"squawk box" begins right now. good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. we are live from the nasdaq market site in times square. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. happy monday. happy new week to you. let's take a look at the u.s. equity futures. not much happening ahead of the opening bell. the dow flat. s&p futures down 5. the nasdaq off 36. last week, the s&p 500 and nasdaq with up. for the s&p, that is three weeks in a row. the dow was slightly down last week. not a lot of movement on friday after the jobs numbers. if you look at the treasury market right now, we are be low 4.2% for the ten-year.

we do get important inflation numbers ahead of the federal reserve meeting next week. in the meantime, we have new date from china. consumer prices rising at the slowest rate in five months climbing 0.2% from a year ago. that was less than half of estimates. producer prices were down for the 26th straight month. overnight, china's leaders pledged more pro-active fiscal measures and looser monetary policy to boost consumption. stocks closed higher in hong kong and internet stocks like alibaba and jd.com are slightly higher. in the meantime, president-elect trump speak to kristen welker. we have more with eamon javers. >> reporter: i think we should start with what he said about

the federal reserve because this was such an interesting answer. welker asked for his reaction to jay powell's reaction if he would step down. here's what trump had to say about that listen. >> they made a great economy for us. they also solve another problem, if we have problems with wars and other things. tariffs. i have stopped wars with tariffs by saying you want to fight, great. both of you will pay tariffs to the united states at 100%. they have many purposes, tariffs, if properly used. >>. >> reporter: that was not him talking about the federal reserve. that was tariffs. the former president asserting tariffs are valuable in reshaping the economy and

broadly with international diplomacy. if he wants to stop a war, he is suggesting, he can use tariffs to force them to go to the negotiating table. this is the president-elect who sees tariffs not just in terms of what they can do in terms of america's trade policy, but foreign policy more broadly. that was a fascinating comment. i think we have the comment about jay powell. there is nuance to this answer. here we go. >> the chairman of the federal reserve jay powell will not leave his post if you ask him to. will you try to replace jay powell? >> no , i don't think so. if i asked him to, he wouldn't. if i told him to, he would. >> you don't have plans to do that right now? >> no, i don't. >> reporter: so you see the former president saying he is asserting he has the authority to push jay powell out of

office. if i told him to go, he would. that is opposite of what jay powell said. he said if he was asked to go, he would not go. he said if i asked him, he would not leave. if i told him, gave him an order, he would leave. the former president asserting he has the power to push the federal reserve chair out, but not saying he is going to do that any time soon. fascinating conversation about executive authority and the fed. we'll see where all of that lands after inauguration next year. back to you. >> thanks, eamon. fascinating interview. >> a lot. >> i'm curious, joe. you have known the president a long time. what do you think of that answer? that he would order him to. i'm not sure he would. i don't understand what was the nuance? >> i think he'll said we'll see. >> he is preserving his options. i'm not going to get committed to then reverse myself on.

>> there are a bunch of answers like that. he used biden joe biden as the . i don't want to commit to this. >> if i change my mind down the road. i was amazed how much ground they covered and how long they talked. that was an extensive, extensive interview. he thought through a lot of things. i don't know if you heard his answer on minimum wage. she pushed him in the 19 states where they voted for you , woul you raise it. he said if you look in california, they raised it and restaurants going out of business. he could talk to the governors because it seems like a low level. it seems there is a difference in cost of living. in mississippi or alabama versus new york or california. it's thoughtful conversation the whole way around. >> he'll probably do what, in my view, would be a lot of good

things. i'm worried about the economy and the stock market. in terms of -- >> how high we are. >> the valuations. >> jpmorgan analyst over the weekend said the trump trade petered out. >> all trades. what was the s&p up this year? 28%? of the year before. valuations are high. >> it is hard to keep track of it. what is the year to date? >> two years ago, we were supposed to have a recession. business cycle is not conquered, obviously. the fed. we will see whether they really did -- very difficult needle to thread through. so far, hopefully it say soft landing and everything works. it was zero for a long time. a lot of bad things happened. we talked about the 40-year bull market in bonds. the worst we get is a move up to

5% on fed funds. hopefully it all happens, but i'd much rather come into -- if i was worried about legacy, i'd much rather come into the market trading at 14 times earnings. potential deal to combine the third and fourth largest ad companies in the world. the wall street journal says onmicom is in advanced talks to buy interpublic to credit ate t largest advertising company. it would eclipse the largest now. the deal is likely an all stock transaction and value inafterpublic at $13 million. and nasdaq has until february to list on the exchange for super micro. the financials are overdue and was in danger of being delisted.

super micro has inform february 5th to file the reports and it expects to meet the deadline. it is a top vendor for nvidia, but it has been under pressure since the short seller accused manipulation and auditor then resigned. the company completed an internal probe that found no evidence of misconduct. you can see the stock with the wild swings. year to date up 67%. if you look on the shorter term over the last two months, you will see the serious down turn and back up until it gets back to 47.54 is the last trade. it looks like the new york mets will win the juan soto sweepstakes. the superstar agreed to the largest contract in sports history. $765 million for 15 years with no deferred money. 26 years old. he can opt out following the 2029 season if the mets don't

increase his salary from 51 to $55 million over the last ten years of the deal. that would put the total value of the contract at $800 million. last december, ohtani signed a ten-year $700 million contract and people that have wanted one of the richest guys around -- >> tie it back to us. nobody would out bid him. >> steve cohen. the mets had a good year last year and did better than most people thought. this could -- he was a game changer for the yankees. i don't know what you do with the yankees. they made it. >> ohtani played well, but he wasn't the superstar of world series. >> right. >> sometimes big contracts payoff ands sometimes they don't. >> i'm happy he's staying in new york. we watch him every day. when we come back, a lot more on squawk.

turmoil in syria after they overflow the al assad regime. we will talk to mike at chael f. and later, we get you ready for the inflation data and the former boss fed president eric rosengren. that's a conversation you will not want to miss. we're coming right back.

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welcome back. rebel forces topple the syrian regime for bashar al assad. what comes next in the middle east? we have michael froma n. i want o thank you for joining us. it has been a wild 72 hours. tell us what you think has just happened and more importantly, what it actually means. >> that's for sure, an incredible period of time here. first of all, it is a big loss for russia and hezbollah. to see how quickly it collapsed and demonstrates the ability p supporting them and going forward now, iran cannot supply hezbollah through syria. hezbollah is more isolated. iran loses access to the mediterranean. russia has two bases in syria.

it is unclear the position of the bases are and it is a reflection of how much israel has degraded hezbollah and weakened iran and led to the success of the rebels. having said that, andrew, it is not time to break out the champagne. hts has roots in al qaeda and the u.s. bounty on his head. he has been sending signals of distancing and he is open to tore rant to syria's communities. christians and jews and sunni communities. he is trying to demonstrate that he shouldn't be a worry to the neighboring parties. having an islamist state on the border of israel and taking over a significant country like syria is something that all of the parties in the region will be looking to and looking at very carefully. >> ambassador, what happens to

syria next? but the real question is if you believe that for example iran is exposed in some way, how does that change the dynamic in the middle east as it relates to the united states and israel? there are so many different cross currents to the story. >> this is certainly a weakening, further weakening of iran right now. it lost a major ally there. they lost capacity to support their proxies in syria and, of course, hezbollah, in lebanon as well. serious weakening there. the u.s. perspective, the u.s. has 900 troops in syria keeping an eye on isis. u.s. is concerned about thevacu. you saw they struck targets over

the weekend. israel struck capabilities. there is a security issue that could arise with all of the chaos going on in syria right now. >> what happens to syria next though? itself? >> the answer is nobody knows. hts is there in charge. we will see if it is able to consolidate its powers. supported by the syrian national army supported by turkey as well. it seems to be in the position to establish order there. what kind of order that will be whether it will be a tolerance society or lead to refugee flows out of syria or humanitarian crisis. those are all issues that the u.s. and others are very much focused on. you saw israel with troops in the buffer zone to send a signal this is not an opportunity for forces to take advantage of the forces in the country to take

advantage of israel. it is unclear at this point. we can look back, andrew, at the history of the arab spring. egypt ended up with strong men with countries like libya and yemen ended up with internal civil wars. it is unclear when things are so dynamic what the medium or long-term disposition of syria could be. >> if he has a u.s. bounty on his ead, what does that mean with how the u.s. deal was that group? >> great question, becky. it's unclear. he is sending signals and an interview cnn that he is a different person than he was associated with al qaeda and the person that the u.s. put the bounty on his head. we have to look at his words and deeds.

the way he treat d people in syria and allows for multiculture and religious society to exist and if he is able to relieve the oppressive regime that al assad put in place in 2011. >> what do you think this does to the strength of bebe netanyahu? >> i think this is another indication that the attack on hezbollah and weakening of hezbollah has been -- has been successful. has been a positive in terms of netanyahu's strategy and if the cease-fire in lebanon holds, you have a much weakened hezbollah and much isolated from their iranian supporters. it is probably a positive for him. >> ambassador froman, you can think a lot of times when the strong man was taken out and

vacuum of power. nobody wanted saddam hussein. is there a positive turn of events after a strong man was taken out? >> that's a good question. >> very good question. we are not likely to see a jeffersonian democracy. each country is different. you know, the end of the cold war, you had strong men taken out of eastern europe and, of course, that led to with a lot of outside support and western integration led to a positive situation. >> ambassador, we will leave the conversation . we appreciate you joining us. >> thanks for having me. tiktok is one step closer to a ban in the u.s. after the federal court upheld the law forcing a sale or shutdown. details are next. check out shares of macy's. higher in the pre-market.

