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good saturday morning, everyone. i'm ayman mohyeldin at msnbc world headquarters in new york. it's 9:00 in the east, 6:00 out west. here's what's happening this hour. donald trump is fighting back against criticism from a veteran democratic congressman in an interview with my colleague chuck todd, john lewis announcing he wouldn't be attending trump's inauguration because of his misgivings about the president-elect. >> i don't see this president-elect as a legitimate president. i think the russians participated in helping this man get elected. dnd schru and they have destroyed the candidacy of hillary clinton. >> as expected, trump has fired back in a pair of tweets posted a short time ago. he suggested lewis, quote, spend more time on fixing and helping his district and accused him of being all talk, talk, talk, no action or results. overnight another challenge to the president-elect as the senate intelligent committee

opens an investigation into his possible ties to russia. in a statement the committee's leaders vowed to, quote, follow the intelligence wherever it leads, even if it means forcing top administration officials to testify. in a new interview with "the wall street journal," trump says he's going to likely keep some of president obama's new sanctions on russia in place unless russia is willing to work with the united states on terror and other key issues. trump has the lowest pop tearily of any incoming president in recent memory. just 41% of americans approve of how trump's handling his transition, while 55% di disapprove. that's a steep drop from president obama's rating which was 83% before his first inauguration. thousands are converging on the nation's capital for a march arguizers say is designed to protect the dream of dr. martin luther king jr. and preserve the legacy of president barack obama. nbc's hans nicholls is in

washington, d.c., covering that for us this morning. good to have you with us. what are we expecting to see there? >> reporter: good morning, i have to talk pretty loud because the rally is just starting. there are a couple hundred people here. it's quite cold. the plan is to gather here. they have buses coming in from atlanta, new york, put on byhe national action network. the reverend al sharpton will be speaking around 11:00, then they'll march farther down to the mall and their goal is to bring attention to what they think the gains are of the obama administration. and try to consolidate that. they had some light jazz playing earlier. i suspect we'll get some rabble rounding speeches you might be able to hear. with that, i'm going to send it back to you. don't ask me a follow-up. it's too loud for me to answer. >> hans nicholls with the instructions. thank you very much for that. misha al sin dor, national reporter from "the new york

times" and alex seitzweld, political reporter. do you think somebody as revered as congressman john lewis, is it fair he is questioning the legitimacy of a president when we haven't seen any public evidence that the legitimacy itself of the process was undermined? we know the hacking took place at the dnc but to say he is not a legitimate president. >> congressman john lewis i think is really expressing a view that is staired by a lot of people. whether or not it's fair for him to say that is tough to answer because this is an unprecedented presidency. the idea we had an election where a foreign government may have hacked into one of the political parties to help a candidate and the fact there were all these issues that came up that were really just things that john lewis and a lot of other people feel like really

questioned whether or not donald trump would have won without all these other extreme circumstances. i think it's fair in some ways to express himself. he's saying what a lot of people in different circles are saying, saying what thousands of women who are showing up after the day trump is inaugurated will say. >> alex, what kind of reverberations could this have that congressman lewis has said this? i interviewed congressman meeks a short time ago. he wasn't 100% committed to what john lewis said but what kind of impact could it have? >> there are few individual members of congress aside from those in leadership who have more credibility, power, respect than john lewis, given his history as a civil rights icon. you know, he almost died on the bridge when he was beat by alabama state troopers marching with dr. king for voting rights. for him to say this, i don't think he does it lightly. i think there are a lot of other

democrats who will take it seriously and might follow his lead. i think that determines how big of an impact this has. how many other democrats and possibly some skeptical republicans follow his lead? trump doesn't really have a leg to stand on when it comes to questioning the legitimacy of prepondera presidents. he went after president obama for years saying he was not born in this country, the college records were faked. it's hard for trump to get too exercised about this when he did it himself. >> yamiche, president-elect trump tweeted out moments ago showing the reactions to congressman lewis' comments saying congressman john lewis should spend more time on fixing and helping his district which is in horrible shape and falling apart, not to mention crime infested rather than falsely complaining about the election results. all talk, talk, talk. no action or results. sad. are you surprised by that reaction from president-elect

