that does it for us this wednesday. i'm alex witt alongside louis burgdorf. "morning joe" starts right now. ♪ >> this is pretty great. senator john mccain was on "morning joe" today and he is going to be an interesting character to watch the next six months. as time goes by he appears to be giving what less they call of crap. >> senate the armed services committee and republican senator john mccain of arizona. very good to have you on the show this morning, sir. >> thank you. i'm freezing my ass off. >> sorry. >> he would be a good weather forecaster! >> you knew that was going to end up somewhere. good morning, everyone. >> yeah. >> i thought about that later. i can't believe i paired the words back to him later but he started it. good morning, everyone. welcome to "morning joe." with us on set, we have, joe, veteran columnist and msnbc

contributor mike barnicle. >> legendary! >> we also have new daddy, managing editor of bloomberg -- look at that baby boy! i need that baby. bring it in. when are you bringing it in? >> he's on order. he is busy this morning. >> congratulations, mark halpern. it's a whole new world, mr. halpern. contributing editor of "time" magazine and msnbc political analyst and former aide to the former george w. bush white house and state departments, elise jordan is here with us. and in washington, washington anchor for bbc world news america, katty kay. columnist and associate editor for "the washington post" david ignatius all joining us onhis very big week in politics, inaugural week. in a moments we will get to revealing poll numbers of

trump's presidency days before he takes off. yesterday, mike allen interviewed the president-elect for axios and he writes this about trump's demeanor. he says, in part, quote, we found the incoming president unusually subdued and loring expectations and acknowledging some of the messy realities of governing and walking back some of the more provocative statements that he had made only days before. a top adviser told us the sober tone reflects a bumpy few days inside trump tower and the realization he is days away from running the nation. mike will join us on set for more of that sit-down. the new polling is in a moment. >> that is revealing. >> it is revealing. it reminds me something as you get later in the interview that mike barnicle said before barack obama was sworn in as he's of the united states.

he said, at some point everybody gets the briefing and when they get the briefing, it changes them. and i know david ignatius can speak to this, but i thought it very telling, mike barnicle, we don't know if he got the big briefing or not, but we do know that he seemed far more focused on just how dangerous of a world this is and what he is walking into in the interview with mike allen and jim van dvan deny hig. >> the brief report that mika just gave us from mike allen's report of his meeting yesterday of the president-elect is among the more encouraging reports, i think, we have gotten out of the transition team and especially from the president-elect. as you know, as david ignatius knows, the weight of the

presidency, the awesome responsibility of that job, once it sinks in that is the reaction you want. you want someone who is sort of subdued and, wow, this is the thing now. the campaign is over. the president-elect has been in campaign mode for many, many months, up through and including most of this week. but, now, he's on the verge of becoming president of the united states and the responsibility and the seriousness and purpose of that office, that's encouraging to assume from reading mike allen's report that it might be taking hold. >> david ignatius, mike barnicle had spoken to a foreign fbi director who told him if you read what i read every day, you wouldn't get out of bed. it is a dangerous world out there. and, apparently, again, we are just surmising this, there was a great focus on the dangers that americans faced in the subdued

interview with donald trump. then hen he had offhanded assurance we will take care of it and everything will be fine but a lot of dangerous players out there. i think mike is right, this is the sort of realization you want sitting in on your president-elect days from the inauguration. >> we have watched, joe, with barack obama, over eight years what the burden of the presidency can do to you physically. we saw there was a young man who kind of bounded into the white house. he leaves gray-haired and creases in his face that were never there, a person who visibly has carried the burdens of office. and i think if we are beginning to get from donald trump a realization of what lands on his shoulders starting friday, that's a good thing. he's got a strong team and a lot of smart people. you couldn't help but be pressed by general mattis and general kelly. i thought at times, rex tillerson as secretary of state so he has some strong people

around him to help him carry the burden. as we know from modern american history, this burden, in the end, does fall with the president and if trump is seeing that and understanding it, that is good. he is going to have to change his behavior. he is going to have to be less impulsive and more presidential. i hate to use that word but he has to be presidential and lead the country. we will all be watching as that moment happens on friday. >> we will have more on this coming up. we begin now with breaking news. former president george h.w. bush is in a houston hospital this morning after experiencing shortness of breath. that's according to a spokesperson from houston methodist hospital who says mr. bush is being modern as a precaution and resting comfortably. the former president is 92 years old. he is the only living former president who will not be at friday's inauguration. that announcement having come weeks ago due to his advanced age. we will be following his condition and then we will keep

you updated. now to the new polls this morning -- >> well. >> yes? >> i was just going to say, obviously, we saw him this summer. >> right. >> and he was in very good spirits, but, obviously, over th past couple of years, his health has continued to decline with parkinson's disease. that is a man, as we talk about presidents assuming office, that showed extraordinary grace with the man who had just defeated him, bill clinton. and that really has become the modern blueprint for cooperation that we have seen over the past 20, 25 years from his transition to bill clinton all the way up to barack obama's graciousness with donald trump and what -- that is just one of the countless legacies that that man leaves washington and the world. >> we will follow his condition and keep everybody updated, of course. now to those poll numbers

this morning that show president-elect trump entering office with low approval ratings. the new msnbc/"wall street journal" poll gives him a positive opinion rating of 38% with negative feelings at 48%. just after the election in mid november, his approval ratings were about even. down just two points in the quinnipiac poll and up one according to cnn/orc. multiple polls yesterday showed similar numbers days before he takes the oval office, down ten points in the nbc/"wall street journal" poll at negative 12 points in monmouth university pole and down 18 in the abc news/"the washington post" post and under nine by the cnn/orc poll. some of trump's top priorities are in line with american voters. 78% say keeping jobs in the u.s. is an absolute priority this year. 57% say imposing tariffs on country who take advantage of

trade agreements 66 say the same about reducing the influence of lobbyists and big money in politics. 64% say now is the time to fund infrastructure projects, to proof roads and highways and bridges. and 59% say take an aggressive position against isis including bombings and deploying more troops. only 30% of the people polled say they are extremely or quite confident. 70% are somewhat or not confident. trump's 30% confidence rating compares to 54% of president obama in 2009, 40% to george w. bush in 2001 and 50% for bill clinton in 1993. joe, you look at his policies and people seem to be connected with those but not with him. >> it's a snapshot and pretty

remarkable when you look at the numbers collapsing over the past month. he has done gown on average probably 11%, 12%. that is temperament. you dig into every single one of these polls. he gets high marks for strong leadership in some of these polls but low marks in temperament. twitter, right now, while he considers it, mark halpern, to be one of his strongest suits, twitter has turned out to be his achilles heel at least in this transition. if you're looking for good news at trump tower in these polls, it is that the american people, most of the american people, certainly the nbc poll, want donald trump in washington to pursue the issues that he has championed throughout the campaign. they want him, as david ignatius said, to be more presidential while doing it. >> you know, if you look at the numbers and trump was a normal

politician and you did a case study you say this is starting in crisis but not because of what you cited. the fact that people like his agenda, to some extent. they are skeptical, though. he is not behold to go washington and not beholding to his party or the other party and he has a chance here to defy those bad numbers. a normally politician couldn't get stuff done with that kind of approval rating but trump is not a normal politician. the party he is a member of now controls congress and gives him a chance to get some things done and start to chance those numbers. most of the erosion is with independents and has to figure out ways to win them back but he has a lot of resources to try to do it if he can get up to a fast start legislatively. >> he a has a lot of resources to do it, mika, but remember this has happened over the past month. he has gone down quickly just like, again, after wisconsin, he backed away after his numbers collapsed, his poll numbers went

up. after the comey statement, the last ten days, he retreated, was not as verbose and didn't create as much chaos, and his numbers rose, what? seven, eight, nine points, if you believe some of the polls. so this is actually the less he does publicly, the better his numbers do. the more he does, the more it goes down. >> obviously, on social media, katty kay, maybe y take it to david ignatius from here. he has a wide reach and develop more globally. i know you're doing a project that takes a look at the first 100 days from a global perspective. talk a little bit, if you could, about the impact of this fast moving conversation he has with the world really that sometimes goes off the rails. there has been a lot of criticism about our standing in the world under president obama. what does it look like right now?

>> everyone is amazed. you can't overestimate the degree to which people are watching this transition. in europe particularly watching it with a certain amount of alarm and confusion. we spoke yesterday on the show about the sense of exhaustion and confusion. i think that is what the rest of the world is feeling too. i really never seen so much interest in a presidential transition. there was excitement about obama but this time around, there is alarm about what this could actually mean because it's very hard to know. david, do you think from what donald trump has been tweeting out we have a realistic picture of how he intends to engage with allies around the world or are these just salvos? i think that is where the confusion comes in. >> katty, i think they are salvos. i'm guessing. but donald trump sees himself as a disrupter and he is used to negotiation. you begin every negotiation with

a bombastic announcing with your goals and then you retreat and end up with a deal that somewhere in the middle and the way donald trump is used to behaving. the problem is that that doesn't work very well for a president. in our system, a president is -- once the prime minister, the negotiator in chief, the head of state and he represents our country also. if you look at those poll numbers, there is a clear message for trump. the country wants him to succeed on his basic program, his basic agenda, but is anxious about his personality, his temperament. the country is exhausted, dizzy after these several months of twitter wars, attacki ining mer streep one day and john lewis, a civil rights hero, the next. i think the country's head is spinning a little bit. is there a clear message to trump but you needs to be the deal maker but also head of state. >> joe? >> mika, there is not -- nobody is ever going to get him to stop using his twitter account. >> right.

