the -- kind of like watching "happy days" in '75. the basement of your house was kind of normal from where we are toda today. >> i thought yesterday was absolutely staggering in his tweets and beyond. >> it is clarifying, isn't it? >> frightening. >> people need to stop saying that donald trump is taking a different position than all of his intel chiefs and from the united states military, from the cia director, from the nsi, from the fbi director, from all the directors that he himself slkd, all republicans, we need to stop saying donald trump is taking a position different from them and need to say the truth, which is

donald trump is adopting vladimir putin's position on the fbi, on cia, on dan coates, on every intel leader, the military intelligence leaders. he has decided he is going to adopt the position of an ex-kncex ex-k.g.b. agent. >> we have with us richard haas, retired four-star navy admiral james tsvridias and with us the author of "power up."

good to have you. >> admiral, this week is clarifying. a lot of people may be distressed from what they're saying from the president of the united states. but i am glad that the world is seeing that we as a country, as least the people that run our intill and our military are standing shoulder to shoulder, we know who the bad guys are and we have elections. if you think you're going to take advantage of us, ploos wait because these are donald trump's own intel chiefs. >> as you watch that display of intellectual fire power called

our intelligence community and you walk down the list of those people, you had to think how proud you are of all of them that stood and delivered and then here you have gina haspel, this is really the a-team and donald trump says they should go back to school. >> what a fool. >>what skchool is that? did someone not tell him trump university is closed? in is the school. this is the faculty. >> i won't drkd this toward the admiral because he's got some friends he likes to hang out with but, richard, you and i

know if i was looking at a one star general, i knew who wanted one thing, the second star. if he had a third star, he wanted a fourth star. sometimes people will measure their testimony not toin raich the commander in chief, sometimes -- again, when it's close they're never going to lie to you. never had an admiral or a general or anybody lie to me on the armed services committee, but they rarely come out and do what happened the other day and just come out and basically say the president of the united states is dead wrong and these are the facts that we americans need to know to keep this country safe. >> joe, the president used the schooling met faphor. what we heard was speaking truth

to power. it showed that important individuals are still willing to speak and traffic in the truth, no matter how difficult it may be politically, isis is not defeated, iran is still complying with the 2015 nuclear deal, russia is interfering with the internal politics of the united states. it made cler the shum uns are acting on are simply inconsistent with the facts. >> and theets are his choices, head of the feeb, the head of national security adviser, these are his choices. these are not obama holdovers he's attacking. he's talking about them like

they're cable news hosts he doesn't like. these are his choices, these are career professionals that are laying out the facts. he doesn't like the facts so he's trying to school them on national security. >> also this morning the president had promised 13,000 jobs in wisconsin as a factory for which he claimed the credit and what he called, quote, the eight wonder of the world. >> i remember when it was ruby falls. >> people there are wondering where are the jobs? these are the broken promises that are leaving people hanging and no value of the proof at this point. let's go to some of the details. president trump is scheduled to receive an emergency briefing this afternoon, one day after he blasted the nation's spy kaefch

yrchiefs, one day after denying the president's assessment. . he tweets "the intelligence people seem to be extremely passive and naive." >> have you ever called anyon anyonin -- gina haspell of being naive? >> think back to confirmation hearings, aggressive, smart,

lethal. she's a cia officer and she represents that community. and another aspect of this is the message this is sending to the people on all of those teams, from the most junior recruits walking into langley, the midshipmen walking into knappless. >> and who else? >> the president. about six months ago. >> i can only say i do have confidence in our intelligence agencies as currently constituted. i think that dan coates is excellent, i think that gina excellent, i think we have excellent people in the agencies and when they tell me something, it means a lot. >> do you think dthink u.s. intelligence agencies are out to get you? >> if the past it's been terrible, you look at clapp,

hade i don't know, mccomey, you look at struck, his lover and lisa page. you look at other people in the fbi that have been fired that are no longer there. certainly i can't have any confidence in the past but i can have a lot of confidence in the present and the future because it's getting to be now where we're putting our people in. >> just a regular reminder to our regular viewers, that is not a parody from "comedy central." that was a regular interview with the president of the united states. gina haspel, he's calling her passive and naive. the biggest knocks from her critic is that she was not passive or naive, too aggressive, had too clear-eyed

view of the world and now the president is attacking her for being passive. >> i know her. she is about as apolitical as you you can find. if you called central casting and said get me a career individual -- when he talked about iran testing rockets and is getting very close to the edge and you put that against the backdrop of what his national security adviser has been saying, the speeches of the secretary of state has been saying, i think there's a decent chance we'll look back at this moment and say all right be the drums are beating. israel is attacking iranian

sources on a regular basis. i thinkly think we're beginning to see the predicate -- i hope i'm wrong here -- but we're beginning to see the predicate for using military force against iran in that they're violating the u.n. agreement against using ballistic missile. >> the head of the intel agency said two years agriculture that iran is complying with the nuclear deal when this were asked about it. again, the president didn't like hearing that either. everything they laid out contradicts a narrative he's trying to build. >> another point is the international aspect of that. if you walk down the table of all of those intelligence

chiefs, each one of them has an enormous international net werk. each has grope up with the series ofs so that message, that ripple effect that goes out after a moment like this. i think i'm going to be richard on this one, that that could be a beginning of a very loyal -- >> there are several people, like me, that are not fans of the iran deal. i thought it was a bad idea from the very againing, he thought it was a bad idea. richard -- >> not the deal i would have nettene negotiated. >> not the deal you would have

negotiated. the president chooses instead to kick her around. >> last night senate minority leader chuck schumer sent a letter to direct coates writing "i applaud you and your colleagues in the intelligence community for being clear-eyed about the threats we face but you cannot let the president's ill advised comments today stand. you need term limit press upon him how critically important it is to join you and the ladd leadership of our national security in a unified voice.

he is putting you and your colleagues in an untenable position and hurting the national interest in the process. you must find a way." there's no door three here. usually if a president is at odds, they come forward with at least what they agree on. >> this public disagreement with the intelligence community a much bugger riff than just some domestic spat. while this has been going on this week, while the president's been angry, tweeting from the west wing, there's been a slew of news of putin's posturing

back to cold war style of era of expansion trying to got involved in global affairs beyond his borders from venezuela, to north korea to africa. we have "the washington post" scoop that moscow presented to north korea about the as pblt of russia building a puck. i think one of the things that really stood out most in this intelligence hearing that i this was really worrisome to experts at home is that the president is also completely missing this threat of china and russia for the first time uniting against the u.s. >> republicans are reacting to it as well. it want just democrats. the senate's second ranking republican also criticized the

president's tweets yesterday saying i don't know houlw many times you can say this but i prefer the president who stay off twitter, particularly with regard to these important national security issues. i think in those cases when it comes to their judgment take into consideration what they're saying." >> and then also mitch mcconnell a couple of weeks ago writing a all right the day after the head of the department of defense resigned. and general mattis said i'm

resigning because i disagree with you and your policy of retreat which will empower the iranians and isis and then mitch mcconnell wrote a letter saying you need to appoint somebody just like them. these republicans are a little slow on the take about a will the of things, it taken them about two years, but they are starting to speak out on foreign policy matters that they really, really need to influence the president on. >> absolutely. as the saying goes, facts are stubborn things. that's what we saw yesterday. and even amidst all of the political back and forth in washington, we're starting to see the most senior leaders observe the fact that facts are stubborn things. and, by the way, on one thing we haven't really hit on i think enough, is the islamic state. it is not defeated.

and it's not only testimony we're seeing that blew up a cathedral a couple of days ago, that killed americans in syria, it's like walking away from a fire that's still smoulderring. facts matter. >> the or area that the president has been using his tweets to mock the facts is climate change. this is serious. this will ultimately be i think strategically something that will have enormous impact in the country and around the world. to continue to mock it, this is going to happen. this will not look good when a lot of the people who are now supporting him, they and their children and their children's children pay this outside price for simply being missing in action on the climate change issue. these mocking tweets will not

look so good. >> mitch mcconnell saying "it's tempting to retreat to the comfort and security of our shores but there is still a great deal of work to be done." >> still ahead on "morning joe," the government is making a border offer about revamped talks and there is nothing in it about is accusing democrats of teaming -- first, bill karins, what's going on? >> there are hundreds of

thousands of flights cancelled. that snow squall that went through new york yesterday caused significant problems on the road. here's a picture. the building just about disappears. it almost like a thunderstorm in the summer. it's 15 minutes of reallyin tense snow went through many areas of the northeast. . so where are we right now? 121 million people, about within third of the pop laegs of the our country are under a wind chill advisory today. why would we hit negative 70 in wheelie, california. the question is are we going to get that record in chicago? negative 27 is the all-time coldest temperature. right now we're at negative 21. as we've been saying, this is

discussed an historic outbreak. it's going to be short lived. we have a huge warm-up coming into this weekend. the feels-like temperature will go up 100 degrees and even chicago. right now the negative 21 puts chicago in the top ten temperatures ever recorded going back to 1870. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. we'll be right back.

