a politician's lifetime. i think it would make sense for him to certainly throw his hat in the ringf for 2020. >> you, too, can sign up for the newsletter. >> that does it for us on this tuesday morning. i'm ayman mohyeldin alongside yasmin vossoughian and louis burgdorf. "morning joe" starts right now. >> my favorite song, "young, gi gifted and black" by arete a franklin. anything by too short. too short! a song would be "humble" by kendrick lamar. i work out in the morning, everybody morning. folks wanted to know a song i listen to while working out. i don't. i watch "morning joe."

>> good choice. good morning, everyone. >> smart, smart candidate. >> love her. . we welcome to "morning joe." we have joe, willie and me, national affairs analyst, executive producer of showtime's "the circus," john highly maeil. >> he doesn't watch morning even when he's on morning joe. >> rick tyler is with us. washington bureau chief for "usa today," sharon page and glenn kirschner back on the show this morning. and what a day to have you on. >> what a day to have him on. also, mickey, yesterday you had kristin welker asking donald trump a question, are you an agent of russia, have you ever

worked for russia? the president finally after two days of brushing that question aside answered the question. but, my fwogosh, even more concs arising, especially in the national security community and some people working with donald trump about why he basis tehave way he does toward vladimir putin and now word coming out he was trying to pressure aides to give vladimir putin what he wanted, a way out of nato. >> the u.s. is reporting alarm among national security officials who are fearful president trump will attempt to withdraw from the north atlantic treaty administration. senior officials told the "times" that trump privately

expressed his desire to pull out of nato several times over the course of 2018. >> by the way, mika, that organization that was started after the cold war has kept russia in check now for 70 years. >> this is what they want, for him to do this. >> of course. no president -- nobody that's ever walked into that office as soon as nato was formed has ever thought for one second about shutting down nato. not one second. because everybody that's ever walked across the threshold of the white house and into the oval office knows that nato has always been our check against soviet expansion and against russian expansion, and only vladimir putin -- only vladimir putin would be wanting the united states of america to withdraw from nato. >> 100%. and his reported attempts to

keep his meetings with vladimir putin secret is adding to the concern. current and former officials who support the alliance said they feared trump could return to his threat as allied military spending continued to lag behind the goals the president set. in the days behind a meeting last summer, they said trump told his top national security visions that he did not see the point of the military alliance, which he presented as a drain on the united states. nato's foundational purpose is to serve as a check on russia. theo white house pointed to president trump's remarks calling america's commitment to nato very strong and the alliance very important. and senators will get to vote on a resolution today that criticizes the trump administration's decision to ease sanctions on oil companies

linked to russian oligarch oleg deripaska. >> of course, willy, the white house and those around the president, their statements over the past couple of days that nobody has been tougher on russia is just an absolute lie. you have the president of the united states trying to get out of the single most important alliance the united states has had in the postwar world. you have donald trump doing -- which, by the way, has been every soviet leader's goal. and now this soviet k.g.b. agent's goal has been the top priority, breaking up nato, undermining nato. and what would their number one goal be geo politically today, getting the united states out of syria, check. and now you have donald trump trying to ease sanctions on an oligarch close to vladimir putin. >> this is the biggest prize for

vladimir putin, something he tested when he annexed crimea in 2014, he wants the breakup of nato, the split between europe and the united states. it goes back to july of last year when the president went to nato, he burst out of the meetings and declared he had gotten everybody to up their commitment to nato. and the next person, president macron, saying no, that's not what happened. it's either the president doing putin a favor or treating geo politics like a business transaction in new york city where guys have to chip in more. >> it's shocking over the last few days when you put this in context. the talking points of u.s. getting out of nato sound like a puppet regime talking to putin's talking points. these are putin's talks points.

he's smart enough to know that he says the nato alliance -- probably one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century because it keeps us safe. we don't pay for nato. nato pays for itself. each of the countries contribute to their own defense. they're supposed to reach 2% of their own gdp. the united states and greece, ironically, is another one of them because their economy is so bad, it has worked immeasurably and who is asking to pull out of nato except for vladimir putin? >> you know, john heilemann, right now there is a question within the fbi and within a sizable chunk of america whether dr donald trump is working on behalf of russia, certainly whether he's doing it formally or whether he's doing it because

vladimir putin has compromised material on him. but if someone were an agent for the russians sitting in the oval office, what are the three things that they would want to do the most? number one, they would want to disband nato. number two, they would want to ease sanctions on gooligarchs, those close to vladimir putin and, number three, the biggest prize, withdraw all u.s. troops from syria and start turning the middle east over to russia and an ex-soviet spy. >> and i'd add one more to that list. i'm not sure where you would rank it in the hierarchy, but that would be to undermine the fabric of united states institutions and cause dissension within the united states how about attacking the intel communities that have chased the

soviet union's designs for everything that they did from 1917 forward and now causing vladimir putin fits. i mean, donald trump is actively undermining the fbi, the cia, the intel community and its lackeys are doing the same thing. there was actually a buffoon on fox news that talked about abolishing the fbi. that's how crazy it's gotten. >> it's madness. eye bundl-- i bundle all that ua catch all for the essential institutions, the law enforcement community is one, the courts are another. there are a variety of them. but we've talked many types for the last two years about donald trump with his head in some ways is kind of a battering ram against the american institutions. those are foundations of what max the country strong.

the strn counterbalances russia. if you're vladimir putin, ripping to shreds the american institutions is one giant goal. it's not i think sometimes helpful to discuss the notion of trump as a russian agent, only because i think people think that makes him an undercover spy. the knows that he's an asset -- i do think asset is probably the word that doesn't cause people to immediately shut their ears sometimes. whether it's witting or unwitting is the question on the ta table.

and donald trump saying i'm not an agent for russia, it makes you think of bill clinton saying i did not sleep with that woman and richard nixon saying i am not a crook. >> donald trump is not an agent. i'm serious. he doesn't have the band width to do it, doesn't have the discipline to do it. he blurts out everything in his mind. but is he an asset? >> 100%. >> 100% he might be. let's put it that way, mika. but again, you judge a tree by its fruits. you look at what donald trump has been trying to do on the international stage and there is not a republican on capitol hill today that wouldn't say that what he has been doing is trying to help putin, praising putin.

will willie, his words and deeds leave no doubt that this guy is trying to help russia any way he can. >> at the very least, he's an easy mark for vladimir putin. we're looking at the tape where he stopped on his way to new orleans, took some questions from reporters and you had kristin welker ask her in an extraordinary moment whether or not he was working for russia, whether or not the president of the united states was working for russia, a question the president had to finally address and give a straight answer on it after dancing around in his interview with jeanine pirro saturday night. >> it needed to be asked a second time because he didn't directly respond the first time he was asked by a friendly interviewer. we're coming up at the two-year mark since president trump's inauguration, and it seems to me we're back to a fundamental

puzzle from that campaign, which is what accounts for the president's -- donald trump's attitude toward russia that we saw at the republican convention and during that campaign. that is a question that has not yet really been answered. this latest piece of evidence, this shocking "new york times" story about serious consideration of the united states withdrawing from nato, it's -- these are just extraordinary times. >> it really is. mika, i hate to keep going back to this but it is so crate cait. i remember jay norlinger saying he thought the most important moment may have been when donald trump came on our show in december of 2015, when pressed on vladimir putin, called him a strong leader -- >> yeah.

>> when pressed several times by all of us over the fact that he assassinated journalists and assassinated political opponents and whether that caused donald trump concern, his response, "we kill a lot of people, too." was then talking about u.s. soldiers in iraq. and so he was blaming our soldiers and marines and u.s. troops to vladimir putin assassinating journalists. that was a telling moment -- >> that was a huge moment. >> and raised questions not only in our minds but in a lot of other people's minds, but you can trace events from that point toward and they just doesn't make sense. none of them make sense. his kowtowing in helsinki doesn't make sense. no president that has been in his chair, sitting in his chair before him has ever considered that for a moment. >> i know that moment for us was

a big one, and we looked at him differently ever since that moment. you could see our faces in realtime on television literally transition from seeing him as, you know, a reality star buffoon who kind of is bumbling his way towards the presidency because of his branding ability. we saw that he could win. we also saw at that moment like, whoa, what is going on here. and we looked at him differently ever since and he gave us material to worry about as it pertained to russia every step of the way. >> and, willie, he continues to do that. i remember you and seth that day, all of us, we were shocked and for good reason. it just didn't make sense. like helsinki didn't make sense. like this nato situation didn't make sense, like syria didn't make sense.

