well, the white house had to reckon with that as well. obama's relationship with the press was -- complicated. so what should we learn from the last eight years and how can it apply to the next four to eight years of a trump administration? let's hear from reporters who were there covering the president every single day, david gregory, former white house correspondent and host of "meet the press," now a cnn political analyst. april ryan, white house correspondent and washington bureau chief for american urban radio networks, and ann compton, former white house correspondent for abc news. thank you for being here. >> thanks. >> ann, my impression, maybe i'm wrong, is that obama respected the existence of the press corps but resented of how some reporters do their jobs, the breathless coverage, the demands for more access. does that sound right to you? >> he scolded us, sometimes with four-letter words. >> four-letter words? >> off the record at a garden behind the oval office because he said we made everything into a scandal. the president

that will be housed outside the white house. lady's the first initiatives are housed outside of the white house and that is how it is sustainable and that is how you build momentum. >> on that point, you are familiar with the white house and the council on women and girls. a big part of that is that you have placed folks in agencies as point people to consider women as they make policy. that we havehing seen the president do early on through an executive action in his first term. elevator your best pitch as to why the next administration should keep this. >> it is really important that you have a hold government approach to ensure that every young girl gets a fair shot. what we have done is to empower people in the agencies, many of whom are career workers who will be there long after we leave to see it as their responsibility to do everything -- to view everything that they do through a gender lens. the other piece of that is that it is not enough for us to talk to each other, we have to talk to you. and build momentum for the

as books on white house history that are provided by the white house historical association. following the election and upon the invitation of the sitting president and first lady, to the incoming president and his spouse, the chief ushers prepare to present these briefing books and then to begin a dialogue and make contacts with the representatives of the first lady and the president as well as anybody they deem to be their representative. then let's get to inaugural day. i call it organized chaos because we have quite a bit of activity going on in a very short period of time. usually six hours or less. the resident staff gathers before the rises and the chief usher invokes the five rules of inauguration. rule one, don't panic. we've done this before and we don't have any time for panic. rule two, be professional. we support the presidency, a concept technology by and appreciated by every president that i served. the residence is blind to party affiliation. you'll three, it is ok to be emotional. that staff in the executive residence has been with the sitting first president

>> host: about your white house experience.yo >> guest: about my white house experience. a said yeah honey i would like to write a book about my white house experience but you know i'm not all that good at writing a book. i didn't do that well in school. i picked up a lot of stuff working in different places i said but i really don't know how to write a book. she said i'll tell you what, you tell me what happens and i'm going to write it down. so i called my daughter and i started talking just like i'm talking to you and i started telling her everything and shehk started writing everything down. she just kept writing and kept writing so we started another day, the same thing. i went bright -- right back to it and i told her she wrote it all down. i did that i guess for about three or four weeks and it took that long to tell her everything. i was trying not to leave out nothing but i've left out some things because i didn't think it was appropriate to put it in the book. so i left sub of the doubt. >> host: what happens at the white house stays at the white house? >> guest

we all look to the white house all the time to see what's going on in the white house. they are trend setters at the white house. the first time they served arctic char at a state dinner, about 30,000 pounds imported into the united states, after the year was up, 300,000 pounds were imported, so you set the trend and you can set styles. diplomats. laura bush and hillary clinton went around the world as ambassadors and diplomats for the united states. policy advocate. every first lady picks a flat form she wants. whether it's rios lynn carter with mental health and you could name a variety of others. she is also a steward of the house as is the president. they take care of the house. right? >> absolutely. >> to leave anytime a better place, not a better place ch they want to make improvements to it and every president and first laid does that ch a style icon. we look to her to be a trend setter. i don't trendy, but to showcase what the best of america is. >> didn't turn off my phone? >> that's one of the first ladies calling her. >> oh, my gosh. >> coming here, my cab di

that will be housed outside of the white house. it is on adam housleyed outside of the white house. many of the first lady's initiatives are housed outside of white house. that is how it is sustainable and build momentum. it shouldn't depend who is in the white house if we've done our job right. >> on that point, you are familiar with the white house, the council on women and girls, the big part of that you placed folks in the agencies as point people to consider women as they make policy. again it is something that we knew that the president did early on in first term through executive action. give me your best 30-second "elevator pitch," why the next administration should keep this? >> it is really important that you have a whole of government approach to insuring that every young girl gets a fair shot. it isn't enough to have just an isolated office in the white house. what we've done is to empower people in the agencies, many of who are career workers who will be there long again after we leave to see it as their responsibility to look at everything they do through a gender lens

