out, we don't know, that could impact things. >> it's interesting you bring that up. as you mentioned, nikki haley climbing in the polls, wondering how it's going to fair now that she's said what she said. if we see early successes for folks like nikki haley, what could that say for the primaries? >> i think it shows that donald trump is not as strong as he thought he was. we see a candidate like nikki haley performing well, getting the early victories. that shows there's a different part of the republican party, the non-trump part of the republican the party that is stronger than the the trump part. >> julia manchester, thank you. happy holidays to you. thank you for getting up "way too early" with us on this friday morning. "morning joe" starts right now.

good morning. welcome to "morning joe." that's a look at times square. we're a heart of hours the ball the will drop and we'll turn the page to 2024. good morning. joe and mika have the morning off. a lot to get to this morning, including another state remove donald trump from the republican presidential ballot. we will have expert legal and political analysis on that big decision from maine's secretary of state. plus nikki haley's attempt at cleaning up her highly criticized answer on the cause of the civil war. also forces continue to strike refugee camps where it believes hamas terrorists are hiding. this comes as the biden administration is putting more pressure to protect civilians. plus we'll take a look at the stories that dominated 2023 from two wars overseas to chaos on capitol hill, as well as the

former president's many legal battles as he enters the presidential election. a lot to go through. with us for all of us is nbc news national affairs analyst john heilemann, al sharpton, washington bureau chief ssan page, senior clumist matt lewis, and former attorney and msnbc contributor chuck rosenberg. a great group assembled. maine is now the second state to remove former president trump from the 2024 pimary ballot. the secretary of state anoubsed the decision yesterday after receiving three separate challenges to trump's eligibility. the ruling can be appealed and the case would then go before a judge. she stayed her decision until the state superior court rules on a future appeal. shh used the same 14th amendment

argument cited by the colorad supreme court in its decision to remove trump from the ballot. in her opinion, she called out trump's actions leading up to and on january 6th writing, quote, the weight of the evidence makes clear that mr. trump was aware of the tinder laid by his multimonth effort to delegitimize a democratic election, and then cse to light a match. i do not reach this conclusion lightly. dey is is sacred. i am mindful that no secretary of state has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on section three of the 14th amendment. am also mindful, however, no presidential candidate has ever engaged in insurrection, end quote. the trump legal team tried to head off this decision earlier this week by filing a request to have the secretary of state recuse herself. the campaign has promised to file an appeal responding in part, we are witnessing in realtime the attempted theft of an election and the

disenfranchisement of the american voter. trump's superpac issued a statement calling maine's secretary of state a, et quote, anti-trump partisan democrat. so let's start with the looel side of this before we get into the politics of that. chuck, i will turn to you. what do you make of the legal standing of the decision made by the secretary of state in maine? >> it's a ab interesting one. it's like the one in colorado, but it's unlike others that we have seen in michigan and minnesota. this is sort of the example of why you need the supreme court to address the issue and to issue a rule so all 50 states are doing the same thing. whether you love or loathe trump, everyone would agree it's best to have one set of rules. so it maybe the case that colorado is maine have it right, as a matter of law. it maybe the case they have it wrong, as a matter of lu. i thought we ought to leaven

this conversation with a dose of humility. i maybe wrong, but i think colorado and maine have it right. i think the the president did engage in an insurrection. i think the disqualification provision of the 14th amendment applies to the office of president. that's just my opinion. i don't have a vote. there are nine votes that will matter. we need the supreme court to step in and announce the rule for all 50 states because we need clarity here. >> so the counterargument you heard, not just from trump's campaign, put from many people running against him, this is a question for voters to decide. that the former president has not yet been convicted of insurrection. that should be set is theed by the courts and that be the opinion of one secretary of state in the state of maine. what do you say to that? >> his tortically and literally, the 14th amendment does not require a conviction for

insurrection in order to be disqualified. so i think that argument fails. there's another thread through your question. the notion of removing someone from the ballot is antidemocratic. but that provision comes direct ly from the constitution. it's the foundation of our democracy. so i don't know that following the constitution, adhering to the constitution can really ever been -- construed about antidemocratic. the supreme court will will resolve that issue for all of us. there's also an irony here. for a president, who does not accept the outcome of an election, it's hard to say that his voters will agree that if he loses, it was fair and free. so if it's resolved ultimately

by the courts, so be it. it's resolved by the courts in adherence to the constitution. that's anything but antidemocratic. >> let's talk about timing here, which i know a lot of people are thinking about as they look to the calendar. we're a few days away from a new year. that means primaries, the iowa caucus a couple weeks away. as these decisions come down, there obviously is a pressing matter to decide these things, whether the supreme court or the united states supreme court, will will he or will he not be on the ballots that will be pribted very soon. how fast can these cases move through? >> they have to move quickly. we know the supreme court is capable. you go back in history. almost half a century when the supreme court decided the nixon skpas did so in a matter of three weeks. so can the supreme court move quickly? absolutely. do they need to do so here? absolutely.

so i hope they take this case and hear its fast because to your point, ballots are being printed and soon people will be going to the polls. we need a single rule. we can only get that from the united states supreme court. >> so as we saw after that colorado ruling, former president trump's 2024 primary opponents quickly came to his defense following the maine decision yesterday. in a statement to nbc news, nikki haley's campaign said, she feels the same about this rule ing as she did about the colorado one. she would beat trump at the polls, not with the help of the courts. vivek ramaswamy posted a video on social media doubling down on his pledge to remove his name from any state ballot that did not also include trump's. here is how rz ron desantis of florida responded last night in an interview. >> the idea that one bureaucrat in an executive position can simply unilaterally disqualify someone from office, that turns on its head every notion of constitutional due process that

this count has always abided by. it opens up pandora's box. >> so we have heard this from just about everybody in the primary. chris christie said the same after colorado. he said i don't think donald trump should see the white house again, but we should beat him with vote let the voters decide. not have secretary of state or supreme courts one by one deciding this question. where are you on this? did maine make the right call here? >> well, look. here's my take. i'm a simple country pundit. i think it's entirely plausible that donald trump did incite a riot and that this statute would prevent him disqualifying him from running. i i just don't think it's patently obvious. i think it's debatable. the verbiage is vague enough you could argue it either way. i think people in good faith are

arguing it either way. so i think it's going to go to the supreme court. and is i think a tie goes to the runner, the person running for president. i just can't imagine the supreme court keeping the guy who is now poised to be the republican nominee off of ballots. i could be wrong. >> so in a way, it becomes political. so nikki haley, ron desantis, i would love to go back and see what a race would look like if they had actually attacked donald trump and run against him the whole time. at this point, i think that they are probably saying the politically astute thing. let's beat him at the ballot box. if i by some stroke of luck the supreme court agrees with maine and colorado, then i'm sure they had will quietly celebrate that. >> john heilemann, talking to

people around the trump campaign, they think two things. number one, the supreme court will rule in favor and say we're not going to be the people to take a leading candidate off the ballot and make that decision instead of the voters. they also believe at least in a primary and with his base this only helps further his argument that everyone is out to get him. the deep state and secretaries state and supreme courts and people in washington don't want to be president again. at least that's the argument from truch. >> it's a good argument from a political standpoint, so long as the united states supreme court, which trump and husband team boast about having them as one of the legacies of his first term, the trump court, we talk about it all the time. many people pointed to many ironies, but the other great irony if the supreme court take this is case, i am someone is

sitting here watching these guys on the supreme court. but it seems hard to imagine they are not going to take this case. if the court does follow originalism, does follow text yulism, the principles that have driven on the court, there's a perfectly plausible case that this court will side with the colorado court. if it does, the great irony will be that a court that liberals think of as being partisan and compromised by ideology f that court rules against donald trump, what will the trump campaign say then? this is a court that donald trump stands up every i day out there. one of the main things he has going for him is this supreme court, i got these three justices on here. this is my court now. it's now a conservative court. it's a maga court. if they were to decide that the colorado and maine secretaries of state have it right, the

constitution bars him from being on the ballot, it's a huge problem and one that is very difficult to rebut politically given the nature of the court. >> if that were to happen. >> we're spec lating this morning. so please, indulging. >> i'm not a country pundit. i'm just preacher from brooklyn. but let me speculate with you. if they were to do that, i would clearly think the trump people would have a hard time responding. but knowing donald trump, he will come up with something ludicrous in response. i think the real issue that we're facing here is that if donald trump does not qualify, whether it's litigated all the way or not, to have incited an insurrection and on top of that, has made it clear no matter what the results are of this election, even if he's in it, he will not accept it. what is the supreme court ever

going to set the bar of who is qualified to run or not? you dot only have a person that has in clear day inspired an insurrection and participated, he's saying i don't care what happens in november. i'm not going to accept the outcome unless i'm the winner. no one could be more qualified in my judgment to be put off the ballot to protect the electoral process in this country. that's what the supreme court has to look at. when what precedent are they setting. >> susan, i would add that the state of california sort of quietly yesterday kept donald trump on the ballot. the secretary of state was under pressure from the lieutenant governor to remove donald trump. california's secretary of state saying this is not a question for me to resolve. this is something for the courts. so it is fascinating that this now because of colorado, because of the success from the point of view of democrats there, of getting donald trump off the ballot, it is now opened this up across the country state by

state and why many view it as so critical for the supreme court to act quickly to have a national standard here. >> the legal questions are surely accomplice ut indicated. i'll leave that to our lawyer. the political issues are not so complicated. i think two people greatly benefitted from maine's decision. one is nikki haley because we're not talking about what caused the civil war as the first item this morning. and the second is donald trump. this is clearly to his political advantage. it forces his rivals two weeks before the iowa caucuses start the primary process to come his defense. it gives him another talking point with his general argument that the establishment is against him. but chuck, since you're the lawyer in this panel, let me ask you a question about the political effect on the supreme

court. the court will decide based on the law and the constitution, but it's not like they live on mars. they are ware of aware of the implication. how big a role is that likely to play in their consideration of this issue of ballot access? >> it's a great question. you're right. they don't live on mars. if if you read some of their opinions, sometimes it seems that way. but here, they would very directly, if they sustain what the colorado supreme court did, be in some ways deciding a presidential election, that happened in 2000 when the supreme court halted the recount in florida and bush won the presidency over mr. gore. the fallout from that politically, as you well know, was tremendous. whatever side you were on, it was clear that the supreme court took an action, made a decision that determined the outcome of an election. that could very well happen here again. i think, and maybe this is the perfect world in which we do not live in, that the supreme court

has to put the politics aside. there is a constitution. it has a text. there is an amendment. there's a section 3 to that haemt. it's the disqualification provision. it either applies or doesn't apply. that's what they get paid to do. to render hard legal judgments. so a at the end of the day, they are going to make a determination. i have an opinion, but it doesn't matter. it's happened before. it was tumultuous. it could happen again. >> chuck, i think one of the things the next question a lot of people are asking is whoo would this mean for the general election? we're talking about the primary. is there a chance that donald trump could miss the general election ballot?

>> it's a great question. it depends on how broadly the supreme court rules. they might not give guidance to the other states about whether or not the 14th amendment applies. and or they rule broadly that the provision requires an act of congress. it really turns on how broadly or how narrowly the supreme court rules. to your point, right now we're talking about access to the primary ballot. some states have already said the former president trump can appear on a primary ballot, but whether or not he can appear on the general election ballot is a separate question for another day. frankly, we need all these questions answered by the supreme court. we dmeed them answered quickly. and we need them answered at one

time. so again, that's what they get paid to do. >> as the historic decision coming from the supreme court, which could change the way this election goes, could change history. even as with get more evidence by the day of the ways in which donald trump and hisment campaign sought to overturn the 2020 election. chuck rosenberg, indeed, the sole lawyer, we're grateful for you this morning and always. appreciate it. coming up next, nikki haley is trying to clarify her comments after omitting slavery from her explanation of the civil war. we'll show you that and how her 2024 presidential rivals are responding. and matt lewis will explain why he says nikki haley's slavery gaffe shows how scared she is of maga republicans. we're back in a minute. she is os we're back in a minute so now, do you have a driver's license? oh. what did you get us? [ chuckling ]

with the click of a pen, you can a new volkswagen at the sign, then drive event. sign today and you're off in a new volkswagen during the sign, then drive event. presidential candidate nikki haley spent the day yesterday trying to clarify comments she

made after facing backlash for not including slavery as a driving force behind the civil war. here's the exchange she had with a voter in new hampshire back on wednesday. >> what was the cause of the united states civil war? >> well, don't come with an easy question or anything. i think the cause of the civil war was basically how government was going to run. the freedoms and what people could and couldn't do. what do you think the cause of the civil war was? >> i'm sorry? >> i'm not running for president. >> that's a good thing. >> i think it always comes down to the role of government. and what the rights of the people are. and i will always standby the fact that i think government was sbepded to secure the rights and

freedoms of the people. it was never meant to be all things to all people. government doesn't need to tell you how to live your life. they don't tell you what you can and can't do. they don't need to be a part of your life. they need to make sure you have freedom. we need to have capitalism. we need to have economic freedom. we need to make sure we do all things so the individuals have the liberties so they can have freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to be anything they want to be without government getting in the way. >> thank you. in the year 2023, it's astonishing to me you answered that question without mention ing the word slavery. >> what do you want me to i say about slavery? >> you answered my question. thank you. >> next question. >> what do you want me to say about slavery? >> so yesterday nikki haley spent a lot of time trying to clarify what she said. >> yes, i know it was about slavery. i'm from the south. of course, you know it's about slavery. >> of course, the civil war was about slavery.

we know that. that's unquestioned, always the case, we know the civil war was about slavery. but it was also more than that. it was about the freedoms of every individual. >> if it required clarification of saying, yes, the civil war was about slavery. i'm happy to do that. >> two of her rivals ron desantis and former governor chris christie had some thoughts on this yesterday. >> i noticed that nikki haley has had some problems with some basic american history. she was asked a simple question and responded with just a really incomprehensible word salad about this and that and she asked the voter, what do you want her to say about this or that. and now is taking different positions. i just think this shows this is not a candidate that's ready for prime time. >> if someone asked me what the

cause of the civil war was, it's easy. it's slavery. by the way, you don't have to take my word for that. when south carolina passed its resolution to secede from the union, the first reason they gave was the other states' resistance to allowing slavery to spread to the western territories. so even if you're from the south, so you know these things, you should also know why your own home state seceded from the union.