>> and if you look. again, we have tried to say this before the past couple of days. if you look at what he has done with boeing, what he has done with lockheed, what he has done with drug prices, what he's done with big corporations, what he has done with car companies. actually sent out a populaous message and it's strong and has results. but when you start attacking civil rights leaders and movie stars and when you start attacking other people, you diminish its power with you're not talking about policy. when you're talking about arnold schwarzenegger and you're talking about "saturday night live" and alec baldwin, suddenly it becomes white noise, instead of focusing on jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. that actually should be the guideline. use it. if it brings jobs to america or if it saves americans tax

dollars. >> joe, this whole thing is such an interesting exercise in human nature and how people react. donald trump has used twitter the way no one has ever used it. he is an expert in social media and marketing genius, but the last five to six weeks, you can make a strong case he has turned twitter against himself. there are three elements that people -- you can go to any variety store in america. three elements of human nature that people repel again. bullies and braggers and b.s. artist. his twitter schemes, multiple times a day, fall into each of those three categories, many of them. that is a huge, i think, answer to why his poll numbers are just plummeting. >> again, following up, mika, on what i said, though. you're not bragging when you're telling ford to keep jobs in america. you're not bragging when you're telling boeing to keep the price of air force one down to cut it from $4 billion to $2 billion. you're not bragging when you're talking about lockheed martin

screwing the taxpayers with their f-35. again, these are the areas that if he wants to use it constructively he needs to do it for that but not merle streep or "snl" or alec baldwin or john lewis. >> joe, it was just too much. i think like everyone was talking about yesterday, so fatigued by trump being so active dripped where we just aren't supposed to have two presidents. while people are excited and they are ready for the trump era of change and he has strong support, it was just too much in a lot of the foreign policy proclamations and coziness with putin. the poll numbers reflect the cloud of uncertainty that is around him. the only upside for him is that there are low expectations right now. >> rig. >> everyone is not feeling so great about the level of stability as he enters the oval office. >> twitter can be powerful if it's used right and uncertainty can be powerful if it's used

right and right now it's sort of being flailed about. mark halpern, many of those polls said he they like the way trump is different from their predecessor. 64% support his approach to shake things up in washington and 55% say his public negotiations with companies about their business decisions is a welcomed departure. 46% like the way he publicly criticizes the media and challenges media stories but many are concerned about his relationship with vladimir putin and 57% oppose it or uncertain while 40% support it and find it acceptable and 53% oppose his decision not to release his tax returns. and more news. putin speaking against trump against sex workers? >> prostitution in russia? >> it's really embarrassing. mark halpern, go. >> trump is unlike a normal

incoming president. a lot of the poll numbers, as you said before, could encourage him. he wants to be popular. he can say the polls are all rigged but the reality is he doesn't want to go through his first year in office with being an unpopular person, even if some other things in the polls are encouraging. i think joe is right. the thing about trump is he can change on a dime and one of the ways he is underestimated, we all know he is not stupid. he can see why his numbers have gone down. i think in the beginning, it will be good for him and the country if he focuses on what matters and tries to usher in a new era and like i said a normal politician would look at these numbers and say this is disaster. i had one of the top democratic strategists in the country yesterday say to me this is a disaster. this administration is never going to go anywhere. trump can turn this around and change the numbers and he will -- also what? >> safety issue.

>> what? >> safety issue. you don't want to start this way. >> having madison flynn there was bought him time on national security. >> and kelly. >> and kelly. allowed him a chance to start -- to start in a more aggressive way. but he will not like these numbers. he can claim he doesn't care but he will not like these numbers and he'll try to change them. >> joe? >> you know, the thing is with that, we have all seen this and we have all learned it that donald trump, from the beginning, he's made this up as he has gone along. there is no rule book. there is no guide book. and he sort of fumbled his way through the early part of the primaries, finding his voice, figuring out what worked, releasing the rallies worked. starting to do those. and his numbers went up and he won the republican nomination. now there are no rules for a guy like him who, again, has rewritten every single rule in

american politics with this campaign. jon meacham said the other day there is no parallel to donald trump in american history. there is no president that he can draw a parallel to. so now we have seen what the transition for this kind of president is. he still, again, i think he still is trying to figure things out and still trying to sort his way through his communication message and what he has found is that he stepped on the gas too much and you see these numbers going down and what is going to be fascinating is to see if he adjusts the way he did after the collapse in wisconsin, to see if he adjusts the way he did the final 10, 11, 12 days of the campaign. because in both of those cases, this is hard data. in both of those ses, when he backed off, when he became more

low key, when he had the word i used at the beginning of the wake, the most important phrase for them, message discipline. >> right. >> when he had message discipline, his poll numbers went up. he's got the people on his side when it comes to policy. conservatives don't like the protectionism and they don't like the industrial policy and don't like him calling out ford and gm and lockheed and boeing. but when stepped back and let his policies do the talking, at least domestic policies, he seen his poll numbers go up. the question is will he be able to do that surrounded with all of the trappings of power? the other critical important question is there anyone around him that can say, sir, please, you cannot tweet about this right now. i'm dead serious. who is that person? until he has that person that

can go in and stop him, this president, like any other president, is walking on thin political ice. >> totally agree. >> that person is probably going to be across the potomac weather at the pentagon, general james mattis. he will not be there every day but you're absolutely right. that's what he need. >> the type of person who won't stay around if this is going to be a joke. >> correct, correct. >> just not stay with him. >> watch pence on this. >> still ahead on "morning joe," so much more to cover here. some very interesting moments from yesterday's confirmation hearings for trump's cabinet picks. and could rex triillerson be vod as secretary of state even if voted down by the foreign relations committee? kasie hunt reports for us from washington and josh earnist will be our guest. friday, we are live in washington to cover the presidential inauguration. our coverage kicks off at 6:00 a.m. from the dubliner. we are back at the bar just blocks from capitol hill. we like that place.

we are in washington tomorrow? >> yeah, but not there. >> we are at the bureau tomorrow. very good. >> that is almost as fun! >> i love the bureau. first, here is bill karins with a check on the weather. >> you can't go drinking two days in a row, thursday and friday morning, right? >> why not? >> i think they have to get the place ready for us and bringing in a lot of kegs for barnicle. >> oh, boy. the irish blood. let's talk about the forecast for the inauguration. it's going to be interesting. first, show you pictures from oregon. icy weather continued lat nist t and big rigs caught up and one is a sitting duck and the other flies by and the other couldn't stop in time. there goes one crunch and looks like the second guy just barely missed it. active weather. severe weather possibility in the houston area. we just had a tornado warning. that is going to be dropped here shortly. heavy rains over the houston area and i'll let you know if we have any damage in houston from the possible tornado. also in new england, we are continuing to watch the wintry weather out there.

careful driving, new hampshire, vermont and massachusetts and maine. as far as the inauguration weather. in history interesting weather. 10 inches of snow from william h. taft and warm and cold conditions too. as far as the rainy weather worst with franklin roosevelt. temperatures near 50 on friday. noa -out b there will be some damp weather around for friday afternoon. hopefully, we will get the swearing in ceremony in nice and dry. white house this morning, a little bit of fog around d.c. you're watching "morning joe." we will be right back. ♪ usiness was built with passion... but i keep it growing by making every dollar count. that's why i have the spark cash card from capital one. with it, i earn unlimited 2% cash back on all of my purchasing. and that unlimited 2% cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business...

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would you be so kind as to tell us how much money your family has contributed to the republican party over the years? >> i wish i could give you that number. i don't know. >> i've heard the number was

$200 million. does that sound in the ballpark? >> collectively. >> entire time. >> between my entire family? that's possible. >> my question is, i don't mean to be rude, but do you think if you were not a multibillionaire, if your family has not made hundreds of millions of dollars of contributions to the republican party, that you would be sitting here today? >> senator, as a matter of fact, i do think that there would be that possibility. i've worked very hard on behalf of parents and children for the last almost 30 years. >> do you think that guns have anyplace in and around schools? >> i think that's best left to locales and states to decide. if the underlying question is -- >> you can't say -- you can't say devenl live today that guns shouldn't be in schools? >> well, i will refer back to senator inzee and the school he was talking about in wapoti,

wyoming. i think probably there, i would imagine there is probably a gun in the school to protect from financial grizzlies. >> that is two of the exchanges between democrats and the president-elect's education secretary nominee betsy devos yesterday. confirmation hearings continue today on capitol ill. sometimes a simple question is not a simple question. >> sometimes it takes a turn you don't expect it to go. >> what did senator inzi say about guns in certain schools in his state to protect from possible grizzlies? >> i have to be honest, joe, i'd have to find the comments on

that. there are some who tk about there are situations they have to deal with that maybe someone in a disturb suburban area doesn't necessarily have to deal with. i think you saw from the reaction on the democrats' faces they were surprised she took it where she did. >> yeah. we all know what we are talking about here. >> to put proper context, we will see what inzee said. betsy devos has been, in fact, working for decade for charters and vouchers and things the teachers unions despise, school choice. this, it seems to me, you can see it on the twitter feed last night and i'm sure you did. this seems to be one of the democrats' top targets. they want her out. they see her as a -- perhaps the biggest threat to teachers unions and the public school monopoly in decade. how important is this for the

special interest groups on the far left to destroy betsy devos' reputation? >> west look. i think it's important the unions certainly. this is something they prioritize. i think way to measure how intensely the democrats feel about this is the fact they were el still sitting in their chairs at the end of this hour's long hearing. it doesn't start until 5:00. as you know, a lot of these senators, members of congress will show up briefly. they will ask their questions and then they take off to focus on something else. there were far fewer republicans in their seats and democrats were angry they didn't get a chance to ask more than one question of betsy devos. i think their overall argument is one that centered on, you heard senator sanders pushing her on this, which is that, you know, their education experience is related to a political donations they have made over the years. r husband ranor governor of michigan. he lost. when that happened, they decided they wouldry to go at this a different way. so, look. i mean, i do think this is a

very clear ideological divide and debate and you saw that. >> a fair question what bernie sanders asked betsy devos but fair to bring up the point the reason those democratic senators were sitting in their chairs is the teachers union is one of the largest cash cows for the democratic party and one of the largest cash cows for every republican senator who politely sat in their chairs instead of asking a question and leaving. is that safe to say? >> i think that is pretty safe to say. i think betsy ge vodevos has goa bad wrap. she has been pretty mainstream in her views and i think her family's wealth is more of an attack than it should be. they he she has spent decades on the fight for education reform and maybe the school reforms that happened in michigan is not exactly what she would want but florida is kind of her model state so i would put her in the camp of jeb bush education reformer.