in his memoir, the white house chandeliers. >> outage you you get to the white house?ul >> when he first got back i was a military police so i went to number 14 precinct and talk to sergeant about being a police.rt and i had to take a test and they set i passed the test on they were not hiring any blacks. so that didn't work. and then i went to the fire department and i had to sign a sheet of paper that was to wait to join the fire department. i knew knew right away i can't wait this long. so i went back in the still my dad he said well, you're going to have to wait on them to call you and while you're waiting you're going to have to find a job.ave to f you are saving a lot of money in you picked up a few bad habits so you're going to have to get yourself together. so i said yes, sir. so i went to work at a restaurant in the northwest. they wanted me to be the busboy which i have never known a thing about being a busboy other than wash and desist home. so i started washing the pots in the pants and when people finished eating i would go outsh and pick at the dishes wit

as books on white house history provided by the white house historical association. following the election and upon the invitation of the sitting president and first lady, to the incoming president and his spouse, the chief ushers prepare to present these briefing books and then to begin a dialogue and make contacts with the representatives of the first lady and the president as well as anybody they deem to be their representative. let's get to inaugural day. i call it organized chaos because we have quite a bit of activity going on in a very short period of time, usually six hours or less. the resident staff gathers before the sun rises and the chief usher invokes the five rules of inauguration. rule one, don't panic. we've done this before and we don't have any time for panic. rule two, be professional. we support the presidency, a concept acknowledged with appreciation by every president that i served. the residence is blind to party affiliation. rule three, it is ok to be emotional. that staff in the executive residence has been with the sitting first president a

the trump white house. all sorts of extensions of power in the national security space. so we are talking about the authority to kill overseas without a trial. that happened during the obama administration and we are talking about the records and wiretapping. we are talking about waging war overseas without congressional authorization acongressionalautg right now with the obama administration relying on the al qaeda authorization with the use of military force, not a new one that authorizes them to fight a war against isis. so we have all sorts of expansion and not much of that has been covered or plaintiff to buy all that many sources and i think that we will start to see a lot more coverage about the same authorities. it's the vast majority of not sounding the alarm on the national security issues that have been. congress have chosen not to pass. it could have, but it's not been able to reach an agreement on how long that will be and who would be targeted in such a war. the actors that play and whether it

atnow on c-span, christmas the white house. we will show you the official white house christmas tree on arrival, followed by a look at this year's holiday decorations. then, first lady michelle obama's talks to military families from the east room and joins the children for christmas craft. after that, a look at the first family at the national christmas tree lighting ceremony on the national mall. all of these events took place just after thanksgiving. ♪ 's great. should we accept it? >> yes. mrs. obama: i think we're good. these are our replacement kids. [laughter] this is what happens when you get teenagers. one is asleep -- these two are up. [laughter] it's what we got now. good job, guys. christmas begins. the holidays start. we're ready -- our last one. we're excited about it. congratulations to our award winners here. thank you, guys. all right, our work here is done. >> that was easy. mrs. obama: it's easy. the easiest part of the holiday season. all right, you guys. happy holidays. happy thanksgiving. we'll see you a

also today: kellyanne conway was named white house counselor, and sean spicer was named white house press secretary. we'll return later to the prospects for press relations with the trump white house. >> sreenivasan: state lawmakers in north carolina were back home today, after an effort to repeal the so-called "bathroom law" ended in stalemate. the law bars legal protections based on sexual orientation. and, it requires that transgender people use bathrooms conforming with their sex at birth. opponents of the law are expected to raise repeal again, next year. >> woodruff: officials in southern japan are going to destroy another 120,000 chickens, in a spreading bird flu outbreak. today's announcement came just days after 200,000 birds were gassed at a farm in northern japan. south korea has culled 20 million birds since it reported an outbreak last month. >> sreenivasan: just days before christmas, it's nearly warm enough at the north pole to melt ice, thanks to a surge of warm air. air temperatures there were 32 degrees today, when it's typically 20 below. worldwide, this year is set to

house stays at the white house? >> absolutely. just like lost big is. speaking of that we had to sign papers of finances and everything you can think of the tax papers everything so anytime they wanted to dated go into police records -- pull your records as a security check. >> host: started to work their with richard nixon do remember the first time you saw him in the of whitehouse >> cancer. he did not come down like the other presidents it would be around 6:00 the was a good while before i saw him like 8:00 or 9:00. i was working in the flour room and he came not of the main residence and shut the door then you go when to another set of doors into the oval office. so he came through one day i said good morning mr. president he did not even notice my belt buckle. but we got along good because he was a nice president. one thing he believed he wanted the names of the children and how old they were ending a christmastime he would send presents to everybody all of my children . expensive gas. robots and all kinds of s

