Well, i feel badly for general flynn. I feel very badly. Hes led a very strong life. The latest on all things russia. Washington post reporter contributor, the one who broke the trump flynn Legal Defense story and Garrett Haake with us as well remains to my envy in sunny palm beach where the president is on vacation. How worried is the white house about what Michael Flynn may say to Robert Mueller and his team . Well, any good lawyer will be preparing for the worst. My sources inside the white house, seems to me the president s lawyers feel very confident theres no evidence, no indication of any criminal conspiracy and that Michael Flynn does not have any information that would incriminate the president. However, given that, despite that confidence, theres also just a general concern that if Michael Flynn as part of his Cooperation Agreement might provide information that accuses a senior trump official or even the president himself of something thats untoward, that there are ways in which you could challenge the credibility of the president s former National Security adviser. After all, he has admitted in one felony count to lying to the fbi, in two instances. That raises questions about his credibility. How standard is this, as you talk to Defense Attorneys how cases like these often play out. Is this right out of the main playbook . Yes. You put it beautifully. As many people have said to me, this is textbook. This is, you know, Defense Strategy 101. The real in a way this is really an if, a plan b. , because we dont know what Michael Flynn is going to testify to. We only know that as of december 1, he had a very lenient favorable Cooperation Agreement with special counsel bob mueller. Despite the possibility of being charged with multiple counts and also the possibility of his son facing legal exposure. He only, mr. Flynn, only received one count that he had to plead guilty to. So that implies, and indicates, suggests, that Michael Flynn has something of value, something substantive to provide the special counsel, and its raised a lot of questions across the country and the its raised a lot of questions inside the white house. Again that group of lawyers for the president feel very confident that theres no hard evidence that would incriminate the president , and they feel similarly confident about other Senior Administration officials. That its still an open question. And i want to read a line from carols piece, exactly what flynn might offer remains a mistress. What are folks in florida with you, with the president , saying about whats unfolded here and about what came out in this piece . Reporter well, the official word from the white house on this came from the president s outside counsel john dowd who called it nonsense and fake news, but brings up the point, being accused of something down the line by someone who at mitted to being a liar, calling them a liar is not exactly a complicated Defense Strategy. The white house is pushing back hard against this, and flynn is a character who really through the campaign, through the transition and through the early months of the Trump White House, there was no one closer to this president , who didnt have the last name trump. He was intimately involved in National Security, strategy, campaignrelated stuff. On the plane constantly and, again, as the first National Security advisers, he helped set up the trump National Security apparatus at the white house in its initial form. So theres every reason to think if theres something to be known about the president as tied to russia, the mandate of the russia investigation, Michael Flynn is probably the man to know it and i think thats the reason the white house is pushing back aggressively against this story, which if youre sitting around in your house in virginia or d. C. And Michael Flynn reading this, you have to wonder whats going through this mind. This president he sacrificed quite a bit for is preparing to steamroll him and impugn his character as ay whoer. And questions about whether or not he might consider pardoning Michael Flynn. Reading a tweet that Michael Flynns brother joseph fired off to the president of the United States. Pr mr. President , i personally believe a pardon is due due to the crimes he pled guilty to. I ask quick action on this and keep up the good work. On the record, the white house routinely says they dont talk about pardons. Its not part of the conversation, but the president has said hes not considering it yet. He uses these qualifying languages when talking about pardons. Look in context. You could see it could be a carrot and stick approach for Michael Flynn. The carrot being the possibility of a pardon which hasnt been foreclosed if Michael Flynn were to keep his conversations with Robert Mueller focused on Michael Flynn and the stick approach, which is, if his conversations are about donald trump or members of his family, then the white house could conceivably be using its full weight to talk about him as a liar and a bad person and everything else. All of those things definitely fit together, but no one at the white house has closed the door on the possibility of a pardon for Michael Flynn somewhere down the line. Garrett, thanks. Garrett haake in West Palm Beach at nbc and carol, thanks for joining us from the Washington Post as well. Thank you. President trumps legal Team Continues to push the