Transcripts For WRC Meet The Press 20171225

Both parties, uneasy relationship with President Trump. Plus war on media. President trump calls the media the enemy of the American People. This morning, a panel of top media critics on the president and the press. My biggest fear is that thered be a Chilling Effect and that news rooms will be cowed. And the new politics of shopping. Where do you shop online more than ever, this Holiday Season where you shop reveals how you vote. Welcome to Christmas Eve sunday, its meet the press. From nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history, this is meet the press with chuck todd. Well, good sunday morning and a Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone this Christmas Eve. This morning were going to take a look back at one of the most extraordinary political years in our lifetimes. Year one of the Trump Presidency. And were going to do that with for the people whom youve come at meet the press hugh hewitt, host of hugh hewitt on msnbc. Amy walter, National Editor of the political report. Kara lee, and gene robinson, columnist for the Washington Post. Welcome to all of you. Before i make you guys take over the conversation, were going to start with what elected republicans and Trump Administration officials whove joined us on sunday mornings in 2017, what theyve said, the story they tell, the policies they sold. The year ended with a victory for President Trump, his biggest and perhaps only real legislative achievement for 2017. Its a 1. 5 trillion tax cut, passed with only republican votes. But the year was dominated by a lot of things, including the russia investigation and the effort, the failed effort to repeal and replace obamacare and the growing divide inside the republican party. Culturally driven by the president. And it all started with a debate over inauguration crowd size, gh you did not answer the question of why the president asked the White House Press secretary to come out in front of the podium, for the first time, and utter a falsehood. Why did he do that . It undermines the credibility of the entire White House Press office no it doesnt, dont be so overly dramatic about it, chuck. What youre saying its a falsehood, and theyre giving, sean spicer, our press secretary gave alternative facts to that, but the point wait a minute. Alternative facts . Alternative facts four of the five facts he uttered. The one thing he got right, zeke miller said they were not true. Alternative facts are not facts. Theyre falsehoods. Can you say definitively that there was no promises, no winks, no anything that somehow there was an acknowledgment that these sanctions will be will go away as quickly as possible once the inauguration takes place . So, chuck, almost every single day general flynn talks to counterparts and ambassadors from all over the world. Almost every single day. Thats his job, but i have talked to general flynn, none of that came up, the subject matter of sanctions or the actions taken by the Obama Administration did not come up in the conversation. When did you know you had been misled . Some time after january 27th. It was our Legal Counsel got a heads up from sally yates that something wasnt adding up with his story. And eventually, we determined that he did, in fact, talk about the sanctions even though we didnt believe that it was illegal, the fact was it turned more or less into a conversation about whether or not he was being honest with us and the Vice President and the president asked for his resignation and we got it. The president of the United States has every right to criticize the other two branches of government. We have a long tradition of it in this country. It is a constructive way to do it . I think people find it very refreshing, they understand how he feels about things. He expresses himself in a unique way. Can americans be confident that a Republicancontrolled Congress can investigate this president thoroughly if necessary . I hope so, and i have to believe so. And then before i let you go more hope than belief. More hope than belief. Before i let you go, im curious of your reaction to a tweet that the president sent friday night. The fake news media, nbc, abc, cbs, cnn, is not my enemy, its the enemy of the American People. Do you believe the press is the enemy . Do you believe any group of americans are the enemy of any group of amens i was talking about the period as you know the new world order. A fundamental part of that new world order was a free press. I hate the press. I hate you, especially, but the fact is, we need you. We need a free press. We must have it, its vital. If you want to preserve im very serious now. If you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free and many times adversarial press. And without it, im afraid that we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time. Thats how dictators get started. The president is blaming the freedom caucus, club for growth, and heritage for quote, protecting planned parenthood and obamacare, is that a fair read of what happened this week, sir . That is not at all how i see it. This bill didnt pass because it didnt deal with the most fundmental flaw in obamacare. The part of obamacare thats made it unacceptable and unaffordable. The president is blaming the freedom caucus, what say you . Well, i tend to agree with the president on that point. Lets be honest about this. A lot of concussions that the white house is making at the end of this process where to try to appease the hard right on essential Health Benefits and other issues all to placate people who are not going to vote for the bill anyway. Heres what i think assads telling trump by flying from this base, f you. And i think hes making a serious mistake because if youre an adversary of the United States, and you dont worry about what trump may do on any given day, then youre crazy. I have to say, you used