>> this is a democracy and the american people didn't elect us to stand up for citigroup. they elected us to stand up for all the people. >> each party has been working cooperatively for the american people there's more and more focus on winning the election. mr. president, we have lost our way. >> president obama says he will sign the continuing resolution as soon as elves from capitol hill deliver it to his desk. all indications are they will deliver that soon. >> i wonder if he'll give them milk and cookies? let's start at the white house with chris jansing on the north lawn. some people think that senator warren looks heroic but did the president make nancy and senator warren look like the grinch who tried to steal christmas? >> i think from the white house perspective, toure, they would say, no, this is what they're saying today.

this is the difference in tactics and not in political philosophy. in fact, on the two issues where the liberal wing of the party was particularly upset about campaign finance and regulating banks, the president said when they were stand-alone in the past they were something he would veto. clearly, this is the best deal that the white house and harry reid and all democrats thought they could get. it would only get worse if there was a three-month continuing resolution. they would have less leverage as more americans were in the house and senate. of course, taking control of the senate. so, they're saying nice things about nancy nancy pelosi. this is someone who's not only been a significant ally, and going forward they'll look for ways to compromise in that nancy pelosi will continue for them. this is what josh earnest said

earlier at the briefing. >> it's hard to think of anyone the president has worked with more closely or more successfully on capitol hill than leader pelosi. leader pelosi is someone who's a champion for middle class families and for basic american values. and that makes her someone who shares -- has the same priorities as the president. >> did nancy pelosi get frozen out of these negotiations? certainly, she wasn't the key player here. definitely was harry reid on the democratic side and the president. they got what they wanted here in terms of getting this deal done. i think the other thing josh earnest says, anybody who underestimates nancy pelosi does things at their own peril. she's gotten things done in the past. >> thank you very much for that. let's turn to staff

correspondent. lauren, there was passionate dissent about this bill. why did it finally get done? >> well, i think what happened here is republicans and democrats had to stop listening to some of the more extreme voices in each of their parties and had to find a coalition to cobble together and pass this bill. we heard before, that's how they did it last night. >> i found the politics on the hill last night, when you had democrats running around, trying to figure out if they had enough votes. normally it's the republicans on this side of the debate. they could continue to fight this bill until next congress comes in, when it's totally republican or swallow a few bitter pills or get a few things they want out of this. is this just an indication of things to come? is this what you see going to be the new normal for democrats? >> i think what we have to

remember is this has been negotiated for months and months. there were things in this bill democrats wanted. a lot of members who i talked to last night said, at the end of the day maybe i didn't like this provision but i had to make sure i got x, y, z for my constituents at home. it is possible we might see more of this moving forward. there are parts of congress they have positive work together. >> can you believe that? >> increasing the debt ceiling is something we'll have to do next year as well. i think there are plenty more opportunities for this. i think everyone in washington hopes maybe people can continue to compromise. >> on that point, the president spent a lot of 2013 seeking to set a precedence americans wouldn't get significant policy concessions in exchange for must pass bills like raising the debt limit, resolution of the government shutdown last year was sort of the fact that wasn't going to work. now a reversal of that.

they got several policy concessions related to this bill. what are they likely to go for in the coming year as we have another need to raise the debt limit, another bill to fund the government next fall. what sort of policy changes might we see as part of those negotiations? >> i think the first thing we have to watch for is the cr on the department of homeland security. that's going to be the next time republicans go head to head with the president on some of his policies like executive actions on immigration reform, which will help, you know, about 5 million immigrants. i think that's the next big moment and big fire works moment we can see in washington. >> you mentioned earlier in the segment the notion of extreme voices. what's interesting about the wall street debate, it's about america on one side of this, and on the other side, the side of the big banks and their risks. i was talking to senator al

franken. let's take a look at what he said on this issue. >> you think it's worth weakening dodd/frank in order to get this budget passed? >> i don't like that at all. i actually just left a caucus meeting, a caucus lunch and we were discussing this. i'm not going to -- there are some things in this that are very good. and our negotiators golt got a lot of bad stuff out, good funding for infrastructure, some infrastructure needs that are important to minnesota, good things on funding for violence against women act. so, this process is always very ugly. and things also change. i've been through enough of these things change at the end.