narrative that the investigation is wrapping up. A new report from yahoo news says muellers team is going after new leads and collecting a mountain of new evidence including bank records and thousands of emails from the Trump Campaign and trump transition. That same report says, in the last few weeks his prosecutors have begun questioning Republican National staffers about the Party Digital operation that worked with the Trump Campaign to target voters in key swing states. Joining me to talk about all of this, the assistant attorney general under nixon and ford administrations and his son works in the Trump Administration on asia policjul. Charting out what Robert Mueller might be looking at. Where do things stand with his investigation heading into 2018, do you think . I think that you know, by this point the Trump White House had hoped that by this point the investigation would have wrapped up, and that he would have been cleared. Instead the investigation is still going full steam, dough spi despite the republicans and not only that, people who were in trumps inner circle have either pled guilt y or are under indictment. Things arent looking good for the white house. And the mentioning the effort to discredit Robert Mueller. Similar attempt of the Deputy Director of the fbi. Read something from the press. Andrew mccabe is racing the clock to retire with full benefits, 90 days to go. Indicating he plans to retire when eligible full pension benefits from the fbi. What do you make of these attacks . Yes, on individuals, also on institutions . You were a Civil Servant during two white houses and two administrations. What do you make on the effect its having on these institut n institutions and nonpartisan institutions in washington, d. C. . Not much. They have a longstanding reputation of independence, i dont think it has a big impact on them and i dont think muellers office is subjected to or vulnerable to moat st of the attacks or many of them. The idea it would be wrapped up soon, thats fannifuy f fancifu. You cant name a prosecution case that got wrapped up in three, four, six months. It just doesnt happen. Now going beyond collusion into financial records, that means its going to go on. Now, next summer, bob mueller has a problem. Its a little of the comey problem, because theres an election. If the house and senate fall, theres an impeachment problem. If they dont, there isnt. He doesnt want to have an october surprise, im assuming. Right . Doesnt want to say in october im going to throw the election with this big, broad piece of news. Hes either got to wrap it up this summer or go into total quiettude, my opinion, until after the election so he doesnt seem to be throwing the election in one way or the other. Julie, let me ask about this vein were seeing increasingly. Data. Following the money and 23 following the data over these last two years. And interviews by the house intelligence committee. Bob mueller looking into this data operation on the Trump Campaign and the house issuing an invitation to come testify. How rich is that vein . Well, i think its seeking to answer a question that a lot of russia watchers had, which is how did the russians suddenly get so sophisticated about the american electoral system . Which they dont have is a very good grasp of, even at the highest leveling of the russian government . The thing is that other people really doubt that Cambridge Analytica had much to do with it and in this day and age, things are online, if you really wanted to know which districts to be interested in or target, go online and read any number of publications about which states, districts and counties were in play. It could be a potentially rich vein or turn up nothing but is definitely worth exploring. The other thing i wanted to add about the Mueller Investigation and attacks on muellers credibility, they might not derail the investigation itself. In fact, probably wont, but what the gop is trying to do ahead of the elections is lay the groundwork for casting doubt on whatever indictments or conclusions that Robert Mueller comes up with. From where you sit in washington, d. C. , has this grown here over the last few weeks . As i saw it, confined to the fringes for a while. Now the president is weighing in on it more and more. Does thatgaining steam . Gaining steam in the sense of more people are picking up on it and bob mueller involved in these investigations . Yes. I think its laying the groundwork for the future. Whenever mueller does wrap up his investigation, whether he issues indictments or some kind of are concluding report, its going to, you know, for people who support the president and the Republican Party to doubt any of these conclusions as politically motivated. And end with you here. What we talked about with carol top of the show. Michael flynn through all of this, a cooperating witness, and i wonder what you make of the position hes in and how he might be used by bob mueller assess this Investigation Continues . Its one thing if the goal is to get him to testify on the stand. Another if there to lead investigators down a certain path, perhaps crabberate . Something t corroborate . How do you see this . Carol had it right, it is, if you dont know much, you cant cut a deal. Little or nothing to give to bob mueller or a prosecutor. Thats the the irony hes faced with. The converse of that is how the president