the initials, but i think thats a first for meet the press senator graham. Well. The president tweeted earlier this week, im being investigated for firing the fbi director by the man who told me to fire the fbi director, witchhunt. Let me start with thisen he was officially under investigation by the special counsel . The president is not under investigation by the special counsel. The tweet from the president was in response to the five Anonymous Sources that were purportedly leaking information to the Washington Post about a potential investigation of the president. But the president as james comey said in his testimony and as we know as of today, the president has not been and is not under investigation. If the president is innocent, why is he afraid of this investigation . Hes not afraid of the investigation. There is no investigation. Do you know for sure everyone who was at that meeting with donald trump jr. . No, i dont represent donald trump jr. And i do not know everyone for sure that was at that meeting and the president was not at the meeting. The president wasnt aware of the meeting and did not attend it. Can you tell me about the reports that the president was involved in the initial response that donald trump jr. Gave the New York Times . Well, and the president was not, did not draft the response. The response was came from donald trump jr. , and im sure in consultation with his lawyer. I wish that we as a party would have stood up, for example, when the birtherism thing was going on. A lot of people did stand up, but not enough. Did you do enough . Do you think im just curious on that, i think i did. But, but on other things as well. I mean, when our party, you know, during rallies when the chants, lock her up, you know, we should bnt be the party for jailing your political opponents. And anybody at that rally anybody at those rallies ought to stand up and say thats inappropriate. We shouldnt be doing that. Can you and steve bannon still Work Together in this white house or not . I get to work with a broad range of talented people. It is a privilege every day to enable the National Security team. You dn same white house . I am ready to work with anybody who will help advance president s agenda and advance the security prosperity of the American People. Do you believe steve bannon does that . I believe that everyone who works in the white house, who has the privilege, the great privilege every day of serving their nation should be motivated by that goal. Roy moore is somebody who graduated from west point, he served in vietnam, hes been elected multiple times statewide in alabama. The people in alabama know roy moore better than we do here in d. C. , i think we have to be very cautious. If more evidence comes out that can prove that he did this, then sure, by all means he should be disqualified, but thats a huge if. I think we have to allow more facts come out. What are the more facts . Roy moore plans to support his innocence. And if that evidence doesnt work, what does that mean . You guys are going to step in . Is this senate seat that important than the nation of child pedestrian feel ya, chuck, thats the reality. But, having said that, he has not been proven guilty. We have to afford him the chance to defend himself. Well, there you go. Im going to ask you guys, hugh, ill let you start, the first word that comes to mind when i think about the first year of trump is disruption. At the end of the day love him or hate him, he was a Disruptive Force to washington, whether its the republican party, the democratic party, the press, you name it. Vertically, horizontally, everything. Everything. Every institution. I want to assure my conservative friends, they have to stick around for Christmas Eve because you put kryptonite under everyones christmas tree. I was there when nancy pelosi used the word icon. When i was here and Kellyanne Conway used the word alternative fact, it set the tone for the year. A year of constant struggle that has obscured incredible legislative and regulatory achievements, but maybe that was by design, but it has not stopped, not fm i want to put up something earlier this week, a reporter of bloomberg noted that with the passage of the big tax cut bill, check this out, because it includes the obamacare individual mandate repeal, suddenly the gop accomplishment list looks pretty hefty gene robinson. Youve got the repeal of the mandate, cutting taxes by 1. 5 trillion. Oh, oil drilling and anwar, remember that one . Neil gorsuch, not just him, a whole bunch of Appellate Court judges, most in a presidency ever. And regulations gone. If youre an activist conservative or a major republican donor, thats a nice list. Right. And i actually think the biggest change is on the regulatory front. On whats been happening in the agencies. Not just in terms of actually repealing regulations, but in not enforcing others. And you know, it forced an epa foam gutted then certainly attenuated. Its not what it used to be. And so if thats your bag, if deregulation is what you wanted, you have gotten it from the first year of trump. A lot of things you havent gotten, you did get the repeal of mandate, you now have the tax cut that well see how that works out next year. And also, you got the sort of fuzzing of the very concept of truth and fact. Which, i think, is good for nobody. And i think i think people who supported this during the year will rue that decision. Peggy noonen takes these two points and tries to at least explain why were in this moment carol and amy. He, referring to President Trump, could have broadened his position in stability and moderation. And with policies that were soft populistings. He has failed to do so. Primarily due to selfindulgences. Tendency to heat things up. His tendency always to make the situation a little worse, not a little better. Screwball resentment and selfpity alienate and offend. That