i can't tell you how i'm going to vote the rollback of anything in dodd/frank is a bad idea. >> in the caucus meeting did it feel like these issues are a line colleagues don't want to cross here? >> again, i don't want to tell you. >> where do we go from here? >> i guess the interviews over. no, it's just -- we're in negotiations. >> the interview was not over. we'll air the rest of it interview on "the cycle" monday with al franken. but some discomfort over where they have to go. folks in both parties may end up defending this on the wall street issue more than a lot of the other stuff in the bill. >> members are not only looking at wall street issue but the campaign finance issue in this bill and having a difficult time

deciding how to volt. of course, people want to make sure the government continues to be funded. there's a lot of other provisions they're happy about in this bill. i think it's a tough decision for a lot of democrats who are kind of on the fence on this issue. it will be interesting to see democrats in leadership line up. they could be divided. >> who knew al franken could be such a funny guy. good stuff, ari. elizabeth warren really flexed her muscles in this situation and didn't get what she wanted, or at least hasn't gotten what she wanted. what does it say about warren and the warren wing they fought so hard and lost this particular battle? >> i don't think losing is really what matters here if she doesn't end up getting what she wants. i think she continues to be a voice for the liberal wing of the party. i think that's very important in terms of motivating that branch of the party. especially as we look toward a presidential election in 2016. she served a purpose even if this isn't the battle she wins today. >> indeed.

lauren fox, thanks so much. be sure to watch on monday when we will show ari's full one-on-one interview with the very funny minnesota senator al franken, a guy who really does these sorts of things. kudos to you, ari. we'll hear his take on the budget and cia torture report. we're talking about that straight ahead, the tiny detail that went under the radar until now. head games played on gitmo detainees on psychological dating back to the '60s. it will blow your mind. sunny california has turned into a disaster zone. we'll cycle through all of that as we roll on. it is friday, december 12th. (vo) nourished. rescued. protected. given new hope. during the subaru "share the love" event, subaru owners feel it, too. because when you take home a new subaru, we donate 250 dollars to helping those in need.

we'll have given 50 million dollars over seven years. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. ♪ vicks nyquil severe. helps relieve your ugliest, nastiest, roughest, toughest cold symptoms. vicks nyquil severe. with maximum symptom fighting ingredients. ♪

i have the worst cold with this runni better take something. dayquill cold and flu doesn't treat your runny nose. seriously? alka-seltzer plus cold and cough fights your worst cold symptoms plus your runny nose. oh, what a relief it is.

at least four people in ckabul. former vice president dick cheney says the report is full of crap and he'll talk to chuck todd on "meet the press" exclusively. john brennan says even though the cia made some mistakes, it's unknownable if the cia gained valuable intelligence. >> let me be clear. we have not concluded it was the use of eits within that program

that allowed us to obtain useful information from detainees subjected to them. the cause and effect relationship between the use of eits and useful information subsequently provided by the detainee is, in my view, unknowable. >> unknowable. if that's hard to follow, it may be on purpose. critics say that speech by brennan ducks the purpose because the information from detainees came before they were tortured. for years the cia misled congress and the press in order to justify the program. the senate report reveals evidence some torture practice changed detainee behavior though not the release of information. waterboarding can lead to compliance. as patrick tucker writes, one of the most disturbing portions writes how after torture, a detainee changed and become compliant. patrick is the tech editor for

defense one and joins us. >> good afternoon. >> look, you look at this, what brennan said yesterday, you look at all the evidence in this report and you spent some time with it and the related psychological research. why is it so hard for the cia at this juncture now, not before, to acknowledge that they don't have any good evidence this led to valuable intel. brennan seemed to want to have a more philosophical question about what causes what but he doesn't have any evidence they got the intel this way. >> the point of learned ep hadlessness, the that two psychologists started, doesn't actually result necessarily in the subject giving you more information. the end goal of creating that psychological state is to render that subject incapable of keeping any secrets from you, to essentially render them without a will or the agency to hide

