Transcripts For MSNBCW AM Joy 20171217

Federal Law Enforcement official on both sides of the aisle. Hes undercutting anybody that gets in his way or calls his power into question, like when he tweeted earlier this month about former fbi director, jim comey, after years of comey running the fbi its reputation is in tatters. Something that those with actual knowledge of the fbi say simply is not true. When he repeatedly makes the claim that russia gate is nothing but a lie. Theres absolutely no collusion. I tornado madid not make a phon russia. It was a democratic hoax and an excuse for losing the election, and it never should have been this way. It begs the question whether trump will be successful in so duh sporting reality, that even if Robert Mueller finds evidence of collusion or obstruction of justice, trump and his supporters will declare it all fake news and find a way to avoid justice. Joining me now, my panelists. Sarah, i thought of you when i was on hardball the other night and asked by Chris Matthews for my assessment of what donald trump is doing with all of the attacks on federal Law Enforcement. This is what i had to say then, and i want to get your take since authoritarian states are your specialty. Step two, get your staterun media, or media to echo that into your base and whip them up into a frenzy against those investigating you, step three, get the state party n. This case the Republican Party to echo that from the seat of government, and then of course you have to add that last step, call for the prosecution of your political enemies, in this case, dredging up Hillary Clinton to again call to lock her up. Sarah, am i too am i being hysterical in equating what donald trump is doing in what the leaders of authoritarian states do . No, you are not being hysterical. Trump has been on the path whether its the persecution of ethic minorities, and wanting to use the government to enhance his familys personal wealth, and its only gotten worse as he has gotten into office and consolidated power. He has faced very little opposition from the republicans who should be serving the public and should be keeping people like trump in his cadre of, you know, other corrupt and criminal actors in check. No, you are absolutely right to react in the way that you have. Malcolm, you know, this week we saw members of congress, a coequal branch of government literally behaving as if they were the defense counsel for trump, and attacking the fbi and accusing them of being criminals. It was breathtaking to watch republicans do that, and they did it with such voracity. Are they part of president Trumps Administration or a coequal part of the government. And then the tax plan, and its as if trump and republicans are personally being even riched by the tax cuts and the policy of the administration and then they turn around and 100 back the leader . Funny you should mention that, i am writing a whole book about this. Tphr initially i thought trump is doing things for his own self worth and the valuation of his family stock and not doing it to benefit the United States, but not doing it with great malice, and hes doing it because he loves money, and now i think its done out of hatred for his enemies. He thinks he understands the levers of power, and his problem is democracy. Democracy is eating him alive right now. When he buts up against that, he goes to the Vladimir Putin playbook. Putin, when he came into power was in the anticorruption in the late 1990s, and join the skwrau swamp was the russian phrase. And then he got his friends to buy the news media and turned the news media, and that democracy against itself using democratic tools like elections. You think about it, and even down to things that we read in George Orwell novels, the idea of banning words themselves, and it turns out multiple agencies, they were told they were not allowed that the Trump Administration they should avoid using certain words or phrases being drafted for the budget, and do not use the word titlement, diversity and vulnerable. The cvc have been told they have cannot use certain words. The seven words banned words, vulnerable, entitlement, diversity, transgender, fetus, evidence based, and science based. The words that must not be spoken by members of the trump tkpwut. Its crazy. Joy, hes gone after the federal government and disassembled it. The only other target out there are the cities. At this point we have a barely f functioning federal government. I guarantee you, the next battle is going to be against the cities. They are going to pull back funding. They tried in the courts. Now you are going to see doj with sessions, and what is the authoritarian state or police state look like . Its going to look like the pd, they will have to prove to the federal government that is a u. S. Citizen. Thats going to be the next battle. Its not going to be the military, but a data call. Are you tracking the citizenship of the people getting aid whether its education or medical care, thats what they are going to push on. I think thats the battle. Its important they are trying to essentially force blue cities, people that are run by democrats, and want compassion for the poor, you cant do that. We will force you to adopt trump pa policy. He went to the fbi, and you police which is what he is doing, the regular beat cops against federal Law Enforcement, as if he wants to split them as two entities, one completely and totally supports trump and the other doesnt, or the other is working towards justice. If he does that, and the people he introduced over at the department of homeland security, its scary. You are creating your own instruments within your will. My husband and i went to cuba, and you have the police and the guys in the green military uniforms that police the police. They are two separate agencies that are watching each other in a way that one can intimidate the other. I want to go on this, its not just russia, and egypt and governments throughout the world that operate as a family running a country and as autocracies, where you dont have freedom of speech and anybody considered to be an enemy of the state is purged out of the government. This is out of the epa, one of the agencies the republicans wanted to get rid of, an epa contractor spent the last year scouring the agency for antitrump officials. The Environmental Protection agency is hired to help with media affairs, they have been critical of the Trump Administration, roars show. You have ever heard of an american add machine administration purging federal agencies for ideological consent. I cant overstate how terrifying this is. The cdc and hhs does so much work for Womens Health and aids and how can we not use words as evidence based, and the word Climate Change is already disappearing as we speak, and the fake presidency and administration cannot deal with fact. It keeps going on. It goes on. Lets talk about it and i will come to you on this, donald trump popularized the term fake news, and that term has become popular among autocrats. And this is in the new york times. In a country where press freedom is restricted including russia and turkey, libya, poland, thailand, somalia and others, political leaders invoked fake news as the justification of beating back scrutiny. One of the legal challenges he faces, he asked james comey to take a loyalty pledge to him. At what point will it go down to the poor person as a dogcatcher in some town. Its the same thing with media. He doesnt want independent investigative reporting, he wants to release what he wants to release and thats it. He has a squad of people on the far ride, roger stone on down, who are hunting, and trying to bait media to discred discredit journalist, and rinse the media of anybody who dissents from donald trump, so all that is left is those that admire him. We dont have to look too far to see whose playbook hes following. Look at the political leaders he admires around the world. They are dictators. And the things that he admires about them is because he has no appreciation for democracy. Hes running a khrep talk raw see. He would love to run a country like putin, no press freedom or checks and balances on peoples powers, and he would like to do the way they did in the philippines, and its crazy to me and it comes down to and blows my mind, how this man, the president of the United States, is he not a patriot . He believes the kremlin over u. S. Intelligence. We know he admires putin. The three guys he most admires, xi jinping of china, and putin. We have known for almost a year now that he was putting people to test your ideological purity to donald trump, and not to the constitution or the defense of the nation. The constitution is under attack. American democracy as it existed since 1783 when they ratified the constitution is under attack. If i was in one of these administrations, and somebody comes into my office and says, hey, we will