in the eye of the nato alliance. but he can't pull out per se. but without american faces in brussels the nato alliance looks very, very different. and it would be more incumbent on the europeans and large countries to lead in a way that they have not before and try to fill those gaps for the united states. which it must be said, those gaps aren't really fillable. the united states is the first among equals in the nato alliance. without the united states leading the way, it's difficult for the alliance to do anything. >> certainly the u.s., the indispensable nation in nato. the u.s. were to weaken its position there, that would be a gift to vladimir putin. national security and military reporter for politico, paul mcclearly, thank you for joining us this morning. thanks to all of you for getting up way too early with us on this wednesday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. trump has endorsed his daughter-in-law, lara trump, to co-chair the rnc. you know what, his son-in-law

totally fixed the middle east. why not let his daughter-in-law fix the republican party. my very talented daughter-in-law has agreed to run as the rnc co-chair. lara is an extremely talented communicator and dedicated to all that maga stands for. she told me she wants to accept this challenge and would be great. eric, his wife got more compliments this that one post than his father gave him in his entire life so far. >> while donald trump is busy meddling with rnc leadership, president biden is pushing the republican-controlled house to pass a foreign aid package. and calling out trump for his latest un-american comments. but on capitol hill, speaker mike johnson and the gop tackled the -- not so pressing issue of impeaching the homeland security secretary. a move that's being called a waste of time by both sides of the aisle. that's because it is.

it does literally nothing. good morning. and welcome to "morning joe." well, it hurts them. >> makes them look dumber, if that's possible. >> oh, it's valentine's day and i have a present for you. >> do you really? >> should we get it? >> on-air presentation. let's do it. >> i'm going to do it on air. should we right now? >> no, sorry, joe. >> along with mika, willie and me -- >> it wouldn't be your choice, alex? >> what do we have here. >> he doesn't think i'm -- alex really just pass it to me. >> this better be mainstream, okay? this better be like in between the guardrails if we're doing -- well. >> let's put it right here. >> she's -- remember when she brought the cat. >> yeah. >> out of her purse, as i recall. >> yeah. >> yeah. i don't want any of that. >> well, then you might not want to open this. we'll see. >> willie, wael see. we'll get to this in a second. >> is it shaking? is it meowing? >> nothing meowing yet. i'm very concerned.

>> i'm very concerned about that. it's never good. it's never good. so any way, willie, we're all nervous. >> it's so good. okay. we'll put this aside and do this later. willie, the big news in the political world sure to shake up the republicans, yet another loss in an off year election. i mean, the republicans just continue to lose. they continue to underperform. this continues to happen in the age of trump. if you're running in a special election, in the age of trump, you're most likely going to lose. i mean, democrats just over -- donald trump has turned the democratic party into the kansas city chiefs of special elections. it's always -- tl always a reaction. and there was again last night. >> oh, yeah. >> yeah. >> this district republicans should have won again. >> in a district that donald trump you won in 2020. a district that george santos took in 2022.

and now it goes back to the democrats. they're celebrating this morning after former congressman tom suozzi's special election win in new york's third district. the victory against nassau county legislature flips that district from red to blue, cutting the razor-thin majority closer. he replaces disgraced former congressman george santos who was ousted last year. the race seen as a well weather for november. he noted the national implications in his victory in new york last night. >> this race was fought amidst a closely-divided electorate. much like our whole country. this race was centered on immigration and the economy, much like the issues all across our country. we won this race. we, you, won this race.

[ cheers and applause ]. because we addressed the issues and we found a way to bind our divisions. the people of long island and queens are sick and tired of the political bickering. they've had it. they want us to come together and solve problems. so now we have to carry the message of this campaign to the united states congress and across our entire country. [ cheers and applause ]. let's send a message to our friends running the congress these days. stop running around for trump. and start running the country. [ cheers and applause ]. it's time to find common ground and start delivering for the people of the unite of america. >> after his win in new york, the biden campaign wrote in a

statement, donald trump lost again tonight. when republicans run on trump's extreme agenda even a republican-held seat, voters reject them. trump and the maga extremists in the house are already paying the political price for derailing a bipartisan deal to secure our borders and to fix our broken immigration system. nikki haley's campaign also reacted to last night's democratic victory in new york, writing, let's just say the quiet part outloud. donald trump continues to be a huge weight against republican candidates. until republicans wake up, we will continue to lose. time for a new generation of conservative leadership that doesn't turn off the american people. end quote. donald trump, as you can imagine, blamed anyone but himself for the loss, calling the republican candidate, a very foolish woman and saying his maga supporters stayed home again yesterday. so, joe, i think i misspoke. i said trump won in 2020. joe biden won by eight points in

2020. flips to republican eight points in 2022 and now this is looking like another eight-point win or so for the democrat tom suozzi, a known entity a guy people trust. the issues were immigration, which he leaned into and said, yes, we have a crisis. yes, we have to do something about the border and leaning into tissue of abortion as well. >> yeah. and here is the thing that we have been talking about everyday. over the last week or two. that has real world implications. and that is that there was a resolution to the southern border. that would have stopped illegal immigrants from streaming in across the southern border. that would have stopped fentanyl that's killing american kids from streaming across the american border. crime along the american border. and now in new york city, we're hearing all of this could have been stopped by a deal that

republican james lankford put forward, but donald trump told the republicans not to do it. and so there's going to be chaos at the border for the next year because of donald trump. and it had an impact in this race. tom suozzi was on the defensive on the issue of imdprags until that happened. and when that happened, when donald trump killed the bill, the reporters up there say, the entire issue turned on its head. suozzi leaned into it and won on the issue of immigration. stop for a second, erb. listen to what i just said. a democrat won on the issue of immigration. and so, i was so surprised when i was there. so surprised now that there are politicians that think they can do whatever they can do in congress and it won't catch up to them.

always shocked there because it always caught up with them. i'm still shocked that these maga extreme republicans and the speaker of the house are stupid enough to believe that you can openly say we're going to let fentanyl come across our border for the next year. we're going to let illegal immigrants come across our border for the next year because donald trump says blame me. we're going to do it. and it has real world implications. republicans lose again. 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, last night. and they aren't just losing because the stars are aligned against them. they're losing because one of self-inflicted trump wound after another. this is just the latest chapter and verse of that, willie. >> and voters are smart. they see through the nonsense. which is that the republican candidate here, opposed that

bill and said we have to do something about immigration. we have to do something about the border to which tom suozzi says i support the bill just put in front of us, bipartisan bill led by a conservative republican. we'll talk about this in a minute. republicans in the house continue down this path now without supporting foreign aid because they say they want something done on the border, which was just done over in the senate. let's go to the big board. nbc news political correspondent steve kornacki is standing by for us. steve, how did tom suozzi do it? >> yeah. basically he reversed what went wrong for democrats in 2022. take a look. just about all the vote counted here. few more to trickle in. suozzi eight-point advantage. this district is mostly on long island. this is nassau county, enormous county, new york suburbs on long island and touch of the district that's in new york city. it's the far edges of the queens. it's a part of queens that is kind of little more suburban in nature. this really is a classic

suburban district. the vast majority of the vote coming out of the nassau county portion of the district. here it's significant. tom suozzi, you can see won nassau by a five-point margin. when republicans won this seat. when george santos won this seat in 2022, santos won nassau county by 10 points. nassau county also -- there's been a lot of red waves happening in nassau county other the last couple years. republicans locally won the county executive office back in 2021. they won control of the county legislature. a lot of counties are run boards of commissioners. long island they have a county legislature. republicans have control of that. nassau county and long island itself in the suburbs to the east of new york city, in 2022, that's where the red wave actually hit. it missed in a lot of places of the country. that was the headline story from the 2022 midterms. democrats had a good fight. but one reason the democrats didn't have an even better night in 2022, and actually retained

control of the house, was the third district of new york and long island itself. so you can see, swa si in what has become pretty hostile, political terrain in the last couple years for democratic party, actually took a major county here, used to be the congressman, county executive, and took it from a republican double-digit win and won by five points. adds up to eight-point win districtwide for suozzi. this red wave that hit long island in 2022, that's one of the significances of this special election in the national context last night because, let me take you around some of the districts in the area, these are the 2022 results. as we say, george santos won this district by 7.5 points. the third district, go south. the south shore of long island, the fourth district. how about this one, this is a district that was won by a republican in 2022. this district voted for joe

biden in 2020 by 14 points. this was one of the biggest shockers of night in 2022 republicans and democrats. the republican won the seat that biden had won by 14 points. these two districts in the eastern end of long island, democrats thought they had a chance of picking off republicans. republicans won them both. this in 2022, sean patrick maloney, the 17th district, the chairman of the democratic congressional campaign committee, ran the entire democratic strategy in 2022, lost his own district in new york. that was a gain for republicans. then you go up to the syracuse area, this was a district where republican retired. democrats thought it was a golden pickup opportunity. they fell short here. it's all the long way of saying, i have just shown you six districts in new york in 2022. the democrats believe they had a shot at. they went 0 for 6. won five of them in 2022. they actually would have retained control of the house of representatives. you can argue democrats lost the house because of new york and

because of districts like the 30 in new york last night. so i think that makes it extra significant that in one of those districts where the red wave actually hit in 2022, new york's third congressional district, democrats went from losing by eight in 2022, 16-point swing by winning by eight last night. >> steve, are you surprised by the margin at all? polling had it neck in neck for the most part. there was a huge snowstorm yesterday which may have affected turnout. eight points is a pretty big spread. >> yeah. i think so. probably on the higher end of what folks were expecting. as we say, it was a five-point win. this is 2022 results. it was a five-point win for suozzi in nassau. in queens, he won by 23 points. democrats only won the queens portion of the district by four back in 2022. but i do think there's a turnout story here as well. kind of meshes with the national

story we have been telling for a few years. there are some pretty demographic differences between the queens portion of this district and the nassau county portion of this district. when you're talking about nassau county, as i say, obviously it's quintessential suburbia, the north shore of long island, in this district right here a lot of really wealthy towns there, a lot of towns with very high concentrations of college degrees. we have been talking for a number of years now, this is really a generation long story in american politics about the democrats really running up margins, massive margins, bigger and bigger each election among college-educated voters. and this nassau county portion of the district is just a wash in that type of voter. and i think when you're talking -- joe is talking about the success democrats have had in special elections, the last number of years, one of the things that's powered that is that that type of voter, that college-educated, democratic voter has become more and more activated and engaged politically and seems incredibly

energized to vote in any kind of election that takes place and ginn democrats in these special elections a real turn-out advantage. it was significant last night, right now the number may go up. but right now, 85% of the vote last night came out of nassau county and 15% came out of queens. and how is that different? in 2020 presidential election, right, that was 80% from nassau county and 20% from queens. so it was a five-point jump here in the share of the vote that came out of nassau county, which again, i think it speaks to those suburbs, especially the suburbs densely packed with voters with college degrees who have been trending democratic. i think they were probably on fire in nassau county yesterday. maybe not as much on the queens side of the border here. but that would be consistent with the story we have been seeing nationally for a while now. >> and you look at these numbers jonathan lemire.

look at the numbers up on the big board that now 85% of the vote came out of this area. and these are the type of people, just like rural america has been breaking more for trump, these sort of areas have been breaking more for democrats and for biden. and when people ask, what's the difference between the polls and election day? why do you think that biden is going to outperform when they ask me. i tell them this. when it is time to go vote, people who want to send a message to donald trump, who want to keep donald trump out of office, they will vote -- they'll weather snowstorms. they'll weather sleet. thunderstorms, lightning, no problem. they're going to go out and they're going to vote against donald trump. and this is again what i keep saying to my former republican friends. my former members of the

republican party, they're still my friends, members of the republican party say you don't understand. still, it's taken you seven years of losing and you still don't understand? going all the way back to 2017 when he talked about the women standing in long lines in the rain in virginia. >> exactly in virginia. >> just to send a message in 2017. they won the governorship and also they shocked the political world by what happened in the assembly seats. they still don't understand. let's look at those numbers again if we can put them up. 85% of the vote came from this part of the district. even outperformed what happened in 2020 because they are that energized and that engaged to send a message to donald trump. and that's going to happen across the country again this year. jonathan lemire.

>> donald trump is such a turnout driver we know for his base, just as much people turning out to vote against him who will brace snowstorms on election day. they vote early, by mail. that was a huge advantage for democrats in this race and we know that trump has railed against that in previous elections that these college educated voters are just so repulsed by what they see from trump and so turned off by what they see as republicans refusing to actually govern. that has been on full display this week in washington where they're standing against the border bill, saying against ukraine bill but yet proceeding with the impeachment of the homeland secretary mayorkas. suoz zrk i leaning into the immigration issue, look, republicans killed that bill. looks like voters responded. republican, had the idf background, the israeli military that i think probably played better a few months ago before sentiment about the war started to change in recent weeks.

abortion less of an issue perhaps in this race than others. but we know that's going to loom large come november. >> that will be a big one. >> huge. >> it will be about the suburbs. we know that. this is, as steve said, a quintessential suburban county, nassau county the birth of the suburbs. that will be replicated of atlanta, phoenix, milwaukee, of detroit and that's what's probably going to decide this election in november as well. >> by the way, we may see a replay of this election in a few months. this was a special election, of course. tom suozzi will head to washington immediately and then may run it back again in the fall. nbc steve kornacki, thank you so much, as always. let's bring in former white house director of communications for president obama, jennifer pal mary. "how to win 2024" podcast. how to win in 2024, tom suozzi leaning into immigration, providing a road map, it is an issue voters across the issue

say is at or near the top of their concerns. saying, yes, we have a problem and that's why i support this bipartisan deal out there. talking some about abortion, talking about the economy. what do you take away from a pretty convincing win as i said earlier, effectively a 16-point swing, george santos won by eight two years ago or less actually. now an eight-point win for tom suozzi. >> the amazing thing about this is what we're talking about, we're used to special elections where we say, well, a democrat won big because of abortion. a democrat won big because of immigration. immigration because of the democrat's biggest vulnerability, supposedly. if you live in this area, it is it was non. stop constant ads about immigration. suozzi went on the offense. she attacked him on immigration. he came back. he did an ad to defend himself. he did an ad to go on offense and say we need to do more. i'm going to do that.