anything from interrogators. and the evidence suggests that they did succeed in achieving that state, but there's not any additional information that the people that the cia interrogators report in cables to base, that they got out of subjects after achieving that psychological state. >> psychologically, how is learned helplessness created in these folks? >> well, it comes from an idea by psychiatrist who was with the university of pennsylvania in 1967 and i should point out no one accused him, who's astill alive, of being in a part of this particular endeavor. but what these two air force psychiatrists working with his theory tried to do is basically create this state of compliance. in 1957 he took a bunch of test subjects, dogs in this case, and

he found that you shock them repeatedly but you gave them an option for escaping that behavior and then they would display resilience. at the same time if you shocked dogs and gave them no option for escaping that behavior, after about seven days the dogs would learn to accept that as their permanent state and they would sort of lie down and begin to whimper. this is what these two air force psychiatrists tried to create in the subjects they were dealing with. now, they were trained to help air force members that were captured to resist torture. the way you do that is help people imagine a future in which the torture is going to end. with the subjects that the cia was enter gagt, th was interrogating was to do the exact opposite. not only were they being tortured, but torture was now a permanent state for them, to basically, you know, take away their future. >> why would anyone think this was a useful technique for

extracting information? don't you teach the subject, whether a dog or detainee, their impact will have nothing on their misery. you think you would want someone who has nfrgs, you believe giving up the information would be good for them, maybe get them out of their miserable condition. this sounds like it's something that's intended to break someone, even maybe them less useful as a source of information. >> the evidence suggests that the subjects that went through this treatment, they did become compliant. they did begin to accept their fate as permanent. there is no evidence, actually, they did provide any more useful information. what they were trying to do, these two air force psychiatrists, was to render the subject simply incapable of keeping anything. they didn't even know what else they were going to ask them. they weren't seeking any specific point of information. they simply wanted to create a state where if there was any more information, it would come tumbling out of the subject regardless of the subject's

will. whether the subject was not going to respond to positive reinforcement, the opportunity for escape or negative. was simply going to do exactly as instructed after that point. >> i'm someone who supports in drawing a moral line in terms of how far we're willing to go. our enemy has no moral line. i think about our own military as they are -- as we know, they have been kidnapped by our enemies. who knows what they have to go through. how do we train our military for that? do we have a line there? obviously, they don't have the same amount of fear because they know at some point it will end when we help them train for it. but what sorts of things do we do? >> there's a lot of different things can you do to help develop resilience or resistance to continued pressure. waterboarding is sometimes a technique the navy has employed to help people understand how drowning might affect them and how they can overcome physical

discomfort they associate with drowning. basically, to keep an eye on the future, it's sort of reverse to what a great psychologist said, depression is the inability to construct a future. if you construct a future in a variety of situations, including situations that are extremely difficult, where you're being told you don't have one, then you can imagine continuing -- you can create a space for resilience. that's what a lot of these different techniques that help service members overcome and resist torture focus on. >> listening to you talk about it it's uncomfortable, reading about what's in the report is uncomfortable. that's the part of this conversation that i think as a country has to continue. the report gave us a lot of information about what has been done in our name and hopfully people will figure out what we can do about it. patrick tucker, thanks much. we're going to go ahead a little lighter, a little more positive,

a little more fun, josh. we're going to talk about angelina jolie. tom cruise, president obama, the sony pictures hack and a lot of the good details. straight ahead. best. better taste. better nutrition. better eggs. it's eb. better eggs. which means it's timeson for the volkswagen sign-then-drive event. for practically just your signature, you could drive home for the holidays in a german-engineered volkswagen. like the sporty, advanced new jetta... and the 2015 motor trend car of the year all-new golf. if you're wishing for a new volkswagen this season... just about all you need is a finely tuned... pen. get zero due at signing, zero down, zero deposit, and zero first month's payment on select new volkswagen models.

and i quit smoking with chantix. people who know me, they say 'i never thought you would quit.' but chantix helped me do it. along with support, chantix (varenicline) is proven to help people quit smoking. it gave me the power to overcome the urge to smoke. some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. some people had seizures while taking chantix. if you have any of these, stop chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of mental health problems, which could get worse while taking chantix or history of seizures. don' take chantix if you've had a serious allergic or skin reaction to it. if you develop these, stop chantix and see your doctor right away as some can be life-threatening. tell your doctor if you have a history of heart or blood vessel problems, or if you develop new or worse symptoms. get medical help right away if you have symptoms of a heart attack or stroke. decrease alcohol use while taking chantix. use caution when driving or operating machinery. common side effects include nausea, trouble sleeping and unusual dreams. i'm a non-smoker, that feels amazing. ask your doctor if chantix

is right for you.

