opposed the package. president biden and democrats are hoping to get him back on board and negotiate it rather than giving up on the package all together. the trial child tax credit is the sticking point for joe manchin. he wants to get rid of it all together or significantly decrease the income caps on that. and that's going to be a huge deal. the child tax credit is a massive part of the $1.7 trillion packet. >> it's true as always, ain't over until it's over. thank you so much for being here with us today. thank you for all of you waking up way too early with us this morning. "morning joe" starts right now. good morning, welcome to "morning joe," it's tuesday, january 4th, and for some

heading in and out of washington, d.c., a long night. >> you look at all of the traffic still trapped on the road way and i mean there is an old saying that if you want to figure out whether washington is a northern city or a southern city, just watch two or three in chs of snowfall on it then you will know. this is a lot more. washington, d.c. usually shuts down when it gets an inch or two of snow. yet it got up to a foot in some area and seven inches reported at the reagan national airport. the severe weather, the heavy snow caused one of the staircases he uses to exit air force one to get stuck, preventing him and his staff from getting off for about half an hour. >> look at that. >> this is not an inch.

>> as for the roads, there were a mess, cars got stuck across the belt way. >> mika, look at that. oh no! >> that's alexandri, that's absolutely gridlock. josh letterman has been stuck inside his car for about ten hours and the problem is not with the locks. he's in his car where he's stuck there and still 30 miles outside of dc. tell us what this has been like and what have you heard from people in the same situation? >> mika, this is a bit of insane and disutopian experience. i was headed back to d.c. last night and at 7:15 of several

delays and by 7:30. we are at a standstill and we have been at a standstill ever since meaning the thousands of cars where i am on the highway on i-95 have been in their cars over night without food and water and been 26 degrees outside and nobody knows how long we are going to be here or how we are going to get out. so people once got into about five hours that people were stuck in their cars started turning their cars off because frankly people want to conserve gas and they don't know how long they'll be able to stay warm if they ran out of gasoline. i have been doing okay with gas wise but we have talked with some other folks who gotten out of their cars to walk their dogs and to let their kids get out of their cars for hours and they said this is scary. you don't plan for a situation

like this and here is the situation we found ourselves in, almost 24 hours after this snow is actually falling. >> hey josh, it's willie, we are looking at live pictures from above and the line of traffic goes on and on. what's going on up front here? who are you hearing from and what are you hearing about to break this log jam, you have been at it for more than ten hours now. how much longer? >> we have been looking at twitter to see if local authorities are putting out any information. there was one period where they briefly opened one lane over night and we got to move about a mile and crashed again and completely out. we have not seen since before midnight, i have not seen emergency vehicle or a police car or a plow on my side of the highway. both the north and southbounds are shutdown. we have seen some plows on the

southbound sides. it's possible there is emergency vehicles trying to help us at the front. from this point if you are looking for the rescue battalions and the backup of becoming, we have not seen any of that. nobody knows how long it's going to last. >> we are going to be reaching out to authorities to try to find out as well, josh. i understand you have your dog with you. i have family members in that area i am very worried about. they have not had power. >> oh, your co-pilot is keeping you warm. i hope you guys are okay. >> reporter: you know i am safe and we have enough gasoline and everything seems okay for the time being. if you were to have a medical emergency right now or not to be able to stay warm right now, there is no way anybody is getting through, you are on your

own out here and that's not a safe situation for us to have. >> yes. >> josh letterman, we'll check in with you, thank you very much. stay as safe as you can. thank you so much for checking in with us. >> man, i tell you what, i really think about josh is doing all right right now. think of the people who expected to be there for a few hours until now or seniors or somebody who needed medical attention. it seems that nobody can seem to help. it's remarkable they have not been able to move people in that road for hours. >> yeah, ten hours, you would

think they would move a lane or something. young kids expected to head to school right now but been sitting in that traffic for ten hours. we'll reach out and find out what's going on here. behalf of those people, my gosh, think of all the people in those cars where they expected to be this morning certainly not sitting right there. >> no. you think of people who are not going to be able to get into work today. maybe people who have child care issues or people who are left and get home and get their kids ready for school. but again especially those who have medical conditions. my god the authorities have got to do something to get those roads opened up. >> mika, you look today that airport situation obviously not as dangerous and grim as this but the airports having another

terrible day. >> thousands of domestic flights are cancelled everyday. airlines cancelled nearly 3,000 flights yesterday as omicron continues to surge. according to the flight, there is been about 700 cancellations in the u.s. so far this morning alone. >> you know we have been talking about past several days about how omicron obviously is not as extreme as delta that the united states needs to keep open and needs to stay open people need to take precautions and those with underlying conditions need to be worried. we need to keep schools and business open. if you are running an airline and you are getting hammered and one pilot after another and one flight crew after another being shutdown because they have to isolate five or six or seven or eight days, that could grind things to a halt in the air and it's starting to do that.

>> it's a numbers game. if pilots are out and you can't get in the air and the same thing with school and the global record yesterday by covid-19 cases in a single day, more than 1 million infections recorded. that's nearly double the previous record. the highest single day total for another country is 414,000 came from india. we should know yesterday's total does include a backlog of cases from the holiday weekend. so many struggling to get home tests and those using take home tests which was not sent to the government. that's a huge number but as i said that does not count all the people who are lucky enough to

get the at-home test. and all the people who can't get their hands-on a test or can't get an appointment on the pcr tests or waiting three or four days for the results. >> a lot different. breaking records right now and that does not count the at-home tests people are taking. more importantly than that the vastly number of people that can't get hands on tests right now. we'll never have any ideas of how many people are are infected. on the east coast we have this strange consfluence weather event and severe weather and covid. we'll be following the angle of this, covid number and testing issues as well as people are stuck on the highway in washington, d.c. and what the forecast looks like in the days

to come. now let's turn to the other big story of the morning, newly revealed court filings show letecia james had subpoenaed donald trump and ivanka trump jr. into the trump organization. the december subpoenas are seeking testimonies and documents in connection of the property owned or controlled by donald trump jr. according to a supreme court order. >> that's donald trump. lawyers for the trumps filed a motion to cross it late yesterday. james has previously subpoenaed the former president. >> willie, we have been able to

see and you look at what happened at randall lane at forbes of a week or two ago of what we have been hearing out of the da's office, obviously they are looking into false valuations. donald trump doing what he's done, exaggerate whether it's his rating or support or poll number or how much money he has. that's perfectly fine if you are bragging at a forbes editor or at a fellow friend but when you start to do it and start lying to investors, that's when it becomes a real problem. >> inflating the value of a property or deflaing depending on what you want to get out of deal, that's what they are looking into here. >> joining us now, nbc news investigaor reporter, tom winter, good morning. not a big surprise that donald

trump jr. and ivanka are subpoenaed here. just to remind our viewers because so much swirls around the former president and the family, what are they exacting for exactly here? >> the investigation spilled in public view back in august of 2020. one of the things they were looking at is the seven springs property in new york, whether or not they properly valued the property as they saw getting a $21 million of tax easing. that's what they were looking into. the trump's attorney saying it

was unprecedented and unconstitutional. these subpoenas should be issued for all three of them. you look at everybody there on the screen had either spoken to the attorney general or had been issued for their testimonies as well as documents. you got eric trump already talked to them and the former president all being asked to speak to the attorney general's office here as part of this. they proposed two solutions. the first to squash it to say the subpoenas should not be an issue at all. plan b to quote "their filing" that a criminal investigation is done. the situations they don't want to get themselves in obviously is a situation where they are providing information in a civil case that is then going to be used in the criminal case. new york state has unique grand jury laws where if you sit before a grand jury, you can't be charged of any of the things

you are asked about or any of the answers you give unless you commit perjury. this is being seen by someone on the trump's side is a grand jury process. two things are very clear here. they're clearly not going after allen weisselberg, the trump's cfo, they're clearly focusing on the trump's family and this is more than speculation. they're obviously coming towards the condition collusion of the civil investigation because you don't talk to the primary principles until you get the documents you need and you go to them as the crux of your case. >> hey, tom, it's jonathan lemire, give us an update on the other one, we know cy vance just

left office. >> that's right, the cross criminal investigation. cy vance have said some time ago that he hoped to come to a conclusion by the time his time in office is up. that time has come and gone and now the investigation will live on. we are not getting the type of level of details that we normally bite. interviews have been conducted and grand jury interviews have been conducted towards the latter part of last year. that's something we need to continue to watch. i think you know on the civil front, if they are going after the principles here which is the former president and his children, fact they are looking the speak to them is a clear sign, i am told they are coming towards the conclusion of that investigation, does it mean it's the bottom of the ninth inning to use baseball analogy that you

all love so much? perhaps not. we are in the 7th or 8th here on the civil investigation if that's the case guiding us on the criminal side is time will tell. >> baseball analogy, we never talk about baseball on "morning joe." finally, what's the chance of this effort of subpoenas end up being a big strike out for the trump's lawyers? >> wow. >> not bad, joe. >> so i think there is a chance that they -- first off it serves a purpose of delay. let's slow this down and figure out what's going on. one of the things, if i were a

