What mueller taught trump this year and why hes not done for 2018. Youll notice two of our favorite lawyers there and our favorite journalist that has a law degree. My first question, what did bob mueller teach trump about the republic this year . I want to begin with a quick tour of the key moments that turned the russia probe from a few suspicious aides under siege from day one. Michael flynn is out. Flynn, they say, had lied to the president and Vice President. General flynns resignation is not the end of the story. It is merely the beginning. Moments ago, sessions held a press conference annoying that hes recusing himself from any investigation involving the trump campaign. President trump has fired james comey as director of the fbi. I just heard from a former fbi official describe this as shocking as insane and questioned whether it could amount to obstruction. Did President Trump pressure comey to drop the investigation into Michael Flynn . I hope that you can let this go. Those are his exact words . Correct. I said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a madeup story. Its been derailed by the president. The u. S. Justice department named a special counsel to investigate the possible role Donald Trumps campaign played with russia. The special counsel investigation has entered a new phase. The first indictments in Robert Muellers investigation. The indictments of Paul Manafort and his right hand man. This is what it looks like when you follow the money. George papadopoulos pleaded guilty. Bombshell on day 315 of the Trump Presidency. Mike flynn admits he lied to the fbi about russia and he will cooperate. I dont want to talk about pardons for Michael Flynn yet. Well see what happens. I have a tree falls in the forest question. If the president issues a pardon, do we have to know about it . Joining me now is howard fine, the National Director to have the huffington post, Nick Hackerman and mia wylie, former lawyer for the mayor of new york city. Going to go around the horn with a question. What has bob mueller taught donald trump this year that he may not have known and anything else more widely you want to reflect on 2017, starting with nick. I think what we taught him is we dont live in a dictatorship. Because youre the president of the United States doesnt mean you decide who is going to be prosecuted and who is going to be investigated. We live under the rule of law. Despite the president s firing of james comey, despite his efforts in calling people both in the congress and in the National Security agency, to stop the investigation into a russian conspiracy with the trump campaign, the investigation has continued. People have pled guilty. Theyve been brought to justice. And this is something that i dont think donald trump had a clue about before he became president. I would absolutely echo that. I would say that were a democracy, and not even the president of the United States is above the law, and that our arms of government, including the u. S. Department of justice, is an independent arm, because its job is to uphold the laws oh of the United States, not to uphold the special interest of a particular president. Howard . Donald trump came into the white house dragging this blossoming controversy behind him, and it hasnt left him and its not going to leave him any time soon. His people told him it would be behind him before the end of the year. I think its going to last at least another year, maybe longer. People have been indicted and decided to cooperate with the investigation. I think that looking at two things, the obstruction part of it is going to be more political, and i think in the end more difficult for bob mueller because of the campaign thats begun and will be continuing to discredit james comey. The choose part of itollusion p money is and where the real controversy will be in the next year. Howard, you cover sod many administrations. There is a fair argument that inexperience, especially when it comes to washington, can be good for a president. As you know, a lot more candidates have gotten into that white house saying they dont Like Washington or they dont know washington than the opposite argument. Senators rarely leave their hollowed chamber with a ticket from the American People to the white house. Yet donald trump didnt just say he didnt know washington, he didnt know the constitution or how the government works. He really ran on that. Speak to how that may have backfired for him. It seems that the person more responsible for the appointment of bob mueller, which has haunted this whole year, is donald trump more than any other individual in the world. Well, i think thats spoton, ari. He has no concept of the ball game he was getting into coming to washington. In new york, he was used to throwing his weight around in real estate development, used to somewhat fungible and expandible or contractible legal situations involving zoning or bankruptcy where he could push and ignore the system. Not here. At least not so far. Hes his own ignorance is the deepest challenge to the Constitutional Order and to the rule of law here. And hes tried to make a virtue of it. But its been disastrous. Its his ignorance that led to the special counsel to begin with, especially the dramatic firing of james comey. And the same to lester holt on our air, that he did it because of the russian investigation. Donald trump in essence