are in lock step there. mike allen, thank you very much, as always, for your time this morning. and as we start the day here, we learned on the record for the first time where many of these republicans stand on holding former president trump accountable for the insurrection that threatened all of their lives and learned that only 5 of them were willing to stand up on this process move. there may be more. this is the last chance, the last chance, for them to show that they are willing to stand up in any way to a president that they allowed to run free for four years here in the nation's capitol. thank you for getting up way too early with us on this wednesday morning. don't go anywhere. "morning joe" starts right now. ♪♪ good morning. and welcome to "morning joe." it is wednesday, january 27th, along with joe, willie and me, we have white house reporter for the associated press, jonathan

lemire. and the host of msnbc's "politic's nation" and president of the national action network, reverend al sharpton joins us this morning. let's dive right in. the senate yesterday signaled the effort to convict donald trump in his second impeachment likely they'll come up short. only five senate republicans voted to move forward with the trial. joining all democrats in voting down senator rand paul's measure to dismiss the case because trump is no longer in office. if trump is to be convicted for inciting an insurrection, 17 senate republicans would need to join all 50 democrats. the only republicans voting to continue with the trial were senator susan collins, lisa murkowski, mitt romney, ben sasse and pat toomey. senator rob portman said his vote declaring the trial

unconstitutional was in favor of debating the issue and was not a sign of whether he would vote to acquit. >> okay. there's another possible vote. >> now here are the arguments that we're hearing from some of trump's main supporters. >> oh, do we have to really do this? seriously. >> let's let them be seen for history to judge them. take a look. >> oh my god. >> if the accused is no longer president, where is the constitutional power to impeach him? private citizens don't get impeached. impeachment is for removal from office. >> a trial of a former president is simply vindictive. it will divide. the question when we vote on this in a couple of hours for every senator should be is it wise? is it the right thing to do? i think from that standpoint the choice is very clear, it will not heal.

it will not unite. let's put an end to this now. >> and this is not driven by the needs of the country. this is not driven by trying to help out the people who are hurting back home. this is driven really by the partisan rage and the partisan anger the democrats feel. they hate donald j. trump. and they're engaging in an act i think is petty. i think it is retribution. i think it is vindictive and a waste of time. >> it's always been unconstitutional in my view and it was ill conceived. the president of the united states was impeached in 50 hours without one witness being called and he didn't have a lawyer. so one of the reasons we need to make sure this thing never goes anywhere is because i don't want to legitimize the impeachment process used in the house. i think it's a danger to democracy and the presidency itself. >> i understand what you're saying about the timeline here and that now you're dealing with a former president. but he had said the exact same thing and triggered a riot that

happened on january 6th, let's say on june 6th. do you think that impeachment proceedings against him would have been warranted? >> well, on the basis of these facts, you know, that's why you would have to have a trial at that point. here is why that trial would be different now. that person is in office. >> just his language. do you think his language was incendiary enough. >> well, i think there's no doubt the president bears some responsibility for what happened. i think what happened was a foreseeable consequence, not just of what he said but all the events leading up to it. >> that was helpful at the end there but overall, joe, why are they still scared of him? >> well, i mean, let me start with my favorite because i mean, the things -- >> starting with ron johnson, aren't you? >> no, no, no. >> you sure? >> the thing i noticed over the past couple weeks -- and i'm concerned for young conservatives out there that actually see all of this and

just are learning that the people that they're watching on tv who are claiming to be conservatives, they're just snow flakes. they're just wimps. i mean, they really just absolute -- there are other words i would like to use for them, but all they do is whine and say, i'm being victimized. oh. oh, a private company is deciding not to give me their platform? such a victim. and it just goes on and on. with lindsey, you have lindsey going i'm done with this. >> should have known. >> i'm done with this. i'm off that train. >> huh-uh. >> a couple people, willie, chase him at an airport. >> all right. drinking. >> and suddenly can i fly on your plane? >> then lindsey is going around saying this is unconstitution.

this is this. and you did mention ron johnson. >> i did. >> keep blenders away from that man. but ron johnson, willie, says it will divide. it will -- the riot, like the riot didn't divide? i mean, it's absolutely unbelievable that these people are now hiding, trembling, quaking, behind what they consider to be a procedural rock. marco actually sort of gave it away. yeah, of course. of course. yes. he helped inspire the mob. kevin mccarthy had said the same before he got scared. saying, yes, yes. he helped inspire the mob. they are admitting to the substance of the matter. so, they tremble and shake from

these very people we're watching on television right now that are back in their districts tremble and quake and are desperate now to hide behind a procedural rock. so hopefully nobody can see them behind there. but listen, this guy was already impeached. and you would -- other than a couple of hacks who want to be on cable news, you would be hard pressed to find legitimate constitutional scholars that would say that the united states senate can't try articles of impeachment that passed in the house while donald trump was still president of the united states. it just -- it is sad, pathetic, weak. these so-called conservatives

are so, so -- they're such snow flakes. it's really -- it's really depressing if you look at everything that's happened over the past couple weeks. and how the conservative movement has just absolutely shrivelled up. >> yeah. that was just the beginning of what we showed there. there were 45 republicans out of 50 who voted in support of this objection from rand paul. 45. only 5 republicans voted against it. mitt romney, susan collins, lisa murkowski, ben sasse and pat toomey held out and voted against the measure declaring this impeachment trial unconstitutional. 45. and joe, the one thing that group of men that we saw in those clips were victims of was an attack three weeks ago on them, an attack on the place where they worked, where trump supporters incited by the president that day and in the weeks leading up to it charged in, killed the police officer and went looking for them, went

looking for the leadership of the country, chanting hang mike pence. they're talking about this like president trump was impeached on some technicality, on some arguable point. they were the victims of an attack and now three weeks later, as we sit here today, they're on tv almost in complete solidarity with five holdouts saying that this cannot move forward. this is unconstitutional. that you can't impeach a private citizen. we should remind them that he was impeached when he was president of the united states. he's already been impeached. you watch those clips and you feel like you're living in a parallel universe where they were not inside that building when it was attacked three weeks ago today. >> rand paul, he's been lying through his teeth. he's still spreading the lie about the elections. >> yes. >> he's been lying through his teeth. so my question is actually why do you even let rand paul on your television show? again, not a violation of first amendment rights. if you were just an out and out

liar, we're not going to let you come on our show. and he's proven himself to be a liar time and time again. so, rand paul? who cares what rand paul thinks. the guy is still lying to the people of kentucky. the guy is still lying to the american people. the guy is still making an argument that black votes don't count. that they don't count in atlanta. they don't count in detroit. they don't count in milwaukee because that's exactly the lie that he is still -- rand paul is still spreading that lie after the majority of republicans, you know, majority of republicans have at least confessed to that. but, yeah, i mean -- again, what we're going down the list, the seditionist's list, why do you interview ted cruz? a guy who ran the sedition, who led the sedition. >> unless you want to ask him why he did it. >> josh hawley inspired this

sedition against the united states of america. like you said, if sedition is too big of a word for people to figure out and insurrection? you're right, willie. they forget about what everybody is saying on television. why don't they just tell us what happened when they were being pursued by the mob that everybody but ted cruz was on their hit list and said ted wants us to do this and of course he did because he was inspiring the sedition along with josh hawley. but you're right. like, at one point with this guard, they were literally seconds away from finding members of the united states senate. and if you take them at their own word, hunting them down and killing them. and it's -- the situation is so fraught, willie, they actually have a fellow member of congress in the house that has been talking about killing members of congress over the past several

years in her social media feeds, liking likes, talking about the execution of senator. this is no longer something that they can play over twitter or cable news at night. this is a reality. and not only did that cop die, not only did another cop get bludgeoned by donald trump supporters with an american flag and we have video evidence now to prove that they were inspired by trump's own words to go up and use american flags to almost bludgeon a police officer to death, these are people that were almost killed? and they have someone in their midst who can walk on to the senate floor who has been praising those talking about the assassination of other members of congress. >> yeah. let's explain that a little bit. marjorie taylor greene of georgia, who made headlines for promoting qanon conspiracy theories is facing new scrutiny over a series of facebook posts

where she repeatedly, as joe said, endorsed violence against democratic leaders. cnn reviewed hundreds of her facebook posts and comments from 2018 and 2019, before she was elected to congress. that review found greene frequently posted far right extremist and debunk conspiracy theories to her page. in one post from january, 2019, greene liked a comment that said, quote, a bullet to the head would be quicker to remove house speaker nancy pelosi. >> oh my god. >> in another post from april, 2018, a commenter asked, now do we get to hang them? referring to former president barack obama and former secretary of state hillary clinton. in response, greene wrote, stage is being set. players are being put in place. we must be patient. this must be done perfectly. or liberal judges would let them off. on twitter, greene called the cnn report hit piece focus on her time before running for political office but did not dispute the authenticity of the

posts that were reported. many posts have been liked. many posts have been shared. some did not represent my views especially the ones that cnn is about to spread across the internet. congresswoman greene's office did not respond to questions from "the washington post" about why the post and like remained on her page if she did not agree with them. a spokesman for kevin mccarthy tells axios, mccarthy is aware of the comments and will have a conversation with greene about them. so joe, we knew -- >> a conversation? >> congresswoman was, we knew who she is before she was elected into the office. voters in her district voted her in any way. we didn't, though, know about these specific posts including liking one that talked about a bullet to the head of the speaker of the house. >> but no -- she ran an ad. she ran an ad when she was running for office holding an ar-15 and having pictures of members of congress who, of course, were women of color, boy

that's a shock. where she said she was going after them. i don't know if she used the exact word targeting them. take her picture down while i'm talking. take her picture down while i'm talking. thank you. but this is -- we don't bring this up to bring her up because i don't want to bring up people in, you know, that are back benchers. we bring it up to tell those lugheads in the united states senate that think this is just another trump fight. that you have people in your midst that have called for the assassination of members of congress. you have people in your midst that actually may have been involved in helping locate you while you were hiding. you have people in your midst that actually may have been involved in all this. they certainly were cheering it

on. so, willie, we're not talking about a debate over the import, export bank here. all right? we're not talking about a debate over the organization of the united states senate, the procedures behind that. a terrifically boring debate, a normal debate. the sort of debates washington used to have. we're now talking about a movement and a president that inspired people to come to capitol hill to try to kill, their words not mine, the vice president of the united states and the speaker of the house. and guess what, mike pence is now in indiana because of donald trump, trying to lay low because there are people now who have mike pence on their hit list because of donald trump.

