Fierce winter conditions wreaking havoc as millions of people prepare to travel after a long Holiday Weekend. Well get to that in a moment, but we start here. The world mourning the death of 80s superstar George Michael who died on christmas at the age of 53. Should have been with you instead wake me up before you go go the singer songwriter and music producer became one of the worlds one of the worlds biggest stars. His manager said he died of Heart Failure peacefully at his home in england, but his publicist said he had not been ill. Steve patterson with more now on michaels legendary career. Hey, craig. Good morning to you. The 53yearold died at his home in england on sunday. Police were called to the ski around 2 00, saying they were treating this as unexplained but gnaw suspicious. Meanwhile, his longtime manager has come out to tell the Hollywood Reporter that he passed away from Heart Failure. All while tributes from all over the world are now pouring in for a music icon. Freedom freedom its music that made an entire generation move. Baby those catchy melodies mixed with a little social commentary. All tied together by glossy, unforgettable hooks, became mega hits. I dont need your freedom and turned George Michael from teen pop singer into an international icon. A career spanning four decades, spawning ten number one singles, selling more than 20 million albums in the u. S. Alone. I will be your father figure michael rose to fame in the early 80s as one half of the british pop group wham, with songs like freedom, careless whisper. And wake me up before you go go. Wake me up before you go go the group became one of musics biggest acts in the world. Before they split in 1986. I gotta have faith the following year, michaels debut solo album won critical acclaim and generated four number one hits. Michael, who wrote and produced nearly every element, also became a world famous sex symbol. Inate like the sun going down on meinates in the 90s, he had even more chart success, including a smash hit live duet with elton john. But in 1998, the singer made headlines after being arrested for exposing himself to an Undercover Police officer in an l. A. Public restroom. After the incident, michael came out as gay and became an advocate for aids prevention and gay rights. But the song writer who achieved so much success in his mid20s said the attention was too much. He told matt in 2004 he wanted his private life back. So free to the amount of attention that was being pointed directly at me. More recently, he suffered a series of Health Scares including a near fatal bout of pneumonia in 2011. The hospital in australia that they rushed me to was absolutely thebust place in the world i could have been. Tributes on social media from friends and famous fans began pouring in almost immediately sunday night. Including his wham partner, who tweeted heartbroken at the loss of my beloved friend. Forever loved. The last christmas for a man who will forever be remembered as a music legend. Last christmas i gave you my heart the very next day you gave it away this year Officials Say there was no sign of foul play and that an autopsy will be conducted in due time. Meanwhile, michael announced earlier this year that a documentary about his life was set to be released in 2017. Craig. Steve patterson for us this morning. Thank you. It has been a busy Holiday Weekend for the trump Transition Team. The Incoming Administration will have to deal with fallout over the Obama Administrations abstention from a u. N. Security council vote friday. That allowed the council to pass a resolution condemning israeli settlements and construction on the west bank and East Jerusalem. Hallie jackson covering the trump transition from palm beach for us this morning. Good morning to you, first of all, how is the president elect reacting to the u. N. Reaction and the condemnation from israel . Hey, there, craig. Hes coming out, no surprise, for forcefully on the size of Benjamin Netanyahu, tweeting over the weekend, in fact, that the u. N. Security Council Resolution was, quote, a big loss that could hurt chances for peace to be negotiated. But he pledged that he will be the one to do it, craig. So the president elect weighing in. When you talk to president ial historians and folks like that, really an unusual move, right . For a president elect to get involved in this matter and to this degree in matters of foreign relations, international diplomacy, when there is still a current president who has three weeks or so left in his presidency, but as we know, donald trump has never been shy about getting involved in affairs of the United States, and this is no different. The president elects comments on Nuclear Weapons and other tweets he posted, i believe this was on friday. United states must greatly strengthen and expand its Nuclear Capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes. This was seen by a number of folks as perhaps a first step in a new arms race. Whats the Transition Team doing to tamp down that speculation, if anything . Well, you saw the spokesperson for the president elects Transition Team, one of them, jason miller, trying to, i would say, walk this back a little bit. Releases a statement saying president elect trump was not talking about nuclear proliferation, and im paraphrasing here, but the bottom line is what we know from the president elect himself is what he tweeted, that exact tweet you just read, which Nuclear Experts were rather shocked by, boss it goes against longstanding u. S. Policy. So the question becomes, once donald trump takes office, whether this tweet will end up becoming stated policy for the United States. Or not, craig. Theres been some drama within the Transition Team itself. You just mentioned jason miller, of course, he was named White House Communications director friday. Basically stepped down saturday. Whats happening here . So this was, craig, frankly, a staff shakeup even before the staff entered the west wing. You saw, for example, the Communications Team named late last week. Sean spicer, jason miller, well, we learned over the weekend that miller is essentially backing out. Pulling out, saying he wants to spend more time with his family, and so he would be stepping away from the white house job. Sean spicer, who i know you know well, will take over the role as communicationed director and as press secretary, so dual responsibilities for spicer, at least come january, and its not unusual for someone to decline a white house job in order to spend more time with family. What is unusual is you have a very Public Acceptance of that role, a public announcement of that role, and then to withdraw ones self from that role. Miller will no longer be a part of the team after inauguration. He will still be, our understanding, part of the team through the transition. Very interesting. Hallie jackson in sunny palm beach, florida, this morning. Thank you. Lets bring in robert, an msnbc contributocontributor, Al Bush CheneySenior Adviser. Happy holidays. Good morning. President elect trump reacti reacting strongly to the abstention on the israeli u. N. Security council vote. How unusual is it to criticize the action . Its very unusual. Typically, president elects keep their mouth shut and wait until they assume authority on nun of january 20th of that year. Back in 1933 when Franklin Roosevelt was the president elect, there was actually four months