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it's one of three entities the special counsel accusing of helping to meddle in the 2016 election. a twitter account called "hacking redstone," included information that could ntained file to conquer management in the discovery process. it was altered and released as part of a disinformation campaign. the web site was eventually linked back to russia. it is aimed at explaining why mueller is opposed to sharing evidence with the accused russian troll farm. >> you really have to wonder sometimes how stupid some of these people are, gates and manafort and these guys going in and lying to bob mueller.

that never ends well. >> no. >> and you have this company linked to russia all through the documents and sending them out there. you know what, just leave bob mueller alone if he's in your sights. it's just not going to -- >> don't poke the bear. >> you don't pull on superman's cape, you don't spit in the wind. >> a russian entity is interfering in the investigation into russian interference in the 2016 election, not quite learning their election, it appears. >> by the end of this we may lock at the big, bad russians and say there was some real incompetence in there as well. >> indeed. you've got to ask yourself how capable are the russians if they're going to put a scheme like this into play. this ought to tell us, a,

they're not ten feet tall certainly and, b, they're very discoverable if we are willing to shine a light on this. >> on them being discoverable, what impact do you think mueller's filings had several months ago where we told the russian and the world not on do we know where you hacked us from, we know what the building was, we know what key strokes you hit, we know what officer was sitting at the computer when you were doing that. in fact, we know so much more about you than you will ever hope to know about us. what message does that send to the russian intel community? >> it's kind of a two-edged sword. it's a feel-good moment certainly and it might have some capability in terms of deterring them a bit. on the other hand, joe, and you know this -- >> you don't want to give the

information. >> exactly. at the end of the day, the information is valuable but your sources and methods are the crown jewel. >> but does that act as a deterrent? >> so far the answer is no, we see them continue to probe. >> russian foreign policy, talk about getting a lot of mileage out of a pretty weak hand, they've gotten extraordinary return on what they've done in the middle east and ukraine, with american elections, with brexit. >> i open this to the table and any viewer, please find me over the last -- in modern history, please find. he a country, a weaker country playing a stronger hand at the

same time that their global competitor, a stronger country, is playing a weaker hand. madeleine albright talked about that yesterday. i can't think of an example. >> no, there is not one. and here you have to give credit, if you will, to vladimir putin, who is a very capable tactician. he's a bad strategist in the sense that he will eventually lead russia down a rabbit hole. russian needs to integrate with the west, that's their future. china looks at all their resources like nobody lib there, lo like my dog looks at rib eye steak, it's really tasty. strategy will fail russian in the end. >> i always accuse donald trump as being a day trader.

>> totally. >> but vladimir putin is a day trader. here's a country that desperately needs to be brought in to the world community. they need a strategy for the 21st century. it's over, the soviet union fell. so where does russia go from here. >> you're exactly right but there's no real economy. he hasn't introduced a dose of economic reform. and they're also going to have a succession problem. one of the problems with countries like russia, when you have no political legitimacy, how do you transfer power? you go around the world, all these top-heavy systems are sowing the seeds. >> you know what should scare us even more, a russia without

vladimir putin. a stockpile of nuclear weapons, there was no control over those nuclear weapons. it was chaos. i can't let you go before we talk about venezuela. >> sure. >> so let's talk about venezuela. >> let's do it. before we get there, i do want to say one thing about russia to close, which is we ought to be more concerned about russian weakness than russian strength. >> exactly. and, by the way, this is -- sorry, doesn't yell at me, alex -- >> oh, he will. >> i wither. i get weak and i crumble like a delicate flower when you do. but i don't think we can underline this more for our viewers, that -- that while we should fear what vladimir putin is doing to our democracy, the greater long-term threat is russia without vladimir putin

working through a transition, a peaceful transition, because russia without a powerful leader, without a powerful form of government, the russia of 1991, 1992, 1993, i mean, i was just out of law school but i even knew enough then -- i was more scared of that russia than i was of the russia of 1987, 1988, 1999 when they were the soviet union because it was chaos. >> exactly. and that is why in the end we should confront russia where we must but we ought to lock for zones of cooperation, we ought to find ways to pull them toward the west. if they can't create a strategy, we should try and build one for them and execute it and bring them in to family of nations. >> venezuela, richard, go. so alex doesn't just -- i got to

get him to stop screaming at me. >> speaking of strong men. >> venezuela has become the battle for the haerlts and minds of the venezuelan military. the question is are they going to continue to support this regime? we're also beginning to see the regime resort to police forces, known as illegal police forces to round people up. so people are deteriorating we don't know that's the play we're in. woor increasing the pressure on them from the outside. every time you have an authoritarian system that begins to unravel, the question is how long do the -- when do the rats start leaving the ship? how long do the security forces that have propped up maduro stand by him? that's the phase we're in.

it could be days, months, weeks, months longer. that's where the russians and chinese above all get important. they're the glue behind a very brittle regime. >> while we're talking about a strong country playing a bad hand, can we even -- admiral, can you please explain to americans watching and people around the world that are watching, how many across the world in armed forces radio, 87 million every day? more people, little known fact, will watch this episode of "morning joe" than the last five super bowls combined. so what you say, it matters. but talk about venezuela's history, how this is a country, oil-rich country that should be thriving that had every natural advantage, mismanagement, bad government, social of run amuck, tyrannical leaders have

destroyed this country, brought it to the edge of chaos. >> not to do a john meacham on you, this is the bolivabolivari republic. this is where hugo chavez destroyed the oil industry, cratered the economy and died and handed the whole mess to a bus driver named nicholas maduro. if there was ever an example that history repeats itself, it's venezuela going from chavez to maduro the farce.

the only thing i would add to it is there is not a good military option here. there will be temptations to steam down there, wrong, wrong, wrong. i think there's a two in three chance we can sort this up but ut loading up the military and launching it is not the right move. >> admiral, thank you so much for joining us this morning. >> coming up, trump unveiled a new slogan last week, "build a wall and crime will fall." now he can change that to we didn't build a wall because of

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some other headlines making news this morning, the final phase of the 11-week trial for mexican drug lord joaquin el

chapo guzman has gotten under way. court will resume with closing arguments. he's facing multiple drug and murder charges that could land him in prison for life if convicted. >> a secret service officer was injured in a motorcade carrying chinese officials in washington, d.c. yesterday. one person was arrested after attempting to impede the progress of the motorcade. the delegation is in town for trade talks. the officer was taken to the hospital for possibly a dislocated need. >> and nfl commissioner roger goodell has admitted officials missed that call in the nfc championship game that might

have cost the saints a trip to the super bowl. >> it's a play that should be called. we're going to make sure that we do everything possible to address the issues going forward and see if there are improvements we can make to instant replay and everything else. i understand the emotions. it's important as commissioners and all of our staff as several of us have done is to hear that emotion, whether it's frustration, disappointment, anger. >> here we are a week later, willie. obviously this impacted the outcome of who was going to go to the super bowl. of course this used to happen all the time in sports but we have instant replay in just about everything now. do you change the rules so somebody gets -- a ref gets 30 seconds to see about possible interference. >> i worry about stopping the game on every call and the gapes taking four and a half, five

hours. but the call was so blatant, so egregious and it took the nfl a week and a half even to say anything about it. goodell had to say something. >> i mean, how do you miss that? >> i don't like to blame the refs right there but that sets up the game-wins touchdown or feel goal and the saints going to the super bowl. >> the refs are going to get it right most of the time. maybe they put an extra person or two in the booth so as they're setting up the play, they call down and say stop the play, we have pass interference, you have 25 seconds to look. every incomplete pass you have wide receivers and quarterbacks

saying throw the flag, they thing in -- throw the flag. >> let's bring in chief national correspondent for new york city magazine and author of "big game." mark, you've done a lot of reporting, you know roger goodell. that's a city in new orleans who is hurting offer thiver this. that's one of the great sports cities. >> i will say in fairness, that clip we just saw of commissioner goodell, he completely nailed it. he said utterly nothing, he stated the obvious after ten days of totally disappearing. the fact is that, yes, a city is hurting but an entire country who watched that play had their intelligence insulted. that's what you get from someone making $200 million over the

next four or five years but your messaging after that was far superior. >> it seems the nfl has had a bit of a comeback. they've had a rough run the last three, four years. this we're was not controversy free but much less controversial. some great games and breakout stars, the browns not on won a game but since or seven. some great stories. >> absolutely. my takeaway from doing this book for a couple of years was the game survives and thrives in spite of the people who run and own it. and in a weird way what we've seen the last 10, 12 days is a league that is essentially a reality show and the sort of the mess ups within it, the bad leadership, the fact that we're all sitting around talking about this incredibly lame

commissioner performance yesterday is part of the reality show. it's what everyone is talking about my office for a couple of days and everybody's office is talking about. to go from st. louis, to all new england and all of the places that roger goodell can't go to is a serious problem. it's like the wwf, the villain at the top keeps people very, very engaged. >> now paul ryan. the president criticizes paul ryan trump said, quote, paul told me in the strongest of terms that, please sign this and if you will sign this, we will get that you wall, which is desperately needed by our

country, humanitarian crisis, trafficking, drugs, criminals, gangs so you know we need the wall and then he went lame duck. the president went on to say and once he went lame duck, it was just really an exercise of waving to people and the power was gone -- >> all right, all right, enough. jackie, i apologize, i should have cut that read off earlier because it was such nonsense. the president of the united states has decided the new strategy is not to blame nancy pelosi or chuck schumer, it's to blame paul ryan because we all know that the president has deferred to paul ryan over the years. >> what better foil to blame than someone who no longer works for him and is out of these negotiations completely. but you have this committee of

17 different people trying to work together to build a wall and you're not seeing any cooperation from the president. the longer this goes on, the more reentrenched i think both sides are becoming and democrats put forward a bill yesterday that doesn't include a wall yet again. i think the president is looking for an easy out here. maybe what we're seeing with this placing the blame on paul ryan is a convenient out. it's someone who isn't like by the ann koulters of the world, who the president has consistently trashed over the past two years. it's not necessarily accurate but the president's thinking it's rational. >> well, the think is that, mark, this is divot number one

of how donald trump treats people who are spared of him. it's something that mika and i said on the show the second paul ryan came out endorsing him. we said doesn't n't do it. don't give him nothing for something, he's a bully. here's paul ryan afraid the president for two years and the second he leaves town, he is rewarded for himself on seek weesness by -- then you are going to have nancy pelosi.

