dysfunction that i have never seen. >> we are 30 minutes away of the market opes opening. we begin with the decision to oust secretary james mattis. the president took a few days to absorb the scaviing criticism in the letter. he ordered secretary of state mike pompeo to inform mattis he had only a week left on the job. i want to go to jeff bennett live at the white house. the tone that came out of the president, sarah huckabee sanders with gratitude and a lot of praise. different tune and attitude this morning.

how did it fall apart? >> sources tell us the president became increasingly angry since the day mattis submitted his letter. his actions and under cut allies and the president's decision to pull troops from syria and afghanistan. the president were told by two senior officials and also frustrated of the coverage depicted mattis as the last adult in the room, jim mattis, the last member who can reign in some of trumps combative and isolationist. check out this exchange this morning with white house communications adviser mercedes

slack. >> can you name an adviser that the president has recommended he he to pull out the troops. >> at the end of the day, we all serve in the position of advising the president. it is up to the president to make the final decision. >> with mattis out, we nopat nopat -- know patrick shanahan is stepping in. john bolton and mike pompeo will face far less resistance as they offer more hawkish advise oconee ya a oconee -- on north korea and iran. >> thank you, i want to bring in our john hudson, national security reporter for the post.

>> john hudson, let me begin with you. the relationship between the out going secretary of defense, the in coming one and what it means for our military and policy from their perspective and what it means for their future of secretary of defense and his relationship with the white house after the ousting of james mattis before scheduled. what do you expect? >> yes, it is important between the president and patrick shanahan, their relationship. the president at one point asked for secretary mattis to assassinate the president of syria and he pushed back on that. now, is the future in coming secretary defense going to have that same level of backbone? what we know is that both president trump and shanahan have this interest in big ticket

deals. shanahan has a long history working for boeing and defense contracts and the president likes to go back and forth with him on those big ticket items. what does it mean for foreign policies? shanahan does not have a long history from foreign policies or even government in general. what is his view going to look like and how are they going to work together. there is a lot of big questions and a lot if there is going to lot of push back like tmattis ad him. >> the glowing praise that was heap on mattis for standing up on the president with so many issues of the alliances. i am curious to get your thought in terms of how the media mare activi narrative is playing inside the administration. what are people hearing inside?

>> their administrative officials say the president did become frustrated and did send mike pompeo to get the bad news and maybe good news to defend secretary mattis. i think what's really interesting here to john's point, you are putting ein a ne defense secretary who has zero experience with the policy and executive, a manager of a function -- i think that's what president trump wants. somebody to execute from him and not to have a discussion about the policies. you know from a step back point of view for the american public, the president says he's going to come and drain the swamp, no one is paying attention to the fact that the new defense secretary is a boeing, he was hired to run

a $7 billion or $8 billion agency. >> chris, you wrote the book of the chief of staff at the white house. i am curious to get your thought over the weekend that says now that mattis is gone. the air of containment is over. trump will enter his third year as president unbound -as at war with his perceived enemies and determined to follow through on the hand line-promises. you have a president who's no longer contained by the expression that people say an adult in the room. >> donald trump learned all the wrong lessons of the first two years of his presidency. he thinks if everybody gets out of his way and let trump be trump that we'll have good governance. we are getting paralysis. i don't know to be amused or appalled when i heard the new

chief of staff said yesterday this is what a non-traditional president looks like. this is not what a non-traditional president looks like, this is a broken dysfunctional presidency. ronald reagan understood the difference between campaigning which is dividing and demonizing and governing. reagan had a white house chief who knew what he was doing, jim baker. it is clear that mulvaney at this point, he's not the chief of staff. >> going forward, are you concerned that this president is going to be even more unhinged than what he's been over the first two years? >> i think again he's drawn all the wrong lessons of the first two years. the lesson is he needs more help and more competent and empowered white house chief of staff and not alessen power one.