s lawyers see it. If he doesnt have something important, you could argue, thats why they indicted him. Why indict somebody you want to use as an important witness . And indict them for lying . Not even for a substantive crime but lying. Youve just discredited your best witness, if that person has a lot to say. On the other hand it is totally normal for the lawyers for the person whos a target, in this case the president , maybe a target. We dont know that. Assume that for the moment. Totally normal to send a signal, you better be very careful to stick to the careful truth. Exact truth. If you exaggerate or lie about something or induced to lie about something well coming down hard on you. First of that, that signal has already been sent privately. To the lawyer for sure. This is a public signal to say the same thing. Thanks to you both, joining me from washington, d. C. One of the biggest threats President Trump will face in his second year is north korea. Earlier he tweeted about reports china is still secretly shipping oil to north korea writing on twitter there will never be a friendly solution to the north korea problem if this continues to happen. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson has written an oped published in the New York Times. He details threats against the u. S. North korea is at the top of that list. And hans nichols joins me. I want to ask about the president s tweet, sent another one focused on north korea as well. Front and the center to recollects tillerson . Two tweets from the president. One more bellicose than the other. The first you showed blaming chine in for illegal Oil Transfers at sea, back in february, they initially made the allegation. Provided satellite imagery cutting off north koreas fuel supply, petroleum products, its so crucial to any sort of sanction regime and we heard from President Trump today, a tweet talking basically a highlight reel of things he and others have said on north korea. At that point he was strongly suggesting that there could be military action. He was going back to an 18yearold clip he made on a. M. Meet the pris. Not going after north korea, when will you do it . Want to do something now . You better do it now. Bellicose language from the president quoting himself 18 years ago. The question at the defense department, the state department, do the president s tweets constitute policy or diplomacy . Is it part of his official signaling or part of his trying to brow beat others into certain positions . A big question we have. Frankly, at the year of 2017, darcht david, we do not have san answer. Looking at the tweets in contrast to the New York Times from the secretary of state, read one quotation here about the administrations tact. A door to dialogue remains open but weve made it clear the regime must earn its way back tolt negotiating table until the nuclearization occurs the pressure will continue. What is that vision of dialogue with north korea look like, how would north korea get the door open at this point . Stop testing. It wouldnt be a freeze. They dont freed to technically say freeze just a pause in testing. Of course we had basically a twomonth pause in testing and you saw no impetus or Movement Towards negotiations. Now they have more recent testss ewhat they do here coming up with the olympic games. I think you know, a little back and forth when tillerson said were willing to talk, any time, any point and no preconditions. Thats true and not true. The precondition, they stop testing. Thats always been clear from the state department and the department of defense for there to be negotiations, any talk, you have to have some sort of pause on the north korean side. Of course, just over the last 48 hours you had russia intervening saying they would host some of these conversations, would belong a mediator between the north and south and the u. S. As well. So there is a lot going on here. With the president s tweet i caution, starting back in june, positive about china, then negative. Then positive again. Hes really zigged and zagged on twitter whether or not he thinks china needs to be part of the solution, can be part of the solution or indeed wants to be part of the solution, and weve gotten different answers from the president over twitter over the last year on that. Great to speak with you. Hans nichols from washington, d. C. And officially certified doug jones as the winner of last month the special election in alabama, that comes after a judge rejected roy moores lastminute real complaint intended to block the election. He said i am looking forward to going to work for the people of alabama in the new year. I said on election night, this mark as new victory for the state and our nation and be an independent voice to find Common Ground on both sides of the aisle to get washington back on track and fight to make our country a better place for all. Doug jones expected to be sworn in when the Senate Returns in the new year. And nbc news is told moore is system not conceding that race. If you own property, listen up. A new tax bill means you could save money if you prepay taxes by midnight, december 31st. Up next, whether you should or shouldnt pay early. Also coming up, brand new reporting on Police Officers killed in the line of duty. The numbers may surprise you. Take a look at the stats, next. Im on top of the world, hey. Its your last chance of the year to get our best offer of the year zero percent financing for seventytwo months, plus an extra onethousand cash back across a full lineup of ford cars, trucks and suvs. So hurry and save big on americas bestselling brand. Its the final days of the ford year end sales event with zero percent financing for seventytwo months plus an extra onethousand cash back see your ford dealer before jan 2nd and save. Your insurance on time. Tap one little bumper, and up go your rates. What good is having insurance if you get punished for using it . News flash nobodys perfect. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. Switch and you could save 782 on home and auto insurance. Call for a free quote today. Liberty stands with you™ Liberty Mutual insurance. Welcome back. Im david gura in for ali velshi. And prepaying taxes before the new federal tax plan kicks in on monday. Those trying to capitalize on property Tax Deductions before the 10,000 cap is put in place may not be able to. The Internal RevenueService Released a statement saying 2018 property taxes need to be assessed and paid for before monday. Those working to complete them and cities in new jersey and virginia allowed prepayments before the assessments were prepared. Something that could create more trouble for the irs. Breaking this down, at a town hall just north of city of new york where taxpayers have been lining up all day. What are you hearing from folks about this . How confident they know what theyre doing . Reporter its a good question. Some people are comfort. Some have no idea. The line behind me has been very long all day long. Hundreds of people, sounds like feels like the whole town is here. The line behind me is to get your bill. Then you go into a different line to pay your bill. Most here are coming in, dont know how much they owe. Walking in, trying to figure it out. People with blank checkbooks trying to guess and write whatever they tell them to write. Ill bring in paul finer. Visor westchester. Can you explain . Youre a democrat and you said like Governor Cuomo prepay the taxes. The republican Westchester County executive says, no, and yet all of these people are here. How does this all work . The town of greenburgh, were able to collect, collect taxes owed through the town and throughout portions of the tax bill, the county executive bob masserreno basically refused so people cannot prepay the county portion of the taxes which is very, very aggravating, because that was a significant chunk of the persons tax bill and i think the county executive is playing politics and wants to side with President Trump and he just was defeated for reelection, and this is a way of sticking it to the voters who rejected his reelection. Reporter is this a good thing for your town to get all of this cash flow earlier than norm . Got to be good for the bank account . Its an administrative nightmare because people are paying partial amounts, not the total amount. Well have to spend a lot of time now on making sure we get it right and later on in april, if they only paid part of their tax bills that they pay the balance. Reporter whats the biggest confusion . Ive seen you bombarded all day by local residents. Whats the big effort confusion theyre coming to you, youre trying to help them solve . Some people are cold. Thats one problem. Because the doors are opening up constantly. Other people are not sure what to pay. Theyre confused about the county taxes. They cant understand why we could let them pay the town portion. Why the county is refusing to show a warrant. Some people wanted to pay the school taxes, but because the School Budgets are different, they havent been assessed and the irs wont let us precollect school taxes. People who live in villages, yet the town lives in a village they cant prepay. They can only prepay the town portion which is very small. David, you can hear. Lots of confusion. Depends exactly where you live what you can and cant pay and theyre trying to work it out with the irs what exactly is going to be allowed. Back to you. Thank you. With the town supervisor there. Appreciate it. Talk to somebody who really understands the potential changes the irs faces. Joining me, the irs commissioner up to last month when he retired from that position. Were hearing about the administrative headaches. They are in that town hall and i imagine a larger magnitude at the irs. Help us understand what your former colleagues are doing now, now that its been made a law, what are the folks at the irs doing . This is an example of one of the challenges the irs and Treasury Department will have over actually the next 12 months, providing advice and guidance what the new tax reform law really means to individuals, and even more complicated is what it means for companies. I look at the advisory from the irs. The Internal Revenue service advise Tax Professionals and taxpayers today prepaying 2018 local and state property taxeses in 2017 may be tax deductible under certain circumstances. Its an advisory, not ironclad. Not telling you what to do. How much clarity based on what was released yesterday . If you parse it through, the irs says if you know what the taxes you owe are, have actually been assessed, you were pay them in advance. If they havent been assessed you cant pay something that isnt owing. You can pay it but wont be able to deduct it. Theyre trying to