>> donald trump had two years to get his wall. he had two years. >> and he has no answer for that. and he also what people who were cowards who wouldn't stand up to him in the republican party in the house and the senate. there is no one to blame here other than donald trump for the wall not moving forward, for the two years, that they had a monopoly over government. >> this is the reflexive reaction from donald trump, blame someone else. >> as jackie said, the first bid from the president was zero dollars on the wall. they're looking across the table. they watched president trump scared over his 35 days of the shutdown, watched the poll

numbers bend to the democrats. ne have put on the table something less than was supported previously. they've stepped back from that because they know the guy across the table has been weakened from the shutdown. >> and they know the republicans don't want the wall either. they said how building donald trump's wall was a waste of money. we had john kelly when he was testifying to be d.h.s. secretary say building a wall was not the best use of money. jackie, what do you say? >> i'm still looking at the fallout from the intelligence chiefs' testimony as they just

really unleashed a whole bottle of problems the president doesn't have his eye and and the president's fight for the border wall has rendered him legislatively moot. what you're seeing as i think my colleagues wrote this morning is that there are no other legislative plans going ahead and everything else that's going on on the hill right now is very adversarial towards the president on both sides really. watching trump for these next two years, year going into 2020 and seeing him sort of grasp for a message for any sort of -- to accomplish any sort of policy is really going to i think fascinating to say the least.

>> strange new dynamic for him. >> he's not going to do another shutdown. i think we're probably going to have some legal, if not constitutional issues. >> and trying to use emergency powers after everything he said publicly, the supreme court will overturn it and he'll look even more impotent. >> so the state of the union should be interesting next week. >> thank you very much. we'll be reading "the washington post" recall newsletter. >> a taiwanese giant is reversing course after promising to bring thousands of manufacturing jobs back to the midwest. what it means for president trump who actively touted the project. and more and more republicans growing frustrated with the president. we'll be right back. building a better bank

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moments ago we broke ground on a plan that will provide jobs for much more than 13,000 wisconsin workers. i had this incredible company going to invest someplace in the world, not here necessarily. i will tell you they wouldn't have done it here except i became president so that's good. i want to wish you good luck and congratulations on truly one of the eighth wonder -- i think we can say the eighth wonder of the world. >> oh my. >> let's high five. >> in june, the president announcing 13,000 jobs in wisconsin. >> manufacturing is back in the badge are state. -- badger state.

>> no, it is not. >> what? we have mark leeb vich. >> i was confused. i definitely know that's jonathan lemeyer with his cute little hair cut. >> thank you. >> co-editor -- >> that was demeaning. john then lemire has worked a very long time for his title. >> he's cleaned up a little since he started. >> thank you, i'll take it. >> and peter baker from the "new york times" is with us. >> that was tough, wasn't it? >> had a hard time. >> the president's speech about jobs coming back to the badger state is not happening. >> the president had one of the gold shovels, they break ground.

in a blow to president trump's bid to bring manufacturing jobs back to the united states, taiwanese electronics giant foxconn is reconsidering plans to make lcd displays at its $10 billion facility. they announced instead of the sight being used f-- site being production, it will be staffed by scientists and engineers. in a statement, foxconn says it remains committed to wisconsin and the jobs, but because the global economy has shifted, this has necessitated the adjustment of plans of all projects.

president trump fluounced the deal in 2017 and visited the site the next year. according to a "usa today" analysis of the statement, fox has mentioned foxconn's plan to build a plant in wisconsin more than two dozen times in the past six months. in a statement the white house said in part it would be disappointed by any reductions to the initial investment. all of this came as the white house kicked off two days of face-to-face trade talks with chinese officials in a bid to end the trade war between the two countries. bottom line here, this company, foxconn is not giving what it said it was going to difficult and what the president broke ground on that day and has taughted since. it isn't happening. >> a bait and switch. remember he went up to carrier,

big nonsment and every three, four months more people are peacekeeper laid off there. >> this is not the first time. with the gold plated shovel, what happens to the gold plated solve? foxconn, we've been hearing about this for a long, long time. the president will probably blame paul ryan for this, too. it's a bad story. >> obviously the president is not pleased with that. and the after the president embarrassed himself yesterday. john thune saying i don't know how many times i have to say this, just stay off of twitter and, by the way, be quiet when

it comes to intel. you've written about that. there's a growing chorus of republicans that are starting to criticize donald trump's foreign policy. what gives? >> for two years obviously republicans have from time to time spoken out when they disagree with the president. his view of foreign policy is radically different in some ways than the conventional president point of view. he's not a free afraider, -- trader, and he has been supportive of russia. republicans mostly kept quiet, from time to time asserted themselves and now you're seeing a rising discontent. they're nervous aboutpossibthis withdrawal from afghanistan.

there will be a vote that would condemn precipitous withdrawal from afghanistan, warning about that. and that's from somebody who is not a mitt romney, not a jeff flake but is the president's most important partner on the hill. >> and since the shutdown, there's this growling in the republican caucus. they've seen the numbers going down, the frustration building up. you have people inside the white house telling him the shutdown was good for him politically. this divide can only widen in the future. >> i think the republicans don't have a taste for what the public has said. the public has essentially blamed the shutdown, with good reason because he's owned it in

that meeting with chuck schumer and nancy pelosi. you look over the past two years and the innumerable controversies we've seen. this isn't anything new. the president has always said things that run contrary to what the intelligence community said and always told mistruths and lies to the american people. i find it interesting this is the point where mitch mcconnell want to come out of hiding and say something. i'd be interested in actual policy that moves forward. when are they actually going to put a rubber stamp on these things? >> i do wonder if the president has to be drawn back. this was a top intelligence briefing. does be in comprehend this could be extremely bad for our

national security? >> the president marches forward. he does not listen to many pop around him on this advice. it is interesting, as peter and others have said, that it seems like on foreign policy, it appears to be an issue where republicans are willing to break a little bit with the president. certainly now where we can say he's the most vulnerable, the weakist he's been, he comes in with his political weaknesses exposed, his poll numbers have sunk and more members of his party are willing to contradict him. most have fade stayed with him on the need for the bored are security and the wall but on foreign policy we're seeing some room. it want just last couple days. it want just raspberry temperature it was also members of his own administration, people with the most important and sensitive jobs in keeping our nation safe, saying to them they disagreed with the president's plans, that they broke with him on some of what who wanted to do, whether it be syria, north carolina and other

places. the issue now is will the president bend to that? will he slow down some of has to plans or will he keep going despite their objections. >> it is interesting the times when the republicans decide to speak out gbs the president. it has been rare in the past. certainly after we saw james mattis lead. it also seems the timing of the president aesz ill-fated move on the shutdown could not have been worse. if in fact robert mueller is winding down himself investigation and republicans are going to have to speak out against it, he probably didn't pick a good time to drive his poll numbers into the mid 30s. >>ia, i don't think he would say that. i do think that you mentioned the mattis departure. that is a line of demarcation

and to some degree syria also that, okay, he might talk a lot of stuff in ways we don't agree with, tweets too much but jim mattis is here, this is serious, this is kind of on the rails and then all of a sudden once you saw that mattis left, a lot of republicans were, first of all, quite unnerved about that and then a chang of tenor in hour they're talking. >> in november a lot of republicans began to question the strength of the president. and then they watched poll numbers, poll numbers, and started to realize hitching their wagon to trump. >> but you're talking about republicans.

