Facetoface, the president s lawyers set to meet with Robert Muellers team this week. As an exclusive new nbc news report reveals the fbi warned then candidate trump about russia. And it is the final countdown, the house votes today on the final tax bill. And remember this have you ever tried a jury trial . I have not. Civil . No. Criminal . No. And the nos continues. One of trumps judicial nominees withdraws his name after failing to answer basic legal questions. All right, weve got a lot to cover today. Beginning with that deadly derailment south of seattle that took place yesterday. One that sent train cars plunging over the side of an overpass on to a highway as commuters were trying to get to work. Was it the speed, was it the engineer, was it something about the newly rebuilt train line that caused the deadly crash . I have a great team here. Including a representative from the ntsb which is investigating exactly what happened. I want to start with nbcs blake mccoy live at the scene of that crash in dupont, washington. Blake, give us the latest. Stephanie, good morning. Were now learning overnight that speed was at least a factor in this crash. The ntsb confirming that the train was going 80 Miles Per Hour at the time of the derailment. This was a 30 mile per hour zone. That train is made to go 80 Miles Per Hour but not in this section. The train was supposed to slow down going through this section. It appears that never happened. Now, speed was a factor. Was it the only factor . We still dont know that. Was there something on the tracks . Was there Something Else that contributed to this crash . Thats still part of the investigation. If i step out of the way right now, you can see that heavy equipment has now been brought in to this stretch of i5 to start removing those train cars. That is going to be quite a l laborous process because weve all seen the wreckage and one of the cars is hanging over the overpass. State Officials Say this stretch will be closed through at least the morning rush, likely longer than that, because once those train cars are removed, they have to check for any damage on the roadway that was left behind. As for the latest on the victims, the numbers havent changed much since last night. Three people confirmed dead. 72 people were taken to the hospital to be evaluated and treated. We do not know the identities of any of the three People Killed yet. That may come today. Stephanie. All right, blake, thank you. Were going to dig further into this. Positive train control, we hear about this Computer System all the time. It is the one specifically designed to prevent crashes just like the one that happened. The track where the crash occurred is actually equipped for the system which is commonly known as ptc but it hasnt been implemented yet. Less than one quarter of all passenger lines have the system installed. Lets bring in nbcs tom costello who covers transportation for us and joins me now. Tom, weve got the technology. It can save lives. Why isnt it there . There are a number of reasons. First of all, this is like automatic braking in your car. If you get too close to the car in front of you, the computer slams on the brakes. With transponders buried in the tracks, and then youve got computers guiding and watching every position of every train so when it goes into a speed reduction zone it slows down. If it doesnt, it slams on the brakes. It doesnt allow you to slam into a train ahead of you. Now, Congress Mandated that this, in fact, is rolled out nationally. But it keeps kicking the can down the road. In part because the railroads in the country have complained its simply too expensive. Almost everybody agrees this is a technology that can prevent accidents and save lives but it is very expensive. The federal Railroad Administration says only about 49 of amtraks locomotives have ptc. Of all the passenger lines in the country, 23 have ptc. So the deadline is december of 2018. But theyve already indicated they will probably push that to 2020. Stephanie, ive covered an awful lot of train accidents from california to the bronx to philadelphia to virginia all across the country and in every one of those that ive covered, the final conclusion was that positive train control could very well have prevented these accidents and prevented deaths. The ntsb has been very adamant about this, whether it is a human error factor, which generally is the problem these days, or whether its a mechanical issue, brakes not functioning, whatever, ptc is a technology that can certainly dramatically reduce the likelihood of injuries and of Something Like this happening. So now the questions going to be will there be new pressure on the railroads. By the way, this section of track is not owned by amtrak. Its owned by sound transit there in the northwest. So why had they not activated this yet when they knew they were going to have a higher speed train on these tracks . Will the pressure now be on sound transit to activate ptc and on the railroads across the country to, in fact, up their game and get this plugged in and working . There is little doubt that this does, in fact, save lives. Well, its going to be definitely in their conversation going forward. I want to bring in bella dinzar, a member of the National Transportation safety board. Bella, we know the engineer survived. Have you spoken to him or anyone from the crew . We have not. We hope to in the next day or