draw the line as best they can in the short inside of time and trying to make it clear to people you cant just walk down and give money to the local tax assessor, if you dont have an actual bill that youre paying. How ill equipped is the irs at this point . Reports its under budget, under staffed and now a mammoth task at the irs. How equipped are they to deal with the new legislation . One of my concerns is that the irs has been significantly challenged over the last several years by the ongoing budget cuts from the congress. So the budgets 1 billion lower than it was in 2010 and over 20,000 fewer irs employees than they were in 2010 even though we have 10 million more taxpayers and now a massive tax overhaul to intimate. Ive said it is not clear to me at all that the irs is going to be able to do all of the work it needs to do with declining resources in both the house and senate, theyve proposed difficult cuts in the irs budget. Returning to this. The state and local Tax Deduction and ambiguity and confusion surrounding it. Whats your sense when well get it figured out . In other words, if somebody the prepaying today, unsure if it will make a difference or work, when is he or she going to know if that was on the up and up . Everybody should consult with their tax advisers, obviously. Im not here to give tax advice, but i think the irs was drawing a clear line. If you know what you owe, its been assessed, you have a tax bill and paid the first half of the year and know what the second half is because you got that bill, pay it now and it will be deductible. But if youre just going to guess that this is what i paid last year and probably what im going to owe next year, you dont have an actual bill and you can pay it, but it wont be deductible. Appreciate the time this afternoon. Former commissioner of the Internal Revenue service. Next, a new ruling forcing the epa to take action on lead paint and children ps wanted six more years. A judge said, no. You have 90 days. Why a federal court had to step in and ill speak with the pediatrician who discovered lead poisoning in her patient and exposed the lead crisis in flint, michigan. I am totally blind. And non24 can throw my days and nights out of sync, keeping me from the things i love to do. Talk to your doctor, and call 8442142424. Finding the best hotel price is whoooo. Now a safe bet. Because tripadvisor searches. Over 200 booking sites so you save up to 30 on the. Hotelock it in. Tripadvisor. The markets change. At t. Rowe price. Our disciplined approach remains. Global markets may be uncertain. But you can feel confident in our investment experience around the world. Call us or your advisor. T. Rowe price. Invest with confidence. Welcome back. Im david gura in for ali velshi. A ruling the Environmental Protection agency has three months to protecting children from lead. The epa that taken too long to act re toiv what we know about the dangers of lead paint. The history in the United States go back longer than that. A few months. Early 20th century known at least in the scientific and medical circles lead carried Serious Health risks. Reports from as early as the 1800s linking lead to blindness, anemia and muscle damp. And it was everywhere, toys, telephones, even some lip stist, labeled at an allamerican product. Around the 50s, impossible to ignore the affects of lead especially in children. And doctors repeatedly talking about the damage in water and paint. Despite all of this, one primarily it affected poor families of color. The Safety Commission and epa took action to ban leadbased paints and lower children to the affects of lead. Approximately 64 million houses built before 1978 contained leadbased paint. Fastforward to 2014 and the water trisz in flicrisis in fli. Thousands of children exposed to tainted water. And joined by the doctor at a Residency Program in flint, m h michigan who discovered the tinted water in flint. Give me your reaction to the decision and how standards need to be improved here in the u. S. . Absolutely. Great to be with you, david. This is a victory for children. As you stated, we have known about the adverse effects of lead for decades if not centuries. Probably the most wellstudied neurotoxins out there, yet our policies have not caught up with the science. We banned lead from paint in 1978, but it didnt moor rairacy disappear from homes. So its about time that our regulations that the epa holds, these policies catch up with the science. The science we know has no safe level of lead exposure to protect all children. Detailed there the history what we know about lead and how long weve known about it. More Research Needs to be done. When you look at the literature, look at the, what the academy studied. Are there variables, deficits that need to be studiestudied. No. Like i said, lead is probably one of the most well studied neurotoxins. Romans used so much lead, they, too, studied this. We know what it does to Childrens Development and now what science taught us in the most recent years is that the lowest levels cause a steep decline in childrens cognition, i. Q. Levels. Behavior. Entire life course trajectory. The cdc, American Academy of d pediatrics sciences everywhere know. And the science and research is there. Its time for poemses s tpolic up. Whats your sense in flint that changed the conversation about this . When you look at the popular