but he won't get one. the alabama secretary of state says there aren't enough overseas military votes and provisional ballots to trigger a recount. so roy moore appears torn riding solo on this one. that's all for tonight. happy holidays. we'll be back tomorrow -- not tomorrow, monday. "the beat" we ari melber starts right now. >> that's the funny thing about elections. even if you don't concede, sometimes you still lose. have a great weekend. >> you too. merry christmas. >> it is fris evening heading into christmas weekend. we're tracking several unusual stories that make there a busier news cycle than usual. first reports that all the attacks on bob mueller, they may be coming from inside the white house. a reporter only story will join me in a motel. second, jeff sessions is taking

brand new actions to undercut obama end rules at the d.o.j. this as story that may have been buried in a christmas friday news dump. and reports an emergency plan or respond to any effort to oust bob mueller. an organizer of that effort he joins me exclusively on "the beat" later this hour. all of that is the outside plan for mueller. i begin the inside plan. all eyes on rod rosenstein who is the only d.o.j. full who stands between what donald trump may want and bob mueller's investigation. conservatives pressing rosenstein on what they call bias at the d.o.j. tonight i can tell you, they are getting pushed back by people who rosenstein has known longer and who he may respect more than some of the partisans in the house. there is a bipartisan coalition, a former federal prosecutors and gop officials that are coming essentially to mueller's defense today. this is on the heels of senator mark warner's red line warning

this week. all of that pressure outside the investigation. meanwhile, inside it, new reports mueller is looking at things that house investigators are also looking at. the entire russia probe involves some fact checking including fact checking jim comey's explosive claim that donald trump demanded personal loyalty of him. donald trump, of course, had denied that. >> didn't say under oath -- i hardly know the man. i'm not going to say i want to you pledge allegiance. who would do that? to pledge allegiance under oath. i hardly know the man. it doesn't make sense. no, i didn't say that and i didn't say the other. >> who would do that. that was donald trump's denial in front of the white house. the new reporting is that a witness has told russia investigators in congress that jim comey related that loyalty request at the time, which means mueller will likely be getting

that same evidence if he doesn't already have it. that would help corroborate jim comey's claim. who told him that? the witness isn't just anybody. there was a source saying the fbi deputy director himself, andy mccabe. of course, allegedly all of that during in january. just note, last week it was congressional republican who's were call for andy mccabe's firing. that could be a very convenient coincidence or it could yet again raise questions of whether these congressional republicans are deliberately trying to discredit the russia probe in ways that benefit donald trump. that makes today's report from business insiders so intriguing. because she writes about how three house republicans who have most fiercely attacked bob mueller and related issues at d.o.j. have guess what, been in close touch with the white house including the president directly. all of this raising questions of whether there's a good cop, bad

com strategy. and the article names bob gates among those openly demanding the firing of mueller and coordinating with trumpland. gaetz is among those. he has insinuated there's some kind of issue with rod rosenstein who again is the name that keeps coming up. he is the only d.o.j. official in position to lawfully remove bob mueller. it is a point we discussed specifically this week on "the beat." >> what is your specific concern with rosenstein? >> he has not been forthcoming. i'm accusing him of withholding evidence that should have been in the possession of the judiciary committee and i don't think that he personally lied.

>> you don't think he lied. >> no. i think he withheld information would illuminate further conflicts of interest. >> so he didn't lie. he didn't do anything wrong. >> i think he withheld information. >> i'm joined by he natasha from business insider. what are the contacts and the times of communication that you found in your reporting and why would it matter? >> there were some interesting comments made the other day. he told a cnn reporter he has been in touch with the white house. he didn't really explain what the communication was about but he said in response, have you been talking to the white house about mueller? of course we talked will we talk about all sorts of things. the other thing that's interesting is representative matt gaetz, a republican who has called for bob mueller to be fired outright, flew air force one with trump a couple weeks

