over to the house. tonight speaker mike jauns has released a statement. in part, quote, the house will have to continue to work its own will on these important matters. it's not at all clear mike johnson and republicans have anything approaching a unified will or republicans are in any position to know what that will might be. there's even talk amongst some house republicans of circumventing speaker mike johnson or doing it without him. who knows? watch this sfas. that's going to do it for us tonight. "way too early" with jonathan lemire is up next. now, let's make one thing clear, donald trump's never come anywhere near a military uniform. apparently he had bone spurs and that's why he couldn't serve. the most harm he's ever come across is whether a golf ball

hits him on a golf cart. >> that's republican presidential candidate nikki haley responding to donald trump's comments about her husband who is serving overseas. we'll have more from the campaign trail in just a moment. we'll also bring you the very latest from capitol hill where a group of republican senators is several hours into a filibuster on a stand alone foreign aid bill. you're looking at live pictures right now 5:00 a.m. this comes as the biden administration is weighing whether to with hold military aid to israel over humanitarian concerns in gaza. good morning and welcome to "way too early" on this tuesday, february 13th. i'm jonathan lemire. thanks for starting your day with us. a republican senator says that america's nato allies need to get over comments made by donald

trump over the weekend when he encouraged russia to attack them. on capitol hill yesterday roger marshall of kansas was asked about those remarks from trump on saturday. here's what the former president said followed by marshall's response. >> one of the presidents of the big countries say, sir, if we don't pay and we're attacked by russia, will you protect us, i said you didn't pay, you're delinquent. he said, yes, let's say that happened. no, i would not protect you. in fact, i would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. you got to pay. you got to pay your bills. >> i just encourage people not to overreact. i've learned a long time ago not to react to what president trump says or what he tweets. i think people should take everything he says seriously but not literally. vladimir putin is scared to death of donald trump. he treats joe biden like his boy, like his puppet.

>> we're from poland, sir, and those comments called waves in our country and otherkeep countries and our region. how can we rely on a person who tells russia they can do whatever they want. >> what do you say it those countries panicked about what he just said? >> they need to get over it. they need to stand up and get tough. >> great diplomacy there. trump for his part continues to double down on his false claim nato members are required to pay some sort of dues. in a social media post yesterday he reiterated his point, claiming he, quote, made nato strong as president by threatening to with hold u.s. military support. we'll have more on this story throughout the morning. meanwhile, ren presidential candidate nikki haley, launched a new attack against trump in south carolina yesterday after the former president criticized her husband over the weekend. during a campaign event in the city of elgin, haley blasted

trump for questioning her husband's whereabouts while he serves in the u.s. military overseas. >> he showed that with that kind of disrespect for the military, he's not qualified to be the president of the united states because i don't trust him to protect them. >> haley also went after trump on social media writing this. "you show your true self when you go off the teleprompter and it's telling." despite all of that during a tv interview yesterday haley still refused today rule out supporting trump if he's the eventual gop nominee. >> are you not going to commit to you voting for him if he becomes the nominee? >> what i'm saying -- what i said from the very beginning when there were 14 candidates on the stage that any one of the 14 would be better than joe biden. >> meanwhile, house republicans are focusing on the newly

released hur report, the special counsel, as part of their impeachment probe into president biden. the republican chairman of the three committees leading the inquiry, the ways and means committee, judiciary and oversight have sent a lest to attorney general merrick garland request aglitany of documents and transcripts from the special counsel's investigation on president biden's handling of classified documents. among the requests all documents and communications including audio and video related to the snrt view of president biden and all communications between the doj, the office of the president, and the president's personal counsel. the letter asks garland to produce the information by next monday. house republican leadership has leaned into the report since it was released last week despite pressing no charges against biden, the special counsel robert hur used the report to overtly question the president's mental state. the gop-led committees are also

in talks with hur to testify about this investigation. the white house did not immediately respond to an nbc news request for comment. i reported over the weekend, though, their frustrations with garland have grown. they feel like he should have had better control over the special counsel process, and the president himself has been personally upset over the handling of the investigation into hunter bide squn january 6th as well. joining us now national politics reporter for bloomberg. good morning, stephanie, we really appreciate you joining us this morning. there's an extraordinary amount of hypocrisy on display here. house republican leadership rereading a statement last week. so this is the republicans going after joe biden and completely ignoring that donald trump did exactly the same, and trump unlike biden was charged for it. talk to us, if you will, about the latest political calculations. >> certainly. if you look at it really house

