the united states. >> it's incredibly popular. the majority of americans including republicans and independents. the fact we're even talking about it is wild. yes, it's very popular. and contraception it feels like the place to go if the abortion argument isn't resonating, basic contraception as something the republicans can't bring themselves to support feels like fertile ground for republicans to make their case. >> no pun intended. >> pardon pun it's late. thank you for enlightening us and reminding us of the stakes coming up. that is our show for tonight. "way too early" with jonathan lemire is coming up next. supreme court justices are supposed to be reproach and above politics, and i am sad, really sad and shocked to say that justice alito rapidly showing himself to be unfit to serve on the united states supreme court. at a very minimum he has to

recuse himself from these cases now coming before the court that will determine whether or not trump is held accountable. >> that's democratic senator richard blumenthal spnldsing to another right-wing flag that was flown at a home of supreme court justice alito. we'll dig into that new reporting just ahead. plus, donald trump's last challenger in the republican party caves and now says she will vote for him this fall. we'll play for you nikki haley's comments on that. and then on capitol hill today senate republicans are expected to again block a bipartisan bill to address border security with one of the lead floegsers saying he will now vote against it. good morning and welcome to

"way too early" on this thursday, may 23rd. i'm jonathan lemire. thanks for starting your day with us, and we'll begin this morning with an endorsement of donald trump from one of his most critical republican primary opponents. in her first public appearance since exiting the race back in march former u.n. ambassador nikki haley said yesterday that she does plan to vote for trump in november. this despite saying just a few months ago that he didn't deserve to have a driver's license let alone be president again. >> i put my priorities on a president who's going to have the backs of our allies and hold our enemies to account, who would secure the border, no more excuses. a president who would support capitalism and freedom, a president who understands we need less debt not more debt. trump has not been perfect on

these policies, i have made that clear many, many times. but biden has been a catastrophe. so i will be voting for trump. having said that, i stand by what i said in my suspension speech. trump would be smart to reach out to the millions of people who voted for me and continue to support me and not assume that they're just going to be with him. and i genuinely hope he does that. times change and so has trump. he's gotten more unstable and unhinged. if you mock the service of a combat veteran, you don't deserve a driver's license, let alone being president of the united states. we've seen him get confused. he was confused about me having something to do with keeping security away from the capitol.

he was confused when he said biden was going to run us into world war ii. he's not qualified to be the president of the united states. it's not normal to insult our military heroes and veterans. he was thin-skinned and easily distracted. it's not normal to spend $50 million in campaign contributions on personal court cases. there's no way that the american people are going to vote for a convicted criminal. it's not normal to threaten people who back your opponent. he went and was trying to buddy up with putin. every time he was in the same room with him he got weak in the knees. >> and it's not normal to call on russia to invade nato countries. donald trump has done all of that and more in just the past month. >> although she ended her campaign more than two months ago haley has continued to get double digit support in recent state primaries. trump who previously said he

does not need her voters to win in a general election this november has not yet commented on her announcement. the biden campaign, though, has weighed in writing this. nothing has changed for the millions of republican voters who continue to cast their ballots against trump in the primaries and care deeply about their future and democracy. biden's team also shared a video montage on social media of haley primary voters who said they would choose biden over trump in november. meanwhile, former president trump continued his trend of dehumanizing migrants entering the united states. during an interview yesterday with wabc radio trump described people crossing the u.s.-mexico border as terrorists and claimed they were bringing contagious disease into this country. take a listen. >> they're coming in from prisons and jails. they're coming in from mental institutions and insane asylums

which is a step above. they're coming in as terrorists. many, many terrorists are coming in, and people are coming in with very contagious disease. you know, all of a sudden you see there's a run on tuberculosis, there's a run on things we haven't talked about for years in this country. >> according to the centers for disease control and prevention, tuberculosis cases were up 126% in 2023, the second year of increase in cases after nearly 30 years of decline. still, the united states has one of the lowest global rates of the disease with less than 10,000 total cases. and while the cdc says it's 76% of the cases occurred in people not born in the u.s., the agency also reports that 85% of the cases nationwide are believed to be latent tb being reactivated as opposed to recent transmission of the disease.

