still so beautiful the next day. that is a look live at 6:00 a.m. at the rockefeller plaza christmas tree just outside here. good morning and welcome to

"morning joe." it is tuesday, december 26th, i'm jonathan lemire. alongside me former aide to the george w. bush white house and state departments elise jordan and the haass of msnbc's ""politics nation"" reverend al sharpton. president biden and first lady jill biden spent christmas eve fielding phone calls for the norad santa tracker. the president posted this picture on social media writing that he spoke to excited young americans worried about santa's whereabouts. then the president and first lady called units from each branch of the military to wish them a merry christmas and thank them for their service. republican front runner donald trump, on the other hand, spent the holiday weekend in a very different fashion, taking on his political enemies. the former president posted several, shall we say, unusual

christmas messages on truth social that criticized people like joe biden and jack smith. in one post the channeled "home alone" kevin mccallister. >> merry christmas, you filthy animal. >> that was pretty much it. trump wrote there are no world leaders who are as, quote, evil and sick as the thugs we have inside our country who are looking to destroy our once great usa. may they rot in hell, before ending with merry christmas. elise jordan, we saw the president wish the country a merry christmas and another unconventional but true to form, i suppose, manner from donald trump. i hope you had a lovely christmas and you were not quite as angry as the had ath president. >> i did. my daughter got a rainbow frog, that was all she wanted from

santa so all was goff in our world. the rev actually did something good for humanity and you served 1,000 people lunch yesterday. >> yeah, every year national action network serves hot meals to a lot of the elderly and homeless and migrants this year, and we gave away about 1,500 hot meals, we gave away around 500 toys for people that don't have that at home. you know, i grew up with some christmases that things were missing, so we do it, it's our 32nd year. i grew up doing service on christmas. i grew up in operation bread basket under jesse jackson and he used to take us to the jails every year and i talked to him last night and he went to the jail, even though he's suffering from parkinson's, can't walk, he went and visited people in prison. it's a day of service, not a day of anger and all kind of strive that our former president -- >> so that is certainly what christmas is supposed to be

about. at our house santa was good to the boys and my wife cooked up a wonderful meal. rev, the anger from donald trump, the bad faith attacks about his political opponents, what does that say to you just about where he is right now mentally and emotionally as this year draws to a close and we barrel into an election year? >> it's two things. i think it shows that these indictments and the civil case, despite his pretense otherwise, has gotten to him, because he's reacting and responding in a way of no one projecting self-confidence or like this is nothing. i also think it shows an inner kind of anger and displacement that he has, because who spends the holiday with this kind of venom, particularly when he is a guy that claims to be this self-confident, self-made guy with this kind of darkness, unless you are just that kind of dark person. >> we've certainly gotten used

to trump's unorthodox holiday messages, the haters, but this one hit a new low. we will turn to breaking news that happened overnight. the united states conducted a new round of air strikes against the iran-backed terrorist group in iraq. the u.s. central command says early assessments indicate last night's strikes destroyed the targeted facilities and most likely killed a number of militants. now, this was in retaliation for a series of assaults on an american air base, including a drone attack that happened christmas morning and injured three american servicembers, one of whom right now is in critical condition. in a statement secretary of defense lloyd austin expin that while the white house does not want to escalate conflict in the middle east, he and the president will, quote, not hesitate to take necessary action to defend the united states, our troops and our

interests. joining us now with more on this breaking news is nbc news national security and military correspondent courtney kube. good to see you this morning. give us the latest. fill us in as to what we know about the initial attacks and then the united states' response. >> so the initial attack was what the military calls a one-way attack drone, generally that's a drone that is packed with explosives that is targeted in one specific place, generally a building, goes in and the idea is it blows up. that's what hit erbil air base yesterday morning eastern time, about 4:00 p.m. local time on christmas day yesterday. as you mentioned, jonathan, at least three u.s. personnel were injured and one u.s. service member was critically injured here. so soon after that happened the pentagon and u.s. central command down in tampa presented some options for some responses, first to the pentagon and then on to the white house. of course, president biden is at camp david right now.

president biden accepted these response options and the u.s. military got moving. now, according to our colleague aaron gilchrist who did great reporting late last night there was a series of phone calls including jake sullivan the national security adviser, other national security officials throughout the day and late last night about 8:00 p.m. here local time, of course, that would be early tuesday morning in iraq, president biden gave secretary of defense lloyd austin the go away and the u.s. military carried out these strikes. what's important to point out here, this would have been -- there's been more than 100 attacks against bases housing u.s. service members in iraq and syria since october 17th. more than 100, we are at about 103. this so far -- we have had traumatic brain injuries, minor injuries, a u.s. service member in critical condition, this seems to be the most effective attack to date of these attacks here so far and the u.s. military took these targeted strikes afterwards. you also mentioned in the

statement that we got out of the pentagon and statement out of u.s. central command late last night, they acknowledge that they believe multiple hezbollah militants, that's the iranian-backed militia group that operates in iraq and syria, they believe that members of that group may have been killed in this strike. now, i point that out, jonathan, is the past retaliatory strikes that we've seen out of the military, they are very specific about saying that they are proportional in nature. so let's say there's an attack on a base, infrastructure damage, the military will respond with hit ago warehouse, hitting a location where they put together these drones or components for these missiles that they're striking on the bases with. the fact that they -- they killed -- they believe that they killed a number of these militia members, that is generally intended to send a message. the message here being there were u.s. military members injured and, again, one

critically injured in this attack and that they struck with what they would consider to be proportion, which is not only going after facilities where they make these, where they house their drones or their missile parts, but to actually go after some of these fighters, jonathan. >> courtney, elise here. when i think of erbil i think of an area of iraq that normally is fairly safe. can you talk about have more attacks been happening there at that air base in particular and what is the u.s. presence these days in iraq? >> yeah, you're absolutely right, erbil is beautiful, you can wander around on a sunday afternoon up at the squares, there's kids playing. it is generally seen and has been seen as one of the safer areas. but the air base up there has been one of the major targets of these attacks since october 17th. they've seen a number of attacks, in fact, there was one about two months ago where one of these explosive-laden drones actually landed on one of the

barracks at the air base there and fortunately it didn't explode or else we may have had a number of casualties there because there were u.s. service members inside. so erbil has not been -- unfortunately has not been able to escape these attacks. and i will say, i keep pointing out october 17th was the day that these all started. that was when we saw this uptick in attacks by militia groups that are supported by iran. so hezbollah in iraq and into syria, we've heard a lot about the houthi attacks against commercial shipping in the red sea and the baba man deb, they all really picked up on october 17th and as i mentioned more than 100 have now occurred since then and they have occurred in erbil. there have also been a number -- they have been about half and half in iraq and syria, just a few more in syria than in iraq since the 17th, elise. >> nbc's courtney kube, thank you so much for your reporting. we move now from the hostilities in the middle east

to the war in europe. russia's defense ministry has confirmed at least one person was killed in a strike on a russian war ship this morning on the eastern coast of crimea. the commander of ukraine's air force said his pilots carried out the attack, russia has already withdrawn a significant amount of its black sea forces from its main base in crimea due to attacks on its ship. unverified footage shows a massive explosion there describingly from that vessel. that comes as the ukrainian government announced yesterday that it had also shot down five russian fighter jets over the weekend. these claims have yesterday to be independently verified, but several ukrainian officials and military analysts suggest that western-supplied patriot missile systems were used to target the russian aircraft. this as russia claims it seized full control of the townof marinka on the eastern front,

this claim has also not been independently verified nbc news foreign correspondent molly hunter has the latest on ukraine spending another christmas trying to fend off russian attacks. >> reporter: for the second christmas ukrainians are spending the holiday hunkered down as russian drone strikes continue to menace the capital. russian strikes are raining down on industries across the country. this man in odesa said, i woke up my daughter and we went to the corridor, the window flew right over there, the house burnt down completely. the fierce winter conditions already entrenched as russia hits critical infrastructure like last christmas. millions across the country struggle to meet basic needs and troops on the icy battlefield remain stalled. the attention in western capitals, president volodymyr zelenskyy commanded in 2022, has given way to budget concerns and political inn fighting in 2023.

zelenskyy swept no washington earlier this month in a bid to pledge nor aid but returned empty handed. despite president biden's support congress has kicked any vote on an estimated $64 billion in new aid to the new year and republicans tied it to immigration policies. >> putin is banking on the united states failing to deliver for ukraine. we must prove him wrong. >> reporter: ukraine is running low on western weapons and cold years. in the new year western officials, u.s. intelligence officers and regional analysts expect that ukraine will ramp up it zone strikes as russian troops hold positions in the south and east. [ speaking in a global language ] >> reporter: but zelenskyy remains defiant.

[ speaking in a global language ] >> reporter: and remarkably, ukrainian resilience still shines through at christmas, for people here, there is no other option but to keep fighting. molly hunter, nbc news. >> our thanks to molly hunter for that reporting. meanwhile, "the new york times" is reporting that russian president vladimir putin has been privately signaling since september that he is open to a ceasefire in ukraine that would freeze the fighting at the current boundary lines. kremlin spokesperson dmitry peskov told russian media on friday that putin is ready for negotiations, but only to achieve his goals in ukraine. joining us now one of the authors of that reporting, he is the moscow bureau chief for "the new york times." it was a must-read piece over the weekend, anton, thank you for joining us.

tell us, if you would, more about the evolution in putin's thinking about his war aims where at first we know he wanted to topple kyiv and rout zelenskyy, force him out of the country or skill him and seize control of all of ukraine. he's had to dial that back because of the defeats he suffered on the battlefield. what might bring him to the negotiating table now? >> well, that's a great point, that his aims have changed throughout the war. remember, he started this war back in february of last year thinking it would last a few days or a maximum a few weeks and ever since he's essentially been improvising, continuing to fight, continuing to try to push, but also, as we reported in our piece, trying to continue to keep his options open and reduce his risks because, you know, he's got his imperialist mindset, denies ukrainian

nationhood, believes it should be part of russia, but he's also looking to manage his risks domestically. what we see is that he does see risks for himself the longer this war goes on. excuse me. both political risks and economic risks. and so that is one reason, we report, that he's been signaling quietly over the last few months that he's open to a ceasefire. >> anton, sharpton here. as you report that he is beginning "he being putin." looking at possibly a ceasefire or a way out of this. do you think, therefore, that would encourage the congress in the united states that's been playing a kind of game in whether or not they're going to pass ukraine aid and whether they're going to move forward and really over the holiday recess did not vote that, does this put more pressure on u.s.

legislators to say we must in many ways give more support to zelenskyy because we may have putin on the brink of making a real deal here and a breakthrough and we cannot be the missing force that would support the ukrainians in this battle that we've supported them thus far? >> well, i mean, hard for me to speak to, you know, that u.s. side, but certainly in ukraine, as we heard in the prior report, this is not seen, excuse me, this is not seen as an acceptable deal and our american sources with he spoke to also, you know, underscore that this does not show putin is ready to compromise in any way. he is going to insist on holding on to what he has and even as he's sending these signals, he's putting his nation on a war footing, getting russia ready and in position to potentially

keep fighting for years. so, again, we're seeing how he's trying to keep his options open, improvise and sort of be prepared for a variety of scenarios. >> anton, in a christmas miracle of sorts alexei navalny the russian opposition leader was located and he is in a gulag in the arctic circle far from moscow and in freezing temperatures, but he released a series of tweets, if they are indeed from him, if this is his one hour of internet. he is allowed a week. what can you tell us about his condition and the circumstances around his disappearance? >> well, this has been a really remarkable few weeks in that saga of alexei navalny. he disappeared december 5th. since december 5th his team hadn't heard from him. until then his lawyers had been able to visit him in prison

regularly and we heard from navalny regularly on social media. what ended up happening was that he was transferred from a prison outside moscow to a much harsher prison, as you point out, in the russian arctic, more than 1,000 miles from moscow. his team says he is doing well, quote, unquote. his message today that you mentioned on twitter was sort of that characteristic humor and defiance that we have grown used to hearing from navalny over these last almost three years that he has been in prison, but, you know, he's going to clearly have an even more extraordinarily difficult time up there in that -- in that prison camp. >> moscow bureau chief for "the new york times," anton, thank you for your reporting and we

will speak to you again soon. coming up here in just one minute, former president trump is asking a federal appeals court to dismiss his 2020 election interference case claiming he has presidential immunity. we will break down his strategy and the possible timing of the case. plus, israel's former ambassador to the united states will be our guest. we will discuss the state of the war as israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu vows to keep fighting hamas and, if needed, escalate the conflict. we're back here on "morning joe" in just 60 seconds. we're back here on "morning joe" in just 60 seconds today, it's possible to go from struggle to cholesterol success with leqvio. with a statin, leqvio is proven to lower bad cholesterol by 50% and keep it low with 2 doses a year. common side effects were injection site reaction, joint pain, and chest cold. ask your doctor about twice-yearly leqvio. lower. longer. leqvio®

