money we've heard from toledo -- donors about how much they want to spend in democratic house primaries primarily. safe seat, blue democratic seats where they want to shape the kinds of democrats who are going to washington. that goes from everything from sort of the so-called squad, people like bush of missouri or bowman of new york, all the way to open primaries, where we reported on the first opening salvo in southern california where they've picked a candidate they prefer in an open race there. they really are looking to shape the kinds of democrats and, in their mind, who they deem more pro-israel in their mind, to go to washington to push their issues. but what is really notable is that progressives, obviously, are trying to push back on that and are trying to point out the fact that aipac receives support

from mega donors. >> elena schneider, thank you for joining us this morning with your reporting. thanks for getting up "way too early" with us on this monday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. >> we will restore peace through strength. get that war settled. that's a bad war. and putin, you know, has so little respect for obama that he is starting to throw around the nuclear word, too. you heard that, nuclear. >> donald trump over the weekend once again thinking he's running against barack obama. when trump wasn't confusing biden with obama -- >> really sad. >> -- he apparently thought he was obama. >> it really is sad. >> taking credit for legislation that was signed by his predecessor. >> so sad. >> for our great veterans, we passed v.a. accountability and v.a. choice. that was a big deal.

>> i have no greater honor than serving as your president and commander in chief, and i have no greater privilege than the chance to help make sure our country keeps the promises we've made to everybody who signs up to serve. with that, i am going to sign this bill. thank you very much, everybody. >> now watch we sign this bill. >> good morning. what a weekend. >> hold on. >> what a weekend. >> and the slurring, seriously. i have to apologize to fat elvis in '77. fat elvis never slurred his words like donald trump did this weekend. his face was contorted. >> something was going on, a little tired. >> again, it's joe biden who falls off his bike and whatever. it's a bizarre, bizarre thing. they'll pretend on other networks that it doesn't exist. trump people will pretend it doesn't exist, and we'll have an election. by the time the election comes, everybody will know it exists.

everybody will know who actually has more of a problem. here, you had -- and jonathan lemire, i'm not really good at politics. >> that's true. >> or don't keep up with the news. you don't have to in this job. help me out. i saw that v.a. bill was signed in 2014. i was just looking at the clip there. was donald trump president in 2014? who was president in 2014? >> i've got the trusty almanac here. in 2014, no, it was not donald trump. it was barack obama who was president of the united states. >> oh. >> yup. >> so he just, again, his mind short circuited there. >> yeah. >> also, he, once again, says that barack obama is president of the united states right now. i've been following liverpool.

it's been exciting. i haven't been watching a lot of news lately. great nfl season wrapped up, as well. i mean, spring training is upon us. i don't have time for this, okay? >> yeah. >> so who is president right now? is barack obama president right now? >> so, first of all, liverpool, 90th plus minute win. that was tremendous. >> come on, yeah. >> checking again in the almanac. barack obama was president in 2014, but he stopped being president in 2016. so, no, he is not currently the occupant of the oval office. >> and he stopped running to be president in 2016. >> right. >> because, as donald trump has said, campaign event after campaign event after campaign event, he said he beat barack obama in 2016. is that why he's not president, because donald trump beat barack obama in 2016? >> i've got to thumb a little further into the almanac for

this one, deeper research. but, no, he didn't. what barack obama was term limited out. donald trump beat hillary clinton in 2016. >> oh, that's right. is that why he's -- but he wants that matchup. this is, like, ali/frazier 3. he wants the third matchup. he wants the thrill. is that why he's running against him -- well, he said he'd beat him in '20. then said he is running against him again in '24. right? what's almanac say? >> first of all, obama constitutionally prohibited from running again. it's not obama. in fact, it was joe biden who beat donald trump in 2020. >> biden. >> that looks like we'll get that rematch, round two, this time around in 2024. this was a weekend of pure meltdowns for donald trump, including one where he loses the ability to speak the english language. i've seen the clip a dozen times now, and i burst out laughing

each and every time. >> well, it is -- yeah, it's -- >> i think -- >> -- it's not good. >> yeah. >> it's not good. i haven't laughed because, at one point, he says, saudi arabia, russia, and looks off into the distance, and his face is contorted and twisted. it's like he is really struggling. >> yeah. >> you know what i'm talking about. >> i do. >> he is really struggling up there to get his thoughts together. i thought, he does that saturday night. all week on the "new york times" front page, "people think joe biden is too old." we're going to talk about that story. i just have to say off the top, if you ask the question, is joe biden too old, that's like asking all the people that watch this show, there are a lot, does joe scarborough talk too much? >> oh, yeah. >> 85%, 90% would say yes, he

talks too much. if you ask the question, would "morning joe" be better without joe scarborough on it? >> stop. >> hold on. about 85%, 90% would say, yes, of course it would be, right? yet, in the words of the great bob seger, and still, here we are. both of us lonely. >> i like that song. >> my point, jen palmieri is -- jen palmieri is here today. >> yes. >> the question is asked, is joe biden too old? the question answers itself. if you ask joe biden, am i too old? yeah, i'm too old. in fact, he's said that. man, i'm old. right? >> yeah, he wants to be younger. >> he'd love to be younger and i'd love to talk less, as we can tell in the first seven minutes of this show, it ain't gonna

happen. neither one is going to happen. this is the choice americans have. this is the choice americans will be glad they have in the fall when democrats return to joe biden and democracy is saved for another four years. i find the bedwetting that goes along with "the new york times"/sienna polls every three months, every three months, i just find it ridiculous. especially when donald trump spent the weekend speaking incoherently in ways that should disturb. if they can be disturbed by anything, which we know they're not. not disturbed by a guy who says he'll be a dictator from day one. not disturbed by a guy who says he'll throw his political opponents in jail.

not disturbed by the fact he said he'd get s.e.a.l. team six to assassinate his political opponents and he can't be held liable or guilty. a guy who said a judge rapd a woman, lied about it, defamed her. charlottesville, good people on both sides. >> covid, literally killing people by not telling them about the pandemic. >> go on and on and on. if these people are going to be disturbed by anything, they would have been disturbed by it a long time ago. that said, and, again, god help me, you know this. if i have a fault, it's that i care too much. >> is that it? >> i care too much. >> hold on. we're on tv. >> for my republican brothers and sisters, i have been here the last seven years trying to save them from themselves. they insist not only putting their hand on the hot stove but laying their face down gently on

the hot stove. only to find out they're going to get burned again. of this i have no doubt. i think my irritation this weekend came with the news media that was talking about a guy who is very cogent. a guy who is doing a very good job managing all that he is managing across the world and passing a record amount of bipartisan legislation, and focusing on him, saying he is too old. while they continue to ignore donald trump completely losing his mind, blanking out on stage. >> there's a lot to talk about with the poll and the freakout, but the biggest takeaway for me is how trump reacted this weekend, which i think is a reaction to biden taking him on directly at the border. if anything comes out of "the new york times" poll that's productive, it is that we have a

tension deficit disorder when it comes to paying attention to what joe biden is doing and what his positions are. biden went to the border. trump took the bait and went to the boborder, too. biden finally broke through because we're paying attention to both of them. by the way, it matters. one poll showed 63% of people think house republicans are to blame for stopping the bipartisan border bill. and they did it because they wanted to help donald trump. then trump freaks out and has, you know, three days of the kind of display we saw over the weekend. a way for biden to break through is to find the direct confrontation. >> look at that guy, he is not well. i'm sorry, jen. i'm serious. that guy is not well. let's bring in the president of the national action network and host of msnbc "politics nation," reverend al sharpton. we are so excited, rev, to talk about selma this weekend.

also have with us msnbc contributor and author of "how the right lost its mind," charlie sykes. speaking of, donald trump was on the campaign trail this weekend in north carolina and virginia, and the guy just kept getting confused. look at this series of clips. >> in venezuela, did you just see maduro, it's an unbelievable -- we're getting rid of the romneys of the world. we want to get romneys and those out. but they know that we are the only ones who can stop them, the only ones. this is the greatest movement in the history of the country, in any country. even argentina went maga. you know argentina, great guy. he loves trump. i love him because he loves trump. when he called, i took the call. anybody that loves me, i like that.

i said, abdul, he's still there, the head of the taliban. i said, you're killing our soldiers, don't do it. i said our terror will rain down on you. he said, yes, your highness, which was interesting. saudi arabia and russia will be -- oh. >> i don't even -- what happened? what happened there? charlie sykes, he gets in the middle of sentences. he is readily teleprompters and the mind still blanks out. nikki haley for nancy pelosi. barack obama for joe biden. and it is just so pathetic and sad. they're going, he's doing it on purpose. no, he's not doing any of this stuff on purpose. take the fact his mind blanks out and he looks lost.

actually, it looks like a sad scene to me, to see somebody up on stage and blanking out and getting lost. first of all, he thinks the person who runs the south american country is argentina. argentina, great guy. thank you for saying get rid of the romneys in the republican party. that's torn out of kari lake's book of loserdom. that's where it'll lead you. also, again, against this madness and, unfortunately, an old man who is losing his ability to communicate, he is praising the taliban leader for calling him your highness. wrap up that speech for us, if you would, charlie sykes. >> how do you? >> what fresh hell. unfortunately, i'm not a psychiatrist here. what's on display is, okay, joe biden is old, but the other guy

is deranged, demedemented, and pathetic, not to mention dangerous. as we're sitting here talking about this, we're less than 48 hours away from that guy clinching the republican presidential nomination. the republicans have one last off-ramp, and they're not going to take it. they look at this guy, and this is the extraordinary thing, is republicans look at him, and i don't have to repeat all the things. found liable for rape, facing 91 felony charges, you know, and you have this gaseous malice you get from the gaffe-filled speeches, and they're thinking, yeah, we want four more years of that. if there's any upside here, joe biden will be able to say, yeah, i'm old. i'm stiff when i walk, but this guy is also old and crazy. he's dangerous.

he's incoherent. he needs to make that point. the other maybe upside is, you know, now that there's no way of denying it'll be donald trump again, it'll focus the mind. i agree with you, joe. i think democrats need to stop the bedwetting, but they need to get out of the bed and freak out a little bit because the reality is, maybe this is what it'll take for them to realize this guy could become president of the united states. this could actually happen. maybe we ought to treat that threat, you know, the way it ought to be treated. if it is an existential threat, let's act like it is an existential threat. stop the bedwetting, but maybe a little freakout wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. >> maybe it'll wake a lot of democrats up. i will say, though, you know, all this idea, you brought up the things that -- a judge determines donald trump raped a woman. >> yes. >> evangelicals are cool with that. used to be, like, bill clinton, wait, did he do something with his intern or not?

character matters in the white house! he must be driven to the sea! i mean, these same evangelicals, i was there. i was hearing it every day as a congressman. every day, republicans, man, he doesn't have the morals. bill clinton doesn't have the morals to be president. how dare us. >> like mr. bible in the house, what does he think of president trump grabbing women by their genitals or having sex with a porn while he was married with his wife about to have a baby and then paying her off? apparently, there are more michael cohen took care of, but sorry, go on, i digress. those should be looked over. >> they ignore those things. let's face it, they're raging hypocrites when it comes to this. bill clinton. donald trump raped a woman, sayings a judge. a jury of his peers said he sexually assaulted and defamed a

woman. grand jury after grand jury after grand jury, again, of his peers. not the deep state. >> people. >> a grand jury of voters. >> citizens. >> have found him -- found enough evidence to indict him on 91 counts. all over the country. 91 counts. yet, yet, mika, everybody is fine with it. in the extreme maga world. i think most pathetically, evangelicals, who was just so aghast and shocked by bill clinton's behavior. >> yeah, end of the world. >> now, many of them, they've

basically said this guy is their savior. they've so abandoned the faith they claimed they had when bill clinton was president, they were so shocked, that some of them -- i'm talking about some of them -- have so abandoned their faith, they're now idolizing donald trump. they will tell you that. it's sad and pathetic. >> you know, i think these points you're talking about opposed to the way we came into the show when you were talking about some of his weaknesses on stage, people could react and say, oh, you know, that's not fair. that's being mean. you know what? there's legitimate records to look at here as an american voter today. they have two candidates who have both been president. reverend al, you can look at their presidencies. donald trump tries to lie about his presidency, so you have to go and look at sources that you

can trust. look at these presidencies or the presidents at the border at the same time. listen to the speeches and base your decision on that. what do you really want to go back to? >> rev, i had one person call me and we talked about the differences at the border. they said, yeah, but did you see how he walked at the border? i said, wait, you are giving him style points on how he walked instead of what they said? do i need to remind you that one of the greatest presidents in the history of america was in a wheelchair, and he did okay. >> he gave us the new deal. >> yes. >> saved the country from, along with our allies, saved us from hitler. but i think when you look at the real difference between donald

trump and joe biden's walk is joe biden has not had to do a perk walk in courtrooms as donald trump is doing. when you look at the fact, people keep saying joe biden is too old, is he too old to get the infrastructure bill passed? was he too old to get the inflation reduction act passed? was he too old to get us out of the heights of a pandemic when you're up against the guy who said the pandemic was coming and told us to take bleach, then put his name on a check that nancy pelosi got through congress, and now he is incoherent to himself? he can't finish a sentence, going off in babble land. i mean, it is absolutely telling when we see people that try to defend what is indefensible. as you say, joe, at the top of my list are evangelicals who brought down the wrath of god on bill clinton but has excused

donald trump for all kinds of things they preach is sinful. it shows more of their hypocrisy than a babbling old man on his way to court. >> president biden's aides know age is an issue. they believe a lot of this was litigated in 2020, and they feel like they'll be able to highlight this issue again. they don't think it'll be that big of a deal for voters in the stretch run. they see this thursday's state of the union as a chance to prove president biden's vitality. last year's state of the union, he crushed it, shouting back and forth with mtg and those in the back, able to box in the republicans on a campaign promise. and white house aides has shown us polling that americans' concerns about his age went down after the strong state of the union showing. they think it'll happen again. joe and mika, let's also remember about donald trump. jen mentioned how it seemed like the pressure is building on him and he was melting down as the

weekend was going on. >> boy, he was. >> two reasons for that. one, he lost. yes, it was on the washington, d.c. primary, but he took a defeat. we have seen him in other states not put up the numbers his team would have liked. haley putting up a bigger share of the vote than you'd expect when trump is running as an incumbent. this incumbent just lost a primary. secondly and perhaps most importantly, three weeks from today, a donald trump criminal trial starts. that is uncharted territory for any presidential candidate that is clearly weighing on this one. we simply do not know how that will impact him going forward. >> well, let me also say, and mika and i who have known him for a long time understand, of all the things that are weighing on him, it's the crushing realization that he may have to start selling some of his real estate because he doesn't have the money to pay the bond. that's what is crushing him the

