brian will be back tomorrow. thank you for being with us. good night from nbc news headquarters in new york. ♪ it was a situation room showdown over president trump's border wall. congressional leaders left the white house yesterday without making any tangible progress toward ending the government shutdown. plus, president trump slams his former defense secretary, claiming he essentially fired jim mattis, who resigned last month citing his differences with the president. mitt romney weighs in criticizing trump while the president and his allies hit back. ♪ good morning, everybody.

it is thursday, january 3rd. i'm yasmin vossoughian. the government shutdown is barreling into its 13th day and president trump is rejecting a deal to end it because he does not want to, quote, look foolish. yesterday trump, the vice president, administration and congressional leaders met in the white house situation room where democrats offered to pass bills to fund the government leaving aside the president's border wall demands. chuck schumer asked president trump why he would not support their six appropriations bills not related to the department of homemade ra homeland security. trump replied, i would look foolish if i did that. a white house staffer said the president really meant the offer did not make sense without border security funding. but the president's other

comments indicate it is all about him. speaking before the meeting in the cabinet room, the president claimed the shutdown which started when he walked away from last month's bipartisan deal, was really about presidential politics. watch this. >> we're in the shutdown because of the fact that the democrats are looking to 2020. they think they're not going to win the election. i guess a lot of signs point to the fact that they're not going to win the election. i hope they're not going to win the election. but they view this as an election point for them. i actually think it's bad politics, but i'm not thinking about the politics. i'm thinking about what's right and what's wrong. >> so speaking to reporters after the meeting in the situation room, nancy pelosi and minority leader schumer remained firm in their position. >> we asked the president to support the bills that we support that will open up

government. we asked him to give us one good reason. i asked him directly. i said, mr. president, give me one good reason why you should continue your shutdown of the eight cabinet departments while we are debating our differences on homeland security. he could not give a good answer. >> we're asking the president to open up government. we are giving him a republican path to do that. why would he not do it? >> so if house democrats approve a bill today, republican majority leader mitch mcconnell says it will not pass the senate. mcconnell also indicated he is on the sidelines of the deal making process. >> the legislation that house democrats are reportedly planning to introduce and be voted on tomorrow would not be a

serious contribution to the negotiations that are going on between the administration and the incoming democratic majority in the house. >> and coming up, dick durbin of illinois joins the conversation. last night a staunch ally of the president, republican senator lindsey graham of south carolina, agreed that the partial government shutdown could drag on for months, saying trump either gets what he wants with the wall or his presidency is over. >> he said democrats are not for border security. yeah, they are except when trump's president. they won't give a dime to this president because they want him to fail. walls work. trump said let's make a deal. nancy pelosi and chuck schumer said go to hell. he's not going to sign a bill that doesn't have money for the wall. if he gives in now, that's the end of 2019 in terms of him

being an effective president. that's probably tehe end of his presidency. >> defense secretary jim mattis handed trump his letter of resignation. it came as a protest of several of the president's foreign policy decisions and happened one day after trump announced he was pulling all u.s. troops from syria. at the time the president tweeted that mattis will be retiring with distinction while greatly thanking the general for his service. the purchase of new fighting equipment and helping get allies to pay for more defense. at yesterday's cabinet meeting, however, trump threw all that out the window. >> general mattis thanked me profusely for getting him $700 billion. he couldn't believe it. he thanked me the following year when i got him $716 billion. he couldn't believe it. but general mattis was so thrilled. but what's he done for me? how's he done in afghanistan?

not too good. i'm not happy with what he's done in afghanistan and i shouldn't be happy. but he was very happy, he was very thankful when i got him $700 billion and the following year $716 billion. i wish him well. i hope he does well. as you know, president obama fired him and essentially so did i. >> okay. after sparking conversation with a scathing op-ed criticizing president trump, senator-elect mitt romney is weighing on on why he decided to write the piece in the first place. at the same time president trump is also responding to romney's criticism. >> i think it's important as i begin this new job to make it very clear where i stand and i also note that the departure of secretary mattis and the decision to pull out of syria in the abrupt way that it was done was a precipitating event for my finally going on this record. >> i was surprised at mitt romney.