have to talk about your attitude towards things politically, i would dime that person out. You stand you swear an oath and i swore an oath and we protect and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. We dont sarah, you were tweeting i think you tweeted about this yesterday. Donald trump has even invoked the idea, continuing the russia gate investigation, he said people will die, the artificial hit job gets in the way and thats a shame because people will die because of it and its a pure it job. Do you know what he was talking about when he said that . No, the transcript is unclear. It could regard north korea or syria, and we know theres been a lot of collaboration and a lot of off the books collaboration, and he sought Nuclear Partnerships with russia since the 1980s when he was not involved in government. When a president casually says, a number of people will die and thats too pwaobad, and thats disturbing. His attitude towards veterans, i dont think he has any respect not just for the constitution or country but for the sanctity of human life itself, and its alarming very few people followed up on that. What do you mean by that . Thats something somebody should be following up on that. We will take a quick commercial break because we have to pay for the airtime and bring all of my guest back on the other side. Coming up, donald trump is very upset that somebody wants his emails. Irony is dead. Well be back. My experience with usaa has been excellent. They always refer to me as master sergeant. They really appreciate the military family, and it really shows. Weve got auto insurance, homeowners insurance. Had an accident with a vehicle, i actually called usaa before we called the police. Usaa was there handson very quick very prompt. I feel like were being handled as people that actually have a genuine need. Were the webber family and we are usaa members for life. 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Find new roads at your local chevy dealer. I call on my republican colleagues to join me in calling for the firing Robert Mueller. This is unaccountable bias and theres no way that cannot affect a persons work. Fplt i think the Publics Trust in this whole thing is gone. We are better understanding the magnitude of the insider bias on mr. Muellers team. While Congressional Republicans continue to push their pretext for President Donald Trump to fire special counsel mueller, the resistance is making its own resistance to push back. Moveon. Org is organizing a strategy to convene protests within hours of an announcement mueller has been fired. The former director of the u. S. Office of government ethics sounded his own call to resist. He said make a plan, folks, be ready to take to the streets. Joining us again is our guests. Thank you for making time for us. There are two separate stories i want you to unpack so people can make the difference between them. You reported on friday that the department of justice is saying the release of the private Text Messages, selected Text Messages between two fbi agents on the Hillary Clinton email probe, that was not authorized. Explain. So the oig is investigating these Text Messages, and they expressed a lot of disdain for trump not just trump. They did not like a lot of people. Right, bernie sanders, or eric holder. What is interesting about this, he did not authorize eyd, these were actually leaked to certain members of the media, and those were very vague characterizations of the emails, and that led the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee to put pressure on the Justice Department saying he was going to subpoena them for the Text Messages. They were then pressured to release the text, and they were under investigation. This was another attempt to kind of muddy the waters and undermine muellers probe. Do we know whether or not the release of the Text Messages came from the top of the department of justice, meaning Jeff Sessions is recused, and devin nunez is recused, and how do those Text Messages end up in the hands of nunez . We dont know. It was an unauthorized leak. It give ammunition to say its a biassed investigation, and it did help him with that narrative. We dont know who authorized the release of the text mess edges to the press, and we are trying to figure out who that was. Lets go to story number two. This is bob mueller, he has obtained emails that have to do with the transition, the trump transition into office. Lets explain that. Access reported last night the Transition Team was using government email servers to conduct its business over the period, over the course of the transition, and the gsa, which is the organization that overseas the Transition Team and its emails, actually because gave those emails to bob mueller, and bob mueller is a Government Authority and he has the ability to send a letter and say, hey, can i see these emails, and without a subpoena. Its a basic process. And then trumps lawyers went and sent a congress by passing mueller entirely trying to bring this into the court of Public Opinion saying what mueller did was unlawful because he went around the Transition Team, and the reason is because he did not trust them to hand over all of the relevant emails and he thought some would be deleted because thats what that the Transition Team with the lawyers would have done and they would have sorted out you mean the way Hillary Clinton sorted out what was private emails that were the source of trump saying lock her up. Thats what they wanted to do. How interesting. And they are upset their emails have been districted. Lots of irony as well. I want to read the response of mueller responding to the reuters story. When we have obtained emails in the course of our ongoing criminal investigation, we secured either the account owners consent or appropriate criminal process. They did not have their consent. That says to me that obtaining those emails were part of their appropriate criminal process. It was a government to government request. Mueller is a Government Authority and they were using private email servers and the government email servers, one of the top attorneys said if they read the fine print they would realize theres no expectation of privacy. And for those that dont understand, its not an antitrump, its who allowed him to have the its an Administrative Agency of the United States. Lots of irony. Lets start with the release of the Text Messages. You worked and you were an fbi double agent and you worked with these people. The idea an agent inside the fbi would have the personal Text Messages released, your thoughts. It goes back, we are losing sight of the context. This harkens back to a few months ago, where the republicans were trying to frame this idea that there was intelligence that unmasked trump officials, and that was somehow biassed against trump. There was an improper, and as donald trump said, his wires were tapped. Its completely taking things out of context. You are allowed to have a personal opinion and you are allowed to vote for a republican. At the worst, what a person did was yeah. But that doesnt mean they are not objective professional individuals who are able to do their jobs. We should make a point at the time he was not investigating donald trump, this was during the campaign. He was investigating Hillary Clinton. So thats important. Lets go to the next thing, which is the potential constitutional crisis that we talked about in the opening here. This is Jackie Speier, a congresswoman on friday talking about a rumor on the hill about mueller being fired. The rumor on the hill when i left yesterday was that the president was going to make a significant speech at the end of next week, and on december 22nd, when we are out of d. C. , he was going to fire Robert Mueller. One more quick sound bite. This is robert rosenstein, the Deputy Attorney general and this is him talking about the House Oversight hearing on wednesday. Have you seen good cause to fire special counsel mueller . No. Based upon his representation and service and patriotism, and his experience with the department and with the fbi, i believe he was an ideal choice for this task. Let me turn to my journalist here. You have heard any reportings that backs up what Jackie Speier that mueller would be fired after christmas . I heard the same thing. He would do it by repealing a regulation that would prevent him from directly firing bob mueller himself. The only way one of the only ways he could fire him is by going through rosenstein. He could essentially repeal the regulation that would allow him to fire mueller directly and he would not have to go around rosenstein. Whether or not theres a period that would require him to make this announcement and step back and wait for people to weigh in on whether or not thats allowed, and thats up for debate and has to be explored more, but theres a way legally where he could do it