was in a way admitting to obstruction of justice on national television. Right. Now the question is whether that will be politically muddied by the effort to discredit comey. Thats the white houses strategy is all about. And the other point is donald trump wont criticize putin. Hell krcriticize putin. I think this year amends that, which is he will criticize everyone but putin and bob mueller. Im going to show a lot of the comments hes made this year. Hes unusually careful when asked about this one powerful man. Take a look. Have you thought about or considered the dismissal of the special counsel . Anything that bob mueller could do to send you in that direction . Says havent given it any thought. Are you going to fire Robert Mueller . Would you be willing to speak under oath to give your version of events . 100 . So if Robert Mueller wanted to speak to you i would be glad to tell him what i just told you. Theyre investigating something that never happened. Do you think you would ever consider having mueller removed . I hope hes treating everything fairly. Robert mueller, should he recuse himself . Hes very, very good friends with comey, which is very bothersome. Nick, you know its harder for him. You know its hard for him in every one of those interviews for him, thats holding back. Hes got other people doing this for him. Doing the dirty work. Sure. Look at the latest example with this gsa emails. That was the most bogus Public Relations effort you could see. Its so transparent. If they had a problem with mueller obtaining these emails, they would have gone into court. The reason they cant is because they dont have a leg to stand on. Theres no privilege there is a difference here im not say wlg iting whether id or bad, but in this case they have gotten this loud, undisciplined client, the president of the United States, to avoid taking the bait in those questions. If those questions were about anyone else, jim comey, Jeff Sessions, democrats in congress, they would hear a lot more. Reason is because he has others doing it for him. He has members of congress do it. It hes got this group from the Transition Committee thats making up this bogus pr story with the gsa emails. Hes got other people beating that drum. Thats why hes holding back. He doesnt have to say anything. You pointed this out on previous shows. Its also fox news is the mega phone for those positions. Hes learning that hes not above the law and he has something to fear from the obstruction of justice charge. As a matter of political theater it may appear that way, but hes extremely vulnerable to obstruction of justice. I think its much more about strategy and listening to his attorneys than anything other than and maybe realizing he cant directly fire the special counsel. Howard, as you know, anyone who has seen a Police Procedure knows it can take a long time and a lot of interrogation to get someone to confess or in Donald Trumps case, it was why did you fire jim comey and he said russia. Well, he said it on television. I think hes aware of the fact that firing comey is one thing. Firing bob mueller might be another. Im not arguing that hes going to do that. I think he will pardon some of these people that have been indicted possibly. And i think that donald trump thinks in his own mind that he did not collude. That there was no in his mind, that means a phone call to putin saying okay, lets do this deal. I think donald trump is convinced that they dont have that kind of thing on him. So thats one reason why hes holding out hope that ultimately mueller might possibly exonerate him. That anything short of it and i would assist that the obstruction case, if there is one, is more complicated in the context of impeachment, and trial in the senate. Donald trump is fully aware of the fact of one number and thats 67. Thats the number that would be needed to convict him in the senate. He doesnt think they can get there on the obstruction charge, because theyre going to continue to politicize it with his people to attack comey and mueller and to assert that donald trump was within his power as president to fire comey. Right. Thats going to be their argument. Collusion, if theyre going to make the case in the house and the senate for impeachment and conviction, in my view, its got to be on collusion. Thats why this is going to take another year. Everyone stays, because i want to get to that. We have a lot more. There are legal fights against trump in 2018, and also, remember this . Youre saying its a falsehood, and sean spicer gave alternative facts. Alternative facts. Remember that . Remember the womens march . Were going to look at the resistance from the courtroom to the streets, which helps explain where trump is headed next year. And the reporting, the interviews, the fallback, the bad jokes. Ive got it all. Im ari melber. Youre watching a special edition of the beat on msnbc. Every president has power in the courts, but few have faced as many legal set basbacks in y one as trump. The military transgender ban is under fire, doj reviewing that. And Paul Manaforts and rick gates facing trial for money laundering. Personally, donald trump also faces a court battle, a Defamation Case brought by a former apprentice contestant. Trump came into the white house as the most litigated person to efficient the office, with a lot of experience giving depositions. I dont have any glasses. This is small