not because of don lemon. not because of rachel maddow. not because of jake tapper. not because of the new york times editorial page. not because of the washington post. and good luck marty bear. mike pence is in fear for his life because of donald j. trump. and willie, when they get on the house floor and pretend like this is 1999 or 2008 or -- they are doing themselves, they are doing their party, they are doing america a grave disservice because this sort of terrorism has to be stamped out. listen, i'm a conservative. a lot of people didn't like my views after 9/11. i don't really care. i sort of agreed with dick

cheney with the 1% solution. your job if you're a leader is to stop another attack against this country. right? well, guess what i'm that same guy in 2020. you come after us, you come after our capitol, we're going to come after you. and we sure as hell are not going to let you inside our capitol. we sure as hell are not going to tell everybody, let's just pretend this is going to go away. >> let's just turn the page. >> what if ted cruz said after 9/11, let's just pretend this is going to go away. let's just forget about it. you know, 9/11. would ron johnson say, let's forget about it. yeah, they attacked the pentagon. let's forget about it. that's what lindsey wants us to do. he wants us to forget about the fact that people were bludgeoned in the head with an american flag because of donald trump. he wants us to forget that a cop

was beaten to death. and the reason why the cop killer beat the cop to death was because they were inspired by donald trump to do so. ted cruz wants us to forget because he led the sedition along with josh hawley and ted cruz forget? forget? you're out of your mind and you're not a conservative. that's how conservatives do not talk. we don't forget. if you attack our country, we go after you. we jail you. we throw away the key. you come after our capitol? you think ron is simply vindictive to see justice for

the leader of the insurrection, marco? you hide behind procedural safeguards? this is a procedure. we can't go after them. no, no. find a constitutional lawyer that supports justice and quote that justice. this is what the republicans in the senate want you to forget. this is what rand paul wants you to forget. this is what ted cruz wants you to forget. this is what ron johnson wants you to forget. and i say, never, never forget. just like i said after 9/11. never forget that the islamic terrorists came to our country and attacked us. and you know what, i said we

needed to call them islamic terrorists. you know why, because they were islamic terrorists. you know what these people are? these are trump terrorists. call them by their name. reverend al, can i get a witness? >> you certainly have a witness. i think you're hitting it right on the head, joe. the fact that -- i mean, it's almost makes you speechless to see senator johnson say they just are being vindictive. then we should close every courthouse in america today saying any victim of a crime is just being vindictive. we're talking about justice. we're talking about accountability. we're talking about people paying for their deeds. these people went to the capitol building of our nation and threatened to and attempted to kill people elected to run the

government. that is not about being vindictive. that's about holding people accountable for trying to destroy an election and kill those that had the tenacity to decide they're going to uphold democracy. and to see them stand on the senate floor and to see them stand in that building which was the scene of a crime and act like there was something unconstitutional, something that was even inappropriate about holding the inciter of this crime accountable was an insult to the american public. >> jonathan lemire, rand paul said yesterday hyperpartisan democrats about to drag our great country down into the gutter of ranker and vitriol. he's concerned this group of senators that frankly licked the boot of donald trump for four years are concerned about ranker and vitriol. what are we looking at right now on the screen if not ranker and

vitriol. it is clear these men of the senate fear the man you covered for four years donald trump much more than they care about what happened to them at the capitol? >> yeah. ranker, vitriol and displays of cowardness on display from a number of republican senators. there was a moment in those first couple of days after january 6th, that first day or two, the shock of the attack, because they were the victims still dealing with that riotous mob came in looking for blood that there was some sense in that moment of that this was that president trump needed to be held responsible, not among all republicans in the senate to be sure, there was at least some who thought that day that maybe something needed to be done. but as the two weeks have passed, that changed. there was an actual cooling off

period, even though we saw videos day after day to make clear this was worse than we realized. how frankly lucky we were things weren't more dire from a few wrong turns that some of the mob members took trying to navigate the capitol. and these are senators who heard back from people in their districts who heard from republicans who recognized just how popular donald trump still is with them despite inciting that insurrection. and that i think is one of the lessons here to be sure is the hold that trump still has on that party, even from palm beach, even with his twitter count being silenced. that's something that a lot of people in washington both republican and democrat wondered in the aftermath of trump's twitter being taken away. would he no longer be able to keep the party in line with the threat of those tweets to rile up his supporters. and we'll see if it plays out in the long run, here, just a few

weeks later, it's clear that he does. he doesn't need the twitter to still have them in his hand, to still have them doing his bidding. and that is where we are now. president trump is still in silence and president biden is trying many ways to turn the page to have the focus not be on this trial, republicans in the senator are still afraid of the former president and that's where they're going to put their allegiance, not seeing this fair trial in the senate. >> mika one last point to sprink until here, remember two weeks ago after the house impeached president trump, then majority leader mitch mcconnell said he wasn't going to rush to convene the senate until the following week. they wanted to do the trial, democrats did, while he was president of the united states. and now yesterday mitch mcconnell voted in support of the motion that said it's unconstitutional to go after him when he's a private citizen. so just think of the timeline there. >> it's just -- i mean, don't need to add on what joe said was so well put. but what exactly do these

republicans think? do they not have the ability to tell donald trump's people, their constituents some of them, that this was wrong? i don't understand how this could be hard. do they need more to happen? still ahead on "morning joe," president biden has his first phone call with russian president vladimir putin. and brings up several issues that president trump always refused to address. we'll have that. plus, with coronavirus cases on the rise around the world, the president ramps up the orders for vaccine doses. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. atching "mo" we'll be right back. my nunormal: fewer asthma attacks. less oral steroids. taking my treatment at home. nucala is a once-monthly add-on injection for severe eosinophilic asthma. not for sudden breathing problems. allergic reactions can occur. get help right away for swelling of face,

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♪♪ half past the hour. live look at the white house. 6:30 on the east coast.

welcome back to "morning joe." joining us now nbc news capitol hill correspondent and host of "way too early" kasie hunt. and white house editor for politico, sam stein. >> so kasie, walk us through the past week or so. a week ago there were republicans who were actually concerned about the fact that mobs, angry trump-inspired mobs were coming in to the capitol to lynch mike pence and to put a bullet as one of the people said in nancy pelosi's head. and they're very concerned about this, shocked, stunned and deeply saddened and even a few serious people talking about how they could get to 17 republican votes. i was never one of those serious people because i never thought they could get to 17 votes, but still, i don't think many people would have expected so many

republicans to cower the way they did yesterday and say, yes, trump's guilty but there's this procedural thing that because we can't do it after he leaves office despite the fact mitch mcconnell, our leader, said we're not going to do this until after he leaves office. >> joe, they're not arguing about the merits because you just laid it out just a few minutes ago. how on earth is it possible to defend what actually happened and what donald trump actually did. that's not what they're doing. they're using this process argument as cover. i mean, i was there. i was in the capitol complex on january 6th. i was texting with members of congress, with members of the senate as they were scrambing off of the house and senate floors to try to get to safety. we were all terrified. it was an attack on everyone that was in that building. and the things that we've learned in the aftermath, they don't make it better. they've made it worse. the more we learn about what

happened, the worse we learn it could have been. the more we know we narrowly avoided an even worst catastrophe. members of congress potentially killed. the vice president killed. and i know that privately republicans were terrified, too. they think that this is outrageous and unacceptable. and i'm sorry, we've covered this a whole hell of a lot. we have said republicans privately say that they don't like what donald trump did today. but they're not going to say anything about it because perhaps it will get better if they just talk in private. they'll keep their heads down. and it will all go away. and this is where that led. to what you're seeing on your screen right now. this is where we ended up with this. and now it looks like they're on track to do the same thing. and the vote yesterday, only five of them stood up and said,

no, we should go ahead and hold this trial. and you know, there's precedent in historical record for them to hold the trial. i think there still could be a couple more who vote to convict when this trial actually comes to the floor. but it seems like it's fewer and fewer by the day. >> sam stein, you've got some new numbers from the morning consult political poll on the man who started all this, president trump. what did you find? >> well, i mean, what we found is that his standing in the republican party is still firm, but it's slipping ever so slightly. what you see right there is former president trump play a role or minor or major role in the republican party, 65% gop. . it may seem like a lot to most people. it's not that much where the last four years that number would have been in the mid to high 90s.

now, i don't know how that jives with what we saw yesterday in terms of that vote. what we saw yesterday in terms of the vote is senate republican caucus still feels a little intimidation i would argue from president trump. it sort of reminds me of the posture they took at various junctures they assumed he would reseed or the scandal he caused would evaporate and they could move on without having to do any of the sort of heavy lifting to censure, push back or restrain him. he's out of office now and doesn't have his twitter feed. a republican party still very much feels intimidated by him. this poll shows that there is slippage, that if only 65% of republicans feel like he should have a major or minor role in the future of their party and this is only a couple weeks after he left office, there is in fact, a portion of the republicans that are ready to move on. >> if you asked that same

question of barack obama, willie, at this stage, you would be in the 90s. in fact, barack obama so funny the first primary when some democrats were suggesting that he wasn't liberal enough, you know. we kept gently reminding those democrats attacking barack obama that the guy had a 90% approval rating inside the party. and if you asked the question, the other poll is more interesting to me, put up the other poll where asked should donald trump run again. this is a threat he's been making to republicans nationwide. that number drops down to 56%. and i got to say, if i'm out of office and i want to run again and i'm donald trump and only one in two republicans are saying, you know what, maybe you don't run again, that actually does show erosion of support for a guy that held this party completely in sway not so long ago. >> yeah. the numbers may be slipping, but

what those republican senators showed us yesterday is they still fear him. they fear him more than they fear the consequences of letting him go and letting this attack on the capitol slide. they just do. and kasie, when you go down the list, as i said earlier, only five republicans voted against this motion from rand paul. is it as pure as we fear this guy who is going to wake up this morning in palm beach and go play golf and shoot a 92 or whatever he's going to do today, they're just plain scared of him, they're cared of what he could mean for their political future, is it that simple? kas? >> i think that's basically the case, willie. each member has their own individual reasons for feeling this way they have, whether they have family considerations, they're trying to make a buck, each one of them has to make their own set of calculations, but the reality is donald trump

still has an incredibly stronghold over many of the people that they would need to vote for them if they were to run for re-election. what rob portman does will be a real test because he is now not running for re-election. in theory that frees him up to not have to be accountable to that and make a decision that is purely based on conscientious and what he thinks is the right thing to do. he told our team on the hill yesterday that his vote on this process question shouldn't be interpreted on his decision on conviction of not, but he also told fox news that his decision not to run isn't going to affect his vote on whether to convict donald trump or not. so there's some -- lindsey graham is out there trying to say, well, we should be afraid that donald trump is going to create a third party that would permanently break the republican party in half because, of course, if donald trump tried to take his support and run and it actually worked, republicans would leakly never have a

