you. the koreans are listening. we have a chance to deliver fatal blows to bad actors if 2018 f. we blink, god help us all. >> iran, north korea and you can now throw pakistan into that mix. president trump is staring down leaders from nuclear armed nations in a test of his foreign policy and america first strategy. this morning, there are big developments concerning each country and uprising in iran and few moves from korea and pakistan reacting sharply to a trump tweet. as america moves back, china steps forward seizing a level of influence that beijing's own government thought it would take decades to achieve. and loose lips sink ships, with the russia investigation stemming from a night of boozeing and a trump staffer may

have set this all in motion. good morning, it's tuesday, january 2nd, happy new year, everybody. i'm cat kay. the flu has hit the "morning joe" badly. you will be in very good hands this morning we have white house reporter for usa today heidi priz little i bill la, analyst steve ratner. former aide to the george w. bush white house and the author of the book "a word in disaway," richard haase. it's extremely relevant, all the news we have this morning, we will be speaking with richard about that in a few minutes. we begin with what could be a break through, on few year's day, kim jong-un suggested talks to possibly sandy delegation to the winter olympics. this morning the south responded with a proposed date exactly one

week from today. that country's unification minister wants to meet january 9th, located in the joint security area. these would be the first formal talks between north and south since december of 2015. the south korean president moon jae-in favors dialogue with the forth and the olympics could be an important step to easing tension. moon has already suggested delaying joint exercises with the u.s. until after those winter games. that's only part of the reason the move could drive wedge between washington and seoul. his blustery rhetoric against the u.s. remains. he warnser that america, his nuclear weapons can reach the u.s., while claiming quote the nuclear button is always on my devenlg richard the north is reaching out to the south, trying to drive a wedge from the south to the u.s., from every analyst, i speak to, that's what

washington needs to avoid at the employme -- moment. >> that's correct inure analy s analysis. the united states with long range missiles now carries at least as much if not more about north korea's ability to hit us. japan for its part has its own set of priorities. so the danger a pharaoh bilateral dialogue may in some ways assuade south korea. what if they want to start lifting economic sanctions and have dialogue that doesn't put our issues in the place of prominence we think they should be. so the danger is what you suggest is the north will play us off against south korea, weakening a xhont front, particularly in this yes of whether we are prepared to put anything about our conventional military exercises. everybody is so focused on the north korea missile threat. north korea is in many ways the most militarized place in the

world. they deep need nuclear weapons to destroy seoul. it's a challenge with the trump administration can they be tough with north korea and keep an alliance intact? this will be in some ways an enormous diplomatic test. >> this is a test from last year. it looks like it will be the big test for president trump this year. he's had a tricky relationship with the south korean floating trade sanctions of tough trade times with the south koreans. how is he going to respond from this overture from the north, which seems so clearly designed to drive a wedge from allies. >> let's hope president trump won't twitter. his twitter account has been a destructive force. it upends that diplomacy very players are trying to calm down the situation and diffuse the situation. and i do give president trump's national security team some credit for how they have managed

to navigate this relationship in trying to keep his insults as, you know, not as personality driven, trying to temper his worst instincts and treat this with the sober ness it needs. >> i think you had tillerson on a number of occasions saying he se willing to talk to anybody, any time, he gets slapped down by trump who says i am only willing to talk if north korea agrees to get rid of the nuclear capably, which i don't think it's ever going to do. so they don't have a coherent policy themselves. >> that's the problem of the team when team is led by, you can have a great team and a team trying to do, to play three dimensional kiss, but if the guy on the top is just going to tweet and upsends -- >> fundamentally, i think we have to resoft the question, whether we are going to allow north korea to have any nuclear

capability. depending on where that line is drawn, i think it influence dramatically what rur policy has to be. >> heidi, what's the reckoning in the white house of what steve is talking about the calculation on how far they are prepared to go to stop north korea from becoming a nuclear state, if that's possible? and also on this proposed meeting on january the 9th between the north and the south, how are they going to respond to that? >> well the calculation so far, at least if you look at the president's tweeting and his public statements has been this unconditional all or nothing nuclear, north korea must surrender it's nuclear weapons, must halls all production and there seems to be some kind of a middle step in terms of diplomacy. so what the president is now going to have to do is to go back to those same levers of power that we know have been this, the route all along, which is to pressure north korea's surrounding countries, like

china, to tighten the noose. it really is in the a military option for us. and this makes that clear that north korea has other ways of going around the united states to achieve its means. so i think the president is going to have to reevaluate this approach of poopooing diplomacy and something that his own secretary of state has been trying to pursue on multiple occasions to show that, yeah, there has to be some other route here, because north korea is not going to just cower and do what we say. they're going to find other ways of working around us. >> i think the last thing, i no ewe will get later to the pakistan story this shows while there is something of a playbook for dealing with enemy, sanctions, possibly, threats of use of military force, maybe negotiation, it turns out in foreign policy, it can be more difficult to deal with friends and allies. i think we will see that between washington and seoul and walk and islam obad.

this again will be far more difficult tan tweets and blufters and threats on the potential use of force, i think as several people said here, steve is exactly right. the administration will have to decide whether it's prepared to get off this absolutist position. if must get rid of all of its weapons as a pre condition for diplomacy. >> that will fail with north korea. we are seeing it will fail with south cre why. it cannot be a pre condition for diplomacy. >> brilliant. it looks like it was fairly quiet until about 48 hours ago when things halted up around the world and the latest country is the ongoing massive protests going on throughout iran, the most dramatic we've seen there since the controversial 2009 elections. the associated suppress now reporting that per iranian state media, nine more people were killed overnight. several of whom apparently tried to break into a police station to steal weapons.

so far at least 21 protesters have died along with one police officer, after what began late last week as small localized rallies against iran's ongoing problems spread to most of the country and morphed to anger the government and the country's religious leaders. hundreds have also been arrested. so far, neither iran's feared volunteered militia nor the revolutionary guard have been deployed. iran's president said yesterday although the protest looked like a threat, with eneed to turn it into an opportunity and see what the problem is. adding, over, that the government would crack down on law makers. president trump weighed in via twitter yesterday tweeting, quote, iran is failing at every level, despite the special deal paid by them by the administration. the great iranian people have been repressed for years. they are hungry for food and freedom and human rights and wealth has been looted. time for change.

vice president pence perhaps foreshadowed, tweeted in part, quote, the united states of america will not repeat the shameful mistakes of our past when others stood by and ignored the heroic resistance of the iranian people. we must not and we will fought let them down. meanwhile, lawmakers on capitol hill have also been joining in with their responses to this unrest. lindsey graham echoed the president and vice president lauding blame at the obama administration saying trump should do more than obama ma, while i believe he needs to do more than tweet about the situation.

richard, there is some bipartisan support clearly for the demonstrators. i imagine when it's all u actually something to do about this, anything around the nuclear deal, the bipartisan shift starts to fall apart? >> it does. that's germane to what is going on. it's much more broadly based around the country. it's really bottom up. it's impossible to identify one or two leaders or narrow issues. this is something profound and that's why i think you are seeing the iranian leadership unsure of how to respond. i think we're radio it to stand up and speak out. we've also, though, bought the to be careful. this administration hasn't exactly distinguished itself on iran because of the travel ban. also it's very hard to single out criticism in iran. we've ignored turkey and russia and 20 other countries around the world. we have been very selective, shall we say, in our indignation.

there are things we can do. we can make it difficult. for certain types of technologys to reach the regem. we can have targeted sanctions. we need to be careful not to use words like we're going to provide all sorts of support quote/unquote to the iranian people. this is their challenge at some point and there is limits to what we will be able to do here. >> rich, i want to follow up on what mike pence said in his tweet. it seems leak theed administration is voting towards this. it's a fine balance to and a half fate. they can't say, they can't promise a ton of support. at the same time they need to stand for the right to peacefully protest. what lessons do you draw? you were in bush 41 at the time when he promised to support the uprising, the shy can, interact. any parallels there? >> more parallels to 1956 in

hungry in the eisenhower administration. we've got to be very careful when we call upon people to rise up if we're not going to be there the morning after. otherwise a lot of them will get killed. i think we have seen more recently in the arab spring. lots of times the united states said when someone must go whether it's assad and syria, where were we then to see something happened and something better is put in its place. i understand all these people want to differentiate themselves from the obama administration's muteness, they have to be careful and smart about what it is to be able to say in front of that. >> i agree, it seems our options in terms of affecting dang are limited and dangerous and scary. one of the ironies that struck me over the weekend is you can make an argument that our agreement with iran helped spur these protests in a way, because there was a lot of expectation on the part of the iranian people that good stuff was going to happen after he lifted our sanction and provided this

money. none of that has gotten to the iranian people. you have a country actually growing fast, still has 13% unemployment and 20% unemployment among men, therefore the seeds that you seen going on there now. >> one thing i read over the weekend also is that although the prospects for radical change through demonstrations in the middle east, we all had our hopes lifted in the arab sponsor inc. to see them dashed. there is a difference in 2009 and these zrarkts apparently, it's a massive spread of the smartphone throughout iron i iran. back in 2009, a small percentage of iranians have smartphones, it's much easier to carry on organizing these demonstration within they can click it on their phones. so who knows whether this is going to change very much in eastern any time soon, but seeing those people out there and with their friends makes me see they're not going anywhere immediately. these will last a while.

richard mentioned pakistan, president trump's first tweet, by the way, of 2018 has sparked tension between the u.s. and its allie, pakistan. the washington post reports pakistan officials are expected to hold a cabinet meeting today to adopt a response to trump's tweet. meanwhile the white house noted

yesterday, it intends to continue to withhold aid to pakistan already appropriated to congress that aid has been on hold since august. look, heidi, it's not the first time the obama administration withheld aid to pakistan. what is the trump administration hoping to get here? what do they want to change and how do they want to do it? >> more cooperation in terms of hunting down terrorists. this is not the first time the president has issued a warning to a country, not to have it not really backed up. so i know they will probably come one some kind of a normal response to this and whether it is backed up here with policy in the united states, we'll see. but what we will certainly do is continue to enflame relations in the middle east. we have seen the president since the beginning of the year take a number of positions that have enflamed positions. for example, taking the side of saudi arabia in the dispute over

qatar. but i also wanted to go back to richard for a question on the iran deal. because, yes, what is happening in iran is different right now and not germane, necessarily, to what happened with the iran deal, but the president faces a decision coming in january whether to go ahead and re-certify again that iran is complying with that agreement and whether to issue a waiver for those sanctions. if we see what is happening here, we support what is happening in iran with the people rising up, why would we go ahead and try to do again what the president said he wanted to, do which is to blow up this deal? >> well, on that, heidi, actually, i wouldn't mix the two issues. the nuclear agreement is widely popular in iran. we want to introduce new sanctions because of human rights violations, we can do that. i would keep the two issues distinct. on pakistan, this is a country

