this morning we're following two major headlines. the first a bomb shell report by the "new york times" claiming after james comey was fired fbi officials began looking into whether president trump was working on behalf of russia. another stunning report by "the washington post" taking a look at the efforts president trump has made to conceal his conversations with russian president vladimir putin. all of this as the government shutdown reaches day 24, the longest in u.s. history. sadly there's no end in sight. good morning, everyone.

it's monday, january 14th. i'm ayman mohyeldin alongside yasmin vossoughian and louis burgdorf. we have a lot of news to cover this monday morning, but we begin with the ongoing government shutdown. new polling shows americans are blaming president trump and the republican party much more than democrats for the current stalemate. according to a "washington post"/abc news poll, 53% say trump and the republican party are mainly at fault compared to 29% who are blaming the democrats. in a new cnn poll 55% blame the president and 32% say democrats are at fault. broken down even further polling show independents point the blame at president trump rather than democrats by 53% to 23%. women, they blame president trump and the republicans by a margin of 35 points. while men blame the president and gop by a margin of 13 points. when asked about the situation at the border nearly half of all

americans said there is a serious problem but not a crisis. 26% said it's not a serious problem. 24% of people labelled the situation as a crisis. a majority of americans say they oppose president trump declaring a national emergency in order to build a wall. 66% to 31%. cnn polling shows more than half of americans oppose building a wall along the border with mexico while 39% favor that idea. >> let's talk about that "new york times" report from over the weekend. president trump and his allies reacting this weekend to that report the fbi began investigating whether trump had been working against american interests on behalf of russia after the spring 2017 firing of james comey. according to former law enforcement officials and others, counter intelligence investigators had to consider whether the president's actions constituted a possible threat to national security. agents and senior fbi officials

had grown suspicious of mr. trump's ties to russia during the 2016 campaign but held off on opening an investigation to him. in part because they were uncertain how to proceed with an inquiry of such sensitivity and magnitude. agents sought to see if mr. frump was working for russia or unwittingly fell under russia's influence. no evidence showed president trump took directions from russian officials. the president responded in 12 tweets. said the investigation was opened with no reason and no proof and he gave an interview to fox news. >> are you now or have you ever worked for russia, mr. president? >> i think that's the most insulting thing i've ever been asked. i think it's the most insulting article i've ever had written. and if you read the article you

would see that they found absolutely nothing. but the headline of that article is called the failing "new york times" for a reason. they've gotten me wrong for three years. they actually got me wrong for many years before that. >> two incidences in which the firing of comey was tied to the inquiry. first was a letter the president wanted to send to mr. comey about his firing but didn't. he mentioned the russian investigation, even after the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein wrote a more restrained draft of the letter and told mr. trump that he did not have to mention the russia investigation. mr. trump directed mr. rod rosenstein to mention the russian investigation anyway. the second event was the president tying the firing directly to the russia probe in his own words with an interview with nbc. >> regardless of recommendation i was going to fire comey

knowing there was no good time to do it. in fact, when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made up story, it's an excuse by the democrats for having lost an election. >> coming up on "morning joe" one of the reporters who broke that story. one of the weekend's bomb shell reports current and former u.s. officials describe in detail to "the washington post" the extraordinary lengths president trump has gone to hide the details of his private conversations and interactions with russia's vladimir putin. this includes trump's july 2017 meeting with putin on the sidelines where the president confiscated the notes of his own interpreter and demanded the official not discuss what transpired with other administration officials. that came less than two months after trump disclosed classified information to senior russian officials during a meeting he hosted in the oval office.

in another instance last summer trump barred anyone from attending his two hour meeting with putin in helsinki. u.s. officials tell "the washington post" there are new detailed records even in classified files of president trump's face-to-face interactions with putin at five different locations in the past two years. officials have had at times judged what went on by u.s. intelligence reports of the kremlin's actions. those reports are traditionally used by the white house to assess how well they had accomplished the goals of a meeting. however u.s. intel agencies have been reluctant to call attention to them during trump's tenure because they sometimes include insults by foreign officials aimed at the president and his advisers including jared kushner. in a statement the white house says "the washington post" story is so outrageously inaccurate it doesn't warrant a respond. however it adds the liberal media wasted two years to

manufacture a fake collusion scandal unlike president obama and foreign adversaries pushed them around, president trump has been tough on russia. the president also responded. >> why not release the conversation that you had with president putin in helsinki along with some other stuff that might involve fisa, and the whole lot of them? >> i would. i don't care. i had a conversation like every president does. you sit with the president of various countries. i do it with all countries. we had a great conversation. we were talking about israel and securing israel and lots of other things. it was a great conversation. i'm not keeping anything under wraps. i couldn't care less. i mean it's so ridiculous. these people making up -- "washington post" that's basically the lobbyist for amazon. you know he uses -- bezos has bigger problems than anyone right now.