you start stacking 20, 30, 40 things that pertain to vladimir putin up that just make absolutely no sense and, my gosh, a narrative ef mermerges becomes deeply disturbing and requires us to ask the question that kristen welker asked him yesterday. >> that question that you asked that you got that answer of we kill people, too, it was an odd statement of equivalence between the united states and russia that didn't add up to us and continues not to add up. glenn kirschner, i want to ask you because this all sort of dovetails about the new attorney general nominee, william barr, hearings expected to begin in a

couple hours, with a big focus on robert mueller's russia probe. and he's spoked expected to say he believes robert mueller's investigation should continue unimpeded. he also plans to say the public should be informed of the results of that investigation, writing "my goal will be to provide as much transparency as i can consistent with the law." he continues "i can assure you that where judgments are to be made by me, i will make those judgments based solely on the law and let no personal, political or others influence my decision. barr added he believes a president can obstruct justice. but democrats on the committee, including least three potential 2020 contends are aers are expe hammer barr on a memo last year in which he criticized robert

mueller's investigation. he wrote "the special counsel should not be permitted to demand the president submit to questions on obstruction of justice. so, glen, william barr can say what he wants to and i'm glad he's saying but his initial feelings, his core feelings remain true as published in that memo. >> willie, it was almost a surprise, i think, when the president first announced he would nominate bill barr because bill barr was viewed as something of an institutionalist, a law and order guy, someone who by all accounts seemed to be deeply concerned with the reputation and the integrity of the department of justice. so i think after the president installed, you know, whitaker,

who seemed entirely inappropriate for the position, i think people were pleasantly surprised that he appointed a bill barr. and that was until people realized that bill barr had authored this let's call it curious memo, i believe in june, and who just sort of as a private citizen it up to the department of justice. what i think is most enlightening is very first sentence or two that memo. it says that, quote, i realize that i am in the dark about many of the facts, but i hope my views might be useful." it's curious bill barr unsolicit $ would send a memo to the daunl a -- department of justice admitting he is in the dark about the robert mueller

investigation and go on for 19songle-spaced pages to criticize the mueller probe and lay out this broad -- basically he took the position that if the president does something that is authorized by the constitution, i.e., hire or fire a cabinet member or director of the fbi, it should not be investigated. that is a curious position to take. we're all bartoned that bill bar said that in his opening statement and it was an opening statement. let's see what he has to say today at his hearing. >> glen, it is curious at best. it reminds me of whitaker who

announced he was going on cnn to apply for a job with donald trump's justice department. looks like they're playing to the cheap seats here. in barr's case, you can't help but look back at the last supreme court admit. he wasn't even on the first list that the federalist society that twi -- now here out of nowhere, this bushie, this establishment figure, this supposed law-and-order guy moves to the drop of the list. it just doesn't make sense.

>> when we look back from 1991 to 1993, it interesting, i went back and looked at some of the reporting and his confirmation hearing back in 1991 was, quote, unusually placid, closed quote. i suspect this confirmation hearing will be anything but unusual nally -- go ahead. >> but, go ahead. let's ask that. let's say he lets this go all the way to the end. how could attorney general barr undercut mueller's investigation, even if he let it is conclude? could he not decide he's going to hold all the findings and not release it, not let it go public? are there other things he can do

to undermine robert mueller's work? >> there are or things he can do. say he seeks approval for an indictment against roger stone as part of the wi ki leaks situation. bill barr would have the authority in his capacity as the person supervising the mueller probe to withhold that approval. he would have to report it out at the end of the day to congress because there's a provision that says any denial of a request about special counsel ultimately has to be reported out to congress. but he could tack those kind of

steps. when i heard in his openments, he worked with bob mueller,y respects bob mueller, i was encouraged and heartened because i learned how to try murder cases in washington, d.c. from bob mueller, my direct supervisor in the late 90s. so be in who knows bob mueller knows the man, knows where his heart and his principles and his ethics a. that's a very good sign, i think, for the way bill barr will approach his relationship with bob mueller. i'll jump in a foxhole and fight et enmity with bob mueller any day knowing the man he. >> i think a lot of people would. david french actually yesterday had a great column talking about how he was a sheepdog defending the rest of us against the wolves. glenn kirschner, thank you so much. an interesting side note, a lot of people are saying that robert mueller's investigation is winding down.

we've now been hearing that for 14 months. remember donald trump's lawyer ty cobb was constantly saying, oh, it's going to be over by thanksgiving. >> giuliani was pushing them to hurry up. >> we don't know when this is going to be over. we could haver in six months ahead of it us. only robert mueller knows and people speculating right now are actually making a big mistake. >> but what we're seeing is how many different angles there are, how much there is. when you think of like elijah cummings on oversight trying to figure out what questions to ask. they have to be so careful, so quick on their feet because this is massive. could take a long time. still ahead on "morning joe," president trump served piles of fast food to elite athletes using fine white house dinner wear. plus members of congress slam steve king for his racist

comments, but how many would still support him for another term on capitol hill? we're going to get to that. but first, let's go straight to bill karins with a check on the forecast. bill? >> good morning. we are watching two storms off the coast of california, both going to go coast to coast. we're one into california yesterday and a bigger one that will impact the entire country pi time we get into saturday or sunday. they were already doing some ef evacuations in some of those areas outside of los angeles over the next two to three days. on thursday the storm moves inland. the blue on this map shows you where that snow is going to be. looks like another snowstorm in areas of nebraska and iowa. by the time we get to saturday, we track it into the northern portions of the ohio valley,

southern great lakes. looks like saturday night into new england. looks like a mostly rain event from boston to hartford, to new york, d.c. and philadelphia. the primary area for snow will be north of interstate 70 in the ohio valley and once you get to central new england. we'll pinpoint the forecast as we go to the end of the week. and new york city, looks like this one will be mostly rain. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ ected to each person in your family tree. i learned that my ten times great grandmother is george washington's aunt. within a few days i went from knowing almost nothing to holy crow, i'm related to george washington. this is my cousin george. discover your story. start searching for free now at ancestry.com

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i am a techie dad.n. 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. yes or no, have you or are you now or you have ever worked for russia? >> i never worked for russia. and you know that answer better than anybody. i never worked for russia. not only did i never work for russia, i think it's a disgrace that you even asked that question because it's a whole big fat hoax. it's just a hoax. >> actually what the disgrace is

is the fact that the question has to be asked because of the president of the united states' behavior over the past three years. and actually, i'm sure as robert mueller knows, over the past 30 years. willie, it really was a surreal moment when you saw kristen welker ask that question. as susan said, it's a question that we all knew had to be asked. we were all waiting for it to be asked again to see if he would finally deny it. just a surreal moment that really does make watergate look look a third-rate burglary. >> it's also a question the fbi was interested in. they needed to look into whether or not the president of the united states was an asset, john, of russia. again, there's a body of evidence behind that question that kristen welker asked.

we can now ask whether he asked to have the united states pull out of nato, he didn't get it, he didn't understand it, they're not paying enough money. there are enough one-offs that it's a body of evidence. >> again, it's all suggestive and none of it is conclusive proof but we're human beings. we're designed to recognize patterns and the pattern here is pretty powerful and raises such profound questions that anybody who had some fundamental question about whether the mueller investigation should exist, even if there was nothing that happened in the campaign, even if the obstruction of justice claims weren't there, even if he hadn't just fired james comey, if you just looked at the pattern behavior with russia in two years, you would be sit hearing going what is going on with donald trump and russia? that alone and forget about the pre-presidency and other behaviors, which all should be investigated, that alone would

put him outside the mainstream from conservative to liberal, over the whole modern history of the country and you would have to ask the question why. >> wildly outside the mainstream, rick tyler, outside the mainstream of traditional republican thought, traditional democratic thought, traditional independent thought, traditional thought in western civilization. my question is where the hell are the republicans? why aren't republicans -- not to hit too close to home, but ted cruz has an opinion on everything. where is ted cruz? where is mitch mcconnell? where is lindsey graham? where are these republican senators? where is the majority leader of the house, the man that donald trump called steve. where are these leaders to say nato, no. mr. president, you are terribly confused if you think the united states should get out of nato. you're terribly confused if you

think that vladimir putin is a strong leader that we should emula emulate. there's always silence from my former party that should know better. >> it's really hard to explain, joe, that you and i would be sitting here, you as a former republican, that the republican party would become the pro-russia party and defend vladimir putin. the mueller investigation is very vulnerable for a couple reasons. one, we don't know which bill barr is going to show up as attorney general. that's what the committee has to show up. is the bill barr that shows up the guy that wrote the op-ed saying the president has extraordinary powers and therefore he can't be indicted, which is what nixon had said, that the president can't break

the law. you have a circular reference because the president does and does not define what is and is not a national security problem but it looks like he may be the national security problem. and the american people have a right to know if their president is an asset of russia or at a minimum whether he has a conflict. the only body that can do that is congress. the executive branch could do it but it's vulnerable to do it and the congress has got to get to the bottom of what the conflict that president trump and russia -- >> they have to know by no. they have to know by now! this is going to end badly. i talked to a lot of conservatives yesterday, and they all said the same thing, this ends badly. they know it by now. don't they want to get out front and criticize a president who is acting like he's an asset of vat mir putin, an excan k.b.g. agent, by denigrating the free

press, by again denigrating the rule of law, by denigrating nato, by denigrating our closest allies over the past 50, 60 years? don't they want to get ahead of that? this ends badly for them. they no it! >> you're pointing to the thing that the beggest problem is the undermining of our institutions is the bigges problem. they don't believe in elections, all those things collapse and they're undermining themselves. the republicans is got to reassert congressional authority over this white house. i can't explain to you why they won't do it. the on thing that can happen is the person people figure it out and replace them. >> and pray. still ahead, it's day 25 of the government shutdown. pore millions of americans, the real world impact is starting to

mound and so is the potential political cost for the trump administration. we'll talk about that and whether they care next on "morning joe." care next on "morning joe." sometimes, the pressures of today's world can make it tough to take care of yourself. but nature's bounty has innovative ways to help you maintain balance and help keep you active and well-rested. because hey, tomorrow's coming up fast. nature's bounty. because you're better off healthy.