and it's one thing to have a road map to win because people are concerned about abortion rates. but to win over immigration on the day -- this happens the day they go back and impeach mayorkas for no reason and don't do anything to pass a border security bill, it was pretty fitting end for that day in the house republicans. >> jen, moving forward, it seems the biden campaign and democrats have two key issues that americans can feel right now. they can comprehend completely as it pertains to their own lives right now. immigration and abortion. there's also foreign policy where joe biden has a lot of accomplishments but those for a lot of americans might be a little bit out of the realm of what they're thinking about day to day. same with the bipartisan legislation, job creation, things like that that seem more nebulous, doesn't seem to touch

the american voter's psyche. but now we have two. and i think one of them will drive women out there like there's no tomorrow. >> well, yeah. abortion rights, it wasn't -- la mere said this, it wasn't as big of an issue here. i just think in new york, even though she was -- even though pillip was not pro-choice. it's just not as prevident. there was a third party group that ran -- super pac that ran ads about it. it's not as prevalent as it is in other parts of the country. you add democrats win a race where immigration is the number one issue and partly that's because it's close to new york city, migrants are a big issue in new york city right now. i don't know that it will be as prevalent an issue in other places. with the advantage that democrats have on abortion rights. it seems like suozzi really cracked a code that democrats

could -- that they can model elsewhere. and that -- joe said this earlier, the stuff breaks through. one thing i saw one of the nbc reports from yesterday talking to voters, people want -- they don't like that the fact that republicans haven't gotten anything done. they don't like the fact -- they see that republicans are just playing games in d.c. and focussed on doing things like impeaching mayorkas and not passing a bipartisan border bill. that stuff is catching up with people. >> and it's been a do nothing congress from the beginning. and if you look at the numbers, just data, just look at the data, they passed less legislation. they've done less than any other house this session in a generation. not only are they doing nothing, they're going out of their way to actually kill compromise. i love hearing how voters -- stooe talked about this and

suozzi talked about this -- voters want to get things done. they want to elect people that get along with other members of congress. instead of getting things done for donald trump, are trying to get things done for their constituents and america right now. these house republicans, if you're a house republican, you have to be freaked out. you're not going to retain the majority unless things start changing radically soon. and you start working to get things done. but, what a message voters sent last night. again, on the night that the house impeached mayorkas, the same -- >> for not closing the border. >> the same house that refused to close the border, refused to stop fentanyl from streaming across the border, refused to stop illegal immigrants from streaming across the border. yes, that house. they're the ones who are now one

step closer to a democratic majority because of what happened last night. coming up in one minute, president biden denounces donald trump's comments on russia and nato as un-american. we'll play for you those new remarks. plus, it's still unclear whether the republican-controlled house will take up the bipartisan foreign aid package passed this week by the senate. instead focussing yesterday on months of work to impeach homeland security secretary mayorkas. we'll go over where things stand on capitol hill. "morning joe" is back in 60 seconds. apitol hill. "morning joe" is back in 60 seconds. struggling with the highs and lows of bipolar 1? ask about vraylar. because you are greater than your bipolar 1, and you can help take control of your symptoms with vraylar. some medicines only treat the lows or highs. vraylar treats depressive, acute manic, and mixed episodes of bipolar 1 in adults. proven full-spectrum relief for all bipolar 1 symptoms.

and in vraylar clinical studies, most saw no substantial impact on weight. elderly dementia patients have increased risk of death or stroke. call your doctor about unusual changes in behavior or suicidal thoughts. antidepressants can increase these in children and young adults. report fever, stiff muscles or confusion which may mean a life-threatening reaction or uncontrollable muscle movements which may be permanent. high blood sugar, which can lead to coma or death, weight gain and high cholesterol may occur. movement dysfunction and restlessness are common side effects. sleepiness and stomach issues are also common. side effects may not appear for several weeks. ask about vraylar and learn how abbvie could help you save. one of the presidents of a big country stood up said, well, 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. >> he said, if an ally didn't spend enough money on defense, he would encourage russia to, quote, do whatever the hell they want, end of quote. can you imagine? a former president of the united states saying that. the whole world heard it. the worst thing is he means it. no other president in our history has ever bowed down to a russian dictator. let me say this as clearly as i can, i never will. for god sake, it's dumb. it's shameful. it's dangerous. it's un-american. donald trump looks at this as if it's a burden. when he looks at nato, he doesn't see the alliance that protects america and the world. he sees a protection racket. i know this, i will not walk away. i can't imagine any other president walking away. for as long as i'm president, putin attacks a nato ally, the

united states will defend every inch of nato territory. >> joe biden and most intelligent people when they see nato, they see the alliance that took down the soviet union. and that's why vladimir putin hates it. and that's why donald trump hates it because he wants to, you know -- he wants to stay in vladimir putin's good graces. but here again, you have to go back to not just what donald trump said, not just the un-american drivel that sputtered out of his fat elvis' mouth, you have to look at the fact of how he set this up. he felt the need to make up a story. just completely make up a story. a leader of a big country said, sir -- first of all, there's so many things wrong with that. so many things, willie, wrong with that. leader of a big country? please. and then would say, sir, please.

not how it works at any of these places. and nobody would ask the question, what if we don't pay -- because that's not how it works. and everybody in foreign policy world, everybody in the nato knows, that's not how it works. it's not, quote, dues. it's not what -- i made them pay -- that's just so ridiculously stupid. and by the way, if you look at the contributions europe has made, since the beginning of the ukraine war, donald trump, he can shut his mouth. he has nothing to say on this point. because it's the europeans that just threw in $54 billion to keep ukraine afloat. and it's idiots like -- well, i'll just say, like some certain republican senators and members of the house. i do want to say this really quickly. and i would ask alex, don't yell

at me, please. >> what? >> it just shakes me up when alex yells at me in my ear. >> you get upset? >> i'm a gentle soul. >> i have a present for you. >> that scares me. >> valentine's day. >> i'm a gentle soul. let me see if i can find this. >> you're going to love it. >> let's talk about the honor roll here, willie. i'm dead serious. the republican senators who stepped up to support america, to support america's allies, to support israel and support ukraine. i'm so grateful for senators boozeman, capito, cassidy, collins, grassley, hoeven, kennedy, moran who gave a very impassioned speech on the floor. god bless him. murkowski, romney, rounds,

sullivan, thune, tillis, wicker, young and yes, senator mitch mcconnell. so, obviously there have been a lot of republicans, willie, who have done vladimir putin's bidding. very grateful for those republicans who stood up and, you know, john thune said -- i won't say exactly what john thune said in a closed door meeting. just stood up and basically told everybody to stop being wimps. to stand up, defend our allies and do the right thing. and these republicans senators we should all be very grateful that they did just that. >> they did. and there's a group of them that did not who quiver under threats from donald trump, of course. and have said, with straight faces, i'm not going to do anything for ukraine until we can do something about the damn border. they serve in the unite states

senate that just came up with a deal for the border. i know we're a broken record. this was their entire argument last week there was a bipartisan deal among those who voted against it. it's taking a strange turn. we heard ron johnson yesterday offering praise for vladimir putin. >> yeah. >> now republican senator tommy tubervillle -- >> they're praising, they're praising vladimir putin. >> scary. >> praising putin and blaming the united states, the united states for russia's war against ukraine. in a radio interview yesterday, tubberville pointed the finger at america and expressed sympathy for russian president vladimir putin. >> we forced this issue. we kept forcing nato all the way to eastern europe and putin just got tired of it. he said, listen, i do not want missiles on my border from the united states of america. it would be like russia coming to mexico and putting missiles in mexico.

i can understand what he's talking about. you can tell putin is on top of his game. one thing he said, it really rung a bell, the propaganda media machine, they sell anything they can to go after russia. they can't win. it's not going to happen. somebody needs to negotiate. donald trump will have it over with in a matter of weeks. >> putin is on top of his game. >> wow. >> says united states senator tommy tubervillle of alabama, talking about the murderous dictator who launched an unprovoked war against ukraine killing civilians for two years now. >> committing atrocities across ukraine. recently just killed an entire family in their home. what is he talking about? >> what do you do with that? i mean -- >> what do you do with that? >> those -- you've got to -- a senator from the state of alabama that is parodying russian-state media talking points, attacking the united states, blaming the united

states for russia's invasion -- russia's invasion of a sovereign country, who is not a member of nato. and we had deliberately not made them a member of nato. then you go on, jonathan lemire, and you hear tubberville talking about vladimir putin being at the top of his game, attacking american media as propaganda and not hearing -- i mean, he and tucker carlson are lined up -- again, i don't know when being pro-russia, being pro-kgb, being pro-invasion for a guy who is a war criminal.

do they love that? are they all about -- do they have putin fan clubs down in fair hope? i know alabama pretty well. and the alabama that i knew were old -- gee, they were kind of reagan republicans. they believed in a strong america. they didn't love russian dictators. but here tommy tubervillle is parodying russian prop began talking points, just flat out parodying them. and this is the same guy that all of our military leaders said was undermining the readiness of the united states armed forces for about a year. this guy is bad for america's military. this guy is bad for america's strength. all you have to do, just ask people who were serving in uniform and they'll tell you.

>> yeah. the kremlin couldn't have scripted those remarks any better in that radio interview. let's recall, this is unprovoked invasion of ukraine after coming in the last decade or so, putin also invaded crimea, georgia. this is someone who has tried to expand russian territory and power not because of response to nato just because he wants to rebuild the former soviet union. there is this sort of weird putin praise, cult that now exists, not among all republicans, this sort of extreme maga, a small segment that views putin, the masculinity, the hyper christianity, frankly homophobia, things about putin that appeal to them. it's all because their taking their queues from donald trump. that donald trump has set the tone from his time in his first campaign when he defended putin killing people because the united states did it, too. to of course his time in office -- >> jonathan, you were talking about hypermasculhypermasculini

brought back to our interview with donald trump in december of 2015 when he was praising putin and said how great putin was. like does tommy tubervillle, these other republicans also praise the fact that he assassinates political opponents? do they always -- did they also praise the fact that you have a "wall street journal" reporter who is still being captured, gulags? what does tommy tubberville say? tucker carlson. what do they say that evan is still in a russian gulag, a "wall street journal" reporter still in a gulag and you have tommy tubervillle and you have donald trump carrying vladimir putin's water. and you know, by the way -- >> after he put a hold on military promotions here in the

u.s. >> how remarkable, jonathan, we're showing these pathetic, sad, weak pictures of donald trump from helsinki, you ought to retell that story as well. but how shocking that you had to say in response to a senator blaming the united states of america for vladimir putin's invasion of ukraine, you had to say, well, of course, we all know, it was not the united states' fault for russia invading ukraine. the fact that you had to clean up a republican united states' senator's words who is blaming the united states for putin invading ukraine shows just how sick this ultra maga brand of republicanism is. we already showed the 17 patriotic republicans who still believe that we support our allies, who still believe we support nato. who still believe we support

israel. who still believe that they belong to a party that still has -- as one of its former leaders, ronald reagan, that they haven't forgotten who they are. they haven't forgotten what they believe because of donald trump. they actually voted for freedom and they actually voted for western democracy with that vote. >> yeah. they did. and that vote likely gets them nowhere because the house seems pretty clearly not to take it up because speaker johnson taking his orders from donald trump. tubberville, weakened the military preparedness. everyone you speak to at the pentagon says that and donald trump is weakening the united states and its allies ability to stand up to russia by what he said over the weekend saying, go ahead, russia. go ahead and invade these nato countries if they don't pay, i won't do anything about it. which president biden deemed yesterday as un-american and

rightly so. and yes, you just showed the footage there of trump's helsinki summit in 2018 with vladimir putin. i asked donald trump who he believed, who he believed, the u.s. intelligence agencies, all of whom concluded that putin and russia interfered with the 2016 american election, or did he believe putin? and he made it very clear he sided with putin. and everything he has said including praising putin as smart, praising his decision to invade ukraine only continued that thread. that's what we would be looking at were trump to take office again. all right. joining us now, congressional investigations reporter for "the washington post," jackie alemany, amid all of this, where does the aid package stand? >> yeah, mika. that is the question that most house gop republicans are asking themselves and house gop leadership at the moment as speaker johnson has given little indication as to what he's going to do in the next few days. he said that he's not going to

bring this to the floor, but there are various pathways where this could make it to the floor without his support. there's the discharge petition that we discussed yesterday, which would require the signature of four republicans on top of 213 democrats to work around johnson and bring something to the floor without the speaker raising it. but then from there, it would still be an uphill battle for this to actually ultimately get through the house and clear it to get on the president's desk. there's also the possibility that johnson is going to have some negotiations -- >> let me ask you there. i'm so sorry. why would bit an uphill battle if they got the discharge procedure in and what procedurally happens next? >> that is a good question. this gets a little in the weeds. but essentially there are democrats who have signed on to a discharge petition that's already being circulated. and some of those democrats have already indicated that they're going to drop off of it once it does get on to the floor.

these are people like alexandria ocasio-cortez and some of the members who are on the far left plank who do not support israel funding at this time. the timing of this does not necessarily work in favor of anyone quite frankly because it's just emboldened people on the right as well as the far left and some who are not on the far left but just democrats who are becoming increasingly disenchanted and disgruntled with the way that netanyahu has acted as the war the middle east and israel has been playing out. and specially frustrated with the way that biden has been managing netanyahu. so, they need to get to the number 218. that's the magic number with the discharge petition. only 100 and i believe it was 7 or 11 republicans initially voted for ukraine support. so, it's going to be a little bit piecemeal sticking together, patchworking all of the warring factions here to get to that 218

number. >> the key really is -- and jen, you know this, the key will be finding the four republicans, maybe it's three now, i guess. the republicans who will actually sign a discharge petition. you're told, you know from the second you walk in you never vote against the rule because if you do you're turning the house over to the democrats. or the republicans. and you never, ever sign a discharge petition. i will say, if you have chairman mccall and the chairman of the armed services committee and another strong chairman saying to mike johnson, hey, little boy, you figure this out. or we're going to sign that petition. we can either run over you or we can work around you. what do you want us to do? i find it -- i still, jen, and i think you would agree with me that despite the level of

republicans who are being -- the number who are being unpatriotic today, we do see in the senate, those who are being patriots. by the way, i understand, thr some people that oppose funding for israel. i understand there are some people who oppose funding from ukraine and they have from the beginning of the war. i'm not saying they're unpatriotic. i deeply, deeply disagree with them. but if that's been their consistent position, and they're doing it for reasons other than trying to impress donald trump, which is exactly what mike johnson has been doing. then okay. but you have these unpatriotic republicans who are voting against ukraine and voting against israel because donald trump has told them to do that. because they know he's against ukraine and israel. and as mike johnson told liz cheney, everything he's doing on the floor, he's doing like

spreading the big lie to get in donald trump's inner circle. so with all that said, doesn't it seem, jen, they're going to find a way to get this discharge petition done? they're going to find the three or four republicans or they're going to quietly go to johnson and say we can do this with or without you? >> won't they feel emboldened after last night, right in won't the more traditional establishment republicans, you know the chairs that you described, the people that are serious about national security, that have been there for decades, that remember what it was to fight the -- for the united policy to be against russia, that they will feel emboldened after last night. and you know, people that won republican -- republicans that won in biden seats in 2022, like mike lawler also from new york, aren't they going to be nervous after what they saw? and that vote in the senate, it's good you went through all

those senators that voted for on the republican side. >> yeah. >> that was a big vote. and it was a big vote for senators who -- >> patriots. >> at the time felt like this bill was going nowhere and they voted for it any way. they took that political hit any way that they're going to get in their own party. and you know, that can embolden the house republicans to fight to get it done, too. but you know how it is after there's a bad special election, you know, joe, you know how it is the next morning. freak out wednesday morning freak out on the hill. >> yeah. >> yeah. i feel like either the chairman are pushing the speaker to bring this to the floor or a discharge petition gets going. but people feel ornery. there's a lot of reasons for consternation in the house republican caucus to want to try to fight back. >> oh, yeah. the senior members are going to be going into a caucus meeting and going to say, do you see what you freaks are doing to us?