we are in for trouble. this white house has a genius, you can only call it genius for misi missing opportunities. you would think the reform act, real achievement was a chance to signal, hey, let's turn the page and show that we can get stuff done on a bipartisan. >> but no, that is not trump. trump immediately blew it up and shot himself in both feet with the syria pull-out and the shutdown and the result is paralysis. >> john, let me ask you about brett mcgurk, you wrote about his resignation and most people are not familiar with him, he was important to the antiisis coalition. tell us about him and why his resignation is so significance and especially his timing. >> this is one of the most experienced american diplomats in the middle east. he worked in the george w. bush administration and the obama administration, he worked in the trump administration.

he was really the top envoy who was really the glue of international coalition in isis, he spent a lot of in syria and iraq and the kurdish who did a lot of the fighting against isis. his resignation came as a protest or against the pull-out. he was upset of u.s. allies being left and no preparations and no heads up which is interesting when the president went out and attacked him on twitter. i didn't know this guy. that was an interesting attack guy given the president's focus on isis, you would have think he would have known at least the name of his top diplomat leading the isis coalition. >> i can't imagine how awkward the phone call must have been from him or american cur dkurdi

allies, hey, we are pulling out, you are on your own. jonathan, i want to play to you what pat toomey says all of this on "meet the press." >> i wrongly disagree his decision to withdrew from syria. senators should speak out. we don't report to the president, we should cooperate where we can and where we need to disagree, we should be willing to do that. >> i see a lot of republicans talk about standing up to the president but they don't do it. is it different this time? we only hear senators that are out going. are we going to see something different? >> there is no real talk of putting up syria war throughout realization or requiring the president to remain engaged there. it is meaningful that the

president at some level but the president has lost lindsey graham. that's some sort of special marker for support drift away when senator graham in south carolina goes away. >> senator mulvaney sounds like someone is running for elections there saying he's going to agree with the president where he can and disagree when he can. the process is not being informed for a couple of years now and several years now. they have not had a debate in congress of what we are doing in syria. they chosen not to authorize the war in syria and not to chan change -- now members of congress with complaining of not being informed. they have passed time and time again on this option and maybe now they'll debate it as it seems to be too late. >> to the point we heard there,

do you think the reaction of the syria withdrawal and the mattis situation caught this white house by surprise. the syria withdrew and afghanistan withdrew is going to get a lot of praise but it is not how it is playing out at least in the media and the "fox and friends" crew. >> he read the letter and did not understand it. >> on the mattis resignation. >> i think the mattis resignation is a moment for every republican in congress. i think that this was not about syria. cig syria was the trigger but this is mattis repudiating donald trump on his entire view. he's saying this president is cozying up to dictators and under estimating china.

it is a moment that everybody has to look at themselves in the mirror and say do we support the president and his agenda or not. we are at odds with america's interes interests. >> it is interesting to see what the reaction. >> thank you very much. up next, we are entering day three of the partial government shutdown with lawmakers home for the holidays. we are keeping a close eye on the markets this morning is set to open at the bottom of the hour. we'll go live to see how they open after the worse week for the dow in decades. stay with us. hello mom. amanda's mom's appointment just got rescheduled - for today. amanda needs right at home. our customized care plans provide as much - or as little help - as her mom requires. whether it's a ride to the doctor or help around the house. oh, of course! tom, i am really sorry. i've gotta go.

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it is now day three of the partial government shutdown and both sides are not close to a deal. >> it is possible that the shutdown will go beyond the 28th and into the new congress. >> it is in the president's hands to decide, he says it is an issue of border security. we know it is better. it is an issue of his own political -- >> we spoke 16 hours ago and you and i nothing has changed whatsoever on the politics of it at all. where do things stand right now. >> not a creature is stirring on christmas eve. things are at a standstill.