> cycling right now. planes are finally flying over british air space. a computer glitch cut off communications between traffic air tower and heathrow airport. that caused a domino effect across the country and beyond. the strongest storm in a decade is hitting the most ro e drought-stricken parts of southern california. widespread mudslides have buried roadways and in some cases even cars, abby. >> it's terrible. we talked yesterday about the deeply routed connection between hollywood and d.c. this week it has become more apparent than ever. case in point, the unprecedented sewn pictures hacking scandal

that sought the release of those criticizing the big stars. amy pascel was corresponding with producer scott rudin last year and joked the president would probably enjoy slave mo e movies. as for the actual hack, the fbi still does not know who for sure is responsible. some have speculated, though it was north korea. the government there is none too happy about an upcoming sewn film called "the interview" a fixesal plot to kill the country's leader. last night's red carpet premiere was closed off to media due to security concerns. the author of "hate crimes in cyberspa cyberspace" is joining us. >> thanks for having me on.

>> a group or nation is capable of doing something like this. i mean, is this something we should be quite determined about? >> absolutely. i think it demonstrates our vulnerability to exposure of our most private information. at least on the work i do on harassment and stalking, we see a perfect storm of exposure of very private information, whether it's in the hack of social security numbers or exposure of the nude celebrity photos in what we call celebgate. but for the average person it's a combination of threats, defamation, privacy invasion, including the posting of nude photos in ways that make it difficult to get a job, manage your personal reputations and express yourself. >> you've written an interesting book, hate crimes in cyberspace, talking about some of the things

we can do and some of the things the law can and cannot do when we get in trouble online. almost everybody will be at a company that eventually has this sort of hack happen to them. should we all be afraid to e-mail? should we consider changing how we deal with e-mail? maybe pick up the phone more than we used to? >> i hope that's not the kind of society we've come to. we've taken data security much more seriously and bring about laws that will prevent hacking and other abuse in technologies. i hope we don't have to change and become less interesting, less expressive because of these kinds of privacy invasions. >> in terms of your work, a lot of the types of laws we have against harassment of women comes to a time when we didn't have gender equality and we didn't have technology.

how important is it to change each of those planks? is this more of an issue for modernizing for tech or does it harken back to the fact this is an area we know sex crimes, harassment isn't dealt with well? >> i think it's both. we need to impart some of our modern stalking laws so they apply not only one-to-one communications but party's platforms. there is some reform we need to improve the law. you were talking about social attitudes. fundamentally we have to struggle and keep working on. we've helped change hearts and minds about the way we understand sexual harassment in the workplace. it went from no big deal, something trivial that workplace had its own rules, to sex discrimination, that really cost people equal opportunities. i think we have to change the way we understand online stalking and harassment.

it's not boys turn off your computers. it takes people fundamentally ways to get a job, establish reputation, to live their lives and safety. that's part of it. how about changing -- what you said, how law needs to catch up with technology. that's true in part, right? so revenge point of the concept, which is untouched by stalking laws which doesn't include a persistent course of conduct. in many respects this new phenomenon, which isn't isolated, we really need to catch up state and federal laws to meet these new challenges. so, i think it's a combination of things we've got to work on. >> danielle, when people talk about laws and policies to prevent online harassment, there are often free speech concerns to get raised. one thing you write at length about in your book is how to draw the line around those sorts of policies, what you can do to prevent this sort of abuse without jeopardizing free expression. how does that work? what are the legal changes we can do within that box?