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while challenging his 2020 election loss. in a 71-page filing, lawyers for the former president urged a federal appeals court to throw out his 2020 election interference case, arguing that trump possesses presidential immunity. his lawyers also warned that if the case is taken to trial, it will, quote, launch cycles of recripple nation and politically motivated prosecution that will plague our nation for many decades to come, but federal prosecutors and most notably special counsel jack smith, they disagree, saying the former president broke the law after the election by scheming to disrupt the counting of electoral votes. on election eve, trump railed against smith -- christm e trump railed against smith claiming he was fully entitled to total presidential immunity from the charges and says that smith is serving president biden's wishes in prosecuting

him. meanwhile, here is how biden responded to trump's repeated immunity claims. >> mr. president, do you think a president, any president, is absolutely immune from criminal prosecution? any president at all? >> i can't think of one. >> couldn't hear that over the whir of the helicopter, president biden did not think any president would be immune from presidential prosecution. joining us is another opinion, nbc legal analyst danny cevallos. thanks for being here. let's start with the merits of this, that trump's team suggest that his presidential immunity in their words should pertain to everything he did in office, including what was clearly some campaigning in efforts to overturn the election. do you think their case has any merits? >> what's interesting is the trump team doesn't really exactly argue for absolute presidential immunity they argue for the immunity discussed in a

1982 case called fitzgerald which is that the president is immune for acts, civilly immune, for acts within the outer perimeter of his official duties. so they are essentially conceding that there has to be some official conduct and where i think their brief falls a little short, they do discuss it, but the real issue then becomes was what donald trump did within his official duties? more specifically, was it within the outer perimeter of being a president? and they argue, they say, well, there can be a blended act that is both presidential and that of a campaigner, but judge chutkan addressed this in detail in her district court opinion, and i think that's where the weakness lies. how can donald trump argue that this was something undertaken as the president, what he did in trying to subvert the election, and then we get into sort of the twilight zone which is probably at least to me the most egregious part of what donald trump did was attempting to use the doj to serve his campaign needs. and wouldn't it be interesting

if actually using the doj or trying to use the doj made it more within presidential official conduct. what if that attempt services his argument that as the head of the doj i was trying to save this country. not subvert the election. >> and that would be more so using the department of justice against the norm, breaking -- you know, it's a norm that presidents don't use the department of justice to conduct their bidding and that they stay separate, that's interesting, an interesting theory. it's now going to the d.c. court of appeals, it still could go to the supreme court, right? >> absolutely. and, in fact, that's what all the discussion was this last week. this is really just about delay, at least the drama of the last week. this will go through the normal process which is for most appellants, you go to the court of appeals, you normally get a panel, three judges at the court of appeals, if you don't like your result you can appeal to the entire court and from there

you go up to the supreme court. and each time those have to be briefed, everyone has to have responsive briefs, you have to have oral argument, while that oral argument day would be set in stone, there is no timeline for when the court gets together and drafts an opinion. look, this is not something they can just spit out quickly, it's arguably the most important opinion of each of these judges' careers. they will run spell check on it to say the least, it's going to take a little time. if you look at history times the supreme court bush v. gore has moved at breakneck speed, but on the other hand these are pretty weighty issues, i think they are the most important criminal law issues in american history so they have to decide these and obviously speed is of the essence, but it's more important for them to get it right. so very significant. i don't want to say victory for the trump team in this last week, but delay for the trump team is a win. >> danny, going back to this

argument that he was operating in maybe the outside perimeters of being president but still as president, wouldn't the recent tapes of him personally talking to electors in michigan and his personal involvement kind of make that almost laughable because it was not like some people were coming to him as president claiming voter fraud or claiming some kinds of injustice. he was the one pursuing this, including his directing the doj. so the argument would probably have more weight if he was saying as president i was protecting voters, the opposite happened, he was the one that was the one making the accusation and trying to get people to make these statements, doesn't that undermine the argument? >> yes, and judge chutkan, the district court judge, already addressed a lot of this. that what donald trump was doing was as a campaigner, not as a

president. so this is the kind of evidence that will come in. and another thing about that michigan evidence that i think is really interesting, there was a lot of talk this last week about, well, could this expose him to liability in a michigan court? maybe, but far more interesting to me, having defended federal criminal cases and i can tell you federal court is not a fun place to be for a criminal defense attorney because the government is very good at what they do. if i'm the government i'm thinking they're looking at this michigan evidence as what we call 404-b but all it is is prior bad act evidence that sometimes under certain circumstances can come into a prosecution. so if i'm jack smith, maybe you look at that michigan evidence or any evidence from any other state and bring that in as evidence in your d.c. court case and say, look, this is what he was doing elsewhere. this was not a mistake. this is his modus operandi. this all should come in. and it can be devastating evidence. i can tell you personally that bad act evidence that somebody did something else bad somewhere else is devastating and juries, they eat it up. >> danny, i know you said the

timeline will be a little bit uncertain, but on the federal election interference days case, the january 6th case, a march trial date at least for now hoped that that would be the one that would conclude before the election. do you think that's possible? >> you're baiting me because you know every single time i'm asked this question i bet the odds and the odds are take every trial date at this point, crumple it up and throw it out the window. save the tape on that, but don't really save the tame because i don't want it to come back and bite me. the march date is not likely to go forward, more so now than ever, now that we have to go through the normal appeals process through the d.c. court of appeals and then arguably up to the supreme court. it's just not likely. i'm not being a nay sayer or negative, trial dates they're set but they're not set in stone, even in federal court which moves much, much quicker than state court. as you know, i've said on the state court cases look for a

trial date in georgia of 2025 at least when first witnesses are called because they have to go through jury selection. i don't see that trial starting until 2025. as far as timeline here, briefing, as fast as these courts move it still takes time. these are very important decisions. >> i think the lesson there is that democrats hoping that any criminal verdict would upend the trump campaign shouldn't be banking on that happening in time. msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos, thank you for joining us this morning. coming up next on "morning joe," the divided states of america. we will look back at 2023 and the controversial issues both at home and abroad that drove us further apart this year. abroad further apart this year. we will be right back. we will be right back.

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pretty shot there before the sun comes up in dallas. it's 5:34 a.m. in the metroplex, worried about their cowboys, but texas rangers, world series champions. the divides between americans grew even sharper in 2023 with political clashes over reproductive health care, education and american involvement in numerous wars overseas. msnbc correspondent trymaine lee takes a look back at the year where america seemed to be at war with itself. >> reporter: in 2023 america seemed to be at war with itself, with battle lines drawn over hard fought legal gains long protected by precedent now facing a fresh round of conservative attacks, chort challenges and state level restrictions. >> 36 states have introduced 137 bills to restrict teaching on race, gender and history,

according to a penn america report. >> reporter: on the front lines, public school classrooms, libraries -- >> organizations like the american library association are tracking more book bans than ever and many of them are aimed at books with the lgbtq+ themes. >> reporter: school book shelves. >> amanda goreman says she was gutted to learn that a florida school restricted some of its youngest students from reading the poem she famously recited at biden's inauguration. >> reporter: from a fight over whose history is taught and how. >> south floridians rallying against governor ron desantis' stop woke act. >> we want education not indoctrination. >> there is no way to teach history without having the emotional aspect of it included. >> reporter: to a history-making decision by the nation's highest court effectively banning race-based college admissions. >> a sharply divided court scrapping decades of precedent. >> reporter: igniting frenzied

debate over whether america's pledge to make good its promises of equality for all has been fully extended to its most marginalized citizens. >> justice jackson writing, with let them eat cake obliviousness the majority pulls the ripcord. >> just off campus a clash between pro-israel students and a pro-palestinian group. >> reporter: as war raged in the middle east, college campuses in america became battle grounds as well where the boundaries between free speech and hate speech became trench lines. >> so the answer is yes, that calling for the genocide of jews violates harvard code of conduct, correct? >> it depends on the context. >> it does not depend on the context. the answer is yes and this is why you should resign. >> reporter: university professors were tested before congress and the nation. >> university of pennsylvania president elizabeth magill resigned over the weekend. >> the embattled president of harvard is staying, at least for

now. >> outrage tonight in nashville, in reaction to republican-led efforts to expel three democratic lawmakers from the state ljs lay tour. >> reporter: the fury spread to the floors of america's state houses where civil rights like free speech would be heat checked. with the ouster of rising political stars accused of breaking decorum or fighting for gun reform. >> do you feel this is a dangerous precedent? >> this sets a very dangerous precedent for the nation that other states will follow. >> reporter: the conservative clamped down, wouldn't just tighten their group on those who present the -- >> tennessee will become the first state to implement a law restricting drag performances in public or anywhere a child might see them. at least 14 other states have similar bills in progress. >> reporter: and mounting restrictions on women's access to reproductive health care. >> i think forcing me to continue the pregnancy and the pain and suffering, i think it's cruel. >> as long as i am governor of

the great state of texas, texas will always protect the unborn. >> reporter: but this war over america's political ideals, where people power is flexed in the streets and at the polls, where in the courts ground is lost and ground is gained. >> the lgbtq community wins a court battle. a u.s. district judge in tennessee deeming the state's adult entertainment act, a law that would criminalize some drag performances an unconstitutional restriction. >> as the high court today reaffirmed the key part of the voting rights act aimed at please venting race discrimination. >> reporter: people standing up, shouting back, marching, voting. >> abortion access is the law of the land in ohio. >> reporter: fighting for freedom, for power, for respect. >> with former tennessee lawmaker justin jones back to the statehouse just days after his expulsion.

>> this is what justice looks like. this is what democracy looks like. >> msnbc's trymaine lee with that powerful report. reverend sharpton, i mean, you go down the line of a number of things that seemed to divide us this past year and my fear is that those -- those gaps, those divides, those tension, that will all only grow as we head into 2024 and what will be perhaps the ugliest and most consequential election year we have ever seen. >> you know, i think you're right. i don't see how it does not become that. when you look at the fact that you have women's right to choose, voting rights, dei, diversity, equity and inclusion programs are just about suspended because of a supreme court decision on affirmative action, all of the things the last half century that have been the pillars of this country in terms of its social interaction has now been in many ways

undermined or undercut, and the rise of hate crimes. when you look at the data on the rise of anti-semitic hate crimes, hate crimes against blacks. i will never forget in august of this year when we had the largest civil rights demonstration to commemorate the 60th anniversary. when we were marching three blacks were killed by a self-described white supremacist. we are taufk being this year. all of that brings us into the '24 election and how we deal with the fact that not only do you have the vigilantes or lone figures or collective groups in the bushes, but you have those on the supreme court that have dialed back voting rights, affirmative actions, women's right to choose, things we took for granted just a couple of

years ago. >> i'm just really concerned about the tenor in this country of dehumanizing political enemies and how americans just can't even talk to each other anymore and in different polls you see where someone on one side will say that opposite political beliefs, that's their enemy, and the way we're speaking now going into this election year it doesn't bode well to have a free and fair election that voters are going to accept. >> and certainly just in recent days we have heard donald trump use the language of adolf hitler, when he describes others or immigrants. i have said this a lot on this show but officials i speak to all the time say they are deeply concerned about the possibility of political violence as election day approaches. 2024 promises to be a tough one for this nation. still ahead here, we will make the turn and we will bring you some sports, including some highlights of all the nfl action on christmas day, including a

truly brutal outing for 49ers quarterback brock purdy who had been the mvp favorite, safe to say that is no longer the case. you're watching "morning joe." we will be right back. case you're watching "morning joe." we will be right back. crushed by a baby grand piano. you're replacing me? customize and save with liberty bibberty. he doesn't even have a mustache. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ these underwear are period-proof. and sneeze-proof. and sweat-proof. they're leakproof underwear, from knix. comfy & confident protection that feel just like normal. with so many styles and colors to choose from, switching is easy at knix.com

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you see the zamboni hard at work there on the rink outside. here at rockefeller plaza, the christmas tree all lit up. the skaters will be here soon. the nfl was in action yesterday on christmas and the kansas city chiefs got off to a rough start against the las vegas raiders. first with this fumble that was returned for a touchdown. and then on the very next offensive play quarterback patrick mahomes would throw a pick six. the raiders scored two touchdowns in about 20 seconds. the chiefs would score a late td, but it wouldn't be enough. the raiders win keeps their

playoff hopes technically alive. the chiefs were really struggling, missed a chance to lock up the division and now also cannot finish as the number one seed in the afc. the taylor swift curse, he willees jordan said it, not me. . the second game featured the eagles hosting the giants. in the fourth quarter darius slayton hauled in a deep pass, taking it all the way to bring big blue to within five points, but the eagles tacked on this field goal and a final giants hail mary is picked off to seal the victory for the eagles. this is their 12th consecutive win over the giants and sadly tommy devito was benched. the final game was a tough one for niners quarterback brock purdy, his mvp chances took a real hit. the ravens pulled ahead with a

big third quarter, go on to win 33-19 and continues a theme this year of frankly no one is that good. the 49ers had been the hot topic, they got flattened at home, we've seen the same things happen with the eagles that were scuffling, the cowboys lost a couple in a row. clearly the ravens are the nfl's best team but for now. two weeks to go in the regular season then the playoffs. still ahead here on "morning joe," we have new evidence that american consumers are feeling better about the economy after weathering a year and a half of high inflation and rising interest rates. nbc's christine romans will tell us what to expect as we head into the new year. you're watching "morning joe." we will be right back. year. you're watching "morning joe." we will be right back.