republicans are playing into the political aspect of this report. they're focusing very much on biden's mental acuity, pulling statements from the fact he had -- the report stated he had significant memory limitations, all of which don't look really great for biden. this comes just nine months before the general election, and they're really trying to make the argument biden isn't capable of leading a second term. while he pointed out the hypocrisy, they're trying to circumvent that and focus on what they can onto convince the american voters trump would be a better alternative than biden in the general election. >> certainly from the biden campaign they point out, look, donald trump makes misstatements as well, but more than that he's also saying things he means, like, russia, go ahead and attack nato countries. it seems the biden world has seized upon those comments

rightly so in recent days. that argument will break through the voters in the same way some concerns about the president's age have. >> really time will tell whether or not these arguments will help the biden campaign. you know, donald trump has been really great and really -- his team has been really strong at trying to down-play the news as it comes. we already know very clearly that he has quite isolationist stances when it comes to foreign policy. he's made it clear in his rallies that he wouldn't support allies that fail to meet their foreign commitments and provide more monetary aid. and of course this comes as a concern to people who think that trump would potentially pull out of nato in a second term, and it reignites fears that he wouldn't supply ukraine with enough aid to support itself in its war with russia. so we know very clearly how donald trump feels about these issues. it's really matter if that is enough of an issue for the

american voter. and so right now we're really focused on these kind of, you know, more minute issues like age and acuity instead of the foreign policies that either leaders have put forth. >> and stephanie, lastly and icly, there's been some democrats to combat this narrative of a president's age, his team needs to put him out there to engage with the media more, engage where the public more. we heard from him yesterday in jordan, he didn't take any questions, though. do we think the white house tactics are going to change? >> i think it's too soon to say. i think the white house team has been quite clear about what they do and don't want reporters to have access to. the president did speak several times yesterday, and so his -- you know, whether or not he responds to every single instance where reporter is asking a question, you know, might not necessarily be a good indication of what the white house does or doesn't want him to do.

>> all right. thank you for starting us off this morning, national politics reporter for bloomberg stephanie lai. we fern now to the donald trump's latest efforts to slow down his election interference case. trump's legal team yesterday asked the supreme court to put on hold the ruling from a federal appeals court. last week the three judges rejected the argument that trump has presidential immunity for his actions in the leads up to and on the day of the january 6th insurrection. if the supreme court denies trump's request, the case would go back to washington-based judge tanya chutkan. earlier this month judge chutkan delayed the march 4th trial dale until the question of trump's immunity is decided. still ahead here, house republicans are expected to launch another impeachment effort against homeland security secretary alejandro mayorkas later today. but do they have the votes this time after failing last time? and these right here are live pictures from the senate where

we expect to see a vote on a stand alone foreign aid bill this morning, but some republicans as you can see are trying to delay things. we'll bring you much more on that as well as a check on sports and weather when we come right back. orts and weather whe right back

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welcome back. to capitol hill now are house speaker mike johnson is throwing cold-water on an aid bill for ukraine, israel, and taiwan, saying congress needs to address border security. in a new statement johnson writes in part this. the mandate of national security supplemental legislation was to secure america's own border before sending additional foreign aid around the world. a reminder, the senate had a carefully crafted bipartisan border security and foreign aid bill that was killed by senate republicans last week as former president trump hopes to run on

the issue. johnson also said that bill would be deld on arrival in the house. and happening now as you can see, live pictures, the senate is set to hold a final vote on a stand alone foreign aid bill shortly, perhaps even beginning in the next few minutes. however, a group of conservative republicans including kentucky senator rand paul and florida senator marco rubio, has been attempting to slow its passage through speeches on the floor of the upper chamber overnight. majority leader chuck schumer, democrat of new york, gave a stern warning of his own yesterday on the needs to get this aid to our allies. take a listen. >> the entire world is going to remember what the senate does in the next few days. nothing -- nothing would make putin happier right now than to see congress waver in its support for ukraine. nothing would help him more on the battlefield. and if some people think putin's going to stop, that ukraine if they think it's somehow better to reason with him, to appease