i just home he's going to be a team player. if he's a team player, that will be great. i will say this. if he fought really hard against president obama like he does against me, he would have won the election. i'm surprised he did it this quickly. i was expecting something,ic i was surprised he did it this quickly. you know, look, i endorsed him. he thanked me very profusely. it was very nice. but i am surprised because we've done a lot. >> do you regret accepting his endorsement? >> he was endorsing me. i wasn't endorsing him and i haven't decided who i'm going to endorse in 2020. i'm going to wait and see what the alternatives are. >> allies of president trump have been quick to his defense following romney's scathing op-ed. romney's piece is reportedly prompting calls from some republicans to protect trump from a 2020 primary challenger. the rnc committee man

representing the virgin islands called romney's criticism of trump calculated political treachery. in an e-mail he suggested the party should amend rules to make it harder for a challenger to have his name placed on the 2020 ballot. president trump's former chief strategist steve bannon said, quote, it begins, referring to what he sees as romney allieall efforts to block trump if the 2020 election. during an interview yesterday romney said he's not interested in running in 2020. >> is there any chance you might emerge as an alternative to president trump and run against him for president in the primaries in 2020? >> no. you may have heard i ran before.

i acknowledge the president was successful and i was not. he did something i couldn't do. he won. and i recognize that and pree appreciate that. no, i'm not running again. we'll see if someone else does but time will tell. >> the chair of the rnc is also siding with the president over her uncle mitt romney. potus is attacked and obstructed by the media and democrat 24/7. for an incoming senator to attack trump feeds into what the media and the democrats want. >> she's the chairwoman of the republican party. she has a responsibility. i respect her right to express that viewpoint. it's probably more, if you will, civil than it might have been across the thanksgiving dinner table because we of course have

disagreements in our family. but she's a very loyal republican, loyal to the president and she's doing what she thinks is best for him and for the party. >> maybe there's a reason it happened after christmas. joining me now from washington gabby orr. happy new year. let's stick with this mitt romney conversation. president trump, fellow republicans, obviously it seems as if they're starting to feel a little bit of pressure looking ahead to 2020. is that coming from incoming senator mitt romney? >> i think mitt romney is certainly a threat heading into the new congress and into 2020. obviously he said yesterday that he has no intention of running our primarying the president in 20 but there are certainly others he could lend his support to who might actually launch a primary challenge against president trump, including john kasich, jeff flake, bob corker. there are a handful of names

being floated among the president's most ardent critics on the republican side. it's not just primary candidates that we're hearing people talk about. we're also seeing, as you mentioned earlier with the national committeemen from the rnc from the virgin islands, we're seeing some pushback within the republican national committee apparatus to try and change the rules so there cannot be a primary challenger in 2020. we've noticed that the rnc is looking at doing some type of vote on rule 40, a primary factor in whether or not a primary challenger would be allowed in 2020 at their winter meeting later this month. we've also seen officials from south carolina talk about totally eliminating their primary in 2020 to protect the president. >> i want to talk about the meetings that took place yesterday with senate and house leaders. we have been doing a ton of stories on the people affected

by the shutdown, the people that are not seeing their paychecks, don't necessarily know how they're going to pay their rent. we are obviously entering into i believe day 13 of this government shutdown, if i am correct. where does the government stand at this point on reopening? it has got to be frustrating for so many americans to watch what took place in washington yesterday, because it seems as if nothing can get done. and when you're hearing leaders like lindsey graham say this could go on for months. >> if you look at the language that was used yesterday following that meeting at the white house between congressional leaders and the president, it almost seemed as if all of them were signaling this could continue for weeks. mitch mcconnell said he is prepared to withhold any legislation that the president does not support and they can expect this might drag on for days if not weeks going on.