and, also, she -- you know, really, i think the religious elements that some democrats have put on her and -- because her family is known to be a wealthy donor family and very religious and saying she is pushing that agenda and it just hasn't quite frankly, been true. if she had a little bit more prep and i feel had been put through the paces more rigorously with some of the questions that she was sure to get, centered on her family wealth and politically donations and student loan questions, ask about that, i think she would have had stronger showing and unfair to her she wasn't more prepared. >> i was going to say, mike barnicle, you saw joe lieberman sitting behind her and he introduced her. while i'm saying all i am saying about the teachers union, they have been gunning for her and they want to maintain their monopoly in public schools but

the other side of the story is betsy devos underperformed and caused concerns at trump tower because she did not do as well in her confirmation hearings as she should done. >> clearly not but elise just mentioned that some of these nominees, the lack of preparation, really good preparation prior to their appearance at these hearings is kind of surprising. i mean, who would not have guessed that senator chris murphy from connecticut would ask a question about guns in schools? >> right. >> and you don't have -- you don't have an adequate answer for that? i mean, that is surprising. >> we could also talk about -- not only talk about that, we could also talk about the fact, mark halpern when you talk about rex tillerson. questions rex tillerson should have been ready for he just wasn't ready for. the word coming out of trump tower he was ready to go and hit

it ought park. he did well in some aspects, david ignatius can confirm that, but ballpark questions about exxon had done business with before and he was not prepared for. >> it's not a game and serious questions of policies that will affect the real lives of real people. we still don't know how visible the cabinet is going to be. that can carry from administration to administration, but these are serious people who are given a limited amount of time to prepare and thif it's fair t say the democrats were better prepared than they might have be to ask tough questions. in some cases with tillerson, tough questions from republicans. these folks, if they want to be serious members of the cabinet and not as some cabinet members are irrelevant they need to step up and learn from this experience. this isn't a game. these are serious issues. >> yes. also, look. we found about senator insy and alex was telling me a school has a grizzly bear fence in some areas but that was not what the question was about from a senator from connecticut what had a school shooting that took

the lives of baby and the nation mourned and it still sends a chill every year on the day that it happened. come on, nominee! understand what we are asking about! and understand that there is a big question and an issue with guns in school and there are two sides of the story. there are two different opinions about it. answer the question! are you kidding me? grizzlies? >> it's a rookie mistake and it shows the inexperience. this was a topic had not come up because if she had given that kind of answer in a prep, a good adviser would have shot that down immediately. >> no way with her expertise in education that she doesn't know what the question was about and if she does, people voting need to think about that. kasie hunt, let's look ahead to today. could be another interesting day on capitol hill. >> for sure. a couple of hearings up today. the epa administrator scott pruitt is going to be one. you're going to want to keep an eye on. from some what you saw from betsy devos the tom price

hearing and not a confirmation hearing but a courtesy appearance before the senate health committee. that is one you're going to want to watch. the administration has been dropping hints and talking at length about tom price's role in repealing the health care law. once they are able to get him confirmed, he'll be able to do a lot from the regulatory side and using his plan to write big chunks of their replacement piece and a place democrats have focused. a story a couple of days ago kind of over the weekend about some of his insider trading potentially in medical stocks. that is all about democrats trying to delay this as much as possible. they are really waging a political style campaign against tom price. i think you can expect to see some of that come up today. >> joe? >> all right, kasie hunt, thank you so much. david ignatius, kasie telling us that rex tillerson may be the first nominee in decades to go ahead and have a vote on the full floor, even if he doesn't

get marco rubio's vote and he doesn't pass through the committee. what can you tell us about that? >> you know what? it's clear that rubio has staked a position and a little bit of payback for the 2016 campaign. i think there is broad support for tillerson. the fact i hear john mccain, who had been uncertain, has said he is going to be supportive. i would say looking at the trump campaign cabinet nominations as a whole, the trump team probably came out ahead in this series of hearings. i think, overall, they reassured the country, certainly mattis and certainly general kelly at homeland security. i think even tillerson by my book. so where trump, himself, may have made people uneasy and worried about what is ahead, i th the cabinet cks, generally, came across pretty well. >> i was going to ask you, david, about your opinion on rex

tillerson today. where do you stand on tillerson today? >> joe, i think this president who is -- president-elect who is lobbying grenades toward nato and europe and needs a secretary of state who can reassure the world that the alliances are not being turned upside down, that there is a basic continuity in the u.s. policy. tillerson sounds like somebody who can do that. he, obviously, is also as ceo of exxon, a good negotiator and trump is going to need that to complete the process of negotiation that he is going to begin on all of these different fronts. so i think talking to people who are in the state department, thinking about working for him, i hear pretty positive things, things from them. i just wish he had been more forthright when he was asked about things like exxon's lobbying where he waffled and didn't say anything at all. >> all right. david, thank you for that. we are back with much more

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mika, what is mike barnicle

calling you on set? >> something putin said and the whole thing is wrong. i'm not going there. >> mike? >> get lost in translation. >> talk to vladimir about it. he is very proud of his people. >> i tell you what, mike, usual russian better get better over the next four years. >> i'm going to speak in polish. this is looking ahead. we are going to break quickly and i tell everyone what is coming up. it's not where we talk. >> what is coming up? >> president obama commutes chelsea manning's prison sentence for leaking army documents and the move is drawing criticism from top republicans. that story and much more straight ahead.

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♪ live look at washington, d.c. this morning. the white house is shrouded in fog this morning. what will likely be one of the final acts of his time in

office, president obama has commuted the prison sentences of more than 200 people, including former army intelligence analyst chelsea manning. manning, who can be freed as of mid may, has served more than six years of her 35-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to a massive 2010 leak of classified documents to wikileaks. the information included hundreds of thousands of military documents from the wars in iraq and afghanistan, as well as secret state department files. the sentence is the longest that any leaker has ever received. the day after sentencing, manning, who was then known as bradley, announced she was a transgender woman. the former army intelligence fir has been serving her sentence at the men's military prison at ft. leavenworth, kansas. during that time, she has tried to kill herself twice and carried out a hunger strike aimed at obtaining sex

reassignment surgery. nbc news reported last week that manning was on the president's short list of commutation. around the same time that founder julian assange would be extradited to face espionage charges. the president said that played no role in their decision and unclear what the status of that offer by wikileaks is. manning's commutation has drawn sharp condemnation from top republicans in congress. house speaker paul ryan released a statement that started by saying, quote, this is just outrageous. senator john mccain echoed, called the decision, quote, a grave mistake that i fear will encourage further acts of es e espionage and senator tom cotton who has served in the army said

we ought not treat a traitor like a martyr. in addition to manning, president obama also issued a pardon for a former key member of his national security team, retired marine corps general james cartwright who is also a former vice chairman of joint chiefs of staff was due to be sentenced this month for talking to "the new york times" about a top secret program that infected iran's nuclear program with a computer virus. "the times" argued the former general was trying to talk the paper out of publishing the report rather than leaking information. he plead the guilty to making false statements during a deral investigation. joe? >> a lot to unwind here, david ignatius, but let's start with the manning decision by the president. obviously, yet another reason for the intel community to shake their head and wonder what the hell is going on with elected leader in washington, d.c.

>> joe, the intelligence community, the military will not be happy. the pentagon has said to have recommended strongly against doing what president obama did. the reason this they argue it's important to have harsh and unyielding punishment of people who leak classified information is as a deterrent. in the jonathan pollard case somebody was given an unusually long, harsh sentence and pleas every year from israeli and pro israeli groups that he be freed but the u.s. was unyielding over time. the argument was you need to have a deterrent so people won't be tempted to do these things. >> david, this is what put wikileaks on the front page of american newspapers, right? >> this was wikileaks first huge break. 250,000 documents and a whole

part of the state department's playbook were revealed. i think president obama is saying i'm trying to split the difference here. chelsea manning has served seven years, she expressed remorse and contrition. i'm not pardoning gart ining edn who is sitting in moscow and say that is the difference here. i think among military officers and intelligence officers that argument won't go very far. >> katty kay, seems more than irony hear for chelsea manning who has presided over an administration fierce going after its leakers. fierce! >> and people are questioning today whether pre obama is aware of the image that this is sending and the message this is sending that, go ahead and leak you have the chance of having your sentence commuted after seven years. is that really what this president, in particular, wants to do?

we will get more of a sense from the president, himself. he is holding a press conference later today. he is set up the timing of this. look. he announced this yesterday. he is having the press conference today. we know he is going to be asked about this and we will get some more inkling into what his reasoning is behind this. i think david is right, from what i'm hear and what was said yesterday in the press briefing is that they are making some kind of contrast between edward snowden who never came back and faced the music and between chelsea manning who, in her hearings, although we have only just heard the video of it, did apologize and express remorse for what she did and has served sen years in a prison here in the united states. i think that is the comparison they are setting up. >> butro for the president, mika, are in the making announcements yesterday and standing up today where he will be asked questions and he'll answer them. >> absolutely right and facing them. david ignatius and katty kay, thank you both forring being on the showed this morning.

president obama holds his final white house news conference today but he stel managed to crash his press secretary's final briefing yesterday. josh earnest joins us live from the white house as his boss prepares to leave office. just as popular as when he came in. mike allen will join us with his revealing interview with donald trump. back in a moment. why pause a spontaneous moment? cialis for daily use treats ed and the urinary symptoms of bph. tell your doctor about your medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain,

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welcome back to "morning joe." it is wednesday, january 18th. still with us on set, we have msnbc contributor mike barnicle and managing editor of bloomberg politics, new dah dah, mike halpern. he is so cute. what is his name? >> james. >> he is a little guy. >> he is perfect. >> that is what happens. >> thank you, karen. also with us is msnbc political analyst elise jordan and joining the conversation is the cofounder of axios, mike allen. big day today? >> we flipped the switch. axios.com went live this morning. >> get out. >> all 50 of our clelolleagues arlington are working it. >> i love it. today is the day. president and ceo of the aspen institute, best selling author

walter isaacson joins us. good to see you, walter. thank you for being on. >> thank you. congratulations to mark and to mike. >> exactly. both having babies of their own! also with us is pulitzer price winning reporter and associate editor of "the washington post," david marinis is joining us as well. packed house today, joe. >> first of all, walter, we want to let you know we have been certainly thinking about you. >> thank you. >> we are deeply moved about your words about your father and his passing. tell all of our viewers who may not have had the opportunity to read your moving and eloquent words about your dad, talk about what made him such a special man, not only in your life, but for everybody that knew him. >> well, thank you, joe, and thank you for your note. my father was the kindest man i had ever met. and you think, well, that is not a huge virtue, not like courage or, you know, honor or duty. well, he had courage and honor

and duty, but what we are lacking today is sometimes kindness. he helped build the super dome in new orleans and river gate and when he was 80, i was on the louisiana recovery authority right after the storm and i was -- we were visiting the superdome. i look up and see my 80-year-old father climbing the beams of the superdome just to make sure that they are safe and secure. i think he is one of the few people i know who cared more about other on people than cared about himself and knew we were all in this as a greater endeavor, not just to enrich ourselves. >> there was a line from a movie when i was reading about your father that i thought about. it was the end of a movie where somebody said, i've noticed a change in you. the actor said, what? have i become a great man? and she had, no. you've become something so much better. you've become a good man. and great men, great women are a