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bioscience has partnered with a global pharmaceutical company. invest in the future with lexaria bioscience. tiktok is one step closer to being banned in the united states. on friday, a panel of federal judges unanimously upheld the law to shut the app down by mid-january. the law requires the chinese owner to sell the app or face a ban in the united states. tiktok has said a le is impossible because it would be

blocked by the china government. tiktok plans to appeal to the u.s. supreme court. not a coincidence the day of the deadline is january 19th. inauguration day is january 20th. that has a lot at play, too. chinese billionaire jack ma appearing at the 20th anniversary event of ant. ma's speech addressed the next 20 years of the fintech company. chinese authorities ordered an overhaul of the business model. the company reorganizationed units and expanded businesses with a.i. powered products both in dining and ride hailing and healthcare. jack ma went underground and there has been a lot of questions why he did so. to see him pop up like this. >> we have seen him, but i haven't heard him speak.

he spoke to a student group at one point. we haven't heard him speak to issues. when we come back, new rules following the deadly florida condo complex in 2021 having a big i believe mpact on the ket. as we head to break, bitcoin is at $98,395. "squawk box" will be right back. >> announcer: executive edge is sponsored by at&t business. next level moments need the next level network. that's right craig. pulling in the perfect team to get the job done. i'm just here for the internets. at&t, it's super-fast! you locked us out?! and when thrown a curveball... arrggghh! ahhhh! [crashing sounds] we had everything we needed. is the internet out? don't worry, we have at&t internet back-up. the next level network for small business.

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good morning. welcome back to "squawk box." live from the nasdaq market site in times square. checking the futures. nasdaq down 29 points. not a lot happening so far in the pre-market. after the deadly florida condo minimum in florida in 2021. condos were expected to do inspections and gather reserves for future repairs. the deadline is the end of the month. the rules are having a huge impact on the market and prices.

diana olick is joining us now with more on this. who is happening, diana? >> becky, as the inspections are being done, costs are in the millions of dollars. owners are on the hook. 1 million units fall under the new rules. some owners are hoping to sell and others are walking away and others are looking to investors to bail them out. long time florida real estate analyst calls it the condo cliff. >> this is effectively compared to the great recession which is zombie buildings. these are the units where a small minority will bear the cross or pay for everyone else who is not able to pay, whether they can't or choose not to pay. >> in south florida, miami-dade and broward, three quarters of condos for sale are 30 years old and subject to the rules.

in the busy summer season this year, sales were down 21.5% year over year. the average price down 2.4% in q3. active listings were up 60%. the agent in miami who says the pool of buyers is limited. you either have to pay assessments first or slash the price. there is another exit. >> building behind me has been agreed to sell to a large investor to tear down the building and put luxury waterfront property. short sales may happen. i haven't seen many yet because investors are buying out the buildings they feel are in a desirable location. >> the prices were only down 2% in the summer season, it was only in september that the area started to get bombarded with information about what was coming and a lot of buyer

regret. >> it sounds like things could get worse before better? >> that's why he is calling it a cliff when the new rules go into effect and people see the bills. a lot of folks are retirees and can't afford it. >> if you are in a condo and some people don't pay for it, you have to pay more for it? how does that work? >> lawyers will be busy. >> then i would think other buyers come in and buys out of bankruptcy. aren't they hit with the assessment? it's free and clear to everybody else? it will wash out an entire building. >> it will wash out buildings. that's why you see the investors come in right now. they don't want the building, they want the property. >> sorry to see it. you know there are a lot of retirees there. people who saved their lives to get into the position. >> yeah. >> it seems bad news. no hope for any other respite?

>> there are rules now to pay over 30 years and lenders now doing special loans to help people out. the vast majority in the older buildings are retirees. they saved up and budgeted for this amount and now hit with hundreds of thousands of dollars. >> buyer beware with condos. >> always. >> diana, thank you. coming up, latest on the manhunt for the suspect in the murder of united health executive in manhattan last week. we'll talk to kathy wylde from the partnership for new york city. reminder, you can get the best of "squawk box" with your favorite podcast app. listen anytime. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ whether your phone's broken or old, we've got you. with verizon, anyone can trade in any phone, any condition. for a limited time, get iphone 16 pro with apple intelligence, on us.

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the waters to look for the gun in the murder of brian thompson. two photos of interest were released. this time taken in a taxicab by a surveillance system. they now believe he left new york city through a bus station near the george washington bridge. joining us now is kathy wylde of new york. i don't know how far it gets us. this was only last wednesday. i'm certain they do call it the long arm of the law for a reason because it can reach all the way across the globe, the long arm, and it frequently does. we'll get this guy. what is the bigger message for business leaders to you think? >> well, i think the message is quite frightening because i have

heard of two incidents just over the weekend where ceos have received one anthrax and one package threatened to be a bomb with the same language of defend and depose. >> was this an insurance industry? >> no. two different industries. >> is it just across the board? i guess it can be -- occupy wall street -- i'm not saying it is the same thing. the big business and corporations. is it generic? >> i'm afraid it is. it's coming from the far left, far right, populist movement. executives are vulnerable. people are calling for greater civic engagement from the business community. this is pushing it in the opposite direction.

nobody wants to feel this vulnerable and the reaction, the immediate reaction to the shooting of brian thompson from the internet, from the hate and hate speech that came out which always is a precedent to violence, was -- it was almost worse than the killing. >> we have seen social media is basically can be as bad as graffiti because it is anonymous. the entire threshold for what is acceptable and not has been lowered in recent years. to actually act on it, that's one step beyond. i was going to say do you think politicians need to worry? obviously, there are true attempts on president-elect trump's life already. when it moves to a slightly different arena, in this case, a business executive, shouldn't be surprising. if you are trying to take out a

politician and i don't know where it goes from there. no one is safe. >> i think your point about the assassination attempts on the president is very much a precedent. it actually -- i think it does transfer over. once you've seen that happen, anything goes. >> it's like i'm so mad, i'm justified. >> exactly. i think, i think the point here is i really think president-elect trump is the only one that can do anything about this level. he has to turn this around. he is very good at messaging to people, we feel, angry and frustrated and left out of the financial success of the country, whatever. whatever motivated this, i think he's the only one who can turn this around. i think we ought to be asking him to come forward quickly with strong messaging. >> do we need the security

industry to start ranking which companies are ripe for this? i would imagine, i could see -- i don't want to give any ideas. >> that's already happening. >> it could be generic. anyone who gets paid $20 million a year you could be mad at, i guess. >> you mentioned it. it started in the financial crisis and with the occupy wall street. it goes back to -- it goes back to that, but that was mostly rhetorical with sometimes trashing of bank atm areas. defecating in atms, et cetera. that started 20 years ago. it's been a gradual increase. now a lot of it was over fossil fuel use and environment and on the financial industry. >> i forgot about that.

>> banks with the deal with the fossil fuel activity have had violent protests. you remember last summer with fist fights outside of citibank. >> most executives, ceos and the like, walk around new york with no security. i see some of them on the subway. i wonder whether this creates a meaningful chilling effect on that. >> absolutely this is a chilling effect. this is shocking. you know, at first when it came out, the mayor called me and said that morning and said let your people know this was random. this was not random. this was not random. this was a targeted shooting. that made people feel better for five minutes. as soon as it came out it wasn't

personal -- >> we were all hoping it was a family dynamic. >> exactly. when it wasn't personal, but an attack on somebody because of their job, then all of a sudden, it changes everything. >> we still don't know what this was. if i was doing a personal attack on somebody, i might do this, too. it doesn't matter in the end because what it has unleashed. i have been shocked following on social media how angry people are and try to justify what has happened as a result. i didn't know about the two other incidents that you mentioned over the weekend. >> they are not public. >> they have not been public yet. actions taken place against corporate leaders here in new york city that look like copycat type of issues. >> yes. and institutions with a bunch of leaders last week on friday morning and they had to turn off their social media channels

because they're being deluged with threats. people who are involved may think this is a game or funny. it's not. this is a real threat to our country's economy. >> we have seen insurance companies in particular remove their executives' profiles and pictures from their web sites. other companies doing similar things? >> yes, across the board. it's very serious. being taken very seriously in every industry. there is an angle by which one can get mad at any company. >> right. so do you think security firms are like, i'd like to help you, but we're already totally committed? i bet that's happening, uldn't you think? >> i think security firms and consultants are hiring up. >> yes. >> i think that the additional

burden on law enforcement is another piece we have to think about because we in law enforcement has been under pressure, but they have seen great attrition in their ranks because of defund the police movement and negativity of law enforcement. all of a sudden, the need to reverse that course and up our support for law enforcement is really serious. >> i have seen postings on social media people calling for a return of giuliani era or bill bratton. >> i think we have to start with the hate and mostly it is anti-semitism take a great jump. i think i heard somebody from a foundation describe this as the decline of our civil institutions and our churches. that we just don't -- we are

normalizing behavior that we used to have institutions that taught us was improper. so, it's scary. i even was with city council member on friday who said her office is flooded with hate mail and hate email and fears. if i speak out in support of a position or a politician, i support congestion pricing for example -- >> an area. >> i will get hate mail. >> you see that crazy lady? >> anonymous hate mail. >> this is a lesson we have to be much more civilized. i disagree with you, but i hope we didn't spark things to send people after you. >> no, it was happening before you. >> that's horrible. we can all have differents dif

opinions. >> it is amazing. they get your email. we're complete strangers. why do you think it okay? >> even on social media. you know it is their actual account and know who they are. >> it's shocking. >> it's translated into a real what constitutes a real threat. we have to dial it back. >> unfortunately, that would be the next step. i didn't know it was the next step would be taken. we're in the process of that. >> i think the only one who can really change this tone has to start from the top. i think president-elect trump is somebody as a victim of the assassination attempt is in a good position to use the power that he has to change this. i haven't heard that he's spoken on this yet. i have heard that he has spoken with the family and the company.

now i really think it's time for him to go public. >> thank you, kathy. i appreciate it. >> thanks. we have breaking news this morning. now on nvidia. chinese market regulator saying it is opened an investigation into the company over suspected violation of the company's anti-monopoly law. no details were immediately available. take a look at the stock. it is off 2% right now. i don't want to say it is fully on the back of the news. nonetheless, folks will be watching that and we will see where things head in china. there has been throttling with the chips sold in china to begin with. we'll dig into it and try to bring you more as we get it. when we come back, shares of hello fresh are under pressure. we'll explain why right after in.