>> so nikki haley spent the entire day yesterday trying to deal with her comment a couple days ago in new hampshire. what we didn't hear the at the beginning of the day yesterday she said it was a democratic plant that somebody from biden campaign or somewhere had pushed a plant into the audience to ask that question. that's a town hall. you're asked questions from all kinds of people. let's stipulate that shouldn't be a real hard one to answer. there was something about the way she asked almost mockingly, what do you want me to say about slavery. maybe that was an abomination on our history. there's a lot of easy answers to that question. what does it say about nikki haley? but also about the republican party today that she felt compelled to sort of pull back, thinking about who she might offend if it she criticized slavery, for god's sakes. >> if there was someone there that helped the democrats, it was nikki haley. it wasn't whoever was in the audience. because if you look at her answer, she talked to two things

that was most trump. she said freedom to do what they want to do. in the days of the civil war, that's what they were arguing. we have the freedom to maintain our slaves, they are our property. what do you mean freedom to do what they want to do. the civil war was to say you're not free to own other people and to enslave people. and secondly, when she said what do you want me to say about slavery, even then she is playing to a crowd that she either is with that crowd or afraid of that crowd. either one, it makes her unfit to be president because she's saying, i'll ask you what you want me to say about slavery. i'm not going to take affirmative saying i should have said slaveries was the center. so when given the opportunity to correct herself, she threw it back to the questioner because she's either, again, afraid of the maga crowd or that's her

feeling. we had to march many times on her to take the confederate flag down. she didn't do that until nine people were miss kered in a church. but john, you and i spent time in south carolina. and the whole at months fear in the last couple weeks around this campaign has evaded the fact that there's been a war and affirmative action. now this has brought race right back central in the campaign for the republican nomination. i find it ironic, ron desantis, who is banning black history in florida, is raising the question about nikki haley and her not answering a simple question. do you think this politically helps or hurt any of the republican candidates if the race becomes an issue kom going into this weekend? >> so much to say here.

and one thing to say is most amusing to watch ron desantis standing in the dark stammering and stuttering and saying that nikki haley is not ready for prime time. he is not ready or even lit for prime time. i think the one thing to disspens with, it does not matter who was in the audience. attacking the voters of the questioner irrelevant. it's an easy question and she should have been able to say it quickly. it would have caused her no damage wean the maga right for her to say, of course, the slavery was the cause of the civil war. next question. no one paid attention to it. it speaks to something that chris christie has been saying most forcefully on the campaign trail. i'm not saying this to puff christie out, but he's been pointing out that nikki haley has been very timid in the way she's gone after donald trump. she's the hot republican rival

to trump right now. the one person who has a chance to maybe beat ron desantis in new hampshire and be a viable alternative to him. but this shows something that has come up again and again with nikki haley is that she is timid politically. she has had a hard time navigating this position. is she -- how does she keep enough of the maga party on her side. she doesn't want offend them. she was worried about that here. even when she was wrong. she could have said that quickly. this is the core weakness of nikki haley. she is on paper, and in a lot of this perspective polling, the strongest candidate against joe biden. but she doesn't ever exhibit throughout her whole career she's exhibited a lot of talent, a lot of promise, a lot in the republican party, but she's exhibited in key moments a kind of lack of political guts that

you could trace through her biography. the way she started out, how she became a trump fan and then a critic. that's what's got her in trouble her. she doesn't know where she stands in the republican party. what say you? >> i think that's exactly right. a lot of us kind of never trump conservatives are skeptical of nikki haley because she has waivered over important moral questions, including donald trump. but i would say once the debates began, the very first republican primary debate, nikki haley came out swinging against donald trump, attacked him for raise ing the debt. i think at that point, i thought, wow, okay, nikki haley finally maybe has figured out what her brand is, who she is, what her message is going to be, and more importantly, who her

constituents are. she has done a pretty good job in the context of the kal pain of actually being that person. if you think about what nikki haley needs to do, we're now two weeks away from the iowa caucuses. three weeks away from new hampshire. nikki haley doesn't need to be worried -- by the way, i think this is the fundamental mistake that nikki haley and ron desantis both have made. they think they can win maga voters. they can't. if you love donald trump, you are not going to vote for somebody else. certainly, not nikki haley. so she shouldn't even be worried about appeasing someone who wants to relitigate the civil war. those are not nikki haley voters. nikki haley was in new hampshire running to try to win new hampshire, not alabama, not mississippi, new hampshire. her core constituency are not trump voters.

she needs to win independents in new hampshire and non-trump center right voters in new hampshire. that should be her top priority. and what does she need to do for that to happen? she needs to get chris christie to drop out of the race. i think it is much less likely today that chris christie will drop out of the race than it was two or three days ago. so i think this was a big deal. again, with the caveat that news cycles move quickly. as john was saying, this reenforces a negative stereotype about nikki haley not being ready for prime time. and it speaks not just to her bad political strategy. it speaks a little bit to character as well. >> susan, we heard from chris christie that nikki haley looks like somebody who wants to be secretary of state or whatever the job is in a trump administration.

tiptoeing very lightly around donald trump, when she's trying to defeat him. but what kind of a statement do you think that moment was about the republican party today that someone who knows better, who knows why the civil war was waged over slavery, had to stop and pull back from saying that out loud. >> candidates make gaffs. we all make gaffes. and the reason that they matter or don't matter is they go to something more fundamental about your contact or questions about where you stand or who you are. i do think that is the big problem here for nikki haley. her brand has been negotiating, threading the needle on criticism of trump and handling the issue of abortion. but as was with abortion, race is an issue that really has threatened the republican party.

because in 2023-2024, not being able to say slavery caused the civil war is a pretty fundamental question on which there's not really much room to maneuver. so i do think this is bad for nikki haley. and as you say, it spotlights one of the issues that is going to be most perilous for the republican party. maybe not so much in the primary, but in a general election for sure. >> so matt lewis, before we let you go this morning, this is the last show of the year. let's look ahead to 2024. give us from your point of view the snapshot of this race. obviously, donald trump is up 30 points, depending on the poll and the state you look at. nikki haley has closed some ground in the state of new hampshire. is there any reason to believe anyone other than donald trump will be the nominee? >> no, you have to really squint

and imagine. and i have said the only way that you can even conceive barring donald trump being kicked off ballots, and that could happen. that's not an implausible idea, but assuming the race goes forward with the the candidates that we have, the only sort of conceivable way that donald trump isn't the nominee is if someone else wins iowa, nikki haley wins new hampshire, she's able the to parlay the new hampshire victory into south carolina. and all the stars would have to align. it was always going to be highly unlikely, but within the realm of possibility. i think this gaffe, there's a danger being a country pun dit of overplaying any one news story, but i do think this one is very damaging because it comes at just the moment when nikki haley needed to be

consolidating support, galvanizing independents and non-trump republicans behind her, and getting chris christie to drop out of the race. i think that's now a little less likely. and so are you saying there's a chance, yeah, there's a chance. but there's less a chance today than there was a few days a ago. >> the good news is just over two weeks from now, the voters get to have their voice of speculation. we'll learn more about where this race is. thank you so much. happy new year to you. coming up, we're looking at the stories that defined 2023. straight ahead on "morning joe." . straight ahead on "morning joe."

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it has been almost a year

since kevin mccarthy waited 15 long voit voets to land his dream job as speaker of the house. mccarthy is out of congress altogether. symbolic of a wild year in news. joe fryer has a recap. >> how do you define a year like 2023? was it the year of the strike? or year of the swift. did it offer a glimpse of the future with the rapid rise of artificial intelligence and the weight loss drug ozempic, or a blast from the past? >> hi, barbie. >> with the classic doll. s was it the year a speaker was muted or a political prelude to 2024. the campaign trail lined with pit stops and a courtroom. 2023 can be defined in so many ways. to much of the world, it was a year headlined by war in the

middle east. >> major breaking news tonight. war erupts in the middle east. the stunning surprise attack by palestinian militants. >> it started on october 7th, the day many call israel's 9/11. a surprise attack hamas mill tnts stormed into israeli towns and military bases. >> they were just all around me. they were going shooting. >> israel's foreign ministry says about 1,200 people were killed, more than 200 taken hostage, including young children. >> it's something that no parent can ever imagine to see a child in the hands of terrorists. >> israel's response was swift and relentless, but with thousands of palestinianss killed and a humanitarian crisis facing mounting criticism. those tensions seen on american streets and college campuses

with reports of both anti-semitism and islamophobia spiking across the country. is the middle east war raged on, the one between ukraine and russia trudged on. ukraine's long-awaited counteroffensive stalling and american support waning as one of issues high liepgting americans' stark divisions. in january it took 15 ballots -- >> a speaker has not been elected. >> has not been elected. >> has not been elected. >> to elect kevin mccarthy as speaker, a position he held just nine months before he was ousted. >> i fought for what i believe in. i believe in this country of america. >> like a reality tv show, new contenders came and went. before mike johnson got the gavel. >> the house will be in order. >> an election followed by an expulsion.

scandal plagued george santos became the only third congressman to be ejected from the chamber. but no controversy it seemed could shake the gop support for former president trump, who made history too. >> it was a legal spectacle never seen before in america. the former president being fingerprinted and schargeed with 34 felonies. >> trump's appearance in a new york courtroom created a media circus that was repeated with indictments in florida, then washington, then georgia, where he modelled for this shot. >> we did nothing wrong. >> he's pleaded not guilty to all charges while preserving a vast lead for his party's presidential nomination, skipping debates. >> donald trump is a lot different guy than he was in 2016. he owe it is to you to be on this stage. >> leaving the rest of the field to squabble for second. >> do you want a leader from a different generation who is

going to put this country first, or do you want dick cheney in 3-inch heels. >> they are 5-inch heels, and i don't wear them unless you can run in them. >> president biden announced his reelection bid in april. >> are you saying that you would be taking part in our upcoming election? >> i plan on running, al. >> inflation dropped in 2023, so did the the president's approval rating hitting an all-time low. now voters are bracing for a potential 2020 rematch that's leaving many disenchanted. a wave of labor discontent swept the country in 2023 pushing unions to the picket line. the ua, went on strike against detroit's big three, eventually winning record pay hikes. hollywood was shut down with

writers striking, and then actors before reaching deals with studios. this is the best day ever. >>s it is the best day ever. >> the box office got a boost from an unlikely couple. barbie and oppenheimer. both movies opened at the same time inspiring a cultural phenomenon. now the films are hoping to follow in the footsteps of this it year's big oscar winner "everything, everywhere, all at once." it won best picture and michelle yo became the first asian woman to win best actress. there were firsts that were far less desirable in 2023. the united nations declared in late november this was virtually certain to be the planet's warmest year on record. the year with the most

billion-dollar disasters in u.s. history. including hurricane a dal ya. >> we just lost power here. >> a fire storm ravaged maui. >> local people have lost everything. they lost their house, they lost their animals, and it's devastating. >> it was the deadliest u.s. wildfire in more than a century with more than 100 people killed. gun volence plagued the country again with cities like lewiston, maine, joining the long list of communities linked to mass shootings. >> bhie would he do this? >> 18 people were killed there, six were gunned down in a private elementary school in nashville, three of them children. >> how are our children still dieing and why are we failing them? >> tragedy reached the depths of the ocean. >> let's get to the story the world is watching. the search for a missing submarine. >> titan vanished while on a sightseeing tour of the titanic.