i want to welcome everyone to the white house. thank you for the wonderful introduction and for all of her service in hard work helping to make this home so beautiful. i want to give a thank you to all of the volunteers who traveled here from 33 states to d.c. and puerto rico, to come here and put up these beautiful decorations and transform this white house. i am so grateful to you all. last celebrate my family's holiday in the white house, i'm thinking back to when we first came here to washington. we promised open this house to as many people from as many backgrounds as possible. we truly wanted to make the white house the people's house. particularly during the holiday season. over the past eight years, through the seasons, we worked hard to achieve that goal by welcoming almost a half million guests to this house during the season. and thanks to our amazing volunteers, we are adorned the white house with about half million ornaments for our guests to enjoy. and way brought smiles to the faces of all those who enjoyed the 200,

when we get to the white house, when they get to the white house and the press corps is there calling a lid right now doesn't , mean that all the reporters go home. it just means many cases the still photographers go home because they probably don't have anything else to photograph. the rest of us will hang around because we are still doing our jobs. maybe some of the folks who might accept a lid as standard at the beginning of the trump administration stay a little bit longer afterwards in case this happens some more. i would say that would probably be wise. i'm not ready to extrapolate the experience, the very unusual experience of covering this transition at trump tower and apply call those lessons to what will happen at the white house. it's going to be a totally different environment. that said, i'm not naive and i don't think any of us should be naÏve about the risks and about them respecting our traditions and respecting our vocabulary and terms like that. i think part of it will mean we have to be vigilant but i think haveirness we also to make sure that they get a chance to

that is, focus on the white house. there is a tendency in every transition to focus on the big shiny objects, the big cabinet posts. those are absolutely critically important. but it causes president elects and their senior team to neglect the construction of the white house staff, which actually is the group that will help drive the really critical presidential priorities. the government that elaine described so well in her set of remarks, was pretty resilient. some would say impervious. but it is very capable of running itself, at least on a steady state, without substantial political leadership. it is only on those issues where the president really wants to take the country in a particular direction, especially a new direction, where the presidential leadership counts a lot. typically that comes from the white house. they do not have to be big public figures. the people the president brings in the white house, and empowers to drive the initiatives, are the key appointments early on in a presidency. i think those esp

house come inside of the white house. you recently tweeted the west wing, we need a superstructure like the one aspect plus -- >> my children are 12, 12, eight and seven which is a bad idea for moms going inside. i had this -- >> that had to be really tough. >> i told them that mommy is on her semester abroad. i went home most nights. maybe stayed on the road one night a week. so it's just the adult absorbing the committee time and lack of sleep which edwin and the trim can relate at some level. that's just what we do and who we are. i would know every night to new jersey are most nights to help the sixth grade math homework, make breakfast and a point just to make sure that was there. when i was single and inevitable i used to laugh at the notion of quality time. i'm all in. i actually believe it. but they had to come first and there's a very -- in terms of going to the west wing, i will do whatever the president-elect and the vice president but, i worked with mike pence for 10 years. they believe is my best and highest

we had an issue with that with this white house where the obama white house was relying too much on putting out official photos instead of allowing the pool in or in particular still photographers in. and we were successfully -- got that practice to change. and the way you do that is through having some unity within the press corps and a decision not to use the handout photos. we tried that with the abe photo from the trump meeting and it worked partially. the washington press corps and white house press corps was respectful of that decision not to use it. but we didn't do i think a good enough job of getting that message across to our colleagues in japan because the press there is more accustomed to using those photos and once it goetzs out it's out so everyone can use it. but i guess the way i would wrap up that issue is the media and our news organizations, we do have some power there. and our power is in if we stay unified, saying no, we won't use those handout photos or -- and this has happened with the obama administration, too. if the white house says "we'll let in just a few people

the white house correspondents association that deals with that, not the white house. he talked about not giving a daily press briefing. what are your expectations, lisa, as someone who covered this, about access? >> first, clarifying what he said. the assigned seating which you and i have both benefited from being in the first row with our organizations, was started in 1982. and it was something that the administration asked the media to do because they didn't want to be seen as playing favorites. they didn't want to be rewarding -- or being seen as rewarding certain public blaati with better seats and therefore better access. you want to make sure there's a level playing field. >> now we argue amongst ourselves about it. >> the duties switched to the white house correspondents association. you know, i think the issue here is you can debate the value of the daily briefing. but it's not as if -- it doesn't seem as if they're going to replace the daily briefing with something else. what we've seen from this transition is this is an operation that's very hard to get even