him, to hear him out, then -- the appetites of autocrats are never ending. >> we'll keep you posted of developments in the senate as the morning continues. we're also now getting an inside look into how donald trump will pursue his extreme immigration policies if he's elected today a second term. citing a source familiar with the plan trump plans to crack town on immigration by using a range of tools to deport millions of people in the united states each year are including the ability to mobilize i.c.e. agents along with the fbi, federal prosecutors, and even the national guard to carry out the deportations of undocumented immigrants. fast track deportations would be expanded to apply to anyone who illegally crosses the border and couldn't prove they've been living in the u.s. for more than two years. and the military will build massive sites near the border to

hold people awaiting deportation. the biden campaign was quick to respond, slamming trump's reported plan this way. trump is more interested in using the border as a hollow political talking point and has inside put forward a cool, anti-american plan to round up millions of people, build mass detention camps, and rip children away from their parents. trump's cruelty and xenophobia aren't just politically toxic, they're not who we are as americans and are an alarming reminder why donald trump belongs nowhere near the oval office. next up here we'll turn to sports and a controversial call at the end of the new york houston game that has the knicks crying foul. plus, super bowl lviii was run for the record books. we'll tell you the historic number of viewers that tuned into the game. those stories plus a check on the weather when "way too early" comes right back. n the weather enwh "way too early"

comes right back

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looking to get it in. over to green, a bit of a dangerous pass. working on achua, baseline, picked it up, towards the rim. called a foul. >> the houston rockets narrowly beat the new york knicks last night thanks to a controversial foul call at the buzzer. as you just saw new york's jalen brunson was whistled while defending against houston's tie breaking three point attempt, a desperate heave as time expired in regulation, setting up a pair of free throws the rockets made them 105-103. houston wins. the problem, the refs got it wrong. the officiating crew chief admitting after a post-game review of the play that a foul should not have been called, but

probably too little, too late to help the knicks there. to toronto now and a rare finish in the nba's number one overall draft pick. the spurs victor wembanyama is the first victy since the 1990s with ten blocks and a triple-double with a game high. and he led the spurs to a 122-99 win over the raptors. in cleveland the cavaliers could not complete a late comeback push against the philadelphia 76ers last night. philly escaping with just their third victory in the last 11 games. also ends the cavs winning streak at nine games. to football as you might have guessed super bowl lviii was the most watched program in television history. according to nielsen and adobe analytics, the kansas city chiefs overtime victy against the san francisco 49ers sunday evening averaged over 123

millven viewers across tv and streaming platforms shattering last year's mark of just over 115 million. neilson also said at least 200 million watched part of the game uh-uh cross all networks, overthrow thriller plus taylor swift shots. the celebration continues for the chiefs, quarterback patrick mahomes returned continuing a post-super bowl tradition that's coined for four decades there in southern california. tomorrow they'll host a super bowl party for the chiefs expected to draw an especially large crowd due to unseizeaniably warm weather and yes the possibility of one special fan making an appearance. taylor swift has not yet said whether she'll join the chiefs in kansas city. the pop star on a tight schedule due to the latest stops on her

heiress tour. we saved the best for last. major league baseball spring train has arrived. exhibition games beginning at the end of the month. opening day set for march 28th, 15 games scheduled that day featuring all 30 teams. we cannot wait for that. so that will feel like spring. today at least here in the north east feels like winter. time now for the weather, and meteorologist angie lassman is here with the forecast. angie, we're getting some snow. >> a weather whiplash and now we're talking about a winter storm that is slowly but surely working its way through the area. we've already got the rain. we've got more than 40 million people under these winter alerts and notice some of this has turned to snow. that's what we're going to be dealing with for this early morning commute. wauld, this wraps up pretty quick into the late morning hours. philadelphia and new york, looks like it'll go right up until