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take a few minutes to check in with the women in your life today. ariana: because together we're stronger. elphaba: i am. welcome back to "squawk box." shares of hello fresh, take a look at this, falling in a big way. about 8.5% right now. abc news reported the company is under version investigation by r department. the report says at least six teenagers were found working in the facility in illinois this summer. the german owned company telling abc they were deeply troubled to learn of the allegations mid made against a temporary staffing agency.

nonetheless, the stock moving down and questions arising. again, something we have to watch. when we come back, key inflation data is due later this week ahead of the fed's december meeting next week. the squawk planner is up next. later, steve liesman on why the surge in crypto prices are having an effect on consumer spending. "squawk box" will be right back. h the same way, you have... the fearless investor. the type a cpa. the boot strapper. the boot maker. hee-ha. but many do have something in common. we all trust schwab with our wealth. thanks to our award-winning service, low costs and transparent advice, every day, over a million multi-millionaires, trust schwab with more than three trillion dollars of their wealth. ♪♪

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fed meeting. obviously, the markets will be watching closely. it is a light week for earnings. oracle is reporting after the closing bell. adobe on wednesday and costco on thursday. joining us now is stephanie link from hightower. stephanie, let's start with this news that we're hearing again. we've only heard this in the last ten minutes or so. headlines that china is investigating nvidia over what they say is suspected violation of anti-monopoly law. individuals nvidia shares down 2%. do they even sell chips to china? they do. in the july quarter, they sold 12% of their revenue, $3.7 billion, accounted for sales in china. what do you think of this news? >> i think we just have to get ready and get used to this kind

of of thing, right? the u.s. barred any companies of chips to china. those companies have almost 30% of revenues to hinese companies. you can see why they fell. 12% is probably manageable, becky. we have to get used to this. this is back and forth. that's one of the reasons why, i think, the semiconductors have actually paused. nvidia and broadcom have been the stellars, they have been the standouts. i think they will be the long term winners for years and years to come. i do think they had a nice run and overall, semiconductors in the last couple years, a nice run. i 't be surprised to see volatility. maybe they will pause. you see money go out of semis and into software. >> i guess that raises the question of so many companies with big business and reliant

china for manufacturing, whether that is apple or starbucks or nike. a lot of those companies are trying to move manufacturing or expanding their reach. it is not an overnight process. do you sell those stocks as a result of what you are seeing this morning? >> i don't think you sell those stocks, but i am glad to see over the last four years that these companies have actually been moving their businesses out of china and around the world. one of the reasons i like india so much is i think they are an absolute beneficiary of this thing that's happening. also, we've seen and we have been talking about re-shoring and on-shoring here in the united states. that is alive and well and a very, very powerful theme, i think, becky, for the next decade to come. we're going to spend $4 trillion on the energy transition wave, if you will, between now and 2050. i think is all part of that trying to get supply chains here and so that companies can

diversify and not be in the position they were in when we saw covid. >> all right. steph, let me ask you, tesla may be a very unique company in this whole mix just because of elon musk's close ties to president company in this whole mix just because of elon musk's close ties to president trump. can he walk this line because china's not going to want to aggravate someone who is so close to incoming president trump at this point? >> yeah. i think that's the biggest question. we'll have to see. we'll have to wait and see. certainly just by reaction of the stock price, since the election, i think people believe that he can. >> all right. let's shift gears and talk a little bit about the inflation numbers we're going to get this week. we mentioned cpi on wednesday. the producer prices me on thursday, and this is all ahead of that fed meeting next week. it's hard to think we're not

going to get a cut next week when the fed meets just because that's been kind of programmed in, but if there was a really strong inflation number, i guess that could change minds. >> for sure. i think we're all watching the numbers this week. it'll be very important, but i think we have to just step back and see if inflation is a little bit higher than expected. it's because growth is a little bit higher than expected. we grew 3.4% gdp last year, becky. we are on track according to the atlanta fed tracker right now in this quarter at 3.3 %. the consumer has stayed in and hung in ing is starting to turn. that's a theme in itself, but if the rest of manufacturing which has been in a recession, if that can get legs, that could be a positive. we factored in numbers last week because they are in improvement. still seeing a contraction, but seeing an improvement. we saw existing home sales up 2.9% last month year of year.

i think economy is doing better. if that means inflation is a little higher from an investment point of view, i would rather better growth and a little bit of higher inflation because profits can go higher as a result, and that's what i care about from the investing side. >> very quickly, we started the show with jpmorgan. they said maybe the trump trade is running thin because we've seen so much movement, because valuations are so high. do you agree with that or not? because the growth story you're talking about is clearly motivating. >> it is, and honestly, you know, trump is -- he is inheriting a strong economy, and i think that he will -- his lower regulation, lower taxes, i think that will lead to continued strong growth. do we see an acceleration from 3.3%? i don't think so, but even if we were at 2.5%, 3%, that's above trend and that is positive. >> stephanie, thank you. >> thanks. it is just about 7:00 a.m.,

7:02 on the east coast. i'm andrew ros sorkin. we had a great weekend and we have a lot of news this morning. we are monitoring a developing story in syria after rebels captured its capitalsy to have damascus toppling the regime. baa shar al assad fled. we'll have a lot more on the region. in the meantime, the fbi now offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the killing of unitedhealthcare executive brian thompson. new york city police released some new photos now of the man wanted for questioning in the case in what appears to be a taxi. authorities believe the gunman left new york city by bus soon after wednesday's shooting. and apple expected to release the latest ios 18 software update early this week which will include the first wave of apple intelligence a.i.

features for the iphone 15 and 16. apple intelligence making it possible to use generative a.i. for things for texts, proofreading, summarizing, and also will be able to forward questions to chatgpt. just in time for the holidays, santa has delivered a huge increase in crypto values. steve liesman retired at the kennedy center. steve joins us now with more. >> no, i did not get the invitation, but of course, i'm excited that we're honored of course. >> mud crushers is next, your brand. >> yeah. we're -- we're on the way, joe, but let me talk about this crypto christmas idea. for some americans, especially younger ones, it's shaping up to be a crypto christmas. the huge surge in the value of

crypto has led to a holiday windfall that is expecting potentially much more to come. bitpay, it converts crypto to dollars for sellers and buyers say they've seen a 9% growth in transactions in november compared to a year ago. that's following the surge in the value of crypto, but they say the real spending boom often happens months after crypto goes up in value. here's some of the category gains that they've seen. philanthropy, actually up 1,200%. people choosing to use crypto to make those donations. gold and precious metals is up 125% as they put those crypto gains into sort of other assets. apparel and fashion up, consumer goods. luxury goods up and jewelry up 26%, and then gift cards, another thing that crypto owners do, basically put it and make it into dollars. the vice president for bitpay telling me, we are still very early, but we're already seeing increased engagement as a result

of this historic bull run. according to coin gecko, the value of cryptocurrencies worldwide, up year to date, but $1.2 trillion is coming just the past month. so it's impossible to know how much of this is in the u.s. and how much will be spent, but a recent fdic paper found that the marginal propence sity to consu from crypto wealth is higher than the gains in other wealth. that's up in real estate too. one key to how much is spent is who owns it. it's peer research, 17% of americans own crypto, but it's 29% for those 18 to 29, and 25% for 30 to 49-year-olds. just 8% for those 50 -- over 50. younger people have that higher propensity than older ones. the crypto gains are in the accounts of people who are more likely to be spending it. diane swonk tells me, we're talking about a staggering amount of wealth.

you don't need much to have it move the needle on consumer spending. this raises the question. should the fed be thinking about the impact of crypto on growth and inflation? they might be thinking about it, but right now crypto is not considered a financial asset, so the fed does not have an updated measure of crypto wealth, joe, so we talked about it on friday. the possibility of some impact on consumption, but they don't have an ongoing measurement. >> it's a big leap to go from holding crypto to actually using it to buy things or even, you know, if you are in -- if you are lucky enough to be in, because -- can you see people buying a new bitcoin? i mean, i guess they are at $98.05 $985,000 or $100,000, that's big to buy bitcoin, and i don't know

if you've done the math. the person that bought the pizza 15 years ago using bitcoin or whenever it was, what is that now worth? it was probably a $20 piz czar, -- pizza, and i wouldn't venture -- >> maybe the most expensive pizza of all-time. >> 10,000 bitcoins. >> he remembers 10,000 bitcoins which is 10,000 -- 100,000 -- i need scientific annotation to that out. >> yeah. >> 10,000, 100,000. >> i have to tell you this. among the things that i've read here is if this fdic paper finds -- when they find concentrations of ownership in a particular county, they see an increase in the value of real

estate that looks to be linked to it. one of the interesting things happening is the crypto owners are not necessarily taking their crypto holdings and buying pizzas as in things that go away. they're kind of trying to convert them into tangible assets. first of all, we saw that big increase in charity. so if you are going to give, i guess the idea is you might as well give the bitcoin rather than convert to dollars, but the other thing is few look at that chart again, gold was a big number there. people were buying watches with it, and this real estate thing is really potentially interesting. >> well, it still as you said, it's still such a low percentage of america that the day might come when you're thinking about selling other things to go into a hard asset called bitcoin. that's the weird thing. right now you're -- you're talking about people that are worried about, well, this could be fleeting. i i want to put it into something that will last. it's stiller. >> i want to give you this.