trump's attorney, any matter which the attorney general deems pertinent. should they gleam something out of that as a result of their motion, that may be helpful to them. ultimately they'll have to sit for this because that's the rules of things go if civil cases here in new york. the question is do they have to say before criminal case comes to a conclusion, i don't think they have a great chance here. >> all right, nbc's tom winter, thank you so much. greatly appreciate it. former president donald trump endorsed hungary prime minister who was largely reviewed as an autocrat. if a statement yesterday, the former president wrote that victor orban done a powerful job

creating jobs and trades. orban has been open with his democratic views. to do this the national leader has taken measures including rewriting election laws to favor his parties and changing school's textbooks, removing press freedoms. orban was granted an oval meeting by the then president in 2019. his first since 1998 and this is not the first time the former president has endorsed a far right leader. last october, trump endorsed the brazilian president. on the same day he recommended facing criminal charges of his

handling of covid-19. imagine he let it rage freely in the country to test out herd immunity. let's bring in applebaum. >> we'll get to that. first, obviously no surprise here. donald trump endorses orban is crushed to send any opposition in the media and drove so many people out of hungary that once opposed him and you put tracking devices on political opponents and free media, talk about just we don't understand how ill-liberal this guy is. talk about that and your thoughts of donald trump's endorsement. >> i was at an event where orban were the star guest some months

ago. he was asked by an interviewer, mr. orban, how have you been able to manage remaining in power as long? well, it helps if you don't have any opposition in the media. everybody laughed but the far right group including americans who were at that meeting nodded in approvals. this is somebody who sought to destroy private state media which is important there and the courts, changed the constitution multiple times. he faces real challenge now of the hungary opposition has now are reunited. the fact that donald trump supposedly, lead other of the free world -- it's being seen by

other autocrats around the world as an endorsement in his behavior as well. >> anne, your new piece entitled "the u.s. is naive about russia." you wrote this. americans and europeans want a solution involving nothing more than diplomacy and sanctions. although putin's tactics have been very clear for a long time. he may use this information one year and gas pipeline or bribe another.

the end game is always the same. reenforce his autocracy. americans need to stop being surprised by this list of goals and start writing a list of our own. putin's analysis is not a paranoia, it's a democratic ukraine would indeed post a dire threat to russia and belarus and the region around the world. it would prove of the inhabitant of other autocracy that they can escape the the influence of their greedy leaders. i will follow it up by saying this is a stark warning of the president of the united states to take it seriously, is it not?

>> we are having trouble with anne right now. let's -- we'll try willie to get back to her in a minute trying to fix wi-fi. but before we do that, obviously you read anne's piece and it seems that we are as a country we are shocked every two years and 14, we are shocked by the invasion of ukraine and 16, we are shocked by the disinformation and what happened in helsinki in 2016 of the continued lies and black males through part-time lines and now we are shocked of mounting troops at the border of ukraine. as anne says it's time that not only the president but also

members of congress, understand this guy is going to do whatever it takes to stabilize any democracy, not only in eastern europe but across the world. >> anne writes in the piece that this time the alarm bells are louder in washington than they are in kiev and more in the past. jonathan lemire, president biden is going to talk face-to-face with putin next week about this. is putin going to call this a bluff or is he going to confront him? >> kremlins are advocate forget another summit in geneva last year. >> the president is sort of in a bind here. there is no waivering here on russia. >> they threaten economic

sanctions if certainly putin and russia troops were to step into ukraine. what's unclear and we have been asking the white house about this and this seems like this administration have not yet come to a conclusion as to the status quo remains. if who does not take that step, the invasion and the longer they are there and the more chances there will be and conflicts. the white house is weighing options as to how they want to do that. there were some hopeful signs. the phone call between putin and biden is relatively brief as these things go. each side reiterating their stances so this is going to be a standoff that shows no sign of ending and u.s. officials worried that the next month or two particular could be if putin were to make a move, that's what

he would do. >> they need to be planning gres aggressively and i trust that they are. hopefully they are looking back to see what the carter administration did with dr. brzezinski back in the 1980s when the soviet surrounding pole land and about to go in. they made it clear it would be against their best interests to go into poland at that time. we are not hearing enough from this administration on what aggressive they are taking. we learned over the past 20 years that there are no good intentions there. again, shocked in 2008 with the evasion of georgia and shocked in 2014, so much for a reset of invasion of ukraine, shocked in 2016 that he tried to under mine

american's democracy and tried every way he could to undermine american democracy. and now shocked that he's putting troops on the border of ukraine? >> no. it's time to stop being shocked and it's time to move aggressively, not towards war but towards defending our allies. i may be loss in all of the nonsense and the propaganda that's coming out frs russia over the past five years and all those in the west who want to keep things as they are. maintain the status quo and not disturb vladimir putin. we made a commitment to the ukraine people. if you give us your nuclear weapons and if you disarm unilaterally, we promise to vow and we and the rest of the community will make sure that

you are protected against invasion from russia or anybody else. guess what? we did nothing. we did nothing. they invaded in 2014 and we were not provided defensive weapons early on. >> we have got to be aggressive. our defense of our allies. ukraine despite what you are hearing here and despite what you hear. we have to defend our democratic allies. that's in poland and in ukraine and that's across east europe. the soviet union lost the cold war, they can get over it or pay more consequences. it's that simple. it's time for the biden white house to speak clearly and aggressively and telling us how they're going to stop this invasion from happening.

still ahead, an extensive look inside trump's world as a bitter fight for power. it involves some of the most notorious players on the far right and the rise and fall of a silicon valley star, we'll take you through the guilty verdict for theranos' founder, elizabeth holmes and explain what she did. you are watching "morning joe," we'll be right back. g joe," we'll be right back. ♪ it wasn't me by shaggy ♪ you're never responsible for unauthorized purchases on your discover card.

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a federal jury found elizabeth holmes guilty. more than two years after she was charged with fraudulent claims of her blood testing technology. after a four-month trial, the jury found holmes guilty on three counts of wire fraud against theranos' investors and one count of conspiracy of committing wire fraud. the jury was unable to reach a verdict on two other counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. each count carries a maximum sense of 20 years in prison. holmes is expected to appeal the verdict. joining us now is danny cevalos

and cnbc's brian sullivan. >> brian, let me start with you, for 30 years we heard these silicon stories where guys just winging it and they're praising of bs artists having stanford degrees. we heard of steve jobs, he made things up the tried to get them to that point. you heard other stories in silicon valley of men doing the same thing for 30 years, fake it until you make it is a mantra out there and it has been. >> they convicted a woman and she could go to jail for 20 years. help me understand the difference between this and what men have been doing in silicon valley for 30 years. >> well, it's a complicated case. i had the opportunity to interview elizabeth holmes.

i interviewed her hours before the first article came out questioning theranos' business. the writer of that argument was widely attacked because holmes was venerated. she was a stanford drop out, 30 years old being touted as the next steve jobs and always mirrored his outfit. always in the black turtle neck as well. she was able to get this company to a $10 billion and it was never traded publicly, he convinced some of the smartest investors in the world to give her money. >> henry kissinger and bill frisk and george shoults. four members at the board of directors a the time this is going on. part of her strategies and interviews and trials or whatever was to make sure he was surrounded by people that may be

had the newcomer, she did not. george schultz's grandson was one of the whistleblower to help holmes convicted. >> you mentioned john kerry. the product itself was the center of the fraud. she went out and raised all these money saying i have got this machine that can quickly and easily and diagnose just about anything with a pick of a pen to take your blood and diagnose whatever you may have the the future or what you have now. sos how did she get away with it for so long before these art ls started coming out. >> the drop out is amazing by rebecca jarvis. >> yes, incredible.

>> how she did that, that's a good question. >> here is how it worked. you are supposed to take a small jab of your finger and her machine will be able to analyze up to a hundred different things and you may get a bigger vile of blood verses one drop. it did not work. you may not know as well that was at one point they actually faked an office zrp they brought investors in and they have a fake laugh that created. they bought asthma sheen that worked. a normal one that the hospital would use. they would put the blood op their machine and run the results on the real machine where nobody can see it and come out with the results that look, they worked. >> it did produce some results. the results would often be so

wrong, you could have cancer and told you did not. these are life and death things. they were drawing powerful people sucked in theranos' web and ended up losing millions of dollars. >> elizabeth home charmed her way into a $10 billion market cap. >> danny, as you look at the charges convicted on four counts and four others found not guilty. >> this was a huge win for both sides. let me explain. >> when it comes to the defense, who honestly thought she would get acquitted on any count. who thought she would get deadlock juries on any of these counts. this is a defense for holmes especially when he took the

stance. it's a miracle that she got acquitted for everything. i am looking at at least 10 years in prison. that conduct can be considered by the judge in sentencing. this is a win for the government as well. she's going to go to the prison and for a significant periods of time. >> all right, danny, thank you very much. >> coming up for decades. pop culture often named a concerted effort to reclaim forgotten or malign women and portrayed them in a glamorous light. do we lose something as history reframes an an instagram story? that conversation is straight ahead on "morning joe." that conversation is straight ahead on "morning joe. ♪♪ gravity. it's a force to be reckoned with.