two. Unfortunately, all of the crew was hospitalized. So we want to make sure that they feel well enough to be interviewed. How about the black boxes . Have they been recovered . We have recovered one black box from the rear locomotive. There are two, one in the front and one in the rear. And thats where were able to get the information that the train was traveling at 80 Miles Per Hour. I know you said you didnt speak to the crew, but have you heard of any reported signals that could have been a warning . Thats one of the things were going to be looking at. Were going to look at all of the signals as well as the track, as well as the mechanics. And human factors. Thats part of interviewing the crew as well as looking at all the operations bulletins and some of the records to find out what exactly was the speed environment and the requirements for this area. Well, i want to stay on that speed environment because thats definitely a human factor. With the train going triple the appropriate limit, would that be enough to knock the train off the tracks . If a train is going around a curve and it is going too fast, yes, it will derail. But in this case, what we need to find out is whether there was positive train control and what how much of it was already implemented, because as you were speaking out about before, positive train control is a way to prevent certain types of accidents. We dont know quite yet whether it would have prevented this accident behind me, but it has been mandated, it has been recommended by the ntsb. There have been dozens of ptc preventable accidents, and the faster we can implement it, the faster well save lives and prevent injuries. When was the last time this train was inspected . I would guess since it was the first run on this new line, it would have been freshly inspected. Im sorry, it would have been . Newly inspected. When was the last time this train was inspected . It would have been inspected . Yes. Im sorry, its very loud here. So thats one of the things were going to be checking. We have a full complement of our go team here and theyll be looking at the maintenance records to see exactly what was done to this train and to see if that had any effect on this accident. All right, bella, you have your work cut out for you. Im sorry to hear about this awful accident and thank you for all your work, i appreciate it. Thank you. All right, lets bring in my panel. My dear friend, msnbc contributor and columnist with the daily news. Matt welch with reason, a monthly magazine. And larry mann, who helped write the federal Railroad Safety act in 1970. Larry, what jumped out when you saw what happened yesterday . Several things jumped out. One is had there been two competent crew members on the locomotive, if there had been distraction, if there had been some reason for the engineer not to be alert. The second crew person could have and would have warned the engineer to slow down. Thats one thing i would hope the ntsb would focus on. The safety benefits of having two qualified persons on the locomotive. The other thing that jumped out to me is fatigue. Fatigue is probably the largest single safety factor in the Rail Industry that causes the most accidents and injuries nationwide. Im sure that the ntsb will investigate the workweek of this engineer to determine whether or not he was fatigued. I know that in many, many accidents throughout the country, this is a primary issue that causes accidents and incidents. It absolutely causes accidents. When you think about cars on the road. For you, it has to be frustrated when there is so much talk about positive train control systems and so few passenger lines have them. Congress mandated ptc almost ten years ago and the deadline keeps getting pushed back. Is it a money issue . I hate to bring up probability and statistics. But is the issue that these railroads say, well, given how much it cost and given how many crashes we have it doesnt make financial sense, is that why we dont see it . Well, i have been dealing with Railroad Safety since 1968 and every proposed regulation or statutory mandate, the Railroad Industry complains that it costs too much money. Safety does not cost too much money. Had this positive train control system been in effect, we would have prevented not only this accident but numerous other accidents. I just dont buy the argument of the Rail Industry. And this mandate from congress was in 2008. The National Transportation safety board proposed positive train control in the early 80s. Maybe even earlier. And the Rail Industry opposed it in every step of the way. And even after it was adopted by congress, the Rail Industry was at the doorsteps of congress to have it further delayed and the last congress, they were successful. And they may be even again. You dont buy the argument that the Rail Industrys making and they dont want to pay for ptc. After the crash, President Trump tweeted this. The train accident that just occurred in dupont, washington, shows more than ever why our soon to be submitted infrastructure plan must be approved quickly. 