house republicans have conceded will probably not pass by the end of the year. they're waiting for top line numbers on how much to spend for funding the government. right now, that's been tabled. remember, that is why mccarthy lost his job. you were just playing the clip from mccarthy. he funded the government at the current levels and was ousted by conservative members of his conference. this will be a major priority for speaker mike johnson. also, reauthorizing the federal authorization, faa, excuse me, that is probably going to be just extended. pharm bill will also probably be punted. a lot of things this week. >> adding to the belief that congress is completely dysfunctional. daniella diaz, thank you for joining us. we appreciate it. thanks to all of you for getting up "way too early" with us on this monday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. don't forget, though, he is going on on monday with the

judge's gag order still in place, so he can't speak about certain things. he has to be so careful. that is so unconstitutional, in my opinion. we have first amendment rights. we have rights as attorneys. sixth amendment rights. those are all being violated, and he still wants to take the stand even though my advice is, at this point, you should never take the stand with a gag order. but he is so firmly against what is happening in this court. >> trump lawyer alina habba previewing the former president's testimony in the civil fraud trial against his business organization. now, it appears trump will be a no-show. we'll show you what his legal team is saying about the last-minute reversal, and who will take the stand. plus, the latest from the middle east. israel continues to strike what it calls hamas strongholds in southern gaza. an area where the u.n. has warned about dire humanitarian conditions. it comes amid new reporting that israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu not only knew about

qatar's monthly payments of millions of dollars to hamas, he encouraged it. we'll get analysis on that damning report from retired four star navy admiral james stavridis and america emeritus on the council of foreign relations, richard haass. also, we'll preview volodymyr zelenskyy's visit to capitol hill tomorrow. the ukrainian president is expected to meet with new house speaker mike johnson, as congress fights over funding for the war-torn country. and we have steve kornacki here at the big board breaking down the new polling from iowa in just moments, with the caucuses in iowa just over a month away. the texas supreme court is blocking an abortion for a woman whose fetus has a fatal diagnosis. kate cox, who is 20 weeks pregnant, was warned by her doctor and multiple doctors that if she carries this pregnancy to

term, it will likely jeopardize her health and future fertility. despite this, the texas attorney general asked the state supreme court to step in, arguing cox does not meet the criteria for a medical exception. today is monday, december 11th. believe it or not, it is 2023, not 1923. that's where we're going to begin this morning. this is an unsettling and all-too-common story. once again, an aging, white man facing indictments, is accused of covering up an affair, faced impeachment, and still his wrecking ball use of political power continues with brutal consequences on the lives of women. sounds familiar. i'm actually not talking about donald trump. this time, it's another far right republican who considers it a compliment to be called trumpy. after all, this man, according

to "reuters," tried to sue joe biden over 50 times on issues including immigration and gun rights and a ton of other garbage. i'm talking, of course, about texas attorney general ken paxton. paxton is so desperate to mimic trump, so desperate for trump's support, that he led a lawsuit in 2020 to challenge the results of that year's election in trump's favor. the supreme court, of course, quickly threw that out. but that's how desperate he is. the man is so desperate to mimic trump that he behaves in a cruel, brutal fashion, and won't back down until a ill woman is physically and emotionally destroyed. that woman, kate cox, and her health is in danger because of ken paxton, who is using laws

against abortion -- thank you, donald trump, leonard leo, and many others -- and is ensuring her suffering is as bad as it can be. we need to wake the hell up. this country have lost so much already. women have lost so much. whether you're a democrat or a republican, a man or a woman, please look at the face of this moment in time. kate cox could be your daughter, your sister, your wife, you. kate cox is 31 and needs an abortion. her physically and emotional well-being is in peril. her developing fetus has trisome-18, likely to cause stillbirth. that's where she gives birth to a dead baby. or her baby will barely survive the birth and then will die

shortly after. she will watch her newborn, kate will, suffer, gasp for air, and then die. there are also other risks. that's the reason she needs an abortion. it could make it impossible for kate to have a baby again, it'll sterilize her. kate needs the abortion now to protect her own health, too. she's been to the er four times for severe cramps, leaking fluid, and elevated vital signs, according to her lawyer. then, of course, there is the mental anguish. >> we're going through the loss of a child. there's no outcome here that i take home my healthy baby girl, you know? so it's hard, you know. >> so why isn't this woman in the or right now now getting the

life-saving health care she needs? because the texas attorney general, not a doctor, not a scientist, an aging, white, far right republican male believes he knows what should happen with kate's body. he would prefer that she carry her non-viable fetus to term, consequences be dammed. that's ken's choice. ken has choices. kate does not. ken is cosg to block kate's health care once again by threatening legal action against any doctor who performs kate's life-saving abortion. legal action against the hospital where the procedure happens, he wants to do that, as well. so, for kate, a desperate mother in need of health care, the reason her body may lose its ability to have more children, the reason her young children have a sick, suffering mother,

the reason her very life may be absolutely shattered and in danger, is because ken paxton is driving home the reality that we all must face, that because trump and his cronies were able to destroy roe, something he loves to brag about, we have no rights to protect ourselves in a situation like this. >> forcing me to continue the pregnancy, the pain and suffering, put me through the risks of continuing the pregnancy, the risk of childbirth again, especially given how my last two went, i think it's cruel. >> we have no right to save ourselves from suffering. our daughters are growing up in a world where they will be scared to get pregnant. they will fear that people like ken paxton will have more of a say in their health care decisions than their doctors.

they will fear that they will suffer or even die when attempting to bring a life into this world. this isn't a fear we have about something that might happen. let's all freak out about what might happen. no, this is where we are right now. and this monday morning, i pray for kate cox and the many other women who will inevitably be in the same situation. i'm also praying that we all step up. you may be a republican. you may have voted for trump thinking this all isn't so bad. it's worse. wake up. consider voting with kate in mind in the next presidential election. the choices may not be perfect. they may be far from perfect. i get that. what we're trying to save, though, is the ability to have choices and options in this country and to make those choices in a country that is a

democracy. let's bring in former u.s. attorney and msnbc legal analyst joyce vance. former aide to the george w. bush white house and state departments, elise jordan. the host of "way too early," "politico's" jonathan lemire, and political analyst john heilemann. we'll get to the polls which backs up my concerns, but, joyce vance, kate cox is running out of time. she thought that -- she thought she had a path to getting the health care she needs. >> yes, so this case is now sitting with the texas supreme court. they have put on hold the lower cold's -- court's order that would have let her get a potentially life-saving abortion for her. she does not know when the texas supreme court will rule. they can take their time. in fact, they can take so much time that they make it

impossible for her to obtain health care. this is now what the world looks like in texas. every woman in e middle of a dangerous pregnancy, the trauma of losing a child, has to ask a judge for permission to get medical care, without knowing whether or not she'll receive it. and she can't leave the state of texas because of sba, the law that would make her husband or anyone else who helped her amenable to a lawsuit by a total stranger. in other words, this is not about health care. this is not about life or protecting life. this is about punishing women. >> so this is -- there's so many other questions i have for you about precedent and what could happen around the country, but it does line up exactly with where the presidential politics stand right now. i want to turn just for a moment to brand-new polling out of iowa on the republican field for president.

joining us now from the big board, nbc news national political correspondent steve kornacki. steve, what do the numbers show? >> basically, almost exactly 35 days, almost, i think, a month until the iowa caucuses. this is what we're going to show you, our brand-new nbc news/"des moines register" poll. "the des moines register" poll is taken by one of the best in the business, the authority on iowa polls. we have donald trump leading with an outright majority in iowa, 51%. ron desantis a very distant second at 19%. nikki haley at 16%. ramaswamy at 5%, and chris christie at 4%. look at this, donald trump's lead, he has added eight points to his total. desantis up a couple. haley, who had been moving, flat. i think it is significant because in the month leading up

to this poll, you had ron desantis pick up the endorsement of the governor of iowa. the endorsement of a key evangelical leader in iowa. got a lot of press attention for completing a 99 county tour of iowa. had a fox news debate about gavin newsom in front of millions of republican-leaning voters. and was part of the fourth republican debate last week that donald trump wasn't in. so for all those things we thought might be giving desantis a boost the last month, it is trump, despite not participating in the debates again, it is trump who made the big gains, trump who moved to 51% in the iowa poll. just a couple other numbers we can show you behind this. these are evangelical voters in iowa. remember, donald trump finished third with this group in 2016 when he ran in iowa and lost. now, he leads it overwhelmingly. exact same number as what he gets overall. evangelicals could make up two out of every three caucus-goers in iowa. that was the case the last time around. where trump really turns it on,

though, it is first-time caucus-goers. this tends to be a younger group overall. look at that, 63% of folks who say, for the first time, they're going to go to a caucus, are rallying behind donald trump. this is independents. independents are a small share of the iowa electorate, but it gets to the problem nikki haley has. look how much better nikki haley does among independents. it is true in iowa, new hampshire, in every poll we have seen. in iowa and in most of these republican primary and caucus states, big exception being new hampshire, independents are going to be outnumbered significantly by core republicans. haley has yet to show that she can make the inroads she needs with core republicans. that is to say, republicans who like donald trump. yet to show she can make the inroads to be competitive. also in terms of enthusiasm, we asked folks, are you extremely enthuiastic about your choice?

3-1 over rivals for trump. is your mind made out? 70% of trump voters in iowa say their minds are made up. again, more than double that of any of his nearest rivals. then with request here, a lot of words, this is about electability and republicans' perception of it here. we talked so much in 2023 about donald trump's trials. we will continue to talk about it in 2024. we asked folks, can donald trump win the election regardless of his legal challenges? now, nearly three out of four republicans in iowa say yes. last month, that number wasn't even two out of three. big jump there for trump. we said, are trump's legal challenges too much, making it impossible to win? 24% say no. donald trump, over the last month, last six weeks in iowa, has actually improved his position. the last time we were this close to the caucuses, again, about a month away, that a republican

candidate have a lead anywhere near this size, you have to go back to george w. bush. the year was 2000. bush won the caucuses, won the nomination. >> nbc's steve kornacki, thank you very much for bringing those numbers just as they break this morning. we appreciate it. elise jordan, given the rights of women or the lack thereof in this country right now due to the moves made by donald trump, leonard leo, and his cronies, what do you make of these numbers? what is going on? and i understand this is iowa we're talking about, but, still, look at what's happening. >> you look at how, in iowa, this is a block of very conservative, primarily evangelical voters who dominate the caucuses. for donald trump, what he did with the supreme court and the judges he appointed benefits him in iowa. it's not until you get to other states, particularly new hampshire is going to be more interesting, where you see where

voters are more libertarian and they don't like the idea of doctors being able to not dictate the life-saving measures needed to perform medical care to patients. because this is a debate about health care at the end of the day and personal liberty and personal freedom. you're going to see that in the granite state come more to play and potentially be more of a factor. >> as steve noted, it is remarkable, trump's surge in popularity among evangelicals who were skeptical of him in 2016. now, he's never been more popular with them. john heilemann, yes, new hampshire could be different. the haley camp thinks they'll feel better. chris christie has his longshot hopes wined to new hampshire, as well. in a state trump didn't particularly do well previously, are we kidding ourselves that this is a race at all? is this simply a foregone

conclusion that trump will be the nominee? >> who is we? >> i have been thinking this for months. >> it's democracy. we want to let these things play out. we've had to suspend -- have a willing suspension of disbelief. >> voters vote. >> things can change. but not like we're sitting here -- the date is december something. i lost track of that, but we're in december now. the iowa caucuses are a month away. it's not early still. there's a lot of yardage on the field, it's not true. we're not just in the fourth quarter but getting close to the two-minute warning in political terms. there's not a sign anywhere -- again, you hear people occasionally say, things are tightening here, tightening there. nikki haley has momentum here or there. nikki haley has momentum in new hampshire versus ron desantis. donald trump's lead over the field is vast and, in some cases, growing. this is the state that donald trump and his team have been most worried about. they have been spending their

time, a lot of time there. he's been in iowa more than any other state. they've been spending money there. he is doing rallies there. apparently, it's something some effect. you know, as we've seen, trump got stronger rather than weaker in this state. the number that steve pointed to, the number shows that the closer we get to trump's trial date in washington, d.c., in the insurrection case, the closer we get, the electable argument is fading. it's not like people are waking up, "wow, donald trump is about to sit in front of a jury and chris christie says he is going to be convicted." well, maybe he is, but republicans voters, a number think this is not an issue, that it will not stop him from winning a general election against joe biden, is getting smaller rather than larger. >> uh-huh. republican voters who may have -- may be in the hospital right now or have a wife in the hospital right now with a

non-viable pregnancy that might kill her, joyce vance, i'll bring it back to this, i don't understand how they could be voting on any other issue given the state of affairs right now in texas. i'm curious about the implications of the kate cox case in terms of how it could impact other women across the country, and also if the supreme court allows her, finally, the life-saving health care she needs, the ability to have an abortion, can she sue for pain and suffering? i mean, are there options here? do women have any options left? >> and that's the question. because right now the option is for every woman on her own to find the financial and emotional resources, to file a lawsuit for permission to get an abortion. in texas, there's another case on the books where a group of women banded together to try to see if they could break through. that case is also on hold.

mika, to your point, a lot of this comes down to the ballot box and not just who is elected president in the next election. in this post dobbs environment where every state creates its own rules for abortion, decisions about who will be in a state legislature, who the governor, who the attorney general will be, will become critically important. after the dobbs decision where the supreme court took away roe versus wade, abortion became a rallying cry in elections. with all due respect to brother heilemann, whose political acumen i have respect for, i think we're entering the christmas season. voters aren't focused. by the 1st of the year, i think we'll see folks look at abortion, like they did in some unusual places after dobbs. kansas, for instance, where voters who wanted to preserve the right to choice prevailed in an election unexpectedly. more recently in ohio. i think this issue picks up and

begins to resonate with voters as we enter 2024. >> all right. former u.s. attorney joyce vance, thank you so much. she is, of course, co-host of the "sisters-in-law" podcast, which you'll need to go into overtime these days. thank you so much. coming up in one minute, as donald trump seeks a return to power, a current and former european diplomat is voicing major concern that nato could be gutted if he is re-elected. richard haass and former nato supreme allied commander admiral james stavridis are standing by with how this all could play out. plus, former congressman tom suozzi will join us in studio after launching a run for the seat vacated by george santos. also, a deal like we've never seen before. we'll discuss shohei ohtani's $700 million, ten-year contract

with the los angeles dodgers. we're back in 60 seconds. at bombas we make the comfiest socks, underwear, and t-shirts that feel good and most of all do good. because when you purchase one, we donate one to those in need. visit bombas.com and shop our big holiday sale. bombas. give the good.