i don't think his hard core base are well versed on foreign policy. and you talk about mattis, a very serious person. that's a time where certainly that they spoke out but -- >> but the base doesn't. >> exactly. and when you think about jeff sessions, this is somebody who by all accounts pushed his domestic policy and he was still disrespected time and given aag we've all talked to people on capitol hill who roll their eyes but publicly they still promote this president and vote with him and they let him bypass the legislative process. >> you look at the internal poll numbers. how many republicans are starting to tell pollsters they would like an alternative in 2020? not sayinger that running against donald trump, not saying they disagree with the way he -- he's still at 75, 80% approval

rating within the republican party but just the number of republicans saying i'd like an alternative in 2020, the number is rises. >> with the shutdown offer at least for now, democrats are moving to pass a series of election reform, which would in fact prohibit require and create a matching system for small donor donations to congressional campaigns. i think those make sense. >> all four of those are good i mean, that's just good government. >> i'd like it lot. >> tax returns at this point -- >> thank goodness we have something unifying everyone can a agree on. >> but senate majority leader mitch mcconnell had this take on the bill and its move to let

people out of work on election day. >> what? >> their bill would make election day a new paid holiday for government workers. and create an additional brand new paid leave benefit for up to six days for any federal bureaucrat who decide they'd like to hang out at the polls during any election. just what america needs, nor paid holiday and a bunch of government workers being paid to go out and work -- i assume our colleagues on the other side -- on their campaigns. this is a democrat plan to restore democracy? a brand new week of paid vacation for every federal employee who would like to hover around while you cast ballot? a washington-bassed subsidized clearinghouse for a power grab

that's smelling more and more like exactly what if is. >> how does he make paying federal -- like right now, you can't makine being nice to fedel workers look dirty. >> 35 weeks with an unpaid holiday. but they're better off. >> just optics. hello. >> i had a lot of federal government employees who voted for me. we want to give people more of a chance to get out and vote. that's a good thing. that's a republican ideal. >> the more people that are at polls, this doesn't vote for republicans. this has been a consistent tactic of the gop at the state,

federal and local level to keep people from voting. we just wrote this morning that in 2020 hispanics will make up a large portion of the voter share and eventually will be the biggest minority group of voters. this is something that scares the republican party. i had the opportunity to be on the house floor during the swearing in. when you look at the chamber. on one side you had a democrat being party that looked like america. on the republican side, it looked inconsistent of where the country is going. it was a picture of older white money. that's not where the country is going. >> what was the picture he was painting? it didn't seem compelling. >> there are people in america who will stantly back mitch mcconnell. they share this fear and anxiety of a more diverse american. so they hair that and they

think, yeah, that's my guy. >> by the way, there are some great ideas in there. if you want to take that part out of it, those other reforms seems like something almost every american would agree with. and the idea of making election day a national holiday, ain't nothing wrong with that. >> turnout of the 2016 national election is 55%. that's not very good. that's the lowest in 20 years since the 1996 election. ing in you can do to get people out to vote, they encourage anything that gets more eligible voters out to the polls. >> so what are things looking like on capitol hill right now? what is the next step in terms of the government shutdown? obviously republicans and democrats are quietly talking to each other behind closed doors.

both side concerned that whatever deal they hammer out, the president's going to be disagreeable about. where are we? the koconference committee, the are meeting but there's no guarantee they'll find a middle ground. they could come up with a border security measure but if it doesn't explicitly fund a wall or barrier, that's going to be a no-go for the president. he has staked too much on this to let that go through without some sort of victory here. we're still heading toward the declaration of a national emergency. that's still probably the likely way out for the president.

there's no appetite on the hill among republicans even for nor government shutdown at this point. that doesn't mean it would be a popular move necessarily. a lot of republicans have spoken out about this idea for a national security. they worry about the precedent it would set. they say think of elizabeth warren or -- >> the greatest example of that is -- after the next school shooting, any democratic president to easily look at the president, declare a national emergency, immediately put in force national background checks, immediately put in force say banning of bump stocks. >> it's much more of a crisis.

>> banning of military-style assault weapons. the supreme court is completely silent on all of those issues and they have deliberately been silent on all of those issues. i know they're taking up a gun bill. but the precedent this would set for future democratic presidents would be extraordinary. >> it would be. this is something that scares and concerns a lot of republicans. we had this debate under george w. bush, whether he was pushing the boundaries too far, plom a was he has been leery of going forward pause of this opposition within his own party. it does seem like there as politically not a will the of options for him at this point that lead him toward of a outcome where he can say he got

money to. >> mark leeb vich -- >> final thoughts. >> make them really deep and really heavy. >> i first want to reiterate that john lemire does have cute hair. >> he does! he's working it well. >> the end gam here is the national emergency if it happens. if it doesn't -- either way it not a good choice for president. >> mark leeb vich, thank you very much. peter baker, thank you as well. still ahead on "morning joe." why kirstjen gillibrand is already going after beto o'rourke. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back.

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a look at some of the other news we're following this morning. newly unredacted documents in a lawsuit against the maker of oxycontin shows the company explored getting into the business of treating opioid addiction. the lawsuit brought by the state of massachusetts and reviewed by p propublika. the company accused of state of taking tens of millions out of context and distorting their meaning. chicago police are looking for potential persons of interest about alleged assault against actor jussie smollett.

he told officers he was assaulted by two men who yelled racial and homophobic slurs, threw a substance on his face and tied a rope and his neck. nor rand paul has been awarded more than a half million dollar in a lawsuit against a neighbor who tackled him last year. during a three-day trial, senator paul argued that his neighbor slammed into him breaking several of his ribs over a dispute over lawn maintenance. the jury awarded paul with $580,000 in damages and medical expenses. >> and this morning professional baseball is remembering one of the all-time greats, america is remembering one of the all-time

greats, jackie robinson, today would have been his 1 ho00th birthday. >> coming up, we'll pick up on an important conversation we started yesterday about justice in mrk. -- america. and we have a whole panel standing by for that discussion. we'll be right back. cussion. we'll be right back. this simple banana peel represents a bold idea: a way to create energy from household trash. it not only saves about 80% in carbon emissions... it helps reduce landfill waste. that's why bp is partnering with a california company: fulcrum bioenergy. to turn garbage into jet fuel. because we can't let any good ideas go to waste. at bp, we see possibilities everywhere. to help the world keep advancing.

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at the end of the show yesterday, we started a conversation unnoah rothman's new book titled "unjust." it's a look at fairness, equality, race and gender. to say it touched a nerve and we're diving right back in. >> no, i can -- noah was so pos. >> no. >> noah is back with us. author and nbc news political

analy analyst annan is back here with us, holly harris, and tiffany cross is with us. >> so should noah start? >> eddie says he's stuck in traffic. this is the second day we've tried to get eddie on this show. i'm starting to wonder. >> he influenced my thinking so much that i criticized his book. he can't be too harsh about it. >> having lived in atlanta for seven years, i have to defend him. >> quick review, what's the book

"social justice" is a noble movement, this believe and preach that meritocracy is a smith, that separatism is good, that color blindness is naive at best, dangerous at worst. you ho no and they are a necessary for -- >> let's start with color blindness. yes, you have to recognize, don't? shouldn't we recognize that white men are treated differently than black men? every night he went out and if you were stopped by the police, this is what you do, son. every father with young black sons have to give the same speech. my dad never had to give me that

speech. >> this is not an attack on racial awareness or self-actuation. it's an attack on prescription. >> do you think white people are being treated unequally in 2019? >> no, i don't believe that's true in an institutional perspective. the adein mrk is to treat people equally, to acquire. there is a movement that that be done away with and i think that's a philosophy that is corrupting. it is not evident in american institutions but it is a philosophy that is hot this evidence against a specific

policy that prescribes inequality. >> annan, next to you. >> i think the starting point in this conversation is not any one book in the present. have to go back. this country has a history. you can go back to 1619 when the furst enslaved africans were brought here. can go back to 1776 or 1787 when you have the kind of double story of this country. you have extraordinary ideals, some ideals that i think we would all agree with path breaking and unspire us still. the amazing amendments to our constitution. and then you have a second part of the double story, the fact that some who wrote those word were slave owners, the fact that for a very, very long time and still today it has been very hard for us as a country to live fully up to that but we've gone better and better.

when i read american history, it seems to me at every juncture when we actually successfully extended those beautiful ideals in the double story to people who had been previously left out of it, whether it was african-americans or to women, or to people from other countries that were not europe with immigration change, in is because we opened ourselves to the reality of people we hadn't really been listening to. >> so is noah missing that point in this book? let talk about noah's thesis? >> can't handcuff someone and not handcuff someone else and then take the handcuffs off and say, look, you're both free after ten years of you living

out -- free to be treated color blindly and equally. there's a legacy in this country of women being shut out of institutions, of education, the progress, of african-americans, others. to simply say color blindless -- is any color blind kolcy going to chang the racial gap plan in this com-- so women can feel as free in spaces power as i've felt my whole life. it is very easy to be a privileged person and say i'm for everybody being treated the say. it makes a more interesting person to say what do i not know? how many african-americans did

knowia interview for this book? just regular people living their -- and how did it challenge your reality, if at all? >> throughout that interesting reflection on the book that you have not read, i would suggest you perhaps get into it. there are quite a few perspectives that you suggest i share that i do share in the book. this is an attack that has created a new set of victims. very misguided but noblely, the among them being individuals' names we will never know, who were made victim by an evident to balance the scales and who lurk in institutions and, pand the definition of rape and they

were revictimized when it was overturned in an actual court. all day on twitter, is -- >> what are you talking about? >> the efforts in the obama era provide an expanded definition of what constitutes sexual assault and to adjudicate those claims on college campuses. it resulted in countless examples of. and many of damages that were awarded to these individual and from these colleges were revictimizes the individuals. they said it too much to put them through but that is the this country was founded on. the kind of place bent looks

good to me as well. >> i'm curious did you engage actual think tanks? did you talk to the urban league? did you engage any member of the tricep ter for any of this research? i find it really and i think for a lot of communities of color, look, they may have been more articulate and less clumsy than our president, but absolutely their words are just as challenged, not depending on pop to use race as an issue but he racialized and he campaigned on

abolishing affirmative action. he became responsible for some of the gun laws. as governor of california, he said citizens should not be carrying guns. he only did that after the black panthers took up arms legally to defend themselves. dwight eisenhower is known for telling the supreme court these poor white folks are good people, they just don't want their white daughters sitting next to oversized neg rows. to show these are good, licensed republicans who never perpetuated those racial trops seems a bit of a connected to me. >> it would be. i don't recall making those argument.