7 trillion spent in the middle east while our road, bridges and tunnel, railways and more crumble. Not for long. Now, it is not clear that this happened because of failing infrastructure. But does this help the president s argument . Whats stopping him from fixing the infrastructure in this country . Infrastructure week, was back in june. Somebody built a wall between him and his own plan . The fact is, we dont know any more about whats in his infrastructure plan as we know whats in his tax return. I have to say one other thing, as i listen to positive train control. In the bronx, 2013. There was a deadly accident coming out of philly in 2015. And as soon as these things happen, we Start Talking about technology and the infrastructure. He couldnt wait to get a tweet out yesterday. And but every time somebody goes up and shoots up a school in this country, how come we dont talk about positive gun control in this country . Thats a good point. What i dont understand is the president s tweet and his message doesnt necessarily follow his policy. Because in the 2018 budget, cuts to transportation funding are 13 . That would impact this. While the president talks about this infrastructure spend, how does that square off with budget cuts . He wants to spend or having spent 1 trillion on infrastructure in the next ten years. Recall Hillary Clinton came out with an infrastructure thing and trumps like, lets double it. He wants to build stuff, for sure. Hes thought for a long time this is the way he can actually collaborate with Chuck Schumer. I have no doubts hes sincere in wanting to build this. A big question will be can he bridge the gap, bridge the gap with Chuck Schumer on this, because democrats want all of that spending to come out of the treasury. They dont want any of the spending to have to do with private capital coming on board. Well, stay on that. Early on, President Trump said its going to be Public Private partnerships, thats the wave of future. You are a libertarian. Libertarians will make the argument it shouldnt be just public funding, bring in private dollars. Absolutely. Then the white house had said maybe six months ago maybe Public Private partnerships isnt the way to go. Right. Just recently. Were going to find out for sure in january when they unveil their proposal here. Recently, theyve gone back to the original idea which is that of the 1 trillion figure, 200, this is over ten years, 200 billion comes from the treasury. 800 billion comes from allowing the private sector to invest. And by the way, when we talk about these accidents, and, you know, positive train control would have helped in the bronx. It would have helped in philadelphia. But how about the guy driving the train too damn fast . 100 miles an hour in a 50mileperhour zone coming out of philly in 2015. It was twice the speed it should have been in the bronx. Anyone who looks at that curve knows how dangerous that curve is. So thats asking an awful lot of a red button if guys are going to drive these trains recklessly and thats whats happened three times in the last four years. Good point. Michael, matt, larry, thank you so much. Were going to leave it there. Comie ing up, just when you thought it couldnt get more tense, President Trump lawyers set to meet with special counsel Robert Muellers team later this week. Talk about a christmas surprise. About the russia investigation. Inside details on what to expect. Thats next. Next, the house prepares to vote in just a few hours. Looks like this thing is going to go through. What to expect and the impact on markets straight ahead. Your brain is an amazing thing. But as you get older, it naturally begins to change, causing a lack of sharpness, or even trouble with recall. Thankfully, the breakthrough in prevagen helps your brain and actually improves memory. The secret is an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. The name to remember. The market. Redict but through good times and bad. At t. Rowe price. Weve helped our investors stay confident for over 75 years. Call us or your advisor. T. Rowe price. Invest with confidence. But he hasoke up wwork to do. In. So he took aleve. If hed taken tylenol, hed be stopping for more pills right now. Only aleve has the strength to stop tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. Aleve. All day strong. Welcome back. Im stephanie ruhle. New details and special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into russian interference in a president ial election. The Washington Post reports President Trumps lawyers are meeting this week with muellers office and hope to hear that the investigation on trump will end with the president of course being cleared. According to that report, that meeting could actually turn out a lot different than the president s lawyers expect. Josh is one of reporters who broke the story for the post. He joins me now. All right, josh, mueller, hes under zero obligation to provide a time frame. Is there really any reason to expect muellers going to offer him a hint on wrapping up this investigation and do it by years end . No, i dont think so. The president s lawyers have been incredibly optimistic. They told him repeatedly it would be done by thanksgiving, then by christmas and by the new year. Theyre saying everyone in the white house has been interviewed. Who they asked to be interviewed. Theyre no longer asking for documents. They seem to think this is going to be an expedited process. That said, other lawyers and experts tell us its very unlikely that a special counsels probe thats this wide ranging has this many targets, has this many witnesses, would be done within seven months. Its almost unfathomable to most people. In the piece, you say that you think this time pressure that trumps team is putting on mueller