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i am a techie dad.n. 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.

a new poll of voters from quinnipiac university shows a majority are blaming president trump for the government shutdown. 56% of registered voters think trump and the republican party is at fault, while 36% blame democrats. voters also largely oppose shutting down the government in order to force funding for trump's wall. 63% to 32%. by a 2-1 margin, voters are backing a democratic proposal to reopen parts of the government that do not involve border security, while negotiating funding for the wall. when asked who they trust more to secure the border, 49% of americans say democrats in congress compared to 44 who say they trust president trump. now, asked to weigh the president's oval office speech, only 2% of voters say it changed

their mind about building the wall while 89% say it did not cha change their mind. my question, jeff, would be how much is the president and his staff depending on polls? throughout the campaign he used to whip them out of his pocket and read them to a fevered audience and have them cheer for these polls. are they looking at these? do they care? you would think they would respond in kind. >> it's a good question, mika. one thing the president has also done in addition to watching polls is he will dismiss polls that are not favorable to him. he's certainly done that in the past and is probably doing something similar right now. one of the big questions for government shutdowns, previous ones as well as this one, is where does the blame game end up landing. this poll that you just cited as well as others that we've seen, according from reuters and "the washington post" as well have suggested that that trend that

more and more americans are blaming the president and republicans. >> and, susan page, many would look at the approval ratings say something's got to give, i've got to do something differently. this president is digging in. he seems to enjoy the fight despite what the numbers show. >> you know, i think the president has always been foc focused from the beginning on his core supporters and has made minimal effort to expand his support to others. you look at he is in some ways happy with the 34%, the third of americans, who stick with him no matter what, who support he is strategy on this, who will stand with him. if you think about it, this is the strategy that has gotten him where he is. if you think the white house might be concerned about peop

impeachment, remember, his progress is save if he can keep 34 core senators. >> rick, i ask you, how does this end? >> i'm beginning to think congress comes up with a veto-proof solution to end the shutdown. >> i totally imagine that but -- >> it will be public opinion. bring up that poll where we have 2% of the people will change. he cannot convince -- 2% -- it's unbelievable. >> i totally get that. i think it's on some level, the notion that the shutdown has to end at some point, yes. congress taking control of

the -- the president is so dug in, it's hard to imagine -- >> i believe that. >> given that mcconnell has not moved one inch, what's the thing that pushes him, the mechanism that drives mcconnell to buckle? >> it's constituents complaining to senators day in and day out where the senators can't sustain the pain anymore and they go to our leader and say we are bleeding, you've got to stop this bleeding, reopen the government and figure out a way. democrats are winning on border security. think about what the president has done. he's talked all about border security since the beginning of his campaign and now more people trust the democrats to secure the border than the president. it's incredible. if you look at the front page of "the new york times," this is illegal immigration. it starts with the clinton administration is when illegal

immigration peaks and this is the trump administration way down here. these are record lows. so the president should go out every day and say i'm winning, look at this. instead he's got this big phony crisis at the border. >> so the phony crisis and now this shutdown, which is a real crisis, rick tyler, i want to pile on you a little bit, i don't know what at this point would be incentivizing him to stand bit president in this given that bipartisan solutions have come to the president's desk before. isn't it a matter of bypassing the president, and doesn't it just take three republicans to do that? why can't we find these people? who are the republicans who understand this does not end well? do we all need to wear t-shirts that say "this doesn't end well

for you, members of the republican party?" why can't we find three republicans so that congress can bypass the president. isn't it possible they could do it without him,nd it? >> absolutely they could. there is a bipartisan group of moderates meeting in the senate who are trying to come up with some sort of negotiated deal, working around their leader. it -- i don't understand leader mcconnell's theory that he's not going to present the president a bill unless he's going to -- he's got assurances he's going to sign it. how would he know if the president is going to sign it anyway because the president has consistently undermined himself, undermined negotiators, undermined the vice president, cutting out his negotiating legs from under him, sends hmm to coming and he's not allowed to talk numbers. what's the purpose of that? the president is dug in.

the country is with the democrats on this wall business. the president unfortunately doesn't know how to lose. george bush declared he was going to privatize security council, something i supported. but he lost and moved on. bill clinton lost and moved on. donald trump cannot figure out how to take a loss and move on. >> i'm telling you, if they could find three, get something passed, it's called bullying him back, i think they could figure out the override. they've just got to step up to him. we'll talk about this more, about what the options are to try and end this shutdown without the president. jeff mason, thank you very much. >> pleasure. >> still ahead on "morning joe," congressman steve king gets stripped of his committee assignments after the latest in a career full of racist remarks. "the washington post" eugene robinson is asking this morning, why are republicans suddenly

outraged over his racism. "morning joe" is coming right back. ♪ ♪ ♪ minimums and fees. they seem to be the very foundation of your typical bank. capital one is anything but typical. that's why we designed capital one cafes. you can get savings and checking accounts with no fees or minimums. and one of america's best savings rates. to top it off, you can open one from anywhere in 5 minutes.

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i think we're going to serve mcdonald's, wendy and burger king's with some pizza. i really mean it. it's interesting and i would think it's their favorite food. >> do you prefer mcdonald's or wendy's? >> i like them all. if it's american, i like it. it's all american stuff. but it's good stuff. >> dear lord, baby gejesus or a our brothers to the south call you, jesus, we call you so much for this bountiful harvest of the always delicious taco bell and the contract that stipulates i mention powerade at each

grace, i want to say it's delicious and cools you off on a summer day and look forward to the release of mystic mountain blueberry. >> surely you've seen "talladega nights" even though you haven't seen many. >> i was just shown portions of it recently. >> this is mika's way of saying over christmas break my kids were playing cards and i said, mika, let me show you a great movie. and she got about eight minutes through "talladega nights" and if you can believe it, she actually got up during the baby jesus scene. i was horrified. >> no, no! >> really, guys -- >> this is woman who said "wedding crashers," you have

citizen game, "gone with wind" and t and talladega nights. >> i had to endure it. we're talking about this because of that initial trip you saw where president trump put on a fast food feast for the ncaa champion clemson tigers as the president welcomed the team to the white house yesterday. the president blamed the government shutdown to a lack of catering staff, touting they had been furloughed, taughtiouting personally paid for the me approximately. >> joining us today, we have a few of our biggest fans, secretary of the treasury, steven mnuchin. where's steve? couldn't make your team. he would never be able to make

your team, i can tell you. >> because he's a nerd? what does that mean? that's incredible. >> i think that's what he's say persian gulf. >> not very nice. >> go ahead, willie. >> i'm all for the fast food, i love all the food groups on the table there but there's one glaring omission there, and that's chick-fil-a. it has to be at the center of the table. >> when "morning joe" does this, we'll have wendy's, mcdonald's and burger king, you have to have chick-fil-a and water burger and you need to have -- >> taco bell. >> chick-fil-a and we'll even throw in white castle for the yankees. >> home of the whopper. >> oh, yes it is. >> there's an amazing photograph of the president standing over the food. if you look at the wide shot, the portrait of lincoln is

looking down at the president over that table. >> coming up, what needs to happen to reopen the government? how are we going to get out of this thing? joining us senator amy klobuchar, senator john kennedy, order? ad adam kinzinger and former senator claire mccaskill. r senator claire mccaskill [friend] i've never seen that before. ♪ ♪ i have... ♪ at to cover the essentialsyou have in retirement,

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joe." it is tuesday, january 15th. still with willie, joe and me we have national affairs analyst for nbc news and msnbc, john

heilemann. republican communications strategist and msnbc political contributor rick tyler. washington bureau chief for "usa today" susan page, pulitzer prize columnist and msnbc political analyst eugene robinson and former senator claire mccaskill, who we are proud to announce has joined nbc news and msnbc as a political analyst. and we are so excited to have you on board. you have come to the other side. >> i have come to the other side. >> i want to know. >> i've always said in my offices we can be smart and have a great work ethic and do good work, but if we have fun, we'll do great work. hopefully that's what this will be about. >> that's the whole point of you being here, fun, but also, quite frankly, you've got some really good sharp elbows and sometimes

they're needed with joe. thank you. you're going to help me out. >> before we start, let's talk about the most important thing on the table. let's just put it right out there. the chiefs and the patriots, what's it look like for this weekend? >> well, our defense showed up last week. we've been out, eric barry might be back, don't know for sure. but we have really struggled with the defense gelling and they didn't let indianapolis get one third down conversion last weekend. it was an amazing work on behalf of the defense. we were all going holy cow, where's this defense been? so if that defense end up again and mahomes does his side arm, we're going to give brady a run for his money. we're very excited the game is in the kingdom instead of the northeast. >> it's day 25 of the shutdown and the political cost for the

trump administration could really start to mount this week. federal courts run out of money to operate on friday. the coast guard will miss its first paychecks, airports have begun closing terminals as tsa and baggage screeners call in sick instead of reporting to their jobs. "the washington post" reports that, quote, there is a growing sense within the white house that a pro tratracted suhutdown release a growing cascade of damaging effects that could eventually damage the president politically. >> what do you mean eventually? this as we've been saying from the beginning, mika, is going to go from bad to worse. >> at the hartsfield jackson international airport yesterday many travelers had to way up to an hour and a half in security

check point lines. a spokeswoman for the airport told the "atlanta journal constitution" that mondays are always busy adding, but we did feel the impact of the government shutdown more than we have thus far. susan collins of maine tweeted today, "i talked to a woman in bangor this morning whose husband works for tsa. they literally had to get a loan to pay for their mortgage this month. that's just wrong. i continue to believe a compromise is possible. this is a problem we have to solve. and support for the coast guard family yesterday, tweeting "i recognize there is anxiety and uncertainty about the status of your pay this morning.