all right. in a moment, we'll get to the staggering news about benjamin netanyahu supporting the funding of hamas. but, first, the state department has used emergency authority to allow the sale of about 14,000 tank shells to israel by passing a congressional review that is generally required for arms sale to foreign nations. the department notified congressional committees late friday ahead of the sale, valued at more than $106 million. it's the first time since the state department had invoked the emergency provision for an arms shipment to the middle east since 2019, when the trump administration provided arms to the saudi-led coalition in yemen

over congressional objections. let's bring in former supreme alied commander of nato, four star admiral james stavridis. he is chief international analyst for nbc news. and president emeritus of the council on foreign relations, richard haass. admiral, i'll start with you on this issue. what do you make of it? >> well, first and foremost, we ought to be deeply concerned about any kind of step back from nato. that's what's on my mind, is the reports of trump talking again about pulling the u.s. out. i'll give you three reasons that's a terrible idea. number one, europe collectively represents the largest economy in the world when you put it all together. the second largest defense budget in the world. pragmatic. number two, we ought to be pretty concerned about putin and

what his reaction would be to this. could he pick off smaller nato nations, say estonia, that has a significant russian population? third and finally, mika, the signal it sends to the world. you know, we correctly looked kind of bad when we pulled out of afghanistan in terms of standing with our commitments. can you imagine breaking a bedrock agreement, a treaty like the nato treaty -- >> no. >> -- that's been enforced for decades? talk about the signal to the world. who wants to continue to do business with us diplomatically. it is a terrible idea. >> catastrophic. richard? >> yeah, i'm just back from asia, and i spent time, among other places, in the capitals of two allies, in seoul, south korea, and tokyo. the biggest single issue on and off the agenda is this, can they count on the united states after

november? you are having debates in places like south korea, serious debates about whether they need to have nuclear weapons. one of the principal goals of the united states has been to stop the spread of nuclear weapons around the world. we have allies beginning to say, "hey, if this individual becomes president, is he going to put u.s. troops out of here? is he going to hold us up billions of dollars of payments? can we count on the united states?" what jim said about nato, i actually think it's not only true about europe, we've got this worldwide alliance system that is the great comparative advantage of american foreign policy. the idea we would unilaterally dismantle it is beyond comprehension. mika, you introduced the question about the middle east and the arms sales. i will say, we need a serious conversation here. the israelis are not listening to the entreaties of the united states about how to use military force carefully, how to distinguish between hamas in gaza. and the idea we'd be providing more arms unconditionally, i'll

be honest, big question marks about it. i think the administration, unless it just wants to continue to be ignored, has to ask big questions. do we need to separate ourselves somewhat from israel and the united nations? we vetoed a resolution the other day. do we need to start supporting resolutions we're comfortable with that are critical of israel? do we need to start conditioning what arms we send or how those arms are going to be used? do we need to put on the table our own set of diplomatic initiatives? clearly, this passive approach, it isn't having the desired effect. >> so i want to get both of your takes on this next story, which is difficult to understand. "the new york times" reporting, prime minister netanyahu encouraged qatar to send millions of dollars a month to gaza which helped prop up the hamas government. according to the paper which cites several people familiar with secret discussions between

qatari officials and israel's mossad intelligence agency, netanyahu recently decided to continue allowing money to enter the territory. the money that goes to hamas. "the times" says this was a gamble for netanyahu who thought a steady flow of money would maintain peace in gaza and keep hamas focused on governing, not fighting. "the times" reports, the payments were part of a string of decisions by israeli leaders, all based on the fundamentally flawed assessment that hamas was neither interested nor capable of a large-scale attack. qatar hoped the money would fund humanitarian goals, like paying government saries in gaza, and buying fuel to keep a power plant running. israeli intelligence officials now believe the money played a role in the success of october 7th, the terrorist attacks. according to the paper, the donations allowed hamas to

divert some of its own budget toward military operations. we knew they could do this. this was the first thing israel told us, that we can't give them money for humanitarian aid because they'll use it for fuel for the war. remember that? netanyahu's office tells "the times," multiple israeli governments enabled money to qatar, adding that netanyahu, quote, acted to weaken hamas significantly. really? admiral, i have so many questions this morning about benjamin netanyahu. i still don't understand why it took six to eight hours while women were being raped and tortured and family members dismembered and people taken hostage, to get the help they need in a country as big as, what, massachusetts? i mean, a school shooting in massachusetts, it takes ten minutes to lock the school down, 15 to lock the town down, 20 to 30 to lock down the entire county or perhaps neighboring counties if there is a manhunt. i mean, this is crazy.

they didn't get there, and there is no answer. i know i'm on a different topic, but now we're finding that benjamin netanyahu was supportive of funding that ultimately went to hamas. i'm curious, how desperate is he to not -- or was he to not have a two-state solution, to the point where, i don't know, it doesn't seem like he is very far removed from what happened on october 7th. >> it's shocking, to be honest, and, clearly, there is an enormous reckoning coming for benjamin netanyahu. it's not only your excellent points about the failures of his government, the failures of the israeli defense forces, the mossad, shin bet, everything that should have kept israeli babies safe in their nurseries, the reckoning is coming. secondly, the story we're on

this morning, supplying funding to hamas. it was called a gamble. if so, that's the worst bet i can imagine a world leader ever making. you see how it played out for him. third and finally, you didn't mention it, but credible reporting suggests a copy of the actual plans of the attack were in the hands of israeli intelligence up to a year before the attack. there is a reckoning coming for this government and for benjamin netanyahu personally, and there should be. >> we had a spokeswoman for netanyahu on the show friday who wouldn't address that. certainly didn't deny it either, though. richard haass, this sort of stunning reporting, it certainly does reveal netanyahu's thinkings about a two-state solution and lack of interest. my question to you, though, is how does he survive all this? how does he survive the idea that there was a failure that day, the slowness of the response, that the intelligence

community knew a year in address something like this could happen, and now this, where he has to explain to the israeli public, including some of whom who have loved ones being held hostage, saying, yes, we were sending money to hamas the whole time. >> this is not stunning. this is not shocking. this is all about bibi netanyahu supporting hamas in the divide and conquer theory. he doesn't want a palestinian state. he opposes a two-state solution. his coalition is premised on the idea of continuing settlements, a one-state, nonsolution. this is totally, totally of a piece for bibi netanyahu. what he ignored, though, is one of the laws of the middle east, is that the enemy of your enemy can still be your enemy. israel is paying the price for his cynicism and his opposition to a palestinian state. that said, i actually think, despite what a lot of the pundits are saying, bibi netanyahu hangs on longer than he should. there's only two ways to get rid of him. one is do a parliamentary

reshuffle. a lot of guys are in bed with him, agree with him. they don't want the reckoning the admiral is talking about. election? israel isn't going to have an election in the middle of a crisis. bibi netanyahu has every incentive to maintain an intense, large war. >> yes. >> basically, no one wants to change horses midstream. again, it comes back to the first story that mika ran, it's one of the reasons the administration has to understand, they are not dealing with someone who is acting in good faith with them. they have got to adjust their policy. >> i have not -- i want to ask admiral stavridis about nato and zelenskyy and trump, but i haven't read a piece that had more b.s. than "the new york times" story, in terms of the explanations. well, they were hoping they wouldn't fight. bibi netanyahu wanted hamas to be strong for a period of time because he wanted to poison the idea that there can be a credible partner. doesn't want the two-state solution. it is incredible.

all of the explanations for this seem like such garbage to me. to you, i ask, zelenskyy coming again, desperately needs the money. i heard you say on "way too early," man, we better give him the money. >> yeah. >> you have the world now, zelenskyy is saying, we need the money or ukraine is toast in the war, number one, and the world is saying, man, if donald trump is elected president -- they're seeing the polls, trump is favorite or neck in neck with joe biden -- they're saying, first thing he'll do is dump out of nato. the first people who will feel that is volodymyr zelenskyy and the ukrainians. >> it's a frightening moment. when you think about this optic of the president of ukraine needing to come to washington to sort of prop up what ought to be the most obvious set of military support in the modern history, given how cost-effective it is to take out vladimir putin, it

is a sad moment. by the way, i think tying it together with aid to israel, aid to the border, aid to taiwan is actually smart. it gives everyone something. i support all those actions, and i think most americans would, john. let's hope president zelenskyy can really lean into this and make some ground up. he is having a meeting tuesday morning with the senate, engineered by mitch mcconnell, who is continuing, strong supporter. ultimately, i think the center will hold here in the congress broadly and will get the aid, but, boy, it shouldn't be this hard. >> certainly, the white house is hoping this happens, elise. there is a fear, though, that, yes, the senate is believed to largely be on board, but there are enough holdouts in the house. it is not a sure thing. if this were to fall apart, if the deal doesn't come through,

not only be they run out of money to send to ukraine, but they're worried about the domino effect. we're seeing waffling from other european allies in this, who might say, "if the united states isn't backing ukraine, why should we?" >> wars have a time limit for americans' intervention overall. you watch, support is always gung-ho in the beginning, calls where we believe it is just, but when, over time, the support goes away. that's what we're seeing now, and it is only going to get worse. specifically with ukraine, if there is not seen some progress or openness and willingness to negotiations, it's not seen in the near future, because at this point, zelenskyy already lost a lot of the republicans. >> he is losing support at home. people compare him to churchill, but he was ruthlessly honest. the idea that ukraine is going to magically liberate all its

territory, it is increasingly hard to make the case, that's why we need to justify it. we need to save ukraine. we need to preserve ukraine. that ought to be the argument. i don't think you can win the argument that if you only give more aid, russia is going to be ousted. i'd love to see russia ousted. ain't gonna happen. we need a recasting of the conversation. >> zelenskyy and mike johnson meeting, have you ever seen a stature gap greater than that? almost like me and stavridis here. >> don't even go there. >> okay. retired four star navy admiral james stavridis, thank you very much. richard, stay with us if you can. we appreciate it. ahead on "morning joe," after congressional hearing on anti-semitism on college campuses, now one university president is stepping down. what's going to be next? it was a pretty staggering hearing, and there's a lot of fallout and a lot to talk about. we'll have more on that. also still ahead, hunter biden's lawyer, abbe lowell,

will join us as the president's son faces a nine-count federal indictment on tax-related charges. up next, a congressional comeback? former congressman tom suozzi officially the democratic candidate for george santos' seat, which will likely play a pivotal role in 2024. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. rsv is out there. for those 60 years and older protect against rsv with arexvy. arexvy is a vaccine used to prevent lower respiratory disease from rsv in people 60 years and older. arexvy does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients. those with weakened immune systems may have a lower response to the vaccine. the most common side effects are injection site pain,

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last year were pivotal in republicans gaining control of the lower chamber. joining us now, former u.s. congressman tom suozzi of new york. last week, he was selected as the democratic nominee in the upcoming february special election to replace recently ousted republican george santos. i don't know where to begin. what happened? you left. you left. what then happened with your seat? i want to understand how that happened. secondly, do you regret maybe not running again for congress back when george santos was in the picture? >> no, i don't have any regrets. i wanted to be the governor of new york state, and i regret that george santos became a member of the united states congress. it's been bad for all of us. >> yeah. >> what happened was, he went from being someone who wasn't from the district, who didn't know anybody, who didn't have any money, that i beat by, i forget what it was, 12 points back in 2020, and never really

encountered him. it was the middle of covid. he adopted the stop the steal idea in november of 2020 and got the whole trump hierarchy to get behind him. he started raising money and building a network. nobody was really paying attention. he went from somebody who was a nobody, who had no attention, no infrastructure, that all of a sudden had an apparatus that hadn't existed before. nobody paid attention from the press. nobody paid attention from the republican party. nobody really got much information on him from the democratic party. >> let me ask you a functional question, congressman. he's obviously been a huge story, right, over the course of -- from the time he won to the time he left, but now he's gone. so as you imagine running in this district again, does he matter at all? is george santos going to be part of any future campaign? is he going to be an election issue? will there be debate on this?

both sides are like, let's move past this guy and get back to what politics of this district used to look like. >> yeah, i think it's over, which is good for america and good for the people of this district. they're ready to see a change. what people want now is somebody to actually pay attention to what they care about. everybody has this sense of dread. everything you talked about on the show this morning, you talk about every day, there's dread. everybody is dreading what is going on. they look to congress and are like, what are you doing to help us? so my campaign is not going to be about democrats versus republicans. people are sick of the finger pointing, sick of the attacking. they want someone who is going to work together with other people of goodwill to try to solve problems and help make their lives better when it comes to affordability, to immigration, when it comes to safety, when it comes to all the things people care about, that they're worried about. when it comes to israel, to ukraine, they want people to address the sense of dread they have. it's all nagging away. the rainstorms we've been having lately, is there something really going on we have to be

worried about? who is going to address the things we care about? i have a record of working across party lines to get things done, to try to make people's lives better. >> the bipartisan pitch aside, there is the control of house for representatives will be up for grabs. republican majority is very, very slim, but they won it in 2022, most believe, because of the democrats' failures in new york state. what is going to be better or different this time around in this state, reliably blue, but seats slipped away from your party last time. >> i think the people in my party recognize we have not been communicating to the people of long island and northeast queens. we haven't been addressing the things they're really concerned about, this sense of dread. they know i'm the candidate that people know that will actually talk about the issues they care about. i did my first press release in a year the other day, and i was endorsed by local mayors, half republicans, half democrats. i kicked off my campaign on whatever -- i can't remember now -- a couple days ago and had

a big press conference. 150 people in the nation's first suburb, and the guy whose house we were at was a policeman and said, "i never voted for a democrat except one one, tom suozzi." we're going to hear what people are saying and will try to address what they care about. >> what do they care about? to what extent are you hearing people talk about the border? what extent are they talking about things like gaza, israel, ukraine? or is it all local? is it all domestic? how a -- >> affordability is the biggest thing. state and local tax deduction is so important to us here in new york state and in other democratic states typically. president trump said, forget about those guys. >> you're going to bring back salt? >> yes, it'll be my biggest focus. also, the concern about immigration. that's a real concern that people have. they're concerned about crime. now, there are people, a smaller percentage of people are concerned about israel. i'm very concerned about israel. i understand where you're coming from. you know this stuff like the back of your hand.