we have our all-america survey coming out later this week and we asked a couple of questions about bitcoin including the question -- and i'm interested in your answer to this. would you take your salary in bitcoin? >> mayor adams was bragging about having done that. yes, i would have done that three years ago for sure. i wish i would have. now, i don't know. >> just an update, the 10,000 bitcoins -- they got two pizzas. >> oh. $50 million a pizza. were they loaded? >> that i'm unclear about. >> were they meat eaters? >> sausage on it? >> meat eaters. >>. >> pepperoni? >> and gold flakes. >> gold flakes. that's it. >> a hamburger with gold flakes. >> a gimmick. >> doesn't taste like anything. >> have yourselves a crypto merry christmas, guys. >> thanks. all right.

coming up, bruce ratner penning a new op-ed that's titled "when profits trump patients," he is going to join us right after this break to talk about it. plus, the latest out of syria after rebels captured damascus, toppling the assad regime. "squawk box" will be right back.

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ratner. he is former new york city real estate developer and founder of the michael d. ratner center for early detection of cancer. his latest book that he's been here to talk about with us in the past is "early detection." in it he argues for early and more equitable cancer screening and thank you so much for being here today. >> thank you for having me here. >> i want to set the state ge j by saying how much anger has really broken out after the killing last week of the unitedhealthcare ceo. there's been stuff on social media and other places, even protesters and demonstrations in the street where they were dressing up, a look alike contest to look like the shooter. it has been terrible. we don't want to spread any sort of animus and, you know, violence that would come from these things, but you are someone who knows the health care system very well. you've written an op-ed that hasn't been published yet, but digs into some of the issues and

the frustrations that come out with insurance companies. why don't you talk a little bit about that, and what you've laid out in this op-ed is that the insurance industry is not winning fans because their denial processes have really ratcheted up. what have you seen? >> so, the denial process has ratcheted up, and you know, i used to go to places and speak and say, we're all in the same boat. we have all had family members who have had kanser cancer and . i talked to employees. each one of them has had family denials of claims, and so just as cancer is frequent, denials are frequent, and honestly when you look at unitedhealthcare as a company, it has probably more allegations of denial, wrongful denials than almost any other company, and, in fact, they have 1 of every 7 claims is denied and only one-tenth of a percent

gets appealed. if you look at the obamacare thing, it's almost impossible to go through. people wind up either leaving a facility before they should or somehow mortgaging their home to pay for what the denial was supposed to pay for. it's horrible. the allegations, as i read about more of them, you know, over the last few days, it's just extraordinary. it's got to be reformed. it's not only unitedhealthcare. it's all the insurance companies. in fact, they use as you probably know, a computer. they use a.i. they bought a company -- >> united does? >> unitedhealthcare did. and that software was originally designed by cardinal health for the opposite reason to try and figure out how long people ought to stay, to how long aftercare should be done, when it was bought by united health, it was turned into a denial claim as far as i'm concerned. someone who goes over claims for denials. >> there's a lawsuit that alleges this. there was a separate study by

stat health that backed up a study that backed up some of those claims. i think it's still beinged a you kated, but it helped some of the highest denials in service in the industry. i guess the question becomes what caused this? what got us to this point and how do we fix it? >> what caused it? >> how do you fix it? >> what caused it is profits and a lot of the testimony that you've heard lready about -- about unitedhealthcare is that profits before patients, and that's the problem, and you have to -- when unitedhealthcare's claims -- they started allowing more claims, their stock went down 8%. so this is an issue of profits, and they have to keep profits up to keep stock up. >> unitedhealthcare is one of the private insurers that obamacare uses in exchange of private insurance. when you expand through

obamacare the demand across the board for all insurance products, and the supply stays the same, this is exactly what was to be expected. i handed you this. i guess you didn't get a chance to read it, but there is a case to be made that -- there has always been a profit incentive for private corporations. >> yes. >> to just simply say it's because of profit and it would be solved by removing the profit incentive, it would be even worse without the profit incentive. >> i'm not suggesting that. i'm not suggesting that. >> the thrust of this editorial is this can be tied almost singly back to obamacare. >> yeah. so what has to be done -- look. the answer is we have a capitalist system which works very well in many, many ways, and the case of this obviously patient denials means for profits. so we can't do very much about that. >> we've seen what's happened in the uk with national -- we know

what happens up in canada. by taking away the profit incentive doesn't solve things. >> i wasn't suggesting that. >> but demand stays where it is, and -- >> so we have to change the rules. for example, a denial. it is impossible -- only one-tenths of percent of people who get denied actually appeal it. the appeal process as i read it is incredible. the appeal process has to be made very, very simple. >> let's say you go to not denying anything. we're now spending $2 trillion more per year than we were in 2010. if you go across the board and not deny anything -- >> nobody's saying that. you are saying that. >> no, but a government-run entity, if you don't -- you know what you're going to get. you're going to get taxes and subsidies. >> i don't think that's what i said. i said we ought to change the appeal system number one to make it very, very simple. the number of documents that you have to supply for -- why is there only one-tenth percent of

appeals? that is because it isn't obamacare. the appeal process is incredible. that's issue number one. >> a lot of times when you're denied service, they don't tell you why. it's very confusing. >> correct. >> it's hard trying to figure out why you're not getting service. you're trying to get through the bureaucracy and red tape. unitedhealthcare is not here to defend themselves to talk about this. i'm sure the company would push back on this, and i point out that andy witty, who is the ceo of unitedhealthcare overall t larger, broader umbrella group made comments and he put out a video saying that, in part, we guard against the pressures that exist for unsafe care or for unnecessary care. that got huge pushback online from some of the things. >> that wasn't expected to get out. it was not the best kind of words to use, but i'll give you an example of what ought to be done. we ought to publish denial states and a couple of state dos that for health care companies so we can choose in a capitalist system, we can choose who we want to use for our health care insurance based on denials.

so there ought to be -- some people -- >> it's the state right now. the question is do you think there should be federal regulation that controls this? what's the agency that's supposed to do it and how is it supposed to work? >> it would probably require an act of congress to do that. to require that, in fact, you have to post or you have to disclose your denial rates. >> right. >> it can be done by the states. i don't think it's likely to be done by the congress, frankly, and so it's got to be done state by state. there are only a couple of states that do it and haven't been in the disclosure world. that's the right way to do it. it goes back to your system, joe. it's the correct kind of system. you need something against the other side, and the other side would be publishing denial rates so that we choose our company based on denial rates, and that makes the companies work very hard to be competitive just in a capitalist way. so that would be a major, major

innovation. >> we reported last week that anthem blue cross blue shield rolled back a new policy that they were putting out in three states including pennsylvania and new york that was going to stop paying for anaesthesia when surgery went past a certain time limit or what was the anticipated time limit. now they rolled it back and said that people were not understanding what that policy was going to do, but as somebody who's seen a lot of experience in the field -- i anesthesiologists who are bilking the system, but why do it in that way? why say there are three esthesiologists in the state that account for more billing than anybody else? why not target them? >> those should be compared by state health departments so we can see who are the outliers. using a.i. in the way that united health uses it, which is through claim denial, and 90% -- i repeat that. 90% of the time when there's

appeal, they get overturned. that's an extraordinary number. that means something's wrong. so 1 out of 7 gets denied, but it's almost impossible to appeal. whatdy before what i did, i looked at what is required for an appeal. the amount of paperwork and the appeal process doesn't work. >> especially when you are a sick person. >> and the idea that an a.i. machine can overrule what a physician sees is not correct, and that's what happens right now, especially an a.i. machine that is not transparent. we do not know what's in the black box that unitedhealthcare has for their a.i. machine. we ought to know what the criteria are. it was not done originally. that a.i. was not done originally for denying claim or claim review. it was created for more and better health care and they haven't used it for that. >> your idea on transparency is certainly the key. we didn't get through half of

what i wanted to talk about. i hope you'll come back. >> i'm happy to come back. >> do we know what president-elect trump -- he says he wants to replace obamacare. do we know -- >> no. he says he has a plan or concepts of a plan, but we don't know what that looks like. >> what does it look like? we've talked about the drawbacks from a profit incentive and profit in the insurance industry and we can list endless drawbacks from single payer or from, you know, canada. you. you may never see a specialist -- >> he hinted at it over the weekend. he asked about it. he said concepts of a plan, but he did point out the middleman and said, look. the drug companies aren't getting all of the money from that. if you are pointing at the middleman and looking at that, you're talking about the pharmacy benefits managers and that's one area -- >> yeah. >> that's one area where democrats and republicans can agree on. >> we're spending $2 trillion more since 2010 and the outcome

is worse. something is broken. >> look, and we have a health care system which is fragmented, which doesn't work very well, which has -- look at how many insurance companies you have. look how many health departments you have in this country. look at how many different associations you have. we have a fragmented system state by state, which is very hard to fix. >> now we have a kennedy working on the board. so we have that going for us. or might have a kennedy -- might have a kennedy. >> we're all showing our politics, whatever they are. when we come back, a lot more right here on "squawk box." the 50-year-old assad dynasty collapsing over the weekend in syria. israel striking, suspecting chemical weapons sites in order to prevent them from falling into the hands of hostile actors. we'll bring you the deiltas of that, and president-elect trump on how he plans to follow through on his campaign promises. mick mulvaney and donna edwards will us with that reaction. all that and more after the break. sible ai doesn't make you a rock star.