>> that nichol appeals. >> you mentioned firm and that's important because philosophically in this book, sort of had a collateral damage effect of negatively discriminating. that was an accident. we didn't dwell on that. >> negative discrimination need to have, a due sort of reckoning, to examine those victimized by historical forces they may be aware of or not aware of. that is negative, downward pressure. >> would you say whites, men, people who you were talking about but as people who hoob it

taught mostly on campuses, embraced by the women's movement, which demonstrate for individuals who might not be aware that they have varying degrees of prejudice from it forces you to think about yours and that agency doesn't necessarily work. >> i think many people -- i think it's an accurate philosophy. with respect, i think your outlook is a bit myopic and doesn't, tend the nt elect what i got from the portions of the book that i read is you draw

this fall it kind of felt like a euphemism for communities of color. i'm not sure if that's what you were defining -- >> certainly not. >> fair. i was curious about that. but i think draw this false equivalency. certainly there are disadvantaged white people in this country. i think the reasons why they're socially and economy icalically think it really dang ross to look it turnt of himself tore call i call that reality for a lot of people. >> certainly it is. but allegations have been raised which had don mcgahn and by --

that it forces you at work to keep you down, as month as is you can take your crack at the broad thesis here but no, i can't does say as if that trump played on this to himself votes are it and that we're losing the! . it's slipping away from us. what do you make of those two sides of the social justice movement? >> i think the ideas lend themselves to ideas of victimhood that wind of up being disempower. here's what i find really interesting and frustrating. when you're talking in group terms, you're not talking about other solidarities, not talking about other things that people might have in common. if you are a person of color but you happen to be very elite.

you happen to actually be in elite spaces and circumstances, you have elite credentials, it makes perfect sense you would emphasize your over over your elite status. you might also try to efface the emphasizing the individual be emphasizing the particular stories and circumstances that shape individual' lives apeople of color who do in fact have influence, who do have power and sometimes they will use social justice arguments, not always in the purest of heart. sometimes it's a way for them to win an argument, to gain power, relative to others in their own group who might dissent from that opinion or from other groups who say, ah-ha, you need to step back.

that person might be white or from appalachia. that person might be privileged in all sorts of way, someone who comes from a very elise background. it's something that one use as a weapon. >> i was born in middle america, you know, sort of in the wonder year suburbs of atlanta, georgia, middle of ent pin century, you know, my family was middle class. mile-per-hour dad got laid off. we drove around looking for jobs for two years. even during that time when i was in college, if i was going into an interview, an 6'4" white guy that looked like i'm looked, don't i have an advantage over somebody that walks in that's a 6'4" black guy that may have more money that me, whose dad

may have run a company in new york or whatever but doesn't i have a natural built-in advantage just because of built-in discriminations? >> as a brown guy who's a foot shorter than you, i want to tell you, i grew up with two parents -- far better looking. >> well, there is that. >> also my parents came from a background, they had college educations. they had all sorts of advances and they brought those advantages with them to the unions as immigrants. when you look at a lot of he's thumts, you see heem who themselves prout eresources from another society. sure had you to scrap and scrape, that's true. but then they're interposing themselves into arguments that i find pretty frustrating. i'm saying your experience in some ways was overcoming a lot

more disadvantage than folks who might be, quote unquote, of color but who actually did have very elite backgrounds. >> let me tell you something, i have had police officers pull me over in my lifetime in younger years and i got ot of my car when they were, i thought, throwing their weight around a little too much. and i just stood there and i glared at them who about because you know what would have happened a if black man, does it matter if they were -- their dad was a million nar ceo. that's just the reality of it. -- there is something about the experience of. s, particular i when i think he

is very attune to it and that is an offense against the country. >> not to take over the whole conversation because i don't like doing that on the show of course. let's talk about me walking into a room, 22, 23 years old, i go in, my parents didn't know anybody, i didn't have any contacts. i walk in, try to get a job and i'm sitting there, mika has seen this before, i'm sitting with a boss and we can be re and a 23-year-old white woman from harvard comes in. she has a great interview, she has better qualifications than me and yet i get the job. do you think that still happens? let me tell you, that still happens. even for guys like me that had absolutely no background. my family, no background.

>> it still happens and this book goes to great lengths to explain and say again and again that institutional prejudice is real. that the social justice left and the right that mirrors them have addressed in order to create coalitions to effect positive social change are not working. they're alienating the people that they need. they are count ere productive to this important work. >> who are they alienating? >> i will actually since i've been playing devil's advocate, mika and i quietly at times throughout the 2016 campaign would look at some of the hinges that hillary clinton's campaign would do and we'd be like don't do that. there are -- let me tell you, here's the thing, everybody always wants an honest discussion on race until there's a chance to have an honest discussion on race. >> let's have it. i'm curious. >> no, i -- i'm just saying that

who is being alienated are the very people that were -- that were set up in whether it's in wisconsin, or michigan or ohio and pennsylvania and being told, you white people are being taken advantage of, you're being left behind, they're not thinking about you, and you're going to pay -- >> can i make a point about that? >> you're going to pay for it and again, i say that as somebody that did not want trump to win obviously. >> i actually think -- i want to make a positive point about that. because i think actually one of the proofs that a certain kind of identity politics or that kind of lens works is that a lot -- in my lifetime, white people, millions and millions of white people in this country, mms and millions of men have actually gotten a lot better at understanding experiences and i actually was moved by a couple of stories you just told and i don't know that you would have

told those stories 20 years ago. i think we're all part of an awakening that is very much because of these new conversations that you can dismiss as identity politics or pc, but you know, the gillette ad that caused so much of a stir, you know, this is actually working. people are getting better at understanding the desires for recognition of others. and in terms of your wisconsin and other places point -- >> hold on a second. it works until there's a backlash. >> correct. >> that elects people like donald trump and actually puts us in places that i never thought as a son of the south we would ever find ourselves as a country. >> correct. >> like charlottesville. we brought that up once this morning. things happening that i never imagined would happen in my lifetime are happening and i'm not suggesting i have the answers to why they're happening, but -- >> but you're rieg. and i think this is where i want

to say something to kind of my side. this is where i think there is a bit of a blind spot on my side. which is there's a kind of wokeness culture that is developing. i in general think is a good thing for america and has awakened us to a lot of experiences that we didn't listen to. however, i think it is really important that the kind of woke america, the new majority that ascending slowly is a movement of expanding the circle, not circling the wagons. i often ask the following question. is there space among the woke for the still waking? there are a lot of people in some of the states you described who are not going to charlottesville and they're not white supremacists. they also don't know all the terminology of the new kind of identity world and they're on the fence. and they may go trump's way, they may go the way of travel nationalism. they may be seduced into new ways of thinking that feel a

little bit uncomfortable. i think those fighting for a more inclusive america to think of those cause as expansion nar and generous. >> you've been able to sit back and listen to this conversation. let's bring you into it finally. what do you make of it? >> well, look, this is a very fascinating, complicated very academic conversation but i'd like to pivot and talk about the real world application of identity politics and working toward a common goal and really the best example of that was our work with our right/left coalition impassing that ground breaking prison and sentencing reform bill at the close of the last congressional session. you know, we made a lot of mistakes in the beginning of the coalition in trying to homogenize all of these voices and speak with one message around you know, that really

wasn't inspiring people and our bill wasn't moving and then you know, then we went with some strategies where oh, maybe we should just use conservative voices because congress, the house and senate are, you know, controlled by republicans, and that wasn't moving the bill and it was only when we cut these groups loose to speak, you know, with their own voice and to their own constituencies that we really started seeing the bill take off. and so we had groups that were messaging exclusively to racial disparities, mika, you probably don't know this but you helped to inspire many group to talk about women and the indignities that women were suffering in our justice system. we had groups that talked about government overreach and failed government programs and excessive government spending and then we had faith based groups that talked about the power of reredemption. we had all the groups levering their positions on the bill to broaden the bill, and ultimately

at the end of the day, you know, we got the broadest possible bill with the broadest level of support from the far right to the far left and i think moving forward you know, that's the way that we'll be able to change laws and change lives in this country. >> that is a perfect pragmatic example of incremental change based on an effort to create a consensus around an issue that is real and serious and based in racial prejudice hundreds of years old. it's the kind of thing we should all be working toward. i think it's debtry mental to that cause, this silly wokeness culture that appeals to an activist. fearless girl applied, appealed to social justice ability vicct. it was a commercial for a financial firm that was found to be systematically discriminating against women. it was an effort to hide behind

its own sins against the system and it did well. it still appeals to the same people that it was appealing to and that kind of woke capital m capitalism. it's something that's very prominent and features prominently within this movement. >> tiffany? >> i think it's a nuance argument you're making. i disagree with a lot of your points. one thing that stuck out to me is your context that you draw racial hoaxers as you call them and i think that's dangerous to put out these days. obviously you can probably recount three or four incidents that were proven to be false but then you think about the the long list of things that actually happened or the crimes that go unreported. when you think about how maybe people of color view this in the context of you know, you have all these people who. >> reporter: treated violently by law enforcement by joe said and today, the top republican in the house judiciary wants to have a hearing because they don't like the way roger stone

was arrested that he was treated poorly but they say nothing about a 12-year-old child being shot or nothing of mcdonald or things like that. so i think sometimes your argument comes across a bit reductionist and ignores some historical contexts and we can talk more about it. this is a three hour conversation. >> so would i. absolutely. i hope people read the book but truth is always the most important thing whether that's uncomfortable or not. >> noah, rothman, thank you for sparking a great discussion. it's trending on twitter right now. is that good or bad? >> noah's new book is called "unjust," social justice in the unmaking of america and we thank the rest of the panel. his latest book entitled "winners take all." >> but also anand's hair is responsible for half of the traffic on twitter right now. >> the latest is entitledment melting pot or civil war."