most. i want to get back to this, though. i know we live in an era of bs thrown against the wall by fascists and wanna be fascists. i've been talking about gravity returning, and it has returned in the courtroom time and time again. people that are getting hammered for the lies they tell, the lives they've ruined, whether it is rudy giuliani in georgia lying about two women who just wanted to volunteer for elections, whether it's the guy on info wars that lied about sandy hook parents. adding just immeasurable pain to them. he got hammered. donald trump lying about a woman a judge says that he raped. gravity returns. >> $83.3 million. >> jen, there is another place where gravity is going to

return, and we started to see it. you couldn't tell because as we all lifted our soggy papers this weekend that democrats across washington, d.c., had wet upon. >> come on. >> you can be mistaken -- there is an image. enjoy your oatmeal. you can be mistaken for not reading the line in the "wall street journal" in their poll that said, while biden is not getting the credit he deserves for the economy, it is starting to move that direction. people are starting to say, wait a second, this is a pretty good economy. i want to read this from "the wall street journal" yesterday. "unemployment has been below 4% for two years, the longest stretch since the 1960s. inflation now down to 3.1%. a new "wall street journal" poll shows views of the economy are

moving to be more in line with those measures of economic strength." it's february. it's feb-u-ary. >> ru-ary. >> it's spring training. the election is in the fall. the election in the fall. as the economy continues to improve, jen, we are seeing americans waking up saying, hey, things are pretty good. consumer confidence going up. things are pretty good. it is starting to move in that direction. as mika likes to tell women about their careers, there is a long, long runway ahead before this campaign is over. >> the presidential approval ratings are usually a lagging indicator, people feeling better about the country. the economic numbers and confidence goes up, i've noticed even though the president's approval ratings are low

relative to other presidents. we are living in a different time period. look at approval ratings across the globe, and you see joe biden is doing pretty well. i have noticed they are starting to tick up. of course, thursday night, the state of the union, that is the opportunity to lay out -- you know, for the president to lay out what will probably be a big audience. television doesn't get big audiences anymore except for sunday night football, super bowls, and states of the union. >> and "way too early." >> well, yeah, obviously. i mean, as you know, i'm a big fan. but they get -- that's when he'll be able to lay out in context what he has accomplished. sort of the jury we've been on from, you know, taking over the time of covid to now, explain why inflation was as high as it was, what they did to bring it back down. of course, what he'll do in a second term. i feel like that's the real starting gun for him making the

argument of what he's accomplished relative to the november election. >> by the way, as far as ratings, juggernauts, mika, out of the top 100 shows last year, half were nfl games. half were reverend al's "politics nation." it is massive. charlie sykes, let me end with you. i must admit, this is foreign for me. my old republican party, back before trump's party, when they used to own the libs and now they lose, when polls didn't go our way, we said, how would we destroy them? let's go. no bedwetting. it was a culture thing. we'd say, these polls suck. we're not working hard enough, not getting the message out there. we have to work harder, and

we're going. i had somebody tell me once i wasn't going to win. they said, the funders don't want you, joe! the voters don't. i said, i don't care. they have no choice. i'm going to will myself to victory. everybody slowly backed away, but i promise, that was the attitude. republicans used to have it. they don't have it now. democrats bed wet in washington d.c. what's your advice to the democratic party with democracy, i will say it, on the line? >> shine as bright a spotlight as you possibly can on this other side. ultimately, if this is a referendum on whether we want donald trump back in the white house, i think the democrats are going to be in a stronger position. you have to highlight all of this. you can't get distracted. and this is part of the problem, i think, of the way we cover these races.

i think it was jay rosin who made the point, the news media is addicted to novelty, what is new, opposed to what are the stakes here? part of the problem is, you know, donald trump depose out and says, you know, a series of racist, demented, series of things and people say, same old, it's not a new story. we have to begin focusing on the stakes, make it as dramatic as possible. speaking of polls, it is interesting. nikki haley is not going to win tomorrow but she's exposed the vulnerabilities of donald trump, including the number of disaffected republicans that might vote for nikki haley but won't vote for donald trump. how is donald trump reacting over the weekend? basically saying, we're 100% maga now. there is no room in this party for moderates like mitt romney. there's no indication that republicans or donald trump is doing anything to bring back disaffected republicans or even to appeal to swing voters. you have nikki haley out there

pleading with other republicans, back away from the unhinged chaos, right? let's have a return to normalcy. i think what we're going to see tomorrow is that both donald trump and the republican electorate is not interested in returning to normal. >> nope. >> in fact, they like the kay i don't guess chaos. they had a chance to leave it but they chose to double down on the chaos. we'll see how it plays out the rest of the year. >> charlie sykes, thank you very much. ahead, we'll have an update on two of donald trump's criminal cases. former litigator lisa rubin will break down the new developments. plus, vice president harris calls for an immediate cease-fire in gaza. what that could mean for the administration's approach to the ongoing war. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. >> if you look at the early states, he may have won them, yes, but he didn't get 40% of the vote. that's no small number.

in michigan, he campaigned there for eight years. i campaigned there for two days, and we got 30% of the vote.

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helpful tips, reliable information, and more. cidp can be tough. but finding hope just got a little easier. sign up at shiningthroughcidp.com. all: be heard. be hopeful. be you. president biden visited the southern border and was horrified to discover it is being swarmed by criminals and rapists. [ laughter ] that's right, both biden and trump coincidentally delivered the border on the same day, which sounds like the setup for the weirdest rom-com of all

time. my favorite part of the visit was when trump, who looks good behind bars, by the way, finally came face-to-face with his sworn enemies, the migrants, and he had a pretty harsh message for them. take a look. >> they like trump, can you believe it? >> no, i can't believe it. the migrants don't like you. they just walked 1,000 miles to get to the edge of this river, and they're probably thinking, is that weirdo in a trump costume waving us into the country? >> can you believe that? >> wow, they were on fire saturday night. great material to work with. >> great material. let's get an update on donald trump's criminal cases. joining us now, former litigator and msnbc legal correspondent lisa rubin. we'll start with the classified documents hearing on friday. what was the bottom line out of it? >> bottom line, mika, there was no bottom line. we still don't have a trial date in that case. judge canon has acknowledged

that may 20th, which was her prior trial date, is no longer feasible. but we ended that hearing without a clear understanding from judge canon what trial date she's going to set, in any. she was begged by the trump lawyers not to set a date until after the election due to a number of factors, including the fact he's moved to dismiss that case on presidential immunity grounds. >> okay. then we'll go to fulton county where we're waiting word on whether fani willis can continue. the question here is two-fold. are they winning just by the delay that's created? and how do you think -- what do you think the outcome of the fani willis issue will be? >> well, first of all, are they winning just by creating a delay? trump always wins when he creates delay. as you know, mika, throughout his criminal cases, he has succeeded in creating quite a bit of delay except here in new york where his trial will begin later this month.

in terms of the ultimate outcome, i think it is a little bit hard to say. the legal standard that should govern whether or not there is a conflict of interest that would disqualify fani willis is somewhat up in the air. folks will say, as the state did, that there's only a conflict of interest, not only if there is a financial relationship, but one that disadvantages the defendants. here, because it wasn't the sort of financial relationship where, for example, it was contingent on winning the case, it's really hard to see how the defendants themselves will be hurt by the relationship between willis and wade. but steve made a convincing case. the ethics that fani willis and nathan wade behaved with or without created an appearance of impropriety and it'd be a travesty of justice not to disqualify her. i think she won't be, but the

damage to her reputation and the cloud over them in terms of whether or not they were truthful with the court will linger for some time to come. >> finally, we're expecting possibly, it seems probably, a decision by the supreme court on whether donald trump can remain on the brake light. there are some other states that are looking at this, as well, but the bottom line is, it probably has to come today. what do you think? >> i think it absolutely should come today. after all, tomorrow is super tuesday, and colorado is one of the super tuesday states. the status quo is that donald trump remains on the ballot. if the supreme court were going to uphold colorado, you'd think they would have done so more than one day before the primary election, mika. >> all right. msnbc legal correspondent lisa rubin, thank you for keeping track of all of that for that. now to the u.s. making its first air drops of humanitarian aid into gaza. in a combined effort with the

royal jordanian air force, the u.s. air force dropped over 38,000 meals on saturday afternoon. the packages were stacked on palettes for central gaza where thousands of people are starving. u.s. officials are looking into more ways to send aid into gaza, including by sea. >> it's such a nightmare right now. 15 aid trucks were supposed to get to northern gaza where the situation is right now so extraordinarily bleak, and they were stopped. they were swarmed. all the food was taken off before they were able to get to northern gaza. people, obviously, in southern gaza who are suffering and struggling, too. the air drops are helpful, but they can't move as much as the convoys can move in. now, they're talking about coming in from the north. desperately needed aid but this is going to be difficult because

there are so many people that are starving, so many people that want to feed their families, that these aid trucks often get stopped. >> overrun, yeah. >> overrun by swarming crowds. >> these are the people who have survived. >> yeah. >> well over 30,000 people have been killed. infrastructure has been ruined. it is a disaster of epic proportions that, at this point, is avoidable. they absolutely could stop what they are doing. negotiators believe, by the way, hamas and israel are making slow progress, saying a cease-fire and a hostage release deal could be reached before the muslim holy month of ramadan. an israel and u.s. official tell "the wall street journal" israel has agreed to the outlines of a deal that includes a six-week truce, but officials say hamas has yet to provide answers on two key sticking points, which palestinian prisoners the group wants freed and how many for each hostage released.

because of that, israel has not sent a senior delegation to cairo for negotiations. members of hamas, however, are there. vice president kamala harris is set to meet with a member of israel's war cabinet today at the white house. this just one day after harris called for an immediate cease-fire in the war in gaza. here she is speaking yesterday in selma, alabama. >> people in gaza are starving. the conditions are inhumane. and our common humanity compels us to act. the israeli government must do more to significantly increase the flow of aid. no excuses. [ applause ] they must open new border crossings. they must not impose any unnecessary restrictions on the delivery of aid. they must ensure humanitarian

personnel, sites, and convoys are not targeted. and they must work to restore basic services and promote order in gaza so more food, water, and fuel can reach those in need. i will repeat, the threat of hamas poses to the people of israel must be eliminated. and given the immense scale of suffering in gaza, there must be an immediate cease-fire. [ applause ] for at least the next six weeks, which is what is currently on the table. hamas claims it wants a cease-fire. well, there is a deal on the table. and as we have said, hamas needs to agree to that deal.

let's get a cease-fire. let's reunite the hostages with their families. and let's provide immediate relief to the people of gaza. >> joining us now is columnist and associate editor for "the washington post," david ignatius. his latest piece is entitled "food convoy carnage distills what's gone terribly wrong in gaza." >> you know, david, thank you for being with us. you know, david, what kamala harris said publicly, joe biden, tony blinken, other officials inside the biden administration have been urging israel to do now for weeks and weeks and weeks. there has been, as you know, quite a debate inside the white house about when was he going to break publicly with netanyahu? that wasn't a break with netanyahu. the administration finally said publicly what it'd been saying

privately all along. the conditions in gaza are unacceptable. you have to provide relief. talk about that. talk about just how dire this situation is in gaza. >> so, joe, first to the situation in the months of terrible war. i don't know that we saw an image more poignant than the drone footage of hundreds and hundreds of palestinians in the predawn on thursday morning scrambling desperately after this convoy of aid trucks, climbing on the trucks, climbing over each other. it appears that in the panic, this predawn time, that there was a stampede of people. they were crushed under the trucks' wheels. some israeli troops opened fire. it's just a scene i likened, sadly, to a chapter in "lord of the flies" come to life.

you see when people are reduced to this raw struggle for survival, what happens. so this is indicative, the biden administration believes, of israel's lack of a clear plan. it simply does not have a way of providing order and security in the areas that it has cleared of hamas fighters in northern gaza. the people who are maintaining order, and i put that in quotation marks, are criminal gangs. they are organized criminals looting the food. they intimidate convoy truck drivers who are poised to bring more food. that led to an, i think, unusual decision by the administration to intervene more directly. that's what the air drops are about. you can't get convoys in safely, we're going to take over. we're going to begin dropping by air. they're going to build a port off gaza.

they're contracting now with people in cypress to bring in docks. the gazan waters are shallow. they'll get long, floating docks and bring in aid that way. they'll figure out ways to do more secure convoys. the administration is fed up with the situation. the second important thing happening is the visit today in washington of israeli war cabinet member benny gantz, former army chief of staff. he's going to meet with kamala harris, meet with jake sullivan. the importance of this visit is bibi netanyahu, the israeli prime minister, did not want him to come. bibi netanyahu has still not been received in the white house. here is benny gantz, his chief rival who is going to be received. he'll have discussions with the administration officials. i see this as the beginning of a process that may see a

splintering of the israeli war cabinet. i think the prospect of elections in israel that would probably displace netanyahu is increasing. in the polls now, gantz, who will meet with kamala harris today, is far ahead of netanyahu. if the race were held tomorrow, gantz would win it. keep your eyes on that. then the political repercussions back in israel. basically, we're at a moment where the u.s. is going to play a much more significant role, both on the ground with aid and in these meetings with people like gantz. >> david, please weigh in for us on two things. the fact the u.s. had to resort, though, to the air lifts for supplies, doesn't that also point to a weakness and inability to push netanyahu to provide more safety to get more supplies in via the ground? secondly, speak about the urgency the u.s. has. it was on display from the vice president over the weekend, to get a cease-fire before ramadan,

the muslim holy month, about a week away. >> jonathan, the convoy situation was going pretty well in january. there were more than 200 trucks a day that were coming in. and then things got tangled, in part because the convoys were being protected by police from gaza who were affiliated with hamas. israel began targeting them. the police said, we want guarantees we won't be shot at. they didn't get the guarantees. suddenly, you had no protection for the convoys. some of the openings, the crossing at kerem shalom was closed. there was a scarcity sud suddenly of food, and that increased the

problem. the u.s. believes if this cease-fire can be achieved in the next week, ramadan starts about seven days from now, it'll begin a process of de-escalation. so the cease-fire will last for six weeks initially. 40 israeli hostahostages, wound sick, elderly, women, will be released. the hope is at the end of the six weeks, there's still a lot of male hostages being held by hamas, that there will be another pause of additional time, another six weeks maybe, and that you'll begin to get conditions where you could really ratchet this conflict down. that's the hope. first, they've got to get this initial agreement. that's what they're trying so hard to get today. >> i wonder where the difficulty lies for the most part, david, to jonathan's point, and you also mentioned israel's lack of a clear plan. whether it's hostage negotiations or getting to the table in cairo or trying to

actually get to a cease-fire, my question to you is, does israel have the will and, specifically, does benjamin netanyahu have the will? does he want a cease-fire? >> i think israel is ready for the cease-fire. the u.s. has put a lot of pressure. i think the holdup right now is hamas. hamas had made demands for a corresponding release of prisoners that was outlandish, asking for thousands in exchange for 40 hostages that are being released. i'm told that that's been worked out, but i have to be honest, at this point, i have to wait until the first hostage is released. on the larger issue, mika, do they have a plan to bring this to a satisfactory end? the answer is no increasingly. officials of the administration, when you press them, say, we

don't see a plan. the israelis have talked about storming rafah, this large city at the southern most edge of gaza. u.s. officials say they simply don't have a way to get them. more than 1 million refugees who went down, get them out to safety before they conduct the military operation. that's the kind of thing that scares u.s. officials and makes them worry that netanyahu, for all his talk about ending the war, simply doesn't have a plan yet. >> well, and the humanitarian situation is such a condition right now. the meltdown is so complete. i mean, you look at the pictures coming out, the reporting coming out. another full-scale attack with famine on the horizon, just not acceptable. it's really not acceptable. it shouldn't be acceptable. >> they've already had children die of hunger. >> israelis who obviously want to see hamas destroyed, we all -- most of us at least, i certainly do. i think everybody around the

table wants to see hamas destroyed. we also are seeing israel's reputation around the world but also, i think israelis should be more concerned at home with younger americans who are going to be making policy for the next 20, 30, 40 years, turning -- let me just say, viciously against israel. it is -- it is going to cause so many problems, david. talk about that. i also want you to underline what you said before, though. that we look and the world looks at gaza and says, why can't you drive trucks in there? come on, help the people. why can't you get them in there? we need to do that. we need to air drop. we need to do whatever it takes. there are complications to that. criminal gangs running the place right now, intimidating fathers, mothers who want to get food and get it to their kids. like we see in so many corrupt places, the aid often gettings to the war lords.