trump? >> i'm not surprised by the reaction because donald trump has been someone who as soon as he feels as though he's being criticized has reserved no -- there's nobody he's not willing to criticize. he was at one point battling with the pope. he's battled with the family of military victims and servicemen. he's shown me he would go after anybody he feels is going after him. it's remarkable he's saying all talk no action about congressman john lewis who everybody around this country understands is someone who literally almost lost his life fighting for people's rights and people who look like me to really have a place in history and be full citizens of this country. i think whether or not congressman lewis should be questioning the legitimacy of a president is something we could debate. to act like he's all talk and no action is really kind of in some ways i would say ridiculous because john lewis -- >> he embodies -- >> i think he embodies what we

hope people do in this country, which is show up and act for your rights. >> alex, let me play you this sound bite. senator lloyd blunt reacting to his comments yesterday. take a look. >> john lewis is a great man. he's a friend of mine. he has to make his own decisi decisions, but the idea of constantly looking for ways to delegitimize the results of an election, no matter how unhappy you are about it, isn't the best example we set. >> alex, do you get a sense from people on the hill there will be a permanent protest class that will emerge that will constantly try to delegitimizing his win? >> no question. off president-elect coming in with about a 44% approval rating according to the most rent quinnipiac poll. that's unprecedentedly low compared to recent presidents coming in. george w. bush, despite losing the popular vote, came in with about a 60% approval rating

ahead of his inauguration. if you're a democrat on capitol hill, you want to stop trump, i feel like you have a lot of leash to do that. you feel like your constituents back home will want to see you standing up to him. that said, democrats don't have much power on capitol hill. all they have is the filibuster and they can only use that in some cases in the senate. so they'll have to raise their voices the way john lewis has and hope that breaks through. >> yamiche, president-elect trump's cabinet picks this week many veering from his position on a number of occasions during the week's hearings. which point of diversion could pose the biggest risk do you think? i can run you through the list but i'm sure you're aware. you had rex tillerson holding back on russia, something that the republican marco rubio is really pushing. you had general kelly questioning the efficacy of building a wall, something donald trump has wanted to do.

you heard general mattis talking about jerusalem being the capital and supporting tel aviv. some big policy differences here. >> the one that really made trump -- put him on the map is this idea that he would build this wall and change the way the immigration policy is doled out. if he is putting into place people who don't share that view and aren't going to put those policies into place, that's a big problem for him. at the end of the day, these people will be working at the pleasure of the president. if they don't believe the in the poll sis, they might have to possibly give orderthat may be illegal internationally but they'll be coming from the president. it will be problematic more for the people working under donald trump than for donald trump himself. >> unfortunately, we're out of time. great to talk to both of you this morning. >> thanks. a deadly ice storm is

bearing down on the nation's midsection after m scattered power outages. blake mccoy joins us live in st. louis, missouri. what's the situation like? what are you seeing on the ground? >> good morning. you can see a light coating of ice still here on the bushes and trees in st. louis. across the midwest the concern is as it becomes so heavy it starts to topple trees and power lines. this morning a fresh coating of ice across parts of the midwest in the midst of a three-day ice tomorrow. overnight in kansas, emergency crews responded to this pileup outside wichita. it followed a day of slick roads in missouri as well where cars were sent sliding off the road. in springfield, the start of this ice storm left kendra williams and her family without power. >> water everywhere and ice. and no heat. so, yeah, we're all having to

bundle up and try to keep all the heat we can in the house. >> reporter: the potentially crippling ice storm is impacting sunday's nfl playoff game in kansas city. the chiefs set to take on the steelers. kickoff had been set for 12:05 p.m. it's been pushed back to a night game, 7:20 p.m. kickoff, to give the storm time to pass. >> if you look at the weather and t patterns we've been provided by the experts, this is the best window to not only play the game but to commute to and from the game. >> reporter: out west where the storm began more than three feet of fresh snow has piled up around lake tahoe. the truckee river is swelling. in utah, officials are sharing this terrifying video of a snowplow being cut off, sliding 300 feet down a hill. the driver is recovering. in portland, oregon, a commuter train slid off the tracks friday. blow torches had to be used to melt the ice. with more freezing rain now

