Transcripts For MSNBCW MSNBC Live With Ali Velshi 20180104

Thats complete fantasy and just full of tabloid gossip, because its sad, pathetic and our administration and our focus is going to be on moving the country forward. So lets get right to nbc news chief White House Correspondent Hallie Jackson following the latest from the white house this afternoon. Hallie, as is usual, a lively set of exchanges with the press secretary. What else did we hear from Sarah Huckabee sanders today . Whats your headline . Reporter a lot there, chris. The headline, the news coming out of the Briefing Regarding the fire and fury book, continued pushback on this and frankly, the second day in a row about the president s Mental Fitness after wolff in his Hollywood Reporter excerpt seemed to imply some inside the administration has concerns about that given the president s, for example, repetitiveness. Sarah Huckabee Sanders could not have pushed back more fiercely saying it was disgraceful, laughable that anybody would raise questions about that, but there is Something Else here, too. You talk about the cease and desist letters that have gone out. Not just to steve bannon, we learned overnight, also as our White House Team confirmed this morning to the publisher, Michael Wolff as well. Heres the thing, chris. And you know this from having covered this campaign and covered donald trump, but donald trump during the campaign itself threatened to sue somebody, individuals or entities 20sh times. Followed through or two of those. The point Kristen Welker made in her questioning of Sarah Sanders. I want you to listen. As a candidate President Trump threatened some 20 lawsuits and followed through with two of them. Why should steve bannon and Michael Wolff be concerned . I think that regardless of whether or not theres a lawsuit, they should be concerned about peddling fake stories. They should be concerned about putting out information thats not true. They should be concerned about the fact that were spending all of our time here focused on talking about this instead of things that people in this country care about. I think thats a really sad process, and i think that that should be everyones concern. Sanders repeatedly making the argument, chris, the American People and in her view simply did not care about this book. Yet obviously the president seems to care, or else, presumably, he might not be threatening these lawsuits against the author, the publisher as well as steve bannon. A couple other notable moments from the briefing. Number one, you had Sarah Huckabee sanders get asked by mike bender over at the journal whether or not the president thinks that breitbart should server ties with steve bannon. Remember, back during the controversy with jamele hill and comments from the poedium, sanders suggested they should fire wolff, and breitbart should part ways with steve bannon. It seems thats not likely to happen, nonetheless, its the view of the white house, and you have other topics considering the fierce president ial pushback and questions it raced about construction and chaos inside the administration. Frankly, some is not unfamiliar to reporters covering the administration. Nbc news has not confirmed everything in the book, and there are pieces, center anecdotes and moments on their face appear to be factually not true. You heard sanders reference one of them. The fact wolff setz the president not know who john boehner was. Look at twitter, its not the case. Two other issues of policy here. One on drilling. News we just got that within the last hour or so, serious environmental news. The other on the new marijuana enforcement policy, essentially the rolling back by the department of justice obamaera policies on enforcement, cracking down more on marijuana laws. The federal laws are already in place. Remember on the campaign again and again, when the president colorado, talked to nevada saying its a states issue. Sarah sanders insists the view has not changed but believes federal laws must be enforced and when Sarah Sanders introduces trump via video screen and delivered a speech touting the wall street numbers. You know this from your time at the white house. Its like 200 steps from the oval office, but the president did not appear in person. Instead, they taped him and then played it. 200 steps, if you have a small stride. Thank you so much. Reporter correct. Hallie jackson, thank you so much. We want to bring our panel in now. Annie carney is a White House Reporter for politico. A National Correspondent for the washington post, and former assistant attorney general and a Civil Rights Division under the nixon and ford administration. Involve ared in the watergate investigation, and full disclosure, stans son works in the Trump Administration on asian policy. Great to see you all. Stanley, start with you, because this letter, the cease and desist letter and all of the talk about whether or not people sign nondisclosure agreements and Sarah Huckabee sanders didnt want to go into detail about what agreements may or may not have been made, but is this a p. R. Move, or could trumps lawyers actually stop this book which i might add when i last checked was number one, presale, on amazons bestseller list . Cant stop it. Not a chance. Zero chance . No, no. Cant do it. But the chances but the purpose of sending a cease and desist letter still makes sense. Because what youre doing there is putting the publisher on notice. You better be careful about what you say and if we give you a specific example of mistakes, you might have to make changes in it. Hard to do inside a printed book, because theyre out there. Easy