dime a dozen. but men like your father, good men are so rare. such a rare commodity sometimes these days. >> and i do think that is something these days with all of the tension and poison in the air, just, you know, i tried every day that he was alive and i hope i'll try every day the rest of my life to say, what would my father do? because, you know, we all have to try to just say, you know, significance, greatness, intelligence, all of these things, they don't mean much. it's being good. that makes our time here worthwhile. >> well, on that beautiful note, we start this morning with a look at the president-elect and how people are feeling. another new poll this rning shs that trump entering office with very low approval ratings. the new nbc/"wall street journal" poll gives him a positive rating 38%. with negative feelings at 48%. just after the election in mid

november, his approval ratings were about even. down just two points in the quinnipiac poll and up one according to cnn/orc. multiple polls yesterday showed similar numbers, just days before he takes the oval office, down ten points in the nbc/"wall street journal" poll, and negative 12 points in monmouth university pole and down 18 in the abc news/"the washington post" post and under nine by the cnn/orc poll. in spite of his low approval ratings, some of trump's top priorities are in line with american voters. 78% say keeping jobs in the u.s. is an absolute priority this year. 57% say imposing tariffs on countries who take advantage of trade agreements, 66% say the same about reducing the influence of lobbyists and big money in politics. 64% say now is the time to fund infrastructure projects, to improve roads and highways and bridges. and 59% say take an aggressive position against isis, including bombing and committing more

troops. only 30% of the people polled say they are extremely or quite confident. 70% are somewhat or not confident. trump's 30% confidence rating compares to 54of president obama in 2009, 40% to george w. bush in 2001 and 50% for bill clinton in 1993. joe? >> mark halpern, you know, there are actually bits of good news sprinkled in with the bad headlines here. the bad news, of course the lack of message discipline over the past month has really damaged the standings with the american people, at least temporarily. absolutely no message discipline. the good news is that some of the -- even his more controversial positions, like tariffs and protectionism and protecting american jobs against more of a free market approach

to trade is actually popular with the american people. how does it all wash out for donald trump? >> well, he is no longer starting on friday. he is going to be judged by retweets or number of mentions on cable news but judged on the way he makes the lives of real people better. i think he is starting to get that. the way they have handled messaging during the transition was like during the campaign. he did literally 150 things or more during the transition that no professional would advise you to do if you wanted to increase your approval rating. he made a lot of mistakes and he has made mistakes this week how he has handled john lewis, i think in the view of most people. whether he wants to be a successful president or not i think will determine whether he learns the kind of message discipline that is required. i think the best news for him no one is standing in his way. to use your -- one of your favorite things, joe. he is moving 150 miles an hour and no one is going to slow him down. if he performs well and focuses on getting things done particularly in jobs and foreign

minister, i think his approval numbers will go back up and i think he'll have high incentive to do that. >> that will require a discipline, though, to focus on ford and gm and lockheed and boeing, instead of merle streep and alec baldwin and john lewis. mike allen, you sense by reading your interview with donald trump that a bit of the weight of the presidency was beginning to bear down on him last nig and also when you interviewed him and also the understanding of what a dangerous, dangerous world we live in. it's almost as if he got the briefing yesterday afternoon. i don't know if that is the case or not but it certainly read that way in your interview. >> joe, that is so right. in our story that jim vandehei and i did after our trip to trump tower is on axios.com, brand-new this morning. and, joe, when we got into those

gold elevators and past the pool and went up to his office and we see trump behind his desk surrounded by both the old, the books and magazine covers and the football helmets, and all of the mementos in his office and the new behind him as you and mika have seen the plexiglas shields that the secret service put in there to protect him even though he is high in the air, we figured that we would be seeing the glowing cocky guy that you expect after someone has won the biggest contest in the world. instead, with we saw someone who was really sensing the weight of the metrics, that mark halpern was just talking about. the word that aides use when they talk to us is realistic. this is the most realistic that they have ever seen trump. so when we talked to him about health care, just a couple of days ago, he was saying insurance for everyone. with us, he said, no, we just don't want people on the street. a very different measure.

those interviews just a couple of days ago when he said, ah, putin, merkel, they are allies and all the same. with us, he said, no, i'm going to give everybody a chance. just a couple of days ago, he had thrown out a key part of the house republicans tax reform plan, said it was too complicated. with us, ed it's back on the tae. so he is recognizi that he has to get things done and that it's going to be harder. we saw a little bit of the old trump, though. he told us that never in the history of politics has the press been harder on someone, we are like, really? he said that he was not a divisive figure and he said nobody ever gets more press than i do. he said, not that i work at it. >> oh, wow. joe? >> walter isaacson, if you look at the poll numbers that have gone down so much of it probably has to do with the fact this

president has not been as subdued and has not been as steady as most americans would prefer their president to be. as you sort through the poll numbers, what is the headline for you? >> well, surprising thing there is not much surprising. it was a very populace set of poll numbers whether it came to banks or whatever it may be. i think the thing that stands out is that people are hungry for him to bring the country together. i think mark who said you don't go around tweeting about merle streep and continue day after day attacks on john allow businelewis when you got better things to do to bring the country to do. i think the way he affects ordinary citizens and the first one is the affordable care act. the real question is if in two or three days he can go for what he said publicly to what he said to mike allen, you got to try to

on figure out are people going to be able to get health care coverage? people with preexisting conditions and pple who move from one job to the other. it's not a moral issue but economic issue because you want people to switch jobs and move around to where the jobs are and that requires some way of allowing people to get health care and he just cannot be cavalier about it the way he has been if 18 million people end up uninsured because of him, that will be the big disaster more than tweeting about merle streep. >> in a moment, we are speaking live with white house press secretary josh earnest and president obama is leaving off with a 16% net approval rating. in a poll 56% approve of his performance as president and 40% disapprove.

55% believe he will be among the best if not better than recent presidents and 44% say he is not good or worse than presidents in modern history. as for whether the country is better off than it was, 55% say better and 44% say worse. bill clinton left office with a 72% calling the country better off and 15% saying it was worse off. the poll finds that 45% of respondents believe the affordable care act is a guide. that is the highest percentage since the poll began asking the question in april of 2009. it's also the first time since the law's passage in 2010 where more americans think it is a good idea than a bad idea. according to the poll a majority of americans have a positive opinion of the health care law and 6% say it's working well the way it is and 44% say it needs

minor modifications for improvement. when asked if they were confident, a combined 26% of respondents say they either have a great deal or quite a bit of confidence. combined 50% have little or on no confidence with the gop replacement. joe, it's interesting. i think the more republicans talk about replacing in some ways that could be backfiring because it's letting people know about the monumental piece of legislation in our nation's history. >> yeah. really. it is. and the republicans have been chasing the cars. everybody has been saying for eight years. they caught it. they better know what to do with it or it's going to back up and run over them. those clinton numbers. very high. 77% leaving and 15% higher than barack obama but in barack obama's defense, i mean, bill clinton had a very calm peaceful last two years in the white house which explains, david, why

he has such high numbers. you have, obviously, followed both bill clinton and barack obama very closely. written a book about both of these democratic presidents and i must say, it is somewhat remarkable in these divisive times that both of these democratic presidents have left office after eight years of just brutal political war fare with very high, very strong, very impressive approval numbers. >> well, one was impeached and the other was, in some ways, tempted to be delegitimatize with the whole birther notion and everything else. polls are one thing. legacy is another. as a historian, i'm more interested in the long term than what somebody leaves office with. because that will diminish with time. and i think -- >> what is -- what is barack obama's long-term legacy? >> you know, i think that, to some extent, we have all looked

at -- not see the forest for the trees. and i still believe deeply that the forest is that he was a pioneer, that he was the jackie robinson of american electoral politics. jackie robinson left, retired 60 years ago. the first black baseball player in the major leagues with talent and dignity. it wasn't just that he was the first, is that he had the other two things as well. i think 50 years from now is how we will see barack obama. a lot of the disputes will fade away. >> i was talking earlier this week on mlk day and talked about how i suspect 50 years from now you almost will see mlk and barack obama joined together as two leaders, two young men who, together, helped fulfill the promise of thomas jefferson. i think it is two parts of the same story and the realization

of what was promised in 1776. >> i agree completely with that. i also think, you know, on a slightly different note, we have talked a lot about how the democratic party has collapsed in the eight years in many ways. and, you know, when you deal with sports again, you talk about a coaching tree, whether some great coach has people who can follow him. i think with barack obama, it's a little different. the party has suffered but i think that what we are forgetting is children. people who are now will 8 to 22 years old, i think barack obama had a profound effect on that and will feel that reverberating through the following decade. >> walter isaacson, the obama presidency, david is absolutely right and look far different through history's prism in 20, 25 years from now than it does now, but always around this president and, david gwynagain eluded to this," the element of

race in our country. it is unresolved and unresolved through our lifetime a be unresolved unfortunately in the years ahead. the element oface in measuring president obama has to have been and is a real marker? >> absolutely. i think it was naive to think we have become a post-racial america as soon as we elected barack obama but i think his legacy is going to be far larger, i agree with everything david said. he took us out of a huge financial crisis and i hear people say we haven't had huge row best growth. we have had the best growth over the past seven or eight years of any industrial nation and we have unemployment down. i also think that, you know, he set an agenda which is everybody should have the opportunity to get health care coverage and that is going to be very hard for donald trump or others to unwind. i think that, you know, you look at presidents. i think if you look at their

exit poll numbers, you're not going to figure out where will truman be 25, 50 years from now. likewise with obama. i think obama will go down as one of the great presidents we have ever had. >> mark halpern, also, though, one of the things that historians will have to sort through is the fact that you look past the poll numbers today, but you look at the economic numbers. you look not only where the stock market was at its low point, you look at where unemployment was, double digits. you look at where it is now. you look at where wages, even wages, stubbornly have started to rise. you look at by just about every economic metric, things have improved economically. he will get, obviously, hit very hard by historians on syria and other foreign policy matters. but domestically, i think one of the things that is going to be hard for historians to sort through is how a president who