joining us now laura bloomberg. let's talk starting with the rhetoric here from donald trump deeply dehumanizing but just the latest in a slew of examples where he described migrants as sort of subhuman. but beyond all possible doubt the rhetoric there's also policies floating out there in extreme measures including detention camps and mass deportation. tell us more about his deportation plan and what polling suggests. >> like a lot of things with trump, he hadn't put out a multi-page step by step plan. but instead in rallies and interviews he's talked about this, you know, total sweeping vision to sweep the country from illegal immigrants, support them en masse. he said he would do this on day one. he's talked about the mass detention camps at the border to hold immigrants. and really it would be almost a 180 change on how things are done now. of course there's lots of questions about the legality of

this. this would sort of be the muslim ban from 2016 on steroids. the question going forward is how these resonates with voters, and so far it's ticked up and been the number 2 issue next to the economy for voters suggesting people are paying attention. that's why you're seeing today the senate democrats are pushing for another vote on the failed bipartisan deal that failed several months ago saying, look, there is a deal that both sides agree on but trump decided he didn't want this and he wanted to keep this a live issue for the election. >> so let's move now to nikki haley, the latest example of republicans who once stood up to trump now seemingly vowing -- it wasn't a full on endorsement per se, but she voted for him so that's close enough. what's your sense as to why she did this, and is part of the calculation her eyeing the vp slots? she had floated in a few media reports as a candidate. trump last week said, no, she wouldn't be.

what do we think is happening here? >> so the timing of this is really interesting. nikki haley dropped out in early march. no one was expecting or waiting on an endorsement from her. she could have held her firepower well into the fall, but she came out in the third week of may and said she'd be supporting him. this is also the time trump is looking closely at both vp picks and cabinet picks. he said he'll pick a vp sometime in the lead-up to the convention republicans are holding. if you want to be a vp or another key cabinet post, this is the time to come out and say she's supporting trump. >> as we noted trump has yet to comment on the haley news, yet certainly a lot of republicans who applauded her for standing up for herself and not backing trump disappointed by this decision. politics editor for bloomberg, laura davidson, thank you very much. we'll have to see if the trump team ever does reach out to nikki haley supporters. big story here. "the new york times" has big reporting on another right-wing

flag flown on a property belonging to supreme court justice samuel alito. the flag, which is dubbed the appeal to heaven -- the appeal to heaven flag was flown outside his vacation home on the jersey shore last summer. now, the flag's origins date back to the revolutionary war. but in recent years it has become a symbol for christian nationalism as well as support for donald trump and the religious strand of the stop the steal campaign. several of these flags, these appeal to heaven flags were carried by trump supporters during the january 6th insurrection, you can see some of them outside the capitol. so three photographs obtained by "the times" along with a half dozen accounts of passersby show the flag was at the alito home in july and september of 2023. it can also be plainly seen on a google street view photo taken late last august.

the paper says justice alito declined to respond to questions about the beach house flag. it was just last week when "the times" reported that an upside down american flag at justice alito's home in virginia was flown less than two weeks after the attack on the capitol. the justice told "the times" that flag was raised by his wife. he blamed his wife after a clash with a neighbor. again, he's not yet weighed in on this flag. as we played at the top senator blumenthal and other democrats aghast this flag was flown and demanding alito explain it and recuse himself from any trump-related cases that could come before the court. still ahead here on "way too early," the families of some israeli hostages released chilling video of female soldiers being captured by hamas during the october 7th terror attack. plus we'll bring you new rrting about the behind the scenes push inside the white house to potentially lift restrictions on how ukraine can use american made weapons in its fight against russia.