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. 2023 is ending on an economic high note as prices fall and markets soar. much remains uncertain in the year ahead. nbc news senior correspondent christine romans has more.

>> reporter: instead of the lump of coal many americans expected some christmas cheer, prices actually fell in november from october, that hasn't happened in three years, the persistent gloom about the economy that gripped many americans this year may have broken, at least a bit. consumer confidence now the highest in months. >> we asked consumers, what do you think about interest rates for next year? they believe that they will be lower. the mortgage rate is falling, and certainly for anyone looking to buy a home, that's really great news. and then finally, we believe that consumers are much happier about the fact that inflation is not as intense as it used to be. >> reporter: that survey found consumers' expectation for a recession in the next 12 months the lowest all year. >> what's your letter grade with to 24? >> i would give it a "c" plus. >> reporter: mortgage rates have been falling, now well below 7.

prices have been falling on critical holiday spending items, airfares, car rentals, toys, tvs and sporting goods. president biden touting that wages are now growing faster than inflation. on wall street all three major indexes are up dra gnatically for the year. still, the national mood has been praj ill, home affordability is the worst in a generation, and inflation so improving has left a deep scar on americans' psyche. >> people don't have short memories. they remember losing their jobs in 2020. they remember how hard it was to find new ground. >> reporter: in the new year the challenges for many will be student loan payments and those holiday credit card bills coming due, the biggest risk, the unexpected that could affect the economy in ways we don't perceive. christine romans, nbc news, new york. our thanks there to christine romans, coming up next on "morning joe"" president joe biden and prime minister

benjamin netanyahu spoke on the phone over the weekend about military operations in the gaza strip. the one thing biden says he did not ask for, despite immense pressure from the international community to do so. plus, we'll speak to the brother of an israeli hostage who is still being held captive by hamas. "morning joe" will be right back. ♪ the winter play was really coming together.

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some clouds there. fort lauderdale, florida, some boaters, though, not deterred, looks like they'll be heading out shortly. a lot of rain coming to the east coast next couple days. it's 7:00 a.m. here in new york. welcome back to "morning joe," it's tuesday, december 26th. we hope you had a wonderful christmas holiday weekend. i'm jonathan lemire we lease jordan and the reverend al

sharpton, we're in for joe, mika and willie. the israeli minister of strategic affairs ron determiner is expected to be in washington for meetings at the white house and state department about israel's plans for eventually scaling down the war. dermer a close confidant to israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is set to discuss israel's intentions for a low intensity operation in gaza, and concerns about israel's munition stockpile. the meetings are taking place amid growing tension between the biden administration and the israeli government over when the israel-hamas war should end and what will happen in gaza after it does. including who governs that enclave for the long term. now, this comes after president biden and prime minister netanyahu spoke by phone on saturday. biden called, again, for more specific targeting by the idf in

gaza to try to minimize civilian casualties. the president said, though, he did not ask for a cease-fire in that call. on sunday, netanyahu said he expressed to biden that israel will continue fighting until the war is won. netanyahu also said israel will not listen to pressure from other countries over its conduct in the war, and then yesterday netanyahu visited gaza for the second time since the war began, vowing to stay the course. netanyahu spoke with soldiers after his office put out a statement saying that israel would be deepening its fight in gaza. netanyahu said, once again, that a sustained military campaign is necessary to free those hostages who are still being held by hamas. meanwhile, the prime minister was heckled by families of hostages during a speech he delivered to the israeli parliament. netanyahu was addressing

lawmakers after returning from that trip to gaza over the weekend. the israeli leader maintained that military pressure was critical to securing the release of roughly 100 hostages last month, and he insisted that a sustained military campaign would be needed to free those who are still being held captive. family members who were seated in a gallery booed netanyahu when he said israeli forces need more time to put pressure on hamas to secure the release of the remaining hostages. at one point they drowned out the prime minister with their chants of the word "now." with us now former cia officer,

who is an msnbc national security and intelligence analyst. mark, good to see you, let's talk about what we're seeing there in gaza. netanyahu visiting, but perhaps more importantly, vowing to deepen the attacks and, in fact, there was an escalation of israeli bombings over the weekend, including on christmas day. that killed dozens upon dozens. we have heard from the president biden time and again urging israel to limit civilian casualties. seems like israel's not just listening, what do you see the future here? >> jonathan, it's really interesting, and i think the visit of ron dermer to washington this week is quite significant. in essence president biden has made a deal with neen you that the u.s. is going to give israel more runway to continue their offensive in gaza. i think president biden, who has shown to be likely the most pro-israel president in u.s. history, understands israel's

security needs. but in return for this, two things have to happen in the short term. one is, increased aid getting into gaza, and israel in some sense has done that, they opened up a second border crossing and they've been -- you know, they acquiesced to these u.s. demands, but number two is a change in tactics and the idea of civilian casualties. and in this case, you know, it looks like israel is not, in fact, listening. and so, i think that's certainly front and center in some of the discussions. long-term of course it's the future of gaza, the u.s. is pushing for this notion of a foreign palestinian authority. netanyahu has openly, publicly rejected this, but privately israelis, i think, are certainly open to this idea. but this is really a very interesting point in the war in a sense so much pressure is built on biden in terms of this kind of unconditional support for israel. i think the israelis have to come through and change tactics because the humanitarian situation in gaza is really dire. >> this is elise jordan. we also have seen since october 17th an upswing in attacks on

u.s. are interests and forces in iraq and syria, and most recently a drone attack to an air base. what do you make of these proxy attacks? and have you been surprised that the war has been relatively contained on this day, day 81 of the war? >> well, elise, i think that we saw yesterday the u.s. finally respond with strikes against hezbollah, an iranian proxy, after there was a u.s. serviceman who was critically injured and two others were injured as well. i think a lot of us have not really -- or have been surprised that -- at the lack of kind of continued sustained response. we are practicing defense, not necessarily deterrence. and so, you know, the u.s. has to respond. we have to, you know, certainly warn iran and its allies that there's going to be a price to be paid. and let me just contrast this with what the israelis did yesterday. they launched a very significant high value target strike in

damascus, killing a senior iranian general, that's a direct message to iran there's a price to be paid. they did us a service because this iranian general was involved in supporting the proxies in syria. this low intensity conflict with the iranian proxies goes on. my fear is we have not deterred iran enough. the strike against hezbollah was good, but more needs to be done. >> mark, al sharpton here, the fact that derma is on his way to washington, in a climate where you have the relatives of hostages booing prime minister netanyahu and the fact that many people, including me, that were outraged at what happened october 7th, are equally outraged at children and civilians being killed in gaza, does that put more pressure on derma as he meets in washington to really give a -- some kind of

concession to try and deescalate a lot of what's going on in terms of the israeli offense in gaza, do you know netanyahu is speaking more strongly in a hawk-like matter, doesn't dermer become the person that says that's rhetoric, but this is what we're going to pull back when we see such dire humanitarian offensives happening every day in gaza? >> rev, i think you're exactly right. ron dermer was the israeli ambassador in washington for eight years. he's a very close confidant to prime minister benjamin netanyahu, he's a minister/observer in the war cabinet, so he has a lot of influence. it's quite interesting that he's here, and i think it's a reflection of that tension between, on that key issue, on

what we call civilian casualties, israel has got to change tactics if they want to keep biden's support on this, and it will be interesting to see what dermer says in terms of concrete steps. we've heard israelis say privately they're going to change course to a different phase. but yesterday there were terrible civilian casualties, 70 were killed. we have to see events on the ground kind of really dictate where this goes. there's a lot of pressure on dermer in this visit to show that israel is going to change. >> a lot of eyes will be watching that visit when dermer does reach d.c. mark, turning briefly to ukraine. as we mentioned earlier in the show a lot of developments there as well, including an explosion in crimea that may have been conducted by ukraine against the russian navy. but we want to get you on this new reporting from the new york city over the weekend that president putin of russia has quietly signalled that he's open

to a cease-fire, apparently doing so at one point last year, and then again in recent months, but he wants to be able to claim victory and sort of end things where the fighting lines now stand. so he'd have control of about 20% of ukraine. now, there's no sense that ukraine will go for that, at least not now. what is your read, though, about the future of that fight? what is putin's willingness to even think about a cease-fire? what does that tell you about where this war might be heading? >> well, i think, jonathan, there's a couple key points to be made here, first of all, you know, i'm skeptical of this, because this kind of falls in this classic, you know, russian influence operation, and what do i mean by that? well, there's a $60 billion aid package, that's a "b," that's sitting in congress and they're going to talk about it. what better ammunition for the critics of ukraine aid, particularly on the right in the republican party who would say, well, look, russia wants to settle now, why should we give

another $60 billion. in some sense, kind of the leak of this information plays right into the republican right wing hands not to approve this aid package. so that gives me some skepticism. the other part of this is, and i think this is not really been discussed enough is while of course the offensive, you know, did fail, and let's just be honest about that, but there's reason to be bullish in the future. why, to a time where ukraine has, you know, atrited, a fancy word for killed 87% of the russian standing army that was originally in ukraine, when 20% of the black sea fleet has been sunk, and when six squadrons of f-16s from our european partners are about to come on line, why would ukraine take their boot off russia's neck here. this is a reflection of russian weakness. it's interesting that this has been floated. i'm skeptical of it because of internal u.s. political dynamics, and i would also say that, you know, the events on the ground do favor ukraine, if we can, of course, get this $60

billion package pushed through congress. >> yeah, there's certainly a sense that putin might be willing to wait through the november 2024 american elections to see if donald trump comes back to power and strike a more favorable deal then. thank you for joining us this morning, we really appreciate it. meanwhile, back here at home, republican senator lindsey graham is defending donald trump amid the former president's claims of immunity against prosecution and his continued lies about the 2020 election. the south carolina senator posted a screen shot of trump's true social post over the weekend in which the former president once again claimed that the 2020 election was stolen. senator graham had this, there were numerous legal and factual concerns about the 2020 presidential election. as the chairman of the senate judiciary committee, along with many others, i expressed concerns and investigated different allegations. the president has the right and

duty, just like others involved in the process, to challenge the results. graham also appeared on abc's "this week" on sunday continuing to defend trump. but, the senator did acknowledge that trump's insistence that the 2020 election was stolen could cost him the race in 2024. >> former president trump continues to say he won the election. he's -- he claims to be an election denier, proudly. we teach our children, when they lose something, to shake the opponent's hand and move on. are you concerned that the president is -- the former president is not setting the proper standard going forward here, sir? >> well, you know, hillary clinton didn't -- had the same view that she was cheated. he's not the first politician to claim to have been denied a fair election, but here's what i would say. i accept the election results of 2020, i'm worried about 2024. if president trump puts a vision

out improving security and prosperity for americans, he will win, if he looks back, i think he will lose. so, at the end of the day, the 2020 election's over for me, we need to secure the ballot in the 2024 cycle. but donald trump's not the first person to complain about an election. >> just a reminder that hillary clinton conceded the 2016 race to donald trump, just hours after the votes came in. meanwhile, trump spent the holiday weekend slamming his political enemies. in one post he wrote, there are no world leaders who are as, quote, evil and sick as the thugs we have inside our country who are looking to destroy our once great usa, may the rot in hell. he wrote, before ending with, again, merry christmas. let's bring in special correspondent at vanity fair and host of the fast politics

podcast molly jong fast who writes her christmas cards the same way. it's good to see you this morning. let's get your read here about the former president and, you know, it's not just about presidential leadership. we know he doesn't do anything the way any conventional president does. i mean, that is such a mean-spirited note there. but what a lot of his base wants, and he barrels into 2024. now just a few days away, with a commanding lead in most republican primary polls. >> yeah, i mean, look, this is what the base wants, these deranged tweets that have all caps in weird places and make the case that somehow, you know, there was election interference. i mean, this is what the base wants. i think that i continue to believe that when you bring this message to mainstream voters, to swing voters, that they are not going to be moved by this the

same way they might have, i think, in 2016. i really do believe that he was able to sort of come from nowhere, and i think got a lot of credit for being a little bit less insane than he really was because people -- he was totally untested and had no track record. now fast forward, he has a track record. we know what he is. when people tell you who they are, believe them. >> molly, fast forward a couple days and we're in january, and it's the start of the republican primary season. do you have any predictions, iowa caucuses, trump looks like he's in a good position, but then new hampshire, nikki haley is gaining, but still has a lot of ground to pick up. how do you see the next month or so playing out? >> well, it's always scary to make predictions, and especially, you know, you make predictions, then there are clips used against you. but i would say, i think there are a lot of people who are sort of more sane in the republican

base who got behind nikki haley but again they got behind her too late, right, we saw in 2020, when this consensus with biden was the best candidate, the candidate who would do the best in different, you know, in parts of the country that were maybe not as lefty. and democrats got behind them, and other democrats dropped out and they just were like this is our guy, with even to defeat trump, this is what it is. and i think that had republicans been a little more together they might have been able to do that. but i think at this point, still, when you have desantis in there, and i think i don't know how that works. i think it may be too late. >> yeah, we certainly -- looks like trump's on his way to a big win in iowa, new hampshire getting close. haley closing the gap. an eye is on christie to see if he might drop out. the calendar, a long time between new hampshire and south carolina, maybe that's good for