was so successful economically at home, lost as many seats in the house and the senate and as many governorships as he did and that is something in 2017 at the beginning of 2017, none of us really understand. >> such complex cross currents here. you can't overstate that the degree to which he took over the time of streextreme prices and country going into a depression and he troo had to stimulus and right the ship. the economic of the country is very solid and u.s. is doing better than other u.s. democracies but i think what he failed to do and the long-term stuff education will bear fruit down the road but i think what he failed to do is produce a boom time and very solid save the world in the beginning of his term but not like bill clinton presiding over a huge boom time for america. >> joe but when history is written, bush, paulsen and

barack obama and tim geithner and saving the economy is going to be a huge, huge story. much bigger than it is right now. >> yep. >> it certainly is. and the fact that we don't really remember that eight years later, that it was those four men working together with a lot of other people. an example where democrats and republicans worked together to get something monumental done. and that is, i think, that is a great part of the legacy. also, i think the auto bailout is an important part of the legacy too. >> absolutely. >> ironically, he helped save the midwest which turned around eight years later and voted for donald trump. again, as mark said, so many cross currents that we don't understand right now. give us ten years, maybe. get back to us in ten years maybe we will figure itout. >> that is how history always looks differently on the on president. joining us now is the white house outgoing josh earnest what

is a dismal looking morning in washington there but you look good, josh. how are you? >> it's a little foggy here. >> it is. in more than ways than one, shall we say? look at that shot of the white house. josh, how are you feeling as you get ready to leave on office? that was quite a moment yesterday when the president came in the room to honor you during your final briefing. >> yeah. look. yesterday was a memorable day at the white house and incredibly humbling one for me personally to stand at the white house podium over the last two and a half years has been the opportunity of a lifetime and i'm so grateful for the opportunities that president obama has extended to me to give me the opportunity to fight for a president and advocate for an agenda for this country that i deeply believe in. it's been a genuine honor and it was fun to do it one last time. >> what do you think about the future of the white house briefings? what are you hearing about what might happen? might they be moved outside into the eob or changes that might take place? what are you concerned about the

most having been on the inside, knowing the process from the inside and how important that communication is? >> well, there clearly have been a lot of mixed signals from the incoming team about what exactly their plans are. i think a couple of important things. first is i think every administration comes into the white house with a mandate that they are ready to seize and make some changes. i don't think we should be opposed to changes but i do i think it's important to protect some of the traditional are american and give the white house press corps the most talented and effective press corps experience in the world the access that they need to closely cover the president and to hold people in power accountable for their actions. and so there might be some changes we could make that would make them more effective in that. >> yeah. >> i think it's worth us having an open mind to their changes even as we stand ready to dig in and protect the kind of access the white house press corps needs to serve the american people well. >> we have david marinus with us and he has a question for you,

josh. >> good morning. >> good morning, josh. you've been around the president for years now. i'm accuser how he sort of helped your growth and what you learned most from president obama. >> well, the thing that -- i had an opportunity to talk about this a little bit yesterday. the thing about president obama that rung so true to me ten years ago is his -- the clarity of his vision for the country and his forcefulness in defending it. you know, my career in politics only spans about 20 years or so so you're a historical context is much longer and stronger than mine. but one of the things that i remember when president obama took the national stage in 2007 wasn't just that he had this clear vision for an inclusive optimistic vision for the future of this country that was inclusive where everybody had a shot and everybody was going to get a fair shake, but that he was willing to forcefully defend it and there was a sense throughout the bush years when president bush in the white house democrats on their back foot health and there was a lack of clarity about how exactly to

most effectively advocate for our vision of the country and president obama put all of that to rest by willing to come out fighting for a vision for the country that he really believed in. he is going out fighting for that vision of the country and that is something that i genuinely respect. he has never lost track of that north star and a willingness to really fight for it. >> mike len. >> on a more persol level. yeah. >> look. on a personal level? >> yes. >> president obama, despite all of the pressures of the world that are on him, put his family first and somebody who genuinely enjoyed the opportunity to do what he called living above the store, and, you know, over the eight years i've worked here at the white house, i've started dating my wife, we got married. we have got a little one at home now and another one on the way. and he certainly, president obama has certainly been an example, even behind the scenes, as a doting father, as a loving husband and somebody who puts

his family first and something that i certainly aspire to. >> mike allen now. >> mike, go ahead. >> yeah. josh, this is mike. you see the president a lot behind the scenes. president-elect trump told us that he had talked to the president about health care two days ago. is your sense, what you pick up, his body language, what he says when he is off camera, is your sense that the president is getting more worried or less worried about donald trump being his successor? >> mike, congratulations first of all, on axios. i hear you have a big launch today and it's off to a good start. with health care i think the president is confident about the democrats to protect the affordable care act and all of the benefits that the american people are enjoying right now. the argument that democrats have to make about protecting obamacare, preventing 30 million people from being kicked off of their health insurance if republicans succeed in repealing the law, you know, if republicans repeal the law there will be 130 million americans who will lose protections for the preexisting conditions that they have.

so i think what we are seeing now is that democrats are united in supporting the affordable care act and i think that they are feeling increasingly confident about their ability to do so. in part, because republicans seem pri divided. republicans still, after seven years, haven't put forward a plan to replace the affordabl care act and unclear what the incoming administration has planned and what is clear they haven't told their secretary of health and human services, health and human services exactly what their plan is. >> yeah. >> and that nominee looks increasingly embattled by the day. so i think what you see right now is -- in some ways we have flipped the script. you see democrats united and republicans all over the map when it comes to the future of health care and the future of health care reform and that leaves the president increasingly optimistic that congress and democrats in congress will succeed in protecting the law that has been good for the country and been good for millions of americans and good for our economy. >> we are going to walter isaacson. i just want to know why the guy

with the leaf blower is still there like eight years later! and there are no leaves! >> for some reason he only shows up what i'm here! >> i don't understand. >> there are absolutely no leaves on the ground. what is he doing? walter, take it away! >> i was listening to what joe was saying about the banks having been saved and auto industry saved and stock market way up and, you know, certainly even median family income starting to rise. yet, all of that has produced a populace backlash we have seen in this country, including people, the backlash against the bank bailout and auto bailout. it's almost a global phenomenon. why do you think this happened and, you know, why has there been a backlash to the economic progress that you've had? >> walter, i think you've just identified the basic question that goes to state of our politics in this era, sort of in

the post-great recession era. our politics is -- well, foggy in the same way the weather is here in washington. there does seem to be lot of doubt and a lack of clarity about what kind much progress we have made and what the consequences are for the country. there is no denying that there are millions of americans out there who feel alienated from their government and feel a little left behind what has been a strong recovery from the worst economic downturn since the great depression. when you look at the fundamentals there is no denying that we have made remarkable progress. even historic progress in this country because of some of the policies that this administration put in place. that progress would not have been possible without some of the politically difficult challenges that president obama confronted head on and squg the auto industry is a great example of that. wall street reform is a great example of that and each are reforms that republicans predicted a negative impact on the economy but, in reality, they have had a remarkably positive impact on the economy. so there is no arguing with the numbers. but there is also no argue with

the fact that people feel alienated and the question facing democrats and republicans what can democrats to more effectively communicate with the american policy but that there are actual people and lives who have benefited from these policies. and we have got some work to do to figure out how exactly to deliver that message in a believable and compelling way so we can start winning some votes again. >> right. a job well done. i wish you best on your next job as third base coach for the kansas city royals. >> thank you. >> thank you david and walter. mike allen, thank you as well. >> see us on axios.com. >> this is the day they flip the switch. say it again. what is it? >> axios, it means worthy in greek, worthy of your time and attention. >> i love it when he says that. we are back in a moment. aspard..

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there has will be been a bit of a setback for trump that the bruce springsteen, the e street band will not longer perform during the inauguration. so far 3 doors down and tobey keith will be performing and this. ♪ >> all right. very good. i don't know what that was! >> okay. nbc news hallie jackson will report for us next on what is high profile confirmation hearings coming up today on capitol hill. just like the people

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all right. joining us from capitol hill, nbc news correspondents hallie jackson. health secretary nominee tom price goes before the health committee today. what can we expect there? >> reporter: listen. a lot of hearings happening on the hill. big day today and four of them, i think. the headline for them is congressman price and some

democrats tried to delay today's hearings because of questions they have over their concerns about what they call insider trading with. the trump transition saying democrats playing political games. this hearing is happening. tom price now in the hot seat as this war over the health care law intensifies. facing his first congressional checkup today, congressman tom price, the georgia doctor, picked to lead the health department. his public exam? hot on the heels after new report what could happen to the affordable care act if it is rejected. 18 million could lose insurance after one year and 32 million afr ten years and premiums spiking 20% to 25%. to the gop the estimate? not painting the full picture. house speaker paul ryan's office calling it meaningless, since it doesn't factor in a plan to replace the law. the catch? republicans haven't announced a

replacement plan yet or even agreed on what it should look like. donald trump says he is down to the final strokes on that replacement. but don't expect to hear those details today from price. instead, a transition source tells nbc news the congressman is prepared to on offer broad principles in line with the president-elect's campaign pledges and adding price and trump have met twice in the last two weeks. >> you'll be very he proud of what we put forth, having to do with health care. >> reporter: price almost certain to be asked about a report he invested thousands of dollars in a biomedical company not long before introducing legs th legislation that would benefit it and becomes demanding more information. >> any prosecutor on would say i better look into this. and to have the hearings and try to have the hearing before we know the price here is huge

mistake. >> noting a broker conducted trades without any input from price, himself. so, remember. today's hearing is not tom price's official confirmation hearing the one that kind of for the record books. that next week with the senate finance committee on the 24th but today is significant. it's the first time the congressman price, as a nominee, is going to face questions from senators in both parties about what is likely to focus almost entirely on on the health care law a on those questions that you heard chuck schumer bring up that democrats a sure to fire off at. >> hallie jackson, thank you very much. still ahead on "morning joe" -- >> is president-elect trump right? is climate change a hoax? >> i can give you the best answer is three things. first of all, climate is changing. that is undisputable. i'm from glacier, national park. >> you don't have any more

glaciers there, huh? >> i've seen glaciers over my time recede. as a matter of fact my family and i have eaten lunch on a glacier and the glacier receded during lunch. the second thing is man has had an influence. i think that is undisputable as well. what is the influence and what can we do about it? as the department of interior, i will inherit, if confirmed, the usgs. we have great scientists there. i'm not a climate scientist expert but i will become more familiar with it and it will be based on objective science. i don't believe it's a hoax easement another trump nominee breaks with the president-elect on the question of climate change. it comes as his pick to lead the eps a will a little while face the same question today but scott pruitt's answer will likely not be the same. that's ahead on "morning joe."