coating parts of the midwest, concern about just how much ice these communities will get. back here live, you can see cloud over the gateway arch. the main threat for ice in the st. louis area has passed. there's a sense they dodged a bum et. it was not as bad as expected here in st. louis. the main ice threat now heads back west. oklahoma and kansas today, they're looking at more ice in wichita and kansas city in particular going into the evening. >> blake mccoy outside that iconic archway. thank you very much, blake. joining me for the big picture, meteorologist bonnie schneider. obviously two days into this, it won't be easing up for the folks out there anytime soon. >> no. of course it would be worse if we have strong winds but we have enough ice i'm confident we'll see these widespread power outages lasting for days in the worst hit arias which is kansas and oklahoma, and that is going to continue into the evening hours.

we have light freezing rain in many locations including oklahoma. the temperature right around the freezing mark and to the north and west in the 20s. quite a contrast, two air masses, warm, moist air coming up from the gulf of mexico, and you have cold arctic air. we've seen this before. what happens when that warm air override the colder air? them we have precipitation. well, if the ground is cold enough at the surface, once it hits anything, that water becomes ice and that's exactly what we're seeing here and what we're going to see through the weekend escalating into saturday night and early sunday. now, looking across the country, this is what we have right now. but then as we go into the future, notice the precipitation working its way to the north and west even into monday. the worst of the ice threat will be over by sunday. here's what we're looking at in terms of accumulation, so important to note, arias right through western kansas, even the panhandle of texas crippling. this is where we'll see the highest accumulation of ice, but once you start talking about even a quarter of an inch of ice

and that's what we'll see through kansas city where we could see widespread power outages. this adds 500 pounds of weight to a tree branch, only a thin layer of ice. it may not look like it's doing a lot of damage but once you start piling on the ice, you could see a lot of power outages that could last far long time. >> power outages, icy roads, k dangerous conditions. thank you. the alleged british spy who wrote the dossier on donald trump. isle ask one of america's former koorld nay or thes of counterterrorism about that story and the apparent rift between donald trump and the intelligence community. now? excuse me.

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this morning president-elect donald trump says he's open to lifting sanctions on russia. those comments coming overnight to "the wall street journal."

just two days after trump acknowledged for the first time russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election. the senate intelligence committee continuing to look into just how far that interference went including were there any political campaign people in connection with the kremlin directly. daniel benjamin now director of the john sloan dickey center for international understanding at dartmouth college. first your reaction to what donald trump has told "the wall street journal," which is that, you know, he's willing to consider removing the sanctions that have been put in place about a month ago or so. what does that signal to our allies if he comes in and immediately removes those sapgss? >> before we get to what it will signal to our allies it will only underscore for the american people the concerns that they have about the let le jgitimacyf

donald trump's election and raise questions about his ties to russia because after all our elections are, you know, a true vital interest and the fact that he would let russia off the hook for meddling in those e lks in a really extensive and to my mind unconscionable way would be really extraordinary. i think there are a lot of questions being raid by trump's continued leaning over backward for putin. >> let me get your take on the effectiveness of russia's capabilities in doing something like this. we know they may hack into the e-mails of government agencies and servers, but from your expertise, do you think that they're really successful in being able to shape an entire election? >> i think those of us who were awake during the elections recognized this had a profound effect. first of all, the hacking gave the trump campaign and its supporters enormous amounts of

material they spoke about all the time. even trump in his press conference the other day expressed essentially gratitude for all that information. that's the first thing. but the other thing that shouldn't be lost is the amount of fake news developed by russian intelligence and that wound up circulating extensively in the u.s., especially on social media. according to scholarly studies the hits for these stories, most of which were highly negative about secretary clinton, the numbers went into the hundreds of millions. so we are talking about a profound effect on an election that was so narrowly won. 77,000 votes in thee states as opposed to secretary clinton's 3 million-vote majority. >> let me get your take on this.