providing taliban for decades, this president agreed to extend the u.s. at pakistan. we are at lagerheads. this is nothing new. the problem is not so much what the president tweeted the content of it. i'm not sure tweeting makes a lot of sense. what i would do is quietly peak it clear our support for pakistan is going to be conditional going forward, our military support, based upon specific behavior, against terrorism. but to put it auto publicly now forces this pakistani's response, it makes it difficult to arrange anything behind the scenes. >> that is plenty difficult to begin with. >> pakistan, north korea, iran, all countries that have confused, being -- been problematic for an american president for decades, you've written the book on this, it certainly looks like it's a world in disarray, but when you wrote this a year ago, i wonder

if you knew how much the disarray the world would be in, gamp year after the trump administration, who is controlling this, who is the hand of god looking at the world and saying we are the leaders, we will fix some of these. >> i have been called many things in my life, never an optimi optimist. this is new to me. i think the alternative to a u.s.-led world the sort of world we've seen for three-quarters of a century beginning with world war iit. alternative to a no u.s. led world is a no led world, we're beginning to see it in asia with north korea emerging, china and russia playing mixed sort of roles, what we just talked about pakistan going its own way. you go around the world and increasingly, we're seeing countries no longer deferring to the united states and the united states is not isolationist. we're involved but

intermittently, in very narrow terms w. reno longer involved in cross the border alliance relationship, we pull out of the tpp. suddenly we create a space for cho into emerge geoeconomically in asia. we pull out of the paris agreement and the europeans have fundamental questions about what the occupation is. we ignore human rights violations, including in russia, turkey and philippines and single them out today and in a single country if iran. >> richard, you say the u.s. is not isolationist under trump. you used the word abdication. you say it's a few way for an empire or great state to decline, one we haven't seen before. >> there is truly unprecedented, in history, great powers fade away, either they bankrupt themselves the way the soviet union did in places kwliefk with the cold war or they're surpassed by a rising power, where you come from britain, in

many way, after world world ii if particular, which surpassed the united states. right now the occupation by virtually any measure is the most powerful country in the world, economically, militarily and the like. what we are doing is voluntarily saying, we're kind of tired of this roam, we don't think it's worth it anymore. i think this president fundamentally miscal calculates the costs and benefits of american world leadership. all the same. it's as if we're walking off the field with the game not yet over. >> richard, i don't think we can disagree with with that, you thoroughly depressed me, i'm going to go home and kim myself soon this show is over. but what's even worse, it seems to me, we have nothing but this to look forward to at least the next three years. i don't think anything will change, china the middle east and more chaos. problems in the far east and so an and so forth. >> you are probably right. we think what we have learned congress can play a modest role,

can't substitute. the other countries won't step in, europe can't. >> congress hasn't done much. you have a good guys ahead of it, senator corker. he is leaving next year. >> again, if we pull back, i don't see anyone filling our shoe or that vacuum selectively, problematic is that its could be iran in the middle east, china or north korea in asia, russia and parts of europe. there is not a positive alternative to our doing. yes what the president seems to miss is we will pay an enormous price. help wants to make america great again, this is not a world in which america can't be great. we can't insulate ours from this mayhem and the world. >> they with us. we will have all the great stuff from richard's book, growth rate being up, isis rolled back t. positive news the glass half full is all coming up on "morning joe." stay with us for that as well. and if president obama's

foreign policy was characterized from leading from behind, president trump retreating from the front. that's a new yorker profile on the rise of china in the era of trump. we will talk to the author this a bit. coming up next the "new york times" reporter who just broke details on the russia investigation a. top house republican is said to be pushing for a new probe. not of vladimir putin but the fbi. big dwamts straight ahead. first michelle grossman ahead on the brutally cold temperatures. warm it up for us. >> i wish i could. it's cold in here. we will be cold the next two weeks. then we get a warm-up the third week of january. right now we have to deal with these temperatures below freezing. most of the countries, from the rockies on, we see temperatures freezing. 12 in chicago. 26. these are the highs for the day. not what we are seeing right now. we won't warm up very far from here. we are looking at dangerous air

temperatures. the faster warning, the lighter pink is your wind chill advisory. that's because we have that arctic flow still happening. the jet steam has dipped so south that we are seeing that cold air rooch the southern states as well, even some freeze warnings down in parts of texas, mississippi, northern florida. right now we are looking at 7 below zero in chicago. everyone getting baaing to school and work. 7 below zero in bismark, it feels like 21 in bismark. it's a cold one. you are watching morning joe. we'll be right back. ♪ (woman) one year ago today mom started searching for her words.

and my brother ray and i started searching for answers. (vo) when it's time to navigate in-home care, follow that bright star. because brightstar care earns the same accreditation as the best hospitals. and brightstar care means an rn will customize a plan that evolves with mom's changing needs. (woman) because dad made us promise we'd keep mom at home. (vo) call 844-4-brightstar for your free home care planning guide.

looking for a hotel that fits... whoooo. ...your budget? tripadvisor now searches over... ...200 sites to find you the... ...hotel you want at the lowest price. grazi, gino! find a price that fits. tripadvisor.

trust #1 doctor recommended dulcolax. use dulcolax tablets for gentle dependable relief. suppositories for relief in minutes. and dulcoease for comfortable relief of hard stools. dulcolax. designed for dependable relief.

or a little internet machine? it makes you wonder: shouldn't we get our phones and internet from the same company? that's why xfinity mobile comes with your internet. you get up to 5 lines of talk and text at no extra cost. so all you pay for is data. see how much you can save. choose by the gig or unlimited. xfinity mobile. a new kind of network designed to save you money. call, visit, or go to xfinitymobile.com. well, the day after christmas, president trump tweeted, wow --

but a "new york times" report this weekend claims the dossier did not not bring on the russia investigation, claiming instead it was a night of heavy drinking a. loose-lipped trump aide and a staunch foreign allie, four american and foreign officials tell a paper in may of 2016, trump foreign palmettos adviser george papadopoulos told an australian diplomat they had thousands of e-mails to embarrass hillary clinton. when hacked e-mails were online later, officials informed their american counterparts of what papadopoulos had said, according

to report. one of the reporters that broke that story from the "new york times," this whole idea, matt, the fbi started its investigation because of the stealed dossier, that has been debunked, you couldn't make this up, by a night of heavy drinking in a london bar with a diplomat? >>. >> it was always clear if you were paying attention, this was not an investigation that began with hillary clinton funded opposition research. we saw john brennan testifying before congress saying he saw intelligence that the russian intelligence officials were trying to subjorn the trump campaign. the origins are george papadopoulos, this little known inexperienced aide, he's in london. he goes for a night of drinking with an australian diplomat. in this conversation he let slip that he's aware that the russian

government has political dirt on hillary clinton and then when the e-mails start to come out, a few month later the australians, very close intelligence allie to the united states him they come to the fbi and say we have something you should know. you put those two things together the hacking and the fact that it looks like the trump campaign had "inside information" about it. you can see why the fbi was so spun up. >> matt, the bizarre elements of this story, just a night of drinking in london, a high ranking australian official have overshadowed in that in this story have you access to some previously undisclosed e-mails that show that the russians were very proactive in pursuing a relationship with the trump campaign. did you talk about that? >>. >> reporter: yeah, that was one of the things remarkable to me. reading these e-mails, what we now understand to be a part of a russian intelligence what's known as an influence campaign, seeing these e-mails to and from

george papadopoulos are remarkable. we layout in the story at one point this professor from malta acting as an intermediate to the russia government, basically says, look, i'd like to come and travel with the trump campaign. i would basically be a surrogate, an unofficial surrogate for the campaign. what i'd like to do is get private briefings about campaign strategy and foreign policy. you can see why that would be so valuable to a foreign government, they are asking for "inside information" inside the campaign. i talked to one person, a veteran counterintelligence person who said to me, look, we didn't get worried because we saw efforts by the russians to make contact. that's what they do, that's their job. we got worried because it seemed to be working. >> matt, this all happened in may of 2016. so you'd have to believe that

papadopoulos would tell this to a australian diplomat. not the trump officials in order to believe there was advanced knowledge that this was going on, on behalf of russia. do you think that this also puts, sheds any new light or puts into any new context that meeting at trumptory during which or before which don jr. was told this is a part of the quote/unquote campaign by the russians to help your father to which he didn't seem to express any surprise? >>. >> reporter: sure, if you line up those two data points it erases a ton of questions. in the e-mails we've seerngs we don't see evidence that papadopoulos told the trump campaign, his supervisors on the trump campaign about the existence of these hacked e-mails. but you bring up a great question. if this was important enough that he would share it with an australian diplomat and george papadopoulos was an ambitious

guy, why wouldn't he have shared that with the trump campaign? to be fair, we haven't seen evidence of that, you can be sure, bob mueller is asking that question, who else did you tell? who else knew about that? >> memo to political campaigns don't hire people who get drunk in bars with australian diplomats that can be loose lipped. thank you very much for coming on. coming up, do we need to change the way we talk about north korea? eugene robinson says, yes, that conversation next on "morning joe." you owned your car for four years. you named it brad. you loved brad. and then you totaled him. you two had been through everything together.

two boyfriends, three jobs... you're like nothing can replace brad. then liberty mutual calls... and you break into your happy dance. if you sign up for better car replacement™, we'll pay for a car that's a model year newer with 15,000 fewer miles than your old one. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance.

going somewhere? whoooo. here's some advice. tripadvisor now searches more... ...than 200 booking sites - to find the hotel you want and save you up to 30%. trust this bird's words. tripadvisor.

. >> i think it's increasing every day, which means we're in a race really. we're in a race to be able to solve this problem, not just us, right? but the united states all of our ilies and partners as we know, china has tremendous coercive economic power over north korea. you can't shoot a missile without fuel. so there are ways to address this problem short of arm conflict, but it is a race because he's getting closer an closer and there's not much time

left. >> national security adviser general h.r. mcmaster speakering earlier last month. joining us editor of the washington post and msnbc political analyst eugene robinson, he is out with a new post, we need to change the way we talk about north korea. eugene, you are pointing a finger at the generals saying they need to tone down the rhetoric. >> yeah, happy new 84, by the way. >> you too, let's hope it's a nice calm peaceful one nothing much happens. >> reporter: yeah, like that's going to happen. here's something i hope really doesn't happen. i hope this sort of standoff with north korea doesn't get to a crisis point that it doesn't need to get to. general mcmaster, in particular, has been increasingly sort of apocalyptic in the way he speaks about it and we're getting

closer an closer to war and it's just kind of our last chance and that sort of thing, but if you step back, i mean, what he's saying, essentially, is that a nuclear armed north korea is intolerable, yet that's what we have. i mean, that itself the situation right now and so i think it's time for our, the administration's rhetoric to more realistically take that in hand. you don't just go take the nuclear weapons away from a nuclear armed nation unless have you some trick way of doing it that i don't know about. >> gene, it's richard here. look, i agree that general mcmasters is painting a stark picture. it's unacceptable to have a nuclear armed nuclear missile that can quite reach us. i don't think we are there, we could. whether you are picking up any interest whatsoever in a

negotiated approach also total dede-nuclearization and second of all, generals in my experience have the best understanding of how awful war is, at times more than civilians, do you think these generals, mcmaster in particular, are not so pessimistic, degrees of optimism how a war with north korea could unfold in a way that would not be catastrophic? >> reporter: well, to your second point, that's kind of what worries me is that generals do know what war is like and they have a real understanding of what war on the korean peninsula would be like what north korea has, they could throw not just back at us, at seoul, at tokyo, and so it really worries me to hear general mcmaster, at times, general mattis. speaking this way.