working party in the congress again. history is full of academic theories about a third party in american politics. we have not seen something like that actually happen. but that's where we are. there are still a number of trump apologists, people who are trying to get back close to him. kevin mccarthy spent a week mad at donald trump and now trying to get back into his good graces. they're continuing to act the way they have for the last four years. >> it's fascinating. lindsey is saying if they don't treat donald trump right he could break the republican party. that's like lindsey going out chopping figurines, i think she shops for figurines. >> yeah, little ones. >> in his delicate hands and dropping it and it breaking all over the floor and lindsey would say, i got to be more careful or i may break a figurine. but that's just -- it's too late, lindsey. your party is broken in a

thousand pieces. rev, i don't know if lindsey hasn't been paying attention lately, but donald trump -- this guy has done to the republican party just what lindsey graham when he was figurine shopping in 2016 said he was going to do to the republican party. he's destroyed the republican party. he's broken the republican party. it's what we've been warning about. he's going to break the republican party. he's done exactly what we've been warning republicans to do. he was the first president since herbert hoover, i think, to lose the house. to lose the senate and to lose the white house. he created a civil war in georgia. that got two guys elected to the united states senate that would normally never get elected to the united states senate in

georgia. one of them looks like a cast member to warren beatty's mu "reds" from the 1980s. he would never get elected in georgia statewide. but he did because of donald trump. now donald trump started civil wars in the arizona republican party. and the oregon republican party. this is a disease that is -- first of all, it has eaten conservatism alive. it's killed it. now he's doing it to the republican party. lindsey thinks his figurine might -- it's broken. >> a thousand pieces. >> the republican party is broken into a thousand pieces and he's still scared that donald trump may break it more? >> the best thing that happened to the democratic party is donald trump. i do not see how without trump they would have been able, the democrats to win the white house, the senate and the house

of representatives without having the assistance of the bizarre demagoguery of donald trump. and to see now members of the republican leadership continue to play with the pieces of the broken vase that he dropped and broke rather than try to pick up the pieces and reglue it and put the party back together again is going to lean into the mid term elections where they're going to lose again. if they keep it up, because the mid term elections are just next year. they will even lose more because no one has the moral backbone to stand up and say we're broken. let's pick up these pieces and put it back together again. they are actually kicking the pieces around and making it worse by disassembling whatever pieces they could try to pick up and repair in a post-trump world. >> and joe, the threat to these republican senators from donald

trump is not implicit. in fact, some of his aides, the small team he still has around him, called to capitol hill and talked to republicans in the last several days just to remind them that the former president is watching. it looked like yesterday with their vote they gave in. >> oh my god. >> still watching. oh, no. you mean the guy that lost the house for the republicans, who lost the senate for the republicans and who lost the white house for the republicans is watching? yeah. turn the channel. i mean -- and by the way, the entire conservative movement now, mika, you look at some of these so-called nothing conservative about them. it's like snow flake network, but the movement that was once defined by edmund burke, by russell kirk, by william f. buckley. >> oh, wow. >> by margaret thatcher.

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♪♪ president joe biden and russian president vladimir putin had their first phone call yesterday since biden took office. according to the white house, read out of the call, biden, quote, reaffirmed the united states firm support for ukraine sovereignty. he also raised other matters of concern, including the solar winds hack. reports of russians placing bounties on american soldiers in afghanistan, interference in the united states 2020 election and the poisoning of aleei navalny.

mr. biden made clear that the united states will act firmly in defense of its national interests in response to actions by russia that harm us or our allies. the kremlin also issued its read out emphasizing different elements of the call according to the a.p. the kremlin described the chat between biden and putin as, quote, frank and business like and, quote, noted that normalization of ties between russia and the united states would serve the interests of both countries. >> and you know, i couldn't agree actually with that statement more, jonathan lemire. it doesn't do the united states any good when russia does whatever it wants to do and donald trump is pretending that they don't exist. the united states senate is moving in its own direction against russia. you need a president who can talk to another president and say, these are our problems. you're doing these things. this goes against u.s. interest.

it offends our basic values. then they come back with their responses or their problems. and that's actually how the dialogue begins. that's how we perhaps may move to having a constructive relationship with vladimir putin's russia. talk about our differences. that's what i thought was helpful about the call. yeah, biden laid it all out on the line and russia said, okay. so, let's talk through this. let's have an open and frank relationship. >> yeah. my colleague and i when we broke news of this phone call yesterday, joe, we were struck by that as well. it can't be overstated the sharp difference in tone and approach that president biden is taking as opposed to his predecessor donald trump, who we know always spoke very warmly of vladimir putin, was rather enamored with

him throughout his presidency and campaign. i think the back story of this call is telling. biden and putin did not speak during the campaign. moscow reached out at the end of last week to set up the call. first he wanted to prioritize speaking to his european al lice, uk, france, germany and even yesterday in the hours before speaking to punt, he spoke to the secretary general of nato first reaffirming u.s. commitment of that alliance founded as the bull work to russian aggression before he even got on the phone with putin. he was very clear. this call happens just days after russia was rocked with protests about the imprisonment of alexei navalny, the opposition leader. he expressed disapproval with that arrest and the approach here, as you said, was that he was going to make it very clear, no attempt at reset here. no attempted reset relations with russia but biden would be explicit and clear about the things that he found that he had problems with.

election interference in 2016 and 2020. the bounties paid to the taliban to take out american troops in afghanistan. the solar winds cyber hacking but also wanted to leave some room for diplomacy, including the new start arms control treaty, supposed to expire in just about two weeks. and both sides, the read-outs from the u.s. and russian governments are always different, but both sides did agree on that crucial point, that progress was made and expectation of a deal will happen in the coming days. >> yeah. and you know, i always thought it was if you were russia, and i know this sounds counterintuitive, but i always thought, sam stein, that it was not in russia's best interest to have a president clumsily beholden to russian president what do russian leaders care

about, they want movement on sanctions. >> right. >> they want to move forward in a constructive way with the united states on sanctions if they can do that. that was never going to happen. well, you had a president that millions of americans still believe for some reason has been compromised by vladimir putin. having this frank discussion, moving forward this way, ironically, i guess, counterintuitively may actually be in russia's best interest. >> yeah, i don't disagree with you here. what stood out to me about the biden call was just how traditional it was for a president to draw those lines and also try to strike those diplomatic tones especially on testing bans on nuclear weapons, ballistic weapons. this was the normal type of posture towards russia. the goal essentially should be the same. i'm not totally sure we can apply it to trump yet because we're not totally sure what his

motivations were. but the goal is essentially to get russia to be less of a belligerent actor on the international stage to bring it back into or make it part of international treaties and institutions. to essentially get it to stop interference in different theaters. now, trump clearly tried a heavy carrot approach. biden is not going to do that. more of a stick and carrot approach. the question we have now is can that work? will it work? clearly we have four years of evidence that for trump's approach, all the carrots he threw at putin didn't deter him much. election interference, hacking, all the stuff we want to prevent as a country continued and persisted. will biden's new posture change that? i don't know. i'm not -- we'll have to see. proof will be in the pudding. but he's just bringing us back to what is a traditional u.s. presidential posture towards russia. >> right. and you also can look back at

the last three presidencies -- and it's very obvious. vladimir putin did not respect george w. bush, barack obama or donald trump. invaded georgia. the bush administration, a guy who said that quote about i can see into his eyes and saw his soul, invaded the ukraine during the presidency of barack obama. they talked about reset. barack obama said, hey, i'm going to be free to do more things after i'm re-elected. they responded to that by invading ukraine. and of course donald trump speaks for himself. while we're talking about foreign policy really quickly, willie, anthony blinken is now going to be the secretary -- is the secretary of state now, approved by the united states senate. and i think it bears mentioning while we have talk of unity on

many issues that so far all of joe biden's appointees have gotten in pretty easily. jessica yellen, antony blinken, you can go down the list. >> janet yellen was sworn in by kamala harris and secretary state antony blinken sworn in by pretty good margins, not what we've seen historically, 84, 15 votes like that. yeah, he will, as we heard in that call, secretary of state blinken will take the relationship with russia in particular a new direction. it shouldn't be extraordinary that joe biden brought up the issues that he brought up on that phone call. they seem obvious to most, but it is extraordinary as he tries to unwind the policies of donald trump. sam stein, thank you very much for being on this morning. coming up, utah's republican governor spencer cox warns that

the current efforts to distribute the covid vaccine cannot be like how the states had to scramble for ppe at the start of the pandemic. something he likened to the hunger games. he'll be our guest this morning. "morning joe" will be right back.

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♪♪ foggy morning in new york city. just past the top of hour, 7:00 a.m. on the east coast. welcome back to "morning joe." it's wednesday, january 27th. reverend al sharpton is still with us and joining the conversation we have former u.s. senator, now an nbc news and msnbc political analyst claire mccaskill and mike barnicle is with us and senior political correspondent for the washington examiner david druker. glad to have you all.