currents here, what difference what was happening in flint, did that make, do you think . Absolutely. A lot of positive ripple effects from our disaster in flint. Before flint, thought it was a problem of yesterday. Got rid of lead in paint, in toys, and less children were admitted to hospitals for seizures and thought we took care of lead. Because of flint we realized lead is not a problem of yesterday. Its a problem of today and tomorrow, because it is hard to get rid of lead from our paint, from our dust. From our plumbing, as you said, we used it throughout our nation for quite some time. And the universal hope flint would take care of lead, as you say. Where do things stand as far as modernizing the infrastructure and making it less of a problem there in flint, michigan . Flint is still on filtered water, bottled water to this day, but our pipes are being replaced. Our old lead pipes are being replaced. We estimate by 2020 the old lead pipes will be replaced and a a great city in the middle of the great lakes will be able to drink out of their taps again. What flint has taught the nation is that we need to invest in infrastructure. Both with whats above and underground. Most importantly, we need to invest in children. If science tells us there is something that can hurt children and we know how to take care of it, we need have that political well to protect our kids. Such a pleasure to speak to you. Thank you. Joining me from michigan today. And one of President Trumps favorite talking points. Brand new information shows the Police Officers shot and killed in the liny duty has gone down. A closer look at the facts and figures, next. Police departments are over stretched, under funded and totally under appreciated. Except by me. Whose fleece was white as snow. But after an electrical fire from faulty wiring, marys vintage clothing and designer shoe collection were ruined. Luckily, the Geico Insurance agency had recently helped mary with renters insurance, and she got a totally fab replacement wardrobe at bloomingdales. Mary was inspired to start her own fashion line, exclusively for little lambs. Visit geico. Com and see how affordable renters insurance can be. Just in from the new York City Police department, increasing security after the attempted bombing in times square earlier this month. This weekend some 2 Million People are expected to gather to watch the ball drop in times square. What are police saying about precautions and how things of different than what happened on december 11th . Its interesting. The nypd it kiv pivot quickly. The attempted suicide bombing december 11th was a man with explosives attached to him that detonated from a subway not far from times square. The chief of counterterrorism from the nypd james waters. As a result of the events of december 11th we prepared a tactical bulletin, response to suicide bombers, disseminated to the police offices. Youll see an increase in heavy weapons, bomb squad personnel, radiological detection teams in our technology to include over 1,000 cameras in and around the area of times square for the event. So the chief also there, david, announced some of the details of this training and officer are going through this training. Ticking off a few for you. It could be, identify wouldbe bombers. Clear crowds if they detect a threat. Stop the bomber with lethal force if needed and how to treat people wounded in a bomb goes off. They also went on to discuss new details which are a direct reaction to the mass shooting we saw in las vegas. Remember, that took place out of a hotel room in las vegas. The nypd saying they are going to have detectives in the hotels around times square, and for those of you that arent familiar with times square, there are a lot of very large, tall hotels that surround times square. Return to something you mentioned. The nimbleness of this police force. Its huge. Look at the counterterrorism aspect, rivaled only by the federal government, i imagine. How quickly are they able to turn or adapt . Think of other events in new york including that car driven into pedestrians on the west side of manhattan. How nimble are they . They really are. A suicide bomber is not a new threat. Weve seen it all over the middle east for a while and its been on the minds of the nypd, not necessarily what you deal with on the ground here in new york city. They knew it was out there but did make that quit pivck pivot. Around new york city, you see a reaction to all different kinds of threats. Whether sanitation trucks filled with sand. Barricades, in the case of sniper es, dogs that now can actually sniff the vapors from explosives. There are so many different layers to this security operation, and we see it improving and changing year after year. Lastly, whats the message to folks thinking of coming here for new years eve jie imagine police force saying, business as usual. Happening in the background and theyre not discouraging people from coming . Yes. No drama, no stayaway message. They said, there is no credible threat against the event. They say what they always say, which is, if you see something, say something, but mayor defwladde blasio likes to point out residents are strong and resilient and will be there no matter what. Even with the cold. Stephanie gosk, thank you for that reporting. And Law Enforcement officers released a report showing the number of Police