ago before trump held a rally in pensacola. during that flight, he said that he thought the mueller probe was infected with bias. another member of congress on that flight was representative desanitiez, also from florida who introduced a bill that would limit the scope of mueller's investigation. you have two of these people directly talking about the mueller remember that. saying this is why you have to do your job. >> is this matt gaetz taking his pre cooked concerns to the white house, however one may view they will, is not necessarily problematic, or is there some sort of coordination or dare i say collusion where the white house is taking things they shouldn't be doing against the investigation and getting other people to be the bad cop. >> well, if these contacts came

in vacuum, that might be he plausible. but there has been extensive reporting about how the president lag to members of congress since this began and asked them to end it. asked them to curtail so they clear him or exonerate him. ask to come out public will i and say he's done nothing wrong so trump does have a track record of going to members of congress and asking they will to behave in a certain way. whether or not he did that here, that remains to be seen but it would be surprising if he did not speak to them and encourage them. >> you make a really important observation about what else we know about the way trump has approached this. on the stakes, senator mark warner turned a lot of heads this week. although nothing has happened yet in terms of the warning he offered. here's more from mike warner about why he says it is so

important. >> we've not reached any conclusions. but the importance of what we're doing, i said this is the most important thing we've done. i feel that more strongly today. >> it makes you sit up a little more in your seat. what is he getting at? >> he's getting at the fact this is most important scandal since watergate. and we make a lot of comparisons with watergate. but there was a big difference. in watergate, democrats controlled congress and they wanted to get to the bottom of what happened. in this scandal, republicans control congress and a lot of them don't want to get to the bottom of what happened. so congratulations for natasha on this reporting. because it adds another brick, if you will, to a whole structure of republican obstruction of the investigation that senator warner is worried about. and i think they have reason to

be worried. they're worried because general flynn has no doubt gotten mueller closer to what happened. possibly closer to a story about obstruction. and they're worried because they know mueller is doing a lot of work on the finances. so they're worried that we've hit a point where trump really will take risk of blowing up this investigation because the risk of letting it go forward may be even more dangerous for him. >> yeah. so well put. natasha bertrand, thank you for reporting to us. i want to bring in criminal defense attorney, and barbara, start go with you, folks at home have heard a lot of obstruction. politicians have a wide berth to

say whatever they want including saying things that aren't true. the supreme court found a right to lie which helps politicians in both parties around the world. walk us through anything you just heard in natasha's reporting with the coordination that could be problematic or at least is not something a prudent lawyer would recommend a client. >> as we've discussed, one of the most difficult thing to prove in an obstruction of justice case is the corrupt intent. not the act but the intent. you have to show that they had some sort of bad purpose. if you can show that the white house or president trump is getting other people to do his bidding, to put an end to this investigation, that could bolster the evidence of the corrupt intent that robert mueller needs. >> brian, how but? >> i think she's right. the people we've talked about in

this segment are not jail house snitches. these are made guys, career law enforcement people who have faces like affidavits. they have no motive to lie. bits corroboration and that's what we're seeing in this case. if this may be death by a thousand cuts, this may be corroboration by a couple of guys who again are truly worthy of belief. >> and brian, talk about the money trail which is something else that's circulating. a lot of talk about deutsch bank and whether their records would be useful to mueller. then you have this new account. the prosecutor seeking kushner records. -- lent hundreds of millions of dollars to the kushner family real estate business. walk us through why from a defense perspective, you don't

want that. things are unrelated until you find something that might relate they will. >> as we've said a number of times on the show, there isn't a people case. it is a paper case. and e-mail stands for evidence. and as anybody has seen all the president's men understands, follow the money. that's ultimately the oil that lubricates any ongoing criminal enterprise. so in this situation, the closer that the special counsel comes to the oval office, again, that's why people like steve bannon are so important. steve bannon was the president's person who brings down on john gotti. in a situation like that, the closer it comes to the inner circle, the more you'll see the president ske the carnival barkers strike back at bob mueller. >> very interesting points legally. i am being told by control room that you hit your maximum for analogies and references in this segment.