i am proud of your unwavering devotion to duty. >> and in kodiak alaska, the coast guard is working every day to save people from treacherous climat climates. >> this current government shutdown has increased my anxiety on a day-to-day level. not knowing when we're going to get paid is a real concern. having to be at work and not getting paid is to a degree demoralizing. i just want to do my job and get paid for it and i feel like they're playing politics with my paycheck. >> but senate majority leader mitch mcconnell is blaming speaker pelosi for the shutdown. >> here we are, mr. president, day 24, because the speaker of the house has decided that enforcing our own laws is now immoral, because she's decided it better to prolong this partial shutdown than invest more than $1 in something that both parties agreed was a good

idea until about five minutes ago. >> oy. >> that's just a lie. i mean, it's just a lie. up until they lost control of congress two months ago, republicans didn't want to pay for the wall. now, in april 2017 "the wall street journal" found no republican lawmakers from southern border states who supported a funding request to start wall construction. they found none. in july 2017 the house gop dodged a vote on funding the wall. now two months later, a "usa today" survey found that less than a quarter of congressional republicans endorsed border wall funding. in mitch mcconnell as senate, republicans actually blocked an immigration bill with a wall last february. and the house, the republican house, paul ryan's house

rejected another bill with wall funding in june. and just in september the republican-controlled congress decided to punt the wall to the lame duck session. and listen to these quotes, noah rothman yesterday in commentary pulled out these quotes, "people can come under, around and through a wall." john cornyn explaining why a wall doesn't work, "lindsey graham in 2017, the border wall is not a smart investment." you heard what "the wall street journal" said. this republican congress in 2017 and 2018, "held large majority in the house and a majority in the senate. they ram through the things they cared about. gorsuch, kavanaugh and trump tax cuts. but they didn't bother to fight for the wall because they didn't

want the wall. noah rothman said this -- claire i'd love to get your response. no, i can't rothman, a conservative's conservative said the gop was right to be skeptical of what a wall could accomplish but they should not be allowed to pretend they have always been in steadfast support of this project now that a majority in the house provides them with political cover. he wrote that for nbc's "think." claire, republicans even killed and were against a 1 p $1.2 billion funding bill to start crumb 's wall. let me say that again. when they were in power, trump's republican party was against a $1.2 billion funding bill to begin the wall. so when you hear mitch mcconnell

talking yesterday, those aren't alternative facts, those are just flat out lies. >> well, i think, first of all, if you want to know how this ends, i can give you two words, it's mitch mcconnell. mitch mcconnell is in a position to stop this. he has been laying low, as you noticed, he's been looking at his shoes, he does his obligatory speech on the floor everybody morning. he likes the fact that so much of the blame is being put on trump and a very smart amount being put on the professional -- he cares about one thing, protecting his members up for election this time. tillis, all of those senators up in 2020 -- >> susan collins. >> especially the erosion among white male, non-college educated, which has been trump's go-to. when you look at those numbers, they feel bad in the senate.

so they are going to have to put pressure on mcconnell. if mcconnell wants to end this, he can end it today. all you is to do realize if republicans wanted to do this, they've had two years to do it. they've been in charge. they've been in charge of the house, the senate and the presidency and they didn't do squat on the wall. that's because they don't want the wall. so now this is all political kobuki. my colleagues are afraid of the base. but now when you see the poll numbers move, i think you're going to feel for the first time mcconnell begin to feel pressure and all the pressure should be put on mcconnell. he's probably the only guy had. >> if he's going to go on the floor and make misstatements of facts, lies.

let me get this act exact here. "the wall street journal" did yoeman's work in surveying republicans through 2017 and 2018. and what they found was that just 69 of 292 republicans supported donald trump's $1.6 billion request to begin funding the wall. that's less than one in four republicans supporting $1.6 billion to begin the wall. and now lindsey graham after saying it's not a good in. >> but also tragedy on solve level. it farz to the moment, to this point. i do think, joe, the question

becomes -- i appreciate claire's analysis. i think it's right. we know not only can mcconnell solve this, the whole thing that got us into this mess is the fact in a the senate passed a bill that would have funded the government. democrats have now also passed that bill but the republicans are now running away from that bill. you can go back to that bill slns threat decides to sign it. there's a political outcome, like when does mcconnell break is still my question. i think it right that he will break and i understand the dynamics by witch he breaks, which is to say claire, i ask you this, what is the trigger for that? at a certain point the numbers get so the centers there reaches

a point where the dam breaks. but what's the thing that happens in the world that causes those numbers to shift that way? right now there's no sign of emotion of what's causing the political actors to act. the number are aroting. so what's the thing that happens? is it some high-profile strategy? something in airline safety? what's the moment that suddenly. >> today will be an important day. today is since there was a series of headlines over the weekend. polling, nobody's changed their minds the president's approval numbers have dropped, the

majority of people in america think this is a really bad idea, the and hopefully some of the journalists in the building will get microphone in front of somebody's -- jody ernst should be speaking to this. there should be an interview with cory gardner. there needs to be pressure put on those people feeling the pressure in terms of public statements and then think you'll see mcconnell go to work. mcconnell can do this in his sleep. he puts so it may this be week, it may be next week, but i believe mcconnell will picks. >> but on december 18th, mitch mcconnell put together a clean funding bill that would keep the

americans going forward. donald trump sent the significantial, go ahead and do that, we'll sign it. it passed unanimously. and then rush limbaugh and ann colter made kwun of drot. and trump panicked. and and we've got tarmers, you've to the working class americans. you've got people in the coast guard now. you got people and all of has to people are missing paychecks and again, i can't state this strongly enough. this is not over some political principle. this is merely a political punch line for donald trump that less than one in four republicans

supported in the two years they ran the united states congress. >> we'll see it again, we've been saying it for weeks now, why are we here right now? because the president wants to deliver on a chant he led at rallies in 2015 and 2016. as you say, a month ago at this time there were reports the president was ready to walk away from the wall. ann coulter put out a statement saying he would be a joke president if he doesn't get the wall. san hannity, he heard all that, he listened to that and now here we are. i would ask you, senator mccaskill, just about the human element of this story, we're talking about the political fight over here but we heard some of those stories that mika told about real people not getting paid, about two-hour lines at atlanta airport this morning because people can't get through tsa. how much of that is a part of

your discussion in your experience that there are people hurting and this isn't about protecting the president but about protecting voters and constituents. >> unlike the president, those who came to work this week, they came through airports. and they know those tsa agents. they go through every week. they're your friends. i think that's a good reminder for the members being face to face with people who are on the front lines of national security. i think that the more you make an effort to get out there and talk to the people who work for the irs, and the people who work, in my state, the department of agriculture. i don't think the president thinks about those people at all. the thing that's most insulting is when he throws off a one-liner, they're all

democrats. give me a break. these people are not making a lot of money. these people are providing public service. and the knows that we think it's okay that this is part of their job, that they're supposed to take out pay day loans to pay the rent or pay the mortgage? we're putting so many families in this stress. >> mitch mcconnell said i'm not doing anything until the president moves. >> he tried to fix it behind the scenes. he saw this coming and knew it was going to be bad. he tried to fix it and then the president took the other direction because he was afraid of ann coulter and rush limbaugh. and then he did what he did and now mitch mcconnell has just been trying to lay low. what i really believe is his time for laying low is over and no one should let him lay low anymore. this should be all about hanging this around mitch mcconnell's neck at this point. >> and again, the people's lives

who are being disrupted, their lives are being disrupted, mortgages are not getting paid, rent is not getting paid, perhaps tuition to their children's schools not getting pad because donald trump freaked out after the senate had passed something that he agreed to because a couple of talk show hosts got upset at him. think about the millions of people -- james fellows wrote in "the atlantic" something along the lines of one man's -- one man is disrupting the lives of millions. >> think about the families who will not get paid and the federal contractors who are not getting paid. the people who clean the office

buildings often working for contractors. they'll never get that money back. and they don't make a lot of money. this is just wrong and it's crazy. the question i have and i continue to have is what is the breaking point for republican senators? clearly it's got to be they who pressure mitch mcconnell to end this madness, this ridiculous ksh. >> do you think it might be when the tsa laws get so long and some of mitch mcconnell's supporters who don't fly on private jets gets disrupted because they don't fly on private jets? >> that's going to concentrate

the mind, i hope. and there are people who are going to have to find other work someplace. >> yeah. >> and they have to feed their families. and so people are going to start drifting away. this is going to have not just an immediate impact but a ripple impact as people who are necessary, people who service this country's needs and who do the best job they can for not a lot of money. those people are going to have to find work. so maybe that's how this ends. it just -- it's already overdue. it's so long overdue. >> so, susan page, the president said proudly yesterday that he rejected the idea of opening the rest of the government temporarily while they negotiated over the wall. he said i rejected that idea when it was brought to my desk.

he's dug in, he can't turn back now. it appears to be on the shoulders of mitch mcconnell. >> do you see any indication today -- we've been waiting for the senate in particular. there is an old traditional way this could end and that could be by a face-fafing compromise miz that gave and wonder, i just would like to ask senator mccaskill, is it impossible to imagine that there is some sort of compromise that could get out of this? would democrats be willing to engage on that? >> i think it depends on what you call it. obviously we've been -- the democrats have been willing to

give the president what he asked for in his budget, which is $1.6 billion. people need to remember. that's what this administration asked for in their budget. and the congress gave them that. now, if you walled off the money, so to speak, and the money was just for technology, which is what the border patrol agents say they need most of al all. that's where the drugs are coming through. those are -- if you can figure out semantics, no matter what happens, the president is going to say he won. it doesn't matter. the key is to get him mcconnell to take it and he'll claim victory. >> of course.

he'll say he ended the showdown but who cares. you what can get him to step up and end this if he's the one that can do it? >> there's nothing much that can be sent to donald trump right now, you're not only driving your own presidency into the ground, you're driving the party into the ground and you're doing it at a terrible time for personally where you need all the report you with get. your treats are doing absolutely nothing. in fact, they're backfiring. what mitch mcconnell does understand, these shutdowns always end badly. our government shutdown that i went through, it tough, it's a brutal process and it's always damaging for the party that's blamed. and bill clinton was on the ropes before that government shutdown. it actually gave him a second

wind the shutdown in 2013, a lot of people look at what happened in 2013. oh, it didn't impact republicans. it facted tea party candidates that had done so well in 2010 and 2012, so many of them got slaughtered in 2014 because there was a backlash against that government shutdown. it going to happen again and mitch mcconnell knows it. and republicans know it. sueans kol if you're sitting there and you're in iowa and you're in a swings did didn't and went through for 18 and the one republican who survived is a white sue premises and is wondering what is wrong with white supremacy. if you're jody ernst.