to do with a book online. Also, it says, its a shot across the bow to the authors as well. And probably works to some extent. Notice that the minute that the shot was taken, that night, steve bannon says, oh, this is a great man. Now, i dont think he would have said that if he hadnt seen some kind of a pushback. I think, karen, one of the Great Questions asked by our own Kristen Welker was, if you decide youre going to pursue legal remedies, and, by the way, there is quite a list of people and organizations trump threatened, hasnt actually sued. Our count, only actually sues 2 of the 20. A 10 amount, were ut is he just giving more impetus to all this . Giving more publicity to the author, selling more books . No. I think what you see, the obvious, the obvious effect of this is to give them a headline of, a oneday headline on their objection to the content of the book. It does seem theres a big disincentive to take it to court a called discovery. If it were to go to court the author and publisher would be compelled potentially to produce all the evidence that he had, including possible tapes, transcripts, whatever they have, to prove the assertions that are in the book. That opens up a whole different set of problems. I also question whether it is possible to hold government officials to nondisclosure agreements the way we see typically done in the private sector. I think that a Court Challenge of that would be very interesting, because theres a real argument that its in the publics right to know how decisions are made within their government. Stanley, youre nodding about that . I agree but would take it a step further. It does not matter in this circumstance werther youve signed and nda or not in terms of practical. It matters law policy and a matter of contract. But if you if bannon signed away his first born under this and still went ahead and disclosed against the nda. The nondisclosure agreement, what are you going to do about it . Americans love the law, are lawabiding we think the agreements of selfexecuting. If i promise not to disclose something, i Wont Disclose something. You have to ask as a lawyer, whats the impact, the effect, the punishment if you break the agreement and go ahead . In this case, the punishment is almost nothing. Also at this press conference a question and hallie mentioned about the president s Mental Fitness. Whether or not in his upcoming physical whether he will be tested for his mental acuity. Annie, you wrote a new piece about how lawmakers worried about trumps Mental Health invited a yale psychiatry professor to brief them in december. I have a copy of the bandy lise book. One of 27 psychiatrist whose wrote the dangerous case of donald trump and Michael Wolff wrote in the Hollywood Reporter a couple things. First, everybody was painfully aware were, wolff rights, of the increasing pace of trumps repetitions. Used to be inside of 30 minutes repeat word for word and expression for expression the same three stories. Now it was within ten minutes. Indeed many tweets were the product of are his reputations. Just couldnt stop saying something, and then wolff went on to write about senior staff. Hoping for the best with their personal futures as well as the countrys future, my indelible impression, meaning wolffs, talking with hem and observing through, is that they all, 100 , came to believe he was incapable of functioning in his job at maralago. Just before the new year, a heavily madeup trump failed to recognize a succession of old friends. So i guess, annie, a key question here is, the 71yearold president s meant the health a real topic of concern within 1600 pennsylvania avenue . It certainly is outside, and what Michael Wolff is doing there is implying theres a senility issue or that hes not all there anymore. The psychiatrist i spoke to for my article makes it clear you cant as a medical professional diagnose somebody like that without having sat down with them and done a persontoperson examination. So shes not trying to say he has Narcissistic Personality Disorder or make a diagnosis like that. Shes concerned with looking at his actions and talking about the level of dangerousness he poses. Looking at his tweets. At his reactions to world events, and her book got the attention of lawmakers on capitol hill. So she was called down to washington from new haven. She met with 12 senators and congressmen, one republican senator. Wouldnt tell me who it was, but, theres a little concern within trumps own party and briefed them on what she considers to be dangerous behavior on his behalf are and what she thinks we can see Going Forward for a president that she thinks is unraveling under the pressures of the job. Her arguments a little different for Michael Wolff, basically saying the president doesnt recognize his friends at maralago, and seems like a coded way of saying hes see ni senile. Both going to the question of what is the president s mental state and does it put our country in jeopardy . Karen, i want to play an exchange that Hallie Jackson had with chris ruddy, the newsmax founder and longtime friend of President Trump. Have you noticed this repetitiveness that wolff discusses . I spoke to him about a half dozen times and i didnt see anything that was out of the normal. I think that donald trump likes to repeat things for effect, and thinks it makes his statements very powerful and hes done this on camera. Does it on shows all the tile. This idea somehow hes disconnected to reality is a narrative that the media or, you know, Michael Wolffs talking to all of these people and you find out most sources are people d disgrudi disgruntled and dont