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our next guest, pop culture creators are narrowing what female success can look like. joining us now is alexis soloski. her latest piece of "katherine was great." and our elise jordan. thank you both for being with us. >> alexis, thank you so much. catherine certainly did not come off the same way when you read about her. what is gained and loss by this instagraming of these historic figures? >> they're so fun and i watch

them and i wonder how i can get address like that. i think they're savvy. i think they're very smart but i think what we have a culture that's depicting women as a lot younger than they were when they accomplish what they accomplished as a lot sexier than they were. as you look at the historical record as more empowered in a way we would not understand it now than they would have been in the circumstances of their times. they create something of a problem, to me it seems exhausting to have to change the world but to also have to be hot. you would be next to maybe -- >> right. really is. it's the instagram-tification of popular culture and of history as well. it sets up on unrealistic

expectations. you want your daughter to study hard and go to a good school but make sure she gets the supply that's just right. >> and looked amazing in a cropped top. >> i really like all of these shows, i am not saying don't go see it. it's a lot of fun but i would not confuse it with history. that was my experience sitting in the theater seeing it before the shutdown. wow, the spice girls is really fun. it's not the version of feminism that i practice so that i necessarily want to see put out in the world where empowered men

and sexuality are all ways in locked steps. >> in our piece you write is mostly boring. would you watch three season in a show where emily dickerson sits alone at her desk scratching on her pencil. this new breed of heroine is ambitious and rather than understanding as these women as product of their time, we make them preachers of ours. if creators at feminist aims believe that audience won't be attention to female protagonists of absence of youths and beauty, elise jordan, what do you think of that and go ahead and take the next question to alexis. >> i can wondering your take on

damn if you do and damn if you don't. is it better to have these stories to be told instead of the women being behind the scenes and forgotten because their story lines are not as "sexy" as what today's instagram culture demands or should we consider this a start of the process to exploring the lives of women in history that were rich in ways from our modern conception that we can't imagine and powerful in the same ways, too. >> i think that's absolutely right on. i think that's exactly what this movement movement is. when you have literally thousands of years where we didn't think women's stories were worth tempting then you are going to say okay what is the sexiest most exciting way that i can tell these stories to get the most people excited. i think often at this collection books that many people would know "rebel girls," okay women

who defy history, i have every single one of them and i read them to my young kids. i think we lose something when we sex things up too much and it's often what we lose on the other side is an understanding of what were these women lives actually like and what was the real systematic bias that they face. you know what's not sexy? systematic bias. without understanding that, it becomes a little like a halloween costume rather than a real understanding of okay what were these women's lives and what did they really achieve? >> alexis, thank you so much, we really appreciate as we see what other shows out there and trying to navigate covid through this pandemic.

as we prepare to mark one year since the capitol insurrection, we have new reporting on how extremism have shifted since the january 6th attack and an update on the traffic nightmare on i-95 in northern virginia where winter weather stranded drivers for more than 15 hours over night. >> we are hearing from our friends that are stuck out there. it's an absolute nightmare and really no relief in sight right now for people who have been stuck in their cars for 15 hours. we'll be right back. in their ca5 hours. we'll be right back. oh yeah, we gotta take off. you downloaded the td ameritrade mobile app? yeah, actually i'm taking one last look at my dashboard

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harris to the end zone, touchdown, steelers! >> all right, rodger harris scored a touchdown. every year since pittsburgh selected roethlisberger with 11th overall pick in the 2004's draft. the two times super bowl champion was emotional in an interview after that game. >> what was going through your mind taking the last one to the house? >> well, i didn't think i was going to take the field. it's the best place in football

when your offensive player got to take a knee so i am glad to do it one last time. >> how do you leave this place, ben? >> i don't know, with a win. i am so thankful to fans, my family obviously and the good lord is blessing me in so man this is just an awesome place. >> and the steelers can make a playoffs this weekend with the colts lose to the jaguars. we can talk about big ben also, i think the compelling story for the future and the other side of the ball. the cleveland browns have an extraordinary offensive of line even though they are banged up right now. they just ran the ball over green bay last week, a very good green bay team. baker mayfield, any match he had a couple of years when he came into the nfl is lost. he lost his confidence and he looks absolutely terrible out

there. and he's actually ironically now. he's the missing piece that the browns need to replace to the next level or he needs to find his confidence again. >> hard to watch, he kind of brought the browns back and he's totally lost right now. it's the running game nick chubbs in that line. ben roethlisberger won two super bowl. they never had a losing season since they drafted the guy, for 18 seasons, he's the epiphany. he's taken so many hits and he hangs in there and barely gets around and he's still playing. it would be fun to see them sneak into the playoffs and maybe ben makes one last run.

>> ben roethlisberger and phillip rivers and eli manning, three amazing quarterbacks. roethlisberger is the image of him standing in the pocket is a huge guy taking hit after hit and still making the throw. two super bowl, he was a driving force behind the other one, behind the great defense, he really slipped last year, there are a lot o f speculation than the last season he hangs on this year, this is probably it. it's hard to imagine the colts losing to the jaguars to allow the steelers getting in. it will look very different to see a different quarterback next year wearing the black and gold. >> did you notice the edge in lemire's voice about eli manning? he's the guy, he sounds like a giants fan instead of a new england fan. here is a guy and i never understood this as a falcons fan. i never understood this, eli won

two super bowls for the new york giants and still you got people like lemire and a ton of giant fans who have been disrespectful. i think two super bowls is a pretty damn good career. >> not me, i love eli manning, if you drafted him, he's going to win you two super bowls, you will take that a hundred times. lemire is bitter because the giants ruined the patriots' perfect season as you may forget clearly in head to head matchups anyway, ely manning is better than tom brady in the big stage. >> so much better, brady is a distant in a second. at least in games that counts. eli against brady, is it close? i don't think so. willie, do you think? >> i watched some of the peyton

and eli's show last night. it's awesome. we always show clips of them doing golf swings and goofy stuff. i love listening to them last night, both of them picking apart, the two-minute drive when the browns were hard in their effort going into the half and the steelers and these guys you really, you are getting thought of two, lemire, two great quarterbacks, this is what you want to do. you don't get the third and eighth. keep it going. it's not just the fun clips we show all the time with these stars but getting into the hands of two people who have been there and know how to do it. >> viewers will ask some day, that was lemire's breaking point, this is it. the eli manning stuff was beyond the pail, he was a fine quarterback who carried defense to a super bowl. he was good in the second one, i will give you credit.

he got two hot streaks. he's certainly not his young brother. i am going to take this opportunity but him as a journalist, the manning brothers, they had aaron rodgers last night and not a word about his vaccination status which was the biggest story. >> dude, dude, it's not 16 minutes. >> rodgers going into the mvp this year and he still in withes it. let's talk about what matters. >> no, no, you think he's mike wallace, 1974? they're in the living room. they're watching football. i don't want to hear people talking about covid. if people want to get depressed, they can watch our show. i will say willie, we were

talking about the catherine and everything else. this is about football. let me tune in and watch football and have a good time and not be reminded the next morning they have to get up early the next day for work and here debbie-downer taking us through the news. >> give us a break! it's not much while sitting on the floor, eli and aaron rodgers. and covid vaccines. >> i am good at sports hate. >> and just to circle back, tom brady is the greatest of all time. >> greatest of all time. let's talk about those buccaneers, antonio brown and his dramatic departure from the tampa bay in new york the other day, some reported that browns' bizarre exit was spurred by a

disagreement over his health and willingness to play but bucs coach saying he refused to go back to the game was of an ankle injury. the coach did decline to elaborate on the exchange he had on the sideline. "we had a conversation and he left the field." the bucs did not officially left him. brown later released his own rap song featuring a voice saying there are things more important than football. antonio brown is still in new york city. he sat court side at the barclays center, he gets thrown off the team effectively and

calls an uber from the locker room, the driver picks him up, uber driver took some selfie and now antonio brown is enjoying himself in new york city. this guy has a career full of problems, the bucs and tom brady went to bat for him and signed him last year and brought him back this year and faked vaccination card. they stood with him for a long time. this is the final straw. >> they give him so many chances and triumphs over everything else. there is real questions of brown's mental health. when brown leaves the stadium and strips off his jersey, the security thought it was a fan and almost tackled him. no, that's antonio brown. he goes and living the highlights and posting instagram and netflix.

you know it's hard to know what happens next. it's difficult to see though and even for someone as talented as brown and someone who obviously needs help. give him another chance here. and even a team that will needs wide receiver this offseason. i don't know how you can go to antonio brown. his focus is not football right now. it's clear. >> and reverend al was talking about how the guy needs help. nfl teams that are greedy for wins and greedy for more r fans watching the show and bigger highlights. this guy needs help before he goes back on a football team because again just as you said one problem after another and one accusation another. he needs help and there needs to stop being this revoling door. there is a lot of enabling around him. we are talking about brady being

a good guy, he handled it very well. the heat of the moment, he says we love this guy, this guy needs help. we are not worried about him playing football right now. he's a guy that we tried to help and we want to continue to help but it will be some where else if he does play. all right, elise jordan is still with us. professor at princeton university, eddie glaude jr. joins the conversation as well. we got a lot to get to this morning. "the washington post" has new reporting of the civil war within team trump over power, money and prominence with much that's playing out with donald trump tucked away at mar-a-lago and the online conspiracy theorist hue going dark. the far-right movement is in chaos. according to the post, things started going south after kyle rittenhouse accused of killing

two men and injuring others. never bailing him out of jail. >> god, these people are the worst drifters. they are horrid. this carved a rift between wood and other figures of trump's stop the steal campaign like sidney powell and michael flynn and patrick byrne. wood recorded of phone calls of flynn disparaing of qanon. it's now for right candidates for congress who are taking up the movement. current candidates have given credence to the qanon conspiracy