you can't just sit back and whittle. this bad new for republicans. mitch mcconnell knows it and at some point, doesn't matter how uncomfortable they are, they going to have to force the issue. we have all of these quotes just from last year where rebs give that $1.6 billion saying the "the wall street journal" found that less in one in four republicans wand to even do that much when they were in power. less than one in four republicans on capitol hill didn't want to give donald trump the $1.6 billion that nancy pelosi gave him. and and now on principle they want to fight for more? sorry, are, you're taking the

worst situation since watergate and making it so much worse. >> up two u.s. senators who will question the nominee later today. plus members of the foreign affairs committee. add you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ i can't tell you who i am or what i witnessed,

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antithetical to what is, in fact, the american dream. the durability of the american dream is the strength of the american spirit. >> well, steve king's comments are reprehensible. they have no place in polite society, certainly no place in the republican party and they should have no place in the united states congress. he ought to resign, move on and let someone else who has some values take his seat. >> why was this comment a bridge too far? >> i have not been in congress for those 16 years. i have just now become the leader of the republican party. maybe i have not seen those, but i heard these. i disagree with these. these are reckless, these are wrong, these are nothing associated with america. >> the house will vote this afternoon on whether to formally

rebuke congressman steve king for his latest racial comments. it was introduced after the iowan republican told the "new york times" that he didn't understand how the terms white nationalist and white supremacist were offensive. today's vol vote -- gene robinson, you have a new article saying "surely republicans were aware of king's toxic views, which he makes no attempt to hide. why such an uproar now? perhaps king's newly outraged kr critics were waiting for him to spell it out in the language that even the party of trump cannot ignore, which he did.

king claims his crusade is about keeping out the wrong kind of people, latino, muslims, anyone who doesn't fit into his warped, a-historical vision of the nations. if you p you don't want to be called racist, republicans? then stop letting bigots such as king and trump define the party's policies. i'll believe stirring gop words about diversity when they are backed up by votes." >> i don't think it's really arguable, mika. i think he's clearly racist. but, you know, look, we're stuck with him for the time being. this is the republican party's

choice, right, to go this path. that intro, the clips in the int intro, kevin mccarthy is shocked that king is saying things like this? this is what he says all the time. remember the thing about the -- he was asked about the dreamers and he talked about house of representatives they're really -- they have the calves the size of cantaloupes from hauling things across the desert. that's what he believes and that's what he expresses all the time. with respect to senator tim scott, who wrote a very good op-ed in "the washington post" jumping on king's comments, but he said in what clip it's not

about the republican party. it is about the republican party. this is a party that traces its heritage to the moments before the civil war when it bravely stood up to the then democrat being party, which was the party of slavery then. a party with that heritage to be so historically unaware of the nation's history, of the importance of race in this country's development over centuries, it's just -- it's astounding. you know, steve king has helped get us there, donald trump has helped get up there. >> we heard mitch mcconnell say steve king ought to look for a

new line of work if he believes what was said was not offensive. where is this sudden outrage about steve king coming from? is this a political moment for them that they want to get on the record in an obvious and easy way to say, yes, white supremacy is bad? what's going on here? >> it's interesting. it seemed this was a cumulative effect. the republican party of steve king stood with him in 2018. that was 20 minutes ago. they've known this about this guy. this is not a secret, that he had this view of the world in terms of white supremacy. and it is sad to me that it took this much for the hierarchy of the republican party to finally speak out. i'm not sure that him losing

himse his committee assignments is the punishment that is appropriate here. i think they should debate at least expulsion. when someone says these kinds of things, when you look at the history of this country and what our values are and what we should be standing for, it is, frankly -- i mean, think about people who got thrown out for saying much less back in the day. trump has really protected this guy because trump has kind of like taken the edges off of what is outrageous. he is so outrageous that a guy saying whie ste supremacy is ju fine, well, then we're not going to let you sit on a committee. >> and mika, he's already got a primary challenger in the race in 2020. perhaps ultimately it will be up to the people in his district to decide. >> eugene robinson, thank you very much for joining us this morning.

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joining us now, a member of the house foreign affairs committee, republican

congressman adam kinzinger of illinois. always good to have you on with us. >> thanks. >> you captured the political moment, the national moment perfectly in a quote, "shut downs are stupid" said congressman kinzinger. you won't get any argument. but what's the way out of it? senator mccaskill has been saying this is all on mitch mcconnell because we know the movement is not coming from the white house. help americans understand how we get out of this and we get federal workers paid again. >> here's how we got in it is nobody can compromise, nobody can talk to each other anymore and we live in this environment where the far left and far right have captured american politics and we're not allowed to talk to the other side of the aisle. and the other side always has to lose, it can't win. here's how we get out of it. we've got to finally look at this and say sometimes both sides can win or maybe both side have to lose, we're going to have to compromise. i would say to my friends on the democratic side there's going to have to be some kind of a wall

and bored ader securities. to my friends on the republican side, there's going to be some things that the democrats want. >> so the democrats say we did offer a compromise, $1.3 billion in border security, there's our compromi compromise. where's yours, white house? >> you have to ask the white house there. look, i've worked the border. there has to be some wall in other areas. it doesn't have to be sea to shining sea, and then there has to be technology. regardless of what you think is being argued on this stuff, both sides have got to come together and figure a way out of this because we sit here in these stupid shutdown leverage points where we're going to make the pain so great and this is on all sides that we're going to compel a solution. the answer is both sides can

lose but that's the only way out of this. we just sit here and we have to have total victory all the time and we can't function out here anymore. >> what gives you hope that what you just said may take place, that there san dieuddenly will compromise? when you look at the way republicans have dug in and democrats dug in, when you look at polling, the majority blaming the president for all of this, what gives you hope there will be a solution here? i'm an optimist but about 84% of the time my optimism is wrong. there's going to have to be a way out. that's going to have to come out of senate. a couple of folks getting together and coming up with a compromised solution and the white house is going to have to accept that, right? that's the way i see out of this. i think what needs to happen is more and more people need to speak out and say each of these parties are being held hostage by people with the most extreme views and the whole rest of m

america is not being represented and that has to change. >> senator mccaskill has a question for you. >> i'm curious about how you feel with the president's view of nato. i'm very concerned with general mattis gone from the pentagon, with the president maybe not handcuffed like he was with mattis there in terms of staying on a course to protect our alliances around the world, and i'm really curious if you have talked to jim inhofe or roger wicker, who are the chairmen and most senior members of the armed services committee in the senate. it seems to me the republicans have a moment they could all speak out about nato and it would make a difference. >> i didn't catch what happened specifically regarding nato in

the last 24 hours but generally speaking people and including the president don't realize that n nato is as much a benefit to us as it is to nato. we got through a cold war without firing a shot with the russians because of the existence of nato. that's our frontier there. protecting the democracies of nato like protecting our own elections is extremely essential. putting up these walls and let the rest of the world just fight itself because it doesn't matter to us, i can make huge arguments that the reason we are the richest country in the world is because we are involved around the world pro at the titecting lanes,e et cetera. >> it's been reported that the president is advocating pulling

out of nato. >> that would be a massive mistake. i get concerned because i'm seeing isolationism, this rand paul theory. it's the reason the libertarians get about 2% in elections because the people realize that view of government is ridiculous. >> let's hope next time we talk to you the government is open, for starters. >> thank you. thank you i hear it in the background and she's watching too, saying [indistinct conversation]

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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. >> in our final few moments this hour i want to talk with claire, welcoming her aboard but let's talk politics. rapid fire. is joe biden the democratic nominee for 2020? >> i think it's way too early to tell. certainly is a front-runner at this point but we know what happens to early front-runners many times. it's who can gather the grassroot support of low donations in massive amounts and that will take inspiration. >> who looks strong? >> you have to look at somebody

like beto who did that. he raised $80 million all in $20, $40, $50 checks. that's impressive for a senator nobody heard of. this will be be the new test, i think as low donor donations because that is the most obvious sign of grassroots support and it is now something that is commonplace. it was really new back when bernie raised so much money in low dollar donations. it will be interesting to see who catches on. watch that as a barometer as to who will end up being the leading candidate. >> will do. a lot of women stepped up and ran in the mid-terms. a lot of them won. what's your advice for alexandria occasio-cortez and other young women who are joining the rank, and becoming congresswomen in their own

rights as they move forward? >> i think there's been a lot of back and. forth about me not being kind to this young woman. i think she's terrific in terms of her passion. she clearly is charismatic. she has an opportunity to make conversation around her policy ideas. but i think it's important remember getting things done is essential to getting rid of some of the cynicism out there. the cynicism in this country came to elect trump. so i hope that as she pushes the envelope on these issues she remembers that getting things done actually matters to all those values that we share and that the issues we share in common. >> yeah. i always say go for the long play and don't be the story. know your value question, welcome aboard, you're an

honorary member and i'll be tapping you. we'll go all over the country talking to women because you have so much to say. i look at your long resume. a mom. a former prosecutor. a wife. former senator. now re-launching and joining msnbc. what's your advice for women who feel like their stock goes down, their value goes down, they get disregarded after the age of 50. >> oh, wow, really? rapid fire, are you kidding? you got to keep your sense of humor. you got to know that knowledge is power. it's important you know your stuff. but you don't have to overcompensate for being a woman and trying to be the smartest woman on the block. a work ethic matters. i think that it's really important that women over the age of, in my instance, over the age of 60 have a place in policy debates because not just the breadth of the experience we've had, but also the perspective we