>> how do the chiefs line up against tom brady's buccaneers. >> listen, our secondary is on fire. i am so proud -- pat mahomes is a phenom. we all know how amazing he is as a team leader. but our defense is really stepped up in the stretch and especially the secondary. we absolutely made josh allen go home with a headache. and i feel pretty good about it. >> yeah. that should help you in the super bowl because a lot of people look at josh allen and go, josh allen, tom brady, they're fungible commodities. what about the defensive line. actually nobody says that. good luck with brady. what about your defensive line that has been weak through parts of this run-up. the browns did pretty well against them. are they going to be ready? >> listen, i hope that i can get this clip to frank clark and to chris and the other line men who have done -- and on the corners.

i mean, we've been strong. >> i'm just asking you a question, claire. how is the defensive line going to be? >> i'm telling you, underestimate the cheefs at your pearl. >> i'm not underestimating the chiefs. i told you i liked the chiefs going back and forth on the sideline like a wild man. i love the chiefs. i'm just saying, the cleveland browns would be fourth and four and the browns go, we'll go for it. and they get the first down. i'm asking a question. will the defensive line be ready? >> the defensive line will be ready. and we will have the first repeat super bowl champions since tom brady did it in 2003 and four. >> mike barnicle, what do you think, is it going be brady or the chiefs? >> you know, i don't know the answer to that question. but i do know i love claire mccaskill talking about the d-line, the corners, knowing who

they are. i mean, that is absolutely fantastic. look, it's going to be a really, really interesting game to watch. there's no doubt about that. got two great quarterbacks, one a legend, perhaps the best athlete of the 21st century in tom brady. and the other kid is just amazing. he's going to be one of the top five quarterbacks of all time. the chiefs are favored, and they ought to be favored. the tampa bay defense showed up pretty well last sunday, very well actually. but they've been sort of question marks in that tampa bay defensive line. so, we're going to find out, but i give the edge right now to the chiefs. >> well, and willie, we're talking about a legend, he's a 43-year-old legend. i remember when george came out sometimes they wheel him out in a wheelchair when he is coming from darrell. you know, 43 in the '70s, far different than 43 right now.

but, you know, we are dealing with a legend, an absolute living legend at 43 on one side of the line. and then when kansas city comes in, we're dealing with the best player in the nfl who is at the peak of his career most likely. so, yeah. the question is, can the 43-year-old legend keep up with the best player in the nfl right now? >> yeah. the chiefs are better. the chiefs are a better team than the bucs. but the pack was a better team. the saints probably were a better team than the bucs. as i said last week before that game, i would never bet against tom brady in a big game. so i think the chiefs will win, but would you bet against michael jordan no matter how old he was in an nba finals? you wouldn't. you shouldn't bet against tom brady. i think it would be a nice tribute to patrick mahomes. you might remember this, halftime of the first super bowl the chiefs when they played, len dawson sitting in the locker room lit up a cigarette and had

a fres ka to calm his nerves. it would be a nice tribute if mahomes kind of sat down, lit up a heater and had a fresca at halftime of the super bowl. >> exactly. >> okay. >> back when the nfl was the nfl and men were men and blah blah blah. >> glad you all could enjoy this. we're going to move on. >> what do you think, rev? >> i think i would have to go with brady. i mean, when willie says you wouldn't bet against michael jordan, i did. and i lost. so i would have to go with brady. >> all right. >> okay. i'm going to go now to our top story. today marks three weeks since the attack on the capitol. and we continue to learn more and more disturbing accounts of that riot. on that day, right as a mob was ransacking the capitol, the brother of democratic congressman hakeem jeffries reportedly received some troubling text messages. one of them read, quote, your brother is putting your entire

family at risk with his lies. in other words, we are armed and nearby your house. you better have a word with him. we are not far from his either. the text also reportedly included a photo of the home where congressman jeffrey's brother lives. yesterday federal authorities arrested a california man for sending those threatening messages. where he claimed he was part of a group of, quote, active and retired law enforcement or military. here is congressman jeffries describing what happened. >> well, it was chilling in the message that was received is that this individual said stop telling lies biden did not win. >> yeah. >> he will not be president. and so he was radicalized by the big lie that donald trump told and has been supported by so many republicans in the house and the senate.

>> and "the new york times" is reporting that on the day of the riots, the suspect also texted a relative of george stephanopoulos, the abc news anchor and former communications for president bill clinton. the text message threatened that stephanopoulos, quote, words are putting you and your family at risk. again, warning, quote, we are nearby, armed and ready. it is unclear just how the suspect obtained the personal phone numbers of family members of a prominent congressman and a prominent journalist. >> david rucker, let's talk about a republican party who obviously if you look at the capitol hill attacks, obviously attracted a large number of extremist radicals, we would call them terrorists if they were muslims. i call them terrorists. and then look at the next level down at extremists and

conspiracy theer rorists that have taken over party structures in arizona, in oregon and other areas. you look at the fact they lost the house the senate and the white house. look at the fact that they are all of this activity as they run away from holding donald trump accountable. obviously is chasing off some of the people who were already chased off and others in 2020. and i just have to ask who is in charge? who is minding the store for the republican party? there has to be an understanding among the adults in the united states senate that are running the senate that this is just the worst of all worlds for them, that this is a party that's fractured and these extremists and donald trump aren't allowing them to put it back together again. >> well, i think that they

understand their predicament just as they found themselves over the past four to five years you can't lead a party somewhere that doesn't want to be led. even after the january 6th insurrection and things that followed, the republican base of voters, and remember we talk about the base as though it's some just one thing, but what we mean by that, joe, as i know you understand, they're voters. voters most likely to show up in every election, particularly primaries where you nominate people. they're still with trump. and i've talked to party officials in states around the country, at the local level, and they'll tell you that they were horrified by what they saw on january 6th and they condemn it, but that president trump is getting far too much blame, didn't deserve to be impeached and the people they want to punish are the people that ten house republicans and any republican senator thinking of

convicting. and so, when you're mitch mcconnell or you're liz cheney or you're any number of republicans in washington that understand the tight rope you're walking and you want to get off, you can get off personally. jeff flake got off. bob corker got off, but nobody followed them. and nobody right now really is going to follow any of these republicans that choose to do so. now, when i say nobody, i don't mean exactly nobody. and obviously if you don't lead, nobody will follow you. but president trump still has a strong grip on the party. they still are pleased with how he led. they believe he achieved a lot. they believe the election was close and that he wasn't really repudiated. and so when you have such a big part of the party that's still with somebody, it's hard to say never mind, this doesn't work anymore. this will have opportunities to

change as we get into the elections that come in the future and we'll see what trump does. but one of the reasons you're not seeing more of a break or really any break is because there's not an incentive structure with the voters back home to do so. >> yeah. you know, they're making this same mistake that they've made over the past four years where instead of trying to move their base the way they need them to move, and that's back toward in between the guardrails of american politics, they're so extreme that they're setting themselves up to win primaries and lose general elections for the foreseeable future. claire mccaskill, i mean, if this republican party wants to lose every election the rest of our lives, that's their business, but if you want to see -- if you want to measure

the sickness of the party right now and how outside of the mainstream of american political thought they are, let's just look, follow up with what david said, let's look at who they're punishing or want to punish and who they want to let off scot-free. first of all, they want to let off scot-free a president and members who inspired a riot and a terrorist attack against the united states capitol, but they want to attack the ten members of congress who did not vote in the republican caucus who did not vote to disenfranchise tens of millions of black americans and they want to punish liz cheney who voted to not disenfranchise tens of millions of black americans, but they don't want to punish a new member who actually was talking about and liking posts that talked about putting bullets in the head of nancy pelosi and

lynching barack obama. that's where this -- we can't even say it's donald trump's republican party. they don't have a president trump in office to blame anymore. this is where the republican party is right now. and this is where the republican party is going to keep losing national elections. >> the 5% of the republicans in the house of representatives voted to impeach donald trump, 5%. 10% of the republicans in the senate voted to go forward with a completely constitutional effort to hold the president accountable for a deadly and destructive seditionist riot. now, 33% of the republican party in polling that just occurred actually said they would join trump's party. but that's only 33%, joe. and what really kills me, what's really a head scratcher to me, it's like all these republicans are so focussed on primaries

they have to be from very safe places in terms of being red districts or red states because independent voters are watching this. i'm somebody who grew up politically in a state where independent voters were really who decided the election statewide. i don't think that's true anymore in missouri. i think missouri has turned firmly red now, but historically independent voters were the ones that made statewide decisions, and they are horrified at what's going on. and let me just get this in now, if i didn't get it in now, it's just burning me. i listened you as you opened the show, joe. i felt your anger. let me just say this about ron johnson, the nerve of that guy to stand on the senate floor and talk about moving on after he spent four fricken' years on hillary clinton's emails. i mean, i would cuss if i could get away with it right now.

it is unbelievable the nerve of that jerk. and wisconsin voted for joe biden. get ready, wisconsin. you got some cleaning up to do on aisle 5. this guy is absolutely disgusting. >> he's not alone. he's not alone. the move on seems to be the theme that seems to be the messages. ted cruz said it last night. nikki haley said it time to move on said of donald trump. give him a break. so, if impeachment is not going to happen. if the votes aren't there, people are looking for something else. tim cain and susan collins privately pitching their colleagues on a bipartsan to censure donald trump. some democrats are interested in ten republican senators completely commit to censure to ensure the 60 vote margin needed to pass major. a formal statement of disapproval. there's no legal consequence for person who has been censured.

so, reverend sharpton, this will look weak and lame to most people, free pass to donald trump, symbolic, meaningless. what democrats want and what a lot of people in this country want is some accountability for what happened on january 6th and yesterday most republicans, 45 of them, showed they weren't interested in that. >> let's look at what happened. you have five people dead. you have the head of the house of representatives, the speaker and the vice president, being hunted down. luckily they were not found. people wanting to kill them. people openly talking about stopping the confirmation of the electoral college. and none of that would have happened, none, had it not been encouraged and incited by the president. if you remove donald trump from that stage and from what he led up to what his tweets building up that rally, it is very, very

hard to believe that would have happened. so, do you answer all of that with just a slap on the wrist? do you answer all of that with that we're not going to impeach him? how do you ever impeach anyone again? i think that you've always have to weigh how you punish someone based on what they did. does the crime fit the punishment? censureship does not fit the gravity of these crimes. >> and we talked about it before in torts, in the law, you try to figure out who is negligent by applying a but for standard. but for core a, the accident would not have occurred. take car a out of the accident, would it have happened? and if the answer is no, then negligence is applied to that

car. you remove you apply this but for standard to the capitol insurrection to the riots, to the cop killers, the trump cop killers that went in and bludgeoned a cop with an american flag, that killed, beat to death another cop, that tried to lynch mike pence, tried to kill nancy pelosi, let's apply that negligent standard. remove donald trump from the scene. remove donald trump from that stage. remove donald trump from the last year of lying about a conspiracy theory, about stolen elections. would this have happened? there's not a judge in america that would say yes. this is all on donald trump's back. this is all because of donald

trump. and let's just add on his coconspirators, ted cruz and josh hawley. if you look at i know about criminal legal standard. but mike barnicle, there's nothing i think that donald trump and other republicans would like more than for democrats to lose their second impeachment vote in a year. that has to be the thinking of some democrats. we can't get a conviction for the impeachment. let's try to censure him like joe mccarthy was censured. if we can get that, at least we get a win out of this. talk about that thinking. do you buy into it? does that work? >> well, i think what i do buy into is they want to see if they can get ten republicans to go on record right now for censure