speaking, saying this is very, very serious, because that worries me more than just having, hearing politicians talk that way. so to the first point, i think secretary of state tillerson is obviously interested in a negotiation. i think we heard from kim jong-un, either yesterday, i think, in his new year's message, and leaving the door opened a crack for some kind of talks with the south, which then can lead into multiparty talks. maybe there can be a discussion. i hope we can take this sort of tiny grain of optimism forward in the new year. >> hi, gene, it's steve rad ratner. the president we haven't heard of, whether he's listening to generals, we don't exactly know. look, i take your point that it is very hard, i think

unprecedented to get a company to unmind i wind the situation. what seems different here is north korea so so far out of the dialogue with other countries in terms and its relationship india, pakistan, other places that have them. we might not want to have them. at least we have a relationship with them. between a country having no relationship at all, being nuclearized is pretty scary? >> reporter: right, that's true, steve. so how do you perceive then is the right thing to do to try to establish some sort of relationship with this country that has nuclear weapons or to try to take them away? now, if we could negotiate them away, if we could get the nuclear weapons out of north korea in the way that, for example, we got them out of ukraine, after the dissolution of the soviet union and there were nukes on ukrainian soil and that managed to get solved, we can do it that way. that's fine.

but the north koreans are not going for that, they see it as an insurance policy. so i wonder if this isn't a reality that we have to deal with or else prepare to accept just armageddon-like consequences. >> this is existential for them and the regime's survival. clearly, eugene robinson, thank you, happy new year again. we will be reading your piece in the washington post later. still ahead, a split in the republican party on the best strategy to hang onto the house majority. morning joe will be right back.

depend silhouette briefs. feature a comfortable sleek fit. as a dancer, i've learned you can't have any doubts. because looking good on stage is one thing. but real confidence comes from feeling good out there. get a coupon at depend.com

you can do it. we can do this. at fidelity, our online planning tools are clear and straightforward so you can plan for retirement while saving for the things you want to do today. -whoo!

so president trump returned to washington last night after a ten-day vacation to florida,

according to nbc news' account, it was the 117th day he spent at a trump property, including 91 days at a golf property, 34% of his 347 days in office has been spent at one of the president's business, trump is scheduled to lunch with vice president mike pence and alex acosta today. with pence, secretary of state rex tillerson and defense secretary jim mattis tomorrow. also on wednesday, senior white house aides and legislative affairs director mark short will meet at the capital with senior members of both parties about the deferred action for childhood arrivals program that expires for dreamers on march 5th him upcoming deadlines on january 19th, whether to extend government funding and reauthorize warrantless under surveillance under nice sas and the children's health program and raising the debt ceiling. so super busy schedule coming

up. meanwhile, senator marco rubio voted for the tax bill, but he's expressed his reservations speaking to south florida's news press in an interview next week. here's what he said -- in the corporations told us that was what they were going to do. they told us that was what they were going to do in 2004 when we had a temporary repatriation

holid holiday and they used the money to buy back stock and they told us ahead of the tax cut vote they would use the money for that. i think it will be a challenge going on the road into some of the heartland places where people flipped for this president, working class democrats so-called reagan democrats flipped for this president. katty, i took a road trip this holiday through those areas, through a coal mining town in west virginia, and i stopped and talked with some of the people there, and a lady who told me that she was all in for trump. she said i'll admit it. i was all in. but i don't see it happening. i don't see the coal jobs coming back, and i think that is the risk that this president runs in many parts of those blue states that west virginia is not one of them, but in places like pennsylvania and ohio that flipped for this president,

because this tax plan maybe will give them a little extra pocket change to go out and finance a trip or a new washing machine, but what's going to happen when they also see what's coming next in terms of their health care premiums going up, in terms of the attempt to claw back some of the entitlement programs where this is the social safety net for a lot of these voters. and so that's why you're seeing these dramatic shifts already in these special elections, and it's a big concern for the president going forward. >> i think it's going to be an interesting political exercise in a way. on the one hand you have everything heidi said. but the fact is most americans are going to get some kind of a tax cut which shows up in somewhat higher wages in their pay pacts starting now. are they going to say to themselves, i only got $65 and all these corporations and that's terrible, or are they going to say i got 65 and that's

not bad. you also put it in the context of an economy that is doing quite well. i wouldn't give trump any credit for that. i think these things happen over a long period of time. low employment and wages are rise. good things are starting to happen, and how the electorate weighs those things will be interesting this election year. >> the process started out when discussions of tax reform started with this administration, cutting loopholes, simplifying the system, draining the swamp, but it seems like in the actual bill as passed that pretty much lobbyists managed to get in most of the carveouts and cut aways for corporations that they wanted to get in. if this seems like it is more favorable toward corporations and the rank and file voter still isn't seeing that much of a bump, i do wonder how it affects 2018. >> that's the question. >> also i say two things.

it will be interesting to see if republican deficit hawks begin to enter the fray. this will increase the deficit and the debt significantly. the other side that seems to be missing is democrats. i literally have not heard a democrat stand up and say what they would do if they were in power in terms of taxes and tax cuts. which would they keep? which would they change? i have yet to hear a political alternative. >> there's a broader context, but i don't think you're going to see entitlements cut. democrats aren't going to go for it. >> and paul ryan said he wants to pursue entitlement reform, but mcconnell says it's not a priority. >> because they don't have the votes. what if the republicans put forward the ideas of making the individual tax cuts permanent? would the democrats vote for it or say we can't increase the deficit? >> it's fine to increase the deficit as long as you're in power. that seems to be the mentality of republican leadership these

days. >> yeah. >> deficit spending was passe. >> $65. >> entitlement cuts to interject, you don't have to have them for the prospect of it to be a toxic political position as we saw in 2006 when the democrats routed the republicans over george bush's failed bush to privatize social security. i think this could be a potent political issue if they try to go after the social safety net. >> heidi, thank you for the reporting from the road trip. coming up, major protests in iran. new moves on the korean peninsula and the president's first tweet of 2018 riles an ally. stay with us and david ignatius joins the conversation. what should we expect on the domestic policy front this year in robert costa reports the white house doesn't even know. he'll join us ahead. you're watching "morning joe."

we'll be right back. about a medication, this is humira. this is humira helping to relieve my pain and protect my joints from further irreversible damage. this is humira helping me reach for more. humira has been clinically studied for over 20 years. humira works for many adults. it targets and blocks a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. talk to your doctor and visit humira.com. this is humira at work.

and my brother ray and i started searching for answers. (vo) when it's time to navigate in-home care, follow that bright star. because brightstar care earns the same accreditation as the best hospitals. and brightstar care means an rn will customize a plan that evolves with mom's changing needs. (woman) because dad made us promise we'd keep mom at home. (vo) call 844-4-brightstar for your free home care planning guide. tripadvisor compares prices from over 200 booking sites to time to bask... in low prices! find the right hotel for you at the lowest price. refreshing, isn't it?. tripadvisor.

obviously all of us have been watching the news from iran. and i want to start off by being very clear that it is up to iranians to make decisions about who iran's leaders will be, that we respect iranian sovereignty, and want to avoid the united

states being the issue inside of iran, which sometimes the united states can be a handy political football. that was president obama back in 2009. the last time we saw major anti-government protests that gripped iran, that approach is being closely re-examined as president trump forcefully weighs in on the current demonstrations across the country. welcome back to "morning joe." beautiful pictures of the white house there. it's tuesday, january 2nd nd. joe and mika are off this morning. "morning joe" unfortunately has been hit by the flu. until the healthy return, we have former treasury official steve rattner, former aide to the state department, alise jordan, and richard haas. richard's book is out in paper book "a world in disarray".

joining the conversation we have associate editor for the washington post, david ignatius and co-host of "morning joe" first look. we begin with the latest on what's happening in iran. those massive often violent protest throughout the country. the most dramatic since the controversial 2009 elections. the app is reporting per iranian state run media nine more people were killed, several of whom apparently tried to break into a police station to steal weapons. after what began late last week a small localized rally against economic problems spread to most of the country and morphed to encompass anger at the government and even at the country's religious leaders. hundreds of people have been arrested. however, so far neither iran's volunteer militia for the revolutionary guard have been deployed. iran's president said yesterday

although the protests, quote, looked like a threat, we need to turn it into an opportunity and see what the problem is. adding, however, that the government would crack down on lawbreake lawbreakers. president trump weighed in yesterday tweeting, quote, iran is failing at every level despite the terrible deal made with them by the obama administration. the great iranian people are hungry for food and freedom along with human rights. the wealth of iran is being looted. time for change. mike pence foreshadowed the response tweeting in part, quote, the united states of america will not repeat the shameful mistake of our past when others stood by and ignored the heroic resistance of the iranian people as they fought against their brutal regime. we must not and we will not let them down. david, let me start with you. what's triggered this round of protests given that they've had sanctions released so presumably

the economy ought to be doing better, and what is this administration planning to do about it that's different than the obama administration? >> first, it's an expectations gap. the average iranian seems to have thought that life would get significantly better economically after the nuclear agreement with the west was signed. that hasn't happened. there are all sorts for reasons for that. there hasn't been a kind of boom that many iranians were expecting. my sense looking at this broad well dispersed movement not centered in tehran but in cities outside of the center is that there's a little bit of the kind of populism we've seen in america and europe in this iranian protests. this is iranians saying iran first. let's stop spending money on revolutionary guard adventures in syria and lebanon.

let's start spending money at home. the character of this protest seems to be as much against the government and its moderates as against the supreme leader and his hard liners. it's tough to know precisely how this arose and the targets, but i see a theme that should be familiar to all of us, a populist i thinker among ordinary people that they're not getting a fair deal. >> you've been in touch with people in iran on both sides of this divide. what are you hearing from them? >> i think it depends on where you sit. and obviously right now the situation remains somewhat difficult to understand given the fact that information coming out of there is trickling out. on one hand speaking to activists, speaking to those in support of the protests has been very difficult. the government is shutting down. telegrams shutting down. instagram shutting down. shutting down means of communication where people are trying to get information out.

