for getting up "way too early" with us on this friday morning and all week long. certainly a consequential week and we have lots to get to on "morning joe," including the fall-out from yesterday's strike in syria that killed an isis leader. the latest tensions now with vladimir putin in beijing talking to xi jinping and the two countries pledging to align their interests. "morning joe" starts right now. have a great weekend, everybody. the russian government we think is planning to stage a fake attack by ukrainian military or u.s. forces against russian sovereign territory or against russian-speaking people, to therefore justify their action. as part of this fake attack we believe that russia would produce a very graphic propaganda video which would include corpses and actors depicting mourners and images of

destroyed locations as well as military equipment at the hands of ukraine or the west. >> good morning. welcome to "morning joe." the united states accuses russia of planning to film a fake attack video and use it as justification for invading ukraine. we'll discuss whether russia really thinks that would work. that as russian president putin meets this morning with the leader of china, reaffirming their alliance. speaker nancy pelosi has a warning to u.s. athletes in beijing competing in the winter olympics. your free speech doesn't travel with you to china. we'll play for you what she said. also this morning, new signs of ex-president trump's hold over the republican party. today the rnc will vote on censuring two of the most vocal critics of the former president, liz cheney and adam kinzinger. we will read for you their preemptive ponces. we will get to that and much more on this friday, february

4th. along with willie and me we have the host of "way too early" jonathan lemire. former aide at the former bush and trump white house, elise jordan. richard haass is with us along with the host of msnbc "politics nation" and president of the national action network, reverend al sharpton. joe has the morning off. willie, a lot going on abroad, which is great we have haas with us this morning. but also here in the states frankly in the big apple there was big news. >> a busy friday morning including the opening ceremony of the olympics about to get going in beijing. we will talk about it in a second. as you say, we want to begin with president biden meeting with new york city mayor eric adams along with top officials from new york to discuss vans to reduce gun violence. crime is up 39% in new york this year according to the nypd.

nbc news national correspondent gabe gutierrez has details. >> reporter: under pressure to do more about surging crime, president biden in new york city meeting new mayor eric adams and others. >> we want to crack down on the flow of firearms used to commit violence. that includes taking on and shutting down rogue gun dealers. >> reporter: crime is already up 39% here this year, shootings up 32%, rape up 27%. even nonviolent crime like car thefts up 92%. >> reporter: so for you this rise in crime is real? >> the rise in crime is not only professional but it is personal and it is real. >> reporter: mayor adams, a former police captain, telling us he is rolling out new steps to combat gun violence including using facial recognition to identify suspects on the streets and deploying more police. >> the answer is not to defund

the police. >> reporter: and days ago adams met with the new progressive manhattan district attorney who sparked controversy saying he will not prosecute certain crimes to promote alternatives to jail, a move slammed by police including the widow of a fallen officer at her husband's funeral. >> i know you were tired of these laws, especially the ones from the new d.a. i hope he's watching you speak through me right now. >> has the manhattan d.a. gone too far? >> i believe he has to make the determination. we are going to arrest those who break the law and it is up to the d.a.s to do this part of the ball game, to properly prosecute those who break the law. >> reporter: it sounds like to me you think he has gone too far, is that correct? >> my opinion doesn't matter here. >> reporter: you're the mayor. >> i'm going to use all of the tools available to me to keep the city safe. >> reporter: days ago new york rocked again by this shooting at a brooklyn mall. before that, another in a bronx emergency room. >> translator: i don't believe

it. i don't want to accept it. >> reporter: kristine's 189-year-old daughter crystal was working the night shift last month at a burger king in harlem when a gunman robbed her. she handed over $100 from the register, he shot and killed her anyway. >> translator: i'm not okay. i can't sleep. i don't really eat and i don't feel safe. >> reporter: what is your message for president biden? >> translator: that they're the problem with guns. i don't know where they come from. >> gabe gutierrez reporting for us there. rev, it is a big moment obviously when the president of the united states comes to new york city in the mild of a crime wave and gun violence that this new mayor has been focused on since back in the campaign. it is partly why he was elected. what did you make of their meeting yesterday and what changes do you expect here in new york? >> i thought it was good, particularly when we seen the up tick in crime, and i always was equally concerned, which i told the mayor. i talked to the mayor.

that we not overstep where we need to go and start going back to stop and frisk and other things that would in many ways violate people's civil rights and violate where they are as citizens, which he agreed and which he said, rev, i worked with you for years as a cop that testified against stop and frisk. i thought the emphasis on ghost guns, i thought the emphasis on putting money in schools and early education, going to a school, was the right thing to do, but the devil is in the details. we must look at the actual plans and the execution of those plans to make sure that we are not going back into days where everyone is a suspect until proven innocent rather than innocent until proven guilty. >> as you say correctly, mayor adams said he does not want to bring back stop and frisk. >> right. >> but he has brought back already the plain clothed street crime unit mayor de blasio got rid of. >> right. the question becomes what will be the behavior of the plain

clothes policemen, just as uniform policemen, and what is going to be the guardrails that guide them. that's what many of us that have fought those battles are raising to the mayor and, frankly, the president. let's not forget, president biden was senator biden who championed the omni bus crime bill that many of us protested him and bill clinton on in the '90s. he has since said he went too far, they went too far. there's reason for us to pause and see what the real cause will be. >> john, let's look at this from the other side. that's the mayor's perspective. how about the white house, what were the politics behind the visit? >> certainly president biden wants to balance the interest of police reform with also fighting the uptick in crime we're seeing not just in new york city, not just in big cities but across the country. in adams he does see a kindred spirit. they like the idea he has a background as a police officer and kaulin for reform, but yet

pledging to bring down crime across the country. this is something white house aides have been worried about for quite sometime. crime has steadily visited. most can be attributed to the pandemic and they hope that begins to fade, but they recognize strategies need to change. they have been thwarted in their effort to have a crack down on guns, and they're looking to see if there's more they can do but for now it needs to be this push in giving resources to the states and municipalities to try to bring down crime where it is happening. >> he is also looking at polling. americans are worried about this. it is happening in their cities and towns. mika, mayor adams will be our guest an hour from now live on "morning joe". >> i look forward to that. let's go to overseas where u.s. officials are accusing russia of planning to release a faked attack video to use as an excuse to invade ukraine. could this work? nbc news chief foreign

correspondent richard engel explains. >> reporter: as russia builds up forces around ukraine, u.s. officials are warning of a possible russian plot to create a pretext for an vaccination, a propaganda campaign that would try to prove ukraine is attacking russian speakers here, complete with a video showing the faked aftermath of a ukrainian attack. >> as part of this fake attack we believe that russia would produce a very graphic propaganda video which would include corpses and actors that would be depicting mourners. >> reporter: the kremlin calling the accusations false. meanwhile, u.s. troops are heading to eastern europe. here is nbc's kerry sanders. >> reporter: today 1,700 plus soldiers with the 82nd airborne loaded up and shipped to poland which shares a border with ukrainian. they were given less than 18 hours to get ready, say goodbye to their families with no indication of when they will be

home. >> reporter: the pentagon calls the deployment temporary. >> new this morning, russia and china have signed a joint statement on calling on nato to halt its expansion, calling on the west to, quote, abandon the approaches of the cold war. righters reports the statements issued during russian president putin's visit to china for the olympics says he opposes taiwanese independence in any form. the meeting is chinese leader's xi jinping first face-to-face engagement with a foreign leader in nearly two years. richard haass, let's start right there. what are the implications? >> all sorts of things. russia doesn't much like what is going on in ukraine, not simply because of nato, the possibilities there. they don't like the example that

ukraine sets. they don't like the -- they don't want anyone in russia getting excited about ukrainian democracy. china looks at taiwan. again, they don't like the example taiwan sets. both of them want to have freedom to use force to create spheres of influence in their parts of the world, so there's some real parallelism there. what they agree on is they don't much like anything the united states is about, and they're increasingly banding together. russia also provides china a lot of the energy it needs, so they have found common cause. so it is no surprise that vladimir putin shows up at the opening of the olympics, which for xi jinping is a major, major opportunity to say china is back, we have gotten on top of covid, even though they have not. we can talk about that if you want, but it is a real sign these two countries have essentially forged -- i wouldn't call it an alliance but common cause against the united states. they have found lots that they agree on and lots they jointly

are against. >> richard, what do you make of the report about this so-called staged attack where russia could then claim that they were invaded? is this possible? where does it come from? >> yes, it is possible. mika, think about it. it is consistent with everything putin has done. he manufactures this crisis, puts north of 100,000 troops on ukraine's border and tries to portray russia as the victim, that russia is reacting to events and he has no choice but to do things. so this is the latest kind of potential trigger. what is really impressive here, and i think the administration deserves some points, is we are getting ahead of the russians, time and time again, the brits did it the other day, of the information game. we are finding out stuff they're cooking up. it is preposterous but we're getting out and essentially exposing it, so we're reducing the ability of russia to use these things as pretext. this is interesting. in recent years russia has been

good in the information space with cyber and we're beginning to see that the united states and the uk, our joint capabilities are catching up and in some way they can't create the pretext they won't. it doesn't mean they won't invade because if they want to invade they will. that's still the largest issue. are we doing enough to deter them? i think the thrust of u.s. policy over the past few weeks has been very good. i don't think putin counted on the kind of response he is facing militarily, diplomatically, the threat of sanctions. i think we wrong footed him. that to me explains why they keep it looking for new things to introduce here. >> depending on the day, depending on who you ask, he is going to invade, he is not going to invade, he is going to wait until the olympics are over, he's going to use the olympics as cover to go in. has the strategy changed? biden talked about moving 3,000 troops into eastern europe, for

example. do you think putin is looking at it different than he did a month ago? >> i still don't see what the face-saving move for vladimir putin right now is to not invade. that's what i'm concerned about, richard. how is there a way for this to deescalate that putin still saves face, which as we know what he needs. this is ideological to him, whereas we know the american people is not going to be necessarily supportive of going into ukraine. >> i think he has three options. one, he can take some of the diplomatic things being offered to him in the way of arms control, new talks in europe, pull backs of certain kinds of forces. two, he can do something almost parallel. he can say you are going to put forces in my backyard, i'm going to roo introduce some forces in your backyard. remember the cuban missile crisis? maybe with bombers this time, he could do something like that. thirdly, he could do the so-called minor incursion, some kind of smaller intervention. not with 100,000 troops, grab a little land in the east of

ukraine and he could basically say, if i do something small the germans and the americans will not be on the same page. the sanctions i will then get hit with are much more modest. i think you have lee options. diplomatic, something parallel or to do something smaller. >> lots of things happening at the same time, richard. there's this angle. house speaker nancy pelosi warned american athletes competing right now in beijing not to use these games as a venue for protest. >> i would say to our athletes you're there to compete. do not risk incurring the anger of the chinese government because they are ruthless. i know there is a temptation on the part of some to speak out while they are there. i respect that, but i also worry about what the chinese government might do to their reputations, to their families.