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welcome back. newly released video shows seven female israeli soldiers being abducted by hamas during the october 7th terror attacks. nbc news foreign correspondent raf sanchez has more, and a warning to our viewers the images are disturbing. >> reporter: the disturbing footage from october 7th showing hamas terrorists inside israeli military base. seven female soldiers covered in blood and bruces are up against a wall. they're handcuffed and terrified. this 18-year-old trying to speak while the women are receiving death threats.

the gunmen leering at the women telling them they're beautiful. the u.n. has said hamas committed rape and sexual violence against its victims. it's unclear if that happened in this case. on the video you can hear gunfire as the women are abducted into gaza. of the seven one was rescued and another found dead. the remaining five still in captivity 229 days later including this 19-year-old. we spoke to her sister, sasha. what's it like to see your little sister there in her snoopy pajamas surrounded by these men with guns? >> i think it's a scene, you know, from a movie. i'm at the point i am begging for people to do something. you know, just get them out of there. >> reporter: a group representing hostage families releasing the footage, which they say was edited to take out the most gruesome scenes, trying to create pressure for a

cease-fire deal. >> that was nbc's raf sanchez reporting. truly terrible images. meanwhile, israel is now criticizing three european countries for recognizing a palestinian state. norway, ireland, and spain all made announcements yesterday saying the recognition goes into effect next week on may 28th. the move while largely symbolic is a blow to israel and deepens its isolation into the war. it comes as western leaders have raised concerns about israel's actions in gaza. in a statement prime minister benjamin netanyahu called the european country's decision, quote, a reward for terrorism, adding this does not help israel defeat hamas. the foreign minister also ordered the immediate return of all israeli ambassadors from those three nations. as of now 144 out of the 193 member states of the united nations recognized a palestinian state. but most of the european union

does not. however, britain, australia, multia, and slovenia have indicated they could all follow suit. they believe it should be achieved through a two-state solution with israel, something netanyahu of late has not backed. next up here we'll turn to sports with a look at a pair of disappointing game ones for the home teams in last night's nba and nhl conference finals, plus a remarkable streak comes to an end in major league baseball. we'll have all of that plus a check on the forecast when we come right back. the forecast w come right back. type 2 diabetes? discover the ozempic® tri-zone. ♪ ♪ i got the power of 3. i lowered my a1c, cv risk, and lost some weight. in studies, the majority of people reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. i'm under 7. ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as stroke, heart attack, or death

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>> trailing by 4 with just 3 1/2 minutes left in the fourth quarter that three-pointer from luka doncic sparked an 8-0 run for the mavericks. doncic led a strong finish for dallas last night scoring 15 of his game high 33 in the final period while kyrie irving put up 24 of his 30 in the first half. the mavs win first game of the playoff series for the first time in six tries under head coach jason kidd over the last couple of years, and they outlast minnesota 108-105 to win the western conference finals opener on the road. the series remains in minneapolis for game two tomorrow night. dallas up 1-0. tonight the boston celtics host the indiana pacers again for game two of the eastern conference finals after the pacers collapsed late into tuesday's game one. the celtics rallied and then won in overtime to take that 1-0 series lead there.

now to stanley cup and florida panthers open up the eastern conference final with a 3-0 win over the rangers last night. as the rangers lost for the third time in four games after they had begun these playoffs with seven straight wins. game two tomorrow night here in new york. tonight the dallas stars host the edmonton oilers in game one of the western conference finals. let's turn now to major league baseball and we begin in philadelphia where the league leading phillies improve to 36-14 last night. that gives phillies baseball's best 50-game start and went onto win a record 116 games but lost in the playoffs. they did not capture a world series title. to saint lewis now. the cardinals ended the baltimore orioles sweepless streak with a 5-4 win yesterday.

the orioles had gone a remarkable 106 consecutive series without being swept until they did indeed lose three straight this week for the cardinals. the loss dropped baltimore 29 on the season, still very good, but they are now 2 1/2 games behind the al east leading yankees. four home runs and powered new york to a 7-3 victory over the mariners last night snapping their little losing streak. time now for the weather and let's go to angie lassman for the forecast. the holiday weekend is approaching but suddenly not here yet. >> not here yet. the unofficial start of summer, though, right around the corner, jonathan. no surprise we're still tracking the potential for strong to severe storms that could interrupt some of those plans. that's where we'll watch for the most impactful weather through the day today. no surprise 23 mill woon people are under risk here as we get through the next few hours. specifically the hail baseball