barbara, you're clear. you have plenty of room to run. final question to barbara on the money trail. what does it say about these cases that very wealthy people would have, and i like to be fair about this, exposure. we're not saying anyone necessarily has committed any kind of crime. as you know, you can't just get anyone's bank records. you have to prove to a judge that they're relevant. that there's some search for criminal activity. yet in the popular imagination, he and his team were so rich, they would be cleaner than the typical polls. it doesn't seem to be working out that way. at least according to the subpoenas. >> and the mandate is quite broad. the main part is on the russian interference in the election but he has the ability to investigate anything that may arise in the investigation.

if he is lawfully gathering records and happens to find some kind of financial fraud or money laundering, he has the authority to bring that, too. that might be the charge that he brings against some of the individuals he's looking at in this case. >> two great legal minds to walk us through parts of this story. i hope you have a happy weekend. >> thank you. more news this friday, jeff sessions is moving to tear up decades of d.o.j. rules. and also, a clarity deduction to make millions from mar-a-lago. and tens of thousands are getting ready to protest. one of those organizers is on "the beat." it's a small finger...a worm! like, a dagger?

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two major stories breaking on this holiday friday night. one coming from inside the d.o.j. and the apparent sneak attack by jeff sessions and there's a reason it might be leaking out before christmas. he is leake out some of the most disabled immigrants and exconvicts. i have more on that later in this segment. later, from inside the white house and a team frustrated and on edge. politico reporting, a warning. they said that there was tension, tempers flaring, complaints about trump's political operation boiled over. let's get right to it. krystal ball joins us and i'm joined by ron reagan, msnbc and

nbc contributor. your view of this door being cracked that suggests they walk off that big celebratory gathering where there was plenty of praise and then talked turkey and they sound scared. >> of course they made themselves, they put themselves in a deeper hole with that tax bill which is unbelievably unpopular with trump's base. so i guess this is a sign they are at least someone in touch with reality. the problem with the party is as historically unpopular as this president is, he is one of the more popular figures in the party. mitch mcconnell's figures are dismal. paul ryan is about to retire because best to get his hopes dashed in his home district. democrats don't have a great set of leaders popular at the top either. but in this time when you have republicans in charge of everything, the fact that their figure heads are all so

dramatically unpopular means we have all the cylinders lined up for a truly spectacular mid-term for democrats. >> and ron, krystal makes the point, if it's there was a table for the popular kids, it is a pretty empty table. take a listen to the sound from inside the party that backs pup point. >> the political genius on display, throwing away a seat in a red state in america is hard to ignore. >> i don't think steve bannon adds anything positive to the dialogue in the country. >> mr. bannon's over the top rhetoric is not helpful. >> ron? >> well, you know, the republicans have reason to be nervous and of course if the democrats can win alabama, i suppose they can win anywhere. the politics, as she mentioned, are definitely with them. the map, on the other hand,

really isn't with the democrats. you take senate, for instance, and i believe the democrats are defending 25 seats to the republicans' 8. i think the real question will come down to do republican voters, people inclined to vote republican, will they see all republicans as a reflection of trump? if they do, if the democrats can attach trump to each and every candidate in all the states and districts where there are elections, then i think krystal may be right. we're looking at a huge wave election. if they divide the two, well, trump is trump and my republican candidate here isn't anything like him. might even exert some control on him. then this could revert to the map as opposed to the politics a little more and maybe the democrats don't take back the house or congress. >> well, i was going to say, some of the dynamics are already

set in motion. because there is so much motion on the democratic side, in districts where we may not have fielded a candidate, we have serious candidates who are out hustling and doing what they need to do. so we are competing everywhere. in mid terms, a lot of it is a turnout and an energy game. as we've seen in other places notably, the coalition that strongly backs democrats is strongly motivated. and they are turning out to send a message to trump. >> before we go -- >> i hope she's right. i just wanted to play devil's advocate. >> i want to show the folks we're in this debate today, chief of staff kelly, kellyanne conway, the political director, brad who was on the campaign, hope is always there, and corey lewandowski who was ousted but back at the white house, i put

this on the screen as a, as an experienced person who's been in the white house. everything we just referenced came from give or take those six people. >> that tells you this is a white house where the loyalty to the president is wafer thin. it has been extraordinary the entire ride here, the entire year we've gone. how many leaks have come out of this white house. we saw it at the "new york times" about trump's daily activity and his television and diet coke consumption and all of that. it is astonish that sole people in this white house will leak unflattering details about the president and their machineations. >> right. and there was no lag time. it was out right after the meeting. >> no, no. >> thank you so much. we'll come back later. turning to the other news i mentioned, he j. is back to talk about it.