noon, 1:00 where we see that steady snowfall tapering off. the gusty winds going to stick with us. even after the snow is long gone. farther to the north places like boston we'll see that last into the afternoon. we'll see the snow start to taper off. when if comes to the totals, there's been a lot of fluctuation with this as the forecast has been a tricky one. looks like places in new york 3 to 7 inches expected. providence up to 8 inches. boston's totals have come down significantly, 2 to 4 inches expected there. philadelphia about 1 to 3 inches. we got to look back way to january 2022 to see snowfall like this across the north east. i have a feeling some of these snow lovers are going to be excited to get an inch of snow in places. >> snow in new york city but not a snow day. my kids have school, remote learning, though. that's the zoom era. no more snow days. >> what a bummer. >> they're disappointed. angie lassman, thank you so very much.

still ahead on "way too early," new york's third congressional district is holding a special election today to replace disgraced republican congressman george santos. we'll talk about the impact of that race when we come right back. race when we come right back

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welcome back to "way too early." it is now just before 5:30 a.m. on the east coast, so 2:30 out west on this tuesday morning. i'm jonathan lemire. thanks for being with us. today house lawmakers are expected to hold another vote

over whether to impeach homeland security secretary alejandro mayorkas. the hill is reporting that republicans expect today's vote to pass unlike last time because today house majority leader steve scalise is expected to be present. with everyone else as present and the votes fall the same way as they did last time with scalise's vote now added, the measure will just barely pass. republicans have been accusing mayorkas of a willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law, and a breach of trust, they claim, as it relates to his handling of the southern border. on "meet the press" on sunday, mayorkas called the claims against him baseless allegations, and of course, even if this measure passes in the house, it will surely be defeated in the senate. meanwhile, in just a few hours polls roll open for in-person voting in new york's third district for the highly anticipated special election to replace disgraced former congressman george santos.

the close race pits nassau county legislator against a former congressman. polling is giving swazi a razor thin lead, but residents say crime and the border are top election issues, two subjects playing in the republicans favor. the election is being perceived by some as a bellwether which party has the edge to win house control in november. although certainly there are some unique characteristics to races in new york and migration, definitely more acutely felt there than perhaps other places. joining us now politics reporter at semafor. thanks for joining us this morning. polling is showing a tight race in this special election. democrats have told me they feel pretty good about it, and the snowstorm the region is getting today could complicate in-person voting, which in-person voting tends to help republicans. we'll see if that plays a role or not. the bigger issues are things

like immigration. give us your sense as we look at the polls here a very tight race. how today might go and what lessons might we draw for november. >> yeah, so, this is really up in the air. really big implications. for one it gives republicans an extra seat, you know, for these razor thin votes that they've been able to pass or not been able to pass in the house. but it also could serve as a morale booster for democrats should they, you know, be able to flip that seat once again that was flipped in 2022. so we're kind of up in the air in terms of what's going to happen. about 70,000 people voted in early voting. but like you mentioned historically democrats will participate in early voting, but republicans usually come out on the day of. because of inclement weather it's not clear whether that's

going to slow republicans down or impact the vote, but that's something democrats have been saying. >> certainly, there does seem to be a lot of emotions attached to this race because it would be a nice morale boost for democrats if they were to win. if they were to lose the george santos seat, that would be a real blow. so we'll certainly follow that as the day continues. so let's shift now to the building behind you. and as mentioned the republicans are going to try once again to impeach homeland security secretary mayorkas. what's your sense to those you're talking to, what's the whip count? is this going to pas today? >> the whip count, it's funny you should say that. we saw that last week not go forward, so republicans are putting it back on the table again today. now, this is going to come back to attendance. republicans seem assured that because steve scalise is coming back they're not going to have a problem with passing this. and then you have to think are democrats -- or someone like

dean philips going to come into -- come up the trail to come to a vote or participate in a vote that they likely won't win? and so it's going to come down to attendance. i know some republican new yorkers are knocking doors up until the last minute. it's a matter of them being able to get back to new york. but it seem likely republicans will vote to impeach mayorkas. >> all right, political stunt to be sure. we'll talk to you again soon. next up here we'll go live to cnbc for the morning's top business headlines including a mega-deal between two texas oil companies. we'll talk about what that massive merger might mean for the price of gas. plus why chocolate prices might break your heart this valentine's day. we'll be right back with that. s. we'll be right back with that.