and trying to corroborate the stamina they have in the crowds. you widespread and organized they are. that's been the widest part in speaking to the ground from a journalist perspective. but speaking to iranian officials and to some even here, they're giving this kind of in the same tone that their president was describing, as an opportunity to have a discussion, to listen to the grievances of the people. i think it's going to come down to one, the stamina of the protests, how long they can be sustained for. how dom in and about they can be if they get to tehran, but also what is going to be the their response from the nonrouhani forces in the government to see if we hear from the iranian national guard . if they get involved, those, the two determining factors if it is suppressed or spreads. >> katty, i think it's

interesting so far they haven't sent in a lot of security forces. that suggests to me they're a little wrong foot bid this, the establishment, and that there's a degree of depth and breadth to this protest they hadn't planned on. it's not just a couple of political leaders or people complaining about an allegedly stolen election. the economy and the government are not delivering. this is something that has really broad appeal, this concern. so i think for iranian leadership, it's a bit of a dilemma about how to deal with this. simply to crack down is a real risk. what happens if the protests then grow or some of the security forces decide they're a little sympathetic to those doing the protesting. my sense is there's probably an interesting conversation in the multiple halls of power that make up the iranian government about how to deal with this. >> yeah. and hearing rouhaniing saying we should find out what's grieving

them, for me, that was pretty staggering to hear an iranian leader talk in that kind of language. let's see if they follow through on that. now to what could be a major breakthrough between north and south korea. on new year's day kim jong-un suggested talks to possibly send a delegation to the winter oh li limb pick olympics. a unification minister wants to made on january 9th located in the joint security area. these would be the first formal talks between north and south korea since december of 2015. the south korean president favors dialogue and the olympics could be an important step to easing tensions. it's only part of the reason why the move could drive a wedge between washington and seoul.

kim's rhetoric against the u.s. remained. warning america that his nuclear weapons can reach the u.s. while claiming, quote, the nuclear button is always on my desk. david, that line about the nuclear bomb on his desk sounds ominous. it was put there for that, i'm sure. what do you make of the proposal to have talks? we could be a week away for weeks between the north and south. what could it be for breaking deadlock in negotiations? >> there was a lot of anticipation about what kim would say in the annual new year's speech. it's always a big event in terms of setting the north korean policy. the people i talked to since the speech view it as a clever attempt by kim to capitalize on his position. when he says he has the button on his desk, there's the implication which he made a month ago as well, that north korea has all but completed development of its nuclear

weapons and the means to deliver them. it's almost a victory declaration. i've got the button. now that i have the button, i may be willing to talk, and what he's proposed is talking not to the u.s. initially but to south korea. he's again being opportunistic and taking the olympic games which will focus the world's attention on korean peninsula, and looking for an opening in which kim, it seems, from what's come out in the last 24 hours will try to be the good guy. there will be meetings between north and south on the border. i don't think the u.s. can stop that now or even necessarily would want to. there may be some sort of effort to get a joint korean team or at least a representation for north korean athletes at the games so that kim is seen as a figure who is helping this korean national moment of celebration happen. i think the question for

washington is whether the u.s. wants to let kim conduct this diplomacy with president moon without american demands or interference. u.s. officials have been waiting for this new year's message wondering how to calibrate their response. my own calls in the last 24 hours do not yet yield any sign of how the u.s. is going to play it. but, again, i'd be surprised if the u.s. tried to interfere directly in the conversation between north and south. >> richard, in your book you write about the cascade of events that could happen if and when north korea becomes a nuclear state. we've all seen the pace of the nuclear program accelerate far faster than we operated during the course of last year. if they're on the brink of that and perhaps that's what kim jong-un is talking about because he has always said i will negotiate once we're a nuclear state. he feels this is the first

overture of getting to nuclear confidence on his side. what do you see being the potential knock on effects that would now unfold in that region? >> well, we're a little dammed if we do and dammed if we don't. if we can't get a negotiated outcome we're comfortable with, and so far we haven't been willing to explore it, we have two really dark futures. one would be one of going to war. with all that would mean for south korea and japan and the united states and the region and world economy for human life, you name it. the other would be if we were to live with it. in north korea that gradually over time gets 15, 20 nuclear weapons on missiles that can reach the united states, we not only have to live with that potential threat and put our faith in deterrents, but the question would be whether one day south korea and japan say we're not confident the united states would trade new york for seoul or tokyo. we may need nuclear weapons of our own. we're really caught between two, i think, awful scenarios, either

going to war or allowing this to go unchecked which drives me in the direction of negotiations. i think what we're seeing is suddenly kim jong-un putting on a western suit. he's cleverly trying to get leverage between the united states and south korea. south korea is going to have a different agenda than ours and are they willing to introduce incentives to the north to relax tensions on the peninsula. that might be good for south korea, it will do nothing to scratch our itch of the missile and nuclear threat. >> this one word, disarray, keeps coming up this morning. we're talking about your book, but also you look at what's happening on so many different global fronts. and when you're talking about the ka none dumb with north korea, tdo we accept they're a rising nuclear power? do we go to war to prevent that?

what are the option and what do you see as the most likely outcome with this administration? >> even before this administration came into power, we were moving into a world where there was more and more power and hands and it was going to be more difficult for any u.s. government to deal with it. i think what this administration, they're accelerated it and basically said we don't care as much about allies or various international institutions. we're going to let the world work things out itself. when it comes to north korea, there's only three options. you negotiate, you fight it, you live with it. i can't think of a fourth option. >> and the fact that south korea seems to be willing to meet separately without any of american demands being at the forefront of the agenda, it shows the weakening of the international order and the rules that we all have been playing. >> exactly. it shows they have a different set of incentives and different priorities. we've 'howed this relationship to weaken. it's not that long ago since we

threatened the trade agreement. we may now reap some of what we've sewn. it's more difficult to control the world, and this administration has accelerated the emergence of the world that it's more difficult to control. >> as you write in the book, we're abdicators, but i'm not sure at the end that's much of a different place you get to in terms of our role in the world. >> or a stark alternative. >> right. and on the question of north korea again, i don't really see what the war option would look like and how there is such a thing that would not result in devastating casualties among the south koreans potentially japan, who knows what? >> i don't think anyone can go into using military force and not say that's a real possibility. i wouldn't say it's 100% certain. there's the war reality that can just happen not out of choice but incident, and the option we could attack and say if you respond against the south, then

we will up what it is we're prepared to do against you. the real question is if north korea could live with a limited u.s. force. i wouldn't count on it. i think these are the kinds of conversations we're having. >> it's beyond scary. >> this is not -- i hate when i hear words like surgical or incident or prevent or strikes. this could be a massive war. people need to read some of the history about the previous korean war. it was an enormous scale. >> okay. it's 7:15 in the morning. president trump is up and he is tweeting back in washington on the ongoing situation in iran. let's listen. writing moments ago the people of iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt iranian regime. all of the money that president obama so foolishly gave them went into terrorism and into their pockets. the people have little food, big inflation, and no human rights. the u.s. is watching. amen, does the president have a point here that the sanctions

relief that was given through the iran nuclear deal doesn't seem to have filtered down to the people on the streets of iran? is that because it hasn't filtered down yet and it will, or is it just that it's being diverted into military programs and syria, for example? >> yeah. i think it's a blend of both. there's no doubt that iran has been engaged in costly endeavors both in syria and obviously supports -- in yemen, it supports hezbollah. we're hearing protesters say they want to see things stay in iran. when you look at the demographics of the protesters, this is not the middle class of iran. millions of people voted for rouhani a couple of weeks ago. it's more of the working class, the more poorer iranians. that's why the grievances of economics resonated early on in the protest and now it's shifted

to be a little more political from what we're hearing inside of that country. there is truth that the iranian people did not reap the benefits of what was supposed to be a win fall of money. that has been a consistent argument made by american critics of the iran nuclear deal. the money the iranian government was going to receive was probably going to be diverted and used in those endeavors in the syria/lebanon and yemen. there has been an attempt by the iranian government, they're trying to sign deals with european corporation to improve the aviation industry. they're trying to bring in car manufactu manufacturing. it's not trickling down at a rate the people are happy. also important to emphasize, this trump administration has imposed sanctions on iran. they have been trying to block iran from making any kind of economic gains over the last year that this administration has been in office. >> david, as we look at the ways

the trump administration has talked about possibility trying to renegotiate the iran deal, would this actually be a useful area in which they could do something? is it possible to stipulate in any way how that money is spent that is repatriated to iran or not? would that be sovereign rights and they can do what they want with it? >> i think the trump administration would be unwise to try to interweave the issues involving the iran nuclear deal with protests in the street. the iranian nuclear program is pretty popular among the average iranian. it's seen as an instrument of iran's national development. iranians, i think, reading the slogans that they're chanting in the streets, they're angry about a couple of things. they're angry first that the revolutionary guard kind of skimmed the benefits of the iran nuclear deal, $500 million that the u.s. sent in in cash was quickly sent to rgc purposes. i think second the wind fall of

real investment. the western companies coming and building new factories, creating jobs for well-educated young iranians who really are hungry for them, that hasn't happened. and then finally the fact that the iranian regime continues to have this revolutionary rhetoric about overturning regimes in the region. its fighting proxy wars in yemen and syria, to some extent in lebanon. finally it seems to have made ordinary iran yans at home to think enough. we're spending money abroad on adventures. let's start spending more money at home. it's a theme that's familiar to americans and so some extent we've been hearing it in europe. let's focus on domestic needs. that's an important strain in this. the final thing i'd note, it's very important how the trump administration plays this. so far president trump's tweets

have basically said the u.s. is watching. we're going to hold iran accountable for its behavior for any human rights violations against protesters. there's discussion quietly of a joint communique issued by the u.s., france, britain, the allies that helped negotiate the iran nuclear deal that would say much the same thing. these allies are watching and expecting iran to behave. the harder question is what does the u.s. do if this crackdown widens, if we get back to a situation like 2009 in the green movement? that was crushed while the obama administration watched. it's hard to imagine donald trump just watching. but i don't think they have options yet. >> all right. thank you. before we end this block, we want to mention your bbc show beyond 100 days will air tonight. it's a look at the top global stories of the day. it will air mondays through thursdays at 11:00 p.m. starting

tonight. >> we're excited. clearly not much to talk about. clearly very quiet. >> i wonder what you'll discuss. >> we'll have you all back to talk on my show later. >> it's a long day for you if you're up live at 11 tonight. get a nap. >> a long nap. still ahead, democrats may have momentum, but you can't please all people all the time. will schumer and pelosi cut a deal on daca or join the resistance against the president at every turn. we have more. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. you were made to move. to progress. to not just accept what you see, but imagine something new. at invisalign®, we use the most advanced teeth straightening technology to help you find the next amazing version of yourself.

it's time to unleash your secret weapon. it's there, right under your nose. get to your best smile up to 50% faster. visit invisalign.com to get started today. of the season' on the only bed that adjusts on both sides to your ideal comfort, your sleep number setting. does your bed do that? right now our queen c4 mattress is only $1199, save $400. ends soon. visit sleepnumber.com for a store near you.

but can also loweresterol, your body's natural coq10. qunol helps restore this heart-healthy nutrient with 3x better absorption. qunol has the #1 cardiologist recommended form of coq10 qunol, the better coq10. ♪ [speaking french] ♪ [speaking french]

ah...i don't understand... ♪ ♪ this is what our version of financial planning looks like. ♪ tomorrow's important, but this officially completes his education. ♪ spend you life living. today's the day. find an advisor at northwesternmutual.com.