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♪ rebels in syria captured its

capital city of damascus, toppling the assad regime that has ruled for generations, and ousted president bashar al assad who fled the country and has arrived in moscow where he and his family have been offered asylum. nbc's raf sanchez joins us now with more. good day, i'll say to you this morning from here, raf. >> reporter: good morning. we are on the israeli-controlled side of the golan heights. we are looking out over southern syria. damascus is just over the horizon there, and 48 hours ago, president bashar al assad was in control in the syrian capital as the family has been for more than 50 years, but today as you say, it's a new day in syria. it is a new day in the middle east. assad has fled to moscow, and it is now a coalition of rebel groups that are in charge in damascus. the largest of them is an

islamist group. this is a group that has its origins in al qaeda. it is still considered a terrorist organization by the united states, but it is working very hard to try to show the people of syria and the world that has moderate. there will be no persecution of minority groups, christians, or shia. there will be no restrictions on women in this new syria, and it is insisting that it will govern for all syrians. now president biden saying that this is a moment of risk and opportunity, and that the united states will judge these rebels by their actions, that the u.s. is prepared to engage with them, but at this point, it is not willing to remove that terrorist designation. i can tell you guys, israel is not waiting around. they are acting very, very assertively as this new reality takes shape in syria. israeli forces have been

deploying just over that border into syria itself. they are saying that that is a temporary measure given the instability there, that they are determined not to let the conflict in syria spill over into israeli-controlled territory, and over the weekend, israel carrying out a series of air strikes on chemical weapons, biological weapons, ballistic missile sites in syria that had belonged to the assad regime. israel says it is absolutely determined not to allow those strategic weapons to fall into the hands of terror organizations, and that is why it is acting decisively right now. guys? >> nobody knows, i guess, raf. the notion that this does turn into some type of theocracy or islamic republic, i think -- in the past, can we at face value, take what these individuals, what they're saying now at this point, on what kind of country they plan on having?

can you take that at face value? it seems like it never plays out that way when push comes to shove. >> reporter: yeah, joe. in some ways, this is kind of an interesting experimental rerun of the arab spring from 2011, you know, the uprising against assad began again peacefully. assad crushed it brutally, and here we are 13 years later and it has led to his overthrow. there are not many positive exam. examples of, you know, states in the region where you had these uprising and it's led to peace, prosperity, and democracy. the question is can these syrian rebels bring anything like this to this country that has been so devastated by 13 years of war? more than 14,000 people killed. i can tell you, joe, just judging by what they are saying, the rebels are giving indications that they want good relations with their neighbors,

with lebanon, with jordan, with turkey. they aren't talking a lot about israel at this point. ideologically, these are not groups that are fans of israel, and they're not a million miles off of here. you have israelism and nationalism fused together, but their priority at this point seems to be consolidating power inside of syria, taking over the institutions of the state, and it is worth saying that, you know, this is a group that is different from isis. you have american forces still in the eastern half of syria. they're an area controlled by kurdish forces, and those american military operations against isis continuing yesterday, even as this political chaos was taking place in the syrian capital. guys? >> it would be nice if it was the enemy of my enemy because iran is certainly losing here, but it's -- it's not that simple, but maybe we can hope for some type of arab spring

moment. maybe, you know, hope springs eternal, raf. thank you. appreciate your time. in the nt exhour, we'll speak to palantir head of defense, mike gallagher about the situation in syria. much more "squawk box." we'll be right back. the places we cheer. trust. hang out. and check in. they all choose the advanced network solutions and round the clock partnership from comcast business. powering more businesses than anyone. powering possibilities.

♪ we've got news of a megadeal now being struck in the ad industry, and it is official. omnicom is creating a group for what would be the biggest advertising company. it's shared as a stock swap sharing a little over 60% of the combined company. interpublic valued at $13 billion. overall madison avenue has changed so very, very much. >> this is probably something they see as necessity. when you see beg companies like a google, meta all of them drawing money away from the old advertising agencies, a.i. is promising new tools that will do

the same. they probably figured they have to get better to -- bigger and better to compete with those big tech behemoths that have been doing this for a while, but a.i. pushes this over the edge. >> interesting to see how that goes. >> i would think they could make the arg ument it's a different industry. when we come back, presidt-ecenelt trump laying out how he plans to follow through with his promises. mick mulvaney and donna edwards will join us with reaction. "squawk box" will be right back.

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welcome back to "squawk box" this morning. president-elect donald trump joining "meet the press" on sunday to detail sweeping changes that he plans to carry out as soon as he takes office in january including tariffs. >> they made a great economy for us. they also solve and the problem -- we were going to have problems having to do with wars and having to do with other things. tariffs -- i have stopped wars with tariffs by saying, you guys want to fight, that's great, but both of you are going to pay tariffs to the united states at 100%, and they have many

purposes, tariffs. if properly used. >> joining us now to break down the interview, mick mulvaney. he is the cochair of advisers and we have congresswoman donna edwards. donna, i want to start with you because i was struck by a couple of things in this interview, but particularly i was struck by both the measured tone of president-elect trump and the nuance around a lot of his answers which were very much in line actually with what jeff bezos had said last week in terms of how he was thinking about this president, and i was curious if you had the same reaction or not. >> well, i mean, there may have been nuance around some things, but the reality is that on the, you know, real touch stone issues, there was no nuance at all. i think he was incredibly clear what he came to -- his plans were mass deportation, for tariffs, some areas of foreign

policy. he could not have been clearer and, in fact, with some of these issues, he really doubled down. even on immigration, challenging the idea of birthright citizenship which i thought was a staggering comment coming from the former president, the president-elect, and so i actually think on some of these issues around immigration and deportation, he was really clear, very precise, and so people are not going to be confused at all about these policies when they come down. >> mick, what did you think of the birthright comment? i think that did get a lot of attention, and if it hasn't, maybe it should get more. >> yeah, and i thought it was a nuanced answer. in fact, i think it's a good way to look at it, andrew, because they didn't get into it last night, but the part of the constitution that kristin welker didn't read said that it has to deal with folks who are subject to the jurisdiction of the united states. it's unclear in our legal system as to what that means, to

whether or not someone was here illegally can have that child, or they're subject to the jurisdiction. i thought it was a nuanced question. staying with immigration for aexd a second, i thought something else that was important was a comment about the dreamers. you talk about nuance. he didn't talk much about dreamers, but it sounds like there's a deal to be had in washington, d.c. which is trump is willing to talk about some type of status for the dreamers in exchange for more assistance on deportation and border security. so yeah. listen. if you don't like trump's style, you don't like trump, you didn't like the interview, i get that, but if you are looking at hints for what the second term will look like, i thought it was interesting things. >> let me ask one question as it relates to tariffs. he talked about tariffs and maybe this is a negotiating tool. this isn't just a plan across the board. he suggested that again in the interview to some degree, but the truth is few know if you kn negotiating tool, how strong

actually is it? because if the other side knows that you genuinely actually don't want to pursue these tariffs, and that there's pressure clearly on the other side, then how much leverage do you really have? >> that's pretty easy, isn't it? it just depends on the credible threat of actually doing it, and i think that mexico believes there's a credible threat that trump would put on the tariffs. look. when you talk about the tariffs, you know, he said -- what did he say? that can mean many different things, and i think that's right. i think a tariff, andrew, on american steel for the purpose of protecting, for example, the united states steel corporation, that's one kind of tariff. a threatened tariff on mexico to try to get leverage over them to change their immigration policy or their drug flow policy, that's something else. so when you ask a question about donald trump and tariffs, my response is always, well, which ones and for what purpose? because there's a broad spectrum of how these particular tools can be used and you have to sort of look at them on a case by case basis. >> donna, what did you make of

his comments? we're talking about the 6:00 hour with eamon javeres. he suggested that firing jay powell wasn't on the table today. he said it wasn't something he intended to do, and then yet there became this back and forth about, well, you know, i think if i asked him to step down, he wouldn't, but if i told them to step down, he would, and what in a -- that means? >> i thought that was very confusing and i think deliberately so. i think the president-elect realizes that it would be very destabilizing to announce outright that he's firing or asking jay powell to step down, but i suspect that, you know, as we come to the, you know, a point, there was a time during the campaign season where, in fact, president trump actually did talk about removing and his ability as president to remove

the, you know, the fed, and so i wouldn't put that off the table, but i think he recognizes that that could be destabilizing to the -- to the markets, and he was treading quite carefully, and frankly i mean, i think more troubling was just his conversation about tariffs to be quite honest. i just really don't see how that won't result in anything but a negative impact on american consumers. >> right. and mick, let me ask you for your help with this because i was watching the other part of the interview where he talked about potentially, you know, someone like a liz cheney, he thinks should go to jail, and he was sort of quizzed on this. he said it wasn't something he was doing, but suggested maybe the fbi should do it. there was sort of a back and forth about that. we talked a lot about weaponizing the justice department. he's been very critical

obviously of this biden administration for that particular issue. clearly there are democrats who are very worried that he would weaponize it. what was your -- your -- give me the generous view. give me the critical view. as somebody who i think has watched and knows -- and knows the president-elect. >> let me see if i can shoot it down the middle between generous and critical. i didn't like it very much. i don't like that language especially when it's aimed toward other elected officials. at the same time, i think if you look at the transcript, and i did, it says, if they've done something wrong. et cetera, et cetera. even he went into the allegations of the j6 committee destroying evidence, which would be against the law, and so forth. if you are looking for nuance and subtlety, you can find it. i don't like the language very much, but i also go back at the same time to 2016 when he was running on the, you know, hillary clinton lock her up sort of mantra. of course, we never came

anything close to that. didn't even investigate her during the first term. >> i think he wanted to, but the department of justice ultimately decided not to pursue that. >> then you've gotten information i don't. i wasn't in the west wing itself until 2019, and i think that ship had sailed. >> there were reports that suggested that. >> fair enough. i don't like it. the proof will be in the pudding, and i think the public would probably react fairly negatively if there were just blatant political witch hunts. if there were crimes committed and so forth, you have to run the system. you have to assume that's what the democrats would say about donald trump. it's the only reason they went after him is because he did something illegal. what's wrong with using that same standard with the party in power? we'll see. >> mick and donna, this is a longer conversation. we appreciate you joining us today, and we'll talk again soon. i was fascinated by senator manchin last week suggesting that biden should not have just

pardoned hunter, but should have also pardoned trump as a way to sort of try to end -- and that trump should pardon biden and then we would end all of this sort of weaponization question. it's an interesting concept. i don't know if that's the right answer, but intriguing. coming up, apple's biggest a.i. software update brings the hottest a.i. product on the planet to the iphone. details next. we'll be right back.