Fatalities in the line of are duty has gone down this year, despite the president s claims about two weeks ago. The last two years america has seen a tragic rise in Violent Crime. Most concerning of all, we have seen an larping increase in violent assaults carried out against our Police Officers. So far 44 officers have been shot and killed. Last year 66 officers shot and killed. That is a 33 reduction. A number that did rise, the number of people shot and killed by police, according to the Washington Post. 971 people were killed so far this year. Policeinvolved shooting in 2016, 66. And the year before that, 995 killed. Walk us through the data. How do you process this and what does it tell us about Violent Crime in the country . Two sides. One, the officers killed in the line of duty. The subject of our report and you went through some of those numbers. The other, overall decrease in crime in major cities. On the police side, show the pictures. Its important. All officers killed by gunfire in the line of duty this year. You look at these faces, look at the people, you see a crosssection of the folks serving all around in every police department. Those 44 people killed. You see them there. Men and women. And what you also see with regard to the ambush is, eight ambush attacks killing officers this year. Down from 21 in 2016, which reflected a very high number. Then you broaden out to the other point you make. Whats going on with crime in this country . This is something weve touched on in our reporting. Usually president s want to sell this kind of thing. Donald trump is a different type of president and focused more on basically selling the fear. In fact, crime is falling in many major cities. In new york down to levels we havent seen in half a century telling you there are longterm gains, crimologists tell you its multiple things, yes were, the economy. Yes, whats happening in different cities, getting affiliated activity, up or down and Community Policing and other tactics that appear to be working. Here in new york a stop and Frisk Program thats gone away. How much is it changing on the ground in municipalities . You look youve over year. In a five or tenyear spread tells you a lot more. One more point on the graph here, the officer fatalities by decade showing again the overall arc. 1970s average, 100 officers killed on duty per year. Thats steadily dropped. A big indicator telling you something about Violent Crime, how dangerous it is to be an officer and tells you about technology, because some officers are still getting shot at or taking a bullet, but not dying on the job. Because of body armor or because of medical breakthroughs or Better Technology that gets them immediate care. There is the bombast, what we hear from President Trump, and attorney general Jeff Sessions about. You look at these fallen officers and profile and talk to their family members. One woman receive ed a phone call from President Trump. Valued that. Valued the conversation he wanted to have with her. Whats the level of involvement . In our report we spoke to a family who mentioned a call from the president , and i have a sister of an nypd officer slain this year speaking directly to us on the beat. Well hear from them directly. Nothing more clear than directly from them. To your point, two things going on. One, what is the esteem and value that our leaders put on police and Law Enforcement during very difficult times . And we heard from individuals, including those critical of the president s politics, shall we say . But appreciate his outreach are and appreciate anyone, mayor, governor, nypd brass, who were told have done a lot of outreach or the president showing that respect. Then theres policy. On policy, theres no other way to say it. The Trump Administration position is to back off local policings some folks like it. Some dont. Look at the consent decrees, training, deescalation programs the Obama Administration was doing, a lot of coordination, they are trying to they can. That leaves localities back to operate on their own. Some chiefs like that. A lot say they prefer federal help when they can get it. Ari melber, thank you, the host of the beat. His show at 6 00 p. M. Eastern on msnbc. Big tech is making a play to upgrade your health care from apple watches tracking your heartbeat to apps that assess your risk of cancer. Our next guest says theres no shortage of hype. How can this new tech make up happier and well dig into that hype, next. Ents first. I got a leaf right away. A leaf is a hint that is connected to each person in your family tree. I learned that my ten times great grandmother is George Washingtons aunt. Within a few days i went from knowing almost nothing to holy crow, im related to george washington. This is my cousin george. Discover your story. Start searching for free now at ancestry. Com eric garners death in 2014 shined a lot. He repeated i cant breathe while being choked by police while following a confrontation stemming from the sale of loose cigarettes. His daughter has been left in a coma triggered by a heart attack. After her fathers death she became a vocal advocate against police brutality. She endorsed senator Bernie Sanders in the democratic primary. Sanders released a statement responding to the moves to her Health Talking about her work and how he was deeply impressed with her courage and insights. Its easy to