the white house, the obama white house now saying that there are at least 35 russian officials operating in the united states who are considered persona non-grata, are being asked to leaf and we understand through the state department and other sources they have 72 hours to leave. there are installations in maryland and new york being shut down. we have reaction coming from the obama white house and in support of u.s. intelligence saying russia did influence u.s. elections. we'll have much more on this conversation. we'll take a short break for now. we'll be right back. >>> a welcome back, i'm fredricka whitfield. more on our breaking news, the obama white house making strong statements with russian cyber hacking threatening to deport or ask for the departure of 35 russian operatives. i have a fantastic panel of people joining us is, general spider marks with us now. general marks. this is what's being revealed in a lengthy four-paragraph statement from the white house but a lot of information we don't know in terms of what where the action -- what the action the white house is going to

i'm often asked what's it like to work in the white house. what's it like to have walk-in privileges into the oval office and stand in front of the same desk used by franklin roosevelt during world war ii when he worked with winston churchill, the same desk used by jfk, the same desk used by ronald reagan. what is it like to stand in front of the desk and advise the president whpresident who he sht to the supreme court, was it like to stand on the evening of the porch 9/11 and watch as marine one brings president bush back at the end of the day. what is it like to be involved in discussions of the situation room on the most controversial issues as an american citizen there was no greater privilege and i can't imagine a greater thrill than being there for the birth of a child to served in that capacity. at the white house is the most recognizable 18 acres in the world and people come from all over the world to catch a glimpse. why is it so important and special, because the most powerful person in the world is making decisions every day. mysel

donald trump won the white house exactly one month ago. did you here a campaign speech here or a unifying message tonight? >> he's mostly just playing to his base, don. he's gradually moderated. he didn't go into a lot of attacks against other individuals but i'm not sure it's working in the way that perhaps he wanted. we do have a new survey out today from pew, comparing the approval of his appointments and the way he will explain what he will do as president to past presidents and similar polls were taken all the way back to george bush sr. in 1989. he has low numbers. 40% on both. it does not appear that he's really building a base. he's got a reliable base but he doesn't appear to be going beyond it. >> kristen, there's always twitter. the carrier union boss who trump lashed out is now receiving death threats. there they are right there. do you they they are knee-jerk reactions or is it more calculated than that? >> could it be both a little bit? >> it could be both. i think he's reacting at the moment and i think a lot of what he does

he calls the white house. [laughter] he wasn't calling the white house like hey, come spring out of jail. he wanted to let me know i needed to hire the dog walker because henne was going to be at home by himself all day. i was in the oval office and carlton carroll was the assistant who picked up the phone and he said well, which are likely to a drug? no, not a good idea. i was in the oval and there was a period in the meeting that was quite and a check my blackberry. not good manners in a meeting i checked my blackberry and i see a message from that says peter called. he said that you might want to get the dog walker to come today, this morning, and probably in the afternoon. and i thought, that jerk has been arrested. [laughter] >> i knew that he would end up in jail. he spent anytime day turkey almost had to stay the night because he was getting so late anything. finally when he saw the judge, the judge apologized and said you should've never been to. peter said he held up his legs and said well, i found an

typically that comes from the white house. they don't have to be big public figures, but the folks with the president brings in the white house and empowers to drive those initiatives are key appointment early on in the presidency. i think especially those who are less familiar with government have a tendency to neglect that aspect of the early part of the transition. >> one of my favorite tories in doing the oral history for bush 43 and we've done every president's oral history from jimmy carter, really starting with the administration of gerald ford in carrying on through and we are coming to the end of the bush 43 project and those are so confidential that this is in the public record. one of my favorite stories and it not the election for president electra getting that he's a media impresario and that is bush 43 invited ted kennedy and his family within the first few weeks of the administration down to watch the film 13 days about the cuban missile crisis. so here's that ted kennedy but president george w. bush, watching a

room youate dining will spot the official white house gingerbread house. guys, when you see it everything on it is something you can eat. our pastry chefs have worked very hard to make this house possible. it is beautiful. they got the replica of the new white house garden with bo, sunny, and lots of cool stuff. the trees in that room, there are 56 lego gingerbread houses representing every state and territory in america. and then somewhere around the house we have supersized replicas of bow and sunny, guarding their presence. because we don't let them have their presence. i'm just kidding, they get presents. they are fine. altogether the folks who come to these halls over the next few weeks will see about -- how many ornaments do you think are in this house? 100. >> six. mrs. obama: 6, 10, 100? [laughter] 9000? , it's 70,000ou ornaments. i was pretty shocked at that. so, we can't wait. that is a lot of ornaments. we can't wait to start welcoming people into their white house this holiday season. who createdone these stunning displays, our volunteers, the