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i was gonna say- "popular! you're gonna be pop-uuuu-larrr!" can you do defying gravity?! yeah, get my harness. buy one line of unlimited, get one free for a year with xfinity mobile. and see “wicked,” in theaters now. all right. welcome back, everybody. apple's latest iphone software is expected to launch as soon as today and will finally let siri talk with chatgpt. we're joined with the details. what do you think? >> this is a big launch, and this is chatgpt like you said coming to iphone, built directly into that ios software. this was that partnership announced five months ago back in june at apple's worldwide developers conference, and so much has happened in the a.i. space, especially with open ai

since then. they of course, became $157 billion company after its latest fund-raise, but also shed many top execs and cofounders like mira murati and others who have left in recent months, not to mention facing new legal threats from elon musk and his a.i. company, xai. apple is not paying openai for this partnership, but openai can still benefit in a lot of meaningful ways. this gives openai exposure to tens of millions of iphone users when the software launches and once everyone upgrades their devices to ones that are compatible with apple intelligence, that's going to grow to a billion users just on the iphone side alone, and it helps grow its paid product and helps for those enormous costs that it's paying right now for compute power. now sam altman told andrew last week at the conference there were 300 million chatgpt users right now. on the apple side of things, here's what they get out of it. chatgpt is the best of the a.i.

models out there even though a lot of what you do with apple intelligence on your phone, it will be apple's own a.i. modell. if you stump siri, you have the option to use chatgpt instead. other models will be baked into the iphone mentioning google's gemini though facebook might not make it into the party. microsoft is a quiet winner in this partnership. chatgpt because of their relationship with microsoft, runs all their queries on the microsoft zure cloud. the ceo says microsoft is going to benefit from all these iphone users starting to use chatgpt, and one thing to watch for going into next year, whether or not china approves apple intelligence. chatgpt of course, does not operate there, and apple still doesn't have government approval for its own artificial intelligence model. lots of talk about partnerships over there.

chatgpt, this is a big milestone for apple and openai, but the most important apple intelligence features, those aren't going to come until next year. that includes more upgrades to siri, and the big one, this is one. control your third party apps with apple intelligence. we haven't gotten a whiff of what that looks like. >> i agreed to the software update, what may chatgpt picking up from me? you get warnings that what? all my information is going to you? >> i forget the exact language. it says effectively you're leaving apple. we can't guarantee your privacy, and it doesn't say microsoft, but it is running on microsoft's mostly on azure cloud. >> if i don't want to do that, i say, i don't have to. >> you can switch it off. you don't have to use it and you don't have to be logged into chatgpt. if you paid for that right now, that $20 a month plan, you can sign in or get it or get paid through iphone or get it now. that's huge --

>> but the free version means i'm giving access? >> you're giving access to microsoft and openai or the chatgpt app on your phone now. it's similar what you're giving access to. it's not -- it's not -- apple is not guaranteeing it's locked down in that privacy bubble. >> that's the first time that i've got an apple update that basically takes me outside of the system. >> google does. i mean, yeah. when you do a google search in safari, that takes you outside the apple system as well. >> steve, thank you. coming up, a retail challenge check. we'll be right back with that and a lot more big hour ahead after this.

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at long last the assad regime has fallen. this regime brutalized and tortured and killed literally hundreds of thousands of innocent syrians. a fall of the regime is a fundamental act of justice. it's a moment of historic opportunity for the long suffering people of syria. to build a better future for their proud country. it's also a moment of risk and uncertainty. as we all turn to the question of what comes next, the united states will work with our partners and the stakeholders in syria to help them seize an opportunity to manage the risks. >> that was president biden yesterday at the white house addressing the end of bashar al assad's regime in syria. we get a live report from the region and bring you expert analysis on this major development in the middle east. also ahead we'll go through president-elect donald trump's

exclusive interview with nbc's "meet the press" including his comments about wanting to jail the january 6th committee members, issue pardons for capitol rioters, as well as his plans to undo a key piece of the 14th amendment. plus, we'll bring you joe's conversation with former president bill clinton. they had a wide-ranging discussion on the future of the democratic party and much more as the clinton presidential center celebrated its 20th anniversary over the weekend. good morning, and welcome to "morning joe." good to be with you. we have the host of "way too early," jonathan lemere. retired four star admiral, chief international analyst for nbc news. president emeritus of the council on foreign relations rich haas. author of "home and away," available to substack, and columnist and associate editor

for "the washington post," david ignatius is with us this morning. a great group to have with this major development we're covering. >> i've got to say, it was -- the news this weekend -- >> whoa. >> -- over the last week, david ignatius, we're going to get to the story and all of the details. but i must say i've never seen anything quite like this since 1989 when you had one country and the eastern bloc after another country just falling by the day. after a bloody, bloody gridlock -- you know, cost 500,000 lives over more than a dozen years, assad's syria fell just like that. and just like that, a brutal tyrannical reign over. >> it was a stunning day, conclusion to a war that's been

so brutal. it began really in the days of the april spring in 2011. the uprising of the syrian people against what's been the dispottic regime for decades. to have it end so quickly, it's ten days since this group, the hts, began to sweep south of its headquarters in idlib in northern syria, and they were in damascus it seemed like in the blink of an eye. it is a moment as one of my sources in the biden administration said in which you could just see the -- the needle of the compass of world affairs turning away from russia and iran to real adversaries of the united states toward we hope better governance for the syrian people. i do worry as somebody who spent time in syria with these very people who are doing the fighting, rolled into damascus, among them are people who will are jihadists, who could pose a

threat to the future security of syria. but for the moment what i was hearing from administration officials was a sense of just extraordinary change as a weakened russia and weakened iran reeling after israel's overwhelming response to october 7th, really rewrote the basic rules of the middle east and altered the balance of power. >> it is really hard, admiral, to begin to explain how world affairs have been reordered. of course, the russians got into the middle east several years ago after the first time since 1973 when putin sent troops in. so you had iran, you had russia, you had syria, and it -- it really -- it really created a network of terror, a network of instability. russia could launch that into africa. you could have iran funneling

terrorist supplies into hamas and islamic jihad and hezbollah. that all got blown up this weekend. we don't know who the long-term winners are going to be, but certainly the short-term losers certainly look to be iran, russia, and assad. >> absolutely correct. and just look at a map. if you think of it as that old game of risk, we've played as kids, poof goes the bridge that runs from iran, you're showing it now, over to syria, into lebanon, to the mediterranean sea. poof goes the russian bases on the mediterranean, the warm weather port that they have cherished the ideal for so long as you show there. now their ability to operate in that eastern mediterranean gone overnight.

so all of this is a remarkable twist of fate. i think military analysts are going to focus initially on what the hell happened here so fast, and it's a combination, right. it's corruption and conscription difficulties, long running feuds in syria, as david says. it's also the distraction of russia tied up in ukraine and iran flattened by israel, and then thirdly, let's not underestimate the rise of a charismatic leader. i think a lot of folks are getting to be abu muhammad al jalani, learn that name, and we'll see where this goes. is this going to be a new awakening as we all hope? david used the words "we hope," and i think we do. i think if you run the numbers here, you know, 25% chance it turns out really well and

there's a secular country kind of emerges, i think 25% it shuts down pretty quickly, as jihadists take over. maybe a 50% chance it looks like libya, an ongoing state of conflict, all too soon to tell. bottom line, it is confusion to our enemies and success hearst for moment for the democratic side of things. >> and they collapse as we just heard in part because russia, as donald trump even said on truth social this weekend, russia has been gutted by ukraine. they didn't have the force to help assad in this time of need. and post october 7th, iran has been gutted by israel in attacks. they don't even have an air defense, an effective air defense now. so these two powerful allies of assad in assad's time of need were nowhere to be seen.