is sort of puts this like why does that list of accomplishments. Not come with a better job Approval Rating for this president . Why does a goodeconomy not come with a better job Approval Rating and he did have a chance at the very beginning of this administration to put together a brand new coalition. Not just of the people that voted for him, but of course the people that didnt vote for him. Remember there were a bunch of democrats on Inauguration Day who were worried that this populist president was going to pick off a lot of these midwestern red state democrat for a more populist message, right . And what weve seen as we look over in your own poll, in the wall street nbc poll, to me whats fascinating is his job Approval Rating with the people that voted for him has stayed pretty consistent and pretty well. The job Approval Rating of people who voted for him because they didnt like hilla c stayed there. Those were the people that he needed to move, not just the people that voted for Hillary Clinton, but the people that voted for him despite the reservations about him. He has never gotten their approval because of the behavior, not because of the policy. Yeah, this is a president who cannot get out of his own way. You know, he is obscuring his own accomplishments, theres no fight too small. He picks on everything, things that have nothing to do with what his message is supposed to be and if theres one big take away we can all learn from 2018 is there is never going to be a pivot. This is who the president is. This is how hes going to lead. Hes in there for at least another three years. And this is what were going to see. That point. One word, charlottesville. The reaction to charlottesville for a lot of people was it. And for a lot of trump opponents, he will never get those people. Can i have one counterpoint, the word, syria. Isis has been defeated in syria and libya. The Defense Budget has gone up significantly, general mcmaster who he had on defeated the wing and turned the National Security conservatives into fairly reliable Trump Supporters after a good year of american aggressiveness abroad. Let me ask you this, actually, who won the Trump Presidency, Congressional Republicans or donald trump, carol . Well, right now its a bit of a mix, i think. You know, the president has gotten some things he wants. 2018 is going to tell where these two factions go, how this plays out between the two of them. Now that they have the tax legislation, the next thing thats up is maybe infrastructure, thats a far more divisive issue for the party. The president has a very kind of tenuous white house relationship with establishment republicans, he loves them and hates them, he needs them, but he doesnt want them, and thats going to really just intensify in the next year. If you look at the result from the elect lot of Congressional Republicans are worried that theyre losing the Trump Presidency. Do you know what i mean . I feel like Congressional Republicans, they cut a deal. Were going to accept this guy because hes going to pass stuff weve been trying to do. And they got it. Yes. And they got it. Now what do they do . And the people who are benefitting the most from the Trump Presidency or from even the economy, the tax plan, are your sort of traditional suburban republicans. Those people who said, okay, i dont know if hes my kind of guy, but, what they worried about was, by this time, this year, the economy would be falling apart. He would be a true populist. Wed be in trade war with china. Wed be in a trade war or wed be out of nafta, the stock market would crash. None of that has happened. It is exactly the kind of agenda theyd like, and yet, they are giving him the lowest marks of any of their and they voted against republicans in virginia and alabama. Im going pause it here. Its value versus pocketbook. And right now, middle of the road voters are picking values. Anyway, when we come back, were going to look at the democrats who appeared on meet the press and discuss if they could become more than the party of not trump. The Trump Administration doing horrible danger to our country, values, our people, and our reputation. David. Whats going on . Oh hey thats it . Yeah. Everybody two seconds dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance. Through the Tuition Assistance program, every day mcdonalds helps more people go to college. Its part of our commitment to being americas best first job. Pain from a headache whcan make this. Ld,. Feel like this. Allinone cold symptom relief from tylenol®, tylenol®. When sundown pales the sky i want to hide a while behind your smile ah, but i may as well try and catch the wind our mission is to make offshore wind one of the principle new sources of energy. Not every bank is willing to get involved in a first of its kind project. Citi saw the promise of clean energy. Were polluting the air less. Businesses and homes can rely on a steady source of power. This will be the first of many offshore wind farms in the u. S. For standing in your heart is where i want to be and long to be ah, but i may as well try and catch the wind why do people put why does your tummy go grumbily, grumbily, grumbily . No more questions for you ouph, that milk in your cereal was messing with you, wasnt it . Try lactaid, its real milk without that annoying lactose. Good, right . Mmm, yeah. Lactaid. The milk that doesnt mess with you. Welcome back, democrats spent much of 2017 like a champion boxer who had just recovered consciousness to learn that hed been knocked out of a fight he was certain to win and he no longer had the championship belt. The republican victory stunned democrats. They managed to regain their footing late in the year with big election victories starting in november in new jersey. In virginia, then of course the big upset in alabama. Party takes back congress. But they face their own issues including a