of a transition between november and march. Thats when inaugurations were back in march. We were in the throws of the nation depression. President elect roosevelt was often asked, what are you going to do about x, y, or z . What are you going to do about unemployment. He would not comment because he wanted to give credit to the president , president hoover. My point is even during drastic economic circumstances, there was only one president at a time, and typically, that president is given the leeway, if you will, to be president until january 20th. Yet another norm that this president elect has decided hes going to eschew. This is what he tweeted after the Security Council vote. Here it is. As to the u. N. , the United Nations, things will be different after january 20th. January 20th, of course, inauguration. There are fewer than a dozen words in that tweet, but it has led to a great deal of speculation. What do you surmise we can take away from that . What might our role in the United Nations look like in a Trump Presidency . Well, i think based on that tweet, what president elect trump is saying is were going to not speak in nuance. Were not going to speak in vague sentences. Were going to be very declarative about what our positions are, not just in israel, but all across the world. Thats very, very different from previous administrations because Foreign Policy is all about nuance. Foreign policy is all about shades of gray. Foreign policy is all about body language and making sure you dont offend anyone and making sure you leave yourself a lot of wiggle room. Ronald reagan used to always say, you dont ever want to negotiate against yourself. By being so declarativdeclarati sending a signal that things will be different and hes going to run Foreign Policy much more different. The question is whether or not hes going to be successful. Nuance, complexity, adjectives to describe Foreign Policy, if that is the case, why does this president continue to insist on discussing these things in 140 characters or less . To be clear, im not the president elects spokesperson, nor do i work for the administration. I dont know. How many times have you said that . I can only surmise. During the president ial campaign, the president elect was very clear that of two things. One, he could shape news through twitter, and here we are talking about it, so he is shaping news. And secondly, hes always said, and rightfully so, he could directly go to the American People, 25 million subscribers the last time i checked for the president elect, and he doesnt have to go through the media. One thing you have to say about donald trump all throughout his business life, he knows how to get his message out there. Hes pretty much a master at it. All right, robert traynham, former republican Senior Adviser to bush cheney. Good to see you. Thank you. Happening right now, some 3500 people are searching the waters of the black sea near sochi. They are looking for victims of the military plane crash. That plane went down Christmas Day. Aviation experts at this point say they fear there may have been foul play involved in that crash. The flight was carrying journalists, also carrying russias worldfamous military choir. In all, some 92 people were onboard. Theyre all thought to be dead. Nbcs lucy cafnauv has been following the latest develops from london. Whats the latest on the investigation . Craig, good morning. Christmas day tragedy, and now the authorities are pulling fragments out from the sea, including what appears to be two pieces of the planes control mechanism. Thats according to the Russian DefenseMinistry Spokesman this morning. No expense spares in the search as russian authorities scramble. Helicopters, ships. Drones to scour the sea, but it is a search rescue. No rescue. All 92 people onboard presumed dead. Now, the tu154 plane, which took off from moscow, it stopped at sochi to refuel on sunday. Then it departed the resort city at about 5 40 a. M. Local time. It was bound for syria, but just minutes, craig, minutes after taking off, it disappeared from radar, plunging into the sea in what authorities describe as good weather conditions. A lot of questions as to why it plunged into the water body. This is very much a Christmas Day tragedy onboard, where a few soldiers. Nine russian journalists. Many very young, and more than 60 members of the worldfamous ensemb ensemble. This is the official choir of the armed forces. There were singers onboard, dancers, performers, heading to the Russian Military base in syria in order to perform in a new years celebration. Instead, their stunned families have funerals to plan. There was one couple who was planning their wedding next month. Another married couple left behind a threeyearold boy. There was also a famous russian human rights worker onboard, bringing medical supplies to a hospital in syria, and putin declaring today a day of mourning as the search effort continues. Lucy kafanov in london, thank you. President elect donald trump again more on this tweet that seems to be announcing the start of a new nuclear arms race. One congressman claims that trump simply tried to distract us from russias interference in our election. That congressman will join me next. Also, many of you are waking up preparing to travel home after the holiday. With Winter Weather slamming much of our country, how bad might that trip me . 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That was a clarification to one of his earlier tweets that america should build up its nuclear capabilities. This is the same donald trump that liberals were terrified was going to sell out to putin, who is now pivoted and saided, look, to joet general mattis, we can be your best friend or your worst enemy. You want to make threatening speeches, let me show you what it looks like. He does it in 140 characters. Some people calling trumps recent tweets a distraction from the real issues. One of those folks is California Democratic congressman eric swalwell. Thanks for your time on this monday holiday morning. So after trump tweeted that the u. S. Should build up its nuclear capabilities, you then tweeted that trump is trying to distract. Trying to distract from the russian hacking with bizarre tweets. You want to clarify that or theres your tweet, keep trying to distract. This is to make you forget about russia hacking our democracy. You believe this is part of a coordinated campaign of sorts . Thanks for having me on. Good morning. Im alarmed like most of the men and women in Armed Services who serve our country so bravely that donald trump wants to increase the Nuclear Weapons that the country has when we already have more than any other country. I also see this as a pattern. Where when the heat gets hot, he wants to move the pot to a different burner. And we saw this a couple weeks ago when we were all talking about his conflicts of interesting and he puts out a bizarre flag burning tweet and tries to divert us. Im concerned about his thoughts on Nuclear Weapons, but i also believe that a real issue that needs to be addressed and donald trump is uncomfortable talking about it, is russias role in interfering with our election. Thats 17 intelligence agencies have concluded that russia did in fact do that, and despite the overwhelming evidence, donald trump dismisses it and insults the intelligence communities and says theyre politicizing it. A few weeks ago, you and