you heard mick mulvaney yesterday on the sunday morning program saying that he believes this is going to go into the new congress and starting to look like maybe a prophecy that comes through january 3rd. is the constitution mandated, congress comes in and the house takes over. democrats take over the house of representatives and nancy pelosi has already said that she will pass a spending bill to reopen the government first thing of the way the house is structured. she can do that within a matter of hours. the senator is on record passing a measure that has $1.3 billion for a wall but for border security. that semantic distinction is being made over the over at the house. mull vvaney says there are negotiations going on. we have not seen any movement over the last two days. mercedes slap, she's a communicatio communications aide. she was over at "fox and

friends" this morning and their is what she said. >> it is up to the democrats. we offered them a deal. let's see what they come back with. our goal is to get 1.5 or $1.6 million. >> democrats need to step up to the plait. it is up to them to stop the shutdown. >> we are in the talking point stage here, that's apparent which means they're still dancing around each other and everything is on hold and obviously this is christmas eve. the senate does not come back to session until thursday. ev nothing is scheduled and nothing is expected to happen. in a holding pattern here and notwithstandi notwithstanding, both sides are trying to appear reasonable and appear to willing to negotiate. nothing is happening as far as we can tell and no movement, the government is remained partially shutdown. >> mike on capitol hill, thank you. >> i want to bring in our panel

lists, evan and our analyst and daily beast columnist. let me pick up on what mercedes schlapp is saying there. >> she just said they want to try to get between some where of 1.6 or $5 billion. >> democrats are not going to go anywhere between 1.3. if there is an exit ramp in all of this? are we closer to something than what we think? >> we are going into the new congress to be honest with you. >> we have to remember how this all started. mitch mcconnell had a deal with the white house that would fund the government until february 8th which the white house walked away from. jim jordan and mark meadows went crazy. they're the true power of the house gop right now, not kevin

ma mccarthy. >> what did those guys do? >> the tea party is the one that really has the pulse of the base of the republican party right now. for speaker ryan you saw and boehner before him, dealing with the tea party is like hurting cats. the democrats when they take power. what they should do is come up with a deal with mitch mcconnell themselves, one is similar to what they propose and agreed upon a bipartisan group of senators in february which is $25 billion for the wall in exchange for daca and it got 54 votes in the senate. but, if they do that, they're able to pass it in the senate, then they're putting the ball in the white house as court and daring them to veto it. if trump vetoes it, it makes the white house looks worse. that would be the smart thing for democrats to do. i think republicans are in a

binds here and more time it passes. >> you are talking about the tea party guys, in ten days, we'll turn the pumpkin. it is going into the minorities. >> these minorities don't have a voice but a voice within their party. >> they have no power. >> their voices can go way down. these tea party guys have been in power for a long time. their days are done. because there are no lower species in washington. so nancy pelosi is going to roll right over them starting january 3rd, she will negotiate with mitch mcconnell eventually but not until the card that she's holding put a lot more pressure on president trump. >> not holding any cards and

significance cards in the struggle. >> you guys talked about mitch mcconnell. let me play the sound byte. >> they are under a lot of pressure. we know this. they are far left and feel compelled to disagree with the president or almost anything and certainly this. >> you talked about the tea party folks going to become irrelevant in the new congress, new power with the new base, the left, is senator mcconnell saying they're not doing anything because of the power of the far left the democratic party has. >> mcconnell is in a tight spot. it is all 100 senators, just a few days ago said let's not have a shutdown, let's move this into february. the anne-coulter shutdown, i

disagree with you. the president was going to go along with the mcconnell and then coulter started calling names and he unfollow eed hed e took her advice. the problem is this is where people don't understand. the wall is dead. it is just simply dead because you have to have the votes for it for the house of representatives and it is fnot close. there will be no wall. what they are arguing is how much money for border security. >> give me then your take and analysis on where republicans go from here? you had advice for democrats and the new congress, if you are advising this congress, what would you say to them going forward? >> you are the ones that pulled out. we are not going to help you

here. cornyn and mcconnell washed their hands in this. they want to make it clear. mcconnell protecting himself from the base trying to say listen, it is the democrats who did it and it is not me or trump. >> this is the president posturing for his political base? >> yes. i think what jonathan was saying how mark meadows and jim jordan we don't want be in the tea party and won't be influential. they'll be. he rage tweets all the time. he sought the government to his base. when the base is where the tea party is at. >> that's true. the idea to get democrats to go for 25 billion. >> they're not going to do that. maybe they may trade protection for the dreamers for $1.5 billion. >> maybe 1 pn.6. >> jonathan and evan, thank you so much. futures is pointing down