the democrats said they expect this to drag on much longer than anyone really anticipated. i do think this is probably an indication that yesterday after that meeting both sides are even more dug in than they were heading into the meeting, which likely means this is probably not going to be resolved within the next week or even two weeks perhaps. >> thank you. still ahead, china touches down on the dark side of the moon. plus president trump down plays the recent stock market swings, calling it nothing more than a glitch. and we'll have a check on the weather when we come back. chec weather when we come back. i am a family man.

i am a techie dad. i believe the best technology should feel effortless. like magic. at comcast, it's my job to develop, apps and tools that simplify your experience. my name is mike, i'm in product development at comcast. we're working to make things simple, easy and awesome. welcome back. stocks kicked off trading in 2019 on a muted note yesterday following a bad end to 2018. but president trump shrugging

off the market strugstruggles, turning his attention to last month's historic market sell-off saying it was nothing more than a glitch. >> it would have been a lot easier for me to sit back and just let it continue, but it was out of control. and our strong economy makes it even more defeifficult because people come up because our country's doing better by far than any other country in the world from an economic standpoint. we're the talk of the world. and we had a little glitch in the stock market last month but it's still up i guess around 30% from the time i got elected. it's going to go up once we settle trade issues. >> so despite the president's claims, it should be noted 2018 marked the worst december for stocks since 1931. and all major indexes saw their worst yearly performances since the financial crisis a decade ago. last month's volatility was

fuelled in part by trump's ongoing trade war with china which is creating new problems in the new year. speaking with cnbc, tim cook i revealed that tariffs from that trade war have contributed to an economic slowdown in china, which has in turn decreased retail sales in the country and hurt apple's overall business. as a result, cook says apple has lowered its first quarter guidance. the company's stock has been hit hard and u.s. futures are pointing to big losses at the open late they are morning. cue the pink floyd because a spacecraft has landed on the dark side of the moon. this is pretty cool stuff. earlier today china announced it landed a vehicle on the relatively unexplored far side of the moon. the side that always faces away from the earth. it is the first time that a soft landing has ever occurred there. the probe has already sent back to earth the first major humans

have ever seen of the normally hidden far side. the main lander will also release a six-wheeled rover to roam the major crater near the moon's south pole. with that, let's go to our space expert. >> i'll keep it in our atmosphere. >> i mean, if there was a space expert in this studio, i'm looking around -- you're it, man. >> good morning. so we're still dealing with our snowstorm in areas of texas and oklahoma and a little bit of ice mixed in with that too. we have 21 million people in this flood watch that goes all the way from houston toward louisiana and mississippi and even georgia too. it's a wet soggy morning. it just continues. one rainstorm after another throughout the south. this goes uall the way through

western north carolina and richmond. if we're going to get a little tiny bullseye of snow that's going to be on interstate 34. i think oklahoma city, maybe an inch or two. not a huge ordeal. there's that rfainfall forecast. eventually we're going to see l all of that mess heading into the east. it looks like the weekend forecast is hit and miss for areas of the northeast. one day is going to be nice and one day is going to be ugly. former president barack obama can now officially add billboard charting artist to his resume. he's featured in the 44 remix to the hamilton broadway musical hit song "one last time" where

he delivered george washington's farewell address. obama's collaboration arrived at number 22 on this week's hot r&b songs. the song also features christopher jackson and beb bebe wynans. divine influence of good laws under a free government, the ever favorite objects of my heart and the happy reward as i trust about mutual cares, labors and dangers. >> reminds you how incredible

that show is. lin-manuel miranda released it last month aiming to raise money for various nonprofit charities. still ahead, hbo and the creators of "game of thrones" were pulled into president trump's first cabinet meeting of the new year. we're going to explain why coming up. year we're going to explain why coming up. ♪here you come again lookin' better than♪ ♪a body has a right to ♪and shakin' me up so applebee's all you can eat is back. now with shrimp. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood.