>> wow. the u.s. among several other nations has enacted a diplomatic boycott of the games, citing china's human rights abuses. richard, what do you make of that? what do you make of speaker pelosi's comments? >> i understand where she is coming from. i respectfully disagree. yes, it is going to be risky for athletes to say something, but let's be honest. this olympics takes place against a backdrop of massive repression in china. the united states government has termed it genocide. it is clearly a crime against humanity. now, china doesn't want these olympics to get undermined, so i actually think there's a bit of deterrence here. i think they're going to think twice before they take actions against athletes because then you could have a massive, massive blowup at the olympics. i think our athletes have more leverage than the speaker was suggesting, but i will be honest with you, mika. i understand there's a risk, but i think individual athletes have to make a judgment, and

nonviolent protests in the history of this country, it is in our dna. i don't like the idea of an american official telling americans don't speak out against massive injustice, leave your principles at home, you are just an athlete. no, athletes are citizens, too. so, again, i'm not on the same page here. >> not exactly the spirit of mexico city in '68 there, but athletes have -- we may find out in a few minutes at the opening ceremony. some american athletes have signalled they will protest. they haven't said how they're going to do it, when or where they're going to do it, but american athletes likely will step over the line nancy pelosi just drew and it will be fascinating to see what happens after that. >> yes, certainly a long, rich tradition of athlete protests at home and abroad. we have seen it with the nfl and other sports and in mexico city, a number of times it happened overseas. the biden administration is watching carefully. they've not issued a warning as speaker pelosi did but they're not sending representation.

there is a diplomatic boycott, elise. they will be watching carefully to see what happens. they know it is a huge stage. they know xi jinping wants it to go well, though sending an ominous note by bringing vladimir putin to town right beforehand. what do you think the athletes should do? >> i think richard is right. they have more leverage than nancy pelosi is giving them credit for and he was far more diplomatic than i'm going to be in saying it is shameful what she said, it is shameful to tell our athletes going abroad and representing our nation that their free speech should be stifled because we are worried about repression. why are we sending our athletes to a country if we're so in fear for their physical safety that they cannot speak out and protest injustices which are happening in china on such a huge level, what is going on, you know, with the uyghur camps. it just blows my mind. >> rev, if you listen to speaker pelosi she sounds genuinely concerned about the physical safety of these athletes.

that's what she expressed -- >> and i appreciate that because it is real, but i respectfully disagree with the speaker here. i usually am supportive of her. because you cannot normalize what they're doing in china, and to go there and act like all is well is to normalize some very brutal behavior. i think it would be incumbent on them to say this is not the world ought to be functioning, and i think we do it at home. certainly we're raising questions right now with the nfl with this new lawsuit that many of us are supporting. so we are supposed to leave our principles of protest at the -- when we check in at customs? i don't think so. we need to let china know, you live in a world that human rights is nonnegotiable. >> mika, as i say, several american athletes have said they will protest in some form. it could happen shortly at the opening ceremony, maybe it happens down the road or over

the next two weeks but many of the athletes said no thanks to nancy pelosi on this. >> we will be following this. still ahead on "morning joe," new details are emerging about the u.s. raid on the isis leader in syria. the biden administration is calling the mission a success, but what kind of threat remains? we'll talk to brett mcguirk, the national security council's middle east coordinator about just that. plus, just how strong is donald trump's grip on the gop? we may find out when the rnc votes on censuring two of his most vocal critics today. think about that. also ahead, a look at biden's efforts to prevent a republican takeover. also, the latest from the fall-out from the so-called party-gate scandal. you are watching "morning joe." we will be right back. "morning.

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try boost glucose control®. it's clinically shown to help manage blood sugar levels and contains high quality protein to help manage hunger and support muscle health. try boost® today. whew, it is ugly at reagan international airport. 6:25 in the morning. it will be ugly all day. parts of the east coast, prepare wisely. the end zones meanwhile are already painted at sofi stadium in inglewood, california, as we're nine days away from super bowl lvi. but the game is not the biggest story. former denver broncos general manager john elway. the hall of famer said he could not be silent any longer regarding claims made in a class action lawsuit filed by former

dolphins' coach brian flores. it alleges elway and others showed up an hour late to interview him for a coaching job in 2019. the suit claims they looked dishevelled and it was obvious that they had been drinking heavily the night before. elway responded calling the accusations false and defamatory. he wrote in part, for brian to make an assumption about my appearance and state of mind early that morning was subjective, hurtful and just plain wrong. if i appeared dishevelled as he claims it was because we had flown in during the middle of the night and were going on little sleep. i interviewed brian in good faith, giving him the same consideration and opportunity as every other candidate for the coach position. then addressing the text messages he received informing them the giants made the head

coach decision three days before he was scheduled to interview. they called the allegations disturbing and simply false. the seem said it did not decide on the new coach until the day after flores's second interview and a day long visit with the giants. rev, you have brian flores on your show this weekend. we look forward to the interview. i know you have been in touch with him about all of this. what is his response to the team's response? >> he will be on "politics nation" tomorrow. i think that the evidence of this text message, the fact that we are looking at 32 teams and only one black coach in 32 teams and no black owners, i mean they -- they can go through nitpicking all they want with trying to justify things. the fact of the matter is that the nfl, which civil rights leaders, me as the head of

national action network, head of the naacp and the urban league and all, are asking goodell to meet because how do you explain what flores is raising in terms of the industry as a whole, has not lived up to their whole commitment when they went with the rooney rule. it has not worked. when you look at the overall picture and you bring in what he is saying, the allegations, it matches. if that is not the case, goodell has a responsibility to sit with people. he must remember that taxpayers and municipalities help to fund these stadiums. you are talking about our tax dollars in an industry where we can't be coaches and where we can't be owners? so goodell needs to come to the table and deal with this and deal with this lawsuit. we are not talking about just people out there that love the sport. you are talking about using taxpayers' dollars to support systemic discrimination and i think flores brought it back to

the forefront. >> john, the rooney rule which requires minorities to be interviewed for positions went into place in 2003. as we hit here today the only team with a black head coach is the pittsburgh steelers with mike tomlin who has been there for a long time. another vacancy was filled last night by doug pederson, a long-time coach. we are down to i think three others, he is up for one of the jobs, perhaps two. it remains to be seen if we go into next season still with one black head coach in the nfl. >> and it is a league where 65%, 70% of the players are african american. to only have one head coach -- you can track it to the nba where there's better representation in the coaching ranks. give credit to flores, though he is still a candidate for these jobs, he has said flatly, i may never work in the nfl again if there is some reciprocity here for bringing the lawsuit. we saw what happened to colin kaepernick. he is putting his career in

jeopardy to stand up for what he believes in and alleging the idea some owners are paying bonuses, richard haass, to teams and coaches to get them to lose, the idea of tanking, which undermines the competitive balance, the integrity of the support. flores said it happened with the dolphins. we heard hue jackson say-so with the cleveland browns. that's extremely dangerous to the nfl's future. >> that is corrosive. i thought philadelphia eagles may have done it last year in order to approve their draft position. no, this goes back 100 years in baseball. it is not a gambling scandal. it is a scandal that is totally corrosive to the game if teams are going to throw games to get better draft choices. the nfl has twin challenges, both very, very different, both very serious. mr. goodell is in the hot seat on both. actually, a third challenge. you know, the washington football team, the commanders, the new charges against dan schneider for the toxic environment there.

>> yeah. >> the nfl suddenly has things coming at it from any and every direction. super bowl is the least of the stories. >> there's an assistant coach, coordinator for the chiefs who was a young star, a black coach who may get one of the jobs as well. he has led the chief's offense. what does brian flores from your conversations, and we will learn more from him this weekend on your show, what does he think is reasonable and what can be done? as you say there's no black owners, one black head coach. the general managers by and large are not black. how do you change the dynamic? >> well, if you read the lawsuit as our attorneys did, michael hardy at national action network, they have certain steps goodell and the nfl can do across the board and also having an outside monitor to deal with a lot of these things because there are different layers of discrimination or exclusion that has happened. so i think the lawsuit, which is a class action suit, is well

thought out, gives steps. and if they're sincere about dealing with these things, they will sit down and deal with this lawsuit and deal with those of us that are supportive. if they just try to pooh-pooh, i think it is guilt by not coming to the table. >> jimmy haslam said that hue jackson never paid to lose, never took responsibility. haslam told the knoxville news sentinel, unequivocally hue jackson was never paid to lose games. he added hue jackson has never accepted any responsibility for our record during that time period. he's been masterful at pointing fingers but has never accepted any blame. if you go 1 and 31 you might lose your job, no matter who you are. coming up next, how do you get voters to the polls when you keep telling them the elections

are rigged? trump-endorsed republicans are walking that tight rope right now. can they have it both ways? "morning joe" is back in a moment. "morning joe" is back in a moment mission control, we are go for launch.