growing divide between the clinton and sanders wings of the party. Whether they should pursue impeachment and if they stand for something more than being the party of not trump. Because it was President Trump who dominated the discussion when democrats appeared on meet the press in 2017, we have a lot of trump. You have forged relationships with many president s. Do you plan on trying to forge a relationship with donald trump . I believe in forgiveness. I believe in trying to work with people. Its going to be hard. Its going to be very difficult. I dont see it as president elect as a legitimate president. You do not consider him a legitimate president . Why is that . I think the russians participated in helping this man get elected. And they have destroyed the i dont plan to attend inauguration. It would be the first one that i miss. Since ive been in the congress. You cannot be at home with something that you feel that is wrong. The essence of the bill was what the president committed, and thats what we trust him to honor. He committed to a pathway to citizenship for these daca recipients. He committed to mind you the pathway is an earned pathway that is way down the road. Right, but some people think there should be no path at all, you believe the president agreed to a pathway to citizenship with this dream act. That is what is contained. You think he will keep his word on this . Thats what he said. What makes you trust him . Well, well see. Move to health care, it seems as if the democrats are a lot more enthusiastic about the bipartisan deal between senators alexander and murray than the republicans are. Are democrats done negotiating . We have a very good deal, mcconnell should put it on the floor, itll pass overwhelmingly, if ryan puts it on the floor, itll pass, the house overwhelmingly you didnt answer if youre done. Are you still willing to talk . We are. We have an agreement, we to want stick by it. I understand that, are you willing to talk or no . We are sticking to the agreement we have. Put it on the floor. See if it fails. All right dont just i mean, youre asking me to negotiate against myself. Ive been around long enough, i dont do that. If President Trump in the fall of 18 can say you didnt support his tax bill, and your opponent is somebody that will work with him, how problematic is that for your reelection . Well, i think missourians are going to take a look and see who is actually getting stuff done. So there are specific policy things we agree on, and i am anxious to work with him on those things. You dont believe there should be a litmus test on abortion . Is there an issue there should be one on for democrats . The litmus test should be intelligence, caring about as harry truman or roosevelt used to call it the common man. Were not going to get everybody on board. And im sorry, but running in San Francisco is not like running in the county or modock, california, much less mobile, alabama. If we want to be governing party of a very diverse, and i sadie verse ideologically as country, then you have to have a broader, a party that rises above the more particular issues to the generic. The general issue of making america great. If i might take that word. When i hear the word rigged, lets be clear, Hillary Clinton won the democratic primary by four million votes. The Democratic National committee does not run elections for primaries. The republican National Committee does not run elections. States run elections and those elections were run bay the states. We run caucuses and Bernie Sanders did very well in the caucuses. Where i think both senators, warren and keith ellisson and myself, where we agree is we have to earn the trust of the voters. And during the process of the democratic primary, we fell short in that. Undeniably. And i accepted that responsibility. So define zero tolerance. You say theres now a zero tolerance. Yes. John conyers, what does that mean for him right now, in or out . We are strengthened by due process. Just because someone is accused, and one accusation, is it two . I think there has to be John Conniers is an icon in the country. Hes done a great deal to protect violence against women, which the right wing is praising him for his work on that and he did great work on that. The fact is as john reviews his case, which he knows, which i dont, i believe he do why dont you . May i finish my sentence . Sure. Sure. He will do the right thing. And is the right thing what . Im sorry. He did do the right thing in terms what have he knows about u his situation that hes entitled to due process but but women are entitled to due process as well. Im ron k ranking on judiciary. And the Judiciary Committee has an investigation going as well. And it involves obstruction of justice. And i think what were beginning to see is the putting together of a case of obstruction of justice. I think we see this in the indictments. The four indictments and pleas. That have just taken place in some of the comments that are being made, i see it in the hyperphonetic attitude of the white house, the comments every day, the continual tweets. And i see it most importantly in what happened with the firing of director comey and it is my belief that that is directly because he did not agree to lift the cloud of the russia investigation. Thats obstruction of justice. Let me go to this impeachment question here, is tom story right that its time to look at that option . There was already a house vote this week. Many democrats werent ready to get on that band wagon yet, where are you on this issue . I think there is a process that has to be followed. I think mr. Mueller is doing a very good job on his investigation. And if mueller brings forth the clear evidence that there was collusion between the Trump Campaign and the russians, i think you have grounds for impeachment. I think jumping the gun does nobody any good. You have to bring the