>> you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from sunday of getting back at you. so even for a practical supposedly hard-nosed businessman he's being really dumb to do this. >> we talk about in this business there's this ongoing tension between the intelligence community and president-elect donald trump. what do you think chuck schumer meant by that, you take on the intelligence community they can get back at you? >> well, look, the first thing is that no president can craft successful foreign policy with an alienated and demoralized intelligence community. and donald trump is doing an excellent job of achieving just that goal. he has accused them of politicization, really a stab in the heart of the intelligence community, and a fabrication of doing a poor job. he has teed up an extraordinary level of conflict with the intelligence community at a point when this is usually the honeymoon between a new

president and the intelligence community. he's getting briefings, learning about the nation's secrets. he's demoralizing them, reducing their ability to produce for him. we may see both an exodus of capable senior and junior intelligence officials and ultimately i think what senator schumer is referring to here is the possibility that the community will work the hill and will also leak when necessary to show that, you know, they have been telling the administration x, y, and z about a particular issue and they were ignored and to great consequence, that is, they will make sure that foreign policy failures that the credit for that goes to the white house. >> switching gears a little bit, let me ask you about this former british spy identified as christopher steele, believed to be behind the memos that had been written with those unverified claims that the

russians may have had compromising information on president-elect donald trump. to use intelligence language, he's gone underground, as they say. what does that suggest to you? an individual a respected former spy in touch with the fbi over several years and shared intelligence with them. what does it suggest he's gone underground, no traces of him? first of all, i don't know christopher steele but he has a reputation of being a superb intelligence operative. he was the uk's top russia watcher, quite a distinguished position. if he's gone underground, it tells me he is fearful for his life and the life of his chil children. remember that the russians are believed to be responsible for the killing of a former russian intelligence officer in the uk.

remember, they put polonium in his sushi. i'm sure he is quite concerned about his personal safety after this experience. i wouldn't be surprised if we don't see him for quite some time. >> a remarkable story that keeps getting more and more complex. ambassador, thank you for your time. >> thanks for having me. a key member of the trump inauguration committee and transition team will join me to talk about the protests expected in and around the inaugural and what we might expect from the president-elect's inaugural address. stay with us.

the inauguration days away. what president-elect donald trump might say in his nug ral address.

welcome back, everyone.

i'm ayman mohyeldin here at msnbc world headquarters in new york. at the half hour mark, here's what we're monitoring. breaking news of a winter storm sweeping through more than a dozen states across the nation's midsection. icy conditions are to blame for this 20-car pileup in wichita, kansas, and the state's governor has even declared a state of emergency. out west, heavy snowfall making driving dangerous in the state of utah. poor visibility led to this accident when a tractor-trailer hit a snowplow. police say the driver is recovering with serious injuries. a very scary moment there indeed. to politics now, it's been a busy week on capitol hill from confirmation hearings to new scrutiny involving russia's meddling in the u.s. elections. and the very latest steps to dismantle obamacare. all of this happening with less than a week to go to inauguration. nbc's kelly o'donnell is outside trump towers for us this morning. good to see you. what's the president-elect's main concern right now with all of this that's playing out, his cabinet hearings or repealing

obamacare? >> reporter: well, both are essential, ayman. he's saying the repeal and replace effort is going forward. also saying that he's told his nominees to speak their mind, to be themselves, as they appear at those confirmation hearings, which will continue. of course it's not unusual for those to go right up to inauguration day, and in some cases beyond. the president-elect will go to washington on monday. that's just a one-day visit, not the big move, but he is preparing to take over. and it comes also at a time when democrats continue to be frustrated about some of the environment of the election season, especially with the russian hackin ining that targe their own party. just days before getting the keys, trump's white house chief of staff stopped into the briefing room friday, while at trump tower top ailds say the president-elect will work through the weekend. >> he's working a little bit on the inauguration but he's mostly

very much focused on the first 100-day plan. >> reporter: but on capitol hill, angst from campaign 2016 is not over. congresswoman debby wasserman schultz raced past cameras, leaving a closed-door briefing. sources say she and other democrats vented frustration at fbi director james comey for his public airing of the clinton e-mail probe and how the bureau handled the russian hacking of democratic officials. exposure of those hacked emails led to wasserman schultz's resignation as the democratic party chair. in a statement, she writes, "the fbi director must clarify for the american people the agency's policies for investigating and alerting those who are hacked by foreign governments." meanwhile, trump's team under pressure to explain contacts between trump's national security advisor michael flynn and russian officials. advisers now confirm flynn did speak by phone with russia's ambassador to the u.s. on the