a desperate search hoping the people on board could be rescued, but crews determined an implosion killed everyone on the ul-fated voyage. in the sky, the u.s. military shot down a chinese spy balloon flying over american air space heightening tensions between the two countries. >> the crisis at the border widened in 2023 with places like new york and chicago running out of room to house migrants who were bussed to their cities. in january protesters took to the streets following the death of tyre nichols. the 29-year-old black man was kicked and punched during a traffic stop in memphis, dying three days later. five police officers were fired and charged with state and federal crimes, one has since pleaded guilty. the others, not guilty. in the courts, the supreme court handed down an historic

decision in june gutting affirmative action ending those college admissions. perhaps no court case generated more attention in 2023 than the trial of alex murdoch. the disgraced attorney from south carolina, accused of killing his wife and son, took the stand in his own defense. >> did you take this gun or any gun like it, blow your son's brains out? >> no, i did not. >> jury deliberating only three hours before finding him guilty. king charles iii was official liquor nated in may. prince harry was there for the event. his wife was notably not. in year where the roifl rift spared no one. harry's memory, south park

parody. for many the year 2023 was the one we lost a friend. >> hi, it's chandler. >> matthew perry died in october at the age of 54. the music world said good-bye to an icon tina turner. and mayor of margaritaville jimmy buffett. tributes poured in for trail blazing women in politics, senator feinstein, sandra day o'connor and rosalynn carter. ♪♪ it was a huge year for women in entertainment. stadiums were ruled by queen b, beyonce, who won a grammy. and by taylor swift who became a billionaire and "time" person of

the year. showed up at chiefs games to support travis kelce, her new bow. simone biles vaulted to her sixth world title. a komback on the mat matched by one on the field. buffalo bills safety damar hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest and medics restarted his heart. >> this event was life changing. but it's not the end of my story. >> hamlin didn't just recover. he returned to the game he loves, a symbol of resilience and strength, that just might be the best way to define 2023. >> joe fryer with a look back at a very busy 12 months. ahead, we'll be joined for a look at the big courtroom battles from those murdoch murders. "morning joe" is coming right back. murders. "morning joe" is coming right back

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there's amari cooper. moore is out. goodwin comes in. the wide out to look for and flacco, almost sacked. throws on the run, caught inside the 30. still on his fooet. he gets there. >> al michaels on the call as cleveland browns quarterback joe flacco showing some escapability to get the pass off. he broke three tackles. a touchdown reception for the browns. that was his second touchdown pass. his third of night. they clinched their second playoff berth since 2002 with a win over the new york jets. joe flacco is going to be 39

years old. stepping in as the backup doing an incredible job. cleveland is in the playoffs. good for those fans there. >> an historic loss for the pistons. a blown lead. the pistons were up 21 points on the road in boston. the team had the best record in the nba. the celtics rallied are from 6 town in the final minutes. they force overtime. boston recovered in o.t. to win 128-122. sending detroit to their 28th consecutive loss. now tied for the longest losing streak in league history. and another big prize in college football. we're starting to enjoy these. we showed you the mayon yesterday. last night pop tarts,s kansas state beat north carolina state in last night's pop tarts boll bowl. you guessed it. if you win this thing, you get a giant edible version of the

breakfast favorite. that was proceeded by the pop tart mascot jumping down into a giant toaster and coming out the other end right there for the team to enjoy. congratulations to k-state. next, we'll be joined by democratic strategist who says president biden's 2024 chances are much stronger than people realize. he will make that case, when "morning joe" comes right back. n "morning joe" comes right back ( ♪♪ ) growing up, hughes and cowboys were one and the same. my daddy's a cowboy. i'm a cowboy and i'm raising a cowgirl. and discovering that my family come from farmers, for generations.

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welcome back to swroe joe. what a beautiful live picture of the united states capitol. great to have you with us on this final "morning joe" of 2023. a lot to get to this hour with john hale heilemann, al sharpton. maine is now the second state to remove former president trump from the 2024 primary ballot. secretary of state announced the decision yesterday after receiving three separate

challenges to of the eligibility. voters first filed complaints to the secretary of state, not to the courts, like they do in many other states. they used the me argument by the colorado supreme court in its decision to remove trump from the ballot. in her 34ag opinion,y called out trump's actions leading up to and on the day of january 6th, writing, the weight of the evidence makes clear trump was aware of the tinder laid by his effort to delegitimize a democratic election, ahen chose to i do not reach this concl lightly. democracy is sacr. i'm minful no secretary of state has deprived a presidential candidate of ballot accessed based on the 14th amendment. i am also mindful no presidentialandidate has ever before engaged in insurrection. trump legal team has promised to file an appeal. meanwhile, as a number of polls have shown donald trump locked

in a tight race with president biden in a potential 2020 rematch, our next guest argues biden's 2024 chances are much stronger than people realize. that's coming from democratic strategist simon rosenberg. simon join us now. it's great to have you on. there's a lot of debate among democrats about the possibility of donald trump returning to the white house. they worry about the strength of joe biden as a candidate this time around. i would point out you were one of the few people around the 2022 midterm elections who said very clearly in the days and weeks leading up, there's not going to be a red wave. don't listen to the commentate tear. you were locking at the way people were voting on abortion referendums across the country. so what are you seeing in 2024 that tell joe biden is a lot stronger than people are giving him credit for? >> i think the case is simple. joe biden has been a good

president. the country is better off. the democratic party is strong and winning elections all over the country. and the republicans have trump. and trump, i think, will be the most disgraced, degraded and dangerous presidential candidate in our history. when i look at that in every way possible, i would much rather be us than them. >> so you point back to covid, which i thought was fascinating. we talk about things like the economy and abortion and immigration, all these front and center issues. why do you think covid will be important here? >> i think the central promise of biden in 2020 was this he was going to get us through covid and get us to the other side successfully. that's really what the election was litigated on. you look back at polling and look at the election in 2020, i think on that central promise, joe biden has been successful. he did what he said he was going to do. our economic recovery here in the united states is stronger than any other g-7 country in the world.

we have the best job market in almost 60 years. inflation prices are now falling. by every objective measure, we're doing really well as a country. we should be proud of that. we together as a nation have gone through a difficult period in our history. we are on the other side of it now. i think joe biden is going to be able to argue that you gave me one big job to do. i did it. we have come out the other side. we're much stronger for it. so i feel like we have a very strong case for reelection. i think joe biden has been a good president. i don't know how you sell donald trump and dress him up to be a credible and serious candidate for president, given all he's done, all he's said and all the things he said he's going to do. so i feel good, as i did in 2022, i feel good about where we have. we have a lot of work to do. this is not a slam dunk in any way. we should win the election next year. i'm optimistic about our chances. >> and then there's the question of abortion, which has been such an important factor in elections since the dobbs decision a year

and a half ago. not by in democratic states and red states, you look at that referendum in ohio, what happened in nebraska, the virginia state house, and on and on and on. how important do you think abortion will be in determining who the next president is? >> it's going to be very significant. it's one of the most important issues in the country. and we did really well in 2018 and 2020. since dobbs in the spring of 2022, when we were supposed to be performing poorly as parties in power in the off year elections, in the midterm election, usually fade and the other party gains, the exact opposite has happened. we actually had a great 2022 election. we improved our standing in most of the battle ground states in the country. that strong performance has carried over through 202337 we had a blue wave in 2023. we won elections all over the country. and so since dobbs has happened, the democratic party has been winning where we weren't supposed to win.

we have been raising tons of money. we have the most powerful and intense grass roots operations we have ever seen. people are rising up. it's why i think we're going to have a heightened democratic performance will carry over to 2024. >> as we have shown many times on this show, donald trump on tape again and again taking credit for the dobbs decision because he put those three justices on the supreme court. let me ask you about a question that steve kornacki showed us yesterday. democrats' minds, and that's the age of the sitting president of the united states. it maybe uncomfortable to talk about. it may not be something that the biden campaign wants to focus on, but it's there. how sgnificant will that be? >> it's an issue. we can't run away from it. it's part of what joe biden is going to be talking about. it's we have to recognize age is not just a liability. it comes experience and wisdom and capability.

it's possible in a time of supply chain challenges, the war in ukraine, having the most experienced president to ever enter the oval office was a blessing for this country rather than a problem. we are in a choppy time. wouldn't you rather have the guy that's been there for 50 years who isn't learning on the job. he's the most experienced guy we have. at the end of the day, we have to sell his age not just as a liability, but also as an asset. i think joe biden has been a successful president buzz of his age and his experience, not in spite of it. we shouldn't run away from it as democrats. we have to lean into it. >> a new piece is up titled "biden's 2024 chances are much stronger than a guy realizes." simon, thanks so much. happy new year to you. >> thank you. so rev, you heard the case there that simon made.

what do you make of it? is joe biden stronger than people are giving him credit for? >> i would think that simon is right. we are not factoring in that at the end of the day when people start tuning in, they are going to vote what their interests are and who they think will be the one that can really provide for what they are concerned about. and i also think when we're faced with what's going on in the world from ukraine to israel and hamas to what is going on in the country, you do find that a lot of people, and i talk to people every day on my radio show, they are concerned and what somebody that has a track record to deal with these calamities, rather than somebody that did you want.

so they can use joe biden's age and the fact that he has a long standing track record to his advantage rather than his detriment. >> we were talking off camera before about there are things that it's impossible to predict. there's so many things that are still unknown about what's going to happen next year. there's things that simon mentioned that could be a benefit. if it's right that the fed has stopped raising interest rates. we could see a downturn in interest rates, starting to see rate cuts rather than hikes, bring people who are looking to buy new houses, making mortgages more affordable. those two factors go down over the course of the next year, that will take away a lot of the economic anger and anxiety that gets pointed at biden fairly or unfairly. the thing about this, it's a thing that rev and i have talked

about a lot. we have talked about it on this show a lot. if i'm joe biden, i'm much more worried about the issue of age because donald trump is not a spring chicken either. i'm worried about one thing in the white house. i'm worried about the fact that i have seen this precipitous decline in non-white voter support over the course of the last three years. i need african-american turnout. i need a big chunk of hispanic voters. i need a big chunk of young voters. for a variety of reasons, those demographic cohorts are making it really clear that they are not in love with and don't like joe biden. am i i right to be worried about those things? and what would you think the white house needs to do about it over the course of the next year? what can joe biden do to get key demographics back in his corner? >> the situation in the white house worries about is exact

what you mentioned. problems with energy and enthusiasm. not so much that younger voters or african-american voters are negative nestly going to vote for donald trump, assuming he's the republican nominee, but they wouldn't bother the vote at all. you don't want to pay too much attention to polls 10 or 11 months before an election, but you also don't want to misdis miss the message from polls. the white house believe that they have a strong record to aspouse. so why is donald trump running ahead of joe biden in some of the key swing states that we think will decide this election? that goes to your final question. what does the white house need to do a about it to make their case to voters? and that is task number one for team biden as they head into the

new year. >> and then there's donald trump's legal trouble. there's some new polling that shows that if he is convicted, this is a battleground state poll, this it hurts him. joe biden enjoys a 10-point margin in battleground states in this poll if trump is convicted and still the nominee. a lot of people say they will walk away from him. coming up, a big year in legal news from those murdoch murders to ed sheeran's copyright lawsuit. legal analyst danny zit va louse takes a look at those cases. stephanie gosk will join us live from times square as new york and cities across the country prepare for new year's eve celebrations. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. watching"m" we'll be right back.