rather than get sandbagged twice, once on impeachment and again on censure. losing the censure vote. you know, you just outlined, joe, and it's a critical point, you outlined the fact that donald j. trump, then the president of the united states, was an accessory to violence. certainly in any court you could prove he was an accessory through his language, behavior, his actions the day that the violence took place. the day that the insurrectionists invaded our capitol. you could certainly do that. the other interesting point about everything that's ensued since is the complete lack of character on the part of some of the participants in this. and i'm talking about you, mitch mcconnell. two weeks ago, a week and a half ago, he was talking about the president needed to be held accountable for his actions. yesterday he voted against impeachment. so, the lack of character in the republican leadership and too many republican senators is so

glaringly evident that it leads you to wonder where this party is going. are they going to continue to campaign going backwards? or are they going to outline something for the united states of america for the people who live here and vote here that they are directionally pointed ahead to improve lives. they're certainly not doing that. i mean, they are running backwards. we had a news item about a half an hour ago that some of trump's staff, whatever he has left for staff now down in florida are calling around, calling the united states senators and representatives saying basically the president is listening. so what is that, a caddy? a caddy calling the congressman or a senator saying donald trump is down there listening? the republican party is -- we have all seen what has happened to it over the past ten years or so, but it's now all of it, the leadership included heading the wrong way. >> so david drucker, let's be

specific. that's washington post reporting senator kevin cramer said brian jack a political aide to president trump called him directly and suggested they were watching this vote very closely and that other senators received that same phone call. so is this what the next four years, the next decade, the next 20 years look like, the specter of donald trump hovering over every decision that a republican senator has to make, every vote that he or she takes? >> right. i don't know about the next 20 given his age, although you never know. >> his voters will be around for a long time, though. yeah. >> his voters will be around for a long time. i think in this particular regard trump has the ability to elevate issues and elevate votes in congress that without him may go slightly unnoticed. but your point is prescient. what i've been trying to figure out by talking to republicans in congress, trump out of office and no skin in the game, how much are you going to pay attention to his marching orders? so that if the president decides that you shouldn't cooperate on a spending plan with joe biden,

something pretty simple to keep the government running, if in particular the president, the former president, doesn't want you to cooperate with democrats and a biden administration on covid relief or defense bill and we could go on down the line, does that mean you will not? does that mean you're going to be looking over your shoulder? now, we got a little signal that they're not quite willing to march in lock step on everything when after the election they ignored his pleas to kill the defense bill and they moved ahead with the covid relief that they wanted rather than the covid relief that the president was asking for at the 11th hour. and we saw over the course of the president's four years that occasionally on matters of foreign policy where they could cross him they did cross him. so, i don't think on matters of all policy and all legislation you have a party that's never willing to say no to him, especially out of office without

skin in the game where they realize that they're going to sink or swim together. however, i think as a matter of tone and tenor and how the party presents itself, i think that trump has had a clear impact on the party. that's why so many of the new republicans coming up reflect trump's tone and trump's style of politics. and you know, what's very interesting is occasionally when i talk to republicans and i say, why don't you lead against him. why don't you present an alternative. one of the excuses that they will lean on, although it's a very real excuse in a sense, is what do you think happens if i'm replaced in a primary? you're not going to get another me. you're going to get another him. and this is true. and it's why we have marjorie taylor greene and congressman bogart and so many republicans coming up reflect trump's style of politics. and that's why the party is

having a real internal battle and it's not as simple as if they just say no to him everything would be fine. we really don't know how this interparty battle would end up. right now, the way it would probably end up is more in the way trump would want it than not. >> david drucker, thank you very much. still ahead on "morning joe," senate democrats are trying to move forward with president biden's coronavirus relief package with or without help from republicans. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. oe." we'll be right back. think you're managing your moderate to severe ulcerative colitis or crohn's disease? i did. until i realized something was missing...me. my symptoms were keeping me from being there for him.

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senate democrats are preparing to push ahead with president biden's $1.9 trillion

coronavirus relief package. even if that means without republican support. according to the associated press, senate majority leader chuck schumer told senators to be ready to vote as soon as next week on a budget reconciliation package, a procedure that wouldn't require reaching a 60-vote threshold. meanwhile, the biden administration is looking to step up the amount of covid vaccine doses on hand by 200 million in the push to inoculate most americans by the end of the summer. the president announced the pending deal with pfizer and moderna yesterday. >> and we believe we will soon be able to confirm the purchase of an additional 100 billion doses for each of the two fda authorized vaccines, pfizer and moderna. that's 100 million more doses of pfizer and 100 million more doses of moderna. 200 million more doses in the

federal government had previously secured. not in hand yet but ordered. we expect these 200 million doses to be delivered this summer. that increases the total vaccine order in the united states by 50%. from 400 million ordered to 600 million ordered. this is enough vaccine to fully vaccinate 300 americans by end of the summer, beginning of the fall. >> these additional doses would make the u.s. less reliant on potential vaccine approvals from -- for those from johnson & johnson and astrazeneca. joining us now, president and ceo of university hospital in newark, new jersey, dr. sha reef el nahel. this is slow and steady progress that the president is proposing. does it seem realistic to you given the challenges that the vaccine has seen, depending on which company is trying to produce it?

and also, the entire setup that was handed to him, president biden, from the last administration. >> thank you so much for having me again. so, you're right in saying that the biden administration handed a very unfortunate situation from the trump administration. i was on the transition team myself and worked on covid-19 matters. and the fact that the realistic supply schedule for the vaccine wasn't communicated clearly, specially from the department of defense to the incoming administration is a big problem. i do think that 1.5 million vaccination per goal is achievable. we exceeded 1 million per day and the acquisition of the new doses, provide all the areas of country that need it is very promising. >> i just want to back up. we have a lot more to ask you about how this vaccine is going to work, but we are in the thick of it right now. can you give our viewers a sense

of where they should be in terms of mask wearing, going back to school. social distancing because where i am i'm seeing a massive disconnect where people are acting as if this pandemic doesn't exist. >> well, the first thing i'll say is it's understandable that there's fatigue. this pandemic has really altered every human being's life in this country. but all that said, it's never been more important to follow these restrictions, mika. first of all, we are now seeing variants that are even more aggressive than the initial virus that devastated this country, especially communities of color since the beginning of this pandemic. and so, when you prevent the spread and stop the spread, you reduce the chance that even more aggressive variants form in the future. in addition to that, we have to make sure that the virus is controllable as we proceed with vaccinations. so it's never been more important, paradoxically because we have these variants that may be a little more resistant to the vaccine that we vaccinate as

many people as possible. so following these restrictions and also getting vaccinated when you can has never been more important. >> dr. elnahal, it's willie geist. good to see you on. governor murphy said we're set up to give out the vaccine. we just need more doses of it, we need more coming into us. is that your experience in newark in your hospital system? are you ready to go and just looking for the dosage? >> well, that's right, willie. first of all, i think it's important to understand a little bit how we got here. we were faced with a situation where there was very little assistance from the federal government, the last administration, to actually deliver shots in arms that last mile so to speak initially. states were having a little bit of trouble catching up to the stock that they were delivered against the limited cat gorization of healthcare workers. but now to catch up, states were pressured to expand the eligibility and now demand is far exceeding supply. so that supply really has to catch up. and again, the biden

administration's move to acquire hundreds of millions more doses but also to do everything it can to help ramp up production, exploring the defense production act has never been more timely as we proceed forward. >> we heard from dr. fauci a couple days ago and heard from president biden yesterday with a fairly optimistic view of once they can finally get production ramped up, get it to people, we can get some 300 million people in this country with the vaccine both doses finished by the end of the summer, perhaps early fall. and not get back to normal life in the fall but some semblance of it at least in terms of work and school. as you look at this and you've been studying this for well over a year now, does that sound right to you? >> it does. frankly, acquiring the doses needed to get to 70 to 80% of the population should have been done a long time ago. again, we're catching up with things that were sensible to do with the right planning and so i think that was a great move. but again, i do think that it's achievable. the 1.5 million vaccinations per day with a little more

assistance from the federal government with the acquisition of those doses with transparency on the timeline of being able to deliver those doses to states, all of that is improving already. we're seeing it here at university hospital with more clarity every week on what we're going to get and we are very appreciative of that because we can be realistic to our community about when they can expect to be vaccinated. >> doctor, mike barnicle is here with a question. mike? >> doctor, more doses and more sites for people to be vaccinated obviously great news for people who are concerned, obviously, about what's been going on with their lives for the past year, but where are we going to find enough vaccinators, people to administer the vaccine into people's arms? >> it's really an excellent question because staff has been a rate limiting factor, not only for vaccination but the operation of hospitals, clinics, the critical front line heroes needed to actually deliver care during this pandemic, no exception for the vaccination

effort as well. you need qualified and certified people to be able to do that. there is a lot of planning on being able to supplement staffing from the federal government. again, i had the privilege of having some lens into this and contributing to this effort during the transition. i can tell you every effort is being made to deploy the national guard, to deploy people on active duty in terms of our service members. anybody with clinical skills from the federal government including the v.a. to be able to help do this. and again, i think this should have been done a long time ago. we're watching up to things that are just practical, but staffing being recognized as that rate limiting factor and something being done about it couldn't be more welcome. >> dr. shereef, thank you for being on this morning. coming up, joe biden's push for racial equity. senior adviser to the president, seed rick richmond joins us to explain the new actions. we're back in just a moment. ent.

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we have never fully lived up to the founding principles of this nation, state the obvious. that all people are created equal and have a right to be treated equally throughout their lives. and it's time to act now, not only because it's the right thing to do but because if we do, we'll all be better off for it. i ran for president because i believe we're in a battle for the soul of this nation. and the simple truth is, our soul will be troubled as long as systemic racism is allowed to persist. we aren't just less -- we are not just a nation of morally deprived because of systemic racism. we're also less prosperous. we're less successful. we're less secure. >> president biden signed four executive orders yesterday aimed

at addressing racial equity, a campaign promise he made during last summer's protests in response to the killing of george floyd. the orders aim to strengthen anti-discrimination housing policies, get rid of new justice department contracts with private prisons, increase the sovereignty of native american tribes and combat violence and xenophobia against asian american and pacific islanders. joining us now, white house senior adviser and director of the office of public engagement, cedric richmond, good to have you on the show. tell us what these orders mean? are they just the beginning for this administration as it pertains to trying to achieve racial equity in this country? >> absolutely. if we go back to day one, he signed an executive order to create demand racial equity through a whole of governmental

approach led by ambassador susan rice which will make sure we root out systemic racism throughout government. and so you double that with the actions he took yesterday to make sure, one, that we stop contracting with federal prisons. two, that we root out racism in housing policy because we know that true ravl equity is not just criminal justice reform, it's economic prosperity as well. and so, homeownership is a big part of that. he also signed an executive order on xenophobia. and one respecting nation to nation status with our native americans. so, look, i think more than anything it was president biden saying this is what i said on the campaign trail. this is what i'm doing and what i'm saying as president. and i am serious about racial equity in this country. so let's get on with it. and he signaled that there's more to come.