>> right. i think we can absolutely accommodate our commitment to civil liberty speech and commitment to civil liberty speech. we give much rigorous protection includes threats, defamation of people, you can't solicit someone to hurt someone else online, impersonate them and suggest their interest in sex and put up their home phone number. that's a crime in solicitation. we would say is so fundamentally private. if we don't protect it, we're going to inhibit private protection. i think there are -- in my book in laying out a legal agenda, both to enhance the law, but also to apply it, would be absolutely within our commitment to the first amendment, both free speech values. >> any times something like this happens, i think it's another reed reminder to think twice

before you post anything online. thank you for being with us. we appreciate it. >> just when you thought the oscar pistorius courtroom drama was over, why he might end up back before a judge. that's next. to help spread some holiday cheer. before earning 1% cash back everywhere, every time; and 2% back at the grocery store. thank you! even before they got 3% back on gas, all with no hoops to jump through, a couple was inspired to use their bankamericard cash rewards credit card

to throw the ultimate ugly sweater party of the season. that's the spirit of rewarding connections. apply online or at a bank of america near you. ♪soft holiday music ]♪ can you help me up? [ snow intensifies ] [ sleighbells ring in the distance ] aleve. all day pain relief with just 2 pills. get back to being you.

into one you'll never forget. earn triple points when you book with the expedia app. expedia plus rewards.

new details about the fate of the blade runner, oscar pistorius. as he sits in a south african jail, he may learn he'll be there much longer. prosecutors are deciding whether to appeal the olympian's condition on a lesser charge of culpable homicide in the death of his girlfriend, reason that steenkamp. it could attack an extra decade onto his sentence. monday hearing that news, he reportedly lost it, according to

"the daily mail." we were gripped by this trial reminiscent of o.j. back in the '90s. arthur john carlin examined the pistorius trial with interviews who knew him best and is compiled in "chase your shadows: the story of oscar pistorius." you wrote about his history and you wrote, quote, he bet all on romantic love. he describe his emotional volatility with other girlfriends. >> i mean, i don't think media has overcomplicated it because there's been a huge amount of interest, millions of people around the world. it's a classic story of a hero, a tragic hero, who has extraordinary attributes, extraordinary gifts. he achieved maybe the most amazing feat of sport. he had legs amputated at 11

years old, and then runs in the olympics and then six months later he kilsz his beautiful model girlfriend. the story clearly has an appeal. as for his personality, he's a man of extremes. he can be immensely kind, he can be -- he goes centric, very driven, very vulnerable. it's a multiple personality figure. >> do you think he's guilty of murder? >> well, it's a very, very fine point. look, the prosecution definitely failed to prove the central question, the central contention they tried to put across. they knew he intentionally killed his girlfriend, reeva steenkamp. it will be decided by an appeal court whether it's manslaughter, as the judge in the trial found, or whether it was murder, whether he actually intended to kill the person behind that bathroom door. >> but, john, do you think he's guilty of murder? >> i've been asked that question so many times. i've spent 18 months working on

this book, researching it, i talked to pistorius himself. many people close to him. i attended the whole trial. in all honesty, i cannot tell you that i know what happened that night. i mean, i simply -- i'm open to both possibilities, both of which are incredibly plausible, both that he intentionally killed her and that he thought he was shooting an intruder. i do not know which of the two is true and neither does anybody else except pistorius. >> you know about the people closest in his life. did he love reeva steenkamp? did he feel they were soul mates? >> i think so. love can be a wonderful, funny and strange thing. i think he believes to this day that reeva steenkamp was the great one and only love of his life. when i went to see him the first time, there was a moment that was really quite chilling and disconcerting. i entered this little apartment he was staying in, inside his uncle's home in pretoria.

the first thing i saw when he took me in there, on a wall looking down over this large room, a big framed photograph of reeva steenkamp, the woman he killed, eight months after he killed her, and she still loomed large in his life, looking at him every single day. i went into this room where he was staying and he had a whole collage of pictures of himself and reeva steenkamp together, arm in arm. >> wow. >> he remains convinced that she is the great love, even though he killed her. it's an astonishing thing. >> you mentioned earlier his temper. he heard over the radio the ruling. and one of the inmates described his behavior. he says, quote, he got up and he stomped off, went straight to the gym. he started lifting weights like it was going out of fashion. he was totally pissed off. is this normal behavior for him? >> look, he is, as i said a moment ago, he's a man of multiple personalities. a man of extremes.