writing. You dont email, and i observe thats because youre a very smart person. We figured that out. When you said you think you would have gotten additional business, additional compared to what . I think my running for office potentially would have helped him opposed to hurt him. The panel is back with me. Ill start with nick, who didnt forget his glasses for this interview. If i talked to you the way trump talks in depositions, you could barely hear him. Exactly. What is that about . The strategy is to try and play stupid, to try and forget as much as he can about what the real facts are. And to basically deflect. Thats what he does. He deflects whats going on. Hes lied about this whole conspiracy between the campaign and the russians, right from the beginning, and we keep finding in this past year, that low and behold in april of 2016, he was fully aware of the emails that were hacked out of the dnc through papadopoulos. The june 9th meeting occurred at trump tower with his son. You cant tell me that his son didnt tell him what happened at that meeting with the promise of dirt on hillary clinton. We have right after that meeting, roger stone goes out, hes dealing with gucifer 2. 0, who publishes those stolen emails. Then you have roger stone dealing with wikileaks, who then publishes a whole slew of those emails just before the Democratic Convention and just at the time that videotape comes out with trump on the bus. Everything youre referring to is called evidence. And thats the big difference, not only on russia, but an unusually active first year with travel bans, with immigration, the ethics suits. What you see is the president who, out of the courtroom, has really stretched and broken they talk about breaking the internet. He has broken some of what the press does. And if youre purely a cynical political operative. You think great, thats a win. You care about facts and the country, that might bother you. Yet that doesnt work as well in a courtroom. Talk about that with the travel ban or immigration. It relates to the conversation we were having about the russia investigation, which is donald trump comes into washington, doesnt understand the law, doesnt really seem to care about it very much, and then makes a lot of public statements, for instance on the travel ban, where he has the statements that link him directly to antimuslim views and a view that hes actually trying to keep muslims out of the country. And that for civil rights lawyers is pretty much a smoking gun in similar ways. Lets dig into that. Whats so important about that is, its not searching someones heart. Were talking about racists here and its difficult. People say all the time, can i Say Something without being accused of being racist. But this is how did you build this immigration policy . And if it was, as you campaigned on, targeting religion, if you can prove that, and this is going to be litigated next year more so, the Supreme Court traditionally has said if you can prove that, it goes out the window because you cant target a religion or race. Thats why they tried to amend it by adding venezuela. But as a matter of law, if you try to fix something by covering up your racial discrimination, its still racial discrimination. So the fact that you harmed other people in addition, even in those instances its still clear that they were trying to target muslims. And its bad policy. At the end of the day, if were trying to protect the United States, part of what were examining is, are you actually formulating a policy that is advancing the interests of the country and security is one of those interests. But you dont need it by just taking a whole population of people and branding them as an enemy of the state. Howard, this is something that is so important that can get lost. Everyone understands the politics of immigration, and i made this point before, plenty of democrats have demagogued on the politics of immigration. Are we trying to get security or is it demagoguery . But in this case, talk about what it would mean if Donald Trumps first big loss before the Supreme Court next year would be a full narrowing of that now famous travel ban. Well, i think if that were to happen, it would be the Supreme Court making a statement about what kind of country that we are, that america is, that is different from the one that donald trump is formulating. He said in his final Cabinet Meeting of the year that america stands today as a different country in the world. I thought that was a profound statement by the president , whether he intended it to be or not. It will be up to the Supreme Court whether that different kind of country is one that fits with the constitution, and with our conception of ourselves as a people. Sometimes the Supreme Court is required to make a very big statement about who we are as a society. They did it in brown versus board of education. They did it in the in the in many other cases. This is that profound, because it feels with how we present ourselves to the world and how we see ourselves. And the polls show that a majority of the American People dont like the ban. They like us to be open to the whole world, and thats the president s political challenge. That whole statute of liberty thing. Some people feel that way. I will say this, because were wrapping on this special part of our yearender. Its pretty hard to launch a tv show. I found it very difficult. I