you do realize that we're most likely going to lose control of the house and go back into the minority again. they're saying that right now. so they go into this caucus meeting. there is a freak out after a loss like this. this was a 16-point swing in two years from santos to suozzi. about 16 points. that stuff doesn't just happen. >> you need to clean it up. >> happy valentine's day. that stuff happens because one party is screwing up really badly. >> yeah. and this house -- seriously if i wanted to put together a scenario where house members would do something to deliberately deliberately lose control of the house, i would have drawn it up exactly like

the republicans have drawn it up thus far. yeah, there's going to be added pressure for them to support israel, to support ukraine, to actually do something on the border. right now just saying we passed a bill doesn't do it. when you had a bipartisan bill in the senate that could have become law. so i think you're going to see -- >> they own it. you can blame trump but they own it. they are the ones that voted. >> they are the ones that are going to lose. it's happened time and again. when you try to get close to donald trump, trump is going to lose. he doesn't care. he pretends to be a billionaire. but these house members, they're going to lose and they're going to go home. >> so, jackie -- >> you know, they're going to be working for their dad's pest control company again, that's fine. >> the one thing they did do was impeach alejandro mayorkas, second vote. been working really hard on this

thing. scalise showed up for this one and they got the vote they needed. but what exactly does this impeachment accomplish? what does it mean? what does it do? >> yeah, mika. before i get to that, can i just say off of the point that jen made that after last night, you would think that any sort of rational actor would look at the results and think to themselves, well, the border obviously is going to be hurting us when it comes to the elections in november. let's try to jam the senate and add some new provisions, some of these provisions we have been talking about in hr-2, add them to this foreign aid bill and try to jam the senate on it and force the vote of democrats who have effectively been able to successfully turn the narrative against republicans on an issue that they have owned up until now. but, the leadership in the house right now is so chaotic and disorganized. even just watching speaker johnson and whip tom emmer try

to corral members on the house floor from our perch in the chamber was a stressful experience that i can sort of viscerally feel for them. johnson has such little control over his -- this conference that such obvious moves that you think would happen as a result of this electoral win for democrats is not happening. this is a house conference that has time and time again acted against their best interest, specially when it comes to november when these biden 18, people like anthony, mike lawler, those new york republicans that jen named, are going to face electoral backlash potentially. but they did get one thing done yesterday that was the msnbc of mayorkas. this is something that they've hyped up for over a year now after promising to deliver political retribution for donald trump. he was the first cabinet member, sitting cabinet member to be impeached in history. but also, in an unprecedented fashion, the first person to be impeached where there is no offense.

there has been a chorus of conservative voices. >> wait. no offense. he has male pattern baldness so we're going to impeach him. no offense! how do you impeach somebody with no offense? >> yeah. republicans have argued that he has committed mal-administration, gross incompetence, mike gallagher, buck, a very loud and growing chorus of normally traditional gop validaters and friendly conservative voices have said that this does not rise to the normal of high crimes and misdemeanors. this made it through nevertheless. there were less absences -- there were actually more absences but sort of tied absences two democrats and two republicans which evened things out. got this through a single vote.

we'll see impeachment trial in two weeks. there are going to be 11 house impeachment managers who will make their case. >> love how jackie just presenting it as a bit of historical trivia, the first person ever impeached without committing an offense. >> there's a little confusion here, too, by the way, because everyone thinks that william belnap -- >> 1876 w the first cabinet member but he was impeach affidavit he resigned from his position. so technically this is the first sitting cabinet member. >> there you go. >> i want to bring jackie along for bar trivia night. she knows it all. jackie, thank you so much as always. we should point out this is not going to get through the senate. he will not be convicted. controlled by democrats. and you need 67 votes any way. so, part of that foreign aid we're talking about here goes to israel and negotiations to secure a hostage release deal between israel and hamas reportedly will continue this week in cairo.

an american official tells "the new york times" lower level officials now will carry on the discussion just one day after cia director bill burns and his israeli counterpart met with officials in egypt yesterday. people familiar with the talks say no major strides were made. israel and hamas disagreed on how long the cease fire should last. and the ratio of palestinian prisoners to be released for each hostage. nbc news foreign correspondent raf sanchez joins us now with more from tel aviv. hey, raf. >> reporter: willie, good morning. an israeli official tells me they are not optimistic about these talks given the scale of the gaps between the two sides. there's also a lot of concern worldwide that if israel moves ahead with its threatened attack on the city of rafah in southern gaza it could derail these negotiations at a very sensitive moment. someone who is not at the table in cairo but still looms over these talks is sinwar, the leader of hamas in gaza.

and there is an irony here that israel is negotiating indirectly with this man and at the same time, trying to track him down and kill him. four months into this war, israel claims to have killed, captured or wounded around half of hamas' 30,000 fighters in gaza. >> we shattered 18 out of 24 hamas battalions and mopping up with on going raids. >> reporter: but israel's number one target remains at large. yahya sinwar the leader of hamas in gaza. and according to israeli officials, the man who master mined the october 7th massacre. sinwar has been in hiding since then. israel's military says this video shows him fleeing in a tunnel with his family three days after the attack. two former intelligence officers confirmed to us it shows sinwar. but despite a $400,000 bounty on his head, an air and ground

assault on gaza that's killed thousands of palestinian civilians, he so far stayed one step ahead of israeli forces. we joined some of those troops as they pushed into gaza. arriving in the remains of khan younis, sinwar's home city. >> we're standing here, my soldiers fought to take this ground. >> reporter: we followed them deep under ground, into a set of tunnels where they believe sinwar was recently sheltering. they offer nod firm evidence but said these beds suggest senior leaders were here. while inside this cage, troops say they discovered the dna of three young hostages, all released during the temporary cease fire deal in november. >> somewhere in this vast tunnel complex, the israeli military believes sinwar is hiding. it is not clear if he is still able to give commands to his troops, how much he can communicate with the outside world. but everyday that he is alive is a day that he is defying israel. >> reporter: so the hunt

continues. you've been chasing sinwar for four months. why is it you haven't caught him yet? >> we'll get him. he doesn't care about his people. he's putting his people between him and us. >> reporter: sinwar was captured by israel in the late 1980s, but he was released in 2011, one of more than 1,000 palestinian prisoners freed in exchange for a single soldier held by hamas. >> he's looking at you. and you say to yourself, he's going to kill me. he's going to jump at me. >> michael kubi, a former israeli intelligence officer spent more than 100 hours interrogating sinwar. >> sinwar is very charismatic. people said he is -- i say he is not -- he knew exactly what he want. >> reporter: sinwar learned to speak hebrew in prison. >> not only to speak hebrew, he read all the books about the israeli leaders, about the

history, about the geography, about everything that he can read israeli. even translate, you know, books from hebrew to arabic at the prison. >> reporter: having studied his enemies, sinwar rose quickly through hamas leadership after his release and fooled israel he was more interested in governing a misreading that became fatally clear. israel now hunting sinwar while at the same time negotiating with him over the fate of the hostages. and few believe his death will mean the defeat of hamas. >> israel has assassinated so many of hamas leaders in the past. didn't do anything to the organization. but make it stronger, more determined. >> reporter: but for israel, killing sinwar would be a battlefield victory and some small measure of justice. now, i met sinwar five years ago

in gaza. he's a very intense man, as you can imagine. his background is in hamas' internal security unit where he is alleged to have murdered suspected palestinian collaborators. israeli officials say he likely has some of those hostages close to him in the tunnels for his own protection. and they say he will not allow himself to be taken alive. mika? >> nbc's raf sanchez, thank you very much for that report. and still ahead on "morning joe," new york's special election last night is a teachable moment. that's what one republican strategist says who details how democrats in swing states could learn from this win and come out on top in november. we're back in one minute. on top in november we're back in one minute the virus that causes shingles is sleeping... in 99% of people over 50. it's lying dormant, waiting... and could reactivate. shingles strikes as a painful,

ie. . . ie think you're not at risk for shingles? it's time to wake up. because shingles could wake up in you. if you're over 50, talk to your doctor or pharmacist about shingles prevention. (♪♪) some people just know that the best rate for you is a rate based on you. not one based on whatever this person's doing. get a rate based on you with drivewise in the allstate app. former president trump endorses his daughter-in-law lara trump to serve as the new co-chair of the rnc. yep. had to be an awkward phone call.

eric, i need a smart family member for this job. put your wife on the phone. [ laughter ]. not you. put your wife on the phone. welcome back to "morning joe." it is wednesday, february 14th, happy valentine's day. >> happy valentine's day. >> meow. jen is still with us. joining the conversation we have msnbc contributor mike barnicle, president of the national action network and host of msnbc's politics nation, reverend al sharpton. republican strategist and msnbc political analyst, susan and co-founder of axios, mike allen. good to have you all on board with us. >> so happy valentine's day. >> i got you a present. should we open it at the end of the show. >> that box is just sitting there, joe. taunting us. threatening us. >> let's open it. what is it? >> should we open it. >> you go ahead. it's for you. >> i doubt that. >> yeah. willie, are you worried? >> yes, deeply, deeply worried.

>> are you. >> usually gifts -- >> i give good gift. >> they're usual lie good for her. >> what do we have here. >> wow. >> no live animals yet. >> oh my gosh. it's a bell. >> is that the opening bell. >> which has her name on it. which means she wants a bell to ring when she needs something for me. >> or, yeah. exactly. [ bell ] >> what do you think? >> that's some bell. >> that's not the bell like when -- >> good morning, everybody. i need mini melts. i need crackers. get me some coffee. yeah. it's good. >> is that how it is, joe? >> it's good. or if you need something. now, this is for me because she falls asleep fast and goes, i want some cheese and crackers. i'm like, she hits that. i've got to get up and i've got to get cheese -- >> i give a great gift. >> or in the middle of the day, willie, she'll go, can you turn

on fox news? i go, no. i will not turn on -- she'll go like that. then i will have to turn on fox news so she can watch. >> heal with that bell, doesn't she. just whatever she needs. >> yeah. seriously. you know, and i'm not exactly sure how she got the bell from the rec of the edmund fitzgerald, but she did. and she -- >> i like this gift. i think it's good, right? >> ontario. she got this from the bottom of -- >> can't wait to see what i get. >> can you use that on air. >> donald trump lost in 2017. 2018. 2019. 2020. 2021. 2022. 2023. and last night. [ bell ] >> wow.

>> that's amazing. can be used for emphasis, affirmation or get cheese and crackers. >> or when you say when i was in congress. we could do that. >> i don't say that anymore. i don't want to hear that. >> i think it's really useful. i think it's a good, practical gift. a lot of meaning. >> well, and kben, it has her name on it. so that will tell you one more valentine's day present really is not for me. >> should i do the news? >> i guess so. >> you want to ring the bell? >> no, i don't. >> okay. democrats are celebrating this morning after former congressman tom suozzi's special election win in new york's third district. the victory against the the nassau county legislature mazi pilip flips the district from red to blue cutting the razor thin majority in the house even closer. suozzi will replaced disgraced

former congressman george santos, who was ousted from congress last year. the race was seen as a bell weather for november. and suozzi noted the national implications in his victory speech in new york last night. >> this race was fought amidst a closely-divided electorate, much like our whole country. this race was centered on immigration and the economy, much like the issues all across our country. we won this race. we, you, won this race. [ cheers and applause ]. because we addressed the issues and we found a way to bind our divisions. >> you know, i did learn something when i was in politics and that was i won't say the word so it doesn't ring.

but i did learn something, mike barnicle, when i was in politics. you know, sometimes people in washington they act as if they can somehow manipulate the voters and make them forget things that are happening right in front of their faces. but what i found is these elections never happen in a vacuum. it's always something that's going on in people's lives. it's always something they're seeing out of washington or out of their state capitals or on local city councils. and here we had a 16-point swing. in two years. think about that. that's massive. a 16-point swing from a republican getting elected in '22 to a democrat getting elected at the beginning of '24. a 16-point swing. so what was in the background

there? what was in the background was a republican presidential nominee that said he wants the economy to crash. he wants a great depression to hit this year and chaos at the border another year and fentanyl and illegal immigrants flooding in for another year to joe biden can't fix the problem. when you're on long island and you're getting reports of gangs in new york city that are being put together by migrants, when you're seeing cops getting the hell beaten out of and then left wing judges letting them just run free that has an impact. you think usually helps republicans. but not when it's the republicans who have a solution that they reject.

because donald trump said say no to everything in the get nothing done. don't protect the southern border. ignore james, the conservatives in the senate, ignore the conservative republicans who say this is the best bill in 30 years for protecting our southern border. when that happens, suddenly things get flipped and now it's the republicans who are on the run on the immigration issue. >> politics at its root is really basically a simple business. tom suozzi was in here monday. you heard him -- we just played a clip last night, his victory speech. tom suozzi reflected his district. he spoke like his district. he has lived in his district most of his life. the issues that he talked about were issues that were germane to everyone who lives in his district. he was a sidewalk candidate. eye contact candidate. he knew what people's lives were

like because he lived the life with them. candidates selection among the republicans has been horrific. not only just in this particular race but all across the board. tom suozzi -- >> think about it. think about it, mike. why would you, as a republican business person, as a republican community leader, as a republican coach, why would you want to give that up to go into congress to suck up to donald trump? people see -- again, this isn't happening in a vacuum. who is going to want to run for senator -- who worth anything is going to want to run for senator when they know they're going to have to be donald trump's yes man and what he wants you to say yes for changes everyday. and right now is to push for a great depression, keep the southern border open, and bow down to vladimir putin. and i am serious. how do you recruit candidates under those circumstances?