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37 past the hour today. the republican national committee will consider a resolution that would censure congresswoman liz cheney and congressman adam kinzinger, the two republicans sitting on the house select committee investigating january 6th. the measure was advanced by a smaller rnc panel last night. a close ally of former president david bose originally submitted

the proposal. in it it called for them to be dispelled from the party but yesterday it was watered down to a censure. the resolution says the party must not be sabotaged by cheney and kinzinger. it claims they support democratic efforts to destroy the former president more than they support winning back a republican majority in 2022. the resolution calls for the rnc to, quote, immediately cease any and all support of them as members of the republican party for their behavior, which has been destructive to the institution of the u.s. house of representatives, and the rep party, and our republic, and is inconsistent with the position of the conference. it is unclear whether the measure will be approved today, but both cheney and kinzinger have already responded. congresswoman cheney tweeted in part this. the leaders of the republican party made themselves willing hostages to a man who admits he

tried to overturn a presidential election. i'm a constitutional conservative and i do not recognize those in my party who have abandoned the constitution to embrace donald trump. history will be their judge. i will never stop fighting for our constitutional republic no matter what. congressman kinzinger released a state writing in part this, rather than focus their efforts on how to help the american people, my fellow republicans have chosen to censure two lifelong members of their party for simply up holding their others of office. they've allowed conspiracies and toxic tribalism hinder their ability to see clear eyed. joining us now, former chairman of the republican national committee, michael steele. he is an msnbc political analyst. michael, i was having a hard time reading the reasons they're doing this because they sound so

ridiculous and sound like they should be levied at the actual people doing the censure. >> yeah. >> again, i feel like this effort to embarrass them is them continuing to support something that's not going to age well. >> you're absolutely right, mika. there's no doubt about it. this is another form of projection. the very words they throw at liz and adam apply to them. and the fact that, you know, liz got it exactly right. you know, this is a party that has willingly allowed itself to become hostage to donald trump. to what end? how do you think it is going to end? the broadest test for the country and i have been saying this and will continue to say it through the november elections, folks, these people, as my mama would say, are showing you their behind. they are showing you their behind. so what do you think happens when you give power back to

them? what do you think happens when kevin mccarthy or jim jordan is sit thing? who do you think gets censured then? >> yeah, what an image. >> here's the sweet part, mika. here is the sweet part. these idiots actually think trump won't turn around and come after them. just ask lindsey graham in the last week. he comes out and says, oh, the president -- you know, this idea of pardoning the january 6th rioters and insurrectionists, that's not a good idea, trump within 24 hours, well, that rino, you know. >> uh-huh. >> so this is the space these people are bargaining in. there is no good outcome. this is an embarrassment for the national party. you've made it harder now for candidates running in local and statewide elections to run good races because the first test will be for them, well, which

butt cheek of donald trump are you willing to kiss. >> wow. >> so that would be the standard for a national party, and that's what this action by my national committee man here in the state of maryland, who wanted to expel them, you know, has taken. so the test now for the rnc, which is one that they failed, falls to the candidates out there around the country. do you buy into this crap or do you stand with liz and adam? i choose to stand with liz and adam because they -- they are good -- you may disagree with them on policy, but when it comes to the dignity of the constitution and the rights that we all have under it, they're willing to stand for all americans and protect that. this action taken by the party says, we don't care about those things. the only thing that matters to us is what donald trump thinks of us. that's not a national party. >> yeah, no, and there were some great mental images in there, michael steele. still trying to get over though.

elise jordan, jump in. i feel that they're doing something that is dangerous on many levels including the fact that -- i mean these two republicans should be allowed to use their voices, and so this seems sub versive in a number of ways. >> well, it just shows, mika, the ruling elites of the republican party are clamping down on all dissent when it comes to challenging donald trump. the trump purity test is still very strong among the people who are literally making the rules as to how the republican party operates. so even if donald trump's popularity falls slightly and you see a poll here and there that shows that some soft trump supporters would maybe support ron desantis or another republican in the primary, how does it change when the body that controls ultimately everything at the end of the day and the coronation process is

still wholly owned subsidiary of donald trump? i think that's what we're seeing from this meeting of rnc officials this week. >> rev, the bottom line in all of this is, if you boil it straight down to what we're seeing, is a minority position in the republican party right now to say that january 6th was bad, that a coordinated effort to overturn a presidential election, to stage a coup is bad. that's the minority position. if you hold that position you will be run out of the party or at least marginalized by the party. the mainstream view is that was okay. >> and you will be punished. i mean i think what is happening today is even beyond that you are a minority view. you will be punished for saying that. i think that that is a dangerous precedent, and it shows that they are officially showing as a party that they have become subservient to donald trump. i must say though, i have known michael steele for many years. he is a republican. i am a democrat. but i think our mother's hung

out together because my mother used to say the same thing. >> i hear you. okay. meanwhile -- >> mika, mika, can i make one quick real point here? >> yeah, okay. >> the great irony is this is the same group of folks who rail against democrats and rail against others about cancel culture. this is the ultimate in cancel culture right here. i think people should understand -- >> you're so right. >> -- exactly what we're looking at taking place inside the gop right now. >> that is a really great point. talk about cancel culture. meanwhile, in nevada perhaps no top nevada republican has raised more doubts about the state's election system than u.s. senate candidate adam lacksal, the former state attorney general who still says the 2020 election was rigid

after fruitlessly trying to overturn the results. >> a majority of nevada voters know we didn't have a secure election. we have no voter id. we do not have valid signature verification. so this is a fight we have to keep pressing forward on because, you know, quite obviously if we can't have safe elections then people are not going to turn out, they're not going to believe in the system. >> just unbelievable. that and watching trump the other day and these people who i guess are -- they say they're journalists sitting there nodding, just nodding, not asking any real questions or pushing back with real information. hard to watch. really painful. joining us now, senior national political reporter for nbc news mark caputo. he is out with new reporting on laxalt's senate run and what it says about the challenges for republicans campaigning in the era of the so-called big lie. mark, again, the big lie, hopefully, won't age well. it doesn't look like it is going

to age well when you look at some polls and different narratives that are happening throughout the country. at the same time they push it, they push it for trump, and i guess because there is a base out there that's holding on to it. >> yeah, well, what is interesting here, and my reporting showed, is that laxalt kind of publicly and the media cast doubt broadly on the statewide election system in nevada. in more intimate, semi private campaign events he is telling republicans in the rural counties of nevada, hey, look, those problems i'm describing doesn't apply to you guys, your votes are legitimate. i know you don't have faith in the system but i need you to tell your neighbors and i need you to go vote and have faith in it. on one hand laxalt is casting widespread doubts on the election, on the other hand he now feels compelled to tell his own base, hey, look, i know you have doubts about the election but i really need you to show up

and go vote and bring your neighbors with you. now, if you remember just over a year ago we saw this dynamic sort of play out in the twin senate special elections in georgia where there were widespread doubts sowed by president trump about the election results and election machinery in georgia and his allies, and a lot of voters didn't show up. the degree that adam laxalt runs to the far right could be problem in a general election, but on the other hand republicans in general think it will be a good year for them so it will kind of cancel out and biden's lack of popularity nationwide in the state will drag him down and help laxalt beat the incumbent democratic senator. >> it is interesting you mentioned the state of georgia. david purdue who is challenges

kemp to be the next governor of the state of georgia just received donald trump's support but he is going all in on the big lie. he has hitched his wagon to donald trump in doing so. for those who are walking this tight rope, how is it going over with voters? what are republican voters saying and how are they responding to it? >> if you look at the general election polling laxalt is trailing cortez masto in the state. it is inside the error margin but she is up by a few points. in the primary he is against veteran sam brown and he is ahead. that's because his grandfather because a senator there, and he did run unsuccessfully in 2018 so he has an advantage. laxalt like her shell walker in georgia is one of those who have the endorsement of donald trump and mitch mcconnell.

those two are at loggerheads in their picks but in these there's a consensus. in the general election, nevada being a swing state a lot of votes are found in the middle. the question is to what degree is he ee stranging himself too far from the middle. >> nbc's mark caputo, thank you very much for your reporting this morning. michael steele, thank you as well very much for being on this morning, bringing your mental images. no, thanks for sticking around. still ahead, three big guests on three big headlines. mayor eric adams on new york city's crackdown on crime. nato's secretary general on the standoff with russia. and the white house point person for the middle east on president biden's takedown of a global terrorist. we will be right back. terrorist. we will be right back.

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54 past the hour. now to one impact of the pandemic that perhaps hasn't gotten as much attention as it should. the red cross has declared a national blood crisis as covid continues to sweep the country, saying it is the worst blood shortage in more than a decade. nbc news correspondent jacob soboroff has the details. >> reporter: inside the california facility processing more blood than anywhere else in america, the crisis is easy to see. normally this refrigerator would be filled with blood donations. take a look. this is only a tiny fraction of the normal supply and that could have life-or-death consequences. the red cross handles 40% of the nation's blood supply. what happened? >> we had been managing through the pandemic over the last couple of years, and when the latest surge hit we had a

significant reduction in the number of people donating blood. >> reporter: with school blood drives down 62% due to covid, the red cross's top source of donations has largely disappeared. >> you are at a one-day supply of bood right now? >> one day supply of blood. >> reporter: this l.a. trauma center was forced to shut down because of the shortage. >> there have been instances where hospitals have had to either cancel elective surgeries or make significant decisions based on the inventory that we have available. >> reporter: andre robinson runs this 24/7 operation. >> this is still empty? >> this is still a little empty. i have not seen a situation like this before and i have actually been in the organization for over 20 years, and this is the worses crisis i have seen in a long time. >> nbc's jacob soboroff with that story for us. we will be following it as this develops. coming up, the new details we are learning about the raid that ended with the death of the leader of isis. plus, president biden talks

policing with new york city mayor eric adams. both make it clear the defund the police movement is not the answer. we'll dive into what is with mayor adams himself when he joins us next hour. "morning joe" is coming right back. " is coming right back (burke) with farmers auto multi-policy discount, the more policies you have with us, the more you could save on your auto insurance. (man) hey, hon! (wife) hi, honey! (man) like what? (burke) well, you'd get a discount for insuring your jet skis... and boat...rv...life... ...home and more. you could save up to forty-five percent. (man) that's a whole lot of discounts. (burke) well, we offer coverage for a whole lot of things, and you could save a whole lot of something with farmers policy perks.

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and every day in this country 316 people are shot, 106 are killed and six nypd officers have been victims of gun violence so far just this year. the same in a town north of me, philadelphia, and my much smaller town in delaware, 56 children injured and 26 killed. the enough.

enough is enough. we know we can do things about this but for the resistance we are getting from sectors of the government and the congress. >> president biden says he wants every major city to follow new york city's lead in fighting crime. mayor eric adams, a former cop himself, has launched an effort to crack down on violence in the city, telling the president he's, quote, reporting for duty and ready to serve. mayor adams joins us straight ahead. but first this hour, the big news on the national security front. the new details we are learning about the u.s. special ops rate raid in syria taking out the leader of isis. nbc correspondent courtney kube has the latest. >> reporter: daylight and the aftermath of a night-time u.s. military raid in northwestern syria targeting and killing the leader of isis. his name abu ibrahim al hashimi

al qureshi. the u.s. identified his location in early december and after weeks of practicing president biden gave the military the green light on tuesday. u.s. special operators arrived near the compound via helicopters moving to the building where al qurayshi was believed to be living. they used bull horns urging everyone to leave. before they could set foot inside, a massive explosion on the third floor, detonating a bomb killing himself, his wife and two children. meanwhile, one of his deputies fired on u.s. troops and was killed along with his wife and child. officials say no u.s. troops were injured or killed during the mission. neighbors didn't know the isis leader was living among them, saying -- >> translator: the guys who lived here were renting. we don't know who they were.