tiffany cross and holly harris, we need to have you back. thank you very much both of you as well and somewhere in downtown atlanta traffic, eddie glaude is glowing at his radio. >> he's on the connector. >> coming up, first russian trolls targeted the 2016 election. now they appear to turn their sites on the map tasked with investigating them and from a wall to steel slats and now back to a wall, has the president finally decide what he wants to call his signature campaign promise? "morning joe" is back in a moment.

there is nobody that feels stronger about the intelligence community and the cia than donald trump. i know maybe sometimes you haven't gotten the backing that you've wanted and you're going to get so much backing. maybe you're going to say please don't give us so much backing. mr. president, please, we don't need that much backing. >> that was donald trump -- >> what a's fascinating i rememr watching that and being horrified and saying is this as weird as it gets? >> no. >> that is a quaint -- >> so sweet. >> kind of like watching "happy days" in '75 in basement of your house. that was actually kind of normal

compared to where we are today. >> in the light of yesterday's developments between the president and his intel chiefs i thought yesterday was absolutely staggering in his tweets and beyond. beyond. >> it is clarifying, isn't it? it's clarifying that again -- >> frightening. >> people need to stop saying that donald trump is taking a different position than all of his intel chiefs and from the united states military, from the cia director, from the nsi and from the fbi director, from all the directors that he himself selected all republicans, we need to stop saying that donald trump is taking a position different than them and just need to start saying the truth. which is donald trump is adopting vladimir putin's position on the fbi, on the cia, on -- on dan coats, on every

intel leader. the military intelligence leaders, he has decided that he is going to adopt the position of an ex- kgb agent instead of the very intel chiefs and the intel community and the military community that he now is supposed to be running. >> and that is where we begin this morning along with joe, willie and me, we have the president of council on foreign relations and author of the book "a world in disarray" richard haass. and james stavridis. he is analyst for nbc news and msnbc. also with us the "washington post" early morning newsletter power up. >> it really is clarifying. a lot of people may be disetressed by what they're seeing from the president of the

united states but i am glad that the world has seen that we as a country at least the people that run our intel communities and our military are standing shoulder to shoulder. we know who the bad guys are, we know who the good guys are. and we also as we showed the world in november, we have elections. we have a lot of elections and we're coming at you. if you think you're going to take advantage of us over the next two years because of who our commander in chief is, just wait. because these are donald trump's own intel chiefs that are still looking at you and still know we still know what you're doing. >> indeed. you know, as you watch that display of intellectual fire power called our intelligence community and you walk down the list of those people, you had to think how proud you are that all of them stood and delivered and

here you have a life long career cia agent, generals who are spent their life embedded in military intelligence, dan coats, look in the dictionary under old hand in foreign affairs, ambassador, a senator, this is really the a-team and then donald trump says they should go back to school. >> yeah. >> what a fool. >> wait a minute. you've got to ask yourself, what school is that? did someone not tell him trump university is closed? i mean, we're -- this is the school. >> and by the way -- >> this is the faculty. >> what americans need to understand too and i won't direct this toward the admiral because he's still -- you know, he's got some retired friends he likes to hang out with, but richard, you and i know and i always knew when i was on the armed services committee, if i was looking at one star general, i knew he wanted one thing the second star. if he had a third star, he wanted the fourth star.

sometimes people will measure their testimony not to enrage the commander in chief, sometimes -- again, when it's close. they're never going to lie to you and never had an admiral or a general or anybody lie to me on the armed services committee. they rarely come out and do what happened the other day and just come out and basically say, the president of the united states is dead wrong and these are the facts that we americans need to know to keep this country safe. >> the president used the schooling metaphor. well, what we saw was a textbook case the other day of people speaking truth to power. clearly was not what this commander in chief wanted to hear but it was what he needed to hear, what congress needed to hear and more important what the country needed to hear. >> what the world needed to hear. >> it showed that american institutions in many important institutions here and

individuals are still willing to speak the truth no matter how uncomfortable it may be for people politically and on issue after issue, isis is not defeated. iran is still complying with the 2015 nuclear deal. north korea is unlikely to give up its nuclear weapons. russia is interfering in the politics of the united states. >> let's underline again, these are his choices for these positions. the head of the fbi, the head of the cia, the head of dna, these are his choices. these are not obama holdovers that he's attacking. he talks about them like they're cape kab l news hosts he doesn't

like. he's trying to school them on national security. >> the president had promised 13,000 jobs to wisconsin in a factory for which he claimed absolute credit and described as quote, the eighth wonder of the world. >> they've cheapened that. >> people there are wondering -- >> i remember when it was ruby falls. >> well, people there are wondering where are the jobs. it's something we need to talk about because these are the broken promises that are leaving people hanging and no value of the truth at this point. but let's get to some of the details behind what we've been talking about so far. president trump is scheduled to receive an intelligence briefing this afternoon, just one day after he blasted the nation's spy chiefs on the heels of them contradicting his rosy claims about the top threats america is facing and either dispelling or remaining silent on the ones the president is pushing. on wednesday, trump tweeted the intelligence people seem to be

extremely passive and nooif when it comes to dangers of iran. >> oh, my god. >> i'm just wondering, admiral, have you ever heard anybody in all of your years of knowing gina has pell, accusing her of being passive? or naive? have you ever? i will give anybody inside the cia $1,000 for evidence of her being attacked for being passive and naive. >> not at all and let's think back to her confirmation hearings. what was the line on gina haspel? it was aggressive, smart, lethal. she is a cia operative, a cia officer, and she represents that community and a whole other aspect of this is the message this is sending to the people on all of those teams all the way

down to the most junior recruits walking in, the mid shipmen walking into annapolis, as richard said, textbook, this is your job, speak truth to power. >> and you know who else liked gina? >> who is that? >> the president about six months ago. >> i can only say that i do have confident in our intelligence agencies as currently constituted. i think that dan coats is excellent. i think that gina is excellent. i think we have excellent people in the agencies. and when they tell me something it means a lot. >> do you think any intelligence agencies, u.s. intelligence agencies are out to get you? >> well, certainly in the past it's been terrible. you look at brennan, you look at clapper, you look at hay den, you look at comey, you look at mccabe, you look at strzok and

his lover page, you look at people that have been fired and are no longer there. certainly i can't have any confidence in the past but i can have a lot of confidence many present and the future because it's being to be now where we're putting our people in. >> just a regular reminder to our regular viewers that is not a parody from comedy central. that was an interview with the president of the united states. he's calling her passive and naive. again, following up with what the admiral said, the big knock against her from her critics was that she was not passive or naive, that she was too aggress ive. she had too clear a you of the world and would do what it took to keep americans safe and now the president is attacking her for being passive and naive which again would be like attacking him for -- for measuring his words too carefully. >> i know her. she is about as apolitical as

you can find. if you called central casting and you said get me a career civil servant who's just going to -- sergeant joe friday. just give them the facts as she sees them and is going to be straight that's what she would be. let me say, joe, if you couple the president's tweet on iran as he calls iran as testing rockets and getting very close to the edge and you put that against the backdrop of what his national security advisors have been saying, the speeches of the secretary of state have been saying i think there's a decent chance we're going to look back on this moment and say hold it, the drums were beating and i think you're beginning to see already a context with israel attacking iranian forces on a regular basis in syria. saudi arabia is having a proxy war with iran and yemen. i think we are beginning to see the predicate. i hope i'm wrong here, but i'm

worried we're beginning to see the predicate for an american use of military force or support of military force against i ran on the basis that, not that they're violating the nuclear deal but that they're violating u.n. resolutions against ballistic missiles it's a long complicated conversation, but i'm just saying this is not just random talk we're hearing. >> and we're going to continue this conversation next with chuck schumer's letter asking the the the director of national intelligence to intervene with the president. but first, here's bill karins with a check on the dangerously cold temperatures across the country. bill? >> yeah, we've already heard of at least eight fatalities and i'm sure that number is going to grow. we're at the peak in all areas. it will slowly improve from here. a lot of our watches and warnings will be dropped as we go throughout the morning. this snow squall started in pennsylvania and made it all the way through new york city. it's almost like a thunderstorm in the summer. it's like 15 minutes of really

intense snow and then it's gone. let's get into the numbers. 121 million people still under warpings and advisories. right now the lowest windchill values in the northeast. negative 29. vermont is negative 22. that's still nothing compared to the negative 45 in international falls and chicago at negative 41. as we go throughout the day today, chicago drops to negative 6 instead of negative 41. and boston and new york are above freezing. then tomorrow morning it's still cold but not as windy so a little bit better and that january and into february transition, you're going to like it. we'll warm up considerably. the thaw starts on friday in the middle of the country and by the time we get through this weekend, especially on super bowl sunday it's going to be warm from the south all the way up to minneapolis.

look at st. louis. and chicago was negative 52 windchill yesterday. sunday, 46 degrees. that is a 98 feels like temperature increase. that is weather whiplash. that's the definition of it. chicago we're looking at you. sunday is going to look so good. bbq weather for the super bowl. in the mid-40s. we'll be right back. ♪ be right back. with moderate to severe crohn's disease, i was there, just not always where i needed to be. is she alright? i hope so. so i talked to my doctor about humira. i learned humira is for people who still have symptoms of crohn's disease after trying other medications. and the majority of people on humira saw significant symptom relief and many achieved remission in as little as 4 weeks. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis.