>> cedric richmond, it's al sharpton. one of the things i wanted to ask -- i think this is a deposit certainly not paid in full as you say, this is the beginning. but where do we also see the white house lean in on some of the legislative part? because executive orders are good, but they're limited and they can be undone by the next president if that is not joe biden. i think he has set a good tone. he's met with the seven leaders of rights group as a president-elect, i've never seen a president do that before they were inaugurated and he talked about his meeting that you and i were in with george floyd's family. so the tone is a lot different than the four years proceeding him. but where do we go to legislation which could make this more permanent? you're a prominent member of the house. i don't have to tell you that. >> look, reverend al, you're right as usual. so if you look back at his speech yesterday he called on us to restore and renew the voting

rights act the john lewis piece of legislation that would strengthen voter protections around this country. if you look at his american rescue plan, which we desperately need congress to pass, that has racial equity embedded throughout, so whether it's the increasing the earned income tax credit or increasing the child tax credit which would lift families out of poverty, making it refundable, that would be a big down payment on racial equity this year and so everything you see this administration do, it will be done through the lens of equity. and so, we know that it's going to take partners in the house and the senate. but i think that part of the president's speech yesterday was to ask for willing partners to let them know and to signal them that we're coming with an ambitious agenda. voting rights act and american rescue plan are two pieces of legislation that were critically

and excited about pushing. but we need the american rescue plan now. families are hurting. black, white, rural, suburban, urban, it doesn't matter. so you're right, rev. >> cedric, it's claire mccaskill. let me ask you about what the white house can do, either with legislation or executive order to do a carrot and stick with state governments on private prisons and police reform. as you know, over 90% of the crime in this country is not prosecuted by the federal authority. it's prosecuted by state and local authorities. and that's where we see a lot of the engrained systemic racism. what plans are there? how soon will we see merrick garland as the attorney general of the united states? and what is in the works for trying to encourage through the use of funding better behavior by the states around racial equity?

>> well, senator, you know that a lot of local police departments and states depend on federal funding for all kinds of initiatives within their own criminal justice system. and we will use a carrot and stick approach, but more importantly, i think that from my experience it's the tone that's set. and this president is very concerned about criminal justice reform as well as the disparities in wealth and health. and so, we're not going to run from criminal justice reform. and you'll see us embark on that. but what we're going to do right now is let people know, one that we're watching the things we can do through executive action we will. and the things we can do through funding and other means are options on the table. and your answer about merrick garland, i wouldn't dare predict what the senate will do. you probably have a better idea than i do. so, we need him and we need him now is the short answer. >> all right.

white house senior adviser cedric richmond, thank you so much for being on the show this morning. willie? mike barnicle, get your take on this for the first time since 2013, no players were elected to be inducted into the baseball hall of fame. all 25 of this year's finalists fell short of the 75% vote threshold by the baseball writers association. barry bonds and roger clemens appeared near the top of the list. they seem to be plateauing around that mark likely due to the writers posture towards players implicating the steroid era. schilling was 16 votes. his decision was because of his

decision to share tweets and eventual social media tweets that showed express support for the january 6th attack on the u.s. capitol. the writers' ballots had been supported prior to that date. some asked if they could withdraw their votes for schilling. all were in their ninth year of eligibility on the ballot, leaving them one year left on the ballot this year. but schilling said he will asked to be removed from the ballot. he writes, wrote, i will defer to the veterans committee and mens whose opinions actually matter and are in a position to actually judge a player. if former players think i am, then i will accept that with honor. let's talk about curt schilling. the steroid guys are a different conversation. curt schilling on the merits,

does he deserve to be in the hall of fame? and then how much should voters consider someone's record off the field, the kind of guy he is? >> well, willie, on the first question, i would say in the past 10 or 15 years at least, maybe longer, the hall of fame vote and the hall of fame inductees are in some cases has become the hall of very good. the standards are different. sabermetrics has played an enormous role in who is voted into the hall of fame. all the acronyms and things like that, just arcane stuff. so is curt schilling a hall of famer? yeah, probably is. i would vote for him in the hall of fame except for i wouldn't vote for him because of the character issue that you just eluded to. that gets us to the second point

of the question. you can go through cooperstown and walk-through the hall and walk-through certain plaques of the a certain era. there were gangsters, racists, wife beaters. they were all sorts of dreadful people but great baseball players. under these new character issues would not be in the hall of fame today. it is an interesting question. the clemens and bonds issue, if i were voting, if i had a vote, i would vote for them to be in the hall of fame. but i would also insist what they are alleged to have done and did do would be on the plaque so that people going to cooperstown could understand the era they were in. >> he said he wants off the road for the final year and down the road will leave it to players to vote for him. all right. still ahead, today marks three

weeks since the deadly riot at the capitol. while many criticize president trump's role early on, it seems now the majority of them are ready to dismiss this, just turn the page on this and the impeachment effort. "morning joe" is coming right back.

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senator patrick leahy is back at home after being take ton the hospital yesterday evening. a spokesperson for the senator says a capitol position suggested he go to the hospital for observation out of an abundance of caution. he had been in his capitol office earlier in the day and was not feeling well. leahy went home after getting test results back and after a thorough examination, leahy, who is 80 years old, is set to preside over president trump's upcoming impeachment trial.

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good morning. and welcome to "morning joe." it is wednesday, january 27th. along with joe, willy and me, we have the white house reporter for the associated press, jonathan la mere. and the host of msnbc's politics nation, reverend al sharpton joining us this morning. let's dive right in. the senate signalled the effort to impeach senate trump. likely they will fall short. joining all democrats in voting down senator rand paul's measure to dismiss the case because trump is no longer in office.

if trump is to be convicted for inciting an insurrection, 17 senate republicans would need to join all 50 democrats. the only republicans voting to continue with the trial were senators susan collins, lisa murkowski, mitt romney, ben sasse and pat toomey. senator rob portman said his vote declaring the trial unconstitutional was in favor of debaing the issue and was not a sign of whether he'd vote to acquit. thanks. >> well, there is another possible vote. >> here are the arguments that we're hearing from some of trump's main supporters. >> do we have to really do this? >> let's let them be seen for history to judge them. take a look. >> oh, my god. >> the accused is no longer president, where is the constitutional power to impeach him?

private citizens don't get impeached. >> a trial of a former president is simply vindictive. it will divide. the question when we vote on this in a couple of hours, for every senator, should be is it wise? is it the right thing to do? i think from that standpoint the choice is very clear. it will not heal. it will not unite. let's put an end to this now. >> and this is not driven by the needs of the country. this is not driven by trying to help out the people who are hurting back home. this is driven really by the partisan rage and the partisan anger the democrats feel. they hate donald j. trump, and they're engaging in an act that i think is petty. i think it is retribution. i think it is vindictive and i think it is a waste of time. >> it's always been unconstitutional in my view and

ill-conceived. the president of the united states was impeached in 50 hours without one witness being called and he didn't have a lawyer. one of the reasons we need to make sure this things doesn't go anywhere because i don't want to legitimize the impeachment process used in the house. i think it is a danger to democracy and the presidency itself. >> i understand what he was saying about the time line here. now you're dealing with a former president. but he had said the exact same thing and triggered a riot that happened on january 6th, let's say on june 6th, do you think that impeachment proceedings against him would have been warranted? >> well, on the basis of these facts, you know, that's why you would have to have a trial at that point. here's why that trial would be different than what's happening now. that person is in office. >> for using language. >> i think there is no doubt that the president bears some responsibility for what happened. i think what happened was a foreseeable consequence, not just of what he said, but all the events leading up to it.

>> that was helpful at the end there, but overall, joe, why are they still scared of him? >> i mean, let he say my favorite. >> okay. >> because, i mean -- >> starting with ron johnson, okay. >> no. you guys noticed over the past couple weeks -- and i'm concerned for young conservatives out there that actually see all of this and just are learning that the people that they're watching on tv who are claiming to be conservatives they're just snow flakes. they're just wimps. i mean, they just really just -- there are other words i'd like to use for them, but all they do is whine and say, i'm being victimized. oh, a private company is deciding not to give me their platform. i'm such a victim. and it just goes on and on.

with lindsey, you have lindsey going, i'm done with this. >> should have known. >> i'm done with this. i'm never -- i'm off that train. >> uhn-uhn. >> a couple people, willie, chase him at an parpt -- >> all right. he's just drinking. >> mr. president, can i find your plane. and you did mention ron johnson. >> i did. >> ron johnson, keep blenders away from that man. but ron johnson, willie says, it will divide. like the riot didn't divide? i mean, it's absolutely unbelievable that these people are now hiding, trembling, quaking behind what they consider to be a procedural

rock. >> uhn-uhn. >> like marco actually gave it away there. >> yeah. it was a good yes. >> of course, yes. he helped inspire the mob. kevin mccarthy had said the same before he got scared saying, yes, yes. he helped inspire the mob. they are admitting to the substance of the matter, so they tremble and shake from these very people we watch on television right now that are back in their districts. tremble and quake and are desperate now to hide behind a procedural rock so hopefully nobody can see them behind there. but, listen, this guy was already impeached. and you would -- other than a couple of hacks who want to be on cable news, you could be hard

pressed to find legitimate constitutional scholars that would say that the united states senate can't try articles of impeachment that passed in the house while donald trump was still president of the united states. it's just -- it is sad, pathetic, weak. these so-called conservatives are so, so -- they're such snow flakes. it is really oppressing if you look at everything that's happened over the past couple of weeks and how the conservative movement is just absolutely shrivelled up. >> yeah. and that was just the beginning of it. what we showed there, there were 45 republicans out of 50 who voted in support of this objection from rand paul. those are the five people who

held out. they voted against the measure declaring this impeachment trial unconstitutional. 45. and, joe, the one thing that group of men that we saw in those clips were victims of was an attack three weeks ago on them, an attack on places where they work where trump supporters charged in, killed a police officer and then went looking for them, went looking for the leadership of the country chanting hang mike pence. they're talking about like president trump was impeached on some technicality, on some arguable behind. they were the victims of an attack. now three weeks later as we sit here today, they're on tv almost in complete solidarity with five holdouts saying this cannot move forward, that you can't impeach a private citizen. we should remind them he was impeached when he was president of the united states.