day the obama administration imposed sanctions over the hacking. >> that call took place on the 29th of december at which time general flynn was asked whether or not he would help set up a call after the inauguration with president putin and then president trump. >> reporter: in a brief stop before cameras, trump, who met with tv host steve harvey, about working on change in inner cities, made a passing mention of a major policy goal. >> repeal and replace is going great. >> reporter: while republicans in congress who do not yet have a replacement health care plan passed the first in a series of steps towards repeal. >> this provides congress with the legislative tools we need to repeal and replace obamacare. >> reporter: democrats are outraged and some plan to boycott trump's inauguration, including civil rights icon john lewis. >> going to be very difficult. i don't see this president-elect as a legitimate president.

>> reporter: and congressman john lewis was responding to chuck todd's question about if he could work with donald trump. as you get the sense there, he says he will try to do so but believes it will be very hard. this morning donald trump took to twit to respond to congressman lewis, very critical, saying that congressman lewis should focus on his district where there are problems and not be complaining about the legitimacy of the election. it was a two-tweet series where donald trump was punching back. ayman? >> all right. kelly o'donnell live outside trump towers in manhattan. thank you very much. for reaction, let's bring in ashley bell, senior strategist and national director of african-american political engagement for the republican national committee. great to have you with us this morning, sir. i want to start with your reaction with those new tweets from president-elect trump. he said, "congressman john lewis should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart, not to mention crime

infested." my question to you, as we go into the dr. martin luther king jr. holiday, congressman john lewis one of the most wildly revered, respected civil rights activists in this country's history. did president-elect trump cross a line here with that tweet? >> john lewis is an icon for this service to his country. what he did in the civil rights movement allowed in people like myself to be able to vote and be able to vote in historic numbers for donald trump. donald trump received a historic amount of african-american support, 13% from african-american men like myself and john lewis. that would not have been possible without the sacrifices john lewis has given to this country. so with much respect we give john lewis for his time and service to this country and continues to aggressive. >> did donald trump cross a line with what he said about john lewis? >> i think that donald trump was talking about crime in atlanta. i'm from atlanta. i understand the challenges there. that's fair game to talk about the state of affairs anywhere in this country. it wasn't personal to john lewis.

let's look at the facts, look at atlanta. atlanta is a great city. i think they've done great job of increasing police. but there are still challenges there. there's no one who will tell you there's still not challenges with crime and that's a fair assessment. >> this is a man you said you have a tremendous amount of respect for, john lewis. what is your reaction when you hear somebody like that, of his stature, say that president-elect donald trump is not legitimate? >> look, you know, i spend a lot of time since the election talking to many democrats who are still hurting about this election, who are still upset and take it personal. i understand that. but i'm also inspired by the fact tha they're still willing to work with this president and move forward. it will be some time. feelings are still hurt, we understand, that but i think going forward i think there's a sense of hope still that we need change, and i think that change can't happen without us all working together. i think if you listen to representative lewis' comments he's still open to working with this administration. and you hear that a lot with many different civil rights groups in the african-american community. they're open, they're

optimistic, and i think they're still willing to sit down at the table and we're thankful for that. >> you talk about some of those in the opposition that are thankful and willing to talk to you guys and participate and try to advance your agenda. we also know there are many protests around president trump's inauguration, one march day after he takes office is expected to draw as many as 200,000 participants according to them. how closely are you guys paying attention to thirty meeir messa make sure you reach out to those folks that have concerns and fears and say don't be afraid, we're going to work with you? >> we're working overtime and in overdrive. if you look at the marches happening, i think al sharpton is putting together, every organization that's listed to be a part of that march, that civil rights group, we've met with those leaders at least two to three times since the election. they're not going to agree with us on everything, but they do still want a seat at the table and deserve one. and we've had hours of conversation about how we go forward together. they still believe that there's

progress that can be made if we all agree that, you know, we may disagree on the means but the end is the same. we want a safe country, people to have affordable health care, we don't want to roll back civil rights gains. if we can all agree on that, figure out how to get it done. every one of those groups has reached out to this this president and sat down with leadership and we will meet going forward. protesting is a right. we're glad they're highlighting the issues. we hope they ao sit at the table and reason together to find a way forward. >> let's talk about some confirmation hearings, particularly the opposition to jeff sessions, president-elect trump's pick for foerge. just yesterday senator al franken hat had this to say. >> i'm going to vote against senator sessions. i just don't feel comfortable that he would protect all americans' rights. >> so, you know, you heard him there say he doesn't feel comfortable he'll protect all americans' rights.