himself. Deregulation is a big thing, and good timing, huh . We know he wants Robert Mueller out. Every time the investigation hits where something is happening, what does donald trump do, he freaks out and goes and attacks people. He is using state media, what amounts to at this point to whip up a frenzy on the right that mueller is essentially a criminal. Over at fox news we saw that they had a headline, Kellyanne Conway said a coupe is happening. This is insane. Do i have to tell the american public, the last time we had a crisis of the magnitude was not the civil war, in the civil war they used the constitution to make a legal separation, and it was george iii, and inshrined in the declaration of independence. If he takes away the fundamental ability for us to police ourselves, and to police a president of the United States, he has done the ultimate obstruction in justice. He is dismantling the constitution. It cannot stand. We cannot allow it to stand. Those of us who have sworn this oath, and anybody watching this and is in government who think its good, you are joining a bureau and we dont need saddam husseins panel to cheer him on. Thank you all for being here. I am sorry this is such an alarmist open to the show. This is serious stuff and you need to start thinking about it. You need to start using your imagination to understand trump and we are looking at governments around the world because a lot of people across the world lived with governments like this for decades. Coming up, the latest on the unrest caused by Donald Trumps comments after the break. Im ryan and i quit smoking with chantix. I would doubt myself that i could actually quit. 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Enjoying me now is ron allen who spent many years covering the mideast. You are just back from the region. Tell me what you saw particularly after the declaration by the Trump Administration that they would move the embassy to jerusalem . The embassy declared that jerusalem is the capitol only, and the palestinians are in despair, and there are signs that say we love donald trump in jerusalem, and this was long overdo for them. West jerusalem is like a european capital. You go to the other side, the east side, and the palestinians live in poverty and have no control over their local f functions, its still an occupied city on that side. The whole place is occupied. Remember the International Community doesnt recognize this. While nobody really there didnt see the United States as siding with the israelis for a long time, maybe less so during the obama years, this essentially strips away any facade, they see no role for the United States Going Forward in a piece process, and not that theres a piece proce Peace Process going on, and its a tough thing for pence when he gets there because the palestinians are livid. The administration thinks this is all short term and they think all the protests and all the diplomatic standoff is a short term and will go away, and then that remains to be seen, of course. I wonder what it is that the administration, just from a reporting point of view, what does the administration think the palestinians want to receive . We are looking at the map and what would be left of palestine when you look at a map . Well, theres gaza, and its, you know, gaza, and the west bank, years ago it was swiss cheese and now its swiss cheese cut up further because of the Settlement Expansion in that area. We talk about these things as settlements, but they are cities. They are not like a tent in the city. Theres even tpau structure, and power, and sewers, and not going anywhere. Some are tens of thousands of people that live there. There are security roads around them so the israelis can get back and forth. There are checkpoints. Theres so much land that has been taken, and theres a question that could be a bible state, and of course, now, you know, they say there will never be a settlement unless East Jerusalem is their capital in theory, bethlehem, its technically in palestine. Very much in palestine. If they can keep it. One wonders whether anything up is for taking essentially. Thats what is happening, because in the palestinian areas in East Jerusalem, is there are israelis buying land and taking pl land, and palestinian families are being kicked out of their homes and cannot get permits to say there, and the Palestinian People will tell you, thats where the israelis are and taking over our property. Thats an interesting perspective. Stay with me, ron. I want to bring in the u. S. Editor of the israeli paper, which i think is required reading to understand the politics at least of liberal israelis on this issue. Its great to talk to you and it has been a while. Talk to me about the other side of this equation. You have palestinians in despair over the declaration of jerusalem, and over the expansion of settlements. Where what are israelis thinking and is there a significant israeli left . Well, i will answer the last part first. The israeli left is less significant than it used to be. Given the fact that theres no viable Peace Process and not one in the offering, and the history of the past 20 years, israelis left have had little to sink its teeth into. As for the israeli reaction to the decision by trump, its as ron said, most everybodiees were happy with the decision, and most thought it was long overdue, but now i think we can divide the Public Opinion into two, and there are those happy with the decision no matter what happens, and those are waiting for the fallout, and if the fallout is more negative than what we are seeing now, i think their opinion about trumps move will change. From an israeli point of view, the west bank has not exploded. The riots are from an israeli point of view containable and there have been no israeli casualties, and most everybodiees feel they have not paid too high of a price for the decision. And most israelis did not know there was a Peace Process so they cant be set to any damage done to the Peace Process. I want to go through the polling. This is a poll on the jerusalemish, and its from the palestinian center. 91 of palestinians believe the decision is a threat to palestinian interests, and 72 say President Trump will not present a peace plan, and on the most important problems, 29 say occupation and settlement activities. One more, and this is israelis on the impact of trumps decision, 49 42. 9 said it impedes the Peace Process, and others say it contributes to the Peace Process, and we did a segment on this, i believe it was last week, and the last couple of times we talked about this on the show, people were observing the palestinian side said that at this stage we are looking at a onestate saolutio, where there will be not two, and israel will have to decide to give palestinians full rights or drift toward a apartheid. Do you agree with that . I think for me the sense of the realization that the twostate solution is dead and we only have the onestate solution, thats a very bad ending for israel and a dead end for israel, because as you said israel will have in the long run, two stories, either a binational state, which is a disaster, and i do not believe the twostate is dead but its on its deathbed. Theres a possibility if the players were different on all sides, including the american side, i think theres a still a possibility of reaching a twostate saw lousolution, but clock is particularing and theres little time left. And i think that trumps decision brings them much closer to bringing that decision than they were before. Fplt i wish we had more time. The time is also ticking on us. This is an important discussion. Thank you both. Coming up in the next hour, lisa bloom is attacked by the right wing noise machine. A good friend comes by to spend very much needed badly needed holiday cheer. More am joy after the break. Weve got auto insurance, homeowners insurance. Had an accident with a vehicle, i actually called usaa before we called the police. Usaa was there handson very quick very prompt. I feel like were being handled as people that actually have a genuine need. Were the webber family and we are usaa members for life. Usaa, get your insurance quote today. dyoure drew brees . im sorry to bother you, but my car broke down and id really appreciate a ride to the stadium. Yes . But, no, i have to stay here and wait for a package. I thought anybody who rooted for me would have fedex delivery manager. That way you can sign for your packages remotely and even customize your delivery time. car alarm beeps excuse me sir, could you take me to the stadium . Sure hop in. Thank you. Hope you like jazz fusion. neighbor starts singing sorry. Customize your deliveries with fedex delivery manager. And i have to say as a black woman, i actually dont want to be referred to as the backbone of the party. Im a swing voter. I want our party to treat black women and black voters and brown voters and the