good morning. beautiful shot of the white house at 7:25. president trump is back there this morning after returning last night following a ten-day

vacation to florida. joining us from the white house petering a ek sander. peter back to work for the president today. freezing day after his florida vacation, and he has plenty of golfing on his trip. what was on the docket for him now that he can't do golfing and has to get back to work with republican leaders? >> you're right about the cold part. new year. same set of foreign and domestic challenges. he's scheduled to have lunch with meike pence and alex acost. he'll meet with rex tillerson and jim mattis tomorrow. wednesday, some seen yonior whi house aides are going to meet at the capitol with senior members about daca that expires on march 5th. privately in my conversations top aides have said they're

confident it will be resolved by the march deadline, but the question is how with democrats not showing they're willing to work with the president. he's demanded money for the boarder wall. the democrats have another seat in the senate thanks to what took place weeks ago in alabama beginning when doug jones arrives. upcoming deadlines on the 19th whether to extend government funding. that means a possible shutdown in the middle of the month. questions over to whether they reauthorize warrantless electronic surveillance, and in march decisions need to be made on the chip program. that's the children's health insurance program benefitting about 9 million children who are uninsured. it is a also a question about raising the debt ceiling. the president is focusing on iran on twitter and blaming his predecessor, president obama. >> peter, if i was your mom, i'd

say put on a hat or at least go inside. thank you. stay warm. >> reporter: thanks. >> joining us nower is jeremy p and robert costa. robert, the president left washington on a high. he just got tax reform passed, signed, delivered to the country. good moment for the republicans. how are they going to kind of try to capitalize on that up feeling and what do they think they can get done that's significant in the first few months of this year in. >> inside of the white house, katty, one view is that the president needs to be a salesman on the tax bill, hit the campaign trail knowing the midterms could be a possible trouble point for the republican party as there are some unease among suburban voters about the trump agenda. on capitol hill you have a willingness to deal that doug jones, the democrat from alabama is in the senate. it's a narrow 51-seat gop

majority, and the challenge for the white house is not just going after the government funding which expires on january 19th, but can they come up with anything else that's a large legislative item such as infrastructure in the early part of 2018. it's about checking the boxes and keeping the process moving along. >> and jeremy, what's the talk about the sequencing of infrastructure, daca, what are we going to have when and do they think they can get something done on an infrastructure bill on time to have an impact on the midterms? >> i think that's a hopeful and highly optimistic read on the situation. infrastructure was never going to be easy. and if you throw into the mix all of these other issues that have been splitting the republican party for years, immigration, government funding, the debt ceiling, it's not looking like a very easy road ahead. now, specifically daca is going to be the most problematic.

we've seen situations like this before in recent history with republicans seemingly having the wind at their backs only to kind of mire themselves in internal squabbling over these cultural issues, and daca is probably the most problematic of all of them, and this week you are going to have conservative activists meeting with steve bannon and other leading anti-immigration hawks within the party to try to discuss how they can prevent the president, put pressure on the president from cutting a deal that would somehow undo or seemingly undo his campaign promises to take a tough line on immigration. >> and looming over all of this is the russia probe and now we see reasons pushing back. devin munez reportedly ready to push his investigation to allegations that the fbi and

justice department attempted to use an unconfirmed dossier to snare president trump and his aides. nunez wrote the doj failed to fully produce in response to a subpoena related to the dossier. quote, unfortunately doj, fbis intransigence with with respect to the subpoenas is part of a broader pattern of behavior that can no longer be tolerated. at this point it seems the doj and the fbi need to be investigating themselves. he reportedly demanded that by tomorrow, january 3rd, the justice department must provide all available dates for witnesses to receive. politico earlier reported he was meeting in secret about a probe of the fbi. "the washington post" reported that republican intelligence committee member said his heart would be broken if nunes follows

through with that. gowdy suggested nunes has taken some of the steps without the expressed blessing of paul ryan, but in october, ryan seemed to their frustration. >> it's frustrating. we've had document requests for a long time and they've been stone walling. the fbi and the justice department needs to give congress the documents its been requesting and do so immediately. >> you used the word stone walling. you think it's intentional? >> we've had the document requests out there for a long time. >> you've been saying 2018 could be the return of the vast right wing conspiracy. i'm assuming firing muler is part of that. >> there's a vocal minority within the republican party and among conservative activists like judicial watch of citizens

united who was a key trump campaign aide who are saying shut this down. this investigation is rotten from the head down. it's tainted by partisan democrats who have been loyal to hillary clinton, and that drum beat is only going to continue. this is a lot of republicans believe that the only way to regain the momentum here and to make sure that president trump doesn't become mired in the ongoing drip, drip, drip of leaks from this investigation is to go on the offense and make this story about the investigators. of course the problem is republicans themselves are split over whether or not to do that, and there are many who are deeply troubled by the prospect of attacking the justice department, the fbi, and the way that they looks. and they need something positive to run on rather than running on the message that the organs of government, the swamp is out to get donald trump and undo the election, they need to point to

establishments in the right now they have one big accomplishment they can point to. that's the tax cuts. they need to hope that that bears fruit for people and that voters feel something in their pockets. >> robert, elise jordan here. i have been struck by recent reports that president trump is finally taking the russia investigation more seriously, and that he is concerned about his political fortunes in 2018 if republicans lose the house. can you tell me what the mind set is right now with the white house on how to approach the midterms? and is steve bannon still going to be playing an influential role as an outside adviser? >> elise, there's a bracing acknowledgment inside of the white house and in the president's broader circle that should the democrats take back the house this year, that you could see impeachment proceedings. there's a push on the left to go against president trump, and the white house thinks this is a

real trouble -- point of trouble on the horizon. at the same time they think the prospect of impeachment from the democrats against trump could help rouse the base ahead of the midterm elections. bannon has been telling this to trump according to people close to both men. you'll have to see how much does the president try to get the base in line by going against the fbi, the justice department, talking about the prospect of impeachment as a way of engaging republican voters who may not be as energized as they were in 2018. >> thank you for your reporting. coming up, donald trump's campaign slogan was make america great again, but is he inadvertently making china great again. we'll talk about that next on "morning joe." i just got my cashback match,

is this for real? yep. we match all the cash back new cardmembers earn at the end of their first year, automatically. whoo! i got my money! hard to contain yourself, isn't it? uh huh! let it go! whoo! get a dollar-for-dollar match at the end of your first year. only from discover.

we packed new banquet mega bowls full of majestic piles of cheddar mac n cheese, smothered in mozzarella. but it wasn't mega. so we topped it with protein packed chunks of buffalo-style chicken. now that's mega.

we can't continue to allow china to rape our country, and that's what they're doing. it's the greatest theft in the history of the world. >> i don't blame china. after all, who can blame a country for being able to take

advantage of another country for the benefit of it citizens? i give china great credit. >> two very different times from donald trump. one as a candidate and one as president while visiting beijing. visiting us, the author of "making china great again how beijing learned to use trump to it advantage". if america retreats, who steps in? will china take on some of the roles? you look at both sides of this argument. you see china that is taking more of a global role stepping up the commitment to the united nations, investing billions of dollars around the world, but the piece also seems to suggest that china is not on the brink of becoming the next global superpower in the sense we understand it in the role america has played and doesn't

want that. >> right. oftentimes when we talk about china's growing role we assume that means it would just supplant us eventually. that's not the case. you talk to anybody across the board, people basically agree that's not where we're headed. but where we are headed is something quite novel. and that is that this is a moment in which we are witnessing a remarkable coincidence, an intersection of two very different strategic visions in which the united states is seeking to pursue a smaller role in the world by withdrawing from the paris climate agreement, but withdrawing from unesco and threatening to overturn the u.s. korea free trade agreement. a whole range of ways donald trump has described. at the very same moment that china is seeking a larger role in the world. this is something that's talked about doing quietly for decades. it hasn't really wanted to do it overtly in order to enflame the united states. it's concluded a year into the

trump administration that this is what's known in chinese as a period of strategic opportunity. that's how they describe china today and donald trump's administration today when they talk about it in beijing. >> so evan this is david ignatius. i wanted to ask you, it's a marvelous piece. one of the issues it raises for me is whether the u.s. is making china move more quickly toward taking this larger global role than it would have wanted to. the china expected this would take place over a more protracted period. you have a marvelous quote where a chinese official says trump is america's gorbachev. is that a problem here for china that this is happening too quickly before they were really ready to be the global superpower? >> you're right, david. the interesting thing here, this is a story about unexpected --

an unexpected set of events. china thought it would take decades for it to be able to build up the kind of soft power and for the united states to begin to settle back into a smaller role in the world. that's happened much faster than even china's top strategists expected. this has created something of a debate in beijing. what you have tis the top leade who is al bishmbitious. in a speech he said china is moving to center stage in the world in this moment. there are people around him who say he is moving perhaps too fast to capitalize on the opportunities presented by the trump administration's america first policy and that this risks generating anti-bodies around the world. that he perhaps might cause other countries to say well, china is moving too fast. but he sees this as a moment really that the chinese cannot

afford to pass up. in which it is investing in the kinds of assets the united states invested in in the last century. things like diplomacy, overseas military deployments, as an opportunity to try to build the political profile and be able to bring some of the values to other countries. >> evan, richard haas here. i want to follow up on the domestic side in china. in order to play a large role beyond the borders, china will have to be politically stable. to me the fly in the ointment, you know china so well, is whether china is positioned to play a larger role or whether it can't take for granted yet the fact that it's going to have the kind of stability and success domestically it would need if it wanted to play a larger role? >> that's the key point. and you're right. in many ways we often overlook the significant domestic turmoil in china. politically they have tremendous

economic risks on the road ahead, whether it's the debt or an aging population they have to support. these are obstacles to overcome if they want to be able to maintain the present course. all of that being said -- and i've spent years arguing in a sense against assuming that china is necessarily going to become this sort of an uneasy path to superpower status. but something has moved in the world today. and power is a relative fact. china's power is also governed partly by the global perception of our power and our commitments. even though china has a tremendous set of obstacles at home, it will be aided in the its ability to persuade other countries to do the things that it hopes to achieve in the world. that's an important fact. the power to persuade is something we don't always talk about in the united states in

our domestic politics. we take it for granted that that's been a fact for the last 70 years since world war ii. we' >> evan, is there a distinction to be made between how we approached our world leadership when we started to step in after world war i and europe was essentially decimated with the league of nations and then after world war ii, is there a distinction between what we were trying to accomplish in our foreign policy, and what they are. i've always had the sense chi china's foreign policy was more heavily about controlling economic relationships with other countries that would make their country grow and they were focussed on their own growth economically rather than on making the world a better place. >> that's a key distinction between the kind of world china

envisioned compared to our vision in the last century. we rebuilt germany and japan to mirror our values and then we built alliances to try to establish the ideas. china today says look, we are not seeking to give a chinese political system to every country around the world. this is not the common turn. we are trying to great an environment in which we can succeed. in many ways this is the world that richard described in his book, that he saw coming. it was a world in which you have not one universe of values but multiverses. you have multiple competing sets of political ideas where china says we don't believe human rights, freedom of press are priorities. we believe in something else, a strong state control. as a result, you have china essentially going to the rest of the world and saying we offer you what we call the chinese

solution. it's very much what you mentioned. that you can have rapid economic growth while maintaining political control. whether or not that's actually viable for other countries is an open question. but they are now generating that and offering that from their perspective as an equal alternative to what the united states can provide. >> okay. evan, thank you. it's a great read. and as you say, dove tails so well what much of what richard is writing about in his book "the world of disarray". how does american global leadership look at the end of the trump administration, whether that's four or eight years and who steps and how do they step in to fill the void. everi evan, thank you. >> coming up, pakistan asks for an explanation about a tweet from the president. plus ruth marcus joins us with what she says are three things saving us from donald trump. "morning joe" comes right back.