take for granted how Big Tech Companies have drastically altered our lives over the past few years. Access to smart phones, social media and highspeed internet have revolutionized society in ways were still coming to terms with. A new report is shedding light on one more field that, for better or worse, has been perminently altered by technology. Thats health care. Im joined by dr. Eric tofel of the Scripps Translational Science Institute to individualize health care uses advances in digital technology. Great to speak with you. Walk me through it, if wow would, where there is the most growth, most focus when it comes to using technology for medicine . Hi, david. It is a really exciting time because tech is finally digital tech moving into medicine and the big titans, the likes like apple and microsoft and ibm, google, they are all in different ways coming up with potential solutions. But its still very early. And its really much by condition. One condition or another like glucose for diabetes and heart rhythm for people with heart rhythm, like Atrial Fibrillation disorder. How steep is that learning curve . You mentioned apple, google, amazon. These are companies that historically have not been doing much with health care. How difficult for them to get into that sector . Thats a really great question. Initially, just a couple few years ago, they pretty much uniformally expressed fear having to deal with fda and the regulatory issues. But now they have really changed their tune. And now they are regularly meeting with the fda. Theres already been an fda approved Artificial Intelligence detection of heart rhythm through the apple watch by a startup company, alive corps. All sorts of things happening that are taking on the regulatory issues by the tech titans. And its really surprising how quickly thats muoved. I look at all the data these companies are collecting taking data on your heartbeat and other vital signs. We are at a point where Companies Know what to do with all that data or are they stockpiling it still trying to figure out what they can learn from all their collecting . Theres a solution for big data now and its using Artificial Intelligence and deep learning but were still learning how to use that, as are the companies. So we have an axis of data which is not materially being processed. But i think, you know, were seeing a kind of Inflection Point where its getting much better right now. Again, were looking at one medical condition after another. Theres not any wholeholistic s of people. Are the consumers as excited about this as the companies. To give away this kind of information. Are they able are people doing it willingly or are they worried about what Companies May be doing with this data . There again, you have diabetics who take insulin who rely on the Glucose Monitoring devices that go to their phone or watch. You have people with heart rhythm problems that are getting this information, whether its through their smartphone or now through their watch. Youre seeing consumers embracing this when it helps them. When it helps them circumvent having to go to the emergency room or doctor visits but theyre just a couple of examples, david. We have so much morto go, to validate that they really work, that they really dont cause harm. That they are cost effective. So were kind of in that phase right now. What are you most excited about as you look at the landscape here and all the possibility . What makes you most excited . Clearly its the deep learning, Artificial Intelligence story because that is going to make not only doctors lives easier, but also consumers. Thats that ability to proerks as you already mentioned, so much data which we couldnt do before, and were seeing some great evidence of that and hopefully well keep building on that theme. Great to speak to you. Thats eric topol. Great to have his perspective here this to thursday afternoon. Yet another record high close for the dow on this, the second to last trading day of the year as we look ahead to new years. 24,838, up 64 points. About a quarter percent right before the closing bell. Stocks on pace for the best year since 2013. Ill see you back here tomorrow at 11 00 a. M. And 3 00 p. M. Eastern time. Msnbc live will continue with Sheinelle Jones here in new york. Im in for Nicolle Wallace who will be back with deadline white house next week. Its 4 00 in the east. Heres a look at the top stories were watching this hour. Clearly an effort to defend a legacy of a first year thats been subject of a lot of criticism by both republicans and democrats. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson is out with a new oped defending his year at the state department, President Trump once again appears to undercut tillersons message on twitter. Well bring you his latest tweet. Plus this Community Still has no power and no running water. They havent seen anybody from fema, and they dont know if and when help will ever come. Meaning this is their new normal. As we hit the 100day mark since Hurricane Maria devastated puerto rico, grim new details are emerging about the slow recovery, including the steadily rising death toll in areas that may remain in the dark until the next hurricane season. Coming up, ill speak with someone who has been an outspoken critic of the administrations response. And you know its going to be cold but you step outside and the wind starts