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welcome back as it's time now for business, and for that let's bring in cnbc's joumanna bercetche who joins us live from london. good morning, joumanna. stock futures are marginally lower this morning as invests await a key inflation report, which is due out before the bell. we can see the red on the board. what should we be expecting? >> yeah, that's right. futures are leaning towards mix off. we only saw the dow and the day in positive territory, the s&p and nasdaq ending in the red. one of the stocks was tesla. tesla is the second worst performing stock on the s&p 500 this year, so that is interesting. but today the focus, of course, is going to be on that u.s. cpi print. economists are expecting the headline figure to come in at 2.9%. that is down from 3.4% last month. the core figure is expected to slow to 3.7 down from 3.9% last month. the question, of course, john,

is how this is going to impact the fed and the fed's thinking. the market is 20% pricing in a probability of a rate cut in large, but 1 sobasis points of cuts are priced in for the year versus the fed's own forecast of 75 of cuts. two large oil producers are joining forces in a deal valued at a cool $26 billion. how might this impact prices at the pump? >> yeah, absolutely. so big deal. diamondback energy said on monday they're going to be buying the largest privately held oil and gas pruder valued at $26 billion including debt. the combined company would be the third largest oil and gas producer in the region behind exxon and chevron. you may recall there's been a lot taking place. exxon bought pioneer natural

resources for about 60 billion there is. these public, private tie ups are put together to increase longevity of the product but create more cash flow so these companies can give more cash to their shareholders. as you know it's been a record year in terms of output. >> and lastly we've got valentine's day tomorrow, and it seems like the price of chocolate has gone up. tell us why. >> yeah, you might not get one chocolate, you might end up getting half a chocolate, john, because the price of chocolate is a lot more expenseb. cocoa prices reached an all-time high yesterday. that is $1,000 higher in the year, about 40% higher. namely the culprit is as you might expect weather related. bad yields have been hurting crop yields in west africa home to around three quarters of the world's production. el nino weather phenomenon is

impacting crop yields in ghana and the vivary coast. the two largest producers of cocoa beans. and some analysts told cnbc this isn't a one off thing. >> all right, cnbc's joumanna bercetche live from london, thank you. we have appreciated it. still ahead on "way too early" we'll bring you the latest on israel's war with hamas including how deadly air strikes in gaza could impact u.s. aid for israel. we'll be right back with that. u. we'll be right back with that. [stomach growling] it's nothing... sounds like something. ♪when you have nausea, heartburn, indigestion♪ ♪upset stomach, diarrhea♪

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welcome back. as we look again live now to capitol hill where at this very moment senators have begun voting on the final passage of the $95 billion foreign aid bill that includes support for ukraine, israel, and taiwan. some senate republicans

vehemently opposed the bill and gave hour long speeches last night to delay the passage because the legislation did not include border provisions stronger than the bipartisan border package they already rejected, mind you a package crafted by their fellow republicans. joining us now president emeritus on the counsel on foreign relations, our friend richard hoss. good morning. we just showed the live pictures on the senate floor. the voting is under way. it does appear set to pass, but seems very unlikely to then get through the house. speaker johnson once again last nights suggested he was opposed. so if that is the case, if this aid falls through, talk to us about the risks for ukraine in particular. and who'd have thought the biggest split in washington would be between senate and house republicans, jonathan. look, the obvious risk to ukraine we're already seeing which is shortage of ammunition, a shortage of arms.

ukraine has pretty much shifted to a less resource intensive defensive strategy, but even that is going to be hard to feed adequately if the united states doesn't provide significant amounts of aid. the europeans simply don't have the stock or production capability nor do others around the world to fill the gap so gradually russia will begin to regain territory, and that's essentially where we are. it kills any chance of diplomacy because the russians will see no reason to -- >> i think we lost richard's audio for a moment. we'll work to get that back. but certainly there's a lot of concern issued from kyiv about running out of weapons, running out of munitions, running out of supplies. and this also comes at a moment where there's a sense of momentum for russia because of what donald trump said over the weekend where he suggested he'd