mike and i are both veterans, both served in the navy. i do outrank my husband, not just being in the military, but at home. she thinks she's the boss. she only had me by one grade. we bought our first home together in 2010. his family had used another insurance product but i was like well i've had usaa for a while, why don't we call and check the rates? it was an instant savings and i should've changed a long time ago. there's no point in looking elsewhere really. we're the tenneys and we're usaa members for life. usaa. get your insurance quote today.

i. ♪

♪ keep it comin' love. if you keep on eating, we'll keep it comin'. all you can eat riblets and tenders at applebee's. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood.

what about those lower courts. how do judicial nominees stack up against predecessors. it wouldn't be new year without ste steve rattner and the chart. not quite anything. we're going to chart this anyway. >> i'm sure you could. >> we'll try. i put successes in a quote. underneath north korea and tax bill and all the stuff that has gotten attention, he has had amazing success. and very careful success on in a moment nominating judges. he and president obama each have gotten one judge appointed. my little pen is not working. each gotten one judge appointed. when you drop down below that to the appeals court, numbers are more striking. nominated 19 to court of appeals and gotten 12 approved. obama nominated 15 and gotten

three approved at this point in the cycle. some people say that's because the republicans control the senate and only needs 50 votes. obama had 60 votes at this point in time during his administration and couldn't get many confirmed. on the district court level. tromp nominated 55 and got six approved. on the obama side, nine out of 20. so he hasn't gotten quite as many approved on the district court level, but he's nominated a whole slew. 91% of trump's nominees are white. that is the highest percentage except for reagan over this period of time. and 81% of them are male, which is ahead of what larger number than what bush and clinton and obama appointed.

they're also a good bit younger than previous nominees. they average a little bit over 50 years old. you can see obama, george bush, and clinton all had older ones. the earlier presidents in roughly the same range. all part of a very calculated strategy to have them serve for a long time. he has the opportunity to make really major changes in these courts. at the court of appeals level, half of the judges, fully half of the judges are eligible for senior status. meaning he could get to a point whereas under obama only 27% at this point were eligible for senior status. 14% under bush. 43. there's a very libtdeliberate a well orchestrated campaign to make the final judiciary. >> given they're young. they outlast trump presumably. >> outlast trump and several of his successors. still ahead, fast moving diplomatic efforts from the korean peninsula and u.s. is not

in drivers seat. talk about that and tense situation in iran. does donald trump realize how big the threat the midterms is to the presidency if the republicans lose. plus talk to one of the reporters who broke this bombshell story and really sparked the investigation into russian metaling. morning joe back soon. but if that's not enough, we offer our price match guarantee too. and if that's not enough... we should move. our home team will help you every step of the way. still not enough? it's smaller than i'd like. we'll help you finance your dream home. it's perfect. oh, was this built on an ancient burial ground? okay... then we'll have her cleanse your house of evil spirits. we'll do anything, (spiritual chatter) seriously anything to help you get your home. ally. do it right. to help you get your home. trust #1 doctor recommended dulcolax. use dulcolax tablets for gentle dependable relief. suppositories for relief in minutes. and dulcoease for comfortable relief of hard stools. dulcolax. designed for dependable relief.

jimmy's gotten used to his whole yup, he's gone noseblind. odors. he thinks it smells fine, but his mom smells this... luckily for all your hard-to-wash fabrics... ...there's febreze fabric refresher. febreze doesn't just mask, it eliminates odors you've... ...gone noseblind to. and try febreze unstopables for fabric. with up to twice the fresh scent power, you'll want to try it... ...again and again and maybe just one more time. indulge in irresistible freshness.

febreze unstopables. breathe happy.

which means everyone has access to our real reviews that we actually verify. and we can also verify that what goes down, [ splash, toilet flush ] doesn't always come back up. find a great plumber at angie's list. join today for free.

2018 will be an opportunity of extreme danger. the president has drawn a line with the north korean regime. if i have to use military force to stop you. the iranians are watching the way he engages with north korea and vice versa. we've got a chance here to deliver some fatal blows to really bad actors in 2018, but if we blink, god help us all. >> in a test of foreign policy and america first strategy. this morning, there are big developments concerning each country and uprising in iran. new moves from north korea and pakistan reacting sharply to a trump tweet. meanwhile, new report says as america pulls back, china steps forward seizing a level of global influence that beijing's own government thought would take decades to achieve. we're going talk to the author of that important new piece. loose lips sink ships with the

russia investigation apparently all stemming from a nights of booze and bragging. how the drunken whispers of a trump staffer may have set all of this many motion. speak with the reporter behind that coming up. good morning, it's tuesday, january 2. happy morning everybody. in this morning for joe and mika. sadly the flu has hit the morning joe crew badly. fear not, you are in good hands. this morning have white house reporter for usa today. former treasury official and morning joe economic analyst steve rattner. former aide to gorge w. bush. speaking with richard about that in just a few minutes. begin with what could be a major breakthrough in diplomacy between north and south korea. on new year's day, kim jong-un

suggested talks to possibly send the delegation to the winter olympics in south korea. this morning, the south respo responded with a proposed date exactly one week from today. that country's unification minister wants to meet january the 9th at the shared board of located in the joint security area. these would be the first formal talks between north and south of december of 2015. the south korean president moon jae-in favors dialogue with the north. moon has already suggested delaying joint military exercises with the u.s. until after those winter games. that's only part of the reason the move could drive a wedge. kim struck a conciliatory tone with the south. blustery rhetoric against the u.s. remained. warned america his nuclear weapons can reach the u.s. while claiming, quote, the nuclear button is always on my desk.

that's exactly what washington needs to avoid at the moment. the united states with the advent of long range missiles now cares more about north korea's ability to hit us. japan for its part has its own set of priorities so the danger is a anymore row bilateral dialogue made some way to suede so you recollect south korea. what if they want to have dialogue that doesn't put our issues in the place of prominence we think they need to be. the danger here is just what you suggest. the north will be able to play us off against south korea weakening a common front particularly in question of whether we are prepared to put anything about our conventional military exercises.

everybody so focused on nuclear missile threat. north korea many ways the most militarized country in the world. they don't need nuclear weapons to devastate seoul. can they be tough with north korea and keep alliance intact. this will be an enormous diplomatic test. >> probably the biggest test of the last year. carry on being the big test for president trump during this year. he had a tricky relationship with the south koreans floating the idea of trade sanctions of tough trade times with the south koreans. how is he going to respond to this overture from the north. seen so clearly designed to drive a wedge between allies. >> let's just hope that president trump isn't going to tweet his twitter account. that various players are trying to engage upon to calm down

situation and to diffuse the situation. i do give president trump's national security team some credit for how they have managed to navigate this relationship and trying to keep his insults not as personality driven. treat this with the soberness it needs to be addressed with. >> you also had i think some internal tension within the trump administration of how to handle this. tillerson on a number of occasions saying he's willing to talk to anyone. then he gets slapped down by trump. only willing to talk if north korea gets rid of north korea capability. which i don't think it's ever going to do. they don't have a coherent policy themselves. >> led to the problem of the team, when the team is led by -- you can have a great team and have a team trying to do -- trying to play three dimensional

chess if the guy at the top going to tweet. >> fundamentally we have to resolve the question of whether we're going to allow north korea to have nuclear capability. depending where that line is drawn, influences dramatically what the policy has to be. >> jump in here. what is the reckoning in the white house on exactly what steve was just talking about. the calculation on how far they're prepared to go to stop north korea becoming a nuclear state if that's possible. how are they going to respond to that, calculation so far if you look at the statements has been unconvention unconventional. really seems to dismiss there being some kind of middle step in terms of diplomacy.

same power we know have been the route all along. surrounding countries like china to tighten the noose. really is not a military option for us. and this makes clear that north korea has other ways of going around the united states. to achieve its means. i think the president is going to have to re-evaluate this approach of pooh poohing diplomacy and something that his own secretary of state has been trying to pursue on multiple occasions to show that, yeah, there has to be some other route here because north korea is not going to just youer and do what we say.cower and do what we say.

>> what this shows is sanctions and use of military force. turns out in foreign policy could be more difficult to deal with friends than allies. i think we're going to see that between washington and seoul. see that 2003 washington and islam. this going to be far more difficult than tweets and bluster and threats on north korea on the potential use of force. several people said here and steve is right. the administration is going to have to at some point decide whether it's prepared to get off this absolutist position. the north korea must get rid of all nuclear weapons as precondition. that will fail with north korea. it will also fail with south korea. it cannot be a precondition for diplomacy. brilliant segue. thank you richard. >> it looks like a fairly quiet last few days until about 48 hours ago. and the latest country is the ongoing massive and violent protest going on throughout iran. the most dramatic we've seen since the controversial 2009 elections.

associated press is now reporting that per iranian state media, nine more people were killed overnight. several of whom apparently tried to break into a police station to steal weapons. so far at least 21 protesters have died. along with at least one police officer. after what began late last week as small localized rallies against the ongoing economic problems spread to most of the country and morphed to encompass anger at the government and religious leaders. hundreds of people have been arrested. so far, the feared militia has not been deported. iran's president said yesterday. we need to turn it into an opportunity. adding however, that the government will crank down on lawbreake lawbreakers. president trump weighed in by twitter yesterday tweeting. iran is failing in an effort to make the deal with binding demonstration. great iranian people have been

repressed for many years. hungry for food and freedom along with human rights and wealth. time for change. vice president pence has shadowed the administration response tweeting in part others today by adding resistance to the iranian people as they fought against the brutal regime. we must not and we will not let them down. meanwhile, lawmakers on capitol hill also joining in with their responses to this unrest. the president and vice president lobbying blame at the obama administration saying trump should do the exact opposite of obama. adding that he has to do more than just tweet about the situation. two republicans colleagues support. inspired by the demonstrations.

senator tim kaine offered some advise on what the u.s. could do to help the democracy movement tweeting, quote, drop the iranian travel ban and richard, there's some bipartisan support clearly for the demonstrators. when it comes to what actually to do about this, anything around the nuclear deal, the bipartisanship starts to fall apart, doesn't it. >> it does. that's rial not germaine to what's going on. this is really different than 2009. around the country. it's really bottom line. it's impossible to identify one or two between the narrow issues. this is something profound. seeing the iranian leadership unsure of how to respond. i think we're right to stand up and speak out. we also have to be careful. this administration hasn't exactly distinguished itself on iran. cause of the travel ban and also very hard to signal out criticism on what's going on in iran. we've ignored what's going on in

turkey, russia, and about 20 other countries around the world. been selective shall we say in our indignation. there are things we can do. put out information to those protesting. make it difficult for certain types of technologies to reach the regime. targeted sanctions. just need to be careful not to use words like we're going to provide all sorts of support, quote, unquote, to the iranian people. this is their challenge at some point and limits to what we're going to be able to do here. >> richard, i want to follow up on what mike pence said in his tweet. it seemed like they are, the administration is moving in the direction of supporting the protests of encouraging the protest. it's a very fine balance to navigate right now.