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we have to go to the markets now.

the opening bell is about to ring after the worst week of trading for 2018. seema mow seema mody is joining us now. >> trade war with china, what do you think is going to be the key player today in. >> as you mention, i think what is the big topic of discussion is this call that took place between secretary mnuchin and the heads of the six largest banks yesterday. that included jamie dimon, david sullivan. the statement from treasury says all confirm to lending and business markets, investors are still confused as to the timing of the call and if there is an imminent risk to this market

that's not fully realized by investors. we are open for trading with stocks set to close at 1:00 p.m. eastern. we are lower across the board and it has been a volatile recent months for wall street. our sell-off marks the worst week u.s. stocks for decades. we tend to see a santa claus rallying the last several years. given the concerns around the economy and trade war between the united states and china with that 90-day deadline coming up in march and the fed raising rates and of course this government shutdown and the implications of what it means for investors and adding to concerns, a report of president trump discussed firiing jerome powell, no confirmation of that. that seems to be a big topic of that. >> steve mnuchin's call with the ceos of the major american banks to discuss the market turmoil. he was trying to instill some confidence in his statement that

was released to the public. could it actually have a negative impact that he's having this call in the first place and to make sure that the banks certainly have their liquidity and are not leverage too much. >> absolutely. historically a call like this only happens when we are in a much dire situation where the economy is slowing down at a sharp decline and financial firms are in a situation where they have a number of warnings and risks on their table. at this point, it does not seem to be the case even if you look at the economy. the jobs have been looking good and the economy is still set to grow by 2% to 3%. timing of this call certainly been a confusion factor for the markets right now. >> seema mody. >> live for us. >> thank you. >> time now for your morning primer. everything you need to know.

we begin with an investigation where a referee told the student to cut his locks. the referee had been benched. justice ruth ginsburg is recovering after removal of her lungs. doctor say says there is no evie of the disease elsewhere in her body. >> the grodrone sitings at gat k

gatwik - >> that's the largest prize on christmas day. >> the steelers may have fumbled any chance they have at the playoffs, it lost to the new orleans saints. that led the saints to secure their top seed. 28-27. all right, up next, developments of one of the biggest mysteries surrounding the mueller probe. that story and if we can tell you about it if anything is next. sometimes the best time

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all right the chief justice of the supreme court is getting involved in a legal dispute stemming from robert mueller's investigation. the problem is we don't know very much about it. we understand it revolves around mueller's prosecutor. mueller issued a temporary stay on sunday as the high courts decide whether to get involved. i want to bring in charlie savage for the new york times and came whaley and our former prosecutor. charlie, let me begin with you, i know you wrote about this back on december 19th, i believe, can you explain what we know about it in general? >> yes, so this is a case in

which someone, some witness have been subpoenaed to provide information to a grand jury for the district of columbia. the witness is trying to not turn over that information and it is gone up to the appeals court and supreme court court. there are circumstantial evidence that this relates to bob mueller. although we don't know for sure. someone saw a mueller's lawyer going into a room where there was a hearing on the same day the ruling came down related to this mysterious case. we' we learned when a d.c. circuit put out a three-page opinion upholding a lower court ruling that says whatever this is, has to be turnedover and if they don't, it is $5,000 a week fine for failure to comply. that ruling says this is a corporation that's owned by a foreign government and they're

trying to say they are sovereign immunity because of their foreign government status and they're trying to say whatever information they're being required to be turned over to u.s. law will be a violation of their home country's law. whatever country that is. that's all we know at this point. that losing company has appealed to the supreme court and chief justice roberts have stopped them from paying a fine while the rest of the court is deciding whether or not they want to hear this appeal. the prosecutors which may or may not get mueller is winning and the company is trying to over turn that legal sta stay with us q us -- status quo. >> i asked my colleague how often it happens. he says it happens half a dozen time s of the year. not everyday but not highly unusual for a short term one justice stay like this in a sign