>> suozzi reflected that last night in his victory speech when he said about the republicans, stop running after donald trump and represent your people of your district. it's a pretty simple rule. you're sent there by people who want you to do something for them. not for some guy named trump. you got an entire republican party now who rejected, rejected the border deal. strongest deal in years. reject so far saving nato, saving ukraine, protecting europe, protecting our national security because some guy named donald trump tells them vote no. that's what they're doing. it's the end of the road for them. >> susan, you know new york politics so well. and what we have been saying all morning i think is worth repeating which is voters are really smart and voters see through nonsense and they don't live the middle of this outrage machine everyday, these extreme positions that are taken by politicians. and they know, as tom suozzi said again and again, we had

something in front of us to fix the border. i support that bipartisan deal. let's take that. his opponent, said no, i don't support the deal. largely because donald trump opposes it, because the speaker of the house opposes it, because donald trump opposes it. voters see through that. guys, fix this. go do something to fix this. >> yes. and it was fortunate for the democrat in this case being tom suozzi to have such a long record on immigration. he penned a proposal with peter king when he was a member of congress. so, suozzi had the background. but make no mistake about it, this is an issue that democrats have to watch out for and take head on because the issue that the democrats and suozzi wanted to run on was women's reproductive rights. that's what this race was supposed to be. and the republicans stayed on message. frankly the candidate could have been anyone. she was known to no one in the district. and they just wanted immigration, immigration, immigration to the point where

suozzi even trashed one of her press conferences. so, we're at a point where, yes, suozzi should have won this. this was a lay-up for him. let's not make any mistake act it. 2022 was an odd thing. the gubernatorial race shifted turnout and everything. but now we're looking at 2024 where we'll see presidential turnout. we're not going to see the same things in new york congressional races. and that's also really important to keep an eye out. for democrats around the country, they need have their defense and start diffusing this issue of immigration now. >> so joe biden won by eight points in this district in 2020. george santos won by eight points, the republican, in '22. rev, democrat tom suozzi wins by eight points. swinging back and forth. what d you take away from his win last night, rev, in terms of the issue of immigration and anything else that perhaps national democrats could learn going into the fall? >> i think that we would probably see democrats making a

mistake if they become overjoyed by this. i think they should be happy, but not overjoyed. suozzi won a district he used to represent. just before the pathological liar came in the surge during the gubernatorial race, thinking zelden could take out governor hochul. i think what happened is democrats were able to come back because the republicans took an unknown, who was coming the middle of them voting against the border deal when clearly everybody in that district was saying they were concerned about immigration and the republicans announce with bull horns because of donald trump we're not going to solve the border problem. so suozzi, they knew who had been representing them won. i don't know what was hard to figure out about that. and all the polling was killed because he won by a large margin. but if the democrats start

popping champagne and don't read the tea leaves there about we got to deal with these border things because it hurt the republicans and we do not need to take this for granted on women's reproductive rights. and if the republicans don't read this and say we better get away from trumpism, even if we have to act like we still like trump, then i think we will see the democrats eedsly take the house back. so there's a message there for everybody. but if everybody goes to their respective corners and the democrats relax, we can have a santos again because why did santos win? he came in on a wave. he didn't come in because of anything else. >> mike allen, we have been around long enough to see issues work for one election can switch very quickly. and i do think that for democrats who have just been pounded on the border issue time and again, even though it hasn't

impacted who won elections year in and year out, it still is always seen as a negative. here we actually see something new where the border is used as a positive campaign issue for a democratic candidate in a big way. he led with the border. again, democrats need to hear this. republicans need to be scared of this. he led on the border. because all these republicans thought they knew what trump knew what he was doing, trump once again led them astray and once again republican lost let's say no to the toughe border bill in 30 years. >> that's right, joe. tom suozzi followed a basic rule of war, politics or business and that is he ran at the enemy. he ran at the tough issue. he said, i'm not going to hide

from immigration. in fact, at the top of the show, you saw that clip where he said, no, this race was about the border and the economy. why does that matter in two things. willie's point that most voters don't live in the outrage machine. axios we write a lot about normal america. and time and again in my visits around the country, in polling you see americans want washington to work. they want these issues to be fixed. they want leaders that they can be proud of me we see that in this result. two, this is a real pickle for republicans. now they're down to they can only lose two republicans now on a party line vote in the house. makes it even harder for them to do anything to have a record in november when it's looking more and more like both houses are going to flip. and now think even more likely after last night. >> yeah. i mean, jen, normal people

aren't worried about hunter biden and the impeachment of mayorkas. they want to fix what's going on at the border. they see legislation there and get rid of the cap on the salt tax. things that actually affect their lives as homeowners. one other thing to sprinkle in, smaller race, bucks county, pennsylvania last night. house district 140. the democrat there, bucks county obviously one of those places around philadelphia. these suburban districts we talk about all the time that decide presidential elections. the democrat in the special election won last night by 35 points. in a district that biden won by 10 points in 2020. that's bucks county, pennsylvania. democrat by 35 points. >> yeah. that's the heart of the suburbs that you need to win in order for biden to win. and i think that when you -- if you step back and look at the suozzi race from a high level, the democrats have an opportunity. did they pick it up and make it happen? yes, they did.

right? next question. they found the -- they found the candidate who was the best for this district. susan says, he's -- he's been an elected official there for almost 25 years, i think. >> yeah, exactly right. >> he reflects the district. so they found -- he found a way to go on offense and take on immigration. some democrats were uncomfortable with this, as susan noted. i think a lot of democrats will look at his message and think that's the right way to do it. but also, just offense, too. right? leaning into -- leaning into -- understanding that what the republicans are doing is not working. they aren't solving problems. people are seeing that. and i think that just kind of gives people a boost over all. >> which is also very important. in new york state we have a lot of primaries especially on the democratic side. so the fact that they could pick suozzi, regular part of the process, they picked the republican candidate. suozzi could go in with his

really more moderate positions, which he's always held. but i don't know what happens if he starts getting challenged from the left and has to kind of change his standing going into 2024. his saving grace, it's a presidential race. >> right, right. msnbc political analyst susan dell persio, thank you for coming on. we'll read your new piece on msnbc.com. cofounder of axios, mike allen. thank you as well. so the question is, will trump lose again in 2014? do i mean, 2024? >> i this so, okay. it doesn't really work. [ bell ] >> there you go. still ahead on "morning joe," we'll talk to a member of the congressman jared moskowitz democrats speaker mike johnson to hold a vote on the bipartisan

foreign aid package passed by the senate. next guest is making the argument for a constitutional amendment in order to safeguard american democracy. we'll explain what that is. you're watching "morning joe." >> happy valentine's day, y'all. did the sound of the outfill. turn it up. >> i love it. for moderate to severe crohn's disease skyrizi is the first il-23 inhibitor that can deliver remission and visibly improve damage of the intestinal lining. serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine or plan to. liver problems may occur in crohn's disease. control of crohn's means everything to me. ask your gastroenterologist about skyrizi. ♪ control is everything to me ♪

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this is a matter of america's urgent, national security. it's a matter of democracy. it's a matter of freedom. it's a matter of standing by our allies. it's a matter of american lives potentially being on the line.

if ukraine and its brave war effort falters because of inaction here in the united states congress by extreme maga republicans. >> then what happens when they go into estonia, what happens when they go into poland? what happens when they go into another nato country? these same republicans will be bitching why did you allow that to happen in let's talk about china, president xi, donald trump has absolute respect for, what happens when the communist chinese party decides they're going to go into taiwan? these people will be complaining, americans must do. we must send our ships. we must risk american lives. you see because they don't understand, i guess, that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. and that ounce of prevention is actually allowing the ukrainians

to continue, to take it to the russians. to fight the russians, to destroy their military. those minority leader hakeem jeffries vowing to push forward for passing foreign aid for american allies despite republican opposition in the house. that aid package includes critical aid to save ukraine, to help them survive russia's invasion. more and more republicans are increasingly siding with russia. seemingly at the behest of donald trump, whose appeasement of vladimir putin should come as no surprise. here are just some of those examples. >> are you an admirer of the russian? >> i think he's done a really great job of outsmarting our country. >> putin even sent me a president. beautiful present with a beautiful note. >> we just left moscow. he could not have been nicer. he was so nice and so everything. but you have to give him credit.

>> russia is like -- mine, they're really hot stuff. >> i think i would get along very well with vladimir putin. >> he's running this country and at least he's a leader, you know, unlike what we have in this country. >> but again, he kills journalists that don't agree with him. >> well, i think our country does plenty of killing also, joe, so, you know. >> he called me a genius. he said donald trump is a genius and he's going to be the leader of the party and he's going to be leader of the world or something. he said good stuff about me. >> russia, if you're listening, i hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. i think you will probably be rewarded mightily. >> my people came to me, dan coates came to me and some others, they said, they think it's russia. i have president putin. he just said it's not russia. i will say this, i don't see any reason why it would be.

>> so putin is now saying it's independent, a large section of ukraine. i said, how smart is that? and he's going to go in and be a peace keeper. you have to say that's pretty savvy. >> it's not that putin is smart. which of course he's smart. but the real problem is that our leaders are dumb. >> vladimir putin, has anybody heard of vladimir putin, of russia, says that biden -- this is a quote, politically motivated persecution of his political rival is very good for russia because it shows the rottenness of the american political system. >> one of the presidents of a big country stood up said, well, 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 mean, it goes on and on, jonathan lemire, on and on. the praise is sickening for a war criminal. >> telegraphing. >> for a guy who says the greatest geopolitical disaster of the 20th century was not world war i, was not world war ii, was actually the collapse of the soviet union. and is still committing war crimes and donald trump is still trying to help him get away with it. we see now republicans lining up behind him, one after another after another. russia hoax? yeah, please. please. >> there aren't many ideological positions which donald trump is consistent, but praising vladimir putin is one of them. those clips extend back a decade, before he entered politics. and certainly in his campaigns then his presidency he bent over backwards to praise putin and help him. there was some pretty tough

sanctions during his time in office, got through congress. other parts of his administration pushed them as well. trump repeatedly tried to block them. and i think that everyone, including vladimir putin, expects that would happen again were trump to be re-elected. that's why putin is playing for time here. and it couldn't be working better for him right now. the u.s. unable to send much-needed military aid and weapons because of trump's disciples, the republicans in congress, likely block this to get through the house. and then russia -- we see russia making progress on the battlefield and putin has no need to negotiate right now because he can wait. he can wait to see if trump gets elected. if that's the case, he can watch to see trump give him help lean on zelenskyy, or bail out of nato and that would allow putin to march further into ukraine and beyond. >> you wonder for an ex-kgb agent, ever be an easily target

than donald trump. you used have to work hard. all he had to do was flatter him from time to time. going up on stage, i would clear the way for russia to attack nato allies who don't pay their dues. that confirms for putin, i have to make sure donald trump wins. i will sit back and wait for '24, my guy is back in the white house. >> there were elements in that clip that we just played that occurred well before he was even a politician -- well, he's always been a politician before he entered electoral politics and people used to laugh. you would laugh at it. part of it was funny. reflect some comedic aspect of donald trump. it's no longer funny. and you watch that clip and you listen to that man, he's a former president of the united states. it is shocking what he says and how he says it. and so maybe, the democrats ought to think about a tag line in addressing donald trump to american voters and the tag line

would be, listen to this man and then ask yourself, what are you willing to risk? >> i think we're going to hear a lot more in the months ahead from what president biden said yesterday where he deemed donald trump un-american. >> yeah. we heard that term yesterday. let's bring in one of the democrats, democratic member of the oversight and foreign affairs committees, congressman jared moskowitz of florida. good to have you back with us this morning. let me start with the foreign aid package that made it through yesterday morning by a vote of 70 to 29. speaker johnson has indicated that it's dead on arrival. he says because we need to secure our own border before we start giving money to other countries. as we have said a million times like a broken record here, the senate gave him that opportunity with the bipartisan legislation last week. but, what is your message to your republican colleagues in the house about voting for this bill on foreign aid that just came out of the senate? >> yeah, good morning. thank you for having me. the republicans said, look, we want to do israel and ukraine

but we're not going to secure someone else's border if we don't secure our border first. so you have to do the border. democrats said, okay, we'll do the border. they were like, yeah, yeah, sure you will. then we come up with the most conservative border bill in a generation. then they were like, oh, crap. what are we going to do now? and donald trump comes in with the order to kill the bill and that all dies. look, the senate in a huge bipartisan number sent over this foreign aid bill. and, you know, speaker johnson says he's not going to hear it. by the way, i don't know who mike johnson is. it's clear donald trump is the speaker of the house. some members be the way nominated him to be speaker of the house and he clearly is. he's in full control. look, my message to the 100 other republicans that serve in the house that want to make sure that, you know, we stand by our allies, and we send that message to the world, if you're an ally of the united states, so that they don't look to china and russia for foreign assistance and for, you know, military

assistance, if they can't count on the unite i would tell those republicans, you know, be who you've always been when it comes to supporting our military, $30 billion of this package goes to replenishing our own stockpiles in this country. but you know look, again, right now this is a party of one. and donald trump is speaker of the house. >> congressman, yesterday instead of bringing up another bill that has bipartisan support, border security bill, the house republicans voted to -- got the extra vote they needed to vote to impeach dhs secretary mayorkas, the same day tom suozzi picks up the special election victory for democrats. what is all three of these things, the border security bill being blocked, the impeachment instead and suozzi's win, how are democrats -- what lessons are they taking away from this? >> well, look, tom ran a great campaign.

he ran a campaign on the issues told his district what he wanted to do and what he was for. you know, and the republicans are just against everything right now. it's just total chaos. this is historic congress, right? we removed a speaker which has never happened in american history. and we just impeached a cabinet secretary by one vote which hasn't happened in 150 years. my guess is people in that district heard chip roy say that the republicans have accomplished nothing, representative from texas, have accomplished nothing in the 118th congress and they have nothing to run on. now they're seeing the electoral results of that. let me tell you what they accomplished by impeaching mayorkas, the only thing that will change is his wikipedia page. a new line on his page. that's it. he'll still be the secretary. the border issue is still not done because republicans killed that bill to secure the border. and so they've absolutely changed nothing. look, the only reason quite frankly they were even able to impeach mayorkas is because james comber wasn't in charge of it. this is absolutely a consolation

prize because they've tried to do this to joe biden but there's no evidence they have shown the american people at all. so it's complete failure theater. and republicans should take notice. they want -- the american people want to see you accomplish something in congress. they just don't want to watch it like it's the real house republicans of congress. that's not what they send you here to do. they send you to help their family, to help the economy, to make sure your kids are safe in school. that's what we're here to do in congress. >> congressman, al sharpton. when i look at the recent statements that former president trump made around nato, and around those that paid their dues or he would support those including putin to say or do what you need to do or encourage them. i think about when i was young activist in brooklyn, new york, people on the far left, radicals, black and white, almost run out the country and labeled and put under surveillance for that.

will the democrats seize on the fact that this man, the representative of make america great again, is openly advocating un-american things and embracing the head of russia? embracing him given a leash to do whatever he wants to do. and when we had people in my youth that would embrace, we marginalized them. we didn't make them president of the united states. >> look, the one thing about donald trump he tells you exactly what he's thinking and wants to do at all times. right? to watch him say that on a stage, to send that chill through our allies in europe and our al lice around the world to have a russia-first sort of policy coming out of the mouth of a former president, right, on the heels of the tucker carlson interview which was just vladimir putin rolling the camera and russian propaganda. no, look, the american people have to take a hard look at

donald trump. you know, look, these are both older presidents. right? they broke the record when they ran the first time. they're both going to break the record the second time. but the difference is, donald trump wants to ruin the institutions in this country. he wants to destroy democracy. he wants to change what you are used to in this country. and he wants to change how the united states is viewed around the world. i mean, the idea that he wants to get back into office and he wants to have better relationships with china and russia, right, who are trying to destabilize the world, should send literally shivers down american's spine. he talks about joe biden will start world war ii, by the way, that happened in the '40s. but donald trump with what he's talking about dealing with russia, russia start invading europe, that would start world war iii, by the way. donald trump is talking about that. and setting the stage.