usually gets to the gangs. you now have hamas in the middle of this, as well. hamas doesn't want the united states of america helping a young mother or young father with food. it is extraordinarily complicated. yet, of course, it has to be done. >> joe, i've written that israel unintentionally is creating a version of somalia on its borders. what we're seeing is when you knock over existing structures of security, and, you know, i think after october 7, israel was right to go after hamas. hamas was a terrorist adversary, and hamas had been maing life miserable for people in gaza for a decade. so i think that assault was just. the problem was they didn't have a problem for what you put in to fill the vacuum after you knock over the existing authority. that's what we're watching now.

the question of how future generations, our children, young voters in upcoming democratic party elections are going to view israel, i think that's something that israelis do need to think about more. you know, our generation grew up with the vision of israel as this proud country fighting off aggressors. there's a very different view now. i hope when gantz comes to washington, he'll evoke the israel that we remember. fighting for democracy and trying to move to peace. that's his job today when he meets with kamala harris and jake sullivan. >> mika, it is so personal to what are the defining moments of somebody's childhood, young adulthood, what they see? i can tell you, the first time i ever heard the word palestinian

was when i was watching the '72 munich olympics. it was the palestinian terrorist organization that went in and killed olympic athletes. >> mm-hmm. >> that was defining for me as a young person watching. oh, the palestinians, they're the terrorists. those defining moments for me, then learning israel had been attacked time and time and time again by its arab neighbors, right? >> yeah. >> today, these are the defining images young americans are going to see. of course, yes, they saw the -- horror and hell of october 7th. i wish it had more rsonance with young people, more than it has. i'm surprised. but it's the images of suffering in gaza that is going to define so many people's views, not only of gazans but also of israelis.

there is a cost to continued war. there is a cost to famine. there is a cost to extreme human suffering. it is a cost that, unless things change very quickly, israel will pay the consequences for in america and across the world for a very long time to come. i'm not saying what ought to be. i'm saying what is. >> yeah, "the washington post"'s david ignatius, thank you very much for coming on this morning. we appreciate the piece you wrote. thank you. >> thank you, david. coming up, we are looking ahead to super tuesday as republican presidential candidate nikki haley appears to walk back her pledge to support donald trump if he is the gop nominee. and we'll show you more of trump's confusion on the campaign trail. >> boy, that's really getting bad, isn't it? plus, new polling that bet about the economy. >> he keeps short-circuiting,

like he blanks out. >> trump? yeah. >> at one point, he blurted gibberish, and his face was twisted and contorted, donald trump's was. i'm concerned. i'm glad joe biden, obviously, much better. much better shape than that guy. >> yeah. as it comes to the positive signs of the economy, it doesn't seem that president biden is getting a lot of credit for it. we're going to look at why that might be. we're back in two minutes. and e exactly when we'll be there. >> woman: i have a few more minutes. let's go! >> tech vo: that's service that fits your schedule. go to safelite.com. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ ( ♪ ♪ ) start your day with nature made. the #1 pharmacist recommended vitamin and supplement brand. you can make money the hard way as a bullfighter the #1 pharmacist recommended or a human cannonball... or save money the easy way, with xfinity mobile.

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putin has so little respect for obama, he's throwing around the nuclear word. you heard that, nuclear. did you see maduro. ve venezuela, unbelievable -- oil exploexploration. the biden -- well, you know this. even argentina went maga. argentina, great ga. guy. we will expel the warmongers. we are a nation that recently

heard that saudi arabia and russia will be a -- aw. >> oh, my god. >> you turn away when he starts to blank out. does it upset you? >> it feels very unhealthy. i'll be very careful. it doesn't look good. it scares me. >> play it one more time. i want to see mika's -- he doesn't look good. >> will he pass out? >> i don't know. >> putin has so little respect for obama, he's throwing around the nuclear word, too. you heard that, nuclear. did you see maduro? venezuela, it is an unbelievable -- oil exploration and production in the united states. the biden border will, well, you know this, right? even argentina, they went maga. argentina, great guy. we will expel the warmongers. we are a nation that just recently heard that saudi arabia and russia will we be --

aw. >> that right there, that upsets you. >> i don't like it. something is wrong. >> you think so? >> it makes me -- yeah. >> let's play it one more time. >> no, i don't want to see it. >> i want to see what is upsetting you. quickly. >> putin has so little respect for obama that he's starting to throw around the nuclear word, too, you heard that, nuclear. did you see maduro? ve venezuela, unbelievable. oil exploration and production in the united states. the biden border will, well, you know this, right? even argentina, they went maga. argentina, great guy. we will expel the wall mongers. we are a nation that just recently heard that saudi arabia and russia will be a -- aw. >> come on. what's going on? >> i don't know. jonathan lemire, you've followed him.

i'm dead serious. you followed this guy a very long time. there is the confusion between nikki haley and nancy pelosi. the continued confusion between barack obama and joe biden. that has a deep background, going all the way back to 2011. he really is -- he continues to be obsessed and haunted by barack obama mocking him. at the white house correspondents' dinner, getting the respect he always thought he needed to get. the ghost of obama haunts him every day. he says it. you see it on stage. >> there's something else. >> i know. there's something -- but you look at his eyes and how twisted and contorted his face was at the end of that clip. you also have, you know, talking about mr. argentina, a great guy. >> like, if i was his family -- >> yeah, you're not. >> -- i would be looking at that as, like, a --

>> well -- >> i would take him to a doctor. >> -- this is what we've been saying about rudy giuliani for a long time, there has to be someone around him who can protect him from himself. there is no one around trump who can protect him from himself. jonathan lemire, you wrote about january 6th. that's an example about how he's not the same guy he was 5, 10, even 15 years ago. nobody is saying he was a saint then, but we knew him. he is radically different. you see him talking radically different. look at january 6th. he has every single person in the white house begging him to stop the riots. his lawyers were begging him to stop the riots. everybody, his family was begging him to stop the riots. fox news hosts were begging him to stop the riots. everybody. he's alone. as we go through this sad scene, there is nobody that can take him off the stage.

say, "you're not well." >> you need to go to a doctor. >> yeah, you need to get checked and taken care of. >> he's surrounded entirely by enablers during this campaign and would be again if he'd be in the white house a second time. there would be no guardrails or adults in the room. it'd be people doing what he wants. to your point, he is not the same guy. you can watch video footage of the 2016 campaign. some of his time in the white house. we played last week a clip from the debate between trump and biden back in 2020. it was striking even then how much trump has changed, how he's aged. he is in his late 70s. he is only a couple years younger than president biden. we're seeing with more and more frequency, even as the media -- and we talked about it earlier, how the weekend was pull of polls and obsession about president biden's age -- it is this, trump, who day after day is showing the signs of age but also pressure. >> yeah. >> indeed, pressure because he is not getting as much of the

share of the republican vote as he'd like. nikki haley posting a win over the weekend. pressure because of the money he now owes, nearly half a billion dollars in a couple cases in new york city. and pressure that his first criminal case, a case that could theoretically put him in prison, starts in just three weeks. we are seeing it night after night on the rally stage, where he seems to even just lose control of the english language. mika cringes. i can't help it either at the end of that clip. the team forges forward. >> they're trying to keep him off the stage as much as possible. obviously, they don't want that out there. they don't want him on truth social. again, he only hurts himself politically. but you've said, and i think you're so right, mika, you've talked about how you had everything. the pressures of a presidential

campaign and everything spir swirling around in his life, and then add 91 counts. the pressure for anyone would be unbearable. >> yeah. >> that may be -- >> paralyzing. >> -- some of what we're seeing on stage. the pressure is probably -- even when we knew him before, he didn't sleep much. >> no. >> you look at this, and it'd only be natural. nikki haley said this, somebody that is worried about 91 counts, worried about figuring out how to come up with close to, what, $1 billion, $500 million, however much it is. >> his property is possibly going to be seized if he doesn't come up with putting down -- i guess you have to put it all down when you appeal. $83.3 million. >> plus the 300 whatever. >> $300 million whatever. that's there. >> the pressure is amazing. >> then, you know what? trump did have some gains in court. he was able to buy time in fulton county. he's got a trump judge in the documents case who is delaying.

whatever, he is finding some little bits of good news along the way. it does not take away the fact that this guy is facing hard time. >> yeah. >> behind bars. every hour of every day, he knows he's face going to prison for crimes he is accused of and could be convicted of and going to prison for the rest of his life. sitting in a cell. >> as we said in 2019, that'll never happen. it's just never happen. >> well, they put him in a -- they put a thing on his ankle and have him sit in a room? >> no, no. if any of these trials ever go, and the judges in the supreme court seem to be ruling in ways that may stop them if donald trump wins of ever going to court. but i say home confinement. >> house arrest? >> it'd be country club come

confinement. >> what he has a house he has to give up? >> donald trump remains above the law, sadly. i believe in our judicial system, but i will say, really, i am surprised -- >> it is being challenged. >> -- by what the supreme court has done on a number of counts. i'm actually careful not to second guess courts and judges. i'll just say, i'm very surprised by that decision. but, jen palmieri, i'll ask different questions about selma. rev, i'll start with you. talk about the weekend. talk about how moving it was. talk about your impressions. >> well, this was the 59th anniversary of the selma march in 1965 when john lewis and boykin and reverend jose williams led a march across that bridge after a young man, jimmy d. jackson, had been killed in

neighboring marion, alabama. about the right to vote. dr. king was in atlanta preaching at his home church with his father. the state troopers teargassed and literally beat people on that bridge. it was the drama. it was the films that came out, the videos of that beating that ignited the world to say, "wait a minute. why in a democracy are you beating people for the right to vote?" it led to the '65 voting rights act. it is almost a rite to passage. people go back. we go back every year. yesterday, it took on new meaning because that vote is under threat, unlike ever before in the 69 years. with section 5 out of the voting rights act by this right-wing supreme court, with many states changing voter laws that no longer have to go through

preclearance, yesterday's march was very much as contemporary as it was commemorative. i think the good news, though, is walking across that bridge. i was wielding one of the original, as you see in the film, this was one of the original foot soldiers who was tear gassed that day, was in a wheelchair. next to me was the vice president who, because of her, a woman and a black woman could be vice president. of course, we went over that bridge with barack obama. so they were the ones who ushered in a new generation, but they're being challenged in this generation. >> reverend al, nobody 59 years ago on either side of that terrible, terrible divide, in that racist age, no one would have believed 59 years ago, that a black vice president who is a

woman would be walking across that bridge and later delivering a message to the world about a par and the suffering going on halfway across the world. rev, as you said, also, that a black man would have been president of the united states and elected by a majority of the vote twice. who was the last president elected by the majority of the vote twice? reagan, of course. it hasn't happened much. again, in this country 59 years ago, who would have ever believed we would have seen this moment yesterday? >> i think that that is why we should not despair. as bad as things may appear to us and as contorted in this age of trump as it is, i look at

them and say, if they wouldn't have gotten teargassed on the bridge and given up, we wouldn't see what we've seen. it is energizing us for the battles now but also remembering, you can win if you're determined. those people had no idea what was going to happen. look at what they made happen. >> it's unbelievable. jen palmieri, we talk about a black woman, vice president of the united states, marching across the edmund pettus bridge. what an extraordinary moment when viewed in contrast to what happened there 59 years ago. let's also talk about something that's happening right now, historic. joe biden and the biden administration, they've been very carefully measuring what they said publicly about israel. they want the israeli people to know that they are standing shoulder to shoulder with them, even if they are not with

benjamin netanyahu, who they believe is setting back the cause of israel. yesterday, the biden administration chose vice president kamala harris to deliver some powerful words. talk about that. and why, perhaps, they chose the vice president and this setting to deliver the message. >> i was in michigan on friday and talked to people there about how they're feeling about the uncommitted vote and concerns around gaza. a lot of what i heard was people need to know that the president, that the administration gets it, that they care. that they understand how much pain people in michigan, palestinian-americans, arab-americans are feeling. i feel like the vice president really captured that. you can just hear real sorrow in her voice, anger in her voice. a very powerful statement, a very powerful setting. in terms of both how it looked and also the historical

representation of being at selma as the first black woman vice president. it wasn't necessarily a new policy she was announcing, but we heard it differently this time. i think it is partly because of the powerful words she used to speak to it. i should note, i pay close attention to women leaders, so i loved seeing her. the setting, the images of her walking across the bridge, so much production. so much strength. >> yes. >> in terms of for the administration, to have her, which people know she's been behind the scenes, she's been pushing to be more aggressive and to see her, you know, deliver it this way, i think it's, you know, we'll see what happens, if they actually get the cease-fire, but that was a good move. >> yeah. >> it was a great move. going back to what i was saying, though, about 59 years ago. in the 59 years since the

vicious, racist attacks on the edmund pettis bridge, only two presidents have been elected twice with majority vote in america. only two in the past 60 years. reagan and barack obama. extraordinary. >> it was a pretty incredible moment for the vice president, and she took what they were commemorating yesterday and the edmund pettus bridge, and she spoke about what was happening on the world stage and what needed to be done. i think it was a very powerful moment on many levels for this administration. now to the economy. new polling is showing that voters are starting to feel better about the state of the economy. so far, it is having little effect on president joe biden's general election numbers.