American People on to this issue. You dont to want make it into a partisan issue. If were going to go forward with impeachment, i want the American People clearly to understand why that is the case, why is makes sense, why its the right thing to do. I dont think were there right now. Thats what the Mueller Investigation is all about. All right. Back now with the panel. Democrats in a word, gene, i think its fair to say they were woozy when this year began and now, we call them ebb ewe lant, huh . They are feeling better at the end of the year than they felt at the beginning of the year. They see a very unpopular president. They see from the evidence of recent elections theyre not that unpopularity, can spill over into local races, state races, and they, for the first time see a chance to pick off one or both chambers of congress. Now its a long shot, longer shot for the senate than for the house, perhaps, but, you could argue there are signs that potentially theres a waiver watching, who knows, it could happen. It could happen. And so they feel better. What they dont have is sort of fresh new leadership. Are we sort of in is this i feel like are we really wash, rinse, repeat, here amy, carol, meaning that were just reliving eight years ago, except this time, exchanges all the democrats . You dont need a message right now because you just run against the machine. Thats the risk. For the democrats, and thats what it feels like, you know, they have theyre not necessarily united around any sort of policy, its all is there something beyond were the party thats antitrump. And if if you dont like trump, then you vote for us. Thats not clear because what these divisions all of this is obscuring what are still divisions within the democratic party. On economic is think the tax bill will be something theyll cling on to and say, and try to make it more about policies in 2018 because they have that to run against which is a little separate from President Trump, but they still have serious issues. Not, the least of which is the fact that they have not gotten any fresh leadership. When 2009 began, there were people in the Obama White House that thought oh, theres going to be eight or nine republicans to work with. 2017 began, there were people at the white house that said there are eight or nine democrats they thought they could work with. The most remarkable thing about mcconnell in 09 was keeping that republican conference together. The most remarkable thing is schumer keeping the senate democrats. And that trump hasnt been able to again a lot goes to why we are where we are now. Is both parties, both white houses, whether its 2009 or 2017 said we have a mandate. And our mandate is to do something thats way off of where the middle of the country is. So they go way too far, the country punishes them, then the other side comes in. They go way too far and the country punishes them. There was an opportunity for the president , i think, to recreate these coalitions in a way that we havent seen before because hes not part of one of the factions of the republican party. The other thing is about timing. You know, rahm emanuel was famous about this, never let an opportunity pass you up or a crisis pass you up. And in this case, democrats knew their one issue was health care. He was their one chance to pass it, we may never have the majority agin, lets do it. For republicans, the economy says dont do a tax cut, but this is our one chance, were never going to be able to get this again and lets do it. And i dont know of any policy or any party that does well when they just shove through policy on a purely partisan basis. There is always a backlash. And this is the issue that i think, i think our viewers are probably throwing this at the tv, essentially republicans believe theyre borrowing a democratic tactic, democrats believe theyrrr the tactic is the same, stay unified in opposition or stay unify in going forward. You can get some stuff done, but politically it never holds. It never sticks. Democrats are going to use the same playbook on the republicans. If you used a Google Search for most used in 2017 that wasnt used in 2016, i think it would be tribal. I believe its jumped up. Something carol and jean both said, fresh, new leadership, if they had a concussion protocol, most would still be in the protocol. The first was tim ryan. He scares me a lot as a conservative republican. Harris, shes a different kind of democrat. There are democrats out there who can take that message of getting out of the tribes, and bridging some gaps that could actually move the country. And thats the question here, right . The leaders of the democratic party. Right. Who are they and do they need any right now . Well, you know, right now meaning today right now meaning a team. 2020s a different question, right . Exactly, 2020 is a different question, but you know, a party doesnt have that leadership, doesnt have that candidate until does, right . It didnt in 2007, it didnt until barack obama, then all the sudden everything changed. And so, and, you know, who would have known a few years earlier that that would happen . So we dont know whats going to happen in 2020 and we dont know whos going to emerge. It could be harris, it could be tim ryan. Mcconnell, schumer, pelosi, ryan, of the four, how many of them are in their positions come january of 19 in some form, whether just heads of their conferences, how many of those four come back, quick . Mcconnell, schumer, pelosi. Interesting, three of the four. What do you say, gene . Boy. Forcing predictions. Be fast, five seconds. Two of the four. I agree with Carol Mcconnell is the most successful majority leader of my life. What are you sayi dont know that they stay through january. I say one. I say only one comes back. Which one . Mr. Schumer. Just throwing it out there. Well see. Well see. Mcconnell and ryan can spite the football. All right guys, thank you very much. Happy holidays to all of you, Merry Christmas, everything youre celebrating. Later in the broadcast, were going to talk to a panel of Media Journalists about the uncomfortable and sometimes hostile relationship between the president and the press. But when we come back, more evidence now that where you shop reveals how you vote. Theyre always looking for advantages. The smart ones look to fidelity to find them. We give you research and datavisualization tools to help identify potential opportunities. So, you can do it this way. Or get everything you need to help capture investment ideas and make smarter trading decisions with fidelity for just 4. 