this is an existential threat for all of us. ukraine, i'm really concerned about ukraine. that's a smaller percentage of the people. but the people concerned about that are really intense about it, and they want us to make sure we stand with ukraine and stand with israel. >> all right. democratic nominee for congress in new york, tom suozzi, thank you very much for coming on the show this morning. we appreciate it. >> thanks so much for having me. coming up right here on "morning joe," pablo torre will help us break down the l.a. dodgers new $700 million contract for just one player. he's got the calculator out. he's pondering. he's thinking. is this investment going to pay off? he joins us next. with the freestyle libre 2 system, know your glucose level and where it's headed. no fingersticks needed. manage your diabetes with more confidence. freestyle libre 2. try it for free at

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nice shot of the white house there. sun coming up after 7:00 on the east coast. eyes of the world on los angeles. joining us now, host of "pablo torre finds out," pablo torres. shohei ohtani, the numbers were staggering when they came out this weekend. ten years, $700 million. >> yeah. >> he is our modern day babe ruth. he hits and pitches, though he won't pitch next year. the dodgers had been the favorite all along to get him. there had been drama late, maybe not. >> oh, just a bit of drama there, john. >> yeah, let's talk about it. >> well, the whole weekend turned sports media into qanon basically. it was hilarious because now we know the truth, but there were false reports. there was a private jet being tracked. >> to toronto. >> from southern california to toronto. there was a report from legitimate journalists, he is going to be a bluejay, which sent toronto into a feeling they've never had before, of being wanted during free agency.

>> aw. >> and the private jet lands in toronto, and out from said private jet steps one of the "shark tank" guys, robert i believe. >> disappointing. >> a new dynamic for the city of toronto. this was horrifying to find out. right, the dodgers can pay $700 million, the most ever paid in american history. >> we don't have the details. >> not as sticker shocking as it might appear. >> that's the early word. talk about the impact of ohtani to l.a. this is further proof, if you don't have to move your stuff, don't move your stuff. already in southern california, and now he can stay in his home. tell us what it means. it is different to be an angel than to be a dodger, and what will it mean on and off the field? >> the los angeles angels of anaheim, of disneyland, whatever it is we call them now, unfortunately, deeply irrelevant. you did not watch them.

they never made the playoffs despite having two of the greatest players in history, mike trout and shohei ohtani. wearing blue, dodger blue, was an accident today, but i look like a surrogate. but the dodgers are a franchise we expect to watch, the world series favorites. you bring in a guy who might feel insulted a bit if he was wired to be compared to babe ruth, because he is so much better as a pitcher than babe ruth ever was. though he won't be pitching this coming season. >> they have mookie betts and freddie freeman already. >> pablo is talking about the qanon element of the toronto thing. we were talking about this off camera on friday. there was no way ohtani -- ohtani ended up going to toronto, given what thatmerch s prospects around him, it would have shown everyone around him was an idiot. but, i'm sorry, you show up

wearing dodger blue, and god knows i love it. >> the mug is blue, too. you can't set me up well for this. >> if you look over the lifetime of giant deals, right? >> yeah. >> thinking about everybody, you know, going back to the record-shattering deals we've seen, do they ever pay out? do they ever pay off? i guess the question is, by what andard? how do you evaluate a lifetime of giant deals like this? >> tani, as much as he was paid a record-setting fee by the dodgers, everybody would have paid this for him. everybody would have run to pay this, and they tried to. the second richest deal in north america is patrick mahomes. $450 million in ten years. everybody feels okay with that. when you have in baseball not just one but two of the greatest players ever and doesn't ensure you a postseason berth, rest assured, if the dodgers aren't

in the world series, everyone is going to be wondering, why did we pay this guy the most money ever seen? >> are the yankees -- are we looking at a yankees and dodgers series? each team loaded up. >> it feels that way, and my homerism is a yankee fan. john is groaning. they got juan soto, the other left-handed superstar slugger this past week before the dodgers one-upped them with ohtani. aaron judge, a relative bargain, yes, as tv rights fees continue soar upward, it seems. the newest guy is going to be the highest paid guy. when you're the best guy like ohtani is, and i cannot stress this enough, what he is doing, there is no analog for this. he is the most talented player we've ever seen. maybe the best pitcher and the best hitter at the same time. yankees/dodgers would be a dream, not just for someone like me in my conflicted wardrobe and psychology, but also major league baseball itself. >> most comparisons to babe ruth are as ludicrous -- you know,

they're -- >> yeah. >> babe ruth is the only one. >> let's slow down -- >> that's right. >> let's slow down the october daydreaming until yankees get a pitcher beyond gerrit cole. >> oh! >> let's turn to football. >> oh! most people are talking today about one play and one in particular. chiefs/bills yesterday in kansas city. taylor swift in attendance. this right here, late in the game, chiefs down ree. mahomes hits travis kelc incredible lateral to toney. heartbreaking bills defeat at the hands of the chiefs. except, toney is lined up offsides, and this triggered a patrick mahomes meltdown on the sideline and a lot of grousing after the game, which surprised me from what has been a classy franchise. it's a great play, but it shouldn't count because he is off sides. >> mahomes post game, to your

point, this was like watching the dalai lama yell at a waiter. i had not ever seen it before. [ laughter ] he has this in him? you know it meant something unique because of the outburst. to his point, did toney make a difference to the play? of course not. was he by the letter of the law offsides? yes. is there a song to be written about this? perhaps. >> that kelce thing was not a lateral, though, that was like a full-on 15 yard pass. >> extraordinary play. again, it is a penalty that's been called a dozen times this year. they're trying to call this penalty. >> a point of emphasis they call it. >> look at this pass. >> lastly, let's talk briefly about the sunday night game. >> spiral. >> incredible. >> we talked about another hated franchise, the dallas cowboys, who made a statement yesterday. they beat up on their division rivals, the eagles. they moved into a tie in the nfc east. is this hype for real? >> the only thing i know about the nfl this year, everybody is

mediocre. i see a power ranking one week, and the next week, they lost. as good as the eagles were, they have now lost a couple in a row. they play close games. the cowboys, dak prescott might be the mvp. my takeaway is, the most insufferable fans are cowboys fans. now, they'll declare themselves belt winners even though it is mid-december. >> entertaining as always, pablo torre. >> go, dodgers. >> dodger spokesman, pablo torres. >> yeah. >> mika. it is the top of the hour. our top story this hour, israel continuing to battle hamas terrorists in the heart of the southern gaza -- the largest city in southern gaza. the israeli military claims hamas has strongholds in the region and believes the terrorist group leader is there. officials say they have struck more than 200 targets in the past day, including several underground tunnels. meanwhile, prime minister

benjamin netanyahu is now claiming 20 israeli hostages have died in hamas statement. in a statement, netanyahu's office explained hamas ask still holding on to the body. israeli defense forces attempted to rescue hostages. a rescue operation for the remaining 137 people believed to be held captive. netanyahu says that operation was unsuccessful. it left two soldiers wounded. nbc news has not been able to independently verify these claims. this all comes as prime minister benjamin netanyahu is facing growing pressure from the families of those hostages to bring them home. it also brings us back to the question of how so many people were able to be captured by hamas on october 7th in the first place. and so many people were killed and tortured for hours.

and why it took so long for israel's military to respond. let's bring in national security analyst for nbc news and msnbc, clint watts. i'm desperate for an answer here. am i wrong to -- am i wrong to surmise, israel is not a large country. if you look at security forces, i believe it was israel that we turned to for guidance and advice after 9/11 because they had strong security on so many levels. we develop the tsa and things like that. also, if you just look at a basic attack in our country, if there is a school shooting or an event, the school is surrounded within minutes. the town is on lockdown within minutes. the state is on lockdown if there is a manhunt. i mean, there's a whole set of events that can happen in under 20 minutes. is this -- is there something

different going on in terms of being able to get to the border toward gaza to help people during an attack? >> mika, the idea, quite clearly, is no. when you just look at the distances of what this attack was right when the war kicked off, these locations, we're talking about two to three miles. imagine not even half the dais distance of manhattan. when i was in israel this summer, when you're in a tall building in tel-aviv, you can see to gaza and haifa in the north, depending on where your positioned. this is a small distance. looking at the reaction times across all these towns, to the north, down to the south, you had a full-scale invasion. you had towns ringing the entire gazan perimeter all around being invaded, all at nearly the same time. just in terms of why this could happen or what could have happened, i'm going to come to the point you made last hour about qatar. in a discussion about what was

netanyahu doing in terms of the negotiations, they were no longer take hamas as a serious threat. what had they done? they'd become overly reliant on technology on the border wall throughout here. that technology was meant to reduce the number of troops they'd have to position around here. but that technology wasn't being monitored or wasn't working in many cases. the idf, the israeli defense forces, were not monitoring those radios. what were they doing? they were actually on holiday or not taking those alerts seriously. there was activity that was detected here. in fact, you could go on the open internet and see them actually using those paragliders in a demonstration long before october 7th. separately, when you just zoom back out and look at the larger picture, over the summer, major disruptions in the country, you might remember many reserve officers resigned. here, in the west bank, in this area here, there were many, many clashes. when i was in israel in july, there were clashes there. that's where the focus was.

all intelligence was poithis not was going to be an iranian proxy, principling hezbollah that would be the main threat. >> clint? >> they focused on hezbollah. they weren't there to react. >> they weren't there to react, but it doesn't take long to get there. are you telling me they didn't know this was going on for six, seven, eight hours? it's impossible. am i wrong? >> incredibly slow. in fact, you could see, we could see, we were already on air reporting that morning about the attacks that were going on. there was social media footage. there were broadcasts coming from people trapped in their homes down here in the southern area, yet this reaction time should have been almost immediate. a couple things i think that had happened. one, they had a breakdown and weakness in the military over the summer. separately, it was a holiday. this was a holiday, though, that was timed exactly on the

anniversary of the yom kippur war. we're always looking for terrorist groups to strike on key dates, and they did just that. yet, none of the intelligence was listened to. >> but i still -- this is not explaining the response time. when it was happening, you can get there, from here to there in israel. this isn't like, you know, an entire continent. how big is israel? they could have been there in an hour. >> yeah, it is a relatively small area. i would compare it to the tristate area around new york city. very short distances, oftentimes three to four miles around the border, 10 to 15 from the airport even down to gaza or out to tel-aviv. very short distances. >> would you -- >> the reaction should be quick, and they should have been on their toes and ready to go. >> it is clear they knew about it, right? >> there was indications and reporting. there was a general that tried to set up a meeting with netanyahu to brief him about what he saw as a very serious risk around hamas. netanyahu reportedly didn't take that meeting.

separately, behind the scenes, as you reported this morning, qatar was sending funds into hamas. it seems that israel -- this was a well-known discussion in israel, that qatar was proviing funds to hamas. >> i mean -- yeah, i just mean, clint, as it was happening, they knew about it. it was on, you know, facebook, and it was everywhere. my question is, since they knew about it and you're telling me about the size of israel, why not mobilize and respond? i guess what i'm really asking is, are you point -- are you confident this is all just weakness? this is all just sort of, oh, people were on vacation? it doesn't feel right. >> i think it was a discounting ofprincipally, mika. they didn't take it as a threat. they weren't on the radios listening to hamas chatter. they weren't monitoring the surveillance systems. they have no quick response forces. what forces they had they repositioned to deal with issues in the west bank, or their main

threat which they thought was coming from hezbollah in the north. looking at the situation, they had done literally everything wrong every step of the way, and they took a very serious terrorist group not too seriously. they got caught totally offguard, relying too much on technology and not enough on their supposed great intelligence services, which should have reacted quicker. >> national security analyst clint watts, thank you very much. so let me get this right. from what we've heard ever since october 7th, that americans and the world needs to understand that hamas' sole focus is to kill jews. they live every day of their lives to figure out how to kill jews. but they just didn't respond to that. they didn't cover their border. they were on vacation. they weren't listening to the radio chatter of hamas. yet, they want us to believe

that that was their sole focus, that this is what hamas is all about and that's how we have to live, us israelis. now, we have new reporting from "the new york times" that clint referenced, that prime minister netanyahu encouraged qatar to send millions of dollars a month to gaza which helped prop up the hamas government, the people who live to kill jews. according to the paper which cites several people familiar with secret discussions between qatari officials and israel's mossad intelligence agency, netanyahu recently decided to continue allowing the money to enter the territory, the money that ultimately went to hamas. which lives every day to kill jews. "the times" says this was a gamble for netanyahu, who thought a steady flow of money would maintain peace in gaza and keep hamas focused on governing, not fighting.