sized is what we're looking for. the wind gusts and tornados also likely. tomorrow no rest for the weary. chicago to dallas in the bulls eye for the chance for strong storms. busy couple of days ahead for folk. if you're going to be on the road or flying something to note we'll once again see all those impacts. here's the big picture look for your friday. we'll see showers across the north east, scattered thunderstorms across the southeast. especially the midwest that's where we're going to watch for the likely delays. minneapolis, chicago, saint lewis, dallas, those are the spots you'll want to watch for any delays. as we roll into the weekend a couple of nice days but a cup of trouble days as well. new york city looks like we'll see temperatures in the 80s both saturday and sunday. there will be sunshine and rain reenters the forecast on monday, and sun across saturday and sunday. but, again, monday looks like a trouble spot. a similar story for parts of the midwest. sunny on saturday in chicago and saint lewis but notice the rain gets back into the forecast.

the heat is on. feels like summer for folks there. heat index triple digits, feeling like 110 for southern portions of of that tier of the country. summer is there i guess for folks, but still dealing with severe weather, too. >> all right, we'll keep an eye on that. next up here senate democrats plan to put republicans on the spot when it comes to border security. we'll get the latest from capitol hill ahead of today's vote when we come right back. f vote when we come ghrit back power e*trade's easy-to-use tools, like dynamic charting and risk-reward analysis, help make trading feel effortless. and its customizable scans with social sentiment help you find and unlock opportunities in the market. e*trade from morgan stanley with powerful, easy-to-use tools, power e*trade makes complex trading easier. react to fast-moving markets with dynamic charting and a futures ladder that lets you place, flatten, or reverse orders so you won't miss an opportunity. e*trade from morgan stanley (♪♪) when life spells heartburn... how do you spell relief?

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welcome back to "way too early." it is coming up on 5:30 here on the east coast, 2:30 out west on this thursday morning. i'm jonathan lemire. thanks for being with us. we turn back to politics now, and the senate will hold a vote later today on the bipartisan border security package that republicans killed earlier this year. the symbolic move is expected to fail with some democrats and republicans who supported it last time likely to vote against it this time around. democrats are forcing the move to get republicans on the record ahead of november's elections. the gop says democrats are just playing politics. take a listen to one of the lead negotiators for the bill, republican senator james langford of oklahoma who will now be voting against his own legislation. >> the bill is no longer a bill. now it's just a prop, and that's been my frustration. we want it to be a bill to actually solve the problem.

and say if this is not going to be the solution let's say what can be the solution, but we're not going to bring up prop votes. >> joining us now politics reporter at semafor. good to see you this morning. let's break down how we got here and what you anticipate happening later today. >> well, as you brought up in the opening, democrats are -- they have an opportunity here to, you know, push the attention to republicans and say, hey, you didn't do anything, so this is going to die in the senate. it's not going anywhere in the house. it's dead on arrival. speaker johnson already said that, but this gives opportunity to especially those vulnerable democrats or democrats in competitive elections to say, hey, we tried to do something for the border. but there's also an opportunity i'd argue for joe biden to actually say he's addressing the

border issue as well. there's a bunch of expected executive orders that are coming up, and right before i'd say the end of june during this debate that he's going to have, this is an opportunity for him to say, hey, you guys didn't pull it off in the senate, republicans blocked it. here i am coming, i'm going to save the day with some resolutions or, you know, some options to clear the border. >> so senator langford, one of the authors of the bill, received a lot of praise including on this air for working in a bipartisan fashion to get this thing done. what is his reasoning to suddenly object to it now? and as a second point do we think the democrats are going to be able to score some political points blaming the gop for severing their own bill? polls suggest it hadn't moved the needle yet. >> senator langford is just upset about the fact oit didn't pass initially and now it's used as a prop, as he said. also there are also some