nobody says anything about it. with putin oh, what did they talk about? we talked about very positive things because, look, we are beating everybody. but with putin they make a big deal. anybody could have listened to that meeting. that meeting is open for grabs. >> let's see it. >> we're beating everyone. joining us now reporter for axios in washington, d.c. let's talk about these developments and what they signal about the ongoing russia investigation. pretty significant developments over the past 72 hours. >> extremely significant. i think that from all of the sources on both the hill and white house that i've spoken with i don't think these reports are sitting well with anyone. republicans and democrats alike find these very damaging and i think a lot of people are still, you know, a little bit hesitant to outright, forthright call out the president on this. they want to see more what's going on. a lot of people, especially on the hill, democrats want to see

what's going on with this mueller investigation. they want to see that play out. this is really great ammunition for the fights that i think we are poised to see this year now that the democrats have taken back the house majority. this will only add more fuel to other subpoenas and other investigations they plan to launch on the president and this administration. >> let's go with that for a second. this could be more ammunition. what does it mean for the president's standing in washington right now the fact that the democrats have control of the house and how does this play into the mueller probe, if at all? >> for the democratic side of this and the investigations, i've been speaking with a lot of them about where this stands for the impeachment talk. a lot of democratic leaders have been hesitant to use that word and find it premature and a bit political trepidation. impeachment talk, people say they want to watch how the

mueller investigation plays out. when we see these reports and how damaging, especially national security reasons that the president's relation with russia and he's keeping some of these read outs from these meetings from his national security officials, it's super damaging and will only, you know, add to what they want to find out and what they can subpoena now that they have more power in the house. >> it's remarkable. the president's notes with another foreign leader is kept secret from his own administration officials. >> not normal. >> not normal. we can all agree on that. thank you very much. we'll talk to you again in a little bit. still ahead we're digging into a new report that claims the white house requested openings for a military strike against iran. over the weekend president trump threatens to devastates turkey if it attacks kurdish forces. what does this mean for u.s. foreign affairs? that when we come back.

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welcome back. on january 2nd, president trump had this to say about his administration's strategy towards iran. iran is a much different country right now. they are having riots every week in every city bigger than they 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. >> however, new reporting in the "wall street journal" reveals that the administration wanted to do a whole lot more than just impact tehran's economy. last september after militants aligned with iran, fired three mortars into iraq near the u.s. embassy in baghdad which caused minimal damage and harmed no one trump's security team led by yon bolton held a serious of

meetings and asked the pentagon to draw up a military strike against iran. in one of those meetings one of bolton's top deputies at the time even called the incident quote an act of war. and said the u.s. must respond decisively and militarily. according to a former u.s. senior administration official, quote, people were shocked. it was mind-boggling how cavalier they were about hitting iran. defense department senior officials confirmed the report to the "new york times" adding then secretary mattis opposed a military strike, arguing the incident was insignificant. current senior pentagon officials say they are increasingly worried that bolton could precipitate a conflict with iran. president trump took to twitter last night to clarify his strategy towards the middle east while also threatening the economy of a nato ally. writing quote, starting the long overdue pull out from syria

while hitting the little remaining isis caliphate hard and from many directions we'll attack again from existing nearby base if it detector is that right -- reforms. fit reforms. not sure what that means approximately will devastate turkey economically if they hit kurds. create 20 mile safe zone. do not want the kurds to provoke turkey, russia, iran and syria have been the biggest beneficials of the u.s. policy of destroying isis in syria. we benefit but now it's time to bring our troops back home. stop the endless wars. okay. so the person who will let's talk a little bit about reforming isis. >> foreign policy via twitter. if you ask me if there's a cohesive plan for syria, the answer lies in those tweets which there's no cohesive plan for syria.

also all of the bolton stuff. this is a "new york times" op-ed that bolton writes. he writes the conclusion iran will not negotiate it's nuclear program nor will sanctions block its building to infrastructure. the title of the article was to stop iran, bomb iran. very subtle. bolton's position has been -- let's not be surprised. we got to keep an eye on it. what we're hearing from bolton and pompeo. >> they are looking for a pretext to escalate this with iran. >> an excuse. >> always one step forward, two steps back on these tweets. no-fly zone, a safe zone cannot happen without boots on the ground. how do you withdraw from syria and do what the president is saying. >> we talked about how mattis was reining in president trump. he's got. >> over this. >> over this.