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i did not kill maggie.

i did not kill paul. i would never hurt maggie. i would never hurt paul. ever. under any circumstances. >> i feel very sorry for him. it seems like he's had a very difficult life, but i did not cause the accident, so i cannot be at fault for anything that subsequently hpd to him. >> i'm obviously happy with the outcome of the case. it looks like i'm not having to retire from my day job after all. at the same time, i'm unbelievably -- >> from the murdoch murders to the trials of celebrities like ed sheeran, 2023 has been a big year in the law. joining us now is legal analyst danny zit va louse. let's talk about what happened this year.

let's talk about the murdoch case. >> with high profile cases like the murdoch case, we take away we know about crime and murder cases and throw them out the window. if you back off the high profile nature of this case, this was a pretty straight forward powerful circumstantial murder case. that in any courthouse would tell yous was a slam dunk for the prosecution. yet, we were riveted by this case because of all the issues of privilege and of family that had dominated a small area of the south, and that's what made this case just so, so fascinating. and all the other financial crimes related to it and it gave a black eye to the legal profession. attorneys like me who clients place their trust in whenever an attorney like this just flat out steals from his clients.

and of course, kills his family. >> two consecutive life sentences for the murders of his wife and son. a much lighter trial, gwyneth pal tre, remind our viewers about what this was about. >> 2023 was a mixed bag for celebrity civil trials. gwyneth paltrow teaches us if you come to trial f you don't back down from a plaintiff suing you that doesn't have a case, if you decide i'm not settling, i'm going to trial, if you dress business like, conduct yourself in a professional manner, you as a celebrity can win at trial. that's the message from the gwyneth paltrow case. then you have the johnny depp civil case, which apparently teaches us that you can go that route or you can dress for court like a pirate and speak in an unrecognizable accent and be

just generally lairhouse during the trial and you can win your civil trial too. what the johnny depp case, maybe even like donald trump, he has been famous for literally decades. four decades of johnny depp in our lives. so maybe at that level, maybe you just can't get a jury to i guess norse the fact that, oh my gosh, that's johnny depp sitting ten feet away. i have to vote in favor of him. but 2023s was a mixed bag for celebrity civil trials. >> johnny depp got the million dollars. gwyneth got $1, a symbolic victory there. let's talk about this ed sheeran case. we heard him talking there. it fascinated not just lawyers, but music fans buzz it was such a fundamental question about music. ed sheeran vs. the estate of

march gay. >> i love these cases when there's a copyright case where one artist says your song is too much like my song. i think the take away is that you can hire music experts who can talk about the highly technical music stuff, but it really comes down to ask a jury of just regular folks whether or not these two songs are alike. and try this out. play these two songs for members of your family. the marvin gaye song and sheeran song and you'll get completely different answers. i love these cases since the famous george harrison vs. the "he's so fine." those cases are great. you can play all of them, whether it's led zeppelin, all the cases throughout the years. you'll get completely different answers from very reasonable people which proves one fact. that music really exists in the eye of the beholder. >> danny, what about clearly the

trials that had the most political impact is the trials of donald trump. how do you see this happening? as the trials unfold in terms of what you think of the weaker cases or stronger cases, and the calendar, how it helps, i frankly feel if he went and had one trial before the election and got acquitted, it would help him. and maybe to the the democrats favor that he doesn't go to trial. but how do you see the calendar and how do you see win and a loss in any of the four cases falling for from 2024. >> 2024 will be the year of trump trials. but i say that with a footnote. i have been pretty consistent in that some of these trials at least, i don't think are going forward until 2025. i don't think the fulton county, atlanta case is going to have its first witness heard until

2025. jury selection will take months and months and months. and trump's team is doing a pretty good job of delaying the d.c. federal criminal case. so 2024 will really be about pretrial for donald trump and maybe 2025 will be the actual year of the trials. but you're right, we were talking about this. it might be a best case set area owe for donald trump for the weakest to go to trial in 2024 before the election. and that, for me, of the four, is unquestionably the new york criminal case. not the civil case. we haven't been talking much about the criminal case in which alleged to have falsified business records. that is not a strong case. don't take my word for it. a former member of the team who has been here on our air wrote an entire book describing how this case was called the zombie case. it was resurrected, died, and reanimated. so a case like that, that even

the prosecutors on the team are not sure about, that doesn't seem to me the beyond a reasonable doubt standard. so i think you're right. if donald trump can get one case to go forward in 2024, it would be best for him to go to trial in new york in the criminal case and beat it. which i think he has a good chance of doing so f it ever gets to trial. >> so danny, the federal case around the 2020 election that was scheduled for early march with all these questions around the trump legal team trying to pump the brakes on the pace of all this. is there a chance that gets pushed deeper into 2024 as well? >> yes, as it is now, since jack smith's team lost their bid to have the supreme court grant the judgment, skipping the d.c. court of appeals and having the supreme court hear it early, now that almost ensures that we're going to be right up against the election, even possibly when the supreme court comes back from the decision on immunity. i'm just assuming for the point

of the argument that the supreme court will take it up. i think they will. but what folks may not realize is that as fast as appellate court work there are certain things that take a lot of time. you can set that for a date, but after that oral argument, there's no timeline on when a circuit court of appeals can put an opinion together. these are no ordinary opinions. they are the most important opinions in criminal law of our time that will be scrutinized for decades to come. so you can imagine they are going to spend some time running spell check on some of these opinions before they issue them. >> danny seth value louse, doing it all, from the skiing trial to who may be the next president of the united states. and just great work as a host on the howard stern wrap-up show. great to see you. happy new year. next, we're taking a look at the top moments that went viral

this year. plus we'll be joined by a reporter who spent the past year traveling the country to get a sense of the way american politics is shifting as we turn into a presidential election year. "morning joe" is coming right back. tion year "morning joe" is coming right back

my name's jody, i've been a pediatric nurse for 18 years. i love what i do, but we definitely need more support. the last administration's policies were so troubling. and our healthcare system has become a business, and people are becoming billionaires off the backs of sick people. i've seen the heartbreak when parents are trying

to figure out how they're going to pay for a medicine to keep their kid healthy. but we are seeing lots of positive changes, and thanks to president biden and vice president harris families can afford medication now. the biden administration lowered the cost of prescription drugs, and passed laws to make health care more affordable. the idea that we could go back to the policies that help the rich get richer and left so many people behind... i don't want to go back. i can't go back. i'm joe biden and i approve this message.

final preparations in times square as new york city prepares to welcome thousands of people here for sunday night's new year's eve celebration. >> it is the largest crystal ball in the world. it's 6 feet in diameter and weighs 6 tons and clad in over 2,000 crystal triangles. it's this illuminated ball the that tells us the future, but brings joy and hope to everyone on new year's eve. >> stephanie gosk is posted up in times square with a report apparently brought to us this morning by the good people at coca cola.

>> reporter: that's right. i'm expecting my residual check in the mail in a couple days. you know it's getting close when the coca cola truck backs up because people standing here in times square need a little caffeine kick and it will be here all ready for them. they are getting ready. today there will be the annual confetti test. 75 pounds of confetti. they do it every year. here's a spoiler. it works every time. on new year's eve, there's 3,000 pounds of confetti dropped on people. the people that pile in here are going to see a pretty heavy security presence, like they always do. there will be security they see, the barricades, the counterterrorism units, sanitation trucks, there will also be security they do not see, including plain clothes officers, cameras, and surveillance. police headquarters met yesterday there's no credible

threat, but the war in gaza has raised the threat level. they have concerns about pro palestinian protesters who might try to disrupt the event, and more seriously, lone wolf actors. >> it's interesting to watch the evolution back to where it was from covid in 2020, even 2021 there was some hesitation around it. as vaccines were just coming in. it looks though from your point of view like this is the full times square new year's eve experience as it's always been back to where it was? >> reporter: absolutely. maybe even more people. one of the things i noticed around our building with the tree is that you have had enormous crowds. and although we have been talking a lot about security, people are not hesitating to visit new york city. there's still that enthusiasm and joy of this time of year that is pretty infectious. >> it has been.

it's been wiek rockefeller center. stephanie gosk live for us, happy new year. thank you so much. we appreciate it. >> reporter: bringing you a coke and a smile this morning. >> thank you. walk down the street and bring one over to 30 rock. we continue our look back at 2023 now with the top viral moments of the year. from beyonce and rihanna and barbie. nbc news correspondent is z va na sellers shows us what had social media buzzing in 2023. >> it was a year full of unforgettable trends. things we loved. and things we loved to hate. viral moments filled our feeds and one star stood out all year. >> welcome to the renaissance. >> queen b's chrome crowds dominated social media. and when her daughter blue ivy

joined her on stage, we all cheered. beyonce ended the year on a high. her concert film topped the box office on opening weekend earning $21 million. earlier this year, our group chats blew up during the super bowl and not because of the game. rihanna rocked the halftime show with a 13-minute performance revealing her second pregnancy on sports biggest night. months later, country legend dolly parton had her moment on social media. when the 77-year-old stunned while performing in a dallas cowboy cheerleader uniform bedazzled from head to toe. speaking of fashion, these thread boots prompted a flood of memes. while boots are made for walking, we were kapt violent vaited by creepy dolls dancing. before the movie was available in theaters, the hashtag blew up on tiktok.

and from the futuistic to the ancient, how often did you think about the roman empire? and social media spoiled television's biggest shocker. the death of logan roy. but there was one cultural moment that commanded our attention and the big screen. the long awaited barrenheimer double feature. the stars in the films joined in on the fun. they supported oppenheimer and the star expressed his skpietment. with all the barbie buzz on social, it was like living in barbie's dream house this year. pink outfits and sweatshirts popped up all over the streets anden our phones. the blockbuster made gretta the first female director with a billion dollar film. >> this is the best day ever. >> and 2023 might be the best year ever when it comes to girl

power. >> savannah sellers reporting. taylor swift was absent. she gets her own piece coming up a little later. next, a look at the state of american politics as we head into the new year. our next guest writes, the road to 2024 is a bit dreary. david ciders joins us next on "morning joe." it dreary. david ciders joins us next on "morning joe." shares the breakthroughs and makes with doctors and researchers worldwide so more kids with cancer everywhere can grow up to be whatever they want to be. tina was a star at her quinceanera. jordan is a high school track star. haley became a physician assistant and an astronaut.

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loving this pay bump in our allowance. wonder where mom and dad got the extra money? maybe they won the lottery? maybe they inherited a fortune? maybe buried treasure? maybe it fell off a truck? maybe they heard that xfinity customers can save hundreds when they buy one unlimted line and get one free. now i can buy that electric scooter! i'm starting a private-equity fund that specializes in midcap. you do you. visit xfinitymobile.com today. i saw on the dreary road to 2024." david joins us now. also with us is contributor mike

barnacle. david, let's talk about your year and why the road was so dreary. tell us about what you were looking for as you undertook this year-long journey across 11 cities. >> i think reporters go everywhere. so this was not special in getting out, but what we were trying to do was look at how parties might be being reshaped at a local level. meant going to county board meetings, that kind of thing to get a sense of where the parties were and how the parties were shifting. >> so a couple words that looks like jumped out were anxiety, people are woried but they are engaged. how did that manifest itself in a place like el paso, texas? >> yeah, first of all, a at the broadest level, you have seen this. the polling is staggering.

americans forever have not been happy or enthusiastic or satisfied with government, but we have really seen the numbers drop off to historic lows right now for how people are feeling not only about government, but about the parties. what's surprising to me is that people aren't shutting down. we have had these very high turnout elections in 2022. so people are upset and they are angry and they are fearful and they have this sense of loss, and yet they are deeply engaged. so the way it plays out in el paso is the immigration debate. i think people are anxious about on both republicans and democrats about how that debate is playing out. you see that riing up in a police like el paso. talking to democrats who are worried. >> i was just going to say in your account of your trip to el paso, you qte one reverend as saying it's almost like some of e people coming to his church want a dictator.

they want somebody who can crack down and form the country that they aspire to be. what did you take out of that conversation? the growing appeal of donald trump. >> i think that's very scary. he's an immigrant himself. he came over from cuba when he was 9 or 10 or something like that. he's lived this experience. he has worked closely with immigrants. and yet with deeply afraid of what he feels as this -- he's not -- he definitely sees what donald trump is saying that makes headlines, so it disturbs him when he says poisoning the blood or talking about dictatorship. what disturbs him more is trump in a very good position. so what does he take from that? he's a public around him, including some recent um grants in el paso who say we want trump back. and that's what's disturbing him. >> you and i see this in your

travels. people are fed up with both. we see it in polling. peoplepeople don't want to see joe biden and donald trump again. it's not the matchup they want. willing and open to look around at somebody like bobby kennedy jr. or other people running, almost in a way to protest the choices they have been given. >> you're right. in your travels around the country, which are different than willie and i traveling through airports or stopping at gas stations on i-95, i'm wondering if you saw the same sense, this volatile mix of anxiety and frustration among so many ordinary americans, working americans, this anxiety about the system we're a part of the process, the electoral system, this frustration with what they perceive to be lack of results that affect them positively and their families positively. it seems that you hear from the

democratic party that they think they have an ace in the hole in running against the republicans this fall in roe v. wade. but in conversations i have had, and i know willie has had the same conversations, the issue of immigration seems to trump roe v. wade talk. i'm wondering what you hear out there? >> it's interesting. i think i agree with your broader assessment that people are deeply anxious about everything. the economy, immigration, you name it. and in some ways, divorced from what the metrics might show us. i would be a little bit his tant hesitant on immigration. it does tend to ebb and flow in some ways. even in a place like el paso, it has for decades seen surges come and go through administrations.

i do think this that doesn't typically rise to one of the highest salients issues in an election. i would be a little skeptical of that. on the other hand, we have seen some of those numbers grow. so that is a concern for democrats. >> david, al sharpton. i looked a at your stop in columbia, south carolina. and you saying that black voters are kind of drifting away. i spent a lot of time in south carolina. i cannot argue against your conclusion. but what from your vantage point is the the basis that people are just exhausted, tired and just don't want to debate it anymore or conceding to the other side? what was the reasoning behind if you could assess it that you heard from people that are drifting away.