progressive democrats who aren't happy with it. from their standpoint they think that this kind of pushes the conversation back and sets it at this de facto starting point. it was a very conservative bill to start with, and they don't want to use this as the point going forward. so they're -- it's interesting because schumer's actually going to lose more votes in this runup. >> so kadia, give us a sense what else is happening on capitol hill this week? the legislative session over. it's essentially trying to score political points. >> it's -- people will say they're ramping up for the appropriations season, but i think a lot of attention is going to be focused on the defense bill and the national defense bill people, those markups are going to start immediately. that will be a long haul, but

members are going on great for another week or next week. so i think you'll see things start to pivot towards like the campaign side. for instance, i'm going to new york today because donald trump will be there and i know i'll be joined by other members of congress as well. >> yeah, trump, you know, mostly bound in new york because of his case, holding an event in the south bronx later today. we'll have coverage on that later on this morning. we appreciate it. next up here we'll go live to cnbc for an early look what's driving the day on wall street following the dow's worst day of the month. plus home sales fall again during what is typically the busiest time of the year for the real estate market. we'll dig into what's causing that downward trend when we come right back. d trend when we come right back

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time now for business, and for that let's bring in cnbc's carolyn roth who joins us live from london. good morning, carolyn. so stock futures up this morning as wall street is digesting the latest quarterly results from -- give us a sense as we look at the green on the board how today is shaping up. >> look, it's going to be all about nvidia, and the key question always is can nvidia live up to the hype. and every single quarter seemingly it can, growing past expectations once again. if you tike a look at revenues in its first quarter up 262% on the back of record sales of a.i. chips in the data center business. and what's behind this? well, we're seeing the likes of microsoft, amazon, google. they're spending a huge amount of money on the very sophisticated chips that nvidia

makes, and it doesn't look like this trend is stopping anytime soon. and there's more for the retail investor here because the company also announcing a 10 for 1 stock split, that means it makes it a lot more accessible to any retail investor out there who still wants to jump on the a.i. train. we take a look at the shares after hours up by more than 6% so today is going to be all about those shares and what they mean for the broader market. >> we'll be watching that to be sure. as we teased before the break sales of previously owned homes dropped unexpectedly last month. what does this mean potentially for housing market? >> obviously it's never a good sign, but i will point out this was really just one month's data. so next month's could be looking completely different. if we dig into the data, we see a decline of 1.9% in the month of april compared to march. also on the year we see a similar decline of 2%. what's behind this once again is

the higher financing cost. remember in february we saw the jump in the mortgage rates, and then they stayed around the 7% level throughout april, so the key question is what does it mean for affordability and the financing pressure on american consumers? well, that is the key question going forward as rates stay elevated. and lastly, nestle is set to launch a line of food brands for people on weight loss drugs like ozempic. tell us about that. >> obviously these weight loss drugs they're all the rage, but there is a big question mark for some food companies out there like nestle. because no pun intended here but these weight loss drugs they're eating into their profits. so how can they counter the trend? so nestle came up with this solution. they want to capitalize on the trend by launching a new frozen food brand called vital pursuit. basically it consists of 12

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welcome back. there is growing debate inside the white house over whether or not ukraine should be allowed to

fire american-made weapons at military targets within russia. that's according to "the new york times." to this point, the biden administration prevented ukraine from doing so in an effort to avoid escalation. now a push to reverse the policy is being led by secretary of state antony blinken, but "the times" notes it is unclear how many other officials within the president's inner circle have signed on. officials involved in talks note blinken's position has changed due to russia opening a new front of the war with effective results. as the newspaper puts it, moscow's forcevise placed weapons right across the border from north eastern ukraine and aimed at kharkiv knowing ukrainians would only be able to use non-american drones and other weaponry to target them in response. joining us now national security and military reporter for politico. good morning, paul. so speaker johnson was asked yesterday about this very topic, and he said that the u.s. should allow ukraine to prosecute the

war as they see fit. we know there's been push back. give us the lay of the land here in terms of this discussion and where you think things will end up going. >> good morning. yeah, this is a topic of discussion in washington, the biden administration, and among nato allies for almost two years now. this has become the final red line. what you yien wants to do is use these long-range tackm missiles to formations russians put just over the border from ukraine because they know they're relatively safe. ukrainians can't use these missiles to hit them. and the state department has always been a little more forward leaning than the white house and the dod about sending ukraine patriot systems, f-16s, tanks and things like that and this is the flare up of the