you can be sure every single world leader, other than vladimir putin, saw that and said, there is no way america can have him back as president. >> congressman, on a totally different note, today marks six years since a gunman killed 14 students at three -- and three faculty members at marjory stoneman douglas at parkland, florida, you're a graduate of that high school. i wanted to take a moment to hear your thoughts this morning. >> yeah, mika. thanks. i don't celebrate valentine's day anymore. haven't in six years. i graduated marjory stoneman douglas high school, afs state legislature at the time. i flew home within hours of the shooting. and went to my high school and saw what happens when weapons of war make it into your high school. 14 kids, 3 staff members were killed.

i was with the families when they were told what happened to their loved ones at 12:00 at night, went until 3:00 in the morning. i didn't hear crying. i heard screaming. it still haunts me, quite frankly. and you know, today may be the anniversary, but these families still have an empty chair at the dinner table. they have an empty room in their house. everyday for them is a reminder that the only thing they did wrong was send their kid to school. and that is -- that's an indictment on elected officials in this country who are not doing enough to make sure that you're safe at school or at the grocery store or at a movie theater or at a synagogue or at a church. and you know, that's what i've been working on in the last six years, along with many of the parents and many of the students who have become activists on school safety or who have become

activists gun prevention in florida. within three weeks we raised the age to 21 and passed the red flag laws in this country. by the way, the red flag laws we put in place after parkland have been used 12,000 times by law enforcement. law enforcement has deemed someone a threat to themselves or threat to others 12,000 times in florida in six years. led by republicans, done on a bipartisan basis. so florida should know that it can be done. but, you know, today is just a reminder -- i know many of those families will be at the cemetery all day and so, you know, i think of them. i think of the students that didn't make it out of the building. i think about the families that are affected. i think about the students that did make it out of the building. and have -- are mentally impacted by what they dealt with. and we saw the failures in parkland repeated in uvalde.

so it's a tough day today. i can't believe it's been six years. it really feels like it was just yesterday. look, every time i go home to my community in parkland, i drive past that school. and it's why, mika i brought officials through the building. bringing democrats and republicans, house members through that building. it's a time capsule. so we can figure out how up here in congress, when this place decides to work again, on how we can help parents and kids be safe in school. >> democratic congressman jared moskowitz of florida, thank you very much for coming on the show this morning. thank you. >> thank you, mika. and coming up, nikki haley is calling out donald trump for his efforts to hand pick the leadership of the rnc. we'll play for you those comments. also ahead, a conversation on voting rights in america. our next guest argues that a constitutional amendment is needed to protect american

democracy. "morning joe" is coming right back. mocracy. "morning joe" is coming right back

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manager the officer that runs the party. think about what's happening right now. is that how you're going to try and take an election? >> are we going to let him just take other the party that's going to control the convention, too? at what point do we not see the problem? we don't have kings in this country. but we have to be part of the solution to stop it. >> meanwhile, lara trump seems enthused about the idea of being the rnc's co-chair. was talking about that idea yesterday. >> if i am elected to this position, i can assure you, there will not be any more $70,000 or whatever kposh tent amount of money it was spent on flowers. every single penny will go to the number one and the only job of the rnc that selecting donald j. trump as president of the united states. >> now, jen, the rnc's job is also to elect candidates -- >> up and down the ballot. >> in the house in the senate,

governor's mansions. she is promising the daughter-in-law of donald trump to spend every nicking on donald trump's re-election. thoughts in complete takeover of the party. >> complete takeover and also he always puts a family member in charge. but not a blood relative because money is involved. right? apparently like we can't trust -- we can't trust a son or ivanka, got to go to lara trump. and the amount of money that he has been raising, the amount of money going to his legal defense fund to prop him up that way, that's what she will do at the rnc. >> that's a huge part of this. the money they're raising is paying trump's legal bills situation it is for his campaign or the campaign of any other candidate. lara trump was an active member of the 2020 re-election campaign as well. she has done this before. rev, what also happened yesterday, again, this is a total takeover here of the trump family of the rnc, jared kushner said flat out he would not come back to a white house if his father-in-law were elected again.

he said he would focus on his private equity fund he said these remarks at an event for it. do we believe him? what do we make of that? >> why would we ever believe jared kushner or donald trump? i mean, first of all, i do take him at his word, he won't be coming back to the white house because i don't think his father-in-law will be coming back either. if people come out and vote. but i think the reality is when you see donald trump nominating his daughter-in-law to run the party after he had his son-in-law run a large part of our foreign government, we understand that he's serious about an autocracy and about a family business running this country. if i were advising donald trump, god forbid, i would say the las family business running this country. if i were advising donald trump, god forbid, i would say the last thing you need to do is bring

another family member in to run positions like jared did, and it shows us the intent of donald trump. so in the leadup to november's election, our next guest argues the right to vote should be enshrined in the constitution in the forthcoming book, a real right to vote. the author describes how throughout our nation's history too many americans have been disenfranchised or faced needless barriers to voting, and the blame falls on the constitution because it doesn't contain an affirmative right to vote, and he calls out the supreme court for making matters worse by failing to protect voting rights and limiting congress's ability to do so. he joins us now. thank you for coming on the show this morning.

rick, you identified the two factors that you think caused the problems. how do you fix it? >> well, you know, every four years i'm called by people like you, and they ask questions and around the rest of the world they have a set of rules and they are not fighting over these things, and people eligible to vote come out and vote, and you fight about not the election itself but the issues. we have to think long-term, and not what will happen in the next nine months, but think what will happen over the next decade or two, and only eligible people should be able to cast a vote that will be fairly and

accurately counted. >> that sounds so basic. what makes it complicated? >> well, first of all, you know, democrats couldn't pass a regular voting rights statute at the end of 2022 when they lost control of the house of representatives. how are you going to get a constitutional amendment that requires two-thirds of both houses and get three quarters of the states to agree with it. we have not had a constitutional amendment since 1861. we need to think of a long-term movement and it can start state by state. that's what happened with the 19th amendment. it took over four decades after the supreme court rejected women's voting rights, until 1920 they barred the discrimination of voting on the basis of sex.

>> frank watkins, a political leader, wrote a book, and why do you think there has not been a real movement to deal with this constitutional question which could solve a lot of our voting rights problems and really fully duh mock raw ties america. why haven't we seen that and what needs to happen to make that movement viable? >> well, you know, back when they were passion the 15th amendment which came after the civil war and barred discrimination on the basis of sex voting, and then in the 1860s, we saw it again in the 1950s when the civil rights movement started and then fell by the wayside in 2000, and then you had jesse jackson jr., and

it's only happening on the democratic side now. one of the arguments i make in the book is there's a lot in it for conservatives and republicans to enshrine the voting in the constitution. as the republican party is changing and is trying to appeal more to poor working class voters, those are voters who get disenfranchised by the state rules that for no good reason make it harder for people to register and vote. i think we have to show it's in everybody's interest and not just the democratic party, to give everybody the right to vote for president. in 2000, after the florida debacle, the supreme court in bush versus gore, we have no right but it's for the grace of legislators we get to vote for president. >> shouldn't it start with a mass education by republicans

and democrats and independents, we don't have that fundamental right based on the constitution? >> yeah, we have to have a national conversation about this. people don't understand the constitution and it's complicated. i looked at the 235 year history of the supreme court, and except for a decade in the 1960s, the supreme court has been hostile to voting, and another myth is the supreme court will save us. they will not save us. the supreme court killed a key part of shelby saying congress exceeded its powers. >> the book is entitled "a real right to vote." it's available next tuesday, february 20th. thank you very much for coming on the show this morning. congratulations on the book. >> it was my pleasure. still ahead, democrats cut into republicans' razor thin

majority in the house with a win in yesterday's special election to replace republican ousted congressman, george santos. we will talk about what that means with the power of congress. "morning joe" will be right back. f congress "morning joe" will be right back choose acid prevention. choose nexium. only sleep number smart beds let you each choose your individual firmness and comfort. choose acid prevention. your sleep number setting. and actively cools and warms up to 13 degrees on either side. now, save 50% on the sleep number limited edition smart bed. plus, free home delivery when you add any base. ends presidents day. only at sleep number.

he said my favorite daughter-in-law agreed to run as the rnc cochair. she's an extremely talented communicator and she told me she wants to accept this challenge and would be great. poor eric. his wife got more compliments in

that one post than his father gave him in his entire life so far. >> while trump is busy meddling in rnc leadership, president biden is pushing the republican-controlled house to pass a foreign aid package and calling out trump for his latest un-american comments. but on capitol hill speaker, mike johnson, and the gop pressed the issue on impeaching the homeland security secretary, mayorkas. it literally does nothing. it hurts them. >> it makes them look dumber, if it's possible. >> it's valentine's day, and i have a present for you. should i get it? >> an on-air presentation. >> get the present and pass it to me.

>> what do we have here? >> no, alex -- >> just pass it to me. >> this better be mainstream, okay? this better be in between the guardrails. >> let's just put it right here. >> you know, she's -- remember when she brought the cat -- >> out of her purse, as i recall. >> i don't want any of that. >> you might not want to open this. >> we will see. we will get to it in a second. >> it is meowing or -- >> not yet. i am very concerned about that. it's never good. never good. so anyway, willie, we're nervous. >> it's so good. we will put this aside. >> the political world sure to shake up the republicans, and the republicans continue to lose. they continue to under perform.

this continues to happen in the age of trump. if you are running in a special election in the age of trump, you are most likely going to lose. democrats just over -- i mean, donald trump has turned the democratic party into the kansas city chiefs in the special elections. it's always -- there's always a reaction and there was again last night. the republicans should have won again. >> in a district donald trump just won in 2020, and a district that george santos took in 2022, and now it goes back to the democrats. they are celebrating this morning after former congressman tom suozzi's victory, flips that seat and he replaces george santos who was ousted from congress last year.

the race seen as a bellwether for november as suozzi spoke about that last night. >> this race was fight amid a closely divided electorate, much like our whole country. this race was centered on immigration and the economy, and much like the issues all across our country. we won this race -- we, you, won this race. [ applause ] >> because we addressed the issues and we found a way to bind our divisions. for the people of long island and queens, they are sick and tired of the political bickering. they have had it. they want us to come together and solve problems. now we have to carry the message of this campaign to the united

states congress and across our entire country. let's send a message to our friends running the congress these days. stop running around for trump and start running the country. it's time to find common ground and start delivering to the people of the united states of america. >> after suozzi's win last night in new york, the biden campaign wrote in a statement, donald trump lost again tonight and when republicans win on trump's extreme agenda, the voters reject them. maga and the republicans in the house are already denning a deal. and nikki haley wrote let's say

the quiet aloud. time for a new generation of conservative leadership that doesn't turn off the american people, end quote. donald trump, as you can imagine, blamed anybody but himself for the loss calling pilip, the republican candidate, quote, a very foolish woman and said his maga supporters stayed home again yesterday. joe, i think i misspoke, and i said trump won in 2020 and i meant biden won in 2020 and then flipped to santos, and now it's looking like another eight-point win or so for the democrat, tom suozzi, a known entity there, a guy people there trust. he said yes, we have a crisis and have to do something about the border and leaning into the issue of abortion as well. >> yeah, and -- here's the thing that we've been talking about

every day over the last week or two that has real world implications, and that is that there was a resolution to the southern border that would have stopped illegal immigrants from streaming across the southern border, and it would have stopped fentanyl from killing kids as it streams across the border, and crime, and now in new york city we're hearing, all of this could have been stopped by a deal that republican langford put forward, and trump told republicans not to do it. there will be chaos at the border for the next year because of donald trump. it had an impact in this race. tom suozzi was on the defensive on the issue of immigration until that happened, and when

that happened, when donald trump killed the bill, the reporters up there say the entire issue turned on its head, and suozzi leaned into it and won on the issue of immigration. stop for a second, everybody. listen to what i just said. a democrat won on the issue of immigration. so i was surprised when i was there, and so surprised now that there are politicians that think they can do whatever they can do in congress and it won't catch up to them. always shocked because it always caught up with them, and i am still shocked because the maga republicans and the speaker of the house openly say, we will let fentanyl and illegal immigrants come across the

border for the next year, and donald trump says blame me, and we will do it, and it has real world implications. 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and last night. they are losing because of one self inflicted trump wound after another. this is just the latest chapter and verse of that, willie. >> voters are smart. they see through the nonsense, which is that pilip, the republican candidate there opposed the bill and said we have to do something about immigration, we have to do something at the border to which tom suozzi said i support the bill just put in front of us, a bipartisan bill written by the conservative republican, and members down the house continue down the path of not supporting foreign aid because they want something done at the border.

steve kornacki is standing by for us. how did tom suozzi do it? >> basically he reversed what went wrong for democrats in 2022. you see just about all the votes counted, and suozzi with an eight-point advantage. this district is mostly on long island. what you see is nassau county, and new york suburbs on long island, also a touch of the district here in new york city. it's the far edges of queens. it's part of queens that is a little more suburban in nature. this is a classic suburban district. the vote coming out of the nassau portion of the district here is significant because tom suozzi won nassau by a five-point margin last night. when republicans won the seat, when santos won the seat in 2022, he won nassau county by ten points. there has been a lot of red

waves happening in nassau county over the last couple of years, they won control of the county legislature, and a lot of counties around the country is boards of commissioners, and republicans have control of the county legislature. nassau county and long island itself and the suburbs to the east of new york city, in 2022, that's where the red wave actually hit. it missed in lot of places in the country, and that was the headline story in the '22 midterms, and the reason republicans didn't have a better night in '22 and retain control of the house was because of the third district of new york and long island itself. suozzi has become the political hostile terrain.

he won the lion's share of the vote last night. when i mention this red wave that hit long island in 2022, i think that's one of the significances of this special election in the national context last night, because let me take you around some of the districts in the area. george santos won the district by 7.5 points. go south, the fourth district on long island, and this is a district won by a republican in 2022. this district voted for joe biden in 2020 by 14 points. this was one of the bigger shockers of the night for republicans and democrats, the fact that a republican came in and won the seat that biden won by 14 points. these two districts in the eastern end of long island, democrats thought they had a chance of picking off from republicans and republicans won them both. remember this one in 2022. this was shawn patrick maloney, the chairman of the democratic

congressional campaign committee ran and lost his own district in new york. that was a gain for republicans. then you go up to the syracuse area, and this is a district where a republican retired, and democrats not it was a golden pickup opportunity and they fell short. six districts in new york in '22, the democrats thought they had a shot and went 0 for 6. they could have retained control of the house of representatives. you can argue democrats lost the house because of new york and because of districts like the 30 in new york last night, and that makes it significant that the districts where the red wave actually hit in 2022, democrats went from losing by eight in '22 to winning by eight last night. >> are you surprised by the margin?