you talk to an awful lot of people who met him and i include myself here. and they will tell you, as i will tell you now, that he's immensely polite, courteous, well-mannered almost in an old-fashioned sort of way. got a gentle almost mournful voice. that's his normal register. but it's true that he suddenly can flip and get angry for the smallest of reasons. now, of course in this particular case, maybe there was some cause for him to respond in this way, you know, pumping weights like crazy because suddenly as a result of this latest ruling in the south african courts, he faces the distinct prospect of having his jail sentence extended by quite a few more years. >> let's go back into his youth. you know, as you said, he loses both his legs at a very young age. then somehow has this athletic drive to become one of the top athletes in the world. where did that drive come from? >> i think it comes in very large measure from his mother.

i mean, you know, mothers are in everybody's lives, of course, but in the case of him, she drove it into him from a very, very young age. oscar, the fact you had your legs amputated at 11 months old in no way does it mean you're impaired. you can do anything else anyone else can do. you're as able as anybody else. go out and prove it. she never gave him any special treatment. she didn't go out of her way to say, poor little oscar, your stumps here. no, they have these wooden prosthetic legs on him at 14 months old. they encouraged him to act like any normal kid. he was playing tennis, wrestling, playing soccer, playing rugby, one of the toughest sports in the world, before he started running. this sense his mother drove into him, that he could do anything, that he should always compete. she always said, you know, the real loser is one who doesn't compete. you must compete. then she died when he was 15. when he was 15 years old.

i think her memory, that impulse she gave him drove him on to this extraordinary feat of running in the olympic games, despite having both legs amputated at 11 months old. >> i wonder if you can talk to us about the impact of the trial on all the people in different countries watching it. stateside we've been talking about issues in the nfl, football players, very big here as everyone knows, domestic violence, a big problem that is often in the shadows. we've talked about it on our show and talked to experts who say one silver lining may be advancing a conversation about just how prevalent this is in the united states, one out of three women face some kind of attack or attempted assault from a partner over the course of their lives. we certainly don't cover it enough when you think about that scale. does this trial, even as if you say there are factual questions surrounding it, do you think it's had any impact on the potential danger from men on their partner or spouse?

>> first of all, i should say the problem of domestic violence is at least as bad in south africa is in the united states and probably an awful lot worse. there are spectacularly high, appalling high rates in south africa and for males physically attacking females. but in this particular case, the fact is the judge, the judge found, the courts found on the evidence that pistorius did not know he was shooting at his girlfriend. >> what about the reaction in the country? >> well, in the country at large, i think the case they've sort of indirectly, not on outcome of the trial, it definitely serves to bring home once more to everybody's attention just how shockingly high the figures are for -- for domestic abuse in south africa. but in the end, like i say,

pistorius did not fit into that particular scheme, although, yes, the trial, of course, served to highlight that terrible fact. >> john carlin, thank you so much. still aheated in the guest spot, a famous tinseltown director takes a gamble on a hollywood remake. he's here to tell us why. come in and use your starbucks gift card any day through january 5th for a chance to win starbucks for life. wouldn't it be great if hiring plumbers, carpenters shopping online is as easy as it gets. and even piano tuners were just as simple? thanks to angie's list, now it is. we've made hiring anyone from a handyman to a dog walker as simple as a few clicks. buy their services directly at angieslist.com

no more calling around. no more hassles. start shopping from a list of top-rated providers today. angie's list is revolutionizing local service again. visit angieslist.com today. with a favorite book is nice. but i think women would rather curl up with their favorite man. but here's the thing: about half of men over 40 have some degree of erectile dysfunction. well, viagra helps guys with ed get and keep an erection.

and remember, you only take it when you need it. ask your doctor if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain; it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. side effects include headache, flushing, upset stomach and abnormal vision. to avoid long-term injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than four hours. stop taking viagra and call your doctor right away if you experience a sudden decrease or loss in vision or hearing. ask your doctor about viagra. ring ring! progresso! i can't believe i'm eating bacon and rich creamy cheese before my sister's wedding well it's only 100 calories, so you'll be ready for that dress uh-huh... you don't love the dress? i love my sister... 40 flavors. 100 calories or less. we asked people a question how much money do you think you'll need when you retire? then we gave each person a ribbon to show how many years that amount might last. i was trying to like, pull it a little further got me to 70 years old i'm going to have to rethink this thing it's hard to imagine how much we'll need for a retirement