could actually lead to a more contentious relationship. Why would they do this then . Sure. Theres a pressure from the president to get this over yeah, he doesnt like it. Right, hes been frustrated by this investigation. He is, to this point, listened to his lawyers and has been agreeable to their strategy to cooperate and to cooperate, you know, wholeheartedly. That said, you know, there are now cooperating witnesses who have signed up into this. There are still new document requests going out. Were expecting muellers team to want to reinterview some theyve already interviewed. Its going to take a while. You cant imagine that, you know, just last month they signed up mike flynn. You know as a cooperating witness. You have George Papadopoulos whos a cooperating witness. Theres just no way it could wrap this soon. Theyve convinced the president of this and so far its been able to keep him pretty calm and he hasnt really lashed out as he was in the beginning. I think thats going to be probably around the new year when he realizes, hey, this isnt going away any time soon. Walk me through the significance of this. According to an exclusive report from nbc, the fbi warned trump back in 2016 when he was still a candidate that russians would try to spy on his campaign. Does that have any effect on muellers investigation . For those of us sitting in our living rooms, watching this in our kitchen, im not even sure what that means. I do think there were heightened concerns. The fbi was aware of the russian interference. They told Trumps Campaign and Hillary Clintons campaign according to my nbc report about the potential for russian interference. I guess the only thing it could show was there was aawareness in the trump campaign. We told you this is what these people were trying to do. You couldnt say hey, we had no idea. But i dont know if its that relevant to this investigation. It is interesting component that even at that time they were the scrutiny was that high. All right, fbi director andrew mccabe, hes going to testify before the House Intelligence Committee today. We know theyre going to be talking about two fbi agents who were once on muellers team. Theyve come under fire for alleged bias. Can this bias strategy effectively discredit mueller when, in fact, mueller, their team found this out and they moved these guys . Im not certain that it can. But theres certainly been a concerted effort among republicans, conservatives, groups that are kind of aligned with trump to start casting doubt on this investigation to muddy the waters. To say, hey, the fix was in, as Kellyanne Conway said on tv this weekend. Im not sure thats a legitimate argument. As you pointed out, mueller moved them quickly when he realized. But, that said, thats hard evidence they can use against mueller. And i think the effort for whatever this probe shows thats potentially negative about the president to, you know, discredit the findings or to say listen, the fingds were tainted or how can you trust this. Its certainly being used nonstop now by people who are aligned with the president. Thats for sure. I got to ask you about jill stein. Buzz feed is reporting that the senate Intelligence Committee is looking into jill stein, of course, former green party candidate. She attended that dinner in 2015. Weve all seen the picture with russian president Vladimir Putin and mike flynn also at that dinner. What can we make from this development . Its unclear right now what we can make of it. We do know that jill steins vote totals at the end, you know, the russians were buying facebook ads as folks have reported to support jill stein, that jill stein was a Third Party Candidate who didnt get a lot of votes but who did change the calculus at the end in a tight race in the election and the dinner is certainly of interest to investigators. I think theyre basically trying to figure out what jill stein, was her campaign contacted by the russians. Did she have any interactions with any russians or what did she know about any potential activities to help her or to discredit others. But i dont know at this point if we know how significant of a development this is yet, stephanie. But i think well find out. Great reporting. Thanks so much for joining me this morning. Coming up, the house set to vote on tax reform in just hours. With gop lawmakers confident they will get it to the president s desk by christmas. That will be a massive win for republicans and for President Trump. This was a big win, but republicans are already saying theyre going to need another bill to fix the problems with this current one. They could just fix them now. Thats next. I am totally blind. And non24 can make me show up too early. Or too late. Or make me feel like im not really there. Talk to your doctor, and call 8442342424. Welcome back. Time now for your morning primer. Everything you need to know to get your day started. First, an update on the amtrak Train Derailment. The ntsb is trying to figure out why the train was traveling at 80 miles an hour in a 30 mile an hour zone. Three people were killed. More than 70 were taken to the hospital. Homeland security adviser says north korea is directly responsible for the cyberattack that crippled parts of Britains NationalHealth Service in may. Basset says pyongyang will be held accountable. Puerto ricos governor is ordering a review of the death count after hurricane maria. The governor says the count may