>> reporter: with civilians in the area, the military chose a raid rather than an airstrike. >> the president was trying to avoid civilian harm. >> reporter: a maintenance issue grounded one u.s. helicopter and troops blew it up before departing syria after two hours on the ground, the administration calling the mission a success. >> it sent a strong message to terrorists around the world. we will come after you and find you. >> all right. let's bring in white house coordinator for the middle east, brett mcgurk. he formerly served as presidential envoy for the global coalition to defeat isis. still with us, jonathan lemire, elise jordan and richard haass and mike barnicle joins us as well. brett, any new details on the killing of this isis leader? given this big hit, what is the strategy moving forward? >> mika, it is great to be here. i think courtney's report summed it up quite well. one thing not mentioned in the report and this took months of

planning because in the ground floor of that building was a family, a wife and husband and four children, that we don't believe had any idea, knew who was on the third floor. we were focused on that family because one of the assumptions in the plan, we wanted to capture al qurayshi, known as abdullah, but we assumed like al baghdadi he might decide to kill himself. we actually rehearsed and the president in the back and forth asked about the structural stability of the building. we had engineers determine if there was an explosion on the third floor the lower level would remain sound. that's the extraordinary planning that the military undertook to make this load. this was not just al baghdadi's

successor but the right-hand man, orchestrator of the genocide of tens of thousands. he was orchestrator of enslaving thousands of yazidi girls. of course, nothing here ever goes according to plan, but this did go kind of as we had planned it out. we had done every contingency over months of planning and tremendous credit to our military team that carried out the operation. >> hey, brett, good morning. it is richard haass. i agree, it was a really impressive operation and the troops and everyone involved deserves i think a lot of credit. one of the things that came out is we seem to have revived cooperation with the syrian kurds. a week ago or so in the prison situation and now this. can you say something about where this leaves the united states in syria more broadly in the middle east? it looked like we were essentially departing and it now looks as though we have an open-ended presence and, again,

we've re-recovered, if you will, our ability to cooperate with some local forces. >> richard, it is a great question. look, we have really tried to reset our position in the middle east. we want a sustainable presence. this type of operation is rare, but we have partners that do these things every day. we train and advise. we made clear, our administration, we're not in syria to take the oil, we're not in syria for any other reason other than to remain and keep appreciature on isis. we have a small number of u.s. forces and that's the reason we are there and we reestablished our partnerships with the syrian kurds and with the iraqi government who played a role in this. we feel good about that. so re-establishing our partnerships around the world has been a driving theme over the first 13 months of our time here. >> on that point with allies throughout the world we maintain

relationships with, isis basically, is it not just a franchise operation now? this was one operation the other evening, but isis in the philippines and afghanistan certainly, but especially in africa, how stretched thin are our weaponry, our tactical forces in combatting this? >> well, we -- i mean isis is a global organization. every isis affiliate pledged allegiance to abdullah, the isis leader killed the other night and it is important to keep in mind. he was running by couriers, trying to keep in his hand and coordinating the global network. a lot of these affiliates take advantage of local insurgencies and a lot are local problems that can't threaten us at home, yet we work to keep pressure on them with our partnerships. this situation in syria not long ago 8 million were living under isis, its ability to project

power throughout the region and around the world was extremely serious. hajjie abdullah was working to try to reconstitute the network. i don't think he would have succeed but they'll have a harder time now. as things go, we are already following up on this operation. not only learning lessons from it but what did we learning about hajjie abdullah's operations, where is it going to lead? we think we have a good chance to uproot this network. >> hey, brett. good morning. jonathan lemire. this raid happened in a tough part of syria, land controlled by militant groups with ties to al qaeda. it seems from reporting some of the airspace needed for the u.s. to get there was controlled by the russian military. was moscow given a sign this was coming at a moment when we have increased tensions with the russians right now? >> jonathan, again, a great question. it goes to the complexity of these types of endeavors. we had a whole tiktok in terms of who we had to notify and

when. indeed, we had to fly through airspace controlled by the russians and they were notified through a military deconfliction channel, hey, we're coming, don't come into these areas. we had to notify others in the area. we had the russians to the south, syrian regime forces that are friendly to us, and controlling this residential area where the leader of isis was living is another terrorist group known as hts, an affiliate of al qaeda, and members of that organization fired at one of our helicopters. so the complexity of this operation, which was just extraordinary, and i have to say we first really -- the operational commanders came into the white house on december 20th and ran through every detail with the president. we had a tabletop model of the home in the situation room. the questions, the back and forth, particularly about the families, about notifying, deconflicting with the returns, the platform, just step by step

detail and planning. joe biden was essential to this throughout, from the beginning of the intelligence leads from the beginning of the summer over the fall when we found and fixed this mission and planning the first operational meeting in december until the final go order in the oval office on tuesday. >> greg, good morningie. it is willie geist. one of the biggest concerns was the speedy withdrawal from afghanistan when 13 military members were killed, one of the big concerns was what afghanistan would become, a place for terrorists to gather and plot. what is your assessment since the withdrawal about where afghanistan is and what kind of threat it may pose to the united states? >> isis-k, of course isis-k pledged allegiance to hajjie abdullah so it will have an effect on them. our counterintelligence is working to maintain pressure on that network. afghanistan is very far from

american shores and we have a lot of tools to make sure that the networks that exist in afghanistan cannot reconstitute in a way that threaten us and that's the driving focus when it comes to that part of the world. >> all right. white house coordinator for the middle east and north africa, brett mcgurk. thank you for being on this morning. still ahead on "morning joe," new york city mayor eric adams is standing by. he joins us on the heels of his meeting with president biden yesterday on combatting gun violence. plus, mark zuckerberg is still rich but not quite as rich. the facebook founder lost billions of dollars as the company took a huge hit on wall street. we'll tell you what caused the stocks to sink. as we go to break, this week on "mika straight up" i was able to sit down with marlon ginsberg. wow! what a talk. she lost everything. she was over 50 and she hit rock

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the defund police movement is dead in new york city, and good riddance. any elected official who is advocating for the abolition or even the defunding of police is out of touch with reality and should not be taken seriously. >> the answer is not to defund the police. it is to give you the tools, the training, the funding to be partners, to be protectors and community needs you. >> president biden again saying the defund the police movement is not the answer, a message shared by democratic congressman ritchie torres of new york as you heard at the top. also new york city mayor eric

adams who joins us now. mr. mayor, thank you for being on the show. let's dive right in. i want to hear what happened at the meetings yesterday. if defund the police is not the answer, what is? tell us about the meeting. >> well, it is a combination -- sorry, good morning. thank you for allowing me to be on the show. it is a combination, and i talk about it using the metaphor that we're dealing with a sea of violence and many rivers are feeding, you know, this sea, and we need our state lawmakers, our court system to operate. most importantly, the meeting we had yesterday was to say to the president, let's stop the flow of guns in our city and cities across america. 6,000 guns were removed off the streets of the city of new york last year. over 400 were removed this year. there's an endless flow. we are going to do our job but we need help on the federal level, and arming our federal

entities just is. >> mayor, it is willie geist. good to see you this morning. >> thank you. >> as you well know as a former police officer, now as the mayor, when you talk to cops in your city they will tell you one thing, we have to change the bail law at the state level. because they are seeing the same things, they arrest them and a couple of times a week they may see them. judges say, we agree with you but our hands are tied because of the laws. will you be looking at that as mayor? do you think it ought to be changed? >> that's one of the rivers we must dam, the bail law, and also to raise the age. both of them, we need to tweak those laws in certain areas. it is unimaginable that right now judges cannot look at a dangerous person that can actually do imminent danger in a city and not say, this person should not be released. that is the aspect of the bail law that we're looking at and asking lawmakers to revisit. we believe in the criminal

justice reform, we must be clear on that. but when you do an analysis of reform, you must also have the balance of public safety, and right now the way it stands with raise the age and possession of a gun and the bail law where judges cannot use dangerousness as an assessment, 49 states are doing that. new york should be one of them as well. >> yeah, rev, the judges say, "our hands are tied." they may agree with the police in some cases on this where they've got somebody in front of them, the prosecutor says this person should be held without bail and the judge says, "i can't do that because of the law." >> i think that's true, but i think that at the same time we've got to deal with what has been raised by many of us with reform. we are talking about petty crimes. >> right. >> i think the distortion that we are talking about people that would do what happened to killing a policeman. we are not talking about people with guns like that, which brings me to you, mayor adams. you and i talked right before the meeting with the president a

few nights ago, and you have been one of the leaders of reform when you were a policeman. i think the devil is in the details. it is easy for people to say, oh, we're against defund the police, but it is where are we going to fund them and where do we draw the line where we protect people's civil liberties. you have said, i will meet with all of the reformers but we need black law enforcement groups at the table because on the one hand we don't want to see police being brutal and having fatalities that police have been charged with. on the other hand, we can't have policemen killed in harlem or shot in far rockaway statement, and our community is not anti-police. they're anti-police brutality. let's not forget the mother of who killed those cops called the police. we called for police for assistance. so it is about drawing the line. i think you are the perfect one to really sit down with these groups as the bible said, maybe you have come for such a time as this. i think i heard you call that at

the national action network one time. >> esther 4:14, one of my favorite scriptures, rev. you are right. you are dead on. let me tell you what is happening right now. we are not listening to each other. mother used to say, "seek to understand and then seek to be understood." there is an energy out there that we don't want to even have a conversation. people tell me, "well, you know, you're not doing anything for foster children." i say, "darn it, read the report." the report is not just a twitter feed. it is about sitting down, using my experience as a reformer and criminal justice, as a former police officer and a person who was a victim of police abuse, to come up with the dams we need to put in the rivers that's feeding crime. i look forward to talking to all of the advocates across the aisle because i have fought with these advocates to address the criminal justice reform that we needed, but it must be a balance. we must have reform with safety.