work at the white house any longer. And do you think there are concerns about the president s Mental Fitness . I do not. Karen, so maybe repetitiveness is for effect. Maybe not recognizing people who he supposedly knows, maybe thats happened to all of us. Maybe he was tired. Do we need to be wary about jumping to the conclusions that, frankly, many people are talking about. Some of them in relation to how hes been tweeting, and the number of tweets that sometimes go out in rapid succession. We do need to be wary. That is one reason the professional standards to which psychiatrists subscribe prevent them from giving diagnoses of people they have not treated. I think anyone who has ever interviewed President Trump, i have a few times, yes, he does love to tell stories over and over again. I think he generally, they are stories that reflect well on him, but you do need a sort of different level of analysis, i think to make the kind of diagnosis that some people are talking about sort of freely now. And earlier my colleague Stephanie Ruhle interviewed former White House Communications director anthony scaramucci, who was asked about the book. Who has been a defender of this president and i want to play what scaramucci told us this morning. A lot of it is nonsense. Michael wolff in many ways wrote a nonsensical book saying that the president didnt want to win the american presidency. That we all thought he would loose and thought losing was winning . Stephanie, that is a bunch of total and complete nonsense. Stanley, youre a lawyer. You were involved in watergate, but i want you to put aside the legal part of this. Are there other similarities, whether it is questioning a president s Mental Fitness, whether its his fitness for office, whether its a white house in chaos, where you draw parallels to watergate . I dont think so much watergate because there wasnt an issue of mental acuity on the part of president nixon, but youve had this problem arise, the question arise, not a problem, but the question arise with fdr before the 25th amendment when he was sick and his wife essentially took over the office for a while. Ronald reagan had a period of time towards the end, Dwight Eisenhower might have. Its not so clear whether there were questions about his own acuity. Never has america take ton driving out a president based upon assumptions or as karen said, weeg being unwary. If we drove a president out of the office because of the way he tweets it would be a true constitutional crisis of some kind. Youre not preparing for the 25th amendment to be no. I would say this. I think the whole ball game here about his, his vulnerability will happen ten months from today and that is when there is the midterm election. If republicans lose the house and senate, there will be an impeachment. Stanley pottinger, appreciate your time. Ann carney, and karen tunnelty, appreciated. Thank you. A quick programming note. Tomorrow morning, fire and fury inside the Trump White House author Michael Wolff will be on the today show for an exclusive interview. Weve been waiting to hear from him and on sunday hell join chuck todd on nbcs mtp daily. Meet the press. And meeting with members of the senate about the legislative priorities that lay ahead for 2018. This morning the president met with Senate Republicans about immigration. Lets get to nbcs kasie hunt following all of this from capitol hill today. Break it down. Whats happening there . Reporter well, chris, i think one thing to focus on today are these talks over immigration. We heard from Republican Leaders here on their budget deal negotiations. It sounds as though both sides are saying at this point those are going relatively smoothly. One thing we dont totally have a handle on yet is how they will handle the d. R. E. A. M. Ers. Daca kids. Chuck schumer, majority leader, said today they want an agreement of some kind as part of the budget deal to help those d. R. E. A. M. Ers. He wouldnt say necessarily whether or not democrats would be willing to potentially put a Government Shutdown on the line if, in fact, republicans didnt seem ready to go along. It does seem like republicans are willing to put some sort of immigration plan on the floor of the senate, but the question is going to be those details, and the white house put out a Statement Today saying that they want funding for the wall and they also want to whaend thend refer to at chain migrations. If you have a family here, easier processes to come and live here in the United States. The white house wants to end that. A huge red flag for many in the democratic base. Many Latino Advocacy groups. I ask mr. Schumer if that was a line in the sand. Look, im not going to negotiate against ourselves, but bottom line is, we believe there should be border security, real border security, and help for the d. R. E. A. M. Ers. So as you can see, he wasnt willing to say he was going to rule out anything along these lines, and so i do think that theres a lot of peril here for democrats. Theyre going to be caught potentially between a Government Shutdown and their own political base. You saw those protests around daca get pretty heated right before christmas and we may be heading for a repeat of that. Kasie hunt on capitol hill for us today. Thanks for getting us up to speed. Up next, the white house take as step towards what its calling deconfliction on the korean peninsula, putting a freeze on military exercises with south korea for the next couple of months. Why now . And what the implications are, when we come back. Whoooo. Going somewhere . Heres some advice. Tripadvisor now searches more. Than 200 booking sites to