be higher than the 64 people believed to have died. The New York Times says that number is much closer to 1,000. Democratic senator joe manchin calling for snow al franken to reconsider resigning from office. Manchin says the minnesota senator should submit himself to an ethics review which franklin was willing to do all along and he was then pressured to step down. And you heard that bell, the markets just opening. Expected to be up for a second day in a row. One factor clearly impacting the markets right now, the republican tax plan, which is a huge win for corporate america. Republicans are just a hair away from locking in their first major legislative win by passing this bill to overhaul the tax system. The house expected to vote about 1 30 today. The senate is going to follow later on tonight or tomorrow. Msnbcs Garrett Haake is live on the hill and cnbc editor at large john harwood joins me from d. C. The president has been saying since october he wanted tax reform by christmas. Looks like its going to happen. Hes going to get his tax reform package for christmas almost certainly. This bill should get through the house around 2 00 today. We may see as many as a dozen Republican House members from states like california and new york defect on this bill. But it wont be enough to stop it. Then its just a question of timing for when this vote will happen in the senate tonight. Again, republicans feel confident theyll have the votes there. John mccain is out this week. He wont be back until january. His fellow arizonian jeff flake is the only republican senator who hasnt said how hes going to vote on this bill. The rest of the Republican Caucus is ready to push this through. Its just a question really of timing at this point for when this bill gets to the president s desk. How about the American People . What pushback are you hearing in d. C. . Well, theyre a lot less bullish on this. Theres some new polling out from cnn. About 55 of americans oppose this tax bill. Republicans are hoping that once people see some actual effect from this bill, that those numbers will start to change. On the individual side, that could take some time. People could change their withholdings in january. But regular folks may not start seeing more money in their paychecks for a while which makes this sort of a politically perilous bet. Republicans will be able to say yes we passed this but will it be popular, will they have anything to show for it in terms of how it actually affects people by the time folks are ready to vote again in the spring for primaries and november for next year . Its anybodys guess. All right. I want to point out, while markets are up, corporations love this because its great for their stock valuations. The rationale republicans have in trickle down economics is cut Corporate Taxes and those corporations are going to hire, spend more, give people wage increases. But if you actually look at buy yields, bond yields, bond yields are not rising so if investors will tell you this cut is not going to lift the economy. Earlier today i saw kevin brady on morning joe and he was asked about carried interest, because over and over President Trump said it, ma nunnuchin said it, carried interest will not stay in this system. It makes no sense. Its an absolute historic hookup for people on wall street, specifically private equity, and i want to share what kevin brady said. No one back home says, hey, hows that carried interest provision going. Theyre asking, hey, can i keep more of my paycheck. We get the economy going, can we get our jobs back from overseas . My only point to you is i just think those are the big issues families care about, thats all. Youre damn right, john harwood, nobody back home is asking about carried interest because they have no idea what it is. But the big thing that people do care about is being treated fairly. So what do you make of that argument to say people dont care about that, they absolutely do care, because by keeping carried interest in, it shows what we do have carveouts and side deals and hookups for the super rich. Well, stephanie, those people in kevin bradys district could keep more of their paychecks if they got rid of carried interest, which is something that President Trump said he was going to do, which most wall street people acknowledge is a loophole that should not exist. This is a way for private equity and Hedge Fund Managers to define their income as nonwage income. But Investment Income. Even though, in fact, it is money in return for their services. But thats one of the reasons why democrats oppose this bill. You know, i talked to mark warner, the democratic senator from virginia. He said this is not sufficiently targeted to the working class. And he cites these economic forecasts that show because its mistimed for the business cycle, its going to increase the deficit and not do nearly enough to boost Economic Growth. Listen to mark warner. It will not only be not a boost but i believe its the single worse piece of legislation that ive seen since ive been in the senate. And because its been done in secret, i believe tax lawyers and accountants will spend a decade finding some of the loopholes and problems particularly in the past and some of the Corporate Tax reform. Obviously, stephanie, to garretts point earlier, democratic opposition is not going to stop this bill, but its relevant because if, in fact, democrats have a big election in 2018, 2020, if they get back in control, theyre likely to go straight at these tax cuts and reverse them. Its important to point out mark warner was talking about accountants and tax lawyers. President trump has said in the past i want to kill tax preparers. We shouldnt need them anymore. The fact there are still so many loopholes, this is not a reform, its a tax cut. We already heard from republicans they may need an ancillary bill to help fix this. What about those postcards, stephanie . For real, because all these complications still exist, thats only going to give more business to tax accountants. As long as those accountants, as long as those structurers are employed, that will benefit the super rich. The joe smith on the street is never going to be able to afford those people. 