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teams are geerg aring up for th weekend's post season matchups. the league is also celebrating a rebound. remember last year all the big talk and buzz about how the nfl's going away and the rail i -- ratings are horrible. yesterday they announced viewer ship is up 5% from last season. the nfl boasts 46 of the top 50 telecasts in 2018, dominating tv. while the nfl has revealed rosters for the all star game later this month, alex ovechkin said no thanks. despite being named as captain last week. the 33-year-old who leads the league with 29 goals this season announced he'll use the time for a little r & r to rest up for the second half of the season. pulling out of the all star weekend means ovechkin will be suspended for one game.

take that. and finally christian po pollisic becomes the highest paid american player of all time with a new $73 million deal to leave his german club and join chelsea in the premier league coming up this summer. that's a nice little price tag, 73 million for a 20-year-old. >> are you kidding me? could you imagine? >> he's a good kid, though. >> good for him. >> talented too. still ahead, president trump holds his first cabinet meeting of 2019 and gets rave reviews from acting attorney general matthew whittaker. plus, what nancy pelosi has to say about democrats refusing to budge on president trump's demand for border wall funding as we enter day 13 of the government shutdown. e enter day government shutdown. i don't keep track of regrets.

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welcome back, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian. it is the bottom of the hour. let's start with the morning's top stories. the standoff over the government shutdown is now in its 13th day and president trump and congressional leaders appear no closer to a deal following their meeting at the white house yesterday. the president continues to demand billions for his border wall and says he won't budge until he gets it. hallie jackson has more.

>> reporter: a situation room briefing on the border that went nowhere. >> the president asked us to come back on friday. >> reporter: neither side is budging. >> we would hope that they would reconsider. >> reporter: the president's reiterating he wants more than $5 billion for a wall. >> the 5.6 billion is such a small number. literally it's one month in afghanistan. we're talking about national security. this isn't just a border. this is national security. >> reporter: but democrats don't want to give a penny. nancy pelosi with savannah guthrie. >> if you and the democrats don't meet halfway, if you don't compromise, then why isn't the shutdown partially your responsibility? >> it has nothing to do with it. it has the president saying i will hold six agencies of government hostage to my campaign promise that i was going to build a wall and that mexico was going to pay for it. that is sor ridiculous.

mexico is not paying for it, a. and b, we have better use of funds to protect our border. >> reporter: if this standoff keeps going, so will the partial shutdown. >> as long as it takes. i'm prepared -- i think the people of the country think i'm right. >> reporter: but hundreds of thousands of federal workers won't see a paycheck until the government reopens like this air traffic controller in north carolina. he has a savings account. >> it's almost depleted. it was my rainy day fund and it rained. >> reporter: democrats made clear that they will make a move to reopen government today when democrats take control of the house, but the senate plans to reject that. at this moment we are left with not much progress and that's not much consolation for federal workers left in limbo. yesterday marked president trump's first cabinet meeting of the new year. as the "new york times" points

out the department of defense is now run by a long time executive at boeing, one of the largest defense contractors in the world. now the epa is being run by a former coal lobbyist. the department of health and human services is being run by a former pharmaceutical lobbyist. and the department of interior has a former oil industry lobbyist as its acting s ining secretary. and matthew whittaker who yesterday launched into this praise of the president. >> sir, mr. president, i will start by highlighting the fact that you stayed in washington, d.c. over the holidays, giving up christmas with your family, new years with your family, trying to bring an end to this shutdown and security to our southern border. you have demonstrated your dedication to delivering on this critical issue for our country and for the american people. >> also during that cabinet meeting, president trump relayed some of his views and opinions

of the middle east. >> i get along very well with india and prime minister modi. but he's constantly telling me he built a library in afghanistan, okay, a library. that's like -- you know what that is? that's like five hours of what we spend. and he's very smart and we're supposed to say oh, thank you for the library. i don't know who's using it in afghanistan, but one of those things. look, we don't want syria. obama gave up syria years ago when he didn't violate the red line. i did when i shot 59 missiles in. so syria was lost long ago. it was lost long ago. and besides that, we're talking about sand and death nap's what we're talking about. we're not talking about vast wealth. we're talking about sand and death. now the kurds, turkey doesn't like them, other people do.