that could last 30 years or more. so maybe we need to approach things differently, if we want to be ready for a longer retirement. ♪ heyes... you can...old her? cup your hands together for me... ...rub it all the way up your hands. any exposed skin. get in your elbow creases. and get the backs of your hands too. here, let's put some just around your neck. (bell rings) okay bonnie, you're good to go. okay great thanks, here can you hold him? (bell rings) by their second kid, every mom is an expert and more likely to choose luvs than first time moms. live, learn, and get luvs mark wahlberg and i are proof that boys from boston can

grow up to make something of themselves. of course, he's a great actor, including "boogie nights," "the departed" and i'm here doing tv with ari. his newest film "the gambler" in which mark wahlberg is a gambling professor and he says he gambled with other people 's money to prepare for the game. >> i had wealthy men from hong kong and i convinced them to give me their cash. we were sitting with the owner of the wnyy casino. i get an ace, i get another ace, split them and third ace and proceed to get king, king, plaque jack. like my character in the movie, i took every chip off the table,

walked over roulette wheel and lost everything. >> welcome rupert, director of the film. mark wahlberg is the center of this film, also a produce other it, right? >> yes. >> talk about working with mark and how he brings this character to life. >> well, he came to me first and foremost with the discriminascr. he had fallen in love with this character which on paper is very different than who he is but also quite similar. both gamblers, guys who in a way try to break the rules or change the rules to get where they want to be. so, it was -- my experience working with him was first and foremost as an actor and less as a producer. but i -- i loved the challenge. read this script and i immediately knew i was getting in with the movie star. >> a lot of the film is in these

gambling houses. there are been great films around gambling because it's ripe territory for drama. >> yeah, the stakes are high, which is intrinsic to drama by its very nature. but this interestingly, i'd say this film is very different, very different, radically different from the original, which is more a study of addiction than this idea of someone who's out of control and how he learns to deal with his demons where this is much more about a guy who gambles with his life. he thinks, i have this amazing life, i have all of this education and family wealth and all of these things and yet i'm not really happy. which sounds very selfish thing but actually, i guess, in many ways all of us have that point in our lives where we wonder what it would be like if we got to start again. that's what he choses to do. he starts to make gambles with his life. >> directing is something that fascinates me and i think so many other people because because if you can make it directing, you've made it in

hollywood. you see so many a-list celebrities that once they've made it as an actor, then they want to try directing. some make it, some don't. you're someone planet of the apes." what makes someone a good director? what sort of skills do you have to have? >> it's nice for you to say, i don't know if i've quite figured it out yet. the beauty for me directing, what i love so much about it, you are ie intrinsic to the telg the story. so getting the best actors, getting the best dp, the best costume designer, understanding that how they work together and what they bring is so important. >> don't deflect from what she's saying. what you're doing is intellectually challenging. it's left brain and right brain, the technical stuff as well as how do we deal with these creative beings called actors.

>> don't get me wrong, there's a part of film making that's like going to washington. you have to learn how to negotiate, navigate, deal with the politics of it. it's a big -- especially in hollywood, obviously. there's a lot of money involved. so, therefore, at the end of the day my job is to tell the very best story possible and to serve the movie. that's my only priority. whereas there are other people involved that may have other priorities about the movie, how much money it makes, all those sort of things. but if i can do my job, obviously that helps them. hollywood is an interesting place because you get to make movies there and you only get better if you make movies, so that's why i love being there and this is my third film. so without sounding kind of too british, i'm still learning in a way. that's why i did this film. it's very different from the one i did before. >> you sounded british the whole time. >> i know. british with a cold so a nasal

british. >> how do you specifically approach directing a remake? you know the james caan original, i assume it's a movie you love but wanted to do something different with. when the movie has already been made, how do you look at it and figure out what to do differently? >> well, i didn't want to do a remake and that was primarily because i don't -- i believe in remakes, i just don't believe in emulating something. unless you're bringing a fresh perspective to a story, there's no point in doing it, it's redundant. so i read the script and new that he had turned the notion of what it means to be a gambler on its head and completely subverted -- or essentially reconstructed what the original was. the original was a study of addiction. i'm not an addictive personality nor am i much of a table gambler. i lose $100, i'm gone, i'm leaving. so i would not have been the right person to take on that film. i don't think it would have done us any service to the original