>> host: about your white house experience. >> guest: about my white house experience. i said i would like to write a book but, you know, i'm not all that good at writing a book, i said. i i didn't go that far in school. i said i picked up a lot of stuff from working at different place and all that, i said. so i really don't know how to write a book. and sh she said, i'll tell you what, you tell me what happened, everything, and said i'm going to write it down. so i called my daughter and i talked to her just like him talk and you and i just started telling her everything, and she started writing everything down. and she just kept writing and kept writing. so we started another day, same thing. i went right back to it. i told, she wrote it all down, or typed it down rather. she was typing it down. i did that i guess for about three or four weeks. it took that long to tell her everything i was trying not to leave out nothing, but i left out some things because i didn't think it was prudent to put that in the book. so i left off some things. >> host: what happens at the w

would you advocate for daily presidential or white house press briefings for the white house press corps? >> i think we have to look at everything. i don't know that it needs to be daily. i don't know that they all need to be on camera. that's a view shared by a lot of former white house secretaries, of some of the media, in fact, that the white house press briefings have become somewhat of a spectacle. maybe there's a more effective way of delivering the news and having a more, you know, appropriate adult conversation with the media to inform them of the president's actions as opposed to an on-camera activity. but it's not a yes or no. what you've seen with donald trump is real change. he's not going to settle for the status quo. >> is he going to bounce reporters out? >> absolutely not. absolutely not. he has a healthy belief in the first amendment and the understanding -- >> so healthy, why did he ban them during the campaign? >> he understands the role of president and the role of the white house. that's a vastly different view than being at a campaign rally that's paid for by the ca

in the white house? >> will, that's an interesting question because i think part of what has made our white house work is that there are not sentries of power a true team is one where the president values not just his individual relationships with a member of the team, but how will the team works together and i have heard folks mentioned early on because of the crisis that the president inherited when he took office he was tried to get like who is the smartest people in all of these different areas, but over time what he prides himself on and what he hasn't shared to us with as recently as help proud he is the-- of the team and how well it works together, so it's important for the president and as president obama did to make sure he is selecting people who share his values, but understanding the part of their role is to work together because the way it has worked to successfully for us is to ensure we have conversations before we get to the president and we feel free to disagree with one another and rash

we had an issue with that with this white house where the obama white house was relying too much on putting out official photos instead of allowing the pool in or in particular still photographers in. and we were successfully -- got that practice to change. and the way you do that is through having some unity within the press corps and a decision not to use the handout photos. we tried that with the abe photo from the trump meeting and it worked partially. the washington press corps and white house press corps was respectful of that decision not to use it. but we didn't do i think a good enough job of getting that message across to our colleagues in japan because the press there is more accustomed to using those photos and once it goetzs out it's out so everyone can use it. but i guess the way i would wrap up that issue is the media and our news organizations, we do have some power there. and our power is in if we stay unified, saying no, we won't use those handout photos or -- and this has happened with the obama administration, too. if the white house says "we'll let in just a few people

that is, focus on the white house. there is a tendency in every transition to focus on the big shiny objects, the big cabinet posts. those are absolutely critically important. but it causes president elects and their senior team to neglect the construction of the white house staff, which actually is the group that will help drive the really critical presidential priorities. the government that elaine described so well in her set of remarks, was pretty resilient. some would say impervious. but it is very capable of running itself, at least on a steady state, without substantial political leadership. it is only on those issues where the president really wants to take the country in a particular direction, especially a new direction, where the presidential leadership counts a lot. typically that comes from the white house. they do not have to be big public figures. the people the president brings in the white house, and empowers to drive the initiatives, are the key appointments early on in a presidency. i think those esp

the white house wants this bill. they have sent out a statement of administration policy stating they want this signed into law, wanted senate to pass it, already passed the house. seeing those divisions and how you get past. the white house feels so strongly about it they said vice president will preside over the vote tomorrow. >> since the election everyone in the republican party has been more or less on the same page, at least a lot more than they were during the campaign. what do you think it would take for house republicans or senate republicans to start picking fights with trump again? >> the question is we're seeing a cohesion among republicans during house and senate we didn't see during the campaign and how long can we expect to see this peace until someone tries to pick a fight in the republican party with the president-elect. >> it's a really good question. we're talking about it this morning on the hill because the house majority leader kevin mccarthy held a pen and pad and talked with reporters. we were