this story happens to be leaking out on a holiday friday. so let's forget the tweets. this is a story about what the trump administration is doing. "the new york times" reporting, d.o.j. files showing sessions making these reversals on civil rights, rights for the disabled, illegal graents, sessions canceling 25 different policy. the trump administration argues these policies went too far beyond the laws they were based on. that the people behind these policies, like the former, a j. eric holder said they were needed to modernize rules and protect rights. take guy that came out of ferguson where a holder probe did not find the shooting was a crime but it did find police abusing power and forcing citizens into death for nonviolent crimes. they found when ferguson police pulled people over, eight out of ten were black.

and the policy he's trying to cancel, another one that said employers should not segregate beam developmental disabilities if that can be reasonably avoided. advocates for people with disabilities arguing that rule was protecting their rights. with jeff sessions withdrawing it, there was a fear it will be harder to enforce laws. as promised, i turn back to the wash post. he e.j., do you think this is sxerng why is this coming out tonight? >> i think it is concerning. i'll glad you're doing this story. i think one of the reasons this big pile is released is a lot of people's minds are on the tax bill or the coming holidays. and it was a great way to get them out there without much scrutiny. our colleague and i were looking around. yes, there were good stories in the "times" and the "washington

post" but they didn't get a lot of attention. this is underground government that donald trump is running that i think the media will have to turn to in 2018. because while we have focused on the tweets and on the, legitimately on the investigation, rule after rule after rule that was made in the obama years has been undercut. in this case, you listed the ones, the groups affected. the excessive fines on people. civil rights issues, disability issues, guns and explosives. these are a big deal and they are doing this with very, very little public scrutiny. and that is why we are talking about it on a night when a lot of people would prefer to think about christmas gifts. >> right clrgs by the way, you're welcome to think about both. the human mind is a vast place. >> i agree. >> we contacted the naacp legal defense fund about this. they said resingleding these key

resources is not just irresponsible. it is another example of the department shirking the obligation to protect civil rights and ensure compliance with the law. it is also striking because ferguson and some of those issues got a lot of attention at the time. the changes sometimes are really more dry or some would argue, boring than the drama of the original story. yet, it is the systemic changes that matter. when you look at this stat. eight out of ten people being pulled over there are african-american. nonviolent offenses. driving stops that lead to this death trap that eric holder talked about. i would argue i don't think it is a left or right proposition. that the police should not be putting nonviolent people in death traps. and this makes it harder to combat that. >> that's right. and libertarian conservatives,

at least some at the time, spoke out against had and said governments shouldn't finance themselves with unjust fines levied in a discriminatory way. which is what was going on there. and this is why we have federal civil rights laws. the person who worked in the civil rights division under obama, said what revoking these bills means, those reluctant to conform will no longer feel any need to conform and go back to practices that are discriminatory and basically wrong. >> e.j., thank you. house democrats on high alert. as many as 100,000 americans have said they will take to the streets if it happens. and the day president trump signs the tax bill and heads to

mar-a-lago, exclusive details on the tax bill. and look at this. >> so i'll be working very hard over the holidays. again, i want to wish you a very merry christmas. i have some beautiful pens over here. >> beautiful pens. >> donald trump and i may have something in common today. it involves oprah. ♪ when you have a cold, stuff happens. ♪ { sneezing ]

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hire a law firm, where you're not a priority. call your cpa, who can be required to testify against you. or, call the tax law firm of moskowitz, llp. i went from being a cpa to a tax attorney because our clients needed more. call us, and let us put our 30 years of tax experience to work for you. jobs are produced through corporations. you see it happening. corporations are literally going wild over this. >> corporations do benefit under the tax plan. so does he. he could get $11 million a year under this bill. it is hard to confirm because he continues to withhold his tax returns.