bring to it. you left out that i'm a professional grandmother. i'm going to have my 12th grandchild here in a few months. >> amazing. >> i think it's really important that we rely on women as you look at what's going on in our government. what i've seen over the dafecad of my public experience women are taking their place at the table. that twaewasn't the case when i began. if we stay focused on macaroni and cheese issues, if we do those kinds of issues going forward i think women have a lot to say about those issues because they are managing a lot of that in the household. i think we can actually move the needle on things the american people care about. >> welcome to our table, former senator claire mccaskill. thank you. great to have you. now an msnbc news political analyst. thank you very much. still ahead how many of vladimir

putin's foreign policy goals can donald trump accomplish? we'll have the new reporting that trump discussed pulling the u.s. out of nato. plus we'll talk to two members of the senate judiciary committee. republican john kennedy and democrat amy cklobuchar. as we go to break great questions in presidential history. >> mr. president, the world is dyeing to know, boxers or briefs? >> mcdonald's or wendy's. >> usually briefs. >> i like them all. briefs. >> i like them all 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 do whatever it takes to fight cancer. these are the specialists we're proud to call our own. experts from all over the world working closely together to deliver truly personalized cancer care.

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favorite song from my childhood. "young gifted and black." a song that makes me think of my birth place oakland. anything by too short. too short. [ laughter ] a song by one of my favorite rappers from california would be "humble." i work out in the morning. every morning. and folks want to know i song i listen to while working out. i don't. i watch "morning joe". >> good choice. good morning, everyone. >> smart. >> welcome to "morning joe". it is tuesday, january 15th. along with joe, willie and me, we have national affairs analyst for nbc news and-nbc co-host and

executive producer of showtime the circus, john heileman. >> he doesn't even watch "morning joe" when he's on "morning joe". he has no idea where he is right now. >> definitely doesn't work out. republican communications strategist and msnbc political contributor rick tyler is with us. susan page. and former assistant u.s. attorney for the district of columbia, now an msnbc legal analyst glenn kershner. what a day to have you on. >> also yesterday you had kristen welker asking donald trump a question are you and agent for russia. the president finally after two days of brushing the question aside answered the question. my gosh, even more concerns arising especially in the national security community and even some people working with donald trump about why he

behaves the way he does towards vladimir putin. and, of course, now news coming out that he was trying to pressure aides to give vladimir putin his biggest prize and that is a withdrawal from nato. >> all points to everything we're looking at. days after revealing a federal counterintelligence probe into the president's relationship with russia, the "new york times" is reporting alarm among national security officials who are fearful president trump will attempt to withdraw from the north atlantic treaty organization. senior administration officials told the "times" that president trump privately expressed his desire to pull out of nato several times over the course of 2018. >> by the way, mika, that organization that was started after the cold war has kept russia in check now for 70 years.

>> this is what they want for him to do this. >> of course. no president, no president -- nobody that's ever walked into that office since nato was formed has ever thought for one second about shutting down nato. not one second. because everybody that's ever walked across the threshold of the white house and into the oval office knows that nato has always been our check against soviet expansion and against russian expansion and only vladimir putin, only vladimir putin would be wanting the united states of america to withdraw from nato. >> 100%. and to move on, his reported attempt to keep his meetings with vladimir putin, trump's attempt to keep his meetings with vladimir putin secret is adding to the concern. current and former officials who support the alliance said they fear trump could return to his threat as allied military spending continues to lag behind the goals the president set.

in the days around a nato summit meeting last summer they said trump told his top national security officials that he did not see the point of the military alliance, which he presented as a drain on the united states. nato's foundational purpose is to serve as a check on russia. the white house pointed to president trump's remarks calling america's commitment to nato very strong and the alliance very important, but declined to comment further. this after putin welcomed president trump's announcement of withdrawal from syria and senators will get to vote on a resolution today that criticizes the trump administration's decision to ease sanctions on oil companies linked to russian oligarch oleg deripaska. >> of course, willie, the white house is and those around the president, their statements over the past couple of days that

nobody has been tougher on russia is just an absolute lie. you have the president of the united states trying to get out of the single most important alliance the united states has had in the post-war world. you have donald trump doing, which by the way, has been every soviet leader's goal, and now this former soviet kgb agent's goal, that's been the top priority, breaking up nato, under mining nato. what's their number one goal geopolitical today get united states out of syria. check. now you have donald trump trying to ease sanctions on an oligarch close to vladimir putin. >> this is the biggest prize for vladimir putin, something he tested when he annexed crimea in 2014. he wants the break up of nato. he want as split between europe and the united states. it goes back to july of last year, last summer when the president went to nato and

remember he burst out of those meetings went to a bank of microphones and declared that he got everybody to up their commitment. the next person up at the microphone is president emanuel macron who said no that's not what happened. the president doing vladimir putin a favor or the president treating foreign policy and geopolitics like a business transaction in new york city where guys got to chip in more. >> it's more than that. i think it's shocking over the last few days as you put this all in context. talking points of the u.s. getting out of nato sounds like a puppet regime reacting to putin's talking points. that's what it sounds like. these are putin's talking points. he's smart enough to know that when he says our nato alliance which by the way one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century because it keeps us safe not just our allies. it's a bargain. the idea that somehow we paid for nato, we don't pay for nato.

nato pays for itself. each country contributes to their own defense. they are supposed to reach 2% of their own gdp. united states and a few others, greece ironically is one of them because their economy is so bad. but one of the greatest inventions in the 20th century to keep us safe. it has worked immeasurably. the idea who is asking to pull out of nato except vladimir putin. >> you know, john heileman, right now there's a question within the fbi and within a sizable chunk of america whether donald trump is working on behalf of russia. certainly whether he's doing it formally or doing it because vladimir putin has compromised material on him. but if someone were an agent for the russians sitting in the oval office, what are the three things they would want to do the most? number one, they would want to disband nato.

number two, they would want to ease sanctions on oligarchs, people close to vladimir putin and number three the biggest prize right now withdraw all american troops from syria and start turning the middle east over to russia and an ex-soviet spy. >> i would add one more, joe, to that list. i'm not sure where you rank it in vladimir putin or any russian leader's heirarchy, but that would be to undermine the fabric of american democratic institutions and to cause internal dissension within the united states. >> let's try one more also. how about attacking the intel communities that have chased the soviet union's designs for everything that they did from 1917 forward and now causing vladimir putin fits. donald trump is actively under

mining the fbi, the cia, the intel community and his lackeyes are doing the see thing. there was talk on fox news to abolish the fbi. >> it's madness. i bundle that up in a giant, in one giant kind of catch all for these essential american institutions, the law enforcement and intelligence community is one. the courts are another. there are a variety of them. but we talk many times for the last two years about donald trump with his head in some ways kind of battering ram against american institutions. those are the foundation of what makes the country strong. the country's strength is what counter balances russia on the world stage particularly russian aggression. if you're vladimir putin, ripping to shreds american institutions is one giant goal and then everything you pointed out on the world stage is another. i think, you know, it's not, i think, sometimes helpful to

discuss the notion of trump as a russian agent only because i think people think it makes him an undercover spy. i do think that the notion he's an asset unwitting or wittingly -- i'm not criticizing you. it's your agent doing the work is technically true. i think asset is the word that doesn't cause people to immediately shut their ears sometimes. whether it's witting or unwitting is the big question that's on the table right now about him and the fact that he said yesterday i've never worked for russia just made you think over and over again about our two previous presidents embroiled in potential impeachments, bill clinton and president nixon. turned out they were lying, maybe donald trump is too. >> first time you got an answer to that too, joe. >> willie also. john is right. it is asset and not agent. but let's just state what's obvious. donald trump could never be an

agent for russia because he, he, and i'm serious. he doesn't have the bandwidth to do it. he doesn't have the discipline to do it. he blurts everything out in his mind. is he an asset? you know what? >> 100%. >> 100% he might be. let's put it that way, mika. but, again, you know, you judge a tree by its fruits. you look at what donald trump has been trying to do on the international stage and there's not a republican on capitol hill today that wouldn't say that what he's been doing is trying to help putin, praising putin. willie, i mean his words and deeds leave no doubt that this guy is trying to help russia anyway he can. >> at the very least he's an easy mark for vladimir putin. >> still ahead on morning joe it's a stunning thing to hear at the white house. nbc's kristen welker asking the

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yes or no. have you or are you now, have you ever worked for russia? >> i never worked for russia. you know that answer better than anybody. i never worked for russia. not only did i never work for russia, i think it's a disgrace that you even asked that question. because it's a whole big fat hoax. just a hoax. >> actually what the disgrace is, is the fact that the question has to be asked because of the president of the united states behavior over the past three years and actually i'm sure as robert mueller knows over the past 30 years. willie, it really was a surreal

moment when you saw kristen welker ask that question, and as susan said, it's a question that we all knew had to be asked. we were all waiting for it to be asked again to see if he would finally deny it. just a surreal moment that really does make watergate look like a third rate burglary. >> well it's also a question, remember, we learned this week the fbi was interested in. they needed to look into whether or not the president of the united states was an asset, john, of russia. again, there's a body of evidence behind that question that kristen welker asked and we can now add that the question whether or not he asked to have united states pull out of nato because he didn't get it, he didn't under it, they are not paying enough money, there are enough one offs that they are not one offs, it's a body of evidence. >> yes. again, it's all suggestive. none of it is conclusive proof.