yet, they also said during this r that benjamin netanyahu declared very quickly after the attack, even though his government could not respond to the attack and save people, said they couldn't send fuel along with the humanitarian supplies, because you cannot trust hamas. you cannot give them anything because they will use it -- they will not use it for civilians, they will use it for themselves. back to "the times" reporting, the payments were part of a string of decisions by israeli leaders, all based on the fundamentally flawed assessment that hamas was neither interested nor capable of a large-scale attack. qatar had hoped the money would fund humanitarian goals like paying government salaries in gaza and buying fuel to keep a power plant running. israeli intelligence officials now believe the money played a

role in the success of october 7th terrorist attacks. according to the paper, the donations allowed hamas to divert some of its own budget toward military operations. richard haass, i'll send this to you. >> thank you. >> your response to this new reporting? i mean, i don't know what to say. i mean -- >> i'll say two things, mika. >> let's say it out loud -- go ahead. >> look, first of all, this reflects a fundamental misreading of hamas. hamas -- the israelis thought they had a modus avendi with hamas. we'll let people out to work in israel. you won't be terrorism. we'll be fine. meanwhile, you keep the palestinian authority off balance so we don't have to worry about the palestinians coming together, effectively for statehood. israelis thought they had a deal here. what this first of all

represented was a fundamental misreading of hamas. hamas hadn't changed. hamas, in many ways, lulled the israelis into complacency. all these exercises they were doing, the israelis starting discounting, didn't take the threat of attacks seriously. this is a fundamental israeli intelligence failure, political failure, and military failure, getting after your previous conversation with clint. the levels of readiness and the so-called gaza division of the idf were so low, the israelis couldn't put together an effective response. you have all that. this will be the stuff when, ultimately, there is an inquiry, there is a commission set up to look at all this. they're not going to lack for things to criticism. but we talked about it earlier, what i find so stunning about this, though, is the cynicism of israeli policy. it wasn't just a misreading of hamas. it was a conscious desire to promote hamas as competition for the palestinian authority, which governs or tries to govern in the west bank.

the whole idea, if you keep the palestinian leadership divided, then the israelis will not have to deal with the possibility of a palestinian state so they could continue the status quo, continue to build or expand settlements and avoid some very difficult decisions, which bibi netanyahu's coalition wants to avoid. that, to me, is the most cynical part of this. it wasn't just an intelligence and defense misreading, but it was the undermine the entity you have to negotiate with. i've been involved with negotiations, the middle east, cyprus, what have you. the first rule of negotiation, you try to empower the other side. not because you like them but you need them to be willing to make deals and lift up to that afterwards. what the israelis did was the opposite. the goal was to weaken the palestinian side. if they entered a deal, they

couldn't live up to it, then the israelis could point the finger and say, "that's why we don't have to worry about peace here." >> deeply cynical but understanding the allies and the middle east at least knew what was happening. now that this story is crystal clear in "the new york times," what do you suppose the reaction will be from washington, from european capitals, some of whom already have questions about how israel is conducting the war? >> questions about benjamin netanyahu's frame of mind to continue this stupid foreign policy. can you imagine if, before 9/11, we'd given billions to al qaeda to keep ourselves safer? i mean, that's just -- this is so stupid. i can't believe we're supposed to entertain some of the quotes the israeli spokesperson gave in "the new york times." >> thank you. >> i think this is hugely problematic politically for the israelis, and i know that netanyahu has a tight grip on power, but i can't imagine this

helping him. >> that's for sure. >> no. here at home, a lot of ripple effects of what is happening in israel. the president of the university of pennsylvania has resigned after intense backlash following her congressional testimony on campus anti-semitism. the university announced liz macgill's resignation over the weekend in a letter. quote, president liz magill has voluntarily tendered her resignation as the president of pennsylvania. macgill along with presidents of m.i.t. and harvard testified last week, dodging questions from republican congresswoman elise stefanik of new york on whether students calling for the genocide of jews violates their school's code of conduct. following the news of macgill's resignation, congresswoman stefanik called for the leaders of harvard and m.i.t. to also step down. let's bring in the host of the

podcast "on brand with donny deutsch," donny deutsch. and political and investigative reporter at nick convacori. what do we know about the other presidents? will they, too, step down? any word on that in terms of all the reaction to the testimony? >> look, the board of m.i.t. put out a statement supporting the president of m.i.t. there are calls for the president of harvard, claudine gay, to step down. she has professors saying, no, she shouldn't be asked to step down. i think the attacks on these people from the middle and right in the last few days have, in some ways, turned the tables a bit to firm up their support on campus. people are asking, should they be judged by their worst moment? it's up to the schools to decide who will lead them in the end.

>> yeah, it's really a stunning set of events. donny, i want to talk about the president of upenn stepping down. i'm sort of several minds about it. because in this age of people getting canceled and cancel culture, there doesn't seem to be a lot of room for learning. i'm sort of sensitive to someone who tries to apologize or tries to see the light. i'm sort of of two minds in terms of her resigning. having said that, on top of what i've just said, you know, the question wasn't, how do you feel about the call for the genocide of jews? it was, is it part of your university's code of conduct? it begged the question, yes or

no. that is an intellectual question, what does the code of conduct say? those university presidents were answering that question about what is in the code of conduct. they probably should have not been so tone deaf and said, "listen, given the events of the past two months, i'm going to order a full review of our code of conduct." that might have been helpful. so i'm a little sensitive or sympathetic, i think, to the fact that the president of upenn at least tried to apologize and tried to make things right and, still, she loses her job. i could be wrong. i think this is an interesting discussion. your thoughts. >> i respect your opinion, but this was not the first incident of liz macgill failing to fight anti-semitism and hatred. i guess my question is, how did we even get here? >> mm-hmm. >> that a university president or presidents found it difficult, were parsing and

dancing around, just saying, "no, it's not okay to say to kill jews on our campus." how did we get here? personally over the weekend, i was on a phone with my daughter. she was in a cab and calling me on the speakerphone. i was telling her, what time she should be home for hanukkah. she said, "should i get out of the cab? i'm afraid he knows i'm jews." this is a ugov/economist poll, one in five young people don't think the holocaust existed in the united states. one in five young people, this is a result of what's happening on college campuses. how did we get to the place where jerry seinfeld gives a concert and a mob shows up shouting "genocide" simply because he is a jewish entertainer. how are jews in israel the colonizers, yet they were slaughtered by the millions by

white colonizers in europe? there is a menorah lighter in los angeles, and a mob shows up screaming about genocide and killing jews. i want to know, how are we here? how are we even here in 2023? mika, longwinded answer to your question, she apologized, yes, but, i'm sorry, this was a string of many, many things. >> yeah. >> any leader and any human being who is asked that question, who is not living in this crazy, woke world, would be able to give an intelligence answer. as far as the presidents who still have their jobs, there is a fiduciary responsibility for them to step down. regardless of how we got here, they can't do their jobs anymore. they're not serving their universities. >> there's one school of thought that would say what we need is consistency across the board. you apply the same standards on this issue with jewish students as you would with black students or gay students, whatever. that's one. you also have broader calls.

people are basically saying, let's tear up these institutions by the roots. let's look at the dei apparatus. let's look at the idea, why are these institutions even taking public positions? who cares? why are the politics so imbalanced? why are the overwhelming share of faculty of one political view and not another? what extent will this light a fuse, where the elite universities will be forced to change or maybe initiate some change? >> look, here's a fact, these schools have always been pretty liberal. they've actually gotten a lot more left wing in the last 10, 0 20 years. that's a fact. you've had fewer conserve tiff students and voices on these campuses. at a period in which there has been more and more attention and administration around the idea of regulating speech. i will say that the people i follow and talk to who most offend peer free speech said the answers they gave were technically correct at the hearing. >> technically, not humanly.

>> unsatisfying from a human and moral perspective. what was infuriating to them is it is inconsistent. they can point to and catalog 10, 20, 30, 40 examples of conservative speech and sometimes liberal speech being censored or diminished around the schools. do you have a regime of true free speech at the schools where everything short of true calls of violence is accepted? or, the other option, do you unfold jews into the protection that's emerged in the schools? the problem is the dei bureaucracy, the administrative bureaucraies are a power center. the easiest thing to do is say, yes, we include jews in the groups of people disadvantaged and you can't attack them. the hard thing is to step back and say, perhaps we have gone too far in regulating the speech of students. we have to rethink how to do it. >> the problem is, when you have

niche ti initiatives that protect certain groups and not others, you're creating the other in this situation. i'll come back to something, and joe has been so passionate about this, and we could talk about free speech, but it comes back to, somehow, when it is about jews, it falls into a different category. >> yup. >> why is that? i have theories but i'm not going to give the answer to it. this would not be happening if it was any other group. i want to applaud my friend, joe, because he is the first to kind of talk about this this way. >> yeah. >> but that's the big question. why? >> i think, donny, to your point, i think it's why it is important, perhaps, these university presidents step down or at least the one from upenn has, and, you know, it's part of a bigger problem and a blind spot that just shouldn't be there in this day and age. donny, thank you for coming on. "new york times" reporter nick

confessore, thank you, both, very much for coming on this morning. still ahead on "morning joe," china appears to be stepping up its surveillance of taiwan ahead of that island's elections next month. we'll get a live report if taipei straight ahead. plus, former house speaker kevin mccarthy seems to think he can convince donald trump to stop focusing on revenge. we'll play for you those comments. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back.

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beijing claims as its own territory. the move raises concerns about possible chinese efforts to influence the election. let's bring in nbc news foreign correspondent janis mackey frayer live from ttaipei, taiwa. what's the latest? >> reporter: the election will be held here on january 13th, and this is in a critical phase. because for the first time, the three-way race will be between the ruling party, the main opposition, and a new party, the tpp, which is looking to gain support among people who are tired of the two political mainstays. one of the primary issues facing voters is cross-strait relations. how does taiwan go about having ties with mainland china when beijing has been absolutely clear about its intentions? xi jinping telling president biden face-to-face in san

francisco that taiwan will be, quote, reunified with the mainland and china will use force if necessary. ties have deteriorated between china and taiwan over nearly eight years under the dpp. president tsai is not running for re-election. the military activity has been normalized, including chinese jets flying across the so-called median line. beijing has taken to calling the dpp candidate for president, quote, a separatist and a troublemaker. i caught up with the two main opposition parties, their presidential and vice presidential candidates, to talk about taiwan/china relations and also ties to the u.s. all three parties are looking to deepen u.s. ties as well as u.s. military support even if that risks irritaing beijing.

>> reunification is not a rushed issue. but it is dangerous to beijing. i don't think they can take it. if you or i were xi jinping, we cannot stand taiwan going to be independent. but reunification, well, i think that can wait. it's not so urgent.

>> reporter: disinformation is also spreading here. we talked to fact-checking organizations about what they're seeing. it's not just the overt pro-beijing messaging to sway voters away from the dpp, but also anti-u.s. messaging, including framing the possible freeze on funding for ukraine as an example of how the u.s. could someday abandon taiwan. it's all a reminder of how closely that beijing is watching this election to see if there is an outcome it can tolerate. mika? >> janis mackey frayer live in taiwan, thank you so much. richard haass, your thoughts on this? >> mika, i was just in china this past week. this is obviously -- look, the

u.s./chinese relationship is the most important of this era of history. this is the single most contentious issue in this. i don't think right now we're on the edge of a big crisis, much less war. the focus in beijing is almost entirely on their economy. they understand that a move against taiwan at this point would be devastating for their economy. i don't think this is a near-term crisis. though, what janice said is right, you're going to see more chinese mainland pressure on taiwan. but the real challenge for this country, for taiwan, for china, is whether we can continue to manage or finesse this. ever since nixon and kissinger went to china in the early ' 70s, we've essentially learned to disagree, how to manage this. the question is whether we can continue to do this. none of the candidates in taiwan is talking about independence. that would trigger a war. again, i don't think the mainland is about to invade. but this is just, at best, an irritant. at worse, you could have

incidents that could escalate. this is part of the backdrop of u.s./chinese relations. but, for the most at least and, i think, the foreseeable future, it's on the backburner. at some point, it is possible it won't. either because the mainland will be looking to get impatient, or taiwan could go something reckless, or there might be doubts about u.s. willingness or ability to come to taiwan's support. this is very much in play. but for the next year or so, two years, i don't think this is a major crisis. >> all right. richard haass, thank you so much. still ahead on "morning joe," we turn to another major story this week on capitol hill. the republican controlled house is expected to vote on launching an impeachment inquiry into president biden. we'll ask the chair of the democratic congressional campaign committee, congressman suzan delbene, about how the impeachment efforts could impact next year's elections. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back.