give us your point as to why you think senator jeff sessions, or if you don't, but do you think he can protect the rights of all americans including african-americans and minorities? >> i think he can. i respect the senate's ability to question senator sessions. they've done that. but far too often there's these vague things like i don't feel comfortable, i don't know if he will. no one's really gotten specific about what these concerns are and in any relevant fashion. i will say this, senator sessions is someone who's qualified for the job, someone i think the president trusts. and i think that you'll see him build out a justice department that will have wide and varied opinions and a diverse staff that i think will be in a position to make sure that everyone's rights are protected. i ask folks in the reverse, what exactly is the problem? what exactly are you pointing to that says senator sessions can't do the job? and folks that go back to the '80s and point to things that happened then, but look at his track record recently, look at the fact, the civil rights cases he's been involved with, his stewardship in alabama, look at

his last election in alabama. did you see anyone in alabama bringing up these comments during the election when he was re-elected several times? >> all right. we have to leave threat. thanks for joining us from atlanta. >> always apleasure. in a moment, if obamacare is so bad, why do most people want to save it? and next on "a.m. joy," sounding racist or being racist, what's the difference? when you've been making delicious natural cheese for over 100 years like kraft has, you learn a lot about people's tastes. honey, what do you want for dinner tonight? oh, whatever you're making. cheesy chipotle pork quesadillas?

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(burke) and we covered it, february third, twenty-sixteen. talk to farmers. we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ the repeal and replacement of obamacare. now the hard part. take a listen to this impassioned speech. >> everywhere i go in the district, people are frigened. they come up and say what will happen? morrow you need to look people in the eye and tell them why you're taking their insurance away. >>. >> jon:ing us now is democratic congresswoman debbie dingle of michigan, whose husband, retired

congressman john dingle, sponsored universal health insurance legislation every year since entering congress back in 1955. also yevgeny memed joins us. congresswoman, you've been speaking to your constituents about this issue of health care. what do they say to you about the effort to repeal obamacare? >> this was real what i said on the floor of the house this week. i don't even go into starbucks. i can't order my hot chocolate before three people come up to me and say what's going to happen to me? for many watching on msnbc this morning, this is a war of words. but when you are out just talking to real people, they are scared to death. in michigan alone weather the support of a republican governor, helping michigan reduce the number of uninsured by 50%. it covered close to 700,000 people and they're scared to death. i had a black bishop at a roundtable i did last week that

said black men didn't is a choice, they didn't go to a doctor until they ended up in the emergency room and many of them died. we need to figure this out. >> yevgeny, this is a new npr poll and the greatest percentage of those who want to keep obamacare. we're going to break it down. but i'll read it. 38% say they want it strengthened on expanded. 31% want it repealed and replaced. just 14% want it repealed and not replaced. so the question to you, then, is why does it have to be scrapped? that's -- the pace that the republicans are going on right now is they'reoing to replace it. they keep saying replace -- repeal and replace but we haven't seen what the new plan is. why do you think they want it totally repealed? >> i think it -- >> sorry, congresswoman, that was to yevgeny. >> okay. >> there are definitely political realities here, two mainly, first that republicans

have promised constituents some sort of repeal will happen and they have to make good on trying to make that happen, whether it does or doesn't. the other political reality is what's going to ensure that some kind of replacement plan does take its place, and that's fact that even in red states there are lots and lots of people who have gotten insurance either through medicaid expansion or on the exchanges. and you really don't want to go back to your constituents and tell them, you know, you lost your insurance, you're going to have to wait two years to get new coverage. so those are the two political realities i think we're seeing. and that's why republicans are treading very carefully right now. >> congresswoman, president-elect trump says the problem with obamacare is that deductibles are too high, premiums are going through the roof, increasing year upon year. does donald trump have any credit in that information? is that correct information that that is the reality that is happening now? >> let's be real. health care is one of the most