>> we have a former head of boeing running the defense department if that makes you feel better. iran will likely be an air war. bolton and pompeo have always been promilitary action. mattis was as well. the adult in the room who will pull this back. i take you back to the bob woodward book where he quotes mattis or he sources people that say mattis would get those calls from trump, do this, do that and mattis would get off the phone and we're not going to do that. >> we have no real generals in the white house, people used to being in war zones. no one that has any experience to be on the ground. >> you would hope, at least, people at the pentagon, analysts at the cia, all of those folks, when they are told to assess what would a strike cause, what would an american strike on iran cause for the region and our security it would be devastating.

iran is not like going after afghanistan or going after another war-torn country. >> how many of those people in the pentecost have been trying to get at iran for many, many years. >> also a reason why we've had so many proxy wars with regard to iran and not gone after iran full throttle. >> let's not talk about mueller and the reporting this weekend. it all matters. it all comes together. this is something that everyone has to keep an eye on. as the rhetoric ramps up iran is hearing it. >> you got mike pompeo touring the gulf coast of gulf states. >> his new foreign policy in the middle east was to get iranian boots -- >> iran likes to be in the headlines. >> definitely. >> they like to be talked about. >> not shy. >> are you coming back? >> today. >> one hit wonder always. >> thanks buddy. nice to have cal perry in the studio with us. let's get a check on your

weather a nbc meteorologist bill karins. if it's not bad enough in washington it's a full on snow day there. >> kids are loving it. teachers are loving it. if you have to go out there and clean it up, it's not the best. 10.2 snow officials in downtown washington, d.c. they had an epic snowball fight at the washington monument. hundreds of people came out. it was perfect. not too cold. snowing lightly. let's wrap up our snowstorm. officially just about over with. last little flakes of snow are just still falling here north of ocean city. now all of the snow totals are in. highest totals were in missouri. one spot reported 20 inches of snow. st. louis had 11 inches. cincinnati 8. indianapolis 7. d.c. officially 10. many areas of northern virginia were in that eight to 12 inch range. today it looks perfect. the roads will clear up. 37 and sunny in d.c. this afternoon. that's good. worst of it will be this

afternoon, icy and then gets much better. our next storm is on thursday. california has a horrible week of weather. saturday the snow is in the ohio valley and starting in the northeast saturday night and this looks like an ice and snowstorm for areas of northeast as we go throughout sunday. we'll pinpoint those details as we go through the week. >> i was hoping for some snow. we got nothing. >> there was a dusting. >> i was in billion. >> you come to billion and you don't tell us. >> up live in billion? >> we both live in billion. we talking to your colleagues. still ahead he hasn't been white house chief of staff for very long but if you reports claim president trump is already lashing out at mick mulvaney over the government shutdown. we'll have that story straight ahead. have that story straight ahead. you see clear skin. cosentyx can help people with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis find clear skin that can last.

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i'm 53, but in my mind i'm still 35. 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 because i'm made to move. . welcome back. time now for sports. we begin in the nfl where the conference matchups are now set following a weekend of divisional playoffs. we go new orleans, back up nick foles, eagles going 14-0 in the opening quarter against the saints. first ends on a sour note for philly as foles tosses an interception. it turns the tide and new orleans goes up to score 20 unanswered points including a pair of touchdown passes thrown

by drew brees. eagles had a chance to take the lead at the end of the fourth quarter. but foles pass deflects off of the receiver and is caught by the saints marcus lattimore. saints win. they will host the rams next sunday in the nfc title game following l.'s win over the cowboys on saturday. let's go to foxborough and a familiar foe eyeing the afc title. the patriots earn their eighth straight trip to the conference championship after defending the chargers. the pats will host the chiefs who beat the colts 31-13 on saturday in what will be the 13th afc title game appearance

for new england and the brady-belichick era. you can't count out tom brady during this time of the season. he's looking pretty good. >> barnacle will be very happy how they performed. still ahead president trump weighs in on his former fixer michael cohen's testimony to congress and he's getting a warning from democrats. >> what to expect this week as ab nominee barnes confirmation kicks off. we'll be right back. ight back. sometimes, the pressures of today's world can make it tough

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welcome back, everybody.

