after the break. One member of Congress Wont be attending Donald Trumps inauguration in 15 days. Massachusetts congresswoman catherine clark, she joins me now. Congresswoman clark, thank you for being here tonight. Explain to us why you are going to abrogate this tradition of both parties showing up for the inauguration of the president no matter what party hes in . Thank you, joy, for having me. Let me tell you what my thinking is on this. Since the election, donald trump announced on Election Night that he was going to be a president for all americans and over the past few weeks we have continued to see him building on hateful rhetoric of the campaign and i am hearing from my constituents, whether i meet them in the supermarket, in their living rooms, at large gatherings weve had at churches and universities true fear about what is coming from this administration so for this inauguration i believe in the peaceful transition of power, i believe and respect the office of the president but the fear that im seeing, the rise in hate crimes and the really continuation of the divisive rhetoric coming out of the president elect has led me to believe that my place is not with the pageantry and it is not right at this time to normalize this presidency. And you joined john lewis in leading the civil disobedience on the house floor for which the House Speaker wants to fine you. Do you expect there to be more civil disobedience as trump takes office, including from lawmakers . I think we are going to do whatever we can to fight for the American People i think when we are looking at people losing health care. When we are looking at the rise of hate crimes in our communities. When we are seeing nominees who are diametrically opposed to the mission of their agencys theres so much fear and foreboding that i think we will do what we can in the minority to make the American Peoples voices heard here in the capital. And what do you say to have any of your colleagues on the other side, i should just say, had any comment for you about not coming to the inauguration. No. I think people understand this is a personal decision for me, that i think reflects what im hearing from my constituents and i know many of my colleagues across the aisle did not attend Barack Obamas. But i see this as very different because this is a continuation of the divisive and hateful rhetoric and i know that many of us are concerned about what were seeing from the president elect, whether its his unwillingness to divest from his business interests and put americas interest first or whether its his critique of our intelligence agencies and the public servants, the men and women who work for us so hard and choosing foreign powers over our own intelligence agencies. These are the issues that have led to my decision and its one i have that great support from my district on. And very quickly, a lot of people have been saying to me, im sure saying to you, they want to know what to do, some action items, things they can do for their own personal resistance that will make them feel theyre at least doing something rather than just being sad about the election. Very quickly, what would you advice them . The number one thing that i here, and i think its remain vigilant, remain engaged. Just this week with the thousands of phone calls americans put into the republican majority in the house saying do not do away with the independent ethics oversight. The republicans changed course because of the public pressure and thats what im urging all americans to watch, remain vigilant and remain engaged. This is your government. Indeed. Indeed, congresswoman katherine clark, thank you so much for joining us and kudos on that great civics lesson for us, thank you very much. Thank you, joy. Thats all in for this evening, the Rachel Maddow show starts right now. That was a tongue twister. Katherine clark was great. She was great and the Rachel Maddow does start right now, too, so you didnt tongue twist that at all. Here i go. Thank you. And thanks to you at home for starting up and staying with us for the next hour. Theres a lot going on tonight. Weve got two excellent experienced lifelong journalists here tonight as our guests which is really good because this is a night when there seems to be a lot of news breaking into the evening hours. At just about 7 00 eastern time tonight we got a surprise outoftheblue announcement that former cia director James Woolsey has abruptly quit the donald trump transition team. Mr. Woolsey had been on the trump transition, we had no advanced word that there was anything wrong in that relationship or he might be on his way out. He was on tv as recently as yesterday speaking for the Incoming Administration, defending them on various matters related to his area of expertise. But for whatever reason abruptly and with n