he's already been impeached. you watch those clips and you feel like you're living in a parallel universe where they were not inside that building when it was attacked three weeks ago today. >> and rand paul is lying through his teeth. >> yes. >> so my question is actually why do you even let rand paul on your television show? again, not a violation of first amendment rights. if you were an out and out liar, we're not going to let you come on our show. he's proven himself to be a liar time and time again. so rand paul, who cares what rand paul thinks? the guy is still lying to the people of kentucky. the guy is still lying to the american people. the guy is still making an argument that black votes don't count, that they don't count in atlanta. they don't count in detroit. they don't count in milwaukee, because that is still the lie

that -- rand paul is still spreading that lie after the majority of republicans have at least confessed to that. but, yeah. and, again, while we're going down the list, the seditionist's list, why do you interview ted cruz, a ran who ran the sedition? >> unless you want to ask him why he did it. >> he and josh haully inspired this decision against the united states of america. if sedition is too big of a word for people to figure out, you're right, willie, they forgot about what everybody is saying on television. why don't they just tell us what happened when they were being pursued by the mob, that everybody but ted cruz was on their hit list because they said ted wants us to do this and of course he did because he was inspiring the sedition along

with josh hawley. but you're right. with this guard, they were literally seconds away from finding members of the united states senate. and if you take them at their own word, hunting them down and killing them. the situation is so fraught that they actually have a member of congress in the house that has been talking about killing members of congress over the past several years. and her social media feeds liking likes talking about the execution of senators. this is no longer something that they can play over twitter or cable news at night. this is a reality. and not only did that cop die. not only did another cop get bludgeoned by donald trump's supporter with an american flag and we have video evidence now to prove they were inspired by trump's own words to go up and use american flags to almost

bludgeon a police officer to death, these were people that were almost killed, and they have someone in their midst who can walk on to the senate floor, who has been praising those talking about the assassination of other members of congress. >> yeah. let's explain that a little bit. republican congresswoman marchgy taylor green of georgia who made headlines for promoting qanon conspiracy theories has made headlines where she repeatedly endorsed violence against democratic leaders. cnn reviewed hundreds of her facebook posts and comments from 2018 and 2019 before she was elected to congress. that review found green frequently posted far right conspiracy theories to her page. in one post, green liked a comment that said, quote, a bullet to the head would be quicker to remove house speaker nancy pelosi. in another post from april 2018,

a commenter asked, now do we get to hang them referring to former president barack obama and former secretary of state hillary clinton. in response, green wrote stage is being set. players are being put in place. we must be patient. this must be done perfectly or liberal judges would let them off. on twitter, green called the cnn report a hit piece, focussed on her time before running for political office but did not dispute the authenticity of the posts reported. she went on to say, some did not represent my views, especially the ones that cnn is about to spread across the internet. she did not respond to questions from "the washington post" about why the posts and likes remained on her page. a spokesman for kevin mccarthy says mccarthy is aware of the comments and will have a conversation with green about them. so, joe, we knew who this new

congresswoman was. we knew who she was. the voters in her district voted her in. we didn't know about the specific posts, including liking one that talked about putting a bullet in the head of the speaker of the house. >> she ran an ad of her holding an ar-15 and having pictures of members of congress who of course were women of color. boy, that's a shock. where she said she was going after them. i don't know if she used the exact word targeting them. can you take her picture down while i'm talking? can you take her picture down while i'm talking? thank you. but this is -- we don't bring this up because they don't bring up people that are back ben chers. we bring it up to tell those lug heads in the united states senate that think that this is

just another trump fight, that you have people in your midst that have called for the assassination of members of congress. you have people in your midst that actually may have been involved in helping locate you while you were hiding. you have people in your midst that actually may have been involved in all this. they certainly were cheering it on. so, willie, we're not talking about a debate over the import/export bank here. all right? we're not talking about a debate over the organization of the united states senate, the procedures behind that, a terrifically boring debate, a normal debate, the sort of debates washington news has. we're talking about a movement and a president that inspired

people to come to capitol hill to try to kill, their words, not mine, the vice president of the united states and the speaker of the house. and guess what? mike pence is now in indiana because of donald trump trying to lay low because there are people now who have mike pence on their hit list because of donald trump. not because of don lemon. not because of rachel maddow. not because of jake tapper. not because of "the new york times" editorial page. not because of the washington post. and good luck to marty baron. mike pence is in fear for his life because of donald j. trump. and, willie, when -- when they get on the house floor and

pretend like this is 1999 or 2008 or -- they are doing themselves. they are doing their party. they are doing america a great disservice because this sort of terrorism has to be stamped out. listen, i'm a conservative. a lot of people didn't like my views after 9/11. i don't really care. i sort of agreed with dick cheney with a 1% solution. your job if you are a leader is to stop another attack against this country. right? well, guess what? i'm that same guy in 2020. you come after us. you come after our capitol. we're going to come after you. and we sure as held are not going to let you inside our capitol. we sure as hell are not going to held everybody, let's just pretend this will go away. >> let's just turn the page j

you know what, let's forget about it. you know? would ron johnson say, let's just forget about it. yeah, they attacked the pentagon. let's just forget about it. that's what lindsey wants us to do. he wants us to forget about the fact that people were bludgeoned in the head with an american flag because of donald trump. he wants us to forget that a cop was beaten to death and the reason why the cop killer beat the top to death was because they were inspired by donald trump to do so. ted cruz wants us to forget because he led the sedition along with josh hawley and ted cruz. forget? forget? you're out of your mind and you're not a conservative. that's how conservatives do not

talk. we don't forget. if you attack our country, we go after you. we jail you. we throw away the key. you come after our capitol? and you think, ron, it's simply vindictive to see jous tis for the leader of the insurrection. mario, you hide behind procedural safe guards? this is a procedure. we can't go after it. no. no. find a constitutional lawyer that supports justice and quote that judge, that justice. this is what the republicans in the senate want you to forget.

this is what rand paul wants you to forget. this is what ted cruz wants you to forget. this is what ron johnson wants you to forget. and i say never, never forget. just like i said after 9/11. never forget that the islamic terrorists came to our country and attacked us. and you know what? i said we needed to call them islamic terrorists. you know why? because they were islamic terrorists. you know what these people are? they are trump terrorists. call them by their name. by thei. smooth driving pays off you never been in better hands allstate click or call for a quote today

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welcome back to "morning joe." joining us is kasie hunt. >> casey, walk us through the

past week or so. republicans were concerned about the fact that trump-inspired mobs who were coming into the capitol to lynch mike pence and to put a bullet as one of the people said in nancy pelosi's head, and they're very concerned about this. shocked and stunned and deeply saddened. there were even a few serious people talking about how they could get the 17 republican votes. i was never one of those serious people because i never thought they would get to 17 votes. but still i don't think many people would have expected so many republicans to cower the way they did yesterday and say, yes, trump is guilty. but there is this procedure thing because we can't do it after he leaves office, despite the fact mitch mcconnell, our leader, said we're not going to do this until after he leaves

office. >> yeah, joe. they're not arguing about the merits because you just laid it out just a few minutes ago. for example, how on earth is it possible to defend what actually happened? they're using this process argument as cover. i was there. i was in the capitol complex on january 6th. i was texting with members of congress, with members of the senate as they were scrambling off of the house and senate floors to try and get to safety. we were all terrified. i mean, it was an attack on everyone that was in that building. and the things that we have learned in the aftermath, they don't make it better. they have made it worse. the more we learn about what happened, the worse we learn it could have been. the more we know that we just narrowly avoided an even worse catastrophe, members of the congress potentially killed. the vice president killed. and i know that privately

republicans were terrified, too. they think that this is outrageous and unacceptable. and i'm sorry. we have covered this a whole hell of a lot. we have said republicans privately say that they don't like what donald trump did today but they're not going to say anything about it because perhaps it will get better if they just talk in private. they will keep their heads down and it will all go away. and this is where that led, to what you're seeing on your screen right now. this is where we ended up with this. and now it looks like they're on track to do the same thing. the vote yesterday, only five of them stood up and said, yeah, we should go ahead and use this trial. there is precedence for them to hold the trial. i think there could be a couple more to vote to convict when this trial actually comes to the floor, but it seems like it's

fewer and fewer by the day. >> our next guest is taking a leading role when it comes to how states nationwide are dealing with the coronavirus. utah's governor spencer cox joins us on "morning joe."

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the global coronavirus case count has now exceeded more than 100 million. the united states alone makes up around a quarter of the total cases worldwide. the united kingdom is now the first country in europe to surpass 100,000 covid deaths. prime minister boris johnson called it an appalling and tragic loss of life and that it is hard to compute the sorrow contained in that grim statistic. joining us now republican governor spencer cox of utah. president biden informed states yesterday that his administration was on the verge of securing an additional 200 million doses of the two coronavirus vaccines authorized for emergency use in the u.s. governor cox, thank you so much

for being on. i know it is an early hour for you. but tell us how your state is doing and how you feel so far about how the administration is tackling the vaccine roll-out? >> well, our state is doing such better. when we made some changes that were very important at that point, requiring every agency that was given vaccines to do so within a week of receiving those vaccines and then expanding the population that was eligible for those vaccines. i think we're trending in the right direction. we ran out of doses last week, which is good news and bad news, obviously, that we need more. we will run out very early this week because of the procedures that we put in place. the announcements by the administration yesterday and over the past couple of days

were very welcome news. there is a couple things that are important there. one is better insight into the manufacturing process so that we can plan for additional doses down the road instead of just learning one week at a time. they're giving us a three-week window, which is a huge improvement. and then of course the announcement about more doses coming. that's what we need more than anything. >> yeah. how many people are you able to vaccinate now? how is that coordinated? the elderly, front lines, teachers. and then the follow up to that would be what are your schools doing across the state? are they open, or are they closed. >> yeah. so everyone over the age of 70, we have done front line workers and teachers. we included teachers very early on, so teachers have been able to get the vaccine. we did 75,000 vaccinations last week, but we only received

33,000 vaccines a week. so we chewed through that backlog we have been building up and used every dose. so we need to receive 75 to 100,000 doses a week to head in the direction that we're going. but right now we can only get 33,000. that's our share. our school districts have been open for many, many months, and the one exception is the salt lake city school district. they will be reopening very soon. part of that was making sure teachers were eligible for vaccines early on, and that was an important change that we make. all the data shows that we got to have kids in school. that's been a real priority in utah. >> the cdc said that yesterday, that schools should be open with masking and social distancing. what we heard from you is they're set up and ready to give out these vaccines.