debate within the administration of what to use, how to use it, how much leeway to give the ukrainians to defend themselves really against repeated russian assaults. i mean this latest russian offensive in north east ukraine near kharkiv about 30,000 troops and ukrainians saw amassing over the border in russia for weeks if not months and they asked the united states to use these missile and the green light hadn't been given yet by the biden administration. >> so let's talk more about the state of the conflict. u.s. aid, you know, delayed because of congressional infighting finally starting to arrive, but the delay was costly. tell us more about the offensive, what they think the russians are trying to do there and the state elsewhere of their incursions. >> yeah, the russians have witnessed about 30,000 troops or so are headed towards ukraine's second largest city kharkiv. they're making incremental gains. they're stopping them in many

areas. it seems what the russians are trying to do is stay in the buffer zone in the north east there because ukraine has been using medium range drones and even explosive laden airplanes to hit russian oil refineries and things like that deep inside russia. so we want to create a buffer zone to make that difficult for ukrainians to hit. they want to sign off on ukraine using long-range storm shadow missiles inside russia, they can be fired from aircraft and ukrainians can't get close enough to the border to fire them. the atacms, which we have been giving to ukraine have been incredibly effective blocking some of these russian advances, but the russians have such an advantage in man power and even munitions at this point it's tough going for the ukrainians. although as you said with a $16 billion baggage signed by president biden recently more weapons are flowing, more

ammunitions are flowing to ukraine to help them out here. >> let's turn briefly to the war in gaza. what's the latest we know about the rafah operation in terms of timing and scope? >> yeah, it seems what the israelis are trying to do is move a little more methodically than perhaps they did up in the north, still using air strikes and things like that. as far as the ground troops going in they secure the rafah crossing into egypt. they try to do this kind of offensive where they go in try to clear out hamas, identify the tunnels, go into them or destroy them. many of the civilians have already left the area, but there are already still civilians in rafah. the israelis are moving a little more slowly, a little more methodically. they're still fighting further north in gaza and obviously hezbollah attacks in the north.

the israelis are stretched pretty thin here. >> national security and reporter for politico, thank you as always. we appreciate your insight. up next here on "way too early" we'll stay on topic of israel as house speaker mike johnson plans to invite prime minister benjamin netanyahu to address congress, but that plan is drawing fierce push back from some top house democrats. we'll tell you all about it on the april 2024 map. and coming up on morning joe another former donald trump critic now says she'll vote for him in november. we'll break down nikki haley's about face and president biden compete for her supporters. plus, senator chris murphy will be a guest as democrats try to revive the bipartisan border security bill that republicans blocked earlier this year. also ahead, democratic congressman richie torres of new york will join live in studio ahead of trump's planned campaign rally in his bronx district. "morning joe" just a few

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welcome back. house speaker mike johnson will invite israeli prime minister

benjamin netanyahu to address a joint session of congress. johnson made that announcement to reporters yesterday, saying he will send a letter to netanyahu this week. adding that senate majority leader chuck schumer, who has been a netanyahu critic, will sign the invitation. it's not yet clear when the address will take place. the move is being met with pushback from top house democrats. ranking member of the house intelligence committee, jim himes, says netanyahu should, quote, be focused on freeing hostages, not on charming legislators. former speaker nancy pelosi also rejected the idea of inviting netanyahu. joining us now, msnbc political analyst brendan buck. he was communication strategist and former aide to house speakers ryan and boehner. let's get your reaction to this invitation for netanyahu. what's the calculus for speaker johnson, but also the democrats, including senator schumer

apparently going along with it, after not long ago, calling for new elections in israel to replace netanyahu. >> that's what makes it so interesting. johnson is clearly forcing schumer's hand here. this is obvious and good politics for mike johnson. the house republican conference famously dysfunctional and infighting, and this is one are because it unites his team. republicans are basically all following netanyahu and standing by israel. where this is clearly dividing democrats, both in the house and senate. he's not only, you know, beyond this invitation, he's put a number on bills on the floor that divided democrats, so he is riding this issue politically. schumer is not going to be able to reject this. i mean, the reality is, johnson can invite him on his own if he wants to, and schumer is not going to allow himself to be outflanked on the israel relationship. he's going to go along with it, but it'll cause a lot of