100 . You know, they make the postcard claim for lower earners because if you dont have a lot of deductions, you take the standard deduction and its very simple. But thats not where the money is. The money is in working the system, reclassifying your income as either Investment Income in the case of the carried interest or as business income in the case of the passthrough breaks. Its going to be a festival for tax lawyers. All right, then a festival. A tax lawyer festival. That sounds like an awful party. I just need to ask before we go, because david brooks pointed it out today, he wrote, im appalled republicans did not seek to balance the tax bill with an equal effect to help people who got the president elected. So think about youre going to have the deficit jacked up 1. 5 trillion. That is going to immediately impact social programs that have to get cut. Many of trumps supporters are dependent on programs like medicare. Even if weve heard, well, medicare wont get hit that will require a bipartisan side deal. Does President Trump do republicans realize all the programs that help trumps base that could get lost here . Yes. But i dont think they care particularly much. Ill let garrett go from there. Yes, no. Mitch mcconnell said yesterday theyre going to come up with a fix on this, what they call this pay grow provision, to make medicare doesnt get cut right away. But republicans have also said entitlement reform could be next on deck for next year. So well see if all of a sudden some of these same republicans who were not particularly concerned about the deficit impacts of this bill decide that the deficit is something they need to address by going after some of these entitlement programs next year. Well, stephanie, they say explicitly that tax cuts dont cause deficits, spending does. They see that as entirely different. So theyre going to go after medicare, medicaid, Social Security disability and also means tested programs for the poor. Theres no doubt about that. Theyve said thats what were going to do. Thats a whole other level. All right, gentlemen, thank you. Coming up, one way to unlock Economic Growth in this country, the chief economist for s p global says more working women. avo when you have type 2 diabetes, you manage your a1c, but you also have a higher risk of heart attack or stroke. Noninsulin victoza® lowers a1c, and now reduces cardiovascular risk. Victoza® lowers my a1c and blood sugar better than the leading branded pill. avo and for people with type 2 diabetes treating cardiovascular disease, victoza® is now approved to lower the risk of major cardiovascular events such as heart attack, stroke, or death. 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Side effects can lead to dehydration, which may cause kidney problems. Ask your doctor about victoza®. Welcome back. Its my favorite part of the show, money, power politics. Republicans vow to boost the economy with their tax bill. One says the key is keeping more women in the workforce. The chief economist for s p global says more women at work could add 5 to 10 growth in just a few decades. She joins me now. You believe adding women to the workplace is going to boost the economy, but when i look at the gop tax plan, i dont see much support for child care and child care is a crippling cost for families in america. Thats correct. When we look at we have to give them credit because there is some increase in the child care tax credit. There is something in there. Thats a positive. What we do in our analysis, we look at whats happened with women entering the workforce. They slowed dramatically since what we saw in the 1980s and other countries have surpassed us dramatically. What if we saw the pace of women entering the workforce in the United States faster to what would be normal for other countries and what we saw was the u. S. Economy would grow much more dramatically than in the past. In fact, if we followed norways path of women entering the workforce, the u. S. Economy today would be 1. 6 trillion bigger than it is right now. That means 5,000 in each persons pocketbook. How do you compare the United States to norway . Norway is roughly the side of a small state. What are they doing that they could, on a scalable basis, do to have that same kind of impact . We focused on norway because we all started in the same place. 