haley, if she has momentum and it's also her home state, south carolina, but trump is way ahead of her in the polls there. this is still his race to lose. molly, stick around, we want to get you on another story here. there's a former adviser to president george w. bush who is warning that rnc chairwoman ronna mcdaniel may be in some deep trouble going forward. carl rove made that prediction on friday following last week's revelation by the detroit news of audio recordings of then president trump, and mcdaniel pressuring local elections officials to vote against certifying the 2020 election results. >> i think the former president's got a problem with this. they had voted to certify the election. he attempted to force them to change their decision, which they tried to do. i think this is what we would call election interference, and just as he got into trouble in georgia over a similar act, calling the secretary of state and saying find me 11,000 some

odd more votes shs a problem, the former president should not have been doing this. these people are supposedly independent officials who are supposed to certify the election based upon their review of the process and the procedures in place, and he's attempting to get them to change their opinion after the fact, this is not a good move if accurate, and if this tape is true, the former president's creating another problem for himself. >> real quick, is it's a problem for ronna mcdaniel as well, she's usually very cautious about things like this? >> oh, i think it is, i think the chairman is in trouble here because she's saying to them if you agree to make a change your decision on certification in wayne county we'll get you lawyers to stand by you. i think that was highly inappropriate. >> molly, what do you think of that, karl rove's take? there's plenty of republicans who have issues with ronna mcdaniel because she keeps overseeing losing election

cycles. now maybe there's some legal trouble too. what's your read? >> i mean, i think the top one here is when you've lost karl rove, right, not a great look. i do think that when you listen to that tape it's unbelievable. i would say this is not the first election tape, not the first tape we've heard donald trump sort of be -- doing his slightly mafia-like tactics on our american electoral system. but i would say that there's something really chilling about having ronna, who knows better, and has tried, you know, as much as possible, to not be like that, i mean, obviously she has been brought into the mud of trumpism, as have many of these republicans. but, it was pretty chilling, and i think that i think it's going to hurt her. i mean, look, the thing where they're saying, you know, we're going to get you lawyers, i mean, just -- it's so evocative of these other tapes but it is

really disturbing and it's really not how we do it in america. which i think is the sort of key, important point of all of this, is we have a democracy, and party leaders don't pressure electors to go their way. >> molly, sharpton here, isn't it somewhat revealing that donald trump would use his christmas messages attacking jack smith and the prosecutions and the trials, and not focusing on iowa, which is what, three weeks away, by attacking his opponents, you would think this close to an election, or to a caucus, that he'd be focusing on his political opponents. one, is this indicative that he's really more concerned than he would appear, or want to appear, about his pending trials and criminality being convicted, and two, that he really doesn't see a threat, even though nikki

haley is gaining in the polls, he really doesn't see a threat to iowa and new hampshire in terms of him needing to focus on this christmas message against his opponents? >> yeah, i think both of those things are true. look, trump has never been a focus politician. i mean, he's never been a person who's like, i need votes here or i need votes there, he's sort of always just had very good -- or i wouldn't say good. he's had an effective instinct, at speaking to a certain group of people, those people are largely, you know, people who i would say his base, one of the things he got very successful for doing was touching that third rail, right, saying the things that republicans pretended never to believe in, and giving those people a candidate that they had never had, and he got these -- you know, these low propensity voters out there to vote. but he was never like a gifted tactician. so i do think, i think he

believes he has this locked up, and maybe he does. the primary. and i also think that he is -- remember, he got into this election because he hoped that it would prevent him from getting, you know, facing legal consequences, i mean, that's why he got in so early. and so i do think, ultimately, you know, the rest of these candidates are running to be president but donald trump is really running because if he wins again he will -- he believes, anyway, that he will stay out of legal jeopardy. >> all right, molly, stick with us, because still ahead, we're going to dig in to analyst from the "new york times" that shows a hunter biden text, cited by republicans in their impeachment inquiry into his father, the president, is not what the gop suggests. "morning joe" will be right back with that. switch to shopify and sell

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sun not yet up in chicago this morning after christmas, 6:27 a.m. there, 7:27 a.m. here on the east coast. welcome back to "morning joe." house republicans have jumped on a text message that hunter biden sent to his daughter back in 2019 trying to link his father, president biden, to his son's business activities. while suggesting that members of the biden family reaped millions from a global influence peddling scheme. "the new york times" is pointing out that the nearly 5-year-old message does not back up the gop's allegations of corruption. the times puts it this way. a close examination of the circumstances surrounding the 2019 text message, along with others that have been cited by republicans shows the texts have been misunderstood, or outright

distorted. the story behind the message i explained by the bidens, and backed up by other interviews, in a review of hunter biden's emails and text messages, offers, sometimes, unflattering insights into the family's finances, and internal dynamics. and it adds more detail to what is known about hunter biden's erratic and irresponsible behavior while in the throes of addiction. and molly, hunter has been candid about his struggles with addiction as hi father talks about them frequently as well. as much as republicans want to create a there there, they haven't done so yet, there's been no evidence, real evidence that they've provided that links president biden to any of his son's financial wrongdoing, there's no evidence that even that hunter biden has done all of what they claim. i mean, he's facing criminal charges on some matters, but not what he's -- what the gop has talked about. how much do you think this will loom over this next year's election? we know republicans are trying

to create a false equivalency of what aboutism. do you think it works, or do you think it's really just about the personal toll that this takes on joe biden? >> well, i think the republicans feel they have two great opportunities here, right, they can hurt joe biden personally, and they can do the thing that steve bannon loves, right, to flood the zone, to make enough of a false equivalency so that people who are sort of trumpy people can say, well, look, hunter -- you know, maybe they don't have the story completely right, but they may -- you know, they'll say, well, look at hunter biden, hunter biden did this, hunter biden did that. so, i mean, if you pull back for a minute and you think about hunter biden, here is this man who is facing criminal -- you know, indictment -- he's got charges for his taxes, for not getting rid of a gun right, i mean, these are things that most people do not get criminal charges for. i mean, he's really facing sort of more legal jeopardy than he would be as the sort of normal

person in the world, and i think that the goal here for republicans certainly is to, you know, it's a vibes-based impeachment. there's no there there. they even admit that, but it's not necessarily about really having an impeachment, it's about muddying the waters enough so that trump doesn't look so bad. >> molly, it does -- doesn't it make a real error on the part, meaning the republicans that are seeking to use this hunter biden story, when they have such almost a ludicrous overreach in using an example in this "times" story, trying to act as though something that is a family kind of inside reference to try to act like this was some kickback scheme. don't they lose a lot of independent voters that they may appeal to when it seems like they are just overreach would

almost be an understatement when they use these kinds of allegations against president biden, and his association or dealings with his own son hunter biden? >> well, that has always been my thinking, and we've seen certainly not in the polls, but again, polls who knows, but we've certainly seen in previous elections, even this off-off year election, that voters in virginia, which is very much a kind of independent sort of swingy state, they did not give glenn youngkin the blank check he was looking for. i do wonder if ultimately this sort of more centrist voters do not, that this kind of sort of -- this kind of -- i want to say, you know, it's still sort of viscerally unpleasant, this kind of attacking. i mean, when you look at these things, you know, there are texts where joe is paying for hunter's car, right, it feels

very kind of personal and not really about the political landscape at all, but really about attacking his family. so i do think ultimately this backfires for republicans but i'm not sure they're so thoughtful about what they're doing. i think a lot of this is just this republican running on instinct, hoping they get another win. >> haven't fair's molly jong-fast, thank you for being with us this morning. we'll be watching these new developments with hunter biden in the new year. coming up here on "morning joe," a live report from israel but latest on the war with hamas after a truly intense weekend of fighting in gaza. plus, we'll speak with a man whose nephews were released during israel and hamas's temporary cease-fire, but whose brother still remains held captive by the terrorist group. you're watching "morning joe," we'll be right back.

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why is it so hard to condemn hamas for slaughtering young people at a concert, for burning families alive, for the reports of widespread sexual violence? why? i will never understand why some council members have remained silent in the face of such evil. >> that's the united states ambassador to the united nations linda thomas greenfield calling out the other members of the security council for its persistent unwillingness to condemn hamas for the october 7th terror attacks on israel that spark the current war in gaza. joining us now, nbc news foreign correspondent josh lederman who joins us live from israel, josh, good to see you this morning, give us an update as to what is the very latest there. >> reporter: hey, good morning, jonathan, well, there is a deep

sense of mourning in israel right now, one funeral after another, for days now, as israel says that it has lost at least 17 of its troops on the battlefield, just since friday, and for palestinians in the gaza strip just behind me, the losses have been even far more stark. this morning, gaza is reeling from one of the deadliest stretches of the war, some 250 palestinians killed in a 24-hour period, the hamas-run palestinian health ministry says, including at least 70 in a christmas eve air strike on a central gaza refugee camp. this is what's left of the camp now, the dead and wounded piling up at a nearby hospital, itself barely still sfanding. >> doctors and nurses here are doing their best, their best is never enough until there's a cease-fire. >> reporter: prime minister benjamin netanyahu is under increasing pressure to change course by aid groups, foreign nations and families of israeli

hostages still captive in gaza who heckled him in israeli parliament, holding signs that said what if it was your daughter? but netanyahu was defiant during an unannounced visit to war zone, telling troops in gaza we don't stop, this war continues until the end, with one netanyahu's top advisers in washington today to discuss the war's next faze phase netanyahu writing israel must control gaza's security for the foreseeable future suggesting a long-term occupation that the biden administration says is unacceptable. with no end in sight, the war loomed over christmas day festivities at the vatican. where pope francis pleaded for an end to what he called the appalling harvest of innocent lives. and in israel, mothers and fathers are anxiously checking the idf website that announces those killed in action. this woman's son has been fighting in gaza for seven weeks. how long can you live like this? >> that's a good question.

we break every day. >> you know, it's -- >> like we say, we can't do it anymore, but we don't have any choice. >> reporter: there are still negotiations taking place, jonathan, to release more hos tajs, mostly in cairo led by the egyptians who put forward a -- 40 hostages would be released in exchange for a multi-week stop in the fighting. we did hear that israel's war cabinet met late last night to discuss that, and other issues relating to the hostages, but right now, there are no signs that either israel or hamas would be willing to accept that egyptian proposal, jonathan. >> nbc's josh lederman, thank you for your reporting, please stay safe. on october 7th, a man, his two sons and his girlfriend were

abducted from a kibbutz in southern israel and held hostage by hamas. in a prisoner swap deal late last month, the girlfriend and both sons were returned home. however, yair, known as ya-ya to his friends and family, remains in hamas captivity. joining us now is yair's brother naniv naakov, we're so grateful you're here this morning and we see your shirt there depicting your brother's image. have you received any sort of updates from the israeli government as to your brother's condition or whereabouts or any suggestion of developments that could, in fact, bring him home? >> no. we haven't heard anything. first, thank you for having me. it's one of the -- but we got news not good news when they came back about yair's

condition, not from the government. we knew that they were abducted. we thought they were abducted together, but they were splitted, and taken before yair was taken to gaza. before she went, before they took her, she saw two holding yair outside on his knees and the third one was hitting him with sticks and injuring him very badly. so that's -- that's the last news we heard. it's from 7th of october. since then we don't have any sign of life, and that's one of our pleas from the world, we beg for some kind of information. we address the red cross, we address government, we call anyone in this world that can

help and bring us some information. of course, we want him back yesterday, not today. but the most agonizing thing is not knowing. we don't know what's his status, what's his situation, and we're worried. and since meirav came back we're even more worried because we heard those horrible things. >> can you tell us a little bit about what she said her captivity was like, the conditions that she and their sons faced? >> yeah, so i call it -- it's a bad word to call it like that, but i call it your luck. if you are lucky you were at a family and it could be a good family that captured you, put

you in a room, a closed room, you couldn't look outside, you couldn't do anything when you wanted to go to the toilet you had to knock on the door. but that's lucky. if you weren't lucky, the family would have hit you, we heard about rapes, not in our case, luckily, and it could be that you were in the tunnels. and if you were in the tunnels, you don't see even sunlight. so, it's your luck. and i hope, i don't know, i hope that my brother had the good part, and not the bad one, because we heard about the things that the terrorists did within gaza to the hostages, and the things that they are using against them, not just physically, but also

psychologically. we heard that they told him that israel is out and no one is coming to save them for the hostages it's horrible, right, we also know that meirav didn't know that the kids were abducted, and she found out after 51 days because he met yagil before they were released. and she described it, she broke down when she saw yagil, because she wanted to believe, and she really believed that they were not abducted. >> yaniv, my heart goes out to you and your family. and we'll keep praying for your brother. there recently was an address that the prime minister netanyahu gave to some of the families of the hostages, and he was heckled, and they were asking him to do more. do you share that view?