heartache. in 2015, when my old boss, john boehner, invited netanyahu, and it was an aggressive speech. netanyahu is not somebody who will probably be there for conciliatory tones. he is going to be bringing his case pretty aggressively. i imagine that's only going to make democrats even more uncomfortable and more upset, which, again, is good conference politics for mike johnson, though i do wonder what it does for his relationship with democrats, who he owes his job to as this point. >> good point. gop senator rick scott entered the race to succeed mitch mcconnell as republican leader. "the wall street journal" first reported it. scott says he believes now is the moment for, quote, dramatic change. he writes in part, i believe that our voters want us to use this leadership election to make a choice to upend the status quo in washington. scott joins a competitive race to replace mcconnell.

john thune and john corwin are also in the running. let's get your assessment of scott's candidacy and who you might dub as the favorite right now. >> probably john thune. to me, he's trying to be a spoiler. you have john thune and john corwin, the only named candidates, current or former leadership, the next man up, if you will. that is very much how the senate used to operate. the next man up, take the next person. but the senate is becoming a lot more like the house, and there is a rump group over there in the senate republican conference who wants dramatic change. they don't want just the next mitch mcconnell in there. rick scott i don't think is ever going to be the republican leader. he is unpopular with a lot of his colleagues. but he is serving, i think, as a spoiler. if there's only two candidates in the race, one of the two of those johns is going to win. you'll need a simple majority. offering a third candidate, i think this group is trying to get leverage, probably trying to get concessions.

there's only 10 or 12 of them who are probably supporting somebody other than one of those two johns, but it could have a big impact. now, the two johns, who are probably the most likely person to get it, are going to have to start dealing and making agreements with some of these people like the john hawleys of the world to win them over. a true little play by their group. i don't think rick scott is ever going to be leader, but it potentially has a significant impact on the race after the election. let's turn to election year politics now. we mentioned earlier, nikki haley yesterday delivered a forceful defense of ukraine, saying that we must supply them with whatever they need to defeat vladimir putin. in the same conversation, she said she'd be voting for donald trump who, of course, made clear he does not particularly support ukraine in its battle against vladimir putin. explain what haley is doing to us, please. >> haley is thinking about herself. haley realizes that there's no future for her in the republican party as a never trumper. she clearly wants to be

president someday. you know, we can spend a lot of time forworrying about what nik haley wants to do with herself. i don't know that this actually matters a whole lot for the general election. we talk a lot about haley voters. people who are voting for nikki haley in these primaries, especially the ones that are over, are not because they love nikki haley. they just don't like donald trump. that's not going to change because nikki haley has said she's going to vote for him. her endorsement doesn't matter a whole lot. i think a lot of those voters are still completely up for grabs. she is doing what is a sort of self-interested political move. i don't know that it really gets her anywhere. she is still very much seen as an anti-trump person, so she's probably doing what makes nobody happy, which is never a great move. but those people are not -- who voted for haley are not going to all of a sudden say, i'm voting for trump because she did. those voters are still in play, and i think biden will be going for them. >> haley continues to pick up a

sizable number of votes in the ongoing republican primaries, though she suspended her candidacy long ago and trump wrapped up the nomination. to what you're saying, the biden campaign made more of an outreach to those voters than trump has. we'll see what happens in the months ahead. brendan buck, msnbc political analyst, thank you, as always. and thanks to all of you for getting up "way too early" on this thursday morning. "morning joe" starts now. >> if he decides he's going to run, would that preclude any run that you would possibly make yourself? >> i would not run if president trump ran. >> i don't put up with bullies, and when you kick back, it hurts them more if you're wearing heels. i'm nikki haley, and i'm running for president. times change, and so has trump. he's gotten more unstable and unhinged. >> biden has been a catastrophe, so i will be voting for trump. >> first, she would not run