how would any parallel as you see there. >> even more parallels 1956. and in hungary and the eyes of our administration. got to be careful when we call upon people to rise up. if we're not going to be there. a lot of them are going to get killed. i think seeing more easily in the spread. a lot of times the united states said someone must go. assad in syria. where would we then see that actually happen and see something is better put in its place. i understand all these people want to differentiate themselves from the obama administration, but they've got to be very careful and very smart about what it is they're actually prepared to say. >> yes. i agree with all that. seems to me our options here in terms of actually affecting change are very limited and dangerous and scary. one of the iron aniy ies of thi that you could make an argument that that our agreement with iran actually helped spur the protests in a way because there

was a lot of expectation on the part of the iranian people that good stuff was going to happen after we lifted sanctions and provided money. none of that has gotten to the iranian people. you've got a country that is actually growing fast and still has 13% unemployment. 20% usually. therefore the seeds of fulfi fulfillment you see going on there now. still ahead on morning joe, it's never been easy to call pakistan an american ally. the country has helped fight terror, but not nearly at the level washington would like. now, president trump is throwing a new wrench in that relationship. that discussion next on "morning joe." he kids to get a repair estimate. liberty did what? yeah, with liberty mutual all i needed to do to get an estimate was snap a photo of the damage and voila! voila! i wish my insurance company had that... wait! hold it... hold it boys... there's supposed to be three of you... where's your brother? where's your brother? hey, where's charlie? charlie?!

you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you. liberty stands with you™ liberty mutual insurance. and my brother ray and i started searching for answers. (vo) when it's time to navigate in-home care, follow that bright star. because brightstar care earns the same accreditation as the best hospitals. and brightstar care means an rn will customize a plan that evolves with mom's changing needs. (woman) because dad made us promise we'd keep mom at home. (vo) call 844-4-brightstar for your free home care planning guide.

of the season' on the only bed that adjusts on both sides to your ideal comfort, your sleep number setting. does your bed do that? right now our queen c4 mattress is only $1199, save $400. ends soon. visit sleepnumber.com for a store near you.

we've been talking about america's position on dealing with iran and north korea. now there are new questions about the u.s. relationship with pakistan. in its first tweet of 2018, the president wrote, the united states is foolishly given pakistan over $30 billion in

aide over the last 15 years and they've given us nothing, but lies and deceit. thinking of our leaders as fools. give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in afghanistan with little help. no more. defense minister fired back tweeting pakistan is anti-terror ally has given free to u.s. land and air communications. military bases, intel cooperation. the decimated al qaeda over the last 16 years, but they have even us nothing, but invective and mistrust. they overlook cross boards and murder. "washington post" reports the officials are expected to hold a cabinet meeting today to adopt a response to trump's tweet. meanwhile, the white house noted yesterday that it intends to continue to withhold $228 million in aide to pakistan already appropriate rated by pakistan. that aid has been on hold since august. it's not the first time the

obama administration withheld aid to pakistan. what's the trump administration hoping to get here. what do they want to change in the relationship and how are they going to do it. >> more cooperation in terms of hunting down terrorists. this is not the first time that the president has issued a a wav warning to a country. they will probably come up with some kind of formal response to this. whether it is backed up here with policy in the united states, we'll see. what it will certainly do is continue to inflame relations in the middle east. we've seen the president since the beginning of the year take a number of positions that have inflamed positions. i also wanted to go back to richard for question on the iran deal because yes, what is happening in iran is different right now and not germaine

necessarili necessarily to what happened in the iran deal. the president face as decision in january. if we see what is happening here and we support what is happening in iran with the people rising up, why would we go ahead and try to do again what the president said he wanted to do which is to blow up this deal. i wouldn't mix 2 two issues. on pakistan, the other problem is this is a country that's been providing sanctuary for the taliban for many number of years. this president has agreed to increase and extend the u.s. commitment to afghanistan. so we are at lagger heads. this is nothing new. when i would basically say the problem is not so much wihat th president tweeted, the content

of it. i'm not sure tweeting it makes a lot of sense. i would quietly make it clear support for pakistan is going to be conditional going forward. military support. based on specific behaviors against terrorists and what they do against the taliban. put it out publicly, makes it more difficult to arrange anything behind the scenes. that was difficult to begin with. >> pakistan, north korea, iran, all countries that have confused, been problematic for american president for decades. you've written the book on this. it certainly looks like it's a world in disarray. when you wrote this a year ago, i wonder if you actually real e realized how much disarray the world was going to be in given where we are today. who is controlling this. who is the hand on god looking at the world thinking okay, we are the leaders and we're going to make sure there's a fix to some of this. >> i've been called many things

in life. never an optimist. this is all new to me. i think the clear message of the last few years is the alternative to a u.s. led world. the sort of world essentially we see for three quarters of a century quinning with world war ii. the alternative to a u.s. led world is nobody led world. unraveling along the fault lines. we're beginning to see it in asia with north korea emerging. china and russia playi ing mixe roles. what we talked about with pakistan going its own way. go around the world and increasingly we're seeing countries no longer deferring to the united states. the united states is not isolationist. we're still involved, but we're involved intermittently. we're involved in very narrow terms. no longer involved in across the border alliance relationships or pull out of the tpp and suddenly we create a space for china to emerge. we pull out of paris agreement

and suddenly the european have fundamental questions about what the united states is. we ignore human rights violations around the world consistently in places like russia, turkey, philippines and signal them out today and a different country. >> you say the u.s. is not isolationist under trump. you used the word ab da occasion. you say a new way for an empire or a great state to decline. one we haven't seen before. right now the united states by any measure is the most powerful country in the world economically. militarily, and what we're doing is voluntarily simply saying,

we're kind of tired of this role. we don't think it's worth it anymore. i think this president fundamentally miscalculates the cost of benefits from american world leadership with all the same. it's as if we're walking off the field in certain ways with the game not yet over. >> i don't think we can disagree with that. thoroughly congressed edepress i'm going to go home after this show is over. we have nothing to look forward to for the next three years. i don't see what is going to change the course and direction we're on. just going to get worse. china assuming more of a role in the middle east and more chaos problems in the far east and so on and so forth. >> probably right. we've learned that congress can play modest role and can't substitute for the executive. other countries aren't going to step in to play the leading responsible role. >> congress hasn't done much. have a very quick eye ahead of regulations. corker leaving after the end of

next year. >> if we pull back, i don't see anyone filling our shoes or filling that vacuum select i'll. problematic states. could be iran and middle east. could be china and north korea and asia. russia and parts of europe. this is not -- there's not a positive alternative to doing this. what the president seems to miss is we will pay an enormous price. wants to make america great again. not a world at which america can be great. we can't insulate ourselves from this sort of mayhem in the world. coming up on morning joe. after george papadopoulos sweoa up. any reporting paints a different picture. talk to the reporter who broke that story next on morning joe.

your brain changes as you get older. but prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory. prevagen. the name to remember.

day after christmas. trump tweeted. dossier is bogus. clinton campaign funded dossier. fbi cannot after all of this time verify claims in dossier. russia trump collusion. fbi tainted. president added this. and they used this crooked hillary pileup garg as the basis for going after the trump

campaign. a "new york times" report this weekend claims the dossier did not bring on the fbi russia investigation. claiming it was instead a night of heavy drinking. a loose lipped trump aide and a staunch foreign ally. four anonymous current and former american foreign officials tell the paper in may of 2016, trump super visor george papadopoulos told australian diplomat they had thousands of e-mails that would embarrass hillary clinton. when hacked e-mails began appearing online a few months later. informed american counter parts of what papadopoulos had said according to the report. joining us now, one of the reporters who broke that story. ss the whole idea it was made up.

it was always clear if you were paying attention this was not an investigation that began with hillary clinton funded opposition research. we saw john brennen testify before congress saying that he saw information and intelligence that the russian intelligence officials were trying to get members of trump campaign. here we get to the or gins of this. george papadopoulos, little known. inexperienced aide. in london. goes for a night of drinking with australian diplomat. in that conversation, he let slip that he's aware that the russian government has political dirt on hillary clinton. and then when the e-mails started to come out a few months later. australians very close intelligence ally to the united states. come to the fbi and say we have something you should know. put those two things together. the hacking and the fact that it looks like the trump campaign had inside information about it,

you can see why the fbi was so spun up. >> matt, the bizarre elements of this story just a night of drinking in london. high ranking australian official. have overshadowed that in this story, you have access to some previously undisclosed e-mails that show that the russians were very proactive in pursuing a relationship with the trump campaign. did you talk about that. >> yes. that was on of the things that was really remarkable to me. reading these e-mails, what we now understand to be part of a russian intelligence and russian influence campaign seeing these e-mails to and from george papadopoulos are really remarkable. we lay out in the story that at one point, this professor who is acting as intermediary basically says i would like to come and travel with the trump campaign. i would do -- i would basically be a surrogate, unofficial

surrogate for the campaign and i would like to get private briefings about campaign strategy and foreign policy. and you can see why that would be so valuable to a foreign government. basically asking for inside information from inside the campaign. i talked to one person who is a veteran counter intelligence person who said to me, look, we didn't get worried because we saw a lot of efforts by the russians to make contact. that's what they do. that's their job. we got worried because it seemed to be working. coming up on "morning joe." drill down on this conversation even further. when the colleague from the "new york times" joins the conversation. his sweeping new piece examines president trump's break over 70 years of foreign policy. from the very beginning ...

it was always our singular focus. to do whatever it takes, use every possible resource. to fight cancer. and never lose sight of the patients we're fighting for. our cancer treatment specialists share the same vision. experts from all over the world, working closely together to deliver truly personalized cancer care. and these are the specialists we're proud to call our own. expert medicine works here. learn more at cancercenter.com appointments available now. you can do it. we can do this. at fidelity, our online planning tools are clear and straightforward so you can plan for retirement while saving for the things you want to do today. -whoo!

while saving for the things looking for a hotel that fits... whoooo. ...your budget? tripadvisor now searches over... ...200 sites to find you the... ...hotel you want at the lowest price. grazi, gino! find a price that fits. tripadvisor.

you wof your daily routine, so why treat your mouth any differently? complete the job with listerine® help prevent plaque, early gum disease, bad breath and kill up to 99.9% of germs. listerine® bring out the bold™

welcome back to "morning joe." david ignatius, steve rattner,

back with us. joining us now, columnist and deputy editorial. ruth marcus. and national political reporter for axios, jonathan swan. president trump is officially back from holiday break. getting in the rhythm of morning tweet sprees. wrote just a short time ago, crooked hillary clinton's top aide huma abedin has been accused of disregarding basic security protocols. she put classified passwords in the hands of foreign agents. remember sailors pictures on submarine. jail. deep state justice department must finally act also on comey and others. the if we had about three hours, jonathan, i could get you to go through that line by line. and tell me exactly what the president is talking about. what is this about? >> there are two abiding themes which we've seen repeated again, and, again, and, again.