what more could netanyahu and the government be doing to secure the release of over 100 hostages who still remain? >> well, our family's perspective, at least from our side, because there is -- there's a lot of families that have hostages, sadly, so there are a lot of opinions, and a lot of thinking. so our side is, we need to know what hamas wants. and it doesn't matter right now what they want, if it can be achieved, if we can give them what they want, in order to release all the hostages, and even before the release of all the hostages, what will they need in order for the red cross to give us some information, this is the things that i would tell netanyahu to do first, give us some insight, ask hamas what do they want because i know that, for instance, the icrc are

talking with hamas, so they have the knowledge of what hamas knows, we as families don't have the knowledge of what hamas wants. and if we have the knowledge, if we know what hamas wants, let's try and give it to them so as a families we'll get our loved ones back, we -- we families don't care about the politics, or the fights, we truly believe that civilians should not be there. it's a funny thing, right, because civilians who believed in peace were taken from their houses, and my thought from the first day is that it could happen anywhere, it's not just happened -- the fact that it happened in israel is okay, but it could happen anywhere. so, if we were to talk to himes and understand what they want in

order to finish this specific war, and bring all our loved ones back, that will be my plea to netanyahu, and not just netanyahu, the whole world, because i really believe that the world can affect it, and not -- not the israel government on its own. >> as elise said, you are absolutely in our thoughts and prayers, you and your family, this is a brother of israeli hostage yair yaakov, yaniv, thank you for joining us this morning. >> thank you so much for having me. >> we really appreciate it. still ahead mere on "morning joe," we'll speak to a former ambassador to the united states, and chris matthews will join us. up next, how one family was not in the holiday spirit after an unaccompanied 6-year-old was put on the wrong flight and flown hundreds of miles away from his family. what spirit airlines is now

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national airport just outside washington d.c.. the east coast was blessed with more temperatures on christmas, but there may be some tough travel in the days ahead. a lot of rain and fog, at least here on the east coast. let's turn to that scary story out of florida. where a spirit airlines mistakenly put an unaccompanied child on the wrong flight during the holiday season travel rush. spirit has apologized but did not provide any explanation for how that six-year-old child ended up in the wrong city. nearly 200 miles from his intended destination.

nbc news correspondent, sam brock, has the details. >> reporter: spirit airlines this morning is apologizing after a six year old boy was placed on the wrong plane. the child flying alone for the first time, boarded a spirit airlines flight in philadelphia. he was supposed to fly to fort myers florida, but instead, took a nearly three-hour flight to orlando. his grandmother, like maria ramos, waiting for him at the fort myers airport. >> i was so excited about seeing my grandson again. >> ramos told cbs affiliate, wink tv, that realizing her grandson wasn't on the correct plane was one of the scariest moments of her life. >> my stomach was tight, my heart was pounding. >> reporter: the flight attendants in fort myers telling ramos her grandson missed his flight but that ramos had his check-in tag. once spirit airlines tracked down the correct location of her grandson, she raced to the airline.

in a statement, spear lie line said, the child was always under the current supervision of a spear team ever, and as soon as we discovered the error, we took immediate steps to communicate with the family and reconnect them. we take the safety and responsibility of transporting all of our guests seriously. and we are conducting an internal investigation. we apologize to the family for this experience. unaccompanied minors have gotten on the wrong plane before, like in 2019, when 14 year old, anton bird, flew to germany instead of sweden. this whole ordeal, reminiscent of a blockbuster holiday movie. >> oh no, my families in florida and i'm in new york. >> a happy ending for the ramos family, despite the questions that remain. >> how did that happen? did they get him off the plane? >> home alone two, not as good as the original, we're just glad the kid here is okay. nbc's sam brock with that report. still ahead here on morning joe. if a president does it, does that mean it is not illegal? donald trump is bringing to mind that famous quote from richard nixon, with his latest

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welcome to morning joe. it is tuesday, december 26th. i'm jonathan rainier, alongside me, former aide to the george w. bush white house and state departments, elise jordan, and the host of msnbc's politicsnation, rev. al sharpton. like joe, micah, and willie have the day off. we hope everybody had a merry, merry christmas. president biden and the first lady, jill biden, spent their christmas eve fielding phone calls for the norad santa tracker. the president posted this photo on social media, writing that he spoke to excited young americans who were curious about santa's whereabouts. then, on christmas day, the president and first lady called units from each branch of the

military, to wish them a merry christmas, and thank them for their service. republican front runner, donald trump, on the other hand, spent the holiday weekend in a very different fashion, taking on his political enemies. the former president posted several, shall we say, unusual, christmas messages on truth social. that criticize to people like joe biden, and jack smith. in one post, that channeled home alone's kevin mcalister. >> merry christmas yet filthy animal. >> yeah, that was pretty much it. because trump wrote, there are no world leaders who are as, quote, evil and sick, as the thugs we have inside our country. who are looking to destroy our once great usa, may they rot in hell, before ending with, merry christmas. elise jordan, we saw a president wish the nation amara christmas in a conventional manner. >> holly jolly christmas.

>> in a rather unconventional, but true to form, manner from donald trump. i hope you had a lovely christmas and you are not quite as angry as the 45th president. >> i did, my daughter got a rainbow frog, that was all she wanted from santa. so always good in our world. rev, though, actually did something good for humanity. you served 1000 people lunch yesterday. >> yeah, every year, national action network serves hot meals to a lot of the elderly and homeless. and migrants this year. we gave away about 1500 meals, we gave away around 500 toys. for people that don't have that at home, i grew up with some christmas is that things were missing. so we do it, this is our 32nd year. i grew up doing service on christmas. i work on operation bread basket, remember jessie jackson, he used to take us to the jails. i talked to him last night. he went to the jail, even

though he's suffering with parkinson's, can't walk. he went and visited people in prison. it's a day of service, not a day of anger and all kinds of strife that our former president has. >> that is certainly what christmas is supposed to be about in my house. santa was very good to the boys. my wife -- wife cooked up a wonderful meal. rough, the anger from donald trump. the bad faith attacks about his political opponents. what does that say to you about where he is right now, mentally, and emotionally, as this year draws to a close, and we barrel into election year? >> two things. i think it shows that these indictments and the civil case to fight his pretense otherwise has gotten to him. because he's reacting and responding in a way of no one projecting self confidence, this is nothing. i also think it shows that an inner anger and displacement

that he has because who spends the holiday with this kind of venom, particularly when he's the guy who claims to be this self-confident, self-made guy, with this kind of darkness, unless you're just that kind of dark person? >> we've certainly gotten used to trump's unorthodox holiday messages, sometimes to the haters and losers, this month, even for him it hit a new low. we want to turn now to some breaking news that happened overnight. the united states conducted a new round of airstrikes around the iran-backed terrorist group, in iraq. the u.s. central command says early assessments indicate that last night's strikes destroyed the targeted facilities, and most likely killed a number of militants. now, this was in retaliation for a series of assault on an american airbase, including a drone attack that happened christmas morning. and injured three american service members. one of whom, right now, is in critical condition. ow, is iin a statement, secretaf

defense, lloyd austin, explained that while the white house does not want to escalate conflict in the middle east, he and the president will, quote, not hesitate to take necessary action to defend the united states, our troops, and our interests. joining us now, with more on this breaking news, is nbc news national security and military correspondent, courtney kube. courtney, good to see you this morning. give us the latest, phyllis into what we know about the initial attacks and then the united states response. >> so, the initial attack was what the military calls a one-way attack. generally that's an attack that's packed with explosives that's targeting one specific place, generally a building, goes in, and it blows up. that's what hitch the erbil airbase early yesterday morning here eastern time. it was about four pm local time on christmas day yesterday. and as you mentioned, jonathan, at least three u.s. personnel

was injured and one u.s. service member was critically injured here. soon after that happened the u.s. central command presented some options to the pentagon and then on to the white house. president biden is at camp david right now. president biden accepted these defense options and the u.s. military got the moving. aaron gilchrist did some reporting last night, there was a series of phone calls them -- throughout the day, and late last night about a pm here local time. and of course that would be early tuesday morning in iraq president biden gave secretary of defense, lloyd austin, the go ahead and the u.s. military carried out the strikes. now what's important to point out here, there's been more than 100 attacks against bases, housing u.s. service members in iraq and syria since october 17th. more than 100. we are about at 103. this, so far, we have had

traumatic brain injuries, minor injuries, u.s. service member in critical condition, this seems to be the most effective attacked to date of these attacks here so far. and the u.s. military took these targeted strikes afterwards. you also mentioned, in a statement that we got out of the pentagon, and a statement out of the u.s. central command late last night, they acknowledged that they believe multiple kataib hezbollah militants, that's the iranian -backed militia group that operates there in iraq and into syria a little bit, they believe that multiple of those members of that group may have been killed in this strike. now, i point that out, jonathan, is the past for telita strikes that we've seen out of the military, they are very specific about saying that they are proportional in nature. so let's say there's an attack on a base, there's infrastructure damage, the military will respond with hitting a warehouse, maybe hitting a location where they put together these drones or these components for these missiles that they are striking

on the basis with. the fact that they killed, they believe that they killed a number of these militia members, that is generally intended to send a message. the message here, being, there were u.s. law members left injured, one critically injured in this attack, one struck with what they considered a proportion. which is not a lead going after facilities where they make these, house they're drones or missile parts, but they actually go after some of these fighters, jonathan. >> courtney, elise here. when i think of erbil, i think of an area of iraq that normally is very safe. can you talk about -- have more attacks been happening there at that airbase, in particular, and what is the u.s. presence these days in iraq? >> yeah. you're absolutely right. herbalist beautiful, you can wander around on a sunday afternoon. at the squares, there's kids playing they'd. is generally seen, and has been

seen as one of the safer areas. but the airbase up there has been one of the major targets of these attacks since october 17th, they've seen a number of attacks, in fact, there was one about two months ago were one of these explosive drones actually landed on one of the barracks at the airbase there and fortunately, it didn't explode, or else we may have had a number of casualties there, because there was u.s. service members inside. so herbal has not been, unfortunately, has not been able to escape these attacks. so i will say, i keep pointing out october 17th was the day these all started. that was when we saw this uptick in attacks by militia groups that are supported by iran. so kataib hezbollah, in iraq, into syria. we've heard a lot about the houthi attacks, in the red sea, the bab-el-mandeb. they all picked up on october 17th. that's more than 100 have now

occurred since then and they have occurred in erbil. they've been about half and half in iraq and syria, just a few more in syria than in iraq since the 17th. elise. >> nbc's courtney kube, thank you so much for your reporting. we move now from the hostilities in the middle east, to the war in europe. russia's defense ministry has confirmed that at least one person was killed in a strike on a russian warship this morning, on the eastern coast of crimea. the commander of ukraine's air force said his pilots carried out the attack. russia has already withdrawn a significant amount of its black sea forces from its main base in crimea, due to attacks on a ship, unverified footage shows a massive explosion there. likely from that vessel. that comes as the ukrainian government announced yesterday that hit had also shot down five russian fighter jets over the weekend. now, these claims have yet to be independently verified. but several ukrainian officials, and military analysts, suggest

that western supplied patriot missile systems were used to target the russian aircraft. this, as russia claims it seized full control of the town of marinka on the eastern front. this claim has also not been independently verified. nbc news for correspondent, molly hunter, has the latest on ukraine's the spending another christmas trying to fend off russian attacks. >> reporter: for the second christmas, ukrainians are spending the holiday hunkered down, as russian drone strikes continue to manage the capital. russian strikes are raining down on cities across the country. coderre's murder in odessa said, i woke up my daughter, and we went to the corridor. the window flew right over there, the house, burned down completely. the fierce winter conditions already entrenched as russia hits critical infrastructure like last christmas. millions across the country struggle to meet basic needs

and troops on the icy battlefield remain stalled. the attention in western capitals, as plummeted and volodymyr zelenskyy commanded in 2022 has given away to budget concerns and political infighting in 2023. zelenskyy, swept into washington earlier this month in a bid to secure a pledge for more aid, but returned home empty-handed. despite president biden's support, congress has kicked any vote on an estimated 64 billion dollars in aid into the new year, and republicans have tied it to domestic immigration policies. >> putin is banking on the united states failing to deliver for ukraine. we must prove him wrong. >> reporter: ukraine is running low on western weapons, and soldiers, in a new year, western officials, former u.s. intelligence officers, and regional analysts expect that ukraine will likely ramp up its drone strikes and sabotage missions. as russian troops hold positions in the south and east. [speaking in a global language]