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the beginning and it's rex tillerson. where is rex? the lights are bright. what a job. thanks, rex. i think it's tougher than what he thought. he comes into a country and takes the oil and goes into another country. it's tough dealing with these politicians, right? >> all right. president-elect trump last night having some fun with the secretary of state nominee rex tillerson. everyone here is still a little shocked. joining us now is the president and i'll tell you why of the environmental defense fund fred krup. i think this is the first nominee for epa that your organization has said no to, right? >> in our 50-year history. >> 50 years, both sides of the aisle. with us is professor at columbia university. dr. jeffrey sachs.

this should be an interesting day. any signs of hope you're looking for in the proceedings today? jeffrey, i'll talk with you first. >> look. trump is trying to give the whole government over to the oil industry. it's really unbelievable. give exxonmobil, the state department, and all of the lobbyists the interior epa. so we are trying to have -- or he is trying to have an oil and gas government and it's kind of shocking, given the realities that we have on pollution and climate change. >> any realities he could be hopeful with the epa choice? >> none with him at all. his track record is utterly disastrous. it's not just him. he has been at the center of the national lobby to dismantle every regulation on the oil and gas industry. so he is not just an incidental figure. he has been a key figure as the attorney general of oklahoma to bring together a national network to dismantle every

pollution control, every environmental standard, every action on climate change. so he is pretty central. >> on what grounds has he sued climate change. >> on what grounds has he pursued to overturn. >> he said something about mercury, something the scientist told us impedes brain injury in the unborn and in young children, and he said he's not sure this is really a toxic substance, and he repeatly sued to block mercury pollution, and he said the federal government doesn't have the power to control upwind pollution. these are health issues that will touch every american. what is worse, mike, in 13 of the 14 lawsuits he has taken

against epa, he received contributions from his co-litigators, and he seems to view every lawsuit he takes as a fund-raising opportunity. >> if you look at the description, mark halperin, it looks like an antagonistic pick. >> we don't know anybody else in the country that would have been so antagonistic, and it's out of line what donald trump ran o. and i was surprised by this pick, and i am wondering where you think this will show up first, as you seem to be the worst case of what will happen in terms of the new policy, and where will peoples' lives begin to be affected first? >> i think as pollution limits are removed, and you will have as masthma attacks and when you

burn coal, every lump of coal has mercury and goes into the air and lands in the lakes, and in oklahoma every county that has been surveyed violates smog standards, and it has been given an f. >> oklahoma city is one of the asthma centers of our country. >> how have they responded? has it caused political up rising? >> that state is in the hands of the oil industry, and that's a money machine, and that's continental resources and that's big money behind this, and there's no other issue involved here, and it's not about science or health or about the well-being of the oklahoma people, and it's about money, and money bought its way into every nook and krapby of this

administration. >> there were letters and copied word for word, and he's somebody who has represented not the people of oklahoma but the big energy companies, and it's a little like if you put bernie madoff in charge of wall street. >> i think we have. i think the biggest endangerment, they are endangering the lobbyist, and they handed the offices over to the lobbyist. we have never seen anything like this before. >> the key point we are trying to get across today to the senators is they will be held accountable if they do vote to confirm, because i believe you

should give the president the benefit of the doubt, and the president -- any president deserves some deference, but here there isn't any doubt what he's going to do is seen from his track record of what he has done in oklahoma, and the senators who vote to confirm him are doing something that will be very damaging, and they will be held accountable. >> mike? >> what do you do in your opposition to this candidate and other candidates for the trump cabinet when it comes down to as in the case of oklahoma, and when it comes down to clean air and clean water, all noble things we all need and depend on, versus my paycheck, and people view sometimes, wrongly, but sometimes logically view, you know, a fight against a candidate like pruitt and what he says, oh, am i going to lose my job? >> this is not about jobs or paychecks and it's about the money at the top.

this is unbelievable greed of the oil industry. >> but, i mean, peoples' fears play a part. >> you are right about that. >> what will -- i mean, american people care about all the things you care about, and what will keep them from being a check? are you saying money will be stronger than the american people to say we need clean air and water? >> it's what you said, mark. trump did not campaign on this, but this is a pure bait and switch operation, and same thing he campaigned against wall street and he put wall street in charge of every single post in the government, and it's all lies, and he got in and he's taking over and the lobbyist are taking over in every single part of the government. and the american people, they can sit there amazed. they are very unhappy, and the more they learn the more unhappy they are, but for the moment, until people really fully grasp what has happened, which is amazing, we are just going to

see a deterioration. maybe there are a few congressman and senators that will stand up for their children. >> the antidote in all of this is sunshine, and we have proven state after state, jobs and a clean environment go hand and hand and not vice versa, and there's renewable energy. >> there's so much opportunity for the businesses to grow under that. >> to really grow, exactly. >> thank you very much, and we will see what happens. we areollowing breaking news from houston, and former president-elect george h.w. bush is in the hospital and we will have an update on his condition. donald trump entering office with the lowest ratings among

the presidents. we will see how the democratic party can rebuild as they find themselves completely out of power, not just in washington, but at many state levels as well. "morning joe" is back in a moment. have conquered highways, mountains, and racetracks. and now much of that same advanced technology is found in the audi a4. with one notable difference... ♪ the highly advanced audi a4, with available traffic jam assist. ♪

why pause a spontaneous moment? cialis for daily use treats ed and the urinary symptoms of bph. tell your doctor about your medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, or adempas® for pulmonary hypertension, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess. to avoid long-term injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have a sudden decrease or loss of hearing or vision, or an allergic reaction, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis. senator john mccain was on "morning joe" this morning, because as time goes by he

appears to be giving less of what they call, a crap. >> joining us now from capitol hill, republican senator, john mccain of arizona. very good to have you with us on the show this morning, sir. >> thank you. i am freezing my ass off. >> sorry. >> i knew that was going to end up somewhere. good morning, everyone. >> yeah. >> i can't believe i parroted the words back to him later, but he started it welcome to "morning e." with us on set we have veteran columnist, mike barnicle, and we have new daddy managing editor of bloomberg -- look at this. i need that baby! bring it in. when are you bringing it in? >> he's on order.

he is busy this morning but he will be here. >> congratulations. beautiful. >> thank you. >> contributor from "time" magazines, former aide to the george w. bush white house, and in washington, washington anchor for bcc world news america, catty kay, and editor for the washington post, david ignatius, and joining us on this big week in politics, inaugural week. we will get to the numbers on the health of trump's presidency just before he takes office, and yesterday -- this was written about trump's demeanor. he says in part, quote, we found the incoming president unusually subdued and lowering expectations and acknowledging some of the messy realities of

governing and walking back some of the more provocative statements he made days before, and he told us the sober tone reflects a bumpy few days inside trump tower and the realization he is days away from truly running the nation. that's revealing. >> right. >> well, it is revealing, and it also reminds me of something as you get later in the interview that mike barnicle said before barack obama was sworn in as president of the united states, and he said at some point everybody gets the briefing and when they get the briefing it changes them. i know david ignatius can speak to this, and i thought a very telling, mike barnicle, and we don't know if he got the big briefing or not, but we know he seemed far more focused on just how dangerous of a world this is, and what he is walking into in the interview with mike allen

and jim van . >> joe, even that brief report that mika just gave us from mike allen's report of his meeting yesterday of the president-elect is among the more encouraging reports, i think, we have gotten out of the transition team and especially from the president-elect, because as you know and david ignatius knows, the weight of the presidency, once it sinks it, that's the reaction you want, and you want somebody sort of subdued and, wow, this is the thing now and the campaign is over and the president-elect has been in campaign mode for many, many months up through and including most of this week, but now he's on the verge of becoming presidt of the united states and the responsibitynd the

seriousness and the purpose of that office, that's encouraging to assume from reading mike allen's report that it might be taking hold. >> david ignatius, mike barnicle had spoken to a former fbi director, and he said if you read what i read every day, you would not get out of bed. it's a dangerous world out there, and apparently, again, and we are just surmising this, there was a great focus on the dangers that americans faced in this subdued interview with donald trump, and then he had an off-hand assurance, we are going to take care of it and we will be fine but there are a lot of dangerous players out there. i think mike is right, this is the sort of realization you want setting in on your president-elect days from the inauguration. >> we've watched, joe, with barack obama over eight years what the burdens of the presidency can do to you

physically. we saw -- there was a young man that bounded into the white house and he leaves gray-haired, creases in his face that were never there, and a person that visibly has carried the burdens of the office, and we are getting from donald trump of what lands on his shoulders starting on friday, that's a good thing. he has a strong team and a lot of smart people, and you can't help but be impressed by general mattis and kelly, and rex tillerson, and he has strong people around to help him carry the burden, but as we know in modern history, this burden does fall with the president, and if he sees that, that's good, he will have to be less impulsive and more presidential, and i hateo use that word, but more presidential and lead the country, and we'll have more on that starting this friday. we begin now with breaking

news. former president, george h.w. bush is in a houston hospital this morning after experiencing shortness of breath, and that's according to a spokesperson from a methodist hospital, and he is resting comfortably. the former president is 92 years old, and he's the only living former president that will not be on friday's inauguration, and that announcement coming weeks ago due to his advanced age, and we will keep you updated. >> i was just going to say, obviously, we saw him this summer and he was in very good spirits, and obviously over the past couple of years his health has continued to decline with parkinson's disease, but that is a man, as we talk with presidents assuming office, that showed extraordinary grace with

the man who just defeated him, bill clinton, and that really has become the modern blueprint for cooperation that we have seen over the past 20, 25 years, from his transition to bill clinton, all the way up to back obama's graciousness with donald trumpand that is just one of the countless legacies that that man leads washington and the world. >> and we will follow his condition and keep everybody updated, of course. now to the poll numbers this morning that show president-elect trump entering office with low approval ratings. the new nbc "wall street journal" poll gives him a positive rating, and just after the election his approval ratings were about even, and just down two points in the cnn