it was neck and neck, and there was a huge snowstorm and that could have affected the turnout, but eight points is a big spread. >> as we said, it was a five-point win, and this was the 2022 -- i was wondering why zimmerman was on there. suozzi got a big margin in the queens portion of the district here. he won it by about 23 points. democrats only won the queens portion of the district by four back in '22. i do think there's a turnout story here as well that kind of meshes with the national story we have been talking about for a few years, because there's pretty big demographic differences between the queens portion of the district and the nassau county part of the district, and the north shore of long island, which is in this district right here, a lot of really wealthy towns there, towns with high concentration of college degrees. we have been talking for a

number of years, and this is a generation-long story in american politics about the democrats really running up margins, massive margins, bigger and bigger each election among college-educated voters. the nassau county portion of the district is a wash in that type of voter. i think when joe is talking about the success democrats had, one of the things that powered that is that type of voter, that college-educated democratic voter has become more and more activated and engaged politically and seems energized to vote in any election that takes place, and it has given democratic special elections a real advantage in turnout. 85% of the vote last night came out of nassau county, and 15% came out of queens. how is that different? well, in the 2020 presidential

election, it was 80% from nassau county and 20% from queens, so it was a five-point jump here in the share of the vote that came out of nassau county, and the suburbs are densely packed with voters with college degrees and have been trending democratic, and they are probably on fire in nassau county yesterday, and maybe not so much on the queens side of the border here, and that would be consistent with the story we are seeing nationally for a while now. >> you look at the numbers, jonathan lemire. look at the numbers we have up now on the big board that now 85% of the vote came out of this area. these are the type of people, just like rural america has been breaking more for trump, these sort of areas have been breaking more for democrats and for biden. when people ask, what is the difference between the polls and

election day? why do you think that biden is going to out perform? when they ask me, i tell them this. i say when it's time to go and vote, people who want to send a message to donald trump and who want to keep donald trump out of office, they will -- they will weather snowstorms, and they will weather sleet, thunderstorms, lightning -- no problem. they are going to go out and they are going to vote against donald trump. this is, again, what i keep saying to my former republican friends, my former members of the republican party, and they are still my friends, but members of the republican party, they say you don't understand, still, it has taken you seven years of losing and you still don't understand. going all the way back to 2017, when we talked about the women standing in long lines in the rain in virginia to send a message in 2017. they won the governorship and also shocked the political world

by what happened in the assembly seats. they still don't understand. let's look at those numbers again if if we can put them up. 85% of the vote came from this part of the district. they even outperformed what happened in 2020. because they are that energized and that engaged to send a message to donald trump. and that's going to happen across the country again this year. jonathan lemire? >> yeah, donald trump is such a turnout driver for his base and just as many people turning out against him, and they will brave snowstorms, and they vote early by mail, and trump railed against that in previous elections, that these college-educated voters are so repulsed by what they see from trump and turned off by what

they see as republicans refusing to govern, and that has been on full display in washington where they are standing against the border bill and against the ukraine bill and yet proceeding with the impeachment of mayorkas. suozzi leaning into the migration issue and saying republicans killed that bill and voters responded to that. the republican candidate, didn't do much media and had the idf background, the israeli military played a little better a few months ago before the war started to change in recent weeks, and abortion less of an issue in this race than others but we know that will loom large come november, and it's about the suburbs. this is, as steve said, it's the birth of the suburbs, essentially, and that's going to be replicated in the suburbs of philadelphia, of atlanta, of phoenix, milwaukee, detroit, and

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one of the presidents of a big country stood up and said, well, sir, if we don't pay and we're attacked by russia, will you protect us? i said you didn't pay, you are delinquent? he said, yes, let's say that happened. no, i would not protect you and i would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. you have to pay, you have to pay your bills. >> he said if an ally did not spend enough on defense, and he would encourage russia to do

whatever the hell they want, end of quote. can you imagine a former president of the united states saying that? the whole world heard it and the worst thing is that he means it. no president in our history ever bowed down to a russian dictator. let me say this as clearly as i can. i never will. for god's sake, it's dumb, shameful and un-american. when donald trump looks at nato he doesn't see the alliance that protects the world, he sees a protection racket. i will not walk away and i can't imagine any other president walking away. as long as i am president if putin attacks a nato ally, we will protect them. >> when people see nato, they see the alliance that took down

the soviet union, and trump wants to stay in vladimir putin's good graces. here again you have to go back to not what donald trump said, not just the un-american dribble that sputtered out of his mouth, but you have to look at the fact of how he set this up. he felt the need to make up a story, completely make up a story, a leader of a big country said, sir -- first of all, there's so many things wrong with that, so many things, willie, wrong with that, leader of a big country? please. he would say, sir? please, not how it works at any of these places. nobody would ask the question, what if we don't pay our -- because that's not how it works. everybody in foreign policy in

the world, everybody in nato knows that's not how it works. it's not, quote, dues. i made them pay -- that's just so ridiculously stupid. if you look at the contributions europe has made since the beginning of the ukraine war, donald trump, he can shut his mouth. he has nothing to say on this point because it's the europeans that just threw in $54 billion to keep ukraine afloat, and it's -- it's idiots like -- well, i will just say like some certain republican senators and members of the house. i do want to say this really quickly, and i would ask, alex, don't yell at me please. >> why? >> because it shakes me up when alex -- >> yells at you? >> i am a gentle soul. >> i have a present for you. >> that scares me. >> it's valentine's day. >> i am a gentle soul.

let me see if i can find this. >> you will love it. >> let's talk about the honor roll, willie, here, and i am serious. the republican senators that stepped up to support america, to support america's allies, to support israel and to support ukraine, and i am so grateful for senators boozman, capito, cassidy, collins, cornyn, joni ernst, grassley, hoeven, and kennedy, mcconnell, murkowski, risch, romney, rounds, sullivan, thune, and wicker, and young, and mitch mcconnell. there are many republicans that

have done vladimir putin's bidding, and i am thankful for those republicans that stood up. i won't say what john thune said in a closed door meeting, and he stood up and said to everybody, stop being wimped and stand up and defend our allies, and we should be grateful these republicans did just that. >> they did. there's a group of them that did not who quiver under threats from donald trump, and they said they are not going to do anything for ukraine until we do something for the border. they just came up with a deal for the border, and we know we are a broken record, but this happened just last week. joe, it has taken a strange

turn. we heard ron johnson yesterday offering praise for vladimir putin, and now republican center, tommy tuberville -- >> they are praising vladimir putin. >> and blaming the united states for russia's war against ukraine. in a radio interview yesterday, tuberville pointed a finger at america and expressed sympathy for russian president, vladimir putin. >> we forced this issue, we kept forcing nato all the way to eastern europe, and putin just got tired of it and said, listen, i do not want missiles on my border from the united states of america, and it would be like russia coming to mexico and putting missiles on the border, and what really rung a bell is the propaganda media machine over here, they sell anything they can to go after russia. they can't win. it's not going to happen.

somebody needs to negotiate. trump will have it over with in a matter of weeks. >> putin is on top of his game, says united states senator, tommy tuberville of alabama. talking about the dictator that launched an unprovoked war against ukraine -- >> recently killed an entire family in their home. what is he talking about? >> what do you do with that? >> those -- those -- you have a senator from the state of alabama that is parroting russian-state media talking points, attack the united states, blaming the united states for russia's invasion. russia's invasion of a sovereign country, who was not a member of nato. we deliberately not made them a

member of nato, and then you go on, jonathan lemire, and you here tuberville talking about vladimir putin being at the top of his game, attacking american media as propaganda, and not hearing -- i mean, he and tucker carlson are lined up. again, i don't know when being pro russia, being pro kgb, being pro invasion for a guy who is a war criminal. do they love that in demoplis? do they have vladimir putin fan clubs? i know alabama pretty well, and

the alabama i knew were reagan republicans. they believed in a strong america. they didn't love russian dictators, but here tommy tuberville is parroting -- parroting russian propaganda talking points. just flat out parroting them. this is the same guy that all of our military leaders said was undermining the readiness of the united states armed forces for about a year. this guy is bad for america's military. this guy is bad for america's strength. all you have to do -- just ask people who were serving in uniform and they will tell you. >> the kremlin couldn't have scripted those remarks any better in that radio interview. let's recall, and it's to be said again, russia, it's an unprovoked invasion of ukraine, and he invaded georgia and

crimea. it's because he wants to rebuild the former soviet union. there's a weird putin praise, this cult that now existed not among all republicans, but the extreme maga, there's a small segment that views putin as the hyperchristiananity, and donald trump set the time from his first campaign when he defended putin killing people because the united states did it, too. >> jonathan, you were talking about hyper phus cue lynn tee.

do they also talk about and praise the fact that he assassinates political opponents, and there's a journalist captured, and what does tuberville say about that, and what does tucker carlson say about the fact that evan is still in a russian goolog, and you have tommy tuberville and donald trump carrying vladimir putin's water. you know, and by the way -- >> after he put a hold on military promotions here in the u.s. >> exactly. how remarkable, jonathan, and we are showing the pathetic and sad and weak pictures of donald trump from el sinki, and you had

to say, well, of course we all know it was not the united states' fault for russia invading ukraine. the fact that you had to clean up a republican united states senator's words, who is blaming the united states for putin invading ukraine shows just how sick this ultra maga brand of republicanism is. we already showed the 17 patriotic republicans who still believe that we support our allies, who still believe we support nato, and who still believe we support israel, who still believe they belong to a party that still has -- that still has one of its former leaders, ronald reagan, they

have not forgotten who they are. they have not forgotten what they believe because of donald trump. they actually voted for freedom and they actually voted for western democracy with that vote. >> they did. that vote likely gets them nowhere because the house seems clearly not to take it up because speaker johnson taking his orders from donald trump. tuberville weakening military preparedness, and everybody in the pentagon says that, and donald trump is weakening the united states's allies ability to stand up to russia by saying go ahead russia, go ahead and invade the countries if they don't pay, i won't do anything about it, and president biden deemed yesterday as un-american, and rightly so and i asked donald trump who he believed, who he believed, the u.s. intelligence agencies all of whom concluded that putin and russia interfered with the 2016

american election, or did he believe putin, and he made it clear he sided with putin. everything he said including praising putin as smart, and praising his decision to invade ukraine has only to continue that thread, and that's what we would be looking at if trump were to take office again. joining us, a reporter for "the washington post," jackie alemany. >> most gop house republicans are asking themselves and house gop leadership at the moment as speaker johnson has given little indication as to what he's going to do in the next few days. he said he will not bring this to the floor but there are various pathways where it could make it to the floor without his support. there's the discharge petition we discussed yesterday that would require the signature of four republicans on top of 213

democrats to work around johnson and bring something to the floor without the speaker raising it, and then from there it would be an uphill battle for this to actually ultimately get through the house and clear it to get on the president's desk. there's also the possibility that johnson will have -- >> let me ask you there, and i am so sorry, but why would it be an uphill battle if they got the petition in, and what procedurally happens next? >> that's a good question. this gets a little bit in the weeds. essentially there are democrats that signed on to a discharge petition already being circulated and some of the democrats already indicated they are going to drop off of it once it gets on the floor. these are people like alexandria ocasio-cortez and some of the members who are on the far left plank who do not support israel funding at this time. the timing of this does not work in favor of anybody, quite frankly, because it just

emboldened people on the right as well as the far left and some who are not even on the far left but just democrats who are becoming increasingly disenchanted and disgruntled the way netanyahu acted in the war in the middle east and frustrated with the way biden has been managing netanyahu. they need to get to 218, and that's the magic number with the discharge petition. 11 republicans initially voted for ukraine support, and it will be piecemeal and patchwork to get to the 218 number. coming up, president biden said israel's operation in gaza has gone over the top. what is next for the war in the middle east? we will speak with white house communications adviser for national security, john kirby, when "morning joe" comes right back.

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when you buy one unlimited line. plus, get the new samsung galaxy s24 on us. negotiations to secure a hostage release deal between israel and hamas will continue this week in cairo. an american official tells "the new york times" lower officials will carry on the discussion one day after cia director and his israeli counterpart met with officials in egypt yesterday. israel and hamas disagreed on how long the cease-fire should last and the ratio of palestinian prisoners to be released for each hostage. raf sanchez joins us.

>> reporter: officials tell me they are not optimistic about the talks given the scale of the gaps between the two sides, and there's concern worldwide if israel moves ahead with the threatened attack on the city of rafah in southern gaza, and somebody that looms over the talks is the leader of hamas in gaza. there's an irony here that israel is negotiating indirectly with this man and at the same time trying to track him down and kill him. four months into the war, israel claims to have injured, captured hamas targets. israel's number one target

remains at large. he's the leader of hamas in gaza. according to israeli officials, the man who masterminded the october 7th massacre. he has been in hiding since then. israel's military shows this video shows him fleeing into a tunnel with his family three days after the attack. despite a $400,000 bounty on his head, and a war that has killed thousands of palestinian civilians, he has so far stayed one step ahead of israeli forces. we joined some of the troops as they pushed into gaza, arriving to his home city. we followed them deep underground into a set of tunnels where they believe he was sheltering, and the beds suggested senior leaders were here, and inside the cage the

troops discovered the dna of young hostages all released during the cease-fire temporarily deal in november. somewhere in the vast tunnel complex, the israel military believes sinwar is hiding. every day that he is alive is a day he is defying israel. so the hunt continues. you have been chasing him for four months. why is it you have not caught him yet? >> we will get him. he doesn't care about his people. he's putting his people between him and us. >> he was captured by israel in the late 1980s, and was released in 2011, more than 1,000 palestinian prisoners freed for a single man.

a former israeli intelligence officer spent more than 100 hours interrogating him. >> he's very charismatic. people used to say he's a psychopath. i say he's not a psychopath. he knew exactly what he wants. >> he learned to speak hebrew. >> not only speak hebrew, but he read all the books about the israeli leaders and everything that he can read israeli, and he can even translate it, books from hebrew to arabic at the prison. >> he rose quickly through hamas's leadership after his release and that became fatally clear on october 7th. israel now hunting sinwar, while at the same time negotiating with him over the fate of the hostages, and few believe his death will mean the defeat of

hamas. >> israel has assassinated so many of hamas leaders in the past, didn't do anything to the organization, but make it stronger, more determined. >> reporter: but for israel, killing sinwar would be a battlefield victory and some small measure of justice. now, i met sinwar five years ago in gaza, he is a very intense man, as you can imagine, his background is in hamas' internal security unit where he is alleged to have murdered suspected palestinian collaborators. israeli officials say he likely has some of those hostages close to him in the tunnels for his own protection and they say he will not allow himself to be taken alive. mika? >> nbc's raf sanchez, thank you very much for that report. "morning joe" is coming right back. oming right back

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coming up our next guest says house republicans couldn't come close to impeaching the president so they targeted a cabinet secretary instead. we have congressman jamie raskin with us and he's going to be talking about the gop's, quote, worthless trinket of a consolation prize and, no, we're not talking about mika's bell. >> no. >> "morning joe," back in a moment. >> it's a good gift. ck in a moment. >> it's a good gift.