95 per online u. S. Equity trade. Fidelity. Open an account today. Open an account today. Youre more than just a bathroom disease. Youre a life of unpredictable symptoms. Crohns, youve tried to own us. But now its our turn to take control with stelara® stelara® works differently for adults with moderately to severely active crohns disease. Studies showed relief and remission, with dosing every 8 weeks. Stelara® may lower the ability of your immune system to fight infections and may increase your risk of infections and cancer. Some serious infections require hospitalization. Before treatment, get tested for tuberculosis. Before or during treatment, always tell your doctor if you think you have an infection e flulike symptoms or sores, have had cancer, or develop any new skin growths, or if anyone in your house needs or recently had a vaccine. Alert your doctor of new or worsening problems, including headaches, seizures, confusion, and vision problems. These may be signs of a rare, potentially fatal brain condition. Some serious allergic reactions can occur. Do not take stelara® if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. Were fed up with your unpredictability. Remission can start with stelara®. Talk to your doctor today. Janssen wants to help you explore cost support options for stelara®. Welcome back. Data download time, americans are spending more time than ever surfing the web for the best deal and the best holiday gifts. But where you browse, ca at least according to our friends at hit wise. Here now with the top ten online retailers where youre most likely to find shoppers who identify as conservative republicans. Overall, check it out. Its a mix of power tool and Home Improvement sites like granger and northern tool. As well as more upscale home good stores like william sonoma, pottery barn, and crate and barrel. Only two Apparel Companies make this list, by the way, l. L. Bean and lands end. Ill explain why i pointed that out. Compare that to the top retail sites youre most likely to find among those who call themselves liberal democrats. Nearly all are clothing stores. That mainly dater to a younger female clientele. Forever 21, urban outfitters, express, h m, bloomingdales. No Home Improvement sites on this list. And the one store that appears for both liberals and conservatives, crate and barrel. Love a good glass of wine apparently and it look likes spectrum need coffee tables and wine glasses as well. There were actually one other online store that liberals and conservatives were more likely to visit than moderates, and that is the official trump store. Were not making this up. Here, both men and women can buy official trump golf polos. Theres a trump onesie for babies and even a coin bank in the shape of a gold bar. Emblazened with the name trump. So why are conservatives and liberals visiting the trump store . Conservatives are fans of President Trump. Not surprising, theyd want to buy some of the merchandise with his name on it. Liberals on the other hand, theyre visiting out of curiosity and possibly looking for some gag gifts. But, as weve previously discussed in data download, we recommend doing this, check your politics at the door this Holiday Season. Lets go a few days without it, huh . Lets enjoy time with loved ones, without debating the president for at least an hour. At least until you gather around the television, with your family watch meet the press. When we come back, some of people in politics, media, and culture that we all lost and more in 2017. We no longer live in an age in which peace and war can sharpen to differentiate it. We live in a neither neither land. 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. And while it isnt for weight loss, victoza® may help you lose some weight. avo victoza® is not for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. Do not take victoza® if you have a personal or Family History of medullary thyroid cancer, multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if you are allergic to victoza® or any of its ingredients. 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Ask your broker if they offer awardwinning full service and low costs. How am i going to explain this . If you dont like their answer, ask again at schwab. Schwab, a modern approach to wealth management. Welcome back. The Holiday Season a time for joy and family and looking ahead with hope to a new year. Its also a time to reflect and look back. We to want take a moment now remember some of those in the world of politics, media, and culture, whom we lost this year. Faces and friends, who should be very familiar to our meet the press viewers. We no longer live in an age in which peace and war can be differentiated. There is a third way, and i represent that third approach for the american voter. The American People didnt want to be told what to think about the information that were receiving, so we came up with we report, you decide, fair and balanced. Given the historic transient and the mood and the president s rating should be a democrat right about now. My feelings of being here witnessing this that as long as theres a man alive on the face of the earth, this day will always be remembered. I would like to know why the last associate producer before me made 50 a week more than i do. I feel like theres glorious event of history okay that put me here in this position. Sflend mr. Speaker, thank you for giving me the opportunity to wheel this gavel this one time and actually sit in the chair. This is not a cloud. This is a tomato tracked from farm to table on a blockchain, helping keep shoppers safe. This is a financial Transaction Secure from hacks and threats others cant see. This is a skyscraper whose elevators use iot data and ai to help thousands get to work safely and efficiently. This is not the cloud you know. This is the ibm cloud. The ibm cloud is the cloud for business. Yours. But on the inside, i feel chronic, widespread pain. Like most people. Fibromyalgia may be invisible to others, but my pain is real. 