am indebted to the producers who work so hard on this show. The three of you have been such a voice of expertise during a busy year. Thank you all. Were going to fit in a break. But a lot more ahead. Richard painter is in the building, and yes, a yearender fallback. Remember that robot . Terrifying. Also, later, some of the best moments that have happened on the beat. The interviews, the arguments, even some hiphop. All of that straight ahead. Its the start of a new year for you and your family. And wed like you to be part of ours. Happy new year so our chevy employee discount is Still Available to everyone. You pay what we pay, not a cent more. Were so happy to share this with you. Because you deserve to start the year off in style. Its our way of saying happy new year and welcome to the family. The chevy family. The chevy employee discount for everyone ends soon. Donald trump brought more conflict to the white house than any president in history. Remember those files he was showing when he outlined his white house Business Plan . The conflicts of interest laws simply do not apply to the president or the Vice President , and they are not required to separate themselves from their financial assets. He instructed us to take all steps realistically possible to make it clear that hes not exploiting the office of the presidency for his personal benefit. It wasnt clear to everyone. Trumps hotel in washington, a magnet for foreign officials. Then trump doubled the cost of maralago membership and six cabinet members have been investigated for misusing your tax dollars for private travel. Im joined by richard payner, who is filing a lawsuit against trumps hotel in washington. Richard, you have been busy in a bad way this year, by which youreyour ethics group and others have had to take in a whole range of conflicts. What have we learned and what are you seeking to stop in the next year . Well, what we have seen in a president who has more financial conflicts of interest than any other president in history. And a congress that wont do anything about it. Wont do anything about his financial conflicts of interest. Wont do anything about their own, including their campaign money. We have democrats who will throw out a senator on paltry evidence of sexual misconduct, and retain another senator who has been indicted on bribery for over a year. We have republicans that will defend President Trumps financial conflicts of interest, including his violations of the United States constitution, which prohibit any Person Holding a position of trust with the United States government from accepting any profits and benefits from dealings with Foreign Governments. And its not just about the hotel rooms and the ballrooms at the trump hotel. Its about the financing of his real estate empire. We have no idea where hes getting his money. Congress doesnt bother to find out, because congress are happy when it comes to money, they all put their head on the table and they dont want to talk about it. You make a great point. I think a lot of members of congress are gun shy, because on the gradations here, they talk to a lot of the donors and maybe theyre worried about where a real cleanup operation would go. It does hit both parties, yet its so vital. The other issue is what lawyers call a case of first impression. Thats what your constitutional suit probably is, right . I mean, you know this better than anyone. The courts have not had the opportunity to rule in great depth on the emoluments clause. So what does that mean for you . Is that good news because you get a clean swipe at this in the courts or bad news because you dont have a lot of precedent to prove whether the hotel and the other things are a violation of the foreign gifts. Well, we dont have the legal precedent in the courts. Of course, we have not had this precedent, of course, with any other president or Senior Office holder who has accepted profits and benefits from Foreign Governments. There are other lawsuits, as well. One is brought by members of congress, who were not consulted about these unconstitutional benefits from Foreign Governments, even though the constitution says consent from congress is required. And a third lawsuit brought by the attorney general of the state of maryland and the district of columbia. So well see how those proceed. Once again, the emoluments clause ought to also be enforced by congress. When it comes to money, and money and moll takeemoluments, f congress of both parties want to duck. The courts having to rule on that clear language in the constitution, if you want a gift from a Foreign Government, congress has to approve it, and there are good reasons for that when you think about what it means to owe north korea or owe russia. So richard painter, a lot of people know you from your tv appearances. I know you from reading the briefs that your ethics group has been citing. A happy new year to you, richard. Happy new year. Coming up, the movement and political moments that showed what america was at its core in 2017. I have a new panel on that. And some of the moments from the beat, the interviews, the dad boekjokes, all coming up one beat on msnbc. Youre working in millions of places at once with iot sensors. Analyzing social data on the cloud to create new designs. And using blockchain to help prevent fraud. So get back to it and do the best work of your life. And using blockchain to help prevent fraud. They appear out of nowhere. My secret visitors. 