>> reporter: but zelenskyy remains defiant. [speaking in a global language] >> reporter: and remarkably, ukrainian resilience still shines through at christmas. people here, there's no other option but to keep fighting. molly hunter, nbc news. >> our thanks to molly hunter for that reporting. meanwhile, the new york times is reporting the russian president, vladimir putin, has been privately signaling since september that he is open to a cease-fire in ukraine, that would freeze the fighting at the current boundary lines. kremlin spokesperson, dimitri peskov, told russian media on friday, that putin is ready for negotiations, but only to

achieve his goals in ukraine. joining us now, one of the authors of that reporting, antjuan tran off the, he's the moscow bureau chief for the new york times. anton, thank you so much for joining us. tell us, if you will, more about the evolution in putin's thinking about his war aims. first, we know he wanted to topple kyiv, and forced him out of the country, or kill him. and seize control of all of ukraine. he's had to dial that back, because if they defeat he settled on the battlefield. what might bring him to the negotiating table now? >> well, that's a great point. his aims have changed throughout the war. his remember, he started this wr back in february of last year, thinking it would last a few days, or masking them, a few weeks. and ever since, he has essentially been improvising. continuing to fight, continuing to try to push, but also, as we

reported in our piece, trying to continue to keep his options open. and reduce his risks. because, you know, he's got his imperialist mindset. he denies ukrainian nationhood. he believes it shouldn't be part of russia. but he's also looking to manage his risks, domestically. and what we see is that he does see risks for himself, the longer this war goes on. excuse me. both political risks, and economic risks. and so, that is one reason we report that he's been signaling, quietly, over the last few months, that he's open to a cease-fire. >> and on, i'll sharpton here. as you report that he is beginning to the -- he, being putin, beginning to look at a cease-fire possibly being a way out of this, do you think, therefore, that would

encourage the congress in the united states, that is been playing a kind of game, in whether or not they're going to pass ukraine aid, and whether they're going to move forward, and really over the holiday recess did not vote that, does this put more pressure on u.s. legislators to say we must, in many ways, give more support to delete zelenskyy, because we may have putin on the brink of making a real deal here, and a breakthrough, and we cannot be the missing force that would support the ukrainians in this battle that we've supported them thus far? >> well, hard for me to speak to that u.s. side, but certainly, in ukraine, as we heard in the prior report, this is not seen, excuse me, this is not seen as an acceptable deal. and our american sources we spoke to also underscore that this does not show putin is

ready to compromise in any way. he is going to insist on holding on to what he has. and even as he's sending these signals, he's putting his nation on war footing, getting russia ready and in position to potentially keep fighting for years. so, again, we are seeing how he's trying to keep his options open, improvise, and sort of be prepared for a variety of scenarios. >> anton, elise jordan here. in a christmas miracle of sorts, alexei navalny, the russian opposition leader was located. he's in a gulag in the arctic circle, far from moscow, and in freezing temperatures. but he released a series of tweets, if they are indeed from him, if this is one hour of internet, he is allowed awake, what can you tell us about his condition, and the circumstances around his disappearance? >> this has been a really

remarkable few weeks, in that saga of alexei navalny. he disappeared, december 5th, since december 5th, his team hadn't heard from him. until then, his lawyers had been able to visit him in prison regularly. we heard from navalny regularly on social media. what ended up happening was that he was transferred from a prison, outside moscow, to a much harsher prison, as you point out, in the russian arctic. more than 1000 miles from moscow. and his team says he is doing well, quote, unquote. his message today that you mentioned on twitter, was that characteristic humor and defiance that we have grown used to hearing from navalny over these last almost three years that he's been in prison. but he's going to clearly have

an even more extraordinary difficult time up there in that prison camp. >> moscow bureau chief, of the new york times, anton troianovski, thank you for your reporting. we will speak to you again soon. coming up, donald trump insists that he is absolutely immune from prosecution. but will the supreme court agree? we will break down his latest challenge to the government's case against him, when morning joe comes right back. right back oh. [dog barks] no it's just a bunny! only pay for what you need. ♪liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty.♪ >> welcome back to morning joe.

as we now turn to donald trump's new demand over the weekend after the supreme declined to fast-track a decision on the key question of whether trump has broad immunity for actions he took as president, while challenging his 2020 election laws.

in a 71 page filing, lawyers for the former president urged a federal appeals court to throw out his 2020 election interference case, arguing that trump possesses presidential immunity. his lawyers also warned that if the cases take into trial, it will, quote, launch cycles of recrimination and politically motivated prosecution that will plague our nation for many decades to come. but, federal prosecutors and most notably, special counsel, jack smith, they disagree. saying, the former president broke the law, after the election, by scheming to disrupt the counting of electoral votes. on election eve, trump railed against smith, -- christmas eve. trump railed against smith claiming he was fully entitled to total presidential immunity from the charges, and says that smith is serving president biden's wishes in prosecuting him.

meanwhile, here's how biden responded to trump's repeated immunity claims. >> mister president do you think as a president, any president, is absolutely immune from criminal prosecution? >> i can't think of one. >> if you couldn't hear that over the were of the helicopter, president biden did not think any prosecution. joining us now is another msnbc niggle analyst, danny cevallos. we can to see. let's start with the merits of this, president trump says that his immunity should pertain to everything he did in office including what was clearly some campaigning and efforts to overturn the election. do you think their case has any merits? >> what's interesting is the trump team doesn't argue for absolute presidential immunity. they argue for the immunity discussed in a 1982 case called fitzgerald. which is that the president is

immune for acts, civilly immune for acts within the outer perimeter of his official duties. so, they're essentially conceding that there has to be some official conduct. and where i think their brief feels a little short, they do discuss it, but the real issue then becomes -- was what donald trump did within his official duties? more specifically, was it within the outer perimeter of being a president? they argue, they say, well, there can be a blended act that is both presidential and that of a campaign or. but to judge chutkan addressed this in detail in her district court opinion. i think that's where the weakness lies. how can donald trump argue that this was something undertaken as the president, what he did in trying to subvert the election. we get into the twilight zone, which is probably at least, to me, the most egregious part of what donald trump did. was attempting to use the doj to serve his campaign needs. and wouldn't it be interesting if actually using the doj, or

trying to use the doj made it more within presidential official conduct? what if that attempt services his argument that as the head of the doj, i was trying to save this country, not subvert the election? >> that would be more so using the department of justice against the norm, breaking -- it's a norm that presidents don't use, the department of to conduct their bidding. and that they stay separate, that's interesting, an interesting theory. it's now going to d.c. court of appeals. it still could go to the supreme court, right? >> absolutely. in fact, that's what all the discussion was this last week. this is really just about delay. at least the drama of the last week. this will go through the normal process, which is for most of pellets, you go to the court of appeals, you normally get a panel, three judges at the court of appeals. if you don't like your result, you appealed to the entire court, and then from there, you go up to the supreme court. each time, those have to be

briefed, everyone has to have responsive briefs, you have to have oral arguments, presumably you have oral argument here. while that oral argument day would be a date set in stone, there's absolutely no timeline for when the court gets together, and drafts in opinion. look, this is not something they can just spit out quickly. it's arguably the most important opinion of each of these judges careers. so, they're going to run spell check on it, to say the least. it's going to take a little time. if you look at history, sometimes the supreme court, and bush v. gore, has moved at breakneck speed. we know appellate courts can do it. on the other hand, these are some pretty weighty issues. i think they're the most important criminal law issues in american history. they have to decide these. and obviously, speed is of the essence. but it's more important for them to get it right. so, very significant, i don't want to say victory, for the trump team in this last week, but delay for the trump team is a win. t delay fo>> danny, going back s argument that he was operating

in maybe the outside perimeters of being president, but still as president. wouldn't the recent tapes of him personally talking to electors in michigan, and his personal involvement kind of make that almost a laughable? because it was not like some people were coming to him as president, claiming border fraud, or claiming some kinds of injustice. he was the one pursuing this, including his direct to the doj. so the argument would probably have more weight if he was saying, as president, i was protecting voters. the opposite happened. he was the one that was the one making the accusation, and trying to get people to make these statements. doesn't that undermine the argument? >> yes. and judge chutkan, the district court judge, already addressed a lot of this. that what donald trump was doing was as a campaigner, not as a president, and this is the kind of evidence that will come

in. another thing about that michigan evidence that i think it's really interesting, there is a lot of talk this last week about well, could this expose him to liability in a michigan court? maybe. but far more interesting to me, having defended credit -- federal criminal cases, i can tell you, federal court is not a fun place to be for a criminal defense attorney. the government is very good at what they do. if i'm the government, i'm thinking they're looking at this michigan evidence as what we call, 404(b). but all it is is prior bad act evidence that sometimes, under certain circumstances, can come into a prosecution. if i'm jack smith, maybe you look at that michigan evidence, or any evidence from any other state, and bring it in as evidence in your d.c. court case. and say, look, this is what he was doing elsewhere. this is not a mistake. this is his modus operandi, this should all come in. it could be devastating evidence. i can tell you, personally, that bad act evidence that somebody did something bad somewhere else, is devastating. juries, they eat it up. >> danny, i know you said the

timeline is going to be a little bit uncertain. but there's been, on the january 6th case, a march trial date, at least for now, hope that would be the one that would have been and conclude before the election. do you still think that's possible? >> jonathan, you know your baiting me. you know, every single time i've asked this question, i bet the odds. and the odds are, take every trial date at this point, crumpled it up, throw it out the window. and save the tape on that. but as i've said, don't really see the tape. i don't want to come back and bite me. the march date is not likely to go forward. more so now than ever. now that we have to go through the normal appeals process through the d.c. court of appeals, and then arguably up to the supreme court. it's just not likely. i'm not being a naysayer, i'm not being negative. i just know that in the ordinary case, with a defendant you'd never heard of, trial dates, their set, but they're not set in stone. even in federal court, which moves much quicker than state court. as you know, i've said on the state court cases, look for a trial date in georgia of 2025, at least when first witnesses

are called. they've got to go through jury selection. i don't see that trial starting till 2025. as far as timeline here, briefing, as fast as these courts move, it still takes time. these are very important decisions. >> i think the lesson there is that democrats hoping that the criminal verdict would up end the trump campaign, shouldn't be banking on it happening in time. msnbc legal analyst, danny cevallos, thank you so much for joining us this morning. coming up next on morning joe. the divided stakes of america. we look back at 2023, and the controversial issues, both at home, and abroad, that drove us further apart this year. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ ♪

>> the divides between americans grow even sharper in 2023, with political clashes over reproductive health care, education, and american

involvement in numerous wars overseas. msnbc correspondent, tremaine lee, takes a look back at the year where america seemed to be at war with itself. >> reporter: in 2023, americas seemed to be at war with itself. with battle lines drawn over hard-fought legal gains, long protected by a president, now, facing a fresh round of conservative attacks. court challenges and state level restrictions. >> 36 states have introduced 137 bills to restrict teaching on race, gender, and history, according to a pen america report. >> reporter: on the front lines, public school classrooms, libraries -- >> organizations like the american library association are tracking more book bans than ever, and many of them are aimed at books with the lgbtq+ themes. >> reporter: school book shelves. >> amanda gorman says she was gutted to learn that a florida school had restricted some of its youngest students from reading the poem that she famously recited at president

biden's inauguration. >> reporter: from a fight over whose history is taught and how -- >> floridians rallying against governor ron desantis's stop woke act and his rejection of a -- >> we want -- >> there's no way to teach history without having the aspect of it. >> reporter: to a history making decision by the nation's highest court, effectively banning race based college admissions. >> a sharply divided court scrapping decades of president. >> reporter: igniting frenzied over whether america's pledge to make good over its promises for equality for all has been fully extended to its most marginalized citizens. >> justice jackson riding, with let them eat cake obliviousness, today, the majority pulls the report and announces color blindness for all by legal fiat. >> reporter: just off campus, a clash between pro israel students and a propeller steny and. >> reporter: as war raged in the middle east, college campuses in america became

battlegrounds as well, with the boundaries between free speech and hate speech became trench lines. >> so, the answer is, yes, calling for the genocide of jews violates harvard code of conduct. correct. >> it depends on the context. >> it does not depend on the context. the answer is yes, this is why you should resign. >> university professors were tested, before congress, and the nation. >> university of pennsylvania president, elizabeth mcgill, resigned over the weekend. >> the embattled president of harvard is staying, at least for now. >> outrage tonight in nashville, the reaction to republican-led efforts to expel three democratic lawmakers from the state legislature. >> the few fury spread to the floors of america state houses where civil rights like free speech would be checked. with the ouster of rising political stars accused of breaking decorum, while fighting for gun reform. >> do you feel this is a dangerous precedent? >> this has a very dangerous precedent for the nation that

other states will follow. >> reporter: the conservatives clamped down wouldn't just tighten its grip on those who represent the progressive body politic, but those whose bodies and how they're presented themselves have become political. >> tennessee will become the first state to implement a law restricting drag performances in public, or anywhere a child might see them. at least 14 other states have similar bills in progress. >> and mounting restrictions on women's access to reproductive health care. >> that they're forcing me to continue the pregnancy, the pain and suffering, i think it's cruel. >> as long as i am governor of the great state of texas, texas will always protect the unborn. >> reporter: but this war over americas political ideals, where people power is flexed in the streets, and at the polls, where in the courts, ground is lost, and ground is gained. >> the lgbtq community wins a court battle. a u.s. district judge in tennessee, giving the states adult entertainment act, a law that would criminalize some

drag performances, and restriction. >> as the high court today reaffirmed the key part of the voting rights act aimed at preventing race discrimination. >> reporter: people standing up, shouting back, marching, voting. >> the abortion access is the law of the land in ohio. >> reporter: fighting for freedom, for power, for respect. >> no justice no peace! >> former tennessee lawmaker, justin jones, back to the state house just days after his expulsion. >> this is what justice looks like. this is what democracy looks like. >> reporter: msnbc's tremaine lee with that powerful report. reverend sharpton, you go down the line of the number of things that seem to divide us this past year. and my fear is that those gaps, those divides, those tension, that will only grow as we head into 2024. and what will be perhaps the

