carson telling nbc news he s streamlining some staff assignments but insist his senior aides will stick around. i m not a quitter. the next few days all quiet on the campaign trail as candidates take their own christmas breaks. jeb bush doing last-minute shopping and considering what holiday cards he might still send. what if you sent donald trump a christmas card, what would it say? this time of year? i hope he has a wonderful time off. candidates mostly off the campaign trail, erica, for the holidays. they re sending out holiday messages. you ve seen that from folks like ted cruz, hillary clinton, a lot of folks are back on the trail next week dojd trump among them. iowa, new hampshire, south carolina, in a three-day swing before the new year. in terms of those messages, too, you touch on this, but the ted cruz message that went out in response to that cartoon as a fund-raising e-mail. this could really galvanize a lot of his supporters, couldn t
york city. we ll clap like thousands although we are only five. welcome back to new day. merry christmas to you. let s head to the newsdesk for stories that are making news right now. a call for peace from the pope in his first christmas message overlooking st. peter s square. he called for humanitarian aid access in syria. pope francis delivered his first christmas eve mass at st. peter s basilica last night. he proched love and forgive in is, urging people to cast aside hatred. the president and first lady sending their holiday messages to the nation. they encourage the message to encourage americans to come together and care for each other. they paid special attention noting that many soldiers are home for the holidays. many of our troops and newest veterans, this might be the first time in years they ve been
person of the year. so obviously, what he did has a lot of profound consequences for the dialogue in this country and around the world about the extent that their governments are watching us. it certainly does elyse. when edward snowden talks, people do listen to him, but i suspect that when you re looking at these holiday messages, his is probably the only one that mentions george orwell s novel 1984 don t you think? yeah but he said george orwell and this big brother watching us, he said that s nothing compared to what s happening today. so some of it was a little hyperbole. that a child would never have a private thought. i m not necessarilily sure that s true but clearly he s trying to provoke. he started from just leaking this information and giving it to journalists to now being a provocateur, speaking out and trying to be a voice in this debate over the importance of surveillance versus privacy issues. elise labott, thanks so much.
if you re qualified for medicaid a million more people are now able to get medicaid. for those people they re getting something they never had before. there are some winners, but to me it s the middle class that are the biggest losers. yes, the bottom 5% or 10% on medicaid, they re getting that coverage. they re getting something they never had before. they re winners. the top 5% to 5% are winners because they re going to have more doctors that are going straight to cash pay. it s going to be the middle 80% that are paying double the current premium and that will have less access. those are the losers, the middle class. andy dean, thank you so much for your time. happy holidays. thank you so much. merry christmas. for those celebrating christmas, it must be most difficult when a family member is stationed overseas. now some holiday messages from them to their loved ones back here at home. these are soldiers from 287 bravo company, 10th mountain division. they spent christmas eve
is also delivering a prerecorded christmas day message to air in russia, similar to most holiday messages except that valuable lesson everyone learns won t be about the giving spirit. it will be about how some creepy guy could be spying on you and your phone calls to grandma. snowden also says no matter what happens as a result of his leaks, he has already won. it s a debatable perspective, to say the least, depending how you view his decision to blow the whistle on the nsa s surveillance program, but what is not debatable is whether his actions have clear consequences for both the national security agency and the obama administration. barton gelman joins me to talk about his interview with edward snowden. this was unbelievable. for the kids at home who don t know this is an actual newspaper, they still do exist. but you were the first person to talk in person to edward snowden. what s he like? he is serene. i wasn t sure what to expect.