i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside ayman mohyeldin and louis burgdorf. it's the bottom of the hour. let's start with the morning's top stories. congressional leaders are warning president trump that his comments about an upcoming congressional witness could be construed as a crime. over the weekend president trump said this about the upcoming public testimony of his former lawyer and business associate michael cohen and cohen's family. >> he's in trouble on some loans and fraud and taxicabs. and in order to get his sentence reduced i have an idea, i'll give you some information on the president. well there is no information. but he should give information, maybe, on his father-in-law, because that's the one that people want to look at because where does that money, that's the money in the family. and i guess he didn't want to talk about i had father-in-law. he's trying to get his sentence reduced. it's pretty sad.

it's weak. >> what is his father-in-law's name? >> i don't know. you'll find out if you look into it. nobody knows what's going on over there. >> in response, the democratic chairman of the oversight intelligence and judiciary committees in the house issued a joint statement quote the integrity of our process is to serve as an independent check on the executive branch must be respected by everyone, including the president. our nation's laws prohibit efforts to discourage n-ti my date or otherwise pressure a witness not to provide testimony to congress. the president should make no statement or take any action to obstruct congress' independent oversight and investigative efforts including by seeking to discourage someone to testify. there's a growing interest in some in congress about a potential deal of donald trump putting another trump tower outside of russia's capital. house and senate investigators are now focusing on the project

which trump sought to complete before his presidential nomination. according to congressional testimony and reports, the russians named the proposed developments manhattan and a trump tower would have been its centerpiece. trump's partner in the project would have been the russian oligarch who has close ties to russian president vladimir putin. and same man who promised dirt on hillary clinton that led to the june 16th meeting in new york at the trump tower. a lawyer for the russian said it's misleading to suggest his client is close to putin but declined to answer specific questions. congressional aides says he and the project are drawing fresh scrutiny following revelation and court documents that michael cohen lied to congress about his dealings on a separate competing russian real estate project. the confirmation hearing of president trump's pick to be the next attorney general is set to

kick off tomorrow and there are expectations for plenty of fireworks when it comes to questioning bill barr over special counsel of robert mueller's russian probe. barr is expected to resist demands from democrats on the judiciary committee for explicit promises about the fate of mueller's investigation. the post says in private conversations with committee members last week barr looked to assure lawmakers he has no plans to interfere with mueller's work. the committee's top demonstrate, dianne feinstein says she intends to get that promise from barr on record adding that it's important mueller has no interference whatsoever. barr's confirmation hearing is scheduled to last for two days. his nomination is not expected to be in jeopardy with republicans holding the majority on theie judiciary and the

committee. government workers were going to take vacation days between christmas and new year's and then we have a shutdown so they can't go to work so then they have the vacation but they don't have to use their vacation days. then they come back and they get their back pay so in some sense they are better off. >> this past friday marked the first paycheck thousands of federal workers missed prompting some to sell their belongings or start side businesses to make ends meet. congress passed legislation to pay workers for lost wages when the shutdown comes to an end. the national border patrol council now deleted frequently asked questions page calling the building of a border wall a waste of taxpayer money and arguing border barriers do not tack tell root causes of migration had been published

since 2012. it was removed earlier this month after the council skborsed president trump's $5.7 billion wall proposal. council president who endorsed trump during his campaign told politico it was the position of previous leaders but was taken down for causing confusion. while meeting with the top congressional leaders of both parties earlier this month president trump harshly criticized his new chief of staff over shutdown negotiations. two sources who were present tell axios it happened on the situation room on january 4th when mick mulvaney tried to compromise a sum of money for the wall. one of sources said mulvaney was saying if democrats weren't okay with $5.7 billion and the president wasn't okay with $1.3 billion the democratic offer he was saying we should find middle

ground. president trump cut him off. you blanked it all up the source said. it was weird another source who was in the room confirmed the account. now two trump advisers familiar with the exchange confirmed the story to "washington post". won compared it to the scene of "the godfather." >> i'm not sure mob reference is a good look for the president. >> joining us once again associate editor for axios. good to see you again. let's talk shutdown. surpassing at records in u.s. history. unbelievable to say the least. how is this reflecting on the president and the gop in general? >> no one really want as shutdown and i think that people on both sides of the aisle are saying to hold a shutdown over people's head as part of a negotiation isn't really the way