theory, then there are the legal fees that wood and powell were ordered to pay for their efforts to overturn the election. they were among the nine attorneys ordered to pay $175,000 for what a federal judge in michigan called a historic and found rebutte of the judicial process. the post reports that wood powell and flynn have set up online stores targeting their most loyal followers selling mugs and shirts and hoodies. much of the movement is now focused on fighting covid vaccines, something trump themselves could not escape when he admitted during the recent event that he had gotten boosted. watch. >> we did something that was historic. we saved tens of millions of lives worldwide. we together, all of us, not me. we got a vaccine done, three vaccines done and tremendous

therapeutics and regeneron. don't let them take it away. you are playing right into their hands. oh, the vaccines, if you don't want to take it, you should not be forced to take it. take credit because we saved tens and millions of lives. both the president and i are vaxed and did you get the booster? no, no, don't, don't, don't, there is a tiny group over there. much of this is playing over social media. rodger stone used the website telegram to accused steve

bannon, quote "giving the order for" -- >> is he bleeding at the mouth? >> i don't know there. there are two social media sites admitting for trump audience. there is a lot. there is also gettr which was launched by jason miller and rumble. this is the key everybody. the diminishing financial rewards for the merchants of right wing disinformation and as well as the rest of his followers who keep on waiting for all those prophecies to finally come true. time and time again, we have spent to talk about this. a day passes and nothing happens. they get more depressed and they keep on pushing the dates out

and let's bring in nbc's reporter ben collins right now. at some point they say enough, "the washington post" articles are fascinating. it talks about how there is a diminishing returns on this right wing extremism and they're now picking each other apart. you got lynn wood who says give me money. he does not give kyle money for bell and you got sidney powell who's trying to give money from followers and raised $12 million from her crazy scheme and you got bannon fighting each other and he's convicted of fraud of supporters of donald trump. again, i love this post article and i love your work because at the end of the day it all comes down to one thing. money. money is slipping away from

them. >> yeah, the gravy train is off rail. that's what's going on here. people have been banned from traditional social media and places and facebook and twitter. all those people providing donations in those spaces because they had so many eye balls and they're gaming the algorithm of those spaces. because of that, you are not getting as much income and straight up not happening in that space. in the process they try to create the peril internet and infrastructure to create a second version of this internet. that's how you have rumble and gettr and that's why you are going to telegram. it is not working the same. you are not coming across these posts in the days of 2020 elections that affected their income. again, that if people are wondering from a distance, why

do you have flynn fighting all these other people. why are bannon and roger stone fighting each other and everybody is at war at everybody else? why are they starting to go against donald trump? again. it's all about money. the gravy train is basically gone off the rails and they're just sort of foresting through the empty cars trying to find whatever they can to make a quick buck. >> yes, it's all a hustle and they're all opportunists and sometimes those opportunities diverge whatever money is left to grab. as we come up a couple of days from the anniversary of january 6th. you were as worried as you have been and sadly you are as worthy as you have been and sadly your prophecy came through. what are you hearing and what's

going on online for the one year anniversary here? >> places like the donald which is a big protrump's forum. people posting pictures of ammos from their hotel rooms. they are desperate for trump's speech at mar-a-lago this coming january 6th to provide march orders or some directions or something. they have been upset with donald trump the last month. this vaccine stuff, they are not aligned with it. they assumed he's antivaccine because the guy have gone away virtually in the last year. they have not gotten the daily streaming report he's thinking every moment on twitter. they have made a lot of assumptions and stuck on that based on what they think he would think. when he came out boosted and provaccine, that did genuinely hurt them. they view this january 6th speech as a way to rally the troops again, a way to center

everything around that one figure head. there is a movement that needs the leader head. really this specific movement needs donald trump, they need marching orders from donald trump. that's what we see these forums right now. >> this reminds me that this is all about the money. we can talk to the people at the bottom of the food chain who picking each other's bones right now to do everything they can to get as much of the market share of this far-right wing market. trying to make money any way they can. we should look at january 6th as they approach, look at the

plutocrats and the ones that is run the television network and prayed on poor working class americans and middle class americans, people who are serving jail sentences while they are sitting on their super bowl yachts and while they are sitting and resting and playing golf on their country clubs behind walls. >> you are absolutely right. there is always this toxic conversation of sense of resentment and fear and deep-seeded hatred. when you have these greedy folks exploiting them over and over again and even as we acknowledge the grifters at the hard of.

even though we see them going at each other, we see what's happening in the states with regards to stop the steal and we see organizers across the board that's exploiting fears and hatred. we are seeing movement on the ground. what are you mistaking of this injunction. >> what are you seeing? >> they are fighting with each other now, they all have the same message in the last year which is what mike flynn said and what bannon said. we have to go village by village and take back our city councils and boards of education and public health boards and from there we can make in effect real change for voting and also through intimidation. a woman who was at the capitol on january 6th there at the

school board meeting. she didn't want to talk about january 6th, she deleted all of her post on that day even though she's struggling of their mace on her instagram post. she's talking about how we need to stop these vaccine mandates and mask mandates. they won. inside that meeting, those people protesting those vaccine mandates won in california. this is happening all throughout the country. this is a woman who's tied to the proud boys and the proud boys have all throughout the country done the same thing at school board meetings. they just intimidated people and intimidated these boards in capitulating in some capacity. that's where the real danger is. although they are leaderless and headless right now, everyone is basically saying the same thing at the top. you have to start local. >> hey ben, it's jonathan lemire. you just explained it so well.

as willie asked you earlier, you saw the event of january 6th coming and i know you are deep tied into federal law enforcement who moderate these groups online. what are they telling you now, the threat of political violence going forward as we move into midterm election year and the presidential election campaign not that far off in the future. >> we are worried about not just lone wol f attacks but people taking these messages and taking it too far. there are shootings and tied to this replacement rhetoric and as things ramp up towards midterms and as people start to get involved in these right-wing disinformation campaign about the caravan and all of these that tend to come up before the midterm as the talking point,

singular people from these message board can take it too far and can create a narrative in their head that they have to think they have to act. that's not who the proud boys or both keepers telegraming whatever. they are taking what they believe to be a threat and personally going too far. >> ben, elise jordan here. i have followed your work with some interests because you are always a must-read. this is all too crazy. it struck me of donald trump's statements of provaccine and probooster shot alongside bill o'reilly. it was a big deal. donald trump is moving ahead of his most fringed supporters by saying we need to embrace this

vaccine that i should get credit for and yes go get your shot which is where most of donald trump's republican supporters are. how do you think that the fringe will come along with him on this or is it going to be a splinter? >> does donald trump need the most fringe of supporters? >> i think we are about to find it out. this is a hard line for a lot of these people. they have to state their identities on it and state their lives on it. these people show sickness over getting a vaccine because of conspiracy theories. i do agree wu. he's making a calculation that there are simply more republicans along on the ride and kind of dealing with donald trump stuff and this trly fringe is the right of the people. at the end of the day people are dying.

these are people who would vote for him who are not living through these because these variants killed people who did not get the vaccines. that's what's happening. this is a political calculation from him. i do think he's going to throw people by the waist side right now. i don't think you would say this in october of 2024, for example. i don't think this is going to be the thing that he's bragging about and talking about. it's a turning point for a lot of people. it's a reason it's happening the late 2021 and not 2024. >> ben collins, thank you very much for your reporting and analysis this morning. we want to turn to an update on the traffic nightmare on i-95. the state department of transportation now says snowplows and tow trucks are on

the scene. drivers have been stranded for more than 15 hours. traffic have been at a standstill in both directions with road closures spanning at least 48 miles. i will tell you it's longer than that because we have a friend who have been stuck for 15 hours, 75 miles south of d.c. many cars around them have shut down to preserve fuels and some are abandoning their cars all together and some are wondering while the northbound lanes appeared to be open and empty are not letting drivers to get the heck out. they have been stuck all night long. >> willie, it's unexcusable. lives are on the line and we are

15 hours into it. why the hell have state leaders not acted sooner, leaving people stuck in their cars and trucks for again, over 15 hours and still, still they're not providing assistance. >> yeah, it's ugly scene. and you have seen some live movement. josh letterman who's been sitting there ten hours with his dogs. crew have cleared part of the road for northbound traffic. you can see that right there. >> good god. traffic is backed up for miles and miles as we begin to tell the story, it goes on as far as a helicopter's eye could see. wonder about some of the people in those vehicles had there been calls for help or distressed or people who need medication and

have law enforcement emergency personnel and able to get to those people. we'll find out real soon. >> what is the leaders in virginia been doing? you see here and we are hearing people texting into us that the southbound lanes are wide open. you have people been stuck for 15 hours. we see the state of florida during the hurricanes, they reroute and get people going in all the same direction if they had to do that for a while. they make sure they get people on the off ramps. this is a colossal disaster to keep people stuck there for 15 hours. i know it's virginia but it's not hard. >> it snows in virginia. >> it snows in washington. this is not hard.

this is marian-barry style in competence. >> we are looking at the footage here. we are glad that josh is traveling safely. there are hundreds and hundreds or if not thousands of vehicles have been stuck and been there for so long. >> the real issue is failure of the government on two levels and on to allow it to happen as you pointed out. they got a little more there yesterday than expected. people knew the snow storm was coming. so it's not just they were not able to prepare the road. it's the lack of communications the driver since this happened. josh said they received no updates whatsoever. and they're scrambling on twitter to be able to figure it out. that's the people who are able to have power on their phones which is no sure things for people who's been out there for 12 hours. it's nice and good and there is

been some progress. some of the cars are free but there is a long way to go it's really cold today. josh was saying had gas and his car stayed on. i am sure that's not the case for everybody. >> we'll be following this and still ahead on "morning joe," senate majority chuck schumer ramps up the filibuster fight in an effort to jump start debate on voting rights education, will it be enough to get things moving on capitol hill before mlk day? you are watching "morning joe," we'll be right back. ing joe," we'll be right bk.ac customized car insurance with liberty mutual, so we only pay for what we need. -hey tex, -wooo. can someone else get a turn? yeah, hang on, i'm about to break my own record. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ my nunormal? fewer asthma attacks with nucala. a once-monthly add-on injection for severe eosinophilic asthma. nucala reduces eosinophils, a key cause of severe asthma. nucala is not for sudden breathing problems.