>> he headed to mar-a-lago today without the traditional year end press conference. the first time a president skipped that ritual in 15 years. he doesn't like press coverage. he abused a tax loophole to avoid a review. the reporter who broke the stories on the beat will break it down momentarily. this shows he didn't just duck it. he did it by claiming to be charitable. tirs cause it a dirty dozen scam. this gave trump over $5 million. joining me, christine stapleton, investigator for the palm beach post. what did you find?

>> we found in the early 1990s, president trump was in financial trouble and he wanted to make some money off mar-a-lago. he initially wanted to break it into little estates and the found which wasn't really fond of him decided they didn't want that. he came back and said what about a private club? they said sure, if he would agree, well, he had promised to also give a preservation easement and the town said okay. we're interested. the problem is these are supposed to be charitable donations. you're not supposed to get anything in return. the town wanted donald trump to put in it writing that he would do this. they did not trust him and they wanted the easement put in place and mar-a-lago would be preserved. donald trump and his attorney could not do that because that would show that it was a quid

pro quo situation and he got something in return for this, what was supposed to be a charitable donation. and so the deal eventually went through without it being put in writing. the town council finally decided, we won't let you open the club or give you a certificate of occupancy in that that easement is in place. it took two years to do that and then they did give the certificate of occupancy and the club did open up. >> krystal, start wherever you want to. >> sometimes people do change. this person seems to never change. our president. this is all the same stuff that we've come to expect. lying to serve his own purposes, bilking the federal government of millions of dollars. pretending to be charitable. in actuality it is all about his bottom line. so yes, i think he has been very good over the years at work the system. this goes beyond and this is

something that he brags about. what the great reporting points out, this goes way beyond working the system as it exists. this goes to keeping something hush-hush and misleading the federal government so he could get millions. he could avoid millions in taxes that he really owed those coffers. one other thing i'll point out here is that of course, in any other time, in any other administration, this would be a major scandal. but because the bar has been set so low, or so high, depending how you look at i, this is barely a bump for him. barely gets the notice of the public when it really should be a folks and a scandal that everyone is paying attention to. >> well put. and for the final word with my take, one of the things that donald trump argued during the campaign, to the extent as he hustler, he would come into office and stop hustling for

himself and use those same hustle skills, if you will, for everyone else. i think yesterday's tax bill suppose is not really the case. he makes $11 million a year on that as well. it can be inferred from the returns he has that have leaked. it is tilted toward top earners. if you have a billion like donald trump, you're doing well. there's no evidence that hustle is being deployed on behalf of regular citizens. >> yes. and i think this is particularly interesting because this is not just the case of an easement he claimed 25, 30 years ago. this is his biggest form of charity that he has given in his life. he has given these easementes on his properties in bed minister, on golf courses, at his homes. over $100 million he's claimed in these easements. we've spoken to experts who said

if he is being audited, it is perhaps because of these easements. they are under scrutiny of the irs and we don't know if president trump is the target but he has certainly used these over the years as his biggest form of chair. >> what the irs has on donald trump, bob mueller has likely already obtained. thank you both and happy holidays. >> thanks, ari. >> thank you. coming up, more than 150,000 people say they will protest.