ugliest and most consequential election year we've ever seen. >> i think you're right. er seen. >>i don't see how it does not become that. when you look at the fact that you have women's right to choose, voting rights, dei, diversity, equity, and inclusion programs are just about suspended because there was a pre court decision on affirmative action. all of the things the last half century, that have been the pillars of this country, in terms of social interaction, has now been, in many ways, undermined or undercut. and the rise of hate crimes. when you look at the data of the rise of antisemitic hate crimes, hate crimes against blacks, i'll never forget, in august of this year, when we had the largest civil rights demonstration law -- andrea king of i, to commemorate the 60th anniversary. while we were marching, three

blacks were killed at dollar general in jacksonville, florida, by a self-described white semi premises. we're not talking about the 50s. we're talking about this year. all of that brings us into the 24 election, and how we deal with the fact that not only do you have the supremacists, vigilantes, whatever, loan figures, or collective groups, in the bushes, but you have those on the supreme court that have dialed back voting rights, affirmative action, women's right to choose, thanks we took for granted, just a couple of years ago. >> i'm just really concerned about the tenor in this country of dehumanizing political enemies, and how americans just can't even talk to each other anymore. indifferent polls, you see where someone on one side will say that opposite political beliefs, that's their enemy. the way we are speaking now, going into this election year, it doesn't bode well to have a

free and fair election that voters are going to accept. >> and certainly, just in recent days, we've heard donald trump used the language of adolf hitler, when he describes others, or immigrants. i've said this a lot on the show. but officials i speak to all the time said they deeply are concerned about the possibility of political violence as election day approaches, 2024 promises to be a tough one for this nation. coming up, a conversation with israel's former ambassador to the united states. michael oren is our guest on the heels of several big developments in the war against hamas. morning joe is back in just a moment. moment

♪ the winter play was really coming together. ♪ until... disaster struck. ♪ tensions... were high. ♪ luckily, replacement costumes were shipped with fedex. which means mr. harvey... could picture the perfect night. ♪ we're delivering more happy for the holidays. ♪ >> coming up, nikki haley has

the cash and some momentum. can she cut into ron desantis's numbers in iowa? our friend, chris matthews joins us to talk about the presidential race, when morning

joe comes right back.

♪♪ a very foggy manhattan right now at 8:53 a.m. in the east this day after christmas. welcome back to "morning joe." larry kudlow's famous permafrown flipped upside down as he shared his excitement and optimism for the nation's future. >> where 6 out of 10 jobs are created, finally the secretary of commerce, finally i'm going to the hill. i'm going to be banging the going. i'm going to meet with her on

the 18th and her staff. show me the money on the chips and science act. show me the money on the inflation reduction act. $2 trillion going into the american economy, i think some of it's going to get to the economy. we have the fed slowing down. we have the soft landing. we have broadening the s&p 500 and obviously the russell 2000. this is a fantastic holiday season. rudolph the reindeer has arrived into all-equity stocks. i'm so happy. >> let's add to that another data point. numbers released by the u.s. commerce department on friday show that prices fell in november for the first time since april of 2020. with holiday gift giving, also

comes holiday gift returning. last year shoppers brought back over $170 billion worth of goods. joining us is brian cheung. so good to see you this morning. what are some of the return deadlines at some of the major retailers? >> for those that have something that maybe didn't fit right, there is a little bit of flexibility for returning things. if you bought things on black friday, you'll have an extended time to return things, at apple or best buy, through the middle of next month. but macy's through january 31st. >> are some places now charging for returns? >> there's restock fees. these are really going to get

you if you're trying to ship things back to the store. the best way to get around that is to simply bring it back in person. for amazon, you can go to a whole foods or a kohl's and they'll box it up and send it back. good way to get around that. >> buy now/pay later option, how does that affect returns? >> a lot of people were financing their gifts this holiday season. if you're paying in installments, can you bring it back? bring the item to the store first. afterwards you have to go back and apply for a refund. you might have to wait about two weeks to get that refund back.

you have options. just read the fine print for how you finance it. >> are there any things that you simply can't return? >> some things, like, for example, seasonal items like a christmas tree. perishable items or food, hygienic items, including swim suits, for obvious reasons. >> i have a snow suit that was too big for my daughter, but it's from a smaller merchant. i think it comes down to when you are buying local or from a small provider, it comes down to just person-to-person interaction, i guess, if they let you return. >> go back and see if you can chat with them. i'm sure they might be a bit

flexible. you could just try to get credit if you can't get your money back. if you can't return it and you're stuck with it, maybe just consider donating it. >> everyone out there, good luck with your returns. brian cheung, great to see you. thank you. so the economy will weigh big on voters' minds next year as they decide whether or not to give president biden a second term. mike memoli has more. >> reporter: for president joe biden, 2023 began with democrats wondering will he run. as the calendar churns to 2024, they're now asking, can he win? he started the year with political momentum. >> he and the democrats have defied history. >> reporter: republicans took control of the house, but democrats won key senate and

governors races in the midterm. in april, biden made it official. >> when i ran for president four years ago, i said we were in a battle for the soul of america, and we still are. >> reporter: but the month ahead took a political toll, with republicans seizing on inflation and record border crossings. >> every town is a border town. that's crystal clear to everybody but the white house. >> reporter: the supreme court striking down plans for student debt relief. ukraine's fight against russia stalled, and war erupted between israel and hamas. now the president's approval ratings are at all-time lows. some polls show donald trump ahead in a likely rematch. >> 2024 is our final battle. >> reporter: 2024 presents fresh challenges. two budget deadlines loom that could trigger government

shutdown. house republicans, long focused on hunter biden's business deals, teeing up an impeachment trial. >> i've been a target of the unrelenting trump attack machine shouting "where's hunter"? here's my answer. i am here. >> reporter: as the president's son faces charges on tax and gun charges, donald trump faces charges of mishandling documents. and after ordering a shutdown, relations with beijing remain fragile. biden's early support for israel will continue to test his political coalition at home. >> we have made grave mistakes that have led to the deaths of almost 20,000 people.

>> reporter: there are potential third-party challengers. his pitch relies on a recovering economy and selling accomplishments like the infrastructure law. >> we have a record to run on. we're transforming this country. >> reporter: while framing the election as an existential choice. >> there's an extremist movement that does not share the basic beliefs of our democracy, the maga movement. >> reporter: the president's age putting an even bigger spotlight on vice president kamala harris, who figures to be a big part of the reelection fight. >> so many of our hard-won freedoms are under attack. this is a moment to stand and fight. >> reporter: biden's first run for senate came in 1972. 2024 marks his fourth run for

the oval office after more than five decades of setbacks and comebacks, his last campaign may be his toughest yet. as we cross into the fourth hour of "morning joe," joining us now is chris matthews and eugene daniel. chris, let's start with you at the table. as that package details, president biden heads into the new year with some pretty negative momentum, pretty low poll numbers, real questions in the democratic base about his handling of the war, some good news on the economy. how do you see things? >> i think it's wide open. i think trump could win. he could win in pennsylvania. i could see the rural areas where it's been about 68% in

50-some counties besides pittsburgh and philly. i can see the minority vote sloughing off a bit. the women, of course, in the burbs can decide this thing. biden has to enlarge the youth vote and minority vote. he's got to say to people, here's why you vote and here's why it's important you vote. with the power to vote, you have the power to protect your rights. women can protect their rights. how do you empower yourself? you vote. he's got to connect democracy to voting rights and people's rights as young people,s minorities. you can protect your rights if you vote. he's got to tie that together. he also has to give a state of

the union address, which includes some opportunities. now, i was trying to think about what brings together the college educated young people and the uncollege educated. it's something as simple as housing. people have to get that sense of hope back. i think the word hope is very important, just like it was with barack obama. >> the president is going to start campaigning end of january in south carolina. the democratic base, which those close to the biden reelection team will privately acknowledge they actually feel okay about some swing voters, but they know they have a base problem with young voters, voters of color. what does the biden team plan to

do to bring them back? those folks probably aren't going to vote for donald trump. the fear is they might just stay home. >> in south carolina at my grandmother's house. when you talk to voters here, the things they think about the myself or the, quote, unquote, black agenda, kind of got laid by the wayside. that's not all biden's fault. it's congress's problem. there's a filibuster in the senate. voters don't care about that. what voters haven't heard from president biden and vice president harris just yet is what do the next four years actually look like? what are you going to fight for? what are you going to do to make sure people have stronger voting

rights post 2025? what are you going to do about police reform and things like the court that has stop add lot of the things the president has tried to do the last four years. we have been hearing from democrats a lot. they have been wanting to see the biden folks more and more. it's not breaking through. they want to talk about the things they have done for people to kind of give them a report card on themselves, but the problem is people also want to know what's happening next. at this point, they're still trying to figure out how to sell what they've done. that's been an issue for this white house since day one for them.

>> chris, it goes back to some of the things we've been talking about over the last several weeks on this show. isn't it really a challenge for the biden people to not only sell joe biden, who's a decent guy against a despicable guy in donald trump, isn't the task to tell people to vote about their interest? it's about you. do you want the right to choose? do you want voting rights? do you want student debt loans forgiven? vote for yourself, and therefore, you have to vote for biden. the more they keep it between two personalities, the more you have a turnout for biden.

the more you make it self-interest, people will come out for themselves. >> you're right. i think about black voting in philadelphia where i grew up. we had a very tough mayor and former police commissioner frank rizzo. it was the largest black turnout in history, because people said i've got to vote to protect my kids on the street from the police in some cases. we saw in ohio where mostly women decided here's a chance to protect abortion rights. sometimes the dobbs decision, for example, you think it's going to break it one way or the other way. it broke it a totally different direction. the roe v wade decision was about trimesters. you had more freedom at the beginning of your term and more restrictions at the later term.

they said they were going to open it up to restrictions. now, i think it's much more of a freedom agenda. when people vote for abortion, they're voting for personal freedom. of course, it was civil rights in '64 and voting rights in '65 to lock it in. if you couldn't vote in the south, you weren't calling the shots. one thing we've learned on abortion rights, women and men together can decide on abortion rights, not the supreme court. so pennsylvania may have a more liberal view of the things, but they're going to vote on the issue. i think people who grew up in the counties of philadelphia are going to decide the election. people who didn't go to college have a pretty good rage on their

hands. that's what you really want in an election. rural rage is so angry at the establishment, the coastal elite, people on "saturday night live," those snarling rich kids, those trust funders. they don't worry about us. and the regular guys in the country go, there they are snarling and making fun of us again, and every time they make fun of us they make fun of trump. it's a weird thing. we did it with afghanistan and iraq. we enraged the enemy to the point where they're more fiery than ever and they hate us more than every. armies don't make peace. we think they do. how about the younger staffers at the white house joining the protests outside the white house against the president because they're rooting for the

palestinians? i don't think it's right versus wrong. i think it's very complicated. they're rooting for the young people of the world against the establishment of the world, just like the rural voter in pennsylvania thinks they're voting against the establishment. this is really tricky, this election. >> voters are actually going to start voting fairly soon. the iowa caucus is just three weeks away. the new york times is reporting that close advisors to florida governor ron desantis are sounding the alarm on the campaign, with desantis' longtime pollster saying it's time to, quote, make the patient comfortable. desantis' super pac is backing down. the pac also cancelled its remaining tv ads in iowa and new

hampshire. in addition to money and staffing issues, the times notes a tech issue ridden rollout and millions of attack ads spent against desantis combined to help his campaign crumble. a strategist on mitt romney's campaign said there was a superficial impression that desantis was in the mode of big-state governors who had won and been successful, reagan, bush, romney. but desantis is a very different sort of creature. these were positive, expansive, optimistic figures. desantis is not. i should note as i read that, everyone at this table laughed repeatedly about the misfortunes that have befallen desantis' campaign. desantis presented himself as trump without the baggage. he was one of the few

republicans who did well in november of 2022. he has simply collapsed. barring something completely unforeseen, iowa could be the death knell. >> he was trump without the personality too. so what was he giving the voters that they didn't already get with real coke? people didn't want the knockoff version. the investigation is so crazy to me, reading through it, because they spent more on ron desantis' private air travel than on digital ads. it was just a horribly run campaign. i would not want to be looking to hire jeff rowe these days. >> the early news about him is there's something about his face. this is unfortunate, but his

face seems to crumple together when bad news hits him. he doesn't like bad news about him. he doesn't have the retail ability. we were used to politicians who at least at the local level seemed to start off by making people like him. that's how it starts. you seem to be the kind of person you'd like to have in your carpool, right? this guy doesn't seem like that kind of guy. low taxes is working for him. everyone wants to go to florida and be rich. but he doesn't seem to have the joy of politics. barack obama could make you feel better just by who he was. reagan could do it. tip o'neal said, when reagan has his speech in hand, he's the best there is. it makes you think about nikki haley. she puts on a good show. she comes on the stage. she knows when to strike and

when not to strike, and she creates an image on abortion right where is she says don't attack my pro-life position and i will not attack your pro-choice position. i think she knows how to maybe win in iowa. i think she's going to do well in new hampshire. >> iowa would be a surprise. new hampshire is where haley does have momentum. desantis was betting everything on iowa. he has fallen flat. he has trouble not just bringing joy to politics, he has trouble cracking a smile. nikki haley has really closed the gap in new hampshire. do republicans think that we

might actually get a race at the 11th hour, or is this a haley blip on the way to a trump coronation? >> it's possible. one thing we have to do as people who cover politics is realize this is a very volatile electorate, and they're kind of all over the place. decisions that they make aren't based on the things they used to be made on. i'm excited to let the voters take us on this journey. if she does do well in new hampshire just behind trump or say she wins there, she has

south carolina. she's coming to her home state. trump is feeling very good about south carolina. this is kind of the first person that if they win in new hampshire, south carolina will be where they have a home field advantage. >> maybe. eugene daniels, thank you so much. our best to your grandmother. enjoy your vacation. next, robots have not taken over the world yet, but artificial intelligence's rapid growth has. let's take a look at ai. plus, why apple is now banned from selling its two most recent watch models here in the

united states and what the biden administration had to do with it. en administration had to do with it