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welcome back to "morning joe," with the senate set to return for the new year, the capitol's attending physician is

sounding the alarm about a spike in covid cases. dr. moynihan warned the seven day jumped in recent weeks. new cases of the omicron variant of those two-thirds infected have shown symptoms. as for the senate business, chuck schumer is calling for another push to pass voting rights. schumer said the legislation is necessary to quote "save our democracy." he writes in part this, january 6th was a symptom of a broader illness. an effort to delegitimatize our

process. the event of that day will not be in operation, they'll be the new norm. schumer says he'll look to pass voting rights of a bipartisan votes but consider to establishing new senate rules that'll override a filibuster. >> manchin have tried to get a bipartisan deal. he drafted his own bill zp can't get republicans to come on board. chuck schumer and other leaders have been against changing the filibuster rule. it looks like they're going to need to go in the way of mitch mcconnell or harry reed in changing the rule ls as they did for judges from voting rights, reauthorization, especially the john lewis' act. >> well, it's senator manchin

and sinema signs off, right? i am not convinced that'll happen. i will have to see. there is something i ironic. here we are on the cusp of recognizing the life and legacy of martin luther king jr., we are still grappling with the issue of nullification and -- you remember dr. king talking about the words of george wallace and here we are in 2022 still grappling with those questions. at the heart of this is not just votes for african-americans but it cuts to the heart of our democracy as pelosi was talking about. i hope manchin and sinema understands the series of this and conclude -- >> i certainly hope so as well. >> by the way, any republicans screaming about a car vamp for a

filibuster is hypocrite. let's see what chuck schumer would be if he came out and said oh, we need to get rid of the filibuster. >> mitch mcconnell made an exception for supreme court judges. the entire senate are most of the senate made on exception for raising the dooenl. debt ceiling. >> if they want to do it, they can do it. >> any senator going oh, i don't want to do anything. that would somehow impede upon the house set, the filibuster is, well, they just have to look back to about a month ago when it was not necessary for american democracy that they did not brush it aside to raise the

debt ceiling. they need to do it again. >> and you know, joe, there is a a question at the heart of it. how we address this problem is everything how we take ourselves to be. >> who are we as a democracy? for much of our history, we have been a democracy for white men. and we have never really grappled of what it mept and what it means to be a genuine lynn multi general, we have been in sets with selectivity. this issues cut to the heart of american identity. it's not about black folks but all of us. we need to understand the gravity of it as we approach this occasion. >> it's a defining moment for the republican party.

elise jordan, i heard some people claiming over the past three or four years zechb after after -- after january 6th. this is all your fault who's saying anybody who's never been a member of the republican party. it's nonsensical. and you need to look how forward of this issue is. >> the republican party voted unanimously to reauthorize the voting rights act unanimously. >> they can't find a single senator who'll step out. not one. >> joe, when we look at january 6th and we think about it. i hope we keep one image in

mind. the invader in the capitol who had that confederate flag and brought the confederate flag back to the u.s. party. >> if the republican are not going to step up and be against that. if they're going to be medieval air fair going on at the mall of the capitol. it's not the republican party of 15 years ago by any stretch of the imagination. its gotten pretty serious. >> all right, coming up. a backlog of covid cases over the holiday leads to a global record of more than a million new infections reported. we'll look at how this is affecting children. and, the return to school. plus, a surprising take on edibles. as a cannabis company claims

instead of giving you the munchies, its product is helping you to lose weight. >> probably not. >> there is a live look at the reagan national airport. there is a massive traffic jam that's helped people on the freezing highways and virginia, some directions are completely backed up, people south of 75 miles are still suck stuck no their cars of no words when they'll be moving. >> this is i guess food and other necessarity being brought car to car which is a bad sign nobody is going to be moving any time soon. >> we'll have much more straight ahead on "morning joe." e straigt ahead on "morning joe.

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marketing teams make all sorts of claims of the drug's healing power being able to help with sleep, libido and social

ability and one company claims its new product can lead to weight loss. there is just one problem with all of that, the science. joining us now reporter for the new york times of her latest piece. do these things help you diet? take a joke? >> thank you so much for being here, valeria, this is been -- >> edibles. >> we have been saying this for some time and san diego and union tribute piece a couple of years ago compares all the bogus claims of what marijuana can do for you health wise to watch cigarette companies are pushing after world war ii and going as far as marijuana company. does all these things and the science just does not balcony of it right now, does it? >>.

>> yes, i mean where we are now is very difficult to run clinical trials on cannabis, it's difficult to get any sort of research approved because it's still illegal at a federal level. there are so much potential but potentials are just potentials until you can test the claim, right? >> i guess the question is how are these companies able to make the bogus claims they make on everything from helping you sleep to increasing our libido and all the things land here to the other spectrum where some cannabis companies actually claimed their product helps with cancer. >> it's an industry that has little regulation right now. it's legalized by state by

state. there is not any fda oversight. a lot of companies do make an attempt to collect survey data to understand how their products are affecting consumers who are trying them. beyond that is difficult to see what's happening in we know very little about it right now. there are researchers who are working on it and have been for many, many years. it was discovered in the 1960s. so there are definitely people working on this, scientists, but it is tough. they have very limited access to the plant. they have to get a license from the dea and they have to go through a lot of processes to get the fda to approve their trial. >> so you mentioned, obviously, it's still illegal federally. some states have permit use. are we seeing an outgrowth of research there in those

jurisdictions and what about other countries where it's easier to run these sort of tests? what are we learning, and what are companies promoting from that? >> so internationally it's also quite limited actually, even the kind of example of amsterdam, it's legal there, free-for-all, and that's not quite true. you can sell in amsterdam but you cannot produce it in the netherlands. there are restrictions around the world. there can be tests done in other countries. for example, in the uk there are testing. it's limited, the trials that are run, there may be 10, 20 people who the drug is being tested on. so in some ways the u.s. is also at the forefront of the test. so even for us, it's so limited and that's why some of these claims that, for example, an edible can help you lose weight,

they're so untested and there are some reasons why these claims exist. for example, thc in animal trials have been shown to help diabetes but you have to try these things on humans before you sell these and people end up buying the product. >> all right, valeriya safronova of "the new york times," i guess take edibles at your own risk. thank you so much for your reporting. really appreciate it. we will look for the science to come someday. still ahead on "morning joe" -- a year after the january 6th attack on our nation's capitol, extremists have not disappeared. they've just changed their tactics. we have new reporting on that straight ahead.

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it's just before the top of the hour, 7:56 in the morning here in new york city. this morning we're getting new data on the number of pediatric covid infections and hospitalizations. nbc's stephanie gosk has the latest. >> reporter: in the week leading up to christmas, pediatric covid cases reached nearly 200,000 but troubling new numbers from the american academy of pediatrics show even a more dramatic statistic. the very next week a 6% jump in children getting covid, more than 300,000. >> i have simply never seen anything like what we're experiencing now. >> reporter: according to an nbc tally, the case numbers are leading to a record number of hospitalizations with covid in nine states. and while some of the other are being treated for other conditions when they test

positive, doctors say a number are getting serious cases of covid. >> covid in a short period of time has been a leading cause of death in this country. i think it's time we stop downplaying the significance of covid for children. >> reporter: the omicron variant is impacting the unborn. holy cross hospital is temporarily shutting down its maternity ward because of a surge in cases among the hospital staff. in the texas pediatric hospital, there were seven cases when the year began. today it's 70. >> the numbers passed our recent peak at the delta surge. >> reporter: doctors say low vaccination rates for young children are the cause. >> we're beginning to vaccine 5 to 11-year-olds but when you look at who's been in the hospital, it's the 5-year-olds to 11-year-olds who have not yet seen the vaccine. >> reporter: as the omicron variant surged in recent weeks,

the fda authorized pfizer boosters 12 to 13 and those 5 to 11 with compromised immune systems. some parents hope the extra dose of protection will help their kids stay in school. >> i would like it if everyone got the booster because i don't want only my kids to be safe. >> reporter: another semester of uncertainty for school children, with family facing difficult choices in the weeks ahead. >> obviously those numbers having big implications and schools being open. they are here in new york city. we hope it stays that way for kids across the country. stephanie gosk reporting for us, thanks. much still ahead -- is growing intolerance in the united states threatening democracy? the head of the anti-defamation league is joining us, tipping the hate to the unthinkable and how we can stop it. "morning joe" is back in a minute.

