Appears onboard a jetliner. Could it be from deicing . One person taken away on a stretcher. Hazmat crews and emergency teams on scene. And the big divide. The big goodbye. President obama surprising joe biden. Im pleased to award our nations highest civilian honor, the president ial freedom of honor. Thanking him for his service with one of the countrys top honors. The moment bringing the Vice President to tears as their bromance comes to an end. And the touching letters from the bush daughters to sasha and malia obama about life after the white house. And good morning, america. Be careful out there this friday morning. Friday the 13th. My favorite day. So far so good. So far so good. Its gingers birthday. How bad could it be . Exactly. And how good is it for joe biden . Love the expression on his face yesterday when he learned about that medal of freedom. It was a surprise. The president surprised the vp with that medal of freedom. You could tell he wasnt expecting it at all. That was quite a moment. Well have much more on that as well as the trump transition just ahead just one week, one week from today until the inauguration. Yeah, a lot to talk about. And the president elect is up early this morning talking about it all. I think his first tweet was a little before 6 00, sent out eight since then commenting on every big story during the day. Before that we go to our birthday girl. And shes going to tell us about the ice storm that is threatening 15 states already. I did not order this for my birthday. I promise you that. This is really not a great situation. This was from chicago, the south shoreline this passenger train got stuck going up a hill because of the ice. Already, this is kind of a precursor for the actual storm. This was the ice glaze in munster, indiana, that coated the roads and the powerlines. And thats what were going to see in parts of the planes. Ice storm warnings from illinois back through the panhandle of texas, wichita, topeka, right through kansas city, you could see up to an inch of ice by the time the weekend is over. So the timing goes like this. It started this morning. We get rounds of it. As we go through the weekend all the way through sunday where that low sits over new mexico and this is what we reveal up to an inch. One other thing. The drought, it got a lot better. And a lot of it has to do with this. You see these images coming out. Thats a ski lift. They had to shut down the ski resort. So much snow is great. Ill give you numbers on how good the drought is looking. One way to end a drought. We move on to new scrutiny for james comey with the Inspector General of the Justice Department announcing a review of how comey handled the Hillary Clinton email investigation during last years election. Our senior justice correspondent Pierre Thomas in washington with the details. Good morning, pierre. Reporter good morning, george. Its extremely rare for an fbi director to have his judgment questioned and investigated in this manner. The Inspector General is looking at a series of actions comey took in the final stretch of the campaign. At issue, did comey adhere to the Justice Departments policies and traditions when he notified congress he was reigniting the clinton email probe 11 days before the election . And then announcing that he was closing the case just 48 hours before election day . And was it appropriate for comey to hold a press conference to announce that charges should not be filed against clinton but harshly criticizing her in the process calling her extremely careless in the handling of classified information . But comey said he only had bad options in a situation that was unique, Public Interest that call for transparency. Unique Public Interest. A lot of raw feelings, still, pierre. Hillary clinton and her team believe that james comey cost her the election and welcoming the investigation. Donald trump tweeting about it this morning. He is still taking exception to the fbis decision not to take action against her. Hes sacalling Hillary Clinton guilty as hell. So what is james comey saying about this review . Well, hes welcoming the review saying he believes in transparency and that he will be vindicated. Basically this is a case, george, where comey believes he was damned if he did and damned if he didnt. That this was a situation that there was no winning for him. But he said the decision not to indict was not even a close call. Not even a close call. He believes the law was on his side in terms of not bringing charges. Clearly the decision to announce these things in the way he did is causing all kinds of criticism on capitol hill and other places. Pierre thomas, thanks very much. Now to the latest on those confirmation hearings. Two of Donald Trumps nominees, general james mattis and mike pompeo openly disagreeing with trumps statements on key issues including russia. Our Congressional Correspondent mary bruce has more on capitol hill for us this morning. Good morning, mary. Reporter good morning, robin. Just one week from now, donald trump will be sworn in right here as the 45th president. But this morning, its clear he is not in lockstep with members of his own wouldbe cabinet. And now there are concerns from within his own party that the new administration could be sending mixed messages. As trump gets ready to take the oath of office, this morning signs the president elect is at odds with his own nominees. Trumps pick to lead the department of defense, general james mattis, taking a tougher stance on russia than his potential boss. Im all for engagement, but we also have to recognize reality and what russia is up to. Reporter but just days ago, trump welcomed a friendlier relationship with russia. If putin likes donald trump, guess