i didn't like the fact that they're selling the small oil that they have to iran and we asked them not to sell it to iran. but the kurds are selling oil to iran. we're not thrilled about that. i'm not happy about it at all. at the same time they fight better when we fight with them. you know when we send 30 f-18s they fight much better than they do when we don't. and you've seen what's happened. we want to protect the kurds. nevertheless, we want to protect the kurds, but i don't want to be in syria forever. it's sand and it's death. iran is a much different country than it was when i became president. iran is a much different country right now. they're having riots every week in every city bigger than they've ever had before. their currency is under siege thanks to us. a lot of bad things are happening. when we do all of the things that we've done monetarily to

iran, iran is in trouble. >> so during that cabinet meeting drmeet meeting donald trump became the first president of the united states to endorse the 1979 soviet invasion of afghanistan. >> russia used to be the soviet union. afghanistan made it russia because they went bankrupt fighting in afghanistan, russia. the reason russia was in afghanistan was because terrorists were going into russia. they were right to be there. the problem is it was a tough fight and literally they went bankrupt. they went into being called russia again as opposed to the soviet union. you know, a lot of these places you're reading about now are no longer a part of russia because of afghanistan. >> and as tom nichols points out, at the time the soviet union diechbt argue thdn't even

were fighting terrorism but american imperialism, the communism versus democracy fight. joining me again from washington, gabby orr. so many standout moments in that meeting. don't quite know which one to go with. but i want to go with trump's take on sanctions in the form of a "game of thrones" inspired poster that was sitting right in front of him. what is that all about? >> i wish i could tell you. this is a mystery for so many of us reporters who saw that yesterday on the table. the sanctions are coming in the format of a movie poster that is supposed to somehow mimic the show "game of thrones" was first debuted on the president's twitter feed shortly after he talked about reimposing sanctions on iran last year and somehow ended up on the table in this cabinet meeting yesterday without any explanation.

the white house has been contacted for comment about why this was there, whether it was a prank or a joke of some kind, something that a cabinet secretary printed out and gave to the president. we don't know why this was there. all we know is the president wanted it to be in the center of attention at that cabinet meeting yesterday. >> maybe he just liked the picture, who knows? let's talk about what's happening in washington today, obviously the new democrat-led congress is beginning. what can we be looking for? >> i think the biggest theme of this congress is sort of to see how this robust incoming freshman class gets along with the democratic leadership that has been in place for decades. nancy pelosi is going to have to sort of rein in a caucus that is deeply divided between these young progressive folks, peek like alexandria ocasio-cortez and some of the other democratic leaders who have been in congress for years. and we're already seeing this sort of double over in the

response to this rules package that democrats have put forward this week where you do have some of these young freshman leaders coming in opposing this saying it would be more difficult for them to get different types of legislation they want to prioritize through the house and pelosi and other democratic leaders saying that is prepostero preposterous, that this is something that is much needed for the democratic caucus. >> thank you, gabby. still ahead, global markets are under pressure this morning after apple makes a rare cut to its earnings guidance over president trump's ongoing trade war with china. we're going to go live to london for the very latest on the trading day ahead. plus bill karins back with a check on your forecast including big changes for the weekend. ourg big changes for the weekend.