of course, the white house denies that. but what we hear from senior white house officials is that, in the days after the election, they wanted to project calm, continuity, that they're committed to a smooth transition, but they say the game-changer has been those trump denials of russia's role. if they put that, they say, in an entirely different category of things donald trump has said. they say that that hits directly at basic national security, that it attacks the intelligence community, that it questions whether president obama kept the american people safe from this kind of thing. on that, they say they're not going to be quiet, obviously, wolf. >> michelle kosinski reporting from the white house. thank you. let's get more on this. democratic senator diane feinstein joins us, the voice chair of the senate intelligence x committee. thank you for joining us. do you believe that vladimir putin personally directed the u.s. election hacks? >> well, let me put it this way. we have had a number of briefings. they go back to

heart attack in the white house that nobody knew about 430 years. he had a heart attack, he had tried to push open the white house window, his cigar smoke was given to much for him. he felt the pain in his arm and his chest and he says there was trouble. he called and his doctor who had traveled with him to america next morning and he said that you have had a heart attack. but let's not tell anybody. we will go on as before. -- churchilled smoked and drank as he had before. he lived to be 90. i'm not suggesting you to do this but he went on to canada and get a memorable speech. afterwards, he slumped over, tired and put a cigar back in his mouth and as he was leaving parliament house, a canadian photographer stopped him and said i want to take your picture. head and theok his notographer wouldn't take for an answer. he pulled the cigar from churchill's mouth and snapped his picture. it is the most famous picture of churchill ever. it is known as the below picture of churchill. it is very fascinating because it is how we remember churchill now. the p

back to the white house momentarily. the arrival of the japanese ambassador ambassadors, visitors from the east during president buchanan's presidency. harriet lane there in the blue dress. the japanese ambassadors. those giant wonderful lights outside the white house that were taken out during the roosevelt rehab in 1902. the japanese were immensely popular in washington. people were driven mad by them. women gathered outside their window. they stayed at the willard hotel and became hysterical and huge crowds followed them wherever they went. they were sort of difficult to grasp the amount of excitement they caused both in washington and later on in new york. one of the things that i return to a great deal in my work is building. and this is the library for the hall of the american people. this is the library of congress on the east front, in front of the dome of the capitol. i'm interested in building methods. sort of kids are interested, too. i guess being an artisan, because i build my works, i'm interested in proces

hours after white house press secretary josh earnest from the white house podium told reporters trump had to have known about the russian hacks. donald trump attacked josh earnest by name. here is what he had to say. >> although this foolish guy, josh earnest. i don't know if he is talking to president obama. having the right press secretary is so important because he is so bad the way he delivers a message. he can deliver a positive message and it sounds bad. he could say, ladies and gentlemen, today we have totally defeated isis and it would not sound good. okay? all right? i have a feeling they won't be saying it, but i know we will be saying it. >> reporter: the president-elect will be back on the road today. heading to orlando for the next stop of the thank you tour. >> thank you. >>> president-elect picked ambassador to israel. in a statement announcing david friedman, the trump transition makes a mention of moving the embassy which breaks move of decades of policy based on the fact that palestinians claim jerusalem as their capital. friedman says he does not believe the settlem

i want to welcome everyone to the white house. thank you for the wonderful introduction and for all of her service in hard work helping to make this home so beautiful. i want to give a thank you to all of the volunteers who traveled here from 33 states to d.c. and puerto rico, to come here and put up these beautiful decorations and transform this white house. i am so grateful to you all. last celebrate my family's holiday in the white house, i'm thinking back to when we first came here to washington. we promised open this house to as many people from as many backgrounds as possible. we truly wanted to make the white house the people's house. particularly during the holiday season. over the past eight years, through the seasons, we worked hard to achieve that goal by welcoming almost a half million guests to this house during the season. and thanks to our amazing volunteers, we are adorned the white house with about half million ornaments for our guests to enjoy. and way brought smiles to the faces of all those who enjoyed the 200,

donald trump says he's working well with the obama white house, but then what's up with the tweets? >>> and the settlement split. israel reacts to john kerry's forceful farewell speech, calling his opposition to controversial new jewish settlements a threat to peace. >>> good morning, everybody. i am peter alexander in washington, d.c., today, for my friend andrea mitchell. we're waiting for the obama administration to announce new measures to punish russia for its interference in the u.s. presidential election. a senior u.s. official telling nbc news that announcement will come within the next couple of hours. president-elect trump is already dismissing the threat of new sanctions against russia. speaking during an appearance last night, at his mar-a-lago estate a longside don king. >> i think we ought to get on with our lives. the whole age of computer has made it where nobody knows exactly what's going on. >> also last night the president-elect praising his predecessor as he he made note he and president obama had their own phone call yesterday. >> he called me. we had a very, ve