find the hotel you want and save you up to 30 . Trust this birds words. Tripadvisor. I tabut with my back paines, i couldnt sleep and get up in time. Then i found aleve pm. Aleve pm is the only one to combine a safe sleep aid plus the 12 hour pain relieving strength of aleve. Im back. Aleve pm for a better am. President trump agreed to suspend military exercises with south korea at least through the end of the winter olympic games. Trump and president moon made the decision today during a call, just two days after President Trump tweeted his Nuclear Button is bigger and more powerful than kim jonguns. At the pentagon, i hear you just spoke to the defense secretary. What is secretary mattis saying about the suspension of exercises . Reporter saying its merely a technical matter because south korea doesnt have the assets to do both war games, military exercises and host the olympics. A little tension kraecreated, ie spirit of the olympics. One hand saying has to do with the olympic spirit and mattis saying its a practical matter. Mattis talked whether the pressure campaign, international sanctions, he said they are clearly working. When you look at the last year, the rhetoric that has come out of pyongyang and whats happened over the efforts to try to get limb to stop shooting off missiles over the top of another nation, that sort of thing, nothing seems to have worked, until you see the United Nations Security Council now three times in a row voting unanimously. Reporter chris, we also asked mattis what he thought about the talks, emerging talks between the north and south. Mattis wouldnt read much into it and doesnt know whether or not this is a genuine olive branch from the north. One quick thing on the day. The cessation in the military exercises extends through the paralympics basically putting you towards the end of march. Chris . We know the president is planning to go to mondays College Football championship game. National championship game. Have you heard any rumblings he at he might go to pyeongchang . Reporter i have not. I know the white house isnt your beat. But maybe . Reporter i can tell you mattis gave a very good explanation why he didnt travel over the christmas break, and that is pretty much all the senior leaders, the president was, president , Vice President , out of the city. Everyone was out of the d. C. Area. It basically folell to mattis t man the government while everyone was on christmas holiday. Thats all i have in terms of travel. Thanks, hans nichols. Appreciate it. Meanwhile, President Trump appearing to take credit for the new talks between the north and south. In a tweet he wrote, with all the failed experts weighing in, does anybody really believe talks and dialogue would be going on between north and south korea right now if i wasnt firm, strong and willing to commit our total might against the north . Fools. Talks are a good thing. For more on all of this im joined by max baucus, former ambassador of china under president obama who served more that 30 years in the senate representing montana. Good to see you. How are you . Thank you. Couldnt be better, thank you. Whos responsible for establishing communication between the north and south . Can President Trump take credit . Frankly, i think theres a little truth all the way around. Its in our interest to clearly reduce the tension on the peninsula. Kim jongun frankly does not want to go to war. Neither does south korea, china, neither do we. The new development, talks between north and south, thats good. China said those talks are good. Thats good, too. Coming back on maneuvers off north korea, thats good. So i think we should keep working on whats working. To get into this question, whos got the biggest button is counterproductive, frankly. To some degree seems a little like kim jongun is outtrumping trump. Sometimes hes hard. Kim is. Sometimes hes soft, and taken maybe a page out of i think kim is playing this, theres no way in the world were going to get Nuclear Capability off of them, out of north korea. The horse is out of the barn and unrealistic. An indulgence the United States, to indulge in this fiction were going to stop north korea or cause north korea to disarm that will not happen. Were have to live with it and find a good solution. Do you see, at least when we talk about not having exercises at least going through the Paralympic Games and conversations going on between north and south, are they signs pointing to a calming of tensions in spite of the president s tweet that my button is bigger than your button . Well, i think the United States should do its best, either with or without the president to try to keep building on positive momentum here. When i served in china, i learned fairly quickly something, kind of corny but accurate. Three ps. Be patient, be positive. Be persistent. Get reduced tension on the peninsula. China wants it, we clearly do as well as south korea. Keep up the policy. And with other countries. Gosh that is critical and losing our credibility overseas. The United States is. I think President Trump is not nearly as respected overseas as previous president s. Hes not respected at home. North koreans are very smart and see that, know whats going on as do the South Koreans and chinese. Were in a bit of a pickle. Need to get the countries together providing leadership. Other countries want u. S. Leadership. They want it. Belly ache and complain, but they want it and like our values. We know they know were strong. They know that were trustworthy, have due process and transparency and want us to lead and we have to lead in this part of the world. Former montana senator, former