the latest "wall street journal" poll, 31% of americans think the economy is better. despite the change, biden climbed just two points in a likely matchup between donald trump. down two points nationally within the poll's margin of error. as for why the improved economic outlook likely hasn't translated into more support for biden, the poll shows since december, immigration has eclipsed the economy as the most important issue. >> by the way -- >> for voters, but wait -- >> -- do you know other issues eclipse the economy, you know what that means? >> yeah. >> the economy is doing really well. the economy is always at the top. >> he is winning on immigration, too. >> he will. >> he put -- >> he will. look at the border. >> he put out a bipartisan solution, and republicans rejected it. whether the administration and ultimately the biden campaign

can make sure their megaphone is as loud or louder than the maga right's lies about immigration. let's bring in mike barnicle. msnbc news and political analyst, former u.s. senator claire mccaskill. she and jen palmieri are co-hosts of the msnbc podcast "how to win 2024." former senior aide to both the biden and clinton campaigns, adrienne elrod is with us. reporter and editor at "the wall street journal", aaron zitner joins us. glad to have you all on this morning. >> senator mccaskill, we were thinking about you earlier, glad you're here, when we were talking about democrats in washington, d.c., and the bedwetting over a "new york times" poll when you look at the situation. all this about joe biden's age. i don't know if you've seen the clip, but we've run a clip -- >> no, please. >> -- once or twice of donald trump. we find it so fascinating, sort

of this -- you know, newspapers will go, you know, donald trump is old, too, but they focus on joe biden more. well, yeah! they don't talk about all the crazy things donald trump says because they've gotten so used to it. someone said earlier, they're interested in the new. donald trump has been saying strange, bizarre things for such a long time. when he stammers and staggers across the stage like he did this weekend talking about his good friend mr. argentina, when he is still confusing barack obama for joe biden, you know, when he confused nikki haley for -- you know, you go on and on and on, nothing from the media. it's just very minimal. that's obviously shaping the polls. >> yeah, it really has been way out of proportion. i'm speaking as somebody who

affectionately has known for a long time that joe biden does stuff sometimes that is confusing. he's been this way always. part of it is his stutter. part of it is the way he speaks. but look at trump. you know, one thing that stuck out to me lately with donald trump, there is not a vainer man on the planet than donald trump. his deterioration, i think, is in his appearance. what stuck out to me, somebody on his last hair dye job gave him bright orange. i mean, it's not the normal color he usually dyes his hair. he looked in the mirror and didn't notice the difference. i mean, if you look at the clips you've run, if you look at what you're showing now, it's older and his hair color is not as dramatic, but it is literally carrot orange right now. does he not see that?

is everybody around him, is it the emperor wears no clothes? is everybody around him saying, "hey, listen, guy, your hair is on fire in terms of this fluorescent orange color"? to me, that reflects his mental decline as much as anything. clearly, he's looking in the mirror and doesn't realize that something is amiss. >> one way to look at it. [ laughter ] >> it is one way to look at it. i'm struck by another thing that's happening this morning that we've been talking about, history. there are people who learn from history, and there are people who ignore past history. and several elements of this public and the political constituenies learn from history. one, whole political party seems to ignore history. they ignore the fact that voting, i mean, 59 years ago, the selma bridge and all the legislation that occurred after the bridge was walked across by

people, 59 years ago, voting was in peril for a lot of people and impossible for some other people. it's still a tough task to vote for a lot of people in america today. that's a huge issue. we'll talk about it a little later, but i want to ask aaron zitner right now about "the wall street journal" poll, the president, and his relation to the economy, and people's perception of him in terms of handling the economy. how much of that do you suspect is rooted in interest on credit card rates? that's something that every american pays every month for fear of losing their card. that's the impact of the economy that i think they see most often, other than grocery prices. >> yeah, and mortgage rates, too, have been a problem. inflation has been so corrosive on interest rates, and it is pervasive and affected everybody. but we've had this mystery about the economy, which is, through traditional measures,

unemployment, inflation, the stock market, consumer spending is high, the economy is pretty good but people aren't feeling it. the question for the presidential campaign has been, will people start to feel the economy is strong and move more in like with the economic fundamentals, and will biden get any credit? what we're seeing in our poll is, yeah, biden is getting a little more credit. people are viewing his handling of the economy a little better, but, boy, he's got age, immigration, and other issues weighing him down. it's not enough. this improvement in economic sentiment, consumer sentiment, just isn't enough to give him much lift so far. >> adrienne, there is no question that president biden faces a number of challenges for his re-election bid, including two hot wars overseas. at least one in which, in particular, the one in gaza, is dragging down his support at least among pieces of his base. you know this as well as i do, the biden team frames it differently. they don't think the poll

numbers will be reflective of how people vote in november. we've seen that overseas with other leaders of democracies. they think it'll happen again here, too. though the polls are worrisome, since the dobbs decision, democrats win elections. they keep winning elections. >> yup. >> this will be the first time since the dobbs decision that president biden's name will be on the ballot. talk to us about how that framing needs to occur in the next few months. >> couple things, jonathan. i think, number one, we have to keep in mind that every time donald trump's name has been on the ballot or every time he has been part of an election, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, he has lost. 2022 even, the repercussions of donald trump's presidency were looming around. the threat of him running again was looming around, and democrats consistently won in very tough elections. that's one thing to keep in mind. new york also gave democrats a major boost. we saw how the democrats in the race was able to run offensively on immigration, was able to

really tout the strong economy. yes, perhaps not everyone is feeling it. the consumer confidence is going up. so you're able to sort of take the economy, you know, take it head on, talk about it, and also run offensively on immigration. look, i'm going to tell you this. my money is on the guy that's created 15 million jobs and counting as president, who passed four major economic bills, two bipartisan, who has overseen record wage growth, who capped insulin at $35. the list of biden's accomplishments goes far and wide. compare that to donald trump, the madman who, frankly, we have not been hearing a lot from over the past few years. as this election heats up, it does become a binary choice as we move into the general election between joe biden and donald trump. you start hearing trump on the stump making all these crazy comments and gaffes, such as the ones you played this past weekend. then you also see for the biden campaign, which, by the way, is raising more money than donald trump's campaign, as donald

trump is spending a lot of money on legal bills. the biden campaign will have a cash advantage going into the real time it makes a difference to be spending money on your persuasive ads and making sure you're getting the message out in terms of what you've done and what you'll continue to do for the american people. once the summer hits, people are tuning in more. we're spending more money on the biden campaign. biden campaign is spending more money. it'll be a far closer race, and the polls will start to reflect that. >> aaron, when you look at the question about the president's approval rating on the economy, people saying that things are getting better, do you have a sense of what is in people's minds when they judge the president on policy? what i hear anecdotally, if you work in the political ecosystem, you think the inflation reduction act and american recovery act. but if you're a normal person, you look at interest rates, which people don't understand that that's made by the fed reserve and he doesn't have a role in that. you look at credit card interest rates. you look at inflation, which

people assume is a byproduct of a biden policy. do you have any sense of what people are actually thinking of when they're judging him on the economic performance? >> well, look, this is the strongest job market by many measures since the 1960s. gas is about 3 bucks a gallon. before, it was 4 bucks a gallon. we've seen some improvement in how they view the president's handling of the economy. about 40% approve of how he is handling the economy. the share of them think he is doing good on inflation. these aren't numbers that say, this is a great economy. thank you, mr. president. we have to re-elect you right away. joe and mika, let me give you one other number from the poll. 52%. that's the share of americans who think donald trump is too old to be running for president. this speaks to some of the clips you were showing. the 52% is well below the number who think joe biden is too old to run for president.

he is at 73% of people saying, what is this guy doing at age 81 running? but the 52% is up five points from december. what we're going to watch in the future is, as you show more of these clips and they're out in the media, will more and more people come to think that age is as big a mill stone in re-electing donald trump as it is for joe biden? >> reporter and editor at "the wall street journal", aaron zitner, thank you for coming on the show this morning. we appreciate it. still ahead on "morning joe," we'll go live to te-aviv on the heels of vice president kamala harris' new call for a cease-fire in gaza. plus, one of our guests this morning says biden is still the democrats' best bet for november. no amount of wishful thinking is going to magically produce a winning candidate b. we'll read from that new piece. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back.

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34 past the hour. israel and hamas are inching closer toward a cease-fire deal. negotiators say they are hopeful an agreement can be reached before the muslim holy month of ramadan. it comes as the u.s. is ramping up calls for an immediate cease-fire amid the worsening humanitarian crisis in gaza. joining us from tel-aviv is nbc news foreign correspondent raf san sanchez. raf? >> reporter: mika, good morning. we are now 150 days into this war. the humanitarian crisis in gaza is deepening by the hour. time is running out to get a cease-fire deal in place by the start of ramadan this weekend. now, the u.s. has some tough, new words for israel delivered by vice president kamala harris.

the u.s. now stepping up demands that israel and hamas finally agree a cease-fire deal in gaza. >> there must be an immediate cease-fire. [ applause ] for at least the next six weeks which is what is currently on the table. >> reporter: vice president harris delivering some of the administration's sharpest criticism of israel yet, calling the situation in gaza a humanitarian catastrophe. >> people in gaza are starving. the conditions are inhumane. and the israeli government must do more to significantly increase the flow of aid. no excuses. >> reporter: the vice president will today meet with benny gantz, a senior member of israel's war cabinet, as the u.s. pushes to get a cease-fire deal in place before ramadan

begins this week end. under the proposed deal, 40 hostages would be reached for about 400 palestinian prisoners. it is not clear how many hostages are still alive, a key point in the talks. america planning to drop more aid into gaza by 38,000 meals were delivered by parachute over the weekend. half a million people are dangerously short of food, a result of israeli restrictions and the total collapse of law and order in northern gaza. but for families like the abu anzas, whose home was hit by an israeli strike, they say they don't want aid from the u.s. because of its support of the israeli war. "we want the united states to get away from us," she says. "we don't want anything from them." cease-fire talks continued in cairo over the weekend, but israel didn't send senior negotiators to that meeting.

an israeli official tells me they don't plan to send a delegation until hamas provides the list of surviving hostages. mika. >> nbc news foreign correspondent raf sanchez live in tel-aviv, thank you very much. in a recent op-ed in "foreign affairs," "israel must decide where it's going and who should lead it there." in part, "the war has revealed the staggering strategic incompetence of the israeli government and an astonishing leadership vacuum at the top. since 1996, netanyahu has accepted the goal of a two-state solution in principle on four occasions but has always torpedos it when the time came to act. biden has now presented netanyahu with a stark choice. he can get on board with the u.s.-backed plan for the day after in gaza while still expressing israeli reservations.

or he can capitulate to his racist, messianic, far-right partners in his governing coalition, who seek to annex the palestinian territories and thus reject any proposal, however conditional and long term, that involves the creation of a palestinian state. there is only one way to prevent netanyahu from leading israel into a long regional war and probably deceiving both the administration and the israeli public, general elections. claire mccaskill, to joe's point earlier, young people around the world are watching. they are developing a world view that is very different about israel as this continues. as famine encroaches across gaza. as people die by the day of starvation. as they're getting obliterated by bombing. it appears israel just has no

will to do anything that seems to want to preserve civilian life. >> well, i don't think it is israel. i think it's, as the far-right prime minister laid out in the op-ed, it's the political situation in israel that bibi in the country relies on for power. the most important thing in israel and gaza right now is israel being able to protect itself from a terrorist slaughter of innocent citizens and, and i say and in capital letters, a humanitarian crisis that is unacceptable to innocent gazan civilians and palestinians. so let's look at the politics of it, understanding that that's the backdrop. if benny gantz is meeting with kamala harris today, with the vice president, that is a huge political signal to bibi

netanyahu. benny gantz is, in fact, and has been for some time, bibi netanyahu's number one political rival. benny gantz right now would beat bibi netanyahu in a general election if it was called. and the israeli people need to understand why they are so focused on their national security, as they should be. in the long run, they are really damaging their national security on the world stage. because the narrative of this has gotten away from them. it's totally gotten away from them. so i think what you're going to see is joe biden ramping up the pressure on bibi netanyahu. >> yeah. >> like with this meeting today. eventually, i think you'll see joe biden call for his resignation. >> wow. claire mccaskill, thank you very much. coming up on "morning joe," the private chats and chance encounters that shape joe biden's thinking. "the washington post" tyler page

joins us with a look at his new series, digging into how president biden learns and leads. plus, a 50-year-old record falls in college basketball as caitlin clark becomes the all-time ncaa division i scoring leader. "morning joe" is coming right back. i have active psoriatic arthritis. but with skyrizi to treat my skin and joints, i'm feeling this moment. along with clearer skin skyrizi helps me move with less joint pain, stiffness, swelling, and fatigue. and is just 4 doses a year after 2 starter doses. 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. there's nothing like clearer skin

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welcome back. college basketball phenom caitlin clark is now the most prolific scorer in ncaa history. over the weekend, the iowa hawkeye superstar broke a record that has stood for more than 50 years. joining us now from iowa city, nbc news correspondent jesse kirsch. you were in the arena for the game. tell us all about it. >> reporter: yeah, mika, good

morning. we were here with thousands of people witnessing history. this place was electric throughout the game. in the first half, caitlin clark was starting to find a rhythm from beyond the arc, in three-point range like she often does, but it was over here with a free throw that she reached the pinnacle of college basketball. >> this for college basketball history. >> reporter: with that swish heard around the world, caitlin clark made college basketball history again. >> clark, step-back straightaway. >> reporter: sunday at the university of iowa hawkeyes phenom becoming the all-time leader with this foul shock. >> a record is a record. i hope people remember me for the way i played with a smile on my face, my competitive fire. >> reporter: it pushed her past pete maravich's record, 3,667

points. we spoke with pistol pete's son, jason, after clark moved to 3,685 points and counting. >> what would your t me of this moment? >> he'd be extremely happy. he'd love the way she plays. >> reporter: clark was on a record-breaking run. >> a great job here. >> reporter: last week, the 22-year-old iowa guard became the leading scorer for women's basketball. the previous record holder, lynette woodard, was in the crowd. >> records are made to be broken. i'm so happy for her. >> reporter: clark hasmore points, woman or man. >> hopefully someone else breaks my record and i can support them. that makes the game so fun. >> reporter: it was the most expensive ticket on record for a women's basketball game. another reminder that clark is helping to transform women's sports while inspiring legions of fans. >> she has given us so much fun

this year. it's just unbelievable. >> reporter: caitlin clark needed 18 points to break the record, but she finished the game with 35. her college career is not done yet. praise pouring in from lebron james, billie jean king, and her coach tells me she's glad this didn't help with a three-pointer. it's all about fundamentals. you have to make your free throws, mika. and i am among those now inspired to work on my game. we made it earlier. hang on, let's see if we can take another one. >> one more, please. >> reporter: give me a chance for redemption here. >> you got it. >> reporter: close, we'll keep working. >> do it again! . i'm not leaving -- >> we made something. >> thank god. jesse kirsch, thank you very, very much. wow. jonathan lemire, jesse actually kind of encapsulated my thinking here, about this incredible woman. like, how do you make a free

throw under that much pressure? she is so zen. >> mika, you said you had to look away when donald trump was slurring his words. i had to do the same when jesse missed the free throws. that was truly terrible. glad he redeemed himself with the bank at the end. caitlin clark is spectacular, transcending sports. seems every day, there is a new record she sets. she led her team to an upset victory over ohio state, the number two team in the country. she was eligible for a fifth year in college, but she'll go to the wnba. the team from indiana likely to take her. she'll move on to another stage and continue to inspire a lot of people. >> it is so important. you know i spent a lot of time looking at women's leaders, sports and politics. to have this, for her to draw the attention she has, to be as inspiring as she is, it's important not just, oh, little girls are inspired, little boys are inspired by her, but also

the people who make decisions about money in the sports. >> yeah. >> and who gets covered and what gets television coverage. they see she has a huge fan base, and women's basketball is exciting. couple years ago, women's sweet 16 had a higher viewership than the male sweet 16. >> she'll make millions of dollars and already has. >> good for her. >> really from endorsements. good for her. >> and women athletes. >> i was pleased to hear the voice of pete maravich's son talking about him. >> nice. >> his records. the greatest college scorer of all time died tragically young, i think young, i think in his early 40s. it was nice to hear his name to remember what he did and to see it topped by this wonderful basketball player. she's incredible. absolutely incredible. >> great story. despite jesse, a great story. back to politics now, we're being joined right now by white house reporter of "the washington post," tyler pager.