athena jones is live at the white house watching all this. the white house reacted. they were not mincing words with this one but there are new details about what exactly happened with that questionnaire going to the energy department. what are you picking up? >> reporter: right. a few developments this morning. we have heard from press secretary josh earnest saying look, this looks like an attempt to maybe target career civil servants just for doing the job they are supposed to do. we have heard from the energy department, a union representative there talking about employees being concerned about keeping their jobs, and being able to pursue the science with he said independence and integrity. and we have a letter from two members of congress, i have it right here, they isn't a letter to vice president-elect mike pence who of course is heading up or leading the trump transition team, asking for a lot of information about this memo, this questionnaire. they are saying they are concerned this is creating an idealogical litmus test for civil servants to keep their jobs

that is the term we use at the end of the day when the white house, i'll use the white house as an example, the president is not going to do any other movements on or off campus that the press would cover it. to be more specific no event on campus that would be over press is not leaving. so i lived a sick he means you are free to go. your question is on the trumps ivana trump towers in particular should we or should we not respected when i call a lid to close there have been a handful of examples where they have called a lid and something as happen. >> they don't treat them the same way and should we? >> anything decides the term lead? >> i just think it's an example of how they do things in the future when it comes to nothing to see here. >> on that specific example i am not concerned and in fact i'm encouraged by reporters not necessarily taking their word for it about a lid. i don't say that to be critical of the trump folks. i think part of it is generally they are still the gearing it out, figuring out how we work, figuring out what their responsibilities are in the press. i know the

and white house the people's house. >> the first lady says the obamas have welcomed almost 500,000 people to the white house during the holidays over the past eight years. >>> still ahead, turning a tragedy into a positive. how one first responder's helping a local family have a special holiday season. >>> plus sudden unexplained infant death. it's on the rise in our area. the news for i-team shows us what's being done to stop the he gets a lot of compliments. he wears his army hat, walks around with his army shirt looking all nice. and then people just say, ?thank you for serving our country? and i'm like, that's my dad. male vo: no one deserves a warmer welcome home. that's why we're hiring 10,000 members of the military community by the end of 2017. i'm very proud of him. fios is not cable. we're wired differently. that means incredibly fast 150 meg internet for the holidays. so in the 3.7 seconds it takes gary watson to beat the local sled jump record, fly, gary, fly. ...his friend can download 13 versions of the perfect song... ...his sister can live stream it... ...while his mom dow

happy holidays to you guys >> the white house is decorated perfectly for christmas. we sat down with one woman who knows the ins and outs of decorating such a place. >> what is your favorite? >>> fox 5 as an inside look at the holiday magic. >> we'll 10:00 and 11. happy new year. >>> we have an inside look at the holiday magic that happens at the white house. colleen christian berk joins us. thank you so much for being with us. we have right now a preview of a christmas other than meant and holiday collection. >> this is a sneak peak. collection name is a little bit of a mouthful, colleen christian berk first lady of collection. it is inspired of our first ladies. so much fun, lots of historical details. >> the pieces are beautiful. i love the stories behind them. tell me about the salt and pepper shaker and the story behind the shoes. >> this collection features nancy reagan and jackie kennedy and their style. these little adorable salt and pepper shakers are nancy's holiday shoes. every year, nancy reagan, a fashion icon would glue red pom-p oms on to her shoes. th

my message is to the white house, shut up to the white house. shut up to the trump office and stop trying to figure out what happened six months ago. >> phil, before we let you go on that note -- >> have a heart attack. >> what is president obama to do? >> well, first of all, the conversation is about how we retaliated against the russians have to be discussed with the trump people. we have 30 days left. the conversation about russia can't be isolated to deal with the hacks. as soon as you talk to the russians publicly and accuse them, there's a potential even that could be counterproductive. everybody is talking about sa sanctions as if that might not allow putin to tell the russian people, look, it's me against the americans. i'm going to win this one. his approval rating is 80%. humiliating him in public might not work. i think the conversation has to be broader. what is the new approach to russia that includes conversations about iran and syria and can the obama administration do something to put the ball on the tee for the trump campaign? t