you want to run the government. and i think that from both congressional and senior administration officials that i've spoken with, they both say right now there's confusion over there and there's not a clear exit ramp for ending the shutdown and i think over the next few weeks the president really, he won want to make any sort of decision to re-open the government until he sees a concession from democrats which is also looking very unlikely now that democrats have taken back the house. >> let me switch gears for a moment and get your thoughts on the confirmation of william barr the next attorney general. he was up on the hill last week, i believe, having meetings with members of judiciary committee. let's talk about what his potential confirmation means for the mueller probe? >> that's where all eyes are on this right now especially given how much the president has been upset with his former attorney general jeff sessions for recusing himself from this. people want to know what role william barr will play in the

russian investigation and how much independence robert mueller will still have. william barr has told people in committee hearings and we saw "the washington post" report this that he does not want to interfere. beyond that he hasn't said explicitly what his plans for the mueller investigation are. we can see a lot of people especially democrats on that senate judiciary committee pressing him on this. >> i wonder if it will be as contentious for some of the other hearings. thanks. still ahead, more democrats throw their hats into the 2020 presidential ring. a look at who is making a bid for the white house. >> congressman. steve king is facing backlash from fellow republicans over his controversial comments on white nationalism and white supremacy. >> bill karins is back with details on the bitter cold temperatures pushing across the country. we'll be right back. e country. we'll be right back.

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top republican lawmakers are questioning congressman steve king's political future in the wake of his stance on white supremacy. here's what a few had to say over the weekend. >> i've watched from the other side that they do not take action when their members say something like this. action will be taken. i'm having a serious conversation with steve king and his role. >> what steve king said was stupid. it was stupid, hurtful and wrong. >> your going to support him in the future? >> you know, what i'm going to do is urge everyone to stand for principles that matter. >> yes or no, will republican leaders call for any action against congressman king? >> i imagine we'll keep talking about this. this just popped up on friday. >> house minority leader kevin mccarthy said he'll meet with steve king about his inflammatory comments later today. south carolina republican

senator tim scott published a skating op-ed on his party's softened response to king's actions and others like it in the past. he write, quote, when people with opinions similar to king open their mouths they damage not just the republican party and conservative brand but our nation as a whole. some in our party wonder why republicans are constantly accused of racism. it is because of our silence when things like this are said. >> the 2020 democratic presidential field is beginning to line up with a few more additions over the weekend after much speculation. former housing and urban development secretary julian castro announced his bid for the presidency on saturday. >> when my grandmother got here almost 100 years ago, i'm sure that she never could have imagined that just two generations later one of her grandsons would be serving as a member of the united states congress and the other would be

standing with you here today to say these words, i am a candidate for president of the united states of america. >> and as the grandson of mexican immigrants julian castro announced his candidacy for president in spanish as well. hawaii congresswoman gabbard made her intentions to run clear. the iraq war veteran said she plans to make a formal announcement in the next week. buzz feed reports that kirsten gillibrand signaled her interest in a 20 presidential bid to a political group of influential women. the senator would likely announce an exploratory committee in the upcoming weeks. let's get a check on your weather with nbc meteorologist bill karins. even a few inches of snow is not good news for washington. they usually have a tough time with it. >> it happened on the weekend.

they had to shut down schools today and everything is pretty much closed. eight to 12 inches of snow in the nation's capital. st. louis by the way saw your biggest snowstorm in five years. if you like winter and cold, this is the weather pattern that's setting up for you. numerous storms in the next three weeks. enjoy this today. very mild. pretty nice. we're calm. we're digging out. a storm is coming in to california with rain and snow. we'll take a piece of that into areas of the plains. very quiet eastern half of the country. here comes our storm in california. flood threats this week. burn scar areas with the risk of mud and debris floss. heavy snow at the high elevations. we take a little storm through the northeast as we go throughout friday, little bit of snow and ice. not a huge impact storm. this will be a big impact storm. the one on the west coast. on friday from rockies out to the plains.

saturday and sunday head towards the east coast. here's our long range computer models. i'm not going to put snowfall amounts on this but put it in general categories. this is from now all the way through sunday and primarily going to be thursday, friday, saturday, sunday. possibility of at least heavy snow from kansas through missouri, northern ohio valley, right through interior sections of the northeast into northwestern new england. notice the cities on i-95 is in that transition zone. we'll monitor this as we go throughout this week. there's potential for a significant snow event for the first time this winter in areas of central and in portions of the northeast. >> all right, bill. still ahead china's trade surplus with the u.s. climbs to its highest level amid the ongoing trade war. >> travellers feel the impact of the government's ongoing shutdown. details on the stories driving your business day next. ess day t sometimes, the pressures of today's world can make it tough