there's a new series in the paper on how the president's thinking is not formed just by advisers but chance interactions with everyday americans. tyler writes in part, "as president of the united states, biden has access to practically unlimited information. but to a remarkable degree, biden relies on direct personal interaction for information, catch-up chats with his children and grandchildren, talks with fellow parishioners after mass, exchanges with workers on his property in wilmington, delaware, spontaneous calls to former colleagues from consumer prices to masking guidelines to loneliness. the president brings their worries to the oval office. the chance encounters and informal chats also give the information a random limited quality, seeming to depend on whom biden runs into and their concerns of the moment, leaving some aides to marvel at the influence these casual

interactions have on setting the governing agenda." tyler, what were you looking for when you set out to embark on this series? and tell us more about what you found. >> mika, thank for having me. it's great to be with you this morning. the goal i set out a few months ago, to try and better understand how the president does his job. he can prioritize any issue. he can meet with whoever he wants. and the process by which he does his job is mostly not available to the american people. we see him give speeches, but most his day is spent in the oval office, in meetings, having conversations with aides and other world leaders, and that is not something we can see day to day. i set out to try to better understand, as he runs for re-election, what does the president look like behind the scenes. this three-part series tries to answer some of those questions. the first you were reading from looks at how ge tets information. obviously there's a briefing book, the daily presidential

briefing where he meets with the murt team, then he has briefings all day with aides. what i found remarkable is how much he craves those pulse checks from americans outside the presidential bubble. he spent most of his career every day in the senate commuting to washington on amtrak where he chatted with passengers and conductors, getting feedback in real time. obviously, that's changed as he lives in the white house. he's compared it to living in, like, a gilded jail. as he leaves for the weekend, he craves those opportunities, even if they're very informal and casual and infrequent, whether it's going to church on saturday evenings for mass as he often does, or being in wilmington and having gardeners and others come to his property and bring up issues. he comes back on monday morning in the oval office and barrages his aides with questions about what are we doing about this, how do we think about this?

and it's a remarkable thing that that's how the president craves getting these real pulse checks from everyday americans. >> tyler, first of all, i love the idea for this piece. i think it really gets into the fundamental understanding that the president has in terms of, you know, how his poliies are affecting the average american. as you noted, he used to take amtrak every day and had a lot of spraxs. but when you're the president of the united states, you oftentimes become more insulated from interacting with average americans. one thing you noted in your piece which i really loved is he asks for letters from his team every week that sort of talk about how the policies that he's implemented, which are quite a few, by the way, are actually impacting those people, how the inflation reduction act is impacting someone directly, how the bipartisan infrastructure bill is having an effect on someone's family or their community. can you sort of talk about how the team puts together those letters and how those letters inform his decisionmaking process?

>> yeah, absolutely. and many americans might be familiar with these letters that presidents get from -- barack obama, who very systematically received ten letters every night in his briefing book to take into the residence to read. and barack obama asked for a representative of letters. it sort of became famous in the white house about which letters obama was going to read that night. this dates back to the william mckinley administration where the letters processing was formalized in this office of presidential correspondence. each president has done it differently. clinton got them every few weeks. george w. bush got them a little less frequently. obama got them systematically. for biden, it's five letters every week. he often sets them aside for weekend reading. as you said, the letters that biden particularly gets are ones that talk about the policies and how they have impacted americans' lives directly. those are often skewed positively where he wants to -- or aides want him to see directly how the policies he's

signed into law, as you mentioned, a slew of legislation, how that has impacted americans and improved their lives. not as systematically as obama did with ten every night, but another way to find out what americans are thinking. >> white house reporter at "the washington post," tyler pager, thank you very much. adrienne, thank you for coming on. still ahead on "morning joe," we'll have the latest from the campaign trail ahead of super tuesday as nikki haley picks up her first primary win. if you try vaping to quit smoking, it might feel like progress, but with 3x more nicotine than a pack of cigarettes - vapes increase cravings - trapping you in an endless craving loop. nicorette reduces cravings until they're gone for good.

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we will restore peace through strength. it's a bd war. and putin, you know, has so little respect for obama that he started to throw around the nuclear word today. you heard that. nuclear. >> donald trump over the weekend

once again thinking he's running against barack obama. and when trump wasn't confusing bide within obama -- >> it's sad. >> -- he thought he was obama, taking credit for legislation that was signed by his predecessor. >> sad. >> for our great veterans, we pass va accountability and va choice. that was a big deal. >> i have no greater honor than serving as your president and commander in chief, and i have no greater privilege than the chance to help make sure that our country keeps the promises that we've made to everybody who signs up to serve. with that, i am going to sign this bill. thank you very much, everybody. >> now watch me sign this bill. >> good morning. >> so, hold on, hold on. >> what a weekend. >> and the swearing, seriously.

i had to apologize to fat elvis when he slurred his words. donald trump's face was contorted. very weird. again, though, it's joe biden who -- you know, folds up his bike and whatever. it's bizarre, bizarre. but don't pretend, don't pretend among the networks that it doesn't exist. trump people pretend it doesn't exist and that we'll have an election, and by the time the election comes, everybody will know it exists and everybody will know who actually has more of a problem. but here you had -- jonathan lemire, i'm not really good at politics. >> that's true. >> you know, or don't keep up with the news. you don't have to in this job. so, help me out. i saw that that va bill was signed in 2014. i was just looking at the clip

there. was, donald trump in 2014? who was president in 2014? >> i have my trusty almanac here, and it says that in 2014, no, it was not donald trump. it was barack obama who was president of the united states. >> okay. so, again, his mind short-circuited there. also, once again, he said barack obama is president of the united states right now. i've been following living pool. it's been exciting. i haven't been watching a lot of news lately. a great nfl season wrapped up as well. spring training. i don't have time for this. >> no. >> so, who's president right now? is barack obama president right now? >> first of all, liverpool, that win was tremendous. i'm checking again here. checking again here in the almanac. no. barack obama was president in 2014, but he stopped being

president in 2016. so, no, he is not currently the president and in the oval office. >> he stopped being president in 2016 because, as donald trump has said at campaign event after campaign event, that he beat barack obama in 2016. right? so, is that why barack obama is no longer president, because, as donald trump tells his crowds all the time, he beat barack obama in 2016? >> i've got to thumb a little further into the almanac for this one, a little deeper research, but, no, he didn't. barack obama was term limited out. donald trump beat hillary clinton in 2016, not barack obama. >> oh, that's right. so, is that why he's -- but he wants that matchup. this is like ali/frazier iii. he wants that third matchup. he wants the thrill. so, is that why he's running against him -- well, he said he beat him in 2020. and then he said he's running against him again in 2024.

right? what does the almanac say? >> barack obama constitutionally prohibited from running again, so not, in fact, barack obama. it was joe biden who beat donald trump in 2020, and it looks like we'll get that rematch, round two, this time around in 2024. and this was a weekend of pure meltdowns for donald trump, including one where he loses the ability to speak the english language. i've seen the clip about a dozen times, and i burst out laughing each and every time. >> yeah. it's not good. >> yeah. >> not good. and i haven't laughed because there's one point he says saudi arabia, russia, and he looks off into the distance, and his face is, like, contorted and twisted, and it's like he's really struggling. you know what i'm talking about. >> i do. >> really struggling out there to get his thoughts together. so i thought he does that on

saturday night. all week in "the new york times" front page, joe biden too old. people think joe biden is too old. we'll talk about that story. i just have to say off the top, if you ask the question is joe biden too old, that's like asking all the people that watch this show, and there are a lot, does joe scarborough talk too much? 85%, 90% will say, yes, he talks too much! and if you ask the question, would "morning joe" be better without joe scarborough on it? hold on. hold on. about 85%. 90% would say, yes, of course it would be. right? and yet in the words of the great bob seger, and still, here we are. both of us lonely.

the point is this. the question is asked -- the question answers itself. if you ask joe biden, am i too old? he'll go, yeah, i'm too old! in fact, he's said that. man, i'm old, right? >> yeah. he wants to be younger. >> he'd love to be younger, and i've love to talk less. as we can tell in the first seven minutes of this show, it ain't going to happen. neither one is going to happen. this is the choice americans have, and this will be the choice americans will be glad they have in the fall when democrats return to joe biden and democracy is saved for another four years. i find the bed-wetting that goes along with these "new york times" polls every three months, every three months, i find it

ridiculous. especially when donald trump spent the weekend speaking incoherently in ways that should disturb -- if they could be disturbed by anything, which they know they can't because they're not disturbed by a say he's going to be a dictator from day one, by a guy who says he's going to destroy his political opponents and throw them in jail, not concerned about the fact he says he's going to get s.e.a.l. team 6 to assassinate his political opponents and can't be held liable or guilty for that, a guy who a judge says, wait a minute, lied about her, defamed her, charlottesville, good people on both sides. >> covid. >> covid. >> literally killing people. >> on and on and on. if these people are going to be disturbed by anything, they'll

go, that said -- and, god help me, you know this, if i have a fault, it's that i care too much. >> is that it? >> i care too much. if i have a fault, i care too much. for my republican brothers and sisters, i have been here for the past seven years trying to save them from themselves, but they insist not only putting their hand on the hot stove but laying their face down gently on the hot stove, only to find out they're going to get burned again. of this i have no doubt. i think my irritation this weekend came with the news media that was talking about a guy who's very cogent, a guy who's doing a very good job managing all that he is managing across the word and passing a record amount of bipartisan legislation and focusing on him, saying, oh, he's too old.

well, they continue to ignore donald trump completely losing his mind, blanking out on stage. >> let's talk about the poll and the freakout. the biggest takeaway for me is how trump reacted this weekend, which i think is a reaction to biden taking him on directly at the border. you know, if there's one thing that comes out of that "new york times" article that's productive, it is that we have attention deficit disorder when it comes to paying attention to what joe biden is doing and what his positions are. trump took the bait with the border. that means joe biden finally broke through on the border and what he's trying to do because he paid attention to both of them. >> yes. >> by the way, it matters, because one poll showed 63% of people think house republicans are to blame for stopping the bipartisan border bill, and they did it because they wanted to help donald trump.

and then trump freaks out, and, you know, he has three days of the kind of sound we saw over the weekend. a way for bide on the break through is to find that direct confrontation. >> look at that guy. he's not well. i'm sorry. that guy is not well. let's bring in the president of the national action network and host of "politics nation" on msnbc, reverend al sharpton. we are so excited, rev, to talk about selma this weekend. also with us author of "how the white lost its mind," charlie sykes. speaking of the trump right losing their mind, donald trump was on the campaign trail this week in north carolina and virginia, and the guy just kept getting confused. look at this series of clips. >> in venezuela, maduro, venezuela -- it's unbelievable --

we're getting rid of the romneys of the world. we want to get romneys and those out. but they know that we are the only ones who can stop them. we're the only ones. this is the greatest movement this the history of our country, maybe in the history of any country. even argentina, they went tina. he's a big trump guy. anybody that loves me, i like them. i said abdul, you still there? he's the held of the taliban. i said you're killing our soldiers. don't do it anymore, because terror will rain, down an you. he said yes, yes, your honor. he called me your highness. we are a nation that just recently heard that saudi arabia and russia will be -- >> i don't even -- what happened? what happened there? charlie sykes, we see it more

and more. he gets in the middle of sentences. he's reading teleprompters, and his mind still blanks out. nikki haley for nancy pelosi, barack obama for joe biden. and it's just so pathetic and sad. they go, no, he's doing it on purpose. he's not doing any of this stuff on purpose. so, you take the fact that his mind blanks out and he looks lost. he actually looks like -- it's sad to me to see somebody up on stage and blanking out and getting lost. but then you have a guy who, first of all, he thinks the person who runs the south american country's name is argentina. argentina, great guy. thank you for saying get rid of the romneys and the republican party. that is torn out of kari blake's book of loserdom.

but also, again, against all this madness, and unfortunately an old man who is losing his ability to communicate, he's praising the taliban leader for calling him "your highness." tell us, wrap up that speech for us if you would, charlie sykes. how do you? >> well, what fresh hell. unfortunately, i'm not a psychiatrist here. you know, what's on display is that, okay, joe biden is old, but the other guy is deranged, demented, and pathetic, as you point out, not to mention dangerous. this is on display. as we're sitting here talking about this, we're less than 48 hours away from that guy clinching the presidential nomination. the republicans have one last offering, and they're not going to take it. they look at this guy, and this is the extraordinary thing, is that republicans look at him, and i don't have to repeat all the things he's been found viable for, rape, 91 felony

charges, you know, you have these kinds of, you know -- there's this malice you get from these gaffe-filled speeches. then i'm looking at him thinking, yeah, we'd like four more years of that. so, if there's any upside here, it's that joe biden will be able to say, yeah, i'm old, i'm very stiff when i walk, but this guy is also old and he's crazy and he's dangerous and he is incoherent. he needs to make that point. the other kind of upside, no denying the fact it will be donald trump again, it will focus the mind. i agree, joe, democrats need to stop the bed-wetting, but they need to get out of the bed and freak out a little bit because the reality is maybe this is what it will take for them to realize this guy could become president of the united states. this is actually happen. and, you know, maybe we ought to treat that threat, you know, the way it ought to be treated.

if it's an existential threat, let's start acting like it's an existential threat. stop the bed-wetting, but maybe a little bit of freakout wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. >> maybe it will wake a lot of democrats up. i will say, though, this idea, you brought up the things that a judge determines that donald trump raped a woman. evangelicals are cool with that. it used to be, like, bill clinton, did he do something with his intern or not? character matters at the white house! he must be driven to the sea! and these same evangelicals, i was there. i was hearing it every day as a congressman. every day. republicans every day, man, the guy doesn't have the morals to be president. how dare -- >> like mr. bible in the house. what does he think about president trump grabbing women

by their genitals or having sex with a porn star while he was married to his wife who was about to have a baby and then writing her off? and apparently there are more that michael cohen took care of. but i digress. >> they ignore those things because, let's just face it, they're raging hypocrites when it comes to this. donald trump raped a woman, says a judge. a jury of his peers said he sexually assaulted and defamed a woman. a grand jury, after grand jury, again, of his peers, not the deep state, a grand jury of voters -- >> citizens. >> -- have found him -- found enough evidence to indict him on 91 counts. all over the country. 91 counts.