he has been offered a job as the top white house economic adviser. he is the third goldman sachs alum to be offered a job. he picked a 17-year goldman vet and a-time banker steve bannon is the top white house adviser. trump attacked goldman's influence and here's trump in the campaign going after ted cruise and hillary clinton's goldman ties. >> i know the guys at goldman sachs. they have total, total control over him. just like they have total control over hillary clinton. total. they have no control over donald trump. i don't want their money. i don't need their money. they have no control. >> the top transition adviser and donald trump's campaign manager. welcome to the set. it has been a while. let me go to goldman sachs. he railed against them. three goldman sachs alum with fairly prominent positions. >> he rallied against the political influence. he said that they don't have influence over him politically and they will not have influence over him politically in the white house. they will working to w him to implement the vision. >> what would y

the white house released that information. and it basically said that this hacking was likely authorized or the conclusion was that the hacking the was authorized by senior-most officials in the russian government. josh earnest was asked about this earlier today, because there was a report that putin knew about all of this, had a hand in all of this. and josh earnest said, well, didn't you guys see this report that we put out? this statement we put out back in october? josh earnest telling reporters in the white house briefing room that he didn't think that characterization that senior-most officials must have known about this was, in his words, particularly subtle. so the white house was really leaning into this very stout defense of the intelligence community's assessment that russia was behind this hack. and it is setting up this very new development, anderson, and i think we're going to have to keep an eye on it over the next several weeks, as we get ready to see president-elect trump sworn into office. we might see more o

house, including assistant white house counsel. hugh, great to have you with us. first, your take on trump's statement? how are you reading it? obviously, it's been divided in these two parts. the first part saying, it's time to move on. the second part saying, hi will sit down and take some briefings from the intelligence officials in this country about thi matter. >> i view it as a very prudent rejection by the president-elect of the media's narrative that has built all day that somehow donald trump has to respond to everything our president does. we have one president at a time. that's been the popular refrain and i think it's correct. he is going to get briefed in. i think he wants to talk to general mattis, general kelly, the incoming head of homeland security. he wants to talk to mike pompeo. he hasn't even named his director of national intelligence yet. so when i heard that statement and heard you read it to the audience, i thought, very smart. because i don't think we'll be talking about president obama's failed russian po

he welcomed me back to the white house. here is more about his time as the press secretary to president obama. >> good afternoon, everybody. if i seem nervous today, it's because one of my predecessors is in the room. it's wonderful to see you. welcome back to the white house. >> this is a different vantage point than i had before. i'm about this tall. this moves up and down. so they had to readjust it for you. you were the deputy for a long time. we almost had the same trajectory in terms of taking over in the second term. were you happy being the deputy? did you think you would be the press secretary? >> i was deputy for five years. i liked that job. the more that i watch my predecessors, the more i watch them, the more i participated in preparations for them, i more i sat on the side, i more i got a sense of, i think i can do that. >> today the flag jacket is officially passed to a new generation, mr. josh earnest. >> i think you have never come across as somebody with a big head in this job. i wonder what keeps you grou

so, i wrote an article about the kinds of authorities that the white house, the obama white house will soon be transferring to the trump white house. all sorts of expansions of power in the national security space, so we're talking things like the authority to kill an american citizen that's overseas without a trial. that happened during the obama administration. we're talking about secret courts on wiretapping. that happened under the obama administration. we're talking about waging war overseas without congressional authorization. this is happening right now with the obama administration relying on the al qaeda authorization for the use of military force, not a new one that authorizes them to fight a war against isis. so, we have all sorts of expansion over the last eight years. not much of that has been -- it hasn't been covered or pointed to by all that many sources. and i think we'll start to see a lot more coverage about the same authorities being used under a trump administration, with the exception of the aclu and, you know, certain news outlets, the vast majority of the press

and maybe not so much on the white house. >> reporter: yeah. you know the fbi has come up again and again also from the administration. from theous, they tried to be extremely careful, from the white house, how they're wording things. only referring to things that donald trump has said, and kind of letting people read between the lines what they're implying there, and on the hack itself, you know, they keep emphasizing where the impact clearly was. that it was clearly hitting democrats during the campaign. so when we asked the white house the question, are you saying that russia then rigged this election? they say, well, you know, that's a question for analysts, but some analysts do say that the fbi's announcement of additional looks into hillary clinton's e-mails may have had something to do with it. now we hear john podesta, hillary clinton's campaign chairman, lay it out there very starkly in this op-ed saying in part, comparing the fbi's massive response to the overblown e-mail scandal, with the seemingly lackadaisical response to the real