the reformist wrote these bills. they did not have those who were advocate for public safety in the right way in the room. >> mr. mayor, in the clip we played from president biden as we came into this segment, he called for more tools, training and funding for the new york city police department to combat the epidemic of crime, if it is an epidemic. during the course of your campaign you called for $1 billion cut in the police department budget. where do you stand now on cuts in that budget? and if you are going to cut it, where are you going to cut it? >> let's be clear. i am not a defund the policer. that is not my position. what reverend sharpton said is very important, because yesterday we did something else. not only were we at the command center, but we also went to a crisis management team and we witnessed what they did on the ground, because the goal is to

prevent the crimes and children being in the pathway of crime. so here is what i am saying. let's look at how we're spending the money, how many police officers we have that are currently doing clerical duties and not public safety. so we're going to tell those officers, you have that gun, that shield, that vest, you should be on patrol. once we do an analysis of how we're spending, let's now use that also to stop the flow of crimes and young people who are living in systemic poverty and conditions that produces criminals. like dyslexia screening, 30% of our prison population in this country is predicted to be dyslexic. that's unacceptable. so we don't want to defund departments. we want to use the dollars correctly to deal with the prevention and intervention of crime in our country and city. >> hey, mayor adams, good morning. it is jonathan lemire. a number of police departments across the country have made the

argument morale is low among the officers in the wake of the social justice protests that stemmed after george floyd was killed, also this fear everything they do can be captured by someone holding up a cellphone and things can be misinterpreted. you are a former police officer. give us your sense. what is your message to police right now if they are, indeed, battling low morale and it is perhaps raising a role in rising crime rates? >> there is low morale. it is challenging to have someone commit a crime repeatedly, you see them out the next day, carry a gun, they're out the next day. that impacts your morale. you ask yourself, why are you doing the job. that settles in. i want to be clear with my police officers, when we took that oath, when you raised your hand to serve and protect, it doesn't matter who is the mayor, the governor or the president for that sake, it is about you doing the job. that is the message as i go to the precincts to share with them, don't look at what people are commenting on twitter or facebook or tweet. it is about the people on the

streets every day that want their police officers, as reverend sharpton stated, we are not anti-police in this city. we are anti police abuse. if we believe we are doing the job correctly, i will support the police officers and allow them to do the job, but that's the covenant. i will not allow abusive police practices that we have witnessed in the past in many cases, so that covenant must be you do your job, i'm going to give you the tools and support you need to do your job. >> mayor adams, the other day in our city for the second time in about a week you had to eulogize a new york city police officer, officer mora, 27 years old, officer rivera last week, 22 years old. i was out in the street. it is breathtaking to see the new york city police department out en masse standing silently and respectfully as the coffin passed by on the way into st. patrick's cathedral. what are the moments like for

you, not just as a mayor but as a former police officer. >> you know, people say once a police officer, you're always a police officer. there's a brotherhood that's associated with the profession, probably because of the danger that's involved. we saw the funeral mass, the entire country witnessed it, but i saw something else. i saw a newlywed as i stood at harlem hospital and i saw her walk through the doors and i saw the mothers and the family members of both officer rivera and mora. i will never forget hearing their wails, their cries, their pleas saying, "please, god, tell me it is not true." this stays with you a long time. the night before officer mora's funeral i was in rockaway at 1:00 a.m. in the morning with an officer shot in the back on an attempted carjacking. so i know it in a real way. remember, my kid brother was a police sergeant as well. i remember many nights every time i heard a cop was shot i immediately thought of him. so it is impactful. this is not professional.

this is personal. i know what it is to wear that uniform and protect people in a city where sometimes people make you feel as though they don't appreciate you putting your life on the line. >> mayor adams, i know we have talked about this, but the mental health crisis that new york city and many other cities are enduring on the streets and the issue of homelessness are clearly a part of this problem. how are those issues going to be included in your plans in terms of the budgeting? like will enough of an investment be made and used effectively to stem the tied of those issues which i think feed into everything we are talking about today? >> and that's a great when. when we mentioned street homelessness, we are basically saying mental health issues. >> right. >> and we have far too long put up a posture of tolerating the

undignified position of people sleeping on the subway system, putting tents on sidewalks and just walking by and say this is the norm of our city. that is not the policies of my administration. we are not going to allow homeless people to live in an undignified environment on the subways, on trains. we are going to partner with mental health professionals, psychiatric centers in this community, and those who give wrap-around services to individuals who can't take care of themselves or others and create a dangerous environment. we have an aggressive plan to do that. in cases where we need a light touch of law enforcement, we're going to do so. for the most part we are going to bring these people to the proper shelters where they deserve to be. >> well, we will be following you on this journey. new york city mayor eric adams, thank you very much. come back soon. >> thank you. take care. all right. coming up on "morning joe" -- >> mitch, i don't want to hurt your reputation, but we really

are friends. and that is not an epiphany we are having at the moment. you have always done exactly what you said. you are a man of your word and you are a man of honor. thank you for being my friend. >> that was president biden addressing mitch mcconnell at the national prayer breakfast yesterday in washington. but that sense of civility is a far cry from what we see nearly every day on capitol hill, and voters are sick of it. we'll run through some interesting new polling on that front next on "morning joe." g o g o front next on "morning joe."forr home premium won't go up just because of this. (woman) wow, that's something. (burke) you get a whole lot of something with farmers policy perks. [echoing] get a quote today. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪

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very nice. joining us now, executive director of georgetown university's institute of politics and public service, mo alathy. he is here now with new polling in civility since biden took office and since the pandemic began. mo, tell us what you are finding because we've had issues with civility, i think that's fair to say. >> yeah, i think that's a generous way to put it. >> yeah. >> look, we have been testing this going back to the spring of 2019. really trying to track how voters think about civility and polarization in politics, how bad do they think it is, who do they blame, how much do they really want it. a year ago we were in the field with this poll as president biden was entering office to see how people felt about it since that was his main campaign promise, he was going to unify the country, we were going to be more civil. we were in the field actually when january 6th happened.

as you can imagine, we came out of the field and things were about as bad as you can imagine. today a year later we are seeing people still think it is really bad. they believe that politics has become less civil since the beginning of the pandemic. they believe it has become less civil since president biden took office. they're not necessarily blaming him, but that the whole enterprise is just getting worse and that it is likely to get worse before it gets better. >> so it is going to be interesting to see how this actually impacts people's political choices. i guess i would like to know how you define civility, like what does that mean in this day and age. >> right, right. >> and also who is being blamed for the lack of civility. >> yeah. so we leave it open for people to define it how they do because what is interesting is we are unified on the notion that we are not unified. that's about the only thing that unifies us right now, but we

can't even be unified on what unity means. people have very different definitions of what it means, what it means to be civil to one another. we did ask a question this time to try to understand it a little bit more, asking me what values they thought were important when it came to politics, when it came to their political leaders. i found it really interesting because we saw it kind of tracked the whole debate over covid response. the top two values that people cared about were freedom and responsibility, and you saw a very stark partisan divide on that. you saw republicans overwhelmingly believing that freedom was the most important value. democrats overwhelmingly believing that responsibility and respect were the two most important values. that's what we're seeing play out every single day now, particularly as it pertains to the covid response.

>> mo, elise jordan here. civility was clearly a concern. >> hey, elise. >> among the people that you polled, but it wasn't the top concern. inflation was the greatest concern for those that you polled. can you talk a bit about what americans are concerned about covered in this survey, and was there any partisan divide in attitudes towards inflation? >> well, yes. what we saw was -- what was interesting is unlike some previous surveys there was no singular dominant issue, that there were a couple of clusters. the top tier was inflation, division in the country and jobs and the economy. those top three issues that people named either their first or their second most important issue. there was maybe a point separating those three. you can see republicans cared a little bit more about cost of living. democrats cared more about climate and covid.

but universally across democrats, republicans and independents, political division was amongst the top two. >> mo, you've been at this for quite sometime, and on the issue of civility in this poll and the questions and the answers in this, is there a poll that could be taken, do you think, is there a question that could be asked, do you think, that would get the answer to how much damage people think has been done to this country by political institutions and political people over the last five years? >> well, there is a good body of work out there that does look at that, that has been looking at sort of the erosion of trust in institutions. i don't think you have to look very far. what most polling that looks at this will show is that it is not just politicians. it is every major institution whether you are talking about politics, whether you are talking about wall street,

whether you are talking about the media or academia or silicon valley. people have -- there's been an erosion of trust in our institutions and for a lot of the same reasons, depending on your political persuasion, and for some very different and unique reasons. but it feels to me, and i have been arguing this for a few years, that the political paradigm has shifted from left versus right and it is more front versus back. it is more people who feel like they are stuck at the back of the line, who can't get ahead because the people at the front of the line are keeping them there, and they blame the leaders of all of these institutions for doing that. what is amazing is that it doesn't really matter who you are, most people feel that way, whether you live in the city or you live in a rural community, black, white, democrat, republican. people feel like they are being stuck at the back of the line compared to everybody else, and that's i think the defining

paradigm in our politics today and washington hasn't quite caught up to that yet. not all of washington at least. >> tell us about this question about optimism. optimism about the future because young people are committed to improving the u.s. tell us about this question and the answer. >> man, this gives me so much validation for my decision to leave politics and go work with young people at the university because -- because this is the key. >> yeah. >> this poll shows a lot of pessimism. people are really pessimistic about the state of our politics and where it is headed. but when we asked them, do you agree that things will get better, that you're optimistic about the future because of young people, because young people specifically are working to make this country a better place for everybody?

overwhelmingly people say yes. 58% to 38% of people say yes. that's the good news. the bad news is you see it up there on the screen right now. look at the partisan divide even on that question, that democrats and independents are optimistic that young people are looking out for everyone but republicans still are not. while that's a bummer that you still see that divide it is still some good news in what is an otherwise pessimistic issue of our poll. >> wow. executive director of georgetown's institute of politics and public service, mo elleithei, thank you for coming on. >> thank you for having me. coming up, we are waiting on the january job numbers from the labor department. how much did omicron impact the workforce? we will have that answer. first, willie what do you have planned for sunday today? >> i have a good one lined up if i say-so myself. a conversation with the great liam neeson. >> wow.

>> what a career from "schindler's list" to "star wars" to "phantom menace" and he has another action movie out called "blacklight." he is a deep thinker and a good guy and somebody fun to sit down with for an hour. liam neeson this sunday for an hour on nbc today. we will be right back on "morning joe." we will be right back on "morning joe."