what, folks, thats called an asset, not a liability. Now, i dont know that im going to get along with vladimir putin. I hope i do. Reporter while trump continues to waffle on the Intelligence Communitys conclusion about the dnc hacking as far as hacking, i think it was russia. You know what, could have been others also. Reporter the man billed to be the next krrkscia director, e pompeo, isnt hesitating. Its pretty clear about what took place here, about russian involvement in efforts to hack information and to have an impact on american democracy. Reporter on trumps controversial comments on torture back on the campaign trail. They said, what do you think about waterboarding . I like it a lot. I dont think its tough enough. Reporter pompeo standing his ground. If you were ordered by the president to restart the cias use of enhanced interrogation techniques, would you comply . Senator, absolutely not. Reporter now republicans ive talked to are welcoming this tougher talk but stress it all comes down to trump. And this morning, the big question, how much will a President Trump follow his own cabinets advice. Robin . That remains to be seen. What about that bizarre moment on cspan yesterday. Reporter this was a strange one. Representative Maxine Waters was there on the floor when all of a sudden, the cspan feed switched to russian television. It stayed that way for about ten minutes. Now, cspan said it was likely a routing issue but the timing certainly raising plenty of eyebrows up here. Thank you. Theyre saying they dont believe they were hacked at all. Lets get more on the disagreements between trump and his cabinet from jon karl right now. Were hearing from the president elect on in this morning, jon. Hes got a new tweet out. His first before 6 00 a. M. , all of my cabinet nominees are looking good doing a great job. I want them to be themselves and express their own thoughts, not mine. But this is prettiry may remark. Not only the issues mary talked about but a secretary of state taking his positions on Climate Change and taking positions on the wall from others. There are differences across the board. And the question is, will this give the president elect a bridge back to different kinds of positions . Reporter on issue after issue, george, his nominees have been pressed on trumps most controversial issues during the campaign, most controversial statements, another one with general mattis is the iran deal, which trump repeatedly blasted during the campaign and said that he would undo as president. Mattis said that when america gives its word, america must stand by its word and said that he would be in favor of keeping the iran deal in place. The big question here, george, is what happens when the disagreement happened when disagreements take place after trump is president. Will these individuals be able to challenge him . Will they resign if they are asked to do things they disagree with. That is a big question. Also, you have still donald trump tweeting about this intelligence. He is saying the Intelligence Community blaming them for leaking this unverifiable dossier which we talked about how the russians were targeting him. Yet, his nominees yesterday strong words of support for the Intelligence Community. Reporter strong words of support for the Intelligence Community. Words of support for the investigation, even into what is in this dossier. George, this is really Something Else because james clapper, the head director of National Intelligence in his statement yesterday said point blank that the Intelligence Community did not leak this. And here you have trump this morning saying that they did. All right, jon, well get back to you in a moment. But cecilia vega is also here because we know that ben carson also grilled during his confirmation hearing and wed headtohead with elizabeth warren. Definitely the Testiest Exchange of the hearing and that is to become housing and urban development secretary. Elizabeth warren was trying to get ben carson to promise that none of the hud budget would go on to benefit donald trump or his real estate business. We have the sound bite. Take a listen. My concern is whether or not among the billions of dollars that you will be responsible for handing out in grants and loans, can you just assure us that not one dollar will go to benefit either the president elect or his family . It will not be my intention to do anything to benefit any american, particularly. I understand that. Its for all americans, everything that we do. Do i take that to mean that you may manage programs that will significantly benefit the president elect . You can take it to mean that i will manage things in a way that benefits the american people. That is going to be yeah, ouch. They didnt get a yes or no answer out of him on that one. You guys know this. He is a brain surgeon. This is not his field. Hes coming in with no experience on this. And hes says hes going to partake in a listening tour to understand better what the needs are. More on this issue. The head of government ethics say the steps trump is taking are meaningless and that person the head of the office of government ethics under fire from capitol hill, jon. Reporter yeah, hes being called in for an interview by jason chaffetz, the chairman of the committee that oversees government reform and chaffetz is saying he wants to discuss the funding for the office of government ethics. It sure seems like a shot across the bow. Though its important to point out, george, that chaffetz is one that has shown hes willing to be critical of trump but this sure seems to be a warning. Nothing yet on the conflict of interest from jason chaffetz. Wait a minute, jon. We remember the moment that the congressmans son tried to dab behind speaker paul