Obama Coalition as swing voters. You have to work for it. You have to earn it. You have to show up. Governor dean used to say, it is a sign of respect to show up and ask people for their vote. Africanamericans in alabama turned out to vote in decisive numbers this week and made doug jones the first democratic senator of the state in 20 years. On saturday i talked to two black women strategists about the lessons they hope their party is taking from the unexpected victory. Joining me is tom thank you for being with me. Thank you for having me. You heard karen finney who worked for howard dean. L. Joy williams who you hadback a had backandforth conversations. What lesson did you take away . Number one, we can win everywhere. Thats why we have every zip code count strategy exactly like howard dean did. We can win everywhere when we field good candidates who reflect the values of the community, when we organize everywhere and when we never take anyone for granted. Thats, i think, the key to success. We were in early. We were in everywhere and we have to recognize that, as i said earlier this week, africanamerican women in particular and africanamericans generally are, indeed, the backbone of the Democratic Party and precisely because they are the backbone of the Democratic Party we should never take them for granted and weve been going to school on that not only in alabama but in virginia, mayors races and elsewhere. Thats how we win. Couple things. The first thing is in alabama we had on some of the grassroots organizers who did the bulk of the work and they have been getting out the vote in terms of what people have done. Is the Democratic National committee committed to hiring more consulting firms . We did that in alabama. We were part of team doug. We wanted to make sure this was about doug and helping doug. A key to success in helping doug was hiring the likes of sthehei tyson who was helping us in birmingham to get africanamerican women out. In northern alabama we had Patrick Grayson who was working with Small Businesses so we were reaching out to barber shops, to beauty salons and other local businesses because we needed to find the voters where we got them. Then the seawright, anton. They were lynchpins to our success. We listened to them and we moved off we pivoted off of their leads and their suggestions. Im not talking about individual hires for the dnc, im talking about the fact we all know theres a consulting class in Democratic Politics that generally traffics in media buys and they get all the work. When the money is allocated a lot of grassroots minority owned consulting firms dont get that business. Is the dnc committed to expanding its cadre of consultants to include those kinds of firms . Absolutely. I gave you three such examples. Those are firms . Yes. Two days ago we did a forum at the dnc so that we could increase the number of contractors telling them how to do business with the dnc. Then in alabama its really important to understand, joy, that we hired on the ground. We had 18 organizers from the community. Im a huge believer in the notion that we need home grown organizers. Right. One of the wonderful things about that here in alabama is now that we have had success here with doug, theres a governors race there. Right. These home grown organizers can continue that work. Were very short on time thats why im sort of jumping in a little bit. There are africanamerican candidates running in georgia and florida. You have Andrew Gillam running for governor in florida, pam keith running for congress. Are these candidates going to get support . Because there is a little rumbling on the ground that the party at large would prefer selffunde selffunders who are not candidates of color and not encouraging these candidates . As you know, when we have contested primaries we dont take a position in the primary itself. What we do do is lay the foundation. Thats exactly what were doing in all these states, laying the foundation of organizing so that candidates can win at the end of the primary. Ill give you a couple examples. We dont have time for a couple of examples. In atlanta and charlotte when we had the mayors race. We invested in those races and we paid i think we played an important zbloel this is yes or no. Are you going to invest money in Voter Registration . Absolutely. We havent done enough of that in the past. We have to couple it with building relationships with the voters. We cant show up every october and pretend we care. We have to have relationships lasting. Tom perez. Thank you very much. Well have to have you back. Have a good day. More am joy after the break. Feels good to be back. Feels good to be back. Only fleet enemas feature the lubricated gentle glide tip for comfortable relief in minutes. Not hours. And an ezsqueeze bottle for gentle, simple, fast relief. Fleet enemas. The start of fast relief. But on the inside, i feel like chronic, widespread pain. Fibromyalgia may be invisible to others, but my pain is real. Fibromyalgia is thought to be caused by overactive nerves. Lyrica is believed to calm these nerves. Im glad my doctor prescribed lyrica. For some, lyrica delivers effective relief for moderate to even severe fibromyalgia pain. And improves function. Lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions, suicidal thoughts or actions. Tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worse depression, unusual changes in mood or behavior, swelling, trouble breathing, rash, hives, blisters, muscle pain with fever, tired feeling, or blurry vision. Common side effects dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain, swelling of hands, legs and feet. Dont drink alcohol while taking lyrica. Dont drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. Those whove had a drug or alcohol problem may be more likely to misuse lyrica. With less pain, i can do more with my family. Talk to your doctor today. See if lyrica can help. Now this entire story is absolutely shocking. Tonight we have very serious questions. Why would he do this . Is it dirty politics at play and part of the larger effort to undermine and destroy Donald Trumps campaign at the time . And will blooms actions make it harder for all the real victims of Sexual Misconduct to come forward in the future . Welcome back to am joy. Members of the pro trump media pulled out all the stops this week in their attempts to exonerate donald trump from allegations of Sexual Harassment and assault. The story Shaun Hannity referred to is the story in the hill. This new story claims that prominent attorney lisa bloom sought money from clinton supporters and super pacs to give to trumps accusers during the president ial campaign. Kennedy and others are framing a story as some sort of smoking gun proving that the accusations against trump are being gined up. Its an unnamed women whos a friend of Makeup Artist wbloom. The trump supporter had ties to associates of the president shared Text Messages with the hill reporters to decide that she ultimately decided not to come forward. Its driving the rights reckless coverage. Relocate the unnamed accuser and her family. Kennedys coverage has overlooked a few important things in the hill story. First the unnamed woman appeared receptive to offer money and as bloom told the hill asked for up to 2 million in compensation. Second, both hart and the unnamed woman, quote, stressed that bloom never asked them to make any statement or allegations except what they believed to be true. Third, hart made it clear to the hill that the money she ultimately received was money for the women who were concerned, they were receiving Death Threats and rape threats had no affect on her claim that donald trump sexually assaulted her. Finally, the hill piece includes an october 11th text from lisa bloom to the unnamed woman making it clear that no Clinton Super pacs were offering help, quote, lets please do a call. I have already reached out to Clinton Super pacs and they are not paying. I can get you paid for some interviews however. Now an exclusive interview with am joy lisa bloom said the offers of Financial Support came amp she had to cancel a press conference with another trump accuser who became afraid of going public. Donors reached out to us and said, my god, what can we do to help her or other women. Arranging for security and Location Services for any women who wanted it. I was in contact with another woman who never did come forward and i relayed that. Not Hillary Clinton nor anyone from his campaign was associated with any of those offers for relocation and security. They were never exaggerating. Trump defenders on the right are using the hill story to cast doubt on all 18 of trumps accusers. At the end of the day the reporting showed though that only two women definitely accepted payments from lisa bloom, but its the type of thing that brings into question the credibility of all the accusers against