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Sfx balloon squeals im being so serious right now. I really want to know how your coffee is. Its. Sfx balloon squeals hahahaha, i had a 2nd balloon goodbye oof, that milk in your coffee was messing with you, wasnt it . Yeah. Happens to more people than you think. Try lactaid, its real milk, without that annoying lactose. Mmm. Good right . Yeah. Lactaid. Its the milk that doesnt mess with you. Z2i1zz z16fz y2i1zy y16fy welcome back. President trump is often accused of chronic inconsistency of saying one thing, doing another, and then saying it again. But one area where hes never waivered is in his state the contempt, or supposed contempt for people in this business. The media. These are really, really dishonest people. Its totally fake news. Its just fake. Its fake. Its made up stuff. And theyre bad people. The fake news wont cover it. And i really think they dont like our country. You see theres the fake news back there. Look, everyone. [ laughter ] a few days ago brought back four media critics we talked to last year at this time about the president and the press. David of npr, hal of the orlando sentinel, claire atkinson, and gabe sherman of vanity fair who is also a contributor. And we began by discussing we the increase glit hostile relationship between journalists and a mediabashing president who considers other media bashers, some of whom are in the media themselves as part of his base. All right, lets start with a simple question, we were here last year. There was a lot of optimism here that the medias reputation would improve. Okay. Im going to start with the most outsider of everybody at this group, hal, has the medias reputation improved as far as the people in orlando are concerned . Well, i think most people in orlando would probably say no, but youre just repeating certain things. If you say the Washington Post or the New York Times, i dont think most people in orlando read those newspapers, so youre kind of just taking what somebody else thinks. As somebody observes these things, i think the re of the press has gone way up. Three major newspapers now can say theyve got a million plus paid subscribers, that is historic, and the fact that people are deciding, you know, well pay ten bucks a month on netflix, but actually ten bucks a month for Washington Post or the New York Times is a positive thing. I do think that a lot of news organizations taking time, taking care if you look at this recent race in alabama, the senate race there, not only did the Washington Post do strong reporting, alabama newspapers chipped in strong reporting and even took very strong editorial stances that in some ways were vindicated by results you saw. That is people believe there were enough troubling information for them to absorb. Even if the hard core of roy moore didnt accept that, i think a lot of voters did. Hal, youre where i thought you hit it correctly was on the blind spots, right . Our biggest blind spot in 2016 was misunderstanding clinton have we fixed these blind spots . I grew up in red america. I grew up in missouri. I talked to my dad and my brother yesterday, and they both voted for trump. And they both hated tweeting. They hate his tweeting. They like that hes shaking things up, but they hate his tweeting. So i think that explains his high unpopularity. The biggest question we had was how was the media going to treat his tweeting . All right. A year later, lets discuss this. This is sort of where i want to dive into this. I think were still trying to figure this out. Yeah, i mean, i fall in the camp that i think the media should treat them as official president ial statements which, which in many ways they are. And i think they are in certain ways a realtime window into the psyche, we never had such a realtime read on the president s mood. I think oftentimes very offensive, but as journalistic material incredibly valuable, and i think, you know, this whole idea that the media is overcovering the tweets, i think underestimates their value. I think also, if you make a tapestry of a bigger understand of what the administration is doing in response, lurching around, trying to disearn where the president is at any one moment, the tweets offer you a little timeline. It is a time stamped mood ring of where the president is at and you can usually disam big wait the ones he clearly wrote. They offer up a new story of the day. When you think about trumps feuds, whether its the mayor of san juan in puerto rico, whether its the nfl or the media, its a prepackaged story that drives the news agenda of the day, and its fueled huge interest in the News Business in general, increased in subscriptions, you know cable news ratings are way higher than they were last year. Because of trump. It is just a good thing. Its a bad thing. Okay. For him, its a bad thing. What about for us . I think the value the media can have is providing context of the tweets. There is times that white house aids will tell me, trump is tweeted thin distractions or storylines to misdirect the media. And i think the