omp comp wi complicated subjects there is. we passed this bill and this is what got a compromised into because that's what was happening. health insurance or the cost of health care in the automobile industry was breaking the auto companies. there was more cost of healthcare in an automobile than the price of steel or aluminum. so some people out there had escalated premium costs and higher deductibles. some did not. that bill was not perfect, but what we've got to figure out, i'm sorry, if we live in america, i believe that every american has a right to affordable quality healthcare. how we do it, i want to work with everybody so that we do do it. so if i woman gets diagnosed with breast cancer, she shouldn't have to worry about how she's going to get treatment. >> do you at all believe what the republicans are saying, is there any legitimacy that they say -- particularly speaker ryan saying that obamacare is collapsing on top of itself? >> i think that we've got -- no, i don't believe that it's collapsing on top of itself, and we wouldn't have the number of republican governors who have

expanded medicaid worried about what is going to happen. we do have to look at how we pay for all of this and how do we tweak the program to make sure that it is working. there were assumptions that more young people would buy into the program. how are we going to treat some of these different issues? it ivery complicated, but what's not complicated to me, if someone gets sick, they shouldn't have to worry if they can go to a doctor. >> evgeni, how likely is it that republicans can replace and repeal obamacare concurrently so there is no gap for the millions of americans who are relying on obamacare? >> frankly that's the only realistic way forward. there's a lot of political rhetoric going around right now, but fundamentally, if you get rid of obamacare and you don't have something ready to go relatively quickly, insurers are going to pull out of the market. they're not going to want to

keep offering plans and you're not going to be able to entice them back into the market that easily when you finally have your replacement. i think that republicans understand this. there's a certain amount of political rhetoric that has to go on, but fundamentally i don't imagine that they're going to kick 20 million people off of their medicaid and exchange plans. >> congresswoman, what do you object the most to repealing obamacare or the lack of replacement? which one do you think is the bigger problem? >> i've always said that republicans don't want to repeal obamacare. it became a phrase. because look at what donald trump is saying. we don't ever want to go back to the days that you're denying someone insurance because of a pre-existing condition and they want young people to be able to stay on their parents' plan until they're 26 or that someone can cancel someone's insurance because you're suddenly diagnosed with cancer or diabetes. >> right. >> so i think what we have out there is people are just scared. this isn't red states or blue states. this is real people who get sick

and need help, and we've got to figure out how we're going to deliver healthcare to them and that every american can be able to go to the doctor when they need to go to it and preventative care is reducing costs when they go in early and prevent more serious things from happening. >> it is a question that has been a cllenge for politicians for generations in this particular country. congresswoman debbie dingell and evgeni, thank you both for joining us this morning. a new deadly reality is facing migrants overseas who are just trying to survive. we're going to look at that next. i'm all the techy stuff you got crammed into your brand-new car. i'm so sexy, you can't keep your hands off me. do it again. there you go... i can do whatever you want. except keep your eyes on the road. now would be a good time to have new car replacement. so get allstate and be better protected from mayhem, like me.

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happening now in europe, the u.n.'s refugee agencies warning that the migrant crises could become worse as dire winter weather sets in. lucy, the u.n. says the conditions are deadly and getting worse. >> reporter: that's right, the u.n. said at least five refugees already died from freezing weather since the start of the year. there's been a severe cold snap

across eastern europe, some of the lowest temperatures in decades, heavy snow. conditions are dangerous to anyone but especially the thousands who have very little in terms of warm clothing. the problem is lack of resources but also politics. that's been reports of authorities closing access, pushing refugees back from their territory to neighboring countries, we're talking some of the northwest vulnerable populations here and these people are at risk of death in addition to the many challenges they're facing. >> a situation that continues to get worse by the day. thank you very much for that, lucy. that will do it for me this hour. thanks for watching. "am joy" is next with a closer look at the firestorm surrounding fbi director james comey. plus the reason so many people are gathering in washington d.c. right now. she's going to tell us all about that. stay with us. myalgia, i was active. i was energetic. then the chronic, widespread pain drained my energy. my doctor said moving more helps ease fibromyalgia pain.

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