>> let's look at exactly what happened and then get right to richard haas. syrian rebels toppled the regime of president bashar al assad over the weekend, ending his family's decades' long rule. the rebels seized damascus after a lightning advance across key cities like aleppo and homs. according to an official assad has fleed to moscow where he has been granted asylum. celebrations erupted nationwide even in regime strongholds. meanwhile, israel bolstered security near the golan heights but stated it will not intervene. president biden police officered remarks from the white house yesterday shortly after assad's regime fell. >> support syria's neighbors including jordan, lebanon, iraq, and israel, should any threat arise from syria during this period of transition.

i'll speak with leaders of the region come the coming days. had long discussions with all of our people this morning. i'll send senior officials from my administration to the region, as well. we will help stability -- ensure stability in eastern syria, protecting any personnel, our personnel, against any threats, and remain our mission against isis will be maintained, including security of detention facilities where isis fighters are being held as prisoners. we're clear-eyed about the fact that isis will try to take advantage of any vacuum to re-establish its capabilities and create a safe haven. we will not let that happen. as i've said, this moment of considerable risk and uncertainty, but i also believe this is the best opportunity in generations for syrians forge their own future free of opposition. it would be a waste of this historic opportunity if one tyrant were toppled and only to

see --a new one rise up in its place. >> richard haas, your analysis on where this goes from here, and maybe a brief bit on joe biden's foreign policy legacy. >> where it goes from here -- you know, the honest answer, no matter who you ask that question to, is we're not sure how it's going to play out. historically, traditionally after revolutions succeed in their first phase of ousting the regime, in this case the assads, there's often a failing out among the various groups that were part of the effort because they agreed on what they were against -- something different to agree on what they're for. there's a scramble for power. so i think something like that is evidence inable. the question is -- inevitable. the question is whether it comes through in some large struggle in syria or whether you have something different, almost a patchwork quilt where syria remains a country on a map, but the kurds have this part, turkish-backed forces have this part.

the sunni group, hts that took the lead here, they have large parts of syria. i think that's the real question there. and i don't think we're going to have a whole lot of influence on this. i think the real question for the united states is how do we use this in some ways to try to influence our biggest concern in the region which is iran. and what is it we do in terms of taking advantage of a weakened iran, you know, its proxies are on their heels. iran itself is on its heels. what can we do now to deal with the nuclear challenge, to try to reduce or cut off iran's aid for proxies. what do we do about the. >> reporter: itself? there -- about the regime itself? there must be worry. coming up joe's conversation with former president bill clinton. they talk about the political landscape of today and what has changed since they served together in washington. that decision is straight ahead on "morning joe." you and i have been friends for years. we've got our political

differences, and we've got a political history. but i know you, i think. and i like you. now suppose you and mika just did a makeover of your living room. >> uh-huh. >> and you asked me to come visit, and i visit, and it is beautiful. everything about it is beautiful except in the corner you've got this beautiful curved couch, but behind the couch there's a pink elephant. >> yeah. >> and now i could ask you, i said, i guess you're sell till republican, you turned pink. we could do it. almost doesn't matter what i say. >> right. >> the one thing i cannot do is to come in, drink your coffee, talk about how beautiful your living room is, and turn around and not mention the pink elephant. >> ignore it.

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election. but history's going to record the end of the biden administration, and it's going to see russia and their military gutted at levels we haven't seen in our lifetime. weaker than levels we haven't seen in our lifetime. the ruble on the rot and the economy close to being shattered. you're going to see with iran weaker than they've ever been since the 1979 revolution.

they in effect don't have any air defense systems left. they are at israel's mercy. and now you have assad who is gone. of course, joe biden as you know better than anybody because you follow him, in ukraine he was always building attacked for doing -- being attacked for doing too much and not enough. in israel, attacked for doing too much or not doing enough. in fact, chances are good kamala harris lost michigan because people thought he was doing too much to help israel out now. well, too much, not enough, i don't know. history's going to show that what he did in ukraine to help the ukrainians in their fierce fight against russia and the supplies and weapons he gave israel gave them ability to do all of this and have a map that is remade with people who consider ourselves our enemies now, weakened in historical manner and on the run. >> yeah. all of that is correct,

including a weaker russia. including a weaker iran. including, perhaps, its electoral impact here in the united states. there's no question that joe biden will be seen as a deeply consequential foreign policy president with ramifications felt for decades. certainly there's a note of uncertainty and even trepidation as to what might come next in syria. we should also take a moment to think about the scenes we saw this weekend, the joyful scenes. families reunited for the first time in years. prisoners who tasted freedom for the first time in decades. just celebrations that spontaneous celebrations, statues of assad being pulled down. one large one pulled as a makeshift sled through the city streets with joyful men atop of it bleefg that this is a new -- believing that this is a new chapter in their lives and new chapter for their country. really remarkable there even as we try to figure out what comes next. joining us to help us shed

insight, live from the golan heights is nbc news international correspondent raf sanchez. give us the latest from the region including how israel, as we were talking about, how israel played -- played a role here in some way and might be looking at this as an opportunity. >> reporter: yeah. good morning. we're on the israeli-controlled side of the golan heights. we're looking out over southern syria. damascus s over the horizon that way. and 48 hours ago bashar al assad was in power there, as his family has been every day for more than 50 years in syria. but today is a new day in syria. in many ways a new day in the middle east, as you and the panel have been discussing. this coalition of syrian rebels after this lightning fast advance that basically has brought an end to the 13-year civil war are now in power, in damascus. they are consolidating control,

and bashar al assad has fled to moscow. he has been granted asylum there, according to russian state media. he's with his family. we believe that his wife, asma, british born former investment banker, is with him. putin prepared to give him asylum but was not there in his moments of need as these rebels were closing in, as you've been talking about. russia bogged down in ukraine. iran, hezbollah weakened after more than a year of fighting with israel. the largest of the groups is an islamist group. it has origins in al qaeda. it is still considered a terrorist organization by the united states, but this is a group that is doing everything it can to try to signal to the people of syria and to the world that it is moderated. it is saying there will be no revenge attacks against minorities. there will be no limitations on the rights of women inside of

syria. and president biden said yesterday that the u.s. is clear-eyed about what he called the grim record of terrorism of some of these groups. but that the u.s. will engage here and is hopeful that this may be a moment to reshape a free syria. coming up, president-elect donald trump says our next guest should be jailed. senator-elect adam schiff responds to that straight ahead on "morning joe."

coming up, joe's wide-ranging conversation with the 42nd president of the united states. what bill clinton had to say about donald trump's victory and much more. that's next on "morning joe."

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on friday i sat down with former president bill clinton at his presidential library and mule in little rock -- museum in little rock which is celebrating its 20th anniversary. we discussed his book "citizen" written after his life at the white house and the increasingly polarized state of american politics. >> we're living in a time when we are both deeply and fairly closely divided. now president trump this year won a fairly healthy electoral victory for a simple reason -- a lot of voters who thought trump was economically successful before covid hit and they got that check from him in the mail that there were more democrats than republicans voted for the bill, but he said i'll sign it if i could send the check out.

he knew what he was doing. then vice president harris had an almost impossible job because she became a candidate at a time when no one else could legally access the money that it already been given to joe biden, and there was no time to have primaries. so she was in effect a stranger to people. the people knew what they liked about trump and what they didn't. and about 54% of them were -- would have halfway voted for somebody else. but people didn't feel that they knew about harris. >> and we're still a 50/50 nation. i know the day after everybody, democrats, were in shock. but the further you get out, you go, wait a second, she lost wisconsin by less than 1% of the vote, michigan about 1.2%, 1.3%. the same with pennsylvania, little bit more. and yet democratic senators won

in those states. democratic senator, progressive democratic senator won in arizona. i mean, we still are such a closely divided nation politically, aren't we? >> i think that a lot of it is the information system, and i think that's why i think we should all be talking to each other and not playing demographic games. >> i want to read if something that you wrote -- from something that you wrote in the book about the 2016 election. "this whole thing is hard for me to write. i couldn't sleep for two years after the election. i was so angry. i wasn't fit to be around. i apologize to all those who endured my outbursts, rage which lasted for years and barthed or bored people -- bothered or bored people who thought it was pointless to rehash things that couldn't be changed. in this chapter, i've tried to calmly write about the darkest election possible in the united states because it's important to

understand what happened. >> it's easier for us to know what happened in 2016 in some ways than it is what happened in 2024. because in 2016 you had two highly unusual things. first of ll, the mainstream media told the american people repeatedly that the biggest issue was hillary's emails. that's what they said, not just fox. when, in fact, even the trump state department said she neither sent nor received a single solitary email on her personal device marked classified, one. and two, she followed the rules as they then existed. the rules were changed after she left office. and yet, the whole story was written as if she had done

something hideous and -- then james comey made it worse. >> and his july press conference where he came out, said she wasn't indicted but for first time decided he was goings to pontificate. >> yeah. >> about what he thought. >> yeah. he sd aishe was careless. i told the story in the book about how when president obama called to tell me that bin laden had been killed in the successful raid, he said we did it. i said, did what? he said, we got bin laden. hillary didn't tell you? and i laughed and said, mr. president, you told -- you told your people not to tell anybody, didn't you? he said, yeah, but -- i said, she didn't tell anybody. i mean, hillary's the sort of down the line person. so it was ludicrous to the extent to which people went to essentially fabricate a smear on her, and i think they did it

because they thought they had to mention something bad about her if they said something bad about trump. >> we saw the same thing not so long ago. the hunter biden pardon. you look at the first five, six, seven stories on "the new york times" site, it's all about that. first five, six, seven on "the washington post" site, all about that. on the same day that a man is picked to be the next fbi director who said he had a list of enemies, over 60 long, and he was going to throw reporters, journalists, editors in jail. >> it is true that it is highly unlikely i think that anyone who was where hunter biden was would have been facing the substantial jail sentence for something he did when he was under the influence of drugs and when he

has paidown supporters.