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loses to biden. i defeat biden. there was another marquette poll that showed wisconsin, i defeat biden by 15 points. trump can't defeat biden. but even look at what happened last week. trump loses the court case on immunity, they lose the bill on -- on mayorkas, they lose the bill on israel, and you had the rnc chair lose her job. that's all losing because trump had his fingerprints on all of it. he lost in 2018, he lost in 2020, he lost in 2022. how many more times do we have to lose before we realize that he's actually the problem? nikki haley on fox news yesterday blaming donald trump for being the problem behind the party's setbacks and that was before democrats won yesterday's special election flipping a congressional seat and reducing the republicans' already razor-thin house majority.

nbc news capitol hill correspondent ryan nobles reports from the capitol. >> reporter: this morning a major shakeup in congress and possible power shift in washington. democrat tom suozzi flipping a seat vacated by republican george santos. >> we won! >> reporter: after the scandal-plagued santos left following a federal indictment. republicans were already struggling to pass legislation, now they can only afford to lose two votes. >> this race was fought amidst a closely-divided electorate. >> reporter: the closely watched race also potentially a preview of how democrats could try to win the house and even the presidency. they pursued his opponent, mazi pilip, on abortion, sure to be a touchstone issue this year. and suozzi also focused on immigration, calling for harsher policies at the border, as new york deals with an influx of migrants, while also attacking republicans for their efforts to

impeach the homeland security secretary alejandro mayorkas. >> you want to fix the board. >> reporter: you're not going to fix it by impeaching the secretary. >> reporter: but hard right republicans have stayed focused on that effort. >> the yays are 214 and the nays are 213. >> reporter: successfully impeaching mayorkas last night. house speaker mike johnson embarrassed one week ago when the vote fell short, taking a victory lap. >> we're happy to get the job done. >> reporter: the gop accusing the dhs chief of willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law and a breach of public trust over his handling of the migrant crisis, but some republicans admit it won't do much to change the situation at the border. >> how does that fix the problem at the border. >> who says it's going to fix the border. >> reporter: the articles will now move to the senate who will hold a trial, but conviction and removal from office are unlikely. something even republicans like

kevin cramer concede. >> obviously dead on arrival. i mean, it's the worse, dumbest exercise and use of time in a time-constrained environment. >> yeah, but they got the job done. nbc's ryan nobles with that report. joining us now ranking member of the house oversight committee, democratic congressman jamie raskin of maryland. congressman, what exactly did they do? >> well, they cheapened the meaning of impeachment. >> even more. >> they continued to shred the constitution and i think they made themselves look very foolish as even the senate republicans are conceding this morning, the ones you bump into or talk to. you know, impeachment is an extraordinary remedy for a president or another high official who engages in treason, bribery or high crimes and

misdemeanors against the republic. it's not a tool for trying to settle policy differences. the irony, of course, is that there was a bipartisan compromise settling the partisan policy differences and actually making real progress on immigration and the border, and they just wouldn't take yes for an answer. why? because, one, donald trump doesn't want a border solution, he wants a border problem. and, two, vladimir putin back in the home office wanted to blow up the whole deal because he didn't want to see $60 billion going to the people of ukraine, struggling to defeat his fascist invasion and then to win the war, and that's what this is about. will america stand on the side of ukraine to win the war? will it stand with the people of israel in defending their security, and also address the crying needs of the suffering palestinian population, and will we aid our allies in the

indo-pacific. what we've got is a right wing isolationist maga cult that has overtaken the republican party. they want to be on the side of the tyrants, the autocrats and the dictate sneers congressman, good morning. as you say, the em peechlt of secretary mayorkas will fail in the senate, he will not be convicted there so he will still be at his post. if republicans in the house wanted to do something about the border, if they were sincere in that wish, there was the bipartisan legislation in the senate that they could have taken up, but have rejected that. so i'm just curious, you know, you are a guy who has a lot of friends up on the hill, a lot of republicans as well, you guys talk privately and you don't have to share your private conversations if you don't want to, but when you talk to a reasonable person, republican, on the hill, how do they defend what they're doing right now, which is to say screaming from

the hilltops do something about immigration and then when something is handed to them that's been on a bipartisan basis led by senator james lankford, a conservative republican from oklahoma, brought to them, they reject it. how do they rationalize that to themselves? >> well, the shrinking minority you could call them mitt romney or liz cheney, they understand that authoritarian personalities where one guy -- some bipartisan

compromises that will allow america to stand on the side of freedom and democracy and human rights around the world is on the senate side, but the tiny majority they have in the house is completely beholden to the maga right to marjorie taylor greene and matt gaetz and lauren boebert and gosar and so on and they're taking their orders directly over the phone from donald trump. that's the situation that we're in. you know, i wish that the block of republicans that see what's happened to their party would stand together and get out of the republican party and start something new at this point, but it's a completely contaminated exercise. when i see nikki haley talking about what's happening, she's right, of course, but it's too late. she went along with trump for a

long time and even worked for him and so a lot of them, like chris christie or nikki haley, will either their eyes open or they decide to start telling the truth, but it's just too late because he controls their party and if through some miracle she were to start winning primaries, donald trump, he would just leave. he would lurch out of the gop and run outside. so they may as well do it first and say that there's really nothing left there. >> congressman, you mentioned the republicans' slim majority, it just got a little smaller. i want to get your thoughts on the special election that happened in new york state last night on long island where particularly the issue of migration was front and center and the now congressman elect suozzi used it to the democrats' advantage, pointing to the collapse of that bipartisan deal, blaming republicans, it seemed to resonate. what other lessons do you think can be learned from last night that might be applicable to november. >> well, tom suozzi ran strong

on freedom, on women's reproductive choice, he ran strong on democracy and supporting our allies around the world. he also ran strong on immigration and the border and wanting to come to some real constructive compromises and that was basically the theme of his campaign. he doesn't want to see an immigration problem or a border crisis the way donald trump and the maga people want. he wants to see solutions. the democrats have proven over and over again we're willing to work with the republicans for solutions at the border, but they understand now they can't use abortion anymore as their whipping post, cultural war, divisive issue because they've lost everywhere from kansas to ohio to, you name it, anytime it's on the ballot they go down. so they've overplayed their hand there. they used to call abortion a holocaust and murder, they still want a national law banning it but they just don't want to talk

about it anymore. now they just want to talk about immigration, it's all that they've got left. in substance they are just following that trump/putin line, and we need to make clear as president biden did at valley forge, this election is really about the future of democracy and freedom in this century. president biden in february of last year, he went over to ukraine, in october he went over to israel and we need a peace strategy for the middle east, we need a strategy to win the war against vladimir putin in ukraine, we need to get rid of the terrorist operations like hamas and we need to bring relief to the people struggling in gaza. it's only president biden and the party of democracy and freedom that offers hope for doing that. >> ranking member of the house oversight committee, congressman jamie raskin, as always, thank you.

thanks for being on this morning. we appreciate it. >> you bet. >> and joining the conversation, former msnbc host and contributor to "washington monthly" chris matthews is with us. chris, my gosh, i don't know, just a couple of days ago, when was it, everybody was freaking out in the white house, joe biden messed up a word, everyone was saying he's too old, and now you look at the past 24 hours, it seems the conversation and the narrative has shifted. there is the older gentleman running for reelection, then there is the party that seems to want to harm this country. >> well, you know, i think suozzi, the guy who won last night in new york, i think he was lucky to run this week. i think a lot of things worked in the democrats' direction this week. i think the president going against nato, you know, it's not a membership at mar-a-lago, that's not what it's about here, it's about historic relationship between the republican and the democratic party starting with the marshall plan, going back to

the immediate days right after world war ii. you know, one of the biggest stories i've developed over the years is just the role that the republican party played in nato. when henry cabot lodge who had to run against jack kennedy in 1952 for his reelection, he went over to europe, he want to the supreme commander in europe in paris, dwight eisenhower and he begged him to run for president. of the democrats had already tried to get president eisenhower to run for election in their party ticket and he said no, but henry cabot lodge had a pretty good case to make. he said if you don't run the republican party will be taken over by robert taft and the isolationist and the republican party is going back to before world war ii, an isolationist party and ike said, okay, he won, the he won the nomination and he was a middle of the road -- actually, a middle of the road politician for the whole 1950s. i think he also showed some

independence of israel, he made a decision not to go to go with the suez crisis. he was an independent american leader who knew we needed nato because collective security is the way we won the war against the nazis. there he is, a great picture of him. that principle of the republican party is not dues down at mar-a-lago or some stupid thing like that. it's not about dues, it's about paying your defense bill up enough to pay your share and it's about being collectively secure. in other words, you attack one of us, we will all fight you. that's what really scared the hell out of the soviet union in the old days, which was nato made them go form the warsaw pact among the eastern european satellite countries to get even with it because nato was so strong. when reagan said tear down this wall, he had nato behind him in europe. it's so essential to being a republican. >> right. >> i don't know what trump is talking about. how can republicans do this tommy tuberville thing they did? what are they insane?

this is essential to who they are, collective security. it's just crazy. the way people spin on a dime because he says so. simon says and they do it. >> it's amaze, we were talking earlier about senator tuberville in an interview yesterday saying vladimir putin is really on top of his game was his quote. talking about vladimir putin. >> great coach. thanks, coach. >> i guess because donald trump instructed him to fall in line. chris, i want to get your take on what we saw last night with tom suozzi's victory in new york-3 in that special election, won by about 8 points. this morning democratic senator chris murphy of connecticut is calling on his colleagues to embrace suozzi's playbook on the borer and immigration. senator murphy writes, tom suozzi's victory last night due in part on thinks decision on on offense on the border and attack his opponent's position on the bipartisan border deal is proof that politics of the border is changing before our eyes. democrats want to fix the

problem. we have proof. republicans want to exploit the problem to divide us. we have proof. a new winning argument on border security and immigration writes itself in 100 words as senator murphy, quote, republicans said the border is in crisis, but then they voted against the bipartisan bill. written by their own members that would fix the crisis. they voted against it for one reason, donald trump told him he wanted to keep chaos at the border because it helps him politically. republicans don't care about fixing the border they only care about using it as a political issue to demise hard working immigrants. the only party wanting to protect and improve our nation's safe and legal immigration is democrats. all of that from senator chris murphy this morning. this is what congressman-elect suozzi was saying throughout the campaign. he was saying i support the bipartisan legislation, his opponent said i'm against it

because donald trump is. democrats can now say we are from the solution coming out of the senate, republicans are not. >> i've been watching this show all morning, since starting at 6:00 this morning and you guys have been right on the dime there because these are well-educated voters, they're college graduates, they read the paper, they read "the new york times," they watch this show, they know what's going on, they know the republicans turned on a dime on this issue, that they're awful this on this issue. they are not credible. but, you know, this is february. they won the election last night. great. but november is a long way off and between now and then the democrats have to show that they really wanted a deal. they really wanted to deal with the issue of immigration. immigration is a problem if there wasn't a donald trump it would still be a problem. millions of people coming across the border claiming to be asylum seekers, maybe they are, maybe they aren't, some aren't and clearly you have to decide that they border. he's saying we're going to deal with this. murphy, lankford, all those weeks to trying to put together

a deal. he wants this to work not just because he is a democrat because the country needs it. democrats have to show, i said this a couple weeks ago, the democrats have to show that they really want to deal with the border. not just they want to deal with the republicans, they want to deal with the border and that means stopping this overflow of people pouring into country with no real right to be here. they can claim asylum, this f. they don't have asylum rights they shouldn't be here. that's important for the democrats to show stuff this summer. this story is going to die, unfortunately, this idea that the republicans reneged on the deal. it will be good for a couple weeks but as somebody said last week brilliantly, if you have to argue about what happened in a republican-backed room when they're arguing over this issue you are in trouble because we will never get to that back room and what went on and why trump was the bad guy here. you have to get out there and sell you want to solve the problem like suozzi did. i think abortion is still a big issue in the burbs, in bucks county yesterday, you talked about that today, bucks county race for the state legislature which kept democrats in charge of the lower house. that still matters in a place

like pennsylvania, but the issue in new york has been joined because of all the influx, because of eric adams and the city and hochul haved to deal with this enormous influx of people. it's a border town now, new york city. it really s people on the streets. and you've got to -- all politics is local. you have to deal with this issue and we won last night, the democrats won last night and i'm so glad they did on this issue, but looking forward nor months they have to keep the issue going and they have to show real earnestness to try to get this done. chris murphy is right. >> the last couple days provided a bit of a respite for democrats, the big win last night, donald trump making those dangerous headlines about nato over the weekend pushing aside what we were all talking about at the end of last week, that special counsel report on president biden which made many believe the gratuitous comments about his memory. we know that story line is not going away, the president's age. how would you recommend they take it on? give your advice to this white house. >> thank you. jonathan, you are so great to ask this question. i have been thinking about this

constantly for months what i would do in the back room. i used to be in the back room with thighs guys with tip o'neill. you can help people in certain ways, get them to do a little more -- i think one thing we learned from the republican candidate in nassau county last night, you can't hide from the voters. she did not go out there and meet with the voters. you know, maybe she had grown up in ethiopia, went to israel and fought in the idf which sounded good but she wasn't out there with the people. biden will mix it up. he's going to have to get on the corner and meet people and hang out with regular people and give speeches and perk people up like harry truman did in 1948. you have to sell. you have to sell yourself. he has to do t he may make some problems along the way. he will make more gaffes. of course he will. but isn't it better to have him out there? if i were in the back room with him i'd make him feel better about himself, i'd be nice to him and encouraging. that's one thing staffers should do. encourage the guy. encourage him when he does something really well.

he's had a good couple of days, i think. i believe the last couple days have been good. i would encourage him to get out there and i would tell him to meet people because he's really good at that. sit next to him on an amtrak train and you know you are with a real human being, a real person. it's really joe biden who is sitting next to you. he's a real person and he has to get out with people. i'm not sure trump is a real person that way. he's not really like a regular person that way whereas trump -- but joe biden is. and i think he should sell it. show it out himself. take the chances, that's what i'd say. and tell some jokes, enjoy life. the joke about being older, of course, that's what reagan did, it works. you have to laugh at yourself. bobby kennedy used to say hang a lanyard on your problem. if you are old, i'm 81, say so. you know? you've got to stop hiding. you can't hide it. you walk slow, live with it, you know? you think smarter, though. >> hey, chris, i completely agree. i think he should own it and he

should -- i think he does actually -- he's pretty damn funny about it and he's got a great -- >> you know he is because you've had a chance to meet and talk with him. you know what he's like really. you know what he's like. >> yeah. >> and what he's like is what matters -- the american voter is all by himself or herself, it's just you and you go in that voting booth it's you and you know the president, you really see him or her, you see him. you have a sense of how old he is. you have a sense of how smart he is, how the smart moves he's made and by the end of the election he should know it all. that's about you and this person. so he can't tell the people don't look at him. we can't tell people don't notice he's older. you have to say look at him and make a judgment. >> totally agree. chris matthews, thank you very much for being on this morning. good to see you as always. coming up on "morning joe," we're going to get an update of the negotiations for a pause in fighting in gaza and discuss how the white house plans on pressuring house speaker johnson into taking up the foreign aid

bill. white house communications adviser for national security john kirby is our guest next on "morning joe." eosinophilic as. not for sudden breathing problems. allergic reactions can occur. get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue, or trouble breathing. infections that can cause shingles have occurred. don't stop steroids unless told by your doctor. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. may cause headache, injection site reactions, back pain, and fatigue. ask an asthma specialist if nucala is right for you.