>> first, i don't want to overstate it. the numbers among black americans are still very much with the president. but this is some drift. and one reason surprised me. that was the foreign eng tanglements. i was surprised to hear so much of a bringing together of my frustrations and concerns here in columbia or elsewhere in south carolina. and seeing involvement in ukraine, involvement abroad. and that surprised me. that of all the ways that you can see inequities in the system that were frustrating to you, the foreign entanglements would be among the higher ones. i do think it's a sense of we have been reliable voting partners with the democratic party for years. and what do we have to show for it. there is still a lot of fallout from covid still.

there's still some feeling that the economy is not where it should be. that's the basis of their frustration. >> in just a merit of weeks now, we get some votes to see how this factors in. politics editor david ciders, it's a fascinating look at your travels. thank you for sharing them with us. as we wrap up this year, "nbc nightly news" has this tribute to the lives we lost over the past year. ♪♪ ♪♪

>> freeze. ♪♪ >> you want to marry me? ♪♪ ♪♪

>> you know what a loser is? a real loser is somebody that's so afraid of not winning, they don't even try. ♪ you make me wanna shout ♪ ♪♪ >> oh, robinson does it again. ♪♪ ♪♪ >> the way i see it, if something makes you sad when it

ends, it must have been pretty wonderful when it was happening. ♪♪ ♪ heading up to san francisco for the labor day weekend show ♪ ♪♪ ♪♪

>> i meant to do that. ♪ come and knock on our door ♪ ♪ we're gonna make our dreams come true ♪ ♪ it's enough to fill our lives ♪ >> bob barker! [ chanting "jerry" ] ♪♪ >> i want to say it has been a pleasure to have worked alongside all of you. these have been the best years of my career. >> yes, he was some guy. [ laughter ] ♪♪ ♪ yes, it's ladies' night, and the feeling's right ♪

>> never forget a martini. ♪♪ ♪ better than all the rest ♪ ♪♪ ♪ i'll be seeing you in all the old, familiar places ♪ ♪ that this heart of mine embraces ♪ ♪ all day through ♪

>> i just hope they know i did the best i could. that i was there, that i worked hard and i did the best i could. ♪ i'll be looking at the moon ♪ ♪ but i'll be seeing you ♪ ♪♪ i'm okay. yeah, no. hold on! [ quack, quack ]

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good morning, and welcome to "morning joe." that's a look at times square. we're just a matter of hours from now. that ball will drop, and we'll turn the page to 2024. i'm willie geist. joe and mika have the morning off. a lot to get to this morning including another state removing donald trump from the 2024 republican presidential primary ballot. we will have expert legal and political analysis on that big

decision from maine's secretary of state. plus, we'll show you nikki haley's attempt at cleaning up her highly criticized answer on the cause of the civil war. also ahead, the latest from gaza. israeli forces continue to strike refugee camps where it believes hamas terrorists are hiding. this comes as the biden administration is putting more pressure on israel to protect civilians inside gaza. plus, we'll take a look at the stories that dominated 2023 from two wars overseas to chaos on capitol hill as well as the former president's many legal battles as he enters the presidential election. a lot to go through. with us for all of it, nbc news national affairs correspondent john heilman, reverend al sharpton, washington bureau chief for "usa today," susan page, matt lewis, and former u.s. attorney and msnbc contributor, chuck rosenberg.

a greatroup assembled, and let's get into it. maine is now the second group to remove former president trump from the 2024 ballot. the decision was announced yesterday. under maine's state law, voters first filed complaints to the secretary of state, not to the courts like they do in many other states. bellows' ruling can be appealed and the case would then go before a judge. she has stayed her decision until the state superior court rules on a future appeal. bellows used the same 14th amendment argument cited the colorado supreme court its decision to remove trump from th ballot. in her 34-pini, she called out trump's actions leading up to anry 6th, writing, quote, the weight of the evidence makes mr. trump was aware of the tinder laid by his multi-month effort delegitimatize democratic election and then choselight a match. i do not ts conclusion

lightly, bellote. democracy is sacred. m mindful that no secretary of state has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on section 3f e 14th amendment. i'm also mindful however, that no candidate has ever before enin insurrection, end quote. the trump team tried to head off this decision early they are week by filing a request to have the secretary of state recuse herself. the campaign has promised to file an appeal responding in part, we're witnessing in realtime, the attempted theft of an election and the disenfranchisement of the american voter, end quote. trump's superpac also issued a statement calling maine's secretary of state, quote, anti-trump, partisan democrat. let's start with the legal side of this before we get into the politics of it. for that, chuck rosenberg, i will turn to that. what do you make of the legal standing of the decision made by the secretary of state in maine? >> right. well, willie, it's an interesting one, and it's like

the one in colorado, but it's unlike others that we have seen in michigan and minnesota. this is sort of a paradigmatic example of why you need the supreme court to address the issue and to issue a rule so that all 50 states are doing the same thing. whether you loathe mr. trump or whether you love mr. trump, i think everyone would agree it's best to have one set of rules, and so it may be the case that colorado and maine have it right as a matter of law. it may be the case that they have it wrong as a matter of law. you know, i think we ought to let in this conversation with a dose of humility. i may be completely wrong, but i think colorado and maine have it right, you know, i think the president did engage in an insurrection. i think the disqualification provision of the 14th amendment applies to the office of president. that's just my opinion. i don't have a vote. i literally don't have a vote. there are nine votes that will ultimately matter, and we do need the supreme court to step

in and to announce a rule for all 50 states because we need clarity here. >> so chuck, the counterargument you've heard not just from trump's campaign, but from many people actually running against him is this is a question for voters to decide, that the former president has not yet been convicted of insurrection. that should be settled by the courts and not by the opinion of one secretary of state in the state of maine. what do you say to that? >> historically and literally, willie, the 14th amendment does not require a conviction for insurrection in order to be disqualified. so i think that argument fails and may succeed politically, but as a legal matter, that argument fails. there's another thread that runs through your question, that we moving someone from the ballot is anti-democratic, but that -- that provision comes directly from the constitution. i mean, it's the foundation of our democracy, and so i don't know that following the

constitution, adhering to the constitution can ever be construed as anti-democratic in this case. we may differ about what these terms mean and what may apply here, but the supreme court will resolve that issue for all of us, but there is also an irony here for a person, a president, mr. trump, who does not accept the outcome of the an election, you know, it's hard to say that his voters will agree that if he, you know, if he loses, it was fair and free, and so if it's resolved ultimately by the courts, so be it. it's resolved by the courts in adherence to the constitution. that is anything but anti-democratic. >> so chuck, let's talk about timing here, which i know a lot of people are thinking about as they look toth calendar. we're just a few days away now from a new year. that means primaries. the iowa caucus is just a couple of weeks away. as these decisions come down, there is obviously a pressing

matter to decide these things, whether at the state supreme court level or the united states supreme court level as you say. will he or will he not be on the ballots that are going to be printed very soon? how fast do you think these cases can move through? >> they have to move quickly, and we know the supreme court is capable that, you know, you go back in history, almost half a century when the supreme court decided the u.s. v. nixon case and did so really i think a matter of 3, 3 1/2 weeks. can the supreme court move quickly? absolutely. do they need to do so here? absolutely. so i would hope they take this case and hear it fast because to your point, willie, ballots are being printed, and soon people will be going to the polls and we need a single rule, and we can only get that from the united states supreme court. >> so as we saw after that colorado ruling, former president trump's 2024 primary opponents quickly came to his defense following the maine decision yesterday. in a statement to abc news,

nikki haley's campaign said, she feels the same way about this ruling as about the colorado one. she would beat trump at the polls. ramaswamy didn't like any decision to remove his name from the ballot. here is how the florida governor responded last night. >> the idea that one bureaucrat in an executive position can essentially unilaterally disqualify someone from office, that turns on its head every constitutional due process. it opens up pandora's box. >> we've heard this, matt lewis, from just about everybody in the primary. chris christie said the same after colorado. he said, look. i don't think donald trump should ever see the white house again, but we should beat him with votes and let voters decide and not have secretaries of state, or supreme court votes

deciding this. where are you on this? did maine make the right call here? >> here's my take and i'm a simple country pundit. not even a country lawyer. just a political writer. i think it's entirely plausible that donald trump did incite a riot and that this statute would prevent him, disqualify him from running. i just don't think it's patently obvious, like, i think it is debatable. i think that the verbiage is vague enough that you could argue it either way and i think smart people, people in good faith are arguing it either way, and so i think it's going to go obviously to the supreme court, and i think a tie goes to the runner. in this case, the person running for president, like, i just can't imagine the supreme court keeping the guy who is now poised to be the republican nominee off of ballots. i could be wrong. so in a way, i think it becomes

political. so nikki haley, ron desantis, i would love to go back and see what a race would look like if they had actually attacked donald trump and run against him the whole time. at this point, i think that they are probably saying the politically astute thing. let's beat him at the ballot box, and if by some stroke of luck the supreme court actually agrees with maine and colorado, then i'm sure they will quietly celebrate that. >> john, as you know, people talking around the trump campaign, they think the supreme court will, in fact, rule in favor and say we're not going to be the people to take a leading candidate off the ballot and make that decision instead of the voters and they also believe that at least in a primary and with his base, this only helps further his argument that everyone's out to get him, that the deep state and secretaries of state and supreme courts of the state level and in washington don't want him to be president again. they're trying to take your vote

away from you. that's the argument. >> it's a good argument from a political standpoint, willie, so long as the united states supreme court which trump and his team boasts about having -- as one of the great legacies of his first term, you know, the trump court. we talk about it all the time, and many people pointed to many ironies this morning, but one of the other ones is that if the supreme court takes this case, and, you know, i'm worse than a simple country lawyer or a simple country pundit. i'm just someone sitting here watching these guys on the supreme court, and the men and women on the supreme court who do things often we find confounding and befuddling, but it it's hard to believe they won't take this case because of the stakes. if this does follow originalism, and textualism, the principles that have driven a lot of conservatives on the court, there's a plausible case to make that this court will side with the colorado court, and if it

does, the great irony will be that a court liberals think as being compromised, if that court rules against donald trump, what will, rev, what will the trump campaign say then? this is a court that donald trump stands up every day out there -- one of the main things he has going for him as he says, you know, this supreme court, i got these three justices on here. this is my court now. it's a maga court. if that court were to decide that the colorado and now the maine secretaries of state have it right and the constitution bars him from being on the ballot, it seems like a huge problem for the trump campaign and one that is very difficult to rebut politically given the nature of the court. >> if that were to happen -- >> we're speculating this morning. we're in the realm of speculation, to so please, indulge. >> i'm not a country pundit or someone watching. i'm just a preacher from brooklyn. >> yeah. >> let me just speculate with

you. if they were to do that, i would clearly think the trump people would have a hard time responding, but knowing donald trump, he'll come up with something new in response. i think that the real issue that we're facing here is that if donald trump does not qualify, whether it's litigated all the way or not, to have incited an insurrection, and on top of that has made it clear no matter what the results are of this election even if he's in it, he will not accept it, then what is the supreme court ever going to set the bar of who is qualified to run or not? you not only have a person that has in clear day, inspired an insurrection and participated. he's saying, i don't care what happens in november. i'm not going to accept the outcome unless i'm the winner. no one could be more qualified in my judgment to be pulled off the ballot to protect the electoral process in this country. that's what the supreme court

has to look at. what precedent are they setting? >> susan page, i would add in here that the state of california sort of quietly yesterday kept donald trump on the ballot. the secretary of state there was under some pressure from the lieutenant governor to remove him from the ballot. california's secretary of state at least saying this is not a question for me to resolve. this is something for the courts. it is fascinating that this now because of colorado, because of the success from the point of view of democrats there of getting donald trump off the ballot, it has now opened this up across the country state by state, and why many view it as having to happen quickly for a national standard here. >> the legal questions are surely complicated. i'll leave that to our lawyer. i think the political issues are not so complicated. i think two people have greatly benefitted from maine's decisions. one is nikki haley because we're not talking about what caused the civil war, and the second is

donald trump. i think the -- this is clearly in my mind to his political advantage. it forces his rivals two weeks before the iowa caucuses, to start the primary process to come to his defense, and it gives him another talking point with this general argument that the establishment is against him. chuck rosenberg, since you're the lawyer, perhaps the sole lawyer in this panel, let me ask you about the political effect of the supreme court. the court will decide based on the law and the constitution, but it's not like they live on mars. they're aware of the political implications of the decision. how big a role do you think that is likely to play in their consideration of this issue or ballot access? >> yeah. it's a great question, susan. they don't live on mars, although if you read some of their opinions, it sometimes seems that way.