and yet -- and yet, mika, everybody is fine with it. and the extreme maga world -- again, i think most pathetically, and pete wehner has been writing about this, evangelicals that were so aghast, just shocked by bill clinton's behavior. >> yeah. another world. >> now, now many of them, they've basically said this guy is their savior. they have so abandoned the faith that they claim they had when bill clinton was president and they were so shocked, that some of them, some of them, have so abandoned their faith that they are now idolizing donald trump. and they will tell you that. it's sad and pathetic. >> yeah. well, you know, to these points that you're talking about as opposed to the way we came into

the show talking about some of his weaknesses on stage, people could kre v react and say that's not fair, that's being mean, but there are legitimate records to look at here as an american voter today. they have two candidates who have both been president. reverend al, you can look at their presidencies. now, donald trump tries to lie about his presidency, so you really have to go and look at sources that you can trust, and you have to look at these two presidencies or look at the two presidents at the border at the same time and listen to the speeches and base your decision on that. what do you really want to go back to? >> and, you know, rev, it's so funny, one person called me and we talked about the differences at the border, and they say, yeah, but did you see how he walked at the border? wait. you're giving him style points on how he walked instead of what

they said? do i need to remind you that one of the greatest presidents in the history of america was in a wheelchair, and he did okay. >> he gave us the new deal and saved the country from, along with our allies, saved us from hitler. but i think when you look at the real difference between donald trump and joe biden's walk is that joe biden has not had to do a perp walk in courtrooms as donald trump is doing. but when you look at the fact people keep saying joe biden is too old, was he too old to get the infrastructure bill passed? was he too old to get the inflation reduction act bill passed? was he too old to bring us out of the heights of the pandemic when we were up against a guy that denied the pandemic was coming and then told us to take

bleach and then put his name on a check that nancy pelosi got through congress and now he's incoherent even to himself? he can't even finish a sentence, going off in babble land. i mean, it is absolutely telling when we see people that try to defend what is indefensible. and as you say, joe, at the top of my list are the evangelicals who brought down the wrath of god on bill clinton but have excused donald trump for all kinds of things that they preach as sinful. it shows more their hypocrisy than a babbling old man on his way to court. >> on president biden, his vilds know that age is an issue. they see these polls. they push back against them. they believe a lot of this was litigated in 2020, and they feel like they will be able to highlight this issue again, and they don't think it will be that big of a deal for voters once it's a binary choice. they also see this thursday's state of the union as a real

opportunity to prove president biden's vitality. remember, last year, he crushed it. he had that spontaneous moment shouting back at mgt and others. and white house aides showed us polling that suggests that americans' concerns about president biden's age went down after that strong state of the union showing. they think that will happen again. and, joe and mika, let's remember also about donald trump. jen mentioned how it seemed like the pressure is building on him, he was melting down as the weekend was going on. >> boy, he was. >> two other things, one is he lost. it was only the washington, d.c., primary, but he took a defeat. we have seen him in other states not put up the numbers his team would have liked, haley putting up a bigger share of the vote you would expect when trump was running as an incumbent. this incumbent just lost a primary. secondly and perhaps most importantly, three weeks from today, three weeks, a donald trump criminal trial starts. that is uncharted territory for any presidential candidate that

is clearly weighing on this one. we simply do not know how that will impact him going forward. >> let me also say -- and mika and i have known him for a long time -- understand of all the things that are weighing on him is the question realization that he may have to start selling some of his real estate because he doesn't have the money to pay the bond. and that is what's crushing him the most. i want to get back to this, though. i know we live in an era of b.s. thrown against the wall by fascists and wannabe fascists. i've been talking, though, about gravity, gravity returning. and it has returned in the courtroom time and time again. people that are getting hammered for the lies that they tell, the lives they've ruined, whether it's rudy giuliani in georgia lying about two women who just

wanted to volunteer for elections, whether it's the guy on "info wars" that lied about sandy hook parents, adding just immeasurable pain to them. he got hammered. donald trump lying about a woman that a judge says he raped. >> 83 million. >> another place it will return and you start to see it, you couldn't tell, because as we all lifted our soggy papers this weekend, the democrats across washington, d.c., had wet upon -- >> come on. >> -- you could feel mistaken for not seeing -- there's an image -- you could be mistaken for not reading the line in the "wall street journal" in their

poll that said getting the credit he deserves for the economy, joe biden, it's starting to move that direction. people are starting to say, oh, wait a second, this is a pretty good economy. i want to read this for you from the "wall street journal" yesterday. "unemployment's been below 4% for two years, the longest stretch since the 1960s. inflation now down to 3.1%. a new "wall street journal" poll shows views of the economy are moving to be more in line with those measures of economic strength." it's february. it's february. spring training. the world series is in the fall. the election in the fall. and as the economy continues to improve, jen, we are seeing americans waking up saying, hey, things are pretty good.

consumer confidence going up. hey, things are pretty good. it's starting to move in that direction. as mika likes to tell women about their careers, there is a long, long runway ahead before this campaign is over. >> the presidential approval rating is usually a lagging indicator of people feeling better about the country. i have noticed the president's approval ratings are low relative to other presidents, living in a different time period. look at ratings across the globe and you see joe biden is doing pretty well. but i have noticed they are starting to tick up. then of course thursday night, the state of the union, that is the opportunity to lay out -- you know, for the president to lay out what will probably be a big audience. linear television doesn't get big audiences anymore except for "sunday night football," super bowls, and states of the union. >> and "way too early."

>> well, yeah. obviously. i mean, as you know, i'm a big fan. but they get -- that's when he'll be able to lay out in context what he has accomplished, sort of the journey that we've been on, taking over in the time of covid to now, explain why inflation was as high as it was, what they did to bring it back down, and of course what he'll do in a second term. that's the real starting gun for him making the arguments of what he's accomplished relative to the november election. coming up, donald trump all but admits he hoarded classified documents at his beach club. where does that go from here? lisa rubin has new analysis.

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president biden visited the southern border on thursday and was horrified to discover it is being swarmed by criminals and rapists. that's right. both biden and trump coincidentally visited the border on the same day, which sounds like a setup for the weirdest romcom of all time. my favorite part of the visit was when trump, who looks good behind bars, by the way, finally came face-to-face with his sworn enemy, the migrants, and had a pretty harsh message for them. take a look. >> they like trump. can you believe it? >> no, i can't believe it.

the migrants don't like you. they just walked a thousand miles to get to the edge of this river and they're probably thinking, is that weirdo in a trump costume waving us into the country? >> can you believe that? >> wow. they were on fire saturday night. great material to work with. >> great material. >> let's get an update on donald trump's criminal cases. joining us now, former litigator and msnbc legal correspondent lisa rubin. we'll start with the classified documents hearing on friday. what was the bottom line out of it? >> well, mika, there was no bottom line, which is we still don't have a trial date in that case. just cannon has acknowledged that may 20th, which was her prior trial date, is no longer feasible. but we ended that hearing without a clear understanding from judge cannon what trial date she's going to set, if any. she was begged by the trump lawyers really not to set a trial date until after the election due to a number of different factors, including the fact that he has also moved to

dismiss that case on presidential immunity grounds. >> okay. then to fulton county, where we're waiting word on whether fani willis can continue. and the question here is twofold. are they winning just by the delay that's created? and how do you think -- what do you think the outcome of the fani willis issue will be? >> well, first of all, are they winning just by creating a delay? trump always wins when he creates delay. as you know, mika, throughout his criminal cases, he has succeeded in creating quite a bit of delay except here in new york, where his trial will begin later this month. in terms of the ultimate outcome, i think it's a little bit hard to say because the legal standard that should govern whether or not there's a conflict of interest that would disqualify fani willis is what up in the air. there are folks that will say, as the state did, that there's only a conflict of interest not only if there's a financial relationship but one that disadvantaged the defendants,

and here, because it wasn't the sort of financial relationship where, for example, it was contingent on winning the case, it's really hard to see how the defendants themselves will be hurt by the relationship between willis and wade. but on the other hand, there was a fairly convincing case that the efforts that fani willis and wade, they created such an appearance of impropriety that it would be a travesty of justice not to disqualify her. i tend to think she will not be disqualified in the end, but the damage to her reputation and the cloud over them in terms of whether or not they were truthful with the court will linger for some time to come. coming up, our next guest calls the situation in gaza hell on earth. david ignatius is standing by with his new column in "the washington post." that's straight ahead on "morning joe."

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now to the u.s. making its first airdrops of humanitarian aid into gaza in a combined effort with the royal jordanian air force, the u.s. air force dropping over 38,000 meals on saturday afternoon. the packages were stacked on pallets for central gaza where thousands of people are starving. u.s. officials say they are looking into new ways to send more aid into gaza, including by sea. >> it's really -- it's such a nightmare right now. 15 aid trucks were supposed to get to northern gaza where the situation is right now so extraordinarily bleak, and they were stopped, they were swarmed, all the food was taken off before they were able to get to

northern gaza by people obviously in southern gaza who are suffering and struggling too. the airdrops are helpful, but they can't move as much as the convoys can move in. now they're talking about coming in from the north. desperately needed aid. but this is going to be difficult because there are so many people that are starving, so many people that want to feed their families that these aid trucks often get stopped and overrun by swarming crowds. >> these are the people who have survived. well over 30,000 people have been killed. infrastructure has been ruined. it is a disaster of epic proportions that at this point is avoidable, they absolutely could stop what they're doing. negotiators believe, by the way, hamas and israel are making slow progress towards a cease-fire and a hostage release deal could be reached before the muslim holy month of ramadan. an israeli and u.s. official

tell the "wall street journal" israel has agreed to the outlines of a deal that includes a six-week truce, but officials say hamas has yet to provide answers on two key sticking points, which palestinian prisoners the group wants freed and how many for each hostage released. because of that, israel has not sent a senior delegation to cairo for negotiations. members of hamas, however, are there. vice president kamala harris is set to meet with a member of israel's war cabinet today at the white house, this just one day after harris called for an immediate cease-fire in the war on gaza. here she is speaking yesterday in selma, alabama. >> people in gaza are starving. the conditions are inhumane. and our common humanity compels us to act. the israeli government must do

more to significantly increase the flow of aid. no excuses. they must open new border crossings. they must not impose any unnecessary restrictions on the delivery of aid. they must ensure humanitarian personnel sites and convoys are not targeted. and they must work to restore basic services and promote order in gaza so more food, water, and fuel can reach those in need. i will repeat, the threat of hamas poses to the people of israel must be eliminated, and given the immense scale of suffering in gaza, there must be an immediate cease-fire. [ cheers and applause ]

for at least is next six weeks, which is what is currently on the table. hamas claims it wants a cease-fire. well, there is a deal on the table. and as we have said, hamas needs to agree to that deal. let's get a cease-fire. let's reunite the hostages with their families. and let's provide immediate relief to the people of gaza. >> joining us now is columnist and associate editor for "the washington post," david ignatius. his latest piece is entitled "food convoy carnage distill what is's gone terribly wrong in gaza." >> david thanks for being with us. what kamala harris said publicly, joe biden, tony blinken, other officials inside the biden administration have been urging israel to do now for weeks and weeks and weeks.

and as you know, there's quite a debate inside the white house about when was he going to break publicly with netanyahu. that wasn't a break with netanyahu, but the administration finally said publicly what it had been saying privately all along -- the conditions in gaza are unacceptable, you have to provide relief. talk about that and talk about just how dire this situation is in gaza. >> joe, first to the situation in the months of terrible war, i don't know if we saw an image more poignant than the drone footage of hundreds and hundreds of palestinians in the predawn on thursday morning scrambling desperately after this convoy of aid trucks, climbing on the trucks, climbing over each other. it appears that in the panic, this predawn time, that there

was a stampede of people, they were crushed under the trucks' wheels, that some israeli troops opened fire. it's a scene i liken sadly to a chapter in "lord of the flies" come to life, where you see when people are reduced to this raw struggle for survival, what happens. so, this is indicative, the biden administration believes, of israel's lack of a clear plan. it simply does not have a way of providing order and security in the areas that it has cleared of hamas fighters in northern gaza. the people who are maintaining order, and i put that in quotation marks, are criminal gangs. they're organized criminals looting the food. they intimidate convoy truck drivers who are poised to bring

more food. so, that led to i think an unusual decision by the administration to intervene more directly. that's what the airdrops are about. you can't get convoys in safely, we're going to take over, we're going to begin dropping by air. they're going to build a port off gaza. they're contracting now with seem to bring it in. they'll figure out a way to have long, flowing docks and bring aid in that way. they'll figure out ways to do convoys that are more secure. the administration is fed up with the situation. the second really important thing that's happening is the visit of israeli war cabinet member benny gantz, former army chief of staff. he'll meet with kamala harris. he'll meet with jake sullivan. but the importance of this visit is meeting netanyahu, the

israeli prime minister, he did not want him to come. netanyahu has still not been received in the white house. here comes gantz, his chief rival, who will be received and have discussion with administration officials. i see this as the beginning of a process that may see a splintering of the israeli war cabinet. i think the prospect of elections in israel that would probably displace netanyahu is increasing. in the polls now, gantz will meet with kamala harris today, is far ahead of netanyahu. if the race were held tomorrow, gantz would win it. so, keep your eyes on that, and then the political repercussions back in israel. but basically, we're at a moment where the u.s. is going to play a much more significant role both on the ground with aid and in these meetings with people like gantz. >> david, please weigh in for us on two things. the fact that the u.s. has had to resort to these airdrops for

aid, doesn't that also point to a -- >> it was going pretty well in january. there were more than 200 trucks a day that were coming in. and then things got tangled in part because the convoys were being protected by police from gaza, who were affiliated with hamas, and israel began targeting them and the police said we want guarantees we won't be shot at. and they didn't get those guarantees, so suddenly you had no protection for the convoys. some of the openings, the

crossing at kerem shalom into gaza was closed. so, suddenly there was a scarcity of food, and that, i think, has exacerbated the problem. in terms of what's coming up, the u.s. believes that if this cease-fire can be achieved in the next week, ramadan starts in about seven days from now, that it will begin a process of de-escalation, so the cease-fire will last for six weeks initially, 40 israeli hostages, wounded, sick, elderly, women will be released. the hope is at the end of that six weeks there are still a lot of male hostages being held by hamas, that there will be another pause of another six weeks maybe and we'll begin to get conditions where we can wrap this up. that's the hope.

first they're trying to get this initial agreement. >> i wonder where the difficulty lies for the most part. you mentioned israel's lack of a clear plan, whether it's hostage negotiations or getting to the table in cairo or trying to actually get to a ceasefire. my question to you is does israel have the will and specifically does benjamin netanyahu have the will? does he want a ceasefire? >> i think israel is ready for a ceasefire. hamas has made demands asking for thousands in exchange for 40 hostages being released.

i'm told that's being worked out. on the larger issue, mika, do they have a plan to bring this to a satisfactory end? the answer is no increasingly. officials of the administration when you press them say we don't see a plan. the israelis have talked about storming rafah, this large city at the southernmost edge of gauze. u.s. officials say they simply don't have a way to get the more than 1 million refugees who went there out to safety before they conduct this military operation. that's the kind of thing that scares u.s. officials and makes them worry that netanyahu for all his talk about ending the war, simply doesn't have a plan yet. coming up, nikki haley is campaigning in texas today ahead of super tuesday. ali vitali is there when "morning joe" comes right back. n "morning joe" comes right back ' g these two every thursday.