poll. down ten points in the nbc "wall street journal" poll at negative 12 points in the monmouth university poll. and in spite of the low approval ratings, some of his principles are in line with the american public. 57% say imposing tariffs on countries that take advantage of trade agreements, and 66% say about reducing the influence of lobbyist and big money in policsand 6 say now is the time to fund infstructure projects to improve roads and highways and bridges, and 59% say take a stand against isis, including bombing and sending more troops, and still only 30% of the people polled said they are extremely or quite

confident, and 70% are somewhat or not confident. and trump's 30% compared to the others. you look at his policies and people seem to be connected with those but not with him. >> well, it's a snapshot, and it's pretty remarkable, if you look at how much those numbers have collapsed over the past month. he's gone down on average, and i looked at the five polls, probably 11 or 12%, and that's all temperament. you dig deep into every single one of these polls and he gets high marks for strong leadership in some of the polls and he gets low marks in temperament. twitter right now is actually -- well, he considers it, mark halperin, to be one of his strongest suits and twitter has turned out to be his achilles'

heel at least in this transition, but if you are looking for good news in trump tower from the polls, it's that the american people -- most of the american people, certainly this nbc poll want donald trump in washington to pursue the issues that he's championed throughout the campaign, they just want him, as david ignatius said, to be more presidential while doing it. >> if you looked at the numbers and trump was a normal politician, and you did a case study at the kennedy school of government you would say this presidency is starting in crisis, but it's not because of what you cited, the fact that people like his agenda to some extent and they are skeptical, and he is ntphaunot be holded t washington or his party, and a normal politician could not get stuff done with that kind of approval rating and trump is not a normal politician, and his

party that he is a member now of controls congress and that can help him get things done and change the numbers, and finally, independents, he will have to find out ways to win them back. >> he does have a lot of resources to do it, mika, and it's important to remember, this just happened over the past month. he has gone down quickly, just like, again, like after wisconsin, and he backed away after his numbers collapsed, and his poll numbers went up. after the comey statement, his last ten days, he retreated and he did not create as much chaos, his numbers rose seven, eight, nine points if you believe some of the polls. so the less he does publicly, the better his numbers do. the more he does the more it goes down. >> obviously on social media,

catty kay, but he has a wide reach and it will develop more globally. i know you are working on a project that takes a look at the first 100 days from a global perfective, and talk if you could about the impact of this fast-moving conversation he has with the world, really, that sometimes goes off the rails. there has been a lot of criticism about our standing in the world under president obama, and what does it looks like right now tph? >> everybody is amazed. you can't underestimate the degree of everybody watching this transition. we spoke yesterday on the show about a sense of exhaustion and confusion and i think that's what the rest of the world is feeling, too. i have never seen the interest in the transition, and this time around there's alarm about what

this could actually mean because it's very hard to know. i think, david, do you think from what donald trump has been tweeting out that we have a alistic picture o how he intends to engag with allies around the world, or are these just salvos? >> i think they are salvos, and donald trump sees himself as the disrupter, and you begin every negotiation with a bombastic view of the goals, and that's how donald trump is used to behaving, but the problem is that doesn't work well as president, and once the prime minister and the negotiator and chief, if you will, and he's also the head of state, and he represents our country, and there's a clear message for trump by the poll numbers, and the country wants him to succeed

on his basic program and agenda, but they are anxious about his personality and temperament, and the country is exhausted after the twitter wars, meryl streep one day and a civil rights hero the next. there's a clear message for trump, but he needs to be the dealmaker, yeah, and he also needs to be head of state. still ahead on "morning joe," some of the most contentious confirmation hearings today, and yesterday it was betsy othe seat. nbc's alex sightswald joins us, but first, bill karins with a check on the forecast. >> we have active weather across the country, scary times early this morning, the sirens were

going off in the areas around houston and we had a tornado warning and no confirmed tornado, that was good, but just heavy rain and localized flooding and that rain is now kicking up in louisiana, and continuing to pour all the way around i-5, and we are getting rid of the ice that formed around portland and now some of the heavy rains come into northern california. your forecast today is going to continue fog around d.c., and that will clear out nicely as we go throughout the afternoon and we are watching the heavy rain down here in areas of south texas and louisiana, and the forecast is looking better as we go throughout the morning hours on friday and then we will watch it as we go throughout the afternoon getting worse. and inaugural weather, the last snow was eight inches in 1981, and the last rain was in 2001, and it's going to call for a dry morning and then rain developing in the afternoon, and we may get rain as we go through the afternoon with the parade, and

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♪ >> would you be so kind as to tell us how much money your family has contributed to the republican party over the years? >> i wish i could give you that number. i don't know. >> i heard the number was $200 million. does that sound in the ballpark? >> collectively between my entire family, that's possible. >> my question is, and i don't mean to be rude, but do you think if you were not a multibillionaire, if your family had not made hundreds of millions of contributions to the republican party, you would be sitting here today tphao senator, as a matter of fact i do think there would be that possibility, and i worked hard on behalf of parents and children for the last 30 years.

>> do you think that guns have anyplace in or around schools? >> i think that's best left to locales and states to decide. if the underlying question is -- >> you can't say definitively today that guns shouldn't be in schools? >> i will refer back to the center and the school he was talking about in wyoming. i think probably there i would imagine that there's probably a gun in the school to protect from potential grizzlies. >> just two of the exchanges between democrats and the president-elect's education secretary nominee, betsy devos yesterday. confirmation hearings continue today on capitol hill, and we have kasie hunt. sometimes a simple question is not a simple question, is it, kasie? >> no, sometimes it takes a turn where you might not expect it to

go. there are ra there are rural areas. >> to put proper context in, we will see what even sea said. >> betsy devos has been working for decades on all the things that teacher unions despise, school choice, and you saw this on the twitter feed, this seems to be one of the top democrats target, and they see her as the biggest threat to teacher unions and the public school monopoly in decades. how important is this for the

special interests groups on the far left to destroy betsy devos's reputation? >> i think it's important for the unions, certainly, and this is something they prioritize, and one way to measure about how democrats feel about this, they were almost all sitting in their chairs after the hours-long hearing and it didn't start until 5:00, and a lot of members will show up briefly and ask questions and take off to focus on something else, and democrats were angry they did not get a chance to ask more than one question of betsy devos, and they're overall argument was one, and you heard senator sanders pushing her on this, and their education experience is related to political donations they made over the years, and her husband ran for the governor of michigan and when he lost they decided to go at this a different way. i think it's a clear ideological

divided debate and you saw them expose that. >> when you talk about money, and it's a fair question about what bernie sanders asked betsy devos, and it's important to bring up the reason why those democratic senators were sitting in their chairs, the union is one of the cash cows for the senators. >> i think betsy devos got a bad wrap. she has been pretty mainstream in her views and i think because of her family wealth that has become more of a point of attack than it probably should be, and she really has spent decades on the front lines of the fight for educational reform, and has said that maybe the school reforms that have happened in michigan are not exactly what she would want, but florida is her model state, so i would put her more in the camp of a jeb bush

education reformer, and also she -- you know, i think the religious elements that some democrats have put on her and -- because her family is known to be a wealthy donor family and religious, and to say she has been pushing that agenda, but it's not true. if she had a little more prep, and i feel had been put through the paces more rigorously, and senatored on family wealth and the student loan question, asking about that, i think she would have had a stronger showing and it was unfair to her that she was not more rigorously prepared. >> i was going to say, mike barnicle, you saw hraeberman sitting by and he introduced her, and the teacher's union have been gunning for her and they want to maintain the

monopoly in public schools, and betsy devos under performed and caused concerns at trump tower because she did not do well on her confirmation hearings as she should have done? >> she did not. some of the nominees, the lack of preparation, really good preparation, prior to the appearance at the hearings is kind of surprising. who would not have guessed that chris murphy, senator murphy from connecticut would ask a question about guns in schools. you don't have an adequate answer for that? that's surprising. coming up on "morning joe," a chill in the air in duh sroes, and why top ceos there are beginning to warm to the president-elect. a live report is just ahead. ♪

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joe." in a moment we will have a first look at the new nbc digital project called "democrats left in a lurch." but first this is what we

covered so far on "morning joe." >> we figured we would be seeing the cocky guy, and instead we saw somebody that was really sensing the weight of the matrix, and the word that aides use when we talk to them is realistic. >> the burden does fall with the president. he will have to change his behavior and be less impulsive and more presidential. >> about 11 or 12%, that's all temperament. >> and had one of the top democrats in the country say to me, this is a disaster. >> donald trump sees himself as the disrupter, and the problem is that doesn't work well for a president. >> he wants to be popular. tpheufp >> in europe particularly watching it with a certain amount of alarm and confusion, and i never have seen so much interest in a presidential transition. >> the upside for him, there are low expectations right now. >> there seems to be a lot of doubt about what kind of progress we have made and what the consequences are for the

country. >> i want to know why the guy with the leaf blower is still there. >> for some reason, he always shows up when i am here. >> i know. it's true. he always shows up with josh. back in the 1930s, fdr swept rural counties with lower population densities and fast-forward to 2016, democrats are all but dependant on big rural areas, and that's the focus of a new nbc news digital project called democrats left in a lurch. a political reporter alex sites joins us, and anna marie cox, and jeff greenfield along with elise jordan and mike barnicle and me. give us the overview, if you could, democrats left in the lurch, is it in the specific

areas we were talking about or was there some other twist to it? >> unfortunately for democrats, it's everywhere. the conclusion we had for this, it's really as bad or worse than it looks, and we tried to get past the discussions on strategy and messaging that consumed a lot of the post 2016 autopsies and look deep at the anatomy of the democratic coalition and what went wrong, and a lot of these things are deeper than anything the clinton campaign did or didn't do, and the campaign has been getting hollowed out at the state and local levels and i think it's only just now realizing that issue, and a lot of the solutions the party is trying to come up with to deal with gerrymandering will help, but won't solve the fundamental problem that democrats live in the wrong places, and they decided to cram themselves in

cities and it's hard to have a winning coalition. >> seems like the tables turned completely? >> i am thinking as far back as the mid-1960s when the party began to turn on the race and vietnam issue, but what made it more fundamental, and you are getting people that voted for obama twice and that's hardly somebody who is racially unwilling to work, and there are disputes from housing to jobs and you add to that the democrats have been negligent. ten years ago the republicans launched project red map. democra democrats, they don't want to spend money turning north carolina red or blue.