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have you seen crimes and misdemeanors? >> i don't see evidence of that at all. if you begin an impeachment inquiry, you ought to have some evidence, some inclination there has been wrongdoing. so far, there's been nothing of that nature provided. >> are you opposed to the impeachment inquiry? >> if i were in the house, i'd be against it unless they brought forward evidence suggesting a high crime or misdemeanor has been committed. so far, that's not been the case. >> that was republican senator mitt romney of utah saying if he were in the house, he's vote against the push for an official impeachment inquiry into president biden. house speaker mike johnson announced last week the house will hold a vote later this week on an impeachment inquiry. joining us now, congresswoman suzan delbene of washington

state. she serves on the house ways and means committee and is chair of the democratic congressional campaign committee. john heilemann has the first question. >> congresswoman, since we're talking about impeachment, let's start with that. lemire and i were on this show on friday discussing this matter, and i thought to myself, you know, every member of the -- democratic member of the house is going to say this is terrible, and the white house is going to say this is terrible. secretly, they're all going to be saying, this is the best thing that will happen to joe biden and democrats and just going to add, compound the republicans' woes politically because it looks like they are -- it plays further into the narrative of an out of control, radical, extremist house, not doing the people's business, dysfunction, all the stuff and chaos we've seen. is that not the case as you look around the country and think, i wish we didn't have to go through the impeachment thing, but it'll be to our benefit going forward. >> it is terrible. it is terrible because it is distracting from us doing actual work that needs to be done. we have critical work that needs

to be done. here we're coming to the last week of the congress, at least looks like the last week of this congress, and we haven't done any of the important work that needs to be done. the dysfunction and chaos and extremism we've seen from house republicans has been true since day one of this congress. >> right. >> data, facts, evidence, that doesn't matter to them. they don't know how to do anything else right now. this is what they're continuing to focus on. so it's terrible for the american people. >> right. >> frankly, the american people see that. that's going to impact them at the ballot box next year. >> right. whether they were pursuing impeachment or not, it's not like they'd be productive partners, at least what we've seen so far. is it not the case, your candidates, you have primaies in a bunch of districts but also incumbents, is it not going to be the case the effective way to run against republicans as we head into 2024 will be this

issue, that this republican house, we saw what happened. it's time to end the nightmare, and it needs to be over. >> chaos, dysfunction, extremism, absolutely, those are things that we're running on and talking about because that's what people see every day. you know, we did -- saw polling that showed that seven out of ten voters in battleground districts thinks republicans are focused on the wrong things. they're not focused on the things that people actually care about in our districts across the country. they care about economic issues, what are the day-to-day kitchen table issues at home? they care about governance working. here, we have republicans who can't even agree with each other, let alone move important legislation, and now already decided what they want an outcome to be and are trying to figure out how to get there on this impeachment inquiry. >> congresswoman, you have a lot of responsibility going to this election cycle as the chair of

the dccc. how many races are you closely watching? off camera, you said there are around 32 races you think could be potentially up for grabs. talk about what you're seeing with this electoral landscape. >> absolutely. we're five seats short of majority. when you look across the country, there a many, many seats where republicans hold seats that we think we have an opportunity to pick up. there's 18 seats that president biden won in 2020 that republicans are in right now. actually, a lot in new york and california. one of those is new york 3, the former george santos seat. we think we have huge opportunities there. mainly because we don't have moderate republicans anymore. a lot of these republicans ran as moderates, and they've been incredibly extreme. they all voted for speaker johnson, probably the most extreme speaker we've ever had. there are no moderates left on the republican side. we have races that are very,

very close, and they're opportunities for us where we have incredible candidates, sometimes people running again, and where we think we have great opportunities to pick up. through redistricting, there is a new seat in alabama that's a big opportunity, too. across the board, we need five more to take back the majority, but, you know, we're going to be playing in races across the country because we have candidates who want to protect our rights and freedoms and democracy and are running strong. >> let's talk about what's going on on capitol hill the next week or so. it's this funding bill, the supplemental, potentially ukraine, israel, the border and such. president zelenskyy from ukraine will be making the case in person tomorrow. what are the chances you think it'll pass? also, in terms of the politics of it, like, which of these issues, ukraine, israel, border, are you finding resonaing with voters? >> first of all, if a bill is going to move it has to move through the senate first. the house is too dysfunctional

to move something first, so the senate has to come with a package and send it to the house. but voters want to see us work through these issues, and they want to see us solve issues and move legislation. so the inaction actually is what, you know, we hear from voters. why can't you figure out how to move forward? we continue to try to work across the aisle, to try to find solutions, to try to move legislation. over and over and over again, house republicans have refused to even bring important bipartisan legislation forward. you see that, they can't even a agree with each other. they can't move their own spending bills. that's why it is a challenging time and a dangerous time. we have republicans in charge of the house who aren't interested in governing, who are only interested in arguing with each other and, you know, kind of fighting each other to see who can be more extreme. there's not an interest in governance, and that's what the american people want to see.

>> chair of the dccc, congresswoman suzan delbene, thank you very much. new polling out of iowa shows donald trump continues to hold a strong lead amongst his rivals. plus, why did trump change his mind about returning to the witness stand today in his civil fraud trial in manhattan? i mean, he's been there. he's gone there. he didn't have to be there. we'll get a live report. also ahead, actor jacob isaacs will join us live in studio on his limited series, "archie," in which he plays the legendary keri grant. "morning joe" will be right back. perfect! so now, do you have a driver's license? oh. what did you get us? [ chuckling ] with the click of a pen, you can a new volkswagen

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a few minutes before the top of the hour. we're going to turn to a story out of israel that's not about

the war actually. a coffee shop in the heart of jerusalem's old city may just be the most expensive cafe in the world, thanks to a discovery by its owner of what could be a gateway that links some of the city's most holy sites, nbc news correspondent hala gorani has more. ♪♪ >> reporter: cafe owner imad said he's standing on priceless real estate. in the heart of jerusalem's old city, at the intersection of the world's holiest sites. >> this is with my family, in 1950. >> reporter: so, this was a shop? >> yes, this area. >> reporter: and then you opened it? >> from here and up and inside.

it was ten bed, 20 bed, 100. >> reporter: then an unexpected discovery. he said it's a map of the old city that he says shows his cafe located between the western wall of the east and church of the holy sepulchre to the west. all right. and with more digging, he says, a network of tunnels would be uncovered. so this is much longer than i thought it was when i was going down those steps. so, essentially, it looks like there's more than one level here, but it just -- you know, if you keep digging, according to the map at least, it would lead to you some of the holy sites in old jerusalem. back aboveground, he tells us he's received multiple offers for his cafe. and that israeli authorities have denied him business licenses and ordered him to stop work on his shop.

you have been offered money for this place. how much? >> asking we give you -- >> reporter: dollars. >> dollars, after three months, $51 million. >> reporter: though we can't confirm the price offered, jewish organizations whose aim is to expand their presence in east jerusalem have been known to purchase arab-owned real estate in the old city. and it's not just here where the israeli military tightly controls access and movement, in recent decades, the israeli government has approved more than a dozen settlements captured in israel in 1967 and considered illegally occupied land by the international community. the arab population pushed out. back at the cafe, looking after his family's business has come at a steep price.

>> it's my health, my money, my life, everything i lose. >> reporter: and palestinians even thinking of buying to jewish buyers often risk accusations of treason. but despite years of navigating bureaucratic demands, court cases and rejected business licenses, this man is still here. the question is for how long. >> anytime, you come in. >> nbc's hala gorani with that report. and still ahead on "morning joe," we're going through a controversial ruling in texas. the state supreme court is blocking a life saving abortion for a woman, despite a diagnosis from a doctor that her baby will not survive after it's born. plus, donald trump backs out of giving testimony today in the civil fraud trial against his business organization. lisa rubin who predicted this on our show friday will join us with more legal expertise. we'll be right back. be right ba.

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have sixth amendment rights, those are violated. even though he should take the stand, you should never take the stand with a gag order. he's so firmly against what's happening. >> trump lawyer alina habba previewing the trump testimony in the civil fraud case against his business organization now it appears trump will be a no-show. we'll show you what his legal team is saying about the last-minute reversal and who will take the stand. plus, the latest from the mill east. israel continues to strike what it calls hamas strongholds in southern gaza, an area where the u.n. has warned about dire

humanitarian conditions. it comes amid new reporting that israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu not only knew about qatar's monthly payments of millions of dollars to hamas, he encouraged it. we'll get analysis on that damning report from james stavridis and we will preview president zelenskyy's visit to capitol hill tomorrow. the ukrainian leader is set to meet with mike johnson as congress fights for the funding of the war-torn country. and we have steve kornacki here at the big board breaking down the new polling from iowa, in just moments, with just over say month in the caucuses there. plus, an update to the story we great you on friday, the texas supreme court is blocking an abortion for a woman whose fetus has a fatal diagnosis.

kate cox who is 20 weeks' pregnant was warned by her doctor and multiple doctors that if she carries this pregnancy to term, it will likely jeopardize her health and future fertility. despite this, the texas attorney general asked a state supreme court to step in, organizing cox does not meet the criteria for a medical exception. today is monday, december 11th. and believe it or not, it is 2023. not 1923. and that's where we're going to begin this morning. this is an unsettling and all too common story. once again, an ageing white man, faces indictments, is accused of covering up an affair, faced impeachment, and still his wrecking ball use of political power continues with brutal consequences on the lives of women. sounds familiar. i'm actually not talking about donald trump. this time, it's another

far-right republican who considers it a compliment to be called trumpy. after all, this man, according to reuters, tried to sue joe biden over 50 times. on issues including immigration and gun rights and a ton of other garbage. i'm talking, of course, about texas attorney general ken paxton. paxton is so desperate to mimic trump, so desperate for trump's support that he led a lawsuit in 2020 to challenge the results of that year's election in trump's favor. the supreme court, of course, quickly threw that out. but that's how desperate he is. the man is so desperate to mimic trump that he behaves in a cruel, brutal fashion. and won't back down, in an ill woman is physically and emotionally destroyed. that woman, kate cox, her health

is in danger, because of ken paxton who is using laws against abortion, thank you, donald trump, leonard leo and many others, to make sure her suffering is the most it can be. we've got to wake up. we need to wake the hell up. this country has lost so much already. women have lost so much. whether you're a democrat or a republican, a man or a woman, please look at the face of this moment in time. kate cox could be your daughter, your sister, your wife, you. kate cox is 31 and needs an abortion. her physical and emotional well-being is in peril. her developing fetus has trisomy 18, a rare chromosomal disorder that is likely to produce

stillbirth, where she gives birth to a dead baby. or her baby will survive the birth and will die shortly after. she will watch her newborn, kate will, suffer, gasp for air and then die. there are also other risks, that's the reason she needed an abortion. of bringing this pregnancy to term, including making it impossible for kate to ever have a baby again. it will sterilize her. kate needs that abortion now to protect her own health, too. she's been to the e.r. four times for severe cramps, leaking fluid and elevated vital signs according to her lawyer. and then, of course, there is the mental anguish. >> we're going through the loss of a child. there's no outcome here that i take home a healthy baby girl, you know. so, it's hard, you know.

>> so why isn't this woman in the o.r. right now getting the life-saving health care she needs? because the texas attorney general, not a doctor, not a scientist, an ageing white far-right republican male believes he knows what should happen with kate's body. he would prefer that she carry her nonviable fetus to term, consequences be damned. that's ken's choice. ken has choices. kate does not. ken is choosing to harm kate's health care once again by threatening legal action against any doctor who performs kate's life-saving abortion. legal action against the hospital where the procedure happens, he wants to. so for kate, a desperate mother in need of health care, the

reason her body may lose its ability to have more children, the reason her young children have a sick, suffering mother. the reason her very life may be absolutely shattered and in danger, is because ken paxton is driving home the reality that we all must face. because trump and his cronies were able to destroy roe, something he loves to brag about, we have no rights to protect ourselves in a situation like this. >> forcing me to continue the pregnancy with pain and suffering, puts me through the risk of continuing the pregnancy to risk child birth, again, especially given how my last two went. i think it's cruel. >> we have no right to save ourselves from suffering. our daughters are growing up in a world where they will be scared to get pregnant. they will fear that people like

ken paxton will have more of a say in their health care decisions than their doctors. they will fear that they will suffer or even die when attempting to bring a life into this world. this isn't a fear we have about something that might happen, let's all freak about what might happen. no, this is where we are right now. and this monday morning, i pray for kate cox and the many other women who will inevitably be in the same situation. i'm also praying that we all step up. you may be a republican. you may have voted for trump thinking this all isn't so bad, it's worse. wake up. and consider voting with kate in mind in the next presidential election. the choices may not be perfect. they may be far from perfect. i get that.

what we're trying to save, though, is the ability to have choices and options in this country. and to make those choices in a country that is a democracy. let's bring in former u.s. attorney and msnbc legal analyst joyce vance, former aide to the george w. bush white house, elise jordan. the host of "way too early" and politico jonathan lemire and nbc news national affairs analyst john heilemann. and we'll have polls that backs up my extreme concerns this morning, but legally, joyce vance, kate cox is running out of time. she thought she had a path to getting the health care she needs. >> yes. so, this case is now sitting with the texas supreme court. they have put on hold the lower court's order that would have let her get a life-saving, potentially life-saving abortion

for her. she does not know when the texas supreme court would rule, they could take her time. in fact, they could take so much time they make it impossible for her to obtain health care. this is what the world looks like in texas. every woman in the middle of a dangerous pregnancy, the trauma of losing a child, has to ask a judge for permission to get medical care without knowing whether or not she'll receive it. and she can't leave the state of texas because of sb8, the law that would make her husband or anyone else who helped her amenable to a lawsuit to a total stranger. in other words, this is not about health care, this is not about life, or protecting life, this is about punishing women. >> so this is -- there's so many other questions i have for you about precedent and what could happen and the country. but it does line up exactly with where the presidential politics stand right now.

and i want to turn, just for a moment, to brand-new polling out of iowa on the republican field for president. joining us from the big board, nbc news national political correspondent steve kornacki. steve, what do the numbers show? >> yeah. well, basically, exactly, almost exactly, 35 days, or a month, in the iowa caucuses. this is what we're going to show you our brand-new nbc news des moines register poll. it's sane by ann selzer, she's known as one of the best in the business and certainly the authority when it comes to poling in iowa. let me show you the numbers, republican side for the iowa caucuses, we now have donald trump leading with an outright majority in iowa. 51%. ron desantis a distant second at 19%. nikki haley at 16%. vivek ramaswamy and christie at 4. since then, polled, donald trump's lead, he's adding eight points to his total.