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president biden went to walter reed medical center for his annual physical. doctors said biden was fit as a fiddle, in that he's old timeti and held together by string. >> putin has so little respect for president biden that he's starting to throw around the nuclear word. [indiscernible] the biden border will -- well, you know this, right? even argentina, they went maga. you know argentina. great guy.

we will expel the warmongers. we are a nation that just recently heard that saudi arabia and russia will be -- [indiscernible] >> what did he just hear from saudi arabia and russia? >> uh, i don't know. >> "weekend update's" joke about the real world impact on the campaign trail. >> the huge difference between is just a completely different situation. >> big time. jonathan lemire and general palmieri are still with us. donny deutsch joins the conversation. >> looking particularly sharp today. >> is he? >> not wearing baby gap.

>> joe, you know, a lot of people don't know what goes on behind the scenes here, but you once called me up and said, i love you, we've got to do a styling thing. i took it to heart. it changed everything for me. >> are you wearing joe's glasses? >> no. he's not wearing the fuchsia glasses. i like it. you're looking sharp. dark suits work. >> you told me dress like macron, you said. that's how much i remember that conversation. >> wow. >> that's good advice. >> look at it. it's working. >> and it's macron. okay. >> i want to ask donny.

>> please don't. >> we look at these clips that keep coming in, trump confusing nikki haley with nancy pelosi, continuing to confuse barack obama with joe biden, confusing world war ii. it's interesting. i understand what the polls say right now. they will not say that, i don't think, by the time the election comes. but talk about, again, let's be polite, because i think there's a serious situation here. i'm going to play this trump tape. >> play it, joe. you need to play it. >> especially at the end. i want you to contrast this with the person you've known for 30

years. >> putin has so little respect for obama he's starting to throw around the nuclear word. did you hear that? nuclear. venezuela -- it's unbelievable. oil exploration and production in the united states. the biden border will, well, you know this, right? argentina went maga. argentina, great guy. we will expel the warmongers. we are a nation that just recently heard that saudi arabia and russia will -- [indiscernible] >> it's hard for mika to watch it. i think it's hard for a lot of people to watch it, because it reminds us of people in our own lives as they were getting older and just short circuited mentally. it happens as we get older. it's going to happen to all of us. those are some disturbing clips. >> i shouldn't be laughing.

as i'm watching it again, it's sad. people should be worried. let's go on record that joe biden competent and he's all there. there's something wrong here. like slurring of the words and literally getting lost mid sentence, there's something really wrong there. i think people need to start to pay attention to that. it's worrisome. this is a man who needs help. he used to have this kind of robust angry thing. she's like a dottering, weird, all over the place, lost. as the election gets closer and we have six or seven or eight months now, i think we're going to see moments that will stay in history as far as him literally lost, very lost. >> look at it this way. if that were your dad or my dad or your brother or whatever, i would immediately right after

seeing that be like we all have to have a family talk and we have to talk with him and figure out what's going on and go to some specialist. we'd be worries about him. >> you can talk to biden for hours on foreign affairs. he's cogent. he's there. he's lived it over the past 50 years. jonathan lemire, you look at donald trump. you've been covering him for eight years now off and on, but mainly on. mika is talking about an intervention by people close to him, family members. but that's not going to happen. it didn't happen on january 6th. you had his daughter. you had don junior, sean

hannity, laura ingram. you had every staff member in the white house, every lawyer in the white house, they were all begging him to stop the riots on january 6th. probably would have five years earlier. i think that's the danger to talk at the decline you've seen from where he started to where he is right now just this weekend. >> i was there covering his campaign kickoff announcement when he came down the escalator at trump tower in june of 2015. i even covered him when i was a metro reporter at "the new york daily news." that is a long time ago now. he is in his late 70s. he's always been prone to lies. what we're seeing here is his lack of coherence, frankly.

that's becoming more and more frequently. he as someone running as an incumbent has not swept the field. nikki haley putting up decent showings and even winning washington, d.c. over the weekend. trump's first criminal trial starts in three weeks. there might be more coming depending on various courts' rules. we've had polls all weekend talk about voters' concerns about joe biden's age. i suspect we're going to see that number tick up dramatically for donald trump. >> i want to say it has to be irritating to nikki haley. he only got 50% in iowa.

only 14% of iowa republicans went out to the caucuses. they had so little interest in supporting any candidate. that's a very small number. nikki haley is at 40% in new hampshire. most who voted for nikki haley said they weren't going to vote for donald trump. in south carolina she's getting 35, 40%. now as nikki haley said, you look at michigan. what did she win, a third of the vote? as she said, donald trump campaigned in michigan, has been campaigning in michigan for nine years. nikki haley campaigned there for two days. let me say that again. donald trump basically the

acting incumbent, campaigned in the state of michigan for eight years, nine years. nikki haley campaigned there for two days. she got a third of the vote. >> as an incumbent that would weigh on me. barack obama was getting in the 90s in primary contests. look what joe biden's doing. joe biden is doing exceptionally well in primary contests. all of this has to be weighing on him. plus, eight, nine years of age, all this weighing on him. he's not healthy. you look at joe biden. he exercises every day. you look how fit and trim he is. people are obsessed with how he walks. >> his doctor told us why that happens. that's a condition he's had for a while, tingling in his feet.

also he has a stutter, and he's had it for decades. everything he is doing, he has done. that's been baked into the biden situation that we have known for years. while he is older and he should own that and he should joke about it and he should address it, i think we're at a point now where for trumpers on fox news, for the maga right, for donald trump himself, they're at an inflection point for making fun of joe biden's age, but it's actually coming back to haunt them in a really big way as donald trump gets on stage time and time again and has these weird moments that are scary. >> it's so strange. what were the two issues that were going to be joe biden's biggest challenges going into the election? i would say age and the southern

border. you look at donald trump. that's going to be erased as we move through because of donald trump's problems. and the southern border, i know republicans still may not believe it. it's an issue. them standing in the way of the toughest border security bill in history is going to haunt them through this entire campaign. let's bring in national correspondent for the "new york times" lisa lair. lisa, this has been like romper room. i've been looking in my magic ball telling people what's going to be happening over the horizon. let's talk about the "new york times" poll, because right now there are a lot of people concerned about joe biden's age. all of this stuff we're talking

about, i believe that's going in the wash. we're going to see that and this issue is going to be swept to the side. in this map shot into february 2024, talk about what you found, what the "new york times" sienna polls found. >> you're right. polls are a snapshot in time. we saw that voters are very concerned about biden's age and not as concerned about donald trump's age. we looked at people who voted for biden last time around in 2020, and 61% of those voters said they were worried his age would make him less effective. more concerning for the biden campaign, about 20% were worried he couldn't handle the job with his age. i think what we're seeing here is that age is an issue for the campaign. it's a concern for them.

republicans have been very effective about making this concern over several years and biden's team, while they're responding now, they're putting him out more. he did the late night show last week where he joked about it. he's taking more questions from reporters. they perhaps didn't address this right away and early enough and aggressive enough, and it has been allowed to fester and expand. they weren't helped by the special counsel report last month. this is an issue for voters and there's just no getting around that. >> i noticed some interesting numbers in terms of young voters and how that's changed. talk about what you found with young voters and women. >> young voters are the holdouts here. they're more concerned about biden's age. they're less likely to think he should be the nominee. we've seen some growing trend that democrats are beginning to accept that biden's going to be

the nominee. last year there was tons of chatter about could there be someone else. democrats were throwing out all sorts of names as a potential replacement. there's a growing awareness among the parties that's not going to happen. voters didn't seem to make peace with that. now we saw in the poll they're starting to come to the recognition biden will be the nominee. >> you write in part, quote, as the political strategist mike murphy said many moons ago, biden's age is like a gigantic pair of antlers he wears on his head all day every day, even when he does something exceptional like visit a war zone in ukraine or whip inflation. people can't stop staring at the antlers. but you argue joe biden is the

strongest candidate democrats can field against donald trump. unemployment is low, real wage gains have been led by the bottom quartile. and the post-covid soft landing makes us the envy of the world. he has no major scandals. his handling of american foreign policy has been stronger and defter than any recent presidents. moreover, he is a known quantity. voters are not being asked to take a chance on him. i'll add to that. he, unlike any other democrat we know, has beaten trump before. >> he has. jonathan, the handwringing, it continues, but it's been going on for a couple of years. in fact, it's been going on

since joe biden has been in politics. we hear it, oh, biden's too old after iowa 2024, after new hampshire, open mocking and ridicule, nevada, it's over. he goes to south carolina, jim clyburn endorses him, boom, he sweeps through it and he wins. then he's president. we heard the same thing, he's too old. we heard this from progressives, oh he thinks he can still get bipartisan deals, what an idiot. he got more bipartisan deals since maybe lbj. then 2022, oh biden, too old, too tired. i mean this keeps going. he's too old. does the state of the union. oh my god, he's great.

three days later, he's too old. you would think people would get embarrassed to be humiliated by all the times they were wrong about joe biden over the past three years. instead, they just keep on keeping on. >> they keep underestimating him. i get why people are nervous, though. don't tell me the odds. tell me the stakes. the stakes are at a vaguely existential inflection point for american democracy. everybody wants a sure thing. we've got a guy running who is so good he's a 95-5. don't worry, everything's going to be great. instead because of everything america is today, because of po polarization, we live in a world where whoever the republican

candidate is, they're going to have at worst a 40% chance to win. so biden is like a 50-50 shot. maybe things will be better than that. maybe he'll get to 55-45 by november. people think there has to be something better. well, there isn't. this is it. joe biden is the nominee, and you're going to learn to love it, america. >> i couldn't agree with you more. the question is the sticky factor. maybe it's as simple as that age issue. the accomplishments speak for themselves. why more than any other politician or any other president does it not stick? >> i wish i knew, man. so the age stuff has been showing up in the polls for the better part of three years now. the thing which gets me crazy is when you delve into the polls

that have the age question and you look head to head biden versus trump on the straight question of who is mentally fit and mentally together enough to be president, trump is like plus 20 over biden. i look at that and i think, what in the world are you people seeing? even if you go back four years and listen to trump. he's like we're going to do the winning on the economics and the winning on the military. he's never been all there mentally. some of this is a voter problem. the american people have got to get serious. >> one stat that stood out to me is trump is over 90% with voters who voted for him in 2020 and biden was at like 83% with voter who is supported him in '20. there's your road map.

is there something else we haven't talked about that was noteworthy in the poll? >> the voter problem is, in fact, the problem. if you want to win elections, you need to have voters. what you point out is true. they have an enthusiasm issue among democrats. maybe that changes. i think the campaign is well aware they're going to have to get these low propensity voters, who came out for joe biden in '20 and who even though the economy is better, don't necessarily feel better than they did in 2019. they need to find a way to get these people out to vote for joe biden again even if his accomplishments aren't breaking through to them. it's a thorny problem. when you add the age issue on top of that, they certainly have their work cut out for them.

thank you very much. great piece. we appreciate your coming on this morning. for the first time since her run for president over a year ago nikki haley has won a republican primary. nbc news projects haley won yesterday's washington, d.c. republican primary with more than 60% of the vote. she is now the first woman to ever win a republican primary. donald trump did tally three more victories over the weekend. in michigan, the former president won 51 out of the state's 55 delegates that were awarded at the gop convention caucuses. in idaho and missouri, trump secured every delegate, which brings us to super tuesday. republican contests take place tomorrow in 15 states with 865 delegates up for grabs. on "meet the press" yesterday, nikki haley didn't rule out continuing past tomorrow's contest and is no longer

promising to endorse former president trump if he becomes the republican nominee for president. >> i've always said this needs to be competitive. as long as we are competitive, as long as we are showing that there is a place for us, i'm going to continue to fight. that's always been the case. >> would you see yourself as competitive if you didn't win on super tuesday any state? >> y'all decided whether i was competitive in iowa or new hampshire or south carolina, so we're going to keep pushing through. >> you did sign a pledge, an rnc pledge to support the eventual nominee. do you still feel bound by that? >> i always said i have serious concerns about donald trump. i have even more concerns about joe biden. the rnc pledge, at the time of the debate, we had to take it to would you support the nominee and in order to get on that

debate stage the answer had to be yes. >> you're no longer bound by that pledge? >> i'll make whatever decision i want to make, but that's not something i'm thinking about. >> joining us now from ft. worth, texas, where nikki haley will hold her final rally before super tuesday is nbc news correspondent ali vitali. what more are we hearing from the haley campaign? will she ditch the pledge? >> reporter: it sounds like it's on the table. being in rooms with haley over the last weeks, she wants to keep two questions as live wires. first, how long are you going to stay in this race? in donor meetings, in private conversations, it can sound different than her public conversations. this is one of those rare moments where the conversations

actually match. haley is saying behind closed doors she wants to remain competitive for super tuesday. the message from one person who heard it is very moderate. it's not pie in the sky, in the words of this person. that's notable as she continues to say she'll stay in this race for as long as she's competitive. that matches with what her senior staff have told me too. they don't want to close the door to ending her bid depending on the results tomorrow night. it's also clear the other question she wants to keep alive is what happens with donald trump and whether or not she'll endorse him? take the point that haley is making there, that the rnc that issued that pledge that she signed is a very different rnc than the one trump is attempting to remake in his own image. haley is saying the rnc that

trump wants is a, quote, slush fund for his legal fees. she has made a lot of hay over the fact that they are using his funds to pay for court cases. that's something she's pressuring rnc delegates to push pressure around if not put a stop to. we'll see if that is able to manifest given the way he's put allies or even family members in charge of the rnc operation. the fact that haley is toying with this idea of not endorsing trump really does make sense. i asked her point-blank as she was talking about his legal woes and the idea he could be convicted on criminal charges, i asked her could you vote for a convicted felon. she didn't answer that question directly and also questioning whether or not he would even be the nominee if he were ultimately convicted. i think running for president is part and parcel to trying to beat these legal issues he's

currently facing. if haley were to not endorse, that would be the bow on top of her candidacy. it's a long-haul gamble. the fact that she's staying in this case something were to happen to trump. i'm not sure i buy into that. if he loses the election, she can say, hey, i told you so, let's move the party in a different direction. >> thank you very much for your reporting this morning, ali vitali. >> donny, let's follow up on that. if i were in nikki haley's position, i would stay in the race all the way through the end. you have no idea what's going to happen with donald trump. we talked about our serious concerns, knowing him for as long as we've known him, serious concerns about his current state. it's actually gotten word. hard to believe, but true.