wra

. welcome back to "morning joe." gr it is quite a scene out there, the sfoe. >> it's always been a bit of a joke when southerners say wait until you get an inch of snow and you will see quickly it's a southern city. i think marion barry went on vacation, maybe to jamaica, when a blizzard came through washington, d.c. and the city was just completely deadlocked, people stranded, and his quota i think was, if i remember it correctly, god brought the snow,

god can take it away. that's the level of leadership we've been seeing across virginia. really, i do wonder when those frantic calls started 12, 13, 14 hours ago, kind of wondering where virginia's leaders were and why they weren't getting out there helping people? >> there are people making frantic calls stuck in traffic for more than 16 hours now on i-95 in northern virginia. this is overnight winter storm, wasn't one inch this time, several inches. now this morning they're looking at ice. we can update the northbound traffic is moving but southbound is still at a standstill. the department of transportation saying it's working to get traffic moving as fast as it can, using every available interchange between prince george's and carolina counties.

you can see they're stopping there, emergency workers are taking goods, they're taking food, they're taking water, they're taking blankets and walking across that median there to get them into cars to people who need them, who have been sitting there now 16 hours in the freezing cold, presumably some of them running out of power and gas and all of the things you would need to survive this kind of situation. >> it is scary stuff. we said earlier, our colleague josh lederman was part of this group. he said obviously i had a lot of gas and my phone was charged so he was okay but that's not the case for everyone. this is a political story now. where is the state government? where are these local officials? why is it allowed to be this way? the number one test for a local government, and in some way it's a cliche, joe mentioned marion barry in washington but same in new york city, michael bloomberg was caught in bermuda when a storm hit new york city, he was

literally the last plane to land back in laguardia and took a lot of heat for the city's ability to dig out of the snowstorm and get running again. this crossed the line from being an inconvenience to being a real danger and potential tragedy. it is very cold out there now. and there are people who have probably been out there without any kind of heat for quite some time. >> i'm worried we are hearing there are no end in sight. how much longer until someone gets seriously injured or dies? let's broaden out now on the entire situation. nbc's tom costello has more on how the weather is wreaking havoc on travel across the nation. >> reporter: this morning the day after that massive winter storm, thousands of stranded travelers are hoping for a massive felt. heavy snow slammed the south up through the northeast, compounding the challenges for airlines and the tsa, already scrambling to deal with staffing shortages because of covid

sickouts. >> i'm trying to fly back home. i have been out since 3:00 in the morning this morning, and my flight got changed twice. >> at washington reagan airport on monday, 87% of the flights canceled, the most of any airport in the country. the aftermath, hundreds of bags piled up waiting to be claimed and reconnected with their owners. in some cases we saw snow coming down at 3 1/2 inches an hour. that's just incredible. the region pounded by nearly a foot of snow, causing standstill traffic, stranded vehicles and collisions. drivers stuck for hours on the highway in virginia, after a crash involving six tractor-trailers. thousands of homes and businesses left without power. >> we live in maryland. one day 70 degrees, next day, 30 degrees and snowing. >> reporter: the white house conditions even impacting president biden's return to the white house after his holiday break. crews rush to clear the runway at joint base andrews for air

force one. monday's travel headaches capped an already chaotic holiday season. since christmas eve, more than 18,000 flights, 18,000 have been canceled. chicago o'hare trying to recover after days of long lines and cancellations leaving passengers frustrated. >> i was supposed to be home yesterday. it made be aggravated. >> reporter: giovanni doesn't have his bags and has been trying to get home to florida for two days, whose united flight delayed three times and canceled twice. >> got me a hotel room tonight but another flight canceled today. the headphones and the shirt on my back. >> we'll be following this. now to other news topping the headlines this morning, just days before the one-year anniversary of the january 6th attack on the capitol, the number of threats against congress -- members of congress, have increased. capitol police chief thomas

manger said this week there were over 9,000 threats made against congress last year compared to about 8,000 in 2020. he added post january 6th, mass retirements and resignations from the capitol police force followed. while its workload has drastically increased, the major also announced that morale remains a problem. officers, he said, couldn't spend time with their family, they couldn't make plans. that's probably the biggest issue we haven't been able to really fix yet. until we start getting them days off again and stop holding them over for extra shifts, that morale issue remains. and that is so important. those men and women are still recovering, joe, from that day. >> yeah. >> from that day that they for hours must have felt completely abandoned as the mob closed in on them. >> yeah, they did. and jonathan lemire, we've heard so many terrible stories about

it, what they endured. there are also, of course, some people who were part of that force that were actually sympathetic towards the extremists, towards the rioters, which, of course, causes real complications for the police force there. i wonder though what's changed over the past year? are capitol hill police getting the support they need? are we going to have a more streamlined process to get the national guard to defend the united states capitol? or let's say the white house if it were ever under siege or the supreme court or fill in the bank? >> and let's remember there were concerns about the capitol's budget because they were concerned they would run out of money. thankfully that crisis was averted. but the staffing issues was outlined there, people under real duress. certainly there's an internal probe, video footage of some

capitol officers seeming to wave on in some of the insurrectionists at the capitol. but most, to be clear, acted heroically and we know saved a lot of lives. it's hard to believe it's coming up on a year. it feels in some ways the moments of that day were still so fresh and terrifying, and at the same time it seems like we lived with this fefr. it was such a defining moment in our history. it could have been as bad as it was and it could have been far worse. we all remember images of some of the people in the chambers there with zip ties, wondering where they were going. we heard the chance with mike pence and nancy pelosi and others. we certainly know there were delays, willie, from the national gordon responding, from trump sitting there refusing to give the order. really that wouldn't be the case if that were to happen again with this new administration but it's something they're on high alert not just this thursday but going forward as violence seems to be sadly part of the natural

discourse. >> these extremist groups seemed to have shifted their mission again. a report on how they've not gone away, but they've just changed their tactics. >> stop the steal! >> reporter: january 6th, 2021. crowds marched to the u.s. capitol building. throngs of people grew into thousands. denise aguilar posted to social media that day saying she was there. >> the revolution is here, guys. we stormed the capitol and patriots broke open the doors. >> reporter: aguilar later said she never breached the building nor participated in violence, and since then, she's taken her fight back home. >> it's all about local legislation, your local school district or city council board of supervisors. so it kicked off as a national movement but it's now apparent to realizing we need to start coming to the local government.

>> reporter: her shift is part of a broader trend, according to jared holt, who studies extremist. >> domestic extremism is a fluid that matches the container it's in at any given moment. >> reporter: holt said following backlash and hundreds of arrests connected of those on the capitol, far right activists shifted their focus from national politics to local. >> a lot of the adaptations we've seen came in the form of kind of decentralizing these national movements. >> reporter: what are these extremists all talking about at the local level? what is the content? >> a lot of them are taking it upon themselves to reengage in the broader conservative culture war. >> we are here to protect the children of our community. >> reporter: for aguilar, who we met outside a local school board meeting in california, it's opposition to mandates. >> we figured out that going to the capitol and working that particular piece doesn't do anything because these legislators have already made up

their minds. >> reporter: she's the founder of a group called mama lisha and says her activism is peaceful. >> do we look violent to you? do we look like we're trying to storm any place? have i ever done anything violent in the capitol? absolutely not. >> reporter: like many who share her goal, aguilera uses alternative social media to organize and strategies. >> this is what they're doing at the school board meetings. >> reporter: the going-local tactics also being embraced by prominent white nationalists. >> this is the right approach, going to school board meetings and out to protest. >> reporter: and groups like the proud boys taking to the streets to protest public health measures. >> extremist groups have always seen the culture wars as a place that has enough anger and division already that it can be fruitful for them. >> reporter: are we in a better place now than we were on january 5th of last year? >> i do think there have been some reassuring signs but the

undercurrents and conditions that led to january 6th, this popularization of conspiracy theories, of extreme sentiments and ideologies is maybe more pernicious than it was last year. >> reporter: and with the focus off the nation's capitol for now, the impact is that extremism can be felt anywhere. >> so, mika, obviously people that are going around brandishing a military-style weapon are great reasons for concern, people threatening school board members, physically threatening school board members. obviously, a great concern over the past year. politicians who are even -- we've seen in congress, politicians that use violent imagery, also a deep concern. it's important we separate that from parents, from local activists who may disagree with us on mask mandates, vaccine mandates, who peacefully go

before a school board or who peacefully go before a city council and state their views. that's actually what we want. that's what we want in this country. we want people, we want activists, whether they're on the right or left, to take their case to city councils, to school boards, to organize, to run people for office, and have a democratic solution to these debates. but that -- that's not been happening enough this year. unfortunately we've seen a lot of violence, a lot of violent rhetoric, a lot of threats, a lot of conspiracy theories that obviously cause grave concerns. >> and when that happens, there's another challenge and that is there's a disagreement on what a fact is. and so that leads to some disinformation and people getting hurt indirectly because of that. so there's some complications now that we have in our national dialogue. joining us now ceo and national director of the anti-defamation

league, jonathan greenblatt. his new book out today is entitled "it could happen here: why america is tipping from hate to the unthinkable and how we can stop it." jonathan, if you could take us through this title even. where are we in terms of this tipping point on hate? >> well, unfortunately, mika, i think we're in a very frightening and delicate moment. really as laid out by the prior segment, what randy talked about and what jared talked about, these issues are very real. in the last not just 12 months but in the last 5 years, we've seen a normalization of extremism and a liberalism. we've seen a weaponization of anti-semitism and hate, and we've seen the amplification of the kind of intolerance and misinformation that you were just talking about. and i think many of us take for

granted this democracy. we take for granted that what we have here today will persist forever. but i wrote this book, and it's deeply personal as the grandson of a holocaust survivor from germany who never would have imagined as a young man that the only country he had ever known would start to regard him as an enemy of the state and literally slaughter his entire family and destroy anything he had ever known. i come to you today as a husband of a refugee from iran whose family's linage goes back thousands of years and never could have imagined some 40 years ago the only country they had ever known who turn on them and literally force them to flee for their very lives. today in this country, there's no natural law that dictates that democracy will persist, particularly if we allow these forces of extremism and liberalism to creep into the public square and further corrode our social fabric.