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unwarranted comments to stand. i believe it's on you to educate him about the facts and raw intelligence underlying the intelligence community assessments and to impress upon him how critically important it is for him to join you and the leadership of our intelligence community in speaking with a wrun unified and accurate voice about threats. he is putting you and your colleagues in an untenable position and hurting the national interest in the process. you must find a way to make that clear to him and jackie, to an extent, i completely agree with that. there is a duty to country here that's at play. i know admiral stavridis, you talked about you know what, if you leave and speak about it you've got two choices, door one and door two, there's no door three here. and jackie, usually presidents if they are at odds on certain issues they come forward with at

least the part that they agree upon. >> that's right and i also just want to get back to this point that richard raises related to schumer's letter. this public disagreement with the intelligence community is really much bigger riff than just some domestic spat. you know, while this has been going on this week, while the president's been angry tweeting from the west wing there's been a slew of news about putin's, you know, posturing back to cold war style, you know, era, you know, expansion of trying to get involved in global affairs beyond his borders from venezuela to north korea to africa. that's all been happening this week alone. we have the "washington post" scoop that the moscow had presented to north korea the opportunity to build a new clear power plant in russia and then we have, you know, the u.s. versus russia in venezuela.

russia is continuing to gather the u.s. adversaries and prop up maduro. i think one of the things that really stood out most in this intelligence hearing, that i think was really worrisome to experts at home is that the president is also completely missing this threat of china and russia for the first time uniting against the u.s. >> republicans were reacting to it as well. it wasn't just democrats. majority whip also criticized the president's tweets yesterday saying i don't know how many times you can say this but i prefer the president would stay off twitter. particularly with regard to these important national security issues where you've got people who are experts and have the background and are professionals. he goes on, i think in those cases when it comes to their judgment take into consideration what they're saying. i think we need to trust their judgment. that's republican john thune, the republican majority whip.

>> and mitch mcconnell talking about syria and again, not retreating out of sir where and not retreating out of afghanist afghanistan, but also mitch mcconnell a couple of weeks ago writing a letter the day after the -- the head of the department of defense resigned. and general mattis said i'm resigning because i disagree with you and your policy of retreat which will empower the iranians and the russians and isis and mitch mcconnell wrote a letter the next day going you need to appoint somebody else just like him. these republicans, they're a little slow on the take on a lot of things, but it's taken them about two years, but i will say they are starting to speak out on foreign policy matters that

they really, really need to influence the president on. >> absolutely. and as the saying goes, facts are stubborn things. and that's what we saw yesterday and even amidst all of the political back and forth in washington, we're starting to see the most senior leaders observe the fact that facts are stubborn things. and by the way, on one thing we haven't really hit on, i think enough is the islamic state. it is not defeated and it's not only testimony we're seeing that blew up a cathedral in the philippines a couple of days ago, they killed americans in syria. this walking away from that would be like walking away from a forest fire that's still smoldering. mitch mcconnell gets that. lindsey graham gets that. the republicans get it because facts matter. >> and coming up on "morning joe," bob mueller says russia is now meddling in the

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federal prosecutors accuse the russians of using discovery information from the special counsel's office to discredit the ongoing investigation into moscow's election interference. it concerns concord management, a company owned by a close associate of vladimir putin. it's one of three entities the special council's office accuses to master mind the effort to meddle in the 2016 election. according to court documents filed yesterday, a twitter account called hacking red stone promoted information on a website that contained the files to special counsel's office says it provided to concord manage in the discovery process. the nonsensitive material was altered and released as parlt o a disinformation campaign. the filing is aimed at explaining why mueller is opposed to sharing sensitive

evidence with the accused russi russians. >> you have to wonder how stupid these people are. gates and manafort and all these guys going in lying to bob mueller, that never ends well. >> no. >> and now you've got this company linked to russia. altering documents and sending them out there? you know what? you just leave bob mueller alone if you feel like he's in your sights sigh sights. >> don't poke the bear. >> you don't pull on superman's cape, you don't spit in the wind. >> to boil it down, a russian entity is interfering in the investigation into russian interference. not quite learning their lesson, it appears. >> beyond. >> and we may look at the big bad russians and say, boy, there

was some real incompetence in there as well. >> indeed. you've got to ask yourself, how capable are the russians if they're going to put a scheme like this into play? and you know, this ought to tell us a, they're not 10 feel talt and b, they're very discoverable if we are willing to shine a light on this. >> them being discoverable, what impact do you think mueller's filings had several months ago where we told the russians and the world, not only do with eknow where you hacked us from, we know what the building was, we know what key strokes you hit, we know what officer was sitting at the computer when you were doing that. in fact, we know so much more about you than you will ever hope to know about us. what message does that send to

the russian intel community? >> it's kind of a two edged sword. it's a feel-good moment certainly and it might have some capability in terms of deterring them a bit. on the other hand, joe, and you know this -- >> you don't want to give the information out. >> at the end of the day the information is valuables. the sources and methods are the crown jewels of intelligence. >> but does it act as a deterrent. >> so far the answer is no because we continue to prod and poke. >> they've gotten quite a lot of mileage. if you look at russia, not just this but russia foreign policy, talk about a lot of mileage out of a pretty weak hand. they've got an extraordinary return on what they've done in the middle east, with american elections, with brexit, they -- you know, i'm hard pressed, i don't know about you, i'm hard pressed to think of another country that had fewer resources

that has as much to show for it. >> please find me and i open this up to the table and any viewer. please find me over the last -- well, in modern history, please find me a country a weaker country playing a stronger hand at the same time that their global competitor, a stronger country is playing the weaker hand. albright talked about that yesterday. i can't think of an example. >> no, there is not one. and here you have to give credit, if you will, to vladimir putin who is a very capable tactician. he's a bad strategist in the sense that he will eventually lead russia down a rabbit hole. russia needs to integrate with the west. that's their future. china looks at siberia, all of its resources, nobody lives there, like my dog looks at a rib eye steak. it looks really tasty.

china over time will exert itself on russia and putin's strategy is going to fail. it's going to fail russia. >> coming up, our next guest hat twin, not one, but two congressional elections last year. his first win was a special election in a district that donald trump won by 20 points. congressman connor lamb of pennsylvania joins us next on "morning joe."

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>> i think the congress can reach a good result left to its own devices without interference

from anybody else. i have confidence in the pro appropriators. >> saying the president should sign the bill. the newly elected vice chair of the house veterans affairs committee, democratic conor lamb of pennsylvania. good to see you this morning. let's talk about that deal that's on the table. the opening bid as you know from democrats is $0 for the president's border wall. he has by one count tweeted ten times in the last hour a lot of it focused on the wall and how we're definitely calling it a wall again. with the president on the other side of the negotiating table who does not seem to be willing to move off of a wall, where's the wiggle room again and are we headed to something resembling a shutdown or a national emergency declaration in the next two weeks? >> i believe that everyone learned that the shutdown was a

disaster and it caused pain to working families across our country. i don't believe we're headed for another one. everybody has their own negotiating strategy and what you saw yesterday was the fact that we wanted to show the american people all the options that are out there for border security. there are physical barriers, there is also technology and manpower that is very much needed and i have heard the leaders of my party in those negotiations say time and again, everything is on table, we're going to make decisions based on evidence and i'm confident in that. >> we're for border security, just not building a physical barrier. high tech solutions, hiring more border patrol agents, things like that and a loot of tht of in your bill. you talked about a barrier and do you think it's going to be enough for the president. >> we have to let the process play out but let's remember that we supported i think it was