encourage moscow to attack nato allies -- nato allies, ukraine not a nato ally but go one step further if they don't pay their dues. there's no dues that way, and european countries have upped their spending although not all perhaps to the 2% commitment some had made. we're continuing to watch now the voting on this $95 billion foreign aid bill. as mentioned speaker johnson last night said, though, it won't get anywhere in the house. and on the subject, of course, on foreign policy, this also stands to be an important week in how the administration, the biden white house, views israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu and his conduct of it war in gaza. rafah, the border city near egypt, which has one of the last remaining areas in gaza that to this point hadn't come under full aisraeli attack, it is where so many gaza civilians, those refugees have sought shelter, israel has begun their

attacks there. we know the biden administration has been clear that they felt that would only be appropriate if safe passage could be given to civilians, and they could be given some sort of safe harbor elsewhere in gaza, but there's nowhere else for them to go, making that a very challenging proposition. we heard from national security spokesman john kirby and the president himself in recent days saying in order for israel to go into rafah, they needed to give safe harbor to those civilians. seems, though, the israeli military not waiting to do that. and the air strikes have stepped up. and there's a moment now debate in the biden white house as to what the response to that should be. should there be perhaps restrictions attached to funding to israel? could president biden come out firmer against prime minister netanyahu publicly? we know privately he has certainly chastised israel's conduct of this war.

the president in jordan yesterday talked about this and did speak about the need for more humanitarian aid help there for those in gaza. that humanitarian also at stake in the senate and seems it won't get through the house. up next president biden found a new way to woo young voters. the social media platform his campaign is using to expand his reach despite national security concerns from his own administration. we'll get into that on "way too early." and coming up on "morning joe," donald trump is asking the supreme court to pause a ruling that denies him absolute immunity, now putting the fate of his criminal case in the hands of the nine justices. we'll dig into his delay tactic and what's likely to happen next. plus, in just a few minutes voters will brave the snow to head to the polls in new york's special election to fill the seat of ousted republican george san toast, a competitive race now considered a pure toss up.

steve kornacki will be at the big board to help break down what's at stake. "morning joe" just a few moments away. t stake. "morning joe" just a few moments away nexium 24hr prevents heartburn acid before it begins. get all-day and all-night heartburn acid prevention with just one pill a day. choose acid prevention. choose nexium. jordan's sore nose let out a fiery sneeze, so dad grabbed puffs plus lotion to soothe her with ease. puffs plus lotion is gentle on sensitive skin and locks in moisture to provide soothing relief. a nose in need deserves puffs indeed. america's #1 lotion tissue.

welcome back. as we turn to the race for the white house, new polling shows donald trump has a sizable lead over nikki haley in her home state of south carolina. according to a new cbs/ugov poll, 65% of voters say they support trump, versus just 30% for haley. last month on "meet the press," haley said her standard for success in south carolina was performing better than she did in new hampshire. that now seems unlikely. remember, she got 43% of the vote in the granite state. this could be a humbling loss for her in her home state, casting doubt as to the future of her campaign. meanwhile, the biden campaign says more than 5 million people watched the president's first tiktok video less than 24 hours after it was posted. biden joined the social media app and answered super bowl themed questions. humorous, mostly. it came after a series of polls showing the president struggling with young voters in a hypothetical 2024 matchup against donald trump.

in an nbc news survey taken last month, tiktok users 18 to 24, 44% said they'd back trump, compared to 42% for biden. non-tiktok using voters, 43%, biden leading trump to 40%. reporter for "the hill," julia manchester. let's start with the president's standing among young voters. tiktok is one thing. the campaign going to tiktok opened itself to criticism because there are national security concerns about an app run out of china with ties to the chinese communist party. the campaign says they have security safeguards in place. but beyond reaching out on tiktok, how concerned are democrats about biden's standing with young voters, and what else are they going to try to do? >> jonathan, there is a real concern. we've seen these polls where young voters voice concerns not only about biden's age but also