♪♪ 48 past the hour. new turmoil for embattled british prime minister boris johnson. after four of his top aides announced their resignations yesterday, johnson's director of policy quit her position first followed by his director of communications at downing street. johnson's chief of staff and the

prime minister's principle private secretary resigned later in the evening. that's a bad day. this comes as the british government continues to be rocked by a scandal known as partygate. johnson's office is under investigation for a strength of gatherings over the past two years that are alleged to have violated the government's own covid restrictions. medicare will provide free over-the-counter covid-19 rapid tests this spring. the announcement yesterday will now allow roughly 60 million americans who are medicare beneficiaries to pick up tests at no cost. this will be the first time medicare covers the entire cost of an over-the-counter test. the announcement comes after lawmakers argued medicare recipients have been passed over in the administration's push to require insurers to cover the

tests. willie. the governor of the state of iowa is ready to move past the pandemic. soon we'll manage covid-19 like other infectious illnesses in the state. the governor yesterday announcing the emergency proclamation for 15th. according to a statement, two state websites that track covid data also will be de-commissioned on that date. the governor says it is time for the state to move past the pandemic and track covid like any other infectious disease. half of the other states have continued health proclamations. several are expected to expire in february request into the renewed. shares of facebook meta tanked with the biggest drop the company has ever seen. the profit plunge comes as a result of shaky revenue growth and as the company faces major competition from tiktok as younger users have just left

facebook. meta's shares fell more than 26%, shaving off $232 billion in mark value, which was the largest single-day decline in market value on record for any u.s. company. to put that into perspective, that loss is larger than the entire market value netflix and at&t. they say the daily active users dropped for the first time in its 18-year history. as a result of the sharp decline, facebook's ceo mark zuckerberg's net worth fell by $31 billion. food prices have climbed to their highest level since 2011. according to a global index released yesterday by the united nations, the surging prices are due to disruptions in the global supply chain, adverse weather and rising energy costs. experts say the increases are having the most impact on poor nations.

and they could cause social unrest on a widespread scale. the high prices have affected items, including vegetable oil, beef, and coffee. we will be watching that, willie. >> yeah, rev, we were talking about brian flores, the former dolphin coach on your show. you have two special guests, the parents of the late trayvon martin who it is hard to believe was killed ten years ago this month and whose 27ing birthday would be tomorrow. >> his 27ing birthday would be tomorrow. ly have both the mother and father on my show, the saturday show. and also having on brian. we'll talk about his lawsuit with the nfl and we are going to talk with the parents about what is happening in the ten years since tre'von. what has the nation learned? their foundation. they're doing a big celebration of his birth and movement that came out of it sunday in miami

which i'm going down for and i'm going to do my sunday show from there with other guests. but i think that when we look at the fact that when we looked at the zimmerman trial and trayvon martin ten years ago, and ten years later, we're still dealing with the ahmed aubreys and others, it's a measure of how far we have gone and how far we have not gone. the bad news is we are still dealing with these kind of racial murders. the good news is the killers of aubrey were prosecuted and convicted by a mostly white jury. so we're going to talk about that. >> yet, there is going to be another trial in the aubrey case? >> federal case, another trial at the insistence of the mother and father. some i mean, one thing i learned is you have to make increment am steps towards progress. it's not going to happen all overnight and ten years ago, we had to fight to get vermillion arrested. now we're facing two trials. now we need to do new laws. i mean, we've got to keep going. and we have to also stop and

give credit when things do happen that we want to happen, because it gives people hope to keep fighting and to keep going. that's what the parents of tre'von will talk about tomorrow night. >> a busy weekend, 5:00 p.m., politics nation, thanks a lot. still ahead, amid growing tension over ukraine, china is siding with russia on one of the key sticking points in that standoff. senior international correspondent keir simmons joins us with the latest developments overseas as putin joins economy at the opening of the olympics. january jobs report, we will bring you those numbers as soon as they cross. "morning joe" is coming right back. y cross. "morning joe" is coming right back

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♪♪

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square. but it is friday. welcome back to "morning joe." it's friday, february 4th. mike barnacle is still with us. joe is off today. president biden and new york city mayor eric adams are locking in their alliance after the president's trip to the big apple yesterday. president biden came to new york city to highlight his administration's efforts to tackle crime and police reform. the visit comes as new york city sees a dramatic rise in violence. just one day after the funeral of the second officer killed in a shooting last month, detective wilbert ma you are ra. president spoke with the families of both nypd officers. the visit also comes as the white house is making a course correction in its approach to policing. the "new york times" reports domestic adviser susan wright is

reaching out to police groups across the country to engage with the administration. >> the answer is not to de-fund the police, it's to give you the tools, the training, the funding to be partners, to be protectors and community needs you. >> so what is the answer? we asked mayor eric atams that -- adams that question moments ago here on "morning joe". >> it's a combination. i talk about it using the metaphor we are dealing with a sea of many rivers are feeding you know this sea. and we need our state lawmakers, our, of course, system to operate. most importantly, the meeting we had yesterday was to say to the president, let's stop the flow of guns in our city and cities across america. 6,000 guns were removed off the streets of the city of new york last year. over 400 were removed this year.

there is an endless flow. we do our job. we feed help on the federal level and arming our federal entities the assist. >> president biden talks about his administration's strategy to end gun violence. a white house statement reads, in part, quote, stronger law enforcement is critical in stopping gun crime, but it's made more effective when we make real investments in making our communities stronger and in addressing the causes of crime before it spills over into violence." willie. >> a lot of that echoed with mayor adams a few minutes ago. let's turn to the latest tensions on russia and ukraine. the united states says it has evidence of an elaborate plan by the kremlin meant to justify an attack on ukraine. >> the russian government, we think is planning to stage a fake attack by ukrainian military or intelligence forces against russian sovereign territory, or against russian-speaking people.

to, therefore, justify their action. as part of this fake attack, we believe that russia would produce a very graphic propaganda video, which would include corpses and actors that would be depicting mourners and images of destroyed locations as well as military equipment at the hands of ukraine of the west. >> reporters pushed back against those very specific allegations. of course, pressing officials for a specific evidence. at a briefing later in the day, state department spokesman ned price doubled down on that claim but declined to provide specifics setting the need to protect sources. the biden administration also says it briefs senators on the intel yesterday as well as on the broader threat russian forces are posing to ukraine. so jonathan, we heard john kirby layout in some detail what he said, your old colleague at the associated press, matt lee at the state department pushing

back, okay, nick price, what is the intelligence? what are we hearing? the administration fought willing to share that. >> the dean of the state department press corps, he embraces that image in the best possible way and a docked reporter. he stayed on price yesterday, they got into a bit of a back and forth and eventually price called to clarify afterwards, it got heated. that's what reporters to to do, press administration first, not take it at press value. particularly in the aftermath of the u.s. withdraw from afghanistan how the story shifted a few times about the drone strike. it was meant to be the last drone strike and killed a bunch of civilians. we pressed jane psaki yesterday on the topic. they said they would likely provide more evidence in the coming days. deputy press secretary said he thought the defense department it would be able to outline with more specificity in the coming

days what they found. >> it's interesting they chose forward to go ahead yesterday and wait until they had all their receipts to make the case to the american public. right now, it's a shaky time for any case of russian disinformation. will you have half the country believing what you are saying is total nonsense. so i don't know how effective the tact was to go when they weren't fully baked yet. >> this is not the first time this has happened. it's not the first administration, especially with regard to national security stories. this always, as you know, as anyone has ever reported, as you certainly know, there is a long strained national security stories. there are details a week after an operation, sometimes two weeks and it is the job as jonathan pointed out to really grill these people who might have information that would be valuable to the american public and they don't often get it in time. >> so, there's a lot of

cross-currents here, amid the rising tensions in ukraine, russian president vladimir putin arrived in beijing this morning for the start of the winter olympics, meeting with chinese president xi jinping who backed russia over ukraine. as we reported earlier this morning, the pair issued a joint statement calling for an end to nato expansion and accusing the u.s. of encouraging independence in taiwan while destabilizing the situation in ukraine. russia and china stand against attempts by external forces to undermine security and stability in their common adjacent regions. the 5300 word statement reads in part, which also states both nations quote intend to counter interference by outside forces in the internal affairs of sovereign countries under any pre text. oppose color revolutions and

will increase cooperation in the aforementioned areas. for more on these latest developments, let's bring in senior correspondent keir simmons live from london. good morning, give us more context as to what's going on here. >> reporter: hey, mika, good morning. well, what a picture this morning. president xi and president putin standing side-by-side. we are defending the real spirit of democracy, president xi told his russian guests. critics, mika called it, a bromance between bullies, autocrats with a shared adversary in america. when i interviewed the russian leader earlier this area, i asked him about the relations. he says china is a friendly state and has not declared us an enemy. quietly in a chinese desert, the liberation army continued

preparing for its own conflicts. last year they were spotted building a u.s. carrier and a u.s. destroyer in the desert, possibly for missile practice, for missile target practice. now, the independent defense who found those images tell us now new pictures reveal even more. >> in recent weeks, they have build i built a more accurate target. there are pro size markings on the ground probably with metal but a distinctly different surface and in the harbor, there is a full-size warship. and the warship, itself, is a generic representation. but we can tell from the dimensions that it is a warship, maybe a destroyer-type vessel and it simulates a ship in the harbor, which i think suggests that attacks in our area. >> reporter: and when asked

about those original images, china said it knew nothing about them. china and russia have been simultaneously modernizing their military for decades. in 2000, america spent $475 billion on defense. china $41 billion. russia barely made it to the top ten big spenders. by 2020, american defense spending was up around 50% to $767 billion. china was spending five times more than it did 20 years before, $245 billion. russia has become the world's fifth biggest defense spender. these pictures show the russia and chinese navies in a joint drill in the indian ocean last month. the images were produced by the iranians, iran's navy also took part in the russia-chinese war games. china now has the biggest navy in the world designed to dominate the pacific. now china and russia are not allies, not officially.

but the professor says the russia-china relationship has fast tracked in the past few years. >> there is some chemistry between putin and xi jinping. so it means they are raised to reach some very important understanding and agreement involving the common actions. so, yes, i think that the united states should be, well, should consider this alliance as a very, very say not dangerous but very restrictive to some u.s. actions in this world. >> reporter: now how close china and russia really are depends on who you are. china has never recognized russia's invasion of crimea. and russia does not recognize china's claims in the south china sea. they are supporting them diplomatically. china is also ukraine's largest trading partner.