that may not be, you know, hugely important. the supreme court did not post this ruling on its website. it e-mailed it out to beep reporters. >> what would it take for mueller to - we don't have definitive action for what this case involves mueller. >> it would be subpoena, a foreign corporation that he wants the get information of the russian interference and under federal rule of criminal procedure, you have to respond to grand jury subpoenas if you are a regular person or a corporation. what's tricky here is we have what looks like a foreign entity and then we have a separate statue called the sovereign

entity act. it comes down to how much can american court force foreign entities, foreign government entities to respond to its demands from its court. i think that would probably be the bigger issue that the supreme court may be taken into account here. whether we as a court want to answer this. does it have implications beyond the dispute. maybe there are more things pending relating to this. we know the mueller investigation is quite broad. it is not just russia, it could include turkey, we saw this with the flynn sentencing memo. there is some rumblings about saudi arabia connections with mr. trump. it could have broader implications beyond just russia. >> you have the issue of michael flynn and turkey and lobbying

efforts there. >> glenn, i want to get your thoughts on this, is it possible that whatever it is that this entity is that's seeking information from the entity that we are talking about. does it mean it is operating in the united states. we know they are claiming sovereignty immunity. does it mean they have to be in the u.s.? >> i do believe there has to be a u.s. connection so perhaps operating in the united states as part of their business and i think just to kind of take a step back to do a quick 30 seconds civic break down which folks may find helpful. the supreme court has about 7,000 to 8,000 requests every year to hear cases. they only take about 70 or 80, so a low percentage. roughly 1%. they look at the case and try to ask themselves, does this have some sorts of novel questions

under our constitution. the other instance where they'll accept the case for review as if two federal circuit courts. let's say the fourth and the ninth decided the same or a similar question differently. so now you have a split in the federal authority and the supreme court wants there to be one unified set of federal laws and constitutional interpretations. that's a little bit of a backdrop. with respect to this issue, you know i agree with charlie, it is not all that unusual for the supreme court through the chief justice to say you know what, we are going to say stay fines that the lower court impose because we want to freeze the status quo while we give the government until december 31st, to file its reply and we can decide whether this is an issue where we want to take on. i will say finally eamon, although this is the first time

the supreme court is grabbing hold of a possible muller-related issue, it may not have a significance, presidential implications. it is on a narrow issue of a subpoena battle. i don't know that at the end of the day if they accepted or decided, it is going to tell us very much about the mueller investigation. >> kim, how much of the mueller investigation is being waged booi behind closed doors that we don't know much, how significance of the fight or the investigation is taking place away or out of the view of the public? >> that's a great question because we hear every few weeks of speculations as to when the mueller investigation will wrap up and the mueller's team themselves are tight lift on that. this is a grand jury investigation and under federal law it has to be concept secret. i worked on the white water investigation and that was before the age of tweets and internet and even in that

context, there was a small percentage of information that the public had access to, knowing being inside the investigation, the last speculation and it was almost and always not incomplete and inaccurate. my guess is it is hard to say how much extra litigation is ongoing. there are saleal matters going at the time. could it involve the mueller investigation? i do think there are potentially very huge questions that could be eventually up for the supreme court of the united states, this is one of statutory laws and that can have a big implications. but, i would say there is so much that we don't know. >> right. >> we have just the tip of the iceberg whether in court or just what's happening in the mueller investigation itself. >> how difficult has it been for

you as a reporter and others trying to cover that aspect of the investigation when you are trying to get details about a subpoena that's obviously not assessable to the public? >> it has been a huge problem and a challenge for us asset the new york times and across the industry. one of the dangers of all this and i like how you are doing this segment appropriately cautious. the danger is to speculate or think you know more than you know especially in a situation as it has been shown the last year and a half most of us think we know what we are doing is not coming from mueller itself. they have sort of a cockeyed view of it. one of the things that a lot of speculations -- we keep on hearing the story, mueller is turning his report any day now

right after the midterms. we don't know. this is another one of these things where we don't have complete information and we are trying to fill in the gaps with informed speculations. is this a foreign bank maybe or did something to process through our bank system? it could be something else entirely. it is interesting. there is no satisfying conclusion to it at this stage. >> yeah, i was going the say we'll debut this segment here, thank you for participating in our first segment. >> charlie, kim, thank you guys. >> up next, a tsunami strikes in indonesia without warning. we'll have live updates next. >> the dow is down nearly 300 points, 393 to be exact after wall street's worst week in decades. it looks like it is not getting any better. and the car has become an accessory to the smartphone.