ambassador to china max baucus, good to see you. Thanks so much. Thank you. Coming up, President Trump disbands the very commission that he put in place to investigate his still unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2016 election. Well tell you who hes blaming for its failure, plus hear from one of the commissions critics, after the break. Ok, so with the awardwinning geico mobile app, our customers have 24 7 access, digital id cards, they can even pay their bill beep bill has joined the call. Hey bill, were just phone hi guys, bill here. Do we have julia on the line too . k, well well just phone hey sorry. I had you muted. Well yea lets just phone so what i was thinking ok well well phone yeah lets just go ahead phone oh alright the awardwinning geico app. Download it today. Ending a voter fraud commission, when he called in july important to tackle claims of largescale voter fraud. The white house release add statement, despite substantial evidence of voter fraud, many states refused to provide the president ial Advisory Commission on Election Integrity with basic information relative to its inquiry. This morning President Trump narrowed down which states. Mostly democrat states refused to hand over data from the 2016 election to the commission on voter fraud. They fought hard that the commission not see their records or methods, because they know that many people are voting illegally. The system is rigged. Must go to voter i. D. Well, despite this claim, most states red and blue, refused to provide voter information that wasnt already public. As a reminder, some of the information the commission was seeking included addresses, dates of birth, political affiliations, the bast four digits of Social Security numbers and other information many states said privacy laws wouldnt let them give out. Joining me now, someone who has been a vocal critic since its inception. Californias secretary of state. Good to see you again. You have been a vocal critic of the commission, calling it a fraud, a sham. Weve talked about this a lot over many months. What was your reaction when you heard that the decision was made to shut it down . Hi, chris. Good to see you again. Frankly, my reaction is not surprised at all. You know, this commission which was founded on a lie of massive voter fraud turned out itself to be the fraud. This isnt a shot it was disbanded by the president yesterday, but we can assess this in the time period that the commission did exist, it represented another significant failure for the Trump Administration. It was a significant waste of taxpayer dollars, and it absolutely did nothing to prepare us for the Cyber Attacks we can anticipate for the 2018 elections, now just a few months away. Let me ask you about some of the folks on the other side of this. Ken blackwell, member of the disbanded commission, defended the president s decision to dissolve it but says, this controversy for the abrupt end doesnt lie with the president. Take a listen. The president disbanded two Business Councils once he figured it was marred in conflict and had become dysfunctional, and he, in fact, disbanded the Business Council and what do we have now . A growing economy, 3 clip. We have dow hitting 25,000. What he understood as an entreprene entrepreneur, if, in fact, a have a Commission Mar in controversy and in fact become dysfunctional because of that controversy youre acknowledging that this commission move on. So Ken Blackwell says there a actually a chance this move will actually end up a success for voters fraud efforts. Whats your reaction to what you heard him say . That, too, doesnt come as a shock. With our without a commission, we know that trump is hellbent on undermining Voting Rights in america. Hes been consistent about that through the course of the campaign and throughout the course of his administration thus far exhibit a. , his tweets this morning. Calling for voter i. D. The next morning . A voter i. D. Law, one example of the many reforms put in place primarily by republicans and republican states to root out voter fraud, which study after study, report after report shows is extremely rare, but these laws have a disproportionate affect of disenfranchising eligible citizens g. To talk to you again. Thanks for coming on the program. You guys arent getting snow out there. Right . About 75 degrees in los angeles. Dont even. Thank you. Up next winter wallop n. That deadly storm making its way up the east coast bringing with it blinding conditions, powerful weekends, freezing temperatures. We bring you the latest on paralyzing path after the break. R and cardiovascular risk . I asked my doctor. She told me about noninsulin victoza®. Victoza® is not only proven to lower a1c and blood sugar, but for people with type 2 diabetes treating their cardiovascular disease, victoza® is also approved to lower the risk of major cv events such as heart attack, stroke, or death. 