so, maybe just maybe behind closed doors, president xi will encourage president putin to keep poking washington for a new world order, not to take things too far over ukraine. we may never know that closed door conversations. president xi and president putin are standing shoulder-to-shoulder today. but geopolitically, it might be better to think of china and russia standing back-to-back. not threaten each other, working together where they can enabling them to face down america. willie. >> well, fascinating report here. how timely now that putin just this morning putin and xi are at the olympic games in beijing, let's talk about these olympics. you had access a couple years ago. i'll never forget the piece you did to a weiger camp, where

wuiggers were being held. people are wanting to support athletes that worked their entire times to get there. the fact that the games are hosted in an authoritarian state. >> reporter: yeah, absolutely. i think what we have seen so far today, willie, with that putin/xi summit, just before the opening ceremony, really reveals, if you like that while china has said that they don't want the games politicized, these are very, very political games. when it comeswuiggers, the chinese government allowed us to go. we were monitored by chinese officials. i seen them sitting at desks, undergoing what the state department called political indoctrination. solvent, in tears about not being able to contact their family, family member% going

missing. about all of the allegations of people disappearing, torture. all of these allegations china denies. i heard from chinese officials saying no family separation. wuiggers are completely able to contact each opts even if they're outside china so without question, these are going to be controversial games. i think we can see that even from the openinger is.now and it is difficult for people. there is always an argument to focus on the sport. but i think these games will test that possibly to a little, frankly, willie. >> all right. nbc news' keir simmons, thank you very much for all of that. and we'll be following it, of course. some developments now with the investigation into the january 6th attack on the capitol. the hill reports that democrats are increasing pressure on

former attorney general bill barr to testify before the january 6th select committee. this after recent reports of attempts by former president trump and some members of his inner circle to seize voting in battleground states, where trump and his allies contended without evidence that president biden's victory was the result of fraud. the hill says additional reports added layers of details to barr's one-on-one interactions with trump in late 2020. while these plans were in motion, barr resigned, just before the end of 2020, having asserted shortly after the election, there was no evidence of rampant fraud in the contest. according to chairman benny thompson, barr in inform am talks with the committee and has told the panel he has no special insight news the capitol attack. but some members have publicly stated their desire to subpoena

the former ag, despite his continued cooperation. meanwhile, first, former first daughter ivanka trump will not be apairing before the january 6th slkt committee any time soon according to committee chair benny thompson who spoke off camera with reporters last night. the panel sent a letter to ivanka trump last month suggests she appear before the committee this week or not. she said she will not make that deadline adding at this point i am not aware of any engagement. willie. meanwhile, the investigation into former president trump's attempts to overturn the election if georgia has entered a new phase. that's what the district attorney fannie willis told the constitution. the atlanta-area da will start to select a special grand jury in may, which will focus only on the trump investigation. jurors are issue subpoenas for witness testimony and can meet up to a year.

she expects the special grand jury will see a good deem of activity in june and judgment. in an interview, she said the list numbers well over 100 people. she said some have specifically requested subpoenas. the main focus of the investigation is the phone call, former president trump made to georgia secretary of state brad raffensperger in january of last year during which the former president explicitly asked him to find the votes need ed to flip joe biden's win in that statement a reminder that vote was counted three times, including once by hand. as that probe heats up. trump wrote in a statement, why isn't the unselect committee as he calls it investigating the massive ballot harvesting operation? georgia and other swing states, et cetera, et cetera. it's more nonsense from the former president. this investigation in georgia is the heart of the matter.

donald trump is all in. he's on tape. that will be an interesting listing of witnesses called. >> glad it's the fulton county da is stepping up to do what the justice department sure teams seems to be letting slide. i don't understand why it has to go so local when this is a huge, this is a sweeping federal crime. >> that's a great point. >> we have the recording. we can play the recording again right now. our just as will be on the table yet again of donald trump saying 11,000 votes, give me 11,000 votes. >> this is a complex extensive investigation. how is it the fulton county georgia district attorney is managing to get this thing going on a local level with the going when mark meadows, a former member of congress, former chief of staff to a president of the united states has flouted the subpoena, has flouted the idea of teske before coming and no one has suspended him to do it. >> meadows also on that call with raffens berg in georgia.

yes, there has been some growing frustration among democrats, including some close in the biden surge as to why the department of justice has moved so slowly on this case especially now as former president trump he merges more and more on the case. >> donald trump was on stage at a rally last weekend confessing in different ways to everything he did to overturn that election. here's one for you, jeff bezos wants his massive super yacht to pass along the river in the netherlands, officials were prepared to dismantle a bridge to help him do i want the dutch city of rotterdam was ard to take a part of the section of a 95-year old bridge so his massive yacht has clearance to pass. the city is pushing back saying a decision has not been made. the super yacht is going to cost more than $500 million to build. it's set to become the largest

vesey relevant in the world. mike, this bridge, a little history, was destroyed by the nazis during world war ii around as an act of defiance, the people of roter are dam rebuilt it. now jeff bezos wants to take it apart at his cost. >> i hope people over three realize this is a bridge too far. >> oh. >> this is just absurd. the amount of wealth in this world and how that wealth now, bezos has given a lot of money to charity i assume, i think i know that. so good for him. but this is obscene the idea of go him to a foreign country and saying i can't get my $500 million sailboat or whatever it is down the river, so please destroy the frij bridge for me. for a while, they went along with it. >> they said it would only take a week to take apart and put back together. it's definitely still on the table. but, mike, we prefer like a up with-foot boston whaleer, where

you have to duck to get under those low bridges. >> i'm not a boat guy. >> the zodiac. putt. putt. still ahead, nato has been in the news quite a lot of late. nato's secretary general is our guest. next on "morning joe." we'll be right back. r guest. guest. next on "morning joe." ♪ ♪making your way in the world today♪ we'll be right back. ♪takes everything you've got♪ ♪ ♪taking a break from all your worries ♪ ♪sure would help a lot ♪ ♪wouldn't you like to get away? ♪ ♪ ♪ sometimes you want to go ♪ ♪where everybody knows your name ♪ ♪ ♪and they're always glad you came ♪

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at 23 past the hour, we are honored to welcome on to our show nato secretary general yen stoltenberg. thanks for being on with us. we appreciate it. we have a special guest who will come on and ask you some more questions. i personally want to start on a more focused level as it

pertains to this russia-ukraine stress that we are all watching here. and i think it might highlight the significance of nato in the world. but i am curious about ukraine's viability in terms of becoming a part of nato. we know russia wants ukraine to stay out of nato and promises that that will never happen. but where is or where was ukraine as it stands right now? in terms of being able to become a part of nato? i know there are many requirements that need to be met. were they years away from the possibility? >> i cannot give you any exact time table. but the important political message is that nato allies drive support to ukraine, also when it comes to modernizing their security institutions, helping them to implement their forms, fighting corruption, because by doing so, we are partly strengthening the

recipients of the ukrainian society, which is important regardless of nato membership, but in addition, any reform of the ukraine society rules help them to move towards a nato membership. >> mr. secretary general, i want to bring in someone who knows nato quite well, former nato supreme allied commander retired a mira mesa james stavrides. >> secretary general, wonderful to see you. you and i know both well nato alliance is kind of team of orrsmen in a rowing shell, we're in the season of the olympics here. and one of the challenges for u.s. secretary generals is to keep all of the orrsmen kind of moving at the same papers. what i am concerned about as i look at the crisis with ukraine is keeping everybody, all these 30 nations, kind of pulling

together. can i ask you how that's going and what your assessment is of how well, it will stay together if putin actually does invade? >> first, it's great to see you again, thank you for everything you have done for our lines over so many years. yes, you are right. the most important thing i can do as secretary general of nato is to make sure the 30 allies stand united. of course, there are difference, when we are 30 different make thes on both sides of the atlantic with different history, different political parties in the goal and other historical differences. having said that i think what really is striking now is that all nato allies stand toke, partly calling on russia to deescalate the military, we hope that continues in and around

ukraine by russia, partly, also to continue to grow support to ukraine, to help them uphold their right for self-defense and, of course, also to convey a message to russia we are ready to engage in political dialogue to reduce tensions and find a way, a political way forward. so, allies stand united today. i also commend the united states and the biden administration for the leadership they now show nato and in very difficult and challenge circumstances roles. >> can i follow up with one quick additional question? perhaps more specifically e specific one. it has often been said that if putin chooses to invade, the first thing that crosses the border will not be tanks and troops, the first thing will be electrons, bits, 1s and 0s. how worried are you about a cyber element of this, particularly in regard to what russia may do to ukraine and

then following sanctions, are we worried as an alliance that putin may use cyber to attack the united states, might choose to attack one of the allies using cyber. how much of a concern is the cyber threat in this crisis? >> that's a very important part of our concerns about the situations that ukraine is facing. it's very hard to imagine any kind of aggression without a significant cyber dimension. and we have all seen cyber attacks against ukraine. that's the reason why the nato allies have stepped up our support to help ukraine to strengthen their cyber networks to help them to deal with the threat coming from russia. and also why we recently signed

an agreement where we create a frame for closer cooperation, also sharing all the information about the malware and cyber attacks. then, of course, we need to protect our old networks. that's the reason why nato has established cyber as an independent operational domain along the sea, air, land and cyber. why we shared best practices exercised together to make sure we do whatever we can to protect our networks again in the potential attack. >> na that secretary general, good morning, let me get your reaction to what happened a few moments ano. the xo leaders xi and they want to see no further nato expansion into eastern europe. unequivocally, no further expansion. can we get your response to that, please?