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some developing news this friday. 22 former federal prosecutors, i mentioned this at the top of the hour, sending donald trump a very serious letter warning against any illegal ousting of mueller. they say it would have severe repercussions for our sense of justice and they have served presidents ranging from the nixon administration to the obama administration of the it wlarns the top democrat in the rush investigation said. >> these are truly red lines and simply cannot allow them to be crossed. >> and on "the beat," congressman lue was talking about how to action would go if there was action against

mueller. >> we would take to the streets, we would try to impeach donald trump. if he wants to follow in the foot steps of richard nixon, he is welcome to try but it will not end well for him. >> and the white house insists there is no effort to remove bob mueller but many republicans not taking him at his word. moveon.org has many people ready. they say they have over 650 sites for the rallies. also, the "l.a. times" reporting protesters stashing bull horns, hot chocolate, sleeping bags in major cities and they've started arranging car pools in houston. i'm joined by the former director of rapid response for the clinton campaign, as well as a democratic strategist and

analyst. why are you taking these actions? do you know something other people don't? >> look. we have seen over the past couple weeks a dramatic increase in the attacks on the mueller investigation from the white house, republicans on capitol hill frrgs the right wing media. and it is clearly a ramp up in order to pave the way for one of a couple things. one is to either remove robert mueller from the investigation. two, is to try undermine his investigation through some sort of saturday night massacre that would curtail it. or three, would be potentially to issue pardons of key witnesses. senator mark warner laid out some very clear red lines that we should all be watching for, that would undermine in this investigation. so there's a group of promoters, organizations, that are insuring that people have a place to go and protest to stop any kind of

move that would undermine the rush probe and the mueller investigation. >> i think this is critical that we act. we need to in fact advance and send donald trump a message. but here's the thing that i think is so awesome. thank you for the boring that you're doing. in the event that he tries to fire mueller, it is really important the public understand what's happening. right now, donald trump is talking to his echo chamber of the fan base and pretty much blowing smoke at them. the truth is that i'm not sure the whole general public really understands the severity of what is being investigated, what is particularly, possibly implicated in terms of his engagement around even money laundering but also the russia investigation. by having all of these protests happen, we'll be sending a

signal that we're watching. but certainly with the broader public. i think it has absolutely triggered something more rapid to respond. >> the main concern here is a nonpartisan one. there are rules for the rule of law that should not be violated by any president in any party. are you really the best person to be leading this or out front when you are directly associated with hillary clinton? and are seen as an point of donald trump's from the get-go? >> that's what's so great about the website, trump is not above the law.org. it is self-fulfilling. people can go to the website and plug in their zip code is that find protests near them. if there's not one, they can create one themselves. so that's how the number has skyrocketed over the past week. more than doubling. people are going to the website. there are now events in all 50

states, including puerto rico, and they can go there and these are individually driven. so really the organizers like moveon and a security project. it is not just democrats signing up. it is republicans and independents as well. >> and do you know -- >> we're out of time. tell me in a sentence. >> we have to respist that this is rubbles. >> thank you very much. it is interesting to see these efforts in development. let me show you one more thing tonight. a wash post story that you have to see to believe. a first look at donald trump's new presidential challenge coin. trump personally involved, we're told, in re-designing it.

they said that it is gold, and trump removed the national motto and replaced with it make america great again. the presidential seal has been replaced with donald trump's personal signature. that brings the count of times that he appears on the coin to four. trump's coin reportedly thicker than the historical coins. you can see it there. the post reporting the design can help donald trump's coin stand up on its own. you be the judge of what it all means. up ahead, i have a bomb quiz for you. what might i have in common with donald trump? and this friday, who needs fall back? i have great guests ahead. the choice is simple. coricidin hbp is the #1 brand that gives powerful cold symptom relief without raising your blood pressure. coricidin hbp.

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it's friday on "the beat." so i'm going to let you in on a little secret. that means it's time to fall back. cue the music. and welcome to my comedian friends chuck dice and seth

herzog. who really -- you guys really go for it there. you appreciate the music. >> i love that. when is that album going to drop? >> chuck nice, man, it's been a week like every week i say that, but it has been a week. who needs to fall back? >> i'm going to tell you. i'm going to say government alien hunter haters. >> okay. >> it's a mouthful. but here's the deal. there are people who are mad because our government spent a lousy $22 million to determine whether or not aliens are visiting our planet. that is ridiculous. seriously? i mean, we spend $600 billion a year just in case our president starts a war by calling someone little rocket man and you've got a problem with $22 million? >> let me put a little fallback fushback. >> go ahead. >> if i may. what? why was this at the pentagon? maybe this should have been like a science thing. but people are like wait a minute, we're spending millions with the weaponry -- >> who cares where it is? it is the best use of tax

