straight ahead, the senator is with us for an exclusive live interview. bitter blast. bone-chilling cold and snow taking aim at 25 million people from the midwest to the northeast. al is on it. that, plus holiday overload. the delays that have millions still waiting for their cybermonday packages to arrive. a 6-year-old using youtube to make millions. and royal show of force. princes william and harry attend the star wars premier and take the red carpet by storm trooper. today, wednesday, december 13th, 2017. announcer: from nbc news, this is today. live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. and good morning, everybody. welcome to today. nice to have you with us on a wednesday morning. yeah, this was a surprising result in alabama. a defeat for republicans and president trump. a political earthquake. democrat, doug jones, once considered to be a long shot in the race. the margin was razor thin, leading moore to end his night refusing to concede. will
[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] good evening, folks. we are going to ahead and get started. if you haven t gotten a copy of the book outside, please do so. first of all, welcome to the open society foundation in new york city. it s our pleasure to host you for what promises to be a terrific event for the boldly titled book, the end of white christian america . it s my honor to introduce tonight s events. i grew up in the way to sit in the united states committed beautiful state of maine and the united church of christ of this conversation hits close to home for me and professionally. i d like to thank robert jones was known for robbie for several years and sam tanenhaus for joining us that i d like to think elizabeth berg newcomer nathan mckie and the society team for putting the event together. in addition to the foundation, tonight s event is cosponsored by the carnegie corporation of new york, ford foundation and the new world foundation. i m a longt