they just can't get the supply they need. so could you lay out because i think it's reflective of what's happening in most states. you got yourself ready and what's happening on the other end? >> you're right. i have to give a shout-out to my fellow governors because everyone is pretty much in the same situation and they're all doing a tremendous job. it is really on the manufacturing end. but we got some additional good news yesterday. it is news we have all been kind of waiting for is what will it look like in march and april if the other two manufacturers get approval? so johnson & johnson is up first. we think in the next couple weeks that approval could be coming maybe mid-february, end of february at the latest. if that happens, again, it is a single dose, which is even better. that's a huge surplus that will be coming. and then astrazeneca following

that. what we're being told is if those happen on time and everything goes as planned, we could double and triple the number of doses that we're seeing by april. again, that's all tentative, but that's the news we're excited here. and everyone should be focussing using the science on the most vulnerable. looking at those with underlying comorbidities. those that are over the age of 65, getting that done first will do more to reduce hospitalizations and reduce the mortality rate and help us get back to normal. >> governor, as you noel, this public health crisis has brought with us an economic crisis. it's been a year since the economy has been slowed down. how are small businesses in your state doing? how are you attacking that piece of this crisis? >> yeah. so utah weathered this about as well as any state out there. our unemployment rate is at 3.6%

right now. it was 2.5% in march of last year when this hit, so we still have a ways to go. and that recovery has been well received. but right now there are certain segments that have not recovered. and we know who they are, right? it is the hospitality industry, the entertainment industry. and, so, we're working with the new funding that's coming from the federal government. we're working with our legislature who is in session now to really target those small businesses that are still struggling. we've got to help them hold on for a few more months until things get back to normal and we don't want to lose those industries and those businesses. so that targeted funding is the most important thing we can do right now. >> claire mccaskill, jump in. >> governor, i'm curious. you mentioned federal funding and obviously the biden administration wants to really move with great speed to get more assistance out there, particularly for school

reopeningsment talk about school reopenings and the lack of resources that local school districts have to actually reopen these schools safely and whether or not you think it's important that the congress embrace a large part of the biden additional recovery package. >> well, you know, the biggest priority right now in every state should be school reopenings. this is something we did many, many months ago. again, with one exception. the cdc evidence and the message they shared yesterday is important. the long-term effects of these school closures, i don't think we understand. but every piece of evidence shows that it's going to be very bad. we're focussing, too, not just on reopening but on those that have reopening. really focussing on students that are at risk. it is so strange to me. in another universe, this is one where i could see the left really embracing because it is

our most vulnerable students that are being impacted. it is not, you know, the white kid in the affluent area. it's our children of color. it is our rural students that are being most impacted by our school closures. we put a big emphasis on our ppe early on making sure we had a mask requirement in our schools, getting teachers the masks they need to keep them safe, allowing for more distancing and those that want to learn at home can, to have those options. and, so, the federal funding piece is critical to make that happen, especially targeting those at risk students. >> governor spencer cox, thank you so much for being on the show. we really appreciate it. best of you dealing with all this. we have an update now on monday's deadly tornado in alabama. a 14-year-old boy is dead after

a tornado struck two northern suburbs of birmingham monday night. look at this damage. video of the aftermath shows destroyed structures with roofs turned up. yesterday evening classified the tornado as an ef-3 with peak winds of 150 miles an hour. prayers there. up next, more on the argument from trump supporters that his second impeachment is unconstitutional. msnbc chief legal correspondent ari melbourne joins us with that. keep it here on "morning joe."

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d.c. national guard commanders ability to roll out troops ahead of the january 6th riots. mayor general william walker said after criticism of the d.c. guard's response to the racial justice protests last june, the pentagon took away his power to immediately deploy troops. so when walker received a panicked call from the capitol police chief warning that rioters were about to enter the u.s. capitol, he needed approval by both the defense secretary himself, along with the army secretary which added to the delayed response. meanwhile, the acting chief of the u.s. capitol police told members of the congress yesterday that her agency, quote, failed to meet its own high standards as well as yours. willie? >> and the major general said his trooping were just down the streets. could have been there in minutes if approved.

the agency's top federal prosecutors expects indictments to be handed down as soon as this week. with the help of more than 200,000 tips, fbi agents across the country continue to build cases that some of the rioters carefully planned the attack. under intense scrutiny for their potential roles in the insurrection. those include the proud boys, the oath keepers and the three percenters, an extremist wing of the gun rights movement. several members of those groups have been charged, including three people who face the most severe conspiracy allegations levelled so far. joining me now host of "the beat" on msnbc ari melber. let's start with this massive dragnet. they have 400 people, the fbi does, the u.s. attorney says in

their sights. what does this operation look like from a prosecutor's standpoint to go through those 200,000 pieces of video evidence and to make charges against people who were there? >> well, as you just talked us through, there were multiple government failures. that's not even doubt, the participanting law enforcement organizations are saying that. what we're seeing now as you both mention, willie, is the challenge of dealing with what was an on site failure. we watched people trespass, commit crimes and then walk out of there and the police say that's partly because they were just overwhelmed. we know five died. we know it became more of an emergency or survival situation. i don't think that's overstated rather than arresting one. now we have one of the largest live data operations in modern fbi history carefully combing through what we all watched and lived through and using all of

the data and identiication technology at their disposal to meticulously try to track down people. another example to your question, they just have to go through and count these people up and then decide who is more important to arrest first because unlike, say, an investigation where you are not sure who did what, everyone you see in the pictures on your screen, everyone who actually breached was already committing one crime of trespass. >> so 135 people have been arrested. 400 or so now have been identified as suspects, but the u.s. attorney is saying we don't have probably cause on a lot of them yet. but the list of suspects grows by the hour. >> if they give the appropriate resources to this attempt to overthrow our democracy, they will also come up with other proof points. we now know there was a meeting with some of the trump family and some of the people that might have been leading and

planning this riot the next day the day before, including rudy giuliani. we now know the president told the secretary of defense he thought he might need 10,000 troops the next day. now, president tell the secretary of defense they're going to need 10,000 troops and then have there be a delay in deploying those troops when in fact they began attacking and killing police officers? so there is a lot -- i mean for a prosecutor, this is just a treasure trove of evidence about potential conspiracy, about assault, about murder. and there is -- it's going to take some time for them to do it right but if they put the right resources on this, this is going to be an evolving story of criminal conduct and prosecution. >> okay, so ari, the republican senators who somehow think we should just turn the page, that

this is just divisive, come on, man, i don't understand. because if someone was walking on my street and got assaulted and the perpetrator was caught, there would be quite a road towards justice. court hearings, maybe jail time. why is this different? >> that's exactly right, mika. there's plenty of room for debate. this is a program people wake up and watch legitimate debates on "morning joe" over the years for all sorts of issues. there's not much debate about the fact that if crimes occur in this nation, they are investigated and prosecuted and the more serious the crime, the more serious that approach. so, yes, you might have leniency for something where a teenager makes a single mistake and you decide not to use the justice system. let's be clear, there's no debate when you have an

insurrection, open applauding and chanting to try to assassinate both officials, by the way, although it wouldn't matter which party, you have to go through and investigate and process that to the fullest. you cannot have in a rule of law society, you cannot have unity without justice first. indeed, it is the injustice under the law, however imperfectly it's pursued in history, it's the promise under the law that makes us all equal. speaking to you as a chief legal correspondent or attorney or citizen, it is indeed deserving any member of the body that makes the laws, doesn't think the body should be enforced for an attack on our government, i will say certainly in fairness there are republicans who condemn this and say, yes, let's the prosecutions continue. but we all know, we've all observed other republicans, including 57% of the house gop caucus, vote in support of the

lie that at the center. , the animating center of the so-called stop the steal protest that left five dead. >> let me get your legal view on a question that chuck schumer says has been settled since 1987 -- 1776 and others agree. if the accused in no longer president, where is the constitutional power to impeach him? private citizens don't get impeached. president trump was impeached while president. what about the constitution and private citizens? >> look, this is important for everyone to understand the constitution specifically provides for the impeachment removal and possible barring of federal officers. the entire conversation we're having as a legal matter has already been resolved for these officers. everyone has to remember, of course is, we care more about the president for all of the obvious reasons but this cause in the constitution also applies to judges and other secretaries and, in other words, certain types of federal officers.

it's been applied this way before. it's not an open legal question. there's precedent. just to be clear, willie, if you said to me can a press pardon themselves, i would have to say to you, well, it's never been tested either way, so we're talking about the possibility that it is legal or not, meaning more vague. this question has been tested and federal officials have been removed or impeached after office. so that is over and i will just add one observation, which is if you have a good case like your client was out of the country when they say he did something bad, you argue the case. you say, my client was in the bahamas. this is going to be a quick case. i love talking about what happened. we weren't there. when you can't argue the facts very well, you turn to these kind of procedural dodges. and i any that's what we are seeing, people who don't want to defend what donald trump said january 6th and the days leading

up to that and just reminding us, claire as well, oh, go into we're constitutional -- >> and 45 republicans made that claim yesterday. before we let you go, big interview on "the beat" tonight, you and bill gates. what are you going to talk about beyond obviously the delay in the release of drake's new album. >> well, i appreciate the drake reference. >> sure. >> sense you since you brought it up, i might go a little "i used to be ballin', now and now i'm bill gates." these tech companies, while they're successful, do they have too much power? i want to get into all of them with him, his first time on "the beat" at 6:00 p.m. tonight. i hope people check it out. >> i knew you would have something ready, ari. >> he does.

all right, melibler, thank you very much. we will be watching the interview with bill gates tonight at 6:00 eastern time. that's on "the beat." so claire mccaskill, you have ten seconds, big thought of the day moving forward. >> yeah, i just wanted to chime in on the constitutionality of removing trump. here's the deal, the founding fathers, these republicans like to talk about the constitution, the founding fathers put in the constitution that there are two sproets, one on convicting on impeachment and one for barring for future office. if all he had to do was resign, then why would they put the second part in? >> okay. >> obviously, they're envision ing, it's common sense. let's get busy and get this trial done. >> that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage after this quick, final break. ♪♪ k. ♪ an air force veteran made of doing what's right, not what's easy. so when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage.

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♪♪ in a year of changes. don't take chances on your taxes. be 100% certain with jackson hewitt. we'll get your taxes done right, guaranteed. ♪♪ . hi, there, i'm stephanie ruhle. it's wednesday, january 27th. we've got a busy hour ahead. let's get smarter. we have distribute issues to appointments. president biden trying to fix those problems by getting more vaccines to more people faster. here's what he said last night. >> we will both increase the supply in the short term by more than 15%, and give our states and local partners mor