filmmakers. >> rupert wyatt, congratulations, thank you very much for being here. up next, a nice trip down abby's road all the way to a winter wonderland. my business only works if everything works together. there are a million moving parts to keep track of. and almost as many expenses. receiptmatch with quickbooks lets you sync your business expenses. just snap your business card receipts with your smartphone, tag, and transfer to intuit quickbooks. only with business cards

from american express open. i'm john kaplan, and i'm a member of a synchronized world. this is what membership is. this is what membership does. this is what membership is. go! go! wow! go power...oats! go! made from oats cheerios! cheerios! go, go, go! go power oats! go! cheerios! go power! go...power! yayyyy! ♪soft holiday music ]♪ can you help me up? [ snow intensifies ] [ sleighbells ring in the distance ]

aleve. all day pain relief with just 2 pills. get back to being you.

you know it's finally the holiday season when the white house christmas tree lights up, and it is officially glistening. the decorating theme each year is chosen by the first lady. this year michelle obama wanted to make it a children's wonderland, celebrating the pureness thapure ness that the holidays bring through the eyes of children. to get the look just right it took 106 volunteers.

the main tree in the blue room is 18 feet tall covered in 2,000 ornaments. and the gingerbread house that required 80 pounds of gingerbread dough and 25 pounds of gum paste to keep all of it together. decorating the white house has become one of the things the first ladies are remembered for because it's all about their vision and what they feel is the best message to send each year. but the task was not always up to the first ladies. jackie kennedy was the first to step in and make her mark. as the wife of the first catholic president she thought they should be personal, thoughtful and unified. she came up with selecting an annual theme each year. in 1961 the theme was the nutcracker. since then every first lady has followed her lead. first lady lady bird johnson, the theme was early americana. she filled the room with nuts, popcorn and fruit. betty ford went with her own family tradition, which was simple and affordable. her theme in 1974 was a patch

work christmas. basically anything you could pull out of a sewing basket and that year it had to be because the country was in a terrible recession. then came in nancy reagan who loved everything about christmas. she loved santa claus and the magic of it all. she would say i must confess i still believe in santa claus. no one can forget this amazing moment with mr. t. i know you love that moment. when barbara bush moved in, she was shocked that the decoration planning started as early as february. basically as soon as they moved in. that first year she went with a storybook christmas. she believed that the white house was the people's house. hillary clinton often joeked about the theme being a state secret until december. in 1993 she went with angels. she and bill would wander the white house and take in the beauty. laura bush picked the theme home for the holidays in 2001 which ended up meaning so much more in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. sadly the white house was

closed, no parties, no tours and no candle light. it was not until 2004 that the white house opened up its doors again for the holidays so naturally that theme was a season of merriment and melody. what i love most about the white house decorations are the stories that they tell. you can get a sense of our nation's history just by walking the halls of the white house. she helped decorate for laura bush and michelle obama. in fact she just got back and made a pit stop in my apartment to give me a few tips. she taught me a few white house tips like clustering your ornaments and brightening up your room and coffee table. i saw a picture of your tree this year. >> that's pathetic. that's terrible. >> you know what charlie brown told us? >> oh, my gosh. >> josh, watch this. go to msnbc.com/thecycle to see the entire package.

happy decorating, everyone. have a great day. coming up now is "now" with alex wagner. >> the great end of year tradition lives on. deck the halls with congressional chaos. it's friday, december 12th, and this is "now." >> mercifully it's friday. >> that $1 trillion spending bill has landed in the senate with a thump. >> you can see the vote happen officially on monday. >> the house vote last night averted a potential government shutdown. >> the white house said the president would sign it. >> this by definition was a compromised will. >> it's a terrible bill. >> a big rift between the white house and democrats on the hill. >> nancy pelosi had been cut out of this process. >> we didn't hear anything about this until a day or two before. >> you saw pelosi make this last-minute push. totally distanced herself from the president. >> we really