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welcome back. stock futures here in the u.s. pointing to a big drop when markets open in just a couple hours. the concern among investors, of course, coming after apple slashed its earnings guidance citing president trump's ongoing trade war. happy new year to you. thanks so much for joining us today. talk to us about what exactly apple is saying is causing concern in the markets. >> the ceo tim cook issued a letter to shareholders. he also talked to my colleague josh lipton yesterday. he warned about both the fact that the company's revenues would fall significantly, as much as $7 billion. also the gross margin would fall slightly as well. essentially the firm's going to sell 9 million less iphones than they hoped to do so. he said that's partly because of china, a big part of it is because of the economic slowdown in china.

and he blamed that in part on the trade dispute between the u.s. and china. this is something that we've heard quite a lot about over the last year or so. we're now seeing it impacting blue chip stocks in the united states. suppliers for apple really falling heavily across the board, some of these chip stocks looking pretty negative as a consequence of this from apple. >> i want to go back to this glitch comment the president yesterday in that cabinet meeting. he said last month's market drop was a glitch and is going to be corrected once the number of trade deals are actually fixed. is there any truth to this? >> you're kind of asking me to look into a crystal ball there because it's very difficult to know what will happen. historically every time there's been any kind of positive comment from an official whether in washington or beijing about some kind of progress in this trade conflict, you have seen the market react positively in

turn. and then often days later little progress seems so actually have been made and you see the market fall back as investors digest these comments and try to understand what's going on here. if you look forward, the idea that china is now seeing its economy slow down. demand internally in china is falling. that's really causing concern amongst investors if that slowdown is very clearly pinned to the trade dispute, any resolution of that trade dispute could be positive news. i want to turn to weather now with bill karins. >> we're going to have another big rainstorm coming through the east coast through friday and saturday. right now we're dealing with rainfall mostly in the southeast and snow and ice in central texas and now pushing into oklaho oklahoma. in oklahoma city we've had a mix of freezing rain and sleet. that is expected to go over to slow. areas south of there is where the heavier snow will be.

we have rain from baton rouge through lake charles and northern mississippi and northern alabama and rainfall right along the virginia/north carolina border. we're dry from about d.c. north wards up into southern new england. if you want a nice afternoon, d.c. at 50 this time of year is not bad at all. new york city at 47. look at florida. you've been toasty this winter. we continue with 80s and mid 80s today. friday we move into the southeast periods of heavy rain, especially through the early part of the day in atlanta. that means airport delays. then pushing up toward charlotte and raleigh. backside of the storm will be a little cooler and some rain in kentucky and tennessee. we take you into saturday. looks like the first half of the day some heavy rain

philadelphia, new york city, boston, hartford and providence. sunday looks gorgeous, 60s as far north as virginia. d.c. could be in the mid 50s. looks like a beautiful sunday. all the problem weather saturday and sunday will be in the west. >> i'm still holding out for a snowstorm in the northeast, bill. >> february. >> i'll take you on that. >> that's usually a good bet, right? >> usually or april. >> that would be painful. one democrat rumored to be eyeing a run for the white house reveals when they may make a formal announcement, plus a long simmering issue that has divided democrats on capitol hill gets pushed into the public view. the two high profile members speaking out. h profile members speaking out i am a family man.

i am a techie dad. i believe the best technology should feel effortless. like magic. at comcast, it's my job to develop, apps and tools that simplify your experience. my name is mike, i'm in product development at comcast. we're working to make things simple, easy and awesome.

welcome back. when it comes to 2020, democratic senator amy klow about uchar said she's getting closer to a decision. she did not give an exact timetable, but said with a field so big, she does not have the luxury of waiting too long. a recent poll of caucus goers put klobuchar in fourth place behind joe biden, bernie sanders, beto o'rourke.

she finished just ahead of elizabeth warren. according to a roster viewed by politico and confirmed by a political source, the absence of a woman on the gop side came into the spotlight last year when judiciary republicans brought in a female attorney to question dr. christine blasey ford about her sexual assault allegations against then supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh. and congresswoman-elect alexandria ocasio-cortez said she will vote against spending rules. it's a rule adopted by democrats and requires lawmakers to offset any increase in the deficit by cutting spending or raising revenue elsewhere. she joins california democrat