26 past the hour. the biden white house is urging the house of representatives to take up the $95 billion foreign aid package to ukraine, for ukraine, israel and taiwan, that the senate passed yesterday morning. speaker mike johnson is now reportedly requesting a one-on-one meeting with president biden to discuss the issue. joining us now white house national security communications adviser and assistant to the president, retired rear admiral john kirby. what more do we know about this meeting? does mike johnson need something in return for foreign aid to these countries?

>> mika, good morning. i don't have anything on the president's schedule to speak to with respect to the speaker individually, as you know, he and other congressional leaders were over at the white house a couple of weeks ago and the president had a chance with his entire national security team to walk them through the supplemental funding and why each bucket was so important, and certainly to hear from them. now, we will keep those conversations going with members of congress and certainly as appropriate with speaker johnson, but as the president said yesterday, we're at an inflection point. this is a moment for leadership. if that which will comes to the president's desk he will sign it and ukrainian soldiers then won't run out of ammunition on the front lines, our friends in israel will have the air defense capabilities that they need because they're still getting rockets fired at them and u.s. integral command our own troops will be able to be properly resourced for the fight that they are in in terms of defending shipping in the red sea and trying to prevent houthi attacks on that shipping.

>> so this package used to be connected to border security, which failed. what are the conversations in the white house about exactly what these house republicans want? because if you look at any of these packages on the face of it usually is something that they would want. >> yeah, it's -- i wish i could answer that question, but we can't. they said they wouldn't approve a penny for ukraine unless the border was tied into it, so we said, okay, and we participated and helped with the negotiations largely done on the senate side to get that done and now they said, well, no, can't do it because, you know -- for whatever reason, for whatever leadership reasons they have for that. so it's difficult to know exactly where they are. i mean, the speaker has been twisting himself into pretzel knots here in terms of what he's willing to justify on any given day. we need this funding. we need the funding for the border, too, but we need this funding for our national security with ukraine, israel, with humanitarian assistance and

in the indo-pacific. these aren't just a wish list, i mean, this is actual urgent funding that's required for our own national security. >> admiral, good morning, you are not alone in expressing this urgency, the 22 republican senators who voted for it among the 70 votes yesterday are now talking openly in public to speaker johnson saying this is your moment for history. you need to go do this. you need to get your caucus together. the "wall street journal" editorial page talking to speaker johnson directly saying, if you don't do it, if you block this vote, you will bear responsibility for what comes next, talking about lessons learned from other countries that will say, well, the united states actually won't be there to back up its allies. can you speak if you were in a room with speaker johnson or republicans considering voting for this about the stakes here. >> i think we would say you believe in the importance of national security. this supplemental funding bill gets us better national security. you believe we should be tough on iran.

this supplemental funding will "homestretch" us get tough on iran. you believe we ought to stand up to tyrants like putin and the prc, well, then, you know, my goodness, this funding helps us meet those national security needs. so if you believe in national security, if you believe in giving our troops, quite frankly, the tools, the capabilities they need to protect themselves against the attacks that they're still fending off in the read sea and still fending off in iraq and syria, my goodness, this is the time, this is the moment. this is the time to put politics aside. we are talking about national security. we are not talking about political ramifications here, we are talking about protecting our troops and our interest in critical parts all over the world. >> admiral, good morning. it's jonathan lemire. there's reporting this morning about rafah, gaza -- more than half of the population in gaza has fled to rafah right now. israel considering really escalating the violence there, the attacks there, saying that's where they believe the hamas leadership has fled, but the reporting this morning suggests

the u.s. won't despite warnings to not harm ifl issians won't punish israel this they do. that they could go in there and not see any impact on the relationship with the united states. could you discuss that, sir, and why that decision? >> jonathan, i think this is an interesting argument about whether we will or won't punish israel. this is not about punishing israel for ramifications on operation that is haven't happened yet. what we've said is that we understand their need to go after these hamas battalions in the south, there is no question about that is correct they have an obligation to protect themselves against these still viable military units of hamas. that said, as they do that, as they -- as we have said long before, we need to make sure, we want to make sure they're doing it in a way commensurate with protection of innocent civilians. right now there's more than a million innocent civilians that have gravitated towards the south around rafah as the fighting preceded up in gaza city and gaffe traded down towards khan yunis. they have been pushed south by the fighting. it's important that the israelis

factor their safety and security in no matter what they do in rafah. it's not that they don't have a legitimate right to go after these guys, they absolutely do, but we want to see that they've factored in the safety and security of those innocent civilians. that's a challenge. that would be a challenge for any military. the gaza strip is 12 miles wide, there is not a lot of space and you are talk being a lot of people. so they've got to factor that in and we're talking to them about what that could look like. >> white house national security communications adviser and assistant to the president, retired rear admiral john kirby, thank you very much for coming on this morning. >> thank you. >> we appreciate it. and coming up, for the second year in a row kansas city will celebrate the super bowl champion chiefs in a victory parade. we will have the details on today's festivities and what we're learning about whether taylor swift will be in attendance. "morning joe" will be back in a moment.

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ask about ubrelvy. learn how abbvie could help you save. now to a look at the morning papers. the south florida "sun sentinel" reports that many parents and educators in broward county high schools support the idea of eliminating friday as a school day, but according to a new survey students were the most lukewarm group to support the potential four-day school week. voicing concerns they may struggle academically and miss out on both extracurricular activities and time with friends. the local school board is considering trying out the idea in a number of schools in 2025. in minnesota the "star tribune" reports grocery prices in the twin cities may have reached a tipping point and are now slightly lower than they

were a year ago. grocery prices fell 0.8% in the region last month compared to a year ago. prices had risen 16% over the last two years. across the country grocery prices rose 1.2% last month. in illinois "the chicago tribune" reports the city's police department officer wellness program remains understaffed and unable to respond urgently to officers in need of mental health support. according to state officials, caseloads remain far too high and additional staffing is necessary. the department's program has been under federal oversight for the past six years. and in nevada, the "las vegas review-journal" reports the city's tourism officials say the economic impact of hosting super bowl lviii may be even better than predicted. around 330,000 people were expected to visit the city for

sunday's big game which was estimated to bring in at least half a billion dollars in spending, but officials now say as many as 450,000 people visited the city and that spending over the weekend could reach as high as $1.1 billion. all for taylor swift, willie. >> not a bad game, either. but, yeah, by all accounts vegas threw an incredible party all week and it's paying off. the chiefs celebrated their super bowl win in vegas on sunday night and now they get to party at home today. nbc news correspondent jesse kirsch has more from kansas city. >> reporter: in kansas city this morning the new swag has been purchased and the stage is officially set for a one of a kind party. >> chiefs! >> reporter: roughly 1 million people are expected to cram these streets to celebrate the newly crowned back to back super bowl champs, and beyond seeing star players like patrick mahomes and travis kelce some

fans are hoping they will catch a glips of kelce's girlfriend, taylor swift, who helped make 11-year-old rylan a big chiefs fan like her mom. >> could we have a parade on valentine's day without swelce? >> no, it's got to make the end of the love story? yes as soon as there is no official word on if taylor will be here. we even took the question to city hall. >> mr. mayor, will we see taylor swift at this parade? >> all i can say for us is we will be ready no matter what happens. >> reporter: we don't know if taylor will be here but we found out what she said to travis during that post-game embrace. >> you are the best, baby. >> oh, my god. >> the absolute best. it was unbelievable. >> reporter: and travis' mom donna feeling the love on her flight home from dallas. >> mama kelce is on board, everybody. >> reporter: southwest airlines naming mama kelce mvp, most valuable parent.

>> how about those chief! >> reporter: that was the scene in kc after the chiefs won the super bowl last year. this time around coach andy reid says he told his players not to have too much fun. >> that was mentioned. a couple times. it's great to have fun, but, you know, be smart. >> reporter: but with today's warm forecast and swiftie intrigue, the city is preparing for even bigger crowds this time around at a parade that could exceed our wildest dreams. >> jesse kirsch reporting from kansas city. one update that may disappoint some of the fans in kansas city. australian media outlets reporting taylor swift already on her way to melbourne to resume her era's tour, she has a sold out show on friday, another one on saturday and then again on sunday. john, there have been some reports people in kansas city's municipal government that they were maybe back channeling, asking that she not come because it could add another million

fans to their streets. >> it is just extraordinary how big of a star she is. i mean, she's on a winning streak like no pop culture figure had been on in a very, very long time and deservedly so. that was a fun subplot for the super bowl but also, i mean, look, last year at their victory parade patrick mahomes promised that they would go back to back. they did. will he do it again because, let's remember, there has never been an nfl team to win three straight they could be the first. >> a huge party brewing today in kansas city. coming up next we will be joined in our studio by broadway stars emily ashford and joe tapper, the couple will tell us about working together on their new show when "morning joe" comes right back. when "morning comes right back y tina loves a l near rodeo drive. oh tina! wild tina booked a farm stay to ride this horse. glenn close?! with millions of possibilities

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ every day 385 americans die because of excessive alcohol use, that's nearly 140,000 people each year.

it's the most common substance abuse addiction in the united states affecting at least one out of every ten people. the off-broadway rerifle of "the white chip" is a work that chronicles a nearly life-long journey with alcoholism nd the road to recovery. joining us now actor joe tapper, he plays the main character steven, a high-functioning, hard-core alcoholic who runs a theater company, also with us the play's producer tony award rihning actress emily ashford and you guys are married, i'm confirming. right? >> in real life. >> in real life. >> yes. >> okay. happy valentine's day. >> thank you. we've already fought this morning. >> really? on valentine's day. >> a little squabble. >> just -- >> getting out the door. >> who is to blame for getting out the door. >> interesting. >> now your day is wide open. >> has there been a gift given yet? did you guys give each other

valentine's day gifts? >> soon. soon. later. it's going to happen. >> i gave my husband a bell. >> it's a long story. >> it is. >> okay. back to the show. >> i see a disney sweater somewhere maybe. >> for us, yeah. >> so, joe, tell us about this role, the challenges and what you're bringing to it. i want to hear from you about the experience and then from your wife about producing you in this role. go ahead. >> well, the challenges are all -- or my experience with it is that i am a recovering alcoholic as well and the character is also an alcoholic who battles addiction and then eventually is fortunate enough to find the support for a recovering into his life. i get to heal with the show

every day, so it's a great -- it's a great way of repairing. personally the first time i did this was in 2019, which is the before times, and now i get to do it again and i do that with great honor for the unfortunate, the fallen, and then personally in 2020 i lost my father to alcoholism because of emily he got to see this show in 2019 and he had committed to possibly, you know, pursuing a change in his life. so i always have that with me, but every night i get to do the show and i get to honor his memory and honor the unfortunate who are no longer with us during the loneliness of the pandemic and the fortunate the fortunate like myself. >> so sorry to hear about your father. i wonder, analee, what it's like not just as a producer but as joe's wife to watch him take on this role and to go through the process that is so familiar to

him. >> yeah, you know, we always say that art is the way that we make sense of the world, and we make art to help us understand ourselves and understand the world, so when i watch the show, i have to deeply compartmentalize because it's all the feels. sean daniels has written this beautiful, beautiful play, cheryl keller did an incredible job directing it. i really feel like i'm watching my husband live out the 12th step, which is an act of service. it's an act of service for us as a family giving back what you have gotten and so i just feel like it's an honor to watch him. i'm really grateful that our little boy can say that his dad is doing something every night to help change the world. >> joe, tell us a little bit more about the play itself and also how you take what's clearly a very heavy matter and how do you make it funny? >> yeah, it's funny. >> it is funny. i will say like to support that whenever i've dwon to an aa

meeting, those are like funnier than standup comedy shows. we are falling off of our chairs laughing at these sharings and these personal stories, and i think the essence there is that like if we can't laugh at ourselves, then we're -- then it's over. so we as a community find great joy in those dark moments. and the way that this character, he is on top of the world. it starts as magic, and then and everything is kind of working out for him. he's getting jobs. he's finding more and more support for his way of life and then it kind of dips into medicine and then it kind of dips into madness, and then the beautiful thing about the play is it shows the miracle, which is that support and that community and that recovery. and it's a great play about family too. >> which recovery is family. >> so in addition to this being such a personal story, you have

to produce a successful play, right? what is that like from that side of it for you? >> i have an incredible team of people who are old friends and also incredible theater makers in this business. i have an incredible producing team i'm learning from, and then also it's just a great reminder that anytime we make art, it's sort of a miracle in itself, like getting theater to the stage. i just want to tell everybody out there, go see theater. it doesn't matter if you're in new york or ohio, go see your local theater. support art. it's an art form that we need to just continue to support in every way. go see a play. go see a play. >> and a really beautiful thing that happens every single day after the show comes down, i come out and see somebody that's in the show, somebody comes up to me and says i've got ten years, i've got 30 years, i've got 45 years, or the first night somebody said i'm an alcoholic,

and i said, may i hug you? but i'm not sober right now, and i said okay, but you're here, and i see you and you see me, and here's some resources. we have a great qr code for immediate resources for anybody who needs any help, and that's what we -- that's the -- our playwright says this great thing, the opposite of addiction is not abstinence, it's community, and that's what this play is really. >> that's beautiful. there's that last step, right? performing the service. it's called "the white chip" at the robert w. wilson mcc theater space right here in new york city running until march the 9th. joe tapper, annaleigh ash herb. >>. the supreme court is giving jack smith a tight deadline to respond to donald trump's immunity appeal. we've got through that and a trio of legal proceedings just

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of the hour, the supreme court is giving special counsel jack smith until next tuesday to respond to donald trump's emergency application in his immunity case. the former president is asking the high court to halt a d.c. circuit court's ruling that it rejected his claim he is immune from criminal charges for his actions in the lead up to the january 6th insurrection. a verdict in former president trump's $370 million civil fraud trial is now expected this friday. that's according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. new york state attorney general letitia james's office alleges trump and his top officials committed persistent fraud by inflating financial statements and seeks $370 million in

penalties and a ban on trump conducting further business in the new york real estate industry. judge arthur engoron has already found trump and his executives engaged in fraud. he now needs to decide on the issue of intent and what penalties trump and his company should pay. meanwhile, former president trump is expected to be in the new york court tomorrow morning to attend a pretrial hearing for the hush money case against him involving adult film star stormy daniels. trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to payments made to daniels during his 2016 presidential run. he has pleaded not guilty to all the charges at the same time. in atlanta, there will be a hearing in the election interference case on allegations of misconduct against fulton county d.a., fani willis. willis is accused of having an

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