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With an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is the number one selling brainhealth supplement in drug stores nationwide. Prevagen. The name to remember. Welcome back to this special edition of the beat. We turn to some of the big moments of 201 th7 that changede entire national conversation. Im joined now by my panel. We start with the womens which are ch womens marches. According to the Washington Post estimates, this was the single largest demonstration in american history. 500,000 in d. C. Alone. The constitution does not begin with i, the president , it begins with we, the people. Let this weight not drag you down, but help to get your heels sunk in. My body, my choice those who are abusing their powers, that is what i am here today to march against. I am a nasty woman we go right to the panel. Liz, what did those protesters and leaders teach us this year . Well, they taught us that theyre here to stay and the women are leading the movement against this current administration. Ive been to a lot of marches and protests. I covered this one, and this was unlike anything ive ever seen or experienced in my life. We started 2017 with women creating the largest protest in u. S. History, in modern u. S. History. We ended the year with the metoo movement, black women in alabama turning that state, and also we have some women who are not just interested in running, but actually taking the steps to change government. Thats what is so amazing. It transcended politics. It attracted this solidarity we saw all over the world and was a catalyst for change. In just one year, everything you mentioned, look where we are. It gives you chills. It was a moment that had you known where you would be in a year, it just seemed unthinkable. It was an incredible moment. And everybody said, if they went to that march, they had never felt anything like it. Chuck, there are people who came to this and said oh, wow, look at what women are saying or look, weve discovered these problems in the workplace. Yet in reporting on this, what we hear from so many women, other people are having a Christopher Columbus moment, like you discovered this . People live with this every day. Funny but not funny. People live with this every single day, and there has been a pressure on people, explicitly on men, with this movement that started with the march and continues to say we all need to be involved in this. Yeah, everything you said is correct. Im a little crest fall than the only person not the only person, the primary individual that should have been affected by this im sure it had no effect on him at all. Im sure that person looked at all of those women and said, only i can move this many women like this. So to me, thats the saddest part of that, is that those in power right now did not look at this and say, well, this is a seminal moment in our country, we should do something. You speak to where its going. And we heard it from the women on that day, were going to make power respond, were going to make it listen and react, which goes to the other big thing in 2017. This was the year that the phrase both sides became a short hand for moral equivalence. Many issues do have two sides, but thats not how american leaders typically discuss White Supremacy rallies. We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides, on many sides. But you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides. I think theres blame on both sides. You look at both sides, i think theres blame on both sides, and i have no doubt about it, and you dont have any doubt about it, either. Chuck im sorry, it is sad, but it is also hilarious, that the leader of the free world has to be taught. So let me clear it up for you, nazis are not fine people, ever. Im glad we got that out. Shelby, one of the other most disfavored terms that we can leave, was the year, the day, the moment that donald trump became president , which is referred to when he was give a normal speech. But lets flip that and say that was the day that america had to reckon with the kind of president we have, and for anyone who thought the birtherism crusade was just a gimmick, or what was said on the campaign trail was Just Campaign talk is often the left, this president said on that day, as chuck just said, there were good people at the White Supremacy rally, and nobody in the Republican Party and leadership in congress wanted to cosign that, because that is a reprehensible claim. But i think that alone is important, but the fact that he doubled down and continued to double down on that just spoke volumes of who he is as a president and a person. I think since then, weve seen a lot of interesting things happen at the ballot box in races where africanamericans are showing up in larger numbers than they usually do. More than obama. This comes after, you know, the uproar about the protests, the National Anthem protests and basketball players over in china, and a number of racial issues that continue to be surfaced by this president. We are seeing this at the ballot box. If youre a republican right now looking at the midterms, youre worried about this. And youre worried about whether people are getting the real facts, because if they are, it can turn off a lot of people, regardless of what party theyre affiliated