President Trump. Joining me now is msnbc contributor gabriel sherman. Gabriel, ill come to you on this first. Bill oreilly seemed to know this story was coming, which is interesting in and of itself. He was on with glen beck on the radio days before the hill story came out. The two reporters were part of the uranium one rollout. He tweeted the lawyer who attacked me with phony charges, lisa bloom, now exposed for arranging payments to women. Please read this devastating article in the hill. I told you guys from the beginning that many allegations were false and politically driven. Lisa bloom represents some of the accusers of bill oreilly as well. We should start by saying the irony is rich with bill oreilly commenting on anything regarding Sexual Harassment given that hes paid more than 40 million to settle claims over the years. This is based on politics. We saw this. As a reporter, all i care about are the facts. We saw this in the 90s. A lot of right wing activists helped paula jones when she came forward to accuse bill clinton. We see people are politically motivated. Ultimately what only matters is the facts and nothing that we have learned and these women have attested that they were told to misrepresent their stories. Nothing we have learned in this hill report changes the credibility of the women coming forward to tell the truth. What we do learn from lisa blooms statement which we are going to put up on our Facebook Page if you want to read the whole statement, this is lisa bloom testixting. These two reporters of the hill were given by this unnamed accuser her Text Messages in which you see her going through the agony. She wants to accuse trump, she changed her mind. She is a trump supporter, continued to be a trump supporter. The unnamed woman says to lisa bloom, its my understanding that there is some Clinton Super pack, she spelled it wrong, that could help out if we did move forward. If we help the Clinton Campaign they would in turn help or compensate us . Lisa bloom says lets please do a call. I have already reached out to Clinton Super pacs and they are not paying. I can get you paid for some interviews however. One of the things is worthy donors said we will help relocate the woman. This is on the idea of paying period. We work for free or sharply reduced fees. We add a line in our client agreements that if the client gets paid for media interviews, our law firm gets onethird. This is extremely unlikely so its in our standard contracts, but rarely invoked. Is it standard procedure for people to be paid to do interviews . In the Television World there are ways to get paid for travel fees. Standard journal lis stick practice is you dont get paid for access. For the big tv sitdown exclusives there are work arounds where they will pay to bring somebody into new york city and there is compensation involved. I want to bring in our full panel. Sarah, what youve seen, this trump accuser and lisa bloom said she still does believe her allegations against donald trump even though partly because of her support for donald trump did not want to bring her story forward. This is lisa bloom talking about her still believing this womans story. Ultimately i was still willing to take her case, again, because her story was corroborated. She had photos from the time period and she had a witness. When she started looking for millions of dollars at the very end, should i have realized maybe Something Else was going on here . Yeah, perhaps. Sir, there is a thing going on on the right where there is a search for literally false accusers to try to go to journalists and get them to print stories that are fake to bring journalists down. This is a woman who lisa bloom says she Still Believes but because of her support for donald trump seems to have cooperated in a story design to essentially call into question the stories of other accusers, including her friend jill hart. Yeah. I mean, thats that seems to be the case. But there are two things id like to bring up here. One is that Sexual Assault is not a partisan issue. Correct. Which reminds me a lot of the russia investigation which is also being falsely framed as a partisan issue. No woman should be forced to be a pawn in this scheme. This is an issue of a personal tragedy and it should not be used in this way. The second thing is that trump has an incredibly long list of allegations of not just Sexual Assault but rape. He was accused by ivan na trump. He was accused by a 13yearold girl. This is one of the case that ms. Bloom has been represented. Hes been accused of 18 women by Sexual Assault. Hes been accused of peeping in on women, teenage girls, excuse me, who are changing clothes. Hes friends with many pedophiles. He defended roy moore. He bragged about grabbing women. I think this is very likely that this allegation is true. Its certainly something we should be investigating more strongly and in a more forthright manner. The way the right wing media has been using this story, its trending earlier because we think that this will exonerate donald trump. We saw some of the same behavior when they were trying to put forward stories that would mitigate or exonerate roy moore. Here is Shawn Hannity and tying donald trump and what he sees as his innocence to the cross case, Michael Brown and freddy gray if you can believe that. People cannot rush to judgment because sometimes innocent people are hurt because the allegations are flat out untrue. Example in point, the duke lacrosse case. Those kids were innocent. Having their lives ruined. Richard jewel in atlanta, falsely accused of being the 1996 atlanta bomber. He didnt do it. Ferguson, missouri, Michael Brown, hands up, dont shoot, that was all a lie. Freddie gray in baltimore, those cops would be convicted. None of them were. However, what lisa bloom reportedly did or attempted to do cannot be discounted. Your thoughts . My thoughts, first of all, amen to everything that sarah said. This man is a selfadmitted Sexual Assaulter. Its not very difficult to believe. How does dusting and revolting Shawn Hannity and fox news really to be peddling basically what is rape culture 101. Normalizing mens Sexual Violence and blaming women for it. Fox news is really going to be the network thats going to be peddling more theories for blaming women. This is so disgusting, joy, i dont know what to say about it. I dont think theres much doubt about the Sexual Assaulter that donald trump is. When it comes to donald trump and fox news, i believe women, end of story. End of story. You know, it is interesting that, you know, theres a thing called gas lighting. You sort of call into question your own memory of your own light in a lot of ways but also the idea of being forward leaning even if your own history involved the thing, leaning into that thing. Yes. Fox news with all the settlements that were made to the oreilly, roger ales, they seem to be aggressively leaning in essentially saying they will be the arbiters of who are sexual miscreants or not. This is a classic political tactic, take a weakness and turn it into a strength. We saw it in 2004 with george w. Bush. He did it to john kerry. He had a questionable vietnam war record when george bush was the one who skirted his service in the air national guard. This is a classic republican playbook. Were seeing it now play out with fox news. I think the fact is that this just shows that people believe that Donald Trumps vulnerability with women is still a live political issue. Yes. The reason the white house and Trump Supporters are pushing back so far is this hasnt been you have people attacking vietnam war hero bob mueller who was a navy you know, he volunteered to go to vietnam and had a heroic war record as essentially a criminal and donald trump who avoided service in vietnam elevated as the savior of the military. He has no religiosity and hes painted as the greatest gift of christianity. Everything is being turned upside down. For donald trump and roy moore, its working. Is donald trump going up against war hero john mccain and with bases of people, theyre choosing donald trump, why is this tactic so effective . Well, one thing, you know, i want to kind of contest is im not sure how effective it is anymore. The ratings have been plummeting. Theyve been plummeting among white male evangelicals. I think generally people are beginning to see through this facade. So as to how it takes hold, i think weve gone over propaganda in our media. I think fox news is essentially acting as a propaganda news network. Were dealt a barrage of news like a months worth in a day. And i also think theres a failure of imagination. I think people dont want to believe that something so horrible and so vile can be true about the president of the United States and that he is so unapologetic about it. But that is the case. He bands himself most with his own words. When people heard the words as in the case of the access hollywood