morning mattis did send a farewell message to all department of defense employees. mattis quoted president lincoln and urged his forces to remain undistracted, quote: so keep the faith in our country and hold fast alongside our allies, aligned against our foes. it has been my high honor to serve at your side. may god hold you safe in the air, on land and at sea. patrick shanahan takes over as acting defense secretary. he could be in the position for months because president trump says he is in no hurry to nominate a replacement. leland: i m surprised he would quote lincoln at a time like this. happy new year to you and your family. thank you. coming up, we will talk to one of the top republicans on the house foreign affairs committee about what the syria troop withdraw from the region could mean for our region, our allies and also here at home. see you on the other side of the break.
she is enormously popular unifies the thread of the democratic constituency. and i think she would be very, very formidable. she has enormous name i.d. she can raise unlimited amount of money. the press would swarm behind her the mainstream media and shield be riding a tremendous wave. i don t think she is going to run. i think michael bloomberg, however, with his name i.d., his bottomless pocket and the front loaded nature of this year s race in a yowded field where you know they are going to be voting on absentee in california at the same time they are doing caucusing in iowa and new hampshire. only those candidates who can raise a great deal of money and have name i.d. are going to be competitive. he would obviously be very formidable. leland: zac, what do you think of dan s pick? i m not siding with those picks. obviously michelle is not going to run. i think michael bloomberg is a long shot. let me tell you this, in 2008 i don t think obama picked obama to win the primary an
leland: mr. spunt welcome to the network and welcome your little one to the family as well. niles to see you sir, happy new year. you as well, thank you. leland: with that we bring in our panel who ted cruz s transition that didn t happen. house majority leader kevin mccarthy president trump s campaign jack friend, democratic strategist and former spokesperson for america. play more from elizabeth warren s warren s roll out film and get your thoughts on it? these aren t cracks that families are falling into. thee are traps. america s middle class is under attack. how do we get here? billionaires and big corporations decided they wanted more of the pie. and they enlisted politicians to cut them a fatter slice. leland: boy, that does not have the hope and change, uplifting message that brought barack obama to the white house and then re-election. yeah. that s true. i think that one of the challenges that all of these candidates are going to face
part, quote: because of a major computer breakdown that affected our printing and deliveries, many of you did not receive your copy of saturday s l.a. times. we are also aware that some of you have been unable to report your missed delivery. tribune publishing says unfortunately none of its customers credit card information was stolen in this attack, leland? leland: bring up more questions than it answers. forbes reporting that the hack may be linked to foreign actors. what do we have on that? the linked to groups in china and north korea. forbes is also reporting that this could be the same ransom ware that was used in that 2014 cyber attack on sony studios which resulted in loss of sensitive information being made public. fox news asked tribune to comment about the foreign connections, right now tribune says it cannot comment on forbe s
government. putin also claims russia would not arrest innocent people simply to exchange them for russians held in other countries. leland. interesting points. president putin made in that news conference there. all right, timing on that. what do you make of president putin reaching out to president trump. coincidence on the timing here? nice holiday letter from the president of russia according to the kremlin with a holiday greeting. the russian s office quote vladimir putin s stress important factor behind ensuring strategic stability and international security and reaffirmed that russia is open to dialogue with the united states on the most edges extensionive agenda. president trump cancelled a more formal meeting with the russian president g-20 summit at biewn knows aries. they cited days before russia had seized artillery in strait. at odds over the backing of the assad.