with. Liz is always quoting drake, who said, whats that, facts . And facts have become a huge point of contention in 2017. A time when we have more information available, but also in the first hour of the Trump Presidency this year, this should not be forgotten, that sean spicer, using his first briefing to attack the media with a very misleading claim about crowds. Photographs of the inaugural proceedings were intentionally framed in a way in one particular tweet to minimize the enormous support that had gathered on the national mall. This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe. That was followed up by a term which captured a new approach to propaganda in trumps america. Dont be so overly dramatic about it. Sean spicer gave alternative facts. How many times have we seen that . Alternative facts have become a synonym here. I think one of the biggest fans of the Trump Administration is making fake news a problem of the media, when in fact the media is actually, you know, constantly, as you mentioned, using Fact Checking and we could talk about it all day, when theyre responsible for a lot of truth and disproving the falsehoods. Yeah, but whats scary, is its working. There are americans asking how do we know how big the crowds were . So that strategy has worked for this administration, and sean spicer also had comments from Jeff Sessions who said he couldnt call contacts with the russians, and what trump said on a phone call. Nobody ever apologizes or says, my bad, i got it wrong. More than most administrations have seen first year depart cher ures of all th officials. I want to fit in a break here. I have one more thing. Coming up, a look back at some of my favorite moments on the beat. For a dollar, define collusion. Oh, god. When you collude. And with our panel tonight, a special edition of fall back friday. Thats up ahead. Big news from advil. Advil liquigels minis. Our first concentrated pill that rushes powerful relief. A small size. Thats fast, cause its liquid. Youll ask. What pain . Advil liquigels minis. Let out your inner child at the lexus december to remember sales event. Lease the 2017 is turbo for 299 a month for 36 months. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. And now to our yearend edition of fallback friday. You know the music, we did this experiment last year. Unsure how it would go, even i was skeptical at first. Now we need to fall back on this friday. We have a new segment on the beat. This should be really good, unless its really bad. Yes, were back by popular demand. Maybe not really, but were going to do fallback friday again. A segment that always goes well except when it doesnt. A segment some people love, some people just like, and some people dont even understand. Were on it about what this is. Chuck, you were on our firstever fallback friday. Heres that moment. Youre here for our maiden voyage. Yes. Well do the music. I feel like im about to solve a crime right now. Should this full segment fall back or do it again . I say move ahead. Thank you for that encouragement. Here we are. And there you have it. For the whole year, who needs to fall back . Im going to go with fast food trend, because there have been some this year, starting with burger king. Mack and cheetos. Its basically a mozzarella stick covered in what they call flavor dust, which sounds like code that you would use with your dealer. Hey, man, you got that flavor dust. And mcdonalds made the spork. So make a stupid name and trip all the fun out of eating french fries. And last but not least, taco bell with the firecracker burrito. Oh, yeah, because taco bell clearly does their Food Development when they have the munchies. Which is fine, except youre high. I know where im going next time i drink. All right. My fallback, lavar ball. Hes the father of the basketball players, he got in this tiff with donald trump. He has made everyone agy this year, from lebron james to charles barkley. Its not just about trump. They had to enforce a lavar ball rule, because hes causing so many problems. He also blamed ucla coaches for his sons shoplifting in china. Then he sent his son to lithuania and said it was a good decision because it was his decision. Hes you what is your handle on twitter . shelbyholiday. Let her know what you think. Hes the joe jackson of basketball. Hes everything thats wrong with sports. And i agree. Liz, who needs to fall back this year . I mean, look, i also have a sk very controversial pick. Male rompers. Romphim is apparently the term that were supposed to be using. Men have everything. Men have power, influence. Theyre equally represented overrepresented in congress. Can we just have rompers . Like can you just you get to keep rompers. Can we keep rompers . Can we see those photos just to let that sink in . Does anyone else agree . Thats a onesie. I want to hang out with all those guys. Thats a onesie. If youre going to take a romper, dont appropriate it and call it a romp him. Just call it a romper. Embrace your femininity. My executive producer dan, whos a big part of the show, said weve got to go, weve got to go. And i thought a little more time for the rompers cant hurt. Were going to do what you want to stay in for is next. This is my favorite thing. We have our most memorable moments from this show all year, next. With expedia, you can book a flight, then add a hotel, and save. Everything you need to go. Expedia