>> jonathan, there's data behind it. you can look what happened on january 6th but look at the data from a poll that was released this week. 40% of republicans, 40% of republicans think violence against america's government is okay. 41% of independents believe violence against america's government is okay. 4-10. it's just absolutely horrifying. but that is where we are. nobody's being melodramatic here. nobody is overstating the facts. of course, those of us who feared the coming ill liberalism in this country, always accused of being melodramatic, it plays out in the numbers. just ten years ago the idea that 40% of either party would say violence against the federal government is okay would be unthinkable. >> that's a great example of the normalization of extremism.

there have always been armed militias and there have always been anti-government activists like sovereign citizens and whatnot, but they were the lunatic fringe. they were on the margins. it was so deeply disturbing, it's how they moved from the margins to the mainstream. we have public persons and people in elected positions, joe, that deny this, that dismiss it and we do so at our own peril. make no mistake, those marauders who staged the terror attack -- and i would call january 6th the most predictable terror attack in the history of our country because they told us they were going to do it, they had zip ties, they intended to try members of congress and they were not distinguishing between republicans and democrats. their goal was to stop the certification of the election and it was literally to stage a kind of coup. this should worry you whether you're a liberal or conservative, republican or

democrat, this threatens all of us today. we simply have to recognize that fact if we want to change it. >> so there's always been a paranoid style in american politics. we've had john newsom coming on talking about it a good bit. even after pearl harbor for some time, people said fdr knew pearl harbor was coming but he wanted america to go to war so they just let the japanese bomb us. i grew up hearing lbj was responsible for the assassination of kennedy. we, of course, had the clinton chronicles where jerry falwell sold videotape saying bill clinton killed all of these people in arkansas. of course, i also heard that george h.w. bush was responsible for spreading crack around south central l.a. we actually had members of congress spreading that conspiracy theory. barack obama, of course, the

conspiracy theory that he wasn't born in america, he was a muslim secretly who wanted to impose sharia law on america. this paranoia has been with us for a very long time, as jonathan said, on the extremes but it was weaponized during the trump era. and january 6th was the best example of that, and these continued threats over the past year just show how extreme. and these polls show how these extremists have become mainstream in the republican party. >> absolutely. i mean, that classic essay by the historian richard hoss tetter about the paranoid style of american politics still looms larn, still is true in so many ways. but i think there's also the fact of our history, joe. there's been paranoia, of course, in our politics but there's also violence that has overshadowed in so many ways very dark moments in our

history. and the unthinkable has for some people in this country has been a kind of reality. the fact the country would turn its back on people, would sanction extra state violence, extra legal violence. this is nothing new. i'm thinking as i was listening to jonathan about a speech dr. king gave at a assembly where a rabbi introduced him. and dr. king said something that was really striking, he said america would have to face something we really don't want to face and that is how profoundly racist we are. and i'm quoting him, joe, "racism still occupies the throne of the nation." this is in 1968, right. of course, king would be dead within nine days of making that remark. i'm wondering, as i think about jonathan's claim and this question goes to jonathan, joe, what do you make of this history

of hate that has in some ways shadowed the democrat republic of the country? and this current iteration of hate in this moment as you kind of unpack what the unthinkable is? >> there's no question that this country has a history from the treatment of the indigenous people when this nation was founded to the enslavement of africans that has so characterized the growth of the country in the 1700s, 1800s, so the persistence of jim crow and unwillingness to accept immigrants, whether they were asian american or jews like my forebearers. hate has been an issue for a long time, and it isn't new as you're pointing out. and yet the other frightening thing that's happening today is you're seeing hate now being used and spoken so openly by the former president of the united states and his acolytes like steve bannon and the others who are literally making this overtly their open way they hope

to govern in the future. people like steve bannon are very open about the fact they want to dismantle the state and commit us to a kind of anarchy. i think that is profoundly troubling. there's another thing we need to point out. what's new about this today and makes this so insidious is the willingness of social media, which has so now dominated our public debate to amplify these voices. when dr. king was coming into the front, there were people like the john birch society and kkk who railed against him but it wasn't necessarily easy to find those people. for example, on the quivalent of "morning joe." but today thanks on facebook those faces are amplified to hundreds of millions of people, not on a daily basis but hourly

basis minute by minute with none of the filters and none of the checks and balances we used to have. i think that amplification is deeply frightening. if you think about everything from the anti-vax movement to this political extremism to the ugly breaking ballism, social media is a big determent to why we have these problems today. >> no question about it. it's a topic we hit almost every day on this show, there's a platform for like-minded people to gather on those issues. let's end the segment, jonathan, if we can, how we avoid the unthinkable in this country. what do you see as some prescriptions to get us off the track you believe we're on? >> i'm glad you asked. that's why i really wrote the book, what are strategies and tactics we can employ to stop this? number one, we have to call out hate when it happens, willie. i think it's so critical. neither side of the political spectrum is exempt from ignorance nor intolerance. whether you're on the left or right, all of us needs to call it out when it happens at the water cooler, on the college campus, house of worship.

number one, confront it. that's critical. number two, i think we need to be able to participate openly in our democracy. legislators who restrict the right to vote, community members who would impose their ideas on other people, we've got to stop that. we need to literally reinvigorate civil society. finally i think it comes back to a sort of social media and norms. willie, we have to move past the kind of moral relativism. there are absolute truths and real values like decency, humanism, tolerance. and we need to reinject those, i believe, into the public square. >> the new book is entitled "could happen here: why america is tipping from hate to the unthinkable and how we can stop it." ceo and national director of the anti-defamation league, jonathan greenblatt, thank you very much for coming on the show this morning. still ahead on "morning joe," ivanka trump and donald trump jr. get hit with subpoenas from new york's attorney

general. what we know about that new development in the fraud investigation surrounding the former president's business empire. plus, she was once a star in silicon valley. now elizabeth holmes could be headed to prison. we'll go over the mixed verdicts handed down in her fraud trial. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. right back.

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we are following the evolvement of the criminal investigation into president trump and his family's business empire.

>> reporter: overnight the latest moves against ivanka and donald trump jr., issuing subpoenas for documents and testimony from the former president's children as part of a tax fraud investigation into the trump business practices and whether the company inflated the value of assets for tax breaks and loans. the new york ag wants to question the former president under oath. mr. trump's other son eric has already been deposed in the case, meeting with investigators in october of 2020. the attorney general sued the ag to shut it down, calling it a political witch-hunt but james pressed ahead, declaring two years of delay tactics won't stop our investigation because nobody is above the law. the former president's children have played key roles in their father's business for decades and when mr. trump became president, he installed ivanka

as a top white house adviser, turning over control of the trump organization to his son. >> my two sons, who are right here, don and eric, are going to be running the company. >> reporter: legal experts say the trumps may have no choice but to comply. >> i think filing this motion indicates they will not be cooperative, they're going to fight tooth and nail every chance they get but i think ultimately a judge will order them to sit for the depositions. >> our thanks to nbc's hallie jackson for that report. and still ahead -- it's the end of the line for blackberry. >> oh, my. blackberry, we hardly knew you. >> i had a blueberry. >> we'll look back at the cell phone some thought they could never live without. >> it was an amazing device. e. staying up half the night searching for savings on your prescriptions? just ask your cvs pharmacist. we search for savings for you. from coupons to lower costs options. plus, earn up to $50 extra bucks rewards

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welcome back. an update on the blackberry phones many of us used to have, starting today the classic models will start working, signaling an end of an era for a phone that defined a generation. an older generation. >> i also loved those razr flipphones. >> nope, you're old. nbc's kerry sanders has more. >> reporter: before apple there was blackberry. >> blackberry! >> reporter: from presidents and politicians to celebrities and ceos, the phones with the signature keyboard quickly became a status symbol at the office and beyond. but now decades later, those phones are shutting down. blackberry discontinuing service for its classic models starting today, saying they will no longer reliably function. >> all good things come to an end.

>> reporter: at its peak in 2012, the company reported having 80 million active users. >> the blackberry used to be one the most popular phones in the world. it was easy to understand and use. it also had the keyboards that were really clicky and tactile. >> reporter: people everywhere were glued to their keyboards, which made answering emails for work -- >> all essential personnel will be issued blackberries for company use. >> gimme, gimme, gimme. >> reporter: -- or messaging friends through the platform easy and addicting. blackberries became crack berries for many. but eventually that once revolutionary keyboard became obsolete. they all have these keyboards that are there whether you need them or not to be there. what we're going to do is get rid of all of these buttons and just make a giant screen. >> reporter: with the rise of the touchscreen, apple's iphone and other devices took over and while blackberry tried to adapt with its own giant screen and new operating systems, the company came up short.