1970, were about the same. But other countries also follow suit. In the United States, were the only country of the countries we examined that have no parental or maternity paid leave mandated by law. That holds women back. Particularly since women are, indeed, still the primary caregivers for children, it matters. But maternity and paternity care is only for the childs First Six Months to a year of life. Its the next 18 years when your children are in school that there arent high paying or fulltime jobs that parents can get where they can also support their children. Theres another thing. So we talked about paternity and maternity leave. Indeed, as i said, the u. S. Does not have have it mandated by law to have that paid for, which matters. Theres also another area where we fall behind. Basically precare. Now, theres some states like new york or cities like new york that does that. But thats also an option, to give women and families a little more flexibility in terms of being able to work while their children are getting educated. You can take that much further. You can say that in just the terms of types of education. Weve seen a real vast improvement on women in education. Women have more degrees than men. Where women are choosing to be educated, the fields that are being chosen, are an area where we could see some improvement. Of course women could be steered to something that might get a little more of a paycheck when they okay, but do thought jobs that have higher paychecks, are they going to offer flexibility that work for parents . Youve got more women coming out of law school than men. That is an Industry Based almost entirely on billable hours and face time. And if you are not in that office, much like investment banking, cranking it out for 80 hours a week, well, then, you chose the wrong industry and those are some of the highest paid industries out there. Something called basically the timeoff penalty, and that is a certainly a major issue for the United States. When i was in school, i was one, you know, i was one out of five women in a classroom that was maybe about 20 or 30 and that hasnt changed since then. I do think that women are, you know, that this kind of time off penalty, especially as you climb higher up the ladder into more managerial position, you take time off to take your kid to soccer practice, youre going to be penalized. There are some solutions on that area but i think we need much further to go in the United States. Thank you so much. One way we can start, Start Talking about it. All right. Were going to leave it there. Coming e ing up, one of preside trumps picks drops out after an embarrassing nomination hearing. Were going to go through some of the president s most controversial judicial picks and also some of his wins. President trump has put a lot of judges in those seats. Thats a win for conservatives. For your heart. Your joints. Or your digestion. So why wouldnt you take something for the most important part of you. Your brain. 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Tell your doctor if youve been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if youve had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike symptoms or sores. Dont start humira if you have an infection. Ready for a new chapter . Talk to your rheumatologist about humira. This is humira at work. Have you ever tried a jury trial . I have not. Civil . No. Criminal . No. Bench . State or federal court . I have not. Do you know what a motion in lim limane is . I probably would not be able to give you a good definition at the table. Matthew peterson has withdrawn his nomination for a lifetime appointment for the painful appearance at a confirmation hearing. Two of President Trumps picks for nominations. And the other two include brett talley, he offered to withdraw his nomination after it came to light that he received a unanimous not qualified rating from the american bar association. Had no trial experience, wrote a number of controversial blog posts and then a potential conflict of interest because his wife works at the white house. The other is jeff mateer. A top lawyer for the state of texas. Despite the nominees with drawing the senate has confirmed 12 confirmed appeals judges in President Trumps year. Thats a record. And they include a 45yearold amy barrett, confirmed to be an Appeals Court judge. She previously proclaimed that the Birth Control mandate is grave violation of religious freedom. 52yearold kentucky lawyer john bush was appointed to the u. S. Court of appeals for the 6th district. Npr points out he blogged under a fake name disparaging lgbt rights. He also wrote that slavery and abortion are, quote, the two greatest tragedies in our country. And 44yearold kevin newsome, he was confirmed to the u. S. Court of appeals for the 11th district as alabamas solicitor general, he was criticized for efforts to limit critical protections under title ix. Joining me now msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos. Three of the picks have withdrawn their nominations over questions of qualifications. Whats the issue . How are these people being selected . To me, i think thats allowed but is it normal. The normal Selection Process is for the president to consult with nominees. That in a way is a sort of democratic tradition. Because those senators can issue or choose not to issue blue slips. And in effect, veto a potential nominee. So, therefore, the president has an incentive to only nominate in states where he has a strong following and strong support. Deep red states. And that may explain why youre getting some of these nominees. In petersons case, for example, his argument would be that, well, he deals mostly with appellatetype