desantis up a couple. haley who had be moving flat, i think it's significant, because in the month leading up to this poll, you had ron desantis pick up the endorsement of the governor of iowa. the endorsement of a key evangelical leader in iowa. got a lot of press attention for completing a 99-county tour of iowa. had a fox news debate in front of gavin newsom, millions of voters and that fourth republican debate last week that donald trump wasn't in. so for all of those things we thought might be giving desantis a boost over the last month, it is trump. despite not participating in the debates again, it's trump who has made the big gains. trump who has moved to 51% in the iowa poll. just a couple numbers we can show you behind this, that these are evangelical numbers in iowa. donald trump finished third when he ran in iowa and lost. now, he leads overwhelmingly, the exact same number of what he gets overall. evangelicals could make up 2 out

of every 3 caucusgoers in iowa. where trump turns it around, first-time caucusgoers, this tends to be a younger group overall. 63% of folks say for the first time they're going to a caucus, rallying behind donald trump. these are independents. independents are a small share of the iowa electorate. but i think it gets to the basic problem nikki haley has. look how much better nikki haley does among independents. it's true in iowa. it's true in new hampshire. it's true in every poll we have seen. in iowa, in most of these republican primary and caucus states, the big exception being new hampshire. independents are going to be outnumbered significantly by core republicans. haley has yet to show she can make the inroads she needs to make with core republicans. that is to say, republicans who like donald trump. you can make those inroads to be competitive. also in terms of enthusiasm, we

ask folks are you very enthusiastic about your choice. trump, 2 to 1, 3 to 1 advantage over his rivals. we asked folks is your mind made up, 70% of trump voters in iowa say their minds are made up, again, near double that of his rivals. and this is about electability and republicans' perception of it here. we talked so much in 2023 about donald trump's trials, we will continue to talk about it in 2024. we asked folks, can donald trump win the election regardless of his legal challenges, nearly 3 out of 4 republicans in iowa say yes. last month, that number wasn't even 2 out 3. big jump there for trump. we also say are trump's legal challenges too much making it nearly impossible for him to win. 24% saying, that number was over 30 last month. all sorts of signs in this poll make up and showing donald trump over the last six weeks in iowa

has actually improved his position. last time, this close to the caucuses, again, about a month away, a republican candidate had a lead anywhere near this size goes all the way back to george w. bush, the year was 2000. bush won the nomination. >> nbc's steve kornacki for bringing the numbers. just as they break this morning. we appreciate it. elise jordan, given the rights of women or lack thereof in this country now, due to the moves made by donald trump, leonard leo and his cronies. what do you make of these numbers? what is going jon. >> and i understand this is iowa we're talking about, but still, look at what's happening. you look at in iowa, this is a bloc of very conservative evangelical voters who dominate the caucuses. so for donald trump, what he did with the supreme court and the

judges he appointed benefits him in iowa. it's not in you get to other states, and particularly, new hampshire is going to be more interesting where you see voters are more libertarian, and they don't like the idea of doctors not able to dictate the life saving measures needs to give health care to patients, this is about health care at the end of the day, than personal liberty and personal freedom. and you're going to see the granite state come into play. and potentially be more of a factor. >> and as steve noted it's remarkable trump's surge in evangelicals. we were skeptical of him in 2017. and now he's never been more popular. john heilemann, it could be a different electorate than we see in iowa. that's where the haley camp will fare better. and we know chris christie has his hopes as well. as we look at these numbers, 51 to 19, in a state that trump previously didn't do all that

well. are we kidding ourselves to think this is a waste at all, or a foregone conclusion that donald trump will be the nominee? >> who's we? >> i've been thinking for months now. >> you know, for democracy, you want to have these things play out and suspend the disbelief. things can change. the date is -- i believe, december something, i lost track completely. we're in december now, the iowa caucuses are a month away. it's not early still, there's a lot of yardage on the field, we're not just in the fourth quarter, we're getting close to winning in political terms. there's not a sign anywhere, things are tightening here and there. nikki haley has got momentum here and there. nikki haley has got momentum,

and donald trump, the field is vast and some cases growing, this is the state that donald trump and his team are the most worried about. they spent a lot of time there, he's been in iowa more than any other state. he's spending money there, doing rallies there, and apparently , it's having an effect. and the numbers that steve pointed to, the poll numbers show the closer we get to trump's trial date in washington, d.c., in the insurrection case, the closer we get to that the electability argument has faded. it's not that people are waking up and going, hey, donald trump is about to sit in front of a jury and chris christie says he's going to be convicted. maybe he is going to be. republican voters right now, think this is not an issue, that will not stop him from winning a general election as joe biden is very small, maybe larger.

>> republican voters who may be in the hospital right now, or have a wife in the hospital right now with a nonviable pregnancy that might kill her, joyce vance, i'll bring it back to you. i don't understand how they could not be voting on any other issue. i'm curious that the implications of the kate cox case, in terms of how it could impact other women across the country. and also if the supreme court allows her finally the life-saving health care that she needs, the ability to have an abortion, can she sue for pain and suffering? are there options here? do women have any options left? >> and that's the question, because right now, the option is for every woman on her own to find the financial and emotional resources to file a lawsuit giving her permission to have an

abortion. in texas, there's a case on the books where a group of women banned together to see if they can get that together on it. and to your point, it's coming down to the ballot box, but also who is not elected president but with all of the decisions about who will be in the state legislature, who the governor, who the attorney general will be will become critically important. we know that after the dobbs decision where the supreme court took away roe v. wade, abortions became a rallying cry, with all due respect to brother heilemann, whose political acumen i have great respect for. we're entering the christmas season, voters aren't focused. by the first of the year, we'll see people look at abortion, like in kansas, for instance

where voters who wanted to preserve the right to choice prevailed in an an election unexpectedly. and more recently, in ohio, where it resonates with voters in 2024. coming up, it wasn't just the intel that failed on october 7th, it was a long-running strategy that actually propped up hamas in hopes of keeping the group quiet. that obviously did not work with devastating consequences. those details are next on "morning joe." as cyber criminals expand their toolkit, we must expand as well. we need to rethink... next level moments, need the next level network. [speaker continues in the background] the network with 24/7 built-in security. chip? at&t business.

in just a moment, we'll get to the stagging news about benjamin netanyahu supporting the funding of hamas. but first, the state department has used an emergency authority to allow the sale of 14,000 tank shells to israel, by passing a congressional review that is generally required for arms sale to foreign nations. the department notified congressional committees late

friday ahead of the sale, valued at more than $106 million. it's the first time since the state department, having invoked the emergency provision for an arms shipment to the middle east, since 2019, when the trump administration providing arms to the saudi-led coalition in yemen, over congressional objections. let's bring in former supreme allied commander of nato navy admiral james stavridis. and richard haass. admiral, to start with you on this issue, what do you make of it? >> well, first and foremost, we ought to be deeply concerned about any kind of stepback from nato. that's really what's on my mind, is the reports of trump talking again, about pulling the u.s. out. and i'll give you three reasons.

that's a terrible idea, number one. europe collectively represents the largest economy in the world when you put it all together, and the second largest defense budget in the world, pragmatic. number two, we ought to be pretty concerned about putin and what his reaction would be, could he pick off smaller nato nations, say estonia, that has a significant russian population. and third and finally, mika, the signal it sends to the world. you know, we directly looked kind of bad when we pulled out of afghanistan, in terms of standing with our commitment. you can imagine breaking a bedrock agreement of treaty, like the nato treaty, that's been enforced for decades, talk about the signal to the world, who wants to continue to do business with us diplomatically,

at a terrible idea. >> catastrophic. richard. >> i'm just back from asia, i spent time with other individuals in capitals of two allies, in seoul and tokyo and israel. the biggest issue, just this, can they count on the united states after november. and we're actually having debates in places like south korea, serious debates about whether they need to have nuclear weapons. once of the principal goals of the united states is to stop the spread of nuclear weapons around the world. we now have our allies beginning to say, hey, if this individual becomes president, is he going to pull u.s. troops out thereof. hold off billions of dollars of payments and can we count on the united states. what jim said about nato, it's coming true about europe, we have this worldwide alliance system that's a great advantage of the foreign policy. and the idea that we

unilaterally dispense with it is beyond we. and the question about the middle east and arms sale. we need a serious conversation here because the israelis are not listening how to use force and how to distinguish between hamas and gaza. and the idea that we're providing more arms, i'll be honest with you, i have big questions marks about it. and the administration, unless it wants to continue to be ignored has to some big questions do we want to be separated from israel and united nations. do we need to support resolutions that we're comfortable with? do we need to start conditioning what arms we send or how those arms are going to be used? do we need to put on the table our own set of diplomatic initiatives? because clearly, this pass-over approach, it isn't having the desired effect. >> so, i want to get both of your takes on the next story, it's difficult to understand.

"the new york times" reporting prime minister benjamin netanyahu encouraged qatar to send millions of dollars a month to gaza which helped prom up the hamas government. according to the paper which cites several people familiar with secret discussions between qatari officials and israel's massad intelligence agency, netanyahu recently decided to continue allowing money to enter the territory, money that goes to hamas. the "times" said this was a gamble for netanyahu who thought a steady flow of money would maintain peace in gaza and keep hamas focused on governing, not fighting. the "times" reports the payments were part of a string of decisions by israeli leaders, all based on the fundamentally flawed assessment that hamas was neither interested nor capable of a large-scale attack. qatar had opened the money would

fund humanitarian goals like paying salaries in gaza and buying fuel to keep a power plant running. israeli intelligence officials now believe the money played a role in the success of october 7th, the terrorist attacks. according to the paper, the donations allowed hamas to divert some of its own budget towards military operations. we knew they could do this. it was the first thing that israel told us that we can't give them money for humanitarian aid because they will use it for fuel, fuel for the war. remember that, netanyahu's office tells the "times," multiple israeli governments enabled money to qatar to, quote, acted to weaken hamas significantly. really? admiral, i have so many questions this morning about benjamin netanyahu. i still don't understand why it took six to eight hours, while women were being raped and tortured and family members dismembered and people taken hostage to get the help they

need in a country as big as, what, massachusetts? i mean, a school shooting in massachusetts, it takes ten minutes to lock the school down. 15 to lock the town down. 20 to 30 to lock down the entire county or perhaps neighboring counties if there's a manhunt. this is crazy that they didn't get there and there's no answer. i know we're on a different topic, but now we're finding benjamin netanyahu was familiar with funding that went to hamas. how desperate was he to not have a two-state solution to a point where -- i don't know -- it doesn't seem like he's very far removed from what happened on october 7th? >> it's shocking, to be honest. and clearly, there is an enormous reckoning coming for benjamin netanyahu. it's not only your excellent points about the failures of his government, the failures of the

israeli defense forces, the massad, shin bet, all of the organizations that should have kept israeli babies safe in their nurseries. that reckoning is coming. secondly, the story we're on this morning, supplying funding to hamas. it was called a gamble. if so, that's the worst bet i can imagine, a world leader ever making. and you see how it played out for him. and then third and finally, you didn't mention it, but credible reporting suggests a copy of the actual plans of the attack were in the hands of israeli intelligence up to a year before the attack. there is a reckoning coming for this government and for benjamin netanyahu personally. and there should be. >> a spokeswoman for netanyahu was on the show friday who wouldn't address that. certainly didn't deny it, either, though.

richard haass, this is sort of stunning reporting and certainly does reveal netanyahu's thinking about a two-state solution and lack of interest. my question to you, though, how does he survive all of this? how does he survive the idea that there was a failure there, the slowness of the response, that the intelligence community knew a year in advance something was going to happen. and now, this, he has to explain to the israeli public, including some of whom loved ones are held hostage? >> there's two points, one, this is not stunning, this is not shocking this is all about bb netanyahu supporting hamas. he opposes a two-state coalition. it's premised on the idea of continuing settlement of nonstate solution. this is totally out of pace with bibi netanyahu, the enemy of

your enemy can still be or enemy. israeli is paying the price for his cynicism and i actually think, despite what opponents are saying, bibi netanyahu hangs on longer. there's only one way to get rid of him. and a lost of these guys in bed with him. they're not going to have an election in the middle of a crisis. netanyahu has every incentive to maintain an intense large war. basically, no one wants to change forces midstream. then, it comes back to the first story that mika ran, it's one of the things that the administration has to understand, they're not dealing with someone who is acting in good faith with them and they've got to adjust their policy. >> i want to ask about zelenskyy and nato and trump. that is a piece that has more bs than that "the new york times" piece. everyone has explanations, well,

they're hoping to recover rather than fight. this is what benjamin netanyahu wants to be strong for a period of time. he wants to poison the time that anybody would have a credible partner for a two-state solution. he doesn't want it. and doesn't see it happening. all of the explanations to me seem like garbage to me, to you, i ask zelenskyy, coming, again, desperately needs the money, i heard you sway on "way too early" man, we better give him the money. sand with the war, ukraine is toast in this war. you've got the world looking and saying, man, donald trump -- they're seeing the polls the fact, if not the favorite, and biden says the first thing he's going to do is duck out of nato and the first one to feel that is the volodymyr zelenskyy and the ukrainians. >> yeah, it's a frightening moment. and when you think about this

optic of the president of ukraine needing to come to washington to sort of prop up what ought to be the most obvious set of military support in the modern history, given how cost effective it is to take out vladimir putin, it is a sad moment. and by the way, i think, tieing it together with aid to israel, aid to the border, aid to taiwan is actually smart because it kind of gives everyone something. and i support all of those actions. and i think most americans would, john. so, let's hope president zelenskyy can really lean into this. and make some ground up. he is having a meeting tuesday morning with the senate, engineered by mitch mcconnell who is continuing strong supporter. i think, ultimately, the center will hold here, in the congress probably will get the aid.

but, boy, it shouldn't be this hard. >> the white house is hoping this happens, at least. there is a fear, though, that, yes, the senate is believed to be largely be on board. but there are enough holdouts. it is not a sure thing, the white house official told me, not only do they run out of money by year's end, they're worried about the domino effect. and they're seeing european allies saying if the united states is not going to back ukraine, why should we. >> wars have a time limit for america's intervention abroad. you watched the war from the beginning, gung ho with support. calls that i believe over time, we're watching that support go away and that's what we're seeing right now. and i think it's only going to get worse, specifically with ukraine, if there's not seen as some kind of progress or openness and willingness to negotiations as i've seen them

in the near future. at this point, zelenskyy has really lost a large portion of the republicans. >> and with that support at home, people compare him to churchill all the time, but churchill was ruthlessly honest, and the idea that ukraine is going to magically liberate all of its territory. it's increasingly hard to make the case. we need to justify, we need to save ukraine. we need to preserve ukraine. that ought to be the argument. i don't think you can win the argument that if you only give more aid russia is going to be ousted. i'd love to see russia ousted. ain't going to happen. we need a recasting of our conversation. coming up, the next guest is running for the seat formerly calmed by none other george santos. we'll talk to tom suozzi coming up in a moment.