dollars ever. your government is doing the coolest thing they ever did with your money. real life x files. okay? >> who needs to fall back? >> this week more than any other week i've really been thinking about santa claus needs to fall back. that might be a surprising choice. who is this guy, and why is he the moral authority over who is naughty and who's nice? like i don't know how he feels about things. there was no senate hearings. i don't know how he lands on certain issues. you know? we just assume he thinks like we think. what's going on up there? how many elves are signing ndas? >> that's what i'm saying. >> like all we know about him is he's a reclusive crazy old man who wears pretty much the same outfit every single day. he doesn't talk to other humans. he's obsessed with wooden objects and wooden toys. you know, when is the first elf going to talk and when's that shoe going to drop? >> is this part of your experimental seasonal stand-up work? >> no, this is a real thing. >> can we make sure this isn't

like part of all-year stand-up for you? because this bit -- >> i'm just saying. >> this bit is like a lump of coal in my fallback friday chimney. >> oh, my gosh. >> and by the way -- >> you've got a lot of coal in your chimney. but coal's coming back. >> coal. i see what you did there. that was good. >> i'm sorry. that was a redemption right there. that was a redemption. >> you are speaking to someone who -- we have different types of experts. i am an expert on bad jokes. so i know of what i speak. >> my fallback, scott pruitt. using moirn -- you talk about alien money. he's using public funds to have his office swept for hidden listening devices and sophisticated "biometric locks." i'm like scott, i love your sense of self-confidence. you are not the most interesting thing in this administration. >> exactly. nobody cares, scott. >> people are worried what i think. everyone wants to hear what i think. no, scott, no one knew who you are until now. >> it's as always a joy to be

here. your stuff was funny, and your stuff, you were able to try it out on national tv, so you know it doesn't work. >> oh, my god. >> that's our fallback friday. >> good luck to seth. up ahead, though, just in time for christmas, a special beat announcement for you. and here's a hint. think oprah. i'll be right back. it's not just a pay check, you actually like what you do. even love it. and today, you can do things you never could before. ♪ ♪ you're developing ai applications on the cloud. finding insights hidden in decades of medical documents. and securing millions of iot sensors. so get back to it. and do the best work of your life. ♪ ♪ but he hasoke up and dowwork to do.in. work of your life. so he took aleve. if he'd taken tylenol, he'd be stopping for more pills right now. only aleve has the strength to stop tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. aleve. all day strong.

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oprah's famous for many things. one of them is the audience giveaway. >> you get a car! you get a car!

you get a car! you get a car! you get a car! you get a car! you get a car! everybody gets a car! >> everybody gets a car. i have something that will make you shake around a lot less than that. but we do give away pens on this show. why? i get asked about these pens more than just about anything else all the time. so in the spirit of the holidays we have been sending some out. here's mimi with her pen calling it a cherished possession. awesome. diane took this photo while in the act of writing with her pen from "the beat" and watching the show. laurie here in deep thought with her beat pen and says thanks for the sweet pen. thank you, laurie. and here's another one. fans of "the beat" of all ages, but emily says she's sad because she doesn't have a pen yet. which means she knows about this giveaway. emily, thanks for watching. and now we're sending you a pen. if you want to get in on this action, all you have to do is go to our facebook page at the beat with ari. like the page and give us your suggestion of a guest we should

have on in 2018. we will pick some winners and then ask for your address, and then send out more pens. and if you don't use facebook you can e-mail us as well at ari@msnbc.com. there's the tree. i'll see you back here. "hardball" with chris matthews starts now. gets no respect. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. president trump is down at mar-a-lago for christmas, but before leaving washington today he enjoyed one more victory dance for his tax bill. at a hastily arranged bill signing in the oval office the president touted all the achievements from his first year in office and he complained the media doesn't give him any credit.