but we're human beings. we are designed to recognize patterns and the pattern here is pretty powerful. and raises such profound questions that, you know, anybody who had some fundamental question about whether the mueller investigation should exist, even if there was nothing that happened in the campaign, even if the obstruction of justice claims weren't there, even if he didn't fire james comey, if you look at the pattern towards russia in the past two years you would sit here what's going on with donald trump and russia. that alone, forget about the pre-presidency and other behaviors that should be investigated, that alone would put him outside of the american main stream in terms of how he views russia. you would have to ask the question why? >> wildly outside the mainstream, rick tyler. outside the mainstream of traditional republican thought. traditional democratic thought.

traditional independent thought. traditional thought in western civilization. so my question is, where the hell are the republicans? why aren't republicans, why -- not to hit too close to home but ted cruz has an opinion on everything. where is ted cruz? where is mitch mcconnell? where is lindsey graham? where are these republican senators? where is the majority leader of the house, the man that donald trump called steve? where are these leaders to say nato, no. mr. president, you were terribly confused if you think the united states should get out of nato. you're terribly confused if you think that vladimir putin is a strong leader that we should emulate. there's always silence from my former party that should know better. >> it's really hard to explain, joe.

you and i would be sitting here, you as a former republican, i as a republican that the republican party would become the pro russia party and our party would continue to defend vladimir putin, but i think what we need to remember is the mueller investigation is actually very vulnerable for a couple of reasons. one, we don't know which bill barr will show up as attorney general, right? that's what the committee is going to find out. they will find out does the bill barr who shows up writing the op-ed saying the president has extraordinary executive powers, which he does and, therefore, he can't be indicted, which is precisely what nixon had said. that the president by definition can't break the law. you also have a circular reference the president does define what is and what is not a national security problem. but it looks like he may be the national security problem. and reflecting nixon the american people have a right to know if their president is an asset of russia or at a minimum whether he has a conflict and

the only body that can do that is congress. the executive branch could do it but it's vulnerable to do it. >> coming up on morning joe two members of theish committ isisi judiciary committee, amy klobuchar and john kennedy. that's ahead on "morning joe". y that's ahead on "morning joe". i don't keep track of regrets. i never count the wrinkles. and i don't add up the years. but what i do count on, is staying happy and healthy. so, i add protein, vitamins and minerals to my diet with boost®. boost® high protein nutritional drink

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all right. in just about an hour or so from now the hearings begin for trump's pick for attorney general william br. joining us now member of the judiciary committee, democratic senator amy klobuchar of minnesota. good to have you on the show. >> thanks. great to be on. >> you had a chance to meet with him. what your hoping to hear from william br aarr and should he recuse himself from the russian probe in order to be attorney general? >> well this is the most important law enforcement justice job in the country. so, of course, i want to know a

number of things. what he's going to do about voting rights when we've seen voter suppression all over the country. criminal justice reform. but, of course, i think one of the first things you'll hear members ask about is the mueller investigation especially with what you've been hearing from the white house with constant attacks on it. with the president now all the new information about russia. with him saying he wants to get out of nato again. with him keeping, trying to suppress the notes that he took in meetings with vladimir putin. that's why this is so important. two things, main things. one is he going to protect that investigation and allow to it be completed? he said so in his opening statements. but in that memo where he had questioned part of the investigation, where he said that part of the investigation was fatal lly misconceived lead to problems. secondly the report. we want the whole report out not just part it. yes, i think he needs to listen to career ethics people.

there's grounds for recusal. i want to hear what he says about that. this nominee commended attorney general jeff sessions for following the advice of the ethics attorneys and recusing himself from the investigation. >> will you also be asking whether mr. barr agrees with the president of the united states who nominated him that the fbi is filled with dirty cops, that the mueller investigation is a rigged witch-hunt? will you see if mr. barr has the same low opinion of the very people who his justice department will be in charge of? >> well, you must have been listening in on our meeting last night. that was one question i added to our list of questions, because my background in law enforcement and as a prosecutor, i think you cannot have someone in the white house joined possibly by somebody in the justice

department undermining the fbi that's doing their jobs. we're in a shutdown and these people are on the front line, fbi and justice department personnel doing their jobs every day without pay. . so, a question about whether or not he supports them, that he's going to stand up for them. he did tell me in our meeting he would is key because that's what we've been hearing every day from the white house and i can tell you how demoralizing it is when they are doing their jobs without pay right now. >> mr. barr has said that he's is going to allow the mueller investigation to run its full course. and be completed. will you also be asking him whether the results of that investigation will be released to the public, whether it will be transparent or not? >> of course. we have 37 people indicted right now. this is about a foreign country trying to influence our election and the public have a right to know. now in his opening statement and in my meeting with him he did

pledge transparency and trying to put the report out there. that's a good start but there's a lot more going on here because he has said that he wants to look at the rules and regulations. when you look at that memo he sent it looked to me like an essay for a job application and we now found out last night that he sent it to all kind of people, including the president's private lawyers. so that concerns me about how he's going to construe the laws that allow the report to be released. the justice department rules say it goes to the ag and the attorney general then makes a decision about what can be released. that puts a lot of power in his hand. >> senator klobuchar, this is willie geist. i'm curious how you will weigh what he sauce in his opening statement that he'll let the mueller investigation go forward unimpeded, the results will be made public, he wants full transparency with what you've been citing a memo written and

sent around on june 8th last year from a private citizen, william barr was a private citizen sent to rod rosenstein making a 20-page case against the mueller investigation. a case where he makes assumption what he thinks mueller is up to, what mueller knows without knowing these facts. which will you belief the testimony that he feels he has to make in front of you to be confirmed or what he said in those 20 pages? >> you have to look at them both together. the advantage of this over my closed door meeting is that the public sees it and it's under oath. and that memo raises significant questions about his views on the mueller investigation. and, by the way, you could do other things to hurt that investigation. including messing around with the scope of it. including limiting the budget. these are all questions that we will be able to ask today. >> senator klobuchar, i'm

curious -- this may seem to be an odd question. one thing we've seen in the last week or so is that barr and mueller are personally close, their families are close, they've known each other for a long time. obviously it doesn't speak to the direct issues that we're discussing here today but does that give you any degree of comfort? is there any weight you put on that or is that totally irrelevant to the discussion? >> it's helpful to know that he has respect for him which we certainly don't hear from the white house. that's helpful to know. but, remember this is a man whose name has been put forward. we had little time between the time this hearing was set and now to look at some of his past writings. what we do know in that memo we also know that he has been a bit murky in terms of what he said about putting that report forward. when you look at the claims in the memo, he's basically saying that an obstruction of justice

claim would basically could not include things like the president firing the fbi director because he claims that's an official act. and then he goes on to say in the memo that some things could be obstruction like telling a witness to lie or telling a, changing a witness's testimony, telling them to do that. so i think we really have to go into depth because that's going determine how he treats this investigation. >> all right. and senator klobuchar, some of the folks on the judiciary committee might have 2020 aspirations. are you one of them? and will it impact your questioning today? >> it won't impact my questioning in anyway. i have a very focused approach just as i did in the kavanaugh hearings. but i will say that i have made very clear that i'm looking at this. i think a few months ago i had talked about the fact that we just came off an athletic in minnesota where i won in every

congressional district including some rural districts that donald trump had won handedly. that i think it's important to have someone who has some heartland sensibility. i want to talk to my family. my family is on board including my in-laws showing momentum. but i'll make this decision on my own course regardless of what other candidates are doing. i think what america wants is someone that is going to make their own decisions. that's not going influenced by every tweet out from the white house or what happens every single day in the news. i think they need a president that's there for them in the long haul. >> well, you're a bit step closer if your family is on board. >> big news. but have you not heard the news that's an excuse? >> it's a real issue. >> big news. as you said your in-laws are

even on. board. >> there's nothing more powerful than your mother-in-law that has a t-shirt that says i'm amy's mother-in-law. that's so cool your mother-in-law is supporting you. who else will she support. there you go. >> the thing is i found out when i first ran i told my dad i was running against a guy and he said that's great, joey but i'm voting for earl. you never know for sure. >> senator klobuchar, thank you very much. let us know when you decide. >> thank you. >> we want to now bring in the republican member of the judiciary committee senator john kennedy of louisiana. thank you very much senator for being on this morning. i'll start where we ended here and that's about the hearings for william barr as attorney general. do you think it's important that he recuses himself from the russia probe, from the russian

investigation in order to be an attorney general that's acting within the realms of the law and our values. >> fair question. we haven't had the hearing yet so i don't know if there would be grounds for his recusal. i don't think someone ought to be recused or have a point of view or political belief. i think most of us who have a brain above a single cell organism have points of view. the issue is not whether you have a point of view, the issue is whether you can divorce yourself from that point of view and follow through. i'll give you a perfect example. i just listened to the interview with amy. amy is very smart. she's passionate about her points of view. some of which i agree, some of which i don't. i wouldn't vote against amy to be a federal judge or attorney general because of her point of view if i happen to disagree with it because i think she's,

has enough integrity to divorce herself from her point of view to follow the rule of law. that's what i'm looking for from bill barr. i spent the weekend preparing questions. i want to know what's in his head. get to know what's in his heart. the recusal issue will come up. his relationship or not just his but the department of justice's relationship with the president, the office of the presidency will come up. but there are a lot of other issues i want to talk to him too. >> obviously, a lot of issues he'll be handling if he's attorney general. senator, let me ask you about the issue that concerns so of mr. barr's critics and some democrats. that was the unsolicited 20-page memo he sent around to the president's lawyers and a lot of other people in washington, d.c. talking about why he thought the mueller investigation of improper. what questions do you have surrounding that memo? what questions may you ask him, might you ask him about sending