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>> welcome back. china's trade surplus with the u.s. hit a new record jumping 17% as trump's tariff plans was undercut. how do these numbers impact the market and ongoing trade negotiations? >> well, louis, as you say the interesting bit about these numbers is the fact that despite president trump's imposition of tariffs we've seen the trade gap

between the u.s. and china widen as opposed to narrow. part of the reason for this is the chinese currency has weakened which makes u.s. goods less competitive in china. but from a global perspective we did from a global perspective, we did see the chinese trade gap shrink so chinese exports shrank 4.4% globally. so looking beyond the u.s., this has raised some concern around global demand. want to shift gears, a corporate story worth paying attention to today, pg & e corp, the utility company at the heart of the california wildfires, yesterday we heard that the ceo has stepped down and will be replaced by an interim ceo, their general counsel. this company is facing a potential $30 billion in liabilities and investigations and is reportedly considering a bankruptcy filing. so certainly one to watch. back to you. >> and a story that's on a lot

of travelers' minds with more than 50,000 tsa agents working without pay, airports and the country are experiencing staffing issues, incidences of calling out sick, quitting and absences rise as the shutdown heads into its fourth week. >> we've seen a couple of airports have to shut down terminals. we saw houston's airport close a terminal and the miami airport had to close one of their concourses. they are potentially going to have to close more checkpoints if the situation doesn't improve. the agency has stepped in and intervened and offered employees one day's work pay and a $ 500

bonus but acknowledge it does not compensate what they've lost. >> coming up, ongoing shutdown takes a toll on president trump and americans. >> plus the "new york times"'s michael schmidt will join us. we'll have more on his bombshell report as to whether president trump had been working against american interests on behalf of russia. "morning joe" moments away. russia "morning joe" moments away (burke) parking splat. and we covered it. talk to farmers. we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪

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alright, let me see. welcome back, everybody. joining us from washington, the co-founder of axios, mike allen. mike, good morning to you. >> hi, mike. >> happy snowy monday. >> we don't have any snow up here. >> talk to us about axios's 1 big thing today. >> the time that trump trashed his own chief. we heard about this on the show

a second ago. here's why it matters. the president is in a meeting with chuck and nancy, as he calls themself, the democratic leaders and his chief of staff, mick mulvaney is trying to move toward a compromise, which everybody on the outside wants them to do. and he suggest as couple figures which could maybe get them to reopen the government and the president cut him off, jumped on him, used a curse word as he said, mick you just messed it all up. and he didn't say messed. so why does that matter in axios style? one, we can see that the president is more interested in the bargaining positions than in actually getting to yes. and, second, it's a reminder of what we see around the world and that is that one person speaks for this government, for this administration, that's president trump. when the white house chief of

staff can't try and find, broker a deal with democratic leaders, which is kind of his job, that's a sign of why things are going the way they are. >> let me get your thoughts about this government shut down and talk about how it's playing out for the president, particularly in trump states because it is affecting obviously the entire country and the polls suggest that americans view the gop and trump responsible for it. i know that you guys have some new information on how it's affecting trump states. >> yeah, look at this. this is really interesting. so we had a map that we shared with you here on msnbc about how trump's tariffs were hitting trump's states the hardest. similar effect with the shutdown. if you look at the states with the highest concentration of federal employees, six of the top ten are states that the president won. so a lot of these are out west. we're talking idaho, south dakota and montana, states that have a lot of person lands.

and if you look at the federal employees per 10,000, they're the highest out there. so this is another place where president trump's policies are hitting president trump's voters. >> let's talk about aoc or alexandria ocasio-cortez. >> just as personalities in the media world have driven conversation on twitter, now we see what a brand that's native to twitter can do.

she was ocasio 2018 during the campaign. now she got the coveted handle of aoc, so that is becoming her online name. we're seeing just by responding to everything just like the president does that she engages massive amounts of mind share. >> think about how quickly her rise has been. i can't imagine how many followers she had before she won her seat versus now. >> mike allen, thanks. >> that does it for us this morning. "morning joe" starts right now. >> just now president putin denied having anything to do with the election interference in 2016. every u.s. intelligence agency has concluded that russia did. my first question to you, sir,

is who do you believe? my second question, would you tell with the world watching, you denounce what happened in 2016 and tell him that it never happens again? >> why have they never taken the server? why was the fbi told to life the democratic national committee. where is the server? i want to know where is the server and what is the server saying? with that being said, all i can do is ask the question, my people came to me, dan coates came to me, some others, they think it russia. i have president putin. he just said it not russia. i will say this. i don't see any reason why it would be but i really do want to see the server. but i have confidence in both