dreadlocks. good morning. i m joe johns. welcome to early start. nice to see you. it is thursday, december 27th. i m christine romans. it is 4:00 a.m. in the east. let s begin with the president back on the way home to washington after he and the first lady swept into iraq. paying a visit to u.s. service members. we came to al asad to share our gratitude to you to keep america strong and safe and free. the president making good on the promise to visit troops fighting one of the wars. the secret flight from washington to the air force base caused some anxiety. i had concerns for the institution of the presidency, not for myself, personally. i have concerns for the first
way to inject politics into a boy scout jamboree? well, i think i remember him doing the same thing when the air force football team came to the white house. he s done it at graduations. he s it s so inappropriate and he doesn t even get it how bad it makes him look. all that taken into account i guess his partisan comments yesterday to american troops serving in iraq shouldn t have surprised anyone. welcome back to morning joe . it s thursday, december 27th. still with us we have politics editor for the daily beast, sam stein. the president council on foreign relations, richard haass. and joining the conversation white house correspondent for the pbs news hour. also associate editor of the washington post and author of
i m dara brown with the hour s top stories. the senate adjourned until thursday, december 27th. lawmakers continue to struggle with coming to an agreement for the amount of funding for president trump s border wall. congress initially agreed to invest $1.6 billion while trump insists they found $5 billion for the wall. as a result of the shutdown, the president canceled his trip to florida for the christmas holiday to stay in washington for negotiations. now back to breaking heat. . piccolini must die.
saturday. lawmakers cannot agree on funding for the border wall. congress will reconvene on thursday december 27th. and in indonesia 168 people are dead and 700 injured and 30 missing after a tsunami devastated the region. it was triggered by a volcanic eruption. now back to dateline. welcome back. just months after one woman was raped and killed in a texas college town, a second woman was under attack in a nearby community. kristen lancaster was certain a man meant to kill her. but what seemed like an end, turned out to be the beginning of a fierce fight for the truth. back with the face of evil, here s andrea. 19-year-old kristen
i m dara brown. top stories. congress will reconvene on thursday, december 27th to try to end the partial government shutdown. at the root of the problem is negotiations on funding the border wall. the president said he ll only sign the spending bill if he gets $5 billion for the wall. in indonesia 222 people dead, 800 injured and 20 missing after a tsunami devastated the region. the country s disaster region said it was triggered by a volcanic eruption. now back to dateline. welcome back. i m craig melvin. kristene chapa told a harrowing tale of being raped at gunpoint by a man she had never met. she remembered her assailant was wearing under armour gloves. was this a detail that could help investigators unlock the mystery?