one is calling for the jailing of political opponents. and the second is directing jeff sessions justice department and suggesting that the attorney general jeff sessions doesn't name him, but innuendo there is that jeff sessions is doing his job. and running that justice department the way trump wants it to be run. >> what is a deep state justice department. >> again, it's this terms that gets used, gets thrown around. what donald trump is contending is that the justice department is run by -- trying to get a view of the justice department. again, it's directing jeff sessions to do things that are beyond the realm of what the justice department would normally do. >> david, i think this might be the first time in a tweet that donald trump has suggested jail for james comey also. because that's kind of at the bottom. it creeps in, but he adds comey

and others. you get distracted. 280 character experiment with twitter. you get distracted by the time you get to the end, but also on comey and others. is more of a blanket proposition. >> he certainly is escalating his counterattack on the investigation. this new phrase, that you hear from his supporters on capitol hill. investigate and turn the tables. they're the ones with the wrong doing. this implication of the deep state is real conspiracy ideas that have been out there for the last decades. secret figures who manipulate our policy in a deep state that's not the list of government there. really running things. these are very dark conspiracy ideas. the question i'm curious about is whether the president is

expressing these things anew because of increasing concerns that it's moving closer to him. why would he bring comey back into this. huma abedin. my goodness, how long has it been since we heard her name. is he concerned the investigation is threatening to give his presidency and white house, trying to do something about it. we'll see what the pushback is from republican members of congress now that they're back. now the constituents have a sense of how this the playing out in the states and districts. >> okay. i've already broken my new years resolution. january 2. not to be derailed by donald trump's tweets to the degree i have withbeen last year. we will move swiftly along. you talk about the three things to save the country from donald trump. the courts, the congress, and the media. they have held up pretty well during the course of 2017, but if there is a continued onslaught of against, either

from the trump administration or from elements of the republican party or from the democratic party, if they chose to go that way, how well would those guardrails hold up against that prolonged assault. >> first of all. catty, don't beet yourself up. we're all distracted by donald trump's tweets. >> new years resolution. if you think about donald trump as a hurricane. our system was made to survive category 3, category four. we're not sure if it's made to survive a category trump storm. and i think that may be that david suggested this a little bit. that may be what 2018 is going to tell us. just how robust these systems are. look, none of them is perfect. starting with the media. certainly we've seen a lot of disappointments from the republican controlled congress in being willing to stand up and

talk back to president trump, but this tweet really does suggest and now i've broken my new year's resolution too that he is alarmed. sometimes you're not sure if the president wrote the tweet, this one is essential trump. it suggests a degree of concern here. it's rather amazing. he is busy fomenting about huma abedin and hillary clinton still months after he was elected, nearly a year after he was elected and talk about misusing classified information and not behaving properly. we've just had this report about his foreign policy aide being told about damaging information and not doing what australians did. which was go to authorities about it.

versus trying to get serious policy stuff through the congress. it would seem to me the chances of getting much through the congress beyond what has to get done is small and b, the risk they face is they lose the house or possibly even the senate in these midterms. so catastrophic they don't seem to have much of a choice. how do you see that situation? >> i was talking to senior white house official yesterday about this very point, and they said we don't expect there to be much legislating done this year, if any, in congress. yes, there's a huge burst of stuff that needs to get done in january, funding the government, the daca situation will be resolved. the idea they're going to pass infrastructure or welfare reform, i mean, forget about it.

i haven't spoken to anyone internally who seriously thinks with a high degree of certainty those things are going to happen. on the second part of your question about 2018, trump has not been focused on 2018 at all. he's been ignorie ining it unti quite recently when it seems to have dawned on him according to people who have spoken to him that if republicans lose control of the house, it will pose a threat to his presidency. he understands the democrats will likely move towards impeachme impeachment. one of the people who press this with president trump is his former chief of staff reince priebus. met with him. had lunch with him less than two weeks ago. said 2018 is serious as a heart attack and priebus is also told gop leadership and the committees that they should spend whatever it takes and treat this year as if it's 2020 because what happens this year could put the presidency on the path of peril. >> i would like to ask my

colleague, ruth marcus, just to talk a little bit more about the extent she really feels optimism, if that's the right word. about the system's ability to take us through the coming period. ruth, in particular, what are you hearing when you talk to republicans on capitol hill about their unwillingness to be dragged along by trump and his base towards policies that they may think are unwise or more to the point that may cost them their seats? what do you hear? >> i think that time will -- 2018 will really tell. look, republicans have for various reasons political self preservation, you hear a lot from them saying he was elected. there's a lot of policy that donald trump is promoting that is in line with policies that kind of normal for the use that word, normal congressional republicans want to see. so they are happy to go along

with that and if not, happy at least a little bit into going along with it. they have to worry about primaries and worry about their base. the real question is and for each individual senator, member of congress, it's going to be a different red line, but what is the red line that donald trump would cross that would make them say, we've had enough. we saw a little dplimelttle gli this. enough republican s undoing the totality of obamacare was a red light. some republicans, some judicial nominees were a red light. the really big red lines could be as jonathan said, threat to the president, have though do with firing mueller, taking steps to fire other fishofficiat the justice department so mueller's investigation would be completely undermined.

issues a set to choke off the investigation. we don't know and it's perfectly plausible that enough republicans would just roll over on that one. i just wanted to end the new year and start the -- start the last year on optimistic note and think or system and the people that we've elected are better than that. >> good for you, ruth marcus. thank you very much. >> happy new year, everybody. >> happy new year. >> jonathan, i bet you had a great time in australia. are they still talking about trump down in australia too? >> i did an event where i spoke to the audience. they are completely obsessed with donald trump. >> everywhere. >> okay. jonathan. thank you. by the way, that story that steve spoke about on the daily caller. it was actually talked about on frox a fox and friends as well. who knows where the president read it or watched it. "new york times" profiles

president trump's position on the global stage after generations of foreign policy. mark is here with his new reporting. that's next on "morning joe." steyer: the president's national security adviser -- guilty. his campaign chairman -- under indictment. his son-in-law -- secret talks with russians. the director of the fbi -- fired. special counsel robert mueller's criminal investigation has already shown why the president should be impeached. you can send a message to your representatives at needtoimpeach.com and demand they finally take a stand. this president is not above the law.

grandma's. aunt stacy's. what are the reasons you care for your heart? qunol coq10 with 3x better absorption has the #1 cardiologist recommended form of coq10 to support heart health. qunol, the better coq10.

joining us now, white house correspondent for "the new york times" mark langlo.

mark recently a sweeping piece for "the new york times" on how trump breaks with years of american policy. writing, nearly an year into his presidency, trump remains an erratic leader on the global stage and an insurgent who attacks allies the united states has nurtured since world war ii and who can seem more at home with america's adversaries. his twitter posts often make a mockery of his administration's policies and subvert the messages his emissaries are trying to deliver abroad. above all, mr. trump has transformed the world's view of the united states into something more inward looking and unpredictable. that's a seminal change from the role the country has played for 70 years. mark, a really interesting piece. pulling together from the strands of american policy and

ally's bemusement and how to deal with trump. when you talk about how the leaders in china and saudi arabia for example have figured out how to deal with donald trump. and you say that they are playing him. >> yes, i mean, what they have discovered, it isn't just the chinese and the saudis. the french president emmanuel macron was very good at this too. this is a president who loves a parade, if you will. he loves to be well received. he loves to be treated as a very important person. if you look back at his trips, they rolled out the red carpet in china. they gave him what they called a state visit-plus-plus. and it yieldled tremendous benefits for them in the sense of a president who is deeply gratified and who felt that hospitality equaled making progress on foreign policy priorities. and that to a lot of foreign policy professional also is a deeply alarming idea. >> why, what's the downside of

it? >> take china. the president ran for office on a very tough trade platform. he was going to push back on the chinese on trade. when he became president, he discovered logically that the chinese are very important in dealing with the north korea crisis. and in his efforts to cultivate the president of china, xi jinping, he has really effectively shelfled his trade agenda vis-a-vis china. he argues that that makes a lot of sense, it's logical, but there's another way of looking at this, which is the chinese have figured out exactly what they need to do to, as you said earlier, to play trump and basically not have to do more than they need to and avoid all of this trade pressure, economic pressure, that they really feared they were going to face from the president when he was running for office. >> mark, this is david ignatius in washington. echoing what katty said about

your piece. one for the time capsule. want to focus on one question. early in the administration it was common for people like me and i think you, too, to say that the president's national security team, general mattis, secretary of state, defense, rex tillerson at state, mcmaster. provided, you know, kind of a limits on what the president can do, this is the adult group. do you see their influence, their ability to check moves on trump's part less than it was in the beginning and that they're less of a safeguard against potentially dangerous outcomes now? >> i think what i would say, david, is that they have managed to curb some of his impulses on a substantive level. for example, he has not ripped up the iran nuclear deal. he's denounced it but he has yet to rip it up. he has not withdrawn from nato. he's pushed nato and criticized

it but he hasn't walked away from the alliance. i think there you do see the influence of mattis and mcmaster. where they have failed completely is in preventing the president from tweeting in a highly destructive way, undercutting his secretary of state, undercutting other diplomats overseas. they've really utterly failed to stop those tweets. they've also failed in a couple more steps. recently the president recognized jerusalem as the capital of israel. this was a huge break with decades of american foreign policy. and it was one that the defense secretary and the secretary of state had deep qualms about. so this was an area where they pushed hard, tried to get him to avoid taking the step and he did anyway. and this leads me to conclude that over time as the president perhaps feels more self-confident in his own role, and more confident of his own positions and instincts, that these gentlemen may find their influence receding rather than growing.

>> mark, elise jordan here, final quick question. since tweeting is a big problem for donald trump and for the execution of his foreign policy and his advisers all want him to quit, in 2018, does he keep tweeting onward? >> look, to the extend you can predict anything about president trump, i predict he keeps tweeting. this is something he finds deeply satisfying. he thinks it gets him around people like me. i think he'll continue to do it. i actually think when you speak to people like h.r. mcmaster, they'll acknowledge he'll keep doing it and they're going to have to role with the punches and figure out how to adapt themselves to him, not the other way around. >> he keeps tweeting, i second that. "the new york times" mark langlo. thank you. we expect joe will be back with us tomorrow morning. right now, stephanie ruhle picks up our coverage, stephanie. >> thanks so much. good morning. i'm stephanie ruhle. and i, just like the president, are back to work.

president trump returning to washington, facing a growing list of foreign policy challenge, including kim jong-un extending a rare olive branch to south korea ahead of the olympic games. >> it's a real diplomatic challenge for the trump administration, can they be tough with north korea but also keep an alliance intact? >> plus, president trump tweeting his support to protesters as iran's supreme leader points the finger at the country's enemies. >> it might be more helpful for us to sit back and let this play out. >> and the trump transformation. from education to criminal justice. a closer look at all the ways president trump structurally changed america in 2017. we're going to begin this morning with new questions about the stability of two of the scariest countries on the planet, iran and north korea. in iran, things seem to be getting worse as protests g