that around? >> well, i probably will ask him why he wrote the memo. i may ask him some questions about the finer points of it. the fact that he wrote the memo, joe, doesn't bother me. i know it bothers some. but people, thinking people have points of view. you want the home have a point of view. if he's never thought about it he's probably not qualified to be attorney general. what want to know is he dogmatic or willing to test his assumptions against the arguments of others. number stworks he willing to follow the law? does he believe in the rule of law? is he willing to divorce his personal believes and follow the law in a case where the law instructs him to do otherwise than what he believes? if you're so passionate in a belief and you can follow the law that you ought to quit. but that's the sort of thing i want to explore with him. i want to talk about other

issues. i want to talk about the indigent defense system in the united states. i want to talk about the office of professional responsibility. less exciting stuff than mr. mueller, but the attorney general does more than just oversee special counsel. >> obviously extraordinary. a lot of extraordinarily important issues that go beyond just the mueller investigation. that is, of course, though the front of a lot of people's minds right now because of the concern that donald trump may have selected him just because of that memo. but he has said, mr. barr has said he believes it's important the mueller investigation runs through to the end, and i'm curious, do you believe that mr. barr or anybody who is the next attorney general should make a commitment to the american people that robert mueller's investigation, the findings of that investigation should be

made public, that it just won't sit, sit in the justice department and put in a box like that scene at the end of ""indiana jones"," the american people need know and the senate needs to know and the house needs know what mr. mueller found. >> yes. that's an equally important issue. i mean i talked about this six months ago. one can persuasively argue that justice department protocol is not release a report like that. i understand protocol but there's nothing normal about this proceeding but i feel very strongly mr. mueller's report needs to be released to the american people. i trust american people will draw their own conclusions. i've said this before. the american people are plenty smart. they don't read aristotle every day because they don't have the time. but if you give them the facts

they will draw their own clungs. i have no indication this report will be buried. the justice department has some rules of not revealing the results of investigations which they should make an exception in this instance. >> i have an opinion about executive boerks the mueller investigation but i'm not the information ag and i didn't write a 20-page memo and send it over to the justice department. wouldn't it be a better choice that the next ag doesn't have this clear opinion about the power of the mueller investigation, and doesn't -- does it not concern you that he auditioned for this job and donald trump picked him probably based on this memo? >> first you don't know why donald trump picked him nor do i. we can speculate. neither one of us know. point two i understand fair minded people disagree over this, but i want someone to have a point of view.

if you've never thought about things you're probably not qualified to be attorney general. i've written law review articles before in which i've espoused a point of view. if i was appointed attorney general, wouldn't be, don't aspire to be or federal judge, same thing, i would divorce myself from that point of view if the law suggested that i should do otherwise. and i think that's the real issue to me. the second issue is somebody is a dogmatic person or does he constantly question his assumptions. does he test his assumptions against the arguments of others. i want somebody who has thought about the world, thought about politics, has a brain, understands the law, has integrity, has good judgment, and understands he's representing the american people. >> and for those viewers watching right now that don't read aristotle every day or

hasn't followed what senator kennedy has done since donald trump was inaugurated in 2017, senator kennedy actually has held many trump appointees up to very tough questioning. in fact said that some weren't qualified to actually sit on the bench. >> i don't know bill barr. i want to get to know him. if he turns out to be a meat head i'll vote against him. but i'm not going to base, i'm not going to pre-judge this. >> okay. it sounds good. senator john kennedy we could talking to lot longer but you have to go into that hearing room. so good luck. we look forward to hearing your reaction. thank you very much. and by the way, msnbc will have full coverage of attorney general nominee william barr's confirmation hearings when they

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more than 40 years ago president richard nixon resigned the presidency in no small part due to the work of a special prosecutor. in the 1990s we had ken starr's investigation of president bill clinton. now all eyes are on special counsel robert mueller. joining us now law professor at the university of arizona andrew cohen, his new book out today is entitled d "prosecuting the president." william barr hopes to become the next attorney general of this country. we were talking in our last segment with senator kennedy and

senator klobuchar about that memo he wrote as a private citizen, bill barr writing in june last year an unsolicited memo to rod rosenstein laying out the case against the mueller investigation. what stood out to you about that memo and do you believe it disqualifies him in some way? >> what stands out about the memo is the skepticism that barr expresses about the obstruction side of mueller's investigation. he doesn't argue that the president can never obstruct justice. but he advances a broad theory, i would say an extreme theory of executive power which holds that the president cannot obstruct justice during the exercise of his ordinary constitutional responsibility. >> like firing the fbi director. >> like firing the fbi director or ordering the fbi director to stop investigating his friends or close associates. >> so, bill barr has no scramble because we have a copy of it happen his opening statement

will say the mueller investigation should go forward unimpede pandemic how do you balance the memo versus his testimony. >> in light of his prior comments his memo is both reassuring andencouraging. but i think if you read the memo closely, his promise to allow bob mueller to complete his work could be read as limited to the collusion side of the probe. and the remarks that he prepares to deliver this morning or may be delivering as we speak are conspicuously cagey on the question of obstruction of justice. >> we're still a few minutes away. we'll broadcast those hearings live on msnbc. >> conspicuously cagey, what is it that leads you to a state of worrisome ambiguity? >> sure. so he doesn't back away from the memo. in fact, he misleadingly, i would say, characterizes the memo as narrow and hypothetical.

he denies ever arguing that the president can never obstruct justice. it's true he never argues in the memo that the president is incapable of obstructing justice. but that doesn't make the memo narrow. in fact, it rests on a broad and extreme theory of executive power. if barr's arguments are right, then president nixon did not obstruct justice when he asked his chief of staff to get the cia to squash the fbi's investigation into watergate. nobody argued that was the case at that time. in fact, all 13 republicans on the house judiciary committee who voted against impeachment prior to the release of the smoking gun tape. so they changed their minds. once they realized that nixon had tried to get the cia to squash the watergate investigation, so they would have voted for impeachment too. >> prosecutors are a good idea?

if they are a good idea, when they're appropriate? and the mueller investigation, special counsel, was appropriate? >> i think special prosecutors can play and have historically played a really important role in holding presidents accountable and protecting the rule of law. and i think the appointment of robert mueller was both appropriate and necessary to create public confidence that the very serious allegations concerning president trump's 2016 campaign, frankly, the very serious allegations about obstruction of justice in the spring of 2017 and through to today would be investigated thoroughly and impartially. >> how far should they go? limited to what he was originally appointed to?

>> mueller's investigation was not just collusion but also any offenses that arise directly from his investigation and the special counsel regulations under which mueller was appointed authorizes him to investigate obstruction and witness tampering and the like. i think it's fully appropriate to investigate all those matters. >> the book is prosecuting the president. how special prosecutors hold presidents accountable and protect the rule of law. it is on sale now. andrew coan, thank you. msnbc will carry the confirmation hearing for william bar live. coverage starts about a half hour from now. rom now. to make you everybody else... ♪ ♪ means to fight the hardest battle, which any human being can fight and never stop. does this sound dismal? it isn't. ♪ ♪

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that's why we show you exactly when we'll be there. saving you time, so you can keep saving the world. >> kids: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace ♪ some sad now out of the entertainment world this morning with the death of legendary broadcast actress carol channing. a representative for channing confirmed she died this morning just two weeks shy of her 98th birthday. the actress earned a lifetime achievement tony award for her lengthy career in theater including roles in classics like gentlemen prefer blondes and hello dolly. she also won a golden globe and was nominated for an academy award for her performance in 1967's thoroughly modern mill millidelawamillie.

she was included in president nixon's now famous enemy's list which she called the highest honor of her career of so many high honors. the passing of carol channing this morning. it's time now for final thoughts. joe, we'll start with you. we looking ahead to the hearings for william barr today but we also have a shutdown in historic lengths at this point. >> i mean, first of all, i guess richard nixon didn't like thoroughly modern millie. that's an interesting person to put on your nemy's list. i'm struck by the fact "the wall street journal" took a poll of all republicans on capitol hill in 2017, less than 25% suppor$2 supported $1.6 billion to begin donald trump's wall. that $1.6 billion that 76% of republicans opposed, that's the amount, willie, that nancy pelosi and chuck schumer actually gave to donald trump.

so this argument, like i said before, this is just pure farce. >> you don't have to take our word for it, take claire mccaskill's word for it. she was in the room as a united states senator until a couple weeks ago, and she says this now is all on mitch mcconnell's shoulders. we know the white house isn't going anywhere. >> i remain curious about what it is actually that will be the thing that really triggers the change and the calculus, particularly just in mitch mcconnell's head. claire mccaskill selected the dynamics inside. a caucus lunch. i have a beginning it will be an external force, triggering. i hope it's not a bad one. >> and the hearings next, william barr will be the next attorney general. we'll see if the democrats can poke enough holes in the memo. 25 pange memo bar versus openin statement barr. >> stephanie ruhle picks up the

coverage. >> thanks, mika. i'm stephanie ruhle. we begin today just 30 minutes from william barr's nomination hearing in the senate. one of the biggest headlines on capitol hill. for many americans, that is not the story that matters most. not even close. we're now 3.5 weeks into this partial government shutdown with no end in sight. yet the president and congress seem content to move on to other business. i have a great team here to help break down all of it. first, i want to give you an idea of what's actually happening at this moment. the partial government shutdown is now in record territory. entering its 25th day today. 42,000 members of u.s. coast guard will miss their first paycheck despite having been forced to stay on the job. they join hundreds of thousands of others trying to figure out how to make ends meet. >> this is tremendously stressful. i have an