roe cnna saying he would vote against the rules package saying it disarms the unilateral government to govern. paygo isn't only bad economics, it's a dark political maneuver designed to hamstring progress on health care and other leg. we shouldn't hinder ourselves from the start. senator bernie sanders voiced his opposition saying in a statement, i am concerned that the concept of pay go will make it harder for congress to address the many crisis facing our working families. the house is scheduled to vote on the new rules package later today. coming up, everybody, axios' nicholas johnston has a look at this morning's one big thing. and coming up on "morning joe," president trump and lawmakers fail to reach a deal to reopen the government. more on the president's white house meeting with congressional leaders and his decision to not accept a potential solution from democrats in a bid to not look

foolish. dick durbin of illinois who was at that meeting will break down what took place and whether a deal is actually possible. "morning joe" moments away. sibl. "morning joe" moments away i wanna keep doing what i love, that's the retirement plan.

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♪here you come again lookin' ♪a body has a right to ♪and shakin' me up so applebee's all you can eat is back. now with shrimp. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood. that's why i take osteo bi-flex to keep me moving the way i was made to. it nourishes and strengthens my joints for the long-term. osteo bi-flex; find our coupon in sunday's paper.

welcome back, everybody. joining me here in studio, axios editor in chief nicholas johnson. talk to us about axios' one big thing today. >> today's one big thing. last year was a second year of a presidential term where the president's party controlled both houses. what we saw was fewer votes taken, fewer bills passing. that dynamic changes today at noon when democrats take over the house. i can guarantee you certainly we'll see some votes very quickly.

they will vote to open the government, but i guarantee you that won't become law. that's something the president and the senate has shot down. >> any new information you guys have via your report background how long the shutdown is going to go on for? >> completely unknown. there's been no movement on either side. the president, all of his comments, he's very adamant about keeping the wall money, all of his allies doing the same thing. the nancy pelosi interview on cnbc said zero money for the wall. >> talk to us about the new reality that many republicans are facing especially looking at this democratically controlled house. >> a great way to look at that is to look at the job postings. it's a lawyer with litigation experience which is untypically what they usually do. they like to have investigative experience. looking for a litigator means something they're trying to show. something to litigate that they're going to have to litigate when the house goes over it. >> i know you have exclusive

polling on concerns about a possible recession. welcome to the new year, thanks for the good news. nick johnston -- >> i lot of looking at polls when we break it down by party. i think if you went to america and asked them how is the weather, republicans would say the weather is great and democrats would say the weather is bad. on this report, most democrats and republicans agree, everybody is worried about a recession. >> so what is driving this fear of uncertainty in the future? >> there's a lot of uncertainty about what this year is going to bring. we have a new congress, nancy pelosi and donald trump are going to fight each other. we're still in the middle of a truce with china that is going to lapse in about 30 days. it will be a brand new congress, a brand new senate, a lot of

people getting sworn in and then right to work. the house will vote for their rules package and then they'll go straight to the government reopening and that will be shutdown in the senate. we'll see what happens tomorrow been. >> thanks so much for coming in. >> thanks for having me. >> we will read axios a.m. in just a little bit. that does it for us on this thursday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. >> jeff flake is now selling real estate or whatever he's doing. as an example, they have great beaches. i said wow, wouldn't that make a great condo. you could have the best hotels in the world right there. think of it from a real estate perspective. >> jeff flake is now selling real estate or whatever he's doing. >> wow. perhaps if jeff flake were selling real estate in north korea, the president would be more forgiving. good morning, everybody. >> or maybe if he were helping to buy a trump tower in russia.

they tried that for a while. in fact, they tried that while the president was still running for president. >> that's not supposed to happen, joe. anyhow, good morning. welcome to "morning joe." >> sold real estate in turkey -- >> that's not supposed to happen, either. >> who they're turning over syria to to kill our allies. the philippines, selling real estate in the philippines where the president has embraced a thuggish autocrat who brags about extra judicial killings. >> no, we don't do that. anyway, it's thursday, january 3rd. with us we have msnbc contributor mike barnacle, republican strategist and msnbc political analyst susan delpercio, politics editor sam stein, columnist david ignatius. good to have you all on board this morning. in just a few hours from now, joe, washington is going to look a lot different than it has