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the republicans' house

majority has become even slimmer in recent weeks. so each race next november is going to be more important. that includes in new york where some surprising gop victories last year where pivotal in republicans gaining control of the lower chamber. joining us now, former u.s. congressman tom suozzi of new york. last week, he was selected as the democratic nominee in the upcoming february special election to replace recently ousted republican george santos. i don't even know where to begin. what happened with -- well, you left, you left, then what happened with your seat? i want to even understand how that happened. and then secondly, do you kind of regret maybe not running again for congress, back when george santos was in the picture? >> no, i don't have any regrets. i wanted to be the governor of new york state. and george santos became a

member of united states congress. what happened was, he went from being someone from the district who didn't really know anybody who didn't have any money that i bet by, i forgot what it was, 12 points back in 2020. never really encountered him, in the middle of covid. and he adopted the stop the steal idea in november of 2020. and got the whole trump hierarchy to get behind him. and he started raising money and building a network and nobody was really paying attention. and he went from somebody who was a nobody, who had no intention, had no infrastructure, all of a sudden had an apparatus that hadn't existed before. and nobody paid attention from the press. nobody paid attention from the republican party, nobody really got much information from him from the democratic party. >> let me ask you a functional question, congressman. he's obviously been a huge story from the beginning to the time he left. now, he's gone.

so now imagine running in this district again. does it matter at all? >> no. >> is george santos any part of an election campaign? there's any issue on it? it seems both sides are saying let's get back to what politics used to look like. >> yeah, i think it's over. and i think that's good for america and good for the people of this district. they're ready to see a change. what people want now is somebody to actually pay attention to anything they care about. everybody has this sense of dread. everybody you talk to every day, it's dread. everybody is dreading. looking at the congressmen going what are you doing to help us? my campaign is not going to be democrats versus republicans. people are sick of the finger pointing and attacking. they want somebody who is going to work together with other people of goodwill to actually solve problems to make their lives better when it comes to afford affordability, when it comes to

safety. when it comes to israel, when it comes to ukraine. they want people to address the sense of dread. line a rain storm lately, is there something going on that we have to worry about? i've got a record of working across party lines to make things better. >> from that bipartisan side, of course, there's also the control of the house of representatives up for grabs. the republican majority is very, very slim. but they won it in 2022, most people believe, because of democrats' failures in new york state. what is going to be different this time around in this state, reliably blue, but seats slipped away from your party last time? >> i think the people of my party recognized we haven't been addressing the things that they're really concerned about in long island. the things i was talking about earlier, the sense of dread. they know i'm the candidate that people know will actually talk about the issues they care about. i did my first press release of

the year the other day and i was endorsed by local mayors. half of them were republicans, half of them democrats. i kicked off my campaign, just a couple days ago. had a big press conference. 150 people in levittown, the nation's first suburb. the guy whose house we were at was a former new york city policeman who said-i never voted for a democrat before, except one, tom suozzi. we hear what they're saying and address the things that they care about? >> can i follow up, congressman, what do they care about? to what extent do you hear people talking about the border and gaza and ukraine, or is it local, domestic? >> affordability, the state tax reduction so important to us here in new york state and other democratic states particularly, president trump said forget about those guys. >> so you're going to bring back s.a.l.t.? >> yeah, that's my focus.

also immigration, the concern that people have, the concern about crime. now a smaller percentage of people are concerned about israel. i'm very concerned about israel. i understand where you're coming from, you know this stuff like the back of your hand, this is an existential threat for all of us, ukraine. the people concerned about that are intense about it they want to make sure we stand with ukraine and stand with israel. coming up from long island to lower manhattan, we'll stay in new york for the latest and former president trump's decision not to testify in his quarter billion dollar fraud case. lisa rubin joins us with more analysis straight ahead on "morning joe."

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then they rigged and stole the election of 2020. since biden got in, he has been weaponizing government against his political opponents like a raging third-world tyrant. he has no idea what he's doing. he has no idea where he is. he can't put two sentences together. he can't get off the stage. these are biden indictments. this is just a political opponent. they've opened up a pandora's box. all i can say to joe is, be very careful what you wish for. >> president trump needs to do in this campaign, it needs to be

about rebuilding, restoring, renewing america. it can't be about revenge. >> he's talking about retribution day in and day out. he needs to stop that. >> do you think he's going to listen to you saying, stop that, stop that? he hasn't listened to anybody before. >> that's not true. he will adapt when he gets all the facts. >> he's not backing away from his calls for retribution. >> but remember, you have a check and balance system. >> where's the check and balance on the republican party? >> america doesn't want to see the idea of retribution. if it's rebuild, restore and renew, i think he'll see that. i'm not going to change who i am. i lost the job of speaker. maybe i don't have the best advice. >> maybe former speaker of the house kevin mccarthy thinks he can get former president trump from making a potential second term a revenge tour.

joining us now is former white house director of communications to president obama jennifer palmieri. kevin mccarthy thinks he should stop that, jen. your thoughts there on everything we just heard, including sweaty trump on the stage? >> that is just projection. when you hear him saying something critical about biden, it's projection about him, talking about that biden is weaponizing government, that biden is talking like a third-world dictator, that is him projecting. for kevin mccarthy, you know, i'm old enough to remember the young guns. you remember the young guns, paul ryan, kevin mccarthy, the

men who were supposed to have this new idealogical conservative party? they had a book in the mid obama years. each one of them were eaten alive by tolerating, appeasing factions in their own party. this is how kevin mccarthy has ended up as the shortest term speaker in history. there are republicans that stood up to donald trump and survived. governor kemp in georgia stood up to donald trump, reelected, won in a republican primary, won big in 2022. you can survive this. talk about checks and balances, kevin mccarthy has helped unleash a party that will prop up this man who said on day one that he would be a dictator. >> jonathan lemire, just to jen's point, some of these midterm election results,

multiple midterm election results have shown us that people don't really like insurrections. they've thought about it and they don't like it. they don't like stealing elections. they think that's wrong. i think they would be very concerned about stealing documents and the cookie monster blaming they're his and going back into his trash can with them. oh, it's oscar the grouch. sorry. yes, he is definitely oscar the grouch. on a more serious note, it is very clear where americans stand on abortion, something that trump takes credit for, him, leonard leo and his cronies for

overturning roe, taking away rights women have had for 50 years. you would think we are back in the early 1900s, the way women are being treated at hospitals in states with very strict abortion laws. they're being told to bleed out. there's a woman right now who needs a life-saving abortion who can't get it because the texas trumpy attorney general, a guy who wants to be trump so bad that he's pulling out all the stops from suing to say the election was stolen to doing everything he can to stop a woman, kate cox, from getting a life-saving abortion. she's 31 years old. the baby is not viable. it will either die before its born or shortly after it's born. the birth in itself will sterilize the mother. this trumpy attorney general,

who also faces indictments and faced impeachment and covered up an affair, he wants to make sure that she suffers as much as possible. i think people are feeling that perhaps this isn't the right direction for our country. yet, the polls say something so different. >> they do. there are two different things going on here. there's the universe of the republican primary field in next year's general election. these are things that, if past is prologue, will probably hurt donald trump in the general election next november, but it's certainly not hurting him right now. his lead in the republican primaries has only grown. that's why we went through the polls in iowa, a state that's

never been that good for trump. he's more than doubled the next possible contender. he's at 51%, ron desantis second at 19. we're also seeing a wave of polls that suggest trump is even with biden in the general election. >> with iowa specifically, those are caucus voters, conservative evangelicals. donald trump has finally won them over. he delivered the supreme court and a lot of judgeships all over the country. specifically, going broader, there's just a general dissatisfaction with biden these days that isn't really rooted in all that much. it more reflects just kind of the moment of this country and inflation. people just don't feel good

about the direction of the country necessarily. his approval rating is feeding into these early polls. also, it's going to be a big deal how biden is able to campaign in the fall and how vigorous he's going to be able to be. he's going to have to do more than one or two events a day. voters really need to see strength from biden. he is judged more on age too than donald trump right now. former president trump will not testify in his own defense at his $250 million new york civil fraud trial. trump was originally scheduled to take the stand today, but in a last-minute reversal it was announced yesterday he would not testify for his defense at all. he was previously called to testify for the prosecution. it's a development former litigator lisa rubin predicted on our show on friday. >> i'm not positive donald trump

is going to testify. i can tell you i know donald trump wants to testify, but his lawyers desperately wanted to lift the gag order that's still in place. they weren't able to do so. they asked judge engoron to pause the trial. he would not do so. they told me to my face the day before they weren't going to ask him that because they knew how it was going to go. thatsingal -- signals to me they're terrified of having him on the stand and inches away from that law clerk. he attacked and gave his usual talking points, but he would not engage with the press in the hallway. >> and she was right. lisa rubin joins us now.

she's an nbc legal analyst. what's next here? trump doesn't take the stand. probably his lawyers are, i would think, relieved. >> i think his lawyers are exceptionally relieved for a bunch of reasons. not only does he not have the opportunity to harm his case, but he's no longer going to be the last word that the judge hears in his affirmative case before he makes a decision. you and i both know, as does everybody else at the table, every time donald trump is a witness for himself, something goes wrong. the examples are multiple of situations in which donald trump has testified in litigation and has done himself grievous harm. everything from the killer tomatoes deposition he gave in the personal injury lawsuit brought by protesters to the e.

jean carroll case. they must be breathing a huge sigh of relief today. >> we're now left instead with the last voice being from the experts who suggested that the trump organization behaved appropriately. it's hard to forecast exactly what the judge will think. the judge said it will take a few weeks to make his decision here. where do you see it going now? >> i can tell you what's going to happen next. today the court is dark. that's because they weren't prepared to put up a witness. their accounting expert who was on the stand for two days last week is still not done. he will continue his cross examination tomorrow. he acknowledged making nearly $900,000 in this expert

engagement since he was hired in april. the state will present two witnesses of their own. one is an expert. the other is the former head of trump international realty. that entity was involved in providing comparable information about sales used to value trump properties. they multiplied the square footage by three and they used some incomparable comparables to value that apartment. then we'll break for the holidays. they have post-trial briefs due on january 5th. on january 11th, they'll come back for closing arguments. >> i'm looking ahead to march 4th. donald trump is trying to delay the start of that january 6th

trial in d.c. he wants to get this new york trial wrapped up. he doesn't want to get this trial wrapped up. how do you see this trial in new york affecting the d.c.? >> i don't say it affecting directly. but his brand helped elect him president, as he has said. this trial is basically a trial of his brand. it was predicated on fraud and lies. he would like this decision to take as long as possible. when judge engoron renders his decision, it will likely come with a slew of remedies that could have the impact of dismantling the trump empire as we know it. there's also the march 4th trial in d.c. before then, after closing arguments, we have four days until the iowa caucuses. the next day trump is due back in court, not personally because he's not forced to attend, but

in e. jean carroll's second case, because he has continued to defame her even after the trial verdict. let's turn to israel now, which is intensifying its military operation in gaza. officials say troops are engaged in, quote, fierce and difficult battles in southern gaza's largest city as well as two cities in the north. richard engel has the latest. >> reporter: israel says hamas' grip on power in gaza is being broken. prime minister netanyahu saying hamas is at the beginning of the end. in northern gaza, israeli forces have raised the flag in the main square to show they've conquered gaza city. more than 2.3 million people in

gaza have fled south, squeezed into a small strip along the egyptian border and facing a humanitarian collapse. a senior u.n. official says half of gazans are now starving. 91% of households go to bed hungry, according to the world food program. >> overcrowding combined with the lack of adequate food, water and shelter are creating the ideal conditions for disease to spread. >> reporter: 12-year-old homemade and his 8-year-old sister are sheltering at a school in the city of rafah. "we can't find the inhaler for my sister. i am hungry. we didn't eat for two days now, he says. 137 hostages remain in gaza. families worry their health and conditions are also worsening. this 19-year-old was kidnapped near a kibbutz. her mother is a family doctor.

she treasures a towel that her daughter slept on before her kidnapping. >> i put it for her, actually. she's still a little girl sometimes even though she's 19. >> reporter: she was an athlete and was active in hands of peace. after the ceasefire collapse, hostage families are looking for any help they can find. >> i'm calling to the mothers, let's bring her home together. >> joining us now, we have with us parents of a 35-year-old son who was kidnapped from his home on october 7th. he was part of the kibbutz security team when the attack began. he safely hid his pregnant wife and their two children, and then

he went back outside to protect the neighborhood. what is the latest, if anything, that you have heard about the fate of your son? >> well, we heard knock, actually. we were totally in the dark like almost all of the other hostage families until a couple of weeks ago when the first wave of hostages began to be released. of the 100 or so, 30-ish of them were from my kibbutz. those women and children started giving testimony about what they had seen in the tunnels. that was the first time that we got a sign of life. as of two weeks ago, we know that he is alive, and the

kibbutz was able to gather information on many other hostages who remain in the tunnels under ground in gaza. >> how is it possible to manage your feelings in a situation like this? i would think you'd be very concerned about for his pregnant wife, his children. are you able to help everyone cope? >> well, of course, we're trying to be supportive and connected as a family. my stepdaughter-in-law is due any minute literally. we're all rallying around her and supporting her as best we can. it's very hard to cope.

we were overwhelmed to get news of proof of life, but listening to the stories of torture and starvation, it's terrifying and agonizing. >> he's one of the americans still captive. obviously as part of what we know so far about his kidnapping is that he and a few others were trying to help other residents, trying to save others' lives. can you tell us more about your son? >> first, he was working together with our first responder team. those are the young and not-so-young men that you're referring to who deal with everything from fires. during covid, they distributed food to our homes when we were

in lockdown. there was some incredible bravery on that day. it was totally impossible to fight heavily-armed terrorists who descended on our small community of 400 people, all civilians. he is the son every parent would love to have. he lights up every room. he's a creator. he's a builder. he was one of the first people to spot the terrorists that day that had penetrated the kibbutz, because he was involved in his pet project, hismoonlighting job, which is converting old airport buses into usable objects, to mobile technology classrooms to drive around the underserved parts of israel where education isn't that

great, to serve jewish and non-jewish communities. and he's a wonderful father. those are the most important things to know about him. >> we've asked a lot of questions on this broadcast about the response time on october 7th. there's new information breaking just in the past 24 hours about the prime minister supporting payments to hamas. i don't want to put you in a worse position than you're already in, but do you believe your government is being fully honest with you and doing everything possible and did everything possible to bring your son home?