video, i think a lot of people want to put their heads in the sand because the pain is easier to take. And thats a complicated issue, which i think will take some time to resolve. I wonder if theres any consternation about this inside the Rupert Mourdock umpire, positioning of fox news. All of our networks, including our networks, have faced allegations. This is something thats happening to networks across the board. Is there any trepidation about taking this tact inside a company to pay this many settlements . Yeah. Ive heard from women inside fox news who are pained and anguished that the Network Still has not fully confronted the Sexual Harassment issue. We saw in several days Rupert Mourdock said the whole Sexual Harassment issue at fox news was, quote, nonsense. From the top down women feel even months later roger ales is gone, some of his loyalists are gone and people like Shawn Hannity go on the air and discredit the accusers. Women might start coming forward at fox news to tell the full truth because theyre so outraged by the networks position. Their aggressiveness attempting to sort of be the arbiter of this issue, its really remarkable. Thank you all. Up next, the future of the internet may be in Donald Trumps hands. Ugh. Because there are options. Like an unjection™. Xeljanz xr. A once daily pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well. Xeljanz xr can reduce pain, swelling and further joint damage, even without methotrexate. Xeljanz xr can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections, lymphoma and other cancers have happened. Dont start xeljanz xr if you have an infection. 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The agency does not have the final word, thank goodness for that. This week Donald Trumps republican dominated fcc voted to end the obama era Net Neutrality rules that protect equal access to an open internet. Its a huge win for the conservatives on the federal communications commission. Especially for the fcc chairman who is a driving force behind repeal. The future of the internet is suffering. Joining me now is one of the two democratic commissioners who oppose the move. Commissioner clyburn, thank you for being here. You are the person i wanted to talk to on this. Thank you. You said in your moving speech that the fight is not over. We know that several states are suing. Yes. Including new york, and heres a little word from new yorks attorney general snyderman who said hes going to sue to stop the illegal rollback of Net Neutrality. Who can he sue, first of all . Would he be suing you guys . He can sue the agency. We made it very clear that we were no longer going to protect them when it comes to the internet, their experiences over the internet. We weakened the rules. We took ourselves, the expert agency, out of the protection process and we punted to the ftc, the federal trade commission, which has no background when it comes to Net Neutrality protections and they can only help you after a harm is done. And so we took ourselves out of the Consumer Protection business. We gave the keys to the internet to a handful of large mult multibillion dollar internet providers and the rest of us Small Businesses and customers, were on our own. We will only be able to fend for ourselves and hope for fair treatment over the internet but there is no guarantee. The agency, the fcc, also did this with a Comment Period that was tainted by fake comments that people were impersonating other people in order to take advantage of the Comment Period. Heres attorney general snyderman talking about that. Seven months ago my office began investigating a flood of fake comments submitted to the fcc in the public Comment Period for Net Neutrality. Weve found 2 million fake comments that use the stolen identities of people across the country, including 100,000 new yorkers. We asked the fcc to help in our investigations but waited months to hear back. How can that have gone through without an investigation first . I dont understand why the agencies that in the past has worked cooperatively with attorneys generals basically ignored the cries from the attorneys generals saying weve got stolen identities and weve even found traces to russia. About a half a million pro repeals, people who wanted to get rid of Net Neutrality provisions, they can prove that that information, those submissions were made by russian from russian influencers. So its perfect plekting to me that we see a process that has been compromised. Our Online System has been compromised which skewed the opinions that people saw over the internet, meaning those who wanted to get rid of Net Neutrality protections and made it look like more people wanted to when, in fact, the vast majority of legitimate commenters pro Net Neutrality. They wanted to keep our rules in place. In addition to getting rid of Net Neutrality, i think a lot of people dont understand that the fcc not only ended Net Neutrality at the federal level, they also prevented states, if states want to have Net Neutrality, we talked about this earlier in the show, forcing trumpism on unwilling states and cities that are blue that want to live under blue state blue city rules to say you cant do that. You must live under our rules as well. Can you talk a little bit about how it can be possible if the federal fcc can stop states from doing Net Neutrality . Thats questionable and that should and would be challenged. Not only did we say states cant play in this space, they cant protect or enhance Consumer Protections for their own neighbors and citizens. We didnt give them proper notice so that process in and of itself is flawed. This whole process leading up to this decision, its obvious the fix was in no matter what millions of americans said, no matter how much notice we did not give, they were going to repeal the Net Neutrality rules due process or not. Newsweek did a piece, things like the me, too, movement, minority women, black lives matter, people who really depend on the internet as a life line. Can you explain for those who dont understand why you object to getting rid of these rules . Who will be hurt if these rules are gone . Individuals, particularly those with businesses online. Your Internet Service provider does not look like the same provider you signed up with. They are now in the content business. They are producing movies and shows and they even own, and you know this well, they even own media companies. Yes. So they have an advantage. They have content. If you have a competing business or concern, they can favor the experiences on line for their customers over the experiences online in terms of your applications, how your website is being treated and the access to your site. They can favor theirs and disfavor yours. They can block. They can slow down. They can choke what we call interconnection points which will make the difference whether a customer can get to your website, have a good experience when it comes to your business, especially if its an interactive online experience. Say i had a competing movie streaming service, if i keep buffering or things keep slowing down, then youre not going to watch me, but if they advantage their businesses, then their content and that flow of information would slide. We wouldnt have known about ferguson, missouri, if the provider was able to block or throttle. The media outlet, they werent covering ferguson. Thats right. Not until the hashtag started trending. We will be able to better tell our stories, promote our businesses, enhance our ability to find out whats going on in the world, but not if an Internet Service provider has the keys to our success, the keys to the internet that they will be able to block or slow down or inhibit free speech. Thats what that says today. A lot of people dont know much about the fcc and they dont know how much you have been fighting for a very long time to bolster the voices and access of minority media businesses and of allamericans. That you from those of us who care about it. Thank you very much. Republicans are one step closer to changing the tax code as we know it. Thats next. My experience with usaa has been excellent. They always refer to me as master sergeant. 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Father, my ornament shows the other people we lost this year, reince priebus, tom price, sebastian gorka, could thor page, sally yee, Paul Manafort and george papadopoulos. I made a macaroni star wait a second, do you hear that . Its the theme from nbcs apprenti apprentice. I always love you lyrica is believed to calm these nerves. Im glad my doctor prescribed lyrica. For some, lyrica delivers effective relief for moderate to even severe fibromyalgia pain. And improves function. Lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions, suicidal thoughts or actions. Tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worse depression, unusual changes in mood or behavior, swelling, trouble breathing, rash, hives, blisters, muscle pain with fever, tired feeling, or blurry vision. Common side effects dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain, swelling of hands, legs and feet. Dont drink alcohol while taking lyrica. Dont drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. 