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welcome back. virtually no industry is leaving 2023 untouched by the rapid rise of artificial intelligence. nbc news correspondent jacob ward looks back on ai's breakout year. >> artificial intelligence could soon transform hollywood. >> reporter: 2023 was when ai went from nerdy jargon to a daily part of politics, entertainment. >> chatgpt, dude. >> reporter: and schoolwork. >> how many of you used ai in this discussion? >> reporter: it has come at us very fast.

chatgpt has more than 100 million weekly users since its launch last year. beyond chatgpt, the stuff ai did this year is amazing. it caught a glimpse of our thoughts. >> so as long as i have seen it and you know the patterns of my brain, then the ai will read that out of my brain? >> exactly. >> reporter: spotted mental health risks in children. >> an output will say this patient is high risk. >> reporter: it created tons of weird art. as 2024 approaches, ai's ability to trick anyone's eyes could be the end of trust. in just the time it took us to set up our cameras, this professor made me look like i had starred in "dr. strange."

that same tech in our pocketbooks could be dangerous. one ai-generated ad was full of fake images. >> go to slovakia right now where russia is trying to influence elections. >> reporter: still david holtz, founder of mid journey, said the risk of misuse is not worth giving up on ai. >> it's better to trust people. >> reporter: ai investors say companies should more or less regulate themselves. >> there's no one in the government who can get it right, but the industry can roughly get it right and the government can put a regulatory structure around it. >> reporter: that argument has mostly won out. europe and china have both moved forward on broad ai regulations. the u.s. remains the wild west for ai. the technology is moving so fast

with little sign of slowing down. now to new data that indicates tech companies are the big winners this christmas season. let's get the details from steve kovak. >> i look at the app store ranks. that tells me how the upper middle class folks are spending on christmas and downloading apps to go with their accessories. meta quest is going to be the device that's going to compete with the apple vision pro we're expecting to launch maybe as soon as february. it was a hot item here, last year and the year before. it's a big gaming device. speaking of gaming, playstation

and xbox were also big winners in the app store, indicating for the first time since 2020 and the supply chain snarls, that is all clear now and you can just walk into a store and get one. >> also making headlines this morning, a ban on apple watches that take full effect today. why is this happening? >> the biden administration did not give apple what it wanted for christmas. there was a chance over the weekend the u.s. trade representative's office would overturn this import ban on apple watches due to the patent dispute. since these watches are produced

overseas, apple can no longer bring them to the united states and sell them until they figure around a way around that patent dispute with that blood oxygen sensor. starting on sunday, apple can no longer import these. that also means third-party retailers who have them in stock can sell through that inventory, but after that they have to wait until this patent dispute is over. apple tells me they're working on some fixes right now to get around these patent disputes. it's unclear when that's going to happen. could be some time before you can go out and get an apple watch. coming up here on "morning

joe," israel intensifies the fighting in gaza over the weekend. we're going to bring you the very latest. and the three conditions that benjamin netanyahu says need to be met for peace. t benjamin netanyahu says need to be met for peace

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meanwhile, israeli forces are ramping up their attacks in gaza. the idf launched air strikes at two refugee camps in gaza over the weekend, killing dozens of people. it comes amid growing international calls for a ceasefire. prime minister benjamin netanyahu is outlining three conditions he says are absolutely necessary in order to achieve peace, writing in part, hamas must be destroyed, gaza must be demilitarized and palestinian society must be deradicalized. their destruction is the only proportionate response to even the repeat of such horrific atrocities. anything less guarantees more war and more bloodshed. israel must ensure gaza is never

again used as a base to attack it. that will require a temporary security zone on the border of gaza. schools must teach children to cherish l rather than death and imams must preach against the murder of jews. that will likely require courageous and moral leadership. joining us is the former ambassador to the united states from israel. the prime minister's requirements for peace, saying destroy all of hamas is one thing. how can you effectively say that all hamas is wiped out? and how can israelis deradicalize a people that they

feel like they're under siege, civilians included? >> i'm not a spokesman for the prime minister, but i think the points he raised, about 98% of israelis would sign onto that. it's not politically divisive at all here. hamas has said if they survive this, they will rearm and mount another attack. there's really no option than to try to destroy hamas. you see where young palestinians are being taught that the greatest thing they can do in life is to kill jews. that's got to stop. there's an entire generation of palestinians who are capable of

committing the atrocities on october 7th. that has to end. that's not just an israeli interest. it's a palestinian interest and an international interest to change the way these children are being raised. i think people in the world who care will sign onto it as well. >> isn't it bigger than the question of textbooks when it comes to deradicalization? what is going to be the long-term impact of so many civilian casualties because hamas uses civilians as human shields, but also the bombing

all across the country? do you have any response to the "new york times" report that over 200 2,000-pound bombs were deployed on areas in the south where gazans were told to flee for safety? >> i know the reports. i know that every bombing conducted by the israeli air force goes through a very lengthy legal approval process. it's intensely complex, because hamas is using its civilian population as shields. it's more than that. beneath the cities in gaza are these vast matrixes of tunnels that go on for hundreds of miles and hundreds of feet deep. it is nightmarish. nothing is perfect here and every civilian casualty is one

casualty too much. israeli forces are being attacked from every border. yesterday we got a christmas gift from olla one of their rockets destroyed a church in northern israel. we are fighting this multi-front war. >> when october 7th, many of us expressed outrage and continue to. i think most of the world rallied around israel. now, as we move forward, is it not the challenge of netanyahu and israel to show that they are

as concerned about civilians in gaza as the world was concerned about civilians in israel? the view of watching 2,000-pound bombs being dropped and children being killed and no humanitarian aid brought through, doesn't that undermine the moral authority that was there in october 7th, and to see even the families of hostages heckling netanyahu to say do something right now. how do you balance that with your desire to defend israel? >> again, we're going to do our utmost to try to minimize the civilian casualties. the humanitarian corridors -- we've actually opened a crossing into the gaza strip which has been closed because hamas was

shelling it. now it's reopened. the delays are caused by the u.n., not by israel. we have plenty of aid ready to go in. when it goes in, it's being stolen by hamas. all this has been filmed. you can see it. the people of gaza are getting fed up. one in hamas opened fire on a crowd of palestinians in gaza who were complaining about the fact that their aid was being stolen by hamas. the aid is going in. israel is doing its best to try to minimize civilian casualties. we understand the visuals here are very difficult, but we also understand that we really have no choice. 115 hostages in the hands of hamas. an offer was made to hamas for a long ceasefire. they turned it down.

the level of inhumanity is difficult for people who have trouble grappling with evil in the world. it is an immense challenge not just militarily, it's a moral challenge. yesterday i visited some of the villages attacked on october 7th. you saw these wonderful houses where these people lived in peace, and they were burned and decapitated and mutilated in their bed. this is what we're up against. >> you said the u.n. is not processing the aid. could you explain what's happening there when the u.n. is saying that over half of the

gazan population is starving and 90% of gazans don't have a daily meal? >> we have said that the delays are caused by the u.n. itself. the u.n. is hoarding food. it's not distributing food. this has been documented. it's a breakdown of the u.n. machinery there. from our point of view, there should be no shortages there. israel is fully prepared to provide that population with its basic needs. we understand the situation there is extremely arduous for these people. it's either you keep the population in the middle of a combat zone, or we try to move them away. when we move them away, you have to try to provide humanitarian aid. israel is prepared to do this. we strongly feel that the u.n. has let them down.

up next here on "morning joe," we'll take a look at the top crime and punishment stories that dominated the headlines this past year. that includes alex murdoch's case. murdoch's c case

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welcome back to "morning joe." 9:48 a.m. here on the east coast. now to the top law and order stories of this past year, from the alex murdoch trial to the idaho college murderers and two

major cold cases solved. "dateline's" keith morrison. >> disturbing new details coming to light in the alex murdoch murder trial. >> the killing of four university of idaho students. >> rex heuermann is the killer. >> every year, there are crimes that draw our attention. this year was no exception. in january, all eyes turned to a south carolina courtroom for one of the biggest trials in decades. once-powerful attorney alex murdoch stood accused of killing his wife and son. >> alex murdered maggie and paul. >> he didn't do it. >> the case hinged on one key piece of evidence, a cell phone video that proves alex lied about where he was when the murders took place.

alex took the stand and admitted he hadn't told the truth about that night, but he said he was not a killer. >> are you a family annihilator? >> you mean did i shoot my wife and my son? >> yes. >> no. >> do you think putting them on the stand hurt their case? >> yeah. i don't think it helped it. >> it took just three hours for the jury to convict him.case? >> yeah, i don't think it helped it. >> reporter: it took just three hours for the jury to convict him. >> i sentence you for a term of the rest of your natural life. >> reporter: this year also brought us face to face with the man who police say committed acts of unspeakable horrible in idaho. bryan kohberger has been charged with stabbing to death four college students in the middle of the night. >> the maximum penalty for this offense is death and/or

imprisonment for life. do you understand? >> yes. >> reporter: victim kaylee goncalves' broken hearted parents were there in court to watch. >> i feel no mercy should be given to him. >> reporter: police say dna ties kohberger to the murders. as does a car kohberger was seen driving here, captured on security video near the crime scene. >> all rise. >> reporter: the judge has entered a not guilty plea on kohberger's behalf. the victims' families and friends now wait for a jury to decide his fate. >> just hurts. they should still be here, you know. >> we wake up knowing that we have reached justice for natalee. >> reporter: 2023 saw the end of a near 20-year mystery. the disappearance of alabama teen natalee holloway in aruba. a source of so much pain for her mother beth, who spoke to

"dateline" in 2008. >> not knowing is the daily torture. >> reporter: joran van der sloot, long suspected of killing natalee, was extradited to the u.s. this year, charged with trying to extort natalee's family and as part of a plea deal he agreed to confess. >> i'm actually with natalee walking along the beach. >> reporter: van der sloot said when natalee rejected his sexual advances, he hit her in the head with a cinder block, and then -- >> i walk up to about my knees into the ocean and i push her off into the sea. >> it has been a very long and painful journey. but we finally got the answers we have been searching for, for all these years. >> rex, did you do it? >> reporter: another years long saga took a stunning turn this summer when police announced they discovered the identity of a long island serial killer. >> rex heuermann, architect, i'm an architectural consultant. >> reporter: police arrested 59-year-old father of two rex

heuermann, outside his manhattan office. few who knew him could believe it. >> bone chilling. >> if this is true, he's lied to us. >> i mean, he was just a normal guy. >> reporter: in july, heuermann was charged with murdering three women along gilgo beach. and police said he was strongly suspected of killing a fourth. he pleaded not guilty. >> a trial is still a long way off. are you confident rex heuermann will spend the rest of his life behind bars? >> you ask me, i'm sure he'll never see the light of day again. >> that was "dateline's" keith morrison with that report. we'll be right back with more "morning joe." we'll be right ba "morning joe."

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reverend sharpton, what a morning it was. ron desantis' campaign given last rights. spirit airlines sending a 6-year-old to the wrong city and donald trump wishing a merry christmas by telling us to go to hell. >> and you're being very nice about him telling us where to go

to, but i think also we have talked about how joe biden needs to really convince americans to vote their interests. if he does, they win. and i think israel needs to say that we're not going to ignore the humanitarian side of this and keep bombing innocent people. >> and i'm curious how the meeting at the white house is going to go today, because the biden administration has said and they -- antony blinken, president biden himself, that they want more concern with the civilian casualties, yet israel hasn't seemed to really do anything. is the spigot of money still going to flow and the arms if they don't respond? >> and we, of course, will have complete coverage of that. so that does it for us this morning. thanks for watching. yasmin vossoughian picks up the coverage in two minutes. vossou coverage in two minutes. only p. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ cargurus. shop. buy. sell. online. right now on msnbc reports, breaking news as the u.s. strike backs at targets overseas. the president ordering