>> i think that's an impossible question to answer. i understand where it's coming from. october 7th was a monumental failure of israeli intelligence and defense and what's called in israel sort of a conceptual failure. that is true. one day people will have to be hemd accountable for that failure. but that's both past and future. present is that not just us, all the hostage families, american israelis and the other 130 hostage families are demanding from our government to do everything it must do to bring these people home. they were kidnapped, ripped from their home. these are civilians, 11 months

old to 86-year-old people. no holds barred in terms of getting them home by any means necessary and possible is our demand of the government. what the government does, of course, we don't have direct control over. but the families are committed to making that happen and lobbying and advocating not just in israel but also abroad for that to happen. >> i just want to add, 66 days. >> thank you both very much for coming on this morning. we appreciate it. >> thank you for having us. coming up on "morning joe," hunter biden is now facing a nine-count federal indictment on

tax-related charges. we'll speak with his attorney abbe lowell on what this means for the president's son. "morning joe" will be right back. president's son. "morning joe" will be right back

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the stalemate between the president's son and republicans in congress over how he will testify before the oversight committee won't be resolved any time soon. hunter biden's legal team is digging in on its requirement for any hearing to be public. republicans maintain they want a closed-door hearing first. over the past few months, a planned plea deal fell apart. then the investigator in charge of hunter's case was elevated to special counsel, who last week added on several new felony charges. joining us now is counsel to hunter biden, attorney abbe

lowell. thank you for coming on the show. >> good morning. >> i want to ask about the new charges. obviously, criminal tax cases are pretty rare. the average american has as good a chance of winning the lottery as being criminally prosecuted for tax fraud. having said that, did hunter biden file a false return, and did he evade taxes? >> so to start with your premise about being struck by lightning, i want to focus on the most important thing that happened last week. this is what happened last week. in june, just five months ago, u.s. attorney david weiss, thought after a five-year painstaking investigation that this was the right result, a 1 1/2 page two-count misdemeanor count for hunter filing his tax returns late. just five months later, without

there being any new evidence after a five-year investigation, this is what he did, a 56-page, nine-count indictment. the question that you and others need to ask and ask him and anybody else who criticizes hunter is, what happened between this and this? not a change of the facts, not a change of the law, but the enormous pressure that was put on by republicans from former president trump to the chairpeople of house committees to demand that something more be done. that's not the way it's supposed to work, but that's the way it's worked so far. >> on the testimony hunter biden is going to provide to congress, hunter has said he would like to do so in open sessions so people can hear it. if republicans will not allow this to be done in an open setting, what will you then do? >> i think you're ahead of us on

this. we have to be figuring out why it is that they don't want hunter or any other witness, by the way, when chairman comer has said on two or three occasions that they have enough evidence to start asking questions and he said we want to bring them down and hear what they have to say and they can testify either by way of deposition or public hearing. it is their choice. that's what he said. we want to take him up on his offer. we have offered, and we'll see how that goes, because we will want hunter to answer every pertinent and relevant question, but in a forum where people can hear the tactics of the republicans and hear his answers and see that they cannot go behind closed doors and do what they've done a dozen times, which is to manipulate the evidence for a false narrative. you're a little ahead of

yourself. i'm here to address the issue of what should be paramount. not many people have to testify in congress. but a lot of americans have to file their taxes. when they're late, the irs and the government asks questions or asks for backup or brings civil actions. what they don't do is bring a two-count misdemeanor in june and turn it into a nine-count, 56-page indictment in december. it's unprecedented for that to have happened. given all the issues the u.s. attorney knew what happened over five years, what happened with his latest, that he was at the bottom of the barrel of his addiction to crack cocaine, which explains a lot of his misconduct, and explains that's what's going on. let's focus on what might affect americans.

there are two more things. i was thinking on my way over here today that in the last five years republicans in congress yelled crazy when the democrats, who were in the majority, sought to go after former president trump by attacking his children. they yelled and screamed about it. now the hypocrisy is extraordinary that they used the same tactic to go after hunter biden, who has never served in government and never was in a family business. that should stop. as to the mounting charges, people just need to ask the question what changed between june and december other than republican political pressure? >> what have they said to you? what did prosecutors say to you and to your client as to why things changed? >> that's a really good question. they said nothing. indeed, this was a complete surprise to us, notwithstanding we had been in contact with them.

indeed, about a week ago i called the us attorney's office for a status check so i could come in and talk to them if they wanted to bring any charges after the gun charges. they said, no, you already had that meeting. that was based on the investigation years ago, so i said i want a new meeting. they said, well, we don't know if we can do it. i wrote a letter to david weiss and said if there's any new evidence, let us come in and address it. their response was first silence and then the indictment without any communication back to me. again, i've done this work. i'm in the defense bar. that's not the way it works. prosecutors engage with defense attorneys to discuss the investigation and the possible charges. it's just another way that hunter's been treated differently than others in similar circumstances would be treated. >> you say that hunter's treated differently than others.

that is because his last name is biden? >> yes and no. it's because his last name is biden. it's not like they're going after some distant cousin. it is because he's the son of the president who's named biden. republicans and anybody else who's been investigating on the right-wing media, for example, have tried and tried to say president biden has done something wrong. they can't find a shred of evidence, because he hasn't. they're basically saying i can't get the president, so i'll besmirch his son. that's what makes this different. >> can you clarify the line of

inquiry that republicans are pursuing here beyond taxes and guns? are they also looking into hunter biden's art sales to a democratic donor? is that a line of inquiry they also are pursuing? >> after the attorney's office was roundly criticized by folks on the right for making the appropriate resolution in june after a five-year investigation, they must have made the decision that says we don't want that aggravation anymore, so we're going to now pile on charge after charge, and it will convince our critics that we're not being weak but we're going to be tough and look into every crevice. are they looking at other things? i wouldn't be surprised if they reach back at a time when hunter was in a stationary store when he was 11 and took a piece of bubble gum and see if they could

charge that. >> i get that. at the same time, hunter has written a book on his struggles with addiction. he has written a book on laws he has broken, doing cocaine, whatever. does your client have any accountability in these charges? >> hunter, like millions and millions of americans -- >> i understand. >> he has accountability. first of all, he nearly died. think about all the book says as to what he was through when he was misbehaving. he said, this was me, hunter biden, squandering all the opportunities i've had inlife. are you asking whether he should have accountability for the mistakes he made while addicted? sure, he should. there would have been accountability in june, because hunter was in court that day to

have accountability and show remorse and to be responsible for his conduct. it's not on him that anything happened bad after that day. it's on the government prosecutors, who after seeing the criticism and feeling the criticism, they said we're going to now renege and see if we can show the world that we haven't been easy. on that, today is december 11th. later today, according to the court schedule, we will be filing motions to dismiss those delaware charges for the variety of reasons i just said. >> but did he file a false return? i'm ending where i started. it's a yes or no. >> it's not a yes or no. no, of course it's not. in order to file a false return that's it has to be willful, it has to be

deliberate, it has to be knowing, it has to be in a year in which there is a tax deficiency. in california, the serious charges they filed were in 2018. i don't think the government will be able to prove in any way that hunter owed taxes this year. you can't ask a yes-or-no question on a complex area of law. what you can say is hunter was late in filing certain taxes in certain years. that is a given. millions and millions of americans who do the same thing are not then confronted with a 56-page, nine-count indictment. >> thank you very much for being on the show this morning. we appreciate it. >> you're welcome. thank you. still ahead, the latest fallout from last week's congressional testimony on anti-semitism at elite universities. as we go to break, a quick look at what's making headlines

across the country. the ventura county star reports on new federal data that shows the top 1% of earners now control more wealth than the nation's entire middle class. that top 1% now holds over $38 trillion in wealth. the spectrum and daily news of utah reports on how many jews are afraid to celebrate hanukkah due to the dramatic spike in anti-semitism in the u.s. such incidents are up 315% from a year ago, which was already an unprecedented year for anti-semitism. and minnesota pioneer press reports the underground nuclear arsenal is getting an overhaul

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president of the university of pennsylvania has resigned after appearing to dodge questions about genocide during a congressional hearing on campus anti-semitism. she will be replaced by literally anyone who knows you say genocide is bad. [ laughter ] >> the whole crazy part is that the whole point during her speech was that free speech on campus should never be punished. and then she was immediately punished for her speech. university of pennsylvania president liz magill stepped down on saturday following her congressional testimony about rising anti-semitism on college campuses. now, the focus turns to the presidents of m.i.t. and harvard, who were the other witnesses in that hearing. stephanie gosk has the latest.

>> reporter: pressure is mounting on the presidents of m.i.t. and harvard less than a week after they testified before congress about rising anti-semitism on college campuses nationwide. >> does calling for the genocide of jews violate harvard's rules of bullying or harassment, yes or no? >> it can be, depending on the context. >> it does not contend on the context. the answer is yes, and this is why you should resign. >> reporter: the university of pennsylvania, liz magill, resigned on saturday. republican elise stefanik posting "one down, two to go." harvard's president clarifying such speech has no place at harvard. more than 500 faculty members at

harvard have asked them not to remove the president. now an arrest in a case that gained nationwide attention when a rabbi was found stabbed outside her home in detroit. police say there's no evidence the stabbing was a hate crime. in california, a couple speaking out after an attack this weekend that police are calling it a hate crime. both in their 70s, the couple say they were walking to a synagogue, when a man ran up behind them. >> a man was hitting my husband with a belt and screaming screa. >> reporter: they chased the man

off and he was later caught and arrested by police. coming up on "morning joe" -- >> what happened? >> i'm not good at being married. >> actor jason isaacs is live in studio for his new series "archie." "archie.

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anything come to mind? >> cary grant. >> now, isn't that a beautiful name. >> the name of the father, the son and the holy weekend box office. >> cary grant is a character, but he's very careful about how he's perceived. >> this is the dreamiest guy in the world we're talking about. >> you're not going to break my heart, are you? >> probably. >> i walked into that one. >> you're going stay here and i'm going to be a star. >> what accent you got, kid? >> english. >> next. >> i spent my life wondering who i was supposed to be. >> we're all fakes in this town, my dear. aren't we, cary? >> that was a look at the trailer for the new four-part series "archie." it explores how archibald leach became cary grant, the biggest movie star in the golden age of

hollywood. the drama is partly based on the memoir of grant's fourth wife, diane cannon and the couple's daughter jennifer grant is one of the executive producers. joining us now is the star of "archie" actor jason eye sacks. good to have you on the show? >> it's odd to promote a tv show. >> i do understand that. we also appreciate just a little joy. i totally understand what you're saying. i'm curious, though. i would be fascinated to know how you prepare as an actor to portray one of the greatest actors of all time? >> well, i didn't. frankly, when i heard they were doing it, i thought what kind of moron? it's not about cary grant. it's about archie leach who struggled to play cary grant.

this is a show about who he became when he dropped the mask. that is a very complicated, very troubled, very scarred man whose childhood was full of abuse and abandonment and fell so unloveable, he had to create this avatar to make the world love him. when he succeeded and the whole world loved him for 30 years, he felt even emptier. >> this is something a lot of people don't know. the family involved in the production. what was that like? >> they contributed, but it's jeff pope, the wonderful oscar nominated screenwriter. he got permission from both of them. he said it's going to be my story. but if you give me permission, it hab to be my way. this is warts and all. >> i had no idea until researching this little bit, cary grant had five wives. that's quite a lot. >> he had a lot of the relationships.

they're just the ones he married. >> i know this people that admire his work on screen, like me, think of him as this unflappable ladies man for whom nothing bothered him. he was extremely flappable. that's not a word, flappable. instead of women pursuing him, he pursued the people he had relationships with and they broke his heart. today he would be ocd, adhd, ptsd for sure. then he was just very troubled. he took lsd hundreds of times with a doctor, didn't believe in the hippy stuff, but took it to try to rid himself of this torment. he was a very private man who didn't give a lot away about the undercurrents of his life. even he said i drove all my wives away. i turned them into my mother. i made them reject me before they could abandon me. that's what you'll see when you watch the show. it's not like watching cary grant in the movies. that's right. that's the point of the show. >> were you a cary grant fan?

did it surprise you what you found out? everything. everything was a schott shock to me. >> as an actor you know actors are not what they portray themselves to be. >> no, i'm an evil wizard. yes, it shocked me. you're right. i know none of my friends who were tough guys on screen, they cower behind their children in the event of an incident. i knew he would be different. no one can be that thing. one of the hard things, how i prepared, doing research. there's no recorded interviews. he didn't sit down because he didn't want anyone to see who he was, how sensitive, how damaged and troubled he was. >> that's what i was going to ask you. are there friends, contemporaries or peers, anyone who can give you a glimmer. >> diane was incredibly candid with me. she was this young, beautiful, 26 when she met him, 28 when she married this man in his 60s.

she was madly in love with him after he wooed her for aer yoo. once they got married, things turned extremely toxic. she was so unguarded. i asked her extremely personal questions, basically the most personal things you can imagine. she was very candid. i kept apologizing to her for something that happened to her 50 years ago. no young girl should be put through that. jennifer, his daughter, she saw a very different man, saw a doting, loving father. it's difficult to reconcile the two accounts. of course, my kids don't know who i am when they're not around either. >> fascinating you can watch the first two episodes of "archie" through brit bach which is available on major streaming platforms. jason eye sacks, thank you very much for coming on the show. >> next time i'm going to come back and tell you who you should elect and why. >> that's a tease. >> i would look forward to that. that does it for us this morning.

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