ryan. During that swearing in. Well, did you see this . He had a little surprise in store last night, did the speaker of the house. He was just trying to say he knew exactly see, there you go, jon. Thats how you do it, jon karl. Signature move, jon karl. Look, you know, robin, hey, robin, once the speaker of the house has done Something Like this, you know its over. That is over. We have put it to bed. Cecilia, thank you. Lets go to michael. All right, you put that in the file of things i thought id never see, jon karl dabbing. Now to that airplane emergency. Three Flight Attendants getting sick on a plane and david kerley joins us now from Reagan National airport. And david, what do they think happened . Reporter well, a passenger says the pilot told them this was a deicing agent. It happened on descent. Flight attendants reportedly saw and smelled a white powder. Emergency crews at the ready for the Alaska Airlines jet in san jose after three Flight Attendants were suddenly struck with a mysterious illness. The flight from seattle touching down with one Flight Attendant needing assistance. We see the paramedic light and want to clarify thats for the Flight Attendants. The paramedics are for the Flight Attendants. Reporter this photo snapped by a passenger as that Flight Attendant was taken off the airplane on a gurney and taken to the hospital. Felt like something was wrong with he felt woozy. We dont know what the material was that the flight crew was exposed to but apparently the exposure took place before passengers got on board. Reporter but the pilot gave the best clue to passengers before landing saying what could have caused the illness. The deicing fluid they put on in seattle created some kind of powder that got in the air system. And they were checking it out. The deicing agent came into the oxygen system. Reporter the pilot told passengers the deicing agent is nontoxic. Alaska Airlines Says it is still trying to determine what happened. None of the passengers fell ill. And while Alaska Airlines investigates, the passengers are told by the pilot this has happened before, robin, where this deicing as a white powder has come through the vents. It has happened before. All right, david, thanks so much. Amy has the mornings other top stories, starting with a tragic fire in baltimore. This is just a horrible story. Investigators are looking into whether a space heater caused that house fire in baltimore on thursday that claimed the lives of six children. Their mother and her three other children made it out of the fire. Her 8yearold daughter is credited with helping them escape. Cuban migrants entering the United States will no longer get special treatment under the socalled wet foot, dry foot rule. President obama has ended that policy which previously allowed cubans who made it to the u. S. Soil to stay here as legal residents. Well, Fiat Chrysler is denying accusations it cheated on emission tests. The epa claims the Company Installed software to allow diesel engines to emit higher pollution levels than allowed. Volkswagen pleaded guilty to similar charges. And amazon says it plans to hire 100,000 new fulltime workers in the u. S. The company says the new positions are for people of all education and skill levels. Finally police say they have brought the curtain down on a very creative toll evader. In florida. You have to take a look at this. The suspect used a Remote Control device, see that to roll a black sheet over his license plate as the toll plaza so the state could not send him a bill. He was busted because a Police Officer was traveling behind him and saw him doing it. He was avoiding a 1. 25 toll. But those things add up. That device, though, its 50 bucks. Its perfectly legal to manufacture. But its completely lly illega use. Its going to cost him a lot more now. A felony. He deserves it. Thats ridiculous. Thank you, amy. How about that moment so many are still talking about. President obama surprising Vice President biden at what he thought was a special tribute event. But it turns out, the president had Something Else in mind. To know joe biden is to know love without pretense, Service Without selfregard. And to live life fully. As one of his longtime colleagues in the senate who happened to be a republican once said, if you cant admire joe biden as a person youve got a problem. He is as good a man as god ever created. I am pleased to award our nations highest civilian honor, the president ial medal of freedom. [ applause ] ladies and gentlemen, im proud to award the president ial medal of freedom with distinction to my brother, Joseph Robinette biden jr. [ applause ] mr. President , you have more than kept your commitment to me by saying that you wanted me to help govern. I can say i was part of the journey of a remarkable man who did remarkable things for this country. I dont deserve this. But i know it came from the president s heart. Mr. President , im indebted to your friendship. About six months in, the president looked at me and said, you know, joe, you know what surprised me how weve become such good friends. [ laughter ] i said, surprised you . But that is candid obama. And its real and, mr. President , you know as long as theres breath in me ill be there for you and my whole family will be. And i know i know it is reciprocal. Boy, that friendship. They worked so well together. And the president , of course, had a little fun with the bromance they call it and social media did, as well. Take a look at this picture. This sums up their relationship. Best friends forever. Saw joe biden say he didnt deserve it. He certainly did deserve it, more than 40 years of public service. Elected to the senate at the age of 29, never stopped. So much personal tragedy and still barr