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Perhaps no other country has suffered more from terrorism than pakistan and many other countries in that part of the region. They understand that, but still they arent taking the steps they need to take in order to fight terrorism. Todays move is in addition to the 255 Million Dollars in Foreign Military sales suspended last year. Meantime a wild winter storm is pounding the northeast coast right now. Something we havent seen in decades. That system moving from the south to new england packing powerful winds and heavy snow. At least 13 Million People under blizzard warnings. The noreaster intensifying after first blanketing northern florida. Thousands of people still without power in georgia and the carolinas, where emergency declarations have been made in several counties. In massachusetts, the storm and high tides are colliding along the coast, flooding streets in boston where the citys mayor issued a warning just a short time ago. Theres really not a lot of reason to be out tonight. This storm is 234not going to e until 9 00. Could go longer. We want people to be safe and dont want to be putting people people shouldnt put themselves in harms way. For the latest, msnbc meteorologist bill karins joins me now. What are we looking at here . Chris, an incredible amount of flooding. The freshwater flooding we saw excuse me, the storm surge flooding. Almost like a hurricane. Happening with this around noon to 2 00, it topped the 1978 blizzard they had in boston. The worst flooding theyve seen from coastal areas around the cape, through the north shore. Show you pictures from north weymouth. Trapped in her house. Literally water surrounded it. Fence, three, four feet high, up to the top bar and ice chunks floating. Water in the streets in boston by the canal. Incredible stuff, and were seeing the tip of the iceberg of all the damage done. A lot of water in homes in cars and now with the hard freeze behind it, imagine what thats going to be like . You have to get your car towed and then thawed before you can even get in. Incredible stuff. The powerful blizzard parallel with cape cod. Snow winding down. New york city down to the midatlantic, snowing hard, though, for all of our friends to the north. Especially up through massachusetts. Maine and new hampshire. A little there in vermont too. The white bands are intense snow bands. One left going through long island. The last one for you. We still have a couple intense bands up around portland. Many areas already reported a foot of snow around boston. Southern connecticut, around a foot of snow. 15 inches on long island. Incredible stuff and additional snowfall, 9 to 12 inches north of portland. Everybody else getting another tw two to four at most. Wind gusts, gusting to 59. Incredible. Gusting to 76 miles per hour. Havent heardy records of widespread power outages. Dangerous windchills for the same region behind this storm. Later tonight all through tomorrow, negative 20 to negative 40. Brutal. This is another huge reinforcing arctic air mass that will spill through the region. This will be ugly. Right now, not too bad. I cant going to be painful. I cant. How well do it through the morning lows. Look at philadelphia. 0. Ra raleigh, 9, new york city, first negative numbers. A week from now, the whole east coast warms up. Bill karins, thank you i think. And coming up, walking back a directive and pitting the federal government against legal Recreational Marijuana use. Details, after a quick break. Theres nothing more important than your health. So if youre on medicare or will be soon, you may want more than parts a and b heres why. Medicare only covers about 80 of your part b medical expenses. The rest is up to you. You might want to consider an aarp Medicare Supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. 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Call now to learn more. The battle over marijuana between the federal government and the states is heating up again is. The Trump Administration is ending president obama handsoff policy when it comes to enforcing the federal law against marijuana. See, heres the problem these states have made it legal for any adult to use marijuana recreationally. But now u. S. Attorneys could enforce federal laws that prohibit growing, buying and using marijuana, even where its legal, under state law. So last hour White House Press secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders told reporters the president supports the decision. Regardless of what the topic is, whether its marijuana or whether its immigration, the president strongly believes that we should enforce federal law. The move that the department of justice has made, which my guess is what youre referencing, simply gives prosecutors the tools to take on largescale distributors and enforce federal law. The president s position hasnt changed, but hepresident s posi changed but he does strongly believe that we have to enforce federal law. To break down what this means, lets bring in nbc news justice correspondent Pete Williams and New York Times washington correspondent and msnbc analyst charlie savage. Thank you to you both. Get into the details. What exactly are these changes . What does it mean . The obama policy in effect told prosecutors they could turn a blind eye to the growing legalization by the states. It put them in a bit of a box and said step out and make federal cases only when theres a significant federal interest like distribution to children or involvement of gangs or sales beyond the state border or somebody growing Marijuana Plants in a park or in a National Forest on some kind of federal land. What sessions has done is said thats no longer the case. Attention u. S. Attorneys. If you want to make a marijuana case, go ahead. Its up to you. Now the Justice Department insists its not telling them to bring cases. That its not urging them to make more cases against marijuana growers and distributors and dealers. And this is not just recreational but medical marijuana as well at a for greater number state ofs. But leaving it up to them that if they believe that marijuana is a local problem, they should feel free to bring the cases, but they dont have to. Now they realize in saying this, this creates a great deal of uncertainty against this