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Thats treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin seeming very confident about what could be congresss first legislative victory of 2017, sweeping tax reform plan. Actually a sweeping Corporate Tax plan. Joining me, msnbc contributor e. J. Dionne, jamall simmons and kate dawson, republican strategist. Lets start with e. J. Lets listen to Steve Mnuchin this time on cnn, and hes talking about his favorite thing, the tax cut. This is the biggest single change to the tax system in fixing a broken tax code that we ever had. A family of four making 75,000 will get about a 2,000 tax cut and a family of four making 150,000 will get almost 4,000. Plus, we think as a result of lowering business taxes, wages will go up. So this is a huge opportunity for creating jobs, creating tax cuts for working families. Tony, aside from the fact that there is literally no evidence, literally none, that cutting taxes on corporations increases wages, setting that aside, i found it interesting, im wondering when you do, that when Steve Mnuchin starts talking about a tax cut, he talks about a family of 4 making 75,000 and it goes up from there. The Median Household Income is 56,000. Even his frame of reference is 20,000 more than the Median Household Income. No, i think thats right. And as somebody at the new yorker pointed out, this is like a teaser Rate Mortgage because those middle class tax cuts disappear down the road. They couldnt fit them in because of that huge corporate cut. I mean, this is one of the worst pieces of legislation ive seen around here, and ive been around a while. I mean, the first thing is that this bill proves conclusively that donald trump is no populus. This bill is about as populist as an all male country club with a 1 million initiation fee. Second, its political punishment using government power to go against the opposition states, against blue states, with what it does to the state and local tax deductions. Its one of the most recklessly put together bills. There are positions that only the lobbyist who wrote them understand. Its not going to explode the economy. Its a truly awful bill. On the hill at senate staff. It also violates some of the claimed priorities of senators supporting the bill. I remember lots of talk about regular order from john mccain and talking about doing things the proper way. Heres joe manchin, democrat from west virginia, talking about the process on meet the press. I think Mitch Mcconnell basically told the president we can do this under a budget reconciliation, which is a budget gimmick. He passed a budget with 1. 5 trillion going in. He had 1. 5 trillion of deficit to work with, give away tax cuts, Everything Else rather than revenue neutral which is what ronald regan did, which is what i wanted to do and many republicans kind of wanted to do. Thats not what we ended up with. Its just treated that the republicans do not care about budgets, debt, they just care about tax cuts for very wealthy people. Is that unfair of me to say . I think thats very fair. Lets be clear, the deficit isnt new. Mr. Mcconnells been in the senate since 1984. Im pretty sure weve had a deficit all that time. Doesnt mr. Mcconnell own the deficit as much as anybody. Its a wonderful talking point. I get the talking point. I was around in 2001 for that tax bill. I was on the floor. I worked that bill. We had a surplus at that point in time and that bill, joy, was supposed to give us more of a surplus, supposed to give us more jobs, et cetera, et cetera. It did not. It failed. Even the 1986 tax bill was revenue neutral. They couldnt even do that in 2001 and theyre not doing it this time. 1. 56 trillion added to the deficit. Now hold on. All of our republican friends are going to say, barack obama doubled the deficit. Great. Barack obamas not the president of the United States anymore, donald trump is. A man whos declared bankruptcy six times in the commonwealth of new york. So, yes, they love deficit spending. Theyre going to add to the deficit. Its not going to create jobs. Its going to devastate just like in 1986 it did in the housing industry. It will cause Interest Rates to go up, banks arent going to loan and people are going to suffer. By the way, it raises taxes on about 3. 5 of americans who are poor. Poor. Now think about that. Republicans making a Corporate Tax rate permanent and screwing poor people. That is one hell of a christmas gift. Jamall, theres a reason why Steve Mnuchin started his baseline at 75,000. Under 75,000 people are getting a tax hike. Theyre going to pay for the tax cuts and tax cut for very wealthy people. Around 1 million is they were claiming the democrats were wrong and should not vote on Democratic Health care until the new senator could be seated. Heres an ad that an Opposition Group is running that is making the point that doug jones who just won the seat in alabama is not going to be allowed to vote on this. Take a listen. The voters have spoken, but Mitch Mcconnell is trying to jam through the tax plan before alabamas new senator can vote and its not right and mitch knows it. Last time it happened when a republican won a special election, mcconnell stopped all votes until that senator receded. Winner, whoever it is, should be sworn in promptly. Lets honor the wishes of the people. Call senator mcconnell, tell him he should honor the wishes of the people now, too. Is that an effective message . A six figure buy my understanding is, jamall. Yeah, well see whether or not people in the country get fired up about this. I think what they mostly get fired up is not about the process of what happened but what the result is going to be for themselves, for real taxpayers. I look at this, this is like a thelma and louise tax plan. Its going to be a really, good fun time until the point when we go off the cliff and they put the American Economy into the ditch that were all going to be facing. 2025 tax rates will go up on individuals because they were more concerned on making them permanent for corporations than they were making them permanent for American Employees and, you know, people at the lower end of the economic scale. This bill does not address any of the fundamental problems that we have. How do we lower the inequality divide . How do we rebuild our infrastructure . How do we deal with the cultural changes that are happening and make sure women and people of color get paid the same as white men so we can support our economy and entitlements . When we get done with this on tuesday, were going to go back and see medicare be put back on the table. That is not what people voted for. I think the republicans are, again, driving us over this cliff thelma and louise style. A good party until the crash. You used a forbidden word, ec entitlement. Doug jones wont get a chance to speak on this because Mitch Mcconnell wont let him speak. Heres doug jones talking about the tax bill. This seems to be plopped into a vote too quickly. There are things i like about it, cutting Corporate Tax rates, cutting some things for the middle class and increasing the standard deduction, but my biggest concern is the process and the fact that it will increase the deficit by over 1 trillion. That causes me great concern. I dont buy into the fact that its going to grow the economy that that trillion dollar debt will get wiped out. I think thats a major problem. Caring about people. He said there is people there. One of the shortest tenures. Yeah, it wont matter. Were glad to have doug jones there. That would matter on this. What i will say is i think most everyone this morning is wrong. I saw what it did to a c corp that i was involved with. Had an eighth grade education. I understand what the tax code is going to do and what its going to do politically and politically 59 of america does not itemize the deductions. Theyre going to double the marriage deduction. Its unpopular. Look at the polling. You might see the 2018 taxes. Thats when its going to be there. We have the 2018 mid terms coming. The Democratic Party has any kind of taxes. Its really bad. Let me finish. Let me finish. No. Quickly. Quickly. At the end of the day while weve had this from everybody else, ill take mine and tell you it will create a competitive job system, it will raise wages and give people more take home pay. Thats whats going to happen. The politics will work themselves out for 2018 and Donald Trumps up in 2020. So well see, but im glad to see that the Democratic Party is now concerned about deficit spending. Im glad to see that people are talking about the 1. 