his policies on the israel-hamas war, for example, the push for student loan debt relief, environmental concerns. these are all policy areas we could see the president sort of continue to highlight over the next few months an effort to really galvanize the young voter base. i do have questions about their strategy. going back to the super bowl on sunday night, i was surprised that biden didn't -- decided not to do that, you know, traditional pre-super bowl interview that presidents often do. this was a super bowl where you had people of all ages, many young people, young women, for example, watching for superstars like taylor swift and beyonce. it seems like a prime opportunity to reach those voters. i was a little confused about why they didn't do that. but tiktok seems to be definitely a strategy to meet those voters where they are. >> let's spend a little bit more on that biden strategy. you know, as noted earlier, we did see the president publicly

yesterday. he didn't take questions. we know he did a few days ago in the wake of the special counsel report that challenged his memory. that exchange with reporters got heated. democrats think he didn't do himself any favors there. when you speak to members of the president's party, what do they want to see to combat this narrative, fair or not, that he's too old for the job? >> i think they want to see him -- there's two schools of thought. one school of thought would say they'd like to see him out publicly doing things like tiktok or even these press availabilities, i should say, with people like the king of jordan. you know, i thought it was interesting yesterday, he was talking about an issue that a lot of young voters really care about, and that's the israel-hamas war. he was taking a much more sympathetic stance toward the palestinians. i mean, depending on who you talked to, but it was more sympathetic than we've seen in the past yesterday. maybe that could potentially, you know, play slightly better with those voters. but then there's another school

of thought that says, look, if we put him out in public too much, you risk doing what happened last thursday night with that impromptu press conference. so it's really difficult going forward because he is older. he's not as quick on his feet, so there's concern going forward on that regard. >> we, of course, should take a moment to note that donald trump only a couple years younger than joe biden, also prone to verbal missteps and certainly dangerous rhetoric that threaten america's long held alliances like nato. >> right. >> trump is now name dropping potential running mates should he secure the republican nomination for president, as seems likely. among the names floated, senator tim scott who backed the ex-president over nikki haley who as governor appointed scott to his senate seat. julia, talk to us about tim scott. the dynamics with those candidates and also what he theoretically could bring to a trump ticket. >> tim scott could obviously open the door potentially to the

african-american base for trump. now, do i think black voters are going to vote overwhelming for trump whether or not he picks tim scott as his vp? no. however, we have seen polling that would suggest that black men, in particular, could be slightly moved by the former president because we've seen weaknesses in the democratic coalition under biden. i think that could potentially open the door. i think tim scott is someone, while he is very conservative, he is someone who is even keeled in his rhetoric. he could appeal to some of these more moderate or independent voters. that being said, though, a lot of republicans i talk to say that, you know, choosing a woman of color, even a woman vice president might be a better pick for the president trump if he is going to pick a vp soon. we know that the president has struggled with female voters, particularly independent suburban women voters. two schools of thought there, as well. >> certainly some republicans and trump allies i've spoken to say they think the pick should be, indeed, a woman.

it likely won't be, though, nikki haley. let's talk about her for a moment now. i mean, look, she's been on the attack, very tough on trump for several weeks. as we noted, the poll in south carolina is pretty grim. she seems poised to lose big in her home state. she's doing a service here for the american people, one could argue. certainly the biden administration is glad she's in and takes the attacks to trump. the money is there, she's got it, but is she going to stay in even if losses keep racking up to super tuesday and beyond? >> theoretically, if the money is still there, she could stay in. however, we've seen what's happened to past candidates, like marco rubio in 2016, when they lose their home state and lose it big to former president trump. i think there's questions about what that would do to their momentum. but i think a lot of haley candidates look at the super tuesday map and see some potential for growth there in states where independents and,

you know, can vote and there's moreprimaries, more of a moderate electorate. that being said, if south carolina happens, especially after what we saw in nevada, and the writing is on the wall that donald trump is the republican nominee, it is hard for me to see how the rest of the republican electorate would overwhelmingly back nikki haley if the momentum is on trump's side. >> national politics reporter for "the hill," julia manchester, covering a lot of ground for us this morning. we appreciate it. thank you, julia. thanks to all of you for getting up "way too early" with us on this tuesday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. the footage of the president unable to recall simple facts must have been brutal to watch. >> james webb. >> i don't remember the names. i don't remember the name. i don't remember ever buying something for myself. >> do you recall what years you were married to ms. maples?