growing, expanding, burgeoning, whatever the word is you want to use, Marijuana Industry that creates a certain amount uncertainty and frankly theyre fine with that. They seem to think that uncertainty is one of the benefits of this. But they insist this is not the beginning of a new push. In your piece today you look back on when this actual decision was made by the Obama Administration in 2013 and you write after voters in colorado and Washington State voted to decriminalize marijuana for reckrational use, the Justice Department deliberated about how to handle the resulting disconnect between state and federal law in the Obama Administration ultimately didnt sue states. Doj issued this policy memo. How do you see this playing out . Well, i have to agree that the number one outcome from this is uncertainty. And ambiguity. Maybe studious ambiguity. Thats probably going to have a Chilling Effect on the growth of commercial cannabis, the largescale production farms, distribution, big distributors are going to have more trouble today than they would have had yesterday getting access to banking services, having investors feel confident that if they put money into that, they will make a profit. So even if i dont think people should interpret this as the federal government is about to start arresting someone on the street because they had a joint in their pocket but its a way to curb the growth of this exploding industry that has the prospect of becoming the next big tobacco or liquor industry in this country. Its interesting, pete. Im sure youve been seeing jacob soboroffs series hes been doing about marijuana and these folks in california who are opening up these huge stores and people who are building large facilities or taking over growing facilities and doing all different kinds of pot plants. But that is one way i think a lot of people may not look at it is that this might have the major impact of squashing, i guess, the commerce that a lot of people have seen in the growth of marijuana use recreationally. Yeah, i dont think theres any question this will be a buzz kill for the industry, but you have to look at this, i think, from a couple of perspectives. If the Justice Department, if we take them at their word this will be up to local u. S. Attorneys to bring these cases, number one, for most u. S. Attorneys in america, marijuana is not the number one drug problem. The Opioid Epidemic is. And the attorney general is not giving u. S. Attorneys any more resources. So if they are thinking about where the drug problem is in their district, they are probably not thinking about marijuana. Secondly, and this is not anything that anybody that justice has said. Its just something that i think is something to think about. If you are a u. S. Attorney in San Francisco or los angeles and you have any political ambitions in the future in that state, do you want to be the one who is going after the Marijuana Industry . I think that may cause some of them to think twice. Pete williams, charlie savage, thanks to you both. We have a little breaking news. The publisher of Michael Wolffs fire and fury book is moving up the publication of this controversial tone. Its an explosive tellall about the inner workings of the Trump White House. Its dominated the White House Press briefing over the last couple of days. And as you probably know, trumps legal team has tried to squash the book sending a cease and desist letter to the publisher, the author and former chief strategist steve bannon. Fire fury, most of it has already been made public, the juicy bits, as they say in the uk. It will go on sale tomorrow, january 5th. Up next, were going to get a check of the markets. Trading wraps up after the dow hit 25,000 for the First Time Ever whoooo. Looking for a hotel that fits. Your budget . Tripadvisor now searches over. 200 sites to find you the. Hotel you want at the lowest price. Grazi, gino find a price that fits. Tripadvisor. Keep it comin love. If you keep on eating, well keep it comin. All you can eat riblets and tenders at applebees. 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Its just complicated. Stepbystep options trading support from Td Ameritrade check out the numbers. A record day on wall street. The dow breaking above 25,000 for the First Time Ever, tying the record for the fastest 1,000point gain in history. All of it coming on the heels of the release of stronger than expected jobs numbers. Now the official government report comes out tomorrow but this is a jobs report from adp, Moody Analytics that projects in december job gains of 250,000. Just minutes before the closing bell, the dow up about there it is. 150 points, sitting just above 25,000. And thats going to do it for me. Im chris jansing. Deadline white house with Nicolle Wallace starts now. Hi, everyone. Its 4 00 in new york. Down in washington, the Trump White House is still digging out from a crushing dump of unflattering an eecdotes about President Trump and his dysfunctional white house. As aides and allies pick apart individual passages from Michael Wolffs new book fire fury inside the Trump White House which was recorded from two dozen interviews and more than a hundred visits to the Trump White House. Trump now issuing a cease and desist letter to wolff, steve bannon and the books publisher. The white house call the book fiction but reporters who cover the Trump White House confirm that much of the reporting from wolff corroborates some accounts theyve either reported on or learned about on record or off the record from some of the very same aides. In a new account from the Hollywood Reporter today, wolff writes this about the president s