you would hear, if they would sustain what the supreme court of colorado did, deciding a presidential election. that happened in 2000 when the supreme court halted the recount in florida, and mr. bush won the presidency over mr. gore. the fallout from that politically as you well know, susan, was tremendous. whatever side you were on, it was clear that the supreme court took an action, made a decision that determined the outcome of an election. that could very well happen here again. look. i think, and maybe this is the perfect world in which we do not life in, that the supreme court has to put the politics aside. there is a constitution that has a text. there are -- there is an amendment. there's a section 3 to that amendment. it's the disqualification provision. it either applies or it doesn't apply, and while the legal questions are hard, that's what they get paid to do, to render hard legal judgments, and so at the end of the day, they're going to make a determination. i have an opinion, but it

doesn't matter, and their determination may very well affect the outcome of this election. it's happened before, and it was tumultuous. it could happen again. >> chuck, i think one of the things, the next question a lot of people are asking, particularly supporters of joe biden, democrats are, what would this mean for the general election? because what we're talking about right now to be clear is just the primary, the republican primary ballots in colorado and in maine and across the country. is there a chance depending on what the supreme court rules that donald trump could miss the general election ballot in some of these states? >> yeah. it's a great question, willie, and so it depends in part, on how broadly or how narrowly the supreme court rules. hypothetically the supreme court could simply overturn the colorado decision, but not give guidance to all the other states about whether or not the 14th amendment applies and under what circumstances it would apply, or they could rule broadly that the

provision is -- requires an act of congress to execute it. so it really turns on how broadly or how narrowly the supreme court rules, and to your point right now, we're talking about access to the primary ballot. some states have already said that the president -- the former president, mr. trump, can appear on a primary ballot, but whether or not he can appear on the general election ballot is a separate question for another day. frankly, we need all these questions answered by the supreme court and we need them answered quickly, and we need them answered at one time, and so we're asking a lot of the supreme court, but again, that's their job. that's what they get paid to do. >> yeah. this is an historic decision coming from the supreme court which as you say, could change the way this election goes. it could change history even as we get more evidence by the day of the ways in which donald trump and his campaign sought to overturn the 2020 election. chuck rosenberg indeed, the sole lawyer on this panel. we're grateful for you this

morning, and always. appreciate it. coming up next here, nikki haley is trying to clarify her comments after omitting slavery from her explanation of the civil war. we'll show you that and how her 2024 presidential rivals are responding. and matt lewis will explain why he says nikki haley's slavery gaffe shows how scared she is of maga republicans. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back.

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republican presidential candidate nikki haley spent the day yesterday trying to clarify comments she made after facing widespread backlash for not including slavery as a driving force behind the civil war. here's the exchange she had with a voter in new hampshire back on wednesday. >> what was the cause of the united states civil war? >> well, don't come with an easy question or anything.

i mean, the cause of the civil war was basically how government was going to run, the freedoms and people could and couldn't do. what do you think the cause of the civil war was? i'm sorry? >> i'm not running for president. i wanted to see about your -- >> that's a good thing. >> what you think is the cause of the civil war. >> i think it always comes down to the role of government and what the rights of the people are, and we -- i will always stand by the fact that i think government was intended to secure the rights and freedoms of the people. it was never meant to be all things to all people. government doesn't need to tell you how to live your life. they don't need to tell you what you can and can't do. they don't need to be a part of your life. they need to make sure that you have freedom. we need to have to capitalism. we need to have economic freedom. we need to make sure that we do all things so that individuals have the liberties so they can have freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to do or be anything they want to be without government getting in the way.

>> thank you, and then in the year 2023, it's astonishing to me that you answered that question without mentioning the word slavery. >> what do you want me to say about slavery? >> you answered my question. thank you. >> next question. >> what do you want me to say about slavery? so yesterday governor haley spent a lot of time trying to clarify what she said. >> yes, i know it was about slavery. i'm from the south. of course, you know it's about slavery. >> of course, the civil war was about slavery. we know that. that's unquestioned, always the case. we know the civil war was about slavery, but it was also more than that. it was about the freedoms of every individual. >> if it required clarification of saying, yes, the civil war was about slavery, i'm happy to do that. >> two of haley's primary rivals, ron desantis and chris

christie had thoughts on this yesterday. >> you know, i noticed a nikki haley has had some problems with some basic american history. if she's asked a very simple question, she's responded with really incomprehensible word salad about this and that. she asked the voter what do you want her to say about this or that? she's now taking different positions in this, and i just think that this shows this is not a candidate that's ready for primetime. >> if someone asked me what the cause of the civil war was -- [ laughter ] -- it's easy. it's slavery. and by the way, you don't have to take my word for that. when south carolina passed its

resolution to secede from the union, the first reason they gave was the other states' resistance to allowing slavery to spread to the western territories. so even if you are from the south, so you know these things, you should also know why your own home state seceded from the union. >> so rev, nikki haley spent the entire day yesterday trying to deal with her comment a couple of days ago in new hampshire. what we didn't hear there at the beginning of the day yesterday, she said it was a democratic plant that somebody from the biden campaign or somewhere had pushed a plant into the audience to ask that question. well, that's a town hall. you're asked questions from all kinds of people, all different ways and let's stipulate that shouldn't be a real hard one to answer, and there was something about the way she then sort of

asked, mockingly, what do you want me to say about slavery? maybe that was an abomination and a blight on our history whose impacts are being felt today. there are a lot of easy answers to that question. what does that first say about nikki haley, but also about the republican party today that she felt compelled to pull back, thinking who she might offend if she criticized slavery for god's sakes? >> well, if there was someone there that helped the democrats, it was nikki haley. it wasn't whoever was in the audience because if you look at her answer, she talked to two things that was most troubling was one she said freedom to do what they want to do. well, in the days of the civil war, that's what they were arguing. we have the freedom to maintain our slaves. they're our property. what do you want freedom to do what they want to do? the civil war was to say you're not free to own other people and to enslave people, and secondly when she said, what do you want me to say about slavery?

like, even then she is as you asked the question, playing to a crowd that she either is with that crowd or she is afraid of that crowd. either one, it makes her unfit to be president because she's saying, i'll ask you what you want me to say about slavery. i'm not going to take an affirmative here and say, oh, wow. i should have said slavery was the center. when given the opportunity to correct herself, she threw it back to the collection of she's either afraid of the maga crowd or that's the feeling. we had to march on her to even take the confederate flag down and she didn't do that until nine people were massacred in a south carolina church, but john, you and i spent time in south carolina. >> yeah. >> and the whole atmosphere in the last couple of weeks around this campaign has kind of evaded the fact that there's been a war

on d.i. and affirmative action and now this has brought race right back central in the campaign for the republican nomination. i find it ironic ron desantis who's banning black history in florida is raising the question about nikki haley and her not answering a simple question. do you think this, though politically, helps or hurt any other republican candidates because of the race issue going into this new year's weekend? >> so much to say here, rev, and one thing to say is it's always the most amusing to watch ron desantis standing in the dark stammering and stuttering, and saying that nikki haley is not ready for primetime. i would suggest that ron desantis even attacking nikki haley, demonstrates he's not ready or even lit for primetime. it does not matter who was in

the audience. the attacking motives of the question is totally irrelevant. it was an easy question and she should have been able to answer it quickly. it would have caused her no damage even with the maga right for her to simply say, you know, of course, slavery was the cause of the civil war. next question. no one would have even paid attention to it. we would have moved on, and i think it speaks to something that chris christie has been saying most forcefully on the campaign trail and i'm not saying this to puff christie up, but he's been pointing out over and over again that nikki haley has not -- has been, in fact, very timid in the way she's gone after donald trump. she is the hot republican rival to trump right now. the one person people say maybe has a chance to beat donald trump in new hampshire and be a viable alternative to him. this shows again and again with nikki haley that she is timid politically. she doesn't navigate her footing and how does she keep enough of the maga part of the party on her side? she doesn't want to offend them. it was clear she was worried

about that here. even when she was wrong, she could have easily dispensed with this. this was the core weakness of nikki haley. she is on paper and in a lot of this very prospective polling, the strongest general election candidates republicans have against joe biden, but she does not have, matt lewis, she has never exhibited throughout her whole career, she's exhibited a lot of talent, a lot of promise, a lot within the republican party as a newcomer republican, but she's exhibited in key moments a lack of political guts that you can trace over her biography she's had. the way she started out, how she moved becoming a trump supplicant and critic, and then back. what say you? >> i think that's exactly right. a lot of us kind of never-trump conservatives we're skeptical of

nikki haley because she has wavered over important questions about donald trump. i would say once the debates began, john, the very first republican primary debate, nikki haley came out swinging against donald trump, attacked him for raising the debt, you know, and i think at that point, you know, wow, okay. nikki haley may have finally figured out what her brand is, who she is, what her message is going to be, and more importantly, who her constituents are, and she has done a pretty good job within the context of the last few months of the campaign of actually being that person, and if you think about what nikki haley needs to do, we are now two weeks away from the iowa caucuses, three weeks away from new hampshire. nikki haley doesn't need to be worried -- by the way, i think this is the fundamental mistake that nikki haley and ron desantis both have made.

they think they can win maga voters. they can't. if you love donald trump, you are not going to vote for somebody else, certainly not nikki haley. nikki haley shouldn't even be worried about appeasing someone who cared -- who wants to relitigate the civil war. those are not nikki haley verts. nicky hawley was in berlin new hampshire trying to win new hampshire. not alabama, not mississippi, new hampshire, for her score constituency, and they're not trump voters. she needs to win independents in new hampshire and non-trump center-right voters in new hampshire. that should be her top priority. what does she need to do for that to happen? she needs to get chris christie to drop out of the race. i think it is much less likely today that chris christie will drop out of the race than it was

two or three days ago. so i think this was a big -- potentially a big deal, again, with the caveat in a news cycles move quickly. as john would say, this reinforces a negative stereotype about nikki haley not being ready for primetime, and it speaks not just to her bad political strategy. it speaks a little bit to character as well. >> you know, susan, we heard from chris christie, a point others have made too. that haley looks like somebody who wants to be secretary of state or whatever the job is, in a trump administration. so tiptoeing very lightly around donald trump when ostensibly she's trying to defeat him. what kind of a statement do you think that moment was, again, about the republican party today that someone who knows better, who knows why the civil war was waged over slavery, had to stop and pull back from saying that out loud? >> yeah.

you know, candidates make gaffes. we all make gaffes. i myself have made any number of gaffes and the reason that they matter or don't matter is they go to something more fundamental, like your character, questions about where you stand or who you are, and i do think that is the big problem here for nikki haley. her brand has been negotiating -- threading the needle. threading the needle on criticism of trump, and on handling the issue of abortion. as with abortion, race is an issue that has really threatened the republican party because in america in 2023/2024, not being able to say that slavery caused the civil war is a -- i mean, that is a pretty fundamental question on which there is not really much room to maneuver. so i do think this is bad for nikki haley, and as you say, it spotlights one of the issues that is going to be most perilous for the republican party. maybe not so much in the

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at. nikki haley as you said, has closed some ground in the state of new hampshire, but is there any reason to believe at this moment, that anyone other than donald trump will be the nominee? >> uh, no. you you have to really squint and imagine, and i've said that the only way that you could even conceive, you know, barring donald trump being kicked off

ballots, right? if that could happen, that's not an implausible idea, but assuming that the race goes forward with the candidates that we have, the only sort of conceivable way that donald trump isn't the nominee, i think is if someone else wins iowa, nikki haley wins new hampshire, she's able to parlay the new hampshire victory into south carolina, and all the stars will have that. it was always going to be highly unlikely, but within the realm of possibility. i think that this gaffe and again, we -- there was a danger of course, being a country -- a country pundit of overplaying any one news story or any one gaffe, but i actually do think this one is very damaging because it comes at just the moment when nikki haley needed to be consolidating support, galvaniing independents and non-trump republicans behind her, and getting chris christie to drop out of the race. i think that's now a little bit

less likely, and so are you saying there's a chance? yeah. there's a chance, but i think there's less a chance today actually than there was a few days ago. >> well, the good news is just over two weeks from now, the voters get to have their voice. the speculation ends and we'll learn a lot more about where this race is. "the daily beast's" matt lewis, and happy new year to you. coming up next, from two wars to the ouster of a house speaker. a former president's legal battles and a hunt for a missing submersible. we're taking a look back at all that happened in 2023. look bac that happened in 2023.