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the frantic search for survivors continues in indonesia after a tsunami hit the area around the sunda straits on saturday. the death toll rising again this morning. at least 373 people are feared

dead, hundreds are injured. dramatic footage posted on social media shows 10 foot tall waves destroying the stage of a beach front concert. the leads singer of the band posting a tearful message saying his bass player and guitarist and manager died. for more on this. i'm joined by nbc's lucy cavanaugh in london. give us an update on what's happening on the ground there? >> it's dark in indonesia right now in complicates the search-and-rescue effort but emergency crews said bid the military has been working around the clock. it's been a frantic search for survivors as the death toll continues to climb. now this tsunami struck with zero warning on saturday night. there was no time to get away, no warning with because there was no earthquake, that's what usually triggers tsunamis. not in this case. instead, experts believe a

volcanic eruption at the anak krakatoa volcano triggered a land is slide. part of the sunda strait collapsed sliding into the sea with enough force to set that you have tsunami wave. it was a full moon at the time. the tides were higher than normal which meant the impact was worse and, look, this was a holiday weekend in indonesia. families traveled to these gorgeous beach side hotels and resorts to spend quality time with one another. it flattened coastal areas, damaged homes, cars, hospitals right now overwhelmed with patients and frankly those folks are the lucky ones. many are struggling to get help. what gets me, eamon is that can't this country catch a break? this is the second deadly tsunami to strike indonesia this

year. 2500 killed in september. we all also remember the devastating images back from 2004 the day after christmas when the deadliest tsunami ever recorded claimed more than 230,000 lives. saturday's incident smaller but that doesn't make it less pain f ful. >> heartbreaking images out of indonesia. lucy kafanov live in london. coming up, a federal judge struck down the justice department's attempt to main it harder to claim asylum for domestic or gang violence. what that means for one family in the united states and one little girl whose words gave a voice to the thousands of children separated from their families at the border. up to fifty thousand dollars, decided in as little as 60 seconds. the powerful backing of american express. don't do business without it.

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complicated relationship with milk? pour on the lactaid, 100% real milk, just without that annoying lactose. mmm, that's good. and i'm still going for my best even though i live with a higher risk of stroke due to afib not caused by a heart valve problem. so if there's a better treatment than warfarin, i'm up for that. eliquis. eliquis is proven to reduce stroke risk better than warfarin. plus has significantly less major bleeding than warfarin. eliquis is fda-approved and has both. so what's next? seeing these guys. don't stop taking eliquis unless your doctor tells you to, as stopping increases your risk of having a stroke. eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. don't take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. while taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily and it may take longer than usual for any bleeding to stop. seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. tell your doctor about all planned

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so you know how we like to end the show no matter what there is always some good news out there somewhere and we think good news rules. so here it is. an idaho police sergeant enlisted the help of his fellow officers over the last month, gathering toy donations for children's hospitals with the help of his brothers and sisters in blue. children at two hospitals received $20,000 worth of toys. one hospital says pretty much every pediatric patient will get a toy for the holidays. that's how we like to end the show with some positive news. with that that wraps up this hour. more news with morgan. >> happy holidays ammon.

this morning, the secretary sent packing. president trump booting jim mattis from the pentagon. the defense secretary had expected to leave in two months but the president had different plans. why he's forced mattis out early and just who is the man that will temporarily take his place. on this christmas eve, we wish we could tell you we're on the eve of a deal to reopen the government, but we are not. the white house and congress still far apart when it comes to money for that border wall. administration officials now warning the shutdown could go well into 2019. but don't stress. we do have a heartwarming story for the holidays. do you remember also on? that's the seven-year-old that was heard crying when immigration officials separated her from her family. well now she's back with her mother in texas and mariana atencio joins with us her story. but first, i want to get straight to nbc's