$1.6 billion for physical barriers just this year alone. and we've given additional money in previous years but a lot of that was never even spent so that's some concern, how much money are we going to appropriate for these things that the administration isn't spending while custom and border patrol agents go unhired. i'd rather have more manpower. a cvp agent can address when children are walking across the desert in the company of dangerous people in a way that a barrier simply cannot. >> speaker pelosi has gone toe to toe with the president. she's not given an inch on the wall. you're one of 15 democrats who did not support her bid for speaker. do you regret that now? >> no, look, i talk to a lot of people in both districts that i represented and people were ready for a change, a new generation of leadership and i said i would support that and that's what i did. so i'm representing the people where i come from and i'm

confident in that. >> so how do you think she's handling the president and these negotiations? >> well, the most important thing about her leadership during the shutdown was that she brought it to an end. we cannot have a shutdown like that again and i think that was good. i think going forward there are a lot of good people appointed to this conference committee and so i'm pretty confident that these career appropriators can do what we were sent for in the first place which is compromise and move forward. >> you've a bill that will expand the social security benefit to more americans than currently get it. explain how it's different from social security today. >> basically what it does is create the funding necessary so that people's checks can go up today, immediately, as soon as the bill is signed into law. we want people to get more benefits and a better cost of living adjustment and this is something that i really learned a lot about last year. seniors in western pennsylvania

who raised families, worked their entire lives, paid into this for 50 years are down to their last dollar and choosing food versus medicine and i don't believe that's how people should retire in this country especially when they made that sacrifice of paying all those years. so we're going to increase people's benefits and we're going to do it by making the wealthy pay a little bit more of their fair share and making people like me pay 50 cents more a week average. and i think people support that. >> and what is that tax specifically on the wealthy? >> it has to do with the payroll tax. so right now in the united states, a millionaire actually stops paying into social security on valentine's day, because only the first 130,000 of income is subject to the payroll tax. we're going to freeze that up to about 400,000. so if you make 400,000 or less you won't pay anything extra right now. if you make above 400,000 you're going to start contributing to the payroll tax again so there's

enough money to guarantee the system. >> you've got 200 house democrats on board. can you get over 218? >> my hope is that we'll get some republicans as well. i've been struck by the number of people out there who will come up to me and say, i'm a republican, i didn't even vote for you, but protect my social security. this is a popular program and americans support it so i think we're going to be fine. >>. thank you very much for being on the show this morning. >> good to have you. >> even though former texas congressman beto o'rourke has not officially decided to run for president in 2020 it has not stopped his fellow democrats from criticizing him. some have privately complained that o'rourke should have shared some of the $80 million he raised during his 2018 senate run with fellow candidates and the party. the paper also reports that new york senator gillibrand expressed those thoughts during

her first swing through iowa as a presidential candidate privately calling o'rourke selfish according to two sources. an aide has disputed the characterization of the conversation. amid the speculation over will he or won't he run, beto o'rourke is keeping a low profile saying he's declining to do any interviews until he's made a decision of the upcoming presidential election. he's pondering deep thoughts, not tripping over things behind him and things like that, but he does still seem to gather a lot of interest among democrats. >> he's on a soul searching road trip. but he has lost his senate race and he's not declared his candidacy. he came out of that texas race with obviously the ability to raise a lot of money from national sources as well as small donors. he is someone who has

extraordinary name recognition again for a candidate that was defeated. >> team obama likes him a lot. >> he has some charisma, some veterans say he's got that thing for a candidate like this. that said he's got a target on his back among fellow democrats. we're in the early stages of this primary run, i think the criticism will continue as we move forward as each week goes by, more and more candidates suggest their candidacy. >> going to the dentist and all the things that he's been doing and that there will come a point where he feels like i better get into this before it's not too late but it's not too late now. >> certainly there are some who seem to have a lot of energy. elizabeth warren had a successful first month or so on the road and kamala harris in the last couple of days.

>> and new this morning, politico's play book reports that mick mulvaney, president trump's acting chief of staff is interesting in succeeding as commerce secretary. while mulvanemulvaney's interes surfaces, his angling for the position has increased in the past few weeks. wonder why. this follows a report earlier this month that mulvaney had been seeking to be named the president of the university of south carolina. does he like his job? >> i was just thinking the same thing. >> a man trying to get out of the west wing. >> do you think the chief of staff for donald trump is a tough one? >> think he hates it. his office confirmed that the acting chief of staff no longer wants that position. okay. >> i really do think that we should have had jonathan -- >> you would get you a microphone.

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nearly 40,000 americans were killed by firearms in 2017 according to the centers for disease control and prevention. it is the highest rate of gun deaths recorded in nearly half a century. and a figure that has risen by more than 10,000 people since the turn of the century. according to the nonprofit, there have been more than 1,000 related deaths in the first month of 2019. yet there's been little meaningful legislative action to address this issue. while the u.s. supreme court is now set to hear its first gun rights case in nearly a decade, with its decision to take up a slew of challenging new york city laws related to firearm transport. joining us now, longtime musician michael franti who is using his talents and his fan base to raise awareness. his new album entitled stay human, volume 2, includes a song

written as an anthem for the movement to end gun violence in the united states. the song is called "the flower" and the new music video features people from around the country whose lives have been affected by this issue. take a look. ♪ ♪ ♪ we could be healing ♪ when you're feeling all alone ♪ ♪ we could be the reason

♪ to find the strength to carry on ♪ ♪ in a world so divided ♪ we shall overcome ♪ we can be the healing ♪ we can be the flower in the gun ♪ ♪ we could be the healing ♪ we could be the flower in the gun ♪ ♪ what could i say to my son to my daughter ♪ ♪ if they came and asked me why these days ♪ ♪ what kind of reason could i give for all the hate that's standing in the way ♪ ♪ wish i could tell them that nobody's going to judge them and every stranger on the block is gonna love them ♪ ♪ no bully in the world could ever hurt 'em ♪ ♪ but i can't say that today ♪ no ♪ no one can ever take your pride from you ♪ ♪ speak your truth and let your spirit fly ♪ ♪ because we could be the healing ♪ ♪ when you're feeling all alone ♪

♪ we could be the reason yeah ♪ to find strength to carry on ♪ in a world that's so divided ♪ we shall overcome ♪ we can be the healing ♪ we can be the flower in the gun ♪ ♪ we can be the healing ♪ we can be the flower in the gun ♪ >> michael's with us now. michael, thank you so much. >> thanks for having me here. >> beautiful, really. >> a couple of years ago, man 5, 10 years ago, you put a song out like that, people go, oh, that's overly -- you know, that's political, divisive song. but you look at most of the numbers, most americans agree. with you talk about background check, bump stocks, so many issues that used to deviivide u so many americans, they agree. it's time for action. unite. come together. do something positive. >> exactly the point of the song.

it's not a binary issue anymore. i traveled all around the country and i spoke to people like fred and maria wright whose son was killed in the orlando massacre, her son jerry was killed. and he was shot five times. six times. his mom doesn't know if the first shot killed him or if the shooter went around and came back and shot him on the ground again. so when you hear those kinds of stories, or the story of maddy willford, parkland high school, bullet holes all over her body, survived. you meet people like that, you realize that gun violence affects every aspect of our society. it's no longer a binary issue, left and right. we have to reduce that 40,000 number. can we get it to 38,000? can we get it to 35,000? if you're a gun owner, there's eight children in america killed every day just by accidental firearm deaths. fire owners should learn to keep

their guns safe in their homes. if you're somewhere in a neighborhood where there's street violence, like everett johnson who you saw in the video, he spent 25 years in prison and now he's working to end gun violence in his community. every community is affected by it differently. we all have to raise our voices and be part of the healing. i believe every single american has a role toll play in the healing. >> what a powerful video. >> look at some of the made-up crises that are being sold to the american people. >> if 40,000 people were killed at the border every year, would it be a national crisis? if 40,000 people were killed every year by terrorism in america, would it be considered a crisis? and it is. we have to look at it that way. begin to move beyond the binary partisan politics and say what can each of us do?

>> this is personal for you. you talked about your own story. what you and your wife discovered in your son's room. >> so i live in a neighborhood, hunter's point, where there's a lot of youth gun violence. and one day we came back home and a bullet had come through my son, my teenage son's bedroom wall, went through his room, went through another wall and ended up in our living room. that was a real wake-up call for us personally. but for the grace of god go any of us. we put out the song to really serve as an anthem. we want people to watch the video and share it with their friends. february -- the first week of february is known as gun violence survivor's week. the reason it is is because that's the time of year when america surpasses all other developed nations in the amount of gun deaths that we have per

capita. so from here forward, we're going to be going throughout the year, already having passed all the other developed nations -- >> the video is extremely powerful. what can be done next? what's the next step in terms of trying to mobilize, trying to mobilize your fans perhaps with legislative efforts? >> i believe people change when they feel something, not when they just hear stats. we want people to hear the video and experience that. also get into your schools, get into your families, tafstart to have a conversation. i remember smoking. wouldn't be uncommon if i lit up a cigarette on set. if i did today, people would be totally shocked. you might jump across the table and grab it out of my hand. >> i would. it would be me. >> it would be me. and then she'd make you jog four miles, while drinking some green juice. >> but then it changed. and people started to think differently about it. started to say this is a health

issue. it's a national crisis. we want our families to be brought up in communities that are safe. that's where we're at today. i really feel like we're on the precipice. it's going to require conversations. it's going to require some legislation. i believe we should have back gro ground checks. have red flag laws to keep guns out of the hands of people who are known defenders. also create domestic violence laws so women aren't, you know, either forced at gunpoint to do things or aren't killed in their own homes. >> michael, thank you. part of the new album "stay human volume 2" available now. that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the cove rrage right now. >> i'm stephanie rule. this morning, arresting development. the coverage questions his own fbi's tactics during the arrest of roger stone as his big