26 states have total republican control. >> how much of their problem is a mixture of culture and class? >> i was going to say, there's a problem there. i think one problem is the distinction between white working class and people of color. people of color make up a huge portion -- not a majority yet but it will soon be that working class is going to be mostly minorities, and i think making the message of class solidarity, as old-fashioned as that sounds, it's going to be part of what they have to do, and i am curious if alex can answer the question, how much of it is turnout? >> let me add to the question the age factor. >> yeah. >> great questions. they work in opposite directions. turnout factor is huge especially in mid-terms and we heard about the obama coalition, this great new coalition of the

ase assentant. the graph you just showed was turn out by age, and not just when people die they leave the voting population, but as they get old that helps to. and the democratic coalition is younger, and despite the maxams about you are liberal when you are done and conservative when you are older and that's not true, and there's a generational imprint and your views crystallize when you are young, and youth turnout for hilary was down, and all past generations show that those young voters will continue to be liberal, and if you are college educated and want to work in the creative economy, you move to a city and those places have enough democrats already, and they need to make raleigh, north carolina,

cool so young people move there but that's outside the realm of political strategy. >> that has been the hope of the democrats. at the convention, when you asked howillary clinton was going to do, you got number, more women than men and not enough white people, and it turns out the key, i think, those folks didn't turn out and partly they did not turn out, and for millennials they have not had a good year under barack obama economically, and the reliance on democrat graphically increasing -- >> this was exactly what millennials were saying about donald trump, that they really were opposed to him just because they felt he was so intolerant, and you look at the numbers with millennial numbers, and it was a bismol. gary johnson was right up there with him if not better in many polls. going forward the republican

party has the same problem it had before election day, and this was a close election, and republicans have to appeal to young voters. >> yeah, and we would be having an entirely different conversation if hillary clinton would have done better in milwaukee, and -- she could have done better. >> yeah, she could have. >> i am saying the things she could have done are clear. >> if she had done better in milwaukee and philadelphia, and let's take philadelphia -- >> a better turnout in philadelphia and milwaukee. >> alex, you get pennsylvania and wisconsin and the best hope for the democrats to grow their future, and are we talking pennsylvania and wisconsin, or are we talking about places like arizona, new mexico and continuing in colorado where there's a newer and younger base and a minority base. >> you could even throw texas in there, and hillary clinton came closer in texas than in iowa, which is kind of remarkable

considering iowa went twice for obama. and at the end of our piece, we break it into two paths, the ohio and iowa, or kiss the working class good-bye and cut their losses and go in on arizona and georgia, and maybe somewhere down the road in texas. both of them are untested and certain, and can you win back the white working class? the one issue going in on arizona, latinos which is the growth demographic look. white class working voters are everywhere, and they are in ever date and the upper midwest states, and they are critical, and obama, a lot of those -- he lost them, but it matters how much you lose them by. i think democrats are going to have to not necessarily win white working class voters but

they are going to have to lose them by a smaller margin than hillary clinton, even if they pursue places like arizona and one day down the road, texas. >> the new multimedia, democrats:left in a lurch. thank you for being with us. still ahead, corporate and executive leaders from around the globe are meeting at the world economic forum right now, and the thing i was talking about, of course, is donald trump. we will get a live report from davos coming up next on "morning joe."

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i mwell, what are youe to take care odoing tomorrow -10am? staff meeting. noon? eating. 3:45? uh, compliance training. 6:30? sam's baseball practice. 8:30? tai chi. yeah, so sounds relaxing. alright, 9:53? i usually make their lunches then, and i have a little vegan so wow, you are busy. wouldn't it be great if you had investments that worked as hard as you do? yeah. introducing essential portfolios. the automated investing solution that lets you focus on your life. this president-elect is all about creating jobs in the u.s., and i think this is a place where we can build and grow. you know, some of the policies that could reignite the economy in the u.s. would be good for this industry and good for american jobs. >> if the aca is repealed, it's

replaced with something that will insure that these americans have access to the innovative medicines that were able to launch. >> i think trump will be bold and strong, and i'm a lot of the promises he will not deliver on, and i think he will use rhetoric, for example, the aggressive trade on china and so forth and that's more to remind his trading partners that he is seeking a more balanced and f r fer ferrylationship. joining us from davos, cnbc's julia chatterly. >> reporter: what is the talk like when the cameras are off?

i cannot tell you what kind of stark contrast between the business leaders and the politicians and policymakers, and those guys have had a shocking 12 months, whether it's brexit or the presidential race, and then you contrast with the business leaders, and they are upbeat, and there's a growing consensus here that the donald trump campaigner is not going to be the same as president donald trump. they think he will be more time. they look at his policies, the positives one, and he is going to cut regulation and taxes and that's going to be great for growth, and everybody here, including those that are quite close to donald trump are echoing that, and playing down some of the more scary things he says and they are playing up the positives, and right now people

here seem to be buying it. >> live from switzerland, and thank you so much. companies are falling over themselves to announce plans to ramp up hiring here in the u.s., but are americans confident in the president-elect's ability to bring back manufacturing job. we look at trade in the era of trump, next on "morning joe." what are you supposed to do? drive three-quarters of a car? now if you had liberty mutual new car replacement™, you'd get your whole car back. i guess they don't want you driving around on three wheels. smart. with liberty mutual new car replacement™, we'll replace the full value of your car. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance. hey, need fast try cool mint zantac.

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i have other things i could be doing, but i get very dishonest media and dishonest press, and it's the only way i can counter direct. for example, when john lewis said he never has done it before where he skipped an inauguration, well, he has, and it turned out to be a lie, so i can say that. i will be close to 50 million people including facebook and instagram. if the press were honest, which it's not, i would absolutely not use twitter, i wouldn't have to. >> and donald trump continues to put twitter to use, and this morning, he tweets bayer has pledged to add u.s. jobs. and many expect a shift in u.s. policy will come with him. one focused on domestic manufacturthat would punish companies and countries taking

jobs away from american workers. all this week msnbc's jacob soberoff is looking at this. >> reporter: we have seen a lot of those tweets throughout the campaign and now through the transition, and donald trump is going to threaten a big tax and tariff on bringing products back to the country if they leave the country and he said the same thing about countries that he believes treated america unfairly like china and mexico, and we came out here to look. >> the products we look are office cubicles and everything you want to fit a modern day office cubicle, things like a phone booth. >> whoa. >> reporter: home to around 800

manufacturing firms. >> you take your cell phone out, and when you are in the office you go like this. why did you go into this business? >> the pay is better. >> you are creating jobs in america for workers, and are there any chance the policy is designed to bring jobs back from overseas, and will that affect your business? >> if companies decide to stay and not move to other parts of the world, they are going to have to have facilities and offices here, which is not a bad thing for us. however, one of the things we also see is that it's a global supply chain. >> reporter: the global supply chain means something made in america is not always, and in 2015 nearly a quarter of components of american goods were actually made overseas, and in another part of town that's something chuck read at first class seating knows well.

can i sit in it? >> the two top buttons make it recline. >> what movie theaters are these seats in? >> a lot of them. >> reporter: what part of this is made in china? >> well, these are the motors that we put in there. >> reporter: yeah. these are chinese motors? >> these are made in hungry, but the components inside there are made from china. and we have power supply here, and it says made in china. >> reporter: yeah, made in china. so when you say made in america, it doesn't always mean everything is made in america. >> it's finally assembled here in america. >> reporter: owe, man. manufacturing at work. you feel lucky to have a job in manufacturing in the u.s.? >> i do, because back in texas, we moved to mexico. >> you lost a manufacturingob to competion froher

countries. >> yes. >> reporter: that's what donald trump wants to stop. what is your take, do you hope he will do that? >> i hope so. >> what we would buy overseas, we can't find anymore, and they left the country and moved overseas. >> reporter: you have always worked in manufacturing? >> yeah, after i graduated i got right into it. >> reporter: with donald trump coming in, do you think it's a good thing or bad thing for businesses that do manufacturing in america? >> to be honest, i think it's a good thing because he's a businessman because i think he will be bringing in more jobs around here. >> reporter: in a december tweet storm, he promised to bring jobs back to the united states, and he would consider a 45% tax on all things from china. >> that would cause us real pain. >> reporter: what does real pain

mean for you? >> not sales, that's the biggest pain. >> reporter: what does not sales mean for these guys? >> it means fewer of them. >> reporter: no doubt, trump has been quite successful with bringing jobs back to america, with carrier, for instance, and the fact rephaeupbs if he puts tariffs on countries like china, it will have some hurt for employees and companies across the country. >> another great one, and thank you very much. let's go around the table on our final moments. >> that was a great report, and it gives you an indication of what happens when you go out and listen to america, and it also, when you listen to america, you hear laborers, a real problem going for, and america will have to deal with robotics and artificial intelligence going forward. >> first, it will be an

interesting tactic to see if you can tweet your way company by company to bring a few million jobs back, and when he can drive the stock down, that's what i have never seen by a president. >> that is the billion-dollar question, and i am eagerly awaiting this inaugural address. it's one of the few tasks he has to do in a manner that all of the previous presidents have, they stood and given a formal address. >> what should it be? >> a couple grace notes and something nice about the last president and his defeated opponent, and i would like to hear some link between donald trump and history, and he never talked about any other president of another time, and i would like to hear him say something i am part of a great tradition. >> and mark halperin, let's show the pictures. oh, my gosh. look. that's your baby boy.

>> that's him and he's very alert. >> is he watching "morning joe" right now. >> yeah, and he's critiquing barnicle. >> that would explain the frightened look in his eyes. this is a cute baby. i got enough pictures of him but send more, and videos. mark halperin? >> 48 hours to go, and it's an exciting time for a lot of people, and we have a long term economic challenge theoury faces now, and the private sector will have to lead the way, and the american business can do exciting things. >> mark halperin, new daddy, and hats off to care karen for brin that baby into the world. is that him? >> yeah. >> i can't get enough. you will have to bring it in and i will hold it for a whole show.

i call babies "it." stephanie picks up the coverage right now from capitol hill. >> you are right. where am i? right here in washington, d.c., where in two days right here at the capitol, donald trump will be sworn in. it's going to be a blockbuster on the hill, and four cabinet nominees go before the senate, and the man charged for dismantling obamacare, and he's under fire for allegations of insider trader. >> any prosecutor would say, oh, boy, i better look into this. donald trump speaking in a brand-new interview, and he's taking on congressman, john lewis. >> what he did was a very, very bad thing. not for me. for me, it doesn't matter. he did a bad thing for the country. and a sneak peek of the details of trump's inauguration ee. >> i have prepared it.