media should not chase the tweets without saying hey look, look at the hearings on the hill. Its curious that trump is doing this or look at Robert Muellers doing it. I wonder why hes tweeting about x. Its clear he uses twitter strategically and tactically and the media should not just blindly follow that. But if he says i dont get enough credit for what ive done, he is the one who has distracted people from what he has done. Thats right. But it just seems to me if we focus this certainly particularly online posts and sometimes cable news will take a tweet and build a segment around it, build a half hour around it, build a post around it. And that to me, there is a laziness and there is sort of a dopamine drip, adrenaline rush for people who love it. Sort of a back lash for people who hate it. Thats emotional rather than journalistic impulse. It does get traffic. It does get audience. There is Something Else that took place this year. President , publicly stand up to him and on one hand, it makes them feel good in the moment, but is that good for us or been bad for us . Does that play into the medias the opposition of the American People as the president tweeted . This is sort of sort of try to bring this in for a landing. This is the part of the year that i dont know if this is a good or bad development. I think the most obvious example of that is the cnn, trump battle and jim acosta who are on the front lines and aggressively saying im going to ask a question if i want to, whether you want me to or not. And the backdrop of that is the question of political interference in doj, decisions about whether theyre going to allow tooe at t to buy time warner which is the owner of cnn. I think there are some very intriguing questions about, you know, how journalists interact with the president , and then president s reaction to that. Look at the Washington Post. There is a place that i think has done some of the most aggressive investigative reporting in the past year during the Trump Presidency. And it has in some way the most new motto under ownership. Democracy dies in darkness. Listen to marty talk about it, were not going to war, were going to work. This is not some sort of struggleforhim. This is first principles, living up to your mission. Its a great approach. Theres not one way to do journalism. What he does, and what she does, and thats i think a general rule as a reporter, if youve become the story, clearly something is out of whack. Readers turn to journalists not for who we are, its what we do. And i think journalists should always remember that. If we look that the balance though, if were talking about whats out of whack by and large, the president has made the media the issue, and the media its almost internally in response to it. So those who might lean in too much to the combat, jeffs administration at times at cnn has issued public statements that seem, surprised snarky, tough. Theyre figuring out how to navigate this world too. Commercially and jo consideration. On the other side, you have the fox newss, the sinclairs, the whole bunch of of other folks who are kind there have hoping to win the president s hand and be the voice of the president. And so you are seeing this kind of division of the very tough on one side and supportive on the other. Quickly, getting out of here, biggest fear you have of the relationship between the media and president in 2018, howard, you go first. I fear that we go to war. And that, you know, something spirals out of control. I very much feel like were living in a thriller. Its sort of like manturian candidate. I really worry about these kinds of things. Thats why i think the russia investigation is so important. Thats heavy stuff. What about the media and the relationship with the president. I guess i would say as we saw the early stages of the Trump Presidency when the chips were down for him, when he was in a tough spot, he would go after the press, things could get worse with the investigation. And then theres the question of is there actual interference with the at t ability to acquire time warner for the wrong reasons . Not for antitrust review. Would he decide to intervene in certain ways that would undermine the American Press abroad. Thats a yes when hes under the most duress thats when the relationship i think gets most fraud. My biggest fear is trump calling out a Washington Post reporter by name. Calling for this reporter to be fired. My biggest fear is that there would be a Chilling Effect and that newsrooms will be cowed if they make a mistake, mistakes are a part of journalism that they will pull back too much. All right. Final word. I think the fear that i have and most share is this idea that there are people out to get you, to fail you, to tape you in a ball when youre having a personal conversation with a friend and release that as evidence of bias. And i think on top of that, this fear that were being set up for mistakes as the Washington Post was when the sex harassment story. Im going climb in my hole and make sure nobody can find me and nobody can touch me. Anyway guys, what a year. Thats all for today. Merry christmas to all and remember, if its sunday, it z2m7fz z16fz y2m7fy y16fy Winter Wonder land with a massive Winter Weather advisory in effect. Will americans wake up to a White Christmas this morning . Well have the live forecast. President ial backlash, the president may be celebrating the holiday inn florida, but d. C. Politics and his choice words on the tax bill may end up makin things more complicated by the minute. Plus, tragedy in the sky. A deadly Christmas Eve plane crash. No survivors and questions about why the pilot tried to take off at all. Helicopters swoop in to save more than 150 skiers hanging in midair for hours. And anxiously awaiting that lastminute Shopping Gift to get to your door . Why you may not be alone and what shipping companies are doing to