>> the new blackberry z10, built to keep you moving. >> reporter: and even some of its famous longtime users had to move on. >> we are now a security software company. 60% of our revenue comes from cybersecurity. >> reporter: the company now focused on providing security services to governments and businesses around the world. >> built to stand the test of time. >> reporter: as it officially pulls the plug on its old phones and finally says good-bye to a classic. >> our thanks to nbc's kerry sanders for that report. and still ahead -- a former rising star in silicon valley could be on her way to prison. a jury yesterday found elizabeth holmes guilty on multiple fraud charges. the impact the trial could have on other tech start-ups. >> see, the funny thing here, we will talk about this more, mika, men have been doing this for

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♪♪ now to that highly anticipated verdict in the elizabeth holmes trial. the silicon valley ex-ceo was found guilty yesterday of defrauding investors in her medical start-up theranos. nbc news correspondent erin mclachlan has the latest. >> reporter: elizabeth holmes was celebrated as the youngest self-made female billionaire in the world, left court a convicted felon, clutching the hands of her parents and husband. late monday a jury found her guilty of four fraudulent counts for conning some of her investors into believing her start-up theranos could perform

hundreds of diagnostic tests from cancer to hiv to pregnancy, with just a prick of a finger. prosecutors alleged holmes also duped patients who testified they received faulty blood test results, including one woman who said she was told she was miscarrying her baby. but the jury found holmes not guilty on multiple counts of defrauding patients. >> you all heard of something that will change our world. what higher purpose is there? >> reporter: her saga was the subject of documentaries, podcasts and upcoming hulu series starting actress amanda seyfried as holmes. the trial lasted for nearly four months. the prosecution repeatedly alleging out of time and out of money, elizabeth holmes decided to lie. in her defense, holmes shocked legal experts by taking the stand, arguing she acted in good faith, alleging during a decade-long romantic

relationship, she had been abused by the company's coo, ramesh sunny balwani, allegations he denies. the woman once hailed as the next steve jobs, facing up to 20 years behind bars. >> it's a tough job in silicon valley. the fake it until you make it, i don't think they will be living like that anymore. coming up -- how civil war starts. we're examining the dramatic rise in violent extremism around the globe and the potential for a second civil war in the u.s. "morning joe" is coming right back. coming right back

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after the attack we tried to get information from the justice department, about its investigation and the people who had been arrested. along with other news organizations, propublica sued for access to evidence they had been gathering. >> trump called us. >> i thought that there was going to be battles across the

country. i thought that there was going to be fighting. i kept thinking that we're going to go to like a civil war. >> in late november 2021 the doj made public its interrogation of daniel rodriguez who had admitted to assaulting a police officer. >> what do you want me to tell you? that i tased him? yes. i thought we were going to do something. i thought it was not going to happen like that. i thought trump was going to stay president. >> rodriguez has pleaded not guilty and his lawyers have argued that he was manipulated by the agents but his words echo the narratives i heard before. >> we felt that they stole the election that is correct they stole this country, it's gone, it's wiped out, america is over, it's destroyed now. >> that was the clip from the newly updated front line documentary "american insurrection" detailing where the investigation stands into last year's deadly attack on the u.s. capitol. joining us now the journalist leading the investigation for the film propublica reporter a.c. thompson. also with us, professor of

international relations at university of california san diego, barbara walters, is the author of the upcoming book entitled "how civil wars start and how to stop them." i want to start with a question about the update as to where the investigation stands in terms of the capitol insurrection. a.c., can you update us and what we get out of the film? >> one of the things that we looked at was we went to capitol hill and we talked to bennie thompson, the chair of the january 6th committee in the house, we talked to adam schiff, also in the house, also on the committee, and what's clear from talking to them is that they're interested in much more than the mechanics of what happened at the capitol, they're looking much more broadly at what led to that and what links it to the trump world, the trump campaign and trump himself and the events

of that day, but also they're looking at the broader environment that allowed january 6th to happen, the social media sphere, the disinformation, the conspiracy theories that are out there, and that was really interesting to us, because when you go around the country what you see are there's people around the country who are absolutely still motivated by this belief that 2020 was a historic fraud, that the election was bogus, that democracy essentially no longer exists in america. that was an animating concept for a large chunk of the republican base. >> so, a.c., how did we not see this coming? you talk about the failure of imagination that we heard after 9/11, that we had once again leading up to january the 6th. >> you know, it's interesting to me because in some ways having been in charlottesville at the

white power rally in 2016, a lot of things were similar to january 6th. the buzz on social media, the conversation on social media, was intensely violent, it was about hurting people, it was about bringing weapons, it was about, you know -- all the signs that you were going to have a disaster in either case were there, and i think a lot of us missed them in both cases. >> so, barbara, the title of your book is "how civil wars start and how to stop them." civil war is a term that we certainly don't throw around lightly here and i know you don't, either. what do you see right now that leads you to believe there may be at least the embers or some perhaps -- something that could stoke it to become something bigger than it is now? >> yeah, for the last 30 years i've been setting civil wars in places like syria, iraq, mozambique, northern ireland and one of the things that we've learned is that the same factors

tend to emerge no matter where these conflicts break out. for the last five years i've been watching many of these factors emerge here in the united states at a surprisingly fast rate, and it's the reason why i wrote the book. >> so, barbara, let's talk a little bit more about some of the disturbing signs that you see and what can be done here, you know, at this perilous moment, what can be done to prevent the nation from heading down that course? >> yeah, so i worked on a task force run by the united states government that looked at civil wars or looked at countries outside the united states. our job was to come up with a predictive model of where political instability and violence was likely to break out, and we found that two factors and really only two factors best predicted where civil war was likely to break out, the first was what we called inocracy, that's a fancy

term for partial democracy and the second factor was whether a country's population began to break down into racial, ethnic or religious political parties. and of course if you look at what's happened here in the united states over the last five years, our democracy has declined precipitously. after the january 6th insurrection, the united states was downgraded to a partial democracy for the very first time since 1800, and, of course, we are increasingly experiencing racial politics. so the two big factors that we know are warning signs for civil wars in countries outside the united states we're now seeing here. >> in another scene from the documentary, a.c., you interview capitol police officer harry dunn about his encounter with that violent mob that day. take a look. >> my number one thought was just to survive that day.

it was just to survive. at that time we had no clue what was going on. we were fighting for our lives, fighting for democracy, and how was this going to end? because we were hours and hours and hours -- it's got to end somehow. how is this going to end? >> did you think it might end with these guys overrunning this place? >> yeah, yeah, it crossed my mind. >> so i was interviewing recently an elected public official, he was here, he said, i think maybe that was an antifa event, it was meant to make republicans and trump supporters, maga people look bad. what do you think when you hear stuff like that? and he was here. >> the rioters that day in the building told us that donald trump sent us. i don't know how to make that any more clear to anybody. whether donald trump gave what they've been saying as the marching orders, whether he did or not, whatever, that's not -- that's not my job. i just know what i experienced,

i know what i went through and they were there because donald trump sent them according to them. donald trump sent us. >> propublica's a.c. thompson, thank you so much. the updated front line documentary "american insurrection" airs tonight on pbs and is streaming now online. worth watching. barbara walter, thank you as well. her new book sent titled "how civil wars start and how to stop them." thank you very much to you both for being on this morning. let's turn as we close out the show today to jonathan lemire. you have an update on the virginia traffic nightmare that we've been covering this morning. it's not over yet, i bet. >> no, it's extraordinary and it's not over yet. among those stuck in this traffic, united states senator, virginia senator tim kaine who tweeted just a few minutes ago, i started my normal two-hour drive to d.c. at 1:00 p.m. yesterday. 19 hours later i'm still not

near the capitol. he goes on to say his office is in touch with the state department of transportation about what's happening there and says please stay safe. thankfully the sun is up and the temperatures are warming somewhat there, but it is still very cold. there are people who have been there stuck now for nearly a day. many of them one would assume have long since run out of gas, therefore, maybe heat in their cars or power for their phones. this is a dangerous situation and it is simply unacceptable that in 2022 this could still happen for this long -- for a storm that was widely forecasted. we knew this was coming. >> yeah. yeah, willie, they knew this was coming. the incompetence shown by the state of virginia is just absolutely terrible and it could end up tragic. >> it really could. >> it could. the governor put out a statement saying his team has been working through the night to get people help, but, my god, they've been sitting there for almost a full day now some of these people. let's hope and pray that there is no tragedy that comes out of

this. it's extremely cold, you can see people's cars are failing them, they've run out of gas and power. let's hope for the best here. all right. we will be praying and also following this story live on msnbc all day. that does it for us this morning. we'll see you tomorrow morning on "morning joe." stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. ♪♪ good tuesday morning, i'm stephanie ruhle live at msnbc headquarters here in new york city. it is tuesday, january 4th, and we have a lot to cover this morning, so sit down and let's get smarter. this morning you are going to see a very big headline out there, one million now covid cases reported just yesterday. sounds very scary, but be careful. a lot of those cases were reported late because of the holidays. in some places health departments were shut down for the holidays and reported a week's worth of cases in just one day.