it's been almost a year now since kevin mccarthy waited 15 long votes to finally land his dream job at speaker of the house. mccarthy is out of congress altogether, symbolic of a wild year in news. nbc's joe fryer has a recap. >> reporter: how do you define a

year like 2023? was it the year of the strike? [ chanting ] or year of the swift? ♪♪ did it offer a glimpse of the future with the rapid rise of artificial intelligence and the weight loss donald trump ozempic or a blast from the past? >> hi, barbie. >> hi, ken. >> reporter: with the classic resir jens of a classic pink doll. and a campaign lined with pit stops in the courtroom. 2023 can be combined in so many ways. to much of the world it was a headline by war in the middle east. >> major breaking news tonight. war erupts in the middle east. a stunning surprise attack by palestinian militants. >> reporter: it started on october 7th, the day many now call israel's 9/11. in a surprise attack, hamas

militants stormed into towns and military bases. >> they were just all around me and they were going three by three and shooting. >> reporter: israel's foreign ministry says about 1,200 people were killed. more than 200 taken hostage, including young children. . >> it's something that no parent can ever imagine to see a child in the hands of terrorists. >> reporter: israel's response was swift and relentless, but with thousands of palestinians killed in a humanitarian crisis, israel faced mounting criticism. those tensions seen on american streets and college campuses with reports of both anti-semitism and islamaphobia, spiking across the country. as the middle east war raged on, the one between ukraine and russia trudged on. ukraine's long-awaited

counteroffensive stalling and american support waning, just one of the issues highlighting america's stark division of issues. in january, it took 15 ballots -- >> a speaker has not been elected. >> has not been elected. >> has not been elected. >> reporter: -- to elect kevin mccarthy as speaker. a position he held for just nine months before he was ousted. >> i thought for what i believe in, and i believe in this country of america. >> reporter: like a reality tv show, new contenders came and went. >> we're a ship that doesn't have a rudder right now. >> reporter: before mike johnson got the gavel. >> the house will be in order. >> reporter: an election followed by an expulsion. scandal-plagued representative george santos became only the third congressman since the civil war to be ejected from the chamber. but no controversy it seemed could shake the gop support for former president donald trump when in april, made history too. >> it was a legal spectacle

never seen before in america with a former president being fingerprinted and being charged with 34 felonies. >> reporter: mr. trump's appearance in a new york courtroom created a media circus that was repeated with indictments in florida, then washington, then georgia where he mugged for this shot. >> we did nothing wrong. i did nothing wrong. >> reporter: he has pleaded not guilty to all charges while preserving a vast lead for his party's presidential nomination, skipping debates -- >> donald trump's a lot different guy than he was leavid to squabble for second. >> do you want a different leader that's going to put this country first or do you want dick cheney in 3-inch heels? >> they're 5-inch heels. i don't wear them unless i can run in them. >> are you saying you could be taking part in our upcoming election? >> inflation dropped in 2023, so did the president's approval

ratings, hitting an all-time low. now voters are bracing for a potential rematch that's leaving many disenchanted. >> a wave of labor discontent pushed unions to the picket lines. the united auto workers went on strike. hollywood went on strike, potentially reaching deals with studios. amid the strikes, the box office got a boost from an unlikely couple, barbie and oppenheimer. both movies opened at the same time, inspiring a cultural phenomenon dubbed

"barbenheimer." now they're hoping to follow in the footsteps of "everything efr everywhere all at once? michelle yeoh became the first asian woman to win the academy award for best actress. there were firsts that were far less desirable in 2023.tions des certain to be the planet's warmest on record, with billion dollar disasters. >> we just lost power. >> the firestorm that ravaged maui. >> local people have lost everything. more than a hundred people were

killed. gun violence plagued the country with cities like lewiston, maine, with 18 people killed while six were gunned down at a private elementary school in nashville, three of them children. >> in june the titan submersible vanished. a catastrophic implosion killed everyone on the ill-fated voyage. the crisis at the border widened in 2023 with places like new york and chicago running out of room to house migrants who were

bussed to their cities. in january, protesters took to the streets following the death of tyre nichols. the 29-year-old black man was kicked and punched at a traffic stop, dying three days later. the supreme court handed down a historic decision in june, gutting affirmative action, effectively ending race conscious college admissions. perhaps no court case generated more attention in 2023 than the trial of alex murdoch, the disgraced attorney from south carolina accused of killing his wife and son, took the stand in his own defense. >> did you take this gun or any

gun like it and blow your son's brains out? >> no, i did not. >> the jury found murdoch guilty. >> king charles iii was official officially coronated in may. for many, the year 2023 was the one we lost a friend. >> hi, it's chandler. >> actor matthew perry died in october at the age of 54. ♪♪ >> the music world said good-bye to an icon tina turner. ♪♪ >> and the mayor of

margaritaville, jimmy buffett. senator dianne feinstein, justice sandra day o'connor and the former first lady rosalynn carter. stadiums were ruled by beyonce and by taylor swift. she even crossed over into football, showing up at chiefs games to support her new beau travis kelce. simone biles returned to gymnastics, to her sixth world title, a comeback on the mat matched by one on the field. buffalo bills safety damar hamlin suffered a cardiac

arrest. >> this event was life changing, but it's not the end of my story. >> hamlin didn't just recover. he returned to the game he loved. >> joe fryer with a look back at a busy 12 months. coming up, we'll talk to a harvard professor about why she's preparing to teach a new class about taylor swift. g to tw class about taylor swift 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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a live picture of los angeles at 6:01 in the morning. it's 9:01 here on the east coast as we begin our fourth hour of the final "morning joe" of 2023. pressure is mounting on the israeli government to bring home more than 100 people still being held hostage in gaza.

prime minister netanyahu still telling the families negotiations are ongoing. josh lederman has more. >> reporter: another american family is grieving. judy weinstein was murdered in israel during the october 7th terror attacks and her body brought to gaza. it's the same fate as her 73-year-old husband, his death confirmed last week. president biden saying the death cuts deep and vowing to bring remaining hostages home. there are six americans still in gaza. >> i decided this year i'm not going to make his birthday cake. it's making me too sad.

>> reporter: meanwhile, a former hostage is speaking out, detailing the grueling conditions she went through while in captivity for 54 days, comparing her experience to the holocaust, recalling when a surgeon operated on her hand without anesthesia, telling her you're not coming home alive. israel is saying the three mistakes of hostages this month could have been prevented and acknowledging two devastating air strikes in a central gaza refugee camp on christmas eve. more than 20 were killed in the south in rafah.

we are all relatives and we came here, he says. why did they hit this house? in the rubble, palestinians digging for survivors with their bare hands, finding a young girl in the rubble, still alive, rescued and rushed to the hospital. >> josh lederman reporting for us from israel. breaking news this morning out of ukraine. officials there say at least 18 people were killed across the country in a new massive air assault launched by russia, the biggest from the air of the war so far. at least 132 people are hurt. russia launched nearly 160 missiles and drones at populated areas, civilian targets including a maternity hospital in dnipro. 114 of those missiles and drones were shot down, but as you can

see, the damage was done. this comes a couple of days after ukraine blew up a russian destroyer at port. perhaps this is retribution for that. again, 18 people dead, at least 132 others injured in the largest air assault from russia against ukraine since this war began nearly two years ago. turning back to politics here at home, maine now is the second state to remove former president trump from the 2024 primary ballot. ryan nobles explains. >> reporter: for the second time in less than a month, a state has ruled that former president trump was in violation of section three of the 14th amendment because of his actions on january 6th and, therefore, ineligible to run for president of the united states. maine's secretary of state, a democrat, ruling that trump should be removed from the

state's ballot. in her decision, she writes, the weight of the evidence makes clear mr. trump was aware of his effort to delegitimize the election and then chose to light a match. the decision matched by colorado's supreme court that also declared trump ineligible. former president trump's name will remain on the ballot for now while the court process plays out and appeals are made. trump's culpability is something the u.s. supreme court will likely still have to deal with. trump's campaign called the ruling a partisan attack. we are witnessing in realtime the attempted theft of an election and the disenchan disenfranchisement of the american voter.

challenges like these have popped up across the country, and most have been denied. hours after the maine decision, the secretary of state in california announced the former president would remain on the ballot in that state after facing calls to remove him. meanwhile, trump's gop opponents rushing to his defense. >> the idea that one bureaucrat in an executive position can simply unilaterally disqualify someone from office, that turns on its head every notion of constitutional due process this country has abided by for over 200 years. >> let's turn to barbara mcquade and susan del percio.

barbara, this comes from petitions from the voters. this is not a case that is before a court right now. the secretary of state ruling that donald trump should not be on the primary ballot, not yet talking about general election here. what's your reaction? is this the right call? >> the maine secretary of state found this on her plate. this is not something she endeavored to do on her own. she has an obligation under maine law to resolve challenges to petitions. donald trump certified that he was qualified to be on the ballot. someone challenged that, so she had the obligation to resolve that challenge. she methodically went through the 14th amendment and conclude ed he had engaged in insurrection. she looked at the hearing and report of the january 6th committee to reach that

conclusion. this is temporary, because it gets reviewed by a court. she's done her job, and now it moves onto the courts in maine. >> ultimately as with the case in colorado and several others now will end up at the united states supreme court with some urgency to it. how quickly do you see this proceeding through the supreme court? >> i think the supreme court has to take this up and quickly, as you say. there has been an appeal out of colorado by the interveners there, the colorado republican party. the court can take it up now if it so chooses. i think they will take it up in colorado or one of these other states and will decide it relatively quickly. i know there are some who think the court is in the bag for donald trump, but i don't think that's right. i think they may be very

conservative, but i don't know that means they are pro-trump necessarily or would decide in his favor just because he is the republican nominee or the likely republican nominee. i think these are challenging question of law, things that have not really been addressed by the supreme court before. i think there are sound legal reasons to find that donald trump is not qualified to be on the ballot. >> certainly the trump campaign is hoping and expecting that particularly the three justices he put there will rush to his aid and throw this stuff to the side. let's take your scenario where they do find for the colorado supreme court, where they do find for maine here and say, yes, you can keep him off the ballot if you want to. what are the implications of that for the republican primary and potentially for the general election? >> if the supreme court rules that he is ineligible to serve as president, i think you'll see all 50 states scramble under their own individual laws to find ways to select a republican

nominee that is qualified to serve as president. it opens up the race in the republican party for all of the candidates who are currently running. >> donald trump using it to say, look, this is the deep state. this is the argument he's been making for a long time. these are democrats trying to prevent me from running against joe biden because they fear me. he's calling it election interference. you know the routine. what is your sense how this plays politically? >> i think it's important to hold two competing truths in your head at the same time. truth number one is, a lot of us have been waiting years for some semblance of the rule of law to catch up with donald trump and trumpism. in the many indictments in these

petitions under the 14th amendment and other state election ballot questions, we are seeing the rule of law after a long delay and after the lucy football of the mueller report, we are seeing the rule of law start to catch up with that movement and we should welcome that. however, here's the other thought. i think in terms of regular people and voters who don't want trump to become a permanent american dictator, don't want him to win in 2024, people are getting way too excited about this. this is trying to win a sports game by praying for rain and hoping for injuries. those things may happen. if they do happen, great. but they are not a substitute for building a bigger, better movement than his movement and defeating him in the marketplace of ideas. when i look at regular people's excitement about this, when i look at how ablaze social media gets when these kind of state

ballot decisions are made, people are a little too excited because it's becoming an alibi for actually building a more powerful movement. i think there's an acknowledgment that there is not a bigger, better movement right now. there is accomplishments. there's reality. there's a belief there democracy compared to what trump offers. but right now the only thing that matters in 2024 is building a bigger, better, more galvanizing movement than his movement. if you're a regular person, all this stuff is a distraction. >> you're right. maybe this is our way away from

donald trump. it's interesting to listen to the republican primary field. even chris christie who has been critical of trump says we need to beat him at the ballot box with our arguments and our ideas, disagreeing that he should be taken off and suggesting this fuels his argument that he is somehow the persecuted one that people are trying to keep him away from american politics and that his supporters will rally to his side. what do you make of those dynamics personally in the republican party? >> once the supreme court takes it up and should they go against trump and force him off the ballot in these states that have petitioned so far, i think no one's going to be able to say it's the deep state coming after him. this is the 6-3 court, three of the justices he has appointed. but there is something in

thinking about regular people. regular people really think this should happen at the ballot box. i understand the idea of the movement being anxious to see donald trump being held accountable. i'd love to see it too. but it's equally as important for those people to recognize that they have to come out in november of 2024. because should donald trump stay on the ballot, this will be part of the issue of democracy, but there needs to be a lot more out there because donald trump's people are showing up. i don't know if the coalition that biden put together will be as strong. >> so what's a reasonable timeline for people who are paying attention closely to this and wondering if he'll be on the ballot in their state, what is

reasonable to expect from the supreme court? >> i think the court has to take this up within the month of january. we have primaries beginning as early as that month. so to be able to resolve this, i think they've got to beat the first primaries and the caucuses which are coming very soon. i would think they need to take this up. it needs to be the first order of business for them in the new year. when the supreme court wants to, they can act very quickly. the pentagon papers case was resolved in 17 days from the moment the publication first occurred. they can do this. we've got a record based on what already happened in the state of colorado and with the january 6th committee from which they can determine what facts occurred. the rest of it is just legal decision making. that's something they can do based on the submission of briefs and oral arguments. i think within the month of january this issue should be

resolved. >> got to move quickly. iowa and new hampshire just around the corner. going back to your larger point about some people seeing a way to defeat donald trump just to get him out of the way and take him off the ballot. what does a better argument look like for joe biden, for democrats? what is that larger message that's not just we're not him, he's bad, we can't go back to that? what is the affirmative message you'd like to hear from democrats? >> two points. first of all, you could believe in message before you could even craft a good one. this white house is quite unique. joe biden is a legislator. he's been a remarkably effective legislator in the white house

passing things with much greater ambition than both of his democratic predecessors. you need to tell a story of where you are trying to take the country, not just saying you are not fascism or a wanna be dictator, but telling the story of where america is going. there's a component of that dealing with some of the anxiety around race and cultural change in the country, telling a story of a multiracial democracies that a thrilling exciting project. there's a project economically of explaining to people why their prices have been high, why their lives have gotten harder and why you as president want to change fundamentally how the american economy works to make their lives better and connect it to the policies that you

want. there needs to be this notion of painting the beautiful tomorrow. you need to articulate what the world looks like when you win. right now trump has become in many ways a crutch, something so stinkingly bad that one feels like one is doing politics simply pointing at the stench and pointing out the fact that it's over there and you're not it. not it is not in fact not a political strategy. we're going to need to see in this new year president biden come out with a complete communications upheaval. he's listening to people who work for him caring about communications maybe more than his instincts tell him and maybe telling a story about a american democracy at a crossroads and telling a story of where people are wanting to go, thirsting to go. >> not donald trump is an important part of the case.