when i was too busy with the kids to get a repair estimate. Liberty did what . Yeah, with Liberty Mutual all i needed to do to get an estimate was snap a photo of the damage and voila voila i wish my Insurance Company had that. Wait hold it. Hold it boys. Theres supposed to be three of you. Wheres your brother . Wheres your brother . Hey, wheres charlie . Charlie . you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you. Liberty stands with you™ Liberty Mutual insurance. And now for our highlights from this show. We launched the beat halfway into 2017, which is quite a time to start a news show. Our producers put together some of the most newsy, iconic, and memorable moments plus a few dad jokes. The fact that a Foreign Government would interfere in our election should trouble all of us. There is no russian connection. Do you think President Donald Trump may have to ultimately testify . He absolutely may have to testify. These stupid investigations, its like dangling the shiny object saying hey, look at it. We were attacked by the russian government. The problem is that that isnt a crime. Our coverage of this deadly tack in new york city does continue right now. Washington is completing funding for one hurricane while bracing for another. He didnt attack country music. He attacked america. Displaying khodorkovsky in a steel cage. I was knifed in the face while i was sleeping. 56 days for charnltildrens h care unless our congress acts. 32 Million People will lose their health insurance. Do you think that former felons or exconvicts like yourself should have the right to vote . Media isnt covering what he accomplishes. The immediamedia jumps on him fy little thing youre on the show right now with the media. Mark, do you still think transparency would be inconvenient when it might actually protect our elections . Were shifting the blame and the shame. I say that to a lot of addicts, that it does quit until it quits working. Congratulations. Im super jealous. With russian jokes are we supposed to laugh or cry . Translator with nearly all russian jokes you laugh through the tears. A lot of important stories there. We also this year had some fun. Ari, we are totally psyched. Good evening. Thank you, chris. I appreciate that. Good evening. This is what a honey badger presidency looks like. Look at your outfit. You look like youre trying to sell me a casket. There are a lot more people who dont know your show. Fact. Oh. Thanks, ari. Sounds a lot like your show. Trust me, i wanted to do maddow. Wasnt asked. Any dude that does a combover lies to himself all the time. I thought that was hasht an interesting segment. I will see you later alligator. After a while crocodile. I didnt know we were doing this. I would have brought my mariners hat. For what . I dont know if you ever listen to reggae or peter tosh. He had a famous song legalize it. No, i have not. Its about us. Its about trust is what i remember. Youre not shouting out bill kristol . Ive seen bill kristol on tv but i dont know him like that yet. Hey, bill, we dont know you like that. Im speechless. What can i say . I aint got to talk it because i live it. Anthony scaramucci is a studio gangster. Bob mueller is like a diver with huge lung capacity. It could explode into a full tsunami. To borrow a rap lyric, he said dont hate the player, hate the game. Is mike flynn this jellyfish . You didnt just bring a leather jacket. You brought receipts. Thats what i do. Talking to this guy is like doing hamlet without hamlet. The hamlet raises the issue of all the denmark sanctions in that play. Just a sanctions joke there, brian. Yeah. Nothing. And seth, we dont just report anything on the internet. Also, it would take too long because its big. Theres so much on the internet. Internet joke. [ crickets ] quiet panel. She wasnt interested in searching for explosives. So now shes moving on to other things, rev. Well, she might have found something more interested to sniff. Katie, all i can say is this is why i watch. Kamala harris is. Almost done with this interview. Do you want to end on a slow handshake . Very slow. Real slow. Very, very slow. Like almost you want it to end. That is true. And if you want 2017 to end, thats happening. Lightning round. 2017 in one word. Eyeroll emoji. Mayhem. Rusher. 2018 as we look ahead in one word. Women. Can i say started from the bottom now were here . Wow. I dont know where but well be here. Turnout. And i dont mean like getting drunk. I mean really, turn out, damn it vote whats wrong with you vote do it vote get turned out okay, fine, you win, you win. Someones got the midterms on his mind. Liz, shelby, chuck, thank you for being part of this show all year. Thanks for being here tonight. Thanks for our team that puts together the beat every night. And thanks to you at home for giving us a chance. Were glad you watch sometimes at 6 00 p. M. Eastern. Have a very happy new year. 12 months of trump. Lets play hardball. Good evening. Im Chris Matthews in washington. This year in politics has delivered a series of explosive headlines, most of which have been generated or at least fueled by President Donald Trump. Like many politicians trump was elected on the promise hed shake up washington, yet none of his predecessors have delivered such a steady stream of controversy and chaos in their first year in office. We begin tonight with the biggest story of 2017 so far, or by far