>> so this is not about nato expansion. this is about respecting the right of every sovereign nation to choose their own power, including whether they want to long to nato or not long to nato. nato respects those independent sovereign free decisions. and nato has never forced any country into our alliance, but many countries have actually through democratic process decided they want to be a part of nato remember and nato's enlargement over the last decades has been a freight success story. central european countries have joined the alliance. the numbers have doubled since the end of the cold war. they will spread freedom and democracy across europe. this is about respecting southern choices of independent nations, not returning to an age of space or influence where big

powers side what small neighbors can or cannot do. >> finally, mr. secretary general said it's a par important time nor nato. i am curious, are you stepping down? some news as to your future, you have been named the next bank chief of norway. when will that be taking effect? >> i'm not stepping down. i will stay. there is no change when it comes to nato. my tenure ends next fall, sorry this fall in okay. then i might, my service at nato will end as planned. so there is no change. i am 100% focused on my work, my duties at nato. and my tenure ends and i will take over as a position as governor of the national bank. >> all right. nato secretary general, thank you very much for being on with us this morning. elise. >> admiral, a question here. there is an argument in foreign

policy circles the u.s. is in a time of weakened power and not necessarily retrenchment, but that we can't exactly be on the front lines with the ukraine incursion should russia choose to go in. perhaps expansion into nato for ukraine could be put on a delayed time line. and the secretary general just said it was more about political message. it wouldn't give a time line about where ukraine would be in the process of joining nato. so what at this point can we do? what president our measures short of war? >> first and foremost, it's important that as the secretary general said that we maintain that open door. it's in the nato treaty. it's article 10. we talk all the time ability article 5, attack on one, attack on all. an important part is article 10 that this alliance is opened to

democracies. here is the key message, however. it's going to be a long time before ukraine is ready to meet all of those gates and it is going to be a long time with the board of georgia is going to be ready to meet all of those states so the key thing here is to stand together as an alliance behind the treaty and i don't see any immediate expansion in eastern europe him i'll close by saying an interesting sort of pack story here. not largely reported is that two non-nato nations, finland and sweden, both of whom have exceptionally good militaries, operated with nato, public polling in those nations is starting to rise in favor of joining nato. that would be a very different case. it's an example of the irony that if putin invades ukraine, he will be getting everything he doesn't want, nato forces closer to him, perhaps really confident, militaries like sweden and finland joining.

putin would be wise not to tack this step. >> admiral james stavrides, thank you very much. up next, the same storm system that did this to parts of texas is on its way to the northeast. meteorologist bill kierans will let us know what we can expect this weekend. plus, the january jobs report just released and the numbers are much better than expected. that is next on "morning joe." rn expected that is next on "morning joe."

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. >> at 38 past the hour. the january jobs released just moments ago. it shows 467,000 jobs were added last month. the unemployment rate rose to

4.0%. the white house had warned the spike in covid-19 cases early last month could bring those job numbers down. joining us now, "wall street journal" economics reporter and former treasury official on "morning joe" economic analyst steve ratner who has brought along some charts. ahmira, i'd like to start with you. the white house was really bracing and had a lot of explain aches already out there as how the numbers might have been kind of a bleaker. yet they came out pretty well? >> yeah, i think it's a surprise. the white house was expecting this going to be a weak report given the omicron variant at the end of last year and the beginning of this year, and data is showing a lot of workers had covid or thai we saw construction and day care and

leaked demand in leisure and hospitality. it seems perhaps the economy is learning to be more resilient against covid. the numbers will show us where the strengths came from. >>, steve, there is a lot of doom and gloom early this week. we very much are trying to manage expectations, preparing it for a number much lower than this. give us your sense, not only is it a higher number than expected. the last two months, re56s added another 700,000 jobs. >> these are big numbers, thank you for mentioning the revisions. the numbers are much better. the white house has been worried. many people have been worried about the effects of omicron. there was an adp number days ago that showed negative numbers. everyone was scared.

the revigs are huge. the numbers haven't squirrelled through the pandemic for reasons you can imagine, it's harder to gather the data, it's not clear what people are doing. the unemployment rate checked up to 4%. that's pause more people came into the labor force which is a good thing. that's not good at all. the effects appear to be far less than people were worried about. >> amira, maybe you can help us solve one of the big mysteries, what happened to all these people who will not go back to work. there are so many jobs available. you went to banks, they're shorthanded. everybody is shorthanded because people are not going to work. what's going on with that? >> well, i this i there are a lot of things going on. one thing we seen during this pandemic is the rate of retirement has gone up. so a lot of older workers have moved to the sidelines, economists don't know if that's a permanent thing.

we are able to see older workers come off and go back to work. but this pandemic has been really unforgivable. we seen people's lives disrupted. i think that's hard for some people to come off the side lines and return to work perhaps the way they would want to. the disruption in schooling. people have gotten sick during the pandemic and we talk about perhaps people are struggling with long-term effect of the coronavirus. so there is a lot of factors at play, which is why we haven't seen them issue a return to where it was. >> all right. let's moves to facebook. i know you may have points you want to make on this, first, steve, you got charts. they saw their biggest ever stockmarket loss and when we say big, i mean, this is something

that's down for the history books. what was behind it? and what is it telling us about what is going on with facebook or meta or whatever you want to call it? >> we can call it whatever you want to call it, mika. facebook reported disappointed earnings. i'll get into the why in a second. the consequence is it had the biggest decline by value ever in history $231 billion. of which $231 belong to mr. zuckerberg as well. you see some of the big ones in the last few years, all involve giant tech companies, not surprisingly, the more it drops 25%. the bicker the dollar impact. apple, microsoft, tesla, facebook have all been the previous leaders in largest market caps ever. we can talk a little about why

but looking at the next chart. it has a couple problems. by the way, there is a lot going on in the text sector as well. most importantly, it's user growth has stalled. for the first time in its history it did not add users last month? why, more and more, many reasons probably, one that everybody is focused on, because of the impact of services like tiktok, more and more people are starting to leave facebook, go on to services like tiktok, win is why zuckerberg change told name from meta and is talking about the metaverse, the idea people will operate in a vague, augmented reality in the world, facebook has started a service called reels to try to compete with tiktok. it's under significant competitive pressure really for the first time in its existence. the second ting that's affected facebook, which is very interesting are the apple privacy policies put in effect last year, which allow people, 75% selected this option not to

have their movements tracked by apple and available to facebook. which makes it much harder for facebook and services to target the ads of people most likely to buy stuff. so mr. zuckerberg said that $10 billion of lost revenue because of that tracking situation and another $10 billion of money he's had to spend to try to build out this metaverse. as you can see on this chart, facebook as i say is not nearly alone in what's happened. it's been a really rough time for two reasons, first of all, generally the market has solved, when the fed raises interest rates, that itself the enemy of the market and fast-burning companies like these stock exchange stocks the second things that's happened is people have disappointed earnings. peloton is down post-covid the sales have gone down a bit. pinterest is caught up in the

safe meetings. both will open up very high today. spotify you talked a lot about open this show. it's facing competition from apple music and the jo rogan situation. netflix had disappointing numbers and so on. so the market has begun to reexamine them. google had great earnings. others are under pressure like you see here hon this screen. >> before we go, amira, would you like to chime in on this facebook story, just in the big picture what i all means? >> i don't want to comment. >> no problem. i like that. and said with confidence. that is smart. "wall street journal" economic reporter, steve ratner as well, thank you for being on this morning. so let's turn now to meteorologist bill kierans for the winter storm making its way

across the country. i just got pictures in from someone i love in vermont. wow, they are under feet of snow. >> yes. some areas got a lot of snow. some got ice. it's been a mess through new england. unfortunately, we had a tornado in alabama. three people are reported in critical condition. that's going to occur in areas right along the mississippi-alabama border. so we don't have any other concerns or tornadoes today. this was really isolated just yesterday. you can see some damage done there. we wish those people well that are fighting for their lives. let's get into what's left of our winter storm? we still have winter storms and advisories in texas. we heard reports there have been trucks on a highway in traffic for about 12 hours. overnight on i-10, near san antonio. so that will be the story today why those people got stuck on the highway.

it's one of those situation like we had in virginia a couple weeks ago so stay tuned. more details on that as far as the totals, 90 million people still under winter weather advisories or storm warnings. the worst is located in northern new england, significant in hudson valley and headed into massachusetts. we expect a lot more in the way of ice from providence to boston. i know they have closed the schools in that area, as far as school gross a. little more for your friend in vermont. they're just about done. meek car,, of course with the cold in texas, we'll be waiting too see how the power grid holds up. so far, 16 million people in texas without pow zpler thank you. still ahead, the pandemic has been a boone for the anti-vaccine movement and not just when it comes to the messaging. nbc's brandy zadrozney has been following the money. she joins with us her new reporting next on "morning jo." u

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52 past the hour. joining us, senior reporter at nbc news, her latest piece is it into uled "once struggling, anti-vaccination groups have enjoyed pandemic windfall." tell us what's behind the financial windfall and what do you mean by windfall? >> hey, mika. so, yeah, anti-vaccination is big business. i profiled one of many. there's one sort of the rock star of the movement and rfk jr., the president of the movement. they both brought in millions of dollars over the course of the pandemic and they do it by soliciting donations. sometimes they have big donors, big philanthropists like the

else ises in new york city. sometimes they sell t-shirts or solicit donations. the march skwla v they just had i think they raised a quarter of a million dollars. there's money to be had here, and these people are raking it in. >> brandy, do you think we underestimate the strength of this movement, the scope of this movement, and the reasons for why people seem to be -- so many people seem to be anti-vax? >> well, yes and no. i think that, one, we don't want to give them too much credit, right. they are still a fringe group. i went to the march last week and they claimed they had 50,000 people there. that's absolutely not the case. there were a few thousand people. it was really a conspiracy fest, right. but i do think we underestimate their reach at our own peril because you ask a lot of people, you know, why they don't want to get their children vaccinated, why we only have 20% vaccination rates for children 5 to 11 right now, and what you hear is a lot

of the talk points that originated with these groups. their message has a far reach, and part of that is based on fund-raising, based on social media, based on how they get their messages and how they honed it to this moment. we both underestimate them and they like us to overestimate how big their movement actually is. >> senior reporter nbc news brandy zadrozny, thank you very much. as we close out the week here, jonathan lamere, at home and abroad, a lot of news. >> one of those weeks that shows how much is on his plate for the president of the united states. the jobs report better than expected, covid cases going down across the country, but we have russia/ukraine tensions rising there. the air strike yesterday that took out a terror leader in syria. and of course now the olympic games and the huge stage that provides in beijing. >> all right. up next, more on the january jobs report that just came out.

it was much better than expected. chris jansing has that and automatic of today's breaking news. she picks up the coverage after a final quick break. l quick bre. with age comes more... get more with neutrogena® retinol pro plus. a powerful .05% retinol that's also gentle on skin. for wrinkles results in one week. neutrogena®. for people with skin.

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hi, there. i'm chris jansing in for stephanie ruhle. it is friday, february 4th, and we start with breaking news and it is a real shocker on the economic front. the latest jobs number is out, and it is much, much better than we expected. 467,000 jobs were added in the month of january. the unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 4%. but it wasn't just january. february and november got huge revisions, adding a combined 709,000 additional jobs to the ones previously