and then nobody believes anybody about anything. we need to go back and meet people where they live and talk to them about what they're interested in. i realize that you know, it's easy to underestimate the intelligence of people when they're focusing on what they care about. but you've got to deal with what people are living with. president biden will leave office with a record of creating -- having more jobs created in his four years than any previous four-year period in american history. no matter how many that -- if that number were 50 million, it will be about 16 to 18, somewhere between that go. it were 50 million, it would be nowhere near the number of people who are affected by inflation and food prices. so you have to discuss these things.

you can't pretend no business, no marriage, no friendship, no nothing can succeed and thrive if you don't deal with the pink elephant in the room. >> talk about how democrats maybe could learn from that and maybe stop firing at each other and start working together. >> yeah. i don't even believe the real problem is whether you should be more verbally left or center. i think you've got to talk like people talk who will make the difference in the outcome of the election. you don't have to sell out what you believe in, but you do have to meet people where they live. and you can't get very far avoiding it. like you and i now have been friends for years. we've got our political

differences, and we've got a political history. but i know you, and i like you. now suppose you and mika just did a makeover of your living room, and you asked me to come visit. and i visit, and it is beautiful. everything about it is beautiful except in the corner, you've got this beautiful curved couch, but behind the couch there's a pink elephant. >> yeah. >> and now i could ask you, i guess you're still a republican? you just turned a little pink? or something we -- we could refine it. almost doesn't matter what i say. the one thing i cannot do is to come in, drink your coffee, talk about how beautiful your living room is, and turn around and not mention the pink elephant. >> ignore it. i think a lot of democrats, lot of people like me, independents, i was focused on donald trump's

political rhetoric. vicenza health political rhetoric -- his violent political rhetoric. i said it sounded like fascist rhetoric to me, combined with gymnastics, with everything else -- january 6th, with everything else. for me that was what mattered the most to me. but the pink elephant over there, that's the cost of groceries. that's the cost of gas. that's the thing they've got to take care of first, right? >> yep. well, the average person believes whether they voted for president trump or not the first time, that we survived it. and they give him perhaps too much credit for the fact that in the first 2.5 years or so of his presidency the first time, the economy got better. i think the facts are that he inherited the end of the obama

era's recovery. we went from eight million jobs in obama's last two years to 6.5 million in trump's first two years. but there was no inflation, and people felt it. so we had to see that election the way they did and answer that and start with that. so when we didn't answer it, it was like we left the pink elephant in the living room. there was a reason why we're already the longest continuously existing democracy in history. it's hard to save one. that's fine. but if you're going to fight to save it in an election system with all these forces raining down on you, that's the game you got to play. you got to deal with the issues that affect other people's lives. the same thing is true all around the world. look at this upheaval that's happening. people are losing faith in the institutions, and in many, many places they're gngoi to reward the people that destroyed their

faith. i wouldn't bet against america. so far everybody that's best against us lost money. we have to stay after it. >> the book is "citizen." what a great honor. thank you so much. it's great seeing you. >> i'm glad to see you. thank you. >> yes, sir. president clinton's new memoir "citizen" is available now. tomorrow we're going to have more from our discussion including the remarkable work of the clinton global initiative. and coming up this morning, our next guest will be sworn in today to the united states senate. california democrat adam schiff joins our conversation.

cheney was behind it, and so was bennie thompson and everybody on that committee. for what they did, honestly they should go to jail. >> so you think liz cheney

should go to jail? >> for what they did -- >> everyone on the committee you -- >> i think everybody -- anybody that voted in favor -- >> are you going to direct your fbi director, your attorney general to send them to jail? >> not at all. i think that they'll have to look at that, but i'm not going to -- i'm going to focus on drill, baby, drill. >> that was president-elect donald trump speaking to moderator of nbc's "meet the press" kristen welker about the house select committee and the january 6th attack on the capitol. let's bring in nbc news national security editor david rode with more on this. so i take it, david, you watched the entire interview. there was a lot said there. some equivocating, but some very clear statements about retribution. what's your analysis? >> well, this is sort of classic trump. you're absolutely right. it was great that you showed the whole clip there. there's a very clear call for members of the january 6th committee to jail. these were members of a congressional committee that followed house rules, created

that committee issued subpoenas, interviewed people in private, interviewed them in public. i -- i am not a lawyer, but as i've talked to people who worked on the gymnastics committee and other people who have in up, they say they've done nothing wrong. they don't understand what crime they might have committed, and they were simply pursuing congressional accountability. so that's my sense. then we can talk more about the second part of that clip where he suddenly says, but i'm not going to order anyone to do anything, it's up to kash patel, his choice for fbi director, and pam bondi, his choice for ag. and that fits an old pattern of trump putting the really hard stuff on other people and trying to keep his fingerprints off of anything that would be blatantly improper. >> as we discussed earlier, this is out of the trump playbook, i wouldn't tell them to do anything. he already has. he's said the names, directed, given the idea, whether or not on january 20th at 12:01 p.m. he gives an order, he's already done so. they know what he wants.

so let's -- let's talk about these -- whether the january 6th members here, the committee members, what possible charge could this even -- could this even be? and what's -- what leaps would it have to take? would law enforcement have to take to carry out trump's wishes? that really feels like we're going down a slippery slope. >> this is going to be the crux of the trump second administration fbi and doj. there aren't that i see crimes there, but there's another level like a third level this is working. and he is sending a message to anyone in the justice department, anyone in the fbi, anyone on capitol hill, don't investigate the second trump administration because this is what's going to happen to you. and it doesn't -- you can name a special counsel, launch a grand jury investigation, and it will make someone's life hell. and particularly career people who don't make that much money and fbi folks who don't make -- make even less, they don't have

great career opportunities. they don't get a pension until they've put in 20 years. so i've seen this before. he did it throughout his first term and is doing it again to intimidate people. >> let's bring in democratic senator-elect adam schiff of california who will be sworn in later today. senator-elect shift served on the house select to investigate the january 6th attack on the united states capitol. sir, i'd love your thoughts on being sworn in amidst a cloud of what president-elect donald trump said about members of the january 6th committee which you were one. >> well, i'm excited to be sworn in today. i think the senate is a place where you can still seek out people across the aisle and get things done. and there's a lot we need to get done for the country and for my home state of california. in terms of the president's threats, i would say a couple of things. first, all of us that worked on

the january 6th committee are proud of the work we did. we exposed one of the darkest chapters of our history when a president incited a violent attack on the capitol to try to stop the peaceful transfer of power. the vast majority of our witnesses were republicans, some of them were high-ranking republicans in the trump administration who testified under oath and in public hearings so that the country could hear and see and learn about who what took place -- what took place on that awful day, a form of congressional accountability. we're proud of what we did. but i do think to underscore the point you all were making, this is not just about retribution against those of us on the committee. this is about sending a message that no one better hold him to account in his second term, no one better look at what he does, do their congressional job, that he is intent on trying to break down these checks and balances in our system. that's where the danger lies more so than to the members of

the committee. i think the american people are very concerned about crime. they want an fbi director, an attorney general to deal with fentanyl and deal in california with smash-and-grab robberies. this is not what they're looking for to turn the -- the agencies into some vehicle for political retribution. >> one of the things that he accused the committee of is illegally destroying records among other things, along with saying you all should go to jail. what's your response? >> you know, i've seen him make that allegation before. candidly, i don't know what the heck he's talking about, whether this is some crazy conspiracy theory that grew up on line or whether it's just answering he's making up. but it's completely without merit, and just i think another one of his baseless attacks on the work of the committee. his real grudge at the end of

the day is he was exposed. and some of his own very top people held him most accountable, testified against him, and this is really where he's coming from, that and his other grievance which i've heard repeated many, many times is that he is never got enough crowd -- credit for the size of the crowd on january 6th. which you have to live in i think a warped world to think that's the most important point about january 6th, that people are missing. but this is one of his meritless complaints, and i really don't want to speculate about where it comes om >> mr. -- senator-elect, you of course for many years have warned that donald trump is a threat to the nation's democracy. you've done so in office, during your campaign. you were victorious. but for so many democrats, that wasn't a winning issue this time around. we know vice president harris lost, the democrats were defeated, lost control of the senate, the -- were not able to reclaim the house.

do you -- as americans voted for things like the economy, the border, the inflation, things of that for. do you worry that this has lost its resonance? have people begun to tune out that issue? which i know you feel is important. so how do you then break through? >> well, i would say you're right. i think the issue in the election was the economy. that was very clear to me in california. i'm sure it was true in every other state, as well. and in fact, most ofy mcampaign was not about trump, it was about the economy. it was about trying to address the high cost of housing and the high cost of childcare, building more housing, addressing homelessness, addressing public safety concerns. this was really what i campaigned on, and i think those that were successful likewise were focused on the economic issues. we have to i think as a democratic party come to grips with the fact that people, many working families, decided they had more confidence in the

republicans than the democrats at this moment in time. now that, i think, was part of a -- really a global wave against the incumbents left, right, or center. but nevertheless, we had been losing working people for many years. and i think that we're going to have to do a much better job connecting with working people. we're oing to have to have policy prescriptions that are bolder and simpler and clearer if we're going to recapture the majority in the senate and in the house and the white house. >> senator-elect adam schiff of california. congratulations on your swearing-in today, and thank you so much for coming on the show this morning. >> great to be with you. >> all right. take care. david rohde, you heard about the goals and the hopes that incoming senator schiff has for the future. that up against what we were talking about earlier, the threats against all those who

served on the january 6th select committee. how will those balance out do you think? and what are you going to be watching for? >> i thought jonathan's question was great eet the press"

interview, including how he hedged a bit on whether his plan on tariffs will actually help americans. plus, we'll turn back to syria why celebrations under way following the rebel force's victory in damascus. the latest on that major development in the middle east. "morning joe" will be right back.