5 trillion that it might explode but if you keep doing it the way weve been doing it through the Bush Administration had growth. Something different. Were out of time. I wish we had more time. I would love to go back around. We do not have enough time. Happy holidays. Merry christmas, you guys. Enjoy your holiday. You, too. At the top of the hour, the white house responds to rumors that Robert Muellers time is up. Some holiday food for your soul. Stay with us. If you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis,. 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Ask your dermatologist about otezla today. Otezla. Show more of you. When heartburn hits fight back fast with tums chewy bites. Fast relief in every bite. Crunchy outside. Chewy inside. Tum tum tum tum tums chewy bites. Directv has been rated number one in Customer Satisfaction over cable for 17 years running. But some people still like cable. Just like some people like wet grocery bags. Getting a bad haircut. Overcrowded trains. Turnstiles that dont turn. And spilling coffee on themselves. But for everyone else, theres directv. For 1 rated Customer Satisfaction over cable, switch to directv. And for a limited time get a 100 reward card. Call 1800directv obama clause came to town thursday to surprise a group of kids on the nice list in a washington, d. C. Boys and girls club with presents and christmas cheer. Adorable. And lets face it, whether youre celebrating a holiday or none at all, after the year we just went through and endured, couldnt we all use an excuse for cheer . Yes. Today, my last show for 2017, we are going to talk about filling our spirits by filling our bellies with food for the soul. And joining me now is an expert on the subject, mel va wilson. Owner of a restaurant in harlem. Really one of my Favorite Places to eat, literally anywhere, not just in new york. If you have not eat therein, im serious. Show off this book. Its fabulous. And i love that name. And i feel like the country needs comfort. Do you find that your customers now are coming to you for your delicious food, but for kind of comfort. Totally. And enjoy being in the heart of harlem right now where justification lives, you know, kind of feel like it was born there. Its important for us to be able to sit at the table and come together through something thats known as a Global Common denominator, and thats food. Nothing better to do it than some Fried Chicken collard greens. This is what im saying. The reality is think pieces that constantly get written during the holidays, how to avoid fighting each other over the holiday table, the hanukkah table, whatever. Does food really bring people together even with the ideological polarization . Food totally brings people together. What were looking at right now is a crescendo in terms of political and sexual, so what food does, it allows us to sit down, have conversations, builds bonds and trusts. Yeah, and you mentioned sexual. The Restaurant Industry has not been immune from the me too movement. Weve heard about hollywood, the news business, its just going sort of rocketing around the world of men, its not unknown in this industry either. Recently had a piece about ken frooeldman who was accused of sexual harpt, hes a restaurant or big restauranteur here. Mario batalli, stepped away from his restaurants following Sexual Misconduct allegations, john besh in new orleans. Its happening now. Its definitely happening, unfortunately. But im a big member of an Organization Called the new york City Hospitality alliance, and one of the things that we have done is we have seminars, and we talk about sexual prevention and were also looking into implementing policies that deem this inappropriate behavior and teaches our employees on how to deal with this. How vulnerable are women in the Restaurant Industry . I think women in general are vulnerable. One of the great things is when i look at the womans march and when i look at the me too movement, the fact that we are uniting and that were together, theres nothing that we cant do. Yeah. And we are our sisters keepers. Amen. Youve got to thing coming up where people can get some food. I do, i do. Tell me quickly. Oh my gosh, 20181 going to market tenth anniversary of my throwdown with bobby flay. Totally changed my life. And its chicken and waffles. 10, marking our tenth anniversary being on the show. January 8th. We are something for you guys too. Were going to show you guys these pies. If you have not had melba sweet potato pie. You havent lived. You need to have that pie, this is delicious. Is this your favorite recipe . It is, its my grandmothers recipe. Melba wilson, you are fabulous, its fabulous. Thank you very much. And can we do this now . Can i do this now . Lets do this now. We have two copies of this book, melbas american comfort. Were going to have her sign these for our two favorite tweets of the day. I believe that we have them ready. The two no holds barred at a. M. Joy this a. M. Thank you all. The quibbler, youre getting a koich melbas book and one more, scariest a. M. Joy ever. Sharon williams, you are correct. It was the scariest am joy ever, you cant eat through the tv, but you can cook your own from the book. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. More am joy after the break. At planters we know how to throw a remarkable holiday party. Just serve classy snacks and be a gracious host, no matter who shows up. Do you like nuts . Copdso to breathe better,athe. I go with anoro. Go your own way copd tries to say, go this way. I say, ill go my own way with anoro. Go your own way oncedaily anoro contains two medicines called bronchodilators, that Work Together to significantly improve lung function all day and all night. Anoro is not for asthma. It contains a type of medicine that increases risk of death in people with asthma. The risk is unknown in copd. Anoro wont replace rescue inhalers for sudden symptoms and should not be used more than once a day. Tell your doctor if you have a heart condition, high blood pressure, glaucoma, prostate, bladder, or urinary problems. These may worsen with anoro. Call your doctor if you have worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain while taking anoro. Ask your doctor about anoro. Go your own way get your first prescription free at anoro. Com. Ancestrydna can pinpoint where your ancestors are from. And the paths they took to a new home. Could their journey inspire yours . Order your kit at ancestrydna. Com mikboth served in the navy. S, i do outrank my husband, not just being in the military, but at home. She thinks shes the boss. She only had me by one grade. We bought our first home together in 2010. His family had used another insurance product but i was like well ive had usaa for a while, why dont we call and check the rates . It was an instant savings and i shouldve changed a long time ago. Theres no point in looking elsewhere really. Were the tenneys and were usaa members for life. Usaa. Get your insurance quote today. Or a little internet machine . It makes you wonder shouldnt we get our phones and internet from the same company . Thats why Xfinity Mobile comes with your internet. You get up to 5 lines of talk and text at no extra cost. So all you pay for is data. See how much you can save. Choose by the gig or unlimited. Xfinity mobile. A new kind of network designed to save you money. Call, visit, or go to xfinitymobile. Com. Thats our show for today. Thanks for watching. See, i told you we were going to end on an up note. Not with me, let me turn to alex whit for the latest, my friend you take pie from your friends. Where to go . Im looking, where did those pies go to . I am leaving a slice for you. We will not take them without leaving one from you. I appreciate that, thank you, joy. Held low to all of you, im alex whit here in new york. Just about high noon here in the east 9 00 a. M. At west. There are a couple big stories we are following for you. Theres a new turn in the russia probe. The president s Transition Team faring off a complaint about it tens of thousands of private email us in the investigation. One of the questions about how special counsel Robert Mueller got the messages. And the new nbc news wall street journal poll shows what the gop could face heading into the midterms and it is a situation that has not happened since 2008. But we begin with the new details on the russia investigation, the white house pushing back against rumors that special counsel bob muellers days may be numbered. The president ial transition lawyer firing off a letter to Congress Accusing mueller of illegally obtaining tens of thousands of transition emails, this from a government server. Its a claim promptly denied by muellers spokesperson. White house official mark shore a bit earlier pushing back that the president may be plotting an end to the investigations. This administration is complied in every