you look at his age, you look at all of the criminal charges that are against him, all of the pressure. i would stay in for all of those reasons. more than that, i guess it's the lawyer in me, but i would be setting up my opening argument for 2028 if trump ends up losing in the general election. since '17 trump republicans, all they do is lose, it seems, or certainly underperform. but nikki haley, the day after donald trump loses, can look at the republican party and say, i warned you. we've now lost eight years in a row. i told you this was going to happen. follow me. we now have a chance to build a new republican party and start winning elections again,

start -- >> and true to his core. the party is true to who he is. >> not just the party of reagan, but the party of main street republicans, the party of small business owners, the party of entrepreneurs, the party of immigrants, the party of people who love america and believe america is the greatest country in the world, because we are. >> we keep asking on this show how many more losses will the republicans take before they get it? part of the problem for republicans with loss after loss, there was nowhere for them to go. now there's somewhere for them to go. nikki haley has to double down on where she is. it would be a shame if she acquiesces and endorses him at the end. they've been losing, but now there's somewhere to go. the democrats have got to start

hanging onto a question, what's wrong with donald trump, is he okay. just keep posing that question. there's something really wrong with him. it's not funny anymore. >> it's dangerous. >> he's not well. if we had a parent that was carrying on like this, we would intervene and get help involved. forget about this guy being president of the united states. is he just okay period? >> as far as nikki haley is concerned, she has to be seeing this as well. >> no. she certainly does. haley, like desantis before her, has raised questions about trump's fitness for office. she's delivering these messages to audiences that otherwise would not hear them, fox news and other conservative media outlets will play nikki haley and they would never play joe biden or any other democrat making those same arguments.

so that's important too. she's still going to have an impact this november. coming up on "morning joe," apple gets hit with a landmark $2 billion fine. cnbc's dom chu join us with a look at way that's happening. that's next on "morning joe." hg that's next on "morning joe.

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i'm jack black. get tickets right now for kung fu panda. so clearly you. you don't have time for a drum solo. get tickets! [ screaming ] get tickets! skadoosh. get tickets! i love san francisco, love the golden gate bridge. what a shot. it's just magic. >> 35 past the hour. welcome back to "morning joe." this morning, apple was fined nearly $2 billion by european union regulators for restricting competition among music streaming rivals. >> the decision is the result of a five-year investigation set in motion by one of its rivals

spotify. let's bring in cnbc's dom chu. it seems the europeans not afraid to actually curb some of the excesses of some of these companies that shape our lives and just keep getting bigger and bigger. >> it's not just that. to that point, it's mostly the technology companies going all the way back to microsoft back in the day. let's put it in numbers here. 1.8 billion euros is about $1.95 billion at current exchange rates. it doesn't seem like a lot maybe for a company worth $2.8 trillion in market value. but this is significant in a lot of ways. it is one of the biggest fines handed out by the european union to a tech company ever. it is also the first time the eu has actually fined apple itself. this is the european commission, which is the executive branch of

the eu. it basically says apple abused its dominant position distributing the music streaming app to customers. it found apple had put restrictions on app developers that kept them from telling apple users about alternative and maybe even cheaper music services that were available. it banned streaming app developers from informing people how it could access those said cheaper alternatives. all of this started with spotify because of the apple commission it charges through the app store. apple did respond to this eu ruling, saying the biggest is spotify itself, which has a 66% market share of europe's streaming market, which is more than double its closest competitor. they're talking about things

like anti-trust as well. they also say spotify had a lot of success because of apple's app store itself. >> speaking of anti-trust, breaking news while you were talking from the "washington post," jetblue ends bid to merge with spirit airlines. the announcement comes after a federal judge in january blocked the carriers' bid to merge. jetblue announced it has dropped plans to merge with spirit airlines in a transaction that would have created the nation's fifth largest carrier. >> this was, first of all, just a formality. they lost a ruling here. a lot of the regulators put this particular deal on the front burner, because what they say it does is by consolidating two of these carriers, you are in essence taking an option away from certain travelers. what jetblue was looking to do

is take on the infrastructure of spirit and expand on it to provide flight plans and itiner itineraries. what happens if you remove an ultra low-cost carrier from the market? spirit airlines is not really like jetblue. jetblue is much more akin these days to delta or united. they offer the same types of fare classes. taking spirit off the market, that would give you one less option for those really budget friendly flyers. that's a reason why this is moving in the direction it is. this is, again, regulators in the biden administration taking a much harsher view of these big business mergers going through just to begin with. >> by the way, this isn't marxism. this is actually competition. i know billionaires and multinational corporations don't like it, but actually we want

competition. the more competition, the better for consumers, the better for small businesses, the better for people trying to get into the marketplace. >> cnbc's dom chu, thank you very much. former trump organization chief financial officer alan weisselberg surrendered to the manhattan d.a.'s office just minutes ago, where he is expected to plead guilty to perjury charges in connection to testimony he gave during donald trump's civil fraud trial. that's according to three sources familiar with the matter. weisselberg was not expected to enter into a cooperation agreement with the plea. he is expected to enter the plea later this morning. an attorney for weisselberg did not immediately respond to request for comment.

>> this manhattan case is seen as one of the weakest cases for a good number of reasons. talk about why so many people are so skeptical of this case moving forward. >> it was first to charge. to your point, joe, it is considered maybe not weakest in terms of evidence, but weakest in terms of the seriousness. this is not about classified documents and national secrets. this is about an effort to overturn the election. some make the case there is election interference here because trump was making hush money payments to silence what would have been an embarrassing and problematic matter in 2016, the stormy daniels stuff. but it is seen as it's being brought in deep blue manhattan. the attorney general has done a good job bringing the case, but it's perceived as a biased figure. i think it is not one that is going to change the political landscape much, but it doesn't

have to change it much. poll after poll shows this race is going to be so close that even if trump is convicted or even the display of him having to sit in a courtroom day after day for weeks, if that turns off enough independent and swing voters, that could make a difference at the margins and that could matter. we don't know if he is convicted, what sort of penalty he would face, whether that would include incarceration. it might. >> what concerns legal analysts about this in terms of legal theories may not concern voters. we've seen a real disconnect. you can never really predict what's going to move voters. >> also the trail itself will reveal the details of all of this. who knows the details of how he responds, how he holds up to

that. coming up, the impeachment inquiry and lack of evidence. we'll play you those moments next on "morning joe." ♪♪ (vo) dan made progress with his mental health... ...but his medication caused unintentional movements in his face, hands, and feet called tardive dyskinesia, or td. so his doctor prescribed austedo xr— a once-daily td treatment for adults. ♪as you go with austedo♪ austedo xr significantly reduced dan's td movements. some people saw a response as early as 2 weeks. with austedo xr, dan can stay on his mental health meds- (dan) cool hair! (vo) austedo xr can cause depression, suicidal thoughts, or actions in patients with huntington's disease. pay close attention to and call your doctor if you become depressed, have sudden changes in mood, or have suicidal thoughts. don't take if you have liver problems, are taking reserpine, tetrabenazine, or valbenazine. austedo xr may cause irregular or fast heartbeat,

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you've got checks. you've got tracings of every biden family member had a little company, an llc. i guess my question to you, scott, is this whole impeachment inquiry, is it coming to a dead end? i'm asking this honestly. >> sure. >> or is there more to do that can be done? because i don't think you got from hunter what you wanted to get. i just don't think that panned out. you've got a lot of checks. you've got a lot of suspicious financial activity. my question to you is, what from

here? is this whole inquiry coming to an end? >> the odd thing, speaking of republicans, james comer, who ran that committee, he apparently left the hearing early and did not ask a single question. >> huh. >> how weird is that? >> very strange. >> he's been calling for him to come in. he didn't ask him a single question. >> i tell you, steve ducey has -- i don't want to get steve in trouble. good guy, steve. i just got him in trouble again. steve ducey has asked questions that need to be asked. that was fox news host steve ducey on friday. before that we heard larry kudlow, also a guy who's been a

friend of mine for a long time. sorry, larry, don't mean to hurt your reputation. asking a republican member of the oversight committee ask whether the investigation of hunter biden has reached a dead end. comer tried to frame last week's deposition as a win for republicans. no, it wasn't, james. you didn't even ask a question. i know it was because arnold the pig whispered to you, dude, this is an f-storm. arnold has a foul mouth and told him get out of this him, get ou this while you still can, and comer had nothing on hunter, looked stupid, and then decided he'd blame the deep state. watch this. >> here we go. >> the american people can read the transcript and make a decision and determination on whether or not the president's son was being truthful. now what we're trying to do is go to the next phase, have the public hearing, bring all the

associates in, and let everyone see everyone's side of the story and make a determination, but at the end of the day, we're going to try to hold this family accountable. we're going to try to have referrals. we're going to try to identify the people in the deep state that were part of the coverup because remember. in addition to the biden financial crimes, we also have the coverup by the deep state actors. so we're trying to hold everyone accountable, trying to wrap this up. >> i mean, how stupid, jen, does he think everybody is? he talks about the deep state. their witnesses are international fugitives. >> so much. >> who illegally smuggle weapons and illegally smuggle oil to communist china from iran or to countries that consider the united states their enemies, and then they get a guy that was their star witness who ended up lying, lying to the fbi, and it just keeps getting worse. like, hunter biden, you know,

they keep talking badly about hunter. i can now see when you read that transcript, right, they didn't want it to be public because he just keeps making fools of them. >> he did, and the democrats -- i mean, if you haven't read the eric swalwell exchange, it's phenomenal. i recommend that to everyone, but this is, like, you were saying before, joe, when graty, you know, the laws of gravity applies with trump gets into courtrooms and when democrats get in front of republicans in committee hearings, right? this has never worked out. it didn't work out with hillary in benghazi, or alejandro mayorkas, and it's because the truth is on the side of the democrats. you can imagine the prep session with chairman comer. what are you going to say? you didn't even ask hunter any questions. i'll fall back on the deep state because making stuff up is the only thing they have. >> all right. >> man. not -- not a good look for them.

>> okay. our next guest is known for her signature humor and now "new york times" best-selling author sloan crossley is using that humor to tackle the issues we all face, the loss of a loved one. her book entitled "grief is for people," and she wrote this after losing her mentor and beloved boss to suicide. she also describes the mysterious burglary of her apartment right before her friend's death which shattered her sense of security. just as a covid pandemic was beginning to take shape, and sloane crosley joins us. thank you so much for coming on the show. i would like for you to tell us more about the book and why you decided to put this all pen to paper. >> oh, well, first of all thank you both for having me. good morning. i really -- first, it started as

a story that i felt like i had to tell. it started as just the story of the burglary, that my friend was trying to help me solve in this sleuth-like fashion, and then a much greater loss fell into my lap when he died by suicide a month later, and i realized it was bigger than that. it was a book about grief, about friendship, about the joy we sort of experienced, and while i'm not someone who could ever be confused with identifying a marketplace, i kind of wish this book had existed when i felt so sad, but i felt so sad in 3d, and i felt humor and hanger and all of those emotions. >> sloane, if you could tell us a little more about -- how do you try to balance with a subject so weighty, so sad with your signature humor, and what do you hope when others read this book, what do you hope they can take from it and apply to their own lives and potentially their own losses? >> well, there's always levity in that sort of topography of

grief that you feel, and humor is sort of the way i describe things naturally. so in place of what someone might have when they look at a cloud, i have a strange analogy or a reference, and that's part of grief is, you know, you laugh and then you feel like somebody's punched you in the stomach and you're sort of pulled up short by the profound loss that you feel, and so it really imitates hopefully that really feeling, and i guess what i want people to take away from it is that grief is not exclusive to loss of a parent, loss of a spouse, loss of a child, got forbid, and there's all sorts of ways we grieve, especially now, especially post-pandemic, and you shouldn't ladle this struggle for permission to grieve what you want over your feelings if that makes sense. >> sloane, tell us what you mean when you talk about grief is for people. you seem to suggest that people -- we should not run frit, but embrace it, you know,

illuminate us more on that. >> the structure of the book, they're out of order, and it's in a state of acceptance because it's a book and i get to do that, but what it does is sort of give people a guide, i suppose, without being a self-help book about how to miss someone -- you don't need a guide on how to miss somebody, but how to really feel that missing in a sort of productive and articulate way. >> let me ask you, sloane, just for people that are watching and i'm sure so many will buy this book and learn from it. i'm curious what you say to them. can you -- can you take us to your low point? >> yeah. >> when you saw nothing but darkness around you and you were

engulfed by grief, can you talk about that moment? and it happens for so many people. can you talk about that moment when something switched and you -- you were on the uptick? you decided as i've told myself at times, you know, i'm in hell. keep walking. keep going. don't stop. what was that moment for you when you realized you were in hell and you had to keep walking through it? >> well, on a minor level, that moment was the moment i got the phone call saying that my friend had died. i was on the street. i remember thinking i should get off the street. i kind of sat in the middle of the sidewalk like a senile dog that wouldn't move, but i don't think -- i think that's shock. so i don't know if that's the lowest moment. i think the lowest moment are a series of moments where you cry into the night until your jaw hurts, when you feel like no one can help you, and i think really what i talk about in the book is

how to become on the side of the living because that's a thing that i think we don't talk about when we think of mourning people who are -- who warrant our condolences and of course, you have that, but i didn't even have the shelving to accept condolences because everyone was here to give them to me and my friend wasn't. so it felt like teams, and i wanted to be on his team, not to say that i felt the way he felt, but that i just -- i wanted him back and i felt like there was this bubble around everything. >> yeah. >> if i could just push through, i could pull him back, and so then eventually i realized it's not what he would have wanted, and i think that moment, realizing that he would have wanted me to have a full, big life without him helped me move forward. >> and what an incredible process of moving forward, writing this book which i'm sure is going to help so many people. >> thank you. >> thank you, sloane. we really -- >> i hope it does. >> we really appreciate -- i'm

sure -- i'm sure it will, and we really appreciate you writing the book and coming on and sharing with us this morning. thanks so much. >> a complete joy. thank you. >> thank you. the book is "grief is for people" by sloane crosley. thank you for being here and thank you for watching our show. ana cabrera picks up the coverage in 90 seconds. a cabrere coravege in 90 seconds the best advice i ever got was to invest with vanguard for my retirement. the second best? stay healthy enough to enjoy it. so i started preparing physically and financially. then you came along and made every mile worth it. hi mom. at vanguard you're more than just an investor, you're an owner. helping you prepare for today's longer retirement. that's the value of ownership.