we don't want to go back to donald trump. he's told us all the authoritarian things he wants to do when he gets back in officer. how do you balance that? what's the case you would make to voters? >> there's a lot of different coalitions that have to be put together. people are looking at two men who are frankly living from their past. we need to look forward. as we do that, the campaign has to look at the voters that really made a difference in 2020, which were those center right republicans and republicans who couldn't stand donald trump. they have to break it up into

coalitions that democrats typically think they're going to get support from, but then don't show up until september or october. they need to be communicating now. that's one thing i feel is missing from the administration. coming up next on "morning joe," we'll look at the latest safety concerns with autonomous vehicles and the loophole in one state that's letting companies off the hook when driverless cars break the law. the hook wve cars break the law ing in

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a busy seattle airport at 6:25 in the morning there, 9:25 here on the east coast. more and more communities are test driving autonomous cars this year. in california, a legal loophole lets driverless vehicles avoid penalties from traffic violations. cars have run red lights, crashed into other vehicles, even swerved into wet cement and other construction zones. plus, these so-called robotaxis can't exactly take orders are police. >> sir, there's no one there. >> reporter: when traffic laws are broken and there's no one behind the wheel, who gets the ticket? in texas and arizona, where driverless cars are now common in some neighborhoods, companies that own the vehicles can be fined, but not in california. when driverless cars break the

rules of the road, we've learned there's not much law enforcement can do. here in california, traffic tickets can only be written if there's an actual driver. so no humans, no fines. >> we are very much in the wild west in a legal gray area when it comes to driverless cars. >> reporter: california attorney michael stevenson has been representing car accident victims for more than a decade. >> laws are going to have to change. we need an overhaul, a new set of laws for driverless cars. >> reporter: the companies start collecting fares as they shuttle passengers across san francisco. two months later, the california dmv determined cruise posted an unreasonable risk to public safety. cruise saying it will take steps to rebuild public trust. the company pulled all 400 of

its driverless cars in the u.s. off the road. cruise declined our interview requests, but we did hitch a ride with its main competitor, waymo, which is the only driverless company actively picking up passengers. >> if driverless cars can still make mistakes, what makes you so convinced they're safe enough to be on the road? >> while there have been examples pointed out where driverless cars need to improve, when we make an improvement once, that's fixed in our system and the whole fleet gets better. the technology is only getting better from here, and it's already really good. >> reporter: waymo and cruise say its own research has found its driverless cars are in some ways safer than human drivers. neither company has experienced a single death. waymo has traveled more than 7

million miles, cruise more than 5 million. human drivers on average cause one death about every 100 million miles. >> i think all of us are struggling to understand whether they really are safer than human drivers and in what ways and in what ways they might not be. >> reporter: we humans have been forced onto a sort of test course for driverless cars. other drivers are guinea pigs. >> absolutely. all of us who live in areas where such cars are driving. >> reporter: california's dmv says it is working to update regulations. the next stop for these driverless cars could be new rules and more accountability. >> while self-driving cars are made possible by artificial intelligence, our next guest argues ai is actually not the technology doing the most

disruption this year. that title belongs to electric vehicles, he says. sahil, it's great to have you with us. obviously ai is a part of electric vehicles and almost everything we do these days. why do you believe it's actually electric vehicles that may have had the biggest impact? >> i think it starts can thinking about what impacts ai has already had in the year plus since chatgpt bursted onto the scene. chat bots are getting stuffed into every product and there's all this speculation about job losses and even ai that's smart enough to end humanity, but all that is still really speculative. meanwhile evs are not speculative at all. you have a huge boom in the number of americans who have bought evs this year, something

like 1.4 million. that's a 50% increase since the previous year. you have a burst of new models as well. with all the talk of job losses and disruption with ai, all that's happening with evs as the auto industry pivots from gas to electric. >> so it is inevitable that we're moving eventually someday to electric cars. the president has set that goal at 50% ev sales by the year 2030. in the last few months, electric vehicle sales have cooled a bit. what's behind that? >> i think it's largely unrealistic expectations from people inside the industry and outside. if you look at the most recent numbers, it's still something like a 50% increase in sales over the past year. so sales are still increasing. it's still solid sales numbers.

it's just not as high as what automakers had predicted. the thought that there could just be some inevitable quick transitions from gas cars to electric cars i think was always sort of unrealistic. this is a really big transition. cars have a really big role in the american conscious and how we think of our society. i think it was never going to be a quick transition. if you step back a bit, it's still been a pretty solid year. >> nearly a million and a half evs sold this year. coming up next here, a look at why 2023 indeed was the year of taylor swift, breaking records, becoming a billionaire, named time's person of the year. now harvard is creating an entire course to study taylor swift and her impact on the

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♪♪ ♪♪ as we look back at 2023, it is safe to say no one had a bigger year than taylor swift. savannah sellers takes a look at 2023, taylor's version. ♪♪ >> reporter: the results are in and seemingly everybody agrees this was taylor's year. she's "time's" person of 2023,

"people's" most intriguing and in the top five of "forbes" most powerful women. the world was enchanted to meet her. but taylor's not new. in fact, nearly a decade ago barbara walters said these famous words. >> taylor swift is the music industry. >> reporter: the year of taylor swift has been a long time coming. >> welcome to the eras tour! >> reporter: it might have had something to do with how she made us all feel. >> we love you, taylor! >> reporter: let's start with the highest grossing tour in history, spanning generations of taylor's music and her fans, mothers and daughters, millennials and gen z, swapping friendship bracelets and singing in the middle of parking lots throughout the 3 1/2 hour odyssey. so big her fans boosted local

economies. and we got to live it all over again in the film version of the show. >> i'm going to go to this movie at least 13 times. >> reporter: turning movie screenings into dance parties and sing alongs. 2023 saw the release of two of her recorded albums, part of her quest to own all of her music, meticulously recreating the song, giving us the treat of new so-called vault tracks and bringing back all the feels. and we were all ready for it. one news channel needed a reporter focused solely on taylor. >> there's a dedicated reporter to cover the beat of an entertainment celebrity. >> do you think the hype around the tour, the movie, the relationship has meant that taylor swift has found even more new fans this year? >> even with the nfl, we have seen her new relationship, that

she's pulling in those fans. she's bringing in audience members from all over. >> reporter: her new relationship brought a new legion of fans to the nfl with swifties hoping to watch her love story play out live. while we will remember this moment of total taylor dominance, you best believe she still has plenty up her sleeve with the tour heading to asia and europe. she's the mastermind, the man, the anti-hero we didn't know we needed. thank you, taylor, for helping us all dance like it's 2023. >> next semester, there will be a course at harvard university on taylor swift and her songs. it's titled "taylor swift and her world." joining us is the english professor who will be teaching that course, stephanie bird.

let's ask the obvious question. why a taylor swift english class at harvard of all places? >> a couple of reasons. i think a taylor swift class is justified anywhere you've got a professor who thinks about songwriting as an art form. it should and can be studied in literature classes. i love the music. i'm really into the music. i've wanted to teach a class focused on songwriting as an art form for a while. before the taylor explosion before took over the world, before it became clear how big she was and how big she was going to be, the other songwriters i admired enough to do this with were people like scott miller from game theory.

we're going to listen to some scott miller and dolly parton and joni mitchell and prince in this class, but taylor swift is popular enough that people will want to take this class and a major enough artist that it is very worth focusing on her art. she's also, because of how she writes and what she writes about, someone who's easy to connect to other kinds of literature, older kinds and different kinds. we're teaching a couple of novels about things that taylor writes about. we're teaching poets who have either formal or textural or emotional or thematic connections to what she's doing.

if you look in literature history for great works of art that feel and sound like the album reputation or shake it off, one of the things you get is early 18th century and they're both great. i wouldn't be doing this if i didn't love taylor's work and if she didn't have an existing fan base. i also would not be doing this if i did not want to connect her to other kinds of literature as well as to think about songs and songwriting. >> it sounds like a lot of fun. you've got more than 300 people who have signed up for this. no surprise there. you said, yes, it's important to educate students, which is part of this, but also there's real value in teaching people more about something they love onchts . >> oh yeah, if you had to take an english class, literature is

different from physics. it's a little bit under 300, i'm afraid. it might go over 300 or they don't like me after all, it will go down. if you want people to read older or less obviously popular literature, the best thing you can do is connect it to things people already like. you have to do it sincerely. if red weren't one of my favorite records ever made, i wouldn't be doing this. >> have you extended an invitation for taylor to speak to the class? >> she is a bit busy. we are expecting to have ryan west, the taylor swift reporter. if taylor swift would like to visit the class, of course we'd welcome that, but she is a

little bit busy so we are not expecting that at all. >> professor stephanie burt, have fun with that. >> thank you very much. up next, protections for election workers to mandates for toy sections, a look at some of the new laws that will take effect in states across the country next year. "morning joe" will be right back. "morning joe" will be right back having diabetes can raise a lot of questions. like my morning ride, will it help lower my glucose? with the freestyle libre 2 system, you can know where your glucose level is

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live picture of the united states capitol, 9:49 on a friday morning. a wide-ranging set of new laws will go into effect in states across the country on monday, the first day of the new year. justice correspondent ken dilanian has details.

>> reporter: after threats drove away half the state's top election officials, nevada took action. starting january 1st, those who harass, intimidate or harm election workers performing their duies in the state could face up to four years in prison under a new law that unanimously passed the legislature. >> 80% of our election workers are women. those are our daughters, wives, sisters and mothers. >> reporter: the law makes one of a handful of states where threats to election workers cam, the law makes nevada one of the handful of states where threats to election workers are a felony. >> we can't run elections without people. they are our unsung heros. >> reporter: in tennessee a new law penalizes people for distracted driving. the measure is named for a local businessman who died in 2020

accident. >> if it's just one life we save, my dad would be honored. >> reporter: california is requiring stores with more than 500 employees to offer gender neutral toy sections. >> why would it be a dinosaur or truck would be in the boy's section or glitter or paint would be in the girl's section. let's allow kids to be kids. >> you've seen all the criticism of this. how do you respond to that? >> this bill was inspired by the private sector. target and so many others are going this direction. it's a manufactured controversy saying it's a potentially woke government. >> reporter: in louisiana the stay legislature overruled a governor's veto for transgender care. critics say the new law won't

survive a court challenge. >> it's my belief this bill is unconstitutional. i believe the courts will declare that. >> reporter: pennsylvania toughened penalties who fail to stop for red lights on school buses. michigan is allowing 16-year-olds to preregister to vote. >> ken dilanian reporting. coming up next, an incredible rescue in the state of indiana police are calling a miracle.

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finally this morning, a story of survival in indiana. a man was trapped in a crashed pickup truck for six days was rescued by two fisherman. nbc ne correspondent shaquille brewster has the latest. >> reporter: this man stuck in a truck under the highway for six

days. >> it's a miracle he was found. >> reporter: police say mario garcia was scouting for fishing holes when they spotted something. >> you didn't know it was a car. >> it just looked like a bunch of metal. it was mangled up. >> reporter: they say they walked up and found this man pinned inside. police say the car drove on the grass shoulder, went airborne ending up on this side of the creek. >> i woke him up and he looked at me with his eyes wide open, like the biggest relief you've ever seen on a person. he was saying, are you real? >> reporter: police say he drank rain water to survive. >> his shear determination that he wasn't going to die. >> reporter: tonight his family says he's in the critical condition and grateful to be found. >> he asked for our names and

said, thank you very much. >> reporter: an afternoon walk -- >> it's an act of god. >> reporter: -- turning into what these good samaritans called a holiday miracle. >> what an incredible story. that does it for us this morning and this year. we're so grateful to you for waking up with you every morning. joe, mika and i will see you next week as we turn to 2024 and a historic presidential race. happy new year, everyone. ♪ we'll take a cup of kindness ♪ ♪

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