constitutional administrative issues. The problem is, a District Court is a trial court. And he must learn at some point what a motion in limine is and what the dalbert standard is. The fact that he didnt have trial experience not fatal, even according to the aba. But he must know. What we often ignore is arguably more important than naming a Supreme Court judge, why . Because the vast majority of cases have no chance, will never see the inside of the Supreme Court courthouse. Thats because to say a vast majority is an understatement. Anywhere from 1 to 5 of petitions are even granted for a hearing by the Supreme Court. That means for almost all cases, the court of last resort is going to be the federal Circuit Court in your jurisdiction. For all purposes. The Circuit Court is the Supreme Court for most litigants. Thats why appointment to Circuit Courts is critically important. All right. I want to bring my panel in. Matt, mike. These appointments, these Record Number of judicial appointments, this is a huge win for President Trump. All year long when we would question how do the family value conservatives accept President Trumps behavior in turn tweet rants and so on. But in terms of appointments, these are Lifetime Appointments and it affects almost every aspect of our lives. Its not the moral majority thats sitting around and requesting its slate of judicial candidates here. Its actually the kind of broad conservative establishment who has been making these picks. A lot of people who do not like donald trump have said at least his picks to the bench have been good. People like don willett, on the 5th circuit now, hes going to rule many times not in favor of donald trump here. Its a shame that i think in the five knee jerk hysteria against trump in some cases, including in the willett confirmation process people just focused on whether his tweets were funny. As opposed to what is his judicial philosophy. Theres direct there, im glad to see the direct is withdrawn. I hope more direct wraurn in it the future. For conservatives, this is a winning year, michael . Yeah, that said, i dont have to take a blow. You dont have to, but im saying you will. Critics of executive power of the kind that donald trump want to excerert, youll be happy if breaks what he does. Donald trump was not the first to desert congressional power or pushing that. Weve been making the same criticisms of the last administration. When you saw peterson testify, so often, patronage, like the worst in new york city politics. Forget about matt noyes. He acted like he couldnt spell it, okay . I think thats a pretty good civics lesson to see whats been going on in broad daylight with some of the people you just listed, steph, who absolutely would not qualify to be judges. So, what do you make of the criticism that some are saying President Trump, while nobody is watching and its allowed, is stacking the courts . These are white male conservative young judges. Theyll be there for a long time. Mitch mcconnell is the one who prestacked the courts by not approving, with the justice there. In the green room, we talk sometimes, it will be interesting to see when dronald trump is a lame duck and other Supreme Court nominees decide to retire. Are we going to if the senate is controlled by the democratic party. I think well see eighth man or eighth person. Or even sevenperson court. Once the democrats get the senate back theyve going to do to the republicans what the republicans did to them. Well, that doesnt really solve anything. Before we go on this, michael, what is your take that were looking at some of these nominees and theyre wholly unqualified . The scary thing is what you just said. Theyre here for life, okay . And Circuit Court judges are you know, well hear a lot more cases and have a lot more to say about the law of the land, even though, you know, you tend to spear that the law of the land is getting folded into paper airplanes in this country for a long time to come. Its dangerous. Well, its dangerous if you dont support the move. Gentlemen, thank you so much. Theres always good news somewhere. A shoutout to the actor rob lowe. One of the many celebrities unfortunately that had their fires destroyed to wildfires. After they helped save his home. The actor invited a crew of firefighters inside for dinner. Thank you, rob lowe. Thank you for all of those out there on the front lines trying to save thousands of homes that are still being threatened. We want to echo his appreciation. That wraps us up for this hour. Im stephanie ruhle. Ill be back with my friend ali velshi. This is a huge day for republicans if we get to vote on this tax bill. Historic. I send to you washington, d. C. With hallie jackson. Steph, what an interesting thing. Thank you. We are just hours away from what could be the biggest overhaul of the u. S. Tax system in decades. Check out this live look where right now, on the house floor, lawmakers are starting the final debate on this plan. Aiming to get this on the president s desk overnight tomorrow. Even though overnight, the gop lost more than dozen votes. One of those defectors is joining us live. Also, paul ryan coming to these microphones any minute, he told the gop conference this morning in private he is not going anywhere, apparently in response to retirement rumors. Today before the big vote, maybe a little preemptive victory lap. And the latest on that Train Derailment out west. Three